Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your week was blessed with every good and perfect gift coming down from the Father of Lights. We are happy here for a couple Cubs wins. I had a good day on campus Thursday and Q prayed with me to receive Jesus. His story is below if you have a chance, this week Hubert, Lynette, Thalia, Damian, Jacki, Dayra also prayed to trust in Christ along with Q. Please pray they grow in their faith and the knowledge of God walking by the Spirit.

Q was sitting with a friend down the side of the hallway where the SSC lounge overlaps the SRC building on the ground floor. The glass walled rooms across from where he sat are where several of the student groups have meetings. He was wearing grey sweats and a black hoodie. He had dreadlocks to his jaw line and a nylon cap tight to his head pirate style. He had small features for a black guy, was handsome with a small mustache and wore black-rimmed vintage businessman glasses. He was a linebacker for the football team. So I used some football examples in talking to him. I asked one thing he wanted to do before he died and he said, “Retire my mother.” He meant provide for her in retirement. I asked him, “You’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus. So you’re dead. And you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” He thought and said, “I feel like me as a person, we all sin. I’m not a perfect person. I stand by the Lord, praise the Lord, get with Him every morning. I respect the Lord.” I asked the likelihood he would get into Heaven and he said, “85%”. He wasn’t going to Church. I began to go through the Gospel with him and explained that Eternal Life was knowing God as in John 17:3. I said that this meant the Holy Spirit lived inside him. So God wanted to transfuse His life into him with the Holy Spirit but like a blood transfusion God first had to take away his sin to make him “His type”. When I asked what the big thing was Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world he didn’t know. So I said, “This is how it works.” “Teach me up,” he replied. And I began to explain the blood of Jesus cleansed him from all sin and was a payment to God. Jesus blood was filled with life so when He pours out His blood it pays God back what we owe. Since we have damaged what belonged to God. I explained the righteousness of God Jesus earned with a story about extra credit in a class and he said, “Wow.” God adopted him, made him His child and gave him the gifts of His family, sacrifice blood and righteousness. I explained all this was received by faith. That He believed Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. Grace by faith saved him. We could not do good things to fix our bad thing but God could turn a bad thing into a good thing because he controls the future. I gave the example of a broken pass play in football when the safety in coverage cuts the route. He tips the ball and it goes over the head of the receiver. But because the safety cut the route there’s no one in deep coverage and it falls into the hands of the receiver even deeper down field and he walks it in for 6. “So a bad thing becomes a good thing,” I said, he nodded knowingly so I said, “Jesus does that.” I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else and he said, “I like that one, I be… “ and he pointed to the circle with God inside to finish the sentence. I said if he wanted to be forgiven then there was a prayer he could pray and I read it through reading, “‘Does this prayer express the desire of you heart?’ So would you say it did?” He nodded. “Well if you want to you could pray this silently right now. I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do it?” He nodded and I handed him the booklet and said, “Just pretend I’m not here.” He prayed silently then to receive Christ. I told him then the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I began to go through the Christian life with him and he did not have a Bible so I gave him one and wrote his name and the date and ”forgiven!” in the front. I explained living by the Spirit’s power and said God can help you see the field in football and guys in the NFL trust in Him and at the end of the game they’ll say Jesus helped them. I took out Bible Promises for You and began to explain it to him. “Can I have this,” he asked. “Yeah, I was gonna give it to you,” I said and wrote his name in the front. I told him some of Strobel’s story and gave him, The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and I gave him a Bible study and explained the story of Jesus walking on the water. I told him I would pray a bible verse for him each day asking God to bless him from now until Spring and one year after. I said God wanted to help him in everything but he would not give him success at something that would hurt him later in life. “So like say I decided I wanted to pray to be an NFL quarterback. God wouldn’t give me that because I’m skinny and old and I would die the first day.” He smiled and agreed. “So God will give you as much success as will not hurt you,” I said. “Thank you man,” he said as I got up to go. “Cool,” I said. “Cool,” he replied. “I needed this man.” “We all need it man,” I replied and I headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism this week if you had a chance, God truly blessed the Work.

In Him,

Bob