Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with good things from above. I had a good day on campus and Sal prayed to receive Christ. I had a good conversation with Osiris who was a nominal Christian thinking about it juxtaposed against Islam, he’d not received the Lord or understood the Gospel before. It seemed to be something of an excuse not to commit but I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. He was waiting for the Bus so I might see him again as there are a couple weeks left. Please pray these guys grow in faith and come to saving faith in the case of Osiris.

 Sal was sitting at a table overlooking the SE corner of the science lounge that joins the buildings. He had on a tan t-shirt and jeans and had swept back hair and a wider tanned Latino face. He was in his late 20’s a rounded block nose. He described himself, “Believer, I believe in God. Not just any God but in Jesus Christ. That He took on flesh and lived so we would be close to Him.” I asked him one thing he wanted to do before he died and he said, “Give back to Christ for the life He gave us.” (It turned out this not mean salvation to him.) 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?” “Um, that’s a good question. I would say I lived the life I was supposed to live. At that point you reflect; did you live your life so you could be proud of the person you were. There’s a quote that says something about you’re remembered by the person you were.” I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven when he died. “I don’t know that’s a good question Jesus Christ is the only perfect person.” He went on to say that he didn’t think there were any perfect people in Heaven but only those who had Jesus in their hearts. (By this he did not mean the indwelling Spirit.) He said Jesus did not judge the people he was with. He thought that Jesus lived life and so was able to relate to us. I began to go through the Gospel with him and as I did he interjected questions about how to live so I said I’d get to that knowing I would explain the Holy Spirit. He knew Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world but had not placed his trust in that to be forgiven nor thought about his own sins being cleansed so God could live inside him and give him strength. As I went through the Gospel he had an increased understanding that he would not go to Heaven because he was trying to be a good person but because he had been cleansed from sin. I explained that he had no righteousness of his own and that Paul wrote this in the Bible saying he had the “righteousness that is by faith”. All the people in Heaven were in fact perfect because they’d been cleansed by the blood of Christ. This was the righteousness Christ had earned by His perfect obedience and perfect fulfillment of the Law. God adopted him and give him these things, the sacrifice for his sins, the blood that cleansed him and the righteousness that surrounded him. I explained receiving Christ and that his good stuff did not fix his bad stuff. He got it and when I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for him on the cross. “Yes,” he replied. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. He read it again and then read, “Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?” “Yes,” he said answering the question he’d read to himself. I said if he wanted to then he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven trusting in Christ, “Wanna do that?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied and he took the booklet and softly prayed to receive Christ. I explained than living by the Spirit’s power. “Does God meet us half way?” he asked. “No, God does all the work,” I replied and I explained that first we asked God to transform us on the inside we become good men and then we do good things on the outside. “So we do 1%,” he asked. “No,” I replied. “Jesus says I am the Vine you are the branches apart from me you can do nothing,” He accepted that that the Christian life was the work of God in him and mentioned he thought God had a plan. I quoted Ephesians 2:10 saying, “we are His workmanship created for good works in Christ that He has prepared beforehand that we should walk I them.” I explained that the likelihood he would now go to Heaven was 100% trusting I the blood and righteousness of Jesus. He talked to me about feeling guilt saying he had not been to church for quite a while and so did not go to church on Easter feeling going then would be like a hypocrite. I explained we are regularly hypocrites because we fail but God says His blessings are new every morning and that we should forget what lies behind and begin again asking God to transform us. He said it was difficult I said, “it is but you have to let God give you strength and carry you and do the work.” I quoted Jesus saying “my burden is easy and my yoke is light” and explained the metaphor. I gave him Bible Promises for You, and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave him a copy of The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible Study explaining it to him. He asked me about what day was holy and I explained Hebrews 4 and that we are now in the Sabbath rest of Jesus, we are His Temple and He lives in us so every day is the Sabbath rest where we honor God. I showed him Matt 11:28-30 in the promise book I had given him and showed how he could change the words into a prayer. He expressed a desire to just be able to rest in the Lord and not falling asleep at night. I explained again how now the Holy Spirit lived inside him and he would have strength. I said to ask the Lord to take the thoughts of Satan out of his heart, if he was troubled. We talked a bit more and about a relationship he’d recently left and I got her name and her daughter’s name from another man not in the picture at all. Yolanda and her daughter Leilani, to pray for. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him each day from now until Spring and one year after asking God to bless him. He thanked me and said, “You really cleared this up for me.” He was grateful.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had the chance. God truly blessed.

 In Him,

Bob