Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a good week walking with the Lord in the light of His word. I had a good week on campus and Zaylen, Vincent, Arbor and Anthony all prayed to receive Christ; Arbor and Anthony on Thursday. Their responses are below if you have some time you want to spend. Please pray all of these have the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

 Arbor was sitting on the first row of seats as you enter the SSC lounge on the 3^rd floor from the east. I walked right past him at first.  His is head was down in his laptop from my angle and the top of his hair was kind of a mop of wavy curly dishwater blonde hair; I thought I had talked with him before. But I was unsure and walked back ready to apologize if he looked up and I recognized him. But he said he’d do a survey. He had a Michael Jordan mustache and a bit of a goatee barely coming in, blue-collar looking guy but not very big in stature. He wore a grey zip up hoodie and a white t-shirt and had grey sweats that matched. When I began and got his name he was finishing something on his laptop. He described himself as “energetic and ambitious” and couldn’t think of a third thing and didn’t seem that interested. He turned away from the computer and focused a bit more to answer the question, “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?” “All the good things that I’ve done in life to help out family and friends,” he replied. Jesus words in Luke 6:33 popped into my head “And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.” But hey your friends can be thankless jerks and your family could be ingrates as well; I just wrote it down. He thought he had a 95% chance of going to Heaven. I asked if he went to Church and he said he didn’t. Seems like many families didn’t return to church after Covid. Going was just a habit for many and the habit just stopped. But as I began to go through the Gospel verses he became focused and it seemed like God was at work. I said God wanted to live inside him and that was “eternal life.” I asked what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. “He was crucified,” he said not really struggling at all for an answer. He took in all the illustrations of the blood of Christ to cleanse him and be a payment for sin and was engaged. I explained Jesus was perfect. Jesus said we had to be perfect. So someone had to be perfected to enter the presence of God in Heaven.  And Jesus earned the righteousness of God in perfect obedience and fulfillment of the Old Testament law. “You don’t go to Heaven because you are perfect but because Jesus is perfect and you are connected to Him. Like if you marry a millionaire you got a million bucks or if you get adopted into a billionaire’s family you get to live in the mansion and drive the cars. So God adopts you into His family. He makes you His child and gives you the blessings of His family; He gives you the sacrifice for your sins the blood to cleanse you and the righteousness of God that surrounds you. So you got some place to go, Heaven, and something to wear when you get there, the robe of God’s righteousness,” I told him, as I always say. I said Christ rose from the dead reading the verses. And said Jesus was the only way. He needed to receive this by faith. Faith saved him. I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Jesus. I gave him other options Islam with a different god or the Buddha where the world was an illusion and after 100’s of thousands of births and deaths you entered the void. “So would you want to be forgiven for your sins?” I asked again. “Yeah,” he replied. So I said, “If you want to be forgiven there’s a prayer you can pray,” I talked through it and asked reading, “Does this prayer express the desire of you heart?” “Yeah,” he replied nodding. I said he could pray it silently, “I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven, wanna do it?” I asked. “Sure,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. I began to go through the Christian life with him and asked if he had a Bible. He didn’t, “Would you like one?” I asked. “I’d like to get one,” he replied. “Would you want me to give you one or are you saying you want to get one?” I asked. “I’ll take one from you,” he said and I gave him a Bible and showed him the study helps and that it had a ribbon marker for John to start there. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I went back the card with the questionnaire on it and said, “The likelihood you will now go to Heaven trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus is 100%.” I said I would pray a prayer for him each day from now until Spring asking God to bless him. I explained living “By the Spirit’s Power, Inside Out”. I gave him Bible Promises for You showing him how to turn a verse into a prayer and gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet telling him Strobel’s story also I gave him a Bible study on the deity of Christ. I went through the miracle of walking on the water and he was familiar with it showing a bit more that he’d been in Church at one time. “I’ll see you in Heaven,” I said. He reached out and shook my hand and said sincerely, “I appreciate it.” I nodded and headed off.

Anthony was sitting at a counter height table not far from the bookstore in the hallway. I walked by him too as his head was down and I’d also thought I’d asked him to do a survey before. But passing him I got a different angle on his head and went back to ask. Probably 10 people have told me “No” for every one who would talk to me so it is a little hard to remember who refused already by the end of a year; I only have a moment to see a face. When Anthony looked up to answer I knew we’d never spoke. He looked like a well-groomed Latino businessman. He had a perfect caterpillar mustache that fit his eyebrows and black narrow rectangle glasses. He wasn’t a big guy and wore a black fleece that had a monogram that said “Hawaii” over the heart. He wore black sweats. He said he didn’t have much time before class but he would do a survey. The words he used to describe himself fit the look, “Nice, caring, responsible.” He said he wanted to go out of the country, travel. 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?” “That’s a good question,” he replied and thought and said, “I guess I’d just, um, I tried to be the best I can, treat everyone respectfully.” I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven when he died. “I guess it’s 50/50,” he replied. “I don’t know if I get to choose that, I just got to hope I guess.” He didn’t go to Church either. I began with verses from the Bible and asked what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. He thought a moment and could not think of anything. “It’ll come back to ya,” I said. I dove into the perfect life of Christ and the sacrifice of His blood and righteousness. He took it all in and I got to say everything I say concerning the Gospel and asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. “I would like to be forgiven,” he said. So I said if he would want to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and explained it and asked, “Does this prayer express the desire of you heart?” reading the line from the booklet. “I’d say it does,” he replied. I said he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven, “Wanna do that?” “Sure,” he said. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I barely had time to explain the Christian life “By the Spirit’s Power Inside out”. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!’ in the front. I appreciate it,” he said taking it. I said I would pray a verse for him each day from now until Spring asking God to bless him. He realized he had like 5 minutes to get to class and threw his stuff I his backpack. I quickly gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and said it had some good arguments in it to strengthen his faith and gave him a Bible study. “I appreciated it,” he said again shaking my hand. I said I’d see him in heaven and he said something like, “I’ll see ya” and headed off. In the same direction as me him heading up the stairs to the science building bridge.

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

 In Him,

Bob