Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and filled with newness of life. I had a blessed day on campus and Patricio and Sofia each prayed with me to receive Jesus. So that was great. Please pray they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and will walk in the truth. Their responses are below if you want to spend the time.

Patricio was sitting on the third floor of the BIC in a lounge right before the short hall leading to the big SSC lounge. There’s just one bench where he sat across from the wall. He didn’t seem to be doing much but was dreading the Algebra class he was taking for a requirement. He had a slight stature and a caterpillar mustache broken in the middle. His hair was shaved short on the sides and he had Asian eyes and a small face without a very defined jaw line. His hair kind of mushroomed out on top in stick straight lines. He wore a dust blue hoodie and dark grey cargo pants. He said though he was born here he wanted to “return to Mexico” after he had made sure his parents were secure financially. They wanted to stay in the US. He said he already owned land in Chipas where his family was from. He later said he thought he might like to be a teacher and asked if I thought it was OK to change vocations. I told him many people do and it was said that only about 80% of American workers use their degree in their vocations. 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?” “I wouldn’t say, I’d let Him decide. He is a just judge. I’d let Him decide if I’m good or bad—He is everything.” I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven when he died. He said he thought 40 or 50%. “What I’ve been taught is that if you break even one of the 10 commandments you are guilty of all of them,” he said. “That’s why I would say 40 or 50. I did try my best.” I agreed and said that the Bible said that very thing [James 2:10]. He wasn’t sure exactly how to determine his merit. It turned out he went to an Adventist Church. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died; when I asked what he had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. I said the Bible said “You are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect.” We could not be so Jesus lived a perfect life for us. I told him that, by the Blood of Jesus on the cross he was cleansed from all sin. Jesus was the creator God and His blood was filled with life and paid God for the life we owed we had taken from others with our sin. Jesus earned the righteousness of God by His perfect obedience. “You don’t go to Heaven because you are good but because Jesus is good and you are connected to Him,” I explained. This righteousness was to our credit when God adopted us and gave us the sacrifice for our sins the blood that cleansed us and the righteousness of Christ that surrounds us. Jesus rose from the dead and is the only way to God. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else, giving him a few lines about the god of Islam and the Buddha. “I would be forgiven,” he replied. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it. I asked if it expressed the desire of his heart and he said it did so I asked if he would want to pray it silently and know he was forgiven. “Sure,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ.  He held on to the booklet then, kind of clutching it maybe subconsciously wanting to keep it. So I said he could and showed him some more things I wanted to tell him in it. I began to go through the Christian life with him then living by the Spirit’s power, Inside Out. He said he struggled at church saying his pastor seemed to go to different unrelated passages and he had a hard time following him and his stories. I said that the way I looked at it was that if someone was telling you the Bible it was God’s word. So He could tell you something in it He wanted you to hear. So I said he should pray and ask God to tell him what He wanted him to learn from the Bible when he was at a service in Church. He really liked that idea. I gave him Bible Promises for You and showed him how to turn a verse into a prayer. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study. He was grateful and I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him for the next year asking God to bless him. He talked about creation and the day of rest and I said it was true that the Bible never said to turn the Sabbath day into Sunday. I said the Bible says that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. “It does?” he said. I said it did and that Hebrews 4 says that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Since we are the Temple and God lives inside us as Christians we should think of every day as resting in Jesus. “I’m not saying they are wrong at your Church but the Sabbath really is every day for Christians,” I explained. He thought that seemed right and on Saturday he stayed away for electronics and stuff and I agreed that seemed like a good idea to focus on the Lord. He said he like to listen to other people and their perspectives. I said that I had heard a pastor once say “Turn your critics into your teachers.’ “They might have something to say you need to hear,” I explained. He appreciated that and he shook my hand and I headed off.

Sofia was sitting in the hallway of the BIC on the ground floor on the south side in a row of chairs. She had brown hair parted down the middle and semi round clear frame glasses. She had a pointed chin a small face and was on the heavy side. She had a few bracelets on and nice nails and wore a V-neck pull over and jeans. She was friendly and wanted to travel to Greece. Seems a popular destination this year and I said others had said that and the Greek Isles seemed like it was me a nice place to visit. I asked her, “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… I don’t know,” she replied. “I’d say… I’ve no clue.” “Do you ever go to Church?” I asked. “I go every week, I went yesterday,” she replied. ‘What do you think they would say is the way you get to Heaven?” I asked. She again said she didn’t know and that they just told stories from the Bible. “Well there are some good stories in there,” I replied. I began to go through the Gospel with her and asked her as I always do what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. She could not think of anything and apologized and I said no worries it might start to sound familiar. I explained everything I always do about the perfect life of Christ and his blood to cleanse her and be a payment for sin. I then said this was the symbolism behind the mass. The wine was symbolic of his blood and the wafer symbolic of his body. “So when you take it you should say, ‘Thank You’ as it is reminding you Jesus died for you and so you are forgiven.” She looked me in the eye then and said, “Thank you.” In a repeat after me way like I would let God know. I expanded Jesus earned the righteousness of God and it was to her credit. I told her she was adopted to become God’s child and he would give her the blessings of His family, as I’d told Patricio earlier, “God gives us the sacrifice for our sins the blood that cleansed us and the righteousness of Christ that surrounds us.” I read a verse on His resurrection. I said this was hers by faith and receiving Christ made her a child of God. Faith saved her. I asked if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else. “I would be forgiven,” she replied. I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it also and asked her if it expressed the desire of her heart. “Yeah,” she replied. “You could pray it silently then, I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do that?” I asked. “Yeah she replied and she took the booklet and received Christ praying the prayer to accept forgiveness. When she finished I explained the likelihood she would now go to Heaven trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus was 100%. “Thank you so much,” she replied. I explained the Christian life to her living by the Spirit’s power Inside Out. I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and a copy of The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study. She said, “Thank you so much,” again and I said, “Thanks for listening.” I said I would pray a Bible verse for her each day for the next year asking God to bless her. “Have a very nice day,” she said as I got up to go. “You too,” I replied and I headed off.

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

In Him,

Bob