Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord in the light of His word. I had a good day on campus and a big African American guy, Q, had a mustache and a beard only under his chin with a rough afro committed to trusting in Christ. He was wearing dark blue baggy sweats. After going through the Gospel, when I offered him believing and having Christ live inside or outside his life he said, “Definitely that one,” pointing to the circle I’d described as Christ living in him saved by His blood. He said the prayer expressed the desire of his heart and so I said he could pray it silently and he said, “Thank you,” closed the booklet and joined some friends who had entered the PE lounge. So I’ll pray for him to truly believe on the Lord. Then later Sophia prayed to receive Christ. Her story is below if you have time. Please pray she is sanctified by the Holy Spirit’s power and Q truly trusts in Jesus.

 Sophia was sitting on a couch in front of the elevator in the MAC Arts building lounge on the ground floor. It’s rare someone is not sitting there when I go through the building but I hadn’t seen her before. So I asked if she’d do a student survey saying “It’s about what you think about God for a Bible study group.” She said, “OK. I have some time.” She had long brown hair past her elbows parted down the middle. She had the coloring of a Latina and was on the heavy side wearing a black V-neck long sleeve shirt and jeans. Her face was shaped like a strawberry and she had an interesting nose sort of pug-like, the sides like small shells. She was nice and said she wanted to have kids. 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?” “Hmm,” she said thinking. “I tried to be a good servant and serve God… and serve the people. I’ve sinned, but I’ve repented. I’ve learned You’re above all. You’re the ultimate decider.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she started nodding agreeing with everything I said. The way I teach people the Gospel is novel in terms of illustration, they are illustrations I have made up they couldn’t have heard. So when it seems like a student is acting like they have heard it all before I’m a little afraid I’m being dismissed in pride but then I can’t tell if they are just agreeing in principle. So I just keep on with it hoping they will let me finish what I usually say in case they didn’t know; if they did not confess Christ to go to Heaven in their answer. I told her God wanted to live inside her but first had to take away her sin. So I asked what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. She struggled for a minute. I prompted her with, “Think of the most obvious thing.” She finally said he died on the cross—relieved to have thought of it. So I explained how that worked. Then the sense of “I’ve heard all this before,” seemed to fall away and she listened. I explained that Jesus lived a perfect life she agreed she hadn’t lived and then was killed and His blood cleanses us from all sin. I explained how our sin was a debt of life we had taken. Because Jesus is the creator God His blood is filled with life and it pays God back for the life we owe. I explained the Jesus earned the righteousness of God; it was to our credit when God adopted us and made us His child. He rose from the dead she was saved receiving Christ, believing on His name. This was faith in Jesus and faith saved her. Her good stuff could not fix her bad stuff. I wasn’t sure if she would simply say that she’d known all this and hadn’t thought to say it, but when a student says that I say, ‘That’s great then this booklet is a way you could share your faith.’ I asked then if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. Then he would live inside her and give her strength and take her to Heaven when she died. Or did she think something else; telling her of a Muslim god and the Buddha. I then asked, when she asked for forgiveness for her sins if she thought she would be forgiven because she was trying to serve God and do good things. “Or did you think in your heart, ‘I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me?’ I know you knew the story but had you made the connection trusting in Jesus to be forgiven?” She said she had felt close to God but had become “Luke warm.” This had been for about a month. Then she felt bad about it and asked God to forgive her but she did not feel forgiven. “Then I read the scripture and I knew I had to believe I was forgiven [to be forgiven].” “Yes you have to believe but what you have to believe is that Jesus died for you and that paid for your sins and you are forgiven because of Jesus.” That seemed to click. I explained that then if she believed in Jesus the Spirit would live inside her and give her confidence she was forgiven [1John 3:24]. I said that if she had never said that to God that she wanted to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for her there was a prayer she could pray. I talked her through the prayer and read the line, “Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?” Then I asked, “Would you say it does?” She said it did so I said she could pray it silently and know she was forgiven. She took the booklet and prayed slowly to receive Jesus. When she finished I said, “The likelihood now she would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus.” I said there was more about faith in the booklet and that faith wasn’t a feeling but a fact we could get a bad feeling from eating a bad pizza but we needed to trust in what God had said and ask the Spirit to confirm it in our hearts. I explained the Christian life, praying reading the Bible and obeying God, “But when you fail God forgives you right away because of Jesus. God’s not like a bad boyfriend who says, ‘Well we’ll see how you do.’” I explained living by the Spirit’s power, “Inside out” and encouraged her to pray for transformation on the inside. I told her I would pray a prayer for her using a Bible verse every day from for the next year asking God to bless her. I gave her Bible Promises for You and showed her how to turn a Bible verse into a prayer. I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I gave her The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and said there might be some of the chapters to encourage her faith. It seemed she liked it. I also gave her a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and explained that. “Thank you so much,” she said. “Oh you’re welcome,” I replied. “Now you can have confidence you are forgiven trusting in Jesus.” “Thank you,” she said again. And I headed off.

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

 In Him,

Bob