Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Well, I hope if you are in Chicago you enjoyed the California like weather we’re gettin’ and feeling blessed — if you are in California, well hey you aren’t missing much.  So I had a great day today sharing the faith and 2 guys came to Christ, Eddie and Calvin.

Eddie was sitting at a table where a bunch of the peeps I bounce off of hang out.  They had migrated 25 feet into the lounge with the couches, which they do on occasion, and after chatting some of them up I walked out past Eddie sitting at the table alone.  He looked a lot like Jim Morrison who used to sing for the Doors if you can picture him–no other similarities thankfully, however.  Same mop haircut and very similar features.  He had some time to kill before class so we talked.  He was raised in Catholic School and had been reading through Genesis.  He asked me what God did not want man to find out in Genesis 10 and with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  I explained that God was just trying to keep a group of people at Babel from organizing into greater acts of evil and defiance and destroying the world.  With the Tree, that God, being omnipotent, could know the difference between Good and Evil but humans being only good and finite only knew Good until they became Evil.  And God was keeping them from becoming evil in His forbidding them the eating of the tree.  I went through the Gospel with him and he believed and prayed to receive Christ.  I showed him all the books I had and he picked The Case for Faith to read.  We had a pretty long conversation and I got his e-mail to send him some stuff too and explained the Holy Spirit’s work in the Christian life.  He thanked me and said, “It was really great talking to you.”

Calvin was sitting eating at the counter in the cafeteria.  He’s the second black guy named Calvin to receive Christ this year.  He has very short hair, full features (looked a lot like Shannon Sharpe) and runs track and plays football.  He was a nice guy, and when I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he struggled for awhile, trying to make a list of good things he had done.  He said, “I am honest.  I try to keep others in mind when I can and I give to the poor.”  When that seemed inadequate, having said it he said, “Please.” He was a good guy, went to a Baptist Church, but though he knew the story of Jesus .  He knew he was supposed to “have faith” but was hard pressed to say what it had been for him and did not think he had been trusting in what Christ had done to forgive him after I explained the Gospel to him.  He wanted to pray to receive Jesus and he did, so that was great.  I explained to him, as I have to a lot of peeps, that Christians are not people who are good at being good, but people who are trusting in the power of God to live the Christian life by His Spirit.  I said that it is not our righteousness that makes us fit for Heaven but the righteousness of Jesus that is to our credit (imputation).  I said, “It is like if you were in a class with ten guys and you all were failing except one guy, Jim.  Jim was the teacher’s pet because he had done 2000 points of extra credit and loved the class.  One day your teacher comes in and says, ‘I have very sad news, Jim has died.  But I don’t want all his hard work to go for nothing, so I am going to give all his extra credit to you all.’  So she does that and then you all get A’s for the class.  The righteousness of Jesus is like that.  It is given to us who were failing and now we are made perfect.”  Calvin took More than a Carpenter to read and I got his e-mail too to send him some stuff.  He was grateful and shook my hand and I told him I would be praying for him.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. The Lord blessed today by His Spirit and brought some peeps to Himself.

In Him,
Bob Bollow