Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Well, I hope you had a good day walking with the Lord.  It got warm around Chicago and I didn’t have to spend 50 cents today to put my coat in a locker.  I left it in the truck.  Three students prayed to receive Christ today: Gabrielle, Rhema (ray-ma) and Chris.

Gabrielle was the first person I talked to, sitting in the hall on the second floor.  She went to a local church called Cavalry.  She was a nice shy girl had her hair pulled back into a pony tail and black rimmed glasses, cute round cheeks, African American.  She had yoga pants on and a long hooded gray sweater down to her thigh, boots.  She struggled with what to say about why God should let her into Heaven, saying she was not sure.  I asked her about church and she went so I said, “What would you say keeps someone out of Heaven.  Is it something they have done?” That didn’t help and she finally said, “It’s not for me to decide.”  I agreed that it was God’s decision and said, “There is a way He decides though.”  I explained that Christianity was like a blood transfusion and God wanted to transfuse His life into her, to live inside her in the Holy Spirit.  But first He had to make her His type by taking away her sin.  I asked how God did that and she said, “He forgives you.”  “Yes, but why?” I gently pressed and began to go through the Gospel with her.  It seemed to register like she knew the story, so I asked her what she was thinking when asking God for forgiveness if something went wrong–giving her some options including the correct one – that God would forgive her because Jesus had died for her.  “I am trusting that He is forgiving and that I won’t do it again.”  I continued through the Gospel and pointed out that when she asked for forgiveness she really knew it was likely she would do it again, and she agreed.  I finished explaining it all and she wanted to be forgiven, so I walked her through the prayer.  But she said, “I have always been hesitant to do this because I know I won’t keep it [do what I promised].”  I said, “Yes, that is true you will not.  You can’t.  If the Bible said (and it doesn’t) you have to live one perfect day to get into Heaven you would not because you are sinful.”  “I have been to Church all my life and been to Christian school and not really felt like I was right with God,” she replied.  I pointed out that Christianity was not our living the right way on the outside in order to change us on the inside, but was God transforming us inside so we would be different people on the outside.  Having encouraged her that God made all things into good, even when we fail, I said, “You can’t screw up your life. God will always fix it.  The fix might be painful and hard, but He will always make things into good.”  She decided to pray to receive Christ and prayed very slowly, seeming to take time over each phrase.  I got her email and gave her More than a Carpenter to read and a Bible study, telling her I would keep her in my prayers.  She seemed happy and at peace and thanked me.  It was a very sweet conversation.

I found Rhema standing against the door in the ground floor foyer of the PE building.  She was a pretty black girl who attended the Salvation Army Church and had shoulder length hair pouring down out from under a winter cap, pretty smile.  We walked over and sat on the stairs to answer some questions.  When I asked her why God should let her into Heaven she said, “I’ve been a Christian all my life and followed Jesus’ practices and preaching.”  She was 100% sure she was going to Heaven, but she could not tell me how God took away her sins, struggling over it a minute and saying, “I don’t know.”  I went through the Gospel with her and it did not seem like she had heard it before.  So I explained much of what I had just explained to Gabrielle, I hoping she followed, and finally explained what she was missing.  That what she had told me to get into Heaven was not faith.  I explained the ‘we were first transformed on the inside, then changed on the outside’ idea and that the “Salvation” in the name “Salvation Army” was salvation from her sins.  She wanted to be forgiven and I encouraged her in explaining the prayer that she should pray it, since she had never really told God she was trusting in Jesus and His payment for her sins.  She agreed and prayed to receive Christ.  I think she understood the difference I was explaining to her, but sometimes it is hard to help people see when they falsely think of themselves as Christians their “whole life.”  I gave her More than a Carpenter to read and a Bible study and I will be praying the Holy Spirit (whose work I explained to her) breaks through to her increasingly in her understanding of the Christian life.

Chris was sitting in the lounge in the southeast corner of the second floor of the BIC building.  I walk in that lounge every once in a while and haven’t gotten someone to talk to me in a couple years.  I looked in and saw him and felt compelled to ask him about God.  So I prayed and walked up to him and he was receptive right away.  He looked Latino and his last name was Spanish.  Chris had shorter hair on top, very closely trimmed on the side and was wearing a blue and gold football jersey with a gold chain around his neck, clean shaven.  He smiled a lot, nice guy, not a very big guy.  I asked him why God should let him into Heaven and he said, ‘I lived my life to try to be the best person I could possibly become.  I tried my best to avoid doing bad things.”  But when I asked him the likelihood he would get into Heaven and he hesitated I said, “50/50?”  He came back with, “No, not that much.  30%.”  He had gone to what I think is a multi-site church called “Sanctuary” and also to Calvary, but had not gone for a couple of years.  I went through the Gospel with him, saying I had some good news.  He tuned into the stories I use to explain stuff and knew Christ had died to take away sins.  But he had not been believing on His name.  Chris wanted to be forgiven, however, and trust in Christ and he prayed to receive Him and was visibly happy.  He was really into the NBA, so I gave him Playing with Purpose and a Bible study and got his email.  He said he lived in Naperville, so I told him about Compass Church there, saying the church we went to was going to merge with it and I had heard the pastor, who was a really good speaker.  I gave him the street it was on and wrote down the name so he could Google it.  He enthusiastically thanked me and we said goodbye.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow
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