10/2/15

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a great day walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus, even though Friday is a day that few students are on campus.  Alessandro prayed to receive Christ today.  He was sitting in the lounge just outside the gallery space of the main lounge in the MAC Arts building.  He wore glasses and had a day or two growth of beard on his face.  He had a long sleeve tie-dyed T-shirt on and his light brown sneakers had no laces.  He wore jeans and had light brown hair, side burns, small in stature, Caucasian.  By his name I took it he was Italian by lineage.  He had gone to Catholic church some “most Sundays and holidays” growing up in Houston, Texas.  But he had not been to church in a while.  When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why he should be let into Heaven he said, “Because I believed that I tried my best in this life.”  He followed the Gospel well and in the end said he wanted to be forgiven.  So I asked him if he believed Jesus was God and had died for his sins.  He thought for a moment or two and said he did believe.  So I said if he wanted to trust in that and be forgiven he could ask by a prayer.  I showed it to him saying he could pray it silently and God could read his thoughts.  He read it through again and said, “Read it in my head right?”  “Yeah as a prayer,” I replied.  He read through each phrase and then closed the book praying it and opened it again for the next phrase slowly and meaningfully.  So that was great and I explained the Holy Spirit to him who gave him the power to live the Christian life.  He said he kept a Bible in his room and had a lot of books, presumably Christian ones.  He did not want another, so I gave him a Bible study and got his email to send him another later on.  I got up to leave saying goodbye and he said, “See ya around.”  I’m around a lot so probably he will.

I gave the Student edition of The Case for Christ to Kitt, a solid, tall guy with a mop of very blonde curly hair who felt like he would go to Heaven for having served a lot of people.  He’d had been to a youth group growing up, but his idea of God was less than Christian.   He wasn’t really sure he knew who God was, saying “I believe in God or something exists, prayed…pretty sure.  I think God is real, not sure Heaven is real but there is something past this life.”  I said, “What you need is information.”  And gave him the book and he was happy to take it.  I had gone through the Gospel with him and then he had to run to class.  But I am hopeful he will read the book.

I gave Chloe, a pretty black girl with shoulder-length hair, dressed all in denim who said her mom was a preacher, a book that I got some discounted copies of called God Loves You: He Always Has and He Always Will.  I gave her a Bible study too.  She didn’t have assurance of Salvation and said, “This was just what I needed today,” when I’d gone through the Gospel with her.   She knew it a bit, and I think believed in Jesus enough to love Him, saying to get into Heaven she’d reply “Because I want to spend the rest of my life with Him.”  She knew Jesus had died for her but I think felt she was not good enough.  “I feel like I have a good chance of going.  I mean I’ve done a few bad things but…”  I hadn’t planned on giving her a book but I said, “Would you like a book?” feeling prompted some to give her the one I gave her and she said, “Yes.” very emphatically.  She was very happy to have talked.  It is hard to say how many students are much like her that I talk to.  They will give me a works-righteousness response for why they are going to Heaven, somehow hoping they are good enough.  As I remind them of the story of Jesus they seem to know it and then in the end are sure they have believed in Jesus all along.  So I encourage them that they could use the booklet I have written Bible verses on and notes in to share their faith and they take it.  But I feel pretty sure their faith has changed from believing He died somewhere in the back of their memory to trusting in that He died for them.

Bob

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