Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope ya had a great day hanging out in the Spirit.  I had a good day on campus, though it was shortened by a Doctor appointment to check my broken jaw, which seems to be healing well. (I can bite an apple in 3 more weeks.)  Meanwhile at College of DuPage, Alex, a nursing student, prayed with me to receive Christ.

She was sitting on a bench in the hall in the medical classroom portion of the science building and said she’d listen to how you get to Heaven.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her in she said, “I haven’t killed anybody.” “Yet,” I said. “But then I guess if you were a nurse it would be an accident.” “No, if you were negligent it is your fault,” she replied seriously.  She wanted to get a PhD in Nursing Education and seemed very ambitious.  She was a little heavy set, cute face, wearing a striped skirt (kinda reminded me of a zebra) with black tights and a black blouse.  Her dark brown hair framed her face in kind of a shag cut with bangs that split up on her forehead.  She was very articulate and to the point.  She thought she had a 50/50 shot of getting into Heaven.  I explained sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ to her.  “Your sins are paid for by the blood of Christ. ‘Life is in the blood’ the Bible says and Jesus is the source of all life because He is God. So when He pours out His blood, He pours out His life on the world and it makes life all the places we made death.  There is death inside us because of sin, so the Bible says the ‘Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.’ It turns death into life. But you need standing before God.  It is like the idea that you are smart enough to complete college but that is not enough to get in. You need to prove graduation from High School and get good enough test scores.  Christ’s righteousness gives you something to present you to God, gives you standing.  Otherwise you would not even have one perfect day to show for your time on earth.”  I went through the Gospel with her and asked her if she wanted to be forgiven. She said she did, and so I asked her if she believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and rose from the dead.  She thought for a moment and said “Yes.”  I asked “Would you want to trust in that then to be forgiven? If you do there is a prayer you can pray.”  I walked her through it and she thanked me and began to flip through the booklet saying, “We have a nursing prayer kind of like this I guess” she said.  So I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to her and then encouraged her that telling God she wanted to be forgiven, actually saying the words in your heart is important.  She turned to the prayer and quietly prayed it.  I told her I would pray for her every night through this school year and the next and she was glad for that.  We’d talked a long time and she said she had to get to work. So I quickly gave her a book 20 things God Can’t Do and a Bible study.  She said, “I want to take this, but I know I won’t read it. But I’ll never throw it out.” I said that was fine and that I got the books for a great deal in the summer and the best part of it was a list of 100 verses in the back she could look at. “Keep it on the shelf, maybe you’ll have time for it sometime” I offered. She started to leave and said, “Thank you so much!”  “God bless you,” I replied.  “You too” she said.

I had a good conversation with a guy who was forced to get around primarily in a wheelchair.  He had seen a lot of pain. He’d been to church and hadn’t received Christ.  Greg seemed open and even willing to come to Bible study, but there was more pain there than he would let on.  He was a good lookin’ guy with a beard and brown sandy hair. But his legs beneath the knees were withered and in braces.  He had to go after I had offered him the Gospel, and he said he’d think about it.  My heart really went out to him, so I’ll be praying he comes in.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God led and blessed by His Spirit.

In Him,

Bob