Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a blessed day walking with the Lord. We had a good turn-out at Bible Study tonight and my time on campus today was a blessing. Kenny and Sydney both prayed to receive Jesus.

Kenny was sitting in the science building on a couch bench at the southeast corner of the buildings. He was really friendly and interested to hear the illustrations I used with the Gospel saying, “That’s a very good way of saying it” at one point. Goodhearted, he’s a good looking guy, very short hair on the sides and kind of a mop afro on top. Athletic dressed like an athlete. He goes to Willow Creek and when I asked him what he would say to God to let him into Heaven he said, “I’m a child of God.” He thought he had an 80% chance of going to Heaven and was familiar with the Gospel, knowing Christ had died for sin. But after I completed the Gospel and he said he’d want to be forgiven with God living inside him, I asked “So when you’ve done something wrong and ask God to forgive you, are you thinking something like ‘I’m a good guy and God is merciful and I go to church. So I’m the kind of person God will forgive for this. Or are you thinking ‘I know I will be forgiven because Jesus died for me and I’m trusting in that’?” He smiled at that, with kind of a ‘you got me’ look and said, “Yeah. That I’m that person, not that He died.” So I explained that he could begin with a prayer (I talked him through) and God could then live inside him and he’d live the Christian life in the power of the Spirit. He prayed silently to receive Jesus then. He was really happy we talked and I gave him a Bible study and the Book 20 Things God Can’t Do, explaining that with all the conditional things in it that rested on his actions he should remember are done by the Spirit’s power and asking for His help. I also gave him a Bible study. He liked the idea that the difference between Christianity and other religions is that other religions are where you try to do good things on the outside and the deity is pleased with you and takes you to paradise or the universe is pleased with you and you don’t come back as a cow. But in Christianity we ask God to transform us on the inside by the Spirit and we become better men by His power and then do good things on the outside. “Thanks” he said, “this was good.”

Sydney was sitting on one of the seats in the wall, looking out over the lounge with her legs straight out. She was a lovely girl actually, long straight blonde hair, a black fleece and skinny jeans on, white tennis shoes, pretty skin, didn’t seem to have any make-up on. (I think I am starting to notice student’s skin more as mine begins to increasingly wrinkle. Ha, mine has not been good for 30 years.) She hoped to find something she was really passionate about, so I’ll pray it is increasingly Jesus. When I asked her what she would say to get into Heaven she said, “Where else would I go?  I don’t want to go anywhere bad.” She thought she had about a 50% chance to go to Heaven. She’d gone to church a bit as a kid it seemed, but had bought into the worldview some and knew that God was a Trinity. She seemed like a bright kid. She listened to the Gospel, interested, and the idea that God could make good even of the bad things we had done or had been done to us seemed to register with her in Romans 8:28 “You should do good things to please God,” I said. ‘But your good things don’t fix your bad things. But a lot of people think that. They’d say, I’ve done some bad stuff but I’ve done some good stuff too and my good stuff will fix my bad stuff with God. But your bad stuff is still out there kicking people around and there’s nothing you can do about it.  But God says He’ll fix your bad stuff. It says in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good for them that love God and are the called according to His purpose.” At the end I asked her if she would want to be forgiven with God living inside her. “I would want to be forgiven. I want these things (past sins) to go away. Because like you said… you can’t get rid of them. They are out there, yeah.” I asked her, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” “Yes,” she replied. “Well if you wanted to trust in that, God can live inside you,” I replied. I explained the life in Christ through the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I offered her a prayer then to receive Christ, explaining it and saying she could pray it right then like I wasn’t here and God could read her thoughts. She kind of smirked at that, like I had just asked her something odd, but she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus.  I gave her a Bible, putting her name in it, and gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit” in the front and explaining that part of a life in Christ. I gave her a Bible study and got her email to send her some stuff. I thanked her for being open and for some reason told her I was proud of her and she shook my hand and thanked me and I gave her a contact card for the Bible study.

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

In Him,

Bob