Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed. It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow in Chicago and warm, so I am looking forward to it.  I was blessed on campus today and Isaiah prayed with me to receive Jesus. He was sitting at a table by himself in the Student Services Center lounge where we meet for bible study.  He’s African American and had a rough topped afro and a neatly trimmed mustache and bit of a goatee. He was wearing a multi colored blue and black hoodie.  Nice kid. When he told me his name I said, “Did you know the first black guy who came to Christ in the New Testament was reading the book of Isaiah?” He said he hadn’t, so I told him the story quickly and started asking him some questions for our survey. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I don’t know… What would I say if He asked that?” thinking a bit. “I go to church and pray. I pretty much have an active relationship.” I said, “Of course going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.” I think I heard that at camp as a kid. He nodded in response, but he did not seem to know what I was talking about. He thought he had about a 60% chance of going to Heaven. (I later told him that since he was trusting in the righteousness of Jesus this was 100 %.) I began to go through the Gospel with him and said God had to take away his sin to make him God’s type, like a blood transfusion where you have to have the same type of blood to have life transfused into you. “So what is the big thing God does to take away your sin?” I asked. He thought for a bit and said, “I don’t know.”  So I went on to tell him the Gospel and about the righteousness of Christ imputed to him.  He wanted to be forgiven so I said, “It doesn’t seem like you have had a chance to put all this together before,” and he nodded. So I explained he could pray and receive the forgiveness of God by faith and walked him through the prayer, explaining it to him and saying he could pray it silently and be forgiven. He took the booklet from me across the table and silently prayed to receive Christ. I explained the Christian life to him, living “Inside Out” [walking by the Spirit] asking for God’s power to live the Christian life.  I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study to read through on his own and he gave me his email to send him some stuff. He did not want a Bible saying he had one on his phone. “Do you have any other questions about anything or do you feel like you got this down now pretty well?” “I got it” he said. “Yeah I think you do,” I replied and for the first time he got a big smile on his face (he’d been really focused). So I shook his hand and said I would see him in Heaven and headed off glad.

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

In Him,

Bob