June 4, 2025

Dear Friends,

This week one man prayed with me according to the pattern of Luke 18:13 & Romans 10:9.

He is an engineer from Australia. He wrote:

Hi Dr Tour, I should start off by saying – I’m not religious. I’ve not been to a church other than funerals and randomly this Easter first time in 35+ years. I’m reaching out as I search for answers I came across Chris Bledsoe, which in turn led me to you. I don’t know how to interpret what’s happening. I feel a deep compassion for others to the point of ignoring my own needs. I’ve yelled at the sky for it and seen an orb and felt as if I’m being watched and told – keep going I have you, it will be ok. Honestly, I felt as it it was something beyond me replying. I stopped like a deer in headlights. My background is mechanical engineering, technical design and then Lead Mechanical for the world’s largest __________ and then manager in __________ Australia for one of the largest corporations. Something in the last 3 years has been saying to me… the works important but its time to move on and its shown me the dark side of corporations and people to encourage it. It was unsettling. I’ve found myself talking to myself and to God which is an aspect of myself either tuning into it or its a spark that’s always there? It’s confusing me beyond belief. Is God real? Is an infinite intelligence real? The _______, remote, extremely secular, my family is secular. I was hoping you would have advice on something to read. Something I can put it all into context. I don’t know anyone in my circles of technical and corporate leadership who would openly discuss religion but I really enjoyed your lecture 13. Are you able to tell me more about God, religion, jesus etc. I don’t know the question to ask sorry other than that I need to ask for help. Thanks in advance.

For a man as unchurched as he is, it was wonderful to see how readily he accepted the gospel message and prayed the prayers noted above. He is in daily Bible reading and weekly one-on-one Bible study with Chuck Lloyd. The gospel really works. Try it.

The ”lecture 13” to which he refers is my Nanotechnology class lecture #13, where I taught the most important lecture of the semester: https://youtu.be/cpjdMUNYXM4.

Via the Jesus and Science Foundation, we paid to have those lectures professionally filmed and produced throughout the 2024 spring semester, trusting that unbelievers would find them in their YouTube algorithmic feeds, and thereby be drawn to listen. In those nanotechnology lectures is the 15-second infomercial where I invite people to contact me if they wish to “hear about why I embrace the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It is through those 15-second ads, once per video, that I get most of my contacts to share one-on-one with the lost. Is it ethical to use the hook of nanotechnology to draw people into hearing a commercial on a gospel invitation? Many unbelievers online mock me for doing that, which tells me that I am doing the right thing, and I should be doing it even more. 

Paul used the altar of an idol to present the gospel to the unbelieving Athenians:

Acts 17:22–23
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”

Jesus used a cup of water as a springboard to present the truth about himself to a Samaritan woman:

John 4:7, 24-26 
7 A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.”…
24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus *said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

God often uses sicknesses and the plethora of life’s troubles to draw people to seek him:

John 11:4
But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

This is the primary reason why we pay to film and produce these lectures at universities, to have podcasts on the origin of life that are then professionally produced, to hold events with entire film and audio crews: to get unbelievers saved. At the same time, believers get strengthened. 

Lord, what other methods can I use, with my background in chemistry, to draw the lost to hear the gospel message? Lord, I’m not a pastor or a professional preacher. I’m not a professional video-maker or interviewer. I’m a chemist. What can I do, Lord, to win more souls for the kingdom of God? Lord, bring souls, I pray. Save the lost. More, Lord, I need to see more saved. Will you not grant me to see more saved? How many more years do I have left with a sound mind for this type of sharp scientific engagement that will attract the lost to listen? With my remaining years, multiply the salvations, I pray. How might I better compel them to come in? Please, my Father, save more. Many more. For the glory of Jesus.

Luke 14:23
“And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.’”

God bless,

Jim Tour