August 27, 2025

Dear Friends,

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

The man is a distinguished professor; he’s Jewish, and we have been colleagues and friends for nearly 20 years. We have published many papers together, and for more than 10 years, our two research groups had met together weekly to discuss our joint research. In the past four months, he almost died twice in two unrelated medical incidents. So he wrote to me that he’d like to meet for lunch, discuss some research, and also discuss spiritual matters. I was surprised that he asked for the latter topic—he had never before shown interest, though he was cordial and respectful of my faith, and he knew I was a Jew following Jesus. I suppose the brushes with death, one where he even had to be resuscitated by CPR, had gotten his attention regarding the tenuousness of life. 

We met at the Rice faculty club for lunch, and after 35 minutes of eating and him telling me about how he had almost died twice, I turned the conversation to the gospel. I opened my slides on my iPhone and took him through the Bridge Illustration of the gospel. He listened and said not one word—odd for a professor. After 45 minutes, I told him I would like to now pray and have him pray aloud with me. He immediately agreed. After prayer, I explained the assignment of daily Bible reading slowly and meditatively, starting in the Gospel of John. He agreed. And then I told him about Dr. Mitch Glaser, the president of Chosen People Ministry, an outreach to Jews. https://chosenpeople.com/ I then followed up with an email to explain the reading assignment once again, which is to be done for 15 minutes every morning for the rest of his life, and I also introduced him to Mitch by the same email.

After nearly two decades of friendship, this professor started searching for God after having had these two near-death events. It took Manasseh a Babylonian prison experience (2 Chronicles 33:12-13), Nebuchadnezzar being cast into the wilderness with temporary dementia (Daniel 4:34-37), Jonah being thrown into a violent sea and visiting the belly of a great fish (Jonah 2:9), a Philippian jailer fearing to the point of suicide (Acts 16:27-30), and Paul temporary blindness (Acts 9:1-19), to open their hearts to the Lord. In retrospect, these are acts of God’s mercy to gain a person’s attention.

2 Corinthians 9:15 – “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.” (Jesus!)

God bless,

Jim Tour