Dear Friends,
This week two people prayed with me according to the pattern of Luke 18:13 & Romans 10:9.
The first was a 19-year-old young man, never finished high school, and working with his father in landscaping, snow plowing, wood-cutting and gutter cleaning, in a midwestern state. He grew up going to church, but his family stopped going years ago due to multiple disappointments with the church, and he’s fallen away from faith. When I probed him about the resurrection of Jesus, he wrote,
Hi James, I came across your video and decided to email you because there’s a part in me that wants to believe, but i don’t.
So we met. He carefully listened and “returned home” with no resistance. It is interesting for me to see how the less educated receive the Word so readily. He is now in daily Bible reading and Bible study with Daniel Land, a former student of mine who had offered the day before to take more people interested in the “Growing in Christ” Bible study. The 19-year-old also asked me to suggest churches in his city, and I was able to do that two days later through some contacts that lived nearby.
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
The second was one of my undergraduate students taking Organic Chemistry. She attended a Thanksgiving meal that we hosted for students, where I had invited all the students in my class who had no other place to go for Thanksgiving. Being very far from home, going home for such a short period was impossible for her. At the meal, I asked if she was a Christian because she seemed so pleasant. From the reply and a few more follow-up questions, much is revealed. She said she was not a Christian, but her mother was. Her mother had often brought her to church when she was a child. So I told her I would like to share why I seek Jesus and even embrace the evidence for his resurrection from the dead. She said that she would like to hear that. But I told her that I preferred to wait until after her final exam in my class, and after the grades were submitted, lest she feel undue pressure. She understood. So, when all was done and finalized, we met in my office, and I took her through the gospel message. She prayed. But she rightly wondered, how does that simple prayer make her a Christian? Good question. It does not necessarily make one a Christian. But I told her that if she followed through on the 13-week Bible study and agreed to the daily reading of the Bible for 15 minutes every morning, her state would soon be apparent (see below). She agreed to follow through. I gave her a Bible since she did not have one, and a copy of “Growing in Christ”, and she is set up to work with Barbara Lloyd for 1 hour per week for 13 weeks. I also taught her how to read the scriptures slowly and meditatively, starting in The Gospel According to John.
John 8:31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”
God bless,
Jim Tour
