August 20, 2025

Dear Friends,

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

As is my common practice, after teaching Bible study to the college students, I give a call that goes something like this: If you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, then come and see me after class. We will meet for 1 hour, and you will end up believing in the resurrection. 

Some of you might remember a couple of months ago, a woman took me up on the offer, and she received the truth within the hour. She was recently baptized, and she testified to her baptism in the class today. After today’s class, a young man stepped forward and told me that he does not believe in the resurrection, and he’d like to take me up on the offer. He grew up in a Christian home, but once attending college, the book of Genesis appeared to him as nonsense, like the ages of the earliest men, so he walked away from the faith and God. After graduating and working for several years performing the COVID-19 swab assays in a biolab, he is now a PhD graduate student in cellular biology at one of the local medical schools. We found a quiet corner of the church on one of the upper floors and spent one hour together. At the end of that time, he was ready to pray aloud, proclaiming the Lordship and resurrection of Jesus according to Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” I then gave him a copy of “Growing in Christ,” and I introduced him to Mike Jackson for the weekly 13-week discipleship. He also agreed to the daily reading program in the scriptures, starting in the Gospel of John”. The gospel message works. 

2 Corinthians 10:3–5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Revelation 1:17–18
…He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore...”

God bless,

Jim Tour