PP 269

Dear Prayer Partners,

It’s hard to believe I have been home a whole week already. Time is flying. I need to bring you up to date on the “Great Escape”. It kind of seemed like that.

Thursday The morning I was sitting in my chemo chair with the needles in my arm, but no medicine going through because the pharmacy hadn't’ mixed my bags yet. Three nurses came to me seeming pretty happy, and said, “Mr. Goris, we have good news for you. Your release has been approved. Do you want to continue with this treatment, or do you want to quit?” I said,” I want to continue, but I want to get it done and get out of here”. They assured me the bags would be there shortly.

Two hours later I was still waiting. Another nurse came along, and I said, “When will I be released?”  She said, “I don’t know but it needs to be soon, because we aren’t allowed to keep you over the weekend.”  Wow! I said, “Unhook me, I want to call my wife”. She said, “Oh, I’m sure your wife would rather you have this treatment.” Two and a half hours later,  I’m finally finished with my treatment. I wanted to talk to Jan because she had met Tom who had just flown in to visit me. I wanted to stop her because she was staying in Charlotte 2.5 hours away, and I wanted to tell her to pack her stuff for going home. We were told that Jan would be the first to know of my release, so when I called her I said, “Well what do you think of the news?” She said, “What news”. I said, “I’m getting released.” She couldn't believe it was real. I told her to turn around and go back to Charlotte and pack up all her things to go home. She did, and then came for the afternoon visit with Tom. It was a
great visit.

That afternoon they told me to pack up my stuff because I would be leaving Friday. I asked what time on Friday. They called the man in R&/D(receiving and departure). He said that  the earliest they do anybody is 8:30 am. I said put me down for 8:30 am. I spent the rest of the night and early Friday morning getting rid of my stuff. Inmates both friends and others were looking for handouts. I handed most everything out because what we consider junk here is pretty valuable there. I tried to take care of my friends.

Friday morning I got up early and took my clothes and bedding to the laundry and was supposed to get a receipt for it. There was nobody there, so I threw the stuff in a big hamper they had and an inmate said, “I’ll sign that for you, they never look at it anyway.” I found a cart and went to my room and loaded my bag of books on it and my personal things. I went to the waiting area on our floor waiting for my name to be called. I know how they are on remembering to call, and also sometimes they lock down the elevators and you can miss appointments. At 8:30 amfor some reason the gate to the elevator opened and my cart and I were pushed through. The elevator was there.  I went to the first floor where R&/D is. I still hadn’t been called. The
big steel door to the hallway to R&D is always locked and a guard needs to open it. An inmate was coming through and said, “Here, you want to go here?”  I said, “Yes” and shot through the door. My next big fear was showing up at R&D without being called. In Duluth that would have been a fatal mistake. As I got to the R&D door an inmate was just coming out and said, “Here, you can go in here”. I said, I don’t know if I can. I saw a guard in there and said can I come in?” He said, “What do you want?”  I said, “I’m supposed to leave at 8:30, my wife is waiting for me.” He said, “Well nobody is out there, nobody called”. I
said, “You’d better check.”

 Jan and Tom were waiting for me. The guards gave me a speedy check out, didn’t even look in my boxes, they just wanted me
out of their hair. In fifteen minutes I was outside with Jan and Tom. We got outside the visitor center where the shrubbery was manicured and looks so great. I said, “Wow, I didn’t know I was living in paradise.” We laughed about how it all went. It was almost like a jail break. Nobody called me, nobody told me to go, and if I hadn’t taken the matter in my own hands I probably wouldn’t have gotten out of there until noon. It seemed to be all legal, at least nobody shot
at us as we left.

It was so great to be free. Tom and Jan knew I was most hungry for fried eggs and bacon. So Tom took me for breakfast and then we parted.  Tom flew home.   Jan and I had the next three days which we had looked forward to so much and it was wonderful. We stopped for gas and I got out of the car and felt like I should wait for a guard to walk ahead of me. I went into the gas station with five dollars cash in my pocket and bought a newspaper. That was so great.

The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains was so nice. We stopped at Bill Graham’s “the cove” and saw that. In the chapel they have a prayer tower. We realized we had not stopped to pray for this great occasion, we intended to, but got too busy. So there in that prayer tower we thanked God for caring for us and preserving us to this day. Rather Jan prayed.  I was so filled with emotion I couldn’t speak. I find everything is very emotional to me. The country was so beautiful, the trees greener, the cars newer, and it just seemed that everybody has such a good life and affluence.

We planned to travel short days, but drove until midnight the first two nights because we stopped so much and wanted to get to Amy in Kansas City and see them. In Kansas City Amy has a bunch of friends who are prayer partners and many came over to celebrate with food and prayer. Matt Tucker’s family, who live only about 20 minutes from Amy, came too, and met the
Prayer Partners and now they will be prayed for too and know the
people. It was a great time.

Sunday night we got in Minneapolis late so stayed with Tom and Jill in their new place in Bloomington. We slept in Lydia’s bedroom. Monday morning bright and early we were at the probation office to meet the probation officer. He’s a nice man. I only have to send in an email report once a month, but I am under supervised release for three years. I’m not supposed to leave the state for the first two months. I told him my life expectancy and I said I feel strong right now and I would like to visit my grandchildren in Dallas and in Kansas City while I still have strength. He said he could ask the judge, but usually that is not done in the first two months. I said I’d rather he not ask the judge, I just don’t want my name coming up in front of her more than necessary.  Later as we were driving home, the phone rang. It was the PO. He said he had called the judge and she said she would give permission due to the circumstances.

So many blessings, so much grace, it’s hard to take it all in. We went to a picnic in the park with Lisa’s church. Experiencing the worship was just overwhelming to me, I couldn’t  sing, although I wanted to very much. Then the expressions of joy and love to me from the people really did me in. I was very emotional. I thought, I hope I can get used to this.

Sunday we went to our home church in Willmar. For three years I was wondering how that would be. There was hesitancy on my part, but I thought I needed to break the ice. The experience was so wonderful. So much love, grace, and acceptance, just overwhelming,  but so good. I’m so glad we went. We stayed with my sister Marcy who lost her husband to ALS 18 months ago. It was good to be with her. Our extended family has grown so much closer through all of this.

This coming weekend grandson Levi is having his graduation party here and there will be many prayer partners here from Lisa’s church, as well as extended family. Then, (be sure to remember this one,) if you can make it we are having a thanksgiving celebration at the Willmar Evangelical Free church on June 27 at 6:30 p.m.. Everyone is invited, even if you haven’t been a prayer partner, if anyone is interested, please come. We are going to honor God for his faithfulness, forgiveness, grace and mercy. I pray that it will be a time of encouragement for others who are going through hard times. Our family will lead some worship, I’ll do some speaking, and we will pray. Pray with me for that time, that the Creator of the universe will receive all the glory and praise, and not the creature. All the good that has come from this is from God’s hand and he blesses us even when we are unworthy. Pray that the Holy Spirit will go before us that night and direct everything that is said and happens. It’s all
about God and his goodness.

Everything is hard to do now that I am home. Getting new phone service, figuring out what to do for a computer, I lost so much contact information so if you haven’t heard from me please send me an email, However I am still learning Gmail and am not even sure I can save addresses right.

I’m so thankful for our home here in Elk River. It has been so good for Jan and I love it too. I hope in time you can all come and see our nice little place. It’s a real garden apartment. Right out our door is a beautiful garden that Jan keeps herself very busy in. We have grandchildren stopping in and  running through. It’s really great. It’s so nice to have the little ones around.

I could go on and on, but I think you have read enough if you are still with me.
I’ll be keeping you posted on how it’s going.

Thanks so much for following.

 Bob

*Important Update

Bob Goris was released today at 8:30 a.m. Praise the Lord!

264 PP Last Chapter

My Dear Prayer Partners,

   I feel as though I would begin to wind down my prison letters since we are all praying for a real quick release now. I must be mindful that I am in my last stage of writing from prison, although I hope the Lord continues to give me ministry from home and I can still write.

     In this writing it's a little like writing the last chapter of a book. Through these last three years I have shared a lot of disconnected thoughts and my readership has increased so that I don't know the heart condition (spiritual condition) of all who read this. I would like to think that some day all my Duluth friends will read this  and I would like to pull everything together now so there is no confusion on God's call, plan, and purpose for this writing and your reading.

     What I have learned and would like to reflect on is that God has a unified plan for all of history. That is why in one of my recent writings I began laying out God's view and purpose for creating the world. 

     1. God enjoyed creating. God loves pleasure.

     2. God created man for his own pleasure and made him the crown of creation.

     3. God was in an unbelievable loving relationship with man. This relationship was possible because of God's holiness and man's sinlessness. God, being holy can not look on sin.

     4 Satan deceived man causing him to fall, destroying the relationship with man. This must have been the saddest day in the universe. God cherished his relationship with man more than any of us can understand. Even our best closest relationship on earth is only a shadow of what God and Adam and Eve's relationship was. Now it was gone.

     5. God could no longer look upon man because of man's sin. Man was cursed, the earth was cursed.

     6. God in his graciousness announced he would make a provision to restore man and restore the relationship with God.

     7. This provision could not compromise God's holiness, so it took God's only son who could pay the price for man's sin.

     8. Since the announcement in Genesis, animal sacrifices and ceremonies were required. They all pointed to the coming Messiah who would take away the sins of the world, or all who would meet him at the cross.

    9. The sacrifices and ceremonies were only symbols done by faith, it was the faith that was required to connect with the coming Messiah.

     10. Jesus, born as a baby, grew as a man, suffered , taught, healed people, he performed miracles, was seen, known, and witnessed by many people. He was judged for sins he didn't commit, suffered and died for sins we committed, he went to the grave and was dead for three days. God could not look upon him during that time because our sins were  upon him and God cannot look upon sin.

     11. Jesus rose again from the grave, walked taught and ate with people. He was not a spirit. He was in the flesh. He ascended straight up into heaven.

    12. As he went he said he would send a comforter to come and live with us, right in our presence.

    13. Jesus taught the apostles all he wanted us to know about him so we are to study the teaching of the apostles as the foundation of the church with Christ as the cornerstone.
     14. To get a clear account of how to become a Christian you should read the book of John, focus on John 3.

     15. If you have been around church a long time, or have believed for a while you should think and meditate on this question. "So what is the difference in the way I believe in Jesus and God, and the way Satan believes in Jesus and God?"  Is there a difference? What is it? If you need help read (John 3:5) What did Jesus mean by that?

I want to leave you tonight with these thoughts. Tomorrow  I would like to talk about looking back.

Your Brother in Christ,
Bob

263 PP

Dear Prayer Partners,

It is Sunday morning, 8:00 AM. In thirty minutes Jan and Lora will be here. I am so blessed with my faithful family and so many supportive and faithful friends. I feel so unworthy, and yet this morning I ask for prayer.

    I know many of you are and have been praying for me daily for my welfare and also for my released. I feel unworthy asking for more prayer, but that is what I am doing this morning. It's not that this is a terrible place. It's not  that my conditions are bad, actually they are very good. I do live in the very reality of sickness and death. On average five people die here every week. I'm not afraid of dying but for the sake of my family I don't want to die here.

    Almost every day I talk to someone who has found a new pain. Sometimes it's very soon. I see them in the nurses station and soon after that taken to the fifth floor (the place you don't want to go). It's just the reality of cancer. I'm told that pancreatic cancer is the painless cancer, but when it goes, it goes fast. It makes one really sensitive to new pains, or not even pain, each new feeling. I had a new feeling yesterday, I didn't mention it. I still have it today. Tomorrow it may be gone, but I know one day a feeling will come that won't go. I am content to have that in God's hands.

     So it is with a feeling of embarrassment, humility, unworthiness, that today I ask for special prayer for my early release. The time has passed since the paper left the Warden's desk and went to Washington. My fear is it might be buried under someone's pile who is gone on vacation or out on maternity leave or something like that. It was delayed here for three weeks for just that reason.

     I feel that this week more than ever before is the time for intense prayer for me. This week the order should come. I ask that God's hand would move on it this week, that he would touch an official's heart, give me favor in his/her eyes, sign the form and give us notice.

     I long for the time when we as prayer partners will gather together in Willmar E Free Church to give glory to God for the many wonderful things he has done. He has given me so much more than I deserve, I don't deserve you. Your encouragement has changed my life in prison compared to what it could have been. I realize that asking for early release is more than I deserve. I deserve to get out in October. I pray that God would do this in a way that he would be glorified in a remarkable way for all his deeds and gracious acts of mercy to us.

     So please pray this week, and I pray in your prayers, that your faith may be strengthened as well, that each prayer will rise as a pleasing aroma before our heavenly father, as we demonstrate that we love him, we demonstrate our dependence on him, He is the only one who makes the difference in our lives, that keeps me from being one of these guys here who knows they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. There are many like that. So this is what is hard:

   God has given me favor - I ask for more.
  God has given me faith - I ask for more.
 God has preserved my life - I ask for more.
  God has given me freedom (a measure) I ask for more.

I am unworthy, yet I ask for more. How can I praise him in an appropriate way? I am a debtor, unable to pay him or return his favors. I only receive them and say thank you.

Thank you Jesus, for receiving me, holding me in your hand, and never letting me go. Amen
Bob

PP 262

Dear Prayer Partners,

You may not have realized it but my email capability had been down for a day and a half and it was a killer for me. The holiday weekend was the longest time in my life. With Tom's move some of my PP were delayed and you probably got them around Memorial Day so maybe the gap was filled on that end. On this end it was quite a different thing. I am reminded how everything is so much more appreciated if it can be shared with someone. I know when I get out, if I can see the mountains, the Grand Canyon, or what ever it is, I will always say, "If only the grandchildren were here". I did a lot of business travel alone in my life and every time I came to a beautiful spot, I would say that, "I must come back with Jan and the kids".      This is why the PP emails are such a blessing for me. It gives me the opportunity to share thoughts, experiences, conversations and concerns; and you in return sometimes respond, pray, or hopefully enjoy them as well. While discipling is fun, it is a lot like parenting. It brings with it concerns for the new births, that they show signs of life, health, nourishment and growth. Yes, I can't help but be concerned for them much as a parent.

    Example: Elijah made a confession and prayed the prayer. I have not seen him since. I know he may have been busy with visits or whatever, but it's a concern. As I read Rob Moran's letter a short time ago about his family's needs. I do wish his needs would be met, but I am concerned that he might have developed the idea through some other teaching that it's God's job to keep us happy. There is much teaching in prison that if you have enough faith, you can ask God for anything at all and he will give it to you. If you don't get what you ask for you don't have enough faith. I am saddened by that, almost anxious for Rob and Suann. I wish their needs were met. We have prayed and asked, yet at the same time if they are not met, we must trust that God has a purpose or another way.

     I think of Charlie and Kelly whom I just told you about. Charlie wants to be a Christian , but his approach is still to talk to a lot of people. An old man here, a kind hearted, sweet spirit man who is a Methodist minister is taking Charlie to different studies, and the last one was the Catholic Mass. The minister himself is not established. I am having trouble getting time with Charlie where we can sit down for a significant time. Pray for Charlie. We have a friendship, he often waits for me for meals. We need time to sit with the Bible. But no matter how well we understand the concepts that Jesus taught, we need to be born again. Just as Jesus told friends, we must be born again. When a person is born again they truly have new life. I tell them the things they worry about going back to when they get out will go away if they are truly born again, and ask Jesus to give them a new heart; meaning cleaning out the temple inside them where God intended for him to dwell, for his spirit to live. With a new heart God cleans that place out and he lives there giving us new wants, new desires, new things to satisfy us. Christianity is more than teaching - it's a way of life. In fact, it is life itself. "He who has the son has life," When we talk about this kind of life we are talking about something that is far more than morality, far more than doctrinal accuracy. This new life is radical, not superficial. It is humble, not self-promoting. It's compassionate, not indifferent.

     I want these guys to realize the kind of Christianity that can bring us safely through any crisis, so that when we get through the crises we can look back on our life and our crises and say, "I have truly known God. He was truly with me. He was moving sovereignly before me. What an amazing Savior, and now my Redeemer".

    While I pray that for these guys, I pray the same for all of us. Myself, my family, and all you prayer partners regardless of your circumstances, that we will experience God in such a way we will desire him, and walking with him, even more than we desire our circumstances to change.

    A friend sent me the book "Authentic Christianity" by Ray Stedman, some time ago. I'm reading it for the second time and parts of it for the third time. I highly recommend the  book. I want to quote him on the subject I was just talking about with my concerns for the guys and maybe us as prayer partners as well. Just as I have people I'm concerned for, you may as well, maybe grandchildren or children.

     He was writing about signs of life of new Christians and then goes into three possible choices Christians can make as they become older in the faith. "Inevitably , sooner or  later, the old natural life begins to reassert itself. The glow begins to fade from Christian worship;, and Bible reading becomes less and less rewarding".

    First the young Christian may continue his decline to the point of dropping out of all Christian relationships, neglecting the Bible, abandoning prayer, losing interest in spiritual things, falling back into the previous life style. This may be a temporary backslide, or if longer term or permanent, of course, the question can really come whether this person was really a Christian in the first place.

     Second, the young Christian may become aware of his cold and rebellious heart, become frightened by the thought of regressing to what he was before, and repentantly cast himself upon God's mercy, renewing his trust in God's promises. Such Christians often seek the help of older, more experienced Christians as mentors and prayer partners who encourage them  and hold them accountable as they return to a state of obedience, peace, and joy. This cycle may be repeated many times until it becomes habitual and he becomes to think of it as normal Christianity.

    Third, and most likely possibility, is that the new Christian may discover what millions of others before him have learned; It is possible to avoid the pain and humiliation of these cycles of repentance and renewal by maintaining an outward facade of spiritual commitment, moral impeccability, and orthodox behavior. One can simply maintain an outward reputation for spiritual maturity that is satisfying to the ego, even thought he is inwardly haunted by the fact that his 'Christianity' is a hollow shell. Such an outwardly Christian lifestyle is so prevalent today that a new Christian can hardly be blamed for adopting it and regarding it as normal. He drifts  into it with only an occasional twinge of doubt or a rare, faint pang of conscience.

     I am praying for the kind of Christianity that can bring us safely through any crisis, that will enable us to look back on the timeline of our life and say, "I have truly known God". Yes, dear Partners, I think many of us have been in the faith for many years, and I would be so blessed, to the point of sensing a calling fulfilled if all of us can say, from walking through this experience together, "I really know God".
   
    One more airplane metaphor: As a student pilot I had to learn to do stalls. Stalls bothered me. It is where you must climb the airplane (at reduced power) and hold the nose up until the airplane can't fly anymore and it "stalls" meaning it stops flying , the nose drops until you pick up airspeed and then you recover. I told my instructor, "Stalls make me nervous". He said, "You need a confidence builder, you need to trust the integrity of the airplane". He said, "We need to do some maximum maneuvers". We climbed this time at full power. He had me continue to hold the nose what seemed like straight up and with the rudder pedals kept the wings straight so the plane didn't spin. When the plane couldn't climb anymore we began sliding backwards down out of the sky. He said, "There, now you know the airplane won't fall apart, and won't crash. It just gains its normal characteristics again after you resume a normal attitude". I have often thought of that experience. It was a confidence builder for me. It made a normal stall seem like a very moderate thing. In flying, in order to learn, you need to be somewhat of a risk taker. It seems to me, the same thing is true. We must take some risks with our faith. We must step out of our comfort zone where we need the Lord. Sometimes we step out, some times he pushes us out, but no matter how we get there, we must come to the end of ourselves, our resources, to find the amazement of his.

In the Lord,
Bob

PP 261

Dear Prayer Partners,

    A new prayer request. Jan and I have been watching this couple in visiting and speaking to them only so little because cross visiting is not allowed here. But we saw this really nice looking couple. I met him later, his name is Charlie Lindauer. The names are Charlie Lindauer, His wife Kelly and little girl Olive.

I would guess Charlie to be about 37 years old. Kelly about the same and Olive is three, very well behaved and very sweet and unspoiled little girl. They conducted themselves in such a way we thought they may be Christians. I think we have seen them in visiting about four times. I met Charlie here on the fourth floor, and had short conversations with him but never much time to talk in depth. Today I was walking the track. He saw me coming and stopped and waited for me. We did a bunch of laps together, so after a few laps, we were talking about our families and I asked, "Are you Christians?" Charlie said, "No-----yes." He said my wife just started going to church, and he wanted to but he needed information. He asked me about the Bible studies here and the church. I said, "Charlie, if you're really interested, you can go to church and Bible study, but you really need to learn how you can learn on your own from God's word because iI have been to these studies and church, and there is a lot of confusion there." He asked about Catholic, Christian and what's the difference.

I said, "Most Catholics refer to themselves as Catholic and not Christian, although some of them are. Many Christians call themselves Christians and say they are because they believe. The thing is, that even Satan believes in God and he believes in Jesus. Now, Christians believe that God has told us in the Bible everything he  wants us to know about him, and he wants us to not only know about him, but know him. Most people think we can't know him, but we can." He asked a few more questions, and I told him I would like to get him a study Bible. I said, "I need to show you how to use it, because I am leaving, and Charlie, the only way for you to know for sure is for you to see it in the Bible for yourself".

So, I have passed his name on to a prayer partner and he is sending a good Study Bible for Charlie. This is so good. Jan and I wanted to think they were Christians. I don't think they are at this point, I don't think they understand sin and salvation,. Most people don't. That is what we will go over when his Bible comes.

Today Steve Bergeson, a friend from Iowa, came to visit me. He met Elijah last night. Today when he left, I just went out for a walk. God had Charlie waiting for me. Isn't God good! This is so totally his spirit moving. I am doing nothing.

I only wanted to pass along to you in the last email how my gospel presentation goes. I hope it doesn't come across that I think my presentation is what is doing it. That is the presentation thing based on what I think. I do think that God is allowing me amazing opportunities, and I do work hard at doing it the best I can. I love that God is so sovereign. I don't  think any of the people would go to Hell if I wasn't here, because he is calling them, he is choosing them, he just gives me the privilege of ministering  to them the best I can. It is not the perfection, or completeness of what I say. I just want to encourage as many as I can to be ready for when the time comes  that the Lord puts someone in your path whom he is calling, that you feel ready. I will continue to work at improving all I can but praying the Lord will give me more.

So please pray for:
Enoch (new Christian) and wife Mary (willing to become a Christian)
Charlie and Kelly Lindauer, and  little Olive.  Pray for their salvation and that God will turn their interest into solid believing born again faith.

Thank you so much,

Bob
Also, did I tell you my papers left the Warden's's desk about two weeks ago and should be either in Washington to Minneapolis right now?  PTL

PP 260

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

    Using my flying analogy in the last PP email, I just had another example of how often we don't understand why we are learning something, we just don't see the need for it at the time.

    Today I received a birthday card from my sister in law and most of it was a hymn we sang in church in my childhood. It certainly wasn't a favorite of mine then, it seemed like we would sing it toward the end of the service like it was the only thing standing between me and the door and i was hoping they certainly wouldn't sing all the verses. Today, at another time, in a different place, in different circumstances, that same song made me cry as I read it, it meant so much. I will just give you the third verse:

     All the way my Savior leads me,
     Oh the fullness of his love.
     Perfect rest to me is promised
    In my Father's house above
     When my spirits clothed immortal
    Wings its flight to realms of day,
     This my song through endless ages
     Jesus led me all the way;
     This my song through endless ages;
     Jesus led me all the way.

It's a song of God's sovereignty and the peace we receive from knowing his character, the way he is. It's the message I would like to teach more than any other and that is, God is completely sovereign. Nothing touches us that does not first pass through his hand. He is with us, always. He is on the other side of our situations, he causes his will to be done. What comfort, what peace, what joy!

 

Today prayers were answered. Elijah prayed to receive Christ. It was all of God, nothing of me, in fact, I tried to put him off.

I have been trying to connect with him for some time and it just wasn't working out. I began wondering if he was as interested as he said. Today as I finished my walk on the track, there he was. He said, "Let's sit in the shade and talk. It's a hot day here".

    We sat down and the first question he asked was, "How is it that you and your wife have been married for 52 years?" I said, "Well, we are both Christians. We realize our lives are not about us, they belong to the Lord". He said, "Is your wife a Christian?" I said, "Yes". He said, "Would you have married her if she wasn't?" I said, "No, I don't think I would. God doesn't want his children to become equally yoked with unbelievers, that means in equal agreements not only in marriage but in business". He had more questions.  I said, "Let me get my Bible. Otherwise I'm just giving you my opinion about things. I want you to get it from God himself". As I left he called me back, he said, "Bob, do you think I could ever be a good Christian brother"?

    I got my Bible and we met in the courtyard. I wanted him to read it  but he said he didn't have his glasses. (Now I'm not sure he can read. He does have a pretty good business.) This is how I presented the gospel to him. It's the same way I do it every time now. I have worked on this for some time and want to pass it on to you as I can now in a real live situation.

 

I asked Elijah where he thought Jesus came from. Did he come to God as a baby? Elijah didn't know. Then I read.

I begin in John 1 "In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God". Then I explained that Jesus was right with God all through creation.

 

Next we go to Genesis because I want them to see God's pleasure as he created everything. At the end of each day it says, "And he saw it was very good". God was having a great time creating the earth and everything on it. Then I pointed out some creativity in Elijah's life. He told me he loves rebuilding cars, antique cars, muscle cars etc. I said, "You get a thrill out of that, don't you?" He agreed he did. I said, "That is part of what Got put in you that's like him. God likes creativity, and he likes fun and pleasure. In fact, that's why he created man, it was for his own pleasure. God created the earth for man's pleasure. God is not against pleasure. The Christian life is about pleasure, creativity, and relationships". Then we continued in Genesis where God and Adam were in the garden enjoying each other's company and God saw that all the animals had a mate, man had no mate. This is the first time God says, "This is not good". So God created woman for man. "And it was good".

     So here are God, Adam, and Eve in the Garden. Now God is completely holy and man was holy too and that is why they could have the kind of relationship they had. Because of God's holiness and man's spinelessness.

    (The reason I go over this is because most people think that sin is the last awful thing they did. They don't realize that we are not sinners because we do awful things, we do awful things because we are sinners.)

    Then we talked about Lucifer, the most beautiful of all angels. How Lucifer became jealous of God and caused one third of the angels to become jealous of God, and how God had to create hell as a place for Lucifer and his followers. He never intended it for man. But now Lucifer comes to Eve in the form of a serpent and gets Eve to doubt or to reinterpret what God said.

     God had said, "You can eat of any tree of the garden you want to except of the tree of knowledge of good and evil." God wanted man to know only good. He did not want man to know evil. "Satan, the deceiver came and twisted what God said, when he said, "Did God not tell you you can't eat of any tree?". Then Eve corrected him. Then Satan caused Eve to doubt and then reinterpret what God intended. Satan said, "He knows if you eat of that tree you will become like him." Eve, convinced that God did not have her best interest at heart ate of the tree. Then Adam. Now they had a heart of sin. Sin was upon them.

    Since God is holy he can only have fellowship with the holy. Man now was unholy. This was probably the saddest day for God that anyone could imagine. All of God's work of creation was for the crown of his creation whom he intended to have fellowship with for ever, now must die. It seems like a win for Satan and it is. But God then announces the one whom he tells Satan, you have bruised his heal, but he will crush your head. Already God had a plan and he was announcing Jesus.

 

(Please understand, I am telling you all this because this is what i have distilled my gospel presentation down to after giving it many times in prison. I found I needed to cover these things because people really don't understand the holiness of God, don't know why God has wrath, don't understand sin. If one doesn't understand sin, how can he really repent, and if he only sees God as an impersonal force, how can he desire God or want a relationship with him?)

 

Then, because Elijah seems to be a pretty good guy, he likes to do good things, gives to the poor etc. I have learned to use the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. If you remember I did this with Pepi and he really responded to it. So with Elijah I told him he reminds me of Cornelius, and we read how Cornelius, a good man, an important man who worshiped God was alone one day when God sent an angel to tell Cornelius there was a man God wanted him to see. He should send his men to Peter and told him where they would find Peter.

     At the same time God gave Peter a vision of food coming down from heaven on a sheet; food that a Jew wasn't supposed to eat and up to this time the Jews weren't supposed to eat pork. Well there is pork on this sheet and Peter said,"No Lord, I can't eat this meat it is unclean". And God said, "Don't call anything unclean that I have called clean".

     In addition to that, God told Peter he was to go to the house o fa man called Cornelius, an upright man, and bring him a message. (Now up to this point I had told Elijah he reminded me of Cornelius, because he was a good man, but there was something he was missing. God was going to send Peter with a message of what he was missing). So as we read farther, Peter goes with the men and they come to Cornelius house. Cornelius gathers his whole household together to hear what Peter has to say.

     (By now Elijah is getting drowsy as often people do at this point. I have covered a lot of material. I always offer to stop here and usually do. If I stop, I ask them if they would like to meet again tomorrow to hear what the message is. In Bob Moran's family they all wanted to meet again the next day. In Elijah's case, he just got a real disappointed look on his face, like a child if you take a favorite toy away from him. He said,"Aw come on, don't make me wait")

     So I handed Elijah the Bible now for him to read the next ten verses which is the gospel, the same gospel that all the disciples repeated over and over as they preached. They always said the same thing. I told Elijah, "This is the gospel." He smiled. He was almost overcome with fatigue. I hesitated - silence - he broke the silence. (Also our time was running out, the move was almost over.) Elijah broke the silence. He said "Can we pray?". I said "Yes, what do you want to pray for? Do you want to become a follower of Jesus?" He said, "I do". I said a short prayer, and he prayed a salvation prayer repeating after me. He was sincere, he was prepared by God before I came. He was like a really red tomato just ready to fall off the vine. The Lord had so completely done the work.

     Elijah still needs much more help. He is concerned that I am leaving. He wanted my contact information because he said, "One of these days you'll be gone, I won't to be able to contact you". I said, "Elijah, when you get out, my son Tom will contact you". He said, "That's good, but God's not going to take you, I want to come to see you. How long does it take to drive to Minnesota?" I said it was about 18 hours. He said, "I want to come and spend a couple days with you with my wife. I want to go to church with you. I want to see how you live. " I said,  "That's good, Elijah, you're welcome any time. "

     When I told Elijah how Peter was surprised that not only should he eat unclean meat but that he should go to a Gentiles house I explained to Elijah that at that time a Jew was not to enter into the house of a Gentile. "You and I are Gentiles, Elijah. Before that time, we couldn't be Christians. It was only for Jews. Peter couldn't have come to our house. It's worse than racism, It's like if I couldn't come to your house because you're black and I'm white." When I said that Elijah got out a piece of paper and took a note of where that was in the Bible.

     In most situations before I finished I would go to John 3 where Jesus says you must be born again. We were out of time and Elijah was so eager we never got there, but they need to understand that even Satan believes, I feel the need to go beyond belief and quote Jesus on being born again.

    Well, I just wanted to put in here how I now do the gospel presentation. I hope it is helpful. I think so often the gospel presentation gets short changed and starts too late in the story. Let me just outline it here one more time.

     The Holiness of God
     The creative pleasure of God,
    God is a God of relationship
    Man, the crown of creation
    The Fall --- the devastation of it---- the sadness of God---the separation of God and Man
    God's offer of a remedy.

 

    It was a thrilling day for me, even though I had so little to do with it. It's been two months since I have been able to introduce someone to the Lord, and the Lord knew I was needing that too. I am always amazed though that there are people all over that God is speaking to. We are probably walking by them every day and not noticing, too busy, too preoccupied.

 

     Thank you, Lord for being willing to use empty vessels such as we are to allow us to carry your story, to serve the Lamb at your table. Be with Elijah, work mightily in his heart. Lead him to knowledge and understanding that he may walk uprightly with you each and every day of his life.

All because of Jesus, Amen

Bob