Under the inspiration of GOD’s SPIRIT, Paul the apostle wrote these words in Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Yes, the gospel of JESUS CHRIST has the power to change peoples’ lives for all eternity. We should not be embarrassed to share that good news.
Pastor Richard G. Lee illustrates this truth with the following story:
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, there is a prison called Angola Prison. Each year Gideons take Bibles to the prisoners and tell them about JESUS.
One day a Gideon named Luther took a Bible into the cell of a notorious criminal named Charlie Frazier. Frazier had been in solitary confinement for 12 years. When Luther came into the cell with the Bible, he handed it to Charlie and said, “I came so that you would know that somebody cares about you. In JESUS, I love you.”
Cursing angrily, Charlie Frazier said, “That’s easy for you to say. Get out of my cell!” Luther turned to leave, and as he did, he put the Bible down on the prisoner’s bed and said, “I’m leaving the Bible for you to read, and I’ll always pray for you.”
Luther was faithful to pray for Charlie Frazier, and one day the prison chaplain called him and told him that, because of his prayers, Charlie Frazier had given his life to CHRIST.
“Several years after he was saved, Charlie Frazier died, and the Louisiana Attorney General was quoted in the New Orleans Picayune newspaper as saying, “I don’t know how or what changed the life of Charlie Frazier. He was once a wicked criminal who killed two of our guards while trying to escape from Angola Prison. But in the last years of his life, he was a different man. We don’t know what came over him, but whatever it was, it changed his life.”
What a story! I wonder if anyone had told him about JESUS when he was growing up? If he had become a Christian at an early age, how would it have impacted the trajectory of his life? We will never know. But we do know this: GOD is able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him through JESUS (Hebrews 7:25).
Join with me in praying for GOD to give us divine appointments – opportunities to share the gospel with non-Christians. After all, according to II Peter 3:9b, GOD is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Pastor Mike
Great message of God giving mercy to a man who never thought he bound be forgiven. I love it. Amen!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Renee! We love it too!
Whoops: a man who thought he would never be forgiven.