Greetings!
"When I was in my early twenties I killed a man." Those are the words an acquaintance of mine spoke to a group of men in a Bible study almost thirty years ago.
I was a new Christian in my first church and I joined a men's Bible study to learn more about my new found faith. After several weeks a man in his fifties,( I thought that was really old at the time) stood up one night and with tears in his eyes said, "I have to make this right. I've been living a lie for almost thirty years." No one knew what to say. We all just kind of glanced around the room in awkward silence. He went on to explain. "When I was in my early twenties I got in a bar room fight in a little town in Texas and I killed a man. I've been on the lamb ever since. Tomorrow I'm going back to Texas and turn myself in."
Finally one man stood up and everyone else followed suit and we prayed over this man. I don't remember the exact prayer but it was something to the effect of asking God to give him strength and resolve and for the authorities to honor his willingness to do the right thing and so on.
After several weeks he walked in the Bible study and with a big smile said, "There is no record of my crime. The police could not find anything about a killing or even a bar fight at the time. We even checked the newspaper records and nothing."
Everyone was so excited for this man. We all thanked God for the miracle this man experienced but something about this bothered me. No one believes in the miracle power of God more than I do but I knew there was more to this. I've learned over the years that God doesn't usually reverse our mistakes. He does forgive us and promises to never leave us. He says if we love him he will work all things together for our good. In my prayer time later I asked God to show me the lesson he wanted for me to learn from this.
"Out of fear he chose to believe a lie" was the distinct word I got. For almost thirty years of his life he lived in fear because he believed a lie about himself. I felt God ask me,"how is this different from other lies people believe about who they are in relationship with me?"
Who do you know who believes they are less than they truly are because the seed of a lie in the form of a careless word or a tragic event somewhere in their past. Find out what God's word says about who you are and quit believing the lie.
As my dear friend Alton used to say, "Carpe Verum, seize the truth." Write me, I would love to discuss this with you.
I love you guys.
Don
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If you missed my letter about little 2 year old Phoebe please check it out here. Please continue to pray for Phoebe.
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Don's Sculptures make great "Senior Gifts", and can usually be shipped in two or three days.
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