This past weekend I went to a Day of Champions in Polk Co. Florida with the Bill Glass Prison Ministry team. It was hotter than a jalapeno pepper out on that prison yard, but we survived and had a great harvest of decisions for Christ and a multitude of inmates that decided to follow the Lord.
I was surprised at the number of people who’d read my book, Miracle on Luckie Street. I’d donated it to all of the prison libraries in Florida a couple of years ago and dozens of inmates came up to me after I’d spoken and told me that they’d read it.
One guy told me that he was so inspired by it that he wanted to write a book too. I never ask why someone is incarcerated, but he volunteered that he was down because of a DUI involving negligent homicide. He told me that he got a 30 year sentence and still had 13 to serve and still had plenty of time to devote to writing a book.
He began telling me that one day he discovered that his pet dog was in very bad shape. He decided to rush it to the vet to try to save its life. As he was speeding towards getting his dog to the vet, he saw a van full of tourists from the UK had come to a complete stop in his lane.
He slammed into it killing one man, paralyzing another from the neck down and seriously injuring the rest of the people in the van; his dog was also killed in the accident. Apparently he was over the legal limit for alcohol and they threw the book at him and locked him up for a very long time.
He told me that he was really inspired by my book, but he said his story didn’t have a good ending like mine and he didn’t know what to do.
I told him that was not true. He looked at me quizzically and I said, “You’ve accepted Christ as your Savior right?”
“Yes sir.”
“And you weren’t a believer before you came here right?”
“Yes sir that’s right too.” “Well how can you say that there is no good ending to your story? Had you been killed in that accident you would be in hell right now. As it turns out you’re going to heaven forever.”
He looked at me and smiled and said, “I guess I never thought of it like that. I’ve been focusing on being in this God forsaken place”.
“Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger” I said., “Most of the world is in the same boat. We all look at the negative things that surround us and rarely ever think about eternity and the wonderful things God has done for us and will continue to do for us throughout eternity”.
I reminded him that the average person only lives 77.9 years. Even if we were to live to be 120 years old it would pale into insignificance when compared to the first ten million years of eternity, much less the first ten trillion.
There are consequences to sin as his 30 year sentence will certainly attest, but fortunately for this man (and us) we serve a forgiving God who has pardoned our death sentence by offering His own life for ours.
I told my new friend, “Speaking of death sentences, I was recently on death row ministering to some inmates in Texas and talked to a young man who appeared to be in his early thirties. He sadly looked at me and said,, ‘You just never know what a difference a day makes’”.
Then he proceeded to tell me that he woke up one morning and started drinking and subsequently smoked some crack. He needed more crack almost immediately and went out to try and obtain some and happened to see a 74 year old lady sitting in her car. He car-jacked it and then made her give him her ATM card and pin number. Next he put her in the trunk and stabbed her and then used the card to withdraw money from her account which he promptly used to buy more crack.
He then went out to a park beside a lake to smoke it and heard the old woman thumping around in the trunk; she was obviously still very much alive. He took her out, dragged her down to the lake, and drowned her.
This man was Jewish and I’m sad to report that in spite of my testimony and urgent plea for him to accept Christ as his Savior before it was too late, he refused to make that decision.
I reminded the inmate who wanted to write the book that the guy on death row had rejected Christ and if something doesn’t change between now and when that needle goes in his arm he will bust hell wide open and remain incarcerated there forever. There will be no “good ending” to his story unless he follows Jesus. I looked him in the eyes and said, “What a difference a day makes?
I urge you to allow Jesus Christ to make all the difference in the world in your life today. Make this your day to ask Jesus into your heart and forgive your sins. You’ll never regret it.
Jesus loves you!
1 John 3:16
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us . . .