Monday, November 13, 2017

"The Three Minute Temptation Buster" Con't

“This is the confidence we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (I John 5:14-15).

Hey Gang:  Do you have confidence before Him?  Have you asked Him for something according to His will?  Have you planted a seed this day that will grow into a beautiful flower?    Throughout the New Testament we find Jesus words, “Ask and I will give you the desires of your heart”.  What are the desires of your heart?  

And now for the rest of the story!  As a government employee working in a government facility with government controlled kids, there was the ever present “BIG BROTHER” awaiting to pounce on anyone who approached a kid with an olive wreath in their mouth, no matter if their hearts desire was to find something that would fill that empty place in their chest cavity. 

Let me put some meat and potatoes on that statement.  It was a rainy night in California, which was very unusual for that time of the year, when the boys in blue brought one of those tough-hombre kids into the facility for holding.  He was well known in the system, as one who had earned the reputation to be very close to the top of the toughest of all time hombres list.  

We had a very special two-cell unit in a part of the facility that was separated and especially secure.  It consisted of a cell of steel inside a cell of re-enforced cement with provision for me to be able to care for his needs without opening the steel door.

For the sake of time and space, let’s jump to the chase of the story about this dangerous hombre.  As a senior counselor, it was my job to check the tough-hombre every half hour.  On one of the rounds he asked for something to read.  It was the first time I knew that he could be civil and accepted it as positive.   

Now, I confess, he had given me enough grief in his short tenure with us that when I gave him a Gideon Bible it was not for the right reason, and, he did not accept it for the right reason.  On the next check he was up to his knees in Gideon Bible paper.  On the next check- round I found the very tough-hombre sitting against the wall with a piece of Bible paper in hand.  And then it happened, he asked for another Bible.  You see he had only half of the story and he desperately wanted the other half. 

That night Satan lost one of his very tough-hombres when a hard-heart heard the voice of Jesus and said “Yes, I would like to give you a try”.  Several days later tough-hombre was transferred to another facility where he was sentenced to spend ten or more years for his transgressions, but God- had something else in mind for him! The door opened for his released in two years and returned to his old stomping grounds- but for a different reason; he returned as an evangelist to the kids that were traversing the same wide road that held him in bondage. 

You see, God changed the heart of that tough hombre that night before my very eyes to show me that all of those tough-hombres, who had passed through my life, could traverse the same road that Larry traversed- if I would follow Jesus mandate and, if I would recognize that they too were not mere case files but real alive living creations of God.  I began to realize that night that God was leading me away from locking up bad hombres to bringing light into the lives of children who have not had a fair shake in their lives.

With your permission I want to add one more chapter to this story.  That I will do in the third chapter of “The Three Minute Temptation Buster”.

Blessings,


Gramps

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