This article was written and submitted by a brother.
Could it be true that some chistians and select groups do not really understand this profound truth? The bible could'nt be more explicit and clear on this matter than what it teaches in Acts 10 and primarily verse 34.
As a boy growing up in a christian home and for many years later I failed to grasp this truth as taught in the bible. My intellect told me different, but deep in my heart there was a certain partiality within me that could'nt grasp this wonderful profound truth.
Thanks be to God he has a way to open our eyes to his love and truth in his own good time and circunstances and that happened to me in a most unusual and unexepected way.
We spent 10 years in Albuq. N.M. as missionaries and met many kinds of people, some living in the deep gutter of sin and it was our resolve to do what we could to lead them to Christ and assure them that there was deliverance in store for them, but this lack of vision of Gods unpartial love hindered me to be as effevtive as I could really be.
We had an extensive jail ministry going and here you indeed meet the results of sin and It's consequences. It happened one Sunday afternoon where we had a service scheduled on the womens pod. A group of us sang with them together and then we had a bible lesson. We were about to close with a prayer when a woman stepped up named Sandy. What a sight to behold, her hair disheveled and knotted up, her eye watering, her nose running and a look of utter dispair all over her face. Would you all please have a prayer for me before you leave, I'm a heroin addict and I'm going thru withdrawals and I feel like I'm in hell. That is indeed the experience those feel when they are in a cold turkey withdrawal. She also lived a life of prostitution to support her habit.
Well here I was facing a gutter filled life and reaping what she had sown and rightfully so, at least I thot in my heart. So what now? To refuse her request for prayer was not an option, and yet to pray for a cause I didn't think would happen. We had that prayer and asked God to deliver her from her agony and touch her.
We left faithless but at least we had done our duty.
Thursday was our day to come back to the jail and distribute christian literature, writting paper, pencils, etc. We came to the womens pod walked in and instantly there was Sandy. Oh thank you, thank you she exclaimed. You no more than got out the door Sunday and Jesus touched me and I was totally delivered from my withdrawals. Her hair was combed so nice and a glow on her face that told a miracle had happened to her.
Imagine how I felt,so thankful but so very reproved that I had been faithless and limited Gods great unbiased love. The scales fell from my eyes at that moment and I recieved a new vision of Gods tender love for every human on this earth, regardless of their sin and rejection of him.
Sad to say when Sandy got out she fell back into her old life and about a year later I read in the paper she was killed for drug reasons.
God knew she would fall away that Sunday, but his tender love reached out to her in spite of her future life. When someone calls out to him in desperation he responds with his love and says, hereI am, I love you. If she is lost she will forever remember Gods beautiful response to her that Sunday and know God loved her.
The world is full of people like Sandy who need Jesus, and right here in our own home land, right in your local town and vicinity. Do we have the vision of Gods love to me personally and let that love motivate me at home?
World wide mission is a great work and we are comissioned to do it but pehaps the greater work is on our door steps. May God give the vision we need while time remains.
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