On a cold, wintry night in a prison yard, one convict approached another. "David," Rick said, "Jesus Christ loves you and he wants to forgive you." "There's no way Jesus Christ could love me. I've done too much evil." David is David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam. In the late 1970's he murdered 6 people, terrorizing New York City.
The Gospel didn't get through until Psalm 34:6 dropped Berkowitz to his knees, literally. "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles." On his knees he asked Jesus for forgiveness. A "tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders."
Forgiveness doesn't mean we escape paying society for our wrongs. Forgiveness doesn't mean criminals should be released from jail. Forgiveness means God saves lives. "I shutter to think what my life would have been like if I never came to Christ. I honestly believe I would not be alive today. I probably would have taken my own life."
We pray for those grieving in Norway...and pray redemption will also come to that terrible killer. Today David Berkowitz is known as the Son of Hope. "No one has done so much bad or so much evil that God can't forgive them." (American Bible Society Record, Summer, 14-15)
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