"We See Jesus!" - Too

 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Hebrews 2:9 KJV)

  "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." (1 John 4:7-10 NLT)

  Going back to one of those wonderful adventures I had, as a new baby Christian, I had tried several times to share Jesus with this very mean black guy, who threatened to punch me in the face, if I didn't stop try to tell him about Jesus. He was always out in the work-out yard, pushing and picking up weights; he was one of those guys that you wouldn't what to mess with. But that didn't stop me from trying, it was just something I felt I needed to do!

 One of the brothers that I hung out with, (there were four of us, who just so happened to be Asian, black, Mexican, and me, the white guy,) the black brother called me out, saying, "Don't cast your pearls among the swine," as to the way I kept getting threatened by the guy on the bone-yard. I tried to argue with him, saying, "It only matters if I become offended and lose my faith, because I am not giving up. Besides, the ones that act like the toughest men in the jail, are the ones that bury their head in their pillows at night and cry themselves to sleep." 

 We decided to agree to disagree, and I continued to hold out my face, for that big guy to punch me, if he really wanted to! Back in the day, I was really not a very nice person; so, I knew a thing or two about the way to mean and make people leave you alone. I might have been short, but I knew how to break faces; especially by punching the big guys in the nose, which would usually cause them to pass out. 

 When I was in seventh grade, I had several followers, and became the leader of a gang, called the Serpents. This was in San Bernardino, during the day when they started busing; it was not unusual for there to be riots at school, that got so bad, teachers would lock themselves in their classrooms. 

 I ended up getting excluded from the San Bernardino school district, so our family had to move down into the L.A. County area, where I could get a new start at school. But it didn't take long, and I was back at my old self, making sure that I was one of the toughest kids in school. 

 When I was seventeen, I was told that I had two choices, to go to CYA, or leave the state of California. So, I went to Texas to live with my grandfather. Because I had a lot of respect for my grandfather, I did my best to be good, but I was still able to find the bad guys to hang out with.

 Believe it or not, but I was on probation from the time I was eleven to the time I turned eighteen and was released from probation in order to join the Navy. While in the Navy, I was sent from bootcamp, straight to the West-Coast Fleet, and put upon the Constellation, a great big aircraft carrier. I became one of the well-known drug dealers on the ship. 

 In 1978 I was arrested in L.A. while on leave, they found ten dime bags of Angel Dust on me, and I was given a three-year suspended prison sentence, three years' probation, and a $3,000 fine. The Shore Patrol came a picked me up from jail and took me back to the ship.  

 I ended up getting discharged from the Navy is February of 1979, at which time I meet my wife. I never knew who she was, but she knew me, and had wanted to know me, ever since the 9th grade; apparently, one of her friends told her to stay away from me, because I was bad news. 

 Anywho, I tell all of this because there is something I believe God does, which makes the man who is trouble, become the man that takes chances for God. I really don't know how else to say it, but there is nothing in this world that I feel threatened by, nothing that I feel afraid to go through; and there is no prison I am worried about being placed in. My only fear is that I don't share Jesus when I feel He is wanting me to, because this life is temporary! 

 No matter what, we need to keep sharing Jesus with every opportunity He gives us; if we don't, then He won't give us the open doors...

"And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NLT)