"Won and Done"

 "Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;" (Hebrews 9:25 KJV)

  "When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." (Ephesians 3:14-19 NLT)

 When I was released from jail, in November of 1981, there were several times I remember thinking that I needed to get saved again; actually, there were probably at least six times; some of which included my wife, as we would both go up and kneel before the alter, asking and begging for forgiveness. This might sound strange, but those lase few months in jail, after I first got saved, there really wasn't any time that I felt the need to get saved again. Even though I had a few times when I sinned, there was really nothing that made me feel as though I wasn't really saved, I would just repent and ask for forgiveness. 

 To make any excuse for what I felt after my release, I would only say that I felt that I had real purpose in that place; so, I spent most of my time looking for way to serve the Lord, which I believe kept me alert to what the Holy Spirit was asking me to do. Once I was released, I spent more time getting to work on selling, and less time on serving the Lord. 

 Not that we didn't go to church or I didn't pray and read my Bible every morning and night, because I did; but in the real world, having a wife and kid, you feel an obligation to provide for your home. My wife didn't work, as I wasn't really wanting her to; she focused on making a happy home and raising our son. There might have been a few times when she would baby-sit for people, mostly at our home; but she never tried to get a job until around 1995 or 1996, when I was unable to give her the money I usually did; which was for her to shop and buy the things she wanted or needed. 

 One of our favorite things was to go the mall, where she would go shopping, and I would sit on a bench outside the store, reading a Chick Tract, waiting for someone to sit nearby. As soon as she came out of the store, I would sit the Tract down on the bench, walk away, and we would pray for the person to pick it up and really read it. 

 Wow, I really miss that! You really don't fully appreciate what you have until it is gone! The last time we did that was the Thanksgiving before her surgery, in 2002. The next Thanksgiving, I was taking care of her at our new home, my life turned up-side-down; but I still kept on serving the Lord...

"When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because or your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave your sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them at the cross." (Colossians 2:11-15 NLT)