Red Sky at Morning
Superstar
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2017
- Messages
- 13,959
Just so you know, I do think it is quite possible for a person to make themselves unrelatable and burn their bridges with others. I also saw the evil pictures and abusive comments and my hatred of evil has increased dramatically.
I have been reading about quite an inspiring character who shared the gospel with people who others had written off because of what they had done...
"Henry Gerecke was in his early 50’s when he went, cell by cell, to introduce himself to his infamous “congregation.” He invited them to chapel services. Some refused, others wavered, and still others promised to be there. Of the fifteen chairs set up for the first service, thirteen of them were filled. Scriptures were read, sermons preached, hymns sung, prayers prayed. And, through it all, hearts were changed.
Soon some of the very lips that had once barked, “Heil Hitler!” spoke an Amen as they knelt to receive the body and blood of their forgiving Lord. So reliant did these men become upon their pastor that, when a rumor surfaced that he might be relieved of his duty and allowed to return home, they wrote a letter to Mrs. Gerecke and begged her to ask him to stay. On that letter were the signatures of all these former Nazis.
Men who had enjoyed power and rank were now humbly beseeching a housewife in America, who had not seen her husband for two and a half years, to let him stay. In her brief reply to her husband, “They need you,” is packed a whole volume about sacrifice and love.
Pastor Gerecke’s story has already been told, but it deserves to be retold, again and again, to every generation, for two very important reasons.
The first has to do with the men to whom he ministered, the ones who repented and believed in Christ. The scandal of Christianity is not that these men went to heaven; it is that God loved them so much that he was willing to die to get them there. Had it been a human decision, many would have thrown these men into the flames of hell. But the truth is that people are not condemned because they murder, or steal, or lie, but because they reject Jesus as the one who has already endured hell for them on the cross, and earned a place for them in heaven.
Should an opportunity arise in the future for the Gospel to be shared with ISIS militants who have been captured, this same Good News would be for them. They too would need a chaplain like Pastor Gerecke to call them to repentance, to preach Christ’s grace, to declare to them the mercy of God. There is no one who is so vile that he is beyond redemption, because the redemption of Christ envelops all people."
https://www.nebraskalivingtimes.com/columns/hilter’s-wolves-christ’s-lambs-chaplain-nazi-war-criminals
