On Wings Of Eagles

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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Don't Send Away the One that Forgives.

Jeremiah 5:4 (New International Version)
I thought, “These are only the poor;
   they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.

In 1904, Governor George Nash stepped out of his office and, for a moment, out of his role as Governor of Ohio. He tucked his large, black Bible under his arm and made his way down the hallway of the State Penitentiary, in Columbus, Ohio. As a Christian, his heart burned with desire to share Christ with a certain young man named Benjamin Wade waiting on "death row."
Guilty of first-degree murder of his girlfriend, the condemned one sat in his cell, just hours away from his appointment with the electric chair. Upon seeing the elderly man with a dark suit and Bible under his arm, Wade thought him to be a minister or the prison chaplain. His anger boiled over and he cursed as he sent the man away.

A guard standing nearby could hardly believe his eyes. "You fool," he said, "don't you know who that was?"

"A preacher, I guess," was the reply.

"No, that was the Governor, the only one who could set you free, and you sent him away."

The young man died a few hours later, guilty not only of murder, but of sending away his only hope for freedom and life.

Dear Lord we pray for wisdom and direction for the choices we need to make today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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