The pastor told a story this morning relating to his theme of redemption. In a book on the history of songs, he had read about a prisoner in Brazil who was on death row. In fact, there were three or four who were to be hanged over the next few days. A missionary who had come to counsel and pray with them was moved to sing the hymn, Now I Belong to Jesus. Only one of the men responded. The rugged, unkempt inmate fell and lay prostrate on the dirt floor weeping.
He told the missionary, "I'm going to die in two days and I don't know what to do. Can you help me?" The missionary gave him hope and the good news of salvation, and he accepted the Lord. He hugged and embraced the missionary, and when they left, he was reaching through the bars of his cell, singing at the top of his lungs and trying to direct the other inmates in singing the song, "Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity!"
The sermon stressed the fact that we should admit our own guilt and need of a Savior instead of blaming wrong doings on others. "Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and it's been that way ever since!" came the words from the pulpit. He told of his two-year-old granddaughter, caught with a marker in her hand and scribbles on the wall, blaming her little friend who had visited. "She threw an 18-month-old under the bus!" he marveled.
The service closed with communion, after which everyone was invited to bring their empty cup to the front and hold it up to the Lord as a symbol of releasing any bitterness, sin, or lack of dedication, then place it on the altar. It seemed almost everybody went forward. A lighter atmosphere prevailed and smiles reigned as the congregation made its way out the door, and no doubt it remained all the way home. What a great feeling to say with certainty, "I belong to Jesus, and Jesus belongs to me for all eternity!"
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