The Shelter
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Mar 08 2006 at 8:19 PM
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I believe one of the greatest joys the Lord has given us in this life is to have his presence in our mortal bodies' reach out to those around us. For anyone to come to true repentance and submit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus is a true miracle. But there are certain times when it is in my own eyes, even sweeter. From week to week I have the honor of being in a position to lead people to the Lord in a variety of ways, but for whatever reason, what happened this weekend refreshed my faith in how far God will go to reach his people. This past Sun. Leslie, Brooks, Stephanie and myself went to minister at a homeless shelter/ recovery facility in downtown Reno. Throughout the service that was given to approx. 50 men, we ministered in music and presented the word. The whole time I spoke I could not help but focus on one man in particular. He was in his late thirties, had a shaved head, and was covered with tattoos. I could tell that God's heart was speaking to his heart. I am not sure what all the Lord spoke into this man but I suspect it had something to do with the truth that he was Loved by the King of Kings and all the wasted years were going to be restored. He found that all his running had brought him to this place and now, for the first time, his life was about to make sense. As we closed the service he came forward with tears streaming down his face and embraced me. I asked him if he wanted to surrender his life to Jesus and begin a real relationship with him, he said "Please! Yes!" After we prayed together, he began to tell me his story. Apparently, five days before this he woke up in the middle of the night in a drug house and was driven by a strange force to get out of there and take a bus to Reno. He grabbed what few things he had and got on the buss that very night. When he got off the bus he was right outside the shelter I now speak of. He had just been hanging out there and was by the facilities rules made to come to service that morning. He said he had been in prison 23 of his 36 years and had been involved in nearly every sort defilement. I asked him about the tattoos and he said they were scars that told his life story. It was a story of sex, violence, and demonic influence including the word "DISTURBED" written across the back of his head. He said this was the first church service he had ever been to and he knew that the night he was awoken in a drug house with a needle hanging out of his arm, was the night the Lord had come to him. Praise Yahweh! God with us! His name is David and he is a living testimony that the Holy Spirit still does the miraculous.