May 17
Today I celebrate the beauty of the Bible and its ability to change a man’s life.
I was walking on the Johnny Mercer Pier recently when I noticed a man sitting under an umbrella, reading a small New Testament. I stopped to ask if I could take a photo of his hands with the Bible, and he joyfully responded, “Yes!”
He then went on to tell me that in 1976 he met Jesus and his life has never been the same. He told me of all of the things he left behind to follow Christ, and then he asked, “Will you read my favorite passage to me?”
He flipped over to II Timothy and asked me to read verses 7 and 8:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
I walked away from that encounter having a deeper understanding of Psalm 32:1. “How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered!”
The man’s daughter told me, “He never goes anywhere without his Bible.”
What a testimony!
