No Condemnation

Arriving at my favorite bar one afternoon, I noticed the tiny place of business next door had poster-board signs in the window. “PRAYER ROOM for JESUS.” I laughed as I entered the bar, “Did you see the sign next door?” At first, we all thought it was a joke because the woman who owned the bar owned that space as well.

When the young men started coming into the bar we were shocked and the banter began. “Look at these freaks. They must be crazy thinking we’d buy their snake oil.”

One of the men got too close to John. Throwing an arm over the young man's shoulders, John said, “Hey let me buy you a beer?”

“Sir, I don’t need alcohol. I have something better.”

John gave him a push, “Just get out of here man. We don’t want any of that Bible stuff.”

We were cruel. Whoever saw one of them come in hollered, “Jesus!” And every other drunk responded, “Freak!” We continued the cadence as loud and proud as we could until we were bored with them and turned our attention back to our beer consumption, bar talk, and pool games.

Those young men stuck it out, unashamedly approaching each person as they strived to share Jesus with every one of us. Not just once but every day, several times a day, at all hours of the day and night.

I was swept up with the crowd, as were the Jews of the day who yelled, “Crucify Him!”

God never gave up on me. Just the opposite, He sent angels in the form of men and women to show me how great His love was for me.

I praise Him and thank him for saving me and for seeing me through Christ’s Blood. And having put away my past,* I’m living each day as a “Jesus Freak,” boldly testifying to His great love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

How could I do less?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4 NRSV).
*Ephesians 4:21-25


In Christ Alone,
Berta