Several years ago, I received a call in the middle of the night from a member of a church where I pastored.

They had been made aware of a friend of her sons who was talking about committing suicide. He had a long history of drug abuse. I got dressed and went over to an apartment building where he was living and walked up to an open door. When I approached, I identified myself and was asked to come in. I saw a man who was sitting in front of a coffee table with a pile of capsules and several cans of beer lying on it. I sat down beside him and listened as he shared how his girlfriend had left him and that he had no reason to live. He had taken a hunting knife and had cut his arm in several places, thankfully not cutting into any main arteries. When I asked if I could pray for him, he said “yes, pray that I can be successful in killing myself ”. Then he raised the knife, and I thought that this would be the end of my life, but he drove it through a picture of his girlfriend that was lying on the table. While I was there, he chased down all of the capsules with the beer and grabbed a gun and started waving it around. I pleaded with him to allow me to call and get him help but he shared that if the police or ambulance came, he would blow them away. I was able to calm him down and pray with him. When I later checked back about him, he managed to make it through this. Soon after this I moved to a different community, so I don’t know what eventually happened to this man, but I do know if he didn’t experience a change in his behaviors he would not have lasted long.

This happened early in my ministry, and yes, today through experience and added training I would have responded much differently, while at the same time still showing that I really cared.

The point I want to get across is this: the scripture is true when it states, “Whatever a man sows he shall also reap”, and “the wages of sin is death”. Sin will take a person where they have not been and where they never thought they would end up.

There are consequences for bad decisions we make in our lives.

Thank God there is an answer to the sin problem.

Through Jesus, we can be forgiven, but we also can be transformed and can experience a new life