A good man is one who does justly (Jer 5:1), is committed to seeking the truth (5:1), careful in his speech (5:2), receives correction (5:3-5), is morally pure (5:7-8), places his confidence in God (5:17, 24) and is concerned with the welfare of others (5:28).

 What if we could strive to be the man Jeremiah described? What if our desires matched those written in this chapter?  These are definitely gems to have as goals.

 With that said, there is another gem just as hidden.  His name is David Bolton and he too is a good man, striving to live according to the description written by Jeremiah.

David came to the Home of Grace in May of 2003 wounded and broken by the choices he made in life.  For many years, his search for the next high left his family hurting and without.  Addicted to heroin, David worked at odd jobs and often chose to spend his earnings on himself rather than his obligations.  “I was a junkie!  A lost soul, I was scum,” is how David describes himself.  “But then God got a hold of me.  Now I know that I am still nothing, but I’m nothing with Christ and that is everything.”

 Stand near David any length of time and you will be sure of two things happening: you’ll hear about Jesus, and his eyes will fill with tears as he describes God putting his family back together again.  David chooses not to live in the past, but instead, he presses towards the future.

 After graduating, David turned his misery into his ministry.  He actively sought after those who were marginalized, those whose choices had pushed them into the gutters.  Becoming involved at church was not an option but necessary and a desire.  David began sharing his personal story to anyone who would listen.  His involvement in the jails and prison had one message, “Jesus loves you just the way you are.  No matter what you’ve done.  In fact, He loves you so much that He won’t leave you that way.”

 Cornel Bucacuic was David’s counselor while at the Home of Grace.  “David wants to turn the world upside down for Jesus.  This is part of his passion, ‘to tell everyone about how God saved [him].’  David calls me weekly and always begins with, ‘Cornel, this is the word for the day.’  If I had to describe him, it’s simple, ‘A client who out-ran his counselor in so many ways.’”

 David’s faith was put to the test in 2009 when his little girl contracted bacterial meningitis.  With an extremely high temperature, his child was rushed to the hospital.  Doctors worked furiously to diagnosis the disease but were baffled that the illness would not respond to antibiotics.  She spent two months in the hospital and David never once stopped praying.  “I’m convinced it was prayer that saved her life.  It was a dad struggling for his child,” said Cornel.

 Today, a gifted businessman and devoted father, David seeks to honor God in all he does.  There are still many mountains to climb, valleys to cross, and perhaps his largest battle is yet to come.  But David proves anything is possible with God and hopes the world hears this message loud and strong.

Becky with her daughter

Sexually abused in high school, then kidnapped, raped and tortured in college, Becky McNair turned to alcohol to drown her horrific memories. When that failed, she used pills to numb the pain; then cut herself to prove she could still feel.

But, how did the young girl with plans to become a missionary become so withdrawn, and a suicidal mess?

Becky was just six years old when she turned on her television for cartoons. Instead, she found preachers. Although she attended chapel each morning at a private school, she’d never fully understood the Gospel. “That morning I bowed my head at my home and asked the Lord to forgive me, come into my heart and save me,” she said. “When I opened my eyes, I knew I belonged to Him.”

She took extra Bible courses in high school to prepare for her missionary career, studying Greek with a tutor so she could understand the original writings of the New Testament.

 At 15, that teacher and two of his friends began to abuse her sexually, forcing her silence with guilt that her church and school would fold if she told anyone. “I became a master of putting on a happy, successful face for my friends and family, but inside I loathed myself and I begged God to help me keep my secret or just kill me if He knew that I could not,” she said.

 When her best friend became suspicious, the teacher raped her as a warning that Becky should remain quiet. “Like me, she never told, and I believed her suffering was on my head,” she said. The abuse continued until graduation.

She moved from Mobile to Pensacola to attend college, choosing a degree in nursing so she’d have a useful skill to take into the mission field.

After six months, she was on a road to recovery. Then she was kidnapped from a church parking lot in downtown Pensacola.  “I was tied, tortured and raped repeatedly. I never screamed,” she said.

 The serial killer cut her throat when he was finished.  “I closed my eyes and never felt the pain. I prayed,” she said.  She opened her eyes to see an illuminating light and a look of pure terror frozen on her attacker’s face. She turned her head toward the luminance and saw an angel with a sword clutched in his left hand, staring at the man.

The rapist sliced the binds that held her and forced her out the door, chasing her with a straight-edged razor and yelling warnings for her not to look back.  She stumbled barefoot and bleeding across the street to the church. She was his fifth victim and the only survivor. Her attacker is now serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in a Florida prison.

Becky spent the next years in and out of mental hospitals, taking pills, cutting herself and bingeing and purging – all attempts to deal with her psychological, emotional and physical pain.

At one point, she pinned a suicide note to her blouse, unsnapped her seatbelt and drove her car off an embankment. “My car was totaled and I woke up in an ambulance with nothing more than a mild concussion and a few bruises,” she said.

The suicide attempt kept her hospitalized for another three months, and when she got out, she spent another year and a half with her old addictions – pills, razors, alcohol and co-dependent relationships.

In desperation she flipped through the phone book for a treatment center that would accept her and found the Home of Grace.  The women’s program was located in Vancleave at that time.

She entered the program in 1989 feeling hurt and abandoned by God. One night after a service, she sat alone on a bench contemplating suicide yet again. The women’s director, Mrs. Jo McNair, came in and sat beside her. “My heart broke at the love in her eyes and the fact that she said she believed in me,” she said.

Becky rededicated her life to God the next Sunday and found joy in studying the Bible again. She stayed on after her treatment and served as a house mother. “I loved working with the women who came into the program. Loving them served to heal my hurts as well,” she said.

Months later, she met her future husband – Mrs. Jo’s son, Buddy.  Married for 20 years, the two have a 16-year-old daughter.

Becky visits the Home of Grace as often as she can and shares her testimony in hopes that others might learn that God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.

“Establishing a relationship with Jesus through salvation does not mean life is suddenly a bed of roses,” she said. “We still live in a sin-filled world and will suffer from both the poor decisions we make as well as the sins of others.  However, we have the Holy Spirit of God living with us and it is there we find rest, joy, courage and wisdom to face anything God does allow in our lives.”

Thank you Holy Spirit for sending me to the “Place Where Miracles Happen”.  I am one of those miracles.  I arrived to the Home of Grace on June 22, 2000, and at the time, I was at the end of my rope.  Everything and everyone I knew, with the exception of my family, was associated with drugs.  I had written bad checks all over town and I was about to go back to jail.

But mom, she never gave up.  She constantly asked me to get help.  Through lots of talking, I gave in under one condition; it had to be a Christian program.  My strong Catholic upbringing instilled a value I’ll never forget, “God is the only one who can really help.”  After lots of searching, she found the Home of Grace.

My idea of getting ready for rehab included driving two hours to pick up my last paycheck and spending it before I got back home.  I walked into the house defeated yet again and a week later headed to the Home.

My dad brought me to Vancleave, Mississippi and dropped me off.  The Home certainly was “no walk in the park”.  And like many others that go through the three month program, the devil tried his best to pull me away.  But, I never gave in.  He doesn’t want us to have what God has already promised, a free gift called salvation.

Worried about where to go after graduation, I kept asking God for direction.  His answer, “Go home.  Go to work.”  The answer was about more than physical work, God had real work for me to do, spiritual work.  I knew I had to share the gift I received at the Home of Grace.  There was a new song in my mouth and the words were simple, “Look what Jesus has done for me.”  Everything about me had changed.

Coming home to live with my parents was hard.  I felt everyone watching each move I made to see if this was for real.  I can’t blame them.  One night, after lots of praying, my mom received her answer from God, “Don’t worry anymore, he is My son now.”  She’s not worried since, praise God.

Jeff speaking at the Home of Grace

I lived with my parents for a year and went back to work in the oil field.  With God’s help I was able to repay my parents for my treatment and the bad checks I had left throughout the town.  I began paying off the credit bureaus and saved enough money to make a down payment on my first house.  With God, all things are possible.  My life was finally starting to come together.

When God finally showed me His choice for my wife, I couldn’t believe it.  She had been with me at church the whole time.  I never saw it coming.  I asked God to establish this relationship, knowing that every one I had put together had fallen apart.  He did and it is awesome.

My wife and I have been married for five years now and our relationship is stronger than ever.  She is my best friend.  We attend Vision Christian Center in Bourg, LA and now serve as Associate Pastors.  Our love is to reach those addicted to drugs and alcohol and have them set free through the power of God’s word.  As a part of this ministry, we host a weekly support group called Deliverance Group for those still struggling.

Thank you Home of Grace for the part you played in my life.  Thank you God for reaching me when I was addicted and making all this possible.  Thank you Jesus for saving me and setting me free!

God Bless,

Jeff

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

                                                                        — John 8:36

James and Carolyn

One Sunday afternoon in July, Satan completely blew my home of 20 years apart.  It was like a bomb had hit.  I was heading to church, then to my grandson’s 9^th birthday.  I had hoped my husband would come and we could make a day of it.

  Several families from church were coming to the party.  My one prayer, “Lord, please let my husband stay sober for today.”  I asked if he wanted to go to church with me and he answered emphatically, “No.” Although it was morning, I knew he had already begun drinking.  I also knew that once he began, he wouldn’t stop until passing out.  Our argument continued until I left for church. 

  When I returned home, James was passed out on the couch.  I was infuriated and uttered a few choice words that were less than godly.  I went next door to the birthday party and let my son know that my husband would not be coming.  My son’s reply, “Mom, did you really expect anything different?” 

  James later appeared at the party, demanding that I fix him a plate of food.  To my embarrassment and in front of my son, my friends and all the kids – the disrespect was incredible. James was told to leave and continued mumbling a few obscenities as he was escorted out.  I stayed at my son’s that night, waiting until James slept-off his intoxication. 

  Early the next morning I headed back home to get ready for work.  When I arrived, James was waiting for me – - – with a loaded gun.  I was overwhelmed with fear.  He had not only been drinking, but also taking pills.  All I wanted to do was run. 

  He turned the gun toward himself.  He shoved the handle into my stomach and cried out, “Shoot me . . . please!”  

  I screamed in panic, “I can’t. Get away from me!”  With that, he threw the gun on the bed and went out the back door. I ran for the door and drove to my son’s. The sheriff came and took him into custody. 

  James was in jail for over two months.  A restraining order was issued against him, and the Chancery Court ordered us to stay away from each other for the rest of our lives. As part of his sentence, James was given the option to go to Home of Grace or jail. He chose jail, not wanting anything to do with Christians. 

 The months that followed were very painful, especially through the holidays. But with the love and support of my church family, I made it through.  One Wednesday night my Pastor came to speak with me.  As he spoke, I felt my knees begin to tremble.  James had been in an accident and totaled his car. I began to weep. 

Was James alright?  Was he hurt? James was okay, but what happened next was an answer to prayer.  James called a man whom he swore to hate.  This man, a minister at our church, and his wife cared for my husband while he recovered. James was humbled as this family gave selflessly to someone who didn’t return that love.  He witnessed the love this man displayed toward his wife and took note of the respect and compassion they showed to everyone. 

  I was surprised to hear that James entered the Home of Grace.  Truthfully, I wondered how long he would stay. What I didn’t know were the plans that God had for him.  He placed real men, God-fearing men, in James’ life. 

  I know now that James wanted to walk away several times, but he held to the promise made to the minister to see the program through. Then one night as the Holy Spirit weighed on him, James quietly slipped out to the beach and sitting in front of those crosses cried out, “God, either slay me or save me!” God saved him!  My husband left that beach a different man. 

  I went back to the court and asked for the restraining order to be lifted.  After cautioning me, the judge agreed.  I was able to attend James’ graduation.  My husband was more handsome to me than ever before.  His eyes were clear; and he had color in his face. Better yet, he had Jesus in his heart, and I could see it! 

  James worked with the courts and asked to stay longer at the Home of Grace.  Meanwhile, God began working miracles in his life.  The relationship he now had with Christ showed in everything he did. 

 Healing had begun in our marriage, and after more than a year, God brought us back under the same roof.  This was after much prayer and counseling for both of us.  Today our lives are very different.  We pray together; read the Word together; and go to church together.  Both James and I have been on mission trips and spend time working at our church.  James has gone to work at the Home of Grace, uses his talents as a mechanic and sharing his testimony with men coming through the program. 

  I learned a great lesson through all of this. It was never about going through the storms, it was about God teaching me how to dance in the rain. 

  Thank you God for giving me back my husband. The same man who used to curse me as I walked out the door, now prays over me before I leave. 

  A grateful wife, 

 Carolyn M. 

 “Some people want you to know they’re doing good, Brad just lives it,” says FG Ware, Community Relations at the Home of Grace.  “He’s just one of those guys who make a difference no matter where he is or what he’s doing.”

 Brad graduated the Home of Grace twice.  But don’t let that fool you, it doesn’t mean that he was un-successful the first time.  Instead, he uses that “trial run” in his testimony telling others about possible pitfalls when you leave the program.

 Brad is a true miracle. After 27 years in addiction, 3 prison terms and years spent running; his life is now spent telling others how God delivered him.  “I’m just one beggar telling another beggar where I found food,” says Brad.  “My life was spent in total darkness.  It’s completely different now.”

 “I can’t blame my family, my school or even my friends – it was all my choice.  At 12 years old I tried cocaine for the first time.  And once I tried it, it was over.”  Brad had grown up doing well in school, grew up in a Christian home with family that loved him, “I knew who Jesus was, I just didn’t know Jesus.”  When Brad was 21 his father passed away, “That’s when it got really bad.”

It came to a head when Brad found himself asleep in his van on the side of the road.  Waking up to someone knocking on the window, Brad saw the face of someone who never gave up on him.  “It hits me the hardest when I think about mom and all she went through.  I really believe it was because of her prayers that I’m alive today.”  She knocked on the window until she saw him moving.  Startled, he looked at her and with few words went on his way.  “I wonder if she really knows how that affected me – seeing her that is.”  It was just a few days later when Brad would humble himself enough to go to her house and knock.  “That’s when my life began to change, when I got tired of living like that.” 

Alumni Night

It was through a friend that Brad heard about the Home of Grace.  He and his mom sat and listened as their friend began to tell them how the Home had made a difference in his life.  Weeks later, Brad checked in.

 “My first graduation happened during Katrina.  Rather than leaving, I stayed and helped around the campus.  That’s when I got close to some of the staff and I realized there was a better way to live.”  Brad was part of a construction crew who went out in the community working on damaged houses.

 Knowing that he needed accountability and structure, Brad moved into at a halfway house.  “There were four of us living in the house.  Difficult sometimes, but it was good.”  The house was run by an employee of the Home of Grace.  “Bob Matthieu was there for us.  He was our accountability partner and kept us straight.”  It was three months after moving into the house when Brad got a call.  “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”  Bob had been in a tragic automobile accident and passed away.  “That night was the hardest.  We had lots of people who came by to encourage us.”

 Without a leader the house closed and it wasn’t long before trouble once again found Brad.  “I did well for a while, but slowly I started finding myself drifting away.  This time when I fell, I knew where to turn.  A good friend stopped in to push me in the right direction.”  Brad called the Home and once again sought help.

 “I can’t really describe it; it’s just very different now.  I lived on campus for a while and before I knew it, the Home asked me to help out there.”  Try to put a title on what Brad does and you’ll end up with a long wordy list, but ask anyone and they’ll tell you, “He’s the one who can get stuff done.”

 Since his second graduation, Brad has certainly stepped it up a notch.  On top of his job at the Home of Grace, he also plays in a Christian band, speaks to groups and finds himself telling others where he found that food.

Sandhill Crane Employees

“We have the most amazing neighbors,” said Shellene Barton, Director of the Women’s Campus of the Home of Grace.

 Our Women’s Campus has quite an interesting neighbor, the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge.  Since 1975, the federal government has sought to protect the critically endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes and their unique wet pine savanna habitat.  Almost doubling the population of the species since its inception 35 years ago, the crane refuge works to make community involvement part of their goal as well.

 “Their call was a very welcome surprise,” said Barton.  “We really can’t thank them enough.”

 The refuge contacted the Home in early December to ask about ways they could help.  “They really took the list and ran with it.”  After raising the funds, the organization donated a large microwave for the Dining Hall, a vacuum cleaner for the dorms and poinsettias to make everyone feel comfortable during the holiday season.

 Interested in helping the Women’s Home, contact Shellene Barton at 228-497-1312.

Lauren and his family

Rodney didn’t know a man named Loren eight years ago, and he certainly could not predict the life-saving and soul-saving influence this man would come to have. 

This story begins on September 15, 2000. That’s the day Loren graduated from Home of Grace. Newly sober and newly saved, he returned to Louisiana where he began a ministry centered on “forming relationships and meeting the needs of the members of our communities.” It was through this ministry that Loren and Rodney’s paths would cross. 

“After Hurricane Gustav, I was walking around my neighborhood looking for odd jobs, any kind of work really,” Rodney said, “and I met a man named Reggie doing yard work.” 

The two men began talking. Reggie knew Loren and called to see if Loren had any odd jobs Rodney could perform for the ministry. Loren picked Rodney up that same day, and thus began the friendship of Loren and Rodney. 

Rodney was battling addiction. “It started in high school with marijuana and in the end, I was using crack cocaine,” Rodney explained. He had been to three other drug rehabilitation programs before Loren shared his testimony and suggested Rodney try the Christ-centered program at Home of Grace. 

Loren helped Rodney prepare the paperwork and maneuver through the application process, and when it came time for Rodney to begin his journey toward a new life in sobriety and in Christ, it was Loren who drove him from his home in Louisiana to the Mississippi facility. 

Lauren and Kids Playing

Rodney says that after he graduates he is ready to work for Loren’s ministry in whatever capacity they need him. “Loren and the people involved in his ministry…those people are my second family, my second home,” Rodney said. “Where I used to stay is very drug infested. It would be much harder to stay sober if I had to return to that kind of environment. That’s why I am so thankful for Loren and his continued support.” 

Loren is only one of the hundreds of graduates of the Home of Grace, but already he has touched countless lives. Rodney is just one example. And, if the cycle is to continue, Rodney will graduate from the program and he, too, will go out and touch the lives of people the Lord places in his path. 

And it’s in this way that the cycle will go unbroken. Each person can pay it  forward.  Each newly sober and newly saved graduate can reach out to another person, who will in turn reach out to another, and on and on…until what started out like a snowflake quickly becomes a snowstorm. A snowstorm of lives healed and hopes restored and souls saved. 

Are you paying it forward? Let’s hear from all of our alumnus who will take the challenge (or who already have), and pay it forward. 

For more information on Loren’s ministry, Hope for Opelousas go to hopeforopelousas.org.

Becky and her Daughter

Sexually abused in high school, then kidnapped, raped and tortured in college, Becky McNair turned to alcohol to drown her horrific memories. When that failed, she used pills to numb the pain; then cut herself to prove she could still feel.

But, how did the young girl with plans to become a missionary become so withdrawn, and a suicidal mess?

Becky was just six years old when she turned on her television for cartoons. Instead, she found preachers. Although she attended chapel each morning at a private school, she’d never fully understood the Gospel. “That morning I bowed my head at my home and asked the Lord to forgive me, come into my heart and save me,” she said. “When I opened my eyes, I knew I belonged to Him.”

She took extra Bible courses in high school to prepare for her missionary career, studying Greek with a tutor so she could understand the original writings of the New Testament.

At 15, that teacher and two of his friends began to abuse her sexually, forcing her silence with guilt that her church and school would fold if she told anyone. “I became a master of putting on a happy, successful face for my friends and family, but inside I loathed myself and I begged God to help me keep my secret or just kill me if He knew that I could not,” she said.

When her best friend became suspicious, the teacher raped her as a warning that Becky should remain quiet. “Like me, she never told, and I believed her suffering was on my head,” she said. The abuse continued until graduation.

She moved from Mobile to Pensacola to attend college, choosing a degree in nursing so she’d have a useful skill to take into the mission field.

After six months, she was on a road to recovery. Then she was kidnapped from a church parking lot in downtown Pensacola. “I was tied, tortured and raped repeatedly. I never screamed,” she said.

The serial killer cut her throat when he was finished. “I closed my eyes and never felt the pain. I prayed,” she said. She opened her eyes to see an illuminating light and a look of pure terror frozen on her attacker’s face. She turned her head toward the luminance and saw an angel with a sword clutched in his left hand, staring at the man.

The rapist sliced the binds that held her and forced her out the door, chasing her with a straight-edged razor and yelling warnings for her not to look back. She stumbled barefoot and bleeding across the street to the church. She was his fifth victim and the only survivor. Her attacker is now serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in a Florida prison.

Becky spent the next years in and out of mental hospitals, taking pills, cutting herself and bingeing and purging – all attempts to deal with her psychological, emotional and physical pain.

At one point, she pinned a suicide note to her blouse, unsnapped her seatbelt and drove her car off an embankment. “My car was totaled and I woke up in an ambulance with nothing more than a mild concussion and a few bruises,” she said.

The suicide attempt kept her hospitalized for another three months, and when she got out, she spent another year and a half with her old addictions – pills, razors, alcohol and co-dependent relationships.

In desperation she flipped through the phone book for a treatment center that would accept her and found the Home of Grace. The women’s program was located in Vancleave at that time.

She entered the program in 1989 feeling hurt and abandoned by God. One night after a service, she sat alone on a bench contemplating suicide yet again. The women’s director, Mrs. Jo McNair, came in and sat beside her. “My heart broke at the love in her eyes and the fact that she said she believed in me,” she said.

Becky rededicated her life to God the next Sunday and found joy in studying the Bible again. She stayed on after her treatment and served as a house mother. “I loved working with the women who came into the program. Loving them served to heal my hurts as well,” she said.

Months later, she met her future husband – Mrs. Jo’s son, Buddy. Married for 20 years, the two have a 16-year-old daughter.

Becky visits the Home of Grace as often as she can and shares her testimony in hopes that others might learn that God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.

“Establishing a relationship with Jesus through salvation does not mean life is suddenly a bed of roses,” she said. “We still live in a sin-filled world and will suffer from both the poor decisions we make as well as the sins of others. However, we have the Holy Spirit of God living with us and it is there we find rest, joy, courage and wisdom to face anything God does allow in our lives.”

Before surrendering his life to the Lord, David’s life was a daily drudgery of drugs and sleeping in the park.  

Now, nearly a decade later, David wouldn’t have time for drinking and drugs even if he wanted to start again.  

Planting a home church, running a Celebrate Recovery group for hurting people, earning a bachelor’s degree, preparing to adopt three children—David and his wife Leah have given their lives, and their schedules, to the Lord as He leads them to reach their community for Christ.  

“The neighborhood we were sent is filled with people just like me,” David said. “They need hope.”  

As a young man, David turned to drinking and drugs as a way to escape his own life. Jobless and homeless in Phoenix, Ariz., David first entered the Home of Grace in 2000 and graduated “ready to take on hell with a water pistol.”  

Yet, as a relatively young Christian at the time, David fell back into a lifestyle of addiction and was homeless again long before he returned to the Home again in 2002.  

But the second time marked a turning point in his life; he realized the importance of surrendering to God’s will. “I realized I had to let everything go and allow the Lord to work in my life,” David said.  

A main part of that work in David’s life is “Hope In Our Community”, an outreach the couple run in their San Antonio neighborhood.  The ministry holds yard sales, neighborhood cleanups and other outreaches.  “The Lord is working in this community,” David said. “’Hope In Our Community’ is growing into a home church that is preparing to hold its first service soon.”  

David has already lead one of his neighbors to Christ, but isn’t satisfied with just one. He quickly points out that he’s still sharing the gospel throughout the neighborhood.  

“Me and Leah have found that a lot of the people here won’t walk into a church,” David said, “but they will come to our house for a Bible study.”  

With a renewed sense of God’s overall purpose for their lives, David is working on his bachelor’s degree and Leah is earning her master’s in clinical Christian counseling.  

David explained that the textbook education, paired with the couple’s life’s experiences, will make them more effective in helping people through their situations, even in the form of marriage and addiction counseling.  

The couple already leads a weekly Celebrate Recovery group for people struggling with addictions or other hurts.  

God’s plan is coming to fruition in David and Leah’s home life as well, where the family is about to add three children to their already large family. The couple is preparing to adopt a sibling group of children ages 2, 5 and 8 from Child Protective Services.  

“The Lord showed us that they’re going to need some type of stability.  So why not give that to them here where we can raise them in a Christian household?” David said.  

The couple already has five children between them from previous marriages, plus two children they’ve had together, meaning there will be 10 children between the ages of 4 months to 13 years old crawling, toddling and running around the house starting this summer.  

“We’re on our way,” David said.

I once heard a preacher read the oddest pieces of scripture I had heard from the pulpit.  But as I meditated on it, I realized the message God was sharing to my heart.  

The scripture is from the Old Testament Book of Amos, chapter 3, beginning in verse 11.  It reads,  

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 
      “An adversary shall be all around the land; 
      He shall sap your strength from you, 
      And your palaces shall be plundered.”   

As I read it again and again, I remembered the times the enemy seemingly had victory over me.  I thought of those times where a prowling lion, an adversary had stalked me and kept me in fear.  I was reminded of the attacks that drained me of my strength.  I could see what my life had become.  My job lost; my family destroyed; and everything I once had confidence in plundered.  

Perhaps, you’ve had those same experiences; just maybe I’m not the only person who has been in a battle with the enemy and gotten lost on the battlefield.  If the scripture stopped there it would only remind us that we are in a war.  It would leave us without hope – but thank God that it doesn’t end there.  Verse 12 begins with these words,  

Thus says the LORD: 
      “As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion 
      Two legs or a piece of an ear, 
      So shall the children of Israel be taken out …  

Isn’t it exciting to know that we have a God who says, “It’s not over until I say it’s over.”  You may be on the field battered and bruised.  The enemy may have robbed you of our strength and may have plundered your home.  But it doesn’t have to end there.  You may have been hurt and feel there’s no hope.  You may doubt there’s anything left of you to save.  

And whether you have been hurt by your own choices or by no fault of your own, remember that there is a Shepherd, there is a Savior, who looks at you and says, “I love you.”  I am thankful of the words of Jesus penned by Luke in chapter 4, verses 18,