Last night, right after I finished posting, the phone rang. It was Brian, a boy who lives in our house.
How Brian came to live with us was unusual. I received a call early this past spring from the Georgia prison system saying they had a prisoner who was a friend of my son when they were in high school. They thought he was basically a good kid. They said they would let him out two years early if he could live in a different environment from his own family, and that he had said he wanted to come live with us.
So Brian came to live with us. From Day One, my job was to help him see himself differently and now, he does not see himself at all as a drug addict or a drunkard or a thief or a no-good SOB. He sees himself as Jesus sees him. It is wonderful having him in the house. I just adore him.
Well, last night, he came in the house with his friend Nick and I knew right away something was wrong. I asked them about it and they said they had done something impulsively and really regretted it and they thought they might end up in trouble. They had taken revenge on someone. So I thought about it a while, and I said, "Guys, let's just take this and put it under the blood of Jesus." So, we prayed together and I led them in prayer. First, we confessed the whole thing before the Lord. They told the Lord the truth, they took full responsibility for it, and they truly told the Lord they were sorry. Then we prayed all kinds of blessings on the guy they were involved with and his entire family. We asked God to bless him and to send someone across his path so that he could get saved and know Jesus. So we took the whole thing and put it under the blood of Jesus and off they went.
Right after I finished posting, I got a call from Brian at the bowling alley. "Kathy, there's a bunch of kids here and me and Nick told them what we did with you and they say they have things they want to put under the blood, too. Can they come over and pray with you?" So at 11 o'clock last night they all filed in the front door and it turned out these kids had one thing they were really troubled about. So we all really prayed and it just gave me goose bumps how utterly sincere they were. They WANTED to get their hearts right with God! When we finished praying, they all hugged me and thanked me and I pulled out some grape juice and crackers and we all took communion standing around my stove, which kind of sealed the deal. I felt led to invite them all back to dinner on Sunday night which they gladly accepted. So I will cook up something really nice on Sunday and then I'm going to put each one on the hot seat (my prayer seat) and ask them what situations in their life are really upsetting them and I'm going to pray the Word into each one of those situations. When I pray, I pray the Word. I quote verses and I tell God that I am speaking this Word into the situation and trusting Him that he will bring His Word to pass in their life. So I'll be sure and tell you all how it goes. It was so thrilling to see them come in with such heavy hearts and leave all smiles and hugs. The power of God to transform is so awesome!