“Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” — Isaiah 55:7
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There once was a basketball team called the Straight Shooters who would go into prisons to play a basketball game and share the Gospel at halftime. The players were all men who at some point in their lives had made a decision to follow Christ. They came from all walks of life. There were teachers, scientists, lawyers and so on. At one particular game, the halftime talk made reference to one of the players being a lawyer.
You can imagine who was the most popular player for the inmates to see after the game. Many inmates lined up to speak to the lawyer, seeking free legal counsel or perhaps to make a connection at no cost that could help them down the road and maybe find pardon for their sentence.
Isaiah 55:1 says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat … without money and without cost.” Isaiah 55:7b adds, “Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
Although jokes were made at the time about how popular the lawyer was in the prison, it was a poignant reminder that we all can find pardon in Christ. A reminder that there is a free offer of mercy in the Gospel. Free only because Jesus Christ served our sentence when He died on the cross for us. Not only did He die, but He also rose again from the prison of death and set us free from the guilt of our sins.
May we learn to take advantage every day of Christ’s free offer of mercy in our lives, to move past guilt and a checkered past and live for Him in freedom. And may we always be seeking to share the message of the Gospel with those who still find themselves imprisoned by sin and living only for the things of this world.
— Frick Frierson
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