Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Last Wednesday the Spiritual Formation youth had the privilege of listening to a presentation by Mr. David Burrier of Hope Ministries and a gentleman by the name of Norman who has been a client with the Ministries for over a year. I came in about a halfway through and they were seated up in front of the sanctuary engaged in an unrehearsed dialogue. Mr. Burrier was leading Norman in a question and answer session which was absolutely riveting to me. Norman spent seventeen of his forty years in prisons for many offenses, but from what I gathered they were mostly drug related. He’s been in prison in Mexico and has spent a lot of time in drug trafficking across the border. Norman said he was an extremely mean and hateful person. He ended up at Hope Ministries weighing 100 pounds, his teeth had fallen out, and he has tattoos over half of his body. He left no question of why he ended up in Des Moines. A self described extremely shy person, he sat in front of our church and spoke boldly and matter of factly, of how Jesus Christ came into his life and made him a new person. What a witness for the young people and the few adults who were there that night. He had a syringe tattooed on his arm which he has since covered up with a tattoo of a cross. I saw great meaning in that, here was a man so controlled by the drugs he was shooting into his body, slowly dying, hopelessly dying, yet covered by the cross, the instrument of death for Jesus Christ, also the symbol of assurance and new life for us. Here is a man who knows what it means to be free.

This reminds me of Romans 6:5-8, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” ESV

I talked to Norman afterward for quite some time. It both amazes me and yet it doesn’t of how openly and boldly that once broken man speaks of God in his life. There is power in the words of the gospel. I feel that people need to see and hear this kind of witness. Norman will be visiting us soon to share his story with others.

Posted by Pat Barnes