Romans 8:28

How many times have you experienced something not so pleasant and a well-intentioned Christian quoted Romans 8:28? "All things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Maybe deep down inside you were thinking, "Yeah right!" Well allow me to tell you about how that verse came alive for me in the last month. You may have read in the newspaper or saw on the news about a church in Bossier City that was broken into and set on fire. The suspects were apprenhended and the repairs and painting are complete. End of the story right? Nope. That church is the Missions Center that Eastwood Baptist sponsors. Myself and one of the mission pastors visited one of the suspects when he was still in jail. We told him all is forgiven. We gave him a bible. We prayed with him. He was very apologetic and took full responsibility. End of the story...nope. We testified at his arraignment and asked that he be released to his parents custody. The judge granted the request. Since that time, the young man and his father have helped paint the church, the young man and his entire family have been in church services at the church. The young man has participated in Prayer Walks in the neighborhood with the mission churches. It has been such a dramatic testimony. The grace, mercy and forgiveness that the church has shown is exactly what we are CALLED to do. We are simply demonstrating the same grace that has been shown to us as sinners. Now the young man is wanting to be baptized. If I were to tell you that days after the break-in the mission pastors and I gathered for a special time of prayer and we prayed specifically that those young men would one day come to church and be baptized, would you believe it? Well, its the truth PRAISE GOD! All things do work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.