So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one
time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we
know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new
person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! - 2Corinthians 5:
16-17 (NLT)
In 1974 a Grand Jury indicted the Watergate Seven. These were seven individuals who were advisors to then President Nixon and assisted with the now infamous Watergate cover-up. One of the seven was given a copy of C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" by a friend as he was facing prosecution. The result led this man to the Lord and even though he desperately wanted to avoid jail time, he cut a deal with prosecutors to admit to Obstruction of Justice, which he knew he was guilty of. This plea came at a time when it appeared the prosecution was considering dropping the charges. But he knew he what he had done wrong. He was sentenced to 1-3 years in prison and began serving his sentence. While in prison he was called by God to create a prison ministry because of the shortcomings of rehabilitation and the injustices in the justice system.
Upon his release from prison, Chuck Colson became one of the top evangelical voices for the next four decades; right up until today. He founded Prison Fellowship to promote changes in the justice system. He wrote over 20 books and received honorary degrees from various colleges. He was awarded the highest award from the Salvation Army in 1990 and in 1993 won the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which carried with it a one million dollar award. He promptly donated the 1 million to Prison Fellowship, as he has always done with his speaking fees and royalties. God beloved, can use anyone.
"I--yes,
I alone--will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them
again. -- Isaiah 43: 25 (NLT)
It was God's will to use the lowest point in the life of Charles Colson, politician, to transform him into Chuck Colson, Evangelist for Christ. The sobering truth we need to wrap our minds around today is that your past can either refine you or it can define you -- the choice is yours.
Refining is a process used in metallurgy. It is a process by which the impurities are removed through the application of intense heat. So God too will go about using the times of great heat in our lives to refine out of us the impurities that separate us from Him. Proverbs teaches us:
Remove
the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith; -
Proverbs 25: 4 (NIV)
