The Sword in Your Hand

"In what ways do you experience divine wrath and mercy? I’m not asking for a sermon or a collection of Bible verses but rather a testimony of your experience."

I have not experienced divine wrath, although the night of my conversion I was well aware of it. Think of a wanted criminal. He has committed multiple and serious crimes. One night, he is stealing in the dark of a moonless night. The darkness gives him a sense of security. Suddenly police spotlights flood the area. He is exposed. The darkness is no longer a cover for his unlawful activity. He hears a loud voice tell him that ten sharpshooters have his pounding heart in their sights. One wrong move and he is a dead man. At this point he has a choice. He can try and make a run for it and die, or he can lift his hands high in surrender and live.

Before I was a Christian, I was engaged in serious unlawful activity even though I hadn’t violated man’s law. I was unaware that God saw my thought-life and that I had violated His perfect Law--the Ten Commandments. The night of my conversion was when the light came like a flood. I was exposed for my many sins. The darkness was no longer my security. The loud voice of my conscience told me that those Ten Commandments, like ten great cannons, had my pounding heart in their sights. If I tried to run I knew that God's Law would justly send me to Hell. At that point I had a choice. I could run from the light, or I could lift my hands high and surrender. On the 25th of April, 1972 at 1:30 a.m., I surrendered.

Guilty though I was, I found that the Judge of the Universe was rich in mercy. He dismissed my case because Jesus Christ had paid my fine in His life’s blood two thousand years ago, then He granted me the gift of everlasting life. If you have ever seen the movie Ben Hur, at the conclusion you will hear a wide-eyed Judah Ben Hur say, "I felt His words take the sword out of my hand." That’s what happens the moment you surrender the weapons of your hostility.