Back to the Scene of the Crime

Friday   12-11-15  Home in Modesto 

Scripture reading:    Philemon    Heb 1 – 4  

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Philem 10-12  My plea is that you show kindness to Onesimus. I think of him as my own son because he became a believer as a result of my ministry here in prison.  Onesimus hasn't been of much use to you in the past, but now he is very useful to both of us.  I am sending him back to you, and with him comes my own heart. NLT

O.  Onesimus, a former slave of a relatively new Christian man named Philemon, has possibly stolen from his master and escaped, traveling far away to Rome.  Somehow he crosses paths with the prisoner, Paul, and converts to Christ.  Now Paul is sending Onesimus back to the scene of the crime with this recommendation letter in his hands.

A.  The year was 1938.  I was 6 years old.  Our pastor was Harry DeVries and our church was Lighthouse Gospel Mission on a second floor in the worst part of Portland, Oregon, down near the port where alcoholics roamed in and out of filthy, cheap bars.  Among many new converts was a tall black man.  After he took Christ as his Savior he pulled the pastor aside and confessed that he had killed 4 men in the state of Missouri ten years earlier and had escaped.  Apparently they had stopped searching for him.  What was he to do?  By his own choice he returned 2,000 miles to the scene of his crime in Missouri to confess to the authorities, probably with a letter from his pastor.  He was given a life sentence.  From the prison he wrote wonderful letters of great joy and spiritual victory.  Pastor Devries shared them with my mother, who read them to us kids during our devotional times.  After 7 years he was paroled on good conduct and released to return to Oregon.  I was now 13 years old and will never forget the bright shine on that black man’s face as he stood to testify of his joy in Christ.

P.  Lord, my atheist friend around the corner doesn’t believe in You or Your miracles.  He probably never witnessed this kind of miracle, but I did... and I cannot doubt Your saving power.  These are Your best kind of miracles for they change a life forever.  Physical miracles are impressive, but they end when we die.  Dear Lord, since then I have seen many hundreds more.  But now I pray, as I plan to return to Argentina, please let me witness again Your saving power of miracles that take men and women figuratively back to the scene of the crime... and release them into freedom from the guilt that has haunted them for years.  Amen.

Ralph