This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9
For those of us who are old enough to remember, in 1970 a Christian movie came out called the Cross and the Switchblade. It is about the true story of David Wilkerson an Evangelist and Nicky Cruz a New York Gang leader and their unlikely friendship and relationship with the Lord.
I really hadn’t thought about that movie until I saw an interview with now 86 year old Nicky Cruz. Nicky was the son of a practicing witch and grew up in the New York Gang culture. It was a difficult life so much so by age ten he climbed a tree and tried to hang himself from it, but he was stopped by his brother’s pleas to please not kill himself. And that day, once he was back on the ground as he wiped his tears away he promised to never cry again. And he didn’t, he became hard and uncaring towards people even those who he considered close to him.
That was until he encountered David Wilkerson literally face to face and threatened to kill him. That night David’s response and words would haunt him for weeks. David said, “kill me, go ahead and kill me, you can kill me, cut me up into little pieces but every piece will continue crying out, Nicky Cruz Jesus loves you!” For weeks no matter what he did, asleep or awake he heard that Jesus loves him. And finally one night, his heart was crushed by the weight of those words and in front of people at a crusade he gave his life and heart to Christ. As he closed the interview he said, nothing has changed, it is still the love of Jesus that changes everything and transforms hearts and minds. How important is it for us to tell people and show them Jesus loves them? It’s everything!
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