Weekly E-votional

CASE DISMISSED
I have a friend who tells the story of how when he was in high school he went through a very difficult time. He had been a straight A student with great potential for being the valedictorian of his graduating class. Not only was he smart, but he was also very popular and very athletic. Recruiting scouts from colleges and universities were already swarming around the stadiums to watch him play football. Away from school was no different he was elected president of his youth group at church, and on his way to being an eagle-scout. He was the kind of person that that all his peers wanted to be friends with, while all of his friend’s parents wished that he was theirs. One night, however, after a big game he went out with some of his classmates to celebrate their victory. Many there were drinking and some were even using drugs and generally doing things that they knew they shouldn’t be doing. And feeling a bit left out he made the decision (against his better judgment) to join in.
Later that night he was pulled over for a traffic violation, he was arrested for a number of different charges, minor in possession of alcohol, driving while intoxicated, and to make matters worse one of his friends who had ridden in the car with him earlier had left a bag of pills in his back seat, so he was also chares with possession of an illegal substance with the intent to deliver.
His world began to crumble around him. His name was printed in the paper, his reputation was wrecked. His parent began to tell him that he had ruined his future. That no college would possibly look at him and that he would have these charges on his permanent record, and they would hang around his neck for the rest of his life. His friend’s parents, his teachers, even the people at his church began to look at him with distrust and shame.
He saw the backward glances, he heard the rumors about him, he felt the disappointment and disapproval of others, and it began to affect him. He said that it began to alter the way he saw himself. When he looked in the mirror, he no longer saw, a football star or a straight A student, he no longer saw the president of his church youth group, instead he saw a bad seed a felon, a looser, someone who would always be marked by his past with no way to escape it.
That self view of began to affect the way he lived his life. Feeling that he had lost all hope of his former dreams, he began to slack off in his school work and skip football practice to hang out with the wrong crowd. He began doing more things that he knew he should do. What did he have to loose now he thought.
Over the next few weeks he was brought home on a number of occasions by the police and was cited for a number of infractions.
By the time of his first court appearance he had been picked by the police more than half a dozen times.
The judge was stern looking fellow with a deep raspy voice. He asked son what’s gotten in to you? I hear that you were a straight A student, a star on the football team, every one thought you had potential for greatness. What’s gotten into you?
The boy replied, “Sir, it doesn’t matter the damage is done, this will follow me the rest of my life I can’t fix it I can’t get away from it. My life is over.”
The Judges sat back in his chair and said,” Oh, I see. May I as ask you a question? If this was no longer on your record would that make any difference in how you would act?”
Those words caught him by surprise; He never even considered that to be possibility. Tears began to well in his eyes and a lump formed in his throat so that he couldn’t even speak. He just nodded slightly as he trembled.
My friend said that in the next moment he heard the two words that changed his life. “Case dismissed.” With those two words my friend was given a second chance not bound by the specter of his past. The judge not only dismissed the charges, but expunged the arrest record. My friend went back to school, hit the books and graduated second in his class, he received a scholarship to college both for football & for academics and was well respected amongst his peers & the faculty, and because of his experience with that merciful judge he learned a lesson that changed his focus in life. My friend is now a pastor, whose primary goal in life is to teach people the meaning of ‘grace’.
The word grace simply means “Unmerited favor.” It means being blessed when no blessing is deserved. It means receiving forgiveness when none is merited.
That’s what God offers to us in Jesus Christ. Scripture says that “while we were yet sinner Christ died for us.” Jesus died to offer us grace, a second chance to overcome our past sinfulness and to begin life anew with God. What a gift! He didn’t come to save those who are perfect and just; no, he came for all of us ‘while we were yet sinners.’ In essence He came to tell us that if we would only believe and trust in Him, we too can hear those powerful words… “Case Dismissed”