"For the wages of sin is death..."
Romans 6:23a
Today I happened to see an inmate who was with me when...
Romans 6:23a
Today I happened to see an inmate who was with me when...
...I was living at Clinton Correctional Facility in the tiny town of Dannemora, New York, near the Canadian border. I left Clinton almost fourteen years ago.
I did not know this fellow very much back then. He is just a familiar face. But I recall that for a while we had lived on the same tier. When I saw him, he was hard to recognize at first. AIDS!
Fourteen years later, I was seeing a walking skeleton. Although he's about 6'1" tall, he could not have weighed more than one hundred pounds. Rail thin, he looked like a concentration camp survivor. And while he was walking normally and was obviously managing okay, I know that he is one bad cold or flu attack away from death. He's the type I've seen so often over the years.
A bad cold quickly becomes pneumonia. Having trouble breathing, they go to the infirmary. Because they are HIV positive, they are quickly admitted, and they're never seen alive again. Once pneumonia hits, it's the final knockout punch. There is nothing left for their body to resist.
When many of the HIV'ers first start getting their array of sicknesses, most bounce back again and again, because of the treatments. But each time they go into the hospital, they lose some weight. I almost never see the weight come back. And with each bout of sickness, they get thinner and thinner, like the prisoner who passed me in the corridor.
He's too thin now. He's got one trip left. I know It's almost over for him. When I see him again (if I do) I want to tell him my testimony, and what Jesus Christ did for me.
This dying man needs to know that God has something wonderful to give him - the gift of eternal life. It's free, and it will last forever.
“...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).
D.B.
I did not know this fellow very much back then. He is just a familiar face. But I recall that for a while we had lived on the same tier. When I saw him, he was hard to recognize at first. AIDS!
Fourteen years later, I was seeing a walking skeleton. Although he's about 6'1" tall, he could not have weighed more than one hundred pounds. Rail thin, he looked like a concentration camp survivor. And while he was walking normally and was obviously managing okay, I know that he is one bad cold or flu attack away from death. He's the type I've seen so often over the years.
A bad cold quickly becomes pneumonia. Having trouble breathing, they go to the infirmary. Because they are HIV positive, they are quickly admitted, and they're never seen alive again. Once pneumonia hits, it's the final knockout punch. There is nothing left for their body to resist.
When many of the HIV'ers first start getting their array of sicknesses, most bounce back again and again, because of the treatments. But each time they go into the hospital, they lose some weight. I almost never see the weight come back. And with each bout of sickness, they get thinner and thinner, like the prisoner who passed me in the corridor.
He's too thin now. He's got one trip left. I know It's almost over for him. When I see him again (if I do) I want to tell him my testimony, and what Jesus Christ did for me.
This dying man needs to know that God has something wonderful to give him - the gift of eternal life. It's free, and it will last forever.
“...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).
D.B.