I worked at death row

Somebody sent me a video about a young man who has been sentenced to death on a charge of drug trafficking. He is sentenced to die in front of a firing squad in Indonesia. That reminded me of my first job, 30 years ago when I left school. I took a job in the prison service. After basic training I was sent to the maximum security prison. I was still a kid, just 19 years old but there I worked with prisoners who were awaiting execution by hanging. I was also forced to attend execution.

There I met with and worked with people, ordinary people like us, who had committed horrific crimes. Many of them turned to Jesus, they repented in prison. Some of them appealed their death sentences and received life sentences but others had to go up to the gallows. It was quite traumatic to work with those people for months, to talk to them and to get to know them and then to see them go up to the gallows or even take them up to the gallows.

We will all die, sooner or later, we cannot escape death but it is what happens after death that really matters. We all carry a death sentence, eternal death because of sin. If we do not repent, turn away from wickedness and plead mercy and then after that OBEY Jesus, then we are doomed, we will spend eternity in damnation, (HELL).

I saw some people face death in bewilderment, anxiety, kicking, screaming and then there were others who had peace. They had made peace with Jesus before they died. It is horrific to see a person die, who does not have peace with God.

We all have the opportunity, right now, to make peace with God, to find forgiveness from Jesus, to change our ways, to follow Him, to live in obedience to Him, in holiness, to have the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding. The choice is ours, the door is still open but the moment you die it is too late.

There was an ominous silence in that prison. All the inmates were listening, seven o'clock in the morning until the doors of the gallows slammed open – BAM! Then they knew it was over.

Friends, soon it will be over for all of us. We just don't know when. Where will we spend eternity? Get to know Jesus now, today, before it is too late, because you do not know when you have to meet your Maker.

May Jesus bless you.