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Key Bible Verse: He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what it right. You have been healed by his wounds! (1 Peter 2:24). Bonus Reading: Isaiah 53:4–6

One summer I hired Tony—our children's band director—to help paint our house. We were taking a break in the kitchen when I said, "Tell me about your background."

"I grew up in a tough neighborhood," he responded. "We had three different ethnic gangs there and a lot of violence. In fact, five friends died violently in one year. Two others are in the penitentiary."

"Then how did you turn out like you did?" I asked.

Tony hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice as he told me, "One night a gang came to our turf looking for a rumble, and we gave it to them. I didn't see it, but a guy from the other gang came at me from behind with a knife. He was about to stab me. My best friend since grade school saw it." Tony stopped, trying to keep his composure. Then he said very softly, with tears in his eyes, "He took my knife—and my life has never been the same."

I broke the silence in the kitchen. "Tony, in a way, I have a friend like that. Because of all the wrong things I've done, I had a 'knife'—a death penalty—coming from God. But when Jesus died on the cross, He took my knife—and my life has never been the same."

—Ron Hutchcraft in Called to Greatness

My Response: A way I've found to describe my own conversion is …

Thought to Apply: How many people have you made homesick for God?
—Oswald Chambers (British chaplain)

Adapted from: Called to Greatness (Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, 2001) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Jesus, You taught the Twelve how to fish for men. Please teach me, too.

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