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Key Bible Verse: "Choose today whom you will serve . …But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15). Bonus Reading:Joshua 24:14–25

After John Johnson was released from prison, I dropped by his sister's apartment to see him. He told me what had happened the day before:

Four cars pulled up, and about 15 of my boys piled out. "We heard you quit the New Breed," they said. "You know you joined for life and nobody leaves."

I said, "So, you've all come here to kill me?"

"Not exactly," one of the boys said. "We really want to keep you in the gang. You've been a good leader. We want to give you a higher-rankin' position." To sweeten the offer, they said they'd throw in a nice ride.

"Okay," I said, "I'll be you-all's chief."

"All right!" they said, and opened the trunk of a car, brought out the beer, and said, "Let's party!"

Then I said, "But if I'm goin' to be your chief, we're goin' to do things my way." They looked at me funny and said, "What way's that?"

"We're not goin' to sell drugs or try to take someone else's turf."

"If we not gonna be gangbangin', what we gonna do?"

"We're goin' to go to school, get jobs, and go to church and study the Bible. If I'm chief, that's the way it's gonna be."

—Gordon McLean in Too Young to Die

My Response: Am I ready to "lay it on the line" for Christ?

Thought to Apply: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

—Jim Elliot (missionary martyr, 20th century)

Adapted from: Too Young to Die (Tyndale, 1998).

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

O Christ, You gave Your all for me. I want to give myself to You.

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