He was a con artist that preyed on innocent people. One of his scams was to pose as a minister, O he could preach but mostly about giving money. He would also pose as a doctor or lawyer.
He was good at getting people to trust him. Once he had their trust then he could get their money.
When the police would get close to being able to arrest him he would take off to another place and start over. He seemed to always be one step ahead of the law and the people he was able to con.
He thought he would never get caught so he had no reason to quit. Then one morning while running from the law and some very angry people he had a Heart attack. He was only 35 years old.
He was in the hospital in intensive care the doctors told him that he was not going to make it. His whole life flashed before him and he began to cry.
He remembered how that when he was a child his mother had tried to get him to go to Church and how she had given him all he needed trying to keep him out of trouble. But his rebellion had caused him to leave home at the age of seventeen.
That is when he started his criminal activity. He had been there when his mother and father had pasted away, he saw no need. His whole life had been spent on deceiving others.
The Doctor ask if he would like to speak with a priest but the man said he did not believe in God. As he lie there dieing he began to see all the people he had hurt over the years.
Then a man he did not know came to his side and told him no one should ever die alone. The man said that he did not even have to suffer alone if he did not want too.
The dieing man ask what he meant, so the man told him that there was a hope that never dies. He told him that there was someone that could help if only he believed they could.
The dieing man wanted to know more so the man told him of Jesus and how that Jesus had died so that every mans sins could be forgiven.
He told him how all people sin and how we all need salvation. He read the Bible to the dieing man and continued to speak of Jesus. That is when the dieing man knew that he need God in his life even if it was only for a day or two. The man who had came to him was a minister sent by the doctor.
And the dieing man was saved right there in that hospital and he began to pray for forgiveness and told God that he wished he had enough time to apologize to those he had hurt over the years.
But most of all he wished he had not wasted his life serving Satan.
After the minister had left and the man was alone God spoke to him and told him that he would have a chance to get things right.
He began to get better and the doctor was amazed at how he turned around, in a few days he was in a hospital room and a few days later he walked out of the hospital altogether.
He stared to retrace his steps and he apologized to any one he had wronged, some were surprised other were angry that he had come back. It did not stop him though, he continued for the next three years going from town to town making apologies.
Then one morning he went to the cemetery where his mother and father were buried and ask for them to forgive him also. While he was there he suffered another Heart attack, and was in the hospital again.
This time he did not make it he died but not alone and not without peace. You out of no hope came hope. Are you living a life of no hope?
If so Jesus is the answer, he can give hope to those without hope.
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