My Friendship with my Brother – Part 4

A few years after college my brother "Brad" (not his real name) found out that not only was he infected with HIV, but also it was an extremely aggressive form that did not respond well to treatment. He was an assistant manager of a retail store and his doctor called him at work to tell him. Knowing he was dying soon, Brad closed the office door and cried for about one minute, until store employees kept banging on the door demanding his attention. He told himself, “I’ll think about that later” and calmly went back to work. Can you imagine his pain? The next year Brad was in and out of the hospital with one nasty infection after another. He was living in an apartment with a male prostitute who would even bring guys into the bedroom while I was there visiting Brad in the living room. There were condom wrappers on the floor. Not exactly a healthy Christian environment.

I invited Brad to move in with me, and he accepted. Many people from my church came to the house and helped him out when he was sick. After one near death experience in the hospital, Brad turned to God. God changed his heart so he turned away from his sin and believed. He told all his gay friends that he was a Christian now, and they promptly abandoned him. I remember sitting next to him, hugging him and asking him if he knew that I loved him now. He said yes! That meant a lot. I couldn’t help but see the change from his previous “unloving Christians” comment. I thanked God.

To be continued...

Heaven Rejoices!

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."- Luke 15:7

I heard from one of my friends in Maryland that JS is now a Christian! I have prayed for him for years. He was one of the teenage guys who used to hang out at Tom's house. Like Mike, he got very involved in drugs and his life spiralled downward. He has been married, divorced, in and out of rehab several times, and now at age 26 he is back at his parents' house. A few weeks ago he saw that he would die if he continued down the same path so he asked his father to pray for him. His father asked him what to pray and JS said,"I need God!" At that point he knew that God had made him a new man. God gave him faith and he really believed that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God and eternal life. JS has been free from drugs, and is now praying, studying the Bible, and sharing in fellowship with Christians. Everyone who knows him is amazed with the change and the very visible love, joy, and peace!

There is such a beauty in God's work to change a human heart. John G. Paton, missionary to Vanuatu in the 1800s, described this well:

"At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself."

In the words of Charles Wesley, this is what Jesus Christ did:

Mild He lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth;
Born to give them second birth.

Jesus has raised JS, the son of earth, and given him second birth!