CHUCK COLSON REDEMPTION

Transcription

1 SERIES: THE STORY OF A LIFETIME SESSION SEVEN, WINTER 2015 CHUCK COLSON REDEMPTION Biographical Notes Charles Wendell Colson was born in North Boston in From an early age, Chuck s drive, intelligence and leadership skills were evident. Colson graduated from Brown University with honors. He served as a Marine in Korea and became the captain in the Corps long and storied history. Chuck left the Marines and graduated from law school with honors. By the age of 17, Colson had become interested in, volunteering in the Massachusetts governor s race. Twelve years later he managed the 1960 re-election campaign of Senator Leverett Saltonstall, employing the dirty tricks he had learned in the past and invented some of his own. Afterwards, he opened a highly successful law firm which he left in 1968 to join Richard Nixon s campaign for the presidency. After Nixon s election, at the age of, Colson was appointed as Special Counsel to the President. Slate magazine described Colson as Richard Nixon s hard man, the evil genius of an evil administration. White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman described Colson as the President s man. Colson himself wrote that he was valuable to the President because I was wiling to be ruthless in getting things done. The Watergate scandal would expose the unethical and illegal activities of Colson and others in the administration, resulting in 69 government officials being charged with a crime, being found guilty, and President Nixon s resigning from office. Before the seriousness of the scandal came to light, Colson left the administration and returned to private practice as an attorney. Colson met with a prospective client for his law firm, Raytheon CEO Tom Philips, who the week before had accepted Christ at a Billy Graham crusade and who shared his faith with Chuck. To escape the Watergate storm, Colson took a trip to the Maine coast and visited Tom Philips again.

2 Philips told Chuck that something had been missing in his life and he came to the conclusion that it was a personal with God. Talk turned to Watergate, and Philips told Colson that pride Colson s and the others in the administration had created the scandal. The CEO read to Colson from C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity about pride and Colson saw the ugliness of his life for the first time and felt. Colson left the house, sat alone in his car, sobbed and gave his life to God. Charles Colson: I stayed there in the car, wet-eyed, praying, thinking for perhaps half an hour, perhaps longer, alone in the dark of the quiet night. Yet for the first time in my life I was not alone at all. Even with Christ, the next months were torturous. His port in the storm was a small group of politicians who received him into their group. Colson pled guilty to obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers case and was sentenced to federal prison. On the court house steps, Colson announced his conversion. In prison, he came to see the poor, uneducated criminals in prison with him as his. After being released from prison, in a dream and in a vision he received his calling. Within three years Prison Fellowship Ministries grew to 100 employees in 23 states with 7000 volunteers in 600 prisons. Eventually Prison Fellowship would be in over100 countries. In the years that followed, Colson wrote over thirty books, worked for criminal justice reform, began a radio program that promoted a biblical worldview, called BreakPoint, which had 8 million listeners every day. In his later years he counseled President George W. Bush to fight human trafficking, combat the global spread of AIDS, and protect persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Emily Colson at her father s funeral: There is work to be done. I encourage you to continue the work God has begun through my father s life. Do the right thing, seek the truth, defend the weak, live courageous lives. LESSONS WE LEARN FROM CHUCK COLSON S STORY OF A LIFETIME 1. PEOPLE NEED. We share a common humanity and a common need: a personal relationship with God.

3 Tom Philips: I would go to the office each day and do my job, striving all the time to make the company succeed, but there was a big hole in my life. I began reading the scriptures, looking for answers. Something made me realize I needed a personal relationship with God. Blaise Pascal: This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself. There is a God-shaped vacuum within the heart of every man. Tom Philips: I had gotten to the point where I didn t think my life was worth anything. We were made to be in relationship with God it s that relationship that breathes into our souls. Without it, there is an emptiness within the human heart. The spiritual abyss within us can never be filled by a material object or the prizes and pleasures this offers. If you don t yet have a relationship with God, the emptiness you feel isn t your enemy, it s your friend. It s not a problem you need to get rid of; it s a counselor you need to to, telling you that you were made for something more. Human beings have an incredible ability to learn from the mistakes of others and an amazing disinclination to do so. Question: How many times do you need to hear men tell you: I had it all, and I was still empty inside before you believe that having it all without Christ will leave you empty inside? All have sinned and have fallen short of what God expects (Romans 3.23). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6.23). There is none who is righteous before God, not one (Romans 3.10). It is by grace that we are saved, not by (Ephesians 2.8-9). We receive grace when we receive Christ. But as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1.12) The men you know need Jesus no matter how successful. Every man you know has a God-shaped vacuum inside his heart even those who don t it. The greatest you can give anyone is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

4 2. IT MATTERS WHAT YOU. You are never bigger than the purpose you live for. If you live for this world, but you ll never live a truly great story because you were made for. Charles Colson began his life living for what many men make their goal: position, power and influence. But what brought him joy was living for what matters. Ecclesiastes 3.11: He has also set eternity in the human heart. There s something eternal inside of you something that knows you were made for more than this world can offer. You can know Christ, but if you re not living for eternal things, your spirit will never be. We were made to enjoy this world but we were made to live for eternity. Do you think you are (1) a material being who occasionally has spiritual experiences or (2) a spiritual being who is having a temporary material experience? 3. YOU CAN. We believe in redemption. Jesus came to earth because redemption was necessary, possible and will. Whatever has happened to you, whatever you ve done, whatever mistakes you ve made, they do not your story. God does. The wrongs you have committed don t have the last word on your life. God does and his word is grace. Very often we must come to the of ourselves before we can have a new beginning with God. Jesus Christ did not come into the world for those who claimed to be successes. He came for those who admitted their and who were willing to ask for help. We can learn from our mistakes, be changed for the better by our failures, come back stronger and wiser from our defeats, be humbled by our sins, and walk with God more closely than ever. Your failures, morally and spiritually, are your greatest to come back better and stronger than ever.

5 Matthew 5.3: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. You are blessed when you realize your spiritual poverty, recognize your inability to do life right on your own, look at your mistakes and your is crushed by what you see. In that moment you have an amazing opportunity for a new beginning with God that will allow you to live the story you were created to tell. Whatever mistake you ve made, take it to the cross. Confess it, ask for forgiveness, and trust God s for you. Then get up, hold your head high, and walk with God into the story you were meant to live. Prayer: Lord God, you are my creator and you know me better than I know myself. Reveal to me who I am to be, what I am to do, what message I am to give, what gift I am to bring into the world. Big or small, public or private reveal it to me, and even before I know what it is, my promise to you is: I will do your will.

6 OPPORTUNITIES Delegate to Texas Annual Conference You and/or your wife. Attend at least Monday and Tuesday, May 25-26, to help elect orthodox delegates to General Conference. In Houston. Honduras Two Spots Now Open March $1300. Scholarships available. Rob at TWUMC Living Water Trip to Guatemala May 10-16, staying in Antigua, Guatemala and travelling daily to a drill site in a community that needs clean water. Maximum team size is 12. Up to 8 drillers and 4 on hygiene team. Men and women are welcome. Cost is $1929. There are a limited number of scholarships, particularly for first-time participants. For more information you may contact Jim Seamans JSeamans@porocel.com. A Profile of Champions Golf Breakfast Sponsored by Search Ministries, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, 7:00-8:30 a.m. This event will feature 3 Touring Pros playing in the Insperity Invitational of the Champions Tour. During the breakfast they will be interviewed as they share first some inside the ropes stories followed by inside the heart stories about their faith in Christ. It is a discreet, low key, very well done presentation of the Christian faith in the lives of well-known and highly respected golfers. This is an excellent opportunity to invite your friends who are enthusiastic about golf but little interested in God or church. The guest golfers will be announced about 3 weeks before the event. Individual tickets: $40; Table (8): $300. Info/Purchase: searchhouprofileofchampions@gmail.com Or: Richard.Houston@Searchministries.org / (281) Sexual Accountability Group Join a group of men who are overcoming their tendency to let sexual issues and/or pornography get in the way of their relationship with God and/or their wives. Thursday mornings, 6:00-7:00 am, Lenox Parlor. Rob Renfroe if you d like more info. The Woodlands United Methodist Church