A TALE OF TWO CONVICTS (The Poke-in-the-Eye Devotional, 1/4/24)
I USED TO VISIT TWO MEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL EACH WEEK.
The first man I visited had stopped going to church and said that was the reason why he was behind bars. I assumed he stopped reading his Bible, too.
“How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22)
The other man I visited, got out of jail and took with him some Bible material. “Have you learned your lesson?” I asked. He said yes.
He professed faith in Christ, came to church, then suddenly stopped and went missing. A year later he was found dead.
The black backdrop of the Home Page is striking in its simplicity. Only two words, in bright bloody red, punch your consciousness like a bony poke in the eye: “to die”!!! A bead of sweat forms upon your brow as you read the horrifying challenge, apparently, mystically, horrifically uttered somehow, by
that…that…decapitated noggin. You stifle a scream as you read the sentence that will unquestionably cause you to click the next step: “learn your fate…find out if you’re…you’re going to die.” Somewhere off in the distance, a dog barks. A woman screams in your mind.
