LIFE ABOVE REPROACH

Michael Camou

To all my Christian Brothers in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, may the Grace and Mercy of our Heavenly Father bring love and holiness into your lives.  I want all who read this letter to fully understand just how much the Life Above Reproach, discipleship program, has opened my comprehension of the Holy Gospel of Christ.  This is my second time through the program, and I have already signed up for the next session.  My life has brightened like it has never been before with the love I feel when reading God’s Word.

There are so many facts about God’s Word that I never knew before taking the Life Above Reproach program.  The Hebrews are God’s chosen people, but they were/are known in Scripture as “stiff necked” because they never believed the Gospel that Christ gave them during His time with them prior to the Crucifixion.  So God, in His awesome wisdom, gave us the Gospel of Grace, given to Paul on the road to Damascus.  Jesus Christ, after being crucified, died, having been buried and then rising on the third day, cleansed mankind of “all” sin; past, present, and future.  We have been sanctified by the blood of Christ Jesus.

The Gospel given to Paul by Christ Jesus, Himself, is the Gospel of Salvation.  It is the Gospel that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:1.  The Gospel of Grace that cannot be obtained by works, but is a free gift given to us by our Heavenly Father, by the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Like a lot of people, after I was arrested and put in the county jail, I started reading my Bible.  I turned to God because I was in trouble, in need of help; and because I had always believed in God, I thought He would answer my prayers.  I even went to the Lieutenant of the jail and asked him if they could find a priest or minister that could come into the jail and give us Bible study.  He found a pastor in a nearby Protestant church that would give freely of his time once a week, every Thursday night.  So a new Bible study was started, and eventually we ended up with about ten regular attendees.

I was feeling the Lord, and I felt like I had a hold of my life once again.  I fully believed that because I was reading my Bible every day, saying my prayers, not asking for myself; but for the poor, needy, and homeless people that God would, at the right time, answer the prayers I was going to ask when my trial started.  Like God would understand why I waited to ask for myself until that time it was I who needed it the most, and He wouldn’t think that I was trying to work His system of mercy, grace and love.  What a fool am I!

To make a long story short, when the jury was on their second day of deliberation, I believed everything was going to go my way.  The guards who were watching over me during the trial told me that the longer the jury was out, the better it was for me.  That meant that they were having trouble getting together on a verdict.  Then on the third day, one of the guards came down and told me that they had been yelling at each other all day and kept asking for different parts of the testimony from some of the D.A.’s witnesses.  I was happy, thinking (actually knowing) that God was working it all out for me and that I would get the manslaughter charge my attorney had stated I should get.  Finally on the fourth day, I was found guilty of 1^st degree murder with special circumstances.

At first, I was hurt, in pain, and I felt betrayed.  God’s Word says that “If you believe with all your heart when you pray that God will answer your prayers.”  Why hadn’t He answered my prayers?  I had believed in God my whole life.  I was raised Catholic.  I had gone to Catholic school, gone to church every Sunday until I was 15 years old.  I was baptized, made my first holy communion, and my confirmation.  I went to Catechism; I prayed every day.  Why had God denied me?  Why had He abandoned me?  I was angry that God had not lived up to what He promised me.  How selfish was I?

Since you have already read my testimony, I won’t bore you with all the details again; but in 2012, I was born again!  God took me back once again into His family.  He forgave me for being obstinate, for my ignorance, and for not believing that He “was” in the process of answering my prayers.  By His grace and mercy and by the power of His most Holy Spirit, God helped me to understand that He “IS” in control of everything no matter what I said or did.  He LOVES ME, and HE will always be with me.  Like Jesus said to Paul in 2^nd Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for thee:  for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Jesus will never give us more than we can handle.  Whenever we feel that we’re all alone and we can’t take anymore, Christ Jesus will give us the strength to get past whatever evil has been thrown at us by the evil one.

I don’t know if any of this has made sense to any of you that read this; but, the most important thing to take away from my letter is that God loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit will guide you through all aspects of your life.  That is if you believe in Jesus Christ, believe in His death, burial, and resurrection.  Believe that He is the Holy Son of God and that He will never leave you!  We were all made in the image of God so that we could have a relationship with Him.  God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and He wants to walk with us too.  When the trumpet of God sounds, the dead in Christ will rise first, then us believers will meet the Lord in the sky and be with the Lord in heaven for eternity.  Amen!