Hey everyone,
Been a while since I have blogged. I have had a lot on my mind and have a lot to discuss. However, I will just talk about Last Nights (May 7th) Wednesday Night Radiate Service.
May 7th was the twelve year anniversary of the death of my childhood best friend Billy Bowman. So last night I felt led to speak to the teenagers about Billy and his life.
(I will give you a quick short version of Billy's story)
Billy was a little guy, so little that he wanted to be a jockey. Billy and I met in the 3rd grade and we were best friends. We hung out all the time. However, Billy moved a lot and as time past. Billy and I didn't get to see each other much. Billy was such a lovable kid and had the favor of God on his life.
Billy was then shot and killed by a person he thought was a friend on May 7, 1996 just one day after his 12th Birthday. He did nothing to provoke him.
The person that killed him Kenneth Eastridge got away with it. Because of him being a minor he didn't have to do certain things that an 18 year old will have to do.
However, recently Kenneth was on trail for Murder again. This time in Colorado, come to find out he went to the Military and in Iraq killed some people over there too.
It reminds me of the scripture Numbers 32:23 "..your sin will one day find you out"
His sin sure did find him out. However, God allowed twelve years to past before punishment had to be paid. I believe that was because God was giving Kenneth an opportunity to REPENT. The same way he did with Cain in the bible after Cain killed his brother Able.
Cain tried cover up his sin and so did Kenneth. However, as we learn with Adam and Eve. You can not cover your own sin. They made fig leaves as clothes after they sin when they realized they were naked. God had to provide a sacrifice by killing an animal and giving them covering for there sin and shame.
That same thing points to Jesus Christ. We try to do things to cover up our sin. It's like we put fig leaves over us. However, God has to provide the covering so he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross as our covering. As long as we REPENT we receive that covering.
Last night, many teenagers came to the Alter to finally put away their covering and grab a hold of God's covering for their sin.
God even spoke through one of the teenagers Joel who gave a word from the Lord that we as a church need to stop being lazy and to start preaching the Gospel and showing the love of Christ and read the word of God everyday.
It was definitely a happy ending to a start of a tragic story of my friend Billy Bowman.
Romans 8:28 says, "all things work together for the Good for them that love the Lord.."
Billy's death made a lot of us question why he would die so young. It was because of fruit of his life to have other people and Teenagers coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so they to can have eternal life in Christ as I believe Billy has.
Thank you God for putting me in a position to share the life of Billy and your Holy Word.
Freak Out,
Daniel Spencer
