A story from Chuck' Colson's life - just a few months after his conversion.....
...a faith that does not do this, which stops with the belief that being "saved" is the whole Christian experience, is dead and denies Christ's concern for all mankind. It is like a baby dying in infancy; the child may be born healthy, but his life will have little or no impact on others.
Grasping this concept {of living a life of total obedience to God} was a turning point for me, as it is, I suspect for many Christians. God, I know understood, was working a powerful transformation in my thought habits and forcing me to think about what it really means to live as a disciple of Christ.
And as so often happened when I did this, Al Quie's face appeared in my mind. In January 1974 Al had telephoned me in prison and said he had learned of a little known statute that permits one man to serve the prison term for another. Al knew how heavy were the problems in my family, particularly with Chris' {his son} arrest. When he offered to take my place in prison so I could return home, I was staggered.
Al Quie was then one of the most respected members of the House of Representatives, having spent 20 hears in Congress, and had become the ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, a pillar of integrity, who in 1978 would become governor of Minnesota. I couldn't believe that he would endanger one of the most illustrious careers in American politics. "I've been led to do this," was his explanation.
I knew at that moment beyond all possible arguments that Christ lives. He was real in Al Quie's life. He had to be. Nothing less than the presence of the living God could make a man risk so much for another.
From Life Sentence, by Chuck Colson
{I love this story from Chuck Colson's life -- what a testimony
of faith and courage it must have been to him as a new Christian and what a great example for him to follow as he began his new ministry as a writer and as founder of Prison Fellowship.}
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