Fred Howell:  

Hi, it's December 12, 2008. Merry Christmas everyone, I pray you are all safe and happy during this holiday season of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Today is a great day and may yours be blessed. I just got out of spending 10 days in jail for a DWI I got last January. I was gonna fight it all the way to trial and decided for the better of me to take a pre-trial diversion to avoid possible consequences and I felt the punishment would actually do my soul some good. Good can come from a bad thing if it is used for God's glory. And in all honesty I was blessed while in jail. I spent the majority of my time reading the bible. I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Josea, Micah, Joel, Jonah, and some small parts of Acts and other various books. My point is, from spending so much time with God, my heart poured out to Him. I went from someone who fell asleep everytime he started to read the bible to being a man yearning to read. I feel alot of it was because I was locked up, at least at first. The true miracle I feel was the fact that here I was in some 20 x 40 foot cell (roughly) with no way out and 12-15 people that randomly came and went, but all of them for the most part with the foulest mouths I had ever heard, I was trying to read in the midst of some of the ludest of curse words and blasphemy, and my heart would sink to the point of crying out for them to stop cussing so much. Fear won that battle. I continued to read, and finally started to hum silently to block out some of the filth. And then in prayer God game me a small hymn to create between Him and I. Still the miracle happened the last day I was in the cell. You see, while reading the gospels of Jesus Christ, I found my heart transforming and the feeling of sharing God's word grew stronger and stronger, because there is only one truth. And the more I read Jesus's words about sharing to others and reaching nation to nation, I had prayed in my hear that I could find that opportunity in this sinful place I was in. For Jesus didn't come to save the righteous, but to find the lost sheep. only the sick need a physician. My heart was boisterous and still today I feel the presence of God wit...Expand for more