THE TRIAL

After living a "decent" life,
my time on earth
came to an end. The first
thing I remember is sitting
on a bench in the
waiting room of what I
thought to be a court house.

The doors opened
and I was instructed to
come in and have a seat by
the defense table. As I
looked around I saw
the "prosecutor," he was a
villainous looking
gent who snarled as he
stared at me, he definitely
was the most evil
person I have ever seen.

I sat down and looked to my
left and there sat my
lawyer, a kind and gentle
looking man whose appearance
seemed very familiar
to me.

The corner door flew open and
there appeared the
judge in full flowing
robes. He commanded an
awesome presence as he
moved across the room and I
couldn't take my eyes off of
him. As he took his
seat behind the bench he
said, "Let us begin,"
The prosecutor rose and said,
"My name is Satan
and I am here to show you
why this man belongs in
Hell." He proceeded to
tell of lies that I told,
things that I stole and in
the past when I
cheated others. Satan told of
other horrible perversions
that were once in my
life and the more he
spoke, the further down in my
seat I sank. I was
so embarrassed that I
couldn't look at anyone, even
my own lawyer, as
the Devil told of sins
that even I had completely
forgotten about.

As upset as I was at Satan
for telling all these
things about me, I was
equally upset at my
representative who sat there
silently, not offering
any form of defense at all.
I know I had been
guilty of those things, but
I had done some good in my
life - couldn't that
at least equal out part of
the harm I've done?

Satan finished with a fury
and said "This man
belongs in Hell, he is
guilty of all that I have
charged and there is
not a person who can prove
otherwise."

When it was his turn, my
lawyer first asked if he
might approach the
bench. The judge allowed
this, over the strong
objection of Satan, and
beckoned him to come forward.

As he got up and
started walking, I was
able to see him now in his
full splendor and
majesty. Now I realized why
he seemed so familiar, this
was Jesus representing me,
my Lord and my Savior.

He stopped at the
bench and softly said
to the judge "Hi Dad" and
then he turned to address the
court.

"Satan was correct in saying
that this man had
sinned, I won't deny any of
these allegations. And yes,
the wage of sins is
death and this man
deserves to be punished."
Jesus took a deep
breath and turned to his
Father with outstretched arms
and proclaimed,
"However, I died on the
cross so that this person
might have eternal life
and he has accepted me
as his Savior, so he is
mine."
My Lord continued with "His
name is written in
the Book of Life and no one
can snatch him from me.
Satan still does not
understand yet, this man is
not to be given justice, but
rather mercy." As
Jesus sat down, he quietly
paused, looked at his Father
and replied, "There
is nothing else that
needs to be done, I've done
it all."

The Judge lifted his mighty
hand and slammed the
gavel down and the
following words bellowed from
his lips, "This man
is free - the penalty
for him has already been paid
in full, case dismissed."

As my Lord led me away I
could hear Satan ranting
and raving, "I won't
give up, I'll win the next
one!"
I asked Jesus as he gave me
my instructions on
where to go next, "Have you
ever lost a case?"
Christ lovingly smiled and
said, "Everyone that
has come to me and asked
me to represent them has
received the same
verdict as you . . . Paid in Full."

In this world of terrible
hurt, pain, suffering,
and extreme self-centered
focus to the exclusion of
everyone else, there
are times when logic,
thought, discussion, etc., do
nothing. It is in
these times that I have
learned that I have only one
place to turn to
ease the pain.