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No matter how much transformation a person has demonstrated, no matter how far they've come in overcoming (and making restitution for) past bad behaviors, no matter what their age or any mitigating circumstances at the time of their offense, no matter if they felt coerced into a plea deal to avoid the threat of an interminably lengthy prison sentence, it can still be nearly impossible for anyone charged with a crime to get a job, a place to live or other needed help to start a new life.
But here are a few of the notable characters in the Bible who have anything but an unblemished record.
Take the Lawgiver Moses, who was guilty of murdering an Egyptian he found beating a Hebrew slave, and who then buried his victim in a shallow grave and fled the country as a fugitive from justice for forty years. Yet he was called to be the liberator of God's oppressed people.
Or King David, guilty of being a voyeur and a rapist and who then plotted a murder as a way of obstructing justice. After finally repenting of his crimes and taking full responsibility for his evil doing, he was given a second chance and is remembered as Israel's most beloved king.
Or take Christianity's most famous first century missionary, the apostle Paul. His background included collusion with the brutal lynching of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, and multiple terrorist attacks on members of the early church. But in spite of his criminal record, he became one of the most revered and widely read of all of the authors of the New Testament.
In Jesus' upside down kingdom, wrongdoers are invited to become transformed and accountable members of God's community of grace, the fellowship of the restored.
No matter what's in their blemished past.
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2015/11/we-are-all-sex-offenders.html
Yea !!
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