There are moments in life when time seems to stand still. Your marriage ceremony when you say "I do", seeing the birth of your first child, the death of a parent, attending an I.R.S. audit.
I was a trial lawyer. I saw time stand still every time a jury is ushered back into the courtroom after reaching a verdict in a criminal case. For many days, weeks or months the defendant and his attorney have been involved in a drama unfolding in the court room. Court clerks and court reporters, bailiffs, witnesses, the judge, the spectators, the prosecutor - all have been actors in the drama and now those days or weeks or months are culminating into a moment suspended in time - a fraction of a minute - where a person's freedom, or life itself, hangs in the balance.
Silence grips the courtroom as every one's attention is focused on the jury. The defendant barely breathes as he waits to hear his fate. The moment seems magnified as the seconds slowly tick from the clock. The judge solemnly asks the jury whether they have reached a verdict. The jury foreman answers affirmatively. The verdict sheet is handed to the court clerk. Often while sitting next to a defendant I have felt that time stands still for the accused. The judge instructs the defendant to stand.
The court clerk reads the words "Guilty" or "Not Guilty." It is a drama that is played out thousands of times each day in the courtrooms of this world.
The words "Not Guilty" mean instant freedom from custody and immediate restoration to friends and family. "Guilty" means that freedom has been snatched from the defendant. Other people will now be responsible for where he lives, what he will eat, what he will wear, whom he will see, when he will wake up and go to sleep, and perhaps even when he will die!
Every man and woman who is born into this world is "on trial." We have been charged with the crime of violating God's law and spurning the love of God. Each of us has been arrested and prosecuted; the evidence has been carefully laid out against us. We have defended ourselves in our own strength, and like many of the defendants that I have represented, we know what verdict the jury must bring to the Judge . . . GUILTY! And at that moment time stands still for each of us too. We stand alone before the Judge. No friends, no family, no church, no pastor to stand between us and the moment of judgment. We stand alone!
I am thankful that time stood still for me in other moments as well. I like to think that when Jesus Christ was born, when He died, when God brought Him from the grave alive forever more, and when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, that my Jury Foreman stood up to face the Judge of the Universe, His Father, and looking at me spoke the words, "NOT GUILTY!"
I too experienced instant freedom, release from prison, restoration and reconciliation with God's family, hope for the future, and a longing to live worthy of my Jury Foreman and my Judge.
I was a trial lawyer. I saw time stand still every time a jury is ushered back into the courtroom after reaching a verdict in a criminal case. For many days, weeks or months the defendant and his attorney have been involved in a drama unfolding in the court room. Court clerks and court reporters, bailiffs, witnesses, the judge, the spectators, the prosecutor - all have been actors in the drama and now those days or weeks or months are culminating into a moment suspended in time - a fraction of a minute - where a person's freedom, or life itself, hangs in the balance.
Silence grips the courtroom as every one's attention is focused on the jury. The defendant barely breathes as he waits to hear his fate. The moment seems magnified as the seconds slowly tick from the clock. The judge solemnly asks the jury whether they have reached a verdict. The jury foreman answers affirmatively. The verdict sheet is handed to the court clerk. Often while sitting next to a defendant I have felt that time stands still for the accused. The judge instructs the defendant to stand.
The court clerk reads the words "Guilty" or "Not Guilty." It is a drama that is played out thousands of times each day in the courtrooms of this world.
The words "Not Guilty" mean instant freedom from custody and immediate restoration to friends and family. "Guilty" means that freedom has been snatched from the defendant. Other people will now be responsible for where he lives, what he will eat, what he will wear, whom he will see, when he will wake up and go to sleep, and perhaps even when he will die!
Every man and woman who is born into this world is "on trial." We have been charged with the crime of violating God's law and spurning the love of God. Each of us has been arrested and prosecuted; the evidence has been carefully laid out against us. We have defended ourselves in our own strength, and like many of the defendants that I have represented, we know what verdict the jury must bring to the Judge . . . GUILTY! And at that moment time stands still for each of us too. We stand alone before the Judge. No friends, no family, no church, no pastor to stand between us and the moment of judgment. We stand alone!
I am thankful that time stood still for me in other moments as well. I like to think that when Jesus Christ was born, when He died, when God brought Him from the grave alive forever more, and when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, that my Jury Foreman stood up to face the Judge of the Universe, His Father, and looking at me spoke the words, "NOT GUILTY!"
I too experienced instant freedom, release from prison, restoration and reconciliation with God's family, hope for the future, and a longing to live worthy of my Jury Foreman and my Judge.
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