I was out on bail looking at a 150-year sentence, which meant I’d spend the rest of my life in prison.  I fled to California, and then headed to the East Coast.  I stopped to see my wife and children in Colorado, and that’s where the bounty hunter found me.  “Today might be the day we both die,” I told him when he kicked our back door in.  Every time I’d been arrested I had been carrying a weapon, so he believed I had a gun.  I got him to wait on the back porch but couldn’t decide what to do next.  I didn’t have a gun.  I didn’t have any money.  I didn’t have anyone who could help me.  The bounty hunter called the police and they surrounded our block.  For five hours they tried to get me to surrender.

       I slit my wrists after four hours, hoping I would bleed to death.  Then I found a staple gun, covered it with a towel and went out on the front porch.  They shot me six times with their beanbags as soon as I stepped outside.  I was so high on cocaine that the bullets only made me angry.  Then they set a German shepherd on me, but I beat it off.  I lifted my arm over my head to get rid of the pain from the dog bites.  The police saw the metal of my staple gun and opened fire.  Five bullets hit me, and I spent the next month in a coma.

       When I came out of it I had to cough into a tube to clear out my lungs.  My intestines spilled out of the hole the doctors had left in my chest.  My heart stopped & I passed out. While unconscious, I saw two people.  Jesus was on one side; the devil was on the other.  There was a wide space between them.  Satan motioned for me to join him.  “Come on”, he coaxed me, “I know you want to be with me. I own you & you do what I want you to & always have. Come!”

Jesus looked at me & softly said, “I love you & died for you. Come. I’ll change your heart.” I told Jesus I wanted to be with Him, and my heart started beating.  If I had turned to satan, I believe I would have died.

Who do you want to be with?  Jesus or satan?  In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If any of you hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in.”  Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart right now, the same way He did with me.  Why don’t you ask Him to come in?

        Yes, I’m serving time as a lifer, but I’m serving Jesus in this penitentiary. I get lonely, but I’m never alone. He is with me always. I have total peace for the first time in my life. A man came to this penitentiary to preach. I saw him in many movies, always playing the villain. His sermon was filled with verse & scripture. Now it is so clear that even though I’ll never get out of prison, the words he spoke gave me new  hope & encouragement. I don’t have those down days now. This is where I am, but I have an appointment with Jesus who will take me to my eternal home. He gave us all a powerful prayer called Arsenal that we pray daily. Peace is such a joy.           

                                                                                      Brother Ernie