RAZOR'S EDGE

I recently got a book called, RAZOR'S EDGE by Bob Armstrong. Bob is an amazing man with a heart after God, he has served the Lord in many different capacities in many different countries. I had the wonderful pleasure of having a rather close relationship with Mr. Armstrong for a year... Unfortunately we had to meet at the Federal Prison Camp in Estill, SC.
When I received his book, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, Bob is a very brilliant man and most unpredictable! It didn't take long for me to see that this was about his experience in prison. The further I got into the book, the more I realized just how different our experiences were. For example, I was in prison because I had done illegal things with people's information. He on the other hand was in a business with a dishonest man and sadly enough both had to pay the price for the work of one man.
I want to open the door a little bit more into what life is like behind the barbed wire. My journey really began in Miami in January of 2006. I was a total cocaine addict and would snort basically anything that was powder. I was up to an eight ball a day (3 1/2 grams). I was also a raging alcoholic, I did the drugs not only to have a good time, but also to stay coherent enough to work and just live. I was a mess, an expensive mess.
One day a guy who I worked with invited me out for a drink after work. He asked me if I wanted to make some extra money and of coarse I said, "YES!" He let me in on his "little secret" to making extra cash. All I had to do was collect and share people's information. In fact I didn't even need to know the information, just collect and transport. Easy right? I was thinking, Man! This will pay for all the drugs I want, every night is going to be fabulous!
That lasted about 3 months and I had had enough. I was so overtaken by guilt, I just couldn't stand myself any longer. I was also out of control, I hated myself and my life. I remember being in the bathroom at work smoking crystal meth and I looked into the mirror and remembered the 16 year old kid who wanted to be a minister. Where had he gone? Who was I? Where was God?
I moved back home to Fernandina, Florida in April of 2006. My life was in total shambles. Praise God that my brother, James and my sister-in-law Jessica took me in and put up with me. I soon found a job and things were getting better. I had started to come back to church a little and I was beginning to play around with the idea of God being real and out there somewhere. In about 3 months I was to a point where I was able to move out on my own again.
I was doing "good" for a while, I was clean, sober and even managed to quite smoking. It just wasn't lasting, without Christ! It reminds me of Matthew 12:43-45
43"When an evil[f] spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
This is the condition of trying on our own to fix the problem without Christ. I started smoking and then drinking and finally drugs all over. I was still attending church, often still drunk and high from the previous night. It was all a game, but little did I know that God was about to invade my life...with His love!