Amazing Grace: The Storm Is Passing over

One stormy Chicago winter, while walking with my father, a sudden snowstorm arose. Having left my gloves at home--thinking it wasn't cold enough to wear them--I had to put my hands in my pockets. My father said, Son, if it's cold enough for you to put your hands in your pockets, it's cold enough for you to wear your gloves. Dad took his gloves off and handed them to me. We made it home safely through the storm. We all go through difficult times in our lives. However, we don't realize how much trouble we're in until the rough times turn into a storm. God has already given us everything we need to survive any storm--His Word. Instead of reading it and applying it to our lives, we leave it at home, closed up, sitting on the dresser. Amazing Grace tells us that God will forgive us no matter what we've done and that we can be used to fulfill His Will.

Rev. Burton Barr, Jr. has served as an associate minister of the West Side Missionary Baptist Church since 1994. Barr serves as director of the Prison, Substance Abuse, and Outreach Ministries, director of prison ministry for the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri, and the Berean Missionary Baptist District. He is commissioner of prison ministry for the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., chairman of the St. Louis Clergy Coalitions Law and Order Committee, and member of the Coalition of Prison Evangelist (C.O.P.E.), the Eastern Missouri Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty, and the Missionary Baptist Ministers Union of St. Louis & Vicinity. Barr is the author of the best selling autobiography, The Hoodlum Preacher.