Jesus is able to save and transform absolutely anyone.
In a shocking interview with Isaiah Saldivar, T.J. O’Donnell shared his remarkable testimony of how he met Christ after doing the unthinkable: shooting at a man.
During his young adulthood, O’Donnell found himself deep in the lifestyle of drinking, drugs, gang activity and sexual immorality. Then one night at a rowdy party the unimaginable happened: he pulled the trigger on someone.
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Encountering a group of men who were intoxicated while O’Donnell himself was full of substances, the group ruffled him toward violence. Deciding he didn’t want to shoot someone, O’Donnell “popped off a couple rounds.” Then, as the taunting continued, O’Donnell says he “snapped” and watched as gunfire hit a man.
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Now being on a quick dash away from the police, O’Donnell scaled a wall, ran through wooded areas and then saw a white shed in which he darted into. He felt that if he could get to the shed he would make it.
“Everything stopped,” O’Donnell says. “And I literally saw like this video replay of my life. Every person I hurt. Everything I did to ruin my life. And then I saw this picture of my mom and the pain I put my mom through…I started weeping like, ‘What have I done to my life?‘”
Then, O’Donnell describes a miraculous sense of peace come upon the shed in that moment.
” I’ve felt deep depression. I’ve felt darkness. I’ve felt pain. And I’ve felt all kinds of things in my life. I’ve felt happiness, but I never felt anything like this. This overwhelming peace almost illuminated the shed came upon me. And I just looked up and I said, ‘God, this has to be you.’ And I said, ‘God, I don’t know what to do. All I know is I can’t handle this. And if You’re real, and You could get me out of this mess and make it all go away, I’ll give you my life.'”
/**/The man that O’Donnell shot ended up living, and he was two years in prison, something he felt grateful for compared to a life sentence. Receiving a Bible and a cellmate who told O’Donnell about the gospel, his life changed forever from death to life.
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“I received Christ into my life, and I felt the weight lift off,” says O’Donnell.
This story is a reminder that God will chase down the one from the 99 each and every time to find the lost sheep and bring them into His arms.
Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
