<\/p>\n
Eight weeks in jail. One book: The Bible.<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 Schrader knew something about this book. He had been baptized as a child, went to church at Christmas, and even sang in a children\u2019s choir. In 7th grade, a teacher told him how Jesus was crucified, and how the temple curtain tore from top to bottom the moment of his death. \u201cThat story gave me goosebumps! But I didn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Ren\u00e9 sat in a cell with nothing to do and plenty of time. He picked up the Bible and read. Two weeks later he finished. \u201cI understood the Bible was a good book. The stories were interesting. They had lots of details that didn\u2019t sound made-up.\u201d Ren\u00e9 wondered if the stories could be true, but he didn\u2019t investigate further.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years passed. Much happened. Then one day Ren\u00e9 woke up from surgery and felt empty. Nothing helped\u2014not friends, games, or drugs. He realized his emptiness was spiritual. It was time to dig into the Bible.<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 watched videos and found helpful online commentaries. He started to understand basic Christian teaching. Sin, grace, Christ, redemption. He listened to Christian apologists defend the doctrine of the Trinity. Father and Son were familiar, but who is the Holy Spirit?<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 picked up his Bible and searched. This was not easy! He read how Jesus taught his disciples the night before he died. Jesus made a promise, \u201cThe Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. The Spirit of truth will testify about me. He will guide you into all truth.\u201d (See John 14:26, 15:26, 16:13).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more I looked up passages about the Holy Spirit, the more I figured out about Jesus.\u201d One day Ren\u00e9 finally understood. It\u2019s true! Jesus is God in the flesh. He died for the sins of the world. \u201cHe died for me.\u201d He rose from the dead. \u201cI felt the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. I didn\u2019t have to carry it anymore because Jesus already carried it for me.\u201d Ren\u00e9 wept, overwhelmed with relief.<\/p>\n
Today Ren\u00e9 is a seminary student in Leipzig, Germany. \u201cI still don\u2019t know how I got here!\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cWhen I told my mom that I was studying for ministry, she said, \u2018Finally you are doing something good with your life!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 now shares the Savior with many people \u2013 including his mother. \u201cYou know, mom, Jesus loves you. He died for you. \u2018For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life\u2019 (John 3:16). What do you think about that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s beautiful,\u201d she murmurs \u2026<\/p>\n
From Luke Wolfgramm, WELS Europe Team Leader<\/em><\/p>\n Pictured: Ren\u00e9 (right) with fellow seminary student Benjamin Hugk (left)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eight weeks in jail. One book: The Bible. Ren\u00e9 Schrader knew something about this book. He had been baptized as a child, went to church at Christmas, and even sang in a children\u2019s choir. In 7th grade, a teacher told him how Jesus was crucified, and how the temple curtain tore from top to bottom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1354,348,10322,290],"class_list":["post-30971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-faces","tag-faith","tag-rene","tag-wels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}