Tuesday May 16, 2017

 

When Nicky was twenty-three years old, newly married, and just a few years after his conversion, he and his wife Gloria had their first daughter, Alicia. Nicky still had not figured out how to be a decent husband much less a proper father to his daughter. In the back of his mind, he could still hear the words of that court-appointed psychiatrist telling him “you will never be normal”. On five separate occasions, that psychiatrist told Nicky, “ […] there is no way that you will ever have a normal family. With a past like yours, you will never be able to make a marriage last. You will be a wife beater, and you will abuse your kids if you ever have any. You have a dark side in your life that is killing you, killing you slowly but surely. You do not know how to love, and you do not know how to be loved”.

 

In his book, One Holy Fire, Nicky writes about the devastating effect the words of that psychiatrist had on him. He tells how he feared interacting with his first-born daughter for the first four weeks of her life. That was until his wife Gloria confronted him one day and asked, “Nicky, why don’t you ever want to hold your daughter?” After asking him persistently, Nicky finally responded, “Because I don’t know how”. To which Gloria responded, “Then let me show you how”. She gently scooped Alicia into Nicky’s arms and a few seconds later; she was lying across Nicky’s chest. Nicky recounts: I held her tiny body against my chest; I could feel the warmth of her soft skin against mine. At that instant a wave of emotions began to well up in me. It was overwhelming and tears began forming in my eyes.

 

The birth of Alicia was the catalyst that allowed Nicky to realize that God had changed him and was in the process of transforming him from a savage incapable of giving or feeling love into a man who loved his wife and daughter in ways he could never imagine. As he held his daughter close to his heart, he felt a love he had never before experienced in his life. It was at that very moment that Nicky’s past came to an end and a new future was just beginning.

 

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

 

Like Nicky, you probably believed what others have spoken to you in the past, believed that that there are areas in your life that will never change, but the same God who changed Nicky is ready and able to give you a new future free from your past.

 

 

If you reside in the Miami area, or if you plan on visiting, I would like to invite you to come and hear Nicky speak live on Sunday May 21 at 9am or at 11:30am. This is a ticketed event but tickets are FREE of charge so bring a friend. To download your free ticket please visit: http://www.nickycruzmiami2017.com