"Convinced Jesus is Just for Religious Types? Or Can He Change A Mafia Boss?"

Today, I met a man who used to run one of the biggest mafias in Yugoslavia.

Each month he'd garner millions of dollars from his vast web of casinos and entanglements of gambling. He was a mafia boss. He took money from people, because he thought money could satisfy him.

But it didn't.

Instead, he found what truly could satisfy him.

Tonight, in front of hundreds of students on a wintry January evening in Greyfriar's Church in the middle of Edinburgh, Slavko shared his story.

As a teenager, he grew up making bad jokes about God, cursing him, and doing away with any form of religion. He dropped out of university to take a job at a casino, which then snowballed into working for the mafia, being hired by the big kahuna, and then eventually becoming the big mafia boss himself.

He tried to find satisfaction in money, power, prestige, and influence. He tried to find satisfaction in the things of this world.

I can empathize. It's so easy to try to find fulfillment in careers, relationships, fame, fortune, appearance and reputation.
That used to be me: trying to find my worth in what I do instead of in what He has already done.

But God is the God who is able to change the hardest of hearts.

Slavko is not the same man he used to be.

Today, he is a big jolly man with a quick wit and unabashed sense of humor.  On fire for God and filled with the Holy Spirit, Slavko imparted wisdom about the Lord to us students, and gave us encouragement to grow deeper in relationship with God.

When war broke out, he remembers the day he stepped inside a church, and guess what: he just started talking to God. He asked God, if you're real, please help me believe.

And God answered.

 

Even though he needed special permission to cross the borders and leave the country to flee the war, Slavko was able to escape because the policeman at the border waived him through. Slavko attributed that to God.

Slavko said prayer is powerful. When his daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, he prayed. When he had to undergo chemotherapy not just once but twice for cancer, he prayed. In all things, he prays. Slavko knows that God always hears our prayers and answers them --- God may not answer them in the way we want Him to or the way we envision it to be, but we can hold onto God's promises that He is with us always. In every trial, in every part of life, God is with us. God is enough. God satisfies our hearts.

old dude behind photobombed me & Slavko haha

So.

Is Jesus just for religious types?

Or can Jesus change the heart of a mafia boss?