Sid Roth

LINDA: So I finally said, “Yes”. And I thought, “Okay, I got that over and he’s going to help me with that.” But he no sooner let me say, “Yes” that he came back with something else. Sid, he said to me, and it was absolutely with purest love, his words came with just such compassion. He says, “And Linda, I want you to embrace Ray as a son.” As a son.

SID: The man that brutally murdered her daughter. Embrace, not only forgive, but embrace as a son. You couldn’t do that.

LINDA: There was no way. There was no way. If I had not already been prepared to—

SID: You could have forgiven him, but you could not have embraced him as a son.

LINDA: No. No, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to do. I would love to tell you that I was this powerful woman of God that just immediately said, “Oh, yes. I’ll do anything you want,”, but that would be a lie. I sort of bantered back and forth in my Spirit. I never said, “No” but I thought, “No.” I’ll tell you, I thought, “No.” I thought, “No, no, no, no, no. We’re not doing this.”

LINDA: But I did finally say, “Yes, Lord. I know you would never ask me to do something you won’t help me to do”, and as soon as I did, I opened my mouth and said, “Yes, I will. Help me.” That’s exactly what I said. “Yes, I will. Help me.” And instantly, I was just overtaken with a river of grace unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I was so saturated. Even my blood cells and my tissues and my organs, everything knew I was overtaken with grace.

SID: After that grace came on you, you actually wrote a letter to Ray, that young man.

LINDA: I did. I did, I sat down that morning at the kitchen table and I wrote him a letter and I told him that I forgave him and I said a couple of other things about how I hoped that he would meet the Jesus that had enabled me to do that. And I sent that letter by the way of a pastor at the church that I was attending, the pastor in charge of Prison Ministry.

LINDA: And so that sort of began a thing in Ray’s life. Just many, many steps to many other things came along, too. The sentence was premeditated first degree murder. In the state of Florida, the only options for that are either life without parole or the death penalty. So the two attorneys called me, his attorney and the state attorney called me and they said, “This is what you have to choose from and what would you like, which would you prefer?” And I said, “Neither. I don’t want either.” And they thought, “Well, this poor woman just doesn’t understand the law. Let’s explain it again.” So they explained it again and said, “Okay, now which of these two do you want?” I said, “Neither.” I don’t want either—

SID: They didn’t know about the grace that came all over.

LINDA: No. I said, “No”—

SID: I don’t think she could have done that on her own. I don’t think you could have, Linda.

LINDA: I could not. I could not.

SID: I don’t think so.

LINDA: No, no, no. I could not. And so the state attorney, the prosecuting attorney said, “Well, we’re just going to have to call you back, Mrs. Markowitz, because we’re going to have to discuss this.” I said, “Well, just make sure you understand. I don’t want either sentence.”

LINDA: And so they called me back a little bit later and they offered me a couple of choices and I said, “No, this is what I want. I want him to have an eligibility for parole. I want him to pay for the crime. I want him to have the consequence, but I want him to have an eligibility for parole in a reasonable amount of time.”

LINDA: And they changed the sentence. They changed the sentence, Sid, because that’s the only way they could do that and give him what I asked for. They changed the sentence.

SID: And over the time he served, he became a very strong believer in the Messiah.

LINDA: He did.

SID: And not only did he become a strong believer in the Messiah, what does he call you?

LINDA: He calls me Mom. He calls me Mom.

SID: He served how many years?

LINDA: A little over 24. A little over 24 years. Yeah.