A Change Of Heart

Things changed on February 9, 1960. Adolf Coors III was kidnapped and held for ransom. His family was terrified and Mrs. Coors told the kids that they would probably never see their father again. Seven months later Mr. Coors body was found on a remote hillside. The beer magnate had been reduced to a mere pile of bones as his son describes it.

Adolf Coors IV, then fifteen years old, lost both his father and best friend. For years the young boy who had been taken to church and dropped off by his parents to hear sermons on forgiveness and love harbored a deep hatred for the man who killed his father, Joseph Corbett. Mr. Corbett was sentenced for the slaying, but that did not relieve the sting of hatred Adolf Coors IV felt for the man.

Then in 1975 Adolf Coors became a Christian. While he divested himself of his interest in the family beer business, he could not rid himself of the hatred that consumed him. He prayed to God for help because he realized how his hatred for Corbett was alienating him from God and others. Then one day, the Lord moved Adolf to visit Colorado’s Canon City penitentiary and tried to talk with Corbett. Corbett refused to see him. Coors left a Bible inscribed with this message: "I’m here to see you today and I’m sorry that we could not meet. As a Christian I am summoned by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to forgive. I do forgive you, and I ask you to forgive me for the hatred I’ve held in my heart for you." Later Coors confessed, "I have a love for that man that only Jesus Christ could have put in my heart." The sting of his father’s death and his own inability to forgive a fellow sinner led Adolf Coors to a real faith, a humble faith in Jesus Christ.

I don’t know the circumstances of your life. I don’t have any idea what tragedy or loss in your life has led to a wall of resentment and anger in your heart towards God, but I want to encourage you, I want to invite you today to cry out to the God who can raise you from the depths of despair and disappointment. Won’t you invite Jesus Christ to come into your life and begin to tear down the wall that separates you from God?

Mike Hays

Britton Christian Church

922 NW 91st

Oklahoma City, OK. 73114

January 12, 2003

bccpreacherman@aol.com