Finding Jesus at MurderCon

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I did something this past weekend I never in my wildest of imaginings thought I’d be doing. I attended an online conference called MurderCon.

Yep. This little old getting-grayer-by-the-day grandma (DD in our family) hung out with some of the finest writers around. We had in common that we all try to figure out how to kill people and then write about murder scenes, police interrogations, autopsies, reading the blood spatter on the walls, forensics across the board, and a whole host of other things. The point of the classes was so that we, as authors, get it right. We don’t want y’all throwing our books across the room because we described something incorrectly.

TAUGHT BY THE BEST

We were taught by the best in the business. Just to give you an idea of who they are, the teacher of the toxicology classes, Dr. Michael Rieders, is considered the number one expert in the country.

Also in the teaching arena were experts in fingerprint gathering and analysis, entomologists (believe me, you don’t want to see those slides), pros at interrogation and interview, and human tracking experts. We had detectives of the highest ranks and with years of service beneath their belts. Some are still actively serving today.

One huge take-away from this is—do not stand for the blue-bashing going on in our country today. True, we will all admit there may be a handful of bad apples in any line of work, but these men and women put their lives on the line in ways you cannot begin to imagine. And the things they’ve seen would make your eyes bug out and your stomach do a double flip and back again.

Bottom line? We owe every single one of them a huge debt of gratitude. Honestly, I don’t know how they do this day in and day out. They are made of tougher stuff than I.

BLOOD SPATTERS ON THE WALL

Here is one thing that kind of said whoa to me as he was teaching it.

Dr. David Alford taught the blood spatter classes. It wasn’t as gory as it sounds. And this was online so there were no smells or other nasty things accompanying the demonstrations. Besides, if you didn’t want to watch, you could turn your head. Believe me, I did that more than once over the two days.

One of the questions asked of Dr. Alford was where they get the blood they use in these demonstrations.

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THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

It’s sheep blood, processed in a lab in California, and is used because it is without diseases. In Biblical terms, it is without blemish (I don’t know what the sheep looked like, I only know about their blood). It will not do harm to the officers and teachers who need such because it is disease-free. And here’s the kicker. It has the same qualities as human blood.

This immediately took my mind to the blood of the lamb. The Sacrificial Lamb, Jesus. His blood was human, yet He was fully divine, too. He would do no harm to anyone, but like these officers, He was willing to lay down His life for you and me.

You may find it weird for one to start out talking about a conference called MurderCon and wind up talking about Jesus, but isn’t that what our daily lives should do?

We should seek Him in all we do and honor Him in all we say and do every single day.

I never expected to meet Jesus at this conference, yet, there He was, reminding me of the Blood of the Lamb, poured out for you and for me. I expected to gain new knowledge, which I did, but to encounter Jesus in the midst of all the death we saw over those two days was like having Peace pour into my soul in the midst of a storm. For that, I am thankful.

Blessings, y’all!

 

I’m adding a personal note here. Don’t think I wasn’t affected adversely by all the dead bodies we witnessed over those two days. It was so out of my scope of normal, and I found myself praying over every single person who appeared on the screen. God bless them. We live in a cruel world where none of us is exempt from evil, but there is One who has already won the victory over all the evil of this world. If you don’t know Jesus, please contact me and let me share Him and His sacrifice for YOU with you today. He loves you so much, He died for you.

 

I first heard this on a Robert Morris plan, The God I Never Knew, on the YouVersion Bible App. If you’ve not done that plan, you should as it has blessed us beyond measure. I love this song! I’d never heard it before and Leona Rupert is outstanding! It seems appropriate for my subject here this week. I hope it blesses you.