Amanda Blackburn, the pregnant wife of Indiana pastor Davey Blackburn, who was brutally murdered on Nov. 10, expressed her love for Jesus and shared her favorite hymn in a heartbreaking journal entry penned mere hours before her death.
On Monday, Pastor Blackburn shared a copy of the journal entry in a Twitter post with the caption, "Amanda's last prayer journal entry on Monday, Nov 9th #NothingIsWasted #ToJesusBeTheGlory."
In feminine handwriting, Amanda thanks God for blessing Resonate Church, which she and her husband planted in 2012, and reflects on the lyrics of Helen H. Lemmel's 1922 hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus."
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace," she wrote.
"What an amazing Sunday yesterday that filled my heart to see so many people in your church. Learning, growing, meeting you and taking next steps. Thank you for letting me get to see all of this [with] my own eyes. I love you Lord. Glory and praise to you," the entry ended.
In a follow-up tweet to the journal entry, Davey noted: "Amanda was not well-traveled, well-read, or well-to-do but the moment she stepped into eternity she heard, 'Well Done.'"
On Wednesday, Davey shared another one of Amanda's journal entries in which the 28-year-old reflected on God's faithfulness and expressed a belief that He works everything out for good.
"I can say, 'Blessed be your name' because you are working everything out for a perfect purpose," she wrote.
As reported by the Gospel Herald, Amanda was viciously beaten and shot three times during a home invasion on Nov. 10, just a few hours after Davey left her alone with their young son Weston to work out at the gym.
An autopsy conducted on Amanda on Nov. 12 revealed: "(She) sustained a gunshot wound to the back of her head. She also had a gunshot wound to the lower left arm which traveled up to her biceps. She also had a through and through gunshot wound that entered and exited her upper back."
The young woman also reportedly suffered "scratches to her left cheek, a split lip, and a lower tooth knocked out."
The alleged killers, Larry Jo Taylor Jr., 18, and Jalen Watson, 21, have both pleaded not guilty, but a confidential informant told investigators in the case that Taylor confessed that he shot Amanda because she fought him.
"Taylor stated that she charged at him, and he shot her somewhere in the upper body so he would not be scratched. Taylor then told them that he leaned over her body and shot her in the back of the head. He leaned further, looked at her face, and watched her bleed," explained the informant.
Speaking to Fox News after the horrific incident, Davey Blackburn said that he has already forgiven the men who killed his wife and revealed he is praying for them to find Jesus Christ.
"I don't want to live my life going down the path of bitterness because it will destroy my soul and it will destroy everybody around me if I choose that (unforgiveness)," explained Blackburn.
"So today, I choose forgiveness. And tomorrow, I pray that I can wake up and choose forgiveness by the power of Jesus Christ. One of the things about Jesus when they were inflicting way more pain than any of us can imagine on Him, on the cross, He looked out and he said, 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.' And so that spirit lives in us and we're just praying His spirit would help us in that," he added.
