While this may sound crazy, the fella was an average looking fella who was actually quite clever. He had been in a number of different prisons and described to me numerous systems and methods that he had used in order to thrive. He called it "wheeling and dealing." A favor for this guy leads to a a debt owed which can be cashed in for etc...that sort of thing.
I don't know if you're aware of this but some prisons have "Christian" dorms. What that means is that there is a particular part of the prison/jail that you can opt into that has Christian teaching available for anyone who wants it. You can ask to be moved into or out of the Christian area as not everyone likes it. For example, the Christian dorm in our jail (in Orlando) offers Bible study during times that other dorms would just be hanging out and watching TV.
The man described to me how he had found himself in a Christian dorm at another prison and how he had "come to power" there. It was there that he heard about Jesus and thought to himself (this is what he told me), "I will never bow down to such a wussy God like that."
The Christian dorm that he was in had a program where if you memorized a certain amount of scriptures they would give you a Bible. My friend being the business man that he is decided that he would memorize the scripture, get the Bible, and trade it for something that he wanted. What he didn't count on though was The Lord chasing after him through His Word.
As the man memorized more and more scriptures his heart began to change and he began to become genuinely interested in Jesus of Nazareth.
He described to me how as he began to follow Jesus, all of the things in his life that he worked for began to fall away. He was transferred to different prisons where his "wheeling and dealing" wouldn't work. The privileges that he had won/earned were taken away. He thought that life would get easier following Jesus but it actually became more difficult.
That night we had talked about how Jesus requires us to destroy our idols by bringing them to Him. That was what this man was experiencing. All of the areas of his life that gave him value and identity (apart from Christ) were being stripped away so that Jesus could fill the void for him and be his everything.
He now follows Jesus, he no longer worships spirits that require his blood. Instead, he serves the God that came down from heaven and spilled His own blood in order to redeem us. He serves the God that meets us in our messes and stops at nothing in order to draw us closer to Him.
Don't you want a God like that? A God who will pay any price to win your love, a God who knows all of your worst, most shameful deeds and thoughts and loves you anyway. There's nothing you can do to stop His love. Do you know Him? If not, He's waiting for you!
If you already know the Savior, let's praise him together for His unrelenting love as He strengthens us and continues to spread His kingdom through broken people like ourselves. A God who transforms us into the image of Christ for the sake of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment