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Powhatan Mennonite Church P.O. Box 220, 3540 Old Buckingham Rd. Powhatan, Virginia 23139-0220
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A Prison Ministry Perspective...... Choices
As I talked to women in prison this year, I was struck by the
significance of choices in our lives. We
all make choices, over and over and over. Quite
often we aren’t even aware of the impact they have on our lives.
Very few (probably zero) persons are in prisons because of one bad
choice.
I am blessed beyond my comprehension to have godly parents who loved each
other and showed me how to be a part of a functional family.
They took me to church and nurtured my tender young life to love God and
obey His principles. They
disciplined me so I could understand the value of respectful, obedient and
lawful behavior. Even so, as I grew,
my heart became stained with sin, and I had to choose to allow Jesus to be my
personal Savior. My
battle with sin is ongoing. My flesh
is constantly at war with the spiritual. Over and over I have to choose to tell
the truth, choose to let integrity be my right hand, choose to put away impure
thoughts, choose to control my tongue and speak kindly, choose to have daily
devotions, choose to avoid crude talking and gossip.
I have to choose to be obedient to authority (yes, even abide by the
speed limit), choose to keep my marriage pure, choose to respect my neighbors’
property, and the list goes on. We
have to train our conscience to be sensitive to the Word of God so that our
hearts can be freed from the bondages of sin.
Bad decisions mar and stain the heart.
One bad decision will often lead to a second, then a third, and soon
a heavy chain is pulling one down to destruction.
One sip of alcohol will not make me drunk.
But if I don’t take that first sip, I will never experience the craving
that could dull my senses and lead me to irrational,
stupid behavior. The root cause of
most of the women in prison is drugs. It
starts with the first puff on a cigarette or the first sip from a bottle of
beer. Soon the lure of a higher high
wags its beckoning finger, and people are powerless to resist. Never do they
imagine it will earn them a bunk in a prison cell. Most
of the women yearn to do right. They
vow never to come back to prison. But
they are powerless to change. They
have no clue how to have a functional family or a marriage of love and respect.
The choices they have made and the environment they were raised in make it
extremely difficult to change. But
the Jesus Christ I know can set people free and release them from the bondages
in their lives. He will empower them
with the gift of His Holy Spirit. One
lady said, “Everyone who comes in here wants to save us.”
What she was pleading for was discipleship, someone
to teach her how to live the Christian life and break the bondages of
sinful choices. That is the ongoing
task of prison ministry. By: Pat Hertzler February 13, 2008 |
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For questions or comments you may email the pastor at timbev2@yahoo.com or the webmaster at hffinc@i-c.net |