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Hertzler
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From 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 2008 |