It was now the connecting air terminal in Houston, the last leg home to Phoenix. Here is a praise of someone’s prayers. I met a lovely young lady and asked directions for seafood and told her how much I enjoyed her state. Let me recap our walk in the terminal. We walked and talked about the late flight. Suddenly, she let me see inside her heart.
Time elapsed, or did it stand still? Thoughts of what happened became a surreal film. After sharing the “gospel” with a stranger who was struggling with TRUTH, she had found no Mercy within the church walls. Incidentally, her uncle was inside the walls of Angola. She was outside the walls but was she free? She was judged. Her story could be your story. Years ago, she was with another friend from her youth group and they frivolously shoplifted a dress they wanted to wear to Sunday church. Crime does not pay. The shame they felt in the jail did not compare with the alienation this young girl felt as the supposed friend “set her up” to keep her dad from “blaming” her. This was a “frame up”.
I wonder how many inside Angola were judged unfairly? Shame always crowds out hope. She was alone in this walk as her parents did not attend church. She was asked to leave the church and youth group “to not cause anymore of the kids to stray”. Wow.
She hardened her heart towards God, choosing to call herself an “atheist”. She wanted to belong to something. This group rehashed the “why nots” and lessened the blame. I thought to myself where had I not extended mercy and truth to my own family or a friend? My heart pounded as I walked with her to find a place to sit away from the crowd. I asked her a question as I put my hand on her shoulder and quietly said “ would you please forgive me for expressing judgement for the wrong you did? I am the church, as an ordained minister. I am so sorry. This is not the GOOD NEWS and not my God?” Tears, rolled down her eyes, we hugged as I shared the Truth of who HE was again. She was suddenly free.
Today I ask you, who or what is in the way of really knowing God? It will cost you everything. My personal story is just what the cost has been to me. Don’t be incarcerated by “others” judgement.
This day inside Angola changed everything and made me reexamine the scripture about being willing to loose my life unto death.
Inside the walls, these men’s lives were altered by “doing time”. The power of the Word and the love expressed through people of faith changed them. You could tell the ones that “got to know Him”. My story, outside the walls, is no different. I just had to “make time”.
The visit to Louisiana reminded me of my own personal quest. Here is an article written by a reporter from the Washington Times about our visit. His perspective will enhance and highlight even more details. http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/collection/the-prison-that-dared-to-pray-angola-used-faith-
Hopefully this will unmask truth and you will see mercy as it appeared in an excerpt from Lindsey Clifford’s workbook to complement her book “Just Jesus”. (www.justjesuschrist.com) This was from the topic “knowing Jesus”. One day in Angola connected me to people who know HiM! Lindsey begins Mary Ann’s story: “When Mary Ann recently reflected on her life, she realized that she had been on a quest that led to the prize of knowing Jesus. She suddenly understood the difference between acquiring knowledge and getting to know him.”
“The verse etched in my heart is Philippians 3;10-14, that I man know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
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