Bad News but no Good News! Shawn?

Yep, you read right.  This past Wednesday, Bob and I were able to sit with a group of men in the county jail and spend some time over the scriptures.  We opened up the scriptures and began to explain the new-birth and the Gospel.  I was well into using the Law (Ten Commandments) to show that every one of us/them is a criminal before His Holy and righteous standard and that by breaking His Law and knowing better (Romans 2:15) they were storing up wrath that would be revealed on the Day of Wrath.  Right about that time, the fire-alarm went off and the jail went into lock-down and we had to be escorted from the building … without being able to present the Good News. 

 

I was initially alarmed, but began to realize that God’s providence allowed/orchestrated the events of that evening; just maybe He wanted one of the inmates to stew over transgression of God’s Law and the pending judgment for a while  before hearing the Gospel.  We won’t be able to get back into that area of the prison until next Wednesday evening.  Pray.

 

Tonight, Bob and I (along with another gentleman, Vince) spent a couple hours with a fairly large group of inmates.  We used hour ten of the Word Pictures, “How God Converts The Human Soul” series, which Bob would stop every few minutes to explain.  Afterwards Vince and I had the chance to talk to them men.  I asked if some of the  believed they were born-again, didn’t know or simply were not.  There several responses some clear and others mumbled.  One man stood out; Shawn.  It seems that Shawn turned himself in, after feeling some conviction in church and looking to know His ways.  He thanked us for coming and said that tonight he learned what he needed to do next, to pursue God.  I was able to give the challenge to examine oneself whether they be in the faith (2Cor.13:5), looking at several of the signs mentioned in 1John. 

 

Had a very brief chance to interact with Shawn after we’d wrapped up & he was heading off to begin reading the New Testament that night.

 

Dear reader; I don’t know whether you’ve been born of God (Born Again) by repentance and faith or not.  If you have and you are not growing spiritually; is it maybe  because you are not feeling your spirit on God’s Word by reading and studying it?  Read it!  If you’d like some help,  I’ve found the Professor G. Horner’s Bible-Reading System personally helpful.  Email me and I’ll give you more information on this.

 

Glenn.