Prayer Warriors for Prisoners

LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY
MARCH 2009
“TWO PLUS TWO = WHAT?”

Someone once said, “We should employ our passions in the service of life, not spend life in the service of our passions.” I was recently challenged by an attack on my priorities and certain aspects of my life I was reportedly neglecting. The source of the attack was clearly the evil one who delights in bringing discouragement and heaping guilt when possible. He hates me and the mission I was called to in 1986. Actually, the call came twelve years earlier when I was saved and committed my life, my will, my all to Jesus Christ to do with me as He chose. Alone in my bedroom reading the Hal Lindsay book, “Satan is Alive on Planet Earth,” the Lord pricked my conscience and made it clear that if I were to die that night, I would go to hell. I was stunned because I had been baptized twice and was a member of two churches. I had the papers to prove it. However, I had no clue about the need for a relationship with Jesus Christ. I thought religion would save me and trusted in pieces of paper that confirmed my two baptisms and two church memberships. TWO plus TWO equals FOUR pieces of worthless paper, not eternal life. You mean there was more to being saved? The Lord clearly showed me that none of the works I was counting on would get me through Heaven’s gates. That requires one thing … a right relationship with Jesus Christ Who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by Me.”
In 1974 I opened my heart and received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I said, “Here I am, Lord, I am yours... my life, my heart, my hands, my all… use me as you will.” From that point, I was His. I am still His.
The mission He assigned me is not a path of my choosing. If he would have lined up several choices of ministry or mission work and told me to choose, prison ministry would not have been the choice. When God puts a calling on the heart, there is no choice. He calls, He equips and He sends. My part is to obey. His mission and task for me is reaching prisoners with the love of Jesus Christ. His passion compels me. His Spirit empowers me. His love constrains me.
In this recent conversation I was told, “You don’t have a life!” I wasn’t sure how to answer but obviously this person doesn’t really know me. I thought if you only knew! I could never ask for a fuller, better, more joyful or satisfying life. My response was, “If God has never given you a passion for the lost, you could never understand me. There is no way I can explain this passion that burns within my soul to rescue lost men and women. No one can explain it. You only understand if you have a similar fire burning in your soul.”
Later, trying to find ways I might explain passion, I looked up the word in the dictionary. This one is quite fitting. PASSION: the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, especially something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior. My nature, the nature of mankind is sinful, worldly, selfish, seeking to please self. My heart aches because I want to desperately explain so those close to me might understand and when they cannot I am powerless to enlighten them. Therefore I must leave it in the Father’s hands. The Bible is clear that some things must be spiritually discerned. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14NIV).
My Father’s confirmation of His call on my life is reinforced when Scriptures burn in my heart; Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it (Matt 10:34-39 NKJV).
I realize of course, that even if I could, it is not my job or obligation to make anyone understand what I do or why. I answer to my Maker, the Lord of my life. Do I fail Him? Of course! Many times, but I know in whom I have believed and He will keep me from falling. He will complete the work He has begun in me and I delight in being His vessel overflowing with incredible joy.
I was at first stunned at being told I have no life, and then offended, then at peace over the pronunciation. Finally, I found it quite humorous. The next morning, as I read my devotional, the Lord showed me clearly, I DON’T have a life. It’s true! The accuser was correct. My life does not belong to me, it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was bought with a price: His precious blood. There before me in my devotional, … in bold letters and highlighted in yellow…. not in my devotional but on my heart, was my life verse: Acts 20: 24! I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I finish the race and complete the task my Lord Jesus has given me.

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