You can’t have a new life with an old plan or no plan at all. That’s what I tell the inmates I meet with who have just become born-again Christians. They can’t become the man or woman God wants them to be without a plan to stay near Jesus every day. Danny tells me he’s […]
I think these are among God’s favorite words when spoken by His people in humble submission to His faithful grace. I strive and I go backward instead of forward. I try to do good and do harm instead. I face conflict under my own power and everything goes south. In these situations, I tell God, […]
In last week’s blog I ended with this note: “I’ll tell you why Henrietta was such a delightful person to talk to and the deep, deep knowledge that she had of Jesus and His Father, given to her by….” So, here’s the rest of the story. On January 23, 2019, Henrietta was born-again and baptized […]
Two weeks ago, I gave two talks at the Wright County Jail – one to men and one to women. They went very well, and I handed out a copy of my book, 7 Steps to Turn Your Darkness into Light, to each inmate who attended. Eight days later I received the following message from […]
I subscribe to daily excerpts from the writings of Fredrick Buechner. I was struck by today’s offering about reading the Bible. And yet just because it is a book about both the sublime and the unspeakable, it is a book also about life the way it really is. It is a book about people who at […]
I met with Carl in the Wright County Jail yesterday morning. He became a born-again Christian this last August and started reading the Bible under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. There is no way he could have learned what he has in five months and have such marvelous insights without the Holy Spirit guiding […]
Anything we keep in our hearts in the place God should be is to have an idol, whether it be money, work, someone we don’t get along with, anger, a person or thing hated, a desire for something, a pleasure, or some secret hurt we will not let go. It’s not just images of wood […]
I met with Elaine on one of my chaplain days at the Wright County Jail. She told me she was a born-again believer who had a few scrapes with the law eleven years ago in Minnesota and had a warrant out for her arrest on a charge of felony contraband possession of a controlled substance. […]
Juan, a man I first met in the Wright County Jail, got out of prison and wanted me to be his mentor and accountability sponsor. I tried to convince him that he needed total abstinence from alcohol and drugs, but he felt he could use them in moderation. I backed off because I didn’t want […]
August 28 Entry “The life of the Son of God in a person is nourished by prayer. When a person is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. […]