Tuesday, May 4th, 2021
Monday afternoons are my chaplain times at the Wright County Jail. I had been at the jail on Sunday for a Gideon Bible study. That Sunday (two days ago) only four inmates signed up. One of them was Corey. He was somewhat knowledgeable about the Bible, but I had a feeling that he wasn’t saved (only God knows for sure). I asked him after the study if he wanted to find out what it meant to be born-again. He said yes.
I was excited to lead Him to Christ the next day when we met. I know that only the Holy Spirit can save someone. I can’t; I’m only the vehicle God uses. But…I have a presentation with drawings that are very effective in showing what it means to be born-again and a method of using the ABCs of salvation that often lead a person to the point of choosing to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. (Chest puffing up a little bit with how brilliant my method is, even while admitting it’s all from God, of course.)
When Corey appeared on the Zoom screen and we said our hellos, I had another person to see after him so was prepared to get right to the matter of salvation. However, he was excited to tell me what happened to him that very morning. The Lord woke him up at 4:33 a.m. (the time burned into his mind), and he couldn’t get back to sleep. He got on his knees and read from his Bible and prayed. At 5:37 a.m. (also burned into his memory), he looked up to heaven and surrendered his heart to Jesus, accepting Him as his Lord and Savior, and asking Him to take over his life. He told me that he felt a great sense of peace and calm and a dissatisfaction with the way he had been leading his life and a resolve to be a new person in Christ.
Corey had been born-again from the natural world into the spiritual world and was alive in Christ. He was not the same person at all that had been in the Bible study the day before. And I had nothing to do with it. I sensed a smile on God’s face and heard these words in my heart – “Lest you think you have anything to do with salvation!” Praise God that He engineered events that got Corey saved and reinforced in me that it’s always the power of the Holy Spirit that brings about salvation. It has nothing to do with me. It’s not that I didn’t know that and this was a great revelation. It wasn’t. But it was a reminder in real time of His sovereignty and my servanthood.
Tags: born-again, Jail, Jesus Christ, prison, Salvation
May 4th, 2021 at 3:01 pm
Wowzers!!! Praise God!!!