I visited with Marlin yesterday at the county jail where I am a volunteer chaplain. He has lived a dangerous life with drugs, stealing, violence, and serving seven sentences in prison. He is presently serving a short sentence in my jail for a minor parole violation. For the past two years, he has immersed himself in the Bible and become a first-rate Bible scholar who knows the Word like no one else I’ve ever visited in any jail or rehab facility in Minnesota. It’s not that he hadn’t read the Bible extensively before (he was raised in a Christian family who revered Scripture) but never to the extent that he is now. He is seeking God with all his heart and all his soul and all his spirit.
I asked him a simple question yesterday after we had discussed the dangers he fell into through the world, his self-centered self, and the devil. “Where is the safest place on earth, Marlin?” I asked.
He didn’t blink. “In the arms of Jesus,” he answered with a smile. “I know that now like I never have before.”
I’m looking forward to meeting with Marlin every Monday until he gets out of jail at the end of this year. He has indeed found the safest place on earth.
I can read all about Jesus, study His nature and historical background, but I will never get to know Him until I do the simple, basic act of obeying Him completely in all things. When we surrender, we are flooded with new light, new hope, great joy, glorious peace and abounding faith.
And where do His commands come from but Scripture, prayer, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit?
“Who are you?” I asked Marvin when he came into the meeting room of the jail where I chaplain.
I asked the same question to Crystal five or six years ago, and she answered with a big smile on her face, “A child of God.” Not a bad answer for someone who had come to jail in a state of psychotic meth disorder, where she thought all law enforcement people were intent on killing her. Her crime was that she jumped in a sheriff’s car and took off when she was arrested for speeding; she thought the deputy was about to shoot her. When she came out of the psychosis, God was able to speak into her soul.
Who do you say you are? Who you believe you are will determine how you live out your life. If you think you are a peacemaker, you will seek to smooth over conflicts. If you think you are an encourager, you will give positive feedback to those in your sphere of influence. If you think others are against you, you will react with hurt and anger to every suspected slight.
I posted this yesterday, but the graphic came out too small. I redid it.
I am using this as an illustration with inmates to explain how they can be born-again believers and go back to using alcohol or drugs or commit crimes again when they get out of jail. The message is that they need to stay in the 3rd or 4th quadrant to avoid returning to jail again. They may have more of God than themselves in the jail, but when they are released and get caught up in the distractions and busyness of life on the outside, they can slip back into the 2nd quadrant or even the 1st quadrant, and that’s where they fall once again. The same holds true for you. When you are so busy that you don’t have time for God and spend your time in the 2nd or 1st quadrant, that’s when you lose your temper or try to get even with someone or say cruel things to those you love.
This is not a one-time positioning. I may start off the day in the 4th quadrant during my devotional time and then fall back to a 2 in the afternoon when I get so busy I don’t have time for God in my life. Last week, during an afternoon, I was so full of myself that I said a very cruel thing to a member of our family. I was in the 1st quadrant.
The key in all this is to recognize where you are at all times. What I should have done when I was in the 1st quadrant was to read Scripture, pray, or call a spiritual partner to be encouraged to run to Jesus as fast as I could.
John 3:30 is the operational verse for all this. “He must become greater; I must become less.” The chart helps us understand visually how that affects our life.
I have a busy week ahead of me, dozens of things I need to accomplish before Friday rolls around. That’s my business—overflowing agendas, full days, ten pounds to put in an eight pound bag—much to do about little that pertains to the kingdom of heaven.
But what about my Father’s business? What would He have me do? That’s not so clear to me. I sit quietly and ask, “What do You have on Your agenda for me tomorrow, this week, this month, this year?”
“Are you a 1 or a 2?” I asked 22 inmates on a recent Sunday afternoon Gideons’ Bible study at our county jail. They looked at me with blank stares.
“A 1 is who you are without God. It’s who you want to be. It’s being self-conscious. A 2 is who you are with God. It’s who He wants you to be. It’s being Christ-conscious.”
“So you’re talking about being saved or unsaved,” Tyler said.
“No, I’m not,” I answered. “That’s a given. I’m talking about those of you who are saved but drive your own car instead of handing the steering wheel over to Jesus.” I drew this line on the board.
1……….x……….2
This entire line represents those of you who are saved. The 1 represents your own self-centered self, the world, and the temptations of Satan. The 2 represents the Spirit of God here on earth. At any given time, you are either closer to the 2 or closer to the 1. The X represents equal shares of God and you. The closer you are to the 1, the more likely you are to use drugs or alcohol again or commit other crimes; the closer you are to the 2, the less likely. When there is more of God in you than you, you will be safe. When there’s more of you than God, anything is possible.
Heads nodded. They got it. How about you? Are you a 2 some of the time, most of the time, or all of the time? When you are closer to a 1, that’s when you lash out at people, kick the dog, or otherwise do things you would never do if you were standing next to Christ. When you are closer to a 2, that’s when God is having His way with you.
On May 24th of this year, I stopped at the Bite of Life coffee shop on the way back from St. Patrick’s National Cathedral in Dublin. I asked the Lord what He had to say to me there.
“As you take the latte into your body, so I desire for you to take My Spirit into your soul. It is an act of will on your part – like opening the door to your soul and inviting Me in. Then I will dwell in your inner parts and your inner parts will dwell in Me. But you must first open the door.”
Note: The Holy Spirit has dwelt in my enlivened spirit ever since I was born-again in 1982. That is a fact of the spiritual life. Whether I allow Him to inhabit my soul (mind, will, and emotions) is another matter. At any given moment, I either open the door of my soul to Him, or I don’t. It is a yes or a no, a will or a won’t, an either-or. Those who don’t allow the Spirit of God to govern their everyday life are what are called carnal Christians – saved but exhibiting few signs of being so.
Matthew Henry has this to say about the Holy Spirit: “Just as the rays of the sun dispense its light, heat and influence and proceeds from the sun [and yet are one with it] so too the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, for He is called the Spirit of the Son” (Galatians 4:6).
These are my thoughts on the passage above on my trip by bus from Cork to Galway this past May. “The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son to comfort us, instruct us, remind us, correct us, and show us God’s will and direction at every moment of our lives – like the rays of the sun proceed from the sun to warm us, bring life and light to us, and show us paths to take in this dark world.
“The rays of the sun are one with the sun and provide the warmth of the sun for us here on earth. In a similar way, the Spirit is one with the Father and the Son and comes down to earth to give us spiritual life, knowledge, and direction to follow Jesus and live out the Christian life. We abide in Christ by His Spirit, and we abide in the Father by His Spirit, and it is one Holy Spirit, not two Spirits, the Spirit of God. Beyond this, I cannot go.”
J. left jail last week and declared that he wanted me to be his mentor and accountability coach as he transitioned from a life of drugs to a life with Christ. “I’m going to need your help, Pat, so I don’t get back into the drug life I had and so I become the man God wants me to be.” J. was born-again in jail three months ago.
But he’s been too busy with his family and has been ghosting me. He no longer returns my calls or replies to my texts. The one time I did talk to him, he told me how busy he was with all the things at home that needed repairing and otherwise taken care of. He was cordial enough but just so busy, busy, busy.
I was a bit bewildered. He had become such a passionate Christian in jail. Then I thought – I’ve done that with God at times, some recent. “I’m too busy for You today, Lord,” I say to myself, “but I’ll squeeze you in when I get a chance.” I ghost God in that way. He tries to reach out, and He’s always there waiting for me to connect with Him, but He doesn’t force Himself on me. Sometimes I sense Him saying, “I’m here waiting for you, Patrick. I’m always available. Give Me a call.”
How about you? Are you ghosting God every now and again? He’s there waiting for you to open the door.
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20).
Would you join me in praying for J? His heart is in the right place, I believe, but the distractions of life are overwhelming him. He needs a nudge from the Holy Spirit to keep his faith vibrant. That’s what you could pray for. I’ll let you know how that works in a future post.
In my hotel room in the Meyrick Hotel in Galway, Ireland, on April 13, 2019.
“I have separated you unto Myself … to do My work.”
Of course! I can’t separate myself. Jesus chose the 12 apostles. They did not choose Him. They did not volunteer to follow Him.
John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”
God does the choosing, as He did with Abraham, King David, and the Apostle Paul, not to mention Noah and Moses. And we do the obeying and the following. It is a simple formula. Are you doing His work or are you doing your own work and asking Him to bless it?
