I was in prison and you visited me.....

I have several Christian friends who work at our AL prisons. I have heard over and over again these words from all of them. "No time is wasted in prison", with God. They work with many people who are there long term. They have "seen" redemption and repentance happen. They have also reminded me that "what a person does" should not define who they are in Christ. Many "great" and upstanding citizens and "church members" end up there for a split second choice that they made. No one is exempt from making bad choices. Everyone has a sinful nature. Everyone is capable of evil acts whether we want to admit it or not. ONE WRONG CHOICE can change your future but it does not have to define you. 

Sometimes, when we are removed from the public....for whatever reasons....we hear God more clearly. That is when some great redeeming times can happen.

Pray this week for people who are incarcerated in the Greater Montgomery, AL at the juvenile, city, county and state levels. 

1. Pray for each prisoner to "hear" from God and to begin that transformation journey and be encouraged.
2. Pray for Christian men and women who work in our prison systems that they will not get hardened and that they will continue to reflect Christ-light to all they encounter each day.
3 Pray for volunteers and chaplains who minister on a spiritual level daily-that their words will be the Truth and will bring hope and transformation daily.
4. Pray that when they have served their sentence, as they come back into society, that followers of Christ will embrace them and support them as they transition and make new and better choices.

Hebrews 13:3 "Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies".

I was in prison and you visited me.........Matthew 25:36b

Prayer

This week has been extremely hectic....this is a reminder from Tim Keller's new book on prayer on how seriously Jesus took prayer....Prayer can change things! Let's remember that brothers and sisters as we pray for our community.

“Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray, healed people with prayers, denounced the corruption of the temple worship (which, he said, should be a ‘house of prayer’), and insisted that some demons could be cast out only through prayer. He prayed often and regularly with fervent cries and tears (Heb. 5:7), and sometimes all night. The Holy Spirit came upon him and anointed him as he was praying (Luke 3:21–22), and he was transfigured with the divine glory as he prayed (Luke 9:29). When he faced his greatest crisis, he did so with prayer. We hear him praying for his disciples and the church on the night before he died (John 17:1–26) and then petitioning God in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Finally, he died praying.” Timothy Keller, PRAYER