Going to Prison

I went to prison the other day.  It was hot, humid and intimidating at first. Altogether, it was a very moving experience.

Returning Hearts is a program that connects prison inmates with their family that they have not seen in a long time, some in over 3 years. A group of students from The Master's College partnered with people from Grace Baptist Church and Biola University and took the day off school to reunite inmates with their families. We set up games, provided tons of food and assisted the families as they spent the day together.

Leading up to the actual "connection" between the families and the inmates, many of the seasoned volunteers told the rest of us that we would probably cry. I had been praying for a heart of compassion for these people and that is exactly what God gave me when these families were reunited. As the inmates ran to their nephews, nieces, sons and daughters one-by-one, I started bawling.

By the grace of God, these men's hearts were changed and they desired to prevent the same patterns of living in their own families before it was too late. It is a known statistic that 70% of people whose relatives are imprisoned will follow in their footsteps and possibly be incarcerated in their later life as well.

One of the men we were working with made a good point when he said that prison doesn't really do anything to punish the men. They just sit in their cell or work out in the yard but that doesn't correct the root problems. It's like one giant time-out. It's like psychology - behavior modification but not heart transformation.

That's something that only Christ can do. Only he can truly change the behavior of people because of the inward workings of the heart. The Bible is very clear that any thoughts, words or actions are because of what is in a person's heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." Luke 6:45 says, "A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart." There are multiple verses elsewhere in Scripture that explain that the heart is what truly is our lifesource; both physically and spiritually.

There is a problem. Our hearts are incredibly wicked we cannot even begin to discern how evil our hearts are. And if we cannot understand how evil our hearts are, how can we begin to fix it or prevent evil from being produced within us? Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Only God, the Creator of the human heart, the only holy and perfect One can cure us. And He already has provided that cure through His Son Jesus Christ, by sending Him to earth to die on the cross for us. Now, when God looks at us and our evil, wicked hearts, He sees His Son instead. He sees His Son's death, His Son's righteousness, and His Son's blood, which is the only payment that could ever take care of our sin. Hebrews 9:22 says, "For without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." Again in Ephesians 1:7 Paul says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins..." The payment must be made by God alone. Not by any sinful man's blood. That doesn't take care of anything. Only Christ can save us, and He provided a way for us to be saved. He knew our need (because we would never recognize it) and met it so we could accept Him and live in eternity with Him.

Praise God for His ability and power to change that which is otherwise unchangeable! A God full of grace who cares for us and meets our needs and provides salvation before we could even recognize a problem.