As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
2 Cor 6:10
On a max security wing, there are a group of men that have been together for a while; all of them are looking at significant time in prison, and all of them are younger men. I don’t know what they’re in jail for, but when they came into jail, none of them were believers in Christ, and all of them were various confused states of mind, from Satanism in one case, to atheism in another, just give two examples.
I go and see these men every week, and multiple other KJM pastors see them each week as well. The time spent with them is filled with the Scripture reading, testimonies, Fellowship, joy, and prayer. It is a very rewarding, deep, and rich time. These men have all turned to Jesus a while ago, and we have been telling them that they need to deepen in faith through time, as we also do, and never to remain at a flatline.
These men all have Bibles, they read them daily, and they are fed with a constant steady stream of incredibly high-quality Christian books, especially missionary books, from KJM pastors, and Chaplains.
I had a conversation with them recently that was very interesting. The men were talking about how they’ve lost everything since coming to jail, but for the first time in their lives, they have real joy.
One of the men was talking about an answered-prayer miracle that had happened to him recently. Another man I was talking about how he finally was getting along with his wife, and how he was having such amazing conversations with her on the phone, including praying with her. Another man was saying that he was a horrible, evil wicked sinner before coming to jail, and that he just hoped GOD would forgive all of his sin that he did before he came to jail (we of course, pointed him to one of the Bible verses saying that GOD will wash him clean, delete his sins in full forgiveness [Isaiah 43:25]).
And then another man literally said this:
“In losing everything, we have gained everything. Without losing everything, we would’ve never been able to see, and we would have never been able to feel the deep joy that we now feel.”
The inmate attributed all of that, especially the joy, to Christ and He alone.
In closing, consider this quote:
“But I am [already] free.”
-Franz Jägerstätter
(Imprisoned Christian anti-Hitler Protestor who said this in response to being offered freedom from the Nazi torture prison if he would only pledge allegiance to Hitler. He was executed in prison in 1943, leaving behind a wife and children.)
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