Nuggets 85: The God-Hater

  • B. Shelburne
  • Nov 10, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

My brother-in-law and his wife light up when they tell stories from the Kairos prison ministry.  Kairos tries to transform inmates by bathing them in love and acceptance most of them have never tasted.  Up to 42 inmates meet for 3 days with a team of Kairos volunteers.  Prisoners who may rarely get a letter are each showered with dozens of letters filled with encouragement.  And food!  Ministry wives prepare food for a 3-day feast totally unlike the survival menu inmates are used to.  At each dining room table, six inmates sit with three outsiders.  Fifteen different speakers, many of them redeemed ex-cons, share the good news of hope in Christ.

At one of the tables, a prisoner (I'll call him Ruben) spoke up.  "I heard about good food and that's the only reason I came.  I hate God!  He let my child die.  I wouldn't walk across the street for God!"  Three days later Ruben was on his knees crying.  He confessed Christ as his Lord and was baptized in the adapted horse trough used by the ministry.  It had to be real, because Ruben was a member of an infamous prison gang whose motto is "blood in, blood out."  Inmates who met Ruben in the exercise yard asked, "What's wrong with you?  You're different!"

This ministry changes not only the inmates but those who minister.  They cry tears of joy as they see God breaking into hearts nobody thought could be broken, and forgiving the unforgivable. 

Romans 1:16;  2 Corinthians 5:17;  2 Peter 3:9;  Luke 4:18,19;  23:39-43;  1 Corinthians 6:9-11;  John 3:3-5;  John 3:16;  Mark 2:16,17;  Matthew 25:36;  1 Timothy 1:12-17

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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