As we continued talking with the young man he said that he would not be able to do before the district attorney and say the same thing that he said to us. That quickened me to start into the scriptures with him. I asked Chaplain Vinny to open his Bible to Revelation 21:8 as I continued talking with him. I asked him the question “what would you be doing if you went before the district attorney and told them a different story”? He said, “I would be lying”. I then asked Chaplain Vinny to read the verse.
Revelation 21:8 "But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
We talked to him about the importance of doing what was right in the Lord’s eyes. He told us then of his concerns about getting a heavy sentence like life or the death penalty. I quickly responded with “if you were able to get an attorney to get you off on a lesser consequence you would still have to face the Lord one day and pay in full for the sin that you have committed”! I assured him that if he did not do this the right way that one day his sentence would be eternal hell! We assured him that if he was going to go the right way with the Lord that we would be right by his side throughout this charge. I looked him in the eyes and said, “if you want to lie and not be faithful to the Lord then I have to be honest with you and tell you that I will not stand with you”. He had told us about his 2-year-old son and we talked to him about the importance of being honest and upright so one day his son could be proud of him. I pulled a picture out of Micaiah and told him of the things I am already doing in his life to bring him up right in the Lord and to have him be proud to have me as a dad. He listened very intently as the tears welled up in his eyes! He like so many others told us of how his dad was not there for him. This is a massive problem in dealing with the youth today. “Baby-mama/Baby daddy” is a disease that is crippling so many lives!
Even though this young man has taken someone’s life I still see a great deal of potential that could be used for the Kingdom if he is totally faithful to the Lord as we spoke to him about the importance of being. I assured him that if did this right that I would commit to being in his life to mentor and disciple him. A huge problem with dealing with people in the jail is that the Americanized church system has messed their minds up so bad that you must do so much untangling before they understand what the actual Word of God is actually saying. We can see when we bring the truth of the word to them that they brighten up as to see that there truly is hope in Christ Jesus!
We have had so many gang members come through the door of the ministry. The Lord quickening my mind to putting up the names on wall has been a draw for them along with many others. What I received today from this meeting is that we will seldom know right away of the impact of the different meetings that take place at the ministry. I did not think too much about the two times that this young man came in but with this it will make me think more about the importance of anyone and everyone who walks through that door or the door of the café. For me sometimes it gets so repetitive of people coming in that I lose the thought of each person that we minister to is a seed planted for the Kingdom. No doubt that the way this young man spoke about me and the ministry that it definitely impacted him coming in! Times like this help strengthen us to be more impactful in reaching people for Jesus! Thank you Lord for this time that Chaplain Vinny and I had today not with just this young man but with all the inmates that we visited!