Photo by:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AgnosticPreachersKid
One of my
followers has asked me to write about my family and how God worked in their
lives. For many in my family, it has been a slow growth from child to adult,
always believing in God. However, there is one family member who met God while
he was in prison.
He doesn’t
want me to share his name so I’ll call him Stephen. Stephen was raised in a
home of physical abuse and neglect. His father beat him and his siblings, later his
step-father did the same. Both fathers were alcoholics. They also
beat Stephen’s mother.
Stephen
started getting into trouble with the law and went to prison for the first time
for robbing a postal office. He got a year hard labor for that. He never went
back home to live. He moved from city to city, getting arrested and sentenced
for assault. He was in lots of fights. He sold drugs.
When he was
24, he lived in a large city. He met a man who came from a small prairie town.
This man knew when the town bank received it’s money. The nearest police were many
miles away. It looked like a sure thing to rob this bank and get away. Stephen
said he was in.
Another man
joined them. They bought rifles and duffel bags for the money. They drove to
the town. They got out of the car with the rifles and went through the first
door. But Stephen said, “Something’s wrong.” He said later, he just felt something strange. He told his friends to follow him and leave. As they walked back through
the front door they were surrounded by police and arrested. It turned out the
third man had ratted on them to get a lesser sentence on a previous crime. The police had been waiting for them.
At the trial,
Stephen expected to get 8 years. He was surprised to get only 2 years. Apparently, if they had walked through the second door, their sentence would have been much harsher.
Stephen was
used to going to jail, but he hated it there. You had to be tough and fearless
and make the other inmates afraid of you. He did that in every jail. He was an
expert fighter and would have killed someone if he had to.
The warden
of this large prison was a Christian. There was a punishment room called, “The
Hole,” that you were sent to if you caused trouble. Stephen was sent there for
fighting in the cafeteria. The warden had a Bible put in each of these cells.
That is all that was in the room besides a cot and toilet.
Stephen
started reading the Bible and finished reading it the month of his detention.
One night, while he was sleeping, he heard God call out his name, “Stephen,
Stephen.”
The next
day, he was back in population, but had been sent to a part of the prison that
had a lot of Christians in it. A Christian said something to him and Stephen
came towards him to hit him. He heard the same voice say to him, “Stephen, if
you hit him, I will come down on you like a ton of bricks.” (This is what Stephen would say to people.) Stephen stopped walking towards the man. He
was stunned. He turned around and went to his cell and cried, “like a baby,” he
said. He was amazed God would speak with him. He gave himself to God that
moment.
So, that is
the story of a man in our family. He got out of that prison and 40 years later
is still a Christian. He had strong faith in God right away. He brought other
inmates to Christ. Three of them were baptized when they got out.
Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no
other. Isaiah 45:22
"Come now, and let us
reason together," Says the LORD,
"Though your sins are
as scarlet, they will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like
crimson, they will be like wool.
If you are willing and
obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
But if you turn away and
refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies.
I, the LORD, have spoken!" Isaiah 1:18-20
