Wednesday, December 5, 2012

God's Word Transforms a Prisoner!

From Mickey McKinney, CFCI Missionary in San Jose, Costa Rica

Mickey and his wife, Marielos, visit a prison weekly where they offer counseling and Bible study. Mickey shared this experience with CFCI staff on Tuesday, December 4, 2012. 


God's Word is so powerful!

Jorge, part of our prison discipleship group, heard a portion of it and it changed his life. He spoke with Marielos asking for counsel during our last visit and shared with her his story.  It turns out that he and his wife both have done some rather bad crimes.  While his wife was in jail, Jorge had quite a few affairs with other women when he was still on the outside of prison.

His wife found out about one of the affairs and at about the same time Jorge was arrested and his wife was released - the succession of events were still confused in his mind. Jorge's wife, wanting to take revenge on him, started calling the dormitory where Jorge is locked up. (In this particular prison there is a public phone in each dormitory of every cell block.) She didn't call to speak with Jorge but with another inmate she met while making a visit to Jorge.  She was trying to make him jealous, and it worked.

Jorge got so mad that he decided that he was going to kill the other guy, and worked several days fabricating a knife awaiting the right moment to attack.  Then one evening just a few hours before he was going to commit the crime, Jorge came to our prison discipleship group just to see if God could help him. It turns out that on that particular evening I was teaching from Matthew 5:21-25 from the Sermon on the Mount.

From that lesson and portion of God's Word, Jorge realized he needed Jesus, he needed God's forgiveness and he had to not only forgive but also ask for forgiveness.  So, he first prayed for God to enter his heart, then he went to the guy he had planned on killing and told him his story and what his former intentions were.  This obviously left the other guy perplexed and in awe of the change of heart God gave Jorge.  Then Jorge called his wife, they spoke, and also forgave one another.  Now Jorge is faithful to the Lord and continues to come to listen to His Word and is establishing his own personal relationship with the Savior.

Praise God!

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