Dear friends,
For last couple weeks we have look at the topic: “A BIBLICAL BASIS FOR PRISON MINISTRY” This is part 3 of 4 part series.
These insightful scriptures will help increase your mission and vision for Prison ministry. Each week I will share a principle and scriptures.
This resource provides the biblical foundation to guide you in the development of a prison ministry in your church and community. We pray that the Lord will use His living and active Word to build your vision for this important ministry.
Prisons are just a symptom and result of sin in this world.
The prison system is the only “business” that succeeds by its failure. Prison populations grow larger and larger. Often, people come out of prison worse than when they went in. Many commit more crimes, return to prison, and get stuck in the cycle of recidivism, the “revolving door” of crime, prison, and release.
The answer to this is not more prisons. It is not locking people up and throwing away the key. It is not even the death penalty, as studies have shown that even this does not effectively deter crime. The answer is the good news of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which can set them free from the bondage of sin!
Prisoners need regeneration not just rehabilitation–and Jesus has commissioned His followers to reach beyond the barbed wire fences and steel bars to touch the lives of men and women bound by the shackles of sin.
God has given us the Church, the Body of Christ, the message of hope and salvation. We call it the good news of the gospel of the grace of God. That gospel is the cure for sin!!
The first week we looked at PRINCIPLE 1: REDEMPTION – All things are redeemable through Christ.
Last week we looked at PRINCIPLE 2: SERVICE -The Body of Christ is called to minister to those who are imprisoned or oppressed.
This week we will look at PRINCIPLE 3: DELIVERANCE
Through God’s power, those who are enslaved by sin can be set free.
Prison ministry serves the community by helping prisoners avoid going back to their criminal lifestyles and returning to prison. The message of the church is that there is no temptation that cannot be overcome by God’s grace. Jesus freely offers forgiveness of sin and deliverance from evil.
- Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
- Romans 8:1-3Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh…
If we believe this truth of God’s word then we need to bring this deliverance to those who need to be delivered right? If they are in prison, they cannot come to us, we have to come to them!!
Can you have a true church and not have a prison ministry if you have a jail or prison near your church?? Satan is working to trap people in sin. Its our job to set them free through Christ!
As you read this, if you were locked and chained to a desk near you and I had the key to set you free, I could deliver you. We as Gods people have the key to set people free from the bondage of sin and death but we have to share that key with them. Pastors, Its my prayer that we can start to set people free- not necessarily from physical prison but spiritual prisons of their minds, depression, fear, drugs and so many things that have people trapped. We got to get people out of the pews and visiting the lost people they know with the gospel. And some of them are in the local prison or jails!
For more info or help, please contact Pastor Dwight Anderson- 612-423-3457 or email dwight@prisonmission.org