A VIEW FROM INSIDE OUT

A VIEW FROM INSIDE OUT – Romans 12:1-3

Sunday, April 03, 2016

Dear fellow travelers,

  As most of you know, I was a volunteer with Good News Jail & Prison Ministry for 20 years, along with many others serving our Lord in Douglas County Jail, Omaha, Nebraska. I have known and appreciated Rick Sweenie during and since retiring from that place of service. This week I received the following report from Rick and am passing it on to you so that you too will be informed and blessed.

To serve Him all our days,

Edwin Bennett Bullock 4^th

  “ROLL UP” a correctional officer yelled today… right in the middle of my class in the Life Learning Program. 

  “Roll up” is a term the correctional officer says to the offender that he or she is being released.  When the correctional staff yells this out to a certain individual, most of the time he or she is to roll up their bedding and belongings and get ready to be released back into the community. 

  I am reminding of a good question about those being released.  What kind of person will the released person be?  More criminally minded or changed?  Normally they become more criminally minded.  But in the Life Learning Program they are being taught the Word of God every day.  If that person is truly born again, they have been growing in their relationship with Christ since their conversion.  They have been in a highly intense discipleship program.  Since they have entered the Christian life through being born of the Spirit, they now are being equipped to live the Christian life.  And we all know how challenging that can be.  But the Word is true.  If true repentance and true faith takes place… a new life begins. When an inmate leaves the jail, he has many new issues and challenges to face, but God is faithful.

  2^nd Corinthians 5.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

  Notation from Life Application Bible - Christians are brand-new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same anymore. We are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated—we are re-created (new creations), living in vital union with Christ (Colossians 2:6, 7). At conversion we do not merely turn over a new leaf; we begin a new life under a new Master.

  The man that left the jail during class today was glad to be free.  But he was really free when he put his trust in Christ several weeks before his release from jail.  As he left, he did yell back and he said, “thank you, Rick.”

  I want to thank you for praying and partnering with me in this ministry.  For His glory!

Rick Sweenie, Director of Chaplains

Good News Jail & Prison Ministry

110 Bellevue Blvd South

Bellevue, NE 68005

©402-681-2215