September 27, 2006

Convicted by a convict

Three times I’ve been asked to help write the story of a convict. The first two claimed jailhouse conversions, but their story focused far more on their old life of crime than it did on the new life of Christ. They were more interested in boasting about their exploits than exalting the Lord. My instinctive response was to say no, or at least recommend they find a male author/editor. One of these men had been in jail for assaulting women.

By the time the third one came along, I was even less approachable. He won’t say what his crimes were, is still in jail, wants the writer to come and live near the prison in a house that he will provide, and has a lot of money to pay whoever will take the job. He already has a woman helping him since he cannot communicate directly with anyone on the outside. I’m afraid that I have not only been not interested, I’ve discourage other writers from thinking about this offer.

I could excuse my aversion to this with all kinds of reasoning. I just did. But, as I read Acts 11 this morning, I wondered if that is what the Jews did in their aversion to Gentiles? How did they excuse their bigotry? They don’t have the holy prophets? They know nothing about God? They are evil and dangerous? They are not cleansed by the sacrifices and ceremonies?

Whatever Peter was thinking, God had something to say to this new Jewish Christian. He appeared to Peter in a vision and informed him that, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”

Peter was convinced (a far more astounding event than the vision). He went to the home of a Gentile, forbidden by Jewish thinking, but commanded by God. He obeyed, and Cornelius and his household heard the gospel and were saved. When Peter reported back to the church who had already heard the news, they challenged his part in this. What did he think he was doing?

Peter told them about the vision, how God spoke to him, and what happened with Cornelius and the group in his home. “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

My first thought was this convict who wants to tell the world what Jesus has done for him. If God is in this, and He could very well be, then who am I to stand in His way? In reflecting on my own conversion story, I was not in jail nor had I done anything illegal, but I’m sure there were some in the church who didn’t believe me either. In fact, one person did come for a visit and questioned me extensively to see if I was real.

God can save anyone. He is not limited by a ‘horrible past’ nor anything else, well, not quite anything else. He didn’t save those who were smugly self-righteous. Yikes. I better watch myself. He saved me, and I am far too often in danger of falling into that category.

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