“A Pilgrim Prisoner’s Journal: Faith, Grace, and God’s Presence Behind Bars – A Personal Update from David”

May God bless everyone who is continuing to fight the good fight of faith.  Also I want to thank you all for your prayers and support.

I know that I have been a bit separated and haven’t been writing much in the past few months.  You must understand that the monotony is quite boring at times.  Besides the hardships of the daily prison life, having a wife and 5 boys on the outside and only 300 minutes a month of phone calls to talk with them and messaging. It can be a heavy toll on our minds and bodies, not to mention also, on our spirit at times.

 Just about a month or so ago, in the USP, down the road.  An inmate was killed.  People tend to forget, that although this is a “Low II” Prison, things can happen even in here.  Like fights, which have happened a bit more frequent recently.  Just the other day, this past Saturday 04/12. (We do Spanish service from 1-3 pm on those days.)

 Well, we had just finished worship and a brother was starting to give a 15-minute testimony, of how he rejected God for 25 years, but in prison in 2015, he came to know the LORD Jesus as His personal LORD and Saviour. (Remember that word, personal. For later I will be explaining something personal).  Before he could even get past 3 minutes of his testimony, we all were recalled back to the unit.  We found out later that a few Co’s had worked 16 hours and didn’t have people come in to replace them. So guess who suffered for that?  Yep, the inmates.   As we say in Spanish, los justos pagan por pecadores.  The just pay for the sinners.  It’s just an expression.  But what they mean by that is, those who are trying to do their best and do right, seem to always be punished for the guilty ones.  One does wrong and all pay. Where is the justice in that?  Thank God, His judgment will be to each and every one, individually.  Yep, that means everyone people, even those who think that they can just do what they want with other people’s lives.  Get ready, the King is coming!!!

I have learned in this system, man’s ways/”justice”, it is all corrupt.  Man, can’t do anything right without God, even though at times we think man is doing right on his own, there seems to be something wrong behind it.  Let things play out and you will see, man wants his own glory or he just wants his own way.  Only the works done by the Holy Spirit through our lives will be good and everlasting.  Because we can’t do anything without the LORD Jesus Christ.  Nothing!!!

Well, let me get back to the update.

So, after my brother Tsion was to finish his testimony, I was going to preach a 30–40-minute sermon on Faith and Grace.  Which I will be writing in a newsletter in the following week or so.  I want people to understand the simplicity of God’s grace to us. We tend to complicate it and try to gain it, but it cannot be gained or bought.  I will not go into details here, lets save that for the newsletter. 

Seeing I wasn’t able to preach the sermon the other day, I should be able to on the 26th of this month. So, pray that God’s will be done.  We wait on Him. 

Do you remember my Hot Chocolate story?  Well, the other day when I was in the shower and talking to the LORD, (it seems to be one of the only places that I can be alone with the LORD).  I was wondering like so many times, why that story stands out more than anything else in my childhood.  Even more than the time when I was a small child and prayed with dad to receive the LORD Jesus as my Saviour.  I don’t remember that experience as I was probably 4 years old or something like that.  Then it came to my mind; “That was when I truly gave my life to Jesus, when I believe that I was born again.”  Not the Hot Chocolate of course. But the prayer that night in bed, when I said that I would follow the LORD Jesus all my life no matter what.  How can a 6–7-year-old child think on the things of God?  Only through the Holy Spirit Himself.  I was led to salvation.  I had that personal experience with the LORD Jesus Christ that night.  I believe that when I was a small child around 4 years old, I came to the knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ.  But I didn’t truly believe until that personal experience with Him that day, the Hot Chocolate Day.  You see, when we know of the LORD and will seek His face, He will do something so personal for you and you will believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that He alone is LORD of your life and He will come and abode in your life.  Think about when Jesus was walking the earth, He was so personal and intimate with the people, and those who had faith in Him, to them was His Grace poured out upon them. 

I believe that the Newsletter of Faith and Grace that I will be preaching on, Lord willing soon.  Will and can touch your lives, whether you haven’t received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour or have been a believer for many years.  This is a message to all and everyone in this world, this is the Gospel of Grace.  Praise be to our King of kings and LORD of lord’s, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Update: Our brother Palacios should be moving on soon.  He should be deported to Colombia soon, but could be leaving this prison in the next few days.  Lord willing.  He was one of the guys who was giving a Bible study to a few guys when I arrived and I joined him and others and we pray almost every night and share some scripture together.  Thank God for brothers in Christ.  Pray for his journey back home, because when we prisoners go home, we usually have nothing and very little people there to receive us.  We are the abandoned people, the majority of the time.  You see, our closest people most of the time give up on us and we have to start over again.  But they seem to be there when things are going well, but when push comes to shove, they leave us.  As king David would say, may God repay them for what they have done to us.  I expect to be mistreated by the enemy, but family, hmmm.   I say this because I see it every day.  Most of the time only our mothers are there to receive us, but most of the guy’s mothers have passed on, like Palacios.  He does have daughter waiting for him, but the mother of his daughter, his ex-wife, I can’t say the same.   Sad, but true. But he is at peace and serving the LORD. Looking forward to what the LORD has in store for him. 

I am thankful for the so many people who have continued to stand by Jordan and I at this time. With prayer and support in so many ways, we thank you very much.

May God bless you all

David

A Pilgrim prisoners journal