It's an education being involved in prison ministry.
Today I went to my usual Friday Bible study at prison with nine of the inmates. The smaller number gives us chance to have a less formal structure; more tailored to individual issues and with less chance to hide in the crowd. After going through a book with true stories of how former prisoners found God, we're now working through the Gospel of Matthew using the SOAP method - Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. So many of the men abandoned formal education at an early stage and are vulnerable to the persuasive talk of manipulative preachers that it seemed a good idea to give them tools and practice in studying the Bible for themselves.
So far it's encouraging. Most men remember to bring their Bibles to the meetings, some are even equipped with notebooks which they use during the week and they're asking thoughtful and practical questions.
However, every so often an issue comes up that reminds me about how important is the renewing of our minds so we conform to heavenly, not worldly standards.
One of the men will be released in a few months. He's already said how he wants to be serious about following Jesus, he really wants to get a job and work honestly, not go back into crime or end up dead like many of his friends, and he is sincere in his desire.
Today he spoke about jobs on a ship that some of his friends know of. Men with criminal records have been employed and earn good money. The catch is he wants R5000 to pay for his record to be (illegally) expunged before applying for his honest job and it didn't seem to cross his mind that this would not be the best start to his life of going straight.
Sometimes it's so difficult to lift our thoughts out of their old worldly patterns and see the inconsistencies in our ideas, even if we think we're aiming at the right thing. We all need God's help to renew our way of thinking (Romans 12:2).
