16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV
Years ago, missionaries from Kenya, East Africa, retired in the city of Fort Pierce, Florida, where I also lived; it was my privilege to get to know them fairly well, attend church with them, and sit under their teaching over the next few decades. John and Sophia Kitts had served some forty years overseas—John had worked with pygmy tribes (short in stature, he said it was the only time he was a giant among men); Sophie was a beloved radio personality. At the end of his career John worked as a prison chaplain, offering comfort and wisdom to inmates on Death Row. Sophia died in 1987; John, who had been blessed with a second wife, passed away in 2002.
John reported that all of the prisoners he spoke with were open to hearing about God’s love and forgiveness, which makes perfect sense. If you’re about to stand before a judge, it is good to know your lawyer is prepared. 1 John 2:1 tells us that we have an advocate, or legal counsel…someone to speak on our behalf… in Jesus himself. “Yes, Father,” he may say, “this one has sinned many times and deserves eternal death as you have judged righteously. But may I remind the court that I already served his penalty? My blood has already covered his sins, his past, his mistakes, his failures.”
I thought of this aspect of John’s work with prisoners facing death last week as I read from the Psalms by the bed of a man at the local hospice. Although the common perception of hospice is that of providing end-of-life care exclusively, people also come to the facility for symptom management or short-term respite care (for example, a family caretaker is ill or has to be away). Hospice patients may stabilize and return home or be placed in nursing homes. For many, of course, their stay at hospice is a launching pad into eternity. Visits from family members, friends, staff, and volunteers take on added significance as each moment may be their last.
As the verses above say, all scripture is beneficial. The words spoken to those who are either in the midst of great trials or at the ends of their life journeys—by John Kitts in the prisons of Kenya, by countless chaplains at battlefield hospitals, by loved ones and others at final bedsides—can bring so much comfort and encouragement, because they are the very words of life. And if those who are dying need to hear something other than judgment and condemnation, don’t those within our own households? Don’t those with whom we have contact every day?
Perhaps we would do better showing others the love of God if we didn’t focus so often on the things they are doing wrong, putting more emphasis on the fact that they have already been forgiven. We may have the privilege of being the one to tell them for the first time…or the last.
Permission to reprint with acknowledgement of source.
ellenofgillette1@aol.com
John reported that all of the prisoners he spoke with were open to hearing about God’s love and forgiveness, which makes perfect sense. If you’re about to stand before a judge, it is good to know your lawyer is prepared. 1 John 2:1 tells us that we have an advocate, or legal counsel…someone to speak on our behalf… in Jesus himself. “Yes, Father,” he may say, “this one has sinned many times and deserves eternal death as you have judged righteously. But may I remind the court that I already served his penalty? My blood has already covered his sins, his past, his mistakes, his failures.”
I thought of this aspect of John’s work with prisoners facing death last week as I read from the Psalms by the bed of a man at the local hospice. Although the common perception of hospice is that of providing end-of-life care exclusively, people also come to the facility for symptom management or short-term respite care (for example, a family caretaker is ill or has to be away). Hospice patients may stabilize and return home or be placed in nursing homes. For many, of course, their stay at hospice is a launching pad into eternity. Visits from family members, friends, staff, and volunteers take on added significance as each moment may be their last.
As the verses above say, all scripture is beneficial. The words spoken to those who are either in the midst of great trials or at the ends of their life journeys—by John Kitts in the prisons of Kenya, by countless chaplains at battlefield hospitals, by loved ones and others at final bedsides—can bring so much comfort and encouragement, because they are the very words of life. And if those who are dying need to hear something other than judgment and condemnation, don’t those within our own households? Don’t those with whom we have contact every day?
Perhaps we would do better showing others the love of God if we didn’t focus so often on the things they are doing wrong, putting more emphasis on the fact that they have already been forgiven. We may have the privilege of being the one to tell them for the first time…or the last.
Permission to reprint with acknowledgement of source.
ellenofgillette1@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment