The Music of a Redeemed Heart
Grace Makes Me Want to Sing
When we look at history, some of the most beautiful music of all time comes from hearts of those who have radically experienced the grace and mercy of God. David, a murderer, gave us so many great Psalms; John Newton, a slave trader, gave us Amazing Grace; and Steven Curtis Chapman recorded the album Beauty Will Rise written because of the grace he received after the death of his daughter Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman.
I believe this is the main reason so much amazing Christian music has originated in jails and prisons where our chaplains minister. Inmates experience grace in a radical way and beautiful music often springs from their souls.
Experiencing Christ's Love is the Basis of Worship for Inmates All Over the World
Even with a Life Sentence
I was recently in Buena Vista Correctional Complex to visit the body of believers there under the care of Chaplain Dan Ehlers. A good friend and spiritual mentor of mine, Travis, is doing double life for murder; he was a shooter for a street gang and a very violent, evil man. God has done an amazing work in Travis’ life through Chaplain Dan and the volunteers there. For many years now, Travis has been used by God to reach many men who come through that facility. I have lost count of the number of men who have personally told me that Travis was the one God used to bring them to Christ. Being a cellmate of Travis’ must be something like it was being a cellmate of the Apostle Paul; you should just accept Christ because your stupid cellmate just won’t stop talking about Him.
Well, Travis isn’t just an evangelist. He is also an accomplished song writer and worship leader. He has copyrighted 62 songs. I wanted to share one with you today. This isn’t his best musical song…I may share that in a future post. But these are, in my opinion, his best lyrics. They are replete with scripture and very powerful. Click on the link below to listen and as you do, ask yourself this question; “Would I be singing praise to God if I were doing a life sentence?” I hope I would but I am not sure. I’m confident I can learn a lot from Travis.
I regret the low quality recording but it’s the best we could do from a prison. I hope you are blessed. I would love to hear your thoughts in a comment.
Scott Lee, Vice President of Advancement, Good News Jail & Prison Ministry.
Sing with the Angels
(Holy, Holy, Holy)
Verse One:
You can’t break a broken heart / you can’t crush a man contrite. . .
You can’t crucify a hope that will never die/ Or take a peace that walks the streets of another life. . .
You can’t humiliate a humble soul/ What will you steal from a man that’s poor? /
And you cannot kill someone that has died to self / Or take a joy that only God can afford . . .
Bridge:
Where the lions and the lambs lie down / and a child plays with an adder /
Praise the Son to the glory of the Father / where the angels sing out, “holy, holy, holy”
A child will lead them/ into a land where the Lamb will feed them/
And on that day when my eyes shall see Him/ then I will sing with the angels /
Holy, holy, holy. . .
Chorus:
Holy, Holy, Holy. . . and I will sing with the angels, Holy, Holy, Holy x2
Father you are . . . Holy, Holy, Holy/
Jesus you are Holy, Holy, Holy x2
Verse Two:
When I’m weak then I am strong / I have more when all is gone /
And I wish I would have known this all along / That Jesus you have come to take me home/
I stand tall when I’m on my knees/ I can do all things through Christ in me/
And I’ll never have to live another day/ with Jesus guiding me all the way. . . (to)
Bridge
Chorus
Written by Travis Barnes
Music by Travis Barnes
Can You See the Change?
Sometimes the work God does in a person’s life is so transforming that you can literally see the difference. Many times I have heard our chaplains report that they visited an inmate in a cell two weeks or so after giving them a Bible and knew change had taken place the very next time they saw them. The inmate’s change in countenance was teh tell-tale sign. My 88 year old mom swears she can tell who is a Christian by their smile.
What a Difference!
My friend Dean Blankenship is a great example of this. He trusted Christ in the Orange County Jail in 2003 after learning of his father’s death. When he was arrested he had been up for 11 days, eating very little, and consuming (and being consumed by) $500 of crack cocaine every day. Here is his booking picture.
Dean in August, 2003.
Dean performing a wedding for two of the people God has helped through him
Trust a Thief with the Checks?
Paul and his beautiful wife, Robyn
God still surprises me all the time. It happened again yesterday. My friend Paul is a loud Italian who was a bad dude in an earlier life. (I don’t think you can even be my friend unless you have a couple of felonies). His “badness” included stealing from so many people in so many ways that he lost count. He paid the price for this by doing 18 years in Florida prisons. I met him one year ago and have “done life” with him since we met. When we were introduced to each other , he had been out several months and was working the only job he could find, which was changing oil for $10 an hour. The shop was 30 miles each way from where he and his wife Robyn lived (which was near her job) so he spent 25% of his pay just on gas. He had no benefits and very little opportunity for promotion.
Paul began attending my church and submitted himself to the process we recommended. He did everything we suggested. Our friend Tad encouraged Paul to attend Jobs Partnership, which is a 10 week seminar to help ex-offenders and addicts develop job skills. Paul didn’t need a seminar; he needed a job, but he went two nights a week straight from work to the meetings. I was so proud of him.
He’s a giver too. He has done so much discounted work on my house and car that I feel like I have taken advantage of him. He volunteered to build the new worship set at our church. My church doesn’t quite know what to do with him and his prison buddies. Everything is fine until they start talking about their pre-prison days and people get nervous. It’s even a little surreal for me at times when I find myself thinking: “That guy holding my five year old daughter has used a gun to rob people! Am I crazy!?” (Then I remember that someone else was called a “friend of sinners” and I come back to my senses.)
My whole Sunday School class has been praying for Paul to get a new job. He started that new job yesterday. It has paid vacation, sick leave, a matching 401k (I didn’t know they existed in the new economy), and a nice bump in salary. All this, and it is only 10 minutes from his house. He is in charge of the mail room and building maintenance. During the interview process, we advised him to tell them his story so his record wouldn’t surprise them. He told them everything and the HR person cried. Paul did too. So would you. So am I.
So here’s the funny thing . . . do you know what he did on his first day? He counted the checks and deposited them in the bank. There were $300,000 in checks from other businesses and Paul processed
them for his new job. God took a thief and changed him so much that now people trust him with their checks. If that isn’t a testimony to God’s grace, I don’t know grace.
Like this:
A Great Giving Story
Today’s post has absolutely nothing to do with prison ministry. It is just a great story and I love a great story. I hope it will bless and challenge you as much as it did me. I want this kind of faith.
A lot of my friends love Pastor Francis Chan. His book, Crazy Love, went crazy in Christian bookstores and a lot of people I respect also respect him.
Then I heard his giving story from a friend at Generous Giving. Generous Giving is an organization that has dramatically impacted the lives of my wife and me. They are a ministry helping people grow in the gift of giving. One of the primary ways they do that is to hold up modern day examples of giving “champions” much as Paul held up the Macedonians in 2 Cor. 8. Jesus said that we should let our good works shine among men that they would see them and give glory to our Father in Heaven.
When I hear Francis Chan’s giving story, I want to praise God, because no man comes up with the idea to give like this. This kind of crazy giving is of divine origin. I hope you enjoy his giving story as much as I did.
Please feel free to forward this to friends. In this depressed economy, we all need to hear that God is still moving like this. What do you think? Is this too radical? Could you do something like this? Have you ever stepped out like this?
Scott Lee, Vice President of Advancement
Good News Jail & Prison Ministry
Blessing in the Wilderness
One of our chaplains has begun doing a video blog and here is a great post where he shares some very poignant thoughts he heard from an inmate about the benefits of being “in the wilderness.” Not something you would expect to hear from somebody sitting in a jail cell.
Chaplains Chat
After 21 Years
Adjusting to Life After Prison
So, my good friend and spiritual mentor Howie Close was released in March after 21 years in prison. He began this stretch when he was 17 years old. Imagine what he had never done; talked on a cell phone, used Facebook, visited a site on the internet,or texted someone are just a few. He had also never spent time with his wife and 18 year old step daughter, whom he had helped raise since she was four, outside of a prison visiting room. That’s a story for another post though.
So what would most surprise you? I asked Howie that question and was surprised by his answers. Here they are.
1) The colors everywhere: he said he would be overwhelmed just walking into the grocery store as he spent 21 years among shades of gray and the colors were so varied and vibrant.
2) So many smiles: prison is a place where almost nobody smiles. Smiles are only shared in private places among close friends. It was surprising to have strangers smile in public.
3) The softness of everything: as Howie sat in the car on the ride home, he realized it was the softest seat he he had enjoyed in the last 21 years; his bed that night was the softest he had slept in in 21 years. Prison is concrete and steel; even the beds have thin mattresses. The seats are metal.
Hearing this from Howie was a reminder that I am very blessed.
Howie is an amazing communicator of God’s word. I have posted clips of his preaching while a prison on this site before. I hope to share more of his story with you in future posts.
Hearts Change in Prison
Our prayer is that God will use us to soften hardened hearts and open them to the power of the Gospel. In the last post, I began a story of taking visitors to a prison in Colorado, one of whom was very cynical and absolutely terrified. As we went into the chapel, I realized as the service started that I had forgotten to tell the visitors they are not allowed to hug the offenders. I told a couple and looked across the room at cynical/terrified and thought, “I don’t need to tell him…he isn’t going to hug anyone.”
We finished two amazing worship services where inmates provided worship, special music, and the preaching; all of exceptional quality by very mature men of God. If you are wondering what preaching by an inmate might be like, click here. We left the prison and went to lunch during lock
- They understand grace in a way I don’t, and it shows
down and head count, which gave us the chance to process the worship service. Then, we returned to the prison for what is always the visitors’ favorite part of the day–the roundtable discussion. We gathered 12-14 of the leaders of the movement of God in that prison. Chaplain Briggs was there but didn’t say a word for 90 minutes. He didn’t have to because the fruit of God’s work there was on full display! We asked the men what it was like to walk with God there. We heard about their call to reach the prison for Christ and how they are doing that. We heard about the Christian community they have created in that prison and their mutual sacrifices for Christ. We were all blown away by the passion for Christ that dominated their conversation. As we were saying goodbye, I was in the hall thanking each man. It turns out Mr. Cynical/Terrified is in the room hugging all his newfound heroes in the faith!
- One of our “Round Table” discussions
Finally the fourth offender says “Dude, you know you’re not supposed to hug any of us.” The man’s response…”I didn’t know that. I just love you guys!” So, this day, the hardened hearts that needed change weren’t inmates but visitors, and God was faithful to give that change!
