I wasn't what you call a bad guy.  I was active in my church and sincere about what I was doing...but that didn't mean that I still didn't have things that I wanted to do or to have that went against what I knew to be right.

By being selfish, by putting what I wanted ahead of everything else, I earned myself five years upstate as the property of the New York State Department of Corrections.  As if that wasn't hard enough to handle, I also hurt every single person that was important to me, including my wife (who has since divorced me), my kids and all the people I had sincerely told about God's love and his ability to change lives.

Now I sit in prison. Daily I deal with the consequences of what I've done. Consequences that will, in many lives, continue through the rest of my life.

Dispair? Discouragement? Sometimes, but unlike the "department of corrections" God is not just into punishment, he is really into "corrections." The first verses I took to heart while in the county lock up were Hebrews 12:5-6 which say:

  5. " And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
 6.  because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

You see, "punishment" is used to get back at someone, making them pay for what they've done. New York State punishes. "Discipline," while difficult and often painful, instructs and develops the one who is being disciplined. It is done to help the offender, not just to hurt them.

God is just, so he must punish sin. The bible says in Romans 6:23a:

   23a.  "For the wages of sin is death, "

But the believer's punishment has been taken by Jesus when he died in our place. We are therefore free to live eternally with the father in heaven as his children, as the second part of Romans 6:23 tells us:

   23b. "but the gift of God is eternal life in  Christ Jesus our Lord."

Now, as his children, he disciplines us, correcting us so we can be more intimate with him, our loving father.  Remembering this helps to keep me going. He is not done with me yet, will he ever be. I'm guilty, but pardoned! And he has graciously used me here in prison to minister to hurting, searching men around me.

If you think I can help you somehow,  I'd be honored to try. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do know that God still loves me and he loves you too. I also know that if we trust him and his word, we will be alright!

So how can I help. Ask me in the prison life forum.