(If you would like music playing while on my blog, go to my "IPod" on the right just below my photo and click the arrow to play music.)

There's something incredibly humbling about sitting in a jail cell.

Looking into the eyes of girls whose mistakes have caught up with them is a great reminder of just how close all of us are to captivity.

Actually, without Christ we are all slaves to sin,

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin.

John 8:34

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

Galatians 4:3

Truly, all of us are in bad shape without the gift Jesus gave on the cross.

God has connected my deep grief over the loss of Nick with the grief these women face because of their sins and the losses it has brought to their lives.

The power of the resurrection is their hope in a jail cell just as much as it is my hope as a grieving mom.

I love this promise for grieving moms!

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,

that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus,

God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

I Thess. 4:13-14

I love this promise for the girls in jail!

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:24-25

Maybe that's what keeps me going back every Friday night.

Knowing I need hope just as much as these girls do!

I feel called to share the love of Jesus with these girls.

They are hungry for Him.

They are searching for Him.

They want to change.

And the only Hope they have in overcoming their addictions, their pasts, their regrets, their mistakes,

is Him.

I understand the words Jesus quoted from Isaiah in Luke 4:18,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;

he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,

and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

Saturday night we went back and baptized three more girls, washing away all their sins!

The girls did a thumbs-up picture for me in memory of Nick!

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Acts 2:38 was read,

"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Please pray for men and women in jail worldwide, that they will come to know Him Who loves them in spite of their mistakes.

Let us never forget that without the death of Jesus, we would all be in bondage to our sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him

Romans 6:8

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness

Romans 6:18

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

Thank you, RW, for allowing us the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with hurting women.