As part of our ministry on Thursday night, we partnered with a local ministry called Freedom House and cooked dinner for its residents.
Freedom House is essentially a Christian based halfway house here in Belize. The organization helps men who have just gotten out of jail to restart their life with a foundation in the Word of God. The stories of how the men met Jesus are incredible, and seeing a real life transformation in their hearts was powerful.
There was one guy who particularly stood out to me; his name is Phillip.
His roommates started bragging about him because he can’t read or write, yet he knows the most Bible verses out of anyone else in the house.
I didn’t get much information about his personal life. He didn’t tell me why he went to jail or what his childhood looked like, but he shared with me how God is impacting his life now.
When I asked him how he met Jesus, he told me it was through the consistent hearing of the word of God. He said he got to hear from the Bible everyday during his 10 years in jail, so he would repeat the words of it all day everyday, and it transformed his life. In every other sentence, no exaggeration, he would quote a Bible verse. He even had the scripture reference to go with it! Everything he said had scripture to back it up, and it wasn’t just New Testament, it wasn’t just the popular verses, it was verses from obscure parts of the bible that some people probably don’t even know are parts of the Bible.
Another man I spoke to had a similar testimony. He said that he met Jesus just by hearing the Word of God everyday since being at Freedom House. The living and active word of God was able to cut deep into his heart and reveal to him who God is and how much he needed a savior in his life.
I don’t know about you, but this astounded me. If a man who can’t even read or write had his life transformed by the hearing of the word of God, does that not just go to show how powerful The Word of God really is? It was able to transform Phillip’s life by just being a seed sewn in to his life.
For another who just got out of jail, the simple truth being added to his life allowed him to find Jesus and gave him freedom from the life he was once living in.
I urge you to never underestimate the power of God’s word and how important it is to know and share. It is alive and active throughout the world. It is transforming and saving lives. It is powerful. It is freeing. Find out for yourself today.
