The men and women who participate in our New Beginnings Addiction Recovery/ Job Readiness Program come from every imaginable place and background. Some were raised in church while others never attended. Some have knowledge of the Bible while others have never opened one. Many have spent time in prison and on the streets. Their thinking has been affected greatly by what they have seen and experienced.
Our key verse for them is Romans 12:2, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable will of God.”
Whenever Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “we are taking every thought captive.”, it was in the context of spiritual warfare. Their minds were being bombarded by philosophies, world views and false religions he called “lofty things” that were raised up against the knowledge of God. Sound familiar?
It’s out there. And the men and women we see are in the middle of that same war. And when they find out that God can transform their thinking, it is an amazing revelation. Not only does their hunger for His Word increase, but they are confronted with the simpler realities of living obediently. Most of their lives, they have taken shortcuts, been paid under the table, and followed unwritten laws of the street or prison that may have been convenient at the time, but far from right. Integrity, or doing the right thing just because it is the right thing is foreign to them. And only the power of God and His Word working in their souls can change that. And praise God, He does. Living obediently means to them, doing the next right thing, even if it is costly or inconvenient.
To be honest, I’m relieved we don’t have the sole responsibility for teaching this. Thank God His Word cuts straight through to our disobedience and exposes it with His light.
