Living life on the INSIDE!
"Those who live to bless others will have blessings heaped upon them, and the one who pours out his life to pour out blessings will be saturated with favor."
Proverbs 11:25 TPT
All through out the bible, Jesus identifies strongly with the weak, the helpless, and those who may feel like outcast. He assures us in the above scripture that when we live to bless others He will bless us and saturate us with His favor.
He considers the way we treat others to be the way we treat Him. When you did it unto the least of them you did it unto me. Matthew 25:40
He desires for us to love others as He loves us and identify with others and be sensitive to their needs. As well, He wants us to put ourselves in their shoes and be willing to be understanding and to care for them.
Recently, in one of the maximum security prisons we serve, the men were sharing with each
other at one of the transformational table sessions. One of the men was asked "What are your expectations for yourself in this class?" This man has been incarcerated for 43 years and shared that he didn't know if he would ever get out.
"He sat in silence for a moment and then said, "I know I have goodness in me. In this class, I want to work on getting that goodness out for others to feel and see!" With such passion, he said...."I KNOW it's in there!" Wow! What a statement! This was such a powerful moment because we know that a transformation outside only comes from a transformation inside.
Our roundtable methodology respects each individual by creating a safe environment of trust and allowing each person a voice to be heard. We teach them the three basic requirements in which we consider to be the equation for success and freedom in this program.
TRUTH + TRANSPARENCY = TRANSFORMATION This type of transparency is not at all common in prison. However, we encourage them that if they will trust the system and work through this process, we are confident that they will begin a journey of change that will lead to peace, purpose and freedom.
So that day, this brave man that was now convinced that there was goodness in him gave us a glimpse into his heartbreaking life story. With memories as far back as a toddler, he had been mentally, emotionally, sexually and physically abused. It was evident to see that his home was not a place of love or nurturing as it should be for a child, but a place of torment. He didn't personally ever know anything about Jesus, but he heard his grandmother speak of Him from time to time. Because of this lack of direction and guidance, he grew up in a life of perversion and pain. His thinking was so distorted that he thought that this was normal and he began to replicate what he had known which ultimately led to prison.
It wasn't until one day in prison someone invited him to meet this man that he had only heard of named Jesus. It was that day and that one decision that changed everything! Ironically, it was meeting Jesus in prison that gave him his freedom. He had been a prisoner most of his life in his mind and in his circumstances and in his wrong choices. Now, since receiving Jesus he is free on the inside and living his new life in Christ. He is currently, physically locked up behind bars, but no longer is he locked up in his mind.
Who the son sets free is free indeed! John 8:36
The KPM Leadership Academy is so effective because this simple yet profound process of sharing, learning, and applying these life changing truths into their lives brings freedom that many have never known.
It's the process of chipping away at the old things in their character, their values, their mindset from the past until they begin to see the beauty that lies within! No longer influenced by the rubble that lies beneath them but now a new creation such as written in
2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
It reminds me of the famous sculptor Michael Angelo. The process is very much like a sculptor’s—an artist in an artisan’s body, chipping away at the rock diligently and purposefully until the image reveals itself.
Michelangelo, perhaps history’s greatest sculptor, understood this concept to his bones. It was through this process at looking beyond what he saw in the natural and his ability to see what could be.
This is a beautiful depiction of what Christ does in our lives. Through the blood of Jesus, He sees beyond what we have done and only sees the beauty in which we were created.
We are a MASTERPIECE because we are a piece of the MASTER!