Lessons from Prison

I was sent to prison. Yes, I was jailed, actually jailed. I became a prisoner

I wore the prison uniform, slept on a blanket and went for hard labor in prison. I walked barefoot on the loose and sharp pebbles until I thought my foot would be torn to pieces.

What had I done? Nothing, even by implication. I was arrested in an office but charged with dumping on a street.

In fact the council people who arrested us were debating in the van taking us to court the best crime to accuse us of, in our presence.

We were then dumped to the underground holding cell that was so packed one couldn’t move as there were people who had been in police cells since Friday the previous week.

At two we were taken up to the court. But the magistrate came a few minutes before four.

Then the cases! That is when I discovered it was more criminal to defend yourself than admit guilt even when there was none.

Someone charged with doing this or the other without a license is handed a small fine. The one who produces the required license in defense is asked for a cash bail five to ten times higher than the fine. Many of the ones who produced evidence to the contrary were taken to jail with us as there was no time to raise those huge cash bails.

Another thing I noticed is that the magistrate just looked at your face to decide your fate. One ‘crime’ had someone pay a huge fine even as another one is offered freedom, yet none of them said anything apart from pleading guilty.

I was convicted and fined. My friends went to pay the fine but found out that my file had disappeared, until the office closed. But it was there to take me to jail.

We were taken to the Industrial Area prison and arrived later in the night. That is when you discover Kenyans and opportunities.

We were told that we were late for supper. But there was enough food for anyone who had money. Bread, buns, donuts and soda were available at prices higher than normal. I had money but no appetite and so bought nothing.

Then we were booked and became prisoners. One has to squat to talk to afande. We surrendered our belongings (phones and money) and were given a numbered bag to store our clothes.

We removed everything and wore the prison uniform and were taken to the ‘wards’, the word they use for the prison rooms.

After that we were counted. We had to squat in fives. Those who took long to comply were beaten. And it was so bad that you felt the pain when someone else got whipped.

One prisoner then welcomed us to prison life and gave us an induction course on the same. We understood the dos and don’ts.

Later we went to sleep arranged like logs, with a blanket as the mattress and another serving its purpose, though a blanket served three people. But I shared mine with one young man who slept as soon as he was covered as we were at the end of the ‘pile’.

As we always hear, some insects welcomed us and their bites were an adventure.

I was unable to sleep because I have never slept without a pillow. But I had a great time praying and looking at the situation God had placed me in.

In the morning we woke up. We were not forcefully woken. In fact it was not even early as the sun was already up.

After the counting ritual, we went out. That is when we were shaved (and I was shaved nicely) and had breakfast of thick porridge which I did not have any appetite for. I therefore took a little and gave the rest to a neighbor. We were required to squat all the time though they allowed me to sit (on the floor) due to my age.

We were then taken to labor. They looked at you and decided the kind of work fitted you. I was therefore taken to cut grass outside the residences of the officers.

When we were in school, getting the punishment to slash grass was many times treated as a privilege. But this time it was torture. The slasher was blunt and the grass for the most part was dry. It therefore required immense effort to make any impact. And we were not supposed to take any break, even a short one, for hours. The officers over us were not brutal, though, and would only remind us to continue working when one stood to take a breath. And they released us much earlier until officers in other labor squads complained. Incidentally, my whole body was by then on fire from fatigue and my feet were in greater pain from treading on all manner of sharp things barefoot.

We therefore rested, during which time I was able to get to know another prisoner and share the Gospel with him.

We then went back to the prison. I went through some drama as I did not know the rules of asking questions. I was required to be transferred to another prison due to that but God somehow intervened as it would have meant me another day in prison. I had actually removed the uniform and dressed ready to be transferred when another officer asked me to redress in the prison uniform.

Back to the ward, the counting routine once again, and then lunch; which was a very big portion of ugali and greens with a lot of gravy. The funny part was that the sukuma wiki was cooked uncut. So there were a few whole leaves, even with the stalk.

I ate a little and gave out the rest.

I was bathing when I was called, to be released.

The process for the release was also very long and tedious. But I was finally free.

How did I feel about being in prison from a false accusation?

From the onset, my heart was at peace. I was confident God wanted me to go through the experience for His own purpose. Even when I realized that my file could not be found and I would have to actually go to jail, I was at peace and confident that it is what God wanted. In short, God was sending a minister who writes to prison as a prisoner so that some truths can get out.

And the first truth is that many people are in prison wrongly. I talked with a young man who has been in remand for over two years because he was arrested while going to work. They arrested him when they were looking for somebody else. And to date they have not seen the need to correct that clear mix up.

Some do not even know why they are in prison. And they have no one to help them out because their people have branded them criminals because, like me, they were sent to prison by a court of law, if you can call the drama we went through a court.

I will therefore be writing about my observations over the next weeks as God leads.

I will start with the first implication. It is the way we do prison ministry.

Most assume that everybody in prison is guilty of one or the other crime. They therefore preach a gospel that presumes guilt.

It is not surprising that some prisoners become hardened against the Gospel. They view the evangelist as a partner with his oppressors. You see, someone already victimized from unfair, even false conviction, is actually being insulted by the well-meaning evangelist prodding him to repent. In his mind, the ones needing to repent are his tormentors.

It reminds me of John 9 about this man who was born blind. Just like the disciples believed that someone must have sinned for him to have been born blind, we assume that someone must have committed a crime to have been sent to prison. And I was not much different, assuming that it was the exception that may have resulted from an error or framing. I realized that it probably is the other way round, especially in cases involving the county governments and petty offenses.

We need to deal with bitterness and the resulting injuries it causes. Many prisoners are hurting, especially because the people they trust most treat them like criminals. Or how many times have you read or heard of a person who was in prison for decades for a crime they did not commit? And the truth came out after all that suffering!

We must have an evangelistic package for such if we must do the prison ministry aright.

We must connect those who have been injured by a flawed criminal justice system with their families without talking about the reformation of someone who was wrongly sent to jail.

I am not talking about those who were rightly jailed, though even with those there are some who were excessively penalized. I remember this young man serving a fifteen year sentence for a crime I think does not deserve anything close to that. Or the chicken thief who is given seven years hard labor yet they were looking for food to feed their starving family. They are also feeling victimized, especially as they see people who have committed worse crimes finding and leaving them in jail.

I did not see any Bibles in the prison ward I was jailed.

I am planning to go back to jail.

I want to take a few Bibles and Bible reading plans. I especially want to go to the ward I was sent to, as a minister of the Gospel. If it will be possible, I want to also get an Audio Bible for them. TV is a diversion to the hurt, though not a very positive one.

Who will give me a Bible? Who will go with me?

Of Faith and Psych

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. (Luke 17:6)

I want us today to look at what faith is as opposed to what many people call faith.

This is because enough people have burnt their fingers, even whole hands, trying to put what they thought was faith in action. Until some have realized that their faith was ineffective and have to hire performers to run healing and other miracle stunts.

How many have thrown away their walking aids after a healing ‘demonstration’ so built their ‘faith’ had to shamefully go back to looking for them when they realized that they were forcing their unequal limbs to do the impossible?

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

You see, the only source of valid faith is the word of God. It therefore means that only the word of God proclaimed in its simplicity has the capacity to build faith.

Why is it so? It is simply because only God has the capacity to perform miracles. And the word of God points to Him, and not through any broker, not even the preacher.

If you attend a miracle service because a miracle working preacher, be it apostle or prophet of evangelist, will be running the show, you will not be receiving any miracle from God simply because your faith will not be on God. And if any miracle will happen, it will not be from God.

If you attend a meeting because a major minister will be leading it, you may just have to forget about God manifesting Himself in your behalf.

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8)

You see, God is never bound by your faith in man, however high it may be. God is only bound to His word. In other words, God is bound to the word He has released that has been received.

That God is a miracle working God is never in doubt. I have seen enough miracles to affirm that God does everything He says He will do. I have experienced healing that defied reason. And I have also seen God healing, and not using medicine and doctors. In fact I am waiting for a season miracles will overtake those who believe, but not in persons. And I have seen many other miracles to verify that God still works miracles.

But God does not perform miracles to point us to people. And He also does not perform miracles because a big man has called for them, however big he may think he is.

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. (1Kings 18:36)

Elijah is simply saying this; I have done what you told me. That included closing the clouds from giving rain. God was left with no option. In fact, God was pleasantly excited to perform that miracle.

Jeremiah 1: 12 says God is watching to make sure His word always carries the day. Isaiah 55: 10 says any word coming from God must accomplish its purpose.

Only faith produced by the absorption of God’s word is able to bring results. Only that kind of faith can bring down God’s power.

It is interesting that preachers are reversing the order of things and wondering why nothing is working. The Bible says that miracles will follow those who believe. Preachers are calling for people to come with the sick expecting miracles. In fact they are advertising those meetings until you wonder why Jesus used to hide from the crowds yet He is the source of any genuine miracles. Charlatans!

Jesus used to teach. Miracles resulted from that teaching. Peter taught and miracles resulted. Paul taught and miracles resulted.

Today we want miracles to precede teaching. Some have completely replaced teaching with miracles. And they are not ashamed of being associated with Christ.

These are like the magicians in Pharaoh’s court, expert copyists.

God will not perform a miracle to save ‘His’ servant from the blushes of his importunity. Neither will He perform because the ignorant masses have followed those charlatans believing they are following God.

God’s nature is that He acts in accordance to what He has revealed in His word. His nature is consistent with His revelation.

Therefore faith is only dependent on the object it is directed to. God’s word points God people to Him. Miracles will follow the natural flow of things.

God’s word enables God’s people to see God for who He is. It enables people to see God clearly. It allows them to understand His attributes. And of course it makes it easy for them to see Him at work.

That is why God’s word is the antidote to sin as you can not walk in sin when you are absorbing God’s word in your mind and heart consistently.

That is the context under which miracles do occur. The rest is drama. And of course God is not the author of such drama.

God’s miracles are redemptive.

Stop following conmen in the name of miracles, whether they call themselves mighty prophets or anointed apostles.

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1Peter 2: 2, 3)

Only the Bible is the source of all true faith.

When Willing Replaces Right

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 16:25)

We have this politician who won an election when he argued about willing seller willing buyer in a debate.

I have been thinking about God’s word relative to that statement. But I have also been looking at history to get into a context. And this because we assume that agreement justifies the result.

But let me ask a question. Is the parent who squanders his children’s future right because he developed a willing seller willing buyer relationship with liquor dens? Is the bar right because they did not take anyone’s money by force?

Is the harlot innocent because her customers bring themselves to her corner? And are the clients right because they enjoyed the ride?

Are drug pushers right because they sell the drugs to willing consumers?

Are abortionists right because the women are willing customers? And are the women right because getting rid of the mess they created is desirable and feels alright?

The real question to ask is; are you the only person affected by that willing buyer willing seller transaction?

And that is the reason I love God’s word. God released it because its precepts look beyond the person to society, from the present to eternity.

The colonialists came and stole our lands by force of arms and/ or bribery (just like they used one community to sell another for slaves). They then made allotment letters and leases for the same land. Does the fact that they give me a title deed justify their theft or my ownership? Is legally right the same as God’s right? Does a willing buyer willing seller transaction with a thief justify their theft? Is there any difference between that and money laundering?

You see, right can only be defined by God as He is the only One with all the facts. And of course He is the One without personal bias as He owns everything. His love reaches to the unborn as it does to the great grandchild whose life you will affect by your choices.

That is the reason He issued the commandments. He issued them because He wanted a world attuned to the purpose for which He created it.

Whether it appears or feels right is of no consequence if God’s word says differently.

It is fornication whether you are planning to get married or not. It is fornication whether you want to discover compatibility or not. It is fornication whether you want to confirm fertility or not. It is fornication because God says so.

Why does He warn against fornication?

He sees beyond the present.

He sees the trust issues fornication introduces into the marriage. He sees the lack of self-control it may create. He knows the boredom it may create in the relationship, boredom that may even break the engagement like it did to Amnon who had been actually physically sick due to his love for Tamar. He knows that the product of that fling to test fertility can die. And he knows one partner can die even before the actualization of the marriage converting a child conceived thus into a bastard. And I am talking about things I have seen.

God knows that marriage is only safe inside the bounds He placed. Otherwise not only does it bring judgment on any breaches, it opens a cocktail of undesirable pain in the process.

Let not the world deceive you to break God’s laws.

It is not only sex whose tampering of the divine order brings in pain, irrespective of whether it was desired or not, desirable or not. Any of God’s commandments and rules have the same or similar effects and consequences.

Take the sin of the heart, the one that you may not even know you are guilty of for example greed.

You may baptize it ambition or desire to succeed or own. You might even look for just the right verses to explain it.

Only the Bible read and understood can diagnose it.

Why is it so easy to shout amen to proclamations promising things that hard work can’t provide? Why are the most popular preachers the ones who preach and proclaim and promise short cuts? Why do such preachers live so high even as their faithful live on those words in the dumps?

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1Timothy 6:6)

Where does your favorite preacher place that verse in his preaching?

You see, covetousness is a sin, only that it is a sin of the heart with no visible evidence. It is only when we read the Bible that we can be able to see its manifestations.

Lot’s sin was not choosing Sodom as his dwelling place. It was covetousness. He saw the land well watered and forgot that he was a passenger in Abraham’s call. Sodom was a consequence of that covetousness. You even see him trying to evangelize Sodom about morals but he was already sold out through hiss associations. Remember he already had young men to marry his daughters, young men who were too fine with Sodom to consider imminent destruction anything to worry about.

What are the dangers of greed?

The first is the lack of contentment, and in effect peace. Consequently, someone is always looking around to see whether there is something new they can get. That breeds envy, like I have called it in one of my books, the devil’s blank cheque. Of course there is jealousy when someone else behaves like us. And there is an abnormally unhealthy competitiveness, even in unnecessary things.

All these kill the spirit that God made to commune with.

With a heart thus compromised, it becomes easier for other less hidden sins to surface.

The selfish interest starts to surface, like taking advantage for instance. It becomes easier to trade brutally and think it is the way commerce is done. You exaggerate the value of what you are selling as you diminish the value of what you are buying, and then laugh at your shrewd business acumen.

It becomes normal to use your position for advantage. And you justify it because it is not outright theft. Diverting a little food meant for the needy does not feel bad as you are slowly being swallowed by the harvest of the greed you slowly nurtured. You can comfortably dispossess widows and orphans of their land by making their breadwinner drunk to death for that prime property.

Of course your lot improves immensely as you advance in your greed, now being called ambition and business acumen.

And the implications are the same as we saw with fornication, generational frustration and judgment.

The question to ask ourselves constantly is, what does God say about this? What does the word of God say about this? Do I know it?

Do I read the Bible for myself or is it read for me by spiritual superstars?

Untimely Death

Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. (Psalm 58: 7 – 10)

I want us to look at death, a topic I know many are scared of talking about or even considering.

Many fear that talking about death is calling on death to make an appearance. I know that a number of people who sang about death died not long after. Death is a scary topic.

But God has challenged me to look at this topic. We must look at it if we will maximize on our lives here.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

Remember Solomon saying that the day of death is better than the day of birth? That it is better to attend a funeral than a party?

But I want us to look at untimely death. I want us to look at reasons people may die before their time by looking at the scriptures.

There are two causes of untimely death, God and people.

Let us start with God causing untimely death

Saul and his sons died because of his disobedience. Eli’s sons died for rebellion.

David and Bathsheba’s son died because he had done his assignment. God brought him to convict David of his sin and died because his assignment was complete.

And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. (1Kings 14:13)

Jeroboam’s son died to save him from the judgment that was due Jeroboam’s lineage because his heart was right with God.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:15)

Herod died because people idolized him. And Ananias and his wife died because they abused grace.

In short, God causes death (kills) to judge, to remove someone from spiritual danger or because their assignment is complete. I have not mentioned those deaths that are for God’s glory as Lazarus, the Sarepath widow’s son and Shunnamite’s son where the death was not total but an opportunity for God to show off.

God kills to fulfill His purpose as well as get glory from His creation.

Why does man kill?

Plainly speaking man kills to equate himself with God. Man kills as a form of self-worship.

You see, God is the only one who owns man as He created him.

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. (Genesis 9: 5, 6)

When a girl aborts, she puts herself in the place of God because of her sin (not carelessness). She expressed her independence from God by openly doing what God forbids (though she was hidden from public). Then the fruit of her sin was produced (conception). But she is not willing to harvest it (raise the bastard as the partner was pursuing the same ends). That is why she (many times with the consent of her partner in sin) takes the place of God and terminates the existence of another human life.

They thus, in covering up one sin (fornication), commit a worse one (murder). And many times they will do it so that they are not excluded from serving God and being respectable members of society.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (2Timothy 3: 1, 2)

Even the devil knows that abortion is evil. That is why he has invested so much in promoting all those services under one guise or the other. From planning nonexistent families to promoting the health of the girl child, you will never fail to find institutions that are fully funded from many sources just to kill the unborn.

And like my teacher of long ago used to quip, a girl kills (with the support of all these partners) shouting about her rights while the person inside her is crying for their right to be born. We are therefore tearing a person (though we call him fetus probably to feel less guilty) to pieces because we have closed our ears to their cry, especially now that we can literally see and probably hear that little one crying. Incidentally, girls going to those abortion killing fields abort that mission if they get to see a scan of that fetus as they have their blinders removed when they see the living person instead of the mass of mess they were told it was. Unlike God who kills because of His love and justice, we kill for pure selfishness.

If that is not self-worship, tell me what is.

Recently, scores died when a hawkers’ market burned down in the middle of the night. Interestingly, there are fires in that market every so often, but this is the first time they have involved the loss of life.

Conspiracy theorists have always had stories about the fires, some that may be backed by something more than fancy.

Some people have loans but have issues with their repayments. Sometimes they just do not want to repay the loans. They then insure their wares and raze them to be forgiven their loans. Others are the allotted ‘landlords’ who want to raise the rents of their stalls without going through the long and impossible legal route as their allotment and rates they pay cannot support their demand even for the ‘low’ rents they collect. They therefore raze the market, put up other stalls and, because there are always people looking for stalls, let them out at much higher rents. Case closed. And nobody thinks of the diligent trader who is not only unaware of the schemes but also does not have the overflowing resources to restock, let alone pay higher rents.

In pursuit of that loan waiver or higher rents, someone has deprived a family of their livelihood, and lately, families of their members.

You want to determine who should live or die and who should prosper or be impoverished. The deaths are a small price to pay for that ambition, a little collateral damage.

Again if that is not self-worship, tell me what is.

Let me explain why I am calling such self-worship.

David sins, gravely, leaving casualties along the way. Then God confronts him so that he is able to see the error of his ways. How does he repent?

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalm 51:4)

Adultery, attempted cover up and murder were sins against God, and only God.

You see, only God can define sin. Anybody else will have one bias or the other and so is unable to really see black and white on the issues of sin.

Suppose someone you love or feed from does the exact same crime as someone you hate or detest. How would you pass judgment if both cases were brought to your desk as a judge?

Chances are that you will examine your friend’s case with a lot more leniency than the other.

That is why you will find the reporting of the same story coming out in as different ways as there were media houses covering it. And it is the same reason people choose the media house to follow as they will want the media house that goes along with their biases. That is the media house they will call balanced or neutral because they do not want to face their own biases.

With that settled, let us go back to killing.

Killing is always guided by self-interest. And self-interest is self-worship as someone becomes the centre of the universe because their cravings become the definer of everything else.

Look at this person who grabs land, impoverishing a community. He kills them indirectly due to his greed. He may think he has done nothing wrong because he has all the legal documents. His self-worship is therefore backed by law.

Take the parent who for the love of the bottle is unable to give their children a life, or the spouse who for the love of the fling destroys their marriage messing children’s futures. It is interesting you will find some of them as faithful members of churches, even very ‘spiritual’ ones. I remember a worship team being led by a harlot, a worshipper by day and a harlot by night. And she had children.

Of course we have the person who kills because they have been ‘justifiably’ offended. An unfaithful spouse, an unreasonable boss, an oppressing parent, a thieving neighbor make someone offended enough to kill. But do you realize it speaks the same language; self-interest and therefore is self-worship?

Self-worship is destructive all around. And it attracts God’s wrath. Incidentally, it also brings about untimely death on the worshipper. Of course there is enough frustration. Remember a recent post where the Bible talks about God filling someone’s mouth with gravel? That is what happens to the person who for love of self-fulfillment ends up prostrating the entire universe in the worship of his cravings.

He gets everything he wants, does everything he wants, goes everywhere he wishes, eats everything he craves, sins however he wants. He has no restraints.

And it is especially so if he has made or inherited more money than he may ever need. Then the money opens all the doors this world may have.

Even the law is not an obstacle as he can break any legal restraint with that money and not feel the pinch. His self-worship knows no bounds.

Sadly, for them, that money does not move God in the least as His wheel of justice does not depend on money, or any created thing, to turn.

So they will discover too late that they must reap the fruit of their self-worship. And it is not an exciting prospect to be on the wrong side of God.

How do you justify your self-worship?