As prison chaplains, dramatic reversal is at the heart of our ministry. We can only do what we do if we believe that God can reverse the course of individuals’ lives and that his ways can prevail over the forces of evil both in and around us.
We believe in an alternative to ‘Might is Right’ as we work within prison systems bringing the living hope of transformation, even if it’s only one person at a time.
At the heart of the Gospel is the greatest dramatic reversal ever conceived of. As one song has it “Darkness and gloom filled the earth, Satan was celebrating victory, Jesus arose, He is alive”. That same sense of reversal permeates the teachings of Jesus on the Kingdom of God: he who loses his life will find it; the last shall be first; and so on. In the Epistles the same theme continues as Paul asserts that Christ told him that his power was made perfect in weakness; in John’s vision in Revelation he hears of the triumphant Lion of Judah – and looks to see a Lamb who was slain.
At Easter we celebrate the dramatic reversal of the Resurrection and the message of living hope it brings all of us. May each of us continue to know the reality of God’s resurrection power at work in our lives and the lives of those we minister to in ways that make a tangible difference!
David Buick, President, IPCA Worldwide