prison with messages of hope and trust in the Lord.
One such man was Chuck Colson, whose own life was transformed by the
“living water” that he found God offering to him.
You may remember the name. Colson was a young, ambitious lawyer in
Washington, DC, who became the chief legal counsel for President Richard
Nixon. He described himself as a ruthlessly loyal hatchet man, which got him
involved in the Watergate scandal and then sent to prison for obstruction of
justice.
He came out a changed man, often quoting Russian martyr Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, who said: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life.”
Colson had an apparently sincere religious conversion before he went to
prison, and began focusing on “the least of our brethren” in place of the selfish
obsession that had driven his life.
He began working with prisoners on the inside, then devoted the rest of
his life to them until he died in 2012 at age 80. He founded the Prison Ministry
to help prisoners and their families. He mobilized thousands of volunteers
to give them hope, established programs to help them find jobs, and made
society a little better and a little safer.
He was a poster boy for all that was wrong in government and with people
in power turning away from God, and became a model for what it means to
“come to” those in prison, in the name of the Lord.
(BMH)
what do angels talk about?
One of the advantages of knowing about life in heaven is that it gives us an
ideal to aim for in this world. We shouldn’t expect life on earth to be exactly
like life in heaven because heaven is populated by angels, while in this world,
even at our best, we’re still in the process of becoming angelic. But we should
strive to adopt as many angelic habits as we can. This will make life on earth
happier, and it will make us better prepared for life in heaven when we leave
this world.
Among the many useful and delightful things that have enriched human
life in the past, and that will be revived and renewed in the New Church, is the
art of conversation – especially about spiritual matters.
Many will perhaps be wondering what angels talk about to one another and
consequently what people after death who become angels talk about. Let those
who so wonder know that angels talk about the kinds of subjects contained in the
internal sense of the Word – that is, about the Lord’s glorification, His kingdom, the
Church, the regeneration of man by means of the good of love and the truth of faith.
(Arcana Coelestia 5249.2)
Contemplating such topics – and especially how the Lord saved the human
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