Contributor:
Chad Roberts
On this particular trip, God was beginning to open my eyes to His sovereignty. I was quickly realizing that I did not understand anything of God’s sovereignty. I saw sovereignty as God knew what was about to happen, not that God directed and orchestrated all things to happen for His purposes and plans.
Each time I visit Cairo, I make sure to visit the believers who are at the El Kanatar Prison a few hours outside the city. We usually gather in the very large cell and I so much enjoy praying with them and sharing Scripture with the inmates. Life in an Egyptian prison is especially hard. I’ve visited the women’s prison and also ministered to the families of prisoners through the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry in Egypt.
This particular trip was very different. Not only was God teaching me more about sovereignty but He was about to demonstrate it in the most unusual way. On the hour drive to the prison, I kept asking the Lord what He wanted me to share with the men from Scripture. It seemed the Lord was so quiet. There weren’t any words of encouragement or any devotions the Lord was placing on my heart. I thought that was strange.
As we approached the prison compound, the other chaplains and my friend who translates for me into Arabic was trying to work with the guards on when to get us in. It is a scheduled appointment so I wasn’t sure what the conflict was. They made us wait for an hour and a half before they even offered any help to us. Finally, we began going through all the security check points and paperwork. After waiting so long and going through the security systems, the guards abruptly informed us that we would not be seeing the prisoners that day.
Somehow the scheduling got confused and the Christian prisoners were not able to meet with us. As we began to walk out, there was an inmate who spoke up and said he would like to speak with me. This made the guards angry because he was Muslim, not a Christian. In Egypt, it is strictly illegal to proselytize Muslims to Christianity.
I am told that they threatened him to not speak with the “American Pastor.” They told him that if he met with me that they would deny his family entrance on their next visit to the prison. He told them that he still wanted to sit down with me.
I do not believe I have ever had a conversation like this. My translator began to speak with him in Arabic and would then translate to me their conversation. We learned he had been arrested 9 years prior for committing murder and that indeed he was guilty of murder.
Examining him very closely, I saw such guilt and heaviness in his eyes. Even more than heaviness, it was hopelessness. I asked him if he believed God could forgive him of a sin like murder? With his head down, he softly said, “No.”
As we talked, I began to explain to him the Gospel. I told him how God was the Sovereign, Righteous Judge of the earth. I explained how each person would stand before the Righteous Judge and give an account for their lives. I told him how just the Lord was and how conviction and sentencing must be executed upon sinners.
My translator stopped me and asked if I was giving too personal of an example. I wasn’t…I could feel the Holy Spirit leading our conversation. So my friend began to explain what I was saying to him Arabic.
I then began to tell him how Jesus Christ came for the sinner, just like him…just like me. How the sentencing, judgment, and wrath that God, the Righteous Judge has for sin, was poured out on Christ on the cross. I carefully explained how Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin by God so that we could become the righteousness of God. That in Christ was a full pardon. In Christ’s atoning work of the cross is forgiveness of sins.
Isn’t the Gospel powerful? Is not the power of God unto salvation? Doesn’t the preaching of the cross change lives? In that sweet and tender moment, with tears flowing from his eyes, he prayed with me for the salvation only Jesus can give a murderer! The transformation I saw in him was instant. In that moment, I watched him come out of the domain of darkness and brought in to the kingdom of God’s light! He told me and my friend how different he felt in his heart.
I told him that today (January 29, 2007) was a divine appointment arranged by the Lord. I was supposed to go to that prison a few days earlier. There were suppose to be 10-15 men in that holding cell. However, the Lord re-arranged everything so that we could speak in private. We hugged and I left, but that was a moment that we will re-live in eternity! I learned that day that God orchestrates events for his glory and for our joy!
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