LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (BP)–Speaking to a group of about 40 inmates in the minimum security unit of Lansing State Penitentiary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Mark Coppenger shared from Isaiah 61 the message of hope to be found in Jesus Christ.
“God’s promise to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners is probably a good memory verse for someone in your situation,” he told a responsive crowd gathered for worship. “But that applies everywhere I preach. You don’t have to be in prison to be in bondage.”
Coppenger spoke at the Leavenworth, Kan., facility at the invitation of Gary Stanton, a Midwestern graduate who serves as a pastor to inmates through Gospel Outreach Ministries of Onaga, Kan. Two inmates later responded to an opportunity to profess faith in Christ as Savior.
Coppenger shared God’s promise from Isaiah to help those who are brokenhearted. “You may think God says, ‘Buck up, you be strong. Get over it and then I’ll deal with it ’cause I just deal with strong people.’ But God doesn’t say, ‘Bind up your own broken heart.'”
The situations in which people find themselves in bondage may be as diverse as drug abuse to credit card debt, Coppenger said. “Pray for him to get you out of the bondage of sin and look out! He’ll go to work!”
Noting the prophet’s proclamation of God’s favor and his day of vengeance, Coppenger said he never needed a Bible to tell him he deserved to go to hell. “So when do I get my day of vengeance?” he asked. “Jesus took what I had coming and I don’t have to face it.”
He warned those listening, “If you don’t let Calvary be your day of vengeance, you’ll face your own.” Just as the biblical “year of jubilee” provided a time when all is set straight, Coppenger encouraged those who had not accepted Christ as Savior to recognize the season of acceptance now available.
Coppenger pointed to the comfort offered to all who mourn and the spiritual transformation awaiting those who despair. Recalling a particular church member in the congregation he pastored in south Arkansas, Coppenger told of the many reasons the 70-year-old divorced, widowed, cancer victim had for mourning. “And yet she was the happiest person in our church,” starting an intercessory prayer ministry and participating in mission trips.
“When I get a letter from her, I almost have to take it out with tweezers ’cause I’m afraid I’ll get my fingers burned, it’s so full of glory.”
With a recognition that God offers good news to the poor, binds the brokenhearted, sets captives free and comforts those who mourn, Coppenger encouraged the inmates to see Isaiah’s message as good news “no matter how tough it is now.”
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