A lot of you know that one of my favorite places to minister is on death row. It is especially moving for me, because every time I’m standing before a man on the row, I realize how merciful God is because I should be there. I love to go and bring hope to those inmates who may have no hope. Sometimes a death row inmate will encourage me more than I encourage him.
I t takes some special clearances and more paperwork sometimes to get on the row. On one of my trips to prison I really wanted to go to death row but didn’t have all the details in place in time to go. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed, but didn’t say anything to anyone about it. How many of you know that God knows the desires of our heart, even before we tell Him? Psalms 34:7
On the first day of those several days I was there, I did the Sunday morning chapel service. There were over 100 men in the chapel. Since the chapel had good acoustics and I have a booming voice, I laid the microphone down and told the men that I didn’t need it and asked if they could hear me okay. Several of them started shaking their heads no and saying, “Death row, death row.” I had no idea what they were talking about and looked at my friend who set up these meetings and asked what they were talking about. He proceeded to tell me that the cameras I was looking at and the microphones were live broadcasting to the 330 men on death row.
I started to cry and picked up the mic. Looking at the cameras, I said, “Good morning”, to the men on death row and told them how disappointed I’d been that I didn’t get to come down there and see them face to face. But that I was very glad God worked it out for me.
As it was, I was able to speak to all who had their TV’s on, which was many more than I would’ve been able to speak to just going from cell to cell. I told them that my message was now going to be different. I told them God loved them, and I loved them. It was an awesome morning, and one of the most tangible demonstrations of God’s love for me.
God is good all the time. All the time God is good
In HIS grip,
Bill Corum