Teaching Acts in Prison: Part 8, Faith as Allegiance

The reason I was making this big, long, extended point about the book of Acts--that its focus is upon the lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God reclaiming contested space in the world--is that this message perfectly describes the lived experience of the inmates. Especially when the focus is upon the point of the last post, the worship of false idols.

The inmates face so many temptations. The most spiritually pressing issue they face is allegiance. To a man, they believe that Jesus died to atone for their sins. But their world is so depraved, they have to fight a heroic battle to keep from sliding back into the kingdom of darkness. Their world is full of false idols calling for their worship and allegiance. Every inch of their world is hotly contested space.

In short, the inmates need a resisting faith, a faith that pushes back upon the idols. They need to hear that faith isn't just belief in the atonement, but allegiance to the kingdom of God.

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