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A TRUCKLOAD OF PURITY #4
PERFECT PEACE IN PRISON
It's a story we've told before, but one of the most
unusual lifestyle testimonials I've ever heard of came from the mouth
of a young man named Sam. Sam Tannyhill, an inmate in Ohio's state penitentiary
back in the mid-1950s. Sent there for bludgeoning a young waitress to
death, he was visited by a couple of young Christians, gave his heart
to God, and joined the church - in absentia, of course. As time went by,
a minister named William Fagal, who, before his death, was the speaker
of our sister broadcast, the Faith For Today TV program, got acquainted
with Sam Tannyhill and visited him on several occasions.
And one month, as he walked down the long, dark corridor with the cells
and the bars and the clang of the gates sliding open and closed, Sam greeted
him with the most incredible statement: "Pastor," he said, "this
is the most glorious place in the world."
And Fagal could hardly believe him. Here? In the state pen? But Sam Tannyhill
meant every word of it. "Pastor, I love this place," he said,
in all seriousness. "This is where I found Jesus Christ."
Now friend, before we segue back to Philippians chapter four, where another
con named the Apostle Paul pretty much says the same thing, let me add
a little something to the story. Young Sam Tannyhill wasn't just in prison.
This was Death Row. He was facing the electric chair for killing that
waitress. And indeed, in November of 1956, they strapped him down and
executed him for his crime. And even knowing that the court system was
going to end his life, that he was never going to leave Ohio State Penitentiary
alive, this young thief and killer was able to proclaim - and mean it:
"This is the happiest place in the world."
Now our Bible friend Paul is also wearing prison stripes, under some form
of house arrest in Rome. In fact, the Bible books Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, and Philemon are sometimes called the Prison Epistles, all
written from the "joint" around 61 to 63 A.D. And here this
gifted, well-traveled apostle, who's enjoyed the lofty stature of being
in the Sanhedrin, and also the shame of Rome's dingiest hell-holes, has
this to say as he wraps up this incredible letter to Philippi:
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."
I kind of like the King James here; maybe you remember
it this way too:
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content."
Sometimes Christian pastors here in the U.S. use that verse as a kind
of geographical joke, just in case the church conference or diocese "calls"
them to serve in Death Valley. As in, "I have learned to be content,
whatever STATE they put me in." But Paul is telling us here that
no matter what cards life deals him, he can be content with it. Whether
things are good OR bad. Here's verse 12:
"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what
it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any
and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty
or in want."
I like The Message paraphrase, where Dr. Eugene Kennedy
puts it like this:
"I've found the RECIPE for being happy whether full or hungry, hands
full or hands empty."
Well, you and I might be saying one of two things. First,
you might be grinning in relief, because God has just never called you
to experience the contentment of prison, or the peace that comes through
hunger, or the faith that develops when your spouse dies. You've not been
tested . . . and you're real glad about that. It's not hard to be content
when you're a millionaire. Although many millionaires are surprisingly
discontented with their lives. The NIV text notes point out something
we already know:
"Prosperity, too, can be a source of discontent."
But the more common response is different . . . and
the Bible speaks to it. Because many of us just plain and simple DO NOT
FEEL that we have this capacity for contentment amidst hardship. We haven't
got it! We don't like being in prison, and we don't like skipping meals,
and we can't be happy if we're poor. Maybe Paul can, and maybe this guy
on Death Row got the hang of it, but that's just not our gift. We may
as well move on to the book of Colossians and try to stay out of jail,
because we already know that we're going to hate it.
But here's the Bible comment on that - and as a person who likes his soft
pillow just as much as the next Christian, I have to take this to heart.
Because notice that Paul says it this way: "I have LEARNED to be
content, whatever the circumstances." Friend, this spiritual attitude
of his wasn't natural for him either! It was a LEARNED response. Paul
may well have had the same love of electric blankets and microwave ovens
and new Lexus automobiles as the rest of us . . . until he fell on his
knees and LEARNED how to have this attitude of prison happiness.
Well, where can we find the HOW of this learning, this spiritual education?
We don't have to go far; in fact, I would suggest that the instructions
for us are sandwiched right around this very verse.
I mentioned on Tuesday how some believers are able to take verse four
- "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS" - and actually make it work for
them despite trials and tribulations. They're happy in jail, even . .
. and how do they accomplish that mental miracle? They do it by realizing
that, no matter what happens to them, God is still God and God is always
good.
And here Paul, writing from jail, knows that his God is a good God. God
knows he's there; God sees his condition. And if for a temporary time
- or even if it's forever - God's plan is for jail to be Paul's mission
field, hey, that's okay with Paul. "I can be content here,"
he writes, "if this is what God wants." I mentioned a few months
ago Pastor Richard Dortch, who had to go to prison for his part in the
Jim Bakker PTL scandal. And he wasn't feeling too "content"
about it, until his son quietly said, "Dad, if God wants you serving
Him there instead of in some other mission field, you'll be all right."
So how do we LEARN this contentment? I think we learn it by simply knowing
God. Drawing closer to Him, until we're just plain CONVICTED, and AWARE,
of His continual goodness. Then when we're hungry, or tired, or angry,
or a long ways from home, we can fall back on that knowledge. God is good
. . . not just when LIFE is good, but He's good all the time.
In another letter he wrote, this one to his friend and spiritual intern,
Timothy, Paul shares this in chapter six:
"Reflect the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. It
will give you spiritual contentment and a peace of mind that money can't
buy." In the NIV: "But godliness WITH contentment is great gain."
Then he continues, back to the Clear Word: "We brought nothing into
this world and it's certain that we'll take nothing out of it. If we have
food and clothing, what else do we really need? Let's be content with
what we have."
And of course, there have been many Christians who LEARNED,
out of necessity, to be content even without the food and the clothes.
Well, the second half of this sandwich solution to contentment is found
in the very next verse AFTER Paul writes about living in plenty or in
want, about faithfulness to Jesus "for better or for worse."
Here's Philippians 4:13, one of the grandest statements in all 66 books
of the Bible.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me."
Here Paul is in prison, under house arrest. Other times, he's been in
the darkest, freezing dungeons of Mamertine, where even the strongest
man might cry himself to sleep the first night there and every night after
that until you'd just give up and die. But Paul has this conviction: "I
can do it . . . because Jesus gives me the strength. I can survive here;
I can be content."
In the original Greek here, we get that part, "I can DO" from
the word ischu_, which carries the meaning: "to have power,"
or "to be able." And Paul taps into that power. If he's poor,
that's all right, because he's tapped into the power of Jesus Christ.
You can read in Acts 18 where he had to just hack along as a tentmaker,
probably making minimum wage, in order to support himself as a missionary.
But that was okay; he was "able," because he had the power of
Christ sustaining him. You know, when it came right down to where he was
going to be executed, his testimony again is one of confidence.
"For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded
[or convinced] that He IS ABLE to keep that which I have committed unto
Him against that day."
Live or die, he had that confidence, that ischu_,
that his God had the power to see him through to the other side.
Let me close with a vignette from that Ohio prison inmate, Sam Tannyhill.
And this comes from Pastor Fagal's marvelous little book, Three Hours
to Live. Fagal spent the final three hours of Sam's life together with
him there in the holding cell right next to Death Row. Sam ate a final
meal, with a good appetite, with apparently no nervousness, no fear, no
distress. He prayed a beautiful prayer of commitment, expressing contentment
over what was about to happen. And then, with just one minute left, he
shook Fagal's hand. And referring to the resurrection, said very quietly:
"Goodbye, Pastor. I'll see you in the morning."
As he certainly will.
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