Out of a small window, viewing a large prison
yard with hundreds of inmates involved in daily recreation. A
common recreational event is observed clearly out of this small
window: "Prison drug trade." Put four hundred inmates
on a prison yard, while three hundred fifty are all drug addicts.
What you have is the largest drug ring my eyes have ever seen.
I write to you by humble means. A single individual,
in a single cell: chief among sinners, always praising Christ
for salvation given to me. I come as a recovering addict in Christ
behind prison walls. Nothing more, nothing less.
A down-on-his-luck man who is forced to accept
charity from others because he lacks the means to feed himself
is said to eat "the bread of shame." Job 30:3-8; Luke
15:16-17.
Poverty is a very old social disease that affects
millions. Another form of poverty is spiritual poverty. Spiritually
impoverished individuals (Revelation 3:17-18) are subject to a
wide-spread epidemic affecting us all right now, in 2006! Drug
addiction!
The drug addict's "bread of shame" is
the very drug he consumes. 1 Corinthians 11:29. Just like bread
filling the financially impoverished stomach, drugs fill the spiritually
impoverished soul. The addict's "bread of shame" is
the evil force that keeps his own soul at bay while giving demonic
spirits permission to drive his own will. Psalm 10:8-10.
It would be safe to say, "Drug addicts are
working as Satan's soldiers, pouring destruction upon our families,
communities, and society as a whole." Accounts of drug abuse
in scripture always ended in drastic mishaps. Noah debased himself
with wine and became completely humiliated. Noah's reaction affects
history to this day. Genesis 9:21-27. Lot's daughters intoxicated
their father with wine and committed sexual immorality with him.
Genesis 19:30-35.
These single accounts show how harmful toxins
can be on human nature. Now, think of an individual who lives
every day searching and filling this toxic state. He or she does
whatever it takes robbing, stealing, extorting, killing, etc.
... To get what he seeks "bread of shame."
Satan is very clever and very real within this
societal diseased epidemic of drug addiction. Satan uses man as
his tool in manufacturing, packaging, and delivering these drugs
to our communities, city streets, and prisons. Yes, the very prisons
that house these drug addicts for crimes committed have become
drug dens with little to no consequences for individual actions
of use.
When institutions used to combat these drugs become
part of the problem, we can say this has become a colossal epidemic.
There is a solution! It rests in the Holy Word.
John 17:17. Men and women who have overcome drug addiction are
transformed into new beings. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Addicts who are
trying to recover but who cannot turn their lives over to the
care of God, always fall into the process of returning to eat
of the "bread of shame." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Today, I eat of the "bread of life"
which fills my soul with the utmost glory and peace. (John 6:35)
If I had never walked in darkness, I would have never seen the
light. Ephesians 5:8-20. Sussex II State Prison, 24427 Mussle
White Dr., Waverly, VA 23891.