Paul the Apostle

Thirty-one-year-old Jermaine Wilson grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas selling drugs out of his childhood apartment. He started using drugs at age 11 and was in juvenile detention by 15. By 21, he was in the maximum-security wing at Lansing Correctional, a state prison in Kansas.

It was there that the convicted drug-dealer came to the most important realization of his life. Jermaine put it this way: "If I don't change, it's either going to be two things that are going to happen: I'm either going to spend the rest of my life in prison or dead in a casket.”

In a strange turn of events, Jermaine is now the mayor of Leavenworth. He credits the transformation to God, education, and volunteer work. After prison, he started serving his community and got his felony record expunged, paving the way for a political run.

Today, Jermaine couldn't be more opposite. The school district that once expelled him now welcomes him back with open arms. He also works for a non-profit that helps ex-cons find and keep good jobs. Of course, he has his duties as the mayor. It's all made possible, he said, by the gift of incarceration.

That's why I'm here, because if [I wouldn’t have gone to prison], I would have never had the time to think. I would have never had an opportunity to build a relationship with God. I don't suggest prison. But one thing I tell you, we all go through a time in our life when we hit rock bottom. When you're at rock bottom there's only one other place to go, and that's up.

Speaking about the power of Christ to redeem sinners and build his church, Russell Moore wrote:

The next Billy Graham might be drunk right now. The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you with the Darwin Fish bumper decal. The next Charles Wesley might currently be a misogynistic, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist. The next Charles Spurgeon might be managing an abortion clinic today. The next Augustine of Hippo might be a sexually promiscuous cult member right now, just like, come to think of it, the first Augustine of Hippo was.

But the Spirit of God can turn all that around. And seems to delight to do so. The new birth doesn't just transform lives, creating repentance and faith; it also provides new leadership to the church, and fulfills Jesus' promise to gift his church with everything needed for her onward march through space and time (Eph. 4:8-16).