His Chosen Instruments

(#24) Lessons from Luke 6:6-16

Dear Reader,

“The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you. And give you peace”.

Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash

He is short-statured, broken English, only 125 pounds, armed only with the sword of love, his battle against angry, hateful, incarcerated, and violent men would be for fifty years in the South Carolina Prison System as a Chaplain, his name is Frankie San (original Japanese name: Kyuzo Miyoshi).

His message was simple to inmates he encountered:

“Jesus loves you. I love you.

Jesus doesn’t care what crime you committed;

He will forgive you if you let him.” - Frankie San

A documentary was done on the life of Frankie San called Prisoner by Choice as well as books about his ministry including Frankie San: A Burning and Shining Light for Christ.

One thing that stood out to me regarding Frankie’s ministry and message after watching the documentary and reading the book, was he loved those he encountered. It has been said he often labored in prayer with tears. He was a spiritual father to thousands of inmates over the course of his fifty year ministry.

Interesting how God would choose a foreigner to minister to criminals in the American justice system. Frankie’s voice was soft and with the broken English caused the prisoners to listen more closely and disarmed there hate and rage against the world. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

One of the recipients of Frankie San’s ministry is Jimmy MacPhee, founder of ON THE ROCK MINISTRIES. I recently had the honor of meeting him through mutual friends at my church. Having heard about Jimmy’s remarkable story of transformation and hope, I was eager to learn more, so we connected over coffee.

Jimmy spent forty-five years incarcerated in South Carolina. He grew up in a dysfunctional home environment that left him with deep childhood scars. As a young man, he bottled up his emotions, which manifested as anger, drug use, violence, and a life of crime.

By the age of nineteen, Jimmy had experimented with drugs, arrested several times and was on a path to destruction. At twenty, he committed a violent robbery that resulted in the tragic death of one man and severe injury to another. The judge who sentenced him to death at such a young age uttered the somber words, “May God have mercy upon your soul.”

While on death row, a pivotal moment occurred when Frankie San walked by Jimmy's cell one day and offered him a message of hope: “Jesus loves you. I love you. Jesus doesn’t care what crime you committed; He will forgive you if you let Him.” Initially, Jimmy did not open his heart to Jesus. Instead, he embraced the violent culture of the prison system.

At the age of forty, he was placed in solitary confinement for the remainder of his sentence, which was later reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Two decades in the prison system had hardened Jimmy’s heart, making it difficult for him to accept the love and forgiveness being offered.

As we spoke over coffee, I could sense the weight of his experiences and the profound impact they had on his life. Jimmy’s journey from a life of crime to one of ministry is a testament to the power of redemption and the enduring hope that even the darkest past can be transformed.

While in solitary confinement, Jimmy decided to reach out to Frankie San. Their correspondence blossomed into a lifelong friendship, with Frankie becoming a spiritual father figure who played a crucial role in healing Jimmy’s soul. At the age of forty, Jimmy chose to surrender all his pain, anger, and brokenness to God, confessing Jesus as Lord during his time in solitary. With his confession, Jimmy became a new creation in Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” - 2nd Corinthians 5:17

He spent the next twenty-five years in prison following Christ, attending Bible classes through Columbia International University and ministering to other inmates. Although he never expected to be released, after eighteen opportunities for parole, he was miraculously granted parole in 2020, after spending forty-five years in the prison system.

Since his release, Jimmy has gotten married, become an ordained minister, and founded On The Rock Ministries, which aims to bring the gospel to prisoners and help their communities and families heal. He continues to visit Frankie, who has since retired. When I asked Jimmy what it was like to get out of prison after forty-five years, he paused thoughtfully. He shared that he noticed how everything and everyone moves so fast. With technology, life seems to accelerate, and people are always in a hurry. “But you cannot love in a hurry,” he reflected, offering a powerful lesson learned from his years of reflection and transformation.

Me and Jimmy pictured below:

Devotional: Luke 6:6-16

A Mediator for Shriveled Hearts

“On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. - Luke 6:6-11

In the section of Luke we see Jesus as a Mediator. He steps into the circumstance on behalf of the man with a shriveled hand and a shriveled heart. The religious leaders show no empathy towards the injured man or Jesus, just accusatory eyes. The shriveled man needed an intercessor and there is no better person for that role than Jesus.

God can intervene in whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Whether its the workplace, family, community, and even government. For the story above, Frankie was strategically placed as a God’s instrument for Jimmy pointing him to Christ. How has God placed people in your life that pointed you to Christ?

Choosing the Twelve:

^“Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.” - Luke 6:12-16.

Jesus prayed ALL NIGHT

When prayer is absent, so is love. Notice the action and the steps of Jesus, they point to a High Priest who labors in intercession. Jesus prayed all night. Let us take time in praying for those we love, for those in authority, and even for those who reject the Gospel. I wonder in the story about Frankie and Jimmy how much time was spent praying?

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” - Romans 8:26

My youngest son, William, who is six, whenever someone expresses they are in distress or worried, he has developed a habit where he just stops, bows his head down to the ground, and prays out loud. We had a neighbor who lost her cat and she posted on the community mailbox and as soon as William saw the sign, his first instinct was to pray for both the owner and the cat. If a child can develop a habit of prayer, we can to. “pray continually” - 1st Thessalonians 5:17.

Jesus is our Mediator and Intercessor

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” - 1st Timothy 2:5

“Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” – Hebrews 7:25

What concern do you have that you want Christ to intervene with?

If God can intervene with a man on death row and sentenced to life in prison, He can intervene in your circumstance.

Closing Prayer.

Lord, you often use broken things and broken people like me and like us. Help us to use whatever talents and gifts to point people to you. Help us to pray, relying on the Holy Spirit to convey what words sometimes cannot express. And help us to understand the blessing of calling on you, as Jeremiah reminds us, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know”, In Christ name, Amen.

Resources & References:

• Blessing: Numbers 6:24-26

• Prisoner By Choice Documentary - The Frankie San Story.

• Frankie San: A Burning & Shining Light for Christ by S.K. Wilkinson

• On THE ROCK Ministries, Founder: Jimmy MacPhee

• “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” - Jeremiah 33:3

• Pharisee - The New Testament depicts Pharisee’s as elite religious leaders in Israel at the time of Christ’s ministry. They were opponents to Jesus and His followers. The word Pharisee is repeated ninety-nine (x99) in the New Testament mainly in the Gospels. The Apostle Paul states he was a Pharisee before his conversion to Christ (Philippians 3:5). The Pharisee’s were spiritually blinded by a religious pride as illustrated in the Parable the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee’s seem to think that righteousness with God could be obtained by religious obedience rather than by grace through faith. Right standing with God is through Faith in Christ, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1:17)