Tag: confession

I AM READY

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I AM READY

By Rick Mathes

The slave asked the young country preacher, “Was you sent or did you went?” It’s a question we should ask every minister. My proof-source is the Word of God and so I am going to use four golden verses to outline my personal calling which may serve as a guideline for you to follow.

My Baptist Brethren, in a church of 600 ordained me a prison minister and Chuck Colson, founder-director of Prison Fellowship encouraged me to form a Mission Gate aftercare ministry and my wife and I joined Sen. Jim and Brenda Talent to form this ministry in 1985.

Romans 1:14-15 (NASB77) I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

We knew we were called and chosen of God to step out of the boat in faith. So I preached an average of 7 times a week in churches and prisons all over two states. We were ready to go anywhere so we put our home up for sale to show the Lord we were dead serious.

Acts 21:13 (NASB77) Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

I abused my body terribly with alcohol, drugs, etc. for the 25 years I ran with the devil. I have since spent all I am and have clean with what was left on my health which isn’t much. I have the body of a man that could die any moment. I remarked to my doctor, “My zeal for the Lord is killing me.” His nurse replied, “What a great way to go!” I want to die in the pulpit so I treat each sermon I deliver as my last. I’ve passed the 70 year mark and I’m ready.

2 Corinthians 10:6 (NASB77) and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

When my sheep (ex-offenders) know better but defy the Gospel I jump on them with both feet big time! If they don’t repent, I throw them out of our program. I consider that their actions are the equivalent of giving Jesus the finger. Don’t mess with my Lord, my wife or my ministry!

2 Timothy 4:6 (NASB77) For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

So I am pressing on to lead that last soul to the Cross of salvation. There will be a last one and I can’t help but inquire, is that you? If you are I am eternally grateful o the Lord that he gave me the eternal honor to introduce you sinner to your Savior. Do it now!

HIS WILL

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HIS WILL

By Rick Mathes

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This statement of permission, compliance and execution. Our Lord gave us this model of prayer to guide us in His holy righteousness. It helps us to accept His will over ours, we are equipped to submit when our human nature rebels and it becomes a blessing to carry His will out and experience practical blessings. But what exactly is His will? How can we recognize it? How do we know it’s His will and not a deception from Satan?

It is God’s will that we be saved. You should thank God every day that He chose you because you never would have chosen Him. Apart from His Holy Spirit we are not able to not sin.

It is God’s will that we be Spirit-filled. He instructed His disciples to baptize in the Name (singular) of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. To be baptized again in the Holy Spirit is insulting to Jesus. You only need “one baptism” now. Remember He said, “It is finished!” No more revelations, “Thus saith the Lord” because He has said and done all He is going to do until we meet Him.

It is God’s will that we be sanctified. Every time you sin the devil writes your sin on a chalk-board in heaven for the Father to see and every time to repent the Holy Ghost goes over and erases it. The Father never even knows you committed even one little sin! Notice I said “repent” not “confess.” Confession is because you got caught an repentance is because you have offended AJesus and you are devastated for doing so.

It is God’s will that you be submissive. God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee, He sent Jesus. When Jesus says, “stop cussing,” all He wants to hear from you is “Yes Sir!” period. Jesus doesn’t want to arm-wrestle with you and He won’t. He wants nothing less than your complete, immediate obedience and if you believe, you obey.

Now we get to the part the new modern preachers ignore completely:

It is God’s will that we suffer. Look at the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. The last one is persecution. How do we know that suffering is inevitable?

Jesus said with authority and very clearly, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” This separates us from all the rest of the religions in the whole world! Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc. They all are going to burn in Hell if they don’t confess Jesus as their Lord. This includes your little old Aunt that wouldn’t kill and ant. She is hell-bound without Jesus: this is the urgency that you have to lead others to the throne of Grace. Remind her, that her sin killed God’s only Son!

GOD’S DIRTY DOZEN

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GOD’S DIRTY DOZEN

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

If I were to get to know those who know you best and ask them all the questions I could think of about you, I would get to know you very well, wouldn’t I? Well, then it stands to reason that if we get to know God’s best friends really well, we will get to know a whole lot about God, won’t we? Let’s then make some observations of those that he used, each in a mighty way. I call them, “God’s Dirty Dozen.”

First, we have Abraham. His parents were idolaters and I’m sure as a young man, you could see him with his Watch Tower Magazine under one arm and the Pearl of Great Price book under the other, being chauffeured in his stretch limo to the nearest name-it claim-it, go-go cult of carnal hustlers in the name of Allah. And yet, god used him to emerge as the father of the chosen nation.

Now we know that Joseph didn’t do it. Potipher’s wife knows he didn’t do it. God knows he didn’t do it. And we all know he didn’t do it. But when Joseph filled out the application to be Prime Minister of Egypt it read, “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” He was an ex-con with a record of being a sex offender and yet God used him in a mighty way.

Let’s also remember Moses. He looked both ways, killed the Egyptian with his bare hands and then had the audacity to dig a hole and bury him in broad daylight in front of witnesses. That is a classic, premeditated, first degree murder! If that happened today, he would be on death row awaiting execution. And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

And what about David? He didn’t have the guts to assassinate so he ordered a hit man to knock off Bathsheba’s husband so that they could keep their torrid love affair going. David should have had a jail cell next to Moses! And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

Do you really think the Priestess Rahab went around the temple genuflecting and lighting holy candles? Of course not! She was a temple prostitute that sold her body for dirty money just like any two-bit trash on the waterfront. And yet, God used her in a mighty way.

“If the children turn out bad, it must mean that the parents weren’t any good!” It ain’t necessarily so. There aren’t any fathers that raised their sons worse than Eli and Samuel and yet God used them both in a mighty way.

And have you ever heard the saying, “When the going gets tough, the touch gets going?” Some Christians have turned tail and ran when the Lord needed them the most. Just like Mark did, so quickly that he left his clothing in the clutches of a cop and escaped naked.! And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

Can you imagine saying, “No, dammit! I have never known this criminal named Jesus!” God forbid, it would never leave my lips even in the torment of torture. But with the gentle pressure of a teenage servant girl, Peter the Rock, turned into a little pebble when he denied the Lord quicker than a New York heartbeat, not once but three times within a couple of hours. His eyes met those to his Lord and he realized the shallowness of his commitment. And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

I am blessed that Paul did not divulge to us the gruesome particulars of all the atrocities he inflicted on blameless Christians or I would be less given to read and study his Epistles. I suspect that I might forgive him but I would not forget. The captivity, injustice and even annihilation of these gentle souls might possibly raise a doubt about Paul’s conversion experience. Was he beyond being saved? And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

If you have been counting, that’s just ten. Including you and I, it makes an even dozen. My life was so depraved that I cursed God, shook my fist at heaven and demanded that if He existed, to kill me to end the nightmare I was living.

He saved me that night and I have been sharing the Gospel in jails and prisons ever since.

What about you?

www.MissionGateMinistry.org

 

GABRIEL AND MICHAEL

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GABRIEL & MICHAEL

By Rick Mathes

It was a gray, drizzly daybreak as I drove my car within sight of the cold and foreboding walls of the double-fenced penitentiary. The guards were cautiously stirring about in the look-out towers with their high-powered rifles plainly in sight. The razor wire was twisted over what seemed to be an illimitable perimeter around this bizarre city, a community of captives. The human garbage of society had been dumped on this sight.

I parked in a visitor designated lot and felt a thousand eyes upon me as I briskly walked to the main gate. The noises that only prisoners make were bouncing off of the stone walls as I caught glimpses of convicts spying out between the steel bars. They had already begun the news broadcasting by word of mouth and runners, that general population would be permitted to attend my chapel service. I had no idea that within a few hours a surge of inmates would be gathering to join me. I just walked in forced boldness to cover up my fears and apprehensions. I knew the Lord was with me and that this was going to be one of those times when I would need to step out of the boat and not hold on to the sides.

Once cleared at the electric eye and after a very thorough search by a stoic matter-of-fact officer, I was taken into the cool morning air. That first deep breath freed my lungs of the stale prison pungency of the central control quarters. A world within but without the real world. A society of degenerates that only an ex-convict can truly comprehend and yet fail to explain to outsiders.

Across the metal walkway, down the loose clanking steps and through the yard to my assigned housing unit. A muscular, tall C.O. with a disgusted look on his face was my pathfinder through the shadowy passageways to the prison chapel. Needless to say, I was quite dependent upon him and noticeably astonished that he had no weapon whatsoever. The meaning of vulnerability was taking on a whole new dimension for me. I discovered I could walk and pray at the same time!

My first scheduled stopover was a dormitory housing fifty prisoners in an open security area. Each cubical had three waist high walls in open sight to those officers securing the area. A space with a sense of property; home. They were mostly all still asleep with only a few shuffling about. A coffee aroma sweetened the otherwise rancid air. I surveyed the challenge that lay before me. It was my dubious blessing to go from bed to bed and tell them about Jesus while they were still asleep on a Saturday morning. I was permitted only two hours to circulate the room and then move on to the next clearance area, the hole. I felt like David when he first faced Goliath.

Two correctional officers with short clubs hanging from their belts greeted me with broad smiles. “So you’re the one that’s going in there to talk religion, are you?” The tall skinny one taunted. “Yes, I am,” I replied. “Well, let me remind you that you will be entering at your own risk and the waiver you signed releases us from any personal liability that may occur.” “I understand perfectly,” I replied nervously. I continued, “But let me ask you a very obvious question. What happens if I go in there and a serious problem should develop?” They both laughed out loud and when they regained their composure, the inconsiderate obese guard responded, “You see, it’s like this. We secure the gate from the outside and when the clamor dies down, we go in to see what happened and the medics tend to the injured! There are only two of us and neither of us wants to go home on a stretcher!”

My heart sank to my socks. I had imaginations of brutal beatings, gang rape, torture and maybe a violent death racing through my brain all at the same time. My body, not just my hands, but my whole body began to visibly tremble. I though of the fiery furnace, the den of lions, then dropped to my knees. They turned their heads as I cried out to the Lord. “Oh, Jesus, you got me into this and you’re going to have to get me out of this!”

After a moment of prayer, a peace flooded my soul and I knew it would be OK. I deliberately rose to my feet and clutching my well-worn Bible, I stepped through the open gate. The two CO’s didn’t say another word but the clank of the key and the squeaking of the hinges triggered my adrenaline. With a pounding heart, I walked into the dormitory and was greeted by a nerve shattering crash behind me as the steel gate slammed shut and was bolted!

At once my eyes were drawn to two powerfully build inmates that were quickly approaching me! Both topped six feet and I’m sure tipped the scales at a muscular 250 pounds each! One was black and the other white. I stopped breathing as they reached out for me!

“Praise the Lord! Glory! Hallelujah!,” the black convict bellowed as the other gave me a bone crushing bear hug and said, “You just stick with us and we’ll tell these clowns about Jesus together! And don’t worry. Nobody is going to mess with you unless they come through us first! You can take that to the bank.”

Jesus Himself had sent Gabriel and Michael to lift my arms. Over twenty first time decisions resulted from the three of us witnessing the Gospel according to Jesus.

COMFORTER

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COMFORTER

By Rick Mathes

Who or what is the Holy Spirit? If I ask 100 Christians I will get 100 answers that share a shred of similar gold: comfort. Isaiah 40:1 pleased God to comfort His people unaware that the God he was praying to was comfort personified in the third person of the Holy Trinity. He is the Comforter and the comforted.

All His attributes intersect at comfort. What are the components?

Let’s begin with the relief that comes with knowing we have the heaven’s best attorney, our Paraclete before the highest court of law. This ultimate Judge only has two sentences; eternal life or eternal death. So it is very comforting to have the Holy Spirit stand in our defense of deserving the death penalty.

Once we have been exonerated of all culpability of crimes worthy of the flames. We now have our best Friend monitor our activities, kind of like a house arrest. We are under constant surveillance and every infraction of God’s favor is dutifully brought before our attention by a genuine guilt that causes a sincere repentance before the bench of justice.

Now we are teachable and willing to hear, listen, learn, apply and then evaluate all the Holy Spirit lecture us on. We become His most apt and attentive student. Oh, what will our report card say!

This last stage is a real “follow the leader” stage. Whoever the Holy Spirit leads we must follow without question. Faith means just that. Our Lord is going to do with us what He wants to, when He wants to and if He feels like it. His Holy Spirit is our advocate for all the good we do to please Him and all the bad we do that angers Him is forgiven.

It is refreshing to know that there is a God that loves the weary and those perplexed with life’s complexities. It is so comforting to know who or where we are to turn when life seems unbearable. Jesus said he would not leave us without the Holy Spirit to walk with us as He would until His return. How comforting to know that He is with us when we need Him the most. We are never alone and always have Him to turn to when our world is upside down. He really is our Comforter and for that reason we need to thank Him!

CHOOSING A MINISTER

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CHOSING A MINISTER

By Rick Mathes

Lucifer was an angel of light. He was the superstar of heaven until his narcissism consumed him in pride and he challenged God for heaven. Well you know what happened, he dropped like a rock to earth and began his war on Christendom

Be honest with me. When did you meet privately with your pastor and quiz him on his doctrine? Let’s go a little deeper. Do you even know what doctrine you believe and can prove from the Word that it is true? There’s two serious considerations you need to make.

Just because you park your body in a church doesn’t make you a believing Christian. And that Preacher in your pulpit might be a devil with a mask on. You don’t know and probably don’t care. As long as he’s entertaining and you get “holy ghost bumps” from the music, the rest is ok with you.

Honestly, most people choose their church like they pick out their favorite hamburger: this one has cheese, the other has catsup but this one has a sesame bun and that one didn’t have a pickle. Oh, please spare me this mindless nonsense.

If your preacher is a counterfeit you will never or very rarely hear the words: sin, death, hell, believe, repent or obey He will say those things that will sooth your checkbook into a generous donation.

The next time you sit under him and his sermon take a steno-pad with you. On the left side do a stick count every time he says: He, Him or His. On the right side do a stick count when you hear I, me or mine. Look at the bottom totals and you will know who he was lifting us to worship.

True evangelical Christianity is Bible only, Jesus only, grace only and faith only: nothing added. The true gospel according to Jesus is commonly called Calvinism. All other faiths are “doing” but the real deal in “done.” Jesus really meant it from the cross when He said, “It is finished!” So I strongly suggest that you trust your soul to the real ambassador of Jesus. You only have one soul, one life, and once chance to get it right!

Go to www.missiongateministry.org or www.RickMathes.org for further “good stuff.”

 

CAUSE AND EFFECT

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CAUSE – EFFECT

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

Every cause has as effect, every action has a reaction, and every effort has a consequence and so on. You can always tell the value of the tree by the fruit it will produce. Truth may be obscured by a lie but it will truth will prevails, it will emerge.

J.I. Packer: “Justification is the truly dramatic transition from the status of a condemned criminal awaiting a terrible sentence to that of an heir awaiting a fabulous inheritance.”

Repentance is God’s answer to Satan’s sin. John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, and Peter all began their ministry with an altar (alter) call. This is an acknowledgement of an upward call to holiness. To be holy we must first be wholly His. You can’t be part pregnant nay more than you can be part saved. Jesus wants all of you or none of you: it’s that simple.

Repentance is a full pardon from the King. If ever you have even did time in a prison you really understand a retrial that provides you with an acquittal from all charges and a release from the prison cell. “Bunk your junk.” I have picked up more than one who when we got through the prison gate fell to the ground outside the fence and kissed it. I’m sure we’ll do the same when we sets foot in glory.

Repentance is a new lease on life. You were one a dead man looking for a place to be buried. It’s a personal renaissance to a better level of existence and a new life in Christ like you have never imagined. If you really have the Lord it is quite comfortable and He fits like an old shoe, so to speak. The tail doesn’t wag the dog anymore.

Remember though, the sin you have is the sin you want more than Jesus. Because if you didn’t want it more than you do want it you would have it! The devil didn’t make you do it.

Repentance is a gift of love from God. It’s the key that opens your heart to believe and obey the Lord of your salvation. You can accept it as the Holy Spirit’s labor of love, AMEN?

Go to www.RickMathes.org for more.

Go to www.MissionGateMinistry.org for an experience you won’t soon forget!

Go to www.lordshipsalvation.net for my blogs.

CAGE FIGHTING DEMONS

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CAGE FIGHTING DEMONS

By Rick Mathes

Our culture leans increasingly toward returning to the arena of violence and bloodshed. Unless we Christians pull out the whole arsenal of Holy Spirit weapons we are going to find ourselves in the Superbowl of Christians vs. demons in a high tech coliseum. Only the champions of the universe will survive in a new kind of “ground and pound: that has been around since Cain did a number on Abel.

Winning is everything in the kingdom because we stand with Jesus and cannot fall in defeat to Satan. The evil one has no defense to combat our weapons of war and as a result he is not even a worthy opponent to stand before “the look of love.” Our enemies dissolve before our very eye when we look at them with a look of pity and love for those that only need to confess Jesus as Lord to see the glory of His creation through our eyes.

A soft word is a razor sharp sword that circumcises a dead-beat heart and re-awakens it to a rush of ecstasy no drug can surpass. The swelling love, the rightly placed Word, births a delight to observe as he stained tear stained face of the attacker melts in bewilderment as we speak love and resuscitation to even the “least of these.”

A tear from a repentant child will wash away any hard-heart to forgiveness as that of our worst enemy will. We may have to lose the battle to win the war but in time our opponent will tire of beating up a praying saint and will drop to his knees and plead “forgive me for I have sinned.” If only we will fight our battles on our knees. A prayer of love that is sealed with a genuine tear will ratify any peace agreement.

The annihilator of course is a “love bomb” whereby we love our enemy! I’m a person that once had a volatile, violent temper that would quickly turn into a street-fight. I learned that it is real hard and not at all fun to slug another fighter that is on his knees praying for me! That takes all the fun out of it. It takes the wind out of my sails, so to speak. Love is more than a conqueror and you can also be if you will only go into training at Camp Jesus. He’ll make you a champion over a adversaries and you will be a new-world gladiator that has put down the sword and lifted up holy hands, has put down the bottle and picked up the Bible and has put down the needle and picked up the Cross of Christ. Walk in His footsteps to  the victory lane and all of creation will applaud you!

BORN TO DIE

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BORN TO DIE

By Rick Mathes

The moment our baby Jesus took His first breath, He began a life of dying. Although sinless, He experienced all the devil’s little stabs to stop our walk through this valley of death. The good news for we who are elect is that as we walk through this life of demonic landmines, is that we walk in the shadow of death. If there is a shadow, then we must be walking in the Light!

From our own sinful experience our minds are continually racked and disturbed with family and social ills. It seems that we are hit with one after another grenades of unrest. Hell’s war on us is relentless. Our goods disappear before our very eyes. Such are the wages of sin.

Meaningless, everything we accumulate will be left to those who don’t deserve it only to, in time, decompose to dust and rubble. There’s no U Hall going to be attached to your hearse. Everything, all the trinkets, bells and whistles of hell are all meaningless.

Even our own progeny, our children and friends will sicken and die. You can always count on death and taxes. Think of all the family, friends and acquaintances that have passed before your eyes, slowly headed for the inevitable grace: dust to dust, for future blooming.

It just seems as though our crosses are continual. One sin dies after another as we pursue holiness and nail their sins to the cross. Our Lord said that we are to lift up our own death stake or we are not worthy to follow Him. We are seldom at ease.

Behind every glittering toy lurks a demon laughing at how weak your faith is. If we are in the image and likeness of God then as He would, we need to pass through this world of hell’s deadly playthings for the substance of eternity of glory.

We have been born to sorrow, to sweat, toil and fail because of Adam’s error. But we have been reborn to heaven’s gates because Jesus took our cross for us. Praise be to Jesus!

BLACK AND WHITE

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BLACK AND WHITE

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

Two years of preaching and teaching every Friday night at this prison had developed a dependable and capable fellowship of believers. A small turnout was seventy attending, out of an inmate population of several hundred prisoners. Any praise band or female volunteers would swell the chapel attendance but I resisted that because I was resolved to disciple these inmates and solidly ground them in the Gospel according to Jesus Christ, without distraction.

I have memories of many exhilarating services where the altar was frequently flooded with repenting sinners. However, one particular evening stands out above the rest.

It was a chilly nightfall and more prisoners than usual had shown up. It seemed that they were up, positive and ready to worship and praise the Lord.

We began with a thoughtful prayer, sang a few old time hymns and as usual asked for testimonies before I got into God’s Word. It was at this time in the service that a big muscular inmate with a callous expression stood straight up. He was one of those athletes who pumps iron all day long and everyone fears his strength. He got up in the center of the men and spoke is a coarse gravel voice, “Hey Mr. Preacher man! I got something to say!” I relied in humor, “Anyone your size can say anything he wants! And take your time sir.”

Everyone had a good laugh at my feigned timidity and when the clamor had died down he continued, “I’m a two time loser. If I mess up again they are going to give me a life sentence. I’ve been a violent man all my life and it’s my fists and uncontrollable anger that has put me in the joint every time. I want to thank you for leading me to Christ last week but I’ve got to tell you about this crazy thing that happened to me the day after I gave my heart to Jesus for real.”

“Remember, you said that the Holy Spirit would come upon me, that I was a new creation? Well, the very next day I was in the day-room, just killing time and this big black dude come in and gets right in my face with an attitude. He was making fun of me being a Christian. He was doing this right in front of everyone. Well, Rick, to tell you the truth, I have killed men with my bare hands for less than that!”

“He kept on and on and all of a sudden, Bam! I was knocked to the floor. He blindsided me with a great left hook sucker punch. Down I went but I jumped right back up on my feet. It was then that something real strange happened to me.”

“My arms dropped to my sides, my hands went limp and ice water flowed through my veins and my mouth said, ‘Forgive me brother if I have offended you.’ I couldn’t believe it! He couldn’t either. He was all set to go at it but this took the fight out of him. He turned around and walked off real fast.”

“About four hours later, he came to my cell and said he was sorry that he had picked a fight. We talked for a while and I told him that I was born again and that Jesus now lived through me. We got on our knees and he gave his heart to Jesus.”

At that moment, the black guy got to his feet. They both walked toward each other, hugged and wept for joy in front of everyone. A hush went over the inmates and one by one they headed for the altar. I led them all in the sinners prayer and I hadn’t even preached yet!

Jesus had become Saviour and Lord to these two brand new evangelists and the witness of their salvation was winning souls to Christ. I learned from this experience that men would rather see a sermon than hear one.