Tag: crime

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!

HELL’S COMMANDMENTS

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HELL’S 7 COMMANDMENTS

By Rick Mathes

The curse of Lucifer is in the chromosomes that were passed down by our common natural father Adam. His progeny were so evil God flooded the earth and violently drowned all life but Noah and his close family. It is repeating the end times again because man obeys hell’s 7 commandments.

  1. You must have and destroy all races of mankind that are different from you. This includes white trash, niggers, chinks, red skins and any others whose skin tone and culture differs from yours.
  2. You must destroy the civilization whose form of government differs from you. There is no such thing as a democracy or freedom. How stupid can you be? Can’t you see, open your eyes, greed has conquered creed. Don’t be a fool and be taken in by your politicians any more. Armed revolution is the only conclusion.

III.           You must gather all the wealth your greedy paws can lay hold of and take everything you can from others. No, you don’t need more but take it anyway just for the pleasure of destroying others and rising above the ashes a victor.

  1. You must support the suppression of education of knowledge in any form. The answer to mass slavery is dumbing down the populace so that the agent of hell might rise as clarions of the less fortunate. Ignorance is bliss for those controlled by those of higher education and wisdom.
  2. You must propagandize your world domineering strategy through all the arts and means of communication. He who rules the airwaves, arts and sciences, food production and distribution rules the world. Remember it’s the historian of your choice who will write the history you want immortalized.
  3. You must quash any cause of human righteousness. You are the referee of right and wrong and you know as well as I do that is no slight thing as a constant except that there is no such thing as a constant. All people, place and things are relative and subjective to the clenched fist of the biggest bully.

VII.         You must sever and destroy as nonsense all religions. Teach them that religion is man’s weak invention to explain the unexplainable long enough and the masses

will believe it. Remember, Lucifer is god but don’t tell anyone. The end has come!

GROUND AND POUND

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GROUND AND POUND

By Rick Mathes

Satan is a formidable opponent and is the champion of all unbelievers. He has won all his matches with those that train in the flaming camp of this world’s kingdom. Prejudice is his number one weapon for becoming the forerunner of many future victories: fools fall so easily for it stealth blow. It doesn’t matter if it sex, skin color, faith, natural origin, political sway or economic status. I can’t help but comment that the believers understand that we are all equally created in His image and likeness. Stripped of our bodies, we would all look identical to each other! If only those infested with sin specialties knew that only Jesus and His are beautiful just as they are.

These scavengers of sins garbage dump called earth will love sin over the Savior, selling Him out for “chump change.” The will consent to the beating they have taken from their life choices, pass blood and vomit the return of their investment: red eyes and throbbing headache it’s reward. How sad. And then they look for more sewer sludge to wallow in as darkness covers their deeds and the odor overwhelms their senses.

The Light I out and only darkness prevails on the inevitable downward slide to depression and walking dead. Despair washes over in an overwhelming tsunami of pain, hopelessness and suicide. I know; I’ve been there and I remember those dismal days of sobbing in tears that wouldn’t come anymore, a sinner plainly needing a Savior.

I still had to pick myself up one more time and sing, “I did it my way!” until the joke was on me: my way was death, insanity or incarceration. It became crazy to say that this was fun. I had few alternatives. I had to kill myself or surrender to the King. I was a coward to pull the trigger and end it all (make it all begin again in flames) so I chose the slow death of alcohol, drugs, sex and crime. Maybe you have been there also where death seemed to be the only solution.

Well, I learned that the undefeated champion of hell was “unbelief.’ God cannot save you from the devil’s assault of self-destruction if your name is unbelief. A thousand crucifixions of our Lord could not help you. Satan will make you tap out! Choosing the devil is one you will regret for many forevers!

What “Plan B” is better than a risen Savior? Think, stupid before you make the wrong choice again!

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.

FATAL ATTRACTION

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FATAL ATTRACTION

By Rick Mathes

Sin murdered God’s only Son. Repeat this and think real hard on it. Your sin, my sin, our sin tortured precious Jesus to a slow excruciating death: how deplorable and shocking especially to a peacemaker like you.

“Let’s make love not war!” is not the answer. The only salvation from the Father’s wrath is a sincere apology and fervent repentance.

Sin is a loathsome disease akin to festering, pus drooling, maggot infested, rotting skin called spiritual leprosy. It erodes your soul to be an abomination to all that is good. It is deserving only of fire. Imagine a blow-torch flaming down your tender throat, you brain boiling, smoke billowing out of your eyes, ears and nose and a flame-thrower up your backside at full blast. And it gets worse; even God cannot save you! You couldn’t resist the fatal attraction, why?

Let’s take an honest inventory of your weapons of mass destruction:

  1. Have you become lax in prayer?
  2. Do you read the Word regularly?
  3. Do you avoid the examination of the communion table?
  4. Have you lost your first love?

The attraction is akin to a bug drawn into that back-yard blue light. Do you get the picture? Some dive straight into it and you see a spark and hear the pop. Some circle for a while then dive bomb to the same result while others consider the consequence and fly off. Why did those few fly off? They learned from those that went before that it was certain eternal death.

Certainly you have more sense than a bug don’t you?

FAITHFUL

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FAITHFUL

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NASB77) 13  No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

There was once a time when a man’s handshake was his bond. Not anymore. There is no honor among thieves. There never was. The only thing you can rely on with the devil’s advocate is unfaithfulness. When the going gets tough it’s every man for him. You stand before the judge alone.

Not so with God, He is infinitely faithful and will always provide you with a way out of sin. He is established in righteousness and evil not only cannot comprehend Him it can’t occupy Him.

The incomparable blessing from this is that He will never give you more testing that you can bear. Yes, I said testing because Satan cannot tempt you without God’s permission and God doesn’t temp, He tests.

Our Lord’s unfailing faithfulness is jaw dropping. Let me ask you, what was he worst disaster or sinful act you have ever experienced? Did you survive it to glorify His name? Of course you did! Does He need to prove His faithfulness again? No. He will never leave you nor forsake you His faithfulness to you is everlasting into the very end of eternity. Where He is you will be: count on it.

This great faith He has in you was born in His faithful Son who loved yous o deeply that He suffered and died for your sins. Jesus took the unimaginable punishment that the devil reserved for you.

Great faith begets great faith. Will you at least trust Him more than fear the world’s worst enticements to sin and death? Even though your body rejected His unconditional escape from the flames of hell, at least try to let your spirit soar to a safe place in His protective love and faithfulness to His Son and you.

Try with all that is within you to be worthy of His faith in you. He is vulnerable to any pain your rejection and sin may cause Him. Hasn’t He suffered enough for you? Thank Him for His unbending faithfulness and pray with all your might that you can reply in kind.

 

EBONY AND IVORY

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EBONY AND IVORY

By Rick Mathes

I was stealing cars, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes by the time I was age 13. By the time I turned sixteen I had robbed a gas station, stole a motorcycle and had run away from home during a race riot in Detroit Michigan. A black “Aunt Jemimah” said, “White boy, you’re gonna die!” They were throwing whitey off the Belle Isle Bridge. I lived within we were teenagers. Ten years later I sold a luxury cruiser called “Soul Sister I” to none other but Aretha Franklin and five years later I hire the first black insurance agent in my Prudential District Office. It wasn’t until I started Mission Gate Prison Ministry that my wife and I were the only white recipients of the Martin Luther King Annual Award for making the most positive difference in the black community in St. Louis Missouri.

In the midst of my forming our Ministry we persuaded a female prisoner to keep her baby and not have an abortion. We adopted Karlita and now she is happily married, has an earned MBA degree and is a counselor for Bethany Baptist placing unwanted babies in wanted adoptive homes. How is that for going full circle? Both Karlita and I were to be aborted but thanks be to God, we were allowed to live and serve Him with all that is within us.

I said all of that to say this; we are all one in Christ. Humanly speaking, we all have the same DNA as Adam and Noah. As elect we are one Body with the Savior.

One in life: We live only to reflect Jesus to all that will look on us.

One in aim: There is one God, one faith, one Bible, one baptism, one Body.

One desire: We are all called to love God and our neighbor with all the love we have.

The black, white, yellow, red and tan issue is still a thorn in our side. We Christians of all colors are long suffering and gravitate to those of like kind without regard to our skin color. We all seek well for each other without any jealousy or malice.

Jesus has but one lesson for us all and simply stated it is just “Love.” That is we seek not our own but rather blessings for each other. That puts a smile on the Lord’s face when ebony and ivory harmonize in sweet accord.

http://www.RickMathes.org

 

 

DUST TO GLORY

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DUST TO GLORY

By Rick Mathes

It’s hard to get into the head of an unbeliever. It just doesn’t make any sense why someone would refuse our Lord’s salvation from eternal dying in flames. It’s even harder to penetrate the souls of those that don’t care nor even want to think about what starts when their heart stops. It’s so frustrating!

The experience of being saved involves three areas: intellectual, volitional and emotional. One might be the entry level for the other three but all must come together for a genuine experience.

God can be recognized in two forms essentially: His form and His essence. His form rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and can now be found in the Holy Spirit He sent to take His place in our lives until His return. The essence is in the Word of God we call our Holy Bible. The Logos explodes off of the pages as the living witness to a living God.

The Bible teaches us about God, our own soul and human destiny. It is a life-raft in a sea of apathy and neglect. Just think of the genius of God in picking out the color of blue for our sky as well as a nose on your face to smell. Did you ever study the optics of just your eyeball? Evolution, phooey! His mind is unknowable except what He had to say to us in His Word.

Jesus walked in the same dust we do. Let’s at least agree that His friends are our friends and His enemies are our enemies. God grant us the wisdom to now the difference. Thank you Bill W. and Dr. Bob!

Look at His way of managing both the good and bad that crossed His paths as they cross ours. How did He handle those difficult circumstances and how did He show His love?

Take a closer look at what He rejected rather than what He accepted. When you know the truth through and through the false stands out like a stubbed toe. It makes you automatically say, “Ouch!” and avoid it.

He commanded that we pick up our cross to be worthy to follow Him and in dying to your  self we walk in His life and make His future ours. Why gaze backwards at the dust when you can look upward to His glory.

DON’T BUG ME

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DON’T BUG ME!

By Rick Mathes

Trish and I were invited to a fellow Christian’s home for an outdoor barbeque and we accepted. It was such a blessing to not worry about my doing a Bible study or preaching a sermon, just relax. And so I did on a chase lounge on the backyard patio.

I couldn’t help but notice that there was a blue bug light to stave off the little critters from annoying us. I drifted into a dreaming mind of imagination and focused on the bugs. This light was such that it attracted the passing bugs to certain death and I wondered what it was that did so. I decided it was the blue that was a counterfeit of the normal illumination that puzzles these little critters.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the differences in their approaches to the light of death. Some bugs dive-bombed into the light and snapped and popped and exploded their bodies to smithereens. And I wondered why they did this when they had seen their friends dive to certain extinction.

Others would circle and circle the blue light watching the dive bomber crash dive and disappear. And yet after a while, their circles would get smaller and smaller until POP they too suffered an early demise, so stupid. Didn’t they see what happened to the bugs that that went into never-never land?

Finally, I focused on the bugs that kept circling a decent distance from the light and watched intently on what was happening before them. After a time, they looked and decided the counterfeit light was not for them. They saw others perish before them and wisely flew off.

What lesson have you learned from these bugs? Do you have more sense than them?