Tag: jail

NO ESCAPE

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NO ESCAPE

By Rick Mathes

We are in a revolt against God: as a nation, as a civilization, as a church and personally. We are warring against heaven itself. Satan is our Lord because we are obeying him. Scary isn’t it? But it is the truth. We have been in rebellion with God since we left Eden and there is no sign tht we will be letting up.

Think about it. Man has renounced Divine Lordship. Even professing ministers hare rejecting the light of God’s Word and being consumer friendly with large music productions and stage shows instead of a solid sermon from God’s Word. This is a complete rejection of the purpose of the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance God’s Words and guide us through the deep knowledge of who Jesus is and what He did: the words and works of our Savior.

Church after church has turned a blind eye to adultery, active homosexuality, incest, child molesting and all responsibility to account for the sheep before the throne of God. The revenue of offerings cannot be disturbed because the costs go on for salaries and overhead expenses that must be met, no matter what. We must keep our doors open to everyone! A practical of choice made is to actually avoid messages that mention death, sin, or hell. You will never hear the words “believe and obey” ring from the pulpit of a church for fear of losing tithing membership! The church has totally ignored man’s last condition before the throne of judgment. We can’t be judgmental can we?

Why has Christianity degenerated to a helpless pool of wimps?

The answer is the unsaid escape plan man has of 3 ways to avoid God’s wrath. His first thought and probably yours is you won’t get caught. Somehow your plans to escape the detection of your sin will succeed to allow you to continue to sin freely undetected. You next consideration is that you can escape the jurisdiction of the sin by making life changes of where you live and the people you associate with. If that don’t work you will have to fall on the errors of our legal system and depend on your attorney to find a loophole in the system that lets you beat the charges. But when all this fails your only recourse is to escape!

The formidable difficulty is that none of this will get by the Paraclete and there in no escape from hell but for you to repent right now, this very moment!

The time will come when it will be too late. You must settle out of court of face the consequences, there is no escaping the truth.

MORE THAN A MAN

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MORE THAN A MAN

By Rick Mathes

Maximum security penitentiary leaps off the screen of a James Cagney movie with long metal catwalks and tier after tier of cages holding the incorrigibles locked down 23 hours a day. The level 5 security risks are separated into four geographical quadrants so that even a chow or shower-time, the gangs cannot assemble together. Divide and conquer is particularly applicable to this bizarre nation of murderers and mutilators doing life without parole sentences.

Once a month, at my evangelistic service, the chapel is the place where all the campus general population is restricted to a central and presumed contained location; the chapel! As over four hundred inmates began filing in by group sections, I was painfully apprehensive that two high-powered rifles were being directed at them by sharp-shooters from the safe position overhead and behind my back. They assembled into their respective gangs; Chicago, East St. Louis, gang-bangers, black Muslims, white Aryans and of course the Christians.

The Warden came up to me and he said that he anticipated an insurrection to take place because he was compelled to allow sixty trouble makers and effeminate homosexuals from Protective Custody to join us from the balcony overlooking the auditorium. These infidels could not even live their own kind! The bottom of the barrel.

The balcony began to fill as they flexed their muscles, sneered and could he heard cursing the name of Jesus. The crowd was growing anxious and I sensed the presence of Satan. I signaled the praise team to begin singing and I dropped to my knees in foreboding desperation of the danger I had led my devoted volunteers into. I cried out to the Lord and began rebuking Satan with all the faith that was in me. A hollowed hush fell over the chapel and through tear blurred eyes, I looked out over the assembly and witnessed a modern day miracle.

About two hundred Christian prisoners had turned their backs to me and were standing upright, in the midst of this living hell. They lifted their holy hands to the balcony and began praying out loud in the Spirit of the Lord. Those few minutes seemed like an eternity as I observed the Spirit of God rush through that demon possessed gallery of incorrigibles. Behold, fourteen notorious gang leaders rose to their feet and cried out to Jesus for salvation! With tears streaming down their faces, the overwhelmed gang members on the ground floor began to stand with their leaders to do the same and I had yet to deliver a word of my sermon to any of them. I cried out, “There is a God!”

The service then began and at the completion I gave an alter call. The alter was flooded with a sea of repentant sinners. I was sobbing too hard to even recite a sinner’s prayer, so I handed the microphone to the black Pastor assisting me. He too was helpless to say a word. So a prisoner doing a double life sentence plus 50 years led them to the throne of grace; the old rugged Cross.

When the service had concluded and the men were led out cell block by cell block, I gathered uou team for praise and prayers of thanksgiving. I later learned that 23 shanks (weapons) were left on the stage! Faith coupled with fervent prayer had prevailed.

 

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LESS THAN A MAN

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LESS THAN A MAN

By Rick

The penitentiary mess hall was tidy but colorless and institutional; that is, void of any warmth or contrasts. Barred windows and sulky workers. Inmates shuffling past counters of tasteless, stench-filled food that fell barely within government nutritional guidelines of minimum vitamins. I suffered through lunch in the Officer’s quarters and was astonished at how they managed to eat this unappetizing menu with such relish and enthusiasm. I had lost my appetite for this torture when I was informed that the green baby lima beans were really creamed corn! And a fish head was floating around and looking up at me from the sea-food soup! It was a blessing to escape from this noxious event and begin the lengthy walk to the Chapel.

An unpretentious Asian guard or as they prefer to be addressed, Correctional Officer or C.O. for short, began escorting me out of the cafeteria into the dimly lit hallway, down some metal steps and then through a labyrinth of twisting and turning, often loud catwalks past bad-tempered prisoners on lock-down.

In one particular corridor, our gait has hasty but my eyes were drawn to the darkened prison cells in a blurred kaleidoscope of unshaven faces and slumped or sleeping bodies. All at once I stopped in my tracks and turned back to the cell I had just passed by. I had seen an attractive woman stretched out on the bunk in a very alluring pose!

Now wait a minute, wasn’t this an all male maximum security prison? What was a seductive woman doing here? I had turned so abruptly that the Officer did not think to respond before I looked again into this cell to ascertain that it wasn’t a female but rather a transvestite with long silky hair, a smooth shapely body and very obvious breasts. Horrified is an understatement!

Our eyes met in an uneasy brotherhood as I asked, “Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour and be born again?” He leisurely got up and off his bunk, then glided in a seductive manner to the bars in front of which I was standing. As he drew nearer and I was able to scrutinize him more he said to me, “How can I change what I’ve done to myself.” His masculine voice startled me. I responded, “You must be born again. You need to change on the inside first and that begins with permitting Jesus to be your Lord. He is the God of miracles and you will become a walking trophy of His grace if only you will become willing and believe.” He looked me in the eyes and whispered, “I want to do that very dearly,” and began to sob uncontrollably.

We slipped to our knees right there on the cold concrete and tenderly held hands through the bars. A woman with man’s hands asking God for a spiritual healing. We prayed a heart-felt prayer and he sincerely asked that he would be delivered from homosexuality and become the man that God had created him to be. Just then the C.O. took my arm securely and said sharply, “We have to keep moving.”

I learned months later that he was severely beaten by his “husband” and repeatedly raped by homosexual “gang-bangers.” The prison administrators had learned of a contract on his life so they transferred him to a single cell in protective custody. The last word I received is that he is remaining steadfast in the Word of God and his family has raised the money for cosmetic surgery to physically reconstruct his manliness.

 

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MEET REVEREND LUCIFER

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MEET REVEREND LUCIFER

By Rick Mathes, author of “Allah or Jesus”

“Just look at me. Recognize the dignity of my office. I publicize with a pomposity of arrogant authority. My stride is purposeful and brisk. My carriage erect and stately. My apparel is fashionable and professional to perfection, as is my Rolex watch, diamond ring and bright false teeth. I’m tailored to accommodate the image of calm assurance and confidence. I’m always conscious of admiring glances and I respond in due course with heightened self-image. I always appear to be as I must in the eyes of others.

“My reassuring manner is well practiced and my handshake firm and manly. Surely, I exude warmth, intelligence and reliability. The same phony impeccable smile, the same imperial posture, the selfsame charisma. Why change a deception that works!

“My words are invariably just inside or outside the truth. Moderation is best accomplished by compromising ambiguity; ill-defined positions established in a humanizing, solicitous fashion. I give the impression that I am piously contemplative, thoughtful and unprejudiced. None of which is true.

“I never take sides so that I can keep controversy alive, especially in Biblical doctrine and apologetics. I only side with the heavy hitter contributors. This approach is shrewd, forthright and politically correct.

“The misimpression of holiness is very material to my intentions. It’s all a matter of expression and demeanor. Stoic and unobtrusive. Quiet and restrained. The appearance of reflection more than the boredom it really is, but it suits my corrupted purposes. I am held in high esteem by fake Christians. I’m appointed not anointed. Don’t look for Him, just look at m

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e!”

 

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!

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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 forever’s!

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

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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 real 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 get 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?

MissionGteMinistry@msn.com

www.MissionGateMinistry.org

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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.

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FISHERMEN

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FISHERMEN

By Rick Mathes

You don’t force a hook into the mouth of a fish. You get his favorite bait on your lure and coax him to take a bite and bingo, you have him. This same principle applies to humans and winning souls to Christ. You have first to lure them with good bait. That is meet them at their need as show them the Word has the cure.

So the first issue is to attract a prospect. I really believe who your really are speaks a lot louder than what you say. It’s been said many times that you might be the only Christ they will ever see this side of glory.

A turning point for me was going to a Christian bachelor party. We didn’t have any drugs, no booze and no belly dancers or porno movies and we were having such a good time that his mom had to chase us out of the house at 2am with a broom! I have never laughed so much ad so hard in a long time!

Another tie I was attending a Christian businessmen’s luncheon when I said to them all, “You’re not going to tell me you guys are successful and honest in your business dealings are you? You have to be kidding me. There’s no such thing as an honest merchant or professional! They all and a gasp and then a good hearty laugh at me.

Brace yourself for instant conversions. Some that you share the good news with are primed by the Holy Spirit and explode like dynamite. That was my experience.

I do know that a good fisherman keeps real close to the truth when exalting Jesus. This is real serious business and nothing to have sport with. We will have to account for every word and action before the Lord someday. We can exaggerate about the fish that got away but when it comes to soul fishing, only the gospel truth will do.

We receive salvation and are rewarded with persecution. We clean up our lives and fight the rest of our life to stay that way. We are released of anger and fear but it is replaced with sorrow and heartbreak. Salvation is free but it costs everything. Be a good fisherman for souls and Jesus will bless your catch and multiply it.

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DOING LIFE WITHOUT

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DOING LIFE WITHOUT

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 2:12 (NASB77) 12  remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

What would you do if you didn’t have Jesus? What is your “Plan B?” or second choice? I bet I know: nothing but you. Without God all you have is naked you walking through a field of deadly land mines A Christless life is no life at all. Ask any born-again believer if they would ever trade their relationship with Jesus for friendship with the devil. I can speak for them, there is no life without Jesus. It is all smoke and mirrors of that lifetime of nightmares are as fresh as yesterday to my thoughts. I can’t imagine turning my back on Jesus and walk alone to my inevitable damnation.

Remember the Hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus?” It was the text of my first sermon in our local county jail service. What better friend can you have but Jesus? He personifies agape love. He is Love. He’s all the friend you will ever need. His family makes a house a home.

Just think what would happen to your family, spouse and children if Jesus didn’t live with you all. It would be a living hell to balance all that need to be done in a healthy, prosperous family if Jesus wasn’t welcome to be an important part of all you do. A family would not be a family without Him. It would e self-serving chaos.

I can’t see any hope on the horizon of a Christless home. There would be dry dynamite around every corner just aching for a lit match. What good would there be but that which served selfish needs. When everyone is out for what they can get, the means justifies the end and that results in hopelessness. What is there tolive for when you are planted in the ground and all you once owned is rusting and deteriorating into waste and rubbish?

A Godless life is not life at all. Without God you are just walking dead looking for a place to be buried. I can’t even imagine what is going through the mind of antitheist. How can they say, “There isn’t a God” if there wasn’t a God to say there isn’t one of? Makes sense to me!