Tag: Prison

BE GODLY

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BE GODLY

By Rick Mathes

1 Timothy 4:7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;

Once you are born again and have graduated from “Jesus IS Lord” to “Jesus AS Lord” your all consuming passion begins to be to guard the true Gospel from perversion of the truth. Jesus said that He was the Truth so to protect the Word you are protecting the person of Jesus from further heartache. This means that there is no speculation or new revelation. Truth is Truth: objective truth. I accept the Word for it’s obvious message and avoid allegories like the black plague. I have never even read Pilgrim’s Progress and never will. The Gospel as the Holy Spirit authorized it is my life’s challenge to drain the last drop of living Water. I’m convinced that if I had many lifetimes of study I would still be just scratching the surface of the 66 books.

No speculation allowed but I would suggest that you embrace a pure heart and a good conscience. No money or king’s ransom will do that. Only a genuine faith in Jesus, His words and works, sill start in your mind, seep into your heart to point your soul to Jesus with a calling that cannot be resisted;

Our acceptance saves us from the punishment of sin, the power of sin and in the Lord’s Day the presence of sin. When we fight the good fight, the victory is assured. This is much cause to pray and give thanks to our Savior for His sacrifice of that death stake. The only route to a peaceful life is to follow the bloody foot prints of Jesus.

When you choose to be godly, Jesus owns you. You will suffer for teaching truth so the use of your gifts for maximum performances is of paramount importance. The mantra should be justice for all and to keep pure.

The content of your character should mirror the souls of God and the content of His Words. No lust’s allowed when the fruit of the Spirit ripens. When you are wholly His you become holy and blameless in God’s sight. Nothing short of being God is being godly and this can only be done by exchanging all you are for all He is.

BAIT AND SWITCH

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BAIT AND SWITCH

By Rick Mathes

Acts 20:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The sheep or our post-Christian era are being sheared by false shepherds that only care about themselves. I have attended enough Baptist minister breakfasts to know that the main topic of their passion is not baptizing new believers. I spoke at a Baptist pastor’s conference and scolded them. I said that they had fifty ministers in the room and collectively hadn’t had fifty baptisms in the last ten years. I even preached on, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” Needless to say, they gave me their left hand of friendship and turned their backs on me ever since.

I’ve had it with demons in the pulpit preaching another Christ. They have exchanged the Word of God for the words of men! Emperor Constantine began the smoldering sacraments and rituals of Father Satan and the Roman Catholic Church, cults and the carnal Protestant churches have continued the apostasy. It’s called religion. My unsaved, hell-bound half-brother once said, “All our world’s problems can be traced back to their origin in religion!” He was dead-on right.

Religion is man’s best effort to reach God, faults aplenty. Christianity is Christ’s faultless efforts to reach man. Believers reach back because we are made in His image and likeness. When someone insists on evolution I respond, “If you think your great, great, great grandfather was a monkey, I am inclined to agree with you.” So much depends on you believing that, “In the beginning was the Word, etc.”

Religion provides a manmade Poe or some other such officer that bloats with pomp, power and becomes a despot seeped in tyranny. We are misguided from faith to presumption and that we worship the creature instead of the Creator. It becomes a satanic cult community.

Christianity does not separate and isolate it’s followers. It unifies them in superior splendor far above the hell bound fallen angels. The true salvation of faith and fear can overwhelm trust Christianity has been marketed by bait and switch con-men. They will attract you with enough plausible truth to disguise the lies that are to follow.

 

ASHAMED

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ASHAMED

By Rick Mathes

Romans 1:16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The day has finally arrived for you to climb the golden stairway to the summit of the Hill of Zion and approach the throne of God. You were faithful and He was true to His Word. Now is the time to take that first step, trembling in excitement as you slowly pass walking the opposite way into the abyss of endless flames, you son. “Daddy, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” he sobs. There goes your daughter, wife, best friend hysterically calling back to you, “How could you have done this to us. You never shared the Gospel with us and now it is too late!” What would you respond to them.

I didn’t want to offend you. I didn’t want to look like a religious fanatic. You would probably ignore me. Religion is a private matter. Right now, get out a piece of paper and write out in a sentence why you aren’t telling souls destined to hell the way to salvation!. Now shot it to the Lord. Ouch? You bet Ouch!

To convince others you need to be convinced. “Evidence Deserves a Verdict” by Josh McDowell will reach your mind intellectually. “The Gospel According to Jesus” by John MacArthur Jr. will have you confessing Jesus as Lord like you never have had before. Once the realization that God became man, died for our sins and rose from the dad for our eternal redemption, you will never look back but you will press on, keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course laid before you.

To convict others of sin you must be convicted of sin yourself. Everything I communicate to others as a minister I first minister to myself. I figure that if it worked for me it might work for you. Then I pray that if I misspeak the truth that the Holy Spirit will change it to your hearing.

Lastly, to convert someone you must first be converted. All of these benchmarks convince, convict and convert mean absolutely nothing if the cross is nothing more than a sing or jewelry. How can you possibly be ashamed of Jesus? Then how can Then how can you hold back the good news from those you love when they have the spiritual cancer and you have the cure? What is your excuse and what is the Lord’s response to it?

APRIL FOOL’S DAY

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APRIL FOOL’S DAY

By Rick Mathes

It’s amazing how the years slip by but we are past our 25th anniversary of Mission Gate. It seems just like yesterday when Trish and I were standing in our living room the first day of our new commitment to the Lord and I asked her, “What day is this?” and she replied, “It’s April Fool’s Day!” I couldn’t believe it. I was convinced that I was either daffy, in mid-life crisis, anointed or some combination of the three but I knew the Lord was playing with me our first day I called the Pastor that led me to Christ and I asked him, “What verse do you think of when you think of prisoners and our ministry?” He replied, “John 10:9 where Jesus said, ‘I AM the Gate.” Amen! We knew the name of our ministry would be Mission Gate Prison Ministry and that’s how it started and I continued to be fascinated in that verse. Let’s take a closer look at it.

John 10:7-10 (NIV) 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Allow me to make a few points about this revelation of the “I AM.”

First, thank you Jesus there is a gate! Stepping through the gate into and then out of Satan’s mansion called The Department of Corrections (prison) was a nightmare. But now, there is another gate that offers life instead of death.

Second, thank you Jesus there is only one gate! I just know that if there were two gates, with my luck, I would choose the wrong one.

Third, thank you Jesus the gate is a turnstile! We can go through one man at a time. We aren’t herded like the cattle or prisoners in most institutions. We can put our shoulders back, lift our heads and step through the blood of Jesus, one born-again man at a time; each special in His sight.

Fourth, thank you Jesus it’s a strong gate! Jesus assured us that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us, that He will always provide us a way out, that He will never give us more than we can bear, that no one can take us out of His hand, that He will never leave or forsake us and that where He is we will be.

Fifth, thank you Jesus by stepping thought we pass from failure to victory, sorrow to joy and from earth to heaven. Let me encourage you to step through the Gate for an experience you won’t soon forget!

Dear Lord, some people just don’t know how to step through the gate.  I remember running from you.  It is so amazing that the sinful life we are afraid to give up really amounts to nothing.  And the minute we believe, you offer us everything…everlasting peace and eternal life.

AND THEN

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AND THEN

By Rick Mathes

2 Timothy 2:13 (NASB77) 13  If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

What does a hopeless unbeliever expect will happen the moment after their last heartbeat? It musts be scary. How about expecting to fry in the flames of Purgatory for thousands of years like the Roman Catholics believe or soul-sleep nothingness of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? At least the Mormon men believe that they will become a god on their own planet! You can’t make this up. Thank you Jesus the God-breathed words of God assure us otherwise.

The blessed hope evangelists live for is drawing near when we will step into the presence of the Kind of this universe and our personal friend Jesus the Christ. It’s a sure bet because it’s the Word of God and He keeps His word. It would be contrary the very fiber of His being to be mistaken or unknowing or eternal things.

The Word of God washes and purifies the soul. Holiness is a rush if only for a moment so you can imagine how it will e in glory when we are wholly His!

What price would you put on comfort or contentment? I had the wife of a famous millionaire call me and ask what I need and she would write out a check for it. It was the first time I realized that I didn’t need anything. Imagine that! Having a clear conscience and clean record is priceless; no amount of money can buy it. Our Lord promised our needs would be met and they are.

A hope of eternal life in heaven sustains a taste of heaven here on earth. Consider that it all was created for our pleasure and we were created for His. He’s coming back and in fact very near at this moment. We are about to embark on an adventure beyond compare so fasten your seat belt and hold on!

How satisfied can one get, to know that now and forever He will never leave us nor forsake us? We will soon see Him as He really is and receive our reward: now that’s what I call total satisfaction no matter what I had to go through to get there. We surely will be blessed: that is, we will be happy beyond words or any joy we have ever experienced. It’s all about Him and His return that anchors us in the Faith.

 

AN EXAMINATON

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AN EXAMINATION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB77) 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

No one enjoys the “final exam.” There’s something foreboding and nerve wracking about it and my hands are perspiring already! This is, however, what our Lord commands us to do before we share in the communion of the saints. We shouldn’t be afraid to test our faith and beliefs is we are secure in Him. The adage, “Birds of a feather flock together,” is so true.

So start your self-examination by looking around you and see if those you keep company with respect the Jews ou have come to respect in bread and wine. Are you one of them? When others see you will they label you by the company you keep? Remember that you can’t hang out with dirty people and not get some dirt on you.

If I followed you around day in and day out for a week would I collect enough information to convict you of being a Christian? I an speak for me that my habits changed drastically when I made Jesus my Lord. You won’t find me anywhere near blatant sinners if I can help it. I have a brand new regimen of activities. I only continue in those that please the Lord and magnify His name.

Once Satan has your thoughts for even a moment He advances to conquer your mind. I have even had evil thoughts in the midst of my praying. That scoundrel is so low life he has no respect for any thought but that which is evil and offends our Lord Jesus Christ.

Looking closer you will notice that my affections have done a real one-eighty. My heart beats with His and I love what He loves. I’m under new management now and my love of life has changed from temporal to eternal.

Certainly not last nor least but yet most important is for you to examine your motives. What are your underlying and ulterior motives? Underlying motives are on the table for all to see and ulterior motives are under the table, out of sight. If you are honest with yourself, you have both and for your best interests you need to be very aware of them and pray that both would be pleasing to Him. Take a private exam and let Jesus grade it, not hu.

A NEW COMMAND

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A NEW COMMAND

Matthew 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,

I have often imagined myself the President of the United States and the most unnerving ability I can imagine would be the office of Commander of the Armed Forces. All other duties, however important, would pale in comparison to having the lives of a million young soldiers in your hands. How his heart must break in wars when these men give their lives for their country as my Dad did in WWII.

When Jesus commands His army to war He provides the armor and sword. His victory is in the heart of those that are His because that’s where the war is waged. He commands us not just to love one another but to love our enemies “for they know not what they do.” As soldiers in God’s army we are to dig in our cleats and unleash the dynamite of the Holy Spirit that is within us at Rev. Lucifer and his wimps. The battle and victory belong to Jesus and the peace resides in our hearts that are joined to His.

Jesus breathed a soul into Adam and His mind and heart followed. So reason and emotions are the pathway of comfort to the soul, in His image and likeness. Satan’s whole being is committed to snatching your soul into his fiery clutches. He knows his time is running out and like the desperation of a rabid hyena facing death, he is determined to take you down with him; hie’s that evil!

Your mind is where the backsliding thoughts are hatched if there is nay fertile ground for them to grow such as: pornography, drugs, booze, gambling, etc. When your mind is in the gutter your heart will follow and your soul will fall from grace. All you have to do is blink and Satan will slip into your mind with the flesh not far behind.

So loving each other with His love is not an option. Our Commander-in-Chief demands it because He knows that love is life and without it you become a casualty and a victory for Lucifer and his hell-hounds.

Receive your marching orders like a good and obedient soldier for Christ. Each time you say no to Satan temptations you earn higher rank in the Savior’s Survivors Squad of warriors. You have His strength as the Holy Spirit partners with you in the conflict for your soul. Jesus says for us to love and then watch the feeble efforts of the devil wither before our very eyes.

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A JUDAS GOAT

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 25:45 45 “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

When you look carefully at the division of the sheep and the goats in chapter 25 of Matthew, you will notice that it wasn’t what the goats did that sent them to hell; it was what they didn’t do. They didn’t pursue holiness and the effects of genuine works that are not masks of self-gratification.

The evangelicals like to throw around the label “carnal Christians” to describe plastic believers that are attached to the world and measure their faith by what power, money, prestige and influence their church may have. I once preached, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” at a large Baptist church. Needless to say, they never invited me back!

Holiness and good works was in the air the Lord breathed. As St. Francis of Assisi once said, “All I want to do is go about the work of the Lord and not know it.” You can’t be a practical atheist for too long before true Christians take your mask off and uncover the horror of your twisted motives: a midnight of your soul in the abyss of endless shock and awe. The hell that is displayed will startle you into insanity if you look long and too hard at the truth of your depraved mind. If you really believed in Jesus, you wouldn’t embrace your favorite sin: it was the weapon that killed God’s only Son!

There was a time in Rome when the dead body was attached to the murderer, chest to chest until the corpse rotted off of him. Such is the sin you willfully acknowledge that you love more than the Savior. It would drive the Roman prisoner over the edge of rationality and you are also on your way to a chaos of mental confusion, such as you may never recover unless you’re repent.

The goat turned his life toward the wider road that led the sheep to slaughter. The Judas goat gets his name from the fact that he is trained to have the sheep follow him to the butcher block. They blindly line up behind him and he returns again for more that dutifully follow him to certain death. The Judas goat isn’t doing evil, he just isn’t doing anything but leading to a oblivion of endless torture without relief, ever!

And so it is also with you not what you are doing as much as what you have not done. No decision to repent is a vote to reject salvation. Following the goat soon transforms into being the Judas goat as others see and imitate your example by what you didn’t do.

When faced with sin, just stop, stand still, turn around and return to Him. No decision is a decision to be a Judas goat. How many souls have you sent to Hell? When is the time to stop? What or who is holding you back?

Slay the goat and line up with the sheep that the Good Shepherd has chosen for His today!

A BRICK WALL

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A BRICK WALL

Philippians 3:12 12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Physics has taught me that if I apply a constant pressure against any object, in time, it will move. It may take a thousand years of my diligent effort, but the wall will go down and the bricks will be scattered until they become the dust from which they were made. So it is with sin and all the agents of corruption: they will come down and return to dust if only you will apply the pressure long enough: persistence of the saints.

Take for example the allurements of the world and all the creature comforts that we are inundated with in every area of merchandising. I expect that when all the surfaces have an advertisement on them, someone will figure out how to project ads on the face of the moon for the whole world to see!

It is second nature to covet or lust for all those things that are dangled just out of our reach. This includes advancement in our career moves. I was so diabolical that I would teach those under me only to a point and I would keep key information and training of special skills to myself so that they would never threaten my position of power and authority. The presumption of corruption and underlying schemes was elemental and necessary to outmaneuver those clamoring to take me down with a smile on their wretched faces. The old leaven surely does foul the whole being and cause a tension of heart-ache only the blood-soaked Cross of Christ can heal.

When your soul has lost ground and Devine life has declined, take a good look at that which was and remind yourself: I can, I will and I must overcome in Him. My heart has lost its softness and my conscience is no longer tender. The Cross has lost its attraction and grace no longer seems sweet to me. I’ve lost my mind to the seclusion of he Netherlands and iti is read meat for the prowling and devouring lion, I am terrified!

Bring me back Oh Lord the convictions of my offense before your holy throne with a godly sorrow that is couched in true humility and confession. I ache to return to You and the sweet comforts of your embrace.

That brick wall will come down and my effort will persist. I will persevere against the immovable obstacle of sin in a measure consistent with my renewed and growing faith. The victory is ours, mine and yours as my besetting sin crumbles into the oblivion of my past, gone and never again an obstacle to the gateway and cornerstone of deliverance.

The wall has come down!

A CALLING

Ye call me Master                   and obey me not;

Ye call me Light                      and see me not;

Ye call me Way                       and walk me not;

Ye call me Life                        and desire me not;

Ye call me Wise                      and follow me not;

Ye call me Fair                        and love me not;

Ye call me Rich                       and ask me not;

Ye call me Eternal                  and seek me not;

Ye call me Gracious   and trust me not;

Ye call me Noble                    and serve me not;

Ye call me Mighty                   and honor me not;

Ye call me Just                       and fear me not;

If I condemn you Blame Me not!

 

FAITH:

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.

Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.

Faith is ideal when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one’s faith in God exercised.

Faith, like muscle, grows strong and supple with exercise.

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.

A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.

Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship.

 

Arabic Proverb

He that knows not and knows not that he knows not:

He is a fool; shun him!

He that knows not and knows that he knows not:

He is simple; teach him!

He that knows and knows not that he knows:

He is asleep; wake him!

He that knows and knows that he knows;

He is a wise man; follow him!

 

A NEW COMMAND

Matthew 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,

I have often imagined myself the President of the United States and the most unnerving ability I can imagine would be the office of Commander of the Armed Forces. All other duties, however important, would pale in comparison to having the lives of a million young soldiers in your hands. How his heart must break in wars when these men give their lives for their country as my Dad did in WWII.

When Jesus commands His army to war He provides the armor and sword. His victory is in the heart of those that are His because that’s where the war is waged. He commands us not just to love one another but to love our enemies “for they know not what they do.” As soldiers in God’s army we are to dig in our cleats and unleash the dynamite of the Holy Spirit that is within us at Rev. Lucifer and his wimps. The battle and victory belong to Jesus and the peace resides in our hearts that are joined to His.

Jesus breathed a soul into Adam and His mind and heart followed. So reason and emotions are the pathway of comfort to the soul, in His image and likeness. Satan’s whole being is committed to snatching your soul into his fiery clutches. He knows his time is running out and like the desperation of a rabid hyena facing death, he is determined to take you down with him; he’s that evil!

Your mind is where the backsliding thoughts are hatched if there is any fertile ground for them to grow such as: pornography, drugs, booze, gambling, etc. When your mind is in the gutter your heart will follow and your soul will fall from grace. All you have to do is blink and Satan will slip into your mind with the flesh not far behind.

So loving each other with His love is not an option. Our Commander-in-Chief demands it because He knows that love is life and without it you become a casualty and a victory for Lucifer and his hell-hounds.

Receive your marching orders like a good and obedient soldier for Christ. Each time you say no to Satan temptations you earn higher rank in the Savior’s Survivors Squad of warriors. You have His strength as the Holy Spirit partners with you in the conflict for your soul. Jesus says for us to love and then watch the feeble efforts of the devil wither before our very eyes.

 

 

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

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WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

By Rick Mathes

I have been privileged to walk in the very dust the early saints walked and died in. May times I have imagined myself living in Biblical times with those Ancient Fathers of faith such as Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Isaiah, Jesus and His “gang of twelve.” I often wish a lost gospel will be found disclosing more about the words and works of our Lord. For now, I have to be content to just imagine the questions I would have asked and the probable answers I would have received if I lived in those times to question my favorites.

Let’ just take a peek at a few characters in the New Testament and we would ask such as:

Mary: “When Gabriel gave you notice that the Holy Spirit would overcome you and you would give birth to the world’s Mesiah, what was going through your mind? Did Jesus give you clues as he grew in wisdom and stature? Or was His Godhead a total surprise to you when you saw Him arisen?”

Peter: “Why didn’t you understand His teachings and forewarning of His death, burial and resurrection?”

Simeon: “What was going through your mind as you carried His Cross to the top of Calvary? What happened to cause your two sons to become the first two Bishops of “color?”

Pilate: “What was the aftermath of His resurrection in your home? Did your wife tell you, “I told you so?”

Barabbas: “Of all those Jesus died for, no one knows better than you. What were you thinking as you looked to your substitute die for you? Did you repent and accept Him as your Lord and Savior? I sure hope so!”

Good Thief: “How did you feel to be in Paradise at the moment your heart had its last beat? Did you welcome Jesus into glory three days later?

Lazarus: “What was it like to be dead and then summoned back to life by Jesus? What did you, your two sisters and Jesus talk about when you all fellowshipped over dinner?”

Mary: “When you saw your Son die and then rise from the dead, what went through your mind” What sis you and John talk about in your last years?”

There is so much I want to know! I can hardly wait until the Lord calls me home and I meet those notables in His Word. I know one thing for sure, I will shouting “Praise the Lord!” at the top of my lungs for at least the first hundred years. Then I take time to teach Dave a few licks of blues on his guitar. We’ll jam for ever!