Mission Gate Prison Ministry

The following articles are written to challenge you to have an explaination for what you believe, apologetics. They do not reflect my belief necessarily nor are they endorsed by this ministry. Think, and respond from the Bible only, then let me know what "You Think" at the Forum located at this web site.

The "Truth" will prevail.

The Body of Christ needs to be defined so that the uninformed will be able to identify if the Church they attend is of the Body of Christ. There are more demons in the pulpits of America than anointed men of God and church memberships have swelled with devils from Hell. When asked, “What is your number one prayer request, Rick?” My response is to pray for the real church to stand up and let the community know that “He is Risen!”

We truly are in a post-Christian era and it is the daily burden of my heart that Jesus has been merchandised to suit the profits of those agents of Hell. Reverend Lucifer is a Christian minister with a mask on and he needs to be discovered and uncovered. Will the real anointed men of God please stand up and make the cleansing blood of Christ known?

I can hear the hoof-beats, the trumpet is about to sound! The Lord is near and those that are shepherding the sheep will soon stand before Him and account for their flock. Kentucky Fried Christianity will then come to an end and those that participate in it will not enter the Kingdom of God. Most will be very surprised because they were deceived by father of lies and the false church they helped build and faithfully attended!

Follow His Light
Our ranch has a walkway from the lodge to the horse stables that is lined in railroad ties and paved with pebble stones. It can be a real adventure to walk it in the dark because you never know what you might trip over and at night in the country, it is pitch-black out. So I find it necessary to use a flashlight that will illuminate the area before me. And as so often happens, someone will borrow the flashlight and forget to return it. So I installed a floodlight on the barn that lights the walkway and now all I have to do is “flip the switch” and the way to go is as visible as daytime. I learned that in the flesh, we take all that has been and is now (our flashlight) to guide us in our walk through life. This is the devil’s way.

Put the past and present aside and follow the light that is shining back at you. He will guide you through His will as a shepherd guides his beloved sheep.

Who are you?
We are the sum total of all that has passed before us to this moment that has prepared us to be the ambassadors of the King He ordained us to be before the beginning of time. You have been in His perfect will or His permissive will. In either case, you have always been in His will. You are perfectly molded and shaped to extend His love to others because you were preordained to do so.

We look at the back of the tapestry and see all the knots and tangles. He sees the finished product and we are beautiful in His sight. When our heart has had it’s last beat we will look back and be astounded at the genius of how we were created for His purposes according to His will. All that has passed before has prepared you for this moment, to go about the Lord’s business and not know it.

One step at a time.
Simon had the unique privilege of carrying the cross-beam for Christ. He took one step at a time in the bloody footprints of our Master as our Lord struggled to get to that holy ground alive. Something happened along the way. Maybe Jesus glanced back with a look that touched Simon’s heart or just maybe He spoke a word to the depth of his soul. Something happened because both of Simon’s sons, Rufus and Alexander, became Bishops of the primitive church. Their Father in heaven and their daddy on earth had something to do with that.

So it is with the sons you have fathered that look to you for the lessons that they will carry with them the rest of their lives. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful “thank you note” to the Lord to leave behind your sons who have picked up the cross for Christ?

Real Faith
Faith is not doing what you think you can do. It is doing what you know you can’t do. Real faith is reaching beyond your grasp and getting out of the boat without holding onto the sides.

Notice, however, that when Peter got out of the boat, there were eleven more that didn’t. I wonder why they just sat there and watched this miracle without leaping out of the boat and joining Peter and the Lord.

Nothing has changed. They still sit in the pews and watch. But that doesn’t excuse you from walking in real faith while maybe, just maybe others will join you if only you will take the first step with your eyes fixed on Him and not them. But if you can’t walk on water you had better get back in the boat!

Sunday Morning
Our purpose for existence is to worship and enjoy Him. To do that we need a Pastor that follows the Master. How would you describe the place you attend on Sunday morning?

There is the visible church (worldly) and the invisible church (Body of Christ). The carnal versus the Christian.

Go to the church where the Pastor makes the Body of Christ visible and run from the one that doesn’t.

Just a Dash
Walk through a cemetery and sense the revival there will be when the dead in Christ rise first. Those blessed souls will be leaping from their graves shouting Halleluiah at the top of their lungs. Upon a closer look at their gravestones you will notice the birth-date a dash and then the death-date. Isn’t it interesting that there is only a dash that fills in the time from your birth to death?

Christianity is exchanging all that you are for all that He is. St. Francis of Assisi said it so well, “All I want to do is go about the Father’s business and not know it.” I just want my life to be a great big dash so when people think of me they think of Him.

Let this soak in: The rest of your life is none of your business! He is going to do what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, how He wants to and if He feels like it. That’s what you call making Him your Lord.

Ouch!
We are not under the law. You are not required to tithe your income. However, you might be charged with worshiping at McDonalds if your checkbook register were made public. We go into church with $10 in one pocket for Jesus and $20 in the other for hamburgers when we leave.

What you need to do is write a check for a dollar. No pain? Write one for $10. Still no pain? Write one for $50, $100, $150, ouch! That is sacrificial giving! There needs to be an ouch to make it worthwhile and acceptable to the Lord. Where is your ouch level in giving, in repenting, in praying, in forgiving? Get an ouch in your life and make it His!

The Enemy is Within
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out that if you were Satan, the way to take out Christianity is from the pulpit.

Does anyone have the holy boldness to stand up in the fellowship and declare the “Gospel According to Jesus”? Is that person you? What’s holding you back?

We have invited God to leave America and I believe He has for a season. But don’t think He won’t be back!

Surprise, surprise!
There was a time when the three thieves and Jesus were in the “hole” together. Was there any communication between them? We will never know. But one thing is for sure, Jesus was killed in place of the worst one deserving death. His two buddies and Jesus were crucified. How could Barabbas avoid at least looking back at the one in the middle. The one that died in his place. What was going through his mind? I would like to believe that he became a believer. Won’t we all be surprised if we see him in heaven thanking the Lord and praising His holy Name?

American Muslim-Oxymoron
When will the Muslim Tabernacle Choir sing God Bless America or say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag? (under God) Any red-blooded American would be proud to do so. Is it too much for this silent American minority to support our government and lift up our soldiers as they fight the war against Islamic terrorists? When will the American Imams denounce this holy jihad and condemn those who kill innocent citizens (Christians and Jews) to go to heaven, as terrorists? When will we stop dreaming, wake up and smell the coffee?

When in a war and your head is buried in the sand, what part of your anatomy is blown off? We are losing ours by letting the enemy within destroy us. Return the God we are founded on to our churches, families, neighborhoods, schools, and government or we will lose the God we claim we have trusted in and He will withdraw His Spirit from us. Jehovah can whip Allah if only we will let Him!

My Dog Buffy
I have a girl dog named Buffy. She looks for and finds a boy dog and they fall in love and she gets pregnant and has puppies. She knows she is a girl dog and he knows he’s a boy dog. If you don’t know what you are, you have less sense than my dog Buffy.

All you need to do is look down your pants and you can see what God made you to be.

If you don’t want to be a homosexual more than you do want to be a homosexual, you won’t be a homosexual. (Let this sink in)

Homosexuality is a sin and sin killed our Savior. So if you are an active homosexual, you love perverted sex more than you do Jesus. You must hate the sin and love the Savior to be the man God created you to be.

If you are a homosexual, the problem is not between your legs, it’s between your ears.

Flush Your Toilet
Why do we always look back when we “take a dump” and then flush the toilet? What do we expect to find? There is nothing to look at but what should be flushed and forgotten.

When you become born again you need to go to the Cross of Christ and dump all your sins on that pile of garbage He was murdered on.

Put your face in the mud, the blood and the tears at the foot of the cross, take a dump and flush your toilet. That is, walk away from it and let it go. You won’t offend our crucified Christ because the Cross is empty!

He is risen and you are too if only you will put aside the guilt of what you repented of and move on as a born again new creation putting the past behind and looking forward to the reward that lays ahead.

Forgive Them
We know to go to the Cross and ask for forgiveness. Lord knows, we have done that too many times to count in our lifetimes. But the second step is what most miss.

We need to receive the forgiveness. That is, not to walk in guilt anymore. Guilt is the sign of unrepented sin. There is no guilt when the sin is repented of. We are forgiven.

The proof of really receiving forgiveness is that we become forgivers. How can you not forgive your brethren when you know, as no other, how much you have been forgiven of by Him?

Keys to Hell
Doubt and fear are the keys to Hell. Doubt is the opposite of faith and fear is the opposite of trust. Satan wants you to doubt your faith and not trust in Jesus.

Faith and trust are the keys to the kingdom. Doubt is a sin and must be repented of. And a side-bar is anxiety. That is, manufactured fear, something that probably won’t happen.

Satan has us look back to every evil deed we have ever done to steal our joy or he has us “what if” our future into high anxiety.

It’s easy to have faith and trust when it’s easy but the true test is when there is a test.

Move the Stone
When Jesus stood before the stone that entombed Lazarus he put his Deity on the line and said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” How bold can you get! He could have willed that stone to dissolve into dust and it would have gladly done so. He could have had that stone get up and walk away and yet he said, “You move the stone.” Why?

We always need to take the first step and then he will walk the rest of the way with us. When you do that, faith and his Holy Spirit can even raise the dead. It can even raise you to a level of living that you have never known before. “Do you believe this?” Then, move the stone.

Is it lust? Is it anger? Is it resentments, alcohol, drugs, immorality? When you kill Goliath, the Philistines will run. Try it and you will be brought back to life, His life.

O.R.A.
What you see isn’t always what it is or what can be. You need to look deeper to learn and extend it’s possibilities. I use a game I invented as a teenager called ORA that quite often yields startling results.

The O is the obvious. You look at a tree and you see a tree with deep roots and rich green foliage blossoming in vibrant health.

The R is the ridiculous. In deeper thought you imagine the genetic code God used to grow this tree and wonder if that code could be modified to grow 2 by 4 planks thus reducing the expense of logging, cutting and treating the boards so needed in home construction.

I know this sounds left field, and it is but consider other possibilities and see how this game works on religion, politics, family, personal spiritual growth etc.

Someday, you will be amazed at how the absurd became obvious. All things are possible and with a little forethought to the absurd you will open your life to challenges not yet dreamt of. How exciting!

Buyer Beware!
Nothing is as it appears to be and everything is broken. There is always an underlying or ulterior motive. Underlying is on the table and in plain sight. Ulterior is under the table and out of sight.

There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is done with the ears and listening is done with the intellect and heart.

Listen carefully the next time anyone talks about our Lord and consider their motives because there are usually both. Those that are obvious but beware of those the speaker has hidden from your view.

I would rather see the sermon than hear it so before you “buy” their religious talk make sure you have “bought” their religious walk as measured by the Word of God. Observe the speaker with His eyes and ears not yours or someone else’s.

Our Lord put everything on the table and nothing is hidden from your view if only you will listen. He is the way, the truth the light.

My Bible has what the Lord said in red. At a normal reading speed you will be able to read the “red parts” in about three hours. Then listen to those that teach and preach with the “real thing” in mind so that you can sort out the counterfeits. Look carefully for the hidden motives and the truth will be obvious.

Faith is Faith
Faith is not doing what you think you can do, it is reaching out to what you know you can’t do.

When you have a high probability of accomplishing something based on training, past experience and self-confidence you will accept some or all of the credit when it is accomplished.

Real faith in the Lord is when you reach out beyond your grasp and when it comes to pass you have no choice but to give all glory and honor to the Lord. You know, you know that you had nothing to do with it’s success.

Peter had that very real faith when he stepped out of the boat. Sure, his faith faltered but he had enough sense to reach out to the Lord and that faith assured him he could walk on water back to the boat.

The interesting thing about this event was that only one got out of the boat. The rest were too faithless to meet their Master half-way.

Unleash the faith within you by being obedient to His will. Don’t measure it by success but rather by obedience. You need to take the first step out onto the water and the Lord will see you through even if you are the only one as Peter was..

Spiritual Push-ups
When I was a skinny teenager I was always getting beat up by the bullies. So I went to a local fitness center and began a regimen of weightlifting to build my body up.

The instructor put on 140 lbs for me to bench press and I did it three sets of ten. Then he put 150 lbs and I managed to lift it ten times. Then he put 160 lbs on and I could hardly lift it once. I asked him, “What are you trying to do, kill me!” He responded, “You will never develop your body lifting only what you can lift.”

The same applies to the Word of God. How long can you go through life only knowing Psalm 23 and John 10:9? You need to do some spiritual weight lifting and get into the heavy verses.

I frequently come to a difficult verse and park there. I tell the Holy Spirit, “I am not leaving this verse until you explain it to me.”

This determination has opened up the hard parts to an extent I have never known before and I have been in the Word for over twenty years now. I feel like the Hulk and Satan better tremble when I walk by!

How deep is your love?
The Passion of Christ movie directed by Mel Gibson has swept the Christian world by storm. It is a real live depiction of the “R” rated violence and brutality of our Lord’s beating and crucifixion. Those that have attended the showing are aghast at the brutality.

I love my dog Stormy. What if there were a comparable film of his being tortured, beaten and left to die with all the howls, squeals, and last gasps of his death: could I go and watch this in living color and surround sound. Heavens no!

Then it stands to reason that if I go to see this film, I love my dog more than my God.

If you attend this film it speaks volumes about how little you feel the pain He took for you. You then need to go and be reminded that your love for Him was very shallow indeed.

Friendly Fire
In any war our own troops will accidentally kill our own as well as innocent citizens. This is an expected casualty of war.

So it is in the war against the evil spirits and principalities. When the truth of God’s Word goes out it sometime stings real believers.

I really believe that 7 out or 10 churchgoers are not saved. So when the gospel is rough and tough it is designed to shake the 7 and hopefully have a nodding agreement of the 3. This is not always the case.

The three that don’t like “hellfire and brimstone” will moan and groan and complain that this does not minister to their needs. Let us be reminded of “otheredness.” That is, we are to become the extension of our Lord to go about His business, not our own.

We have eternity to argue about doctrine and religious distinctives, but maybe only today to reach the unsaved. So there is “friendly fire” casualties that can not be avoided when the gospel according to Jesus is communicated to a lost and dying world.

The Three R’s
The sleeping giant of Christianity is waking up to find the “In God We Trust” emblem rusted and at the breaking point. Relegating our beloved America to the Humanists has grieved the very God who gave us His Son. His regret of creating man is stirring in His memory and you and I are to blame.

How can you rationalize revival of a dead body? It will take a regeneration of our nation and a return to the foot of the cross to turn our land back to the God of our blessings.

A revival of the Gospel according to Jesus will restore the restless soul within our country as we are reminded of the foundations our forefathers laid. Our promised land and it’s Judeo-Christian values will then rise to the surface and expose our shameless apostasy.

Revolution is sure to follow as the only recourse left to a fallen people. As Israel goes so goes the United States of America.

Crucify Him!
Ministers that don’t meet the expectations of their congregations are tossed away into oblivion without a follow-up of love and care. You will find them struggling with another pastorate or selling hardware at the local outlet.

The misconception of “modern” churches is to correlate the volume of attendees and increasing revenue with the success or failure of their carefully selected front-man, the pastor. If the attendance goes down and the offering plates echo, out the door he goes.

The pastor-teacher should guide his flock through Christian living and teach them how to love and worship our Lord. And yet, so much is expected of him that he cannot carry the weight and he eventually falls, emotionally, physically and yes even spiritually.

When you find a pastor that follows the Master, don’t let go. If he goes, you go too.

There are too many crosses littered with the carcasses of crucified ministers along the way to church. Don’t have yours join them.

Two = One
I have read many writings on the Trinity that have made noble attempts to explain how three can be one. You know the one about the egg or better yet the steam, ice and water explanation. My favorite is “If you explain how three candles produce one light, I will explain the Trinity.”

Well, the thought occurred to me that marriage has a possible parallel. Think about this: Marriage is a covenant with God whereby the two become one, right? The two of you become soul-mates, right? And I might add that it is written that there are none given to marriage in heaven.

Well, is it possible that the two souls become one being in Glory? Why not? Isn’t that a beautiful union or completion? And doesn’t that give greater glory to the sacrament of marriage before the throne of Grace?

God is Love
Imagine for a moment that you are transported into a bright beautiful blue sky, floating about without effort and then you are enveloped in love, similar to being under warm and comforting water. You are completely embraced with indescribable love, as you have never experienced before. And then slowly but most certainly, you are soaked to the bone in that selfsame embracing love of the highest magnitude. And then you are back to where you began, in your natural state.

That happened to me and I believe that the Lord gave me a taste of what His love is and that which is to come upon His return.

Thunked!
Can you think a thought that God did not think you would think before you thought it? Or empower you to think without which you would not be able to think it? While he knew you would not or could not think it without Him being there with you? If not, you are a Calvinist. Or you have a unique definition of predestination. Think it through. Is God all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful? If your answer is yes then you can answer this question: What is your will free of when you believe that you have a free will? Answer: nothing. God predestined and elected you. I’m sorry, I don’t like it either but that’s the way it is.

How then do you reconcile Calvinism and Armenianism? You can’t but I have a compromise:

Hell-bound
The sin you have is the sin you want. If you didn’t want it more than you do want it, you wouldn’t have it. (Read this through again)

The sin you have you want more than Jesus, because if you loved the Lord more than the sin, you wouldn’t do it.

Sin killed our Savior and if you continually wield the weapon of His death, you have made God angry and put Him in a no-choice situation.

Nothing but vomit
If you do what you did, you will get what you got and be where you’ve been. A dog returning to his vomit.

This is circular reasoning and activity. You are caught up in a spiraling path to death and hell and you know it. It is not an excuse to say you were just caught up in it.

You are the sum total of your past, present and future decisions. You have been a bad decision maker and need to learn to make Godly decisions to break the circle.

I (eye) Control
Visual advertising, whether it be television or print has become an art form of the highest order and most control. I will give you a practical experiment that will prove my point.

The next time you are watching a TV commercial notice how they control your eye. The camera angles, model, and message are strategically placed in your view to keep your eye following the theme of the advertisement.

Now, try to look away from where they are guiding your sight. Look at any part of the ad except where they want you to. Hard isn’t it? You take notice of that which is around the message instead of where they want you to look. You will notice all kinds of neat new images that you didn’t know were there before.

This applies to the Word of God also. Our eye has become accustomed to look where we have looked before when we read a verse. You will re-read a passage and your eye and attention will be drawn to what you have learned that verse to say from the past experience of studying it. Soon, you will skip those parts of the Word that you have been over again and again.

Now, go back to those verses, in context, and look around the passage to places you hadn’t noticed before no matter how trivial they may seem.

You will find more to the message than you ever thought was there and the Word will come alive in a way it was never seen by you before. It’s just a matter of “I” control.

Pope & Turk
The great deceiver has lulled the Body of Christ into a coma of denial. The whore and sword of Babylon are at full strength and battling for the souls of your community. Lift up your heads and see with Christ’s tearful eyes the devastation these false religions have inflicted on those that you love. Left to their own, they will grasp all that buy their lies and send them directly into the eternal liquid inferno of hell.

Catholicism and Islam are the right and left hands of Satan. Shocked that I said it? Shocked even more that it is truth of the highest order and awareness should be the priority of our Christian survival?

Yes, we can disagree without being disagreeable but we MUST disagree out loud and with all the power of the Holy Spirit.

I can hear the hoof-beats, the trumpet is about to sound, His return is at hand and what is heard from the pulpits? Silence.

Let us not permit the powers of darkness to exterminate the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ and by grace ALONE. Not with the works of the Vatican nor the sword of Allah! The Pope and the Turk are prowling lions that seek to destroy Christianity. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spirit of Satan himself. Put on the armor of God, lift up the sword of the Lord and stand firm. The victory is ours if only we will show up for battle.

My Daddy is the King of the universe. Satan better tremble when I walk by! How about you?

Huh?
“What are your basic beliefs?”
“I believe what our church believes.”
“What does your church believe?”
“They believe the same as I do.”
“What do you both believe?”
“We both believe the same thing!”

It is amazing how many professing Christians do not have a clue as to what their belief system is. People choose a church like they do a fast-food restaurant. One has a hamburger with a pickle, another with catsup, another with cheese, etc. A recent survey in a large Assembly of God church revealed that number one on their list of church qualifications was, “What do you have for my children to do?” Close by was, “What do you have for us to do?” and way down the list was the preaching and further down were the doctrinal beliefs.

Jesus said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” And never has it been more true than now.

It breaks my heart that church as we know it in America has become an entertainment center and worship has become a performance. Just watch any church service on TV this Sunday morning with the volume off. You can almost tell from what you see what denomination this church belongs to by the way they worship, the music and the preaching.

If Jesus was passing the offering plate around you would throw in all your worldly possessions. He would keep what He wants and give you back what He knows you need.

Would you do that same thing in your fellowship when the offering plate is passed to you or is Judas still your church treasurer?

Tsunami
God has His perfect will and His permissive will. When you are in his perfect will, you are going about his business and signs and wonders are following. But for his purposes, he will withdraw his Holy Spirit and let Satan have a go at you, his permissive will. That could be the case for the Indonesian holocaust. I offer the following possibilities:

Dead is no problem. You either go to heaven or hell. Dying is the problem. And the message I got from this catastrophe was that there is no “dead” in hell. It is an eternity of dying on a scale so much worse than this event that even our imaginations are without a clue as to how horrible God’s wrath is for those who refuse his Son.

Death of a Wolf
Nineteen of the 22 recorded civilizations went under when they reached the moral decay America in now in. Why?

There must be a constant of measurement or you will have chaos. Consider a simple ruler. If you believe a ruler has 11 inches and someone else believes it has 13 inches when it really has 12 inches, they are in error because the constant is 12 inches which knowledgeable people use for uniform measurement.

Without a constant of law, stop signs could be slow-down signs or ignored altogether depending on what you believe a stop sign to mean.

So it is for morality. The United States essentially has given each individual the choice of measurements. This has resulted in chaos and the ultimate destruction that is sure to follow.

Do you know what a wolf does when its paw is caught in a bear-trap? He eats his leg off to free himself!

This is exactly what America is doing. It is destroying itself for lack of moral constants. As for me, the Word of God is my constant and until you can find something else that is better, I will stay with a ruler being 12 inches while you eat your leg off and die a horrible death.

Predestined Headache?
Question:
Can you think a thought other than what God knew you would think before you thought it?

Questions:
Can you think a thought that God didn’t know you would think before you thought it?

Worse yet:
If God knows all there is to know, and has empowered every act their will ever be, and is everywhere there is then there is no longer any need for him.

There’s nothing left for him to know, nothing left for him to do and nowhere else to go.

We can only do as we were predestined to do for his purposes. Like metal to a magnet, we are irresistibly drawn into his will without the knowledge, power or place to go to do otherwise.

I don’t like that either but every believer is a Calvinist whether they like it or not. God is God and he will do what he wants with you, where he wants to, when he wants to and anytime he feels like it. Period!

Compromise is Disastrous!
A cannot be non-A. When A is A that is order. When A is non-A that is chaos. Any compromise in between is a prostitution of truth to the degree that it is violated.

Good cannot be bad. Bad cannot be good. Sort of good or bad is rape of the truth to some greater or lesser degree.

When Christianity succumbs to religion, it becomes a whore like the Roman Catholic Church and carnal evangelicalism.

Neither Rome nor Mecca is the seat of God and the steward of truth. Only the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Believers see the road signs and follow them to their predetermined destination. Unbelievers don’t and as they drive through the woods, hit many trees on their way to an eternal junk-yard of the unsalvageables.

Muddy Waters
Religion is man’s distortion of the simplicity of the Gospel. Christianity is Christ as the way, truth and life. When men enter into a separatist unit such as a church or denomination, they divide themselves from the remaining Body of Christ and grieve the very Lord they worship.

Just down the street from me are two evangelical churches of common base beliefs seasoned with differences that make the driveway between them miles away from joining in worship and fellowship. How disgraceful! A shameful example for criticism by the unbelieving passersby.

We have been bickering over God’s purposes and actions since we left Egypt. And we will never stop because of our pride and self-righteousness.

No one has a corner on the truth. Every minister, including me, does not have the whole truth nor do they know the full Gospel. We have all preached or taught heresy somewhere in our career.

So in these times of necessity, we must all draw together in those evangelical protestant beliefs we share in common and point our collective swords at the enemy not at each other.

Will the real Body of Christ please get out of their pews and meet in the middle of the driveway that had separated them?

More Garbage Dumps
If your backyard is cluttered with junk and filth, what right do you have to come to my backyard and promote clean back-yards?

When a missionary leaves your community, he/she drives through the inner-city ghetto of hopelessness and poverty to the airport. He is met by an army of airport personnel that don’t know Christ nor do they have any security in their employment. Many are earning wages too low to support their families and must have second jobs that drain their health and stamina.

The lure of selling drugs or other crimes are very inviting and many succumb to the temptation. So you have passed by your own people that are hungry, angry, lonely and tired that need to be comforted by the Gospel According to Jesus.

Most missionaries turn their eyes away from their local mission field with dreams of exploring other countries with the Gospel. Although well intended, they have left their own community in the hands of Satan only to deteriorate and die.

This “serpent” comes back to bite us and the very land God blessed us to have remains under the dominion of the evil one.

If I were the authority of the foreign land that an American missionary was going to, I would deny them entrance. And I would say, “Clean up your own backyard before you come and tell us how to clean up our own!”

Too many mission trips are nothing but glorified travel vacations laced with the gospel to make them a legitimate venture for others to support and hold in high esteem.

As one reader of my editorials has said so well, “Bloom where you are planted.”

Never Grow Up
It occurred to me that if you do a profile of the leaders of the world such as: bully, sissy, intellectual, melancholy, aggressive, selfish, etc. that if you have an exact match to any kindergarten class you may otherwise choose to study. We never grow up! We just remain children playing with governments and people instead of blocks and playmates.

Hee-Haw!
When Jesus paraded into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday, he had quite an entourage. There were the apostles, disciples, Lazarus, on-lookers, and murderous religious leaders. This spectacle provided a great backdrop for the least noticed of the parade, the donkey!

I’ll bet he was swept up in prideful thinking, “Of all the donkeys of the world, He chose me. Ain’t I something!”

Or maybe he was feeling forced and said, “Here I was enjoying the shade of the afternoon, sipping cool water and napping. Now I’m burdened with this 200 lb. man. It’s hot, I’m thirsty. Why me Lord!”

He might have felt blessed to serve and commented, “I am so lucky to have this opportunity to serve my Lord. I will take Him anywhere He wants to go and never complain.”

I think he was so overwhelmed by the reality of carrying God on his back that he was speechless and in awe of the privilege. He was what I call a silent warrior that I am certain will have the front row in glory.

The Real You
I don’t believe a word I hear and half of what I see. People have labeled me a skeptic but it has served me well over the years to look beyond the obvious. I came to the conclusion that nothing is as it appears to be and that everything is broken.

Let’s take for example the real you. We respond to the authority and power we find ourselves in; survival. Ethics and character go out the window when it suits our needs.

I have an imaginary test that illustrates:
Pretend that what you think and visualize in your mind is broadcast in wide range living sound and viewed on a large theatre screen for everyone to see and hear as it occurs.

The more you imagine that in various circumstances throughout your day, the more horrifying it becomes.

Your Book of Life?
Alvin Toeffler is a futurist that writes a book every 10 years about what lays ahead. His trilogy greatly affected my thinking.

I studied his first book “Future Shock” while in college and learned that he who has the biggest gun wins. It was followed, 10 years latter with “Power Shift” that pointed out that he who has the money can hire the one with the biggest gun. And lastly, “Third Wave” ushered in the age of knowledge just as Bill Gates was coming into his own. It explained that he who had the knowledge was necessary to he who had the money to control the weapons. And it came to be.

The mind is a terrible thing to waste especially on temporal matters. Satan would distract us with useless trivia as we play the game of life. He would have us study anything but the Word of God. Try reading the Bible and watch the evil one operate.

Jesus said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” And commanded his own to make learners of men. Are you His disciple or are you waiting for Alvin to write another book entitled, “The Rise and Fall of Americans.”

Empty Pockets
This life experience is an exciting adventure in relationships with people, places and things. All three require an adaptability of temperament and application of social skills. I call it the “game of life.”

As worldly creatures we play all that is around us to our advantage, with favorable spin, and selfish effect. The rules of the game can be changed and the challenge is to be to others what weakens them and strengthens our sordid purposes of grasping power, influence and material wealth.

Compromise is the prostitution of truth but those most skilled at it can adapt to any rule book. Each culture has it’s own game-board and varying levels of player intensity.

Winning this game is the driving ambition of those that belong to it. Unaware that the tail soon wags the dog, they go about frantically pushing toward a goal that has not been defined and is ever out-of-reach.

But we as followers of Christ, stand above this fatal attraction and try to sort out the players that will understand that the winners lose and encourage them to leave the game behind and not look back.

As you lay in the casket, which some day you will, please notice that your pockets are empty and your wealth will soon be squandered by others. You whole life has been wasted apart from Christ and there is only a dash between the birth-date and death-date on your tomb. Dust to dust until the resurrection!

In the Midst
I am an “alley cat” from Detroit based on my life in that jungle as a runway youth. I am fairly comfortable breathing diesel fumes and dodging drive by shootings so country life and all that goes with it is a new experience such as one I had recently.

I was walking around our stables and admiring the fine horses we have for our ex-offenders to care for and enjoy when I spotted a big pile of manure. It immediately reminded me of what I was before I met Jesus.

But in the middle of his disgusting remnant of an obviously uncultured horse was a daisy blooming in all it’s beautiful glory.

I was taken back as I saw myself as His and was reminded of what a fellow believer once said to encourage me, “You bloom where you are planted.” Is that true with you?

Zapped!
Did you ever sit on a patio at an outdoor barbeque and watch the insects circling the bug zapper? Well I did and had fun thinking about it.

I noticed that the bugs went into a frenzy to reach the flame and as they ventured too close you could hear the pop as they were zapped into bug eternity, whatever that is.

Why did the other bugs just continue this self-destruction? Why didn’t they warn each other not to venture too close or they would suffer immediate and permanent destruction? Why didn’t they learn from those that passed before to leave the danger entirely? Why didn’t they tell everyone they loved of the fatal annihilation?

The same unanswered questions can be said of those around us that know sinners need the Savior or they face eternal torment in Hell. Why don’t you boldly warn unbelievers or at least your loved one? Are you as dumb as a bug?

It’s Our Choice
As a successful insurance agent accustomed to the inner-city, I had no apprehension about calling an elderly black lady for an appointment to review her financial plans. It was a bad neighborhood and when I called she asked, “Are you a white boy?” “Yes Mam,” I said. She warmed me, “I have a junk-yard dog that is trained to kill white boys!” I offered an immediate suggestion that we cancel the appointment but she interrupted me and said, “But I will have him locked up, just call before you come out.”

Well, she was so sweet and convincing that I agreed and when I arrived I was frozen with fear.

The dog was in a chain-linked fence leaping and snarling as he attempted to bite away the chain-linked fence to get at me! She opened her door and waved me in safely.

It was a great visit. She offered me a piece of chocolate cake and a glass of cold milk which I accepted. And I offered her a small policy for her grandson which she accepted.

The lesson I learned was that it was by her grace that she did not let the dog loose when I left because it would not have had any restraints and would have made short work of me.

Our Lord on the other hand unleashes the junk-yard wolf of Hell on us but with a major restriction.

The wolf prowls the earth to devour our Lord’s sheep but is unable to unless he has their permission. Think about that.

Bliss is Death
Jesus said that His people perish for lack of knowledge and of course He was referring to the Word of God.

If you are ignorant of truth you are equally condemned as one who knows the truth but rebels against it and sins.

Never has the Word of God been more available to the world that it is now with cyberspace communication. The world is without excuse.

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to the fate of your eternal life. It deserves the condemnation and judgment of God.

If you know the Word of God and don’t tell others, it is far worse than knowing the cure to cancer and keeping it to yourself. You have committed the sin of “omission.” You have withheld the saving knowledge of God’s grace from a dying world not to mention your loved ones.

Imagine yourself walking up the stairway to heaven to behold the majesty of the King. And walking down to the pits of Hell is your child saying, “Daddy, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” Here comes your spouse, “Sweetheart, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” And all the others that your life has revolved around weeping and crying tears of eternal death that will never end.

Shame on you
A most visible person in America is certainly our President and most notably on his Inauguration Day. This one was no exception.

The security was extremely tight as “W” found his way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the cheers of throngs of supportive onlookers with one exception.

One section was set aside for demonstrators and they turned out with a vengeance and did a disgraceful thing. As his motorcade passed by, they turned their backs on him! It was an appalling act of disrespect and certainly no credit to their cause.

And yet, that is exactly what we do when we sin. As the Lord himself stands before us with open arms we turn our back on Him!

I can see the toothless grin of Satan as you face him and surrender to his will. At that point you have to say, “Satan is my lord!” What a terror filled confession of faith. None worse!

We may not agree with what the Lord has ordained for us and be at odds with his plan. We may even be discouraged over unanswered prayer or a bad turn of events that He has permitted but nothing can be so heartless and disrespectful as turning your back on Him. He would never do that to you!

Yesterday’s Hero
J.J. was an alcoholic, drug addict and ex-offender that was approved for the second time in our aftercare program.

It was the struggle of his life as he worked real hard at staying clean and dry throughout his one year rehabilitation program. And he did it!

Shortly thereafter it was brought to my attention that he was high and drunk. I confronted him and asked , “In the name of Jesus, have you backslid?” He thought for a moment and said, “Yes I did but I completed the one year! Ain’t that something!” There was no choice for me but to release him from our program. He was too drunk to reason with.

What I didn’t say was,
“It’s not what you have done,
it’s who your are.”

Repeat this to your yourself a few times:
“If you do what you did
you will get what you got
and be where you’ve been.”

Religion of Hell
Religion is mans flawed effort to reach God and Christianity is God’s perfect effort to reach man. Keep that in mind as you read this.

There are three biblical forms of organizing a church body: presbytery, bishopric or congregational.

Satan has been very successful in squeezing the blood of Christ out of all three in America.

Presbyterian churches are run like General Motors and you can get lost in the coldness of committees, academic teachings and endless chains of authority.

Bishopric are made up of lone rangers that usually appeal to “emotion junkies” with their orchestrated performances designed to give them “holy ghost bumps” and a counterfeit sense of being filled with awesome power.

And the congregational fellowships are a swarm of gossipers and backbiters that want to know everything about everybody so they can pass on and perpetuate rumors to each other.

Philemon had it right when he ministered in his home to a solid group of believers that were not into carnal tradition but into the Word of God and the return of Jesus Christ.

Christianity in America has become big business and Satan is profiting from those that by into it.

“Demon”cracy
Democracy in it’s purest form is where greed and power drive it to self-destruction. Follow the money and you will find those that control it. Freedom of choice is often no choice at all. Social engineering is having it’s way and the “dumbing down” of less desirable segments of society, the Department of Education is having its way. Profiteers are grasping at all they can get like a heroin addict shooting up his last hit. A dog returning to its vomit. The history of men certainly repeats itself. “His story” marches on unchanged!

Democracy is a terrible form of government but it is head and shoulders above the rest until the trumpet sounds and theocracy is restored. The King will be King again!

Why Me?
Only God incarnate could have restrained himself as Jesus was mocked and jeered as He hung on the death stake. If I were God I would have come down from the cross, zapped them all into Hell and went back up on the cross for the rest!

But Jesus looked into the eyes of a sinful and dying generation with love and pity. A love much deeper than I have yet to experience. A total love willing to die for those He was sent to minister to and empower with the Holy Spirit.

How often have I felt like a doormat while the line has lengthened of those who wish me ill will. It’s a lonely hard road to travel when you pick up your cross and follow Him.

And so in my small way, I am understanding that persecution is the final beatitude to reach. It’s the last one and I am reminded that I better have paid attention to the others so that I can bear the pain of the last.

It just puzzles me that He would choose me. If I were God I would not have put up with a sinner like me.

We need to remind ourselves that it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross but rather He who held them fast. I think even the death stake cried out in pain as He gave up His last gasp of breath for me and don’t forget, for you. It is finished!