June/July 2024

Hello my Beloved,

This summer has been really busy.  The indefinite suspension of Prison Fellowship has been painful and frustrating.  So many of us were really looking forward to moving to the Prison Fellowship dorm where life is much more stable and quiet.  To have that yanked out from underneath us is painful enough.  But it seems that each week more and more back actors are moved into the better dorms.  Several inmates have reported that there were told that the current administration here believes that by putting a bunch of bad inmates in with a bunch of good inmates, the good inmates will help make those bad inmates good.

I guess they don’t believe the Apostle Paul when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’  Over the past 2 years I have watched over and over again as the ‘irrational animals’ that Peter describes in 2 Peter 2:10-22, turns a ‘good’ inmate into yet another ‘irrational animal.’  The worst part is the bad inmates tend to be smarter than the guards and the administration.  Couple that with the prison staff’s own immoral character and it doesn’t bode well for those of us hoping for St. Brides to group its inmates according to their history and desire to stay charge free.

Regardless, my purpose here remains unchanged.  Even though it has gotten more difficult, I cannot seem to find a clause in Ephesians 4:11-16 which says, ‘And he gave the Apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no

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Longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

There have been many times that I wished I could sit down with the Church ‘leaders’ here and have a good discussion on what that passage means and what is the best way to implement it.  Paul says that God gave the Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip Christians for the work of ministry.  This means that all Christians are called to some form of ministry.  As Ephesians 2:1- says, ‘we ae His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’  These ‘good works’ are our ministry.  Furthermore, He has given us various gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Romans 12:6-8) to enhance our ability to engage in those good works in our own unique way.

It is the church leader’s responsibility to not just encourage those in their charge to do ministry, they must provide the tools necessary for each unique person to do the ministry that God has called them to do and help develop the skills needed to determine what that is and how to do it.

It’s through this process that the body of Christ is built up.  Paul says that this building up revolves around ‘the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.’ Remember that

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Knowledge is justified true belief.  Thus, it is the responsibility of those in leadership to make sure that those in their charge not only have true beliefs about God and His creation, but they continually grow in wisdom (critical thinking) so that they properly know how to use their knowledge and how to acquire more (Proverbs 8:6,12) as well as defend it.

Christian giants of the past understood this.  In 1756, John Wesley addressed a group of clergies on their roles as leaders in the Church.  He said, “Ought not a Minister to have, first, a good understanding, a clear apprehension, a sound judgment, and a capacity of reasoning with some closeness?”  He went on to admonish them to study logic, metaphysics, natural theology, geometry, and important figures in the history of thought.  It was his passionate vision that the leaders of the church be thoroughly equipped to see those in their charge fully competent in the knowledge and wisdom that they need for a deep understanding of who God is and what that means for His creation.  During that same time, William Wilberforce argued for the same thing, including a profound warning.  In his book, ‘Real Christianity,’ he laments how weak the attachment is between Christianity and those that profess to be Christians.  He writes, “His attachment to it – where any attachment to it exists at all – is too often not the preference of sober reason and conviction.  Instead, his attachment to Christianity is merely the result of early and groundless possession.  He was born in a Christian country, so of course he is a Christian.  His father was a member of the Church of England, so that is why he is, too.  When religion is handed down among us by hereditary succession, it is not surprising to find a youth sense of spirit beginning to question the truth of the system in which they were brought up.

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And it is not surprising to see them abandon a position which they are unable to defend.  Knowing Christianity chiefly by its difficulties and the impossibilities falsely imputed to it, they fall perhaps into the company of unbelievers.”

Since faith is an active trust in what we have good reason to believe is true, the use of wisdom to test those beliefs to see if they are true is of utmost importance.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if our faith is in a belief that does not correspond to reality, then our faith is futile and in vain.  Therefore, the leaders of a church must equip their congregation to think for themselves by offering them knowledge and training them in wisdom.  This produces the unity that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:12-13.  It also produces the maturity he speaks of based on the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  Colossians 2:9 tells us that the fullness is God.  Thus, the focus should be on both an ‘attribute’ study of God and a Biblical study of God.

A Biblical study of God obviously has its focus in the Bible.  But a study of God’s attributes (omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, love and goodness, holiness, justice, aseity, immutability, non-temporal ity, and simplicity to name just a few) and what they mean to a proper understanding of God, us, the rest of His creation, and the relationships that govern all of their interactions requires a deep foray into Theology AND Philosophy, including a good understanding of logic and reason.

Leaders that engage and equip their congregations in this manner will indeed inoculate them from being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

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Paul concludes the section by saying that all the people of God, equipped with different backgrounds, gifts, and strengths, are it speak the truth in love and build itself up in love.  If the Church leaders in America today would not only educate themselves to fulfill their mandate in Ephesians 4:11-16 to equip their congregations to the degree that they need and deserve, and teach them to do the same to others, the large exodus Christianity has seen in its pews would begin to stop.  Furthermore, many more Christians would know what it means to truly love: to love God (Mark12:28-31), to love their neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40), to love their enemies (Matthew 5:44), and love themselves (Ephesians 5:25-29).  They would know what is ‘good’ physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.  They could all speak the truth in love.  Paul concludes the Ephesians 4:1-16 passage by saying that upon these things being done properly by church leaders, the people of God will grow up in every way into Christ, and through the unity this produces we will all be built up in love.

I continue to see my responsibilities here at St. Brides (and anywhere else I have students) from this perspective.  I have given both MJ and Michael lessons on how to prepare and teach a Bible study.  Both of them have now taught several of our Wednesday classes.  I enjoy watching their confidence grow.  A little encouragement goes a long way with both men.

Thank you for getting Geisler’s ‘Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective’ for MJ.  He is absorbing things so fast.  I think he is ready to go to the next level.  Geisler’s text will complement Koukl’s ‘Tactics’ and Moreland’s ‘Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Live of the Soul.’

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I have taken my ‘Prolegomena’ outline and made copies for both Richard and Brian.  My goal is to continue to train them in it and get them to begin to train others.  I have long since found that if I can get a Christian to properly understand the meaning of truth, knowledge, wisdom, and love, their Christian Walk and worldview takes a huge leap forward.  Please continue to pray for my two young proteges as they take this teaching to others.

I start a new class on Friday evenings.  The guys in the dorm have asked me to teach a class on apologetics and critical thinking.  I plan to start with ‘Tactics’ so that everyone will be equipped to study other topics in apologetics.  Please keep me in your prayers as I start this new endeavor.

I love you so very much my Beloved.  Thank you so much for all that you do to equip and strengthen me to serve God in this Hellish place.  Thank you also for doing the same to so many others.  Please give my thanks to all that help us as well.  I know that many people help us by either directly mentoring inmates with us, praying for us, or contributing financially.  I am thankful that they take Hebrews 13:3 and Matthew 25:31-46 seriously.  Love you!!!

Love,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOOM!

LAAF!

March 2024

Hello my Beloved,

March has been a frustrating but productive month for me.   They continue to move workers out of this dorm and into dorms that hold other workers.  They replace them with more gang guys.  The dorm gets wilder and louder each week.  The music they play is what I struggle with the most.  It’s the same message over and over.  Kill your enemies, your close friend gets killed, you have to get revenge, you could die at any moment, have as much dominating sex as possible, prove that you are better than anyone else.  The only thing that changes between songs is the beat.  It’s hedonism at its worst.

I said a long time ago that to get to this place, you have to travel through the gates of Hell and continue to the farthest points beyond the Gates.  The place where Satan keeps his shock troops, those that have fully embraced his lies, deceptions, and demonic philosophies.  The darkness and evil here is tangible.  It permeates not only the inmates, but the staff and guards as well.

It’s easy to paint everyone here with that same broad, hedonistic brush.  That’s what Satan wants me to do.  Embracing that lie though, will blind me to the truth that there are still those here that have no fully embraced Satan’s lies, at least not completely.  The Bible talks about a certain type of person in 2 Peter 2.  Though the people listed in 2 Peter chapter 2 are people that come into the Church in order to lead people astray, you can find the same type of people everywhere, especially here.  Peter characterizes them as unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.  They blaspheme about matters that they are ignorant about. They take great pleasure in drunken partying all day long.

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They love deceiving people.  They have an insatiable desire for sin, especially sexual sin.  They are always loudly boasting about their folly.  They prey on weaker people in order to drag them into the same sinful lifestyles that they celebrate.

But 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 also talks about people that were sexually immoral, adulterers, idolaters, practicing homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers.  It says that these people used to be these things.  Now they are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

Here, far behind the Gates of Hell, you find both types of people.  Since both come from the same sinful background, Satan’s lie that all sinful people here fall into the 2 Peter 2 category is easy to embrace.  But like the rest of his lies, it blinds us to the real world around us.  That includes the truth of Acts 3:10-18 which says, ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.  Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.  The venom of asps is under their lips.  Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.’

This is the way all of us are without the work of the Holy Spirit.  God has constantly amazed me with His ability to create amazingly beautiful lives out of people there were living in utter darkness.  Moses has severe anger issues.  His anger caused him to murder a man, smash the original 10 Commandments, and dishonor God before the people of Israel by striking the rock in the wilderness of Zin.

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Not only did God still use Moses to lead the people of Israel, He used him to write the first 5 books of the Bible.  Likewise, God used Paul to write 13 books in the New Testament, even though he hunted men, women, and children solely because they were Christian and was responsible for their murders.  Even King David, a serial adulterer and a murderer was used by God to be one of Israel’s greatest Kings and is also responsible for a book in the Bible.

Since I have been incarcerated, I have watched God follow this same paradigm over and over again.  He has used one of this nation’s worst political hatchet men to create this planet’s largest Christian Prison Ministry.  He has used murderers, drug dealers, and people from every conceivable category of crime to accomplish amazing things for His Kingdom in here.

In John 7:24, Jesus tells us not to judge by appearances but to judge with right judgement.  That’s easier said than done when you find certain people’s sins or lifestyles so offensive.  It’s also scary when there are so many people in this world continually searching for better ways to take advantage of people, especially in here.  The temptation is to withdraw from society.  Circle the wagons and just stay with people that are safe.  That’s exactly what Satan wants us to do.  We can be ‘safe and comfortable’ he whispers.  Just stay on our little islands, surrounded by people just like us.  If God wants someone to become a Christian, He will send that person to your little island after He makes them just like you.  Meanwhile, we can leave the rest of the world to burn.

The temptation to follow this pattern is very strong.  Much of Christianity seems to be following it in America.  I struggle with it every day.

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On the 13^th, Ray was in the atrium early in the morning getting the mop bucket to do his job.  The guard in the booth yelled something disparaging to him.  Ray calmly walked to the booth door and told the guard she didn’t need to talk that way to him.  She immediately gave him a charge for crossing the red line to get to the door (even though scored of inmates do this each day to yell at or cuss out the guards in the booth).  This is the first charge Ray has had in the almost 10 years he has been incarcerated.  The he tried to fight the charge at the Watch Office, the officer lied.  Conveniently her camera was off.  Now Ray may lose the job in Medical that he is supposed to start soon.  Over and over, I have seen this play out where different officers have favorites.  On the 24^th, my neighbor was playing his ‘gansta’ rap so loud it made my ears hurt.  Playing audio out loud from your TV is punishable by having your TV confiscated by the guards.  Yet, 5 times guards walked by him and did nothing.  Some of them seems to sing with it.  One did stop and warn him to watch the door to make sure he wasn’t caught by a non-regular guard.  These are all the same guards that continually talk down to me and many others.  These are also the same guards I am called to share the love of Christ with by word or action.  The same thing goes for my neighbor.  That’s why when he asked for tea later in the day, I gave him double what he asked for (much to my other neighbor’s consternation, he thought I should cut him off).

I used to ask the congregation of the Berean Light Fellowship how many lgbtqt, atheist, Muslim, or liberal friends they had that they talked with on a regular basis.  If the answer is none, then why?  2 Corinthians 5:18-21 says that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors for Christ.  Is there anyone alive today that has sinned so greatly that Christ’s blood is not enough to cover it?

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My answer is no, so is God’s.  John 3:16 doesn’t say that God loved ‘most’ of the world.  It said He loved the world.  This would include the worst sinner in the world, this would include the worst guards here at St. Brides, this would include the worst inmates, this would include me.  I am called to love my neighbor because God loved them as well.

One final note before I end this letter, Yaaaah!  I received my notice on the 20^th to start Prison Fellowship!  The next week I had my first 3 classes.  We meet for regular classes Monday – Thursday from 7:50 to 10:50 am.  We also have secondary leven classes Tuesday and Thursday afternoons as well as Friday mornings.  If we miss 3 classes, we are removed from the program.

I like their creed – ‘Better than yesterday.  Not done yet.’  Coach is the director of our program.  As far as I know, he and Lenny are the only two full time pain leaders.  There are also part-time volunteers from the outside as well.  On tip of this, there are several inmate aids here at St. Brides that assist the staff that comes to teach.  Coach himself used to be a federal inmate.  Before that he was a well-known college basketball coach, hence the nickname ‘Coach’.  He is in his late 60s or early 70s and has a very dynamic personality.  He seems like a great leader.

I have been given our first textbook, it’s one of four.  There are several things about this curriculum that stands out to me.  I have followed and learned from Chuck Colson since the 1990s.  I have personally been at two of his lectures.  Colson started Prison Fellowship after doing time in a federal prison for his role as Nixon’s hatchet man in the Watergate scandal.  Colson’s degree as a lawyer

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And his subsequent training in theology and apologetics made him well equipped to create a program to put people back on the right track in life.  Sadly, I remember during the Clinton administration there was a big push back against Prison Fellowship because of it’s Christianity.  Inmates could be offended by its claims about God and the Bible.  I heard Prison Fellowship retooled its curriculum to make it more secular to stop the progressive pushback.  I can see this in my textbook.  The curriculum is very well designed but it’s still relativistic.  Several of the secondary classes fill this gap to a degree.  I am really looking forward to going through it and helping to refine some of the curriculum and make it a lot closer to what Colson has in his book, How Now Should We live.

Thank you again for all that you do my Beloved.  Every day I get someone coming to me to thank me for the Bible and other resourced we give them as well as the emails you and others send.  For some of them, that email is the only contact they have with the outside world.

I love your very much!

Love,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

LAAF!!!

ILYSOOOOM!

February 2024

Hello my Beloved,

It’s been a good few weeks.  Things continue to develop slowly with Prison Fellowship.  I have been able to continue attending the Thursday afternoon Bible studies.  True to his word, Jason no longer attends.  I told you before that I felt I had to engage him because he was being so disruptive to the classes, often insisting that any other topic of study was useless until we all studied and embraced his view of ‘perfectionism’.  Meaning that you are not truly saved until you reach a state of perfect sinlessness here on earth.  Then you can live out the rest of your Chrisitan life confident that you will be protected from ever committing another sin.  My goal was to either win him over, soften his view so he wasn’t so dogmatic, or marginalize his view so he wouldn’t keep bringing it up.  I feel like a partial failure in that, yes, his view was marginalized, but he also decided that if his view couldn’t be the center of all study, he has to break fellowship with us.  Please continue to pray for Jason.

I have also been attending the Friday morning Prison Fellowship Bible study, at least when they let me.  I can attend the Thursday study because I am on the master pass list for both morning and afternoon movement Monday through Thursday.  I am not on the list for any movement for Fridays.  Prison Fellowship has tried multiple times to put me and others on the list so that we can attend the study, but the administration keeps balking.  Evidently there is some conflict between what Prison Fellowship says they need and what the administration here thinks they need.  Of course, this makes perfect sense when factoring in the incredible incompetence, apathy, and immorality of the employees here.

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It’s ok, though.  I continue to get better at navigating this minefield.  The few times I was able to attend the Friday study gave me more access to Coach, the outside leader of the Prison Fellowship staff here.  He was a big-time college basketball coach up north before his own unfortunate incarceration.  Upon his release, he chose to work with Prison Fellowship.

Though I haven’t been able to have a long-drawn-out discussion with Coach, I have been able to engage him a few times.  He also knows about me from several people I have mentored that are already in the full program.  I am hoping the fact that I knew and met Chuck Colsen, the founder of Prison Fellowship, my professional training in theology, apologetics, and philosophy, and the decades of experience I have in ministry experience in those areas will not only help me be chosen for this class, but it will also allow me to be a great asset to them.  Time will tell.

My fear is that Prison Fellowship has drifted from its original core teachings.  I have only been able to skim through half of their workbooks so far.  There is some good stuff in there, but a lot of it seems to be light psychology.  They do a good job of trying to develop empathy, some critical thinking and communication skills, and to get the student to choose a more productive path in life.  My primary problem with what I have seen of their curriculum is that it has no solid grounding.

In Colsen’s book, How Now Should We Live, he talks a lot about the dangers of postmodern thought and relativism.  With what little I have seen and heard of their curriculum; I fear they may be drifting in that direction.  In some of their lessons on ethics, they tell the student to take a pragmatic approach to ethics, meaning, does it get you what you want.

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Other times they tell you to ground your ethics in what is legal.  They also tell you to look at whatever religion you follow to ground what you believe is right and wrong.

Using this method leads to severe problems.  If I am pragmatic in my ethics, then the only thing that is wrong is whatever impedes me getting what I want.  But where should I look to see if what I want is good or bad?  If I tell someone that right and wrong should only be decided by the government, then that leaves me having to admit that abolitionist were evil people for violating the Fugitive Slave Act.  If I tell someone to just follow their personal religion, I run into multiple problems.  With the rise of the religious category ‘none’, more people are just making up their own religion, therefore, making up their own morality.  In essence, what the particular Prison Fellowship lesson on ethics said was, ‘do whatever you want’.  I know this is not that they meant, but logically, it’s what follows from some of the statements in the lesson.

It’s not just some of the lessons that are problematic, it’s some of the leaders coming to St. Brides to teach the classes.  During one of the classes I sat in on, one of the Muslim students berated one of the Christian students for inferring something negative about Islam.  He pointed to Matthew 7:1-2 and said God told us it was a sin to judge anything.  Sadly, everyone nodded their head in agreement and the teacher thanked the student and repeated that he was correct, Christians are forbidden to judge.

After my eye stopped twitching long enough for me to see straight, I quickly raised my hand.  I explained to the class that the verses that were referenced was not a prohibition against judging, it was a command to judge correctly.  Verses 3-5 tells the Christian to do what they need to do in their own life so that they can then see clearly enough to judge others.

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This corresponds to similar verses that share the same message.  John 7:4 says not to judge according to appearances but instead make a right judgement.  The Greek word for ‘judge’ in the passages is ‘krino’.  It means to decide or determine the correctness of a matter.  Paul uses the same Greek work when he asks the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10:15 to judge the truthfulness of his words.  He also tells them in 1 Corinthians 2:15 that the spiritual person judges all things.

Furthermore, if the Christian was indeed forbidden to judge, then it would be wrong to ask someone to repent (turn back from) as Peter did in Acts 3:19 because you have to judge a person’s beliefs or actions as wrong in order to decide they need to repent.  This would also mean that you could never judge a person for judging.  It’s sad to see how deeply Satan’s relativistic lies have penetrated the Church.  We need to continue to live out Jesus’ command to us in Mark 12:28-31 about loving our neighbor.  This command includes our neighbors in the Church who have been blinded by relativism.  Relativistic philosophies like postmodernism is not ‘good’ a person’s intellect.

It was so good to be able to talk with you both in the morning and evening on my Birthday.  I got several emails wishing me a happy birthday.  Each one helped to brighten my day.  A friend of mine, named Seymour, made me three different types of peanut brittle.  It was really good, not as good as Jeffery’s, though. 😊 Mark also surprised me by making me a huge meal of Ramen, rice, gouda cheese, chili and shredded beef.  That, too, was very good.  By the end of the day, I was more than stuffed.  It was a good day, all things considered!

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I am sorry my letter is late again.  They continue to move those that are willing to work in jobs around the compound out of our dorm and to replace them with more gang members.  As they do this, the volume in the dorm continues to go up.  My neighbor continues to blast his music at top volume through his TV even though it’s against the rules.  The guard once again just walked by and completely ignored it.  It’s really difficult to focus enough to write then a TV and several inmates 3 feet behind you continually screech to the beat about killing cops, rival gang guys, beating up other men and women, engaging in sex with as many women as possible, getting high, and how rich they are.  I would rather listen to 20 drowning cats in a blender at 200 decibels, then another hip hop or gangsta rap song.  Like any other music, I understand that it’s just one more tool Satan uses to keep people enslaved to him.  The same can be said for any song that promotes ungodly ideas.  I have to remember though that I am still called to love my neighbors, even the ones that listen to horrible music at max volume. 😊

I love you so very much my Beloved.  Thank you again for all that you do for our ministry.  I continue to pray for you and the rest of our ‘flock friends.’  Thank you for your continued prayers as well.

Love Always,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOM!

LAAF!

January 22, 2024

Hello my Beloved,

It’s been a busy three weeks.  As you already know, we spent the last week of January on lock down.  I don’t think this was the planned big one we have each year.  Rumors range from knife issues to drug and alcohol issues in several dorms.  They never came and searched our dorm.  They also didn’t turn off the kiosks.  Time goes by slowly when we are on lock down.

After the lockdown, I spent the next two weeks engaging Jason.  My goal was to hopefully win him to the truth.  If I couldn’t, I wanted to either weaken his viewpoint where he stopped demanding it should be the only thing we ever talked about in Bible studies or marginalize it to the point where he was fearful to bring it up.

If you remember from my previous engagement with Jason, logic and reason were not of God, at least that’s what he believed at the beginning of our conversation.  Jason even went so far as to say that Paul was wrong to keep using logic and reason to reach people and wound up being a failure because of it.  I walked him through Matthew 11 and how Jesus used the empirical method to build a logical argument for John the Baptist’s disciples to take back to him when his faith was faltering.  This appeal seemed to move Jason to accept the use of logic and reason when interacting with ideas about God and His creation.  Remember, even God, in Isaiah 1:18 called his people to come reason together with Him.  The Hebrew word translated ‘reason’ in the passage is ‘yakah,’ it means ‘a legal discourse.’

I had hoped winning Jason over to this point would provide us with a foundation we both could appeal to, to test the truthfulness of our respective positions.  Sadly, this was not to be so.

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I had spent the time between our first and second meetings studying the verses Jason had given to me to support his position.  He starts with John 6:63 and 8:51. John 6:63 says, ‘It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’  John 8:51 says, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.’  Jason takes the passages to mean that only the spoken words of Jesus are relevant to salvation.  He then appeals to Matthew 7:21 that says, ‘Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdon of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father, who is in Heaven.’  Jason argues that salvation is a process.  It starts with belief in Christ.  That belief will then motivate us to sin less and less as we obey Christ’s commands.  Salvation isn’t attained though until we reach a state of sinless perfection where the Holy Spirit comes and resides within us and we never commit another sin here on earth.

Jason bases this last part on how the King James Version of the Bible shows 1 John 3:8-9 says, ‘He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.  Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.  1 John 5:18 says, ‘We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.’  According to him, not only does a true saved person never sin, it is impossible for them to sin.

I quickly looked the verses up in my ESV Bible.  In each case a form of the word ‘practice’ comes just before the word sin or sinning.  When I read the verses from my Bible, Jason got upset and told me that evil men had conspired together to change what real salvation was by producing the altered modern non-KJV Bibles many use today.

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I asked Jason why he believed that, and he got even more aggravated with me and chastised me for even asking the question.  He mumbled something about what the Greek said, so I asked him if he had read what the Greek actually said.  This time he started to attack me again for attending seminary and for relying on the words of men rather that the Holy Spirit.  Since Jason was clearly getting more and more agitated, I decided to switch tactics.  I calmly explained to Jason that there was no need to get upset.  I told him that we agreed on much more that we disagreed on.  We both loved Jesus, we both trusted what God gave to us in the Bible, and we both loved our neighbors enough to take the truths of God’s word to them.  Jason calmed down and apologized.  He said he knows he gets abrasive, but it’s only because he is so passionate about what God’s word says.  We shook hands and parted on good terms.

At our third meeting the next week, the teacher again started the class with the current lesson in the Prison Fellowship book.  The second verse he read to us was from Exodus.  Halfway through his reading Jason cut him off and said he didn’t know why he was bothering to read from the Old Testament.  We are clearly under the New Covenant and there is nothing in the Old Testament that applies to us anymore.  The teacher politely told him that the Old Testament is still important and there are many things we can learn from it.  Jason shot back that only the words of Christ are important, and he had better learn that quick.  Yikes!  Shots fired!  While I winced at the harshness of Jason’s statement, I was blown away at the teacher’s response.  Leaning forward and coming partially out of his seat, he pointed a thin finger at

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Jason and said, ‘Look boy, I don’t know what your problem is, but the last time I checked the whole Bible is God’s word and that means the whole Bible is Important!!’  What startled me is that your teacher is a volunteer from outside.  He is in his mid-80’s and frail.  He is a passive teacher and often brings up the fact that he feels inadequate to leading the class with 2 pastors and an inmate fluent in Greek.  To see him rise up and pop his claws was funny and refreshing.

Jason responded by saying that he didn’t know why our teacher was so snippy with him, but he could clearly see that for whatever reason our teacher was upset so he would just sit back and be quiet.  I decided that maybe I should intervene in an attempt to find common to focus on in the hope that the tension in the room could be brought down.  I said surely, we can all agree that even though we are all under the New Covenant, there are still moral laws we are commanded to follow in both the Old and New Testament.  Jason immediately huffed and rolled his eyes.  This was followed by yet another remark about me being taught by men in seminary instead of the Holy Spirit.  He then pointed to Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:8-13 and said that we don’t need to look at either the Old or New Testaments to determine right and wrong.  God had written his moral law on our hearts.  I told Jason that I had a slightly different understanding of that those verses meant.  I did have a question about his understanding, though.  He told me to go ahead and ask my question.  I said that I come from a very liberal denomination.  Within that denomination I have had people tell me God told them they were women trapped in a man’s body, that homosexual sex was ok, and that it was ok for a man to leave his wife to marry his young secretary.  I assume that you (Jason) would say that all of these

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are immoral positions.  Jason nodded yes.  I then said, since both of you are getting your messages from God through your hearts, how do I know which one of you is telling the truth, since I cannot look to the Bible for moral guidance?  Jason looked at me incredulously and just kept repeating, ‘Come on David.  Come on.’  He then refused to answer my question.  I told Jason that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.’  That would include the Old Testament and the moral codes in the Bible.

Jason switched tactics and began to bash me for not understanding how to be saved and ignoring the commands of Christ.  He then said I called Jesus a liar.  At this point things were getting weird.  I couldn’t understand why he kept getting more and more upset.  I asked him when did I call Jesus a liar.  He ignored my question and accused me of not knowing Greek as it pertained to 1 John 3:8-9.  Thankfully, I had used the past week to investigate Jason’s previous claims on this point.  I pulled out my Greek-English Interlinear New Testament and turned to the passage.  I asked Jason if he read Greek.  He huffed and looked away from me.  I turned the Interlinear to Jason and pointed to the passage.  I said look at the Greek verb ‘poeeo,’ it’s written to indicate a current, ongoing state of being.  That’s why modern translations use the word ‘practice of sinning’ rather than ‘sin.’  I said furthermore, verse 7 of the passage uses the exact same Greek verb when it talks about, ‘Whoever practices righteousness is righteous.’  I asked Jason that if he believed the Greek verb in 8 and 9 was meant to describe a singular act and that single act of sin made us of the Devil,

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then does the single righteous act in verse 7 then make us righteous?  Afterall it is the same verb structure.

Jason turned blood red and started yelling at me.  He said I was demon possessed and he was tired of me persecuting him.  I calmly asked Jason how I was persecuting him.  He snapped back that my questions were persecuting him.  I asked him how my questions were persecuting him.  He yelled at me again and said I shouldn’t ask questions.  I then asked him if he had asked me questions over the last few weeks.  He said, yes, quite a few.  I then asked, how is it ok for you to ask me questions, but when I ask you questions, it’s persecution?

Jason yelled at me again and jumped up.  He said he was done with us and done with the Bible study; he will not be attending another one.  Wow!  Our teacher said in a stunned voice, ‘What just happened?’  I just sat in silence for a moment while Kenny attempted to explain to him Jason’s frustration and anger at not being able to steamroll the class with his bazaar theology.  I asked both men if I has said anything wrong or acted in any way uncharitable to Jason.  Both said absolutely not.  They both said not only did I act charitable, but I responded in kindness when Jason personally attacked me.  I still felt bad.  I really wanted to win Jason over.  Please keep him in your prayers.  Keep his student Eric in your prayer as well.  We gave Eric an Apologetic Study Bible recently and he is a new Christian.  He proudly told me that Jason told him he could keep the Bible.  When Jason stormed out, he dragged Eric behind him like a whipped puppy.  I at least hope I can reach Eric at a later date.

There seems to be no end to the types of people God has called me to engage in here, my Beloved.  Please continue to pray

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that I will have wisdom in my engagements.  Even more importantly continue to pray that I will engage those around me because of my love for them and my love for God.

I love you so much my Beloved!  Thank you for your continued encouragement and your own engagements with the guys.  I love to hear about your own stories.  Tell the other guys that engage with us that I am proud of them, I love them, and I continue to pray for them.

Love,

Me

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOM!

LAAF!

7

January 15, 2024

Hello my Beloved,

It’s been an interesting week.  Carpentry class has been light on building things and heavy on renovation.  This involved the demolition of one of the 12’ x 24’ houses that sit on a 2’ block foundation.  The one we demolished only had 2 exterior walls, so it didn’t take long.  We also had to lift and move around 15 28’ trusses to the foundation of the house we just demolished.  My knees are screaming at me for putting them through that much abuse.

I continue to work with MJ on apologetics, theology, and philosophy.  He is getting good at Tactics.  We spent a lot of time this week looking at the arguments for and against the Young Earth and Old Earth positions.  MJ is a Young Earther like I am.  I wanted to instill in him a respect for the various Old Earth Positions.  It’s always good to know the arguments for and against any major position that you hold.  This will do several things for you.  First, it will make you a lifelong learner.  A dear friend once told me that learning is a change in behavior due to new information.  This means that I must ne open to listening to opposing points of view.  Furthermore, I must be willing to change my position if I find a more reasonable one.

Second, it helps to give you some insight into other people’s views so that when you engage them, you can more easily go to the core of their arguments.  MJ started the evening by ridiculing the Old Earth position.  By the end of our session, he respected their position while maintaining his Young Earth Position.

I went to the Thursday Prison Fellowship Bible study.  Jason was there.  I finally got a chance to engage him on his ‘interesting’ theological positions.  It was a ‘fun’ engagement.

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Let’s see, where do I begin?  I have been hearing about Jason for a while now.  Many Christians have been engaged by him.  They said he was very forceful and very knowledgeable.  I had been in 2 Bible studies with Jason so far and in both of them he tried to take over the study to teach what he kept referring to as the ‘Laws of Christ.’  He said he was the only one that knew them, and 2000 years of Christianity had gotten them massively wrong.  He also strongly insinuated at each study that any other topic we covered was nowhere near as important as what he had discovered.

At Thursday’s Bible study, Warden Beale started his lesson with Proverbs 4:26-27 which says, “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.  Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”  It’s a great passage.  I pointed out that the word ‘ponder’ means to reflect over something or to consider it deeply.  I said that the chapter tells us how to ‘ponder’ in the preceding verses.  To ponder something, to think or consider it deeply, requires wisdom.  That’s why verses 5-13 implores the reader to get wisdom.  It then lists many of the benefits of a life guided my wisdom.  Verse 7 says that the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom.

Since we are commanded to get wisdom, I asked the class if they knew what wisdom was.  If you don’t know what wisdom is then how do you know if you have it?  I explained that wisdom comes in two forms; one is a type of knowledge, the other is a skill.  Wisdom in knowledge form can be seen in any true ‘how to’ book.  Proverbs is a book of wisdom.  It gives ‘how to’ instruction on life.

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Wisdom as a skill involves the ability to discern the inner qualities and relationships of something.  This requires the use of logic and reason.  At the sound of those two words, Jason rolled his eyes.  He immediately told me that neither logic nor reason were of God.  We shouldn’t use them as Christians.  I pointed to Acts 17:2-3 which said, ‘And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on 3 Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ‘

I said reason was good enough for Paul to use, so it’s good enough for me.  Jason then told me that Paul was a failure for using reason, just look at his results, only some believed.  At this point I began to wonder if he even knew what reason was.  So, I asked Jason if he knew what the term ‘reason’ meant.  He said yes and none of us should ever use reason because it goes against God.  I asked him if he had reasons to back up his statement.  He said yes.  I purposely said, ‘So, tell me what reasoning lead you to your conclusion?’  Jason got about a sentence and a half into his ‘reasoning’ and started to yell and me and call me names.  He said I was arrogant, not of God, didn’t know the Bible, and I thought I was smarter than everyone else because I had been to seminary.  He then went on to angrily explain that my main problem was that I had allowed myself to be taught by men and not by the Holy Spirit.  I should never allow a man to teach me.  I should be like him and only be taught by the Holy Spirit!

I resisted the urge I had to point out that Jason was a man, and he was teaching me.  Should I reject his teaching since he was a man?  (I was almost afraid that he might claim to be the Holy Spirit since he was so bent on teaching everyone.)  Instead, I told him that I apologized if I came across as arrogant in anyway.

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I am so glad I have made a habit of reading a chapter of Proverbs a day.  They help me immensely in conversations like this.  For instance, Proverbs 12:16 says that the vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.  Likewise, Proverbs 15:1 says that a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

After my apology, I told Jason that I just wanted to be more like Jesus.  In Matthew 11:2-6, we see John the Baptist doubting if Jesus is really the Messiah, so he sends his disciples to ask Jesus if that is who He really is or should they wait for another.  Jesus doesn’t tell John to just believe, just to have faith, or ask the Holy Spirit.  He tells John’s disciples to go back and tell John what they see and hear, the blind receive sight (Isaiah 29:18), the lame walk (Isaiah 35:6), lepers are cured (Isaiah 53:4), the deaf hear (Isaiah 35:5), the dead are raised (Isaiah 26:18-19), and the good news is preached to the poor (Isaiah 61:10).

In His response to John, Jesus first appealed to the empirical method.  He asked John’s disciples to notice what they had experienced using their senses, particularly sight and hearing.  He specifically pointed to these events because Jesus knew that John knew the prophesies in Isaiah of what types of miracles the Messiah would do when He came.  In doing so, Jesus appealed to reason.  He used a form of valid, logical argumentation called Affirming the Antecedent.  It looks like this;

If p then m.

p.

Therefore m

‘p’ stands for the Messianic prophesies being fulfilled by a person.  ‘m’ stands for Messiah.  In plain language the argument looks like this;

If a person fulfills the Messianic prophesies, then that person is the Messiah.

The Messianic prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus.

Therefore, Jesus is the Messiah.

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At this point Jason said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know what reason was.  I agree then that we should use both reason and the empirical method.’  Building on the good will I had just gained, I thanked Jason for his passion for God and His word.  I told him I was really interested in what he believed.  I told him it would be bad of me to assume he believed something he actually didn’t believe and then I attacked that position (just as he did.)

Jason agreed and went on to explain to me his views.  I even got him to write them down for me so I wouldn’t mix them up or forget them.  He believes the Bible is inerrant.  He does not believe you can lose or walk away from your salvation.  He also believes he is a Christian, but he is not saved.  You can only be saved when you reach a state of sinless perfection in this life.  That way when you die you can go to heaven.  :0 You have to be sinless so the Holy Spirit can dwell within you.  Jason shared with us that he had been the pastor of 2 different Pentecostal churches on the outside and started his own ministry there as well.

I thanked Jason for sharing his point of view.  I told him I looked forward to going back to the dorm and looking up the verses he wrote down for me and studying.  He again reiterated that we were wasting our time studying anything else because his views were foundational to all Christianity.  I suggested that next Thursday we allow him to make his case, since it was so important to him.

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Pray that next Thursday I am able to win Jason to the truth.  If I can’t do that, I want to cast so much doubt on his position that he stops pushing it so hard.

I love you so very much my Beloved.  Thank you again for all that you do.  As I have said many times, I wish you could see on a face-to-face level the impact you and the others are having on many of the inmates in here.  Love you!!!

Love,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOOM!

LAAF!

January 8, 2024

Hello my Beloved,

It feels so good to finally be caught up on my letters.  I hope never to get that far behind again.  This week has been good.  In Carpentry, we worked on redesigning the layout of Thorne’s office and the shop.  He liked most of my ideas.  After tearing his office apart and rebuilding it according to our new design, he has a lot more room and things are much more organized.  Years of loading trailers at UPS has taught me a thing or two about how to put a lot of things in small places.

We also did the same thing to our shop.  I disassembled several things that we no longer used, reworked some others to make them more usable, and opened up a lot more room for students to work on projects.  Thorne handed out brand new PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for everyone.  I now have my own monogramed hard hat, goggles, and work belt.  I look forward to the tear down and rebuild of the two small houses in the shop next week.

In the Prison Fellowship Bible studies this week, I finally got to engage Jason.  I have had multiple people come over the past few months to try to set up a debate between Jason and I because of his forcefulness and unorthodox ideas.  Until this week I had never met him.  He is indeed a strange unit.  So far, he has told me that he is a Christian, but he is not saved.  Jason says that a person is not saved until they reach a point where they no longer sin.  He also told me that we should only follow the commands of Christ.  I’m not sure what he means by that.  He claims he has pastored two different churches, started his own ministry, but only became a Christian a few years ago.  He also claims to have discovered the ‘secret’ to salvation and it’s not the ‘Roman’s road.’  To understand these secret things, you have to know how to properly interpret the Bible.

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The funny thing is, he is the only one in 2000 years that has figured it out.  He says he keeps trying to teach people these secrets, but no one seems to understand.  Hmmm.  Please pray that I will be patient with Jason and that I will have wisdom in my future engagements with him.

I watched a show on prepping this week.  I was rather disappointed in the individual they featured.  His prepping plan involved only himself.  He had very little in the way of reproducibility.  His skill set was limited, and he was going to rely on his house cats to help him hunt.

I have always found the idea of prepping to be a fascinating concept.  It appealed to me for several reasons.  First, I have watched multiple generations of my family, including my father and grandfather, live as self-sufficiently as possible.  Second, it just seems natural that if I am going to love my neighbors, as Mark 12:31 commands all Christians to do, then I should equip myself to meet my family’s needs first, and then help as many as I can beyond that.

Prepping just means preparing to live safely through and emergency situation.  It could be something as short as a tornado and a safe room to retreat to, or a year’s long scenario like the electric grid being destroyed or some form of catastrophic financial collapse.  The first step in prepping is to decide what you want to prep for.  Prepping to live safely for two weeks without electricity because of a hurricane is far different than prepping for the collapse of the electrical grid because of a Coronal Mass Ejection.

Regardless of what a person decides to prep for, prepping should always start with like-minded friends.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 talks about the importance of having friends.  Not only does a community of friends provide for a greater accumulation of skills and resources, it provides for a larger workforce to draw from for the many jobs that may need to be done.

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The jobs, skills needed, and resources needed tend to fall into several categories: security, food/water, shelter, medical, communication, transportation, government, and outside communities.

Most preppers place a heavy emphasis on security.  They do this by buying large quantities of firearms and ammunition.  While these thigs are helpful, security also involves repair and usage training for all firearms.  Like any tool, a weapon is only as good as its training allows it to be.  This includes the safe handling of the weapon.  Security can also involve working as a team, intel gathering (personal and electronic), perimeter establishment, and plans to evacuate if necessary.

While security is important, so are the many other areas.  You can only live a few days without water and a few weeks without food.  There are two aspects when considering food and water preps, stored supply, and renewable supply.  Stored supplies of food can include off the shelf canned goods, pasta, beans and rice, as well as freeze dried, dehydrated, smoked, cured, or salted foods.

At least 6 months of stored food is optimal.  This allows time to shift to renewable supplies like chickens, rabbits, goats, and other animals and fish as well as the planting and harvesting of heirloom seeds for fruits and vegetables.  While water can be stored in a variety of ways, it should be done with a small supply of iodine and or chlorine to make sure it stays safe.  While water filters like the Life Straw allows you to draw water from any source safely, they are only good for a 1,000 or so gallons before they should be replaced, a shallow manual well will provide a near infinite safe supply, a deep well is even better.

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Along with food and water, the skills to maintain, cultivate, and prepare what you have is also important.  That includes knowing how to ration your supplies.

Of course, shelter is always important.  That includes not only a sturdy structure and a way to heat and cool it, it also includes the tools, skills, and materials to repair and build onto it, especially materials like nails, rope, screws, lumber, and metal.  Clothing is also a type of shelter.  Sturdy outfits designed for different seasons and weathers are a must.  Skills like sewing and tanning can turn scrap cloth and animal pelts into nice clothing.

Sanitation and hygiene are also important.  Providing for a way to stay clean and a way to remove waste from living quarters is essential to keep disease and poisoning to a minimum.

Having a way to light the inside of a shelter safely greatly increases it’s use during bad weather or darkness.  Oil lamps and candles work well if you have the skill and material to continually procure wicks and fuel.  Another option would be solar lighting.  A solar generator is a huge bonus because it never runs out of fuel and can power small electronics and appliances all the way up to whole houses depending on the size of the generator.

One final thing when considering shelter, make it a place where you can continue to grow as a person.  Intellectually, continue to educate yourself on a variety of topics.  Not only are there good books on every aspect of prepping out there, but there are also many free electronic books, audio, and videos that can be downloaded to a cheap tablet.  Emotionally, we need recreation or some form of entertainment.  Music, are, games, media, or some forms of competitions are great for keeping stress levels to a minimum.

The medical aspect of prepping is always the most difficult.  Primarily because both the materials and the skills needed to be successful in the area require special outlets and training facilities to acquire them.  Granted, simple IFAK’s (Individual First Aid Kits) can be ordered through Amazon, but the tools and materials needed to permanently close a wound, fight infection, or treat a severe burn requires a professional.

The ability to communicate is also essential to prepping.  Though there are many ways to communicate without using electricity, radio communications is the simplest and usually the most effective way to communicate with others.  This will require some way to recharge whatever radios are used, though.  Small UHF/VHF radios have a range of at least several miles.  Granted, to use them in nonemergency situations, you need a license.  A HF radio can send and receive over very long distances and are useful in acquiring news from the surrounding area as well as from far away.

The ability to travel can be tricky to prep for.  If there is an EMP, there is a lot of disagreement on which vehicles will be affected and how badly they will be affected.  Generally, pre-1980 vehicles are said to be the least damaged by an EMP.  If there is a weather-related disaster, roads may be impassable.  During an economic collapse, there may not be enough fuel or the price of it may make it impossible to afford.  Different types of vehicles have different pros and cons.  An older vehicle is easier to work on and repair.  An electric vehicle can be charged through solar if the charger is large enough.  Of course, horses work well over many types of terrain.  Human powered transportation like bikes and canoes are also great options.  I think the most important aspect of prepping is government.  Not national, state, or county governments, but the structure and process that you and your friends put together that will make the short- and long-term decisions for your group.  Regardless of the form of government you use, a constitution should be drawn up and ratified by everyone in your group.

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I would caution anyone that wanted to step away from the principles that guided the creation of our own constitution and country.

The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold the truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”  It goes on to list some of those rights and then says that government’s job is to protect those God-given rights.  This mirrors what Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17 says about God’s purpose for government, to promote good and to punish evil.  Therefore, if God is real and the Bible is true, all governments and their laws and principles, should in some way reflect God’s moral law, otherwise known as Natural Law.

How would I apply this to a community in a long-term prepping situation?  First, I would define my community.  That would usually involve those families that lived around me, that were committed to working together with us for the common good of our community.  Each family that owned land in the community would choose one member to serve on a governing counsel.  The governing council would be the decision-making body for the community.  They would not have the authority to vote to take someone’s assets or force them to do a particular job if they didn’t want to.  They would vote on how to use materials and skills that were donated for the use of everyone as a whole.  All laws promoting or preventing any sort of action would have to be grounded in God’s moral law.  This is of grave importance because almost all of the problems we suffer in our country today can be traced back to some form of moral relativism.

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Relativism is a particular philosophical position on the usage of the word ‘truth.’  Another way to frame up the way a relativist see’s truth versus the way an absolutist sees truth is to say truth is subjective versus objective.  A relativist sees truth as something that is entirely internal.  Truth comes from within, not without.  It’s the subject (you) that determines the truth of an object.  Therefore, everyone has their own truth and no one’s truth is better than anyone else’s.

The correct way to understand truth is to understand it as existing apart from your perceptions.  Meaning that truth is that which corresponds to the reality of an object, not in the perception of it.  For example, I may perceive that a sliding glass door is open and attempt to walk through it.  Instead of freely traveling through the opening, I walk into the spotless glass of the closed door. The truth of the door being open or closed did not rest in my perception of it, it rested in the reality of the door actually being open or closed.  In this case, my perception and my belief were wrong about the door.  Because I acted on that belief, I was painfully hindered from moving forward.

Now, take this concept and apply it to morality.  Are sin and virtue subjective or objective?  I would argue that God is real, and He has flawlessly communicated to us through the Bible.  My conclusion is based on a thorough examination of the arguments and evidence, both for and against my conclusion.  Therefore, when the Bible says in Mark 10:18 that no one is good except God alone, we must conclude that good/virtue can only come from God.  This means that anything that we call good that doesn’t reflect God’s nature or will is not truly good.

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Since God designed His creation to live according to His will, which is good, to live against His will is to suppress the truth and to invite His wrath (Romans 1:18.)  If I live a life that contradicts what God says is sinful, it doesn’t matter what I sincerely believe, I am going to suffer His wrath.

The majority of people in America today believe that right and wrong is subjective and live accordingly.  That’s why moral positions in our country are always in flux.  They are rooted in relativistic things like feelings and pragmatism.  Therefore, right and wrong changes as quickly as a person’s feelings or desires do.  Furthermore, there is no way to discern whose feelings or desires are good and whose are bad.  That’s why our society is so divided.

Until we return to a society governed by God’s Moral Law, we will always be a society doomed to fail, nationally or in a prepping neighborhood.  That’s why my communities Constitution would always be grounded in God’s Moral Law.

I love you very much my Beloved.  Thank you for working with me to keep God’s Moral Law at the center of our family and friends.

Love,

Me!

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

LAAF!

ILYSOOOM!

8

September 17, 2023

Hello my Beloved,

Wednesday, the 20^th, I received an interesting offer from one of the gang leaders in our dorm.   He is called ghost and has the bed above me.  As you know, violence seems to be the primary tool people use to get what they want in here.  Much of the average day is spent in singing songs about violence, watching shows that glorify violence, working out so that you can be more effective in violence, engaging in focus pad training and shadow boxing so they can be the best at violence, horseplaying in violent ways with each other, threatening and manipulating others through violence, and actually being violent.

Even when they actually engage in violence, they show how much thought has gone into maintain their violent life styles.  They know where the blind spots in the cameras are.  They also know how to mask their body language when threatening violence (like when their enforcer named ‘Nightmare’ tried to extort me, he kept his body and face oriented away from me so from the camera’s perspective, he wasn’t talking to me.  He only broke from that charade when I stepped up to confront him.).

When someone is ‘hit’ with violence, they have groups of guys that go into ‘clean up’ by cleaning up any blood, including removing blood-stained clothes on the victim and redressing him.  They tend to his wounds and then cover them with masks, hats, or scarves.  The victim is told to stay away from guards until his wounds heal or next time, he will receive worse.

Because of this violent atmosphere, many groups of people tend to be singled out because they are seen as easy targets.  These include gay and trans men, older people, and Christians.  Because of this, I have told many men in the gay and trans community, as well as fellow believers to come and hand out at my bunk if they ever feel threatened.

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This has caused for some interesting friendships in the gay and trans men to develop.  They strongly dislike my Biblical stance on sexual contact, yet they feel safe, loved, and enjoy the conversations they always have with me (mostly).

Since Ghost has been my top bunk mate, he has witnessed my conversations with many of them on how to deescalate situations, how to move through groups of people in a safer manner, and how to handle initial violent contact in order to move to a safer place.  Ghost had taken 1 or 2 classes of martial arts when he was little.  He recognized some of the things I have said to people, so he asked me if I was an instructor and how long I had been training.   I have been purposefully vague with him because I don’t want much of a spotlight on that area of my life.  I find that a little bit of information goes a long way.  This allows their imaginations to do my job for me.

After one such meeting with a fearful Christian brother, Ghost looked over to me and said, ‘You know Mr. Lipscomb, you should teach that to some of the guys here.  As a matter of fact, I could make you the richest guy on the compound if you would teach my homies and others.’  I politely declined saying I don’t think that would be a good idea nor did I think that the prison administration would like me very much if I did that.  He pointed out two individuals that taught boxing to people on the rec yard and told me that they already do what I do.  I told him that what I did was more in the field of self-defense, not sport.  He didn’t seem to understand so I got up and walked over to him and asked him to show me how he would attack me.  He reached his right hand out and started to grab my chest as he drew back with his left hand.

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As he did, I grabbed his right hand as soon as he made contact with my chest.  Raising my elbow to deflect the incoming punch, I placed him in a spiraling z-lock.  His eyes grew wide as he immediately forgot about his incoming punch, and he began to hop up and down while trying to say something but only came out as a string of random consonants.  I eased off the pressure only allowing the weight of my arm to keep the lock in place.

After he stopped hopping around, I asked Ghost what he was feeling in his arm.  He said it felt like the bones in his arm and wrist were about to come apart and explode.  I told Ghost that was exactly what was about to happen.  The pressure he felt was only from the weight of my arm.  I said, imagine if I flexed even a tiny bit.  His eyes got bigger again, and he cried ‘No, no!’  I released Ghost and explained to him the difference between boxing and a self-defense oriented martial art.  I then asked him how popular did he think I would be with the prison administration with a prison full of guards and inmates that has so many broken bones.  He grimaced and said, not very.  I smiled and told him I might as well be teaching them to build Glocks and the ammo to go with it.  I appreciate his offer, but I was going to have to decline.

Friday, the 22^nd, we continued our Apologetics Bible Study.  This time I gave them a primer on Greg Koukl’s book Tactics.  I love this book!  I also loved refining my skills under Greg’s supervision while attending Frank Turek’s Cross Examined Instructor Academy.

Tactics is a way to engage people about the truth of Christianity in a way that’s compelling, clear, clever and easy.  It starts with a tactic called Columbo.  Columbo teaches that when a person makes an assertion (the Bible is false, God is not real, all religions are the same), instead of telling them that they are wrong and burying them under an hour-long lecture as a rebuttal, you instead get into the habit of asking certain questions in response.

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The first question you should ask in the Columbo tactic is, ‘What do you mean by that?’  In asking this question, you are gaining more information about what a person really believes.  It makes you a student of other people’s views.  It helps you to clarify what they are saying and keeps you away from committing the Strawman Fallacy.  Finally, it also helps the other person to think more carefully about their claims.

The second question you should ask in the Columbo tactic is ‘Why do you believe that?’  It can also be asked, ‘How did you come to that conclusion?’  The use of this question gives you a deeper look at the foundations of a person’s claims.  Doing this gives you the opportunity to weigh whether a person has an argument or an explanation.  An argument is a set of statements that claims that one or more of those statements supports another.  It’s offered as proof in support of something.  An explanation seeks to offer a possible cause for something without proof.  In short, an argument shows what’s reasonable, an explanation shows what’s possible.  As Paul did in Acts 17:2-3, 17, and God called His people to do in Isaiah 1:18, Christians should always seek what is reasonable, and not rest in only what is possible.  This question also keeps you in the driver’s seat of a conversation.  By reversing the burden of proof, you keep the other person talking.  By their talking, you continually learn more about them and the positions that they hold.  As you listen and learn what they believe and why, you look for flaws in their reasoning (if there is any.)

One of the first flaws you look for are self-defeating statements.  A self-defeating statement is a statement that refutes itself.  Here are several examples:  I cannot say any words in English.  (That whole sentence is made of words in English.)

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There are no absolute truths.  (Is it absolutely true there are no absolute truths?) People shouldn’t judge others.  (Then why are you judging people that judge?)  Christians shouldn’t try to change other people’s religious beliefs.  (Since my religious belief is to try and change other’s religious beliefs, why are you trying to change my beliefs?)

Another tactic that Koukl’s book teaches is Reductio Ad Absurdum.  This is a powerful tactic because it has both a logical and an emotional aspect to it.  When using RAA, assume for the sake of argument that what a person says in his argument is true.  Then try to apply his argument on a topic that you know the person is passionate about.  See if they continue to support their position when it is applied in this new area.  I used this tactic on Anubian (the other philosopher in our dorm) just the other day.  Anubian told me it was wrong to correct another person’s moral point of view, or to even call their belief wrong. I could have pointed out that his position was self-defeating because his very statement was calling someone else’s moral point of view wrong (in this case, mine.)  Instead, I asked him what he would do if he came across someone beating a toddler to death with a bat, would he intervene.  He said yes.  I asked him why.  He started to say it was wrong but caught himself.  He then smiled.  I asked him if it was wrong to kill the toddler.  He reluctantly said yes.  I never had to point out to Anubian that his position was wrong.  He concluded that himself by me using RAA.

Another tactic Koukl teaches is the Steam Roller.  This tactic is used to stop an aggressive person that keeps interrupting you and/or changing topics.  This tactic involves 3 steps.  First, you stop the person and get a commitment from them to allow you to finish your point, or for them to stay on the original topic.

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After the commitment is made, if they do it again you again stop them and remind them of their commitment.  If they do it a third time you again stop them and tell them that it’s obvious they are not interested in a dialogue, only a monologue.  Allow them to finish and politely leave the engagement.

The Rhodes Scholar tactic is a tactic for use against appeals to ‘science says’ statements.  Ask the person why scientist believe that.  You are not going to blindly believe a bunch of people you don’t know, and you hope they won’t either.  A similar tactic is the ‘Just the Facts Mam’ tactic.  This simple tactic calls out simple false claims.  I used this one on a doctor I debated one time.  He explained to me that as an atheist he believed things based on reason and testing, I as a Christian, believed things on faith.  I asked him what he meant by faith.  He told me faith was believing without evidence.  I knew his definition was wrong, so I asked him where he got that definition from.  He said he didn’t know and said, ‘Isn’t that what the Bible says?’  I told him no; the Biblical definition of faith is an active trust in what you have good reason to believe is true.  He said, ‘Well, that’s what I do.’   I shook his hand, smiled, and said, ‘Well, it looks like we are both men of faith then, Doc.’  He laughed and said, ‘Yes, it seems we are.’

I continued to role play with the group for some time, using Tactics on a variety of apologetic issues.  As we role played, I noticed more and more people hovering around our group, listening in.  Soon someone spoke up and said, ‘Yea, but all religions teach the same thing.’  I asked him why he believed that.  He stuttered, stopped, and gave me a blank stare.  I asked him if he knew what Christianity taught.  He said no.  I asked him if he knew what Islam taught. He said no.

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I then said, ‘If you don’t know what the two largest religions on the planet teach, then how do you know they teach the same thing?’  He smiled sheepishly and conceded.  I briefly explained the general beliefs about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and atheism and how they contradict one another.  I told him it was important to examine the truth claims of each religion and to weigh them to see which one is true.  I told him we were having our Friday studies to examine the massive amount of evidence that shows that Christianity is the only true religion.  He said he would like that.

Another young man walked up and sat down, by this time we were over 12 people, and we filled the corner of the dorm at Alex’s bunk.  This new guy introduced himself as Chubsway.  He said he was the ‘guru’ of the dorm and was very interested in helping us with our Christianity.  He also let us know he was a ‘genius’ and loved to help people.  I asked him what me meant by ‘helping us with our Christianity.’  He said that as a Christian himself, he wanted to make sure we understood what Christianity was all about.  My ‘cult’ alarm began to increase.  I asked Chubsway why he thought he was a Christian.  He responded, ‘Why do you think I am a Christian?’  Hmmm, I told him I wasn’t sure he was a Christian.  All I had to go off of was his claim to be a Christian.  He just stared at me so I tried another question.  ‘How does a person become a Christian?’  I asked him.  He responded with ‘How do you think a person becomes a Christian?’  I smiled.  Chubsway was using a variation of the ‘professors’ ploy.’  Tactics talks about a counter-tactic that professors use in college sometimes when after you use the Columbo tactic to reverse the burden of proof, the professor may reverse it again on you.

I told Chubsway that I wanted to see if he knew how to become a Christian to see if he was really a Christian.  He reversed the burden again on me and said that he wanted to see if I was really a Chrisitan.  I told him that he came to our Bible study claiming to be one of us.

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I didn’t go to him claiming to be what I thought he was.  I just wanted a little more verification about his claims on who he was.  A simple test would be if he could tell me what the Bible said about how to become a Christian.  He finally got an agitated smirk on his face and said he really wasn’t a Christian and didn’t know what the Bible said.  I told him that was ok.  I would be happy to share with him the Gospel and hear his views about God, the Bible, and the Gospel.  The rest of the discussion was good.

Afterwards, our group had a separate meeting where I walked them through each encounter and what I was trying to do.  Tactics, by Greg Koukl has been at the core of our Berean Light Fellowship since it’s beginning.  I cannot say enough good things about it.  It should form the foundation for anyone engaging in apologetics, and that should be everyone.  Every Church should have a class that teaches Tactics.  It would embolden their congregation and amplify its ability to be salt and light to the world around them.

I love you very much my Beloved.  Thank you so much for helping me to bring light to such a dark place.

Love,

Me

ILYSOOOM!

November 5, 2023

Hello my Beloved,

Sorry I am still behind on my letters.  This one should bring us completely up to date.  November and December have been very busy months for me.  It took me awhile to adjust to my new dorm.  Not only because the guards here enforce different rules than the ones in 340B did, but the men that I mentored in 340B continue to need my help on things.  Thus, I am writing even more personal lessons for people and finding various ways to get these studies to them.

I am still putting the miles in on the rec yard. 95% of the time I walk, I have one or more people with me for a teaching session.  I really enjoy those.  I always seem to think better when I am moving.  (It’s the reason I always walked around the stage while preaching.)  As I teach, I am always learning new things about people.  For instance, I learned in early November from Matthew, that the Bible lies about many things.  I also learned that socialism, and especially communism, was the best form of government.  Not only does he support these, but he also leans in the direction of postmodernism.  This is especially troubling because he is quickly becoming a leader in several sectors of the Christian community here.  I will give him this, he knows how to sell himself.

The Christian groups here continue to be fractured.  Prison Fellowship is moving from 350B to 330B and A as well.  I have already submitted my application to join when they start their new class in February.  I pray I am one of the ones chosen from the many applicants.  Chuck Colson, the man who started Prison Fellowship, taught several of my classes in seminary.  I have followed him for decades.  His focus in ministries was the same as mine, to equip Christians everywhere to

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develop a strong Christian worldview through the study of Theology, Apologetics, and Philosophy.  He passed away just a few years ago.  Since I never dreamed I would ever be in prison, I never spent much time studying what Prison Fellowship taught, only what Chuck Coulson taught.  I am still unsure of how close Prison Fellowships beliefs are to its founder’s beliefs.  If they are close, then I will be of great benefit to them.  My ministry background and training will be tailor made for them.  If they have somehow drifted from their founder’s beliefs, then I hope to be an instrument to call them back to their ‘first loves’.  I do feel a sense of urgency in the matter.  Matthew is really selling himself to be the next leader of Prison Fellowship.  Since he is already in 330B, he has much more access to their leaders than I do.  He has already done a great job of wooing them with his background in the Episcopalian Church and degree in psychology. It would be sad if Prison Fellowship embraced in leadership the very type of person Chuck Colson warned against in his book ‘How Now Should We Live.’

The Protestant group at St. Brides continues in a hit and miss fashion. The leadership decided to expand from two to five.  They brought John on as one of their leaders and pastors.  I thought that was a good idea.  After a week or so, Matthew began to have private meetings with the two original leaders.  Shortly afterward they made a public announcement that the leadership now consisted of only three members, the two of them and Matthew.  This really hurt John.  Especially after they had a big pre-church ceremony to sing Matthew’s praises as a scholar and a great Christian leader.  I often wonder if they ever took the time to question his worldview.

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In Celebrate Recovery, things continue to go well.  The chaplain just moved John to the top leadership role in that program.  One of the Protestant Church leaders who was unofficially acting in that capacity, reportedly got so mad at not getting that position he refused to come to the meetings for weeks.

Meanwhile, I keep working in the background.  Our numbers in Feeding His Sheep continue to grow.  I mentor people in all three major Christian groups, even many of their mentors.  My prayer is that I will reach enough people and leaders in each group, that all three will stop their prideful fighting and begin to work together. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Carpentry classes going really well. My instructor, Thorne, has now given me several little titles.  I am his Wishing Well Wizard, because of my, outside of the box thinking on future designs.  He also announced to the class that I had designed the focus of the class for 2024.  I took Dodah’s idea about custom mailboxes and pitched it to him.  He was super excited about it.  I have been attending both classes each day.  Not only do I build many of the special projects (like the two end tables I designed and built for a staff member), he has me teaching a lot of the newer students.  The first of the year, Thorne is going to have us tear down the two partially built houses in the shop and rebuild them.  I am really looking forward to that.  Thorne has also asked me to help him redesign his office and the shop.  I really enjoy being able to help in so many ways.

Ray asked me to teach the Wednesday Bible study for the 15th.  I chose my lesson on Veritology.  Bizarrely, the lesson got off to a very rocky start.  If you remember, the question I always lead with is, ’What is the most important pursuit in life?’  People usually say either love, happiness, or God.  I usually explain that while

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those are all important pursuits; the pursuit of truth is the most important. John immediately lit into me for it not being God.  I tried to explain to him that God is truth, so any honest pursuit of the truth will lead you to God.  He kept saying that truth was secondary to God.  I tried to get him to see his error by asking him if the Jehovah’s Witnesses were pursuing God.  He said no.  I asked him what they were pursuing.  He started to say ‘a false god’ but caught himself.  Knowing that I would point out that they were not pursuing the ‘truth’ about God, he opted instead to say they were not following God.  I asked him if they were following a false god.  He said no, they are not following God.  I know it’s a fine line, but I think it’s an important point.  Most people today rarely think in terms of true or false.  They often validate their feelings by attaching the term God to them and voila, they are following God.  It becomes difficult to explain how a person can know whether they are pursuing God or not by explaining critical thinking skills, but do not talk about the concept of truth.  Then, something even stranger happened.  When everyone agreed with me, John said that he agreed with me.  I asked him what made him change his mind.  He said he never disagreed with me.  Everyone stared at him awkwardly.  He had just spent 10 angry minutes telling me how wrong I was.  So, I moved to my next point about Satan being a liar.  I started out with Genesis 3:1-5 to show the first recorded lie, by Satan.  John quickly objected that Satan never lied in anything he said.  I pointed out that Satan said in verse four that they wouldn’t die, this contradicted what God said in Genesis 2:17 that they would die.  I also pointed to what Jesus said about Satan being the father of lies in John 8:44.

This quickly spiraled into whether God could lie or not.  I told John it was

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impossible for God to lie, which he again objected to.  This time I got him to read aloud Hebrews 6:18 which says, ‘it is impossible for God to lie.’  Yet again, he told me he agreed with me and never thought otherwise.  I could see he was very angry.  The others stared at him wearily.  I moved on with the rest of the lesson while he remained quiet.

I tell you all this as a warning about how pride can blind us in strange ways.  John is a great guy.  He is also very smart and well educated.  He should never have made the basic theological mistakes that he did.  I say these things not to bash John, I just want to point out how badly pride can blind a person. In the social circles that John comes from on the outside, he is by far the most educated person in the group.  He is used to being right and not being challenged on a Biblical topic.  To have someone say something new and to have his challenge shot down in front of others was not a pleasant thing for him.  I should know, I have been there.  I very clearly remember a time in the early 1990s, after my education in theology, apologetics, and philosophy really began to expand, where I concluded that I knew approximately 98% of everything there was to know in these areas.  The only reason that I didn’t say 100% is because I was too ‘humble’ to claim that. I was not open to being wrong, therefore, I became unteachable.  That was a horrible place to be in my walk with Christ.  Yes, I was teaching people and winning debates, but I felt far away from God.  A good friend once taught me that learning was a change in behavior due to new information.  The only way for me to become teachable and grow again, was to humble myself and let go of my pride.  Pride can be defined as an

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undo sense of your abilities in a given area.  Paul cautions us in Romans 12:3 do not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.  We must examine ourselves with ‘sober judgment.’  The best way to have a ‘sober judgment’ about any area in your life is to 1st, surround yourself with mentors.  People that can regularly examine your current abilities and growth.  I keep myself surrounded by many mentors in various fields.  In self-defense I have Grand Masters Kim, Blake, and Wright.  And theology, apologetics, and philosophy I have Southern Evangelical Seminary. In life, I have my Dad.  Each mentor in their respectful fields have proven themselves to be trustworthy and far beyond my skill level.  I seek their feedback on each respective area and give great weight to what they tell me, good or bad.  I then changed my behavior, when warranted, due to the new information.  This way, I never stop learning.  Pray that I will always be humble enough to learn.  Pray also that I can ignite that same passion to learn in those around me, especially John.

Well, Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone.  This is the second time I have celebrated them apart from those I love the most.  I won’t lie, I do struggle with anger towards those that put me here, more during this time of the year than any other.  I am getting better though as I continue to learn to forgive them.

I continue to be humbled by God’s provision during that time (and every other time).  I was very thankful to be able to call home on Thanksgiving Day and talk with everyone.  I am also thankful that you all got to be together.  I am also thankful to be able to read the Christmas story from the Gospels with you and the children.  I was thankful that I could call early Christmas morning after presents were opened.  I was also thankful of the many pictures you and so many others sent over the

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holidays.  As incredible as our past Thanksgivings and Christmases have been, God continues to remind me that the best is yet to come. 😊

In the meantime, I focus at bringing the ‘spirit’ of both holidays to those around me here.  Ephesians 5:20 tells us to give thanks to God always and for everything.  Learning to do that requires practice and a change of focus.  As Philippians 4:8 says, I have to train myself to focus on ‘good’ things, not bad.  What I focus on I amplify.  The more I focus on the many ‘good’ things in my life, the more good things I begin to see.  Of course, the opposite is also true.  The more I focus on the ‘bad’ things in my life, the more bad things I will notice.

I am glad I was able to put together a brief Christmas devotion to everyone incarcerated.  I pray that it helped them see the many good things God continues to give them in everyday life.  I also pray they keep their focus this Christmas on the greatest good mankind has ever received, God himself, taking on human form so that He could come to earth, live among us, suffer with us, testify to the truth about who He is and how much He loves us, and then to offer up Himself as payment for our sins.

Merry Christmas my Beloved. Thank you for being such a great example of God’s love and light to me and so many others. Not only for Christmas, but all year long!

Love always,

Me

Ilysoooom, GELPOY, SCRAP, LAAF

October 1, 2023

Hello My Beloved,

The first week of October seems to have been a pretty violent week at St. Brides.  We have had various random lockdowns all week.  It’s being reported that all of the lockdowns are due to multiple stabbings.  The first stabbing was on the rec yard. An inmate was stabbed in the back by mistake.  Whoever did the stabbing thought he was someone else.  Later on, they apparently found the right inmate because another inmate was stabbed in the face.  Toward the end of the week a third inmate was stabbed in the short timer’s dorm for snoring too loud.  The guards have been out combing the yard with metal detectors they took out a section of bleachers because they found parts of it being cut away to make new knives.

Sunday, the 8^th, was an interesting day.  The ‘other’ philosopher in our dorm, Anubian, told me that logic was just something western civilization made-up and not everyone used it.  I told him that the laws of logic were discovered, not made-up.  Thus, like the laws of thermodynamics, they always apply to all people everywhere.  I explained to Anubian what the three primary laws of logic were: The Law of Non-contradiction (A is not non-A).  Example: The car cannot be there and not be there at the same time and in the same sense.  The Law of Identity (A is A). Example: Something is what it is.  If there is quarter on the table, it does not matter if blurry vision makes me believe it’s a nickel. My belief does not change the fact that I still am looking at a quarter.  The Law of Excluded Middle (either A or non-A).  Example: David exists. I cannot exist and not exist at the same time in the same sense.

Anubian said that he didn’t need to use the laws of logic to communicate his side

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to others.  I pointed out that he had just used several of the laws in his statement.  He said that he did not need to use the laws of logic. This uses the Law of Non-contradiction; he does not mean that both his position and my opposite position are both true at the same time and in the same sense.  I also pointed out that he was using the Law of Identity because he expected his words to have objective meaning.  We spent the next hour with him continually trying to speak to me and not use a Law of Logic.  He finally conceded that the Laws of Logic are indeed undeniable first principles that everyone should learn and embrace.

We spent the next several days in lockdown.  It was difficult not being able to hear your beautiful voice each day or read the daily emails you send me with news, encouragement, devotions, and pictures.  They did a deep search on our dorm on the 10^th.  We were all herded into the day room and moved to the bathrooms in small groups where we were strip searched.  Then they took each of us to our bunk where they searched through everything we had for contraband.  Sadly, an inmate had given Peru some of his anti-gas pills.  Peru kept them in a clear container.  When the searching guard saw them sitting in the open, he asked Peru if they were his.  He innocently said yes.  They immediately charged him with 100 level charge reserved for people having illegal drugs.  Even though they finally conceded the drugs weren’t illegal, they still convicted him because the pills were in the wrong container.  It’s so frustrating watching these guards strain for a gnat while swallowing a camel.  Each day many of them come in the dorm and joke with the guys smoking drugs about how it smells whenever they walk by their cut.  Then to turn around and bust Peru like they did is maddening.  The inmates that do drugs

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and have been locked up for a while tried to help Peru.  But when they found out that he confessed they said that there was nothing they could do.  They recounted time after time how they had lied and beat charges of real illegal drugs found in their area.  The whole system, corrections, law enforcement, and judicial, seem to reward liars and punish those that tell the truth.

We continued our study of Apologetics on Wednesday, the 11^th.   I asked the group how well they could defend their views of Christianity.  They all said that they could, so I asked them if they believed Jesus was God.  They all said yes. I asked them why they believed it.  They said because the Bible said it.  I asked them to show me where in the Bible it said Jesus was God, I even asked them to paraphrase a verse that said so, even if they didn’t know where it was.  Sadly, after about 20 minutes of thinking and searching, the entire group conceded that they did not know any.  I told them that there were many verses in the Bible that show Jesus is God, some of the basic ones can be found in John 1:1-3, 14, 20:28, 8:58.  Nate then asked me if he could borrow my Greek textbook.  Confused, I asked why.  He laughed and said learning Greek was easier than learning this.  He said it was depressing because he was so sure he could defend what he believed.  To find out how shallow his beliefs were was jarring to him.

Thursday, the 12^th, brought a bunch of new guys to our study.  Tokyo is a half Japanese agnostic, Brent is a devout Christian, David is an older evangelist, and Brian is someone who is seeking.  Please keep all of them in your prayers as we move forward.

Saturday, the 14^th, was an interesting day.  If you remember, I have been mentoring a young Muslim named Rasheed.  I have been slowly dismantling his Islamic foundation.  I was out on the rec yard putting my miles in when he came running

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up to me.  He excitedly told me that he got me an audience with the top Muslim apologist at St. Brides.  I looked over and saw a young man not much older than Rasheed, dressed in some sort of Islamic headgear and surrounded by others walking towards me.

He introduced himself, keeping a very serious and stoic demeanor, he then proclaimed that he could answer any objections I had about Islam.  I smiled and thanked him.  I told him that I just wanted to know the truth about God.  Since both the Quran and the Bible make contradictory truth claims about God, salvation, and Jesus, I knew both of them couldn’t be true.  This poses a problem for me since my studies in the Quran tell me to study the Torah and the Gospels if I want to know the truth about the Quran (Surah 5:46-47, 10:94).  I also knew that the Quran says that Allah protects his word.  Rashid had told me before that Surah 15:9 only applied to the Quran and not to the Gospels, which are corrupted.  So, I asked his apologist friend why Allah only saw fit to protect part of his revelation (the Quran) and not the Torah or the Gospel.  He looked startled by the question.  He stammered that he didn’t know and that it was a good question.  He then changed the topic to the Quran was perfect and I could trust it because of the perfection of the Arabic used in writing it, the scientific accuracy of the verses, and the fulfilled prophecy of Muhammad going to Mecca.  I ignored his statement and instead, asked him to point to the true, uncorrupted, Gospels that the Quran asked us to study. He seemed confused.  I explained to him that the modern New Testament was created from a group of 5800 Greek New Testament writings that date to within a few years of the originals.  We also have non-Christian testimony

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that the Christians around the time the New Testament was written believed that Jesus was God, He died and rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven.  These beliefs correspond with what our modern New Testament teaches.  How come there are no copies of the four gospels that don’t have these claims?  Where are the ‘uncorrupted’ versions of the four gospels that the Quran commands us to read?  Surely, they must have been commonplace if the Quran tells us to read them.  He stuttered again that he did not know.  He said he would have to call his Imam to get the answer.  He looked deflated and his sycophants looked around awkwardly.  I thanked him for his time and told him I look forward to his answer.  After all, I said, I don’t want to risk my eternal destiny following a book that was false.  I smiled broader, especially one that made claims about God and history that were not supported by the evidence.  He weakly agreed.  Please continue to pray for our engagement with the Muslims here.

Saturday evening was great.  God behind bars was good.  After waiting a considerable time for people to stop talking to me before the service, Deacon teased me about being a ‘super celebrity’ and that I needed an agent so people could book time to speak with me.  I love his quick wit.  After church I spent two hours with Brent listening to his story and engaging on various topics.  He gave me a huge hug and said that after our talk, he felt like he had just had the best night he has had in a very long time.  He was finally at peace.  Yaaay!  Please continue to pray for him, his peace, and his continued growth.

Sunday, the 15^th, started out mildly stressful.  I started cleaning around my bunk area after breakfast.  Under my bed I found a tattoo gun (homemade).  My first thought was that someone was trying to set me up to get me in trouble with either

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the guards or another inmate.  I took it to one of the gang leaders and asked him about it.  He recognized it as belonging to a member of another gang.  He took it to him and explained how I found it.  The gang member immediately got angry because he had loaned it to someone else.  He went and got the guy he loaned it to and dragged him to my bunk.  It turns out the guy was finished with it and forgot the bunk number of the guy that loaned it to him.  He thought my bunk was the correct one.  The gang leader then berated the guy, telling him that his mistake could have gotten a good man in a lot of trouble.  Not only would I have been charged with a serious infraction, the gang guy would have lost his tattoo gun.  He made the young man apologize to me and then he apologized to me.  It’s so funny seeing this weird code of honor among some of the gangs.  Continue to pray that God would touch their hearts and minds to draw them closer to Him.  Also keep David’s niece in your prayers for healing, her name is Veronica.

Monday, the 16^th, I began to teach Alex Greek.  Thank you for ordering a Spanish concordance for Alex and Peru.  The Greek and Hebrew lexicon in the back will help them immensely.  We are still waiting on the Spanish version of More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.  That along with their Spanish copies of Tactics will give them a good basic foundation for their apologetics.

Wednesday, the 18^th, was a sad but expected day.  They moved me out of receiving overflow in 340B, to a permanent dorm, 350B.  I am in bunk 22B, which is a single bunk in the middle of the dorm.

There were a lot of tears in 340B as I packed up.  I had just asked David to take one of my Bible study days the night before so he could use his skills as the leader of an Evangelism Ministry again.  My leaving was especially difficult for Alex, Peru,

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and Lee.  Please continue to pray for their growth and protection. While there was sadness in 340B there was celebrating in 350B.  John, Riley, MJ, Sam, and Samuel were in there and extremely happy to see me.

This dorm is much more structured and peaceful.  Most people have TV’s.  We can use the showers, microwaves, and water 24 hours a day.  This used to be the Prison Fellowship dorm, that is why everyone is so well-behaved.  Now 330B is the Prison Fellowship dorm.  They are slowly moving those that are in Prison Fellowship out of this dorm in into 330B.  It will be interesting to see how this dorm changes as people are switched out.  There is only one Bible study in this dorm and that occurs on Wednesday evenings.  It’s led by a man named Ray.  He is 60 years old and has a degree in social work.  He has a kind heart.

I love you so much my Beloved!  Please continue to pray for me on this new battlefield.  Pray also for the one I just left, for those I leave there to continue the battle.  Thank you for continuing to equip all of us through books, devotions, encouraging emails, and prayer.

Love, Me

Ilysoooom, GELPOY, SCRAP, LAAF

September 24, 2023

Hello my Beloved,

It’s been a surreal week.  Wednesday the 27^th marks the one-year anniversary of when I began my sentence.  There is so much about that day that is etched into my brain.  We spent the day before cleaning out the bedroom because there was no sense leaving things in there that wouldn’t be used for possibly 10 years.  I felt like I was preparing for my impending death.  I rushed to finish as many chores and projects as I could.  The final one was the completion of the wiring at the base we made for the new lamp post.  It felt good to do something that would spread more light.

I spent the day before visiting family and friends, saying my goodbyes to those not likely to be on this side of Heaven when I am released.  The last night sleeping in our bed was good.  Having already spent 8 days sleeping on a steel slab in jail, I knew what awaited me in the years to come.  I don’t think I will ever complain about our mattress again.

I remember how at peace I was when I woke up the morning of the 27^th.  The air outside was so fresh and pure.  Feeding the horses, goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, and rabbits seemed like more of a privilege than a chore for once. 😊 Even Titan was nice to me.  It seemed like he could sense that that was the last time he would ever see me.  We both watched the sun break through the trees as it rose that morning and burned the mist off of the field.  I remembered what Dodah said in his letter to Andrew on his 13^th birthday when he eloquently wrote about the many generations of Lipscomb men that had stood on the edge of that same field and watched that same sun come up to spread its radiant light on all the wonder and beauty God has saw fit to surround us with.  The question that each generation must answer was, are we willing to see that beauty, and are we willing to serve its Creator.

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I can only answer for myself, yes and yes!  My prayer is that our children, and our children’s children, will continue to give the same answer.

I decided that I would also continue to do both of those things no matter where in God’s creation I would spend the next chapter of my life.  That’s where my peace comes from.  To make sure I could share as much of that peace as I could with those I love, I walked the farm in those early hours and recorded a video message for all of you.

My final goodbyes began with one of my first Martial Arts instructors who stopped by just to make sure I was ok.  He didn’t realize I had to start my sentence a day early.  I believe he is one of the hardest and strongest men to ever walk the face of this earth, yet that morning he showed me a tender heart that can only be from a man that truly rests the foundations of his life on love and the God of love.  It was an honor to pray for him.

Arriving at the courthouse, I had to make my way through friends and family members that were already there waiting for me.  There was so much I wanted to say to each of them.  Their support meant so much to me that morning.  Having Grand Master Kim drive all the way from the far side of Richmond touched my heart, especially with what he gave to you before he left.

As I sat in the side room going over final notes with my lawyers, I saw the two that were most responsible for what was happening walk past the room door.  I will never forget the smug look on the colonel’s face.  When I followed my lawyers into the courtroom, I made sure not to look at the two.  I was focused on doing what needed to be done to protect me and my family.  I couldn’t help but notice how jam packed my side of the courtroom was and how empty the other side was.

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I also noticed how nervous the body language of the prosecutor was.  This was reinforced by the tone of his voice.  It made me curious.  To this day I don’t know why he seemed so nervous.  The only think that shocked me was what I remembered him saying at the end.  If what I remember him saying was true, he told a lie, and he knew it was a lie.  As I recovered from his statement, I remembered that many people on y side were depending on my strength for their strength.  So, I stood taller and made the ‘I love you very much’ sign to all those behind me.  I held it until I left the courtroom.  The last face I saw out of the corner of my eye was yours, my Beloved. 😊

The trip from King William to Northern Neck Regional Jail was a good one.  The deputy shared with me his early life and what led him into law enforcement.  I had to get him to readjust my hand cuffs on the drive over because the right one wasn’t closed all the way, and I pulled my hand out.  I was afraid he would get in trouble if we showed up at the jail like that.  By the look on his face, it was the first time anyone had ever asked him to tighten their hand cuffs versus loosening them.  😊

We got to the jail, and I was processed in.  As they led me to J-Pod, I pondered how I could serve God in the years to come.  I had no clue where to begin, I only knew that I had to begin.  As I walked through the dorm door and paused to take in the surroundings, a smiling inmate walked up to me and said, ‘Hi, I’m Adam.  Welcome to J-Pod.  I run a Bible study each night in the corner over there.  You are welcome to attend.  If you need anything, please let me know.’

Beautiful.  As I began my descent through the Gates of Hell, Adam showed me my first glimpse of beauty.  Even here, there was incredible beauty.  Not necessarily the beauty of mists on a field or the sun through the trees, this was a beauty of thoughts, actions, and words.

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Of someone willing to serve God by serving others.  That’s when my mission snapped clearly into focus.  This was a place of darkness, ugliness, and sadistic evil.  But it was also a place of light, beauty, and goodness.  Try as it might, the darkness here just could not seem to snuff out the light, no matter how hard it tried.  As a Paladin, I was used to these battles, I was equipped by some of the best Paladins on the planet to engage and train others in these battles, I loved these battles.  This was my mission, take the light here and amplify it.  Go after the darkness here, let it know that even on this side of the Gates of Hell, it’s not the strongest force.  Light, beauty, and goodness will always be stronger.

This includes the darkness that thought it had triumphed by putting me here.  Now, in my target rich environment, there are many people to engage.  People that need training.  People that need encouraging.  People that need rescuing.  People that need to be confronted because of the darkness they have embraced, confronted and told they have no real authority, even here.  And all of them need to be loved.

Fast forward a year later, how have we done?  We not mentor 90 inmates across 10 prisons and jails, both men and women.  We also provide materials such as the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, Love God with All your Mind, Tactics, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, and Tender Warrior to help train the light here to be brighter and to train others as they were trained.  We have provided devotionals via email and in book form for those that are struggling.  We use email to also receive prayer requests and questions on theology, apologetics, and philosophy.  God has used us to save people’s lives from ending in suicide and to save their souls from Hell itself.  God has used what Satan meant for a great darkness, and instead, turned it into a thing of great beauty and goodness.

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My prayer is that He will continue to bless our ministry here at the Berean Light Fellowship.  He will use our Feeding His Sheep to glorify Himself in even greater ways, even this far behind the Gates of Hell.  May He continue to protect us, give us wisdom, and keep our eyes and hearts focused on Him.  I love you very much my Beloved!  Thank you for continuing to be God’s salt and light to me Proverbs 31.

Love,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOM!