Christmas Goody Bags distributed

The Weidner clan during assembling

As part of my ministry at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, I serve as president of our Chaplaincy Advisory Group which meets the second Monday monthly.  

We support all the 33 ministry groups serving at the RJC under trhe direction of Mary Ann Morbley, the programs director at the RJC.  

For the past several years, the CAG has sponsored a Christian Goody Bag distribution to the 700 inmates and officers. It is amazing how genuinely touched and appreciative the men and women are when we pass out the lunch sack size bags.  

Merv Weidner, one of the chaplains, and his family come in to assemble the bags.  A group of elementary classes from Kentview Christian School color the bags.  The supporting ministries brought in candy, cookies, and crackers and the CAG provided additional items.  One of our board members worked with area grocery stores to provide candy items.

I was privileged to assemble some extra bags and distribute the bags with Chaplains Dick Rothlisberger and Mary Rutter to several of the units.  I have been able to follow-up with inmates for one-on-one Bible studies and visitation.

Real repentance in prison ministries

Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent

 Over December and the Christmas season, I am serving faithfully at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.  I've been back from the short-term missions trip to Rwanda and Burundi in Africa for a little more than a month.

John, an inmate at the RJC, who I shared with earlier this week.  His journey with Jesus began when he was 18.  He's 40-something now and his story is constantly intertwined with drugs and alcohol.  He's in jail now because while he was drunk he struck his two children and frightened his wife.  

He doesn't get it.  I repeated, "You abused your family...that is abuse...that was violence."  He said, "but it wasn't a crime...I pushed them with an open hand.  I shouldn't be in jail...."  

What?

His life does not show fruits of repentance, by his own admission.  His life is without evidence of real change.

He is sober, right now, so he is set on reading the Bible and pursuing Christ.  I told him I just am not sure what happened when he was 18.  He hasn't read his Bible, nor gone to church, nor pursued recovery support groups.  


Without effective recovery support group involvement, the drug, alcohol, or self-medicating addict is setting himself or herself up to fall.  They could remain clean and sober for a season.  They are more likely to fall.  They need a solid, Christian mentor.  John needs a group like Alcoholics Anonymous or Celebrate Recover.  I shared with John he needs a group he will go to regularly.  He needs to engage in his daily and weekly recovery in Christ Jesus.

This is not "works salvation," but the fruit of sanctification through the gracious progressive work of the Holy Spirit.

This real life anecdote is exactly why I am so cautious about leading converts in salvation prayers and altar calls.  Yes, the lord uses these prayers and altar calls.  I am very cautious about giving a seeker or new convert a sense that they might trust in the prayer or walking down the aisle and to think those acts save them or prove their salvation.  

• Where is a contrite and broken heart?  
• Where is the repentance?  What does it look like?
• How will "John" make things really right before God and his family?

I have John reading and studying through a worksheet I developed on living faith in keeping with repentance.  I'll go back in later this week to see where he is at.

I just read an a real life story from missionary John Paton about genuine conversions and changed lives in a missionary setting and what we can observe.

"When I have read or heard the shallow objections of irreligious scribblers and talkers, hinting that there was no reality in conversions, and that Mission effort was but waste...

oh, how my heart has yearned to plant them just one week in Tanna, with the "natural" man all around in the person of Cannibal and Heathen...

and only the one "spiritual" man in the person of the converted Abraham [Paton's Aneityumese friend who worked tirelessly for the kingdom of God], nursing them, feeding them, saving them "for the love of Jesus"--that I might just learn how many hours it took to convince them that Christ in man was a reality after all! 

All the skepticism of Europe would hide its head in foolish shame; and all its doubts would dissolve under one glance of the new light that Jesus, and Jesus alone, pours from the converted Cannibal's eye."

Dave Niehaus--we saw it on the radio

Katharine is involved in ministries to the sight-impaired and recently shared with me a letter from Marlaina Lieberg, from the Washington Council for the Blind, who spoke at the Seattle Mariners Dave Niehaus Memorial at Safeco Field.  

Here is an excerpt from Marlaina's reflections:

"I was seated in the second row just behind Rick (Rizz--Dave's radio and tv M's partner for years). He is a very tiny man as men go.

He is a very nice guy, and we were all moved and felt helpless when we saw him fall apart emotionally. When Edgar, Jay, Dan Wilson and Kevin Kremmons went up to surround him, you could feel everybody just letting go.

Marlaina speaking

The stage had four steps to walk up and the podium was a few feet away from those steps.  Originally John Olerud was going to escort me, but he ended up sitting in the wrong seat so a guy from the Marketing Department escorted me instead.

It was very weird at first to speak and hear my word a fraction of a second later!

I was using my BrailleNote Apex, and the one time I deviated from my notes, I nearly got lost because my hand was so cold it was almost numb.  They gave me hand warmers, but those only work if you keep your hands in your pocket!  Oops!


While I was speaking, I really felt aware of the fact that I was representing all fans, but especially we who are visually impaired.

I wanted to make the point that because of Dave, you didn't need to see the game.  When people applauded, I almost fainted!  It was very awesome to hear the sound coming from left, center and right of me.  

But what was more awesome was the fact that over 5 thousand sighted people clapped when they understood you didn't need sight!  I never thought that would happen in this lifetime.

Edgar Martinez and his family sat behind Gary and me.  After the ceremony was over, we shook hands.  Let me tell you, that man has the most muscular hands I've ever felt.  They aren't fat, but oh boy are they muscular!"

God's freeing grace for flawed people

In Paul David Tripp's book, "What did you expect--redeeming the realities of marriage," pages 51-52, he uses the word "stultifying."  While serving at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, I often share with men about the Kingdom of God and God's deeper purposes for their lives.  

He wants to amazingly free them from ongoing sin, patterns that the evil one uses to keep them chained up indefinitely and continually returning to their old ways. He wants to lovingly draw them into a life-changing relationship with Him through Jesus.  He wants them to please Him in everything they do.  

So much gets in the way. 

Stultifying means humiliation, or the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission.  It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have committed a socially or legally unacceptable act.

Now, that definition got my attention. Some of the behaviors of inmates lead to stultifying results.  How might this impact oue own marriages, relationships, and ministries?

Here is what Paul David Tripp writes:

"[God's] grace purposes to expose and free you from your bondage to you. His grace is meant to bring you to the end of yourself so that you willing finally begin to place your identity, your meaning and purpose, and your inner sense of well-being in him."

So, he places you in a comprehensive relationship with another flawed person, and he places that relationship right in the middle of a very broken world. To add to this, he designs circumstances for you that you would have never designed for yourself. All this is meant to bring you to the end of yourself, because that is where true righteousness begins.

  

•      He wants you to give up.   
•    He wants you to abandon your dream.     
•  He wants you to face the futility of trying to manipulate the other person into your service.       
•  He knows there is no life to be found in these things.

What does this practically mean?

It means the trouble that you face in your marriage is not an evidence of the failure of grace. No, these troubles are grace. They are tools God uses to pry us out of the stultifying confines of the kingdom of self so that we can be free to luxuriate in the big-sky glories of the kingdom of God.

Paul David Tripp

This means that you and I will never understand our marriages and never be satisfied with them until we understand that marriage is not an end to itself. 

No, the reality is that marriage has been designed by God to be a means to an end. When you make it the end, bad things happen. 

But when you begin to understand that it is a means to an end, then you begin to enjoy and see the value in things that you would not have been able to enjoy before."

Going-- first step of obedience

On my recently completed short-term missions trip to Rwanda and Burundi in central eastern Africa, I was struck by the amazing amount of time allotted in the two weeks to travel.  There were close to 40 hours of travel each way between air travel and layovers in Amsterdam, Entrebbe, and JFK in New York.

on the road again

While we were in the beautifully green and mountainous Rwanda and Burundi,  our five-member PFC team along with Pastors Bernarde and John, from Rwanda, spent hours trekking up and down winding roads to prison sites in a simple SUV.

We were not able to enter the Democratic Republic of the Congo despite having completed visas from the Congo Embassy in Rwanda.  The Congo border officials refused to recognize the visas and would not allow us to enter the country. 

After three hours of prayerful and tiring waiting in between phone calls and conversations, we returned to Rwanda.  We were not able to visit one prison and complete one conference in the Congo.  It simply was not going to happen.

We conducted one conference in Rwanda and visited seven prisons between Rwanda and Burundi.  The purposes of the conference is to train and to encourage those already serving and others wanting to be involved.  Another prominent ministry in these countries is the Good News Jail and Prison Ministry which hosted the Rwanda conference with 28 participants.  We use core materials from the PFC University classes.  I taught on working with jail and prison staff.

As we traveled and I was feeling drained, I quoted Matthew 28:19-20 and John 15:16.

Rwanda countryside from the van

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20

There are three active participle activities in going, baptizing, and teaching, all supporting the main verb "make disciples."  

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."  John 15:16

So, going, all the travel, sitting, watching, repositioning, and listening is the first step of obedience to "make disciples in Rwanda and Burundi. I remember repeatedly embracing the trip and thanking God for everything around me.  What an incredibly beautiful two countries.

Genocide Museum

Genocide Museum

On our first day in Kigali, Rwanda on Monday, November 9, our PFC team visited the national genocide museum. My tour was conducted with Pastor Bernarde and Pastor John, both who lost direct family members.

During our eight full days of direct ministry, we visited seven prisons and conducted one conference in Rwanda and Burundi.  The actual travel time is about 40 hours each way, including layovers in the airports.

I will write about the awesome time I shared with Rachel Jacobs in Burundi and how we connected perfectly.  She is doing great!

I will write more about Bernarde and John in future days.

The genocide began in April of 1994 and continued through 1999. A great many of the inmates we preached to across Rwanda and Burundi were imprisoned for their roles.

Between 800,000 and one million were slaughtered--many from within families. The disaster left two million orphans. Uncounted babies and small children were killed or left permanently and severely wounded. It was all during a season of widespread turmoil across Africa.

I didn't cry while I was walking through. I was too profoundly impacted.  I was taught we learn from history. We learn from history only if we want to.  I was asking many questions.

The adversary's evil takes full advantage of every opportunity  "to steal, kill, and destroy," John 10:10a.

The watching world stood by and remained inactive despite repeated pleas for help from the United Nations.

Finally -- Some News! (another guest post by the wife)

For those of you who've been keeping track, you realize that Mark has been gone eleven days, and that means he'll be home tomorrow night. Were you worried that you may have missed several posts about his exploits? Would you like to get ALL the details?

Yep, I thought you would. Me too. I got a partial text message that I *think* was from him, on Sunday night. Here, apart from the mushy salutation, is what it said:

"Better since Friday. Didn't"

Do not adjust your monitor; that's all the message contained. Sorry. This was followed by a telephone call from the same number, but the connection wasn't quite connected so I couldn't hear any voice.

So, I've been living on assumptions (and prayer) this week. When Mark called me from Amsterdam, he said he'd felt poorly on the flight from Seattle. I can only guess that he kept on feeling poorly until Friday.

But wait! Now there's more!

Rachel, the missionary Special Education teacher in Burundi, contacted me on Facebook today. Her message is proof that Mark actually did land in Africa. (I was picturing him in the plane, circling, circling, for ten days.) Here's what her first line said:

"Thanks for sending your husband. He was an awesome encouragement!"


Okay, then! I'll see if I can snag some other info from Rachel, and will write another post if there's time before I go to the airport tomorrow. If you've read this far, you would perhaps be willing to join me in prayer for the team and their health on the homeward flights. It's no fun at all to fly when you aren't feeling well, and they've got a lot of flying to do.

NEWS FLASH!!! More info from Rachel:

"He was better by the time he got to me. They didn't go into Congo. The border patrol wouldn't let them in or something like that. I met them at the Buja prison and then had dinner that evening with them at the hotel. The next day I went to a church they were preaching at that was 5 blocks from my house :)
That's about all I know. Oh I gave them some peanutbutter cookies one of the missionaries here made me. They seemed to like them :)"

Well, there you have it. Mark may be a journalist, but when you want the full scoop, ask a girl. We've got the information and we're happy to share it!

Thanks, Rachel!!!

Guest Post #1 From the Wife

Before Mark left the country, he gave me the passwords to his Blogger account. Mua-ha-ha-ha! Stay tuned for some remarkable photos and stories of Mark's early years...

But in the mean time, here's all I know about his travels thus far. He called from Amsterdam at 11 p.m. Monday night (our time.) The team had made it, all together, that far. The first ten-hour flight went okay and they were preparing for the next leg of the journey.

There you go -- that's all the news I've got.

But, in case you've got a hankering for more details, I snagged a photo of the airplane to share with you. Ready? This was taken during their flight from Seattle to Amsterdam. In case you can't quite make him out, that's Mark sitting in an aisle seat somewhere near the middle of the plane. He's listening to music.

 

Easy... or hard to get saved--grace!

by John MacArthur

I know this shocks some people, because we hear all the time that getting saved is easy. “Just sign this little card!” “Just raise your hand!” “Just walk down that aisle while the choir sings one more stanza!” “Just recite this prayer!” “Just ask Jesus into your heart.” 

It all sounds simple. The only problem is that none of those actions has anything to do with real salvation and getting through the narrow gate. That sort of invitationalism implies that Jesus is some poor pitiful Savior, waiting for us to make the first move to allow Him His way. 

It implies that salvation hinges on a human decision, as if the power that saves us were the power of human “free will.”

 [MacArthur provides a few paragraphs explaining how this sort of invitational phenomenon started with Finney in the late nineteenth century, was carried on by Moody and soon became part of standard Christianity. He shows how it is, at its heart, anti-Calvinist. He then continues…]

According to Jesus, it’s very, very difficult to get saved. At the end of Matthew 7:14, He said of the narrow gate, “There are few who find it.” I don’t believe anyone ever slipped and fell into the kingdom of God. That’s cheap grace, easy-believism, Christianity Lite, a shallow, emotional revivalist approach: “I believe in Jesus!” “Fine, you’re part of the family, come on in!” No. The few who find the narrow gate have to search hard for it, then come through it alone. It’s hard to find a church or preacher—or a Christian—who can direct you to it. 

The kingdom is for those who agonize to enter it, whose hearts are shattered over their sinfulness, who mourn in meekness, who hunger and thirst and long for God to change their lives. It’s hard because you’ve got all hell against you. 

One of Satan’s pervasive lies in the world today is that it’s easy to become a Christian. It’s not easy at all. It’s a very narrow gate that you must find and go through alone, anguished over your sinfulness and longing for forgiveness.

Somebody might say this sounds like the religion of human achievement. 

Not so. When you come to brokenness, the recognition that you, of yourself, cannot make it through the narrow gate, then Christ pours into you grace upon grace to strengthen you for that entrance. In your brokenness, His power becomes your resource. Our part is to admit our sin and inability and plead for mercy and power from on high.

A full packet of prayer requests

I am reminding myself heart prayer needs in the coming days as we serve in Rwanda, the DR of Congo, and Burundi. Again, our trip is from November 8-20.  Our team meets Sunday evening for weigh-in of bags and prayer and dinner with our spouses in Woodinville.  We leave about noon from Sea-Tac on Monday.

Rachel Jacobs

As I am getting ready, do I have everything?  

What am I missing?

What will it be really like? 

What will we really do?

Am I anticipating the Lord so that I will be awed and amazed at what He does around us?  

Will the Lord Himself change our itinerary for His awesome glory?   

Tomorrow morning, I'll be interviewed along with Lowell and Ann Zeigle.  Lowell and Ann will be joining Jerry and Carol Kind in Northern Africa and Spain.  Keep praying for the faithful team there and that Jerry and Carol will get back there very soon.

One particular blessing will be connecting directly with Rachel Jacobs from our home church, Faith Baptist in Kent, who is teaching in Burundi. I am hopeful I'll have a great chance to meet with her in a significant way.  She may just bless me all over the place.

Would you pray Rachel and I can make a solid connection in Burundi and that I might encourage her? I'll be carrying a family package to deliver.  Please also pray for the team that is already in India with PFC.

To Jesus Christ who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6

How can you pray for me? 

1. I'll "die to self" when I feel tired and disrupted.  Galatians 2:20, 6:14

2. I'll be a genuine encouragement to my team members.

3. I'll gang tackle love on our hosts who are excited about us coming.

4. I'll preach and teach God's glorious word with His anointing.

5. I'll pray on faithfully throughout every aspect of our trip.

6. I'll keep my things in safe order and support our team.

7. I'll pray for Katharine, Andy, Peter, and Jon.

 This is what we have been preparing since August to do:

Our CRB team

TRAIN saints currently doing prison ministry.
INTRODUCE the PFC umbrella and raise up missionary partners.
BLESS saints with resources and prisons with humanitarian aid.
EVANGELIZE inside the national prisons and everywhere.
TEACH churches to recruit volunteers and to multiply in other churches.

Very God of very God for Muslims

During the last three days at the Regional Justice Center, I've been following up with Sam, a 20 year-old inmate with an Islamic family background.  Another chaplain and two really faithful inmates, one a converted Muslim, recently worked through the gospel with him.

Sam said he believes Jesus is his Savior through whom he received the forgiveness of sin. 

Can Jesus be Savior and forgiver of sin and not be God? 

Is Allah of the Quran the same as the Father and the Tri-une God of the Bible?

I am not to persuade nor convince him, the work of the Holy Spirit. The next time we meet will now be after I return from Africa on November 20.

He hasn't read the Quran extensively but has a pretty solid understanding of Allah. He discovered a chain of statements in the book of Sura from the Quran asserting Muslims are to read and trust in the writings of Moses, David, the prophets, and the gospels.

I am using, "The gospel for Muslims--an encouragement to share Christ with confidence," by Thabiti Anyabwile as a tremendously clear resource as I pray and read through issues in sharing with Sam.

Our meetings are very peaceful and full of respect.  He wants to share Jesus with his family but struggles with what the Bible says about God as  Tri-une and if Jesus was a man or is God.  I asked him to read John 1:1-18 before we met today.

Is the Trinity a man-made doctrine that intentionally perverts the truth by "you guys?"  He repeatedly asserts the Bible has been perverted around the doctrine of the Trinity, a man-made doctrine.

I am committed consistently to not speaking a negative word about Islam nor the Quran.  Today, he peppered me with questions about who the Bible says Jesus is.  He believes Jesus is a man. We worked through Hebrews 1:5-13: David, Psalms 2:7, 104:4, 45:6-7, 102:25-27, 110:1; Moses, Deuteronomy 32:43; Isaiah in 61:1 and 3;  Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7

"Don't say say it is contradictory because what we think it says," I repeated.  "Would you read the Biblical passages and look honestly at what the Scriptures the Quran's Sura repeatedly state are trustworthy about Jesus?"

John 1:1-4 was hard for him.  I repeated it for him slowly several times as it is a section I have memorized.  He doesn't allow me to thoroughly answer his questions as he moves on to a set of more questions.

We read through the role of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Birth of Jesus from Matthew 1:18-25.  We have the Father speaking through Isaiah, the Holy Spirit bringing about the birth, and the birth of Jesus, as the Son of God, a stunning Tri-une God passage.

We also read through Christ's response to a rich young man in Mark 10:17-22 where Jesus raises up the definition of a good teacher to the striking attribute of God's goodness.  Jesus holds Himself up as the One God who is truly good. Mark reported Jesus loved this young man.  My heart is to love Sam.

Is he being dishonest or manipulative?  I don't read it that way.  He is clearly seeing the Quran and the Bible do not agree on the very heart nature of God.  I ask him to identify the differences as he becomes aware.

We are committed to continue meeting together. Today, it was very, very clear this is outright spiritual warfare over this man's soul and the souls of his family. My place is to ask him questions and answer his questions by turning to Bible passages. 

Go and bear sustaining fruit

Yesterday, I was asked how I could go all the way around the world to Africa on a short-term missions trip to prisons and communities around the prisons when there are people that need to be reached right here in Kent and King County. Giving to a PFC short-term missions trip to Africa didn't seem like the best use of finances.

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another." John 15:16-17 ESV

My giving support target of $3,950 was reached and exceeded,  as of Tuesday.  We'll be leaving Monday, November 8 and returning November 20 for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.  While there, we are scheduled to do evangelistic services prisons, training conferences in churches, and preach in churches.  

The greatest long-term sustained fruit on this trip to Africa is in the conferences where we train, equip, and encourage the saints in that place to go into the prisons and reach the involved families and communities.

So, then, why should I go to Africa when people need to be reached here?  I am going: 

• primarily as a chaplain at the Regional Justice Center in Kent
• with Jim Dixon to Forks and the Olympic Corrections Centers several times a year
• team leader to prisons in eastern WA and northeastern OR 2 or 3 times yearly 
• visit an inmate at Twin Rivers in Monroe once or twice a month 
• write several letters regularly to inmates

• serve as an instructor twice a year at the PFC-University in Bothell
• this missions trip to Africa...and other trips, in time

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20 ESV


But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8 ESV 

That is just the start of the Biblical mandate to go. God's heart from Genesis 12:1-3 through Psalm 67...and on throughout to Revelation 5:9-10 and to the end... bleeds missionary red.  The harder question is how can you and I stay.  Yes, be going across the street, into your neighborhood, and community. Go, go, go!  Do a Bible word study on "nations."  It's amazing!

 This is the richest ministry experience of my entire life since I started in 2002 and more full-time in 2006 with Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries.  The reality is I am seeking to raise more support for my various PFC ministries in Kent, King County, Washington, and Oregon.

powerful prayer focus to send us out

African service

Dear Board, staff, prayer team, mission partners, friends of the ministry and supporters,

Just wanted to let everyone know that PFC has two teams going out to the field almost simultaneously. Myself and five others will be heading to India from 11/4-11/19. 

The other team of five will be going to Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi from 11/8-11/20.

Please pray for the following:

1.       That God would be gloriefied

2.       That many souls would get saved in our prison crusades

3.       That we would have great meetings with government officials

4.       That we would be a source of encouragement to our national brothers on the ground

5.       That our conferences would go well

6.       Safety in the air

7.       Safety on the ground

8.       Safety from bandits

9.       Safety from accidents

10.   Safety from food illnesses

11.   For our teams to be unified

12.   For our team members by name that they would have a divine appt. India Team- Jeff McVey, Bob Jordan, Alex Ananenko, Jamie Neault, Nate Bean, Greg Von Tobel.

Greg Von Tobel  and Bob Jordan

Rwandan Team- Don Szolomayer, David Jordan, Mark Young, Mark Richardson, Ron Trask.

AGAIN pray that each team member have a God moment or multiple God moments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings to all.

Greg Von Tobel

Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries

Standing Stones Ministry

Countdown to departure

Congo, Rwanda, Burundi

Our PFC short-term missions team of five leaves for Africa now in one week. The trip is scheduled for November 8-20 and the days are counting down.  We will be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. 

I feel the urgency and excitement.  Our team has been meeting five times since August and we have our weigh-in, prayer, and dinner with our wives Sunday evening.  I'll have an interview with Pastor John in church on Sunday, November 7. Everything seems to be moving at "Star Trek warp speed," now. 

Rachel Jacobs serves in Burundi.  So I am praying about being able to connect with her.  I don't know the itinerary details about being in Burundi, yet.

It would be awesome if we could talk together and pray when our team is there.

Bereavement means robbery

I am remembering my Mom and Dad, these days. My Dad passed into the glory of eternal life in Jesus in April of 1985.  My Mom passed into that very same glory in February of 2010.  I have wonderful memories of my parents.  I recently completed a six-week bereavement small group with Grief Counselor Michele Ray and GriefWorks.  On Friday morning, I attended their wonderful annual appreciation breakfast in Auburn.

                                                                           GriefWorks
                                                P.O. Box 912 • Auburn, WA 98071-0912
                                                  253-333-9420 • info@griefworks.org

GriefWorks provides bereavement services for all ages, families, small, groups, churches, schools, and even businesses.  The lasting "take-home" from my sessions with Michele and our support group is a definition of bereavement which is robbery.   

Paul spoke about the Christian responses to death.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:      

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    “O death, where is your victory?
     O death, where is your sting?”

     The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:54-57

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Christians recognize the sting of death and sin and grieve the loss of loved family members and dearest friends.  Death brings pain into our experience.  Each person responds to death differently as we mourn and grieve our loss. Each of the passages proclaims stunning and glorious HOPE for every Christian.

I've been chewing on the meaning we applied to bereavement--robbery.  Death robbed me of  my parents in this life, here.  The result of my parent's passing--both faithful Christians--is a wonderful assurance of their places together in heaven and so many other eternal things.  Still, the impact of their deaths is painful robbery.  In our case, death caused crippling, numbing family disorder. The bereavement or grief small group is helping me work through my reactions to our disorder.

                                                     An early morning Saturday game

I love every memory of my parents.  I was sharing with a father and son together in our church recently as they are taking huge steps in their relationship when the Lord seemed to bring to mind a memory with my Dad when I was perhaps in elementary or junior high school.

As my lifetime friends well know, my faith in Christ and baseball mark my life.  Other men are marked by lifetime interest railroads, chess, or hunting and fishing.  My thing has always been baseball.  I love to coach basketball and keep statistics for the Kentridge Chargers football team.  

I study, read, umpire, and watch baseball. Friends will tell you I watch and coach my way through a game.  My Mom left the Saturday afternoon television major league baseball game on while she cleaned the house after I left home to attend WSU.  I remember my parents asking each other how baseball with their oldest son came about. Neither took responsibility.

One Saturday morning really early, I couldn't sleep so I went out to our kitchen and living room in Federal Way to play out my own baseball game.  I brought out my glove, ball, and bat and proceeded to play out a game by myself, pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning, as real for me as if I was playing for the Mariners, Giants, or Dodgers while announcing the game as a radio broadcaster.  


There were players and a score.  I was playing out the game with times at bat, pitching, and fielding expecting to complete the nine innings. I was thoroughly engaged in a live game.

I was carrying on my game when I became aware my Dad was watching all this in his pajamas, leaning on the kitchen counter, wondering when I might notice him... hopefully sooner than later, obviously.

Ichiro sprints to first

My game was about in the fourth inning and was immediately suspended until normal game hours and I was banished to the clubhouse, my bedroom halfway down the hall.  I was to remain in my bedroom and in bed until normal morning hours.  

I don't remember what he said exactly but I do remember moving faster than Willie Mays running down a fly ball or Ichiro Suzuki beating out an infield hit into my clubhouse.  I don't recall punishment.  There were no more early morning games, but many played out in my mind, all before ESPN.  

.

Spiritual fraud--self absorbed living

My good friend Gordon sends his reply to my interaction with Dan over the deity of Jesus Christ.  He gives a very clear depiction of jail and prison culture.  

I read your story of the encounter with Dan, and for a moment was transported back to those days.  I knew lots of Dans in my time in prison, and I’d like to add my two cents.

First, consider who Dan really is:  He has spent his short life in suspicion, conflict, assault, drugs, hate.  Any move he makes, any person he meets is a threat.  

 If you asked him about doing the Right Thing, he would say “nobody does the Right Thing.  You get what you can take”.  To him, it’s all a fraud.  It doesn’t matter what – it is all a fraud.

In Dan’s world of complete self absorption, what matters is HIM.

•             “I NEED whatever I want”
•             “Everyone does things TO ME”
•             “I WANT whatever I think of”
•             “They ganged up AGAINST ME”

Nowhere will you find in him concern for others, for doing right, for anything external to himself.   He doesn’t care if Jesus is divine or not; to him the whole religion is a fraud and there is no logical way to prove him wrong.  Any argument goes back to a belief in basic scripture, and you either believe its divine origin or you don’t.  There is no objective proof.  Faith, then, lies in the heart.  We believe it because we know in our soul that it’s right.  We take that faith to the Bible and we learn, and live.

The answer for Dan, indeed for all of us, is more personal and emotional than logic.  Ask him this: “You’ve met a wonderful girl.  You’re enchanted with her.  You have two choices.  You can beat her to make her comply and rape her, or you can experience her smiling at you, coming to you, hugging you, telling you she loves you.  Which do you want?”

If he favors rape, the talk is over.  If he favors love, then what does it take to experience this?  He has to care about her, take care of her, put her needs first.  He has to act selflessly – not to gain advantage but to help her.  Only it this way can he win her heart.

Walla Walla State Penitentiary

What is true of the girl is true of the world.  He can either love or hate, and either reach out or crouch within.  He knows the result of the latter.  Jesus came to show him how to live, how to align himself with nature (read: God’s plan), how to become someone who can understand.   

The Bible is the story of this.  Take it or leave it, but first look around you and ask – who is happy, who is content?  By and large, the committed Christian.  He smiles even as he is giving to help others.

I remember well an evening in Cell Block A, Building 1, Washington State Penitentiary.  I listened to an inmate berate his wife over the phone because she “didn’t send his money for smokes”.  His profanity echoed in the room.  Concerned with himself, he was oblivious to a miracle God gave him – a faithful wife.   

That is the real story for Dan, and where his real choice lies.  If he cares about the rest of his life, he needs to give the Bible a chance, see what it says.  Then the question of Jesus’ divinity will not be a debate over quotations.  It will be a conviction in his heart.

Supporting the deity of Christ in D unit

Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center

At the RJC last night, one of the inmates, I'll call him Dan, asserted that Jesus Christ is not God and challenged Ted and me to show us where the Bible calls Him God.  I was starting to walk through a 1 Timothy 4 about, "profitable godliness for every man"  with the group of two.

I've been leading a Bible study group with Dwight and since last year Ted in D unit at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

He started with, "What makes your religion better than any other?  I have studied many religions.  What someone else believes in another place in the world is just as real for them.  Some groups believe they are one with nature. Jesus did not answer Pilate when he asked Him.  Jesus was silent."

These kinds of questions are common as we meet with the men.  Some have genuine questions.  Others want to stir up difficulty.

I had several options, at that point.  I could have told him we could discuss his questions independently.  I could have asked Ted, my partner, to answer his questions one-on-one outside the room while I shared 1 Timothy with the other participant.  He was generally respectful  so we tried to answer him.  While in these evening sessions, I need to maintain gracious control of the process. 

The inmates are not in control of the activity and they know it.  Sometimes, they don't act like they know it. I could have asked him to leave or requested the support of an officer. Dan remained respectful although not agreeable.

Was Jesus silent when He was asked by Pilate if He was the Son of God?  I started with Matthew  27:11-14. Pilate asked Him, "Are you the King of the Jews?  Jesus said, "You have said so."  His answer was, yes, I am. He let Pilate's statement stand. 

Since we were in Matthew, I guided the group to 26:64-65.  Jesus prophesied they would "see Him, the Son of Man at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."  I took us to Daniel 7:13-14 where one like the son of man comes in the clouds to the Ancient of Days where the Son of Man was presented before the Ancient of Days."

Jesus clearly called Himself God.  The high priest clearly knew what Jesus was talking about and tore his robes, an act depicting blasphemy.  There was no misunderstanding.  The high priest understood Jesus was calling Himself God.

We next went to Titus 2:13, "...appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."  2 Corinthians 13:14 says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

As this was all happening, I took a deep breath and prayed.  It is not our role to convince or persuade the questioner-skeptic.   That is the sovereign ministry of the Holy Spirit.  We might not answer each question exactly right.  We are to gently, clearly, and carefully present the truth and let the Spirit do His work (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Ted stepped in several times to make comments and support what we read.  We worked together smoothly.

The inmate, Dan, wanted to derail the process with other questions about God's goodness in His plan of salvation to judge sinners.  We read Romans 3:21-31 about Jesus demonstrating God's righteousness as the just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God," after he touched the marks of crucifixion on the Risen Christ.  Jesus let Thomas' statement stand.  Jesus is Lord and God!

We finished with Jesus incredible "I AM" statement from John 8:58 and Exodus 3:13-15 and Isaiah 6:1-3 and verses 9-10 which connects to John 12:40-41, "(Isaiah) saw His glory and spoke of Him (Jesus)."


Our hour was up.  Dan was not necessarily convinced. Phil, the other inmate, mentioned to me on the way out I could have used Hebrews 1.  I really thanked him.  Yes, I could have used that and other verses.