The Scourge Of Racism
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In this New Year 2016 I want to salute those Christian individuals, churches and ministries moved by God’s love for sinners to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teach His Word to the incarcerated. Talk about unsung heroes! These servants of God do not routinely get appreciated by Christendom unless they reach the celebrity status of the now departed and former Watergate conspirator, Chuck Colson, because what they do is literally behind barred and locked doors as well as among a people group most (keeping it real) consider unworthy. Nevertheless, they serve because the living God desires to reach the incarcerated with His grace in the Gospel too!
While I am not writing to gain recognition, I know what I have written in the foregoing is true because I am one of those servants of God to the incarcerated as the Director of our ten year old Strong Man Ministries, a unit of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. the Lord led me to found in 1985. The preaching of the Gospel through our Strong Man Of God Rally and teaching of the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study by way of our Strong Man Institute in Northwest prisons are works of infancy compared to all that have gone before. However, our Ministry has in common with all others truly raised up by Him, God’s care for the incarcerated (Psalm 69:29-33).
The work in our nation is great! There are more than 2.4 million incarcerated men and women in the United States; a number that has quadrupled from 1980. We have the largest incarcerated population and highest rate of incarceration in the world! 90% of those incarcerated are men.1 It is estimated that black Americans make up nearly one million of those incarcerated and our men outnumber white men six times over. Blacks and Hispanics were 58% of all prisoners in 2008 though their combined total population is around 25%. Black juveniles comprise 26% of all arrests and 58% of those sent to state prisons.2 These statistics indicate a vast mission field among incarcerated men!
Even with all of our ongoing activity, we consider ourselves only partially engaged. Up till now, we have been waiting for more Christians, pastors and the churches they serve to joyfully come on aboard to help. Hoping against hope this has not happened for any number of reasons including a lack of Kingdom vision (John 3:1-8; Romans 12:1-2) and consequent lack of a mission and ministry focus typical of those practicing human invented religion (Matthew 6:31-33; Luke 9:57-10:16). Spiritually blind, carnal and deceived, the religionist believes that what he has made-up to do for God is enough to please Him.
However, even in the world parents and employers never reward for tasks carried out in complete disregard for what their instructions were! With God and sinful men obedience and diligent zeal to carry out assigned tasks are praised and rewarded as is plainly taught by the Lord Jesus in His parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). This leads to what I am convinced of the Lord is the primary reason many professing Christians in general do not get excited to support or serve in the work of ministering to those that are incarcerated. It is that they have no love for the sinner and have selfishly forgotten that they are redeemed sinners saved by God’s love and grace!
Indeed, God reminds us through the apostle Paul that it was not while we were yet righteous that He displayed His love and permitted Christ to die for us, but sinners and His enemies (Romans 5:6-11). God saves mankind from all stations and circumstances of this life out of His overflowing love for us (John 3:16). With His love and continuing gratitude in our hearts, we as redeemed sinners have been granted the wonderful privilege to take up Christ’s Kingdom cause of preaching and witnessing Him to sinners so they may hear (and sometimes, such as on lockdown, really hear) the Gospel. And as the Lord commands, all new disciples are to be taught His Word (Matthew 28:19-20).
In the course of discipling men as newborn sons it is imperative not only that they be taught the basic knowledge of salvation, gifts and ministry as servants of God, but also His express will for them as man the creature in this present age and eternity. It is downright sickening to repeatedly hear incarcerated men who have read my book or been a part of the group study exclaim while being taught the elementary principles of biblical manhood embodied in the strong man of God: “I never knew that!” Many of these men are middle aged and older professing Christians with their names on the membership rolls of churches from any number of denominations; and no wonder, many churchmen on the outside are without knowledge too of what God intends a man to be and do!
Whether it is lack of love, Kingdom vision, mission and ministry focus or any other sin in not caring for the salvation of sinners, the Lord would call all professing Christians to confess and repent from it. For not lately, but from the declaration of His Messianic mission and its initial fulfillment He has incorporated care for the prisoner (Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-21, 23:32-43). Being a prisoner in His cause, the apostle Paul missed no opportunities to witness and teach Christ among his fellow inmates (Acts 16:23-28; Philemon)!
Laying aside then every cynical excuse including how the men got to prison, their motives for interest in the faith or their prospects for success upon release, I urge you to get busy with the Lord’s commanded work to reach men with the Gospel among our nation’s large incarcerated population. You can also partner with us (or any of our fellow reputable Christian prison ministries) financially and/or as a volunteer as we go into the prisons. Not only do we need support for our ongoing activity, but this Ministry is set to conduct a Crowdfunding Campaign to fund our national Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to select prisons throughout the United States. Locally, we will be enlarging our transitional ministry to newly released Christian men we have served while incarcerated or directed to us by pastors.
1 Michael Snyder, Mass Incarceration: 21 Amazing Facts About America’s Obsession With Prison, July 27, 2014, www.EndoftheAmericandream.com/archives/mass-incarceration.
2 Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, www.Naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet.
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