Run for Your Life

Apr 15

Written By Sheryle Cruse

Run for your life.

The primary focus on the call of God on my life, has been to minister to those in prisons. I have done County Jail Ministry as well. Because I lived in prison in 1976, the men I bring the Gospel of Jesus to, are very attentive. They get the fact that, “You can’t con an ex-con.”

Many have been a dead man walking for years.

It is time to run for your life.

Each week, I do a class to 88 men. Once this 4-month class is over, they graduate, and I start with a new 88.

By the time the class ends, the men have had the opportunity every week to surrender to Jesus. I never miss an altar invitation. It is the most critical time in a ministry environment, where the Holy Ghost is present in.

Many men ask me over and over,

“How did you make it outside of prison for so many years?”

It has been 48 years this September, when I was released in 1977.

One of the most important things that I instruct the men about is as follows.

Number One: Work a job.

You may be a qualified welder prior to prison, but unless you are willing to flip burgers while you wait on the welding job, then you may wait a long time.

I joke around a lot too. I will say to them,

“If you are a certified brain surgeon prior to your incarceration, you should have done a frontal lobotomy on yourself.

If it worked, then you could have avoided prison all together.”

Number Two: Find a good church, and hope it teaches the Bible.

You will know in time where you belong. Church attendance is not optional.

Some pastors will know right away that you just exited prison. So be it. If they embrace you, that is good. If they don’t, then dust off your shoes, and move on.

Do not try and warm up to the shepherd who guards their flock. Most are keen on wolves in sheep's clothing.

Do not try and toot your horn to the pastor. In time, they will know you are the real deal, and opportunity will knock for you to exercise your gifts from the Lord Jesus.

You are an outsider to many congregation members once they find out where you have been.

If you truly love Jesus and He is in command over your life, He will help you fit in.

He will help you find a job too.

Number Three: Keep your mouth shut.

This involves leaving the tooting horn at home on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening.

No one cares about the call of God on your life the first few months of attending a church. Let God promote you. You are not in charge of opportunities. He is.

Case closed on this instruction.

Sounds harsh?

Well, my experience tells us everything needed to know about former inmates, offenders, or convicts (there are no politically correct words here), that find their way into the church house.

There is a vast difference in the three mentioned terms for former incarcerated people.

Just know, without a long explanation, that the convict is the manipulator.

“Women, watch your purses on Sunday morning.”

When I pioneered our first of two churches from 2003-2007, the rules applied from the moment a man came into the church, just out of prison. I knew each of them personally.

Of course, I invited these men to come.

But there are rules in God’s House.

I made them, with a gentle nudge, come and sit in the front row with me and my wife. They sit to my left, and then I sit next to them, with my wife to my right. I do not let her stand during worship.

There is a valid reason for this.

I did not want them sitting in the middle or back of the church during worship, scheming, and eyeballing the women standing up and worshiping the Lord.

I know what they are doing.

I know what they are lusting after too.

This keeps them accountable to me and to the church body.

Church is not a place to look for a wife. Neither is a bar.

The point is, if they do not want to comply with me, then they can move on. Prison life, and years behind bars causes a man to think a certain way. Even if he loves Jesus, the lure to find drugs, a woman, and all the flesh issues they missed out on, exists from the moment they leave prison.

Took one to know one.

Me.

If they could last one week in our church, then they would last for a long time.

Most did not like my rules.

The denomination I was involved in during this first church plant, was dogmatic about many things. I did not fit into their mold.

Therefore, I allowed a pastor to take over the ministry after two years, and I moved on. Nothing is wrong with this. I never agree to disagree.

If I see doctrinal differences, or flat-out misnomers in the denomination, I will not tolerate compromise of God’s Word, and the preaching of it.

I have no problem calling out stupidity.

I do it with love, always.

“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing, which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.”

2nd Timothy 1:13-14

What is said in these scriptures is basically Paul encouraging the young pastor Timothy to faithfully hold onto the true teaching he received.

Paul taught him well. Paul emphasized the importance of sound doctrine and the protection of God’s entrusted Truth through the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul urges Timothy to “Guard the good deposit” that was entrusted to him.

The Gospel Message.

We must depend on the Holy Ghost and diligently study the Scriptures for ourselves. This will enable us to guard the treasure of the Gospel which is always under attack.

In Hebrews 10:22, the meaning of being cleansed from guilt and a bad conscience through the Blood of Christ, allows believers to approach God with a true, clean heart, and in full assurance of faith.

This word also describes, having our hearts “sprinkled’ from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The Old Testament uses “sprinkled,” as in blood sacrifices.

The New Testament, provides the Blood of Jesus which is presented as the ultimate Sacrifice that cleanses believers from sin and guilt, enabling them to have a pure conscience.

An evil conscience is always burdened with guilt.

Men come out of prison, who I have watched grow up in their faith in Jesus; over many calendar years; they are sincere. They do not need rules and regulations from me in how to behave in church.

They also know, after hearing me preach for twenty plus years, that the same rules apply.

Get out of prison. Get a job. Go to church. Keep your mouth shut.

They never forget, though some of them have been away from society for 20 and sometimes 30 years. I have one man who got out last year, from a 30-year sentence.

He told me that it took him two weeks to figure out a cell phone. They didn’t have these mobile devices back in the day.

Pay phones or land lines was the norm.

Adapting to the free world is so much easier for most Christian men who have done time.

They understand losing.

They lost their families, friends, jobs, livelihoods and their freedom.

All in one massive mistake.

It cost them more than they wanted to pay. But they had to.

No choice.

So many people who have never done prison time can never understand the mentality of a prisoner.

They are not expected to. They have never been behind bars.

Thank God for that.

But what about the steel around their hearts living a mundane existence?

What about the dead-end job they have been working for the past 12 years?

The marriage?

The hopes?

The everything?

If anyone does not know Jesus as their Savior and working towards Him being the Lord and Master over their lives, they are in prison.

They do not feel the steel and concrete. They do not have to fight a fellow inmate weekly to survive.

But they are fighting.

They are fighting against complacency. They war against joy and peace.

Non-believers in Christ should have no hope. It is the norm for those who seek truth and never find it.

It is because He is the truth. Jesus said,

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father, except by Me.”

John 14: 6

So, how long does a person wait?

No Jesus. Know Peace?

How long must a person wait out their death sentence, while living for the weekend?

How much longer is the same old same old, going to last?

This is up to you.

It is not the same old, same old, with Christ.

Though it has been over 2,000 years since the Resurrection, it is never old. It is new. Every Spring, we celebrate.

We should. We must.

It is our duty as Believers in Jesus Christ to celebrate Him, daily.

Why wait for a holiday?

Come out of your prison cell and never go back.

You were your own Judge, Jury, and Executioner.

Put down your gavel. Release those 12 jurors now.

The gallows will have to creak and groan another day.

Just not for you.

When you find the answer, you have been looking for all along, your death sentence is commuted.