The High Road To Beginning Again
by Chaplain Ray
More than ninety-five percent of all the prisoners in our jails and prisons today will walk out the front gate someday. What kind of people will they be? What kind of neighbors will they make? Will they continue their careers of crime, or will they change to a lifestyle of labor and obedience to law? How can a prisoner who has served years in penitentiaries and prisons find the road back and build a new life? What can Christians do, and what can churches do, and what should our churches do to help?
Most men doing prison time will get out sooner or later. How can they stay out? What does it take to start over? That is what every prisoner needs to know.
If you wanted to know how to repair an automobile, you would ask a mechanic. If you wanted to know how to repair a clock, you'd talk with a jeweler or watchmaker. If you wanted to know how to build a house, you would learn from a carpenter. However, you are wanting to do something much more complicated and serious than any of these things. You are about to rebuild a life that has been destroyed in the past. You are about to change your future.
Coming from someone who has studied the problem of rehabilitation for some years. I can tell you that you must have a good foundation upon which to build a new life. There must be a basis, a real starting point. The day that a man walks out of jail or prison is not the time to run a game or to kid yourself into a fantasy, into a make-believe, unrealistic plan. Starting over is for real. It is serious business. Staying out of prison is serious business.
I have a friend who was involved in crime in the streets of Houston for years. He was a drug addict. He dealt in drugs. He committed many crimes. His name was Joe. He went to prison. The day he finished his prison sentence and walked out the front gate his father and brother were waiting for him in the prison parking lot. What kind of reception did he get?
In the car, they had hidden some drugs, for he was a drug addict. In the car, they had some booze. He liked liquor. And in town they had a prostitute waiting for him. That foolish father and that ignorant brother thought that when a man comes out of prison, he needs drugs, booze, and women.
It wasn't long before Joe was back in deep trouble again. That's not the end of Joe's story. His story has a wonderful end. He stopped running around with his father and his brother, and the prostitutes and the drug pushers and the liquor dealers. He hid out in a Christian Center in Houston, a place that we called The Pulpit In The Shadows. He and his crime partner hid out there mostly to break down their drug habits, and to hide for a few days from the cops. My friend, Freddie Gage, was the director of that Center. I was honored to serve on the Board of Directors.
While there, hiding from the police, Joe met Jesus Christ. He was totally transformed. He went to Lee Bible College. Today he's a great evangelist and a minister of the Gospel.
There IS a road to that wonderful land of beginning again. That road doesn't start in the "red-light" district. You cannot find a signpost of that road in the taverns or among drug dealers. You will find the signpost of that road among those who are walking that highway. Jesus describes for us in the Book of Matthew the seriousness of building a life and building it right. Matthew 7: 24-27:
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew; and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
You can walk with me through any jail or prison in this land, and look around you, and see the wreckage of houses that have collapsed! Lives that caved in! Why? Because they were built on the shifting sands of ungodly lifestyles, on unprincipled living, and they could not stand the realities of life. The foundation upon which you build your new life is of extreme importance. That is why the rehabilitation rate among prisoners, in all of the secular programs that leave God and the Bible out, and that build on anything less than this foundation, is so dismally small. Our government has abandoned its multimillion dollar CETA program. They had vainly hoped to rehabilitate prisoners by spending millions of your tax dollars.
The history of this nation and of other nations is littered with the wreckage of such humanistic programs. The foundation upon which you build your life will determine how well it will stand. If the foundation is not solid, your life will collapse.
My prisoner friend, if you are going to start over, why not start right?
My friend, George Meyer, who was a getaway driver for Al Capone, a gangster in his youth, spent thirty years in various prisons for robbing banks and armored cars, and other crimes. Then he met Christ in Leavenworth Prison a few years ago. Today he is a shining example of a rehabilitated ex-convict! His whole life is built on the word of God. Seventeen years ago, when he left Attica Prison the guard on duty said to him, "Well, goodbye, George. We'll be seeing you soon."
George said, "No, you won't see me. I'm going home." The guard laughed and said, "George, you're not going home; you are leaving home! Prison IS your home!"
In two of three cases, the opinion of that guard would be valid! Prison is home for two out of three prisoners in this land today. Two out of three will be coming back because that is their home. It fits their lifestyle of covetousness, of theft, of permissive living, of unprincipled conduct, of ravaging the rights of others.
That guard didn't know that God had put His hand upon George Meyer and protected his life through many dangers up to that same time - even when he and Willie Sutton tried to escape from the Eastern Pen in New York State. They went down into the sewers, so the guards just sealed the sewers and flooded them with water. But they survived! And today, George Meyer is a born-again Christian with a good Christian home. He is in demand all over this land as a public speaker.
I had a letter just a few days ago from the chaplain of the federal prison at Lompoc, California. He said, "Your friend, George Meyer, was just through this place. He spoke to our men here." He added, "We really appreciated his coming. He had something to say to prisoners."
He had found the rock on which to build, and that is the only way that prisoners can be sure of staying out of prison. If you continue the life that took you to prison in the first place, that same life will take you back to prison again. But if you build a new life on a new foundation, with a new Master, with new values, with a new lifestyle, there is a rock on which you can build!
Paul said in First Corinthians 3:11, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The question is not "What is the foundation?", the real question is "WHO is the foundation?" That foundation is more than a program! That foundation is more than a principle! That foundation is a person! His name is the LORD JESUS CHRIST!
Many prisoners think they will make it if they can just start out in a new location. A lot of prisoners write to me and say, "Chaplain Ray, I'd like to come to Texas when I get out of prison, because I know if I go back to my hometown, I'll fall in with the old gang and I'll soon be back in trouble again."
That's a good observation, and quite accurate. In many cases a man does well, when coming out of prison, to go to a new town and not get back among his old friends. If you are going back to your old hometown, don't go back to the old gang. Go back to those who are friends of God. Go to Christians. Go to church. Go to Christian institutions. Work with Christians. Associate with Christians.
If you go back to the 'old gang', you'll end up in the same old prison cell. Only Jesus Christ can provide you with the new life that every convict needs.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Corinthians 5:17.
Your change is inward, and that results in outward changes. The secret is in your heart, a new Lord, a new Master, new priorities, new attitudes. Christ is the source of all that change.
He changed Zacchaeus, the crooked tax collector from Jericho. He changed Peter, the boisterous fisherman from Galilee. He changed the penitent thief from a guilty criminal to a righteous child of God. He changed Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle. He can change anyone who will turn to Him in repentance and faith and commit their life holy to God.
If you will do that, don't wait till you get out of prison. Start where you are right now, as you are. As you commit your life to Christ, pray, "God have mercy on me, a sinner. Take me as I am. Wash me in the blood that Jesus shed for me, and help me build my new life according to your Word and according to your will." If you can pray that prayer from your heart and mean it sincerely, in the next two minutes your life will be wondrously changed.
Half a million prisoners in jails and prisons of this land need to find, and walk, this high road to the land of beginning again. The sure guide, and the true road map, is the Bible.
The story of the Prodigal son, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, is a good starting point for every person whose life has collapsed in ruin.
Many people talk to God without ever talking to themselves. But before this prodigal son went back to his home and talked to his father, he had a talk with himself!
I've seen men talking to themselves in many prisons and in jails.
Some of them are really talking sense. Some are talking nonsense. But this prodigal son talked to himself, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, 'Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee.' " You see, he didn't just make a mistake. He didn't just take a wrong turn in the road. He sinned. "I have sinned. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants." That prodigal son found the magical road to the wonderful land of beginning again!
How can convicts and prisoners, and others whose lives have collapsed upon them and around them . . . how can they pull themselves together when their world falls apart? How can they put their feet on the high road that leads to the land of beginning again? How can a prisoner find the high road that leads to the land of beginning again?
In Galatians 6:9, Paul wrote, "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart, or give up." One of the staff members at our International Prison Ministry offices in Texas found a poster that spoke a great message. He put it in the dining room. It's still there today. It reads:
"A man may fail many times but he is not a failure until he starts blaming somebody else."
That wasn't quoted in the Bible, but all of the Bible affirms it. Eve blamed the serpent who tempted her. Adam blamed Eve, who offered him the apple. And the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve have been blaming others for their failures, from then till now. A man may fail many times, but he is not a failure until he starts blaming somebody else!
The most revered president in the history of this nation was once considered a failure. As a young attorney, he went bankrupt, applied for a civil service job and was refused. He got married, and his wife died. He entered the political arena as a candidate for the House of Representatives, and he was soundly defeated. Then he put in his bid for a seat in the United States Senate, and again he lost.
Then at the age of fifty one, he ran for the office of the president of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln was elected! He became a legend in his time and for all time to come! His secret was, he would not quit! He put his trust in God. He said, "I will prepare myself." and he did. When the country needed an unusual man to lead it through a civil war, it called on Abraham Lincoln.
Those who fail are those who quit, and that applies to prisoners and convicts just like it does to politicians, preachers, or anyone else. It does not take any special talent or ability to be a quitter.
Paul the Apostle, who was oftentimes put in prison and finally was executed as a Christian martyr, wrote, in II Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." He was not a quitter. And in Galatians, he wrote: "Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
You can become anything you want to be and everything that God wants you to be, if you will not allow the causes of failure to defeat you.
It is true of prisoners. It is true of all of us. To shift the blame to somebody else, to poverty, to the ghetto, to wrong associates, to an unloving father, to a working mother, to shift the responsibility for our sins and crimes and failures to somebody else is to choose to walk farther and farther down the road of failure! The first step toward finding the high road to that magic land of beginning again is to face reality. "I have sinned. I have played the fool. I made the wrong choice. I've sowed wild oats. I am reaping the bitter harvest."
That is the point at which prisoners, turning from crime to Christ and from self to the Savior, make the first turn and the first step toward finding that high road that leads to the land of beginning again. The Bible calls that land THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
We helped a prisoner get out of prison twice, once on the west coast and once on the east coast. Then we brought him to Dallas to work at our offices. He had only been here a few days when he said to me, "Chaplain Ray, I never knew that people in the free world worked so hard." I sa, "Well, of course we have to work so hard. We have to support ourselves and our families and all of you men in the prisons as well."
The dignity of labor is the key to rehabilitation. And let me tell you frankly. When prisoners say that nobody will hire a prisoner, that isn't true. It is much easier to get a job for a prisoner than to get that prisoner to stay on that job. And this is from practical experience!
I have little interest in halfway houses that attempt to rehabilitate prisoners without a daily diet of meaningful, productive labor. One of the first things that a prisoner must learn, if he's going to rebuild his life in the free world, is the importance of work. Some people say that all things come to him who waits. Not a word of truth in it! I know men in prison that have been waiting for ten years, twenty years, and thirty years, and the good things they're waiting for don't come to them.
It would be better to say, "All good things that are needful come to those who labor and who work."
Work will never lose its magic power. I commend work, not only to everyone in the free world, but to everyone in the prison world. Set your heart and your mind to labor. Get all the work you can in the prison, and do it with all your heart. Develop a lifestyle of labor that will make you a winner when you walk out the front gates of the prison.
But the one thing that determines the destiny of a man is his personal relationship with God. Get that right, and live by His Word, and all your other relationships will fall into proper place, including your labor relationship with other human beings.
When a man is paroled or released from prison he needs three things that are essential to a crime free life.
1
) He needs a place to live. Preferably with his own family.2) He needs a church family of believers, a church to which he commits his loyalty, and a church that is committed to him.
3) He needs a job. The idleness that is common in prison must not carry over into the free world. He needs to immediately go to work and earn his own way.
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." Eph. 4:28.
Prisoners who want to find the high road that leads to the land of beginning again must totally forsake the old road. That road led to prison. Forsake the old companions who also walk in the old ways of sin, crime and lawlessness. Forsake the old hangout and all of the old hang-ups. Christ makes all things new.
-American Evangelistic Association-
INTERNATIONAL PRISON MINISTRY
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