Letters From Grandpa #516

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 516

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will reveal how punishment in prison can sometimes help transform a sinner into a saint. Our good friend, Joe Garman, started an International Prison Ministry in 1973. It is called the American Rehabilitation Ministry (ARM). It is one of the largest prison ministries in the world. One of the many ways this ministry helps prisoners is through the American Bible Academy (ABA). This is one of America’s largest Bible correspondence schools providing a free education to 14,000 prisoners in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. (Contact information – ARM, P.O. Box 1490, Joplin, Mo. 64802- 1490, Phone 417.781.9100, Fax 417.781.9532, e-mail info@arm.org )

When someone graduates from the ABA they are presented with a free NIV Life Application Study Bible. These Bibles are provided through another prison ministry called Rescued Not Arrested (RNA). As of 2023 RNA has given away 800,000 Bibles, both in English and in Spanish. RNA is also an international ministry reaching millions of prisoners in 178 different countries. They are presently working with Christ’s Church of the Valley in Arizona. This is a huge congregation with 33,000 members. One of their teaching pastors at CCV is another good friend named Mark Moore. He once taught at the Ozark Christian College here in Joplin.

Joe Garman states that virtually every time he visits a prison someone comes up to him and thanks God for prison. Career criminals are often swept along in a current of crime so powerful that they are powerless to swim against the current. When they wake up in prison, however, they have plenty of time to think. Often this is the first time in their lives they have ever thought about eternity. Like Jonah in the belly of the great fish, prisoners sometimes see the light when they feel the heat.

The founder of the RNA ministry is just such a man. He is an Armenian immigrant named Roger Munchian. Once a career criminal, he is now a devout Christian and also good friend of Joe Garman. Roger grew up in East L.A. Even though he was a model student he had a secret life of violence and crime. His unquenchable thirst for money and power coerced him to construct a multi- million dollar crime syndicate. I have just finished his 256 page autobiography titled “Rescued Not Arrested.” Roger was a twelve time felon who built a multi-million dollar empire with drugs and violence. When, in addition to his other crimes, he was booked on two counts of vehicular homicide he seemed destined to spend the rest of his life in prison. His high priced lawyers kept him out of prison for years and even recommended that he flee to Armenia to avoid prosecution. Finally in 2003 he went behind the bars. As with so many others, his prison sentence “rescued” him from an eternity without Christ.

Roger gives God the glory, not only for rescuing him from hell, but also from professional assassins in the syndicate. Spies were present every time he went to court to see if he had ratted out any of his comrades in crime. Roger also gives God the glory for the miraculous fact that he spent only 20 months in jail. He considered his brief time served like several semesters in Bible College.

I’m sure you have heard of Chuck Colson. He was the famous attorney who served as the special counsel to President Richard Nixon. He was known as Nixon’s “Hatchet Man.” When he went to prison in 1974 it was one of the best things that ever happened to him. Prison helped transform him into one of the most influential Christians in the world. Among many other achievements, as a Christian he authoring 30 books, founding Prison Fellowship International, the Chuck Colson For

Christian Worldview, and a daily radio program called Break Point that is heard on 1,400 radio stations across America.

Colson died April 21, 2012, but like righteous Abel he still speaks. One of his famous quotes involves the resurrection of Jesus. He said: “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

There is an old joke about the man who was famous for training mules. When farmer Jones hired him he took a two by four and began beating Jone’s mule in the head. After knocking the mule down several times farmer Jones stopped him and asked for an explanation. The expert in training mules gave him this answer. “If you want to train a mule, the first thing you have to do is get his attention.”

In this regard the Psalmist said: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” (Psalms 32:8-9) God does not want to punish you like a dub mule, He prefers to guide you with His eye! When it is time to go to bed, the obedient child will do so when his father merely looks at him and glances at the bedroom door. This is the way that our Heavenly Father wants to guide his children. If you don’t want to obey God this way, however, He may have to punish you with something like prison.

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline— then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:5-11)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce