Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well! Sorry that it's been a while since I wrote, but as I've said before not much changes here to write about. I know that's no excuse but i guess a bad excuse is better than none.

I hope no one fell for too many April fool tricks. I've been watching The Three Stooges all day, they're having an April fool marathon, it's a nice treat. Now if they'll put on a Lil Rascal marathon I'll be caught up on laughs. You gotta love those oldies. They're showing some of the ones without Curly, Shemp's not too bad but Joe's not too funny, it's like he's trying to imitate Curly or something. Like most things, if it's good enough to copy or make a sequel, it's not as good as the original.

The same with God, Satan has tried to copy God since the dawn of time. In Revelations we see how he copied the Trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) with Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet. God's perfect number is seven, Satan's is six. In Exodus when Aaron threw down his rod and it turned into a snake, Pharaoh's magicians did the same, but Aaron's snake ate up all of theirs. Moses did this with other plaques to and Pharaoh's sorcerers copied some, but God was always victorious. All through the bible we read where Satan copied and will continue to copy God, even to call down fire from the sky. But one thing he can't copy is God's love. The love he has for all of us no matter what our station in life is, rich or poor, king or servant, good or evil, that love is perfect. Always willing to forgive and forget our trespasses. Always there to bring us peace, and I tell you this, peace is more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox. I'm tempted to say that having peace is especially important in prison, but that's incorrect. It is just as essential out there as it is in here.

I went through a phase when I was younger where I was invincible (like most young people, especially boys), but for a brief time I was praying to Satan. The thing was, I was convinced he not only heard but was answering those prayers. One night I was on my knees praying to him and got very bold and all of a sudden I started telling him that I wanted to see him face to face. The feeling I had is hard to put into words, but something came over me and I started screaming at him to show his face to me. I was tingling all over and felt very powerful. But I promise what happened next really did happen. The room got very cold very fast, I could see my breath and it was summer time. Then the evil I felt was so strong that all the boldness I was feeling left me fast. I was scared. The form of a man started to materialize in the middle of the room. I promise you that it was like Star Trek when they beamed you up. But the evil was inexplicable. I didn't stop to grab the car keys I just ran out the door and down the street and didn't have the nerve to come home for several hours.

Understand that I was not prone to fear, mostly by stupidity I'm sure. I would go up against bigger stronger guys, around that time is when I hitchhiked across much of the country, but that scared me. I tell people that the devil scared me away from him. Literally scared the hell out of me because after that is when I got serious with God. So Jesus loved the hell out of me and Satan scared it out. All the same it worked, for a while. I backslid A LOT. I would be so good for a while and then so bad for a while. But I did not serve God with all my heart for years, he helped me to grow up, as did my family. If I only had the wisdom to stay there I wouldn't be here.

But as Sheldon said of The Big Bang Theory, "If its and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a merry Christmas". So no matter your cicrumstances, however deep the hole you might be in, remember that God is so much bigger than that. He will bring you out of it and bring you that peace. Look up these scriptures: Colossians 3:15, John 16:33, Ephesians 3:17-19, Galatians 5:22, Isaiah 26:3, Habakkuk 3:17-19, John 14:27, John 20:19-21, Ithessalonians 5:18. These are only a few that go with this brief testimony. And remember that "nothing is impossible WITH God" Luke 1:37.

Keep the faith,

Joe