“Cashing” in on God’s Grace

Here is a fantastic testimony of the power of God in an individual’s life that has been changed by the message of Torah.  Within the first few weeks after I got here, there was a large black man named Cash that came up to me and got in my face and began to tell me that he was going to be watching me and see if I was just like all the rest of the Christian hypocrites around here.  I could barely understand what he was saying, but through all the cursing and passion, I got the gist of what he meant.  That was back in October of last year.

Cash is a former leader of a gang called the Crypts and was also a serious boxer.  In every prison that he went to, the inmates respected him because of his gang status.  At one prison, he had a special bandana made to show the colors of his gang and a guard took it off his head and Cash laid him out in one punch (not a good idea).  He has been down for 12 years now and because of his history, when he finally qualified to come to a camp, they told him he would never make it there because of his background.  Like most African Americans, Cash grew up going to church.  But even so, he continued his gangster lifestyle, even drinking with his pastor and sleeping with the women in the choir.  His view of God was warped and tarnished.  Cash was looking for something real, which is why he approached me.  Recently, I found out that he prayed and asked God to send someone to help him and he thought that I might be the one, thus telling me that he was “watching me”. 

Then BL comes along and within 2 weeks, all the Christian leadership is all-in on Torah.  In that same time period, BL was walking past Cash, whom he had not met yet, and had a word of knowledge that Cash had a serious specific sin in his life. BL introduced himself and immediately told him what God had shown him.  Cash broke down in tears because he couldn’t believe that someone knew in detail his sin and that very day surrendered his life to Messiah for real. 

Every day, BL meets with Cash and teaches him whatever I teach BL.  Right now, he is working through the fall feast days.  Cash is fully dedicated to learning Torah and before Passover went to the chaplain to change his religious affiliation from Protestant to Messianic.  The chaplain asked him, “Why?” in a not very nice way (this was the third person that has changed their status from Protestant Christian to Messianic and he was starting to get frustrated…lol).  In his strong accent, but big heart and strong personality, he returned this blunt reply: “I may not know too much of the Bible, but what I do know I know day didn’t tell me da troof.  And I wanna know da troof.  Chap, dat’s why I wanna be a Messananic…cause I’m finally learn’n da TROOF!”  Needless to say, no more questions were asked.

This once ex-gang leader is now turned Torah and is all smiles all the time.  His fellow gang members think he’s lost it.  It was a big deal for him to not have that status anymore, but he doesn’t care.  He just wants his status to be in God.  I am so proud of him.  He just came up last week to us all excited that he can eat the Vienna sausages that he just bought because they are chicken and not pork!  He’s excited about coming to Passover with us and is looking forward to learning more and more every day so that he can teach his wife and grown kids.  He will be, Lord willing, getting out sometime this year and his number one priority is teaching his family.  He calls them several times a week teaching them what he has been learning.  He lives in North County and I’m excited that he will be able to be further discipled by those that Abba puts in his path. 

If he goes home tomorrow, I will never forget his impact on my life.  He is famous around here for walking into a room and saying, “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”  LOL…You have to hear it to really appreciate it.  Everyone laughs, every time.  I will also miss passing him in the hallways as he always gives me a double knuckle and says, “How’s it going, family?” 

Monte Judah has some of his videos in the prison religious library and so now he is hooked on them as well.  He goes in the chapel every Shabbat and brings his notebook to take notes as he watches Monte teach.  I bet Monte never would have thought that I would be promoting his materials from inside of a prison!…lol. God loves a little sense of humor, I guess.

Anyway, may Abba bless all of you and know that our King is in control and is busy preparing the race car for the upcoming race in our future.  I miss you all and love you more than ever.  Keep praying and believing!

Shalom,
Jim Staley