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December, 2025 (Vol.59-No.12) |
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By Billie Marie Zal THE STEEL DOOR clanged shut behind me and I stood alone--next to the "bull pen," clutching my Bible. I had no planned "program," and no instruction in my recent call from my Father in Heaven to "go into the prisons and He would meet me there." Margaret had asked me before I left, "Aren't you scared? What will you say? Do you have any idea of how to reach these men?" My reply was, "No. I am just supposed to go because God said go, and I am going." And now I had walked into the jail in an Oklahoma county and "the walls of opposition" literally fell down. A man sat in that "bull pen," and he looked up, surprised, to see a lady with a Bible smiling at him. "Hello,” I said. "God told me to come here, and tell you all about Jesus, so here I am. And I want you to know that God loves you no matter what." The man stood up, smiled, and said, "DO I EVER NEED YOU!!!!" Then he explained; he had a small sawmill just outside city limits and he had been pulled over by police officers. His driver's license had expired and they brought him to jail. He was cut off, no one knew where he was, and he needed to have someone call home. I took down the number and got help for him and he was out the next day. But before I left him, I said, "I didn't come here just by "accident" or “coincidence." God Himself sent me here, and this is your opportunity to begin to think on your life - where you are heading - and where you will spend eternity. Jesus Christ made a way for you to be saved, and I will be praying for your salvation." God goes to great lengths to touch a man's soul, and I believe this moment was the time for this particular man to begin again. I don't "push for a decision;" that is obnoxious and repulsive to an unregenerate mind. But God offers this glorious new life and it is up to the individual to reach out and receive it. After speaking with this man, I walked on down the hall toward the individual cells. It was a terrible jail, dirty grey walls and dark and dingy. But Jesus had thrown out the "bait" of His Love by what I had told the man in the bull pen, and the men were curious as to who I was, and why I was there. I smiled as they reached out through the bars and began to talk. Some of them grinned sheepishly at me, like they would if their moms caught them doing wrong. But I am no better or worse than any one of them, and I began to tell them of all the things God had done in my own life, and how He led me to that very place. There were questions - many questions - and in that Book which I held close to my heart was the answer. When I came to the last cell, one of the young men had covered up, pretending to be asleep (I knew he was faking it). So I began to talk to his cell mate and suddenly he threw aside his covers and began to argue "doctrine" with me. "Look, Bob, (he said his name was Bob), I did not come over here to argue doctrine. I know who I am and who God is, and I obey Him, and He sent me here whether you believe it or not. But you will never get to know Him as long as you have an excuse about doctrine. If you don't want to talk, just go on back to sleep." Well, the other guys all grinned and Bob blushed and from that moment on, he was one of my most intent prisoners. His cell was dirty, filled with trash, but the next week when I arrived it was spick and span and he and his cell mate had combed their hair and wore clean clothes. The Lord Jesus Christ was visiting, within my heart, and they made Him welcome. That was my first experience with the prison ministry to which God called me on a bleak March Day in 1986. But as the weeks flew by I began to see that in the jails and prisons where few Christians care to go are "jewels" of gold, silver, and precious stones. It's like a mine - you go down, down, down and suddenly you find a core of precious gems or of silver, or of gold, and you begin to bring all this treasure out into the Light and then they are ready to be chiseled and put through the fires of refinement, and made into glorious objects of great value. This is how I see God's prisoners. And I knew that I would never back down nor give up on any of those who contacted His Love in our life here. I went on to another jail and found dear friends. Again, the “walls fell down flat" and I walked right into the day room of a county jail in Oklahoma and sat down at one of those tables that are built into the floor. The cells all opened into that small day room and I was not afraid. At the table where I sat was a young man reading a magazine. He was obviously uncomfortable and he finally looked up and said, "What are you doing here? I have killed someone." "I don't care what you have done," I replied. “God, my Father in Heaven, has sent me here with His Word to let you know that there ‘is no darkness where He cannot find you.' So do you want to talk about it?" And he did. He told me in detail about his life, his family, his wife and baby, and on that day he bowed his head and asked God to have mercy upon him and let him one day go back home and take care of his family. You could have heard a pin drop. A prayer from the heart stops tough men dead in their tracks and there is no defense against Almighty Love. Years later, I heard that he had indeed gone home and he and his family were faithful members of the little Indian Church they attended. He had killed in self-defense and was set free. Then one day, I met "Grover." It was at that same county jail, and Grover was an older man with grey hair and bright blue eyes. He was accused of some pretty awful things but declared his innocence, and whether guilty or not, I again told him about the release of our spirits when we are born again of God. I shared my own personal testimony of how God saved me, a supposedly "good Christian," when I was neither good nor a Christian. Grover was won over not to me - but to the very Love of Christ within me, and he would always wipe down one of the little tables, put down paper towels and say to me, "Will you have a cup of coffee with me, 'this?'" Grover had a speech impediment and "Sis" always came out "this." I called it having a "tea party" and we would sit down and have our coffee and talk about all the things that made us who we are. Sometimes Grover would invite some of the other inmates to share our tea party, and it was such fun. I ignored the condition of that cup - black with coffee stains and questionably clean - I was having a tea party with my brother. In that place God also sent me to a man named "Jessie." He had been in the Job Corp in that town, and one night all the guys got together in a dorm and smoked pot. When the officers came, poor Jessie got "caught with the goods" and was taken in (the others "fled"). On that day - the day I met Jessie - I thought as I walked into the day room that the guys were looking a little sneaky. Poor Jessie was standing over in a corner, crying. I walked over to him and asked, "What's the matter? Did someone hurt you?" He was shocked that I even spoke to him and he said, "I got picked up at Job Corp housing and these guys in here told me I will probably get ten years or maybe more. I don't have nothin' and I can't call home, and I ain't gonna make it for ten years." Everything became very, very quiet. By now my brothers in that place knew very well that I did not tolerate unkindness to another inmate. Then Jessie said, "I ain't got no soap and no toothpaste and nothin. I don't got no money to buy it to clean up." Now I knew why the guys had looked "sneaky." They had done a job on poor Jessie and had not told him that he could ask for toothpaste, soap, and towels and he would get them. I didn't say a word, but I turned and looked at each guy and as I looked, each guy just "wilted." The first to "give up" was a man who was charged with multiple murders (later acquitted) and he came over and handed Jessie a small bar of soap. Then the others followed - he got toothpaste, towels, even some "treats." God had touched their hearts and through my own eyes, they saw Jessie's HEART. Then I took Jessie aside and said, "I am going to pray for you now - you are NOT going to get any time, and you are going back home to ‘Shiprock, New Mexico.' God has a plan for your life and you will make it." Jessie had no faith but I had the faith for him. He was to go up for a hearing to decide what was to be done with him within the hour and as I prayed, he cried some more. He was sure he would never get out. When they came for him, I settled it with the other guys. "Aw, Billie, we just wanted to have a little fun....we didn't mean to hurt him, and we would have eventually shared with him. But he believed everything we said, so it just went on from there..." I told them that "having fun at someone else's expense is hurtful and mean, and you guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Now when Jessie gets back down here, he has to know that you are his friends. You have been through this before, but he hasn't and he deserves your friendship." In a little while (after Grover and I had our tea party) Jessie came back down. He looked dazed and then when he saw me, he seemed as though he thought I was an angel or something. All my requests to God on his behalf (while he was crying) were answered. Not only did Jessie not get any time, but the Judge made sure he had money for a bus ticket HOME to "Shiprock, New Mexico." All the guys patted him on the back and congratulated him and before he left, I heard that they made sure he had enough treats to last him for the trip back home. I was so proud of them and because they saw that I was proud of them, they became proud of themselves. Jesus had reached out, touched the hardened hearts of these men, and given them a glimpse of what Love is, and how it frees the soul from the power of meanness. From this ministry in the jails, and all the personal contact visits, I was taught by God's Spirit that deep within each man's heart there has to be SOMETHING that responds to divine goodness and mercy. A man needs respect and once it is given, it causes that man to begin to think of a new kind of life, and IF he wants to pursue that thought, then he eventually comes to a spiritual encounter with the God of heaven and earth. And God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is revealed to him and he is forever finished with the "old man," and he receives a brand-new life. I've never given up on any one individual with whom I have shared the very Love of Christ. And I won't give up. Eventually I began to visit the prisons and time after time, I saw God's Spirit touch hearts wherever I went. When I sat in the visiting rooms, I would often pray for those who came to visit their loved ones. I remember a wonderful elderly couple whose son was in for life without parole, and their faces shone with pure joy when they caught sight of him. They were both infirm, but Love strengthens us and the hugs and kisses he got were full of God's strength. He sometimes talked with me after they left - each supporting the other in their weakness - and he told me that he had been born again and it was his parents' acceptance of him even in the worst of his sinfulness which had given him the reality of God's Love. His face flowed with joy as he spoke of Jesus and His Love. Rules were not strict in those early visits and I would meet so many people. I always took enough money so that everyone could have treats, and we'd sit out in the yard and it was truly "family." If I saw a youngster who seemed especially rebellious I would silently ask God my Father to break the power of rebellion in that youngster's heart and set him free. Once on "Kite Flight Day" we visited a prison and were able to have home cooked food and meet the families of those we'd known through previous visits. It was such fun. I remember a man named "Carlton Evans." He sat and told me about his life. He was from England, and he'd done so many "bad things" that he couldn't stay in this country. He had to go back to England. I spoke seriously of what lay ahead for him, and how if he truly wanted deliverance from HIMSELF, then God would give him deliverance. I will never know if he made it or not; but after all these years, his name comes to my mind as I pray and so God has not given up on him yet, wherever he is. So many people "look down" on us here for "caring about prisoners." They are the losers. These men do not need people to come in, sing a few "rollicking songs about Jesus," preach AT THEM, give a few testimonies about how good God is, and then "PRESS FOR A DECISION." God doesn't press anyone for any kind of decision. He lays it out before us - in His Word - and we either believe Him or not; and we either want Him to be our Authority or not. But if we don't want Him, then He lets us go. After all, He is GOD and we are but puny individuals whom He had the mercy to create and then give us a chance to get out of sin into salvation and eventual Glory. He doesn't have to beg anyone to believe in Him, to receive the gift of His Son's life, to give Him money. He is God. And everything belongs to Him. Satan is the intruder and for a little while He (Satan) will have His day and drag people to hell. But the day is coming when God's Kingdom will come on earth and that will be that. I thank God for every letter I have written, for the books, for the money orders that we have been able to send out to those whom we know have nothing. Our only sorrow is that we are unrecognized by those individuals who should love us for Christ’s sake and help us in this tremendous INDIVIDUAL work in a man's soul. The masses will make a big noise and make a big show of how God supplies "millions," and they will sing and clap and shout and fall out on the stage floor. But will they ever truly know God as these men in prison know Him? I think not. Jesus says that those who sin most, love most. And these men in prison KNOW what sin is, and once delivered from its power, they love the most. I thank God every day for these wonderful years and I remember with such love those who have gone to be with Him and who wait for our arrival! I remember Bobby, whom I teased about his smile. His teeth were like a set of piano keys, and we would laugh and rejoice when we talked. He is in Heaven now, having been sent there by an execution a few years ago. I remember Roger Dale - so loving and kind, and so thankful that he had friends here on our mountain. I can't remember his ever having a bad word to say about anyone or anything and he, too, was executed. And before he left he painted me a picture of my favorite scene - Jesus on the Road to Emmaus with the disciples who did not recognize Him until He broke bread with them; and THEN their eyes were opened. He wrote to me on the back of the painting and told me how he loved us and would never forget us. And I remember Earl, whose last phone call to me was filled with Thanksgiving and praise that soon - on that gurney, alone - he would be "absent from the body, present with the Lord." I remember those who stopped writing and I will never cease to pray that their lives will be touched by the Master's hand, and be filled with His grace and goodness. I remember youngsters who grew up in unspeakable conditions in their homes and then went out alone, and gave in to drugs, and all that goes with the power of drugs upon the mind and heart. And I continue to pray for them. There is always hope. I remember those who were "serial killers" who have been washed clean by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and who have inherited eternal life; a person who claims to be a Christian and still hates, such a one does not know God and does not really believe in the power of the cleansing blood of Christ. When God changes a man's heart, it is changed forever. I remember all the sharing of your lives that all of you have given to me and I hold this sharing as a sacred trust. I consider it a privilege to be your mother – sister – grandmother - or friend. God expects us to be whatever one needs in order to get to see HIM shine within our hearts. And I remember the poems, the drawings, the sharing of God's Word that you have given to me. I consider all this my treasure and it comforts me in the dark "night of the soul" which comes to every individual who loves Christ above all else in this world. These years have also helped me to become a better soldier in God's Army, and had I not known all of you and heard from you and received your letters, I might never have known how it feels to be in a prison cell, without the comfort of family or loved ones or friends. I do know. I know, because when Jesus called me on that March Day in 1986, He said to me, "I was in prison and you came to ME...." If I wanted to be of service to Him, I would come into the prison cells WITH HIM and somehow, by His grace, His Light shines through and touches each of you - cries with you - laughs with you - feels your failures and also your victories. And so I thank Him for this wonderful privilege of being to you what He is. Somebody has to. Thank God it is the seven of us here, on this little 40-acre plot of ground on a mountain in Northwest Arkansas, whom He chose. And we love you. Originally published in the March, 2003 Wingspread *Billie wrote this just a few months before her passing. She was promoted on August 31st, 2003.  We know that all of you have heard this before, but it bears repeating. JESUS WASN’T BORN ON DECEMBER 25. What difference does it make? Well, none really, except, as Dr. Scott has said “you ought to be intelligent about your faith.” The Christmas holiday has taken on meanings that have nothing to do with Christ, which is why I get disgusted with the idiots who say that “we need to put Christ back into Christmas.” Christ has nothing to do with it. It’s a heathen holiday invented by the Catholic Church. Either Christ is in your life or He is not. Most people will remember Christ mainly on Easter and Christmas. They’ll get super “religious” and go to church once or twice a year and then forget about Him the rest of the year. When was Jesus really born? There is much evidence in the Scriptures that He was born in the fall. There are plenty of Scriptures and historical facts to draw this conclusion from. We read in Luke 1:5, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest name Zechariah, of the course of Abia.” Zechariah was the husband of Elizabeth and became the father of John the Baptist. He was serving in the temple as a priest in “the course of Abia,” which is the Greek form of the name Abijah. The priests served in “courses” according to their families, following a sequence that was established in the Old Testament. These courses are enumerated in 1st Chronicles 24. There were 24 courses, and each priest served for one week every six months. They also had to serve for one week at each of the three national festivals. So Zechariah served in the course of Abijah. Therefore it is possible to pin down by historical records the season in which he was serving when he received an angelic message that his wife would bear a son. We read in Luke 1:8 that Zechariah “executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course.” From studying the priestly courses in 1st Chronicles, we can determine when Zechariah was serving when the Lord visited him and said, “Your wife will have a son. His name will be John, and he will be the predecessor of the Messiah.” Much of this information is found in the 1st chapter of Luke. So the angel Gabriel first appeared to the priest Zechariah while he was serving in the Temple, announcing that his barren wife, Elizabeth, would conceive a son, whom they should name John (later known as John the Baptist). Because Zechariah doubted the message, Gabriel told him he would be unable to speak until the day the prophecy was fulfilled. And again, using a phrase borrowed from Dr. Scott, “if you put flesh and blood on these Bible characters,” then Zechariah would have went home after his service was finished, and he and Elizabeth would have “gotten busy” so that she could conceive. The order of Abijah, of which Zechariah was a part, was the eighth priestly division (1st Chronicles 24:6-19) and he served in the temple during the tenth week of the priestly cycle. The start of the 10th week coincided with the second Sabbath in the Jewish month of Sivan, which runs approximately from mid-May to mid-June. So Elizabeth likely conceived in mid to late May or early June. Also, Gabriel visited Mary and announced to her that she would miraculously conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit and call his name Jesus, who would be the Son of God and would reign forever. As a sign that nothing is impossible for God, Gabriel also informed Mary that her relative Elizabeth was already six months pregnant in her old age. After the angel left, Mary traveled to visit Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea. When Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth's womb jumped for joy, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, praised Mary as "the mother of my Lord.” Six months into Elizabeth's pregnancy would put Mary’s conception sometime between late December or early January, and Jesus would have been born nine months later in late September or early October. The Scripture clearly says that John was born six months before Jesus. There is more biblical and historical evidence that points to Jesus’ birth being in autumn. The Bible says that the Romans had issued a decree that everyone was to be taxed. The Romans didn’t collect their taxes in the wintertime; they collected in the fall because it was the harvest time and the taxes were paid in both money and goods. They were smart enough to collect their taxes when the people were paid. Also, if it were during the fall feasts season, then most of the people would be there. The Romans took advantage of the fact that so many people would be gathered in one place for a feast. These two facts help explain why the inn was full and Mary had to give birth to Jesus in a stable. In Luke’s Gospel, we read that everyone went to be taxed in his own city, and that Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem ( which is approximately five miles north of Jerusalem) because he was of the lineage of King David. Critics will say that the Roman decree was the only reason for them to be in the vicinity of Jerusalem at that time. But why did Mary accompany Joseph? There would have been no reason for Mary to go with Joseph to pay taxes. The very fact that Mary accompanied Joseph suggests that their primary reason for being there was a feast day. Now there are three feasts that occur in the month of Tishri, which corresponds to late September or early October on our calendars. The Feast of Trumpets occurs on the first day, Atonement occurs on the tenth day, and Tabernacles begins on the fifteenth day and lasts for the whole week. It is possible that Joseph and Mary were also in Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Trumpets. I believe that they were. Also, the Bible says there were shepherds keeping watch over their flocks in the fields on the night of Christ’s birth. The shepherds would still be in the fields during the fall, but not during the wintertime because it would have been the cold and rainy season. There is abundant evidence proving that Jesus was born in the fall, and there are abundant historical records showing that the December 25th date was chosen by the medieval church as an attempt to Christianize the heathen festival of Saturnalia. The Roman Saturnalia, celebrated on December 25, had been brought from Babylon via Pergamos and Alexandria. The decision to celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25 was made by the church in the Middle Ages. Rather than try to stop the Saturnalia celebration, they conveniently moved the birth of Christ to occur on that day. Thus the church identified December 25 and the birth of Tammuz as a Christian celebration. Even the name “Christmas” is not Christian: the second half of the name, mass, is short for the Latin word “massa,” which comes from a word meaning “barley cake.” These were cakes that women baked to Semiramis, the so-called queen of heaven, a practice that was cursed in the Old Testament by Jeremiah. The Lord also cursed the setting up of a tree as an idol, which was a forerunner of the Christmas tree. We read in Jeremiah 10:3-4, “For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” You see, Satan knows what God has said. Since he was unable to contaminate the seed of woman, he sought to create a substitute incarnation and a substitute worship of the seed of a woman. It only makes sense that Jesus was born in the fall, most likely during the Feast of Trumpets. This was the first step in God fulfilling that feast. It will be fully fulfilled when the trumpet sounds and the Church is raptured. Rodney ************************************* The following is an excerpt from one of Dr. Scott’s messages on the subject: So when was Jesus actually born? He was born in the fall on the Feast of Trumpets. Two silver trumpets were blown on this feast, because silver was always the symbol of redemption. The trumpets would blow all day long to announce the coming Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, a sacrifice for sins would be offered where all the people’s sins would be blotted out for a year. The high priest would lay his hands on the head of a scapegoat, symbolically transferring the sins of the people to the goat. The goat would then be turned over to a responsible man who would lead it out into a wilderness place where no one lived, so no one could ever bring up those sins again. God was communicating through this type that all of our sins were placed on Christ, never to be brought up again. Yet it seems like some modern-day fundamentalist preachers want to hunt for the goat so they can take back the sins and condemn us for them. Jesus was born on the Feast of Trumpets, and He will return to take us home on the Feast of Trumpets. God is a God of His word. Once He says something, He is forever bound to keep His word. God chose a people to lay down these shadows in the Old Testament so that He might later reveal the substance. God laid down the law of the kinsman redeemer, which was given in Leviticus 25 and unfolded in the little book of Ruth. A kinsman redeemer could redeem someone who had lost his inheritance or who was under a penalty of judgment or death for wrongdoing. There were specific criteria that the kinsman redeemer must meet. First, he must be someone near of kin; a stranger couldn’t perform the role of redeemer. Second, he must have the price of redemption in order to pay whatever was necessary to redeem the one who had lost his inheritance. Third, the kinsman redeemer must be willing to pay the price of redemption; he cannot be forced to do it. And fourth, he must actually pay the redemption price. These requirements remained a part of the Jewish law, God’s word forever settled in heaven, as a shadow looking for a substance. The real date of Christ’s birth is only important because it proves that when God says something, He does it. God brought forth His Son in the fullness of time on the Feast of Trumpets. Jesus was ordained at His baptism in His thirtieth year and was crucified exactly three and a half years later in order to precisely fulfill a sequence of God’s set times. And a God who can make history bend to His will can sure take care of you and me. Merry Christmas! Permission to republish given by Pastor Melissa Scott. ******************************************************  Shirley shows us by example that a person can be happy in whatever state they find themself in. Merry Christmas from Shirley! | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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