Exist in Darkness: Live in the Light

By Harvey A. Thomas

This book is written to show the hidden talents of both men and women who failed to discover and use them constructively. Only as they now have time with little to nothing to do, by being incarcerated, did they discover the assets they possess. Had they been motivated and discovered earlier their lives could have been different today. They are artists in their own rights. Once they discovered a higher Power, were they willing to try something new, because they now feel important and Special dispite their past behavior. They are now set free spiritually. They have taken the step of Faith in receiving Jesus Christ as Savior. The Creator in now working with the created. What He (God) has done for other He can do for YOU, if you will give Him the opportunity to use you as He has planned from the beginning..

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781477286661

Harvey A. Thomas

Harvey A. Thomas. - Son of Elmer Smith and Cora (Farrar) Thomas, born in Somerville, MA on July 10, 1933. He grew up with ten (10) siblings, being the middle child. He married Norma Lee Newton on February 8, 1969. They had two children, Leslie Dion (deceased) and Mark Kenneth. EDUCATION: He graduated from the Somerville High School in 1953. He attended Gordon College in Wenham, MA and Berkshire Christian College, Haverhill, MA receiving a BA Degree in Theology in 1958. EMPLOYMENT: After graduation he worked in various secular positions; Retailing, Factories, Converse Rubber, and Banking. CALLING: Pastoring is not an employment but a "Calling" from God. 20 years after his schooling, he became an Ordained Minister, being recognized by the Am. Bapt, Chs. Of MA (TABCOM), the Am. Bapt. Chs in PA and Del. (ABCOPAD) and in 1981 by the Am Bapt. Chs of U.S.A. (ABC/USA). He served as full-time pastor at Union Sq.B.C.Somerville, MA, FBC in Gardiner, ME, E.Mahoning/Pine Flats B.C. Commodore, PA, Factoryville FBC in Factoryville, PA, Bentleyville FBC, Bentleyville, PA, and Bankers BC Hillsdale, MI. Separated from Pastoring he served with the Critical Incident Stress Management Team (CISM) team in Hillsdale, MI. Chaplain for the Jail/Prison Minisrtry in MA, PA, MI, Worship Coordinator for various Senior Citizen Organizations in MA, PA, aand MI, and the Special Olympics. Author of three books, "The Key to Freedom from Captivity", "Pastors Are People Too" and this one, Lastly he was featured on the International Radio Program (Unshackled) produced by the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, I L, reaching six continents, 149 countries in eight (8) different languages.Though he retired in 2000 he is still active with the MI Jails and Prisons. Harvey has over 50 years of ministry experience.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Preface

Lock ’Em Up And Throw Away The Key*

Mother

Introduction

The Wall

My Mistake

What Has She Done?

I Invite You

A Change That Is Real

My Intervention

Spiritual Nectar!

Mother’s Day

A Prisoner’s Prayer

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

The Center Of The Bible

Chapter 3—Verse 16

You Are Invited To A Birthday Celebration

The 7-Up’s Of Scripture

Garden For Your Daily Walk

Do Not Read This

Daily Survival Kit

What Jesus Christ Has Done!

Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled In The New Testament.

Bible Book Puzzle

The Shepherd’s Psalm—Psalm 23

The Indian Version Psalm 23

My Attorney

The Deck Of Cards By Red Savanna

An Argument For An Atheist

Father’s Love Letter

A Letter From God

Back Of The Book

About The Author

Other books by the Author:

Key to Freedom from Captivity—Authorhouse.com

Pastors Are People Too—iUniverse.com

dedication.jpg

Inspiring! Reverend Harvey Thomas once again captures

and interpret the writings and detailed artwork of those

incarcerated and segregated from our society who seeks

pardon for their crimes. In his book, "The Key to

Freedom from Captivity," Reverend Thomas

takes the reader through a journey down the

long corroders of a lonely jail. Citing his

jail ministry over the years. Thomas uses

this book to outline some of the most

thought provoking poems,

stories and personal                                                    FOREWORD

testimonies written during

the most difficult time of a person’s life.

What makes this book a necessary read is the answer that Rev.

Thomas gives to the many questions of imprisonment and

feelings of abandonment by providing his spiritual interpret-

tation concluding each poem or picture. The author clearly

demonstrates that the very nature of jail is cold, dark and

lonely, but he offers a glimpse of hope, prosperity great

promise through the shed blood of Christ Jesus

who has come to remove the sins of this world.

This book confirms what the true            JEREMIAH J. HODSHIRE

key to an unshackled life is, the         HILLSDALE COUNTY JAIL

power found within the blood            HILLSDALE, MICHIGAN

that was shed upon a cold, dark and lonely

cross which offers total forgiveness to those

who believe. When government turned their

back on him, when his family departed from him

and when his friends abandoned him, Jesus still pressed

forward with a purpose for true freedom through salvation.

As Rev. Thomas clearly demonstrates within these five unique

books, a life which will be rewarded will not be the one that

has collected the most things but the person who is no longer

held captive by their failures, marred past and unstable future

even when their most faithful have turned their back.

PREFACE

As you read the contents of this book you will become

aware of the fact that we are either going to "Exist In Dark-

ness or Live in The Light." We have no choice but to live,

but we can choose ‘how’ we are going to live.

I recently read a book entitle, The Thomas Factor by

Winkie Pratney (Chosen Books, Flemingh, Revelll Co.

Old happen, New Jersey). It is a book that deals with

"The Key to believing when you cannot find an

answer." In Chapter 11, Pratney tells of

the various forms of darkness

(pages 145-156)

"Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of

His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let

him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God.

Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle your-

selves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire

and in the sparks you have kindles—this you

shall have from My hand. You shall lie

down in torment." (Isaiah 50:10,11)

The first kind of darkness Pratney writes about is "The

Darkness of Sin" "Men loved darkness rather than

light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19).

Other scriptural references are: 2 Corinthians

6:14, Peter 2:9; I John 1:7. (Open your

Bible and read them) All mankind is

created with a sinful nature because

of the Fall of man through Adam

and Eve (Genesis 3). Left to our

own devices we choose to do

evil over good, resulting in

death, both physical

and spiritual.

The second kind of darkness is ignorance. Pratney says,

"The Christian life calls you not only to be good but to

be wise. One of the meanings of the word darkness,

is Ignorance, not really understanding the ways

of God

"The opposite of this darkness is the word ‘Light’ (John 1:5

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.) Now this

word light is used in the Bible to mean, ‘that which is

most wise.’ God is asking us to live according to

the highest intelligence."

The third kind of darkness is demonic power (Luke 22:53;

Acts 26:18, Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 1:13) This especially

happens to those who are trying to walk with God. We call

this Temptation. Those outside of Christ don’t need

to be tempted, seeing they automatically choose to do

the wrong anyways. Christ, Himself was tempted

by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12,13)

The light to combat this darkness is the

Word of God. (John 1:4,5,9-13)

Christ was able to defeat the

temptations of the devil by

simply using the Word

of God. "It is written . . ."

There is another form of darkness and that is found in those

that Fear the Lord. Did you know that the phrase Fear not

fret not, Be not anxious etc. appears some 365 "fret

not’s" times in the Bible? (One for every day of the year.)

The word Fear in scripture refer to our recogni-

tion of the Awesome reverence of God. To

get to know God, one needs to get to KNOW

(not to know about) GOD, because God

is truly Jesus Christ in the flesh.

LOCK ’EM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY*

(*quote from Ministries in Mercy, Timothy Keller, p.24)

(I share this true story as I am convinced too many Americans

share this mentality as Keller discussed in his book.)

Normally, my girls come slowly down the hall, one by one,

escorted by the county jail Turnkey to our meeting room.

Dressed in their frumpy jail jump suits, wishing they

could go to a beauty shop or have some different

clothes. They come to life after the door is closed

and we are locked into our snug little room. It

is hard for the girls to maintain any degree of

self-respect and dignity under these circum-

stances but the Rule of Thumb in my

ministry is that they are loved

unconditionally. They know

I love them and I don’t care

how they look or why they are

there. I make it a policy to never ask,

Why? If they choose to tell me anything

(and they do, often) it is their choice. Consequently,

we have a very warm, loving relationship and the "out-

casts" know they are dearly loved and are a great blessing

to me. I tell them over and over: "I am the messenger of God’s

love and only by a miracle was I allowed to enter this ministry."

I am not a minister (Pastor) and don’t pretend to be one.

This Ministry is not about me; it’s simply about God’s

love for some lonely girls; many have never known

much genuine love. .They come from a wide

variety of backgrounds and I try my best to

meet them halfway,

However, tonight was different. I could sense it as the girls

came laughing and giggling into the room. Secret signals

flashing back and forth and I wondered what on earth

was going on! Each girl had a small brown paper

bag discretely hidden which she produced and

passed silently to Sarah who happened to be

sitting across the table from me. There were

only seven of us, six girls and myself, but

the room is so small one girl had to

remain standing. The room is

actually the sick bay where

inmates are taken for health

examinations. As a result, we

have a small room with a desk,

small table, examination table and

scales taking up most of the space. On

the other hand, we all like the intimacy it

provides as opposed to the big, echoing TV

room lined with benches along three walls we

were using. Trying to figure what was going on, I

couldn’t think of anything, except that Sarah was leav-

ing that evening at midnight. Leaving at midnight,

no matter what the weather, is standard procedure.

All the girls are discharged at midnight, whether

they have anyone to pick them up, any money,

any car, any friends, any job . . . That is not

the concern of the county jail. That is

our society’s decree . . ." Lock ’em up

and throw away the key." They

have sinned!

Sarah had been counting the months . . . the days . . . and now the

hours until she would be released. When I first met Sarah

she would come in quietly, sit in a corner, and never

say a word. She had a call-mate that dominated all

our conversations. And always wanted to say

the right thing to prove to me that she

was better than the other girls. I

didn’t think too much about

the whole thing except it

bothered me week after

week. I was just not

reaching Sarah. I

even remember her

sitting in a far corner

one night; unwilling to

join the rest of the girls and

I didn’t know how to handle that.

When her call-mate was finally released,

it just happened that only Sarah came to Bible

study the next week. I asked her what happened

and she just said one was sick . . . or that one was too

tired to come. I thought I must have offended some one

and at first felt badly. The good part was Sarah began to

blossom. Being alone gave Sarah and I a chance talk—and

talk we did. She began pouring out her heart to me and telling

me all the things she was facing when she eventually returned

home. I will never forget sitting there, my face in my hands,

listening to her story. I marveled at the strength she had to

cope with all these difficult problems. We began talking

about what she might do when she was released to

change her life around. Again, I was amazed at

her wisdom and maturity as she told me what

she planned to do. She was a welder by

trade, so she felt she would have no

trouble getting a job. On the other

hand, her personal life was a mess and

she had some very difficult decisions to

make. Her mother had never been the loving,

caring mother any girl would like to have. She had

never been able to please her mother. As a result she

had gotten into bad company and she knew very well why

she was in jail. She also knew what she could do