Jesus in Jail: Freedom from Prison, In or Out of Custody.

By Gilmore Erickson

The accounts in this book are written for those who are searching for a better way of life. Who have even the smallest nagging of unfulfillment. Luke reveals many of the miracles of Jesus that took place over 2000 years ago, yet are still relevant topics of conversation today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098391492

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Jesus In Jail

Regardless of your status, if you are locked up, living on the inside, or you are living on the outside; it is no accident you are holding this book. God has a plan for your life. He wants good things for you and your family. If you choose to accept HIS offer of freedom, you will be free from guilt, your past, your bad choices, hurt you may have caused, and abuse you may have been on either end of.  Your life will be transformed. All you must do is open the door and accept Jesus, admit you have made mistakes, ask for forgiveness for those choices and a world of freedom, acceptance and joy awaits you. Please keep reading!

This study and devotional is a true account of persons and events that Gilmore experienced during his time of incarceration in the California Correctional System. He is certain this was the most important ministry of his life. Some names have been changed; others gave permission to use their likeness.

Copywrite Gilmore Eldon Erickson

First Edition 2021

ISBN# 978-1098391492

For information or to tell us your testimonial, email [e-mail].

Gil and his family would love to hear from you.

Author’s Note:

While I was in prison, I studied the Bible with other inmates. It changed us powerfully, each in our own way. I took notes about my experience of Bible study, and my notes became the basis for this book. I wrote it for prisoners so they might benefit from what I learned. Being locked up can strip a man of every freedom except one, the freedom to believe.

Prison doesn’t exactly put men in a join up mood, so at first, I was reluctant about joining a Bible study group. But I did join, and eventually I led the group. We shared stories from the Bible and our own stories. We learned that Jesus Christ offers salvation to everyone, even prisoners.

This Bible study book is intended primarily for prison reception, when men are new to life behind bars, when they’re quarantined and cut off from family and friends. I pray that it will be used to support more prison ministries. My goal is to get this book in as many hands as possible.

Inside the pages of this book, Bible passages illustrate important lessons for anyone open to exploring the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Each chapter contains: Bible passages, background information about the people and events described in the passages, an inspirational message, and stories about men in my Bible study group whose lives were transformed as a result of accepting Jesus as their Savior.

Study questions at the back of the book may serve as a useful tool for more in-depth Bible study and group discussions. Also at the back of the book is a glossary with definitions of words used in the Bible that may be unfamiliar to readers.

I pray that inmates will benefit from this Bible study and share their experiences with others. The goal is to introduce them to the life and teaching of Jesus here on Earth 2,000 years ago and His importance to us today. For those men who have not accepted Jesus Christ, this book is an invitation, maybe a life saver.

After you have completed the study, please consider this: Never underestimate God’s plan for you or how much you can do when you answer His call. Have an expectation that God will raise you up and equip you to make a positive difference in the world. If what you do and say honors God, God will honor you. The Bible includes many stories of how God has worked through fallen men, regardless of their past sins.

It is through God’s patience and mercy that you will be set free, and your slate will be wiped clean. When you confess your sins to God and ask for His forgiveness, He will not hold you hostage to your past. Instead, He will offer you the chance to make a new start. You can walk in the front door of life, not the back. The Bible refers to it as being born again. It’s a serious new beginning as a follower of Jesus.

As God’s children we have no limits. God can use you. You can make a difference and you can help people in Jesus’ name. It starts with helping one person, and it goes from there. You will be energized by a new beginning, a renewal, a passion. It’s time for the house of God to raise you up. You can be a part of the Kingdom of God. God is for you. He loves you. Jesus said more than once that He didn’t come here to save the righteous, but to save sinners.

I encourage you to join or start a Bible study group and use this book, even if what you just read is not yet fully clear or you have doubts. When you are able, join a Bible study.

Introduction

On the day of my arrest, I was standing in the entryway of my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. My wife was calling me from the local Safeway a few miles away, asking if I wanted anything special from the store. Hang on, I said, someone’s at the door. As I was read my rights, handcuffed, and taken away from my home in a patrol car, I took what would be my last breath of air as a free man for more than three years. What I didn’t know then was that my experience of being convicted of a crime, and then imprisoned, would be transformed into a mission powered by faith.

Bang! The gavel dropped, confirming my prison sentence. The judge said, I am an imperfect judge, this is an imperfect court, and this is an imperfect decision. Eight years. Good luck.

A cold sweat ran down my back. I was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and taken to a holding cell. My wife is a strong woman, not prone to tears, but she sat in the courtroom crying openly. She had baked a cake that morning to celebrate what we’d both assumed would be my release and return home. Just two days earlier, my attorney told her to expect that I would be released immediately, having already served 15 months at Elmwood. Sounds like a resort, but it’s nothing of the kind. Elmwood is home to 4,000 inmates of the Santa Clara County Jail system. For all but my first month there, I led a Bible study group with other inmates—and it transformed my life.

San Quentin Prison

I was transferred from Elmwood to San Quentin State Prison, a stark contrast to its surroundings. It is a forbidding and ugly prison right in the middle of one of Northern California’s wealthiest and most beautiful areas. San Francisco Bay touches the property to the east and south, and the mountains of Marin County rise up along the western side. The region is filled with large homes and lush landscapes.

My time in reception at San Quentin was harsh but I got through it. When entering the building the first sign I saw read, We fire no warning shots. My possessions were taken away, even my toothpaste and deodorant, everything; and I was given a roll of toilet paper, a bar of soap and a hand towel. I was assigned to a prison cell on the third of five tiers of stacked cells. The cell was just big enough that I could stand in the middle with my arms outstretched and touch the walls on both sides.

Good behavior was slowly and sparingly rewarded. I was allowed two group showers per week, and within a month I was able to purchase toiletries and snacks. Life slowly got better.

Each day we inmates were marched to the chow hall for breakfast and for dinner, with barely enough time to eat. The food wasn’t bad for prison food—not an endorsement. Meals were sometimes interrupted when fights broke out. A bad fight would segregate us for a day or two. Once there was such a disturbance that we had to eat in our cells. After mealtime we were given about five minutes to be social with other inmates on our tier before being locked in our cells again. Armed prison guards patrolled along an outside walkway. Heading to my cell, I could get a brief look out the window of the walkway door to see boats on the San Francisco Bay, cars traveling on the highway, and the Marin Hills in the distance. I tried to linger for a few seconds each time I passed. It was a stark reminder of what I was missing.

During my time in San Quentin, a man from the outside visited us every few weeks and passed out Bible tracts. I found myself looking forward to reading those tracts, wishing I had a Bible to read and a Bible study to work on. I had been writing down my thoughts about my Bible study experiences since Elmwood and I continued to do so while at San Quentin.

Men’s State Prison at Chino

Before long I was transferred again to the Men’s State Prison in Chino, nearly 400 miles away from my home and family. A forbidding place, it rose out of the barren, desert landscape. My new address: Lower bunk, Cell #134, South Dorm. I slept on a thick slab of sheet metal topped with a four-inch pad that by no stretch of the imagination qualifies as a mattress. I was locked up with about 2,000 other inmates. We were provided with a morning and evening meal, and a bag lunch of either a peanut butter and jelly or bologna sandwich with a small packet of mustard.

I realized it had been 18 months since my arrest. Once again, I joined a prisoner’s Bible study group, and I continued writing about the experience just as I had since the start of my life behind bars.

I pondered the future, concerned about my health. There were several quarantines due to rampant illness, after my arrival at Chino. There was no air conditioning in our cement building, the summer temperatures soared to 108 degrees. On more than one occasion we
were told not to drink the water due to unsafe levels of nitrites and bacteria. Some days, the water smelled like bleach, other days it was murky. I walked with a cane after having been deprived of my orthopedic lifted shoe, something I had worn since the age of twelve. We inmates were governed by correctional officers who, like us, would rather have been somewhere else. But there we were.

My wife was unwavering in her support. She was not locked up, but she was doing time and suffering just the same. She drove the nearly 400 miles’ distance to visit me once a month, always late on a Friday night. That was the time appointed to her by the prison system. Few of the inmates I met had the kind of support from their families that I was fortunate enough to have. Reports vary, but on average only eight percent of the 130,000 California inmates get visits.

That fact that I enjoy God’s creatures served me well at Chino. A small flock of birds came and went freely between our dorm and the outside world. They seemed to have made South Dorm their home base. I heard their chirping and was reminded of my own home and better days. We were visited regularly by seagulls, crows, egrets, blackbirds and starlings as well as gophers, raccoons, skunks, feral cats, and the occasional rat. They came close, as if they felt safe around us even though we did not always feel safe around each other. Beyond the high, barbed wire fences I could see the distant San Bernardino Mountains, topped with snow in winter and green growth in the spring.

I was fortunate to be one of six inmates assigned to work in the prison library, which allowed me to connect with other inmates who read. It was an eclectic group—an auto dealer, a physical therapist, a bank robber, a banker whose alcoholism got him into trouble, a few drug addicts, a physical trainer, a Bible college student, and the list goes on. Many of these men were locked up because of one bad decision. Sometimes that is all it takes.

What I have come to know is that we are all children of God, and He loves us all, whether we’re behind bars or living on the outside.

There is happiness to be found in prison life. One must look for it, recognize it, and embrace it. For example, I looked forward to my release date and reclaiming my freedom. Just the same, I will deeply miss the friends I made in prison, men who became like brothers to me.

At Chino, I led a Bible Study group that met daily. Writing about this experience gave me a purpose every day. I sent my hand-written notes home to my brother,
who typed them up and saved them for me. I had decided to turn all of my notes into a book and promised myself that if I lived to see the day of my release, I would publish my book for the benefit of men who are struggling with life behind bars. I thanked God for showing me a way to make something good out of a bad experience and to share this gift He gave me to help others.

What I learned from those early Bible study sessions was that a man might be able to read the words contained in the Bible, but that didn’t necessarily mean he understood their meaning, especially in the Biblical sense. I began to read ahead so that I could explain the meanings of words and phrases like fishers of men, sanctified, Son of God, Holy Spirit, centurion, Bread of Life, and tabernacle. I also made notes from what I had learned about the people, places, customs and traditions mentioned in the Bible passages, to better guide our discussions.

The Bible Study began with a few inmates and grew to about 30 of us. Most were skeptical at first. They doubted there could be a, just and all-powerful God who would not only tolerate them but love them. All were invited to accept Jesus as their Savior and join the Kingdom of God. More men than I can remember opened themselves to the truth, to this truth. They wanted to know God. Others remained closed to the invitation. For those men I pray that something from our Bible Study has stayed with them and will one day cause them to re-consider.

Jesus is everywhere! He is on the mountain tops, in the valleys and even in jail. He is at the door; open it and invite Him into your life.

Inside this book you will find:

.  .  .  an account of men behind prison bars finding Christ and giving hope to others;

.  .  .  an account written for prisoners who are locked up and have no hope.

.  .  .  proof that God will use all things for the good of those who love Him.

A Salvation Prayer

Dear Lord,

I know I have made many mistakes, that I have sinned and caused pain to myself and others. I have lived my life by own rules. I am sorry, I have made choices that hurt many people, and most especially myself. I repent God, I want to turn away from the mistakes of the past. Please God, forgive me. I believe that You died on the cross for me, to save me. You did what I could not do for myself. I come to you now and ask you to take control of my life; I give it to you. From this day forward, help me to live every day for you and in a way that pleases you. I love you, Lord. Thank you that I will spend eternity with you.

Amen.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Who Was Luke?

Antonio’s Story:

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Two

The Christmas Story

Little Frank’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Three

Guidance

Angus: An Inmate’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Four

Faith and Forgiveness

Fred’s Story - How He Changed Things

Questions to ponder:

Chapter Five

Building a Firm Foundation

Sad Boy’s Story

Questions and thoughts to Ponder:

Chapter Six

Faith, Gifts, Grace and Death

Matt’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Seven

Gospels and Their Message

Bubba’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Eight

Keep Knocking

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Nine

Attitude and Choices

Carlos’ Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Ten

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Tiger’s Story - A Guy Who Chose the Wrong Friends

Questions and Thoughts to Ponder:

Chapter Eleven

Attitude of Gratitude

SAL’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Twelve

God Chooses You

Marcus’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Thirteen

Time to Heal.

Angel’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Fourteen

The Big Three: Prayer, Forgiveness, Gratitude

Jimmy and James’ Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Fifteen

The Lord’s Prayer

Questions to Ponder:

Luke Chapter Sixteen

Serve One Master

Holiday’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Seventeen

Take Care of Your Brother

Pineapple’s Story - A first Class Motorcycle Mechanic

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Eighteen

HOPE

Norm’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Nineteen

Accidental Bible teacher - Pay It Forward

Kenya’s Story - A Gentle Giant.

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Twenty

Finding a Church

Chapter Twenty-One Devotional Reading

Presenting the Gospel to Others

Chino’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Twenty-Two

Easter

Mark’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Twenty-Three

Into the Darkness

Bobby’s Story

Questions to Ponder:

Chapter Twenty-Four Devotional Reading

Into the Light

Luke Chapter Twenty-Four

Questions to Ponder:

Acknowledgments

Bible Study/Understanding Questions

List of Bible Vocabulary / Terms

Chapter One

Who Was Luke?

Luke was a doctor, a very well-educated man, who studied in Greece and spoke several languages. Thirty years after the time of Jesus, Luke was hired by a wealthy Greek named Theophilus to write an account of Jesus’ life. Like other Greeks, Theophilus wanted to know that what Jesus taught was true, beyond a shadow of doubt.

Luke had accompanied the Apostle Paul on his missionary journey. Luke’s account is considered to be the most complete, detailed account of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus to be found in the Gospels. He is also credited with having written the Book of Acts, and he is thought to be the only Gentile (non-Jew) to have written a significant portion of the Gospels. This is important because in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Jews were God’s chosen people. But in the New Testament Gospels, Jesus extended the hope of salvation to Gentiles as well as Jews.

Luke made it clear that others, like the Apostles Matthew, Mark and John, wrote eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life. Mark was a teenager at the time. Mark’s mother held many events in her house, which also served as a church. Like a reporter, Luke relied on historical research and interviews with people who either knew Jesus or who had been a witness His teaching and healing. In Biblical times, many people could not read or write. It was crucial that Luke documented their experiences of Jesus living among them; to verify events and eliminate doubts. Luke portrayed Jesus as the Son of Man, born to Mary, to identify Him as being of the flesh, one with humankind. He felt joy, hunger, pain, distress, temptation and disappointment, just like you and me. But Luke pointed out that Jesus was also the Son of God, holy and without sin, one with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Luke began his account with God sending an angel to visit the prophet and temple priest, Zechariah (his name means he whom God remembers). At