September 22, 1992 was just another day in the ‘chain gang’, yet a grand opportunity for the Lord Jesus Christ who rescued me from the chains of bondage to tobacco.
Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. My name is inmate Glenn E. Manus # 722383, fresh into a life with mandatory 25 years, plus a consecutive 25 years sentence in Florida; where parole is like hitting the lottery back to back. So there wasn’t much to look forward to, which made trying to quit smoking even tougher. The harder I tried to stop, the greater the urge to smoke! I’d started dipping tobacco to help not smoke, then smoking to stop dipping; to smoking and dipping at the same time! I had it bad and was praying for God to help me… take it from me… anything!
Some very long stories but a very real and living God has done many miracles in my life and has been so very good to me, but I allowed unforgiveness and bitterness against people who really hurt me to chain my broken heart, dragging me deeper and deeper in drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex addiction, and all kinds of sin that separated me from my first and only true love, Jesus, until I ended up below the bottom of the barrel of life in prison, scheduled forever. But I found even there that the Lord was patiently waiting with His arms wide open, never giving up on me!
Day-in, day-out behind prison walls is hard to explain, but in short, it’s another world! ‘ Pressure’ of many kinds, bottled up emotions, mixed up feelings and attitudes (yours and everyone else’s around you) frustrations unimaginable, coping with ‘doing time’, powerless of even simple things we take for granted until locked in a cage or like a big fishbowl community where everyone watches everyone else for all the ‘angles’; your words, actions, what you read or don’t read, who you talk to, about what or whom you avoid, your body language, if you get visits, mail or money or if you don’t have anyone that cares – everything is analyzed and shared to size you up to avoid or try to exploit.
Every guard seems to have their own rules and ways, depending on the mood they’re in, as a zoo of personalities, one extreme to another all pressed together, stripped of everything, to even replace your identity with a number and uniform. They now even paint lines to follow but back then, officers would watch and if you stopped to look around or talk they blow whistles and yell to keep moving, along with a string of verbs, adjectives and a few nouns to help motivate and show you the error of your ways in flying colors. But here I was, just another day coming out of our chow hall after lunch, so it was midday and bright outside when I heard this booming voice that sounded like out of the sky…’You are lying to Me!’ I froze and couldn’t move or breathe! I was right in front of guards. I could hear their whistles and ‘directions’ but no one saw me standing there in the middle of the sidewalk!
Again the five words that changed my life…” You are lying to me!” This lightning bolt of energy charged through me. After a while, my heart finally slowed enough I could breathe, my mind and tongue managed to connect, yet still not fully comprehending what was happening but somehow I squeaked out… ‘What am I lying about… Lord?’ Gee- I am really sharp! Anyways, God didn’t candy-coat it but right to the point –‘I see your deepest thoughts, desires and motives. From your head you are praying for My help to quit smoking, but in your heart you really want it, you enjoy it, you are hanging on to it! You only hate the negative side effects and consequences yet you enjoy and want the sin! Until your head and heart line up to My Word you will be unstable in all your ways. You are double minded and lying to Me!’
Wow! God has spoken to me before, telling me how He loved me and things that helped rescue me out of some deep pits of life but this stern rebuke rocked me to the core of my being! From deep down inside my voice came asking God to forgive me… ‘I repent, Father God, in Jesus Name have mercy! I had no idea I was lying to You! I choose this day to give to You all forms of tobacco yet I know I don’t have the will or strength to keep this choice, so I surrender it to You and ask for Your grace to help me keep this choice! I can’t do it without You!’
The heavy presence lifted and I was a new man! I knew I was completely set free inside and never touched it again! I can’t even believe I ever used that stuff let alone addicted to that poison that was killing me. God changed me inside and out!
I’ve struggled with smoking since I was four years old, taking dad’s Lucky Strikes non-filtered cigarettes, copying him but became hooked right away. As a lot of long stories from a young boy, going through things that drove me on a death wish with a deep rage inside consuming me somewhere I found that tobacco and alcohol helped but then drugs took over controlling me that brought temporary peace until more and more was needed with wilder and crazier living – no one could understand me or what was wrong with me.
I know firsthand many extremes and that no matter what the problem, heartbroken, habits and addictions, demonic issues, all the bondage is to sin – that God is real, His Word is the ultimate truth, and He Loves You far greater than you can ever imagine, and is waiting with His arms wide open for you! Any time you can call unto Him, just like talking to your very best friend and tell Him all your heart and He will never reject you, but understands perfectly and He cares!
A loving God doesn’t condemn people to Hell for doing bad things nor can doing good or religious ways get us into Heaven; as it all depends on whose family we belong to that determines your eternal destination and receive your inheritance in one of only two places; as well as what directs the quality of your life today.
In the beginning, God created everything and it was good. Then He gave Adam and Eve authority to rule over everything in this Kingdom called Earth which He made for them to live forever, in perfect peace with the relationship with Him as their Creator and also loving Father. But Satan, once a beautiful angel, now fallen and kicked out of heaven with one third of the rebel angels, he lied to trick Eve, and this deception caused Adam and Eve and the whole world, to come under Satan’s authority; bringing the curse of sin and death, corrupting their perfect nature, now separating them and all born, from God. Satan stole their ‘power of attorney’ using God’s authority and now they are powerless over this new life controlling their emotions and bringing death. So now when we die we are trapped to be stuck with him where he’s forever away from our loving God and Creator.
This broke God’s heart Who chose to rescue us Himself! But the payment for our life was death. God can never die. So God humbled Himself, took on the human body, which was beaten, tortured until death on a cross to pay for our sin and made a way for us to be adopted into His family by faith in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha’ Mashiach) the ultimate Sacrifice as foretold; so we would know our God the Creator loves us and never gave up on us!
The Bible was written so we can know our history, choose our destiny, while experiencing His love and victory over Satan, through Jesus for eternity!
The choice is yours. The power to keep that choice is His. Together, we can have real life and hope to be with Him forever!
All welcome to write and share or just send your prayer request to:
Glenn E. Manus # 722383, F3-209L
Hardee C.I.
6901 State Rd. 62
Bowling Green, FL 33834
GOD’S RESCUE RANGERS
‘Prayer and Share Ministry’