Tattoos

You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord. – Leviticus 19:28

Prisoners love tattoos.  Some do it out of boredom.  Some do it because they think it makes them look bad or cool.  Some do it to show people they are in a gang.  The temptation is there every where you turn.

However, no self professing Christian is going to get a tattoo.  Not only is it illegal inside of the prison, God forbids it too.  A tattoo is like a brand.  They often are a sign of rebelliousness and they tend to show who your loyalties are to.  Once you are tattooed you carry it with you for the rest of your life!  Even if it is covered up with another one, the original is still there underneath.  I don’t know about you, but I would not want people to know I was in prison.  Tattoos are a sure sign that you have probably been there. Also, in prison, they are done a lot of times with unsanitary needles and I have seen all kinds of crazy, unsafe and unsanitary ways to make ink.

Your body belongs to God.  Let him have it.  God said in Exodus ” You shall have no other gods before Me.” – Exodus 20:3 If you already have a tattoo, don’t get no more.  Be a man, stand out.  Dare to be different.  Tattoos do not make the man, God makes the man.

I made the dumb mistake of getting two of them while I was in there.  Worst mistake I made.  Today I am ashamed of them.  They remind me of where I came from.  I keep them covered up at all times.  Obey God rather than men. In the end, you will be glad you did!

Taking Care Of Your Body

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? – 1 Corinthians 6:19

One of the things you can do in prison is start taking care of your body.  Lets face it, a lot of prisoners come in having abused their bodies with alcohol, drugs, cigarette smoking and a host of other things. 

Why not quit the cigarettes?  Why not quit the drugs?  Why not quit the alcohol? Why not clean your body out and make it healthy again?  A strong, powerful, healthy body will do you much good in there.  And you really have no excuse, as you have nothing but time, so why not throw it into your body and make the time work for you?

What I did was get a basic deck of cards from the commissary.  I would shuffle the deck and workout as follows:

Spades were Push ups

Clubs were Squats

Diamonds were Crunches

Hearts were Back Arms

I would simply flip a card and do that many reps of the exercise for that suit.  For instance, the 7 of spades, was 7 push ups, the 5 of clubs was 5 squats, the 9 of diamonds was 9 crunches, the 7 of hearts was 7 back arms or dips.  I started with the numbers 2 thru 6 of each suit and worked up to doing the entire deck.  Aces were 15 reps and all face cards were 10 reps.  In 3 months time, I had a very strong, very hard body. In 15 years of doing this, I never got bored with it.  No two workouts were ever the same.   It got to the point to where I threw in some isometrics at the end of each workout too.

God said our bodies are HIS temple.  His Holy Spirit dwells in there.  Make your body a good, clean, home for the Holy Spirit to dwell in.  You will thank me for it for the rest of your life.

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• We are the body of Christ… (ptl2010.com)
• Be Holy, Not Defiled (shirlblake.com)
• Deck of Cards Work Out (trainmyfingersforbattle.wordpress.com)