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For anyone at risk of coming to prison or ruining their life
First, let's consider what it means for someone to be classified as "at-risk". If you or someone you know is under twenty-five years of age and living in a single-parent home, or involved in the foster care or Department of Social Services system- then that automatically defines you as at-risk. Additionally, being homeless, engaging in or considering drug or alcohol experimentation, participating in gang or criminal activity, or lacking an involved father figure in your life, all contribute to being considered as at-risk.
Now the question is, "At risk of what?" Simply not having an active father in ones life, according to the National Fatherhood Institute, makes an individual 87% more likely to end up in prison. If you are in the social services or juvenile justice systems, you are almost guaranteed to come to prison. And of course, being involved with gang or criminal activity doesn't decrease your chances either.
The core of this ministries existence is to speak life into those at-risk of ending up in prison, dead, or addicted to drugs. I don't want that for you. I've been all those things, and none of them are good. I implore you, I beg you, to spend some time with me. Go through this page—the other pages, too—and READ. Invest in yourself! No one is going to do it for you. You have to make a decision to learn and grow and study if you want to change the trajectory of your life and keep from making the mistakes that I did. You can start now…
YOU GOT IT!
By Robert Jenkins
04|03|2025
Just wanted to drop a quick word to you guys out there. They used to call me Chico. These days I just go by Robert. I'm currently serving a 71-93 month Mandatory Minimum (Structured) sentence in North Carolina's Department of Adult Corrections for trafficking methamphetamine. I was caught up in a bad lifestyle when I sold 52 grams to an undercover officer. Someone I loved and trusted brought them to me. It wasn't what I wanted to do when I grew up, that's for sure. You have to change somewhere, so, while being incarcerated I've overcome my addictions to drugs, money and women. It wasn't easy, because I love to hustle, AND the lifestyle that came with it. So to all you people at-risk of ending up in a bad place like this, to those reading this, I want you to know you're not alone. I been in your same shoes, overcome the same odds. And look at you! Today you took a huge step by reaching out and doing your own research, which is of the utmost importance. I know sometimes it seems overwhelming, but just remember, no matter how bad it seems: you can do this. It's time to stop asking "why me" and realize "why not!" You are meant for more than this!
[Brandon: This guy came from the bottom. I've watched him struggle and grow. So I asked him what he would say to himself as a teen if he knew what he knows now. His words are from the heart. Learn from OUR mistakes so you don't have to face our consequences. You got this! You're stronger than you know.]
DO THE NEW YOU
5/14/24
A Native American grandfather once told his grandson, "There is a battle between two wolves inside all of us. One is EVIL (it is anger, envy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego), and the other is GOOD (it is joy, peace, love, humility, kindness, empathy and Truth)."
When the boy asked, "Which wolf wins?" The old man quietly replied: "The one you feed."
I need you to hear my heart on this one...If you are considered "at-risk" like I was at 18—when I got sentenced to 20 years—you have to take this seriously. You can avoid making mistakes like I did if you would take a moment to let this sink in...
YOU determine which wolf you feed. You can feed the one who is Good or the one who is Evil. The choice is yours and yours alone. Determining which one you will feed each day, each moment, is your personal responsibility. Don't trust anyone else to do it for you.
If you live in difficult circumstances and you are around crime or gangs then, by default, you will likely feed the Evil wolf—unless you make a deliberate choice to starve him to death. This is not something to toy with. The system will lay you down the first chance it gets. It isn't broken. It does exactly what it is designed to do. And it will never change you for you. And neither can you. Not by yourself.
Once that Evil wolf has gotten too big inside you then there is only one thing you can do with it. You have to kill it.
In the Bible there are terms such as "dying to self," "picking up your cross," "losing your life," and, the "new birth/being born again."
When you give your life to Christ and you accept Him as Lord and Savior, God makes you into a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the NEW creation has come: The old has GONE, the new is here!" (NIV, caps mine).
This is your clean slate, and your only real chance, especially if you know that Evil wolf has grown way too big. You have to die to yourself and embark on the journey of allowing Jesus to live through you—every second of every day.
From this day forward your identity and your Life Goal is found in Galatians 2:20, written by a man once known as Saul, who's name God changed to Paul the day he made this decision. Once a murderer of Christians, he wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but CHRIST lives in me. The life I NOW live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (NIV, caps mine). What is he saying? He is saying that the old Saul is gone, dead and GONE. And now he is Paul, saved by grace (he didn't deserve it), filled to the brim with Christ and striving to let Christ live and breathe and move through him.
If you know you are messed up and need help, you know you're on the wrong track and need saving: I encourage you to hit the closest thing to a restart button you have and enter into your brand new life by praying this prayer aloud:
Jesus, I need you. I've made a mess of my life. I've sinned against You. Forgive me. I see that You are real. If you changed Brandon, you can certainly change me. I believe You came to earth out of love, and lived and died on a cross for my sin. I've gotten pretty far out there and I need you to take over my life right now. Fill me with your Spirit and take up Your life in me. Thank You for saving me, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, God saved you from something, for something. As of now you are a brand new creature, whether you feel it or not. You can't be saved by works because, technically, You are no more, a.k.a. GONE. You gave your body to Jesus and died to yourself. Now you are deemed "In Christ." Before each decision, literally take a moment to consider "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD). It's not just a nice saying. It helps, trust me. This is what He saved us FOR—to live through us while on earth, until we get to heaven. But if we don't focus on what He saved us FOR we will find ourselves returning to what he saved us FROM. And that isn't pretty.
Read the Gospel of John. This book will show you Who is inside you.
Memorize Galatians 2:20. This is your Identity Verse. Everything we do or say, or aspire to do, should spring from this knowledge and understanding.
After you read through the Gospel of John, read through the Epistles (Romans – Jude in the New Testament) with a red pen in hand. With your red pen, I want you to underline every instance where the term "in Christ" is found. There are about 130 of these places. They will tell you who you are, the new you, and how you should conduct yourself as this new creation.
Warning: The Devil is called "the accuser of the brethren". After a while, when you start making some mistakes, he will try to get you to buy the lie that this Life isn't for you. That it Isn't you period. I remember the day I called and told my mother to leave me alone about Jesus, that I would always be a criminal...The devil comes to kill, steal and destroy. He will try everything in his power to take this new Life from you. Don't let him! Stay prayed up. And don't buy the lie! There will come a day whenever you don't see that old you in the mirror anymore...Christ will be living and working through you. In other words, the devil's got beef with you. He's out to rob you of everything you have: your family, freedom, finances, your peace of mind and more...This is a righteous war. Stay strapped with your testimony of who you are "in Christ," and the sword of God's Word.
Jim Elliot was a missionary that died doing his duty, trying to give the Word of God to a tribe of man-eating people...He wrote in his diary right before he landed: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Be brave, soldier. I encourage you to stand strong, be courageous, join a church and make it your daily task to fight the good fight and do the New You.
What's dead is GONE. Welcome to the family! A whole lot of people are praying for you.
Be Encouraged,
B
[If you prayed this prayer, I encourage you to call or text and leave me a message at 910-838-6331. We will pray for you, specifically, and try to provide you with some more resources for this journey.]
WATCH THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
4/10/24
1. I don't know exactly what brought you to this website. But for most, you probably have someone who cares deeply for you and is concerned about the direction you may be going in. So they asked you to take a look at this page. First off, count your blessings, you have someone in your corner. That is more than a lot of people have.
2. My name is Brandon, as you should know by now. And truth is, I have a lot of experience with making the wrong decisions. The reasons I made those decisions were many. Many of them were out of plain stupidity. Others were out of pain and uncertainty. Today I want to make sure you are plainly aware of the importance of choosing your friends wisely, especially as it relates to the Bible. You may not read it a lot, but it is by far the best selling book EVER. And quiet frankly, it changed me into the person who cares what direction you are headed in today, along with your loved ones, that is. (Again, count your blessings.)
If you have haven't read it somewhere else, a friend of mine and I took the police on a chase back in 2012. We had guns in the car. Resultingly, during the chase we shot rounds out of our window in hopes of the muzzle flashes ending the nighttime pursuit. It was very stupid. We put many lives in danger. And due to my influence, a "friend" of mine caught a sentence of 17-21 years in North Carolina's state penitentiary. I myself got 20-29 years. He and I are going on our twelfth year.
I cared for this guy like a brother. I still do. Like he is my own family. I love him. My mother tries to put money onto his prison tablet and commissary as often as is possible. But caring for him didn't make a difference. I was young and stupid and didn't pay attention to how my negative actions and influence would affect his persons entire future; as well as his family's future. They miss this guy dearly. His name is Cody, and he is now 29 years old.
The Bible and the things it says for us to do, it isn't meant to be some rigid set of rules that restrict you from having any fun. It is the way God tries to keep you safe, your physical body as well as your soul. So it has a thing or two to say about this subject of friends.
Pointing out the need to be mindful when we choose our friends, the Word says: "Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared" (Proverbs 22:24-25, NIV). In the past, I was quick to snap on people. I was the tuff guy. I was the "friend" you called when someone was picking on you or your girlfriend. Or, when there was a friend of yours that was tied up in an abusive relationship and you wanted to help her get out of the house. Mostly, I thought I used my anger for good. But, still, anger is dangerous. And there are warning signs you can look out for, if you WATCH the company you keep.
3. And look at that last part of the verse, "and get yourself ensnared." This is real life we are talking about here. This isn't a game. You don't get any do-overs. At 18 years old the courts laid my friend down for as long as he had been alive. He got himself ensnared, literally, by following my lead, wanting to be "loyal," to be a "friend," knowing I was jammed up and wanted for beating up a guy who was beating on his girlfriend.
This is straight talk here. Somebody loves you and is trying to get your attention. Prison isn't fun. It isn't easy either. It takes more than time from you. It takes part of your being. It leaves you with trauma. Real talk, just this morning I woke up and learned that someone got hit in the head with a lock while they were asleep. This isn't where you want to be. In no way shape or form. You don't want it. You may think your tuff and that you are willing to take risks to do what you got to do to make it out there. But you don't want this, I promise you.
It said don't make friends with such a person. Just to be clear, it says don't even ASSOCIATE with them. Some of you reading this have been associating with some people you have no business associating with. The old saying is true, if you get down with dogs, you are going to get up with fleas. And some fleas you can't get rid of. Some fleas are for life, a gnawing, biting feeling you can't ever get off. An itch you can't ever scratch. A label you can't remove.
4. You have to understand that the people you keep around you, no matter how strong or good you think you are, will INFECT you. The Word says, "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character'" (1 Corinthians 15:33, NIV). One minute you are doing school projects and singing in the choir. Then a bad "friend" comes along and two months later you are smoking pot, selling dope and hitting licks.
I wish I would have learned these things before I made the choices in friends that I made. I wish I would have learned the dangers associated with choosing bad friends. Fooled me once, shame on them. Fool me twice, THAT'S on me. Now I'm doing things different. And I suggest you do the same, BEFORE you go to prison!
These days, a friend of Jesus is a friend of mine. And He made it easy for us to distinguish between those who are His friends and those who are not. He said, "You are my friends if you do what I command" (John 15:14, NIV). These days, I'm paying attention. I'm looking. Okay, bet, they don't have anger problems. So I'm good there. But what are they doing? Are they DOING what Jesus says to do in the Word? If they are, then we good. We can be friends. Call it what you want, but this ain't no video game. You only get one shot, as Eminem said.
You can't afford to miss!
5. So we see that they are doing what Jesus says to do in His Word, but more so than that, they actually know the Word for themselves. Jesus, Big Bro, goes on to say, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15, NIV). Those who are Jesus' friends know the Bible—in a perfect world—even as Jesus Himself knows it. And they love people (John 15:17). The opposite of love is not hate, it is selfishness. So those are things you can be on the lookout (BOLO) for if you want to be smart about your life.
Remember: a friend of His is a friend of ours. And when it comes down to it, the way Jesus sees it is: you are either a friend of His, or a friend of the World. The Word says, "You adulterous [disloyal] people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity [hostility] against God? Therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4, NIV). Who in their right minds would want beef with God Almighty? You better choose your friends wisely. Because the way He sees it is, "Birds of a feather flock together." You are guilty by association. You are just as wrong or right as your friends. The law calls this "acting in concert." And think about it, if your beefing with God, it is only a matter of time before you lose. He is GOING to win every time!
6. When someone goes to prison all we think about is the crime that was committed and the law that was broken. Many think THAT alone is the reason for our captivity, our being exiled and imprisoned. But Scripture tells it from another angle. It say that, when it comes down to it, the reason that people go to prison is because they have sinned against God. (Please take a moment to look up 2 Chronicles 6:37-39, Jeremiah 22:22, and Romans 13:1-7.) It is, and always has been between you and God. And He is going to win. He is God. Why would a person deliberately choose to lose?
If we want to win at this thing called life, and if we want to please our Creator, this is what the Word says, "Do not be yoked together [friends] with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial [an idol]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.' Therefore, 'Come out from them and be separate, touch no unclean thing and THEN I will receive you.' And, 'I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty'" (2 Cor 6:14-18).
Maybe you haven't had a father to ACTIVELY father you in your life.
7. Maybe you are looking for that in a big homie or the gang. God is saying HE will be that for you. And He will be the BEST Father. He has always been there. He has just been waiting for you to make up your mind if you wanted Him to be that for you. He loves you. More than any of your friends ever could! He wants what's best for you.
And what is best for you is found in the Word of God.
I know life can get hard. I used to be down since day one. I used to aid and assist and all that stuff. I'm telling you, He has something better and bigger for your life. And one thing He told me, after I started my own journey, was that He doesn't need a platform. He doesn't want you to stay down so you can make a difference in the lives of those guys. He don't want you to stay down, He wants you to Step Out. Step out of that mess! Wash your hands and say your prayers and turn to the Highest Ranking One of All: Jesus Christ. God the Father gave the entire world to Him as His personal footstool. Solomon himself tried to build a house for Him out of something earthy and worldly. And this is what He said: "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord...Did not My hand make all these things?" (Acts 7:49-50, ESV).
He doesn't need nor want that platform. He wants you to step out and separate your self from them. Give yourself to Him! Don't step with. Step out! Step out from them while you can.
8. Look at this, Psalms 1 promises us: "Blessed is the one who does not WALK in step with the wicked or STAND in the way that sinners take or SIT in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates in his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff THAT THE WIND BLOWS AWAY. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction" (verses 1-6, caps mine).
By wicked He means the world. People who do not even try to obey God, who do not believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who have not prayed: "Lord Jesus, forgive me my sins. I repent. From now on, You are my Savior, You are my Lord. Mold me and shape me as YOU will. Amen."
Once you do this, you will begin to yield fruit that others can eat from. Once you get planted in His Word and His purposes for your life, you will feel whole and your life will become purposeful like nothing you have ever imagined.
Men and women of God know who to listen to, as well as who not. And they stand for what they believe. And God knows that exact spot they are standing in, and every step they take. His eye is on them. HE is their friend.
9. Your Father loves you. He wants to keep you safe. And in reference to your friends this is what He wants me to tell you:
"Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God" (2 Corinthians 7:1, NIV).
Take that leap of faith and step out of that circle you are in. Become your own man. A family man. God's man. Be that Father or Mother He has called you to be. You can do it.
I'm speaking from personal experience here. I remember the exact date I started choosing my friends deliberately. It took some courage. As a result of my choice to step out, I could have been killed. I'm just being honest with you here. Because I want you to know that I understand. In some cases, stepping out may mean risking your life. But if your brave, you will gain your life in more ways than one.
Jim Elliot was a missionary to the Acua Indians. A cannibalistic tribe of people who had eaten everyone that came to tell them about God up to that time. While Jim was on the plane he wrote this in his diary. He wrote, "He is no fool who would give what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose."
Some things and people are worth standing for. And some are not. I'm just asking you to make the best choice. Because your worth it. And because there was a time, not too long ago, that a whole group of people stepped in to help pull ME out of the fire.
Never Take It For Granted
Never Take It For Granted
by Spencer Pinekenstein June 30,2024
by Spencer Pinekenstein June 30,2024
As often as I recall all the decisions that I wish I would have made differently in my past, is as often as I realize that I made those decisions because I took certain things for granted. I assumed that familywould always be there for me. I cast off the words and wisdom from certain mentors in my life as superficial and "just what an adult might tell any young person".
I also took for granted that life is delicate, and should be treated with care. A diminished value of these things propelled to make some truly horrible decisions regarding the well being of myself and others. from drugs to guns to theft and murder, I cut a path full of pain with my life through the lives of others. God certainly never means for any person at any time to walk paths such as that, and today, even as I type these words, I am filled with comfort and awe that God saw fit to take ashes and turn it to beauty. That is what my lie was as I walked into Guilford County jail January 2019. Ashes.But nothing, and I do mean nothing, is beyond the providence of God. He takes evil things, and turns them for good. He takes the lesser things, and makes them greater. He makes the weak strong and helps the unloved encounter real love. My advice is to let God make beautiful art with your life. He is the greatest painter, sculptor, and architect imaginable. If you let him, he will show you why.
With love,
Spencer Pinekenstein
Take a Second And..... by Spencer Pinekenstein 7/30/2024
Think before you act. Most of the time we don't, and it ends up being to our detriment. Our emotions should always follow our thought. Not the other way around. When we base our actions on how we feel, rather than sound thinking, we find ourselves in situations God never meant for us to be in, even though we feel in the moment that we are right. Following Christ means paying attention to yourself. Not being selfish mind you, but being self aware. There is a big difference. We aim to be a people of action, not reaction. Ask yourself if what your doing is a product of a reaction to an emotion you are feeling, of if it is an action based on good reasoning and healthy thinking. Every hour, minute, and second we are all caught between a tug of the two. Choose wisely. Think before you act, and it will bode well for you.
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