Russ Kessler Jr.
Box 600 Nashville NC 27856
.
#0710383
.
#0710383
Russ is serving a eighteen year prison sentence in NC, which began in 2000. We trust that this brief overview of his life will be a comfort and a blessing to you. The question that is often asked, how does a preachers kid, a High School Baseball Star, a US Marine and a husband wind up in prison? Before you answer this question, examine your own heart. If things were just a little different, is it possible you could see yourself in the same situation?
You may write Russ at the following address
Russell Kessler Jr. #0710383
PO Box 600 Nashville NC 27856
“Why Now “
Written by Russ Jr.
There have been many questions of late, “Why now, and why not before or earlier?” A simple answer comes to my mind, in I John 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren…” To live or to love means that something had to happen to me and it was quite easy. I was tired of the way things were going and I knew that I needed to do something about it. My desire to change really started when I could feel the chains of this world wrapped tightly around my neck and I could only think of one thing: freedom from it!
As I diminished in my own estimation something really happened: God became bigger! As I saw how unloving I was, I saw how full of love He is. As I saw how high minded I was, I saw how humble He is. As I saw how selfish I was, I saw how unselfish He is. As I lost sight of my own supposed goodness, I saw how good He is. Somehow, through it all, a true knowledge of God formed in my heart, changing the way I trusted God and others. We have to look at this through the spiritual cause when God truly came into my life, it changed me from the inside. According to Ezekiel 11:19, God literally took my stony heart away and gave me a heart of flesh. The heart transplant we’ll call it did more in me than I ever could have imagined. My thought process changed, my prayers changed, a love for others occurred, my own eyes was opened to sights beyond my own nose. For many years, I learned plenty of God knowledge and His Son Jesus Christ; but to know Him intimately and to have the reassurance of the His Holy Spirit indwelling in me…..Wow! Sight beyond sights, thought beyond thoughts, and hallelujah, a love that extends outward from within. God has surely met my deepest needs. I have discovered that His greatest work in my life has been at points of brokenness and helplessness when I realized my need for more of Him. It is my testimony that what God has done and is doing in my life will stand the test of time because it has been built upon the solid foundation of the Rock, not the shifting sands of human efforts and emotion. Why not before? According to Romans 6:21, I was no good to you, the fruit being produced in my life only led to death.
So I ask you, how could I possibly pour any good into righteousness when all I had was unrighteousness? To you I could only offer something dead or of no good use. When I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world, Christ honestly wasn’t my priority. I was asked two great questions and we all have to face them and to answer them. 1) What do you think about the Christ? 2) Will you be a man? And to answer the first one was when I chose life with God and I asked God to forgive me and Praise God, I’ve been made free from sin and now my fruit is unto holiness according to Romans 6:22. The second was just this, it is a building process. It is built layer upon layer, line upon line, precept upon precept, and decision upon decision. While we try to look for better methods, God’s just looking for a better man. And I know to reach the maximum in my life, I needed to be more Christ-like than ever. God was looking for men to stand in the gap in Ezekiel 22:30 and I determined to be that man.
Why was I spared? The only explanation is that a merciful God knew that the day would come that I would repent. He obviously was carefully watching over my life even before I was one of His. It was mercy, all mercy- God meeting my needs first as He has done for you.
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” Nathaniel Hawthorne. So why now? Because it took being taken away from everything I knew and everything I had to see that I was only fooling myself with my so many faces. Everything needed to be taken away so it would only be God and me, for Him to welcome His lost son back home; and from then to now to realize what has been there all along…..a love so sacrificial, a love so dying to start, a love so real and persistent, a love that always saw the best in me, even in my worst, but more than everything else, a love that gave way more than received. I have to say, the most marvelous work on earth is displayed when God transforms a man like me, who was self-centered, full of pride, and had very little concern for other people, into someone who is so full of Jesus and His love that He continually, in His daily life, puts the will of God and the needs of others before his own desires. Nothing is greater than when God turns a loser into a winner!
Four Things You Must Accept to Go to Heaven
1. You must accept that you are a sinner.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:10 - As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. No one is perfect. No one has lived up to God's perfect standard.
2. You must accept that as a sinner you owe a penalty.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death...Ezekiel 18:4 - The soul that sinneth, it shall die. This death is described in the Bible as the second death, the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14 - And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. If we pay what we owe as sinners, we mustspend an eternity in the lake of fire (Hell).
3. You must accept that Jesus Christ has already paid our debt.
Christ was not a sinner, and the Bible teaches that God took all of our sin and placed it on Christ. While Christ was bearing all of our sins in his own body, God punished Him in our place to pay the debt we owe. This is not something .God promised to do; it is something God has already done.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It is a fact that Jesus Christ has already paid your sin debt.
4. You must accept by faith what Jesus Christ did for you.
Ninety times in the Gospel of ;John the Bible says, "Believe." John 3:36 - "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believethnot the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ means that you accept the fact that you are a sinner, that as a sinner you owe the sin penalty, and that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the debt you owe. But it means going one step further. I means that you will completely trust Christ to get you to Heaven - That you will put the matter of you salvation in His hands and depend on Him for everlasting life.
Now the moment you do this, God promises you are not condemned but have everlasting life and that you shall never perish. John 5:24 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. If you will trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, pray this simple prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a Sinner, and I deserve to pay my own sin debt, but I do believe that You died for me to pay the debt that I owe. Today, the best I know how, I trust You as my Savior. I will depend on You from this moment on for my salvation. Now help me to live for you to be a good Christian. Amen.
You may write Russ at the following address
Russell Kessler Jr. #0710383
PO Box 600 Nashville NC 27856
“Why Now “
Written by Russ Jr.
There have been many questions of late, “Why now, and why not before or earlier?” A simple answer comes to my mind, in I John 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren…” To live or to love means that something had to happen to me and it was quite easy. I was tired of the way things were going and I knew that I needed to do something about it. My desire to change really started when I could feel the chains of this world wrapped tightly around my neck and I could only think of one thing: freedom from it!
As I diminished in my own estimation something really happened: God became bigger! As I saw how unloving I was, I saw how full of love He is. As I saw how high minded I was, I saw how humble He is. As I saw how selfish I was, I saw how unselfish He is. As I lost sight of my own supposed goodness, I saw how good He is. Somehow, through it all, a true knowledge of God formed in my heart, changing the way I trusted God and others. We have to look at this through the spiritual cause when God truly came into my life, it changed me from the inside. According to Ezekiel 11:19, God literally took my stony heart away and gave me a heart of flesh. The heart transplant we’ll call it did more in me than I ever could have imagined. My thought process changed, my prayers changed, a love for others occurred, my own eyes was opened to sights beyond my own nose. For many years, I learned plenty of God knowledge and His Son Jesus Christ; but to know Him intimately and to have the reassurance of the His Holy Spirit indwelling in me…..Wow! Sight beyond sights, thought beyond thoughts, and hallelujah, a love that extends outward from within. God has surely met my deepest needs. I have discovered that His greatest work in my life has been at points of brokenness and helplessness when I realized my need for more of Him. It is my testimony that what God has done and is doing in my life will stand the test of time because it has been built upon the solid foundation of the Rock, not the shifting sands of human efforts and emotion. Why not before? According to Romans 6:21, I was no good to you, the fruit being produced in my life only led to death.
So I ask you, how could I possibly pour any good into righteousness when all I had was unrighteousness? To you I could only offer something dead or of no good use. When I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world, Christ honestly wasn’t my priority. I was asked two great questions and we all have to face them and to answer them. 1) What do you think about the Christ? 2) Will you be a man? And to answer the first one was when I chose life with God and I asked God to forgive me and Praise God, I’ve been made free from sin and now my fruit is unto holiness according to Romans 6:22. The second was just this, it is a building process. It is built layer upon layer, line upon line, precept upon precept, and decision upon decision. While we try to look for better methods, God’s just looking for a better man. And I know to reach the maximum in my life, I needed to be more Christ-like than ever. God was looking for men to stand in the gap in Ezekiel 22:30 and I determined to be that man.
Why was I spared? The only explanation is that a merciful God knew that the day would come that I would repent. He obviously was carefully watching over my life even before I was one of His. It was mercy, all mercy- God meeting my needs first as He has done for you.
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” Nathaniel Hawthorne. So why now? Because it took being taken away from everything I knew and everything I had to see that I was only fooling myself with my so many faces. Everything needed to be taken away so it would only be God and me, for Him to welcome His lost son back home; and from then to now to realize what has been there all along…..a love so sacrificial, a love so dying to start, a love so real and persistent, a love that always saw the best in me, even in my worst, but more than everything else, a love that gave way more than received. I have to say, the most marvelous work on earth is displayed when God transforms a man like me, who was self-centered, full of pride, and had very little concern for other people, into someone who is so full of Jesus and His love that He continually, in His daily life, puts the will of God and the needs of others before his own desires. Nothing is greater than when God turns a loser into a winner!
Four Things You Must Accept to Go to Heaven
1. You must accept that you are a sinner.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:10 - As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. No one is perfect. No one has lived up to God's perfect standard.
2. You must accept that as a sinner you owe a penalty.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death...Ezekiel 18:4 - The soul that sinneth, it shall die. This death is described in the Bible as the second death, the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14 - And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. If we pay what we owe as sinners, we mustspend an eternity in the lake of fire (Hell).
3. You must accept that Jesus Christ has already paid our debt.
Christ was not a sinner, and the Bible teaches that God took all of our sin and placed it on Christ. While Christ was bearing all of our sins in his own body, God punished Him in our place to pay the debt we owe. This is not something .God promised to do; it is something God has already done.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It is a fact that Jesus Christ has already paid your sin debt.
4. You must accept by faith what Jesus Christ did for you.
Ninety times in the Gospel of ;John the Bible says, "Believe." John 3:36 - "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believethnot the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ means that you accept the fact that you are a sinner, that as a sinner you owe the sin penalty, and that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the debt you owe. But it means going one step further. I means that you will completely trust Christ to get you to Heaven - That you will put the matter of you salvation in His hands and depend on Him for everlasting life.
Now the moment you do this, God promises you are not condemned but have everlasting life and that you shall never perish. John 5:24 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. If you will trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, pray this simple prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a Sinner, and I deserve to pay my own sin debt, but I do believe that You died for me to pay the debt that I owe. Today, the best I know how, I trust You as my Savior. I will depend on You from this moment on for my salvation. Now help me to live for you to be a good Christian. Amen.