From Death Row to Abundant Life 08.30.2026

Aug 30, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Five Paces in a Broken World

A concrete cell becomes a metaphor for the boundaries created by rebellion. Five paces defined the limits of a life ruled by anger, violence, and isolation. The walls bore witness to the consequences of choices made in darkness, where hopelessness choked out light. Yet even in that confined space, grace waited like a whisper, ready to rewrite the story. Redemption often begins where human strength ends, in the raw honesty of hitting rock bottom. The same God who numbered those paces walks with us through every prison we create or inherit.
[43:16]

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."
(Psalm 40:1-2, NIV)

Reflection: Where have you built "walls" of self-reliance or bitterness that keep you from acknowledging your need for grace? How might surrender transform your confinement into a starting point for freedom?

Day 2: The Coca-Cola Bottle of Pain

Shaking a sealed bottle creates pressure—a vivid image of unprocessed grief. For years, pain was swallowed whole, disguised as toughness, until rage erupted uncontrollably. The lie that vulnerability equals weakness perpetuates cycles of destruction. Yet Jesus invites us to pour out our ache before Him, the only One who can hold it without condemnation. Healing begins when we stop confusing silence with strength and let tears baptize our wounds.
[37:36]

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."
(James 1:19-20, NIV)

Reflection: What pain have you "capped" to appear strong? How might releasing it to Christ disrupt harmful patterns in your relationships or decisions?

Day 3: Choosing Your Response in the Pit

Solitary confinement revealed one irreducible freedom: the power to choose our posture toward God. When every external liberty is stripped away, the heart’s orientation becomes starkly clear. Victor Frankl’s insight—that meaning is found in response, not circumstance—echoes Paul’s jailhouse hymns. Even chains cannot mute worship. Our darkest valleys become classrooms where God teaches us to wield the weapon of surrendered will.
[52:13]

"Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing."
(Philippians 2:12-14, NIV)

Reflection: What situation feels like a "cell" today? How could shifting your focus from changing circumstances to yielding to Christ’s work transform your perspective?

Day 4: Letters from a Ninety-Year-Old Saint

Decades of handwritten notes from Frankie modeled stubborn love. His persistence mirrored the Father’s heart—gentle, patient, refusing to abandon even the most resistant soul. One sentence, repeated across years, wore down walls: “Jesus loves you.” Sometimes evangelism is less about arguments won than presence sustained. Heaven’s grammar turns semicolons into exclamation points, proving no life is beyond redemption’s reach.
[53:25]

"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."
(1 Thessalonians 2:8, NIV)

Reflection: Who has been a "Frankie" in your story, reflecting Christ’s patient love? How might you extend that same tenacious grace to someone struggling in darkness?

Day 5: From Stomping to Established Steps

A boy’s angry stomp on wooden stairs foreshadowed decades of rebellion. Yet the God who numbers hairs also counts steps, repurposing even our misdirected passion. Where stomping once echoed defiance, surrendered feet now walk “established steps” (Psalm 40:2). Every scar becomes a roadmap for others, proving that no fall is final when grace lifts us. Our past doesn’t define our pace—Christ’s resurrection power does.
[01:08:10]

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
(2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

Reflection: What "stomps" from your past still haunt you? How can embracing your identity as a "new creation" redirect your energy toward Christ’s purposes today?

Sermon Summary

The story of “voices and choices” begins with a hard father, a wounded boy, and pain turned into rage. The voice that said “big boys don’t cry” taught him to bottle up hurt, like a shaken Coca-Cola bottle held tight until the thumb comes off and everything spews out. The broken choices that followed took an honor-roll student and athlete into drugs, violence, prison, robbery, murder, and finally a death sentence at twenty years old.

Death row exposed the end of a life built on anger, rebellion, and false strength. Five paces in a cell became the boundaries set by “broken, angry little boys’ choices.” The law pronounced death, the prison system isolated him, and hopelessness convinced him that nothing could ever be different. Yet the gospel came to his cell through Frankie Son, a gentle prison volunteer who said, “I love you, and Jesus loves you. He doesn’t care what crimes you’ve committed. He will forgive you if you let him.”

The contrast between the voices of the world and the voice of Jesus became the turning point. The world taught him to numb pain, take from weaker people, and survive at any cost. Jesus, through letters from Frankie Son, told him that God believed in him, that he could do good things, and that God still had a plan and purpose for his life. Victor Frankl’s insight also broke through the hopelessness: when every outward freedom has been taken, the freedom to choose one’s response remains.

The cross became the place where anger, addiction, hatred, guilt, and grief could be dropped. Christ answered a desperate confession with a peace that had never seemed possible, even in childhood. The Spirit gave not only calmness and clarity, but also a driven purpose. Prison, once understood only as punishment, became preparation through reading, writing, teaching, discipleship, Bible college, and ministry to men still behind the walls.

God overturned every human verdict. The justice system said, “Execute him.” The prison system said, “Isolate him.” The parole board repeatedly said, “Let him die in prison.” But God trained a violent and broken man to become a teacher, peacemaker, chaplain, mentor, husband, and servant to incarcerated adults and youth. Psalm 40 names the final reality: God brings a person out of the horrible pit and miry clay, sets his feet upon a rock, and establishes not his stomps, but his steps.

Key Takeaways

1. Pain buried becomes destructive anger The refusal to grieve does not make pain disappear. The heart can carry rejection, fear, and shame for years until those wounds erupt against others. Christ does not call broken people to tougher masks, but to honest surrender. [37:36]
2. Grace reaches the deepest cell Death row, solitary confinement, and a long record of violence could not place anyone beyond the reach of Jesus. Forgiveness does not minimize evil or erase its consequences, but it breaks sin’s claim to define the rest of a life. The love of Christ enters places that human systems have declared hopeless. [53:25]
3. A response remains a real choice External control can take away movement, comfort, opportunity, and nearly every visible freedom. Yet the heart still faces a choice between becoming savage or becoming merciful. God’s grace gives strength to make that choice differently, even in the darkest place. [51:50]
4. God turns punishment into preparation A prison cell became a classroom, a place of confession, and eventually a place of service. The years that seemed wasted became part of the training for teaching, mentoring, and bringing peace to others. God’s purpose can work through consequences without calling evil good. [65:58]
5. God establishes steps, not stomps Anger once made each step a stomp of rebellion and unresolved hurt. Psalm 40 pictures God setting unsteady feet upon a rock and giving a new song of praise. Trust in the Lord changes not merely a person’s destination, but the way each next step is taken.

## [67:51]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[27:43] - New Beginnings and Testimony
[30:19] - The Death Sentence
[32:48] - Voices and Choices
[36:15] - Pain Turned Into Anger
[40:52] - Prison and a Violent Crime
[43:16] - Five Paces on Death Row
[44:34] - Frankie Son Brings the Gospel
[47:12] - Resentenced From Death to Life
[48:47] - Solitary Confinement and Hopelessness
[50:34] - Choosing a Different Response
[53:25] - Surrender at the Cross
[56:47] - From Prisoner to Teacher
[60:11] - Bible College and Peacemaking
[62:15] - Parole and a New Life
[64:32] - On the Rock Ministries
[67:27] - Psalm 40 and Established Steps

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 40:1-3
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him.” [01:07:48]

Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [45:30]

John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” [01:03:03]

Observation questions

In Psalm 40:1-3, what does God do for the person who cries out to Him, and what new outward response follows?
What early wounds and messages helped turn hurt into anger, and how was the shaken Coca-Cola bottle used to picture buried pain? [37:47]
What were the “five paces” a picture of, both physically and spiritually? [43:49]
What words did Frankie Son repeat in his first visit and later letter, and what did those words say about Jesus’ attitude toward a guilty person? [53:25]

Interpretation questions

Romans 6:23 names sin’s wages as death but calls eternal life God’s gift. Why is it important that eternal life is received as a gift rather than earned by cleaning up a past life? [45:41]
Psalm 40 says God sets a person’s feet on a rock and establishes their steps. What is the difference between God establishing someone’s “steps” and a person continuing in angry “stomps”? [01:07:58]
A person may lose comfort, freedom, opportunity, and control, yet still choose a response. How can this truth bring both responsibility and hope to someone in a hard situation? [52:07]
John 10:10 contrasts the thief’s destruction with Jesus’ abundant life. In what ways can anger, addiction, violence, and taking advantage of others resemble the thief’s work, even before a person sees the damage clearly? [01:03:24]

Application questions

What pain, rejection, disappointment, or shame might you be tempted to hide behind a “big boys don’t cry” kind of mask? What could honest surrender to Christ look like in that specific area? [37:14]
When pressure builds in your life, what does “the thumb coming off” tend to look like—anger, harsh words, withdrawal, controlling behavior, numbing out, or something else? What warning signs could help you seek God’s help sooner? [38:10]
Are there voices from your past or present that tell you that you are hopeless, permanently defined by failure, or unable to change? What truths from Romans 6:23 and Psalm 40 answer those voices?
Jesus welcomes people to bring their brokenness, anger, addictions, hurt, and hatred to the cross. Is there something specific you need to name before God instead of carrying it alone? [53:31]
Where do you feel most trapped right now—by circumstances, habits, fear, conflict, or consequences? What faithful response remains available to you, even if the situation itself does not change quickly? [52:12]
God can use painful consequences as preparation for serving others without calling evil good. How might God be shaping compassion, wisdom, patience, or usefulness through a difficult part of your own story? [01:06:17]
Psalm 40 says God gives a new song that leads others to trust Him. What part of God’s work in your life could become a quiet testimony of His faithfulness to someone else? [01:08:12]

Sermon Clips

59s

#ConfessionToPeace

“But I sat down on that con cold concrete one morning, and I I said, god, I I don't even know if you hear my voice because I've done so much wrong in this world. But please accept confession for the things I've done wrong. Forgive me for the life I took, for the people I've hurt, for I still remember my father's face in that courtroom at this time twenty years before. He had been passed at this time and five years previous. And and I just ask, please forgive me for all the things. Began to cry as I began to confess that day. But when the tears stopped for the first time in my life, I found a peace wash over me like I didn't know could possibly exist even as a little boy. And I understand now is that indwelling spirit giving me a sense of calmness and clarity. He also gave me something else. He gave me a driven purpose in my life.”

57s

#FaithInConfinement

“But, I taught that program for ten years behind prison walls with no thought that I'd ever really get a chance to take advantage of the resources they provided because every two years, right on cue, they slammed the door on me time after time. I had been in prison in the near 2015 for forty years. I went before the parole board that year, I told him something that speaks profoundly to how far god had brought me. But I told him that day, I said, I don't know what your decision will be today, but whatever your decision is, I will be at peace with it because I at last understand that I I was never ready to leave prison until I was ready to stay. That I will walk as free in a prison cell block honoring my sovereign god as anywhere in this world, and I will continue to serve him regardless of my station in life.”

51s

#ParoleGranted

“Well, what you heard to this point is basically the the justice system said just execute him. The prison system said just isolate him. The parole board has said for forty four years to that point, just let him die in prison. But god but God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. On 03/18/2020, I went before the parole board my eighteenth from the time I was tried arrested, tried, and then sent us to die in South Carolina's elective chair. And the parole board came back with its answer. Mister McPhee, your parole has been granted.”

39s

#HisStoryNotMine

“You know, for many, many years, I was a disciple disciple of the thief. But then I committed my life to Jesus, and I became a disciple of the Christ. My life is exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ever ask or think according to the power within each one of us. And I'm so grateful now to be able to share his story in my life. I love sharing the the testimony, but it's never a Jimmy story, but it's always a Jesus story. I'm so grateful for that.”

30s

#RedemptionIsReal

“sharing my story of god's grace in my life, and that redemption is real, and that god can transform a heart, a broken little boy as I was. So angry and so just upside down on principles in this world. But he gave me a truth to walk out each and every day. And then that truth, of course, takes you higher and higher in this world, in his core his plan and purpose for each one of our lives.”

26s

#PreparedForPurpose

“And up to that point, I I didn't understand it. I thought prison was about the punishment. I thought prison was about the pun the the the, predicament I placed myself in. But it turned out it was all preparation for everything he has me doing today. I was trained well into my service to others as a teacher and then a mentor and a disciple for Christ on the inside, and little did I know.”

43s

#PrisonBibleCollege

“What that is is they designed a program through private funding to handpick 15 inmates out of 25,000 in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. I was one of only 13 chosen in the year 2017 for a Bible College degree with the intention to send us out as peacemakers and lights to the darkness of the most dangerous cell blocks in South Carolina. Now bear in mind, please, this is the same guy that he'd locked away years ago because I couldn't get along with anyone. But yet, my obedience and the change, the transformation that Jesus had worked in my life was now to train me up and send me out.”

71s

#FullCircleRedemption

“But on the time of graduation, it's a pretty big deal now when a dozen guys are better graduate a bible college degree, many of them old knuckleheads like I had been. And they brought the media in. We had directors of prison. We had politicians there. It was a pretty, pretty big deal. Even the president of the college came in to hand us our degrees. But there was a couple people there I love to share that special moment. My older sister, I I said earlier, hey. Come back into my life. We'll watch the roller coast of roller coaster of my insanity for forty years to see me graduate in Irma and receive my bible degree. But there was someone else that day sitting in the back of the auditorium, then 90 years old, named Kuso Maiishi, also known as Frankie He was there to watch me receive my bible degree. The same man who I rejected Christ out of hand as an open as an angry, broken 20 year old kid, only to reach back to him at age 40 and ask him to tell me some more about this Jesus guy. He was there to watch me receive my bible degree.”

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