Grace Martial Arts Fellowship began in 1990, went online with a website in 1995 and began publishing newsletters to the Christian martial arts community in 1998.
Because of the quality of information found in those early newsletter articles and the fact they are no longer available online, we’ve decided to re-publish many of them in the coming weeks and months. Our hope is that a new generation of Christian martial artists will be blessed by the wisdom of those who were on the path before them.
GMAF NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 1999
Welcome to the GMAF Newsletter! We pray it will encourage you in your Martial Arts and Outreach for Christ.
THOUGHTS FROM THE MASTER
“Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come to me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus Christ
“But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.”
The Apostle Paul
MASTER NOTES
We are pleased to bring you the final installment of the testimony of Dr. Karl Marx, Grand Master of Keichu-Do Karate of Santa Maria, California. [Dr. Marx passed into the presence of the Lord he loved so much in 2013]
“I wish I had the ability to express how much God has proven His love for me. I want every one on this earth to know and understand that Jesus Christ gave His physical life up to save our eternal lives. God’s love for us is so tremendous that if we only understood, we could love Him back in return. Not as much as He does for us, but at least a million times more than we do now. How would you feel if the most beautiful girl, or if you’re a girl, the most handsome man in the universe was madly in love with you but you didn’t know it. Let’s say for example that you won the lottery of 10 million dollars and no one ever told you until you were 7 seconds from death. Would you not be disappointed? Well, missing out on the Blessings God wants to give you just because you refuse to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior is going to be a much larger disappointment.
Losing being in Heaven is a lot more costly than not receiving ten million dollars. Not knowing how much Christ Loves you is a much greater loss than never having the love of the most beautiful man or woman on earth. Words may never be enough to really explain or express how necessary the love of Christ is to all of us. Without food one might live a month or two, without water we might live a week or so. In both cases doing without something causes death. But please allow me to point out to you that doing without Jesus Christ causes you to Live throughout eternity in pain and anguish. Christ is like the air we breath. We can use artificial support systems, but in the end we all die without air to breathe. Jesus Christ IS THE BREATHING LIFE SUPPORT of all creation.
Without Him You die the death of the “trillion plus deaths, ” for all eternity (forever and ever ), eons and all that cosmic mumbo jumbo certain Religious Cults teach. It’s All the Time, Baby, never stopping, on and on, dude. Do you know how long forever and ever is? Well, think about it. Do YOU want to spend All that Time alone, in the Dark, and in pain you can’t even imagine how much it hurts? You will hurt in places you never even knew you had places. Don’t push it, buddy! The cost is too high. But let’s talk about something nicer. You don’t have to take my word for it. Try it yourself. The Lord has told us to just knock, and the door will be opened for us. Christ will come to us and eat dinner at our house. Wow! Talk about a house guest.
When you’re sick to the point of dying, in fact you might be dying, what do you want? Who do you call? Not Ghost Busters, that’s for sure. Most people call 9-1-1. They want medical assistance right away. If you were a victim of a crime, you would call the police. In both cases usually the first words out of our mouth is, ‘Oh God’! or ‘Sweet Jesus’! Sometimes it’s ‘God help me’. We are always calling on God to help us even before calling anyone else. Why is this? A lot of people who are not even Christians call on God to help them. What do they expect? I do not understand why they call on the Father if they are not His children?. God is there for all of us, but we must first come to Him for forgiveness for our sins.
What is the deal? I am amazed that every one on earth is not a Christ Loving Christian. Man, if someone saved my life, I would spend the rest of my life in debt to him. We owe Him the respect due Him for His sacrifice for us. Yet He did it for no charge. He paid our debt for us with His life, with His Blood. And the way some people treat Him is sad. They stupidly call His name when they are angry and cursing. That’s like saying bad about someone’s mother. When I hear some bumble brain take the Lord’s name in vain I just add a prayer to it. Some guy might swear using a lot of curse words, and somewhere in there he’ll say ” Jesus Christ ” and I’ll add ” have mercy on us”.
Sometimes the cursing fellow will apologize, and it gives me a chance to speak to him about what Christ means to me.
I tell people that the name of Jesus Christ is sacred to me. I explain that His Name is Holy and that it hurts me when someone uses His Name or God’s name in a cursing manner. I let them know that it is the same as if someone said something bad about their mother, or her honor. I do not threaten to beat them to a pulp. I just explain how it affects me. I admit to them that sometimes I become angry. I am a sinner, no better than anyone else, but God isn’t finished working all the kinks out of me yet. Thank God. I do admit to my weakness and that sometimes I lose control of my very bad temper. That is usually enough of a hint for most intelligent men. There is an old saying about me that is kind of funny. “Don’t make Soke Mad” is still good advice.
April 10th is a day I shall not soon forget. Did you ever have one of those days were EVERYTHING went wrong? On April 6th I had a prostate biopsy to check to see if there was a cancer. I think the doctor must have rotor rooted too high and punched a hole in my lung and up into my brain. First, I get lost driving to another town nearby to buy some vitamins, namely Saw Palmetto, Zinc, and other prostate-helping supplements. Missing my turn off the freeway, I had a neat scenic drive about 70 miles out of my way. I have been fighting a really tough cold or the flu for a month and today I had to see my doctor, and found out I have pneumonia. Just great huh? But through it all I know my Lord is with me and good will come from it in the end. If I should last that long, ha! You see that is the real point of all this stuff I am writing about. No matter how hard times are or how bad things appear at any given moment, God is ALWAYS there with you, to pull you out if you need Him. But hey! be realistic. If you want that kind of insurance, the cost is High. But the price has already been paid for by Jesus Christ who has paid the premium. All you have to do is believe in Him, and give your life to God and accept Christ as your Savior. Ask God to forgive your sins, accept Christ, and obey.
This would be a good place to stop, but I’m not going to. I do not think my point is clear yet. If I could just make you all understand that there IS A Living, Loving, Giving, Gracious, Father God who cares about you and me. We, none of us, ever did anything in our lives nor could we ever Do anything of ourselves to earn His love and mercy. No one can ever DO anything themselves to earn Salvation. Except by FAITH can we BELIEVE. No one can really Intellectually accept what the Holy Bible teaches. Faith is believing in something unseen. Just because something appears unrealistic, or even impossible, doesn’t mean it is not true. The biggest problem I see with most humans is that we think if we don’t agree with a view then it’s wrong. Just because You do not believe there is No other way to heaven except through Jesus Christ, doesn’t mean that this FACT is incorrect. It just means that YOU refuse to believe the TRUTH. What is true for me is true for you, there is only ONE TRUTH. ” JESUS CHRIST IS “. That’s Truth. Read it yourself. He said it Himself ” I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through ME. ” You can find that in the Bible, just read John 14:6.
Some individuals say “WHAT’S true for you may not be true for me”. Sorry Charlie. Truth is truth. That excuse opens to many doors for crime.
Well, it’s true that stealing is unlawful, but since he stole me from it’s OK for me to steal something from him. Is that a truth? He committed adultery on me so I can do the same. ” If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander”. That kind of rationalization gave Adolph Hitler an attitude about the Jewish people that was felt around the World. Genghis Khan, Fidel Castro, Julius Caesar, Benito Mussolini, Lenin, and many others had that kind of rationalization attitude. They ALL felt justified in their actions. Millions of people were killed, and millions more are still being murdered in this so-called Christian Country we call the United States of America.
Abortion has killed an estimated 35 million children since the Roe vs. Wade so-called Supreme Court decision on January 22, 1973. There is only ONE REAL SUPREME COURT, and that one has as its Chief Justice ALMIGHTY GOD. I can assure you that the other guys will be judged themselves … Nothing we do here on Earth will be swept under the rug, overlooked, or ignored. EVERYTHING! and I mean EVERYTHING! WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE! TO GOD. Christianity is like Martial Arts. You get out of it what you put in. No study or practice, and you lose in the race of life. Be real! cool is being Christlike. You want to be a tough guy? then try being a real Christian. That is a tough row to hoe. God wants YOU! Real men know how to love in the way Christ loved us.”
We thank Soke Marx for allowing us to reprint his personal testimony for GMAF. We thank God for saving Dr. Marx and using him to share the Love of Jesus Christ across the nation and around the world.
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