Welcome to the GMAF Newsletter! We pray it will encourage you in your Martial Arts and Outreach for Christ.
"If any man desires to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all."
Jesus Christ
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."
The Apostle Paul
We are pleased to bring you the third installment of the testimony of Dr. Karl Marx, Grand Master of Keichu-Do Karate of Santa Maria, California. If you would like to write Dr. Marx, you may do so at the following address: Keichu-Do Outreach Ministry, 3530 Orcutt Rd., Santa Maria, California 93455. You may also e-mail Soke Marx. I'm sure he would enjoy hearing from other Christian martial artists.
You may visit Dr. Marx's web site at http://www.oakknolls.com/keichumain.htm .
Well, God in His Infinite wisdom had a plan for me. I just was too busy sinning, and being a secure pain in the neck. Mr. super jerk, that was me. I could not hear that small still voice, because I was shouting to loudly about myself, me, me, me, kind of stuff. You know, when God wants to get our attention He can get it, one way or another. In my case Anxiety Attacks and Panic attacks GOT my attention Fast. With all the Walking, Pacing back and forth. Folks, this kind of illness is without doubt one of, if not the worst state of mind a Mind can suffer through. It sure made me go to the feet of Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jacob wrestled with God, and struggled until God Blessed him. Well Old Jacob lasted only one night, I on the other hand, have been clinging to the feet of Jesus Christ for the last 18 years. And when I forget about by position, and start doing stinking thinking, He reminds me in a way that always gets my attention. The attacks are not often and are not nearly so severe anymore and the panic is gone. But I know what, where, and how to get back on track. I long to always be in His Will. Anxiety is nothing to fear anymore.
At first I thought I was being cursed for all my past sins, but now I believe they are a blessing. I used the " up time " to pray a lot, and the Holy Spirit lets me know who and what needs prayer. Anyway all the exercise must have made my heart muscles stronger, because I'm still here, Praise God. Time did take it's toll on me, however, and all the extra walking, Sometimes 4 or more hours without sitting down really wore me down. I developed something called sleep Apnea, where about 20 per cent, or more of the time spent sleeping I wasn't breathing. This is not good on the brain or body, and could be responsible for some extent for Alzheimer's disease. I have been diagnosed, as having a very severe case of sleep Apnea. Another life threatening disease? yes, and someone might think that I would have given up by now, and just waited to die. But not me! I just keep on, keeping on, with prayer, and Faith in Jesus Christ, my Blessed Hope.
After four years of pacing back and forth, around and around, my lungs pumped a lot of air into my respiratory system which appears to have stimulated my circulatory system. This in turn appears to have given my heart an extra amount of pumping to do, thus--exercising the muscles around my heart. I think it was in 1997 that I was examined by a local physician for a pinched nerve in my left shoulder. The x-ray however revealed a more serious problem. My heart had become enlarged. I commented that a lot of people had said I have a big heart. The doctor wasn't impressed with my levity. Treatment would be expensive and thanks to a lot of my greedy ex-students, who didn't care treatment was not possible. So here I was again faced with a dilemma.
What to do? Well I can tell you I had no problem this time. I just went straight to the Lord, Almighty God, Prayed for His intervention and healing, then waited in faithfulness on His Timing. About a year later in another place at another time I was getting my annual physical check up, when low and behold, surprise! the ex-ray showed my heart back to normal. Medically impossible? What do you think? I'll go for the Lord's mercy on this one also. God is so Good! I have been diagnosed as having Angina pectoris, which if you know your medical lingo, is a fatal disease characterized by paroxysms of intense pain and a feeling of constriction in the chest. I have used the nitroglycerin pill, and the nasty stickum on patches. To tell the truth I was more afraid of someone punching me in the chest and blowing us and everyone around the block to kingdom come. Ha! just kidding.
I was 49 years old back then. Are you getting the picture yet? If not let me accentuate. In 1974 I was given only 5 years to live. In 1985 It was down to Angina pectoris. Then in 1986 it was an enlarged heart, later in 1987 my heart was diagnosed as normal. Now if that ain't God, there is no truth, but I am telling the truth, which can be proven by existing medical records. Check it out yourself. Yes I have been diagnosed as being totally and permanently disabled, but I'm not dead. Now in my opinion, That's a great deal. I would rather feel the pain in my legs and feet, than to not have any legs and feet at all. Besides if I have to go I would much rather go by heart attack, than Cancer. Dear God, let me live to go up with You in the RAPTURE.
I have no complaints, should have been dead years ago, but here I am by the grace of God I am actually working harder and longer hours since I retired than I ever did before. But now I'm working for Jesus Christ, and That's the big difference. My boss is Great. I'm on His time, and in His time. Friends the things we look for in all the wrong places, are usually the wrong things in the first place. I know it may sound like I'm preaching here but I am just telling it like it is, like it or not, the truth is the truth. And the Truth will set you free. For example in 1979 before I entered graduate school at North Western State University, the night I retired from a small syndicate job as chief of security, ( I was a bouncer in two night clubs. ) Sounds important doesn't it? Ha!. Anyway at my going away party I had a run in with drunken brawler. These two fellows were arguing outside the club and I went out to keep the peace. No one was hitting anybody so I just told them to behave, and I returned inside.
Then one of the fellows slipped and fell on the steps of the entrance, scraping the side of his face badly. He was so drunk he didn't even feel the pain. It wasn't until he arrived at his home and saw himself in the mirror. His wife asked him what happened and he thought that I had hit him. The next thing I knew he had driven all the way back to the club. I was still talking to the other fellow when I was hit from behind. Well almost from behind, actually I turned to ask what he was doing back and he caught me with a good left hook. The punch didn't hurt, but embarrassed me and hurt my pride. Imagine ME getting hit with a sucker punch, how humiliating. I looked at him in astonishment, and disbelief, and the knuckle head tried to hit me again with his right hand.
I wasn't having none of that however, and I blocked his punch with my left arm, caught him coming in and threw him with ippon seionage. This Judo technique works great in most situations, but in this case I happened to be standing on a 4 foot porch, and as I stepped in and around, lifting him up and over my shoulder, guess what? Yep! you got it. Being intoxicated myself my balance was off just a tiny bit, and my right, or was it my left? well anyway my foot stepped right into empty space. Consequently, I fell head first into a freshly pruned bush, with a 175 pound man crashing down on my back and neck. It was a miracle that my neck wasn't broken. Not to mention the fact that the bush was like falling face first into a Punjab pit. My face looked like I had been shot with a shotgun. At the hospital emergency room the doctor thought I had been shot, they were looking for pellets. Ha ! I sure was a mess. I had lost my second fist fight in 40 years to a " bush." ! How do I explain that on my record? So what do you call this experience? Luck? No way.
It was without doubt, in my mind, another incident were God covered my silly bo-hind. That same month I was experimenting with a new technique I had developed to make sure it worked in real life. A full nelson hold from behind, and the throw went sour. I told my assistant not to let go, which tilted the premises in favor of the attacker instead of keeping it neutral. I threw, he obeyed my last command and held on instead of acting naturally and letting go to brake his fall like I expected him to react, and my neck went boom! A damaged 5th & 6th vertebrate, which later became a herniated disk, with spires, ouch! talk about pain. But that was nothing compared to what Jesus Christ suffered for me, on that cross. You just have to do what you have to do. If, you survive, you live with it. The pain is never more than we can endure. God will give us relief, or a cure.
So, with all this Stuff dumped on me by myself, what did I have as diagnosed by the psychiatrist? Generalized Anxiety Disorder with re-current anxiety attacks. Also Dsythymic disorder, and Intermittent explosive Impulse Control Disorder. Add to this all the other stuff and you have one crazy mixed-up individual. But God can use all things for good.
The faithfulness of God our Father is " Tri-multi Mega " factual. One need not just rely on blind faith, as some skeptics call it. One need only to have eyes to see, and hears to hear, the truth is here. The Truth is there, everywhere, right in front of us, all around us, all over us, and inside of us, if we allow it. The things that I personally experienced in my life when I became " Born Again " are multifaceted. How much faith must I have when all I believe in, has been shown true by my God through Jesus Christ?. Faith is said to be a belief in something un-seen, a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
However in my case, There is so much evidence of proof , that the Holy Bible is true, and word for word, the infallible Word of God Himself. So what I believe is a proven fact! not just faith. I have experienced first hand so many signs and wonders or miracles that it's a fact jack! Allow me, if you will, to elaborate by listing just a few things God has done in my life, through His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
NEXT MONTH: What God has done for Dr. Marx!
This month we look at Shaolin Chin Na. It is also known as the Seizing Art of Kung Fu.
This art comes from the Chinese words chin (seize) and na (control). Chin Na relies primarily on grasping, pressing and twisting sensitive parts of an attacker's body. Those parts include joints, nerves and muscles. The aim is to stop an attack and control an opponent without doing serious injury to them.
Chin Na has four aspects: Fen Gin (dividing the muscle), Tsuoh Guu (misplacing the bone), Bih Chi or Duann Mie (sealing the breath or vein), and Tien Hsueh (cavity press). Many martial systems include Fen Gin and Tsuoh Guu as fundamentals. You'll find similar defenses in Jujutsu, Aikido and Hapkido. Chin Na defenders control an opponent by attacking joints and muscles. A basic tenet of Chin Na is "grasp and twist." Bih Chi and Duann Mie are more advanced. They include cutting off an opponent's oxygen supply to the brain or lung. Tien Hsueh involves the use of internal power or external penetration to specific nerve points in the human body known as "cavities." It can lead to temporary or permanent paralysis, loss of consciousness, and even death. The location of many cavities are kept secret within Kung Fu styles. Some martial arts refer to Tien Hsueh by the name Dim Mak . It is not our intent to share martial techniques which could permanently injure or kill an opponent, so we will not deal with Bih Chi , Duann Mie or Tien Hsueh in this article.
We will look at dividing the muscle and misplacing the bone. Tsuoh Guu involves placing stress on an opponent's joints. This leads to an "unhinging" of the joints. Whether the unhinging is an unnatural twisting or a total dislocation of a joint depends on how hard and how far the Chin Na defender twists. The defender can use Tsuoh Guu to control an attacker through pain to the joint or by stopping the joint from functioning. That usually means a breaking or dislocating of the joint. The primary joints for Tsuoh Guu are the jaw, hip, elbow, wrist, finger, waist, knee and ankle.
Fen Gin involves grasping, twisting and pressing a muscle. Doing this will cause an attacker to lose the ability to function with that muscle temporarily. The Chin Na defense will stop or at least hinder the attack. When a Chin Na defender attacks a muscle by grasping, twisting and pressing, the limb the muscle was moving is forced into an unnatural position along with the muscle. The injury to nerves and the overextension of the muscle lead to pain and temporary paralysis. Examples of limbs affected are arms and legs.
A Chin Na defender works with seven sensitive zones in the body. They are leg, waist, chest, arm, hand, shoulder and neck. Each of the seven zones have multiple attack locations. For example, a Chin Na defender can grasp, twist or press at several main points on an attacker's hand, including between the thumb and forefinger, nerves alongside each finger and several nerves on the back of the hand.
Chin Na has its own type of training. It includes fundamental stances (like horse and mountain climbing), basic hand forms (like tiger, dragon and eagle claw), and basic hand strikes (like stiff fingers, pointed fist and one knuckle). Chin Na defenders train to build strength in their hands, fingers and wrists. They catch heavy objects in midair. They do pushups with their fingers. They grasp air vigorously hundreds of times. They also build up their wrists, arms and shoulders through a variety of one-person and two-person exercises. The idea is to increase their ability to quickly grasp, twist and press an attacker's joints or muscles.
The goal of Chin Na technique is to do it by feel rather than by sight. Feel is quicker and more sure than sight. It helps to practice with people of different sizes so the "sensing" of the technique is fast and smooth. Basic techniques include grasping, twisting and pressing of fingers, wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders and knees into unnatural and painful positions. The Chin Na defender can control the attacker through ever increasing pressure on the joint or muscle or by releasing them after applying the submission hold. A compassionate way of dealing with people will guide us in making the best decision in each case.
Last month we asked for your thoughts about the new Star Wars movie. Here are some of the e-mail responses you sent:
"I think that it is interesting how the world (who claim not to believe in Christ) often insist on using Christian Themes in their movies. This immaculate conception of young Skywalker was so shocking to me that I nearly choked on my popcorn. Perhaps this is a good thing. Since most people are watching the movie this could open up some type of discussion on the subject of the immaculate conception. It is obviously such a powerful story element that Lucas felt it should be in the film. What we must emphasize to young people is that Christ, unklike Anakin, was not and could not be seduced by the dark side of the force, so to speak, although Satan certainly did try."
"We have a serious problem when we cannot differentiate fact from fiction, the Word of God from space fantasy. But it comes down to a knowledge of the truth. In Hosea 4:6, God said, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
For the sake of this discussion, however, let us suppose Anakin Skywalker was a real man, then he too would be subject to God's law. Therefore he would be no different from the rest of mankind.
Gen.1:26-27 --- Mankind is created in God's image. Gen.2:7 --- Man was formed of the dust of the ground, and the breath of life was breathed into him.
If Anakin Skywalker was a product of the Immaculate Conception, then he would be like Jesus, without flaws. The Random House College Dictionary defines the word immaculate as being free from moral blemish or impurity; pure; undefiled. Knowing this, young Anakin would not have suggested using deception to trick his master into letting him race, in a racer he kept hidden from his master.
I looked for "the Force" in my dictionary, but it did not exist (as expected). However, "force" is defined as strength; energy; power. The Word of God, in 2 Sam. 22:33 says, God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect. And Matt.28:18 says, And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. I searched the scriptures for "the Force", but I couldn't find it (as I anticipated). But I did find the 'God of forces' in Daniel 11:38.
It all comes down to the Word, where the apostle Paul said in Acts 17:23, For as I passed by and held your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. The world does not know the mighty God we true Christians serve.
So, the next time someone wants to discuss "the Force", direct them to the "God of forces."
Here is an excellent question for next month. It comes from a GMAF member. Please send me your thoughts about this. We will all learn from your knowledge and insight.
Do you have any articles addressing chi from a Biblical perspective? I mean with citations warning us against, or prohibiting us from pursuing chi?
Here's an interesting thought from David Havard, one of the founders of GMAF. It's a good one to consider.
"By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the center that puts all other centers in perspective." (timeless, unchanging principles - remind you of Someone?)
Please let us know if you have moved, changed jobs, received a belt promotion, started studying a new martial art, etc. We want to be sure your listing in the GMAF Online Directory is all you want it to be.
The following are notes to us about Christian Martial Arts ministries. We appreciate your prayers for every GMAF member and their Gospel outreach.
Master Joseph Lumpkin sent us a great note about the Lord's blessings on their ministry in North Alabama. The Christian Hapkido Federation just promoted their first black belt (a young man who has been Master Lumpkin's student for many years). A contributor to the ministry provided a much needed tool for the ministry.
"We were out of options and our home made mats were breaking down. We did not know what we would do. The Judo and Jiu-jitsu techniques are so much a part of what the smaller kids love. We were very concerned about having to stop that part of practice. These mats come at a time of true need. It just goes to confirm that we are the hands and feet of Christ on earth and in our love and service to others we carry out His will."
While we enjoy teaching and training in the martial arts, our primary concern in Christian Martial Arts is the spiritual lives of our students and training partners. The next part of Master Lumpkin's message is really exciting!
"I have saved the best news for last. Last week, in response to an altar call, four young people gave their hearts to Christ. They did so in the middle of class and with no hesitations. It was wonderful to hear those words from the oldest child, a Mexican boy of 12, "What do I have to do to be saved?" When we started this program we had to make some decisions as to how to present the Gospel to the youth. It seemed obvious that too much "in your face, hard sell" would be counterproductive. Based on this, we chose to tell stories from the Bible, talk about Jesus in our lives, and call for a decision only when we felt the seeds had been planted and received."
We join Master Lumpkin and his Christian Hapkido team for the great work they are doing in North Alabama. Please keep them in your prayers.
Here's another note from one of our GMAF brothers.
Sensei Kraxberger called me and informed that some things had come up and he couldn't come down to the school's dedication. We will miss his presence. However, a friend of mine Grand Master Karl Marx (Keichu-Do) called and stated he would be coming to teach and tell stories. Those of you who know your history will know that Sensei Marx issued Ed Parker his 10th Dan Rank when he was running the WKCD. He was also a great friend of O'Sensei Robert Trias and has wonderful stories to tell. Please join us and email if you can come.
Adam Spence, Koinonia Martial Arts Center Fair Oaks, CA
We welcome several new members to Grace Martial Arts Fellowship this month.
Sa Bom Nim Rosemary Isabella is a 5th degree Black Belt instructor teaching Christian Martial Arts. Se teaches Tae Kwon Do - Ji Do Kwan and has been in the martial arts for 29 years. She runs a non profit organization called the Family Enrichment Center. We are very happy to welcome Master Isabella to the GMAF. Please send her a note when you have time to welcome her to our fellowship. She looks forward to working with us to promote Christ through the martial arts.
Master Richard Gordon and his wife (also a master instructor) run the West Raleigh Tae Kwon Do Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina. Master Gordon told us he was born a Catholic, attended Catholic school and always had religion in his life, but in January of 1998 opened his heart and let Jesus take over his life as his Lord and Savior. Master Gordon has taken over the responsibilities as the head of the Children's Ministry in his church and plays an active role in the Youth Ministry as well. He wrote: "I run a full-time commerical school with a student population of about 300 students. God has given me the opportunity to share my testimony with many non-believers and has also allowed me the opportunity to fellowship with many Christians. It is clear to all that train with me that I derive my strength and inspiration from my Savior Jesus." We are pleased to have Master Gordon and his wife as new members of GMAF. Please send them a note of welcome to the fellowship.
Mike Stevens is a Black Belt in Ching Sai Do and a provisional Black Belt in Okinawan Seidokan Karate under the instruction of Master Bobby Bailey. Mike is a television anchor & reporter at WGNX-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. He is an assistant instructor and teaches young people in the Atlanta area. He is looking for materials to help in his ministry to children. Mike is married and has four sons of his own. We welcome Mike Stevens to GMAF! Please send him a note of encouragement.
Michael Ayers studies Shorinji Ryu Kenpo. He will test for Shodan next Spring. He has also trained in Boxing and Kick Boxing, Arnis and basic grappling techniques. Michael heads a Christ-centered martial arts club in the Santa Cruz, California. Please join us in welcoming Michael to GMAF!
Colsey practices Tae Kwon Do (ATA) in Fishkill, New York. He has been a Christian for almost 20 years. Colsey is a claims manager for a large insurer and is running for town council. He lives in Wappingers, New York. Please welcome Colsey to GMAF!
We appreciate your Fellowship in the Gospel of the Grace of God. We are praying for you and your opportunities to serve Christ. Please let us know about ways GMAF can help you in your service. If you know of anyone who might be interested in receiving this monthly newsletter, please ask them to e-mail Mark McGee. We'll be glad to put them on our monthly mailing list. If you would like to join Grace Martial Arts Fellowship ©, contact Mark McGee.
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