THE RESULTS OF MEETING JESUS (22 OF 56)
Scripture: Acts 9:19-31
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The Results of Meeting Jesus (22 of 56)
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 9:19-31
Read Acts 9:19b-31
R. Kent Hughes tells of a time when he learned a valuable lesson about famous converts.
A number of years ago, when I was a youth pastor, word came to me from one of the large churches in my area that the last living member of the Bonnie and Clyde gang, Big Jim Harrington, had been giving his testimony to standing-room-only crowds with amazing results. So I made the arrangements for him to speak at our church. I arranged for special music, had several thousand handbills printed and distributed at the local high schools, and enlisted counselors. The night arrived, and it went beyond our expectations - a sea of teenagers.
Big Jim was unbelievable - an imposing man about eighty years old with tattoos on the back of his hands and an indentation atop his bald head from an old bullet wound. For two hours he regaled us with powerful stories of his wasted life with Clyde Barrow. He poignantly exhorted us not to waste our youth and urged us to commit our lives to Christ. Everyone was thrilled. The elders who had been reticent congratulated us on the service. I was very satisfied and a little smug - until two days later when I received a call from Big Jim's agent, who told me he had just learned that Big Jim was an imposter, that in fact he was a well-meaning alcoholic who lived with his daughter out in the desert and suffered delusions about his uneventful past. Gulp! I learned a major lesson from that experience!
Perhaps there should be a word for ''conversion skepticism,'' the state of cynicism concerning famous or infamous converts. I have unfortunately learned to be skeptical as well.
Do you remember Mike Warnke? In the 80's Mike Warnke was making the Christian speaking circuit with his fascinating and macabre tales of his life as a former Satanist. As a boy I remember sitting in the Civic Center of Sumter, SC, listening with rapt a ...
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 9:19-31
Read Acts 9:19b-31
R. Kent Hughes tells of a time when he learned a valuable lesson about famous converts.
A number of years ago, when I was a youth pastor, word came to me from one of the large churches in my area that the last living member of the Bonnie and Clyde gang, Big Jim Harrington, had been giving his testimony to standing-room-only crowds with amazing results. So I made the arrangements for him to speak at our church. I arranged for special music, had several thousand handbills printed and distributed at the local high schools, and enlisted counselors. The night arrived, and it went beyond our expectations - a sea of teenagers.
Big Jim was unbelievable - an imposing man about eighty years old with tattoos on the back of his hands and an indentation atop his bald head from an old bullet wound. For two hours he regaled us with powerful stories of his wasted life with Clyde Barrow. He poignantly exhorted us not to waste our youth and urged us to commit our lives to Christ. Everyone was thrilled. The elders who had been reticent congratulated us on the service. I was very satisfied and a little smug - until two days later when I received a call from Big Jim's agent, who told me he had just learned that Big Jim was an imposter, that in fact he was a well-meaning alcoholic who lived with his daughter out in the desert and suffered delusions about his uneventful past. Gulp! I learned a major lesson from that experience!
Perhaps there should be a word for ''conversion skepticism,'' the state of cynicism concerning famous or infamous converts. I have unfortunately learned to be skeptical as well.
Do you remember Mike Warnke? In the 80's Mike Warnke was making the Christian speaking circuit with his fascinating and macabre tales of his life as a former Satanist. As a boy I remember sitting in the Civic Center of Sumter, SC, listening with rapt a ...
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