It Is Written

From Gangs To God

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw (Host), Ron Halvorsen

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001238


00:07 It has stood the test of time.
00:11 God's book, the Bible.
00:16 Still relevant in today's complex world.
00:21 It Is Written, sharing hope around the globe.
00:36 Thanks for joining me today on It is Written.
00:38 I'm John Bradshaw.
00:39 Today, we are going to focus on a special verse
00:41 of the Bible.
00:42 In 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 and verse 17, the Bible says
00:45 that if anybody is in Christ, that person becomes
00:49 a new creature.
00:50 Some translations will say a new creation and then it
00:54 says this "Old things are passed away and all things
00:59 become new." My guest for today is a long time
01:03 speaker, best-selling author Ron Halverson is proof of
01:08 that fact, that God can take the old and make it new,
01:10 that God can take the person we were and replace it with
01:14 the person that we can be in Jesus Christ.
01:17 Ron Halverson has a remarkable, a dramatic
01:19 conversion story about how God found him
01:22 and changed his life.
01:23 Ron Halverson, thanks for joining me today.
01:25 RH: Glad to be here again.
01:26 JB: Now you hail from New York City, the mean streets
01:30 of New York City.
01:31 RH: I come from Brooklyn, New York, a little section
01:35 in Brooklyn, New York, called Coney Island.
01:38 That's where the amusement center is.
01:40 Also the crime center and juvenile crime, but that's
01:43 where I was brought up and it's a
01:47 wonderful experience.
01:48 JB: And I've heard you say before that as a young man,
01:50 you weren't chosen from among the good angels.
01:54 You were a bit of a rebel.
01:56 RH: I grew up in a very bad neighborhood, poor, poverty.
01:59 My father at the time was an alcoholic and when you grow
02:05 up in poverty, in that kind of neighborhood, you rebel.
02:08 There is something inside of you.
02:10 You're fighting it and I blame my parents and blamed
02:14 the teachers and you know, they put me in special class
02:20 and I was always in trouble and that was going
02:24 to be my life.
02:25 My life was a bad environment.
02:27 The neighborhood itself is a jungle, they called it "the
02:30 asphalt jungle." It was.
02:32 You acted like animals in the street and I learned
02:36 the law of the street, and the future
02:38 didn't look too bright.
02:40 JB: Now we now thank the Lord that the future
02:42 turned out pretty well.
02:43 You are here today.
02:44 You have been serving the Lord for many years.
02:46 You have lead many people to faith in Jesus Christ.
02:48 You have proclaimed the Bible around the world.
02:50 It turned okay.
02:51 But getting from there to here was quite the
02:53 experience and so I just want to say this, as we talk
02:56 today, it is encouraging to remember.
02:59 Parents, God can turn your sons and daughters around
03:03 and bring them back to him. Children.
03:05 People without hope.
03:06 Young people.
03:07 There is hope for you because God can
03:10 change your life.
03:11 Somebody in this world saying "What do I have
03:14 to look forward to?
03:15 What does my life hold for me?
03:17 What is coming ahead?
03:19 There is something to look forward to because when
03:22 Jesus Christ gets into your life, He change what you are
03:26 and make you what you could never make yourself.
03:28 And Ron, so, as a young person, you got involved in
03:30 all kinds of various things that parents today would not
03:33 want their kids getting involved in.
03:35 RH: The thing was, John, was that I didn't believe
03:38 in God.
03:40 JB: Why not?
03:40 RH: I just ... Where was God in the ghetto?
03:44 It's easy to see God in a cathedral.
03:46 It's easy to talk about God when you are brought up
03:49 in a Christian home ...
03:51 JB: You were not brought up going to church?
03:53 You know, my parents didn't go to church.
03:55 They sent us to Sunday School every now and then
03:58 and we were confirmed but we didn't really have a family
04:03 experience about God and I kind of was rebelling
04:06 against everything so the first thing I rebelled
04:09 was against God.
04:11 If there was a God, he had a twisted sense of humor.
04:17 I mean, here is the inner city.
04:19 Here's people suffering and hurting and dying
04:21 in the streets and I mean, that's the reality
04:23 of the inner city.
04:24 That's the reality of the ghetto, and I'm growing up
04:26 in there and when they tried to talk to me about God,
04:28 I said I don't want nothing to do with a God
04:31 that would allow this.
04:32 I got in trouble.
04:33 I mean, I was breaking and entering.
04:35 I was hot-wiring, stealing my first car when I was 14.
04:37 I was snatching pocket books, you know.
04:39 I mean, I'm running the streets.
04:41 I'm fighting in the streets.
04:42 I mean, that was the way of life.
04:44 My brother and I would wake up in the morning and he'd
04:46 say "Let's go look for a fight" so we'd go out
04:49 to look for a fight.
04:51 And I was blaming everybody but myself.
04:54 I was blaming the neighborhood.
04:57 I was blaming my parents.
04:58 I was blaming the law.
04:59 But it really was me, inside of me, that anger.
05:03 It seethed out in violence.
05:05 JB: You were raised to fight, weren't you?
05:07 As a kid you were schooled as a boxer.
05:09 RH: My dad was a professional fighter
05:11 for nine fights.
05:13 He won 8, he drew 1.
05:15 He was a very tough man.
05:18 When my mother said "quit the ring or else" he didn't
05:20 want to fight my mother, I guess, he quit the ring but
05:23 he wanted one of his boys to be a fighter.
05:25 Well, my dad put a heavy bag in the basement, a light bag
05:29 and we'd be hitting it when I was a pee-wee.
05:31 I was in the pee-wee boxing.
05:33 You could hardly put the gloves on, they were so
05:35 heavy, but I started there and you're just like a fly
05:38 weight, and you are boxing and then I'd train five
05:42 nights a week and I wanted to be a prize fighter and
05:46 my father drilled it in my head.
05:48 I want to be a light heavyweight champion
05:50 of the world.
05:51 That was my big goal, was to become a prize fighter,
05:54 and I got a lot of my violence out a lot of my anger
05:58 out that way.
06:00 But you really didn't achieve in my neighborhood
06:02 until you were in the gang.
06:03 There were 200 fighting gangs in the 50's and 60's,
06:07 in New York 200 fighting gangs and they were well
06:10 organized gangs.
06:11 They had a president, vice president, light up man.
06:13 The light up man took care of the weapons.
06:16 You had sawed off shotguns, Saturday night specials,
06:19 baseball bats, drills filled with lead, stiletto
06:23 push-button blades go through 3/4 inch piece
06:26 of plywood.
06:27 I was trying to find some fight of recognition from
06:30 fighting in the ring and fighting in the streets.
06:32 I did not know of any way out.
06:35 See, my neighborhood, it was a bad neighborhood.
06:37 About 70 or 80% of the kids had police records
06:41 before 16 or 17.
06:43 Anything that was not fastened down, I'd take.
06:46 JB: What might have made a difference?
06:49 There was a scarcity of good role models.
06:51 Maybe nothing would have made a difference, Ron,
06:53 but was there anything that might have made
06:55 a difference in the life of a wayward kid back them?
06:57 RH: Well with me, I came to an experience with Christ
07:00 but showing that there is hope for them, hope.
07:05 Everybody needs hope.
07:07 I mean, there's no hope.
07:08 There's no hope when the majority of the kids that
07:11 come out of my neighborhood go to prison.
07:13 What kind of hope is that?
07:14 Or they drop out of school.
07:15 They are drop outs.
07:17 I couldn't really read or write when I was in high school.
07:20 I mean, I could functionally get along, you know,
07:23 for a comic book.
07:24 I could see enough pictures.
07:25 I could figure it out.
07:25 But I could not pick up a Bible or a book and just
07:28 read it and so what kind of future does a person
07:32 like that have?
07:33 He thinks the only future he has is he is going to fight
07:36 his way out of the neighborhood or they are going
07:39 to carry him dead out of the neighborhood.
07:43 That's the mindset you have and that was the mindset
07:46 I had as a teenager, and the police gave up on me.
07:50 They told me "hey", he's no good.
07:53 My principal told my mother one day "Your boy's a bum.
07:56 He is no good.
07:57 He will never amount to anythin
08:00 They are going to throw him away in jail, lock him up,
08:02 throw away the key.
08:03 This kid ..
08:04 no hope." He told my mother.
08:06 My mother cried on her way home and that's the
08:08 heartbreak of America, what we do to our parents.
08:11 I had a wonderful mother.
08:12 I had a wonderful father, but he didn't know God.
08:16 He was an alcoholic, but he was a wonderful dad,
08:18 he was a hard working man.
08:20 He never made a lot of money.
08:21 We lived in the worst of worst tenements.
08:25 Poverty-stricken.
08:26 But my mama, she scrimped and saved.
08:29 My mother, she didn't know what to do.
08:31 She says to me, "Ronny, I don't know what
08:35 to do with you?
08:36 What can I do?"
08:37 And I didn't know.
08:38 I would have told her, "mom, you can't help me,
08:40 only God could help me", but who knows that?
08:42 JB: Something you said is interesting.
08:44 There was no hope.
08:45 There was no hope.
08:46 Evidently, there was hope because today Ron Halverson
08:48 is a changed man and has been for a long time.
08:50 How does a person get from there, lost and without hope,
08:54 to sharing the hope that we have in Jesus Christ
08:58 with people all around the world we'ff find out in a minute.
09:02 It Is Written is dedicated to sharing
09:04 the gospel around the world.
09:06 To discover more about It Is Written, I invite you
09:08 to visit our website: itiswritten.com and browse
09:11 the dozens of pages that describe what we do
09:14 and how we do it.
09:15 Let' get to know each other better.
09:17 Visit our website itiswritten.com today.
09:21 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
09:24 I4m John Bradshaw.
09:25 Today, the Ron Halverson story.
09:26 He has been called from gangs to God.
09:30 Ron, this was no laughing matter.
09:32 You were a lost boy, in trouble, making trouble.
09:34 You said a moment ago there was no hope and when you
09:38 have no hope, the future is bleak, no matter which
09:41 way you stack it.
09:42 Somehow, the light started to shine in.
09:44 RH: Well, this is the amazing thing and this is why
09:47 I love my work.
09:48 I work in the inner cities a lot.
09:49 I work in the big cities.
09:50 I work for a lot of these people.
09:53 God is there.
09:56 The incarnation is God is here.
09:58 God is waiting to touch a life, but at that time
10:01 I was hopelessly lost.
10:02 I said I didn4t want to know about God,
10:04 I don4t believe in God.
10:06 You know, anything I could do.
10:08 I4d curse God, but God wasn4t done with me.
10:10 God didn4t give up on me.
10:12 What happened was the miracle that happened was
10:14 another kid found God.
10:18 Another kid in the neighborhood, one kid, a 15
10:21 year-old kid finds God and his life
10:24 is drastically changed.
10:26 I mean, this kid, he is coming down the street with
10:28 a Bible in his hand.
10:29 I mean, he hardly knows anything about the Bible.
10:32 If you think you can only be saved if you know everything
10:34 about the Bible, then only the intelligent will be saved,
10:36 only the theologian will be saved.
10:39 Thank God that4s not true.
10:41 JB: That4s right.
10:41 That4s a mistake they made in Jesus' day, that only
10:42 the educated class.
10:44 RH: And this kid, he don't know much, he can't find
10:49 much in the Bible, but he's so full of God he wants to
10:53 share it, so here we are standing on the street
10:57 corner, black leather jackets, skull, blood dripping
10:59 over the skull, every gang flew its color
11:02 and there you are, switchblade in your pocket,
11:04 you know, looking cool.
11:05 And this kid comes up.
11:07 I knew he's a friend of mine.
11:08 We're from the third grade, and he is smiling,
11:12 and nobody smiles in my neighborhood, and I said
11:14 what's wrong with you?
11:15 And he says, "Ah, I found Jesus Christ in my heart."
11:17 "Jesus?
11:21 Religion is old people, Jim.
11:23 I mean, when you have one foot in the casket and the
11:25 other on a banana peel, hey, that's when you get religion."
11:28 JB: You get religious there.
11:29 RH: And I kid him.
11:30 I said, "Man, I wanna live it up", forgetting
11:32 I have to live it down.
11:33 And Jim, every time you see him, smile on his face,
11:35 and talking about God, but you know, we began
11:38 to see a change.
11:40 The kids didn't curse around him so much.
11:43 They didn't plan their escapades so much.
11:45 I mean, they kind of admired him.
11:48 When they got in trouble, who was the first person
11:50 they called? Jim.
11:52 And he'd come smiling.
11:53 But he always kept after me because I was his friend,
11:57 but I am now in William E. Grady
11:59 Vocational High School, I am in a school that wrote
12:02 the Blackboard Jungle.
12:04 JB: Oh, that's that school?
12:04 RH: Yeah.
12:05 And you know, juvenile crime.
12:07 On ever corner, there's a policeman station.
12:10 I mean this is where you run up the downstair case
12:12 and find someone who's stomach is slit open.
12:14 I'm in the middle of rumbles, where kids get blown away.
12:17 One of my best friends I recruited in the gang,
12:20 he was blown away, his head blown off his shoulders
12:23 and died in a pool of blood at 16.
12:25 I mean, try to live with that your whole life.
12:27 And here's this kid, Jimmy.
12:30 He goes off to this academy, a Christian school, way out
12:32 in Queens, two hours each way on the train.
12:35 We thought he was crazy.
12:37 But when we got in trouble, hey man ..
12:40 "Jimmy" ... and he came, and he ministered to them.
12:44 I'm playing hookey and I'm going down the street
12:49 and a friend of mine, coming the other way,
12:50 Richard, he is coming to school and I said
12:53 "Where are you going" and he says "school" and I said
12:55 "you don't want to go to school".
12:55 We'd play hookey, you know, all the time, but he just
12:57 got out of reform school and so he had to go
12:59 to school or else they would send him
13:00 away until he was 21.
13:01 And he said "No, I gotta go."
13:02 And I said "No." He said "No, they know where we
13:04 go." We'd go down to the boardwalk,
13:06 we'd go down to the pool hall, and then I thought
13:09 about this kid, out in a christian school in Queens.
13:12 I said "Hey man, let's go out there.
13:16 Who is going to look for you and me in a Christian school"
13:18 and that was the week that began
13:20 to change my life.
13:21 We snuck onto the train.
13:22 We never paid to get on the train.
13:24 It's an elevated train in lower Brooklyn.
13:26 We climb up, cross the tracks, don't want to get electrocuted,
13:28 jump between trains and save 15 cents.
13:31 So, I come out to this school, a Christian school.
13:34 JB: And you go to this Christian school because
13:37 you are on the run.
13:38 You are not going there for any good reasons.
13:40 RH: Oh yeah, no, yeah, and I figure we'd go out there,
13:43 and I'm not going to be out in the street, so I walk
13:46 into the school and it's quiet, man.
13:48 I'm used to guys fighting it out.
13:50 I see kids overdose on the roof,
13:52 they strip them of their clothes to sell,
13:54 friends throw their body off the roof.
13:56 I mean, yeah, this is a bad place.
13:58 I turn to my friend Rich and I say "Man,
14:00 this can't be a school."
14:01 This has got to be a morgue.
14:02 I mean, there ain't a dead body you see here.
14:04 Not a live people, and just then, a woman teacher came
14:08 down and she says "Can I help you?"
14:10 She was kind of frightened.
14:11 You can picture it.
14:12 I mean you know, here I am, I look the part,
14:15 I look the part of a criminal and I was.
14:18 She says "Can I help you?"
14:19 And I say "I'm looking for Jimmy Landis.
14:21 Does he go to school here?"
14:22 And she says "He's up in chapel".
14:24 I didn't know what a chapel was.
14:26 I never been in a chapel all my life.
14:28 I said "Chapel?" She said "Well, yes, it's like assembly
14:30 in public school.
14:31 Do you want to go up?"
14:33 I said "Yeah" I don't want to go out.
14:35 But anyway, so my friend and I, Richard, just out
14:37 of reform school, we go up, get to the door, I put my hand
14:41 on the door knob and just then, she said "Oh, by the way
14:44 it's week of prayer."
14:45 I break out laughing, man.
14:46 "A week of prayer?" I say "I can't pray 30 seconds,
14:49 how do they pray for a whole week?"
14:51 And that was my introduction.
14:53 I walked in this chapel.
14:55 The week of prayer preacher was up front.
14:58 Sat in my seat, the last two seats with my friend and I,
15:02 in the back row.
15:03 Jimmy turned around, he saw me and he
15:07 couldn't believe it.
15:08 I mean, he could not believe it and he came running back
15:11 and sat with us.
15:12 I was looking around.
15:13 I didn't listen.
15:14 You don't want to listen.
15:15 That's why people don't go to church.
15:17 They are afraid God might grab them.
15:19 They don't go to meetings because they are afraid
15:21 "Hey, I might listen." Well, I wasn't going to listen.
15:23 I'm looking, checking the chicks out, you know,
15:26 and doing everything else.
15:27 Next day, played hookey with my friend
15:29 and went out to the Greater New York Academy,
15:31 walk in, black leather jackets, skull blood,
15:33 hate in my heart.
15:34 I hate it.
15:35 Man, I had such anger.
15:36 I'd hit you, run your face down a brick wall and walk away
15:39 and not feel nothing.
15:41 And here I am.
15:43 And what happens?
15:45 JB: Well, let's find out.
15:47 Something happened.
15:49 Ron Halverson, a gang banger from Brooklyn, finds himself
15:52 in a Christian school, in an assembly,
15:55 at what was called Week of Prayer.
15:58 Evidently, this had something to do with the Bible,
16:00 it had a lot to do with God.
16:01 Would he listen?
16:03 Would God reach his heart?
16:05 We'll find out what happens in just a moment.
16:09 If there was something in today's program
16:11 that you would like to study in greater depth and detail,
16:14 visit our website itiswritten.com where you
16:17 will discover additional spiritual resources along
16:20 with free Bible Study guides on a host of topics.
16:23 Visit itiswritten.com today.
16:27 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
16:29 What hope is there for anybody who is miles
16:32 away from God?
16:34 Who has got his fingers in his ears trying desperately
16:37 hard not to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
16:39 See, this question is very important because I think
16:42 you and I, if we don't ourselves, we certainly know
16:46 people who have very lost people in their families.
16:49 I know there are many people watching It Is Written today
16:51 and they are saying "my children", "my son",
16:53 "my daughter", "my grandchildren",
16:55 "my grandchild", or "my great grandchild",
16:57 "my neighbor", "my niece", "my nephew" ..
16:59 " so far from God, what hope is there?" Today,
17:02 the Ron Halverson story.
17:04 Young fellow, who grew up in a bad neighborhood
17:06 in New York City, joined a gang,
17:08 hate in his heart, no love for God,
17:12 but when we left the story a moment ago, we discovered
17:14 that Ron Halverson, through an act of providence,
17:17 found himself at Christian school, and
17:19 Ron, you were about to hear the Word of God.
17:21 What happened when you went back that next day and they
17:23 were having what was called a Week of Prayer at this
17:25 Christian school where your friend attended.
17:27 RH: Well we got there that day and I wasn't impressed.
17:33 I tried not to listen.
17:35 Every now and then, a word would get through.
17:37 But you know, I had such anger.
17:39 I couldn't get above that anger, but things
17:42 were going to change because happenstance,
17:47 things change, let me tell you.
17:49 That night, we were going to have a block party.
17:51 We used to have block parties and the guys would put ash
17:54 barrels across the corners so the cars couldn't
17:56 come through, and then we'd get the ghetto blaster going,
17:58 and you know, we'd have a dance, and each
18:00 member was supposed to bring something to the party,
18:03 and the president would give you a slip of paper
18:06 and you know, you'd get that stuff,
18:08 and since I had no money, I'd break and enter.
18:10 I was to get all that stuff that is not good for you
18:12 right now, but when we get to heaven, we'll be alright,
18:14 you know, eclairs, and lemon meringue pies.
18:17 Yeah, that's the kind of tree I'm gonna have,
18:19 everybody else can have a pineapple tree but I'm going
18:22 to have an eclair tree, but anyway, so I go down
18:24 to Brighton Breach, and at Second,
18:26 on Neptune Avenue, there's a bakery.
18:28 I wait until it closes, I break in the back,
18:31 I get in. I go for those little white boxes
18:33 they have in the bakery, you know, I'm filling them up
18:35 with all these cream puffs.
18:37 We're going to have a great party.
18:39 You know, that was my job.
18:40 I was supposed to get all the sweet things.
18:42 So, I say "why go out the back window?
18:44 I'll go out the front door."
18:45 And I go out the front door and about six blocks up,
18:47 a patrol car, the 60th Precinct,
18:49 comes around the corner and here I am with ...
18:53 you know, everybody is a theologian, I mean "get rid
18:56 of your sin", get out of here.
18:59 I drop the cream puffs and try to get traction
19:01 with cream puffs in your sneakers,
19:03 but anyway, I took off.
19:05 And usually in your neighborhood, you knew
19:07 the alley ways.
19:08 But I was in Brighton Beach, that was the next
19:11 neighborhood over.
19:12 Here I am, I'm running and I duck down this alley
19:14 when I figure, I get to the end and I'll jump over
19:16 the fence and I'll be gone, man.
19:18 They won't find me.
19:19 I come to the end, and it's a back of a building,
19:21 it's a dead-end alley.
19:23 So now, being a theologian, I'm gonna think, what amI
19:25 going to tell these guys and I look up and there was
19:28 a fire escape and I pulled the ladder
19:32 down and I ran up.
19:33 I got to the roof just then they came in - "stop
19:35 or I'll shoot".
19:36 I was moving so fast I'd outrun the bullet
19:38 and here I am, run across the building,
19:40 jump over the next building, and I'm gone.
19:42 Next day, I'm out to that school with my friend,
19:44 Richard.
19:45 And this preacher says that this Jesus touched lame legs
19:49 and men walked, and I thought "Wow!"
19:52 Now I'm listening.
19:53 He touched blind eyes and men saw the light of day.
19:56 He touched the little baby's dead heart and beat
19:59 it into life and handed it back to its mother again.
20:01 I thought "Wow, man, what kind of power in
20:05 those hands?" First time in my life ... I mean, I heard that
20:10 before, catechism.
20:11 I heard that stuff, but it never dawned on me
20:14 that it's real.
20:15 I mean, that's like Three Little Pigs
20:18 ... you know, Humpty Dumpty sat on the
20:21 wall ... but REAL?
20:22 He talked about this miraculous Christ and loving
20:25 Christ and boy, a thought came to my mind but I pushed
20:28 it out fast.
20:30 Boy, God...could he be like that?
20:34 Could he be like that?
20:35 That night I needed money.
20:40 The easiest way to get money then was to snatch
20:43 a pocket book.
20:44 A little old lady would come and I'd grab the
20:46 pocket book, pull it and if they yelled
20:48 or screamed, I'd hit them, knock them to the ground.
20:50 That's what sin does to you.
20:51 And so I run out and grabbed a pocket book, I'm pulling
20:53 and this woman, she starts screaming, and I go to hit
20:57 her and all of a sudden, I started to cry.
21:01 Big boys don't cry.
21:02 My daddy taught me that.
21:03 I mean, tough kids don't cry.
21:07 But I was crying.
21:08 I didn't know what it was.
21:09 I let go of the pocket book and I started running.
21:11 I ran down alley ways, up over fences, I fell between
21:15 some ash barrels and almost all night I stayed
21:17 there crying.
21:18 And there was something in my heart.
21:20 It was pounding in my heart.
21:22 I was scared because I didn't know what it was.
21:24 And why didn't I hit her?
21:27 Why couldn't I?
21:28 What was it that changed so drastically, dramatically?
21:32 The next day I played hookey and went out to that school
21:35 with my friend Richard, and now I'm starting to say
21:39 "I gotta listen to this."
21:41 I mean, I can't explain last night.
21:43 I can't explain this miracle man.
21:46 You know what I discovered John, and I want those that
21:50 are watching this program to discover, parents that have
21:52 lost their children, their kids may be in gangs, it may
21:55 seem hopeless.
21:56 Listen, God made a round world.
21:59 That's not a physical scientific reason.
22:02 Because the further you go away from home, the closer
22:07 you come to home.
22:08 You see, that's the story of this planet.
22:10 That's the story of God.
22:12 That's the story of his love.
22:13 He was caring about a gang banger, an angry kid.
22:20 I heard about this Jesus and how they didn't love him,
22:23 they wanted to crucify him and kill him.
22:26 I thought man, you kill bad guys.
22:29 Or good guys that get in the way of bad guys.
22:31 That night, I was supposed to steal a car.
22:34 We already looked at it.
22:35 We knew where it was, what it was,
22:38 what we were going to do.
22:39 And we went out, but there was a knock on the door
22:43 and standing at that door was that Christian boy,
22:45 Jimmy, with a Bible.
22:48 And he said this.
22:49 I'd never forget it, 50 years later.
22:52 "I come to study the Bible with you." I said "What?".
22:56 He said "I come to study, I want to study the Bible."
22:58 And all those people said to me, Aw, you chicken.
23:02 They went out that night.
23:03 They were caught and arrested.
23:05 I would have been in prison, maybe, or dead for all I know,
23:08 because most of my friends are dead or in prison.
23:10 But for the grace of God ...
23:12 and that night, I studied the Bible.
23:15 I couldn't read it but I studied it.
23:18 Next day I went out and heard about
23:20 this crucified Christ, hanging between two thieves,
23:23 and I thought, "Wow!
23:25 Could that Christ who died for two thieves in Jerusalem
23:30 die for a thief in Brooklyn streets and for the first time
23:38 in my life, the first time, I found hope.
23:41 And that day, I gave my heart to God.
23:43 I turned to my friend Richard, and I said "Richard, come on."
23:46 Tears were in his face.
23:48 He was touched by the Spirit of God.
23:50 And he said this, he said "Ron, it costs to much
23:53 to be a Christian."
23:54 JB: That's what he said?
23:55 RH: And he spent his life in prison for murder
23:59 and I went on preaching the gospel and I have
24:01 been on every continent in the world.
24:03 Hey, it cost too much not to be a Christian.
24:05 I discovered that.
24:07 And here is this illiterate.
24:08 What is going to happen now with me?
24:10 The moment I found God, I wanted to tell people.
24:12 JB: Is that right?
24:13 RH: I told people.
24:14 I preached on street corners.
24:16 I held an evangelistic meeting, 17 years old, we held
24:19 an evangelistic meeting in a bookie joint in Brooklyn,
24:23 Jimmy and I.
24:24 First person I seen baptized was my mother.
24:28 And I have held an evangelistic meeting ever since,
24:31 every year of my life, until the day I die.
24:35 I told my wife, I said "Honey, if I die before
24:37 the Lord comes, put a pulpit in my casket
24:39 because I'll come up preaching." And that was
24:41 just from one boy, one teenager who loved God.
24:46 Imagine what we could do if all the teenagers that claim
24:49 to love God would share their faith?
24:51 JB: An amazing story.
24:53 RH: And that's why I'm here.
24:54 JB: If any man be in Christ, ... what does the Bible say?
24:58 RH: New creature.
24:59 JB: Old things are passed away.
25:00 And all things become new.
25:01 RH: And we had struggles.
25:03 I want to tell people, God didn't promise you
25:05 a rose garden.
25:06 He didn't promise you a ... it's tough.
25:09 I mean there were times that I fell, times that
25:12 I was miserable, I mean, miserably fallen.
25:14 But the difference is getting up.
25:17 Taking that step.
25:18 JB: Christianity continues to be a growth, doesn't it?
25:21 RH: Yeah.
25:22 It's a lifetime.
25:23 And when you fall short, He hasn't.
25:27 That's the gospel.
25:28 That's the good news.
25:29 JB: Someone is struggling today.
25:31 Your message to that person is?
25:33 RH: Reach out for God.
25:36 He is a fingertip away.
25:38 Don't get good enough for God.
25:40 God is good enough for you.
25:43 Just say "Hey, help me" and let him help you and if
25:47 you are sincere to open your heart, he will help you.
25:49 You will be surprised what he can do with you.
25:54 Today, our free book offer is for one
25:57 of my very favorite books.
25:58 Steps to Christ.
26:00 Just what you need in your daily walk with Jesus.
26:03 Just call or write and Steps to Christ will be
26:06 on its way.
26:07 There's no cost or obligation.
26:09 It's our free gift to you.
26:11 Just call 1.800.253.3000 and ask for Steps to Christ.
26:17 Lines are open 24 hours.
26:19 If it's busy when you call, just try again.
26:21 You can also request this free book by writing to
26:24 It is Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks,
26:27 California 91359 and we'll mail a copy to
26:30 your address in North America.
26:32 Please note, this free book is limited to the supply
26:35 on hand, so call soon.
26:36 For immediate access, you can download a free,
26:39 electronic version of the book Steps to Christ from
26:42 our website itiswritten.com.
26:43 It Is Written is a faith-based ministry made possible
26:48 by viewers like you.
26:49 Thank you for your letters and for your continued support.
26:53 Ron, thank you for sharing today.
26:55 You know a lot of lives are going to be touched,
26:57 have been touched through your ministry
26:59 RH: Well, it's great to be here and to share.
27:02 JB: A lot of people have a lot of hope because of what
27:04 God did for you, God is doing in lives right now and will
27:07 continue to do in lives until Jesus comes back.
27:09 RH: That's right.
27:10 JB: Let's pray together right now.
27:12 Our Father, we thank you knowing that you treat us as
27:15 the father treated the prodigal son.
27:17 You run to meet us and grab us and greet us.
27:20 Thank you for meeting us where we are and helping us
27:22 to know that there is hope through Jesus Christ
27:26 and help us, Lord, to know that beyond the despair that we
27:29 experience in our lives, there is hope for us because
27:33 Jesus died to set us free.
27:36 Bless us, please, in Jesus' name, Amen.
27:47 Ron, thanks.
27:48 Thanks very much for joining me today.
27:50 I appreciate it greatly.
27:51 RH: You're welcome.
27:52 JB: And thank you for joining me today.
27:54 I look forward to seeing you next time and until then,
27:56 please remember It Is Written, man shall not live by bread
27:58 alone but by every word that proceeds from
28:02 the mouth of God.


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Revised 2015-02-06