Participants: Ron Halvorsen
Series Code: 13RVT
Program Code: 13RVT000012
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00:05 In today's troubled world people are wondering,
00:10 where are we headed? 00:13 Revelation Today presents the answers. 00:17 Bible prophecy reveals what the future holds in store. 00:23 Revelation Today. 00:37 Good evening again. 00:39 You know God is good 00:40 and He's been good to every last one of us. 00:43 Every child of God has a story to tell, 00:45 a testimony of God's goodness 00:47 and leading that person to a place of faith 00:49 and security and hope and salvation. 00:53 Now God has been good to Ron Halvorsen 00:56 and Ron has a story to tell. 00:58 Ron was raised on the mean streets of New York City. 01:01 He hasn't always carried a Bible 01:03 and preached the Word of God. 01:05 Tonight, "Gangs to God", the Ron Halvorsen story. 01:09 Now before you leave tonight, 01:11 you want to grab this DVD presentation 01:14 of Ron's story from Gangs to God. 01:17 You can get it on your way up. 01:18 Now the office didn't send a lot of these to sell it 01:20 so you need to be quick to get to the table 01:22 if you want to get it. 01:23 Also there's a second bonus program 01:25 on here an interview I did with Ron Halvorsen, 01:27 that you just won't want to miss. 01:29 And if you can't get it from our for you tonight 01:33 get it at itiswritten.com. 01:34 Go to our web store and get From Gangs to God, 01:39 the Ron Halvorsen's story. 01:40 So now, please welcome 01:42 the presenter of Revelation Today, 01:44 Ron Halvorsen. 01:49 Good Evening. 01:50 Good to see so many young people here 01:52 because really I want to talk to the young people tonight. 01:55 Now you older ones can listen, but and you better listen, 01:59 but we want to talk to the young people tonight. 02:01 I want to tell them that Jesus Christ 02:03 is the answer to the human problem. 02:07 And so let's bow our heads in a word of prayer 02:09 from Gangs to God, story of my conversation, 02:11 how I found Christ or Christ found me. 02:14 Gracious Father, I pray in a very special way tonight. 02:19 I pray, Lord, You'll help me 02:20 as I present this testimony that everyone, young and old, 02:25 will realize that God is powerful, God is great. 02:28 And that I might uphold the Lord Jesus Christ 02:30 in what said and done and we pray that 02:34 lives will be changed by this testimony. 02:38 And so I offered up to you in the name of Christ. 02:41 Amen. And Amen. 02:44 It was David the Psalmist looking down to our day, 02:47 till this day which you and I live, 02:49 and David the Psalmist said, 02:51 "The fool had said in his heart, 02:52 'There is no God.'" 02:54 And we hear from a lot of fools today 02:56 but I want to testify tonight that God lives 02:58 and God loves and God saves. 03:01 And this Christ who healed then heals now. 03:03 The Christ who saved men and women 03:05 back then saves men and women even now. 03:09 And I heard the footsteps of Christ, 03:11 I heard the footsteps of Christ echoing 03:13 and reechoing in the streets of the asphalt jungle. 03:17 I felt the hand reach out 03:19 and touch the hardened heart of a young man 03:21 who had gone berserk in his own mind. 03:24 I believe in God because I felt His touch. 03:27 I believe in God because it was Him 03:29 who pulled me out of the gutter. 03:31 I believe in God because God 03:33 must be the solution for mankind, 03:36 because He was a solution for my mixed up, 03:39 crazy, depraved life. 03:42 Jesus said unless you're born-again, 03:44 you cannot see the kingdom of God. 03:45 I want to say to every young person here tonight, 03:48 unless you've been born-again, you will never get to heaven. 03:50 You won't get to heaven 03:51 on the merits of your family, your parents. 03:53 You won't get to heaven on the merits of your church. 03:56 You can only get to heaven by experience the rebirth 03:59 that Jesus Christ talked about. 04:01 I had to come to a place where I was born-again 04:04 that I would become a new creature, 04:06 a new person, a new character. 04:08 I was a character before 04:10 but a new character, a new character. 04:15 And the only one who can change the direction of a life 04:17 is none other than Lord Jesus Christ. 04:21 The only one that can bring about 04:23 a desire in human heart to seek repentance, 04:26 to say you sorry, to say you're sorry 04:28 for what you have done, 04:30 and now to seek the presence of Jesus. 04:32 The Bible says, all who sinned, 04:34 then come short of the glory of God. 04:36 And so everyone's a sinner 04:37 and the only way we can ever be saved 04:39 from our sins is by a sinless savior, 04:42 and that's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. 04:45 And so we need to come to that experience, 04:48 conversion in scripture. 04:49 The thief was hanging on a cross, 04:52 hanging between heaven and earth, 04:53 between life and death. 04:55 And they're hanging on the cross dying, 04:58 hanging on the cross dying. 05:01 The Bible says, that he reached out to Jesus 05:04 and Jesus reached out to him. 05:06 And he said, if you be the Son of God, 05:08 take us down from the cross, the first thief, 05:10 he wanted salvation from pain and suffering 05:12 but not salvation from sin. 05:14 And then the other thief lifted himself up and said, 05:17 "Remember me when you come in your kingdom." 05:19 And Jesus says, "Every drop of blood 05:20 that pours from my veins, 05:22 you shall be with me in paradise." 05:24 That became the promise of God, that's God's promise to you. 05:27 It happened for Peter 05:28 by the turquoise waters of Galilee, 05:31 it happened for Saul on the road to Damascus. 05:34 It happened for the thief on the cross. 05:37 One thing was evident. 05:39 Their lives were changed. 05:41 Their lives were drastically, powerfully changed. 05:44 And so it happened for me in a Brooklyn street, 05:51 it happened for me in New York City. 05:53 You see New York City 05:54 is the melting pot of the world. 05:55 I mean people come from all over the world 05:57 to my city, to New York. 05:59 It has its opera houses, its universities, 06:01 its theaters, its museums, its Wall Street, 06:04 but there's another side to that city. 06:07 I mean there's a city where death waits in many ways. 06:12 A knife in the ribs where death waits in many ways, 06:16 a needle in the vein 06:17 where death waits in many ways, that's my city. 06:20 I mean a bullet in the brain. 06:22 I mean New York houses 06:23 more than 475,000 drug addicts, that city. 06:27 I mean over 250,000 homeless people in that city. 06:30 It is one of the three epicenters 06:33 of AIDS epidemic in the world, that city. 06:37 And it has the most brazen brash corporate prostitutes 06:40 on planet earth in that city. 06:42 Two thousand people are murdered 06:44 that they know of, in that city 06:46 each and every year, that's New York. 06:51 I was born there in that city and by the grace of God 06:55 I would be born again in that city. 06:58 I mean, I was born in a place 07:00 and brought up in a place called Coney Island. 07:03 Coney Island is in Brooklyn, New York. 07:05 Brooklyn at one time 07:06 was the fourth largest city in the world. 07:09 I mean in the United States fourth largest city. 07:13 Brooklyn, nothing like Brooklyn, 07:16 not the Bronx, not Manhattan, 07:21 but Brooklyn and I was born there 07:24 in a tenement section of Coney Island. 07:27 Now I can't describe that tenement, 07:30 it's hard to describe. 07:31 In fact I don't even want to think about it, 07:34 but my dad, he was a very hard worker 07:37 but he had five kids and then came along his girl. 07:42 By the way he wanted the girl first 07:43 but he had a boy and a boy and a boy 07:45 and then twin boys and we were sure glad 07:49 when the girl came along he has now ended it. 07:54 And Gandhi said that poverty-- Gandhi said poverty 07:59 is man's worst kind of violence and poverty leads to violence 08:05 and that was my world. 08:07 I mean, hate festered in my heart, 08:09 in my mind and it oozed out in violence. 08:13 I mean, I blamed, I had the big blame argument, 08:15 I blamed my teachers, I blamed the police, 08:18 I blamed society, I blamed everybody 08:21 I could blame, I blame but I never blame myself 08:23 when really I was a great part of the problem. 08:26 It was there in that tenement and festering in that poverty 08:29 and growing in hatred towards life 08:33 and towards people. 08:34 I mean I became antisocial, that's mildly speaking. 08:41 This was a city where major crime was, 08:44 murder incorporated functioned there, 08:45 when I was a young teenager 08:47 murder incorporated in Coney Island. 08:49 And for some bit a money, 08:51 you could have someone murdered in my neighborhood. 08:53 I've seen it many times, car come around the corner 08:56 a body thrown out on the street. 08:58 Going to school the third grade, 08:59 a man was laying in the gutter, newspapers over his head 09:02 when the wind blew away a hatchet in his head. 09:07 And this was daily, weekly, monthly, 09:10 I would see death in a terrible way. 09:13 And there I was growing up in that 09:15 and hate festering in my mind, 09:17 but there was not only crime in the organized level, 09:20 the Mafioso not only crime in the organized level, 09:23 there was crime on the unorganized level. 09:26 Well, crime among the young people, 09:28 the young people of that city. 09:30 I mean juvenile crime, 09:33 I hot wired, stolen my first car when I was 14, 09:37 breaking, entering by the time I was 15, 16, 09:41 mugging, snatching pocketbooks, 09:45 anything that wasn't fastened down, I would take. 09:49 Because I reasoned why should they have it? 09:52 Why shouldn't I have it? 09:54 I reasoned poverty is the worst kind of violence. 09:59 And so I entered into the world of the big blame argument, 10:02 blaming everybody, everything, 10:04 blaming my parents, blaming the law. 10:06 I mean Coney Island, it was a bad place, 10:11 the little people of that city, 10:12 the violent people, the violent streets. 10:15 I mean, there were teenage gangs 10:18 and violence everywhere 10:20 you went even as a little kid you, 10:22 you was worried you're gonna get 10:24 killed on the way to school. 10:26 I mean, this was a bad neighborhood. 10:29 Every day I plan in the different way 10:31 to get to school 10:33 because they were waiting, they were waiting, 10:36 and that violence came out. 10:38 As I was growing up, I joined a boxing club. 10:41 My father was a professional fighter. 10:44 He had, I forgets nine fights 10:47 and won so many fights and lost one or whatever 10:51 and my mother wanted him to quit fighting, 10:53 so he quit fighting 10:54 because he didn't want to fight with her 10:56 and but my dad had the idea 10:58 that it would be nice to have someone 10:59 who'd become a professional fighter, 11:01 and you know how a father is, 11:04 if he was a football player 11:05 he wants his son to be a football player, 11:06 so he put helmets on these little kids 11:08 and I'm running around 11:09 getting beat up all over the place. 11:11 So he could fulfill a dream or my dad had a dream 11:14 that one of his boys would be a prize fighter, 11:17 and I was big when I was born 11:20 and my father decided I should. 11:23 He had a heavy bag down in the basement of our tenement 11:26 and I would hit the heavy bag and then light bag 11:28 and my dad would try to train me 11:31 and then I joined the Ocean Avenue Boxing Club 11:33 in Brooklyn, New York in Coney Island, 11:36 the Ocean Avenue Boxing Club. 11:37 And we had other fighters and I was training 11:41 I was into Pee-Wee boxing 11:44 and they hand little gloves were bigger than the kid, 11:46 you know and you start out that way 11:48 and going up and going up 11:50 and getting into higher weight class, 11:53 and five days a week, three hours a night, 11:56 I trained to be a fighter. 12:00 And I remember kept after my coach, 12:01 kept after the coach all the time 12:04 trying to get him to let me fight 12:06 and he says, you're not ready yet 12:07 and I said, oh no, I'm ready, I'm ready. 12:09 And he said no, you're not ready yet 12:11 and I said, no I'm ready you know I'm tough and yeah. 12:16 Now remember our first tournament fight 12:20 the Police Athletic League came in, 12:22 the Catholic Youth Organization came in from all over the city. 12:25 We're fighting down at a gymnasium 12:27 down in Bedford Stuy 12:30 and I represented the Ocean Avenue Boxing Club. 12:33 By the way good fighters came out of there. 12:35 Floyd Patterson came out of there, 12:37 the great heavyweight champion of the world. 12:39 And Marie Glazier, 12:40 light middleweight heavyweight champion, 12:41 a middleweight champion of the world. 12:44 And so I was training and getting ready in finding 12:46 and my coach said well, I will let you in this tournament. 12:49 Now we were poor kids, 12:51 we didn't have these fancy robes, 12:53 you know, boxing shoes, we had sneakers that you taped, 12:56 so they wouldn't flap up and down 13:00 and we had bathing suit with that, 13:02 you know, none of these fancy trunks 13:04 and with poor kids and we would come 13:07 and we'd sit in the front row 13:08 and would each wait our turn according to our weight class. 13:11 By the way they don't go age, they go by weight class. 13:15 And, I remember, I'm waiting, I'm anxious, you know, 13:19 they named me Killer Halvorsen. 13:23 Come on picture this, come on. 13:27 Killer Halvorsen, and I was ready for this fight 13:34 and I remember the bell rang and I came out 13:37 and you know, I'm fighting 13:39 and I feel like Paul the apostle's fight, 13:41 don't know if you read about it in the Bible. 13:43 I'm beating the air 13:45 and this kid's beating up on my head. 13:47 By the way he was from the-- 13:48 he was from the Catholic Youth Organization 13:51 just before he stood up to fight me, 13:52 he said a prayer, I said oh no, 13:54 he has something going for him that I don't have going for me. 13:59 This kid man, I mean the prayer here I am. 14:05 And now I'm looking for an opening, 14:07 he's finding the opening and I'm punching around, 14:11 you know, just beating in the air 14:13 and finally the bell rang 14:19 and I came back to the corner and sat down, 14:21 my manager says, you're doing great. 14:23 I said great? 14:26 I said man he has the purple trunks. 14:30 I have a bathing suit on, 14:31 and I know what this guy's doing. 14:33 He said no, remember everything I taught, 14:35 you know, now, if any of you have ever fought in a ring, 14:37 you know what that means. 14:39 Remember everything he taught you, 14:42 when they're throwing punches at your head, 14:44 you're not trying to-- what was that Wednesday, 14:46 he was trying to teach me about boxing. 14:49 You know, I mean you're fighting for your life, 14:51 you're trying to stay, you know, you're moving back 14:53 and moving around and hoping he doesn't hit you. 14:56 And, so there I am the second round, 14:59 I feel like Paul the Apostle's fight, 15:00 I'm beating up on the air 15:01 and this kid's beating up on my head. 15:03 Finally he hit me with a left hook, or right, 15:05 doesn't matter when you're hit you're hit. 15:07 Your legs go one way, your body goes the other way, 15:11 and all of a sudden, everything's spinning around 15:12 and I'm flat on my back Killer Halvorsen. 15:16 And then this guy, one, 15:22 someone told me you'll have a fast count 15:24 I never had a fast count. 15:26 Two. 15:30 I said, I wish this guy get this thing 15:31 over with come on and, three. 15:35 And then the bell rang.. 15:38 Now, in those days when you were fighting 15:40 when the bell rang, 15:41 they could drag you to the corner, 15:44 and you were called Saved by the Bell. 15:48 I didn't want to get saved, I wanted to get out of there, 15:54 and so he says saved by the bell, 15:57 sat me down in the corner, he got out the smelling salts, 16:01 waved it under my nose 16:02 and then he ask the dumb questions, 16:04 how many fingers do I have on one hand? 16:06 Ten? 16:11 What's your name? 16:12 Who cares? 16:17 And then he said something, I'll never forget it, 16:19 and it's helped me through life. 16:21 He said you want me to throw in the towel? 16:24 That means give up, surrender, 16:27 I said no man, no man, 16:30 I've taken enough punishment from this guy. 16:33 And went out the third-round 16:34 knocked him through the ropes got the gold medal. 16:38 Light heavy-- they gave me light heavy weight champion. 16:40 I knocked out the Eastern Golden Gloves champion. 16:43 I was 15 years old 16:44 I couldn't fight the Golden Gloves, 16:45 I had to fight in another tournament 16:47 he was 27 years old, I knocked him out. 16:49 I was a fighter, I was Ron Halvorsen, 16:52 Killer Halvorsen, man I'm a boxer. 16:54 Hey, you know I learned a lesson. 16:56 I learned a lesson, 16:57 when you're knocked down in life, 17:00 when I was knocked down 17:01 the manager came through the ropes picked me up, 17:03 brought me to the corner, took up the smelling salt. 17:06 You know, you see, 17:07 when you're knocked down in life, 17:08 listen to me kids, when you're knocked down, 17:10 the devil knocks you down, remember you have a manager 17:13 and that manager is Jesus Christ 17:15 and He came through the ropes to lift you up. 17:22 He came through the ropes to lift you up 17:25 and the smelling salts is His grace, God bless you, 17:28 the smelling salts is the grace. 17:29 So there I was fighting in the ring, 17:32 wanting to learn how to be a fighter. 17:34 You had to fight good in the ring, 17:35 and fight good in the street. 17:37 And I was going through become a champ, 17:41 thought I was tough and cool and, 17:44 you know, I want to fight and I lived to fight. 17:48 And my brother Billy, he was my example, 17:51 we would wake up in the morning 17:52 and say let's go look for a fight. 17:57 And if any Halvorsen got in trouble got in a fight 18:00 and he was outmanned, all the other Halvorsen's, 18:04 they came, they came to help 18:07 and that was my life growing up. 18:12 I didn't know God, didn't believe in God. 18:16 I said where's God in the ghetto? 18:19 Come on, if there's a God who cares, 18:21 why doesn't He care for me? 18:24 I mean why am I taking such a bad ramping life? 18:27 I mean, but the young people really don't succeed 18:33 until they get a gang, get in a gang. 18:35 I knew many gangs in the 50s 18:37 there in New York the 60s the Mau Maus, 18:41 the Puerto-Rican gang, 18:43 they wore their blazer, their red scarlet blazer 18:46 and fedor with a little feather and when you saw a Mau Mau, 18:49 he had a cane, you watch if he'd open a cane, 18:52 you never let them open a cane 18:54 because he had switch-- 18:55 he had a blade in there about like this 18:57 and sometimes we would be walking down 18:59 you will knock him down the ground, step on his face. 19:01 So will you do that for me? 19:02 And I said, well, I don't like your cane. 19:07 There were the swords, 19:09 the Amboy Dukes in Hell's Kitchen, Bishops, 19:14 the Chaplains from Bedford Stuy, 19:16 which about 400 strong. 19:19 You talk about, you talk about danger, 19:23 you talk about, I'm growing up in the streets 19:26 and you want to be in the gang because you don't-- 19:28 you know, you can't fight, you can't survive, 19:31 you got to survive and you want to be cool, 19:35 you know, it's cool to be 19:36 and you pressured on every hand 19:39 and the pressure to become a gang member. 19:44 I joined the Beachcombers. 19:48 The Beachcombers they had their territory, 19:50 every gang has its territories called its turf. 19:53 Coney Island, 19:54 from Neptune Avenue to Surf Avenue, 19:57 from Ocean Parkway to 16th, it was our territory. 20:03 I was initiated into the gang, you don't just join a gang, 20:05 you're initiated into the gang. 20:07 And what they did 20:08 since it was at the Coney Island beach 20:09 they rolled me in the water, they rip took off my jacket, 20:12 they rolled me in the water, 20:15 and then they rolled me in the sand 20:18 and tied me to a piling 20:20 and each member would take off 20:22 their Garrison belt with a big buckle 20:24 and they'd whip you and you couldn't, 20:25 you couldn't cry out, because if you cried out, 20:28 there was a soldier on each side 20:29 with the switchblade, 20:30 they come up under your arm or else they would carve 20:33 a "C" in your back or "C" in you forehead. 20:37 So I was initiated to become a Beachcomber. 20:42 Now, those gangs were well organized. 20:45 There was a president, right, 20:46 there was a president, right up man, right up man, 20:51 there was a treasurer, council war, 20:55 and whenever there's a trouble 20:56 between the gangs the council war 20:58 with the president would meet with the gang, 21:00 and then they would go through the steps 21:02 in order to be prepared for the gang. 21:04 And when they discussed where the rumble would be, 21:06 where the fight would take place, 21:08 whether they would be armed or unarmed, 21:10 whether it be just fists or rocks or baseball bats, 21:14 drilled, filled with lead called Billy clubs, 21:17 whatever that's the way it was. 21:20 And the president and the council war would go 21:22 and they would tell the time, I can't describe a rumble, 21:25 I mean they last about 10 minutes. 21:29 And you see boys laying all over the gutter. 21:31 I can't explain what it's like when a young boy 21:33 has switchblade shoved in his gut and ripped up 21:37 and he's lying stomach hanging out 21:40 and he's crying for his mother. I can't describe that. 21:43 I don't know what to say about it, 21:45 I don't know what its like when you fight, 21:47 you're fighting for your life and you, 21:48 you usually have a buddy, he is behind you 21:50 with the ash barrel cover over his arm 21:53 and you have it over yours protecting yourself, 21:56 and when he goes down, 21:58 you feel the knife switchblade stick in your back. 22:00 To see young boys, their heads split open 22:04 from Billy beaten them and I had no, 22:07 I had no feelings, I'd beat up 22:09 and run them down a brick wall on the face 22:11 and throw them in the gutter and not feel anything. 22:17 Poverty is the worst kind of violence. 22:21 So there I was going from problem to problem. 22:27 I went to school, 22:29 they pushed me through every grade, 22:30 I couldn't read, 22:32 I could-- I would functionally read 22:33 but I couldn't read anything 22:34 but comic books when I was in high school. 22:38 And here's the heartbreak of America, 22:40 I remember one time, 22:42 my mother had to go into the schools, 22:44 in fact, she spent more time in high school 22:46 for she is than I did. 22:50 I had my own truant officer, 22:53 they ain't call them truant officers here? 22:55 There supposed to be in school, 22:56 they have an officer that goes chasing around for you 22:58 and yeah, anyway, my momma was there 23:01 and the principal said to my mother, 23:03 I will never forget it. 23:04 He said Mrs. Halvorsen your boy's a bum, 23:07 he's no good, he'll never amount to anything. 23:10 It's a terrible thing to hear for a mother, isn't it? 23:13 And on the way home my mother started crying, 23:15 and she says Ronny, I don't know, 23:16 my mother's trying to raise six kids in the inner city, 23:19 you can't, don't wait till you walk in their shoes. 23:24 Walk in their shoes. 23:26 Why don't they drag themselves out? 23:28 How do you drag yourself out of quicksand? 23:32 What do they know about it? 23:35 What do they know about it? 23:36 My momma said I don't know what I can do, Ronny. 23:39 I don't know what I could do for you. 23:40 If I had only known then, I would have said, 23:41 mom, you can't help me, only Jesus can help me. 23:43 But I didn't know that, 23:46 the only time I used the name of Jesus is in a curse word. 23:49 I was preaching at the Spanish church 23:51 the other day, and I said 23:52 I don't know any Spanish, 23:53 the only words I know in Spanish 23:54 I can't say in church. 24:02 I went to a high school called 24:04 William E. Grady vocational high school. 24:06 They wrote a book called the Blackboard Jungle 24:08 from the juvenile crime in that school, 24:09 it was all-boys school. 24:11 It was a preparation school for reform school. 24:14 Describe what it was like in that school, 24:16 let me tell you. 24:18 We want a minute more for lunch 24:19 and the whole guys would get up and walk out 24:21 and surround the building stamping their feet. 24:23 We want a minute more for lunch and-- 24:26 held the teacher out the fifth floor 24:28 out the window, and said no homework. 24:33 We had no homework, that night, 24:34 that week, that month, that year. 24:39 I want to tell you how dumb those kids were. 24:43 You supposed to say, how dumb? 24:44 I don't know this group. Are you real? 24:46 Do you live in a world or what're you doing? 24:48 You must be in another realm. 24:49 But anyway, 24:53 can I tell you how dumb were those kids? 24:56 Yes. 24:57 Okay, thank you, I will go on. 25:00 I'm mean, they were so dumb-- 25:02 we had a lot of Puerto Ricans in our school, 25:03 so they would give out a Spanish test. 25:06 So they gave us all a Spanish test by mistake, 25:09 and we took it. 25:14 And, you know how it is, my friend looks at me strange, 25:17 he is looking at this, turning it upside down 25:20 and trying to figure this out and so you know what you do, 25:24 I said, it was multiple-choice. 25:28 One first question, what is that? 25:31 C. 25:35 Went through the whole test. 25:37 Teacher collects the test he looks and says 25:40 oh know I gave you the wrong test, it's Spanish. 25:43 We all failed English that year but we passed Spanish. 25:50 Now then, you talk about a school, 25:53 you go up the down staircase 25:55 and find a boy lying on this stairwell stomach's slit open 25:59 and they robbed him for his cookie money. 26:03 You talk about drugs, nothing pretty about it. 26:06 By the way don't let them tell you that. 26:09 I know, down the street. 26:11 They used to shoot up on the roof, 26:14 heroin was the drug then, 26:16 and they'd shoot up on the roof, 26:18 and once in a while kid would overdose 26:20 and they'd rob him of his stuff 26:22 and then they'd throw his body of the roof, 26:24 that's William E. Grady Vocational High School, 26:26 Brooklyn, New York, I was going there. 26:30 And I was getting into trouble 26:31 with the gangs one night in the gang rumble, 26:34 was fighting in a gang, fighting someone from Red, 26:36 a gang from Red Hook 26:38 and there was a blast of a sort of shotgun, 26:41 and my friend Johnny, 16 years old 26:44 had his head blown off his shoulders, 26:45 he died in a pool of blood. 26:48 That was my world. 26:50 There's only three ways you get out. 26:54 You fight your way out, 26:57 they carry you out, or by some miracle, 27:02 the miracle of God, you walkout. 27:06 My neighborhood, 27:07 that's my world, that was my world. 27:09 Talk about God, didn't want to hear about God. 27:12 My mother sent me to Sunday school, 27:14 didn't want to hear about God. 27:16 My parents never went, they went one day, 27:17 you know, Easter Sunday or whatever, 27:21 but I had a wonderful mother and a wonderful father. 27:25 My father was a hard working man. 27:27 He was an alcoholic until God saved him, 27:29 but listen to me, 27:31 it was a tough world to try to raise kids. 27:34 And boys especially, come on. 27:36 We're into everything. 27:38 You can't leave your car in my-- 27:40 I mean, you can't-- don't turn your back. 27:44 I'd go to this ball park and my brother say, 27:47 hey, you don't have glove, I said, yeah I have one. 27:50 And I have a glove before you know it, 27:53 and I always carried a black marking pen, 27:55 always put my name on it quick, Halvorsen. 27:58 Isn't that my glove? 28:00 I said, no that's my glove, Halvorsen, 28:01 what're you talking about. 28:02 Baseball bats you know 28:04 and we're ripping everybody often 28:06 and but I can't describe the fear you have. 28:11 Every time the police car comes you, you fear, 28:13 every time-- 28:15 I mean you ducked down alleyways, close as I can, 28:19 they were bring me to an alleyway 28:21 with a switch blade ready to kill me, 28:22 and a cop car came, lucky, 28:24 I never was so happy to see the cops in my life. 28:28 It was my world. 28:30 No matter how tough you think you are, 28:32 you're afraid, you live in fear 28:34 and that was my life. 28:36 Living in the violent world, living in a violent world, 28:39 ripping people off, stealing cars, 28:40 made my first zip gun, Robert and I made a zip gun, 28:43 we were 14 years old, 28:45 couldn't shoot far, very far, 28:46 but you hit someone on third block down the road. 28:51 That was switchblade in my pocket, 28:53 hate in my heart, I hated, 28:56 I hated you because of your color, 28:57 I hated you because of your culture, 28:58 I hated you because-- I hated you 29:00 because you were rich and I was poor. 29:01 I hated you, hate just festered in my mind. 29:06 Jesus is the only answer to this problem, 29:09 don't you see that. 29:10 Now I love everybody, I love everybody. 29:15 But God began to work in my neighborhood, 29:17 right in the middle of the ghetto, 29:18 right in the middle of this pollution. 29:20 God began to work in the heart 29:22 of a young teenager 14 year old boy 29:25 and this boy was converted. 29:28 His grandmother shared faith with him, 29:30 he was converted. 29:31 And everywhere he went he carried a Bible 29:33 and he was always trying to share his faith. 29:35 Hey listen to me, share your faith, 29:38 what're you afraid of? 29:40 He's sharing his faith. 29:42 He wanted me to go to Bible study. 29:43 Bible study? 29:44 I don't even believe in the Bible. 29:46 And then, you know, I'm a friend he wants me to go 29:49 and so finally he got me to a Bible study one night, 29:52 it was on the second coming of Jesus, I remember. 29:54 And I walked out of that study 29:56 and he said, what do you think? 29:57 I don't believe in that stuff. 29:59 You see, the carnal mind is enmity against God, 30:01 it's not subject to the Word of God 30:03 neither indeed can be. 30:05 If you hate God's law, 30:06 it's because you have the carnal mind. 30:08 If you have a spiritual mind, you gonna love His law. 30:10 I couldn't understand this and so I went my way, 30:13 there at William E Grady Vocational High School. 30:16 But Jim would try to share his faith 30:18 and what we used to call him, Isaiah the prophet. 30:22 Here comes, Isaiah, make fun of him, 30:27 but he was faithful to God. 30:29 He's wanted so much for his friend 30:31 of this faith to find God. 30:33 And he'd share his faith 30:34 and, one day I was playing hooky 30:37 from William E Grady Vocational High School, 30:40 and I was on my way. 30:41 I started for school, but I got as far as the front, 30:43 I turned around, I was walking and Jimmy, 30:47 I was thinking about Jimmy and about God. 30:50 I said, I don't know this guy is crazy, 30:53 and just then, I saw a friend of mine 30:55 coming toward school, his name was Richard. 30:58 And I said Richard, what are you doing, man? 31:01 I said let's go play hooky. 31:02 He says, oh, no, I got to go to school. 31:03 I just got out from reform school, he said. 31:05 If I get in trouble now, they're gonna put me away 31:07 until I'm 20 years old, 21 years old. 31:10 I said, come on. 31:11 He said, well, we go to play, 31:13 we go play dice under the boardwalk 31:16 or we shoot pool or, they know where we are. 31:18 I thought about Jimmy 31:20 because you see Jimmy had gone out to a Christian school 31:23 out in Queens 31:25 and I said hey, man, 31:27 let's go out to Queens to this Christian school, 31:30 who will look for you and me in a Christian school? 31:32 Hey, man, that's even logic for Richard, logic 31:36 and so we snuck out on the train. 31:38 You know if you've ever been in Brooklyn, 31:39 lower Brooklyn it becomes an elevated train 31:42 and we used to climb up-- 31:45 There was a roof that went across up above the stairs, 31:47 we used to climb up there, 31:48 jump over the third rail, or be fry, 31:50 run between trains are as crushed 31:51 and got on there say, 15 cents in that day. 31:55 Got out to this school, Christian school, 31:57 and there I was black leather jackets, 31:58 skull, blood dripping over the skull 32:00 because, see every gang had its fluids colors. 32:04 And I walk in there I was, you know looking cool, 32:07 you think the fun was cool? 32:08 Nah, I was cool. 32:12 And my friend Richard just out of reform school 32:14 and we get to the school and I walk into school 32:19 and, a woman teacher came in 32:22 and there I was standing looking cool. 32:24 She said, can I help you? 32:27 And I said, yeah, ma'am, we know the difference, 32:30 but you know that's cool. 32:31 I said, yeah, ma'am, we're looking for Jim Landus, 32:33 does he go to school here? 32:35 And she said he's up in chapel. 32:38 I've never been in a chapel all my life I said. 32:40 Well, she said would you like to go up the chapel? 32:42 I said yeah, I would, because I don't want to go out 32:44 there the cops everywhere I mean I'm safe in this school, 32:47 up the stairs 32:49 and I put my hand on the doorknob 32:50 and I remember, I'll never forget it. 32:53 She says, oh by the way, it's week of prayer. 32:57 I started to laugh I said, a week of prayer, 32:59 I can't pray 10 seconds. 33:01 How do they pray for a whole week? 33:07 Then I walked in that school. 33:10 Sat in the last row, 33:11 my friend just out of reform school, Richard, 33:16 and we didn't listen much to what was going on. 33:19 By the way kids, don't you slide around in your seat 33:21 when I'm preaching to you. 33:23 I'll send the Holy Spirit after you. 33:25 Amen. 33:26 See, I thought I was cool, 33:28 I could-- I didn't need that, 33:29 I was cool man, I wasn't cool, 33:31 I was bound for hell. 33:34 I was bound for hell. 33:37 Now, I know you like pretty little sermons 33:39 with bubbling brooks, pop psychology. 33:44 The Bible says, "All have sinned 33:45 and, come short of the glory of God." 33:46 I was bound for hell. 33:48 Sat in that, the preacher was up there, 33:50 preaching I slid down in my seat, 33:51 looking around at the girls, you know man, looking cool. 33:55 That afternoon, listen, that afternoon, 33:59 we went out, my brother and I 34:00 we stole a boat at Gravesend Bay. 34:04 I know it was stolen, because we stole it, 34:05 but anyway we were out their fishing. 34:07 I was fishing, I still love to fish. 34:09 I'm a fisherman. 34:10 I won't brag about it but I'm pretty good. 34:12 When I start my boat in Crystal River 34:14 the fish trembled. 34:17 I mean, that's how good I am. 34:19 But, so we stole this boat and we went out to go fishing 34:22 and storm came on and wind started to blow 34:26 and the water was coming over to the side of the boat 34:29 and a storm, and the boat was filling up 34:32 and my brother says, hey man, bail! 34:34 So I took of my motorcycle boot, 34:35 I'm trying to bail this boat out and I can't, 34:39 and that water is coming out faster than I can bail. 34:40 Listen, and then, just then, he said well you row I'll bail. 34:44 So he's doing the same to get the same place 34:46 and finally the tide changed 34:49 and we go one feet forward and three feet back. 34:52 If you ever go over the Verrazano Bridge 34:54 from Staten Island, you look off to the right 34:55 that's Coney Island. 34:57 And that little bay there, it's called Gravesend Bay, 34:59 called the Gravesend Bay because so many ships sunk 35:01 there in the old days. 35:03 And so here I am the boat's filling up 35:06 and I got bailing and the boat's filling up 35:09 I prayed my first prayer 35:10 in a stolen boat in Gravesend Bay 35:14 because there are no atheists in sinking boats... 35:25 or crashing planes. 35:27 Listen to me, cool, 35:30 when the death angel starts moving around your heart, 35:33 you're gonna wonder 35:34 where you gonna spend, eternity. 35:38 I get down on my, on my knees, 35:40 and kids don't you believe those old folks that tell you, 35:43 God only hears the prayers of good kids, 35:44 He doesn't, He hears the prayers of bad kids 35:47 that's what makes him God 35:49 and, that's what makes them your parents. 35:53 I get down on a boat there I was praying. 35:56 God, get me in and I'll be good. 36:04 First of all, God knew better 36:08 but God heard the prayer, 36:11 be good Halvorsen, be good, but God heard the prayer. 36:15 Have you ever been in a storm and the wind comes 36:18 and rips away the clouds for a minute 36:19 and the sun, sun comes down? 36:21 Have you ever seen the sun rays come down in a storm? 36:25 Well, it came down right on that boat. 36:28 And it was a speed boat going by 36:30 and its source and the fog, and the wind, and the rain 36:33 and it came over and hooked us up 36:35 and pulled us in, and I get on shore. 36:38 I forgot that prayer, I forgot that prayer. 36:43 How many times have you done the same thing? 36:45 Come on now, doctor says up 36:47 we're looking at this little X-ray 36:49 and looks bad and then you find out 36:52 it was just someone's fingerprint 36:53 and you go right back to your old way. 36:56 Well, God restores you to life 36:57 and you go back to your old way. 36:59 I mean, so I got my feet on the ground, 37:01 I forgot the prayer, went out to the next day, 37:03 went out with my friend, Richard Kelly, 37:05 went out to that school, that school there in Queens, 37:10 Greater New York Academy. 37:13 I walked in, sat in the last row with my friend. 37:16 Here I am the night before-- 37:18 afternoon before I stole a boat, 37:22 prayed my first prayer 37:25 and now I'm in religious service in the chapel, 37:27 and I didn't even know what a chapel was. 37:30 The preacher was talking 37:31 and I don't want to listen to him, 37:33 I wouldn't listen to him. 37:35 Looked around, didn't need God 37:40 but that prayer kept haunting me, get me in 37:47 and I'll be good and I'll be good. 37:51 That afternoon we were gonna have 37:53 a block party that night in our neighborhood. 37:55 Whenever you have block party in the neighborhood, 37:57 you put the ash barrel cans across the corner, 38:01 across the street, 38:02 so no cars come driving through, you know, 38:04 and you open the windows 38:05 get the ghetto blaster going away you know 38:07 and man, cool I have steps if I showed you now. 38:11 I mean... 38:16 I can't wait to get it, get to heaven 38:18 I'm gonna show you my heavenly moves, 38:23 but we gonna have this party and the president of the gang, 38:26 he always gave you the, what you to bring the parties, 38:29 if you have no more money 38:30 you have to take it, you have to get it. 38:31 So I had those things that are not good for you 38:34 but when you get to heaven they'll be good for you. 38:36 Creampuffs, eclairs, 38:39 I mean, pies, cakes, 38:45 you can have a pear tree, 38:47 I'm gonna snicker bar tree, believe me, 38:48 but anyway for you poor people that don't like that, 38:52 that's all right when you get to heaven, you like it. 38:53 But anyway, so I had to break in the bakery. 38:58 The bakery was on Brighton Beach second, 39:01 broke in the back window got in there 39:03 and, you know, those nice white boxes 39:05 you put the creampuffs, you know, 39:07 if you haven't been in a Brooklyn bakery, 39:09 you haven't been in a bakery, 39:10 you haven't been in a Brooklyn bakery. 39:12 You haven't eaten pizza 39:14 until you've eaten New York pizza. 39:18 Hey, we are New Yorkers here. 39:21 Yeah, I went to a place here in Charlotte, 39:25 man said you all want a pizza? 39:26 I knew right away I was finished. 39:31 You all want a pizza? 39:33 That he brought it out look like a flying saucer 39:35 with spaghetti sauce on. 39:39 Had to throw it out and they had to be bad 39:42 for me to throw out a piece of pizza. 39:45 Well, anyway I broke in got the piled up 39:50 white boxes, creampuffs 39:52 and I thought man we're gonna have some party tonight 39:54 when I get back there. 39:56 When I go out the back window, I go out the front door 39:58 and so I got out the front door and out onto the corner 40:03 there on Brighton second 40:06 and about six blocks up a patrol car 40:08 came out on onto the avenue. 40:12 Now being a theologian, 40:15 I dropped what I had in my hands. 40:18 You see you all know what's right and wrong, 40:19 come on now. 40:20 Mama says, don't go near the cookie jar, 40:23 you're eating away, laughing away 40:25 and then you hear mama coming. 40:26 You'll rubbing as you're running, 40:29 where are the crumbs, right. 40:30 So, I drop my creampuffs and I started to run, 40:33 it's hard to get, get traction in creampuffs. 40:38 And so, I started out 40:39 and ran I knew the neighborhood, 40:41 I figured out ducked down in alleyway 40:43 jump over a fence and man, I would be gone. 40:46 I won a 100 yard dash 40:48 two years in a row for in Brooklyn, 40:49 all the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. 40:51 And so I was fast, 40:53 I had to be to stay out of jail. 40:55 I had to be fast and so I took off. 40:59 Now in my neighborhood at the time, that was they, 41:02 they never walked in twos in Coney Island, 41:03 they walk in threes the policemen. 41:05 I don't know, if you ever noticed that. 41:07 Next time you're on Surf Avenue look, 41:10 the patrol car, you see they would chase us 41:12 in the patrol car 41:13 and my friends would get him the chase them 41:15 and then some of our gang would jump into the patrol car 41:19 and they would drive in out 41:20 over the bulkhead into the ocean. 41:23 So, they were told, don't leave your patrol car 41:25 till you have a backup. 41:27 And then you go together 41:28 and sometimes they would come up the stairs 41:30 we would throw ash barrels off from the roof down on. 41:33 And so, I'm running, 41:37 I'm running down this alleyway, man, 41:38 I'm putting distance you know, 41:39 and these guys are getting cautious, 41:42 you know, they ought to be cautious 41:43 and I'm running to a brick wall 41:46 nothing but a brick wall. 41:49 Man, I'm caught. 41:52 And so I start thinking, 41:53 what am I gonna say, make up an excuse. 41:55 So, I start backing. 41:56 I'm thinking what I'm gonna say 41:57 and just then I saw the fire escape. 41:59 You know, you ever see those fire escape 42:00 and you run jump up and pull the ladder down 42:02 and I'm running up, you can't run up quietly up, fire escape. 42:06 And I'm waving at the people 42:07 in the apartments as I'm going up 42:08 and finally get to the roof 42:10 and the policeman comes in say stop or I will shoot. 42:12 I was moving so fast, would outrun his bullet 42:14 but anyway down across the building, 42:16 down across the roof over, 42:18 over-- jump to the next building, 42:19 the next building and I'm gone. 42:22 Next day I'm out there listening to the preacher. 42:24 Preacher is talking about God. 42:27 Talking about Christ, and you talk about Christ 42:30 who touch lame legs the man walked 42:31 and he talked about Christ who touch blind eyes 42:34 and man saw, he talked about 42:36 a little baby with a dead heart, 42:37 and Jesus touched it, it came back into life again. 42:39 And I thought, wow, there is power in those hands. 42:43 First time I'm thinking spiritual 42:46 this power, this power in those hands, 42:51 in those hands, in those hands. 42:55 That night I needed some money 42:57 and best way to get money then was snatch pocketbook. 43:01 You see between Van Siclen Station 43:04 and the Brighton Beach Projects, 43:06 there were dark places and I'd sit there and wait 43:09 and a little old lady comeback. 43:11 See that's what sin does to you. 43:14 They combine, you run out, reach out, 43:15 grab the pocketbook run, you know, if they did hold on, 43:19 you just kind of hit him, knock him down, 43:20 that's what sin does. 43:23 My life-- I'm a loser man. 43:26 I mean that principle is right, 43:27 I was a bum, I never amount to anything. 43:30 That's why I run out and I grab the pocketbook 43:34 and I started to pull in and she cried and yelled 43:38 and something came over me. 43:40 I didn't know what it was something came over me 43:43 and for the first time in my life I felt guilt. 43:45 First time in my life I felt bad about this. 43:48 I mean, I started to cry, I don't cry, 43:50 Halvorsen's don't cry. 43:52 I mean you beat me with a baseball bat, 43:54 you never get me to cry and here I am running down-- 43:57 I let go and running down 43:58 the back alleyway and up over fences 44:00 and running towards the neighborhood 44:01 and I'm crying. 44:03 I didn't know what it was then but I know what it is now, 44:05 it's called the Holy Spirit. 44:08 It's called the Holy Spirit. 44:12 And all that night I laid between the ash barrels, 44:16 crying, praying, prayed. 44:18 You don't have to be ever cool when you pray. 44:21 You don't have to be ever cool. 44:22 And by the way you don't have to know a lot. 44:24 You people think a person has to have a PhD 44:26 before they get saved. 44:28 You are so deluded. 44:31 You are living in a-- 44:32 You are living in a different world. 44:35 You throw yourself on the mercy of God. 44:39 You don't make God promises, He makes promises. 44:42 I will be with you always Halvorsen, that's His promise. 44:48 That's His promise. 44:50 Next day played hooky, Richard went out, 44:51 we went out to that school, sat in the last row, last seat. 44:55 He sat there, Richard just out of reform school 44:58 and here I am and now I'm listening. 45:02 Listen to me kids, 45:04 the best thing you can do is listen. 45:08 The best thing you can do. 45:13 Jesus, He talked about how He had to go to His cross 45:15 and had to go-- He is talking about 45:18 the last days of Jesus, and I though wow, 45:20 why did they do that to Him. 45:21 I can understand them putting the thief on there, 45:23 I'm a thief, I can understand that. 45:26 Why Him, He is innocent man? 45:29 I couldn't, I couldn't understand it. 45:32 I couldn't understand it. That night... 45:35 that night I was supposed to go out and steal a car. 45:40 My friend, my brother, 45:44 and just then there was a knock at the door. 45:47 I opened the door and there was standing 45:49 a young boy 14 years old Jimmy Londis, 45:52 Bible in his hand, a smile on his face. 45:56 No one smiles like him. 45:59 No one smiles like Jimmy. 46:02 He still smiles, he captures you. 46:05 Jimmy Londis from the inner city, 46:07 Jim, you talk about poverty. 46:09 Jimmy Londis, became a doctor of theology 46:12 and teaches theology 46:14 and I mean smart loving God. 46:21 Everything I have, I owe to Jimmy Londis, 46:23 a 14 year old kid with a Bible in his hand. 46:28 You can clap. 46:32 Everything I have today, listen the shoes on my feet, 46:36 the suit on my back, I owed to Jesus Christ, 46:40 but I owed to Jimmy Londis because he was the, 46:43 he was the one that shared Jesus Christ with me. 46:46 He said, I come to study the Bible. 46:47 So, I said I'm not going out with you guys tonight. 46:50 That night they where caught, 46:53 just think if I've been caught. 46:56 Perhaps I never would have heard the Bible study 47:00 and perhaps I never would have found 47:01 what I found the peace, the joy, 47:06 the satisfaction 47:08 that only Jesus Christ can give. 47:11 And there I was, I was there that night, 47:15 then I said that I in my own heart, 47:17 I didn't say to anybody. 47:19 I said, I want to know, I want what he has. 47:22 I mean I want that smile on my face. 47:24 I want to-- hey that kid, 47:26 you don't know this kid travel two hours 47:29 each way on the subway to go to church 47:31 and you people can't drive 10 minutes. 47:36 God sent him to me. 47:40 And so next day I played hooky 47:41 with Richard Kelly just out of-- 47:45 just out of reform school, 47:48 back row and this preacher 47:51 said the Christ died on the cross for sinners. 47:55 He hung between heaven and hell, 47:56 between life and death and then He cries out Father, 48:00 forgive them for they know not what they do. 48:02 Father, forgive that rascal in Brooklyn that punk. 48:06 We thought he was somebody when there's nobody. 48:09 Forgive that kid that knocks him off 48:11 and hits them down and steps on them 48:13 and hurts them and steals from them 48:16 and forgive him. 48:19 And for the first time in my life 48:20 I wanted forgiveness. 48:23 For the first time in my life I wanted what this kid had. 48:27 I wanted that salvation that this kid had. 48:32 And the preacher said is anyone like to receive 48:33 Jesus into their life? 48:36 I wasn't like those academy kid, 48:38 I wasn't like those so called Christian kids, 48:40 you know they've been through many week of prayers. 48:42 They even know how to respond, they have their legs curled up, 48:45 so they wouldn't respond 48:46 and you know they are thinking about everything 48:48 and looking around and you know trying 48:50 not to avoid-- avoid the spirit. 48:53 And I remember I stood up black leather jacket, 48:57 skull blood ripping killer Halvorsen. 49:02 And I turned to my friend Richard, 49:03 I said Richard, I said will you come? 49:10 He said this, I'll never forget it, 49:11 listen to me, he said Ronny, 49:14 it cost too much to be a Christian. 49:18 He later spent his life in prison for murder. 49:22 Same boy had the same opportunity. 49:25 The kid had the same choices. 49:29 And I go on to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, 49:31 that day I gave my life to God. 49:33 Amen. 49:34 That day I gave my life to God. 49:39 And you talk, you talk about God, 49:43 what He does to the human life? 49:47 Talk about 10 day plans and 50 throw away the alcohol 49:51 and the tobacco and you did it, 49:52 what is that throw away my life physically, 49:56 the temple of the Holy Spirit and God freed me instantly. 50:00 What are you talking about? 50:01 Oh, well, I got to get ready, 50:03 Brother Halvorsen is gonna be baptized. 50:05 Get ready for what? 50:08 How can you clean a dirty pot? 50:11 You need the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, 50:13 you hear me here. 50:16 We're gonna have another baptism tonight. 50:19 Some of you people should be in a next one, believe me. 50:22 And by the way I prepared, I went to little church up 50:26 there in Brooklyn, New York. 50:28 I started to study the Bible and discovered the Sabbath 50:31 and went found the Sabbath churches. 50:33 And I was alone, I was-- my family weren't into this. 50:36 I was alone 50:38 and what I said the other night, 50:40 better to walk alone 50:42 than walk with the crowd in the wrong direction. 50:46 And I stood there at that morning 50:48 alone except Jimmy, 50:50 he was sitting down in the front row, 50:52 he is smiling, so only Jimmy could smile 50:56 and I was baptized some 57 years ago. 51:04 By the way I didn't know much about it. 51:06 I hadn't had your 27 fundamental studies. 51:11 I had the Holy Spirit in my heart. 51:14 Then you give me the 27 fundamental beliefs 51:16 and I will show you how to keep them. 51:21 Then I give my life to Jesus and I want to be a preacher, 51:23 I took a Bible I carry it. 51:24 I couldn't read. 51:28 So, I went to this public high school, 51:30 I mean the public library 51:32 and I would get this little books you know spot. 51:37 What it is spot? 51:39 Yeah, and I put it in my black leather jacket, 51:42 I put it in here so the kids won't see me 51:44 in the neighborhood and I come home 51:45 and I was trying to learn to read by myself 51:48 because I wanted to read the Bible. 51:52 And my mother one day caught me, 51:53 she says son can't you read? 51:55 I said, mama, I can read comic books. 51:59 So, she helped me, I owe a lot to my mother, 52:04 I love my mother deeply and dearly. 52:06 I look forward to be with her in resurrection. 52:08 I do look forward and my father. 52:11 But she taught me, and I went off, 52:17 I started preaching on street corners in Manhattan. 52:21 I started it in parks. 52:22 Jimmy and I would preach it 52:24 and we held our first evangelistic meeting 52:27 in a bookie joint in Brooklyn, New York. 52:30 Seventeen years old, 15 kid, 52:36 and started serving God, 52:40 in that bookie joint in Brooklyn 52:41 was the guess most successful meeting I ever had in my life 52:44 because my mother found Jesus 52:47 and she was baptized in the kingdom of God. 52:52 It's a long way from "Gangs to God." 52:55 And then I had the privilege of leading my brothers, 52:58 I have wonderful brothers, I love my brothers. 53:01 You don't-- 53:02 hey, we used to fight like cats and dogs 53:04 when we were young, but we love each other. 53:07 I have a brother, Warren, an athlete, 53:10 he played for the Philadelphia Phillies. 53:11 I mean this kid, he was drafted by the New York Knickerbockers 53:15 and the Philadelphia Phillies went in a baseball. 53:17 He became a dean in one of our colleges, 53:19 he was baptized in the kingdom of God. 53:21 He served God in the colleges, Southern College 53:23 and out there at La Sierra and out of Walla Walla. 53:27 Listen he found Jesus-- I have a brother an evangelist, 53:30 I mean a powerful evangelist. 53:32 I'm not worthy to tie his shoelace 53:34 when it comes to evangelist, 53:35 he is an evangelist, he loves evangelism. 53:37 He's retired just now, just recently retired, 53:40 but he's still holding five meetings a year. 53:42 My brother, he became an evangelist. 53:44 I mean my brother Elliot, he serves God in his church. 53:46 And my brother Billy, 53:48 you would have never met a kinder 53:52 and yet he is still rouged, rough you know, we used to, 53:55 hey, we all who we are. 53:59 I'm transparent to you people. 54:02 Hey, I am who I am but I become 54:06 what God wants me to become. 54:08 And my brother Billy, 54:11 and what a beautiful family I have. 54:13 I have two kids. Why? 54:16 Because of Jesus Christ. 54:17 You want to know what my life went from. 54:19 It went from the gutter. 54:21 I was in the gutter 54:23 and now I have two beautiful children. 54:26 I mean my son is 6'7", 6' 8''. 54:29 He is a powerful preacher. 54:31 You hear preaching, you hear my son, 54:33 you get on, you get on the internet look for, 54:35 look for the his college church, 54:39 what is that called? 54:40 Union College and you listen to my son preach. 54:43 He is a great preacher. 54:45 Then my daughter, she can preach, 54:48 she is a great preacher 54:49 but men are little jealous of that, 54:50 you know they don't like great woman preachers 54:52 but she's a fine preacher. 54:54 Her first year she led 80 people to Christ 54:56 into baptism in the kingdom of God 54:58 but she is a chaplain now in a nursing home, 55:01 my daughter. 55:04 I have two children. I have four grandchildren. 55:07 You tell me God isn't good? Amen. 55:10 I have four grandchildren 55:13 and every one of them are serving God, 55:15 going to church, living for Christ 55:18 and they are faithful to Jesus Christ. 55:20 Everything I have I owe to Jesus. 55:22 Amen. 55:25 I have two grand-- great grand babies. 55:30 Now they are little young yet 55:32 but they are off to Sabbath school to church. 55:36 I saw a picture of my little boy, 55:37 he's just starting to walk 55:39 and he is dressed in his little suit 55:40 and he is walking beside his daddy going to church. 55:44 All that I have, all that's important to me 55:48 is a gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 55:52 It's a long way from "Gangs to God." 55:55 Let me tell you that. 55:56 It's a long way from "Gangs to God." 55:58 But God reached down, 56:00 He took a kid with harden heart would beat you into the ground. 56:04 A kid with a harden heart would steal anything 56:06 you didn't have attached to. 56:08 He took that kid uneducated, stumbling bum, 56:14 and He gave me a life. 56:16 And I love this life, 56:19 I'm the happiest man in all of Charlotte. 56:22 I come here every night, I'm so happy, 56:24 I can hardly stand on the ground 56:28 and its all I owe to Jesus Christ 56:33 and Jimmy Londis, a boy who loved God so much, 56:40 he wanted to share it with his friend. 56:44 And when I get to heaven 56:47 I'm gonna live in the same neighborhood 56:50 with Jimmy Londis 56:53 and we're gonna continue that friendship 56:55 which we've had together for over 60 years. 57:00 Because of Jesus Christ I stand before you tonight 57:04 and may God bless you is my prayer 57:08 in the name of Jesus our Lord, amen, and amen. 57:32 It Is Written is dedicated to 57:33 sharing the gospel around the world. 57:36 To discover more about It Is Written, 57:37 I invite you to visit our website itiswritten.com, 57:41 and browse the dozens of pages 57:43 that describe what we do and how we do it. 57:45 Let's get to know each other better. 57:47 Visit our website itiswritten.com, today. |
Revised 2015-01-15