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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us at 813-884-4328, or you can donate on the homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and the today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to tell you a story. I told you one story last week, I want to tell you another story this week. Ray Stanford tells a story about a little kid named Jim Tengen, and I can’t tell the story exactly like you, but I can tell you what he said about it. And so I will try to explain this story, but there’s a reason for it. You see, when I was in Colorado, I would try to get as many kids as I possibly could, don’t know boss and I would drive 2,150 miles to a camp they had down in Florida.

And I’m talking about that’s a long way in a school bus and an average in 50 miles an hour and it taking two days to get there. And that’s driving straight through without sleep. Now I would do that and I did it for a reason because I wanted them to hear what Ray said about a kid named Jim Tengen. Now the reason the story was so important because there were some people that even though they came to ranch and some came to church, some went to camp and I couldn’t reach them all.

I could not convince everybody that came to trust Christ as their Savior. And those that did trust Christ as Savior I could not figure out a way to get everyone who knew the Lord to serve the Lord. And I wish I had a magic wand so I could cause everybody to fall into a deep sleep and they would wake up and everybody automatically like robots were served good. But I haven’t found that wand either. But I knew that if I can get them on that bus and drive them all the way down the floor then just so that on that one night when Ray would tell the Jim Tengen story, it’d be worth all the sacrifice because the kids that went, they hadn’t trusted the Lord, they trusted the Lord.

And if they hadn’t dedicated their life to serve the Lord, they would. And it was the most challenging, motivating story with highs and lows and all the emotional, you know, things that can happen in your life in between. And as parts of it, when Ray would tell it, they’d laugh and they’d cry. And I thought it was well worth it. And I did that for, I don’t know, 12, 15 years, something like that. And I kept driving buses, driving them home.

And I was wondering whether or not sometimes is it worth it? Well, I’d do it anyway. I want to tell you this simple little story. And I started off with ranch because see, a lot of you don’t know what ranch is. Ranch is a teenage Bible study. I had one in Colorado, we got one here. It’s just a teenage Bible study. It’s where we can in a casual way present the gospel to people that may not come to church.

But it’s on a level that most of the teenagers will enjoy and they can meet kids at their own age and so forth. And it works, it’s been done for over 50 something years, almost 60. But there was a man named Ray Stanford. He started the youth ranch ministry. He’s even been in this church and preached. He’s the one that taught Dr. Hank Lindstrom. He’s the one that taught me. And I met Hank in 1964 when they were running a camp.

That’s the first place I went was Bible Town Camp in Bogoritón, Florida, 1964, a couple years ago. Ranch was a place where the guys would set up on stools and they would play guitars and banjos and wash tubs and coconuts and anything that would make a noise that could keep a beat with. And the kids were coming in and all set on the floor. And so they would do this so that the kids would come, and they would always invite somebody to come.

And the kids would come and they’d hit the gospel most of them for the first time in their life. So they’d trust Christ as their Savior. So the ranch became a hatchery. It’s where little babies were born. And they always had a tendency to want to come back to where they were hatched. And then bring somebody else with them. And so more people trust Christ as Savior. I had the pre-bills when I was at Florida Bible College to be the co-director of this ranch.

This was the granddaddy of them all. And not many people had that opportunity. only two before me. And they did the same year. That was Mel’s Carbonell and Wally Morello. And then after them was me and the guy after me was Eddie Williamson. But when we was at Florida Bible College, we got a chance to learn how to do the youth ministry. But one night Ray and conducting his youth ministry he had this one kid come to ranch. Now this kid his name was Jim Tengen.

And Jim attention. Well, he trusted Christ of Savior the very first night he came. Now he had a strange background and it was very difficult for him or for people to get to really know him because he was kind of quiet, shy. But he was also at times a little rambunctious and he would get in your face and he was kind of shunned. Nobody wanted to be around him. like them. The guys didn’t like him, the girl definitely did not like him.

And so nobody would, well he couldn’t get anybody to date him. And when he came, his clothes was never the right size. They were too big on him and they didn’t have money to buy anything. And so he wasn’t very popular, but he would always ask questions. He came that ran, trusted Christ’s Savior. That was the first time he said he had ever heard that God loved him because nobody ever told him that before. When he was a little child, he had an accident.

And the accident, we’re playing with a sister and having some scissors. And anyway, he punched his cornea and then had scars. And so it was noticeable. But he had to get cord zone shots because of the eye problem. Ray described him as a kid that had all of his marbles, but his shooter was missing. In other words, he was like not all there. As some people say, the elevator didn’t go all way to the top floor, things like that.

Or if it did go to the top floor, you know, the light was on, but nobody was home. And so he had to go through this. He was a little bit on the slow side. But he knew the Lord, and he knew he had eternal life. And when he came to rent, she always wanted to bring somebody. But his mom was an alcoholic. My mom was the same way. So was my dad. Now, Jim Tingen was born. The year I was born.

And he passed away the year that I trust the Christ as my Savior. If he was alive today, he’d be my age. But Ray felt sorry for Jim. And he would always hang around Ray and follow him around like a little puppy dog. And there’s kids that are like that, but he felt like he belonged as long as he was with Ray. And he loved to hang around Ray and to be with him. But his mother was sick, and she was Donna Cancer.

And when he came to ranch, he always liked to bring somebody. It’s just like us, we can always come to church, but he didn’t wanna just come to church. He wouldn’t bring somebody with him. So when he came to ranch, he wanted to bring somebody with him. He couldn’t find anybody. Well, he would get on his bicycle and he’d ride around all the parts and so I got trying to beg people to come. And if they would come to ranch, he would pestle them until they finally come and then he’d let them alone because they’d trust Christ the Savior to come on their own.

And he would keep pestering people. I mean, he pestered them because he didn’t want to come to ranch without somebody else coming with him. And so that’s what he would do. Now, Ray had built a church called Grow Community Church. And that’s where they were when I attended the Florida Bible College. It was a church no bigger than what this is right here. They didn’t even have a gymnasium. It was around South Dixie Highway. And so they had some parking areas there in just the church.

And all the other side, Ray had his home. And so they built this church. And so people come and donate some time, Jim would always be there, but if there was a bucket he’d put his foot in it. Ray said he was just always in the way. He was like, he was a pest. But he didn’t know anybody, he didn’t, nobody cared about him. So he would just be a pest, but he was there. And he was always asking questions at the wrong time, doing the wrong things.

And so Ray had his Bible. And when you saw Ray’s Bible, it was big and thick, like Hank Lindstern’s was, you know, Hank had a big Bible. And if you open it, it didn’t matter what page it was on, it looks like it’s marked all over. What Ray’s Bible was like that. Jim had to have one like that. And he was sent by the hour and he would copy all of Ray’s notes into his Bible. He didn’t have a clue what in the world they meant, but he would copy them.

He wanted to be just like Ray. Well, he’d never be like Ray, but he tried his best. He knew that people should trust Christ’s Savior, knew they should go to heaven, and he didn’t want anybody to go to hell, and so he would do everything that he possibly could. But Jim was lonely, and he wished that Ray would be able to get him a girlfriend. He didn’t have any decent clothes, and so Ray was, well, he was bought my size at one time.

And he would give him some of his clothes to wear. But Jim was smaller and and so close it just hang on him, but that was the best he could do. Because I worked at one time with Jack Weaver, he had A plus exterminators. So in 66 to 68, I had the last couple of years there of working with Jack Weaver, who later on became a student at the college and then known the board of the college, but he allowed me to work in the A plus exterminator.

So I had this calling of being a hired killer before I graduated. And so I had the honor of being able to go, you know, in all the church offices everywhere and spray and kill bugs and roaches, you know, the palmetto bug, everybody loves them. And going into Ray’s house, and I could go upstairs, downstairs to all the closet everywhere. Nobody had that honor, if you wanna call it on honor. I was looking for bugs. The great exterminator I was.

But I got a chance to see things. And so in one of the places upstairs, Jim Tenant, he wanted to get ahold of Jane. So he took pebbles from outside, and he kept about one, two o’clock anymore, and he had thought of Jane’s window until she would come to the window, and then she’d go get Ray, and then Ray would come down, and he had somebody that Ray needed to talk to. But he did whatever he could, he tried every way he can.

But whenever he got kids to come to Rancho, he would never tell him what Rancho was, because he thought, you know, and Ray would ask him, says, Jim, did you tell him what ranch is? He says, Ray, if I’d have told him what we do, they wouldn’t come. So what he would do, he says, we’re having a party. They say, are the girls there? Lots of them. Well, they’d come to ranch, but there wasn’t the kind of party that they were thinking about, but he would tell them that anyway.

And one day, now it’s, the church was hidden here and there’s the house and then there’s the road, South Dixie Highway, and on this road here’s a one-way road. Well, it’s called, it’s a coffee street. And across that street was a place they called the, well, it was the road storm. But anyway, it was a place where there are these roads. No, it was a, they had college kids that would stay there. But this was a one-way street. an 18-wheeler comes down this one-way street.

And they’re not supposed to even be on this street. And so Ray looks out there and he saw this 18-wheeler and he wondered what Sue had ordered. So he goes out and this guy’s sitting there. And he looks down and he’s the one that has that big old black cigar in his mouth. You know, with the tattoos, the big muscles all over his body, built kind of like I am. And he rose the wind, it didn’t even get out of the truck.

He says, sir, are you ready? He says, yes, I am. He says, I was driving down the interstate and I saw this boy with a dog. Now he would always hitchhike with his dog. His dog was named King. It was a big old German Shepherd dog. And he’d hitchhike with his dog. He says, and I never picked up hitchhiker, but I picked up this kid. And he started telling me how you can go to heaven. He said, didn’t make it really clear, but he said, you can know you’re going to heaven when you die.

And he says, I’ve always wondered where I’m gonna go when I die. He says, if I had come by here, you’d explain it to me. He said, I hope I’m not bothering you. He said, no, no, you’re not bothering me. It’s so rare. God just swallowed on. He says, sir, this is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on this night. God loves us, but he hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for sin is eternal separation from God and hell.

But God loves us once until it’s a go to heaven. And go to heaven, you gotta be perfect. nobody’s perfect, we’ve all sinned. So you can’t earn eternal life this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God of the flesh, came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because the separation from us Christ took the sin, and the paper of the cross came back from the dead. He explained the gospel to him and the guy says, that makes sense.

And he trusted Christ as Savior. And so he says, on that windshield, no writers. He says, I’m not allowed to pick up writers, but for some reason, as I’m driving my truck, I keep wondering, where am I gonna go when I die? He says, I have fallen asleep several times, I’d run off the road and I’ve often wondered what’s gonna happen to me when I die. And when I saw this kid, I’m not supposed to pick him up, but I had to stop, I stopped and I picked him up.

He says, Ray says his name was Jim Tengen. He said, that’s right, how’d you know? He said, never mind, go ahead. And he explained to Gospel, he trusted Christ as Savior and he was so thrilled. And when he got ready to leave. Ray says, well, I don’t guess I’ll see you anymore. And that guy says, yes, you will. You’ll see me in heaven. Ray says it was kind of like a little rebuke to him. Well, it didn’t matter what kind of people they were.

But Jim would witness to anybody. Remember, now he’s slow. And he can’t always get it out the way us professionals would do it. But a poor presentation is better than no presentation. And so Ray was getting ready to eat one night. Men, knocks at the door, Ray goes to the door, open it up, and there’s this man in a three-piece suit. Really a sharp looking guy, he says, sir, I hope I’m not bothering you. He said, but I was driving on the highway and I picked up this kid.

I don’t remember his name, he said, was Jim Tanyon. He says, how do you know? He never knew my go ahead. He said, he told me that I could have eternal life and no, I’m going to have it. He says, but if I would come by, he said, he said, you could explain it to me. And Ray said, sure. He came on inside, Rakes, find the Gospel to him, the man trusted Christ of Savior. And the man was teaching the son’s school class at the Shenandoah Presbyterian Church.

Well, that’s where Rakes had gone years before. Rakes just believed that if you’re gonna taste the Bible, you ought to know you have eternal life, and you don’t have one of you there. And so he trusted Christ of Savior, all because of one little kid out hitchhiking, but doing what he can do. Now some people would say, well, I’d never do it that way. I’d never do it like that. Okay, how are you doing it? I like the way he does it better than some people’s way not doing anything.

But anyway, he was walking down the street lo and behold, he comes up upon two guys that had motorcycles and register race motorcycles the day to the beach. But he’s talking to the answer. What’s wrong? He says they got some parts of not working right then. They’re trying to fix their motorcycle. He wouldn’t run. He says, if you get him over there to see my friend Ray, he’ll fix it for you for nothing. He got him to come over to the house.

And so here’s the building and there’s the place where we played basketball and There’s Ray’s house right here. And so he got him to come over to the to the ranch. Ray goes out there and says, Ray, Ray, Ray, I got him here. He says, who? He says, two guys, they got their motorcycle and they had those two girls with them also. He says, they know why they’re here. Yeah, I told him you’d picture a bike. Ray goes out there and he goes out there and he does.

He fixed their bikes and it would run. And so while they’re there, Ray goes ahead and explains the gospel to them and they trust that Christ of their savior. And so they all four left on their two motorcycles. And a couple days later, Jim came over to see Ray, he said, Ray, do you see the paper? He said, yes, I did. He says they were racing their bikes down 27th Avenue. And he says, they came up on the train tracks.

And the arm started to go down. And one of the leads said, let’s beat it. And so they took off. And they did. But the other one, the thing came across and took off his head. The other one wrecked and threw him up against the curb and his brains was all over the sidewalk. Ray says, Ray did you see that? He said, yeah, he said, think we’re just here a couple of days ago. Now, if it hadn’t have been for Jim, neither one of them for whatever known the Lord.

Now, maybe that would have happened, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. I don’t know, but Jim, it didn’t matter if it was a Sunday school teacher or a truck driver or motorcycle people, Jim would do everything he possibly could to get people to trust the Lord. call one time from Oklahoma because he’d check, do anywhere. So he’s like with his dog. And he called up and says, Ray, he says, I’ve been hitchhiking. Am I here in Oklahoma? He says, I need some money.

So Ray says, what do you need? He told him, he’s wired some money. A few days later Ray is sitting there eating the next thing you know. He looks out there and here comes a jalapion through the yard. And Jim Tindy gets out of the so jalapion He comes running up to the house and they had a man and his wife and about four or five kids. And Jim can run it. He’s right there here, they’re here, they’re here.

He says, Jim, who’s here? He said, remember I called you from Oklahoma? He said, there’s this family out there and they didn’t have a place to stay. I told him if they come down here, you’d give him a place to stay. All the way from Oklahoma. And he needed that money to pay their gas so they could get down there. He says, Jim, they can’t stay here on church property. He’s that right, but they’re not saved. So he got his Bible.

He goes out there and tries to talk to him, and not a one of them would listen. They didn’t want to hear nothing. Right, talking about the between some trees over there. He said, but they can’t stay here. You’re going to have to ask him to leave. They got zoning. They cannot stay on church property. They’re not saved. The kids got into everything. Ray was beside himself, so he told Jimmy, he said, Jim, you’ve got to get him to leave him but Ray, they’re not saved yet.

So Ray got his Bible and went back out there and he says that he’s going to get saved or else. So he led him to the Lord. And Jim told him, says, okay, y’all can leave now. See, the only thing he was after is just get him to the Lord. Well, he couldn’t get him to the Lord. He got him to Ray. And Ray could talk to him and explain the gospel to him. And so he would do this over and over and over again.

Jim Tenjin had a friend of his. He was a little Catholic boy. And Jim tried to get his papers to be able to come to the ranch. And he said, my mama won’t let me go. He says, why? Because he says, we’re Catholic and y’all are Protestant. He’s not allowed to go. And so it just burned him because he wanted his friend to get the gospel. But how’s he gonna do this? So he tried to figure out a way.

How can I get my friend to hear the gospel. So he knew his friend how to paper route. He says, if I come early in the morning and help you roll the papers, and if I help you throw the papers and you get through early, would you come by to see my friend Ray? He says, you’ll do that? He says, yeah. He says, sure, I’ll do that. So they got up that morning and they went and threw papers. Ray usually gets up about four o’clock in the morning.

And behind his his bed was like a bookcase. And so when he wakes up early he just get a book or whatever he wants to read. Well this certain one that he got up but he just wasn’t satisfied with anything that he read. He opened that book and another book. He even got his Bible and just, there’s nothing that I’ll do. I’ll go downstairs and get the newspaper. But before he did that, Jim was helping his kids, their papers.

They got too early and so on the Saccati Street, one way street, they got there early so they set on this little, little thing goes around the tree and a little bench like, so they sat there. And so this Catholic boy sitting there, it’s four o’clock in the morning. This Catholic boy says, how’s he going to know we’re out here? He says, well, I’m going to ask God to send him out. Now Ray had already got up out of bed and he sleeps in his underwear.

He walks down the steps and he opens the door. Thought he would just get the newspaper. When he opens the door, he looks that away. Nobody. He looks that away. Nobody. And the paper is laying right there. He knew if he moved fast, he’ll be alright. Rasmpt out there, grabbed the paper, and before he could jump back in the house, he heard, Ray, Ray, wait, wait! He jumped in the house, closed the door, and then opened it up, and there said Jim, sitting right across there.

He said, Jim, wait, I get my pants on. He got his pants on, and he brought that Catholic boy inside. When he was sitting there and they were talking, he says, how is he going to knowisive here? He says, I’m going to pray and ask ));]). AtkOUP??? ];RogAFTA? His Lord sin Ray out and that’s when he jumped on his underwear.

It’s never happened before, but it happened at…… At that moment, just a coincidence, not a coincidence. God honored that boy. He didn’t have all the skills. You know, this Catholic kid needs to hear about the Lord and have and right, but they were servicemen, but they had gone to this X-ray to movie theater. You see, Jim had been out trying to find somebody to come to the ranch if nobody would come. So he went by this X-ray to move with the theater, and they were opening, everybody’s coming out, you know.

And so there’s these two servicemen, and he haulers out of me. He says, hey, you guys, y’all want to go to a party? They said, girls are lots of them. is it? They’re sure. So he says, where’s it at? So he rides his bicycle and he’s holding on to the car. And he leads them to the Morgan’s Bible study. And she had a big piano company. And I had her for music and her son also taught. But here he are.

And they have this Bible study in their home in North Miami. So lo and behold, when they got there, They walked inside and they were halfway in with all these people in there, but they were sitting there with Bibles in your hands. And they realized this is not the party we’re thinking of. So they started to back up and Ray saw them and he says, hey, sit down right there. Some people just have to be told what to do.

They sat down. Ray gave the gospel and one of them trusted Christ is saved. The other one didn’t. What it was all over, they came up and Ray was talking to him after ranch. And the one kid says that he had never heard it before and he was so thankful that he came. And he said, well how’d you get here? He was just a kid on the bike. Oh Jim Tenjane, he says, how’d you know? He’s a never mind, never mind.

And the other kid that was standing there with him, he says, you mean you knew this and you never told me? You knew you had each other like, you knew you just wouldn’t have him and you never told me? And it was a slap in his face. Because, See, a lot of people have friends. But do you want your friends to go to hell? You say, well, I don’t want to offend them. Wouldn’t they go to hell? Do you think you offended them then?

Wouldn’t it be better to offend them now than later? Especially when they find out you knew the Lord and you didn’t tell me about it. But anyway, there’s a guy named Jim Peacock. Now, Jim Peacock, see, I hear on this little patio where in between classes we go out there, and that was our gymnasium, little patio, and a basketball hoop won. And so all the students are climbing for one ball and one hoop, and we would come back in the class who were just sweat.

And then Ray told us to, we’re going to have to start wearing ties. Now, Jim Peacock was a different kind of an individual. You see, he had black hair, browns of bear. He had beady black eyes, and he had no shirt on, rippling muscles, you know? wearing white calypso pants, and he had a ring in his ear before it became fashionable. And anyway, he reached down here and got two of those coat bottles, and he put them on the ground.

And he put his feet straight up in the air, and he’s on the coat bottles. And Jim Tengen says, this is Jim Peacock, top twin ray. Well, the guy’s upside down. So Ray’s down there, and he’s trying to explain the gospel to him. And when he got through and explained to the gospel to him, he says, does that make sense? Yeah. Well, you trust Christ, he says, yeah, I’ll do that. And Ray says he got down. And then Jim Tingeton said, let’s go.

He said, I wouldn’t have give you a quarter for that. But it was a couple of days later, he showed back up. And when he did, well, he had a bucket of bolts that he was driving. And there was about seven or eight people inside of it. And Ray was getting ready to eat, and he told Sue. He says, lock the doors. I’ll meet him outside. And when he went outside, Jim Peacock told everybody that he had an ethnic to get out.

And they said he had a double layer of plywood on a ping pong table that made it rough because of Renske. Anyway, he got on it. He told all the kids, sit down. They all sit down. And he looked at Ray. So it’s giving you a religious speech. Sure, Jim. Because Jim was a musculate type film. No, like I said. He explained the gospel to him. And when he got through, he turned back over to Jim. Jim, he got says, you.

Trust the Lord. Sure, Jim. You do it. He ordered everyone. You see, you can’t do it that way. You do it your way and then you can do it his way. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, A teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing 813-884-4328.

That’s 813-884-4328. To listen to today’s message again, or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.