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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 that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

family. So he knew his friend how to paper out. 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 said, you’ll do that? He said, 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 bed was like a bookcase. And So when he wakes up early, he just gets a book, or whatever he wants, 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 in, just nothing. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll go downstairs and get the newspaper. But before he did that, Jim was helping his kids throw their papers. They got too early, and so on the Seqafi Street, One way straight, they got there early, so they set on this little thing that goes around the tree and a little bench like, so they sit there.

And so this Catholic boy sitting there, four o’clock in the morning. This Catholic boy says, how’s he gonna know we’re out here? He says, well, I’m gonna 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 all right. He jumped 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 opened it up. And there’s that gem sitting right across there. He says, Jim, wait, I’ll get my pants on. He got his pants on, and he brought that Catholic boy inside. Because when he was sitting there and they were talking, he says, how is he going to know we’re out here?

He says, I’m going to pray and ask God to send him out. So Jim bowed his head, says Lord, send Ray out. And that’s when he jumped on his underwear. It’s never happened before, but it happened at that time, at that moment. Just a coincidence, not a coincidence. God honored that boy. He didn’t have all the skills and everything else. All you know, this Catholic kid needs to hear about the Lord and have eternal life, so that’s what he would do.

There was these two servicemen, and they didn’t always do right, but they were servicemen, but they had gone to this Ex-rated movie theater. You see Jim had been out trying to find somebody come to the ranch if nobody would come So he went by the secretary to move with the eater and they were opening It was over everybody’s coming out, you know, and so there’s these two servicemen in e-haulers out of me He says hey you guys y’all want to go to a party?

They says in girls are lots of them They sure so He says where’s it at though? So he rides his bicycle and he’s holding on to the car and he leads them to the Morgan’s Bible said that 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 and they’re 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 their hands.

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 said, never mind, never mind. And the other kid 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, we’re 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, talk to him 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 it, 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 Tenzantone said, let’s go. He said, I wouldn’t have given 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. 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 nothing to get out. And they said he had a double layer of plywood on a ping pong table that made it rough because of Ranch Kid. Anyway, he got on it. I told all the kids, sit down. They all sit down. And And he looked at Ray. He says, give me a religious speech. Sure, Jim. Because Jim was a musculine 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 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 let him do it his way. And when they got through, they said, okay, and one of the girls was wearing things, you know, as we’ve said before, you know, she has what they call an atomic dress. You know, it was 50% fallout.

You didn’t know, it was so tight, you don’t know if she was outside getting the internet inside, getting out. Anyway, they got in the vehicle and they left. And a couple of days later, lo and behold, here comes Jim again. And Jim walks up to Ray and says, Ray, I got some bridles and I got some stirrups And I want to give them to you.” He says, I want you to put these on the walls so you have something to remember me by.

He said, where are you going? He says, well, I just got to go away. He said, where are you going? He says, well, I’ve been the ringleader that the police have been looking for. He said, we’ve been stealing cars and then selling the parts and then dumping the body parts into the corall gate with the waterway. And so they’ve been looking for me. Nobody had told Jim, he had to turn himself in, do anything. See, when you trust Christ is saving, you want to do right?

There’s a Holy Spirit that works on the inside of you. You don’t have to play God in people’s lives. So anyway, he gave me the right. I’ve seen those things on that wall. Many times I’ve got a picture of it. I put it in the book that I did on the Jim Tengen story. So he left and goes to Rayford, turned himself in. Well, Jim wanted so bad for his mother to trust the Lord, one of his brother to trust the Lord.

But his mom was dying of cancer, and she was pretty bad shape. Ray sometime would come home and Jim would have somebody else in the house, in his house, and they could be helping themselves to the refrigerator. He says, he walked in there and lo and behold, there’s this big woman. And she’s sitting on at the table, and there’s Jim. Now, when nobody was with Jim was quiet and shy, a little timid. But when he had somebody with him, he acted like he owned the house, he owned the church, that was his property, everything was his.

And he’d give you anything of raise. And he had told the lady, he opened up the refrigerators, help yourself. These are Christian people, they’ll give you anything they got. And so she sat in there, smorgasbord, and she’s just a feet in her face, and Ray walks in and he sees it. And then one day he was eating some pork chops, and getting ready to eat, and this Jim Tynyon walks up and says, Ray, he said, would you come and talk to my mom?

Mom sick, she’s very bad. He says, Ray, when I get a chance, I’ll go by and see your mom. He says, Ray, won’t you come now? So Ray went ahead and got on his motorcycle and he got on the back. And they went over to his house, which was in the worst part of town, the old Coca-Cola plant area. And so when he got off, he says the house was a shack. And that’s where Jim lived. And he got to the front door and Jim knocks at the door and says, man, raise here, raise here.

He thought God had arrived. And he could hear her, she was in bed, she’s sick. has no whiskey to kind of a voice. She says, I don’t care who’s here. Nobody’s coming in this house. It’s a Ray thought I missed a pork chops. And so he’s pleaded. Jim got down and he ran around the back, so Ray could hear Jim in there talking to the mom, please let him come in, please let him come in, Ma. He just wants to talk to you.

Let him have a word of prayer. It’s just a word of prayer. So Ray, Mrs. Tengen, if you think your house is to make sure you ought to see mine, let me come in and have a word of prayer. Well, all right, he figures down the mess. He went in, of course, after about an hour, she trusted Christ as her savior. Jim was thrilled to death, so glad that she had finally trusted the Lord. Well, she was dying because of cancer, but Jim also wanted his brother, Bob, to trust the Lord.

But every time he witnessed a Bob, it’d always beat him up. And so he was trying to figure out a way, how can I get my brother to trust the Lord? And so he told Ray, he says, Ray, he said, if I get my brother’s best friend to come and trust Christ as Savior, then he’ll reach my brother. So it sounded like a pretty good plan. It wasn’t long before this taxi cab pulls up in the yard. The meter’s running.

Ray looks out there and here comes Jim. And Jim runs up to the door and says, Ray, he’s here, he’s here. He says, Jim, who’s here? He says, my brother’s best friend. If you lead him to the Lord, who’d get my brother?cffff Jim, does he know why he’s here? No, if I told him he wouldn’t have come. He found out that the taxi cab driver, North Miami, he hitchhikers up there and then gets that cab with that driver to bring him to Ray’s house.

And he ain’t got any money. You don’t have any money. the cap, things running. So he said, right, but you got to lead him to the Lord. Oh, Jim. So Ray goes out there, and he starts talking to the guy. The meter’s running, and the guy’s just sitting there looking straight ahead to get care less. So Ray says, all right, man. So let me just show this to you. And he’s looking straight ahead. He’s sitting there in the car.

So let this hand represent you and me, and this represents you. And we all have sin on us. And the guy stopped and he looked at Ray. He says, I’ve seen that before. He says, where? He says, I just got out of Rayford. And there’s a guy that came there and he was in there with me and he was explaining this to me and he used that thing like you’re doing. He says, yes, his name was Jim Peacock. How did you know?

He said, never mind. Strange and mysterious ways as wonders to perform. plants his feet upon the cloud and rides upon the storm. And so he says, come with me. He brought them in there to the ranch room, which was in Ray’s house on the bottom floor. And he showed him the stirps and the stuff that was on the wall. And so he trusts Christ as his savior. And so Jim was thrilled at that now, maybe he’s gonna win his brother to the Lord.

But he didn’t win his brother to the Lord. So, it wasn’t long before that tactic had driver pulled back into the driveway and this time Jim got out and Jim’s just a ballman. Just a ballman. And he says, right, Mom’s dead. Mom’s dead and he was just sob. He says, Mom’s gone. And Jim didn’t have anybody that cared about him. I mean, now Mom’s gone. She was crossing the highway and the truck hit her and took her on out.

And when the race is, you know that she’s with the Lord. And she just got there just a little before us, but she’s in a better place. And she’s not hurting anymore, Jim. He says, I know, but I’m going to miss her. And he just sobbed. And then he said, Ray, he says, if you do the funeral, my brother will be at the funeral. And you can give the gospel. He said, Ray, I give my life if my brother would trust the Lord.

So Ray consented to do the funeral. Some of the college students went to the funeral services. And Ray gave the gospel, but Bob Tingen sat there just staring Ray down. No emotion. Didn’t listen, or like he was paying attention. No response. Some other people trusted Christ as Savior. But Ray didn’t see Jim for a little while, and finally when he showed up, Jim just stood the door, and Ray opened the door, and Jim’s head is bowed. And so he put his hand underneath his chin and lifted his head up.

He says, Jim, did your brother do that? He was beat all up. His face is in turn purple and blue and yellow and so forth. And he says, did your brother do this to you? He says, he says, when you did the funeral, when he got home, he beat me up because all I had was this preacher come preaching hell, fire and brimstone. And he was mad. And so he beat me. Well, he had heard Jim. He heard him bad.

He heard his eye. So he had to go back to North Carolina and get some cortisone shots. And he said, right, I’d give my life and my brother, trust the Lord. Anyway, he went up to North Carolina and he came back and he had this eye infection because of the corny had been messed up when he was a little kid. First day back he goes to ranch. Well, Tom Davis, who was one of our, he was like Greek teacher.

and he had married a little Jewish woman, then they had this little girl named Robin. And Robin was just a little baby, but when he went into ranch that night, they were there, and so he held a little Robin. And he didn’t know that she had chicken pox. And a couple days later, Ray got a phone call from Jim, he was in the hospital. He says, Ray, I’m down here at the hospital, nothing serious. He says, but I want you to, Would you ask my brother to come see me?”

He says, Jim, just ask him, Ray. Ray says, all right, I’ll ask him. But Ray got on his motorcycle and went down to the hospital. And when he got to the hospital, he walked in there. And Jim had purple potmarks all over his body. When Ray walked in, he’d pull it up over himself, because he didn’t want to wait to see him like that. When Ray got there, he pulled the sheet down, and he looked, and he said, you could not put your finger anywhere on his body without touching one of the big old Purple Pop Park.

Somehow the cortisone and the chicken pot, it all interacted somehow and and he was just covered with it. He said, Ray, I didn’t want you to see me like this. He said, did you call my brother? He says, yes, I did Jim. He says he won’t come. He says, you’re just putting on. You’re not really sick. And he says, this is all on that. He said, Ray, I just give him a like my brother, trust the Lord. Ray had a word of prayer with him and then he left.

And then the the doctor at the hospital called Ray and says, if you want to see Jim 10 in the live again, you better get down here quickly. So Ray got on his motorcycle and went back to the hospital. So when he walked in there, there’s a nurse at the end of the bed. She saw Ray, she just shook her head. And Jim was like in the coma. He walked over to Jim and he says, Jim, this is Ray.

You’re stealing the march on me, son. And he started breathing just as normal because before that he couldn’t hardly breathe. Just real long slow breaths. And the nurse’s eyes got big. She and I brought in about two or three more doctors and they were standing around the bed. So Ray did what he normally does because they would go to restaurants and Jim would ask him a question, Ray, can you know you can really have your turn life and know that you’re going to heaven when you die?

Why Jim, you sure can and he had code for him. He already knew, he was just doing it for other big years. And so when you’re sitting there and he says, Jim, he says, you know you’re still on the march on me son. He says, you know, when you came out to ranch, you remember, you found out that God loved you. You trusted Christ as your savior, and you know you have eternal life, you know you’re going to heaven when you die.

So Ray kept giving the gospel and didn’t know if Jim could hear him or not. But all three of them, there was in their room, trust the Christ to say, use a gym that’s three more. Ray didn’t know everything was going to happen right after that, but he had prayer and he left and Jim passed away. He didn’t know he would get a phone call from his brother Bob. Bob calls him up and says, would you do my brother’s funeral?

He knew you and he loved you and I know he wants you to do his funeral. So Ray decided he was going to do the funeral, but he said I’m going to tell the whole story. And so when he got to the funeral home and he was going to tell the story, he went all the way back to when Jim came and trusted Christ to save him. He told some of the stories that I’ve shared with you didn’t he?

He told my house, mama, trusted Christ as Savior. And how did Jim and said over and over again, I’d give my life if my brother would trust the Lord. And he says that whenever she died and I gave that funeral, he says, Jim’s brother and he pointed him right there. He said there. He went home and he beat this kid. And all he wanted was him to trust Christ’s Savior. He says, and he heard him, and he had to go get some more cortisone shot.

And he told the story about what he wanted. And his brother this time was not setting their defiant. He was weeping like a baby. When Ray gave the invitation, he was the first one to raise his hand to trust Christ’s Savior. And Ray said, Jim, that’s one more. When he went to the graveside, Bob Tinden walks up to him and says, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I just didn’t understand. I just didn’t understand. And anyway, he wound up giving Ray Jim Tinden’s Bible that had all the notes in it.

In 1975, I had gone down to Florida, and I was with Ray in the office, and Ray asked me, He says, would you like to go with me to the hospital? I got some visits I got to do. I said, sure I go. So we went to the hospital. And he talked to some people, had word of prayer. He said, I got a good idea into Miami. He says, you want to ride along? I said, sure. So we rode along.

We got down there. He had to do a funeral service. And he had about four or five more people trust Christ to save it to funeral. And then coming out of Miami, we went through North Miami. And he says, I got to stop here. I didn’t know where he was going. So anyway, he parked the car and we both got out and it was a cemetery. And we started walking and he got to this graveside. And this is a tomb of tension.

And he started talking. He says, I’d rather be a gym tension any day and be used of the Lord like this kid has been used. It is hard for people to believe that this is true. But I watched Ray Stanford start balling and he cried and he got on his knees and he sobbed and he laid across that grave and he went like a baby. Because he’s told that story so many times and what so many kids dedicate their life to serve the Lord.

You see, Jim wasn’t that brilliant. He didn’t have any talent in the buildings. But he lived for one main thing. And he died when he was about 18 years old, the same year that I trusted the Lord. I told that story one time in Colorado about 35 years ago, and it was one kid that came to account and his name was Greg Steer with Dare to Share Ministries. He says that thing so challenged and motivated him, he wanted to serve the Lord for the rest of his life.

And 35 years later he’s still doing it. Because see, I don’t have any power over anybody’s life. I can’t make people respond. I can’t make people trust Christ as Savior. But somewhere along the line, you think, well, the story of what Christ did for us was so move and motivate people that they realize it’s not a game. And if God can use me, I wanna be used. See, if you know Christ as your Savior and you know you’re going to heaven when you die, do you tell people how to get to heaven?

Or when’s the last time you got somebody come to church because I know that they get here? I know Yankee will explain it. I know Yankee will make it clear and you want people to trust the Lord. He loved his mom and he did what he could and she trusts the Lord right before she got killed. And those motorcycle kids and some other people, it’s strange how God works. But God can use anybody who wants to be used and all God’s looking for is a bunch of dedicated nobodies who as the Bible says can be used of God that no flesh or glory in his presence.

I just want somebody humble enough to say, Lord use me. Whatever way, however, I just want to be used. Now look up here. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. He loves us. And he hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. See, God says the wages is dead. We have to pay. But to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are.

So God says, you can’t save yourself. You need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world. because he loves us, hates our sin. So he took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead and says the only thing you have to do to go to heaven is believe he did it for you. Can’t get it any simpler than that.

He offers you eternal life. If offered you this microphone, you accept you’d have a microphone, offered you my wallet and you accepted you’d have an empty wallet. And if you have never trusted Christ as your savior, but if you trusted him as your savior today, he would give you eternal life. and you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Let’s pray, shall we? Heads bowed nice, closed, no one looking around. If you’re watching by internet, or if you’re here in the auditorium, I am not God, I can’t save you.

This church cannot save you. But would you right now, right where you are, I said, I don’t understand at all, but I believe that when Christ died, He died for me, and I’m gonna trust Him right now as my Savior. I wanna trust Him to take me to heaven when I die. In fact, I’m not gonna have you forward. I can say, I’m not going to embarrass you, but right where you’re saying? If what I said made sense, I like to know and I like to have prayer for you.

So I’m going to ask you, would you just slip me in it very quickly, but right back down say, yes, pray for me, I will trust Christ as my Savior this morning. I want to be certain of going to heaven. Is there anyone at all? Just slip it up very quickly, but right back down. And what at all? Yes, God bless you. Anyone else? It’s a decision that you can make right where you are. And if you trust Christ right now as your Savior, He gives you right now and you turn And you can know that when you get up to leave, you know you’re going to heaven.

You that already know Christ is your savior. Would you say, Lord, I’m your child. I know I’m going to heaven. And if Jim Tengen can tell people and get him out, I want you to use me in whatever way you can. Wherever, wouldn’t you do that? With heads bowed nice and closed. I’m like an ashes, stand up and come forward, not an embarrassment, but right where you are. In the quietness of this moment would you say, yes, I want to be used of God.

I want God to use me. Would you just slip your hand very quickly? Yes, God bless you. A lot of hands all over. Yes, God bless you. I appreciate that. Anyone else? Just slip it up very quickly, put a rep back down. Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us and for these that indicated that they want to be used. They’re your children. Use them Lord for your honor and We thank you for all you’ve done for us.

We ask your blessings upon the food. Now in Christ’s name, amen. 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 Bibleline 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 Bibleline 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 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking the Calvary Community Church link at Bidel Line Ministries.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.