Yesterday my wife and I appeared on a Christian television show, (Herman and Sharron Television Ministry) for the Channel 12 Christian Television Ministry near Tampa Florida. They reviewed my book, “Miracle on Luckie Street” and talked about my life.
It was quite a feat for a Christian television ministry to recommend my book, but after plenty of warnings about its uncensored, graphic content to his audience, Herman Bailey, the host of the show, stated that he had never read a more powerful testimony and in fact taped two segments that will air on consecutive days. Considering reviewing Christian books is what he does for a living, I took that as quite a compliment.
Herman stated that when he first started reading the book and discovered its bad language and graphic content, he was shocked that his secretary would even give him such a secular book to review. He thought maybe she’d lost her mind. She gently told him to keep reading that it gets better and he did, and eventually reached the part where I accepted Christ as my Savior and God wonderfully transformed my life. Ultimately it proved to be a wonderful blessing for him to see the amazing grace of God in action.
Even though he did read the book and receive a tremendous blessing from my testimony he was still initially hesitant to recommend it on Christian television to his viewers. He didn’t sleep well and was wrestling with the decision. The next day he went out for his morning jog and prayed about it and the Holy Spirit reminded him of some of the things that he had done in his own youth. He realized that if that information was generally made known to others it might have prevented him from ever having been put in the position that he currently resides where he is ministering to others and thereby helping people in need of his own ministry.
He felt the message in my book needed to be told to other people and decided to go ahead with the interview. It was a bold decision for him and I admire his determination to seek God’s will on it. We should all do the same concerning the decisions that we are faced with in life. For example I put the Ten Commandments in every business that I have founded and don’t hesitate to talk about Jesus Christ. That might offend some who do not share my faith and ultimately I might lose some customer dollars from my Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and atheist friends, but so be it. I would rather be true to Jesus than have those extra dollars.
I admire Herman’s decision to seek God’s counsel; I’m sure some of his hardcore Christian viewers will go bananas on him when they read that first chapter, but those who fight through it will hopefully gain hope in their lives and realize that no problem that someone might have is too big for our God to handle.
I felt the same way when I wrote the book. I asked myself, “Should I make it an honest detailed recap of what it is really like to live as an evil non-Christian on the streets of hell on earth, or can I make the same point by writing it in a style in which I am comfortable today as a born again Christian?†Right or wrong I opted for writing it in the actual gritty – uncensored reality of the street (like it really is out there). I did so in order to make it legitimate to those readers who would not read it if it was written any other way. In essence it was written to the unsaved secular world in language that can be believed and understood.
I’ve sold enough books and received enough feedback by now to know that without question I’ve made the right decision and many, (who otherwise would not have done so), are being helped by it and reaching out to Christ.
With that said I’ve just about decided that when I have some time I’m going to write a condensed sanitized version of the book that is suitable for G-rated audiences, including young children, in order that those who are too young or too offended by the graphic nature of my story might at least share in parts of the powerful testimony too.
The television show will be aired on May 12-13th – If the Lord is willing I am going to bring my new Words for the Day website up live this weekend, (www.wordsfortheday.org). I will post both segments of the television show on it by Monday. I am replacing my old website that I have used for eleven years with a fancier one that I can post photographs, videos, links to other interesting and informative sites, use italics, and bold characters, etc.
My hope is that all will go well. I hate to see the old site go for sentimental reasons, it has served me well all these years, but the new site adds all sorts of possibilities.
I have subscribers all over the country (and indeed the world), and I’m paranoid that all will not go as planned with this new technology. If you do not receive your WFTD on Monday, please write and let me know. We have been running it side by side for several weeks testing it and it appears to work just fine. If there are any problems, please just be patient; we’ll address them as quickly as we can. I hope you will invite others to subscribe and join our fellowship and daily devotion to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Have a great weekend and go to church on Sunday…
1 Tim.2:3
This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.