I was in Nashville speaking at the Eagles Summit conducted by the Tom Hill Institute over the weekend and I got an e-mail letting me know that my good friend Dennis Rice had gone home to be with the Lord. As you might recall Dennis was slated to speak at Honey Lake Church a few weeks back but because of his advancing cancer it precluded that possibility.
Dennis attained worldwide fame for his role in a robbery of a gun store with the express purpose of using the nearly 200 stolen guns to break Charlie Manson and family out of jail. At the time Dennis was likely demonically possessed as were the rest of the Manson family who committed the Tate Bianca and other murders in Los Angeles.
Sensational news accounts tell of the time Dennis was incarcerated and his five children were found locked up in a chicken coop. This further added to society’s view of him as a demonic scourge to our civilized world. After he was captured he was convicted and sent to San Quentin for eight years.
God didn’t view Dennis the way that the world viewed him, and He reached out to him while he was incarcerated. When He poured his love, compassion, and mercy on Dennis something wonderful happened; he became a born again Christian and his hatred and bitterness turned to Godly love. After serving his time he got out of prison and spent the next three decades preaching the word of God with special emphasis on working with the Bill Glass Prison Ministry. Since those dark days he has led tens of thousands of lost souls to the Lord and remarkably all of his children turned out to be tremendous servants of the Lord as well, and today are either pastors, missionaries, or Bible study teachers.
One reason that I decided to found the Honey Lake Worldwide Ministries was to provide the powerful, wonderful, life-changing testimonies of people like Dennis Rice to those who might have lost hope somewhere along their life’s journey. I have his videotaped testimony in hand and will put it on line soon.
God never gives up on us and no life is too far gone for Jesus Christ to wonderfully change. The lives of folks like Dennis Rice enforce that notion to the hilt.
Soon you will be able to visit the Worldwide Ministry website and watch testimony after testimony of those people whose lives were powerfully transformed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Some started at the bottom like me and worked their way up and others started at the top and fell to the bottom and then came back. Some were criminals and thugs, others were respected businessmen, celebrities, coaches, housewives, or starry eyed young folks. Some had to deal with bad news from the doc, tragedy, addictions, hate, anger, divorce, betrayal; you name it, but rest assured that all had their lives wonderfully and positively changed by God.
I hope that you will become a part of this worldwide Ministry. Our mission is simple; we want to provide the hope of Jesus to those who have lost hope. According to some statistics that is 82% of our population, so we need to get the word out and evangelize the world.
The last time I spoke with Dennis was at a Bill Glass Prison Ministry event in Oklahoma City a few weeks back. His room was a couple of doors down from mine and he was telling me that the doctors had told him that he only had a short time left (weeks), and that his family wanted him to spend time with them instead of going to Honey Lake Church. He grinned and said you know Bob I’d rather be there preaching the word of God and seeing lost souls come to know Jesus, but I promised.
I told him I understood completely and not to worry at all about it, that I would cover for him and I did. I told him I was envious that he would get to walk on those streets of gold before I got there. At that point he seemed to glow with a look of excitement and a smile as big as Texas. We talked about it at length and that was our last conversation on this earth. At this very moment he is with his Lord and Savior. His battle has been won and he knows Victory in Jesus – Our Savior Forever! Oh happy day that this is!
2 Kings 6:16
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”