Latest / Ambassador Programs / Ignite with Barry Meguiar - He Died for 55 Minutes--Then Lived!
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.
- 0:03How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life?
- 0:07How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good?
- 0:17This is exciting.
- 0:18Here's the question.
- 0:19How would you like to ignite your life?
- 0:21Stay tuned.
- 0:26Hi everybody, welcome back to Ignite.
- 0:27I have a great podcast here for you.
- 0:30I mean, this is really exciting.
- 0:32Sometimes I interview people that I don't know all that well.
- 0:35I know something about them.
- 0:36Right now, I'm interviewing somebody that we are close.
- 0:40Donny Oshesky.
- 0:41Donny, welcome to Ignite.
- 0:44Barry, thank you for having me.
- 0:46It's an honor to be here, man.
- 0:48I tell you, we are good friends.
- 0:50The Lord has blessed me knowing you.
- 0:53You have more energy and you love to share the gospel.
- 0:58And you showed me different ways to do that.
- 1:00Well, we're soulmates.
- 1:01We've lived different lives, but we have the same Lord and Savior and joy that just never stops.
- 1:09Two entire different stories.
- 1:11You and I were at church yesterday morning together.
- 1:13We were at a party last night together.
- 1:15We were at a birthday party the night before we hang out together.
- 1:19So I would not be having you on this show today if it was not for the fact that I know your story.
- 1:27And I know your story is real.
- 1:29In fact, I shout your story.
- 1:31I tell your story often.
- 1:33So, folks, you're in for a bit of a treat today.
- 1:37We all have challenges in our lives.
- 1:43I'm very vocal about the things that have happened in my life, losing my daughter and dying in the hospital, all that kind of stuff.
- 1:49But Karen and I have never lost our joy.
- 1:52And that comes from a lot of years of putting things in perspective.
- 1:54But we both, Karen and I talk about it quite often.
- 1:59We thank God for every bad thing that's happened in our lives.
- 2:03Every one of them.
- 2:04Some of them he allowed, some of them he provoked.
- 2:07And I'm not even sure which is which.
- 2:10I do know this.
- 2:11Every one of them, we've come out stronger in our faith with more joy.
- 2:16and understanding God's plan for our lives.
- 2:19And so often, in fact, every time I talk to somebody who has a lot of joy, I ask them a question.
- 2:24Have you had some deep pain or hurt in your life in the past?
- 2:28And every single time they say yes.
- 2:31I'm not saying that means 100% always, always, always.
- 2:34I can tell you in my sampling, I talk to you, it is true.
- 2:39I've had a lot of pain in my life.
- 2:42We thank God for the good stuff and the bad stuff.
- 2:46Rejoice.
- 2:48And again, I say rejoice.
- 2:50And Donnie's doing that.
- 2:53Listen, all things work together for his joy.
- 2:56I mean, it's amazing.
- 2:58That is it, isn't it?
- 2:59It really is.
- 3:00I look at you.
- 3:03I've known you for a few years.
- 3:05It appears to me that you're having more fun than you've ever had in your life right now.
- 3:11Hands down, hands down.
- 3:14When I woke up, the Lord, I realized how deep his love was for me.
- 3:19And it was like, he loves everybody the same.
- 3:24But I realized how deep his love was for me.
- 3:27And it was amazing.
- 3:28Yeah.
- 3:29So I don't hesitate to share.
- 3:30It is the same, folks.
- 3:32The story we're going to tell you right now is profound love, miracle-working love that
- 3:40in Donnie's life, but his love is the same for all of us.
- 3:43It's a matter of, and you can dip into it a little bit, or you can just get a bowl full and go for it and take it out of the fire hydrant.
- 3:51Donnie has done that.
- 3:52Let me go back a year, a little more than a year, a year and a couple months.
- 3:59Our daughter, Nicole, some of you know, started to create a car show for Teen Challenge, Raise Money for Teen Challenge.
- 4:06It's called the Benedict Castle Carbillage.
- 4:08Concor, the headquarters for Southern California Teen Challenger in Riverside, California.
- 4:13And the headquarters is actually a castle.
- 4:15More than 100 movies have been filmed there, Hunchback and Notre Dame, what have you.
- 4:19Nicole came to me.
- 4:21one day about 11, 12 years ago and said, it's a great place for a car show.
- 4:26I said, what?
- 4:28I'd always been there at night and been at meetings.
- 4:30I'd never looked at the grounds.
- 4:31So she walked me around that property during one Sunday morning.
- 4:36And she said, can't you just see these cars here?
- 4:38These, all these terrace lawns all the way around this castle.
- 4:41And so she created this Benedict Castle Concours, which we're now 10 years of having these shows.
- 4:48And I think we raised $350,000, something like that, a month or so ago.
- 4:53But for that event, a year ago, the night before Saturday, there's a gala, Benedict Castle Concours Gala.
- 5:02And everybody gets dressed up in their fight area, and it's a packed house.
- 5:06And we have lots of fun.
- 5:09And Donnie and his wife, Pammy, sorry, Pammy's not on the, but if we had Pammy on there, we had to have Karen on and then they wouldn't need you and me, Donnie.
- 5:18Our wives would take over.
- 5:19Pammy is a house of fire.
- 5:21I mean, she's just a breath of fresh Cheryl's eye.
- 5:24But Pammy and Donnie were some other friends, the Boyds, and driving out through the 91 freeway to get out there, a lot of traffic.
- 5:31And he no sooner stepped out of his car and Donnie basically dropped dead.
- 5:37He had a heart attack and within moments was down.
- 5:44Yes.
- 5:44We get the call.
- 5:45There's a steep incline, we just arrived.
- 5:48We ran up that hill in about 60 seconds and Karen was in high heels.
- 5:55And she was ahead of me.
- 5:57And we get up the top and they got you on the gurney and they're working on you.
- 6:02And they say you're gone.
- 6:05Mike Brewer, probably the most famous car guy in the world, comes from England to be our emcee.
- 6:11And he was a paramedic earlier on in his life and he said to me, Barry, he's gone.
- 6:17I know death.
- 6:18He was gone.
- 6:20And we knew that.
- 6:23And the group was there, all prayer warriors.
- 6:26We came together, Pammy with us, your wife.
- 6:28And we all raised our hands, and we just started praying, shouting to God out loud, just calling on his name.
- 6:34Save him, bring life into, don't let him die.
- 6:38I don't remember what we said, but we were just reckless abandoned, crying out to God.
- 6:42And those watching,
- 6:46We have a lot of witnesses that witnessed all that.
- 6:50And those witnessing that said that when we ended that prayer with an amen, your heartbeat came back.
- 6:57Amen.
- 6:59The power of prayer.
- 7:01The power of prayer.
- 7:02But it wasn't over.
- 7:04He got in the ambulance and he died again in the ambulance.
- 7:11And they brought him back again.
- 7:12And now we're into the gala.
- 7:15And Ron Brown is up speaking, who's the director of Southern California Teen Challenge.
- 7:21And at that very moment, they were working fiercely, and Don, and you can explain this, because they told you you weren't awake at the time, but I think they worked on you for like 25 minutes.
- 7:30They never do that.
- 7:33A total of 55 minutes, this man was dead.
- 7:36A total of 55 minutes, he was without a heartbeat, okay?
- 7:41At that last time, when there was no hope.
- 7:45Ron Brown praying this Holy Ghost prayer.
- 7:49And brought us all in tears.
- 7:51We're praying for Donnie.
- 7:54And at the very time that prayer ended, I got a text that said, he's back.
- 7:59He's back.
- 8:01Praise the Lord.
- 8:03Amen.
- 8:04You can't make this stuff up.
- 8:06So, long process.
- 8:08How long were you in the hospital?
- 8:10You went there, and then they flew you to Cedars-Sinai.
- 8:12How long were you in the hospital, Donnie?
- 8:13I'd like to stop for one second and say one thing about the nurse.
- 8:17It was a male, black nurse that did not stop working on me.
- 8:23The doctor actually left the room to go tell Pam I was dead and give her the time of death.
- 8:31And the guy said, Doctor, he's back!
- 8:35And the doctor turned around and came back and I was back.
- 8:38I mean, he was, I was dead and he was going to go tell my wife I was done.
- 8:43And so, boom.
- 8:44So from that point, I was in the hospital.
- 8:48It was touch and go for hour to hour, day to day, week to week for the first five weeks.
- 8:56I was in there a total of seven weeks in Cedar Sinai.
- 9:00Wow.
- 9:01Yeah.
- 9:02Wow.
- 9:02I died.
- 9:03I was in Riverside Hospital for three days.
- 9:06They couldn't do the surgery that needed to be done.
- 9:10So through some friends that knew somebody, they got a helicopter and they transported me over to Cedars-Sinai.
- 9:17Man.
- 9:18Helicopter.
- 9:18I was delivered there, and it was seven full weeks.
- 9:23I don't remember a word, anything happening.
- 9:26People were there praying for me.
- 9:28No.
- 9:28Around the clock, people reaching out around the world, thanks to you.
- 9:33There was prayers from everywhere going out for me.
- 9:37I do not remember one thing of that seven weeks.
- 9:41Yeah.
- 9:41Now, they told me some stories.
- 9:43They said one day the doctor said, Donna, you ready to go into a surgery?
- 9:48In about an hour, I'm going to take you.
- 9:51And I sat up and I said, doctor, can I pray for you before you do the surgery on me?
- 10:00Okay.
- 10:01There's other stories.
- 10:02And Pam and Jeanette and Tim and the rest of my family have—
- 10:08They heard everything.
- 10:09I wasn't there.
- 10:10But think of the witness that would make to the doctor.
- 10:13Here's that dead guy sitting up wanting to pray for me.
- 10:17So, but seven weeks.
- 10:19And, of course, your wife, Pammy, as precious as she is, she never lost her joy.
- 10:26She just kept sharing with everybody.
- 10:28Jeanette Boyd right beside her, going with her every day through that period of time.
- 10:33We got the reports on a daily basis.
- 10:36And it didn't sound good.
- 10:37You know, it didn't sound good.
- 10:38No.
- 10:40Pammy was so confident that I...
- 10:43It's kind of funny now.
- 10:45But I have seen some people, they keep praying, saying it's gonna be fine, gonna be fine, gonna be fine, then there's a death, and the wife is left in the aftermath of everybody saying it's gonna be okay, and then it wasn't okay, and then they end up not handling that well with God afterwards.
- 11:01And so I wanted to...
- 11:03have a conversation with Pam just to prepare her.
- 11:06I wasn't saying you're going to go one way or the other.
- 11:08And so I had that kind of conversation with her.
- 11:10We're praising God no matter what.
- 11:12We don't know what God's plan is.
- 11:14We're praying.
- 11:15But just in case, I want you to have the same joy afterwards that you have right now, even if we lose him.
- 11:22There's no question about that.
- 11:23He's in God's hands.
- 11:24I understand that.
- 11:26And she lived that.
- 11:27And she never lost her joy.
- 11:29And there's no difference from the joy that she has now and the joy that she had then.
- 11:33I mean, she just, she models.
- 11:35You know, the people that are beside us when we're going through those problems, there's a bigger challenge on them than there is us.
- 11:43We're not necessarily cognizant.
- 11:45They're living with it 24-7, right?
- 11:49You know, God created Adam in the beginning, put him to sleep, pulled out a rib because Adam needed a helper.
- 11:56And Pam is my helpmate and was beside me prayerfully.
- 12:03I don't know how she slept in our bed for seven weeks without me.
- 12:09asked beyond.
- 12:11She's just a blessing.
- 12:14We watched her joy Donnie.
- 12:16I mean we watched her joy never falter.
- 12:19Her joy never faltered.
- 12:20She was serious.
- 12:21She was asking the questions.
- 12:23She wasn't frivolous about it.
- 12:25But her joy was solid.
- 12:29She modeled how we should all live our lives in the times
- 12:34of trouble, right?
- 12:35I mean we probably should have just had me on a subject and talk about that side of the story.
- 12:40But you finally get to rehab, I'll never forget going over to the rehab in Long Beach and we expected this carriage beside me over here, we can't remember going there expecting to see this invalid Dottie.
- 12:56And we walk in and you're standing and an hour later you were still standing, laughing, telling stories.
- 13:04That was right after you got out of bed.
- 13:07I'd like to interject one thing.
- 13:09When I finally remembered, the first thing I remember after seven weeks in Cedars-Sinai is them putting me in the transport vehicle to move me over to Beatside, where my physical therapy was going to take place.
- 13:29And in that, it was an hour and a half drive, but when I got in there, I shared the good news of the gospel with the kid in the back.
- 13:38It was a 23-year-old young man.
- 13:40The other guy was driving.
- 13:42He couldn't hear anything, but I shared Jesus with this kid.
- 13:45I talked to him about his future and what he's doing.
- 13:48Is he going to do it?
- 13:49And the whole time I witnessed to that young man.
- 13:53I don't know who he is to this day, but maybe you'll see the podcast and remember.
- 13:57But yeah, they delivered me there.
- 13:59I weighed 157 pounds.
- 14:02I couldn't stand on the scale the first day to even weigh myself.
- 14:05I was that weak.
- 14:07It was incredible.
- 14:09I couldn't walk.
- 14:10I was in a wheelchair delivered.
- 14:12And they thought I was going to be in rehab for...
- 14:16month and a half, two months minimum.
- 14:19And thank God
- 14:21God, for my precious wife.
- 14:24She saw the food they were trying to feed me immediately and said, I'm cooking for him.
- 14:28Don't feed him any of that stuff.
- 14:30She started feeding me lunch and dinner, brought it over every day, cooked it every day for me.
- 14:34Got to put some weight on that guy.
- 14:35And brought it over to me.
- 14:38So within two and a half weeks, I was released from that place.
- 14:43So when you guys came over to visit, I'd maybe been there, I don't know, a week or a few days, but in a wheelchair, and,
- 14:51And I did stand up for standing there.
- 14:53I stood there on my feet.
- 14:55I wanted to.
- 14:57It was awesome.
- 14:58Thank you for our visits.
- 14:59It really is.
- 15:00And you know, just a bit of an axiom, whatever you want to call it.
- 15:06When we're at the top of our game, I have a problem with this on a regular basis, actually.
- 15:12Well, if I had Barry's beautiful wife, and I had his business, I had his cars, I'd be smiling too.
- 15:19Like, that's why I'm smiling.
- 15:21They don't know that when I was dying in the hospital, I was committed to moving every doctor.
- 15:27Everybody walked through a door closer to Jesus.
- 15:30And it kept my mind off of the pain and on the focus of who's coming through that door next.
- 15:35I'm just saying this, folks.
- 15:37When you're in the struggle, don't waste it.
- 15:40Don't waste your struggles.
- 15:43They don't expect you to have joy in the midst of your struggles.
- 15:45They don't expect that.
- 15:48That doesn't match up with anything else they've seen.
- 15:51And when you have joy— In that rehab center, there wasn't one nurse that came in, one person that bedpanned, whatever it was that I didn't share Jesus with.
- 16:03And, you know, it was—
- 16:06It was amazing.
- 16:08And so many people, I mean, they were amazed.
- 16:10What, this guy's just recovering?
- 16:12He's talking about Jesus?
- 16:13Man, there must be something there.
- 16:16Only one person came.
- 16:18It was a late-night nurse that came in, and it was like 3 in the morning.
- 16:23And to—
- 16:24was there and I said, oh, I couldn't sleep when I was there.
- 16:27I was missing my wife thinking my wife's 20 miles away and I can't be home with her.
- 16:32It was terrible.
- 16:33It was gut wrenching to me.
- 16:34Every hour was painful.
- 16:37But this nurse came in and I asked her, do you know Jesus?
- 16:40She said, oh, yeah, I know.
- 16:42And we just boom.
- 16:44It was awesome.
- 16:45I'll never, never, ever forget that.
- 16:47We just talked about the Lord.
- 16:48She stayed there for 15 minutes.
- 16:50But it was great.
- 16:51That was like an angel.
- 16:52God sent that person when you needed it.
- 16:55You needed that touch from God.
- 16:56He blessed you with that.
- 16:58That's how he works.
- 17:00So when you live for his purpose, at your weakest moments,
- 17:06At your weakest moment of your life, literally, your focus was on living for his purpose to move, as we say, move everybody every day closer to Jesus.
- 17:16Share your faith.
- 17:17And when you did that, I mean, we've talked about this, but you're living proof that when you live.
- 17:23not not focus on your pain and you're dying that's not the preoccupation your preoccupation is in moving people close when you live for his purpose he makes everything good and he sends the nurse at three o'clock in the morning to comfort you when you need the comfort and he gives you two and a half weeks instead of three months in rehab i mean look at your life it's it shouts the message god's real
- 17:49Every step of the way, then I started in-home rehab, and the people that came to in-home rehab, they had both, me and Pam there, to witness to, to talk to, and they expected that to be longer than it was.
- 18:05I graduated that, and they were kind of in unbelief, each one of them, and then they signed me off to go to in-house rehab.
- 18:14And that was a story in itself.
- 18:17I won't go into all the details of that.
- 18:19But I had a cognitive person because I was supposed to be brain messed up.
- 18:24My speech, it was a little bit messed up.
- 18:27But most people couldn't really see.
- 18:29Oh, no, you seem to be pretty good.
- 18:31You're pretty good.
- 18:31Well, cognitive lady was supposed to work on me for 10 weeks.
- 18:36And at the second session, I told her, oh, yeah, I just finished doing my mortgage, nine hours studying for my mortgage exam to redo my license.
- 18:48And I took the test and passed the test as well.
- 18:51She said, what?
- 18:52Nine hours on the computer to take it?
- 18:55She goes, you know what?
- 18:57You don't need to come back anymore.
- 18:58After three visits, you're done.
- 19:00Go on.
- 19:01I work with a cognitive lady, and she gave me some things to read.
- 19:04She goes, your R's are a little messed up, your S's.
- 19:07So read this over and over and over.
- 19:09I'll see you next week.
- 19:10And then I did that, and she goes, okay, now read this over and over and over.
- 19:13And I did, and I came back, and she talked to me, and she goes, I don't need to see you anymore after the third visit.
- 19:18She was right out of here.
- 19:19Folks, this is a man who was dead.
- 19:25for 55 minutes.
- 19:27He was dead for 55 minutes.
- 19:29He was gone.
- 19:30They never should have kept working on Donnie like they did.
- 19:33That one faithful man you talked about.
- 19:35He's key.
- 19:35Yes, yes.
- 19:36Why?
- 19:37Oh, I'd love to meet him.
- 19:38That was the Holy Spirit.
- 19:40Just, it was God directed.
- 19:43God was not gonna, you were never in any danger of God losing you because he had too much work for you here.
- 19:49He had plans for you and you're fulfilling that now.
- 19:51But think of what he's been through.
- 19:53And folks, I just say in the moment here, if you're in the hospital,
- 19:59A lot of you that listen to our podcasts are in hospitals or rest homes, or you have a friend, a dear one, a mom or dad.
- 20:08And how often the ones who are suffering are living focused on their pain.
- 20:15And that's the only thing about it is their pain.
- 20:18God help me with my pain.
- 20:21Not realizing that you're at this very moment with the greatest influence you've ever had in your life.
- 20:29When you take your thought off your pain and you start moving everybody every day closer to Jesus, it changes everything.
- 20:37Oxycontin wouldn't work on me.
- 20:39They couldn't come up.
- 20:40They gave me stuff I never heard of before.
- 20:43And really dangerous stuff they were giving me.
- 20:46They just had to stop my pain.
- 20:47They couldn't stop my pain.
- 20:51But you know what?
- 20:52I kept my focus off that because I would just focus, who's coming through that door next?
- 20:58Amen.
- 20:58Awesome.
- 20:59And it got me through it.
- 21:00And you know, out of it, they said, you're going to have withdrawal problems, all the drugs we gave you.
- 21:03I didn't have any, none.
- 21:05I was immediately set free from that.
- 21:08All that worked together for good.
- 21:10Why?
- 21:10Because I lived my life.
- 21:12I did long before, decades before.
- 21:14I did during, and I certainly have since.
- 21:16Live every moment of my life for God's purpose.
- 21:19Not my purpose.
- 21:20Not selling car wax.
- 21:21Not driving cars.
- 21:22No, I live, no matter where I am, I focus on moving everybody every day closer to Jesus.
- 21:28So, Donnie, you've been doing that for a lot of years, but now you do it.
- 21:33Then you are on steroids.
- 21:36I guess it's kind of supercharged.
- 21:38I mean, because when I woke up, I just felt how deep.
- 21:45Everybody asked me, did you see anything?
- 21:47Did you see Jesus?
- 21:48Did you Todd?
- 21:49You know what?
- 21:50The only thing I woke up
- 21:53knowing how deep God's love was for me.
- 21:58And the other thing, the one dream, I don't know if I can even, if I should even talk about it real quick on here.
- 22:04The one thing I remember, I was in heaven's holding cell is what I call it.
- 22:10It was just an octangular room and there was people sitting on the other side of me and on my side.
- 22:17And I was gripping onto a blonde chair
- 22:20Imagine my wife.
- 22:21She's a blonde.
- 22:22And there was other – and they just were just blobs on the other seat.
- 22:27There was a couple across from me.
- 22:29There was another single and a single.
- 22:31And then in my row, there was a single and a single.
- 22:34And then me in the corner clutching on to my wife.
- 22:38And at the end of this corridor or heaven's holding cell, I heard a voice.
- 22:45And the voice told me, I remember the voice and I remember clinging on.
- 22:50The voice said, hold on, hold on for one hour.
- 22:55And I clutched tightly and everybody went out the door and the door closed.
- 23:00except for me.
- 23:01Wow.
- 23:01It was empty.
- 23:02So that was the door to heaven, and they didn't let me in.
- 23:06Man, man.
- 23:06Thank God.
- 23:10You know, I actually prayed when I was in that situation.
- 23:13I go either way.
- 23:14I said, God, I'm between.
- 23:16I mean, I'm excited about heaven.
- 23:19I'm really excited about heaven, but I also see you working miracles in my life.
- 23:22You're giving me a ministry.
- 23:24I'm really excited about what's going on, what you can do perhaps with me.
- 23:30So I don't know which way you want me to go.
- 23:31I'm good either way.
- 23:34But just in case, I'm going to start moving everybody.
- 23:39If I'm going to die, I'm going to die trying to lead as many people to you as I possibly can.
- 23:44And that was what drove me for two and a half weeks in that hospital experience.
- 23:49I've been there with you.
- 23:50Just be busy about the Father's business.
- 23:53It's that simple.
- 23:54And we love doing that prior to my death, prior to your sickness and all the things.
- 23:59Yeah, you're right.
- 24:00People think, oh, look at those guys.
- 24:01They have everything.
- 24:03They don't have a clue what you all went through to get there and got there.
- 24:07I'm blessed to know you a little bit better, and you've opened up and shared some things with me.
- 24:11And it's like...
- 24:12Man, if people just knew.
- 24:15But you're just amazing because you never not share.
- 24:19You taught me one great thing, and I use it all the time.
- 24:22And I try to find one occasion sometimes.
- 24:24Time moves on.
- 24:27Can you just pick out some random, spontaneous conversations you've had and how you get to share your faith throughout every day?
- 24:35I was just going to say, you know, every time I go out to eat, it's an opportunity to witness.
- 24:40And I learned it from you, Barry.
- 24:42And it's so awesome.
- 24:43So simple.
- 24:44You know, the waiter or waitress that comes up to the table, you know, either before or during, whenever you find the right time.
- 24:51You say, we're going to pray for our food when you bring it over to our table.
- 24:56You know, so while we're praying, is there anything we can pray for you?
- 25:00And you look them up right in the eye and just ask them, can we pray for you?
- 25:03And they look like...
- 25:06They're like melting and say, and some of them let up with some deep stuff.
- 25:13Some say, wow, you know, hey, I'm getting married in two months.
- 25:16I say, oh, great.
- 25:18What's your fiance's name?
- 25:19Oh, Peter.
- 25:20OK, Susie and Peter.
- 25:22Lord, would you please?
- 25:23And I might pray right then on the spot.
- 25:26Sometimes they don't let them go away.
- 25:28And I pray for them after they're gone.
- 25:31It just depends.
- 25:33But what a blessing just something like that is.
- 25:35The people I come in contact with, you know, at all the rehab centers, that was great all through that.
- 25:41Now I run into back to the gym.
- 25:43Yeah, I'm not where I was when I dropped, but I've gained 20 pounds of muscle back since I died.
- 25:50But now you have a new purpose when you go to the gym.
- 25:54Oh, my gosh.
- 25:55Yes.
- 25:56I share all the time.
- 25:58It's just another place just to share the good news of the gospel with everybody I come in contact with.
- 26:04And nobody gets mad.
- 26:06I shared one time, I forget, it was a month ago.
- 26:12I was going to check out my new office building and...
- 26:14A guy said, hey, I'll show you around where your office is going to be.
- 26:17And we walked through there.
- 26:18Great guy.
- 26:19Had five kids.
- 26:20We found out about his life.
- 26:21He'd been there for seven years.
- 26:23And he lived in the area for nine years.
- 26:25And life was going really well for this guy.
- 26:29And, you know, I thought, there's a 50-50 chance this guy's a Christian.
- 26:33He's a really great guy.
- 26:34Really nice.
- 26:34I mean, one of his ways to show us where my office is.
- 26:37Show us where we're standing next to the door where my office is.
- 26:39And we're getting ready to part ways.
- 26:41And I said, you know, excuse me.
- 26:44Can I ask you one question?
- 26:46Do you know Jesus?
- 26:48Oh, geez.
- 26:49I'm a Lutheran.
- 26:49Yeah.
- 26:50Ha, ha, ha.
- 26:52And he walked away.
- 26:54That was the end of the conversation.
- 26:55But I'm going to start working next door to him.
- 26:58We're going to move into our office in a couple of more weeks.
- 27:00So I'll get to go visit him.
- 27:01Yeah, it's a process.
- 27:04You know, you sow some seeds.
- 27:06I call it, you know, just putting out chum.
- 27:08We're fishers of men.
- 27:09Yes.
- 27:10And when you deep-sea fish, you throw out chum, trying to attract fish to come up your chum line.
- 27:15And Karen and I have chum lines out all over the place with 30, 40 of them.
- 27:20People are coming up.
- 27:20And some of them, they take 30, 40, 50.
- 27:22I had one took 50 years.
- 27:24And he was dying on his hospice bed before he finally called me.
- 27:27He'd never shown any interest for 50 years.
- 27:30And I just kept chumming.
- 27:32And after 50 years, he called me from his hospice bed.
- 27:37And I led him to the Lord in about 12 minutes.
- 27:40And I tell people, I led him to the Lord in about 12 minutes.
- 27:42Wow.
- 27:43Actually, it took me 50 years, but then a 12-minute prayer, you know.
- 27:48So I know what you speak.
- 27:51How about just spontaneously on the street or stores or anywhere?
- 27:54I mean, it just comes out of you so effortlessly.
- 27:58One thing I'd like to just simply share about the Benedict Castle when we were there for that last time, that day of the car show, me and Tim Boyd, Tim and Jeanette, some of our best friends, me and Tim, the girls were at a T inside, and me and Tim were walking around looking at the cars.
- 28:18And some gal, young little Oriental gal came up, and we started to have a conversation.
- 28:24And we shared the Bible with her.
- 28:27We shared.
- 28:27And she said, well, and Tim questioned her.
- 28:31And she said, well, I'd like to be a Christian.
- 28:35And Tim said, do you want to pray right now?
- 28:38And Tim prayed for this gal right there on the spot.
- 28:42Wow.
- 28:43And she accepted Jesus on the spot right then.
- 28:46It was her idea.
- 28:46We just shared the gospel.
- 28:48And she said, I want that.
- 28:49Isn't that amazing?
- 28:50Boom.
- 28:50Yeah.
- 28:51We never know where people are in their continuum.
- 28:54It may take 20 interactions with them before somebody receives the Lord.
- 28:59And when we're engaging somebody without knowing who they are, knowing their background, we may be number one or we may be number 20.
- 29:06They may be going to church.
- 29:07They may be anti-church, whatever it is.
- 29:09So our goal is to move them with our limited knowledge.
- 29:12We just want to move them closer to Jesus.
- 29:15And then on occasion, you get the one that's at that 20th position that they've been interested in reading, and they're ready.
- 29:22And you happen to be the one that gets to lead them across the line.
- 29:25And that, of course, is the best thing of all.
- 29:29And it happens with amazing regularity.
- 29:32Yeah.
- 29:33I don't know how much time I don't want to go over or whatever.
- 29:36I tell you what, we're running out of time, and I know you have some more stories.
- 29:42Could you hold over and we do another podcast?
- 29:45Could we do that right quick?
- 29:46I would love to.
- 29:47My pleasure.
- 29:47Okay.
- 29:48Folks, that's all for part one.
- 29:50And come back.
- 29:51We'll do a part two just for you.
- 29:53All right?
- 29:53God bless.
- 29:55If you enjoyed today's podcast, please let us know.
- 29:58Subscribe now to continue receiving my podcast and add your comments to help us attract more viewers.
- 30:04See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.