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Transcript

Ready To Die · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest privileges I have, one of the greatest opportunities, and one of the weightiest responsibilities that I possess as a director of Bible Trax Incorporating, is the honor of bringing gospel stories to life.
0:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't mean putting them up on a big screen, though that may be something we do in the future.
0:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about gospel tracks.
0:28
[SPEAKER_01]: We of course have printed about 620 million tracks just like the one I'm holding in my hand.
0:35
[SPEAKER_01]: We've put them around the world.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Free of charge.
0:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's incredible to me that God allows us this privilege 85 years.
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: After our founder was led of God, Dr. Paul Avine all the way back in 1938, God used him to start this ministry.
0:56
[SPEAKER_01]: We have great respect for legacy, but we also, with a keen eye, look into the future and ask for you to look with me.
1:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we have about 40 different gospel tracks, multitudes of titles, many of them have been translated into other languages, I ask you to peer into what's to come.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at the future, not the future of Bible tracks.
1:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you ponder the fact that God might be through the Holy Spirit and pressing on your mind and heart right now that you should use gospel tracks?
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at the friction.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's think about what could keep you from using gospel tracks well.
1:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure they cost a lot of money.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't they?
1:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they do cost a lot to print.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But we offer them for free.
1:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go to bibletracksink.org and get gospel tracks like ready to die.
1:57
[SPEAKER_01]: The track I'm holding in my hand right now, you can get them for free on our website.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Bibletracksink.org.
2:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the next bit of friction is you just go into the website and ordering tracks today.
2:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you like to hear about what's on the inside of ready to die?
2:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Could I bring this story to life for just a moment?
2:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're listening and you say I don't know Christ is my Savior.
2:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's a friend of mine who's wife called him her Renaissance man.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: James Dunkley.
2:34
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a marine sergeant, and later an army sergeant.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a patriot and a military man, loving husband, a devoted father, a counselor, and confidant to young people.
2:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a metal black belt and karate, martial arts, and self-defense teacher.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He loved young people.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They loved him.
2:54
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought joy and laughter wherever he went.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But the title, ready to die.
3:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Where does that come from?
3:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, for James Dunkley, death held no fear.
3:08
[SPEAKER_01]: His motto was, ready to die.
3:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Why was he afraid of death?
3:16
[SPEAKER_01]: The answer started with a decision.
3:18
[SPEAKER_01]: As a boy, James memorized Romans 3, verse 23.
3:24
[SPEAKER_01]: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
3:27
[SPEAKER_01]: One morning, he came to his mother saying, I know I'm a sinner.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I know I'm going to hell.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I need Jesus.
3:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a boy, that day, he repented of his sins and asked Jesus to be a Savior.
3:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He received what God promises in Romans 6, 23.
3:42
[SPEAKER_01]: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: At age 14, in Bible camp, he decided on the life motto, ready to die.
3:55
[SPEAKER_01]: He shortened it to R-T-D-7, 7 of course is God's number of perfection.
4:03
[SPEAKER_01]: R-T-D-7, at age 17, prompted by some parents, he started a self-defense class for teens who were bullied in school.
4:10
[SPEAKER_01]: On the first night of the course, he told him that the only way to be a fearless fighter
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[SPEAKER_01]: was to be unafraid of death and to be ready to die.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He used the biblical example of his hero, King David in the Bible.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: David, a fearless warrior who was one unafraid of death, pain, or loneliness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He told those young people that they too could be a fearless warrior.
4:35
[SPEAKER_01]: If they knew the secret of overcoming fear,
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[SPEAKER_01]: what is the secret?
4:41
[SPEAKER_01]: What was James's secret?
4:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Well Matthew 1028 says, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
4:57
[SPEAKER_01]: James's message was what he had learned.
5:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Fear has three sources.
5:03
[SPEAKER_01]: First, the fear of death.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And the remedy for death and that fear is salvation in Christ.
5:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I've already mentioned Romans 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
5:15
[SPEAKER_01]: How about the fear of loneliness?
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[SPEAKER_01]: The remedy for loneliness is the promise of God's presence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: God says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 13.
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[SPEAKER_01]: How about the fear of pain?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can have a remedy for that when you realize that we have God's strength.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 73, 26, a warrior who has no fear of pain, death or loneliness is a valiant soldier, one who can go into battle on a fray because he is ready to die.
5:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ is willing to be the person, capital P, because he's God, that gives you an eye that source of strength.
6:08
[SPEAKER_01]: When none lovin' happened, it changed the world, and James' trajectory of life.
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: He was 19, and he joined the Marine Corps, the following January.
6:18
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to fight, keep his family's country safe, in September 2002, James was married, and by January of 2003, he was in Iraq.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and shortly later in battle.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was a marine scout, reporting on any of the positions and was in some significant firefights.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He came through unscathed with his unit.
6:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Returning home though that May, he soon informed his family that he and his wife were expecting a baby, becoming a father, greatly excited him, of course, but it was also sadness.
6:52
[SPEAKER_01]: His unit
6:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But James did not make, Afghanistan, as he had a different and a more personal battle to fight.
7:06
[SPEAKER_01]: His infant son was born on Christmas day, three months early, weighing only two pounds Joshua was an intensive care from was nine months.
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[SPEAKER_01]: James was able to be stationed near Joshua, so he could be there with him, helping him fight for life.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Based on God's word, James had a certainty that if Joshua died, they would be together again in heaven.
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: This certainty gave James in his wife's strength they needed to see Joshua through his battle for life.
7:38
[SPEAKER_01]: That Thanksgiving, James penned these lines.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Besides, the normal things that everyone is thankful for, I am thankful for the things that most people are not, rain, hurt, pain and death.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Lord has shown me the beauty of these things, until you are truly happy with the bad you can never really appreciate and be thankful for the good.
8:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, though, James is four years in the Marines were done.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He was home with his family.
8:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But he felt that his job was not yet done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He became a soldier after much consideration and prayer.
8:14
[SPEAKER_01]: He enlisted in the army.
8:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, he was sergeant, James dunkly back in Iraq.
8:20
[SPEAKER_01]: This time serving as a sniper and then as a squad leader.
8:24
[SPEAKER_01]: During Operation Beach, Yellow, the enemy opened fire and in the ensuing firefight, James was shot through the heart.
8:34
[SPEAKER_01]: In an instant, he stepped from the presence of the enemy into the presence of the Lord, the men serving with him were devastated.
8:42
[SPEAKER_01]: They said he was always calm and cool and a fire, concerned about his men and always using human or break the tension, James, though, was prepared to be with his Lord.
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And because he was sure of his eternal destination, death held no fear for him.
8:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He told his wife that if anything were to happen to him,
9:02
[SPEAKER_01]: No one was to wear a black in his funeral.
9:06
[SPEAKER_01]: He was going to be rejoicing in heaven, and he didn't want anyone on earth sorrowing for him.
9:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Over a thousand people came to his funeral, the church was filled with people, young and old military civilian, all the people who were befriended, the council led, taught, and loved by him, all of these lives touched by a man who was ready to die.
9:27
[SPEAKER_01]: James's purpose in Serious Country is best expressed in his own words.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He said this, the one thing I believe in above all else is love.
9:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I love my Savior, my family, my freedom, my friends.
9:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Most people view love as a word of emotion.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I view love as an act of commitment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My act of love is my service and the military, protecting and preserving all the things I believe in most, so that my children, family and friends can enjoy true freedom.
9:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen war first hand in a met people that have never known any of the freedoms that we take for granted, and I never want that for the people I care for most, Semper Phi.
10:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I ask, though, friend, are you afraid?
10:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready?
10:14
[SPEAKER_01]: To die.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: James was.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel track that I'm sharing right now goes on to share verses like Ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of a works, less to any man should boast.
10:35
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the next step though?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe just maybe you have been convicted of your need for a saviour.
10:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to speak to you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to help you with this incredibly important, the most important decision you could ever make.
10:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love you to reach out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're not a service man or woman.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you are, though.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe regardless of your vocation, you at this moment are not ready to die.
11:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you mind reaching out to me?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You can text me at 309, 316-724-0.
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Text me at 309, 316-724-0.
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Christian friend, you've been convicted.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe these words got to you just a little bit, and you're thinking I wonder if I got to me, maybe
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[SPEAKER_01]: they'll get to somebody else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't have to be a service man or woman that you give this gospel track to, though that would be an apropos and appropriate use of ready to die, this gospel track.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You could pass now to anyone, and the story might just captivate them, and they might accept Christ, like James Duncley did.
12:02
[SPEAKER_01]: When a blessing would be of his story, years after his death continues to see people populate heaven, because he was ready to die.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Friend, I thank you for listening in all this week.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I have a singular prayer that you have a great day for his glory, but you won't have a great day for his glory if you don't know him as you're saving.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So one more time, if you'd have questions, I'll under here from your text me at 309-3-16-7-2-4-4-0.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening.
12:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Join us next week on Bible Tract Echoes, God bless.
13:12
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
13:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at BibleTracksink.org that's BibleTracksink.org or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
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[SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for him.