Category Archives: Testimony

Thankful for R.C.

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Those who have visited our home may have noticed two of Dr. Sproul’s letters to me framed and displayed on a wall in my home, both of which were very encouraging endorsements concerning the two books I have written. I was very privileged to have a number of meaningful interactions with R.C., one of these was in 2003 at a Ligonier Conference in Colorado Springs. Wishing to let Dr. Sproul know just how God had used him in my life, and knowing that it might be impossible to have enough time alone with him at the Conference with hundreds of people around, I determined ahead of time to write out what I wished him to know in a letter and include it in a card for him, along with the gift of a hundred dollar bill. In the card I wrote, “I thank God for you, sir. Please use this gift towards having an evening meal at a nice restaurant with Vesta.” I signed the card simply as “John Samson” without providing an address.

Before one of the sessions was about to start, I quickly walked over to where Dr. Sproul was seated (on the front row) and handed him the card and with a tear in my eye said, “Dr. Sproul, God has used you greatly in my life and I just wanted to let you know how.” The meeting was about to start so all he could do was smile and thank me, and I then walked back to my seat.

A couple of weeks later, I was more than surprised to receive a letter from Dr. Sproul, thanking me both for sharing the story of his impact on my life and ministry and informing me that he had in fact had used the gift to have a wonderful meal with Vesta at a French restaurant and that they thanked God for using him as He did in my life.

Dr. Sproul had taken the time to track me down by finding my address somehow, and wrote a personal note.

On R.C.’s gravestone the following words can be found, “He was a kind man redeemed by a kinder Savior.” How true that is!

Because Dr. R. C. Sproul has impacted my life so greatly, this interview at the recent Ligonier Conference was especially meaningful to me. Vesta, Buck Parsons and Stephen Nichols reminisce about the man and his message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHp1GVtny0

Testimony of a Church Member

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Dave Hanson, a member of King’s Church, wrote the following email to me this week (August 12, 2020):

Hey Pastor,

While in the hospital and now that I am home, I’ve had time to reflect on the last 10 days. I want you to know that Suzanne and I are so thankful that we found you and the brothers and sisters at Kings Church. I actually found your blog about a year and a half and followed that before I first saw you on the dividing line (Dr. James White’s podcast).

I remember the program you had a mask of the Queen of England on your face. I can’t remember why but your sense of humor and your practical teaching won me over. When I found out you had started a church in Phoenix I prayed about checking it out for a few months, because we didn’t think we were being fed properly at the church we were at. This was the best move we have made!

We have grown so much in the last I guess it’s been almost five years at Kings Church, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long – time sure flies. Any way I say all of that to say this, because of all that I have  learned over the last five years I was better prepared for this time when God in his providence put me through this health trial. I went in knowing that God is sovereign and in his power, wisdom and love, He would ultimately be glorified and it would be for my good. So I was determined to glorify God in this trial no matter what the outcome whether death or recovery! It was almost death.

On Friday, Suzanne and I were saying our goodbyes as we didn’t think I was going to make it, and I wanted to die at home and not by myself in the hospital. Suzanne started calling people from the church and people started praying and almost immediately my health started to improve. My body was still shutting down and there was damage to my liver but the doctors were able to stop the rejection and I started to heal remarkably fast. While the rest of the patients in my wing suffering from the same thing were miserable and could not get out their beds they were suffering so much, I had no pain, just yellow eyes and skin. I ended up being able to read and pray for our church, listen to sermons, it was just like I do every day at home. My labs kept getting better every day and I got out of the hospital early, and I owe it all to you and the Kings Church family for yours and their prayers, which God in His providence answered, and all the words of encouragement I received.

It’s nice to know we don’t have to go through these tests alone – not when we have a sovereign  holy God dwelling in us and with us and the local
body of Christ standing with us. I am so blessed to be part of this fellowship.

Thanks again.

Dave H

Testimony: A Jehovah’s Witness trainer reached

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Dr. John MacArthur (transcript from a sermon):

The law of the Lord is perfect, comprehensive, sufficient for the total transformation of the whole inner person.

Whenever I preach this (Psalm 19:7), I always think of this one man named Tim Evalina. I was preaching in Sebring, Florida many years ago. And at the end of the message that I gave in this church, he came up to me, introduced himself. He said, “I have to tell you my story.” He said, “My entire family are Jehovah’s Witnesses. In fact, my family is responsible for the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the state of Florida. My job” – he says – “is, has been for years, to train all the Jehovah’s Witness leaders. I go from location to location to location training them.” But he said, “I have to tell you what’s happened to me.”

He said, “I was driving across Florida listening to the radio in a rental car; and I turned on the radio, and you came on. I didn’t know who you were. And you made one statement. You said, ‘Jesus is God.’ And I said, ‘That’s a lie,’ and turned it off. And then I turned it right back on again because I was curious. And you went on to show from the Bible that Jesus is God. That was on a Monday.” And Grace To You happens to be all over Florida, so if you keep moving you can find us. He said, “I listened five days that week to your program, and all week you were showing that Jesus is God. By Friday I was seriously grappling with that issue, because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that.

“Monday was the second week of the series, I listened five more days. Friday I knelt down beside a bed and I said, ‘O God, Jehovah, whom I thought I served, if indeed Jesus is God the Son, show me.’ That night my head was cleared, my heart was cleared, my soul was transformed, and I embraced Jesus Christ as my Savior.

“Now,” he said, “I had a problem, because I was going around training the Jehovah’s Witness leaders. So,” he said, “I had to do some retraining. So,” he said, “I started back trying to tell them all that Jesus is God. I was in odds with my wife, three sons, and my parents and extended family, and everybody in my whole world. I was called on the carpet, tried as a heretic, and excommunicated from the movement.” He said, “My life is transformed.”

You ask the question, “How do you reach a leader in the Jehovah’s Witness movement?” Just let the truth of Scripture do its mighty work. There’s no subtle way to do that. I can’t orchestrate that. He said, “Pray for my family. Please pray for my family.” This has only been a few weeks.

Got a letter from him some months later telling me his wife and all three sons were in Christ, they were redeemed. Serious dent in the JW system in Florida. This is only an anecdote, but it illustrates the amazing power of the truth to do its own work, energized by the Spirit in the heart. I always think of him when I think of that statement in verse 7.