My Story #32:

 Ronnie W. Wolfe

Effects Of Your Witness Left To God

I have often told this story. Once in Lexington, Kentucky, I was walking on the sidewalk beside an elementary school. In the school yard I saw a boy and a girl playing. I decided to go to them and strike up a conversation with the intention of witnessing the gospel to them.

I approached them, said hello, told them who I was, and then I began to chit-chat and then eventually got into telling them about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and told them they must believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

There were no visible results shown at that time. I went on my way and left things to the Lord.

Many years later I received a letter from the girl I had spoken with in the school yard. She told me that, after hearing the gospel that day, she trusted the Lord with her whole heart; and she and her brother were both members of a Baptist church and were serving the Lord.

God did that! Isn't it wonderful what God will do through our personal witness? Let's be faithful to give the gospel to as many people as possible. Don't worry about the results; that is up to God--he does it best!

 

My Story #31

 

My Story #31:

My Experience With Armstrongism

Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

As a young teenager, I had a strong desire to know God's word; so I read my Bible often. Along with reading the Bible, I also listened to radio preachers. One of them was Herbert W. Armstrong, whom I loved to hear on a daily basis. He was a good speaker and seemed to be logical and understandable when he spoke, using Bible verses to support his biblical beliefs. My mother also listened to him often.

One evening while listening to Armstrong, I heard him say, as he did often, that there is no reference in "your Bible" about eternal punishment. I wrote that down in my notes. He referenced this passage and emphasized the last part.

Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Being convinced that he knew of which he spoke, I marked that verse in my Bible and made cross references to other passage that he and others used to prove that there is no eternal punishment taught in the Bible.

BUT, I continued to read my Bible. One day I came upon a verse on my own. You may be familiar with the verse, as I was not at that young age; so you can imagine my surprise when I read it. Here it is:

Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

I quickly went into the kitchen where my mother was and told her that I was not going to listen to that man on the radio any more. When she asked me why, I said, "Because he is a liar." She scolded me a little for saying that; but, when I showed her what I had found, she agreed with me.

I did not listen to Herbert W. Armstrong for several years until one day Bro. Milburn Cockrell asked me to write some articles on the cults. I agreed; and, as a help, I signed up for Armstrong's 13-lesson Bible study. It was very revealing.

There is more to the story, but I must not write a book. Suffice it for me to say two things:

1. There are false prophets in the world (Matt. 24:11)
2. Listen to whom you may, but ALWAYS read your Bible.

My Story #30:

  

My Call To Preach

 

I remember well the time when the Lord began to work in my life to cause me to desire the office of a bishop. Sometimes we call this the "Call to Preach."

I am not sure just when it began, but I do remember, even as a young teenager, having a love for God's word and desiring to learn more and more about the Bible. I remember listening to preachers on the radio and taking notes. I remember having a desire to stand on the pulpit to preach the word of God. Those were the beginning years.

After my move to Lexington, the desire grew stronger, and I remember well the evening, as I was sitting on my bed in my upstairs room on Forest Avenue, that the desire to preach was so strong that I actually got up from sitting on the bed, turned a small table around to make a lectern. I stood behind it and preached to nobody, but I preached; and I believe I did a pretty good job.

That weekend, when I came home from Lexington, I went before my church and told the preacher that I had been called to preach. He said, "Well, if you are called to preach, then you will preach for us next Sunday night." That scared me nearly to death. So, the next Sunday night I preached on I don't know what; I still cannot remember; but I preached my first sermon.

The rest, as they say, is history; and a long and glorious history it is. God has blessed me beyond any reasonable description. Through the quartet I have had so many opportunities to preach. I have preached some pretty good messages and some pretty poor ones, but I have preached.

I continue to preach. I have preached in many churches, in many revival meetings, many conferences, and I have taught many college classes, doing my best to distribute the word of God to those who will listen.

I am thankful to First Baptist Church. This church has given me opportunities upon opportunities to preach and teach God's word.

I am not sure that I can completely apply what Paul said, but I am going to at least take the blessing as it applies in 1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; and maybe with Paul, who said in Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;), though I am not apostle but just a simple preacher of God's word.

May we preachers NOT take our job lightly but study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed. Certainly we are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, which we know, not just from reading it in the Bible, but also because we have seen that power manifested in the lives of many people.

Just last week I talked with a woman who told me a story about her son, who was at the time, I think, 11 years old. She said that he stayed all night with me, and the next day while sitting at the kitchen table, he said, "Mom, I want to tell you something." She said, "What, son?" He said, "I stayed all night with Ronnie (that's what the kids called me then), and he told me about the Lord, and I am saved now." After all these years, that is the first thing she talked about when we first spoke on the phone. Then I talked with the boy later, and he is now in his 60's; and that is the first thing he told me when we spoke on the phone. Oh, how I love how God works in our lives to make the gospel powerful!

 

My Story #29:

 Ronnie W. Wolfe

I had Polio when I was two years old, and at the age of 8, I had to have surgery on my right leg and my back (experimental).

After the surgery I was put into a cast that extended from the toes on my right foot all the way up to my underarms. It was one piece, and I had to wear it most of the summer.

I could not sit but had to lie down all the time. My mother would lay down a blanket in the front yard of our house, and I would be set on that blanket and occupied myself with different things to do. I had two beagle dogs who kept me company. Their names were Poncho and Cisco. Sometimes I would have company like the little girl in the picture below. I remember the itch I got under the cast, and my mother would hand me a fly swatter to allow me to put the handle under the cast to scratch my itch--it felt good!

The surgery was experimental: the doctors tried to implant sheep muscle into my leg to see if it would adapt to my body and give me muscle in my leg--it did not work. Later I had more surgeries, but I will not go into detail, and I will not show my scars.

God has been so good to me throughout these things in my life; and you folks have been great friends of mind--I have so many friends! THANK YOU for being my friend.