Barry Meguiar 00:00
Music. Welcome back to ignite. We’re here with Jim rice, the lead singer and guitarist and Banjo man and steel guitarist and whatever for brush arbor, this great band that is that is just just exploded, exploring the scene back in the in the good old days, back in the in the 70s, back when our hair were black, yes, back when our hair was black, and I was trying to think of the word, but you just continued on in different iterations, and keep singing even to this day. And have blessed us so much with your music. But we’re here to talk about sharing faith. And you have so many stories. Can we take in just the next few moments and just give me some, not necessarily rapid fire, but just some examples of how, how do you share your faith spontaneously in areas where we’re just never be common to all of us. This is what happens. And it happens automatically. It just orchestrate.
00:56
It. It does. No, I, I was an interim pastor for a while, and I thought God was once I got done with that, I thought, okay, God’s done with me in that, in that role. And I got a dog. Most people have a dog, okay? And, and I, you know, training a dog when they’re puppies is brew. And I got a little Jack Russell Terrier, okay, that’s has more energy than both of us put together. So I bought this little dog, and I take to the dog park. And people would walk up and say, well, that’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. So way to meet people. And I’d say, well, thank you, ma’am. How do you like my dog? But anyway, people would say, Well, what, what kind of dog is it? And where’d you get it, and all that kind of thing. And I start telling him my my story and how God got a hold of me when I was younger, and how that this happened and that happened. And they go, What do you mean? God got a hold of you? And I share what that means, yeah. And it doesn’t mean I got a hold of God. He got a hold of me, yeah. So I’ve been able to have a ministry in the dog park, and I’ve got people that I’ve given these little tracks that I give out. I give those out and I and I tell them the same thing, if I pray for you, will you read this, and I’ve never had anybody turn me down. Okay? This
Barry Meguiar 02:12
is, this is all wonderful, but I want to go back something that you said, just matter of fact, you just threw it off, right? I don’t want to lose it. You enter, you engage in a conversation, and you’ll find out they give you they give you a gift, they give you a question that you can answer with the god story. They do. It’s if you’re just on your toes. It happens all the time. They’ll say, Well, how did that happen? You know, it’s a crazy thing. God just you. Could you what really happened? You’re not making it up. But when they give you the opportunity, you say, Oh, you just do a simple or you can, you can come back and say, it was amazing. I can’t explain it, but God moved on me and gave me that impulse.
02:53
Well, people changed my life. How did why did you get that dog and where did you get it? I got out and where did you get it? Why did you get it? Yeah, I said, Well, I prayed about it, and this is where God led me. And I think, What do you mean? God led you, and I share with him what that means. In fact, when I went to get my dog, this a true story. I said, I want a black tail on my dog. Number one, that’s one thing that’s got to happen. I said, number two, I want him to be something where God shows me that it’s my dog, somehow he’s got to show me It says my dog or I’m not getting and I wanted a male dog anyway, I go out to this lady, and I looked, sure enough, it had a black tail. And she says, Well, do you want the dog or not? And I said, Well, I don’t know. I said, I prayed that God would show me that’s my dog or not. And so far he hasn’t shown me. She says, Well, I said, I said, Well, when was the dog born? She says, December one. I looked at the dog and I said, That’s my dog. She says, How’s that your dog? I said, I only have one daughter, and my daughter was, was born on December one. That’s my dog. So I tell people to park. How God? You look for God to show you things, and he will show you things. And they go, Well, he hasn’t shown me anything. And I go, Well, if you ask him to ask, have you asked him to? And they go, Well, actually,
Barry Meguiar 04:09
I don’t know, yeah. And so then God wants to direct
04:13
Exactly. God wants to direct you just like He’s no respecter of persons. He loves you just as much as he loves me and he wants to lead you and guide you, but he’s going to show you something, and you have to say, yes, conversations,
Barry Meguiar 04:26
he can go a million ways. God, it’s not the typical share in your faith. You need to get on your knees and pray you get there. But first off, they got to figure out, Is God real? And they’re looking. 80% of the unchurched are looking for God right now. So when they hear somebody actually mentions it, they tend to ask more questions. And then you can go all over the place, giving them examples
04:46
well. And I was sharing with you earlier that lot of times I share my story of my faith in God and what he’s done, and afterwards I realized I did that, and I go, Oh, that was so good. I wish I had a taped. It because I’d never done it, but that was the Holy Spirit speaking through me to somebody that needed to know. And they’ll say, Man, I didn’t know. As soon as you said something about horses, and I go, I’ve never shared horses in my faith before, but because I shared horses, that was a sign to them. I didn’t know it was assigned to them. But God set it up. What we don’t understand is a lot of times God’s already prepared somebody to hear what he’s going to speak through you. So if, when I meet somebody, I don’t realize it till after it’s over, I realize God prepared them to hear what I was going to share, and I didn’t even know what I was going to share. So he prepared them in advance. He prepared me, and I spoke it, and God accomplished something, and I got to be a part of it. This
Barry Meguiar 05:47
is so important, folks, the steps of the righteous are directed by the Lord. But he doesn’t stop there. He directs their steps, and he brings them right to your doorstep. Now, if you’re sensitive to it, you realize the moment, and you seize it so often we miss that opportunity and we’re thinking about something else. We have to be intentional. We have to be looking around and with this thought of move everybody. I know it’s getting to be a trite statement anymore, but it’s true. Move everybody, every day, close to Jesus. Everybody around just lost. 80% of the people around you are lost, and you’re looking for that next opportunity, and you never know when it’s going to happen.
06:23
You don’t know. And I’ve had friends that I just I say, hey, you know, God’s had me for whatever reason, praying for you. And they go, Oh, all right. They make a joke about it. Well, they do something. And I say, he’s got me praying for you, so you got a decision to make. And they go, What do you mean? I go, Well, if he’s going to draw you closer to him, you’ve either got to say yes or no. So you got a decision to make. You might be thinking about that way. Then it’s like, what? Then they want to know how that works. So I’ve had several friends come to the Lord, you
Barry Meguiar 06:51
wouldn’t say that to just anybody. God has surprised. God has to inspire you. Well, yeah, to know when to say those kind of things. It’s not. What I’m saying is, and we talk about this over lunch. It’s not a rote no statement where you’re just saying the same everybody. You’re not going to go around saying that same thing everybody. God has to speak through you and give you an inspiration to say those particular words. That’s where it becomes personal. And you have intimacy with God when you literally talk about having what’s it like to have God? You know, God is speaking through you to another person. What’s that? What’s that experience like for you?
07:25
Well, for me, it’s just exciting. I was sharing Christ with a guy in a restaurant once, and I gave him my booklet, and he told me that he had prayed the prayer in the booklet. And I said, so what does that mean to you? You know, to accept Christ. He says, Well, I guess I’ve accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I reached out and shook his hand. I said, Welcome to the kingdom of God. And he goes, Oh, whoa. What was that? And I said, the Bible says that you believe in your heart, which you did when you prayed the prayer. And he says, confess with your mouth. You just confessed. The Holy Spirit just dropped in you, that’s what you felt. He was so excited. You know, so
Barry Meguiar 08:06
happens, happens so quickly that people haven’t grasped the magnitude of what they’ve just No,
08:12
and I don’t think I’ve ever shared Christ the same way twice in my life. Yeah, it just, it just happens, because it usually comes out of their need more than it comes out of, Oh, absolutely, of something. I remember
Barry Meguiar 08:25
more of them pulling it out of you, you set the stage, you give the opportunity. You’re loving on them. But then it just comes. I remember just very quickly, I led a guy to the Lord who was dying, and I said to him, because he’d prayed the prayer, and I said, let’s pray it again. I want to make sure you really get this. Who’d prayed it again, he got it. I said, Do you realize we’re going to spend eternity together? He says, what? I said, we’re going to spend eternity. What do you mean? I said, you just entered into the family for eternity. We’re going to spend eternity. He’s, oh, my goodness, that’s amazing. That same thing. He hadn’t realized the magnitude of what he just died. He realized he was saved. But the comprehension that it’s forever, and the comprehension that most of the people around us are going to be forever in hell, how can we not tell them? Well, and
09:22
I think for me, the biggest part is I realize that God, he, you know, we’re predestined to spend eternity with with Him. And God could call them. He could write it in the sky, come to me, or I’m going to pound you with a hammer. You know, he could do that, but he chooses to do it through me and give me the excitement of sharing that. And once you share with somebody Christ, and they move from eternal damnation into eternal bliss with our Father in heaven, from now on, the excitement of giving somebody the. A part of that, just to be a part of it, is more exciting than anything I
Barry Meguiar 10:05
say, you know, we get, you know, 13 truckloads of product being ordered for retailers. That’s a lot of little bottles. You know, I get really excited about that. You know, it pales as much as I love my business and all that. It pales getting one person knowing they’re going to spend eternity in heaven, and the angels were shouting at that moment, right?
10:26
It’s a very exciting thing. We
Barry Meguiar 10:29
could go on and on 60 seconds. Give me a spontaneous, give me a fun, spontaneous, though unexpected experience where you just bump into somebody in it. Well, for
10:40
me, the best part is showing kids, if anything, is just teaching kids to listen to God, yeah. And as you know, I did rodeo for a long time, and I had a horse 60 seconds, a horse that could move right, left, and you couldn’t tell how I’m moving the horse because the horse had his ears painted toward me. Yeah. And I’m teaching these kids how we need to listen to God, the way this horse that I was riding listens to me, see. So I’ve been teaching kids to listen to God. Beginning when they’re young is pivotal. And the older I get, the more I try to listen to hear the voice of
Barry Meguiar 11:16
taking a basic life lesson and turn it into a gospel message to these young kids. They’ll never forget that. No, they’ll never forget that it’s a, it’s a, it’s a picture that they could pick, they could follow, they emulate in their whole life, their lives. You just taking something that could be really mundane and you turn into something that’s so spiritually significant you probably Mark kids lives forever.
11:38
Everything is spiritually significant when you’re walking in the light, in a true energy, turn it all to him. You’re walking in the light. Everything is spirit.
Barry Meguiar 11:47
Lot of fun, hanging out. We had more time. Yeah, thank you. Jim rice, God bless you. Doing what you do. Incredible. Rush Arbor, all the singing and all the face sharing. You’re a man of God. Hey, guess what? What we’re gonna spend eternity. We are. Hope you enjoyed this, whatever we had, Jim rice, fresh over Okay, and we’ll see you next time. Bye.
