Wednesday, April 18, 2007

...not so evil Knievel



I'm old enough to remember the glory years of Evel Knievel, an extremely famous motor cycle stunt man who jumped over trucks, cars and buses with his motorcycle, back in the late 60's and early 70's. His most famous stunt, however, was an attempt to jump over Idaho's Snake River Canyon in a rocket powered "motorcycle". (Looked more like a rocket than a motorcycle!) After the failure, and stupidity of that stunt, Evel's star started to set, and most of us forgot about him.

Well, Evel is back in the news, but for a stunt I would not have predicted in a billion years: he led several hundred people to Christ while giving the testimony of his conversion at the famous Crystal Cathedral in California. It was a small scale, but very real REVIVAL meeting!

Here's an excerpt from an article on the Christianity Today website:

On Palm Sunday, hundreds responded to Robert "Evel" Knievel's testimony by asking to be baptized on the spot at Crystal Cathedral. Speaking alongside the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, Knievel told the congregation in Orange County, California, how he had refused for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. He believed in God, but he couldn't walk away from the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women.

"I don't know why I fought it so hard," he said. "I just did."

But Knievel knew people were praying for him, including his daughter's church, his ex-wife's church, and the hundreds of people who wrote letters urging him to believe. And then something indescribable happened during Daytona Bike Week this March.

"I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! … I rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.' … I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go."

SOURCE: Christianity Today: 13 APRIL 2007: Evel Overcome With Good

HAT TIP: Maurice Smith @ The Parousia Network

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