People Matter to God

Our Sunday school class is working through a book on evangelism right now, titled "The Unexpected Adventure" by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. The final story in the series of 42 stories that make up this book knocked my socks off.

It was a story about a man named Robert. Robert got "his thrills by cheating death." In fact he was rich because of it. He lived a life of riches, women and booze, always pushing things to the limits. By his own admission, he made $60 million, but spent 61. He was so arrogant that one time he had both his private jets fly next to one another, for no other reason other than that he could sip champagne and look at his name on the tail of the other jet! "Robert didn't hate God; in a way, it was worse than that. At least despising God would have required emotion. Instead, God was simply irrelevant to him. Unneeded. A non issue."

One day Lee Strobel received a call from across the country from Robert (whom he had never met). Robert said that he had began to inquire about the Christian faith and someone had given him a copy of "The Case for Christ" authored by Strobel. Robert had read it and something amazing had happened. He believed in Jesus Christ! "I just got on my knees and prayed that God would never, ever let me go."

Several years later Robert died and many attended his funeral in Butte, Montana. The Inscription on the tombstone reads:
Robert "Evel" Knievel
"Believe in Jesus Christ"
Not long after he was converted, Knievel was baptized and gave a testimony at a large church in Southern California. It is reported that the testmonial of his changed life brought over 500 people to Jesus that day.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:17-18