Interview on Book Reader Magazine

http://bookreadermagazine.com/featured-author-jim-newton/

Straight Shooters Group Photo

Thought I would include a group photo of The Straight Shooters. Joe Walker is second row, third from the left in the suit with the striped tie...about 18 years old at the time, now 84 and a go getter. C. Ray, if you count up three children from the bottom on the left side, he is the older gentleman, second in from the left with his hands on the shoulder of the boy in front of him. He brought over 10,000 (that's correct) to Christ. Of course, after seeing his success, built on tremendous hard work and giving up every minute of his free time and then some, others joined the mission and to share in the glory, but C. Ray was about saving kids for Christ, not about personal glory. You can see that he has the face of a very determined servant of God, but he was kind, understanding, and gentle with the boys.

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Next Book In Progress

I am meeting Joe Walker for lunch and a brainstorming session tomorrow. Joe is a member of my Sunday School class. The class is rather large and knowing everyone is a bit problematic. I said hello and goodbye occasionally to Joe and his wife. That is, until one Sunday, he stood before our class and told a story from his childhood about a man that transformed his life from the everyday dead-end drudgery of a very poor and street-wise young boy running down the road to extinction into a life filled with the light of Christ. The story grabbed me by the scruff of the neck saying, hey, wake up, this is a story on a divine level. Here was this well-dressed, educated, eloquent, and soft-spoken gentleman that I had ignorantly assumed had at least an upper-middle class upbringing and adult life, and to find out about the extreme poverty he lived in as a child, aroused my curiosity. It usually takes God's intercession in a life to make that kind of change. As Joe proceeded through the story and to my complete surprise, the story's divine level became clearer as he told of the God-inspired man that had brought about this abrupt and miraculous change in his life and made him a devout follower of Jesus Christ.

C. Ray, a simple sign painter of meager financial means, was the man who not only made an astounding and life-altering change in Joe's life, but thousands of other poverty stricken boys living in a very tough part of my city from 1938 to the 1960's. God had also saved C. Ray, himself, from a life of youthful crime and an adult life filled with an empty hopelessness. With that gift in mind, he set his sights on repaying God's love and mercy in a profound way. Thus, as a grown man, he set out to bring all the tough young boys he could to a church environment filled with antedated requirements for dress not suited for children and Biblical lessons taught in a style that made no connections with their backgrounds. With that in mind, C. Ray's God-inspired imagination gave birth to the amazing boys Christian organization that was aimed at and designed specifically for troubled street youths. Most Bible lessons would not come in a hot-stuffy Sunday School classroom. C. Ray knew the key to getting the boys attention and, with God's help, would lead all he could right to Jesus Christ's doorstep. C. Ray possessed little formal education, but he admired and understood the fact that Jesus was a forward-thinking and  innovative teacher.  So, to get his message across, he adopted Christ's methods, and C. Ray's game plan formed from those methods serve as a model for the type of thinking Jesus wants us to use in spreading the Good News.

 

I included a picture of the cover of the used and tattered book that I found on Amazon that was written about C. Ray's Straight Shooters published in 1949 through cooperation with the First Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City of which The organization of boys were members, even if a little unappreciated and discriminated against in the early years. But C. Ray had God on his side, and, as I have come to learn, there are no locked doors before you when God commands that you perform a mission in his name. The book, though informative, is lacking the punch needed to truly rouse people to the realization of just what this solitary man accomplished and what a glory to God his idea and ensuing work was and still should be. This story should serve as a blueprint throughout the years for those forward-thinking and creative people wanting to serve God by bringing his word to those in darkness and ignorant of God's love and all that a life lived in him brings to the table, but in a more powerful and effective manner. With Joe Walker's encouragement and God's bringing more people seemingly out of nowhere with more and more information about this story and much prayer, I believe this book should be rewritten. I have merely given you a passing glimpse of the powerful story of C. Ray and The Straight Shooters organization. If God wills it, the book shall be written.

The Full Picture Would Stagger Our Minds

As Christians, we are asked to serve with humility and give with anonymity. Therefore we see but a fraction of what Christ is doing in this world. In other words, we do not have the full story, and I have a Christ-filled feeling that knowing the full story would stagger our minds.

As a result of Christ's encouragement to serve humbly and give with anonymity, we Christians nor the world can know fully what wonders Christ is working in this world. This thought should lighten our souls with joy that he is actively working and running the show.

As one small example of anonymous giving, I know for certain this is going on all over the world every minute of every day, I give you this story of an anonymous person(s) within my church. In the aftermath of the horrific human and physical destruction caused by the tornado that struck the city of Moore in my state of Oklahoma, May 20, 2013, our pastor put out the request for donations to the Red Cross. The Red Cross was very short of emergency medical supplies. The hospital that served Moore had taken a direct hit and totally destroyed by the tornado packing winds in excess of 210 mph.

Within twenty-four hours of the call going out, thousands of people in the congregation had donated money and thousands of hours of volunteer service making thousands of meals on an assemble line at church for the rescue workers from all over the world sifting through miles of debris piled stories high over the landscape in Moore. They volunteered to go into the stricken area themselves to search for bodies, living and non-living, and to serve in any way needed.

An anonymous person within that twenty-four hours donated one million dollars to buy several semi-truck loads of medical supplies. Nobody, except our pastor, knows who the person was.

This kind of giving, big and small, is going on all over the world constantly. You begin to get a feeling for the remarkable impact Christ is making in this world through his servants in a very quiet and stealthy manner. Just what all is he doing that we cannot see? It must be world shaking. How great is our Lord! Is God dead? I think not. I know not. He is alive and very active. Take courage from these things that he commands us to hide from sight for his glory - and keep serving and giving - for God is winning.

And do it all with love and a smile as he did.

WHAT DOES FAITH LOOK LIKE, the Book

My latest book released, WHAT DOES FAITH LOOK LIKE, now available in paperback through Amazon, Barnes & Noble (online & in-store), Smashwords, and other major retailers. 

If you are expecting a sermon, don't buy it.  It is different. A book of short stories that are snapshots of  faith and how that faith works in people's lives.

  We get snapshots of faith through the Bible and its stories. This book gives you a modern day look at faith in action or construction.

The Gift of God's Presence

Above all else, know this: Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones.  For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.

Meister Eckhart

We complain about our situation, we pray, we worry, we pray, we are nervous.  When God answers our prayers, we are not prepared for the improvement in our lives.  Do we just like to complain?  As you increase your faith, decrease your worry, your fear.  If you absolutely have to fear something, fear God, for, as creator, he has the power over all things. 

Accept and find comfort in the fact that God will always be there and will guide you, but listen and act upon his most holy wisdom.  Accept the gift of God's presence in your life.