The persecution of Christians right now is out of control. More Christians were martyred for their faith this last year than ever before in the history of the world. But people still want to know God loves them. He is calling us to share our faith, and when we do the world will know us by our love. That’s why we can’t stop taking advantage of every opportunity to move everyone every day closer to Jesus. Learn from Barry’s example as he boldly shared God’s love with an angry taxi driver in Detroit.
Host Barry Meguiar is a car guy and businessman who hosted the popular TV show, Car Crazy, on Discovery Networks for 18 years. He loves cars, but he loves Jesus even more! Learn more about Barry at IgniteAmerica.com.
Get your copy of Barry’s book Ignite Your Life: Defeat Fear with Effortless Faith at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other online booksellers.
Learn more about:
- Persecution of Christians in our world and in America
- Barry’s friend who could lose his job for standing up for biblical truth
- Why Barry doesn’t argue when he’s sharing his faith
- What happened in Barry’s faith conversation with an angry taxi driver
Get resources to help ignite your faith and move everyone, every day closer to Jesus at IgniteAmerica.com — including the Ignite ePrayer app (available on the App Store and Google Play), Faith Sharing Stories, One Minute Inspirations, SeekingGod.org and more. Sign up to receive emails that will deliver practical faith-sharing tips and powerful inspiration.
Welcome back to Ignite, I want to talk to you about the fact that I have never felt persecuted. I am amazed how many obstacles we put in front of people to keep them from sharing their faith. I mean, you had to be trained, you have to memorize your story, you have to have all these points down. And then if you do it all right, expect to be persecuted. Of course, who wouldn't want to do that? It doesn't work that way.
Let me do a little sidestep here. The persecution, the persecution Christians right now is is out of control. More, you know, more people were martyred for their faith, more Christians were martyred for their faith this last year than ever before in the history of the world. Tragedies going on, persecuted for their faith. It's happening now it's happening the United States in the public square. We're seeing Christians all over the place, losing their jobs, if not threatened with jail time for standing up for the Word of God, that's huge. Okay. I know that's going on. I have a friend right now, right now. About to lose his job in a Christian university. For standing up to biblical truth. It's tragic what's going on today. But but my message is a different message. The message of Ignite America has a different message and we're talking about igniting America one person at a time. One scoundrel at a time. The scoundrels are the easiest to reach. And when you're doing on a personal basis, it's different. I gotta tell you, take people out of that arena where they're shouting and doing all that stuff. You get him on the street. Let me talk to him. I'll have a good conversation with him. Because you know why? I love on him. I love on him. I've been sharing my faith, Karen and I've been sharing our faith for 50 years on a daily basis and never once, never once have we felt persecuted. Never once have we gotten anybody mad at us. Never once have we offended anybody and I never argue. I don't argue with anybody. I know. Some people are great on apologetics. I'm not, I can be. But I don't enjoy the debate. I look at a person's heart. I really do if they just want to debate and a lot of people just wanted to debate because they love to debate. They love to make you uncomfortable. You know, there are scriptures along that line that talk about don't cast your pearls before swine. You know don't argue with a fool I just don't do that. I saw that early on. I was having all kinds of arguments. You know, like in the first year of starting to say until I realize you just love on them, you just love on people. People can't get mad at you. They will not argue with you and you love on them. That no one gets mad at you when you tell them Jesus loves you. And he does. He does. They may, they may argue but but not really with you but they'll argue. You know Jesus can't possibly love me, not again. After all I've done? No, no. Oh, yeah, he can. No no, yeah, He can actually you know he, he loves all of us the same. What?
I jumped in a Detroit taxi one day I was going just for the Marriott over to we used to call it Cobol Hall for the Autorama car show. And it was a short, very short walk but it was seven degrees outside and I'm from California so I jumped in a taxi. I said this is short ride but I'll give you a big tip. He yelled at me loudly don't short. Guy non non Muslim one of the few non-Muslim taxi drivers in Detroit. Scruffy guy looked 10 years older than me probably 20 years younger. The steering wheel was higher him, scruffy. I don't want a tip! I just said you know we'll do a short ride but I'll give you a big tip but he's yelling at me. I don't want to tip. I said, sir why don't you want to tip? I'm a bad person. I don't deserve a tip. At this point you can easily surmise that he may run this car into the next flagpole I find this guy is out of control. And again, if you're not thinking about moving everybody every day closer to Jesus you may just be waiting to get out of that car as fastballs. God thank you for getting me out of that car before it killed me. When I just sitted and waited and God gave me this very simple message. It always has to be simple so they can understand it. The lowest denominator doesn't get academic on people. Don't go off to the side. They don't want to be preached at. But they do want to know God loves them. So I said, do you know God loves you? No, he yelled at me. No! Yeah, yeah. No, he loves you. No! He's so mad. Now we got a very short drive here. I don't have a lot of time to work with this guy. You know? So I said, you, sir, let me tell you, I'm a Christian. And I know the Bible inside and out. And I can tell you for a fact He loves you. Dead silence. I say you know, what gets even better than that? Do you know that he loves you as much as he's ever loved anybody ever? Dead silence. My mind's racing, I'm thinking, and it's kind of sweet. It gets even better. Do you know that he loves you? As much as He loves His own Son, Jesus Christ. Dead silence. Wow. By that time, we're at the convention center so I jump out, it's snowing. He puts the window down. I remember the the sound of the windows, window goes down and he's looking at me. He didn't know what to say, just blank face. I looked at him and said sir, I just want you to know God God put me in your taxi right now. Because he loves you. And He wants you to spend eternity with Him. And then I gave him a really big tip. I said God bless you have a great day and I walked away. Yes! Did I get him saved. Of course not. I may have saved him for committing suicide that afternoon. He could be a preacher right for all I know, it's a team sport.
I had a moment in time. We have moments in time with people all day long every day take advantage of it. Move everybody every day closer to Jesus they'll know you by your love. This man is totally out of control and yet he listened. You think about the public sector Jesus was attacked he- they even killed him. Oh, but with the people as a different story. The kids ran to him, everybody ran to him because of His love. And I can tell you this when you move everybody every day closer to Jesus, you're not gonna be persecuted. At least I know. It may get worse, it may get a whole lot worse. We may even be in an internment camp someday. I don't know what the future holds. But I can tell you in this moment, when you move everybody every day closer to Jesus they will know you by your love, by the love of God flowing through you. See you next time.