Thanks so much for joining us again this morning for the Word for Life Radio Ministry. I'm Pastor Greg Huffman, Counseling Pastor and Senior Citizens Pastor at Brookside. We are just thrilled to be able to have folks in the studio with us to share their testimonies, and it's just amazing the difference in the testimonies that people have. Russ Kinney is with us this morning, and Russ, your testimony is one that is totally unlike anything else we have ever had. You're a little unique, aren't you? I'm very unique, yes. So, you're going to be sharing with us how that you came from being a very strong introvert to, shall we call you an extrovert? I wouldn't go quite that far, but I'm hoping to have said that I have arrived at normalcy now. At normalcy, alright. But you know, it reminds me of Moses that probably would be the type of guy that would say to God, I'm not a talker. In fact, that's exactly what he said. Right? And then you remember in Exodus chapter 4, after he said, I'm not eloquent, and he said, even from the time you've been talking to me, God, I haven't become eloquent. And the Lord said, now who made your mouth? did not I the Lord. And it just reminds me that whatever God wants you and me to be and do, that's up to God, isn't it? Yeah, and actually that passage you just read is one of the ones that's really encouraged me over the years because, you're right, it's not about our abilities and our skills, but it's just what God wants to do through us. And it's funny because for a little while there I had a bit of a stutter too, so I can relate. A bit of a stutter. Yeah, a little bit, yeah. So did your stutter kind of cause you to become introvert? Tell me how it all began to unwrap. Well, I guess just when I was growing up, I spent a lot of time by myself. I'd put together models in my room and I'd work on computers and I just kind of kept to myself a lot, you know? So then going to school, being involved in band, that sort of thing, even though I was around people, I was uncomfortable around them. And to the point where when I got my first full-time job, I was hired to do PC support. And so people would call me with their problems. They'd leave a message on my phone. And then I'd have to call them back, try to figure out when was a good time to fix the problem, and then actually go over there and do it. But to just call them on the phone to figure out when was a good time, I would stare at the phone and I would clench my fists and I would have to work up to calling them on the phone. My goodness, you needed a secretary to make the phone calls. Yeah, a secretary would have been real nice, yeah. And then going over there, too, of course, I was nervous when I was there. So I would usually have something in my hands that I would be tinkering with. Or if I didn't have something when I went over there, I'd often just grab something from their desk and start to play with it. And then sometimes I'd forget about it and I'd walk off with it. So it was a little bit of a klepto there, but it wasn't it wasn't on purpose. Oh, my goodness. And so consequently, you're telling me all the way through childhood, even to early adulthood, you're struggling with just being outside the bubble. Yeah, it was always awkward. And, you know, preparing for this interview, I was trying to think, well, why is that? You know, why are some people introverted like that? So again, I thought of just some people are too much by themselves growing up, maybe. Sure. Or I thought, you know, maybe some people would have had a bad experience that causes them to mistrust others. I think it's really kind of a mixture between an insecurity for yourself and kind of a mistrust of others. I think you could probably have either one of those by themselves and you'd be fine, but to have the combination of the two is kind of the introversion. That's my take on it anyway. So when did things begin to change then? Well, it didn't get any easier for me until after I was saved. And we don't have time to go into the whole salvation story. Hopefully another broadcast will do that. But the short version is I came to know that God's word was true. Evolution was a lie. And when I knew that God's word was completely true, my life just started changing radically. I mean, movies got thrown out, music got thrown out, went back to church for the first time in years, started reading my Bible, all this kind of stuff, you know. But one of the things was, as you start to look at what's in the Bible, you realize there's gifts that God gives his people when they're saved. And these are all gifts that are meant to be used in relationships. And even the fruits of the spirit, these are relational things. Or even Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross, it says he didn't count heaven something to be grasped onto and clung to, right? That's his home. So he didn't stay at home where everyone was adoring him, everything was comfortable. He gave that up. and came to earth and was a servant and engaged in those relationships with his disciples because of the love he had for others. And so the Lord really used four things to really, really get my attention about why I needed to get outside my bubble. One was the concern for those around me because the Bible says that The majority of people that we see around us on a daily basis are on their way to hell. It says the path is wide that leads to destruction and the gate is narrow that leads to life and few there are that find it. So that was a very convicting thing. And then, of course, the desire to please God. The Bible says that we are going to have to give an account of our lives to God in the end. And I wanted to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Not that I would have been the servant that would have just buried what he was given in the backyard because that was what was safe. And of course, the weight of responsibility that we as Christians have, because you think of all the billions of people in the world, there's only a few, relatively speaking, that even claim to be Christian. And then of the ones that claim, there's only a portion of those who actually are Christian. And then of those that claim and are Christian, there's only a portion of those that have the free time and they're not too busy just trying to scrounge up their next meal and they can study the word and they can go forth and bring the gospel. You know, the Bible says, to whom much is given, much will be required. And that was another very convicting thing. And then the last thing that God really used was just the conviction that my life is very short. And it might even be that the time that all of us have left on the earth is very short, just the way the events of history are transpiring in these recent days. So it was really those four things that just kind of pushed me out. And I thought, you know, I don't know what kind of skills I have. I don't know what kind of abilities I have. I don't think of myself as a talented person. But I thought anybody who's a Christian can share their testimony and can try to be a witness to others. Even if you've only been saved a single day, you can do that. And so that's really what I was going to try to do. And the Lord was faithful. I just went forward on my knees. I went forward in prayer. And like I say, I knew these principles, but I kind of compelled myself to follow them. And I remember the first time I gave somebody a tract, I think I literally said, here, and then I ran away, you know, and take this, read this by, you know, and that was the best I could do. Sure. Sure. Right. And eventually I got together with a group of guys from Brookside and we went door-to-door. That was a terrifying thing. You went door-to-door? I went door-to-door, yeah. Wow. Not knowing who's going to open the door, if they're going to get upset at us. I mean, that was terrifying. And all this just simply went back to what you discovered about God from the Word of God and yourself, right? So concern for others, giving an account, to whom much is given, much is required, and life is short. And, you know, Rush, you're not old. You know, so to say, life is short, in other words, God gave you a perspective of what's going on in the world as opposed to the length of your life as far as most people are concerned. Yeah, I mean, I'm 36. And even though I'm not old, I felt like I've wasted so many years already. And I felt like there's going to be years at the end of my life where I'm not going to have a lot of strength and energy to do things. And so there's this time in between where you have the bulk of your strength and energy that you can give to the Lord. And I wanted to use that for him. Now, you mentioned prayer. obviously to go from looking at a phone and clenching your fists like, oh, I can't make that phone call, to knocking on a door and having no clue who's going to be on the other side of that door. Prayer and God giving you the ability that had to be the source. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I would just pray, Lord, I know that you want your gospel to go forth. You know how scary this is for me, how unnatural this is for me, but help me, give me the strength, help me not to chicken out and back out. And you know, so many times after I would have gone passing out tracks or whatever I did that day, to come home and feel like, wow, I did it. I managed not to back down. someone got the gospel, someone's able to read this and hear the truth. It's so wonderful because we're surrounded by people who don't have the right conception of God. They think that they can get to heaven because of their good works, because of their religious rituals, because of following the law or just from living a moral life or whatever it is. And people need to know that it's only through the blood of Jesus Christ that they can be saved. And so there would be people that are listening to our broadcast this morning, Ross, that would be able to say, I identify so closely with that guy because I'm scared to death. I'm tongue tied. If I have an opportunity to share a witness, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I know it's not a great spiritual principle, necessarily. I mean, I was compelled by the things in the Word, but in the end it boils down to just do it. You know, you are the Lord's, and your life is not your own. So, yes, it's uncomfortable, but if He's called you to do it, you need to do it. Right. And you know, when our thoughts are established, it's because we have committed our way to the Lord. And I think that's basically what you're describing. You committed your way to the Lord, as Proverbs says, and then your thoughts became established. And that's usually where the greatest battle is in our thought life. Yeah, you're right. And so you basically said, Lord, I don't care what it takes or how long it takes. For the cause of Christ, I'm going to begin speaking. And so, as you basically look at your concern for others, has it gotten greater the more you share the gospel? I don't know that the concern for others has gotten greater the more I share the gospel, but I would say the more I learn of what the Word of God says and the more I learn of where I actually stood before God all those years ago, the more compelled you are to share the gospel because you realize the people that are just walking around smiling, you know, they're even worse off than what you thought before. Back when I was a kid, there was a song entitled, See the Funny Little Clown. Don't you know he's crying? Don't you know he's dying on the inside? But he's laughing on the outside. And that's the way many, many people are. Laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside. But when you look at them, and you recognize that Jesus Christ died for them, then the motivation is the love of Christ constrains you, as the Word of God says. Well, we have come to the end of our time, but we will obviously continue your story, because there's some other things I want to ask you to share with us. And those of you who are listening to us this morning, I trust that if you can say, oh man, that's me, I'm scared to death to do anything for God, just remember, I can do all things through Christ would strengtheneth me." And once we realize that, yes, Christ died for everybody, we have to give an account of ourselves, and life is short. And just, like you said, just do it. And once we do it, then our thoughts are established, and God's grace is sufficient. Well, until the next time, we trust the Lord will bless you in a fantastic way.