The Eric Metaxas Show - Ron & Lynette Lewis

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Pastor Ron Lewis and his wife Lynette of Every Nation NYC are in the studio to talk about their book, "Miracles in Manhattan," and events of 9/11 from twenty years ago.

the Eric Mettaxas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome today, I believe it's Friday. If today's Friday, that means tomorrow's Saturday, which also means that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9-11. Can it really be 20 years? 20 years isn't what it used to be. Time moves faster, evidently, than it used to. But if you have to talk about something depressing and dark like what happened 20 years ago. It's good to talk to friends that you love, and I just happen to have pulled two of them off the street. They are my friend's pastor, Ron Lewis, and his wife, Lynette Lewis. I love having you both here. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. I love being here with you, friends. We've been friends for a long time.

And then you married this guy, and now even we've been friends for a long time. And I, when 9-11 happened, you and Suzanne and I and our friends had just spent a lot of the summer together. This is, it's amazing. It's 20 years ago. I want to talk about your lives. I want to talk about 9-11. But I guess I want to start. You have a book out now.

It is called Miracles in Manhattan. Miracles in Manhattan. Can you tell my audience how to get this lovely product? Sure. Well, the website is miracles in Manhattan. Dot NYC. Dot NYC. Dot NYC.

Because if you go to the wrong miracles of Manhattan, it's like a new agey thing. Have you seen that? I have. Yeah, it's like a new age, you woo, woo, woo. And parentheses, new age equals demonic. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We're not judging. Hey, whatever.

But so if they want to find, like, God's miracles, it's miracles in Manhattan. nyc right okay so what is it yeah so we've compiled 50 incredible stories that of people that we know who claim that they have experienced a miracle and we know them well enough to know that they have they're credible these are CEOs and and and sports heroes and and great people working in public spaces in the united nations people in manhattan who all claimed that they were destitute they were broke they were broken they were broken and then God came through, broke through in their lives and did an absolute transformational miracle in

their lives. Okay. Now, why is it miracles in Manhattan? Because that's where we started. We started, I was, unlike you guys, I wasn't here on 9-11. On 9-13, though, I drove into the city with some other pastor friends. And when we were in the city, God put in our hearts that he wanted us to do more than pass out water and pray for the city. He actually wanted us to launch a church. And a theater opened up an off-Broadway theater in Manhattan in Times Square. And we launched there a month and a half after 9-11. We launched, and Eric, we had, to our great surprise, we had an influx of people from every walk of life began to come to us.

And we began to witness over this last 20 years, life after life being transformed by Jesus Christ, God's miraculous power, changing people, doing things that were shocking to us. And over the years, people would say, this should be in a book, this should be in a book, this should be in a book. So here we are 20 years later. We finally compiled, edited, wrote some of the stories, and we have a book. Miracles in Manhattan. Now, people need to understand, you know, I've been in Manhattan for quite

some time. And when miracles happen in Manhattan, that's the big miracle. Like Manhattan is famously secular or whatever, but you know, we all know that everybody's the same. People are hungry for God. So, and then even before we get into the book and all the stuff, and what's happening tomorrow on 9-11. Ron and Lynette, just tell my audience, if they don't, you know, aren't familiar with you. What is your ministry, Ron? What is your story? Lynette, what is you?

Because both of you are really active, but a lot of people listening to the program might not know you. Sure. Well, as you mentioned, Derek, we've been friends for a long time, and I had had it in my heart to move to New York City when I was getting into my late 30s. and so I got a transfer with my job, worked for Deloitte and Touche, big consulting accounting firm, found myself in New York City, only knew one person, and she happened to be a mutual friend of yours and mine, and over the course of the next couple years, made friends with you and others, and we were doing life together, and it then 9-11 happened.

I should have been in the middle of the whole thing that morning. I went to work in those buildings every morning. See, this is the stuff I forget. I literally forgot, this is a huge story, and I completely forgot, that you were supposed to be there that day. Yes, yes. And what's amazing to me is I woke up that morning with laryngitis, total laryngitis. I was leading a meeting. I was in marketing for the firm, meetings that I led for my total of eight years being with the firm.

And it's the only meeting in eight years, and I did these meetings all the time, that they didn't have space in the World Financial Center to have the meeting. I tried for months to schedule it. And finally, a month or two before, the partner I worked with said, let's just go to Hartford, Connecticut. We'll get an office up there. And it was strange to me why we couldn't do it where we always did it. But on the morning of 9-11, I woke up with total laryngitis. I'm leading the meeting, and I'm thinking maybe I just won't go.

But the car service came at 5.30, and I decided I'm going anyway. So I got in that car service, drove three hours in the car service up to Hartford, Connecticut, in the meeting, leading the meeting at 830 when the phones began to ring. at about 845. And like the rest of the world, we found out what was going on. And I still remember so clearly what it felt like, as we left the conference room and walked down to the other smaller room where there was a television, what it felt like to be in a room with people who had loved ones and family members in those towers and seeing

the one tower missing and then seeing both towers missing. And, you know, the whole world was in shock and I'm sitting there thinking by the grace in hand of God. I'm not there right now. And yeah, it was, it was just extraordinary. Now, you are a speaker. You're both in ministry together. You do a lot of speaking. If people want to find you, where do they go? Lynettelewis.com. Lynettelewis.com. There's so much to cover. Praise the Lord, we have time. Now, before we get into any other things, and I want to hear more about you, Ron, from my audience. But tomorrow, Saturday, what are you all doing? Yeah, that's a big day for us, Eric. We've been planning this for three years, and we're having

an event here in Manhattan on 14th Street, the Salvation Army Memorial Auditorium, and it's every registration ticket. The event is free, but everything is completely taken. Okay, so this is tomorrow in Manhattan, right here on this island. Tomorrow is 75. 20 years anniversary. Right. I will be in Washington, D.C. on the mall with Sean Foyt. to pray. It's not a rally. We're going to pray. We're going to seek God for this nation, which is kind of weird, isn't it? 20 years after, like you think, it's very similar in the sense that I can't think of a darker time. I have to go back to 9-11 to where you just feel like without the Lord, there's no hope. We have to turn to God. So tomorrow, can people watch us online?

Yeah, we'll be live streaming. And how do people find that? I wish I knew. All right, but the point is that if, if, but your ministry, what's the website for your ministry? Yeah, very good. Everynation, nyc.org. Every nation, nyc.org. Okay. So, Ron, tell us, you know, your story.

I mean, you've been a ministry for a long time. You've done a lot of amazing things. I'm in awe when we talk sometimes of how God has used you in China and other places. Yeah, so I grew up in a secular Jewish family. family, which meant that. What? Yeah, right. We ate a lot of pork chops. Basically, we, we, although I went to synagogue, did not know God, didn't know the Bible. My parents got divorced when I was about 11 or 12, and then fast forward to the, at the age of 15, my mother decided we're agnostic, we're not, we're not doing synagogue, we're not doing church, we're

not doing anything. So as a young kid, I didn't mind that at all. It's like, okay, great, I get to watch football, I get to do what I want to do on a Sunday. It's no big deal. deal. And the Baptist lady up the street had been praying for us secular Jews, and she had been interceding for us. And so she came, knocked on my door and brought me a Bible. I was 15 years old. My older brother, she didn't give him anything, my younger sister, nothing but me. She gave me a Bible. So what is a 15-year-old hedonistic kid having a good time? What does he do with the Bible? I shoved it in my closet. I didn't think about it for three years. I'm going off to college. when I was going off to college.

My mother said, hey, here's one last thing you left in your closet. You need to take this book with you. You might need it for a literature class. So I took that. For a literature class. Because, you know, the Bible, Shakespeare, kind of basic. All right, we're going to a break. This is in show business, what we call a cliffhanger.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be talking about 9-11. We're going to talk about a number of things. Miracles of Manhattan. Don't go away. Hey folks, I've got to tell you a secret about relief factor that the father, son, owners Pete and Seth Talbot, have never made a big deal about, but I think it is a big deal. I really do. They sell the three-week quick start pack for just 1995 to anyone struggling from pain like neck,

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order the three-week quick start for 1995. Let's see if we can get you out of pain too. Go to Relieffactor.com. Relieffactor.com or call 800,500,000,000, 800-800-384. Relieffactor.com. I use it. It works. Hey there, folks. I just happen to be sitting here with my friends, Ron and Lynette, Lewis. And I thought, why don't we let you in on the conversation?

Ron and Lynette, it's just great. This is actually, life gets so busy that in order to see your friends, you have to have them as guests on your program. That's really sick. But you guys, you're both in ministry. We're going to talk about 9-11 more and about the book Miracles in Manhattan. But let's finish the story so people understand who you are, Pastor Ron Lewis. I mean, you know, it says in my notes here that you co-founded Every Nation

NYC. Is that, that's meeting every Sunday? Every Sunday, Manhattan. We have sites, Brooklyn, Bronx, Hamptons, New Jersey. Hamptons. I forgot about that. Oh, my gosh. Yes. So people can find out more information on our website. Every Nation, NYC. Dot.org.com. Every Nation, NYC.com. Every Nation, So you've been in ministry all these years. You were just sharing about at 18. You go off to college. So pick it up. Right. So I checked into my dorm room. My roommate was delayed in being there and so I'm unloading my books. I find the Bible and I get curious for the first time of my life. I'm feeling a little lonely, feeling estranged, wondering who I am. Pick up the Bible, open it up, don't have a clue what's in there. A nice note falls out from this Baptist lady. up the street from three years before three years prior read the note and a five dollar bill falls out i start looking through the pages for a 20 a 50 but i was very grateful that this nice lady up the street

was so thoughtful and i didn't know where to begin where do you begin so you start with the table of contents and i'm looking at these books like the book of job the book of psalms i had no idea how to pronounce this really i was i was completely illiterate to the bible and but i saw my brother's name and it's Mark. So I thought, well, let me start here. About seven days later, as I'm reading every night, the gospel of Mark, it's like Jesus Christ walked into my dorm room and just busted right into my heart, changed my life. I met a Christian, only one Christian on the campus, met him, he disciples me, and then I was off and running. How nuts? Yeah. I mean, really? A story like that, you know, you think, I'm going to give a Bible to a 15-year-old, secular,

Jew. What are the odds? People kind of act like, ah, well, you pray, you do it unto the Lord. Three years later, I mean, look, a lot of people can get a Bible. They're not going to have an opportunity like you had. I mean, just a strange thing that you just find yourself reading it. You find yourself what it, and it changes your life.

That's just a, I think, just a message of hope for everybody listening. Like do those things, pray, do those things. You can't imagine what. God's going to do. You may never know. You may never hear. So this changes your life. So you get involved in the ministry. What happens? Sure. Well, God began to lead me as I was reading the Bible. He would speak to me through the Bible. And every time I would see these two words put together, preaching, or three words, preaching the gospel, every time I would see that, I began to get this sense. That's my calling. I need to share Jesus with other people. So as a university student,

University of North Carolina, I was back there in the Michael Jordan era, God would lead me to people. And so I started a Bible study. It grew and it outgrew the dorm. And we moved it. And then eventually it became a church. See, you act like this is normal. Doesn't he just, doesn't he Linette? He kind of back, man, man, man, right. Hey, that's crazy stuff. You're, you're telling me, you know, most people don't have that. It's an amazing gift, Ron, that you just do this. It grows. It grows. It grows. It becomes a church. I mean, So at what point do you go from leading a Bible study to heading up a church? How does that happen?

Right. So, well, for me, it was, I had an opportunity to be a pastor in a denominational church. And after a while, you begin to realize what Jesus meant when he said, I can't pour new wine into old wine skins or they'll burst. And I begin to realize that this system here is so structured, it's so structured, it's so, rigid it's they're they're telling me what seminary I have to go to there they're beginning to dictate how I need to think and at that point I knew I'm off of this bus God's not leading me in this direction so we I was encouraged we had a lot of friends a lot of influencers a lot of mentors a lot of people in my life

so this was my story is by no means an isolated story it's not my story it's it's how God began to move in my life and connect me with the right people we launched the church became a very successful church we we we we we we built a big building in North Carolina, a lot of acreage, and we've planted a lot of churches nationally. So when I got the 9-11, on 9-11, when my friend Rice Brooks called me, said, will you join me in Manhattan? I kind of had this sense, even though I was lamenting. I was laid out on my couch. I didn't even know how to get up. I was so devastated by what was happening. And literally in my life at that time, I was having my own ground zero. I was

having my own 9-11 where my wife of 18 years was abandoning me and I was in a dark moment in my life and here God is telling me to join Rice and our pastor friends in Times Square. And then he put in our hearts to start a church and I became the pastor of that church. It was a very clear call. I was looking for something else to do. I mean, I was doing my morning service on an airplane in the afternoon, then getting there at night. And so we did something creative, not creative, but we did something that we'd never done. And that is we put an ad out, a full-page ad in a national Christian magazine because we wanted to get the word out that we're here. I mean, what do you do when you start a church? You have no money, you have no resource,

no bank account, no team, no staff, no plan. And so we just put an ad in the magazine. And I was so disappointed. It was very expensive to have a full-page ad three months in a row. And only one person showed up. And I was just going through this devastating time and it's like is God here is he helping me whatever and that one person though happens to be the woman sitting right beside me she responded to the ad how come how come i have to have my friends on my own program to find out what i should have like or maybe you told me and i just like sometimes these things i can't even process it because it's so crazy yes you saw the ad so you remember Eric, when you and I met, and I was like, where's my husband? I mean, I love the Lord my whole life. I have a very

different story than Ron, holding out for God's best. And transferring to New York City, you know, I believe go live another dream when one dream's not happening in the kingdom business. So I'm in the secular world marketplace. Love that. It's been my calling my whole life. And end up in New York City. And then I'm home at Christmas. My mom's reading a magazine. And she's, She flips to this page. It's got this full page ad. It says, Miracle on 44th Street. Because they had opened in this theater on 44th.

And she said, you know, this church. And the kingdom of God wasn't that big back then. There were a few churches we knew about. Well, this is the funny thing is that in New York City, people don't believe me. There have been churches. I've just met a new friend who has been at a church in New York for 10 years. I've never heard of the church. It's a good church.

This guy's a solid believer. Like, we're at a point now. where there's churches, I haven't even heard of the church, and it's been here for 10 years. Back then, I practically knew every born-again believer in Manhattan. I'm not even kidding. I mean, it was like so, you know, there's Redeemer, there's Times Square Church. That's almost about it. Well, so here you are.

You moved to New York. Now you're home, and you see this magazine. My mom says, what do you think? I mean, do you know about this? I'm thinking, how can I not know about this? I'm going to check it out. So I go in the first Sunday in January as this little theater off time square. And what really touched me is there were people driving in from Washington, D.C.,

from Pennsylvania to be part of this church plant. And I heard this preaching. I think you were there the first one, right? And Rice and others. Isn't that funny? She forgot. Truly unforgettable. And I just thought this is the church for me.

I love this. And I dove in and I got involved as a single professional woman turned 40, not, you know, scouting the church for my husband. But the Lord said something really interesting to me over the years. And this is probably going to help a praying mom or somebody that's listening. The Lord said, if you will get to know your husband in your prayer closet, you'll know him when you meet him. Oh. And I wish I had done that.

Just kidding. So, but that's pretty cool. So one night after church, I'm chatting with Ron. And I just felt like the Lord said, I want you to be open to this. and I thought open to this. And over the course of the next couple of years, we became friends. And we got married. And I got married at 42 to the man of my dreams.

He gave me four teenage boys on our wedding day that are my sons, full-blown in every way. I love them with all my heart. And, of course, you know our story of adding twin girls seven and a half years ago. They love you. Yeah. Oh, you are there. They love your hair. They are so cute.

I could scream. They read your birth. So cute. Really? Yes. How come my family doesn't read me? No, so it's such a delight. Look, this is part of what's so beautiful is just to see God is real and he wants to work in our lives. And when you hear these stories, it's why I'm excited about the book Miracles in Manhattan.

People need to be encouraged by, they hear these stories and you think, this is real. This is not some crazy thing. This happens to people. They sound sane. They don't seem crazy. And it's true. And so we've all had miracles in our lives. We're going to go to another break.

I want to talk about 9-11. I know you guys are doing this thing tomorrow. I'm going to be in D.C. on the mall. It's going to be on Daystar TV, 6 p.m., this prayer thing on the mall with Sean Foyt and some special guests. But when we come back, we'll talk more about 9-11 and other stuff. The Tesla, with his most dangerous formulas, could fall into the hands of evolutionary elite scientists. His most amazing discoveries thought to be written in a lost journal.

The right hands could revolutionize the 21st century. They want to start a new world order where elites rule and everyday people are not created equal. Look out! Now the elites plan to set off an earthquake under L.A. to take out world leaders. There's an old brown battered notebook in my office at work. You have to find it, take it, and keep it hidden at all costs. Let's just say there are a lot of enemies of the state interested in his research. It's up to regular people to stop them.

A grad student, a campus cup, a deaf army vet, and a group of live action role players. A vertical quake this size could collapse half of dawn top. Catch Final Frequency. Playing exclusively on SalemNow.com or download the mobile app. For more information, visit Final Frequency Film.com. Get it, folks. I'm talking to my friends, Pastor Ron Lewis and Lynette Lewis. Okay, the book, it's like brand new Miracles in Manhattan.

You know, like, I'm thrilled at the title, Miracles in Manhattan. Not to be confused with this like New Age blog spot or whatever it is. This is like your thing. Miracles in Manhattan, stories, all kinds of stories. It's similar to what I did. I wrote a book called Miracles, and I said, I want to just tell the stories of people I know. So that it's not just like I hunted the world for miracles. This is just people I know, their stories with God.

that are real. And that's basically what you have done, except this is people through your church, whatever. So what kind of stories are in miracles in Manhattan? Oh, my goodness. They're so broad. And they represent people who had bizarre encounters with God. I'm thinking of a medical doctor right now. He and his wife are both medical doctors. And his wife got disgusted because her husband and had a second family going on. Is that wrong? I confess. I didn't know.

I got a family in the DR. Consuela, I love you. No, seriously, when you hear these stories, I always have to joke about the most serious things because your brain can't handle it. Yeah. A second family. Like, this is everybody's nightmare.

So she booted him out, and then about a week later, he woke up in the middle of the night because he felt like, this is a medical doctor, He felt like someone dropped a gallon of cold water right on his face. He sat up in the middle of the night and he heard God speak to him, go back home and get it right with your wife. And now today, these two medical doctors are some of the most incredible Christians I've ever known.

They're prospering like crazy. They have multiple businesses. Their home is always open to people. They're always giving. They're always serving. So no matter how bad things are. Because that sounds like the worst, like that's everybody's nightmares. something just unbelievable, God redeemed it.

God redeemed it. All of these stories have a component of redemption. And I think coming out of 9-11, I did a little research on how they took the steel and the metal and all the rubble away from, and they took it to New Jersey, recycled it. And I don't know if you know, but 24 tons ended up in a USS New York battleship that was being built. And I think it's a story of redemption that we're going to redeem the disaster. of what happened. And that's my story. I came to New York City with like one arm blown off. I was just hurting and in pain. And it didn't take long before I realized the people who I'm serving have more

pain than I have. And that just became a game changer for me. So we started going after the broken, after the, and they didn't look broken. So these were models and people in the acting community, New York City Ballet, Wall Street guys. We have two CEOs who are part of this, this story, major CEOs, NFL, and we're just watching. And we're still in the observation deck. We're looking from a box seat at watching what God's doing. God's not going to be outdone by 9-11. God's going to find a way. Now, your story is in here in the book. Lynette, your story is in. So we don't have to get every word in because we want people to read the book, Miracles in Manhattan. But practically my favorite scripture verses all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called

according to his purposes. Now, that's almost hard to believe all things work together for good. People need to understand that's the word of God. He means that, that no matter what you've been through, and we all have been through some tough stuff, you guys lost the sun. And I know that story. And people kind of think, oh, they look so, you know, everything's so great. There is incredible pain and loss. But the Lord promises. us that all things, even the worst thing you can think of that if you give it to me, I can turn it into something glorious. And people need to know that because there's people listening right now.

They're going through stuff. They can't imagine that it could be redeemed. So true. I think one of the common denominators we found over the last 20 years in working with so many people who need a miracle. And by the way, if you need one, God will find you. And he knows exactly how to get you the miracle you need. One of the common denominators is probably two things.

One is that it's a marathon, not a 5K. You stay in the race. You stay connected to people when we lost our son Jordan to cancer at 23. You want to go hide away and let the storm pass and never talk and never be around people. And yet it's the very thing you need the most. Is someone else's faith. When I couldn't pray my own prayers anymore, maybe my friend could pray my prayer for me. and I just feel like there are people out there post-pandemic going through so much,

but we're not meant to do life alone. And every miracle story in this book has someone who reached out, who didn't quit, who kept helping and extending an invitation or a prayer or whatever they did to help this person we're talking about get their miracle. Because we don't live in, and we don't live in isolation. We're meant to live with others. It's so true. It's kind of funny because just before we came in here, you know, I was giving you my Martin Luther book. And that's one of the things that really sticks out to me in his story, that when he was really broken, where he would get spiritual demonic attacks and deep depression, whatever, he would have other people pray for him and he understood that their faith was enough. Even if he didn't have the ability to have faith just to be lying there, their faith, was enough. And I don't want to go into that

theologically, but it's a powerful thing that we need the body. And people forget that sometimes. That somebody can pray for you and get, listen, Lazarus didn't have a lick of faith as he lay there rotting in the tomb. He didn't exercise Lazarus, you want to get healed, you need to exercise your faith.

He was not even able to get healed. He was not nothing. And that's basically what we have. And the Lord moves and everything changes. We're going to be right back to talking to my friends, Pastor Ron Lewis and Lynette Lewis. Hey there, folks.

I'm talking to my friends, Pastor Ron Lewis and Lynette Lewis. And gosh, we're talking about so many different things. The book is Miracles in Manhattan. I love that title. And it's got all these different stories. It has your stories in it. Do you talk about the loss of Jordan in the book? That's not in the book.

but you have set up Jordan Lewis Missions.org. Tell us about that so people can understand what that is. Sure. Well, this is a, we weren't looking for this. Matter of fact, my whole life, I was never looking for God until he found me. And that's the story of the Miracles of Manhattan book. People are shocked that God would show up for wretched sinners like us.

It's amazing. So with Jordan Lewis, we weren't looking for this, but it came to us that we need to be. to do something in his honor. He worked in Tanzania with the unengaged, unreached people groups, and that was his happiest moment other than being married and having a great job. He was a very, very happy young man because he served the Lord. And God blessed this kid. I mean, he was, of my four sons, he was always the one who would put his money in for a Coke, and he would get three or four would pour out. He just had this touch, a minus touch. He was investing. He was investing in

Microsoft when he was 15. I mean, he was a rich young ruler kind of kid who loved Jesus had God's hand all over his life. So we miss him. But this foundation has been unbelievably effective. It was a great surprise that we're now working in 40 unengaged, unreached people groups. It's a, we're connected with tremendous leaders in some of the most difficult places around the world. North Korea, Pakistan, China, India, many of the places that are in severe. persecution right now. And it's through a volunteer staff. It's just one of these things that came to us, and we've been shocked at thousands upon thousands of churches have been planted in tens of thousands, and maybe hundreds of thousands of souls have come to Christ, who

never had the opportunity to hear the gospel. And that's jordan-lewis missions.org. If people want to find out about that, obviously tomorrow's the 20th anniversary of 9-11, I still can't believe it. that summer before that was a magical summer. You were with us. We were in Amiganzet in a house. It was really glorious. And I remember going to the beach the last, like just before we had to kind of get in the car and pack up and leave. And my heart was broken because it was such a magical summer.

And then a few days later, the nightmare happened. I remember I was having breakfast with Emerson Eggery. rich. People know Emerson, pastor. He wrote this huge seller, Love and Respect, which is an amazing book about marriage. I recommend it to everybody. Love and Respect. But we were having breakfast. But I remember that summer, and this is so bizarre. We were all on the beach together. I don't know if you were there that day. It was a Saturday or Sunday. And we were on the beach. And I remember looking up on the Cratterdam-Amaganza Beach, looking up in the sky and seeing something I've never seen in my life, because I'm from this part of the world. And it was too, it was kind of like, I almost can't describe it. I remember looking up and thinking, what is that? What is that? And asking everybody, look, do you see this? Do you see this?

And it was two sort of circles in the sky. And it looked like, almost like a cloud cover, but in a perfect circle. Like, it sort of made no sense. And I kept saying to people, this is like the story of my life. I said, do you see that? People are like, you know, like, leave me alone. I'm like, no, no, no, look, look. I kept looking at it.

I think I took pictures. I said, what is that? It's like a sign from God or what? Or is it some meteorological phenomenon? What is it? And I could not figure it out. But there were two of them. And it just like baffled me so much.

I just thought, how is it that I've grown up in this part of the world? I look at the sky all the time. I've never seen anything like this. And I can't even now figure out what is it. Is it natural thing or super? What is this? And I remember walking back to the car by myself past all these people, reading their garbage magazines, people or whatever they're watching.

And I remember having this like moment where you think, am I going crazy? Is the world ending is God sending us a message? And no one cares. They're on the beach. Nobody cares. There it is above their heads. Nobody's even wondering, what is that?

What is that? And to this day, I don't know what it was. But I remember being so blown away and thinking, what are these two circles in the sky? Why are they there? How come I've never seen anything like it before? In 20 years, going to beaches, I look up, I've never seen anything even like it, and I still don't know what it was, and it could have been a natural thing.

But I remember thinking, like, is this how the world ends, that there's signs in the skies, and nobody even looks up to see what it is? So when 9-11 happened, obviously, there are two towers. I wondered, I can't say that it was something like that. But I had that feeling walking back to the car, like, is something about to happen and no one cares? It just, it happens. And I sometimes wonder if we are there now with where the country is. Are people paying attention?

Are people praying? Are people knowing that God has the next step? I mean, you're a pastor, Ron. What do you say to people who say the world's going crazy? Yeah. I say keep your eyes on Jesus because Jesus and God is on the throne. People are starving for hope. They're starving for faith.

They're starving for relief. A lot of people are looking for answers. You just wrote another great book on apologetics. It's a beautiful. Oh my gosh. It's coming out like in a month. It's called Is Atheism Dead? I'm very excited.

Thank you for reminding me. I forgot. I did. I'm excited to read that. And so many people are. having intellectual struggles, but even more so emotional and just despondency of their heart. So it's our job in life to show light in the darkness and to as we walk with God. Because like anyone, the minute that I lose focus, I'm discouraged. I'm depressed. I'm sinking.

But like Peter, who was drowning in the water, when he looked at Jesus, Jesus brought him up. And I think that's our hope. The Lord is our hope. And it's our job to inspire people to keep your eyes on Jesus. God's not finished with you yet. He's going to break through on your behalf. And as you said, all things are working together for good. Well, it's an amazing thing because we all know that when the Lord allows us to suffer, it's usually his mercy because it brings us to a place where we weren't when everything was fine. And I think to myself that what we're going through as a nation right now, it is, sometimes it takes this kind of nightmare, whether it's Afghanistan or any number of crazy things happening now. You know, people understand this, that sometimes it takes that for you to say, like, there's no hope apart from God. I need to turn to God. Now, I need, there's nothing else.

God. What does God say? We're going to go to a break, a final segment coming up. We'll be right back. The book is Miracles in Manhattan. What do you think of that? Ron and Lynette, the book is brand new Miracles in Manhattan. Lynette, you were just saying who you thought the book might appeal to.

I think everyone at some point in their life needs a miracle, or we certainly know someone else who does. And we wrote this book, we pulled these stories together in order to have a tool that if you're sitting in your neighborhood or in your kids' school or wherever you are and you think that person needs a miracle, they may not be ready for church yet. They'll be ready for this book because you cannot put this book down. Story after story, and we know these people, we've known these stories. We would read it.

We would finish putting it together and I would sit there in our living room, read it to Ron. We would stop in our tracks and all we could do is weep because it reminds you as, just like when you read the Word of God, God's into daily life, meeting people where they are. And so we want it to be a tool. We sent the first six stories to a publisher, secular publisher, and within 20 minutes he was on the phone saying,

I want to talk to Ron Lewis because I want to talk about this book. It's got that appeal, Eric, and that thrills us because God's going to use it to reach people who need a miracle. Well, look, this is part of the reason we're friends, is that this idea that somebody might not be ready for church. They're not ready for quote unquote Christianity. It comes with this baggage, whatever. But we all know Jesus died for them. They were made in his image. So he

wants to reach them. And so a book like Miracles in Manhattan, it's why I write half the books that I do. I mean, you want something that you can give to somebody who is not on the same page as you are to say like, you know what, maybe this, I think you'll like this here. And It starts something and it gets people thinking differently because obviously if you're watching the news or watching, I mean, we live in a world that is so secular. It's insane. They act like God doesn't exist. Prencise, that's not true. But we live in that world and so we need to kind of break through. How do we break through? So stories like this that are real, you know these people. I'm excited. Thanks for writing the book. It's been an honor. I mean, we were compiling. We were just interviewing. digging down deep with people. Oftentimes they would give us the outcome instead of like, what were you really going through? So we tried to make sure that people gave us the bad news before the good news. You can really appreciate the good news when you're living in bad news every

day of your life. And so we put no teaching, no preaching. It's just 50 great stories. Forward by Daryl Strawberry. What? What? Forward by the slugger Daryl Strawberry. I forgot about that. What a story he has. Right. He shares it. I mean. His story is in the book? He wrote the forward. Here's the line I love from Daryl Strawberry. I had everything and I had nothing.

And isn't that the world we live in? That's everybody's story. You can have everything and you have nothing. Daryl Strawberry is the real deal. I'm glad you mentioned that, that he wrote the forward to the book. I mean, if a superstar like Daryl Strawberry can admit he had nothing until he had Jesus, I mean, what a story he has. We're just about out of time.

Let's remind everybody. Actually, I've got to remind people one commercial, Neutrametics.com, like for two days left, 35% off. Use the code Eric, neutrametics.com. This goes away, like, in two days. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9-11. What I'll be doing will be televised on Daystar TV, 6 p.m.

You guys have this thing happening right here, Manhattan. I'm a little annoyed. I can't be there. But, you know what? We can't do everything. But it's just exciting to see how God has blessed your lives and used the most horrible things for good. It's amazing. It's amazing. The website for you and your church is every nation, nyc.org, and the book is Miracles in Manhattan.n.yc. Tomorrow night, our big moment will be, we have worship by Sinatch.

She is the dove of the year. She's the most sung song of the year. She wrote Waymaker. Oh, come on. We're going to end it right there. Thank you, my friends. God bless you.