To you, it's just a Cracker Barrel parking lot. To me, it's where I gave my life to Jesus Christ.
I was 21 years old. I was working at the Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee after some of the worst years of my life. I'd made mistakes. Real ones.
I grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, raised by a mom who worked hard and didn't accept excuses. But I made decisions that should have ended my story before it ever really started. By the grace of God, they didn't. But every day, I was carrying them.
One afternoon, a church group came into the restaurant, just back from a revival. I served them their meals like I served any other table. But something happened while I was serving them. I can't fully explain it to you. The Lord spoke to me. He said, “Stop running from Me.”
It knocked me back.
I went to find the table, and they were all gone. I could see through their windows that they were getting on their bus, and I knew deep down that if I let them drive away, I was going to keep running. So I went outside. The last woman, just as she was stepping onto the bus, turned to me and asked, “Are you okay?”
I told her, “No ma’am, I’m not okay.” I told her the Lord was telling me to stop running.
That whole bus emptied out, stood with me in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee, Florida, and prayed over me right there.
I gave my life to Christ that day. Right there.
I still get emotional about it. Because I know what I was before that moment, and I know what He's done since. He gave me a wife who shares my faith. He gave me three sons. He gave me a career, a community, a calling I never would have dared to ask for. He took a kid from Crown Heights who’d run out of chances and gave him a life that doesn't make sense apart from grace.
People ask me sometimes why I talk about it. Why I bring up the parking lot. Why I don't just keep that part private and let folks see the polished version.
I'll tell you why.
Because there's a young man out there right now — maybe in Tallahassee, maybe in Tampa, maybe in Miami, maybe in a small town in the Panhandle — who thinks his story is already over. Who thinks the mistakes he's made disqualify him from the life he could have had. Who thinks God doesn't want anything to do with somebody like him.
I'm here to tell him: that's a lie.
In life, you're not who you are at the lowest point. You're who you choose to become after.
The Lord met me in a Cracker Barrel parking lot. He'll meet you wherever you are.
You just have to stop running.
The Pastor at the church I have worshipped the last 7 years was recently elected SBC President.
Willy Rice is a gospel preacher.
Listen to him preachers!!
FAITH IN ACTION: Southern Baptist Convention president fires back at calls for pastors to stay out of politics, urging Christian leaders to 'step up' ahead of midterm elections.
Willy Rice argues that abortion, marriage, gender identity and immigration are deeply theological issues that demand a pastoral voice in the public square.
Rice says the political and theological left never withdrew from politics — and that their silence created a vacuum conservative Christians are now paying for.
Full story here https://t.co/eS09g48SKv
Devastating news from Nigeria as more Christian pastors slaughtered by Muslim terrorists while the Church stays silent & the majority of Christians across the world do nothing.
Remember, all Muslim countries now were once Christian.
When Muslims invaded them, they killed the men, raped the women, and enslaved the children.
That’s how those countries became Islamic. And that is exactly what they’re trying to do in Europe and America now.
.@ElonMusk : “The amount of indoctrination happening in schools and universities is far beyond what parents realize. Kids today are having a completely different experience than we did.” God bless Elon for calling this out.
🚨 WIN: Florida is the 1st state banning welfare cash for luxury items under Gov. DeSantis! ☀️
EBT will NO LONGER pay for:
Theme parks 🎟️
Tattoos & spas 💇
Cigarettes & booze 🍺
Psychics 🔮
Welfare is for basics—NOT luxury! Florida leads AGAIN! 🇺🇸🔥
🚨 NOW: Girl Scouts is PANICKING after mass boycotts erupt over their distribution of Islamic items, supporting girls wearing HIJABS, and using MOSQUES
Why on EARTH would Girl Scouts support the Islamic oppression of women?
We are a Christian nation where people have basic human dignity!
This is GROTESQUE
This is a man that parades around with murderers and grabs coffees with terrorists. The scariest part is that he’s running the biggest city in the country.
@NYCMayor Mamdani needs to remember who he represents — New Yorkers, not these monsters.
Radical Islamist terrorists rape in the name of Allah.
They bomb innocent people in the name of Allah.
They torture, stab, and behead in the name of Allah.
Then the world is expected to tiptoe around the ideology driving the extremists because confronting it might offend somebody.
No.
America should never apologize for confronting terrorism, protecting our people, defending our freedoms, and calling evil exactly what it is.
Democrat Governors are a dangerous
disgrace to their constituents. They
should be held criminally liable for their
citizens who are harmed by illegal aliens.
What is a Color Revolution?
We have been experiencing one here in
the United States since Donald Trump became president in 2016.
Listen to @realdefender45 as she does a marvelous job of explaining.
You’ll want to hang on to this and
share it with someone you care about.