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Scripture passage changes life
By LINDA M. LINONIS
niles
James Ryle experienced an epiphany in prison after reading a passage of Scripture from a Bible that happened to be in his cell.
It was Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.”
Previously, the purpose of his own life was murky.
Ryle said when he was 6 years old, he and two older siblings were placed in an orphanage east of Dallas.
“My mother had five children by the time she was 28 years old. You do the math,” he said.
Her husband and Ryle’s father was in prison for armed robbery. His mother couldn’t care for the children.
“It was a Catch 22 situation. ... I wasn’t an orphan and wasn’t up for adoption,” he said, adding that the institutional facility had 1,200 children.
He left at 17, staying briefly with an older sister.
“I fell into trouble,” he said.
Ryle ended up with a two-year sentence for sale and possession of marijuana and spent a year and a half in Texas State Penitentiary.
Ironically, his father had helped build the prison.
Reading from the Bible was the turning point. “It changed my whole way of thinking,” he said of the passage from Romans. “It spoke to me.”
Ryle said he just knew that the passage “was true” and he believed his life “would work out.” He began sharing his testimony, and churches began seeking him out as a speaker. Ryle, of Franklin, Tenn., is the founder and president of TruthWorks, a teaching and resourcing ministry.
He will share his message Sunday at Pleasant Valley Church in Niles.
Ryle said the crux of the problem is that to much of what people believe is hearsay and just wrong information. “Beliefs dictate our behavior. So if I believe something that is incorrect, it has control of me,” he said.
Ryle alluded to the idea of how “it takes a village” to teach a correct belief system. “Now it seems that we are isolated from one another,” he said. “The fabric of society has been eroded.”
Since he will speak on Father’s Day, Ryle also has a message for absent fathers. “If you’ve abandoned your family, get with the program. Step up to the line,” he said. “Men have responsibilities. God will help you do the right thing.”
Ryle said a passage in the New Testament refers to the plunder of the palace and seizing its bounty. That, he said, is a metaphor for how a family is vulnerable when the strong presence of the father is missing. But the family still has God as their father in heaven.
Ryle said he is driven by his belief in Jesus Christ. He described himself as a Christian and follower of Jesus, but not tied to one denomination.
“The vast majority of men want to do the right thing,” Ryle said.
“There is a hunger in their hearts for what is right.” But, he said, many need someone to lead them.
Ryle said that society knows something is wrong, but for some reason the moral majority has been somewhat silenced.
“We hunger for a solution,” he said.
He said that “awakening” will come with an understanding of the promises in Scripture.