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locked horns that first night. We were both<br />
determined to win.”<br />
Neill knew he was in a place of heavy<br />
discontent. “I came in unhappy, knowing<br />
I needed to change. But I went in with a<br />
combative attitude and Paul met me on that<br />
ground.<br />
“It was intense,” Neill grinned. “Everything<br />
he threw at me I had an argument for.”<br />
After an entire day of arguing, Randy<br />
Wilson, Harris’ pastor, stepped in and<br />
changed the game plan. “I hadn’t read all<br />
those books,” Wilson said. “Steven and Paul<br />
“...with him reading the<br />
Scripture for himself.<br />
At the end, it’s a simple<br />
question: according to<br />
what you’ve read, are<br />
you a sinner?”<br />
– Randy Wilson<br />
are both so intelligent. They sat there arguing<br />
and contradicting each other with humanistic<br />
philosophy. I told Paul it was time to present<br />
the Word.”<br />
Wilson is a longtime fan of Share Jesus<br />
Without Fear, a <strong>LifeWay</strong>-produced<br />
evangelism resource which offers three simple<br />
steps for sharing the Gospel: five questions<br />
to determine where God is working, seven<br />
verses to let the Bible speak for itself – which<br />
the unbeliever reads for himself – and five<br />
questions that lead to the point of discussion.<br />
“What’s so appealing is that it’s not about<br />
memorizing a thousand verses and quoting<br />
them all,” said Wilson, pastor of Carey<br />
Baptist Church, located outside Childress,<br />
Texas. “It’s easy. You ask five simple questions;<br />
the last is a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’<br />
“Steven Neill could argue all day against<br />
[the Bible], but he’d never read it,” Wilson<br />
said. “And so we walked him through this<br />
simple process – with him reading the<br />
Scripture for himself. At the end, it’s a simple<br />
question: according to what you’ve read, are<br />
you a sinner?”<br />
That night back in lockdown, Neill said<br />
his life came into view. “I saw my life as it<br />
really was. But I saw everything as God<br />
would see it. I saw that I had gloried<br />
in active rebellion against God.<br />
“There was no relief that night,”<br />
he said. “There was no hope. If I<br />
was prone to suicide, I would have<br />
done it that night.”<br />
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Neill said he walked back into the<br />
meeting the next morning a broken<br />
man. Harris and Wilson could only<br />
stare at his physical transformation.<br />
“The darkness was dropping from<br />
his face,” Wilson said.
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