May 27, 2025 • 18 mins
In this episode, host Clint Armitage shines a spotlight on the lesser-known yet impactful figure of Hank Erwin, the chaplain who played a pivotal role in the revival at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham during the 1970s. Clint delves into Hank's inspiring journey and the significant changes he facilitated amidst the racial tensions of the time, illustrating how one man's faith can ignite a movement.
Listeners will discover the backstory behind the movie "Woodlawn," as Clint shares insights into Hank's life and the revival that transformed not only a football team but an entire community. Through heartfelt anecdotes and a powerful trailer from the film, Clint emphasizes the importance of love and unity in overcoming adversity, drawing parallels to the current revival movements happening across the nation.
As Hank Erwin led the Woodlawn football team to Christ, the episode highlights the miraculous changes that followed, culminating in a historic championship game that brought together thousands of fans. Clint reflects on the profound impact of God's love and how it can break down barriers, urging listeners to embrace their own calling and purpose in spreading love and joy.
This episode serves as a powerful reminder of the ripple effect that one person's faith can have on many, encouraging us all to listen to God's guidance and to act in love. Tune in to explore the incredible legacy of Hank Erwin and the enduring message of hope that continues to inspire generations.
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🗣️ Quotes from Clint Armitage
"There was one hope, one truth, one way to the spiritual healing that would have to take place in order to bring unity to the school and the football team."
"God's love overcame the hate that was going on in Birmingham at that time."
"What is God calling you to do? How is your calling connected to this huge global thing called love?"
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Clint Armitage (00:01):
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
What's up, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio Coffee House.
Thanks for coming back and thanks for listening in.
All right, so today's show is
(00:24):
gonna be about someone that
nobody really knows about, but then they do know about
him. What I mean by that? Well, there's a guy
by the name of Hank Irrwin who
most people know about. If I explain it to you,
you'll know exactly who I'm talking about. But
offhand, when I just say his name, you don't know what I'm
talking about and you don't know who I'm talking about. So let
(00:46):
me break it down. Hank Irwin was the
chaplain that was part of the
revival at Woodlawn High School in
Birmingham in 19. In the early
1970. 1974. And he was the one that
led the prayer to bring the whole football team m
to Christ. And that changed everything
when it came to the racial tensions that were going on in
(01:09):
Alabama at the time. Such a cool story,
but little unknown background of the story. So
I'm going toa go over that and we'renna listen to the trailer for the Woodlawn
movie because I just recently re watched it again. And then
I'm going to talk about Hank Ewin and kind of
how it all came about. Not only his story, but how the
Woodlawn movie came about. And there's a little twist in it here
(01:29):
that you'll find out in a minute. Let's get into it.
>> Speaker C (01:38):
Jesus says, uh, to love our
enemies, we have to love those
that oppose us. If
you only love those that love you
back, what
kind love is
that?
>> Clint Armitage (01:56):
There's something special about you.
>> Speaker D (01:58):
I can see it.
You have a gift. And you have to
decide what you want toa do with it.
>> Speaker E (02:07):
I can't. I mean, I play for a team that don't even
want me. Anybody like me.
>> Speaker D (02:12):
I'd like to have a meeting with a football team. I've seen
things all over the country.
>> Clint Armitage (02:18):
Well, you'and I gonna see that here you something
about this. It's not my fault.
>> Speaker C (02:22):
Owen trying to coach football.
>> Clint Armitage (02:24):
He's bigger than football.
>> Speaker D (02:26):
What would you say if I told you it doesn't have to be
this way? What would you be prepared to do?
I'm asking you right now to stand up,
um, and make a decision. To
change, to forgive,
to be forgiven. That's how much God
loves you.
>> Speaker C (02:46):
What just happened? Look at
me.
I'm proud of you. Win or
lose, you must. So
the good book says, without a vision, the
people perish. I say go
give it to. How many black
(03:08):
players you got? Not nearly enough.
>> Speaker E (03:12):
Why you see that changing?
>> Speaker C (03:14):
Because it's time
you There a difference between you and these people.
The cowards and you
hate.
>> Speaker D (03:31):
Nobody out there knows what's happened with this
team. But when you win on this
day, they will.
>> Speaker C (03:40):
They call him Touchdown Tony Nathan. He's home. Dr.
Right in Birmingham.
This is your moment.
>> Clint Armitage (03:47):
This is your time.
>> Speaker D (03:48):
So youn Anda take it.
>> Speaker C (03:50):
Youna take it.
>> Speaker D (03:55):
This is what happens when God shows
up.
>> Clint Armitage (04:01):
All right. That was a powerful trailer, wasn't
it? And if you haven't seen the movie, you got to go see it.
It's called Woodawn. Such an inspirational
story. And I actually didn't realize
there was a background story for
Erwin. The chaplain or the spiritual
leader, the inspirational leader. That came
(04:21):
at a time where Birmingham was having big problems
with racial tensions because they just had integrated
the school. Blacks and whites were actually being
integrated together, and there was obviously some tension at the
time. The information that I was researching, I found
out a few things. Most of the information I'm going to lay
out actually comes from the Troy
(04:41):
University newspaper. It's called the Troy
Messenger. I started doing some research to find out
a little bit more about Hank Irwin, because I was like, you know
what? Who is this guy? Like, you see him in the movie, and he's
a big part of the movie. He's a big part of what God
did in the movie and in real life. And then you don't
really know much about him. You don't know his background, his history.
(05:01):
He just shows up, and then the movie goes on, and you kind of
don't know what goes on with him or what happened with him or how
it all started with him. And so I was kind of curious. So I
just started looking it up, and I found some really cool
information. So, like I said, I'm going to get most of it from
the Troy newspaper, Troy University newspaper called the
Troy Messenger. So let's just start right here.
(05:22):
Hank Irwin, again, was the inspirational leader that
led all the Woodlawn players, the
football players, to Christ, which started
kind of a revival in the school and in. In the
city. And then it moved beyond that.
It was kind of part of the whole Jesus revolution that
happened during the 70s. Hanke Gerwin, who actually was
(05:42):
a central figure in the movie, he was also the central
figure in this whole revival that happened at the school. So while
he was attending Troy State University. He
was playing on the baseball team in around
1967. And he made a decision that
he was going to start playing for God's glory and not
his own glory. He made a decision to do that. And
(06:03):
then. So he was a member of the Wales
Gol Ministries in Birmingham in
1974. And at that time he was called
upon to speak to the Woodland High
School football team. You know, maybe it could ease some of
the racial tensions that were going on amongst
the athletes during that time when the school
(06:23):
was integrated or desegregated.
His wife Sheila said this, that the school was a
racial hotbed. She was actually an intern at the
school. She said the black students didn't want to be
there. They wanted to be at their own school where they could
be, you know, participate like class presidents
and be on the football team, be captains of the football team and all
that. But at Woodlawn, they weren't a part of anything
(06:45):
really, because they were just getting integrated, right?
And then the white students didn't want them there either.
And so nobody was happy is what Sheila Irwin said.
And obviously it went, you know, it went from verbal
exchanges, heated verbal exchanges, to
fighting, and then even knives were brought out. And,
you know, in Birmingham there was bombings and stuff going on at
the time too. It was a big deal. There was like a lot of
(07:08):
bombings going on during this time. And so Hank Aaron
was asked to speak to the athletes on the football team,
and that's what he did. So he spoke to the football
team and basically all the Woodland players
listened to his message, to his speech. And he said there
was one hope, one truth, one way to the spiritual
healing that would have to take place in
order to bring unity to the school
(07:31):
and unity to the football team. And through this, you
know, this way, which is Jesus, a
revival happened. And it led to, uh,
everybody's hearts being changed, not only on the team, but in
the school and beyond. They say that in the locker
room, the players came to Christ that day.
Most every one of them came to Christ. And then Irwin
says, Hankerwin says they knelt
(07:53):
together and got up loving each other,
quot unquote. And they came together and won a bunch of games.
And then there was a championship game, the high school
championship game. And it was the Woodlawn
Colonels against the Banks Jets. And
that was an, uh, undefeated high school football team as well, around
the way. And that game was so big, it brought so many
(08:13):
people together. There was over 42,000
fans that showed up at Legion Field In Birmingham.
And that was also said that 20,000 people were
turned away. So they potentially could have had 60,
over 60,000 people attending a high school football
game. Which in Alabama, you know, the 40,000 was actually
a record, a state record. That is still the record, but
(08:34):
they could have had 60,000. If the stadium could hold
that many, they had to turn away 20,000 of them. So, again,
it's the biggest high school football
game attendance in the history
of Alabama. So Irwin says there was,
in the big football game, there was Bible
verses that were, you know, written on
signs all over the stands. People were holding all these
(08:56):
signs with Bible verses on them. And then on the
field, you know, the banners that the teams bust through in
order to start the game, there was Bible verses there. And
they were basically saying one way, one truth, one life, you
know. And so both teams were affected by
this. And so they played together. They even had a
summer camp training together, and they even
(09:17):
gave glory to God together. But what
was amazing to me was that
God used one guy to
come in, talk to a football team. They gave
their hearts to Christ. So they started
changing within the team, and then it went
outside of the team. It went to the school, and
(09:37):
then it went to the city, and then it went
beyond. And, um, I'm thinking of,
like, how God does these
amazing things where he changed people's
hearts. He literally can change people's
hearts, and then huge miracles happen.
That's amazing to me. You know, when I think about it, you
think about the miracle that happened and then the miracle that happened
(09:59):
throughout the Jesus revolution during the 70s and
now. I'm kind of equating it to what
we're seeing today. We're seeing this type
of revival in colleges
today. Colleges and universities across the
country. Young people are coming to Christ. They're getting
baptized. They're doing these revivals for
multiple, multiple days.
(10:21):
It blows me away how the Lord will
come down me with his people
and do incredible things
during times that are so
difficult, so rough, so
unloving, so dangerous, so violent.
It kind of reminds me of what's going on today.
(10:41):
I think we need to start understanding what
true love is.
I think if we stepped away
from our pride and our ego and
our uncomfortableness and our embarrassment
and everything that
we feel, if we step away from our
feelings and actually just listen
(11:04):
to what God is telling us to do,
and he's also showed us what to do,
and then when he actually speaks that
we just follow through, we just do it,
and we don't let our feelings get in the
way't. We don't let
our logic get in the way, and
(11:24):
we just do what he's asking us to do.
I think if we can love people like
he does, then it wouldn't
matter, and we wouldn't let pride get in the way or ego get in
the way. We'd be able to get past that
because love overcomes all.
Love casts out fear.
(11:47):
So I want to read something from the book of
John about love. John,
chapter 15, starting at verse
nine. Here goes.
As, uh, the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you. Now remain in my
love. If you keep My
commandments, you will remain in my
(12:09):
love, just as I have kept my
Father's commands and remain in his
love. I have told you this so that
my joy may be in you and
that your joy may be complete. My command
is, love each other
as I have loved you. Greater
(12:29):
love has no one than this.
To lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants because a
servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends.
For everything that I learned from my Father, I have made
(12:51):
known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose
you and appointed you that
you might go and bear fruit, fruit that
will last. And so that whatever you ask in
My name, the Father will give you. This is
my command. Love each other. I mean, Jesus
says it. He says that he remains in His
Father's love, and then we can remain in his love. And then
(13:14):
if we keep his commands, will remain in
his love. When he gives you direction,
when he gives you instructions,
those instructions aren toa include loving.
And it's going to be loving somebody. The only thing that
holds us back from the joy that he says that we'll
have is by us not following through to his commands
(13:34):
to love love one another. I can tell you this is one of the
things that. That is difficult for me, that I've been trying
to work on for years, because not only the
job, but just my hardened heart
made it difficult for me to love people. It was hard
for me to love people, hard for me to have compassion on
people. And I had to pray to the Lord to change
(13:55):
my heart from stone to flesh.
And it's not all the way there yet, but I'm
starting to understand God's love.
Not m only for me. Because that's one thing that
was one barrier that I had to get through was understanding
that God loves me that much. And if He
Loves me that much. He loves everyone else
(14:15):
that much. He loves you that much. And
that love is what's going toa bring us joy.
It's also going to be the light that breaks the
darkness. His love conquers
hate. So just like in the movie and in real life,
because it was based on a true story, God's love
overcame the hate that was going on in
Birmingham at that time. And though it chronicles the
(14:38):
football player, Tony Nathan, who ends up being famous as a
NFL football player for the Miami Dolphins, you know, went
to two Super Bowls. But. So I wanted to kind of
see what it was all about and where it started from.
And it started from a guy by the name of Hank
Erwin. But the little twist here that I actually
found out, uh, while I was continuing to research about this
(14:59):
guy was he would tell his two sons,
John and Andy, the story of
Woodlawn. So the bedtime stories, he says,
wasn't about, you know, King Arthur or anything like that.
He says he would always tell them Woodlawn
bedtime stories and how God showed up.
And then you find out a little bit later on as
(15:19):
you do a little bit more research, who John and Andy
are. Well, they are John
and Andy Irwin, the
filmmakers. And you guessed it, they're the ones
that made Woodlawn. So the guy in the film,
Hanker, when, has two sons, tells them
bedtime stories, and then they end up
doing a film about Woodlawn and
(15:42):
about Hank Erwin and this revival and how
God touched the city with his love to
change the racial climate and
landscape. These are the same
filmmakers, John and Andy Irwin, that are making,
that are currently making the House of David series on
Amazon Prime. They are wonderful filmmakers.
But you can see how God does these amazing things.
(16:04):
Not only does he set off this whole revival in this
high school, and then it goes to the city, and then it's
part of this whole Jesus revolution that was going on in the
70s, all about Jesus, and he's the way, the truth and
the life and passing on Jesus love to
everybody. And then he brings up two
boys of the guy who started the
(16:24):
prayer in this high school, and then they
do the movie, and then they're doing all these
awesome Christian movies and TV
shows, and they're doing it well. God
is amazing. He touches things, and
he touches people to do amazing things.
And his love is obvious.
His fingerprint on everything
(16:46):
is obvious. Don't you want to be a part of
that? Like, what is God calling you to do? How
is your calling and your
purpose connected to this
huge global thing called
love, the love of God. He's going toa do
something through you. But we have to listen to him.
We have to follow through with what he's asking us to
(17:08):
do. We may not know now what it is. We may not
even understand any connection at all until later
on. Maybe generations, maybe we won't even know in this
lifetime. But it will happen. Because God is true,
guaranteed. God's going to do something huge with your
life. If you follow your calling, if you do
the things that he's asking you to do, you're gonna see the
(17:29):
fruit. And having that joy and understanding
God's love is God calling you to do
something big. It starts off small and it's gonna
grow just like the five loaves and two fish
feeding thousands of people. And we're going to see some amazing
things. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed that
story. And if you haven't seen Woodlawn the
movie, go check it out. It's so inspirational.
(17:51):
And that was a cool twist that the two boys that
heard all these stories when they were little are, ah, now the
filmmakers that made it a reality. That
is awesome. Only God would do something like that. So
cool. Algh thanks for listening. My name is Clint Armitage,
this is the Radio Coffee House. And until next time,
stay safe and God bless.
(18:19):
Thanks for joining uh us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
House show where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
What's up, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio Coffee House.
Thanks for coming back and thanks for listening in.
All right, so today's show is
(00:24):
gonna be about someone that
nobody really knows about, but then they do know about
him. What I mean by that? Well, there's a guy
by the name of Hank Irrwin who
most people know about. If I explain it to you,
you'll know exactly who I'm talking about. But
offhand, when I just say his name, you don't know what I'm
talking about and you don't know who I'm talking about. So let
(00:46):
me break it down. Hank Irwin was the
chaplain that was part of the
revival at Woodlawn High School in
Birmingham in 19. In the early
1970. 1974. And he was the one that
led the prayer to bring the whole football team m
to Christ. And that changed everything
when it came to the racial tensions that were going on in
(01:09):
Alabama at the time. Such a cool story,
but little unknown background of the story. So
I'm going toa go over that and we'renna listen to the trailer for the Woodlawn
movie because I just recently re watched it again. And then
I'm going to talk about Hank Ewin and kind of
how it all came about. Not only his story, but how the
Woodlawn movie came about. And there's a little twist in it here
(01:29):
that you'll find out in a minute. Let's get into it.
>> Speaker C (01:38):
Jesus says, uh, to love our
enemies, we have to love those
that oppose us. If
you only love those that love you
back, what
kind love is
that?
>> Clint Armitage (01:56):
There's something special about you.
>> Speaker D (01:58):
I can see it.
You have a gift. And you have to
decide what you want toa do with it.
>> Speaker E (02:07):
I can't. I mean, I play for a team that don't even
want me. Anybody like me.
>> Speaker D (02:12):
I'd like to have a meeting with a football team. I've seen
things all over the country.
>> Clint Armitage (02:18):
Well, you'and I gonna see that here you something
about this. It's not my fault.
>> Speaker C (02:22):
Owen trying to coach football.
>> Clint Armitage (02:24):
He's bigger than football.
>> Speaker D (02:26):
What would you say if I told you it doesn't have to be
this way? What would you be prepared to do?
I'm asking you right now to stand up,
um, and make a decision. To
change, to forgive,
to be forgiven. That's how much God
loves you.
>> Speaker C (02:46):
What just happened? Look at
me.
I'm proud of you. Win or
lose, you must. So
the good book says, without a vision, the
people perish. I say go
give it to. How many black
(03:08):
players you got? Not nearly enough.
>> Speaker E (03:12):
Why you see that changing?
>> Speaker C (03:14):
Because it's time
you There a difference between you and these people.
The cowards and you
hate.
>> Speaker D (03:31):
Nobody out there knows what's happened with this
team. But when you win on this
day, they will.
>> Speaker C (03:40):
They call him Touchdown Tony Nathan. He's home. Dr.
Right in Birmingham.
This is your moment.
>> Clint Armitage (03:47):
This is your time.
>> Speaker D (03:48):
So youn Anda take it.
>> Speaker C (03:50):
Youna take it.
>> Speaker D (03:55):
This is what happens when God shows
up.
>> Clint Armitage (04:01):
All right. That was a powerful trailer, wasn't
it? And if you haven't seen the movie, you got to go see it.
It's called Woodawn. Such an inspirational
story. And I actually didn't realize
there was a background story for
Erwin. The chaplain or the spiritual
leader, the inspirational leader. That came
(04:21):
at a time where Birmingham was having big problems
with racial tensions because they just had integrated
the school. Blacks and whites were actually being
integrated together, and there was obviously some tension at the
time. The information that I was researching, I found
out a few things. Most of the information I'm going to lay
out actually comes from the Troy
(04:41):
University newspaper. It's called the Troy
Messenger. I started doing some research to find out
a little bit more about Hank Irwin, because I was like, you know
what? Who is this guy? Like, you see him in the movie, and he's
a big part of the movie. He's a big part of what God
did in the movie and in real life. And then you don't
really know much about him. You don't know his background, his history.
(05:01):
He just shows up, and then the movie goes on, and you kind of
don't know what goes on with him or what happened with him or how
it all started with him. And so I was kind of curious. So I
just started looking it up, and I found some really cool
information. So, like I said, I'm going to get most of it from
the Troy newspaper, Troy University newspaper called the
Troy Messenger. So let's just start right here.
(05:22):
Hank Irwin, again, was the inspirational leader that
led all the Woodlawn players, the
football players, to Christ, which started
kind of a revival in the school and in. In the
city. And then it moved beyond that.
It was kind of part of the whole Jesus revolution that
happened during the 70s. Hanke Gerwin, who actually was
(05:42):
a central figure in the movie, he was also the central
figure in this whole revival that happened at the school. So while
he was attending Troy State University. He
was playing on the baseball team in around
1967. And he made a decision that
he was going to start playing for God's glory and not
his own glory. He made a decision to do that. And
(06:03):
then. So he was a member of the Wales
Gol Ministries in Birmingham in
1974. And at that time he was called
upon to speak to the Woodland High
School football team. You know, maybe it could ease some of
the racial tensions that were going on amongst
the athletes during that time when the school
(06:23):
was integrated or desegregated.
His wife Sheila said this, that the school was a
racial hotbed. She was actually an intern at the
school. She said the black students didn't want to be
there. They wanted to be at their own school where they could
be, you know, participate like class presidents
and be on the football team, be captains of the football team and all
that. But at Woodlawn, they weren't a part of anything
(06:45):
really, because they were just getting integrated, right?
And then the white students didn't want them there either.
And so nobody was happy is what Sheila Irwin said.
And obviously it went, you know, it went from verbal
exchanges, heated verbal exchanges, to
fighting, and then even knives were brought out. And,
you know, in Birmingham there was bombings and stuff going on at
the time too. It was a big deal. There was like a lot of
(07:08):
bombings going on during this time. And so Hank Aaron
was asked to speak to the athletes on the football team,
and that's what he did. So he spoke to the football
team and basically all the Woodland players
listened to his message, to his speech. And he said there
was one hope, one truth, one way to the spiritual
healing that would have to take place in
order to bring unity to the school
(07:31):
and unity to the football team. And through this, you
know, this way, which is Jesus, a
revival happened. And it led to, uh,
everybody's hearts being changed, not only on the team, but in
the school and beyond. They say that in the locker
room, the players came to Christ that day.
Most every one of them came to Christ. And then Irwin
says, Hankerwin says they knelt
(07:53):
together and got up loving each other,
quot unquote. And they came together and won a bunch of games.
And then there was a championship game, the high school
championship game. And it was the Woodlawn
Colonels against the Banks Jets. And
that was an, uh, undefeated high school football team as well, around
the way. And that game was so big, it brought so many
(08:13):
people together. There was over 42,000
fans that showed up at Legion Field In Birmingham.
And that was also said that 20,000 people were
turned away. So they potentially could have had 60,
over 60,000 people attending a high school football
game. Which in Alabama, you know, the 40,000 was actually
a record, a state record. That is still the record, but
(08:34):
they could have had 60,000. If the stadium could hold
that many, they had to turn away 20,000 of them. So, again,
it's the biggest high school football
game attendance in the history
of Alabama. So Irwin says there was,
in the big football game, there was Bible
verses that were, you know, written on
signs all over the stands. People were holding all these
(08:56):
signs with Bible verses on them. And then on the
field, you know, the banners that the teams bust through in
order to start the game, there was Bible verses there. And
they were basically saying one way, one truth, one life, you
know. And so both teams were affected by
this. And so they played together. They even had a
summer camp training together, and they even
(09:17):
gave glory to God together. But what
was amazing to me was that
God used one guy to
come in, talk to a football team. They gave
their hearts to Christ. So they started
changing within the team, and then it went
outside of the team. It went to the school, and
(09:37):
then it went to the city, and then it went
beyond. And, um, I'm thinking of,
like, how God does these
amazing things where he changed people's
hearts. He literally can change people's
hearts, and then huge miracles happen.
That's amazing to me. You know, when I think about it, you
think about the miracle that happened and then the miracle that happened
(09:59):
throughout the Jesus revolution during the 70s and
now. I'm kind of equating it to what
we're seeing today. We're seeing this type
of revival in colleges
today. Colleges and universities across the
country. Young people are coming to Christ. They're getting
baptized. They're doing these revivals for
multiple, multiple days.
(10:21):
It blows me away how the Lord will
come down me with his people
and do incredible things
during times that are so
difficult, so rough, so
unloving, so dangerous, so violent.
It kind of reminds me of what's going on today.
(10:41):
I think we need to start understanding what
true love is.
I think if we stepped away
from our pride and our ego and
our uncomfortableness and our embarrassment
and everything that
we feel, if we step away from our
feelings and actually just listen
(11:04):
to what God is telling us to do,
and he's also showed us what to do,
and then when he actually speaks that
we just follow through, we just do it,
and we don't let our feelings get in the
way't. We don't let
our logic get in the way, and
(11:24):
we just do what he's asking us to do.
I think if we can love people like
he does, then it wouldn't
matter, and we wouldn't let pride get in the way or ego get in
the way. We'd be able to get past that
because love overcomes all.
Love casts out fear.
(11:47):
So I want to read something from the book of
John about love. John,
chapter 15, starting at verse
nine. Here goes.
As, uh, the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you. Now remain in my
love. If you keep My
commandments, you will remain in my
(12:09):
love, just as I have kept my
Father's commands and remain in his
love. I have told you this so that
my joy may be in you and
that your joy may be complete. My command
is, love each other
as I have loved you. Greater
(12:29):
love has no one than this.
To lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants because a
servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends.
For everything that I learned from my Father, I have made
(12:51):
known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose
you and appointed you that
you might go and bear fruit, fruit that
will last. And so that whatever you ask in
My name, the Father will give you. This is
my command. Love each other. I mean, Jesus
says it. He says that he remains in His
Father's love, and then we can remain in his love. And then
(13:14):
if we keep his commands, will remain in
his love. When he gives you direction,
when he gives you instructions,
those instructions aren toa include loving.
And it's going to be loving somebody. The only thing that
holds us back from the joy that he says that we'll
have is by us not following through to his commands
(13:34):
to love love one another. I can tell you this is one of the
things that. That is difficult for me, that I've been trying
to work on for years, because not only the
job, but just my hardened heart
made it difficult for me to love people. It was hard
for me to love people, hard for me to have compassion on
people. And I had to pray to the Lord to change
(13:55):
my heart from stone to flesh.
And it's not all the way there yet, but I'm
starting to understand God's love.
Not m only for me. Because that's one thing that
was one barrier that I had to get through was understanding
that God loves me that much. And if He
Loves me that much. He loves everyone else
(14:15):
that much. He loves you that much. And
that love is what's going toa bring us joy.
It's also going to be the light that breaks the
darkness. His love conquers
hate. So just like in the movie and in real life,
because it was based on a true story, God's love
overcame the hate that was going on in
Birmingham at that time. And though it chronicles the
(14:38):
football player, Tony Nathan, who ends up being famous as a
NFL football player for the Miami Dolphins, you know, went
to two Super Bowls. But. So I wanted to kind of
see what it was all about and where it started from.
And it started from a guy by the name of Hank
Erwin. But the little twist here that I actually
found out, uh, while I was continuing to research about this
(14:59):
guy was he would tell his two sons,
John and Andy, the story of
Woodlawn. So the bedtime stories, he says,
wasn't about, you know, King Arthur or anything like that.
He says he would always tell them Woodlawn
bedtime stories and how God showed up.
And then you find out a little bit later on as
(15:19):
you do a little bit more research, who John and Andy
are. Well, they are John
and Andy Irwin, the
filmmakers. And you guessed it, they're the ones
that made Woodlawn. So the guy in the film,
Hanker, when, has two sons, tells them
bedtime stories, and then they end up
doing a film about Woodlawn and
(15:42):
about Hank Erwin and this revival and how
God touched the city with his love to
change the racial climate and
landscape. These are the same
filmmakers, John and Andy Irwin, that are making,
that are currently making the House of David series on
Amazon Prime. They are wonderful filmmakers.
But you can see how God does these amazing things.
(16:04):
Not only does he set off this whole revival in this
high school, and then it goes to the city, and then it's
part of this whole Jesus revolution that was going on in the
70s, all about Jesus, and he's the way, the truth and
the life and passing on Jesus love to
everybody. And then he brings up two
boys of the guy who started the
(16:24):
prayer in this high school, and then they
do the movie, and then they're doing all these
awesome Christian movies and TV
shows, and they're doing it well. God
is amazing. He touches things, and
he touches people to do amazing things.
And his love is obvious.
His fingerprint on everything
(16:46):
is obvious. Don't you want to be a part of
that? Like, what is God calling you to do? How
is your calling and your
purpose connected to this
huge global thing called
love, the love of God. He's going toa do
something through you. But we have to listen to him.
We have to follow through with what he's asking us to
(17:08):
do. We may not know now what it is. We may not
even understand any connection at all until later
on. Maybe generations, maybe we won't even know in this
lifetime. But it will happen. Because God is true,
guaranteed. God's going to do something huge with your
life. If you follow your calling, if you do
the things that he's asking you to do, you're gonna see the
(17:29):
fruit. And having that joy and understanding
God's love is God calling you to do
something big. It starts off small and it's gonna
grow just like the five loaves and two fish
feeding thousands of people. And we're going to see some amazing
things. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed that
story. And if you haven't seen Woodlawn the
movie, go check it out. It's so inspirational.
(17:51):
And that was a cool twist that the two boys that
heard all these stories when they were little are, ah, now the
filmmakers that made it a reality. That
is awesome. Only God would do something like that. So
cool. Algh thanks for listening. My name is Clint Armitage,
this is the Radio Coffee House. And until next time,
stay safe and God bless.
(18:19):
Thanks for joining uh us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
House show where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
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