Charles Colson Tells The Story Of Being On Th...

Charles Colson tells the story of being on the Bill Buckley television program, talking about criminal justice reform. A few days later he got a call from Jack Eckerd, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the second largest drug chain in America. He saw me on television and asked me to come to Florida to advocate for criminal justice reforms. He, the FL State Attorney General, the President of the Senate got on Jack Eckerd’s Lear jet and went around the State of Florida advocating for criminal justice reforms. Everywhere they would go Jack Eckerd would introduce him to the crowds and say, "This is Chuck Colson, my friend; I met him on Bill Buckley’s television program. He’s born again, I’m not. I wish I were." And then he’d sit down. We’d get on the airplane and Chuck Colson would tell him about Jesus. We’d get off at the next stop, he’d repeat it, we’d do the same thing again, and I’d talk to him about Jesus. When he left, Chuck gave him some of R. C. Sproul’s books and C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity.” He also sent his own books. Over the next year, he kept pestering Jack Eckerd. And eventually one day he read Charles Colson’s book, “Loving God”, and decided that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected from the dead. He called me up to tell me he believed. Charles Colson responded, "You’re born again!" He said, "No, I’m not, I haven’t felt anything." I said, "Yes, you are! Pray with me right now." After we prayed he said, "I am born again. Marvelous!" The first thing he did was to go into one of his drugstores and walk down through the book shelves where he saw Playboy and Penthouse. He’d seen it there many times before, but it never bothered him before. Now he saw them with new eyes. He’d become a Christian. He went back to his office and called in his president and said, "Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores.” The president said, "You can’t mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars a year on those books." He said, "Take ’em out of my stores." And in 1,700 stores across America, those magazines were removed from the shelves. Charles Colsen heard that and called to ask him, “Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?" Jack Eckerd said, "Why else would I give away three million dollars? The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook."