a soldier in His army,
a bearer of His sword.
But I was born a piece of coal ‘fore Jesus came along,
not worth a lot and dirty too,
so many things were wrong.
Then trials and tribulation came that put me on my knees;
there seemed to be no end of pain
and I cried out, “Lord, please
Come heal my broken spirit, and make me what You will,
but do not let me suffer,
Lord, or make me climb that hill!”
But how the pressure grew and grew ‘till I was sure I’d break
into a lot of pieces and
worth nothing for His sake.
I near forgot the promise that out Lord would never leave,
and just as I was going to quit,
He sent faith to believe.
It took a while to see a little sparkle in that coal,
but soon the sparkle grew and grew
until He filled my soul.
And then by grace it came from coal, a diamond for the Lord,
a soldier in His army,
a bearer of His sword.
Ralph E. Johnson
March 10, 1994
March 10, 1994
New Wine Ministry
Welcome to the web site for New Wine Ministry, a ministry that began in l992 by Ralph E. Johnson to encourage believers in Jesus Christ to live by the “ministry of the Spirit” under the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:8) rather than striving by Old Covenant principles of the Law. Depending on human wisdom and strength rather than on God’s wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit is a plague in the present day church. Get off the treadmill of attempting to do what can only be done when the Spirit of Jesus works in and through one’s life (please see Ecclesiastes 3:14, Philippians 2:13). The treadmill is not going anywhere and there is also the risk of falling off (see 1 Corinthians 10:12).
The author of material in this web site was born in Chicago in l933 at the same hospital where he would live and work as a medical student at Northwestern University Medical school twenty-two years later. After graduation, a general internship was followed by a residency in radiation oncology. After completing two years of military service in the Public Health Service, Ralph remained at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland from 1964 to 1977. There he served as director of the laboratory and clinical program in radiation oncology and traveled internationally presenting results of research which developed new methods for the curative treatment of several malignant diseases.
Following brief tenure as a professor at the University of Florida Medical School in Gainesville, he moved to St. Petersburg in 1978 to serve as founding director of the first Cancer Center in Pinellas County located at the Bayfront Medical Center where he remained in private practice until 1997. It was then he was called by the Great Physician to leave his medical practice and serve as a volunteer chaplain in local correctional institutions. The autobiographical book, Hooked on Hope, describes a series of quite remarkable events which led him to retire rather abruptly from the practice of medicine to devote his full time to this new career.
The first edition of this book, printed in 1997, was the first of six books written primarily for inmates in local correctional institutions and for the discipleship of men participating in rehabilitation programs. Several of the books have additionally been used overseas in training programs for those entering the ministry. Thesefree Christian eBooks are now available for reading at no cost on this web site along with several Christian Poems written by Ralph during his personal times of trial and testing. Additional material available underChristian Lessons is related to the Person and work of the Holy Spirit including Baptism in the Holy Spirit, to Spiritual Warfare including deliverance from demonic influence, and finally to Divine Healing.
This ministry is based on unwavering belief that Jesus’ instructions to not only preach the gospel but heal the sick and set free those under demonic influence apply to today. As described in his books, the ministry has been followed by “signs and wonders” including raising of a dead man to life. A 7th book entitled BLACK & WHITE is nearing completion and should be available by early spring of 2012 in Christian bookstores. It examines the causes for absence of “manifestations of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:7-10) in many if not most of our churches and discusses the biblical remedy for restoring a Spirit-anointed ministry in the church as described throughout the entirely of the book of Acts.
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