Rampart Publications came into existence for the sole purpose of facilitating the publication of Ronnie Collier Stevens’ biblical teaching.
After college, I worked in full-time Christian ministry, which took me to the mission field in Europe for nine years. It was during that time I had the privilege of sitting under Ronnie Stevens’ teaching. He was pastoring an English-speaking church in Munich, Germany where a number of my co-workers and friends attended. I lived and attended church in Salzburg, Austria.
When my English-speaking congregation found itself without a full-time minister, Ronnie was among those who filled our pulpit as guest speaker. He made a 2-hour train trip to Salzburg to preach for our morning service, and then traveled back to Munich to minister in his own church for its afternoon service. For an extended period of time he came to us two of the four Sundays in the month.
Our “empty pulpit” opened the door for our church to receive a depth of teaching and insight we had not known before. My own appetite for the truth and the depth of God’s Word had found a place to receive a hearty meal. I would have no interest in returning to a minimal sustenance diet.
Upon my return to the United States, I was determined to find a church where the teaching would nourish the soul as I had come to experience. To my surprise, this was not to be an easy task. Ronnie’s teaching had become the desired standard. It seemed to me that his commitment to being a student of the Word, his effort to be a good communicator of the Word along with a heart to reach the hearts of hearers should be “the norm” for any Bible-believing minister of the gospel. I discovered that it was instead uncommon.
I longed for others to know more about the banquet of soul-nourishing teaching that comes from rightly handling the Word of truth. I came to feel that the blessing of Ronnie’s offering should not be limited to the location of Ronnie’s service.
My belief that Ronnie’s teaching should be in writing, only grew with time. Eventually I wrote a letter with the intent of convincing him that such a venture should be pursued and that I was prepared to help facilitate it coming to fruition.
Rampart Publications was created and in December 2018 Ronnie’s first devotional “The Path to Discipleship” was published. In the first 24 hours of the book being available for sale, 123 orders were received. That month resulted in over 900 books sent to people in 26 US states and 5 other countries. Clearly, there were others who had experienced something similar to what I had experienced and were anxious to receive more of the soul nourishment that they had also once tasted under Ronnie’s teaching.
A rampart is part of a fortress which serves as a place of watchfulness and defense as well as a place of heralding important truth. It is my hope and belief that through Ronnie’s books others who have not heard him teach are now coming to know the richness of the teaching that the Lord supplies through him.
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Revelation 19:7-9
The bride of Christ is now in preparation for the marriage feast of the Lamb. For her to be ready to meet her Lord, she needs a Bible-rich diet. May we all endeavor to spread the nourishment available to us and find ourselves to be ready at His coming.
Cathy Bloxham
Rampart Publications