Participants: Aaron Chancy (Host), Michael Shepperd
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000048
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:05 may be too candid for younger children. 00:08 Today we'll meet a young man who beat the odds of the street 00:11 and now he is serving Jesus Christ. 00:14 Be sure to tune into today's New Journey. 00:47 Thank you for tuning back into today's New Journey. 00:50 For today we have an exciting program 00:52 with a young man by the name of Michael Shepperd. 00:54 Michael, we like to thank you for being on the program. 00:57 I'm greatly privileged. Thank you. 00:59 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 01:00 For general information 01:02 how old are you and where are you from? 01:03 I'm 32 years old. I'm from Wilmington, Delaware. 01:05 Okay. 01:07 What's it like growing up as a young African-American 01:09 in Wilmington, Delaware? 01:11 Well, Wilmington, Delaware is a little whole in the world. 01:15 It's small, our claim to fame is no taxes. 01:18 Okay. 01:20 It's really a melting pot of all the surrounding states, 01:23 Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York. 01:26 It's a melting pot and also surrounding big states 01:28 and a lot of people come to Delaware 01:29 to get away from the kind of hustle and bustle 01:31 of the big states and come to Delaware. 01:34 It's more lay back and low key. 01:35 Okay. Okay. 01:37 Give us a little information about your family background, 01:39 your mother, father, siblings? 01:41 Give us some details on that? 01:42 I grew up in a single family home. 01:44 Okay. 01:46 My father was around but he wasn't around. 01:48 If I needed to get in contact with him, I could. 01:50 Okay. 01:51 And he, you know, he is a street hustler, 01:53 he ran the streets, 01:54 and I can remember vividly visiting him in jail. 01:57 I thought it was his home. 01:59 I was little, very little at the time. 02:00 I thought it was his home for vacations 02:02 but I didn't really know what it was, 02:03 I didn't think about. 02:04 I was too young to really understand the whole jail 02:06 and being locked up, that whole understanding. 02:09 So he was locked up 02:11 and then we would go visit him, me and my little brother. 02:13 I have six siblings all together. 02:15 One older brother that I grew with him in a same home, 02:17 we had the same mother and father. 02:19 And I have a three half-sisters and I have one half-brother. 02:23 Okay. 02:25 So I would, I grew up with the one brother 02:27 we would go visit my father 02:29 and we will visit him periodically in jail. 02:32 As I got older, I realised we were going to jail. 02:33 Okay. Okay. 02:35 That it wasn't actually the home on a vacation. 02:36 Right. Right. I realised he was locked up. 02:38 He after a while, 02:40 he would tell me his stories and everything in, you know, 02:44 of course I understood clearly that he was locked up, 02:46 you know, as I got older. 02:47 And he would share with me stories 02:52 about his experience in the street, 02:54 which kind of kept me at bay. 02:55 You know, from going too far out there. 02:57 Get too far or caught up in the whole street life 03:00 from his experiences. 03:02 And so that, yeah, that really helped me going forward to get, 03:04 you know, to get kind of my bearing in order to wear, 03:07 you know, I didn't go too far out there. 03:09 You know, his experiences kind of help me. 03:11 So what the devil had for bad for my dad, 03:12 really the Lord had for good for me. 03:14 Yeah. Okay. 03:16 I could have really going out there 03:17 and really not even been able to be pulled out. 03:19 You know, so far really deep in the streets that. 03:22 You know, I could end up, yes, I mean, left out there, 03:25 you know, and just with no direction. 03:27 But my dad gave me direction and I appreciate it all the, 03:30 even to this day. 03:32 The point he has given me and being a man, 03:34 even though he wasn't always around there 03:36 to give me pointers and teach me how to be a man. 03:38 Okay. 03:39 And so I'm greatly, and my mom's worked two jobs, 03:41 to care of me and my brother. 03:42 Okay. And I'm just. 03:44 I'm thankful for her. 03:45 I mean a real strong black woman. 03:47 You know, did all what she could do 03:48 to take care of me and my brother, 03:49 make sure we had all we needed 03:51 and some also our wants as well. 03:52 A lot of time make sure our wants were taken care of, 03:54 or more so our needs. 03:56 And I'm so... 03:57 I can't complain and say, 03:58 "I didn't have a father in my life." 04:00 He was in my life and a strong black mother... 04:02 Okay. That was there to support me. 04:04 They even to this day support me 04:05 as I could tell you in my journey now spiritually. 04:08 Okay. 04:09 So what eventually lead you to gravitate towards drugs 04:12 even though on a few drugs that you're on, 04:15 even though you had a father who had been incarcerated, 04:18 who used drugs and kind of share with you 04:21 the negative aspects of the street life? 04:24 Number one, what drugs did you get involved with? 04:26 And number two, why did you kind of gravitate that way? 04:30 I got involved with marijuana and then alcohol. 04:34 Okay. I began to... 04:35 by the time I was 16, I was a full blown alcoholic 04:41 and I was because I was a weed head, you know, 04:44 I was hooked on weed and alcohol. 04:46 And I was 15, when I started smoking weed. 04:50 And then eventually transitioned 04:52 and I've taken alcohol as well 04:54 and it really was peer pressure and it really was two things 04:58 really that kind of led me into that direction. 05:00 Peer pressure and also the rap music. 05:04 Okay. 05:06 And we'll talk a little bit more later on 05:07 about the influence of rap music. 05:09 Because it was very strong in my life as well. 05:11 Right. Right. 05:12 So we'll get to that. 05:15 What prevented you though? 05:16 What do you think prevented you 05:18 from using some of the harder drugs 05:19 like cocaine, ecstasy various things like that? 05:23 Well, I had seen people 05:26 who were strung out on "Harder drugs." 05:28 You know, so I figured that marijuana was a softer drug. 05:31 And alcohol, you know, it wasn't, 05:34 it didn't seem as extreme. 05:35 You know because I would see somebody high on weed 05:38 and seems like they were more laid back and at ease. 05:41 But when I would see... 05:43 I've been around various individuals 05:44 who were strung out on the hard drugs. 05:46 Okay. 05:47 And they looked totally just disordered. 05:50 Yeah. They had no appeal to you. 05:51 Yeah. No, appeal to me at all. Okay. 05:53 Heroin or the cocaine, look I said, 05:54 "I won't go that far." 05:56 So I basically had this frame of mind, 05:57 I was trying to balance sin. 05:59 Yeah. And how do you do that? 06:00 Now my whole understanding or trying to balance sin, 06:03 in my frame of mind which I know wasn't right, 06:05 but I figured long as my good outweighs my wrong. 06:07 Yeah. Wow. 06:09 Long as I do more good than wrong, 06:10 you know, I'm gonna do some wrong. 06:12 But long as my good outweighs my wrong, 06:13 I'm in right relation with God. 06:14 You know, and I'm not a bad person. 06:16 Okay. Nobody is perfect. 06:17 Yeah. 06:19 My dad's experience he was, he shared with me 06:20 about the street life and everything. 06:23 I was in tune to that. 06:25 Now listen, there's pointers and so I was careful. 06:28 I was careful to not get too far 06:29 but I wanted to, I was curious. 06:31 I had a love of curiosity. Yeah. 06:34 You know, I was curious about the street life 06:35 to see what it really had to offer. 06:37 What was really out there? 06:38 I mean, I had to experience for myself, 06:39 my dad would tell me, now, look son, 06:41 "I'm gonna tell you what you should not do 06:43 because I was out there." 06:45 You leave it alone, you know, it's no good for you, 06:47 I'm in and out of jail, I'm in and out of jail 06:49 and just, you can caught up in all kinds of, 06:52 all kinds of issues 06:54 and all kinds of problems came his way. 06:55 And he would share with me these problems, these issues 06:57 and, you know, elaborate on them. 06:59 It's something's that he kept back from telling me. 07:01 But he shared with me, 07:03 what he thought I needed to hear. 07:04 Okay. And so I took heed to that. 07:07 But at the same time my dad was like, 07:09 "Look, you gonna have to be your own man." 07:10 Yeah. Make your own cottage. Right. 07:12 Yeah. Okay. 07:14 Why do you think that many people glorify the street life, 07:20 the drugs and being incarcerated? 07:24 I mean, your father was pretty much giving you 07:26 the reality of the streets. 07:28 But why do you think some people actually glorify it? 07:31 I think because of the just the reputation you get in. 07:35 Just to basically the... 07:39 How can I put it, in the most and the clearest way? 07:44 You get recognised. Yeah. 07:45 I mean, it's just as level. 07:47 People like that kind of popularity type thing, yeah. 07:48 Yeah. Love of recognition. Yeah. 07:49 And it's the shame how one who seeks to live right, 07:53 people look down on. 07:54 If you do all wrong it's like that, that's highly publicized. 07:57 Like that's the coolest thing to do on earth. 07:59 That's highly publicized when you do wrong 08:00 but when you do right, you know, 08:03 people tend not to pay attention 08:05 to those who do right. 08:06 They call them squares. Yeah. 08:08 You know, and so one thing is that 08:09 I didn't wanna be a square. 08:10 Yeah. I don't want to be a square. 08:12 I want to be a part of in crowd, 08:13 I want to stand out amongst my peers, 08:14 make a name amongst myself, 08:16 amongst my peers, you know, and it was the end thing. 08:17 I mean, just being a square and doing right. 08:19 You know, I'm gonna brass it to us, said, 08:20 "I would never smoke weed." 08:21 I was like, I'd never smoke weed, that is idiotic. 08:24 I would never smoke weed, 08:25 I would never put any poison in my body, 08:28 I would never do anything like that. 08:29 That's crazy. But eventually you did it. 08:31 And eventually some years later I ended up doing it, 08:33 peer pressure caved in on me. 08:36 And then I perhaps seen it just being around a wrong crowd. 08:39 You know, I hanged around those who are... 08:41 when I was younger, I hanged... 08:42 I stayed around those because I was in the basketball. 08:44 Okay. I thought I would be in NBA. 08:46 As most young black males, 08:47 you know, basketball or football, 08:49 you know, pretty much all of us. 08:50 I had hoop dreams. Okay. 08:52 You know, I love playing basketball. 08:53 I'd travel for miles just to go play basketball. 08:56 You know, nearest court, 08:59 you know, "Hey, let's have game." 09:01 Okay. 09:02 And so I thought I was going to be in NBA, that was my aim. 09:06 Now did you play basketball in high school? 09:07 No. No. Okay. 09:09 See, high schools were to down it. 09:10 Well, talk about your high school, 09:12 what was going on, you know, from before, 09:15 the troubles that you had and can you talk about that? 09:16 As soon as, I mean, when I was 15. 09:18 Started high school when I was 15 09:19 and not too long after getting in high school, 09:21 you know, you got the older kids in there 09:23 and then you, then the peer pressure 09:24 really just seemed to cave in on, 09:25 I was never big academically. 09:28 You know, I was never real good academically. 09:30 I remember daddy just say, "Look, 09:31 can you just bring home the C, son." 09:33 My attention span was just very low. 09:36 Very low when it came to school. 09:38 And then when I got to high school 09:39 it just really went downhill. 09:41 And just getting around the wrong crowd 09:43 and then it's just not too long after. 09:46 I actually, when my first semester nice I did well. 09:49 I did very well but then after that 09:51 I kind of ease back a little bit. 09:52 You know, I said, "Okay." 09:54 I was doing well and I think, 09:56 I just kind of just lost sight of staying focused 09:58 and, you know, doing what I need to do 10:00 you know, to plan for the future. 10:02 I started to living for now, you know, 10:04 instead of planning for the future 10:05 and then just getting around the wrong people. 10:06 So wrong people started to come into my life 10:08 that are spread out, that I embraced. 10:10 And they brought me down. 10:11 And then I was 15 a guy introduced me to weed. 10:14 Yeah. 10:16 That moved into the neighbourhood. 10:17 And so, you know, I started out smoking out with him 10:20 and I got so bad that... 10:25 I say about that time I was 16, I was full blown weed head. 10:28 Okay. You know, hooked on marijuana. 10:30 I can remember being in almost a cipher or a circle around, 10:36 I've circle of friends. 10:37 I mean, maybe 7 or 8 of us... Okay. 10:39 And we're just passing weed, I mean, blunt after blunt. 10:41 Blunt after blunt, yeah. 10:42 You know, blunt is for those who don't know 10:44 blunt is a cigar or a weed wrapped in cigar paper. 10:47 Yeah. Exactly. 10:48 And so I was just, I'll be with a circle of friends 10:51 and we'd be smoking weed blunt after blunt. 10:52 I mean, we rolled and I'm smoking, 10:54 I'm sitting like, man, what in the world am I doing. 10:56 You know, we can't get any higher. 10:57 I mean, it's like the weed was multiplying. 10:59 Oh, yeah. 11:00 And so, you know, I would cut school and I'd leave out. 11:04 I will leave out and I'm just 16 years old. 11:06 I will leave out of the house and make my mama watch to see, 11:09 make sure, you know, we're gonna school. 11:11 She peak out the window here and there. 11:12 So just to be on a safe side, 11:14 I made sure I went straight to the bus stop 11:15 but, not too long after I would turn the corner, 11:18 I'll cut school, I'll cut school all together 11:20 and just go hangout with my friends 11:22 and, you know, maybe try to hook up with some females. 11:24 Had some weed, get some weed, get some alcohol 11:27 and just cut school all together 11:28 or I would go in late... go to school late. 11:29 I got to a point where I could not go to school 11:31 as I was intoxicated. 11:32 Yeah. Wow. 11:34 You know, I had to be high, or I had to be drunk. 11:35 I'll be sitting in class 11:36 and like I just said I had to be high. 11:38 So I was either high, it got to point 11:39 where I was either hard drunk in the school. 11:41 Yeah. One or the two periods. 11:42 One or the two, but I get in maybe third or fourth period, 11:44 you know, not enough to get my high on 11:46 because I couldn't stand sitting at school. 11:47 Yeah. 11:49 That got so bad that my mom, 11:50 she had to just pop up on me in school 11:52 because she was getting reports 11:53 and report card was saying, I wasn't showing up. 11:55 Well, I'm like, I don't know what they're talking about? 11:56 I'm going to school. 11:58 You see me go down to the bus stop, you know, 11:59 and I don't what they're talking about? 12:00 And she popped up on me one time. 12:02 Oh, man, I could remember like it was yesterday. 12:03 I was 16 years old, I was, you know, 'cause... 12:07 It just all happened that I had, 12:08 I did not go to school that day high. 12:12 May be that was Lord's mercy. 12:13 'Cause mom would have my... 12:14 She would have my head. Okay. 12:16 If she caught me high on drug, 12:17 so I went to school on time too. 12:18 God made me with the class on time, 12:20 got to school on time 12:21 just that day I just skipped the weed and alcohol. 12:23 And I sat down 12:24 and a girl was in the back of me talking to me, 12:27 trying to get my attention. 12:29 I turned around to her 12:30 and my mom was all way in her back. 12:31 In the back of the school, 12:33 I mean, at the back in the classroom. 12:34 And so she came to make sure 12:36 she walk me through four periods 12:37 just to make sure I was going to school. 12:38 And that was so embarrassing, the whole boys and my friends. 12:42 They came, "Hey, man, what you're doing man? 12:44 Your mom is in school you're in class. 12:46 I told my mom, I said, look, mom, it's lunch next, 12:49 I have lunch next, you can leave now. 12:53 And so she stuck with me like four periods and left 12:55 and I said, "Wow, it's getting that bad." 12:57 Okay. 12:58 So what influence you talked about her briefly 13:00 but how strong of influence do you think 13:02 your friends was on you as well as the hip-hop music? 13:06 Let's talk a little bit about that? 13:08 And how strong of a pool hip-hop music has on people, 13:14 secular hip-pop music, go into that information? 13:16 Yeah. 13:18 I believe firmly what the Bible said 13:20 you change by beholding or whatever you lend your ears to, 13:22 your minds to, your mind to, you ears to, 13:25 you will be affected by it. 13:26 Okay. 13:28 It's a Satan. 13:29 I mean, you will be affected by it. 13:31 And I'm gonna tell our young people 13:32 you will be affected by it. 13:33 Without question, it will affect you. 13:36 I mean, I had my ears fully in tuned to the rap scene 13:39 and a host, you know, just a whole, 13:41 that whole genre of music. 13:45 And it really affected me and it really affects you 13:49 what you lend your mind and ears to 13:50 and it will come back to haunt you 13:52 even when you want to give it up. 13:53 Because even now to this day, 13:55 you know, sometimes those old rap songs, I may be... 13:56 Oh, yeah. Yeah. I may be riding the car. 13:58 And somebody pull and plays old rap music. 14:00 And you know, you start bobbing here, 14:01 oh, got to catch yourself. 14:02 No one help me, you know, I was like, 14:04 man I should never led my mind over to it 14:05 and it takes me back to where I was. 14:07 That lifestyle or that way of life 14:09 that I did not agree with that, and I was not happy in living. 14:13 Yeah. It's a very... 14:18 Has a very strong affect. Yes, it's very heavy. 14:21 And it had the same thing to me, 14:24 music was very, very strong in my life. 14:27 You know, I would see to music videos 14:29 when I was young, the hip-pop music videos 14:31 and on BET and things. 14:33 And I will want what they were showing, 14:36 you know, and I didn't realize at the time 14:39 that a lot of that money 14:40 they're throwing around isn't even real. 14:41 Isn't even real. You know, it's not real. 14:43 A lot of the cars are rented, a lot of the jewelry is rented, 14:47 you know, but they give this 14:48 basically this false hope or this false scene. 14:52 And you think, "Man, I want that." 14:54 You know, and a lot of my life was influenced by friends, 14:58 yes, but music as well. 15:01 And it was so hard for me to let go off the music. 15:04 So very hard. Yes. Yes. 15:05 Because it's like it has a satanic pool. 15:08 And it's even interesting that, 15:09 you know, one of the things that Satan, 15:11 then Lucifer did when he was in heaven was, 15:14 he orchestrated music. 15:18 So when he was kicked out of heaven 15:19 he didn't necessarily lose his power. 15:21 Right. His name changed to Lucifer. 15:23 But he could still orchestrate music 15:25 in different things like that. 15:27 And when you hear the background stories 15:31 of a lot of music artists they say, you know, 15:33 we pray to the devil that we will have a hit record, 15:37 we got high on x amount of drugs 15:39 or these types of drugs, 15:40 so that we will have a hit record. 15:42 We made deals and pacts with the devil 15:43 to have a hit record. 15:45 And these things are seem to help with the record. 15:47 So when you're listening 15:49 it has this satanic pool upon you. 15:52 You know, what can you say to young people to, 15:56 yeah, the music is good. 15:57 You know, you're bobbing to it and things like that. 15:58 But what can you say to them to try to break them 16:02 away from that music? 16:04 I would say that young people should... 16:07 I would say, well, the way that older people 16:11 or that individuals should encourage young people 16:14 what should be helping them to understand that 16:18 at the end of the day there is no benefit in it. 16:20 I mean, there is no real positive... 16:23 You make, now the devil mingles, 16:25 you know those good things with bad. 16:27 But at the end of the day you say, "Okay. 16:29 Well, how was this making me a better person?" 16:32 Yeah. Yeah. "What this is benefiting me?" 16:34 Okay. 16:35 "And how was this benefiting me?" 16:38 And so I would encourage young people 16:39 laying your minds over to that, 16:40 which will uplift and build you up. 16:42 Because at the end of the day when you get older 16:44 and you're through decades, 16:46 let me tell you, you will get tired of it. 16:48 Oh, yeah. 16:50 You will get tired of it and it will get old. 16:52 And all of that junk that you stuffed in your mind, 16:55 it comes back to haunt you. 16:57 Come back to haunt you and it irritates you 16:59 because I'm still dealing with it. 17:00 And at the end of the day, yeah, that is okay. 17:02 How is this drawing me closer to God? 17:04 How is this making a better person? 17:05 Okay. Okay. You know. 17:06 It's a down pull... Oh, yeah. 17:09 As suppose to uplifting, you know. 17:11 And I would say, encourage young people in that, 17:15 which is positive. 17:16 And we need to encourage young people to... 17:18 We need to involve the young people 17:20 in more positive things. 17:21 Community service and certain things 17:23 such as that nature. 17:24 Okay, you know, you said something very interesting 17:25 a little bit ago. 17:27 You said about by beholding we become change. 17:28 Right. That's what the Bible says. 17:31 And this is so very true because what you look at 17:35 or listen to or what you read, 17:37 you eventually become like that. 17:39 The more time you're spending with God, 17:41 the more you become like God. 17:43 The more time you spend in secular hip-hop music 17:45 or whatever, the more you'll be kind of become like that. 17:48 You'll start to say the words, 17:50 those actions, or things like that. 17:52 And you mentioned about where the things to uplift, 17:56 the music isn't necessarily uplifting that person. 17:59 And I notice with my own self 18:01 as I was getting deep in a hip-hop music, 18:03 it wasn't uplifting it sounded good, of course. 18:06 But it was actually changing my image of who I was, 18:09 you know, how I dressed, how I carried myself, 18:13 and eventually I had got a tattoo on my face. 18:16 I had a tattoo covering about a portion 18:19 on the right side of my face. 18:21 Which I have actually being getting laser removed. 18:23 But it was like the demons of music in it, 18:26 demons of life were starting 18:28 to manifest themselves on my face 18:30 because what I had was this scary face on it 18:34 and it was like my internal face, 18:36 though I have a smile on my normal face, internally, 18:39 I felt like this thing that was on my face, this tattoo. 18:43 And I believe that, you know, it was the demons inside of me 18:47 beginning to manifest themselves 18:49 in all the music that I had listened to 18:52 and that was ingrained in my head. 18:55 And so it has a very powerful pool. 18:57 Now let me ask you this though, 18:58 let's switch gears a little bit. 19:00 You didn't grow up as Seventh-day Adventist? 19:01 No. No, I didn't. 19:02 How did you become a Seventh-day Adventist? 19:05 Okay, now I just fast forward in 15 by the time I was 18... 19:08 Okay. 19:09 I was through with the, 19:11 I pretty much was through 19 19:12 I was done with the marijuana, alcohol. 19:14 Okay. And I had got my life together. 19:16 I actually dropped out of... 19:17 Just real quick, I dropped out of high school. 19:19 Okay. 19:20 I got so better job at high school, 19:21 I went to job core, I got kicked out of job core, 19:23 I got caught with marijuana, they kicked me out. 19:25 And so, you know, 19:26 but I was able to graduate on time. 19:29 You know, I got kicked out and then I was like, 19:31 what I'm gonna do? 19:32 My dad's won't get GED but mom stepped in 19:33 and said, "No, you're going go back 19:35 and get your high school diploma. 19:36 Okay. So I got high school diploma. 19:38 And I got my high school diploma, graduated, 19:40 by the time I was 19, 19:42 I was through with this terminal body. 19:43 Now what made you wanna... 19:44 What made you wanna stop 19:46 and step away from everything at 19 years old? 19:48 Well by the time... 19:49 I think it's just coming of age. 19:50 Okay. 19:52 You know, I think I just came of age. 19:53 You know, I just got to a point where I just got tired, 19:55 you get old and you say, okay, enough already. 19:56 Okay, enough. 19:58 You know, I mean, it doesn't take me long 19:59 to smart enough, that's one thing. 20:00 I mean, may be gift from God or Holly Spirit, 20:02 it didn't take me long to smart enough. 20:04 I don't needed be out there not to knock anybody. 20:05 For 10 or 15 years, I'm like, "Okay, I get the point." 20:07 Yeah. Okay. 20:09 You know, I just got old, I got tired to 20:10 where I got tired of getting high. 20:11 I'm just smoking because this is 20:13 what we do with my friends. 20:14 So what else do I do? 20:16 We get high, and try to get a woman hook up, 20:17 or woman and get drunk and messing around drugs. 20:19 So I'm like, you know, what I'm through. 20:21 And I'd be taking out to pull when I was around my friends 20:24 and they will be smoking and God was holding me though. 20:26 I will be around them in a circle, 20:28 you know, they would be smoking, 20:29 I would be one that would not smoke. 20:31 You know, and I shouldn't have myself 20:32 in that atmosphere though 20:34 and though I was through with it. 20:35 But it is like my boys we hang out, 20:37 these are my partners. 20:38 And they would say, hey, man, don't even bother passing 20:39 the weed to Michael, he won't smoke. 20:41 Okay. You know. 20:42 But after a while, I began to distance myself from them 20:43 because that would eventually brought me back down. 20:46 And so fast forwarding, flash forwarding. 20:47 Okay. 20:49 Got me good job in medical field, 20:51 making good money, I finally moved out 20:52 and this is the point where transition 20:53 where I began to come into right relationship with God. 20:56 Okay. 20:57 By the time I was in my early 20s I moved out, 21:01 got my own apartment, I was 25. 21:03 So at 25, I've got my own apartment, 21:04 had a good paying job and I got my apartment. 21:07 I still had trouble with the women though. 21:09 Okay. 21:10 I still hadn't shaken that yet, 21:12 you know, the immoral life frame my mind. 21:15 I wouldn't put no poison in my body but hey to woman. 21:17 Okay. That's all another issue. 21:20 And so, the Lord that was the final, 21:21 really the final deliverance was that. 21:23 You know, where I could fully just have 21:24 let God have his way with me. 21:27 I was 25, and I moved out and I said, okay, 21:29 I got my own place, I got my own space, 21:30 I may have the ladies coming through 21:32 all to make up with single man. 21:34 You know, now I was going to really just had them 21:36 for just to have my fun with the ladies. 21:39 And come to find out it was God set that aside 21:43 so He can get intimate with me. 21:44 Yeah. 21:46 And so I was on my dad's, I was on my mom's house. 21:49 So I went to go see, go stop by her house 21:51 and my dad was over there. 21:52 I was big in physical conditioning at this time. 21:56 Because I have put my body and I really got into 21:58 my physical workout plan, very routine with it. 22:02 Where I hit the cardio, lift the weights up, 22:04 I mean, I got about 180 pounds solid muscle. 22:07 I was really in to my workout routine 22:09 and on it every consistently on a regular basis. 22:12 And I was on my dad's house, I mean, my mom's house, 22:14 my dad came to stop by and the Lord spoke to my dad 22:17 and I was using my testimony. 22:19 Now, look, the Lord spoke to my dad that night, 22:21 we're watching basketball. 22:22 Okay. 22:24 He knew I was in my workout routine 22:25 and I would go with my mom to workout at time 22:27 she had a basement bench. 22:30 So, actually I took the bench over my house though. 22:33 I was still working out in... I had it in my own apartment. 22:35 But I used to workout on in her basement 22:37 and I just went over to visit her 22:39 and my dad happened to be there and we were watching basketball 22:41 and he just turned to me and said, "Man, you know, 22:46 you're big on your physical condition, 22:47 you workout routine." 22:49 I forgot exactly how he phrased it 22:50 but it was on that level and I said, 22:52 and he said, he says, "Son, you know, 22:54 you need to study the Bible." 22:55 Yeah. Wow. Out of nowhere. 22:57 Was he into the Bible at that time? 22:58 That's the amazing thing. Yeah. 23:00 He wasn't into Bible himself at that time, now he is, 23:03 but then he wasn't. 23:05 And, you know, as far as, 23:06 you know, giving me that kind of advice. 23:07 Yeah. 23:09 You wouldn't expect that from him. 23:10 Yeah, and he just turned out, I was in the kitchen. 23:12 I can almost see it like it was yesterday, 23:13 May 2006 when his spiritual journey began. 23:16 May 2006, he turned to me and says... 23:18 We're watching basketball, 23:19 I think it was LeBron James playing 23:20 and he turned to me and he says, 23:22 "Son, you need to study the Bible." 23:25 "Son, you need to study the Bible." 23:27 And I said, "Wow." 23:28 And a couple of years ago a girl I was dating, she tried, 23:30 she laid out a plan for me and say, 23:31 "We need to start studying the Bible together." 23:32 Let me have it, and so I said, "I can't get into it." 23:37 I couldn't even quote John 3:16. 23:39 If you told what does John 3:16 say. 23:41 I'm like, "I don't know." Yeah. 23:42 I didn't know that it meant be the Christian. 23:44 You know, my mom she raises up, me and my brother 23:46 were Christian morals and principles. 23:48 I remember Sunday school bus used to come to the hood 23:49 and pick me and my brother. 23:51 Okay. 23:52 But it wasn't nothing in that, she wasn't dogmatic about it. 23:54 Yeah. Okay. You know. 23:55 And I wasn't real serious about God. 23:57 Just figured as along as I'm a good person, I'm good. 23:59 Yeah. You're right. Okay. 24:00 I'm not out trying to kill anybody. 24:03 And so I began to, "Oh, my dad." 24:06 Yeah, so I'll be just going back 24:08 what I said about my girl friend 24:10 at couple years prior they tried to get me 24:11 into the studying the Bible. 24:13 I couldn't get into it, I opened it up, 24:15 just fasten open up, I close and said, 24:16 "I can't do, I can't do this." 24:17 Put away the planner 24:19 and said, "I'm just not in to, I can't understand." 24:20 Okay. You know. 24:21 But God didn't stop then He said, 24:23 "Let's try it again." 24:24 Couple of years later He came back with my dad. 24:25 Okay. 24:27 And my dad say, "You need to study the Bible, 24:28 with the Holy Spirit and hindsight I see 24:30 what the Holy Spirit get through him. 24:31 And so I couldn't shake that voice man, I couldn't shake it. 24:34 "You study the Bible, you're on your physical routine 24:36 and you don't really have a purpose in life. 24:38 Well, what is your purpose in the life?" 24:40 And that's the thing that hit me out. 24:41 What is my purpose, I'm like, what is my purpose 24:43 filled is like, you know? 24:44 And I just, I want to understand 24:46 why am I here and who better to turn to. 24:48 I believe that there is a God, who better to turn 24:50 to one I believe created all things 24:51 called me to existence. 24:53 So if you're real, I couldn't even testify God was even real. 24:55 I believe he was real but I had no experience 24:56 to express of His reality. 25:00 So I began to study that night, it was a Saturday night 25:05 and that Sunday morning I said, "Okay. 25:07 I'll give you a half hour everyday." 25:09 Okay. 25:10 I'm gonna give half hour everyday God 25:11 and I'm gonna start 25:13 and we'll see where it is going. 25:14 Half hour and I was on a clock to. 25:16 I get up in the beginning, 25:17 God, I started studying Genesis 1:1 25:18 and from there I've been studying ever since. 25:20 I haven't missed a day ever since. 25:21 Great. And so May of 2006. 25:22 So I got up and started reading, 25:24 started reading, started reading. 25:25 And I'm getting into that Adventists 25:26 when I got transition 25:28 but God brought me to the Bible first. 25:29 Yeah. Yeah. 25:31 And so I began to read and just learn of Him, read 25:33 and at certain point I don't know 25:34 when it hit and triggered, it became the living word. 25:37 Okay. 25:38 It became the living word and at certain point that word 25:40 is more than just acorn paper to me. 25:41 Yeah. It became the living word. 25:43 I don't know what it is. Oh, yeah. 25:45 I started wrestling, wow, 25:46 and it just started with just reading. 25:48 I was on a clock half hour I'm done, half hour I'm done. 25:50 And so, you know, and I began to study 25:53 and then I learned about the state of the dead. 25:56 Okay. Is what brought me in. 25:58 I learned about the state of dead 25:59 and watching Doug Batchelor, 26:00 I call him a burning bush experience. 26:02 And I watch Doug Batchelor he was on BET. 26:03 I call him on burning bush experience, 26:05 I was flipping through BET, 26:06 Black Entertainment Television channel. 26:08 And I was flipping through and I saw the Doug Batchelor 26:10 and he was talking about state of the dead, 26:12 and that brought me in, that really got my attention. 26:14 He said the dead don't go straight to heaven. 26:16 And then he broke it down 26:17 and showed it from scriptures John 5 26:19 where you hear my voice come from the grave, 26:20 they'll come from the grave. 26:22 "Oh, when you die you go to the grave." 26:23 That makes sense when Christ is coming back to resurrect us. 26:25 Then the Sabbath truth I learned about. 26:27 You know, through the course of my study 26:28 and then came... 26:31 I thought Sabbath was Sunday. Okay. 26:34 But I learned that it was the seventh day of the week. 26:35 I'm just doing my biblical study 26:37 and talking to people and research online. 26:39 And then my mom said that 26:42 the Seventh-day Adventists keep the Sabbath. 26:43 Okay. 26:45 And so I began to look into the Seventh-day Adventists. 26:46 And everything checked out. 26:48 I never heard them before. Okay. 26:49 I said, "What is this Seventh-day Adventist. 26:51 Can you spell it?" Sound like occult. 26:52 Yeah. 26:53 You know, so I started looking into it 26:55 and I said, "Man, everything 26:56 that they believe and checked out." 26:57 And then I found a local church and I joined. 27:00 Okay. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 27:02 So you got into the Seventh-day Adventist church 27:04 and now you're actually a theology major 27:06 at Oakwood University. 27:08 Yes, yes, yes. Which is a great blessing. 27:10 What I want you to do 27:11 for these last couple of seconds. 27:13 I want you to look into the camera 27:15 and I want you to appeal to the young people 27:17 that have been in or have been in your situation 27:20 and need that hope, that encouraging words. 27:22 Speak to them. 27:24 Well, what I would say to all my young people out there 27:26 the Lord has inspected in, 27:28 Jeremiah 29:11 He has inspected in for us all. 27:31 And the younger you are, 27:33 when you surrender you heart to God, 27:34 your staying power is much greater. 27:36 Your staying power is much greater 27:37 because when that concrete sets in, 27:38 it's hard to break it up. 27:40 You know, many older folk can tell you 27:42 and testify who've been out there in the world 27:44 for so many years 27:46 and then they want to give their heart to God, 27:47 or when they getting to old age. 27:49 You pick up so many habits out there in the world. 27:50 It's hard to break when you want to get serious about God. 27:52 And so I'll say surrender your heart. 27:54 The Bible says, 27:55 "It's good for the youth to bear the yoke, 27:57 to bear a yoke when they are young." 27:59 And I would say just surrender your heart to God 28:01 and allow God to have His way with you. 28:03 And He we will work through you 28:04 and you will fulfill your divine purpose in God. 28:07 Thank you, Michael, for being on the program. 28:10 Thank you, viewers, 28:11 for tuning into the New Journey. 28:12 Be sure to tune in next time. |
Revised 2017-02-09