Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Aaron Bekkela
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR000130A
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues
00:03 related to addictive behaviour. 00:05 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:06 may be too candid for younger children. 00:10 Welcome to Celebrating Life in Recovery. 00:12 I'm Cheri, your host. 00:14 You know what surprises me about God, 00:16 is the miracles He performs 00:18 and sometimes I think a changed life 00:20 is a bigger deal than raising the dead. 00:22 Today, I'd like to introduce you 00:23 to friend of mine, 00:25 on the bunch of strip clubs and I think only God can bring 00:28 something good out of a strip club. 00:30 Come join us on the set. 00:58 When I talk about, 00:59 "Does anything good come out from a strip club," 01:01 I mean that. 01:02 When I went, a few years ago, 01:03 I'm doing this program Celebrating Life in Recovery, 01:05 you got a bunch of guests coming in, 01:07 I love doing this. 01:09 You know, and I know that you know that 01:10 and you can see that 01:12 and you get to meet some incredible folks. 01:14 I get to meet some incredible folks 01:15 but one time I come in 01:17 and there's a guy here I'm supposed to interview 01:20 and I don't know a lot about him. 01:22 So I said, you know, "Who is he, what is he doing?" 01:24 They said, "His family owns a number of strip clubs." 01:29 And I'm thinking what? 01:30 And I didn't even know what was in me 01:33 but I felt weight. 01:35 I felt, all of the sudden, I couldn't even hardly breathe. 01:38 I don't wanna walk in the room, 01:39 I don't wanna introduce myself to this guy, 01:41 I don't wanna talk to him. 01:42 And I realized, my sister is in the hospital 01:45 hooked up on life support, she's trying to kill herself, 01:48 she's a stripper turning 50, she's got three DUIs, 01:52 she's got the IRS after her and when she dies, 01:55 the person that owns the strip club 01:56 is just gonna put another girl in there 01:57 and not even remember her name. 01:59 And I am so angry. 02:01 I'm thinking, you know what? I can't. 02:03 Not today, I can't do this 02:05 and people are looking at me like... 02:08 You know, 'cause usually I'm nice. 02:11 You know, I'm not even serious, 02:12 usually I'm nice and I love God 02:14 and anybody can heal in. 02:16 All of that kind of stuff 02:17 and I believe that with everything in me 02:19 but that moment I thought, you know, 02:21 well, I just wanna shoot them. 02:23 I wanna walk-in and shoot him in the face, right? 02:26 So excuse me. 02:28 For people that haven't seen this program before, 02:29 it was just that intense for me and so I walk-in 02:32 and I'm trying to be nice, "Hi, my name is Cheri." 02:35 And everything in me just thought, "I'm dying." 02:39 And I walkout and Jay Dew, one of the pastors here, 02:44 whom I love, you know, I feel like he is my pastor. 02:47 But I walkout and he's like, "Do you wanna pray?" 02:50 You know, 'cause, I mean, he's looking at me like what's up, 02:53 you know, something's obviously up. 02:55 And I said, "I can't do this." 02:56 You know, and so he says, "Let's pray," 02:58 and then he comes up with an idea that's ridiculous. 03:01 He said, "Why don't you ask this guy Michel, 03:04 if you could process your rage, why are you doing this show?" 03:11 And I'm thinking, "How funny is that." 03:13 So I walk in and I just said, 03:15 "You know, you know that I don't like you. 03:20 You know that, you know, 03:21 all of this kind of stuff that I'm raging, 03:23 you know, all that kind of stuff. 03:25 Can we just process that during the show." 03:27 And, you know, this is a big guy 03:29 but his knees were shaking. 03:30 He was like, "okay." 03:32 You know, and so we get on the show 03:34 and I open the program up, 03:35 if you've ever seen it with, you know what? 03:37 When I first met this guy spiritually speaking, 03:40 I had both of my hands around his neck. 03:44 Did you feel that, Michael? 03:46 And he's like, "I did. Can we talk about that?" 03:49 And within a short period of time, 03:51 he literally turns around at and starts telling his story. 03:57 And when he told his story, my heart broke. 04:00 My heart broke, I thought, "What? 04:02 Did I think I was the only victim here? 04:04 Do I think I'm the only one in need of grace? 04:06 Do I think that God himself doesn't look at all of us?" 04:11 And say, Amen. 04:13 I love you and draws us to Himself. 04:16 So we're talking about this whole season 04:17 and about grace and about forgiveness 04:20 and I didn't even realize that I had so much anger 04:23 and I had so much bitterness and I had so much to talk 04:26 but I realized at that moment, 04:29 when I'm listening to this man talk about his background, 04:32 is that I have to really say, 04:34 "Please forgive me." 04:36 And at one point in the show, I just started... 04:37 Of program, I just started crying. 04:40 And Michel looked at me and he said, 04:42 "I don't know if anybody has ever asked you this 04:45 but would you forgive me, as a club owner." 04:49 And I just couldn't hardly stand it and I said, 04:52 "Would you forgive me? 04:54 In my arrogance, that I thought forgiveness wasn't for you too. 04:57 And we both looked at each other 04:59 and realized that God had done a miracle. 05:03 I needed to forgive him, he needed to forgive me, 05:06 we needed to step into the arms of God 05:08 and let him heal us. 05:09 And so today we're gonna talk with one of his brothers. 05:12 I no longer feel rage, I'm no longer that arrogant 05:15 and I no longer have all of that bitterness. 05:17 So I want you to stay with us 05:19 and man, I hope by the end of this program, 05:22 you are just proud of God. 05:25 So stay with us, we'll be right back. |
Revised 2016-10-10