Participants: Jay Rosario & Daniel McGrath (Host), Michael Johnson
Series Code: E
Program Code: E000024
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00:19 Hello again, my name is Jay Rosario
00:20 and welcome to Engage. 00:22 In this program we're addressing relevant issues 00:25 facing young Christians all over the world 00:28 and joining me today is my good friend Dan, 00:30 who is our co-host. Dan how're you doing? 00:31 Good, Jay, how're you doing? Doing well. 00:33 So Dan what are we gonna be talking about in this segment? 00:36 Well, today we're talking about 00:37 the relevancy of the Bible. 00:39 There is a tendency in churches 00:40 to kind of down play the truths of scripture 00:43 for either entertainment or evangelism methods. 00:46 When In reality the Bible has all the answers, 00:49 it has the power to change lives. 00:51 So we're gonna look at that today 00:52 and we have a special guest joining us. Who is that? 00:55 Well this guest, Dan is actually a very, 00:57 very significant person. 00:59 He's the one that was influential 01:02 in bringing me to God and basically sparking 01:06 that first encounter that I had with the Lord Jesus. 01:08 So his name is Michael Johnson. 01:10 We want to invite Michael Johnson to come on now. 01:12 Michael Johnson is not to be confused with- 01:15 With the famous track runner Michael Johnson. 01:18 This is another Michael Johnson. Yeah. 01:20 So Michael you're, or Mike, if I call you that Michael. 01:22 Mike, you are the one, you're the guilty one. 01:26 I am guilty, sorry. You are guilty 01:27 because it is your fault that I am here. 01:30 That's right. In another words, 01:31 if it wasn't for you and for your wife or your family, 01:34 there will be somebody else hosting the show. 01:35 And this is actually a very, very special privilege 01:39 and honor that I have to--to have 01:41 you in the part of as a guest of our show. 01:43 And Michael those-- for those of you-- 01:45 for those that don't know who you are, 01:47 tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, 01:48 what you do etcetera, how big is your family. 01:50 Well I have--my wife and I, we have five children, 01:53 four girls, one boy. 01:56 My wife is a registered nurse, I am a dental lab technician, 02:01 I've own my business for 27, almost 28 years 02:05 which is where we ended up meeting there for a while. 02:09 Yes. But- And where do you live? 02:10 Well, we live in Spokane, Washington, right now. 02:12 Our kids go to Upper Columbia Academy. 02:15 They are teenagers and above and we moved down 02:19 from Anchorage, Alaska, where we met you. 02:21 Awesome, so that's really part 02:22 of the, the, the, where the story 02:24 takes place is Anchorage, Alaska. 02:26 We're gonna be talking a little bit about the Bible. 02:28 You know, many times in our Christian experience 02:30 as young people, we really don't have low expectations 02:34 of the word of God. Sometimes we, we go to the Bible, 02:37 we don't really expect much about it. 02:39 We doubt whether it has power to change our lives 02:41 and we doubt whether it has the possibility 02:43 to transforming other people's lives. 02:47 So well you guys, you have a very unique relationship, 02:49 you know, I haven't known you for that long but, 02:52 but I have known Jay for a while 02:54 and he's had the opportunity to preach all over the world, 02:56 but you're kind of the person 02:57 that brought him into the message 02:59 and so really you know, everyone that Jay preaches 03:02 to is under the direct influence of your ministry. 03:06 So I don't know if you have thought about that, 03:07 but, you know, how did you find this guy, this character, 03:12 you know and actually get him who had no interest 03:15 in the Bible to, you know, 03:16 become a preacher and a pastor. 03:18 Well, it's too bad my wife wasn't here, 03:20 she's the one who ended up meeting them but it started, 03:23 if I can give it a beginning, I went to Lord in prayer 03:29 and asked Him, I felt like a hypocrite 03:30 because I've been an elder in the church 03:32 for a quite a few years 03:33 but had never given a Bible study before. 03:35 Wow. So, it started on my knees, 03:38 in the quietness of the early morning 03:40 I knelt down and told the Lord, 03:42 I would like to give a Bible study. 03:44 And so, I prayed for a week, 03:47 I told my wife what I was doing. 03:48 I told her, we need to learn to be more bold for Christ 03:52 and just put ourselves out there. 03:53 And it was hard for me because I work in my home, 03:57 in that way I could be with my kids all the time. 04:00 And so, you know, 04:02 I didn't know how it was going to happen. 04:04 But through praying that about a week later is where my wife 04:09 ended up meeting Emil at the furniture store. 04:12 We had--we had bought some furniture 04:15 because it all started with the bed, 04:18 that was some, we had a back problem 04:20 so and so forth and through the process 04:23 of trying to find a new bed. 04:26 One was taken back. 04:27 My wife woke up early one morning, 04:30 about 1 o'clock in the morning, 04:31 was asking Lord and-- she felt guilty for spending 04:34 so much money on a bed and thought, 04:36 may be she ought to take it back and so the next morning 04:38 she woke up and she says, 04:39 "How did it go for the first night?" 04:41 And I said man this is awesome and she said I don't think 04:45 this is what we got to do. 04:46 So she called the store. 04:47 They got the bed taken back and so in the process, 04:51 she went to another place and found the same bed 04:54 for half the price and so she was getting all excited. 04:56 So in the process of saving money 04:58 she decided its time to buy a couch too. 05:01 And so, and we had to go pick up the furniture, she did. 05:05 And so that day they were gonna go out 05:09 and get me something while they were in town 05:11 you know, Sub-Sub sandwich or whatever and my wife 05:14 was getting tired and decide she didn't want to do it. 05:16 My daughter Collie said, no we got to get dad said, 05:19 he wanted that. She is, we'll just go to McDonald. 05:22 And she said no, dad wants a Subway sandwich and so- 05:25 Yeah, that's more like. 05:26 And so she knew that by going over there to get it, 05:30 then she might as well pick up the furniture. 05:32 And when she went to do that, that is where she met Emil 05:35 at there, because he was the one who was putting 05:37 it in the back of our vehicle. 05:38 So you wanted a Subway sandwich. 05:40 Yeah. And the Holy Spirit have been convicting 05:42 you to give a Bible study, convicting your wife 05:44 that she need to go, get rid of this bed. That's right. 05:47 And then in that process 05:48 you met somebody who, who was searching 05:50 for the scriptures, right? 05:51 Yeah, basically what happen, my elder brother Emil, 05:53 I'll tell the Emil side of the story, was working 05:56 at a furniture store and he was in an interesting 05:59 situation at that time. 06:01 He was dating a Christian girl, 06:03 they have been attending evangelical church, 06:06 he was been very involved, 06:07 he was been very into a lot of the activities, 06:09 he was reading his Bible and my grandmother 06:12 is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. 06:14 And we never really grew up with our grandmother, 06:16 but we do recall visiting her vacations or what not, 06:19 she would drag us over to the church. 06:21 And that we knew two things about my grandmother. 06:23 Number one that she kept Saturday and number two, 06:26 she ate really weird food. 06:28 Those are the two really main things that we remember, 06:31 so my brother, when he started getting involved 06:33 in Bible study, he kind of had this little thing 06:35 in the back of his mind of grandmother, 06:37 so he calls grandma, says, 06:39 "Hay grandma, I bring the Bible." 06:40 She almost had a heart attack with joy. 06:41 She said, "Wow, finally one of my grandchildren 06:43 is in the word." 06:44 So she decides to send him a literature 06:46 and so he starts kind of in this whole process 06:48 of investigating truth of what have you. 06:50 And he tells his girlfriend at that time 06:52 about the situation and we had the opportunity, 06:56 well, they had the opportunity to talk and then somehow 06:59 her older brother got involved 07:00 who was an elder of a local church 07:02 to give Emil Bible studies, my elder brother 07:05 and in the process, I don't know how he did that, 07:07 he dragged me, Jeffrey, my other brother 07:10 and I think his room mates, which is Dennis and Howard, 07:12 which later on we'll talk more about in details. 07:14 But the point is that Emil got very, 07:17 very confused with the Bible. 07:19 He knew that something was missing. 07:21 He knew that there were answers 07:22 that weren't being 100 percent clear. 07:25 So he prayed at the end of that Bible study 07:28 and we went to back to his home, 07:31 we got to house around three in the morning, 2:30-3:00 07:33 in the morning and I went to sleep, Jeffrey went to sleep, 07:36 everybody went straight to sleep. 07:38 My brother Emil knelt in his bed and he prayed, 07:40 "Lord, I am confused, I am interested 07:43 in understanding truth, please lead me to somebody 07:47 that is able to lead me to the truth." 07:49 The next morning he goes to work at the furniture store 07:51 and that's where we'll pick up the story 07:53 and that's where they met, 07:54 that's where my brother Emil met Michael's wife Sherilyn. 07:57 Now you guys are getting, your arm 08:00 so you said that your arm was twisted, 08:01 you had to go this Bible study, 08:03 but here you are, an elder in your church, 08:05 you know, considerably older than him and his brothers 08:08 you know, how did you feel 08:10 when you had to give this Bible study 08:12 when, you know, we're such a media saturated generation 08:14 did you feel like you had, you know, pop-in some videos, 08:17 play some music or what does you do? 08:20 No, you know, it's interesting 08:21 because my wife made a comment, 08:24 you know, when it got down to have the Bible studies, 08:26 the most important thing to us was this, 08:28 the Bible meant so much to us, because it reveals 08:31 the character of God. 08:33 And to me it just stands on its own 08:35 and so that's the approach I took. 08:37 And my wife, you know, I heard her talking to her mother 08:41 when we heard you guys were gonna coming over 08:43 and we were all excited because 08:45 when they came home from getting that sandwich 08:46 and having the furniture and everything, 08:48 my daughter come down stairs and she was so excited. 08:50 I am just sitting there working. 08:51 She got so excited, she was coming down 08:53 there and she's like, "I got to tell you something, 08:54 I got to tell you something." 08:56 I said what is it? She says, "I can't tell you 08:57 because mom will get mad at me, she wants to tell you." 08:59 So she comes down and the next thing I know, 09:01 she said you got seven people coming for Bible studies. 09:04 Wow. And, and I am sitting here now you know, 09:08 be careful of what you asked for it, right. 09:10 And so now the thing is what I am gonna do? 09:13 Well, I had learned to in a very early part 09:17 of the relationship depend upon the Lord, 09:18 but my amount of knowledge, my relationship 09:22 with Him was in that growing process 09:24 and so all I knew is what I didn't know, 09:26 I had to give it to Him, He was responsible. 09:29 And so when it came down to giving Bible studies, 09:31 there was only one thing that I knew and that was find a, 09:35 find some pamphlets that I was gonna fall through 09:38 and be able to give then something to take back home, 09:40 because it seems logical to me that if they had any question, 09:45 they can go back over the material 09:47 and they can approach it that way. 09:48 And a fascinating thing is that the showdown 09:52 or the encounter, whatever we want to call 09:53 it between my brother Emil and your wife Sherilyn, 09:56 really prayer was a kind of foundation of all of that. 09:58 My brother was in a complex situation 10:00 who's seeking the Lords will. 10:01 He was praying around three in the morning 10:03 and that very night that you mentioned 10:04 that your wife was praying, 10:06 it was around three in the morning. 10:07 So I also heard, your grandmother 10:09 was praying at the same time. Right. 10:12 That's where I understood. 10:13 So you had a, you had a several individuals praying 10:15 for a very similar cause and within hours 10:19 because it was two or three in the morning, 10:20 that next morning, somehow God orchestrated 10:23 the events of your wife Sherilyn, 10:24 orchestrated the events of my brother Emil 10:26 and they met in the furniture store, 10:28 they exchanged words. 10:29 I wish we can get to the details 10:31 but time doesn't allow us. 10:32 Well, and get this, it was all about bed, right. 10:35 The thing is we ended up with, we ended up 10:37 keeping basically the same old bed 10:41 and yet never had back problems after that. 10:43 So obviously an angle was somehow involved- 10:45 It was all about meeting- In the springs of those beds, 10:47 he was causing challenges just so that Sherilyn 10:50 could meet my brother Emil. 10:52 The interesting this is that me, my brothers were thought, 10:54 we were all in different levels, 10:55 of course I was in my teen, I think I was 15, 10:57 Jeffery was 17 and Emil was about 19. 10:59 And Emil was heavily involved in the, this church. 11:03 He was kind of thinking about may be marriage, 11:05 of course he was dating this nice Christian girl. 11:08 Jeffery was in this phase in his life 11:10 where he want to become a millionaire 11:12 without going to college and he realize 11:14 that really wasn't a successful. 11:15 And I was somehow into like martial arts. 11:18 My dream was to be like the next 11:19 Bruce Lee, it's really crazy. 11:21 So we were all in different, all in different worlds 11:23 and some how the Lord was able to, 11:24 in our own different levels of experience, 11:26 He brought us together. 11:28 And what I love is when we had the opportunity 11:31 to eventually go to your home 11:33 which of course you invited us to church 11:36 first which we went and that's where we met you 11:37 at the Hillside O'Malley SDA church in Anchorage 11:40 Yeah. And we went to your home, 11:41 I thought it was really weird and I only now realize 11:45 it when I look in hindsight that you lived on, 11:47 what, what, what's the name of the street that you lived on? 11:49 It was Resurrection Drive. 11:50 Resurrection Drive. 11:52 you know, what makes that, it was funny 11:54 because the Resurrection Drive came off 11:56 from main road and had a U, there were two entrances. 11:59 There was two entrances. And whenever 12:00 I give people the direction, 12:02 I said, always take the first resurrection. 12:04 Not the second one. 12:06 Yeah, that's right. So that was just the joke. 12:07 But I don't know, when we got to your home, 12:09 it was the Resurrection Drive, which of course like I said, 12:12 it was not until now that we understands 12:13 what the resurrection is all about that we say, 12:15 "wow, that was special". 12:16 We pull into the driveway, it's me, my bothers, 12:19 I mean the car is packed and everybody 12:22 gets out of the car except for me and my elder brother Emil. 12:24 He was on the driver seat and I am in the middle here 12:27 about to exit the car. 12:28 And he puts his arm over the shoulder 12:31 of the car and he turns about to look 12:32 at me and he says, Jay, and I said, yes. 12:36 He says, I need you to do me a huge favor and I said what? 12:42 He says, I need you to be very careful 12:45 that you don't say any curse word. 12:48 Because I, even though I was the youngest out of the group, 12:50 I don't know why I had this, this inability to restrain 12:53 my tongue from saying foul words. 12:55 So he said, listen this is a Christian home 12:57 that we're gonna be going into. 12:59 These people love God, these people love Jesus, 13:02 don't embarrass me, is what he said. 13:04 And I got so terrified, I am like, oh no, 13:07 I can't say a curse word, what if I do, 13:09 what if I slip that I am gonna embarrass Emil, 13:11 I am gonna be embarrassed, so literally, 13:13 I don't know if you remember Mike, 13:14 but the first time I went to your home, 13:15 actually I think it was about 13:16 the first seven or eight visits, I didn't say a word. 13:20 I know, I think hardly anybody did. 13:21 Yeah. Well, in fact it's interesting 13:23 because as we, you know they, they came over 13:26 to the house, it turns out they basically 13:28 for the next year and half, two years, 13:31 we had them every weekend. 13:32 I already had five kids, now I had six teenagers 13:35 and above to add to that. 13:37 And of course my wife loves to cook, 13:39 so that wasn't the issue. 13:41 And but what's interesting is I don't remember 13:44 you guys ever hardly saying a word 13:46 for the longest time and I thought it was so odd. 13:48 They'd come in, we had our Bible studies 13:50 and the only person that it seem like to allowed 13:52 to ask questions at that particular time was Emil. 13:55 I thought you had some kind of code going on there. 13:57 Well we, I think may be Emil had told everybody 13:59 else the same secret and of course 14:01 you just don't embarrass me. 14:03 He came across as the boss, so you know. 14:05 Whenever you ask me, so do you want orange juice, 14:07 I never said yes or no, I just kind of shook my head 14:08 and said-I was afraid to say yes. 14:11 And you always, you guys always sat 14:13 at the same spot of the table, it never changed, 14:15 it was like a pecking order of some sort there. 14:17 Yeah, like a sign seating. 14:18 I just thought it was awesome, there was, 14:20 there was some respect there for some reason 14:22 that I didn't understand, but to me 14:23 it was just about them being there. 14:25 Yeah, so let me just kind of distill this a little bit, 14:28 we, you said that prayer was a big part 14:30 of you know, reaching out to others 14:33 and specially these guys, 14:35 who you know kung-fu martial artists- 14:38 Well, that was me, my brothers were millionaires in the making. 14:41 That was Jeffery. You know, this group of people who probably 14:45 doesn't have anything in common with you, you know, 14:49 so you prayed and suddenly you have not just five kids, 14:52 you have, you know, what six more added to that. 14:55 Yeah, that wasn't- and by the way 14:56 that wasn't just on the-- weekends, they would come over 14:58 three to four nights during the week 15:00 and I believe that we ended up studying 15:04 or talking about the word of God 15:06 for at least two to four hours each time. 15:07 At least. Now see for me and my business 15:09 and I look back on this with amazement 15:11 because I was already working major hours. 15:14 That's why I always headed to my home 15:16 is because I was working 18-20 hour days, 15:19 so when they came over, they took those two to four hours. 15:23 So what about 10 or 11 o'clock when they go home, 15:26 I went back to work. 15:28 Now somehow the Lord gave me the strength to continue, 15:31 I don't now if you ever knew that- Oh yes. 15:32 And I never said anything because it didn't matter, 15:35 the most important, I was on such a high about 15:38 what God was doing and giving me the opportunity 15:40 that He actually heard me, you know praying 15:42 and seeing something you like, 15:43 Ellen White says you know prayer gives God permission, 15:45 I gave him permission to do something 15:47 that he was aching to do. 15:49 And here we get is, we get these six people 15:51 that want to have Bible studies, 15:53 that blew me away and my wife made it very clear, 15:56 she says, you know what? 15:58 I want to make sure that these kids get treated 16:00 like the conference of our president gets treated. 16:03 With the utmost respect, 16:05 utmost respect and so that is the way we approached 16:07 that whole thing because they were that important. 16:09 And that's why we keep coming back 16:10 because they keep treating us like royalty. 16:12 And the food is not half a bad either- 16:14 How fervently your intensity while you're praying for that? 16:20 Oh man, you know, everyday, 16:23 when I got up and had my worship. 16:27 It was always for, I believe it was a desire 16:31 that Lord put in my heart, to desire 16:33 something more than what I had. 16:35 Because I am not a pew sitter, I've never been a pew sitter. 16:38 If I am not active, I feel like I am not, 16:40 I am just not doing what I was called to do. 16:43 And at that point in my life, I was getting so excited 16:47 about his whole thing that when it came about, 16:50 I was just blown away that God actually listen to me. 16:53 I mean I knew he did, I saw things happening, 16:55 but to see it happen, He actually heard me personally 16:59 and so that, with that the excitement 17:01 just kept driving forward and in course the reaction 17:04 and the things that happened during that time 17:06 were just evidence that He's working in their life too. 17:09 So Jay, you mention that you kept coming back 17:12 because they treated you so well, 17:13 there's some sort of drug in the orange juice 17:15 that they'll give to you. Yeah. 17:16 That kept you coming back for more. 17:18 I think it was the vegetarian manicotti. 17:20 There you go, that will be it. 17:21 That is Sherilyn's famous dish. Yeah. 17:23 No, honestly it's a-- combination of several things, 17:25 like I said you know, this was kind of a little bit 17:27 more of the nicer part of Anchorage I think, 17:29 we kind of lived in the, not so nice part of Anchorage. 17:31 So I was little intimated, 17:33 probably because of what my brother told me 17:34 before entering into your home. 17:35 And just because it was just such a proper home, 17:38 it was a godly home, a Christian home, 17:40 very foreign to my upbringing. 17:43 What I loved about the Johnson home 17:45 thou is that it was very, they're very genuine, 17:48 it was very natural, it was very-there was a lot of love, 17:51 if of course it was biblical, of course what I loved about, 17:54 what I loved about the way Michael was teaching 17:55 the Bible number one is that every thing, every question 17:58 that we had, he says, well let's see what the Bible says. 18:01 Let's see what the Bible says. 18:02 He never shared his own opinion and with the passion 18:04 that you shared it, it was just as contagious. 18:06 I am like wow. Here's an individual who is confident 18:10 of what he believes in and he's passionate about it. 18:12 And I said, kind of already know to myself, 18:15 I said, I wanna be like this some time. 18:17 And number three was the fellowship, 18:19 I think and the food actually, the food and the fellowship, 18:21 the combination of both. 18:22 Before we, before we go on to food and fellowship, 18:23 I just want to kind of ask a little bit 18:26 about the Bible studies, 18:27 you know this is not some thing 18:29 that's got great entertainment value, 18:32 you know, you read some of the stories 18:33 and they could be movies, 18:35 you know, they're pretty graphic, 18:36 but I mean this is some thing 18:38 that you had never read before. 18:39 No. So what did the Bible, 18:41 what do you think of the Bible, you know. 18:43 Well previously, I thought the Bible 18:44 was kind of like just Shakespeare, 18:46 stuff that you read, it's very rosy and poetic language 18:49 that has literally no applications to reality. 18:51 And I remember the very first Bible study 18:53 that you shared with us, Michael. 18:54 Do you remember what the first Bible study was? 18:55 I don't remember. He doesn't remember, 18:57 it was on the second coming of Christ. 18:59 In fact, I wanna read text. 19:00 Oh, it was a good choice, weren't they? 19:01 Yeah, it was a good choice. 19:03 John Chapter 14, in this Bible study 19:05 that he gave to us. 19:06 This was the verse I think that really 19:09 just brought us together and I said, at the conclusion 19:13 of your Bible study, of course I wasn't ready 19:14 to be baptized into the church, of course. 19:17 But I committed myself, I said, there is something 19:19 in this book and there is something in this family 19:23 that I need to, I need to discover. 19:25 What is that they have, what is that this book 19:27 has that I don't have, because it was obvious 19:29 that I was missing something. John 14 versus 1 to 3 says, 19:31 "Let not your heart be troubled; 19:32 you believe in God, believe also in Me. 19:34 In My Father's house are many mansions; 19:36 if it were not so, I would have told you. 19:38 I go to prepare a place for you. 19:39 And if I go and prepare a place for you,x 19:41 I will come again and receive you to Myself; 19:43 that where I am, there you may be also." 19:45 And I always thought to myself, wow, 19:47 God wants to dwell with me for eternity. 19:51 I thought well, that's so awesome and that's really 19:52 the first kind of taste that I had of the Bible. 19:56 So this is the first time that you thought 19:58 the Bible spoke to you? Yes. 20:00 Now this is, this is very interesting 20:01 and this is something I think, 20:03 you know, our viewer need to know and understand 20:05 is that, a lot of times we think that miracles 20:08 are what people need to see to have faith. 20:10 And we want to see miracles, because we want to believe, 20:13 but the Bible says that by, faith comes by hearing 20:17 and hearing by word of God. So when we read the Bible, 20:19 the truths of this word, of this book, we develop faith. 20:23 And you're saying that God wants to dwell with me, 20:27 and so you didn't get, you didn't get 20:28 a lot of entertainment value, but you got the Bible 20:31 and it spoke to you. 20:32 You know I didn't get entertainment value, 20:34 but I had a lot of fun. 20:36 It was a lot of fun going through these Bibles studies. 20:38 I look forward to going, I was in school, 20:42 I was in may be math class, algebra, 20:44 whatever it was. 20:45 And I was just thinking man, when is the bell gonna ring, 20:47 so I can meet with the rest of the guys, 20:48 so we can drive over to Resurrection Drive. 20:51 So meet with the Johnsons and it literally 20:53 just became part of our life, just going to their home. 20:56 And like I said it wasn't only the Bible studies, 20:58 but it was the fellowship. Well, tell us about the fellowship? 20:59 Well, this is the interesting thing is that first of all 21:03 you know, Michael, he's obviously Caucasian, 21:05 he's a white man and me, my brothers and even Dennis, 21:09 Howard and Jessica are of Latino background. 21:12 So obviously, you know, statistically speaking 21:15 it wasn't supposed to work out. 21:17 This experiment wasn't supposed to be successful. 21:19 Were you racist at all? 21:21 I wasn't racist, but I kind of you know well dressed, 21:24 you know Caucasian people, I just didn't know how 21:26 to relate with them, and my brothers 21:28 may be even had a harder time 21:30 than I did, but I just think it was so amazing 21:33 that in spite of our differences, 21:35 our cultural differences, our sociological differences, 21:38 somehow with the word of God, 21:40 these barriers were completely removed. 21:41 And I have to mention something 21:43 about Michael and his basketball playing. 21:46 You see there's a common belief that white man can't jump. 21:49 Well, Michael actually has disproved this theory, 21:52 because I remember when we challenged you 21:54 to play basketball for the first time 21:56 in front of your drive. Yeah. 21:57 Michael was wearing this really 21:59 funny basketball outfit, I cannot get into 22:01 that I don't want to embarrass him, 22:03 but he was playing and he literally beat 22:05 all of us and I thought to my self, how is this possible? 22:08 So the fact that you, you know, 22:10 you are willing to spend time with us really, 22:12 really he was a spiritual father to us. 22:14 He invested his time, his energy, you risk you know, 22:17 your business just to nurture the relationship 22:20 that God established between us 22:22 and not only was it a spiritual chemistry 22:24 that we had, but it was actually a social, 22:26 emotional connection that we had. 22:28 And I view Michael today as a father 22:30 and actually I just lost my father recently 22:32 so Michael is a very special individual 22:34 and Sherilyn of course is like another, another mom of mine. 22:37 So I think those dynamics of having solid biblical truth 22:41 and what I loves of all, like was a, he answered 22:43 everything with the Bible and he spoke the truth 22:46 and love but he spoke it passionately 22:48 and it came from your heart and on top 22:50 of that it was when the Bible studies 22:52 were over its almost as if the Bible studies continued 22:55 but now it was through your life, through your actions 22:58 and it was like, it was like there is no difference 23:01 between this Bible study 23:02 and spending time with Michael and family. 23:05 I honestly believe that I am a spoiled individual 23:08 because the lord chose the best family, 23:11 the lord shoes the best family for me, 23:13 my brothers and my bother's roommate so. 23:15 And so as you are spending time with these guys 23:18 is not just the Bible studies and more, 23:19 this is kind of little more than 23:21 we have prayed for probably. 23:22 Oh yeah, yeah its fully because my wife 23:24 and we go to play basketball and stuff like that, 23:27 my wife, I come back and she says, you know, she says, 23:30 you are not a teenager, do you, you are old enough 23:33 to be their father. She said, 23:35 "you got to, you got to settle down" and I- 23:37 And you started out with back pain. 23:38 Oh, yes, yes. Then and, and what's crazy 23:42 is its just they were like my kids but saw my self 23:47 as a kid and yeah I was older 23:50 but I have never seen myself as older. 23:52 You know I am creeping up on 49 years old next month 23:57 and I still play with high school kids out 24:00 at where my kids play and keeping up 24:03 with them playing full court, couple of hours, 24:06 twice a week and its one of those things that you know, 24:10 when it came to studying the word of god, 24:13 I don't even know how to explain it 24:14 but there was a youth that I felt then 24:18 and it was because of something that we shared, 24:21 I wasn't paying attention to, attention to it then, 24:24 they were fun to be around. 24:25 What a group of energetic people and so it just energies 24:31 me more and more. 24:32 I loved to have them come over, I didn't care 24:34 that they came over two to four hours. 24:36 The word of god is what I thoroughly loved 24:39 and I trusted in and to see what was going on there, 24:44 may be I couldn't answer all the questions 24:45 but that doesn't mean that it isn't happening 24:48 and you're not experiencing it in your life. 24:49 I've learned that, a lot of things I like to be able 24:52 to explain but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen 24:55 and so as I look at the product 24:57 of what standing here today. 24:59 It was what he took an he put into reality everyday 25:02 of his life because the same thing could have happened 25:05 that had they left the house and never studied it, 25:07 know nothing, where were they be, 25:09 it's a continuation of what they felt 25:12 and that's the true, the true test 25:15 I think of your trusting God. 25:17 And seeing it from their point of view, 25:20 you know, I wasn't even paying attention to that. 25:22 I just knew what I loved and the fact 25:24 that somebody wanted to sit and listen. 25:26 So you are just being who you were. 25:29 You were out there playing basketball 25:30 because you love to play basketball 25:32 and you could find some common ground 25:34 there but what's interesting 25:35 to me is that you didn't just spend an hour 25:38 giving a Bible study once a week. 25:40 You actually cared about these individuals, 25:42 you took them in as part of your family, 25:44 you know you played with them, you loved them, 25:46 you fed them, you gave them orange juice- 25:49 Without any mixture- Vegetarian manicotti. 25:51 Without any drugs in it. Right. 25:54 And so, what would you tell somebody 25:56 who wants to get involved in giving the Bible study, 25:58 but he's not really sure how they can relate, you know. 26:00 Well, if somebody wanted to give Bible studies, 26:03 the way I approached is pray about it. 26:05 That there are people that want help, 26:09 they're looking for answers and God 26:12 has an incredible way of bringing people together, 26:14 but prayer literally gives him permission and the results, 26:19 they will happen. 26:20 He's just waiting for someone who has that desire. 26:22 Okay, so I can summaries this, 26:24 you know, we tend to put entertainment up there, 26:28 but you're saying the-- Bible, intense Bible study, 26:31 fervent prayer and-- fellowship, the three things 26:34 that led Jay Rosario 26:36 here to be a converted Adventist preacher. Yeah. 26:39 Mike, I cannot tell you how happy 26:41 we are that you are able to come. 26:43 My pleasure. Blessed us with your presence 26:45 and may be those who have been watching 26:47 this program are wondering wow, we want to hear more. 26:49 Well, our next segment we're gonna 26:51 have more of Michael Johnson and more--little bit more 26:53 of how you can get involved with Bible study 26:55 as a personal devotional experience 26:58 and how you can actually give Bible studies 27:00 to other individuals. 27:01 May be you are a young person who has underestimated 27:04 the power of the word. 27:05 May be you come to the Bible, you wonder 27:06 what can this old book do to me, a modern day young person. 27:11 Well hopefully this program today has encouraged 27:13 you that the word of God has the potential 27:15 to change people one hindered percent. 27:18 I stand here as evidence that God 27:20 can change the heart of young people, and it's not just me, 27:23 it's me, my brothers and three of my brother's room mates. 27:26 We were finally baptized into 27:27 the Seventh-day Adventist church and all of us, 27:29 all six of us are now in full time ministry. Amen. 27:31 Nothing that we did, it's all the work of God. 27:34 And may be you're a young person and saying to yourself, 27:36 how can I get an experience like this. 27:38 My suggestion is to go to the word of God and say, 27:40 Lord I want you to be able to do exactly 27:43 what you did in the creation where You spoke 27:45 something out of nothing. 27:47 And I want you to speak something out 27:48 of the nothingness of my life. 27:49 So we want to encourage you to continue, 27:51 tune into this program because our next segment 27:53 is more exciting and is more practical. 27:55 God bless you and thank you 27:57 for joining us, till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17