Participants: Pr. Louis Torres
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000718
|
01:00 Welcome back to "Digging Up the Future,"
01:02 Bible Prophecy Exposed. 01:04 And we're excited this evening 01:06 to have Pastor Louis Torres with us again. 01:08 He's been going through 01:09 different Bible truths and prophecies. 01:12 You know, the Bible says they overcame them 01:14 by blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. 01:19 And tonight we're going to be hearing 01:20 Pastor Torres's personal testimony 01:23 and there's something about hearing a personal testimony. 01:25 How many of you enjoy hearing those personal testimonies 01:28 so what the Lord has done? 01:29 And I'm looking forward tonight 01:31 to having the Holy Spirit with us as Louis testifies 01:35 that the spirit would testify to our hearts. 01:37 How many of you want that to happen? 01:39 So let's just pray that, that will happen this evening. 01:41 Let's bow our heads. 01:42 Father is heaven, we're thankful 01:44 that there can be overcoming power by the blood of the Lamb 01:47 and that you can give us a testimony 01:49 that brings You all the glory and all the praise 01:53 and tonight as we hear this testimony. 01:55 As we hear this tribute to You, 01:58 we just ask that Your spirit would be with Pastor Torres 02:01 and with each person watching, each person here. 02:04 And we thank You 02:06 and we come in Your all powerful name, amen. 02:11 Well our special music tonight will be in just a moment, 02:14 before that let's stand together 02:15 and sing our theme song, Jesus is coming again 02:19 "Marvelous Message we bring." 02:25 Marvelous message we bring 02:28 Glorious carol we sing 02:32 Wonderful word of the King 02:36 Jesus is coming again 02:39 Coming again, coming again 02:46 Maybe morning, maybe noon 02:50 Maybe evening, but surely soon 02:54 Coming again, coming again 03:01 Oh what a wonderful day that will be 03:06 Jesus is coming again 03:14 Well, you sung so lovely, you can be seated. 03:16 And I've just been blessed as through this series 03:20 Chris Albrecht has been playing his trumpet. 03:23 How many of you been blessed by that? 03:25 And he's going to be playing a song 03:26 this evening entitled, "My Tribute." 06:52 Amen. 06:56 Let's pray together, shall we? 06:57 Our Father, as we spend time again 07:00 this time as I share the testimony 07:03 we pray Your spirit to be here present 07:07 when Your angels walk in these isles. 07:09 You know, God, what I share maybe 07:12 that which will lift up the hearts to You 07:15 and bring glory to Your name is my prayer in Jesus name, amen. 07:21 Have you ever felt like you wanted to feel complete? 07:32 In the scripture it has a text 07:34 and found in the Book of Colossians 07:37 and it's in 2:10. 07:41 I want you to notice the text that says, 07:43 "Ye are complete in him." And what? 07:49 "Ye are complete in Him." 07:56 When I was a young lad growing up in New York City, 08:02 I happened to be born in Puerto Rico 08:05 and my family was very poor. 08:08 My mother had to raise us up in New York City 08:13 after my dad had abandoned my mother 08:16 and then finally after my mother had remarried 08:22 that husband passed away. 08:25 And so it left my mother with six boys 08:27 and she had to raise us up in New York City by herself. 08:32 She also developed cancer 08:35 and she had arthritis and she had asthma. 08:37 So she was a very sick woman. 08:39 And there was always challenges at home. 08:47 And growing up poor 08:49 and especially growing up in the days of the west life story 08:57 where we happened to be Puerto Ricans 08:59 and there were Italians 09:00 and we always had war with another. 09:05 I pretty well got to the place 09:06 where I didn't feel like I amounted too much. 09:10 In fact I remember one time somebody coming up 09:14 and I was around 10 years old 09:18 and the man cleared his throat 09:20 like he has something horrible to get rid off 09:22 and spat in the gutter and said 09:25 why don't you go back where you came from. 09:32 I never knew that I was worth spittle 09:37 but it created in me a real crisis. 09:43 And I began to try to figure out somewhere 09:45 that I could become complete. 09:49 But how do you become complete? 09:52 Well, society makes you think that 09:55 in order for you to be satisfied 09:58 like you have really reached the, 10:01 the heights of what you want to accomplish 10:03 is you try to do something that you're good at 10:06 and therefore you can become complete. 10:09 So I did all sorts of things. 10:11 I remember thinking myself 10:13 if I could just become a good roller-skater. 10:15 In those days roller skates had the old metal wheels. 10:19 I don't know how many of you remembered the old metal wheels 10:21 roller skates with the ball bearings. 10:23 At first they didn't have ball bearings 10:25 but then they finally came out with ball bearings. 10:26 And you could really skate down the street. 10:29 Well, in New York City of course 10:30 there's no real safe place to skate. 10:32 So you had to become a pretty good skater 10:35 because you have to dash around the cars 10:37 as they would come down the street, you understand. 10:40 And in those days cars were 10:41 a lot heavier than they are today. 10:44 Do you know what I'm saying? 10:45 In those days cars-- 10:47 when you got hit by a car you know you got hit by a car. 10:50 And so the important thing was 10:52 to always do the escape and evasion. 10:55 So we learned to skate quite, quite well. 10:58 I remember going down the street 11:00 in a eagle form you know, 11:02 and doing all sorts of wonderful tricks 11:04 and jumping over sewer hole, manholes and all of that 11:06 and I thought, boy, if I could just-- 11:09 then I got the bright idea. 11:11 I thought, man, if I could just learn to fly 11:14 while I'm roller skating. 11:16 And so I got myself some garbage can tops. 11:19 The old zinc garbage can tops. 11:22 And I thought, if I could just skate as fast as I could 11:25 and finally jump up in the air I could start taking my flight. 11:29 Well, I was discovered that, that didn't worked that way. 11:34 Then I got into trampolining 11:37 and I thought if I could just become a real ace trampolines 11:40 then I would feel complete. 11:42 And I remember finally getting the opportunity 11:45 to do a double somersault. 11:48 You know, most people do one but if you can get to do a two 11:52 well, then you're going pretty good. 11:53 So I remember doing a double somersault 11:55 and I could recall getting so close to the mat 11:59 my hair getting so close to the mat 12:01 and I thought to myself I'll never try that again. 12:03 Because the idea is this 12:04 if your head gets caught on the mat 12:07 while you're doing a somersault guess what, you're gone. 12:10 So I accomplished defeat and decided 12:13 that's good enough for me, I need to do something else. 12:16 Then by this time I was beginning to notice girls. 12:22 And I thought that 12:25 since the others didn't made me complete 12:27 maybe this will make me complete, do you understand? 12:30 if I could just get a pretty girl in a school 12:33 I would be complete? 12:34 And I did get myself a girlfriend 12:37 and she was quite an attractive young lady. 12:39 In fact I thought quite honored that she became my girlfriend. 12:43 And I used to walk with her with 12:44 you know, her arm in my arm. 12:47 And I used to see the other guys looking at me 12:49 and I used to think to myself, eat your heart out, guys. 12:55 Well, I thought that maybe complete 12:57 but I discovered when summertime came 13:02 that she found somebody else. 13:06 And the worst of it was this 13:08 summertime came, school ended, you know. 13:10 So that means we wouldn't see each other everyday. 13:12 And then she broke off with me to go with another guy. 13:14 And then there was a rock and roll song 13:16 that became popular during the summer, 13:18 in that particular summer. 13:20 And the words were this, 13:21 "Yes, it's going to be a cool lonely summer." 13:25 And every time I heard that song what do you think I did? 13:28 I just cried to think that I lost my completeness. 13:36 I finally decided that maybe girls were not the answer 13:41 and I noticed by this time that 13:44 rock and roll had already gotten popular. 13:50 And I also noticed that people who were rock and rollers, 13:54 looked like they were complete. 13:57 They had everything, girls were scream at them 13:59 and you know people would yell at them 14:03 and they had their cars and they had their tuxedos 14:05 and all these things and I thought, 14:07 "All right, well, man, if I can just become 14:10 a rock roll musician then I would be complete." 14:14 So I began to try to sing 14:16 and unfortunately because I was very poor 14:19 we had no means of getting music lessons or anything 14:22 and so when I began to try to put a group together 14:25 I remember they called me bitter tone 14:29 rather than better tone. 14:32 But I decided to continue 14:34 and then until finally I learned to sing harmony 14:37 and not before long by the time I was 13, 14:40 we had our own group called Danny and the Twilights. 14:43 And now we had a manager and sure enough 14:46 we had our own car with our name written 14:48 on each side of it and short skin suites. 14:52 I don't know how many of you have, 14:54 ever had short skinned suits. 14:55 And for those of you who are dinosaur aged 14:57 you remember those things, don't you? 15:03 Our manager was so proud of us 15:05 we're little tykes but we could sing. 15:08 And we began to accelerate very quickly 15:12 in popularity in Brooklyn, New York. 15:14 And then we were taken up to the Bronx. 15:17 We sang at the Puerto Rican casino 15:19 then we sang at the Copacabana there, 15:22 the Cuban Copacabana in Manhattan 15:27 and we were going places. 15:30 And I remember when our practice hall was the-- 15:35 the entrance to the subway in the New York City. 15:38 If you want an excellent echo chamber 15:40 that's were you have to go. 15:42 Because you could sing like frogs 15:45 but inside the echo chamber, you sounded like a prince. 15:48 And so we were going there and we would practice. 15:51 Well, we didn't realized however 15:53 that by practicing in the subway entrance 15:56 that people were coming up and down 15:58 and we just got lot of contracts 16:01 just from people who heard us sing 16:02 and they were so impressed with our singing 16:04 that they want us to sing. 16:05 Well, they had to contact our manager 16:07 and we would get booked 16:09 and we would perform in different places. 16:12 But unbeknownst to us 16:14 along with the popularity and along with all that, 16:18 that show business brought other things came. 16:24 Danny who had quite the voice, 16:27 Danny had such a golden voice that Count Basie. 16:31 I mean I'm calling up names and some of you may recognize 16:35 and some of you may not recognize 16:36 especially overseas or wherever the viewers are. 16:40 Count Basie is the famous jazz musician. 16:43 Anyway he was acquainted with Danny 16:46 and wanted Danny to leave us and go with him. 16:49 Fortunately, Danny never did go with him 16:51 because we were very close friends and we stayed together. 16:54 Danny had such a voice, 16:56 one of the songs that he loved to sing was called "Valerie." 16:58 And that particular song was of a person whose girl left 17:03 and he was brokenhearted 17:05 and he's crying for her to comeback. 17:06 And so he takes out the handkerchief 17:08 and he's down on his kneels and he's crying in the song 17:12 and of course you can see all the girls 17:13 just weeping and wailing 17:14 because Danny has weeping over girl that has been lost. 17:19 We had the ability to sing in such a way 17:23 and he had such a magnificent voice 17:26 that when he sang you could hear him for long ways. 17:31 Well, Danny got involved also with drugs. 17:36 And by the time he was 15, 17:38 we found him overdosed in front of his house. 17:43 So he was gone. 17:46 It was devastating to us because we knew 17:51 that we could never find another voice like Danny's. 17:56 Well, it was resilient and we decided to continue to sing 18:01 and we started or formed-- 18:04 there was another group and we joined together 18:06 and that group then became the "Vampires." 18:10 So, the Vampires actually dressed like vampires 18:16 keep in all, our car was a funeral hurst. 18:20 And everything about us was vampires. 18:24 Even this-- notice, the white on the sides there. 18:29 We'd a white spray paint that you get you know, 18:31 hair spray or you can spray white and comb 18:33 and then look like we had white hair. 18:36 Everything was supposed to kind of look vampires. 18:39 Well, we had a manager with this group 18:42 and that manager was a very well known in New York City 18:46 because he happened to be what is called as Borough president. 18:49 In New York City there are five Borough's, 18:51 Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island. 18:55 And he happens to be 18:56 the Borough president of Brooklyn. 18:58 And because of that he'd connections with City Hall 19:01 and he'd connections with politicians. 19:03 And as a result then we had 19:05 a lot of wonderful opportunities to perform. 19:09 I remember one time that he took us to the Waldorf Astoria 19:13 now, I don't know how many of you have 19:15 heard of that Waldorf Astoria. 19:17 It's a well known hotel in New York City 19:19 and it's pretty pricy to stay in that. 19:23 We then did performance for 19:25 all that the city officials at that time 19:28 and I remember we'd eight go-go girls with us 19:31 and we were performing 19:33 and Larry Desmond, our manager then finally 19:37 after the performance they took us upstairs to the penthouse. 19:41 And up there I remember the girls 19:42 owing and awing about some handsome Hispanic. 19:46 And I didn't know who it was 19:47 and finally discovered it was a guy named Placido Domingo. 19:52 Any of you have ever heard of that name? 19:55 And so we were constantly finding ourselves in arenas 19:59 with people who were famous etcetera. 20:02 And so I was thinking, "Man, I'm on top of the world." 20:07 Do you understand what I'm saying? 20:09 Here we have a manager and we have all the connections. 20:12 We began to record records. 20:13 You know, in those days if you really wanted to be 20:16 on top of the world you have to record a record. 20:19 And so we began to record, we recorded our first record, 20:22 we record our second record and things were going, 20:25 going quite well for us 20:27 except that along with that as well came the drugs. 20:33 One of the boys Tony, he was a Boy Scout director 20:38 always he'd never smoked and never drank etcetera 20:40 till he join our band, our group. 20:44 And unfortunately the last time my brother saw him, 20:47 he said that he was so, what is called spaced out 20:51 that he was so drugged up 20:52 that he didn't seemed to recognize anyone. 20:56 Sad to say, that along with all the glee 21:00 and all the glitter came things we had not bargained for. 21:07 Well, one of the problems we'd was that drugs took their toll 21:11 and so after loosing two boys, 21:13 we finally ended up with four of us. 21:16 And so it did mean that 21:19 we didn't continue in those practices 21:22 it just means simply that 21:24 we just were able to hang together. 21:29 By this time now, we are pretty upset with, 21:33 the fact that we had three managers. 21:38 We had the first manager, the assistant manager 21:40 and the booking agent. 21:42 And some people complain about God's plan 21:45 for example for offering some tithes. 21:49 How many of you have heard of tithing? Okay. 21:51 Some people say, boy, tithing is so stiff. 21:54 Well, listen if you thing that's bad go in show business. 21:57 Our manager we paid 20%, the other manager we paid 10% 22:02 and the booking agent we paid 20%. 22:04 So how much were we paying out? 22:06 We are paying 50% of our income just to have managers. 22:10 So when I became a Christian, discovered God only wanted 10% 22:13 I thought, man, that's a deal. 22:18 So, we had finally decided, 22:22 we got to have get rid of our manager 22:24 because all our money was going out for managers 22:26 and we didn't realize that, the equipment belonged to him. 22:30 Somehow we knew it but we forgot about it. 22:32 And when we broke off our relationship with him 22:37 he kept all our equipments. 22:38 So we were without equipments. 22:42 So in the club we were performing at that time 22:47 we told the owner that we couldn't perform any longer. 22:50 He said, "why not?" 22:52 We don't have any equipment. 22:53 He said, "Well, we'll take care of that, 22:54 tomorrow come and meet with me 22:55 and I will take you some place." 22:57 So the next day we went with him, 22:58 he took us some place. 22:59 When we went to his club, we could see along the walls, 23:03 pictures of famous people. 23:05 One of the first pictures I saw was Frank Sinatra. 23:07 Many of you probably remember or heard of Frank Sinatra. 23:11 We saw other pictures of boxers etcetera. 23:14 Most of them were Italians that were along the wall 23:18 and it turned out then that he-- 23:20 they introduced us to this gentleman 23:22 who had a big cigar and came up to us and said, 23:25 "Boys, I understand you got a problem." 23:27 Oh, yes. 23:28 "Well, we'll fix that for you, boys." 23:30 He had this big cigar and he said, 23:32 "I am Godfather for arena for you." 23:34 Nicky was his name. 23:35 And so that became our Godfather. 23:40 Then he said "We'll take you and get your stuff." 23:43 So they took us, he took us over to a music shop Sam Ash 23:47 which was a very popular music store 23:49 right there on 45th street Manhattan 23:52 and he said "boys, whatever you want, go and get." 23:54 We couldn't believe that. "Are you sure?" 23:56 "Yes, go ahead, get whatever you want." 23:57 We went crazy like kids in the Christmas story, 24:00 you understand? 24:01 And we took everything we thought and then he said, 24:04 "Doesn't look like you have enough." 24:06 Well, we'd all that we needed. 24:08 He said, "Well, go ahead and make sure." 24:09 And so we went and got some more stuff. 24:11 Anyway then he said, "Are you finished?" 24:13 Yeah, we're finished. 24:14 And we'd never seen so much money at one time. 24:17 He took out a lot of money, all of his-- 24:20 a ward, out of his pocket 24:22 and just counted it out and paid it cash. 24:26 Our mouths were open because now we'd hit it rich. 24:31 You understand what I'm saying? We were in it now. 24:35 Well, he took us back to that club and he said, 24:37 "Okay boys, now you gonna 24:39 need to sign a little piece of paper." 24:41 And so we singed a little piece of paper. 24:43 It was a contract and the name of the people 24:48 that we sign the contract with was called "The Association." 24:55 And I think most of you recognize 24:57 what that means, right? 24:59 And so now we were 25:00 under the protectorship of The Association. 25:04 The other name-- known name, the Mafia. 25:09 Well, it was all right we thought. 25:13 Now we have all the protection we want 25:15 and we can do everything we want 25:16 and we can really, really stay high. 25:18 If they protect and they support these other people 25:21 then certainly they can support us 25:23 and we'll go as high as they've gone. 25:26 Remember now, I'm trying to find how I can be what? 25:30 Complete. 25:31 And so in my pursuit of becoming complete, 25:34 I was willing to sacrifice a lot of things 25:36 that otherwise I would have never sacrificed. 25:38 And that's what happens to us. 25:40 We tried to find completeness 25:42 and we think we could find it in this and that 25:44 and we're willing to sacrifice anything to accomplish it, 25:48 to get it, is that true? 25:50 Many many people sacrifice principles and morals 25:53 just to find what they think is completeness 25:56 only to discover that 25:58 you cannot find completeness in those things. 26:01 Well, I didn't know that. 26:02 So we're performing in this clubs 26:05 but things are going down, I see what's happening, 26:09 I'm getting concerned 26:10 because my brother told me one time, 26:13 never get involve with that group 26:15 because once your in you can't get out. 26:17 Well, I understood that but the popularity, 26:23 the protection and everything that came with it, 26:24 we thought it was great. 26:26 But I began to get more and more concerned 26:28 and the thing about it is this, 26:30 that while we were performing and everything was going great, 26:35 I felt complete until I went to the motel room. 26:40 And It was those moments, when you buy yourself 26:43 that you begin to kind of reflect 26:45 and think to yourself, what am I doing here? 26:49 I felt there was something missing 26:50 and I didn't know what it was. 26:52 But I didn't think that it was religion 26:55 because prior to my get into the show business 26:59 I remember that I had Jewish kids, 27:02 they took me to the synagogue 27:03 but they only took me to the synagogue 27:05 to teach me how they could get drunk for free. 27:10 The next door neighbor boy, was the alter boy 27:13 and he had the filthiest mouth on the block. 27:16 And unfortunately the priest used to invite my friends 27:20 and you understand the rest of the story. 27:23 And so I got to the place where I thought 27:26 religion was for people who are ugly or old. 27:32 If you are ugly or old you can't really 27:34 get with it out in the world, 27:36 so you might as well go the Church. 27:39 So that's what I thought. 27:43 I didn't liked the environment 27:45 and finally we were performing 27:47 in a night club upstate New York. 27:50 It was about Christmas time, 27:51 the boys wanted to go back to our home club 27:53 which was nugget I didn't want to go back there. 27:56 So I threatened them, I said, 27:58 "if you go back I will quit." 27:59 I thought I was so important to them, 28:01 they wouldn't go back there, you understand. 28:03 Well, they were just as proud as I was. 28:04 And they said "Fine, you want to quit then quit 28:06 we we're going back." 28:08 Well, it shocked me. 28:10 And they then went to the club and then what they did was 28:15 they confiscated my equipment 28:17 to force me to performing in the clubs. 28:19 So I gave them two weeks. 28:20 I said "Okay, I'll give you two weeks 28:21 and then you'll need to find somebody else." 28:23 And that's what I did, I quit. 28:25 And by that time I was so angry on that what they did to me, 28:27 take my equipment and try to force me to play. 28:30 Then I said, "Okay, I'm done with you guys." 28:33 Well, its one thing to get angry and make a decision 28:36 it's another things what do you do now? 28:38 Do you understand? 28:40 All my completeness went down the drain. 28:42 Now I was not performing, now I was with no one. 28:45 So one night I was in a night club, Greenwich Village 28:48 visiting a friend of mine who is performing 28:50 and at the break I noticed somebody came, 28:53 was talking to him and he was pointing toward my direction. 28:56 So this fellow came up to me and he said to me, 28:59 "I understand you're good bass player." 29:01 Well, what about it. 29:02 He said, "Well, we're looking for someone 29:05 for Bill Haley & His Comets. 29:07 Now when I was performing as a bass player, 29:11 here is a shot of us performing in the nugget. 29:16 There I'm playing bass guitar. 29:18 Tony is playing at most right which is dual neck guitar. 29:22 So you have a six strings and 12 string 29:24 and Mandy playing the 12 string rhythm guitar. 29:31 You see our equipment behind there, 29:32 that's the equipment that was bought for us 29:34 by The Association and so we're going places. 29:39 I got to the place where I could do a solo in the split. 29:44 So I would go into a split 29:46 and then I put the bass guitar behind my neck 29:48 and the guys could stand astride. 29:50 And I would go underneath them 29:51 while I'm playing this bass solo. 29:53 So I became pretty professional in utilizing the instruments 29:57 and also I was the one 29:59 who organized the harmony for the group etcetera. 30:02 Well, when this gentleman said, 30:04 "I understand you play at pretty good place." 30:05 I told him, "You're correct. How did you know that?" 30:09 Well, I've been told that pretty good bass player 30:12 and if you want to play with the Comet 30:14 we like to audition you. 30:15 Well, I didn't believe it 30:16 because in New York City there are lot of phony's. 30:19 A lot people a lot of people will offer you the world. 30:20 Brooklyn Bridge has been sold many times to foreigners. 30:23 Do you understand what I'm saying? 30:24 And so I was cautious but he said, 30:28 "If you want the opportunity you can have it." 30:31 So, what do I have to do? 30:32 "Well, tomorrow you meet with me and we'll audition." 30:35 Well, the next day I went and in the audition, 30:37 "Can you play this?" Yes. 30:39 "Can you play that? Can you play this?" 30:40 "Can you play that?" Yes, I could play everything. 30:42 And so finally I was on. I couldn't believe it. 30:45 To all of a sudden take a jump from a group 30:51 that was performing just around New York City 30:53 and some other states up to a group 30:56 that was well known around the world. 30:58 How many of you remember Bill Haley & His Comets, okay. 31:00 And so, now I'm part of the Comets. 31:05 I remember the first time meeting Bill. 31:08 Bill was a very kind of reclusive individual. 31:13 We rarely saw him during day time. 31:15 We only saw him when we got together in the dressing room 31:19 and talked about what needed to take place, 31:22 and what we're going to perform. 31:24 By this time, I was doing the solo, 31:27 singing this song 'La bamba.' 31:29 I don't know how many of you remember any of those songs. 31:31 And so now we're performing. 31:34 I was a soloist as well as the bass player for the Comets. 31:39 I thought now I would be complete. 31:44 And I thought by joining the Comets 31:46 things would be better because life would be better 31:48 with a higher group of higher caliber etcetera. 31:52 But I discovered to my amazement that 31:55 it didn't workout the way thought. 31:57 Here's a newspaper clipping 31:58 of one of the performances that we did. 32:00 If you notice I'm over here. 32:02 And they used to call me Louie. 32:04 Do you see that, Louie Torres. 32:07 As we were performing-- 32:10 while we were performing there was the acceleration. 32:12 It was excitement but still there was something missing. 32:15 And I could not understand what it was. 32:18 I thought the fact just have more girls 32:19 if I just have more drugs or if I had more liquor. 32:23 If I had more activity, if I had more money, 32:26 if I had more dress. 32:28 Something has to hit it but nothing ever did. 32:31 No matter how high you went 32:32 you always felt you had to go higher. 32:34 No matter how much activity you did, 32:36 you always to feel like you'd to do more activity. 32:39 There was never enough, there was always something missing 32:43 and I had no understanding what it was. 32:46 But you feel like this is life 32:48 you do the best you can with it. 32:50 And so you live it and that's the way I felt. 32:55 Then of course in performing with the Comets 32:57 I discovered that that the drug problem was there as well. 33:01 One of the fellows I won't tell you who 33:03 but one of the fellows had a $200 a day drug habit. 33:07 Now I'm speaking about 1966, 1967, 1968-- $200 per day. 33:15 He was so skinny as he kept on using the drugs 33:18 he just get skinnier and skinnier 33:20 that the tuxedos, we had to actually straight pin them. 33:23 You know, we get straight pin 33:25 and in the back we would pull it together 33:27 and then put straight pins up the back of his coat. 33:30 And he would button in the front 33:31 so it looked like it fit him. 33:33 But reality he'd all the straight pins 33:35 in the back of his tuxedo. 33:36 Well, nobody knew that 33:37 because he never gave his back to the audience. 33:39 But that helps you to understand how glorious it was 33:42 for us to be in show business. 33:44 Most people will not tell you the truth 33:45 but I'm telling you the truth, living in suitcases 33:48 and living that kind of life is full budge. 33:53 And you know even we should on them. 33:55 Anyway it was a highlife, 33:57 it seemed to be the way to feel complete 34:00 but I found myself, my morals had changed. 34:03 They'd corrupted by my whole thinking process 34:06 everything that I did I became self-centered, 34:08 I became hard and callous. 34:11 Everything that I never thought I would ever become I became 34:14 while I was in show business. 34:16 And I didn't like it 34:17 but I didn't know that there was a way out. 34:19 Well, we then took a vacation. 34:26 We were gonna go on a world tour with the Comets 34:30 and we were going to compete against The Beatles. 34:32 Any of you remember The Beatles? 34:34 The Beatles had written some article 34:36 that was derogatory of our musicianship 34:38 and so we decided that we gonna go compete with them 34:41 and demonstrate who could play better. 34:45 Bang Bang, our drummer was the one 34:47 who had done the drums solo for the song Caravan. 34:52 I don't know if any of you remember that song 34:54 with that drum solo, that was Bang Bang. 34:56 Rudy Pompilli was the saxophone player. 34:58 He was the one who had done the Yakety Sax 35:01 one of those old songs if you remember that. 35:04 And so we had some excellent musicians with us. 35:07 And so we're looking forward to that. 35:09 However we took a vacation and when I got home 35:12 I want to get comfortable only to discover 35:15 that I could not open the door completely. 35:17 And so I tried to push myself 35:19 and see what was behind the door 35:21 I discovered that my brother Willie 35:24 was on his knees, praying. 35:26 And that spooked me 35:28 because I had never seen my brother praying. 35:32 We grew up as tough boys in the yard. 35:34 My brother was the Vice President, 35:37 pardon me, the President 35:38 of the largest gang in the New York City, 35:41 The Dragons, the Puerto Rican gang. 35:43 My other brother was into terrorism. 35:45 What I'm telling you is that 35:47 we were into all sorts of things. 35:51 And we respected mother, she had her real ways, 35:55 she would always go and I remember her 35:57 when I was a young lad 35:59 one of us always had to go with her to shop 36:02 because she had arthritis and she had asthma. 36:04 And so to carry her stuff for her 36:06 but when the sirens would sing-- 36:09 with sound at noon day in the New York 36:11 because of the fear of an atomic bomb falling, 36:16 she would stop as soon as the siren would ring 36:18 its was mid-- noon day. 36:20 You know what she would do? 36:21 She would lift up her hands up to the sky like this, 36:24 right there in the streets and she begin to pray for us. 36:30 ( speaking foreign language ) 36:31 I will never forget her voice. 36:33 My God, take care of my boys 36:35 and she'd mentioned each one of us by name. 36:38 ( speaking foreign language ) 36:40 She would go down and we would act like we didn't know her, 36:43 look in the store it's so fun. 36:45 You understand what I'm saying. 36:47 Now I regreted I did that but you understand 36:49 when you're ignorant, you're ignorant, 36:50 isn't that true? 36:52 You don't know any better, you don't know any better. 36:53 Well, my brother is praying. 36:56 So I go to my mother and said, 36:57 "What in the worlds happened to him?" 37:00 "Oh, leave him alone, he's religions." 37:02 So he comes and he comes to talk to me about God. 37:06 You know like Jesus and I got so upset with him. 37:10 I said "Look, you have to keep it yourself. 37:12 Don't talk to me about it." 37:13 Well, you don't understand. 37:14 I understand, if you keep on talking we gonna have to fight. 37:17 So he left me alone. 37:19 Well, few days later, my oldest brother shows up. 37:23 And he says to me I'm gonna get baptized. 37:28 And I want you to come to the baptismal service. 37:31 I don't know what he was talking about. 37:32 "You gonna get baptized." He's talking about God. 37:36 And because he was the oldest brother and had left school 37:41 and went to work to support us 37:42 we always respected him as the eldest brother. 37:45 Do you understand? And so I respect then. 37:47 I went, when I arrived at the church 37:50 I'll never forget, I had the Tommy John shirt. 37:53 I don't know how many of you remember, 37:55 Tommy John shirt was kind of open up in the front, 37:56 tear down to almost the belly button 37:58 you know, to show how much are you wearing. 38:00 Do you know understand what I'm saying? 38:01 And then it had kind of like a bloomer sleeve 38:03 and I'd bell bottom hip hugger rainbow color palsy, okay. 38:09 And I'd hair down to my shoulders 38:11 and I had ring on every finger 38:13 and so I came with my showbiz best. 38:17 And when I entered into the church, 38:26 I'm glad the Lord had mercy on me. 38:31 Think about it, friends, 38:32 if I felt so uncomfortable there in that audience, 38:35 what would had happened 38:36 if the Lord had taken me directly to heaven? 38:40 So I kind of shrunk into the seat pew and watched. 38:46 Well, the ministry took my sister-in-law 38:49 and she was gonna get baptized 38:51 and put her in the water and came up, 38:53 out of the water again and she was crying. 38:55 I remember thinking to myself, 38:57 "Silly woman, they always cry about nothing." 39:00 And then my brother stood there and he said some words 39:03 and put my brother under water and bring him up again 39:04 and my brother is crying and that troubled me. 39:07 I'd never seen my brother cry, never. 39:10 One time two guys caught him, 39:11 three guys actually from the opposite gang. 39:13 And while two guys held their, his arms, 39:16 the other guy just punched away on his face. 39:18 And even though he'd a bloody lip 39:20 and a bloody nose, no tear. 39:22 Somehow he got loose from this guy 39:24 and with one blow he knocked out that other fellow 39:26 and the two guys ran off. 39:27 Then the next day, my brother got win 39:30 that fellow who was punching at him 39:32 that was so embarrassed as my brother knocked him out 39:35 was looking to kill my brother. 39:36 So my brother had a little knife, 39:38 a little Japanese knife and went looking for the guy, 39:41 caught him up in the rooftop. 39:43 The fellow had a gun and my brother had a knife. 39:45 My brother said, "Okay, 39:46 we'll see who comes out of this one." 39:49 The guy threw his gun away and begged for his life. 39:52 That was the brother who was in the baptistery, crying. 39:57 And I could not understand that 40:00 because we grew up as young men who don't cry. 40:04 Men, don't what? Don't cry. 40:08 And I began to think, could they have found God? 40:16 There was something different about that. 40:18 They were reading the Bible, they were praying, 40:22 they weren't cursing anymore, 40:24 one after woman, not anymore. 40:26 No longer in wild activities, 40:29 they were happy going to church. 40:31 And I just couldn't thought that. 40:33 How can they be happy going to church? 40:35 How could they be happy? 40:39 You have to drink, you have smoke, 40:42 you have to do something to be happy. 40:45 How can you sit down and read that book and find happiness? 40:48 Well, beyond my comprehension. 40:50 But there was something that troubled me about this thing. 40:55 Could they have found God? 40:57 You see, when I was with the Vampires, 40:59 we had a drug party and in that drug party 41:05 while everybody was intoxicated. 41:06 We had four apartments upstairs on top of building 41:10 that we have rented and we'd 50 motorcyclists 41:12 that came like the Hells Angels to follow us around. 41:17 And when everybody was intoxicated, 41:20 somebody raise the question, who was God? 41:23 And we spent the whole night talking about God. 41:25 And I remember feeling so weird so strange about this. 41:29 Here we are all drugged up and we're talking about who? 41:32 God, we're trying to find out who God is. 41:35 And I remember the discussion as they were well today. 41:39 And when I left that place, I was afraid 41:43 because I thought if there's a God, I'm in trouble. 41:47 And I don't want to keep that thought in my mind. 41:50 So, here I'm confronted with it again. 41:53 My brother is baptized, he's crying, 41:55 as he comes out of the pool, in front of all those people, 41:57 200 people, he's crying. 41:59 I can't understand it. I'm home now. 42:02 And I'm thinking about this whole thing 42:03 and I began to feel like I was been pursued. 42:06 Do you understand what I'm saying? 42:07 And I wanted to escape, I wanted to get out of here. 42:09 But also I felt, if there is a God 42:11 and I'm running, He'll know I'm running 42:13 so how could I get out of this 42:15 without Him thinking I'm running? 42:18 Well, finally it was time to go 42:22 and I said, okay, well, I have to go, 42:23 the time is up and he can't get upset with me, you see. 42:27 Well, I got a telephone call, it's been postponed. 42:31 I felt I was trapped. 42:33 Then I realized I was gonna have to face it. 42:35 So I decided, all right, I am gonna test this. 42:42 Because I began to think, I wish I could be like him, 42:45 secretly, I never told him that 42:46 but I wish I could be like him. 42:48 I wish I could get rid of all this stuff 42:50 that think I have to do in order to be happy. 42:53 I wish I could find the happiness that they have. 42:56 But you know human pride doesn't allow you 42:59 to be honest with yourself, isn't that true? 43:01 You may feel a deep need. 43:04 And so I decided to go to a dance 43:07 and when I got to the dance it was at the Saint George Hotel 43:10 there in Brooklyn, New York. 43:12 There were nine bands playing right after the other, 43:14 nonstop music and I began to dance. 43:17 I was a professional dancer 43:18 and here I was on the dance floor doing the-- 43:22 in those days, the monkey, the chicken, 43:23 the dog, the waddle and those were the names. 43:26 And all those names mean that person who is doing it 43:29 would act like monkey or act like a chicken 43:31 or waddle like a duck, you like a duck waddles 43:35 or acting like a dog in heat, okay. 43:38 And this was the most immoral dance there was. 43:42 But anyway here all these people-- 43:45 by the way in those days 43:46 their hair-do was of course the beehive. 43:48 Any of you remember the beehive? 43:49 Came up like that like a beehive. 43:52 And so here are all these young people dancing 43:54 and jumping up and down and all. 43:56 finally I got tired, I got up to the balcony 43:58 and decided to look over to see 44:00 another girl I could find to dance with. 44:02 And as I'm looking over the dance floor 44:03 all of sudden I'm seeing in these people 44:05 you know, jumping up and down, 44:07 some like a monkey's and some like chickens 44:09 and some like ducks and-- 44:11 and all of a sudden it struck me, that's living? 44:23 It's as if though my eyes were open. 44:27 I was disgusted. 44:32 And even more so to think that I was down there with them 44:39 playing the role, acting like I was happy 44:44 when in reality I knew there was something missing. 44:49 And then I thought to myself I saw evolution in reverse. 44:53 Here intelligent, nice looking young peoples 44:57 thinking that in order to be happy 45:00 you have to lower yourself to be an animal. 45:07 And then I looked up to the ceiling 45:10 and I said, "God, if you're there 45:14 do for me what you've done for my brothers. 45:18 I don't want to continue this way anymore." 45:21 But I didn't know what really what I was doing. 45:25 It is one thing to make that decision 45:27 it's another thing to know what you'll do next. 45:29 I went home and when I got home, 45:34 my miserable life came before me. 45:37 Friends, it's an awful thing to stand as if though 45:41 you're before that judge of all the all universe. 45:45 Someone you can't hide from, 45:48 someone who knows all that you have ever done. 45:51 And I had never felt 45:53 or experienced something like that before. 45:56 But as I began to think it seemed like 45:58 my whole life is coming before me. 46:00 All the measurable things, all the wicked things, 46:03 how hard I have become 46:04 and how deep I've got into drugs etcetera. 46:08 And I began to pray, it's all I can say. 46:13 I don't know I was praying at that time 46:15 but I began to talk to God 46:18 and I asked Him, "God, change me, help me." 46:22 And as I was praying all of a sudden 46:25 I felt something wet coming down my face 46:27 something warm and wet and I'd never-- 46:30 I mean, it'd been years since I've ever cried. 46:33 Do you understand? 46:35 And as I feel something wet 46:37 I touched my face to find out what's going on. 46:39 And I looked its tears, I'm crying. 46:43 Then I realized it was 46:46 as if though I'd been dead all this time. 46:49 And for the first time I was feeling 46:54 and as I began to feel 46:57 there seemed to be peace that came over me, 47:00 such a sweet peace. 47:03 And then I realized that I'd all these habits 47:08 and I said, "Oh God, take them from me." 47:16 And when I stood up there was this sense that came over me 47:24 that it was all gone. 47:29 And as I looked back from that second 47:33 and I felt like it was like gone. 47:35 To this day I've never felt the desire 47:39 for marijuana, for drugs, 47:43 for alcohol or any of those things. 47:47 I was free instantly. 47:53 My friends, I needed that evidence 47:58 that there was a God in heaven that could hear 48:02 and not just hears but answer prayers. 48:06 What do you say? I needed that. 48:10 And then I went to look at myself in the mirror. 48:14 And as I looked at the mirror and saw myself there, 48:16 I couldn't believe it how far I'd fallen 48:20 from what I used to be as a boy. 48:25 I had saw my long hair, it was ashamed. 48:30 I remember my mother use to be ashamed 48:33 that I would dress like that, but I didn't care. 48:38 I remember I used to promise mother 48:39 that I would buy her a house and all that. 48:41 I forgot all about her. 48:44 I became so self-centered, so lost 48:47 in my quest to feel complete. 48:51 And finally, as I opened my heart to the Lord 48:57 it was the first time in my life that I felt complete. 49:06 I called the Comets and quit. 49:07 They didn't understand, why. 49:09 I didn't know how to explain it to them. 49:11 How do you tell somebody that, that God has changed your life 49:14 when they don't even know, what that means? 49:17 And so if you on the website Bill Haley & The Comets, 49:21 this is what they say about me. 49:24 "Lou Torres, Puerto Rico-born, musician who replaced Al Rappa 49:28 on bass guitar for a tour in late 1967 and 1968. 49:32 Prior to working with Haley, 49:34 Torres was member of a group called The Vampires. 49:38 Around his time with The Comets, 49:40 Torres found what? Religion. 49:45 Around his time with The Comets, 49:47 Torres found what? Religion." 49:50 They don't understand. They did not know. 49:53 All they heard was that I became what, religious. 49:57 Friends, I didn't become religious, 49:59 I became converted. 50:02 There is a difference, what do you say? 50:04 Amen. 50:05 There's a great difference. 50:08 "Well, assisted today in his 50's, 50:11 he is an Adventist minister, teaching theology in Austria. 50:16 At the time I was teaching 50:17 when they wrote this, in Austria. 50:20 He has also written several books, 50:22 lectures on the satellite TV network 3ABN. 50:26 After leaving The Comets, Torres and his wife 50:28 began performing religious classical music 50:31 and in 1974 were regular performers 50:33 on New York City TV programs." 50:38 That's what they have to say about me. 50:46 I was so glad that I could find a way to escape. 50:51 And I decided to get baptized. 50:53 Let me tell you something there's some people 50:54 who wait years and years and years to get baptized. 50:57 When you know you have cancer, 51:01 What did I say? 51:03 When you know you have cancer you don't want to what? 51:06 you don't want to wait. 51:08 I went to the pastor and I said "Look, I want to get baptized." 51:10 He said, "You haven't taken Bible studies." 51:12 I said, "I don't need Bible studies. 51:15 I'm convinced, I believe God has changed my life 51:21 and I know whom I believe." 51:22 He said "Well, you got to take Bible studies." 51:25 I said, "Give me some." 51:26 I looked at them and when I looked that stack 51:28 I thought it will take me to millennium to finish them off. 51:31 I thought I'll never get baptized. 51:34 And I said, "Look, please, I want to baptized. 51:37 I want to have all my sins washed away. 51:40 I want to start the new life with God." 51:44 He said, "Will you give me a word 51:45 that you'll stick with it?" 51:48 I said, "You got more than my word, 51:50 I have quit the band, I left everything behind." 51:53 You know what I did with my equipment? 51:55 I sold it for $20, all of it. 52:00 You know what I did with my tuxedos? 52:03 I gave them to the poor. 52:06 You know what I did with all my rings? 52:08 I threw them in the garbage. 52:10 Now you may think that's crazy. 52:13 But friends, I was so thankful 52:17 that I could be delivered from all of the encumbrances 52:21 that the world brings upon me 52:24 that I was willing to give up everything. 52:27 But my fear came if I become a Christian I'll never any fun. 52:32 And what will I do? 52:34 I thought I'll end up working 52:35 in a dungy factory for the rest of my life. 52:38 Something that I thought it was very humiliating. 52:43 But finding completeness was more important to me 52:49 than the humiliation that would come 52:50 from working in the factory. 52:52 So you know what I did? 52:53 I went and worked in the factory. 52:58 Didn't think it was so bad after all. 53:00 And from that I was then became honest. 53:06 I had four girls all that I have been lying too. 53:10 I was smart enough to have them in different state 53:12 do you understand? 53:15 I went to all of them told them 53:17 that I'd been a rotten liar all this time. 53:22 But now I'd become a Christian 53:23 and I wanted to follow the Lord. 53:25 They didn't understand, 53:27 they had no idea what was going on, but I did. 53:32 I wanted to follow our Lord so much 53:34 that it didn't matter to me 53:35 what I had to sacrifice as hard it would be. 53:39 And so left everything, left all my friends 53:42 worked in a factory became honest and I got drafted. 53:47 And the Lord did for me 53:49 something that I'd never dreamed of. 53:51 I thought I would end up the rest of my life 53:53 in dungy factory until the Lord would come the second time. 53:56 That was okay with me. I didn't mind. 53:58 It didn't matter to me. 54:00 It was hard dropping from all the money I was making 54:02 to a $150 a week but it was all right 54:07 I was now complete. 54:09 And that's what mattered, you understand. 54:11 Oh friends, listen, 54:13 perhaps some of you have been in a quest 54:16 trying to find completeness in this and that, 54:18 find completeness in a bottle. 54:21 But if they only knew where they trying to find God. 54:24 There are people who're trying to find 54:25 completeness in woman or man, 54:28 my friends, God has reserved the spot 54:30 for Himself in your heart 54:32 that nothing can satisfy, what did I say? 54:38 God has reserved the spot in your heart 54:41 that nothing will ever satisfy. 54:44 So I went to the Pastor, asked him to baptize me. 54:48 Thank the Lord he baptized me, April 13th, 1968. 54:54 When I came up under the water, 54:57 it was like taking a dump load off garbage of my shoulders. 55:03 It was so great to at last find peace, 55:07 peace within and have my sins washed away. 55:11 What do you say? 55:14 I committed myself to the Lord 55:17 and the Lord had other plans for me. 55:20 Even in the military I ended performing in choirs. 55:26 I married a beautiful young lady, Carol 55:28 and she was a concert violinist 55:32 and we began to join our instruments together, 55:36 guitar and violin and began to perform 55:40 rather than singing rocker on the clock, 55:42 we began to sing Rock of Ages. 55:47 We brought joy to people, singing that which uplifts 55:51 and which strengthens the lives of people. 55:55 Now friends, listen, 55:58 the old man, Solomon 56:03 thought he could find completeness in things, 56:06 but finally he says, "That all was" what? 56:10 All was what? "Vanity." 56:13 Now friends, listen, 56:14 you'll only find completeness in the Lord. 56:17 What do you say? Amen. 56:19 Only in Christ, can you find completeness. 56:22 I wonder is there someone here today 56:25 who would like to open up there hearts to the Lord 56:27 and say, "Oh Lord, I want to find that completeness. 56:32 I want to find that fullness in You." 56:34 Is there someone here 56:35 who would like to lift their hand up to heaven? 56:37 Amen. 56:39 Listen, let's pray together shall we? 56:41 Our Father in heaven, how grateful we are that You 56:46 and Your mercy though you watch us 56:48 and see what we do in our lives, 56:51 though it pains You to see what we do, 56:54 yet in Your mercy You trace us 56:59 and You have never allowed anything to fill that spot 57:03 that You've reserved for yourself. 57:06 And we now know that the only thing 57:09 that you can do is to open our hearts to You. 57:11 Lord Jesus, make us complete, we pray in Jesus name, amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17