Beauty In The Breakdown

When the Man Comes Around

This episode is strictly a montage of clips I've found over the past year.  I edited them together to form a pattern of good & evil, God & the devil, belief and unbelief, only for everyone to find encouragement in who God is.

This One Is for the Drinkers in the Back!

Title says it all! This one is for the drinkers in the back!  I'm trying my best to be loud and clear here; Only speaking out of 100% experience with what I experienced with alcohol concerning myself and others.  Quitting drinking or "drying out" as some like to refer to it, is an absolute nightmare to go through.  It's basically starting over again.  It's throwing away something that's had it grip on you so much that when you decide to stop you have to literally get to know yourself again.  A lot of the time we can't shake this rut or stronghold from our minds.  But when and if we do, we have to suffer through so much transition that it really makes a ton of since as to why a ton of people never overcome this problem.   In this episode I lay out my story sharing somethings I've shared before, but make it plain that Yes, I quit drinking without God being the focal point.  But when I dried out, I was so filled with emptiness, rage, and just a real feeling of being truly lost.  I had to learn again to be grateful, walk in love, and get rid of all slander, victimization, and bitterness.  I knew that pursuing God was the best choice for me because He truly does bring peace into my life.  When you remove alcohol from your life, it truly is the only thing where the grass is greener on the other side.  

Out of the Worst of Times Come the Best Songs

Hard times fall on us all.  That is something we always hear, and we are constantly aware of.  But when it actually happens those moments in time seem to drag on and surround us with darkness and pure struggle.  I've spent a ton of time in hospitals this summer with family and friends in support of their needs.  But one that sticks out the most is my friend Charlie who lost the love of his life Miwa.  Charlie is the most amazing person I know, and quite a well-respected mystery at times.  To sum it all up in a shorter way...Charlie is the most loyal, talented, and beautiful person that I know.  He literally is someone who I believe cannot do wrong to others. To watch him go through all the pain of the loss of his other half is just absolutely heartbreaking.  As you'll hear in this episode, I watched him express his pains, question God, and undergo just being shook to his very core.   Charlie is the most talented musician that I know, and I know for a fact that he is going to rise above all this pain he is currently going through.  I know he will take all this pain and form it into music which will then be useful for others to hear, and it will heal them. I already know that the way he loves everyone has made a permanent impact on my life and countless others. So, through this chapter i know that he will teach so many how to truly love others.  I love you, dude!  This show is for you!

What Love Is!

After a long break over the summer, I've returned with quite an emotional episode.  Although my emotions are in check, I've have felt the need to discuss somethings that have been going on in my life that involve some radical change.  Changes that are hard to understand.  Some changes that were made because things just had to go.  But some changes happened due to life throwing its curve balls at us all and we can do nothing but go through it all together.  Throughout all this craziness that's been going on, the most important thing that stood out that I must learn to understand is LOVE. 

Shipwrecked

A few weeks ago, I was in my daily reading, and I came across the word shipwrecked.  Little did I know that I would live out the feeling of that word on a daily basis.  Life has begun to feel a bit dry, same ole same ole, feeling tired all the time, easily frustrated for almost no reason at all at times.  "Where is the peace that I had?" I would ask myself from time to time.  I felt as though I wasn't' exactly walking in the rest that I have described in some of the previous episodes.  Well as I have noticed this dry season, I've also noticed some other things that I haven't been staying attached to that allowed me to take my eyes off of my true focus.  Well sure enough going through what seems to be a derailed emotional roller-coaster surely screams the fact that I am going through some sort of a disconnect with God (or a growth spurt).  Seems as though I was on the right bus, but I got off on a few wrong stops lately.  The word shipwrecked really played out in my daily life since I've noticed it in my readings.   

On The Road To Realization

Being brought out of a life of addiction and a consistent downward spiral is quite riveting. As I have shared in the past episodes pieces of my story that allowed me to get on this new path to making things right with God, myself and others, there were still some other things that I still needed to share.  In this episode I dive into some personal struggles of the heart that I faced, finally deciding where I should be planted in a church, and a dream that I had almost 10 years ago that I finally figured out the meaning of.  I also come to find out that a lot of my answers to my struggles have always just been right there in front of me while just going through life.   It's pretty insane how God always uses the little things in life that make the biggest impact later on.

The Obedient Servant

Have you ever received a phone call from someone that uplifted you?  Have you ever witnessed an accident and immediately felt the urge to pray through your inner self or out loud to God or whoever you fancy?  I ponder these things and have a strong desire to grow in this area because I truly believe we bring life to others by lifting others up in prayer.  Praying and sending good thoughts to others is something special and what I believe to be great tools that we all possess.  In this episode I talk about the promptings that I have had personally recently and the outcomes of every situation.  Whether it just be the prompting and then I pray and I'm still waiting on results, or I pray and then immediately seeing the fruit of it all.  Thoughts and prayers as some like to say are very clear acts of love and serving others. Jesus did it, we do it, and there are a ton of folks that pray in Jesus' name, and things get done! As they say at my church "Things happen when we pray that don't happen when we don't pray."

The Importance of a Daily Devotional Life

When pursuing God, I cannot begin to express the importance of a good healthy and most certainly daily devotional life.  I go over some things in this episode that you may have heard of some of the others.  But to really get the direct impact from Gods word and to understand him more, I talk about how there are certain things that are extremely beneficial to get into the routine doing. I also play some clips from some folks giving testimonies of how God has transformed them over time, and I also explain how far I've come in a personal transformation from deciding to read the bible in one year...and so far, it's only been 7 months.  

REPENTANCE

When people hear the word repentance, they often can get pretty triggered.  Whether it's on a billboard on the interstate or some self-righteous person has the audacity to point their grubby finger in someone's face...It all seems a bit damning and dark.  But repentance is actually a great step we can take of coming to God and recognizing the things in our lives that are guiding us the wrong way and give us the proper steps to take for living in a way that pleases God.  There is nothing wrong with recognizing our own wrongs and pointing them out to ourselves, right?  Well, if that's the case what's wrong with pointing out our sins to God?  Or better yet...How about when God points out our sins to us?  Either way if you're just starting to know God or have been walking with him for some time now then you know that repentance is a wonderful thing.  When we repent of our sins we not only grow in our relationship with God and others, but we are more useful for God to use for others because we bring life to people.

FAITH (Put on some God britches and see if they fit).

I was approached by a friend that told me that "I should do a show on faith."  Although there will be many more shows on the topic, I wanted to expand a bit on a personal story that I have between me and this friend of mine.  We both were put in an extremely difficult situation that was meant for good, seemed awful when the pressure rose, but in the end because of prayer, faith and the goodness of God things really came through for the both of us.  So many of us in life feel backed into a corner and we feel there is no way out of the mess that's all around us.  Though the situation in this story I not only learned how to walk deeper in faith, but also truly hand things over to God and wait patiently for him to deliver the result.