Participants: Pr. Marquis Johns (Host), Keith Johnson
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000029
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:05 may be too candid for younger children. 00:08 Welcome to The New Journey, 00:09 a program about real life people 00:11 with real life testimonies 00:13 doing real life ministry for Jesus Christ. 00:15 I'm your host, Pastor Marquis Johns. 00:17 Join us on The New Journey. 00:54 We've all sang the song 'we are soldiers'. 00:57 On today's show, 00:58 we have someone who wasn't a soldier in the army 01:02 but rather in the marines. 01:04 And having experienced so much, 01:06 he has now given his life for the last 30 years 01:08 to going into the prisons 01:10 and dealing with and helping those 01:13 who are soldiers behind bars. 01:15 I like to welcome to the show, Keith Johnson. 01:17 How are you doing? It's pleasure, Marquis. 01:19 Hey, good, good, good. 01:20 So now here's I wanna start from 01:22 and I'm gonna just jump right into it. 01:24 Tell us first a little bit about where you're from, 01:26 where grew up at, about your home life, 01:29 things like that? 01:30 I grew up in Chicago, a part of a broken home. 01:34 My mother was married three times. 01:37 We thought four but one wasn't marriage. 01:39 And my sisters and my siblings were abused, 01:43 you know, sexually. 01:45 My mother was beat up by my step fathers. 01:48 So you just have all this rage inside 01:50 trying to put up with the dysfunction. 01:52 Yet they send you to church. 01:55 And so at five years old, I accepted Jesus 01:58 because He was a kindred spirit. 01:59 I'm getting beat up by those who supposed to love me. 02:02 He's getting beaten up by those who supposed to love him. 02:04 Right. 02:05 And you just wish there was more of Jesus, 02:07 you know, walking around. 02:08 Right, I wanna just real quick... 02:09 And you said that your sisters experiencing sexual abuse. 02:15 Was this with neighbors, 02:17 people that they were left with or who? 02:20 Well, my elder sister got raped in a neighborhood 02:22 but she never told me 'cause she knew I'd kill him. 02:24 And so my little sister was getting incested 02:26 by stepfather 02:28 while he was incesting my little brother. 02:30 Mercy. 02:32 And so, between the alcohol and police coming in, 02:36 it's all the insanity, you just wanna die. 02:41 Right. You know, you just wanna give up. 02:43 So in my case at 19, 02:44 I was able to escape and go in the Marine. 02:46 Okay. 02:47 So, from almost birth, 02:49 mom goes through a couple of marriages. 02:51 A few, we're not sure about one of those. 02:54 And you are just a rageaholic. 02:56 You're just raging. 02:58 And the first opportunity that you get to escape 03:00 is not to some nice collegiate campus 03:03 but instead to the armed services, 03:06 the armed forces. 03:08 And you didn't go to the army, you went to the Marines. 03:10 Now correct me if I'm wrong, Marines are the crazy ones. 03:14 Those are the killers. 03:16 So tell me why did you choose the Marines, 03:19 let's say over something like the army 03:21 or even depending on who you're talking to the Navy? 03:24 What made you, was it the rage? 03:26 What made you choose the Marines 03:28 over let's say the army or navy? 03:29 Well, my dad's World War II in Korea retired Navy. 03:33 But they were divorced when I was three. 03:36 So I saw my father maybe 10 times in my life 03:39 after they divorced. 03:41 And so my uncle and my gran, 03:44 they took me in from three to six. 03:46 So I was raised with them. And I experienced normal. 03:50 But when my mom remarried, 03:52 that's when the insanity came into my life. 03:55 And my mother, in the beginning with my step father, 03:58 my first step father send me to a parochial school. 04:02 And my sister, we were in the basement of church. 04:04 Unpack parochial for those who maybe watching 04:06 and who don't know what that means. 04:08 It was a Christian, you know, private school. 04:10 We've 42 kids, 8 grades, 1 teacher. 04:15 He had the whole school, 2 grade levels ahead. 04:18 And then we had to move, go into a public school. 04:22 Well, I went from experiencing education. 04:25 So like the first three words I learned 04:27 basically in public school 04:29 was detention, suspension and, expulsion. 04:30 Mercy. 04:32 Going from education to indoctrination 04:33 and I didn't do well with authority on that one. 04:37 Okay. But I managed to graduate. 04:39 Although I was an athlete, 04:40 you had to have grades in order to play. 04:43 Because sports was my drug of choice. 04:45 Okay. 04:46 And then before I went to Marines, 04:48 in a football tackle I crushed the vertebrae in my neck 04:51 and the Lord let me walk. 04:52 Wow. 04:53 That's the first time I heard his voice. 04:55 And I throw my trophies away. 04:57 When I could walk again 'cause I had to wear a collar, 05:00 coaches wouldn't recruit me, wouldn't come to see me. 05:03 So when I threw my trophies away, 05:05 I realized I was addicted to those. 05:07 Wow! And then I felt free. 05:08 At 19, you realize you're addicted. 05:09 True. 05:11 And, it's almost like you were addicted to winning. 05:13 Winning. The winning. 05:15 And so again, I want to jettison kind of get us to, 05:18 so here you are at 19, 05:19 just thrown away all your trophies. 05:21 What makes you again choose the Marines 05:24 over some of the other armed services? 05:27 I always liked the uniforms. 05:30 Okay. My dad doesn't like them. 05:32 He says the Marines took a pretty good boy 05:33 and ruined him, you know, being in navy. 05:36 But I was sharing, you know, with my brother, 05:40 you know, Andy hear that my grandmother read cards, 05:43 and the Ouija boards, and then we had visitors, 05:45 there was spiritual visitors in the house. 05:47 Okay, okay. 05:48 Again, when you say these type of terms 05:50 for our studio audience as well as for those 05:52 who are watching online. 05:54 And I like to paint the picture 05:55 and I like to bring those watching 05:57 and the viewers along with us. 05:58 So here's this kid, three years of age, 06:01 mom, dad divorced. 06:02 She goes through a series of marriages, 06:05 incest, abuse, sexual, physical, emotional. 06:08 And then, you find an outlet for your rage in sports. 06:13 You're winning, you're doing a lot of winning, 06:14 getting a lot of trophies. 06:16 Something clicks in your head. 06:17 You realize, "Hey, this is my addiction. 06:19 This is what I'm into." 06:21 And you find out somewhere in between 06:24 then and that point 06:27 that your grandmother is into sances 06:30 and Ouija boards and things like that. 06:32 Tell us about what that is just briefly 06:34 and how that affected you at 19? 06:36 Yeah. 06:37 Well, going back to three years old, 06:38 I'm living with my grandmother. 06:40 And I'm sleeping on the couch and she's in the dining room, 06:43 you know, sleeping and my uncle is in the bedroom 06:47 'cause her bedroom is full of dolls. 06:48 She has a doll collection. 06:50 But I hear the footsteps going across the floor pulling chains 06:55 and the room gets cold. 06:56 And I go, "Grandma, someone's in the house." 06:59 And she goes, "It's just a person 07:00 walking through paying for their sins. 07:03 You have a guardian angel and nothing will hurt you. 07:05 Just go to sleep." 07:06 Well, that locked on. 07:08 I just run over and went to sleep. 07:10 So you have these weird things happen. 07:12 My grandmother would say, we're gonna have a pup. 07:16 My dogs have puppies and so we would bet 07:18 on who's gonna be... 07:20 help get the money for the puppies. 07:21 So I bet seven, my favorite number. 07:24 And so she says, "Eight," 07:26 only she goes five female, three male, 07:29 a male is gonna die. 07:31 But here comes the puppies, 07:32 five female, three male, the runt dies. 07:34 Mercy. 07:35 You know, I want to get the seven, 07:37 make with the money in and she goes, 07:38 "Not too fast, not done yet." 07:41 Here comes, and so I deploy with the swither 07:43 in my whole life. 07:44 Reading coffee grounds and reading cards. 07:49 And you're going not of the Bible, 07:50 not of the Bible, not of the Bible. 07:51 Now you say not of the Bible, 07:53 what basis did you have 07:56 for knowing that this wasn't biblical? 07:58 Because if you're experiencing... 07:59 And for those who are viewing, let's just be real. 08:03 We know now what those things are and were. 08:07 But you know, you're experiencing 08:09 hearing chains and all, 08:11 and she's reading the coffee beans and cards. 08:14 And what did you have that let you know 08:18 that this wasn't real or had you come 08:19 to that understanding at this point? 08:21 Well, in those three years in the parochial school, 08:24 they were making us memorize all these Bible verses 08:26 and stuff like that. 08:28 And once you read, 08:29 "Yea though I walk through the valley 08:31 of the shadow of death, I fear no evil," 08:32 my mother thought I was a rebellious child. 08:34 Mercy. 08:35 I was just being a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you know. 08:39 So my mother was a stickler for truth 08:43 and so you want truth. 08:44 Right. 08:45 And so like at 13 years old, 08:47 I'm out there witnessing to my Jewish friends. 08:49 And I ask them, why they went to church on the wrong day. 08:52 And so they told me about the Sabbath. 08:54 So I had to go back to my pastors 08:56 and confront them on the Sabbath, 08:59 and they told me about the Seventh-day Adventists, 09:01 like that would sweep me under the rug. 09:02 And this is all before 19? All before 19. 09:03 Okay. 09:05 Just, I mean, it's so intense 09:08 what God was doing in my life despite the carnage. 09:12 But then my grandmother, 09:14 at 19 now, I'm gonna jump ahead, 09:16 she says, "Let me read your coffee ground." 09:20 I don't even like coffee. 09:22 You can't put enough cream and sugar in it. 09:24 You know, because it tastes rancid, 09:26 it smells rancid. 09:28 You know, but I had to drink it then you got to hold the cup 09:29 over the saucer, 09:31 let the coffee grounds run down. 09:33 And then, you know, she reads it, 09:34 I'm going but I'm telling her. 09:36 I don't believe in it, you know. 09:38 But you're my gran, you know. 09:41 So she goes. 09:44 I see you going into service. 09:45 Well, I'm in college, I'm playing baseball, you know. 09:48 I said, "I ain't going into service." 09:50 And she goes, "I see you going into service." 09:53 And then she sits there and she goes, 09:55 "I see you as a clown." 09:57 And I go, "I've always been a class clown. 10:00 What's that, you know. 10:02 "I see you as a clown," and she says, 10:03 "I see you moving to California." 10:06 "I'm not going to California, 10:07 we don't even know anybody in California." 10:09 Then she says, "I see you're finding the Big J." 10:14 "What's the Big J?" 10:15 Here goes the Big J which turned out to be Christ, 10:19 you know, He really grabbed me again. 10:22 So my stepfather... 10:24 My grandmother goes, "If you don't go into service, 10:27 I'll buy you a new car." 10:30 I go, "You buy me a new car?" 10:32 "If you promise not to go into service," 10:34 'cause she read this, you know. 10:37 And her stuff happened so she said. 10:40 I go, "You buy me a 1967, Chevelle Super Sport 396, 10:45 marina blue with a black panel top 10:47 in a 8-track, 4-speed?" 10:48 Oh, there's a boy who knows what he wants. 10:50 Right. 10:51 So she writes me a $1500 check and she goes, "Order it. 10:56 I'll pay the rest when it comes in." 10:59 I go home, I get my stepfather, he takes me, 11:01 we ordered the car. 11:03 And he's an alcoholic 11:04 but he's a president of the steelworkers, you know. 11:07 So because I'm only 19, he has to sign. 11:10 So on the way home, 11:12 he's already taken possession of my car. 11:16 So he says to me, "You know, if you act up, you're grounded. 11:19 And you can't use the car." 11:21 Wow. 11:23 And I said, "It's my car. 11:26 Grandma is buying me my car." 11:28 He says, "But I signed for it." 11:30 He says, "I'll take it anyway." 11:33 He says, "I've reported stolen." 11:35 Wow! 11:37 "Oh, really!" 11:38 That was the end of conversation. 11:39 I made up my mind. 11:41 As soon as he brings me back home, 11:42 we got the car and walk all the way 11:44 back to the dealership. 11:45 I get the $1500, you know, 11:48 I go to my buddy in the morning, 11:49 I give check back to my grandma. 11:51 And I go, "Will you take me 11:52 to Madison & Central in Chicago?" 11:55 He goes, "Why?" 11:56 I say, "Will you take me or I have to walk?" 11:59 He goes, "Why?" I said, "Will you take me?" 12:01 He goes, "Yeah." He drops me off. 12:02 He goes, "What are you doing?" I said, "Thanks." 12:05 I go to recruiters, signed up for three years, 12:07 headed for Vietnam. 12:09 Wow. 12:10 Because I made up my mind that if I gotta die, 12:15 I'm dying at the hands of an assumed enemy 12:18 not the hands of my parents. 12:19 Mercy. 12:20 So what we have here is we have a young man 12:22 who has had some run-ins with the Big J 12:26 is a little more informed than the nominal Christian. 12:29 But based on the things that he was seeing 12:32 from ages three and 19, 12:35 he made a decision that 12:38 it would be better to be thousands of miles away 12:41 from what he assumed was family 12:44 and forging ahead quite possibly with a new family. 12:47 So tell us about how long were you in the Marines? 12:49 Three years but the bad side of me 12:52 going in the Marines was my stepfather, 12:54 now he had opened seizing on my siblings. 12:56 Mercy, mercy, mercy. 12:59 So there is a... 13:01 There's a downside. Oh, man. 13:02 So tell us about, again, 13:03 how long were you in the Marines? 13:05 Thousand, eighty nine days. 13:09 Okay. 13:11 Three years, ten months, and four days. 13:12 But who counts when you're having fun. 13:13 Right. Right. 13:15 So tell us about your time in the Marines? 13:16 Because again, most of us those are taught 13:20 or those who have watched the movies, 13:22 the Marines are the killers, 13:23 the Marines are the crazy people. 13:26 I go in boot camp and my buddy said, 13:29 "I'll be going before him," so I know what's coming. 13:31 So I go and hide in those Gomer Pyle quonset huts 13:33 out there in San Diego in the back 13:36 so they won't know my name, it's like a football camp. 13:38 I'm gonna go in as fast as I can. 13:41 Well, that first night, the platoon commander comes in 13:43 and makes me force squad leader 13:44 so that ruins my plans so I'm back in the front 13:47 and I have to be the babysitter for 20 guys. 13:51 And so all the other squad leaders 13:54 are beating their guys down and I'm... 13:56 The last thing I want to do is beat people down 13:57 because I got beat down my whole life. 13:59 So I says, "Okay, I'm not gonna use 14:01 force, fear, intimidation, manipulation on my guys, 14:03 I'm a ball player. 14:05 I want to sort it together." 14:07 So we got to, you know, I have my whole squad and, 14:10 you know, at night, I get everybody up. 14:12 And then we have bunkie, 14:13 you have to help you with push-ups, 14:15 sit-ups, those kind of stuff. 14:16 Tear your rifle apart and put it together in the dark 14:18 and name your general orders. 14:21 And then we had three brothers, all brothers from Chicago. 14:24 And we had Boone who had this baby face 14:26 and we had Wallace and Hill. 14:27 And Hill sang bass, and that Wallace did harmony. 14:31 After we finished, they get up on the foot lockers 14:34 in the back and we hit. 14:35 They have their pen lights. 14:36 And we hit them with our pen lights 14:38 as we're getting in Iraq. 14:39 And they would sing all the more talent stuff, 14:41 you know, in the '60s. 14:42 They'll be going, "I got sunshine." 14:46 Right. 14:48 And so we're naming the songs, play stand by me. 14:50 And like every song is tied to went back homeowner girls. 14:53 So we're crying in the dark. 14:56 But we get great sleep and we get sound sleep 14:58 but we're becoming a family. 14:59 Right. 15:00 And then all the guys want to come in our squad 15:02 because we're the safe squad. 15:03 Right. 15:04 So I wanna begin to kind of jump around a little bit. 15:07 So two and a half years in the Marines, 15:11 did you ever see any action? 15:12 No, I was in a naval security group. 15:13 Naval security group. 15:15 Diplomatic passports... 15:16 Okay. 15:18 So then you leave the Marines, 15:19 honorably discharged, how does that work? 15:21 Okay, honorably discharged. 15:23 And so tell us about, real quick, 15:25 I wanna begin to transition into your meeting 15:29 and cultivating your relationship with Christ. 15:31 So tell us a little bit about that fresh out of Marines, 15:34 22 years of age. 15:35 Just got married. 15:36 At 22? At 22. 15:38 Okay. My sister's best girlfriend. 15:42 Well, later she gets pregnant, turns out to be not mine. 15:45 Mercy. 15:46 You know, I'm carrying her up, 15:48 you know, up and down two flights of stairs 15:49 so she doesn't miscarry. 15:50 She miscarries and I find out that is finally not mine 15:54 after she miscarries. 15:55 And then I want to kill the guy, 15:57 you know, but to betrayal... 16:01 God didn't let me do it. 16:03 But then we end up moving to California. 16:06 I get remarried, you know, 16:07 and have two sons and my ex divorces me. 16:09 And so then I become an Advent right then and there. 16:14 On the spot. 16:16 At 32. At 32. 16:19 So for 10 years between 22 and 32, 16:23 you're dabbling in some stuff here. 16:25 I mean, you kind of got a Marine's mentality. 16:29 I graduated in '79. 16:31 Okay, still a rageaholic? 16:33 I call it a hateaholic but rageaholic... 16:35 Rageaholic, hateaholic... 16:36 Same, same. Yeah. 16:38 And so, you meet a young lady, two sons, get divorced. 16:42 And now, you are really crying out for Christ. 16:46 32 years of age, tell us about what's going on there? 16:50 Well, you know, I heard about the Adventists 16:53 and then I, you know... 16:54 Well, in boot camp, they came out on Friday night, 16:55 and they said, 16:57 "Are there any Jews or Seventh-day Adventists?" 16:58 So I realized my pastor was sweeping me under the rug. 17:01 And then, but my sons were born. 17:02 They take them from Redlands and rush them to Loma Linda 17:04 intensive care. 17:06 Right. 17:07 So that's my first encounter, 17:08 you know, with Adventists in prayer. 17:10 And then my ex, you know, divorced me 17:12 and hides my sons and moves off. 17:14 They ship back to Chicago and then on to Phoenix 17:16 where she hid my sons. 17:19 So then I said, "Okay, Lord. 17:21 I follow you wherever you lead me." 17:24 I just give it to him. 17:26 And I just graduated, a gas company where I worked, 17:29 they put me on disability, I was even disabled. 17:31 So that's when the divorce occurred, 17:33 you know, it was... 17:35 So I said, "Okay, Lord, here's my sons, 17:38 here's my Corvette, here's my house and my pool, 17:41 and all this stuff. 17:42 I follow truth wherever you lead." 17:44 And so I get baptized. 17:47 And then I saw, there's a bulletin. 17:49 And it says, "Prison ministry." 17:53 I said, "Well, if I got caught, 17:54 I sure want someone to visit me." 17:55 So it's the golden rule in action. 17:58 So I sign up and I become 18:01 the Quiet Hour prison ministries 18:02 director for six years. 18:04 But at the same time, when I graduated from Cal State, 18:06 they show me these six levels of moral development. 18:08 You can't skip steps, 18:10 you can't get through without being brought. 18:12 Everyone starts out basically a legalist 18:15 which is not so much earning your way to heaven 18:17 but there's no mercy in the computer. 18:20 So the more I looked at agape love 18:23 in the Love Chapter, 18:24 I sit there and I say, "No wonder, 18:29 you know, I'm a hateaholic." 18:32 So then that says, "I need you to forgive your stepfather." 18:39 So that's a four hour discussion. 18:42 You know, because I'm going... 18:44 He says, you know, "Pray for their salvation." 18:46 I'm going, "I don't want them in heaven." 18:48 Mercy. 18:49 He said, "Well, there's a good chance, 18:51 you won't be there either." 18:54 So then he shows me that my stepfather, 18:56 the one that beat my mom, so she lost an eye, 18:58 he was an orphan and he was abused. 18:59 So then you can have compassion. 19:02 So then I could forgive him. 19:05 But I had to mouth the words to forgive. 19:08 Then I said, "Okay, Lord, you got to forgive me 19:10 for my feelings 19:11 'cause my feelings were just not lining up." 19:14 But then I get clear and I get to go in the prisons. 19:17 And the guys are in there. 19:19 And I'm going, 19:21 "These are just like the guys I grew up with." 19:24 I said, you're kindred spirits. 19:26 So I show them the Love Chapter that just, 19:28 you know, took me down. 19:30 And I go, "Love is very patient, 19:33 you know, has anyone ever loved you like that 19:35 and can you love like that?" 19:37 I go, "No force, fear, intimidation, 19:39 manipulation in any of our relationship, 19:42 that's the methodology of the beast." 19:44 They've been teaching us so critical bargain, 19:46 and agape critical thinking. 19:49 But I'm dealing with N numbers. Right? 19:51 And the guys says, it's funny at first, 19:52 I found out like we have 55 guys 19:55 in my class for two hours on a Monday night, 19:58 all N numbers. 20:00 But they told me they were depressed. 20:01 And you say N numbers. 20:03 Narcotics numbers, they're narcotics violators. 20:05 And when they told me that they were depressed, 20:07 I thought we lost the world series of depression. 20:10 A neurosurgeon finally comes in and he says, "No, no." 20:13 He does this neurological evaluation. 20:15 He goes, "The porch lights are out, 20:18 they're are clinically depressed. 20:19 They're floundering in darkness." 20:21 Right, right. 20:22 So I wasn't even in the same hemisphere. 20:24 So again, I wanna kind of couch the story in. 20:28 Here's a guy who angry because of the things 20:32 that have happened in his life from 3 to 19, 20:35 goes into the Marines, 20:36 joins up in the Marines, gets out, meets a girl, 20:40 gets married, it doesn't work out, 20:42 moves to California, 20:43 meets another girl, has two kids. 20:45 Well, I met another girl in Chicago, 20:46 we went to California. 20:48 Okay, met the girl in Chicago, go to California. 20:49 We got divorced again, two strikes. 20:50 Okay, okay. 20:52 So then what happens is, after the second divorce, 20:56 you reach out or take the hand of Christ 20:59 that he's been reaching to you 21:00 and almost immediately you get involved in prison ministries. 21:04 As you're involved with prison ministries, 21:05 you find that what they're missing 21:07 is the same thing that you have been missing 21:09 your whole life 21:10 which is unconditional, unfettered, unmitigated love. 21:14 And so for the last, how many years? 21:16 Thirty. 21:17 Last 30 years, you've been going back and forth 21:19 into the prisons, meeting, 21:22 and witnessing, and helping inmates. 21:25 What I'd like to ask is, 21:27 do you have a story of someone that you met on the inside 21:30 that the Lord used you to help work with, 21:33 who you were able to see progress from being an inmate, 21:36 a con to actually being a productive member of society? 21:39 I have one in particular who's a pastor like you. 21:43 He came out. 21:45 And like my friends were my inmates 21:48 but they're my friends. 21:49 They go, "Save us from the devil 21:51 and I'll save us from the Pentecostals," 21:53 because they have all the halfway houses. 21:55 And so he goes... 21:57 One guy gets out, you know, he goes to this halfway house 22:00 and they want him to wash cars on Sabbath 22:02 and he refuses, so he goes to church. 22:05 And his family that's there, 22:08 their son just graduated from Loma Linda dental school 22:10 and then got killed in a car accident. 22:11 Mercy. So they kind of adopt him. 22:14 And they go, "You wanna go to La Sierra, we'll pay?" 22:17 He said, "No, I want to go to Weimar." 22:19 And they go, "You want to go to Weimar." 22:21 So he goes to Weimar and he calls me up, he goes, 22:23 "I'm going through culture shock." 22:25 And I'm going, "Oh, I bet," you know. 22:28 And he says, "No, no, no, it's not that, 22:29 that's a conservatism." 22:31 He goes, "In prison, 22:32 no one believes a word that you say, 22:34 there's no responsibility to your words, 22:36 they just fall life into the ground. 22:38 They believe everything I say. 22:40 I have to run and get on my knees not to lie." 22:44 But then he graduates 22:45 and he goes and becomes an evangelist. 22:46 And he tells me, I'm in Japan, 22:48 you know, teaching conversational English." 22:50 And he says, "I'm living in the church." 22:52 And he says, "You know, 22:53 I'll dwell in the house of Lord. 22:54 He has taken a new meaning to me." 22:57 And he says, "You know, to be a missionary, 22:59 I didn't have to cross the sea, I just have to see the cross." 23:02 Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! 23:03 And so the brothers and they're all totally going like, 23:06 "Well, Satan uses the love of power 23:08 and God use the power of love." 23:10 Wow! Wow! Okay. 23:11 So we have all this prisony bonnets 23:13 coming out that we get to shortcuts. 23:15 And then we have, what we call worship. 23:17 Okay. 23:18 So this gentleman from directly being... 23:22 A drug addict. Yeah. 23:24 Exposed to Christ through you, gets his life together, 23:28 becomes a minister, 23:30 and is now working in the gospel ministry. 23:33 He's going around the world in Russia, South America. 23:36 And I'm in this little room with 55 guys. 23:39 So here's how God works in your life. 23:41 God works and that He brings you 23:43 from what would be some of the most... 23:49 I can only imagine. 23:50 You know, I can only imagine seeing someone being molested, 23:54 and being taken advantage of, and the rage, and the hatred. 23:57 You know, I grew up in a situation with my mother 23:59 where she exposes the things 24:02 that I don't think any child should be exposed to. 24:04 Nonetheless, it didn't kill you, as they say, 24:06 it made you stronger. 24:08 And as you, for lack of a better word, 24:11 ran away from these negative, 24:12 these potential negative influences, 24:14 you found yourself in the hands of Christ. 24:16 And for the last 30 years in the hands of Christ, 24:19 you've been a tool used to work with 24:21 and help other inmates 24:23 who are probably rageaholics, hateaholics, alcoholics, 24:26 sexaholics, all manner of things. 24:28 And you even have some stories of people 24:30 who have seen the cross 24:32 and are now helping introduce others to the cross. 24:35 So here's what I'd like you to do. 24:37 And I like you to take a moment, 24:38 there's a camera right here. 24:40 I want you to look in this camera. 24:41 And quite possibly, 24:42 there's an inmate in a prison somewhere 24:44 that's not California. 24:46 Maybe it's in Indiana, maybe it's in New York, 24:48 maybe it's in Texas, 24:49 and you'll never physically, quite possibly, 24:52 never physically gets to get there 24:54 but with the help of technology and this television show, 24:57 you can, right now be there and speak to them. 25:00 I'd like you to take the next two minutes 25:02 and I like you to say 25:04 whatever the Lord lays on your heart to someone 25:06 who doesn't know that there is a Christ 25:09 and doesn't think there is a way out of the situation 25:12 he has found himself in. 25:15 I just want to say that in prison 25:17 that there's five words that have no meaning, 25:19 there's no point of reference. 25:21 Love, you know, is fiction 25:24 and it's something that manipulate. 25:26 Mercy is weak. You prefer vengeance. 25:30 I mean, love and mercy is God's way, 25:31 we're calling God weak. 25:33 I says, then there's truth, 25:34 the truth to you means to do what I want, 25:37 you know, to do whatever gets me out of trouble 25:39 or what I want. 25:41 And trust nobody and respect nobody or anything 25:44 but manipulate it to your advantage 25:45 when you're holding the trump card. 25:47 Ironically, those five cards, 25:49 those five words are critical for a relationship love, 25:54 you know, mercy, truth, trust and respect. 25:58 And when you look at the Love Chapter, 26:00 you'll find what love really is. 26:02 And their principles are not of feeling. 26:04 And when you let the rage go, 26:07 you'll find sanity in your life. 26:10 And you're gonna have to really address your motives 26:15 because we can't change our nature, 26:17 we can't change our motives but God can. 26:21 And He's done it too Aryan Brotherhood, 26:24 you know, brothers of mine and Black Panthers 26:26 and Mexican Mafia guys. 26:29 And I conducted, you know, rules for them 26:34 but they're too late. 26:36 It's not too late now. 26:37 It's only too late when the body bag up. 26:40 So today, you know, surrender to God. 26:44 Thank you, Keith. 26:46 That is powerful that it seems that what the enemy tries to do 26:50 is take the attributes of God or the character of God, 26:54 mar it and then reintroduce it to us as a better way 26:59 and a better path. 27:01 But God has shown through your life 27:02 and through the life of countless others 27:04 who have been on this program, 27:05 and who may not have been on this program 27:08 but are now experiencing the love of Christ. 27:10 And that agape love that you spoke of, 27:13 not the conditional love, 27:14 not the thing where if you do this for me, 27:16 then I'll do that for you. 27:18 It's really based on, "Listen, if necessary, 27:21 ask Christ that I'll do everything for you." 27:23 And it seems through your story, 27:25 through the rage, through the Marines, 27:27 through the divorces that you have met a God, 27:30 you have been introduced to a Christ 27:32 that loves you even though you saw the molestation, 27:36 even though you saw the anger, 27:38 even though you harbor the hatred, 27:40 even though you ran to the Marines. 27:42 And were trained to kill although, 27:44 he spared you from actually taking someone's life. 27:47 He spared you and loved you through the divorces. 27:49 He spared you and loved you through your wife 27:52 hiding your children. 27:53 And he has now used you 27:55 and is using you as a conduit 27:57 to show that agape love to inmates in California. 28:00 And I'm sure now through this show, 28:02 God will use you to show inmates love throughout America 28:06 and wherever there's somebody incarcerated 28:08 not just behind physical bars 28:10 but even incarcerated by the sin, 28:13 by the hatred, by the anger, and the anguish. 28:16 And I just wanna thank you for being on our show with us 28:17 and telling that story. 28:19 Now, Keith, what I also wanna do is encourage you, 28:23 encourage you to continue letting God use you, 28:27 continue to let Him guide you, 28:29 and continue the healing process 28:30 that happens on a day to day basis 28:32 'cause Paul said, "Nevertheless, I die daily." 28:37 I wanna thank you for joining us 28:38 on today's program The New Journey. 28:41 It has been a wonderful journey from hatred to agape. 28:47 God bless you. |
Revised 2017-10-26