Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000267A
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00:01 Do you think that miracles are a thing of the past?
00:04 Well, stay tuned to meet a man who will share 00:06 the story of God's miraculous interventions in his life. 00:10 My name is Yvonne Lewis Shelton. 00:12 And I'm Jason Bradley, 00:13 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:40 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report. 00:42 I'm your host Yvonne Lewis Shelton. 00:44 And I'm pleased to have as my co-host, my son, 00:48 the general manager of Dare to Dream network, 00:50 Jason Bradley. 00:52 Yay! 00:53 It's good to be here with you. 00:55 Yes, it's so good to be with you Jay 00:57 and to have our special guest here, 01:00 Larren Cole, he is an author, speaker, 01:03 and director of Desire Media. 01:06 Welcome to Urban Report, Larren. 01:07 Thank you, Yvonne. 01:08 Thank you very much, Jason. 01:10 Good to be here. Good to have you. 01:11 Excited to be on Urban Report. 01:12 Yeah. 01:14 It's my first time on Dare to Dream. 01:16 We run into each other at a lot of events. 01:18 We do. 01:19 ASI, GYC... 01:20 Those are highlights for me, Yvonne and Jason. 01:22 Oh, no. 01:25 Nice, nice. 01:26 And we're really glad to have you 01:27 because we've talked to you over the past few years 01:30 and we haven't had a chance to talk to you 01:33 on Dare to Dream. 01:35 And you have such amazing testimonies. 01:38 I mean you have more than one miracle 01:41 that's happened in your life. 01:43 And so we want to just kind of share 01:45 with our viewers your journey. 01:48 So let's talk about your journey? 01:50 Where were you born? 01:51 I was born in Riverside, California. 01:53 Oh. 01:54 I'm a Californian native. 01:55 Okay. 01:57 Yup. 01:58 I went to Loma Linda University, 02:00 graduated there with a degree in physical therapy, 02:02 where I met my wife, Mickey, we have five children. 02:06 And yeah, I am no longer in ministry, I mean, 02:10 in physical therapy anymore which I graduated from. 02:12 But now I'm full time ministry 02:15 working with Desire Media like you mentioned. 02:17 That's wonderful. 02:18 So were you raised in a Christian home? 02:21 What was your home like as a child? 02:22 Our home was a Christian home and an Adventist home. 02:27 My parents were good Christian family. 02:31 But there was a few things missing in our home, like, 02:37 things like family worship 02:38 and things like guarding our environment, you know. 02:44 They were nominal. 02:46 I wouldn't say they were good people, 02:47 but I would say more nominal Christian. 02:50 You know, we knew we are Adventist actually. 02:53 So the only thing I really knew about our religion 02:57 really was that we went to church on a funny day. 03:00 We didn't eat pork. 03:02 So other than that, 03:04 that was that sort of defined my early childhood. 03:07 I knew that was my religion. 03:10 We have a picture of your family. 03:12 And I think they put it before, but let's take a look at it 03:15 and so you can tell us who is who. 03:16 Okay, there is a big tall guy, 03:17 that's my good looking dad who is now deceased. 03:20 He had Parkinson's, he died in 2012 or '11. 03:25 And right on the one side is my mother 03:28 and the funny looking person in front is myself 03:32 with sunglasses. 03:34 So I was really cool, wasn't I? 03:36 And then in the middle, that's my sister, 03:37 my older sister. 03:39 So that was our family 03:40 and that's a picture of us in Bakersfield, 03:42 California. 03:43 And mom is deceased also. 03:46 She had cancer at age 56. 03:49 And so we're kind of orphaned. 03:52 Yeah, it's a strange feeling not having... 03:55 My parents predeceased me when I'm just four years. 04:00 It's just a weird feeling with your parents gone. 04:03 Yeah, when my mother died, 04:05 it was the first real close person 04:08 I've ever had that ever died on me. 04:10 And it was just devastating, I mean, 04:12 it was really hard to cope with. 04:14 How old were you when she died? 04:16 I was probably 29, 30ish somewhere in there. 04:19 Wow. 04:21 How did that make you feel at that particular time 04:23 being so young, 29 or 30, I can't imagine. 04:27 Yeah, she had cancer. 04:28 So yeah, she battled cancer for a while 04:31 and for two years and so. 04:32 Yeah, that just... 04:34 I have never experienced a close person dying. 04:36 You know, a lot of people died. 04:38 Even when I was in seventh grade, 04:39 one of my best friends died. 04:41 But he wasn't close like my mother. 04:44 But, yeah, it was just, that's hard, I mean, 04:47 it's devastating that she was so young, 04:50 you know, she's beautiful. 04:51 She was a beautiful woman and just a wonderful person. 04:54 What kind of impact 04:56 did that have on your faith at that time? 04:58 Well, at that time I had drifted away 05:01 from my belief in God. 05:03 I don't know if you call me an atheist, 05:05 you know, I meet, I know atheists now. 05:08 And atheists are more people who are, 05:10 I would say they're generally angry at God, 05:11 they believe in God, but they say they're atheists. 05:13 So I think they're most, 05:15 for the most part they're angry with God 05:16 so that wasn't me really. 05:17 But I had drifted away from God, 05:19 spent no time with God, my, 05:20 you know, I kind of drifted away 05:22 from my early childhood upbringing, 05:25 and drifted into the world. 05:27 And because of my lifestyle and things like that, 05:30 I had no time to spend with God and so I drifted away 05:32 from my belief in God. 05:34 And I would call myself more of an agnostic at that point. 05:38 And so when she's... 05:39 Her death and we'll get into this, 05:41 I guess a little bit later, 05:42 but her death is a catalyst 05:44 that sort of God used in a powerful way 05:47 to bring me back to God, 05:49 my belief in God, so. 05:51 Yeah, so, it was a blessing 05:52 other than that was very tragic. 05:54 Yes, oh, yes. 05:56 So when you're growing up you had your family. 06:00 You had your dad, your mom, 06:01 you had an intact family growing up. 06:04 And then, and you grew up 06:07 in kind of a nominal Christian environment. 06:11 So what happened in your life that began to pull you 06:16 even further away from God? 06:19 Well, see my dad, 06:21 he became an Adventist to marry with, 06:24 before he married, when he met my mother, 06:25 she kind of helped convert him. 06:28 And she was already grown up in the church. 06:31 She went to La Sierra University. 06:33 She knew Del Delker. Okay. 06:35 She was a real Adventist, you know. 06:36 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 06:38 But, La Sierra and... 06:41 So I would say what happened, so, you know, we grew up, 06:44 my mom and dad sent me to public school 06:47 that nothing against public school, 06:49 I had a good education. 06:51 But it's not the most conducive for spiritual upbringing 06:56 that keep you close to God, 06:57 it's not the place to be really. 06:59 I'm sorry, many of us have to go to public school 07:01 and we were very poor growing up and so. 07:06 My dad, he started out extremely poor. 07:09 He grew up in the humid Arizona in that area in the deserts. 07:13 And he was very, very poor. 07:16 But when he met my mom, he got into farming, 07:19 and he just worked his way up 07:21 from being poor to being a millionaire. 07:23 He became very wealthy. 07:24 And we were used to hard work, he was a farmer, 07:28 you know, a ranch, not a ranch but a farmer, 07:30 a commercial farming 07:31 in the southern San Joaquin Valley 07:33 near the Bakersfield area, so. 07:35 Yeah, it's interesting. 07:36 Excuse me one second 07:37 but it's like when you think of farmers, 07:39 you don't think of wealth, necessarily. 07:42 And that's my ignorance. 07:43 I mean, I just... 07:45 You know, I don't think of wealth. 07:47 Out here, we're driving around in the cornfields 07:49 of southern Illinois here. 07:51 It looks like the other guy with the suspenders on 07:53 and the overalls with the cone hat 07:55 or the straw hat, 07:57 you think of that 07:58 when you're kind of roaming on these little farms, 07:59 but this is commercial farming, 08:01 high tech equipment, 08:02 you know, airplanes spraying, 08:04 these in the southern California. 08:05 This is the bread basket of the world, 08:07 is San Joaquin Valley. 08:08 But so we had about a 1000 acres and my dad just, 08:12 you know, he built, he worked so hard. 08:15 So he worked his way up 08:16 basically from poverty to wealth. 08:20 And see that's, I mean this is Dare to Dream. 08:22 That is. That is Dare to Dream story. 08:23 So we want to know more about what he did? 08:27 He was so poor. 08:28 I mean he told me of stories 08:29 where he had to go out in the desert 08:31 and shoot a jack rabbit just to find some food. 08:33 So yeah, he was really driven 08:37 and worked really hard. 08:40 How did he get his first...? 08:41 Where did the first opportunity come from? 08:43 Well, his opportunities came with my mother's father, 08:46 he was a farmer, 08:48 and he sort of pioneered this area 08:50 in the southern San Joaquin Valley, 08:52 he partnered with Southern Pacific Railroad 08:54 which was leasing out the sections of land. 08:57 And so my dad since he married into the family, 09:00 he got the opportunity to work for grandpa. 09:02 And he tried to work his way into a partnership. 09:05 My grandpa was really reluctant to that. 09:06 So what happened, 09:08 my dad sort of went off on his own for a while. 09:10 And then he was successful there 09:11 and so my grandpa instantly brought him back in... 09:14 That's partnering, now ready for partnering. 09:15 Right, right, right. 09:17 So, and he was a good partner. 09:19 And if you wanted a good partner, 09:20 my dad was a good partner 09:21 'cause he'll put in long, long hours. 09:23 And yeah, so he worked, 09:25 you know, he partnered with banks. 09:27 The banks were always 09:28 big financing part of the farming, 09:30 commercial farming, it's a bank. 09:32 My dad, I remember going with him 09:33 to meetings in the bank 09:34 where they meet and talk about these big numbers 09:36 where they're going to borrow all the money, it was. 09:39 So they borrowed money, 09:40 and they farm, and it's high risk, 09:41 and high reward. 09:43 But you can have some pretty big losses too though. 09:46 Yeah, yeah. 09:47 So how did your dad's work ethic impact you? 09:50 Well, it was good 'cause we spent... 09:53 I learned how to put in long hours, you know. 09:56 I don't know if that was good, 09:57 I guess I was good but he paid us. 09:59 Yeah. 10:01 It was very minimum kind of wage. 10:03 But it was actually before they had a minimum wage 10:05 as I remember the minimum wage coming in 10:07 and all these labor laws coming in back in those days. 10:10 And he didn't like that very much. 10:12 But yeah, so but the only downside was it instilled 10:16 a love of money I think for me. 10:18 You know, I had this desire to be wealthy. 10:23 And the Bible says, 10:25 the love of money is the root of all evil. 10:28 And I found out that is kind of true 10:30 because it's not really the love, 10:32 desire to be wealthy. 10:33 I think that would be a better translation 10:35 the desire to be wealthy 10:36 can lead you into all kinds of evil. 10:39 Absolutely. 10:40 Yeah, so that was there. 10:41 Where did it lead you? 10:43 Well, my mother on the other hand 10:46 just as godly, was pure, you know, saint of a lady. 10:50 I'm surprised she got hooked up with my father, 10:53 but she did and that was ordained. 10:56 She got a tie on him, and cleaned him up quite a bit. 10:58 And she had good intentions for us. 11:02 But like I said we were in public school 11:04 and we learned all kinds of things there, 11:06 you know, out fighting and, 11:09 like I mentioned one of my best friends 11:10 in the seventh grade, 11:12 he was stabbed and shot in a family feud. 11:14 And I ended up being a pallbearer in his funeral. 11:17 But we learn things like, you know, just stealing, 11:20 just things that Christian should not be doing. 11:24 But one day my mother thinking to do a good thing for us, 11:29 she brought home a Christian record, 11:32 seems harmless enough. 11:33 It was a well known Christian group 11:36 at the time like around the 1970 era. 11:40 And if I mention the name which I won't, 11:42 everybody would recognize the group. 11:45 But they didn't have 11:47 contemporary Christian music back then. 11:49 But this might have qualified for that. 11:51 So she brought this album home 11:53 and we were playing it. 11:54 And nine out of the ten songs were good Christian songs folk, 11:59 you know, the traditional, sacred music songs. 12:02 But there was one song on there 12:04 that had sort of a rock and roll 12:06 kind of rhythm in the back 12:08 which is kind of new for that kind of time, 12:09 Christian rock, that was kind of, 12:12 you know, that was kind of almost unheard of. 12:13 Yes. 12:15 But, so when I heard that one song, 12:17 you know, I had not been exposed to that. 12:19 And it's sort of, you know, rock music is, 12:22 it's kind of charming and it's kind of get, 12:25 it got, it charmed me. 12:26 And I thought, so I listen to that song 12:28 over and over again. 12:29 You know, I thought this is cool. 12:31 You know, it makes you feel kind of, 12:32 makes me want to move a little bit and I thought, 12:35 so I played that song over and over. 12:37 My mom hadn't noticed that 12:38 and so since she sort of felt bad 12:39 just to listen to that record. 12:42 Back in those days parents could tell their children 12:45 that rock and roll is bad, 12:47 but they couldn't tell us why. 12:49 I remember that and being confused 12:50 by that a little bit. 12:52 But so that seed was planted in me and it kind of grew, 12:56 you know. 12:58 I got unwatered every once in a while and so... 13:00 Were you musician or singer? 13:02 No, not at all at the time. 13:03 But I took every opportunity to hear that kind of music, 13:08 you know, in public school. 13:10 I remember one day the public school bus, 13:12 they installed a radio on it. 13:14 I mean radio that probably 13:16 wasn't a good idea for the kids. 13:17 But we all want the bus driver 13:19 to tune into the rock and roll station. 13:21 So here I'm listening to this and I'm really, 13:24 I can feel the rhythms there how they kind of 13:27 influence your thinking, you know. 13:29 And so I really got into this. 13:32 And as the years went by, 13:34 I developed a taste for this and I started to take, 13:36 I took drum lessons two years on percussion drum lessons. 13:40 And I decided one day 13:43 under the prompting of a friend of mine up 13:45 and when I had moved out that I decided, 13:47 I want to be in the rock music business, 13:50 you know, crazy, crazy thing to think of but... 13:53 But, so I found another friend a friend of mine. 13:58 His name was Greg 14:00 and he had a similar aspiration, 14:03 a goal in life. 14:05 He wanted to be in the rock music business. 14:06 Here's a picture of Greg on the right, 14:08 I'm the guy with the hat, 14:10 the funny looking guy with the hat on there. 14:11 Greg was a concert pianist. 14:14 And he was the most talented musician 14:16 I think I've ever... 14:18 I mean he could fight anything. 14:19 So he was a really good asset. 14:21 We got together. 14:22 And for some reason I don't know what was wrong 14:24 with use brain, 14:25 we thought we were the most talented 14:28 with greatest passions. 14:30 Now what you... 14:31 Were you playing drums at the time? 14:32 I was playing. 14:34 Yeah, I was a percussionist and the lead singer 14:35 if you can believe that. 14:38 So we got together, we formed this two person, 14:40 what we would call a band, 14:42 new wave rock music kind of thing. 14:44 And I was the singer, 14:47 and there was a picture of us. 14:50 Well, I'll get to that in a second but... 14:54 Well, we actually managed to get a manager. 14:55 A manager picked us up 14:57 and got us introduced us to people 14:59 and our manager one day managed 15:01 to get us a recording contract 15:03 in North Hollywood with a producer. 15:06 It's actually a production contract 15:08 with a guy named Hank Dunning. 15:10 And I tried to find Hank, 15:11 I can't find this guy for the life of me. 15:14 But he presented us a contract. 15:20 We spent a lot of time, Greg and I, 15:21 we spend a lot of time putting together a demo. 15:24 And, you know, looking back, you know, it's just ridiculous. 15:27 But it was actually pretty decent, it was a decent, 15:30 what you would call a demo for that back in those days. 15:32 It was just two of you? 15:33 Just a two of us, yeah. 15:35 So piano and drums. 15:36 Well, yeah, we had multi tracker equipment 15:38 in there, 15:40 so this is recording. 15:41 We had a recording studio. 15:43 We lived on my father's ranch 15:46 on a pink mobile home with a bit of expanding. 15:50 And we were just sort of holed up in there, 15:51 you know, like some bandits 15:53 and then we got to go out and then we'd only come out 15:54 just enough to work a little bit 15:56 as little as we had to get some money for food 15:58 and music equipment. 16:01 So we did, we spent all we had on this ambition. 16:04 So were you immersing yourself in the culture of rock and roll 16:09 as well? 16:11 A little bit. 16:12 But we were more immersing ourselves in our demo. 16:14 Our whole goal was to get a demo because we knew... 16:17 I knew he had talent and he for some reason 16:19 he had faith in my talent, you know. 16:21 And if you want to call that singing, 16:23 you know, you could say we had faith in each other. 16:27 And we just knew 16:29 we were going to go somewhere, you know. 16:30 And were you spiritually at this point? 16:33 Well, you know, I had forgotten God basically, 16:36 you know, but I wasn't thinking about my spirituality, 16:39 you know, no church, you know, I'm on my own, 16:42 I don't have to go to church, you know. 16:43 How old were you? 16:45 This would be early 20's. 16:46 Okay. Yeah, early 20's. 16:48 My parents did their job and when I was out of the nest 16:51 and it was... 16:52 But here I am living on my father's property and so, 16:55 and here we are building our studio 16:57 and building our demo. 16:59 I remember, when I bought my reel to reel, 17:02 back in those days 17:03 we didn't have digital recording. 17:05 So we got a reel to reel multitrack recorder. 17:06 I bought it from the guy who produced the commercial, 17:10 Milk It Does a Body Good. 17:12 You remember that? Oh, yeah. 17:13 Milk It Does a Body Good which is not true really, 17:15 however another story. 17:17 That's another, yeah, it's another conversation. 17:19 But anyway, bought that reel to reel from him. 17:20 We would go to, 17:22 there was a picture up there of West L.A. music 17:23 which is this music store of the stars 17:26 and we would meet people there. 17:27 I got drums there, I got microphones, we would... 17:31 When we had a little bit of money 17:32 that's where we're going. 17:34 We go there and we build our studio. 17:35 Finally we had the demo done. 17:38 And then we've got a manager, can you believe that. 17:41 You know, people believed in us. 17:43 Satan sends these people along to help us out, you know. 17:46 If we're not on the right track, 17:47 the devil is right there to lead us. 17:49 Yes, he is. 17:50 And so we got this recording contract, 17:53 Hank Dunning produced us, he liked it. 17:55 You know he said, "I'll take it." 17:56 And he had the recording contract... 17:58 My manager had a meeting with us, 18:00 he had the contract out there, "Boys, 18:01 all you got to do is sign on the... 18:03 You know, this is like this typical movie you see, 18:04 sign on the line and you're in business." 18:06 Boy, we're going to Capitol Records 18:07 right over the hill. 18:08 And we got a little skeptical, 18:11 you know, I thought that was too easy. 18:13 I thought that Lord did that. Before you signed, you mean... 18:15 We didn't sign it. Okay. 18:18 Let's think about it. 18:20 And you saw a picture of Studio Boulevard, 18:22 and this is where lot of... 18:23 Yeah, see on the left there, Studio Boulevard. 18:25 We went down from, Hank Dunning was upstairs, 18:27 a little studio there and we went across the street, 18:29 there were studios everywhere out there on Studio Boulevard. 18:32 So we just went over there 18:33 and there we found the studio right across the street, 18:35 we thought we're going to check Hank out a little bit. 18:37 Maybe see, know little bit more about this guy 18:40 as we were thinking about it. 18:42 So the studio right across the street had some security, 18:44 we managed somehow to get into the studio 18:46 and we met the producer there. 18:48 He was a producer for Kim Carnes 18:51 and I think Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young. 18:55 Jason, you know who Neil Young is? 18:56 I don't. 18:57 Good for you. 18:59 But you do, right? 19:00 I know Linda Ronstadt and Kim Carnes. 19:03 You probably know them personally, right? 19:04 No, no, no, no. 19:06 I had never met them, but I know who they are. 19:08 Yeah. Yeah. 19:09 Well, anyway, so we go, hey, we're probably, 19:11 this is better than Hank Dunning over there. 19:12 He had a few names, 19:14 but he didn't have Linda Ronstadt, you know. 19:16 Right, right. 19:17 And so, we said, 19:19 "Wait, do you know anything about the guy 19:20 across the street, there is Hank Dunning." 19:22 And he goes, "Yeah, I know Hank." 19:24 I said, "Well, we've got a contract with him 19:26 and we were wondering if you... 19:28 We're looking for a recommendation." 19:30 And he said, "Well, he said, I know Hank, I don't think, 19:34 he said, I don't think Hank is the right guy 19:36 for you really, I mean, he's a nice man," 19:38 but he said we might be able to take a look at your demo 19:41 and take a look at if you have one, 19:44 we'll take a look at it. 19:46 You know, 'cause we kind of looked 19:47 the part at the time, 19:48 you know, we had the look, you know, it might sell, 19:50 those guys could, you know, goofy as they look, 19:52 they can probably sell, 19:53 so I'm supposed you're my partner there. 19:55 I was a goof off. 19:59 So you guys were kind of shopping around little bit? 20:01 But we weren't until then. 20:03 As soon as we have the... 20:04 It was too easy to get that contract, 20:06 we thought, "Well, maybe that was too easy." 20:07 So we came back and told Hank, we'll think about it. 20:12 And so we left my manager there, 20:13 we left Hank there, and we went home. 20:15 And for some reason, 20:16 we started to get into trouble, mischief, and even crime. 20:20 I'm sorry to report. 20:21 But just for the thrill of it, 20:24 we would do things that were wrong 20:26 just to impress each other maybe, I'm not sure why. 20:28 But one thing led to another 20:31 and eventually our group broke up, 20:35 and I was arrested one day for a grand-theft-auto, 20:39 and I found myself in court, 20:42 in court facing some very serious charges. 20:47 One of which was grand-theft-auto, 20:49 the other three charges were. 20:51 Well, lying to a police officer, 20:53 receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods. 20:55 You know, we had been doing things like that. 20:57 And so here I am, I'm in court one day. 21:03 I had already lied to my attorney 21:05 about what happened, you know. 21:07 And I'm at my arraignment. 21:08 You know what arraignment is in court? 21:10 You stand before a judge, you plead guilty or not guilty. 21:13 Well, that's the first step of a trial. 21:15 I pled not guilty, even though I really was guilty. 21:18 And I remember on court day, 21:23 when it was time to go to court. 21:25 Just before the court session started, 21:26 I showed up, you know, 21:28 I haven't slept the night before at all. 21:29 I'm stressed out 21:30 more than I've ever been stressed out in my life. 21:32 And this is stress 'cause I had a lie prepared. 21:34 You know, the Bible says I think in Isaiah 40, 21:36 "There is no peace for the wicked, 21:39 for the lawless person." 21:40 And that's me, and I didn't know a person could experience 21:44 so much stress, you know. 21:46 And so here it is, 21:47 I didn't sleep at all hardly the night before. 21:48 I get to court nervous as can be. 21:51 They put me in a little waiting room in... 21:55 waiting area before, 21:56 where the defendants go 21:58 before they go into the court scene. 22:00 So I'm all by myself in there and waiting, and waiting, 22:02 stressing, and sweating it out and, you know, and thinking, 22:05 trying to rehearse my lie, you know. 22:08 And that is not a comfortable feeling. 22:10 Well, my attorney came in, 22:12 court appointed attorney came into the room, 22:14 he says, he sat down across the table from me 22:17 with a real serious look on his face 22:18 and he said, "Larren, the court wants to make a deal with you." 22:24 He says, it's a plea bargain. You heard of a plea bargain? 22:29 He says, "If you will change your plea to guilty, 22:34 the court will significantly reduce your sentence 22:37 and instead of spending ten years in jail 22:39 if you're found guilty 22:41 you'll only spend two years in jail. 22:43 And that two years can be spent 22:46 on a work release program in 45 days. 22:50 So they really twisted my arm here. 22:52 I mean, I was ready to go in there 22:54 and, you know, do the thing 22:56 I had planned to do which was not a good thing. 22:59 But he left me, he told me about the plea bargain, 23:02 and then he left me to think it over. 23:04 So I'm there thinking it over, what do I do, 23:07 I'm thinking 10 years, are you serious." 23:09 They're going to put 10 years. 23:11 'Cause it was grand-theft Grand-theft-auto. 23:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not a good thing. 23:16 It's not grand. Grand, yeah. 23:18 Then if you plead guilty and you accept that charges 23:21 with the rest of your life unless... 23:23 I don't even know if you can get 23:24 that expunged to your record. 23:26 I don't know. 23:27 I hope it's expunged by now because... 23:32 So I what I did, I thought it over 23:35 and when he finally came back and I said, 23:37 you know, I'm broke, I said I'll take it, 23:39 I'll take the deal. 23:40 And when that happens, you know, 23:42 the court doesn't actually have to, 23:43 I guess the court recommends that 23:44 or the prosecution recommends that to the judge. 23:48 And there's no telling what the judge 23:49 is going to do with that. 23:52 I guess tradition says 23:54 that he follows the prosecution's recommendations 23:58 and I'm going to hope and I hope they do. 24:00 And so we change our plea. 24:02 I never got to go into the court room. 24:03 I changed my plea to guilty, and I took the deal, 24:09 the plea bargain and sure enough, 24:11 oh, mercy, mercy, 24:13 the court held up there into the bargain 24:14 and I was sentenced to 45 days on a work release program 24:19 which means I didn't have to go to jail, 24:21 I had to report to jail at first 24:23 and sign up for the work release program, 24:24 and then I was released. 24:26 I spent 45 days working on a city parks program 24:32 where I work with these people for, 24:33 I just check in the morning, 24:35 I'm their prisoner for all day, I'm their slave, 24:38 I worked all day for just 45 days and so... 24:43 You know I call my story pleading guilty, 24:46 and the reason I call it pleading guilty 24:47 is because this is a marquee of my testimony. 24:50 But this whole situation reminds me, it works, 24:56 it fits so perfectly into the Bible, 24:58 the gospel message of 1 John 1:9 where it says, 25:01 "If we confess our sins, 25:04 God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 25:08 and to cleanse us from unrighteousness." 25:12 That's a plea bargain, isn't it? 25:13 Yes. 25:15 And so I didn't realize that at the time. 25:16 You know, I had been converted yet. 25:18 But I was just so happy to be off, sort of, 25:21 scot free if you will. 25:23 But later on that when I found Jesus 25:25 and I'll tell you about that a little bit. 25:27 But I found Jesus, that hit me really hard. 25:29 1 John, when I read my Bible for the first time and read, 25:32 I got to that point, I realized, 25:34 that's exactly what the Lord 25:36 was teaching me in this plea bargain. 25:37 He says, you plead guilty, confess your sins, 25:41 I got a plea bargain for you, just plead guilty, 25:43 confess and I'll cleanse you from unrighteousness. 25:47 I won't even make you spend 45 days 25:48 on a work release program. 25:51 Yeah, it's... 25:54 I'm listening to you and I'm thinking to myself, 25:57 well, your situation is so different 26:00 from so many others 26:01 who get so much longer convictions 26:06 and longer sentencing terms. 26:08 And, you know, all of this mass incarceration 26:11 that's going on in the black community and stuff. 26:14 It's appalling to me and it's, you know, thank God, 26:19 we serve a God who is fair because life here is not. 26:24 You know, it's a fair in a way, 26:26 but don't you think it's a little unfair 26:27 the way we are actually forgiven 26:30 and cleansed, that's not fair, isn't it? 26:32 Yeah, but you know, well, that's true, 26:33 He doesn't treat us as we deserve. 26:35 Yeah. Yeah. 26:36 When you think of fairness, 26:38 you think of being treated as you deserve to be. 26:39 No, we are not treated as we deserve to be, thank God. 26:43 Praise the Lord. That's right. 26:45 So that we could be treated the way He deserve. 26:48 Absolutely. 26:50 Yes, so I remember sharing the story one time in a church 26:51 and a lawyer was in the audience, 26:53 and he came up to me and he felt bad, 26:56 he says, "You know why 26:57 they offered you that plea bargain." 26:59 You know, he was a prosecuting attorney. 27:00 And he says, Probably 27:01 'cause they don't have enough evidence on you." 27:03 I thought, "Oh, great." 27:05 Maybe you could have been free. You could have beat the case. 27:07 Right. Oh, my. 27:08 Probably could have beat the case and never probably, 27:10 because that sounds pretty cutting from 10 years 27:12 down to 45 days over there 27:14 for two years, I didn't like that. 27:15 I didn't like 10 years of course 27:17 but I didn't like two years either. 27:18 But 45 days, I can do that. 27:19 And that's what they tend to do to 27:22 is come in and offer you these plea bargains, 27:25 and trump up all these charges, and then say, 27:27 "Okay, well this sounds, 27:29 you'll be like well this sounds really horrible. 27:31 I better just take this," 27:33 you know because really if they were to try every case 27:38 the judicial system would shut down, 27:40 there's no way they can try every single case in court. 27:43 So they offer these plea bargains 27:45 and then people accept them 27:47 and then so that gets them off the docket. 27:50 They would clutter up the court 27:51 and get us out of there, move along. 27:53 So how did you find the Lord, 27:56 if but your life had obviously spiraled. 27:58 Oh, yeah. 27:59 So at this point, 28:01 I have lost my connection with God really, 28:03 you know, I'm like atheist and agnostic. 28:05 I don't believe. 28:06 I doubt the existence of God at this point. 28:08 So the turning point... 28:11 Well, my mom got sick. 28:13 My mom got sick with cancer. 28:15 And before that happened I had just, I decided, 28:19 you know, I went out and I forgot the music, 28:20 I'm not going to do this music stuff anymore. 28:22 We just sort of had bad experiences. 28:24 I said, "Well, I'm gonna do 28:26 is I'm gonna go out and pursue a business." 28:28 And so I started the car business, 28:30 and I got a dealership, I got a dealer's license, 28:33 you know, and I had a partner, and we started doing cars. 28:36 And a guy came into the office 28:38 and bought a Volkswagen convertible from me. 28:40 And he happened to be an intern from Loma Linda University. 28:43 And he invited me to... We became friends, 28:45 he invited me to come down and live with him, 28:47 he had a open room in his apartment 28:49 down in Southern California and near Loma Linda. 28:52 And so I did. 28:54 And one day he invited me to a Bible study. 28:56 It was occurring in the local area, 28:59 it was in Redlands, California near Loma Linda. 29:01 And I thought, "Well, okay, Bible study, well, let's go, 29:03 let's go, maybe there's some people I could meet, 29:05 you know, some girls or whatever." 29:07 And I thought, "Well, I'll go down there 29:08 and do Bible study." 29:10 We got there. 29:11 The Bible study was so full of people, 29:12 was is very popular, 29:14 there must have been 100 people in this guy's home. 29:16 And I never even saw the man presenting the Bible study. 29:19 So we got in there, 29:21 there was people lined up around the edge of the house, 29:22 all lined up to hear, 29:24 to participate in the Bible study. 29:25 The only place I could find is that was in the kitchen 29:28 up against the refrigerator. 29:29 And so I squeezed in between two people 29:31 and I said hello to one on the right 29:33 and I said hello to the one on the left. 29:34 And I look back on my left 29:35 and it was my long lost cousin Steve sitting right there, 29:39 a man who had, 29:40 he had married my cousin years ago, 29:42 and they got divorced, 29:43 and then we lost track of him, 29:44 and I haven't seen him in years. 29:46 And I go, "Steve, what are you doing here?" 29:48 And he said "Oh man, 29:49 I'm in school Loma Linda University," 29:52 he is a physical therapy student. 29:53 I said "Well, I'm in the car business," 29:55 and I told him that it's up and down, 29:57 it's like a roller coaster, 29:58 you know, you can make money 30:00 and then also you're losing money. 30:01 And he said, "Oh, you got to do what I'm doing." 30:03 He says, "I'm going to school, I will be a physical therapist, 30:07 the pay is good, the job market is wide open." 30:10 I thought, "Well, if he can do it," 30:11 you know, he actually talked me 30:13 into going to physical therapy into school. 30:15 And so I went back, 30:17 I started getting my prerequisite, 30:18 I met my wife, Mickey, 30:20 she wasn't my wife when I met her, 30:22 but she was actually over it. 30:25 I went over to Steve's house to visit him. 30:27 He had an apartment and his roommate was there. 30:30 He had a roommate, and she, my wife, Mickey, 30:32 to be was over there visiting the roommate one day, 30:35 and so I came in there 30:36 and I was no longer interested in Steve. 30:38 Visiting Steve always and now I wanted to visit Mickey, 30:40 you know. 30:42 She was beautiful. 30:43 And I found out she was two weeks away 30:45 from graduating from Loma Linda University. 30:48 I thought, well, that could come in handy 30:49 you know got a job coming up. 30:51 She was in dental hygiene in the dental school there. 30:54 And so I found out and I'm in the car business, 30:57 so I asked Mickey, 30:59 I try to think of things to say to 31:00 or to start up a conversation. 31:02 I just wanted to say, "Well, what you're going to do 31:04 when you graduate you've got two weeks to go, 31:05 what you're going to do?" 31:07 She said, "Well, I'm going to get a job, 31:08 and I'm going to finally buy my first car." 31:10 And I told, "What you're going to buy?" 31:11 She said, "Well, I'm going to buy a white BMW, 31:14 a two door, 5 speed with the sunroof, 325i." 31:19 And I thought she was joking 31:21 because right outside of the house of the apartment 31:23 she didn't see me come up 31:24 was a white 325i BMW convertible, 5speed. 31:28 It was like the most uncanny thing. 31:31 It was exactly what she described, the color, 31:33 the model, almost to the mileage. 31:35 And this was your car? 31:37 It was in our dealer inventory. 31:38 Yeah, I was driving, I just drove it to, you know... 31:42 So God used that as the catalyst. 31:44 You know God just set this up. 31:45 He saw Steve here, my cousin, physical therapy, visit him, 31:49 meet Mickey, and Mickey ended, we ended, 31:51 I ended up giving her the car, then we got married. 31:54 And she helped me go through school, 31:57 she put me through school and I got loan, 32:00 my dad wouldn't help me at all, 32:02 because I had already let him down before. 32:04 He sent me to school at an early age 32:05 and I just squandered his hope to wish in and everything, 32:08 I was totally unfocused. 32:11 So I was on my own 32:12 and it was a real hardship to get through school, 32:14 you know, the finances and everything. 32:17 Credit cards, we ended up selling that BMW 32:19 just before I graduated to pay for part of my tuition. 32:21 We sold everything we had and my wife scrimped 32:24 and put us through. 32:26 But about this time my mother got sick, 32:28 you know, while I'm in school 32:30 and she would ask me to come over 32:31 and read to her the Bible of all things, you know. 32:35 I'm not even... 32:36 I mean, I love my mother. 32:38 So just out of love 32:40 she's laying in the living room on her sick bed 32:42 which turned out to be her deathbed eventually. 32:44 For two years she sat in this condition. 32:47 And so she would ask me to come over and sit 32:48 and just read her spiritual books 32:50 and the Bible which I would do 32:52 and I would read the Bible hour after hours, 32:55 just read to her what I could. 32:56 And eventually she passed away. 33:00 And so that devastated me. 33:03 I thought she was going to get well. 33:04 You know, I don't do good with death so well. 33:08 But I thought she was getting well. 33:10 So it was just really a hard thing for me. 33:13 But it was exactly what I needed. 33:15 I needed to realize my life is terminal, 33:18 you know, life is actually temporary. 33:20 You know when you're young 33:21 and you're out there trying to pursue your dreams, 33:23 me, me, me, you know, wealth, and me, and all that stuff. 33:27 You don't really think about your life has an ending. 33:30 You know, there's an ending. 33:32 If you don't have God, that's a big ending. 33:34 Right. Right. 33:35 It's a permanent ending. Permanent ending. 33:37 So the Holy Spirit used all that. 33:40 So one day I'm in anatomy 33:42 and physiology class at a public school, 33:44 I'm getting these prerequisites, 33:46 one of the prerequisites 33:47 for getting into physical therapy school 33:48 was anatomy and physiology. 33:51 This is the turning point. 33:53 So here I am, I'm in a huge lecture hall, 33:54 it's amphitheater, Ron, ex drill sergeant, 33:58 marine drill sergeant is the teacher, 33:59 and he's an ex Seventh-day Adventist too. 34:01 Oh, wow. 34:02 Nothing against the church, he just said, 34:04 he didn't have time for religion, you know... 34:07 That's probably the right, 34:08 really that's the true church he sought. 34:09 But I don't care, 34:11 you know, he didn't really care about religion, 34:12 he was a teacher. 34:14 He was teaching on cellular mitosis 34:16 or cell metabolism was our class 34:18 and how the cell divides. 34:20 And so pencil in hand paper notes, 34:22 all the students are taking notes, 34:25 and I'm listening to the lecture 34:26 on how the cell divides, and how the cell functions. 34:29 And he started explaining all the intricate details 34:32 of how a cell divides 34:34 and how the cell functions, but it's so complex. 34:37 He says the body you've got 10 trillion cells, 34:39 now I think they say it's got 100 trillion cells 34:41 and each one of the cells 34:42 has all these things, there's a membrane, 34:45 there's a cytoplasm inside, there's the lysosomes 34:47 and all these different things, a nucleus in the middle, 34:50 there's a DNA molecule. 34:53 And he was describing it, 34:54 we're studying how the processes work, 34:56 how this stuff works. 34:57 And I'm flabbergasted at this point, 35:00 for a person that doesn't believe in God, 35:02 this is awfully hard to swallow, 35:03 you know, 'cause this is complex. 35:06 They've got more intense when he started to describe 35:08 what happens when they're dividing, 35:10 we started to describe the DNA, 35:11 we started studying the DNA molecule, 35:13 the deoxyribonucleic acid. 35:15 This is what scientists consider 35:18 the most complex structure in the universe, 35:20 the DNA, and you can't even see it. 35:23 You can see on electron microscope. 35:26 So he's describing the function, 35:27 what happens in the DNA, he says, 35:29 "This DNA molecule contains the genetic blueprint 35:32 of how your body is designed, and formed, 35:34 and how it's going to build. 35:36 It's the blueprint like a architect's blueprint. 35:39 And there's 10 trillion of them, 35:40 every cell has one. 35:41 He says when they go to divide 35:44 after all these processes take place, 35:46 there's a nucleus and a blank, 35:48 sort of a blank DNA molecule in the newly formed cell. 35:52 He says now to get that genetic blueprint, 35:55 the code into the new one, 35:56 we have another molecule called the RNA molecule. 35:59 He says, now what that RNA molecule does 36:01 is it sort of transcribe and dictate, 36:04 it takes all the information from the original DNA molecule, 36:09 and then it goes on a journey. 36:10 He says, it transverses through the membrane into the new cell 36:13 and it deposits 36:18 the code into the new DNA molecule. 36:22 And that's about all I could take. 36:23 I put my pen down and I'm like, 36:27 I'm no longer listening to this class 36:29 on how cells divide and mitosis. 36:31 I'm listening to a class on the existence of God. 36:34 There's no doubt in my mind now this is not spontaneous... 36:40 Coincidence. Coincidence. Nothing like that. 36:43 And the Holy Spirit was just whispering, 36:45 He said the Holy Spirit is interesting 36:47 because He knows exactly when to approach you 36:51 with this kind of stuff, 36:52 and he approached me strongly at this point. 36:54 He's saying in my mind, my mind is telling me, 36:56 there's a God out there. 36:58 There's no way what Ron is describing 37:01 is just mechanical and happenstance. 37:04 This is a God with a complex guy 37:06 with a design in mind. 37:08 And so I put my pen down 37:09 and didn't take any more notes the rest of day. 37:12 And I decided right then and there, 37:15 I want to know this God 'cause there's a God. 37:18 I'm absolutely sure of that. 37:20 And he also... 37:21 The Holy Spirit impressed me where to find this God 37:23 because of reading my Bible, 37:24 the Bible to my mother and watching her die. 37:26 She died with peace. 37:28 She was just at peace, never complained. 37:30 I don't think I ever heard my mother complain, 37:32 going to radiation, and chemo, and pain for two years, 37:36 not a plea, not a complaint, 37:38 maybe I'm thirsty or something like that. 37:40 But she died with peace. 37:42 And then I realized the reason she had the peace 37:44 was because she knew her maker, she knew this God. 37:48 And so I wanted to know this God. 37:49 And so, oh, 37:51 you got to and I knew where to find Him, 37:52 it's in the Bible. 37:54 And so I got a Bible, you know, I'm gonna go find God. 37:56 You know, I was thoroughly committed. 37:58 I knew I was probably going to have to give up things. 38:02 I thought my life 38:04 was going to be kind of tough from now on. 38:05 It's going to be kind of unfun. 38:07 I'm going to lose all my privileges. 38:10 Whatever, I'm not going to have fun anymore. 38:12 But I decided even though 38:14 I wasn't going to have fun in life anymore, 38:16 I decided I'm going to do it anyway 38:18 because I don't want to go to that burning place 38:20 or whatever the consequences, I want the eternal life. 38:22 I want to be with my mother. 38:24 And so I decided and I think that every Christian 38:27 that's going to end up in a saving relationship 38:29 with Jesus in heaven 38:31 has to make that commitment, don't you think? 38:33 No matter what make the commitment. 38:35 Yes. 38:37 To know God. To know God. 38:38 And to pursue knowing God. 38:40 Without wavering. And you know what? 38:43 Even that decision comes from God. 38:46 It must have. 38:47 Even that decision... 38:48 'Cause I put my foot down. 38:50 I finally said, I'm going to do it. 38:51 Yeah, even that determination comes from Him. 38:54 So for the viewer who says, 38:57 "Why I don't really feel like that." 38:59 Ask God to help you to feel like that. 39:01 Oh, absolutely. 39:02 And let me tell you along this line. 39:04 Yeah. Okay, so I get the Bible. 39:07 You know, and by the way 39:08 when I did become a Christian became committed, 39:09 I found out I didn't give up anything, 39:11 I just gained everything. That's right. 39:13 That was I was waiting for. 39:15 It's not that bad, it's great. Whatever, it's so much fun. 39:17 Yes. Oh, yeah. 39:18 So here I get the Bible and I try to read it. 39:21 Because of my lifestyle and all things I've been, 39:23 I couldn't understand what I was reading. 39:25 You know, the devil had a little bit of control 39:27 over my thinking. 39:28 Wasn't a devil possessed person or anything. 39:31 But the devil, like the parable Jesus tells about the seeds 39:35 that were planted on the wayside 39:36 and the birds came and snatched away, 39:38 the devil is that snatcher. 39:40 So I'm reading, I'll read a text, 39:41 the devil will just go and laugh and snatch it out, 39:43 so I could not contemplate what I was reading. 39:46 Were you reading King James Version? 39:48 I don't remember I would assume so 'cause that was a prominent. 39:51 And I love the King James. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 39:54 However, you're right, 39:55 the King James can be a little hard to understand... 39:57 Yeah, for those 39:58 who aren't used to it, you know. 39:59 My kids actually, all my kids learn to read 40:01 by reading the King James Bible. 40:03 That's got to be supernatural, 40:05 they know how to read, you know. 40:06 They learn reading itself. 40:07 I would read with them and preach them 40:09 and it's like riding a bicycle pretty soon, 40:10 the training wheels come out and all soon they're going. 40:12 It's just like they learned it from the Bible. 40:15 And so after my second or third child, 40:17 I realize that this is how you teach people to read, 40:19 you know, God is going to help. 40:21 But so here I am struggling 40:23 with my comprehension of what I'm reading. 40:25 And I'm not enjoying this at all. 40:28 And finally I get to a text like in Philippians 2:5. 40:32 You know, I think we have a graphic of Philippians 2:5. 40:35 The Bible says, "Let this mind be in you 40:37 that is also in Christ Jesus." 40:39 So something finally spoke to me. 40:42 I realize I'm struggling with my mind now. 40:45 I can't understand what I'm reading. 40:47 And so I said, "Hey, wait a minute, 40:49 let me ask God, if God really does exist 40:51 which I know He does. 40:53 And if salvation is found in the Bible, 40:55 maybe He could make me like the Bible." 40:58 This text here says, 40:59 we could have the mind of Christ. 41:02 If God wants me to like the Bible 41:04 and wants to be saved, salvation is found there, 41:07 He might be able to do something about this. 41:08 And so I got on my knees. 41:10 And I asked God, I said, "God, 41:12 please help me understand what I'm reading. 41:13 Right now I'm not enjoying it. 41:15 I can't understand it. 41:16 You know I found myself just tasting the Bible. 41:18 I didn't like it, hated it, you know." 41:20 I hated my experience 'cause I need to find God, 41:23 you know, and I'm not finding it. 41:24 And so, said, God if you want me 41:25 to like this book, make me like it. 41:27 Amen. 41:29 And I didn't expect an answer really, you know. 41:31 I never had big answers to prayer. 41:34 But as soon as I got open the book back up 41:35 and I started reading and instantly 41:37 it was like a light switch went on, 41:39 understood everything. 41:40 And I found myself, "Wow! 41:42 Liking when I was reading." 41:44 I read some more and I read some more. 41:45 And I got, thank you God. 41:46 Yes. 41:48 It opened a whole new world for you. 41:49 It sure did. 41:50 Romans 12:2, 41:52 "Be not conformed to this world, 41:53 but be transformed by renewing the mind." 41:56 I read that and I go, 41:58 God is actually able to 41:59 make you like the things you should like. 42:01 And so I'm praying God again. 42:03 Make me like what You want me to like. 42:05 He started changing my life, you know, 42:07 and instead of finding the things 42:09 I thought would be distasteful, 42:11 actually I like Christian music now. 42:13 I like listening to Yvonne Lewis on 3ABN. 42:16 Praise the Lord. 42:17 And I love all this stuff. 42:19 And so I pray. 42:21 I recommend, I would say that would be the highlight 42:23 of my testimony right there, Philippians 2:5. 42:27 Ask God to make you like... 42:28 So if your viewers are having trouble 42:31 with comprehending the Bible or liking things, 42:33 you think, oh, what a burden to like spiritual things. 42:37 Just open your Bibles up to Philippians 2:5, 42:40 get on to your knees, and ask God 42:42 to make you like the things you should like. 42:44 And I guarantee you, 42:46 your money back guarantee if it doesn't do it. 42:49 You can have your money back. 42:50 But God will do a miracle for you and make you like. 42:53 And so now I'm hungry and thirsty, 42:54 the Bible is just everything to me now. 42:56 Oh, that's so great. 42:57 That's so great. 42:59 So you went from studying to now teaching too, correct? 43:03 So you do seminars and all of that? 43:06 Well, we travel around. 43:07 And I do Revelation seminars. 43:09 Our Revelation seminar is called Revelation 101, 43:13 a survival training course. 43:15 And I think we have a graphic of that. 43:17 We have a graphic of that, yeah. 43:19 I like to travel around and there it is, 43:22 a survival training course. 43:23 On the top, it says, life is temporary, 43:25 choose to make it permanent. 43:28 Besides this, these are our one month long crusades. 43:32 I do a lot of, number of weekend seminars now. 43:35 And we do one on a modern day resurrection, 43:37 we do one on surviving the mark of the beast 43:39 when you can't buy or sell. 43:41 And then we have on what it's called animals 43:45 and people that rest on Saturday. 43:48 We do film production and we did a... 43:50 Go ahead, Jay. 43:52 You said a modern day resurrection. 43:54 What is that about? 43:55 That's the story of myself. 43:57 We had, when my family started growing, 44:00 our third child drowned in a pond one day. 44:03 And I rescued him out of there. 44:05 but it was probably about 30 minutes 44:06 after he'd already been dead. 44:08 Pulled him out of the pond. 44:09 And through the series of miracles, 44:13 God brought him back to life. 44:15 Thirty minutes after... 44:16 Probably about 28 to 30 minutes. 44:18 And it could have been longer, he had time to float out 44:21 into the middle of this pond, face down. 44:23 And I had just been, 44:25 it was my day to watch the kids. 44:26 Mom went to work. 44:28 We're already living in the country, 44:29 we moved out of the city. 44:31 But anyway, she was at work and I wasn't watching the kids 44:34 as closely as I should have been. 44:36 I mean, I had rather a real big major fail that day. 44:38 How old was he? 44:40 He was about two and a half. 44:41 Okay. Yeah. 44:42 And my daughter came up to me during the day, my afternoon, 44:46 I was working on my computer, 44:48 went outside just to check on the kids, 44:49 my daughter came up to me 44:50 and very patiently waited her turn 44:52 while I was dressing a wound on the other kids. 44:54 And she told me that when she got her turn she said, 44:57 "Jackson drowned." 44:59 And I said why didn't you interrupt me 45:01 and tell me a little about 10 minutes ago." 45:04 Anyway I went down and looked everywhere from... 45:06 We had a pond on our 37 acres. 45:08 And I found, finally went down there 45:09 and there he was floating face down. 45:12 I drove in. 45:13 My little Kennedy which was just an infant, 45:16 and I had just dropped her, I went in there, 45:18 rescued him out, 45:19 took a long time to get him out of there. 45:21 I rest him out. 45:22 He wasn't breathing. 45:23 No pulse, no breath, you know. 45:25 I had, I was in medical field 45:27 so I assessed his vital signs and nothing. 45:30 And he was cold. 45:33 And so I just screamed out to God, 45:36 you know after sitting there for a longest time, you know. 45:39 Alex came and I'm going, "He's dead. 45:40 What do we do? 45:42 What do we tell mom when she comes home, 45:43 you know, she's at work." 45:45 But we had a pretty bad day today, Mom. 45:48 So I was like, God, do something. 45:50 I just said, do something, not expecting to do anything. 45:53 And when I yelled at God to do something 45:56 which is very irreverent I guess. 45:57 But a little bubble came out 45:59 of his mouth and nose, he bubbled. 46:01 And a little voice spoke to me and said, 46:03 "Now would be a good time to try CPR." 46:06 A voice actually told me just 46:09 now would be a good time to try CPR. 46:11 And I go, well, I wasn't thinking CPR is cold. 46:13 This is way past... 46:16 But I tried and I did very clumsily, 46:20 I tilted his head back, 46:21 pinches nose off, gave him a breath. 46:23 He, you know, chest went up and exhaled, but no inhale. 46:26 Voice said, "Keep trying." 46:28 And I did it again nothing. 46:29 I did it third time. 46:31 And finally he inhaled. 46:33 Automatic, you know, reflex. 46:36 He inhaled and then 46:37 he started moaning and groaning. 46:39 He's moaning, he came back to life, called 911. 46:42 We got him in the ambulance, 46:44 took him to the nearest hospital, 46:46 and he was in way just dead. 46:48 I almost wish I hadn't revived him 46:50 because he was now just 46:52 eyes rolled back in the head, he's moaning, 46:53 every muscle in his body is toned up, 46:55 he's in horrible condition. 46:56 Oh, man. 46:58 So here the miracle in that story is basically that 47:01 he's in the ER room, hospital full of nurses, 47:04 they're not getting anywhere. 47:06 But they do, they pumped 47:08 about two or three gallons of water out of his lungs. 47:11 And they had him on a heater, his core temperature 47:13 was way below at resettable level, 47:16 that ENT had told me and he was, 47:19 looks like he's permanently brain damaged forever, 47:22 badly brain damaged. 47:24 And I've worked in physical therapy work 47:26 with drowning victims 47:28 and they don't for the most part get well, 47:29 they just, we just improve their function level, 47:31 but he was the worst I've ever seen. 47:35 A voice told me again, asked me for another miracle. 47:38 And so I went out, and the nurse invited me 47:40 to go out and change, I changed, I got on my knees, 47:42 and I ask God for another miracle. 47:44 I said, what a beautiful miracle, 47:45 You brought him back to life. 47:47 And here he prompted me to ask for another miracle. 47:49 I said, I don't know what you can do, 47:51 but I'm asking for the miracle, You're asking me 47:54 to ask for a miracle, I want that miracle. 47:55 So I went back in the ER room. 47:57 And here he is laying there. 47:59 He was just like curled up, his eyes are rolled back, 48:01 and he's still moaning, he's groaning. 48:02 Yeah. 48:04 I mean, he's so incoherent. 48:06 I walk back and I'm not sure how God is going to answer 48:08 the prayer, so I just looked at him 48:09 and I said, "Jackson, are you cold?" 48:11 And I reached out, he didn't answered. 48:12 I reached and touched him to see if he was cold. 48:15 And as soon as my hand touched his chest, 48:17 his whole body just relaxed. 48:18 His eyes rolled back, he turned his head, 48:21 looked at me, and said, "Yes." 48:23 And he was just completely restored by a touch... 48:28 I'm telling you that just makes me want to cry. 48:30 I didn't expect that. 48:32 Everybody... 48:33 As soon as you touched him. 48:34 As soon as I touched him. 48:36 It almost scared me. 48:37 I mean, I touched his body, 48:39 you know, not expecting a miracle. 48:40 I'm not sure what God was going to do. 48:42 I thought he'd slowly get well again, 48:44 you know, about a little bit if anything. 48:47 But it was his whole body relaxed. 48:50 His whole consciousness came back to me. 48:52 He looked at me. 48:53 Looking right in my eye and answered my question 48:55 as if he heard me and said yes. 48:57 And all the nurses that were in the, 48:59 you know, every one of the hospital nurses, 49:01 in the small town hospital was there, 49:03 and the doctors were all there, and they start cheering. 49:06 They all just started clapping and saying, "Praise the Lord," 49:09 you know these who I don't know they're Christian or what. 49:12 But they were praising God. 49:15 And he was restored from that moment on. 49:17 And you have a book about that you've written. 49:19 We sure do. 49:20 We got a book called A Modern Day Resurrection. 49:22 And that's been a really big blessing in our lives. 49:25 Yes. Praise the lord. 49:26 It's up on the screen now. 49:28 Yes. Okay, yeah. 49:29 A Modern Day Resurrection. 49:30 A Modern Day Resurrection. 49:32 And now we have a whole similar series 49:33 on just on the 12 resurrection stories in the Bible. 49:36 You know because they mean so much to me. 49:38 Yes. 49:39 We need your websites so that people can contact you, 49:43 you know, to get these books, and tapes, and all of that. 49:48 Oh, you want that now. 49:49 Yeah. Give it to us. 49:51 Oh, you can have it for free. 49:53 Our website is desiremedia.org. 49:56 www.desiremedia.org. 50:00 You can email me Larren@desiremedia.org. 50:05 We have an 800 number, 800-780-9390. 50:09 And we're on the road almost constantly 50:12 traveling around and doing 50:15 if not revelation seminars, we're doing weekend seminars. 50:18 And on the way back from here we're stopping 50:19 and doing another one in Colorado. 50:21 And you've been having baptisms. 50:24 We've been having baptisms. 50:26 Yeah, that's comes with our revelation. 50:27 And praise God for those. 50:29 Those are the highlights. 50:31 And you've also done a documentary, right? 50:33 Okay, yeah. 50:35 That's what's circulating currently. 50:36 That's what we'll be doing in Colorado this week 50:38 and we'll be talking about the seventh day beavers. 50:40 Tell us about that. 50:41 We have about... 50:43 Now this happened when we moved out 50:44 of the country and to out of the city, 50:46 I mean into the country. 50:48 God worked on our hearts 50:50 to just get out of the city, and let's move to the country, 50:52 and we found miracle after a miracle. 50:54 Someone offers a free home and moved up 50:56 in the Modoc National Forest. 50:57 I mean we really moved to the country. 50:59 I mean it was beaver country. 51:02 And so on a Sabbath afternoon walk one day 51:04 and I come across this big huge beaver dam, you know. 51:07 And that to me for a city guy, it's just, wow, this is nature, 51:11 we have arrived, found nature. 51:14 I saw him come back Sabbath after, Saturday after Saturday, 51:17 take these little walks out there, 51:18 and I'd bring the family, and we'd look at them, 51:20 no beavers, all we would see is the results of their work, 51:24 the dam, the large, huge I mean like a six foot tall, 51:28 giant, large dam there. 51:31 And I thought, "Well, beavers are hard to find, right?" 51:34 But one day I went out there on a non Saturday day and there 51:37 they were just working, just doing things. 51:39 And I couldn't believe it. 51:41 I got my camera out and I started filming, 51:44 and I went back the next Saturday, 51:45 brought the family, you know. 51:46 And no beavers, 51:48 they didn't come out on Saturday. 51:50 And so I remember back before I moved out of the city, 51:54 we had a apartment right next to us 51:56 where a guy named Bill lived. 51:57 Bill told me out of the blue one day 51:59 that he noticed the bees in this orange groves nearby 52:02 would fly in these patterns 52:04 every day of the week except for Saturday. 52:05 On Saturdays they wouldn't fly. 52:07 And he just told me that out of the blue. 52:09 Didn't mean anything to me at the time. 52:11 But I did realize, well, that's must be 52:13 because God's Sabbath is on Saturday, and so, 52:16 but it stuck in my mind and when I came back 52:18 and I would see them on Wednesday, 52:20 I'd see them on Sunday, 52:21 but I wouldn't see them on Saturday. 52:23 I said, I wonder if these bees 52:26 or beavers are doing what Bill's bees are doing. 52:29 So I got the crazy idea to take my camera out there 52:32 and do a observational study. 52:34 You know, I learned a little bit 52:36 about the scientific method, you observe, 52:37 you collect data, and I said I want to do that. 52:39 This is an awesome project the kids going to help. 52:41 And so for like the next three years, 52:43 I'm doing this is before work, after work. 52:46 I'm studying on beavers. 52:48 And we have a trailer. 52:49 Don't we have a little clip from that? 52:52 Let's show it. We do. 52:53 That would explain the whole thing. 52:54 Yeah. 53:09 It all started when we move out of the city. 53:14 We moved way up here. 53:16 Way up to this remote area by the Modoc National Forest. 53:22 Here I discovered this really neat beaver colony. 53:27 I was so excited by this close encounter 53:30 with nature that I started to film 53:32 with the video camera. 53:35 That's when I made a remarkable observation. 53:40 These beavers were out and about every day of the week 53:43 except Saturdays. 53:45 I was never able to get any pictures on Saturdays. 53:51 So I decided to do a little study, 53:54 the incredible results I want to share with you 53:57 in this documentary I call the 7th Day Beavers. 54:12 Isn't it amazing how the Creator God 54:16 created the animals and the insects 54:19 to even observe the Sabbath? 54:21 I mean, that's amazing. 54:23 He left His print, right? 54:24 That's right. 54:26 I mean, His imprint of creation. 54:27 You know, we've lost that, haven't we? 54:29 Mankind generally has lost 54:31 the idea that God created us in six days. 54:33 Oh, yeah. 54:35 So the Sabbath is a memorial of that event. 54:38 That's right. 54:39 And I have only studied this one family beavers. 54:41 So I don't know what other beavers do. 54:43 But I've heard a number of other stories. 54:45 In fact we're hoping to do a follow up documentary 54:48 if we can get the funding 54:49 as called Animals that rest on Saturday. 54:51 Because we've had a numerous stories coming in, 54:54 doctors, neuroscientist gave me a story. 54:57 Things we're studying, Dr Greenway in South America 55:01 just been studying circadian rhythms. 55:03 He wants to know about us. 55:04 We're flying to Australia 55:05 to do a program on evolution and creation 55:07 in March, it's about, it's called Origins. 55:10 Nice. 55:11 And this beaver story has turned out 55:14 to be an amazing witnessing tool. 55:16 It's bringing people into the church. 55:19 I did a seminar in Montana just recently. 55:22 And I met, a little boy came out to me, 55:23 a six year old boy came out to me, he started hugging me. 55:26 And I was like, what's going on here. 55:28 His mom comes up, you know, why he's doing that? 55:29 He says, Little Jonathan, there he shared your beaver DVD 55:35 with this Baptist pastor and now the Baptist pastor 55:38 is now an Adventist. 55:39 He just recently got baptized in our church 55:40 because of that video. 55:42 Because of that video. 55:43 You know speaking of a little boys, 55:45 whatever happened to Jackson? 55:46 Jackson, well he recovered. 55:48 He made a full, full recovery. 55:50 And now he ended up being the producer 55:52 for the 7th Day Beavers. 55:54 Wow! Amen. 55:55 When he was first born, you know, 55:58 actually this is before he drowned. 56:01 I had him in the backpack and I would spend hours 56:03 and hours just observing beavers. 56:05 Now he's grown up. He's 18 years old. 56:07 He is the main producer, the technical producer for... 56:09 He has an amazing talent in our ministry. 56:12 He's an app developer for Apple. 56:15 He's got what is that... 56:17 The techie. Techie. 56:18 He's a super techie. 56:20 Wow. 56:22 Look at God. 56:24 He had a plan for his life. 56:26 Spared his life. 56:27 He has an amazing testimony. 56:30 Praise the Lord. Yes, praise the Lord. 56:31 God is good. Yes, indeed. 56:33 So one more thing back to the beavers 56:36 like some of our viewers might want to support, 56:39 you're doing this next video 56:42 and documentary on animals that observe the Sabbath. 56:45 Animals at rest. 56:47 We call animals that rest on Saturday. 56:48 I love it. 56:49 You know, the story was called the 7th Day Beavers, 56:51 just about a colony of beavers. 56:52 But they told me, 56:54 let's get the word Saturday in there, 56:56 let's get the word rest, animals that rest on Saturday. 56:59 And so we've got stories. 57:00 We've got stories about animals in the jungle. 57:03 Seventh-day Adventist dogs, we've got donkeys, 57:06 we've an elephant 57:08 that was doing a Pepsi commercial. 57:10 They said, "Well, don't come on Saturday." 57:11 This elephant will not work on Saturdays. 57:13 That's strange. 57:15 He's not a Christian. 57:16 He's just... 57:18 I don't know why 57:19 that he doesn't do any Saturdays. 57:20 Well, when you think about Noah's Ark, 57:22 they all need to get in ark. 57:23 That's right. That's right. 57:24 God must have let them in there. 57:26 But I can't tell you exactly 57:27 why the beavers didn't come out of there. 57:30 They never came out their lodge on Saturdays. 57:32 It was like they hibernated for 24 hours. 57:35 I've seen them come up right at sundown. 57:37 Right as soon as the sun goes down, here are they. 57:39 I've seen him come up on queue at sundown, 57:41 you know, just give me a little message there 57:44 with the cameras on and everything. 57:45 We thank you for your work and for being with us. 57:49 Thank you so much. 57:50 Praise God. Well, thank you for having me. 57:51 This was so enlightening. 57:53 What a blessing. 57:54 And you can see that God's still moving. 57:58 God is incredible, incredible creator of the universe. 58:02 Thank you for watching. 58:03 Tune in next time 'cause it wouldn't be 58:05 the same without you. |
Revised 2018-10-08