Teen Pathways
Hello and welcome to Teen Pathways.
My name is Cheri Peters. Has God ever wowed you?
Has God ever come into your life and just changed everything?
Today we're going to talk about a situation, we're going to meet
a young man that God did exactly that with. It's an exciting
story as soon that I saw this young man for the first time,
I just smiled and said: we have to have him on the show and so
it's a blessing to me that he is even on the show.
And before we start I'd like to introduce you to the entire
group, and how about say your name and when did God become
personal for you?
Can we start over here?
My name is Jennifer Black and I have known God all my life
ever since I was a baby and sometimes I'm closer to Him,
than other times.
My name is Jeremy and I say God became real to me
about 4 or 5 months ago.
Hi, my name is Leon Chann and I think the first time
God became real to me, was when I started having Bible
prayers at school.
Hello, my name is Avalla Goodin and God has been real to me
all my life and I hope it gets better.
Hi, my name is Tag Garman and God's always been real to me but
I think I got real with Him when I was 18 senior in highschool.
Hello. My name is Michael Paradise and I've known God
all my life but I get to know Him better every day.
Hey, I like that. I got that. Ok, so it sounds like everybody
has a relationship with God and I even, there's different
views on what people have said like you said that it comes and
goes and that kind of thing and sometimes it's strong and
other times I just do with that it's not so strong,
and I like what you said Tag, can you repeat that again?
I said that I think God's always been there and he's been real,
but I got real with Him and I think I made a decision to say:
ok, I'm going to listen to Your voice now instead of running
from it, when I was a senior in highschool.
At 18 and that was just a few years ago.
So there is a difference.
Yeah, there is a difference. God is constant. I think
He's pursuing us with a passion.
And we turn the stereo off or we go a little faster,
maybe kill a few braincell, or watever to try to shut Him out.
But He's always there ready to say: come on man, let's get real
together.
Talking about that kind of thing is really interesting to me,
as Jeremy I saw you for the first time while I was runnig that
group, a Wednesday night Bible group. And during that group
we decided to show a program called Penticost 2000
and in that program we were just on fire with this preacher
and he was every night doing his preaching,
and all the sudden one night we came as a group,
there were some some people that had just got out of prison and
and some people, actually two people that were heavy duty
drug dealers at the town that I live in and they just turned
their life over to God and they're now studying the Bible
it's kind of a cool thing and we were watching
the video thinking that Steven Louis is going be on and we're
going to hear more about him and all the sudden he says
tonight we're going just do these testimonies or stories from
different teens or different youth. And our reaction,
I hate to tell you, our reaction was we really work and to him
it was like: you know, it's going to be good,
and it's like, you know, because this guy was like on fire,
really convicting and when you came on, I was moved.
I was touched and so I prayed that somehow we could get you
on this show and be able to share with us as a group.
And when I ran into your father, and your father said:
you know, I'll talk to him and see what he says
and you said yes, I just want to say: welcome and thanks
for coming on.
It's no problem, I'm glad to be here. Before those meetings
I had been in drugs, I didn't listen to my parents anymore,
and my friends, I'd just hung out with them all the time,
and I was drinking all the time. When I went to the first meeting
that night,
First of all, wasn't that hard because your mom teaches Bible.
Yeah, my mom, the whole time I was out in the road, she just
she constantly prayed and asked me to go to church, I mean she
just did everything she could, because I had before I started
being in the world, I had gone to church and my dad was
a pastor and it wasn't fulfilling me anymore so I started doing
other things to try to fulfill that. And I don't know, when I
went to that meeting,
Hold on, because I can't get over that. Your dad being a pastor,
your mom teaching Bible, and was there a part where you
just said: "this is just too much" or "I'm not interested",
From being a Christian to the world?
Well, yeah, what made you to say: "hey, I'm going to start doing
drugs" or was it friends or what shift?
I went to a private school that my dad owned.
It was a Christian school, I went there through 8th grade.
And then I went to a public school in 8th grade.
When I was in that private school I made straigt As
I was just, I loved God and everything was fine,
when I went to this public school and I had all these
friends, we were always going out and doing things,
my grades started falling right there in 8th grade,
so when we got in the highschool, my grades just continually went
downhill, I was just doing, I don't know what made me do
want to do all that, besides the fact that I just was sick of
everybody pushing this down my throat and it didn't make sense,
something just didn't end up, so I just set for good,
I don't want to deal with this anymore. So, ok, now back to
to Pastor Louis, the first night I went to these meetings,
well, before that he saw me at work, he acted like he had known
me for 5 years or something. He was like: "man you've got to call
God in your life" and I was thinking: "you don't me or what
I'm doing, how can you say this?" My mom finally talked to
me: "do you want to go to one of the meetings?" and I liked it,
it wasn't bad, I actually learned something.
I thought I had known everything and that it was getting boring
and I was hearing it from my dad more than anyone else,
this guy was saying the same things but it made sense now.
So the second night I went, I wish I could remember the
topic, but I don't. But man, I just got convicted.
I knew what it was because once again I've been in that before,
so I knew what the feeling was, that was inside of me,
but I didn't want to go with it.
What do you mean: convicted?
It felt like guilt. Or, like you were ashamed of what you
were doing.
That's interesting. It's interesting how some people
guilt is the only way that they can convert over.
I felt the same way. And Peter in the Bible. He heard the cock
three times or watever. And sometimes it takes that guilt,
look at what Jesus had done, look at that sacrifice that I
took in vain, that turns people over.
I went to step groups and one of the sayings is:
maybe they have a hit rock bottom. And that sense of guilt
and that you don't have anything left that is really of any value
is that and that's the same thing is that where you're going
to turn on that point than turn to God.
I dont't think I had hit rock bottom, I don't think I was
anywhere in hit rock bottom.
Did your mom?
But I had gone as far as I wanted to go. One of my friends
came over about a week after I had changed my life back
over and giving it back to the Lord. And he was one of my
good bodies, going around in parties, and he came over,
and the farthest that I had gone that was, the worst I think that
I had done, was that I smoked wign on a regular bases.
And he was one of the regular people that I mostly did that
with and he came over by a week later and that was so hard,
he said: "Jeremy do you know what I did last night?"
And I said: "Well, there's no time with you" and he was like:
"oh, man I smoked 40$ with a crack. And man, that just, ah!
Because I just told him about what was going on with me
and I didn't know what to tell him after that.
I didn't know what to say to him, or how to confront him
about: "why don't you come to church with me?"
Just try it.
Because it sounds like you sensed the pack, you know
you are heading for trouble. More than you propably know
right now.
Right. See I'm glad that I got out when I did, because
if I hadn't, I propably would have smoked 40$ with the crack
within that night.
Exactly.
So God is just an awesome God.
So let me to ask, I want to get back to it, when did you
change and what happened? When you were at the meeting
and you were feeling convicted?
Right. Ok. I went home that night my parents my mom asked me
what I thought about it that night and I told them
I felt something and I knew what it was, I felt I was being
convicted and she said: "That's good. Would you like
to pray?" And I said: "sure." So the next day I went to work,
and pastor Louis was there so she had him and myself going
in another room and we prayed. And I gave my life back to the
Lord.
And so you you took your religion from being shut down
your throat to something you were seeking after?
Because he made it, I mean he just made it so much
clear, when it was being shut down my throat it didn't seem
like it was making sense.
I'm sure especially being like a pastor's child or
or being under the influence of the religion all your life,
maybe you took it for granted. Because I know in my own life,
I've been a Christian all my life, and sometimes they feel
like: you need to do this, you need to do that and that's not
actually what the religion is, it's what you feel inside and
what you feel for God.
Amen.
I just wanted to know like when you were going to private
school in the 8th grade and you were making good grades,
and when you started going to public,
I just wanted to know: did God ever try to talk to you
in those times?
Oh, yeah, because I was still going to a church.
With one of my good, he's still a Christian,
I mean this kid is, he's the only person that I can
look at out of all my friends and say that guy really does
love the Lord. He's the only one...
Of all your friends just one.
Because I have other friends that claim to be a Christian,
but their actions just don't show me anything that they are.
So I was still going to church with him, but after church
I would go out to a party somewhere.
You know, it was just like: "Oh, I'm going to church
again. It wasn't...
So it was like practising religion versus really having
a spiritual walk?
Right.
I mean there's really a difference between knowing
the man, I mean Jesus, the man. He is the man!
And going to church and going through rituals and...
Right it just seemed like it was it seemed like it was
repetitious. It was the same thing every church service.
The pastor got up and he didn't pray, he bragged about everything
that he had.
Was it the people that turned you off, in some way the people who
were being hypocritical maybe, and saying one thing and doing
other, just disguised your emotions. Is that part of what...
Because the same exact people that were being hypocritical,
were the ones who tried to shut down my throat. And so I was
like: you guys aren't doing that. You're not even doing it,
why should I?
That's a powerful statement.
It is powerful and somebody that's a little older,
than you guys, not a lot, but it's you know, really, what I
learned, is people like you to get real in the church. So often
we get disgusted with that. I mean it happened to me,
when I was at school, I was disgusted with the hypocricy that
I saw. We all smile and say: "How are you doing?"
"Fine. How ar you?" When we're really not fine, I really want
to say I'm hurt inside. As an adult or whatever,
I look: "Man we need you in the church, don't leave."
"you got to hold to God, come and be real.
And show us what it means to be real." That's what we need.
That's what made me want to come back was, this guy was,
this guy was actually being real he had been where I was,
he could actually tell me and help me along,
other than these people saying "he does drugs, I don't want
to mess with him.'
He had a history also?
Oh, yes. His history was much much worse than mine.
And I praise God that he got he got converted, because
if he hadn't been there, there's no time where I would
be today. So I just praise God for that.
And I praise God that He can work so miraculously
through other people. I mean through myself.
See we need your help because we get confused sometimes,
Cheri with kids doing drugs. That's such a terrible thing.
It is a terrible thing. It can destructive. It can kill you.
But in the ame time so can pride or envy, the root of
bitterness, we're told in the Scripture, can destroy
you.
Lying and gossip.
Lying and gossip and all these things are destructive to our
soul. But we can point easily at a drink or at a drug,
or at somebody that's got an obvious problem.
And sometimes we need to say: "hey, wait a minute,"
he's a person, too.
And you know what I learnt? And now I'm coming back
because I was a heroin addict for ten years.
And so my background is really different and coming into the
church, my first thing was, is that, for one I hid my
background because I didn't want to be judged. That was
a big thing and I was afraid that if they knew who I was
they wouldn't accept me. And so then when I started to like
say who I was and watching the different responses
and just watching people live their life, I saw the hypocricy
stuff and God convicted me really heavy and He said: you know
what? If you've ever seen somebody hypocritical,
in your church raise your hand. Ok. Ever? Ok.
Have you ever been hypocritical? Raise your hand.
And so I thought: wow! I can raise my hand in either side.
And so He said: you stop! And He was talking to me, he
said: you stop being hypocritical, you stop doing
that and it will have a ripple effect and maybe then she'll stop
in a way, he likes her, so maybe he'll stop and
and then you'll stop and the only way that we're going to change
the church is to say: you know what? Never again am I going
to be hypocritical as to the extent that I can,
I'm going to be real with you and even if it means I'm not
perfect, but I will be real and you could trust that.
And one of the thoughts that I had, when I was going through
this changing process, I can say, I was, you know, I've seen
all these people being hypocritical, and it wasn't God,
it may have been God that told me: you don't want to be like
them, you don't want to be doing one thing and then go tell
somebody something else. And I just felt real strongly
that I shouldn't do that. And I've tried since then not to
I'm not perfect,
That's nice to know.
You had to ask him at least.
No, I just and I...
I have to say something about my being perfect because I
think this, I decided, ten years ago I felt like I got a call
from God on my life. And so, ten years ago.
And so I prayed about it and I looked around and I looked
at people that I thought were perfect and I thought
ok, Lord if I get through, when I get through 24 hours a perfect
behaviour, I'll know it's time to step into the ministry.
And so then ten years later He's like: Cheri and I'm thinking
ok, Lord, when I get through 15 minutes perfect behaviour,
and so when you say that: "I'm not perfect",
I think that the expectation we have, is somehow I'm going
to say yes to God, yes to the Holy Spirit and then the next
minute I'm going to be perfect and God says: you know,
You'll be perfect when I come back, Jesus says: "When I
come back, you'll be perfect and till then you will be like
dealing and processing stuff and changing and transforming
and they call it sanctification I'll be sanctifying myself
and every day I'm going to learn something different.
And about the hypocricy thing, I went on a crucade with pastor
Louis after I had changed and we went down there in
the 7th day Adventist church down there.
That whole island had been a 7th day Adventist island.
I mean they all kept the sabbath.
Where did you go?
It was Rarotonga, it's down by New Zealand, it's part of the
Cook Islands, it's French-Polonesian islands,
it's down in the southern part.
Was it fun?
That was awesome.The people, let me finish my story.
The first night we went out and, because we were inviting
people to the meetings, so we decided to go to a
7th day Adventist church. Well, we went and they were all
playing volleyball and I walked up to this guy an I started
talking to him and trying to converse him and coming to
the meetings. and I just, he started talking and I
just almost passed out, because the alcohol was coming up
his breath. And I'd come to find out, some of the locals around
there told me that most of the 7th day adventist churches
the people don't take it seriously, they get drunk
all the time and go to church. That's what they do.
And I'm glad I went down there because that's a life-experience
that I'm going to be able to keep with me.
What did it tell you? What did it teach you?
It taught me that being hypocritical or saying that
you're a Christian and not doing that, can be dangerous to
the people that maybe have just come to God,
or are coming back to God. It can be a life decision
for them, whether they're going to go ahead and go with the
flow and follow God and continue to love Him or whether they're
just going to go back to the same old thing,
that they were doing before. But when I look back,
my past, I don't see anything that I could go back to.
There's nothing there that would that would satisfy more than
what I have now.
You know Jeremy, that relates to me because in my life
I moved to a new Christian environment,
a new school and it changed me personally, because my
relationship with God, there's words what I expected
it to be and it changed me because my spirituality
went down more, because they discouraged me,
you're talking about the other Christian kids discouraged
you? I mean you go to Christian school and you have some
expectations or...
Yes, I had high expectations of them, but through Jeremy's
story, he's inspiring me to make a stand for Christ.
I need to make a stand in order to bring them up in order
to bring myself up.
That's exactly what my thoughts are on. I want to be real so
when other people look at me they don't think,
he's not, you know, he says he's a Christian, but he's not
doing anything to show me that he is. That's exactly what
I was thinking about those people and that is what I do not want.
I want to say something. So you're saying I want to be real,
because I want somebody to be able to look at me and
getting encouraged. And you're not saying anymore that I
want to be real, because my parents want me to be real.
I want to be real because my church expects me to be real,
What you're saying is: I want to be real, I don't want to damage
somebody that is looking for hope. Anybody relate to that?
Yeah, that's what being real is all about. Being real is
walking down the street and you're like: hey what's up?
God loves you. If you got that in your heart,
you really are real, like I know a lot of people that are,
and there are a lot of people right here. And I know that
when you got that inside, there's no way that you
can't tell the world about. That's right you're not ashamed.
Because you're real. You feel it and everybody around you
knows it, because they're living it with you.
And the best way to show is to your friends, tell them,
talk to them about God and bring them to Bible classes.
Show them, lift them up, tell them how great they were
in the game or omething, just lift them high.
What really got me when I found some people in my life
that are very rare with their Christianitiy,
is sometimes they don't say a thing about the Bible,
or Christ, but they live it so much that I know that they
are Christians. It's like when we laugh together
and when we hang out together, the laughter is very clean
it's not cutting and it's not it's just that I'm hanging out
with Christians. So even when you don't actually say: "hey,
do you know God? It's just who you are, people know that you
know God.
I know every day in my school I spend a lot of time with the kids
a few years younger than me, maybe even just 1 or 2 grades,
and I know they ask me sometimes when they're having problems and
say: "how you deal with it when you have this problem?" And I
just go: what can I tell them that they will know, yeah, that's
what she does every day. And I don't want to give them this
great big advice that sounds good and is all flattery, but they're
like: "I've never seen you do that." I want to be very
honest with them, because they're looking up to me in a
big way.
Exactly.
That's what it's about about sharing. I mean, if you're a
Christian, you want to share, I mean Jesus shares and He's our
ultimate example, so it's about sharing, if you have it
and you're real.
And that's what we're here today for, to share, let other people
know about our religion and what's going on in our lives.
You don't have to make excuses for it.
I don't have to make excuses for being a Christian.
I can be who I am in Christ.
I like the textthat you were talking about is not being ashame
of the gospel, and it goes on the first time I read
similar texts that I know that says: "don't be ashame of
the Gospel, and you're not ashamed of Me and I'm not
ashamed of you when I stand before My Father and talk about
you." And I'm thinking, all the sudden I thought
Jesus Christ stand before the Father and talking about me?
Hey, did you see Cheri the day? And I'm like: no way!
And what He's giving me and my personal relationship,
since I stop looking at the church's relationship,
and who am I in relation to all that, when I just looked
at Him and I, there are times that I just see Him
hanging out with me and changing my life in that sense
and it's so cool! And when it's that real for me,
then it's easy for me to turn around and just laugh and
be that real with you and not be ashamed of Jesus.
Right. Like when I'm feeling it, when I feel God,
the best time for me to share with my friends,
but even when I don't feel Him or I don't feel like I did what
I was supposed to do that day, it helps me then to go and share
with my friends about Jesus, because that just it builds you
up more spiritually and then you want to get back into it
and then you're right back to where, the first day you met God.
That's how it is for me. If I'm feeling bad, I just want to go
tell or I don't want to, but if I do, it just makes me feel
so much better.
When you have the real thing it's hard to go back.
That's right.
Yeah, I have to say one thing and this is just a mother thing.
Is your mom thrilled?
Yeah, I think she is.
Could you picture his mom, she's been praying,
she's been like stressing out and all the sudden he's saying:
I love God, I want to pray with you and I could imagine
her just saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
And it doesn't matter what age you are as to how real you are,
we can influence each other, we can influence the little tiny
children, we can influence the people who are older than us,
our parents or our teachers and everybody.
It doesn't matter.
You know that's so true that you have influenced me
just during the time that we have spent together here.
And so we don't even realize that you are real and that is so
refreshing and I think you know what? I want to stay real just
in case she's looking at me.
And I can think of a few deeds in the past in the Word,
that were young in fact one was Jeremiah.
How old was Jeremiah?
He was just a teenager. I think he was 17 or so.
I think, Daniel, his friends, it's like
you guys can shake up the world. This is Teen Pathways,
teenagers can change the world.
Yes.
When you get real, it blooses my heart.
It's a challenge to, you know, hey, we're all tempted,
temptations always are going to follow us,
the devil's always is going to come after us, it's never going
to change while we are on this planet, we have this flesh,
he's always going to come after us.
You guys keep me real. It's like: hey, you're watching me.
You're watching Cheri.
How about the text? Anybody know the text: "iron sharpens iron"?
"man sharpens another"? I think that's Proverbs 27:12,
Is it? And how is it? Say again.
"As one man sharpens another or iron sharpens iron"
and that we in ourselves walk through life, if we walk through
life and try to get our spirituality at certain point,
without helping each other, it's going to be almost
impossible, but helping each other, we actually build each
other up. Anybody finding it yet?
Proverbs 12:17.
Can you read it?
"Those who tell the truth, demonstrate righteousness.
but a false witness cannot be trusted.
Callous words pearce like a sword,
but words spoken wise they are like medicine."
Is that it?
No. It's Proverbs 26:17.
But that was good. That must have been in the Bible.
Go ahead, read the other one.
"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance
of his friend. Whoever keeps the figuetree, will eat its
fruits. So he who waits on his master, will honour his master."
We make a difference in each other's lives.
It makes a difference. It makes a difference how we live,
who we are, and it cannot be, it cannot be, because
we're told, it can, because somebody shut down our
throat, it has to be that I am responding to God, because
I love Him. I felt Him, He's made a difference in my life
and He's become real to me, I've become real to Him,
propably like Tag said, more importantly,
and we are Teen Pathways, we could change the world,
you guys can change the world, just reaching out to each other
and becoming real. See you next time and thanks for joining us.
God bless.