Have you ever felt like a misfit on a quest to discover your true identity? Join me, Ron Meyers, and my guest Paul, a man whose life has been radically transformed, as we share tales of redemption and finding purpose through a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our latest podcast episode is a testament to the incredible shifts that can occur when one embraces a daily commitment to God, not just within the walls of a church, but in the conversations and actions of our everyday lives. From my own journey out of substance abuse to Paul's escape from a chaotic past, we unfold the stories that showcase the might of faith in motion.
This episode isn't merely a narrative; it's a celebration of acceptance and a recognition of the unique role each 'Misfit for Jesus' plays in the grand design. We explore the profound impact of small behavioral changes, the importance of a community that nurtures spiritual growth, and the act of repentance in maintaining a vital connection with the divine. It's an extension of hope and an invitation to join a family of believers who find solace in their shared experiences. As we sign off, remember, it's your stories of faith and redemption that continue to fuel our mission, so we eagerly await to hear how God has worked wonders in your life too.
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
Have you ever felt like a misfit on a quest to discover your true identity? Join me, Ron Meyers, and my guest Paul, a man whose life has been radically transformed, as we share tales of redemption and finding purpose through a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our latest podcast episode is a testament to the incredible shifts that can occur when one embraces a daily commitment to God, not just within the walls of a church, but in the conversations and actions of our everyday lives. From my own journey out of substance abuse to Paul's escape from a chaotic past, we unfold the stories that showcase the might of faith in motion.
This episode isn't merely a narrative; it's a celebration of acceptance and a recognition of the unique role each 'Misfit for Jesus' plays in the grand design. We explore the profound impact of small behavioral changes, the importance of a community that nurtures spiritual growth, and the act of repentance in maintaining a vital connection with the divine. It's an extension of hope and an invitation to join a family of believers who find solace in their shared experiences. As we sign off, remember, it's your stories of faith and redemption that continue to fuel our mission, so we eagerly await to hear how God has worked wonders in your life too.
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
The following program is sponsored by Ron Meyers Ministries.
Speaker 2:It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Meyers. The Provoder.
Speaker 3:Hello, my friends, it is so good to be with you for another great show of Get the Hell out of your life. I want to welcome you to my neighborhood Now. I have a neighborhood that well. It's a little different than most neighborhoods. It has all kinds of people that we call ourselves misfits. We never fit in. We march to a different beat of a drum because we want to find out who we are, who Jesus says we are, and what he wants us to do with the life he has given us. So you're going to hear real stories from real individuals that offer real hope, and today's story is one that you're really going to enjoy.
Speaker 3:Paul opens up about, well, his past, and all of us Don't? We all have a past. I mean, my past was sex, drugs and rock and roll. I was a pretty big promoter on the Gulf Coast, promoting anything I could make a buck at. But Jesus changed my direction, just like he does with all my guests. So this show, it's all about letting you find a new way to connect with Jesus. It's not in church, it's with your heart, it's with having daily conversations with Jesus. Because, friends, what you have when you do life with Jesus, you have power, you have peace, you have purpose and you have passion. Well, my guest today has a great story. He has become a very good friend of mine and he is on fire for Jesus.
Speaker 4:So to speak. Yes, on fire, that's a Christian-ese term, but you know what? I'm secure and I'm committed. The effect that Jesus had on me when I said, jesus, I receive you as my Savior, has never died out or never changed and I carry that effect with me everywhere I go and in everything I do. So instead of saying I'm on fire because people get on fire and then the next thing you see they're cold, so to speak.
Speaker 4:I was preaching in jail for a long time and I walked in a jail cell one day and they hadn't had anybody in there a long time and some people come up to me and said, brother, it is so dry in here, we haven't had anyone in here to preach in a while. I said it's fixing the rain and we had a wonderful time because I stay in a position of what Jesus did in me when someone told me this is the way you receive him. And I did that, and the effect that he had on me was inside and I knew something changed. That change has never dwindled or left. So, yes, I'm on fire. I guess that would be the way you would terminology say, give a term to it if you're a Christian, but if you're someone who just lives a normal life, then I stick with what happened to me when I was saved.
Speaker 3:Amen. Now have you been like this all your life?
Speaker 4:Actually, no, I was raised Catholic and I'm very, very thankful for my Catholic foundation. If anything I was taught it was to be in love with Jesus, and they gave me a solid foundation, which was be faithful period. And so I was raised in church. I was an altar boy. I did all those things and then, around the age of 13, I got on drugs, I was introduced to smoking pot and all those different things, and so I wasn't. And in those years of being in the Catholic Church, I never heard the salvation message, even though it had to have been preached week after week or spoken of. Somehow I missed it. And so the day that someone came to my house we're doing visitation I had been praying Lord Jesus, send someone to me. Because I say it like this I was a long-haired dope, smoking, vulgar mouth, cigarette smoking hippie and I had been asking Jesus, if you're real, then send someone to me to teach me about you. And it wasn't.
Speaker 4:Three weeks later, someone was knocking on my door, and when they knocked on my door and I opened it, I lived out in the country. I moved out in the woods to grow weed. I grew, I sold hundreds of pounds of weed and grew a lot and other things. And when they knocked on my door and said we're from the church down the road, I said God sent you to me, give me just a minute and I'm going to let you in. So I went to the other end of the house and opened up the doors and told my wife light cigarettes, I'm letting these people in. God sent someone to us and they led us to salvation that night. And I knew that if God was that kind and merciful to me even in my dope head, drug selling self, vulgar mouth self his kindness and his mercy was to come to me and teach me about himself, then I need to do everything I can to learn as much as I can about him, and I've never been out of church since then.
Speaker 3:And the church is obviously in you.
Speaker 4:When I realized I was a member of his body. Then I realized actually I went to the other church it was a Baptist church and I'm so thankful they did. And I used to always say inside my heart I wonder how hard it was for them to say, okay, this is a night of visitation, who are going to go see? And someone said, let's go visit the hippie. Because I lived out in the woods, because we grew weed. We couldn't do that in the city. And when they came to the hippies house and the hippie got saved and all of a sudden the hippies in church and I was in church from then on and I would come to church stone.
Speaker 4:It took the Lord two years to get me off weed. Actually I asked him Lord, what is? It was more like this Dude Lord, what is wrong with this stuff, man? I mean, why can't I get stoned? This is taste so good.
Speaker 4:And the scripture the Lord gave me was you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. You're loving me with all your heart, but you're turning your mind, your will and your emotions and your physical body to being comforted by smoking weed or drinking beer to get a buzz. And I asked you to love me with all three. And I said I see it, lord, if you'll help me, I will never touch this stuff again. Get me free from it.
Speaker 4:And I can't tell you what day I quit smoking pot and I got free from cigarettes. It just happened over a, like I said, about a two year period. I slowly dwindled out of my life because I grew spiritual. I used to tell friends I will sit with you next year on New Year's. Y'all will all be getting stoned and I'll sit with you and I won't take a single toke off your joint because inside me something's happening. You can't see it, but I'm growing spiritually. Right now my spirit isn't strong enough to throw off the things that I trained it to do for all these years of my life, but I'm growing inside and when I get spiritually strong enough because of feeding on the Word of God, I will overcome these outward things that are controlling me and I'll be able to sit with you and watch you get stoned while I turn you onto something stronger than dope, which is the Word of God. And that day came, brother, and it's never left Amen.
Speaker 3:So right now somebody's listening that says man, I'm going through the same thing, but I don't want to go to church. What would you tell that person?
Speaker 4:I would tell them Jesus is the only Lord and Savior, the only God, the only man who is absolutely here in everybody, all the time, anywhere, and start asking him, like I did. I started asking him. Okay, jesus, if you're real, please help me, please send me someone to teach me about you, please. There was a preacher at the gas station who used to ask me if you died right now, would you go to heaven? I'd say I was baptized as a baby. Do I have to have a special ticket to get in there? I thought that I'm going to heaven. And he'd say well, have you been born again? I said I don't even know what born again is. So I started asking the Lord.
Speaker 4:So I'm telling you, start asking the Lord and he is man enough and loving enough and he is Savior enough to be able to help you and communicate to you and send someone to you to lead you to a life with him, a salvation experience, receiving him as your Savior. And the easiest thing to do would be for you to say Jesus, I accept what you did. I believe in my heart that you died for me and that God raised you from the dead and I need you to help me, and you know what he'll do. The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he will save. You'll never be ashamed of doing that. Do it now. Call on him, ask him. Jesus, help me, save me.
Speaker 3:You know what you just said there in the last couple of minutes is absolutely life changing. It's so simple. He had to make it that simple, then why have we made it so complicated?
Speaker 4:I don't even try. And you know, when I received Jesus as my Lord and I started going to a church and really got serious, I had asked the Lord to lead me to a church. I said I'm not going to go to a church, lord. I was going to the Baptist church and I was faithful there. I never left. So I said I'm not going to go find a church. I had learned more than what they were teaching and so I started asking the Lord, I'm not going to go find a church because I'd probably fall in love with the people. I want you to send me a church, and a church that is teaching the uncompromised word and that will bring me up to another level with you, a greater relationship with you. And he sent me a church.
Speaker 4:So I never try and entertain too much in my mind of what is so wrong with most churches. I try to stay with. There's more to learn. We never learn at all. We never know at all. So I've always sought out send me teachers, lord, who will help me have to learn more and grow more, so for us to be stuck in a place where we don't learn, the simplicity of salvation, or more than just salvation, is, then you need to find a church that will teach you more than that. You need to ask the Lord again. There he is. Okay, jesus, where do I need to go? Or actually, holy Spirit, you've got to get me connected, somewhere where I can grow to, where I'm actually a person who lives this life not just on Sunday, but I'm example to others of this is what a Christian is like.
Speaker 3:What you're describing right there. That's the kind of stuff, the conversation that we have with Jesus. I believe that Jesus really loves it when we come to Him for the answers of life's troubles that come our way?
Speaker 4:Could you imagine someone knowing you and they never acknowledge you. They get around you and they never say anything. I say this a lot to people, especially when I'm Sounds like my parents, when I was little, me too.
Speaker 4:I never heard my dad say I love you and all that stuff, I don't worry about that stuff. Today I got saved. It was about two, three weeks later. I went to him I was still long hair, dope smoking, vulgar mouth, cigarette smoking, hippie and went to him and said Dad, I need to tell you that I love you and that Jesus put it in my heart to come tell you that I love you and to forgive you of anything you've ever done or didn't do to me. But there's been a love placed in my heart that I just can't contain it and I've got to tell you. And he has said to me where are you going to church, boy? And I told him where I'm going, he said you're going to hell. I said I'm finally not going to hell, daddy. I finally really Jesus is my Lord and you need to do just what I did. You need to call upon Him to save you. And he said things and what we were raised.
Speaker 4:But yes, yes, ron, I like to acknowledge Jesus throughout my whole day he morning, noon, anytime, anywhere, any place. And you might be in a grocery store and you're walking down the aisle, and I learned that when I raised my hands for some reason that blesses the Lord. So I'll be in home deeper. I'll be in a store, a grocery store, and you'll see somebody in the aisle and I'll have my hands raised saying thank you Jesus, because I've been in a place where I didn't have the money for the groceries I've wanted. Now I'm in a place in life where I have the money for the groceries I want. So sometimes, at His presence, I just stop and say I acknowledge what you have done in my life and I thank you for what you've brought me through, and I just raise my hands there and say you say raising your hands blesses you. So right here, right now, publicly, I'm saying I bless you Jesus.
Speaker 3:Do you ever just scratch your head and just say, man, this Jesus stuff is more than I ever thought it would be. It's so wonderful.
Speaker 4:I also had to make myself think of it like this If I'm going to have a good relationship with my wife which you know, we butt heads everybody. But if you don't put it, heads in hallelujah. But we butt heads once in a while. But the thing that keeps us in a good marriage is our relationship. She knows my pet peeves, I know her pet peeves, and I read in the Bible where it says that Jesus said unto you is given to know the secrets and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And actually one version says he said this to his inner circle and I thought I want to be part of your inner circle, or please let me in your inner circle.
Speaker 4:If there's something I'm doing in my life that is keeping you from letting me be close to you, that I'm in your inner circle, then I need that out of my life. So there's people in my life who they're my acquaintance. I know if I get around them they're not going to talk like I like to talk, they're not going to act like I like to act, they're not going to do things that I think is good to do, and so they're not in my inner circle. But then there's friends who I know, when I get around them, man, we're going to talk Jesus stuff, we're going to talk prayer stuff, we're going to talk prosperity stuff or what we've got to do to get out of things that we're in that we know isn't pleasing to the Lord. So we're in an inner circle.
Speaker 4:So when I started crying out to the Lord, crying out to the Holy Spirit, make me aware of what I'm doing. That would keep me away from your closest friend and I want to be your friend and he started pointing things out in my life. He, you know, he's so kind. He points out tiny, tiny, tiny things at a time. And I look back in my life there's this hundred mile long tiny things that I've done because he asked me change this and it's better change this and it'd be better. And I look back in that person who was at the beginning of those tiny things. He started changing.
Speaker 4:I think I was really like that at one time and now my life has become to the place where my walk with him is just so precious that I don't want to offend him. Do I do things that offend him? Of course I do once in a while, but when I do and I realize I've done something that offended the Lord or offended the Holy Spirit. You know what I do. I'm quick to repent, Just like if I had a close friend and I did something that they thought that is the stupidest thing you could ever do, I say I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, brother. So that's the way you keep a real close, a real strong relationship with the Lord, and then he's able to lead us and guide us and help us through our day.
Speaker 3:You and I were talking and you and I carry a title that I'm proud of Misfit. Right now you've got the mic. I want you to talk to all my brothers and sisters out there, the fellow Misfits.
Speaker 4:You probably feel like a Misfit if you do and it's good that you do, because Ron quoted part of the scripture that God chooses a base thing as God chooses a foolish things, and so if your base are foolish, then God has a calling for you. He has a purpose for you. He doesn't normally choose very rich people to stand before people and preach his word, or very intelligent people, even though they get in there. He does choose some. He doesn't. He doesn't choose many. He would rather, or he has purposed in his heart to choose us who we feel like we don't really fit in a place in church or fit in a place in religion, and we really shouldn't fit in that. We should fit in Jesus's plan and Jesus's purpose, and he's different than us. He has an ability to choose people who don't fit into the mindset of. You have to go to this school or that school or this seminary or that seminary to be a person who can be used by God. You have to be a person who's committed to the Lord and then he will slowly bring you out into a place where you're being used by him and you won't even recognize you're being used by him, like him, I'm in a place right now where people call me pastor. My pastor really is Andrew Lombardo, at the Mission Church, and when we first started talking about these things we both said we feel like we come from the island of misfits. We were rejected or shunned by those who we would consider important in the church's eye. So we focused on Lord if you can use us, then you pull us out and slowly but surely he had to work on our character to bring us to the place where the giftings he had in our life could sustain us. Because if you have gifts and you don't have character, then your gifts will take you to a place where your character can't sustain you and you're not that tasteful to those who really need Jesus.
Speaker 4:You might say religious things and do religious things in the church people accept you or big preachers think you're the wonderfulest thing there ever was. But when you come from our realm where we're foolish and big preachers eyes are big, important people who are Christians with important names don't think much of you. The Lord thinks a lot of you because you can reach those who aren't reachable by big name people or people who are important in other people's eyes. I'm not diminishing their importance. I'm diminishing their ability to reach people like you and I, who come from, like Ron said, the island of misfits, and there's so many out there who are crying out, even though they may never know, to cry out to Jesus and ask him to help them. They're crying out for something to make their life what did Paul say? Content. I can be content poor, I can be content wealthy, but I can be content in any situation because of my relationship with Jesus. And they're crying out so they turn to drugs or they turn to sex, or they turn to fame, or they turn to promoting themselves or whatever it is, so that they can feel good about themselves when really they need to have.
Speaker 4:Someone like you and me, who've been in a position where we don't fit in and what people would think You're one of them, or you're a church person, or you're a religious person. They don't fit in that and they never will fit in that. So, someone like you and me, who haven't found acceptance in those realms, so to speak, till we got really close with Jesus and he was able to develop as a place where we could speak in both realms that realm and in the misfit realm you need to start crying out to Jesus and your level of courage or feeling in a place of being content or acceptance will rise immediately, because you will be accepted by the King of all kings, by the Lord of all lords. And what other men think about you or what other status people have in their mind about you won't even matter, because your status will be the one who really cares about you, and the effect that he will have on you will change your desire to use other means to get there, such as drugs or sex or importance or a big name. Those things will all change because he's the one who changes our desires when we have a good relationship with him.
Speaker 4:So if there's anything you could do whether you've been a church all your life and you still don't feel accepted start drawing close to Jesus. Start asking him. He's the one who loves all the questions. He's the one who can answer all the questions. You get close to him and you spend your time throughout your day talking with him, learning his word, and I promise you your life will change to the place where you no longer feel like a misfit in his realm. You might not fit into the other realms, but you won't be a misfit in his realm. You'll be beneficial to him and he will cause things to come out of your mouth when you're around people who need help that you never dreamed would come out of you, and he'll speak through you to help others. That's his goal is to reach others. And guess what? You're the best thing he has. You're the best person he has, and he thinks of you like that. No matter what we think of ourselves, you're the best he's got.
Speaker 3:Paul Parasich. What a way to end our conversation.
Speaker 4:Ron, I am honored I'm shaking in my boots to be around you. Ron, I'm honored. You know what. We're brothers and we're serving the same Savior who did the same thing in you that he did in me, and our hearts in it together. Amen, brother, father, we thank you that you've sent your word for us to learn by, to lead us into salvation. We thank you that your word, your Bible, everything points us to Jesus and I thank you that Jesus gave his life for us.
Speaker 4:You know, there's a simplicity in salvation it's if I've done things that have violated God's thoughts of how I should be, then I've offended him. So I know, oh God, please forgive me for my lifestyle. Up till now, I've done this and this and this, and I know that you're not appreciative of me doing those things. I didn't know better, but I know, now and then, if I did something to you that was really, really valuable I put $100,000 in your bank account and I told everybody you know to tell you that I did that Then the next time you saw me, you would say thank you, paul, for what you did.
Speaker 4:Well, we're telling you, and others have told you, that Jesus has died for your sins and Jesus took your place in spiritual death so you could take his place in spiritual life. So I'm telling you, you owe Jesus a thank you. Tell him thank you, jesus, for giving your life for my life and I accept what you did for me. Father, I thank you for giving them the understanding of this and the courage to act on that, and for you to change their life and bring them into the place where you take them off of this place of they don't feel worthy of you. They are worthy of you because of what Jesus did. Make that a reality in their life, as they accept what Jesus did, and I thank you for that, father, in Jesus' name Amen.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, Ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's when rival religious groups in the Middle East get into a civil war. What is agape? It's a little fish about as big as a dime Predestination. Well, you're going on a trip and you have one destination in mind and change your mind and you want a different destination.
Speaker 5:Let's face it often Christians and churches speak a different language than everyone else.
Speaker 6:Original destination. That's predestination. Rapture oh, that's those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that were the ancestors of birds. Millennial rain that's when there's pollutants in the air and these rain clouds filled with these pollutants Sometimes they have no idea what we're talking about. Grace, she's the blonde with the southern accent on that Tuesday night sitcom. Sacrifice of praise. Well, it's like when the Red Sox needed two points and the guy on second base had to sacrifice a lot.
Speaker 5:If you want to reach someone for Jesus Christ, learn how they think. Get into their lives, instead of waiting for them to come to you or your church, and put their message on a level they can understand and relate to.
Speaker 6:Spiritual gifts. Well, it's like on somebody's birthday, you want to give them a cross necklace or a religious book. Omnipotent that's an animal that can eat meat or vegetation, like a grizzly bear.
Speaker 3:Well, paul sure had a story, didn't he? But then we all have a story. Our story is always being written, until the day we leave this world. You know your story. You may think that you are disqualified because, if you're past, or your story because God could never use you. Well, you just heard what Paul went through in his early days of growing pot, smoking, pot, long haired, vulgar, mild individual, and yet today he could hold a conversation with the best of the best in the Christian circles, because Jesus changed him.
Speaker 3:Jesus changes people, not a church. Jesus changes people's hearts, not participating in a ritual. Jesus changes everything in our life, not our baptism. Jesus gives us eternity. He gives us intimate relationship with him. All we have to do is call upon the name of Jesus and he will save us. And that total forgiveness he gives us yes, we don't hear enough about that Total forgiveness. Your sins are erased, past, present and future. So you then have the freedom to become who he created you to become. Oh, the world needs you so bad. The world needs your gifts, talents and abilities, and I hope Paul's story will encourage you that, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, god can and will use you Don't have fear. Trust God, trust Jesus and remember this that when you give Jesus your heart, he will give you a beautiful destiny.
Speaker 1:Ron will be back in a moment to wrap up today's conversation. Did you know what Ron did before he discovered his destiny? He was a promoter of secular entertainment and, by his own admission, he promoted anything he could make a buck at. At the pinnacle of his success, he walked away from it all so he could follow Jesus and discover his God given destiny. That was over 20 years ago and he has never looked back. Ron put his story in a novel entitled the Promoter and he wants to give you a copy. This book is a message of hope. To request your free copy, visit our website at thepromoterorg. Now back to Ron.
Speaker 3:Well, friend, my time is up and maybe today's conversation has led you to think about sharing your story. I would love to hear your story. Go to my website, thepromoterorg, and click the Share your Story link and I'll call you and we'll talk over the phone and we'll record your story and you can empower somebody out there, you can encourage someone out there and you can share your eye-witness account of what Jesus did for you. Until next week, this is Ron Myers, reminding you that I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, he will take the hell out of your eye.
Speaker 2:Get the hell out of your life. Get the hell out of your life is underwritten by the Christmas City Gift Show. We invite you to come shop with over 255 vendors from all over the United States from November 8th through the 10th inside the Coast Convention Center located on the beach in Biloxi, mississippi. You can find more information at ChristmasCityGiftShowcom. Thanks for listening, and if you would like to share your story of what God has done in your life or listened to previous episodes, please visit our website, thepromoterorg. Join us next week for another episode of Get the Hell Out of your Life Real stories, real struggles and real hope.