Dawn's Early Light Podcast Episode 13: Interviewing Clay Anders

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Check out Clays non profit here! www.honestyprojectinfo.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Sorry, I think I got you the typo there. I I typed uh 3 30 and I meant 2 30. Oh, you're good. No worries. Yeah, so uh Cooper is my my friend. I was the one talking to you through text. Um he has a heart out, he's gotta leave at 3 30, is what he's saying. So we got pretty close to an hour. Um a little bit about I guess I'll go first, a little bit about myself is I've me and Cooper kind of got into the politics and uh just kind of this whole world uh together about uh I'd say six months ago. And so we started our own nonprofit uh PAC, PAX Americana Concordium. And so now we're here, we're just uh trying to get our ourselves out there, and part of that is our podcast. And with that, we interviewed Senator Kathleen about a month ago, and and she gave me your number, and so that's where we are now. Cooper, if you want to Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Hey Clay, uh I'm Cooper. I'm uh I'm here with uh Caleb. We we met in September and uh we've been going at this um at this nonprofit stuff pretty hard for the better part of half a year now, and um it's a pleasure to talk with you today. And uh uh from what I hear, um you are uh a huge follower of Christ. Am I correct in uh saying that?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Boy, am I yes? Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Yeah, so we we'd love to just like I know you kind of gave me your your story, your rundown, but I mean if you want to do it again, that'd be awesome because it's it's a really cool story.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Well, um you know, I used to be a former gang leader and gang member, and I ended up getting in trouble in trouble um earlier or a while ago for um a shooting I did and you know selling drugs and getting into fights and I spent almost ten years incarcerated and when I was on the yard, you know, um one day I had a buddy from my neighborhood that just continued to try and tell me about Christ, and I wasn't really listening to him too much, but you know, he sent me a book and there was a CO that got a hold of it, and she was from Uganda, and she would tell me all the time, like, you gotta get to know Jesus, you gotta get to know Jesus, and I never really paid it no mind, and then I ended up breaking my hand one day because I got into a confrontation with the COs. And um, you know, in the in the penitentiary, when you get in uh when you get injured like that, you have to go to the hospital, but you can't go to the hospital right away. They have to do it randomly, so they they'll wait days before they send you and they won't tell you when you're going. And um, then when you do get to go, you gotta go to the medical unit and you can't make any phone calls or have any communication with the outside world because you're gonna go to the hospital the next day. Well, when I went to the medical unit before I was going, the CO came up to me and she kept telling me, she's like, Clay, you know, you gotta read your book, you gotta read this book, you gotta read this book. So, out of respect, what I said I'd read it, but I had no intentions to. And uh, I asked her, What do you want me to read? And she asked me to read the book of Matthew. She said you have to get to know who Jesus is. And so I had no intentions of reading it. So when I went up to medical, they're like going to a cell person. And normally when you're injured like that, they don't put you in the cell with anybody for a safety reason. But they said, You gotta go in the cell with this person. So I'm like, no, I'm not going in the cell with anybody, like, you're tripping. And they're like, Well, if you want your hand fixed, you're gonna go in this cell. So after you know, a few minutes of me going back and forth with a lieutenant and so on and so forth, I ended up going into the cell with this person, um, but I didn't know who it was, and so when I went into the cell, I closed, they closed the door and locked it, and then the person that came out of the covers was the person that killed one of my homeboys that I have tattoos on my stomach. But I couldn't fight him because I had a broken hand and he had a broken leg, and so instead of trying to fight him, you know, or talk to him or anything, I just sat in my bed and he sat in his. Out of stubbornness and pure pride, I refused to talk to him. And so the only thing I could do instead of watch TV, because I didn't want to watch the TV he was watching, because I didn't want to talk to him. And um, normally when he was on the yard, any of my homeboys, we would see an altercation. You know, because it's one of those things where it's like, now you got a problem with all of us for life. Well, since I couldn't say anything to him out of pride, I read the Bible and I read Matthew from front to back. Like I read the footnotes, I read everything to do that it that had to do with Matthew. And when I closed the Bible, the Lord immediately gave me a revelation and understanding. He says, Clay, how are you gonna be mad at this man for killing your homeboy? But if your homeboy killed him, you would glorify your homeboy. And then he just made me realize that the the the streets and the gangs was all a lie, and I ended up befriending that person. And uh when I left the the medical unit weeks later, I had a dream um that was so vivid, and I had a revelation in a dream that when I finally got interpretation the next morning from some other brothers on the yard, I hit my knees crying, and it was just like, Jesus, you were real, you know, and then he started working in my life right after that, you know. Right after I found out who he was, I confessed, I repent, I went and got baptized, and then my life started changing dramatically, you know. So now I run a nonprofit for kids, um giving back to my community, trying to change the narrative, trying to work with at-risk youth as well as incarcerated adults, you know, all in the name of Christ.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Wow, that's an that's an incredible story, Clay. That's um that's really awesome. Um, I got a quick question for you. What is the name of your nonprofit and um how can people um get a hold of you uh about that uh information if they're uh curious on um using your guys' resources?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Well, our our nonprofit is called Honesty Project. Um you can go to Honesty Project Info Instagram, it's just honesty project info. And they can and people can see what we do, you know, and offer ideas or suggestions on how to help or volunteer. You know, we don't like to you know beg people for donations, you know, or anything like that, or beg people for help. If you want to help, you'll help, you know. And so um, but that's a few ways they can get in contact with us and all our information's on there.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Wonderful, awesome. Um, so I guess um I I'm a Christian and Caleb's a Christian as well. And when it comes to the way that uh we at le at least as far as I know with Caleb, we were just kind of born into it and we have um matured through it and in our own ways um come to realize that we do need Christ and that He is our Savior and that He's the only way that we can get to heaven. Yes. And uh even though we don't have uh like some, you know uh a testimony like yours, um, what are some ways that you would encourage people that have been Christians their whole lives to use that testimony um to spread the good news?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

To use your testimony?

SPEAKER_02 7:58

To use their testimony. Sorry if I worded that in a in a in a weird way, but whatever testimony they may have, yours being yours, ours being ours, how get give some advice on how to how to best spread your testimony and to and to show people who Christ is.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Well, there's there's multiple ways. I mean, you you let the spirit lead you, but also just don't be afraid to talk about them when you know you have that voice inside your head that most people just don't listen to, not knowing that it's the Lord telling you, like, talk about me.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

You know, and any upstate highway 210.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And when you when you get opportunities to talk about them, man, do it. Don't be ashamed. Stand in your truth, man. Be prepared to be per uh uh persecuted, you know, and but do it with love. And um in the generation we live in right now, unfortunately, they people think that Christ's love is just all the good feelings. There's love and discipline too, you know, and I want people to understand that like Christ is not just oh, I'll accept everything. No, he'll accept you as you are, you know, he wants to have a relationship with you, but if he truly loves you, he's gonna discipline you too at times when you're messing up. Just like it says in the Bible, as a father disciplines his child, you know, and but in this generation that we live in now, they they've got the wrong message, you know. Yes, he is love as in the good feelings, but he's also love in the way he corrects you. And if you truly understand Christ, you'll understand why he's correcting you and why it is love, you know. So it says uh in 1 James, it says in James uh chapter 1, verse 2, consider a pure joy when you face trials and tribulations of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Now, if you don't know the Lord, you won't understand why he says, consider a pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. You wouldn't understand how many trials and tribulations I've been through that I've grown through and gained so much understanding from. Now looking back on it, I'm like, man, it's actually a blessing. Example. I'll give you an example. I lost my father as soon as I got out of prison, and I have been trying to talk to him for years after I got saved. Every day, Dad, you get you need to know Christ, you need to know Christ. And he's like, Oh, you just one of them brothers that got incarcerated, and now you want to turn to the Lord. If you get out and you start doing what you talk about, I'll follow him too. Because me and my dad were very close. When I got out though, I ended up finding him um dead in his house, and it destroyed me. The next day, I also found a certificate that said he gave his life to the Lord a month prior, you know, and for a long time, praise the Lord, bro. For a long time, I was hurt, I was depressed that I lost the man that meant the most to me until I realized all the growth that came from that hurt, all the gratitude that I got from losing him. I just watched actually the other day when Stephen Colbert said to Anderson Cooper, I had learned to love the thing that I wish that had not happened the most. Man, how true is that, bro? That's a good idea. Yeah, it is, bro. It's powerful. And now I tell people like, I love the fact that my father passed. One, I know where he's at. He's way better off where he's at than it is here. Two, the man that I became after that growth, after that hurt, boy, he wouldn't, he would gladly give up his life if he knew I'd get to this point in my life. Yeah, that's the kind of love. That's how much he loves me, bro. And that's what Christ did. The same thing that my father would have gladly did, my earthly father, my heavenly father already did.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

That's right. Yeah, Jesus says there's no greater love than this to give up your own life for your friends. I mean, that is that and that's and he demonstrated that perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Bro, you know, in Corinthians, in the in the NIV version, it says in 1 Corinthians 13, it says love is gracious and love is kind, and all these things. But people don't really understand love because if you go to the Old Testament, it says charity, and it means self-sacrifice, self, you know, uh unconditional love. That's a deeper meaning than just saying love. You feel me? Oh, yeah. Like, boy, boy, Christ, he's so good, bruh. Man, and that's why they say, hey, I come preaching the good news, bro. What's better than this?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

We should call it the greatest.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

You feel me? Man, bro, like I said, man, why if I if I truly have the love of Christ in me, and I have a testimony, and I know who Christ is, do I really love you if I don't tell you about him?

SPEAKER_02 12:55

No. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

That's how a Christian shows his love. You tell him about the same love that you are receiving, and you show it. You know, let your let the let let the uh tree bear fruit, you know?

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Yes. Absolutely, absolutely. And and what when you touched on um how Jesus loves us, um, it that it involves discipline and that it involves um, you know, not all the not all the good things that come with uh love, but some of the harder things that can come with love. It reminds me of uh the woman caught in adultery where he's he says, you know, the woman says, Do you condemn me as well? And he says, I don't condemn you. Now go and sin no more. He didn't say, You are good to keep doing all of your adulterous things. He said, You know, I forgive you and I don't condemn you, don't do it again. That's that kind of that's that's the kind of love that uh us as Christians are called to do, instead of just accepting whatever somebody's um sin may be. It's to accept them as they are and to lovingly correct them in the way that Jesus taught us there in John.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

You know, and this is what you know, people He loves you no matter what. He will forgive you for anything except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Anything, right? Now, that does not mean you won't have consequences. Now, the now, the outcome we might not like, he knows it's for the greater good, you know. And some people can't understand the Lord, don't look at things like we look at things, like there is no hierarchy in sin. There is no that's a felony, that's a misdemeanor in sin. Everything is worthy of death, bro. Everything. And he said, bro, I love you. It's saying in the Bible, very few will give their life for a righteous man. But he sent his only begotten son to die for unrighteous people, bro.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

I love that part of the Bible, it makes me think.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Boy, could you fathom giving up somebody you love for somebody that ain't no good? Right. No. Lord, forgive me. I know who you are, Christ, and even I would have a hard time right now doing that. Come on, man, stop playing with my Lord.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

It's a good thing I'm not God. It's a good thing I'm not God.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

He don't see it, he don't see it the same way. You know, I started this nonprofit because a buddy, um, a very close friend of mine who I call a brother, the one who introduced me to Christ, his daughter ended up getting killed by a classmate at a very young age. And if you go to his mom or her mom right now and ask her, this nonprofit that was started in her name that has reached thousands of kids and told thousands of people about Jesus, was it worth your daughter's life? The hurt that she has that she's holding on to, she would tell you no. But the Lord would say, Ah, do it again. Because look how many people got to hear about me because one person. Like, that's powerful. But our our earthly self would be like, no, I would never, but he gave up his only son, so the whole world. Boy, boy, that's heavy, bruh.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

That's my God, that's heavy, boy.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

He's such a good guy, bro. Loving God. And we put it, you know, everybody nowadays, everybody, man, yeah, man, God, nah, Jesus, bro. Jesus. Let's let's let's put a name on it. You know what I'm saying? Let's say his name. Because everybody has gods, money's a god to people. That's why it says in God we trust. Food is a god to somebody, you know what I'm saying? That the enemy is a god to some somebody, food is a god to somebody. What God are you talking about, though? I'm talking about that living true God, Christ Jesus, man. Stop playing with my Lord, bro.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Stop playing with my Lord, dog.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Hold me. I'm not shy about it. You feel me?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, you're a city on a hill, man. Your your light is shining, man.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

And I can only thank him. I can only thank him and just be like, Lord, do not allow my light to dim. Continue to just be with me and allow me to be a vessel. I'm a willing vessel. Allow me to be a vessel to spread your word. And when people give me praise, like, oh, I love what you're doing, bro. This ain't me. This ain't me. Would you if it was left to me, I'd still be out here addicted to drugs, laying with a bunch of women, hurting people, gangbanging. This ain't me, bro. This is Christ that lives in me. That's that's the reason why you see who you see today. Because I love him so much that he didn't tell me I had to give up anything. I wanted to give up everything. Because it just did it, it didn't hit the same anymore. The clubs don't hit the same anymore. I don't I don't care about no dang club. The music that I listen to ain't the same no more. The way I conduct myself, the way I talk, the way I love, you know, everything is completely different because he just renewed me. Boy, boy, and I don't deserve it, dawg. I don't, man. He gives me away.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Got it anyway. Got it anyway, bro.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

How powerful, dawg. No doubt, man. You know, there's a that reminds me of an analogy. Um, it's you know, you don't thank the hammer for the house that was built for you. You thank the builder. That's kind of God with us. You know, we're the hammer, and God is the builder. He's using us to improve uh to bring heaven onto earth, right? And to bring people to know him. And so it's always it's always so important to give the glory to God because um when you start worshiping the hammer that built the house, then um you know your your your worship is in the wrong place. You're making a god out of a out of something that's not. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Can you hear me? Gotcha. Yes, gotcha. Oh okay. Sorry, man. My grandmama, she called me, man. I already know it. My grandmama called me. Me and her are gonna end up talking about the Lord for two hours, so I had to hand on that.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Uh, what better subject, man? Hey, we got to be. My apologies, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

No, you guys still hear me?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yep, absolutely. Yep. So we got um we wanted to my apologies, man. Like I said, my grandma called me. Yep. No, you're good, man. Hey, spending time with with grandma.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Are you still there?

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yeah, can you hear us?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

You still there? Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_03 19:57

Yeah, we we can hear you.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Can you hear me? Yes. Oh, okay. Okay. Yep. Where'd he go? Oh, there he is. What's up, big dog? Okay, I think I think I think we're sorry, man. I'm putting my phone on silent. I didn't expect anybody to call me. My apologies.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

No worries. All right, so um, I wanted to touch on um the stuff that you do with prison ministry. Um, could you just kind of walk us through that and um kind of give us I can't hear him. Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Yeah, I can't hear you. I just can't hear Cooper. Can't hear Cooper? Okay, well, yeah, we wanted to ask a little bit about uh I think we we spoke about it when I when I called you that or you call me that one day uh prison ministry and kind of touch on that a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Well, they um I've been allowed to go into the to the jail and the prison to talk about. Well, they want me to talk about reform, but when I go in there, I can tell you what I did to you know get to this point. But the the focal point is Christ. If I wouldn't have given my life to him, I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. So I could sit here and tell you about rehabilitation techniques and thinking, man, if you give your life to the Lord, he the ultimate therapist, he the ultimate rehab, he the ultimate healer, he the ultimate counselor, he everything you can be. So that's my message. But I'm allowed to go into the you know uh the prison and the jails to talk. And so I talk about Christ, and I also go into the juvenile detention center uh every week, and I talk to these kids, and I tell them what changed me because they always ask me, like, hey, what what made you change? And I tell them it was nothing but Christ.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

That's good, that's powerful. Um anybody here, Cooper? Are you able to check, check? Hello, can you hear me, Clay? No, I still can't hear him. Okay, because I I can hear Cooper. That's that's super weird. Wait, I might be able to hear him right now.

unknown 21:59

Oh

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Check, check. Goober, say something. Kaley, can you hear me? Hello? Yes, I can hear you now.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Sorry about that. No, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Alright. So yeah, with um with prison ministry, uh this is kind of a random side question. Do you happen to know a man named Matthew Koenick?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Um, I'm not sure. I might have to see him and see his face. I'm not good. Man, I'm I'm not good with names. I'm good with face.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Gotcha. Okay, never mind. This is just a personal question. He's a he's a buddy of mine from church. He uh he does stuff with open door mission at uh um in Elkorn, Nebraska. Um but yeah, I I I'm curious to to hear. What do you um what do you see as the biggest thing in the way of people in prison fully committing their life to Jesus? What what is the what is the biggest stumbling block that you see? Fear.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Fear. That's right. Sure. I think it's it's fear of like judgment from peers or fear to like try to go through all that change.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

It's a plethora of things. For me, it was when I when I got to know, I was so on fire, bro, for the Lord. I was so on fire for the Lord, you would catch me at my bed, and I'd have three or four different Bibles, and I'm just reading it. And even as a shot caller, my homies still knew like I'm serious, but they also knew if something happened, I'd be there. So I was on, you know, it was it was it was fear of I don't want this life, but also fear of like I can't abandon this life right now because this is what's keeping me safe. Because in there, violence is king. So if you're if you you're afraid that you don't you don't want to get taken advantage of, you're afraid you don't want people to talk to you crazy, you're afraid of looking weak, so on and so forth. But then also the fear of you grew up like me, I grew up with this identity. And now that I I'm trying to become new, I don't know who I am outside that identity. So I'm so used to it that I'm scared to abandon what's kept me safe all these years, you know. So it's hard to just let it go. And then the fear of people not accepting you for who you who you truly want to be and are called to be. So now I used to get accepted for doing wrong. Man, my biggest my biggest fear was nobody's gonna like me because I don't want to do that anymore. And that's part of the reason why I created the identity I did, because I was scared of nobody accepting me for who I actually was. So I created this person and and joined the gang to protect that person. And then when it's like ripping off a mask and it's all scarred, you don't know who you are. And and when I when I did that, bro, when I got out of prison and I lost my father, what people don't know is right when I got out of prison, I lost my father, and that was traumatic in itself, but I couldn't cry. And I talked to and I have when I go talk to people, I preach a sermon tough because I had to carry my father out of his house in a body bag with the corners, and my dad was a six foot three, three hundred-pound black man, and he was a heavy brother. And if you ever tried to carry a dead person that's that heavy, it is one of the toughest things you could ever do. And I couldn't cry because I had too many people looking at me, and then I just had to be tough, you know, and then I ended up later on that year, I ended up passing out right after I got off work because I I found out I had Crohn's disease and I almost died. I had to have emergency stomach surgery, so I had to have a foot of my intestine removed, my appendix removed, and 10% of my colon. I had to have that removed. So I sat in the hospital for two months, and I ended up having a bag attached to me too to catch the infection because I ended up getting an infection in my stomach because there was still a hole in my intestine, and I almost died, and I was in one of the most toxic relationships I ever had. And then when I finally when I finally was ready to let it all go on Memorial Day of 2021, I was ready to let everything go. I didn't have the same friends anymore because our commonalities changed. Nobody was calling my phone anymore because I wasn't doing wrong. I had no desire to smoke or drink or do anything, so all my coping skills were gone. I actually had to sit in that pain, and it got so unbearable to me that I tried taking my life, and I wasn't successful, but when I when I seen all the blood and stuff everywhere, I realized it was time for a change. And then the Lord put me in a semi-truck, and He He allowed me to see the country. I had never seen the country before, and I got to go to places like Florida and Maryland and go to the mountains in Oregon and Texas and New York and all these things, and I realized I was like, Lord, just thank you. But I also went through trials and tribulations by myself because as I don't drive my semi and listen to radio, I don't listen to the radio. I sit with my thoughts. I gotta get alone. This is my time to get alone because I do so much in the community that when I get back, I got people pulling at me from all different directions. I'm not saying I'm Jesus, so don't get that from what I'm about to say, but I feel like Christ, bro, because he had people pulling at him all day, every day, following them, like, hey, I need you to do this. People call me a lot of times just for hey, how can I how can you help me? How can you help me? So then at times, I gotta get away and sit in this semi. This is my peace, you know, and this is how I get, you know, even Christ had to be alone, bro. You know, because it gets hard sometimes, you know. But it's a blessing. But man, if I bro, if I had not had Christ, bro, I wouldn't be here right now. I assure you. I'd either be locked up for a very long time or I'd be dead. No question.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Man. Yeah, I mean, yeah, Christ, he he went and prayed by himself for a lot of time. A lot of time. I mean, he and there's this, there's I think it's in Mark, there's this story he's he's like healing people all day from all of these different um diseases or spiritual um afflictions that they have. And at the end of the day, he's exhausted, but he still makes time to go pray before and to be alone before he rests his head and he he recharges for the next day. Um that's always been an inspiration to me is to find that alone time with God that you can have to just to sit with him and to listen to him and to talk to him and to just be in his presence instead of go, go, go all the time. You're gonna miss all of those things that um that you wouldn't miss if you if you took the time out of your day just to just to be still and to and to hear what what God wants to tell you and to and to talk to God and just be with God.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

You know, when you uh when you're constantly on the go like that, this is what I learned. When you're constantly on the go like that, that's what the enemy wants. He ain't gotta sit here and attack you like that. He can distract you. And when he distracts you, you don't got your eyes on the Lord. And so then you be doing so much in the name of the Lord, and you don't even go to him no more, you you start to feel like it's you doing it when it's the person doing it through you, when it's the Lord doing it through you. So the enemy, he's gonna distract you, he's gonna throw all these things on your plate to keep you distracted because that's all he needs is a little bit of distraction to creep in there and slither in there, bro. Just the same thing. I think it was, I believe it was Peter when he was walking on water with Jesus. Man, you just watched Jesus, you watched him heal the paralyzed, you help him, you watched him cleanse, you cleanse somebody from leprosy, you watched him feed thousands of people, you watched him cast out a demon. As soon as you was walking on the water with you, what'd the enemy do? He threw distractions at you, and you focused on the distractions and you started to fall. But immediately, as soon as you cried out to the Lord, guess what he did? He didn't quit, he didn't say, See, now all you gotta do is depend on me. He grabbed him immediately. He grabbed him immediately. Man, you gotta, you can't be distracted. You gotta keep your eyes on the Lord, bro, and everything you do, everything you do. Most people are distracted with the bills and the economy and all that, bro. You ain't even thanked the Lord this morning just for waking up. You worried about tomorrow, and he says, Tomorrow might not, why are you worried about tomorrow? Let tomorrow worry for itself. You don't know what's gonna happen. You know what I'm saying? The enemy got people out here distracted. You know, one thing my brother, so my brother's a firm believer in the Lord too, you know, and he's one of my only brothers that's actual like devout believer in the Lord. And he said, uh He said he had a dream one day that he was he was talking to a demon, and he asked the demon, he said, Why do you want to kill our kids? Because the enemy's after our kids. He said, I don't want to kill your kids. He said, I just want to raise them. And you know how he raises them? He raises them with distractions. Distractions. The music, the media, the feeling like they gotta have they gotta have everything accomplished right now, even school, bombarding them with school work. He raising them, bro. Man, he distracting them.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Yeah, it kind of holds a mirror up to my life a little bit, and I should probably I should probably kind of get get away with all the the useless, you know, crap that goes on in my day-to-day and replace that a little bit more with uh with with time with my father. It's yeah, I mean, you know, demons aren't just there to to harm you physically or spiritually, they're there to just pull you away from what where you're truly meant to be.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

You know, when the you know in you know in the Bible where it says you need to tithe? Okay, the Lord has been telling me, like I can give money, but do I tithe the most valuable thing I have, which is my time? Do I even tithe 10% of my day, 5% of my day? Do you tithe one hour out of the 24 you've been given to the Lord? Oh, bro, we so distracted. Yeah, we've been like, oh man, we went to church this week. We straight. No, bro. No, bro. What if he only showed up one time a week for you?

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Right. Oh, you wouldn't like it. Yeah, I'd be in a bad spot.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

What if he only showed up one time out of the seven days you're supposed to be living, and he showed up one time to make you live? Like if you really put things into perspective, we need to be keeping him at the forefront of everything, bro. But do we? No, we put him on the back burner, bro. And then, and then when we take time to ourselves to be one with him again, the enemy there to hit you with, man, you should feel guilty that you're spending time for yourself. Oh, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, boy, it's a spiritual war out here. People worried about the war overseas, bro. Y'all don't know about this spiritual war that's going on, bro. Do you not know that there's angels and demons at war right now, bro, over your soul? Like, bruh, do you know where you're going at the end of the day when you die? That you know, and I talk to people all the time that don't know the Lord, and this is what I ask them, because this is what a woman told me. Her name is Mary Beth, one of the most biggest pillars in my faith. She said, Clay, because I was a bad man, she used to tell me this all the time, Clay, you're a bad man. You could go your whole life believing in Jesus Christ and all his teachings, and if you die and you find out he isn't real, you lose nothing. But if you go your whole life choosing not to believe in Jesus and you die and he is real, you lose everything. You're a betting man. What would you do? So I tell people that all the time. If you go to the casino and they say you bet your whole life savings on red right now, and if you lose, you lose nothing. Keep it. But if you win, you win your time honored. But if you put it on black and bet your life savings and lose everything, and what would you do? They'd be like, Oh, I'll bet it on red. So you'll you'll take all your life savings and put it on red, but not yourself. Like, come on, man, what are we talking about here? That sounds foolish.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Yeah, that's that's Pascal's wager. That's one of the one of the um that's one of the things that really I like to kind of dive into the um the philosophical stuff about God and things like that, and the the maybe the more logical cases for his existence, kind of the evidences that we see and things like that, and that's one of them right there is that you lose nothing. You lose nothing believing in God. In fact, it makes your life just that much more full of peace and joy, and um you you you you have that assured confident assured confidence that you know no matter what happens in life, you know, you we know how it ends, right? We've got the ending. And uh, you know, all of all the stuff that happens in between doesn't really matter all too much because we know that we're going to spend eternity with our father. All all well, some things do matter very much, but the things that happen to me, like, oh man, I I I got a flat tire or whatever. This sucks. You know, I want to I want to go do whatever. No. I know how it ends. I know that everything's gonna be okay, and that you know, I'll I'll be spending eternity with Christ in heaven, and um, he died for me, and and that's my God.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

You know, if you knew that God, if you knew our God, like we know our God, then you'll know you got that flat tire, and he probably saved you from a car wreck. Yep. He probably gave you that flat tire so you would show up somewhere else on time for a specific person, purpose, because nothing happens by accident, nothing is coincidental. This is divine timing, bro. You know what I'm saying? And once you start to realize that, you'd be like, dang, Lord, don't have everything. We're so good, dog. I tell that to these kids all the time because you know a lot of these kids don't understand that they have a purpose. They can't understand that they have a purpose greater than what they're called called to right now, which is living in sin and living wrong. I said, bro, the Lord some nutrition to the grass and the trees to give us oxygen. He done, he done made mosquitoes for a purpose. He done made a roach for a purpose, he done made a rat for a purpose, and you think he ain't made you for one? Bro, y'all understand, man. We bro, we are products of the most high. I was just, I just went to um, so the other day, my old one of my other older brothers got me a concert ticket to one of my favorite rappers I used to like back in the day, right? And when I went to this concert, it was on a Wednesday. I went to this concert in Lincoln, and as soon as I got there, immediate, we smoke everywhere in the in the venue. I'm like, all right, I'm not, you know, everybody smokes, I'm not gonna judge you, you know. I don't smoke, that's not my thing, but I'm not just especially I was born on 420. I used to think that was my life, you know. Walk into the club, everybody smokes. Then I walk into where the crowd is, everybody just standing there looking like zombies.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

Oh, I think we lost him again. Yeah, he is getting to a good story.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

I know, I know we gotta wrap it up soon, because we gotta Yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

You feel me?

SPEAKER_00 40:06

The enemy trying his hardest, bro. He tried cause my phone got too hot. Yeah, I bet, cause we ain't here cooking. Hey, come on. Come on. Straight up, bro. He tried, and I sat here, and I sat here and I was like, Lord, it's all good. The enemy trying to stop us from talking about you and spreading this message, but you ain't gonna let it happen. So I'm like, cool, we're gonna figure it out. I'll put this phone right on the AC. Hey, cool it right on down. Let's get right back to the action, bro. That's how the Lord works, man. Thank you, Lord. You feel me? You see, it's a spiritual warfare out here, bro. My phone don't never do that. My voice never done that. Never never, I have never seen that message on my phone. Temperature too hot, can't use it. Never had that. I've had this phone for two years. Never had that problem.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Man, God is good.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Man, all the time, bro. All the time, dog. Man, that's what I'm saying. Now you see, I be bro, the energy I'm giving y'all. This is how I actually am with people. Like, bro, please let me tell you about this dude I know, bro.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

I tell these youngsters all the time. They say, I say, what books y'all reading in here? What books y'all like to read? Man, I like to read something gangster. I like to read about people getting drunk and having sex and people dying. I said, bro, check out the Bible. You're gonna learn all that. You're gonna see. It's the best book you could ever read, bro. But people scared to to people scared to stop living in sin, bro. Because it's so it feels so good, but you don't know that it's bringing you death, dog. That's why it's a highway versus a stairway to heaven. The highway to hell and the stairway to heaven. You feel me? Like, and the highway's easy. I'm coasting on the interstate in the highway right now. But imagine if I had to take stairs to get to Omaha from Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

You know how, man, you know how crazy that would be.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Exhausted. You know what I'm saying? Man, please, bro. Boy. That's why I love my Lord, bro. And I stand in truth wherever I go, bro. I'm not afraid to speak about him. I'm not afraid to sit here and say, you know, we have hard topics. You know, the world wants to condemn like it seems like lately, like, there's there's a war against transgenderism and gays, and you can't do that. That's that's what they put out on social media. And I hate that because I'm gonna condemn a person who's stealing in front of me. You know what I'm saying? And I wanna be, I want you to check me if I'm doing wrong, if I'm gossiping, because it's it goes down like choice, choice morsel, as it says in the Bible. I want you to check me if I'm gossiping. If I'm looking at a woman too long and I'm lusting, check me. You feel me? If I answer you harshly or I or what I eat causes you to sin, bro, check me. I'm not bigger than the program, bro. You know what I'm saying? I say this because I love you, and I hope you love me enough to check me. You know what I'm saying? Just like I would say something to you, but I'm also gonna love you right where you're at, bro. And no judgment. That is not my place to judge you. You know, the one person that helped bring me closest to Christ, bro, was a brother I was incarcerated with. His name was Miami, very respected on the yard at the time. Had been on the yard for almost 10 years. I used to hang out with this dude every day. He was a big dude, man. He was 6'5, 330. Big brother. You feel me? And I hang out with him every day. Come to find out, he had raped a little girl. That's why he got such a long time. Okay. When the word hit the yard that everybody found out, I was like, damn, bro. I don't know what I asked him. I said, Man, what happened, bro? He goes, Man, that's between me and the Lord, bro. I said, I'm not even here to judge you, bro. That is between you and the Lord. I can't rock with you. I don't like your decision, but I do forgive you. So I can't sit here and I've been some around somebody who killed my own boy, somebody who was a rapist that brought me. They interacting with them, the worst of the worst, bro, that the world would consider. And the Lord forgave them, bro. So who am I to judge? Paul, which who was formerly Saul, killed thousands of believers, bro. And he was forgiven. And the Lord said, nah, bro, you kill thousands of believers, you're perfect for my mission.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Because he changed, bro. He confessed and he repented, bro. You know what I'm saying? And he got baptized in the name of Christ, bro. You feel me? Man, the Lord can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants, whenever he wants. The Lord is the only one who can take a bad situation, turn it into a good situation without ever changing the situation. Stop playing with me, man. Stop playing with my Lord, bro.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Good man. Well, Claire, I got about five minutes left, and I gotta I gotta head out. But you were in the middle of a story about the concert that you were at where it started to sound like weed. So I'd like to hear the end of that.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

So I went to the concert and I sat down and this guy comes up to me. He goes, Man, shouldn't you be on stage? Because, you know, I was dressed kind of flashy, you know, and so on and so forth. I said, nah, bro, I shouldn't. He goes, Man, you act like you was drug out. Drug out to be here. I was like, honestly, bro, that's because this music don't fit me anymore. You know what I'm saying? I was like, man, we were called to be greater, bro. We were made in the image of the most high. Don't you know that we have blood, so many blood vessels in our body that it can stretch to the moon? I said, bro, what are we doing kicking it around all this low vibrational stuff, bro? This is what the enemy wants: death and destruction. That's all this is. All this music is talking about is drugs, money, women committing crimes, fast cars. That's all it talks about. So I ended up leaving the concert. My brother called me, like, where'd you go? I said, Man, I want to cross the street to get pizza. I was like, that ain't for me no more. That Saturday, I went to a Brandon Lake concert in Omaha. 15,000 believers praising and singing hallelujah. Bro, bro, one was death, one was life, bro. On me, bro. Oh man, so powerful, dog. Ooh, so powerful, bro. I'm sorry, I get excited when I start talking about my Lord, bro.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Hey, don't apologize.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

And I don't, and I don't look like your conventional believer to a lot of people, you know what I'm saying? But I'm all able from my background and my experiences and the life that I did used to live. I'm able to bring that with me. I'm not bringing that life with me, but those experiences and all the stuff that I learned from living. It says I was blind, but now I see, just like Paul. So I'm able to reach the last release and the law, just like that's why Jesus sat down with the tax collectors. That's why he sat down with the sinners, bro. I'm able to sit down with them and they see me and be like, Oh, you used to be one of us. What happened? Let me tell you. Let me tell you the good news, brother.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Wonderful. Well, Clay man, it has been uh uh it's been a blast to talk to you. Um, I uh I've got a heart out here in about one minute. Um I just wanted to I just wanted to thank you so much for uh for you know sharing everything and um you know uh safe travels, obviously. And um man, I just you know would you be fine ending in prayer, actually?

SPEAKER_00 48:16

I was just finna, my spirit was already telling me, bro, I was gonna do it. So let me just say this. Dear Lord, we thank you. Heavenly Father, you say when two or more are gathered in your name, you are present. So thank you for your presence. We are so blessed to just be able to wake up and praise you and tell people about you. Heavenly Father, we can't save people, but what we can do is lead people to you. You are the ultimate redeemer, you are the prince of peace, you are the ultimate healer, you are the ultimate counselor, you are what it means to be loved. You are the embodiment of love, Heavenly Father. And I'm just grateful that I was able to sit here with these brothers and talk about you and praise your name. I'm so grateful that when the enemy tried to attack, you stepped in and said, Nah, bro, I'm here. Blee. You feel me? Lord, you are just amazing, bro. Nobody can compare to you, and we are just so thankful of the blessing that you gave us, which is the grace and salvation and forgiveness through the blood of your son Jesus. In Jesus Christ's mighty name. Amen, bro.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Amen. Clay, thank you so much, man, for uh a great conversation, a a day brightener, week brightener. Um, man, thank you so much. And you know, uh just God bless you, and um hopefully we'll talk again soon.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

You was well, big dog.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

All right, take it easy.