An Interview with Tim Ross- Welcome to the Basement

Malik welcomes podcaster, social media influencer, author, preacher, businessman and Inglewood's own Tim Ross for a lively conversation before a live audience at Malik Books!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My league books has how the knowledge you want?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
My league, but has how the knowledge you need?

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Chat they have out the books that the whole wild
world one of read Malague books. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
Malik's bookshep bringing a world together with books.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Culture and community. My name is Malik the hype Man
of Books.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hey, so many people have come to Malik's and said
that they loved my passion, They loved how I hype
up books.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And you know what I.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Was sleeping on that title. This is Malite the height
Man of Books. I'm going to run with this title.
In fact, I think I did an episode the hype Man,
the hype Man of Books.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I believe I did you know.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
Hey, this is the nine so hungspec remember every title
that I came up on this podcast, but this is
the ninety six episode, and I'm going to feature this
interview I had with Tim Ross, who brought out this
explosive and electric book. Last Thursday, March twenty first, at

(01:22):
Elite Books. I hosted Tim Ross, who wrote this explosive
and electric book called Welcome to the Basement and Upside
Down God to Greatness.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And it was fire. The crowd came out in full
for we.

Speaker 6 (01:45):
Felt up belief books.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
We had man standing room only.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
It was electric, fiery, informative, shattering, uplifting, motivating, inspiring.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The bottom line is we had God shaking up up
in there. And you know what I'm saying. We had
you know, we called it Church called it, the Masque
called it whatever.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
This was the Word of God taking place and it
was touching in the testimonies that people came up after
I interviewed Tim Bross to testimonies, they came up to
talk to him about personally as he signed their books.

(02:38):
People crying, just loving, very emotional to hear some of
their stories. I mean, this brother, Tim Bross, change many
of their lives, well some of their lives.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
This guy is.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
In the streets and the highways and the bus always
upsetting the.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Norms of Christianity. He has a whole new, refreshing.

Speaker 6 (03:08):
Approach to.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
God's message as a Christian.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
And I had a chance to interview him, the hype
man of books, and I prepared myself, read the book,
had my questions, and the conversation was electric. I believe
God led my words and I was able to.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Bring out.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
So much to the audience out of tend with the
questions that I was inspired to ask him, and it
just made for a good talk, a good book talk
about on Welcome to the Basement, and it afforded him
the opportunity to talk about his Masterpiecet that he was
inspired to write by.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
God, and it was touching and powerful. We all had
a good time. We had church. Like I said, he upset,
you know, like I asked him.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
I said, well, when you when you change up like
who you upset? He said that myself because the things
that I like to do, I'm now being held accountable
and pushing myself away from those things to clean myself
up from those things.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
So and to make those changes. So I'm upset. So anyway,
he touched the people. He touched the people.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I could look at their faces in the crowd and
can see how he touched the people and how emotional
they were. It was a phenomenal event. It was different.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
It was a sit down, it was a discussion, it
was a eat and greet, it was a book signing,
it was.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
All of those things.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
In the community came out in large numbers to show
the love and respect and admiration they had for his ministry.
He used to be in a church, but he's no
longer approaching his ministry in that way. He's more in the.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Streets podcasts because he has a major podcast and he has.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
A huge audience called Upset the Ground.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's his.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Instagram it's called Upset the Ground. And he also have
b side app. This as part of his podcast that
Tim Ross has. That's his miniature, his podcast, him moving
in and out different communities across the nation, and he's

(05:56):
touched a lot of people because I seen he came
to liv he lived in Texas.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
That understanding.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
He came out to La to Malik books and shut
down the roof. That's how powerful this book signing was.
Our conversation was. Well, that's what I'm going to feature
on this episode of ninety six. This episode ninety six

(06:26):
is Welcome to the Basement, an interview with Tim.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Rosss So in Jordan. Can y'all hear me?

Speaker 6 (06:40):
Welcome to Malik, folks.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I'm excited, I'm excited. This is amazing.

Speaker 7 (06:49):
I'm glad everyone came here early so we can started
on time.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
This is gonna be.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
A wonderful, wonderful conversation. I want everybody to make sure
you out Elie Books. I want to make sure everybody's
following Tim Ross right guests today, just to give you
a little background about Elite Books. We've been serving the
community with books since nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's not an easy thing.

Speaker 7 (07:20):
It's books, you know, has exploded over the years.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I've seen the industry go up and I've seen it
go down. We're in an upswing where we can bring new,
refreshing authors like Tim Ross to our community to talk
about his historic book.

Speaker 6 (07:39):
Welcome to the Basement, Upside Down, God.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
To this right.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
So I'm excited. I want to make sure that you
know a little bit about our upcoming events because it's
important for you to follow.

Speaker 6 (07:56):
Us to know that it don't stop today.

Speaker 7 (07:59):
It continues, all right, Because April eleven, we got a
young man coming in.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
He's gonna be talking about.

Speaker 7 (08:06):
His book Lies about Black People, and we all know
that there's a battle out there for our voice.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
That's why it's important.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
That we honored these types of authors like Tim Broncks right,
because if we want to make their best sellers right now,
right and.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
So that's April eleven, come through.

Speaker 7 (08:26):
Its a Thursday night, it's gonna be at seven, So
come through on that La Damion Williams Blood at the
Little Fantasy Book.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
He's a screen rot.

Speaker 7 (08:36):
You know, he got a book deal by talking about
fantasy idea and it went rival. He ended up with
a book deal man.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
This technology is social media.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
And also April twentieth and the twenty.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
First is the La Times Festival Books.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
We're gonna be out there and we're blessed to.

Speaker 8 (08:59):
Curate the children's stage all in about thirty authors and
we are honored to be the book seller for the
main stage for children out there.

Speaker 6 (09:10):
So come through, Come through.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's an honor.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
You know, it ain't gonna be got a few specs
of us out there, so come through our voice battas.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Now, we also got.

Speaker 7 (09:22):
Our booth which is eight eighty and we're gonna probably
we're gonna We're not probably, but we're gonna have some
authors as well at our booth. Uh, stay tuned. That's
why you better follow Elite votes so you know what's popping.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
All right.

Speaker 7 (09:37):
So so I'm gonna move on to introduce our honored guests.
All right, he's been on a world wind book tour
and he's gracing us today at Elite Books.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Ten rocks now.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
He was born in Inglewood, California hometown. Right, listen, what's
amazing is that sometimes we don't know how we end up,
but you know, you'll find out if you.

Speaker 6 (10:12):
Live long enough where you should be.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
And I'm Kim Rosson found his calling and his calling
is led to this new book, Welcome to the Basement,
and he's here today to talk about the upside kind
of God to greatness. And so without further ado, you
know I can go through the long fi yo, but
we're gonna be in the conversation today. So let's bring

(10:38):
him out with a thunderous ride of applause.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Till the brook.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
WHOA, what's up?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
People?

Speaker 6 (11:13):
Ain't the rest of the model no what to do?

Speaker 9 (11:15):
Right now?

Speaker 2 (11:15):
They're like, I came in here to get some Canda
Express and they're making too much good over there. I
love y'all. Thank y'all so much for talking. Love y'all,
thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, y'all give it up,
and mister Malie, I can destroyed in there. I know

(11:41):
y'all are excited and some of y'all scared.

Speaker 6 (11:44):
You get these books in your life, Yes, sir, I'll
be back you say.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
So.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
That's good, wonderful wonder for my brother. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 7 (11:56):
You've been touring the country and you you told me
that you went intentional about supporting black.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Bookssellers around this nation.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
So I just want to appreciate that because it takes
us being intentional to move forward in the future. Sir,
it's our responsibility to addrest certain things.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
In our community. And I'm forced matters and that's why
we exist.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
And you make my job easier by having such a
wonderful book that I had the pleasure of reading.

Speaker 6 (12:25):
Now I'm going to be in conversation with my brother local.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 10 (12:31):
You know.

Speaker 7 (12:31):
My first question is tell us about your book and
what was the motivation behind me?

Speaker 2 (12:37):
So I had how many people that read the book already? Sweet?
I love you guys, and I love all of you
all that haven't and didn't lie about it just now,
like there was no fear pressure. They were just like,
I have not read your book fairly, but I'm here.

Speaker 10 (12:57):
So I.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Had open vision when I was thirty years old. And
I don't want that to sound like too deep. All
the vision is is a dream, but you're awake, that's
all it is. So I had this vision, and I
wasn't like in prayer or nothing like that. I think
I was watching like part of the interruption on ESPN
with Mike Wilbond and Tony Cordenizer. But God can speak

(13:22):
to you at any time. So I have this open
vision and then this vision there's this one hundred story
building and my thought I was supposed to be at
the top, and I got to the top only to
find out I was really supposed to be at the bottom.

Speaker 11 (13:39):
What I now know is the basement.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
And the reason why we call it a upside down
the great upside down Guide to greatness is because when
you get it, when you really step into the Kingdom
of God, you realize that the way in is actually out,
the way up is actually down, the way to get

(14:02):
is to give, and the way to live is to die.
And so when you have that much counter cultural fel
philosophical uh uh philosophy, and ideology, you just realize that
when you give your life to Jesus, your your whole
life does get turned upside down. The Bible is the

(14:24):
most upsetting book that's ever been written. Jesus lived the
most upsetting life that's ever been lived, and on January fourteenth,
ninety six, my life was turned upside down. That's twenty
eight years ago. I haven't turned back since. So this,
this is it forever forever.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
You know, you never know when your touch with inspiration
to write the spirit that came to you. I mean,
I find myself sometimes sitting be late at night with thoughts,

(15:04):
and so we know that this is not your first book.
This is your second book. So what's the difference.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
The difference is it's a full narrative.

Speaker 11 (15:14):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
When I wrote Upset the World, I wrote it because
I felt like that was the burden that got laid
on my heart. And the book came out in twenty twenty,
and it fumbled like it was a pandemic book. The
publisher didn't really know who my audience was, They didn't
know who to get the book to, And it was

(15:36):
almost like all that happened just for me to clarify
my voice and to get specifical on what this was
really about. Upset the World is not the full revelation.
The basement is. And so to talk about being upside

(15:57):
down without talking about the basement is like getting half
for the code. You don't even understand where it's coming
from and since I was thirty years old, I've been
living with this basement mentality and this basement philosophy. So
sometimes sometimes you can write a book. And first of all,
you shouldn't write books. If I'm talking to believers in
this room, you shouldn't write a book unless God tells

(16:18):
you to come on, like if you just write books.
I don't like doing nothing that I ain't supposed to
be doing. I wouldn't have been a preacher if you'd
have left me alone, I would have did something else
with my life. But he told me to write the book,
and I wasn't looking for the book to sell. I

(16:42):
was looking to be obedient in writing the book. But
I learned something about me and writing that book, and
that's what led to this. And once we got this out,
it was like God kissed it. French kissed it. Yeah,
it just it just went up, he did.

Speaker 11 (17:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
You know you're talking about the upset, and I know
your world has been turned upside down with the loss
of your.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Father, and I appreciate you standing.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Of course, just before the tour, you lost your father,
and so I know that your world had been turned
upside down. Talk about the challenges and what you've been
going through in terms of dealing with that.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, So my daddy was my hero. Charles errad Ross
is my absolute hero. I am the man that is
sitting in this chair today because of the man that
he was. And so I didn't grow up with any
father wounds growing up in Inglewood, LA Area. All the

(17:52):
places that we were at, my dad was really the
only dad on the entire block. Like at all of
my homies, my dad was their dad because their dads
were not in their life. And so whereas most of
the black men in the neighborhood I was growing up
in were fatherless, I don't know what it is not

(18:13):
to have my daddy's voice until February twenty fourth of
this year. So I lived almost forty nine years and
my daddy's voice was in my life prevalent. He was
always encouraging, He was always present. He was at the games.
He was at my talent shows. When I was in

(18:33):
show choir wearing funny cumber buns and bow times, he
was like, that's my song. When I did talent shows
in school, I see my childhood friends right there, right
all right there, These are all my people right here.
I almost jumped up my skin when I saw y'all.
I almost forgot I was like doing an interview. I

(18:57):
can't wait to ull y'all girl. So my dad was
just always president. So not having his voice in my
life right now is the strangest thing. I can't even
describe how strange it is. It feels. I've heard people
that have lost the limb talk about what they referred

(19:20):
to as a phantom itch. The limb is gone, but
they still wake up in the night and go to
reach to scratch their leg, but the leg's not there.
And so I can't tell you how many times I've
been on the road and like, got to call Daddy
and let him know I made it. I gotta call
Daddy and tell him, Oh my god, I can't believe
you know that this place is sold out. And he's

(19:43):
not gonna answer that phone. I pay his phone bill,
so I don't know when I'm gonna get that phone
de activated, because I just might want to ring his
phone and hear his little craggly voice, be like, you
reach Charles, leave a message, you know. But I do

(20:04):
have a overwhelming sense of peace and and my heart
is full. Somebody said, do you feel father less since
he died, and I don't. I feel father full. My
Daddy filled my heart with his love and his presence,

(20:31):
and I don't have any holes in my heart, so
ain't nothing leaking. So I'm carrying them with me, except
three different.

Speaker 10 (20:43):
You know, I lost my mom in the June twenty fifth,
twenty twenty three, and five months later I lost my
sister and she was the oldest, so I was happy
to get out of twenty twenty three.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeahs.

Speaker 7 (20:58):
And so I'm grieving, and you know, everybody loved it, mama,
and so she's not here with us any longer, but
I feel like she is because I wouldn't be here
without and so I share your grief. It's just we
all process grief different and so, and that's the reason

(21:20):
why I wanted to ask you that question, because you know,
that's something that is a long process, and each day
something to rip off the band aid and the wound
opens up, and so those things that we can't control.
But you here the day, and I'm sure your father

(21:41):
will be please and I'm sure he's happy when because
you talk about that in your book. You talk about
the day that you had the itch and you had,
you couldn't wait to share that you was ready to announce.
You accepted Jesus your Lord and saved right. And so
you talk talk about that day in church after you know, partying.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
All night carrying your mama and daddy to church.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yep, yep, yep, yep. You read the book for sure. Yeah, yeah,
you read the book for real. So my parents started
a church that in our house, like it literally started
in our house nine fifteen Hertbuth Belinda, California, nine one
seven four four, and we moved all the living room furniture.

(22:35):
We went to Ace Hardware, brought thirty brown chairs. My
godmother and my godfather pastor to church in Compton. They
had an extra pool pit in storage. We put it
on a dolly, rolled it into our house, set it up,
and my mom was the lead pastor of the church.

Speaker 11 (22:54):
Now, if you are.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
In here and you have any theological squabbles around women preachers,
then you need to walk out right now, because a
woman preachers church is what led me to Jesus. So
whatever you think about it, I'm just I'm just letting
you know you may not want to listen to me
no more.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Because the first teacher is a woman, the mother of
simplstration the people.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
So you know just why people think that today? Yeah,
well well they do. I won't get off into that anyway.
So it went from it went from our living room
to at the time, this is ninety six, we were
having church in a banquet room of a bowling alley.

(23:47):
So don't think like a church. We in a banquet
room of a bowling alley. Like in between praise and
worship songs, you hear bowling balls knocking over pens. Okay,
Yolanda's mama is my Sunday school teacher. To this day,

(24:08):
she's the only Sunday school kids teacher I claim to
this day. Beverly Walker is her mama. And that was
my Sunday school teacher. And Sunday school had just ended.
My memory ain't short. That's another thing y'all gotta understand
about me. I don't forget nobody you did anything nice
for me. I will never forget you. I might forget
your name, but I will not forget what you did

(24:31):
for me. And so Beverly Walker, you know, was my
Sunday school teacher. We had just finished Sunday school morning worship,
had just started. I'm sitting on the back I'm sitting
on the back road to church. I can hear the
bowling pins for real from the back row, and I

(24:53):
I heard the Holy Spirit say to me as clear
as I'm talking to you right now, mister Malie, you're
a sinner. Thre words. That's it, You're a sinner. And
there was no condemnation in the statement. It was like
saying you got on a long sleeve hoodie. He was
like pointing something out. But the moment he pointed it out,

(25:17):
the moment I felt disconnected from God and out of nowhere,
I just started to crying. I'm just crying on the
back row. And this is a Pentecostal church in a
bowling alley. Dan ain't got nothing that time. Sunday school
had just ended, morning worship had just started. I'm like,

(25:41):
because I think too much and I'm a literalist, and
I'll be processing everything real time. I'm like, I'm probably
three and a half hours from salvation. Like, there's gonna
be an a B C. D selection, that's gonna they're
gonna raise the offering, there's gonna be a cermaonic solo.
Then it's gonna be a sermon, and then that could
be an another fifty minutes, and then there might they

(26:02):
might shout, and if they have a praise break, that
could be twenty minutes, and so I might be four
hours from salvation. And my dad was officiating the service
that day, and I'll never forget. Five people got up.
They did testimony service, and I don't know if y'all
ever been in a church with testimony service first giving
out of the God who is ahead of my mind right.

(26:23):
And but some people don't be testifying. They just be complaining.
They'd be like people paying for me to devil busyness,
And I'm like, dude, this ain't no testimony. You need
to sit.

Speaker 6 (26:37):
An They repolled my car.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I'm like that ain't the devil that was Riboto that
put repold your car. That was not faith. They love
was not present. You should have paid your car though.
So you know, you got five people talking and I'm
standing up in the back. And I'm standing up in

(27:01):
the back and remember those cartoons that got like an
angel on one side and the devil on the other shoulder,
and they like one's telling you good and one's telling
you bad. I just had two demons on show. They
was like, niggas, sit down and you should. You should
not give your life to Jesus today or any other day.
You sleeping around, you got a porn stash underneath your mattress.

(27:25):
You boning too, best friends, and you doing you're doing
the most. I was wildly promiscuous. When I tell you,
I was off the chain. I was off the chain.
And I just kept standing there with all of that
in my mind, like, wow, not having sex doesn't sound fun.
That porn stash is. I don't really want to do that.

(27:46):
But I got sexually abused when I was eight, and
this is my out. Maybe I should give my life
to Jesus next week because I probably need to throw
it all the porn at the trash before I give
my life to Jesus. That's the second time I heard
the Holy Ghost got called by that good old King James,
that good old Holy go said, you won't do none

(28:08):
of that if you don't walk out of here with me. Yeah,
you felt that thing. Is the fact that it came
from the back road after I lost from and that's
where I was, Hey, that's where I was so uh

(28:33):
and and truth be told, whenever I'm preaching the all
twenty eight years I've been preaching. I always preach in
my mind, I preach from the back row to the front,
because the first four roads already saved. Anyway, the nigga
guarday know what you're gonna say if you say turn
the exitu three andre like it's gonna.

Speaker 12 (28:52):
Talk about Moses. Like they just they looking like, let
me see if you know what you're talking about. They
missed me off perch, let me see if he gonna
be in the book.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
So I'm glad you felt it from the background, bro,
I feel that. So so I just kept standing. And
then when my dad finally like everybody sat down and
he saw me in the back, I know he was
surprised because I wasn't one of the pks that played
church like. I wasn't like choir boy, and then did Dirk.
I was just in the back, like y'all know, I

(29:28):
can't participate. I can't. Don't ask me to lead a prayer,
don't ask me to do no Eastern speech because knows
her no man. So he was like, they did got.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
Something to say.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
And this is a small church. So in the small
church people are nosy. So forty eight people, just what's
he at to say? And I just said, I give up.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
Mm and it.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Was just silent. Everybody was kind of like, give up what?
And I was like, man, I need to give my
life to Jesus right now. And my mama let out
the biggest backust end credit scene of a Tyler Perry movie,
Halloween you have ever heard in your natural born light.

(30:32):
And I was in the back and I walked to
the front and I was crying, and I gave my
life to Jesus. My brother and my homeboy, Steve, they
were both deceased. They came to pick me up to
take me to Venice Beach cause Sunday for me was
driving my parents to church.

Speaker 11 (30:51):
They're gonna drive it back.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
My boy's gonna pick me up. Were going to Venice
Beach till about six, then we're gonna eat at Limbs
or Dulas. Then we gonna cruise Crenshaw till two o'clock
in the morning and try to get some girl's number.

(31:13):
And they came to get me to take me to
Venice Beach after the service or whatever. And my eyes
were still read from crying and all stuff.

Speaker 11 (31:23):
And Myles looked at me, my younger brother, Miles.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
He's in heaven. He were seventeen months apart. And he
looked at me and he said, oh, nigga, you know
your siblings be knowing. I dapped him up and Steve buppan.
He looked at me. He said, oh, nigga, and he looked.

(31:49):
He said, you didn't. I said I did, And he said,
Nigga asked what's up? Steve had no idea. What's going on?
Steve said, what happened? He said, man, this nigga got saved.
And that's my life changed from that day. When I

(32:12):
tell you, in twenty four hours, my only friends were
my parents and my PlayStation one and a King James
Thompson chain reference study. Bible I was in, but I
was in it for real. I wasn't perfect that day.
I wasn't like super into the Bible that day, but
I was made righteous that day. And over the last

(32:35):
twenty eight years, I've just become freer and freer and
freer and freer. It's a process. It's a process.

Speaker 13 (32:42):
He sold this this book is meant to give people
that type of a cheat code and understand that you
don't have to wait until you're old and you do
it all you don't do you like, the last thing
you want to do is you.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I promise you don't want to. You're gonna hurt you
doing you. The best thing you can do is be
him to him so to live his Christ.

Speaker 11 (33:08):
In the dis game, that.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Was beautiful, touchy.

Speaker 6 (33:12):
He might have upset some of y'all out there because
he ain't have nothing but his family left.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
That's right, Well, who you upset? My brother? Tell him, Yeah,
so when you get first, the first person that's gonna
be upset is you. That the first person before I
can upset anybody else's world. Mine was getting completely upset
because I start reading that Bible and then the whole
when the Holy Spirit comes in, he starts convicting you

(33:39):
with stuff. Don't nobody got to tell you, Like I
couldn't even go to the club, right, I felt like
I'm saying, but you know, I still can go to
the club. I got in the club, and the Holy
Spirit was like, I don't want to be here, nigga,
I'm not visiting you.

Speaker 6 (33:57):
I I want to go home. I don't want to
be here.

Speaker 12 (34:02):
And and I remember, I remember the first time.

Speaker 14 (34:13):
A girl used to talk to called me at night
and asked me to come over, and I was like, yeah,
and the Holy Spirit did not let me enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
He told me from the time I took that call
to the time I got to her house, don't go
over there the whole time, from the time I said yeah,
I'm on my way over, don't go over there. Don't
That's all I heard on repeat for like fifty four minutes.
I took a shower, got dressed, got in the car,

(34:46):
drove over there, walked up the little sidewalk to her
apartment door.

Speaker 11 (34:51):
Don't go over there.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Don't go for the whole time did. She opened that
door with just a T shirt though, and he stopped
talking and we had sex. And before she come out
of the bathroom, I was on the side of the
bed bawling my eyes out, I mean, ugly fring. She
came back like, bro, but swama could I was like,

(35:18):
I wasn't supposed to be here.

Speaker 15 (35:22):
All rights make the God in you and me, so
I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
I couldn't have sex with nobody no more. I couldn't
hate on nobody no more. If I cut somebody out,
I was like, I'm so Sully, you know You're a
child of God, and I'm trying to get better at
being your child of God. Please forgive me.

Speaker 16 (35:54):
I didn't used to care about nobody's feeling so so
so the first person that gets upset as you, and
and the and the moment you stop fighting it.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
And you submit to it, and you stop trying to
make excuses of why you're not gonna do it. Your
life just becomes so much simpler. You you just know
the way to go because the Holy Spirit just keeps
guiding you in that way.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
So I know that, Hey, look this is the basement
right now to the casement.

Speaker 6 (36:34):
I really know to these words are so you get
touching me. This is deep, you know, because that guilt
is real.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
It is, and that duality inside of us is real.

Speaker 6 (36:47):
It is we fight our own self because we're.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Fighting against our own salvation and we need to do
the right thing.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
You know, trust in God, trust in all his wisdom
except your.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Delivery. Yeah, it's don't fight. You know, everyone has a calling.

Speaker 7 (37:11):
Yeah, And when reading a book you're talking about I
think you talked about predestiny or for knowledge and your
predestiny and how you can change your direction in your
life because it's not preset. And so I wanted to

(37:33):
ask you about you know, that particular chapter because I
think it was called spoiler alert.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
It is spoiler Yeah, you're right, it is. So you
read that book, it's one thing to skim mister, read
that through its.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
Yeah, yeah, you did so.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
So a lot of there's a lot of theological squabbles
around predestination and free will, and it's really not as
hard as people think it is. Romans eight makes it
very very clear. In King James it says for those
he did for no, he did predestined. So both fore

(38:21):
knowledge and predestination is right there. If you know before,
then you can predestine something. If you only fix it
and there's no foreknowledge, then that means that you don't
have a choice. That nobody in here has free will.

Speaker 12 (38:40):
And if God was like that, I wouldn't serve because
that means it's fixed.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Some people are in and some people are out, but
everybody has a choice. What people get lost in is
trying to with our finite minds, figure out something that's
infinitely more complex than we can ever imagine that our
free will could exist in God's mind before he spoke
us into existence. Now if you try to figure out

(39:07):
how your brain's gonna hurt, that's just that's above my
pay grades. So I leave that alone. But what I
do know is that everybody has a choice to make,
and it's all centered around submission. This is a this
is we can we can argue about all kinds of stuff,

(39:30):
but at the end of the day, if you're gonna
have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it's gonna come down
to your will. And most of us have too much
pride to give our whole lives over, so we give peaces.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
You can.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
I will serve you Sunday through Tuesday, but I gotta
have Wednesday through Saturday because I'm just you know, Lord,
you know my heart. You know I'll be trying. Oh
you're rebellious and just say that right, And because he
knows anyway, he knows your thoughts are far off, so

(40:08):
it ain't like you plot so so for me, I
like to that chapter was about encouraging people to understand
that the moment you can submit your will to God,
the easier living for him gets. Not saying you're not
gonna have challenges and issues and all that kind of stuff,
but once it's result in your in your mind that

(40:30):
you don't have a plan be life gets very very easy.
When I gave my life to Jesus on January fourteenth,
or nineteen ninety six, mister Maligue, I did not have
a plan B and so I don't have an out.
It's the only life I know. I'm down ten toes
in the dirt. Somebody hold me at gunpoint right now, Nigga,
denounce Jesus or die. I'm gonna see my daddy quick.

(40:55):
That's that's on my daddy, Nigga. Like I mean that,
like that. I'm about this, like for real, not just
because I live in America. You dropped me off in
a place where it's hostile to serve Jesus. I'm about
to die because I can't take back what I know.
That's right. So you can pull out any book you want.

(41:15):
You can start trying to break down the Bible. Say
that it was written by the white man and that
he was colonized into it. Bruh, have you read the text?
This predates anything you think about the colonization of Europeans.
So so I'm I'm about I don't want to get

(41:38):
started on that, but I'm back into la so my
little hood kind of I can feel my head about
h a little bit more than it would about Bendala
be real.

Speaker 6 (41:53):
You can tell my brother.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Yes, yes, that's what were You know, you remind me,
you know, this talk reminds me of my grandmother. She's
very spiritual. You know, as you get older, you sud
get wife. You know, we shouldn't be doing the same
things we did as a twenty and then that thirty
year old. So my grandmother, you know, was very devoted

(42:15):
and very spiritual, and she was the mother of the church.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
And so you know, I grew up in the church.
But everything that I saw.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
My grandmother pray for, I saw her received from God.
And you know I witnessed that, and it was amazing
because she sacrificed, and she was devoted and she wanted.
She was always about helping people, and she wont proclamations
from the Washington d C.

Speaker 6 (42:44):
Making sure the streets are clean. And like I said,
she was the mother of the church.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
And so your book talks about the power of prayer.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
And so my grandmother prayed a lot, and everything she
prayed for I saw it received. And so I wanted
you to touch on the power prayer because you you touched.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
On that in your book, and so I want that
you talked about that. I need. I need to talk
to your grandmother because I didn't get everything I prayed for.
So I just want to know how grandmama structured her
prayer so I could follow it like ber Vadim. But
but I tell you what prayer changed me. Prayers do

(43:30):
change me, even if they don't change the circumstance, they
change me. And and and one of the things that
I disdained about church is the churches I grew up in.
Let me let me preface that, not all churches, but
the church I grew up in. Is that how intimidated

(43:52):
people were to pray, because we almost made it like
we almost like venerated professional prayers.

Speaker 17 (44:02):
Oh dear God, you come to the all God.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Most creator of heaven and earth. You are the ones
that fondness from the dust of the ground. You are
the one that's the spot, the spot. You are the
one that falls to a system cold. And you're like,

(44:37):
and then somebody's like, you're turning. You're like, I don't
have the vocabulary too. I've failed science class, so I
don't know if I should pray. But but the most
beautiful prayers I've ever prayed are the ones that sound
like a conversation. Yea, it's the ones that sound like, like,

(45:02):
I really miss my dad today since he's up there
with you, can you tell him? I said, how, I
don't even know if that's the thing.

Speaker 11 (45:13):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yes, yes, Yes, that's a prayer like a whole prayer
could be. I'm tired. That's a whole prayer, A whole

(45:38):
prayer could be. God. I believe you're a healer of cancer,
and I've lost loved ones to cancer, so I believe
you can do it.

Speaker 6 (45:51):
Will you just do it?

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Because man, right, I believe you're the the God of miracle.

Speaker 6 (46:00):
I read about him in the back.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
I know you still do him today.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
So please don't let my friend die from this cancer.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Amen. I don't have to remind him that he created
solar system.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
There's a whole bunch of angels in heaven that all
they say is Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Todd Almighty.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
So he wants to hear from me, the real me,
not the professional me, not the preacher me, just me.
And when I stripped down all of those facades and
I just talked to my Dad, the creator of the
universe just happens to be our father, which are in heaven.

Speaker 9 (46:53):
Hollowen be thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done he
art as it is in heaven.

Speaker 11 (47:07):
Mp us, yes our day brand, and.

Speaker 9 (47:11):
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those that sitting
against us.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
And lead us not and.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Spucking like a true single woman, My God, lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for the
hindness the kingdom, Yeah, and the power and the glory

(47:47):
forever and ever. Amen. Like if you break that prayer down,
that thing is the most basic. First, identify who he is.
It's your dad, hello, not your stepdad, So you ain't
got to say his name seventy two times. Father God,

(48:09):
we just thank you, Father God for this day. Fact
of God, Early Father God. We just love you today,
Father of God, because Father God, you're just a healer,
Father God. You know Father God, Father God, and Father
that why don't we keep why do we keep reminding
him who he is? Then we like, whill you please
do it? When you please do it? With That's how

(48:29):
you've talked to a step here. I know we don't
have a biological connection, but if you love the other,
if you love your spouse, who happens to be connected
to me? When you please make me a flummis English. Oh,
this is your dad, so you can go to him
boldly because of Christ's blood that was shed on the cross.

(48:51):
So I'm just about simplifying this and then just just
reach you out cod swish no more. I'm putting it
in the language that I grew up with. Yeah, some
people don't like it. Some people think it's crash. Some
people are like, but I'm just talking like the I'm
just I talk in public now the way I talk
at home. If I'm preaching, you'll never hear me get

(49:12):
close to this type of cadence. But when i'm when
i'm adroll, this is how we gonna talk. And you
may not talk like that, and I expect you from
talking not talking like that, but don't be mad that
I do talk like that. I can't tell you how
many of.

Speaker 18 (49:28):
The white people that I preach for love the dynasty,
all these country folks preaching in their church with full camel,
one uncle side, just a mumbling.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
But then when I come out of talking about I'm
not sure it's a little disruptive. Tim don't you think
I'm like not more disruptive than what Trump said.

Speaker 19 (49:53):
Okay, you know the thing is, God is gonna say
anybody speaking the language of the people, because that's what's important.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
You know, everybody is a lock, but not everybody got
to keep.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
And some locks.

Speaker 6 (50:18):
Got and it takes a not in love. So we
gotta pay God for bringing.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
The master lot.

Speaker 6 (50:29):
You to deliver you. We all a touch differently.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
We all trying to get up that mountain, but we
all gonna take different paths.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Some gonna get there longer, some gonna get there quicker.
But we think God is that he.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Lives in us to bring a master locksmith to unlock
the rusty locks that a lot of us have become.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yes, I'm never gonna forget that, sir, I promise you
won't forget that. You're gonna hear that again, Like next
week you're gonna hear that.

Speaker 20 (51:05):
You gonna hear that none day on the podcast. You're
gonna hear that one day.

Speaker 6 (51:17):
I just you just gave me labored. I didn't even
know how.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Need to thank you. I need to get you a
gift card and I need your cash yet, Sir, Lord
of Nursey, that was good for me, just God speaking
to absolutely.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
And that's how you know someone is annointed, because it
touches you in a certain way.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
And so that's the beauty of it.

Speaker 7 (51:42):
And that's how we can discern between you know, evil
and good, and it is the delivery and it's how
it touches us.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
And so I can't take the credit for them.

Speaker 6 (51:55):
Boy, it came from God right here, right there. Believe
books conversation, I got one more thing. I want to
open it.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Up to some questions.

Speaker 7 (52:15):
Okay, yes, sir, Now break down the difference between being
religion and religious, sir, because you talk about that in
the book.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Yes, sir, So I made the mistake, like many people
made the mistake in the last ten years or so,
of saying, you know, it's not about religion, it's about relationship.
And sometimes certain sound bites just start circulating the church

(52:48):
and before you know it, you picking them up and
you saying it before you realize what am I saying.
So I remember, I got caught up in it, and
I started saying it as well, it's not about religion,
it's about relationship. And I understood what I meant when
I said that, But then I have a friend who

(53:08):
is a Messianic Jewish rabbi and he told me, Bro,
you gotta stop saying that. He's a dude from Seattle.
Just Jewish rabbis are that love your shoe. Are just
built different and they don't mind telling you nothing because
you are gentile and they know it. They're like, sir,
you have no idea what you're talking about. You have

(53:29):
no situational awareness at all. He said, you gotta stop
saying that. He said Jesus was very religious and he
would have been in the synagogue every week and he
didn't miss any festivals and he didn't miss anything. They
were about him. They were to reveal him. And I'm like,
I'm so sorry, I'm just a gentile. Can you tell me?

(53:51):
And so I listened to him and I started to
process it, and I was like, oh, I get this now.
Like we're all very religious people, whether we admit it
or not, every single one of us have a religious routine.

(54:14):
It may not be around prayer, it may not be
around church. It may be around a TV show that
you watch. It may be around working out. It may
be about around when you clean your house or your
car or whatever. For Juliette and I. Fridays are our
date night, and so I'm very religious about that because

(54:36):
I keep this religious day because of the relationship I have.
So the statement is not about religion, it's about relationship.
Isn't the most refined statement. I am religious because of

(54:59):
this relationship. So let me tell you how much I
love Juliet. I've been on this tour. It's been kind
of manic. The publisher has had us all over the country.
I don't think I've been anywhere more than thirty hours

(55:20):
from the time I land to the time I leave.
Because Juliet's cute, Like, I'm very attracted to my wife.
So when I get on the plane, I'm already thinking,
how can I get back home and in the bed,
get this curt and not even for sex, just to snuggle. Yeah,

(55:43):
then sex, then snuggle, I don't care what order is.
Then sexy, snuggles, snugglings, just the two essence. So so
if we have day nights on Friday and we go
to the movies all the time or whatever, if one
Friday she gets sick and she's like, Babe, I'm just

(56:06):
too sick to go to the movies. If I go
to the movies anyway. Now my religion is bad. The
reason why I was religious about it is because of
the relationship. If I chose to still go to the
movies minus the person that I'm supposed to be going with,

(56:30):
that's good. Now my religion is empty, because what I'm
saying is I'll do this whether you're witney or no,
that's a good time. And I cannot tell you how
many churches that's it show up on Sunday and they

(56:54):
gonna have church, whether whether God ever closed or or not.
I will on Monday after I break down the fact
that I'm a master locksman.

Speaker 20 (57:12):
And I opened up Roughty lost the kee to these blocks.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
But there's a lot of churches that are like, oh yeah,
oh yeah, we're going to church. Was God there?

Speaker 10 (57:29):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Actually, if they were honest, I don't care if he's there.
I go to church that is. And there's a lot
and that religion is empty. That's the religion that even
God says in the Book of Amos, I hate your festivals.
Who well, God like the people are like you told

(57:51):
us to do him. You instituted all these festivals. You
instituted to pass over. He was like, yeah, I loved
when you did it with me. Yeah, I hate when
you do it without me. So religion isn't bad as
long as the relationship is intact. But when we choose
religion over relationship, it's empty. But if you have a

(58:18):
true relationship with God, you are going to be religious.
Because I'm religious about my time with him. I'm religious
about carving out time to pray, to read my Bible,
to do good things, to assemble with other brothers and
sisters in the faith. I'm religious about those things because

(58:41):
I love the relationship I have with God. So that's
why I spoke about that in that chapter, because I
want to redeem that language. And really I'm calling out
my own hell from that moment forward, I'm like, let
me when y'all be saying stuff before I say, hey, man,
I'm gonna just listen twice because I don't want to

(59:01):
get reviewed by this MESSI hady Jewish Rabbi no more
like that. That's real talk. So that's where that came from.
Give it up for that answer, man.

Speaker 7 (59:11):
You made me think about my own because you know,
I can marry for a while and we do things
religiously together, and.

Speaker 6 (59:20):
If she does it on her own, I do it.
It does make us.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
Feel a certain way, yeah, Michelle, And so I just
never thought about that in the context that you said
with God, yes, and so I think that that was
very meaningful in touch.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 7 (59:35):
Let me ask my father one moment, then I won't
let you answer and give him a question, you know, brother.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
Reading your book, parts of it made me think about
the Rocky movement where Rocky was.

Speaker 7 (59:54):
Training in a dungeon and the pilot, Cree, was training
in the scale, and so, you know, Rocky was on
the bottom, like so many of so many.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Of us in our community bottom already, and we're trying
to we have that design to elevate, you know. You
know when I think about, you know, the pen house,
I imagine that's an analogy for heaven. Right, So your
book made me think about the contrast between Apollo and
Rocky and how they trained. One is on in the

(01:00:29):
basement at the bottom, in the dungeon, the others in
the lavish hotel on the top.

Speaker 7 (01:00:36):
And it's a story on folio y'all watched it. But
should the people desire the pent house, even though we
might start on the bottom, should the goal be the pinhouse?

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
The goal shouldn't be the penhouse. The goal should be
proximity to God. All of my promotions have come because
I kept my head down. Like my mom said something
to me that I'll never forget. Mommy is a Southern
bell from Birmingham, Alabama, and she said, Babe, God has

(01:01:16):
opened up a lot of doors for you, and he's
given you influence and you traveling. She said, but just
remember this, no matter how high you go, you will
always be at the feet of Jesus. So he felt that.

(01:01:38):
So what I realized is all of my blessings have
come from the bottom, not like in this downcast way,
but like I haven't desired. I never pray for this.
When I tell you, I never pray for it.

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
God, use me to shake cut your the ration.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
I have the dude at the front of the youth revival.
I'd be like, use him. He wants it. He's at
the front with yellow one like he wants a prophetic word,
like get him. I'm in the back. He's like, nah,
you come with me, and I'm like.

Speaker 21 (01:02:23):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
And all of my promotions have come when I least
expect that, and when my intention was already on being
content with what I already had. I'm gonna say something
and it's gonna wreck the How do I want to
say this? Okay, let me let me let me press
this it by saying this, if you if you're if

(01:02:47):
you're a driven person, God wired you that way. So
when I make this statement, I don't want you to
be like I need to die. Alright, suck, How do
I get this out of me? Gonna tell you how
to tweak it. Ambitious people scare me, not go oriented people,

(01:03:10):
but ambitious people. But let me tell you who scares
me the most? People with godly ambition. I read the
Bible through and through. I can only find one verse
with a with a somewhat positive connotation with the word ambitious,

(01:03:32):
and it's when it's in the Book of Romans when
Paul says, it is my ambition not to plant churches
where other churches have already been planted. Loose paraphrase. But
Paul di need to get to plant all the churches
he wanted, right, he wanted to get to Spain. He
got chopped off at wrong right. Here's my definition for

(01:03:55):
godly ambition. And this is a definition I work. I
just kind of wordsmith this definition Godly ambition to me
is when we make up stuff to do for God
that he never said he wanted to do through us.
And we usually don't check people with godly ambition because

(01:04:17):
it sounds so noble. Right, I'm gonna start a food
pantry and it's like, I'm gonna feed the homeless, and
you're like, well, hey man, yeah, we need to feel
feed the homeless. But you've been at it for like
eighteen months and the pantry has twenty two Kanza green beans.

Speaker 6 (01:04:38):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
The Lord's not with you. It sounds dope. I'm gonna
plan a church in the inner city. There's gonna be revival.
Did he tell you too, that's right? Or are you
just planning a church in the inner city because I

(01:05:01):
want revival? Well, I would not voluntarily square up against
the demonic strama unless I knew the Lord was on
my side. So like sometimes we can have these visions
and dreams of like I want to do this for
the Lord, and the Lord is like, just take your

(01:05:21):
wife on that day. I want to counsel people, and
the Lord is like, just take your kids to soccer practice.
But because we don't think that's glamorous and we're not
gonna you can't instagram that, and that don't seem then

(01:05:42):
we're like, we got to prove that we're doing something
for Jesus. This book is out and it's selling good
because he told me to write Fight the Mind, But
he also told me to write the first book and
it fopped. He was involved because the first lad to
the second, and you gotta always watch out for the second.

(01:06:04):
First man Adam, second man at him, Always watch out
for the second, Esau Jacob, always watch out for the second.
That's right, So I am. I don't like for people
to use God to try to fuel their own ambitions.

(01:06:28):
I would rather you accept God's will for your life.
And as Paul instructed Timothy, godlsness with contentment is great game.
I love the season of my life, but it can
end tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
I promise you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
We could end tonight. Podcasts could be over tonight. Wouldn't
bother me one bit because I am totally in love
with my God, my girl, my kid, and I'm already fulfilled,
and I was fulfilled and content before he told me
to do this. I do not feel like I finally

(01:07:08):
made it. I kind of feel inconvenienced rather be at
bone with my life. No discredit to y'all. Love y'all.
I'm here and present with y'all, but it don't take
much to make me happy. So if you're a driven person,

(01:07:30):
you're goal oriented, just check in. You gotta just check
in more often. If you're wired like me, you don't
move to a God tells you to. But if you're
a goal getter, thank your Holy Spirit. I got to
prove this to y'all real quick, okay, So Act sixteen,
excuse me, mister relief. I don't know what time it is.
Mall closed, your store closed, nothing, I'm just up here talking. Okay,

(01:07:56):
So Act sixteen, I'm almost sure it's Act sixteen maybe,
but let me do it with check it. I think
it's at sixteen. That's the power technology, right yep, writing
a palm in your hand. Yeah, yeah, it is at sixteen.
Because Paul was ambitious. He said it himself. My ambition
is to not churches where others have already been planning it. Right,

(01:08:17):
So let me read this to y'all just so you
know that Paul's regular decular don't make him a superhero.
He wasn't wearing no cape just because we hear his
name the most, and he wrote the most epistles don't
mean that he always got it right or knew what
he was doing. So next Paul in silence traveled through
the area of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit

(01:08:37):
had prevented them from preaching the Word in the province
of Asia at that time. He was trying to go,
and for him not to go, the Holy Spirit had
to prevent him because a dude had just kept trying
to get to Asia. Some of us are hard headed,
and the Lord has to literally close doors to get

(01:08:59):
you to stop. Then, coming to the border of Maja,
they headed north for the province of Bathenia, but again
the Spirit of Jesus did.

Speaker 6 (01:09:10):
Not allow them to go there, so they had blocked twice.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
So instead they went on through Maja to the seaport
of troe ash Uh. That night, Paul had a vision
a man from Macedonia and Northern Greece was standing there,
pleading with him come over to Macedonia and help us.
This is Luke writing.

Speaker 12 (01:09:29):
So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having
concluded that God was calling us to priest the good news.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
There they found the will of God through doors that
were closed. Come on, not the doors that were open.
So if you're real goal oriented and you're a go
getter and you don't be mad at the closed doors
for you when you on that grind and you like,
I'm gonna do it all for God, God has to

(01:09:57):
close all the doors for you just to get you
to go through the page. For a person like me,
he has to bust it wide open for me to know, Oh,
I guess you want me to go this way, because
you know I would never go anywhere unless you tell
me to go. So I just don't want anybody to
walk out of here with golly ambition because I've seen

(01:10:18):
too many people get their butt kicked, marriages ending, divorced,
their kids hate them, and then they trying to blame
God for it. I was doing the work of ministry
without God telling you to, and it was only gonna
end one way, just like the Seven Sons, deceiver, You're
gonna get your butt kicked, You're gonna get exposed, and

(01:10:41):
you're gonna get ran back home. Okay, short hands, Hi everybody, Hello,

(01:11:03):
thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 11 (01:11:05):
I'm grateful.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
I am currently watching you on a lot of platforms.
You're very new to me. Two s quick questions. I
have a will come out and n coming out next week.
I'm a new author. It's a children's book. Yah, yes,
thank you.

Speaker 22 (01:11:20):
And because this is your second book, my first question
is you've already talked about the difference between the first
and the second. However, your platform, when I listen to you,
you talk so much about relationships and your wife. You
make me cry because I've never heard a man talk
this much about how much he loves his wife.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
But you're so transparent. I don't hear you talk a
lot about your children.

Speaker 22 (01:11:44):
Do you keep that separate because of privacy issues with
your children or when you're talking about Juliet it is
manifesting through the love, and therefore that's also your undergirth
your platform about your children.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Yes, so uh, I appreciate. First of all, I'm so
excited about your book coming out.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
Yeah you yeah, you here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
It'll be here at Flick Books.

Speaker 6 (01:12:06):
It'll be a Flick book.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
So so so I give me your name, Shannon, Thank
you so much for being here. So, Nathan and Noah
are fifteen and thirteen. That will be sixteen and fourteen.
I've had a lot of people say, can you talk
about parenting, And the only reason why I haven't is
because we're not done raising them. And I have seen

(01:12:33):
parents give advice on raising kids that are not done
raising them, and I'll just be looking at them.

Speaker 23 (01:12:41):
Like shut up, like they'd be like, you know, my kids,
we read the Bible every night and fame those scripture.
I'm like, they're nine and six Yeah, when they're nineteen
and sixteen and they still doing that, hop it back right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
So there's some principles I can give. But until my
boys get in their twenties and I figure out what
I did right wrong and in different and how much
time they're gonna need with my therapist, yess know what
we did to them or didn't do to them. I'm
just not giving no advice that I'm gonna have to
come back and be like, sit, that didn't work, don't

(01:13:22):
listen to that pod because we didn't mean it right.
We found out something else. So it's not I'm not
trying to be private. I'm just trying to respect this
process and understand and admit I'm not done with it.
Thank you. Shame Basement dweller with the T shirt on.

Speaker 6 (01:13:47):
And those are O G shirts too.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Yeah, you're trying to get some money. Yeah, yeah, you're like,
I came for him. I love it. This man, your
name high Ruth, your name's in the biod.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
I love it.

Speaker 22 (01:14:12):
So I have a friend who is a dweller and
recently got into a relationship and kind of mentor her
to guide her her to you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
And now is moved in with her boyfriend and she
found lost.

Speaker 6 (01:14:26):
Yeah, and so now I don't know how to.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Like maneuver shell postings about Jesus still on her page.
And she's at a new church because she had to
find someone new to go to, you know, And now
I don't know how to maneuver this relationship. That's a
that's what. First of all, I completely understand where you are.
She gonna learn learn love her if if need be

(01:14:59):
love from her, disc right, because you don't condone what
she's doing. She left the church and went to another
one because she found a church that won't convict her.
She found she found a church that has some cool water, right,
And they're not judging over here, and it's all about

(01:15:21):
grace and psych like there's a standard. There's a standard,
and the worst thing the worst thing they have to
do in a friendship relationship, whatever ship that is, is
watch somebody have a car wreck, because when you love somebody,

(01:15:46):
you're like, I don't want to see you crash into
a wall, right, And the hardest thing to do is
to get out of the vehicle and watch the wreck,
because after they wreck, then you have to like act surprised.

(01:16:09):
And I can set my watch. She gonna holler at
you in less than twelve months. I can set my
watch on stuff like this, and then you're gonna have
to be like, oh my god, what happened.

Speaker 6 (01:16:27):
Oh honey, Oh come come, I'm so sad.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
And in your mind you're like, I don't but you
can't do that. But we got But you gotta remember
the Holy Spirit convinced people of sin. He doesn't need
us to remind people right that she she already wants
her distance from you because she knows where you stand,
and you've told her. We don't have to keep repeating it,

(01:16:56):
right and and and when the Holy Spirit leads her back,
she'll it would be something that helps to change her heart.
And she'll know that you loved her with boundaries. So
I hope that helps.

Speaker 11 (01:17:15):
Thank you, Ruth running all over the place. You're not
your agro.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
I'm sorry. Hi you uncle? What's my nephew?

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
I love you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:41):
Good to see you. Thank you. I love you so much.
My name?

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
How you doing. I'm doing well, that's good.

Speaker 10 (01:17:49):
My question.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
I found you senior year of high school. My friend
put me on. Life has been transformed, and I'm freshman
in college. I can't thank you enough. Thank you.

Speaker 17 (01:17:58):
My question, though, if you were sitting down with an
eighteen year old youth, what things would you tell him
on how to become an more integrated person.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
I know discipleship is key, but do you have any
practical tips? Oh? Absolutely I do. If I was talking
to me at eighteen, I would tell me to calm down. Yeah,
I would tell me to calm down, that I don't
have to have all the answers today.

Speaker 11 (01:18:32):
That, oh, thank you alis Fair.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
One of the things I would tell my eighteen year
old self, Ethan, is that my salvation is not in
jeopardy like it makes me emotionally even thinking about it,
because when I first gave him my life to Jesus,
I thought every time I missed the smart I thought

(01:18:55):
I was starting over and for somebody that survives sexual abuse,
had a porn addiction, low self esteem, habitual liar out
of protection. Not like I wanna lie, but when when
you come home after being abused when you're eight, you
have to lie to survive. I lied not to blow

(01:19:17):
my whole family up. My daddy was gonna kill that
boy if if he found out. My older brother's gonna
bury the body, and then my mom was gonna have
a broken heart, and then we're gonna have to.

Speaker 11 (01:19:27):
Live in the hood with our aunties and uncles.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
So at at eight, I had to lie to make
my world stay intact.

Speaker 11 (01:19:37):
And when I gave my life.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
To Jesus at eighteen, I was still lying about parts
of me cause I was afraid that if I was
seen for who I really was, that I would blow
up my spiritual family in the same way I thought
I was gonna blow up my biological family. So so
I had these I used to have these kind of

(01:20:01):
panic attacks when I thought, like, oh my God, somebody's
gonna find out. And so if I just knew that
my salvation wasn't in jeopardy, and that letting myself be seen, heard,
known would lead to them loving all of me, Like

(01:20:24):
think about Jesus telling Peter to his faith. You're going
to deny me three times.

Speaker 11 (01:20:33):
I already know it.

Speaker 21 (01:20:35):
But bro, I've prayed for you that your faith fail
not and when you are converted, when you come back
from this thing, I already know you're going to do
strengthen the rest of your brothers.

Speaker 6 (01:20:56):
Who still advised that dude to dinner.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
You don't let me find out somebody I wrote with
about to deny me.

Speaker 11 (01:21:05):
My whole attitude gonna change when I said.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
When they walk in the house, and it'd be like, nah, good,
I can't believe you rolled up in here. No, dang well,
you about to act like you don't even know me
the ball like I couldn't know it. I could not
die for none of y'all in this world. If I
shed my blood on the cross for your sins, you're

(01:21:31):
going to serve me. I'm say, hank you for the
rest of your lot. I will think you Do you
want me today? Do you want me today? Do you
want to day? Do you want me to day? Don't breathe?
I would be so petty with you, crazy so so
if I didn't know if I could, if I could
arrested at my age. I didn't get saved at eighteen.

(01:21:52):
I got saved at twenty. But if I could arrested
at twenty knowing it doesn't matter how great your day
is today, Timothy Charles Raws, or how horrible it is,
your salvation's intact. Get up and keep moving this. I
beat myself so much. I beat myself up so much
over what I did, and then knowing God forgave me,

(01:22:14):
and then confessed it to the people in my life,
and still put myself on punishment for six weeks.

Speaker 11 (01:22:20):
I just don't feel like I should be in your presence.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
And I know you forgave me, but I just want
to remind you again what I did. I know you,
I know you're forgiving God, but remember when I had
sex with that girl, when you told me this happened,
I did. And we do that with God a lot.
And so those would be the two things your salvation's

(01:22:43):
not in jeopardy. Keep moving forward, and the quicker you
can find people who will love all of you, you
can relax. Everybody in this room if they knew that
they could tell somebody the worst thing about them and

(01:23:07):
they would still be like I love you, would we
would relax there wouldn't be no more in Israel and
Palestine right now if they all knew that they could
be seen, heard, known, and loved. Even if they disagreed
with right now, all words would stop right this minute.
So I hope that helps, all right. I love it
to take all right.

Speaker 6 (01:23:29):
Now, let's give it up for Tim Brooks.

Speaker 5 (01:23:36):
Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics on the
shelf are books, culture, and community.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check
out my Instagram at Malak Books.

Speaker 6 (01:23:47):
See you next time.