Well, I know this much:
So given all of that, do you agree that Jesse Duplantis is a Catholic?
Which is an example of changing the subject and avoiding the question.
Now that's interesting.
Rome dresses its wolves in a variety of clothing.
What great work you do. Love it.
The Everyday Visionary: Focus Your Thoughts, Change Your Life By Jesse Duplantis
Pp54-57 excerpts
.
He speaks of being in poverty as a child. Evidently his wealth experience came from his rock career. I’d thought his family had had money.
P54:
When I was eleven years old, Mama told me, ‘Son, I want you to play in church for the camp meeting they’re having.’
‘Why would I want to do that?’ I asked. “First, they don’t pay. And second, they don’t even appreciate good music.’
But, as usual, Mama got her way and I went to the church on the night of the camp meeting to play my guitar. . . .
. . .
No, I had a habit when I played—I moved. . . . The music was in me and it was coming out of me . . . but I was in church, so it didn’t go over too well. Suddenly, the sound went dead and I heard a voice yell from the pew, ‘Get that kid off there!’ I looked and saw that they had just pulled the plug out of the socket. That was the first time I was thrown out of church.
‘You can’t play!’ they said. ‘You’ve got devil music in you!’ ‘And you’ve got some of that black music in you, too!’
I was flippant and said, ‘Yeah, well y’all need some black mamas in here! Them sorry fat white women can’t sing a lick!’ Oh, they were so mad, the spit was flying! . . .
. . . by the time I was in my early twenties, my talent had been honed. I had learned a lot about people and I could play music in my sleep. I’d sold my talent to the world. I was in a band, touring and making more money than I’d ever thought I’d make. I had it all by my own standards. I had enough money to buy whatever I wanted, when I wanted.
What made me walk away from it? Destiny.
There is a way that man goes in life—a way that he creates for himself—but it is fleeting and unfulfilling. Without God, even your greatest dream will one day feel empty and tired.
. . .
I got to a point in my life and in my career where there was no happiness at all. Music was nothing to me. It was just a way out of my childhood misery. It was my way to make money. I was strong-willed and strong-minded. I was full of bravado. I figured I had made it on my own and didn’t need anybody else but me, but I was wrong. I was miserable.
You see, my mama didn’t leave me alone. She prayed for me and prayed for me and prayed for me. Eventually her prayers and faith started working to bring me back to the altar of God. . . .
Mama knew that I was getting to a dead-end road. She knew that I needed God and she was right. You see, the moment I made the decision to reject God as a child was the moment my mama began to really intercede in prayer for me. Years went by, but eventually her destination and my destination met up. I gave my life to Christ after watching Billy Graham preach on television on Labor Day Weekend in 1974, and I did it right before I had to leave the hotel room to go and play a rock show.
That moment in the hotel room changed my desitnation in life.
After that, my direction in life wasn’t fueled by the poverty of my youth. It wasn’t fueled by my dysfunctional family or the hypocrites I saw growing up in church. It was fueled by a simple love for the One who first loved me—Jesus.
Love will change you. Love will take you from the place you thought you wanted to go, and redirect you to the place where you’re meant to be.
My place was with the Lord Jesus Christ—not alone. My place was His house—not in some rat-infested nightclub. My place was years later, His pulpit preaching the Gospel—not hitting the bass guitar, loaded up on drug, and scanning the place for women.
I wasn’t a good man, but God took me in. I thought only about myself, but He didn’t let that deter Him from opening His arms to me. God took me when no one else would. But it took that decision, that moment of salvation and surrender—that moment of change—to
[p57]
redirect my steps in life and to find a new destiny, a new destination, a place that God had made, just for me.
THERE’S NOTHING INFECTIOUS ABOUT SECONDHAND FAITH
Why didn’t I catch hold of the faith of those Christians that crossed my path when I was young? Why didn’t I have a life changing moment when I was young? Why did I have to go through so much sin to get to the place of salvation?
I believe it was because the people I saw as a young boy were trying to live off the faith of others. It was [!!!TRADITION!!!] tradition to them. They may have been living off the truth of their mama’s relationship with God. Maybe they were living off the faith of the founder of that church. Maybe they were trying to live off the faith of preachers of old.
It doesn’t really matter. You see, secondhand faith isn’t infectious. It’s just a bunch of rules and regulations. I don’t think I could catch real faith from them if I rubbed up against them all day. The only antidote for secondhand faith is firsthand relationship.
God doesn’t want to take anything from us. He wants to give everything to us. He’s not a taker, He’s a giver. Anything He asks you to give or give up has one purpose—to make your life better, to open the door for you to receive more.
God didn’t ask me to give up my musical career in a rock band. He didn’t ask me to cut my long, 1970s hair or even stop doing drugs or drinking. He asked for my heart. He showed me His love. He showed me a path that was greater than the one I was walking on before.
I chose to leave the band because it was at odds with my new firsthand relationship with God. I chose to stop drinking and doing drugs because I no longer needed those things as a crutch in my life. Did I know where I was going in life after I met Jesus? No, I didn’t! I didn’t know what would become of me. I just knew I had to follow after God.
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS!