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My name is Mark.

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40 years old.

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Been saved now for about 10 years.

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I'm just thankful to God

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for such a great salvation

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that we have in Jesus Christ.

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I just want to share my testimony

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of what the Lord God did in my life.

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Man, I always go back to this because it's amazing.

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I think about how many times I went to church

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with my mom, my grandmother,

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and we went to church

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Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday.

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But no change in our lives.

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Do you know how many people right now

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are sitting in church are going to hell?

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Literally. Sitting in church, going to hell.

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Don't buy that lie neither.

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Rappers do that too.

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They're real big with that.

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They go out to those churches

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and they sit on the front row

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and they give their big gifts.

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Don't buy the lie.

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You can go to church

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Sunday after Sunday.

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Unless a man repents of his sins

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and receives Jesus Christ;

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have Christ;

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that man is lost.

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I got baptized.

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I thought I was right with God.

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You know, your parents are smiling...

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"My baby got baptized today!"

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You've got on the white little suit.

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You feel all good. Everybody's taking pictures.

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The pastor is holding you up in the air.

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On your way to hell.

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Grandma - on her way to hell.

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People don't think that the God of heaven and earth

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will cast an old lady into hell, but He will.

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It doesn't matter.

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It's the same way across the board.

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As I got older and began to be in high school,

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life made a drastic change.

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I started hanging around some guys,

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and the rap music scene came around.

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We were very interested in rap music.

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So we tried to pursue someone to invest in us

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and help us to become rappers.

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The next stars.

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During that time, everybody was rapping,

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so we had an interest in being some rappers.

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No one would help us.

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They felt like there were people out there

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that were better than us,

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so I had this wild thing that I would just do it myself.

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So we really got caught up into a

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whole bunch of drugs,

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to not only be able to gain things

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materialistic things in this world,

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but to become rappers.

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So fast forward, that's what happened.

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Ended up in selling drugs and rapping,

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ended up with a lot of cars, houses,

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girls, jewelry, cash...

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I thought I was having a whole bunch of fun at that time.

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Drunk every night.

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Waking up in the streets, in my front yard.

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Just horrible, wicked life.

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I never really considered at that time,

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that if I would have died,

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I would have been damned to hell.

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Eternally separated from the One that created me.

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That's a sad thing.

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But it's a joy to know that

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the God that created the heavens and the earth,

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before even the foundations of the world,

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before we even see what we see now,

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He chose me.

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He called me to Himself out of darkness

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into His marvelous light.

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And it's no greater thing,

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I tell people all the time,

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I say, man, you really don't know that

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there's no greater thing than to

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have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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There is absolutely no greater thing.

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And I don't think people understand it.

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But as I look back, I know why they don't understand it.

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They're blinded.

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They can't see.

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They're still chasing drugs, alcohol,

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women, money,

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all of these little gods of the world.

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They can't bring true satisfaction.

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There's only one God.

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Christ is wonderful.

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He's a mighty God.

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And He's worthy.

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We were created for His glory.

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To bring glory to Him, He did that.

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He created us.

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Throughout the Bible,

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there's a call for man to repent,

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and to place their faith and trust in Christ.

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There's no other way.

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You have to come to the Lord on His terms.

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And it's only through Christ.

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Jesus said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.

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No man comes to the Father, but through Me."

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No other way.

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Not by your good works.

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Not by trying to reform yourself.

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Not by praying to Mary.

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Only through Christ.

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And I'll never forget one time I was staying

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in a house and I was laying in my bed

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and it was nighttime,

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and I'll never forget, I was thinking,

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man, what is wrong?

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Something ain't right.

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I'm not satisfied.

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I know that every time I get that feeling,

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I would get something, go do something,

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let's go out and have some drinks,

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or let's go out and start some trouble,

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or just do something to kill that.

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Well, this particular time,

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it wouldn't go away.

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It was like there was a major problem.

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Something's not right.

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You've got this house.

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And you're just not satisfied.

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The fact of the matter is

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every man has a conscience.

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And only God can fill that void

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that's in a man's heart.

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Me not knowing it at the time,

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I just knew it was a problem.

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So I'll never forget,

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I met a girl that had actually been staying with me.

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I wanted to follow her,

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and she began to go to a church,

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so I would follow her to the church.

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Not thinking anything about the church in particular.

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Just really wanting to follow her.

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So, I'd sit there sometimes listening,

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sometimes not.

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But immediately when it was over,

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I'd always go back to what I was doing:

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Wickedness.

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Every single time.

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And I'll never forget one day I walked in there,

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and the Lord opened my ears and my eyes.

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He made me to where I'd pay attention

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to what was actually being spoken that day.

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And I really did, and I'll never forget how

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he began to talk about man's sin,

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and how we could have life in Jesus Christ.

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And if man would repent of his sins,

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that he could have salvation in Christ.

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Well, I left there that day with that thought on my mind.

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I thought, wow, I'm in trouble.

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For one, I don't have a relationship with God.

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All that time, I thought I was in church

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and everything was alright,

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but I really don't have a relationship with God.

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There's a problem in my life.

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And so, in that I guess you could say

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I began to call on the Lord,

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asking the Lord, "Save me, Lord."

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"Forgive me, Lord."

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And He did.

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The Lord not only granted me repentance,

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but He granted me faith in Jesus Christ.

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Man, how thankful I was at that time!

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Not knowing that getting saved is a

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drastic change.

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I didn't have any biblical knowledge.

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I didn't know for sure that if any man be in Christ,

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he's a new creature.

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I just knew, man, something is strange.

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I'll never forget going to a nightclub with my friends

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after that, I was still in the music business at that time.

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And I'll never forget going in the nightclub,

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and we were in there, and I had such

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a weird feeling.

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And I looked over at my buddy, and I said,

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"I got to get out of here."

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"I don't know what it is, but I've got to go."

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And that was many years ago,

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and believe it or not,

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I've never been back in the nightclub since.

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The Lord took that away from me,

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where I didn't have the desire to want to be

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in that type of environment

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or to do those type of things anymore.

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He took a lot of things from me

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in my life that was detrimental to me,

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but most of all, He gave me Christ.

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He gave me salvation.

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Now, in moving around, I had a peace.

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It really didn't matter if I had

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cars or girls or friends.

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I just knew that I'm a friend of God now.

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I'm not an enemy of God.

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And what I thought I was missing,

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I really had now in Christ.

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And, so if you speed it up,

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I'll never forget from my previous wickedness,

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running around, I'd been saved for awhile,

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and I'd married this girl that I was with.

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All of a sudden, I found out I had a

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warrant for my arrest,

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because that sin that was so fun at the time,

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it was time to pay the price for it.

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So I ended up doing three and a half years in prison.

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I'll never forget the Lord teaching me His Word.

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And He gave me that time to just meditate on His Word;

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to run across the path of many people

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with many different beliefs.

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All of these type of things...

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God kept me all those times.

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He kept me.

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He let me know that, "I'm with you."

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"I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you."

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Don't die without Him.