A Life Altered by Scripture: My Personal Revelation in New Orleans

Picture yourself journeying down to the vibrant city of New Orleans, where amid the hustle and bustle, you come across a profound revelation that alters your spiritual path forever. That's exactly what happened to me, and in this episode, I share my transformative encounter with Matthew 16, a scripture that demands complete surrender to Christ. Discover how Jesus's teachings aren't about an easy life, but a commitment to self-denial and the readiness to bear our crosses in His name. 

But is living for Jesus a one-time deal? Absolutely not! With 11 years under my belt, I can tell you, it's a constant, yet rewarding work-in-progress. Listen in as I share how my faith journey has shaped me, influencing my roles as a podcaster and bartender. Make sure to tune in every Sunday night at 7 pm for more discussions that aim to deepen your faith and enrich your spiritual journey. Ready to share your own story? I'd love to hear your reflections and experiences.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hey, welcome to the bartender's perspective. I'm so happy to have you here. Work is done for the day. Pull up a chair, have a seat, I'll pour you a drink and let's get started. Tonight's podcast you'll.

Speaker 1: 0:18

It's about the scripture, matthew 16, verses 24 through 26. I'd like to talk about a few things, about its significance as it pertains to all of us, and then to tell you how I learned what the scripture meant to me on a trip I took. It's a great scripture, y'all. It reads as follows Then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone wishes to come after me, he must first take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what is it? Profit a man? To gain the whole world but to give up his place in the kingdom? And what will a man give in an exchange for his soul? It really was a headscratcher for me, but Jesus is teaching. He's teaching two things here. He foretells that he must go to Jerusalem, you know, suffer many things, you know. We know the story be killed, be raised in the third day. And next, there's a demand for all who want to follow Jesus. The demand is the willingness to deny themselves holy or die to self Misconception.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I think, for a lot of people that have read the scriptures, that when they hear carrying the cross, they think it's about carrying a burden. And you know, for some people, with respect to those people that believe that, you know, that could very much be the interpretation. But I think what Jesus was really trying to say when we deny ourselves, it means that we're intentionally, you know, move away from the relationship where our self, as a lot of alcoholics say, in. You know the big book is primary and instead pledge complete allegiance to Christ, costing you your very self and just me. I understand y'all working against. You know what you've always known or if you've always, you know, depended only on yourself. It's hard to do the exact opposite of something that you may have done if you've not necessarily had the best relationship with Christ. But Jesus is. He's getting what he's getting at here.

Speaker 1: 2:50

It's the harsh reality of being his follower. You know there's no lukewarm or you know partially, you know, one foot in and one foot out. You know it's not the hooky-pocky. Instead, it's literally an extreme surrender or cold turkey of what and who we are. You know, in a sense crucifying yourself, you know, and this is not something that just happens overnight, I mean, it's a daily process. Crucifying yourself, you know, in quotations, dailies, so that Christ might be exalted in us. Jesus knew that we could not achieve this in our strength, you know. So, based on the Holy Trinity, he sent us the Holy Spirit to enable us, you know, to help us with that daily process and to grow more into the light and the surprised every day, like being a disciple of Christ. It really is a sacrifice and a cost, you know, is definitely, you know, attached to that.

Speaker 1: 4:05

A lot of people think that they have this impression that by coming to Christ, you know everything's gonna be smooth and ponies and rainbows, and you know well, all hands and there won't be any trial and tribulation. You know it'll be Eating all over again and he'll remove every trial and trouble. So this, it's a pretty distorted view of Christ. I mean, ultimately it goes back to self and fulfilling the needs of the self rather than the will of God. Scriptures teach that we will have tribulation in this world. Yet we can take heart because we have peace in Christ as he has overcome the world, you know, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, you know, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter through the kingdom of God, you know. So, jesus, he went on to say to teach us that if you do not deny yourself, take up the cross and follow Christ, that it means that you are more self-absorbed, more in love with yourself and trying to save yourself. You know, jesus says again it was written in the scripture, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life from my sake will find it. You know, what will the prophet of man against the whole world for if it's his soul? You know what will the man give an exchange for his soul?

Speaker 1: 5:47

Many Christians are taught to come to Christ To gain worldly wealth. You know, I see it every day Worldly wealth, abundance, everything else, people stepping on each other, people Hurting people, people doing what they have to Know to get wealth, to grow, to be rich. And you know, for it Not all, but some, to be famous. And in the process there's a cost. Like, are you willing to give up everything for Christ, even your very life? You know it? If not, I mean you're simply unworthy to be his disciple and all that stepping on people are doing. Whatever it is that you do that goes against the nature of God. Do it long enough. You know you'll do so at the expense of your own soul. Man, it's deep stuff but, unlike y'all, you know you're getting the benefit of me telling you about this.

Speaker 1: 7:00

You know it took this adventure of a vacation I took to New Orleans to find this out and but then again, this is how God has done most things in my life, or at least in my experience. So with that, I Took a trip to, as the locals call it, nola. I booked the trip with two friends of mine. You know I got the tickets on Airbnb. This was years ago, like 2012. I think we got the shotgun apartment. It was $50 and it was a simple place and we got down. There was a 12-hour trip monsoon to Mississippi, coming in Louisiana, my gosh, 50 miles of highway on a swamp yeah, that was intimidating. When we get there, you know I had to find.

Speaker 1: 7:57

After I called the lady who was hosting us, I had to find the key and a broken vase behind this shotgun style place which, looking back, I don't think the place had been renovated, even after Katrina. I mean, at least that's the way it looked, literally you walked into this place. It was three of us. There was this 1920s front room seat in the den, old stereo and one bed in the back in a really messy kitchen. At one point, you know, I dropped something on the floor and I bent down to pick it up, and that's when I was literally I was able to look through the floor y'all, and probably about, oh, four feet down, I could see the ground. You know, there was no, like there's nothing underneath our floor, like if the floor broke, that's it. You fell through to the ground. It was a pretty rundown place. I mean, even the kitchen wasn't clean.

Speaker 1: 8:54

When we got there, my best friend who's germaphobe though he went and he was so funny clean the entire kitchen. You know this individual had left us a bunch of spirits and a bowl of beads, I mean. But you know it's not like we really needed anything fancy. We were gonna be spending most of our time in the French Quarter. Yeah, new Orleans, a beautiful city y'all, absolutely breathtaking. I will say this it's worth mentioning that if you're ever gonna visit New Orleans, the best time to go is when, believe it or not, there's actually nothing going on. I've heard so many stories about Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence. You know, yeah, they're great festivals, but you're cramming what six figure plus bodies into this little area. The French Quarter is not that big y'all and yeah, it's just, it's too much apparently, during those festivals. But you know, hey, for people that wanna do it by all means had some good spirits. You know, alcoholic Muts Glides this Chester Cup. Yeah, it was a cool time. Food was great.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Yeah, I had the pleasure of going to. I passed by the Catholic Church that's there in the French Quarter and a super old church. The architecture was beautiful and I remember this particular day. I thought to myself, wow, this would be fun. So I went ahead and went to a church service, you know, and getting back to my Catholic roots, and I sat down and did very ritualistic service. You know, the Catholics always like to do things with rituals and the priest that day gave a sermon. Oh, he droned on to there was no personality whatsoever. He droned on about cell phones and how evil they were and how it was gonna end the world and we had to change our evil ways. And you know, in many ways I mean looking back. Granted, you know, the smartphones weren't the same then, in 2012, as they are now. But I mean, looking back, he wasn't completely wrong about cell phones being, I mean, I wouldn't say evil per se, but I think it's more so how people use their cell phones. That would denote that. But anyways, I'm getting off topic.

Speaker 1: 11:29

I came time to do the body and blood of Christ. You know, when I got up and I went and said amen, you know, he handed me the communion wafer and then I drank the Sacramento wine and he kept giving me these funny looks. I'm like, what did I do? And so I turned around and I was on my way back to my seat and I got all these dirty looks from people in the fifth and sixth row because I was almost on the front and I sat down. And then I remembered that I had bought this tourist t-shirt this particular day. Yeah, I had some choice phrases. I won't repeat what they are, but nonetheless they weren't exactly the most appropriate for church. So, needless to say, I left my tithing and got out of there.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Anyways, we drove across Lake Pontchartrain, which is a major lake for people who go out and spend time in the lake. That was, construction crews were still cleaning up and rebuilding a bridge from Pontchartrain across Pontchartrain, from a town called Sladell, into New Orleans. We drove across there. I saw where an old, abandoned six flags still stood to that day abandoned. All the rides and everything were still there. But I mean, that was it. And there was even a bunch of housing developments that just stood empty because they were on Swampland 20 bucks, I think, just to start disseminating the economy and getting people to move back in. But yeah, that was an eerie sight to see, needless to say. And then we move on to my last day there.

Speaker 1: 13:23

I'm walking up the street that we were staying on, I had a fish bowl on my hand and it's another popular drink in New Orleans and I came across a tattoo parlor. So my friends and I stopped in. Yeah, you're on vacation, you go in and look at tattoos. You don't intend to get one? I give honorable mention to the place, if I could remember it.

Speaker 1: 13:47

But I found myself at the desk talking to the reception girl and I'd had a picture of this cross and I'd had this picture for ever and ever and ever and ever, and I just I never really gave two thoughts about it until that day and I just said to the lady I was like, how much if I wanted to get this cross? And she said, well, it's gonna be like $300. And, mind you, I'd spent all my money on spirits and food and souvenirs. So I said to the lady I was like, is there any kind of wiggle room or room from negotiation? And this is where things start to fall in place about the scripture and how it all led up to me coming to understand it. The doctor, the owner, said she can negotiate with me, but she didn't see her negotiating. So the owner came out, came and sat me down in her office and we talked for oh, it was two hours.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Basically, I went in there to get a tattoo. She unloaded a personal problem on me about a conflict she had with her daughter-in-law because her son essentially had kept a secret from his wife and the wife found out that the mother-in-law knew about the secret and was mad that the mother-in-law didn't tell her about it. But their mother-in-law, the owner of the tattoo parlor, was upset because she didn't think it was her place to have said anything and this lady was visibly upset. She cried about it. I mean, I almost got to tears at one point. But at the end of the day I told her I was like, look, what happened between your son and her has nothing to do with you. It was not. It was his place and their business and their business only. You had no responsibility in this to tell her your son's secret. So she felt better after I told her that.

Speaker 1: 16:04

I mean, I literally just sat down and just talked about a tattoo and here I am giving personal advice, doing what I do right now with a stranger, and looking back. You know, see, in my opinion, in my heart, she made out better than me, because I think you know I was put that, put there that day. You know, god used me as a vessel to you know, to listen to what she was going through. And Ultimately, you know, when the conversation was all said and done, and then we talked a little bit more about the tattoo and she's like all right, you can have the tattoo for $80. Just make sure you tip the artist. And I said, okay, it was great and yeah, that tattoo took about three hours. And I can tell you from the moment, you know, the needle pierced my skin.

Speaker 1: 17:03

It was in that moment that I understood, you know, I understood with that what the scripture meant. You know everything I talked about at the beginning. You know it was a little deeper for me and like the Crushing the crown of thorns down on the head, on Christ's head. You know the nails to the hands and feet and you know carrying that cross, picking it up and going and basically you know it's symbolically. Looking at all the things that you know we're working against our self. All that stuff represents us working against our self and, essentially, a crucifying ourselves every day. Like I got it, I got what it meant, you know, so I Still carry that cross to this day. But, yeah, you know what does it mean to you and how can you apply it to your daily life and your unique situation. You know, think about it. I Can tell you this, I think about it every day, every time I wash my hands when someone asks me what my tattoo means.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Giving your life to Jesus is hard and even after 11 years, I'm still working on it myself. You tell you this much and I've made it a point to try and do better, to give my life to Jesus every day. You know, part of that process is, you know what's led me to write this podcast and, you know, publish an episode every week. I feel called to do this and by giving my life to Jesus is helping me, you know, to be a better podcaster, to be a better bartender, you know, for those of you who still see me in person, and I'm thankful for that.

Speaker 1: 19:17

But yeah, I hope you all got something out of this tonight. I really do. I'm opposed to this to Facebook. Please feel free to leave comments, you know, amongst yourselves. But in closing, I hope you like this podcast. I really do. If you did, please feel free to tell at least three people about my podcast If you think they'll get something out of it. You know this will help me to continue to get my message out there to more people. Really excited to announce that my new website is done. Just a few more details and then I'll be releasing that for anyone who's interested. So, but, unless you want another drink, as always, thank you for stopping in. Here's your check On regular podcast hours, or, as always, every Sunday night at 7 pm, so you can come back and see me then. Have a great night, you.