Today's a unique episode because it's sort of like an episode within an episode . What's it called ? It is Easy's Testimony .
Speaker 2Easy's Crazy Testimony that's what it's called . It should be changed to Crazy Easy's Testimony . I like that .
Speaker 1For those of you who don't know , Easy was in a gang .
Speaker 2It's hard to believe because we know Easy for who he is as a new creature in Christ . I got a text from him this morning because he has been sick and I said are you better ? And he wrote back and he says last night I was sweating like a pig but I came better . I actually read it as swearing like a pig . It's very close when you look at it . I had to focus my eyes a little bit , but his light , I mean for easy to swear would be just anathema , because he's such a godly man and he's a testament to the fact that if any man be in Christ , he is a new creature . Because when we listen to this testimony I've heard this testimony before so many times , I've heard this testimony so many times . I've heard this testimony before it's wonderful and it gives glory to God , but it shows he was a very vicious , very vicious gang member and yet this nobody is loving and ferociously kind , as easy . And if any man be in Christ .
Speaker 1Yeah , Yale's pretty close .
Speaker 2Is he here now ? No , oh , there you are . If any man be in Christ , he's a new creature . He's born again . New heart , new desires , and that's the miracle of conversion .
Speaker 1You're going to see now . Compelled is essentially a story form podcast where they do an amazing job interviewing individuals learning about their salvation story . Ez was honored enough to be asked to be invited onto Compelled to share his testimony , and so you're going to hear . This is a very different kind of format . They put a lot more effort into their post-production than we do , that's for sure , and we think you're going to like this . So here is EZ's episode on Compelled .
Speaker 4I was getting into fights all the time with other fellow students . I was not doing well academically . I threatened to kill one of my teachers . I vandalized one of my classrooms near the end of the school year , so yeah . So they nabbed me and busted me and said , yeah , you're not coming back next year . So by the end of that freshman year I was now expelled .
Speaker 4When you're that age and you're after again acceptance and belonging and wanting to be cool and wanting power , you just foolishly end up making really stupid decisions . And there was a bit of that kind of when the dust settled and I kind of came back to my senses and I realized , wait a minute , I just became a part of one of the most notorious gangs in the United States . And so from there things really degenerated . I started going downhill morally more than ever . That long list of do's and don'ts that I had established was now just a distant memory . I mean , just about everything on there was checked off . And so , yeah , by the end of my sophomore year now I found myself getting expelled from my second high school . At the end of my sophomore year now , I found myself getting expelled from my second high school . At the end of that sophomore year I had a grade point average of 0.32 , four Fs and twoD minuses .
Speaker 4And I would think , man , I know I really got to give my life to God Because I would go to an evangelical church with one of my friends and I would hear things about God . But still it's like I knew and I remember I would pray at night and I'd say God , I know I need to give you my life , I know I need to surrender everything to you , but I can't stop drinking and partying and indulging in immorality . And I was right , I couldn't , I didn't have the power to do it . But my friend invited me to this evangelistic event and I really can't believe . I said yes to him . He said , hey , my parents invited me to this thing , you want to go ? And it was a month before we were supposed to go . And I said , yeah , yeah , I'll go .
Speaker 4And we walk into this amphitheater and there were like 20,000 plus people there and I was just like , wait , what is this ? Again , I had no clue what this was all about . And so I walk in and I see this like festive atmosphere and thousands upon thousands of people , and people just look so full of joy and I remember they started the worship music and I'm looking at these people , man , and they're standing there and they're looking toward the heavens and their faces are beaming with joy , big smiles on their faces , and I remember thinking , man , these people are acting like God is really here or something . Even just hearing the music , my heart just started to soften . So then the preacher gets up and he begins to preach the gospel .
Speaker 1You say I can't come to Christ , I could not give up my way . Sure , you can , because if you become a Christian , jesus Christ will take residence in your heart and he will give you a new nature .
Speaker 4And man , it was so strange . It was almost as if , though , he had like a camera that followed me everywhere I went , recording every moment of my life . It was almost like he had a chip in my brain that was reading my thoughts , because so many of the things that he was talking about and touching on I had been thinking about and contemplating . I remember the preacher , at the end of his message , said that salvation was a free gift that you couldn't work for or earn , but that God gave on the basis of his grace . We get to my house , but that God gave on the basis of his grace . We get to my house . I'm walking in toward the door and I look in through the window and we catch eyes and she went into that I'm gonna kill you , mom , pose , you know where the fists go , up there up to the side , and it was like , oh man , I'm in big trouble . So I walk in and I just remember I had this you know , ear to ear grin that I just could not bring down Again . I was just transformed . I'm like man , I have everlasting life , like what just happened to me . And so I come in . I'm like hi , mom , you know this big old permagrin and she goes hi huh , you've been doing this , haven't you ? I go yeah , mom , I have . She nearly flew back like 20 feet . You know what I mean ? All my life she'd been accusing me of things and asking me if I've been doing things , and of course I never admitted to anything . And here I am , like , without any arm twisting , I'm just saying yes . So she takes another shot . You've been doing this too , haven't you ? Yeah , mom . Not just that , but a whole lot more .
Speaker 4And I remember we sat down that night in her room and I just told her everything I'd been doing , from A to Z , and she just began to weep no-transcript . So I said , mom , I want you to mark my words . From this night forward , nothing will ever be the same . So that was August 15 , as I said , 1991 . And my mom passed away from cancer May 22nd of 1994 .
Speaker 4But until that day she never forgot those words because God , by his grace , allowed her to see the radical transformation in my life and everything about me changed , the way I walked , the way I talked , the way I acted , the way I felt . I mean , I was just totally transformed . You know , again , I was on my way to the big league with my rap group and I knew instantly that I couldn't carry on with that , because I couldn't be a hypocrite , couldn't get on stage and rap about the filthy things we used to rap about and then get off stage and go and be a Christian . You know , I knew that my life had to have that integration in it , that God had to be a part of every aspect of my life , and I couldn't live by a double standard . And so I remember , I called up my producers , I called up my DJ . I said , hey guys , something massive has changed in my life . I'm a Christian . I can't do this anymore .
Speaker 5A few years passed and Emil's fervor for evangelism hadn't died down . In fact , if anything , it had only increased . After graduating from high school , emil enrolled at a Christian university to study the Bible and teamed up with a former high school enemy of his who had also become a Christian , and together they planted a small church . And it was around this time that God used Emil's interest in evangelism to open up a rather unexpected door .
Speaker 4I went to visit some friends at a Bible college and this guy comes up to me and he goes . Man , you ever heard of this guy named Ray Comfort ? Man , he's crazy . No , I've never heard of this crazy guy named Ray Comfort , but he really got my attention with that and so he goes . Man , I'll be right back . He goes to his dorm room and he comes back and he puts this book in my hand called Springboards for Effective Evangelism . It was a book written by Ray and he goes .
Speaker 4Man , you've got to read this and I'm reading about all this stuff this guy's doing . I'm like what in the world ? I mean it was just like insanity . I mean he's going up to perfect strangers , cold turkey , on the street preaching the gospel to them . He's preaching the gospel out in the open air to the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar . He's doing a mock funeral in public where he's got these guys dressed up in white button-down shirts and black ties and sunglasses , with a guy lying on the ground and a sheet over him . They're acting like pallbearers . He's doing a funeral in public and then preaching the gospel , talking about death .
Speaker 4And I remember reading in the front of the book it said edited by Rachel Comfort on the title page and that stood out to me and I thought I wonder who that is . Is it his wife , his daughter , I don't know . I was just my jaw hit the ground . I'm like this is crazy . And I was really inspired . And so I started to connect more with the ministry and get resources . And I remember I called one day to order some tracts and I hear this very familiar voice on the other end , living waters . I'm like wait , no , this can't be . I'm imagining things . So we keep talking a little more . And no , this can't be . I'm imagining things . So we keep talking a little more . And then I'm like I'm sorry , is this Ray Comfort ? Oh yeah , bro , I am . Yeah , yeah , it was him . And I'm like what I knew I was calling Living Waters , but I didn't expect Ray Comfort to answer the phone . That was just awesome . Meeting him was surreal and just really , really neat . And so then we invited him to come on a Sunday morning .
Speaker 4Now , what's interesting is before that I had gone to speak at a retreat up in the mountains and typical retreat , nothing out of the ordinary . But at the end of the retreat , this very respected godly woman in the church comes up to me and says hey , there's something that's just really heavy on my heart , I wanted to share with you . And she goes yeah , but I can't tell you now . I was like what . I mean , she took me up up , you know , to Mount Everest and then dropped me down into Death Valley , you know , and I'm like what in the world ? Anyhow , I come home , you know , I'm reading the book of Genesis , as I was teaching it at a midweek Bible study at our church , and I'm in chapter 24 , and I get to the very end , I read the very last verse , and it said Isaac took Rebecca in his mother's tent and she became his wife and he loved her and he was comforted after the
death of his mother .
Speaker 4My mom had passed away a year prior to that , so , and my mom and I were super , super close and I just missed her terribly , I mean very , very badly . And so when I read that verse , it just struck my heart . You know , isaac took Rebecca in his mother's tent , she became his wife , he loved her and he was comforted after the death of his mother . And so then the next day , sunday , july 9th , that's when Ray came to speak , and I remember he and I were standing outside our sanctuary , which was on a second floor , and we were looking down as we stood outside into an open courtyard and all of a sudden the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth comes waltzing through . And I look down at her , ray looks at me and goes that's my daughter . I'm like wow . And so she gets up to the top of the stairs and man , it was . It sounds so cliche and corny , but I just remember looking at her and getting this sense man , I'm looking at my wife like this girl's going to be my wife . It was just weird . And so Rachel was actually looking for a new home church and so she started visiting the church , coming to my Bible study , and we began to build , you know , friendship .
Speaker 4And then , right after that , I get a call from that lady from the retreat . It was really heavy on my heart to share with you Genesis , chapter 24 , when Isaac met Rebecca . And then I believe God's going to bring you a woman who will bring you . And I was like what it was ? Like this hot flash came over me . It was so you know . I mean she had told me she had something she wanted to share with me , didn't tell me what it was . I come home I read this verse . It really strikes my heart . I asked the Lord to bring me a woman who'd bring me comfort .
Speaker 4And then , right after the next day , I meet this girl who I sense is going to be my wife . Then that lady calls and tells we built a friendship for five , five and a half months or so and really really hit it off . And I mean , we both kind of fell in love with each other . And I was going to wait a year because I just really wanted to be certain . I didn't want to be mystical about it . You know I was going to wait , but then it just became really apparent . You know what I think the Lord's really in this . And so I remember I called Ray and I said , hey , ray , can I come over and talk to you and Sue his wife ? So he said okay . So I shared my heart and told him everything that had been going on . And then I asked for their blessing to start a relationship with her . And , yeah , they gave me their blessing and so we started a relationship , a very , very , very long three-week relationship , got engaged for three months and then got married . You know , the amazing thing about it all is .
Speaker 4I had had two previous relationships that were significant for different reasons . One was a relationship before I became a Christian . The other one was my first relationship as a Christian . One of the girls' names was Rachel , the other was Naomi , but in the end neither of them brought me comfort . But the Lord gave me a second chance . My wife's first name is Rachel , her middle name Naomi . Her last name , comfort .
Speaker 4The day before I met her , lord , bring me a woman who'll bring me comfort after the death of my mother . The next day , he brought me a woman bearing those other two names and even bearing the very name of Comfort , and so celebrated 27 years here not long ago . And God's blessed us with five beautiful children , two grandchildren and hopefully many , many , many more grand and great , great , great , great grandchildren to come . And I'm just like Lord , I should be dead or in prison and look at what you've done . And I recognize it . It's only His grace . That's what he does . He takes those that are lost and dead and blind and he finds them and he gives them life and he gives them sight and he uses them for His glory . And years ago I summarized my testimony in this real short verse , and it's simply this . I once was but a lump of coal upon a heap of mire . Yet Jesus Christ redeemed my soul and saved me from the fire .
Speaker 3Boy . You know , ray would often say when we would travel I'm having a hard time falling asleep . Just tell me your testimony . Please Help me out .
Speaker 1I'm having a hard time falling asleep . Just tell me your testimony . Please Help me out , Do you ?
Speaker 3remember that , Ray ? Yes , so funny , but EZ's testimony is anything other than boring . You almost feel like you don't have a testimony . And quick side note it's okay if you don't have a testimony , like EZ's . If you don't know when you got saved , you just remember growing up inside of a Christian household and at six years old you're going to church .
Speaker 1That's such a good point , you guys . There is something beautiful about the faithfulness of parents raising their children in a Christian home , early salvation and just growing up faithfully in God's Word . What's funny is for those of us that have more of like a road to Damascus type stories . I'm compelled by those stories , the stories of just a faithful Christian family whose sons and daughters grew up faithfully following the Lord . I love that .
Speaker 4Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast . Friends , we value your time , so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who wanna get equipped without the jokes and fellowship . Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday , where we dive deeper into the topic . Until then , you can watch the full podcast episode , available now on livingwaterstv .