God's Loving Sacrifice Podcast
Hello, Do you ever feel defeated as a Christian in the confusing times we are living in today? I know I do. This is were God’s Loving Sacrifice Podcast comes in. We do bible studies to help you strengthen your walk with the Lord in today’s crazy world. We also encourage you to share the gospel and the love of Christ with this world in need.
God's Loving Sacrifice Podcast
Redemption and Transformation: Alonzo Zeigler's Journey of Faith and Purpose / S3E8
What if a single decision could alter the entire course of your life? Alonzo Ziegler, our extraordinary guest, opens up about his compelling journey from a troubled youth in Charlotte to finding redemption and purpose. After his parents' divorce led him down a dark path of drugs and gangs, a tragic incident became the catalyst for change. Alonzo moved to South Carolina to live with his grandmother, where the power of prayer and community support began to touch his life. Through encounters with various religious groups and a supportive Christian manager at work, he eventually found himself in Dallas, Texas, embracing a new life of faith and transformation.
Alonzo's story takes another twist as he navigates the challenging road of probation after an unexpected arrest. Facing the difficult decision to either turn himself in or flee, Alonzo chose to escape to Dallas, where he joined an 18-month program that reshaped his outlook on life. Despite the odds, a pastor's prophecy encouraged him to confront his past and pursue a higher calling. His tale is a powerful exploration of accountability, redemption, and personal growth, offering inspiration to anyone seeking to rise above their circumstances and find a greater purpose. Join us as Alonzo shares his incredible transformation and the lessons he learned along the way.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Hello, today we've got a guest, zoe Zeigler, and he's going to be sharing about his life and his salvation. So here we go, here's Zoe.
Alonzo:Hey, my name is Alonzo Zeigler. I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. I was born in West Columbia, South Carolina. Then I moved to Charlotte as my home. I went to high school and pretty much love the Carolinas, love the mountains. You get a little bit of both get the mountains and if you go south by 300 miles you get the ocean. But one thing about me is that I grew up in Charlotte schooling and I tell you what choices I have made some bad choices in my life and I made some good choices. But I know that the choices that I've made, that most of them were bad. And then that's how I came to Christ and God was kind of like pulling on me.
Alonzo:I remember in 1987 that my parents got the divorced and it kind of devastated my life and I started selling drugs and started being in gangs and hanging out with the wrong crowd. But I tell you, on November, the 7th of that fall, I remember I moved in with my roommate. He was a drug dealer, he was 27. I was 17. I moved in with my roommate. He was a drug dealer, he was 27. I was 17. And I was selling drugs in high school three high schools and I made a lot of money. But one thing that happened on November 7th that he was shot and killed, and that impacted my life to where it traumatized.
Alonzo:I come from a broken home, Parents being divorced and also getting into the streets and drawers and helping my mom pay rent because the father was out of the home, but anyhow, that murder kind of impacted my life and then what it done for me is that I kind of like moved to South Carolina to get out of that lifestyle, to my grandmother's house, and my grandmother said, well, don't bring that stuff down here. You know, you know it's a little different down here. You, you probably need Jesus. And I'm saying, Jim, I don't do the church thing, and so, but one thing I noticed that that as I work from eight to five at K-Marks and I'll come home, she'll have food on the table, She'll just serve me, but at night, after I go out and hang out with the new friends I met down in Santa Clara that I'll come in, my grandmother would be praying on her knees every single night and come to find out in the midst of all that people would start coming up throughout the community and trying to invite me to church and I had a Jehovah's Witness come after me and I said, no, that doesn't sound right.
Alonzo:And I had Latter-day Saints try to witness to me and I said, no, that don't sound right. And I just had different types of religion Muslim, so you need to become a Muslim. I was like, nah, the only thing I know is Jesus. But even though I did not accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior at that time but I noticed that as through my grandmother's prayers, all these people from the community try to invite me to church, but this one particular. After I left Kmart, I went on to take on another job at Hardy as a night porter and come to find out the manager was a Christian and he began to start sharing his faith. And I said man, you sound just like my grandmother. He said, well, man, why?
Alonzo:don't you come out, man, I'll give you more hours If you just come to church with me on a Wednesday night. And I went to church with him on a Wednesday night. And I went to church with him and it was a non-denominational church and they began to start sharing the gospel and preaching and I went down the aisle. But that conversion, you know, as I later on gave my life to Christ later, but that conversion was all part of the plan, that the seed was planted in my life, and so I went down and they tried to give me the speaking tongue and all that, and I just said, no, I just believe in Jesus. Kind of felt like something was going on. So I just stepped in, went down and so, as I can continue on to spend time in Columbia, south Carolina, at my grandmother's, I wanted to kind of venture off to kind of find out who I really was. So I really my grandmother owned the restaurant. I cooked in my grandmother's restaurant. But I really wanted to do something for myself. So I decided I wanted to go cook in the Bay of San Francisco as a chef and I went all the way out west and I got stranded in Dallas, texas. In Dallas, texas. I was there and I began to start sleeping at the Salvation Army and I began to start on the streets and trying to do hustle, going back to the old lifestyle, but at the same time, that's all I knew how to do is how to survive. But at the fairground at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, texas, I remember this group of guys that was in blue shirts and I said something about these guys that stand out and I was cooking up the fair and the fair only lasts a month. But these guys, as I was out there cooking as a chef at one of the local restaurants at the Fair Park, these guys stood out and said who are you guys with? And they said, well, we're with Union Gospel Mission. So they hand me a car. He said you ought to come on down, man, come be a disciple. I said, well, I don't know a disciple. I said well, I don't know.
Alonzo:So when the state fair job was over with, I kind of said, well, I guess I'll go try to be a manager at a restaurant somewhere. But it seemed like God shut every single door. I tried to fill out applications and deny try to be a assistant manager, deny, and I was like you know, I just gave up at that time and all of a sudden something just dawned on me that that card in my back pocket said you need to take that card and go down there and talk to those people at the discipleship program at Union Gospel Mission in Dallas, texas. And so I went down there and I just bust out crying because I felt like every door was shut. And I just walked down there and I said, man, tell me a little bit about this program. So I became a prospect and I slept on the homeless side and then I began to stay the whole weekend as a prospect and I stayed and then they interviewed me to go into the discipleship. Was I eligible to go into the discipleship program? And I was, and I was, I was eligible.
Alonzo:So the next thing, you know, it was a year program and they teach you the Bible, you serve the homeless and you go through four phases, and but these two guys that was, I'll never forget, that was in the program they said, oh man, you just looking for three hot meals and three plates, three cups of hot or whatever you know. And I looked at them and said, nah, I say why are you making fun of me. I said, if I joined this program I'm going to do it with all my heart. But in the midst of the program and one of the requirement was you had to have memory verses every single week and my memory verse um the sec the second week, romans, chapter 12, verse one and 2, I had to memorize that and I had a hard time memorizing that. So I was cooking in the kitchen this particular morning and I had to.
Alonzo:At 9 o'clock I had to go and stand in front of my chaplain and my case manager and recite my memory verse, romans, chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. Therefore, I urge you, brother, in the real gospel of mercy, to offer your body as a living sacrifice. This is pleasing the self of God. It's kind of prayer phrasing there. And then verse 2, do not be conformed to this word but be transferred by the renewal of your mind. And if you look at your Bible, you look at that scripture.
Alonzo:But I was standing in the kitchen, in the soup kitchen, and was feeding the homeless and I said, god, if you were real. I said, help me memorize this verse. And I tell you when I memorized that verse I was like I memorized it word for word, and it seemed like the letters, the words jumped off those pages and jumped into me and I lift the Bible up and I dropped the Bible. I said, oh my God, you are real. And that day I became born again and I went and I just cried for like three hours, went in front of my chapter and recited for like three hours, went in front of my chaplain and recited. But I knew that God was real because he was after me. But I believe that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them. And he's been drawing me the whole time ever since, from Charlotte, north Carolina, to Columbia, south Carolina, all the way out to. I thought was going out to San Francisco, california, but in Dallas, texas, he met me right there. I met Jesus right there. And that day it's like the scales fell off my mind and I was able to see, as it says in the what is it? Amazing Grace. Now I was blind. Now I can see, I really knew and that's like something that's felt like can, had a home and a desire and my first study Bible was a robbery study Bible and I would just seek the face of God and I began to know I didn't know.
Alonzo:As a disciple I began to start growing and so that pretty much at that time I kind of wanted to go back. I was already about five months in they're trying to get me to stay in the program and I went back to Charlotte because I wanted to see my family. I was missing my family. I was kind of homesick so I went out. When I went out to Charlotte, north Carolina, I left the discipleship program. They said you're welcome to come back if you want to stay. So I went back out to Charlotte, north Carolina, went home and found the job and stayed with my brother and then I was working. Now you know, in the 90s you don't make $12 an hour. I was installing office furniture making $12 an hour in the 90s, in the early 90s.
Alonzo:That's pretty good money. You know what I mean. But yeah, I ran into some old friends and I kind of like started to drift away from my fade and drift away from my fade. And I kind of like started to drift away from my fade and drift away from my fade and I got into trouble. So I went to go pick up one of the guys after I got off work and come to find out he had some stolen goods. And I picked him up and put him. He got in my car and next door there's a police officer. Police cars come out of nowhere. I said, oh my God. And next thing, I know this police officer police car has come out of nowhere. I said, oh my God, what did you do? He said man just pull off, pull off, pull off. So we was on a high-speed chase. He was back in the mess high-speed chase.
Alonzo:And next thing, you know, I had wound up in jail that night because I picked up someone. He had some stolen goods and they made me a accessory to the crime. I lost my job and lost my car and lost it. I said God don't mind, I'm sitting right in jail, I don't get in trouble again. And just because I went, made a bad choice and picked up someone and so, anyhow, make a long story short, I eventually got out. They gave him 10 years and they gave me probation. And I was on probation for three years because I was sister to the crime. And they let me out and I took the probation and, sure enough, got out, started working as a chef downtown Charlotte. I maintained my cooking skills. I was working downtown Charlotte and next thing you know, I just got tied up in on probation. So they either told me you can either turn yourself in to try to get on probation, get back in front of the judge, or you can just wait it out and they let me violate you. So I went back out to Dallas, texas, and got back and went back to that program and I went back to that program to and I wound up being on the run from the probation. So I go back out to Dallas, texas, and got back in the program and stayed there for another 18 months. They said, man, why are you staying so long? I just didn't want to go back. And you know they didn't know I was on the run. And they said, man, why are you staying so long. I just didn't want to go back. They didn't know. I was on the run.
Alonzo:And then one night this pastor preached and said hey man, is anyone here you know should be living out. I think God is calling you to, he told me. He said he prophesied to me. He told me. He said, man, god has a high call on your life. You need to go ahead and advance. But I couldn't advance because I knew it in the back of my mind that I was on the run from Charlotte on probation. So I went to him and told him. I said hey, man. He said you about to graduate the program. You've already been here 18 months and we calculated the five months you was here and then all the. You don't have another 13 months here. So he said you guys are going back and turn yourself in.
Gayla:He said what's your probation officer?
Alonzo:You going to call my probation officer in Charlotte, north Carolina? He said, yes, so he calls my probation officer. He said man, this young man has been on the run. He's over here and back in the program here in Dallas, texas. He said well, did he make any changes? He said I can vouch for him. We'll write a letter. I even bring it back to you from Dallas to Charlotte. And he said I tell you what it seemed like his life had changed.
Alonzo:Tell him to come back. He won't have to do the three whole years, he would do five months and we'll let him out here. His record would be clean. So I go back, get on the plane and go back to Charlotte. And the part of the deal was, if I go back and turn myself in due to five months, I had to go right back to Dallas to finish the program so I can graduate. So I don't be back. It's my third time going back, so I'll go to prison for five months, get out.
Alonzo:They released me April 13, 1998 and I went back to Dallas to finish the program and I was clean, no record and I was able to finish out the program, the discipleship program. However, I wound up becoming director. I became houseparent, then I graduated, then became houseparent and then I became assistant director. Then I became director out in East Texas of another program, discipleship program and so the program was about men getting out of prison.
Alonzo:People come up the street, they want to get their life changed and next thing, you know my whole life and part of the duties were to feed people, serve the community and go out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you had to go out and share the gospel and I had a real passion of going out, sharing, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you had to go out and share the gospel and I had a real passion of going out and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, I'd tell the mailman, tell the barber, anybody I come across, I would share my faith with Jesus Christ and I kind of feel like that was my spiritual gift.
Gayla:Man evangelist.
Alonzo:I would begin to start evangelizing every single day, just going out, taking the passing out Bible, passing out tracts and praying over people. We'll go out 12 o'clock at night and stay out to four o'clock in the morning out to the club and we would just share our faith and watch people come to Jesus. But I kind of realized that was my spiritual gift evangelism because I had a passion, I would just watch anybody come.
Alonzo:When I let you go until I share the love. How important it is to have a love relationship with Jesus Christ.
Gayla:I know that's one of the things people kind of laughed at me because no matter where I go, I'm going to talk about God no matter who it is.
Gayla:If it's a stranger in a store and they stop and say something to me, I'm going to tell them about God and I've told them on my podcast many times. I love the fact that when you go out and do things like that, maybe you don't know what to say to that person. God's going to put those words in your mouth and you're going to know what to say. And I've had so many people say you don't know how much I needed to hear that. You don't know what I've been through and I said, yeah, but God does.
Gayla:And I think that's the most wonderful thing about evangelism is talking to people who don't have that, and nowadays I get so upset that I get so upset because so many people nowadays, when you try to talk to them, they won't talk to you about God. You know you're offending them, I offend them, I don't care if I offend them. Well, the gospel is offensive. The gospel is offensive and you know what People were offended by Jesus. So we're in good company, right, right. So what do you think is the greatest pitfall of being evangelizing?
Alonzo:Well, the rejection, I mean it's actually, you have people yelling don't cheer me about the Jesus. You, jesus freak, get away from me, you know. And the pitfall is actually worrying about what people think or what people are going to say.
Gayla:I had that a lot until I got this mindset that God gave me is that I'm just asking you to plant the seed, you don't have to reap the harvest. You plant the seed, somebody else can reap the harvest. So even if they don't want to hear me, they know. So I think that is a pitfall, but it's also a great thing knowing that one day you may see that person again and they'll say you remember when you you know, and I just I really think that's great. I also wanted to ask you about did you have work in a prison ministry?
Alonzo:Yes, yes, um, actually, um, like I was in Dallas, texas, it all started while I was in Dallas because, um, the guys that we would come into the transitional housing discipleship program, some will come out of prison and some will come out of, some will come off the streets, but we would have to go and share the gospel in the prison and then we had to go. Share gospel on the street was part of being a part of being a staff of the discipleship program and also being being a disciple, being a staff of the discipleship program and also being a disciple.
Alonzo:One thing about the benefits of the discipleship program was that a person that takes a year to grow by going to church every Sunday, going to work, raising their family, they might grow in a year, but being in a discipleship program, I would grow in two months because of the amount of time we spend in prayer every single morning. You're spending time memorizing scripture. You're spending time listening, getting loud in the Holy Spirit, to teach you, at the same time, understand the difference between false doctrine and sound doctrine.
Gayla:People on my podcast know that my favorite thing in the world is the armor of God, and that's I try to get across so much. In fact, that's why my second podcast is on memorizing scripture, and I think it's so important that people put the word in their heart and do that. So when you're witnessing to someone, what is the most important thing you do? Is it your actions or the word that you leave them with?
Alonzo:Well, the most important is kind of like watching what God is already working on the hearts of the person Right.
Alonzo:You just came in at the time, you don't know someone probably 20 people in on property came up and shared the gospel with them. You've been a part of God's plan and be a part of that person's life. The important is is kind of like see what God is already doing. God is already working on your heart, right, so you have to use a sermon to say you know what, god, what are you doing in this person's life? That's important. Watch what God is doing in his life and you join in?
Alonzo:what God is already doing.
Gayla:That's what I love about the Holy Spirit, Because sometimes I'll say things and I think I have no idea why I even said something like that and the people start crying or tell me you know, I can't believe you said that. I love that about the Holy Spirit. I love when he lays on your heart something that you have no idea, but somebody else is like oh my gosh, I would love for you to come back and do some more and talk a little bit more about evangelism and memorizing the word of God and how important that is to have that in your heart.
Alonzo:If you'd like to come back, yeah, I will come back because one of the things I like to share some people want to know how to share the gospel in a non-threatening way. I would love that and God has given me some tools that we, as believers, that share our faith. You don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be some prophet, you don't have to be some big time person. It's just our duty as believers how to share our faith. But I want to come back. I want to share how to share our faith in a non-brain way.
Gayla:I think it would be important to hear how people, when they're out there talking to people, they're afraid to say anything, how to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit. That's correct and I think that would be a wonderful thing. Well, this has been really great and I thank you so much and we'll talk to you another time, all right, thank you. Thank you.
