My New Life Ep. 1 with Jeff Robinson

Welcome to a brand-new series on MOTFP: My New Life. In this series, we’ll sit down with members of New Life UPC as they share their personal journeys—who they were before God began shaping their lives on the Potter’s Wheel.

In this powerful first episode, Bro. Jeff opens up about his incredible story: finding God, meeting the love of his life, struggling with his faith, walking away from the church, and ultimately experiencing redemption. He shares the life-changing moment when he fully stepped into the new life God had prepared for him.

This is a story of grace, restoration, and second chances—you won't want to miss it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey guys, and welcome to the first episode of my new series, My New Life. This series is going to include numerous members of the congregation of New Life United Pentecostal Church in Smithville, Tennessee. And our first episode is with Brother Jeff Robinson. Now, I wanted to give you a little disclaimer here. The audio on this is not great. I had to, I've spent like eight hours editing this because it was so noisy. Somebody started mowing a yard like right next to us as we were recording. So it stepped on it pretty bad. And so I saved what I could. The episode is still great, so please listen all the way through. But you are going to have some some distortion and audio inclusion. So be mindful of that. But I do have my new equipment in, and uh guys, this is gonna completely change the entire show whenever I get that up and running. So uh I'm very excited to get this started, and uh look forward to having a lot more people on the show. And uh so enjoy this episode with Brother Jeff. Please listen all the way through. He's always got something good to give us. So uh I'll see you at the end of it. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Middle of the Fire podcast. I am Steve, and with me I have my good friend, you know him well, Jeff Robinson. Thank you for uh hanging out with me, Jeff. Jeff, I'm gonna ask you to tell me your story from where you were before you met God, how you met God, and where you are now, and some stories and and fun times in between.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

So I'm just gonna go ahead and uh hand it over to you, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Thanks a lot, Steve. It's what a privilege it is to be on your podcast again. It's always uh always a good time. Uh I really believe in this podcast. And uh I think everybody has a story. And so uh for me, uh basically uh how I how it all started for me as far as how I met the Lord. Uh my mom uh was from Virginia uh and my dad was from Mississippi and so my dad was in uh he was he was in telephone construction so it allowed him to travel all over the country and so uh you know after him and mom got married uh we were we lived in several different states just traveling with dad as he'd done construction. We lived in Kentucky and Alabama and and uh Virginia, uh just just all over the place. And dad finally he decided to settle the family down, uh I guess when I was somewhere around probably eight or nine years old. We settled down. Uh we of course all the moving, we were in our schools all the time, so we were always learning different friends and which was tough on us when we were kids, but that's finally we were all glad to settle down. We settled down in all the places, nobody didn't know anything about this place, but dad settled down in Warren County, Tennessee. And so um that's that's that's where we ended up and and so uh uh how how I come to know the the Lord, my mom, basically the the background for her in Virginia was there was a lot of in the back hills of Virginia, a lot of apostolic churches back in the or holiness churches is what they called them back then, back in the hills of Virginia. And so uh mom was from that environment, and so every summer when school was up, mom would take us up to Virginia, and we'd spend our summers in Virginia, and so uh uh I guess probably one summer when when I was probably about thirteen years old, it's the first time I'd ever felt the presence of God. Uh uh I felt like God was calling me to to come in. I didn't I didn't know really know what I was feeling, I just felt an overwhelming power of God in the in the hills of Virginia. I wasn't even in a church, I was just in the I felt I'd never felt it before. And so um anyway, I I didn't do anything with that. Uh basically I I ran from it. Uh you know, uh my a little bit of my backstory was uh my dad was uh a real bad alcoholic and drank a lot. And so uh it wouldn't it wasn't hard for for us to uh or me to fall into that same same trap. So started drinking quite a bit, doing drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowds, uh, and uh and you know dad had put us in a little uh trailer park right outside of uh McMinville in Port of Viola, Brookside Community Center. And so uh there was a church in Mac Minville that was called uh Jesus' name Pentecostal Church, where they were going around knocking doors in the neighborhood. Well, they evidently had knocked on my mother's door and invited her to church, and so my my mom ended up going to church and her and her good friend Pat Barrett, and they ended up receiving the Holy Ghost. And so from that point, uh it's when we I guess was my first introduction to church going to an apostolic church.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And what was what was your first impression of an apostolic church?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Uh I I think my first impression was just how weird uh everybody looked and and dressed and and uh uh I'd never been around anything like that, so I was uh I don't know, at at eight or nine years old, you know, you're pretty you're pretty put back by all of that. And so uh I I think the expressive worship was uh for an eight-year-old was fearful. Yeah. Seeing you you're seeing uh uh overwhelming worship, people spinning in circles and you know, rolling down the aisles, you know. Back then it was holy rollers.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

You know, and so it was it was different. And so um and so mom forced us kids to to go to church, and and my dad, he would back her up on it, so uh every Sunday we we ended up having to be forced to go to church, whether we wanted to or not. And so I just kept growing, as I got older, I get kept getting farther and farther from uh wanting to even be part of the church or be around the church. And uh got as I mentioned, I got into the wrong crowd, started doing the wrong things, and and uh and so uh started drinking pretty heavy, and uh and so I guess when I was about 17 years old, all this uh for me I I'd met a good friend in high school, his name was Benji Black, and uh me and Benji uh decided uh that uh that we were gonna join the Marines. Uh we were seniors or going we were seniors that year and we'd met with the recruiters and we were going to be Marines and so we'd we'd already signed it all up, but when the recruiter come to my house uh to talk to my parents, uh my dad was all for it with him being ex-military out of the army and uh and my mom was absolutely against it. And so so basically what had happened was uh uh I was 17 and I was gonna graduate as 17, and so the problem was that both parents had to sign for me being 17 years old to go into the military. And so mom uh would not sign, and so dad, of course, uh what ended up happening was Benji went on and he went into the Marines and I told my mother, I said, well, you know, it's it's May, uh I'll be graduating. I said October's coming around, and as soon as that comes around, I'm gone. I'm into the military and I'm gone. And so uh so anyway, uh uh that summer of eighty one absolutely uh changed my life. Uh I remember probably somewhere around June that church that mom went to was in a revival. And so uh a good friend of mine, Tim West, uh was uh had never been to that church ever in his whole life, but but he was he was dating Ginny Myers, Melody West, or which is now Melody West, but he was dating Ginny. And uh, and so she they came, they were invited to come to the service, and they came to the service in the revival, and Tim got the Holy Ghost. And uh, and when I got home that night, my mom had said, You're not gonna believe what happened tonight in tonight's service. I said, What? She said, Tim West got the Holy Ghost, and I was just so blowed away. I was like, You're talking about the Tim I hang with? And she said, Yes, the Tim you'd run away with, and I was so blowed away because I knew the lifestyle that we had both lived, you know, and I was just like, there's no way. And so uh it ended up that uh Pat Barrett, uh, my mom's good friend and her were kind of working behind the scenes to uh to get me and Monica lined up on a blind date. And so uh the only way that I could go uh I guess and go out with her uh was the fact that they we had to go to service that night. Right, and so uh ended up uh going to the service and God moved on me in a big way. And so uh I didn't get the Holy Ghost that night. And so uh I r I remember how I felt though, and but I ended up getting baptized. And so uh but I but I I couldn't get the I I couldn't get the Holy Ghost. And so I I mean I just kept trying and trying and trying to get the Holy Ghost and and I and I couldn't and I'd repent and and it's just I just couldn't make it happen. So I s I guess I was a little bit socially awkward and so I I didn't want to get the Holy Ghost in front of people. And so uh I convinced myself that I could go out into the woods and so I'd go out into the woods and I would I'd get by an old log and I'd just cry out to God and ask him to forgive me and and and so I still I I couldn't get the Holy Ghost. So after after probably two months of doing that, God just started dealing with me about going back and making everything right with the people that I fought and the people that I'd done wrong. And so I set out on this journey just to go around and make everything right, you know, with all the people that I felt like I had done wrong. Just to try to reconcile relationship? Yeah. Because I wanted I I didn't know what it was, you know, because I felt like I'd repented, but uh I mean it was just something in my head I couldn't get past, and so I I did all that and and and and finally uh I re I remember uh the night I received the gift of the Holy Ghost and uh man I will never ever forget that night. Yeah. And so uh I don't know, I just uh I never felt anything like it in my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

What about it? What about it? It's gonna it was life-changing.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Yeah, I mean it just uh if you'd known me before all of that was every other word out of my mouth was a cuss word, right? Uh very foul language, very demonstrative, very in your face kind of guy, and and so uh uh after I received the Holy Ghost, I'll never forget the going outside the next morning and and man the grass and the trees were just so much greener. It was like it was like I was looking through a a whole a totally different lens, you know, than I'd ever seen anything before. And so uh of course I was I was working at Midwestern Nursery and and all the guys there were uh more like uh dude, who are you? What what has happened to you? So it was an immediate shift. It was immediate. Wow. Like the cussing was gone.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

The the all of it was just the the I mean people noticeably was coming up to me and like what what is what is Jeff? You know? And so uh, you know, me and Monica ended up dating and you know, we uh You finally went on that blind date? Finally went on the blind date.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

What'd you what what'd you think when you first saw her?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah. So the first time I ever saw Monica was uh was in Sunday school. Oh and uh I tell this story all the time and she she she doesn't like it when I tell it. Well, hey, tell the internet while you're here. Uh and so and so I she walked into the Sunday school uh class and and the sun was shining through the class that morning. Uh-huh. And when when she walked through the room, it was like it was like I saw an angel.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

You know? Yeah. And I told myself in that moment when I saw her, that's gonna be my wife. And she don't like that part.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

She didn't like that story.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

And so anyway, we ended up uh I at first she didn't want nothing to do with me to date me, you know. I had to really chase after her. Really? Oh yeah, she was no, no, you ain't dating you and and uh it it it was a tough road for me to win her just the chance to get to date her and and so uh but she she finally gave in and uh uh you know, asked her asked her to after a while of dating, I think we dated for a couple of years, you know, and then we I ended asking her to marry me. And uh you know what a what a journey it's been uh for her and I with our with our children and now grandbabies and and you know I look back I look back sometimes and just very I hate to get emotional, but it's just hard for me hard for me to believe sometimes. God took such an awful story and he turned it into a beautiful life.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

And uh Man uh for that I'll always be thankful because it's Steve, I never could have done it. Yeah, sure. I never could have recreate created what what God has blessed uh me with, the soulmate soulmate he's blessed me with, the children he's blessed me with. You know, and uh uh and the you know the the church that he's blessed me with, all the friends and the relationships that that I've had over the years and so it's uh it's just been amazing. And so uh I I think uh in all of all of that time, probably one of the hardest battles for for me and Monica is is the church that we'd actually received the Holy Ghost in. The pastor ended up dying there. And uh after the the new pastor came in, things wasn't quite right and so uh And so that your original pastor he passed away suddenly? No, he was he was in his nineties.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Yeah. And so uh he ended up passing away, but after he left it it just didn't ever feel the same and uh our kids wouldn't get in really what we wanted them to get, and so we started looking we started looking into different churches and so we ended up uh going to a couple of different churches. It it it didn't quite work out, and so uh the church that we originally received the Holy Ghost, they were having a revival and started looking for a new pastor. Well they got a new pastor in and we were were very drawn to him and uh and so we ended up uh he ended up leaving that church after after three or four months he left there, but he started another church in McMinville. And so uh we helped we left and helped him start that church, and so uh but uh it uh it it it went down a a slippery slope for me. I uh of course I was helping there, I was teaching, preaching, and uh and then the church was growing, it started growing pretty fast and and then all of a sudden uh uh the pastor uh it just he started spiraling down this this bad road and uh and ended up hurting a lot of families and uh forcing families to leave the church and so uh uh for me and Monica uh it it was extremely hard and we felt we felt r really betrayed. Uh and so we ended up I resigned from the church and so did he ended up did he end up targeting you guys as well?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Oh well it just I I think where you were just caught up in the middle of it.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

We were just caught up in a lot of uh uh situations where we we were we were in leadership and we were asking people to leave the church that were really good friends of ours.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

He was making you do it.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Oh my goodness. And so it was just uh it was just so hard. I can't imagine that. And uh I mean families that we were extremely close to and uh it it caused a spot in my life to where uh I was I was man, I was mad at him, I was mad at God. I was mad at everybody for letting it happen. And uh and I just told Monica I'm done. And she said, Well what's what does that mean? You're done. And I said, I'm done. I'm done I'm done with all of this. I'm not I'm not doing it anymore. And so I went through an extremely long and dark, dry period where uh where I didn't want nothing to do with church, I didn't want nothing to do with going back to church. And uh Monica, she uh uh Tim and Jenny West had started going to church in Smithville with uh with Pastor Dwayne Cornelius and Jenny had asked Monica to come to a couple of services and uh and so uh Monica started going there, she'd been going there a month or so and and and they had uh I I never forget it was of all things, it was an Easter drum.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Oh really?

SPEAKER_03 23:12

And so uh she said, well just come to the Easter drama. And so uh I went to the Easter drama and I run into Keith Hewlin, uh a friend that I'd known for a long time, and and uh and I don't know, it's just it's this connection between me and him, and but I still I was just I was so hurt that I went home, I was really moved by the Easter drama, went home, and I was like, she's like, Well you think I said, No, I'm still done. I'm uh I'm not getting back, I'm not getting hurt again. I am not getting hurt again. And so uh and so I remember uh the Sunday that uh that my wife I was laying in bed and it was a Sunday morning, she said, I'm going to church. She said, Are you going in? I said, I ain't going to church.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

I'm not going. And she uh she came in and she took her hair down.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

And she laid her hair across beautiful and she started praying over me and something just broke in me. Something broke in me and and uh and I didn't go that uh Sunday, but I I committed to her that I would I would try to work my way back. And so uh Tim Tim had set up a meeting with me and Pastor Dwayne Corneus and I tell people all the time, you know, when when when I met him You know it changed It changed everything for me, you know. You know how he handled me in the very beginning and how he let me heal before I ever got re-engaged again. And uh it was uh it changed my life.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

And uh and it gave me uh the way he approached it, he gave me a love for truth and a love for people, uh that uh that I never had had before, really. And so uh and so uh you know I committed to helping and being there with him and uh man it's it's just been some of the best years of my life uh working in the kingdom. And so uh uh and and I'm I'm I'm I'm just excited still every day I'm excited about what I see God doing. And so uh, you know, I I'm excited about what he's doing inside of New Life and the the lives of the people I see that uh I think Steve, the more I'm around it, the more I realize that there's more of us that have a damaged story, right? And just and I'm more the more I'm around it, the more I realize that maybe nobody really has it all together.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Oh, no.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

Right? No. And and without his mercy and without his grace, then then uh none of us. You know, it's uh there's a verse he really makes stand out to me over the last few weeks that it's if if we are disconnected from the vine, it says we are nothing. That's very humbling for me. Yeah. It's very humbling to me because it but it but it's really very uh it makes the ground very equal for all of us. That if any of us become disconnected from divine, we're not He is our life, He is our source, He is our strength. And so uh and that's my story. That's my story. What's next for me is uh I think the next part from for me is to to always uh keep very uh upfront and close to me how fragile uh the line is between uh having it a good relationship with God or being on the outside. I don't think we realize how fragile that line is. Right? And I don't and and that's for anybody. It doesn't matter if you if you've just started or if it's somebody that's been doing this for 30 or 40 years, the line is extremely fragile and and and always exist, that we can be drawn away by our temptations, we can be drawn away by uh we can be drawn away by the things that that are not important. Right? Uh I think what's important for me as I move forward to help others, why crucial conversations is so important to me as I see people and I've seen people over the years on my walk struggle over things that a conversation could have fixed if we would have just been brave enough to have it. Right? Uh I I've got good friends of mine that are not serving God today that I feel like a crucial conversation, had it been had at the right moment, would have fixed everybody. I think the thing that we owe one another is transparency. I think we owe each other honesty. And and I think that's the only way, I think, you know, sometimes we we want to give these uh very uh Christmassy answers to make people feel better, right? And and and I and and I don't think that's the the right approach, right? I I think the the rawness of uh where we're at, I think the the rawness of all of us men getting together on a retreat like this on a weekend and talking about our weaknesses invaluable. Right? Because none of us have it all together. None of us have it all together, and we have to have one another. Uh so I mean that's why I push the crucial conversation so much, but but the thing that that I that I want us to make sure that that we're not uh God has really just been hammering me on this lately is that we don't get caught up in traditions of men. Right? And and and what I mean by that is that that you know we look back and we give uh the the people during Jesus' time, the Pharisees, and say we give them such a hard rap on why could they not see Jesus, right? Why couldn't they figure it out? I mean they've had centuries to figure this thing out. Why didn't they get it? And I think that if we're not careful, some of the same traditions, we can create traditions in our culture that men have created. And and and and what I mean by that is you know, we put so much uh we put so much in the fact that a church building, a church building is is where everything is done for God. Right? And that's a tradition that men have built, right? That's a tradition that we have built, that I can tell you right now that the most important work you'll ever do for God is going to be Monday through Saturday. It is the life you live, right? He says we are living, breathing testimonies. Well, you know what? We put so much front on it on a on a Sunday, and we put so much energy into a Sunday when when what we really ought to be focused on is Monday through Saturday. Are we evangelizing during that time? And and it and and evangelizing is more than just sitting down and having a Bible stuff. Yeah. Right? Evangelizing is how you how you live outside of the church.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Everybody's watching. Right?

SPEAKER_03 33:08

And nobody wants to see somebody that's got it all together. We don't. So let's not sell ourselves on things that that men have created. I think God's mercy reaches his grace reaches so much further than we could ever imagine.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

But if we're not careful as men, we we try to put caps on them.

unknown 33:38

Right?

SPEAKER_03 33:38

We try to put caps on our friends and our and our and our people that we go to church with that and we put yolks on them that are yokes they were never meant to carry. We're supposed to bring it all and lay it at his feet.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Right. And so uh my journey is to to uh I want to strengthen the the body of Christ and and I and I want to encourage I want to I I guess my goal, Steve, is to encourage people to good works. Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Uh and and to let you know that that your work don't have to look like mine. You got something uniquely about you in the body of Christ that's different from me, and God recognized it, and he saw it in you. And so uh I think part of my journey is just helping people realize that you're important. Right? Why are you important? Because you're a creation of the king, right? And he doesn't love me any more than he loves you. But you know why we can't get it? Because we're not God. And we can't think back then. Because he said, My ways, man, they're way above your ways. You don't get it. And so we we get so caught up in the judging one another. Right? And uh and Paul warns us, he warns us sternly against it. Stop, stop comparing yourselves to one another. It's not healthy for the body of Christ. And the reason it's not healthy is because the adversary has learned how to work in it. He works in it. And so if we could do, if we could just have a mindset in our church, let's just say the men in our church, let's that we have a mindset that I want to encourage my brother to good works. And I think we can blow the top off of them. But but but we all have something to learn from each other if we can just be vulnerable enough to do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Once again, thank you, Brother Jeff, for being here for this episode, and I really appreciate that. And uh, yeah, guys, that wraps up episode one of my new life. Uh so be on the lookout for more of those. And uh, as always, thank you for listening. God bless you, and I will see you on the next episode.