April 30, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of "The God Pod", we're diving headfirst into Shane Murray's incredible journey chronicled in his book "Jesus Frees Us."
Picture this: from the wild world of drugs and hanging with the wrong crowd, Shane found himself in a dark place. But God stepped in, flipped his life upside down, and set him on a whole new path.
It wasn't an overnight change, as he was still met with highs, lows, and challenges, but with raw honesty and unwavering faith, he shares his remarkable story of redemption.
His encounter with Christ didn't stop with his own journey, as he's now helping other men find their way out of the darkness just like he did. Listen in as we unpack his relateable journey to rock-solid faith, and how he's using it to speak into the lives of others.
GUEST: Shane Murray: JesusFreesUsTN@yahoo.com
Jesus Frees Us (The Book): https://a.co/d/eJbaRex
HOST: @LeanneEllington
To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.
Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Not here to preach. I want to keep
it clean and talk to me and recall where faith
meets all nature.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Get in touch with your creator with a baking love
and June she even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
What's done? What's that? As well said that talking transformation.
What's done got to.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey, Hey, and welcome back to What's God got to
do with It? I'm here today with a very special guest.
We're sitting here with Shane Murray, the author and the
creator of Jesus frees Us.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So, first of all, thank you for being here. Hello,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh thanks for having me excited about it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Well, we are going to get into the message of
your book and really the movement that you've created here
in Middle Tennessee, specifically around men, which I love that
a lot of your work is geared towards men, because
obviously a lot of the work I do is with women,
and I think it's very important that we have people
that are speaking to our needs. And I know there
is this generation in a way of lost men that
(01:22):
need to be led by other godly loving emotionally mature
and emotionally intelligent and spiritually mature men. So I think
the work you're doing is so important. But before we
dive into all of that, just kind of give us
a thirty thousand foot overview of who you are, what's
led you to be the man that you are, because
you have your own testimony that really paved the way
for all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, so I'll try to do a thirty forty thousand
foot view. Grew up in Alabama my religious upbringing. I
knew about God, I knew who he was, but I
didn't I didn't know him. So I grew up kind
of going to church. My dad was not a Christian,
so my mom did kind of the best she could,
and she took us to church on and off, probably
(02:05):
more oft than on. But I knew about Jesus, knew
who he was, and so I grew up calling myself
a Christian my whole life and not really understanding that
Christian means christ followers. So there's a commitment of following
Jesus involved with being a Christian, not just an intellectual belief.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So great distinction.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, So I grew up thinking I was a Christian
because you know, I believed in God, and I believed
that what Jesus did on the cross and everything, but
I never committed my life to him. So growing up
I battled pornography was a big struggle, addiction, alcohol, drugs,
really just living for the world and for my flesh
(02:44):
just led into a lot of sinful lifestyle. So fast forward,
so seventeen years old, this ungodly lifestyle led me to
really being surrounded or surrounding myself with bad company. So
bad company corrupts good character, It's true. And so I
was intertwined with a lot of bad company, which corrupted
(03:05):
my path. So seventeen years old, I get arrested. I'm
in jail for stealing. Stealing was a big part of
my life back then. I was good at until then
when I got caught. So that changed the trajectory of
my life big time, because not only did I get
caught and I was in jail, and I started praying,
(03:25):
probably for the first time that I could really remember
of you know, those bottom prayers of just God, get
me out of this. So I started praying, you know,
if you'll get me out of this situation, you know,
I'll do this. I'll do that, but there was some
kind of ingrained fear of God in me to know
not to promise something that I can't keep up my
end of the deal. So I said, God, if you'll
(03:47):
get me out of this, I'll never steal again. And
I've kept that commitment. And he showed up in a
miraculous way and got me out of that, really showed
up at my sense in court date. My resting officer
didn't show up, so the judge actually expunged it off
my record, gave me a complete fresh start.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Whereas the metaphor in that too, right, but.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Before that, not knowing what that was going to turn out,
as I'm praying and they're telling me that I could
be facing up to fifteen years in jail tries as
an adult because of the amount of stuff that I stole,
and so big fear there. Right, So he showed up
for me that way, and you know, that should have
been my turning point, but it wasn't. It was a
(04:28):
time that I can look at and say that was
one of those stepping stones that got me to where
I am today, got me to going on his path,
but it didn't completely get me on the path. So
not only that, but me getting arrested separated me from everything.
So I was halfway through my junior year and my
parents grounded me for the rest of high school. So
(04:49):
I couldn't see anybody, couldn't hang out with anybody. I
didn't get a cell phone until I graduated high school
and moved out and went to college. I couldn't drive
my car anywhere. It just sat in the driveway for
me to look at. So that year and a half
I rode the bus to school. And not only that,
but I had to switch schools. So I went from
going to Smyrna High School. They put me in Canning County,
(05:09):
which is a complete culture shock. If you're from the area,
you know what I'm talking about. And so I had
to leave all the girlfriends, guy friends, everything that I knew.
And at the time, you know, that seems like the
worst thing that could have ever happened, But hindsight being
twenty twenty, you look back and it's like that was
one of the best things that ever happened to me.
So that got me off the really dark path. I
(05:33):
looked back and there was two guys that I hung
out with a lot who were now in prison for murder.
One person got murdered, and another one keeps getting locked
up for home invasions and stuff. And that was the
people I was just surrounding myself with and would have
become just like them if God didn't intervene. So went
to college, never stole anything else. The crime side of
(05:54):
my life was pretty much over. But there was a
lot of drugs, more hardcore drugs in college, more sack,
more girls, all this stuff, just party lifestyle. Came back
from that and fast forward to kind when I met
my wife, so we were friends of friends. I reconnected
with some friends from middle school and we were both
(06:14):
friends of friends there. And she was in a wedding
that I was close friends with everybody in the wedding party.
She was in the wedding party, and we met that way.
And before meeting her, I had noticed that there was
something about my life that I just didn't like. So
I was already I started going to church by myself
at life point in Smyrna, and she liked that about me.
(06:37):
When I first met her, I was super attracted to her.
I don't think that the feeling was mutual, but I
think that her attraction towards me was because I was
going to church. I was pursuing God in some former fashion.
And over time, you know, I fell in love with her,
fell in love with her son, Eli, who was three
at the time. She was not very far removed from
(06:58):
a divorce when we started talking, so we start dating,
and over time we stopped going to church as much.
Every other weekend when Eli's as Dad's its party weekend,
you know, a lot alcohol, closing down the clubs, the bars,
all the things and everything that goes in with all
that that couples with it. And then the other weekends
(07:20):
when Eli was home, we were at church.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So it's almost like a double life.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yes, it was a double life. So I was very
much one foot in the world, one foot in the kingdom,
you know, trying to play both sides, and you can't
do that, you know, the devil owns the fence. So
I tried that for a while, and around twenty three
years old, I looked at my life and realized, like,
I'm the biggest hypocrite. I've called myself a Christian my
(07:45):
entire life and lived like hell for the most of it.
And there's nothing about my life that speaks God, that
speaks Jesus. So looking at that, that did not sit
well with me. I think that that was the Holy
Spirit's conviction in me. And my answer to that was,
I'm a read through the Bible cover to cover and
see if I really believe this or if this was
(08:06):
just something that was kind of fed to me over
the years. And so if I do believe it, then
I'm gona really give my life to Christ. And if
I don't, then i musa stop calling myself a Christian.
So that year of getting into the Word, and the
Word is alive, it is active as powerful to transform you,
and that is exactly what it did to me. That
(08:28):
year completely turned my life upside down, but it was
it was a completely different lifestyle after that. And then
I got serious about my faith and I started doing
everything I could to just get out of my bubble
and into God's comfort zone of meeting the Holy Spirit
and allowing him to move in me and through me.
(08:49):
And I heard a pastor a long time ago say,
you know, the Holy Spirit's called the comforter. Why do
you need the comforter if you're always comfortable? So that
was like a challenge for me to get outside of
my comfort zone. Because I was very introverted, very much
closed off to myself type of person. And I realized
that this new fire that I had for Jesus was
(09:11):
not supposed to just be for me. I was supposed
to spread it and share it with others. So that
was challenging. So I started doing that the best I could.
So I started going to prayer meetings at my local
church in the mornings every morning before work. I started
sharing Jesus and just how he was moving in me
and changing me with my coworkers and my bosses and
(09:34):
everybody who knew the old me. I remember early on,
one thing that was constantly rolling through my head was
I need to lose my reputation because everybody that knew me,
I was the party guy. I was the guy that
would come back from the weekend with all these wild
stories and just that was me, and I needed to
lose that reputation. So I was doing whatever I could
(09:57):
to just get uncomfortable for God, and he was showing
up in a lot of ways. So that happened. For
the first six years of me walking with Jesus was
just a wild roller coaster, and really my struggles with
all the things, so I kind of I kind of
beat the drugs and the alcohol before Christ, but the
(10:21):
pornography was the one thing that was really holding on.
And so the first six years of following Jesus, it
just disappeared because I was so I guess my eyes
were so fixed on him and just consumed with Jesus
that that I didn't even think about those other things
for that long. That's a really long period of time
looking back, But six years in a lots happened through there,
(10:45):
and God's shown up in a lot of just job
moves and steps of faith and everything, and then leading
leading couples groups and stuff. But we didn't have any
real community, and we had always wanted community. So our
small group consisted of my parents, her parents, and people
their age, and I'm leading this group of people who
(11:06):
should be leading me, but growing up I didn't have
anybody who modeled that for me. So I really learned
just through getting into the word and getting into books.
The Bible was the first book that I ever read,
and through that fire getting ignited in me, I just
wanted to consume more and more and more. So I
was reading other books and listening to sermons and just
(11:26):
all the things so I was leading small groups with
my wife, but they were all consistent of our parents
and people their age, and we realized we need community
of people our age, because when I started truly following Christ,
(11:49):
all of our friend groups kind of just disappeared. We
didn't push them out of our lives, but we were
now on completely different roads, different paths, and they wanted
nothing to do with the path that we were on now.
So we didn't have any friends our age, and so
we stopped leading a couple's group and with intentions of
joining one just to meet some people. And then Eli
(12:10):
started football. We had Emsley, our daughter, and just life
was full. I accepted this new higher position at this place,
and it was busy, and so just life and busyness
and distraction. Slowly God got kind of put on the
back burner. I wasn't reading as much, I wasn't praying
as much. I wasn't sharing my faith like I had
(12:31):
as much. I was still doing those things. We're still
going to church, but but there was this lukewarmness that
crept in and over time it was like my fire
was completely out. And at that point pornography came back
into the picture, and it got it hooks in me
pretty deep to where I was trying to fight this addiction,
trying to fight this sin and overcome it every way
(12:55):
I knew how. And it was like I just I
couldn't feel God's press anymore. I felt like there was
this wall up, and it was it was scary wondering
if I can get that back, like I just if
you experience like God's presence in your life in a
powerful way like that and then it's gone, it's like
a very scary thing, like I've got to get this back.
(13:17):
I have to have his presence. So there's a quote
I don't know who it's by, but it says, you
don't know how bad of a man you are until
you try really hard to be good. And so till
that point, I'd never really battled my sin, and so
now I'm trying to battle against it. I realized how
bad the Merson and I really am. I can't beat
it without Jesus. And so I experienced a job loss.
(13:41):
I was in a pretty deep kind of pit of
despair of just everything's crumbling in and I was in
a men's group that I joined when this porn came
back in to try to help myself get out of this,
but it was very surface level. So we talked about
the bibe, we talked about sin, but we didn't talk
about our sin. We didn't talk about our struggles. We
(14:04):
acted like we were perfect and had it all together.
And then in the middle of my job loss, they
invited me to a Christian men's retreat in Georgia. And
I had never been to anything like that before, and
so I didn't know what to expect. I just knew
that my fire was gone and I wanted it back,
and I wanted to be able to overcome the sin.
I wanted freedom from this, and so I went that weekend,
(14:26):
and I encountered a group of one hundred and fifty
plus men, just super vulnerable, super transparent. There was no mask,
and they genuinely loved each other. They, I mean, there
was this God type love that was very present there,
and they were confessing their sins. And so I got
my opportunity to finally confess that sin and get that
(14:51):
off my shoulders, and I experienced more freedom that weekend.
I got baptized as an adult that weekend, and I
felt like that chains were broken, and I came back
from that just like I have to have this all
the time. I can't just have this once or twice
a year at a men's retreat, Like I need men
in my life that I can live the like walk
(15:13):
this out with with the mask off, do life, challenge
each other, chase after Jesus together on the daily. And
so that's kind of where the idea of Jesus freezes
came from. Was was that weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So so good, so much to unpack and so many
lessons within that, you know, And what I'm discerning from
it is, you know, first and foremost, like just from
a young age, it was almost like your first encounter
was almost like a bargaining. You're like, hey, if I
give you this shoplifting, if I give you this, you
know theft part of me, I'll never do that again.
But you like weren't quite ready to give your entire life.
And I think anybody who's listening can understand that experience
(15:47):
of like the bargaining almost that we do with God
of like, oh, just it's almost like a get out
a jail free card.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
In your case, it was literally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right, but it's like God, just help me with this
one thing. And it's almost like it's not that we're posturing.
We don't know what we know, but sometimes we look
at it like God is this savior only when we
need him. And through that maturity, whether it was life maturity,
life happening, but also spiritual maturity, you did eventually realize,
like later down the road, that you were compartmentalizing your faith.
But I love how you shared it because that is
(16:14):
so relatable. How you know, I think a lot for me.
This is how it started where I was like, Okay,
this whole Jesus thing, this whole Bible thing, Like I'm
going to see if it makes sense to me, you know.
But that's not just the case for skeptical Jews. It's
for everybody. Like when we're kids, we download something or
were indoctrinated into a certain set of beliefs, and then
as adults, it's like, if we haven't personally voted on
(16:36):
it and we didn't choose it.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's not ours.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And I think that your story and testimony is such
a profound example of that of what happens when adult
Shaine came out and was like, listen, who I've been
up until now. This is not the man that I
want to be. And I'm ready to choose better, even
if I don't know what that looks like. And that
was not a linear path for you. There were ebbs
and flows, there were highs and lows, there were still
drugs and alcohol in play. And for anyone listening, I
(17:00):
really want you to understand the imperfection that comes within
all of us, where.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
We don't have to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Like, he's not like picking and choosing which sin he
will help redeem you from, right, or who gets to
get saved right.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He loves all of his children.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And you were battling some really big things, you know,
porn being the thing that kind of came back with
a vengeance, but like not to diminish drugs and alcohol
and pornography, all these things, the worldly things, not to
mention the consequences that would have happened if you had
gone down those roads. Like literally the people that you
were hanging out with were either dying or spending life
in prison.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Right, this is really big stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So if you were to kind of talk to anybody
who's listening right now, and they're thinking, Okay, my sin
is way worse than other people's sin, or like no,
but you don't understand. I'm so deep in the throes
of drugs or alcohol or pornography or whatever it is, right,
and like, am I redeemable? Am I forgivable? Is my
sin worse than other people sin? What would you say
to the person like that that's in the throes of
(17:57):
it right now?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That's a good question. So I would say everything is redeemable.
I mean, Jesus can literally free you from any and everything.
And I think there's so many stories of that through
scripture that God gives us to show us that nobody
is too far gone. Paul the Apostle, Paul who wrote
like a third of the New Testament being one of them.
(18:18):
He was one who was killing the Christians and hunting
down the Christians. And he did this thinking that he
was serving God in a way. But God, Jesus knocked
him off his horse literally and set him on a
different path. And so I would say every sin is
against God. And it's just a reflection of not knowing
(18:40):
your for one, not knowing your identity in Christ, not
knowing Jesus. It speaks of the new creation, Like when
you are a new creation in Christ, all things have
become new, and all things like the old's passed away,
all things have become new. So that is so true,
and I've seen that lived out in so many men's lives.
I've seen that lived out in my life. Like when
you become a new creation in Christ and your identity
(19:03):
is fixed in Jesus and you have a relationship with Jesus,
it changes everything, so it's not even you anymore. Like
there is this new man walking and the old man
is dead.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Absolutely, So I love how you shared earlier.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You're like, I had to like basically break ties with
my reputation, you know, the.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Reputation that you were known for.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
But with the first and foremost what had to happen
was you needed to break that reputation within yourself. And
really it was an identity conversation, because that's the thing,
like drugs and alcohol and porn whatever it is, right,
it can become almost like a badge of honor.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I'm like, yeah, like this is what I do, this
is who I am.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
When you don't know who you are, when your identity
is not rooted in something bigger, right, or deeper or holier.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So that being said, are you able to kind of
pinpoint what it was like to just die to yourself
and not let that.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Be your identity anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And then when it came to rooting your new identity,
what did you do that through scripture?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Did you have mentors? Like how did you what was
that rebuilding process like for you?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Oh man, that's a rebuilding process that was continuing to me.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Today dot dot day? Is it today in twenty twenty four?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Continue on?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
So and that in itself is a lesson, Like it's
not this one and done thing that you have to
just do all in one day. It is this lifelong
experience where you're where you're stepping into creation.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Right. So it was scripture for me, Like I said,
my turning point was not really my turning point, but
just God coming alive to me. And it was through
the Word. So I was on. I was doing a
one year Bible read where I was reading the Bible
every single day, I never missed, and I was praying,
and just through that process God made things come alive
(20:44):
to me. He showed me that like I didn't just
believe that he was real and that this was true anymore,
like he was. He was proving it to me. It
was leaping off the page like he was confirming it.
And then I had through that very beginning time, Like
God showed up in so many ways that I have
so many answered prayers and miraculous things that happen in
(21:04):
my life to look back on this, like anything that
I go through now, I can look back on those
kind of monumental times in my life and say, like
the same God that was with me there is with
me today and he can be with anybody through Like
if he does this for me, he can do it
for anybody else. And I think that that was my
perspective when I was reading through the scriptures and reading
(21:26):
all these stories. Is God's no respector of person's If
He's going to do this in Paul's life, if He's
going to do this in Elijah's life, like whoever it
is through scripture, Like, he can do it in my
life too, and he will. It's how far do I
want to press in with him? So it was just
a continual pursuit of him and learning how to surrender
(21:47):
completely to what his path was for my life. So
that came through many many different facets, and like I said,
it just continues today.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So absolutely yeah, And I love how it was, like
first you had to decide what you weren't, and like
who you were no longer going to be reputable as right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
But then it's like then it's a blank.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Slate, and you filled it with scripture and stories from
the Bible and other people in your life pouring into
you and showing you what your identity could be rooted in.
It's almost like a possibility that we get invited into,
but we have to get rid of the old or
at least like suspend disbelief that that's who we are.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And so I told you earlier that the Bible was
the first book that I read. I told you earlier
that the Bible was the first book that I read.
The other book first book that I read while I
was in this process of reading the Bible. I was
(22:45):
never a reader. I hated reading growing up, hence why
I never read a book before this. But I had
this new fire, and I was listening to sermons and
different things, and I was like, I want to read
a good Christian book while I'm reading my Bible too,
And so I went to a local bookstore and I
was walking down the Christian aisle and for some reason,
this little black book with white writing just jumped out
(23:06):
to me. It's called Not a Fan by Kyle Iidelman,
and it really changed the way I looked at what
it means to follow Jesus and what it means to
be a fully committed Christ follower. It gets into the
whole thing of Jesus. Wasn't calling for people to be
his fans, people to be these enthusiastic admirers of Jesus
(23:29):
who just sit in the stands and cheer him on.
But he was calling for people to get into the game.
And what does that look like? And was he really
asking what does he mean by deny yourself and take
up your cross and follow me? And it really gets
into that and it was life changing the book. Then
they have a movie called Not a Fan that was
(23:51):
really impactful for me and my wife as we watched
it and cried and talked about different things and what
does this new life look like for us? And just
a small little nugget in there, one of the things
that was I had this long prayer journal at the
beginning that I would just have had all these prayers
that I was praying. I got to check off all
these ways that God answered these prayers throughout the years,
(24:13):
and one of those things was my Dad's Salvation, and
I just knew, like if he would read this book,
like God's going to get a hold of them book.
But I knew he went to read a book, so
he was not a reader just like me. But I
knew he would watch a movie, and yeah, just so happens.
They had a movie. So I dropped off the movie
(24:33):
to him and asked them to watch it. And it
was months later they hadn't watched it. My aunt came
up to visit. She's a Christian. I called her. I
was like, hey, can you get mom and dad watched
this movie tonight? And she's like, I'll try. So I
was going to that prayer meeting every morning and he
showed up the next day and I was just blown away.
I was like, what are you doing here? And he said, well,
(24:54):
you're always talking about I just thought like, come check
it out. So we're sitting there and the first first
question asked her in the prayer meeting by the guy
who's running it was to my dad asked him if
he had anything he wanted to share or anything he
wanted to pray about. And my dad was a very
just tough, strong, silent type, didn't show emotion and I
(25:15):
don't know that I really ever saw my dad cry
growing up. So he just started breaking down and he
was sobbing, he was stuttering, he could not control himself.
And I remember him saying, I don't want to just
be a fan of Jesus anymore. I want to be
a I want to be a fully committed follower of Jesus,
and I want what my son has. And he was
(25:36):
just broken and give it. He gave his life to
Christ that morning, and he really was this new creation.
He went from not reading anything to he read his
Bible every day. He went from being this person who
was very silent, didn't talk to anybody, really to somebody
you had to drag out of the store because he's
talking to everybody they meets. And so, yeah, that was
(25:56):
that was one of those things that, my goodness, that
book help guide what it looked like to follow Jesus,
not only for me but obviously for others.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, and I love that because it is such a
kind of big, vague, like massive topic, this idea of
following Jesus. And you're right, that distinction of not just
being a fan, like not looking at it from this
external thing of like, oh, he's a cool dude, right,
or Jesus is my homeboy, or whatever people say, right
to actually being like, wait, this is somebody that I
want to emulate and model and have this Christ that
lives within me and show up and be this living
(26:26):
part of my life and have the Holy Spirit guide me,
lead me, walk me through life's hard things.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And I think also your story.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Is just a testament like that old adage of you
can lead a horse to water, but you can't make
them drink, And it's like, you can't make somebody see
what they're not ready for. You can only and to me,
what it shows is like you're just modeling what it
looks like to not just be a fan, but to
actually let Christ lead you and be a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it makes anyone be like, wait a minute, what
is that?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
What is it about them? And it's never and I
never say never, but in most cases it's never going
to come from people shoving something down somebody's throat, right,
you can't help them and willing. But when you can
just be a picture of what it looks like to
walk in that way, I think that is really a
And then you just little little tokens like here's the
DVD or maybe it was a VHSS at the time,
who knows, right, I'm not leaving the book, but just
(27:12):
these little things. And I think that's anybody who's listening
to this and thinking like, oh, it's my air quotes
responsibility to save my dad or save my friend or
save whoever. It's like, you know what, all you can
do is all you can do, and you can be
a model and a picture, but in my opinion, the
worst thing you can do is try to like shove
something down somebody's throat, like you knew what your dad.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Was ready and wasn't ready for.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Now, I have another question before we dive in. But
one thing that I want to just ask you real quickly,
because you kind of slid by it. You said that
you were keeping a prayer journal and you were checking
off the prayers that God has answered for you. Now,
was that like a checklist that you made yourself or
was there actually like a prayer journal that like can
you talk about that? Because that's one of the number
one things I hear from listeners when they send their
(27:51):
questions is like, how do I pray? How do like
what's a practice or like a journaling prompt or whatever,
And I've never really heard of that before, so can
you just speak about that.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So I don't really know where I got the idea from.
I just know that I started keeping a journal and
every night I would get down beside my bed and
I would pray through this list. And every day it
seemed like the list was growing because I would meet
and interact with people with needs and I would put
their name and their need on the list. And I
was sometimes praying just for b like big things, different countries, persecuted, church,
(28:27):
like all these things were on my list, and just
over time, as God answered those prayers, I would just
remember putting it across through those items, and there were
so many of those that happened throughout those years.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So such a visual representation because sometimes we forget about
all the miracles that are happening because we kind of
become to sensitized to them, and just having that visual list,
almost like a listicle, and that you can check off,
that's such a cool way to even think about it.
And also just like this idea of counting our blessings,
like the prayers that we have for God. You know,
sometimes we are in and answered prayer that we would
(29:01):
have killed to have answered a year ago. And then
we're in it and we again we become desensitized to it,
we forget like this is actually an answered prayer, you know.
So I think that's a great way to take inventory
of that and kind of a almost like an actionable.
I know a lot of people are like, Okay, what's
an action item that I can do to live in
my faith?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You know? Oh, I remember, like you're talking about just
modeling Jesus for other people and not shoving it down
their throats. I think a big reason that I was
so much about modeling it and living it out was because, like,
this transformation started with a realization that I was a
hypocrite for my whole life, and I didn't want to
be that any longer. So if I'm going to claim Christ,
(29:40):
I'm really going to live for Jesus. You know, so
so cliche the whole what would Jesus do? Bracelets and
all that stuff. I remember just every conversation that I
would enter wherever I went, I would ask myself that question, like, Okay,
how would Jesus approach this person right now? What would
Jesus say in the moment. Just those are little bitty
(30:02):
steps that you take, and over the course of years
you look back at all these small steps of obedience
and it's like, Wow, look how far God has brought me.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Absolutely so I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Before we end today, I wanted to just touch on
something that you mentioned. So you were on fire for
the Lord and you were walking with him and it
completely transformed your life. And then something happened and all
of a sudden he was so far away from you.
You couldn't find him. You were trying, you felt so
far from him, And I think what happens, you know
in those moments is sometimes we feel like we're doing
(30:33):
something wrong, or like did I ruin this forever? Did
I take steps far away? Or then maybe we have
shame about the distance that we have from God. Can
you just speak a little bit about what that gap
was like? And then what was it that helped you?
I know being around these men at that retreat was
really powerful for you. But is there something like for
anybody who either is far away from God or maybe
(30:54):
it hasn't happened, but it will, Like is there anything
you could speak into, Like what would advice would you
give yourself now? So that the gap was maybe shorter
or wasn't so painful.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So I've seen this be true in my life and
other men's lives, that when we truly surrender our life
to Christ and we start following Him with everything we have,
like He will show up in our lives in so
many ways that once we hit that what I call
a speed bump in our walk of faith, like it's
going to derail us. At times, everybody's going to hit
(31:27):
that wall of Okay, God is calling me to this
and I'm not ready for this, or it's just distraction
or whatever it is that knocks you off your walk.
And when you get to that, it's like God has
shown up in so many little ways up till then
that it's not a question of is He real? Was
He there? It's like I have to get back, and
I think the there's a blessing in trials, right. Trials
(31:51):
refine us and they bring us closer to God. They
show us our need for God when we are weak.
So I'm super thankful for that time period where I
felt like I'm distant from God, I've lost his presence,
because I still to this day have had so many
times where I feel like I can feel that fade
(32:11):
coming in because it is a slow fade. It's small
things and that just cloud our minds and distract us
from our purpose and from zeroing in on focusing on
God and living our lives for Him and for His kingdom.
Like just distractions of the world. It doesn't have to
be anything real big that knocks you off course. It
(32:32):
can be. It can be the loss of your dad,
like I lost my dad four years ago. It can
be something traumatic, or it can just be you know,
I'm really busy at work and I haven't made God
a priority in my life, and it's just a slow
fade of I'm not connecting with God. I feel like
my prayers aren't heard, my Bible reading is dry, I'm
not getting anything out of it. But that first period
(32:56):
of time and seeing that I was redeemable, you know,
finding that fire again in Christ and finding that forgiveness,
it helps me to catch that before it ever gets
that far again. So anytime I feel that faid coming,
I just press more into Jesus because there's a freedom
and a life. Jesus says that he is the life. Right.
(33:17):
I love this story, But in the Bible where Lazarus
passes away and Jesus waits, and then he comes and
his sister Martha runs up to mar Or runs up
to Jesus and she says, Jesus, if you were just here,
my brother wouldn't have died if you would just been here.
And he said that your brother will rise again, and
she said, yeah, I know, he will rise at the
(33:38):
resurrection in the last Days. And Jesus says, no, I
am the lie. I am the resurrection and the life.
And it's like, so there's life in Jesus and there's
resurrection in Jesus, Like we can live the resurrected life now,
we don't have to wait till we get to heaven.
Like it's available to us now. But it's in him,
it's in Christ. So how I get out of those ruts,
(33:59):
How I get out of those just valleys of feeling
separate from God is I have to be connected to
the vine. So it's really it's really simple. Everybody wants
to make everything complex, but it's really simple. I pray,
I speak to God like I have a communication with God.
I'm in his word because that's the primary way that
(34:21):
He speaks to us is through his word, and just
making those couple things really priority in my life, and
then having a good couple guys around me, or maybe
even more than that, yeah, but having good community around
me that continues to speak truth unto me even when
I don't want to hear it, to say things that
(34:41):
I don't want to hear but I need to hear.
And ultimately they don't just point me in the direction
to go, but they point me back to Jesus every time.
So having those people in your life is crucial.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
For sure, And we're going to get into that a
lot next week, you know. But really what I'm discerning
from this is a lot of times when we think
that God is far from us, we are the ones
that are far from God, you know. And it's about
renewing our mind and coming back to those practices that
got us there in the first place. The practice is
the rituals, reading the Bible, being and the words, surrounding
ourselves with the people that we need you to bring
us back to who we really are.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We get kind of caught up or away from the vine.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Now this wasn't really necessarily true, and probably the first
ten years of following Jesus, if I would just read
more than I would. I would like come back. I
feel like the walls would come down when I would
read his word more and being more intentional than that.
But over over time I can find that I can
do those things and check those boxes without my heart
being postured towards Jesus totally, and I can still remain
(35:38):
in this dry desert place, you know. So it's really
a heart posture towards the Lord and learning how to
just come and sync with Jesus.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
And yeah too, it's not just a doing, it's who
you're being while you're doing the doing, Like is your
heart postured towards the Lord or is it just like, oh,
I'm going to check this box, I'm going to get
this to do list done.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It's almost like a workspace mentality.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, because we get completely flipped upside down. It's the
whole root and fruit thing. The root of our salvation
is in Christ and what he has done. The fruit
is what He does through us and what he allows
us to be participants in his plan for the kingdom. Right.
But a lot of times we flip that upside down
and say, Okay, my salvation has earned through all this
stuff that I'm doing and if I'm not doing enough,
(36:20):
then I'm not really saved and it's just it's a lie.
It's a life on the devil.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Well, Jesus frees Us is a book and a movement,
and we're gonna be unpacking that a lot more next week.
Can you just tell us where can they find you?
Where can they find your book? How can they get
in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
My book is available on the Amazon so it's called
Jesus Freeze Us by Shane Murray, And then they can
reach me directly at Jesus frees Us t in at
yahoo dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We'll post those both in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We'll be back to unpack this even more next week
and talking about also the movement, the men's group that
you've created, and how you are spreading your life into
really this generation, the next generation. We're going to get
into all of it. So thank you so much for
being here. We will be back next week with more
of the Godpod, so we'll talk to you then bye.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
We'll be back with more What's God got to do
with it?
Speaker 3 (37:16):
But in the meantime, I would definitely love to hear
from you, So just tell me where you are in
your story or maybe what questions you have, like where
do you feel you need clarity or support or wisdom
in your own journey. I definitely want to hear from you,
So head on over to What's God Got to Do
with It? Dot com and scroll down to the form
(37:37):
to share your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and you
can do that instantly.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So What's God Got to Do with It? Dot Com?
You'll find all the ways to do that.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
And if you like this podcast and want to hear more,
go ahead and follow, like, and subscribe wherever you listen
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Speaker 1 (37:54):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Be sure to rate and review to show your support.
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
It's written and hosted by me Leanne Ellington, executive produced
by
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Elizabeth Fozzio, post production and editing by Houston Tilley, and
original music written by Cheryl Stark and produced by Adam
Stark
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Not here to preach. I want to keep
it clean and talk to me and recall where faith
meets all nature.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Get in touch with your creator with a baking love
and June she even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
What's done? What's that? As well said that talking transformation.
What's done got to.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey, Hey, and welcome back to What's God got to
do with It? I'm here today with a very special guest.
We're sitting here with Shane Murray, the author and the
creator of Jesus frees Us.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So, first of all, thank you for being here. Hello,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh thanks for having me excited about it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Well, we are going to get into the message of
your book and really the movement that you've created here
in Middle Tennessee, specifically around men, which I love that
a lot of your work is geared towards men, because
obviously a lot of the work I do is with women,
and I think it's very important that we have people
that are speaking to our needs. And I know there
is this generation in a way of lost men that
(01:22):
need to be led by other godly loving emotionally mature
and emotionally intelligent and spiritually mature men. So I think
the work you're doing is so important. But before we
dive into all of that, just kind of give us
a thirty thousand foot overview of who you are, what's
led you to be the man that you are, because
you have your own testimony that really paved the way
for all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, so I'll try to do a thirty forty thousand
foot view. Grew up in Alabama my religious upbringing. I
knew about God, I knew who he was, but I
didn't I didn't know him. So I grew up kind
of going to church. My dad was not a Christian,
so my mom did kind of the best she could,
and she took us to church on and off, probably
(02:05):
more oft than on. But I knew about Jesus, knew
who he was, and so I grew up calling myself
a Christian my whole life and not really understanding that
Christian means christ followers. So there's a commitment of following
Jesus involved with being a Christian, not just an intellectual belief.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So great distinction.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, So I grew up thinking I was a Christian
because you know, I believed in God, and I believed
that what Jesus did on the cross and everything, but
I never committed my life to him. So growing up
I battled pornography was a big struggle, addiction, alcohol, drugs,
really just living for the world and for my flesh
(02:44):
just led into a lot of sinful lifestyle. So fast forward,
so seventeen years old, this ungodly lifestyle led me to
really being surrounded or surrounding myself with bad company. So
bad company corrupts good character, It's true. And so I
was intertwined with a lot of bad company, which corrupted
(03:05):
my path. So seventeen years old, I get arrested. I'm
in jail for stealing. Stealing was a big part of
my life back then. I was good at until then
when I got caught. So that changed the trajectory of
my life big time, because not only did I get
caught and I was in jail, and I started praying,
(03:25):
probably for the first time that I could really remember
of you know, those bottom prayers of just God, get
me out of this. So I started praying, you know,
if you'll get me out of this situation, you know,
I'll do this. I'll do that, but there was some
kind of ingrained fear of God in me to know
not to promise something that I can't keep up my
end of the deal. So I said, God, if you'll
(03:47):
get me out of this, I'll never steal again. And
I've kept that commitment. And he showed up in a
miraculous way and got me out of that, really showed
up at my sense in court date. My resting officer
didn't show up, so the judge actually expunged it off
my record, gave me a complete fresh start.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Whereas the metaphor in that too, right, but.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Before that, not knowing what that was going to turn out,
as I'm praying and they're telling me that I could
be facing up to fifteen years in jail tries as
an adult because of the amount of stuff that I stole,
and so big fear there. Right, So he showed up
for me that way, and you know, that should have
been my turning point, but it wasn't. It was a
(04:28):
time that I can look at and say that was
one of those stepping stones that got me to where
I am today, got me to going on his path,
but it didn't completely get me on the path. So
not only that, but me getting arrested separated me from everything.
So I was halfway through my junior year and my
parents grounded me for the rest of high school. So
(04:49):
I couldn't see anybody, couldn't hang out with anybody. I
didn't get a cell phone until I graduated high school
and moved out and went to college. I couldn't drive
my car anywhere. It just sat in the driveway for
me to look at. So that year and a half
I rode the bus to school. And not only that,
but I had to switch schools. So I went from
going to Smyrna High School. They put me in Canning County,
(05:09):
which is a complete culture shock. If you're from the area,
you know what I'm talking about. And so I had
to leave all the girlfriends, guy friends, everything that I knew.
And at the time, you know, that seems like the
worst thing that could have ever happened, But hindsight being
twenty twenty, you look back and it's like that was
one of the best things that ever happened to me.
So that got me off the really dark path. I
(05:33):
looked back and there was two guys that I hung
out with a lot who were now in prison for murder.
One person got murdered, and another one keeps getting locked
up for home invasions and stuff. And that was the
people I was just surrounding myself with and would have
become just like them if God didn't intervene. So went
to college, never stole anything else. The crime side of
(05:54):
my life was pretty much over. But there was a
lot of drugs, more hardcore drugs in college, more sack,
more girls, all this stuff, just party lifestyle. Came back
from that and fast forward to kind when I met
my wife, so we were friends of friends. I reconnected
with some friends from middle school and we were both
(06:14):
friends of friends there. And she was in a wedding
that I was close friends with everybody in the wedding party.
She was in the wedding party, and we met that way.
And before meeting her, I had noticed that there was
something about my life that I just didn't like. So
I was already I started going to church by myself
at life point in Smyrna, and she liked that about me.
(06:37):
When I first met her, I was super attracted to her.
I don't think that the feeling was mutual, but I
think that her attraction towards me was because I was
going to church. I was pursuing God in some former fashion.
And over time, you know, I fell in love with her,
fell in love with her son, Eli, who was three
at the time. She was not very far removed from
(06:58):
a divorce when we started talking, so we start dating,
and over time we stopped going to church as much.
Every other weekend when Eli's as Dad's its party weekend,
you know, a lot alcohol, closing down the clubs, the bars,
all the things and everything that goes in with all
that that couples with it. And then the other weekends
(07:20):
when Eli was home, we were at church.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So it's almost like a double life.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yes, it was a double life. So I was very
much one foot in the world, one foot in the kingdom,
you know, trying to play both sides, and you can't
do that, you know, the devil owns the fence. So
I tried that for a while, and around twenty three
years old, I looked at my life and realized, like,
I'm the biggest hypocrite. I've called myself a Christian my
(07:45):
entire life and lived like hell for the most of it.
And there's nothing about my life that speaks God, that
speaks Jesus. So looking at that, that did not sit
well with me. I think that that was the Holy
Spirit's conviction in me. And my answer to that was,
I'm a read through the Bible cover to cover and
see if I really believe this or if this was
(08:06):
just something that was kind of fed to me over
the years. And so if I do believe it, then
I'm gona really give my life to Christ. And if
I don't, then i musa stop calling myself a Christian.
So that year of getting into the Word, and the
Word is alive, it is active as powerful to transform you,
and that is exactly what it did to me. That
(08:28):
year completely turned my life upside down, but it was
it was a completely different lifestyle after that. And then
I got serious about my faith and I started doing
everything I could to just get out of my bubble
and into God's comfort zone of meeting the Holy Spirit
and allowing him to move in me and through me.
(08:49):
And I heard a pastor a long time ago say,
you know, the Holy Spirit's called the comforter. Why do
you need the comforter if you're always comfortable? So that
was like a challenge for me to get outside of
my comfort zone. Because I was very introverted, very much
closed off to myself type of person. And I realized
that this new fire that I had for Jesus was
(09:11):
not supposed to just be for me. I was supposed
to spread it and share it with others. So that
was challenging. So I started doing that the best I could.
So I started going to prayer meetings at my local
church in the mornings every morning before work. I started
sharing Jesus and just how he was moving in me
and changing me with my coworkers and my bosses and
(09:34):
everybody who knew the old me. I remember early on,
one thing that was constantly rolling through my head was
I need to lose my reputation because everybody that knew me,
I was the party guy. I was the guy that
would come back from the weekend with all these wild
stories and just that was me, and I needed to
lose that reputation. So I was doing whatever I could
(09:57):
to just get uncomfortable for God, and he was showing
up in a lot of ways. So that happened. For
the first six years of me walking with Jesus was
just a wild roller coaster, and really my struggles with
all the things, so I kind of I kind of
beat the drugs and the alcohol before Christ, but the
(10:21):
pornography was the one thing that was really holding on.
And so the first six years of following Jesus, it
just disappeared because I was so I guess my eyes
were so fixed on him and just consumed with Jesus
that that I didn't even think about those other things
for that long. That's a really long period of time
looking back, But six years in a lots happened through there,
(10:45):
and God's shown up in a lot of just job
moves and steps of faith and everything, and then leading
leading couples groups and stuff. But we didn't have any
real community, and we had always wanted community. So our
small group consisted of my parents, her parents, and people
their age, and I'm leading this group of people who
(11:06):
should be leading me, but growing up I didn't have
anybody who modeled that for me. So I really learned
just through getting into the word and getting into books.
The Bible was the first book that I ever read,
and through that fire getting ignited in me, I just
wanted to consume more and more and more. So I
was reading other books and listening to sermons and just
(11:26):
all the things so I was leading small groups with
my wife, but they were all consistent of our parents
and people their age, and we realized we need community
of people our age, because when I started truly following Christ,
(11:49):
all of our friend groups kind of just disappeared. We
didn't push them out of our lives, but we were
now on completely different roads, different paths, and they wanted
nothing to do with the path that we were on now.
So we didn't have any friends our age, and so
we stopped leading a couple's group and with intentions of
joining one just to meet some people. And then Eli
(12:10):
started football. We had Emsley, our daughter, and just life
was full. I accepted this new higher position at this place,
and it was busy, and so just life and busyness
and distraction. Slowly God got kind of put on the
back burner. I wasn't reading as much, I wasn't praying
as much. I wasn't sharing my faith like I had
(12:31):
as much. I was still doing those things. We're still
going to church, but but there was this lukewarmness that
crept in and over time it was like my fire
was completely out. And at that point pornography came back
into the picture, and it got it hooks in me
pretty deep to where I was trying to fight this addiction,
trying to fight this sin and overcome it every way
(12:55):
I knew how. And it was like I just I
couldn't feel God's press anymore. I felt like there was
this wall up, and it was it was scary wondering
if I can get that back, like I just if
you experience like God's presence in your life in a
powerful way like that and then it's gone, it's like
a very scary thing, like I've got to get this back.
(13:17):
I have to have his presence. So there's a quote
I don't know who it's by, but it says, you
don't know how bad of a man you are until
you try really hard to be good. And so till
that point, I'd never really battled my sin, and so
now I'm trying to battle against it. I realized how
bad the Merson and I really am. I can't beat
it without Jesus. And so I experienced a job loss.
(13:41):
I was in a pretty deep kind of pit of
despair of just everything's crumbling in and I was in
a men's group that I joined when this porn came
back in to try to help myself get out of this,
but it was very surface level. So we talked about
the bibe, we talked about sin, but we didn't talk
about our sin. We didn't talk about our struggles. We
(14:04):
acted like we were perfect and had it all together.
And then in the middle of my job loss, they
invited me to a Christian men's retreat in Georgia. And
I had never been to anything like that before, and
so I didn't know what to expect. I just knew
that my fire was gone and I wanted it back,
and I wanted to be able to overcome the sin.
I wanted freedom from this, and so I went that weekend,
(14:26):
and I encountered a group of one hundred and fifty
plus men, just super vulnerable, super transparent. There was no mask,
and they genuinely loved each other. They, I mean, there
was this God type love that was very present there,
and they were confessing their sins. And so I got
my opportunity to finally confess that sin and get that
(14:51):
off my shoulders, and I experienced more freedom that weekend.
I got baptized as an adult that weekend, and I
felt like that chains were broken, and I came back
from that just like I have to have this all
the time. I can't just have this once or twice
a year at a men's retreat, Like I need men
in my life that I can live the like walk
(15:13):
this out with with the mask off, do life, challenge
each other, chase after Jesus together on the daily. And
so that's kind of where the idea of Jesus freezes
came from. Was was that weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So so good, so much to unpack and so many
lessons within that, you know, And what I'm discerning from
it is, you know, first and foremost, like just from
a young age, it was almost like your first encounter
was almost like a bargaining. You're like, hey, if I
give you this shoplifting, if I give you this, you
know theft part of me, I'll never do that again.
But you like weren't quite ready to give your entire life.
And I think anybody who's listening can understand that experience
(15:47):
of like the bargaining almost that we do with God
of like, oh, just it's almost like a get out
a jail free card.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
In your case, it was literally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right, but it's like God, just help me with this
one thing. And it's almost like it's not that we're posturing.
We don't know what we know, but sometimes we look
at it like God is this savior only when we
need him. And through that maturity, whether it was life maturity,
life happening, but also spiritual maturity, you did eventually realize,
like later down the road, that you were compartmentalizing your faith.
But I love how you shared it because that is
(16:14):
so relatable. How you know, I think a lot for me.
This is how it started where I was like, Okay,
this whole Jesus thing, this whole Bible thing, Like I'm
going to see if it makes sense to me, you know.
But that's not just the case for skeptical Jews. It's
for everybody. Like when we're kids, we download something or
were indoctrinated into a certain set of beliefs, and then
as adults, it's like, if we haven't personally voted on
(16:36):
it and we didn't choose it.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's not ours.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And I think that your story and testimony is such
a profound example of that of what happens when adult
Shaine came out and was like, listen, who I've been
up until now. This is not the man that I
want to be. And I'm ready to choose better, even
if I don't know what that looks like. And that
was not a linear path for you. There were ebbs
and flows, there were highs and lows, there were still
drugs and alcohol in play. And for anyone listening, I
(17:00):
really want you to understand the imperfection that comes within
all of us, where.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
We don't have to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Like, he's not like picking and choosing which sin he
will help redeem you from, right, or who gets to
get saved right.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He loves all of his children.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And you were battling some really big things, you know,
porn being the thing that kind of came back with
a vengeance, but like not to diminish drugs and alcohol
and pornography, all these things, the worldly things, not to
mention the consequences that would have happened if you had
gone down those roads. Like literally the people that you
were hanging out with were either dying or spending life
in prison.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Right, this is really big stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So if you were to kind of talk to anybody
who's listening right now, and they're thinking, Okay, my sin
is way worse than other people's sin, or like no,
but you don't understand. I'm so deep in the throes
of drugs or alcohol or pornography or whatever it is, right,
and like, am I redeemable? Am I forgivable? Is my
sin worse than other people sin? What would you say
to the person like that that's in the throes of
(17:57):
it right now?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That's a good question. So I would say everything is redeemable.
I mean, Jesus can literally free you from any and everything.
And I think there's so many stories of that through
scripture that God gives us to show us that nobody
is too far gone. Paul the Apostle, Paul who wrote
like a third of the New Testament being one of them.
(18:18):
He was one who was killing the Christians and hunting
down the Christians. And he did this thinking that he
was serving God in a way. But God, Jesus knocked
him off his horse literally and set him on a
different path. And so I would say every sin is
against God. And it's just a reflection of not knowing
(18:40):
your for one, not knowing your identity in Christ, not
knowing Jesus. It speaks of the new creation, Like when
you are a new creation in Christ, all things have
become new, and all things like the old's passed away,
all things have become new. So that is so true,
and I've seen that lived out in so many men's lives.
I've seen that lived out in my life. Like when
you become a new creation in Christ and your identity
(19:03):
is fixed in Jesus and you have a relationship with Jesus,
it changes everything, so it's not even you anymore. Like
there is this new man walking and the old man
is dead.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Absolutely, So I love how you shared earlier.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You're like, I had to like basically break ties with
my reputation, you know, the.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Reputation that you were known for.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
But with the first and foremost what had to happen
was you needed to break that reputation within yourself. And
really it was an identity conversation, because that's the thing,
like drugs and alcohol and porn whatever it is, right,
it can become almost like a badge of honor.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I'm like, yeah, like this is what I do, this
is who I am.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
When you don't know who you are, when your identity
is not rooted in something bigger, right, or deeper or holier.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So that being said, are you able to kind of
pinpoint what it was like to just die to yourself
and not let that.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Be your identity anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And then when it came to rooting your new identity,
what did you do that through scripture?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Did you have mentors? Like how did you what was
that rebuilding process like for you?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Oh man, that's a rebuilding process that was continuing to me.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Today dot dot day? Is it today in twenty twenty four?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Continue on?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
So and that in itself is a lesson, Like it's
not this one and done thing that you have to
just do all in one day. It is this lifelong
experience where you're where you're stepping into creation.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Right. So it was scripture for me, Like I said,
my turning point was not really my turning point, but
just God coming alive to me. And it was through
the Word. So I was on. I was doing a
one year Bible read where I was reading the Bible
every single day, I never missed, and I was praying,
and just through that process God made things come alive
(20:44):
to me. He showed me that like I didn't just
believe that he was real and that this was true anymore,
like he was. He was proving it to me. It
was leaping off the page like he was confirming it.
And then I had through that very beginning time, Like
God showed up in so many ways that I have
so many answered prayers and miraculous things that happen in
(21:04):
my life to look back on this, like anything that
I go through now, I can look back on those
kind of monumental times in my life and say, like
the same God that was with me there is with
me today and he can be with anybody through Like
if he does this for me, he can do it
for anybody else. And I think that that was my
perspective when I was reading through the scriptures and reading
(21:26):
all these stories. Is God's no respector of person's If
He's going to do this in Paul's life, if He's
going to do this in Elijah's life, like whoever it
is through scripture, Like, he can do it in my
life too, and he will. It's how far do I
want to press in with him? So it was just
a continual pursuit of him and learning how to surrender
(21:47):
completely to what his path was for my life. So
that came through many many different facets, and like I said,
it just continues today.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So absolutely yeah, And I love how it was, like
first you had to decide what you weren't, and like
who you were no longer going to be reputable as right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
But then it's like then it's a blank.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Slate, and you filled it with scripture and stories from
the Bible and other people in your life pouring into
you and showing you what your identity could be rooted in.
It's almost like a possibility that we get invited into,
but we have to get rid of the old or
at least like suspend disbelief that that's who we are.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And so I told you earlier that the Bible was
the first book that I read. I told you earlier
that the Bible was the first book that I read.
The other book first book that I read while I
was in this process of reading the Bible. I was
(22:45):
never a reader. I hated reading growing up, hence why
I never read a book before this. But I had
this new fire, and I was listening to sermons and
different things, and I was like, I want to read
a good Christian book while I'm reading my Bible too,
And so I went to a local bookstore and I
was walking down the Christian aisle and for some reason,
this little black book with white writing just jumped out
(23:06):
to me. It's called Not a Fan by Kyle Iidelman,
and it really changed the way I looked at what
it means to follow Jesus and what it means to
be a fully committed Christ follower. It gets into the
whole thing of Jesus. Wasn't calling for people to be
his fans, people to be these enthusiastic admirers of Jesus
(23:29):
who just sit in the stands and cheer him on.
But he was calling for people to get into the game.
And what does that look like? And was he really
asking what does he mean by deny yourself and take
up your cross and follow me? And it really gets
into that and it was life changing the book. Then
they have a movie called Not a Fan that was
(23:51):
really impactful for me and my wife as we watched
it and cried and talked about different things and what
does this new life look like for us? And just
a small little nugget in there, one of the things
that was I had this long prayer journal at the
beginning that I would just have had all these prayers
that I was praying. I got to check off all
these ways that God answered these prayers throughout the years,
(24:13):
and one of those things was my Dad's Salvation, and
I just knew, like if he would read this book,
like God's going to get a hold of them book.
But I knew he went to read a book, so
he was not a reader just like me. But I
knew he would watch a movie, and yeah, just so happens.
They had a movie. So I dropped off the movie
(24:33):
to him and asked them to watch it. And it
was months later they hadn't watched it. My aunt came
up to visit. She's a Christian. I called her. I
was like, hey, can you get mom and dad watched
this movie tonight? And she's like, I'll try. So I
was going to that prayer meeting every morning and he
showed up the next day and I was just blown away.
I was like, what are you doing here? And he said, well,
(24:54):
you're always talking about I just thought like, come check
it out. So we're sitting there and the first first
question asked her in the prayer meeting by the guy
who's running it was to my dad asked him if
he had anything he wanted to share or anything he
wanted to pray about. And my dad was a very
just tough, strong, silent type, didn't show emotion and I
(25:15):
don't know that I really ever saw my dad cry
growing up. So he just started breaking down and he
was sobbing, he was stuttering, he could not control himself.
And I remember him saying, I don't want to just
be a fan of Jesus anymore. I want to be
a I want to be a fully committed follower of Jesus,
and I want what my son has. And he was
(25:36):
just broken and give it. He gave his life to
Christ that morning, and he really was this new creation.
He went from not reading anything to he read his
Bible every day. He went from being this person who
was very silent, didn't talk to anybody, really to somebody
you had to drag out of the store because he's
talking to everybody they meets. And so, yeah, that was
(25:56):
that was one of those things that, my goodness, that
book help guide what it looked like to follow Jesus,
not only for me but obviously for others.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, and I love that because it is such a
kind of big, vague, like massive topic, this idea of
following Jesus. And you're right, that distinction of not just
being a fan, like not looking at it from this
external thing of like, oh, he's a cool dude, right,
or Jesus is my homeboy, or whatever people say, right
to actually being like, wait, this is somebody that I
want to emulate and model and have this Christ that
lives within me and show up and be this living
(26:26):
part of my life and have the Holy Spirit guide me,
lead me, walk me through life's hard things.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And I think also your story.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Is just a testament like that old adage of you
can lead a horse to water, but you can't make
them drink, And it's like, you can't make somebody see
what they're not ready for. You can only and to me,
what it shows is like you're just modeling what it
looks like to not just be a fan, but to
actually let Christ lead you and be a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it makes anyone be like, wait a minute, what
is that?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
What is it about them? And it's never and I
never say never, but in most cases it's never going
to come from people shoving something down somebody's throat, right,
you can't help them and willing. But when you can
just be a picture of what it looks like to
walk in that way, I think that is really a
And then you just little little tokens like here's the
DVD or maybe it was a VHSS at the time,
who knows, right, I'm not leaving the book, but just
(27:12):
these little things. And I think that's anybody who's listening
to this and thinking like, oh, it's my air quotes
responsibility to save my dad or save my friend or
save whoever. It's like, you know what, all you can
do is all you can do, and you can be
a model and a picture, but in my opinion, the
worst thing you can do is try to like shove
something down somebody's throat, like you knew what your dad.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Was ready and wasn't ready for.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Now, I have another question before we dive in. But
one thing that I want to just ask you real quickly,
because you kind of slid by it. You said that
you were keeping a prayer journal and you were checking
off the prayers that God has answered for you. Now,
was that like a checklist that you made yourself or
was there actually like a prayer journal that like can
you talk about that? Because that's one of the number
one things I hear from listeners when they send their
(27:51):
questions is like, how do I pray? How do like
what's a practice or like a journaling prompt or whatever,
And I've never really heard of that before, so can
you just speak about that.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So I don't really know where I got the idea from.
I just know that I started keeping a journal and
every night I would get down beside my bed and
I would pray through this list. And every day it
seemed like the list was growing because I would meet
and interact with people with needs and I would put
their name and their need on the list. And I
was sometimes praying just for b like big things, different countries, persecuted, church,
(28:27):
like all these things were on my list, and just
over time, as God answered those prayers, I would just
remember putting it across through those items, and there were
so many of those that happened throughout those years.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So such a visual representation because sometimes we forget about
all the miracles that are happening because we kind of
become to sensitized to them, and just having that visual list,
almost like a listicle, and that you can check off,
that's such a cool way to even think about it.
And also just like this idea of counting our blessings,
like the prayers that we have for God. You know,
sometimes we are in and answered prayer that we would
(29:01):
have killed to have answered a year ago. And then
we're in it and we again we become desensitized to it,
we forget like this is actually an answered prayer, you know.
So I think that's a great way to take inventory
of that and kind of a almost like an actionable.
I know a lot of people are like, Okay, what's
an action item that I can do to live in
my faith?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You know? Oh, I remember, like you're talking about just
modeling Jesus for other people and not shoving it down
their throats. I think a big reason that I was
so much about modeling it and living it out was because, like,
this transformation started with a realization that I was a
hypocrite for my whole life, and I didn't want to
be that any longer. So if I'm going to claim Christ,
(29:40):
I'm really going to live for Jesus. You know, so
so cliche the whole what would Jesus do? Bracelets and
all that stuff. I remember just every conversation that I
would enter wherever I went, I would ask myself that question, like, Okay,
how would Jesus approach this person right now? What would
Jesus say in the moment. Just those are little bitty
(30:02):
steps that you take, and over the course of years
you look back at all these small steps of obedience
and it's like, Wow, look how far God has brought me.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Absolutely so I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Before we end today, I wanted to just touch on
something that you mentioned. So you were on fire for
the Lord and you were walking with him and it
completely transformed your life. And then something happened and all
of a sudden he was so far away from you.
You couldn't find him. You were trying, you felt so
far from him, And I think what happens, you know
in those moments is sometimes we feel like we're doing
(30:33):
something wrong, or like did I ruin this forever? Did
I take steps far away? Or then maybe we have
shame about the distance that we have from God. Can
you just speak a little bit about what that gap
was like? And then what was it that helped you?
I know being around these men at that retreat was
really powerful for you. But is there something like for
anybody who either is far away from God or maybe
(30:54):
it hasn't happened, but it will, Like is there anything
you could speak into, Like what would advice would you
give yourself now? So that the gap was maybe shorter
or wasn't so painful.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So I've seen this be true in my life and
other men's lives, that when we truly surrender our life
to Christ and we start following Him with everything we have,
like He will show up in our lives in so
many ways that once we hit that what I call
a speed bump in our walk of faith, like it's
going to derail us. At times, everybody's going to hit
(31:27):
that wall of Okay, God is calling me to this
and I'm not ready for this, or it's just distraction
or whatever it is that knocks you off your walk.
And when you get to that, it's like God has
shown up in so many little ways up till then
that it's not a question of is He real? Was
He there? It's like I have to get back, and
I think the there's a blessing in trials, right. Trials
(31:51):
refine us and they bring us closer to God. They
show us our need for God when we are weak.
So I'm super thankful for that time period where I
felt like I'm distant from God, I've lost his presence,
because I still to this day have had so many
times where I feel like I can feel that fade
(32:11):
coming in because it is a slow fade. It's small
things and that just cloud our minds and distract us
from our purpose and from zeroing in on focusing on
God and living our lives for Him and for His kingdom.
Like just distractions of the world. It doesn't have to
be anything real big that knocks you off course. It
(32:32):
can be. It can be the loss of your dad,
like I lost my dad four years ago. It can
be something traumatic, or it can just be you know,
I'm really busy at work and I haven't made God
a priority in my life, and it's just a slow
fade of I'm not connecting with God. I feel like
my prayers aren't heard, my Bible reading is dry, I'm
not getting anything out of it. But that first period
(32:56):
of time and seeing that I was redeemable, you know,
finding that fire again in Christ and finding that forgiveness,
it helps me to catch that before it ever gets
that far again. So anytime I feel that faid coming,
I just press more into Jesus because there's a freedom
and a life. Jesus says that he is the life. Right.
(33:17):
I love this story, But in the Bible where Lazarus
passes away and Jesus waits, and then he comes and
his sister Martha runs up to mar Or runs up
to Jesus and she says, Jesus, if you were just here,
my brother wouldn't have died if you would just been here.
And he said that your brother will rise again, and
she said, yeah, I know, he will rise at the
(33:38):
resurrection in the last Days. And Jesus says, no, I
am the lie. I am the resurrection and the life.
And it's like, so there's life in Jesus and there's
resurrection in Jesus, Like we can live the resurrected life now,
we don't have to wait till we get to heaven.
Like it's available to us now. But it's in him,
it's in Christ. So how I get out of those ruts,
(33:59):
How I get out of those just valleys of feeling
separate from God is I have to be connected to
the vine. So it's really it's really simple. Everybody wants
to make everything complex, but it's really simple. I pray,
I speak to God like I have a communication with God.
I'm in his word because that's the primary way that
(34:21):
He speaks to us is through his word, and just
making those couple things really priority in my life, and
then having a good couple guys around me, or maybe
even more than that, yeah, but having good community around
me that continues to speak truth unto me even when
I don't want to hear it, to say things that
(34:41):
I don't want to hear but I need to hear.
And ultimately they don't just point me in the direction
to go, but they point me back to Jesus every time.
So having those people in your life is crucial.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
For sure, And we're going to get into that a
lot next week, you know. But really what I'm discerning
from this is a lot of times when we think
that God is far from us, we are the ones
that are far from God, you know. And it's about
renewing our mind and coming back to those practices that
got us there in the first place. The practice is
the rituals, reading the Bible, being and the words, surrounding
ourselves with the people that we need you to bring
us back to who we really are.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We get kind of caught up or away from the vine.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Now this wasn't really necessarily true, and probably the first
ten years of following Jesus, if I would just read
more than I would. I would like come back. I
feel like the walls would come down when I would
read his word more and being more intentional than that.
But over over time I can find that I can
do those things and check those boxes without my heart
being postured towards Jesus totally, and I can still remain
(35:38):
in this dry desert place, you know. So it's really
a heart posture towards the Lord and learning how to
just come and sync with Jesus.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
And yeah too, it's not just a doing, it's who
you're being while you're doing the doing, Like is your
heart postured towards the Lord or is it just like, oh,
I'm going to check this box, I'm going to get
this to do list done.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It's almost like a workspace mentality.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, because we get completely flipped upside down. It's the
whole root and fruit thing. The root of our salvation
is in Christ and what he has done. The fruit
is what He does through us and what he allows
us to be participants in his plan for the kingdom. Right.
But a lot of times we flip that upside down
and say, Okay, my salvation has earned through all this
stuff that I'm doing and if I'm not doing enough,
(36:20):
then I'm not really saved and it's just it's a lie.
It's a life on the devil.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Well, Jesus frees Us is a book and a movement,
and we're gonna be unpacking that a lot more next week.
Can you just tell us where can they find you?
Where can they find your book? How can they get
in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
My book is available on the Amazon so it's called
Jesus Freeze Us by Shane Murray, And then they can
reach me directly at Jesus frees Us t in at
yahoo dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We'll post those both in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We'll be back to unpack this even more next week
and talking about also the movement, the men's group that
you've created, and how you are spreading your life into
really this generation, the next generation. We're going to get
into all of it. So thank you so much for
being here. We will be back next week with more
of the Godpod, so we'll talk to you then bye.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
We'll be back with more What's God got to do
with it?
Speaker 3 (37:16):
But in the meantime, I would definitely love to hear
from you, So just tell me where you are in
your story or maybe what questions you have, like where
do you feel you need clarity or support or wisdom
in your own journey. I definitely want to hear from you,
So head on over to What's God Got to Do
with It? Dot com and scroll down to the form
(37:37):
to share your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and you
can do that instantly.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So What's God Got to Do with It? Dot Com?
You'll find all the ways to do that.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
And if you like this podcast and want to hear more,
go ahead and follow, like, and subscribe wherever you listen
to podcasts to get your weekly dose.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Be sure to rate and review to show your support.
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
It's written and hosted by me Leanne Ellington, executive produced
by
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Elizabeth Fozzio, post production and editing by Houston Tilley, and
original music written by Cheryl Stark and produced by Adam
Stark
Host
Leanne Ellington
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The Bobby Bones Show
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