Soul Food
Soul Food
Broken Beyond Repair (Part1)
What if the pieces of your broken life could be mended in ways you never imagined? Join us on a transformative journey as we uncover the compelling story of Malena and Joe, a couple who faced the darkness of addiction and heartbreak. Malena's world crumbled when her boyfriend left her for another woman, leading her down a path of self-destruction with alcohol and parties. Meanwhile, Joe grappled with an unshakable void despite having a seemingly successful career, seeking comfort in tobacco and alcohol. Through their raw and honest story, we witness the remarkable power of God's will and discover that no life is beyond repair.
Listen in as we unpack the illusion of success and happiness many maintain while quietly suffering. The pivotal moment comes when one decides to embrace the potential for transformation through faith and obedience, breaking free from the cycle of addiction and emptiness. We emphasize the welcoming nature of the Universal Church, highlighting how acceptance fosters healing and growth. Through stories of resilience and redemption, we remind you that divine power can bring renewal and hope to your life. Prepare to be inspired on this path from brokenness to redemption, as we prioritize faith in God, above everything else.
It's time for Soul Food Podcast Broken. Beyond Repair, the untold stories of those who were once broken.
Speaker 3:Hi there, I am Bishop Joshua and I want to introduce you a new series that is called broken beyond repair. Here on my channel, we are going to be showing to your lives that were broken beyond repair, but not for God. With man it is impossible, but with God, everything is possible. The highlight of Melina and Joe you are going to see what you can expect from this series, from this episode. Only here on this channel. You are going to see now how broke they were and what they are going to share with us, melina and Joe.
Speaker 1:What would you do if all your dreams fell apart in a heartbeat or you had to pretend that everything was okay when, in reality, you felt empty? Today, on Broken Beyond Repair, you will get to know a couple that was broken. She was previously in a relationship with someone that would supposedly be her future husband, but what she never imagined happened. He left her for another woman. She indulged in alcohol and parties to deal with the betrayal. He, on the other hand, was always trying to fill a void inside of him. Although he had a good job, he could never reach financial success. At that point in his life, tobacco and alcohol became his best friend. Whoever looked at him would never guess that his happiness was just a facade. Stay tuned and find out how they accepted the challenge that changed everything. Broken Beyond Repair the untold stories of those who were once broken.
Speaker 3:Today we have here Melina and Joe. How are you?
Speaker 4:Good thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you for joining us, and Bishop Dave, this is the situation of many, many, many, many people. Viewers. They are broken beyond repair, but not God.
Speaker 2:For God, anything is possible. Nothing is impossible for God. You know, we may look at our life and wonder how on earth can my life be put back together? I've made too many mistakes. I've done too many things wrong. I've made too many mistakes. I've done too many things wrong. A lot of people think even God has forgiven up on them. God does not forget. God doesn't give up on anyone. No one Doesn't matter where you are, how broken your life is. God is God, he's the creator, and so he's going to put your life back together again, and I'm sure there are many of you right now. You're watching us.
Speaker 3:This word broken beyond repair describes your life exactly but God is going to mend back the pieces, piece by piece. And I could read many scriptures from the Bible, many examples, testimonies, miracles from the Bible to prove to you that before God you are not beyond repair. Before God you can be restored, he has power. But I'm not going to recite anything from the Bible. I'm going to show to you the Bible of nowadays. This couple here became the Bible of nowadays. Who wants to start, whoever, you want yes.
Speaker 3:Melina, how broke were you when you came to us.
Speaker 4:Well, when I came to the church, I just broke up with my boyfriend. Well, my boyfriend broke up with me. He left me for another woman and this was the person I thought I was going to marry because I was getting older. You know all my friends, my colleagues. They were all getting married, having a family, and I was still. Time was passing and I felt like there was a clock ticking. So when I came, my boyfriend just left me. So I came crying. I was, every time I'd come to church I would be at the altar crying. I'd come in the middle of the day to cry by myself at the church, and my prayer at that time was you know, please, my Lord, bring back the man of my dreams. You know, even though he left me for someone else, I want him back.
Speaker 3:I was also losing my home to foreclosure what we see in your story is that the love of your dream broke your heart? Yes, Twice. First he broke up with you and secondly you found out that was for another woman. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, and you know I feel like in today's day that's normal. You know well, if they come back to you, that means it's meant to be. That's what I kept being told. You know he went out a little bit, but now you know, wait, pray and and be patient, and if he's meant to be, if you guys are meant to be together, he'll come back. So and I prayed until it was a reveal to me by God that I was praying for the wrong thing. I mean, I was crazy to want somebody that had already despised me, had already hurt me, and I finally my eyes had opened after a while of praying the wrong prayer.
Speaker 3:So no one goes to the doctor and they sit before the doctor and they say hey, doctor, I want this treatment.
Speaker 2:I want you to do this.
Speaker 3:I want you to do that. That's true. You go before the doctor and he's the one that repairs your body the way he. He knows how to do it. He is a professional care and he knows what to do. So the same is with god. Sometimes a person is never blessed. God can never change one's life because a person wants to do his will and not god's it's like so.
Speaker 2:so many people and I used to be like this also so many people think that they know more than God, that they know better, that they know what they need. But God is the one who knows the future. God knows everything. So how can we even think that we know more than him or that our will is better than his? But it's difficult to give up our will, isn't it?
Speaker 3:yes, it is just like melina she wants that boyfriend back. But god had something great and better for you absolutely.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. But don't say it yet.
Speaker 3:In a few we are going to talk to Joe as well, but right now let me go to the line. I have someone in need of help Kevin hello.
Speaker 6:Hello.
Speaker 3:Hello Kevin, how are you?
Speaker 6:Just fine, yourself Good, good.
Speaker 3:Kevin, tell me how can I help you in prayers. What's your prayer request?
Speaker 6:My prayer request is I struggle with drug addiction, cocaine and porn. I've been struggling with it for a little over 25 years and I want to be delivered and set free.
Speaker 3:Okay, since you were 25, or for 25 years.
Speaker 6:What did you say, sir?
Speaker 3:So you said 25 years. You started doing drugs since you were 25 years, or for 25 years.
Speaker 6:For 25 years.
Speaker 3:For 25 years. What have you tried so far to stop this addiction?
Speaker 6:I don't want the programs. I've been to prison, I've been to classes and Nothing seems to help.
Speaker 3:Okay, Now I ask you what do you think? Why?
Speaker 6:didn't rehabs classes programs? Why didn't they help you? What do you think? Because that demon don't mind nobody but Jesus.
Speaker 3:Okay, but there is somebody else playing a game with you. It is the evil spirit, the spirit of the addiction. Any person that has addictions problems have to understand. Anybody has to understand this thing. You know, bishop David, a person thinks that the problem is just in a cup of alcohol, glass of alcohol. A person thinks that the problem is just the cigarette or the substance he used in his case. But no, we understand that it's beyond just the substance. There is a new spirit that leads a person into that addiction.
Speaker 2:And people with an addiction know this, because it's something that they can't stop. They're intelligent people, many of them have an education, many of them have seen success in business, but when it comes to the addiction, that addiction is their lord, it controls them.
Speaker 3:It's like their slave driver, regardless of the color of the skin, the level of education, as you said, whether you are poor or rich, when the addiction hits, the spirit of addiction enters one's body. That person loses the sense of life, their life has no more meaning. And then comes depression, anxiety, suicide and many people say why don't you stop? It destroys your life. It's not that simple. No, it's not that simple.
Speaker 2:No, it's not that simple. Rehabs they go to rehabs, they spend a lot of money on rehabs, they come out and it may help for a while, but they go back because the root of the problem, like we're saying, is spiritual. It's a spirit. It's an evil spirit. That's that inside that person controlling them, giving these urges, are more than just your physical body, your nerves. It is a spirit that's working and the only way to get free is through faith, putting your faith in God, asking God for help, starting to rebuke this demonic force in your life.
Speaker 3:Yes, the spirit of addiction has to be removed, mr Kelvin.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Do you understand what we are saying, what we are discussing here?
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:You who are broken? Yes, you are broken beyond repair.
Speaker 1:I want you to understand what is behind addictions. Coming back to the same thing. You want to stop, but nothing works. No rehab, no detox, no center, nothing. Because of this addiction you can't get a job, your family doesn't want to deal with you anymore and no one takes you seriously. That is why addiction is a big stumbling block in your life.
Speaker 3:Mr Kevin.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:You are going to be free. After 25 years of addictions, you are going to be free. My God is going to set you free. If he does not set you free, I stop preaching, Because I have been preaching the word of God more years than you have been on crack cocaine. When you start doing crack cocaine, I was already preaching the word of God and I have seen throughout of my ministry. I have seen results People even worse than you. God has set them free and my God also is going to set you free. However, you need to obey what we are saying. You will go to the universal church. The pastors will take your case, will fight with you back to back, hand to gather and very soon you are going to be with us testify saying that after 25 years of cocaine and many attempts to stop, Now you are completely free and you have no more cravings.
Speaker 6:Alright, yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Stay on the line. Monique is going to get more information from you and our pastors will contact you which city or state you live.
Speaker 6:I'm in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 3:Good, we have many pastors over there and these pastors will contact you. Actually, I'm in Dallas, texas. Good, we have many pastors over there and these pastors will contact you. Actually, I'm going to ask Bishop Taylor to contact you, okay.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Stay on the line. God bless, you have a good one.
Speaker 6:All right, thank you, sir.
Speaker 3:You are welcome, joe Melina. Anybody had problems with addictions. I did, you did yes, tell us about it.
Speaker 5:I was exposed to pornography at a very young age, and also tobacco chewing, tobacco cigarettes, when I was 11 years old. And so from then, 11 years old, until I was 29, I smoked cigarettes, chewed tobacco almost every day, morning, day, night. You know, in my 20s spent a lot of time consuming pornography. As a young man you think that's a normal thing to do, and I wasn't addicted to alcohol, but I would spend a number of time binge drinking too, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day I'd say, oh, go to lunch, okay, and then get just completely knocked down, wasted, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, on a Tuesday, you know. And that was just the same cycle.
Speaker 3:And which problems, joe, did it cause, like in your life, studies, career, family life.
Speaker 5:Social. Really, you know, I can never build any meaningful relationships with women with the physical side, you know, just trying to fulfill myself, fulfill that void with physical relationships with women, with an older woman, and just trying to feed that void, fill that void, and it was never complete, I was never fulfilled. I was like a walking zombie, just dead, you know. And I had a good job, I had a good salary, but I could never build anything financial. You know, everything would slip through my fingers.
Speaker 3:Now, going back in time, you said that many times that you couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't stop, you couldn't build a family, you couldn't succeed financially. Going back in time, now that you are free in a field, everybody will know the transformation in both of your lives, in your lives. But going back in time, what do you think now? Why couldn't you stop? Why couldn't you do anything in life?
Speaker 5:You know it's thinking back. It was an addiction problem. There was a devouring spirit working in my life, a big dark cloud almost working. It was it's hard to explain really Like a. I could like a blockage, a huge blockage, a huge stumbling block working in my life, day in, day out, that I could never fill and just feeding the flesh. Feeding the flesh, it was just constant, just never building anything Like three steps forward, two steps back and trying to build and then things get knocked down. Okay, let's continue forward, even though, like I I said, I had a good job, good financial life, well, good, good salary, but not a good financial life, because everything's like on the outside.
Speaker 4:Everything looked good. Everybody would look at joe and say, wow, what a great you know guy. He has all his his act together but, when you, when you delve into it. It was just like he said it's funny because it because we both agree it's like we were walking zombies, Because you're going through the same steps that everybody's going through and it's almost normalized in this world now.
Speaker 3:I believe, bishop David, that the life of a person only changes when you say enough, when you say so. This is fake. I'm among my family, my friends, and I pretend I put on a mask of a happy face makeup. I even say jokes, we laugh, we drink, we party. But when I go back home, when I'm inside of my home alone, then I am depressed, I am suicidal and I have to prepare like a script for the next day, because people expect that happy guy, that happy woman.
Speaker 2:So this is to be fake, like you're putting on a mask, pretending, and a lot of people are just making rooms for room for their problems. You know, their problems come and so they adapt, so that, okay, I've got to change my life because now I have this problem. And so they, they keep adapting and, like you're saying, this is all. This is going to continue until you get to the point where you say enough, I, I've had it, no more, I'm going to do whatever it takes to change this. It's not easy, it's hard. You've got to be ready to sacrifice things, but that's the moment that a person's life is going to change.
Speaker 3:You are broken beyond repair, not for God. With man, yes, there is no repair, there is no way to restore your life. But with God, he can mend back piece by piece, and he can redo your life and give it to you, a new life, better than the one that was broken, better than the one that was broken, better than the one that was broken, because when God restores one life, he makes you to forget that broken life. In your case, you just remember here to help others with your story, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, sometimes when we talk about our old lives, you forget all those little tiny things or all the bad things that you were going through or you felt and, as I testify, some things I'm reminded of, like suicidal thoughts, the extreme loneliness, all those things I forgot. I forgot how dirty I was when I came to the church and how everybody was just so open Because it's so long, because God literally like deletes, erases all of that.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, what do you mean?
Speaker 4:so there I was, and everybody will come for me personally, when I came, I was full of attitude all the time, you know, I just thought I was high and mighty, I was very prideful, and so was Joe. We had an elite eliteness, you know elitist attitude, yeah. So a lot of the times when I said, oh, people never really spoke to me. I think back now, I can look back and I think to myself like, well, now I know why they didn't speak to me.
Speaker 2:I probably spewed, you know judgmental you know angry, you also had a dirty mouth.
Speaker 4:Oh, yes, yeah, One of the things that you saw a lot of cursing. Yeah, we cursed a lot. I forget about that person.
Speaker 3:The pictures that we see now are your old life your old lifestyle.
Speaker 4:Yeah, when I first came to the church. Yeah, how can people like that coming to this church? Yeah, I that, those outfits, I mean I wore that. Sometimes again I look back and I think, my goodness, I came to the church with see-through things short shorts, short dresses, tight pants, church people do they accept? Welcome people like that. Yes, nobody ever spoke to me, nobody ever made me feel shame.
Speaker 3:Um, because usually when people go to church, they dress up, they dress up, they have this so-called church out of feet and some people cannot even go to church because they think I don't have those.
Speaker 2:Uh, bishop, those garments, those out of feet no, I've even heard Bishop of people being told that they can't come into the church, that they have to go home and change Really. Yes, yes Various people have told me this that they were not welcome in the church. You know with the baggy pants or you know a revealing dress, and they were told, no, you can't come in like this but, as in your case, you came.
Speaker 3:Let me show the pictures once again. You came like a party person, somebody that was going to a party yeah, those are my outfits, that's all I had.
Speaker 4:Uh, one of a funny that you mentioned that I, we went to a church right before we came to the universal church. One month I had gone and I wore a very short pink dress, tight, you know, sleeveless, and when I went into that church I knew I was, I was dressed inappropriate. They made me feel it, they made me know it and and I wore that dress again, actually, after that, many, many times, to our church, to a universal church, and no one ever made me feel ashamed, um, as I learned to be more discreet, um to honor my body, you know, to honor myself, um to glorify God. That's when I learned, but no one had to tell me, nobody made me feel bad.
Speaker 3:When I say here, come as you are, we mean it. You can come as you are. If you say I don't have this church clothing because in this church there is no dress code, come with the one you have as she came, just the one you have, put it on and come to the church. Nobody will be at the main lobby, the entrance of the church, saying go home and change. No, we are going to say come in and receive the prayer. You did receive the prayer. Joe also received the prayer. What did God do in your life in these minutes? Tell us now the transformation.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow, so I've been in the church for almost 11 years now. Yeah, so 2009 to 2010. So my life has changed so much. My financial life has grown. My vision has grown Together me and Milena. Both we're business partners, we have our business, we're investors. We're bearing fruit in our investments. We have grown financially. Our family has grown. We have a blessed marriage, a blessed child. He's eight years old now and he's a great blessing for our family and he has great testimonies himself as well, healing. We have our new home. Financial life grew. Our business grew. Our home life grew. It's beyond words. You can't describe how amazing it is. God's power.
Speaker 4:So now our life is transformed even more. Sometimes you think, oh, god can't do anymore, but he just has so many great things if you just stop, listen and obey. And now we have our home, which is peaceful. We wanted a lot of land, we wanted a lot of space, because we didn't want to be around everything and everybody. So we didn't want fast pace, we wanted to slow down. We wanted to be closer to the church, which we didn't think was possible to have so much space. And being closer to that area, um, we have a house that is filled with six bodies and we all get along. We have peace.
Speaker 5:You know, tranquility, yeah, so much space.
Speaker 4:And we have our office now, um, which is the blessing Cause. Now we don't sit on top of each other. Now we have separate areas and we're able to be, you know, to be in faith and successful.
Speaker 3:Everybody wants to know how is your spiritual life, how is your marriage?
Speaker 4:So you know, life isn't perfect just because you have the Holy Spirit. But what has helped us and the most important beyond a house, cars, our health is our spiritual life. Like anything that comes upon us, any sickness, any hardship, we're able to get through it without being destroyed or without looking at the problem and feeling that overwhelming, not getting downcast or negativity, like we persevere, we persevere.
Speaker 5:So having the Holy Spirit and having that daily communion.
Speaker 3:I have heard some people say. I don't believe in this kind of testimonies. I think that these people are paid, they are actors. But, bishop David, we need a lot of money because we have, we have to pay off a lot of people.
Speaker 2:That's right. We're showing testimonies every day, all the time. I don't know how many testimonies we show on our network every day. A lot, yes, and you know. These guys have come down from Philadelphia just to give their testimony here in Houston.
Speaker 5:That's right, and if somebody lives in Philadelphia is watching us right now, where they can find you 3801 North Broad Street on the corner of Butler and Broad, right next to Checkers In service 10 am, 4 pm and 7 pm during the week, and 10 am on Sunday and 6 pm.
Speaker 4:And we're there. We're there Six days a week. We're there.
Speaker 2:People can walk in and talk to you guys.
Speaker 4:Yes, we're there to counsel. You know, our lives are not our own. Our lives are not our own. It doesn't matter all the things that God has blessed us with and a lot of people think, oh, they are successful business owners, entrepreneurs. They don't have time. We make time. And all of our colleagues, god's first. Yes, all of our colleagues know If we're not on a call it's because we're serving.
Speaker 3:Amen, thank you very much for your story.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Bishop. It's a blessing to be here.
Speaker 3:Never again say I'm broken beyond repair. No, you are not. The same God that have restored, repaired their lives can do the same in yours as well yours as well.
Speaker 1:Broken Beyond Repair, the untold stories of those who were once broken. Thank you for listening to soul food. Stay tuned tomorrow for more you.