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Welcome to 'Changed' a podcast celebrating transformative encounters with Jesus Christ. Each episode unfolds powerful testimonies of profound life changes, providing inspiration for your spiritual journey. Join our community, drawing strength and encouragement to deepen your relationship with God. Witness the irrefutable evidence of lives dramatically changed by His love. We're here to inspire hope, reinforcing God's relentless pursuit, and sparking the desire to seek a life profoundly transformed. Let's chase after God together. Your journey to deeper faith starts here.
Brent Stone (00:00.542)
Hey everybody, welcome to changed. This isn't a typical podcast episode. No, I'm by myself today and I'm going to talk a little bit, a little bit about Ephesians six, one through three and how that relates to some of my story and my testimony and you know, this is a pretty sensitive topic for me. I was actually praying not too long ago about, you know, what I should talk about today and I wanted it to be based on.
a relevant, a meaningful scripture verse to me, something that's been speaking to me very loudly and for anyone that doesn't know, this is just what it says in the New Living Translation under Children and Parents, it says, children obey your parents because you belong to the Lord for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with the promise.
And for me, just to pause before I read the rest, this has really in the last couple of years, given me chills because I was not a great kid in my high school years, middle school years, somewhat rebellious. But I definitely was not respectful. In fact, I was probably so disrespectful.
that I would have absolutely, if we were being held by the law of the Old Testament, the book of the law, I would have been one of those kids probably put to death. And I mean that, and I really mean that because I was so disrespectful to my parents. And thank you Jesus for His grace and goodness and just His sacrifice because of
that sacrifice. I have a shot and I mean that. I don't know if you've ever felt like that, but the second part, this promise says, if you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you and you will have a long life on the earth. Here's what I can say. Back in the beginning of my road down to...
Brent Stone (02:26.294)
some of the things I battled with witchcraft and some of these other things that I share about in In the first episode where I'm interviewed by Michael Scholes That that embarrassing experience when I was a kid I placed a lot of the blame subconsciously on my parents and It wasn't until the last year or so just going through some of the heart healing ministry and some of the other things that I got to have breakthrough from
being able to be vulnerable and let the Holy Spirit just come in and show me things in my past, in my childhood that I just blocked out, suppressed. And it wasn't until really the last 12, 14 months or so where I really started to address these things. And today, I feel like I can share some of this stuff on unashamedly because I just.
You know, I want this to help somebody and I had so much shame for the way I treated my parents for such a long time and they're awesome. Um, anyone that knows me, a lot of you don't. Um, but the ones that do and know my family, they, they know that my parents are pretty awesome and do not deserve the treatment that I gave them. But what's really awesome is that, um, Jesus is just.
His sacrifice and His grace for all of us is enough. And what's really, really great is that He's our leader. He's a God of second chances. He's leading me currently through this healing process. And to no fault of my parents, there's no perfect earthly parents. There's only perfect parent is God the Father.
And one thing that this truth has shown me is that we all need to cut our earthly parents a break. And now that I am a parent, I really hope my kids cut me a break. And I'll be lying to you if I didn't tell you, sometimes I'm scared to death just based off of some of the things that I know that I did to my parents.
Brent Stone (04:49.41)
And you know, I'm just praying against, you know, all that seed that I sowed when I was in high school, that seed would die. I don't know if anyone else feels like that. But, but yes. So back to Ephesians six, one through three. And again, this to me speaks so loudly to be able to prioritize quality time with my family because I neglected them for many years.
just not only through high school, which I did, but then also out of high school because I carried some of these childhood wounds subconsciously. I didn't think that I was doing anything bad. I just thought that I was actually going and working hard. And I was just prioritizing money and business and other things. I just made it an idol in my life. Placed people that I was close to and learning from on pedestals. I should not have done that. That was just immature on my part.
I idolize things that just gave me permission, so to speak, to just neglect my family. And I did that for years. So it also speaks to me in that regard. And again, I don't know if this speaks to anybody that might be watching or listening to this, but I certainly am grateful for God being a God of second chances and being able to try
to go back through and mop up the mess that I created, not in my power, but just relying on the Holy Spirit to give me the strength to do it and also praying for wisdom in how to do it because I'm not that good or that smart. And at times in my life where I thought that I was, I just made the mess even bigger. So don't know if that resonates with anybody, but I would just.
encourage you that if it does resonate with you to just go and chew on that verse, just the very beginning of Ephesians 6, and just ask the Lord what's He sharing with you? What does He want to tell you about this verse? Because the Word is alive and
Brent Stone (07:06.262)
God loves you, Jesus loves you, Holy Spirit loves you, wants to talk to you more than you wanna hear probably. Because sometimes when we hear, it's uncomfortable. And the things that we may be led to do in the name of repentance. And a repentant heart isn't just saying, hey, I'm sorry, it's also the sacrifice and the action.
taken to just show your forgiveness or to show your sorry, to show your empathy towards maybe some of the things that you did. And I think that gets missed. God's not a God of needing us to take action to earn His love. It's not about that. But
Brent Stone (07:57.622)
Jesus didn't just say, hey, to the world, hey, your sins are forgiven. He paid the ultimate price. He took this action to really pay for our sins on the cross. And there's a lot there, but one thing that I gather from this is that, there's some things that I have to do, and I've tried to do already, but over the course of the remaining time that I have with my parents
really make it special, make that time special. So with all of that, hopefully that resonates with some of you, to some of you, hopefully, in other words, hopefully it doesn't. Maybe you have had a wonderful relationship with your parents and I pray that's the case. But at any rate, thank you so much for tuning in today and would love to hear from you if this resonates with you and appreciate you following and listening and watching.