Listen in as Rob and Paul join host Doug Stringer in sharing about God’s redemptive work in their lives.
Our Guests: Rob Diaz and Paul Lin
Paul Lin was born in San Antonio,TX but has lived most of my life in the Houston area. He spent 9 years in TDCJ and was released in 2015. After getting out, He graduated from U of H with degrees in accounting and finance and is working as the finance director of a local nonprofit. He has a heart to see revival in the prisons and has been going back since 2016 as a part of the Joseph Company prison ministry.
Rob Diaz is an accomplished entrepreneur and a pillar in the community. Rob is the owner of Next Level Barber Shop – recognized and recipient of Houston wide business awards. But, it wasn’t always like that. Born and raised in Houston, this “church kid” was let down and wanted nothing to do with religion. So, he turned to the streets and got involved in everything that came with it. Although street life came easily, it cost him almost everything, including facing divorce, 25 years in prison, and the possibility of losing his children. Reality finally set in when he looked around the jail and saw people just like him. However, a voice inside told him that he didn’t belong there and that this was not how his story was supposed to end.
Then, a miracle happened. God made a way where there seemed to be no way. Rob never looked back, and restoration came first in his marriage and family. They became connected to Jesus, not religion, and went from having nothing to being blessed in every area of their lives. They started serving in ministry and mentoring in Houston schools, determined to keep young people out of the traps set by the enemy and lead them into the life that God had always planned for them. It had always been part of God’s original plan for the children He loves so dearly. Rob’s goal is for him and his family to be a display of God’s goodness and to attract everyone they meet to know Jesus.
Scriptures and Key Points:
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- God can redeem our past.
- There’s more to being a christian than just praying in Jesus’ name.
- Your testimony, good or bad, can affect how someone walks for the rest of their lives.
- “If God has a plan for me, it doesn’t matter what I do.”
Proverbs 22:6 NKJV Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
- “You don’t belong here. This is not how your story is supposed to end.”
- “I’m going all in.”
- Rob’s church told him that God was bigger than his situation.
- Rob went from having nothing, facing prison, and losing his family to God restoring him.
- From all the past disappointments, it only took God showing up one time to redeem Rob’s life.
God’s Redemption does Restore.
- Anything can either get you closer to God or farther away from Him.
- Drugs open the door for people to kill themselves slowly.
- Some use it to cope with the pain.
1 Peter 5:8 NKJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
- “Pharmakeia”, which means witchcraft, is the same base word we get pharmaceuticals from.
1 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
- Hypocrite – the stage actor, the performer
Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
- “You don’t have to be like them. You can define what a Christian looks like.”
- “When people see you, they’ll know you’ve been with God.”
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- All you need to do is say yes to Him and let Him lead you.
- God has a story written just for you.
- You cannot change the past, but the decisions you make today, define your future.
- “God’s redemption started as soon as I said ‘Yes’ to Him.”
- When you give your life to Christ, you have purpose.
- There is a prophetic generation that is emerging that will see visions, prophesy, and be a tangible, prophetic, corporate anointed generation preparing the way for revival.
- What the enemy means for bad, the Lord will turn around for good.
Genesis 50:20 NKJV But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…
- No matter where you’ve come from, it doesn’t dictate how you’ll end up.
Link:
Book:
- From Faith to Faith by Kenneth Copeland
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