Soul Fire Stories

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C.J. Blair

In December 1997, about two weeks before Christmas, I had just finished doing a drug deal. I had about $50,000 worth of cocaine in my car. And I was on the 495 freeway outside Washington, D.C., listening to a rap CD.

I remember one of the rappers saying something about the Antichrist, and I said to myself, They are going to hell. As soon as I said that, the spirit of God came up in my car so powerfully that my hands flew off the steering wheel and up into the air. I just started saying "Hallelujah!" with my hands in the air on a five-lane highway. Mind you, I didn't go to church, and except for two or three Easters when I was a kid, I had never been to church. I thought I had to be trippin'. But then God audibly said my name, "C.J.," and I said,
"Yes, Lord!"

Growing up, I'd always thought Jesus was a joke because the churches in my inner-city D.C. neighborhood never came out and told us who He was. My mother was a prostitute, and the only father figure I ever knew was her pimp. I grew up looking at mink coats and pistols and diamond chains and Cadillacs and all that the street could provide you, and I took to it like a fish to water. I did everything from selling weed to stealing hubcaps and selling them. I was a criminal. I was about 12 years old when crack cocaine came to my neighborhood. I jumped in it and began to make money, up to $7,000 a night!

I went to jail for the first time when I was 13 because a crack head had tried to rob me, and I got a gun and shot him. For the next 14 years, I was in and out of jail. In 1991, I caught my longest period of jail time--close to six years straight. But the mentality of the hood is like jail, murder, death ... all of that is just part of the game. So when I was released in January 1997, I went right back to my old life. Until that night in the car. I went straight home and told my mother and grandmother, "I talked to God!" There was no church, nobody witnessed to me, I didn't have an altar call--I just knew I was saved. I called my aunt, who was a pastor, and I went to her church and gave my testimony. Four months later, they invited me to preach my first sermon. Word spread through the whole city about what had happened to me.

I went to Bible school, and I continued preaching at churches, and one week as I was preaching in Memphis, I looked out at the crowd--it was a whole bunch of old people in nice dresses and hats. I didn't see anybody from the streets. And I felt God saying, "Come out from among them." So I went back to the hood, and I started doing after-school services at the school where I used to sell crack. I bought Wal-Mart swimming pools and started baptizing young'ns on the basketball courts in the projects. Then I would take church to the neighborhoods and set up stages, microphones and speakers and just bring in rappers and DJs and have service right there. From there, C.O.F.A.T. (Come Out From Among Them) ministries evolved into a full urban ministry. Churches started bringing me in to speak because they couldn't engage their communities--they just weren't relevant. We come in and teach churches how to bring about change, deliverance and healing to a world that really needs it. God sends me and my staff of 15 to a city that we crusade for six weeks, going into the roughest neighborhoods, and then we do three-night revivals. We also do outreach in schools and run a hip-hop record label that helps kids use their talents for the glorification of God.

When I speak, people know I've been there, done that. They know I represent hope for the individual in the streets who thinks he has no options. So that is my mission--to help churches that want to make the Gospel relevant. I run to shed light in those dark places.

--as told to Andrea Bailey Willits

Michael Franzese

The first time I realized my father was involved in organized crime, I was about 9 years old, playing ball with some friends in front of my house in Brooklyn, N.Y. The ball rolled past me, down the street in front of an unmarked car. An FBI agent got out of the car, showed me his gun and said, "This gun is for your father one day."

My father's involvement in organized crime as the underboss of Joe Colombo's Mafia got him indicted. He then went to trial twice and was eventually locked up for murder in 1967 and sentenced to 50 years. At that time, my father wanted me to go to school and become a doctor. But once he got indicted, I lost interest in school and Joe Colombo took me under his wing.

In the Mafia, you're kind of responsible for establishing yourself in one way or the other. I had a head for business so I made a name for myself as a guy who could earn money. I did a lot of traditional mob activities like bookmaking and loan sharking, but I also owned a Chevrolet and Mazda agency and some restaurants. My major source of income, however, was through a wholesale gasoline scheme I devised. While the money, success and power were very attractive to me, my main motivation was to get my dad out of prison. I also wanted my dad to be proud of me. I idolized him and he was very supportive of me. Altogether, I was involved in organized crime for more than 17 years.

One day, I was sitting by the pool in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on the set of a break- dance film I was producing (another side business I had), when I met a beautiful young dancer named Camille and learned that she was a Christian. She became more important to me than the mob.

From that point, I started to plan how I was going to move away from the life I was leading. Around the same time, however, I was being indicted for a racketeering case in the eastern district of New York. I pled guilty, accepted a 10-year prison sentence and formally renounced my involvement with the Mafia. My renouncement made big news and word got back to New York. My dad disowned me and a death sentence was on me from Colombo. I struggled mightily with this. After serving my first prison sentence, I was on parole for just 13 months before I ended up back in prison for not paying my taxes on time.

The first night they threw me back in prison was absolutely devastating. That night in my little six-foot-by-eight-foot cell, I hurt so bad that I prayed, God, if you're really there, just take me away tonight. And I meant it! A prison guard gave me a Bible. The first verse I saw was Proverbs 16:7: "When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him." Finally, that night I listened to God's Word.

For the next three years, I lived in solitary confinement and studied the entire Bible and every Christian book you can imagine. I surrendered my life to Christ.

Today, I serve Christ by telling people my story. I tell people that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. Sin is sin and God's grace truly extends to everyone. I try to tell everyone I speak to that God forgives our sins once we truly repent. Look, if the Lord can get through to me and forgive me, then His forgiveness is truly for anyone.

--as told to Jeannie Choi

Talitha Ishi Laughlin

I used to be a successful freelance interior stylist in the United Kingdom, with my work featured in glossy house magazines like House Beautiful and Real Homes. But, speaking from personal experience, I know a nice house isn't always a nice home. My own house was featured in many magazines, but beyond the swanky furniture and designer labels, my life was in ruins. I was only in my 30s, but I'd struggled through three miscarriages, a hysterectomy, divorce, abuse, depression, eating disorders, loneliness and so on. Really, the list felt like the abyss! I knew church, I knew religion, I knew how to wear a mask. But I didn't know who I was--or the love of Jesus. In fact, my heart was hardened against Him.

During my divorce, I became severely depressed. I hated and condemned myself for my past. For five years, I compared myself to others, grumbled about what had been done to me, and carried hurt, bitterness, self-hatred, pride and fear in my heart. One day as I was sitting drunk and stoned on the beach in the early hours of the morning, contemplating suicide, a verse I'd memorized years ago, Psalm 139:13, popped into my mind: "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Could it be? God still knew the depths of me, my dreams, desires and hopes--after all, He had formed my inward parts. If all the days ordained for me were written in His book before one of them came to pass, all this mess was no surprise to Him. I took the opportunity to leave my past and walk in the fullness of all that God had for me.

I made a lot of money as an interior stylist, but I felt God telling me to lay it down and use my skills for Him. He inspired me to put together a Christian house "bookazine," a publication that would sit alongside secular publications but would be a modern-day tract, packed with the Word of God. That's how Living Stones was born and began to be sold in bookshops throughout the United Kingdom. Featuring photographs of eight cutting-edge Christian homes, as well as the stories of the families who live in them, it ultimately explores God's grace toward us through the story of my own life. I wrote deeply personal "articles" to share with people so they will know there's an end to the dark tunnel they are in.

It hasn't been easy--I had to sell my house to finance the publication, and I did all the writing and house styling myself--but the results have been incredible. As people discovered the publication, I've gotten TV, radio and preaching commitments that constitute a full-time ministry. I'm now being asked to minister in hospitals to women who've had stillborn babies and in domestic violence centers. So many people who have been prodigals have contacted me because they saw how God's grace was so much bigger than my mess. Miraculously, I'm seeing people come to salvation every day. I recently heard from a girl who tried to commit suicide and was in the hospital. She had been planning a second suicide attempt when she noticed the a copy of Living Stones lying on a table. She opened it to a section where I talk about how my life was so bad at one time that I wanted to commit suicide. The story of Christ's love gave her hope to continue living.

Now I'm praying for the opportunity to bring this publication to America. When God asks us to do little things, we often disregard it. But whether it's a CD, a tract or a piece of art, you never know what it's going to do.

--as told to Andrea Bailey

Calvin Johnson

This may be hard to believe coming from an NFL wide receiver, but I've never really liked being in the public spotlight. I've never been one to like talking a lot. Whether it is to opponents on the field or to media off the field, I would definitely prefer to stay quiet and humble about things. Especially when it comes to football, I prefer to let my actions speak louder than my words.

Admittedly, though, there have been times when it has been hard to stay out of the spotlight. Take middle school for example. There weren’t too many other 6-foot-4-inch students in my class. Given my size, sports came naturally to me. My God-given height and football skills earned me quite a bit of recognition as a receiver on Sandy Creek High School’s football team in my hometown of Tyrone, Ga. Little did I know at the time that the plays I was making on the field would have more of an eternal impact on my life by leading me to godly men.

I was heavily recruited by Georgia Tech, and it was an easy choice for me to play for the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta, which was just minutes from my home. It allowed me to remain close to my family. Growing up, we went to church as a family, and we were still able to spend that time together even when I was in college. In 2004, as a freshman, I tagged along with a bunch of guys who were going over to our team chaplain’s house for a pool party. At that point, I hadn’t met the chaplain, Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Derrick Moore, but we were introduced once I got there. We hit it off right away and developed a friendship throughout the season. Then, in the spring of 2005, I traveled with some teammates and other Tech athletes to a retreat in northern Georgia. It was on that trip, surrounded by other athletes and far away from our fields, weight rooms and TV cameras, that I surrendered my life to Christ.

From that point on, Derrick took me under his wing. Being soft-spoken by nature, it was great to have him there as I took a leap of faith and began to grow spiritually. I attribute so much of that growth to him, the people he brought me around and the way he mentored me. He helped me remain humble about football but open about my faith. Looking back on the experience, I see the Lord had a plan for me to be surrounded by those quality people while at Tech and then to move on to another place where I would again be surrounded by Christian men.

In 2007, I entered the NFL draft, and the Detroit Lions chose me as the second overall pick. My rookie season started well, but I was injured in our third game, and it nagged me for the rest of the season. Our team also had a tough second half of the season, but that didn’t stop me or my Christian teammates from remaining positive. Many times when a team is struggling, the last thing players want to hear is someone with an upbeat, positive message. But it was during those tough times that our faith and actions served as a powerful witness. We have a strong group of Christian guys on the team. We aren’t able to go to church on Sundays, but we hold weekly Bible studies on Mondays. It is a growing group, and the study serves an important function to help us stay in the Word. In this line of work, we really have to. There is a lot of stuff that we see and experience that could make it easy to fade away. We have to do our best to stay tight and stay in the Book.

On our team, there’s no pressure to keep my faith a secret. And there shouldn’t be. I actually like to engage teammates in conversation because it is both a chance to witness and a chance for me to learn something I might not have known. God has truly blessed my life. He’s given me great Christian people like Derrick, who I am still in contact with, and my Lions teammates to encourage me to step out even more in my faith.

As NFL players, we have such a platform to spread the Word of God. And that is an area I don’t mind speaking out on at all. As far as talking about my football skills, however, I will let my abilities and actions speak for themselves.

--As told to Clay Meyer in Sharing the Victory (SharingtheVictory.com)