Episode Transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and you know that the enemy is against us because my guest and I, we tried recording yesterday and it wasn't working out, and he does live in the same state of America where Satan lives. So it's no coincidence that, that happened, but we are here to connect, to talk about some great things.
And so to give a little backstory, today's guest and I actually met in Japan. We got to meet in person in Tokyo at the Hillsong Tokyo Church shortly after their grand opening, and it was an amazing time. We both got to be part of a small group that was focused on leadership and work and
As a leader, really it's important, if you're leading without God, you're not leading at all, I dare say. And so it was great to be a part of that. Our guest went around and traveled across the country doing different meetings. I was also traveling around, and we didn't get to line things up where we talked in person and then we finally met online yesterday and it didn't work out.
So we're here hoping the technology will be on our side today. And so yeah, without further ado, Mr. Jimmy Chang, so great to have you here. Like I said we're gonna try again and you know, we're gonna have a great time with it. Man, thank you so much for having me with Mr. Whiskey. For sure. And, so same question that I tried to ask yesterday and we got technologically attacked with what was going on here. So tell us a little bit about yourself and most importantly, I wanna lead with what are you doing right now? I started a government contracting business about two years ago, and I officially started bidding on contracts maybe about a year and a half ago. When I started, we hit some bumps early on in the road because I started with two other friends, and the, as soon as we signed the papers, one of them backed out.
So, so that kind of set me back about six- Seen it
happen too many times, to be honest. Yeah. So it set me back about six months. I started officially bidding about a, a year and a half ago. I'm still waiting on God's timing for getting my first contract. Yeah. And if I understand, that's kind of what brought you to Japan to talk to some people there, make some connections, right?
Yeah, yeah. Was visiting some vendors, and then I have family there as well. Auntie in Tokyo, auntie in Osaka. I have family in O- Osaka as well, so, so yeah. It was kind of- So you had to travel quite a bit ... two birds with... Yeah, yeah. Two birds with one stone kind of thing, and yeah. Japan is a very interesting place.
Yeah, and we'll get into that conversation a little bit more later on. I wanna backtrack to a little bit about your origins, growing up, what life was like. And of course, you know, we talk about the faith and, we both met at a church, and it's great to see that be- ... able to meet at a bilingual church in Japan, which again, has a history of suppressed Christianity.
Most people don't know that there were crucifixions there, persecution, a limited spread. I've shared before about how, you'll ask a Japanese person if they're a Christian or if they're interested in going to church, and they'll say, "A Christian? I'm Japanese." Right? And so there's a, a mindset over there many other places in the world as well.
And so to meet with people and it's not for the weak-hearted. The service is twice the length because they say everything in English and then in Japanese , and so it's you're there for a while. But one thing I love, and I don't know if you felt the same way, Mr. Chang, but being there and not always understanding all the Japanese.
I personally only know about 70 to 80 words, right? So that's a fraction of the language. But being able to feel the love in a community despite the language barrier, just feeling like one body of Christ, people praying. You know, I've been part of groups now from that same group where people are praying in Korean, in Japanese, in English, and it wasn't about understanding.
It was about feeling. And what was your experience with that? Was it kind of something different than what you've experienced in the States, of course? I was here last year and When I'm in the new environment, I'm trying to pick up more Japanese. I'm trying to see how much Japanese I can pick up more than I'm like paying attention to other things. I'm trying to pick up the language actually. Mm. Yeah, just to see, like, if I can see any relations.
But man, without any Japanese background, it's kind of hard to, to pick up anything. I have I started Duolingo this last year. I should be more more diligent on studying Japanese- Hai, hai ... but it's, it's getting a little bit better. Yeah, wakarimasu. I, I understand because, you know-
I will say I definitely learned a lot of Japanese at the church because a lot of scripture, there's a lot of words you hear over and over again. Kokoro, kami. You know, there's a lot of different terms that you'll hear quite a bit. Atarashii. You know, different parts like that. Atarashii being new and, you know, so there's a lot of parts of the Bible that talks about giving you a new heart, making something new or new creation.
Kokoro being heart, you know, so you hear a lot the term heart. And it's interesting because I do Hebrew and Greek study as well, and sometimes the word heart you know, in English and in Japanese doesn't capture the full Hebrew meaning of, you know, lebeka, which is meaning more of the whole soul and spirit and inner workings.
It's not just heart in the more weaker English sense. And I think all languages outside of that original Hebrew and Greek text, you lose some of the meaning in translation. And, you know, that has really helped me in my journey of faith, getting deeper into the word. And so many people, most people haven't read the Bible entirely even as a believer, number one.
But to read it even more deeply, to stop and look at historical context notes, to look at that stuff, to look at the language, it is a much deeper impact. And so yeah, I've been very grateful to get to travel in Japan and attend churches there as well, because that's part of the Great Commission.
You know, Pentecost was the reversal of the Tower of Babel. Scripture can strongly support that. As sin entered the world through one man, so it leaves through one man, that is Yeshua. And what we see is shortly after that is fulfilled, we see Pentecost, the receiving of tongues and language.
Why? It's the reversal of the Tower of Babel. Now we're bringing everyone back together towards one unified body of Christ. And so the fact that you and I are right now on opposite sides of America obviously I'm on the better side, you're on the worse side, and, ... we're on two parts of America- I agree, I agree.
And but we met in Japan, you know, and now we're having a conversation. To me, it's mind-blowing. And it's been great- So let's get into growing up, your journey with the faith, with family, with school, all that stuff I grew up in the church. My mom started bringing us to church, me and my brother since we were about eight, and then she converted from Buddhism to Christianity.
So growing up in the church, man, you see a lot of stuff. You see a lot of, Oh, yeah ... you see a lot of humanly stuff, you know, fleshly desires. There's anger, there's greed, there's you know, personal agendas. There's lust- Oh, yeah ... adultery- Corruption, hypocrisy ... I mean, you see everything. Yes, hypocrisy is probably one of the biggest and, and that is why- The most harmful
I hated Christians. Yeah, I hated Christians growing up 'cause they're all hypocrites. I thought they were all freaking hypocrites, man. Like, there's preachers on stage preaching one thing, and then they're, you know, off of stage doing another, and I'm like, "Man, F this freaking religion.
Like, forget this religion," you know? Yeah, I hated Christians growing up because of my dad as well. My dad growing up, he was a... He wasn't really... He was really against Christianity, and he hated my mom going to church, but I think he was such a anti-religion how do you call this? Yeah.
Individual with anti-re- Yeah ... religious individual beliefs. Yeah, so he wasn't Buddhist ... he didn't... Yeah, no, he was kind of just not, Is this atheist? Atheist or agnostic? I don't know which one's which, but he didn't believe that there is a God until, you know, I think when he started attending church, I think he experienced certain things where- He couldn't write it off as coincidences either.
But I hated Christians growing up because he was so violent, man and he just went to church almost to just supervise me and my brother to see if we were paying attention. Mm. And if we're, like, a little bit out of line, I mean, he would, he would beat the crap out of us. Man, my brother went to, went with a friend walked to 7-Eleven with a friend to get a hot dog during the sermon.
My dad saw him and, like, just freaking beat the heck out of my brother like, in front of... Like- Wow. Yeah. It w- it was bad. I mean, it was bad. And this kind of went on until, like, we were what, like, 14, 15? The beating went on for a while, man. Yeah, till 15. And yeah, so, so my faith hated Christians growing up.
I didn't really... I started... In college, it was a turning point around 2009, 2010 in college where I had an internship and there was a whole story with that, and I started really seeking in 2015 faithfully. You know, started getting into the scriptures daily, getting to the prayers daily and I started to see my life change, man, you know?
And it's true what Bible says, like, if you seek, the doors will open. You're- you'll find, you know? And God let me find Him, man. I found Him, you know? Mm. So yeah. Yeah, that was kinda in a nutshell. Right. I think we talked about yesterday where 2010 was a, was a turning point. Yeah, we did and we can unpack that.
But first, I just wanna make a remark about, you know, your father's behavior because I didn't experience that to that degree. However, going to a Catholic school that was a pretty corrupted place it was a good place at one point. It became very corrupted when leadership changed out and things fell apart, and one of the things they ended up doing was grading your behavior and, you know, resonation with the word when we would go to church on, like, Thursday mornings or whatever it was.
And for me, grading how well you felt a connection to the word, that was the quickest way to kill any relationship with it. Like the way you were being, I would dare call it, old school military instruction style, you know? Having church become a chore or a, a mission or something like that.
Mission in like a military sense, not the religious sense, right? When it becomes an obligation rather than a chosen commitment, it really does kill the relationship with it. And that's why so many people, they grow up, and I was part of this, we grow up being told religion rather than taught religion.
You know, we're just told rather than given the explanation why and being able to develop that relationship and that kills it. And I think when you have the why, you have fruitfulness. But when you have the, "We just do this because this is what we do," that sets you up to drift off once you're an adult.
You're like, "Hey, I'm an adult now. I can make my own decisions." Obviously, I'm gonna drop obligations that consume my time and I don't get a benefit from. Because I think when we're just doing our obligation and we don't have that relationship, we fail to see the fruits of it. We fail to see the answered prayers, the community, the connections, you know?
I think we see the community as, "Oh, here's a bunch of other people who were forced to be here on a Sunday who we could have all been playing volleyball and hanging out," you know? And so what your father did, it's like wanting your children to behave in church and pay attention to the word is good.
It's a good thing inherently. But how you go about enacting that is what really changes it, and so I can see how that would affect y'all on top of the hypocrisy. I talk all the time about church hurt, about how we Take what people do, as you said earlier, humanly, right? Only one man ever perfectly represented God, and that was Yeshua, AKA Jesus Christ.
God in the form of man. Everyone else, we have the guidelines, and I'd like to say I always use this analogy. If I went to a company and I talked to the secretary and they were kind of rude to me or they were whatever, bad at their job, I wouldn't automatically assume that the founder of the company's a inherently bad or stupid person, right?
They put forward guidelines for their employees to follow. The employees don't follow it, that's a representation of the employees, not the founder. And so why don't we do that with God, right? Instead we just say, "Oh, someone hurt me," or, "Someone didn't follow the guidelines, and they broke a rule that they were sharing as part of the rules.
Therefore, the founder must be terrible. God must be terrible." So I think it's so important that we take God for who God is rather than who people are. And we'll get into that I know 'cause you and I talked a little bit yesterday before we got cut off about your story, where I would dare to say, you know, you got to know who God was for who God was rather than what people were saying or what people were doing.
So I'd love for you to unpack that turning point event
Yeah, man, you touched on a lot of things. Church hurt, yeah, definitely. But to get back to what we were talking about yesterday, the turning point, it was 2009, 2010 in college at an internship. I showed up one day at the office, and the whole freaking office was cleared out. And I was just like, "What the heck?"
And when I looked into it, the managing directors were stealing students' information to open credit cards, and they opened 15 credit cards under my name and about $15,000 charged. And at that time, it was such a big big number for me, 15, 15K, but only to, in, in hindsight, seeing how petty it is now to to be s- that Fired up over 15,000.
And we were talking about, like, this might not be typically for people's lows, but for me emotionally that was kind of the lowest point for me, because that was the first time I'm actually losing sleep because I have so much hate. You know? Growing up with so much violence, I wanted violence. I saw red.
All I thought, all I had was violent thoughts every night. Like, "Hey, you know what? These guys should not be alive." Like, these guys, you know, the world would be much better without people like this. So I had a lot of violent thoughts and because I had partial scholarships and financial aid, I couldn't just drop my class and focus on, like, retaliation or whatever.
And for six months straight I was losing sleep, and I was not really performing well in school. And for six months I was losing sleep. My hair was falling out, and I was sleeping-- Because of this I was like, I remember just laying there just, like, thinking about- violent thoughts for like two hours, two, three hours.
And then it would be like 5:00, 6:00 in the morning but anyways, fast-forward six months, six months in, out of desperation I came to my mom for guidance. At that time, because of me and my dad's relationship, we did not have a relationship at all. We didn't even talk. The only time we talked was fighting.
Like- Mm ... we would just get into it. And so for me to come to my mom for guidance, it was a big deal. Right. And six months in came to her. I, I told her, "Hey, this is what's going on." And she's just like, "Man you know, we're immigrants. Like, we don't really know. Like, this is so new for us.
I'm sorry, I can't help you." And then she started pulling out the Bible. She started pulling out Bible verses. That's all she knew. And I remember getting mad at her. I, I, I said, "Hey, you know what?" Like, I snapped at her. I said like, "Hey," like, "I'm coming to you with, like, real-world problems. Like, you're coming at me with freaking the Bible?
Like, give me something more practical." And she just didn't know what to say. She's like, "Hey, look, man," she said, "Hey, I'll show you the Bible verse. This is what the Bible says. Bless, bless the enemy. You know?" Mm. "The Bible says when they're hungry, give them food. When they're thirsty, give them water.
And then you reap hot coals on their heads." And another verse she pulled up was, "The vengeance is God's to take." And she just said, "Trust God that He will do it for you." And like, really, like, "Trust God. He will do it for you." And I'm just like, "Man, I need something more practical." I remember getting mad at her and just kind of whatever.
And, you know, a couple months three more months went by. I tried everything in my power, and time, and resources that I can. Being in school I was pretty involved with school. I was trying to do well, and a lot of extracurricular activities, so, the extra time is very limited. I hired a private investigator.
I submitted a claim with the Orange County Sheriff's Department with with the FBI. But in hindsight, it's, it's such a petty thing to do 'cause it's such a small case, you know? Yeah. Like, the FBI didn't care. And then after three months of trying to go, I, I somehow got the sense that the private investigator I hired, they ended up paying him off 'cause one day he didn't give me a reason, and he's just like, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't, I can't find him."
And that was it. He's like, "I'm sorry- Hmm ... man, I can't find him." And I'm like, "That wasn't him. He was so friendly before, and all of a sudden he's just like..." I'm like, "Man, I think they paid him off, man. He found him. I gave him, I gave him an address, and I think he found him, and they paid him off to go away."
And, Hmm ... after three months, I came back to my mom. I was like, "Hey, Mom, what was it that you said? How do we bless our enemy?" And then she sat me down and she's like, "Hey- God knows our hearts already. Just be sincere. Like tonight, sit down, get on your knees, and just really ask God and really be sincere.
Bless them wholeheartedly. I remember she said, "Bless them wholeheartedly, like genuine, from your heart." And I'm like, "Okay." And that night I got on my knees before sleeping, and I remember saying, "God, if you are real, please bless them. Soften their hearts so that they won't do this to other people again, so that they won't hurt anybody else."
Because in the process of trying to find them, I found they were running real estate scams eight years prior. I found some girl in New York, Stephanie. They scammed her too, and she was one of the guy's friends. Like, they knew each other personally. And so I'm like, man, these guys have been running scams like over and over.
And so my mom said, "Bless them wholeheartedly." I also said, "God, if you're real, please bless them with the sympathy and empathy so that they feel for people, so that they feel and they know that they're wrong. They're doing this. It's just not right." Like, when I said that prayer-
Miraculously, my heart of hate, I had so much hatred, it turned into a heart of flesh. I almost broke down to tears, man. Like, I remember almost breaking to tears, and I was like, "Whoa, what is this?" And the hate just kinda, like, went away. And I was just like, "Wow, okay." Like, man, the hate is gone. I just kinda left it and forgot about it, you know?
And I told, in addition to my mom, I told one other person only, my friend my friend Peter at the time. And a year later, Peter somehow sent me an Orange County Business Journal's article. One of the guys got arrested. His name is Evan Chan. There was two guys, Evan Chan and Brian Jew. And I think they were running scams together.
So Evan Chan was arrested, and because I only told my mom and Peter the likelihood, I feel like the probability of me seeing that is too small. It's not a coincidence. And somehow I just knew at that moment, God wanted to let me know, like he took that vengeance for me. And after seeing that, I thought, wow, okay.
Like maybe there is a God. And that was the kind of... That was the turning point where I was like, "Okay, you know what? I think, I think there's no way, there's no way this is a coincidence." And there was another thing after that where I had a silly prayer, and like God kind of answered it as well, and I started going to church 2012.
Yeah. And then when I started going to church 2012, man I didn't know the worship songs. I was just reading the lyrics. It was Hillsong's Oceans was playing, and I was just reading the lyrics. It was "Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, so my faith could be made much stronger." I don't know why every time it hit this verse, man, I just wanted to cry.
Mm-hmm. And I was with my friend at that church the first time, so I didn't wanna... I was holding back. And as I went back, a month in, I was freaking like sobbing, man. And I was just like every time, it's the same song. Four weeks in a row, every time it was the same song, and the, the crying just went stronger and stronger.
And so 2012, I started going to church faithfully. And in 2015, I mentioned that I started seeking, like I mean, like really get into the prayers and like reading the Bible every day, 2015. Right. Right. So yeah, that was kind of, what we talked about yesterday. Yeah. Now we're, we're caught up minus one thing that- Yeah
we mentioned yesterday that we didn't get to today, was you talked about, I think especially with your heading to Japan and stuff, you were talking about the word revival, with God putting that into your life. So love for you to recap us on that as well. So the most recent thing about revival was I feel like the Lord my assignment at this season right now is to learn surrendering completely. Surrendering completely meaning I have to completely die to my flesh, and this is I heard the sermon once in Japan and then once again just this past Saturday.
Both of the pastors was talking about surrender and that we have to completely die to our flesh to be able to be buried in the ground to be able to have life. To be a dead seed buried to the ground and then being watered by, by, you know, God's living water, and then start having life. This, this past Sa- Saturday, the, the, the pastors talked about you will not have revival until you have completely been buried.
Mm. And man, it has been a, a repeating theme that I feel like the Lord is just saying like, "Surrender, surrender, surrender." And I feel like I'm almost there. Mm. I feel like I'm at the end of things to be completely dead to my flesh and to be just buried and have him just pour water on me, man.
Yeah, so, so I feel like the next time I go to Taiwan I will complete this season- Mm ... of surrender. Yeah. Right. And I wanna go from, you know, 2015 when you started getting more into the scripture to now, not just your faith journey but also, you know, graduating college, getting into the working world, some of the hardships and successes that came with that.
Oh man, the hardships was you know, God is, God is good, man The hardships was always financial. And in hindsight, the Lord kind of just gave me enough, financially speaking, for me to have gas have food, and not having extras to go out. Go out, I mean, like drinking, partying with the friends. Some of the friends that I grew up with, that crowd, they go pretty hard, and
in hindsight The Lord was carefully designed this so these friends would be cut out. Yeah. Mm. I didn't have the extra money to go spend weekends. I, I had to be home, and I had to be building, you know- Mm ... at home. I had to start taking care of my body. I just had to start exercising.
And yeah, so I think in hindsight, God has his ways of really just getting what he wants, man. Right. Yeah. And you talked about yesterday, you said you had basically tried almost every drug minus some of the, the big heavy shooters.
So, I believe you mentioned that as well, part of that. And again- Yeah ... can you go over for us kind of what threw you into that, those kinds of social groups? What really kind of put you into it? Was it a feeling of social pressure, of escapism, of numbing, of being someone you weren't? Mm-hmm. What kind of went into those decisions that you made?
I think in the perspectives from a psychological standpoint academically, people grow up in broken homes, they tend to kind of gravitate more towards substances and- Yeah ... and I'm certain it was a way of escapism for me to try weed first. And, because the situation with my dad, my brother and I, we had to run away from home when we were 15. Like- Mm ... like things got so hectic, like we had to get out. And so, getting out, we were staying with a friend's older cousin, like he was 19 at the time. But in hindsight, man, we were just a bunch of kids.
But at that time, 15 and 19, it w- it, 19 was a big- Right. Age is different. Yeah ... big gap. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, oh, these, these older guys- He's an adult. ... freaking taking care of us. Yeah. Yeah, and my introduction to, like, drinking, introduction to weed and everything else. And growing up in LA, like, you're exposed to pretty much anything and everything.
Everything. I don't know how it is like growing up in the South, but I'm sure it's probably like that as well. But LA, big cities, yeah, you get everything, like, pretty easily. Yeah. Yeah, I grew up in New Jersey, so it's basically LA but on the East Coast, minus all the cool stuff. Yeah. You know?
Like- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... if you keep the pollution, the crime, and the traffic from LA- Yeah ... that's New Jersey. Yeah. You know, I'll say- Oh, yeah ... one thing I wanna address, you know, you mentioned your mother, your mother turning to Christianity and all that. Was there any part where she was trying to protect you two children from your father, or she kind of was a victim as well, or she chose him over y'all kids?
Like, what was the family dynamic with that? Man, she was a victim as well, man. She couldn't say anything. She got beat. Yeah. She got beat if she tried to step in, and if we try to help her, we'd get beat, so, Mm ... so every time things go down, I'd just tell her like, "Hey, go, go, go. Just leave. Just leave."
'Cause she starts panicking, and she'll just, like, freak out. Like, "Oh my God. Please, please, please, please don't do it." And she'll- Mm ... get beat for just, like, freaking out. Mm. And so- Yeah, so she's definitely a victim as well. Is there a part of you you didn't feel like you were abandoning her when you and your brother, you know, kind of took off, or you felt like it was her decision to stay and it wasn't for you two kids to kind of bring her away?
I think without us there, she probably would be a little bit better. Mm. Yeah. Like, I didn't really think about all that at that time because we were, we were fearing for our lives, man. My dad- Right ... was kind of out of hand. He had a lot of guns in the house.
He's a gun enthusiast, so, so he had a lot of guns in the house, man. He started popping things off, off, like, like, Yeah, so we just... Well, I'm, I'm just like, "Whoa," like this is- But yeah. There was an incident, he was telling my mom to shut up. Like, shut the F up, and then and then you just hear like pop, pop.
And man, I think she got so scared that she went silent. She was crying at first. She's like, "Oh, please, please, please, please." And then when it went off, pop, pop
She just went silent, man. And I was like, "Oh, what the..." Like- Right. Right ... and it went silent for, I don't know, maybe like five, six seconds, and then you hear like Like whimpering. And I'm like, "Oh." It was, it was like a relief. Like, oh, she's still alive. And I'm like, yo, this guy is freaking out of hand, man.
Yeah, that was the first incident that guns went off. There was a couple more times- Couple more ... and after that- Yeah, a couple more ... yeah, we're just like, yo, we're, we're done. I'm, I'm out, dude. I'm not gonna put up with this. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like, like this is fearing for our lives, man. We out. So that brings, that brings us to modern day and also years later.
Did you ever reconnect with your father or mother? My mom, we were, we, we're always good. Me and my mom, we were always good. Like, there's no problem with me and my mom. It's just my dad, my dad would force her to pick sides. Yeah. He would say- Yeah, of course ... yeah, I remember one time hearing like, like, "What?
Who you gonna pick?" Like, "Which side you gonna pick?" And then sh- she can't do anything. Like, we understand, so we don't blame her for anything. 2018 this was three years into the me walking with the Lord, and I, I felt like the Lord was like, "Hey, sit your dad down." And I saw... I, I watched a movie, I think it was The Case, The Case for Christ or something, and I, I don't know why, I was just sobbing after after watching that movie, and I somehow felt like, man, if I, if he, if he would pass, like I would regret.
There's so many things I wanna say to him. Mm. So I felt like the Lord put it in my heart, 2018. He was like, "Hey, sit him down, have a heart-to-heart conversation with him." So me and my brother, we sat him down over lunch I think it was lunch. And I just spilled everything, like I told him like, "Hey, you know what?
Like, thank you for raising us the way you did. After growing up, if I didn't go through all of this stuff, I wouldn't be as mentally strong as I am right now. And if I hit any hardships in life, I probably would have caved, to be honest. Like, so thank you for being so hard on us. And we told him like, "Hey we understand coming from Taiwan," which is a nightlife-rich city, coming to the US, it was such a boring place for him.
Like, you know, we grew up in Ontario, Alta Loma, and it was just like quiet suburbs. You know, US is just like quiet suburb life. People goes... Like, there's nothing open past, what, like 9:00, 10:00. Right. Yeah. And yeah, so I think it was a big adjustment for him. And we found out later he was cheating with a lot of people at church.
And so I think because he was cheating with the... And he wasn't getting the reciprocation from the significant others who he was cheating with, he didn't know how to handle the emotional stress. He came home and took it out on us. Mm. Like, we were just like his punching bags when, when, when he got home you know, dealing with his relationship stuff.
Yeah, so we told him all this. We told him like, "Hey, you know, it's, it's okay. Like, we, we forgive you. We, we understand. You know, we understand like, like relationships are hard." Relationships yeah. And I mean, we didn't really get the response that we wanted. No, no apologies, nothing. He'll just be like, "Huh.
Huh. Okay." Hmm. That's all he said. Interesting. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know- Yeah ... one thing I want to mention actually that I've been curious about is how this affected you in romantic relationships if you went from person to person, you know, growing up and just trying to kind of bury yourself in relationships, or if you were scared to be in one, or if you weren't sure how to act in one.
Like, did it affect you on that level for a while? Relationships, I would say I've always been a sucker for love. I live for romance. I wanna be in love. Yeah, I love women. Yeah, I've always been a sucker for love. I wanna be in love, you know? Growing up with, like, Japanese romance series or, I remember Japanese TV series was a thing that we grew up on back then. So, so yeah. And chick flicks, like romantic comedies. Yeah. I love romantic comedies. Nicholas Sparks. Yeah, I want- You know, seeing that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, The Notebook. Yeah, yeah. So, so I wanted to be in love.
So no, relationships didn't really, like, phase me. But I think we had a skewed way of... Like, growing up, I remember growing up not having any male guidance teaching us how to treat women. Mm. I realized way later that my mentors were hip hop artists. Yeah. Rappers. And this is probably like the worst- Not a lot of the romantic types
mentors you can get. Right, right, right. Yeah. And there was a conflict between what I was taught through hip hop and culture to what I was really looking for. Mm-hmm. And like, let's say for example, there was a movie back in... Like, Friends With Benefits. It w- it was Friends With Benefits with, like, Justin Timberlake or something.
And I remember, like, being so young, I'm like, "I wanna try that." Like, booty calls, you know? And I, I told, At the time I thought, you know, being honest was, was a noble thing. So I told the girl, like, "Hey, I just got out of a relationship. I'm not really looking into, to, to getting into one. I think this whole friends with benefits thing sounds kind of cool.
Like, let's try it." Yeah. And she was down. Mm. And only to come out of it, like, being really deceived by movies and media. Yeah. 100%. And I realized that later on, like, man, everything's a lie. Everything is a lie from the devil, man. Like, what we see in movies, what we see in media, what we hear in music, everything is a freaking lie, man.
There's no such thing as freaking, like, friends with benefits. If you have sex, you're gonna have feelings. Girls are gonna have feelings for you no matter what. Like, no matter what they say. Yeah, so- Yeah, I agree ... those were benefits did, did not work. Mm-hmm. It was far from the truth. And I remember being so brainwashed by media like, oh, like- 100%
this is cool. And it's worse now. Yeah, so. You know, you talk about you're a little bit older than I, so you weren't... W- social media wasn't as big as it is now, where kids growing up, even, you know, middle school, high school, college, are being inundated with so much more sexualized content, casual hookup content, and that kind of stuff.
And you talk about- Yeah ... what they used to sing about back then. I've heard, I heard a song today playing in public, and it was so demonic and sexualized- ... and so shallow. Like, I mean- Mm-hmm ... n- not ... Even, even if you're into sexualized and casual hookup music, it's like there's a certain line of, are we just listening to a really disturbing porno, or is it music?
You know, like, and, and I- Yeah ... it's really a shame because God created music to be beautiful, to connect. And, you know- Right ... who is our enemy? Satan. And what does he know about music? Quite a bit. And so it's very interesting to see that's one of the main mediums chosen to destroy and corrupt God's Word and His people.
And so, at what point did you get into, like, you had that realization, especially now looking back, was there a point in your journey of faith and romance where you're like, "Okay, I need to change how I'm approaching this," and went into it with more of a marriage mindset, romance mindset? And were you able to find success with that, or is that the part of the journey that is, I would dare say, one of the hardest things to surrender to God?
Because a lot of the young men that I've served with in the military or even in the evangelism field, their biggest frustration with God is, where is this wife of noble character? Where is this wife? God, I asked for silver and you gave me bronze. You were supposed to give me gold if I asked for silver.
You know? So this has been one of the hardest things for a lot of men to stay of the faith and, and be patient with God because they feel like, hey, God, you said here it's not good for man to be alone. Here's woman and they'll be one. When's my turn?
I am waiting on marriage right now as we speak, and I know the Lord is saying, "If you're not to the standard that I've called you to be- Hmm ... I'm not gonna give you the wife that you think you deserve. If you- Hmm ... want a Proverbs 31 woman, like you better step up to be a Proverbs 31 man. And I feel like that's the assignment right now, and I'm at the tail end of it.
You know, this was in the making in the... I would say in the last two years, 'cause it's been really working on marriage. Like- Hmm ... like just letting go of lust not watching porn, not masturbating, and God taught me so much like in, in the last two years. I've broke off so many things like generational- Amen
curses of lust, of like broken marriages through fasting. You know, the Lord like is so good and if we are really obedient, like he really does it. I remember he called me to fast the first time for seven days. I didn't know what it was for, but I felt like it was for sexual perversion in the family bloodline.
And after seven days, oh my goodness, that was probably the... That was the first time I ever did a seven-day fast. I did work my way up to it from like one day, two day, three day, four day, five day, and then seven. But it was just so difficult, man. I was weak, I was dizzy, and, yeah, I couldn't do anything, I couldn't focus, but I felt like something broke off.
Being that hungry, I was thinking about survival. I was not thinking about sex for once. And I thought like, "Wow." Like, people don't... Like you're so hungry, you're not gonna be thinking about sex. And the interesting thing is I found out later Like the Lord was teaching me through food as well.
I felt like the wisdom was, the revelation was, "Hey- Even if this food looks good, this bread looks good, this chocolate looks good, it's not good for your health. So even if this woman looks good, she's fine, but she's not gonna be good for your soul. Like, you know, some woman will probably use and abuse you.
Some will probably beat you down, like probably bad for your confidence bad for your mental health and the interesting connection was I dug into demonology a little bit as well. The same demon that controlled lust controlled gluttony, and so you- Mm.
Like, and there's a saying in Chinese, "You only think about sex when you're full." And man, it was like, it was just like, man, there's so much wisdom in the the ways of the spiritual world that we can't see. Man, it's- Mm. It... Like, the more knowledge I know, the more I'm so in awe of God's creation, like everything.
He, it's so meticulously designed. Amen to that. But you're telling me, in full honesty- Mm ... that your auntie in Osaka didn't have some woman she was like, "Please, you should marry her. She's so beautiful, and she's your age." And, and, and you're telling me your auntie didn't have anything waiting for you when you came to Japan?
I you know, I actually met somebody in Japan last year. I met a- Oh ... Chinese girl last year, and I'd been praying about her. So the, this, this time I went back, it's, it was actually for her. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, like, And you met me instead. What a disappointment. No, I still got to hung out with her.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, we still hung out. Yeah, so, so my auntie k- knew of her and and I think m- And she asked all the prying questions that aunties do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She's, she's like, "Hey how, how are things with her?" And and, and I feel like the Lord is saying take, take it slow. Amen
and yeah, so I'm just kinda trust, trust God's timing. I know if it's not happening yet this time around meeting up with her, I know the Lord is working on her as well as, as much as He's working on me. With me, He's working on purity, consecration. With her I, I sense that she has a lot of pride and arrogance that, that- That sh- he's just smoothing out.
Like, she wasn't doing so well at her job. Like, she was having a hard time at her job. She was getting because she voices her opinion, she's not very submissive to authority. Mm-hmm. She's not really favored at work. And she said her managing directors, they are not honest.
They did not promise and deliver on anything that they told her they would before offering the job, and then they would outright lie to clients in client meetings that she knows their company cannot deliver. And she's just like, "Man, this- I can't, like, deal with this," you know? She's like, "I'm having such a hard time."
With her moral compass, she can't deal with it. Mm. And I was praying for her. I felt like the Lord was saying like she knows what to do already. She should be quitting already because it's so much against her moral compass- Right ... but, but- Yeah ... but she need it... Like, her job i- she's, she's applying for permanent residence at the same time, so she feels like she can't quit her job- Mm
'cause if there's a gap, she's saying there's a possibility- Right ... they might just cancel the application. Mm. And so when I heard this, my immediate thought was, "Oh, man, the Lord wants her to quit first, have that faith and trust in him that he's gonna come through." But she wants to apply for jobs first, get jobs first, and then quit.
so the Lord is working on her as well. Yeah, and I know, you know, my first thought as you were saying that, similar to yours, is my belief was if God wants her there, he'll get her there, you know, one way or another. I believe that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, and what I love about, you know, you being honest about your flaws and her flaws, thank you for sharing, is that, you know, we're all flawed people.
God is working on a lot of stuff in all of us. Like you said, we gotta surrender to God those things which can be difficult because sometimes the things he wants to work on are things that we're indulging in, that we're addicted to, that we enjoy. But again, that's- Yeah ... because a lot of us are being brought up to live in the world and be so worldly rather than trying to be holy and to be like Yeshua.
And so I think it's great to see how God has kind of worked throughout your life in all different aspects, from people, you know, being wicked and hypocritical at the church to family dynamics around religion. And I think one thing to take away from your story, which is one that I've taken away from my life experience growing up in a home where religion was used in a weaponization way, where it was used to shame, to judge, condemn, to put down people, and to praise certain individuals.
And it wasn't about a relationship with Christ. And so, you know, having been through that- I am very fortunate for it because it has allowed me to connect with people who have walked away. For me, it was my intellectual curiosity pulled me through because I said, "What does the Bible actually say?" So much of scripture is quoted out of context.
It is twisted. It is written that it has always been and always will be twisted. And so I think it's important listening to your story and what I'm sharing, you know, never judge a religion for its individuals but for its actual content, and I think that is so important for people to remember. So I encourage everyone to read the Bible to see what does the text actually say.
Who is God actually? Not how we represent God or say God is. Who is he actually? And so along those lines, as we end this episode here, Mr. Chang, I gotta ask if you could share one Bible quote from the heart right now, what is the Lord putting on you?
Oh, man. Give me a second, man. On the top of my head Yeah, which- whatever the Holy Spirit- Bible verse ... is telling you to share right now. Yeah One Bible verse. Well, if God tells you to share 10, you can. I usually ask for one.
I would say blessed... I didn't understand this when I was in it. Blessed are the brokenhearted. That was-- that's the verse that comes to mind. Do you know that verse? Psalm 34:18. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit, if that's the one you're thinking of.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That one when yeah, I never understood what it meant. But when I was emotionally low, that was the verse that was-- felt like the Lord wanted me to just meditate on. And I know now because when you're brokenhearted, you start really seeking, seeking more- Amen ... deeply. And because I was brokenhearted, I sought out the Lord, and He answered, man.
He answered. So, whatever people are going through right now, if they're going through hardships, that is probably the best thing that they can be going through right now. Mm-hmm. You know? Yeah, it's like working out. Like, the muscles needs to be broken down in order to be stronger. And if God didn't take me through what He took me through, man, I would've been a freaking weakling.
You know? I wouldn't be where I am today, man. Yeah. Physically, mentally, everything. Spiritually. Same. You know, so yeah, God is good, man. Yeah. Amen to that. Amen to that. And so Mr. Jiang, obviously you and I will stay connected, so maybe we'll have you on in the future to find out if, you know, you run off into the sunset with this-
Chinese woman, and, ... make your aunties proud. And also how you're-- I know you mentioned to me privately yesterday you're gonna be traveling abroad again, going all over, and so catching up, hearing about your travels, hearing about you. And I would encourage you and anyone listening, as you travel, to plant seeds wherever you go, you know?
And sometimes it's just even saying the name of God, in your own prayers. People observe you. You know, they're seeing how you're living, how you're conducting business, how you're at, at a restaurant, at a ball game, a movie, wherever it is, living a Christ-like life and it's gonna make people curious.
And going wherever you are- Just having those conversations and not being afraid to. And I know in other countries it can be way more intimidating than the US, but I encourage everyone to have that spirit that God give us. You know, one of courage and boldness, and not one that is timid. So, Mr.
Chang, I pray for great evangelism, both intentional and unintentional, while you're traveling. For some of those government contracts to, you know, those bids to go through. Yeah ... you know, and for, for love and for all that great stuff. It's just been great to get to know you more and to, to meet you.
And again, to see this beautiful cross-cultural connection thanks to technology and travel. And I, I hope everyone will continue to meet people in their walk of faith wherever they are and from wherever they are. Amen, brother. Man, maybe I'll see you back in Japan, man. Yeah, sir. Well- Yeah, no ... we'll meet somewhere at some other time
thank you so much for thank you so much for having me on, man, this has been a pleasure, man. To be able to share God's word, share my story. Like, thank you so much for having me on. So, this has been cool, man. I'm sure we'll, we'll stay connected
