Episode 98

Paul is a gentle giant who loves music. In fact, he loves music so much that as a youngster he lied about being saved and was baptized just to be able to play in his church orchestra and sing with the choir. It took a car accident and the prayers and conversation of a godly wife to tear down his barriers and bring him to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Join us on this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast and learn how Paul was gloriously saved.

1 Peter 3:1-2, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.”

Before I was there playing in the orchestra, as a matter of fact, I had a group that I had formed of young players that used to play music at the time. So I was involved with all the but it was not saved.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay. And I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 98 of the Removing Barriers podcast. And this is the 28th in the series of how were your barriers removed? And in this episode, we’ll find out how Paul’s barriers were removed when he came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hi, this is Jay MCG, and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things Removing Barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate. Removing Barriers, a Clear View of the Cross.

Paul, it is indeed a pleasure and welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you. Great. Glad that you’re able to be here with us. All right, tell us, what state or country were you born in? I was born in Brazil. Where in Brazil were you born in? San Paolo was the state of San Paulo, Brazil, and I lived there for 20 years before I came here. Interesting. We just interviewed a missionary who is in San Paulo, Brazil. He has been there for 40 plus years. He’s a second generation missionary. So episode 95, I think it was. Oh, really? Yeah. So you are familiar with Brazil? No, I’m not. You’re new with it? We knew a little bit more about Seung. He said it wasn’t so. I always thought it was Sao Paulo, but he said, Well, Sao Paulo is in Portuguese, if you say it in English, would probably be Sao Paolo. Sao Paulo. Okay, wonderful.

What type of family were you born into? I was born my father was from Poland and my mom was from Russia, and they both came to Brazil and they got married in Brazil. And my father came to Brazil. And he was working in a bakery? No, he was not working at the bakery yet. He was working some other place, and he was not happy with it. He was there by himself at that time. The rest of his family was still in. And what happened is he was preparing to go back home to Poland, and as he was waiting, he had to go to that place called Santos. He had to go by ship there, and he was waiting a bus to go to that place to go back to Poland. And the guy came to him and said it just came straight to him, said, May I talk to you? Yeah. You talked to him and said, Look, I have a bakery. I need some help. Oh, wow. So he went back work with him, and he did real well. He ended up driving a little truck, delivering bread to other people and things like that. So he came by himself, obviously, and then he met my mum, which he decided to marry her. Good.

So tell us a little bit more about your upbringing before salvation. Were you in a Christian home? Do you have siblings? Well, I was a Christian home. My dad and my mom, they were born Christians, born again Christians. My dad was involved in church and many things there are several things, not too many, but several. But one thing that he used to do there was they had a service for young people, more or less. They had two services in their church. They had two in the afternoon and one at seven at night on Sundays. And my dad had a group from 4:30 until about 5:30, which he was in charge of that. And he always liked to preach, like to pray. My dad was truly a born again man, and for some reason I was not to the point where after that happened with my dad, I didn’t want any more to get too involved. And this is how it was with him, too. My mom was singing in a choir, my dad was playing in one orchestra, he was playing guitar and one of the orchestras. And it was truly a Christian man since I was born, and even until he died. And many things I learned from him, but for some reason, as he was teaching or as he was saying something, I wouldn’t pay too much attention. And my mom, not too many times, we didn’t have at home Bible reading and things like that. Usually when I had my kids and I had my home and I was married, we used to have constantly Bible readings and home praying and things like that. We didn’t have that much with my father, and for some reason, I don’t know why, but he was a Christian fear God. And he read he was reading his Bible all the time. And this is what’s about him that I remember.

So amidst all that, you had a Christian mother, Christian father? Yes, sir. Being raised in a Christian home, do you remember the first time you heard the Gospel? I heard the Gospel many times because I used to go to church, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. It didn’t make much to me at that time because I used to go to church. And when I got to be ten years old, I learned how to play an instrument, to play orchestra and things like that. But one day, this is after many years that I was in my jerk, one day the evangelist Dr. Hyman, a Russian Jew, came to our church. We had one week of revival meetings. I attended every service, and at the end of week I decided that I had enough of my disobedience. I was not living the way I was supposed to. I walked forward during the invitation. For the first time, I understood what it means to be born again. I was not born again before I was there playing in New York. As a matter of fact, I had a group that I had formed of young players that used to play music at that time. So I was involved with all the but I was not safe. So what happened here? I want to just tell you something else. It’s not much. On the next Sunday, after I talked to him, the pastor talked to me and told me that I should be baptized. I already was baptized one time. I forgot to tell you that the pastor said you had to be baptized the second time because the first time that you baptized, that doesn’t count, because the reason I baptized was for I could play any orchestra, the mandolin and the trumpet. But I want to sing and acquire. I could not sing and acquire unless I’ve always baptized. That is the only reason. At that time. I thank the Lord from the bottom of my heart for loving me so much as to give himself on the cross for me, so unworthy as I was. And the Bible verse that spoke to me is John one, it came to his own, received him not, but as many as received them. To them gave you power to become the Son of God, even to them they believe in his name. So this is what the time that I truly was baptized. I truly understood what the Bible was saying, and I truly believe that the Lord loved me too much to let me live that long before I came to this sounds great.

You mentioned when you were ten or so, you didn’t want to hear the gospel and all that stuff. Yeah. What’s the time frame between ten and when you got saved? How long was that before you got saved? I have here I was about 34 years old when I was saved. So it took you like another 20 years or so before you got saved? Yeah, but you know what? It felt good because I was going to church. My parents took me to church. I was going to church and I was playing the orchestra. I was singing in a choir, and I had my own orchestra that we play, not rock music or anything. We played this song. I love songs. I don’t rock music. It doesn’t do anything to me. And I don’t have the date in here exactly, but it was a long while after I first time. Okay.

Do you remember what barriers were preventing you from getting saved? Because that’s a long period between ten and 30. Do you remember what barriers were preventing you from actually getting saved? Well, I thought that I was doing a good thing. I thought I was saved. I was baptized already. And I thought to myself, well, I’m already baptized, I’m going to church. But I didn’t know in my mind did not know. To be baptized on my course is one thing and to pretend that you are baptized is not. I didn’t read much the Bible, but I used to read the Bible, but before when I started really reading the word of God and really starting to understand, that’s when I decided a, I am not going the right way, this is something wrong. And sure enough was something wrong. My wife prayed for me for a long time.

So you were already married when you got saved? Oh, yeah. We interviewed your wife in episode 97. So did she believe you were saved when you got married or she thought I was saved when I was. I’m going to read a little bit here. She wrote this to me. At the age of ten I learned to play the mainline and join the orchestra. My fingers hurt badly, I suffered, but the strong desire to play and the orchestra helped me to stay there. A couple of years later I learned how to play the trumpet, so I joined him. But then I had to sing and a choir, like I said before. And then I came here to United States and here is we were married already. One day I went to basement with my brother for the usual drink and when I reached for it, there was a Bible verse taped on the bottle. That was your wife who taped the Bible verse on the bottle. What happened? I ripped it off, I drank, let my brother have some and I had no peace after that. Oh, wow. That was the first time. And she prayed for me a lot. She’s a tremendous woman. She has been like that since I know her when she was in Brazil still? Yes, she definitely has. Yeah. But she thought I was a Christian and in my heart, I mean, not in my heart, in my mind, I guess I thought that I read it baptized, nothing wrong, I’m praying the orchestra, I’m singing the choir and everything, but that’s not the way it is.

Yeah, so it probably was the barrier of religion. You taught that because you are trusting in your baptism, you’re trusting in the fact that you were active in church playing an orchestra. That’s true. Well, that’s how I thought. Because see, I wish that my parents, or even my father was more hard to say. He didn’t spend very much time with us. I was with my kids, we read the Bible, we prayed together, we didn’t do much debt with my father. I don’t know why it was like that. I don’t understand. But if I go to remember during my life that I was together with my father and we were with the Bible reading there, I cannot remember, to be perfectly honest. With you? I don’t know, maybe there was some times, but right now, after all that happened so this is what I went through.

Yeah. A lot of folks, we interview their parents. Their father played a heavy hand and pointed them to Christ. Would you say that your father was that instrument appointed to Christ or because he was quiet? He was very quiet. He was a good father to me, but it was quiet and I don’t remember telling I hate to say this, I forgot many things, but one thing I would never forget I probably will never forget the day that he called me Paul, come over here, I want to show you something. I have noticed that some things that you’re doing are not correct. And let’s read this Bible and see. I never had something like that. And probably I’m blaming myself, not him. Probably was because of this. Because I remember when I had my kids growing up, we had our time with the Lord by praying, by reading the Bible. We had often I wouldn’t say we had every day, but we had very often. And this is the way it works, right?

How do you think those barriers were removed? So you said that it took from age ten and basically 34, you got saved and stuff like that. How did the Lord use your wife as the instrument? You said she put the Bible verse under liquor bottle and stuff like that, but dive into it. When did you actually get saved after that? You say you drunk and you felt really bad, but how did you get saved directly after that? Well, after that she was praying for me an awful lot. Many times, whenever I had to fight, she didn’t come to me and tell me, you do the wrong thing. No, she prayed for me an awful lot. And one of the things that really helped was that her prayer. See what happens. One more thing that happened one day it snowed so much and I worked late and I was coming home in the VW Beetle, Volkswagen, and I was drunk, I had an accident. I could have killed myself, but God protected me. When I told Lena about it, she said, I was praying for you a long time. So she prayed for me a lot. She put up with me. She could just kick me. She could just say, you know but she was truly a Christian, as you could hear from her, a Christian woman that loved the Lord. And she prayed for me to be saved. And this was the time that I really went the whole week to hear this evangelist and what he was preaching about, what he was preaching about. I was paying attention and I thought to myself, hey, I am not what I am supposed to be. I’m saying that I’m a Christian, but I’m not a Christian. That’s how more or less that’s a lot because definitely. You were won by the conversation of a Godly wife. She prayed for you. Oh yes, definitely. That’s great. Definitely.

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Two Corinthians five one seven says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Paul after salvation, what changes were evident in your life? Well, after salvation, I started reading my Bible more than I read before. I wanted to understand what I was reading. I like to hear preaching. I used to listen to radio preaching and even I used to pay more attention to church when the preacher was preaching. So my life turned in that way that I decided to truly be a Christian, truly serve the Lord. And I understood that it was saved this time and I didn’t want to go any other way. And I gave up many things that I used to do and even though I was a Christian, but sometimes we used to drink something, but no, there was no more. After I accepted the Lord, my life totally changed. Even Lina, her life changed too, because she was putting up with me with that situation very bad. So this is what I had most, that I started studying my Bible and really studying my Bible and making try to understand more and more what the Lord did tell me. Yes, Amen.

Do you think the way your barriers were removed will be effective in reaching someone else? So think about the Paul that’s going up now that has a similar background as you. Do you believe that the way your barriers were removed would be effective in removing that person barriers? It depends on the person. Obviously, if I will be preaching to someone, if I’ll be reading a Bible verse, what you need to do to be saved and the person is paying attention and the person wants to understand and start asking some more questions, some more verses that I would get from the Bible, give it to them, I think that will make the difference. But if the person doesn’t pay attention and doesn’t want to hear too much about it, you could pray for him, you could meet him again and come again with the same verse, I mean, with the same situation. You tell the verses, what the Lord expect from you? Come unto me or either labor I have a lady, I give a rest, take my yoke upon me, learn to me of heart. Amen.

So tell me, Paul, what are you doing personal in the area of evangelism to help others remove the barriers they face in their life? My decision is to make sure that what I am studying from the Bible is going to be something that will be acceptable. So if you want to tell the person that you are lost, if you keep your life the way you are, you’re going to end up in hell. But I have something that I could show to you. And this time I was studying my Bible more than I ever did. I was studying how to talk to the ones that are not saved. And this is the one way that I used to do great evangelism going telling people about the Lord, handing out track, stuff like that. Yeah, because see, as far as I see, unless the person himself comes to you said, look, hey, I noticed that you are a Christian, how did you become a Christian? But you don’t run across too many of those. So it depends much. You could say all that you want, you could read all that you want, but if the person does not pay much attention or is not much interested, you do the best you can.

All right, well, let’s go into a little bit of a fun section and find out some of your favorites. Okay? What is your favorite scripture verse? My favorite verse is Matthew 12:37. But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquity, and with his stripes we are here. Amen. Give the reference again. Matthew twelve. Isaiah 53 five. Great.

And what is your favorite bible history or Bible story that some folks will say, well, my favorite is Jesus being born in this world, coming in here to die for our sins and we could just believe that he is going to save us and he is here in this world. There are many other ones, but this was one that really I was happy to read and happy to know. Amen. So you like the Christmas story? Yeah, right.

What would you say is the most convicting scripture passage to you? I’ve met you two after the for by thy words thou shall be justified and by thy word thou shalt be condemned. No, amen, that’s definitely convicted.

What is the most confident scripture first to you? Matthew 1128. Come on to me. I’ll read that on labor and have a lady and I will give you rest. Amen. That’s a great invitation from the Lord. Say calm unto me. Amen.

So I know you love music, so tell me what is your favorite hymn of the faith? And you can give us more than one if you want to. My favorite him is my faith looks up to thee. Amen. I like this song very, very much. But since I am with music all the time, there are many beautiful songs. Do you have another one you can give us? Well, let’s see which one I could jesus, my love, I love you forever. I can’t remember the word, but there are many of them that we know. I can’t remember right now because see what happened lately? I’m not singing much. I’m not that involved with music because that time is already gone. But there are many songs. I could sing one for you right now, but I don’t remember that’s. Okay. Glad to see how much these hymns just pour out of you.

Who is your favorite giant of the faith from the Bible? For me, the giant from the faith was David. I think that even though he did things that he shouldn’t have done in his life, but the Lord loved him because all the other things that he did, it was so acceptable to the Lord, and he did so many things and so many wars and so many even they tried to kill him, and the Lord pull them out of it. And after everything was said and done, everything was already in his life. That was already the worst part that has been taken care of. His life was just tremendous, tremendous life.

How long have you been saved? I have been saved since I was 34. How old? I am now 83. Oh, wow. It’s a long time. Yeah, definitely. And the Lord has been good to me. I love him. I pray. I hear my devotions very much every morning. Sometimes on Sundays. I don’t have devotion, but every day I have my Bible. And right now I’m reading a book by Amir Saifati about the Book of Revelation. And it’s unbelievable easy to understand the way he wrote everything. And I’m already about almost three quarters of the book. And I’d love to read the Bible. I like to read books. And this is how much I have for me, because my life was different than anybody, and I had to work a lot during my life. And my wife too, she is a tremendous woman. And sometimes you have to work, work, work. You get so tired, there’s no time to do things that you would love to do. And if you start doing those things, you fall asleep. But I’ve been through that because I had four kids and I was not making that much money. And I had to work a lot, so that took a lot of my time. But I still I had time to read my Bible, time to pray. And the Lord has been so good to me ever since I was saved. Everything I understood how much the Lord put up with me. I am so thankful. Amen.

How many grandkids do you have? Grandkids? Let’s see. Five years, eight, then 11…11. Great.

All right, Paul, let’s wrap it up. Tell us, how can barriers be removed in the life of others? How can someone else be saved like you were saved? How can barriers be removed in the life of others? Well, it depends obviously, on the person. On my case, I thought that I was saved all those years I passed by and the Lord woke me up at a certain time that I am not saved. I could give them an example of my own life and why I became saved instead of continuing the life that I want. And if I come this way to them, the person that I want to be saved, I will be more than glad to show them in the Bible verses what the Lord wants from you in order to be saved. That’s one thing that I learned and that’s one thing that I know. And I have a book at home and no questions and answers and everything that I was studying when I was going out with you guys at that time, and I learned quite a bit at that time. I have a book full of things that I learned at that time, but right now it’s going to be almost impossible for me to stay out of my house for too long. And it’s a shame, but that’s the way it is. I can’t change it. No Lord understands. This is how it was.

All right, Paul, thank you for joining us on the removing by response. Okay, thank you very much for all that you have done for us, all that you went through. Praise the Lord that we have you guys in our church doing what you are doing. It’s very important. Amen.

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us. To support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clay view of the cross.