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Posted by Patrick on February 11, 19100 at 13:33:45:
I had just moved to Hollywood, CA a month before with plans of becoming a rock star. The previous couple of years, and even further before, I was a big time partier. I got to the point that year, 1987, that I was drinking beer all day long. I averaged 20 beers a day, and some days I drank 24. My tolerance was built up so high that I didn't have hangovers then, nor did I get sick then. I hung out with people who called ourselves the "HBS." = "Heavy Burner Society" We got wasted all the time. Well, after I got my van fixed from when my friend drove it head on into a giant tree which took like 6 months to fix, I decided to go Hollywood. You see, I been a musician since I was 8 years old. I was a national champion drummer in 1979. I started playing bass guitar the year before. I was in a band called "Dark Side" when a teenager and we were pretty good. I had the tallent and charisma to be good on the bass. Anyhow, I moved to Hollywood to go to MIT, the music school, just to get my tallent perfected and have a step to go from in the music business. Making this change in life got me a little sobered up, so I wasn't as bad, but still heavily bound to sin. As I walked across Hollywood Blvd to get another 12 pack of Bud at the Liquor store, these 2 guys standing on the corner gave me a flyer and told me about a Christian Crusade at Hollywood High just a few blocks away. Well, I got my 12-Pack and and as I returned to the corner, I told them I would go. You see, I grew up a catholic, but never heard what Christianity was about, so I wanted to see how God could help me. I went to that Mario Murillo Crusade and listened to him preach. I decided I wanted to get saved, so I went forward at the altar call. Then I decided to go into another room to talk with some councelors. They even prophesied to me and said I would move back home and there was a really good church there for me to play bass guitar in. I didn't want that, for I just got there to become a star, so I thought nothing of it. That was July 3rd 1987. The very next day, the 4th of July, I was back partying it up big time in the Hollywood Hills watching the fireworks all over L.A.. I stayed in sin another 2 months calling myself a Christian with a beer in my hand. I got laughed at when I told people I was a Christian because they knew I wasn't. OK, in September I moved to a brand new apartment. The very first morning in my bed, there was the Whittier Earthquake. God called me to get right through the earthquake, for I knew that they were my fault back when I was Scraping the resins together for my last base hit and there was the earthquake back home. Well, I made the decision to get right (repent). All at once Christ delivered me and set me free from sin. I was a new creature in Christ. I no longer had the desire to drink alcohol, and I quit cold turkey. I no longer did drugs, even threw my pipe away. I even stopped smoking cigarattes. I stopped fornicating. I stopped cussing and swearing. I was totally changed. I read the bible for 2 hours a day for 6 months. But I still wanted to play music and I couldn't find a good Christian rock band to play in, so I decided to get into any band. Well, here came sin. I got into a band with 2 girls, one singing and one playing guitar. They were both very good, and they were both bartenders. I fell back into sin. We played The Whiskey A-Go-Go a few times on Friday nights. As we were set to co-headline there hoping a record company would come and like us, they kicked me out of the band because I was such a bad sinner. Even the sinners didn't like me because I was far to the right in sin. And now look, even Christians don't like me because I am far to the right in preaching righteousness. So I'm use to it. Anyhow, I went out a week later to the Troubador to see this all girl band play who I had seen play some time before. They were the best band in Hollywood, and they were all girls. I was very intrigued. I went backstage, looking the way I did, I looked like a rock star and nobody stopped me. Actually all throughout life I could do whatever I wanted. That could be grace. Well, I met the band and they liked me and invited me to their party in The Valley. I went and got toasted at their party. We played Quarters all nght long, and when I use to drink, I was very obnoxious, and everytime someone would bounce the quarter in the glass, they would make me drink it. I didn't mind. You probablly can tell I use to like to drink. Well, as the sun came up, we decided to call it quits. I don't know how I did it, but somehow I made it back to my apartment, but as I was whipping the u-turn into my parking stall, I tagged the metal rail with my fender and it somehow blew a rod in my engine. My dream of becoming a star got shattered because I had no money to get my van fixed and had to move back home. I stayed backsliden another year. I hit rock bottom. At the county fair I found a Christian booth and they invited me to their Crusade. I went and rededicated my life to the Lord. I repented from sin again and I got right with the Lord. I tried a few churches out, but wasn't too impressed with any. I was still struggling with sin a little bit. The Loma Prieta Earthquake hit just 5 minutes after I laid down on my couch to watch the World Series game S.F. agaist Oakland. I had just got stoned and had just played my bass to the tape I made with my Hollywood band. We were called "Tremor." Well, God got me wih an earthquake again. Then a couple of people at a church around the corner told me about a church that was really hip and they said I would probabally like it, so I checked it out on a Friday night. I loved it. I was going to that church 3-5 times a week. I sang in choir and even played the bass guitar. That prophecy those guys told me back in Hollywood when I accepted the Lord came to pass and I didn't even realize it unil after I had did it. I was playing the bass guitar in Ron Kenoly's Band for the Friday Night service, while singing in the choir on Sunday. Church was good for me in those days. Praise the Lord. Now I've learned a lot in the last few years from reading the bible so much. God has been God. ~ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Sincerely, Patrick.
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