I want to stop being a Drug Dealer.
And instead be a drug-deliverer.
Can you help me?
Granted, I earn good money selling drugs. I know I am hurting people, but if they don’t buy their drugs from me, they can just go around the corner and find someone else that will sell them drugs. We know we are killing people. We know we are destroying lives, and hurting families, and we know that what we have is more addictive than the most addictive things on the planet.
But we have families to support. And the drug pushers won’t let up. Sell more or you won’t be able to feed your family. Don’t worry — it’s their choice. Don’t worry, it’s not like they don’t know this isn’t the best option out there.
I am a distinguished drug dealer. I will look sharp, be friendly, and you will think I am your friend. I will not only give you your drugs, but I have a way where you won’t even have to pay for much of it. $600 for a month supply? Not here. I might charge you a $1! And sometimes it’s less than that.
I can be proud of what I do. Because it is respectable. It is honorable. I even have a hyphenated title for my dirty little business.
Hello, my name is Mike-the-Pharmacist.
Nice to meet you.
I love what I do. I also hate what I do.
I went into this profession of pharmacy to change the world. I don’t think we are doing that. The Pharmaceutical industry has ruined health care. Ruined our insurances. Ruined everything it touches. And now you can get a month supply of something as addictive as heroin often with a $1 copay, and maybe some amphetamines and benzos with them. You might as well see Dr. Feel Good, but you probably can’t afford him. Instead you find us with degrees after our names and a sharp little license on the wall.
I got a call from an irate mother last month — one of my customers sold her teenage daughter a bottle of Adderall. I got a call last year — another one of my customers sold a guy his bottle of Lyrica. I talked to a lady who found her son’s girlfriend dead of an overdose of Xanax and alcohol. I met with the parents of my friend Kris — he was taking meds as prescribed but you could tell he had no purpose and I wanted to give him hope. A month later he was found dead in his bed. I took another customer named Chris to the ER one night after he OD’d on his meds — perhaps I saved his life. But a few months later he was dead of an Overdose. A young nurse, 34 years old was on a couple monthly meds — no abuse history and not sure what exactly happened but when I requested her monthly orders the doctor called me to say she is dead. I befriended Gary and his girlfriend — his mom is my customer and we deliver to her and she always asks me to pray for his son. I was talking to his girlfriend and encouraging her to make good choices and the next week they both OD’d at a party with a bad batch of fentayl laced heroin. She died.
I don’t think I can truly help anyone here in the same way a bartender can’t make much of a dent helping alcoholics.
I need help getting out of pharmacy and starting a ministry for drug/porn/booze/sex/homosexual addicts. I will help everyone and anyone, but I really have a vision and desire to help the men of this country. The addictions and confusion and perversion are fruits, by products if you will. Symptoms of a messed up people and a messed up world. Some of that is a bad foundation — no fathers, absent fathers, abuse, neglect, not producing men that can handle the pressures of life and not feeling like they are complete. Hard-wired to worship the true and living God, there is a vacuum that won’t be quenched by a pill, porn, pot, or a pub.
But often the churches are the last place one will seek help — and many times it is not always the fault of those that are struggling. In our day of Facebook and Instragram selective portrayals of life, and putting a positive spin on everyone, we rarely give anyone the impression we too are human. Prone to wander. Prone to fail. Prone to addictions if we had the same background they did.
I challenge people that lack compassion for certain groups of people — if you were born and grew up in a head-hunter cannibal family in Papau New Guinea, what would you probably have eaten for breakfast this morning? Or should I ask, who?
If we grew up in the same circumstances they did, we might have not ended up like they did. We might have been worse.
That is where GRACE comes in. Realizing WHO I am, who I could be without the GRACE of God and recognize WHO “They” can be WITH the GRACE OF GOD.
BUT….here is my theory. If you start from a place of Grace…..add some men……give them a mission and an adventure and a cause…..EQUIP them…..show them a way out of the rat race if they want out — and energize them to stay in the rat race if they want to stay in….and turn them loose in the church and in our families and in the world…..we just not only might make America great again, but GODLY again.
We just need a few good men. Good only because of his grace. Not our goodness. Real honest humble flame-of-fire men.
It’s only by HIS Grace. Grace greater than all sin — theirs and OURS.
I think that if we embrace the grace, and get a group of men full of grace for their past sins, upbringing shortcomings, grace for their wives and families, grace for their churches and Pastors, and grace for the lost, I think we could rise up a very powerful Army of Christian Soldiers ready to set themselves on fire and let the world watch them burn.
Could this maybe the final vision of the End Times Vol. Fire Co.?
I think NOW might be the time to launch the End Times Vol Fire Co for this mission and calling. I had this ministry idea in 2006 after writing a gospel tract called the 13 Firemen. You can read this tract on this website ( ETVFC.org )
Imagine a group of men united in a cause. Yes, it is a ministry supported by local churches, but it an equipping ministry. An enlisting ministry. An engaging ministry. An exciting ministry.
What does it DO? It is figuring that out perhaps, but first what is our WHAT?
Our WHAT is this — “WHAT this dying world could use is a willing Man of God
Who dares to go against the grain and works without applause;
A man who’ll raise the shield of Faith, protecting what is pure;
Whose love is tough and gentle; a man whose word is sure.
Men full of Compassion, who Laugh and Love and Cry-
Men who’ll face Eternity and aren’t afraid to die-
Men who’ll fight for Freedom and Honor once again-
He just needs a Few Good Men.”
We need to get MEN more excited about serving Jesus, passionate about eternal things as much or more as we get excited for game day and playoff season, and in an environment where we can learn how to be Christians — fathers, husbands, leaders, workers, discipliers, productive and real church members — more so than what we have today. Today we often play church, look our best, hide our sins and struggles, and immerse ourselves in work unable to really know how to turn a nation around. When we do take a stand, we are left alone on the front lines — we are not convinced the church has our back and we can change that here. When we do admit a need or a struggle or a fall or want to find our unique calling, we need to better offer a support system of prayer and protection.
I might offer a business portion of this but that is not my priority– I got the idea for the ETVFC in 2006 and nearly 10 years later I learned the business model of network marketing and I thought, hmm, if we could take this business model, and bring the urgency and fervency to the churches but switch gears and make it 99% about the gospel, I think we have something powerful.
And then it dawned on me. ETVFC was a network marketing model for ministry years before I even knew what Network marketing was.
In this model, those interested in being fully supported can delve into a business opportunity that parallels the discipling methods where it can provide residual income to free men up to devote more and more time to the ministry. The idea is the men are the pillars of the church and if the members catch the vision, and simply support a few men at each church you can have full time evangelists funded by the church and freed up to serve full time. Yes, we always did it by sending men church to church for support, but what if the members of the church without getting sidetracked or money hungry simply supported their businesses and worked together to sponsor say 12 men at each church who could be fully supported full time MEN to disciple new converts, to run addiction programs, to assist the pastor with a ministry of helps when folks are moving or hospitalized or discouraged or missing church or lost a job or burglarized or ostracized or wounded from being criticized? What if the church got back to engaging the sinners out in the highways and byways as well as encouraging the weak and weary who are worn out from the battle?
What if we asked, “Ask not for what your church could do for your ministry, but what if we asked, what could your ministry do for the church?”
Well, what would 12 full time fully supported Evangelists and leaders do for your church?
WHY am I doing this? Is there not a cause? IS there not a problem in our churches today when men aren’t engaged like they are over football games, fishing boats, and race cars? Are not men secretly struggling with sins of the flesh and heart issues that they don’t feel they can bring into the light? If Jesus is coming back soon, should not the church be fervently finding a way to bring the gospel to the regions beyond and start a movement that gets momentum and captures the imaginations and hearts of the men of this land?
I think if you bring this message to 10 men of America on Sunday, you might be asking, “But where are the 9?” the week after. But so what. Bring this message to 120 men and start with the 12 that jump in from that.
What is the HOW?
How can I do this? Free me up from being a licensed drug dealer. We do mass crowd funding for launching crazy ideas — why not embrace a church-funding internet campaign to start up a crazy world changing ministry idea? A while back I wrote a blog post, “I can reach 6 billion with 6 million.” If you can get a lady wearing a Chewbacca mask make a video that reaches 1 million people, couldn’t the churches raise some crazy numbers with just a few shares? I write this vision in an E-book form, and sell it for $10. Sell 600,000 copies, make $6 million dollars. From you sharing with your friends on line to their sharing to others sharing.
WHY would a vision like this go viral? What If I FASTED until all the books were sold? Some of you might even get behind that one.
I love my food. But America is starving for God and doesn’t even know it is hungry.