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MALE VOICE 1: Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” And I memorized it, to be honest, because my mom told me to. I was home schooled for 12 years so I never went to school. And a lot of my time was spent memorizing scripture passage for school and then memorizing it for all the times I got in trouble and had to memorize Proverbs and Psalms and write it all out, and 200 times write down Psalms 118 and…

MALE VOICE 2: I used to do that too. I went to a Christian grade school so they used to like, write out Psalms 119 three times. It’s like, that’s a punishment, that’s not a good thing to do to kids out there.

MALE VOICE 1: [Interposing] But that verse to this day is still my favorite verse and it’s really something that, you know, I want to base, I base my life on. You know, seek first Him and that whatever I do in this life, whether it’s my ministry, whatever I do, play basketball, anything, that all of that is a branch off of what I’m doing for His kingdom. That those other things aren’t tied in this way, but it starts here and it branches off here. So seek first Him, seek Him first in everything, so.

MR. RONNIE FREEMAN: I was the kid who was raised in church my whole life. My mom sang in the choir, my dad was a deacon. I don’t know if this is a right answer or a wrong answer, but I don’t remember a particular date of conversion. I just remember the Word being spoken in our home. I remember always being a part of church. I was that kid in the youth group that was on the youth counsel and always went on youth trips. And so I just kind of almost see my relationship with the Lord like a dance that just started very early on and just continued.

And then I remember kind of diving into the world for myself in college and really began to taste of intimacy with the Lord during college. And I went to a Bible school so the Bible was a really, a large part of our study.

MALE VOICE 1: You know what’s amazing is that someone told me—a guy by the name of Lowell Kinnion [phonetic], he’s a youth pastor, he told me—he said “I want you to read these like it’s God’s love letters to you”. You know and so I would read the Bible and I didn’t really understand what I was reading, you know, but he—but he would—he would take the time to sit with me and go over these things and tell me about how Jesus died on the cross. And as I read stories about how Jesus loved on people in—throughout the Bible, like even people that you would have thought why would he be there, you know, with a prostitute. Do you know what I mean? How—doesn’t—I used to think doesn’t God pick people that are almost there. Do you know what I mean? Like—but he sees something in us and the Bible made me realize that God has a plan for me and it’s not to be depressed and it’s not to be empty. And as I read more and more stories in the Bible I began to realize that there’s hope for my life and that this God that—you know if—this God that was sitting with the lady who was caught in the act of adultery, that that’s the same God that loves me, you know, and it just became real to me. And so the Bible has changed my life. The Bible has changed my life forever you know.

MALE VOICE 2: I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were missionaries and a pastor and my dad was a pastor of a church and you know I was really involved with ministry and things like that but I really didn’t have a personal relationship. You know I was more riding on my parent’s coattail but I was really involved. You know I didn’t—and I was looking to everything else to fill that void in my life. You know I had an emptiness in there and through friends to be accepted and things like that and it’s not until I hit the bottom, you know, that I cried out to God and he chanced my life and, you know, he filled that emptiness in my life and I felt this lift in my life. And once scripture that really—I mean actually I guess a whole chapter, Solomon’s 23 is—you know is something that I always read and reminds me that—you know that God is with me through my trials and the things that I go through. And in this one scripture—I mean chapter that I’m really hold close to me.

VERBS: I [unintelligible] 12 years old I was at a church camp one summer. And before that I had been to church with my parents just because we had to go. And I never really made the connection that, you know, God is our Father and He wants to have a relationship with us. You know for me, I always had the image of God looking like the Little Mermaid’s dad with white hair and a lightning bolt in His hand ready to just throw it at you when you mess up or do something wrong. And I didn’t really understand that, you know, He wants to have a relationship with us and He wants to build us into what He wants us to be, and take us into a path to where we can actually do something that’s going to affect the planet, but for His Kingdom.

And when I heard that, not only that, but just what it really meant what Christ did on the cross and what the means for us. At that point, you know I had, my parents got divorced when I was younger, an earlier age. And so I’d visit my dad on the weekends and live with my mom. At that age I think it’s kind of, it starts to take an affect on you that you don’t really understand. I never really had a peace, just in my head, about anything. You know what I mean, I always felt like there was like a, some kind of torment just trying to get at me mentally.

And so the pastor at the time was talking about you know the peace that Christ offers, and not only that but a purpose that He offers. So that appealed to me and I wanted it, you know if He was giving it out that’s what I wanted to have in my life. So I went forward, you know prayed the prayer and did all that. And it was like a, it was a change that I definitely knew was real ’cause I felt it. I went back home, attitude was different. You know started acting right in school, actually doing homework and stuff like that.

But I also started writing songs during that same week. And that was the first time I ever tried to write, you know, a rap. And I was excited about it. I felt like God was giving me this ability to rap to communicate something. So that made me go home, start reading the Bible. And I ended up taking like a lot of stories like David and Goliath or Elijah when he was on Mount Carmel and you know putting that in a rap form. And so I was always, that was always my source to go to, to look for stuff to talk about at that point ’cause I was new so anything I heard I was excited about and I wanted to write about it, so.

JONATHON BUTLER: Well basically I think, um, the kitchen table in my opinion is the bible, is where the bible exists in my faith—in my home. Um, I think the kitchen table must never be ignored and I think that’s where you really break bread, that’s where you talk.

And thank God for my children. We have a very open—my children were raised to be free speakers, free thinkers and if they have questions we talk about them. And one of the things that we do as a family—and this is why I God actually led me to this year in ’07 was to, um—whenever you face—whatever we face in Christ as a family God directs me to really bring the family together and pray and talk, you know, because they’re—we have to realize there’s a hedge of protection around us.

And so I think it’s very rightful that we always draw near to each other and talk about things, pray about stuff. You know they out there in the word. It was a different time when I was a child.

For kids today it’s a lot more severe what’s going on in schools. As in a couple of days ago they was studying three kids who was killed you know and the troublesome kid had problems in his life.

And I think it’s important as families that you sit at the table and eat together, pray together, talk about the Lord, talk about what’s going on in their lives you know.
And that’s what we do and it’s—becomes—it’s a way of life for us. It’s not like we have to do it on Easter, we have to do it Thanksgiving. Now, you know, let’s talk openly about Thanksgiving. No. It’s every day. It’s like we really interact with each other you know.

Matt Fuqua: We all grew up in Christian homes and I don’t really remember, you know, not believing, you know in God. But I can remember my entire life my parents just you know giving me the scripture even very early. Like my earliest recollections of my, you know, childhood I can remember my dad, you know, talking to me, reading stories out of the Bible and memorizing verses. And those verses have, you know, always stuck with me all growing up and even in the hard times. Like Josh was saying about, you know, when we go through these parts of our lives where we question what we believe and you know those verses would always give me encouragement and comfort when I needed it. And so I mean the Word has always, you know, been, you know, in my heart and God’s always brought it to my mind, you know, whenever I needed it.