New York Giants Player, Justin Tuck, says his Faith in Jesus Christ is ‘Essential’ to his Development (Gospel Light Minute #114)

He is a defensive end for the New York Giants. He played college football for the University of Notre Dame. And was picked in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. He was selected to the Pro Bowl twice in 2008 and 2010 and twice to the All-Pro in 2008 and 2010. He and his team won Super Bowl 42 in 2008 and Super Bowl 46 in 2012. He has also been voted defensive team captain by his teammates for the past 3 years. His commitment to serving others inspired him to create the “R.U.S.H. for Literacy Program” which seeks to encourage children to Read, Understand, Succeed, and Hope.

He said of his faith, “For me, it started with my upbringing. My mother and father raised us in the church. I know a lot of times you hear about people going to church every day, but I can honestly say that I went to church…just about EVERY DAY. It was this lifestyle of constant worship that was embedded at an early age. I truly believe that I have been blessed to have this platform as an NFL player in one of the biggest markets in America for a reason. That reason is to spread how good God has been to me and to let his light shine through me…Faith is tremendously important in my family and it’s been essential to my development.”

On the impact of Bible study with his teammates, he said, “For our team dynamic, I feel that bible study serves as another way of helping guys stay faithful to God. In the locker room it can be very hard sometimes because you don’t always have guys that are necessarily living for God, so sometimes you need to see a face or hear a voice from guys that are trying to walk in that way. I think it’s been really beneficial for our locker room because it’s brought a lot of guys closer in their faith and closer to each other. It’s really helped us.”

He encourages young people and student athletes to place their faith in Jesus Christ as well. He said, “When I started being recognized as an athlete, it was hard to prioritize my faith. I tried to play both sides of the fence. When I was around people that were Christians, I tried to act like them. Then when I would get around guys that wanted to go out in the club and party I tried to put on that front. If I could offer any advice from the mistakes that I’ve made, I would say: Don’t try to fight it, and don’t try to impress everyone. Live your life the way that you know you’re supposed to, which is living for God. Don’t worry about what people might say or think…You’re not going to make everyone happy so you might as well do what you know is right. Be who you are and that’s good enough. There will be a lot of pressure that will come your way. However, I’ve found out that by being who you are, a child of God, you have all the defense that you’ll need in life.”

His name is Justin Tuck.

After Leaving a False Religion, Sherri Shepherd Faced Failed Relationships, Abortions, and Career Failings, and then she Placed her Faith in God (Gospel Light Minute #113)

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She is a comedian, actress, and television personality. She is one of the co-hosts on the daytime talk show, “The View”. She and her co-hosts were chosen as part of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine while Forbes ranked The View hosts #11 among “30 of the Most Influential Women in Media.” She also hosts the “Newlywed Game” and has a role on the NBC series “30 Rock”.

She also stars in her own sitcom “Sherri: on Lifetime. Her film roles include: “Beauty Shop”, “Madea Goes to Jail”, “Precious”, and Think Like a Man” among many others. Her television roles include: “Less than Perfect”, “The Wedding Bells”, “Entertainment Tonight”, and “Dancing With The Stars” among many others. She was awarded a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Talk Show Host of The View” in 2009 and an NAACP award in 2009 and 2011.

She grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness. Striving to follow the many rules, she often fell short and seriously disagreed with the strict regulations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. One rule she disagreed with was when the church elders told her to stop talking to her father because he began to doubt some of the things they believed. She refused to do this and turned her back on the religion. After several failed relationships, abortions, and career mishaps, she decided that she needed something more. In 1993, she gave her life to Jesus Christ.

She said of her faith in Jesus Christ and her continuous success, “I let people know I’m a Christian. It comes up naturally when I do things. If they say you did a great job, I go: ‘Thank you, Jesus.’ I do not mind saying: ‘Thank you, Jesus,’ because I’m not that good. When people hear that, they go: ‘She’s thanking Jesus a lot!’ [When I autograph] my scripts, I’ll write ‘God bless you.’ Before we go on to tape a show, I just ask people if we can say a little prayer. I’m not trying to force it on you, but I like to pray so God can make everything smooth.”

She credits the Lord for teaching her about her worth and value in Him. She said, “If I didn’t have God, I would have been dead. My faith [in God] means everything to me. God and I talk constantly. I realized that God gave me this special gift and I have to believe it.”

Her name is Sherri Shepherd.

Tamika Catchings: ‘Jesus is Definitely My Savior; He Walks Beside Me Through My Ups and Downs’ (Gospel Light Minute #112)

She is a professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA. After graduating from high school where she was named a WBCA All-American, she became one of the star athletes at the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team. In 2001, she was drafted by the Indiana Fever. In 2002, she had an all-star rookie season. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. She is a six-time WNBA All-Star Selection, made the All-WNBA Team six times, and was the 2011 WNBA MVP. In 2004, 2008, and 2012, she helped lead her team to Gold in the Olympic Games. She currently serves as President of the WNBA Players Association.

Though she grew up in the church, her faith only became real to her in her senior year at the University of Tennessee when she suffered a season ending injury just months before the WNBA draft. When she realized all she had was God at that point, she says God gave her the peace and the strength to make it through. Though her injury kept her from playing her first year at Indiana, she gained a new perspective on faith, basketball, and God.

She said, “Peace definitely came from God. It came from realizing I needed to remove my focus from basketball back to God. It seems like every single time I have been hurt it has been the same thing. It’s been that you get so caught up in what you are doing that you forget to give Him the glory. It is hard to be a Christian in the WNBA; and I think it is because of so many different stereotypes. Just trying to walk with Him and not be pulled by all the negative forces from the outside. I think that what I do with my platform is that I live my life as Christlike as I can. [Jesus] is definitely my Savior. He’s the one that walks beside me through my ups and downs and the one that keeps me focused on where I am going in life. He protects me. He provides for me. He guides me and he leads me.”

Her name is Tamika Catchings.

McDonald’s President and CEO, Don Thompson, Lets his Faith Guide his Actions (Gospel Light Minute #103)

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He is the president and chief executive officer of McDonald’s, a position he accepted on June 30, 2012. As a former electrical engineer, he was able to help move McDonald’s into a new direction by creating robotic equipment for food transport and by making control circuits for cooking. He grew up in Chicago and in Indianapolis where he attended high school. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an honorary Doctorate in Science degree from Excelsior College. He was awarded the 2012 Humanitarian Award by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the 2010 Corporate Award by the Executive Leadership Council, among others.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he said that he is a Christian who attends church with his family in a city outside of Chicago. His Christian beliefs help him in making decisions in his personal life and in his work as the leader of McDonald’s. In responding to a controversy over why a homosexual ad that ran in France will not run in the United States, he said, “I’ve never shied away from the fact that I’m a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don’t impose those on anybody else.” His name is Don Thompson.

Tim Brown: ‘You Can Only Live a Good Life if You’re Submitted to God’ (Gospel Light Minute #102)

He is a former NFL wide receiver. He played college football at Notre Dame, where he became the first wide receiver to win the Heisman Trophy Award. Drafted as the 6th pick in the 1988 NFL Draft, he played for sixteen years with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders where he established himself as one of the NFL’s most prolific wide receivers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He was selected to the Pro Bowl nine times and to the All-Conference six times. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He ranks number two in NFL history with nearly 15,000 yards receiving and third in catches with more than 1,000. His 240 games in a Raider’s uniform are the most in franchise history.

He became a Christian as a teenager and sang in the church choir. But after graduating from college, his life took a drastic turn. At 22 years old, he was in the NFL, had a pocketful of money, and was struggling to walk the straight and narrow. After seven years in the NFL, he wanted a change. He said, “I just got tired of living the way I was living. I mean, I’ve never been a drinker or drugs. I never did that kind of crazy stuff, but the things I was doing were bad enough that I couldn’t even look at myself. I even got to a point it was so bad that when I got up in the morning, I wouldn’t even turn the lights on in the bathroom because I didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror.”

It was at this point that he chose to commit his life to the Lord. As a teammate and now as a retired football player, he takes the opportunities God has given him to be a role model to others seriously. He often admonishes children and young people to, “Go to church. You know, because in my opinion there is nothing more important you can do with your life. Education is great, but I tell them I know a lot of educated fools out there. There’s a lot of educated fools out there, but it’s the Word of God, and the Spirit of God that can keep you from being crazy and doing the things that we shouldn’t be doing.”

He went on to say, “Only when you’re living subjected to God are you capable of leading a good, clean life — not a perfect life because nobody’s gonna be perfect, but you can lead a clean life. If there are people out there that know me and know me to be a good person, I’m here to tell you that without God, I wouldn’t be that person. Without God in my life, I wouldn’t be that person because the ideas and thoughts that run through my head are just like everybody else out there. But it’s because of God that I’m able to go, ‘hey, we don’t do that, that’s not who we are,’ and I’m able to move on. But its only because of God that I’m able to do that — not because I love my beautiful wife so much. I love my kids and God knows I do I love my kids and my wife tremendously, but as a man you know sometimes that just doesn’t matter. I tell my wife all the time love doesn’t have anything to do with what happens in our world in the NFL and sports world. I mean guys get caught up in it all and things happen, but its God that can keep you.”

His name is Tim Brown.

Kirsten Powers: How a Liberal Democrat and Former Atheist Came to Know Jesus Christ as her Savior (Gospel Light Minute #101)

She is a political analyst, blogger, columnist and commentator. She is a Democrat who regularly contributes to USA Today, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal among other publications. She formerly served under the Clinton administration from 1993-1998 and was appointed Deputy Assistant U.S Trade Representative for Public Affairs.

In an interview with Focus on the Family, she shares how she converted from atheism to Christianity. She said: “I was not looking to be a Christian. The last thing in the world I wanted to be was a Christian. I had grown up as an Episcopalian, but not evangelical, born again, or any of those kinds of things. It was very high church, kind of mainline, protestant, episcopalian. I did believe in God, but it wasn’t anywhere near what would come to happen to me later in life.

“When I went away to college, whatever little faith I had, I lost. I ended up graduating from college. I worked in the Clinton administration. All my friends were secular liberals. At this point, I really got even more deeply into an incredibly secular world because now, all my friends were basically atheists, or if they had any kind of spirituality, they were very hostile towards religion, Christianity in particular. So, I really didn’t have any interest in it.

“I started dating someone who went to Tim Keller’s church, Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. Out of curiosity, I went with him. But I told him upfront that I would never become a Christian; that it’s never going to happen. After about six or seven months, I began to think that the weight of history is more on the side of what [I was hearing at this church] than not. Tim Keller had made such a strong case, that I began to think it’s not even smart to reject this. It just doesn’t seem like a good intellectual decision.

“Really, it was like God sort of invaded my life. It was very unwelcome. I didn’t like it. Obviously, I started having a lot of different experiences where I felt God was doing a lot of things in my life. It’s kind of hard to describe, but I did have this moment where the scales just fell off of my eyes, where I was saying, ‘this is just totally true, I don’t even have any doubt.’ …I don’t really feel like I had any courage when I became a Christian, I just gave in. I wasn’t courageous; I didn’t have any choice. I kept trying to not believe but I just couldn’t avoid [accepting Christ]. If I could have avoided it, I would have. There is nothing convenient about it in my life or in the world I live in. It’s not like living in the South where everybody is a Christian. I live in a world where nobody is a believer. But God pursued me.”

Her name is Kirsten Powers.

M.C. Hammer: The “Master of Ceremonies” Now Lives and Works as a “Man of Christ” (Gospel Light Minute #99)

He is best known for his hit rap songs “U Can’t Touch This” and “2 Legit 2 Quit”. He is the first artist to gain diamond status for an album and has sold 50 million records throughout his lifetime. He is remembered for a rapid rise to fame, flashy dance moves, choreography, and his trademark parachute pants. His superstar status and entertaining showmanship made him a household name and hip-hop icon in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a TV producer, television show co-host, and is the head of his own music management firm. A self-described “super-geek”, he is currently either investing in or consulting for eight technology companies. He was one of the first celebrities to embrace social media and spends 10-12 hours daily working on his technology projects.

He grew up in a Pentecostal church, however, he admits that he strayed from the faith during the years of his success. Even during this period of backsliding though, he promised to dedicate one song to God on each of his albums, and one of his most popular singles was the song “Pray.” However, it took a bankruptcy, a fall from favor in the music industry, and what he calls a bout of “official backsliding” to turn him back to the church, Jesus Christ, and a commitment to preach. He has since been ordained in the Church of God in Christ, preferring smaller pulpits “where they don’t expect to see someone famous.”

He says, “I am honored that Jesus has taken a wretch like me and said I got some work for you to do.” Today, he devotes his time to prison and youth ministries. His name is Stanley Kirk Burrell, but he is better known as M.C. Hammer, and he now says that “M.C.” stands for “Man of Christ.”

Carlos Baerga: How Giving his Life to Christ Saved him from Losing his Family and Destroying his Life (Gospel Light Minute #97)

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He is a former Major League Baseball player who played from 1990 to 2005. He spent most of his career as a second baseman, before moving to various positions later in his life. He has played for the New York Mets, the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox, and Washington Nationals among others. He was selected to the All-Stars three times in 1992, 1993, and 1995 and won the Silver Slugger Award two times in 1993 and 1994.

From the time he started playing, he had rapid success in baseball. He said in a CBN interview, “My career was going way up, and that was the moment that I really forgot about God — the God who gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues. I used to be a super star. Everything was so good for me that I wanted to keep living that life.” All of his wanting for more got him just that – more drinking, more partying, more women. Little did he know, however that getting more also would cost him his family. He said, “I almost lost my family. I didn’t know the damage I was doing to myself. When you walk without God, you can be hurt at anytime.”

After several heart-to-heart conversations with a close friend, he finally understood that there was no place else to turn and rededicated his life to Jesus Christ. He said, “We’re human. We go through those moments in life that we forget about God. We think that we are Superman, that we can do things without Him. We have to realize that we cannot do anything without Him. He’s the best feeling that you can have in life. When you put everything in God’s hands, there is nothing that you can not do. He gives you the life, He gives you everything. Thank God I still have my family with me.”

Now that he is retired, he seeks to help other baseball players get on the right path with God. He said, “[The guys playing now] are the ones that need to know the words of God. Right now what I’m trying to do is to talk to the guys more about God. You know, that’s the second chance God gave me. We are here for a reason: to spread the words of God.” His name is Carlos Baerga.

Peyton Siva: How God Lifted him from his Difficult Childhood to Being a Champion (Gospel Light Minute #96)

He is a point guard who finished his college basketball career with the Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball team in 2013. Recently, he helped lead his team to the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball championship. He was the 2012 and 2013 Big East Tournament MVP as well as a 2013 Academic All-American.

Growing up in a rough, crime-ridden area of Seattle, his father was mostly absent from his life, struggling with drugs, alcohol addiction, and being in and out of jail. His mother worked three jobs to support his family, and his siblings also had brushes with the law. However, at a young age, he decided to take a different route. At 13, he taught himself to drive so he could find his father. He found him in a drug den with a gun, contemplating suicide and was able to successfully talk him out of doing so. He soon found a love for sports, and though he was told he was too light at first, managed to play both football and basketball.

Danny Cage, youth pastor at Mount Calvary Christian Center in Seattle said of him, “He had so many people pulling at him at such a young age. He wanted to be focused spiritually through that. It separated him from the pack. He would study scriptures, and fast, and would ask to be held accountable.”

When his team won the NCAA championship, he told reporters, “First off, I got to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for blessing us for this opportunity. I thank God, and without my teammates, without my parents, my girlfriend, my sisters, my brothers, none of this would be possible. I’m just thankful to God. Today, his father and siblings all have learned about Jesus through his life. He said in an interview, “God lifts us up so we can lift Him up. He’s definitely using me in basketball to give Him glory and to use me to show other kids that God is with you and God has a plan for you no matter whether it’s basketball, football or being a doctor.” His name is Peyton Siva.

Having Jesus Christ in his Life Made Former Alcoholic Pat Summerall Feel ‘Ecstatic, Invigorated, Happy, and Free’ (Gospel Light Minute #95)

He was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked at CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he also announced major golf and tennis events. In total, he announced 16 Super Bowls on network television (more than any other announcer), 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens. He also contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst. After retiring as a football player, he joined CBS as a commentator and worked with Tom Brookshier and John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox. Though he retired in 2002, he continued to announce games on occasion.

He was named the National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1977, and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1994. That year, he also received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. He was honored by the NFL with an award named after him which is presented during Super Bowl weekend at the NFL headquarters “to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the field that his name represents.”

Early on in his career, much of his life was characterized by alcoholism and the abandonment of his family. In 1992, his friends and family staged an intervention on his behalf, encouraging him to get professional help for his alcohol problems. He was angry at the idea but reluctantly agreed to enter rehab. While in rehab, he made the decision that changed his life.

He said, “I realized there was a Savior, there was a God.” He made the decision to accept Christ as his Saviour and said, “once I began to realize His involvement in my life, it was easy [to overcome alcoholism]. I never had a craving since then. My thirst for alcohol was being replaced by a thirst for knowledge about faith and God. I began reading the Bible regularly at the treatment center, and it became a part of my daily routine. The more I read, the more I felt a void in my life that needed to be filled.”

He was later baptized at the First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas. He described emerging from the water as though he was surfacing in a new world. He said, “For the first time in my life, I knew what people meant about being ‘born again’. I had already accepted that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who died for our sins. Now, I felt I was truly part of his family. I felt ecstatic, invigorated, happier, and freer. I felt as though my soul had been washed clean.” His name is Pat Summerall.

Margaret Thatcher Believed that the Only Way to the Peace We All Long for is Through Jesus Christ (Gospel Light Minute #94)

She was the longest-serving prime minister of Great Britain, and the nation’s first woman prime minister. She also served as the secretary of state for education and science for five years. Before entering politics, she was a research chemist and a lawyer.

During her tenure as prime minister, she introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse high unemployment and Great Britain’s struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. She also helped reform the education system, the National Health Service, and the local government tax system. Along with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II, she helped bring down Soviet communism. Her tough approach to government, particularly in dealing with her opposition, earned her the nick name, “the Iron Lady.”

She was also a devout Christian and a member of the Methodist church. Her belief in Biblical principles was evident in many of the political positions she took throughout her career. She believed that the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament and the command to love our neighbors as ourselves in the New Testament are the principles upon which economic and social life should be based. She said, “We must not profess the Christian faith and go to Church simply because we want social reforms and benefits or a better standard of behaviour; but because we accept the sanctity of life, the responsibility that comes with freedom and the supreme sacrifice of Christ expressed so well in the hymn: ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.'”

In a speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1988, she said, “The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace for which we all long… I leave you with that earnest hope that we may all come nearer to that other country whose ‘ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.'” Her name is Margaret Thatcher.

Adam Young: Making Music to Glorify Jesus Christ and ‘Spread Light’ in the World (Gospel Light Minute #93)

He is an American musician, producer, song writer, vocalist and the founder of the electronic musical project “Owl City”. While suffering from insomnia and working loading Coca-Cola trucks in his hometown of Owatonna, Minnesota, he began to compose music and record songs which he uploaded to MySpace from his parent’s basement. When his first label album, Ocean Eyes, went online, the iTunes music store chose “Fireflies” as its single of the week. “Fireflies” had 650,000 downloads that first week, and it wasn’t long before it was the No. 1 song in the U.S. It has been played almost 30 million times at his MySpace page alone. Suddenly, everybody knew who Owl City was, and album sales skyrocketed.

When asked about the source of his creativity, he said, “Faith and imagination. Faith is the reason I do what I do, imagination is the fuel that keeps the creativity flowing. The Lord Jesus Christ is my reason for creating and I have nothing but thanks and gratitude toward him for being allowed to do what I do, and ultimately, seize my wildest dreams as if they were just there waiting for me.”

He gave his life to Christ in middle school after hearing a testimony at church and says, “From then on, I’ve just wanted to serve Christ in every way I know how, music being the only thing I’ve ever considered myself any ‘good’ at. I guess my whole message or goal of this whole operation is to bring glory to Jesus Christ by all that I do and say.”

He wrote in his personal testimony, “Music is something that I can’t imagine living without, and though it means more to me than the world itself, there is something that weighs significantly heavier on the scale of all things valuable and important in my life, that being my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am left breathless, completely and utterly bereft of speech at how the Lord has chosen to use music in my life and what I do as Owl City to plant seeds, spread light like fire in an age where darkness feels more oppressive than ever, and ultimately, to glorify Him. I am endlessly honored and humbled that He should use me — a completely average, ordinary shy boy from the middle of nowhere, to do great things in order to further His kingdom.

“One thing I’ve never wanted to be shy about is the reason behind why I do what I do, why I create art, why I dream and imagine. That reason is my faith in a God more powerful and omnipotent and full of love for us than words can even begin to describe.” His name is Adam Young.

In a Dangerous Sport, Kyle Petty Depends on Jesus Christ to Protect Him (Gospel Light Minute #90)

He is a former NASCAR driver and is currently a co-host for NASCAR RaceDay and panel member for NASCAR Smarts. He participated in 885 races during his career. He came in first place eight times and finished in the top ten 184 times. He is active in many charitable causes, such as the Victory Junction Gang Camp for terminally-ill children, which he established to honor his late son, as well as an annual charity motorcycle ride across the country called the Chick-fil-a Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America which raises money to support terminally-ill children.

He accepted Christ as his Saviour after a racing-related accident took the life of his uncle. He said, “When I was 15, my uncle was killed in a pit road accident, and I was right there with him. I realized how close I came to being killed. If I was going to be in this sport, I needed Someone to protect me. You can’t do it on your own. I gave my life over to the Lord. Every time I get into a race car, I turn everything over to Him. Unless you build your house on the Rock, Jesus, it’s going to fall.”

His faith in God helped carry him and his wife through the grief that followed the death of their son who also lost his life on the racetrack. He said, “I must have gotten 20 million help books on how to deal with grief. But the only help book there is is the Bible. Walk to your Bible, open up your Bible and the Lord will lead you to a passage. There’s a relevant passage that he will lead you to to deal with what’s going on in your life today. And that’s everyday — not just in the hard times… God wouldn’t give me more than I can handle. I can handle this, but I can’t handle it alone. By saying, ‘Lord, you’ve got to help me,’ that burden is lifted off your shoulders. It’s still hard, but there’s always help there and you always feel like somebody’s walking with you… It’s just an amazing comfort to know that you can turn everything over to Jesus Christ.” His name is Kyle Petty.

For Former “Three 6 Mafia” Rapper, Delmar “Mr. Del” Lawrence, a Stop in Church Unexpectedly Changed his Life Forever (Gospel Light Minute #89)

He is a hip hop artist and music producer. He is president of the independent record label Dedicated Music Group. Before becoming a Christian, he was a member of the Oscar winning, platinum-selling rap group Three 6 Mafia, which became famous for their hit song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” He received a Grammy award nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album of the year and a 2010 GMA Dove Award nomination for Rap/Hip Hop Album of the year. His first Christian solo album, “The Future” was released in 2005 and debuted at No. 15 on Billboard’s Gospel Chart. “Hope Dealer” was released in 2007 and “Thrilla” was released in 2009.

As a member of Three 6 Mafia, which was known for its profane lyrics, he was a rising rap star with money, fame and a gold record — all before the age of 21. After being on tour for nearly a year, he made a return trip to his hometown of Memphis to surprise his family. Arriving on a Sunday morning, he made a stop at his home church, not knowing that he would leave that service a changed man. He said of that time, “I heard God speak to me during service, and He gave me a vision of what He wanted me to do. Based on that experience, I decided to give my life to God right then and there.” After giving his life to Christ, he now leads his own record label and a hip-hop influenced church, City of Refuge in Memphis. He is on a mission to win youth to Christ. He said, “I want youth to see they can have fun and still represent Christ. It does not matter what you did the night before; I am giving this word and I want these people to feel the love of Christ in their lives.” His name is Delmar “Mr. Del” Lawrence.

Mark Burnett says his Life has Been Changed by the Bible (Gospel Light Minute #88)

He is a well-known television producer who currently produces five network television programs: Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Shark Tank, and The Job. He has worked with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Martha Stewart, and Samuel L. Jackson, among many others. His work in the television industry has earned him four Emmy Awards and four People Choice Awards. Currently, he and his wife are producing “The Bible”, a 10 hour History Channel drama based upon stories of the Bible.

As a child, he grew up in a strict Scottish Presbyterian/Catholic home where he always saw a Bible and from a young age, he was aware that the Bible contained certain rules to which strict consequences were applied. As he grew older, he became a Christian and his love and passion for the Bible increased. He said in an interview, “People apply personal meanings to the Bible. Our job is to tell the stories in an emotionally connected way.” He further says, his previous view of the Bible as just a rule book, “distorted God’s love for all of us, because there’s only one perfect character, which is Jesus. Everybody else is flawed to a lesser or a greater degree, especially in the time of kings in the Old Testament. Still, God didn’t give up, even when people were making the worst mistakes. And I think that relief has made me feel it’s a story of love and less about harsh rules.”

He says of “The Bible” project that he is working on: “Even though we came into this as people who love the Bible and people who love the Word and who love the Gospel, we have experienced a deepening of our own faith in the three and a half years that we have been working on [The Bible] together. I don’t think you can work on the scripture day after day, after day as deeply and for as many hours as we have been, and not be impacted by it.” His name is Mark Burnett.