Dennis Parker
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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. You're talking to a guy that runs. I've run from relationships. I've run from the law. I've run from everything. I don't show up to court. That's who Dennis really is. There's a beauty in not having to run anymore.

His life is an amazing example of the grace and mercy of the Lord to redeem a life seemingly lost for eternity. You'll meet Dennis Parker on this edition of First Person. Welcome to an interview I will never forget, and we'll get started in just a moment.

If you can't stick with us for the next few minutes, I encourage you to make a note to join us online to listen to this program in its entirety. You can do that easily online at FirstPersonInterview.com. Two other ways you can listen is by finding our podcast on Apple or Spotify or on any number of podcast portals. Or download our free smartphone app from your app store for listening at any time. Search for First Person Interview.

Dennis Parker is a talented professional musician. You can look him up online for that side of the story, but that's not what he wants to talk about. He's with us now to give testimony to the power of God to redeem a broken life. Everything else is secondary. As we sat down to talk, I invited Dennis to tell his story, but I began by asking him where he stands with God today. What I feel like is happening in my life now is something that I didn't think was actually possible, that I

a person could actually have a relationship with God. I think the whole mystique of religion and spirituality, you know, I was raised in a Christian home, but as far as like really digging in and being a part of a congregation,

having ears to hear people and take instruction and being guided along. It's way beyond my pay grade. And what I've really seen is a guy that was, I know what it's like to be dead. I remember the days of being dead and walking around and seemingly living, but yet just walking around in the dark and

What I feel like is, since really surrendering to Christ, I feel like the scales have been taken off my eyes, and I'm able to see God's handiwork in my life. I see Him show up. I see my life being changed where I couldn't change things before. I see the acts of my Bible study and my digging into God's Word changing.

and finding the things that his ways are actually better than mine, which I didn't think were possible. You know, they're not natural. They're just seemingly...

I sit back sometimes, I can't do that. And that's the whole point. You can't without me. And so it's been a daily, weekly, day-by-day surrender and trying to have the eyes open to see without all the distractions. The distractions are...

part of, uh, part of my journey of getting off of whatever's going on and trying to really focus on what God's actually trying to do in my life now. What you've just said stands in stark contrast to who you were at one time. Uh, where did this downward spiral begin for you? Were you a young man? Well, I mean, I just, I've always been kind of a wayward man. Uh,

maybe double-minded, I was able to fit into the church and kind of understand some spiritual terms enough to be able to blend in, but not really be a part. I was just coming out of where I've been in the disease of me,

And coming to Christ, I really never knew how dishonest I actually was. I didn't really practice a whole lot of... I just gave you enough of me to make you want to like me. You kept up appearances. That's it. Even at church, huh? At church, I could talk the talk to make you think that I was walking the walk, but I was...

The hypocrisy of me is what I've really kind of grown to see what was in my past. And then, you know, I mean, I just kept making decisions. And it wasn't that I was around bad people. And I didn't. I mean, I was married and I married a good woman, but she didn't know who she married. She just she just didn't know. And I tried to be good.

And I got pulled in the direction of what I wanted to. I wanted to play music, and I had opportunities to play it. And there's a smorgasbord out there of just whatever you want in music. And at the level that I was being able to play in, you know, in country music, you know, we had everything that you wanted. So all the enticements were there. Yeah, the women, the drugs, the alcohol, the partying, the...

What was expected of you is to create a vibe of having a good time, and you had to have a good time while you were doing it, too. So I always felt like I was kind of the life of a party. And, you know, I drank in high school. I was a drinker and a drugger in high school, but, you know, it was something that kind of, I felt like, empowered me. It enabled me to be this confident person, funnier person, or...

It's the illusion of having a good time. You told me you even would go to church with a backpack full of alcohol. That was towards the end, man. Towards the end of my drinking. And that was when I had reached the complete bottom. And my complete bottom was...

drinking all day just to maintain. I had periods of trying to get off alcohol, but I always would go back to it. That was the hopeless point of my life of really feeling like I was alone and I didn't have anywhere to go. I was really just trying to die. Yeah. Did anyone in the church know your secret? I don't know how they could have not known. My...

The beauty of God for me in my own particular story was that I had reached such a bottom. I was unemployable. I was I couldn't I couldn't be trusted. I was not even entrusted in my own home. My parents, my mother had dementia.

And I think that was kind of the grace of God. I mean, that she didn't see her son get to the level that, you know, it would just destroyed her. But my father just wouldn't allow me in the house. I was a thief. I stole just to, you know, supply my own need. So that was kind of my bottom. But even in the sick, twisted state that I was in, I look back now at that and see,

see how God showed me. He was merciful when you didn't deserve it, huh? And it was just a little, you know, I mean, it was, it was the mercy. It didn't take much, you know, cause I mean, I, I got used to being alone and I got used to, you know, drinking by myself and isolate and staying away from everybody. But there was one person that really felt called to be just a friend to me. They didn't preach to me.

They didn't point fingers at me. They didn't judge me. They just were a friend. And I had one. And I think, you know, but it was the right one. And it was the one that it was the one friend that I know that was guided by something higher than I knew about. I didn't I didn't know how you could be that nice and that gracious, but I

I was trying to win this person over to my way of thinking, which was anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-anything spiritual. God doesn't exist. Why did she hang in there? It's powerful. She couldn't have done it on her own. And it was almost a mission. And I...

I only tell you that because I know how alcoholics are. I'm judging, and I see, I'm in Alcoholics Anonymous, and I see guys come in the program, and I see what they do to the people that love them the most. They push them as far as they possibly can until they get completely exhausted. And sometimes, you know, there's nothing you can do for them. I mean, there's really nothing you can do when people are pushing you away like that, but...

There's a special calling that I think was put on, for me, it was my friend Cindy. That was her name. You said calling. You feel God called her to be your friend? She told me that. She had told me later on, you know, when I was coming into faith, she told me very emphatically, she said, I felt...

called to be your friend. She said, there were times I felt like just walking away. And she said, I'd get alone with God in my quiet time. And God would just say, you hang in there. Just don't leave him. I've got a plan for his life. I've got a plan for you. And she was such a

such a great part of, because I had grown so bitter toward Christians and Christianity and church. I'd had some bad experiences. I, I had played in some gospel music back in the, in the mid nineties and in Southern gospel. And, and I saw a lot of stuff out in the, uh, in the Christian music realm. That was just what I felt wasn't a representative of God. And I, I, I,

I think what happens to a lot of people that are so anti-God is they've been disenchanted with people that say they're of God. That, you know, God gets blamed for things that he has nothing to do with. They get blamed for the sins of people. And when I started realizing that I had to separate myself from God,

you know, the hypocrisy of what I thought was godly and actually know that God was a merciful, loving God that wasn't angry at me. I just, it was something that I saw in one person and her name was Cindy. And she just always told me, she told me over and over again, she said, Dennis,

I don't care what you think. I don't care what you think you believe, but God loves you and he's got a plan for your life. And that just sounded so generic and so simple and so stupid to me because it just wasn't panning out in my life. But there's a lot more to Dennis Parker's story and we'll get to it coming up next here on First Person.

Hi, I'm Ed Cannon, and as you know, situations around the world are changing quickly. Stay current with FEBC's ministry and get a deeper understanding of people who need to find hope. Hear how you can feel the pulse of God's Spirit moving through the hearts of believers dedicated to reaching the lost. Be sure you join me for the podcast until all have heard. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.

Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org. My guest is Dennis Parker. Dennis is a musician.

We've met through our work with the American Policy Roundtable and Christmas in America events, and it's been so wonderful to get to know you, Dennis. Oh, it's awesome. You've given your testimony at these events, and people just respond so warmly. And it's a miracle story that you embody. I mean, God at work in your life is a miracle story. There's no question about it. Yeah. I mean, I'm reading through the book of Acts right now, and everybody has their story of coming to grace. And I under...

I got desperate. My story is like reaching the bottom. And now entering into the church where you've always thought it was so clean and so put together and everybody's got it together and realizing that in faith, nobody really does. We're all sinners saved by grace, but...

Somehow within this, you know, and I read it through the scriptures. It's like, how in the world Jesus made it here is a miracle. Through a bunch of sinners. And I'm the chief of them. It's just a wild thing of what God does to pluck some really desperate people out. But there's also guys that I've met, you know, just in the last year.

I've just been in the faith nine years, but I meet guys that have grown up in the church, and they got pastors for fathers, and that's all they've ever known was church, and I'm like...

Those guys are kind of foreign to me, but they listen to my story and see the depths of what God did in my life. And they say, but it's crazy. They've been in the embrace of grace their whole life and in church. And then they hear my story and they say, you know, when you talk about what God did for you, they say, because...

I struggle with knowing that God loves me. And I'm like, wow. I mean, you've been kind of in the protection of his grace and it didn't have alcoholism. And I was like, man, it's such a beautiful thing to know that God can take you from the absolute bottom. You don't have to get to the bottom. You know, it's his grace is available to wherever you are. And it covers up a multitude of sin, regardless of what it is.

I just found grace. You found grace, but you found it on the bottom, as you've said. Yeah. You've done jail time. Yeah. You joined Alcoholics Anonymous. What prompted you to do that? Well, I wasn't really prompted to do it. It just came to me. I'm a stubborn man. I'm stubborn in, like even now, going to church. I had to be...

Okay.

And so Alcoholics Anonymous has been like a principle in guiding me into a loving arms of a relationship with God. So you entered AA also as a believer or not? Well, no, I was not a believer. What I was was an alcoholic that went to jail.

And I was trying to – I was calling my friend Cindy. She was telling me all this stuff, which I thought was garbage, was still the same thing. God loves you. He's got a plan for your life. And she said, what do you need to do? She was persistent, wasn't she? She was persistent. You know, I was looking for bail money, you know, and she was not – she was like – you know, she was telling me stuff like, you're at the perfect place for you. Yeah.

You've got nothing to do. Sounds like a wise woman. You don't have to worry about if your cell phone's going to be, or the lights are going to be, or you're going to be kicked out, or you don't have to worry about money. He says, you know, you're at a perfect place. You have an opportunity to get into that Bible and let God speak to you. Yeah.

And, uh, and I just, you know, it was at the location I was at, it was hard to get a hold of a Bible, but there was, there were certain programs that entered into the jail and you, you'd get on this kiosk and man, I just wanted to be out of the cell I was in, you know, with a bunch of derelicts, just like myself in a pod. And, uh, I remember one of the options on a Tuesday evening, uh,

was to meet in a room for Alcoholics Anonymous. There was guys that brought AA into the jail where we were. And I just signed up for it. And I remember the first night I went, they called my name out, you know, AA meeting. They called my name out. And so I went and they guided us down.

to this room and when I when they opened the door I looked down the hallway there and I saw a guy that I hadn't seen since I was a kid his name his name was Chris and he had the brightest smile on his face he was so happy to see me

And what I didn't know is he had come to see me not too long ago. Long before that, I was playing at a little coffee house. I was just drunk as a skunk playing at this little coffee house. I used to play there every Friday. But he was an AA guy. God delivered him from alcoholism, and he was there sharing his story with a couple other guys. And that guy...

There's a story of the shepherd that leaves the 99 and comes and gets the one. Chris was that guy that left, and he came and got me. And the story about Chris was like Chris had told me after the fact. He said, I'd been to that ministry, AA, coming to that jail for a few years, and he said, no results. Wow.

And he said, and the week before we came to the jail, he said, I told Richard, the guy that was going with him, was kind of heading up, going into the jails. He said, this is just not my bag, man. He said, I think I could be of use somewhere else. And he said, Dennis, and then you showed up. And he stayed for another week.

Eight months, because I was in there for about a year. And he stayed until I got out. He was my counsel. So at what point did you accept Christ then and say, okay, I surrender? Was it a gradual thing or was it a momentary decision? It was a, like a, it wasn't a, I wouldn't say a prayer. Like I was raised in the Baptist church and they say, you know, just say this prayer and you're saved. Yes.

My experience was really not that. Because I was a naysayer and I had to kind of figure it out. And it talks about in the big book in AA, you know, it was like a coming to faith. And I just started watching God show up.

Through people and through counsel and through the truth that I was learning and becoming an adult, becoming responsible. But you have no doubt that God has saved your soul and has changed your life, hasn't he? I was raised up knowing about Jesus, knowing about the sin sacrifice, right?

but I didn't fully understand. I'm so glad it worked for you, and it's great, and if that's what you're telling me and you found some freedom in that, that's good beans for you. Did you feel unworthy? I just didn't feel like I needed it. Oh, okay. I just didn't feel like it was for me. Plus, I had things I wanted to do. I wanted to live my life. I wanted to play music. I always felt like

you know, I'd be stifled. Like Jesus would hold me back. He would keep, he would probably put me in some kind of thing. Absolutely. I wouldn't be able to, you know, have the, have the joy that I felt like I could have without him. Well, I know you're a man who spends a lot of time on the word. And that's very obvious when you spend time with you, Dennis. And it's really remarkable. Just quickly, someone's listening today that either they themselves were where you were or,

or a loved one is where you were. Encourage that person who's listening. You're talking to a guy that runs. I've run from relationships. I've run from the law. I've run from bail bondsmen. I've run from everything. I don't show up to court. That's who Dennis really is. There's a beauty in not having to run anymore. You know, hiding behind all the lies and trying to be something that you're not.

Just realizing that you're a sinner is a wonderful place because I didn't have to clean up for God to welcome me. And I didn't have to. He accepted me as I was. You know, the mystery that God loves sinners. It's all I know. It's all I can tell you about. And it's all I can, you know, you don't have to run anymore. And you can be just as you are.

But yet God will do a work in your life that is beyond what you can ever do. I'm encouraged by that. You know, I'm encouraged that in my weakness, he is strong. Dennis Parker is the real thing. He knows the depths of sin in a person's life. But more wonderfully, he now knows the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that is thankfully deeper than any dark hole we can dig ourselves into.

If you've been listening to this story and realize that you need God to step into your life the same way he's rescued Dennis, the quickest help available to you right now is a website called caniknowgod.com. There are answers to the questions you may have about asking Christ and his spirit to take control of your life, and it can direct you in taking the next step. The joy and purpose that Dennis has found can be yours as well. So don't hesitate to seek help. Start with caniknowgod.com, and we'll place a link at firstpersoninterview.com.

Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next time for First Person.