A celebration, 2 Songs, a discussion and a preview of my new film

What's up everybody, how's everybody doing?

I figured I'd do something a little different tonight. Let me take a sip of my little root beer here first though. So let me give everybody a few minutes to come in here. Hopefully y'all join us soon. So, uh, I'm gonna sing this little song, y'all. Um, now we're going to talk about my film. It's going live. All right, uh, a little announcement though before you guys, um, you know, we'll hopefully start coming in here. Um, but I figured I'd go ahead and announce this Friday, if you're a local, you know my, my stuff over here in Western North Carolina and whatnot, uh, I'll be showing my film at 118 Church Street. Actually gonna be showing it at my church, Whittier Church, out there in, um, Whittier, North Carolina. So swing by, would love to see you, uh, come out and watch the film, support the film. I can also do some signed copies of my book if you're interested. So without further ado, y'all, I'm gonna sing a couple songs for you and do a couple of my, uh, my worship songs, and, uh, we'll jump in. So here we go. This first one is Glorious Day.

I was buried beneath my shame. Who could carry that kind of weight? It was my tomb till I met you. I was breathing but not alive. All my failures I've tried to hide. It was my tomb till I met you. You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day. You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day. Now your mercy has saved my soul. Now your freedom is all that I know. The old made new. Jesus, when I met you, You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day. You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day. I needed rescue, my sin was heavy, but chains break at the weight of your glory. I needed shelter, I was an Now you call me a citizen of heaven. When I was broken, you were my healing. Now your love is the air that I'm breathing. I have a future, my eyes are open. 'Cause when you call my name, I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day. You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness into your glorious day.

It's a great little song right there by Christian Stanfield. All right, I'm gonna do one more for you guys. This one's called I Belong to You. It's a good one. I'm talking about identity, or identity in Christ. Which is awesome to have, all right? Because if we don't stand for something, we'll fall for anything, like the old song says, you know. So I don't know about you, you know, I chose a long time ago to, to know what I believe in and what I stand for. And that's why I feel so strongly about the things that I do, because I don't, I don't deviate from what I believe in. So, um, you need to know where your hope comes from, what you're grounded in. So, um, that being said, We'll sing the song. Here we go. Then we'll jump into, uh, my book and film and all that cool stuff. So here we go. Let's try that again.

You can be the one that steals my heart with just a simple thought of who you are. Let your light shine in the darkest part. Let your love fill the world. You can be the fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control. Would you fill me up to overflow? Let your love fill The world. I belong to you forever. I belong to you and I belong to you forever. I belong to you. Let your words be like a burning flame. Come close to touch my heart again. The whole world trembles at the sound of your name. Let your love fill the world. And all I want is more of you. Your breath is life. Your word is true. The glory here is bursting through. Let your love fill the world, 'cause I belong to you forever. I belong to you, and I belong to you forever. I belong to you, and I belong to you Forever I belong to you. I belong to you. Forever I belong to you. And you have set my heart on fire. My love, all my desire are only for you. And as your glory fills this place, your love we will embrace. It's only for you. And you have set my heart on fire. I love on my knees. I are only for you. And as your glory fills this place, your love we will embrace. It's only for you. And I belong to you forever. I belong to you. And I belong to you forever! I belong to you— And I belong to you forever! I belong to you now— Belonged here? Forever? Ahh... belonged to you?!

All right, figured I'd do something a little different there, do some singing. Let me put this guitar away. I don't know about y'all, that's the best way to spend some time right there. Okay, so on to the celebration side of things. So my, um my film. Okay, after a very long journey. See, I've been waiting since— let's see, I started working on this book at the end of 2025, probably, maybe the middle towards the end. Um, the film, same thing, I've been working on that for a very long time. So, you know, I'm very excited because, you know, this, this book comes from years of watching, years of observing— observing— I can't talk right now. I had this little tooth pulled up here and it's like a little suction cup in there, like, so it doesn't let me talk as well. So I'll be glad in there because it's annoying. It's amazing how much your teeth should mean to you. But anyway, see, now I done lost my train of thought. But you know, this book is years in the making and, you know, just years of watching, observing, interviewing, talking, paying attention. And, uh, you know, done some film festivals and stuff like that. Still have a bunch more to go. Um, I should be finding out some of the new festivals this week, and, uh, definitely excited to get into those. So once I get into those, um, we'll be able to keep you all posted. And, um, y'all, I'm just, I'm just excited. This is, this is years in the making, and, uh, finally gets to all come together in a film. So, uh, this Friday, this coming Friday, like I said, I'll be showing the film at my church, and I would love for y'all to come out. I still have an Xbox to give away. I actually had two Xboxes to give away, so I'm gonna give away those, uh, you know, not this Friday, but it'll put you in the running for it if you show up. Basically, all my in-person streamings and anyone that buys a book for me on, uh, in person, okay, I will be able to sign for them and all that stuff, give them, give them a signed copy, but then they'll also get a raffle ticket. Okay, so I'll set that raffle ticket date soon so they can, they can get a chance to win an Xbox and all that cool stuff. But, uh, again guys, just years in the makings, and it's really exciting, you know, to see a book and a film come together, uh, and start to make some progress. And, uh, this, uh, this October I'll be at the, uh, a film festival in Atlanta, and I'm very excited about that. So I'll get to talk about my project from the the stage up there. And I also will be going to Hollywood, California for the International Impact Book Awards. I was a finalist in that. Um, they still haven't announced the winner. They're not going to do that until actually they're in person at the gala, which is going to be really cool. So me and my wife will get to go out there, get to walk the red carpet and all that stuff. So pretty cool. Get some photos. Um, you know, I'll post some stuff on there, but it's really cool seeing you know, your, your projects come to the surface. And, uh, you know, I have a grant writer that I've been working with, professional, a professional grant writer, and she got my stuff submitted today, uh, to, well, this week, to 3, uh, different grant companies. And I'm very excited. I'm hoping to kind of expand this thing to a bigger level. I believe it's that needs to be heard is one because it's out in Washington, D.C., and then I'll be able to reach out to politicians and things like that, um, you know, to share some information. Guys, you know, this is, this is important stuff. So, um, anyway, yeah, um, I was trying to share a copy or a preview of my new film on here. Let's see if I can do it. If I lose you, I apologize. I'm gonna try, um I'm gonna try to show you guys my new, my new Voom. It might be in the— oh, share screen. Let's see, let me try this, let me try this. Hopefully I don't lose y'all. Okay, all right, let's see if I can pull this up. Give me one second, guys. If I lose you, I apologize. I'm still kind of new to doing this whole podcasting type vibe here, so bear with me. Let me pull this thing up. Yeah, I hope you all are having a great Sunday afternoon. There we go. Give me one second. Okay, so I'm gonna try to pull this thing up. Yep. All right, so let's see if I can I can do this. I should have had it ready. I thought I did. It gave me the option to click it, but it's not showing up. So, okay, so here we go. Yeah, got it. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and stream a copy— I keep saying a copy— I'm gonna stream the trailer for my new Christian horror film. Okay, now that's interesting. You know, a lot of people have never heard of a Christian horror film. Um, I call it that, okay, but it's more of a spiritual warfare type of vibe. Excuse me, I had to drink some root beer. Um, but yeah, it's a spiritual warfare kind of vibe. Um, you know, but it is done in the form of a horror film type thing. So, uh, without further ado, I'm gonna let y'all watch it, okay? This film is called Through the Veil, all right? And I'll, I'll be running that through the film festival circuit and stuff, um, over the next couple months. So I have several that I've already submitted to, um, some run all the way into 2027. So this film— excuse me— this film will not go live, guys, until the whole film anyway, until after I'm done with it, um, or until I feel like it's a good time to do it. So, um, we do things But with that being said, here we go. I'm going to, uh, get in here and get it done. So here we go. All right, so that was a little sneak peek, uh, for my new film Through the Veil, and, uh, hope you guys enjoyed that. Sorry about that. Okay, all right, so yeah, so I guess I got that to work. Hopefully you guys were able to see that. Um, but yeah, so I'm gonna jump in now to a copy I keep saying copy, that's like the word tonight I just can't get over. Um, my copy of my book, as I was saying. And we're gonna jump into Chapter 6. I'm gonna do a quick little overview, okay? Now this is called— I know it's backwards— Education and Employment, all right? Because I see it a lot, you know, and I hear a lot of people say, well, you know, marijuana doesn't affect people and their success and all that kind of stuff, all right? It doesn't affect their education, okay?. All right, so, um, I'm gonna give you guys some statistics on that. All right, so we're gonna jump into that a little bit, um, and maybe not even some statistics but just some stuff to consider. So I'm going to read a little bit of this book. So here we go, Chapter 6, Education and Employment. All right, it says, one thing that really drives me nuts as a retired military recruiter and current school teacher is when a young person's potential becomes stunted as a direct result of marijuana usage. Is it— is true that there are both academic and career consequences with its use. In this chapter, we are going to discuss these concerns. They are both very near and dear to my heart. Let me start with a question for you. Why do you think there are no vaping or drug use policies in place at elementary, middle school, and high school? You may be thinking that that is just a stupid question. Is it really though? I mean, if the large majority of people are in favor of smoking and legalizing, why not just let the kids do it, right? Please excuse my sarcasm. It seems that people don't really care about the issue until I address it that way. That does sound offensive, right though? I apologize. If you knew how many kids still vape despite the public school rules, it would blow your mind. Yeah, teachers are not allowed to search bags. By the time the school resource officer gets to the bathroom to catch them 9 times out of 10, the user has already discarded the evidence or they have cleared out from the location. All that will happen then is a form of questioning. If the kiddo denies that he had the product, even if he was seen by 3 other students, he would get off the hook. I know some— some— he would get off the hook. I know some, some of these schools, you know, have different policies and stuff. You know, SROs can search and things like that. So You know, it's case by case, okay, for every school, okay? But either way, it's still a problem, you know. But basically it boils down to if the kiddo admits to it or not. Even if he has— even if he was seen by 3 other students, he would still need to admit it before he could, you know, before they could convict him of that. I hate to break it to you, but we live in a time young people have no fear. Threats do not scare them. Policies do not scare them. Why could this be the case? Let's talk about it. Consider that as of 2024, there are only 24 out of 50 states that have legalized recreational marijuana usage. I'm glad to see that there are a few states that still hold the line on recreational use. Now, I know a few have probably, you know, legalized since then. However, there are 40 out of 50 states that have legalized medical marijuana usage. Okay, if you use a medical marijuana, or if you use medical marijuana for its intended purpose, then I'm not here to pick on you. However, I want to propose a few things for us to think about. We mentioned how young people have no fear of rules or policy. Could this be a direct result of what our young people have been observing? Let me explain. I have a very close friend who called me when he found out that I was going to write this book. He was upset about the fact that his wife was chronic— was a chronic recreational user under the disguise of it being for medical purposes only. He told me that she spends hundreds of dollars every single month and that this kid has to see it happen. She goes out and smokes pot with her friends almost every day. He told me that there is no way that she smokes it just for medical purposes. I share his story now, and I will share it in more detail in a later chapter of the book. This was clear validation for me that I needed to write this book. Now, it's interesting, I had several people reach out to me. I had some people call and say, you know, you know, you know, there's nothing wrong with medical marijuana, it helps me out, and all this kind of stuff. That's fine. Um, but I've also had people who called and told me things like what I just read to you. So, you know, where do we draw the line? Okay, and that's, that's what I'm talking about today. So, um, unfortunately his story is no different than millions of other Americans around the United States. What I'm getting at is that we need to start being honest. We have kids who watch their parents smoke so-called marijuana. However, in all reality, they just watch their parents abuse it. This is easy to do in the approved medical marijuana states. However, in those 24 states that oppose recreational use How many people do you think still use it illegally? Have you considered that your kid watches you link up with your drug dealer to get your weed, you smoke an illegal blunt in front of them, and then you tell them to follow the rules at school? Then we wonder why our kids have no respect for rules and authority. To be honest, they probably don't have respect for you either. You would be shocked if you knew how many times I've had a kid come to me voluntarily to express their concerns to me about how their mother is asleep at home because they are high. I can't make this stuff up. My point is this: if your kids watch you break the law, abuse medical marijuana, or purchase illegally, then you may be part of the problem. It's easy on this— it is easy on the surface to say that there's nothing wrong with marijuana. Okay, so I'm gonna talk to y'all about a little bit of the, the real stuff that I've seen. Um, I have had numerous students, me and my co-worker, um, that have been literally left at the school. Nobody was coming to pick them up. Okay, I remember one time, you know, we were working late, uh, doing a, uh, you know, fundraising thing, and, you know, some kid was there late. It was about 10 o'clock at night, and I'm like, where's your parents? And she's like, they're not coming to get me. I was like, what do you mean they're not coming to get you? Um, because they were passed out at home drunk and high. All right, I wish I could say that was just the only case. Unfortunately, this is a lot of times, a lot of cases. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of times. And, you know, it's sad because I see that direct correlation. You know, you would think that where we come from, if we don't like it, we would want to change it. Okay. But unfortunately, the statistics are showing is the opposite. Okay. So when a person grows up in that kind of environment, they're more likely to be just like that. Right. They say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. And unfortunately, I've seen that. I've been teaching education long enough now. That I have seen young people who grew up in that kind of environment as a freshman or an 8th grader, and now they're graduated from high school and they're living the exact same lifestyle that they came from. Okay, some of them are in jail, some of them have been through rehabilitation programs. I had a young man come and find me the other day, um, stop me in a parking lot. Okay, and he was like, you know what, I remembered the things that you taught me in school, and this was like 5 years ago. And he, he said he found himself in these patterns when he started doing hard drugs and things like that. He ended up recognizing the patterns that I had discussed with him, and those are the things that saved him. It was really cool. It meant a lot to me. And, uh, you know, this stuff is not hard to see, and for some reason we make it difficult to see. Um, you know, some medical usage and all that stuff. You know, here's, here's the reality too. The fact is most medical users are self- diagnosed. Okay, it's funny to me because I'll have all these people say, well, you know, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, that's not a real thing. And I'm like, okay, well, that's not what the doctor that met my daughter and told her, that's what she was having. That's how we learned about it, right? And all the symptoms made perfect sense when we started researching it. And then I started talking to other people, so I was like, you know, okay, I could see why if you're a user you wouldn't want that to be true, all right? Um, You know, but I, I, I, the reality is that a lot of these medical marijuana users are actually, um, self-proclaimed. Okay, and I've researched that. I have the statistic. Um, I forgot to write that down today. I can't remember all of a sudden, but I think it was like 54%, I believe. Uh, don't quote me on that, but I believe it was 54% of users that are medical users are self-proclaimed. So I know it was the large majority are self-proclaimed. I think it was around 24% of medical users are even authorized, actually authorized doctor-prescribed medical users. So out of the 54-something percent that self-identify, like, only 24% of them. So it's easy to say I'm a medical user, okay, but the reality is maybe you just like getting high, okay? Not saying that's everybody, but I just read you a case with a close friend of mine who I trust very much, who talked to me about his wife. Okay, so if he's telling me and these kids are telling me the stories I hear and all that kind of stuff, you know, I'm sorry, you know, you may take medication, uh, but I don't, I don't take a whole bunch of medication to Starbucks and have a, have a pill popping party at Starbucks at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Okay, but yet people that say I'm smoking medical marijuana, they'll link up with their, their dealer, they'll go link up with their friends, and then they're smoking pot and stuff like that during the day. I know it's true. All right, so I'm just saying, you know, where do we draw the line? All right, because I'm not, I'm not here to be mean or anything like that, but let's call it what it is, right? You might have an addiction. Okay, and the other thing is 54% of medical users are also meeting the, uh, the standards of cannabis use disorder. So, you know, more than half of users who are using medical marijuana are meeting the standards for cannabis use disorder clinically. Okay, so, you know, I talk about that a lot. You know, to me, it's no different than popping pills and abusing pills, abusing prescription medication. You know, it may help me out, but if I'm smoking more than I'm supposed to, because true medical marijuana is going to be broken down by strength, but, you know, and it's going to stay consistent, right? You're not going to get medical marijuana today that's, you know, 20% strength or 10% strength, and then tomorrow, oh, you know, I got this, this medical marijuana here that's 70% THC strength, okay? That's not how it works, right? If I take Tylenol today, it's 200 milligrams. I take it 8 hours from now, it's 200 more milligrams. It's consistent, okay? So, you know, people that smoke marijuana, I would be curious to know, you know, are they, are they actually true medical marijuana users, or are they just under the disguise, right? Again, it seems like I'm picking on medical users. I'm not. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get people to be honest about it, right? If you want to, you know, use some products at nighttime to help you sleep or control your pain and it's truly medically prescribed, okay, good for you, more power to you, right? But if you're smoking all day long linking up with your friends, dragging your kids around in the car while you go meet up with a drug dealer or a marijuana dealer, or, you know, pull into the dispensary and grab yourself, uh, uh, one of the, the little tasty treats they make inside the dispensaries, right? And then we get in our car and drive illegally when it's still illegal to consume cannabis while we're driving in all 50 states. Any time for you to start doing some thinking, I'm just saying. Okay, I don't understand how, how it's hard for us to see that, but it is. So anyway, I started out all nice and stuff doing, doing worship songs and things, but you know, this is stuff that I talk about and it's a section in my book that I feel like we needed to talk about. So, um, hard truths. Okay, at what point do we start being honest and having hard, true discussions, looking at facts, looking at realities, and, uh Anyways, guys, it's all part of the glitch. So if you haven't checked out my book yet, it's called The Green Glitch: What's Behind the Devil's Lettuce. And I hope y'all are doing well, guys. God bless.