Joe Melendrez, Texan dedicated to spreading the Gospel through rap

The following news story and video is from RomeReports.com:

At the tender age of 11, Joe Melendrez wrote his first poem. His Puff Daddy album inspired him to put the words to a beat. At school, he would “break it down,” like Michael Jackson or Usher.

Then in 2001, at 15-years-old, he was invited to a spiritual retreat, where he decided his verses would praise God.

Since then, he has published two rap albums, and has toured throughout the United States. He's also breaking ground abroad, participating in World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, and in Uganda, where he volunteered at several orphanages.

JOSE MELENDREZ
Rapper
“Notorious BIG, a big time rapper said you always gotta rap about what's real to you. And God is real to me, and that's all I wanna rap about it. I wanna rap about what's real to me. I'm gonna rap about things or topics that can encourage people to live better lives, to know Christ. Because I know it's so necessary, and God it's everything to me.”

Above all things, Joe Melendrez enjoys his concerts. It allows him to get closer to his fans and explain to them his verses.

He goes on to say that much of today's music is dominated by superficial messages. He aspires to something greater. Melendrez explains that some of the greatest rappers also talk about their faith in their verses because God is still a relevant topic. However, he recognizes there's a lot of work.

JOSE MELENDREZ
Rapper
“A lot of time people have negative ideas of rap, and they're like 'oh you can't do that.' And rap is a literally a style, it's poetry with rhythm. I call mine spiritual poetry. And so once you get past it, once you see the fruits of the rap, once they see people going deeper into prayer... Moms come up to me and say 'Hey my kids wanna rap the rosary every morning when it's time to go to school.'”

Music, performing and helping those in need define the life of Joe Melendrez, since that retreat in 2001. Nearly 12 years later, he now helps organize similar retreats in California to help young people there find their way to God.

Creed's Scott Stapp Returns to his Faith

CBN TV - Video

Lead singer Scott Stapp of the rock group Creed shares about his journey to find a real relationship with God.

Life Changing Miracles through the Power of Prayer

Experiencing the Rock of Ages - CBN TV - Video

The video and following excerpt from CBN.com is an illustration of how Jesus can transform your life through the power of prayer.

By Christine McWorter

Sex, drugs, and rock n' roll summed up the life of musician Bobby Hayden, but it soon turned into addiction, despair and hopelessness.

Every penny he earned from gigs went to heroin. He became unstable, neglecting his bills in favor of his next high. Eventually Bobby lost his home and ended up living on skid row. The dream was over, and he was all alone.

“By the time the 90’s got here, I was so sick of Bobby Hayden, I wanted to be anybody- anybody else but Bobby Hayden,” Bobby said. “I was one of the worst down there. I injected heroin probably five to fifteen times a day. I absolutely remember going a year without a bath. I knew that I was down there to die. I really felt I was down there to die. Because in skid row, that’s why a lot of people go there - it’s your last hurrah.”

For seven years, Bobby lived on skid row panhandling for drug money. One day, another homeless man had a message for him. “’Bobby, your body is full of poison. Your legs are all chewed up with injections. You go no veins left. You’ve blown out your neck. You’re not going to be with us much longer,’”

Bobby remembers, “And I’m laying there without a chance in the world, clothes I’ve had on for a year, and my skin was darkened with dirt and soot and toxins from the air. And he said that I had to maybe start praying in the name of Jesus.”

With nothing to lose, Bobby took his advice and started to pray and read the Bible. “When I was walking the streets homeless, I had a little light on in the back of my head that somehow I was going to walk away from it.’

Bobby was right - his life was about to change. One of his old friends sent him a bus ticket to Phoenix and some methadone- a drug that helps addicts quit by stopping withdrawal symptoms. “Then it kinda hit me that I had been praying in Jesus’ name and all of a sudden I got a way out,” said Bobby. “So by this time I know that something is really leading me down that road and I knew this Jesus thing had to be for real.”

Bobby weaned himself off methadone. After about a year, he didn’t need it or any other drug. When a family member invited him to church, he was happy to attend. Soon, he began building a relationship with God.

“Jesus is everything. He’s just- He’s virtually everything - or I would still be in that cardboard box or probably not on this earth. So once I got out of the way and realized that Someone Else was calling the shots, that’s when it really started. I started to tick on all 8 again.”

Bobby has been free from drugs for over 3 years. He is a worship leader at his church, and is able to do what he loves - write and perform music. He says Jesus helped him see that a life in Christ is the best life possible.

He says, “I am so thankful to be a human being again and be in touch with Jesus, because now I really understand that Jesus lives inside of me.”

Kent Bryant: A Bad Boy Finds God

The following story of Kent Bryant is from CBN.com.  In the video interview, Kent Bryant says that his life was transformed from "a divine encounter with God."

Kent Bryant: A Bad Boy Finds God

By Michelle Wilson

CBN.com - “With all the success, women and money, it still wasn’t enough. The void was there.”

Kent Bryant worked as a scout for one of the hottest record labels in New York City. But this wasn’t his first career choice. At age 12, he was already 6'3" tall. His dream was to become a superstar in the NBA.

“It was the thrill of a lifetime to play basketball and to have that great competition.”
 
By his senior year, he became high school All-American, which guaranteed a full ride at a number of division one universities. He decided on San Diego State.

“Having the ability to shoot the basketball and to drive to the basket were my specialties. They used to call me ‘K-Swish.’ I used to drop it in that net at all times.”

But instead of focusing on basketball and his grades, Kent turned his attention to other pursuits. By the time he graduated from college, he’d become a drug dealer.

“My friends called me ‘the pharmacist’. I really knew how to dice it up and serve it up well.”

Kent lost his shot at the NBA and with it his dream of super stardom. The thousands of dollars a week he was making as a dealer did little to fill a growing emptiness inside. So he started using the drugs he sold.

“Drugs kept me numb. Drinking and smoking and sniffing cocaine. Living a crazy lifestyle and blacking out. Meeting a girl at a club or at a bar and going home with her...”

One day, Kent was introduced to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs who was in the beginning stages of starting Bad Boy Records. Kent joined the company as a scout to develop and promote new music artists. Working with Diddy brought a new kind of high.

“Music industry, Bad Boy Entertainment was fast paced. A lot was coming at you all the time. A lot of success. A lot of fame. Working with artists such as the Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Craig Mack. The list goes on and on. You can throw a party, have your artists come, charge at the door and make up to $30,000 $40,000 on a given night.”

Kent’s tenacity and ability to develop new talent earned him the name “Topp Dwagg”. He loved the lavish lifestyle that came with the title, but one morning after an all night party, he came face to face with how bankrupt his life had become.

“This suicidal thought came to me. Here you are everything that you felt that you desired with drugs, money, women, notoriety, but yet there was still this emptiness. I grab this rail. I’m looking over, and I’m ready to jump. Then I heard a voice say, ‘I have a plan for you. I have work for you. No, you don’t want to do that,’ and it was as if hands were pushing me back from the rail.”

Less than a month later, Kent became seriously ill. In two days, he lost 22 pounds.

“The destructive lifestyle that I led, sleeping with so many different women and having unprotected sex... I thought I had the AIDS virus. I thought I was dying.”

At the hospital, Kent discovered that he didn’t have AIDS, but a bad case of food poisoning. While recovering at home, his friend Steve paid him a visit.

Steve recalls, “I told him that I got saved. He really didn’t understand what saved meant. He thought maybe I had some beef on the street. Then I explained to him that Jesus saved me from my sins. I gave my heart to the Lord, and I’m going to church now.”

Kent says, “He had a Bible in his hand. He opened the Bible up, and he read John 3:16 to me. He started reading other scriptures. Steve, the same guy I used to do drugs with and run with in the music industry, is talking to me about Jesus.”

Steve says, “I was like, ‘Kent, God is real and He loves us. He wants you to know Him.’ I told him that God had me praying for him and he started to listen.”

Kent quit his job at Bad Boy Records and began to read the Bible. He says, “Here is a thug, a dude from the music industry and a drug addict, and I left all of that behind. I’m reading the Bible now, staying up all night reading book after book, studying and looking up words.”

Then one Sunday, Kent went to church and surrendered his life to God.

“I went straight to the altar, and I remember getting ready. These two brothers approached me, and they laid their hands on me. They started to pray, but I started to pray for myself. I lifted my hands. I said, ‘God, if You can take away this lust within me, I will give You my life.’ I had a divine encounter with God right there. The Holy Spirit filled me, took away my sin, my shame, my guilt, everything that I was struggling with, forgave me of everything that I did. It was as if God Himself embraced me. I was different, and I was changed right there in a moment.

“Nine and a half years later, [I am] happily married and God has so kept me. I can tell you this. The Lord is so awesome. I’ve never cheated on my wife. Never. From the lifestyle that I led, that is the most powerful part of my testimony to me.”

Today, Kent is in full-time ministry. He travels around the country with Urban Impact sharing his testimony and holding basketball clinics for at risk youth.

“Jesus has a plan for our lives no matter what rock you crawled out from up under, no matter what lifestyle that you were in, how much sin you committed. God is big enough and strong enough to forgive you and to show you His plan for your life.”