Jonathan Cain shares his personal life story and testimony of Jesus from childhood through to where he is at today.

New release of Anchored Podcast is available every Sunday morning.

Music tracks include "Because of the Blood" from the worship album "What God Wants to Hear", "Take These Ashes" from the worship album "More Like Jesus", "Deeper Than Deep" from the worship album "What God Wants to Hear", and the title track from the worship album "What God Wants to Hear"

Links:
Don't Stop Believing Book on Amazon: https://bit.ly/dsbbook
What God Wants to Hear on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3agWLNH
What God Wants to Hear on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2WMwwLf
More Like Jesus on Amazon: https://bit.ly/MLJesus
More Like Jesus on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Uj6BJr

Machine transcription:
Hello, everyone, this is Jonathan Cain, and you're listening to my podcast anchored, where I share my ideas of faith, family, marriage, manhood, and other topics. Today, I thought I'd start with my testimony, which you can find in my memoir, don't stop believing that I wrote a couple years ago. You can click on the link there. But I'm going to start with my father, my loving father who prayed to Jesus and taught me to call Him in prayer at an early age. Leonard was a proclaimed Catholic, a self made man from Arkansas, who inspired my mother, a Lutheran to take catechism classes and convert so they could be married in the Catholic Church. As a young boy I noticed in church on Sundays, my father would shed tears as he knelt in the Pew I asked him one day why he was crying in church. And he said they were tears of joy for the goodness of Jesus's love. I asked him how I could pray. And he told me simply to call him and tell Jesus He was my Savior, my True Father. Following my father's tears, at six years old, I knelt down, pray to Jesus, and eventually nurtured a personal relationship and an early age with our Savior. Thanks to my father, I planted my first anchor, I believe the most important one, a personal relationship with Christ. My first communion at seven years old, was truly the beginning of my journey with Jesus. Here now is a song I wrote from my first worship album, what God wants to hear, because of the blood when the truth was The last one you did on the cross up don't count me the day the world still. The painful stripes you had to bear the crown of phones you to wear, only to match the chain of canes you'll fulfill because Forgive me jeez In Genesis 18, verse 19, it says, For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised him. It turns out my father had truly carried out that prophecy. He had brought me to the Lord. At seven years old, I declared to my parents, I wanted to be a priest. They laughed and rolled their eyes at me, but received their firstborn sons love for Christ. I wanted to be a pre so bad that I even pretended to hold communion service in my tiny bedroom, my dresser with wonderbread dad's golf trophy and a blanket wrapped around my neck is a holy robe, reciting Latin over it Mia culpa, mea culpa, I would chant. I became a choirboy and Our Lady of the angels in the choir singing Gregorian chants. Latin and answering the preceding high mass. headline boy he wants to be a priest ends up marrying a pastor. Yes, that happened. God has a sense of humor. Amen. I marry pastor Paula white. Pastor Paula White is Pastor Paula white cane, and I love her. in third grade at my Catholic school I was attending next to our church on a cold sunny day in Chicago, December 1 1958. We all smelled smoke and exited the building knowing this was not just another fire drill. The fire had started in the basement and it ran up to a cold intake pipe to set the roof ablaze, trapping hundreds of students on the second floor in thick black smoke and unbearable heat. Being in third grade I was on the first floor and walked out of the building unharmed following our sisters orders. standing in line outside it was eerily silent as we waited on the flight department who are now yeah responding. It was 230 in the afternoon and I wondered if the Lord would step in and allow the students to escape the inferno on the second floor, horrified and frightened, looking at my Mickey Mouse watch wondering, Jesus, where are you? Isaiah 61 three, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, planning of the Lord for the display of his splendor. And now a song I wrote from the album more like Jesus, here is take these ashes. Help me make sense of the senselessness. Take the sorrow that still burns with the trap trapped in this fire of homelessness. Remove judgment let your mercy at the foot of the crop you have said devastation Ghana regatta shadow to the mountains and the forests branches Oh God cannot create some we will restore your jvzoo place to start We're having these. The horrible truth was the fire department from Chicago didn't come until it was too late, due to a miscommunication and phoning and notifying the fire department. So 92 children and three sisters perished. Our neighborhood our city in the nation was devastated. Turns out, the whole world came to Chicago to study what happened and how it could have been prevented. The fire became the model of how fire safety for schools would be forever changed. I know God's word says out of pain, something new is born. And change takes sacrifice. God took what the enemy sent for bad and made for good. Now I find in Scripture God didn't abandon me as an eight year old. Never will I leave you never will forsake you, says Hebrews 13 verse five. He was there with us that day covering us in grace as the chaos tried to swallow us. tragedies can never hide us from God. We may not see him but he sees us. We may think God is a million miles away, but he is with us. And he is watching us. During the aftermath of the fire dad leads me to music. He wants to shift me says I was spared from the fire for this purpose. Music becomes the second anchor planet and purpose during my journey. And acts 27 verse 24, Paul quotes the angel who visited him in the night Do not be able frayed, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar. And God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you, God. So Paul, I have a plan for your life. God clearly had a plan for my life. And my father encouraged and helped me realize the destiny he had for me. playing and singing music came easy for me. My father knew it. And I knew it. And I learned to soar. So at 13 years old, we move away from the neighborhood out to a Chicago suburb in the west side, where I played Oregon for a Catholic pastor on Sundays. I am there a church trying to reconnect any way I can. Here I am reminded of my return call to Christ at 17 years old at a Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago where I break down during an altar call as the pastor lays hands on me. Had I been keeping the Lord away? Was I still questioning God over the fire? I had become numb and didn't even realize it. All I know is I felt restoration that night. I felt Jesus was calling. He was taking me deep. hear from my album what God wants to hear is a song I wrote. My first single deeper than deep. Read the job. The job is to love us first. From your throne room de la rublev. The Santa say via the world cannot condemn. Jay was three inches in your glory and hogs to comprehend. We praise you 1972 I'm 22 years old leaving Chicago and heading to LA with dreams and hopes of being a star. I find promising endure setbacks of rejection, I go through the ups and downs And learn the hardships of the music business. They were not easy to swallow. I'm told I'm not good enough, kind of disheartened. So, back home from Chicago, my father, my vision keeper tells me on phone calls to stick to my guns and stay the course. God has a plan, he says, but the Lord is with me as a dread warrior, my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be gratefully shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten from the Scripture, Jeremiah 20, verse 11. So I'm in LA and I sold stereos for a year and I'm probably 25 or 26 and I audition and join the bandwidth john wait the babies and then on to journey a platinum selling revered rock band Who were selling out arenas around the country. I learned the blessings were just beyond my battle. God had me all along just as my father had said. I believe I planted my third anchor with a priceless membership into a timeless band and a favor and blessing from the Lord. My suddenly had come. As a new member of journey in 1981. During the escape album, I flew into LA, the town that it rejected my purpose. Now I had come to play the forum, and people would pay to see me with journey. And Lord, I come to you with open arms, nothing to hide believer that I say. My life had been transformed overnight with favor and blessings. I had to give a shout of praise. Rejoice in the Lord always again, I will say rejoice. Philippians four For my father knew this and covered me in his prayers during my trials in LA. Remember when Paul wrote the sentence when he was in prison, not a joyful circumstance, but this did not change his joy or rejoicing. I tell myself, I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions. I have not yet made the decision God wanted from me. Rejoice always in the Lord. You see, the word always means rooted in the idea of perpetual and continual. And it was something I had to learn. My mistake along my faith journey was being an on again off again, Christian. As Billy Graham said, it's not possible to be a semi Christian, because once you truly come to Christ, God adopts you into his family and your his child forever losing my way away. along my journey with God was costly in my life. Holy Spirit seemed to have boundaries for me. And when I crossed them, there were consequences. lessons I had yet to learn about myself and God. I lost my father Leonard in 1987. And then my marriage ended, and Steve Perry left the band. These were times I felt tested. And I'm reminded of again, Apostle Paul in prison and the angel that came to him saying God has a plan for you. Here is a song I wrote from the album what God wants to hear the title track. He's seen how stumble and fall I wrestle No problem, his name to wash my sins. He decides he's righteous and fair. Give me eyes to see. I've been missing the mark. I've only met him halfway and it's all because of me waste The Holy Spirit somehow got me beyond those storms in 1987 and I landed on my feet again two years later, I helped build the comeback of Germany in 1998. Without Steve Perry through the uncertainty, I knew one thing that was certain God had his hand on us in our music. I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and my journey in my faith, family, marriage and manhood will continue. So join me next week as I share more of my heart with you on anchored