¶ Unconventional Christianity
Hello , hello , and welcome back , God's diamonds in the rough . Amen . I hope all is well with you . I hope that today has been a good day for you . I hope that this past week has been a good day for you . Y'all know who I am .
I'm your host , Catherine , and Michael is not here today , but we have a guest with us who is going to be chatting along co-hosting , I'd say , with me . I am interviewing him , but y'all know how it goes when Michael is not here , whoever I'm interviewing , they're my hosts alongside me . So , Nico , his name is Nico Lagan . Am I saying it right ?
You're bang on .
All right , would you please say hello to all of our listeners .
Excuse me , Hello , good evening . How are you guys doing ? Happy New Year , I guess .
Yeah .
I guess it's still okay to say it we're the second .
Absolutely so , before we get into the conversation , we're just going to quickly pray and then we'll get it in . So , father , we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy . Thank you for allowing us to come together one more time . I pray that you would bless this conversation , bless your people as we bless your name . Father , just have your way .
We thank you . We praise you In Jesus' first name . We do pray , amen , amen . So , niko , I'm getting my words just toe up . I rebuke the devil now . I'm telling you I rebuke the devil , but tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into the topic of conversation .
That's a long loaded question . It takes me hours to explain this on one portion of my life . So right now I would say that I'm just following what God has for me . That's if that would be the easiest way to describe what I'm doing right now .
Okay , all right . Well , I know that on this platform that we have been connected by you , describe yourself as not your typical Christian .
Can you tell us what that means ? Yeah , no , absolutely . I'm Canadian from origin . Right now I'm in the US , but I don't come from a religious family at all . Like I was baptized under Catholic I don't want to say rule , but belief , while my family doesn't believe . There's just something that 40 years ago , that's just something people did .
So I don't come from a religious background at all . Until about a year and a half ago I went . I can probably count on one hand the amount of time that I stepped into a church and over the past few years , my like I was a buddhist for a very long time . Like I I I was very spiritual , very buddhist minded .
Until about a year and a half ago , maybe two years , that changed . I have been spending a lot of time reading the Bible , obviously attending church , especially over the past 14 months as we're traveling .
And I say I'm not your typical Christian because I swear I don't talk , I'm not , um , I don't want to insult anybody by saying this , but I'm not a goody two shoe Christian , like I'm not somebody that goes to church on Sunday because I have to . I go there really to be around other believers and I'm there to especially talk with the pastors where I go to .
So I'm there to especially talk with the pastors where I go to . So I think that Christianity has gone soft . I really , really think that the average Christian does not have the balls to stand up for what the Bible say . We tend to reinvent Jesus Christ as per us , like we want Jesus to be like us , not the other way around , and this is a big fallacy .
I just this is what I mean by I'm not your typical Christian , cause I am there to call I'm going to try to watch my language I'm going to . I'm here to call all , to call out what we're doing wrong , because we're allowing a lot of things right now that are just simply incorrect , while still thinking that we're christians .
And I think it's easy , it's easier for me , as an outsider , to come in and say you know what , guys , this is wrong , this is not what the bible say , that this is not what the bible says and this is not what the Bible says and this is not how we're supposed to act .
But we're trying to cater to non-believers , to make Christianity more accessible , but at the same time , coming from a very spiritual background , I can tell you that , after studying most of the religions out there , christianity is the hardest religion to follow . It is hard . It is not easy to be a Christian .
If you follow what the Bible say , it is extremely hard to be a Christian , and this is exactly why people are very turned off by it . This is why people want to make themselves feel better by going to church on Sunday Sunday , because they know that they fall short during the week . Right , they're almost trying to make themselves feel better .
I think it's the best way to do it , to say it is really we don't live by the principles of Christianity anymore and we don't have anybody in power that's ready to call us out on it .
Because if you look everywhere right now like , look at the pope even the pope now is is saying that gay marriages is okay , and now the lgbtq community is also accepted in christianity . When call a spade a spade , that is not what the Bible says , right ?
So I think it's time I don't think I know it's time for people to stand up and say what Christianity is supposed to be about .
And I don't claim to be a pastor , I don't claim to be somebody that has all the answers , but I am somebody that is always searching , I'm always reading , I'm always trying to find new understanding , as per the gospel , and unfortunately it's not something that people are ready to do .
So I think that , as an outsider , it's easier for me to say so because I don't have that background . Outsider , it's easier for me to say so because I don't have that background . And if you look at my content and God knows , I create a lot of content Everything I say is not politically correct anymore , right ? Common sense is no longer common .
So whatever I say is not is not acceptable . So I I think I have the proper background to come in and just say you know what ? No , this needs to stop . But I also want you know . At the same time , I also want to help a specific amount , a specific group of men .
I want to help men that have a similar background to me , that were drug addicts , that come from a drug dealing background , that come really from a bad part of society , and I want them to understand that there is God still loves you . If you're ready to repent , you know there's nothing .
There's nothing that God won't forgive you if you're truthful about it and you really repent , like . I've met some incredible people that spend one in particular that spent 10 to 15 years in federal prison and now he's a born again Christian . He found God , and he found God in prison . And now man he's a changed man .
So and this is one story of many so those are the guys I want to help .
So this is why I say not your typical Christian , because I don't go after people that's been in the church their whole life , because my message is not going to resonate with them , and the way I deliver my message is not going to resonate with them either , but they're not my target audience , if you will .
Right , so you typically speak to men . That's where your audience is . It's just anybody and everybody is 100 .
Well , you know it's interesting because it used to be a good 90 men , 10 women . But over the past few months my audience keep growing , is always growing , growing , growing . But now it's interesting because my split between men and women is mostly 68% men , 32% women , so my female audience has tripled over the past few months , which is very interesting .
I did not see that one coming . So now it seems I speak to both sides . All right I was going to say .
I was going to say . It seems that for me , when I look at it , if you want truth , then you know , however the Lord sends it , I feel like you'll be ready to receive it in that way . That's the audience we want to reach .
We want to reach people that are tired of the pretend , tired of you know , like the tired of not getting the truth , tired of not getting the word of God . And you know , I think , that when you give true , that's the label you carry . You're not the typical Christian . You know you're that . When you give true , that's the label you carry .
You're not your typical . You're not the typical Christian . You know you're the one that's out of the box , You're the one that is out of the ordinary . You know you're the one that . You know that you're not in church all the time .
You haven't been in church all your life , and so you know we say all of that to say that , diamonds , you're unique in who you are and that god wants to use you where you are . You know what I mean . You don't have , it's not a status quo that you need to fit .
you just need to be able to be used by him where you are , whether you are in the slums or the streets , or you're you know , know you done , been to college , been to college , you didn't you know , you've been all kinds of situations . Wherever the point is , he wants to use you , and so Nico . I just I just saw .
I saw a lot you have a lot in regard to your about in pot match , and what I thought and took notice was is that you have an array of things that God has used you to do , and I saw purpose and I saw success , and so I have two questions that I think that you can answer .
I know you can answer , but it's two questions and we're going to try to bring it into one answer just for time's sake . But one of the first question was how would you describe success ? And the second question is what does purpose have to do with it ?
so , if you can come up with an answer that kind of answers both questions , you know , that's a good question , because we do tend to try to make our life about successes , while we don't understand what success is .
I think it comes down to what your goals are , because your success is always dependent on if you achieve your goals or not , which is how I've been for 20 years now .
This is why I've evolved so much over the past 20 years , but I can tell you that over the past few months , I've come to realize that I don't necessarily need to set goals the way I used to . Once you give yourself to your purpose , we all have a purpose , right . Everybody's meant to do something .
Now , it doesn't mean that it's going to happen because you're meant to do it . If you don't do the work , it's not going to happen . It takes effort to go after your purpose , but your purpose at the end of the day is first to believe that you have a reason for being here , because no purpose is possible if you don't have a reason for being here .
And this is why I think that so many people Are depressed and I say that I don't believe in depression , I just believe that people lack purpose . But how can you find purpose If you don't first believe that you were put here for a reason , and how can you be put here for a reason If you don't believe that there's a higher power ?
So it's very easy to find purpose once you give yourself to a higher power , and this is what it comes down to . So , but but can you really measure success if your goals are no longer selfish goals ? Because for me to say , okay , my goal is to make X number of money during the next year , this is a very , very selfish goal .
I choose to do that for me .
¶ Serving God Through Selflessness
So over the past year , my goal I've completely . I used to . I even written a book about it on how to set goals properly , and you know what ? Now that I look at it , it still makes sense . But now my goals are just to follow God .
If you learn to listen , if you learn to communicate with God , you learn to see , to look around you and see how he's working in your life . I don't need to really understand what the end goal is . I don't have an end goal anymore . I , just a year ago a year just over a year ago I completely gave myself to God to just say you know what ?
I quit my , my high paying corporate job , refinance my house , cashed in all my investments and I said you know what ? Let's do this . I have no idea where this is going to take me , but all I'm going to do is to listen to what you're telling me to do , and this is how I've found purpose . And now is it easy ? Absolutely not .
This is the hardest thing I've ever done , because it's easy to believe that you control everything around you . It's easy to say those are my goals and when I achieve those goals , I'll be successful . The problem with that is that , again , they're selfish . They're selfish goals . So those are not the reason you were here .
If you want to find purpose , you're going to discover that purpose is serving . You need to serve God as a man . I need to serve my family . I need to serve my community . I need to serve the people around me . So the only way to find real purpose is by becoming selfless . Only by becoming selfless will you accept to serve others before serving yourself .
It makes life very interesting . It makes life extremely hard because you have to think about others before you think about you . That means you have to put yourself out there . You know the content I create on a daily basis is not necessarily what I want to talk about . It's what I'm supposed to talk about . I don't enjoy being called names on a daily base .
I don't enjoy being called all the names that you can think of , day in , day out , thousands of thousands of times every month . It's not something I enjoy doing . It's not something I enjoy doing , but every single time I do it , I open conversations with certain people and we get to talk . They get to be challenged .
I get to challenge , even if it's one person a day . Even if I get to challenge one single person a day , my job's done . So hopefully , that answers your question , but I don't have a barometer for success anymore outside of that God . I think I'll know if I'm successful when I stand in front of God .
Right , I think this is what I'm going to know that I was actually successful .
Yeah , I think that .
But I don't think you can lose when you give yourself to a higher power , though Right At the end of the day , how can I ever lose if I choose to do God's work , because let's say that God doesn't exist ? I lived a great life by giving myself to others , and if God exists , I may displace a better place . You know , at the end of the day , that's all .
I hope is that I can make this , that the world will have been a better place with me in it than me not in it .
Right , yeah , it is definitely one of those things , because we live in a better place with me in it than me not in it . Right , yeah , it's definitely one of those things , because we live in a world where , you know , everybody wants to be bigger than somebody else . But at the end of the day , you're right , it's , it's , it's about the impact .
It's really about the message and the impact that we leave , not about ourselves , but about jesus , because at the end of the day , we leave everything and every achievement that we do here . We leave it here . At the end of the day , we leave it here the only thing that we really Go ahead . You go ahead , sir , go ahead .
Well , all I was going to say is that , you know , this year , my girlfriend and I did not buy each other anything . Instead , we took that money and we gave it away to a 14-year-old boy that doesn't have any parents . He's in the system . The church where we go actually do a lot of events with charity events , if you will .
So instead of buying ourselves gifts , we decided to give it away to somebody else that needed it more . And you know , it's just that simple . Last year , that was last Christmas yeah , that was last Christmas . That was a week ago .
Last year , we were in Austin and we met a guy at the gym that worked at the gym , a young man that didn't have a place to like . He just arrived in Austin . He was working at the gym . He was we . I came to learn that he lived in his car , so I knew that he was alone on that day because he's nowhere close to family . So we invited us .
We invited him to come with us . We're in an RV , we don't have a lot of space , but whatever we had , we shared with him and he ended up spending two , three weeks with us . So this is my point . It takes nothing to do this . Simply be aware . Simply be aware of what's around you .
Ask yourself the question do I really need this , do I really need that , or could this be given to somebody that needs it more ? I'll probably never meet that 14 year old kid that we gave gifts to , but you know what . I would do it every time If you ask me to . What do I really need ?
At the end of the day , what do I really need that I don't have right now , and he doesn't have anybody in his life because he's in the system . His two parents are not . We don't know the full story , so , for all we know , the two parents are dead or they're just not there at all .
But how much better can this be than to give it to somebody that really needs it ? That you can change the life of somebody , even if it's just for a few hours , a few days , however long he enjoys those gifts for right .
Amen . So , y'all , this is how we impact the world , this is how we do it and you know it ain't about the money . It's not about all of the things that the world says it's about . It really is about the money . It's not about all of the things that the world says it's about . It really is about serving God .
This is the awakening this season that we are in . It is entitled the Awakening , and we are super excited about what God is doing here through God's Diamonds in the Rough and through the men and women that he sends here . So , nico , I thank you so much for being here with us .
Can you give our audience your final message and what it is that God has brought you to say , outside of everything you've already said ? Just kind of capsize what it is God is saying through you , to give us ?
You know there's , the two biggest problem in society is a lack of accountability and selfishness . So be responsible for your actions , understand that what you do has an impact on others and , at the same time , maybe start thinking about others before you start thinking about yourself . You know , it's really that simple , amen .
Amen . So , nico , would you pray us out real quick , and then we're going to get out of here , out of the way .
Absolutely . You know it's going to be simple . Just thank you for having me on . This is God's work , right here . I thank him 10 times a day and he knows it . So all I'm going to say is thank you for bringing us together . Thank you for what you do . Continue doing what you're doing .
Thank you for allowing me to speak , because God knows religious people don't like me on their podcasts . So , yeah , thank you . Just thank you for taking the time . Amen , amen .
Absolutely , absolutely . Thank you so much . Diamonds will be here for being
¶ Embracing Authentic Worship
here . Nico , we just absolutely love it absolutely . You hear me , we love authentic um , I'm gonna call it authentic worship . We love how people yeah , because people serve god in all different ways . You know , there's no defined way . You got to serve God this way and you got to talk like this . You got to do this . You know what I mean .
You do it the way God tell you to do it . I love it . I put my hands together because I love it Absolutely . You do it the way God has called you to do it . You be encouraged with that . You heard me . Come on somebody . Y'all know what time it is . Y'all remember you are a diamond in the rough . Amen , amen and amen .