Faith Walk / William Carroll
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Episode 34: Booger Red: Stories of Redemption Outside the Church's Reach
Have you ever felt the stirring of something greater calling to you, a power beyond the ordinary that's just waiting for you to tap into? That's the journey I, William Carroll, invite you to embark on as we share stories of faith, miracles, and the raw power of God that can be witnessed in everyday life. We're not talking about faith that's trapped within the walls of a church—this is about living it out loud, with heart and soul, in the places you'd least expect, from oil fields to classrooms.
Imagine holding steadfast to a dream for two long years, facing rejection but never losing hope—this is where my narrative at Lacey begins. Join me as I reminisce about the characters I've met, like Ricky and Booger Red, whose stories are like threads in the rich tapestry of life, each one teaching us about perseverance, positivity, and the extraordinary impact that comes from simply holding onto faith through the ups and downs. It's in these personal reflections where the beauty of faith's practicality shines, revealing how hope can move mountains, even in the most mundane moments.
And then, there are moments that remind us of life's fragility and the profound effect faith can have. Booger's spiritual transformation and subsequent journey to salvation bring to light the true power of prayer and the human connection. As we reflect on the missed opportunities for sharing the Gospel at Booger's funeral, I discuss how we can offer comfort and hope in the face of loss. Ricky's path to faith further echoes the message that salvation is always within reach, regardless of where we've been. So, let's explore these stories together and witness how embracing faith and baptism can indeed change lives.
Well, welcome to Faith Walk podcast. With William Carroll, I'm your host. On this podcast. We've been sharing about signs, wonders and miracles that God has done in my life and the life of others, as I walked with God, walked with his word, learned his word and then just reached out to try to do what I felt that he anointed me to do. See, I took God out of the box.
Speaker 1:Religion puts God in the box, you know. It says God can't do this, god can't do that. Relationship takes God out of the box and then he can be God. He can do what he says he can do and he will do what he says he will do. And so I just want to encourage you know, this new generation, and even if you're more mature, like me, I want to encourage you. It's never too late to start your faith. Walk with God. See, that's what he wants. He wants you to walk with him. He walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the afternoon, you know, and he talked to him, walked with him, talked to him. That's what he wants with our relationship through the Holy Spirit, which was poured out when Christ said. It was poured out in Acts, chapter two, when, when Christ said go and Terry, terry, in Jerusalem, until the Holy Spirit be poured out upon you and you will be in dude, that means to cover it, enveloped, just completely saturated in dude with power, and that to be witnesses. And power is we get our word dynamite. It's dunamis and we get our word dynamite from it. And it means miracle, working power, power that happens now, power that changes things. That's what. That's what we're supposed to be working in, walking in Excuse me we're supposed to be walking in the power of God, the dunamis of God, that's the dunamis of the Holy Spirit on our life.
Speaker 1:You know, right after that message, peter and Peter and John was going to the temple and saw a lame man begging for arms, begging for a handout. He was expecting to get a handout and it says that they saw that he was expecting to read, receive something. And Peter said unto him. He said he said rise up, take up your bed and go home, in the name of Jesus, christ, of Nazareth, see, because he knew he was expecting something. And he said silver and gold. Have we? None but what we have we give to you. What did he give to him? He gave him the dunamis, the power of God. That's what they gave to him the Holy Spirit working through them. You know, I tell you what God has been so grateful, I'm so grateful. You know that I just want to be like you know. I just want to reach in there. I want to do what God wants me to do. I want to minister how he wants me to minister, talk how he wants me to talk, walk how he wants me to talk, you know, and I just share with who he wants me to share. You say, oh, go back and listen to some of the podcast. I'm telling you, get God out of the box, because he'll do the same thing for you that he's done for me, because God is not a respect or a persons.
Speaker 1:We were in Sunday school and we was talking about this. Our Sunday school book was talking about shadow Christians. A shadow Christian is one not that hides in the shadow, but one that in up front, one that's not the preacher, one that's not the on the television, one that's not the one that everybody looks to. You know, a shadow Christian is a Christian that believes the word of God like a child, like faith, and takes that word of God wherever you are, wherever God's placed you in your life. If he's placed you in the oil field, you take it to the oil field. If he placed it in school, you take it to the schools. You take Jesus wherever you go and you begin to share Jesus, talk about Jesus and you will see things happen.
Speaker 1:Well, in previous podcasts I had been talking a lot of the testimonies about when I was at Kilgore Fire Department and, uh, working on the amulet service and working with the amulet service. I worked in Longview Amulet service, I worked with East Texas ENS EMS here in Carthage and so I began praying for this, this job at Lacey, you know, because I was working three jobs and I just needed to. I needed to go on, and I talk about this in one of the other podcast, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. But I, um, I began. I told the men at the fire department that come in and say, well, I'm going to work at Lacey, and they say, oh yeah, win, win. And I say, oh well, when it manifests in the flesh, I said I've been praying about it, I have a piece about it. I said it's gonna take away three jobs where I'll be able to work one job instead of three. I can see my family, I said but I have it in the spiritual realm, I'm believing for it in the spiritual realm, I'm pregnant in the spiritual realm with this job. I'm just waiting for it to give birth into the natural realm. And of course they all had a good laugh about that and everything.
Speaker 1:And I went around there two years. I'd call one week and talk to the, the boss, and tell him hey, I'm ready to go to work for you. You say I don't have anything for you, will you? I said, well, when you do, I'm ready. So the next week I would show up at his office at seven. You know, I'm ready to go work for you. And then one day I showed up at seven o'clock. He said sit down right there, I'll be back. He came in. He said I'm firing somebody today. Can you come to work Monday? I said no, sir, I got to give two weeks, so I give two weeks.
Speaker 1:I walked into the fire department. I said hey. I said uh. I said guess what? I'm going to work for Lacey. And they go oh yeah, we know, we know you don't know when, but you're pregnant with it in the spiritual realm. You're gonna give birth to it in the natural realm. When it gives birth, you'll have the job. I said no, actually, I put in my two day, two weeks notice this morning and you should have seen the look on their face.
Speaker 1:But you know, sometimes when you, when you believe something and you have to stand on the word of god, you just don't give up. I didn't just give up, you know, I kept believing, man, I felt in my heart that that was a job for me. And you know, I ended up working at our Lacey for 33 and a half years. 33 and a half years, well, actually, 33 years and five months, to be exact. And, uh, when I left, uh, I had to leave, it was time to leave, and and and the reason, uh, I talked a little bit about that in a different episode. But go back, listen to him and get caught up. But listen, today, what I want to tell you about was when I first went to Lacey. When I first went to Lacey, uh, my son has just been born and uh, I, um, I went to Lacey, um, started work there. They put me on the gang.
Speaker 1:Now, the gang, we uh, hooked up tank batteries, we hooked up flow lines, we all we did all day long. It was three of us in the gang and all we did all day long was just work wrenches. Man, I'd wake up in the middle of the night on the weekend and I'd be working wrenches in my sleep. I was so tired on money because I felt like I felt like I worked all weekend. You know, uh, setting up these tank batteries when I was asleep and it was hot out there. I started in the in june, so it was hot in the summertime. Well, there was two men that I sat with. I mean that I worked with, I'm sorry, two men. I sat in the middle of the truck as the gang truck as we was going to work, and he was on. One was on the left, one was on the right, ricky was our, our foreman, and then booger red was another member of the the gang. So um had klar all up in the middle of the truck.
Speaker 1:You know, in the Monday morning We'd start going to where we is working and Ricky would say Ricky would look at booger and say booger Said what'd you do this weekend? Booger said I drank beer. He said Ricky, what'd you do this weekend? He said oh, he said booger, I drank beer. And then, uh, ricky would say, hey, booger, how much beer did you drink this weekend? And he said I drank, uh, a case of beer or two cases of beer. Well, ricky would always do him one up, you know. Ricky would say, well, I drank three cases of beer this weekend. And they would just keep going back and forth like that, you know, and they never did really say much to me or ask me, you know, and because they knew that I was different.
Speaker 1:So we're going along there, and one week after I'd been there a while, they got to know me, you know, ricky said how many cases beer you drink, booger? He said one. Ricky said, well, I drank two cases. And he looked at me and he kind of laughed and he said he said, william, what you do this weekend. And I said, well, I said I tell you the truth. I said I took a gospel, I overdosed on the Holy Ghost and I got drunk on the Spirit of the Lord and I mean both of them, just our most fellow, the truck, laughing, you know and they said what I said. Yeah, I said any drunk you get on the Holy Ghost, any drunk you get on the Spirit of God is greater and better than any drunk I've ever had, drinking beer or anything else. And I said, and I have no hangover on the next morning, and so every day we'd be working.
Speaker 1:It was hot, man, let me tell you, and I'd always tell I'd always, every time a breeze would come by, just the light breeze, I'd say woo, booger, you feel that breeze that the Lord sent us? He said I sure do. I said well, ricky, you feel that breeze? The Lord said I sure do. Well, I went on and kept doing that for a long time, you know, and finally they pulled me off the game, put me to pumping and jump ahead. A few years later. A few years later, we was, I was.
Speaker 1:It rained 10 inches that night and so I was gonna slip down on. This was on a Sunday morning. I was gonna slip down early. I knew that the flood waters would be on on one end, but I could beat them down there, the runoff water. I could beat them to my wells and get out before the runoff water hit on one side of my wells. If I went the other way, the runoff and the the river would catch me from going in. So I went around, man, I took off. I went around. I got there early and I went in there and I was headed down what they called the old cold road and let me tell you most people wouldn't drive down that when it was wet. We, uh, it was. It was really hard. You had to be real careful or you'd get stuck and nobody would come down that road. You wouldn't see anybody and it would be hard for somebody to come and get you out. But I, I shot around that, went down in there about halfway, almost to the end of the cold road where I hit the regular road.
Speaker 1:I ran into Booger Red that morning and I said, uh. I said, hey, booger, what are you doing there? He said, well, I'm just out riding and looking. You know, he was a big hunter. He stayed in the bottom, he didn't go nowhere, he didn't do much. He stayed in the bottom all the time and he was drinking a beer that morning and so I pulled up.
Speaker 1:I just started talking to him, you know, and I said I said, man, we had a good rain last night, booger. And I said, wasn't the Lord good? He said, well, the Lord's really good. And I said I just started saying. I said, booger, you know. And I started sharing my testimony how I said he used to drink and I used to, you know, go out and drink and do all that stuff. And I said but you know, booger? I said the Lord was so good to me that he just changed my life. And I told him that one day I just got, you know, I grew up in the church but I got radically saved. I said God changed my life, you know. And I said, you know, jesus died on the cross so that I might be free. And I just started sharing the gospel with him.
Speaker 1:And he was intently listening and I could tell that he there was an expectancy on his face, you know, and and we was just talking about God and and all the good things are God and and man, I mean, when I got through I looked at him and I could just tell I knew in my heart that he had received the gospel. And he looked at me. He said, william, you know, I've heard the gospel preach. He said I'm not a heathen. He said, you know, I've been in church all my life. My mother used to take me to church. He said I know the gospel. You know, I hadn't heard it preach for years. And he said but you know what he said, william, I've never understood it until now. He said I understand it.
Speaker 1:I said do you understand that Jesus died for you on the cross, for your sins, booger? And he says yes, I do. And I said Booger, have you ever have? Have you ever accepted him as your Lord and Savior and asked him to come to your heart? He said no. I said would you like to do that? He said yes, I would. I said okay, it's real easy.
Speaker 1:I said the scripture just says that if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that you'll be safe. So all you have to do is just, just, just pray to him, you know, just tell him that you believe and ask him into your heart. He said okay. I said do you want to do that right now, booger? He said yes, I do. So I bowed my head and I said well, go ahead and do it. And we both bowed our heads. Nothing, nothing happened. I said, booger, do you understand that? The word says if you believe in your heart? I said do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you? Yes, do you believe that that? Do you want to be saved and ask him into your heart to be the lord of your life. Yes, I said okay, then all you have to say a prayer. You just confess him with your mouth and ask him into your heart. He said yeah. I said okay, do it booger? I said if you want to do it. He said oh, I do.
Speaker 1:So he bowed his head and he started Nothing. I bowed my head. I said waited, waited, kind of looked up. The bowed over it one eye. You know nothing, I said booger.
Speaker 1:I said uh, you said you understood the gospel today and that Jesus had died and paid the price for your sins and that he loves you. And he says yes, and that you want to. You want him to be the lord of your life. Yes, I said um, okay, well, just pray after me. And I bowed my head. He bowed his head and I said lord Jesus. He said lord Jesus. I said I believe that you are the son of god. I believe that you are the son of god is what he said. And I said I want to ask you to come into my life and be the lord of my life. And he said the same thing. He repeated it after me and I looked up and I said and we, we said thank you, jesus, that I'm saved. And he said thank you, jesus, I'm saved. And he looked up and he said he says you know. He said I understand the gospel.
Speaker 1:And I said I said, booger, there's a lot of water here. I got to go, but if you want to, we'll find a water hole in our baptizing. He said I can't. I'm drinking beer. I was drinking beer today. I said you know what? Let god clean you up. You don't worry about that beer. God will take that beer away from you. He'll clean your heart up, see. And I said but if you want to, I said I got to go check these wells, but I can come back and baptize you. And, um, he said he said no, william, you got a lot to do. He said you go on. So I went on and and checked my wells and I come out and listen, he was. You could tell there was a difference of him.
Speaker 1:After that, booger was a different guy. Booger, did he quit drinking? Well, let me tell you that story. So listen, this is what happened. Booger, he always told me, said William, I have a hard time drinking, I can't quit drinking. And I said give it to god, booger, booger, just give it to god.
Speaker 1:And we were, we were uh, he was uh, I was off one day and and and they said he came to work and he was looking so bad. He was looking really bad and, um, his face was real red and he had a problem with blood pressure and I don't think he treated it or anything. Well, anyway, what happened was he went around and he, he, uh, he told one of the guys, he told uh, uh, the, uh, the guy that grades the roads. He told him. He said he said man, you look, you look bad, is what leroy told him. Said you look bad, booger, you need to go to the doctor. He said well, he said leroy, I'll tell you what he said. If I make it through the day, then I'll quit drinking. He said if I make it through the day, I'm gonna quit drinking.
Speaker 1:And that afternoon, back from a location, he had left the location, the other guys were still on location and he started going up to the shop and he stopped. They think that he got out of the truck and was hurting really bad and he put his foot in the truck and he put his head On top of the truck and he had a massive heart attack and fell right there. Well, booger passed away, let me tell you. I went down there to where that spot was. That spot wasn't more Than 50 yards from my letting, from where I led him to Christ. You know, it was the Holy Spirit that did it, it was an eye that did it, but the Holy Spirit quickened his ears, quickened his heart and then he asked Jesus into his heart.
Speaker 1:You know, and I want to tell you, it was one of the biggest funerals I've ever been to and One of his Ken folks, mother, father, somebody had a pastor there that never, that didn't know of him, it just heard. But evidently they just heard all the bad things about Booger and I mean he preached him into the grave, I mean he preached him in the hell. You know he said I can't do nothing with Booger, I can't do nothing for the scoundrel that he was and what he did. He's gonna answer for those things. And I'm thinking the whole time. You've got a whole room of people, oil filled people, hunters, people that stay in the wood hunting fish, that don't know Jesus, and you wasted your Opportunity to tell the greatest story that God can save you and God can change your life. And so, man, it was the most depressing funeral I've ever been to in my life and people were mad, people were upset.
Speaker 1:I walked outside and I seen his mother and I seen his daughter Leaving and they were just upset. You know, I mean here they left the funeral that this man just said there their loved one was gone to hell. He didn't know nothing about booger, he didn't know nothing about booger's heart, all right. So I said, hey, can I talk to you? I said I worked with booger. I said I want to tell you something. I said, yes, booger drank. Yes, he was wanting to drink, and I told him. He said that he was gonna quit drinking that day if he made it through the day. I said he didn't made it through the day, but I know he made it to heaven. I know where booger is today. He made it to heaven because a few months back, on the oil road right about where he died it wasn't even all road is a dirt road right about where he died I I Shared the gospel message with him.
Speaker 1:He said he'd heard it all his life but didn't understand it. But he understood it and he prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into his heart, I said Booger was saved. You can rest in that fact, for as a fact, I don't doubt it, I know it. Booger was saved. Man and man, you ought to see their face light up. Their face just lit up, and I just, I just wonder so many times about all those people, all those people that were lost, that was there, that Didn't ever grace the doors of the church it, man, what an opportunity missed To share the love, the compassion of God and the gospel to those people. And and and.
Speaker 1:All he did was try to preach a guy that I know is in the arms of Christ right now, into hell. I guess I should have talked to him, but I was young back then, you know, and I, and, and it was a younger pastor and I did, I mean an older pastor, and I didn't know nothing about him. Listen, if you don't know Jesus, it's simple pray the prayer that I just prayed a minute ago. If you believe, if you understand right now that Christ died for your sins, it don't matter what you're doing right now, it don't matter if you're, if you're High on some drug, it don't matter if you're drinking right now, it don't matter. And you hear and you see that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, that you might be saved, because he knew that we could not live according to the law. So he fulfilled the law. And when he fulfilled the law and he died upon the Christ and he rose again, then it's finished. It's finished. Salvation is through Christ and it's through faith, and faith alone, believing that he did what he said he did, believing that he died on the cross for us, you know, I mean it was so good.
Speaker 1:Not long after that. I just want to tell you, not long after that, ricky had, a few years later, had had had left Lexi and and I got a phone call one morning and he said Uh, it was a Monday morning. He says he said William, guess what I said. I said what, ricky. He said, listen, man. He said I got saved. He said I went to church and he said, man, I understood the gospel, I understood what they were saying.
Speaker 1:He says a little old country church. And he said but my heart, he said I knew in my heart that I needed to be saved and I asked Jesus into my heart. And he said in this weekend. He said yesterday morning I got baptized. He said, man, it was in this little bitty church. He said I had to go to the outbuilding. I across the churchyard, that's where I had to change clothes. And then I came in and he says 26 degrees in the morning. He said. I came in, he said and they didn't even have a heater on that baptismal. And he said that water was so cold. He said, uh, he said good thing you wasn't outside, it'd been ice on it. But he said he, you know. He said um, hey, I got baptized this morning, he said. And then I had to walk back across that code, that code parking lot so I could drive off and change my clothes. And he said but, william, he said I just wanted you to know that I accepted Christ. I asked him into my heart and he's the Lord of my life and he has been good to me all these years. And I didn't even recognize it.
Speaker 1:Listen, listen, jesus. Hell was not created for anybody. Hell was created for the devil and those that rose against God and rebelled against God. Not any of God's children. But to be a child of God, you have to believe that he is. You have to believe that Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for your sins. Cause the way. He's a sinner death, and we've all sinned. So the wages, the payment of that sin is death.
Speaker 1:And God was talking about not only death, but he was talking about eternal death in the lake of fire, where there's complete darkness and burning and gnashing the teeth. I don't want to go there. Listen, if you think there's going to be a party there, I'm going to tell you the party's been canceled. The party's been canceled because it's eternal fire. Your spirit's going to burn. You can be tormented with a fire that you can't even see. It's so dark. You can't even see your hand. You couldn't see the party girls if they were there having a party. But they'll be biting on you. They'll be gnawing on you. Them demons have been gnawing on you.
Speaker 1:You know some people say well, you don't, don't scare somebody into hell. You know what the word of God says, that some of them were received. You're preaching, and some of them you tell them about it. You know you bring the fire to them. Maybe you needed the fire this afternoon. Maybe you needed the fire to just stir you up to say, hey, I need Jesus, I need him in my life. I need him in my heart. Just pray this prayer, father, in the name of Jesus. I thank you that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. He paid the price for me that I might be saved through faith, and I confess with my mouth that he is my Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:If you pray that prayer and you feel that, believe that in your heart and you know that, you know that, you know that you're saved. I mean, I'm just going to tell you, sometimes people can just pray a prayer, but if you feel that unction in that, that pulling from the Holy Spirit, you know you're saved. That's what Booger felt that morning. That's what Ricky felled when he was in that church. He felt the cold water in the baptism. If it would have been me, I'd have held him under extra three or four minutes just because I know how he was. I know how he was. But listen, until next time. Listen, get God out of the box, start your faith, walk. If you hadn't start learning the word, knowing the word, speaking the word, childlike faith, and God will move and you will see for sure that our God lives. Until next time, amen.
