In 1966, a British girl named Jackie Pullinger stepped for the first time into "The Walled City." This small Hong Kong district was a place of horrors—sewage ran through the streets, prostitution, drug use and lawlessness were rampant. But where the darkness seemed impenetrable and all-powerful, God used an unlikely woman to bring many souls into God's marvelous light. In this episode we review Jackie's autobiography, "Chasing the Dragon."
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Hey, this is Patrick with Pure Life Ministries. When our hearts are truly transformed by God, significant changes should be occurring in our lifestyle. But this goes far beyond just stopping porn use or avoiding illicit scenes in movies. How we spend our time, where we go, what we pursue in life, everything, should be radically altered as we begin to walk on the narrow way. And many Christians just don't think deeply enough about the way they live, and it's not uncommon for those in the church to base their daily decisions off the media and the culture rather than on the moral principles of Scripture. We want to see that change. Please join us on Saturday, October 12th at 10am Eastern on our YouTube channel for another episode of Pure Life Live. I'll be sitting down with Pure Life's President and Founder, Steve Gallagher, and our Executive Director of Counseling Programs, Jordan Yoshimine, to discuss the influence of the media we ingest, the limits we should put on our devices, the impact of spiritual atmospheres in and out of the home, and much more. Our hope is that this will help you learn to lead a lifestyle that honors God and helps you get free or stay free from sexual sin. We'd also love to respond to your questions about this topic, so send those to live@purelifeministries.org. In 1966, a British girl named Jackie had a serious dilemma. God had spoken to her, telling her to go, but he hadn't told her where. So she got on a ship that was headed toward Japan, and she believed that God would tell her where to get off. When her ship pulled into port in Hong Kong, she knew that she had arrived at the destination God had chosen for her. And her mission field soon became even more specific, the "walled city." It was a place of horrors, sewage running through the streets, rampant prostitution, pornography, and drug use. Neither the Chinese or the British were willing to take responsibility for the "walled city," so it was overrun with lawlessness, poverty, and debauchery. No wonder the Chinese called it "hock-nom," "city of darkness." In today's show, we'll review Jackie's autobiography, Chasing the Dragon. That's what's coming up on this episode of the Pure Life Ministries Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. Here we go. Okay, so this is another episode in our series, "Why You Should Read." And this was started, I don't know, probably a couple of years ago. We reviewed Amy Carmichael's biography. And it's just one of those things that we like to do periodically, because I know that Pastor Steve has mentioned to us how much reading biographies has blessed his faith. I know it has helped me tremendously, just reading the biographies of Christians who have gone before, seeing the struggles, seeing the victories, seeing the power of God at work in people's lives. It's just like, it's like one more of the cloud of many witnesses from Hebrews 12, right? Like, here's Jackie Polinger. We're going to go through Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Polinger, and she's just one more of those cloud of witnesses saying, "I've lived by faith. God's been faithful, follow me as I follow Christ." It's just really encouraging. So anyway, I don't know, before we get into some of the specific points about her life, what were the things that helped you from this book, or just your takeaways? It helped me to see that it doesn't matter how dark things look. The Lord sees it, and the Lord is drawn to need wherever it is, and whatever the situation is. Throughout the book, I mean, it's just the walled city that she goes to, there's no light in that place. I mean, it's just a totally dark place, but the Lord is right there. He has people that he wants to save in there, and he sends Jackie to go there and it's just the heart of God. He saves to the uttermost, and where she went was the uttermost, and that was just a really amazing picture of just the deep heart of God and just how merciful he really is. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, when I was reading it, first thing that stood out was how absolutely candid, open, and honest she was. I was like, "Wow, she is literally telling you what's going on in her inside world." And some of it, you're like, "Wow, that's real." It's how she was really feeling in the moment, her emotions, everything that was going on, positive or negative. She was just very open and honest, and I think that that kind of spoke to me in a way of like, "God used her." Sometimes you read biographies, and you're like, "This person was an absolute saint," and there's nothing wrong, and they did everything perfect. It just feels that way, even though, because sometimes they're just not going into that detail, but Jackie does. And so I think of like, she wasn't this amazing speaker who just knew how to use her words to persuade people. She wasn't this inspirational speaker that knew how to portray things so that people could get saved. She just, God said, "Go here." And wherever God told her to go, she went and God used her. And that's the type of person that the Lord uses. And so it encourages you, because sometimes you look at yourself and you're like, "But I have wrong thinking. I have wrong motives. The way that my inside world can sometimes be so negative and not always positive." So to see some of that happening in her life, but God, her continuing to be obedient to God, regardless, this is what's really happening on the inside. "Lord, I know what you're asking me to do," or he speaks to her and she follows him. That's what was the most important was her obedience and her willingness to follow, even though her inside world was just like freaking out. Yeah. Yeah. One thing she also said in the introduction to her book was that she started getting all of these requests that people would say, "Please come and share your story." And she's like, "Man, that is not why I wrote this book. I didn't write this book to then come and talk about my story. I wrote this book so that you would go out and do what God is calling you to do so that when God tells you to go, you go. When God tells you to minister to so-and-so, you have the faith to believe that God will work in your life. And eventually, you write your own book, and obviously not everybody is going to write a book about their lives. But I thought that that was really fascinating. She didn't want anybody to look at her and say, "Wow, look at this amazing Christian." She just wanted other people to be inspired so that they would become like Jesus wherever they are. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. Well, I'll say too that she had a willingness to humble herself. When she had a different viewpoint than others who were helping her out, she was very willing to voice her opinion, but also listen and also say, "Okay, yeah, you're right, I honor you. I'm respecting you and you're right, I'm going to do it your way." So she had that willingness and that's a characteristic that God can really use and that is looking for in so many people to have these similar stories. Like you're saying, "Go, I want you to write your own book." Well, one of the ways that God released her was because she was humble and she was willing to change her own thinking, her own methodology. Yeah. So let's get into some of the... We are only going to be able to cover a tiny fraction of what is in this book. That's why you got to read the book. Right. Exactly. That's why you should read the book. Yeah. She was a pretty remarkable woman. Her account of growing up was really fascinating because she... She was kind of like two different people it seemed like. On the one hand, even as a young girl, she had these pretty strong impressions of God is a righteous judge and I'm going to have to stand before Him one day and I'm going to have to give an account for how I lived and I don't know how I'm going to answer because I'm not a good person. And this was like four, she would say things like this, like I'm not a good person, I want to be good but I don't know how to be good. She also had a pretty amazing experience when she was 13. She was confirmed into the Church of England and that experience for her was full of joy. Like she had a real sense, I'm giving my life to God and she received back from Him this profound sense of joy that she wasn't experiencing and yet she went from that to it seemed like a place where she just pretty much forgot about God and was just living however she wanted to. Yeah. Things she went to school for music, apparently she's a great oboe player, so she said something like she had an attraction to the brass section or something like that so she'd hang out with like the tuba players and they'd go after concerts to different bars and things like that so you see her kind of going into that worldly lifestyle but she said when she was in that she was always looking for the man of her dreams was basically what she was saying and that never gave that to her, that environment never gave that to her and she was talking with a couple of maybe some friends that she knew or something like that and they said well come to this coffee shop and hear this guy talk about the Bible and she gets there and apparently the guy's attractive, I think she said that in there, he was a good looking guy and they just talked about the Bible but they were very normal people and she felt very open and comfortable to talk about the Bible in that environment and something happened to her in that changed her and she was praying with these two girls and they were all praying about how they're so happy that they're going to heaven, these two girls were and something just hit her where she was like well if we're going to heaven and we know that means that the converse is true, that people who don't know are going to hell and there's this conflict inside of her of okay if we know that we're going to heaven and we know why and there are people out there who are going to hell and they don't know why are we so happy that we're going to like something was in her that I think that was God reestablishing that call to missions back into her life. Yeah she just like one thing is really interesting about her and probably good to know about her as you go through this book is like she hated anything, not maybe hated strong word but she was not attracted to anything that felt like dead religion. So when she would see people who claim to be Christian but they were sad or they were just very rigid and rules oriented she really rejected that but when she met a group of Christians who were full of life and loved one another she was like oh that that actually was the thing that got her back to the place where she was even willing to start talking about God again because these people had there was a vibrancy and that's what I think that's what really she wanted was she wanted a sense of mission she wanted a sense of purpose she wanted to live for God not just be a Christian. Yeah there's a dream that she had that really affected her to your point there's a woman in this dream and she says what can you give us and this is this is Jackie's response and this is what she's thinking she says what did I honestly think I could give her. If I was going to be a missionary what was I going to give anyone was it my ability to play the piano and oboe was I to pass on the benefit of my nice English background and my education was I to be a channel for food or money or clothing if I only gave her those things then when I went away she would be hungry again but the woman in the picture had been hungry for food she did not know about and then she says then it came to me that what she needed was the love of Jesus if she received that then when I left her she would still be full and even better she would be able to share it with other people yeah and so you know that's her heart when you're saying like she like pushes against the dead religion it's because she knows these people need Jesus she knows that what she can offer amounts to nothing you know playing nice music her nice English background whatever that's right are gonna fade away whatever but Jesus he's eternal and what he gives that you know bubbling spring inside of us of his eternal life you know that's what that's what people need yeah so we're gonna have to skip a bunch of of time because the story around how she recognized her call to Hong Kong is amazing but you know we're not going to give everybody all the details because again you gotta read the book you have to read the book but anyway so she ends up in Hong Kong and this is back in the 60s I think the 1960s she leaves England with a one-way ticket to some country she doesn't even know where she's going she doesn't know where God's called her she just gets on a boat and gets off at Hong Kong and eventually feels led to start working in the walled city and the walled city doesn't even exist anymore I think I think she was instrumental in actually bringing down that whole thing but anyway so the walled city is a place of just I don't even think that as Americans we can hardly comprehend what the walled city was actually like I was I was taken aback at her descriptions of what it actually was in the living conditions it was yeah incredible she said I can't remember the exact numbers but it's this small space yeah that there's so many people living there that they have to build up because they can't build out so they have to build up so I mean like she's talking about walking through the streets and there's no bathrooms so people are dumping their their sewage they're sewage out the windows so you got to keep your eyes down yeah so that you don't get hit in the face with this but you could probably still get hit and just how dark it was like not dark in the sense of spiritual it was spiritually dark but just no light like you walking down these dark dark alleyways you don't know what you're stepping on you don't know what like it was yeah the amount of people in that small amount of space I can't remember what she said I think she said that one official count was 30,000 people in six square acres or something like that but they assume that it's probably even higher than that maybe even up to double that yeah the reason why it's so dark is because light literally couldn't get through the spaces between the buildings they were so tight together yeah and if people want to see what kind of what it looked like there's that documentary the law of love I think is what it's called and there's some scenes in there with it and it's like wow yeah totally lawless place neither the British nor the Chinese would claim jurisdiction over the city and so it was basically completely lawless the police were afraid to go in there so I mean really the the law of the land was was crime mm-hmm violence death drugs pornography it was just unbelievable yeah run by triads I guess is what they're called which is sounded like if you're triad beat that triad then you were the governing triad of the area so there was a lot of fighting there was a lot of lawlessness they're just yeah there wasn't really any work to be done there like you couldn't just go work somewhere if you did you probably working at a brothel working at a what they call blue film yeah places and all these different spot where you just that's where you worked or dumping people's sewage I mean it's just that's that was work and that it's just yeah a very dark place mm-hmm yeah and one of the big needs in that place was for some kind of youth work because there was really nothing for the young people to do yeah they were either completely I mean there's way too much to go into all the dynamics she was amazing at explaining yeah what the problem was but essentially there was nothing for youth to do except to become gang members and part of being a gang member was most likely to be addicted to to opium and yeah there it was just a horrible horrible place and yet she said like every time I would go in I would be filled with joy and the love of God you know I remember her saying in one of her it might have been one of the documentaries she where people would say oh I can't believe you would do this you're such an amazing person Jackie and she's like I'm not an amazing person I was it to me that place was like heaven mmm because all I could see was that that some of those people could be redeemed and I mean that's an amazing thing she said it wasn't a sacrifice at all to work there yeah but yeah so I think one of the the amazing things was that she she explained that she started to feel something for these people that she'd never felt before love and that that this was no longer about like what she could get from them she was like obsessed with laying her life down on their behalf yeah I think there was there was one lady I can't remember the whole exact story but I'm pretty sure she was not living in the walled city at this point or not ministering fully in the walled city she was doing certain things teaching here teaching music here teaching different places here and she went to a church service I believe it was in the walled city and this lady came up to her and was just powerfully impacted and asked her will you come next week and for Jackie it was like well I got all this other stuff I have I can't go to the walled city every Sunday yeah she had no job she had to make a living exactly so I can't just do this but something in her like was compelled that she wanted to keep ministering to this woman and knew that this woman needed the Lord yeah and so she just be outside of her better judgment said I'll be here next week and that started a thing where she just kept going every single week in it so she started off kind of going once in a while but I think like to your point her love for these people just compelled her to say I will do it outside of her quote unquote better judgment like this is what seems right because I need money I need a job something and love inside of her compelled her I need to be there every single week and she started going every single week yeah yeah the the love that came through her it's so I mean it's unique to God because she didn't expect anything in return like she just she gave there's a there's this boy named Chanwah Sai who she says it was as if God had given me a special love for him that I was meant to show it although it was not necessarily an emotion that should or could be returned this love was for his good and it challenged me because I'm like I do love my family I love my friends and all that but somewhere sometimes there's like this thing of like well what am I going to get in return and she just I think that's what was able to fuel her continuing going into that place that it was like heaven for her because it was like she's not expecting anything in return she's like I'm I'm just going to go in and I'm going to show the love of God no matter what she had hard times and she's human but that's that's what fueled her was this is I'm just going to give and give and give and not expect anything in return yeah yeah and and lest we paint again paint some kind of picture that isn't realistic like that is definitely one thing that she talked about was just this deep almost compulsive kind of love you know to lay her life down for other people but there were other times where she was so candid like you said opening up where she just laid it all on the line to good the bad the ugly of how she was responding to some of the trials yeah I remember one at one point she she blatantly tells God do not send me another drug addict I can't handle it I can't keep pouring my life out for someone who doesn't change right I can't keep doing this like she tells God don't send me another drug addict like I'm done right and then she gets on a bus and all she can see is drug addict prostitute this and so she started seeing need again but her heart at that moment was just like God I can't do this anymore yep but that sight of the need was just like over she knew like she couldn't just walk away yeah even though it was very difficult yeah you know one of the things that I thought was amazing about the book was that I think she had been ministering in the wild city she had opened up a youth club so that youth could actually have a place to come besides just being in gangs or being in the drug dens or being at the porn shows or whatever she wanted a place where they could come and do something constructive I think she'd been ministering for at least several years and she she got to this point where she said I have been pouring my life out for these people I've been giving them my love I've been giving them my time I've been giving them my energy and they're not changing and she got to this point where it was almost like what gives what is going to make the difference and she talked about how she felt that when she would look at the New Testament like she would see that there was a power that was working in Jesus she said Jesus didn't promise a lame man a pair of running shoes in the hereafter she Jesus made him walk you know and so she felt like okay I can't just preach like heaven to people or preach whatever I need to actually they need to change now and she didn't have any idea how to make that happen for them though because she had given it her best effort yeah yeah so then she goes to this church service and she sees this Chinese couple who have that certain something that she feels like she's missing so she approaches them and like flat out tell them tell her you need the Holy Spirit so she gets a little like of course I got the spirit what are you talking about yeah I'm a Christian you know I have the spirit you're crazy so she's still just kind of like okay they're not saying the right words or that's not what I'm used to and I'm not hearing it right so at some point she's like okay well you know what I'm going to push all that aside I'm just they have something and so I'm just I'm going to go for it so she meets with them the next day and they pray and then she just like opens her mouth and she she calls it a beautiful language just just comes out it wasn't this like huge emotional thing but she knew something was different yeah that experience with that couple was one of the lynch pin moments in her ministry because I can't get into all of it but essentially she found out Jackie found out that if she would pray in the spirit all of a sudden all of these miraculous things began to happen after about six weeks of her praying in the spirit suddenly she's going out on the streets and instead of people being resistant to the gospel and even resistant to the love that she was showing them now these people are like ready to receive Jesus she's giving them the exact same gospel presentation that she's been given for three or four years but suddenly oh my goodness they want to receive Jesus they're like yes pray with me I want I want this Jesus and she started to realize oh this is not about my efforts this is not even about me and my love or me and my service this is the power of the holy spirit this is what's going to change people's lives and she also made another crazy discovery which was that if she would pray with these people if she'd pray with addicts heroin addicts then when they were filled with the spirit and began to speak in tongues they were delivered completely painlessly from heroin withdrawals yeah I think I knew a little bit about what a withdrawal was like but the way she describes it in here it's just it's painful excruciatingly painful they could die they could die and some of them the pain is so bad that they'll I think she tells a story about one person who had like four or five people on him and he's a small dude but he wanted opium so bad he was able to fight them off so that's the type of desire that's the type of pain they're experiencing in their withdrawals of getting off of opium because heroin heroin I'm sorry just the man the withdrawals were powerfully strong and painful but she realized like you said that if they would start praying in tongues that God would minister to them in a place where the pain would leave and they would do their withdrawals without pain at all without sickness anything like that and she even tells stories of some guys who were so stubborn that they will not pray in tongues until the pain gets so excruciating and then they start praying in tongues and there's a peace and there is a something that just comes over that where the pain leaves and they can sleep some guys stay up to like the middle of the night in pain but once they start praying in tongues and in the spirit then the pain goes away and they can sleep and they can rest and it's just a powerful something I mean there's so many stories in here it's like story after story after story it's almost like this happens and then you're like let me guess you're going to tell them to pray in tongues they pray in tongues and they get you miraculously because it's so it wasn't a one-time thing it really was part of what made her ministry able to do what it did was that and people saw it they were like people are getting off like even some of the gang leaders were like my guys are getting off opium I don't understand this and so it's just a powerful tool that she had from the Lord that was able to help her do that yeah one one of the things I thought that was really fascinating she mentioned that you know when she would read stories of gang members or drug addicts who had come to Christ it was almost like they have this moment and then once they have this conversion moment everything is just smooth sailing from that point onward and she began to realize oh that that must be a total misconception I'm just reading into something that's not true because her addicts and her gang members they would come to Christ in dramatic fashion you know and they were they were new creations but they weren't new men they weren't new mature men they were just baby Christians and she said man she had so much she had to put so much effort and time into actually discipling them because they were a mess you know even though they were being filled with the Spirit there were miraculous signs that these guys were walking in in some instances like there were words of knowledge there were words of prophecy there was interpretation of tongues and there was a lot of tremendous joy and real life but they were just a mess still and she had to walk with them till they actually began living a totally transformed life yeah I think we have maybe a I know when I before I came into the program and I think this is the testimony of so many other men we wanted to be zapped I mean totally we wanted the sexual sin just done just out of our life and then we could just go on with our life and I think that's not how Christianity is supposed to be there are times where I mean just like you just said there are times where there's instantaneous healing but you got to walk it out and she said talking about these guys she she says this she says they could not survive the constant temptations with their meager spiritual knowledge they had to be out of that environment but they had to grow and they had to learn they couldn't just hey I got my I got my heroin addiction dealt with now I can go off and live a great life yeah I met Jesus I'm good to go yeah exactly there there had to be the everyday living out your faith and that's what I've had to do you know when when I went through the program you know I am 16 years out I'm living more victoriously than I was when I came in the program but it's been it's been as I've gone as I've walked that I'm just walking farther away from from that man that I used to be walking out my faith doing mercy living out what I've seen others do for me because when I came in the program all the staff I mean they had something that I was that was different and I wanted and so mimicking what how they lived getting in the world just getting my eyes on Christ that is where like I want to say that's where real victory has come from yeah I mean when I came here I got set on the right path yeah but as I continue to walk and grow it's just it's like all that that that the old me is just not desirable anymore all the stuff that I used to go for is not desirable anymore yeah and I think that's you know one of the reasons why this is another pivotal moment in her ministry because she realized that I can't just get these people off of heroin and then send them because they don't have places to live the only place to live in the wall city is in a brothel in a heroin den or something like I have to create an environment for these people to be able to grow and so she opens up the house of Stephen I think is what it's called yep which is just she starts bringing people off drugs and then they live with her yep you know and she starts discipling them and it it grows to the place where she you know at one point runs out of space and has to you know open a new house open a new house and you know it's just and I think that that goes against what some of the guys in our program or some people may think who are coming out of any lifestyle of sin is fix my problem and I go back to my old lifestyle you know we hear that a lot sometimes in the program it's just like fix my problem so I can go back to my life and do what I was doing before and that doesn't work yeah it has to be that the Lord meets them and then they have to learn how to live a completely different life in a completely different environment they couldn't live in brothels anymore now here in America we don't leave sexual sin and go back to brothels you know that so it's a little bit different because it's like okay what's wrong with being saved and then going back to my house and my family you know so there's part you see some of that and like but if you look at the influences and what we especially in America like media and things like that we tell guys in the program you can't go back to living that same way there has to be a different environment if you're going home to your wife your kid there has to be a different environment in your home that has to change because you can't just go back to the same lifestyle you lived before you came out of what you were in yeah so good I mean yeah exactly what you're saying that we can we can grasp that that oh yeah that's right so for for Jackie to think in terms of okay they got zapped and now they should just be able to go back and live in the walled city with no problem because now they have Jesus is very naive right we would say man that's super naive but yet the same kind of we can have the same naivete where we say I should be able to go back and basically live the exact same kind of life yeah minus sexual sin yeah and it's just it's just hard to get into our brain like no it's a lot of things about your old life that were producing the kind of environment where sexual sin was so easy yeah so it's the love of entertainment and it's the love of comfort and it's the love of pleasure and it's um you know I just want to live the good life that's what created the whole environment where pornography was so captivating and that whole thing has to be dismantled not you know not saying that you can never enjoy anything but you can't live the same life and expect a different relationship to pornography right like you have to say okay I am changing my whole life I'm gonna and she actually says there was one quote that I thought was really really good she said following Christ is a lifelong decision and if the brand new believer did not have the basic commitment to change Christ could not change him and I thought you know man that is just I know that that probably messes with some theological boxes but that that really brings together the truth that it's Christ's will and Christ's power and my will you know and if I'm not committed to change Jesus isn't going to change me yeah because he requires that commitment he requires that decision and um if people say well I want him to do this for me but leave the rest of my life alone then I you know in our experience those people don't change yeah right um you know this whole book just really takes a stick a dynamite to the American church really just because of how we create this whole structure and we feel like it got us to do this we have these programs we have all this but like to go back to the very beginning of our of our talk like one of the things that really got me about this was how everything was just organic really she didn't like get a lesson plan and and okay this is gonna happen this is gonna happen and go out and do it it was just everything happens to organic and when when we have Christ in his his will his desire for us but then we have to meet that Josh was praying this morning in staff prayer he said you know Jesus said come and follow me that's I mean that's what it is come and follow me I'm offering you me I'm offering you eternal life you have to come and you have to follow me yeah without that I mean Jesus isn't going to like hog ties and just drag us you know it's that willingness is that submission that he's looking for and what I think you know obviously he found in Jackie to be able to send her into this darkness and user like yeah and that actually that if Jesus does do any dragging I almost want to say like what he he's he's looking for a willing decision that we choose to surrender that's what he's looking for yeah and what he will use he absolutely will use it and we you see it in this book we see it in our own lives he will use the pain of sin and the pain of our own destructive consequences to try to get us to yield yeah you know like are you done yet because this is what life is like when you just do your own thing and this is how it will always be if you keep doing your own thing the only thing you have to look forward to is frustration misery and pain yeah all he's looking for through that is would you please just repent yeah once you will repent and yield and surrender then okay yeah there's still going to be difficulty but the pain of sin you know like the just the misery of sin is not going to be the overarching feature of your life yeah and as you as you're talking I'm thinking about this book it's like the pain that we're talking about these people were experiencing pain and destructiveness of their their choices of like getting arrested or getting beat up by another gang or their body deteriorating from the heroin and opium they're taking we may not experience that a quote-unquote professing believer may not experience getting arrested or but if you really get real with yourself and just take stock for a moment what I have right now does not satisfy and that's the same thing they were going through they were trying to fill themselves with opium with crime to fulfill this desire that they had inside of themselves I think she talks about it some of the kids just wanted respect and loved and to be loved and so they went to gangs that's what it was somebody has a you know his wife dies he can't handle it he goes to opium what do we go to when something hard happens in our life we may not go to opium we might go to porn I know I we went to porn that's what we went to some people might go to movies some people might go to alcohol yeah some people might go to all these different that you know video games career apps on your career you know I'm feeling horrible so I have to find something inside of me or something out in this world that's going to fulfill me and if we're not looking for it in Jesus and in God it's not going to be there you know he says in the word in Deuteronomy I am your life and your length of days I am that yeah so if it's not in him you don't have life and I think that they the people of the world city found that out through Jackie and I think Jackie probably found that out too because like we said before she went through that whole period of giving herself to the things of this world but when she gave herself to the Lord's will and to the Lord she found life even though it was hard and there were so difficulties she had a joy and she had a love for these people that went beyond that and you I can't tell you how many times in this book she will talk to somebody and they'll start praying in tongues it's prison or whatever she says I go back three months later and they're like I have so much joy I have so much peace they're in prison you know I have so much joy Jackie I have so much peace I'm filled with joy you're like they're in prison they're in prison for 30 years they're in prison for 10 months whatever it is they have joy because they found Jesus and it wasn't in all this other stuff that they were looking for it in yeah all right well I think our time is up but again we would just very much recommend that you read Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Polinger it's available on Amazon and once you do leave a comment on this episode let us know what you thought about it because it's amazing yeah all right thank you to the Josh's for coming absolutely all right that's it for today's episode and before we go I have some really good news we're right in the middle of developing a new series for couples it's called on the same team we have had so many couples come through our programs and the fact is the couples that end up with strong victorious life-filled marriages they all have something in common which is this both spouses are determined to have a strong vibrant walk with God and they're both willing to do whatever it takes to help their spouse live a victorious life in Christ so we lined up six couples to talk about what they've done to have a close walk with Jesus and what they've done to help each other and I'm telling you their stories are so powerful each one of their marriages were utterly destroyed by sexual sin and each of them have been miraculously restored by the power of God and by their determination to be on the same team you are not going to want to miss this series so please bear with us we've got a lot of work to do on the back end to get that series out to you guys in the meantime we're going to have to use a couple of replays but the first episode for the new series is going to drop lord willing on september 30th so please be on the lookout for that all right god bless we'll see you next time hey this is josh and i handle ministry partnerships here at pure life since 1986 pure life ministries has been ministering to christian men and women whose lives have been destroyed by sexual sin if you'd like more information about our counseling programs our teaching resources or if you'd like to check out some video testimonies of men and women whose lives have been radically transformed please visit purelifeministries.org thanks for listening
