Feb 25, 2016

Ted Cruz discusses his Christian Faith, and how the Cruz family came to know Christ

 

Ted Cruz Faith In Action - Ted meets his former Pastor, Gaylon Wiley

Transcript

English (Automatic Captions)
0:00very personal for Ted Cruz Monday and Middle Tennessee pastor who changed the Cruz family showed up a rally in Murfreesboro it was the first time the texas senator had seen the pastor in decades it was an unscripted moment like few others on the presidential campaign trail Monday in Murfreesboro Tennessee Ted Cruz looked into the audience for a man changed his family's life I was told pastor Galen while he is here is that right I haven't seen brother while since I was a kid
0:41brother while at my dads the Lord gathering standard cruise tells the
0:48story of his wayward father who had left the family in Canada so I'm really glad
0:55to be here in Tennessee the pastor who helped change the Cruz family nearly
0:59four decades ago and Houston was later embraced by the Republican candidate
1:04outside the campaign bus and cold brother Wiley is now living in nearby
1:09Lebanon Tennessee and for a few minutes on Monday the man who baptized the Cruz
1:16family caught up with that little kid from all those years ago is now running
1:21for president I grew up in the US and nominal country and I mean in nominal
1:32catholic catholic that will go to church once a year so I basically didn't know
1:37the Lord I came to the United States basically was totally away from
1:44religion of any kind then I was very heavily addicted to alcohol even to the
1:53point that in 1974 towards the end of 1974 I left my wife and child my sunday
2:00was three years old came to Houston and I've been in Houston for about four
2:07months and they claim that had sold me a computer
2:12his name was Darul Ehsan invited me to a Bible study had nothing else to do I was
2:18alone in Houston so I went to this day I don't know what the Bible study was
2:23about but what impressed me was being that Bible study they had a time of
2:29prayer and everybody shared prayer requests they all had these speeds that
2:34the Bible calls that be such a process all understanding I didn't understand
2:38that but I knew I needed
2:40well anyway as I was leaving but he lost son gave me a little booklet called for
2:47Spiritual Laws and says
2:49says to me what did you read it could you come back next month so I go back
2:54the next Monday first thing to say sees that you read the booklet what you think
2:58and I said well that's too easy
3:01can't be that easy well they were no Christians he didn't know how to answer
3:05and instead of turning me over to the person who led the Bible study she said
3:12less than could you come tomorrow our pastor is going to be our home at seven o'clock good you can't sure so the next day I went to the very last songs home
3:30at seven a blog and they are met
3:32pasture gate on widely the pastor Oakley Road Baptist Church and I spend four
3:38hours arguing with this man of God well I Metro feel good by the providence of
3:44God that may you know it's a strange thing for a little country boy who the
3:49panhandle of Texas and a little rain delay and farm and the last of family of
3:55nine that would ever allow me the privilege of making a genius from cuba
4:01and become a part of his life and so it's a good journey along the way to see
4:06how God works and play somebody who's nobody and putting them in touch with
4:13somebody that can help to change our world and I just gave him such a hard
4:19time for four hours but you know kaelin while it wouldn't give up 143
4:24conversation to head of me every time I'm talking it and we'll work our way
4:28through the Old Testament the New Testament and we didn't write it in new
4:33book of the Bible but he could have after that night was over I remember
4:39that last question I asked otherwise
4:43I said what about that man up in the mountains of Tibet was never heard about
4:48Jesus we're very wisely rather widely didn't go down that road because if he
4:53had gone down chasing down a rabbit we would argue for another two hours it
4:58took me straight in the eyes and he said via have a clue about it the one thing I
5:03didn't know what about you
5:05you've heard now what you gonna do with Jesus. the question hit me like a
5:09sledgehammer and the Holy Spirit hit Raphael he felt when you need to sinners
5:14prayer in your life then different every cent just revolutionized my life that
5:20day I had that encounter with the Lord that they that brother wisely spend four
5:25hours with me I wouldn't give up on me and I think got so much for that
5:29persistence that he would not be late goal on day I had surrendered my life to
5:34price that was on a Tuesday, April 15th, 1975 at eleven o'clock at night
5:43glorious they never forget it a long while he's my spiritual father who knows
5:49where I would have ended up from that night April systems 1975 sharing the
5:55gospel with my dad
5:57by passing on the good news not only did you transform his life not only did you
6:03transform my mother's but it transformed my life to transform the lives of my
6:09children girls I never would have met the daughter of missionaries my wife and
6:14best friend in the world
6:16there's a very good chance my mother never would've become a Christian is a
6:19very good chance I never would have heard the gospel my girls would not be
6:23raised in a Christian home and the impact of one faithful servant spreading
6:28the Good News ripples for generations
6:38hard not to be overwhelmed thinking how different my life would have gone my
6:44family's life children's life would go on heading out shared the gospel and
6:50the power of doing you know it's like like ripples in a pond and he goes out
6:57now now and touches in time hundreds and thousands and thousands of lives
7:02that next Sunday I was baptized by Galen Wiley and then I got on a plane and went
7:08back to my wife and son and I try to explain to her what had happened in my
7:14life came home when God humble people real well and he's done a good job and
7:21my friend Rafael Cruz for his sake of our son dead who had just turned four he
7:27decided to give me another chance
7:30very very skeptical so we sold our business in Canada and moved to Houston
7:35Texas but praise God by the time that was four and I had just become a
7:39Christian I would spend time at night before he went to bed reading him that
7:45first children's Bible that I had brought with him
7:49pray with him and he was immersed in the Word of God by the time he was four when
7:55he was eight he also surrender his life to Jesus cried to a summer camp that
8:03they Road Baptist Church was conducting we had a camp every year
8:09a barge a range of Houston and it came to camp I became a Christian when I was
8:16a few years later at that that summer camps where I gave my life to the Lord
8:21God did wonderful woman playing so little kid got a year later nine years
8:28old he was in nineteen eighty I was very involved with an organization called the
8:33religious roundtable and together we mobilize millions of Christians to help
8:38elect him I considered the greatest presidents Abraham Lincoln Presidential
8:42alright so every day our conversation around the dinner table was why we had
8:48to get rid of these socially progressive Jimmy Carter and replace him with the
8:53Christian constitutional conservatives like ronald reagan so my sons dad got a
8:59dole so conservative politics from a Christian worldview when it was nine
9:04years old
9:05every day for a year we were able to have him in Christian schools to junior
9:12high and high school he graduated from second bob this school high school in
9:18Houston and so he has a foundation and the Word of God
9:22you know be four my son made the decision to run for president he was
9:27praying about this decision for over six months and that decision was made on our
9:34knees the whole family on a Sunday it was a decision based in prayer I said
9:40Lord if this is the path we're meant to go down when I asked the open the doors
9:45shine the light and if it's not then God I asked you slammed the door in my face
9:51make it abundantly clear this is not meant to have our prayer is not God let
9:58us win this race but help us to seek your face help us for you I'd love to be
10:04seen through through our walk through through what we're doing so when people
10:08look at the challenges today I understand the despair I understand the
10:12hopelessness but I believe in the american people with all of my heart I
10:17believe in this country and if we can simply rise up and believe again and our
10:23sales believe again in the blessings God has placed on this nation we can renew
10:28this country that have brighter days ahead I think Christians need to vote
10:34according to conviction hysteria boating according to tradition and that we both
10:40for men and women that upholds the principles that we uphold my son has
10:47slipped out I think his whole life when he was 13 we introduced him to an
10:53organization called the Free Enterprise Institute so now he's just 13 he's
10:59reading autumn smears on a log on me says hi second last year in Milton
11:05Friedman under federal lease papers on the anti federalist papers and adjusting
11:09Mersin all these economic and political philosopher state where basically the
11:14foundation of the framers so he was very immersed in old that concept religious
11:21liberty has been a pack
11:23for my entire life he has repeatedly has been fighting for religious freedom in
11:29America I have fought for decades
11:31fought to defend religiously and and we're seeing right now with the Obama
11:37administration and assault on religious liberty where the freedom of believers
11:42to practice our faith is under assault from the federal government and Hillary
11:46Clinton is fully committed to continuing that assault he was Solicitor General
11:51for five and a half years during that tenure he tried nine cases i jus Supreme
11:58Court he has tried more cases at the UE Supreme Court than any lawyer in the
12:04history of the state of Texas and the majority of those cases were cases
12:09defending religious liberty
12:12there are few if any decisions more important that a president makes than
12:16judges here she points or supreme court justices where one justice away from a
12:22radical 5 justice liberal majority that would tear down our freedoms listen we
12:27have an activist court right now we have a court that it is attempting to
12:31redefine marriage it is lawless and illegitimate it is fundamentally wrong
12:35and yet as dangerous as this court is today one more liberal justice you'll
12:40see five justices ordering the Ten Commandments taken down all across this
12:44country where one justice away from the supreme court ordering veterans
12:49memorials across this country taken down ordering the crossbar Star of David sand
12:54blasted off a tombstone where one justice away from the Supreme Court
12:59concluding that the Second Amendment doesn't protect an individual right to
13:03keep and bear arms at all that the federal government can take away our 2nd
13:07Amendment right to protect ourselves we're one justice away from the supreme
13:12court saying that the world court and the United Nations has the power to bind
13:17our justice system and a takeaway you less sovereignty all of those are cases
13:21I fought and won
13:22on as Solicitor General of Texas and all of those are very much hanging in the
13:27balance
13:27you have my solemn commitment that every justice I point to the court will be a
13:33principled constitutionalist who'll be faithful to the law and will not impose
13:38his or her policy agenda from the bench he truly feels like a servant of we the
13:47people the Bible teaches principles of servant leadership see who would be
13:51first with the last Jesus washed the feet business I
13:59so many people in politics
14:02it's all about them and what that leads you to do is it leads you to make the
14:07wrong decisions if
14:10your self-worth
14:13is defined by being an elected official when that becomes their self definition
14:18their self-worth they're terrified to lose it which means they will never rock
14:22the boat they will never make the hard decisions they will never do what we
14:25need to do to actually fix the problems because it might mean they lose their
14:28job my self-worth has nothing to do with being elected a senator elected
14:34president United States my self-worth comes from being a creation of God
14:39Almighty Jesus Christ shed his blood for me
14:45there can be no greater self-worth then God sent His only beloved Son to die
14:53most of the politicians in washington are accountable to the lobbyists and
14:57special interests in Washington and eighty governs their decisions because
15:01that's who they hold themselves accountable at the end of the day
15:05accountable first and foremost I believe we need a strong leader that can turn
15:11our nation whose God is real he's not phony baloney since when he's talking is
15:20real he is truly a believer who understands the constitution who
15:26understands what makes America great
15:29lot of problems while he made his announcement to run for president
15:37Liberty University think for God to be able to bless us and take us back to a
15:42place of blessing we're gonna have to have a leader who can lead to a place of
15:47all 14 I think senator Bruce I saw his dry this hunger for solid principles
15:54solid ideas point forward in our country that we talked about it I support on a
16:02per cent and I think senator cruise accepted by the leader of a man of his
16:07word and the men that believes that we can turn our nation back to
16:12righteousness so before my son left high school he was passionate about the
16:18Constitution he was passionate about the declaration about free markets limited
16:22government about the rule of law and that passion became like firing his
16:28bombs I don't want to look my daughters
16:3110 20 30 years and have lost this country
16:40and I don't want to look them in the eyes and and no I might have been able
16:44to do something to stop it easier path I decided to stay home I decided not to
16:53rock the boat I couldn't respect myself too far if I did stand up and there will
16:59be some 90 my son Ted will not compromise his principles in washington
17:04is that fire today
17:07I said wars over thirty years ago Ted Cruz is the man to lead our nation or
17:14we've been back or we need people to keep the promise not authorized by any
17:20candidate keep the promise to keep the promise is responsible for the content
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