Birth by Fire
When we go through hardships in life, we are often only presented with two choices: give up or persevere.
Fortunately, Josh has chosen the latter. And with his awesome testimony, along with the many battle scars from his victories, there’s no doubt that this brother will inspire countless others who are experiencing similar circumstances.
Chief Editor~ Ricky Jean
Ricky: Tell me a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, stage in life, working, going to school, are you from DFW originally?
Josh: My name is Joshua Chintapali. I’m twenty seven years old. My birthday is on 10/17/1994. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ and my Spirthday is on 7/11/2021 . I was born in Dallas, TX, but I grew up in Plano for most of my life. I graduated from UTD with a finance degree and I’m currently looking for a Finance job right now. I’m living at home with my parents in order to save money while doing everything I can to serve the Lord.
Ricky: What are some of your favorite hobbies and something you would consider unique about yourself?
Josh: My main hobby is playing video games. I have an Xbox 1. I play a lot of shooting games, fighting games, and sports games as well. My other favorite hobby is watching anime. I’ve watched over one hundred different anime. I’ve been watching them since I was a kid– like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, and Naruto.
I also really love music. I make music. I don’t really produce music that much. But I play the guitar, I sing, and I also write a lot of songs. I’m a writer too; I’ve published a book. It’s called Hope Against Hope and I want to be a Chemical ministry leader because of what it describes about my life. I’m going to start working on a new book this upcoming year (2022). My last book was about my old life, but my new book is going to be about my new life as a disciple.
Ricky: Tell me how you were met/invited to Church?
Josh: My brother is actually the one who invited me to church. He became a disciple three months before he introduced me to the church. He came back from Houston and was like “Hey, what’s up bro! How’s your life going?” And I was like, “I’m doing great.” I was with my Ex Fiance at the time. Then he told me about the church and how it was different. Then he invited me out.
That night he came home around ten, and we just talked for a few hours about our lives. I was telling him about what I was going through, and then he got open with me as well. We got really close– which inspired me all the more to go and check out the ICC church. When I got there everyone was very friendly, and that impressed me right away. After that men’s midweek service I started studying the Bible– and the rest is history.
Ricky: Describe your relationship with God prior to studying The Bible and how it has changed?
Josh: I was actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. My relationship with God was negative. I was listening to death metal, I was borderline satanic, but not really. Because I wasn’t worshipping Satan. I did a lot of drugs and alcohol. One time I overdosed and felt like I went to hell, and then I started to believe it was my destiny to end up there. I knew there was a God, but I had a false perception of who he was.
I only knew about the “judgmental” God. He judges you and your life, and he doesn’t actually love you. I didn’t love God for most of my life, but whenever I went to the ICC church– I saw how the scriptures actually came from the Bible, that made me do a complete 180. Now I’m in love with God.
Ricky: What are some of your favorite scriptures and why?
Josh: Definitely Psalms 34:2 “My soul shall make his boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear and be glad.” I said that as part of my testimony when I got baptized in the DFWICC. My dad actually made my brother and I memorize that scripture when we were kids, along with several other chapters in Psalms. But I always favored that particular chapter because of how much I love the Lord, and I feel that it perfectly encapsulates that.
The other scripture that I love is Ephesians 6; about the full armor of God, it urges me to read my Bible and pray so I can be ready for war like a true soldier. I like to think of myself like a Viking and I like to imagine being in battle against the enemy. Which leads me to another scripture in Matthew 28, it talks about making disciples of all nations.
I like that scripture a lot because it’s like our creed in the church, it’s our mission to go out and make disciples. Saving souls is such a wonderful thing, it gives us a purpose in life. That’s what keeps me going now because beforehand– I used to lack purpose.
Ricky: What advice would you give someone who has started studying the Bible or is considering it?
Josh: Don’t doubt what you can do, don’t think that studying the Bible is a hard thing to do. Just because you’re being challenged to spend more time in your devotions, or that you’re being called to attend meetings of the body (church), and they’re asking you to share your faith with people. Don’t be scared of that. Get out of your comfort zone.
I believe it was our lead Evangelist Fernando Chavez who said: be comfortable with the uncomfortable. People love this idea of comfortability, and it’s really empowering to get out of ourselves in order to follow God’s words. The norm now-a-days is not to follow the norm, but they don’t realize that’s still being comfortable; but being a disciple is truly the most uncomfortable thing you can do in your life.
I think its awesome to witness how much our lives can change when we study the Bible, and apply it to our lives.
Ricky: What do you love about the Kingdom?
Josh: Definitely the people and being around people that love God as much as I do. In my old life I was always around people that loved drugs and alcohol as much as I did. But now it’s the exact opposite. Now I’m around people who want to go to the same place in the afterlife, and being able to know I’m going to see these people for the rest of eternity is amazing. We all have a common goal– which is to spur each other on towards love and good deeds.
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