Q&A With Koloff- #132

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare.

Today, today, today, we've got Chris Plantz with us. Chris, welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Hey, brother, thank you for having me. You're a big deal to me, Nikita, and you're a big deal to Jesus, buddy. He smiles when he hears Nikita, oh, and he thinks Nikita Kolov's name, baby.

He smiles. Well, I appreciate that, Chris. And of course, we met just a while back where I had the opportunity. You brought me down to Louisiana, to Louisiana, and for one of your big men's events, a men's dinner. You do a free dinner for these guys, and you had hundreds of guys that gathered together for these dinners, and you just share the good news, and special speakers share their stories, and of course, you brought me down there, and I had a wonderful time. Of course, wonderful time meeting you and so many others down there. And what's that organization, Men of Courage, right?

Men of Courage, I have a website, it's webstermenofcourage.org. We live in Webster Parish because of the Webster, but it's webstermenofcourage.org, yes sir. And you are down near Shreveport, Louisiana, correct?

That's right, yes sir. We're in a little town called Mendon, Louisiana. It's the capital of Webster Parish, really small compared to what you're used to, Nikita, but it's unbelievable, godly, Christian environment, belt buckle of the Bible belt still kind of stuff, man.

The belt buckle of the Bible belt. And of course, I know you got to tell us about your family, Chris. Oh man, I have a wife, my college sweetheart, we've been married for 26 years, I have an older boy, he's 25 years old, he's in New Orleans, second year of medical school, I have an older daughter, a 21 Louisiana Tech junior, and then we started over, we had this unbelievable blessing in our life, Nikita. I always said from what I did in my past life, if I ever seen a child that needed help, I was going to get them. And I come across the right child, the right situation, we got this one year old little, just beautiful girl, she's 12 now, and just been, oh, she's such a blessing. All of them are blessed, but she's such a blessing. And then God gave me another child on top of that, Nikita, I think he was smiling, getting a little bit, and because my wife was, like you said, in a different season of life.

And so we have a 10 year old son too, man. That's amazing. And of course, you've got this men of courage ministry now, it wasn't, you haven't been necessarily in full time ministry in the past, I know you'd shared, you'd done several years in the military and served in Iraq, I believe, right? Yes sir, a big sandbox in Iraq, joined the army when I was 17, my mama had to sign me in, and I did six years of service in the US Army, yes sir. Appreciate you doing that, and I think you spent about, I think 19 and a half years with the FBI, is that correct?

Yes sir. Some of that last year or so was legal stuff, unfortunately, because of my stance on Jesus, and my belief in the living Word of God that I just couldn't cross anymore. But yes, it was about 19 and a half years when it was finally, I got the termination letter, Nikita, that there was a line in there, you would have giggled at most people do, Nikita. They literally, and this is how bold they are too, they put in there, you were one of the most exemplary, hardest working special agents that we have ever had. But, and then they would go into the, we can't get over the FBI mission statement, not going along with your Christian values, because we don't stand for people being gay, it's a sin, we can't handle that, but then they started going down with, you gotta get your Bible off your desk, and many other things that we've talked about, Nikita. So, really, in a sense, if I were to summarize that, so, you're right, I do giggle, they tell you how great you are, right?

I know. Tell you how great you are, and then the proverbial butt, right? Yeah, I never had a bad performance appraisal, in fact, a huge majority of them were exemplary, as high as they got with awards, man.

They never even covered their self with the, I figured, you know, looking back on it, they would have covered their self with at least one bad performance appraisal, so I never got that, man. Yeah, I am giggling, like, you were outstanding, you were amazing, but, this whole Jesus thing, you know, hey, that's where we draw the line, right? But, you know, Chris, really, that speaks, really, it speaks right into where society is today, and meaning that, and as we know, what the Bible says, right, that in the last days, in the end times, you know, there's gonna be, the persecution of Christianity is gonna continue to accelerate, right?

It's clear, the Bible's clear, and, and, what's interesting is, Jesus said, hey, they hated me, they're gonna hate you too, right? So, we're really seeing these things, like, like, it's in your face anymore, it's like, not, you know, not subtle anymore, right, it's like, just in your face, and so, well, they, in one sense, I know, I know they've kind of did you a favor by pushing you out the door, in one sense, because that's given you the opportunity to be even more bold in your faith than just having a Bible on your desk, and launching Men of Courage Ministries, and so, I just, you know, commend you for your boldness, and just real quick, you know, for our listeners out there, you don't do things, you know, confined to the four walls, do you, Chris? When it comes to sharing your faith, you get outside, Elvis has left the building, right, you get outside of the four walls, tell us real quick what you do. Man, Nikita, all our stuff is in the public, me and a good friend of mine, Mark Rody, helped me come up with this, or I stole some of it from him, whatever, he, we always say this, we've got plenty of brick and mortar churches in this country, there's no telling how many are in Minton, Louisiana, but we stopped doing Jesus outside the brick and mortar church, Nikita, we stopped being our motto is Joshua 1-9, where God actually commanded us to be bold and courageous, and as Christian men, we stopped being bold and courageous, and so we do all our stuff in the public, we do it under the ash tree, it's in the center of town, across from City Hall, we do a lot of it there, we build wheelchair, free wheelchair ramps for people at home, out in the public, we have our meetings at the Civic Center in the public for everybody, literally, no joke the term, everybody, we feed everybody for free, Christian songs, unbelievable speakers like you, to come together and talk about God and Jesus, and not to argue the gospel, but to spread the gospel, and we give out Bibles by the hunters, Nikita, but we don't just give out a cardboard Bible, and there's nothing wrong with this, we're saying B-I-B-L-E on it, the generic, we give out a leather Bible that has men of courage on it, and has the name of that person on the bottom of it, because if we really believe it's the living word, and me and you do, and this is the literal instructions for life and how to get salvation even more, then we should be giving these things out left and right to people, man, and most people just got it on the phone nowadays, so anyway, man, that was a lot, Nikita.

Well, two thoughts there, two thoughts, one, first and foremost, thank you for my leather-bound Bible inscribed with the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, I showed it to a friend, they're like, wow, that's like a real leather cover, and they got your name inscribed on it, like they were blown away, right? And I'm like, yeah, they just wanted to bless me with that Bible, and so that's one, so thank you for that Bible, and really, just thank you for your book, I've seen that big tree, by the way, that you're referring to in the center of town, rain or shine, right? You'll meet under that tree, rain or shine, and show the good news. It don't matter, it's funny when you have the people go, are we meeting today? Yes, we're meeting today, man, we're meeting, so yes, rain or shine. So that's amazing, Men of Courage, give the website one more time, Chris.

It's Webster, W-E-B-S-P-E-R, menofcourage.org. Thank you, and hey, be sure if you hadn't yet, go over to the Man Up show and listen to the interview I did with Chris, and you'll get more insight, more of the story in terms of how the FBI really kind of forced him out the door, and so much more. I know you'll be blessed by that conversation and be praying for Chris as he has stepped out and done a new season of life in this walk of faith, and so that's amazing.

Well, let's shift gears here, Chris, this is Q&A with Koloff, so give you the opportunity to ask me a few questions, and so fire away with your first question, what do you got for me? All right, man, but just one second, thank you so much for coming to Little Mendon, Louisiana, in rural Louisiana, and speaking to a bunch of men about God and Jesus. Thank you for your bold and courageous, you had to fly from the Carolinas, man, thank you for doing that, dude. And you was remarkable, your speech was remarkable, I've heard about it a million times, and actually have gotten men to meet me and talk to them more about God and Jesus from what you did, so thank you for that.

Yes, sir. And you said it a little bit, Nikita, but I'd like to hear it again, and I guarantee this is probably a very common question for you, but you have beat, and I hate to call it statistics, but you as an adult, when you came to know Jesus and ask him to be Lord and Savior of your life, well, can you give me that, you know, probably short down version, the exact, when did he pound on your heart and you reply back to Jesus, Nikita? That's a great question, because we know statistically when you look at all the stats that the older you get, typically, the numbers begin to dwindle, the percentages begin to dwindle, as you live life and your heart gets more hardened by life itself, and then you become more cold towards humanity in many cases, and or, you know, against the idea that you can surrender your life, surrender your heart to Jesus, and so I feel fortunate that, so at age 34, at age 34 is when I had surrendered my heart to the Lord, and it wasn't like, Chris, it wasn't like I did, I mean, I didn't grow up in church, but it wasn't like I didn't, you know, I don't know that looking back, I ever, you know, didn't, I wasn't an atheist, it wasn't like I don't believe there's a God, I don't believe, you know, in any of that. I did believe there was a God, I just didn't know him, I just didn't know him in a personal way, I knew of him, right? I just didn't know him, and so, you know, through my life journey, looking back, and in fact, it's kind of ironic in a sense how God, I can see, now looking back, how God was working in my life, even though I didn't have that relationship with him, you know, Chris, even going back to high school, when I would go to these FCA meetings, because the football captain, Greg Sutton, was the head of the FCA, and so I thought it'd be a good thing to show up at his house for these FCA meetings, because I'd build brownie points with him, and maybe get a starting spot on the varsity squad, right? So, all the wrong reasons, right, for going to the FCA meeting, or maybe meet a cute girl, you know what I'm saying, right?

And then in college, actually, right out of high school, I went to a Bible college. Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show, and Man Up Minutes? Go to koloff.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it, and follow today. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Believe it or not, but I tell people this, it wasn't to go meet Jesus. I went because at the time, they were literally the number one junior college in the country, this little Bible college with about 500 students. And you were either or, you were either an athlete, a super athlete, the superior athlete, or you were what we called the Bible thumpers, right? And it was very obvious which one who was who, right?

Very obvious who Nikita was too, I guess. It was obvious I was not a Bible thumper for the record. Yeah, he was an athlete. Right, I was on the athletic side of things. So anyway, so I go to this Bible college for like two years and so, you know, I tried to sleep through every Bible class that we were required to take, like legit, like for real. I'd wear, I can remember, Chris, I'd wear a baseball cap in there.

I don't know how the professor didn't like throw me under the bus because like I'd pull that visor down and try to sleep through his lectures and everything else, right? So anyway, so I can look back and see where, yeah, the Lord is kind of working on my heart and then lo and behold, eventually fast forward, I leave wrestling, meet this Christian couple. They invite me to their church and again, it's not like I never went to church.

In fact, I had this pastor and his wife, they were pastoring a Lutheran church in Concord, North Carolina. They were members of my gym. So I had a gym at the time, right?

Nikita's gym. And I thought, well, I'll go every now and then because that'll keep them paying as a member of my team. Wrong motive, right? So anyway, all that to say, the day I met this couple at their church, 17 October, 1993, that was my aha moment, meaning I know what's missing in my life and what's missing is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That story needs to make the 18 inch trip from my head down to my heart. And it did on that day.

And Chris, life's never been the same since that encounter. So there you go. Oh, brother. Hey, look, this is a question I got one I really want to ask you.

But, um, so you just fired me up though. So these men, a lot of these men have me meet them. They're not walking the aisle, Nikita. They want me to meet them somewhere else. Gas station, deer camps are a big deal down here.

Maybe meet me there, wherever. So I've found that I meet these men and if they've grown up in the south, Nikita, and I'm sorry, I'm just, I'm country and I'm gonna say something about that. You know, you're in the south, you've heard God used to live in the Bible belt.

And then, so man, in verses, all these ways of coming at them, I've literally been going, Hey, Hey, man, look, let's get to this. Do you believe in God? And they'll go, yes. But there's one God, a living God. Yes. And his son is Jesus Christ.

They'll go, yes. He died on the cross for your sins rose on Thursday. You've heard this. Do you believe in it? Yes. Are you a sinner needs sinner? Oh, forgive me, brother.

I wouldn't even tell you what I've done. And then I go, have you ever asked Jesus to be Lord and Savior of life and start a personal relationship? And then that's when they freeze Nikita and go, no. You're right there, but you've got to do something else. There's another step to the process, right? Yes. Okay. So let me just tag onto that real quick, Chris. Lee Strobel, who wrote a book called A Case for Christ, said, hey, believing in God is a great first step, but then you've got to receive.

So here's the point you're talking about with these guys, these conversations. Then you have to receive. What do you receive? You receive the free gift of salvation. Romans 10, 9 and 10, 10 and receive the free gift, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. And then you become, what do you become? You become a child of God and now you become a Christ follower, a Jesus follower. So I commend you for having those one-on-one conversations, man.

That's some of the best ministry you could have. So great point. Great point. All right. So you got another question for me, Seth? I do.

I do. So you was in the ring and I know my grandma would slap me if she was still alive, but we know that there's some playing going on, although you're an unbelievable athlete. And I'm sure you do take some real hits, but did you ever really like, no, I don't like this guy.

I don't like this guy I'm in the ring with. So you know what I'm saying? So it's going to be a little bit more than that.

Was there ever a person like that for you? So there are those stories out there of, let's just call it a clash of personalities. So let's just start with that.

Okay. Because, you know, most people, they all, you guys are all buddies, you're all friends and that's not necessarily the case. Now, you know, hopefully on a professional level, you know, you respect one another, but, but, you know, there are times when, you know, tempers have flared or something happened in the ring that you didn't appreciate. Or you could wrestle a guy that you don't really care for, but again, you're booked against him and you want to be professional. So you want to give the fans the biggest bang for their buck, right?

For their, you know, that they bought a ticket to come and come and watch and view your wrestling. And so fortunately for me, I got along with a good majority of the guys. I could see that syndicated with you and your personality. I could see that. Yeah, I did.

You know, so it was very rare. Now I will say this. So, uh, so Road Warrior, the Road Warriors, Animal and Hawk.

Okay. So Hawk and, and, and, you know, he was, he was, he made no bones about it. He was on record to say, oh, I'll put you under the towel. I'll drink you under the table. I'll, I'll, I'll do more drugs than you can do.

Go ahead and challenge me. I'll put you away. Right. So I knew Hawk's lifestyle.

Okay. Uh, I was not, that was not my lifestyle. That was his now, all that to say, um, in the, at least in the times I got in the ring with him, you know, I, I don't think he was under the influence at least that I could tell. And so, uh, but that said, his personality and my personality clashed a bit because of his lifestyle outside the ring. But all that to say, when it came to getting in the ring, we had a mutual respect for one another.

And so we still worked well together, but that's not to say outside the ring, you know, we, we didn't, uh, you know, necessarily we weren't best of friends. So I just say it that way. Right. But, but let me give you the rest of the story, the Paul Harvey rest of the story.

Yeah. A year and a half before he passed away, a year and a half before he passed away, uh, Animal, I'd given him and Animal a copy of my first book, Breaking the Chains, which was really a handbook to Christian living. Animal read it the night I gave it to him in the dressing room, uh, finished the book from cover to cover. Uh, about a week later, I heard that he had given his life, him and his family, some of his family, James, his son, James played for the, for the, uh, St. Louis Rams, um, given his life to Christ and then invited Animal to a conference out in Arizona called AIM, Athletes International Ministries. He asked if Hawk could come. I said, uh, Joe, you realize it's like a Christian conference, right? He's like, he's like, yeah, but I feel like I should invite him. I'm like, oh, okay, go ahead and invite him. And he called me back maybe a couple, couple hours later and he goes, he wants to come.

I want to get out of town, get out of here. He goes, no, he said he wants to come. So, all right, so fast forward the story. They show up Jensen Franklin, a preacher out of, out of Georgia.

Uh, Jensen Franklin is the key speaker, that keynote speaker that night delivers a message. Hawk is the first one to the altar. Surrenders his life to Christ. We baptized him in the pool in Scottsdale that weekend. And then I bring Hawk on the road with me for a year and a half sharing his, his testimony and his story, how, how, as in his words, a cat has nine lives, but God gave 10 so I could get saved. You know, what a rush. And so anyway, gives his life to Christ.

I began to disciple him and mentor him. And then he goes home to be, be with Jesus. But anyway, so there you go. There you go. So, all right. I like that story though, how, how bold and courageous somebody had to be to invite him to church. You know what I'm saying?

I mean, that is huge deals for the kingdom. I am going to invite this man to church. It's not going to intimidate me.

I'm going to invite him to church or, or talk to him about Jesus for a minute. Um, that is this man. I, Oh my God, that's so awesome story. Hey, so you, I got to commend you again. You didn't know where you were coming to you. I'm going to guess you've never been to men in Louisiana. I don't know.

I think you said you might've bumped industry port or something, but my point is you just said, yeah. And I'm, I guarantee you, you were praying, God said, calm, whatever, but you didn't have a clue and you showed up and you did this awesome thing. And I don't know how redneck you thought it was or not, but what is, what, what is, can you give me, what's your wildest? Like I said, I was going to do this gig. I showed up and I was like, Whoa, I didn't know what I got myself into.

He got one of those. Well, um, I tell you there's, uh, I mean, there's a, there's a few, a few high, you've heard ministry or wrestling or, or, or which are your, what are you referring to? Yeah, I was talking about ministry, but it don't matter if you go, man, I got a really good restaurant.

What, when did you ever want? Well, on the wrestling side of things, there were some venues, some, some, some locations where, yeah, I showed up, this was back before the days of cell phones and GPS, right? Like one, I don't even know how we got there, but thank you.

Thank you Lord for Rand McNally, uh, or we would have never got there. And, and so, yeah, there was some from everything from, from, uh, cowboy barns, you know, with, with, uh, with horse dung and other things, uh, still in the arena. Uh, he had to sidestep some of those, uh, some of those, uh, cow patties and getting in and out of the rig.

So there was a, there was one on the, on the wrestling side of things. And, uh, that's right. And, and on the ministry side of things, uh, I, you know, not so much, well, I guess some of the prisons I was in and some of the, some of the Caribbean islands. Yeah. Some of those prisons down there in the Caribbean, bro, they are like pretty, uh, uh, how shall I phrase it? No, they're horrible. They have no standard of living like what we talked about.

Oh my gosh. They are. Yes. They, yeah.

Standard of living. Those words don't apply to the prisons in the Caribbean. You know, some of those prisons in it, and I'm, I'm killing your story, but you know, like the family has to provide the food too. Like if nobody shows up, this dude ain't eating, man.

He's just crazy. That is correct. And so I've been in a couple of hairy situations down there in the Caribbean and some, some prison ministry, but Chris plants, man, men of courage and a man who has courage, Chris plants. And I thank you for inviting me to Minden, Louisiana, my friend. I appreciate it. I look forward to how God's going to continue to use you in the future and perhaps even let us Chris tag team some more in the future. So brother, I would love that Nikita.

That would be a blessing to me, man. Well, thank you. And thank all of you for tuning in each and every week. Q&A with Koloff.

Go out and make it your best day ever. God bless you. Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying Q&A with Koloff, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor?

Well, look no further. Bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly, Nikita Koloff, the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once in a lifetime trip, December 27, 2023 to January 5, 2024.

Your pastor will never be the same. Go to Koloff.net to get registered today. Nikita Koloff here.

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