The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Staying True To Christ When The World Pulls You Away
The fight for your attention is not neutral, and it’s not new. We open with gratitude for mothers and move straight into a candid call to endure, confronting how ideology, entertainment, and curated temptations work overtime to pry our focus from Christ. Two high-profile deconversions after forty years of church life spark a tough question: does longevity equal loyalty? We unpack why endurance is the mark of genuine faith, why spiritual warfare requires armor, and how vigilance over the heart matters more than ever.
Across the conversation, we get practical about staying faithful when distractions multiply. Prayer when you feel numb, Scripture when noise feels easier, fellowship when isolation beckons, and repentance when pride resists—these are not churchy clichés; they are survival moves. We also challenge the pursuit of fame, reminding ourselves that glory belongs to God alone. When we chase applause or amplify celebrity, we trespass on sacred ground. Worship pulls us back to purpose, replacing momentary highs with joy that endures bad news, boredom, and pushback.
Hope threads through every hard edge here. We pray for a brother facing diabetes and frame healing with a bigger promise: in Christ, wholeness is certain, even if timing is not. Life is a vapor, but eternity is not. One day we will stand in a world without sin, pain, or pretense, sharing in Christ’s glory with hearts that can no longer wander. Until then, we keep watch, cling to Christ, and refuse to fall at the two-yard line. If this encouraged you or gave you language for your own battle for attention, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review so more people can find hope and stand firm.
BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
I have a wonderful mother. And my mother very often doesn't realize how much I appreciate her and love her and adore her. But we are supposed to honor our parents, especially our mothers. And um so anyway, I just want to make sure that you guys all have a great day. Um and that you know you are appreciated. Even those of you who I will who I debate about debate with so often, um, but I appreciate you. Um I decided to get on here right now just to sort of, you know, get on here and and have some discussions about the word of God. Um because there are there are so many things that we as believers have to contend for in the midst of so much spiritual adversity. And we have to, as believers, endure the way we are reminded so often in the Word of God. Enduring what, you might ask? Well, enduring in the faith, in light of all those things that are out there, people, ideology, um, all these things which are designed to distract us, temptations, temptations that we have to endure. The willingness to stand watch at all times, governing your soul, keeping your heart with all keeping and with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life, as we are told in Proverbs chapter three. There's a reason why we are so often throughout scriptures urged to endure. The reason why is because the onslaught of distraction that is going to face us throughout our Christian soul journey at times is going to be tense and rigorous. I saw a toast, a post on TikTok a couple of days ago, and it was the second such post that I've seen in the last few months, whereby two men, two separate men, two completely separate men, made video posts on TikTok saying that they had been Christians for forty years. They had been Christians for forty years, and they made these posts to say that they have that after all this critical analysis, after all their research, over a forty-year period of being a believer, they decided to defect from the faith. How do you serve the Lord Jesus Christ for forty years? And then and only then, after a 40-year period, you come to the conclusion that you made a mistake. Think about that for a second. You made a 40-year mistake, and that mistake was believing and putting your faith and trust, supposedly, in Christ. Now, this was particularly stunning to me because when I thought about it, after giving it some thought yesterday, I realized that I have been a Christian exactly forty years. I have been a Christian exactly forty years this year. 40 years. So it struck me after reading or seeing the videos of these two guys on TikTok, both of them saying that they had been a Christian for 40 years. One of them, and maybe both of them, were ministers. One of them was a pastor for sure. And he took pride, both of these men took pride in the fact that they have came to the realization after 40 years, supposedly as a Christian, that they now know better, that they're that the faith that they had, they realized was a mistake. And now that they have relinquished their faith, now that they have turned their back on Christ, they consider this some kind of a graduation, a promotion. They view turning from sin, turning to Christ, and then going back into the world, they consider that a promotion. And there are those who will believe that these men were saved. But let me tell you something, and I hope and pray that God or that these men will hear this. They were never saved. And one of them even made the pronouncement, or maybe both of them, that they know that those of us who are believers, we're gonna say this. We're gonna say this. Now, somebody asked who they were. I don't want to mention their names because I don't want to have somebody tell me or have them go to go to, you know, complain and say that I'm bullying them and I'm gonna get banned or have this video or this live or this live shut down while I'm doing it. Like it has happened to me once before. But if you write to me on my email, on my profile, I will tell you exactly who they were because you should see what they said. These men said they served Christ for 40 years. And after all that time, they came to the realization that what they were before they came to Christ is what they should have been the entire time. And that it is that which they are now. And now they are using this new platform that they have, which is to go back to the world. They're using that to be their platform to try to get followers of people on TikTok. Now that they had become ministers of Satan. Now, why do I bring this up? I bring this up because it is important for all you believers to understand that this is a journey. This life of faith. This life of faith is a journey, and it is a war, it is a battle, and it is a hard-fought battle. And you do not win until it's over. These men who want to go around and make a platform for themselves by saying they no longer serve Christ and that Christ and religion is stupid and all these other kinds of things, they succumbed to the world. They succumbed to the world, and it does have to be a war, because it is a war. There's a reason why Paul tells us in Ephesians we are to wear Christian armor. For what? Because it is a war. It is a war, it has always been a war, it will continue to be a war, and it was ordered by God to be a war. Christians, each of us must fight to hold on to our faith. It is a spiritual war, and it is spiritual warfare. The brother or sister who said that, you got it right. It is a spiritual war, and it is the worst and the most vicious kind of a war that there is. It just is. And if you do not remain vigilant, if you do not continue in the word of God and in prayer, if you do not contend in the exercise or continue to exercise the means of grace that God has provided for us, your end could equally be like what these two men have come to the conclusion as true. That there is nothing in it for you. So, general knowledge, if you don't like it, get off. This is the way I talk, and I yell and I do all those kind of things because that's how I talk. If you don't like it, leave. Simple as that. Maybe if I say that in a whisper, you might leave. Please leave. Please leave. Now, Christians, back to you guys. My goal is to get all of you to cheer you on to stay faithful to the very end, no matter how much or how intense the distractions become, no matter how much or how intense the temptations come, no matter how loudly the world promotes its ideologies upon you. Because when these things happen, we are being tested. We are being tested by God to prove our faith. We are here to glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is our sole mission in this life. To glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is our sole mission in this life. Make no mistake about it, nothing else you do in this life matters more than this. Mankind in general is fighting for your attention. The world and Satan is fighting for your attention. Netflix and Disney Plus and Amazon Prime and Hulu and all the record labels and all the movie studios and all the comedians and actors and all these people, they're fighting for your attention. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, presidents, politicians, they're all fighting for your attention. They don't want your attention on Christ. They don't want your attention on Christ. See, like right here, we have this guy, Jed Jedi, Jedi Solo. B.S. He says, there's no God. Another person that is here trying to get your attention, even though he says there is no God. My question, if there is no God, why are they trying so hard to tell us that there is no God? What is their point? What is their point? See, I'm in a mood. If there is no God, why do these people, why are they so concerned as to whether or not we believe or not? I don't understand that. But they need us to not believe. But what you need to do is to continue and endure in the faith. Because if you do not, you do not want to end up falling down on the two-yard line and perishing. Because believe me when I tell you, it is not very long before we get to stand before Christ. And if he doesn't end the world tomorrow, or it doesn't end the world in another thousand years, all of us here that are on here right this second, none of us will be here a hundred years from now. We will all be standing before our Lord and Savior. If he doesn't come for us anytime soon, we will go to him very soon. No matter what. We will stand in the Lord's presence soon. I know I will never see another 40 years. I know that. None of us will be here another hundred years. So all you have to do is contend for the faith for a little more time, for a little period of time. Our life is a vapor. Our life is a vapor. We are here today and gone tomorrow, tomorrow. We are a flower that fades. We are a flower that fades. We are a shadow that is but for a second. So when you think about it, in the grand scheme of things, in the grand scheme of things, we have to serve him for a short period of time before he pays us heavy, heavy dividends, rewards that are inestimable, that are immeasurable, an eternity of life, of joy and blessedness in him and with each other. Christians, endure. The time is short. Don't let the distractions take you away from your faith. Don't spend all your hours playing the video games and watching the Netflixes and stuff of the world. Don't let music and entertainment take you away from spending their time in the Word of God, from meditating on the scriptures, and in prayer, and in fellowship with others who are like-minded. Because these distractions, Satan has been at it for centuries. He knows, he knows what to send your way. He knows what you will fall for. He knows, and he's clever. He's clever. If you are a drug addict, he will find some kind of ways to bring it back to you. If you succumb to lust at every opportunity, he knows how to send it to you. If you are a greedy person, he knows how to intensify your ambition by providing opportunities that will distract you from faithfulness. Whatever it is you lust for, whatever it is God saved you from, Satan knows how to bring it back. He knows how to come through the back door and to trip you up. This is why you must cling to Christ. You must cling to Christ. You must cling to Christ. Do not lose your soul because of one taste of sin. Don't think that when I say one taste of sin, it means that one sinful event can cost you your soul. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that one taste can lead to total consumption. One taste can drive you right back into a world of hurt. One sin can take you back to a lifestyle that you tried and fought so hard to stay away from. Man wants fame, but God is not having it. The pursuit of fame is trespassing on God's property. Whether you are in pursuit of fame yourself, or whether you support the fame of others, you are promoting the trespassing on God's property. You are promoting the usurpation, the circumvention of that which belongs to God only. We ought to be, we ought to be promoting God's fame in his alone. Brenda, I love what you said. God saves me from myself, is what my sister here says. And she is exactly right. We seek God to save us from ourselves. God never promised you you will not have pain. You will never have turmoil in your life, that you will not struggle, that you will not, he never promised you that you will be rich, or that you will be poor. But he never promised you a life of ease. You don't give him your worship, you owe him your worship, you owe it to him. We owe him everything. We owe him all. Not parts, not pieces, not in measure. We owe him completely. In the worship that he is due, he is going to get it from every single creature, willingly or unwillingly. He's going to get it anyway. He is going to get it anyway. So why not offer it up? Give him what his due is. Because if you don't, you will certainly perish in your sins. What I'm conveying to you, I have to speak to my heart every day, especially if I'm going to be on here saying what I'm saying. Every time we talk about the Lord, we are heaping coals on our own head if we don't remain with him. Therefore, remain. Be encouraged. Pursue the joy which lasts forever, as opposed to the happiness in this earth, which is temporary and contextual and circumstantial. Joy certainly comes in the morning for those who put their faith in Christ. Believers, it is not going to last forever. Whatever you are going through, it is not going to last forever. Seek the face of Christ in all that you do, and you will see that He will carry you through. You will see that. You will see that. What happens when we close our eyes here is unfathomable. Unbelievable. We can't understand the full import of what our resurrection means. We can't understand it. But we know it's vast and deep and permanent and glorious. We will share with our Savior in the dominion over creation as it was supposed to be, as it was designed to be. Angels and men glorified, working together to show forth the praises of our God and Savior for eternity. We live here seventy years. We live here seventy years. On average, it is but a vapor. Dustin, I heard you. I see what you're saying. And I'm definitely going to do what you ask. All of you believers here, you see, one of our brothers here is asking for a prayer regarding his diabetes. His diabetes. That after you leave off here to offer up a prayer for our brother Dustin McKee, who has diabetes, as I will do as soon as I get off here. And whatever, whatever God has for him, whatever God has for him, what's more important is that his heart is prepared to deal with it the way God wants him to. That's something that we can be assured of. Affliction is for a short time. Physical or spiritual, it is for a short time. And be assured that God is going to heal us all. And the faith that we have is already the evidence of it. It is already the evidence of it. Because even if God heals you of your diseases, you're certain to die. Again, you're certain to die anyway. And somebody might say, well, that's not that's no consolation. It is. It is. Because the hope that we have is in the resurrection of our life when we leave here. With our glorified bodies of which sickness and pain will never afflict again. Ever. A life where sin no longer exists. That's unimaginable. A life where sin no longer exists. Can you imagine? We live now in a life where sin dominates. On the surface, sin dominates. Just turn on the news, turn on any TV show. Talk to anybody. Look at the number of bars that are around. Sin dominates. But the day is coming where it will all be gone. And I have no idea what it means and how God does it. He's too vast for us to fully grasp what he does, what he is. But I've been having a lot of back and forth with a lot of Christian brothers and sisters about man's will. One man told me that my crusade against man's free will is in vain. But let me put something to you all. Let me put something to you. When we die, when we die, those of us who are believers, we are going to glory. We're going to be with our Savior for eternity. For eternity. And that means, as we know, there will be no sin. No sin. Zero sin. None. Now, we will have wills. We will have the we will have volition. We will have a will. A will that is incapable of sinning. We will have a will that is incapable of sinning. And we will be thankful for that. We are not going to go to glory arguing as to whether or not we have a free will or not. We're going to be glad that we no longer have the will to sin. We're going to be glad that we no longer have the will to sin. The very will that so many Christians now are so glad that they have and think that they have, and think that men have, and think that it is to the will of man that we must appeal if they're going to be saved. We do not appeal to the will of man to see men saved. We appeal to Christ to see that God overrides the will of man that is in bondage to sin. So that they would be freed from that cycle of sin that will never end unless God intervenes on the behalf of that sinner, such as we were when we came, in bondage to sin and death, not desiring Christ, not desiring an influence of the Holy Spirit, not caring how the Father sees us and whether or not he put his electing love upon us. These things that we look forward to as believers must always be before us, must always be our desire, must always be our commitment to receive and achieve. But we only do that, like my sister here, Brenda says, by walking in the Spirit. Walking by faith, not by sight. Walking by faith, not by the, not based on whether or not science offers us anything, which it cannot. Science offers us nothing. Man offers us nothing. Politicians offer us nothing. Billionaires offer us nothing. Hollywood offers us nothing. Technology offers us nothing. Nothing. Who offers us anything, and he offers us life, and that eternal. We must believe in him or be condemned by him. If you want to have a choice, that is it. If you believe you have a choice, exercise it to those ends. Otherwise, you will end up being like so many of these people who come on here and write the silliest things and say all the things that they do that scorn and mock our Savior Jesus Christ, and they scoff at the truth. But be assured that all these people will get exactly what they deserve. And thank God. Thank God Almighty that those of us who do believe that he does not give us what we deserve. We are saved because he gives us exactly what we do not deserve, which is salvation. We don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. And if all I have to do to get it is to glorify him and to suffer the ridicule and mockery of atheists and agnostics and all these people who come on here and say all these evil things trying to be funny, I'll take salvation any day. Because the word of God, like Psalm 73, when David is talking, he says, I went into the temple of the Lord, and then I saw their end. All those who were high and mighty and rich and powerful, and those who mocked and scorned God, all those people. David can understand why they prospered, why they were healthy, why their kids were healthy, why do why everything seemed to go their way. But he says he went into the temple of the Lord, and then he understood their end. He went into God's sanctuary, and it was there that he understood the end of the wicked. I understand. I understand the way of the wicked. I hope that you understand the way of the wicked. I hope that when you look at the prosperity of this world and wonder why they have it and you don't, and you're the faithful one to Christ, and they're not, I hope that you will look into the word of God and understand what's coming for them. And it will make you all the more diligent to continue on the path so that you can obtain the inheritance by which we were sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. All you have to do is wait. Continue and wait with patience and diligence and endurance. On this Lord's Day, may God bless you all. Happy Mother's Day to all of you, mothers, and may God bless all of you.