On this episode of the Evangelist Podcast, we're going to talk about the challenges and the opportunities of being weird.
SPEAKER_01The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_08Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. I hope you had a good break. I hope you missed us.
SPEAKER_05Yes. Just a couple of weeks. Did you have a good Christmas, Glenn? I had a really good Christmas. I went to uh my wife's family and uh we got treated like royalty. We got we got treated like teenagers, really. Just kind of waited on hands and foot. Okay.
SPEAKER_08Did you act like teenagers?
SPEAKER_05And then we started acting like teenagers. Sure as night follows day. Uh we started to demand things. No, it was good. It was good. Got to got to preach at um my wife's home church, the church that she sort of went to Sunday school in as she was growing up. And um her mum came along and my sister-in-law came along, and um both of them uh were very struck by the gospel which was which was really great, really great. And that and yeah, quite a few people were c quite struck by the gospel. There was one one girl, a teenage girl, come up to me after preaching and said that was that was that was amazing. That was um um and then she just like ran off and I was like, Oh, okay, and then her dad came up to me about three minutes later and and said he was in tears and he said, Um uh she's been nowhere spiritually. Um we we don't know what's what's been going on with her, but she's been so moved um by that and and she wants that John's gospel that you were talking about. And I because in the sermon I said, you know, if you want to receive Christ, then take this John's gospel from me. And he was he was in tears. He then couldn't speak and sort of I gave him the gospel and I said I'd be praying for her, and and he went he went away in tears and so yeah, that was that was amazing. Um what is it's it's always known by sort of uh church leaders as Low Sunday, yeah, the Sunday after Christmas. Um but it's just just amazing that you know, even on Low Sunday the spirit shows up.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well it's often on those days that things surprise you, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05I really think so. I think it's a it's a beautiful time of year actually, just just after you've remembered the incarnation of Jesus and just before you're about to face you know the daunting prospect of another year. It's a it's a good opportunity. I think you you preached, didn't you?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I was I was preaching uh the last Sunday of the year, taking a look at uh the contrasts in the Christmas story. Uh there's Mary and Joseph and they're in the stable, and that you've got the poor shepherds and then the rich wise men. There's this sort of contrast between the two, and then you've got uh you know the kindness of Joseph and then the horrible sort of nature of of herodin. Yeah. And then, you know, finally we've got the the contrast of of God Almighty coming down as a baby, uh, into a stable, into a very, very humble so you've got this contrast and and the whole thing of it's a beautiful story. Yeah. It just comprehends everything, isn't it? Yeah. Fr from start to finish. So then, you know, sort of looking forward, you know, that Mary was there, she was uh contrasting the past and then she was looking to the future um through the prophecies and and things. Uh so it's uh so much there.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the past and the future, and heaven and earth, and the rich and the poor, and the powerful and the weak, and yeah, it's all in there. I I I was um really struck by doing because we we released the video Christmas in Dark Places, which and I sort of preached a lot about that that that fact that Christmas dawns in the Valley of the Shadow of Death and and even you know, even on this Sunday that I was just mentioning and and a couple of other times that I preached it, so many people came forward afterwards and and told me about, yeah, I buried my daughter last week or um we have to have a funeral for for my granddaughter who was stillborn, you know, or uh divorce happened this month, or uh buried my wife last month, or all sorts of issues just um makes you say that Christmas is is such a d difficult time for so many people. And yet if it's just the consumer Christmas that people are being sold, um but then there's n there's nothing really, there's no hope for them in there. But you know, what about if it's it's if it's the God who comes from heaven to earth and makes himself weak and and joins us in the Valley of the Shadow? I think that that message really hits home with people and prepares them for twenty fourteen because who knows what might happen in twenty fourteen. But if you've got Emmanuel God with you, then you might just be able to get through.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05How many people sort of saw the uh video and uh well we we launched two videos. We launched Christmas in Dark Places, which was my favorite, and um then we re then we sort of re-released an old an old favorite, um Santa vs Jesus, or the anti-Sante ranty as it's more commonly known. Uh I think Christmas in Dark Places uh we released it as two different videos and I and I think together they they had about 17,000 views, um, which was great. And then Santa vs Jesus has got something like twenty-one thousand views and counting. So um so that was that was really gratifying, and um we um off the back of it offered a free evangelistic book and uh I think you've got the figures for Yeah, uh two hundred books and a hundred and thirty people signed up for the more in-depth course.
SPEAKER_08Hmm. I mean that's that's interesting.
SPEAKER_05It's the first it's the first time we've tried uh to have the follow-up to the videos. We've released videos in the past and then you just sort of think well an offer off.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but this is an offer and and yeah, I think if two hundred people read those books, that's that's incredible. Yeah. And if anything like a hundred and thirty people clicked on the videos to watch the the three to one course that we offered, that's that's also incredible. So uh I'm I'm sure we'll get better in future years about how to how to move people. Focus it. Yeah, how to move people from watching to engaging to committing. But um well it was a good was a good first effort.
SPEAKER_08I I think uh and it's been more of an international sort of campaign this time. Before we've targeted, you know, just the UK or whatever, but whereas this was kind of uh all over the world. Yeah. Um so what what have we got lined up for for the new year then? What's uh what we're looking forward to?
SPEAKER_05What are we looking forward to? Well, I've kind of cleared the diary of of lots of things in January so that I can get on with writing 321 as an evangelistic book. So uh really need to knuckle down and do that. Because I've discovered that books just don't write themselves. It's just kind of in my head. Like it's all there in my head. Yeah. Um but it actually takes a lot of discipline to sit down and clear the desk and clear the diary and just sit and uh put your bum in the chair and just you know, sit there until the book's written. So that's kind of January's job, and then starting from February, lots of uh speaking engagements and missions and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_08Any more videos you've got uh up your sleeve?
SPEAKER_05Oh I've got ideas for lots of them. Um and I should probably say no to them. And uh one at a time, Glenn. One at a time. Exactly. Well, there is there is actually one in the pipeline, actually. There's one one that we filmed already that needs some editing that uh might come out in the not too distant future.
SPEAKER_08And we've got a bit of an exciting announcement coming in uh April. Yeah. Uh new administrator coming on board. That's right. And uh our our boss Ian is is leaving this time next year. Mm-hmm. So um changes here and there?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. So yeah, looking forward to kind of leading the ministry at that stage and seeing where it goes. I I think uh the hour of revival evangelistic association, which is what we began life as, uh, was started by an evangelist called Eric Hutchings and he sort of led the ministry from the fifties and and uh and I think Ian's vision uh as he's the outgoing general manager, I think his his vision is for it to be led again by an evangelist, and um everyone else sort of steps backwards and that leaves me in the firing line and and uh and we'll see what we'll see what happens. But um no, really, really exciting opportunity to to move forwards because I I I think we've been doing some some great stuff here at Revival. It'd be great to see what the Lord has for us in the future.
SPEAKER_08Well, Glenn, you've uh entitled this episode The Challenges and Opportunities of Being Weird.
SPEAKER_05Being weird, yes.
SPEAKER_08No, I uh I understand what that means, but 'cause you're weird too, Ann.
SPEAKER_05Because I work with you. You've got a first hand experience of my weirdness.
SPEAKER_08But no, what what's behind your thinking there?
SPEAKER_05A couple of things have sort of come across my path in the last couple of days that have just really uh brought home to me how weird Christians are in the eyes of the world. And how w we are so often unprepared for being weird and appearing weird in the world's eyes, and yet if we've read our Bibles at all, we should not be surprised. Yeah, we just go against the grain and and must appear like nuts to people. Um the the the two things that I've got in mind in particular was um uh I think it was two nights ago, on Celebrity Big Brother, uh Evander Holyfield was on, the you know, the big heavyweight boxer, um, born and raised in Alabama, and uh you know, expressing some fairly standard Bible belt kind of views about sex and sexuality. He was uh talking to uh what was her name? Um Louisa Zuzman, I don't know how you pronounce that, but um she was the uh the runner-up in uh The Apprentice last year. But uh he he was talking uh to her. She was she was asking him about, you know, are there gay boxes and there should be gay boxes that come out and and uh be loud and proud about it. And and Amanda Holyfield said, Well, you know, the Bible lets you know that there's wrong and there's right. And uh and at one stage he says homosexuality ain't normal. And uh of course Louisa you know instantly said, I don't think this is a conversation we should be having, and they speak in very hushed tones. I think I think we've got a little bit of it um that we can play if you can pick up the they're speaking in very hushed tones, so hopefully we can pick it up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_05So that's what Evan in the Holyfield said. Um and then uh the Big Brother house. Big Brother is quite appropriately named. Big Brother um called Ivan in the Holyfield into the dinner room and uh and said this to him.
SPEAKER_00Before you went to the Big Brother house, the rules were committing an acceptable language and a behaviour will explain to you. Last moment in a conversation with Louisa, you expressed the view that Ingley was not normal and that it could be fake. Well, big brother understands the feed you can't. Expressing these but it does not tolerate the use of offensive language, and must therefore warn you to consider very carefully the effect expressing such views may have, and the harm and effects you may cause by repeating these views inside the hammock.
SPEAKER_03Okay then.
SPEAKER_00Do you understand it, Manda? Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_05So interesting. And in a reality TV show, um they don't want him expressing his real opinion. Yeah. Um I you know, there would be a time and a place for that if he had been bullying people, I would have said. Uh if he would be if he wasn't, you know, inciting hatred and that and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_08But this is just simply he's he's having a conversation. He's kind of it's uh he says he's kind of forgotten in almost where he was, and uh but it's the fact that he was told the expression of his views would not be tolerated.
SPEAKER_05Well yeah, yeah. Unacceptable language and behavior. Well, what was unacceptable? Did he did he swear? Did he malign the character of people? Did he use derogatory language? He did say ain't normal. He did he did say it ain't normal, and that is offensive. That's absolutely right. Um that is offensive, but are we uh do we have a right to be protected from offense? Um and I'd want to say no, we don't. And so the one who's getting silenced there in that, you know, whole scenario, is the Christian with his Christian views, you know, and and it's it's an interesting example of the intolerance of tolerance. You know, in the name of tolerance, you must not say that ever. Um you you can't express that kind of opinion. Now that's you know, it goes goes to show how weird Christians look in the world's eyes. But I I do want to say, look, I don't think Evander Holyfield handled it brilliantly. I don't think um I would have said the things in the ways that he said them. And I think arguments about what is natural and what is not natural uh are difficult to have um and and won't be heard in the right way. Um because what is natural when it comes to sex um is different for different people. And you know, is monogamy natural? Or is adultery natural? Um you know, uh at what level are we talking about nature in these discussions? Um and yeah, it can be very uh yeah, it can be very easily misheard and misconstrued when we talk in in those sorts of terms. And so when he when he talks about the disability and if your leg is born twisted one way, um now interestingly that you know uh what it what he's talking about there is is listen, just because ev even if you are born a certain way, you can switch. Yeah, he's saying.
SPEAKER_08Um He wasn't necessarily likening homosexuals to handicapped people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's not it's not a d you know, it's not like a disability in every single sense. Even if it is, you're born that way. That's not the end of the story, is it? Interestingly, uh online a lot of the pushback on this has been how offensive it is for Evander Holyfield to say that you can be born that or th that you're not born that way, or that there is some level of choice involved. Whereas I I I think in terms of the scientific research that's gone into you know sexuality you are on as shaky ground to say everyone is born that way as you are to say it is a hundred percent choice. Um you know, all all the best research needs to say it's a combination of nature and nurture. Kel Sapries, you know, that's that's the nature of life. It is it is a mixture of nature and nurture. But it's it's just interesting that that anyone who even says there's an element of choice in there is is censured immediately. So like I th Evander is a brother and is drawing from the same Bible that I'm drawing from, and at the end of the day, um I'm sure we we do hold similar views on and on on a lot of things. I don't think he expressed himself brilliantly, but the real uh wake-up call is the intolerance of tolerance here, what the diary room said.
SPEAKER_08I mean, in a in a way, you know, I think in the end Big Brother is you know, he's out for controversy. Yeah, you know when it comes. They want to put a chap from the Bible Belt in there with people of completely other views and they want to milk it for all that they've got. Just because they want eyeballs, you know, on the on the screen. Yeah. And I mean some people say, well, you know, why did Channel five broadcast it? You know, if it w if it was going to be offensive to so many people. What was the point in broadcasting it to so many people? Other than they want to to stir a bit.
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah, they like the controversy. Absolutely. But I th I think it it goes to show we we we need to be wise, we need to to be ready for that kind of even if Evander Holyfeld said everything absolutely brilliantly and and tried to be b biblically faithful and uh you know, he would still uh He would still be still would have. Um But I think I think something like um uh the Living Out website would would really help us be better at talking about sex and sexuality. Um it it it launched in the last couple of months, and uh a number of people who expressed that they have same-sex attraction, um uh many of whom are full-time church ministers who, you know, believe the Bible about sex and sexuality, that sex belongs within marriage between a man and a woman, and yet they experience and have always experienced same-sex attraction. Um and, you know, some of them have uh become happily married and have children. Um some of them remain single and celibate, um, but they've all got really interesting stories to tell. And I and I think um that website, for instance, gives us um a much richer angle on this whole question. That it's not about, well, I'm born that way, I'm not born that way. Um well, okay, even even if you are born that way, even if even if you have a a long-standing attraction towards members of the same sex, um you know, does does does does that settle the question about what's right and what's wrong when it comes to sexual practice? Um no, absolutely not. And and and these guys uh share their stories and answer questions and and there's a lot of great resources on the the LivingOut.org uh website that that I think can progress the conversation along the way, I think.
SPEAKER_08Should we be surprised really that something like this has happened? We're quite you know, the Christians view of sex and sexuality is quite different from from those outside the church.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we're far we're far more surprised than we should be about things like this. And I'm you know, I'm talking about myself. I I get far more shocked by this than of course I should be, because the Christian view of sex and sexuality has always been different to that of the surrounding culture. You know, go back to the Old Testament and and and the Hebrew idea of sex and sexuality was so different to the Egyptian and the Assyrian one. And and the New Testament, you know, view of sex, which is the same as the the Old Testament Hebrew view, it was so different to the Greco-Roman world that was around it. And and it's always been the weird thing, it's always been the odd thing. And uh and 1 Corinthians 5 12 says, you know, keep your eyes off the world and and keep your pointing fingers away from the world, judge judge your own, you know, churches. Um it's it's ourselves who should be holding ourselves to our own um accounts in terms of sexuality. So Christians should not be shocked that the world finds us weird. Um but also also non-Christians should realize um that we just do have a sexual ethic that's different. And is there is there space at all in the world for having a different sexual ethic that's not necessarily a homophobic one? I grant that Christians can be homophobic and are homophobic in lots of ways. Um but is is it necessarily the ta the case that just because I disagree that Christians ought not to have, you know, same sex practice, does that necessarily make me homophobic? I I hope that there's space to have a different vision of sex and sexuality without it being an issue of f uh of fear or of hate. You know, sometimes I uh do the comparison with Buddhism and vegetarianism. You know, if if a Buddhist says, listen, I I you know, I I think all meat eating is wrong. I think it is an offence against the the cosmos, I think, you know, and here and here's my views of the cosmos, and here's what I think karma is like, and this is the good life, and and these are my views about all sentient life and all this kind of thing, and and and vegetarianism fits within that view you know, I can can I sit back and say, How dare you? I'm a carnivore, and how dare you make those views known? That they are offensive to me that you that you should consider my meat eating to be right. How dare you? You're a carnophobe. Like how you like that just doesn't make sense. Like surely there's got to be some space for saying hey, uh Christians uh for Christians saying, Hey, we're different and we've got this different. Weird view of sex, we know it's weird, but hey, step into our world and and see that it kind of makes sense with our view of God and the world and you and all that kind of thing. It makes sense within our view, and I understand that it you know it's it's at odds with you, and I understand you might be offended by it. But is there at least space for saying here's our view and it's not motivated by fear or hate? Um I would hope that there is that kind of space and and we just need to get get better at articulating our position in in that kind of way, so that perhaps perhaps the world can say, I disagree fundamentally, um, but at at least I see that it's not motivated out of fear or hate. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So that was the first thing that kind of made me remember that Christians are weird.
SPEAKER_08And the second?
SPEAKER_05The second was a a tweet that I saw from Darren Brown, uh, who I follow on Twitter, and he he retweeted this uh Wait, you follow Darren Brown?
SPEAKER_08I follow Darren Brown. Shame on you.
SPEAKER_05Um yeah, no, he's very glad to have me as a follower, I'm sure. Uh one of millions, but um he tweeted this this photo that was taken in nineteen forty-seven and uh Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Um we'll put we'll put it on the show notes, but um You have to see it. You you Describe it. It's it's what do you describe it?
SPEAKER_08What's well it's there's uh an apparent orphan um kneeling down at a bed, uh praying before bed bedtime or whatever, and then on the wall behind her there's there's the acrostic poem J O Y Joy, which stands for Jesus First, Others Second, and you last. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05You last. And Darren Brown just tweeted that photo with just the comment, oh Lord. And then that got retweeted um many, many times, and all the comments on his tweet were just like, that is sick. That is so messed up. That and how oh, I can't believe they're teaching this poor child you last. I can't believe that. And then I went back to the original photo from which Darren tweeted it, and and then there were there were like scores of of more, just vitriol. People just so angry that Christians could possibly say that.
SPEAKER_08Amazingly hateful towards it. Amazingly, I I did wonder if it was if it if it was a setup picture though. Uh-huh. I mean, it looks quite sort of deliberate to to provoke reaction. I don't uh yeah. Yeah I mean it could be. That there's this sort of poor orphan and you know they are last and they should be last, and they you know, I just kind of I don't know. It might not be, it may be you know, someone's gone into an orphanage and just please may I take a photo and snapped it during bedtime prayers. But yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05I th I think we're looking back at it through you know 60 plus years of different filters and 1947, was it? 1947, and we see we see it in black and white, and so instantly, oh it's this stark, horrible thing. And you got like comments on the post, oh it just looked like such a stark room, and actually like there's teddy bears on the bed, and it's quite a nice bed and uh like a decent room, and she it wasn't like like this massive like dormitory with with like 50,000 kind of bunk beds.
SPEAKER_08And you have to remember that it was just post-war, you know. Yeah, yeah, everyone's room. So everyone's like that.
SPEAKER_05But so but people sort of reading into it and seeing this institution that's keeping this girl in her place. Maybe is that what's going on? Or are there Christians who are looking after a girl who no one else will? Here, you know, here is here are Christians who are putting into practice what the Bible says, like throughout the Old Testament, that you know, care of the fatherless, the orphan, and the widow and the sojourner, that that is what the Lord's love looks like in practice. Looking after orphans in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, you know, what does James say is our religion? You know, pure religion is looking after orphans, actually. So it it seems to me that the people who do believe you put yourself last are the people who are gonna build orphanages.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05They are the people who are gonna look after this girl. Whereas all the people who are getting angry on Twitter and saying you must put yourself first, and that's what they're all saying on Twitter, how dare you! You've got it's gotta be me first, it's gotta be me first. Yeah, well, how many orphanages have you built? How many orphanages can be built on the foundation of me first? Ridiculous. Ridiculous you you just won't do it. And just historically, who is it who's been building the orphanages? Who is it who's been taking care of the poor and the weak and the marginalized? Historically, it's Christians first, daylight second. Like, like, and and who knows who's third? It's not the atheists. It's not, and it's not the people who say me first. But it's it is just fascinating that in 1947 it was just obvio it was just obvious that you would put yourself last, and that that is the moral position. That in 2014, it is obvious that putting yourself last is immoral and no one should teach a child to put themselves last.
SPEAKER_08And I mean, off I I only heard this this yesterday, you know, on a podcast I was listening to. Uh someone was saying, Oh, you know, you've got you've got to put yourself first. And and you know, they bring out the illustration, which is which is a very sort of popular illustration for this, is that you know, if you're in an aircraft and uh you know all the oxygen goes and you're looking after a child, you've got to put your oxygen on first.
SPEAKER_07Yes.
SPEAKER_08Because if you you know don't put your oxygen on, you pass out, you won't be able to help your child, so you must look after yourself first.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Which is kind of true. You know, but underneath that kind of excuse, yeah. You put all sorts of selfishness. Because you know, I've got to watch you know five episodes of my favourite TV program before I feed my kids.
SPEAKER_05Because I want to it's kind of an extreme example, isn't it? The plane is going down. And this is my example for all of life, and this is my justification for playing Xbox or all the hours of God sense. That's weird. And yeah, eve even at the level of feeding and caring, like like in Ephesians 5, it talks about you know husbands love your wives and and like she is your body and no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it. But uh I I was I was having coffee with a friend just a couple of weeks ago, and uh he was talking about a diffic difficult family situation, and he was sort of talking about how like he didn't want to be in touch with his dad because like it was always difficult with his dad, and he said, I've gotta put myself first, I don't want to be a hypocrite. And like in in his thinking, it would be hypocritical to be selfless. Because, like, obviously his first duty is to himself. Obviously. And if he ever, if he was ever selfless and did something that he didn't want to do, it wouldn't that wouldn't just be like unpleasant or or difficult or sacrificial, that would be hypocritical. As though the greatest virtue is to love yourself and put yourself first. But that is that's the that's the second thing that that this week made me think, you know what, Christians really are weird. We really are weird and upside down. Upside down, you know, we believe in the in the in the topsy turvy kingdom. That that is very Christmas like, isn't it? You know, what is what's Mary's song? Mary's song in Luke chapter one is that you know, he has, you know, what is it, he's he's tumbled, you know, princes from their thrones and lifted up the poor from the ash heap. Yeah. You know, that because that's what Christmas is. It is, you know, as you were talking about in your sermon, it's it's the God of heaven who comes down as a little baby. And and and he is the selfless one. And I think that's that's what gets left out of the picture. What gets left out of the picture is when Jesus came, he was himself last. Actually. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And when you come to him, all of a sudden self self last makes sense when you come into the kingdom of Jesus, because he's the one who did put himself last, and yet the father raised him to be Lord of the cosmos, and this is this is the nature of his kingdom. So obviously a person looking from the outside and seeing people putting themselves last just looks ridiculous. And it is stupid. It's absolutely stupid according to the world. But it's not stupid if you see that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_08You know, is is there sort of like a uh a scripture or or something that helped a perspective on this?
SPEAKER_05I th I think well a couple come to mind. I I th I think Jesus so often takes little children in his arms as examples of what it is to be blessed in the kingdom. You know, when when James and John are sort of fighting over, you know, we want to sit at your right hand and your left hand, and this is mother that's this their mother that's kind of uh pushing this as well. So everyone's power hungry, everyone's glory hungry. And Jesus takes in his arms a little child and says, Whoever among you uh who seeks to be greatest must become the least, must become servant of all. Um before even the Son of Man did not come to be so, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That a actually that that photo of the little child is a picture of the kingdom. You know, in that in that orphanage, there there is a little girl who's being taken care of by those who believe in that the care for orphans uh expresses God's love. She's she's actually being loved in that place. You don't you know depending on on the filters that you look through in order to see that that that picture, you don't uh necessarily see that. But when you look through kingdom glasses, when you look through the s the the the spectacles of scripture, what you see is a little child who's being loved by Jesus and who's being called into his wonderful, liberating world of self-giving love. Um and and even secular psychologists say that that the best way to happiness is to serve others. Like like loads of studies show that. So even like the me first thing doesn't even practically work. So so maybe maybe you think about Jesus and the little children. But but just overall, in in thinking about the fact that we're gonna be weird, uh I think one Peter kind of prepares us for that in a massive way. The whole book really, but you know, one Peter is is addressed to these uh chosen exiles, elect exiles. So their choice in the Father's eyes, and their exiles in terms of the world, they're you know, the scum of the earth. Um people who should be shut up and told not to express their views, right? Elect exiles. And and Peter kind of talks to them, and in chapter two he says, You are a chosen people, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you are not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's that's the first thing. Get in into our heads the wonderful the wonderful vision for sex and sexuality that the Bible has. And it is wonderful, it is beautiful. Even if the world finds it ugly, at least we need to realize how beautiful it is and and what a great vision for for life it is. And and we need to see how wonderful it is to to give our lives away. We need to be convinced of that. And this this is this is the life of the chosen people of God, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, God's special possession. This is a wonderful thing to live out. So we need to understand those privileges. And then uh one Peter two from verse eleven it goes on. Peter says, Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your souls. And then verse twelve, live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. I think that's that's beautiful. I you know, I I blogged about this this picture, and and I sent a link to all the people who had like said really nasty things uh on Twitter. And uh and it got me into a lot of conversations that that had a lot of, you know, a lot of heat and not a lot of light to them. One one woman though, um uh tweeted back to me and and she said, That's really interesting, that's that's made me think. Um and and she started off by saying how hideous, how hideous for this child to be taught others first, and and and and and then she read she read the blog and And you j you just pray that even though, you know, as as verse twelve says, they accuse you of doing wrong. At the end of the day, some may see the good deeds. Because in my blog post I talk about how Christians build the orphanages for goodness' sake, and you know, they see our good deeds and you know, perhaps they'll start trusting Christ and then glorify God on the day he visits us. That's that's our hope. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Okay, Glenn, well that sort of sums up challenges and opportunities of being weird. Yep. Thanks.
SPEAKER_05Keep being weird, people. Thanks for explaining that.
SPEAKER_08If you want to see that picture that we uh been talking about, or you just want to uh share the show, or you'd like to make a comment, uh just go to revivalmedia.org slash TEP37. And you can find us on iTunes. Uh just go to revivalmedia.org slash iTunes and Stitcher revivalmedia.org slash stitcher. Thanks very much and see you next time.
SPEAKER_05See you next week.