0010 Christ Forge: Locking Shields

In this episode of Christ Forge: Locking Shields Podcast: 
What Do We Do With All The Good News
Where Christian Conservatives Should Be Moving To In 2025
90-Day Forging Challenge

Jason Perry is a seasoned Security Expert, CEO of Trident Shield, and the Pastor of Christ Forge Church. A former Navy SEAL, SWAT Officer, and Paramedic, Jason has walked the path from atheism to becoming a steadfast Christian Warrior. His 44-acre farm serves as a hub for ministry, training, and preparedness, reflecting his dedication to faith, family, and resilience. With a passion forged through trials and triumphs, Jason equips believers to face spiritual and practical challenges with courage, purpose, and faith in the unshakable truth of God’s Word.

Christian Warrior Talk is Sponsored by Trident Shield, your trusted ally in violence preparedness. Trident Shield helps safeguard your loved ones with expert training and consulting. Trident Shield, defending faith through empowered preparedness because together, we save lives."

Chapters

• 0:00 Christian Fellowship
• 8:10 Power of Prayer and Strength
• 28:47 Moving Forward and Embracing Progress
• 43:17 Strategic Planning for Future Relocation
• 49:38 Considering Tennessee as Best Relocation Option
• 1:04:57 Prayer for Protection and Unity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

All right, everyone welcome to Christ. Forged Locking Shields a Christian fellowship show where we fight three battles. All right, we won. We fight to get a humble and grateful heart aligned onto the Lord. We check all of our grumblings, our gripings, our pity parties. You know everything that is wrong in the world and we remember how much is right in the world. We all have pain, we all have suffering, we all have problems, but somewhere, a lot of places and a lot of people would pay a lot of money to have your problems and not theirs. Okay, the Lord is good to us and the best way to have a good relationship with the Lord is to be humble and be grateful. Right, so that is the first thing that we do. Two I'm going to take off my glasses until it's time to read here. But two we deliberately pursue a relationship with our Lord and Savior by studying his holy word and through prayer. Three we spend time in fellowship with iron, sharpening iron, holding each other accountable through the Forge Challenge, the 90-Day Forge Challenge and beyond. But we invest in each other here. We submit all aspects of our life faith, family, fitness, fundamentals, finances to the Lord and we hold each other accountable. All right, we do that in our Facebook group where we log what we do in each of those five categories faith, family, fitness, fundamentals which is your skillset sharpening and adding to it, as well as finances. Okay, so that's what we do here.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Um, and I am a day late for those of you who who noticed, um, the show, you know, historically has been on Friday nights, but I've been doing so much travel, um, for work, doing a lot of, uh, you know, active shooter and security consulting, training for Christian clients all around the country, particularly schools, churches, organization, faith-based organizations that I'm usually driving from, you know, the airport, you know, particularly going West East Coast, or, you know, know, or a long drive on fridays, because everyone seems to be booking me around on fridays, um, or thursdays, and I'm traveling back on friday. So we might be moving this show permanently to saturday night, which you know we'll. We'll see, but that might be why, you know, I don't see a lot of our, our normies on here, meaning our, our traditional uh, folks. Also, I want to welcome everyone who's been subscribed. You know, recently subscribing may have seen some of our shorts out there.

Speaker 1: 3:37

We're new to the short game. I'm really, you know, again, I'm a one-man here. So I know we're not the most technically polished. I know we're not high-end production here. I mean, this is my sanctuary, my office, our home church. You know as well as our former two-car garage right that we converted into this space, so you know nothing fancy here. We're not high-end, high-tech, high-anything.

Speaker 1: 4:07

We are people just like you who are trying to walk out a biblical worldview and lead others and prevent others from falling in traps and pitfalls and avoiding the struggles that we ran through. We created this community, this show, this church, this fellowship, this training group whatever you want to call it to reach other people out there who, after being saved, looked around the churches and found nothing but beta males as pastors and effeminate men or worse, women pastors as pastors and effeminate men or worse, women pastors and um and and just didn't feel like they had a home in the church. Um, and then trying to find a pastor who's actually walking it out in his own life. Right, you know you want to. You want to narrow out how many pastors that you can actually follow. Look at their life. You want to narrow out how many pastors that you can actually follow. Look at their life, not who they were before they were, you know, pastors, because we all have a past right, but are they leading their family? Are they leading their family and are they discipling their family? Are they passing on their Christian identity?

Speaker 1: 5:26

And too often we were seeing weak sauce leaders who put on a great PowerPoint presentation on stage and could put the plastic smile on, but there was no substance to them. You look at their families and there were catastrophes. So that's why we're here. We're here to teach other Christians or to walk alongside other Christians and share knowledge, because we don't know everything. I don't pretend to know everything. I'm not some seminary educated pastor, I'm a lay pastor. So again, hello Lauren, my amazing wife. It's good to see you here and strength and honor to you. Strength and honor. Strength and honor, strength and honor.

Speaker 1: 6:15

So we don't know it all. We are here to walk out a biblical worldview to, I believe you know, push the masculine Christianity to embolden men to be strong leaders and defenders of their house. And unlike many Christians who are going down this path, particularly my reform brothers, I believe in strong women as well. My wife is not some pretty little flower to be protected in. My daughters aren't going to, you know, they shouldn't have be able to fight or do any of that stuff Garbage, garbage. I believe that our men should be strong leaders in the house and should be protectors of the house, but the women should be shield maidens. They should have their back and they should be able to handle themselves as well. So we believe in prepping here. We believe in raising your family away from the secular world, all right away from the secular world. We homeschool. I would also endorse classical Christian education. Some of those schools have really reinstated my faith for group education again. Just some of them are so squared away and inspiring. Very well done. But we believe in discipling our own kids. So no need for the youth pastor to do it, which too many Christians do. We do it, I do it, my wife does it, and we're not perfect, we struggle and we're here to pool resources and to pool knowledge, because we could always do things better. Right. That's what this is all about.

Speaker 1: 8:10

So let's go to the first battle. Let's get a humble and grateful heart and go before the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, lord, I thank you. I thank you for this group of people joining me through the Internet, around the world, now and later, who will hear this on podcast platforms, on various social media platforms. Thank you, lord, lord I, I thank you for your common grace. I thank you for your creation. These, this universe stars, stars, the moon, the sun, earth, everything on this earth, from the mountains to the oceans and everything in between, all the life, whether it be plant life and its diversity and amazingness, the animal kingdom, fish of the sea, birds of the air and that walks the land. Lord, you are amazing, brilliant, magnificent and everything you do is good.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Lord, we thank you for giving us another day today to get it right to turn back to you if we were walking away from you or never walked toward you. Lord, we thank you for the honor of serving you, if we are saved, and for another day to die to self, to become more like you, jesus, and less like us. We thank you for the trillions upon trillions of cells that are in the human body, that had to work near perfect for us to even be here, and when you take that and multiply it by everyone we love that's still with us today, that number is unknowable. Lord, we thank you for all the relationships in our life, the people who love us and the people we love, those that aren't with us. We thank you for every moment we had with them. May we keep their memory going forward. May we never take for granted a moment with a loved one, a friend. Lord, we thank you for every sunrise, every sunset, the sound of children laughing and the birds in the morning, waves against the shore, the smell of fresh rain and good food cooking, the taste of good food and drink, a touch of a loved one, a warm fire on a cold day, a cold night, a cool breeze on a hot day day. And we pray that this time that we have glorify you, serve you and that it would please you, and I pray that we would serve you with every beat of our heart and proclaim you with every breath of our lungs. In Jesus' name. We pray, amen, all right.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Hey, steve Raleigh, welcome back to the show. It's been a bit, bro. And where have you been on the forging challenge, brother? I haven't seen your name. I better see it starting tomorrow, day one for you under my day 14 and Lauren's day 12. All right, we're all on different days and that's okay, but you got to come back because you're one of the good ones that we have out there, brother, and we love you. So strength and honor to you, steve. Strength and honor. Strength and honor, strength and honor.

Speaker 1: 12:24

So tonight's reading was from the other day for me and it's again made its way into my battery of anti-pacifist doctrine in the Bible and pushing back against wickedness and what we're called to do. So let's go to Proverbs 24, and I'm reading out of the ESV. Lauren, if you're still here, if you haven't gone out, could you bring me my new Bible that a friend of mine at a nonprofit got me and I'm really thankful for it. It's beautiful and I'd like to show it off, if you have the chance, when you come in. It doesn't have to be right now, but I'm going to read out of the ESV Study Bible. Okay, proverbs 24, verse 1 Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence and their lips talk of trouble. By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled, thank you, with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Let's talk about verse 5. There, a wise man is full of strength. So, yes, he's wise, but also a wise man is full of strength. So if one is wise, one would not allow themselves to become feeble or preventable, which would be the fitness aspect of what we do. We have to be functional, we have to have strength, we have to be dangerous, and a man of knowledge enhances his might. What is that?

Speaker 1: 14:34

well one would say that that would be fundamentals, your skill set, your knowledge base, how valuable you are. For by wise guidance you can wage your war. In an abundance of counselors, there is victory. So look at that A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might. For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counsel is there is victory. That would be your war counsel. Talk about having a group of men or women, depending on who you are, know your full testimony, you know theirs. They know all your weak spots, they know your weak spots and go to them for counsel.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Wisdom is too high for a fool, and in the gate he does not open his mouth. Sorry, wisdom is too high for a fool and in the gate he does not open his mouth. Wisdom is too high for a fool. In the gate he does not open his mouth. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin and a scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Now here is something about courage. Courage, verse 10. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. And here. This hits like a sledgehammer Rescue those who are being taken away to death, hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. And then verse 12, which is to compound on this, to say, you know, talking about those who didn't try to claim ignorance on the trains of Auschwitz and other things. So, verse 12, rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling the slaughter. If you say, behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? And God, god knows you know. Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it in God, God knows you know. Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And he will not repay man according to, and will he not repay man according to his work? God knows, when you know something you can't hide from him. So not doing the right thing to protect those going to slaughter. Protect and hold back those who are stumbling. God help you.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Verse 13. My son, eat honey, for it is good and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such for your soul. If you find it, there will be a future and your hope will not be cut off. Lie not in wait as the wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do no violence to his home, for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. This might be surprising to some. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased. Turn away his anger from him. God does not delight in punishment of sin. Threaten not yourself because of evildoers and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future and the lamp of the wicked will be put out. My son, fear the Lord and the King and do not join with those who do, otherwise A disaster will arise suddenly from them and who knows the ruin that will come from them both.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Again, I'm just constantly blown away by Proverbs and how amazing they are. So here is a Bible that I got from my friend from Operation Logos. They are part of the Paul Stieg Ministries and they send out Bibles to um veterans, seals etc. And they sent me um this amazing. They asked me what version I wanted and I got a legacy standard bible. This is my first lsb um. I really am enjoying the legacy standard bible on that translation and, um, it's got a trident on it for one, because I was a seal, and uh, and it's got my name on it. So I'm really thankful to chris and to operation logos, um, also to dan lucardo who got the word out there, and then my good friend chris who, uh, you know, went to buds with um and you know, now here we are both in ministry. So pretty crazy stuff. So, um, again, thank you. So let's, let's now get to our third battle, shall we? Let's get to fellowship.

Speaker 1: 20:41

So I was just in California, southern California, for four days, um, doing active shooter consulting for an organization out there, and while I was there a wildfire started not too far from my hotel. I could see it flare up in the smoke and people were evacuated and in fact the client that I was working with was concerned. In fact the client that I was working with was concerned. You know I asked me to come in early to talk about possible evacuations, their facility. So you know my hotel was full of evacuees from that area of Southern California, not LA, and you know as well, with a lot of firefighters in there. You know non-local firefighters staying in the hotel. So it was kind of interesting to be there, kind of on the periphery, not involved in the fires per se, but in and around people who were going through or involved in that, and getting to see that with my own eyes.

Speaker 1: 21:55

I'm always so grateful when I get to go blessed, to get to go help fellow Christians deal with protecting their people and their organization, whether it's through active shooter training or hardening their facility with a security site assessment or authoring crisis management plans, emergency action plans, emergency operation plans, whatever you want to call them all hazards plans. And while I was in town, I got to hang out, did a four-hour lunch with an amazing friend of mine from my past where, when we knew each other, neither of us were saved saved. I get saved at 37. He gets saved at 30. And now we're both, you know, very active Christians, and so that was great to get together and to share an evening and share a meal and to share experiences and testimonies, et cetera, because he was a diehard atheist as well. Oh, I think I just saw Brandy. Come on, brandy, good to see you. Strength and honor. Strength and honor, strength and honor.

Speaker 1: 23:26

So I went there and got my burrito fix. I swear, the whole time I was there I had, uh, three carne asada burritos a day. I was there because I can't get a good burrito anywhere east of california, anywhere outside of california. Even in texas, I couldn't find a good burrito. So carne asada burrito with extra guacamole, no rice, no beans, no, nothing, it was amazing, so anyways.

Speaker 1: 23:54

So, steve, I understand your lack of desire to do the forging while on the road. I mean my workouts. The fitness aspect of my forging has been the worst of any launch. Yet you know I get to hit the gym. Today. My diet is cleaned up. You know I'm not doing 100% carnivore, we're doing like a paleo low-carb. You know paleo-keto kind of thing, you know. But we're going to eat fruit. You know just nothing. You know we're trying to keep the starches and the pasta and all the other stuff to a minimum. But, um, yeah, man, you know also, while traveling, that's what my body like you guys you know.

Speaker 1: 24:47

Trying to do fitness on the road, having a knee replacement and sitting in a car for hours or a plane for hours and hours, and hours, is rough. You know, I've got a bad back from a horrible parachute landing where I hit the ground, a parachuting accident. I hit the ground doing about 70 miles an hour and I've never been the same. Hit the ground. Parachute accident. I hit the ground doing about 70 miles an hour and I've never been the same. But, um, you know, staying functional and trying not to become totally broken when you're on the road, you know is has become a challenge. Now I got things that work for me. I've learned that if I take muscle relaxants when I'm lying in hotel beds um, good to hear Steve put that up on the screen. So you know, I find that if I take muscle relaxants that my back does not tend to go into spasms as much in a hotel, even after sleeping on some pretty hard beds, and then some stretching around, doing some walking, really helps my knee and the rest of me go. So taking extremely hot showers really helps as well. And then, you know, having your anti-inflammatories, vitamins, all those other things that you take really can help. So anyways that I understand the whole aspect of doing fitness on the road. There are some guys like the rock and these other guys who get up at like two in the morning to work out, and all those stuff.

Speaker 1: 26:32

I still haven't recouped my sleep from my knee replacement. I'm just starting to finally get some sleep. You know, um, for those of you out there who are considering getting a knee replacement, just understand you're not going to sleep well for at least a month. I'm going on way past that by the three-month mark. I am starting to get some rest, which is good, and I'm off all pain meds. I'm not even on typically on any inflammatories. I took some anti-inflammatories, like I said, on the road. I took some today, but minimal, minimal. Road. I took some today, but minimal, minimal.

Speaker 1: 27:14

So Brandy said Christ Forge is the hardest thing I am doing. It is a very hard thing, but being a Christian is a very hard thing. You know, when you're doing it right, dying to yourself is very painful and it is against the way the world is. So you know, trying to hold all aspects of your life accountable. You know I don't expect you. I mean, if you're, you're superhuman, if you can do great in faith, family, fitness, financials and fundamentals and financials, you're superhuman. You're going to do better at some times and you're going to. You know one of the things that I really struggle with being a CEO and an A-type personality. If I couldn't do something 10 out of 10, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it, I wanted to do it at a high level and and and I would let perfect get in the way of good and wouldn't do anything because it wasn't going to be perfect. So you know, with like doing this, forging and not being able to work out as much for being on the road and having some challenges and all these things, um, just cleaning up my diet made a difference, just trying to make sure I get enough sleep and to try to stay out of a back attack, or, you know, my shoulder was getting really crazy hurt, but today I was able to, you know, do some good workout in the gym. Today I'm still staying really, really light for me, but progress right.

Speaker 1: 28:47

So my point is in the five fundamentals. Any progress forward is better than not moving or worse, going backwards. Right, some days you're going to be able to take five steps forward. Right, and that's great. Let's say you got all five fundamentals and you got all five forward, and that's great. Let's say, you got all five fundamentals and you got all five. Four, and that's great. Some days you're only going to get three. Some days you may only get one, but you're still moving forward. All right, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:19

And if you want to say you know, if you want to even break it down even further, let's say you know you could do. You know three levels of things, right, you could really crush. You know fitness and you did your steps for the day. Right, you know your 10,000 steps for the day. You did your workout and your diet was great, right. So we'll say that's three out of three for that day. Even if you just did one thing the steps or the diet you did two out of three. And you move the ball forward. All, right and just. And all you guys out there who love food, if you work out, that's one, you get your steps, that's two, we'll say. And then you eat like crap. Well, that's minus one, right, so now you're back to only one step forward instead of two, right. So that's why you can see how some guys can advance really quickly because they're doing all three steps and then others not so much.

Speaker 1: 30:19

So again, don't let a perfect get in the way of progress. Any forward momentum, particularly in the beginning, is good, particularly if you're coming from a um, a deconditioned body, one that's got a ton of injuries, like craziness about in San Diego. You know my knees killing me because I did a long drive down, got on a plane, did you know whatever East to West coast flight, um, another drive, and I'm there and now my ankle is hurting. It's like what the heck is going on. You know, I'm there, I'm walking around and do stuff and I'm gimping around, I'm going up and down stairs, I'm going to take one step at a time downstairs and I take one step at a time, you know, and it's. You know who understands. You know that, hey, you pick up some bumps and in some imperfections, and some scars and some bruises when you serve your country for a long time and you're doing that and it's fine. But you know, it's just. You know, when you have conditions like a knee replacement or a bad back or whatever it is, and then all of a sudden you get like it feels like an ice pick is in your ankle out of nowhere, you know, and that's because body is not used to limping and gimping so much. So, again, getting mobile and moving forward in that is important. Same thing goes in all of them.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Some days you're going to be able to read four chapters of the Bible. Like I say, some days you're going to be able to do an old, a new, a proverb and a psalm, and other days you might only just get one chapter done. Some days you might not even get in your Bible and you just might have to pray. You just didn't have the time, you didn't there and you just need to spend more time in prayer, and that's fine, right? The thing is to do something, connect with God in some way every day. Don't be like, oh man, I'm just going to pass this to him. No, no, pray, pray, pray, pray. Okay, you know, that is key, you know?

Speaker 1: 32:35

And then in family, sometimes you get to have 10 out of 10 experiences. You get to go on a date night with your wife and you get to have. You get a babysitter and time. You get a babysitter and time. The day where Lauren and I can vanish for a weekend is going to be an amazing day for me. I miss just having my wife to myself. I absolutely adore her in every way and want to spoil her in every way. Want to spoil her in every way. And right now, with three young kids, a farm, a hungry business and everything else going on in her life. That's just not a reality right now. So sometimes it's an hour, a half hour that I just get to talk to her. You know we get. Sometimes the kids might sleep in and we'll get an uninterrupted cup of coffee holy smokes.

Speaker 1: 33:34

You know, don't, don't, don't, don't. Not get those moments because they're not perfect, because you're not at a table drinking wine dressed to the T. You know, whatever Sometimes dirty sweats, unshowered, stinky, but available is the best you're going to get and you're going to regret if you don't wake. You know if, if you didn't, if God forbid anything should ever happen and you didn't take a moment to reconnect. Now I came back and you know confession, you know you're back for four, you're gone for four days.

Speaker 1: 34:20

When you're out of the environment is way different than the people who stayed in the environment right, different than the people who stayed in the environment Right. When you're the one who left and came back, you tend to like, even though you know there are things I enjoy about traveling Flying is not one of them. You know restaurants, friends, but traveling without Lauren just reminds me all those times where I was in the military, going around the world and I had no one to share that mountain view with or that amazing cafe with. So you know, I'm on the road and I'm missing my family, my family's together and when you come back into that environment you want to feel missed.

Speaker 1: 35:07

You know, right now one of my daughters is really into me and one of my daughters not so much. She's just at a different stage of development. She's a five and a half year old and my three year old is all about me. I mean, she's become my wingman and just about everything. And you know, and I've been home and she's, she's 100% been on my heels the whole way and I've been taking that opportunity to pour into her Right, um, and then I get brief spurts with the other one.

Speaker 1: 35:45

I mean it's not awkward, it's not, she's not unkind or whatever. She doesn't seek me out as much as the three-year-old does, you know. And so, again, it's making do with what you've got and keeping the ball moving forward in family, with relationships. And my mom I came home and my mom and at times have had very estranged relationships. We had a big discussion not too long ago, everything on the table again, and I'm moving forward and, you know, came home and got a hug and there's a connection and you know, and and that has been fantastic, um, moving the ball forward on that. Did I get a hundred yards on that one? No, I've got three and a half yards. Right, with my three-year-old, I got a touchdown, you know, with my wife, I got a field goal and with my daughter my other daughter, daughter I got. Well, I'm probably going to field goal with her too. Okay, so maybe I got a first down with my mom, right, football analogy, those of you out there who don't know Right, so, so again, it's all about keeping the ball moving down the field, not going backwards and not just staying there.

Speaker 1: 37:06

Don't let perfect, get in the way of good enough progress, all right. And the other thing I wanted to talk about today was, you know, is what to do with all this good news. Right, I have become addicted to the good news out there. Right, I have become addicted to the good news out there. You know, since Trump has taken office, I no longer wake up the morning and morning to see if we're going to be in war or what calamity has just happened. I wake up to see how we're going to be winning. You know, and um, it is supremely uplifting to be able to turn on the news and brandy has way more confidence in me than I have in myself. Jason, are you and lauren going to make right, a trident shield, christ forge type of bible one of these days? We may make a devotional. Um, if I found it to be helpful as we continue authoring content and and running forgings here and doing men's groups here and and continuing to evolve our ministry, um, there definitely will be some type of things. I mean, we already do active shooter training, we already do firearms training, we already do, you know, a ton of different things here, and we already do a discipling type of training here called the forging uh weekend forging um. So it's possible we may get there. Um, it's really just a bandwidth issue right now, whereas I need to throw as much time and resources as I can at Trident Shield because that pays the bills. I mean, that's what pays the bills and the bills need to be paid, and you know we're digging ourselves out of a massive hole.

Speaker 1: 39:11

Like you guys, you know we suffered a horrible downturn with COVID, running an active shooter security consulting training business. During COVID we took a 90% loss to revenue for multiple years because no workplace, no workplace violence. No school, no school violence to prepare for Everyone was out. So we were out of a job and we racked up a ton of debt during that time, just like most businesses that are still around, many folded. So it's going to take us still a while to get out of this, but you know God is blessing us.

Speaker 1: 40:00

We are doing great. We are doing exactly what we want to do. We are helping the body of Christ become good shepherds and protecting their flock. Can't think of a better thing than that, can't? It's an amazing, amazing calling and job and I'm blessed to do it, blessed to do it. But you know, getting up and watching all this good news. It's good food for the soul, particularly because we're not used to that right. We're used to, you know, trump being attacked for four years while he was there, investigated all these things. While he was there, investigated all these things.

Speaker 1: 40:45

Steve says devotional would be great. You're a good writer with a lot of stories to share. Thanks, man. I appreciate your confidence. Maybe someday I'd have to organize those thoughts, but so we'll see. Organize those thoughts, we'll see.

Speaker 1: 41:06

Growing this community, this forging community that we're doing right now. That is what I need to focus on Helping you guys do your own, helping you grow in those five pillars of your life the faith, family, fitness, fundamentals and finances. That is key in holding you accountable and helping you in your relationships and helping you with your walk with the Lord. That is what I do, helping you tactically as well. What I do, helping you tactically as well For those who want to become preppers and want to be responsible and want to know how to defend themselves and their families and those they care about.

Speaker 1: 42:00

So, so, so, watching all this news, enjoy it while you have it, but the thing is is you have the wind at your back. Don't drop anchor right now and do nothing and don't just coast. Now's the time, while you're not being bombarded with bad news and with obstructionist government, to really take some ground for the Lord in your life, to hit the gas, to expand, you know, to start investing in people. Maybe invest in another business, keep prepping, keep growing your skill set. Don't be like, ah, trump's, fine, we're good because he can be gone tomorrow. Guys, I don't know what the world would look like if that happened.

Speaker 1: 43:18

So take in the news, watch it, you know. So take in the news, watch it. You know watching pete, pete hegseth get confirmed while two moon bats, murkowski and collins, voted against him. Of course the, the troll turtle, the deep state troll turtle, um McConnell, you know um voted against him as well. All those people should be retired, all of them. So Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed today. Marco Rubio, I mean, it's just so uplifting for once to be winning like this. Just don't let that become complacency for you. Use it as fuel and accelerant, right. Use it as an accelerant to keep moving forward in your forging and bring others on board. There are going to be people out there who are going to be open to our way of life as things get better. You know it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 44:54

For a time, when I was going through Bud's training and you know I was just out in California, like I said, there's nowhere else in the world I wanted to live in other than California. And while I was out in California I said there's nowhere else in the world I wanted to live in other than California. And while I was out in California I was in the only place in America that had good weather. It was like 70, 75 and sunny. Everywhere else was like freezing, cold and miserable, even like. While I was gone, florida got snow, louisiana got snow. It was ice cold. Here my neighbor's house burnt down like this, like directly on the next to our property, in the back um craziness. And there I am in california, which so many people live in, and I wanted no part of it. All I could smell again was exhaust from all the vehicles. It's brown and concrete and ugly. It was a nice to be in a place where there was a every restaurant, a variation of a restaurant you could ever imagine. Good food everywhere, great services everywhere. You know ultra conveniences. Prices were out of control, out of control, gas, insane. And it was just. Let me know again Tennessee man, I'm so thankful for Tennessee Smell of honeysuckle and everything else in my backyard Smell of clean mountain air, compared to Florida, which smelled like you were sucking on a tailpipe as well. California, same thing. Anywhere where you got millions and millions of taxes. Same thing here. None of that, none of it.

Speaker 1: 46:57

Last thing I wanted to talk about today, where you should be moving to in 2025. Now I've gone long and hard at people for not moving when you had the best economy and housing market ever, and everyone who was slow and didn't move and was too choosy and too picky is stuck exactly where they were. They move nowhere. They talk about it for years, they daydream and they go nowhere.

Speaker 1: 47:37

Trump's presidency, you have four years to get this to get out of there before the next, because we don't know what's coming. You don't know what's coming, but if I was you, where I would go? I would look at Tennessee. I think North Carolina is actually safe as well, south Carolina. So places I like here are, you know, the Northeast Tennessee. Chattanooga is another area I would look at. So here between here and knoxville, right johnson city, tennessee and knoxville, um, so the northern northeast corner, um, I would also look at Western North Carolina. Northwest North Carolina is some of a beautiful country, so Blowing Rock Boone is too liberal. Mountain City, tennessee is still one of the hot spots that I would look at where real estate is still relatively affordable. You have a ton of amenities in Boone that you can shop at if you don't mind dealing with some Democrats over there, some crazy liberals from Appalachian State, or you can make the drive and shop in Johnson City, tennessee, which we know a lot of people who do that.

Speaker 1: 48:57

If you want snowy weather and more seasons, I would look at Idaho. Joseph Gathicolson, you moved no, you moved to Alaska, didn't you? You're in Alaska. You're in Maine and moved to Alaska. I wouldn't recommend Alaska, even though it's something that's on my heart to go out there to live in the great outdoors and all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 49:39

I don't think it's nearly as conservative as the state as Tennessee is. I mean Tennessee. I can't say enough about it. Your taxes are low, right, you don't pay for abortions here. There's no trans garbage dollars going to trans garbage here. It's still really affordable compared to everywhere else in the country, um, but they're. The services here are going to suck, just like they suck in alaska.

Speaker 1: 50:12

After seeing some joseph stuff things here, I wouldn't want to have a count on the government to help me to educate a special needs child here. You know, being dependent on the government for anything is never a win situation. Never, ever, ever. You're always going to get the worst of the worst. You have to achieve enough to be able to improve your family's life, which is challenging. The Bible says he who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel, worse than an unbeliever which, trust me, when you get laid off or let go and you're struggling to provide, it becomes a five alarm fire man. Five alarm fire on your soul. You got to prioritize that with everything you can Now.

Speaker 1: 51:45

North Carolina, great Greenville, south Carolina, is a booming town that we almost consider it's just so hot in the summer. So Greenville, south Carolina, is exploding. It's doing very well. It's got an airport. It's one of the cheapest airports to fly out of in this region. That's the one I typically fly out of when I'm trying to save money. It's about two hours. For me it's greenville, spartanburg. Greenville's nicer than spartanburg, um. And then you get, like travelers, rest, which is of that which is still in the mountains, which is a little bit cooler. We didn't see a lot of acreage when we were trying to buy there. Again, I think that city's been blown up for a while.

Speaker 1: 52:30

In fact, if you're driving on 26 and you're going from North Carolina to Tennessee, you're going to notice something that North Carolina is much nicer. There's it's, there's more people there. The towns typically are nicer because there's more money and there's way more people there. The mountains are all you know. You can't. There's no green on the mountains because they're all full of houses and then you descend into Tennessee and it's nothing but opportunity. But it can be dumpy. It's definitely not nice house, nice house, nice house, nice house, nice house. It's nice house, okay House, trailer trailer. Nice house, okay, house, trailer, nice house, trailer, nice house, you know, and people who are used to older, more established neighborhoods, where it's been gentrified for 100 years are going to struggle with it. There are towns and parts of towns that are newer neighborhoods or where the old money was, and you'll find what you're more used to like, say, in Virginia. But Tennessee still is full of opportunity for people who are not rich, who want to come down here and have a house and maybe some land. Not as much as when I came down here four years ago and I put my money where my mouth was and I bought a house sight unseen and we got 44 acres and a brick ranch that has turned out to be a gem. Lord blessed us, lord blessed our obedience, so I would look at those places. I would avoid texas with everything I had.

Speaker 1: 54:48

Politics in texas are great mostly, but it is not a preppers area in the slightest. An unnatural environment might as well be the surface of Mars. It's dry. If anything happens, they're going to be Mad Max, because there's too many people in an area that can't sustain any population without every bell and whistle that technology has to offer.

Speaker 1: 55:17

Farming is very hard work, joseph. It really is. We don't necessarily farm right. We raise animals here, so we raise cattle. We raise, we have dairy meat or beef cattle, we have pork, as in hogs, and we have chickens, turkeys and ducks and we've grown a garden okay, a normal-sized garden, and we've done a massive load of potatoes. Before no Texas had a bunch of California, empty into it, brandy, and again, you know, texas has a lot of um, a lot of restaurants, a lot of convenience, a lot of everything you want. If you want to live in an ugly place it's pretty ugly other than probably like Austin drove around there, try.

Speaker 1: 56:12

I wanted to move to Texas with everything in my body. I went there at, had opportunities there, I drove around and I could not like it. I'm like this place is too darn ugly. Went all over northern dallas and the hills over there grapevine, flower mound and beyond and I'm like, nope, garland, garland. Now I hear Austin's beautiful, but Austin's all liberal and if you stay in a blue state.

Speaker 1: 56:59

It's just a matter of time Until they come. For you, man, it's just a matter of time. I mean, look at what happened in Canada Neighbors were snitching on Neighbors for having people over On the holidays. That's what socialism does, you know? I still have family that lives in Massachusetts and I beg them to get out all the time, but they're too lazy Lazy, what I know is too lazy to move. Either it's important to you and you make it happen or you don't. You want everything to line up the sun, the moon, the stars. You're never going to move because it's never going to line up. Perfect, it didn't line up, perfect for us here. We just had to jump. Not everyone has the courage to do that.

Speaker 1: 57:55

It's tough. West Virginia is a place that I would look at. I don't see that. It's not as red as it appears to be voting wise. It looks as red as possible, but they still have 75 years of Democrat rule or more, where they have laws and taxes and a bunch of Northern West Virginia. Northeast West Virginia is full of a ton of DC elites elites. So again, you're dealing with a lot of a lot of Democrat policy and a lot of anti-business, anti-growth agenda there. But it is beautiful and there is opportunity and there is land there and it is a good prepping place. Virginia, southern Virginia, is absolutely gorgeous. It's as nice as anywhere in Tennessee. It's as nice as anywhere in North Carolina.

Speaker 1: 59:10

I don't trust Virginia to stay red in the slightest. I was living in Virginia and we left. I was living in Virginia and we left. Now, as Trump decentralizes DC and you know, maybe he's able to get rid of K Street and get rid of all the government agencies that are so full there that overload Nova. He's going to be so full there that overload Nova. He's going to be maybe able to flip Virginia red, depending on how many go and who goes where. But then you're exporting blue votes to red states. So I don't know how that's going to work, but geographically it could work. So I don't know how that's going to work, but geographically it could work.

Speaker 1: 1:00:01

I just don't trust Virginia to stay that way and your tax dollars still go to abortion and everything else, whereas here and I think Texas, they don't Florida, florida, northern Florida, maybe Florida is so darn hot, it's so flat, let's face it. If you're not on the beach it's awful Hot, humid, flat rain all the time. Great growing season for prepping. North Dakota, south Dakota, montana those are North Dakota, south Dakota, montana are places I'd look at. Again, more expensive Wyoming it's hard to get in and get out of, but I'd look at that as well. Again, very expensive in the nice places. Again, very expensive in the nice places.

Speaker 1: 1:01:10

Northern Alabama has some key opportunity places that we saw where it was pretty mountainous on the northern tip of Alabama, warmer than it is where we are, but you can still get mountains in Alabama. Who would have thought, right, that's the southern side of the Smokies. North Georgia is another location where that's mountains, where you have the Smokies that you go to. But it's Georgia. They've gone blue at times. I would avoid Maine, I'd avoid New Hampshire, unless you had to stay in the Northeast. Then those are options, but I don't trust any of them. They all want blue. They'll be blue forever. So Lawrence said it best here Basically, tennessee is the best option. So come join us everybody. Exactly, exactly that's all I wanted to talk about tonight. Basically, tennessee is the best option. So come join us everybody. Exactly, exactly that's all I wanted to talk about tonight, and I want to go get some time with my missus, so I'm going to pray us out, we'll wrap it up and we'll call it a night and I'll see you tomorrow for church.

Speaker 1: 1:02:31

So, heavenly father, lord, we thank you for this group. We thank you for the people who took the time spend. We thank you for this group. We thank you for the people who took the time, spent time with us, and the people who listen to us now, who watch us now or later, online or on a podcast platform. We're so thankful for everybody who invests in us and us with them. Come alongside us and fight with us and pray with us and help us get through this time. And fight with us and pray with us and help us get through this time.

Speaker 1: 1:03:01

Lord, it's so easy to get caught up in the world and to spend one hour on a Friday, saturday night talking about you and things about you and trying to walk out a godly worldview with your family and how to raise your family in a godly way, to make it all about you is the least we can do and we're happy to do it. But I pray that you bless everyone and you put upon their hearts where you want them to go and help them move there and show them. It does require faith, that it does require intestinal fortitude, and then you can't wait for every I to be crossed or every I to be dotted and every T to be crossed. That's not how you work, lord. We must have faith.

Speaker 1: 1:03:55

I also pray that everyone would not be distracted by all the good news and stop making progress in their own life and stop pushing the envelope and get comfortable. Lord, comfort is the enemy forging right now. Whether they're struggling financially or struggling with their fitness, or they don't have a lot of skills, or they're having trouble with their family members or loved ones, or they're struggling to get in your word, I pray that you would meet them at that point of contact, lord. You would drive them to be better in all aspects to surrender all their life to you. So now I pray a prayer of blessing and peace for this fellowship, for the persecuted church, for our troops overseas. Our first responders at home are veterans of yesteryear.

Speaker 1: 1:04:58

I pray the whole world would not go into World War III and I pray for President Trump, for all of our leaders. You would protect them and that you would drive them, lord, to do your will, your will alone. Lastly, I pray for America. Pray that she would humble herself, turn from her sin in her knees, seek your face and you would see her and heal her. We could once again be one nation under god, indivisible liberty and justice for all. And I pray then. Now pray that this congregation would come to attention to put on the full armor of God. Strap on the shield of faith, pick up the sword of the Spirit, boldly walk forward to join the shield wall Locking shields to the left and right. We march forward to take ground for your kingdom, for your glory forever. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. God bless you everyone. I will see you tomorrow at church, 11 am Eastern Time. Bye.