The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
The Doctrine Trap
We explore the tension between religious theory and practical application, examining how believers often get stuck in theological debates while neglecting the simple power of obedient action.
• Many Christians obsess over "new doctrines" rather than applying timeless biblical truths
• Jesus wasn't teaching new doctrine in Mark 1:21-28, but demonstrating the power of obedient action
• Religious leaders often prioritize theological correctness over helping people who are suffering
• Denominational doctrine can sometimes paralyze believers with analysis rather than empowering ministry
• True transformation happens from the inside out, not through external behavior modification
• When studying Scripture, evaluate teachings against God's nature, look for consistency, and examine context
• Like Abraham, we're called to follow God in obedience without knowing every detail in advance
• The power of faith is revealed in action, not in perfect theological understanding
Get in the Word for yourself and start applying what you already know rather than waiting for perfect understanding.
#wofoyo
You've just finished supper, you're getting ready to go to a prayer meeting, hopefully catch a nap during the downtime, but people just won't let you be. In times like these, it helps to be armed, and you don't want some flimsy, run-of-the-mill kitchen knife. No, sir, you want the best. You want a sword from St Peter's Knife Works. They're sturdy, they're hand forged and easily concealed. Peter started making fishing knives as a young man for his family and business partners, and it grew into a passion. Well, it's a well-known fact that Peter had beat out Malchus to win the Gethsemane episode of Forged in Fire before the Lord decided to put his ear back on and it was overturned on a technicality. So when you need to protect yourself and the boss, make sure you use the best. Use St Peter's Knife Works Branches in Capernaum, rome and Jerusalem. They can even take care of roosters too. Hey everybody, hey everybody. Welcome to the Wofo Yo podcast with CW Monser, where we encourage you to get in the word for yourself. And we're going to do that right away. And since this is going to be airing a couple days after Easter, we're going to piss you off enough to make you get in the word for yourself. Mark, chapter 1. We're going to piss you off enough to make you get in the word for yourself. Mark, chapter one. We're going to be reading verses 21 through 28. We'll be reading out the new King James.
Speaker 1:They then went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying Let us alone. What have we to do with you, jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying Be quiet and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
Speaker 1:Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying what is this? What new doctrine is this? And that's going to be my point of emphasis. What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him, and immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. What new doctrine is this? Hey, dummies, it wasn't any new doctrine. That's the whole stupid thing. He was merely acting on the law that had been around forever. And you're trying to figure out what frickin' doctrine it is. Do the word Amen. Okay, now let's start our podcast.
Speaker 2:Now that we've got your attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I was reading that today and it jumped out at me and I'm like Frank 20. Yeah, Eighth grade education man Lay hands on, got all these theologians that I know, got all these books and they can break everything down into what this is, this and this is that new. Really need to understand about this and you ain't doing shit. So now the Holy Week's over. What new doctrine is it? It's not a new doctrine. Whatever doctrine you have, you're so worried about the doctrine that you're not doing the simplicity of the gospel. All you have to do is go out there and do it. Somebody's sick. Let's pray for them. Well, how do you pray for them? Do you pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Do you pray in Jesus' name? Do you do all this? Go and pray for them, Because while you're out theorizing, people are hurting the very fact that the man is in the synagogue and he's been around there. They the man is in the synagogue and he's been around there.
Speaker 1:They're more concerned about the doctrine than the demon, amen and the suffering of the person in their congregation that the demon is inflicting they're more concerned about, are we?
Speaker 2:doing this the right way than getting somebody delivered Doctrines and credentials they're more worried about are we getting it right or is that person doing it right? And they're probably not, because we know what's right and what's not. And number two, what credentials does that guy possess? Who credentialed him? What denomination is he? Where did he get ordained? Where did he go to school? Where did he get his teaching from?
Speaker 2:But, like you said, it can be very easy to get wrapped up in all of those things rather than the simple fact that a person got delivered man, I'll tell you what. If we were more focused on the end result or the end state of the mission, rather than all the X, y and Z in between, I think we could do a whole lot more. And that's not to say that we should just blow off all of theology and doctrine. That's in the Scriptures. But the Bible says that all Scripture is God-breathed and good for doctrine. So the Scripture is good for doctrine. So the scripture is good for doctrine. I don't need your denomination headquarters to pass down a doctrine to me. I got the Bible. I asked a guy that one time starting up a new church up here where I live, and went to his first church service. There's 49 churches in this. We're the 50th church in this little town of about 17,000 people, and all I could think of was man. That's an indictment in itself, right there, speaking of division.
Speaker 1:A whole bunch of kids that want to take their toys and go home when they don't get their way is what it is Sure. A whole bunch of kids that want to take their toys and go home when they don't get their way is what it is Sure.
Speaker 2:But I stuck it out with him for oh, six months or so and one day he gave us a binder and kind of like oh, everett McGill, you know, when big Dan Teagues wrapped him across the beach. What's the deal, dan? What's this binder for? Right here he said oh well, I'm writing up our mission statement and putting together all our points of doctrine so everybody should know that this is what we believe. At one point in time he was up around 300 pages and he'd hand us, you know, about 10 or 20 pages each week when we'd come to church. Put this in your binder, put this in your binder. And I finally asked him one day. I said, man, I ain't trying to stir nothing or anything. I said, man, I ain't trying to stir nothing or anything, but why do I need this binder when the Bible says that Scripture is the doctrine?
Speaker 1:Why do I need your doctrine?
Speaker 2:Brian, you pooped in his Wheaties man. You could hear crickets, and that was the last time I stepped foot in that church, not because I didn't like him or anything, but, god, let me know real quick that's not where you need to be, that's not where it's at. I hope that you know he's doing good things. It reminded me a lot of ourselves when we were younger, got a call to ministry, and he was being obedient to the best he knows to do what every Christian's going to do when they get a call into ministry They'll start a church, but that's not really what that means, though, but he was doing it. I got to give him credit for that. I hope that he'll figure it out as he goes. God will reign him back in. I know that he'll figure it out as he goes. God will reign him back in. I know that.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, to his credit, if you're out there and you and I both will attest to this if you're willing to go out there and make some mistakes, the Lord will correct you, just be willing to act. And that's kind of what we're talking about here. What doctrine is this? It's not a new doctrine. He's acting on the Torah. He's acting on the Torah. He's become the embodiment of the Torah and he's the word made flesh. He's just acting it out Exactly. And y'all are doing your theories and y'all are wanting to break things down and y'all want to make sure that everybody has the proper understanding.
Speaker 2:Yes and amen. Be careful, though Watch out for those false teachers out there. Yes, the false teachers and the false prophets.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole thing is how many of them false teachers and false prophets are laying hands on the sick and they recover. Now I know, believe me, because we get in the Word for ourselves. It says in the last days, those things will come. I just ain't ran across it yet. I've ran across some people with ulterior motives and good giftings and all that stuff that were not taken away, but have some personal flaws. Guess who else has some genuine giftings and still has some personal flaws? Right, howdy folks, tis I. I got one other question for you while we're getting into this Did you happen to see any ads for any particular Bible-based items this week?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, yes, I just happened to see an ad for a particular. How about these necklaces? There's an ad that always pops up on my feed. It's a necklace, it's a pendant. I don't know if it's a crystal or a piece of gold, I'm not sure what it is but anyway it advertises that it has the entire Bible inscribed on it. Now, keep in mind, this whole pendant ain't no bigger than the, you know, your pinky nail. You can't read it. This is this. Stuff is so small, but it's etched on there.
Speaker 2:And I remember the first time I saw this ad, probably six or eight months ago, thinking oh, that's kind of cool. But then the same sentence going wait a minute, hey, you can't read it. What's the point? Then it dawned on me well, maybe there's a prophetic lesson here, maybe there's a prophetic picture here. Are we carrying around Bibles that we just aren't willing to read, or we can't read or won't read? The Lord kind of shared that with me just earlier today. As a matter of fact, carry around Bibles, carry around Scripture to have on display but not to have to read. Have we gotten there? Is that where we're at, some of us, some to?
Speaker 1:read yeah, have we gotten there? Is that where we're at, some of us, some of us? Yeah, well, brother, I have the newest, biggest study Bible. I've got the date notes. I've got the Schofield notes. I've got the Holman Christian standard. Was that the old amplified or is that the new Amplified? I got them both. Yeah, man, if you could act on the King James, you'll get results.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what the King James. I've got several translations that I read. It kind of depends on what mood I'm in and how much time I have to devote the King James. I really have to have some time and really clear my head to read, but God speaks to me very clearly through the King James. I don't really, I don't really attribute to that particular translation, but maybe it's to the clearing of my head and the slowing down and stuff like that, because I'm depending on God more for the clarity than the ease of the translation. For the clarity Sometimes there's sometimes I like the NIV because it's it's easy to read and I only have, you know, 10 or 15 minutes to to get something in, and so you know it.
Speaker 1:It it's just it's easy reading. King James is still my favorite for study and the uh Strong's concordance that is keyed up with the numbers to the King James Bible, physical Bible and physical Strong's yeah, with the Hebrew definitions, with the numbers, with tout spelled out, and actually I use for most study. I use a uh, I use a King James. It's a parallel with a King James and an amplified Got that. So you can kind of see if the amplifies off by that standard. Now for our backtrack, one of the things that is useful, because King James probably mistranslated some things they all probably have. We're all probably missing some things. If you don't know about the culture of the time, it's very, very possible to take some things out of context. I'm not saying don't study. What I'm saying is don't get so bogged down in the info that you basically induce paralysis by analysis. And that's Christianity. It's supposed to be a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not supposed to be a philosophy, which is what we're relegating it to through our pursuit, our overzealous and out-of-balance pursuit of theology.
Speaker 2:Which is the pursuit of knowledge. Yes, and that is eating from the tree.
Speaker 1:The knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 2:There it is. All of it goes back to the garden and that's the whole thing about that man.
Speaker 1:Every time I look back at that, I see new insights into it, I see new aspects. But also I just realized how simple it was, which is weird, that the more simple you realize that it is, the more profound the whole conundrum becomes, because you have the source of all of it and you're in an intimate relationship with him and you go I want to learn something, I want to learn something on my own. I want that. I want that doctor of theology. I want that minister title. I don't just want to go out and talk to people. I don't want to just go out and pray for people that are sick or hurting. I want the title. I want the accolades. I want the title. I want the accolades. I want the recognition, I want the respect.
Speaker 1:And you just ate out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 2:Which Jesus actually said you're not going to get any of it because they didn't give it to me.
Speaker 1:Theology, your denomination, your non-denomination, your, your organization, that is instilling proper doctrine into you. Guess what they're going to instill? Any knowledge of what they say is good and knowledge of what they say is evil. And they're probably going to be right on a majority of it, but I guarantee you they're not a hundred percent right, and I know who is. Yeah, and you can. You can solve that by relationship with him. Now it might be uncomfortable, like what he told you when he said you know, I'm going to teach you, he said, but you're going to have to unlearn what you have learned.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. He's going to cause you to get over some insecurities, and there are a lot of insecurities inside of us. A lot of us probably don't even know it. There's a lot of insecurities inside of us that start to come up to the surface, which is good. We want that crap to come up to the top so that it can be, you know, drug off and everything. But a lot of this, a lot of insecurities inside of us, that's the stuff that's telling us.
Speaker 2:Well, I just don't understand it, I can't read it, I can't understand it.
Speaker 2:No, that's the enemy inside of you, telling you you're not good enough, but Jesus says you are. And he also says that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and he's the one that's going to teach you. So it's really important to get into the Word, to receive that promise from God's Word, to receive encouragement from God's Word, because, as the enemy tries to smack you down with all of the things that you can't do, because your mom said you couldn't do it, your daddy said you couldn't do it, your best friend said you couldn't do it, your teacher in school said you couldn't do it, whatever the case may be, jesus is saying yes, you can do it Because you've got something inside of you that you never had before. So, and that was a hard thing for me. Uh, then, once you, once you kind of get past some of those insecurities, you got to make sure you don't step too far over the trail onto the other side and get over into pride, um, and that's, that's easy to, that's easy trap to fall into as well.
Speaker 1:So, well that false humility is a form of pride, a big form of pride, one of the biggest forms of pride. I've come across and, having been raised Catholic early part of my life and still have a lot of respect for the Catholic faith, all the finest Christians I've ever met have been Catholic. As far as walking it out and just doing the word, have my issues with Catholic doctrine. That being said, one of the things that they used to do pre-Vatican II the lay people were not encouraged to read their Bible. They would get the message from the priest. Lay people were not encouraged to read their Bible. They would get the message from the priest. And we said, oh, we've progressed past that.
Speaker 1:Well, with this theology argument of you have to subscribe to our theology, to worship with this, to be a member of this body. This is our statement of faith and we pledge to one another. We're going to do this and do that. That ain't no different, because you're having to buy whatever magazine that preacher's selling. It's going to be their interpretation and they're going to make doggone sure that that preacher and that pulpit is buying whatever the head of the denomination is selling, whatever that board or who the executive guy or gal is, and I don't care whether Southern Baptist one of the larger denominations of Protestants in the country.
Speaker 1:Man, everybody better be preaching the same thing over in the Southern Baptist church is what it is Church of God of which I never would join the actual church. Never signed my name on that line, lord wouldn't let me. But we were real active in a church of God great pastor, not perfect pastor, but preach a house on fire, saw some mighty things happen there, saw a lot of what not to do happen there, but eventually one of the things that happened was the denomination stuck their foot in and said you're going to do it this way Because this is the way it worked back in 1940, don't you know?
Speaker 2:yeah, there's a. I think you'll find that a lot of your doctrine and theology comes down to behavior modification. We need to change the way you act. You need to change the way that you do things. Um, and I get it, it's uh, a lot of it's done out of a's done with good intentions, with a good heart, but it has an improper understanding of how repentance works. In a believer, repentance is born in the Spirit, not in the flesh. So, with that being said, when repentance is born in the spirit, now you have God, through the Holy Spirit, enabling that repentance, that person or that spirit man is changed on the inside, and then your flesh gets in line or comes in check with it on the outside, gets in line or comes in check with it on the outside. What we're taught through doctrine and theology, as we recognize it, as we see in the churches today, is you have to act this way and as you act this way, you start to become right. We call that sanctification, but it's not.
Speaker 1:It's out of order, it's out of place. I'm going to tell you, I see it. No matter what the denomination is, no matter what the organization, no matter what circle of influence that's in, you can fake the funk and still not be sanctified.
Speaker 2:Sanctified is a very personal thing sanctified is a very personal thing, yeah, and that's what. That's what the folks were kind of getting at here in mark. Yeah, what's this new teaching? You know, um, he had a change on the inside, uh, not not a change on the outside. What's up with that? Um, because the pharisees, that's the, that's the crap, the phar were pushing this outward change and then if you were good on the outside, we just had to assume you were good on the inside.
Speaker 1:A couple episodes ago. You're preaching for them to tithe, mint and anise and cumin and you're neglecting the weight of your matters of the law, Justice, mercy and faith. It's really as simple as those three things. It's not a matter of proper doctrine, it's a matter of application, and if you are willing to go do simple things. Hey, there is somebody that's sick. Have you prayed for them? Well, the Lord didn't. Okay, what are we supposed to do as Christians? We're supposed to pray for them. Well, what if they don't get better? Well, we still did what we were supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. Their improvement was not your responsibility. Just simply, the prayer was your action was your responsibility.
Speaker 1:Your obedience was your responsibility. Your obedience was your responsibility, and I think fear has a lot to do with it. Man, there was a guy I won't mention his last name because he probably wouldn't want me to belonged to our church back up in White Ash, named Mark and he worked in the deliverance ministry. And because he was not ordained through the proper thing, this guy and his family felt the call to do missionary work. The denomination would not endorse them to go and be missionaries. Okay, they found an outside non-denominational organization and ended up going to Senegal. Wow, within a week or two of being there, he comes across this other pastor in Dakar, a Senegalese pastor. Him and this other pastor become friends and he goes white boy, what are you doing? Well, bottom line, what happens is this he was being obedient and since he went through a non-denominational organization, he wasn't really bound by anybody, you know, by anybody's doctrine, rather. And so he just starts working with this other non-denominational pastor out there in Senegal. And because he was going out there and just willing to be obedient, sure, they stumbled some, but he goes out and the next thing, you know, they bring this demon-possessed girl in. She'd been the daughter of a witch doctor, which is I want to say this, if any of this sounds familiar to somebody listening something really, really uncanny happened and I talked with Mark after this. I said, hey, did you see this show? And he goes yeah, I did. That's a little bit odd, isn't it? So there was this television show that was on for about three or four years, started off on cbs, and then they got a little bit more explicit with it in some ways and left that to be on paramount plus the rest of the time, but it was called evil. Had the dude who used to play Luke Cage in it? Well, there was this whole thing that is eerily similar, down to the name of the girl that was the witch doctor's daughter, and this thing that the demon possessed girl. The name was exactly the same. And I'm like hey, mark, what's up with this? And you're like I know Right. So, again, mark had been working in deliverance ministry and we'd seen some people roll around on the floor and yell ooga booga and all that stuff, and a lot of them were looking for attention. Some had emotional issues, but after seeing real demons come out of people, I go this is not what we were dealing with.
Speaker 1:Well, at the same time that that was happening, mark and his family were over there in Senegal and they bring in this demon-possessed witch doctor's daughter and this demon would infest her and her belly would swell, swell, and the same would demand a sacrifice. Well, it started off with like birds and then animals, and if you sacrifice to this demon, then the belly would go down and finally it went from that to smaller, you know, basically bigger animals, bigger animals uh, sheep, goats and then finally it goes. I want a kid, sacrifice a baby to me. And they bring this young girl to the center is what it was called. It was over in Dakar, senegal, and Mark does the traditional. I command you, in the name of Jesus, to come out of her, thinking he's doing something just like he's doing in the States. And she hauls off and punches him right in his mouth. And so the pastor over there at the center said come here, white boy, you got some things to learn and taught him how to interact and address so bottom line.
Speaker 1:It took several hours, but this girl gets delivered.
Speaker 1:They take her back and her name was Esther. Well, in this episode of evil, what happened is they had a ritual to the ancestors and this girl named Esther goes in the field and gives birth to a demon. So if that sounds familiar, I'm going. This is uncanny. So basically, they bring her back to the village and everybody gets born again, including the witch doctor, because he had no power. This was like his adopted daughter and he had no power over this thing. It was beyond his skill and the whole village gets born. They tell this story to a couple other villages and other villages get born again, and so they finally created a church in the way that they could, and they have some issues over there which creating a church building is not near what you would try and do. You can't have it made out of wood. You said the termites are so bad over there, just eat her all up. Right, and I'm saying all that to say this it wasn't any particular doctrine that got rid of that demon. It was being obedient and also being willing to learn.
Speaker 2:Right, right, there's like there's a the willingness to learn and and knowing the nature, um knowing the nature of Christ and knowing knowing the nature of evil too.
Speaker 1:You got to know what you're dealing with.
Speaker 2:You got to know what you're dealing with. You got to know what you're dealing with and I'll give you an example that I kind of stumbled upon here in the last week or so. Jesus talks about some things. He talks about murder and stuff like that. And he says you heard it. Said I think this is on the sermon on the Mount. You're better, your memory is better than mine. Anyway, he says you heard it, said that basically, in the law of Moses, say if you, you know, if you kill somebody, you, you know, then thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not murder. He says, but I tell you, if you've done it in your heart, you've already broken that law. And he gives a couple examples of some things that you do in your heart, that you're guilty of, and you don't even have to do it in your flesh. I say to you you shall not commit adultery.
Speaker 1:But I say whoever looks after a woman to lust with her, which is like and by that definition it's like this stalking thing, I have to have her. It's not just like, oh, she's a good looking woman, but no, he said anybody that looks after a woman like to possess her has committed adultery with her in his heart.
Speaker 2:And then the scripture goes right on into if your eye offends, you pluck it out. If your right arm offends, you cut it. All you know which you know a lot of. There's a lot of preaching on that. You know talk about uh, you know how to avoid temptation and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And avoiding temptation is not really the big deal, because temptation is not a sin. Uh, we all get tempted, jesus. Jesus was tempted and everything. And avoiding temptation is not really the big deal because temptation is not a sin. We all get tempted, jesus was tempted and everything. But there's been a lot of preaching on that type of subject, on how serious God is about sin and he would rather you pluck your eye out than to look upon sin. He'd rather you cut your arm off than to commit sin. But what I saw in the last week or two was, I think we're missing the mark, because really what he just said, a few verses before that is plucking your eye out and cutting your arm off ain't going to protect you from sin anyway, because it's in your heart, not in your eye and your hand.
Speaker 1:So maybe he's talking figuratively.
Speaker 2:He's talking about. Go ahead, take your eye out. Go ahead, take your arm off. It's not going to help. Behavior modification is not the answer. Yeah, it has to start on the inside.
Speaker 1:One of the things you've talked about it. One of these days I'm going to still interview Daryl Coulson. We'll get that done. When I've dealt with things. When I interviewed Dan Blacksher, he's told me the same thing A lot of times what our major sin was, that was hanging us up dealt with things. When I interviewed Dan Blackshire. He's told me the same thing A lot of times what our major sin was, that was hanging us up. What we thought was the cause wasn't really the cause. What Jesus is talking about here he's like you got to identify the cause.
Speaker 2:What's the thing, not the symptom.
Speaker 1:No, what is the thing that's causing you to stumble? And, like several of them, pornography was the thing that. That was the stumbling block. Well, what's this big thing that you know? Oh, man, she looked at. I don't know why I'm doing it. And when the Lord starts revealing the actual reason, when it got to the point of Lord, what is going on here? What? Usually it was a trust issue. Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't like they were old horn dogs Right, you know? Far be it. But yet there was this thing that they were doing. One it was giving Another one. It had to do simply with trust and being willing to forgive and let go of things.
Speaker 1:For me, being idle was one of my big hangups. And the next thing, you know, the Lord goes hey, would you be willing to do this? Because I'm joking about it? But hey, we ought to do this. And the next thing, you know, the Lord goes oh, would you? Yeah, you know I was joking with you.
Speaker 1:I'm like man, we could write us a book called the Christian Self-Defense Manual, write about all the stuff we had to face. I just remember Clear's Day. I'm downstairs where we used to, where I used to do. The old Recording at that place is still there. But I go, it's good talking with Old bones. And I hear, would you? I'm like old Ralphie, right after he blurts out that he Wants a red rider. I'm like, yeah, but so here's how this goes. Blurred out that he wants a red Ryder. I'm like, yeah, but so here's how this goes.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to write a book. I ain't ever wrote a book, wrote a couple pages of some stuff I don't know. Had to learn some tradecraft in that you know how to write a book. I had some ideas, so I started writing down some ideas. Might have bought me a little tablet to help so I could write upstairs or downstairs. One of the reasons I love Apple products is because they all link together and the clouds come a long way, but Apple was the first to do it and I can link stuff together, I can pull it up, I can do whatever. I can send files to you when we started going back and forth and the next thing, you know, I go, man, I looked at no pornography in six months.
Speaker 2:I had been bored. No temptation, I had been bored in six months. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the bottom line is just being obedient to what, for me, it was just being obedient to what God called you to do. Was there some big oh you need to tarry and you need to rebuke this and you need to rebuke that? No, I did some warfare. I ain't going to lie, but I was doing that before and wasn't getting the result. The result happened once I got so busy about my father's business, and it ain't about how many people read the book. It ain't about how many people listened to the Bofo Yo podcast. It's about whether C-Dub and Bones are being obedient, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2:I bet you we've given away more books than we've sold. I know I have, I know I have, I know I have. Here's the thing Once we realize, once we understand or have a basic understanding of God's nature and everything, then we start to read his word and see these little things and realize, okay, some of the stuff that I've learned is just bogus. It's very easy to take a few verses out of context and preach a sermon series on. It's very easy to do that. But one of the things that as I'm reading and I start to get ideas or you know, my mind starts to wander. So I have to ask myself how does this idea, how does this thought process gel with God's nature? And if I can't get past that, then I know what I'm thinking is wrong, yeah. Or if I heard something is wrong, yeah, or, or what. Or if I heard something, somebody speaks something, I know that what they're saying is incorrect or wrong.
Speaker 2:The first, the first litmus test, is it has to get, it has to gel with God's nature. If it don't do that, then we can't go any further. If it does gel with God's nature, then does it gel? Do we have examples of it in the scripture. Just get ready to go there. Yeah, go ahead, yeah. And then once you have examples in scripture, that's really nice. Then the verses that you quoted to me, do they have context with verses above and below? Amen, brother Ralph. I like the way he would say it. He says you start reading 10 verses above and go 10 verses past the passage that's preached on, teached on or whatever, and that'll give you context. So it's kind of just some places, some things that we do, places that we go to when we're studying and trying to hear from God and reading God's Word. But you can't do it if you don't go in it. That's the thing.
Speaker 1:That Psalm's only nine verses. What do I do, Brother Ralph?
Speaker 2:Yeah, damn it, bobby. And I can't blame the pastor or the preacher on it, because he's only got an hour on Sunday morning to get a message to you Actually, probably less than that after praise and worship and all that stuff. So he's got a limited amount of time. And besides this whole relationship thing, he's got a limited amount of time and besides this whole relationship thing, it's our responsibility, Not his anyway. So we've got to take responsibility for those things. But I did learn that once I started applying that concept to it. There was just some things that I was taught in Sunday school, that I heard from the pulpit and stuff like that that weren't correct, or at least I didn't hear them right. It made more sense to me once I started looking through that lens.
Speaker 1:One of the best reasons why military education, properly done, is one of the most complete forms of education that you will ever get. You will get the textbook definition, you will get somebody breaking it down into layman's terms, then you get it demonstrated, then you get walked through. There's this disconnect, especially with preaching, especially with the flowery word, preachers that want to get all complex and and all this stuff. There's a disconnect because how are you going to act? How in hell are you going to act on that? What you're having is some smoke blowing up your rear end is the bottom line. It's. You know, there's an old phrase that if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit. And there's a lot of baffling going on over in our pulpits and beyond the pulpits. But the bottom line is can you demonstrate what you're teaching me Now? Granted, this is.
Speaker 1:I hate to keep on going back to basic training, but that's the first impression that's made on you. It used to be a thing can the drill sergeant demonstrate? By damn, they could Every time. But there's something about learning as you go, and then I mentioned basic training. Well, you learn it in basic training and then you find out that's the basics.
Speaker 1:Now, once you get your OJT, you get to your regular unit, you're going to find out. It's more specialized and, yes, the principles work but due to all sorts of things like specialty as far as your field of focus, like some might have a winter focus, some might have a desert focus, some might as far as what kinds of terrain and what kind of situation, is this an urban combat situation? Is this regular open field combat? Is this an air combat situation? Those are all variables, okay, and then what kind of equipment do you have? What's your loadout, you know, and then that can all change, are some big basics and then it's going to even get more particular depending upon the mission. But but you find out by observation and by having folks walk you through it. Come here private, come here new jack. Here's how it's done here. Come here cherry. Yeah I.
Speaker 2:I saw some, some generalities uh, in that, like you're saying, in basic um, the teaching style was very, very hands-on, very detailed, uh, very in your face and upside your head, because private got a very short attention span and so he needed that drill sergeant in his face. Then I learned, once I got to my units, I learned that each leader had their own unique leadership style and they found ways to lead, guide and direct you and motivate you in a way that fit them and fit you. And really what I found was that I was getting mentored and prepared for my next duty position and didn't know it. And I think the reason why that happens is because you had the basics, you had that foundation laid, and now you're at a point where this particular mentor operates on the assumption that you already have a foundation, that you wouldn't be here without that foundation, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:And I think this type of model can apply even in our civilian lives too. When you're first born again, there is a certain curve there that a person, it seems like you, either grow really fast, you're on fire really hot, or you're not. Uh, some people don't get lit up on fire when he gets saved, uh, some people don't. It happens later, um. But, and some people get lit on fire and you watch them. Go man, how come that didn't happen to me? Um?
Speaker 1:but however, then you see them get pruned.
Speaker 2:You're like man, I'm glad that didn't happen to me exactly. Yeah, you see them smack the wall and you're like, oh man, um so, but nevertheless that foundation gets laid and then they move on to the next phase, the next next phase of the training, and it's a little more even keeled. They're operating, a little bit more on their own doing things. So I see that model in Christendom in the civilian life too.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the best way it's. Discipleship is all it is.
Speaker 2:It's exactly what it is it's discipleship.
Speaker 1:What we realized, and probably not until we started to write the book and started to take a look back at some of the things we had been through. We had been discipled, you know we got discipled for the hard times ahead of us and who knows, you know, bones might be a little bit different for you, but I don't know where the hell I'd have been, Because what I went through darn near destroyed me anyway for a hot second.
Speaker 2:We just tried to muscle through it on our own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would have been a lot harder. I was trying, but one of the things that came back about the time I surrendered that ego to the good Lord after those moments of encouragement and I had some time to just get alone and think about it, was man. Brother Frank, I'm like man. He got through it. He got through it with his integrity Not perfect, had his flaws, but he still had his integrity. If he got through it, then I don't know what the heck this is going to look like, but the Lord can bring me through it too.
Speaker 2:My mother always reminded me. She would always tell me she could tell when something was eating at me, you know, and she'd always remind me. She said whatever you do, you know the truth, and everybody else will too. She said it'll come out. She said whoever's talking smack against you, whoever's lying against you, everyone else, all your friends, all your buddies, everyone else will see them for who they are at some point. So you just do it right, and I tell you what I know. That was right advice. I knew it was right advice at the time. Don't make it any easier to walk out, though, because the flesh creeps in. The flesh wants to get that pound of flesh. The flesh wants to get that pound of flesh. The flesh wants to get revenge, and the flesh wants to defend itself. And that's really I think that's really what God is trying to teach in a lot of us is that I'm here to defend you now.
Speaker 1:I'm here to defend you now and just like the flesh wants to defend ourselves. In a way, that's what we're doing whenever we try and defend this doctrine or that doctrine. Rather than I mean folks. It's this simple Whatever the Lord's telling you to do, just go and do it, and don't worry about specifics, because those get revealed along the path.
Speaker 2:They do. He'll let you know in route. Just like Abram when he called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, he said you got to go, grab your family, it's time to go. He said well, where are we going? Lord? I'll tell you on the way what a trip that must have been on. Lord, I'll tell you on the way what a trip that must have been Walking across to the Fertile Crescent not knowing where you're going, and imagine what family was saying to him hey Peter, where are we going? I don't know. We're going this way. All you got to do is I hate using the word obedient because it sounds it has the word obedient because it sounds it has the connotation.
Speaker 2:It sounds so subservient and brings back the connotation of being a slave to a master. And in the way you are, I like to think of it as just simply do it. You know, when you were kids and even when you're older, as you're older now, don't you do what your parents want you to do simply because you love them, not because they asked you to do it. That's not. That's not obedience, that's love. Yep.
Speaker 1:And you become a co-laborer with Christ.
Speaker 2:Co-laborer with Christ, there you go.
Speaker 1:Wofo, yo hey everybody. Co-labor with Christ. There you go.