The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
The Mountain's Edge: Where Holy Fear Meets Courage
C-Dub and Bones explore the biblical principle of drawing near to God while respecting divine boundaries, using Exodus 19 as their foundation for understanding this delicate balance. They examine how God invited the Israelites close enough to hear Him directly while establishing clear boundaries around Mount Sinai.
• God wants believers to draw near but also sets protective boundaries based on our spiritual maturity level
• Spiritual maturity comes through relationship and experience—Moses had 40 years of preparation while the Israelites couldn't handle 40 days
• Personal encounters with God can be both awesome and terrifying, requiring courage to continue pressing in.
• New believers often chase manifestations rather than developing the relationship foundation that sustains faith
• Trusting God develops through stepping out in obedience, learning from failures, but never quitting.
• Take responsibility for your spiritual journey—"80% of your problems are probably your fault".
• Boundaries that God sets for you personally aren't necessarily meant to become rules for everyone else.
• The military principle applies spiritually: "You don't ever quit, not when it's for real"
Remember folks, if you're going to grow, you gotta WOFOYO, get in the word for yourself.
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Speaker 1:Hey everybody, welcome to another Wofo Yo podcast with C-Dub and Bones. We're going to get in the word and we're going to talk about some things. That might make you scratch your head a little bit Maybe scratch mine but I see some principles in here. James 4.8 says this, and there's some other verses New and Old Testament that talk about this very thing. But James 4.8 kind of summarizes this when he says draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And so for our big passage of Scripture. Here we're going to go into Exodus 19. Now here's the setup God's going to meet with Moses and the children of Israel, and this is the predecessor to the giving of the Ten Commandments. We're going to start at Exodus 19, 19, verse 1.
Speaker 1:On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness their Israel encamped before the mountain. While Moses went up to God, the Lord called out to him from the mountain, saying Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you know yourself, and you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and bought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Pretty good promise right there, verse 7.
Speaker 1:So Moses came and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words that the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. So he's acting as an intermediary here. And the Lord said to Moses so he says right here he wants them near enough to hear him. God's intent here in verse 9, he wants them to believe Moses. And no, he's not shuffling and jiving, because that was one of the questions they asked. Who sent you? I am that I am, but now they're getting ready to hear it for themselves.
Speaker 1:So keep this idea of hearing from God for yourself, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for all the people around, saying Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. So keep that in mind. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. So keep that in mind. So you're to come up to the mountain but not touch it. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and they washed their garments. And he said to the people be ready for the third day, do not go near a woman, keep that in mind brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:Now, mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln. The whole mountain trembled greatly and as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and the Lord went up. And the Lord said to Moses go down and warn the people, let's say, break through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. So again, he's setting the boundary. Also the priest who come near the Lord to consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself want to set limits to the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him go down and come and bring Aaron with you, but do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Speaker 1:Going to go into verse 20, in chapter 20, he gives the Ten Commandments. Okay, if you don't know what the Ten Commandments are, get in the word for yourself. Read what the Ten Commandments. Now, after he gives the Ten Commandments, it says in 2018,.
Speaker 1:Here's the other thing I wanted to kind of just contrast here.
Speaker 1:Now, when the people saw all the thunder and flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die. Moses said to the people do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. And so you see, here it almost seems contrary, but it's not. But what it is establishing is intent, it's establishing courage, you know, but it's also setting limits and Bones. In a couple of conversations we've had, we've talked about where we got really honest with god, sometimes angry with god, but but you also, right, rightfully so talked about, don't get into disrespect or dishonor or blasphemy. There's limits, right, but if you're unfamiliar with having a relationship with the Lord, it can seem like these things are contrary to one another.
Speaker 2:This whole chapter is about shock and awe. It's about fear and everything else, and I think that God knows his people. He knows that well. It goes all the way back to where I got a little chuckle here, where the people all responded together and said we will do everything the Lord has said. It's like the whole Congress said amen. You know, I get a little chuckle there because we all know that the children of Israel, just like we, just like us, don't do everything that the Lord has said. It's just not in them. It's just what the whole Old Testament shows us, but they have to experience it. That's kind of what this whole thing is about.
Speaker 2:So God knows this, and so there seems to be confusion in here a little bit, but there's not. God's telling Moses hey, go down there and tell these people don't come up here, don't test them out. And Moses seems to be confused. Well, they're not going to, because you've already told us not to do that. I think god's in his own heart's going. They're not going to do what I tell them to do. You know they're. They're going to, they will, they'll break through if you don't go down and tell them again.
Speaker 2:So to prove my point, to kind of prove my point in jest a little more, to show this redundancy here we have in Exodus. We have right behind Exodus, not too far after that, the book of Deuteronomy, the second reading of the law, you know, because the children of Israel didn't get it the first time. So there's this dichotomy of God simply restating what he's already said, because he knows the human heart, he knows what man is capable of, he knows that the children of Israel is not going to stay where they're told, they are going to be drawn to him. I think there's also a little bit of here's Moses, this one guy, this only person, this only communicator, this only mediator between us and the Almighty God. Communicator, this only mediator between us and the Almighty God. The only thing that we know about God is what this one man says. I could see where some people might want to peek behind the curtain.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know to refer to the Wizard of Oz, you know to just to see is Moses for real here? Because they've already questioned that before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when he talks about the elders, it isn't but a chapter or two before that where you have Jethro come and they actually set up a hierarchy because Moses was judging everything. Jethro's like you're going to wear yourself out, you're going to wear the people out, yeah, but we do that in our churches, which is, you know, that's not a rabbit trail. I'm necessarily trying to run down this podcast, but we see that same Exodus and that whole story of the children wandering is really a study in human behavior, because you rightfully said we think we would do it different. We wouldn't have done it different. We have some of the same issues. We have some of the same flaws. You know we're going to do everything the Lord says.
Speaker 2:It's not in our nature to do that. No.
Speaker 1:But he sets this boundary but then he wants the people to draw as close to that boundary as you can without going over the boundary Right, but he wants people to hear the Lord for for themselves, not through. And again, you know it's the same We'll hear from Moses. Once it actually happens, it seems like a good idea. Oh yeah, we'll draw near to the Lord until he gets really honest with you. And it hurts a little bit and it's a little bit scary because of how accurate it is when the Lord starts talking to you and all that stuff that you were hiding and didn't really know you were hiding and that gets exposed. You are laid bare in a way and that's scary. And then you go oh no, I'll just go to church and hear it from the pastor man.
Speaker 1:There's this dude I met Need to call him up, see how he's doing Was a good dude. I met him probably about 14 years ago now. Dude named Jeff Todd and he taught me a little secret about going to concerts. If you're willing to stand, if you get there early and you know where to stand, you have best seat in the house. Also, at the time he might have been supplying with some of the up-and-coming acts with a little bit of grass. Yeah, you know that helped too. But he, he had this, uh, he he had set lists from all these famous artists and all these people that are up and coming, three or four from Jamie Johnson. He's the guy that helped me meet Jamie Johnson, sturgill Simpson, right as he hit it big. I got to see all this thing.
Speaker 1:What they do is they have this rail In a lot of your better venues. They have this rail that is right there. They have a couple of big old bouncers or two between the rail to make sure you don't go. They're usually very polite until it's time not to be kind of like a roadhouse there. Be polite until it's time not to be polite. Roadhouse there be polite until it's time not to be polite. But the key to having the optimal performance is getting as close to that rail as you can without going over the rail right and after. He taught me that I've had some great concert experience, has been able to have some great photos, but if that's true for a, this is really that concept that the Lord is pushing here. Get close enough to where you can hear and know for yourself, where it's not secondhand. You have to have this firsthand knowledge, but yet that doesn't mean that there still aren't boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a. This is a good picture of the new believer as well yes, I was thinking that, yes, go ahead good picture of the new believer you saved, lit on fire.
Speaker 2:You want to hear from god, but all of a sudden you think you're moses too. And what I mean by that is, as a new believer, there's a certain wisdom in in boundaries. Okay, with a new believer, it's important to know your capabilities. It's important to know what your relationship is with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit and God, the father, and all these things, cause if you don't know those things, you'll want to go running straight up the mountain and try to interact with God, the Father himself. And what I mean by that, figuratively, is you'll jump from relationship to worshiping all of the gifts, all of the entrapments, all of those things. You'll be hooked on the fire and the smoke and all those things that not really the manifestations of God, but all the things that say that God's around you, yes, and that will cause you to church hop. It'll cause you to become a blessing seeker. You know, constantly looking to be blessed by the Lord, constantly looking for miracles, looking for this. You're constantly looking for everything except the Lord.
Speaker 1:It is the inverse of Elijah's experience in the cave.
Speaker 2:It's the inverse. You're right.
Speaker 1:The Lord caused all those past manifestations, everything that everybody thought was God. The Lord caused it, but the Lord wasn't in it. The Lord was in the still small voice and I love when you brought that up, because I was going to bring it up if you didn't. But I think about the idea of pruning, which we've talked about several times. We've talked about several times and the reason Moses and even Aaron at one point. There was a couple other times where Aaron wasn't even able to go up. It was just Moses and Joshua, and even that Joshua had a point where he stopped.
Speaker 1:There is this pruning that goes with it. You can get pruned sooner, or, if you're like some of us, you grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, and then that pruning has to be more drastic Because if you grow fast and the roots don't catch up, moses had the whole wilderness experience, the burning bush, he had the whole trial with Pharaoh and confronting that, as well as Aaron confronting the magicians of Pharaoh, and so there's all this experience and relationship and trust that's built between Moses and the Lord. The people are establishing some things, but they're not there yet and the intent seems to be to get them where they can get there. I don't think the mountain would have been. It's kind of like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Who's to say that it would always have been off limits? It might have, it might not have, right Might have, but one thing was for sure Adam and Eve were not ready to eat of that fruit at that time.
Speaker 2:It's important to. When I look at the children of Israel here, to see, to see where they've come from. They just came from Rephidim, which is a name that means rest or beds. They just came from a place of rest and in that place of rest they were attacked by the Amalekites Just like the enemy to attack you when you're at rest. God gave them a little chance to rest, the Amalekites, their enemy, came and attacked them, but God delivered the children of Israel from the Amalekites. So here we have. Not only did they get delivered in battle, but they also saw. This is where they saw the water from the rock. So they had miraculous provision there as well.
Speaker 2:So, as a new believer, it's not uncommon to start seeing this miraculous growth. You're getting fed this miraculous word through the Spirit. You're seeing some miraculous victories in the Lord. Whether it's financial victory, whether it's, you know, you name it, you claim it. You're winning the victories, whether it's victories in relationships, whatever it might be there in the beginning of your relationship with the Lord. But this is where the children of Israel are at now. They've come through all that. So, yeah, I can see where they're willing to kind of stick their chest out a little bit and say yeah, we'll do everything. You say yeah, we'll do that.
Speaker 1:They've seen miracle after miracle, yeah.
Speaker 2:They've seen better words. They're on fire.
Speaker 1:They've seen the manna. They've seen For lack of better words, they're on fire. Yeah, they've seen the manna, they've seen the deliverance, but also there's some other things that are telling leading up to this. It's griping and complaining against the Lord, the Lord showing up and goes, okay, okay, so it really hasn't gotten into the area of trust. And I mean you're hitting on something, because there's this area, as new believers, where we think we trust the Lord, only to have it revealed that we really don't. We think we do, but not at the level that needs to happen. Like I said, I don't believe that it would have always been off limits for the people to go up said mountain, but they sure as heck weren't ready for it. Then the only person who was ready for it was really Moses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he had 40 years of grooming, yes, yeah, and he had 40 years of grooming, yes. That's one thing that always intrigued me with us as Christians in today's modern Western Christian world is how do we expect to get saved and called into ministry so fast to do God's work so fast when our heroes of the faith in the Bible spent so much time in the wilderness, separated from the world? Why would, why wouldn't we be, why would we be any different? We got folks getting saved and called into ministry within two or three years and the wise ones around them saying no, that that's you need. No, you need to hold on. You may have had a call, but you didn't get the commission yet.
Speaker 2:We talked a little in the last podcast about Paul and I was looking here at the children of Israel and you mentioned well, you mentioned their maturity. Actually what you're talking about. Yeah, they saw those miracles but still didn't keep them from complaining and whining. Well, we talked a little bit about Paul in the last podcast. Paul showed true maturity when he went through all those struggles, all that turmoil and everything. Got to his place of rest as they were building a fire, about to eat and all those things and a snake bites him. That would have been the place where the children of Israel, figuratively, would have moaned or complained again. They did, but Paul didn't. Paul didn't, he shook it off. He showed maturity and shook it off and received grace instead. So there's the difference between what a mature Christian looks like, a mature believer looks like, and what an immature believer might look like.
Speaker 1:Well, you juxtapose that with I said they did. They were griping and complaining about something. The Lord sent fiery snakes and bit them. Yeah, yeah, so you have that account where Moses makes. Was it Neshtan? Probably butchering the name, but it's a snake on a pole. Yeah, and if you look on that, Snake on a stick. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 2:Not too bad when roasted, just right.
Speaker 1:Yeah you were going to say it sounded like something you'd have at a Cajun fair, coming out of food truck.
Speaker 2:It sounded like something cooked over a hibachi grill I might have had in some Central American city somewhere.
Speaker 1:Mrs Boucher, what part of the snake is this? Actually, the snake don't have pot, but if this was a pot, I'd say it is his knee.
Speaker 2:You can learn a lot from Mrs Boucher the devil you can learn a lot from Mrs Boucher.
Speaker 1:The devil there is, but there there's this thing that's happening, where the immaturity is being exposed, and I'm going to bring this up and make it a little bit more personal. You know, what does this look like? Cause this probably doesn't look like, unless you live in Beverly Hills. It don't look like the mountain kitchen fire. Okay, the experience, though, of thinking you're ready and praying for something I've had it happen, and pardon my language, but this is honest. I've had two accounts in my life where I prayed fervently for something and twice it was answered in dramatic fashion. When I was younger, I was in high school, and something started to happen, and it scared the shit out of me. The second time it happened was probably about 20 years later, and it happened and it still scared the shit out of me, but I was mature enough to understand God's process and understand that it was one of those. Woe is me. I am undone moments. Well, this is happening for real, for real. That is scary, but you have to demonstrate some courage in the midst of that holy fear.
Speaker 2:And I can see why the children of Israel balked at this. Because if we were to truly pray for something and I think in our own Western minds we don't truly see what's happening here on the mount we can't visualize it because, probably because our minds are desensitized, our mind's eye is desensitized. The movies that we watch, the TV shows that we watch, everything's so graphic now Our mind's eye is just too desensitized. But when you really consider the fact that this mountain was on fire, it was smoky, it was quaking, and when God spoke, of course Moses heard the voice of God, but the children heard thunderings, peals of thunder and stuff like that. That could have been a horrifying experience for someone who's in the unknown, uninformed. So if we were to experience stuff like that today, on that kind of level, yeah, we'd probably withdraw a little bit too and, you know, be just okay with the pastor telling us what God says in some way.
Speaker 1:The first time I prayed I was 16 years old and middle of the night I woke up and the whole room was shaking. No Lord, I can't deal with it. Second time, basically, the presence of God came in the room in my bedroom back when I lived in Anna, and it knocked me down, not in a violent way, but the pressure, the spiritual pressure, was so great that it just drove me face down for probably about, probably just less than 15 minutes. But man, it was an answer, you know, and I was not alone in that room. Yeah, and some miraculous things happened within days, right, Right.
Speaker 2:I remember we went up to Mary and Apostle Bruce was there and that was the night that I was baptized in the Holy Ghost. I remember that night and I remember he spoke to me and said you're going to hear the voice of God, so be ready. And I didn't think much about it. You know, in my own mind I'm thinking okay, you're going to hear the voice of God, you're going to read the Bible, something like that. You know, I didn't know that within a day or two, I was in bed, asleep, and heard, all in the same instant, what sounded like I don't think I know how to explain it is. It sounded like jet engines, like the sound of jet engines. At the same time it sounded like like Niagara Falls waterfalls, and at the same time it sounded like a, like a um, like a tractor, tractor trailer, a semi trucks horn blast, but it sounded like all three of those things at the same time. And, and behind that or over, overlaid over that, I could hear. I could hear the voice praise my name daily, uh, and I could not move. During that time I was frozen, I was paralyzed, I could not move, and when I finally woke up out of that, I call it a dream. It's the only thing I can explain it.
Speaker 2:When I woke up out of that dream, I thought wow, that was kind of odd. My wife knew something was wrong. She knew something had happened. I woke up. I immediately got into the scriptures. God took me straight to the verses in the Bible that talk about God's voice as a mighty river, rushing wind and the sound of a trumpet, all without me looking for it. It just took me straight into the scriptures.
Speaker 2:What he was doing was showing me that what I knew in my heart of heart was real. He was confirming it for me. But that's how I got baptized in the. What I knew in my heart of heart was real. He was confirming it for me, um, but that's how I got baptized in the Holy ghost and the apostle Bruce's words were confirmed, and just within a day or two. Yeah, and all I know is that was that terrified me. I'm scared. I'm scared to death. Uh, and then my wife, like I said, my wife knew it too, cause I was white as a ghost, and, and my wife, like I said, my wife knew it too, because I was white as a ghost, and I think it scared her a little bit, but I couldn't imagine that all the time. I don't think our flesh is meant to endure that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, later on in this account is when Moses finally develops a boldness. Let me see your glory. You see my back. Can't see my face and live Right. Just ain't able to handle it. The people weren't able to handle it.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean they didn't see his glory.
Speaker 1:He did see his glory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just can't see the face.
Speaker 1:You also have the character of the people demonstrated, because after Moses comes down and gives you the initial thing, the Lord is going to go write it on the tablets and he gives some more commandments and lo and behold, after 40 days they're having a party and got themselves a golden calf. Yeah, that's another thing your steadfastness. Moses had to get purified. It took 40 years to get him ready and you know they couldn't handle 40 days. Couldn't handle 40 days. You know, and a lot of times, the reason the boundaries are set is we got to trust that when those boundaries are set and I've had the Lord establish some boundaries specifically for me Things sometimes, they're for a season sometimes, but if you let this in, this will be your hang-up. You don't do this now. I don't try and push that off on anybody else. It ain't nobody else's um set of instructions.
Speaker 1:It's mine. Yeah, we've talked about that before. It's how a lot of denominations get you know, get you know, get started, you know sister doctor and get started. Yeah yeah, sister Gertrude got delivered, praise God. Before she made her list of things that have sent you to hell, sister Gertrude got delivered, but now she wants to make sure that everybody else is follow following those list of things. For sister Gertrude to get delivered, because she don't realize that everybody else ain't got the same hangups as Sister Gertrude does. That's right.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:You know. So that's how a lot of that stuff gets started. But the Lord will set the boundaries there. And as you draw close, as you get spiritually mature and spiritually acclimated, a lot of times that's when, after spending enough time and demonstrating enough character and enough trust, he says okay, now come closer.
Speaker 2:And really it all comes down to, all comes down to trust, all comes down to trust. I think god was telling moses go down there and tell these people to don't, don't touch this mountain, don't come up here, because I know I can't trust them. They're going to try to break through if you're not careful. We need to learn how to trust God more. And don't get me lying, I'm not the one to teach you how to do that, because I really I ain't figured it out either. All I can say is probably the best way to come to a deeper trust in the Lord is through relationship. The more you fail, the more you're going to trust.
Speaker 2:But that's not to say you need to fail just for failure's sake. But, like you said, you can't steer a parked car. So when God asks you to do something, when God says to do something, just step out and do it. Do it to the best of your ability. Trust that he has given you the task to do. He's already laid out the path in front of you. Yeah, and then if you fail, then so be it. Maybe it was your fault, maybe it wasn't, but the truth is you can learn from that failure. First thing you learned was trust. But we won't learn how to trust God if all we do is sit in a pew and analyze everything. We'll develop paralysis by analysis and we don't get anywhere doing that Matter of fact. You can't create disciples that way, you can't create believers that way, you can't do anything that way.
Speaker 1:I ended up when I was going to school, and this is over 10 years ago. Numbers probably changed. I bet you're not that different though the average entrepreneur, because I was taking business classes. Your average entrepreneur doesn't succeed until about his fourth business. Wow, but we teach people not to fail, be afraid to fail. You know not to fail, be afraid to fail. You know, and God forbid. You have a business go bad and people find out about it and then you're just the talk of the town and God forbid you had any.
Speaker 1:Earlier businesses fall and or fail, and you know you become prominent in a community or even nationwide. They're going to always point he's not that great of a business man. His first business failed, the second business failed, you know, and they're going to always point he's not that great of a business and his first business failed. The second business failed, you know, and you're just like, uh yeah, but the one they're doing now ain't you know. So they were able to fail and learn lessons, and we should be willing to do the same thing and realize that, as long as we don't quit, it's not really failure, it's a lesson, and we need to learn the art of understanding what those boundaries are, but seeing how close we can get to draw near to the Lord, because I saw that the Lord wanted them to hear him for themselves.
Speaker 1:And I go back to a coworker that told us you know, y'all know so much and this girl was teaching Sunday school, y'all know so much and I'm just afraid to learn that much because I'm afraid God would hold me responsible for what I learned. Appreciate the honesty. You're still responsible for what I learned. Appreciate the honesty. You're still responsible for it either way.
Speaker 2:He's already doing it. He's already holding you responsible.
Speaker 1:So there's this idea, though, that oh no, no, you hear from the Lord for us. This is too scary. But here's the cop-out in that, and I want, as we close out here, I just want to point this out so that we don't develop this attitude. And here's why it is so important, and it's going to be uncomfortable when I tell you this. The reason it is so important to get in the word for yourself is this If you're hearing from the Lord for yourself, if you're getting in the word for yourself and you have a mess up, who's to blame? It's you, it's me. Own it. If the preacher is out there and you mess up, now you can point at the preacher and say it was their fault. No, it's still your fault. Take this to the bank C-dubs own 80-20 rule, because they got this thing called the Pareto principle 80-20. 80% of your productivity as a company is going to be your top 20%. We're going to produce 80% of the results In the environment we work in I still work in.
Speaker 1:20% of the people, of the population, caused 80% of the problems, it's true. But whatever your woes and sorrows are in your hardships, keep in mind this attitude. 80% of that's my fault. I contributed to it to some degree. I might not have desired it, but I allowed it to happen and you get what you tolerate, or I might have sowed the seeds to this way, way back. So what do I have to do to, you know, to kind of counterbalance this, to dilute the effect of the poison, so to speak? What do I do Now? That being said, still be appreciative of God's grace, understand his part and also understand that sometimes people can just be mean, sometimes they can be predatory, sometimes they can be working out their own mess and try to have it go on to you. That happens, but still, the majority of the time 80 time, 80, I would say when I look back at my life I contributed to that there was.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's probably one of the things I love the most about the military is that success is always the goal, don't get me wrong. But you don't never quit, never quit. You can fail the mission, but don't quit, don't quit. That's one of the big things in the military. It's one thing we learned is just don't, don't ever quit. You you might, you might, die in route, but you don't quit.
Speaker 2:Um, I love the movie uh, uncommon valor, one of those 80s vietnam movies with gene hackman and patrickwayze when he was just a young man. There's a scene in there where he's Patrick Swayze is training with these Vietnam veterans. Randall Tex Cobb is one of the crazy characters in this movie and they're basically having a contest. It's a team building contest of chopping down chopping logs is what it is and it's Randall Tex Cobb and Patrick Swayze going at it stroke for stroke on this log. Well, randall Tex Cobb cuts his log down first and then, once Patrick Swayze's carrier sees that Randall Tex Cobb is done, well then he drops his axe because, well, it's over. Randall Tex Cobb goes over to Patrick Swayze's log and finishes cutting it down for him and he tells him he said you don't ever quit, boy, not when it's for real, and that's one of the things that has stuck in me for a long time you don't ever quit, not when it's for real.
Speaker 2:I remember that quote on long-ass road marches in the middle of the night with feet hurting and shoulders hurting Don't quit. You can take your last step and they can put you on the truck. They're going to have to carry you to the truck. You don't quit. I see the same thing here in the Scriptures. You don't quit, not when it's for real, because that's all God's asking of you is just to keep doing what you're supposed to be doing and don't quit.
Speaker 1:No excuse, sergeant. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at wofoyoorg. Find out how to contact us there, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify or on Google. Check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're going to grow, you grow. You gotta wofoyo, get in the word for yourself.