Upside Down

A grieving widow extends forgiveness, and the room goes quiet. We pause there—on the shock of mercy—and trace why that moment felt so rare in a world that calls bitter sweet and light darkness. From Isaiah 5:20–21 to the noise of modern media, we examine how moral confusion takes root when we drift from God, and how returning to a shared compass restores both clarity and courage.

We don’t settle for hot takes. Instead, we ask what it actually takes to forgive in public without pretending the pain is small. The answer isn’t a viral epiphany; it’s training. Like an athlete building miles, a believer builds reflexes: daily Scripture, worship, small groups, honest confession, and habits that shape what we love. That slow work is how grace becomes muscle memory when life tests us. Romans 15:13 frames the posture—joy and peace through trust—while Matthew 14 reminds us to keep our eyes on Jesus when the wind rises. Take your eyes off Him and you sink. Keep them fixed, and you can walk through the storm.

We also get honest about spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12 shifts the fight from people to powers and principalities, inviting a different strategy: stand in truth, reject deception, and refuse to hate. That means dropping easy hypocrisy—claiming Christ while cheering what harms neighbors—and choosing a humble return to God. If you’ve felt the world upside down, if you’re hungry for a faith that holds under pressure, this conversation offers both a diagnosis and a path forward: rebuild your foundation, practice mercy, and let hope lead.

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This is the Buddy For Junior Show — where faith, truth, and courage come together. Join us as we explore life’s deeper purpose and carry the torch of conviction. The show begins now.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Series Focus: Faith And Battle
• 2:04 Isaiah 5:20–21 And Today’s Culture
• 5:51 Hypocrisy, Politics, And Moral Confusion
• 9:42 Media Reactions: Forgiveness And Outrage
• 12:31 Training For Grace: Building Spiritual Fitness
• 16:56 Hope, Suffering, And A Solid Foundation
• 18:46 Eyes On Jesus: Matthew 14 Lesson
• 20:46 Ongoing Warfare: Ephesians 6:12 And Next Steps
• 21:36 Closing: Return To God And Gather

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome to the Buddy for Junior Show. This series we're focusing on faith, getting people back to church, fighting the spiritual battles that are completely obvious. The demonic and heavenly realms are just are at are at war. The spiritual realm, the the demonic darkness is all over the footprint of our political situation in America, in the world. It's all over our children, our school systems. It's a fight for the youth. It's a fight for our souls. And I decided, since Charlie Kirk had so much courage to talk openly about his faith, to, as you heard on previous episodes, I'm focusing on sharing my biblical journey that I've been on since just before COVID, a couple years before COVID, through COVID, till today, what that journey looks like, and just talking in layman's terms about faith, Christianity, and Jesus. Last week I dove into the spiritual battle and uh terms that I heard over the years of being in the church and reading the Bible, uh, spiritual battle and kingdom building. Those are two themes that have been very uh uh apparent to me in my journey, and I shared quickly what that looks like and what that means to me. I will dive into the spiritual battle most likely every single podcast. I'm gonna grab my Bible as we are getting going here. And also kingdom building. I do want to do uh podcasts with pastors and priests and spiritual leaders, even rabbis, even though I'm not Jewish, I will be doing that, so stay tuned for those. But today, you know, we're right off to we're still within a month of this disaster of Charlie Kirk, losing somebody so important to uh the youth of America, and seeing the hatred in the vitriol, in the press, uh seeing it uh online, see it on educational leaders. And I just decided to lean in to that um that demonic, the the the the what's up is down, what's right is wrong, what's sweet is sour, that I've been talking about in Isaiah 5.20 and 21. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. In the last five years, I've really been concerned or less concerned, more aware that evil is amongst us, that men being women, women being men, men competing in women's sports. I'm not judging that. Like any Christian should not judge it. However, the truth is there's something wrong there, uh, biblically and uh scientifically and otherwise, it's just upside down. Whether you're a Bible believer or science believer, or both, or one or the other, it just makes no sense what's been happening. Uh the sword that the left is willing to die on, the I want to be careful, I have a lot of very good friends that are in the Democratic Party that vote for that uh program. And I just don't know if they they look at this like a 1% conversation. Well, that's only 1% of us, or 1% of the situations where men want to be women and women want to be men. However, it's 99% of the microphone. And it seems not just that, the demonic behavior is 99% of the microphone. The abortion conversation, uh, the the I've had friends that have gone to pro-abortion marches with bloody t-shirts on and screaming for abortion. I know those people never had one that I'm aware of. They had children very, very young and under really extraordinary circumstances. Uh so I I the fact that they have children when they had them, I don't believe they had an abortion, but yet they're out there pounding the abortion ballot and like it's a pinata and a celebration at a party. So to me, that's demonic. I don't judge it, but out there marching for it and putting red paint all over your shirt, that there's something wrong there. And the fact that we're not talking about the uh the mental illness and the depression and the drug addiction that follows statistically following those decisions. And that's what not what this podcast today is about. I'm just saying the the complete transparency of the demonic realm is upon us, just like Isaiah 20 and 21. And this this passage has really hit me hard, as I've been saying. And I'm gonna read it again. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. That's what we're living in. Woe to those who call light darkness and darkness light, who put bit for beat for bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. What they're saying, what Isaiah's saying here is the world's upside down. What's right is wrong, what's right is now wrong, what's wrong is now right. What's a woman is a man, what's a man is a woman, what's what's fake news is now real news. It's just, it's completely, it's mind-blowing where we're at. And the only way to get back to normality, as Isaiah keeps telling the Jewish people, is to get back to God. And that's what this is all about. It's identifying a crisis, it's identifying the realms of the spiritual battle, it's identifying the complete upside nature of our world and the lies that are truth and the truth that are lies, and it's to get back to God. And that's what Isaiah is calling the Israelites to do is get back to God, get back to your moral compass, get back to the high, you know, know your highway, get back home, uh, have boundaries, and your sacrifices at the altar are useless if everything else is a sin and demonic. And that's what we're getting at here. We say we're a Christian nation. There are people with crosses on that are pounding for abortion rights, that are saying that men should compete against women in sports. Take the cross off. It's just hypocrisy. I'm not saying that I'm not a hypocrite. I'm not saying I'm not quick to anger. I'm not saying that I don't curse. I'm not saying I don't have my own cross to bear. We all do, but I'm in the word every day to identify that, to repent on it, and to become a better community member, a better father, a better husband, a better biblical learner, and a better, a better son of God. Okay. So today, what I'd like to dive into deeper. Just lost my computer, no it's here. What I want to dive in deeper here is I want to share, okay, a headline that might that may be confusing people. Jimmy Kempball got fired a couple weeks ago. He's back, and there's a lot of back and forth whether his apology was sincere or not, and if he really meant what he said in the tears. I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus on two or three sound bites in the media. One is Erica's forgiveness of the killer at the Memorial Service. The other is Jimmy Kimball's reaction to that. It's very out of character for Jimmy Kimball. And it's took me back a couple of steps. And I don't want to get into whether he meant his apologies or not. I don't know. I'm not an expert on analyzing people's behaviors. Uh I am someone of free speech, and I'm also a capitalist, and I'm somebody who reads the Bible. So Jimmy Kimball, of course, should be forgiven for saying something stupid, just like anyone should. That's up to his network, whether or not they want to hire him or not, put him on the air, lose money, make money. I'm not going to get caught up in that noise. But what I do want to go into is his reaction to Erica Kirk's forgiveness of the killer, and then show a complete moronic soundbite from Don Lemon, Lamon, Lemon, whatever his last name is, his prestigious Lamon, and his reaction to the um the service for Charlie Kirk, which I believe is in is is it is consistent in the evil realm in the spiritual battle that we talk about. So right now, let me play Jimmy Kimball's uh soundbite.

SPEAKER_02: 8:43

In the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That's that's it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

It touched me deeply.

SPEAKER_02: 9:10

Forgive them forgive them. Forgiveness from a breeding widow, it touched me deeply. And if there's anything we can take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that. Uh not this. So thank you for listening, and I'll have I'll have more to say when we come back.

SPEAKER_00: 9:57

Now, again, we're not going to get into Jimmy Kimball being fired and whether he should be taken back or not. There was his his emotional response to Erica Kurt's forgiveness. I had no idea Jimmy Kimball believed in Jesus until this clip. And I think that's an example of the difference between Charlie Kirk and the rest of us. And I include myself in that. A lot of people talking to me at the end of a conversation would say, Oh, I had no idea he was a Christian. And that's the problem. We haven't lived our faith out loud. Jimmy, saying he's a believer in Jesus, I would challenge whether or not he's ever picked up the Bible because the way he talks on the way he spits vitriol and hate and wants division through his dialogue that's proven. Uh, how he spoke about people who didn't get the jab. There's clips all over the internet on that. And how when we go to the hospital, if you don't have the vaccine, you go to the hospital with a heart attack, you're gonna have to die because we want people who have the vaccine. So, I mean, he just got caught up. But that's by the way, that's the point of the spiritual battle. That's how real the demonic realm is. That somebody like Jimmy Kimball, who believes in Jesus Christ, according to his monologue and his apology, spits out vitriol, hate, division, racism, fascism, all these terms that divide society that are not biblical, and the lies that he says on stage, okay, to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness before light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Isaiah 5, 20, 21. I mean, he lived this in real time. So imagine if he used his platform like Charlie Kirk did. He'd be in a completely different um circumstance. And by the way, he might not be as popular as he is with the demonic Hollywood machine. But the point is that I want to get to for this podcast without driving into Jimmy Kimball's faith, is you know, why are people so surprised over Erica Kirk, over Erica Kirk's forgiveness, her ability to forgive the killer of her husband? Well, here's the deal. I've been completely blown out of the water in the last five to seven years in witnessing faith in real time and people's ability to live with grace and faith and forgiveness. In fact, I'm reminded of a sermon, a message that I had about five years ago that I heard that today continues to come to my forefront of my mind. And it was around being in shape. Like I related this message to being an athlete. Like you just don't show up to the marathon and run 26 miles. You just don't show up to the triathlon, jump in the water, run, bike. Like you don't just show up and do all these things. You don't just show up to the gym and throw up, you know, 315 pounds on the bench. You work towards it. You train towards it. You not only train hard and start with a mile, then two miles, five, ten, and then start biking, etc. There's a there's a pattern to get there, but you're also changing your behaviors, your surroundings, and your activities and your habits. You're eating better for post-workout and then um post and pre- and post-workout. You're eating things that are gonna give you energy, that are gonna help you um recover faster. You're uh you're you're not consuming alcohol, you're drinking things that are gonna help elevate your health. You're around people who are gonna motivate you and not discourage you. You're reading things that are motivating and gonna help you through your plateaus or through your second guessing of your mind whether or not you're capable of doing this. That's what this message reminded me of. And it was around being ready for tragedy, being ready to be able to have grace, being ready to be able to have forgiveness, being ready to be able to have faith. It just doesn't happen when you say, hey, I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ. It's something that's a learned behavior that requires exercise. And the exercise looks like this: daily readings, worship music, Bible studies with people, joining groups, we call them small groups in our church, of like-minded individuals, for example, cycling on a bike, maybe motorcycling, maybe it's a run club, maybe it's a cooking club. There's these activities that you're taking in bird watching, photography, the list goes on and on, that you're part of a group of a like-minded person who enjoys similar experiences, but in those moments, you're with people who are in a similar journey, ahead of you, behind you, at the same pace as you, of the Bible and of their journey with Jesus. And in the middle of it, hey, how you doing? Is anyone struggling that want that wants to talk? Someone, yeah, you know what? I'm really struggling with X, Y, or Z. And then somebody else, you know, oh, why by the way, I'm having that same struggle. Could be sin. It could be doubting the Bible, it could be doubting a passage or not believing uh a whale, right, in the Bible with Jonah. So there's many things that start coming out when you're in these atmospheres with people of the same journey that are either there or ahead of you. Like someone who's already done a triathlon, that's who I'd go to on how to compete or how to train and how to finish a triathlon. I'd go to somebody who's been there. And ideally, I'm with someone who's currently training, so we're exhibiting the same habits. And so the point of we see Erica Kirk forgiving her forgive her killer of her husband was not something that just happened. It's something that she has a solid foundation to be able to um to express and to feel. And it doesn't mean she forgets it, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, but she frees the soul, and not only his soul, her soul. And that's what I refer to as spiritual foundation. And biblically, Romans 15 and 13 may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. That's what comes to mind when I have this conversation. Acknowledging the reality of suffering and chaos, and we emphasize on the hope. We don't deny it, but we trust the process because of our biblical foundation, our spiritual foundation. That's what we saw with Erica. And that's what we should see more as we dive into the word, and our country gets back on track here. That's what we were founded on as a nation. And that's why we're able to get from being a society that was divided, that had slavery, that was under rule of the UK, to where we are today, which I will argue the greatest nation on planet Earth. Our past is behind us. We've learned a lot, but there was something, there was a North Star that got us through those times, all of us, on every side of the equation. And a spiritual foundation, I believe, and I can prove, was the ingredient that got us here. And I don't need to prove it right now, but I will in a coming podcast. Now, another thing that you learn when you're in the faith that a lot of Christians will say, keep an eye on Jesus. Keep your eye on Jesus. And what they're referring there is when Peter's in a boat and there's a storm and he sees Jesus out there walking on water, and then Jesus says, Come. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked onto the water, and came towards Jesus. But something happened here, folks. While he was walk looking at Jesus, he was safe. But the second he took his eyes off of Jesus and he looked at the wind and the storm, he became afraid because he was not looking at his source. And he sank and he cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reaches out with his hand and he catches Peter. You of little faith, he said, why do you doubt? This is Matthew 14, 29 to 31. And the point is, whenever we're in this storm, whatever that storm may be, if we keep our eye on Jesus, we're able to do what Erica did. Right? We're able to have grace, we're able to keep our faith, and we're able to extend forgiveness. And that's exactly what took place, which a lot of Christians and a lot of people don't understand. Now, those are the biblical foundations that I have learned through my journey and why I understand it more. I have a I'm not there. My spiritual foundation is not as solid. I said I don't uh have the faith of Charlie Kirker. I made a a point in my last podcast, and I got all these direct messages and emails saying, uh, you know, what do you mean you're not there like Charlie? I I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ, and yes, he's my Lord and Savior. However, my spiritual foundation isn't as solid as they have, as we have all witnessed from them. If you witnessed Charlie through his journey and his wife Erica post-assassination, you would probably agree that my f my spiritual foundation is still being built. The concrete's still being poured. Okay. Now, let's play a clip from Don Laman, Don Lamon, and his complete um spiritual struggle that he obviously has. And again, I speak of the spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6.12. For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That's what I'm talking about. Ephesians 6.12. Now let me play a clip from Don Lemon. Actually, folks, you know what? We're at our 20-minute mark. I like to keep these short. I'm gonna play that clip for the next podcast. So tune in to next week. I'll play the Don Lamon clip, and it'll be in um it'll be consistent. I keep saying in, I mean it'll be in concert with and consistent with the spiritual warfare conversation we've been having. Okay? Woe Isaiah 20, 21, 22. Right? Isaiah 20, 21, 20, 5, 20, and 21. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to the darkness. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. That we're gonna dive into that again next week. I'll pull up a clip from Don Lemon, who I believe is uh is an example of the spiritual battle. Have a great week. Get to church, God bless.