ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3EDecSpecial6) Christmas Faith, Movies, And Meaning

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EDecSpecial6) Christmas Faith, Movies, And Meaning
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond  
We share a Christmas throwback with Pastor Jeff Jones and explore creative ways to point people to hope, from a Revelation walkthrough in the woods to the redemption at the heart of favorite holiday films. Faith, culture, and economics meet in a candid talk about trust, community, and giving.
• December schedule update with extra episode drops
• Origins of ChristiTutionalism and shared values
• Halloween leveraged for a Revelation walkthrough
• Thirteen stations, symbols, and inner “demons”
• The mark as a lens on control and convenience
• Chaos scenes, prophecy, and patient watchfulness
• Gospel focus over fear and practical preparation
• Die Hard as a Christmas story of redemption
• It’s a Wonderful Life (film) and local economics
• Banks, debt, and the health of free enterprise
• Service times at God’s Family Room (facebook.com/godsfamilyroom/) and livestreams
• Personal gratitude and a nudge toward charity  
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SPEAKER_02:

Hello, welcome to another episode of First Two Storms Podcast. I am your host, Joseph and Blender. That's L-E-N-A-R-T at the front of Knowledge Wonderful. Thank you for tuning in as Brandon Foods to stay on his show. Let's go to the show. Hello everyone. A special introductory segment before getting into the episode. The remainder of December. Merry Christmas to all. And since I'll be using this opening through the rest of December, they will be Tuesday and Thursday drops here on out for December to help me get caught up with some interviews that I've got in the pile that have been recorded, waiting to be released. To help with a backlog, I'm going to do two a week now, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the rest of December, as well as January and February. So the background here, uh audio only, you're not seeing it, obviously, says Merry Christmas to soldiers everywhere who can't be with their families, showing a group of soldiers with Santa hat and elf hats on. But anyway, or at any rate, right, the ongoing oh, I said right again. I found I'm gotten to the habit of saying, right? Right? I gotta watch that. I gotta stop that. Anyway, let's get on with an interview. Hello everyone. Another quick extra segment for this Merry Christmas December 25th episode for 2025. Indeed, I'm doing extra guest drops in December as previously stated. But today being a Thursday and Christmas, I am now throwing back to season one, episode 27, a very different kind of Christmas show. So reprising that, without further ado, here we go. Hello everybody, welcome to Christitutionalist Politics. This show is going to be basically our Christmas show. If you could see on yeah, ho ho ho right. Now I have a machine gun. But anyway, if you're watching on YouTube or or or Rumble, I forgot the other thing there, you could see my shirt is actually cooperating. Merry Christmas. I thought the green Mary in the Mass might get goofed up by the green screen in the background, but hey, it's showing. So bonus. Looks good, Joe. Yes, looks good and you look good. Thank you. Thank you. You do too, my friend. Christmas episode. Joining me is my friend, Pastor Jeff Jones of God's Family Room, Taylor, Michigan. Welcome to the show, my friend Jeff.

SPEAKER_00:

Joe, thank you so much for having me. You know, I I uh I really I didn't notice your Christitutionalist politics behind you, and I love it. I I this first time I saw that word, and I that describes me. Yes, I'm a Christitutionalist.

SPEAKER_02:

Me, you, others are who I have in mind when I trademark that term. That's I feel like it's a calling. You know, the way I look at it, conservative has become a pejorative in many senses, or it evokes an emotionally hysterical reaction in some. So I figured bring fellow Christians together, right? Real Christians, not the fake Pelosi and Biden types. I was born and raised Catholic. Uh, I don't you know what I want to first ask you about though, Halloween, because you did something so special at God's family room. I'd like you to tell this audience about that. A great, fun, different kind of thing to get people to the church.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, I'm not a I'm not a fan of Halloween, uh, but we take advantage, we leverage the time frame, uh, and it works out pretty good for the story that we do. We do a live outdoor drama of 13 events, and that number is specifically chosen, uh, of a dramatized version of the book of Revelation. And um, it takes about 50 to 60 people to pull this event off. There's 13 different stations along the way that is a walkthrough drama, a live woods at night, and we kind of prep it with reminding everybody that this is a live woods. There are things out of our control. We cut about 2,500 feet of trails through it. And there's uh black widows and brown recluse and snakes and rodents and poison ivy, and so we warn everybody please stay on the trails, you get off the trail, you're on your own. So uh that that in itself makes people a little bit in the they'll say, You are kidding, aren't you? I said, No, that is the absolute truth. And all of a sudden, people are a little bit more apprehensive about walking through the woods at night. But we did our best to remove them off the path. So, and it kind of corrals people through the trails. So we put up these six foot-high walls of black plastic and we route them through the through the woods like walls on both sides. And then every so often there's a breakout session, and the first when you walk through, we again we warn some people there's 60 some strobes and and wandering demons.

SPEAKER_02:

Epilectics, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So you know, we tell everybody don't stare into that stuff, but there's you know, there's a bunch of demons. We warn everybody there's demons in our woods, and but all of our demons are wearing name tags. So uh Hello, my name is Bill.

SPEAKER_02:

I will be your demon for tonight.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh so but stuff like prejudice and hatred, uh, anger, uh selfishness, uh, confusion, anxiety, depression, these are truly the things that haunt us through our life, and they seem to follow us everywhere we go. So I warn everybody be careful what follows you, you know. And uh so and there's some that are live and some that are not. So what we we we prep with this story that could you imagine it being rush hour on maybe a Friday night, driving by Metro Airport, semi-truck drivers start vanishing and airplane pilots start banishing, and uh cab drivers and hilo drivers and all over the world, this is going on. And and could you imagine the mayhem that would follow an event like that? So even though the word rapture doesn't exist, I guess an English version of uh the Bible, the Greek word rapteo does exist. And in rapteo it was translated caught up. It says we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And so I try to avoid uh theologies on all of it, a lot of people, a lot of different understandings of it, but uh it's not a matter so much of if and when and how, uh, but just says we're gonna be caught up, right? And so there's other things I can take people to. But could you imagine an event like that taking place and all of a sudden planes crashing, semi-trucks, bus drivers with kids on everything? Just I mean, the the the outfall of something like that would be horrendous. And then that's kind of the preface for what you're about to experience as we walk them through 13 different events of the book of Revelation, and I showed them my Bible. Um I'm sure I got one around here somewhere. Uh I got a huge one right here, and I don't want to lift it up. Um I got a bad arm right now. So, but uh, you know, let's just say here's one of my Bibles. So that represents 7,000 years of history of humanity. Everything that's there has happened. It was prophesied to happen, and it did happen, and ain't no prayers gonna change what's coming. God already said it, it's gonna take place. That's all I got left.

SPEAKER_02:

That was flipper for those who are listening and it's those who are listening on audio only. Uh yeah, picture like uh one seventy-fifth of the entire Bible there at the end. But uh yeah, it almost the 13 almost could be also in a way the like 13 different layers of Dante's hell.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of people talk about that. I've had people walk through and and use that same analogy. That again, so we station these 13 events. The first thing that people do is they come to a station that we call the mark. So we have two people just dressed like normal, and they're selling the idea kind of like uh circus barkers, and uh oddly enough, we have that whole scene kind of set up with uh it clowns, you know. So they're saying, hey, take the mark, come on, it's gonna be great. Can you imagine the convenience? You gotta get the mark. This is gonna really you know help you through life, and uh, you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna have to wait in lines, you just swipe your hand and let them scan your do a retinal scan so you can get on the airplane, and you won't be able to open up the refrigerators at right aid on until they first uh do a scan on your hand or your eyes, and and they're trying to sell that thing. And I'm they're narrating as we're bringing people through in groups of six to a dozen at a time, telling them that whatever they tell you, don't don't listen to them. So, and you know, I I've talked about the mark in other areas, you know, and we gotta remember that you know John's having a dream, a vision of something in the future, and how else is I couldn't understand at the time, but no, how how would it make sense now? Yeah, so how how would you describe a bunch of people waiting in line getting a mark? Told that you can't go to work, you can't cash your paycheck, you can't get social security checks until you first get a get a mark. John's having a dream, and if he doesn't know what he's seeing, he can only describe that in words that are known. So he uses that terminology. I'm not that I'm not saying that uh that the COVID jab was the mark or is the mark, but it's just kind of relative, kind of relative that you couldn't go to work, you couldn't go into grocery stores, you couldn't go to restaurants, you you couldn't cash your check. They were talking about uh, you know, certainly you couldn't go into your uh your school. Um so very interesting, and everybody just you know marched right in step with what they were told.

SPEAKER_02:

And yeah, the COVID card is kind of a working its way to the everybody must get it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's definitely a test precursor to what how easy it will be to get people to respond. All you gotta do is tell them you can't do this. And uh again, and there was so much objections to it, and certainly nobody wanted to get sick, and many of us know people that died uh from COVID. I know a couple of things. I got I got COVID uh several times, my family members got COVID. We I've lost a couple friends uh to it. Um, so it was a real thing. Uh it's unfortunate that it was man created and then inserted into our lifestyle. But, anyways, so we go through the mark, and the next thing they come to is a a scene that looks like a living room, and someone's screaming as they try to get through traffic to get home, and all they find are empty clothes of their parents and in a panic looking for comfort and can't find it. Uh, they move along and someone comes up uh on like a broadcast, uh steps out in a suit and tie, and tells everybody we don't know what's happening. It could be an alien invasion, uh, but you can trust me. Um I will get to the resolve. He says, if I have to march against heaven myself, we will find an answer to where everybody's going, what's happening. Maybe this is some Russian or Chinese new terrorist or what it's form of terror. And so he said pretty good prep to all that. And then we end up in front of a bottomless pit or our illustration of a bottomless pit and smoke's coming out of it. And we go to the book of Revelation that talks about the bottomless pit will be opened up, smoke will ascend out it from the deep, this smoke will turn into creatures. Uh, one of those creatures is kind of scorpion-like, and if it stings you, you're driven insane for five months, you'll look for death, but unable to find it. And so at that point, we have 400 watts of power with some horrible sounds and flying over your head on wires. Uh our six and seven foot scorpions waiting to sting you. So they're still on the ground. Uh they gotta walk by one, they gotta go over a bridge, and it's like swinging in their face, and you know, yeah. Um, but again, smoke mirrors, you know, we have a we have a low budget, but again, we do what we do with it and try to create I don't want you to give it all away, so let's just leave it there and ask people go check.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, do you have any uh well, I don't want to say fun. This isn't meant to be fun, it's meant to be purposeful. Do you have anything like uh one of my favorite Christian movies of all time is The Resurrection of Gavin Stone? Did you ever see that? I remember that. I remember the I love that because it delivers great message in a comedic way, you know? Yeah, uh too much Christian fare is just beating people over the head with the Bible, and that doesn't help. That was great. Now, in that film, spoiler alert if you haven't seen it, a guy goes on probation, needs to do community service, and he goes to a church where they're going to have the crucifixion of Christ as a play. Are you planning anything like that for Christmas?

SPEAKER_00:

We're on the edge right now. We want to do a just kind of like a free meditation walkthrough that just uh lights up. I did create some potential scenes.

SPEAKER_02:

Through the forest again?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, through the forest again. Uh, but at night, you know, again, open, you know, a certain hour. But we haven't we haven't clarified it's a lot of work. I mean, you know, RIP, we put about 500 human hours into that event, you know, a lot of theatrics and like I said, smoke and mirrors and people, actors walking around, stationary dummies, and we got a you know, 12-foot dragon and a cemetery scene, and people are challenged at that point to uh experience after experiencing these things that are written out in the book of Revelation, when they happen is not as much as relevant as they are going to happen, and people don't realize we're already in the book of Revelation. People could maybe try to argue with me, but I can show them very specific things that have taken place, are taking place, that are right out of you know the book of Revelation.

SPEAKER_02:

Our time is not God's time, it could be one year our time, it could be 10 years, our time, it could be a hundred years for it to all unfold. So when you're saying we're in the end times, that doesn't mean you're saying, oh my god, these guys falling, the world is ending tomorrow. You're not saying that. No, we don't, no one shall know the time or the place.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, again, we we just had a couple the last few weeks. Every other Sunday is kind of a prophetic night. I do prof uh prophetic current events, and then it's followed up with some uh right now we're going through the references of Edom and Idumea and Mount Seir as a illustration of America in the end days of prophecy. Noah was told the flood was coming, and then you know, eight days before it came, he said, get in the boat, you know, because we're gonna things are happening, right? So we're told to watch is our scriptural reference that we use that we got to watch, uh, not in panic, we could watch enjoy, or we could watch realizing the need for people to hear the truth uh before it's too late. You know, I always say that you know, hell is true is truth seen too late. And so, you know, we've got to uh recognize the fact that God's working, he's got a plan. I believe that um I will never experience the wrath of the Lamb. And so although it doesn't mean that I won't go through turmoil in my life or whatever else there is out there, um, or how long, or how it does tell me the days will be shortened for the elect's sake. So a lot of things that we we can talk about on that. But again, the whole event is recorded, walk through it, enjoy it, share it with people. We get a you get a clear presentation of the gospel, and you get challenged to accept Christ. And so um, I bet you uh I don't know if it's ever been done anywhere else where people have used Halloween to share the gospel, and uh we had we we leverage that time frame of ghosts and goblins and people waiting out in the cold in the rain while waiting to go into a haunted house. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

That that was brilliant on your part. I love that you're doing that, that you did that. You'll hopefully maybe do it again next year if the world doesn't end tomorrow. Yeah, but I never thought about revelation in this way until you just said that. My kind of kind of well, my my book, Terror Strikes Coming Soon to a City in the U. It's not fear porn, right? Revelation, there's a lot of stuff to be fearful of there, but it's not meant to be fear porn, but that these things will come to pass and at least have some degree of understanding these things will happen that you're not totally surprised by it all.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think that the key thing is that if he's showing it to us, he's telling us to prepare for it in some way, right? So nothing wrong with you know keeping some water, extra water in your basement and a few extra rounds and in your gun or whatever. But at the same time, uh, I don't trust in who I am or what I can do. I'm trying to trust in the Lord. And then again, as that day comes upon me, the whole word revelation means to take the cover off. So let's let's show you what else that you've seen in from Genesis to this point and show you that it is relative of events that are going to happen.

SPEAKER_02:

God is not going to change God's mind at this point, it's ordained, just like we discussed in the past, uh, Pastor Rick on Wham, our friend Pastor Rick. Anti-Semitism. The Jews killed Christ. Yeah, a few had blood on their hands, tried to get Pilate to be the one to do the dirty work. That doesn't mean Jews of today are responsible for it. It doesn't mean all Jews of that time were responsible for it, and none of them were really. Responsible because it was ordained to happen. It had to happen. They were all pawns in God's chess game.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So again, when God speaks prophetically, uh, they ain't gonna, he's our when once he says something, he doesn't go back on his word. You know, I mean, Moses tried to get him to change his mind, Abraham tried to get him to change his mind, others have tried to get God to change his mind, and even gave uh a couple opportunities, man. He said, If yeah, if you can find eight righteous people in Sodom, I won't destroy it. But he couldn't, he couldn't find all their words.

SPEAKER_02:

That was not a changing of a mind, that was providing free will and an opportunity for the out. Yeah, he gave us the out, it wasn't there, so yeah. Now uh you mentioned a few extra bullets for your guns, so I'm gonna drop that. My God and guns article came out on thlibertybeacon.com on November the 11th, which is coincidentally right before kind of we're recording this, but that's I think enough fire and brimstone. Hopefully, we've got some people left for some more lighthearted stuff. Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie because the writer says it is. But what are your thoughts on Die Hard as a Christmas movie?

SPEAKER_00:

I've tried to, and I bet I've you know guess run this in review several different times, and you know, a lot of people will say that, yeah, that is their favorite Christmas movie. Obviously, Christ is left out of most of it, uh, although the not entirely. No, not entirely. Like I said, I mean the only thing is, you know, here's his ex-wife at a at a uh his ex-wife who whose name is Holly, and that's one of the important Christmas clues.

SPEAKER_02:

And Holly does read his scripture during the movie, and I'm holding here for those who could see at J Leonard Detroit YouTube and Rumble channel from Picture House the 12 Reasons Why Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I was on the Hodge Podge podcast, and we went down all 12, and he even thought of one extra. Hans and the 12 anti-disciples.

SPEAKER_00:

Right?

SPEAKER_02:

There's another connection to the 12 days of Christmas, the 12 apostles. So there is a lot of Christmas in there that people don't think until they view it looking for those like Easter eggs. And I joked about the beginning. Ho, ho, ho, now I got a machine gun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I I do think the application, though, here's a guy who's been broken through divorce, goes back wanting hopefully to repair repair the relationship of his home and family, you know, at Christmas. He's anticipating.

SPEAKER_02:

It doesn't get any more Christian Christian and Christmas than someone looking for redemption and to see his family on Christmas.

SPEAKER_00:

If you keep that in mind, then you could probably go scene by scene and start seeing the other applications, or even the music in the background, or a word that's placed, or a scripture that's written down on a wall, or you know, there's a lot of little tidbits like that in a lot of different movies. Even in Hanukkah, it's about uh taking back the temple from being defiled by the Greeks and relighting some candles, understanding that that we're the light in a dark world, and if that candle's not lit, it only gets darker.

SPEAKER_02:

And so uh so that whole story, like you said, of redemption or in the Christmas miracle at the end, it is snowing in LA in the form of the papers. Yeah, that's snowfall, and you don't necessarily think about that until you point out that's the writer's intent, that's the subconscious element. It's snowing in LA, a Christmas miracle, but anyway, let's talk the other one. Obviously, it's a wonderful life that everybody's probably tired, seen another thousand times by the time this airs, and of course, flopped at the box office. But it is such a classic now. It's a wonderful life.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, again, I think a lot of people, you know, love the story of hope, uh, love the story of good community. Uh, you know, a couple things that that aren't talked about a lot, and that is certainly, you know, the crash of 29 and also the introduction of plastics or soybeans being turned into plastic, uh, some uh unique economics. But then the certainly um no one really asked the question where did the money go that it was in Potter's hand? It went into the banking system. That's where it's where everything goes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, I and I'm gonna wrap it up here. And and I'll go back to then uh my article that dropped in uh I think October I dropped, the politics of Potterville. Because, like you're alluding to, Potter, what indeed would have it been like beyond what Clarence showed George if Potterville became the reality rather than Bedford Falls. And I discussed that tyrant Potter being the tyrant over Potterville. That's why he hated George and wanted rid of George, is because he wanted to kill free markets. Politics you don't think about, but are there in this Christmas movie because we are the shining Siddeley on the Hill, and Bedford Falls is a microcasm, is the word I'm looking for, of all America, should an evil tyrant like Potter have his way.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, uh it's what Trump was trying to do, and he was trying to trying to topple the banking industry because they had ruined free enterprise or or uh industry as a whole, and most people don't just they have no idea how deep uh the background of all that goes, especially from 1929 to today, and bankruptcy that we've never come out of, and and Federal Reserve, and where does reserve money go? And where does it come from? And what what you know banks are only in business if if there's debt. If there's no debt, there's no business to the banks. And so that whole process is uh a lot to discuss and think about.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and again, we're getting a little too serious again. So we will call it quits. Thank you, my friend, Pastor Jeff Jones of God's Family Room in Taylor. Uh, tell us when your uh your hours of service are.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Sunday mornings at 10. I teach. You can catch me live at Jeff Jones on Facebook. Um, I teach uh uh although there are a lot of different Jeff Jones on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there is.

SPEAKER_00:

You look for Mr. Blue Skies. If you look for Mr. Blue Skies, that'll help you get through all that. But uh, or God's Family Room is where we at on Facebook as well, which our our 11 o'clock is our really our morning service. We have a six o'clock evening service that does vary. And then Wednesday nights, uh, my wife does an amazing job, uh Brenda Jones uh live as she talks about how we uh how we become better people, and so uh I it stimulates me to message us and stimulates me in a lot of ways. So uh encourage you, seven o'clock on Wednesday nights.

SPEAKER_02:

And I want to thank you on a personal note, personally thank you, my friend. You really are my friend. I'm not just saying that, and thank you to God's family room and your uh congregation is the word I was looking for. You all helped me when my granddam years ago died, and me being on Social Security disability was scrambling. Of a distant cousin gifted me a car, but I still had to come up with money to put an engine in it, and you all helped me with that to some degree, so you know I I really appreciate it, and it's part of this show too about charity. Terror strikes.info slash charity. I list a bunch of different charities about giving back, right? We all have times of need, and uh, while we may not feel great about taking help, we all sometimes may need it, whether it be financial or just figurative rather than literal, uh, more mental than anything. Yeah. So give giving back. So again, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me on. Always good to see you, brother. Take care. Take care. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, hom. How was I about to conclude the Christmas episode without saying Merry Christmas? All right, love you, brother. Take care, like and subscribe to Christitutionalist politics podcast and care episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in to another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. Stop for us. Love you all.

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Joseph M Lenard

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