CTP (S4EJunSpecial4) Revelation Without Fear

CTP (S4EJunSpecial4) Revelation Without Fear
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond - all in Biblical perspective
We talk with Shama Stock about reading the Book of Revelation with courage and context so it becomes a source of hope instead of panic. We connect prophecy, spiritual preparedness, and daily discipleship to real-life choices around fear, coercion, and love. 
• Shama’s background and the path to deep Bible study 
• Leading a Revelation study before feeling ready 
• Why Revelation scares people and how to reframe it 
• Scripture interpreting Scripture over speculation 
• The opening blessing of Revelation and the call to listen 
• Mark of the beast concerns and the meaning of buying and selling 
• Conviction under pressure and lessons from the pandemic 
• Preparedness that still fails without love 
• Humility about prophecy and God’s timing 
• Situational awareness versus paranoia and panic 
• Free will, individuality, and resisting forced sameness 
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, welcome to another episode of First Two Storms Podcast. I am your host, Joseph

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:08

L. Boiner, at L-E-N-A-R-T at the front of our show. Thank you for tuning in as Brandon to stay on his show. Let's go to the show. Joining me today is Shema Stock. S-H-A-M-A-S-T-O-C-K. And it's a good thing before I hit record. I confirmed that because I think I need new glasses, as I was telling her. I thought it said staff. It's stock. And it's Shamma or Shamma, which is the problem. Like Llama. Shamma, not Shamwow. Shamma. Right? I can't avoid the name wordplay. And she is joining me. I found her on PodMatch talking about revelation and educating it to kids and the importance of that. And we'll get into this. The prophecy and the warnings, but not be paranoid and oh my God, I'm going to die tomorrow kind of thing. And as well as in my reach out to you, I said, I my last the Liberty Beacon.com piece is on revelation. And as well as I've got a JLennard Detroit.substack.com piece on mark of the beast about elimination of the penny. To me, that's now escalating us into revelation, putting us headlong on the elimination of all paper currency and coinage to digital mark of the beast and the ability to turn on anyone's buy and sell ability. Well, we'll get into all that. So now that I got some heavy stuff in there, let me go back to the lighter stuff. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Thank you. Thank you, Joseph. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Christian show. So with the proverbial unintended, Genesis, unintended, of your origins. Where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Significant places you've been in between there and then.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And why would people want to be uh talking to me about revelation? No, I um grew up in a Christian home. Um actually my parents were missionaries, so we lived overseas.

Shama’s Story And Bible Study Roots

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Um, I was born in Korea. We also moved to Rhodesia, Zimbabwe. So, and then we moved to Northern California. So I actually consider myself more of a California, you know, upbringing than anything else, but I do have that background in my family history.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Hopefully, not San Francisco, California. A little east, a little east of there, but with all due respect to my California listeners, it's a joke, people lighten up. Yeah, I'm sorry, Paul.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It's not like it used to be, let's just say that.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Exactly why I make the joke. You literally, if you need a where is the bleep piles to avoid them map, certainly not like the streets of San Francisco days for older folks. Remember that Leonard Maldon uh old series, right? You're a little young to remember that.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

But I moved I moved out of California quite a way quite a while ago, but um grew up in a great Christian home. But you know, as I got older, you gotta find your way and went about my life, went through some bad relationships and but eventually, you know, got married and had my first child, and then I just felt like a need I had quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom, and I just felt felt like I needed some adult conversation and decided to I needed maybe to get back to Bible study and kind of figure out what I was gonna be really focusing my attention on in life. So I went to a women's Bible study and it was a great Bible study. It was uh Bible study fellowship, and they really studied the Bible in depth. Like I'd never really, even though growing growing up a Christian and everything, I'd never learned how to study the Bible, like methods of Bible study and really digging into the text. From that, I just realized like how many different ideas there are, especially around prophecy and um the end of the world and all these kind of things. And it was so like across the board, all over the place, that I thought, you know, I really need to dig into this a little more and figure out what what the word actually says and see if I can make some sense of that. So I volunteered to uh host a Bible study on the book of Revelation at my house. Then several

Leading Revelation When You’re Unready

SPEAKER_00 5:20

people, quite a few people signed up, some ladies signed up, and then I was like, oh no, what have I done? Um because I was not in any way prepared to uh lead a Bible study on that. And when I went back to read through Revelation, I realized like, wow, there's a lot of stuff in here, like I don't really understand it, or um, you know, a lot of people were were saying, Yeah, I want to study it, but I'm scared of it. It gives me nightmares, or I've tried and then I can't keep going. And so I didn't want that to be their experience when they came to my home. And so, long story short, I prayed a lot. I said, Lord, I think you wanted me to do this. I'm not sure why, because I'm not prepared for this. And um through some providential circumstances, I I came across a great a great commentary that really interpreted the Bible with the Bible. It wasn't based on like a lot of speculation. And so um I just started studying, and every week that year, I was one week ahead of our study group. I was just studying in the word, trying to figure things out, writing the the study questions. And so that year kind of was my I guess I jumped into the deep end of you know, sink or swim to try and figure out this apocalyptic book of Revelation. And it was a huge blessing. It was a huge blessing. And from there, I thought that would maybe be it. You know, I had this little study guide and I was sharing it with some friends, and um, what I found was there's a lot of resistance even among Christian women when I said, Hey, you should do a women's Bible studies. We really were blessed, and they're like, Oh no, I don't do it, I don't do the end times.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Oh, I'm glad you said all of that. I want to go back to what you said, digging into the Bible, because indeed, a lot of Christians unfortunately, and a big

Fear Versus Hope In Prophecy

SPEAKER_01 7:24

genesis of why I created this show, the whole Bible in full context. There are a lot of shallow Christians, or as Dennis Quaid coins, churchianity going on. It's a building with a steeple, but it's really a humanist club masquerading as a Christ church, and there's not a whole lot of Christ in the Bible going on in there. So I I I'm glad you you said all that. That's that's perfect. And indeed, the fear of revelation, but like my terror strikes coming soon to a city near you book. I I'm not trying to sell fear porn. God wasn't trying to promote fear onto well, a degree of fear, but a degree of hopefulness too in that story when you look at its full context, warnings, things to be wary of.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Right. I mean, one of the examples I give, like in my kids' Bible study, is um the the example of like a mother bear. Okay. Um if you're if you're a hiker in the woods, you should have some level of fear um from that mother bear, um, because she could tear you to pieces, you know. But if you are a cub of that mother bear and she gets up to roar, it's because she's protecting you. And so, you know, it's a warning. Yeah. It's a warning.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Make me hurt you.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah. Well, and it's also like, who do we want to identify with? Like, who do we want to be? If I'm a child of God and I'm I'm following his directions, his warnings.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Uh-oh. Video freeze. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

And the roar and the, you know, on the enemy that's trying to destroy God's people.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Okay, uh, just for the sake of the benefit of the transcript, and I think we got everything you said. There was a video freeze lag in there, but I think we got, and again, I'm glad you used the mama bear analogy. Literally, terror strikes coming soon to a city new you. The publisher promotion department put together out of my Naperville chapter an image of a woman holding a child. And indeed, it says, and I'll try to throw it in post in the video uh, are you a mama bear or an ostrich? Right? Burying your head to revelation isn't going to help you. You're not to be fearful but hopeful, but learn and understand and know things that can and will happen so you're not caught off guard and you can hopefully survive those times if you're not raptured out.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Exactly. And I think that happens uh, like you were saying, like a lot of Christians that aren't really digging into scripture is because um it doesn't

Tradition, Scripture, And The Blessing

SPEAKER_00 10:41

matter what denomination or what group you know you identify with, that we tend to, as human nature, to just repeat the things that we're told instead of or you know, whatever tradition we we grew up in or whatever things were told by the preacher, or or whatever things were like, well, I like that uh interpretation. So instead of saying, you know, if God is actually telling the truth, what is he actually saying? And maybe he knows better than I do, and I should find out what that is.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, back to Dennis Quaid, Churchanity, Matthew 23, Christians. Uh Jesus spoke to blind guides, vipers, snakes, the the kumbaya around the campfire is only part of who and what Jesus was. You've got to take the fire and brimstone damnation of God aspects also in the whole context of a loving God as an agape parent.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Exactly. Yeah. So um, so from that from that kind of jumping off point when I started finding this resistance and like people didn't want to study it, especially women, um, I thought, you know, why would we not want to study a book that starts with a blessing? Like the very first verse is you will be blessed if you read this prophecy and listen and take it to heart. And so who wouldn't want that blessing, which that word is really from like a deep inner joy that no one can take away from you, no matter what the circumstances are around you.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Um in Genesis, you have knowledge as a source of being cast out of the garden, but revelation opens, like as you said, with that hope where knowledge is an important aspect of being a Christian now, and knowing is important. So there's a kind of not a contradiction. Jesus and God don't contradict themselves in context. You have to contextualize that all for it to make sense. And for the benefit of the transcript again, and those on audio only, 25 plus platforms as opposed to the five video platforms, over your left shoulder on the right part of your video box, I see revelation, a sword, and then something else under. Is that like on the side of a birdhouse or something up there?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah, that's just my that's just our logo, Revelation for Kids. And the sword is you know representing the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Armor of Jesus, yeah. Put on the armor of Christ, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Again, context, literal and figurative applications, the times where Jesus gets tough and may have to get mad, and then indeed for uh for all things there is a season, even war, uh, as well as the figurative armor of Christ. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And what I've found more and more is that um while there are physical manifestations of these truths, that often the spiritual understanding comes first. Like, um, you know, yes, there's gonna be hard times.

Mark Of The Beast And Buying Selling

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Is there gonna be times when you can't buy or sell? But um, like especially in that example, like you, you know, it says in Revelation that you won't be able to buy and sell unless you have the mark of the beast. Well, Jesus talked a lot about buying and selling, and it wasn't always a um like an economical thing that he was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

He talked about these parables where you know the money is a tool, and the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, not money itself as an evil, it's a tool. And he overturned the money changer tables not because he was anti-money, it was the where, the when and the how that it was being done. Important contextualization to understand, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

And he's wanting us to know like the pearl of great price, like this, you know, if you find this pearl, are you willing to sell everything that you have to get it? Well, that can include, you know, letting go of material things and monetary things, it can also be other things that we put in our lives as idols, you know. So, I mean, this happened during the pandemic. Are you willing to lose your job because um of your convictions? And a lot of people, they gave up those, they they the the desire for security or the desire for something um to make them feel safe, even though it's a false sense of security, they gave up those things that even though they knew it wasn't right. And so we need to have those convictions before these times come, so that we're willing, whatever it is, that says, no, this isn't right, this is not the way God's kingdom operates. He operates on freedom and on you know the ability to choose, and he operates on love, not on coercion or fear. And so when you see that and you're like, this is this is not right, that you're already willing to be like, you know what? If I lose my job, oh well, like God's gonna take God's got this, you know, because my eternal future is more important than this temporary feeling of security.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Exactly. Our eternal soul life. This is way off topic, but I'm gonna go there anyway. Again, exclusion does not mean preclusion or preclusion mean exclusion, however, you wish to say that. Like the discussion of alien life elsewhere. Genesis doesn't say, and God created life on earth, and earn only on earth life created he. It doesn't say that. Uh now I forgot what that wasn't what I wanted to say. Now I forgot where I was exclusion, preclude. Ah, hopefully it'll come back to me later. I could because I forgot where I was gonna go with that now. Yeah, I'm getting older, my memory isn't what it once was, but in indeed, oh, I lost it.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Well, I can, yeah, I have an I have another thought just on kind of that line is that there's wanting to be prepared ahead of

Preparedness Without Losing Love

SPEAKER_00 17:34

time, but there's also the flip side where you can be like, you know, I'm not going to um fall for this, you know, digital currency and I'm not gonna do this and I'm gonna be prepared. Um, but there's this interesting text in the Bible in in 1 Corinthians 13 where it's talking about if you don't have all these things but don't have love that they're meaningless, like if you know all prophecy, if you can remove mountains but have not love, even if you uh give your body to be burned in the flame, but you have not love, that it it profits you nothing. So we can also be in a state like we're prepared and we have all the supplies and we're in our bunker and we're not gonna give in to the you know the tyranny. If we don't have love for our enemies, and if we don't have love for God in that relationship day-to-day, that's not gonna matter either. Like we can be on two different sides of this. Um, we need to have that daily walk and that daily relationship. Where to God, very good addition.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

And I now I remember now, thank you, Lord, for giving the thought back to me. Also, unrelated necessarily to revelation, but also the eternal soul, as you which is what spurred the thought, this life versus the Ness life, but exclusion, preclusion. The Bible also doesn't discount the potential of worldly level rebirthing and reincarnation. We can be reincarnated potentially into new forms on this fallen world as additional tasks, but we have the one eternal soul life through that whole thing, and that eternal, external next afterlife is the the goal we have to be shooting for, uh being most concerned about.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

I think we're kind of I mean, we may we may differ a little bit on on our understanding of some of that, but definitely what I think where we

Eternal Life And Spiritual Conflict

SPEAKER_00 19:57

could agree is that there is more to this life than meets the eye at this moment. And um that actually I what I found in my studies of the scriptures is that the gift of God is eternal life. And so the one eternal soul, yes. The opposite of that is not eternal torment or eternal whatever, it's eternal, it's like not being alive, like the finality of it, the etern the eternality of it. Um, you know, it says God alone has from this plane, right? So anyway, yeah, so you know, we might have some some differing um takes on that, but definitely there's more than what we see right now.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

There's definitely a spiritual realm, and there's definitely like a conflict going on too, where there is um a battle over our souls, yeah, and uh some fellow Christians get upset with me when I say this, but I'm gonna repeat it. The Bible is a Dr. Seuss book. What do I mean? We are children, we are nothing and uh knowingless compared to the all-knowing God, and God does not owe us children all the answers. We were given what we needed. Jesus came and gave us a new testament, what we were needed, and when he returns, we'll probably get yet another testament to tell us even more. But that's the sin of hubris, humans who think, well, God owes me all the answers to all my questions. No, he doesn't. Get over yourself.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, I think we're just scratching the surface, really, you know, because there's so much more that we have to learn. I totally agree with that. Yeah. So, you know, my my kind of point is I'm just trying to introduce.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Since the cross was raised on Calvary's Hill, men have stood on corners crying

Spoken Word: God’s Time Not Ours

SPEAKER_03 24:31

in this night.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

Generation after generation, checking signs and seasons still shall not know the hour. Yeah, we always try. We are frail and flawed, every one of us. No soul among us, perfect, none above the rest. Check your pride and hubris, check your arrogance. God don't run his kingdom on our schedule. Or request. There's a difference, hear me now. Between longing for the day, lighting fires in the darkness. Just to hurry up his way. Not ours. His term's not our own. We shall not know the hour that brings the king back home. So the good, breathe the good, stand again. It's the night. Evil ends when good men do nothing. So rise up and fight. Matthew 16, 26. What does a man gain if he wins the whole wide world and throws his soul away? You are known by all your fruits in the sun and in the rain. Every seed you plant today becomes your judgment day. Those who stir up chaos thinking God will be impressed. Are in league with the Antichrist, though they claim his holy name. From the Christian ocean require to the Islamic radicals, she had a son rest. Using God to justify the evil is the devil's game. There's a difference hearing now. Between longing for the day and pouring gasoline on embers. Just to hurry up his way. It's God's time now first. His turn's not our own. We shall not know the hour that brings the king back home. So the good, reap the good, stand against the night. Evil wins when good men do nothing. So rise up and fight. If you choose not to decide, you still made your choice. Inaction is inaction. Silence is a voice. Complice in evil that would otherwise be sown. There's no way for a believer to be known, to be known, restore our American republic. Push back the dark. We're not here to end it. We're here to guard the flame in every hole. Is the end really nigh this time? For real.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Every air asks the question.

SPEAKER_05 27:56

Every frightened soul can feel that the world is spinning darker, that the hour's drawing near. But it's God's time, not ours. Let the truth cut clean and clear. It's God's time. So the good, read the good, stand again. It's denied. Evil wins when good men do nothing. So rise up and fight. It's God's time not. Be the liberty beacon. Reflect God's light, how shines so do we, so do we known by your fruit. God's time, not ours.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Eyes open wide, not living in fear, just knowing the

Awake Not Paranoid Situational Awareness

SPEAKER_02 29:21

signs when the danger draws near They call it paranoia when you pay attention.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

But there's a difference between fear and comprehension. Crime doesn't clock in terrorism, has no zipper code. Anytime, any place, you better know it's road. You are not an ostrich with your head buried in sand. You're a thinker with awareness. Henry, you still stand. When the world interrupts around you, don't let parents be your guy. Three options in the crisis moment. Only one keeps you alive away. Not paranoid, situationally aware. Not consumed by all the feet-borns, but prepared to face what's there. Fight, flight, or maybe free. Know the difference made the call. A thinking mind won't be the sheep ball Trampled when the party falls. Away. Not paranoid. Oh wait. Remember when the music stopped and panic filled the air? The stampede was the danger, not what triggered the scare. Right and pandaphier when you run without a thought. The threat that really kills you is the panic that you caught. I'm a bearer of ostrich, which one are you gonna be? Assess the situation. Is that danger close to me? Is it in my orbit? Is it coming from my space? Or do I think the safety list to fight another day? When the world erupts around you, don't let panic be your guide. Three options in the crisis moment. Only one keeps you alive. Awake, not paranoid, situationally aware. Not consumed by all the fear-born, but prepared to face what's there. Fight, flight, or maybe fade. Know the difference, make the call. A thinking mine won't be the sheephole trampled when the panic falls away.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Not paranoid, alright. Life over death, hope over fear, faith over despair. Keep your wits clear. Love over hate, good over evil, freedom over tyranny, rise above the sheep. They said burnout, don't fade away.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

But I say fade and live to see another day.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Unless it's in your orbit, unless there's no escape, then you stand and fight. That's the choice that heroes make. Awake means you are watching, not wrapped in paranoious chains. You carry situational awareness like an umbrella when it rains. Not selling fear, not peddling doom.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

Just asking you to think Before the panic swallows reason and you're swept across the brain. Not paranoid, situationally aware, not consumed by all the fear porn, but prepared to face what's there. Fight, flight, or maybe fade. Know the difference, make the call. A thinking mind won't be the sheep ball trampled when the panic falls.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Awake, not paranoid, awake. Think, don't panic assess, don't assume, fade when you can fight when you must awake, not paranoid, just awake.

SPEAKER_05 33:58

God gave us all free will, gave it

Free Will And Human Uniqueness

SPEAKER_05 34:06

as individuals to both you and me, not collectivist minds, not even exactness in identical twins, thinking otherwise, ungodly hubris sin winds, free will, individually created. God gave us all free will gave it as individuals to both you and me, not collectivist minds, not even exactness in identical twins Thinking otherwise Antigua Ignorance Ungodly hubris win when we forget the spark You and I we don't arrive from one stamp mode Free will, free will, you will free will, free will not be free will, free will, made unique clear not just you and me One face, one step, one name Still two different hearts Same blood, same room, same sky, still two different marks. I won't call the soul row matching parts Weaven, we choose, we bird, we learn where we start Ungodly hubris win to make us all the same I was made to answer You were made to know Free Well, free will you free will, free will Not a hope to be free well, free will made unique Not just you and me If you try to number grace You lose the living flame If you try to copy well you break the sacred frame So let the two of us stand in our own skin free to turn free to choose free Eight billion souls inhabit this world to believe identical thought for discredit to God free will free will free will free will free will Nada Free Well Free Well May Free Will Free Will for both you and me's the birds green to the dawn of the day song we just open we just play Better Sit and I receive Where is all the now coming home every week everyone everyone we make this morning last week to my kid to the combo down to the stairs where you store the best teachers in the hallway's desk mama at the middle box praying for good news Steam on the kids to window Red Friday I remember everyone the boy I beat the building up a side boy from the cold stack to the boy from this small town to the state Red Friday where you own my head I can't lift your rocks back, but I can't lift your name I can't walk your footsteps, but I can share the way So I'll stand here in Skyland till you'll come home You are not forgotten Y'all never alone Red Body I remember everyone the boy I'll be building up a sound boy from the coat of sand to the convoy from this small town to the stand where you want my head to your back on this way I remember where you stay. We wear red every Friday for you.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

It keeps us strong. We remember everyone.

Red Friday Remembrance And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitual. 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. God bless. Love you all.