Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
The Ripple Effect of Sin
The tragic events that unfolded last week have shaken our nation and confronted Christians with a profound question: How do we respond when violence strikes? This episode dives deep into the spiritual implications of these tragedies beyond the political headlines.
We explore the concept of sin's "ripple effect" – how like stones thrown into water, our actions create waves that extend far beyond ourselves. While social media overflows with conspiracy theories and calls for retribution, we confront the challenging truth that vengeance only creates more destructive ripples. Through scripture and personal reflection, we examine how justice differs from retribution, and why subordinating ourselves to God's will matters more than ever in times of crisis.
The conversation takes a revealing turn as we consider today's youth – constantly bombarded by social media, lacking meaningful guidance, and desperately searching for identity. We reflect on how Charlie Kirk's mission to bring young people to Christ stands in stark contrast to a culture that offers them little spiritual nourishment. Stories from our own experiences highlight how even small acts of kindness create positive ripples that counter darkness.
Now, we're on Now. We're on Now we are on How's everyone's week.
Speaker 3:Crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a crazy week.
Speaker 1:Roger, how's your week?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, nick, you didn't get to tell Roger why your week's been crazy.
Speaker 3:Oh, Wife was in the hospital for a couple days.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:Wow, it's been crazy. Wife was in the hospital for a couple of days. Oh wow, we were at Sam's Club on Sunday and she started having chest pains and discomfort. And we go back to COVID. She had a blood clot in her lung at one point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it was kind of a similar kind of thing and got to be I don't know 3 in the morning on Monday and she's woke up crying and a lot of pain and I'm like, well, you know, we got to go and we got to go to the emergency room you know, because what happened to be a blood clot again that's. You know, you can't fool around with that.
Speaker 3:So we get there, they run all the tests necessary to check for the blood clot, All good, but then the doctor comes in. He's like can't let you go home feeling this way. I never send anybody home sick so we're going to have to admit you to the hospital. So I think we were in the emergency room from like 5 am until noon 12, 1230.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they said they were going to admit her at 1030.
Speaker 3:Well, it was another two hours before they actually got her up in a room.
Speaker 2:Well, that's typical.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we finally get her in a room. You know, and they did every test known to man. You know she went through ultrasounds, x-rays, in the end a stress test. You know, blood work, all that stuff, a complete workup. Everything's good, which, you know, praise the Lord. You know it wasn't anything serious, but we still don't know exactly why she's feeling that way. So it could be just an extreme case of anxiety. Uh well, that may be coupled with, like heartburn and all those kind of you know, ingestive issues as far as esophageal and all those things.
Speaker 3:so they want her to find a good gi doctor to go to to kind of follow up and maybe figure something out. But yeah, so two days spent in the hospital and no answers.
Speaker 2:That stinks. Yeah, no answer.
Speaker 3:You know of course, like I said, praise the Lord, it was nothing serious, but you're always hoping, like, like Sid and I were talking. It's like I hope it's nothing, but I hope they find something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Just something minor, something, a quick fix, you know, so we can get her feeling better again and know why Seems like nothing's ever a quick fix.
Speaker 2:No no.
Speaker 3:And you wonder sometimes, like do these doctors just like to run every test, just because they?
Speaker 4:can.
Speaker 3:You know, help out their insurance buddies. I don't know, but the good thing is we had already met our deductible, so I think we'll be okay.
Speaker 3:I think because people have been so quick to sue, yeah, yeah that you know they go in there and just try to rule out everything, and I always do hope these doctors are being genuine, like they truly do want to help you, so they don't want to leave anything to chance, they don't leave anything out. But I always wonder sometimes, because I've been hearing now like, oh, she could be deficient in vitamin d and that could be your whole problem. I'm like that's kind of like taking your vehicle and for repairs and you say, well, what's wrong? Well, it's not running, and they don't check the gas first and they don't check the gas first yeah.
Speaker 3:Like they don't check the gas tank first. They start with all the big stuff then, work their way down the small stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But perhaps it's a little different in the medical field. Sometimes you feel that way though.
Speaker 5:I'm sure that if she's established with the doctor that you said she did, that, that's already been checked.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she did that. That's already been checked. Yeah, yeah, is she full of gas?
Speaker 3:oh why not be, so far away from oh man. So yeah, so we like I said we were there from 5 am monday until yesterday around. They finally let her go, I think around 2.30.
Speaker 2:Well, at least they let her come home. Yeah, it's too bad you can't find her.
Speaker 3:And they didn't tell her she had to stay until it was getting kind of late in the afternoon. Then they told her she had to spend. Well, because at one point they said we can't do the stress test until morning. So we went out once eating after midnight and she's like well, that means I can go home. And they're like well, no, you have to stay, we have to monitor you. Well, that just crushed her.
Speaker 2:She thought she was going home. Oh yeah, when you're in hospital and they say oh yeah, you can go home, and then five minutes later, Are we recording?
Speaker 3:Yeah, bro, didn't even tell us he was leaving, just walked out.
Speaker 4:He didn't have the knife with him.
Speaker 1:Michael's coming to get the knife off of Roger.
Speaker 5:Roger, just up and bounced we're not going to ask what he wants. The knife for Makes me a little nervous.
Speaker 3:We got six guys back there working. One guy has a knife. It makes me a little nervous.
Speaker 2:We got six guys back there working. One guy has a knife.
Speaker 1:Whose fault is that? It's my knife. It's your fault for carrying your own knife.
Speaker 2:You just can't do anything, right, I'll tell you you ought to work back there with them people. No, I don't want to. I'll tell you. I'm telling you you ought to work back there with them people. No, I mean, it's just I don't want to, me and Rodney.
Speaker 5:I think we should take this podcast live. Does it cause a ripple of sin On location?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Just go to the gym.
Speaker 1:Go to the gym.
Speaker 4:Yeah, get the inside scoop, get the scoop. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That would be pretty fun. We need a wireless situation going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll have to ask the council, suppose I'm like hard copy. Charlie was still on. Remember all the hard copy? I don't know. That was a long time ago. I remember seeing that as a kid when my mom was watching TV. But anyway, yeah, so I think all is at least well for now. And the other thing you know we're going on vacation to Maine. We leave next.
Speaker 2:Friday. Maybe that's putting the stress on her.
Speaker 1:You've got her doing all this extra work and things that she has to get. I was going to ask are you like the planner for travel or does it just depend?
Speaker 3:Usually, when it comes to vacations, I plan everything. Now, in this case, we have not had time to really come up with a plan. We have, like ideas of what we want to do, but it's not as structured as I would like it to be.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but them are always the best ones, and you're right, it might be it to be, oh yeah, but them are always the best ones.
Speaker 3:And you're right, it might be. It might be. I like to fly with the seat of my pants.
Speaker 2:I at least like to have a general idea.
Speaker 3:That way we're not all standing around going well, I don't know what do you want to do and you waste time doing that as opposed to today.
Speaker 2:We're doing this. That's what you say.
Speaker 4:Let's go see the world's largest ball of twine.
Speaker 3:Okay, I've seen the world's largest Jolly Green Giant back in 2022. That was pretty cool, was it in Iowa, minnesota, blue Earth, minnesota. That's where, babe, that's where.
Speaker 2:Green Giant is Well, babe was there too. Who Babe. The blue ox? Oh yeah, I didn there too. Who Babe.
Speaker 3:The blue ox? Oh yeah, I didn't see that. Hmm, so yeah, so we're excited, but we feel a little—.
Speaker 2:And Beth is over there rolling her eyes.
Speaker 3:Well, and of course you know, the big anxiety is the cats.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe that's what threw her in there, yeah.
Speaker 3:She's scared to death to leave her cats behind. We have her.
Speaker 2:Cat lady.
Speaker 3:I think her cousin's coming over to take care of her while we're gone. They should be fine, but yeah, if she's worried about that.
Speaker 1:Which cousin? I'll tell you if they'll be fine or not.
Speaker 3:I think they will. Her name escapes me right now okay god I think she'll be okay. Yeah, because she's. She's a crazy cat lady too.
Speaker 5:Oh well, yeah, she'll be good. Yeah, are you taking maggie with you?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, the whole family, yeah, it's gonna be a big group uh staying in a house bed or not a bed and breakfast, but a uh help me airbnb good job, roger uh, yeah, I'm
Speaker 3:up on the beds like eight people and so, yeah, the house will be full and um should be a good time, but uh, she's a little nervous about leaving the cats. One has to actually stay the whole week at the vets because because it needs insulin twice a day, you know. So I have to make you know he's well taken care of.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we're kind of coming up on a week now and we're, I don't want to say, nervous about it, but, just like I said, usually I know exactly what we're doing when we're doing it.
Speaker 2:What part of Maine are you going to? Near Bar Harbor?
Speaker 3:So it's close to like Bangor and close to Arcadia National Park, which is what we'll be doing. So it should be a good time and it should be just. The leaves should be turning or have already turned. That's why we picked the dates we did, because everybody says you have to go to Maine when the leaves have turned. So we'll go up there and hopefully we'll get some good seafood.
Speaker 5:Have you been up in that area before?
Speaker 3:No, this will be my first time. Oh, we went to.
Speaker 2:Start praying about the traffic now, oh boy we went to, but I think we're going above Boston.
Speaker 3:I think we're going above. Boston. I think we're going to avoid that, so we should be okay. Because actually we're going to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame in New York.
Speaker 1:So you'll pass like Buffalo.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Okay gotcha Cooperstown, yeah, so we're going to go there for a day. Cooperstown, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we are going to go there for a day.
Speaker 3:Cooperstown yeah, yeah, and then we are going to swing over to Salem Massachusetts, oh you're going to see the witches, yeah, so we'll see all that history.
Speaker 2:That'll be cool.
Speaker 3:And then we'll go up to Maine from there. So we'll get to do a couple things, because it's like, what is it? 18 hours, 17, 18-hour drive to Maine. So we're going to break it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I am too old to be doing straight shots anymore. Yeah, do they still have that living history village there in Salem?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:That would be pretty cool to go there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can go in and see all the old houses. I think like Nathaniel Hawthorne the famous writer, his house is there. You could tour that if you want to. So it's just not the witch thing. They have all sorts of different you know, a lot of history there being, you know, colonial.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Old colonial town. So I mean I've seen the old graveyard. I love seeing them old.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:You know, because they've got the ones from like the late 1600s, 1700s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that looks pretty neat. The settlement.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you got right.
Speaker 1:Settlement cities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, villages Still looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:But gotta get ready. Yeah Well, we'll be praying for Margie. You'll have to keep us updated.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I didn't know she was, didn't know she was sick.
Speaker 3:Well, like I said, we were in church Sunday. I believe she was good, she hadn't really complained about anything. We got to Sam's Club and all of a sudden she was, like I said, she had to sit down.
Speaker 2:I just went downhill from there.
Speaker 3:Now it's all uphill. The thing about it was everybody in our family well, not everybody, but uh, my step son, his wife, the baby. They all had this terrible stomach bug lasted 24 to 48 hours, but I guess it was terrible. Well, margie goes over there to help him out for a little bit and she came home and she did get some of those symptoms, but not as as bad. So at first we thought, well, maybe it's something to do with that. And then, of course, when she gets sick, they even tested her for COVID. So they tested her for that and that's why we were worried about it being a blood clot. So you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, always something Sure is. Sure is.
Speaker 5:Your son made it home.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think he flew home Not in a plane, In his car, Because he left our house at 7.30 Friday morning and at like 6.20, I got a text message I'm home.
Speaker 3:And that's even more impressive with the time change right, Because he's going back.
Speaker 1:Oh, I wasn't even thinking about the time change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he goes, he's back. Yeah, yeah, to an hour, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. He said I says would you do fly Because I called him in. He said no, he said I didn't fly. He said I just would you do fly Because I called him in. He said no, he said I didn't fly. He said I just ran a speed limit. I said you know you can go to hell for lying. Just feel it, don't you? He just kind of chuckled.
Speaker 5:That was his wife with him.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. She had to work and his son wanted to come but he had school. So he had to work and his son wanted to come but he had school. So he was a little upset that he couldn't come. But he said he really enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 5:Oh good.
Speaker 2:That's good. He said it was nice to put a face to their names and people talking and that stuff he said it was—to tell you the truth, I'm surprised that he listens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's neat, surprised that he listens yeah.
Speaker 3:That's neat, that's a blessing, it sure is. That's what it's all about. Yeah, I thought it was a great episode. I wish we could do more of that type of thing. It's not that we come in here scripted or anything, because we don't.
Speaker 3:But we generally have an idea of what we want to talk about and it's usually topic-based and we're all pulling things from the Bible. But to actually have somebody sit here and kind of express their experience of what they're going through and what they've faced in their lives, I mean that just makes it even more, you know, real. Yeah, it just makes it more real and just more it really hits you. It hits you different.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and he didn't shut you down, he let he listened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, he did he. Yeah, I mean, he listened to me for a long time.
Speaker 2:Really, we all did.
Speaker 1:Nick.
Speaker 2:I didn't go to sleep. Yeah, I didn't go to sleep. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I was deaf.
Speaker 2:I mean, hey, he needed to hear it from somebody else.
Speaker 1:And it was nice. It was nice he was even able to come in as vulnerable as he did Right Right and I think it helped. It says a lot about his character. Yes.
Speaker 3:He could sit here and listen. You know, because that's always a touchy subject. You know, the first thing people can say is well, you haven't experienced what I've experienced. How could you possibly know? How could you? You know, who are you to tell me? You know, a lot of people can take that attitude.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. So to me it's a really sign of somebody who is, even though he's expressed some doubts, you can tell that he does have some spiritual maturity, that he can sit and listen to somebody and he's not that type that you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's going to shut you down, or yeah and he doesn't. He doesn't use his own bad experiences to make excuses, or right, say well, you know what could you possibly?
Speaker 3:you know? Tell me you know, what could I possibly learn from you? You, you've never, you haven't been through what I've been through. Like I said, you can hear that a lot in people and uh I believe he knows in his knower yeah, yeah, trying to yeah put the pieces together yeah, I think so.
Speaker 5:I mean, he puts the answers of why yeah, and when, when god gives him those, then I think you'll see the complete change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep, yeah like I said, I think there's definitely a spiritual maturity there that you know he he's just. I mean, everybody wants answers to certain things. We all go through that, that you know. If you have Sometimes there are no answers, yeah, well, no.
Speaker 2:I mean, but that's just where.
Speaker 3:That's where you know just your trust in God comes in. That's where you know if you're mature enough to really accept the will of God and tell him that. I've said it many times with my dad, I mean that was the first time and I think I needed that and I don't want you know. Sometimes I think, well, did that all? Was that all supposed to happen? Because it wasn't until that happened that I truly realized that I could trust the Lord completely. Happened that I truly realized that I could trust the Lord completely because instead of going down, you know, to the um, you know down to pray and be like why? Why, god, is this happening? And please don't take him. And you know there was no for me it was. There was no begging, it was. You know I don't want him to go, but I trust you completely that you have this handled and whatever happens is your will. And I never felt so much peace in my life.
Speaker 3:I was able to handle that situation from that point forward with a whole different kind of strength because I just gave it to him and that's in any experience, I think, no matter how severe it is, you have to get to that point where you totally give it up to him. You don't try to control the events, you don't try to impress your will upon him, you accept his and it just gives you this completely different strength and confidence and peace that can really get you through a lot of tough situations, as opposed to begging your way through it.
Speaker 5:I see that with jarvie. I mean he was raised in church until he was old enough to tell his mom. I'm not going no more. Yeah, you know and, but it took the loss of his son, my stepson, in that auto accident to get us back in church.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, sometimes it's. You know, the Lord give us and the Lord take us away.
Speaker 5:And my husband believes in his heart that that's why things happen the way they did.
Speaker 3:Yeah and I always say, like my dad passed. I think that fall before COVID really hit. And I'm telling you, my dad could not have lived through COVID, not because of anything physical, but because he loved people so much. He loved to hug people, he loved to be close to people, help them. He walked the ladies at the hospital out to their cars every single night. It's just who he was. I don't think he could have handled the, you know, six foot space between people and not allowed to engage people or be around people.
Speaker 3:I just he wasn't meant. He wasn't meant for COVID, so to me it was almost like yeah, he probably would have went insane.
Speaker 3:I mean maybe an actual literal, like literally too, I don't know, but I mean it just would not have been, it would have took so much away from who he was and what he does, especially since my mom had passed and he had be after his retirement. He still volunteered at the hospital because he loved to do it. He loved to help people, love to help people. He thought that was a worthy thing to be doing and so he wouldn't have been they. You know, during that time they didn't have those volunteers, so he would have had to stay home and do nothing and I think that would have just yeah, that would have drove him crazy.
Speaker 3:So you know, so really I do, I do think it was God's timing and it's certainly for me, and for me personally, it just um, there was just something about that, just like I say, totally trusting him and just for the first time, you know, quit making excuses, quit trying to enforce your will upon God, just letting him do his thing, you know, even if it's going to be one of the worst experiences of your life, you know, uh, you got sometimes you just just got to give it up to him and everything else from there. No matter what happens, it just seems like it fits.
Speaker 5:And, as we talked last week, it's easy to lay it down and surrender it all to him, but then to pick it back up. And you truly just surrendered it and trust in him. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it just really helped me through the whole process of um planning the funeral and doing all those things. I mean, I even spoke at my dad's funeral and I still have a lot of people like I just there's no way I could ever do that, there's no way I could get up there and talk at my parents you know funeral, but it's just.
Speaker 3:I just had that peace and I just felt like, you know, that's something I wanted to do for my father well, that's what I was going to say, just like I rode through that.
Speaker 3:I just do it, you know yeah um, so yeah, it just, it just gave me a whole new you know outlook and confidence and, um, and I know, and I know trials of that kind will come again, you know, and honestly I'll be interested to see how I handle it, you know, the next time. But I think I will. I think I will handle it the same way because I've seen it. I've seen what that does personally when you're in one of those situations. So to me it's a major, major step in your relationship with God is when you're like okay, yeah, I'm just going to trust you with this.
Speaker 2:We are. No go ahead.
Speaker 5:We're going to throw you under the bus, but what's your topic for tonight?
Speaker 3:oh well, you know we've all been through. It's been a pretty. What would you say? What kind of week has this been in our world?
Speaker 2:trying chaotic, chaotic there's probably a few words you could use.
Speaker 3:I'd say eye opening it's yeah I guess I'm looking for a more classy word than eye opening, but uh, you know I I said I posted it online. I mean, and we're all talking about charlie kirk and uh, there's. You know, if you're on social media at all, it's no surprise that this thing has gotten completely out of control I mean the amount of conspiracy theories that have already been introduced. Yeah uh, if you ever wondered what the assassination of jfk would have been like in our times, well, we're finding that out yeah you know it's just crazy.
Speaker 3:Every day, just there's more and more theories and you know videos that come up trying to convince you that this happened or didn't happen, or he's still alive, or that really isn't him in the casket that you know. That's not his wife, erica, standing up and speaking.
Speaker 4:You know to the nation.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's just crazy the amount of garbage that you get exposed to on social media. Now, don't get me wrong there is also a lot of great things coming out of it. I'm still very concerned of what the effects of all this is going to be in the end, but I will say that I'm very proud and happy to see that a lot of people have we've seen a lot of good come out of this.
Speaker 4:We've seen.
Speaker 3:I mean, the amount of people that are going back to the church for the first time since his death, and just the inspiration that it has had on people is truly amazing. So there's going to be plenty of bad things that come out of it, but it is very nice to see that you know there's people really standing up and it's giving people the inspiration to really start speaking their minds about how they feel spiritually instead of hiding it, and, you know, thinking that it's not something you're supposed to talk about with other people, and I think we're realizing that. No, that's probably one of the most important things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Is to be able to talk spiritually with people. And I, for me, I posted online. Me, I posted online, I said to me this my, my anger about it and my disappointment with it is not political. If he was just a politician, I mean, I could still see you know the validity in all this, but for me, it's the fact that you know, uh, they killed a servant of the Lord. Uh, they killed a brother of the cross and they killed a soldier of the army of the living God.
Speaker 3:And that's just the way I see it. That's, to me, is the most important thing about it, and that's the thing that everybody should be concerned about the most. That is what we lost. You know as a person and what his mission was in life. That's what we here left here have lost. Politicians are made and broke every single day, but somebody like that just doesn't come around.
Speaker 3:you know, once a century yeah I really think I mean to be as young as he was. Um, you know, and and again, um, you can argue politics, whether you agreed with his politics or not. I mean, everybody knows. Yes, he was a staunch republican, conservative, all of those things, but he's I. He spent more time talking about Christ than I think anybody that I'm aware of, especially for that age group, to bring.
Speaker 4:So many young people to it was just really something.
Speaker 3:And, as the old saying goes, you don't know what you got until it's gone. Know what you got till it's gone? Uh, you know, it's just. You're finding out just how many people, young people, did look up to him and sometimes we, we think where's this young generation going? We just don't know what they think. And you know they're just. You know you tend to put them all in a box, but then you realize that not, there are still a lot of good, young, yeah, up and coming people out there yeah that do love christ, that do have that in their heart, that are building their lives on that principle and they're active in it and they're willing to stand up for that.
Speaker 3:So that's refreshing to see because, like I said, I think a lot of times we focus on the bad with our generation, with all the social media and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I just thought it. You know that was my whole. That's what I'm feeling about the whole situation. And you know you got a lot of people who they love Charlie Kirk, but you can you can already tell like they're letting their anger get the best of them. They're so angry about it that you know they want retribution.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They don't want justice. Yeah, you know, they want retribution. And it's like would Charlie do that? Right, you know what would Charlie tell you? You know it wouldn't be doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Almost like Michael said Sunday yeah, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What did he say? It wasn't to compare, it was to oh, or what Gosh. Does anyone remember what he was saying?
Speaker 2:I don't remember. I I know I remember him saying something.
Speaker 1:I forget what he, what he called it basically like if you take my eye, I'm just going to take your eye, like I'm not going to take your arm. That might be more useful, like if you're a I don't know, like a some farmer, a farmer, a tradesman who uses their hands Like it was more to be equal.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:But we can't look at it, you know. We can't look at it that way Because, at the end of the day, like sin is sin, yeah, no matter how big or how small. Like, yeah, I think there will be more consequences for something such as murder, but it's also, I mean, sin is sin and each and every one of those sins, you know, is just separating you from God, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like yeah there's no other way to look at it, like I don't want, I don't want. People like, oh well, he, you know, he needs to have the death penalty and this and that. Well, who are you to tell and say that you know, I don't know?
Speaker 3:Yeah, everybody deserves safety, everybody deserves justice, everybody deserves to hear, to have their voice heard. But you have to let that justice be God's will. You can't take it upon yourself. Yeah, retribution solves nothing, because then that just puts you on equal footing with the people that did this. You end up being no better than the people who did this and it doesn't solve a thing. So you do have to trust in Lord that true justice, you know, will be served. Yes, you know, in America we do have a process, um, and unfortunately, you know it is a process that can lead to the death penalty.
Speaker 3:When I look at that kid, you know I'll be honest, I don't see an evil person. I see a person who's been misled. That is my ultimate thought on that, because I'm thinking this kid has his whole life in front of him. You're 22 years old, him. You're 22 years old. What possibly could have he had to fill himself with such evil or hate that he would kill somebody? And you listen to the stories of his family and where he came from and how he may have been just a year ago and where he is now. You think that kid shouldn't be in this position.
Speaker 1:But I think there was outside sources outside influences that were leading him into this trap, and unfortunately that happens a lot to college students so you know, I definitely think they have the right to be able to form their own opinion.
Speaker 1:But, you know, for anyone listening like just keep an eye out on the ones that are going to college and like, when they're home for Thanksgiving, like just still talk with them about their morals and their principles.
Speaker 1:Cause I can remember a local pastor he's not here anymore but his daughter, um, she went away and, you know, came home and it was like I think it was Christmas break during COVID, and she was kind of like just talking all about oppression and like and every, and she was almost getting too influenced and he kind of had to bring her down a step or two. And you know, he's like well, you are right in thinking this, but it's also, you know, this is what the bible says and I don't want you to steer away from you know what you were taught growing up. So it's, yeah, it's definitely something touchy because, again, I think they should have their opinions, and I mean my opinions have changed since I was, you know, 16 or 17 on some certain things, but I didn't go so far, right to left within a year. You know what I mean yeah like that's what's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like two extremes.
Speaker 5:Well, you had mentioned his name that last week and I'm like I don't know, I don't know him. But then once I seen his, face.
Speaker 4:I'm like oh yeah.
Speaker 5:I've watched him, you know, and just didn't have it yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, I just you know, and this is, you know, we talk about empathy and, like I said, when I look at the kid, kid that young, with everything in front of him, somehow got this idea in his head that this was either going to change the world for his you know his agenda, his situation or his partner's situation situation?
Speaker 3:And if he did, you know, if he did have accomplices, you know, it seems as though, well, you know, they're leaving him to the wolves. Ain't nobody else going to come forward and say, yeah, you know, I helped him. So it's just a very, it's very tragic that you know such a young kid wouldn't, you know, find reason to do this? Um, because, yeah, I mean his no it's.
Speaker 3:It's just ruined his life and it's probably his parents' life, and of course you know Charlie Kirk's family and everybody that loved him, and and you know, and when you asked me about my topic, um, I, I said something last week and sometimes you say things that I didn't mean to say it. I didn't plan to say it, but I said every sin has this ripple effect, the ripple of sin, and a lot of us don't think about it, but I think about it, just like throwing stones in a lake, you know you can pick up the smallest pebble, throw it in and those ripples are still going to go out, and they're not going to go out very far.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, when you sin and you throw that smallest stone out there, well, it might only affect you in some unfortunate way or just some way that sets you back with the Lord. But the more you sin, or the bigger the sin, now you're throwing a bigger rock in the ripples go out farther.
Speaker 2:So then, not only More people you hurt, yeah. Not only now are you hurting yourself, but now you're hurting the other people you hurt, yeah.
Speaker 3:Not only now are you hurting yourself, yep, but now you're hurting the other people around you. And then, of course, yeah, you can pick up the biggest boulder you can find, and we've all done that as kids you love to find the biggest rock and toss it into the lake and it creates a huge splash.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So chaotic that you don't even know where the ripples begin and end. Complete chaos splash yeah, so chaotic that you don't even know where the ripples begin and end. Yeah, um, complete chaos. You know and that's unfortunately in this situation that that was a big boulder that was thrown into the lake, like the sin of what's happened here has just been so great.
Speaker 3:That's just made everything so chaotic yeah but you see, what's happening is there's a lot of people out there that mean well right now by standing up for Charlie Kirk and his family, but they're being hit by that boulder.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:To the point where they want retribution. Yes, they want to lash out in anger. Yeah, they want to get their own kicks in with these people. They want to hunt these people down yeah, you know any anybody that's from the left.
Speaker 3:You know they want to hunt them down like dogs and kill every single one of them. Um, and again you go back to empathy. You could be like, yep, well, I understand where they're coming from. I can understand why some people would be that angry, but if you go back and listen to charlie kirk, you're like you cannot come to that conclusion. That will solve absolutely nothing yeah but you do see that just again how chaotic everything is.
Speaker 1:Get that the sin is so great that look how it's affecting the whole country yeah yeah, you know um and I mean like we, we say all the time like what would jesus do? Like you could, you can definitely put that into this. You know, like jesus probably would not be trying to get you know, quote unquote, get back with them. Like you know he would be trying to love people more than anything during this time, like he wouldn't be trying to do all these things.
Speaker 3:You know that everyone's trying yep, not everyone, but yeah well, there's just so many innocent people that could get caught up in this. More innocent people could die based on somebody's reaction to this whole thing and they think they're doing it out of love. They think they're doing it out of love. They think they're doing it out of a just cause. They're thinking like it's time we need to. You know, enough's enough and this is how we need to approach it.
Speaker 1:And I mean, let's just say like that's exactly how. What was his name? Tyler?
Speaker 3:That's exactly how he looked at it, that's why he did looked, that's why he got to was in his mind Enough was enough and he felt that that was going to solve his problem or that he thought he could do this and get away with it. To put you know, get somebody out of the way so that you know their situation, their movement could, could go farther. And you know, now he's sitting in a jail cell and a suicide anti-suicide vest. Tell you know, having somebody tell him that you know, yeah, we're going to put you to death.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and some people say, yeah, they even got firing a firing squad is one of those options.
Speaker 1:That's what I read.
Speaker 3:And, like I said, this is a kid. You know it's hard to fathom.
Speaker 5:A mixed up kid, very mixed up, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we have to remind ourselves that, like I said, we all deserve safety and justice. For something like this, no, you can't let everything go unpunished. There has to be a punishment. There has to be society. You do have to keep society under control together. There are rules to the world we live in, but again you have to let justice take its proper course. You can't take it into your own hands because again it just does become retribution. So it just people. We all have to realize that, at the end of the day, that we are subordinate to God and his will. At the end of the day that we are subordinate to God and his will, no matter how angry we are, no matter how much we don't understand, no matter how much we want results and we want to get those results by our own hand.
Speaker 3:Whatever you're doing, you have to stop and say I'm subordinate to God and his will. I can't go out and inflict the same harm and pain on somebody else to you know. That's just revenge.
Speaker 1:And at the end of the day, that's you feeding your flesh. Yeah, your flesh is the one that wants to do that. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:And that's just throwing more boulders into that lake. That's just going to keep on going. That ripple effect is just going to keep on going, touch more and more people and in the end it's not going to solve a thing.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:No, we want to come out of this with a brighter idea of who Christ is and his love. And we're only going to get that, if you know, if we're subordinate to his will and we wait for his timing for justice to take place and it takes the proper course. You know, and overall it does seem like you know most people, and overall it does seem like most people. It is really just great to see how many people are coming together for candlelight vigils and everything has been peaceful. But there are those, you know, there's plenty of things out there as well Just people just getting really angry and wanting to just, you know, again, say enough is enough. But yeah, that's not what we want as American people.
Speaker 3:That's not the course we want to take and God's not going to bless us through this. If that's the course we take and that's what so many people don't understand is this country is blessed for a reason and it's because we, when we founded this country, we based it on Christian principle, Whether people want I'm sorry whether people want to admit to that or not, and I do support the idea of the separation of church and state. I understand why that's in there because you can't have people being persecuted for their religious beliefs.
Speaker 4:Right, right, you just can't.
Speaker 3:But the central idea, in fact, is that this country was founded on Christian principles and we have to remember that. And if we keep going against God, then he's not going to continue to bless us. We've seen things in our past where it's been clear like God is trying to tell us that we are not going in the direction we're supposed to be going in.
Speaker 3:And if we haven't learned by now, when are we going to learn? If we haven't learned by now, when are we going to learn? So you know that's what I would say to anybody who has those thoughts in their mind about, you know, retribution, and you know we want to get after these people as soon as we can, and that's just not God's will. It's just not. And a lot of people will probably be angry with me for saying that, because they think, well, you're weak, because you're not willing to go out there and finally say enough is enough and take action.
Speaker 3:You know a lot of people would probably say, well, that's just because, yeah, you're a weak christian, christian, you're not tough enough to you know, get the job done. But that's not the right answer. I will tell anybody that that is not the right answer.
Speaker 2:Well, you wait for the Lord to see what he's going to do, what he wants done.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that kind of reminded me. Um, I read somewhere that said you know if, if tyler does repent, you know and you know god can forgive him and you know he will forgive him.
Speaker 3:But the actions that he took, like those, will still continue to play out and affect others and other things even after he repents, if he ever does, you know like yeah, yeah, sin is sin and you know, once it's out there, it's I mean that's.
Speaker 5:That's the whole nature of our world well, we're all living in sin, from the sin that adam and eve yeah, that first ones that stone, that stone being thrown into the lake, is still having its effects today.
Speaker 3:It's still going out, still yeah you know, um, that's why you have to look at it every time you think you're gonna, and it could be just something very simple that you think only affects you, but you don't realize at the end of the day, like how far it can go. Yeah, because because it may, because it may withhold you from being a better Christian, which will then withhold you from going out seeking other people, helping other people. Because, like I said, it could be something so insignificant that you don't think it's much of a problem. You can handle your problem. You know I got it, but a lot of times you don't realize it. If it's holding you back and you can't get out there and do God's work, then you know, sometimes, if somebody's throwing that stone into the lake, you can reach your hand out and catch it before it hits the water.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:If you're out there.
Speaker 3:Prepared, prepared, if you're out there doing the work, if you're out there, speaking to people, you might prevent that person from throwing that stone in the lake. Speaking to people, you might prevent that person from throwing that stone in the lake. But if you're not, then yeah, you just that's all the more. You know people that are not being led to Christ, which is why I think you know that, tyler Robinson that's why he's in the place he's in in the first place is because no, nobody was leading him to christ.
Speaker 3:He wasn't either willing or able to listen, um, and started listening to another voice, and that's just the reality of it. If he was listening to god truly with a word, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be in this position right now. It's just the way it is. But oftentimes we just, like I said, especially in young people you get so caught up in, you know, the world around you and other people and you can. You know it's cliche to say, but you can get in with the wrong people Before you know it. You know you're already looking for something and you think you found it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And some of these causes and some of these situations and it can for a young person. It can leave an imprint very quickly and change somebody's course, and I think that was, you know, charlie's mission is he was trying to get a lot of these young people, these college kids to come to Christ early. He wanted to get the idea in their head that what God wants for you is to go out, have a family. You know, build that family.
Speaker 1:Feel that love from that family.
Speaker 3:That security and that purpose.
Speaker 1:Because I mean they say all the time, you don't know love until you have your own family, and it's so true. And Because I mean they say all the time, you don't know love until you have your own family. And it's so true. And these young kids don't realize that and they're never going to realize it until they have their own family.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's like saying you know it's easy to take it for granted being young, yeah, so this is not a like. I'm not again, I'm not talking down to young kids, but you can take a lot for granted when you're a kid, when you've perhaps you've had it good your whole life and haven't really experienced much trouble or anxiety, and that's a good thing. But at the same time, you know young people do need to realize that you can't you know you can't sit on your phone for 12 hours a day, bed rotting.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's become a new term.
Speaker 4:Bed rotting Bed rotting.
Speaker 3:Somebody that stays just on their phone for 10 plus hours a day just surfing social media.
Speaker 2:Earl, earl, earl, url Remember. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 5:I'm thinking what's he talking about? Now, I got it, oh man.
Speaker 3:So that's what Charlie was trying to do. He was just trying to get these young people right out of college to decide that, yeah, you want to believe in God, you want to go out and you want to start a family. Be productive, god. You want to go out and you want to start a family, be productive.
Speaker 3:Don't let foolish things you know, like drinking and drugs and all these things to set you back and keep you from your true purpose. And the amazing thing is he did it. I mean the work that he was able to accomplish. Have that leadership, which comes to the next important part of this whole thing is we can't let this stop us from our purpose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, right, yeah, and that is you do seriously wonder if there is a group of people in this country that truly want evil to persist.
Speaker 3:Well, you know that's true, and so then you have to think okay, so what are?
Speaker 3:we supposed to do, then we do have to stand up and fight these people. We do have to stand up for God. We can't just lay back and let these people continue to do this, but I think the idea is, you know, we can't do it by their means. If they were willing to go out and kill this man to serve their purpose, well, obviously it didn't work. I think we've already seen that that wasn't the answer to that. The best thing that we can do is continue to do what Charlie was going to continue to do, and that's reach people from a young age or people that have never thought about Christ before, actually see Christ for who he truly is, and get these people to follow him, because the more people in this country that we have that are church-based, that have a family, that's what's going to destroy whatever group of people. This is because then we're going to be too strong for them to survive.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know we're going to squeeze them out. They're just not going to be able to survive in a society that is church based family based.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, they'll just be weeded out very quickly and that movement will die. It just will. But if we start the violence, if we start learning from them, we're always going to be doing this, it's always going to be even and we're never going to see an end to it. So that that's where we have to be as a society is willing to say that we are going to be in the majority and no matter how, you know, no matter how how many people get lost and and these other ideas, you know it's, it can't survive and god will continue to bless us.
Speaker 1:I just wish they knew why we were trying so hard. We're trying to win your hearts over Dang it.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. We're not trying to make your life, I'm not trying to shove my belief system down your throat.
Speaker 1:I care about you. I've got a cousin.
Speaker 2:And I can have this conversation with her.
Speaker 1:We can be civil and she'll message me and she's worried about her sister because her sister is a Christian and she's 17. Her sister is and she's like Sid, I want you to look out for her because I know you're quote one of the good ones. I'm like wait what? Say that one more time.
Speaker 2:I must be one of the bad ones, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm one of the good ones as far as the Christians around this area are and she's like I just don't want her being caught up in different crowds and she thinks a lot of things are very culty. Things are very culty and honestly I don't know where she gets these feelings that are so strong, because I know her upbringing Not all of it, I don't know what went on and closed doors all the time, but I was pretty close with her growing up.
Speaker 3:And I just don't know what went wrong. But the thing is, I think we underestimate the power of the social media. What went wrong, but the thing is, I think we underestimate the power of the social media we underestimate the power of a celebrity that can have such a strong impression on a young mind. Yeah, and I mean and to be fair, because you get to the ages of 13 and 14 where kids, they instinctively want to rebel in some form against their parents and their upbringing.
Speaker 3:It's just, it's almost like again, it's the sin of the earth. I don't know if it's science, what it is, but it just seems to be that you know, kids can. They want to lose a part of their dependence on their parents and they want to do it on their own and come up with their own ideas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so it's very easy and and maybe that media.
Speaker 1:It's just they can't again, they can't get away from it yeah, and honestly that could be very true with her, because yeah I mean I do see that she.
Speaker 3:You know, I've said it, I've said it before for me, I'm I'm thankful that when I was 10, I was listening to man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. Yeah yeah, like that's who I grew up with and yeah, he could sing songs about love and this or that, but he always had those songs about humanity and what we were supposed to be doing and how we're supposed to be treating each other humanity and what we were supposed to be doing and how we're supposed to be treating each other.
Speaker 3:And so we grew up with that idea of it because we're young and impressionable and we all looked up to him?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if he says it.
Speaker 3:it's got to be true, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's got to be true, but I think he he understood the responsibility that he had on young people and for his power of his celebrity and who he was in trying to inspire people. He understood that we don't see that right now. I don't think in music and celebrities. I don't think we see any of that. It's very different. Most of the young musicians and their songs I don't even know what they're about, I'll be honest with you, but it's nothing good. They're never trying to, I think, be a true role model for younger people. I think they're selling as much garbage as they can and trying to be as impressionable as they can and they're trying to shock as many people as they can. And that's where it's gotten to. It's not even about the craft anymore and the art of it Right yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just what can we do next to upset people or push the envelope.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or headline and outdo the next person and they don't realize how much of an effect it has on these young kids, especially young females. I think right now I think the young females probably are getting more impression than anybody right now. You know, female artists and musicians right now it's not good. You know we had Madonna, but even then it was kind of like, yeah, madonna even still would sing something that you could tell was meaningful, or so she pushed the envelope, but it's still not the same. I mean now it's just like every single artist is, it's all sexual based, it just is it's all, from their image to all the songs that they sing.
Speaker 3:It's all sexual based. And when they sing it's all sexual based. And when they sing it, it's like they have no feeling about it at all. Yeah, about the. It's not like the love songs we had in the 80s and the 90s. It doesn't even mirror that at all.
Speaker 3:It's like they do not care about the emotions of the other people at all, and unless they're trying to push these agendas yeah and then you can see that, wow, they're really trying to, you know, push these certain agendas that again also aren't good for for young people. So it's just I get it how a kid can get very quickly wrapped up in in all these things. I mean because, like I said, at least we could shut the tv off and go outside and play, or our parents force us to shut it off right right um, but now they just can't get away from it no, it's always in their hand, yeah, even our school systems.
Speaker 5:They're all using computers, ipads, this and that their brain is not working the way it's supposed to work at that young age?
Speaker 3:it's not. It's not working to find answers yeah to seek things. It's just all being just yeah poured on them. Yeah, and most of it's just such useless information. But, like I said, their brain when I said bed rotting, that's what they're doing. Their brain is not. It's not even functioning properly, it's on autopilot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like they're looking at all this stuff, but they're not exercising their brain. It's just, you know, and that's what's happening. You know they're getting in're getting in, that. I think that's. It gets to the point where they can't make their own decisions because their brain's not working that way. It's not working independently, so how could their brain come up with independent decisions?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It just can't, because the brain doesn't operate that way. And when you start that young, guess what the brain is? That's the way the brain develops by learning, by approaching, by seeking yeah. But they're taking that all away from them to where their brain is just on autopilot all the time and they'll they just. It's just an infinite amount of just knowledge that they don't know it's kind
Speaker 3:of just like remember when, back in the old days, roger, when the tv would like remember when the tv would just kind of like, and then you had to get up and adjust the rotor. Yeah, yeah but that's what I think, that's what their brain is. Yeah, it's just. It's just on that channel oscillating yeah, yeah, you just can't get it off now, yeah you talk about.
Speaker 2:You know kids, I know the kid's not really knowing anything. I took a test Monday and this is from our government and there were 60 questions. I was kind of impressed at the end. But they said would you consider being a dance instructor? Not lightly. Would you proofread a play? Not lightly, would you? What was? Oh, there were 60 questions. What was? Oh, there were 60 questions and each one of them it was oh, I should have took a picture of it?
Speaker 1:Was it like a survey? No, like I would somewhat do it.
Speaker 2:Or it was.
Speaker 1:I would really do this.
Speaker 2:It was absolutely not Okay. Dislike, don't know. Yeah, yes, Absolutely but dislike, don't know. Yes, and maybe it was multiple and this was from our government, Absolutely worthless. But I was kind of impressed because they give you a little pie chart at the end. Oh, and I'm pretty well rounded, All of the all of the I know what.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean Like if you would be a creative creative writer uh uh, uh uh. Edit a book Good with your hands. Yeah, Yep.
Speaker 2:And the my. I was pretty impressed with my pie chart, but I mean it was pretty dumb. I mean, what's a 75-year-old guy want to go out and do a book or learn dance instructor?
Speaker 5:I want to see your dance moves.
Speaker 1:Dancing with the Stars started last night. You could start watching that and take some tips. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2:Next time you see my wife, ask her about my dance pupils.
Speaker 1:Okay, I will your dance pupils. Yes, are they the dogs?
Speaker 5:No no.
Speaker 2:Some of those stupid reels and there'll be an old lady dancing. You know really really well. She thought she was dancing. My wife will follow, honey, come here. I said what she says look at this. I said oh. She says is this one of your pupils? I said yeah, she was first in her class. As soon as I read that question I thought okay sure.
Speaker 2:No, but it was. I mean, and going back to you know the kids in that school it's there's, they don't think about anything. You know they don't think about anything. And why in the world would the government give you this test? Because it's the dumbest test in the world. But the worst part is, supposedly some intelligent person made this test up. I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought it was useful yeah.
Speaker 2:Now this has really got to be useful in our society.
Speaker 1:We're really going to figure it out, yeah. It's almost like the ASVAB test, like testing you on your, not on your skills. It wouldn't test you on your skills. It wouldn't test you on your skills, it would almost test you on your personality.
Speaker 2:You know? Yeah, but this should have been testing you on your skills.
Speaker 3:Not your. You weren't at the unemployment office, were you?
Speaker 2:I played the fifth.
Speaker 3:How did you guess that would make sense? It just hit me. Like they're going to say, oh well, yeah, we have this dance class.
Speaker 4:They need an instructor. They need to start right away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, yeah, I can do the moonwalk.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to try to get us back on track. I'll try.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:What were you going to say? You can moonwalk.
Speaker 2:No, do you know who invented the dance, the worm.
Speaker 3:Gene Kelly? I don't know, no, no.
Speaker 2:It was a mechanic. They were crawling underneath of a truck in the mud and they had to worm underneath the truck so they could get to it to work on it.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it wasn't a dance move at first. I'm sure he was just like trying to get in to work on it.
Speaker 2:But then some state employees saw him and said, wow, that would be a great dance move.
Speaker 1:Can we trademark it?
Speaker 2:Meanwhile go ahead Sid.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right Rippling effect. So I was looking up some Rippling effect Rippling.
Speaker 3:Rippling.
Speaker 1:Rippling effect of sin. Oh, okay, yeah, okay. Rippling, rippling, rippling effect of sin. Oh, okay, yeah, okay. So I looked up to see if we had any scriptures to base it off of and I found exodus 34. We'll start at seven.
Speaker 1:I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive inequity, rebellion, and, but I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. The entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations.
Speaker 1:To piggyback off of that, there is actually a study now that is proving that it's was it Echo, epigenetics is what it is, and it's, um, basically, they had a good example stating like people, um, it would be someone's great, great grandchild of the holocaust, like a, like a survivor, they are having dreams of these concentration camps and you know, all this, wow, all this going on, when they've they've never been there, they've never, you know, seen this real life, nothing, but this is literally in their dna. So it's like, and it almost also piggybacks off of, like the generational trauma, like you can break those generational curses and it's like the faster you do it, the better it is going to be for your family. Like it, I mean it's. It's like if. If no one believes the bible per se, like this exodus verse, look at the scientific studies that are saying so. You know like yeah, it's literally embedded in your dna what if you don't know the curse though?
Speaker 1:if you don't know the curse, yeah you don't know the source of the original well, I mean, I think you can still break it if you don't know the source well, I think what he's trying to say is.
Speaker 3:I mean, by following the Lord, you don't necessarily have to know the details. Right but you do have to at some point say yes.
Speaker 1:Enough is enough. I'm going to follow the.
Speaker 2:Lord.
Speaker 3:I'm going to you know. Yeah, yeah, I think that's Okay.
Speaker 4:Thank you yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Because if you, just if generation after generation keeps accepting and being a product of their environment, the same sin the same problems that we're having, you know, the same retribution and revenge and all of those things, if we keep on just doing it over and over and over. Which is why I always say you know, a lot of people are like history is dumb, it's boring, yeah, well, guess what? Everybody needs to know where they came from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep, it's boring, yeah, well, guess what? Everybody needs to know where they came from, yeah, and if you don't want to repeat the same mistakes, then you need to know where you came from and what's gone before you. So that's another point to it is, as a country, we have to realize when we've done things wrong, when we've made mistakes, we have to be willing to admit those mistakes, learn from them and move forward.
Speaker 3:But, move forward in the way that God would want us to. But if we just keep on going down the same path, like she said, generation after generation after generation, we'll have to pay the price. We're passing, we pass it down, and that's again that ripple effect. We pass that sin down, and the more that we keep keep doing it, we just keep passing it further and further and further, and the only way to stop it is the way of the lord. That's it, okay.
Speaker 3:nothing else, no other good deeds, or trying to cover it up, or you know come on toughing it out toughing it out, coming up with a new system, trying to replace the old system politically, economically, all of those things yeah, we all need those things, but if it's not Christ centered, right. It's you're going to have the same. Yeah, you're going to have the same different different situations Same same result.
Speaker 2:The same result, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're just, you're going to have, you know, the same political you know.
Speaker 2:help me out here Garbage, garbage.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You're just going to have just all the things that we, you know, we think that our government's doing this and doing that, and let's face it. I mean, yeah, sure, there's a lot. I mean, yeah, sure, there's a lot going on, yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of useless information going out, yeah, and some of it's being retained by people.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's where all the problem starts, I mean, you know me, I'll point right back to the Civil War.
Speaker 3:We fought that war for four years and God showed his hand. And you know, through Lincoln, if we want to keep on fighting this war and you want to keep on honoring this sin which is slavery, then this war will go on until every lash has been paid back and you want to keep on honoring the sin which is slavery then this war will go on until every lash has been paid back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the way that it's going to go, and we end that war and we think we're going to honor God and we're going to do the right thing. And what do we do? We go right into segregation. We go right in.
Speaker 2:We didn't honor it at all. We just tried to come up with a new way to keep the old system. Yeah, we just changed the sin, but still the same outlet outcome.
Speaker 3:So it's like after 700,000 deaths we still can't get it Like this is wrong, like the way we treat people is wrong, Racial inequality is wrong, all of these things Can't get it. After 700,000 people are wiped away, and their generation. Now you couldn't walk into any small town and didn't know somebody that had lost.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know a brother, a father, a son, you know multiples. Just that's hard for us to fathom.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's true, and to think that we came out of that and didn't learn much and tried to come up with this new and let it happen. You know, there were plenty of good people that just let it happen Out of what. We're going to compromise this again, mm-hmm, so that we don't fall back into another civil war, so we don't have to have this argument anymore, uh, because there might be, uh, some profit to be made from it. Whatever it was, it was like we didn't we didn't really solve the problem you know, just changed it.
Speaker 3:we just changed the name. You know, a slave became a sharecropper, and actually it not only affected African Americans, but white people became sharecroppers as well.
Speaker 4:And they were pretty much a slave to that system.
Speaker 3:They were kept poor by that system. We didn't learn and we could point to so many different things. Like we're not learning. You know, god has showed his hand, I don't know how many times, and we're just like well, but wait, we got another way, just let us try it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is going to be better. Yeah, this is gonna be better. Just give us some time.
Speaker 3:Just you know, everybody will profit from this.
Speaker 1:It'll keep everybody it's almost like we look at it as oh, everyone will profit for it. Yeah, right now Are we looking like how is the future going to profit for it? How is society going to still profit off of this plan after all the changes in the next upcoming 100 years, all the advances? We need to think forward and ahead this time around, not in the now. In the now and forward. That way our generations will be okay.
Speaker 3:You know like I know dale had posted online. I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, but he's really confused about some of the racial inequality. How we can let you know. He just doesn't understand how you know if, if an af, if an African American does something, that has one reaction if a white person does something that has a different reaction.
Speaker 3:And he, he tried, he tries to see things equal, but he still just can't quite understand why other people can't see it equally. I think, well, again it's it's. It's that stone we threw in the lake long time ago. That's, uh, the racial inequality and, uh, you know, the racial hate and all those things. It's an original sin that we've started. And guess what? It continues to travel on because we refuse to do the right thing yeah we refuse to do it.
Speaker 3:Uh, but I would say to Dale, you know, because I think one of his questions is why still can't people see African Americans as equal? And what I would say is you know what, Dale, you're right, we're all not. We're all not equal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we can't, Because I would look at somebody and say am I equal to Ray Charles? Right? Absolutely not, Right. Ray Charles is, above and beyond, way more talented than me, became way more successful than me. Hank Aaron? Am I equal to Hank Aaron? Absolutely not, he is. You know. To me, he's just a fantastic human being and everything that he accomplished.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So Sometimes the reality is it, and we're not talking about the color of our skin. We're talking about the color of our character and who we are.
Speaker 3:It's like, yeah, hank Aaron, and he's, you're're right, he's not equal to the white man. He's above them, a lot of white men, because of who he was, what he had to go up against and all the things that he accomplished, right. So I don't know if that helps, but sometimes that's that's the harsh reality of it is, if we're looking for this total equality, which I just I can't even understand why we haven't figured it out, why it's even an issue, I just, with all the, with everything that we've seen, with all the proof that we have, there should be no question that the color of somebody's skin should, you know, prevent you from being equal to another man, for any reason, absolutely yeah because?
Speaker 3:because, like I said you know, hank aaron may be the best baseball player of all time, in my opinion, not just because he broke the home run record. You look at his numbers, all of them, they're unbelievable, they're just unbelievable. And so it's like, yeah, you're right, he is not equal to a lot of the white baseball players that he played with, because he's far and above those people. Um, and to me, that puts it to rest for all time. I'm like nobody else got to explain anything to me, like you know, and he and that's the thing he just didn't do it on this even plane.
Speaker 3:He did it with all these people against him that didn't want him to be that great you know that we tried to hold him back and tried to keep him out of the majors, all of those things. So yeah they, he accomplished all those great things in the face of all this yeah uh, you know, and it's just so. I just wanted to say that today, if he's that, don't focus so much on worrying about if people are ever going to get it, the soul equal thing, cause guess what? They're probably not not going to see it in our lifetime.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:But you got to take it in your heart. You were like you know what? You're right. No, sometimes the black man is not equal to the white man because he's greater. Yeah, based based on you know character, I'm gonna say, and what?
Speaker 1:he's been able to accomplish in the face of unfortunate things, yeah, and to piggyback off of the uh mlb, like look at, look at the nfl right now, like I don't know what the percentage of african-american players are, but I mean at least, and I and I'm not comparing it, you know but I think the nfl far greater because of the african-americans, like far greater, you know, honestly, no contest, honestly, any professional sports really, you know.
Speaker 3:But yeah, and it's not that athleticism has should have. Should have equal value, equal value.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But the fact of the matter is, you don't just go, he didn't just step up to the plate, start swinging a bat and become the home run king.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, he had to work very hard at it and in the face of opposition he had to do it.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:So that tells me it's like no, no normal person, I don't care how talented you are, could have done that. It took somebody with a lot of courage, a lot of heart, a lot of strength, determination, all those things, all the things that we value in a human being. He displayed them all to get to where he was. So there's no excuse for this idea that we're not equal, other than to say you know what? You're right. We're all not equal, we're just not but somebody instilled that in him.
Speaker 5:So, as a child growing up and as parents, are we lacking putting that in our children?
Speaker 3:Yes, we are, and sometimes it just comes down to we're not pushing them hard enough anymore, we're not pushing them towards God, we're not having that structure. We're just saying yeah, whatever you feel, you are okay, you know, that's what you are. That's not the job of a parent to do that. One lady's like we need to listen more to our children when they speak. We need to listen, Huh.
Speaker 2:Not. Yeah, we need to listen to our kids, sure listen.
Speaker 3:When something's wrong, when they need comfort.
Speaker 1:I think we need to listen and give them good counsel. Yes, good godly counsel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because I told everybody I said my parents would have listened to me when I was 10. I loved the Ninja Turtles. I thought I was a Ninja Turtle. Yeah, and if they had let me go to the hospital and tattoo my skin green and put a surgically put a shell on my back, I would have went.
Speaker 5:I would have went in a heartbeat You'd be knocking people to get in line.
Speaker 1:Cooper would be Spidey, not Spiderman Spidey, which is the little guy yeah, go ahead, cooper, jump off that building get some webs embedded into your wrists try to jump from that building to the other building.
Speaker 3:No, that's where we've gone wrong. We need to instruct our children and they need to listen.
Speaker 2:He needs to watch George of the Jungle find out about jumping.
Speaker 3:Yeah, looney Tunes. Yeah, we had that one day. Yes, made a foolish decision.
Speaker 5:Last weekend she said I'm not going to go to church with you anymore. I said why my not going to go to church with you anymore? I said why my mommy don't go to church. I said well then I guess you won't be staying all night with Grandma on Saturday, will you? Because if you're at Grandma's house on Sunday morning you're going to church.
Speaker 1:And then you can't stay with me during the week because you have school. So I don't know when you're going to be able to stay with me. She thought a little bit.
Speaker 3:She said I'll go, I'd miss Adeline and Emerald, and that is such a big part of it is the fellowship that you grow up with, which, going back to Taylor Robinson, you think, okay, he obviously did not have whatever fellowship was necessary to keep him where he was supposed to be, because, at the end of the day, this kid's a child and, yeah, he's to blame for the action. But I truly believe that and there's a lot of underlining you know problems or things that have, you know, gone unnoticed or just, you know, being led astray to the point where, yeah, he wasn't listening to the right people, he didn't have the right structure.
Speaker 4:And it's you know.
Speaker 3:So, like I said, I don't look at him with hate. I look at him with almost regret and empathy and a bit of sadness that you know he did that young has been placed in that position. Now I can't say, oh, just forgive him and let him free. You know that's. We can't do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, as a society, there does have to be rules and structure and true justice to things to be rules and structure and and I in true justice to things but, um, but we can still.
Speaker 3:We can still forgive him, yeah, because we we can. We can look at this from that perspective that, you know, we, we can pray not only for him but for a lot of the other kids that are that are experiencing these same things, that may be leading them to go out and do something similar. This is not going to be the last time we see something like this. Unfortunately, I don't think so.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, you see that copycat syndrome again, and it's just the society that we're living in, and I think that all goes back to the school shootings. I mean, when we were young, we just didn't see this type of thing. You never, as kids, we never even thought about such a thing. And we had kids that we did not like. You know I don't want to use the word hate, but you know we just you know, you knew that that kid was a bad seed and you knew he was going to pick on you or pick on your friend and yeah, and kids could go to blows with each other and just really have it out. But we never had that mindset. It just didn't exist. And you think, okay, so where does that come from? Does it just come from the fact that guns are more accessible?
Speaker 1:no, no, because they're going to find another way.
Speaker 3:My dad, my dad was an avid hunter when I was a kid and there were probably at least 10 or more guns in our home at any given time, and I knew where they all were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5:Exactly Yep.
Speaker 3:But you know, I was brought up to respect them in the first place. I understood what they could do the harm they could inflict and for the true purposes of why we used them. So it's not it's. It's not a gun problem.
Speaker 4:Nope.
Speaker 3:So many of these things are not.
Speaker 5:No more than a fork is a problem a society problem because somebody's fat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Right how much they choose to use that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and what they're putting on that, for Pastor Michael said it's a heart problem. It is 100% and what they're putting on that board. Pastor michael said it's a heart problem. It is 100. A lot of the things that we're experiencing it is a heart problem. It's just. It's just that simple.
Speaker 1:And again, if you, if you understand god and and you follow christ, you see, you can see it and if you realize, hey, my heart, like I, I'm numb to a lot of things that I didn't used to be numb to or I don't have feelings about. Go talk to somebody because something is wrong. You know, please go talk to somebody, because you could be the next shooter, and I don't want that happening.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like yeah, because I'm going to guess, I'm just going to go out on a limb here. I think when he first did it, when he fired that shot and he saw charlie go down, I bet you he had a lot of satisfaction. But I bet you, even before he got off that roof and his feet hit the ground, he had grits I'm guarantee everything out.
Speaker 1:Reality started sitting in well, I mean he said he um was planning on going to grab the gun, and then it was just like the other side of town was just in a panic and very crowded, so then he couldn't go back and get it, so like, yeah, I'm sure his brain was just all over the place as soon as he did it and wasn't thinking, hey, my, you know, I'm sure his plan almost even went out the window because his thoughts were like yeah, all of a sudden it was.
Speaker 3:It's to me. It's almost like the devil revealed it to him as soon as it happened, like here's what she really did yeah, yeah you know, here's what I got you to do yeah, yeah you know, like I said, nobody's, nobody's come forward to say, yeah, we helped you, we helped him, sorry, no, they're gonna leave him unless they get caught. They're gonna leave him to take the blame for it all.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah so yeah, it's just, yeah, it's. It's hard to fathom being. I can't imagine being in that child's place. Just, you know, I saw his first arraignment today and you just look on his face, you, just, you know whether he even still thinks he did. I don't know Whether he still thinks he did the right thing or, but your face doesn't look like that, when you're proud, when you can say that you're truly at peace, you're proud that you're happy, you don't look like that. Yeah, you know. And.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:So even if he still thinks and somehow he did the right thing, I guarantee you that's not what his soul is telling him.
Speaker 3:Mm-mm I guarantee you that's not what his soul is telling him. There's going to be a part of his soul that's just. You know he's torn in two. I just can't imagine being in that position, knowing that you had your whole life in front of you and that's the decision you made, and you know that's just so unfortunate. It's just so unfortunate. But we cannot move forward and do the right things if we look at this in terms of retribution and revenge, absolutely not. That ripple effect is just yeah, and that's a hard thing to tell people. People don't want to hear it. People don't want to hear it. You know if they, you know it's just, but we got to make them hear it. That's the thing we can't be afraid to say.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's the thing. We can't be afraid to say that this is how you should really. You know that you need to seek God before you think about any type of judgment or retribution or anything like that.
Speaker 5:I think through all this it's opened my eyes to my walk with Christ. You know, am I putting him first in everything I do?
Speaker 4:in my life.
Speaker 5:Any decisions I make, do I seek counsel from him first? Yeah, you know. Do the people I know outside of the church know that I follow Christ Right? Am I representing him the way that he would expect to be represented?
Speaker 2:be represented. I think the glory when you're walking with Christ. I think the glory of the Lord shines around you when you are out in the world and people see that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've had people smile at you or you have no idea who they are. You're just minding your own business, walking through the store and they'll look at you and smile and nod or whatever. So you know, they see where you're at with the Lord.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know some people. I'll be walking down a store aisle or something and the person looks miserable. Or the person looks like they don't really approach other people looks miserable. Or the person looks like they don't really approach other people, or you know, and you look at them and at first you think they're not going to smile back. And then you, you smile, and then they smile.
Speaker 3:Yeah back at you and it kind of almost throws you off a little bit because you think the person really looks miserable or they just think like you know nobody notices that they needed that smile then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's just such a simple thing, like you said, that people they probably walked past everybody else that kept their head down or you know, looked right past them and all you did is look them in the eye and smile and they can tell that you're different. You know that you're not just you know and I don't know. Maybe you know that you're not just you know and I don't know, maybe you know that that has its own ripple effect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know that that's kind of the counter to it all. Is that? You know, we, we need to be. Um, I guess we need to be throwing gummy bears in the lake instead of rocks. I don't know. I don't know, somebody will have to come up with something smarter than that on the fly. But it's just that. That's the—I think it was RFK Sr who said there has to be a ripple of hope.
Speaker 3:I think one of his famous speeches was the ripple of hope, and that's how we have to counter that ripple of sin is we have to put our own, you know, we have to put those, those things out there and let them carry on you know to have peace and hope and understanding and and I think that's what christ is expecting us to do through this yeah, he's no one us well, and he's expecting us to be active
Speaker 3:exactly um, it's very easy. I think it for this podcast even. It puts it even more in perspective for me, as, yeah, we come here every week, we do our thing, we put it online. Great, we do it out of. Are we doing it out of routine? Um, I hope not, and then, after this, I think we can't do this out of routine.
Speaker 5:No, which is, like some of the subjects that we were discussing, back in the text, you know, and there's the. It's not the time to shy away from these things?
Speaker 3:No, we just can't pick a safe topic and make people feel better and just keep doing it every week and some of the topics that need to be discussed are the ones that will reflect me directly.
Speaker 5:You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 3:And if it affects you, it affects somebody else, yeah.
Speaker 5:And that's a hard walk, it is.
Speaker 3:But people need to hear those things. We're not going to help anybody just by having these lofty topics.
Speaker 2:That are just like oh yeah, we got through another one. It sounded good. Yeah, sugarcoat everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that doesn't help anybody.
Speaker 2:Unicorns and butterflies.
Speaker 1:I actually show the nonbelievers if they are listening that hey, yeah, we do deal with things and we are trying to face them head on and trying to encourage others during the process.
Speaker 3:And we can invite somebody onto the show who does have doubts, and we're not afraid of that. We're not going. Well, we can't put him on because he might not be a Christian. No, we probably need to get more people in this chair that are not Christians.
Speaker 3:That would be, more useful over the long run than than filling the chair with with a believer, because we've already got them right, that's easy yeah so we need to be reaching out to people that are having doubts that you know that are facing those I see what you're doing here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, future charlie kirk.
Speaker 3:Well, it's just that idea and and that's what this whole experience over the last week makes you see is that you know there is, there is true purpose in what we do, and no, nobody's ever going to be a Charlie Kirk. No, nobody's going to just come and fill those shoes and be able to do what he did.
Speaker 5:I mean, what he did was just yeah, you know, nobody else can do that. That's such a young age, young age, I know.
Speaker 3:But that doesn't mean what we're doing isn't important, because we're all after the same thing. And yeah, he reached millions and millions of people, but he might not have reached your son. Yeah, right, you know he might not have, because a lot of people are like I don't even know who Charlie Kirk is and a lot of people didn't know who he was until he was killed.
Speaker 5:But they do now they do now. And how many people is he still reaching out to by their searching out and watching things on YouTube?
Speaker 3:or listening to him talk?
Speaker 4:Yeah, he will for all time, and they're like wow, wow, you know. Yeah, but we're doing the same thing Now. We're not on that level.
Speaker 3:We're not, and we may never be, but if we even just get one person to consider it, to change their lives and do it, then we've accomplished our mission. We didn't give up on it. We didn't just do this for the sake of, oh hey, we're doing it and that's just what it's put in perspective for me is that, yeah, when I come in and do this, I do want to have true purpose, I do want to reach more people and I want to do things that you know aren't not always safe, not always, you know, comfortable, but that we do talk about things that people do need to hear. Yeah, and you can't, you can't waffle around this idea of being Christians. We can't just be like, well, I want to be a Christian, but I want to walk around without anybody knowing it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I want to help people, but I don't want to do it in the name of Jesus. Yeah, I just want to help people. You can't do that. You just can't Because there's let's face it.
Speaker 3:Because there's, let's face it, there's too much at stake exactly, yep because, as I said, I believe that there is this war going on and it is being fought and it's up to us to, you know, rally as many people as we can to our side. But we're not going to do that with just good deeds alone, just because I help an old lady across the street, because I want to be a good person.
Speaker 4:Yeah great.
Speaker 3:It's a good thing, but it didn't do anything for the kingdom yeah.
Speaker 5:I don't know what you're talking about. It kind of makes me think about you know how, after the rapture, how many people are going to be left sitting on that pew? Yeah, yeah, because they thought that they were doing everything right, didn't you? Yeah, but they really never broke down and had that personal relationship with jesus christ, and it's not about perfection and knew him on a one-on-one or he knew them one-on-one. Yeah, you know, he already knows us one-on-one, he knows what we're thinking we know, you know, that little sin that we think nobody else seen.
Speaker 5:Guess who's seen it? Yeah, the one we're accountable to, yep.
Speaker 3:Yep, like I said, we're not perfect, and that's not. We're not, we're not trying to reach that level of. I mean, it'd be great if we could all reach that level of perfection, but that's not. But that's not the important thing. Important thing is we get people to Christ. We can work out the kinks later. We get people to Christ, we can work out the kinks later.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Everybody's going to keep working. That's what needs to be said. No matter how long you've been doing this, whether you've been in the church your whole life or you just started yesterday, everybody's working. If you're not working, then you better have somebody reveal that to you. That work's not over yet, you know. So you can never get comfortable in your walk. It's just. That's not what. It's not what we're here to do and so many things are at stake.
Speaker 3:Our country itself is at stake over this, and I truly believe that we can look at the Bible. How many times do God's people go back into slavery, you know, get bought out by you know the next superpower, and then they get released once again, they get their land back and it happens to them all over again In God's own people.
Speaker 5:By the sins of their fathers.
Speaker 3:By the sins of their fathers, by the sins of their fathers, that ripple of sin have created a point. Where are you? How could you let yourself go back into slavery? If you understand what slavery is and how bad it is, how could you ever let yourself get to that point? But people get complacent, people get think you know we've done our work, you know we've made all the mistakes, you know God. Now God will just lay low and let us be. But life doesn't work that way. So you know we have to, we have to always be doing the work. And I hey, next year is 250 years that this country has existed and we're just a baby. We're just a baby compared to China, to.
Speaker 3:Russia to. Britain to all these other superpowers that have come and gone. Egypt is gone, rome is gone, persian Empire is gone, and they thought they would never disappear. They thought they would rule forever and we're just a baby. Yeah, and it can be taken away. And it can be taken away by the hand of God. If he doesn't favor us, he'll find somebody else to favor.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if we're falling and we're only going to do it by, he's not going to make us do it, he's not going to take it from us. We're going to give it up. We're going to fall out of that favor if we're not doing the right things and seeking his counsel first, and that's the job that every government official, I believe, has in this country. But it's clear that that's not happening and perhaps it's never happened. Yes, we've had a few good men, I think, that have understood it or grew to understand it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I definitely think that with Lincoln he grew to understand that God had his hand in his work and what he was doing. But there's not a whole lot of people that get to that point. I think Martin Luther King Jr was another one. As he said, I've been to the mountaintop, so if I don't, he goes.
Speaker 3:I'd love to live a long life, he says, but I've been to the mountaintop, so if it ends today, I know I've completed my mission and I know I've you know, but there's not too many men that can truly, I think, say that in their hearts, that they were trying to seek God in all things, yeah, to do his will of what's supposed to happen in this country, and not just what's best for profit you know, best for you know.
Speaker 1:Themselves. Yeah, power yeah.
Speaker 3:You know all those things. So it's still all in the balance. It can go either way and that's what a lot of young people have to understand. That's what we have to get our young people to understand is that it can go either way and, as I said last week, it's this young generation that's going to pay the price, the ripple effect of the sin. Like I'm 45. Yeah, I could still see the the effects, I could still experience some of the effects, but it's not going to be rested upon my shoulders because we all know when people go to war, when things get terrible, it's the young people that generally have to pay that price, and that's that's what young people need to understand is the things that you're doing now may affect your children, it may affect you. I think about it with Maggie and her friends and her class. It's like they're 14, they're freshmen.
Speaker 3:Who's to say, in four years we're not in a world war, and her class is going to have to be the one to be drafted and answered for this ripple of sin that we continue to just play into. So if we don't understand that and we fall out of God's favor, anything can happen.
Speaker 3:Nothing is certain without God, without without god, which is why I think a lot of you do see a lot of young people, so restless, searching, searching, searching, and I see that in a lot of young people that are falling into these things that are not of god's will, it's like you can tell they say that they've identified themselves, but you can still, you can see that just still searching, because they still want people to accept them. They still, you know, they still want, uh, they just want more. They're always looking and looking and looking, and they realize that you don't have to look that far.
Speaker 3:You know you can tell when somebody's I think uh, a Christian, a Christian, because you're not looking so much, you're not searching and searching and searching. You found what you're looking for. Yes, you still have to deal with the problems of the world. Yes, you still have to deal with the events of your life and the challenges that you face, but you know your feet's on good ground and you're not searching anymore for answers. You know you, just you know you can endure a lot more things without having to try and go out.
Speaker 3:and you know feeling lost and you know, feeling like the whole world's against you and keep you, keep making the same mistakes and you just can't ever get. You know, you just can't ever get past it, you can't ever get ahead. Yeah, that's what has to be understood, I think, in young people and where we are right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. Anyone have any other thoughts, roger?
Speaker 2:I'm good Any last dancing advice or you know. You know, nick, I used to like what's the number one.
Speaker 3:What's the number one? What's the most important thing in dancing? What's the number one? Rule Don't fall down.
Speaker 1:Keep your feet moving yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was her doing what she was supposed to or not? Keep them moving, get her done.
Speaker 1:Rib them.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think you can apply that to life. Just keep your feet moving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the thing we all got to keep moving. That's Just keep your feet. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing we all got to keep moving.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm still going.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I just keep my feet moving and God's pushing me.
Speaker 2:He's actually holding me up now. Before he was pushing me, now he's pushing me and holding me up.
Speaker 3:Well, Margie, she had to do the stress test, you know, and they put you on the treadmill. Oh, the treadmill.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then you know how it goes up and up and up on the incline and she's like, even when she wasn't feeling well, she's like I'm going to beat this treadmill.
Speaker 5:It was a challenge.
Speaker 4:And she's like.
Speaker 3:So she texts me after. She's like I beat that treadmill and.
Speaker 4:I'm like my goodness.
Speaker 3:You know just, and I'm like my goodness you know, just uh, and of course the nurse was like you did really well, and I and I tell her, I said you know what I think it? I think it's because when we were kids we had to do that physical fitness test in gym, uh-huh remember those like you had to.
Speaker 2:You had to do all those different skills.
Speaker 3:I think. I think that's why our generation is different, because we had to do those like kids today, that you don't have the yeah which I think trump's trying to reinstate the presidential.
Speaker 2:I had to do it.
Speaker 3:You know challenge, but yeah, I think I made us different kids because you didn't want to be embarrassed and not be able to yeah climb the pegboard or the rope.
Speaker 5:I don't remember any of this really well, president kenny was.
Speaker 3:kennedy is the one who enacted that, so I would assume that all kids from you should know that.
Speaker 4:Did that.
Speaker 3:I probably did, I just don't remember Probably because, I didn't do well.
Speaker 4:Did you skip?
Speaker 5:gym.
Speaker 1:That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 5:Every opportunity I could. I was that chubby girl.
Speaker 2:I had to take summer school or I wouldn't graduate because I skipped gym and failed it. So I had to go to summer school.
Speaker 1:What is going on? We're wrapping up. Michael's coming in yelling at us. We were really wrapping up. I promise I knew Roger wouldn't have left without his next one.
Speaker 2:He would.
Speaker 1:Well, whose turn is it to pray?
Speaker 4:It's Nick's, it's mine.
Speaker 3:It is Nick's.
Speaker 1:Okay, michael, if you got it in you.
Speaker 4:All right.
Speaker 3:Lauren, thank you for letting us come here tonight so we can express our love and our gratitude and our exception of your will. Yes, thank you. Always help us keep in mind that, no matter what we are doing, no matter how chaotic the world gets, everything that we're facing now as a community, as a country, that we look to you first.
Speaker 3:That always has to be our number one priority and I pray that it always is my first priority and I pray that everyone around this table, will pick up that sword as well and carry it, and I just hope that anybody out there is listening realizes that you never have to be lost, you never have to question who you are, you never have to be searching for anything else but the heart of God, and we just love you, we just appreciate everything that you do for us every single day, and we're always, always looking for what we can do for your kingdom. Next, I pray all these things in your precious name.
Speaker 4:Amen Amen.
Michael Brindley
Host
Beth Jarvis
Co-host
Dawn Reed-Enochs
Co-host
Nic Affolter
Co-host
Roger Deardorff
Co-host
Sydney Erickson
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