Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel, and today I wanted to introduce this channel to those of you who are not very familiar with it, or who may be coming by for the first time, so that you can know what to expect when you come over here, and what type of content you can expect. I started this YouTube channel about four months ago. There's about 70 videos now on the site, and I've recently divided them into four categories so that you can go by and find out the type of content that you're most interested in. Because, quite frankly the four different categories are wide in their variation, and each one that appeals to you may not appeal to somebody else, and if you find one area of content that really interests you, you may find that the other three areas that we go in, or the other three directions we go in, will not interest you. And so, I've divided it up into four playlists, and I hope that'll help. I'll describe them in just a moment, but maybe the best thing to do to start with is to explain why it's named the Common Sense Christian Channel. It's not named that because I think I've got so much common sense. Rather, it's named that because I believe that Christianity is the most common sense way to live. And as somebody who's tried it both ways, the world's way and God's way, I can tell you that it makes a whole lot more sense to try and do things God's way. than it does to try and figure out the ever changing rules of men within this world. And so that's the reason for the Common Sense Christian title. I started the Common Sense Christian website about 13 years ago. It's just, just has daily articles, and I suppose it's had several hundred thousand views on it. They're just two or three minute reads each day. They're just a short article that, that hopefully will give you something to think about, hopefully something that's written from an encouraging perspective and something that maybe will answer some questions that you may have had, and maybe even some things that will cause you to question your own conduct and your own direction if that conduct or direction is something that's less than what God would expect it to be. Well, this YouTube channel is really meant to go. along those lines, quite a bit longer each day. Usually the YouTube's run between 20 and 30 minutes each day. And again, there's, there's really four completely separate categories on this channel. And so I wanted to describe them to you. If you go to the playlist area, you'll find these four categories, the Sunday sermons. And on the Sunday sermons, they're really devotional type lessons that you would typically expect to find on a Sunday morning at worship. We talk about all sorts of themes from what does God's word say about salvation to am I going to hell? To what does the Bible say about worship, and just on and on. We try and look at it from a very biblical perspective, although granted some lessons have far fewer verses than others but in each instance, it's the verses that will help you, I believe, come to the best conclusion as to whatever theme or topic that we're discussing on that day. But again, on Sundays, I'll release a video that'll be a sermon that will hopefully help give you something to think about from a purely biblical point of view. On Tuesdays, the category is Patriot Tuesday, and I named it that really from an inspiration From a guy by the name of Glenn Beck, a number of years ago, he had a weekly program that he called Founders Friday. And on Founders Friday, he would go back to the founding of this country and he would talk about various men and women who were instrumental in making the nation what it is today and, and really giving insight as to how the founders wanted the nation to go. Because Quite frankly, what it is today is not very similar to the vision that they had in mind when they were fighting the Revolutionary War and putting together the Constitution and, and trying to, to lay the foundations for a nation that would, in fact, be a godly nation. And so the patriot, patriotic theme on, on Tuesday is very much from this type of, of a definition. A patriot is somebody who has a love for God and country in that order. Someone who just has a love for country is more of a nationalist. They're, they might be in love with their particular nation and, and what it stands for, but they don't really have a great foundation other than that. And then they're, quite frankly, there's a lot of Christians today. Who want to stay as far away from, from things like politics and the constitution and any type of government because they're, they're afraid that there'll be a conflict. And yet, when you go back and you look at the way the nation was founded, it really was intended to be a nation that served God. and that kept God's direction first and foremost in, within their sight. And if we can go back to those types of principles, I believe that maybe we can rescue a nation that very badly needs rescuing. It seems like there's an awful lot of bickering today not much charity towards one another today, not much human kindness. And I believe that can be restored by true patriots, those who love God and country in that order. So Tuesdays will be a patriot, or patriotic theme. On Thursdays, I've called that one Storytelling Thursday. And for whatever reason, this seems to be the one that's the most popular. On Storytelling Thursday I'll go back and I'll look at sometimes true stories from a historical setting. Talking about men and women who've had something inspiring about them that will make us think. Or an event that will make us think a a and help us to, to be inspired to do better things, perhaps. And I'll even look at some fictional stories that, that have a good moral to them that will help us make a point in that area. And sometimes I just go back and I look at people from my own life. Whether it was from my childhood or whether it's from people in the town I live in right now, happy Texas, who've influenced me and who've inspired others. And so I'll share some of those stories. And again for whatever reason, that seems to be the most popular theme and that'll be everything. But it's called Storytellers Thursday, and then on Friday, I go in a completely different direction. It's called Financial Friday. My background before I became a preacher was in business. My, my undergraduate degree was in business. My postgraduate degree was in finance and economics. I've run several businesses through the years. And I just have Had a lot of experience with that and maybe some of my best experiences that will help you the most are the ones that I failed miserably at Because anybody who's ever been involved in business for any length of time knows that you will have your successes But you'll also have your failures And sometimes it's the failures you learn the most from to help build towards actually having success But the financial friday is with a very specific Direction in mind, and and that is a godly perspective. We're here to serve God. The physical things are nice, and I believe that, that when God gives you wealth, you should be able to enjoy it, but I don't believe that from a sinful perspective. I don't believe that we should be just trying to get rich because we're greedy people, or because we want to take it easy for the rest of our lives. I think we should have some type of a motivation that makes us want to use the physical blessings that we have to better the world in which we live, to be better stewards of gods and of Christ. And so, the Financial Fridays will look at a, at a multitude of topics, everything from your own personal household budget to the national debt. We'll be looking at should you buy a new car, should you take out a mortgage should you get your credit cards paid down? What type of investments would make sense for your situation? And while I certainly won't be offering any type of specific advice, I can, I can give you some strategies, some of which I have tried that have been helpful to me, and then you can look at those strategies and decide for yourself if that's something that would work for your own personal situation. But again, Financial Fridays is very much financially oriented, but it's with a godly perspective. I believe that if we try and approach our money without God, that we'll end up doing what Jesus warned against. We'll try and serve two masters. We'll try and serve God and money. And Jesus was very clear that cannot be done. Our, our physical goods are tools that God has given us. to use in his service. And so, as we look at the financial subjects that we'll look at on Fridays, the bottom line is always going to be, how can I be a better steward of the physical things that I have? Whether it's on a personal household basis, whether it's helping out your family, whether it's trying to help the nation get in a more prudent and responsible, direction. That's what we're going to be looking at. And again, we'll be talking about everything from the way you handle your money to certain prepping ideas. Preppers have gotten real bad connotation. I believe the word prepping has a bad connotation in recent years, and it can be bad if you're just trying to hoard, if you're just trying to keep things for yourself. But I'm convinced that we need to have some preparation in our life. You can look at the financial situation in America and you have to agree that it's not very healthy right now. And it would not be imprudent at all, maybe to start stocking up on certain things. Again, not so that you can take life easy, but so that you can be part of the solution. rather than part of the problem. And so, again, Financial Fridays will be looking at a multitude of, of financial topics but again, always with a godly perspective. And so, we have these four things, the, the Sermon Sundays, we have the Patriot Tuesday, Storyteller's Thursday, and Financial Friday. For I'm sure you'll agree very different themes and not everybody's going to be interested in every theme But if you go to these various playlists that are up now, I believe you'll find something that might be of interest to you that might even help you in your life And so that's the introduction for this channel. I just thought maybe After being up for several months now that maybe it would be good to to go back and to just discuss why i'm doing this in the direction that we're trying to go in if you like this, by the way, hit that like button It'll help get it out to more people. If it's something that you think might help other people, share it with them. And not necessarily this video. I realized this is not that inspirational of a video, but you might find some that you think will help other people. And sometimes you can say things to people by giving them a video rather than saying it to them yourselves. It sometimes you can just say, Hey, what do you think about this? I was. kind of curious. So anyway, you can, you can help get the message around that way. Certainly if you subscribe to it you'll be notified every time a new video comes out and then you can, you can be able to look at it at your leisure. But anyway, that's the channel. I hope it's going to be something that will help you. I've sure had a an enjoyable time putting it together. It's helped me to explore different themes and hopefully they'll help you as well as you seek to be the best steward of God that you possibly can be.