35. The Turning Point: Choosing Truth Over Culture

Is This YOUR Turning Point?

Are you truly living out your purpose and showing love to others, as Jesus commanded in Luke 10:27? 

In this episode, we take a closer look at the Great Commission’s call to make disciples (Matthew 28:19) in a world filled with diverse and often conflicting beliefs.

Our culture’s “you do you” mentality can easily pull us away from God’s truth and the foundation of our Christian faith. Too often, we slip into going through the motions—tolerating false doctrines, compromising with immorality, and losing sight of God’s call.

By looking at Jesus’ example—loving deeply yet calling people to repentance—we can learn how to remain strong and prepared for life’s challenges. Through consistent prayer, grounding ourselves in Scripture, and relying on the Holy Spirit, we can live out the purpose God designed for us—even when it feels like we’ve headed off the path.

Chapters
00:00 The Great Paradox of Life
08:40 Challenges of Diverse Beliefs
09:19 Straying from Faith
10:07 Jesus’ Example of Love
10:32 Staying Connected to Jesus
10:43 Scripture as Our Roadmap

🙏 If this message encourages you, please like, share, and subscribe. And if you know someone who may be at their own turning point, send this episode their way. Together, let’s keep choosing God’s path and answering His call to MORE.

Quote:
 "If you haven't spent time in the Bible lately, I hope that this will be your turning point because to me, the Bible and prayer is truly the turning point that changes everything for us. It changed everything for me when I started committing to and spending time in the Word." Vona Johnson

Scripture referenced:

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 
Luke 10:27

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 NLT (Note this verse was given the incorrect location in the recording; I said Matthew 28:11 in error. Please accept my apologies for any confusion.)

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to Engage Your Faith and Live Your More as you reap the benefits of Courageous Retirement!

To watch the video, check out my YouTube Channel!

Learn more about the show, author Vona Johnson, and more at vonajohnson.com!

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Transcript

Vona Johnson: 0:00

The events of these last few weeks have been jarring. They have really become a turning point, not just for our country, but for each and every one of us as Christians, as Christians who are at or near the age of retirement. We can sit back and say, oh, that was a movement for the youth. Charlie was working on the young people in our country. But I believe that it's for all of us. It's for all of us to stop and take a look at what can we be doing to further the movement, the revival, the bringing people to Jesus Christ. Today I wanna talk about how we can listen to the nudges that God's giving us through all of this, and we can be inspired to be those people who could step in and provide wisdom through this difficult time in our world. Please join me as I talk about whether this is your turning point.

Speaker: 0:50

Do you fear? What lies beyond retirement? What if it's a gateway to a life filled with purpose, meaning, and adventure rather than an end? Discover peace and fulfillment as you boldly enter this new chapter in Courageous Retirement, a Christian podcast. I'm your host, author, and coach VNA Johnson. Let's get started.

1:09

You know, I wrote a different view. It was published five years ago and it was really a labor of love. I've gone back many times and read different. Parts of the book and, and just been stunned like, wow, the Holy Spirit was writing this part. I don't even remember putting those words together. And as time moved on, it wasn't a bestseller. It, did okay, but it didn't have the impact that I thought maybe it would, I was told at the time that it was really in alignment with what the conservative movement embraced and that it could really change people's lives. And I know that it has, I've spoken to people directly whose lives have been impacted by A Different View. What I didn't realize was that God was weaving me into today's story, the world events, and I didn't even realize it at the time. It's funny because, a while ago I, I have this new app and I was recording my workout and I accidentally put that I was running instead of my normal little dance thing that I do. And at the end it popped up and it gave me this little map of everywhere that I went, you know, usually you're on this big route. Well, no, mine was just in and out and everything. And it occurred to me that that's kind of how my life has been. You know, it's a lot of starts and stops. I'll go here and then I'll turn and then I'll do this. And it's always comes back to fulfilling what, what the Holy Spirit is guiding me to. Even when it feels like it, it didn't work. God has used so many of my starts and stops, and one of the things that really struck me as I was viewing a lot of the footage over Charlie Kirk's murder is that his senior director of Faith is a man who wrote an endorsement for my book. And it just really. It had an impact. You know, we all hear the, the theory of there's six degrees of separation from anybody in the world. I literally had two degrees of separation with Charlie Kirk, and I didn't know him. I wasn't a follower. My husband talked about him often. And I was like, oh yeah, that's nice, I agree with that. But I didn't ever just sit down and listen to his stuff and I fully intend to now. But what really struck me was the endorsement that I got from Lucas Miles. And I'm gonna read that for you now because I feel like I have allowed A Different View to languish when I should have been out there pushing. So my turning point is that even though I was starting to do that at the beginning of this season of Courageous Retirement, I am more committed to that than ever. But this is the endorsement that Lucas gave A Different View."It's no secret any longer that our pulpits have been invaded, it's time we get back to the foundation of our faith, the Bible, as it was written, A Different View is a book that can help with just that. It points the reader back to scripture and helps you experience God's faithfulness even as cultural chaos continues to increase. It will inspire you to redefine your priorities and live your faith every day. I highly encourage you to read this book and share it with all of your friends so they too can know their true purpose in life." I was honored that Lucas was willing to give me that endorsement, and it feels weird for me to capitalize on that, but I also feel that I am. Holding back and hiding out in my corner if I don't step out and, and push that connection to what's happening in our world today. Because I really believe, even though, there's a whole movement now with Turning Point and it's directed to our young people, I believe it's our turning point too. And I believe that those of us who have years of wisdom behind us need to step out of our dark corners where we've been kind of lurking and, and really make something of this in my devotions. I portals of prayer recently I loved, it was actually on September 13th that talked about how true wisdom displays meekness reflecting our humble, gracious savior. He left the splender of heaven to live among the lowly. Rather than call on his legions of angels, he submitted to death on the cross. He trusted his father, who raised him in glory instead of condemning us. He calls us his own. He is the word made flush the wisdom incarnate, and we get our wisdom from him through his holy word. If you haven't spent time in the Bible lately, I hope that this will be your turning point because to me, the Bible and prayer is truly the turning point that changes everything for us. It changed everything for me when I started committing to and spending time in the Word. And I'm gonna challenge you if, if you've been feeling that nudge. Take it. Go there and then find out how God is going to embolden you to take courageous action to keep this movement going so that we can turn our youth back to Jesus, back to Christian standards and morals and beliefs so that we can raise families that live together and love and support one another and encourage one another. One of the things that really struck me, when I, when I was working on my book, is, how faith is so important. It's not what saves us, but our faith is important and our trust in Jesus is crucial to being able to take the action that he's calling us to do. But I feel that there are many, many Christians in the world today who are just coasting through. I used the word pretending. I was called out on whether people are really pretending, but if they're not going deeper with Jesus, they may be. And I took a Bible study years ago on the Book of Revelation and it was, it was really, eye-opening for me. And I loved how the author talked about us being sloppy in our faith. And I just wanna read a segment to you from a different view that talks about that, to me, when I talk about living your more, what I'm really talking about is living in the fruit of the spirit. So if we want these fruits of the spirit to grow in us, we are called to stop being complacent in our faith and connect more deeply with Jesus. He wants us to get to know him better, to love him more, to remember him always with it, and imitate him by our words and actions. When we do that, we fulfill our true purpose, loving God and loving our neighbors. By showing this love towards other, we realize that we must share our faith both in the way we live and by the words we speak. Only then will people be drawn to the church and want to be a part of that life. It truly is the great paradox in life. We know we are commanded to get along with each other and demonstrate love. That's from Luke 10 27. We know the Great Commission calls us to go and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28 11. That can be hard to do with all the diverse ideas than beliefs in this world. Many people whose map look different from one another have become vocal about insisting that their way is the right way. Just like we know Jesus is the only way. They too know their way is the right way. Have we not seen a lot of that in the world today? There are inherent clashes in our cultures and beliefs, and it makes it hard to get along and to show love to everyone. We can want people to see things our way so intently at times that we don't show jesus' love in the process of trying to show them Jesus. If we follow the way of the world, we will interact with others in a manner that reflects"the you do you and I'll do me" culture. We aren't stepping on any toes by living this way, and we tiptoe around God's will for our lives and drift away from the foundations of our Christian faith. We invest a nominal amount of time with Jesus and wonder why our lives are falling apart and why we are stressed out and overwhelmed. Too many of us are going through the motions instead of having an authentic relationship with God. Indeed, we've gotten sloppy in our faith. Whole congregations tolerate false doctrine and accept immoral actions as simply a sign of the times. Satan is celebrating that we've made his job so easy. Yet, if we watch Jesus's actions closely. He loved every sinner he encountered. He did not encourage the people whose lives he touched to continue to live in sin. On the contrary, he repeatedly told the people he healed to go and sin no more. If we continue this apathy towards sin, we will not be prepared to withstand the trials that will undoubtedly come our way. Jesus is our lifeline. When we stay in tune with him, read the word, and pray consistently, we will be ready for any challenges we encounter. The best part is scripture tells us how to do everything we need to do. Think of it as our roadmap that gives us directions. Think of the Holy Spirit as our guide that makes sure that we are following the map correctly. There's a lot more in here, but that gives you a taste. I feel that we've drifted from the solid word of the Bible and people have interpreted it in so many different ways, and they pick out the parts that say what they want it to say, and we need to get more diligent in our faith and we need to bring our children back to faith. There are so many things that have happened in the world, not just the recent shooting, but other shootings and other, kidnappings and things like that that happen all the time in our world. And our children need to have a solid foundation in the Bible and in the scriptural truth. So when, when bad things happen, they know that they can trust God, that they are safe. No matter what. So what are you doing? What is your turning point? What is your call to action in this situation? I personally, I'm starting a Bible study called Raising Kids to Follow Christ. And I I'm gonna do an online component of that, and if you wanna be a part of that, reach out and let me know. At the very least, I will send you the link to the book and you can get it yourself. But what are you gonna do? Are you going to start a Bible study? Maybe that's not your style. You're just not ready to go there yet. Go join one at the very least and engage in the conversation. You do not have to start a podcast. You don't have to write a book, but just have the courage to have those difficult conversations as you're sitting around the coffee table, enjoying your friends or at the holiday table or at a soccer game, wherever God leads you to, there are opportunities to share your faith, to share your testimony and explain why you believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, for everybody's sins. He forgives all, and we need to be full of forgiveness and love as well. Let's not let Charlie's death be for nothing. Let's not make him into some sort of saint that he isn't. Let's not replace Jesus with Charlie. But let's do what Charlie did. He pointed everything back to Jesus, and let's be more like that. Let's do that too. Let's let his death be a turning point, not just for our nation, but for each one of us individually. I love how my pastor, the, the Sunday after the shooting, um, he didn't give a long sermon on Charlie. Like so many of us were encouraged to do. But instead he reminded us that Jesus went out in search of the one. Remember how he left the 99 to go find the one sheep that had wandered away? But I love what he did there because instead of us being able to sit back and talk about that one, you know that guy that shot, that guy that did this or that, or that gal that did whatever, he pointed out that we are the one. Jesus left all the rest of the flock to come and get us to redeem us from our sin. So look inside your heart. Look at what sin you might need to give up, and then where can you find the courage and the discernment to make changes to help bring others to Jesus Christ. I believe that this is our call to action. I believe that this is a time where we need to set aside our, our fears of what might happen if we speak up. Don't let this be the thing that makes you retract even farther into the darkness, but have the courage to step forward and know, like Charlie knew that even if, even if we give up our lives to speak for Jesus, we know that we have eternity with him and we have eternity with our loved ones. When I created Courageous Retirement. It was for a time such as this, people told me, oh, your video, you know, you need, you've got courageous and you've got a picture of a Bible. Why would you do that? You need somebody, jumping out of an airplane. And it's like, no, it's not that kind of courage. It's the courage to speak up and speak truth. So I encourage you to take the courage that it takes to share your faith. To invite others to talk to the young people who are struggling in this world and help them see that they do have a purpose, that each and every one of us has a purpose. So thank you for stopping by today. I look forward to continuing this discussion of courageous retirement in two weeks when we come back with the next episode. Until then, engage your faith and always, always live your more. Take care.