You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Chip. Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Hello Jesus, my brother. What's going on? Roughly?
I don't know. Ten years ago, I was heavily involved in a cell
church and things are going great, and then all of a sudden, my
prayer life became I don't know, for lack of a better description, putting
my prayer in a bucket that disappeared into the black distance. And when it
started to happen, I recognized it immediately because I was so used to feeling
the presence of God just in you know, I mean, I'm driving to
work, I talked to him and you know, morving go on. I
just you know, always talked to him and he was always there and whatever.
And then this started, and so I recognized it changed immediately, and
I prayed with even more, with even more vigor, And you know,
I said, you know, what am I doing wrong? I know it's
me, because it's not him. It had to be me. What have
I done? What did I do? What am I doing? You know?
You know I asked my friends to do the same. My friends prayed
with me and for me, and you know, I was, you know,
drop a bus on me, whatever it takes to open my mind or
my eyes or my heart or whatever I've done. And finally, after about
five years of doing this, I just kind of, I don't know.
I'm wondering if I'm just full of baloney, you know, I'm I'm I'm
wondering, you know, is this what it's Do most Christians not feel the
presence of God? Was it my imagination? You? No? It depends
how you're feeling, I am, Chip. I mean, are you saying
that you felt God when it was attached to certain things that you got that
you wanted. No, just mowing the lawn. He was just there.
How has that changed? I don't I you know, I don't know.
I mean, the self Church is a part of fell apart, but we
joined another one and that didn't go real well either. But then sometimes when
I hear those things, here's the rule, Chip, straight out. If
you are standing in front of a building and you see it in front of
your face, and it's right there, and then all of a sudden,
a couple of years later, you don't see that building. The likelihood of
that building getting up and moving is slim, right, It's you that's moved
exactly. So there you're the one. The pillar of God stands firm.
If you're not seeing God, usually it's because you've moved away for some reason.
And if you get caught up in the movement of a church or the
movement of a body, or a particular teacher or anything, you get caught
up just in that you lose the beauty of what's really going on. And
that doesn't mean that there aren't wonderful you know, groups or churches or teachers
that have great followings. It's not about that. It's if you get caught
up in the movement though. If you just get caught up in that experience
experience, then it becomes, you know, simply about the experience and less
about God. And sometimes people go for that feeling. It's like we say
on the program that that happiness is a momentary feeling of joy due to happening.
So people confuse happiness for joy sometimes, and happiness is and joy,
joy is constant. It's always there. It's for those who understand that it's
there even in bad times. It's not something that, oh someone gave me
a cake, someone gave me money, Oh things are going my way.
Therefore, I'm happy. It's always there. Joy is the pure understanding and
acceptance of existing and the complexity and the intensity of what that means. Wow,
I exist. That is a wonderful, wonderful thing in good times and
bad so for believers. Often you can get wrapped up in an experience or
a particular church, and I hear people all the timeship that will will say,
hey, you know what, my pastor left, or my pastor retired.
I heard recently of a pastor who retired and has to tell people,
you know, have signs and stuff of say, please respect my retirement because
people didn't want to let him go, right, and he had done God's
work and he's he needs to spend time with his family and himself, and
people were just like at his door thinking and that becomes a form of idle
worship. That becomes, you know, people losing the truth of who God
is and thinking that God only can only be seen, only be felt through
certain things. Right, you know, we you know, we hope the
show lasts a long time. We hope God is you using it and that's
why we're here. However, people's faith should not be built upon this program.
No, the faith. The faith should always be in the Father in
this end absolutely, So where is he? So, where is He in
your life that that you're not seeing him, feeling, tasting, experiencing God.
Well, that's what's funny, is is he's really I mean what I
used to take is I'm not making any sense. It's everywhere. I mean,
it's in the fact that I'm sitting on my back porch putting my beautiful
dog. It's you know, it's in the fact that my daughters are inside
pickering over a video game, you know exactly. Those are the things that
you should be experiencing and taking the simplicity. Yeah, you know that that,
Yeah, I guess that could be it. You just get used to
it, and this is it's it's too easy to go, ah, well,
God's there. Especially when God is there and God's really present in your
life, you take it for granted. And that's why people say, oh
why am I going through these trials because it's the only time you recognize being
Having a little distance from God truly makes you go, oh my gosh,
God is gone. It's not oh well I don't really feel him. No,
God is there. When just God takes enough to go on the head
of a pin out of your life and you will feel as if the bottom
has dropped out. And perhaps, yeah, it's just you have to appreciate
that that he's there, and you have to see it a little different.
Sometimes building the steps Chip, people will say, oh, this guy does
such and such and I want to do that too, or you know,
people see a huge company that's successful and they go, oh, all I've
got to do is you know, well, there's a coffee house and they
make tons of money. I just have to make coffee on a street corner
and have a cute logo and some scones and I'm going to be rich.
I'm going to be a wealthy miser. Yeah, but it's not people forget.
People see success Chip and they try and copy success. Never copy success,
always copy the path to success, which is very different. A lot
of times it's years and years and years of straining and toiling and trying to
figure out a proper recipe or a proper path or raising the money or doing
all these things of it. No wady sees that. They just see the
end result and they go, oh, this is all I have to do.
I have to open a shop and I have to put coffee in it.
No, there was steps prior to that that were the most important part,
not the end result. Sometimes it's so easy to see the end result,
or get used to the end result, that you forget the steps it
takes to get there, and in forgetting that, you lose all of it.
Emron, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you so much for
taking my call, my pleasure. We got just a couple of minutes here,
So what's up, perfect I was wondering if you could elaborate in the
verse for me, Matthew, Chapter six, verse twenty two, and I'll
take that off. Okay, thank you. Wow, what a courteous caller.
Chapter six twenty two. So here you're looking at me talking about wealth,
and it starts out nineteen. We'll push back because I always tell you
the understand something you want to read before it, and you want to read
after it. So it started verse nineteen. Do not lay up for your
self treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break
in and steel. Then we'll jump to verse twenty two, which is the
one in question by you. The lamp of the body is the eye,
if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore the light that is in your darkness, that is in
you is darkness, how great is the darkness? So this is me getting
upset at the Pharisees, and the Pharisees were very big on gathering wealth,
getting as much as they can and gathering wealth. My point here was that
they were serving two masters, and that they were they were not They were
not able to use faith or understand faith because they were never in need of
God. They always supplied their own stuff. They always got their own stuff.
So the passage here describing the eye is talking about if they're only looking
at wealth, imagine the old concept of having rose colored glasses. Well,
if you have rose colored glasses, everything you see will be rose colored.
So if you are lusting after and coveting after stuff, then your now the
window to your soul. Your eyes is now taking in only that lust and
coveteousness for things, and not learning about the necessity of God providing or any
of those things. And then it goes on to say that you're serving two
masters because it's showing that they're serving wealth and the gathering of wealth and God
when they have time, and so it's splitting them. The darkness comes from
the eye being sick. This is implying that their eyes are sick because their
eyes are bent on gain and constantly getting wealth, and they can't see anything.
If you've seen somebody gambling or somebody who makes a lot of money,
and all they think about is making money, making money, making money,
their eyes look dead like that. They're not thinking about anything outside of it,
and therefore the inside of them is dark as well. That's what it's
talking about. Joe, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hello, and
thank you very very much for your sacrifice. I've read the accounts of your
apostles on your comments on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Sodycesese, and
I now follow your instruction for prayer. But my question today is on the
role of churches and religion. Everywhere I look nowadays, my understanding of the
churches in religion and is the primary goal is the salvation of men's souls.
But everywhere you look there are churches involved in liberation theology and help with the
environment. And global warming, and immigration and social justice. What's going on
with the churches. So you're concerned with the church being involved in what would
normally fall into politics. Yes, okay, I think it's fair, and
I'll address it specifically and then generally as well. First, generally, it's
imperative that churches are involved in many aspects of what's going on in the world.
It's helpful. However, there are times where the church becomes lazy and
they forget that their job is to change hearts, not laws, and that
if you change hearts, the laws will follow. So it's easier to change
a law than it is to change the heart of man. So a lot
of times churches focus on the political and they lose their path. However,
you mentioned some specifics global warming and the like. Well, outside of the
politics of that, you know, whether it's happening or not, or any
of those things. You are called throughout scripture to be good stewards of that
which is in front of you, and to be a good steward of the
planet is to be reasonable. To be a good steward to a human kind
is reasonable and completely biblical. However, those issues you raise are hot button
issues and become political and politicized very quickly. And what happens is they become
emotional rather than intellectual, and people stop being rational about Okay, well this
is what we need to do, and you should be able to protect this
or to protect that or any of these things, and it becomes an emotional
issue and that becomes a problem. And then the church puts their and promoteur
on it, and it looks like, oh, well, the church is
saying, well, we believe this, and then this particular Protestant church saying
we believe this, and that becomes very, very problematic, and now the
church loses it's place, which is the spiritual compass and the compass of righteousness
in the community, and now becomes just another pundit and another politico and another
voice spouting things on one side or the other. And my response always has
been, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's.
So people get lost in those things, and unfortunately there's not the balance.
Sometimes there's people that say, hey, Joe, and you may be
one of them. I don't want them near any political things, and that's
not fair either. The church is in the community plays a part of the
community and is raising the community and has a stake in it. And therefore
the best thing a church can do is raise people up in the way they
should be. Raise them, teach them the right things, teach them what
the biblical and scriptural decisions are on things, and let them make the decisions
out as they are in doing civil things and being part of their civic duty.
That's what's important. When the church gets too involved, yes, that
is a huge problem. Raphael, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hello
Jesus. I've had a question for some time about how the soul or spirit
actually exists within the body, and then it leads me to the question of
if it exists within the body. So, in a word, assuming we
each have individual souls, in the event of let's say, an amputated limb,
or if you donate a heart or another organ like a kidney, does
any of your soul go with those parts or does the remaining body have any
lesser soul as a result of giving up the kidney for instance. No excellent
question, but no. Throughout scripture it refers to ashes, to ashes,
dust to dust, it refers to the clay. You know, the creator
using you as clay and your body being clay, the flesh being a container
of vessel reeling. And if you imagine it, it's like saying, if
you donated your car, does part of you leave with the car. No,
you get out of the car, and then it's just a shell.
It's what you used to move you or your body around in this world.
Well, your body is what moves your soul around in this world. Well,
this is where it gets a little complicated for me. Okay, years
ago, I had an ankled injury and my orthopedic surgeon made the suggestion that
he could take a couple of cells of my cartilage out of my bike,
put it in a bajudish and let it grow, and as it would develop
into a larger amount of cartilage, then reinsert it and repair my ankle.
So, while that cartilage is out of my body, is existing human tissue
and it never died, it never stopped. In fact, it's growing.
So if in the very near future, science is able to take one or
two other cells of my body and create a clone of me, does that
other grouping of now very complicated human cells that was my tissue initially have a
soul. Well, this is where the argument goes. Now, how how
it pertains to your question and the specifics of your question. No, your
soul is not in that in those you know, organized of cells and parts
of who you are. No, but your soul is never truly inside your
body in that sense, your soul doesn't exist only inside your body. Your
soul is a bridgeway to a whole other world. Your soul is that which
connects you with God, and your connection with God is completely other than an
outside the body. The cloning process brings up a whole other set of questions.
Well, that gets into whether God is going to give a soul to
that other living being or whether it's just going to be tissue and assuming assuming,
and this is where science is taking it. Or you can theoretically have
replacement body parts for yourself as long as that other organism does not have a
brain that is allowed to cultivate as part of its development, I could theoretically
have a spare heart or a spare kidney. Right, That's that's the possibility
of the path that is being trodden on as we speak. Right, So,
if the other organism in fact is allowed to develop a brain does not,
then the consciousness that would have come with that suggest that somehow a different
soul is created for that new being. Well, that would be on its
face where you would intellectually go absolutely. However, the theologically that that is
all man question, dealing with man. The placement of the soul is a
God question, and there's there is no there's nothing you can go to in
scripture that's going to point out specifically how that category would you know fit in,
because that category doesn't exist really in scripture. So see that the only
place that the soul could then exist is in the brain. Well, that's
where that's where, that's where it's understood or actualized in one sense the way
you're experiencing it here. But for instance, in the Book of Acts you
have Stephen being stoned to death, and there's some language in there that implies
that the bought that the soul was removed prior to the physical death of Stephen.
Yes, so so there there are some that would say, well,
you know, Stephen was still alive maybe physically, but the spirit had been
removed or the soul had been removed prior to that, maybe as a as
a form of compassion by God and to being brain dead in a hospital and
being kept on life support. Possibly. So these these are one of those
philosophical categories that go with uh, you know, many forms of study.
You've got theology implied there, you've got physiology, You've got all of these
things that are going to come together. And this is where understanding science where
science leads And does that mean, you know, does that show the face
of God or does it explain away God or these things? Well, my
statement was that all things that can be understood should be understand good, but
how they're applied is where it becomes a moral or ethical issue. And so
just because this knowledge will exist doesn't mean that it should be pursued down in
particular or what seems like the logical path. That's where science and ethics have
to meet. But when it comes to the mechanics, you may mechanically be
able to build a body, but no, no scientists can build a soul.
So they can maybe replicate or use cells to perpetuate more cells, but
scientists don't understand what the soul is or how that activity or how life.
They continue to go back to the brain, but they're still trying to find
out how the brain pushes these things, because the brain would be for all
intents and purposes mechanically a computer, and computers don't feel emotionally. They can
replicate things, but they can't create them in that sense. Even with artificial
intelligence they can make You can make a robot put its eyebrows down like it's
sad, or put them up like it's mad, but it doesn't. It's
not experiencing fear or anger or sadness. That is precisely where it becomes really
difficult for someone like me. But you can appreciate the knowledge of it.
I can appreciate the theology behind the distinction between the spirit world that would require
us, and I still somehow have never released the idea that there is not
energy. So I really do believe that there is something much greater than us
that somehow is in effect well sure, and all the things we've talked about
point to that. As a matter of fact, there was scientists some time
ago that created a simple life virus and like in a Petri dish, and
it was this big deal all over the scientific community. Man is created life,
and the theist went, uh huh, so what and they went,
oh, well, we did it. You don't need God and they said,
you did what in it? An environment? Intelligent life created life,
which is what the theist has been saying since day one that intelligence comes from
intelligence, not from randomness or chaos. And so there's yeah, there's That's
where my question really is. No, but what as it lies. As
it lies with the pieces and the parts, you're still looking at just the
mechanics. That is, even if they could create an entire human being that
looks exactly like you, it's not going to be you for many reasons,
one of just the mechanical reasons, because you are a product of your environment
as well as your genetics. And so the new environment, if it's growing
in a new place, unless it grew up the exact way at the exact
time, in the exact sense that you did, it's going to be different.
So if that's going to be different physically just physiologically different as to how
this being grows and adapts, then one must understand that likewise, whether God
breathes. The word numa o the word spirit comes from the word numa means
to breathe. It literally is is is the illustration of God putting his mouth
on the mouth of man and putting air into him. May I may ask
you though, in the case of the cartilage for my ankle, yes,
sir, I own the cartilage, yes, sir. In the case of
putting my body stem cells into some patriotish that grows up into being a complete
human that essentially is spare parts for me, at what point would I not
be then able to own that other body? And if that other body was
actually included a brain, is it then it's own sanctioned being? Or should
I still have ownership just as I would over the cartilage? Well questions,
Yeah, but there is the debate at what point is this harvesting of organs
of your own organs? Where does it become some a greater debate, And
this is what's going on, and this is why people are arguing saying,
hey, at some point, you're going to be stepping on the foot of
God and you may find as a people that there you'll get to that state
should it, you know, get that far and it won't be what you
think it's going to be, and it won't have that And it's much further
off than people think. And there are greater problems with the cloning process than
people think. And it's not that the spirit is not something in the soul.
It's not something that is going to be an answered question in twenty five,
thirty years, fifty years, whatever they figure out that issue of cloning.
No, my issue with my own soul is that is there something really
here that I need saves? Is there really something here that really is what
is referred to as the sinful natures there? If the question of the soul
becomes such a basic issue as to how it exists and what is needed from
it, you may have wellcome to earth to save my soul, as we
all understand it. But does my soul need saving? And the answer from
you know, it is the Jesus Christ Show. So forgive me for stating
the obvious, but the answer, the answer is yes. Yes, The
answer is yes absolutely, because there are things outside of the mechanics of the
biology you're talking about that that transcend that that science has not been able to
even understand or observe properly. Things like that. You know, having male
female does not match the evolutionary model. Having emotion does not match the evolutionary
model. The desire to love when it's against the contradictory to the desire to
survive does not match that evolutionary model. And those are the things that are
outside of the mechanics. So you keep saying, well, if you build
a car, if you build a car, if you build a car,
and I'm saying no, if the engine isn't put in there, the car
means nothing. The car is just physical formature. Says be fearful not of
the person that can kill the flesh, but the person that can kill the
soul. So they're not combined in that sense. Also, when it talks
about birth or you know, people say born again, they think it's a
denomination. It's not. It's a theological term used in a conversation with me
and Nicodemus, and I'm explaining, unless you are born again, and he
says, I got to crawl up into the womb again. No, born
of the water and born of the spirit. It's talking about being born in
the flesh, born of the of the woman, and then born of God.
And they're two separate things. And even if science makes an entire person
of you, that doesn't say whether God is going to grant that thing a
soul, because there are other living things on this planet without souls, And
what happens that well it becomes mechanical. Jeff, Welcome to the Jesus Christow.
Thank you. Uh. My question is how can someone like me who
I am. I am probably one of the biggest sinners there is. I
hate to admit that, but I probably am be reconciled back to God who
is holy. Well, why is there what kind of sin is in your
life that that it weighs on you such? I mean, are you just
in a complete state of rebellion or you're just a sinner because you're a sinner?
Well, I don't know if it's a sinner because I'm a sinner or
anything like that. And I'm really not sure if it's rebellion. I know
that there is a God, and I know that he is very holy.
Okay. And because sometimes when people ask this, Jeff, they're talking about
something that that has a foothold in their life that continues to come up.
And it's not that I when I say a sinner because you're a sinner,
it's not belittling the sin. I mean, all sin is bad. It's
to understand difference between well, there's something in my life that I that I'm
I've been struggling with for a long time versus being a human being and falling
short of the mark of God. Well, as you just stated in that
being human, have issues with adultery because I am separated but not legally divorced.
I really don't like that deal or even the word divorced at all.
But that you're okay with the word adultery, Now, okay, we need
a one of them, be honest with you, I'm very sure God is
not. Okay, we neither one of them as well. Well, it's
really about you know, the term repentance. And you hear this all the
time, and it's this, you know, very religious sounding word, but
Jeff, it really just means to turn away from. And if you if
you think of it this way, imagine a pillar, a big marble pillar,
and it's in one of you all the time, and all of a
sudden it's not in front of you. That's because you changed. Chances are
the pillar doesn't move, and that's how God is. So if God's not
in your vision, and God's not in your view, it's because you've turned
away from God, not because God's turned away from you. So the first
thing to do is to get on a path where you are seeking God.
And seeking God's face and seeking God's will. That's what's imperative. That's also
one of the reasons why I called to speak with someone like yourself, who
is much more in tune with His ways and his will than I am,
or have her, probably ever have been, but yet I will to be.
Well. There's a big there's a big cheat sheet. It's made up
of over sixty books. It's written over a span of yes, sir,
a span of one hundred or fifteen hundred years, by forty authors or so,
thirty continent or three content and in times of peace, times of war.
I mean, there's a there's a big book there that will help you
understand things. And there's an old there's an old saying that sin will keep
you from the Bible, but the Bible will keep you from sin. So
if you spend time in scripture and you spend time with God, that's how
you get to know God better, and that's how you learn to see where
you're missing the mark. It's like shedding a little light on the situation.
Turn the light on first, see what needs to be cleaned and what needs
to be done, and spend time with God, build a relationship and turn
away from those things, don't you don't. You're bigger than that. You
don't have to fall into adultery or things like that. You build your life
in a way that you don't stumble into those things. Otherwise they'll get a
hold of you. Kfi Am six on demand