You're listening to KFI A six on demand. Ernie, thank you for being
so patient. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning. My name
is Ernie and I from Los Angeles. Yesterday I experienced a get in the
family. My granddaddy passed away at one hundred and two. Now, throughout
the last four to five days, I was at the hospital comforting him and
making him feel as comfortable as I can. My question is the dying process
was very difficult for me because of him. His kidneys were going now and
his lungs were flaring out. Everything is just shutting down in his body.
My question is why did it takes so long for God to comfort him?
Well, I understand that question comes from a very emotional place and rightly so.
As you watch someone like that go through that process of decay and death,
it's incredibly painful. But you have to look at the overall scheme of
things. Some people might ask, my goodness, he lived to one hundred
and two. There's a lot of living in there, and there's many people
that would love that extra twenty maybe thirty years than what they got. So
there's a lot of questions, But keep in mind that you are brought into
this world by the pain of someone else, and you'll leave this world in
your own pain. And both of these both of these truths are to be
seen in their proper context. And if you want some specific philosophical reason as
to why your one hundred and two year old grandfather suffered for twenty eight days
or so while in the hospital, I don't know that I'm going to be
able to give you one, or at least one that would satisfy you.
But I will tell you there is always a purpose and there's things to be
learned, whether it's the questions that you're asking now, whether it's the process
of understanding that life is temporal and there is pain involved. There is also
the understanding of pain and suffering and what kind of purpose it has not only
on the individual, but the people around them. If this is not the
first time your grandfather suffered, now, this may have been the last time,
but it wasn't the first time. People suffer throughout their lives, and
I guarantee a person of one hundred and two years of age has gone through
a lot of suffering in their life and seen a lot of things both worldwide
and in their own lives. So suffering is one of those things that people
kind of want to run from, and it really is part of the process.
I say throughout Scripture, and you're going to suffer. I suffered,
You're going to suffer. It's going to be a part of being human.
Now it makes more sense when you see someone kind of suffer and then go
on with their life and maybe grow from that suffering or understand it when it
comes at the end. It's a legitimate question. You look around Ernie and
you go, well, what can be learned of it? He's dying,
where is he taking that? And the best way to explain it is that
your life is a refining process. It is a path that God has you
on to refine you unto the moment of death for heaven. And whether there
was something more to be learned by your grandfather, something more to be learned
by you and the others around him, is for God to know and explain
when you stand before him. Because the entire process of refinement and the if
you look at and think of it as metal being refined, it's heated to
an intense degree to where all the dirt and imperfections come to the surface and
then the blacksmith will scrape the dross off the top and continue to heat it
up again and continue to do that until it's as pure as possible. And
life is the same way. And in that process, even unto death,
that process is going on, that process of refinement and understanding. And whether
your grandfather could say it or not, or was experiencing something, you don't
know. It's between him and his maker and the things that are going on,
and the learning process that is taking place goes on to this moment of
death, and it should not be assumed otherwise. Yet it's never going to
be easy to watch. It wasn't easy to watch when he would suffer in
life, let alone suffer in death. Correct, it's correct. Thank you
so much to help me understand a lot better. You're welcome, and you
go in peace with that, Ernie. I'm sorry for your loss. I
think that as a wonderful celebration of a life. One hundred and two years
is an amazing an amount of time, and to live and to touch countless
of lives yourself one hundred and two years, including the life of his grandson.
You, Ernie, who had to watch that, And I'm sorry for
that. Pain in the sense that I understand what it feels like and looks
like to be around it. However, the biggest, the biggest part of
the picture is that there's more to it than that pain, and that pain
is actually points to the preciousness of life and the importance of life and the
vibrancy of life. Otherwise that pain wouldn't matter. It only matters because life
is precious and people are precious, and the time that you have here,
whether it's seventy eighty ninety or one hundred and two years, is precious.
And even in that suffering, I know the world is kind of trying to
go to this place where nobody should suffer. But I say in scripture,
you will suffer as I have suffered, And it has a purpose, all
of it, whether you know it or not, whether you learn it or
not. The purpose in this case might have been for your grandfather, might
have been for you, might have been for others. But all suffering has
a purpose. If for nothing else, then to understand that it will happen,
and that God said it will happen. Jessica, Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Hello, Hi Jessica, Hi, how can I help you
this kind of question up guarding and my husband, we've been married for like
eleven years now and we have two children, and occasionally he will not occasionally,
it's been pretty often where he likes to he's an alcoholic and he likes
to drink. And it's getting to the point where I don't let him watch
each other while I'm at work anymore, and he kind of bullies them and
he's just a whole different person, and I just he's apologized many times,
but I'm just still set up that I don't know what to do because it's
just it's like black and white with him. He can be so normal and
then they could totally change him around. It's just, yeah, alcohol can
do that. This what's his what's his alcoholic choice by the way, beer?
Yeah, beer, okay? And how much would you say he drinks
on an average day? Well, recently it's just well sometimes it's once a
week, sometimes it's a couple of times a week or every other week.
And is it a six pack that he drinks? Is a twelve pack that
he drinks in one sitting? Maybe three or four? Take too much?
Okay? And has he ever been through a program? Has he ever been
to AA or anything like that. No, just through cool order. But
he didn't. He just went because you know he had to. Oh he's
been court ordered in the past. Yeah, and why did that come about?
Did he get a duy or what happened? Oh? Yeah, he
has several do you wuys? He just felt like he had to go.
Wow. So that puts uh, that puts you in a pretty horrible position.
What is your question for me this morning? Just your advice on whether
what to do because it's just like, I feel like he's almost another child
that I'm taken care of and he just takes up a lot of my energy.
And has he ever hit you or the children? Yes? You or
the children are both me, but like he tries to teach him how to
fight when he's strong, but it's just not safe. Oh wow, sure,
I understand. It's the most important thing is that you protect yourself and
those children. And if you feel it's an unsafe environment, or you feel
that he's violent or that he has a problem, you can give him the
ultimatum to take care of it or that you're gonna go. Yeah. You
you can't just sit there and wait till something happens. Ugly. If he's
a good man outside of that situation, then you need to do everything in
your power to get him outside of that situation. And that is whether it's
an ultimatum or what have you. If you think that an ultimatum would throw
him into rage, then you need to get out of that home. And
he has a severe problem, and it sounds like he knows he does,
and he's wrestling with it, and he needs to get somewhere where somebody can
help him go through the process. But don't put yourself and those children in
danger. Because you are the sober one. You have the ability to see
what's going on, and that makes you accountable to make sure it doesn't happen.
James, Welcome to the Jesus Christ. Yes, sir, The question
I have for you is a lot of churches teach that tiding as a requirement,
and a lot of people put their members under that system and tell them
it's a necessity. And of course, over time I run across a lot
of people they have trouble paying it, They can't afford to pay it,
they have a lot of troubles, and they feel like they can't move forward
in ministry because they cannot perform this financial obligation obligation exactly. And when I
went to study the scriptures, I determined that this is something there's not a
requirement for today's New Testament Christian correct And so I want to kind of get
your thoughts on why so many churches teach this doctor in which if you really
read scripture, it says anybody that justifies themselves by the law actually becomes a
curse. Well in this particular, and that's a that's a whole different discussion
unto itself. I will I'll answer for the sake of time, looking at
tithing, this concept of a tenth in Hebrew, and you'll find in the
Old Testament was a command that was for the purpose of giving back that which
you receive and having and making sure that that you're giving back to the people
of God and the things of God. Yeah, in this particular case,
you can reference Psalm twenty four to one, and also Malachi three eight through
ten, But that does change. As a matter of fact, throughout scripture.
You'll see that there's no place where where I reference, you know,
tithing that it needs to be done. And I don't say that the disciples
have to do it. There's no record concerning any of the New Testament writers
saying that there's this Christian tithe or anything like that. The early Church practiced
sharing of material goods First Corinthians sixteen one, in two Ephesians four twenty eight,
that's kind of the model. Also, you're asked to be a living
sacrifice for God in Romans twelve one and two, and to give materially as
the Lord leads you to give tewod Corinthians eight one through five. If you
are in a church, and you are a member of a church, you
should be giving, just because if you're not, you're taking from that church.
You're going and you're receiving, whether it's air conditioned or not, or
any of these things, you're taking from that church, and you should be
giving back to that particular community, part of your community. As far as
giving the tie, the ten percent is, you know, a great way
for people to kind of get it in their head that this is a good
standard. I think that's mostly why churches still refer to it as a tithe
and still give the ten percent. If you want to do the mathematics of
it all, it really comes out to if you go through Scripture about twenty
one percent. But the purpose of tithing is just to get yourself in the
mindset that when you're receiving, you should be giving, and if you're partaking
in a church and you should be giving back. It's not that God needs
the money. God doesn't need your money. It's that the church does to
continue to work and to do good things, and to give to others and
all of those things. So don't take, don't steal from the church.
However, if if ten percent is what helps you do ten percent, but
if you could give more, Bible essentially says give till it hurts. We
have just a little bit of time. If you do have a question,
I don't know that we'll be able to get to it. So I won't
give the phone numbers. We'll deal with what we have on the board right
now. We were actually chatting with Jeff. He was asking about people that
die early. If life is about progressing, learning, understanding, then if
someone dies early, what does that mean? So you're back with us,
Jeff, I am, thank you. So the first one I shared with
you is one of the theories that the belief is. As I talked about
different people with physical ability going to a gym. There are some that are
are going to get built more quickly, and there's some that are going to
take longer. And there are those that theorize that someone that gets taken early
doesn't need as much time here, and then there's people that poo poo that,
And quite honestly, it is the belief of this program that it's about
being accountable for the time that you have, not having enough time to become
accountable. So if somebody gets taken early, it's about what they do with
that information of that time. Obviously, if they're very very young, they're
not conflicting with any of those but they're also not stepping in the same traps
that pull them away from God in the same way. In the same sense,
younger people are more adaptive and connected to God than people who become cynical
or go through different stages of their life as they get older. So in
that sense, I think is a big picture thing that there are those that
it's really about where you are being accountable for where you are in that moment,
rather than gosh, I finally had ten more days I could get this
right. That's not what you're being judged against. So everyone has the lessons
that they need to know or the things that they need to know, and
for however long you live, you're going to be going through different lessons.
But that doesn't mean if you have a shorter life, you're not getting lessons
or understanding or connecting with God in any way, shape or form. Okay,
well, it seems like there'd be a difference there because young people,
say, if they were eight years old, wouldn't be learning things that they
need to learn. And you would have to do that to have the perfection
that heaven is supposed to be our life here on earth. You would have
to have some sort of way of learning to be able to respond in a
different way. Or maybe I'm just not understanding what happened. No, an
eight year old doesn't have the conflict either. The eight year old is not
going up against all of the philosophical conflicts with the concept they believe. There's
a wonderful magician who was a friend of the show. He passed away,
and his name was Dean Dill, and he was a beautiful man and a
Christian, and he taught magic to all kinds of people, including people like
Johnny Carson and the like, and was believed to be a magician's magician and
did parties and all kinds of things like that. And he was asked to
do a party for a five year old one time, and in a conversation
with my producer Neil, he said that he turned it down. My producer
Neil asked him why, and he said, because at five everything's already magic.
The kids aren't surprised because everything's already magical. There hasn't been any cynicism,
There hasn't been anything that has pressed through their life to change that from
who they are, so they're already in that state. So the process of
learning on this earth is an important one, but it's also learning about love
and connectivity and things like that, and that comes in different stages, in
different ways for different people. And it doesn't mean that if you're here till
eighty years that there's still things you need to learn to get into heaven.
What it means is, as long as you're on this planet, you should
be learning. It's not like you graduate, you pass I know, we
talk about that. My producer Neil even used that term that someone graduates to
heaven. That's that next step. But it's not about fulfilling a number of
classes or things like that. That's not what it's about at all. It's
about however long you're here to continue to learn and connect with God throughout these
things. Heaven is going to be a different place in a different way.
But God, the belief is is if you are connecting with God in this
world with everything pulling you away, that you will get a clear picture and
a connection with God and when you're in heaven. But those things are individual
and different based on you know, the person that's going through them, So
it don't think of it as you know, a syllabus and a class and
you've got to check these certain things off. If you are alive at a
certain time in your life, yes you should be doing those things, but
you don't need them to be a whole person in any way, shape or
form. So somebody that passes away younger are still a whole person in an
in every way, shape or form, and have been tested in one way
or another to show their beliefs or their understanding. It's about Remember, it's
about acceptance or rejection. It's not about ignorance. So it's about being accountable
for what you do know, not for what you don't know, Pam,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi. How are you? I am
well? How are you well? I mean great? This question is bigger
than myself. I'll do my best to ask it. I'm a little naive
in the word, but I'm a big believer in you. So my question
is, how does the possibility of life in other galaxies working with the scripture
of God created the heavens and the earth. I mean, because there's science
and there God's word evolution. It just that whole area to kind of confuse
me, and it's interesting at the same time kind of get a sense of
what I'm asking. So you are about life on other planets or about well,
like, how does how does it figure into scripture and working with the
theory of evolution versus God creating the heavens and the earth? And he said
science is perfect, but scientists aren't. And I like the science idea of
evolution. Yeah, but I'm also in the beliefs that God created heavens in
the earth. Well, there's I want to explain, there's something else.
There's mishmash. Yeah, there's stuff that people tie together. There is something
called theistic evolution. This show doesn't focus a whole lot on that. My
producer, Neil is not a huge fan of it, because you have to
understand, there's that evolution is a theory, and I know that you'll get
some people now going, oh, yeah, but theoretically blah blah blah.
I say that because there is not one form of evolution. There's not an
agreement that scientists have come to. There are parts of it that they have
come to and that they believe took place, but there isn't one theory of
evolution, and most your average everyday person is ignorant of that. They use
the term and they don't usually even know what it means. There are many
theories as to what took place, how it took place, why it took
place, where it took place. So, and you're dealing with special and
general types of evolution, So don't get confused. Don't confused adaptation with evolution,
okay. Adaptation is that within its own kind, things can change.
For instance, if you put humans in a cave and they lived in the
darkness, they would adapt by modifying the ability of their skin, you know,
the skin. They would lose the melanin or it would go to very
small levels. Their eyes would probably glaze over, the muscles would weaken,
and they wouldn't use them or need them anymore. So there's things where you
know, you see this skin color, there's only one color of skin.
There's only one color of humanity, and that's melanin. And there are people
with more of it and people with less of it, but there's only one
color. There's only one true race, the human race. And any modifications
of nose, eyelids, hair, things like that are adaptations. They're not
evolutionary breaks. There's no group that's less than or better than evolutionarily in humanity.
There's adaptations within that great group. For areas, the Inuit people will
have a little more fatty tissue above their eyes to keep them warm in in
very cold environments. Things like that. That's adaptation. Evolution is if one
thing jumps a kind or a phylum and becomes something else, and that's a
whole different thing. So there's there's no Christian there shouldn't be that doesn't believe
in adaptation. That would be silly. People adapt all the time, but
within different phylums or jumping or branching from one place. You know, single
celled you know, amba jumping to becoming a fish, becoming a turtle,
becoming a lizard, becoming a human. That's a different concept. So it
depends where you land on that and what your belief is of that. As
I said, I think it's one every five years there is a a council
of sort where scientists get together to discuss the concept of evolution. So it's
not something that they have landed completely on. And this is like, this
is the model because it changes. The original model by Charles Darwin does not
exist. It never exists, never panned out. So there's different models that
are based on that throughout the years, and it depends what you land on
as to whether it would fit in scripture. Some of it fits absolutely,
But in Genesis when it talks about creation, it's talking about building or creating
animals unto their kind, which means they wouldn't cross violins, so that there's
a hard place to bring that into scripture. But there are other adaptations and
things like that that wouldn't conflict with apture any way, shape or form.
Okay, so life on other planets, if that were to be true.
Now life on other planets is a different story because now you get into the
problem of salvation. So because I came, and I even said I'm glad
that I came as a human and not as an angel, because I'm here
to redeem mankind. Right, So now you would have the problem if life
was on other planets. It is it human? If it's human, is
it sinful? If it's not sinful? Why if it is sinful, then
it needs to be redeemed. If it needs to be redeemed, now,
how is it going to be redeemed? Do I go to every planet and
become like them to redeem them and dine in across or somehow on every single
planet. Did my death on this planet cover other planets? It opens up
a lot of questions that are I think, highly problematic for Christianity. And
if they found life like humanity, not just well it looks like there's some
you know, watermarks on this planet, but real genuine life. Hello,
how are you take me to your leader life? There could be significant problems
with Christianity, and I know a lot of people don't want to face that,
and a lot of people that love our buddy George Nori and all that
might think differently. But that's that's the theological reality. I know that on
talk radio you hear all kinds of things throughout the week. They can bring
it down or be heavy stuff. But I hope this show is a respite,
a place where you can gather sanctuary for your thoughts and for ideas of
growth and inspiration. I just ask one thing of you. I asked this
of you during this time of year, to focus in on each other.
And I don't mean just your immediate family, but your neighbors and the people
around you. And find that time that place of courtesy, like go above
and beyond to be courteous to each other, whether it's on the roads or
at the grocery store, whatever it is, do just a little bit extra
and show those lines of hope and those those opportunities to say, hey,
we're all in this together right as humans, you need to connect with one
another and to show that love to one another. God sees that. God
wants you to do it. God asks you to count all things joy,
James One, to consider it pure joy whenever, whenever or you face trials.
I know you're going through things now. First Thessalonians five eighteen to give
thanks an all circumstance and to find that peace during the holiday season, no
matter which the holiday you may be celebrating, to find that peace to be
a conduit of joy and happiness and hope. And in that and in that
hope, it spreads. I assure you, like a wildfire, bringing people
peace, pointing them in a direction, helping them out somewhere, whatever it
may be, go the extra mile, push forward, doing things, and
that's what brings consistency and happiness, every single individual coming together and saying,
hey, I'm going to look out for you, you look out for me.
I'm going to help you, you help me, and being there for
each other. It's as corny as it may seem. I know you hear
a lot of people yelling and screaming into this very microphone. But I will
tell you that what I'm telling you now is at the center of it all.
How you treat one another and how you produce and perpetuate hope. That's
the only thing that's going to help. Otherwise you can scream to your red
in the face, nothing's going to change. So do that. Find ways
to help people to do nice things, to be kind, to reassure people,
to be loving no matter who they are, agree or disagree any of
that stuff, and the world will be a better place, I assure you,
and remember these simple words. I am with you always. KFI AM
sixty on demand