You're listening to KF I am sixty on demand. Jeff, Welcome to Jesus
Christ Show. Hi Jesus. I'm a grateful believer and I love your show.
Oh thanks, Jeff, I appreciate you listening. How can I help
you? Well, let me get my emotions under control here. I was
divorced about twenty years ago and didn't have much contact with my kids. Basically
was an addict, and now I'm not. And I'm trying to talk to
my kids about you, and I think they don't want to listen to it
because of a messenger, okay, And I just want to hear what you
have to say about it, or ask me questions about it, or just
trying to give my head on straight around it. Well, I hear I
get phone calls and and emails of all kinds from people in situations where they're
going. You know, I really want to share Christ, but for reason
X Y and Z, I can't because of something I did or the place
I'm at. And that may be the case that you're looking at. You
may you may be the worst person to bring that information to them, And
the best way to bring that information to them is not from the hole in
your face, but from the thing that beats within your chest, and that
is to act in a way and let them see the experience that you have
and not just try to proselytize. It's very difficult, especially somebody who's been
through the ringer like you have, and it has gone through addiction and gone
through these types of things and a divorce and you haven't seen them for a
long time. They're going to look at you and say, who are you
and why should I trust you? And why would I hear this from you?
And and um, don't tell me about living a good life or about
focusing in on God. They that you don't have that place in their life
yet. And I think it's best just to be living in a way that
is an example. Then. Yeah, sometimes taking we're talking about, you
know, taking the shortcuts or not having consequences. Sometimes talking about things becomes
the simple way and the obvious way and the easy way, rather than living
in a way that asks that promotes people to ask you about why you're living
the way you are. You understand the difference there. Yeah, it's you
know, one thing to say, hey, do this, and it's another
thing to do it and have people go, wow, why do you do
that? Why do you do it that way? And it's I mean,
look at the way. You know, you watch a golf and these shows
on on the weekends or these infomercials about golf swings, and do this with
a golf swing. To do that with a golf swing, you will find
men that will parse and vet every nook and cranny of a golf swing because
they see the results of that golf swing. Nobody wants to know how to
do a really bad golf swing. Wow, you really you knock that into
you know, the beach there, so I want to find out how you
did it. No, it's not it's not about that. It's about wanting
to replicate success or replicate something that you see to be a value and in
life that works the same way as well. If you're doing something that people
see that is valuable and healthy and efficient and loving and all these things,
they're going to ask you naturally. But sometimes believers think, oh, it's
easier, I want to do it just this way, and I'm going to
shove it down their throat or I'm gonna, you know, just preach to
them. And it's not that you know that doesn't have value to express verbally.
But I think in this particular case, there's no way they're going to
receive that from you in that way. It's going to be too you be
too simple. It's not going to have the weight or the value of just
seeing you and your life turned around and you loving on them and doing your
best to be in their life in a way that's healthy. They're going to
be out of a country for two years now and I won't be able to
see him, and I don't know how they're going to see but change in
me. Oh, there's nothing wrong with saying, you know what. I
know we don't have a whole lot of time together. I know you're going
to be out of town, and you know, forgive my zeal, but
I want so much for you to see the things that have helped me change,
change and grow. And I know you're not going to be able to
see that. And if you know, if I get so excited about it,
forgive me. But understand that I've been through a lot and that I've
missed a lot, and so I feel like I'm trying to cover ground.
But no, that that's where it comes from. It comes from a place
of excitement and a desire to connect. And and so when I share these
things with you, it's it's not a shortcut. It's just to kind of
bringing up to speed at where I am in my life and the things that
have really helped me. And I feel like I haven't been able to impart
a lot during under the circumstances. And and this is this may seem like
it's a you know, a lot to consume right now, but I feel
like I've been out of the loop for a while. And I think feel
like I haven't been in your life in the way I liked you, or
I haven't been able to teach you or to show you these things. And
and I I you know, I don't have gold, I don't have silver,
I don't have any of these things necessarily to give you. But what
I do have is this. And on your on your trip for the next
two years, if you can take this with you, whether whether it's a
Bible or whether it's just that notion um that at least you've planted that seed.
Um. I get that I do, but you're not going to do
it all in one. If it was that easy, it wouldn't have any
value, you know, it's not an amulet, you know, it's not
some magic water you're gonna give them. It's not a necklace, it's a
there's it's nothing like that. It's not the kind of it's not the way
this gift is passed on. It's really about you know, experience it in
them, seeing that that difference in you. It's it's okay to talk about
it, just don't make that. You know, people always look Jeff for
that right word, as if you know that right word's going to get them
saved. And it's not about that right word. It's about being available when
they have the questions. It's about being honest and open and not being ashamed
of your faith. But you know, if you if you crammed food down
their throat, they they'd vomited it up as well. So it's you know,
and so would you. Yeah, you know people came to you before,
and people try to teach you things and show you things, and you
had to do it in your own time. Right as you're ready. You're
ready as do they. So plant the seed. Scripture says that that there
are many participants in that. There's the person who plants the seed. There's
a person who plows the field, there's a person who waters. There's all
that, and that's going to happen. You have to trust God for those
things. That's where your faith comes in as well, to know that you
can just plant that little seed and that they can go, you know,
away for two years, go away for twenty years. It doesn't matter.
God's still there. God hasn't fallen off his throne. And worry about just
the planting of the little seed, not trying to grow a tree instantaneously.
That's just not the way it works. Matt, Welcome to the Jesus Christ
Show. Hey Jesus, y imagine good. How are you doing excellence or
what's going on? I just got a quick question, theology question. I'm
Catholic. My family, some of them still our Catholic. A lot of
them went to the Evangelist movement or whatever you want to call it now and
they they, you know where it's very fall just the scripture, the ward
of God, and that's what it is. Nothing wrong with that in a
lot of respects I like it. My question is is from what I understand
at least in the Church history, is that the pope sometime in the fourth
century or so actually compiled the Bible, and I guess or compiled the books
that we know today that are in the Bible. And my biggest struggle with
maybe possibly either going over to that church with my parents, the biggest struggle
I have is if the pope compiled those books and chose what's in it,
and they so outrightly speak, you know, against the Catholic Church, why
it just seems kind of ironic to me when the book that they consider the
Ward to God, which it is, you know, it was compiled by
the pope, so to speak, and I just need a clarification to try
to understand it myself as well. Unfortunately, to go through, you know,
and and parse all the specifics of history is kind of outside the scope
of the time that we have. But I do want you to understand that's
it's not a fair statement to say that the pope put together the Bible.
Um that what takes place is u There are counsels that do take place.
There are groups where they come ecumenical counsels, and there are groups that come
together to make decisions based on certain things about scripture. But the scripture itself
was already pretty much because of its usage in the context of its usage.
Determined and canonize cannon just means like measuring rod, like a measuring read.
So it's it's saying this is the measure of God. This is this has
shown itself or proven itself to be the word of God. Now there's disputes
between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church as to certain books that would be
referred to as apocryphal books. Now those books aren't damaging necessarily and that they're
just not seeing a scripture so by some So the battle that takes place there
is really dealing with an understanding of how the Bible came to be. It
wasn't that some guy sat there and said this is what I determined to be.
It's not one person's job. Also, going back, it's it's very
easy for the Catholic Church to say, well, this was the Catholic Church,
when really Catholic means universal and at the time it wasn't talking about necessarily
the structure of the Catholic churches. You know it today it's talking about the
early Church because until the Reformation, it's just the Church. So it's it's
kind of hard to say, well, the Protestants weren't a part of that.
Well, technically they were because the Protestants means Protestants came from the the
first Church as well. So the branching off of that came from disagreements as
to the way the structure of the church was the path that the church was
going, and some disagreements there, but the essentials always remained, which is
the most important. And also to look at the fact that the decision making
wasn't just done by one particular person. Throughout the centuries, there've been people
that have tried to add things and subtract things. And the key to the
canonization, and the most important part of it was to determine that nothing was
to be added at this point, that all the revelation that was to be
given by God has already been given. That way that people don't start writing
things into it and putting new things into it and modifying. And there are
new testaments that other groups that people would refer to as non Christian cults add
to the scriptures, and there's new covenants and new things like that, but
the scripture it was decided as these groups. Nothing changed throughout history. You'll
be happy to note that the same craziness that goes on today, when you
know a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, you had groups even
and when you read through scripture, you read through the epistles, and you
see the church at Corinth, the Church at Ephesus, and they had these
major problems at the time. There's all kinds of craziness going on, and
so a lot of times these groups would come together to reinforce the belief for
the understanding that had been the universal belief or understanding. And now that a
group comes in they start teaching something else, they'd come together and say,
no, we still all agree this is the way things should be. Let's
weed out this particular problem. And that's when they would get together on these
councils as well, to kind of decide, well, it's getting it's getting
crazy out there. People are starting to say this and teach this, and
that's not what we all believe correct, And it would be ecumenical in the
sense that it would be the entirety of the best presentatives possible to come together
and say, no, this is what we've always believed. This has always
been the tradition. We continue to push forward on that. But to say
that the Pope Canonie scripture is not a fair statement. Laurie, Welcome to
Jesus Christ Show. Hello Jesus, thank you for taking my call, my
pleasure. How can I help you? Well, I hear people talking about
surviving horrible situations where they say they just believe in God and put their faith
in God. And I do that too, but I'm having trouble dealing with
issues that someone can be blessed by God and a follower of Jesus and still
get cancer, especially like if they have young children. I know several people
in this situation now and they're no less a believer than I am. And
you know, I pray every day I will not be tested in this way.
And I why why would you pray that when Scripture says you will be
tested that way. Scripture says, well, that you should rejoice in your
trials because that's where God is seen. You're not going to walk through life
in perfection. You're told at the very beginning of life that it will end.
That's temporary and there's no guarantee. No, I understand that. I
think the part that I see is that when I we've had a situation,
we have a friend that has two little children, and she was just diagnosed
with stage four cancer and we're talking, you know, not a lot of
time, and I just don't understand with two little kids that this is.
I guess I'm just having in trouble with that, of course, And that's
it's normal to worry and be frustrated with the things of this world. It
is, and to see children like that put in a situation. But you
only have, you know, two choices there, Either to live life in
the path that is given to you, regard what that is good, bad,
or otherwise, or not to live at all and refrain from having children
because you might get sick or in these types of things, and both have
their their pluses and minuses. So in this situation, if you look at
Scripture over and over, it says be not afraid in one way or another.
Be not afraid of the one who can kill the flesh, be afraid
of the one that could kill the spirit. It's never been about this life.
This life is only a preparation and an understanding for the life to come.
So there's going to be cancer, not because God created it and God
wants it, but because in this world there are the options of those things,
you know, whether it be pollution and things that are put into the
atmosphere, whether it be genetic problems, whether it be whatever that brings someone
to that particular place in their life. You have to understand that that glory,
the glory of God, can still come from that situation. And that's
what it's about. Not being in it, you know, having the life
you expected you were going to have or for the length of time. And
I think if you get it in that mindset, getting that mindset of going,
well, we're going to live ninety years and we're going to be healthy
for those ninety years, and that's just not now. I understand that a
legitimate way to think. Yeah, no, and I don't. I don't
think that way is It pertains to me And I think it's just I think
it's throwing the little kids into the mix that always, you know, kind
of sets me apart on that that. I don't know, I just have
a harder time. I have a harder time with that, of course,
but it's the quality as well. I've had people call up who lost their
children, and would do you think for one second that a parent whose child
dies at the age of two or five thinks that that child was less important
or less valuable because the length of their life. So it's really not the
length of life, it's it's what it's you're experiencing and the quality of interacting
with one another and and creating those relationships. And there are there are parents
that will live to eighty that aren't going to be one modicum of the parent
that your friend has been and the life that they have. So there's is
it a horribly sad situation? Absolutely, And I know that that is something
that um is a battle with believers. And you see, you know,
you see like somebody driving in a in a beat up old car that's falling
apart and there's a bumper stick on the back that says the Lord provides,
and you go, wow, provides what to whom? And and I know
that that it becomes this this kind of dichotomy of you know, how are
you supposed to say that it's a blessing? But really, if you think
about the word blessing when people pray, it's it shouldn't be this is what
I want God. It should be for understanding for what you have. And
and really that kind of infusion of God into this situation becomes the important part.
Let me do this gracefully, let me do this with dignity, Let
me do this in a way that glorifies you God. That's where you're at
it this point. If God chooses in his infinite wisdom to reach into the
situation and heal, hallelujah. And if he doesn't, hallelujah, because all
of that glory should be given to God. And this is where the community
of Christ should come together and take care of those children and and help.
You know, it's and that and God's glory will be seen in that.
And but you certainly wouldn't say that you know, all is lost for these
children. It's a horribly sad situation. These children God's will be done,
will grow through it, and it will be a part of who they are
in a way that is gives them understanding and a deep understanding of the temporary
nature of life in this world. And that will give them the strength to
push forward and do things in a manner that they may not have before.
There's all kinds of things that will go on. But does it stink absolutely
on its face, It stinks to live in this world that is not covered
in nerve that has sharp edges, that people die in, that people get
hurt in. But that is to help understand the preciousness and the value of
life and eve that's for Christians as well. You don't get a pass.
It doesn't change how life will be or what happens to you. It should
change how you perceive it and how go through it, but it won't change
that you'll go through it or won't go through it. Okay, thank you
very much. You're welcome, Laurie, and we will be praying for you
and the families involved. And it's one of those things where Christians often look
around and say, hey, you know, I believe I have faith.
I've been on my knees, I have you know, holes worn in the
carpet next to my bed, and bad things still happen. It's not about
avoiding those things. You're going to have those things in life. Life will
be difficult, you will have trials Christian and non Christian alike. Period.
It says in Scripture and Matthew that the that the sun will rise and set,
and it will rain and have sun on the righteous and the unrighteous.
And what Matthew five forty three and forty five is saying there is that you
know what good things and bad things. Good things will happen to bad people,
and bad things will happen to the good It's just the way it's going
to happen in this world. God gives you armor, but that's spiritual armor
to deal with the spiritual things that come at you. And those spiritual things
are that in times of trials and weakness and frustration and sadness, that the
enemy wants to sit there and go where is your God. One of the
most beautiful scenes and most powerful scenes in mel Gibson's Betrayal of the last twelve
hours or so of My Life was his interpretation of what took place in the
garden of Gassemite where I'm alone and I'm praying. And it doesn't say this
in scripture, but I think it was a legitimate, a legitimate use of
what could have been going on there as someone who has vision as a director.
And it shows the enemy kind of walking around me or pacing like a
tiger ready to pounce, and this kind of ambiguous creature male female, you
don't really know, kind of beautiful, kind of repelling is the enemy saying
you can't do this alone? He should have never put this on you.
It's too much for one person saying those doubts, putting those doubts, trying
to infuse my head with those things from the pit of hell. And the
enemy does the same thing to you when you are at your weakest. The
enemy wants to sit there and do a dance and say, see where is
your God? Now? They said it to me when I was on the
cross. It's implied that it's said to me throughout temptation. They're going to
say it to you. The glory of God comes not from a miraculous healing,
which is a human thing. That's what the humans want. The glory
of God is when man goes through things that are inherently scary, frustrating,
sad, frightening, and does it with the poise and the grace of someone
that can only only have that strength and ability if they knew God. Bunny,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ shown. Yes, Hi, Bunny, Hi,
I was listening to us. One of your last callers that said that
her faith had been a little bit shaken because she had friends that were young
and dying, or thought she might they might be dying of cancer. And
yes, I couldn't understand why God would do that, and I was I
just had to call because I know one reason is that when a person of
faith like that, I That is how I came to know Jesus Christ through
a young woman who had two young children, everything to live for, and
she was literally dying of cancer. And in and through her I saw a
faith and a trust. She was happier than anybody I knew that had everything
going for them. And I watched her carefully. I couldn't believe this.
What I just she was was set apart and I watched her and what I
began to go to a Bible study that she actually would give. She she
would be in the hospital for a week and she'd get out for two hours
to come and teach a Bible study. And I she asked me to go,
and I went and began to understand what it was that she had the
faith in. It is um something that I embraced and for the woman that
was concerned, I also paid attention to what was what her heart's desire was
that she knew she was dying, that she wanted God and the prayer was
watch out for my husband and my two children. Over those that were they're
going to be left, yes, And that was her only prayer and that
request and um she I watched when she died and the most God took care
of her husband and her children in the most miraculous ways. And there was
It just increased my faith. I became a Christian. But even more importantly,
I think they're probably what there were probably about fifty more people that came
to Ward through that one woman. I'll see there's and I and I thank
you so much, Bonnie for calling people don't understand that things do come from
this and it is sad. But you even remember Randy Pausch, Professor Pouch
from the last lecture. If you haven't read the book, it's a It's
a lovely book and a tribute to a man who loved his family very much
and wanted them to know it even when he passed. There is much that
can be done in those last hours, those last moments, and you can
touch people. Randy Pausch, you know, touched a world who continued to
read his book that was written due to the pain and the suffering and the
sadness and the frustrations that he went through. Don welcome to the Jesus Christ
show, Hello Jesus, thank you for taking my call, my pleasure.
What's going on? Done? Well, I've always been curious about God the
Father in the sense of taking his deity to other cultures, not just through
you, but but to other cultures. Say, you know the Buddhists and
uh and the Vish New you know that that sort of thing as well as
the Native Americans does. Does he manifest himself? Um? You know,
two different cultures in different ways. Well, that's the that's the difference between
um motherhood and your mom. Your mom is your mom. You can't repackage
her. She is your your mother. And although other cultures have the term
for mom or mother, um, there is only one your mom, only
one mother of don So in the like sense, it's more likely because they
aren't all the same. Even though some people can say, oh, well,
Buddhi is a manifestation of this, or fish News a manifestation of that,
they don't jive. They don't have the same philosophy's beliefs. And in
every other walk of life, if you came by somebody who claimed to be
someone or something and they didn't have those same defining properties, you'd say it
wasn't the same person or thing, and and so it's not just well,
Gosh, all these different belief systems or cultures have an idea of God.
It's what is that idea of God that's important, And so they don't mesh.
So to say that they are all the same manifestation of the Father God
in different areas or cultures doesn't make sense because a culture shouldn't be more powerful
than God. So a culture can't define God. God has to define the
culture. And if you come across these other manifestations for lack of a better
term of God, they still have to be defined as to what they are,
just like your mother would be defined by who she is. If I
was seeking God, see I was raised Roman Catholic, if I was to
you know, to attempt to to find you know, the Father through Buddhism.
Buddhism is completely different than the Christian God. Vishnu completely different from the
Christian God. And that's not to put a value on that. It's to
say that, well, one, this is the Jesus Christ show. If
it was the Vishnu show, of the Buddhis show, I'm sure they'd be
talking up their beliefs but ultimately that's to say there is a difference. There's
an old saying everyone can be wrong, but they can't all be right if
they contradict each other. There are contradictions inherently in all those belief systems that
don't match up. They are not interchangeable, and you can because of the
freedom, you can believe what you want. But keep in mind they are
not interchangeable and they do not all believe the same things. That's where problems
arise. You're listening to kf I AM sixty on demand.