You're listening to KFI on demand. Dan, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hello. I have a sister that that says, she reads in the
Bible that God is a punishing God. If you lie, you cheat,
you steal, God will come upon you with his wrath and and and and
punish you. I always thought that that God was merciful, God was forgiving,
God understood God. God helped you get out of these things. But
she's she honestly believes that, Know, if you're a sinner, if you
lie, you cheat, you steal, that God's going to come upon you
and bad things are going to happen. He's going to come down with his
wrath and you better watch out. Well, it's a nice healthy combination of
the two beliefs. Really, God is a God of justice absolutely, and
yes, I will punish on according to the deeds that a person does.
However, keep in mind that often the punishment is the consequence of the very
act itself. You know, if you steal, if you live a life
of crime, you'll probably go to jail. So if you think that God,
that that mercy is somehow ignorant, or that grace is somehow blind,
that's absolutely wrong. God is a god of justice. Do you think it's
loving, Dan for a parent not to punish their child when there when their
child does something wrong? Is that the loving thing to do? Well?
I understand that. I understand that. But there's uh people who who who
in their hearts understand the wrong that they do, Then why do they do
it? Well? There's there's uh, there's good. In my opinion is
that there's good and there's bad this in this world. Yes, and it's
it's the nature. I think one could say, if you have it lied,
if you haven't cheated, you know, throw the first roun. But
it's it's human nature to to to to lie. I believe that nobody is
one hundred perfect. Okay, understood Dan, But but you should be seeking
perfection even though you won't obtain it. You should always seek being the best
you can. You should always try and eradicate one more lie from your conversation,
from your day, from your week. I understand that. But you
shouldn't be walking around thinking that you have a get out of jail free card
because you know God, No, I believe I believe if you do wrong
you should pay the price. Okay, Then when then wherein lies the problem.
Well, I'm not but I'm not talking about anything of physical I'm not
talking about you amongous things as stealing the from the poor and robbing a bank
and taking somebody's life. But God sees those is all equal. You're the
one that sees those as different. Man sees those as a hierarchy. But
ultimately, any sin is a slap in the face of God. Any sin,
no matter how small. I understand that. I understand that, I
understand that. Well, you've answered my question. I appreciate that. Thank
you. Oh I hope so, Dan, But I get the feeling that
maybe there's something else more to it. Truth be told that it becomes very
easy for people to try and partition God. God is all love, God
is all justice. God has wrath. God is compassionate. All these things
are true. You can't separate them, and many of them go hand in
hand in a way that you don't even think about. So to define,
to think that God's going to look the other way when you do things is
not correct. God knows your heart as well. God knows when you make
mistakes. You can't just use the excuse that, oh, well, I'm
going to sin because I'm a sinner. God knows this as well. But
you need to seek those things that are good and trust that in your rebellion.
If you get into a state where you just continue to throw aside anything
that God says and think, hey, well, I'm just a sinner God,
then you will lose sight of God. Because the biggest consequence is it
changing the relationship you have with God because you start to distance yourself from Him.
So keep that in mind. Mike, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Good morning, Jesus. First of all, thank you so much for
what you did for me. I know that I don't deserve any of that,
and I don't deserve to judge others, but I have to live in
the flesh and I need to know what to do because your word says that
children are a gift from God. And yet you know, I'm in a
situation where for fifteen years I have so much as a father to give to
my daughter, and because of her mother and because of the system that I
have to go through to be near my daughter, it's been extremely difficult.
At best, It's me and forty men and other man. I know I'm
not alone, but I'm adopted and this is my only flesh and blood blood,
and what do anymore? And I can't. I can't. You know,
people tell me to turn away, you need to move along with your
life. And how am I supposed to do that? To turn away from
your daughter? Well, I mean, you know, because it's difficult.
It's hard to balance until I can, I feel, I until I can
get that relationship you know, in place, and I can, you know,
so I can be available to mine, but daughter can be available to
me, and vice versa. It's hard for me to quote unquote move on
with my life or get into what what's what's the impeding process here, what's
the what's the hurdle that you're having a hard time getting over to be able
to do? It's just plain of that I personally am Yeah. Is it
just just your your your wife? Well, you know she's gone through a
second marriage and since divorced, and and and my daughter's being raised in a
in an environment that doesn't really care for men that much anyway, and so
it's it's just basic, plain old parent alienation. There's nothing special about it.
It's just been really difficult for me to accept it, I guess,
and to not give up on the fight of being a part of my dollar's
life as much as possible. And it's just it's just an old fashioned parent
alienation and I've got to go through the same meat grinders as the father that
doesn't want to be a part of their kid's life. It's the same meat
grinder. Okay, well, then the process is going to be the same.
And I'm going to ask you to hold on Mike as we take a
quick break because I want to talk to you some more. But if the
situation is the old the same old story, then the response is going to
be similar. But I have some thoughts for you when we return talking with
Mike. Thanks for holding Mike. You're in a situation where you're divorced and
your wife has your child. Why does your wife have the custody of the
child. Well, we have joint legal, joint physical, and I mean
it's not like and I have a I do have a relationship with my child,
but it's been because I've you know, I've spent countless money and hours
in time over fifteen years to stay plugged in. But it's just it's it's
agonizing, it's a long suffering that I wonder if I'm even doing the right
thing anymore. I mean to be with your child, yes, of course,
well I can't imagine not doing that. But I understand why guys walk
away because it's so difficult, and I just wonder, you know, if
I'm if if children are a gift from God, and God knows my heart,
and God has you know, promised to fulfill the desires of my heart
as I seek him first, what I'm doing wrong or I just don't know.
I don't know any more or how to process this on a daily basis,
you know, because I just don't get to be as part much a
part of my daughter's life as i'd like to be. Okay, now that
is by if it's fifty to fifty split, how often do you get to
the joint custody, how often do you get to see your daughter? Well,
it's pretty much she's fourteen, ash and just at the games or whatever.
I mean. The mothers ilated the court order every year for fifteen years.
And there's a many, so many for you know, there's a many,
so many filing fees and attorneys and twenty five hundred dollars a pop.
You can do it, Mike, No you've got nothing else. There is
no other part of your life until this child is eighteen. You agreed now,
regardless of your bad choice in women or her bad choice in men,
uh speaking of your ex wife, that you have to do that. Your
child is not part of the divorce. Child children don't get divorced. So
this is something you have to do, just like your job. Like anything
else. This is you have to do any thing and everything whatever it takes
to be a part of that child's life, even if it's a pain.
Well, yeah, and agree, I mean I'm not. I'm not even
if we're close to I mean I've gotten we don't have time on the radio
show, of course, but I mean the hoops have jumped through the state
like then. I understand a proof of that, but it's I guess.
The part that I'm asking about today is, you know, how do I
balance the other parts of my life when this continues to be such an unresolved,
overpowering thing. It's made it difficult for me to uh, you know,
develop relationships, you know, and look outside because I feel like it's
such a mess. That's not those things aren't important. I want you to
imagine it this way. You're on a ship and the ship has problems staying
buoyant and you have to toss things off the ship that you have to be
comfortable with tossing everything off that ship except your daughter. That's it. Okay,
well then I'm on track. State I'm an absolutely gladiator about it.
So that's fine. That's where. Well, then you are on the right
track, Mike, because that's what it comes down to when you start going
through the checklist on that ship saying Okay, well I don't need this or
I don't need that. You got to cut all those things loose. You've
got four more years. If she's fourteen, you got four more years,
uh, to do anything on everything possible, to be in that child's life,
to show your face, to explain the way life works, to give
her insights about life, to apologize for the mistakes you've made, to tell
her that that it's you know that. And this is important because people don't
get this sometimes in relationships, and we talk about this kind of corny,
but it's a good way to remember about relationships. Relationships are like colors.
Okay, you get two different people, two different colors, and you put
them together. There are ugly combinations, but it doesn't mean the individuals are
bad. So every color is beautiful in its own right. Some combinations not
so good. So keep that in mind in that you can talk to your
daughter and say, listen, it's not about your mother, it's not about
me. We out both have our own issues, but the one thing we
agreed on always is how beautiful and wonderful you are and how much we love
you. And that's what I'm fighting for. I will do anything and everything
to be a part of your life, and I want you to know it
and how much I love you, and I am so proud of you and
the things that you've done, and I don't want to make mistakes that I've
made become part of your life. And you need to be honest as you
can, age appropriate and fight for the next four years because it's not about
you right now. You kind of gave that up during the process, and
it really stinks. But it sounds like you're fighting, and I can hear
the pain and I hear the quivering in your voice. But you have to
push through that and continue to fight until it's over. And that's eighteen that
fights over, and then the daughter can come and go as she pleases,
and your relationship will change. Milton, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Good morning, Jesus. How are you so? I am well? How
are you? I'm so good? Thank you so much for this program.
I had a quick question about music choices. I work with a lot of
youth and I always am getting questions about music and music selection, particularly when
it comes to secular versus gospel or Christian music in general. I know that
you have such great selections here and it's not relegated to just Christian music.
So can you help me out a little bit with that? Oh? Excellent.
It's a great question, an important one early on in the program.
The program's actually been around for a long time, but early on in the
program, my producer Neil felt that it was very important to use a mix
of music, not all gospel. It's not a religious show, a show
about truth and about searching and hopefully finding, and so it's important to get
people in that mentality and it's been a big part of the people that participate
in the show. Engineer Tony is also our music director, and it becomes
a big part of the program. If you listen to it, it ties
in but Early on, people would go, well, how come you're using
secular music, And my response has always been that the enemy has always taken
that which is for God, that is to glorify God, and try and
tear it down and try and make it into something ugly. And on this
show we kind of do the reverse and take the things that the enemy may
use at times, not all secular music, but what the enemy may use
at times for doing bad, and twist it into doing good and kind of
one up the enemy that way. Also, there's a lot of good music
out there that's secular. Truth is truth is truth, Truth is God's truth,
And as long as it's not prescribing something ugly or evil, then we'll
use it here, and I think that it's okay. Now. Also,
we will use some things that I wouldn't necessarily recommend sometimes because we feel that
they are the voice of the listener, Like there's times where the listener will
be upset or going through pain and will scream out to God. And I
think that that's a legitimate art form. So as far as kids are concerned,
it's good to listen to what they're listening to, but understand that they
may not receive the music you think in a way that you think they're receiving
it. They may just like the beat. Oftentimes you'll get that they may
just like the way the voice sounds and they're not even hearing the words.
So using that is a kind of a place to start and go, Okay,
what are the words saying and what are they meaning? And what does
the person the kid listening think that they mean. And you'll find that that
you don't always even understand what's going on. It's usually going to come down
to the music, and you have to use that as a guideline as to
whether it's going to affect the child or not. Sean, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show. Hello Jesus. I have a question. My brother in
law is a Christian. He's been a Christian mostly all his life, and
he used to go set up tents all over the world and that and he
changed my life about fifteen years ago. And I used to live in Niagara
Falls in New York and I moved here to Arizona. And I was talking
to him about a month ago because I like keeping in touch with him,
and we talked about the Holy Spirit and just I just get drunken about the
Holy Spirit. I loved talking to him. And he was telling me a
month ago as he was going upstairs to his bedroom that someone tapped on his
shoulders and it was Jesus, and he said, you know, he looked
at him and just started laughing the smuts, and Jesus said to him,
he said, let's go for a walk. I'm going to take you somewhere
and show you some things that's going on in the world right now. It
kind of makes me jealous because I believe in my brother in law so much.
He doesn't lie and he tells the truth. And I believe in Jesus
so much that I wish how come he come to me like that, you
know, in human spirit and sit and talk to me, you know.
And well, it kind of battered me because I'm jealous because I love Jesus
and I believe him are of a sudden, but it's not a thing I
have today is because of him. But don't get into a place of jealousy
that comes from the devil. There's no there's no benefit to covet in that
particular case. And we have kind of a standing rule when it comes to
things experiences Sean. You can't take away from someone's experience because you weren't there,
So I don't want to pull apart his experience. And it's not like
anything was said that was, you know, somehow contrary to scripture. But
for me to appear to somebody is very would be very specific, and it
wouldn't just be random, per se. And the things that are taught can't
be like hidden knowledge like the Gnostics thought, can't be something that is you
know. It's like, now you have information that other people don't that could
be dangerous. But putting aside the apparition, putting aside and trusting that it
is what it is, you say, he's not a liar. The jealousy
issue comes to the forefront that if you get caught up. Christians do this
all the times. They get caught up in what other people's gifts are,
and that is completely worldly. That's of the devil, that has nothing to
do with God and Corinthians. It talks about the varied gifts, the different
gifts, and that if that, you know, if you don't have that
particular gift or you don't have that experience, doesn't mean that you won't have
another one. But while you're focusing on that. If you're lost in that
person's gift, if you're lost in that person's abilities, you're lost in what's
going on in that person's life. You're not receptive to those things that God
has for you. That's where the shape comes in. That's the bummer of
the situation. To be caught up in that state of coveteousness is only going
to keep you from moving and strengthening yourself. Praise God that you are in
the state that you are in, Sean, That's wonderful that this person in
your life helped bring you to the knowledge of Christ, to the power of
this belief system, and to the reality of God becoming man and dying for
your sins. That's huge. There is no other gift greater. Humans get
caught up in the physical, in the now, and in wanting to see
signs and wonders miracles, And I'm telling you the most precious miracle possible is
that God sent me to die on that cross so that you could have life
everlasting. If you receive that gift, there is no gift greater than that,
not even me showing up at the foot of your bed, because coming
and dying for you was the best gift I could possibly give. Mary.
Welcome to the Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus for help in every area of
my life. I really really appreciate all that you do for me every day.
Well, it's nice of you to say you're very welcome. How can
I help you today? Well, Jesus, you said that all men would
know us by our love, the love that we have one for another,
and the love that we show the world. Yes, John thirteen thirty five.
Yes, and Jesus. My concern is that when I tried to talk
to people about you being real and the wonderful things that you want to give
eternal life and your great promises, they associate you with a particular group of
people. Even relatives don't want any part of you because they associate you with
the rage that they're hearing, the political rage and the frenzy, and they
don't feel that that is very loving of us. And it's hard for me
to get past that. And I don't know how to deal with it myself,
because I have friends that are very political in their Christian friends and they
call in an up war. And if I don't, if I'm not careful
I get caught up into that, and then I have a spirit of offense
or an attitude of being angry. And I have literally had to cry out
to you, God, save my heart, save me from being angry or
offended, because I cannot have a relationship with you if I'm against this,
against that, and getting swept up into the frenzy. So how do I
convey to both sides, my non believing friends and my Christian friends that you're
not in the middle of all of this anger and all of this, you
know, just being upset. That's not you. Well, not always the
case. There is a time to be upset. If you remember there in
scripture, I turned over the merchants at the temple, and that was anger.
There was righteous indignation, and there is a time and a place for
anger. There's also Matthew ten thirty four says, think not that I came
to bring peace on earth. I came to bring a sword. There is
going to be times to rise up. Matthew eleven twelve talks about that the
kingdom is since the time of John the Baptist, the Kingdom has suffered violence
and that it's people are trying to take it by force. There is going
to be defense of the kingdom at some times. However, yes, he's
a scie. Saw you'd being angry with religious people, not the sinners.
Though, No, it's true, but in this case you're talking about religious
people that were outside of the flock, but they're angry at political things instead
of being angry at sin in general. Yes, more of an anger over
power. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, the anger you
had was just people being the hatred and the sin that caused people to hate
other people. I'm just trying to figure out how do we show love but
yet it has to be tough sometimes too. Hold on that thought, Mary,
I'll come back with more thoughts on this. We were chatting with Mary.
Mary, you're still there, Yes, thanks for holding my dear.
But I was saying, Jesus say, is you weren't mad at your government,
though you were mad at the religious hypocrites? Right? Correct. There
is the place for anger, But my thing is keeping calm and keeping walking
in love no matter what, to all people. And well, how do
you do that? Because you do see things that are wrong, But at
the same time, I don't, as your example, I don't ever see
you rising up against any type of superpower of your day. You didn't take
Caesar to task, right, there was a specific need to my being here,
though, that's completely different. I was, if you recall that,
And I said this on more than one occasion. There were times where I
said, you can't do anything to me. If I batted my eyes,
there would be a legion of angels here to fight, not to shake hands,
not to high five, but to fight for me if I so willed
it. Also to Pontus Pilot. In the discussion with Ponchous Pilot, he
looked at me and wanting me to shut up, said don't you know that
I can crucify you? And I looked at him and said, don't you
know that that authority comes from me? So there is a battle that goes
on. There's never in the case of John the Baptist, John the Baptist
baptized military men never once saying that they had to leave the military. There
is a purpose to fighting at times. There are times in scriptures where it
says, if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak, buy a
sword, because there's going to be a time there's going to be a necessity
for fight. At times, now what I don't like, Mary that you
brought up. If that's the only thing that's being seen, there has to
be a balance. Yes, it says in John thirteen thirty five that Christians
will be known by their love for one another and even their love for their
enemies. But this kind of, this lukewarm, sappy kind of I'm just
going to smile while someone's pummeling me or pummeling the very foundations of my faith
doesn't help anybody. It doesn't help any You wouldn't do that in your home.
You wouldn't say, come in ravage my home, ravage my family,
harm them, and leave because you don't know any better. There are scriptures
that point out the fact that Christians shouldn't think that non Christians are going to
ask christianly. Why would a non Christian act christianly? It's not their nature,
it's not their care. They don't they don't know better. I know
that sounds incredibly connesset, but I mean that in the most academic sense.
They just don't know. That's not their way of living. So yes,
to force those ideas on people that don't believe that way doesn't make sense.
I agree with you in that sense and say on the show many times that
as Christians, you are called to change hearts, not laws. The laws
will follow, laws will change with the changing of hearts. But that's God
gauges people on their heart. And so the battle goes on, whether it's
abortion or whether it's the churches battling in their eyes the noble quest for some
ideal or whatever it is. That, yes, that can be misconstrued,
and oftentimes even for noble and righteous causes, people consume them and they become
their God. People start worshiping these causes in the Christian rights has done this
at times as well. Get lost in the cause, get lost in the
political fight, get lost in all these things where God means nothing. Now,
now it's about the fight and not the purpose of the fight. That
it's the fight engulfs the individual to where it's not about God anymore. It's
not about what's righteous, it's not about teaching, training, showing loving.
It's about the battle. And then pride dips in and all those things.
But there the two sides to this is one, there are absolutely things that
Christians should fight for. Your ability to worship as you wish, when you
wish in the United states, and to defend when that is being taken away
from you, and then slowly to defend those that are weaker in a way
that glorifies God and shows people the love and consistency of the truth of God,
so that people may learn from it. And all those you know have
a place. But it's not it's not like you just want to be loved.
Well, I just want to be liked. Therefore I'm just only going
to say nice things. I'm never gonna that doesn't help anybody. Correction is
important in life. Doesn't always have to come at the end of a sword,
but correction is important. So the balance here is that Christians should be
should be showing and demonstrating both love and defense when necessary. But the world's
going to point out what it wants to point out. It's going to see
what it wants to see, and it's going to mock what it wants to
mock regardless, and keep that in mind that it's not always going to be
as cut and dry. But I like the spirit from where you come,
Marry, and I think your point is very valid that Christians have to be
aware of their actions and the things they do and not beat up somebody over
the head. Who doesn't who doesn't know, doesn't practice Christianity, doesn't even
understand. But you know I did beat up the religious more than not,
but for everyone's benefit to hear. I appreciate that you took the time to
join me this Sunday, as I hope you do every Sunday. Keep in
mind, more importantly than all the craziness that goes on in the world,
remember these words, I Am with you Always KF I am six forty on demand