You're listening to KFI on demand. Mike. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hi Jesus, Hi Mike, thank you, love the show. And
my question is, how do I truly come to know and believe you.
I was raised a Christian. I've tried and I've studied. I've tried many
times in my life. Maybe I just haven't tried hard enough. But I
have friends that I can see it in them. You know, they truly
believe it, They truly know you. And a big reason why I'm asking
is that I read a book called A Strong Father Strong Daughters once or twice
a year, and she really emphasizes that to be a good father, you
truly need to know God and your daughter needs to know that. And that's
my question to you, Jesus. Well, really that it's about application.
There's a in logic. They these fancy terms for it, but I'm going
to try and make it as simple as possible. And that's if you have
a pencil in front of you, Mike, you can look at it and
you can go that's a pencil for that's a writing utensil. And that's the
first form of knowledge. The second form of knowledge would be accepting that a
pencil is something you write with. So as the first now the second form,
the third form is actually picking up the pencil and writing with it.
If you don't pick up the pencil and write with it, it doesn't matter
if it's a com quat or if it's a pencil, right, because you're
not using it. And therefore the application is really what gives validity to the
pencil and makes it worth anything as a pencil is using it. And it's
the same with your faith. You can say all you want, you can
even read scripture, but if you're not applying it to your life where other
people can see it, then it doesn't have the value and it doesn't become
real. And the author's absolutely right that if you're not knowing, truly having
a relationship with God, people will know. I know the difference if you're
just kind of walking through it, and it's like any other relationship. Thankfully,
you have to spend time uh and do things that will uh, you
know, strengthen and encourage you in that relationship. You'll have to be alone,
you'll have to h to continue to explore and to learn, and all
those things are what you do in every other relationship in your life? Where
do you find the biggest struggle is for you, Mike, I guess to
answer, and honestly, I guess you put I put barriers if I wanted
to answer, well, I prefer that you do if you if if my
vote counts, I always prefer honesty. Yeah, I work hard, I
do good things, and but I guess I do well. You know why
people talk about working hard and being a good person because it's much much,
much easier to do than having a real relationship with God. And I know
the world values those things and they're good things. God values those things as
well. But those things are similar to looking at the pencil and acknowledging it's
a pencil. It's not the application that people assumes it assume. It is
really the part that a lot of people miss. And I don't blame you.
It's a difficult part to do that people throw around. Oh, you've
got to have a personal relationship with Jesus and you have to have a relationship
with God. It's one of the reasons why we do this show is because
that is the most difficult thing to truly explore and actualise in your life.
And Christians say it all the time, but they don't even know what they're
really saying sometimes what it means and having to apply that to your life is
going to be differenticult. It's it's very easy. It's like, you know
Christians that are so politically involved, and it's not that politics are bad,
but I oftentimes I feel like they're trying to change laws because it's much easier
than changing a heart. And really you're called to change hearts in life and
not laws. But it's easier to get on a soapbox than it is to
really affect somebody's life with true change by sharing the Gospel with them. So
it's easier for you to work hard. It's easier for you to do good
things in those rabbit of your quotes than it is to find a way to
make God a part of your life that's truly tangible. So it's difficult.
M hm. So welcome to the rest of Christianity, my friend. So
now to start with you, I mean, how do you deal with every
relationship one you you had to preface with honesty? What kind of world is
that that you have to preface saying what I'm going to say now is honest.
Everything else was garbage. But what I'm going to say now is honest,
So you have to it humors me that people feel in Scripture it says,
let your yes mean yes, and you no mean no. That's it.
Well, and I know that it becomes kind of just you know,
vernacular or wordsmithing. People say to be honest with you, or can I
be honest? I get that. But to prove a point, think of
it this way. I want you to stand before God, nake it truly
emotionally and think about everything you've done or things that you want to do,
or all these things that you want to be, places you want to grow,
goals that you have everything, and give them to God and focus on
something and say, God, I want to work on this with you.
Just like with your child. When you think about doing something with your child,
whether it's baking in the kitchen or working in the garage, it's a
whole heck of a lot easier doing it without them. I mean, they
get messy, they may not do things right. You got to correct them
all the time. It may take a lot longer to to build whatever you're
building in the garage, or to bake whatever you're baking in the kitchen by
yourself. And it's much easier for God to do all this by himself.
Trust me, he doesn't need humans helping him out. However, he loves
you so much he wants you to be with him. So you got to
participate in things that you think, oh, well, God's going to take
care of that, because God wants you to be a part of the process.
So when you set goals, you stand before God in humility and you
say, these are the things I want to do in life. These are
my real goals. These are the ones that are so precious to me.
I'm scared of them. I want your help. I want and I'm gonna
read Scripture, God's love letter man and let it speak to you. Pray
over these things and really actualize God in your life rather than just saying,
well, I go to church sometimes and I do read and I love God
and all those things are great, and that's enough for the kingdom. But
really it's not enough to experience all that God has for you on this earth.
And it's it's you know, how do how do I get married?
Well, first you find a partner, Second, you fall in love with
said partner, Third you get married. It sounds simple, but really there's
much more to it. Right, You have to find somebody you connect with.
Absolutely hard. Yeah, well you know people say that, but really
technically it's not. It's hard to be unselfish is the problem. Marriage is
easy. What's difficult is uh is being unselfish. People are selfish by nature,
and it's hard for them to give when all they want to do is
receive, and that that makes marriage difficult. But really, two people in
the house, two people working together, two people building something always easier.
What happens is when those two people don't want to agree on things, and
those two people only care about themselves, that makes it difficult. Like imagine
trying to move table easier with two people, but not when two people want
to move it in two different directions. So it's again, it has to
do with where you sit yourself in that relationship and with God. You got
to start the relationship, and that means spending time. If you don't spend
time with your wife, if you don't spend time with your kids, you
won't have a relationship. You won't spend time with friends, you won't have
a relationship. That's why you know, people get married, they tend not
to have relationships because they think, oh, I can't juggle all this.
Now you have to put time into it, put time into God, and
you'll see that experience becoming more fruitful in your life. But you got to
make it real and you got to participate it in the same way you do
every other relationship. It's a little different. You can't see him. He's
not going to come over and watch the game necessarily. But when you do
watch the game, or you are working in the garage or in the kitchen,
or you are mowing the lawn, or you're going for a walk,
bring me with you, you know, think of you go, I'm just
gonna I'm gonna open up scripture today and I want to pick a verse and
I'm going to read that verse, or I'm going to read that chapter preferably,
and then I'm going on my walk because I want to know what this,
I want to think about this, or you know what. I want
to read a verse and then I'm going to watch the game and I want
to see if that verse ties into the game at all, or if ties
into my life at all. Make it be a part of your life.
That's the only way to really make it tangible and real, not just the
surface stuff I believe and all that. That's good and that gets you to
a certain point, but it won't, you know, it won't make it
truly fruitful. And my fear is that people spend all the time preparing for
the wedding and none of the time preparing for the marriage. And it's the
same with God. People have these great experiences and religious epiphanies and then they
come to God and they're they're enthralled with it and they get saved and all
the emotion is there and then well, now what And I want you.
I want you to participate, and I want to be in your life that
way, Mike, And I know that it can happen because you wouldn't have
been You wouldn't have been strong enough to call if you weren't somebody who cared
and really wanted to make that change. Carrie, Welcome to the Jesus Christio.
Hello Jesus, hi hi. I have a question. It's regarding Second
Corinthians five ten. I know that that Jesus he died for all of us,
and we've been sankified, and it's nothing we can do to for our
salvation. Jesus did it all in the Cross, and I believe that.
But the five to ten where it says four we must all appear before the
judgment set of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for
the things done. While in the body where that I need to understand that
a little bit more. Okay, sure, think of it this way.
And there are differences when people talk about judgment day and going on there at
the Beama seat or the throne of God and judgment. So I want to
give you a general idea that might help, and that is when you hear
about someone going to court, you hear about the original arraignment and all of
that that takes place, and then you hear about the essentially the punishment,
so you have the judgment is the first part and then the punishment comes second.
Right, Yes, well, similarly that everyone has to be judged because
that's righteous. Everyone has to be be judged. That is the right thing
to do. However, the in the putative stage or in the judgment stage,
is when I intercede for you and I step in, and at that
point is where the the payment is made. Although it was done on the
cross Us two thousand years ago. That's when it's, for lack of a
better term, cashed in. So imagine it this way, that if you're
going to court and you're going with your father, and your father says,
don't worry, I'm going to stand next to you. I know what you
did was wrong, but I also know that you learned from it, that
we've had this conversation. I know that the fine is going to be a
thousand dollars, one thousand dollars, and I'm going to be there to take
care of that. You go in, you receive the judgment, you receive
the penalty, and the penalty is one thousand dollars, and then your father
comes in and pays one thousand dollars. The process of judgment is still a
noble one and still part of being just, and God is a just God,
so everyone will still have to be judged in that sense. The difference
will be that the that those that have come to Christ I will be standing
with as your attorney, if you will, and making the case and making
the payment. And therefore it still has to It's not like God waives it
any more than a judge knowing that his son has learned something, or the
father who knows that his son has learned something or any of these things,
wouldn't want you to go through the process because the process is important to the
understanding of what's right and what's not right as well. So it all kind
of goes together, but it doesn't mean that they're there. The punishment is
going to be put in there because the punishment was taken on by me.
So that's why there's still a judgment phase. But as far as the the
actualized phase of being punished is consumed by me. For those who are saved,
Stan, welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you very much for
speaking with me. My pleasure. How can I help you? I'm in
turmoil. I have a conundrum in my perception and understanding of your father and
our father and the way I was taught as a child, going through confirmation,
reading the Bible and questioning the clergy as to what I read, and
it's the concern is a diabet, our diap complete opposite perception of how God
is described as I read the Bible in one passage and all loving, all
knowing, all seeing, God that wishes love for us to become a member
of his flock. Another passage, a vengeful, wrathful, hateful, jealous
God who lays waste to his enemies, and who we must fear so many
sermons of you know, fearing the wrath of God if we don't do as
we're instructed and taught. And I find those two theologies diametrically opposed to each
other. All can and all knowing, all seeing, all loving God suffer
from the same frailties I perceive as negative frailties a man, hate, lost,
jealousy, fear, and yet at the same time be all knowing and
all loving. And I've never been able to rectify those two concepts. And
clergy I spoke to as going through my confirmation classes, all they would do
is get defensive, upset and attacking. Is everything but a heretic for daring
to question the mind of God. Yeah, I don't question the mind of
God. I questioned the description of God in which God is He? Do
I have to fear and worships an entity that that I see as less than
God? Like with all these human frailties and emotions that we try to strive
to get rid of and to control in our lives, it's frustrated when God
creates you with a brain, and then the church says, what do you
mind hanging that on the outside of the door. Yeah, exactly, I
know. And that's and that's not the church. I say the church for
understanding, but really it's individuals within the church, just like anywhere else.
And it's unfortunate because because those questions that you have are legitimate, and Scripture
says to test all things, hold fast to that which is good, and
there's no way of doing that without putting God in that equation some way.
Now, what I'm not saying is to test God, or am I saying
that once you have an understanding of God, that you should sit there and
question the authority of God, or the purpose of God, or the direction
of God, or the will of God, any of these things. So
when you look at God, unfortunately people tend to make God a bigger them.
It's like, well, God, yeah, that's good, that's what
just seems to decide that, well, he's nothing more than a ma with
you know, ultimate power, and yet all the frailties and weaknesses, which
makes no sense. Okay, So applying terms can be a problem here.
So let's look at applying terms. Is it sad when if you hear that
somebody has lost their sight, they're now blind on the surface. Yet yeah,
on the surface, it's normal to say, oh, that's a privation.
Yes, it's something that they should have and they lost it, and
that's sad. But if I said that the rock is without sight, that's
not sad, right, because the rock doesn't have sight, never had sight,
it's not sighted. It's completely different to say a rock is without sight
and a human is without sight. Yet it's the same term. So applying
applying it differently, the term becomes different. And a lot of people don't
understand that with God, that the term like jealous. For human it's a
sin and it's wrong. However, for God it's not. Because God read
it all things everything does belong to God. Therefore the improper usage or representation
of those things, it's right and just for God to get jealous, but
not for anyone else. So can't you can't apply the human term to God
and say, okay, God is now falling into the category that God himself
says, you shouldn't be jealous or love is patient, love is kind,
It is not a boastful, it is not jealous, and you start going
down these things and you're saying, well, one scripture says this, and
one scripture says that. No, the same way I can say that,
Stan, if you walk into your house and you take your CD collection and
you take it somewhere else, that's okay for you to do. But if
someone else you don't know comes and does that, it's stealing. It's the
exact same act on the exact same product, in the exact same home.
The difference is possession and ownership. You don't have ownership over another person,
not a wife, not a child, nothing God does. God has ownership
over all of it. Therefore, jealousy is just for God and different than
how you experience it. And this goes across the board for all those things
that you say about God. Another healthy way to look at scripture is that
if you're reading scripture from beginning, middle, and end, and people start
and what is referred to as the Old Testament, and you open that up
and you see, Gosh, this is a vengeful God, and on all
these things, how can I worship a God that's filled with hate? God
is not filled with hate anymore than if you watch the upbringing of a child
and the way a parent deals with that child when they're young. They may
swat the behind, they may be sterned, they may give them time out,
they may do all kinds of things that they don't do when they're twelve
or thirteen or sixteen, or as they go into adolescence, and then the
relationship changes when they're an adult. And if you have children, your relationship
with your children when they're three is different when they're thirty, and that's on
purpose and healthy. So if you look at scripture as really being the life
of one child, which is the Earth, growing with the parent, which
is God, that it makes more sense. And you see God going through
with the birth of creation and having to punish creation or to teach creation a
better understanding of why they're here and their purpose and how to interact with one
another, and then the loving side of things at the adulthood of creation understanding
and now concerning themselves with having a better relationship with God by way of salvation.
So if you look at it that way, it makes more sense.
And it's not so you know, schizophrenic. You know, I'm this God,
I'm that God. They're all in context appropriate for God. They're not
appropriate for you and you brought up fear, Stan, what's something that you're
fearful of? Now? Well, retribution? If I don't as the church
at the time I was in it at that age, you know, the
fire and brinsome. You have to think and fall in line to this philosophical
line, and if you don't, you end up in hell. You you
you know, suffer dation. Okay, you know these all these that's worthy
of fear. Yeah, okay. Now, now something not in the spiritual
realm, but something in the physical realm. What are you afraid of on
earth, non spiritual context. Well, life in general is fought fraught with
all its sharp corners, fears controlling mostly my emotions and making sure that I'm
trying to live the best life I can, okay, and following the good
that I see in philosophy and in your teachings, and of course as a
man, I cannot reach that level, not at the physical in my belief,
but I can a stride to it. Okay. So you're fearful my
perception of what God wants me to do? Okay. So you're fearful of
consequences of life. The very act of living causes the possibility of dying.
So the life itself brings its own eyebrow, raising concerns because there's consequences now
the fear, people try and water it down. I hear pastors say,
oh, well, it's a reverence that's using where no. Scripture is pretty
clear the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Now, people say,
but a loving God. Do you fear loving God? Yes, because
he's God. The very notion of a supreme being, the uncreated creator of
all creation, deserves your fear more than anything else. People are feel that
us a well, people feel that fear is worthy of a psychopath but not
God. But then they say, well, a psychopath will hurt you because
they're they're erratic. But God, it's not about the pain, it's about
the consequence of the rejection. Uh, look at it more this way.
You are not fearful of water, but you're so fearful of water that you
intake it every day, knowing that without it you would die. But you
don't think of water as being something you fear. But really your actions every
day show the contrary that if you you are so fearful that you're regimented in
your consumption of water, because if you didn't take it, you die.
So it's more along the lines of being fearful of the absence of God.
Not the retribution, but the absence of the very presence of the creator that
keeps everything in tune. And people see it as I'm supposed to fear God
because of Hell. No, Hell is a place that you choose to go,
not a place that God sends you. Stan if you reject God on
earth for however long you're here sixty seventy eighty ninety measley years, then God
does not force you to be with him for all of eternity. That is
what hell is. It's a place where God's salvation is not. And so
it's the equivalent of you rejecting that water and saying I hate water. I
hate the taste of it. It's bland, I don't like it, and
then you're put in a desert forever and you go, wow, I need
to have water. That's where the fear comes from. It's an understanding of
the true power and nature of God, not the consequence of God, but
the consequence of your rejection of God. That's not punishment as much as it
is a re a real consequence you put your hand over a flame, stand,
you will get burned. That is the consequence. It's not a punishment,
it's the reality. It's the it's the real reaction to the flame upon
your flesh. Now, if you don't fear that fire, that makes you
a fool, because that fire has inherent value and properties that can be damaging
to you when misused or misunderstood. That's the same as God and people.
It gets very easy stand for people to to go, oh, and I'm
just gonna reject this because the church says this, and it's just to scare
you. That's that's silly saying. The fire department doesn't want you playing with
matches, and they come up with this big story about people dying every year,
and this big story about people losing property and acre and acres of land,
and it's just this silly, silly horror story just to keep you from
playing with matches. No, they're telling you the consequence, the very real
consequence of not having respect for fire regardless. It's not about keeping you in
lockstep. It's about you understanding the reality so that you make the best choice
possible with the most information. That's all God wants you to have. All
the information about the real consequences both in life, in the physical and in
life in the spiritual and in the afterlife, and so that you can make
the best and most educated decision, so that when you reject or accept God,
it's real. If you accept God, it's with the real desire to
get to know God, to have true faith and in her action and relationship
with God. Or if you reject him, it's based on knowing and saying
I don't want this, it's not for me. But there's consequences. Gravity
doesn't just affect those that believe in gravity. It affects everyone. Quickly,
John, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning, Hi there,
How can I help you question about Christians correcting non Christians? And there be
silence on that matter. I was curious to where that was presence in the
Bible. I was speaking about First Corinthians, Chapter five, verse twelve,
and thirteen. It says, for what have I to do with the judgment
of outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church, but
those who are outside? God judges remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
And really the context here is a powerful one. It's like if you go
to and drive on the Autobahn, there is no speed limit the same way
you know them in the United States, but you wouldn't tell them they can't
because they're bound by totally different laws than you are. If you're not a
Christian, you're not bound by Christian laws. So to sit there and judge
the non Christian is purposeless. The laws of Christianity should be used in the
church, and unfortunately they're not. Christians aren't judging Christians enough, which is
the purpose. And this whole verse says to judge those that are in the
church, clean up the church, clean up your family. But what the
church tends to want to do is judge everyone else who's not bound by Christianity
because they're not Christians. They may be bound by the laws of God in
the big sense because God created it all, but as far as Christians,
they're not bound by it. It's like trying to make someone outside of the
United States be bound by the Constitute. It is not their laws. And
Christians tend to do that. And in Scripture First Corinthians five twelve and thirteen,
it's really pointing out that don't get wrapped up in judging those the non
believe of the outsider, because God is judging them. Deal with judging those
inside the church. To clean up the church and purify the church to the
best of your ability. Okay, And on that note, I've been a
Christian all my life where I've been in the church, and I'm a believer,
I'll say that. And I'm just now trying to really live the way
God wants me to live. I have other people in my family and they're
always judging they say they're Christian. Also not for me to say whether they
are or not them in God, but and also in the public view where
Christians are bringing down people and I won't go to for this sin or that
sin, and so on that note, also are they judging non Christians?
And how is that explained? Well, in the sense I'm not sure exactly
what you're saying, in the sense that you can you can judge the non
believer to the point where you're trying to share the Gospel with them, because
otherwise you would never be able to start a conversation. But in what context
you feel that they're judging the non believer. Well, I'll go to specific
as far as a portunate homosexuality, that type of struct you a few that
kind of thing. Yeah, that can fall into it as well, But
depending on if they're judging them based on American law as well, because they
can say, hey, they can be judging that based on a law,
a particular law, whether that law is righteous or not. They can make
notes or statements about those things as well. But again to if there was
somebody who's a non believer, whether they're homosexual, or whether they're having abortions
or whatever, they can have a say, a personal thought about it.
You can't judge them in the same sense in the same way because they're not
bound by it. Now, if a Christian is running around having abortion,
maybe that's a different subject. But that the argument get people get caught up.
It's really more about Christians wanting to form everybody, not even about their
salvation. I think that it really falls on the fact that Christians want everybody
to be like them so they're more comfortable with their own tribe. And that's
not what the gospel's about. Because even if you read through the epistles,
there were things that were going on within the church that people were still wrestling
with, and I think that that's a really powerful statement as to what goes
on, especially in the United States, where the assumption is that everyone who's
a Christian is an American or everyone who's an Americans a Christian, and neither
of those statements are true. And that's a tribal thing, that's not a
Christian thing. All right. I know that it's a new year and there's
a lot of craziness going on, but remember these simple words. I am
with you always. KFI A six on demand