You're listening to KFI on demand vern Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hey,
how's it going. It's going well. How can I help you?
Well? I was raised Catholic, My mom was really religious. I was
always an agnostic from an early age. Never very religious or spiritual though,
but I always just kind of lived by the teachings of Jesus. I couldn't
help, you know, it's just who I am. But lately I've been
finding I want to be religious or more spiritual, okay, and I just
can't do it. It's not in me. It's it's like my default is
to just be agnostic or even atheist. I don't know, okay, but
my mom has Alzheimer's and Simon's. That's really what brought it on. Like,
I feel like I need something more because to see here like this,
she was basically a saint, and it's to see this happened to her.
It's just really shaking me up. And I don't I feel like I need
something more, you know. Yeah, that makes sense. Now when you
say religious or spiritual, what does that mean to you? Uh? Just
to have something or fine, I don't know, I just can't do it.
Like, well, atheism is sort of silly. I like that you
come from the standpoint of agnosticism, because atheism it's like kind of you know,
there's no God really exactly. But the agnosticism it comes from. Agnosis
without knowledge means that you just don't know. So what can you know?
Let's look at a few things. What can you know? First of all,
everywhere you look, everything in this world is continued upon something else.
The wood comes from from the tree which came from you know, the acorn
which came from the tree which came you know, and it keeps going back
and back. Everything kind of points to some origin. You look around and
when you see complexity, you don't think that it came from randomness. Complexity
usually comes from a complex mind or something thinking. So if you come across
a book, you don't say, wow, that must have just erote it
into the shape of a book. You'd say, wow, that is a
book that someone created. There's something about this world where when you look at
it, it screams that it was created. Just like if you went to
Mount Rushmore and looked at Mount Rushmore, you'd never say, wow, that
probably is from erosion. The water just happened to make it look like for
presidents. So there are many reasons, really legitimate scientific reasons to believe,
at least in the possibility of a creator. So where's your hang up?
Why does it seem unreasonable to you to believe that there's a god? I
don't like the scientific level. It doesn't bother me. I don't care about
creationism or revolution or any of that. Like, I guess it's a personal
level. I just like lately I'll find like I want to like pray to
God that I'll have to like keep myself from doing it for some reason.
I'm not sure you have to force yourself not to pray. Yeah, you
know what, you're like desperate or like feeling bad, and you like want
to do it. I'll like keep myself from doing it. I'm not sure
why why do I do that? Maybe you feel dishonest because you don't feel
totally connected, and you feel like maybe it's hypocritical, you know, going
to him just when you're in pain. Yeah, something like that. There's
nothing wrong with that, you know. It's Imagine it this way, imagine
you thinking, Wow, you know what I hate hospitals. Can't stand them.
They're cold, They just I don't know something about them. And I
know I broke my arm, but I always stay away from hospitals, so
I'm not going to go in there. I feel hypocritical to go in there
with a broken arm. Well, that's kind of what a hospital's for.
So God is similar that when you call out to him in need, it's
kind of what he does. So it's not hypocritical in that sense. It's
it's as a matter of fact, I hate to break it to you,
but it's quite naturally built into who you are when you were created. It
is you do. You don't need to tell any living creature it has a
mother, even if it's mother's not around, it knows it had a mother,
and that that's why it's there. And you, regardless of where you
land with God, your body knows. Your body was there in so many
ways before you were. It's like it knows God, and it knows God
is there, and it's reaching and calling out to God because it knows.
It knows inherently that God exists. Right, So reach out to God and
see what happens. Just focus on it for a while, think about it,
Maybe read a little scripture something that maybe gives you comfort. There's nothing
wrong with that anymore than if you've got a cup of cocoa for Pete's sakes
and it gave you comfort. So why not try this and pray and ask
God to hear your prayers, ask God to direct your life. It's God
for insight and allow those things. That's all you're doing is just stopping.
You're never going to feel anything. You're never going to experience anything. Not
that it's about just experiencing something, but you'll never ever make that step if
you keep stopping yourself, and then what then You've got nothing. It's been
bringing peace to humans for thousands of years. It's one of the most unexplainable
parts of this faith is the strength and peace that it gives to people.
Doesn't make their lives perfect. Defecation still occurs, brother, I assure you,
and there will be problems always, but it has given people the ability
to peacefully keep their lives together in times of great torment, trial and frustration.
And that's worth something looking into, don't you think? Yep? Yeah?
Now you are living with your mom, yeah yeah, and you're taking
care of your primary caretaker. Yeah, And why do you take care of
your mom? Uh? Pretty much. I'm the only one. Well,
you're a good son, and I think that that goodness comes from somewhere and
it's not going to kill you to explore a little bit and allow yourself the
freedom to do that. So why don't you poke around in a little bit?
Yeah, dabble if you will, and then you give me a callback
with any questions you have if you come across something. All right, all
right, thanks, that's helpful. I would really like to talk to you
again, so I hope you take me up on that. Okay, all
right, Verne, you have a good night. Name. There's oftentimes when
you're searching, there's a frustration, and sometimes when people have been rooted in
a particular way, or they've been frustrated with the faith or maybe even not
even introduced to it very much, that it becomes foreign. And in that
process of frustration or maybe ignorance about the faith, it becomes a feeling of
hypocrisy, like, oh well, now if I, of course, if
I accept it, or if I go into it, I'm just being a
hypocrite. And I don't want to be a hypocrite. So that rebellion sets
in and no one does anything explore, test all things, hold fast that
which is true. Just explore and let it speak to you. Sandra,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you. Uh. My question is
there's so often just this this morning, someone called me. This prayer is
urgently needed, and of course I will pray for this person in their situation.
But I don't know why. I mean, I know that my prayers
are not I don't think they're going to influence God. I don't believe God
is going to say, oh, Sandra has prayed for this, well,
let's let's fix it for her. You know, I can pray for a
guidance, but God's a going to guide people. I can pray for God
to comfort them, my children to heal, but God's already comforting them,
He's already guiding them. So I don't know what the purpose of my prayers
are. Okay, I'm not going to change God's mind. I don't think
no, of course not. There's not It's not some God's not sitting in
heaven going oh my goodness. Okay, Sandra just nailed it. That's that's
really that's helpful. I did not know what to do. That's not the
case. However, there are things a couple things to be learned. One,
if you have children, and sometimes there's things that you can do around
the house that are easier for you to do by yourself, but to share
with them, whether it's cooking, cleaning, working in the garage, gardening,
whatever it might be. Kids tend to make a mess. It takes
longer to do it, but there's something about connecting with them in the process
that is separate and special than the task at hand. And God wants you
to participate. And by conversing with God and spending time with God, it
builds the relationship. So you're not helping God in the sense that God needs
your help. It's easier to do without you, but God loves you so
much he wants you to participate. That's one factor. The second factor is
that and I love using the analogies with parents and children because I think it's
helpful for people to understand God in a parental role at times. But when
you take a child to the grocery store, all they want is the sugar,
cereals and all the garbage, right, and they say, I want
this, I want that, I want this, I want that. Now
think of that as like a prayer the child's praying in front of their parent,
Mommy, daddy, I want this snack, I want this cereal.
That's not so the parent knows what the child wants, so the parent could
give it to them. It's so the parent can use that opportunity to teach
the child what they should be having. So when you pray, even for
someone else, that listening and waiting for God's response is a way of learning
about what God wants, not God learning what you want. So there's the
major difference, and people get caught up in that that what you're doing is
teaching God what you want and or need, And really it's about you say
it so God can either correct it or grant it so that you know that
your once are in line with the will of God. That's what it comes
down to. Learning to be focused on the will of God, Sandra,
that is the key. And there is nothing that's going to be said or
done that's going to change God's mind. Even in scripture where people are praying
and God says, okay, well check and see if there's you know,
ten good people in that land. I want to destroy it. When talking
about Soloman Kamor and it's like, oh, well, so really God was
just looking to have his mind changed. No, God does the things he
does or allows people ask questions, and I did this quite a lot in
scripture as well. You'll see that I will ask questions of people, you
know, whose face is on the coin, things like that. It's not
because I didn't know whose face is on the coin. It's because I wanted
you to think about the process and learn as well. Carolyn, Welcome to
Jesus Christ Show, and thank you for taking my call, my pleasure.
You've been so very patient. How can I help you? My husband is
about to be listening online, so this question is coming from both of us,
okay, and you've helped us in the past several years ago, and
I was just kind of thinking about it in my head and going, I
feel like part of this is one of those things where you go, how
should your yes be your yes? When it seems so difficult at times?
But we've worked so hard to continue to work towards more obedience in you and
with you, and this is a little bit harder. We don't have children
of our own, and we've kind of been surrogate parenting, you know,
everybody else's kids and my family, and we even have a god daughter that
not really a goddaughter that lives with us and her child. But about a
month ago, well it's been about two months now, my husband I told
my nephew that he can work for us on the weekend so he can earn
his money. He's sixteen now, we should just be giving him things.
And wanted to help him, you know, try to find his manhood and
stuff, and you know, incremental ways. And we were planning for a
big fundraiser party that was happening here the house, and I gave him my
credit card to put back in the draw for me, and I had to
tell you, and I did it that day. My head goes, am
I trusting correctly, and I just got you got got to move forward.
At some point in time, and the credit card was missing, and I
knew it was missing. I had thinking my husband had had put it,
so wehe else in the safe. I said, did you can you please
verify it's in the safe. I just hadn't seen him the door, and
you know, time gets away, and neither one of us checked in with
each other, and the bill came in and Wednesday evening we were reviewing it
and as a week a week ago Wednesday, and it turns out there's all
these felonious charges on there. Immediately called a credit card company, and you
know, as I'm looking through it's a thing, I realized there's a charge
close to a seven eleven year who school and I said, oh, my
gosh, I think this is my nephew. And at first I didn't want
to confront my his mom my sister about it because I didn't want to heart
it be upset and uh, you know, you don't want to be too
quick. And and you know, he has a history of stealing. You
know, he's done it as a as a small child, and he's really
yeah, I mean he always has. And they're a divorce they're in a
divorce there. She's a divorce mom. And when he was about turning four,
I think that by thereabouts I had convinced her to move from down to
here in our area, and I said, you know, this is a
pretty great place to raise a family, and we'll be a support to you.
And we've always been that and maybe even to my husband's detriment, you
know, and that I've had to yield has taken me many, many,
many, many moons to yield to your command to be beat it to my
family first and my husband first. I've taken way more than I should have
with him. And my husband's been a great husband to me, and he's
miniatures and he's minister to me. To do the right thing and to abide
by him. It sounds like it sounds like you guys got good heads on
your shoulders. What what what question do you have for me? Well,
he now the credit card charges that we know are his, I asked her.
She did some research for me. She went into its room and found
some receipts, so no, definitely belongs to him, and I have to
do a written report. And I think she kind of hinted to me that
she's afraid of that because they're going to take it out of her and she's
you know, title money and all that, and I just in my head,
I kind of let it go, and I talked to her. My
husband has told him, you know, look, I know God's going to
provide for the right thing. We just we got to continue to do the
right thing here and not acquiesce. Our concern is how do we love on
him, how do we not abandon him? How do we continue to nurture
him. But my husband said something very profound the every day and it kind
of blew me away. He says, you know, it's not that we
haven't been there for him. It said, because it seems like we haven't
had a partnership with her completely to get this to the right place. And
he goes and I don't want him in our home. And at first that
was really hard for me, but I realized, you know, our god
daughter deserves the right to be safe, and our god grandson serves the right
to feel safe, you know, and taking things kind of it impacts that
everybody's you know, vulnerability in your home. So I'm kind of there,
you know, finally. You know, so you're thinking about kicking the sixteen
year old out of the house. Well, my husband says that he's not
allowed in our home anymore. Okay, So they don't live with you,
or they don't know theyn't they live in a nearby city, which is you
know, kind of cool that, you know. Okay, Well, setting
boundaries is a wonderful thing. But the child obviously has entitlement issues and probably
because you know, many things have been taken from him, and he feels
like he's missing out, and unfortunately a lot of young people tend to have
those attitudes. But in his life situation, from what you're describing, he
has a pretty gross expectation of what life should be giving him. Have you
have you guys sat down and talked with him face to face about this.
We haven't had a face to face. My husband had an initial conversation with
him, and finally, just for the first time, a day or so
ago, I had said to my sister, you know, your son hasn't
called and apologized to me, you know, to me personally, and so
she goes and she just got quiet. And then he called back about thirty
minutes later and apologized. And what was his reasoning, what did he say?
Didn't tell me reasoning. I don't know if he told my husband or
not becaue that mentioned, But when I talked to my sister that day,
he told me. He told my sister that he was mad at me because
I decided not to pay him that day, and I had discussed it with
my husband that we shouldn't pay him every time he comes that weekend. We
should try to teach him how people get paid, like an art We have
a small business. You know, we pay on the first and the sixteenth,
so that he would learn to wait like most adults have to do for
paychecks. So he was going to get paid for that day's work, just
not on that day, correct, Okay, And so that apparently that's what
he told her, is that he was upset because he didn't get paid that
day. Well, that's not a way to deal with it, now,
is it. No? No, Well, I still think that that it
would have been better rather than oh well, he talked to him, and
then I talked to I think that you guys share this card. You were
sharing the responsibility, and you both should have sat down with him face to
face, not over the phone, and said we we know you took the
card, and we know that you used you charged things. How much did
he ring up on it? Just under one thousand dollars? Under one thousand
dollars? Did Was he expecting a thousand dollars worth of payment for the job
that he did that day? Oh there's no way, there's no way that
that's that's beyond him, you know, in a sense of entitlement. That
shows you how much he thinks he's worth and how much he doesn't think you,
guys are worth I would say that you need to sit down with him
face to face and say we knew about these charges, we love you and
and but love doesn't always come, you know, with hugs and kisses.
Sometimes there's there's love that needs to be tough to teach. And so there's
going to be different ground rules about you being in our home and being around
our store, or about the business or any of these things that that he's
going to have to show himself accountable again before you guys trust him with certain
things, and he's going to have to realize that. But to say he's
not coming an easier nephew to say he's not coming around your home. If
you guys are the best influence for him, why wouldn't you want him to
be around you guys's influence now? Is it more work for you? Yes?
Yeah, yeah, it means you're gonna have to lock stuff up and
you're gonna have to not let him be alone in the house. But to
to not have him come around seems like now he's missing out on the benefit
of who the two of you are in his life and can be thanks.
You know, doesn't that seem like I mean it's the easiest way to do
it. Yeah, but there are wounds that need to be bandaged, and
there are wounds that need to be amputated. Correct, And you amputate only
when you're trying to protect the rest of the body, right, correct.
And I understand that that's the desire, and as a man, it makes
sense that your husband goes to that, Hey, I need to protect the
rest of the household period. That is the smart attitude to have Initially.
However, I think that the balance in all things that with the two of
you coming together, you should look and say, how can we mend this
in a way that we still protect ourselves And that means build boundaries, lock
things up, have the visits, be quite specific in what you do and
how you interact, and it means more work on your end when he's around.
Never leave him in charge of these things at this point in time and
see if he grows through it. If not, then he has mental issues.
He has issues dealing with stealing and these types of things that need to
be taken to another level, and you need to get professional help. Great,
thank you so much, You're welcome, But it sounds like you guys
have such a loving heart and are really trying to impart that to him,
which is worth more than the thousand dollars for sure, But no one needs
to go through through that. And as far as as going through the regular
process, absolutely you have to with whatever consequences come. You can't protect the
daughter in this case and teach the son because all you'll teach him is that
there's gone there. If you do it right, there's always going to be
a way out. The consequences can be dodged. So unfortunately, you have
to make sure that you file the paperwork and that you bring in law enforcement
and that you do it right. I know that that might affect your daughter
and that stinks, but she needs to be accountable for this as well.
This is her child, and she's got a child who's got issues. She's
not going to take care of it if mom and dad are always stepping in
and this this is one of those ugly parts of family dynamics that sometimes people
grow through these things and go through a shoplifting stage or do things. It's
never okay, but sometimes you can see that it's in a stage and they
pass through it and they're going to go through it, and it's going to
be fine, and then there's other times where there's other issues. The fact
that he justified it, I'm proud that he said why yeah, I don't
know, but he actually said, well, you know, I was mad.
I think that gives you something to work with. And you can go
back and say, you know what I thought about that, And maybe we
didn't explain well enough as to what the process is, but you're going to
have to learn this because you can't keep stealing from a company who's waiting to
pay you every two weeks. That's the way many people get paid. Some
people get paid once a month, depending on their job. So you said
we were trying to teach you and wanted to make sure, and I want
to make that clear that's what we were doing. We weren't trying to skip
out on paying you. We would never do that because that is improper.
But it's improper for you to go and to take this money when we showed
you trust to do so. And so now we love you and that doesn't
change. However, the trust issue is different, and we need to work
back towards that earning that trust and if you want to do it, we
want to do it. If he says no, well you should trust me
just because or any of that. Say, then you let us know when
you're ready to come back into our lives with the structure that we're going to
set out. So that's going to be the final test to see where this
boy is. Dave, welcome to Jesus Christ. Show yes, I'm in
linkl, Nebraska and make this real quick here and we'll welcome down here.
Sure. Actually, with all my heart, I wish I really could speak
to Christ himself on the phone. But don't we all have that capability?
Well, yeah, maybe you need a new plan. Right. My question
is we all know that there is a war in heaven. There's fallen angels
and angels war going on. And my question is what do you think about
And I'm thinking their future falling angels visiting Earth with new technologies and and like
what kind of new technology how would that change? Probably energy, different things
that will be able to make the world better, having peace seemingly come to
mankind and basically deceiving people into believing that they should believe in them instead of
oh you you think the mask reading is like extraterrestrials and like, well,
there's places in the Bible and Genesis that talk about all angels visiting the earth.
You mean Genesis, uh, when you're talking about the Yeah, the
Nephlom And Okay, well there's there's arguments as to who that is and if
it's angels or not because of the context might lend to a different understanding.
So that that that lends itself to interpretation because it talks about procreating and Matthew
talks about how angels are not married nor given in marriage, that they don't
have they don't have sexuality, So there are either possessing humans uh and using
their bodies to procreate, but angels do not procreate, so there couldn't be
like half man half angels, as some theorize with the Nephilim. But having
said that, I will say that that technology is not needed. There are
people that are have been visited by both good and bad angels throughout scripture,
and there's no reason to believe that that's any different today. So people can
be visited by angels both good and bad. And it says that even the
devil himself can mask great as an angel of light. So there are those
that are counterfeit that try and come and appear to be one thing or the
other to people to distract them. The key in all of this, Dave,
and this goes with any of these people say they have apparitions, or
they have dreams, or they were taken up in a spaceship or all you've
got to do. And this was a question that I said over and over
and over and over and over in scripture, who do you say that I
am? And the answer to that is what's important. And really, if
you come across anything supernatural in life, if it steers you down any path
and says that there's a new Testament in addition to the Old and New Testament,
or that there's new words, or that God has something new to say,
or that God what was said in scripture is wrong, or we're going
down this new path that were chainanging out things. Any of that that is
not of God. So you check it against Scripture to know where it's from.
And if it's not of God, then it's not worthy of your time.
Remember, more importantly than all this craziness going on during the week,
spend time with your families and remember these words, I Am with you always.
Kfi Am six forty on demand