It's happy to be with you this Sunday, as I'm with you every single
Sunday right here, answering your questions and talking about the things that truly matter
in life and of course the afterlife. I encourage to be bold and brave
and go to the phone with your theology question or life situation question anywhere in
the US of a dial eight hundred five two zero one five three four.
That's eight hundred five two zero one five three four. Also, if you
miss any of the show and you want to listen back on demand, you
can do that on the iHeartRadio app. Not only that, there are plenty
of other podcasts that you might like that are in the category of apologetics,
which is the defense of an idea, and if you look for them defending
the things of God, you can find some nice stuff out there. So
again iHeart Radio app, you can find this program after we're off the air,
listen to it. If you'll miss some of it, go into church
or something like that. You can get the rest of it by just looking
up the Jesus Christ Show on the iHeart Radio App. Okay, let's get
to some phones. I'd love to hear what's going on with you. Let's
talk to Randy. Randy, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hey,
good morning, Jesus. Hi Randy, thanks for this beautiful day in East
Tennessee today. Oh amen, Amen, let's all wanted to ask you.
I'm sorry dealing with anger sometimes I get angry, you know, just watching
the news, I'll make make you angry. Smith's little stuff, no big
deal or anything, but it brought me. I wanted to ask you when
it looked like you got angry when you had to chase those money changers out
of the temple at time. Sure, you had to, you know,
pretty much run him out there. And I just, I guess my basic
question is when is it okay to be angry? What's the line I know,
righteous indignation. You know people have brought that up to me in the
past, and I said, well, if Jesus got mad at those guys,
I'm sure he had a good reason for it. Absolutely, And that's
a great question because people wonder often Randy, as to what's the difference.
Just first and foremost understand this that for every good thing, the enemy has
a perversion of it. So anger, righteous anger is legitimate when it passes
to rage, it becomes a sin. So even in Ephesians for twenty six
it says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun
go down on your anger. You know, a lot of things that you
hear in movies or scripts or songs come from scripture. They may modify them,
but that's what people, that's the origins of don't go to bed angry,
you know, always, don't leave things in that state. Don't let
the sun go down on anger. So, really, when you're talking about
what's going on. In Matthew twenty one, twelve and thirteen, it says,
and Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in
the temple, and he overturned the tables of money changers and the seats of
those who sold pigeons. These were often used for different types of religious ceremonies.
He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called
a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. These
situations do show anger, but it is not. It is for the proper
reason. The motivation was being angry for the right reasons. It wasn't from
petty arguments. It wasn't from a personal you know, somebody offended or bothered
him. There was nothing selfish about it. It was focused on the importance
of the temple, not the importance of me. So that is very powerful
to understand the focus and that it wasn't It was focused on the people's weaknesses,
that they were allowing money to rule them rather than their faith. So
you have to ask yourself when you get mad, Randy, why is it
you say you hear the news. Is it because you think something's not being
done properly, or think nobody cares about the country or your community. I
think that it's kind of like what you said in that scripture, Jesus.
I look at our government and the way that people in power are and even
though maybe like our modern Pharisees, and I think to myself, you din
of robbers, you din of thieves, and it really upsets me. I
know, we're talking about a religious temple and the Lord's House and everything,
but you know, I'm a real patriotic American, and when I see that
it looks like our country isn't doing as good as it should be, it
makes me think I wish Jesus would come in here with a big, heavy
chord and maybe knock their tables over to you. Well, I understand that
there is passion in those things, but they're also not the things of God.
In God's view, all power comes from God, even misused power.
There's no such thing as power that exists outside of God. And even in
Scripture when it talks about appreciating the kings or the leaders, even if you
don't agree with them, is part of the gig too, because all power
comes from God. Now you, as an American, you are guided by
the Constitution. As a Christian, you're guided by the Bible. But they're
not the same thing. And there are freedoms, for instance, there are
all kinds of freedoms in the United States that should be there based on the
principle of the Constitution, but wouldn't be there based on Scripture. And I
know it's easy for American Christians to look around and say this should go this
way or this should go that way, But really, would you want it
if it was a different faith? Right? Yes, absolutely? And I
guess I don't know. I guess I just always thought, deep down,
Jesus, you're an American. I know that's the problem is people have that
thought and that's not the truth. Yes, sir, Yes, these knuckleheads
that cut me off in traffic, I'll try. I thank you for your
call, Randy. That is a legitimate concern, of course, people riling
you up or getting you in that mode. But I want to remind you
that you have control over these things, and you are a You are an
ambassador for God. It's not always the way someone else acts. It's important
for you to act in a way that shows the love of God. Especially
you got bumper sticker or something like that that profess your faith. Then you
drive the way you think you should drive, and you give the wave regardless,
because oftentimes when people get upset on roads and get road rage, that's
pride. You didn't see me, you don't care about me. You think
I don't exist. Well, I'll show you I exist. It's about people
wanting to be seen and that just comes from pride. And I know that
it's hard to keep that in check. But you're called to be a person
of faith wherever you are. God came to save the world, not the
United States. And I think that there's a mass confusion that I am the
God of the USA, and that's it, and that's not the truth.
There's a lot of people that have it much much, much worse. They
can't even express their faith in any way, shape or form. And what
I call you to is to be an example so that people will ask you,
how do you know what I saw? That guy cut you off.
Yeah, I saw the look on your face and it was a look of
peace. And I'm just curious about that. And you say, well,
I'm working with God to get me through these things. And in that you
show yourself, and in that you give an opportunity to witness to somebody about
who you are and why and what God has done for me for you.
But if you get angry, you start turning over to tables in the temple,
and it's not a table and it's not in a temple, and it's
just because somebody did something to you and you weren't hurt or anything like that.
Then it's just pride. I'd like to talk to Steve now. Steve,
welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you Jesus as the creator and
source of all wisdom. I only have my historical perspective of my time and
my life here. It seems to me that the explosion of of nehalism and
narcissism. You know, that's that phrase that you know, they think of
themselves as gods. You speak of the fear of God, and I believe
it is the fear of God that are that are pushing the evil doers and
the purveyors of evil. They don't fear God in the positive sense. They
fear that there is a higher power than themselves and they're they're scared of that,
and so they people act as if they are their own power. They
are there the source of wisdom, their own wisdom. It leads them to
not follow the you know, the laws of the land and the laws of
the Lord, and it's just it's downhill from there, whether it be smashing
grabs or the mob mentality, or the rejection of things that have made society
work. And you have seen the foibles of man since Adam and Eve,
and you know, it's just astounding to me that the Lord is able to
keep a positive attitude when he sees his creation just descend into chaos. And
there's been periods of history since then. You know. I had a very
old friend at one time and he's past now, and I asked him,
I said, you know, you've been around since before World War two and
all the way up. And I said, do you feel that the the
people of Earth, or the planet itself or society is more evil now than
it was when you were growing up, when you were young. And he
thought about it, and he said, you know, he says, I
don't think so. But he says, what we didn't have then was we
didn't have the evil reported within thirty seconds of it happening. He says,
if something happened bad in our town, it may take two or three days
for it to become known. And he says, so with the proliferation of
all of the you know, evil cells, bad acts cells, and good
seldom does, he says, So you hear about it more, and it
gets amplified, and you get the impression that the world is coming down.
And so I te that in perspective. I try to keep that in perspective
when I'm surrounded in all you know, we're just bathed in bad news.
And Steve, just because of just because of time, and I think you
for your call, I want to be able to try and answer it for
quickly. The best thing you can do is to counter these things with the
goodness. Of God, to be that example, to live in a way
that makes people ask you, as we said earlier, about the faith that
lies within you. That is, that is the key proliferation of how this
stuff gets disseminated. The news and everything, yes, plays a part of
it, but there still is a symptom of a breakdown, of a rejection.
And they reject not only the will of God, they reject the will
of a society. They know that it's wrong because they wouldn't want people to
do it to them. They don't want people smashing down their doors, coming
in and taking their stuff. But there's an entitlement. That entitlement comes from
them being their own God and satisfying whatever need or want they have. Therein
lies the ultimate problem with mankind, and it's not that it's getting worse or
better. It's that it's consistently a man's desire to reject and to do what
they want, which is one of the reasons that people claim the Bible wasn't
written by man because the rules are too hard to live by, and why
would man write that when his ultimate desire is to rebel. Let's talk to
John. John, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you. Your
show is such a blessing. Oh, thank you John for listening. I
appreciate that even the music sound bites are inspirational with your choices. And I'm
seeing that almost every positive song could be a love song to God if you
took just take the girl's name out of it. Oh sure, and our
producer of music, God and God, and it's it's it's almost every song
is to our creators, and it's beautiful, and that's where love comes from.
And that song of Solomon and beauty. But Tony does a wonderful job
picking music specifically for people to to get that vibe. So I'm glad that's
how you receive it. Yeah, I didn't mean taking women out of the
equation. I just meant I understand. I think women written by a lonely
cowboy right my my bumper, my bumper sticker would be God leave, God
leads, we follow. And that was your whole example of your entire life,
were you were being led. You were in the moment of being led.
And I'm seeing that, Like I really focus on on the Psalm well
mostly Ecesians four six, God over us, God in us, and God
through us, and not from us. Actually, at the same time it
comes through us, it comes from us. The scary part is the lie
can come from us, but it doesn't come through us. The truth always
comes through us, but something has to come from us in the form of
a voice or an action. But I see that many people are traumatized and
affected, mostly from their past. Also, be still and no Psalm forty
six ten is huge. To be still and know, I really practice being
still, very powerful verse to here, be still and know that I am
God. Is that not everything is a forward action, and sometimes just being
in the presence of God and being quiet can be a powerful moment. Well,
it's very healing, and I see it's a source of all healing because
I see these like yourself. I'm not like you, but like I'm a
street preacher, mostly a street listener. I've listened. I'm in an area.
I've listened to many homeless, many veterans. I've yet to encounter one
that had a happy childhood like I did. I had a military father,
very controlling, but very loving in his own way. He wasn't an amusic
drunk like a lot of mostly fathers can be. So I got out of
it pretty easy. But I was totally controlled by him. It was his
rules under his roof. It wasn't God's rules. So it was tumatizing in
its own way, but not to degree. Abuse of traumatized many people and
they never are helped from that. I see the meditation. The stillness is
really the only healer. It's practicing. Stillness is like a musical instrument.
You pick up a trumpet, You're not good at it. God's love is
always there. It's a devil. It's in the way. I always when
I do say something, it comes through me. It's always. It's always
not how much God we need, It's always there all the time. You
showed us that it's about not listening to the devil, not giving the devil
the energy that it wants, like you did for many days a night.
I've done that. I've meditated, I've fasted, I've followed your example and
a scripture scripture says John to resist the devil and he shall flee. Now
we've only got a couple of minutes here, so I want to make sure
you get your question is what is your question for me this morning? Question?
Quickly as those people that have been traumatized like I've witnessed many people and
it's played down in their life that the last guest before you, the last
show before you, was an author about a guy, a murder, mass
murder, who was so abused that he became a monster. Like a lot
of men, mostly men have become they're not even aware of what they're doing.
They're so possessed by the devil. So when they die judgment day,
I don't see those people being judged by what they became because they didn't have
a chance to have proper God loves in their life. All they had was
a devil. They had too much devil, complete devil, well, who
were so horrendous. So how does that work? John? I appreciate your
call. There's the thing that you have to understand is first and foremost,
it's not about what people do, because Scripture Ephesians two eight and nine says
for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is
not from yourself. It is the gift of God, not by works,
so that no one can boast. So as much as that's hard for people
in this world to understand, because people compare others to them so well,
I'm better than that guy I've never murdered anybody there is. It's different when
you're comparing to God, who's perfect. Everybody falls short, of course.
In Scripture, it says if you even think about murder, you've committed it.
So there's a lot to think about. However, there is also you
are accountable for yourself as well, and that means that there were opportunities.
As a matter of fact, Scripture says that everybody will have an opportunity to
accept or reject God. It's not based on the things that people have done.
And that's not to say you can go out and murder, but it's
not based on what people have done. It's about the acceptance of God.
Who God is in changing your life. That's why. For it is by
grace you have been saved Comma through faith, and not by through the things
that you've done or who you are, good or bad. You can't work
your way into heaven. You can't work your way out of heaven except for
the unpardonable sin, which is rejecting the Holy Spirit. And that means that
you reject the wooing of God, of the Holy Spirit that brings you to
Me, that brings you to the Father. Only by rejecting that is there
a problem and that God promises you will never die without having the opportunity of
knowing. All right, let's talk to Marvin. Marvin, welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show. Yes, Jesus, the question I'd like to suppose to
you you are in the creation of this universe? Is that correct? I'm
sorry, Come, I use that warm Okay, use that with God in
the creation of the universe. Uh. When God created this whole uh,
this whole system. Okay. My courses is that why did he create all
these different people, all these different races, all these different I hatred because
I've seen the black people suffered in this world horribly. And whether it's a
doctor King, or whether it's or Nelson Mandela, or whether it's you,
everybody that follows you. They tried to do right. They tried to bring
peace, justice, warming to the world. They're murdered. They're murdered out
of this world. So my question is this, why are there's so much
diversity amongst the people? Who do you know is right? Who can you
say it's right? You see, who is the one you call God?
You talk about God all the time? Who is the one called God.
There are more than one God. No, not in the Christian belief system.
No, okay, is a female dot. There is no sex with
God. Now, if you're talking about the form I came in, yes,
that was a male form. If you're talking about the way they use
the term Father for the Father, yes, it's a male word, masculine
in design. But there are other names for God, like else should I
that is feminine and God has no sex. There's no need for sex with
the Father. It's just the term that's used. If it was a female
only, then people would be asking why. But God is not a sexual
being. There's no need for sex with God. Okay. You talk about
heaven, say once you're in heaven. No, there's no solve, there's
no hatred, there's no heightened there's no bigotry. No, that's man made.
That's man made. Okay, so it is man made. There's no
such thing as race. There's the human race. Race is a construct that
people have built. It is not scientific. You can't go in and separate
race. You can separate the amount of melanin in somebody and say that person
has more melanin, or that has that person has less melanin. But there's
only one color in humanity. It's the different shades of it. There's not
Some have more of it, some have less of it. But it's not.
What people fight over is not color, believe it or not. People
fight over culture. That's why religion gets thrown into it. Religion is part
of someone's culture, their beliefs. It's not because the cult their skin.
It's because their religious beliefs. People fight over land and power, not because
that has anything to do with what people call race. That has to do
with power and land, and people will fight over things they will make.
And this happens to communities too. So in the African American community, they
will make fun of the darkest of the dark of their tribe in their mind
and the lightest of the light. And in the Latino community they'll do the
same. And it is humanities issue with that. As far as the death,
Marvin, and I appreciate your phone call. As far as death,
death is on man. There is only one constant in all turmoil one and
it's not religion, and it's not race, and it's not creed. The
only only consistent and constant in all of the turmoil is humanity, not man.
Not woman humanity. Humanity doesn't like change. Humanity doesn't like anything that
makes themselves feel uncomfortable. Martin Luther King was not killed for being black.
Martin Luther King Jr. Was killed for shedding light on injustice and people not
wanting to see it. And that happens to a lot of people. The
Pope for goodness sake drives around in the popemobile that is bulletproof. Leaders drive
around in vehicles that are bulletproof. That is a human kind issue that's not
about anything else. And the experience of African Americans is different than Africans in
Africa and in other parts of the world because of the culture that was thrust
upon them, not per their request or desire, but because in pride and
ingreed, they were brought over to the United States against their will, and
so that starts out the relationship with the country. And so that's going to
cause a different culture and a different break in things. And that's all man made.