You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. I know that sometimes if
you are a believer and you think, oh gosh, you know this is
going to be there's going to be a simple answer to this, and I
don't want to ask it because I don't want to feel like a fool.
Don't let that cross your mind. The important thing is to seek answers,
to seek the truth. And the same goes with your life. In life
situations, if there's things that are are weighing on you, that are cluttering
your your mind or your heart from focusing on God, it's important to clear
those by the wayside. And it's when you ask for insight from friends,
from family, even here on the program. It's not a it's not showing
weakness, showing strength. And you know how it is that it's always easier
to help someone else out with their issues than it is to for you to
really dissect the things you're going through. And that's why you know, lifeguards
tend to be on the real tall chair so they can look outside the situation
a little bit, because that's better than if they were just in the water.
And the same goes for you that in your life it's going to be
much more difficult to navigate sometimes than it is for somebody on the outside.
And those things help to move along and to grow and those types of things.
So keep that in mind as you as you ask, not only on
this program but one another, find those places of understanding and that it's not
a place of weakness at all. I want you to think about something today
that happens all too often, and that is coming to a place where where
you feel that it's done, Like you've crossed the point of no return.
Now, if you're flying a plane or what have you, there is the
concept of point of no return, that you are past the halfway point,
which means you're not going to have the gas, the fuel that it's going
to take to get back. So you have to push yourself continually forward,
regardless of weather or circumstance. Well, in life, there's always a point
of return. There's always a place where you can rethink the decisions you've made
in your life and try and make better ones, to go down a path
that is more productive or beneficial. And I know that you've done things.
I know that you've gone through life and that there's been times where you've done
things that you're not proud of or that you regret. But there's always time
for change, even in the last minute. Now, you don't want to
wait. You don't want to dilly dally. You don't want to dangle and
get to a point where you may not get that opportunity. As the saying
goes, that he who waits to make a change in his life in the
eleventh hour dies at ten thirty. But what I want you to think about
is to know that as long as you are drawing breath on this earth,
that you can call out to me. That even if you think in your
heart of hearts that you can't, that you've done so much that you think
is wrong, that you've gotten so far removed from the truth, from righteousness,
from God, that there's no way back. I want you to know
that there is. There, absolutely is. Luke twenty three forty three is
me speaking to one of the thieves on the cross, and I say,
assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.
This is a criminal who is being nailed to a cross beside me,
and I reassured him that even he would be with me in paradise It's never
too late to make a change. It's never too late to rethink your life,
your circumstance, the things that you believe, what you use to be
your guiding light or ruler in life. It's never too late to look around
at that and make a decision for Christ, change your life and know that
there's a purpose. Sometimes I feel like you get to a point where you
treat me like you owe me money. You have gotten to a point where
you feel that you're so bad that you can't come and talk to me,
that you can't see me, seek me out, pray because of the fear
that I'm going to reject you somehow. But even in those last moments,
like a thief on the cross, he turned his life around, and so
can you. Julie. Welcome to the Jesus Christia. H Hello Jesus,
Julie. Hi, I just had a question. I just want to state
that I do wholly believe in God. But my question today is sometimes when
I pray, I think of, well, God, you do so many
miracles, you do so many wonderful things. Why can't you respond in your
miraculous ways quicker to some of my hopes and dreams and desires. I don't
feel like I'm a greedy person, that I don't feel like I want too
much. But sometimes when I'm really questioning, oh, I don't know the
path of let's say career. Sure as an example, you know, he
just everything that he has created. I get frustrated sometimes in the riddles of
trying to figure out, well, is this a sign or is this a
way for him showing me or me getting this job offer, or me having
this interview. It's a sit you know, I guess it can be frustrating
to me that I can't see it more clear. Sure, And it's and
it's a very normal question and place to be when you are in your life
asking questions and asking for guidance. The the balance there is that in those
types of prayers there is a relational response, meaning that you play a part
in them, as does the father. So in that relationship, sometimes people
ask really obvious things or things that they already know and they want confirmation,
and in that sense there's there. Sometimes there's not a right or wrong answer.
If you asked God, should you have you know, milk today or
lemonade? There's not a real answer. Sure, there isn't that's a flavor,
that's a taste that's based on what you what you want, not what
God wants for you. Now, if you get into you know, the
minutia of the question, and then you start going, well, it is
milk better for me than lemonade, and lemonade has sugar, and you start
going into all that, then you can make decisions based on what your particular
needs are when it comes to jobs, and this is when the question comes
up a lot our career paths. You can't wait for God to design a
path for you that you're not willing to put the time into yourself. So
if you've established gifts, what your gifts and abilities are, then it's a
free for all. Then it's whatever is out there is a righteous path for
you. Now applying it to your life. That means that if you know
that you're good it's speaking, then whatever you're gonna do is going to involve
speaking. So you start whittling it down like that to say, God,
if there's two jobs in front of me, which one's better, which one's
worse? To make a list, because when people ask that, oftentimes it
means one isn't better for them, but it's sexier, there's something about it
that looks more interesting or more fun, or it's a little more high profile,
and those are the things that you have to whittle through, and God
will continually point you in the direction. People say that they get confused because
they're rejecting what God is saying. Usually I'm always just looking to do the
right thing, and oftentimes I have a family, I'm just like Gosh,
I hope I made the right choice. Hope I'm doing the right thing.
God, can you, you know, give me the strength to understand or
show me somehow that this is it? And sometimes it's there and sometimes I
wait, and sometimes maybe it's there and I don't see it. Maybe,
but there's oftentimes where they're just both right. It's a flavor things. It's
once you've done all your work, once you've said, hey, is you
know, is this going to bring in enough money for my family? Is
this going to keep me out of the home too much? Once you've done
all that homework, then it comes down to flavor. It really does.
And don't over text yourself. You can make a decision and deal with the
decision. And sometimes God's not gonna be pounding on your door for those types
of things both are right, choose the one that you want. Prayer just
to the time. I'm telling you, the time that we have together goes
by very quickly, I realize. But when it comes to prayer, I
know that there are a lot of questions, especially about the way they're answered,
and sometimes going into prayer in the proper attitude and understanding what its purpose
is is best. It is communication, It is communing with God. It
is making petition or requests of things that are needed or wanted, but things
that are needed are usually provided for on their own. And as far as
direction is concerned, if you think of it like shopping with a parent and
you see a child with a parent, and the kid asks for everything as
they go through the store, Can I have this? Can I have this?
Can I have this? Can I have this? And the parent oftentimes
goes no, no, no, or yes yes yes it's for It gives
the child an opportunity not just to know what the parent wants for them,
but what they should want for themselves. The sugar, cereals or candy or
these types of things are not the staples in which you're to build your life
upon, and your nutritional building blocks, so the parent will guide the child,
help the child understand, not giving the child what they want, but
giving the child what they need and establishing a place for the child like a
measuring read for the child to know what the will of the parent is,
which is ultimately the best will for the child. Similarly that when you ask
for things from God, a lot of times the answer is going to be
no, because you're asking for sugar cereal and God's saying no, that's not
good for you. But if similarly, if the parent allows the child to
get a non sugar cereal, that what choice they make between those non sugar
cereals is not going to matter the criteria the specific criteria was not a sugar
cereal. Then the rest becomes flavoring. So that confuses people sometimes when they're
making requests of God, they're saying, well, how come you're not answering
me specifically on this Well, because that becomes a flavor or a taste issue.
That's not a good, bad, or wrong issue, And usually those
are clarified quite quickly in many ways, and don't even need prayer for that
specific type of thing because you already know you don't have to pray whether you're
going to hit yourself in the head with a ballpeen hammer. You know that
God already thinks that's not a good idea. Couldn't imagine a scenario where that
would be a good idea. So I realized that it gets confusing sometimes.
But really it's about this. The specificity of prayer is to fine tune yourself
and your will to the will of God. That's what it is, so
that your prayers become asking what He wants to give you. Anyways, that's
the purpose. So when it comes to our relationship, it's the exact same
thing. You pray for things that you want and fine tune your will to
My will. Ben, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hello, Hi,
Ben. I've been going to say in church for years though, and
one of the things they've been preaching over slope it is that if you leave
the church and go to a different church, you go to you go to
hell because you leave the place that God put you. And oh boy,
I disagree with a lot of the theology going on as the church, and
I don't know what to do is going to a different church? What do
you say, go to hell for going to a different church. Well,
okay, wow, that's rough from the pulpit they're preaching that. Huh,
yes, okay, that's a little scary. There are essentials to the things
that are imperative. It's it's like asking, you know, how many how
many corners does a circle have? None? That's what makes it a circle.
If as corners, it becomes a square or another shape. But there
are things that define Christianity, and I know that that it seems that when
it comes to spiritual things or things dealing with religion, that it's a free
for all. Whatever you believe, fine, and that that that is fine
for an individual in the United States. You have every right to believe whatever
you believe. However, Christianity does have a definition to it. And as
long as you are in a church that is defined by the essentials of the
faith, the triune nature of God, the virgin birth, these types of
things. Who does it say that I am? Does it say that I'm
just a good guy, a teacher, or does it say that I Am
the Messiah, the the God incarnate? These types of things are going to
be imperative if they If the church has that, then and you just like
this particular church or that particular church, It doesn't matter to me. What
matters to me is what the church teaches. If they are teaching that they
are the only true church and that churches with that, with those essential criterias
are not a good church you're going to help, then to me, that
becomes cult like and it becomes a huge problem because now they're trying it's not
about your Christianity, it's about your church entity. It's about being a part
of their church rather than being a follower of Christ. So that is a
concern to me. So the church itself, if that's what they're preaching from
the pulpit, that's a little disconcerting. That's about keeping membership and not about
somebody following their heart and what you believe is your path. So if you
feel led to go to another church, as long as it's a Bible believing,
Bible teaching, essentials based church, and you can find out for most
churches have websites or you can ask them for a mission statement states what they
believe and why they believe in these types of things, then it doesn't matter
what church you're in. Right, So you know the problem lies now with
your wife. If you know you guys should be a unit in the home,
and you have to come to some conclusion that works out for the family,
because if the family's going to different places, I would be a little
concerned as well, right because she's talking about how she wants to go to
church together still and sure that's the way it should be. That would be
the best. Wait, now you say, theologically, what's standing out theologically
in this church, and without giving the name of the church, what theologically
is standing out in this church that makes you feel a little uncomfortable there or
want to change. I was in a why I was in abandon. That
was before I really knew a lot of their ministry requirements, so I m
I can understand them. Adunl't not owning a TV, which that I'm fine
with that, but they don't want you to own a TV. Yeah,
you're not allowed to own a TV. There's Saturday morning outreach, Saturday night
concert, flash outreach, Friday night outreach, Wednesday night church, Sunday morning
church, Sunday night church, and then throughout I'd say at least half the
time, there's prayer on Thursday nights. They want you to go to prayer
Saturday mornings and then every day before you go to work. Okay, so
this to me sounds and listen. All those things are good. There's nothing
wrong with them as far as suggestions or offerings. It's great for a church
to be active and have a lot of offering for those that are participating,
meaning that if you have time before work to go in there and pray,
or to have Bible studies throughout the week, or these things all great if
they become mandates and things like TV, which yes, I realized that that
TV is a portal to a lot of garbage, but that doesn't mean that
it's all garbage. That's you know, like saying, don't own a bookshelf
in books because there's bad books out there. I think it's better to temper
what you do watch and once you there's nothing wrong with not having a TV,
by the way, at all. My problem would be if a church
was mandating it. So these types of things lend it to something called the
shepherding movement and things like that where people decide who you can marry, what
house you can move into, how you live your life, and that's an
individual, case by case decision based on the leader of the home. And
that's the family members, So it sounds to me a little hinky as well.
I would definitely, at bare minimum put a question mark over the church.
And if you have other similar things that kind of make you feel like,
wow, there's something off, then I'd say, yeah, it's time
to run, not walk to the nearest exit. But you know, if
it's just hey, they're very active and participatory and they make us accountable,
that's normal. That's good. If they're dictating what you can do and what
you can't do. If you're a member of the church, it's a little
different in the sense that if you are working there in some capacity during ministry,
then they have every right to say that anybody that is in ministry at
our church is going to abide by these things. That's fine. But if
you're sitting just in the pews and the seats and you're a part of the
church that way and they're trying to dictate things, it raises some more eyebrows.
So anything else that stands out maybe theologically there, uh, the way
that they use tongues during services, gotcha, And it's not a loosey goosey
all over the place, and right there's no interpretation of it whatsoever. There's
not that would be a big one too. That would be a big one.
So it sounds to me that you're kind of making good checks and balances
of your concerns. And I'd say, from what you've told me, they're
not here to defend themselves. But from what you've told me, those are
very legitimate reasons to go look for another church. Great, I'm the only
concern I am having is with the wife too. Of well, you need
to sit her down and make your case and explain and not be divisive and
say, I'm really concerned, and you're trusting in me to be a spiritual
leader in this home, and these are my concerns and I'm trying to make
the best decision possible. And this church, I don't feel suits are our
specific needs. And and I know that you love this church. I asked
that we go try I've been here with you, I've sat here with you.
I'm asking you to try some other options with me, right And you
know you've got to There's a lot of things you got to work together,
uh in life and have compromise and decisions. But this sounds to me spiritually
like it's a bad place to be so so you've just got to take the
time to to make your case to your wife so that she can hear your
concerns, but make them real and legitimate, paint them out, say I
think this, this is a really scary situation. And and you know what
I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on hold, but Ben, don't hang up.
I want I want our screener to to talk to you and get the
name of the church, because I'd like to know the name of the church
as well, and we'll get more specifics from him. There. A church
is a very personal need. Not only are there not only are there general
generalities that are important, Like I said, the essentials of the faith that
make Christianity Christianity. You can't just and you find this all over the place.
You can't just say, oh, well, we read the Bible or
we do this, and therefore we're a Christian church. There are things that
make a Christian church a Christian church. You can't just take the name and
co op for any any belief that's out there. And I know a lot
of people do that. Even the New Age movement tries to do that,
where they have their very metaphysical and other Christian. They're not tied into Christian
in any way, shape or form. Yet they use scripture and try and
make it look like they're sempatico and they're not. And you have to know
that there is a line. And if it feels uncomfortable, sometimes it's going
to be that taste or flavor thing again. Sometimes it's going to be,
well, I want to eat more youthful church, or I want a church
that focuses on these types of ministries or whatever. That's fine, and there's
gonna be other times where you look and you say, you know what,
the theology here is starting to rub my spirit wrong. It's starting to make
me feel like I'm a part of something that I shouldn't be a part of.
And I know the battle that goes on there as Wow, am I
just being wimpy? Am I being undedicated? Do I not want to be
accountable? And if those are the questions, then you know, you stick
to it and you let the church grow with you as you grow with the
church. But if you really feel that they're going counter to what you believe
scripture teaches, Scripture does not teach that there's any one specific building or teacher
that is the truth. It teaches that scripture is the focus that I,
Jesus Christ, am the focused. That is what is taught. So this
whole, if you went anywhere else, that's a really a really big red
flag. That always makes me concerned when somebody proclaims they are the they have
or the arbitrary is a truth and you can't find it anywhere else, and
if you go anywhere else, then you're doomed to hell. Those types of
things make me concerned. When it's within Christianity, then you start poking around
at the theology and seeing if they're adhering to the essentials or not. That
would be that what breaks down the truth versus that which is false. Gary,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Criminal. I'm sorry you are my
favorite criminal? Is that right? Yes? You were. That's a strange
way, yeah, a strange way of putting it. But I appreciate you.
She's convicted for blasphemy and you suffered and died, and I very much
appreciate what you told me. My question is is it wrong to give money
to street people that will probably use it for drugs and alcohol? When you
said it rains on the just and the unjust. Oh, there's a lot
of controversy that goes into this because the things that were said in scripture.
If you remember, there were those that wanted to spend time with me and
then would talk about the poor, and I remarked that the poor you will
always have with you, meaning that you're not going to dig the poor out
of being poor. There will always be poor people on the earth. Sad
notion. Well, let me finish. In addition to that, Gary,
the assumption is that people that when you're doing something, even you said give
money, but some people say is it wrong to help the people on the
street by giving them money? Well? Are you helping? Is the concern?
If you're just giving money to make yourself feel good or to go,
look, hey, I'm handing money to somebody who's less fortunate than I am.
That's pride, that's about you. If you really want to help somebody,
then you need to know whether you're helping them or not. Okay,
how about this rather than calling it charity because I see this all the time
on the convenience store at six o'clock in the morning, before one's desperate for
a drink. They're either afraid or unwilling to accept help. If I say
this, I'll buy you an alcoholic beverage or I'll give you the money to
buy one. But in exchange for that, I want you, while you're
drinking it to ask God or Jesus for help or to show you the way
to get help with your life. Then it's an exchange of values. It's
no longer charity. No, But you're helping someone sin in the process.
I am helping him sin in the process. How do you know you drink?
No, it's about somebody who's an alcoholic or somebody that needs a drink.
But that's different. There's a difference in sin, and this is people
that confused in this. There are general sins that are wrong for everyone,
and then there are specific sins that are wrong for you. An alcoholic,
it is a sin for them to drink. That doesn't mean that it's a
sin to have wine with dinner. It means that it's a sin for alcoholic
to have alcohol at all. That's the concern. So you're participating in that
sin to try and barter for God. And quite frankly, I don't need
anybody to barter for me. There's no need for any sort of exchange.
I will touch the hearts of man across the board. People will either either
accept or reject. And if they took the drink and started to accept,
it doesn't mean anything. Scripture says that when someone's under the influence, they're
under the influence chemically. They're under the influence of the enemy, not of
God, and so they're in a state where they couldn't receive if they wanted
to. But Jesus, let me ask you this, aren't I passing judgment
on somebody yet clearly obviously they have a problem, or they wouldn't be there
begging for money at six o'clock in the morning. Yes, you are passing
judgment on them. What's wrong with that? Didn't you say judge, not
less you be judged. Yeah, I said, be prepared for you to
be judged if you judge others, So that doesn't say don't judge. People
get this tied up in their own mindset. If you were to say somebody
looked good, or somebody was smart, or somebody was good at something,
you're judging them as well, right, yes, yeah, okay. But
the concern is that people get lost in the concept of judging. What I
don't want and why it says this over and over in scripture, don't judge
the speck in someone else's eye when you have a plank in yours is that
In Corinthians it says if you judge yourself, you will not have to be
judged by others. However, it never says that there isn't going to be
judgment. There has to be judgment for anybody to grow. Even you saying
that they need God is a judgment. There's no way to interact with somebody
in a beneficial manner without judging them. Judging can be a wonderful thing.
What I don't want is people to judge others instead of judging themselves, meaning
that they're constantly so focused on other people that you never look at what's going
on with you Gary, or what Gary needs or how Gary can grow.
So that's what concerns me. The concept of judging is so taking out of
context. People use that as a way to kind of shut down people that
are trying to correct them. You could have no correction, no toutelage,
no understanding, no teaching if unless you were judged, you can't look at
yourself as better than that person. But you can look at that person and
say I have a better way of you doing this, or I have something
that's helpful. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. People don't like judgment because
they don't want to be found out. They don't want to be called out
on the carpet or accountable. Judgment has a purpose. Unrighteous judgment is when
you just think you're better than someone else. It doesn't matter who you are,
and you just keep pushing other people around and tell them what they need
to do. That would be a problem when it comes to giving money on
the streets. The thing is you have to understand if it's going to be
helpful or not. You don't have the time or the resources to vet every
individual, so the best way to do it is to vet a or look
into an organization a charity that does this. You can carry cards from the
local mission on you so that they will help people go and get food.
But to give to that individual, more likely than not, you're giving to
their ailment, their sickness, their sin, or a problem more than you're
giving to them to help themselves out. And if you talk to or hear
interviews from people who have been on the street, who lived on the street
but really works to get off them. They'll tell you that that didn't help.
They'll tell you what helped them was someone put pushing them towards getting back
on their feet, or some people are mentally ill and need help there.
Whatever it might be, your money isn't necessarily going to help them, and
it comes from a place of pride more than it comes from a place of
actually wanting to help someone, and finding that balance is a difficult one to
come to. So keep that in mind as you, you know, engage
people on the streets and try and find out whether you know it's good or
not to be giving money. KFI AM six forty on demand