You're listening to KFIM on demand often and you'll hear about this in your neighborhood
as well. When a fire started, it's always so amazing two people how
they're started. Yes, there are deliberate arsonists out there that will ignite a
fire purposely, but regardless of what the intent is, and they're you know,
most fires litten accidentally, but regardless of the intent. They light very
similarly. They start with a spark or a small ignition, a small flame,
and it turns into a huge fire. Now, this analogy had has
been used over and over to describe many different things in life. And these
little things always start with a spark. And I think sometimes it's hard to
imagine as you open up your scripture and you read that even scripture was started
with a spark. Faith, ideas, all these things start at the very
beginning with a spark of some kind. And you play a part of that.
And how that that one little notion, that one idea to share your
faith, to share our ideas, to defend ideas, becomes that momentum,
that spark that propels the wind, that pushes that flame, and that jumps
obstacles inevitably in every fire season, you hear about a fire that is somehow
bordered, whether it be a road, some sort of bridge, something that
separates it from an extremely dangerous area. Let's say it's an area of homes
or animal refuge, whatever it might be that they want to keep this fire
away from. And the concern always is that it will jump, and it
seems like a barrier, and sometimes it seems very wide, and oftentimes it's
jumped. And that's in the physical world with a fire. In the spiritual
world, in the emotional world, there are times where a spark will start
and you will get excited about something, or you will feel it deep within
sight you and you'll want to share it, and you'll come across a barrier
and you yourself will say, no, it's impossible. I'll never get over
that barrier. That person will never ever respond properly, they'll never ever receive.
But I'm telling you that it's possible. It's possible to jump those barriers.
That initial spark, with the winds of faith, can create a fire,
a good fire dealing with goodness and insight and wisdom. But it does
start with you. Paul tells the colosh the Colossians Church in Chapter four,
verses five and six, to be wise in the way they act towards those
around them, towards outsiders, says, conduct yourself with wisdom toward these outsiders,
making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace,
seasoned as it were with salt, so that you may know how you
should respond to each person, and that be a part of your everyday interaction.
Having that wisdom on how to act around people is the way you handle
that spark. Making the most of every opportunity. Understanding when someone's emotional kindling
is dry and ready to receive. Being full of grace, seasoned as it
were with salt, productive in your speech and attitude is what that points to.
And having an answer to give those when they ask a reoccurring theme in
scripture, and that is the spiritual, the emotional, the faithful spark that
can start a fire in someone's heart as to what they believe and why they
believe it. And you don't. Now, you can't always tell by the
way that the facades that people put up as to where they are in their
life and the phony smiles or everything's great or what have you. You can't
always tell by that, whether somebody's ready to receive or not, you have
to be intuitive and sensitive to the spirit, being ready, willing and able
to give that good word when needed to share that insight or thought or scripture
with someone who's in that place. But I assure you it doesn't take much.
And there are many times where you will share something with someone and you
won't get that immediate let's call it gratification, that immediate response where you think,
oh, that is going to be this, it is going to turn
into this. They are going to receive that and run with it. You
may not get that, you may never know. And as the ugliness of
a real fire, the ugliness of a forest fire where someone innocently pulls over
at the side of the road and their catalytic converter sparks or heats and they
drive off with no idea of the damage that will be left behind. In
the positive and the good and the spiritual sense, there are times when you
will spark a fire in someone's heart and may not even know about it.
You may not have even spent much time with them. They may not be
someone that you know very well, but just that little bit of time trusting
that God will bring the winds of faith to bring that person even closer into
more understanding about the importance of the Gospel. That that too, will will
start small, that tiny little spark, but erupt into a positive and beautiful
spiritual fire. Angel. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show him. I had
a question to my son's baseball game. UM. Sorry, I'm a little
bit nervous. We always listened to the show on the way to baseball,
and he asked me, m, is it all right to play to pray
to see if we win baseball game? Well, the the the that's a
wonderful question. The desire to pray for things for blessings is not unheard of
in scripture. The Prayer of Jabez was a book that came out some years
ago that focused on the prayer of Jabez in Scripture, which was a prayer
to gain, to grow, and to to gain things. Um, and
there's nothing wrong with that, but a more productive prayer, and something they
think is healthier to pray for is a discernment and a strength and the ability
to remain focused and endure and to see those things that build a good athlete
rather than just winning. Because it's it's it's more about the process of growing
and learning and strengthening that makes winning good, not just winning as the outcome.
Well, great, thank you so much for answering my question. You're
very very welcome. It's easy to think and this is kind of the mentality
that goes on. And I'm glad that Angel called because the mentality is kind
of the end result is what you're looking for now. The result is what
comes from a journey of studying, of working hard, of working out,
of building yourself up to be able to play or to compete. And that's
what it's about. It's not just winning. Winning is the byproduct. Winning
is that which comes after all those other things. So it's not that there's
something wrong with praying about wanting to win something. It's more along the lines
of wanting to do the right thing. To pray to God about wanting to
do the right thing that naturally would have the consequence of winning. Now,
it doesn't mean that you can do the right thing and not win. That's
a possibility as well, but you want to be in that right mindset and
build those strengths because that is what the winning concoction is. It really is
all of those things together, and I think, especially for a child,
it's best to not go into it thinking that winning is the soul product of
working out and trying hard and playing your best. That should be a consequence
to those things, but not always, and it shouldn't be the soul thing.
There's a mindset now with corporate America too. It used to be in
America you had a product and that product brought forth wealth because the product was
good and you could stand by it and it helps people, and it was
something that people wanted, so people went after it. There's this mindset in
corporate America now that making money is a product, and that's not true.
It's not true at all. And it's probably one of the biggest problems in
corporate America is that causes more financial product problems because money in itself is not
a product. It's the consequence or the outcome of having a good product and
good service and you know, treating customers well. And now the thing is
and this comes a lot with the Internet coming onto the scene, because the
Internet is kind of an intangible it's not really a widget or something that's made.
The software is and things like that. Programs are you know, widgets
and apps and all these little things that go bing. So you have these
things that people look at and they say, well, this is a product.
But it's now people are starting to look at ways just to make money.
And I know that sounds strange and a capitalist, capitalistic society, of
course, but you can't. It's not planting money and watching it grow.
The best model, and the model that has built the United States has always
been the product. Stand by a product or a service of great value,
and people will want it, and then you'll make money. The problem with
greed is the assumption is that that that model grows to a certain point and
then continues to grow consistently in life. When people get greedy and want it,
desire to want to go beyond that, and they want to outgrow.
You can only make a certain amount of widget today, so they try,
now if we put advertising on the widget, then we'll make a little extra
money, or we'll start, you know, start doing all these things to
make a little extra money, and then the product becomes secondary. And when
you have a child learning, you know, play baseball and all these things,
the last thing you want to do is make make the product the win,
when really it's about all of the blood, sweat and tears that go
into being a good athlete and being a winner. It's more about the journey
than it is that final destination. Derek, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hello Jesus. My question was, I was watching special on television a
while about to go about the scrolls and how they found them and how they
found the Gospel of Genus case. I was considered that false scriptures and are
like from aft or something. Well, there's more to scripture than just stumbling
across it. I think that the biggest misconception, Derek is that if it's
old and you come across it somewhere and it's a rare find, then automatically
it's scripture. And that's not the case. As a matter of fact,
the term Dead Sea Scrolls kind of it gets misused sometimes and it confuses people,
but this is kind of a popular name for manuscripts that we're in.
Nineteen forty seven. They were found in caves just west of the Dead Sea,
hence the name there. The scrolls themselves are divided into four basic groups,
and we won't get into all of the specifics of everything, but they
have different purposes and don't they don't all tie into scripture, but there are
some that do. There are there are discoveries in that region that deal with
um certain books of the Old Testament and certain fragments of the New Testament.
But there's writings. In that particular case, you mentioned the Gospel of Judas,
and this is considered a Gnostic gospel. A Gnostics were a group of
people that felt that they had. The word gnostic it comes from nosis or
to know, have knowledge of secret, knowledge of specifically U. The Gnostics
believe that they had an attachment or a knowledge about God that others did not.
In some of their writings kind of focus upon those things. So this
particular Gospel of Judas is alleged to be a document that kind of focuses on
this conversation between Judas a scariot and Jesus Christ. So the whole purpose is
to say, well, this conversation took place between Judas and I, and
the document itself, this particular one is alleged to be dated around a d.
Two eighty, So you're looking at a document itself that is after the
fact to a certain degree, and that certain other parts of it may not
live up to the bibliographical tests that are used in scripture. To begin with,
although it's alleged that Judas Scariott wrote it, it's there's no actual way
of really pulling that from the scripture. The likelihood of Judas writing is slim
to none. So taking these things that if you were to imagine this,
imagine that you buried a bunch of writings now and you buried it with scripture,
and it was like a handwritten bible, and you and then you had
your diary next to it, and you had all kinds of things that if
they were dug up a thousand years from now, it doesn't mean that your
diary has the same weight as scripture. So there's going to be certain tests
that they do to go through it to see whether it holds that weight or
has that potency that scripture has. And there's a lot that goes into it.
I think the assumption is that a bunch of you know, old guy
I sat around and decided what's going to be in scripture and what's not.
And you couldn't do that anymore than you could go through and find a bunch
of works of Shakespeare attached to a bunch of works of someone else that was
a contemporary and say, oh, they're all from Shakespeare. There are things
that are going to stand out. There's a lot of things in the Gospel
of Judas that talk about certain principles of the religious community and things like that
that weren't and types of theology that didn't exist earlier on. So you can
date it and say, okay, well, the fact that it mentions these
things means that it's not as close to the time of my existence. Then
one would hope for a document of that kind. So the conspiracy thoughts that
while somebody buried this or got rid of it because it was controversial, no,
it just it doesn't jive. Can you can tell that it's not right?
The same way if you came across, you know, some Shakespearean writings
and they were ancient Shakespearean writings and they're talking about a guy walking around with
a wristwatch, you can go, okay, that that can't be because there
weren't wrist watches at that particular time. So this doesn't fit into that category.
That's an anomaly. But the conspiracy conspiracy theorists would go, maybe there
was watches, maybe there was an ancient watch wristwatch that people wore that has
been buried for centuries and nobody knows about it, and really it ends up
being over complicating a situation where there's no extra value. There's nothing that comes
from a lot of these works. Some of them are interesting in their own
right, but it doesn't mean that they are attached or should be attached to
Scripture, I'm sure is specific to the body of Christ, and the things
outside of it may be a value in their own right, just like the
instructions to build a cabinet have value, but it doesn't mean that it has
spiritual value. And the Scripture says in Jude three to contend earnestly for the
faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. And I think
that once and for all part gets lost sometimes and people keep thinking that there's
going to be something secret that's going to be popped up. Well, scripture
says, no, once and for all delivered to the saints. Here's the
package here. It is to be understood in its wholeness, not in part,
but understood that in the harmony of the entirety of scripture, you can
see that God has a plan and a path learned and a path for you,
and that the historical footing that Scripture is set in is there for you
to have understanding of that path, the path that those have gone that have
gone before you have walked, and how that pertains to you and the value
of those things. Imagine if your your parents could write down throughout the entirety
of your childhood, and some parents are good at that, but write down
everything you've gone through or the things that are important to your progression, and
every lesson learned and the insights that you've had, and the stumbles you've made
and how you've overcome them. And if you look through that later on in
life, you'd be able to see that there's a legitimate pattern and benefits to
the things you've gone through. Well, Scripture has a lot of that in
it. Scripture has a lot of the ebb and flow of humanity coming to
grips with the fact that they're created by God and that God wants to have
a relationship with them. So when you just find these works, everybody assumes
that if you dig something up and it's old, then it has value because
it's old. In logic, that's called the argument from antiquity. And it's
an informal logical fallacy. It can become a problem when you just say,
hey, because something's old, it's right. There's a lot of things that
are old that are not right. Murderer has been around for a long time
doesn't make it good because it's been around for a long time. There's a
lot of ugly things throughout history that just because they're aged, weathered and have
torn edges doesn't mean that they have value on the same part as scripture.
So there's more to it than just being a work of antiquity. There's more
to it than just coming across in a fanciful way. And you know,
unfortunately, you have to have the sense of an old cow and eat the
hay and leave the sticks. When it comes to these television shows, if
you watch some of these, you know notable kind of brands. When it
comes to the Bible, it seems that the sensational tends to sell. So
television tends to go towards the dun, dun, dun. Look, we
found this and it's different and it's going to change things. And although they
may say that, they do it in a way where it's like some may
say or some scholars say, or these types of things that kind of take
them off the hook. Some of it's not always that honest. Some of
it just is trying to get people to watch, and that means spinning things
around and mark my words, there's more shows about whether I even existed.
There's more shows about whether the crucifixion took place, or whether you know who
moved the stone away? And the passover plot that people came and grabbed me
and took me away and buried me somewhere else, and there's others where that
I actually just passed out on the cross. So just be you know,
have a raised eyebrow, and be a little leery of of of things.
And I hate to be the one to break it to you, but no,
not everything on television is true. Mike, Welcome to Jesus Christ Show.
Hello Jesus. Hi, Mike. My wife died two years ago,
and I'm wondering what do they do in heaven twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. It's a pretty powerful concept to think of eternity on
its face and let alone doing your experience on Earth is always bound by the
time continuing. Everything you do, even the passing of your lovely wife is
on mark that time goes by, and that doesn't exist in heaven. That
doesn't there's not that presence or that weight of the clock constantly ticking. Every
experience you had, every lovely, wonderful experience you've had on earth so far
and have had with your wife. I bet you can can even go back
in your mind and remember that first kiss, that first embrace, those first
dates. Correct, Yes, well, imagine that every experience you had here
with your wife, without your wife, those first moments, those intense and
impressionable moments of great joy where time stopped. You weren't thinking about the clock
the first time you kissed. You were in the moment, purely in the
moment, and Heaven is outside of all of those pressures of that time and
that way, and it's essentially an eternal first kiss. It is. It
is being in union and communion with the Father and coming together. You're not
a human doing anymore doing these things. You're a human being. You are
being in the presence of God and being in the fullness of God's glory and
worshiping eternally. It's it's incomparable to anything you experience here, only glimpses and
moments that you wish would never end, would be the tiniest, tiniest understanding
of the purity of what heaven is. It's not about doing things. Your
life is about doing things. Your life is constantly run with what am I
doing now? Or what are we doing later? And when am I doing
this? And all those things? Have we you know, had a house
yet? Have we had a baby yet? Have we gotten this job?
Have I gotten rate? It's all about those doing and that that type of
progression. It's not about that. It's about the fullness of those things.
It's about the totality of every single one of those experiences that have helped to
bring you to an understanding. The word heaven actually might means to lift,
to heave, and it's it's if you can imagine to lift you from all
of this and to put you into the hands of God. Robert, Welcome
to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning, Hi. My question is,
can you tell me what is going to be the eternal fate of the many
people who were married and then divorced since they have broken the direct commandment of
what God has joined together, Let no man put asunder divorce is not a
sin. Divorce is not God's perfect will by any stretch. God hates divorce
scripture, but it's it's not a sin. It's not the best way to
do things. So if you're talking about well, you know, people who
divorce have problems on earth, they can absolutely divorce is not God's prime plan,
but God himself is as part of a divorce. In scripture, Jeremiah
three and Isaiah fifty talk about God divorcing Israel, so that would mean every
Israeli would go to Hell, which would be a problem for the early Church
and all kinds of things. So as far as whether they're you know,
people who divorce are damned, No, that doesn't make that doesn't make any
sense. Some people further that question Robert and ask, well, what about
the marriage and does the marriage exists in heaven. No, marriage is just
for earth. That's why it says to death, do your part, because
it's not a out heaven. Marriage is understanding, a bond, and all
of those things, but it's not about heaven because when you deal with when
you bring heaven into the equation. You can see that throughout scripture. In
the New Testament, it talks about the marriage between the people of God and
Christ. So you're married to me, not to your wife or your wife
to you. It's about being married to me and that the Church is my
bride, and that's the focus of it from Christian theology. And sometimes people
look into the divorce is a very ugly thing and an ugly situation, and
it seems to be that marriage is unfortunately Robert nowadays, are thought of as
disposable. And if you think for one second that the Christian divorce rate is
different than the rest of the public in the United States, you're wrong.
They tend to be neconnect So unfortunately it's Christians haven't gotten the hang of marriage
any better than anyone else. Sad truth to state, But no, divorce
is not a sin per se in the context of normal sins. It is
missing the mark of what God wants, but it's not a sin. You're
listening to kf I AM six forty on demand.