You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. D Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Good morning. My problem is my family and the Bible.
Okay and not a good start. Weird, but hello, yeah, I'm
here. Okay, this may sound weird that our whole family was raised in
Catholicism back in the days and then life happened and I don't read the Bible.
I try to run my life with what I believe in my heart and
according I believe that I'm taking in the principles. But most of my family
are what people call the thumpers. They say everything literally, and I can't
talk to anymore because they just push it in my face instead of like practicing
what I think they're reading. I don't believe they practice it, and so
I can't communicate, and I feel like I'm wrong or they're right, or
and I'm confused. I'm confused. Well, it's not necessarily either, or
it could be both, and you can learn something and so can they.
Wouldn't you agree? Sure, it doesn't have to be you're wrong or or
they are wrong. It's not about that necessarily. Maybe maybe there's some learning
that can be done on both sides, because you know it, people often
just get to into that mindset that that they're wrong or you're wrong. And
I would say that you have every right to be left alone and to not
have them cram it down your throat, because you know what happens when people
cram things down your throat, Well you don't listen. Well you're throw them
back up, probably right, you know. And it's not fair, and
it's it's there's nothing in scripture that says, you know, take this book
and see if you can feed it to somebody in thirty seconds. It's it's
not fair. But also they're not here to defend themselves. So we'll just
look at you if we put candy and just look at ways that you can
deal with this. I prefer the direct, honest rap. You know,
if always do that, just say hey, listen, I know that you
think you're trying to do something good for me, but really it's off putting.
It just bothers me. It seems it seems hoity and above, and
you make me feel bad about myself and I don't think that that's that's productive.
And you make me question things, but not in a good way.
You might make me question wanting to talk to you or be around you,
and really if you want to have an open discussion to talk about things.
There might be times where it's appropriate and where I would welcome it, but
not every day. Sometimes I just miss you guys, or want to see
you or want to talk with you, or want to hang out. And
about starting at the beginning, and how people don't do that when they share
their faith. They just want to kind of cram it down your throat rather
than just saying, hey, listen, this is some experiences I've had,
or this is why I have gone down the path that I have, or
why I'm no longer a practicing Catholic, or whatever their change may be.
I like the way you put it that life does happen and people change,
but it's not fair. You have every right to say this is not what
I'm interested in or what I want to hear about. Having said that,
I will because you brought it up. I will say that I'm always concerned
about people who because both sides are a little extreme. You've got somebody who
seems like they're not living it, but they're just cramming it down other people's
throats, as you put it, and say that they're not really living it,
they're just talking about it. And then on the other hand, you
have somebody like yourself, you described that you, well, I believe that
I'm kind of living these tenets or these beliefs, and that concerns me as
well. I recently had a conversation d with someone who was saying, well,
I'm a good person, and isn't that all that matters is if you're
a good person and you live this way, And I said, no,
it really isn't. That's a part of it, but it's not the whole
thing. And they were having a hard time understanding that. Nike plain to
them that, for instance, in a marriage all good in all good marriages,
there's not infidelity. Right, So if you're gonna have a if if
you're gonna have a good marriage, it can't be sleeping around as well,
Right, that's not going to produce a good marriage. However, just because
you're not sleeping around doesn't mean you have a good marriage, right, that's
true. Okay, So okay, So my point here is that just because
you're living a good life doesn't mean that you're right with God or that you're
under you know, you're understanding or taking in the truths of God or what
God will have you do, just because you're not sinning. Uh, it
takes more to So the absence of doing bad doesn't mean that you're good.
It just means you're not doing those things. For first Secondly, there's other
parts of that good that are more important, and those are the reasons for
the laws or the reasons for what you're doing that is called good. So
in and the process of a law, there's the law. And I always
use this example because people remember it simply is the speed limit. Okay,
it's fifty five sixty five miles per hour on the highways. So that's the
law, and you could say I'm driving fifty five sixty five. But the
spirit of the law is what's important, and that is that driving in a
safe manner keeps people from dying or getting hurt. So people's people not getting
hurt is more important than the law, because that's what the law is all
about. So it's not why you're good or that you're being good, it's
why you're good. It's important. So if you're good just because well culture
says to do it this way, that's not really necessarily good. Because some
cultures can be wrong. If it's because God says to do it this way,
and God is the creator or the author of all creation, well then
you need to know more about God to understand the purpose of what you're doing
and why it's good. So that's why I say it's not just about being
good, because like the marriage analogy, you can have a bad marriage and
not be sleeping around with other people. However, you can't have a good
marriage and be sleeping around with people the old you know, uh, what
they call an informal logical fallacy. All police carry guns, but not everybody
that carries a gun is a police. So in this particular sense, yes,
all people who are living a life for God should be doing good things,
but not everybody who is doing good things is living a life for God.
So that's what I want you to think about, d because you called,
and so I want to I want to impart you with something because you're
the one brave enough to call and they're not here to defend themselves. However,
do I condone condone people Bible thumping and cramming their faith down in your
throat? Absolutely positively not. And if you told me you were an happy,
happy atheist, and you didn't want that. I think you absolutely should
have the right to be such. Well, what should I do then?
Do you feel that I should be bridging the gap to reconnect with them,
because that's what I should be doing, even though when they talk to me
I feel that it's evil coming at me. Well, if you genuinely miss
them, I think you can call them and say, you know what,
I genuinely miss you. I miss I miss this. I miss when you
tell jokes. I miss when we would bake together. I miss when we
would talk about books that we read that weren't the Bible. I missed that
when we talked about movies we watched. I miss the person I grew up
with. Uh And I just wanted you to know the reason why I'm missing
that, the reason why I've sacrificed that in my life, because every time
we get together it's about X, Y and Z, and I can't build
a relationship with that. That's not a relationship builder. Do you think that
I sat around the fire with the twelve and only talked about the Bible all
the time. No, that's just not the way things work. And in
this particular case, the best thing to do is to be very honest with
them and say, I know this may come across as hurtful, and it's
not that I am I'm not curious, and it's not that I don't want
to grow, but the way you're doing it to me, it offends me
and it makes me not want to see you. And if you tell me
that that's the way it's going to be, then I respect that and I'll
go on my merry way. But I do miss you and I do miss
us having normal interaction and you know those things, and just explain that to
them and if if they listen, they listen, and hopefully you know,
God will plant that seed in their heart will grow, and if they choose
to reject it, then you move on. Okay, you very much,
Well, thank you for calling D very brave of you and I and I
always like when when someone calls who's uh, you know, maybe being mistreated
by Christians or the church. It doesn't The fact that you find this to
be a safe enough place uh to bring your concerns really pleases me. And
it doesn't mean that I'm always going to agree with you. Doesn't mean that
in your eyes I will will always treat you nicely. Some people don't see
tough love or a firm response as nice, and I don't. I don't
understand that. But the fact that you called d pleases me, and that
you're very brave and stand your ground and truth will out on both sides.
Frank, welcome to the Jesus Christia. Hi Jesus. Thank you for your
show and I appreciate the enjoy especially all your analogies. Oh, thank you.
Well, you know what they're like. Yes, analogies are like I
got another one for you, Frank, what if there were no hypothetical questions?
Anyway? My question is something I have kind of a problem with.
I'm a believer in you, and I believe you are who you've said you
are. And I have a hard time thinking that people of other religions,
maybe especially Lady Abrahamic religions, are not in fact praying to the same God,
the Father God, that I pray to. And I wondered if does
God not here since the sincere prayer and intention of people of other religions,
And I have a hard time believing these people are not saved and go to
heaven as as many people sort of tak kind of an ugly thought. It
seems awkward to think that God, that God would work in that way,
doesn't it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, just that's I mean,
I have to live with my head in my rationale of things, no matter
what I hear or what I you know, it's hard to believe that.
I mean, there's so many good, good people, wonderful people, maybe
people better than someone. Some people will receive or savor received Jesus crisis their
savior. Okay, this is difficult for me to to rationalize, you know.
Okay, so let's ask ourselves those questions and think about the possible responses.
And there's the sincerity, the human touch on things and getting wrapped up
in the humanity of something is good. I mean, you're human. That's
the purpose of it is to think humanly about the way you interact with the
world and the way the world interacts with you and to you. It's legitimate
and fair to have differing opinions and thoughts out there. However, if you're
a math teacher, you wouldn't allow that same premise. You wouldn't say,
well, whatever you think two plus two equals is fine. If you were
a chemist, you wouldn't do that. A scientist, you wouldn't do that.
A baker, you wouldn't do that. Well, one cup, one
tablespoon. You know they both have flour in it. No, the recipe
comes out completely different, as does the equation, as does the chemical compound,
as does all of these things. That's just the way life works.
In truth, the emotional aspect of it is when you think, really,
what comes down to it is if you think that way, it's you're not
putting enough importance on the absolute nature of God. You're making God kind of
chameleon like. Well, God can look the other way on this. Well,
that's not up to Frank, that's up to God. Right, So
hold on tight. We got to take a quick break, but I want
you to hang on, Frank, because I want to explain some more things
in just a moment as to why that's different and why differing views may have
problems, and where that lands, and why that's not just an ugly part
of God we've been talking with Frank. Frank, your question essentially is,
you know, does God respect all religions? And I know you mentioned the
Abrahammick belief systems, but ultimately it's very human to go you know what,
God should be fair and kind of give somebody a pass here, give somebody
a pass there. But if you read through scripture, the whole problem lie
lays in the fact that everybody wanted to pass all the time, and the
people of Israel wanted to pass, and there was always well, can't we
just do this? Can't we just do that? There has to be a
right way. There has to be otherwise you can't. If there's no right
way, then you can't do anything wrong. And if you can't do anything
wrong that there's no morality. There's no otness, there's no ethos, there's
no mora's, there's no there's none of that because there's no implied should do
or implied should not do? Right. You kind of need that in life.
I think I do. But I think there are people and other religions
who are extremely moral and have, you know, very even strict moral codes,
and are very good people, and they're not contrary to even the ways
I act like a good Christian. Okay, should be Let's take it off
of good person because person is so ambiguous. It's really well, that means
you don't murder. Let's take it off that and say a good soldier.
Now, if you said somebody was being a good soldier, that would imply
specific understandings and no longer get out of the ambiguity of oh, well,
they're a good person, because nobody wants to judge what a good person is.
That's where the problem lies. That's where your humanity comes in. Frank,
you don't want to judge another person for being human. But God can.
And so if I say soldier, if I put one modifier, or
a good cook or a good chef, and all those those those things could
be subjective. If you say good baker, not really subjective because bakery is
more science based in the fact that it's it's very measurement focused, in chemistry
focused. But if you go through these things and you say, oh,
they're good this or get it. Once you add a modifier, you feel
it's okay to define whether they're good at it or not. They're a good
mechanic, they're a good driver. But when you say good person is where
you get oh, I don't feel I don't feel okay about defining that,
but God can. God can say it's you're not a good person because you
don't murder someone. There's more to it than that God is the author of
those rules to begin with, so God can say when they're applied properly or
not. Now you get into the different faiths, Yes, it seems very
awkward and rude as a human being to go there wrong. But you brought
up the word sincere a couple of times, and and you can be sincere
and be sincerely wrong. And so that applies to many things, including religion.
And it's not about it's not about the belief. It's about what you
reject. And if you're rejecting God on God's rules, God's wants, God's
demands, then you're wrong. So it's not about while Christians are better than
Muslims, or Muslims are better than Jews, it's not about that. That's
a human desire to want to say my club's better than yours. You separate
the club factor. It's not about that. It's God saying this is how
you get in my house. Now, if that's like me saying that it's
weird that when you go to your house, Frank, that people have to
take their shoes off, that's like saying, well, that's wrong. Why
would no, it's Frank's house. If you want your visitors take their shoes
off. That's right in your house. Correct, correct, Because whether it's
you know, some silly reason, maybe you've got white carpet. I've never
understood white people get white carpet and then nobody's allowed to walk on it.
But let's say you have white carpet, Frank, and you don't want anybody
walking with their soiled feet on it. You say, you take your shoes
off. That's your rule. Now you may not feel comfortable telling everybody that
that's wrong, but when it comes to your house and who gets in your
house, that's okay. And I'm saying, when it comes to my house,
which is Heaven, there's one way in. That's the understand who I
am. That's important. Now you people say, oh, so you could
be a murder and do whatever, and all you got to understand is Jesus
is God. No, because if you understand that Jesus is God, you're
not going to be out murdering. So people of other religions who have indeed
heard your name and know about you and reject it and reject it are in
fact not safe. And that's the that's the story for them. Well,
let me put it to you this way. If if there's a grocery store
at the end of main Street and you tell them there's a grocery store at
the end of main street and they reject that, will they ever get to
the grocery store at the end of main street? Why is that difficult?
That is not about It's that people keep wanting to put the names in the
faces of these religions so that it pulls on your heartstrings. You go,
these are people. Of course, there are many cults out there, and
I'm not talking about the mainstream religion. I'm talking about many factions and cults
filled with good people, but they're horrible, horrible belief systems that are damaging
to those individuals. And that's like, do you want a sincere doctor or
do you want an educated and a doctor who's efficient. I mean, well,
I really really thought I could do brain surgery. I really believed it.
I really believed it. That's not what you want. And so it's
not just about those things. And I know it sounds nasty because now because
people think, well, now it's Frank saying that his religion's right. No
truth is truth is truth. When you say two plus two equals four,
that's not oh, Frank says his math is right. No, that's two
plus two equals four. Okay, So here we have I believe, accept
and believe everything you're saying, and when they get go, I believe in
you. Now for me personally, I don't seem to have any particular you
know, impetus to go out and evangelize. I feel that if people have
heard your name and God knows you're you're you're everywhere and in news and in
churches and schools and everywhere, I don't I don't feel the need to go
out and everybody I meet say, listen, you know I'm a Christian and
this is this is it and you should be and you know. So I
don't know how to how to deal with that. You know, well,
Frank, let me tell you something. You drive up in a beautiful car.
What's the first thing? And another guy says, hey, wow,
that's beautiful. Where'd you get it? How fast is it? Wants to
know about it immediately. If you lose weight, you come into work losing
thirty pounds, what's first thing? Someone says, Oh, my goodness,
how'd you do it? Someone who people know your life, they exactly and
It doesn't mean that you shouldn't share it. It means that sometimes I hound
Christians for being so darn lazy because they prefer to talk about it rather than
do it in a way that inspires other people to ask questions. One Peter
three fifteen says, to sanctify Jesus's Lord in your heart, be ready to
give a defense, to give an answer to those who ask about the hope
that lies within you, with meekness and reverence. Now, now that is
such a beautiful synopsis of the whole thing. First, it's about God.
God's got to be first in your life individually. Second, live in a
way that people want to ask you about who you are and why you are
the way you are, and be ready to give them a legitimate answer when
they ask, and always do it in meekness and reverence. So being kind
and respectful. And when Christians we heard calls earlier would get people that are
being mean spirited or saying, well, this is the truth. So I
got to pound it. Could you imagine if a teacher did that, the
kid would reject it. Yeah, So it's a matter of finding a balanced
way, Frank, to express these things. But I guarantee. People desire
to know truth. They do. Everyone does. And if they see you
reacting to something truly, because remember, it's not what people say, it's
not how they act, it's how they react to something that really shows you
the character of who they are. And because they're taking off guard and its
spur the moment and they're reacting. And and so when they see you react
painful things or through things in your life or whatever you're going through, and
you react to a certain way, they want to know, how can you
How can you deal with that that way? Or such great loss or pain?
They will ask. You are a walking marketing machine for your faith if
you live it properly. If you don't, then you've got to talk about
it like those like an infomercial. But wait, there's more, and it's
licens and dices and and everything else. And they keep adding more information because
they can't live live up to it, and that demonstrative kind of execution of
your life they can't do. So they talk about it for thirty minutes until
somebody goes and buys it. The at the phone number, and just what
you're talking about now, I've been picturing some friends of mine who I admire
very much for Christians, you know, and that's exactly leave the picture.
They're just great people, the wonderful people. They don't come on strong about
it, you know, and their their lives are wonderful and I admire them.
And there that's it. There the advertisements for you. Yeah, no,
nobody had to market uh my my birth. There was no marketing.
There was no Twitter. Nobody was blogging about me when I was born,
and people still came from far away just to see the birth. There was
no there was no. Yeah, yes, not not in this form,
absolutely so, So there's not. Everybody assumes everything needs to be packaged and
put a spin on it, but really you don't need to market food and
water. You don't. People need to eat, they need to drink.
They will, they will seek it out. Animals seek out water. They
know, they move their entire herd to follow where the water goes. They
will go. They will follow. Truth. It's when you start to package
it too much or put a spin on it that you make people think,
oh, you know, what's the hook, what's the catch? And then
it becomes a problem. Frank, what a wonderful, wonderful call, and
what an amazing and gentle spirit you have and I'm happy to have talked with
you. Joanna. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning, I'm
sorry, good hello, Jesus. I have a question. As an Episcopalian.
We just started well about two months ago. Our bishop added a Spanish
Mass actually too, because we're growing, it's growing so fast. We actually
have people who sit into vestry. I'm taking if those people come, I'm
taking my money and going elsewhere. What do I say and what can I
do? I mean, how can I be loving those people? Are they
referring to people that speak Spanish? Spanish? Yes, and hey, I
go so that I can improve my Spanish. It's a little rusty, but
so that's why I go. And because he's so on fire for the Lord
that it's it's a blessing to go. So what can I say to those
who object? You get people who are who feel that the church having services,
they have English services as well. Yeah, so we have three,
Okay, So this is just a few services that they're doing as a as
an outreach to the Hispanic community. Yeah. Because where I came from,
in San Jose, California, that's where the biggest growth is our lady,
while Louve Parish has over five thousand members. Well, you know, it's
it seems uh, it seems a little silly. There's what do I say
to somebody who's who's has racial discomfort. Yeah, I guess that's the best
way to put it. Well, tip your hat and let them go their
way. You know what's funny is Joanna, that you can find churches that
have electric instrument services and then they have just organ services. There are some
that have acoustic services and they will tell you well, this is for to
try and get some of the younger people more interested, or they have younger
topics, or maybe a younger priest leading, or a younger bishop leading,
or someone who is the pastor overseeing might be. You know, they have
youth groups, they have all kinds of different outreaches. And there are many
churches throughout the country that teach and preach in different languages throughout the day,
whether it be Korean or what have you, or Spanish to super serve their
community because of the makeup of the community. That may offend some. That
may offend some, and it's their right to be offended. However, really
it's not a very loving attitude. If to go into it saying, well,
if they change the entire church service, you know, all services to
Spanish, well, then you get up and you go to one that's English
because it's no the church. Well, because the church is now saying that
we don't serve you English speakers, and and that I could see would be
upsetting. But even in radio, you can find radio that is kind of
Spanglish, kind of half Spanish, half English. You can find English speaking
radio, you can find Spanish radio, you can find Korean radio. You
can find all kinds of different language radio in the United States, as it
pertains to a certain geographic area. And although the language of the United States
most certainly is English, to the chagrin of some, that doesn't mean that
you can't super serve certain parts of your your community. There are schools that
teach primarily in French in the United States. That's because that's the community that
they're trying to serve. So it's really based on a form of bigotry.
It's just somebody wanting to get upset. If it's really infringing on you and
it's no longer serving you at the church, then get up and go but
if not, enjoy the English services and let other people enjoy it in Spanish.
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