You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. If you look around,
it's interesting how in life some things change you see change all the time,
and some things don't seem to ever change no matter how long it's been.
Certain things seem to stay the same. In my day two thousand years ago,
the term tax collector was a pejorative of sorts, almost a dirty word,
synonymous with sinner. I bet if you went around and asked today what
people thought about the tax collector, they'd probably still think that the word or
the term tax collector is synonymous with sinner. As tax day approaches, I'm
sure you're not pleased or thinking how thoughts about tax collectors. You're not pleased
about the thought of handing your hard earned money over to the government. But
how do you think God feels about that? How do you think God feels
about taxes? You may think God opposes you paying taxes because you read verses
like Matthew eighteen fifteen through seventeen that says, if your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he
listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not
listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may
be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to
listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to
listen to even the church, let him be to you as a gentile and
tax collector. How could you could you not think of tax collectors as outcasts
when you read a verse like that, That's one of many. You can
read many in scripture where it seems that tax collectors. Even I was mocked
by some, but by saying that I ate with tax collectors, that I
broke bread with them, somehow automatically made me bad. However, in scripture,
tax collectors weren't told to stop collecting taxes. When the opportunity arose to
be able to teach them something, they were told to do it in a
particular way. And you can read this in scripture. While John the Baptist
was speaking to the crowds, he was approached by a tax collector who wished
to be baptized. Many people of different walks of life would come up to
John the Baptist to be baptized. Luke three twelve and thirteen says this tax
collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, speaking to John teacher,
what shall we do? And John replied to them, collect no more
than you are authorized to do. Collect no more than you are authorized to
do. That is what John the Baptist taught. If taxes were somehow inherently
sinful, or they were a sin just by the very nature of being taxes,
then the advice that John the Baptist gave in this case would not be
godly at all. This would have been a perfect time for John to condemn
what the tax collector was doing, but he didn't. All he said was
collect no more than you're authorized to do. Be fair about it, be
balanced about it. Don't use it as an opportunity to swindle somebody or to
squeeze more than you should. But just because you despise paying taxes of any
kind, whether it's federal, state, property, or sales tax, doesn't
mean that they aren't important, or that they're somehow not in line with the
will of God. There's a place for them. God knows that there's a
place where taxes are needed. The more you delve into scripture, the more
you'll see God is not against you. Paying honest taxes. As a matter
of fact, God commands you to pay honest taxes to the government. Romans
thirteen to one through seven says, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.
For there's no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that
exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is
rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgments
onto themselves. For rulers hold no terror of those who do right, but
for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of
the one in authority, then do what is right and you will not be
condemned. You will be commended, for the one in authority is God's servant
for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for the
rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants,
agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary
to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also
so as a matter of conscience. This this is why you pay taxes,
For the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing Give to
everyone what you owe them, And this is important. Listen to this last
part of verse seven, give to everyone what you owe them. If you
owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue, If respect,
then respect, If honor, then honor. And it's very important there that
it says, if you're resisting governing authorities, you in fact are resisting God
because God instituted them, and you will be judged for it. And even
when Ponscious Pilot and I were talking at my arrest prior to being crucified,
he was trying to get me just to give it all up and just just
say these words, do this, jump through these hoops, and we'll let
you go. It'll be fine. And when I would respond in the negative,
he looked at me and said, don't you know that I could crucify
you right now? And my response was, what don't you know that that
authority comes to you from the Father. Even misused authority is still from God.
The key is for all parties, whether you're a tax collector taxpayer,
to act appropriately and honestly according to the laws when it comes to collecting,
when it comes to paying, the key is to do it righteously and honestly.
And does that mean that you are to take a deep gulp and give
every cent up. No, because the laws are there in your favor as
well. The laws are there for you to take honest deductions to find where
the balance is in all things. You're perfectly within your right legally, spiritually
to take advantage of tax deductions that are legal, tax breaks, tax shelters,
as long as they're honest and they're legally allowed. But it's the balance
of all these things that are important. You may be frustrated with the government
at times. That's okay, and that's normal, but there are many things
that you see. Maybe not every pothole is filled. Maybe you're not happy
with some of the systems, whether it be the schools or the libraries or
what have you. And hopefully you use your voice to make change or to
raise concerns. But being a part of a community, being a part of
a system that works, means sometimes paying into it and being a part of
it that way, So you can take the time, hire somebody and learn
as much as you can about the tax system to find out how it can
work in your benefit as well. But if you try and look spiritually to
scripture. If you're trying to find that loophole in scripture that says it's okay
not to pay taxes or somehow to lie or do any of these things,
you're not going to find it. You can look high and low if you
wish, and try and find that one loophole that will get you out of
this time, which I know is not a fun time. But you won't
ever find a place where God says that it's okay to not be a part
of the society this way, or to somehow reject the governing bodies. I
realize, with tax date approaching early next week, that it's not fun to
think about taxes. That it's very easy to get upset and want to raise
your fist and say I'm sick of paying taxes. I don't want to pay
for anything anymore. I feel like I'm being bled dry. But God does
tell you in scripture that taxes are important. God does tell you in scripture
that it's important for you to pay taxes. God says that if in Romans
thirteen one through seven, that if you're not paying taxes, you're not doing
the right thing. You're rebelling against the very authorities that God put there,
and that you should give to everyone what you owe them, whether it's taxes
or revenue, or respect or honor, that you should pass those things along.
Taxes have always been a hot button issue, and there have been many
that tried to use it to their own political or even spiritual gain. In
my day, the Pharisees tried to trap me by asking me how I felt
about taxes. Of course, they were trying to get me in a position
where I would offend somebody or the other. See if they asked me how
I felt about taxes, their whole hope was how am I going to answer.
If I answer one way, that it's going to offend the Roman government.
If I answer in a different way, then I might offend the people.
Matthew twenty two fifteen through twenty two talks about this and the Pharisees coming
out with their their plans to trap me. They sent their disciples to me.
It came and they said, teacher, we know you are a man
of integrity, that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
You aren't swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are
listen to the way they they sweet talk the situation and try and set me
up. Tell us, then, verse seventeen, what is your opinion?
Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Verse eighteen
goes on to say that I knew that their intent was not pure. I
knew that their intent was trying to set me up. So I said,
you hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin
you use for paying taxes. And they brought me the coin, and then
I asked them whose image is this and whose inscription? Caesar? They replied.
Then I said to them, so give back to Caesar what is Caesar's
and give to God what is God's. When they heard this, they were
amazed, and they left me and they went away. So with tax season
here as it rolls around every year, and I know that it can be
upsetting because of what you have to pay out. Remember Matthew seventeen twenty four
through twenty seven. After Jesus and his desciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors
of the two dragma temple tax came to Peter and asked, doesn't your teacher
pay the temple tax? And you know what, he replied, Yes,
he does. Mike, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning,
Lamb of God, Good morning. I love your show. I've been a
follower since the very early days, and I've had the luck to make one
call before. So I'll get right to the question. I don't have any
doubts about really who you are and what you did. I have a small
identity question. Your full true identity has always been something I've questioned, and
not in a bad way, but only as as we were advised to do
sek wisdom, as if digging for buried treasure, you know. And I've
dug a lot of holes happily in the quest for whatever I need to have
satisfied in my heart. And there's always just been some questions raised by I've
had Jehovah's witnesses in my family that I've grow loved and respect deeply, and
I think you know the key difference they always hold and with the mainstream Christian
thought, And you know, some of the ideas have just gotten to me.
And one thing that's got to me most recently was and it's not new,
I'm not a unique but are you fully in line with the Father with
the powers meaning omniscience and those things you know, And I think of your
journey in the desert for forty days, when I think of your meditation and
your deep prayer, and I think of you know, it's been referred to
before as the moment of doubt and pain on the cross, when you stream
out to the Father. I just have this deep feeling that you know,
your full humanness maybe is places some sort of limits on your godliness. I
just wonder if you could please comment on that a little bit and help me
out. Well, yes and no, I mean, the power is there
Matthew twenty eight eighteen, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,
all power is given unto me in heaven and in Earth. There's no limitations
in power. What there is is submission, and being in submission to the
Father well on earth absolutely takes place. It has to because of the limitations
of flesh, not the limitations of the spirit. So when you're dealing with
the big fancy theological term, the hyposthetic union between the flesh and the humanity
and the deity that's unique to me, you're battling with two things. You
have to ask every question twice. In the spirit you're going to get one
answer, and in the flesh you're going to get another answer, not because
the limitation of the spirit, but the limitation of the body. You understand.
I'll put it this way, Umm, can you ride a bicycle?
Yeah? Okay? Can you drive a car? Yeah? Can you ride
a bicycle while you're driving a car? Okay? But you wouldn't say because
if I asked you, can you ride a bicycle and you're in a car,
you wouldn't say no. Say well, when I'm not in a car,
I can ride the bicycle, but in a car, I can't ride
the bicycle. So likewise, in the flesh there are things that can't be
done because of the flesh. It's not a limitation of the spirit. So
that Jehovah's witnesses would want to limit the spirit and not the flesh, And
that's where they're wrong. The limitation is not in the spirit, which is
identical to the Father in that sense, in the power in all the Omni
attributes, but it is in the flesh that while in the flesh, the
limitation is in the flesh, not the deity. So they they would say,
well, you can't ride a bicycle ever, because you're in you know,
you said that you couldn't will you're in the car. But the differential
is that, well, in the flesh, the flesh is limited and limits
certain those things can't be everywhere at once. But in the spirit absolutely can
be everywhere it once. And that's where the confusion strikes, is that union
between the two. So yes, in the flesh, there's limitations in the
flesh, never limitations in the spirit or the deity of Christ. Ever,
Laura, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi, Hello Jesus. Well,
hello, how can I help you? Hi, I'll have a question
for you that involves my boyfriend. Okay, he's not a believer and he
was raised in a basically a family that has no religious face background at all.
So I was raised in a Christian home and I've been trying to like
bring him to church and talk to him about God, and his questions are
always, well, if God is real, then why does he show himself
to me? And I guess I've asked him to, like, you know,
ask God for something, but then it's kind of ludicrous because then he
asked God for like, Okay, if God's real, then let him put
a hundred bucks in my hand right now, and then it doesn't happen,
and he's like, see, God's not real. So I guess the question
that I'm asking is how would you approach someone who basically has no framework for
understanding or for a faith in Christ or oh boy, you're barking up a
strange tree. This is not how you have started a relationship. You don't
start it backwards. And I'm telling you this, and I know that it
stinks to hear, but Scripture when it talks about this concept of being unequally
yoked in tewod Corinthians six fourteen, it's talking about how you guys aren't going
to ever have anything in common for the most part. I mean, the
very core of who you are is going to be different from one another.
So I want you to know that if you're going to get into a relationship
with him, take him as is, don't ever ever assume that he's going
to become a Christian right and know that there will be problems, and probably
prefer that you don't have children, because if you bring children into it,
even though if he says he doesn't care, all it will be is mommy
saying one thing to the child, and then Daddy's saying something else. So
keep these things in mind. I know it's hard when you're in love and
you're feeling all those wonderful feelings, but when life becomes practical and isn't as
flowery, it gets incredibly difficult. So just know what you're signing up for.
Having said that, there's not going to be anything that you can give
to him. You're not his teacher. It just won't fall down that way.
He doesn't see you in that role. He doesn't respect your beliefs.
Why would he respect your teaching. So it's very difficult. The whole concept
of tempting your Lord God is ludicrous. To sit there and go, well,
put this in my hand. There's a lot of things that he doesn't
see that he believes in. You can't put wind into a Petrie dish to
study it. You don't see wind. You see the reaction to wind,
which is the leafs rustling, or these types of things are the grass blowing.
So if you really want to ask him something profound, I suppose you
could ask him how he knows he loves you. Because love, you can't
see it. Doesn't exist. There's some scientists that will say, yes,
certain parts of your brain react chemically to somebody, but that's not really love.
That's a physiological response to something, whether it be touch or excitement or
any sort of contact or stimulation. So love can't be studied or understood or
put in a Petrie dish either. It's really nonsensical the concept of love.
It's easier just to divide biologically if you were created in such a way.
And because of the time, I'm going to ask you to hold on real
tight because I want to talk to you some more. Is that okay,
Laura, that's fine. Okay, let's hold on for just a second.
When we come back, I want to give you a couple more ideas that
might help you as you go down a path. It's a little sketchy to
begin with. We were talking with Laura. Laura, you're still there.
Yeah, thank you, Thanks for holding on. Okay. So it's a
difficult situation and I really need you to know that. Actually, can I
ask you one more question that has to do with this? Sure? You
know. Here's this is the whole crux of the matter for me. Is
is there any hope for people that aren't raised in Christian homes, because now
I'm beginning to wonder if how well how do people in general come to faith
in Christ when there is no background for it. On the Road of Damascus,
like I always, always Laura, always hope. That's not what I
want you to see. What I want you to see in the frustration that
comes in relationships is the assumption that it's going to come through you. What
what what you do need? My producer, Neil wo who loves me and
has his own issues, that's for sure, but he he's married to an
atheist now, yet he serves this program and serves me in many different ways.
And you know, some people might think it was a really bad choice.
He would probably agree, although they they work through it. They have
a system that works for them now. So there's always hope in all situations.
Just God's standard is always going to be what's best. And if you
go into this with eyes kind of half closed, there's gonna be problems.
If you go into it thinking that there's gonna be a happy ending, there
may not be if you go into it thinking that there you know that He's
gonna love. When you go to church on Sunday. That's that's not gonna
be the way it is. He may be fine at first, but sooner
or later he's going to go, you know what, I miss having breakfast
with you on Sundays, or I miss this, and it's going to become
very difficult for you to have even your own faith. So that's why I
focus on that now. As far as is he capable, of course he
is. Sometimes it seems that the atheist or somebody who's raised in a humanist
home is easier to show about the truth of salvation than it is somebody who's
raised in a counter belief system a religion, because the atheist almost isn't holding
on to something, their hands almost open if you visualize it, rather than
closed around something, and it's a little easier to explain. But that's not
always the case, but there always is hope. Your goal and kind of
position and role in all of this is to be Laura, is to serve
God as Laura, to love God and be unwavering the minute you waver This
is also it makes it quite difficult is that you don't have a partner that
understands when you backslide or when you're in doubt they capitalize on it, and
so your strength is different. It's you don't have the community. Plus if
for a woman, it makes it even more difficult because the leader of the
house, as far as the faith goes in scripture, is the man.
So if the man's not leading that that spiritual is if if he's not being
you guys are partners in the household. But if he's not being that spiritual
leader in the household, it's difficult. And so these things start to battle
a little bit. But as far as it coming from somewhere else, yeah,
he'll probably see something, know something, come to you and ask questions
at times, or maybe not. Sometimes men can believe it or not get
stubborn and and don't want to hear it from anyone. There's all kinds of
variables. It's just a matter of, you know, how far if he
really if he's just asking silly questions like how come God doesn't make a hundred
dollars pop into my hand? That's ridiculous, then he really doesn't care and
really doesn't want to know. He wants to play with your faith, wants
to make you feel stupid about your faith. But if he's really asking intelligent
questions and wanting to know how things happen or why they happen, or any
of this. Then he's going to legitimately be searching, and therefore he will
legitimately find an answer. Do you think he'll I think he'd ever be so
bold as to call up here. Yeah, definitely have him call up,
Okay, get him to call up and if he has real questions, we'll
give him real answers. All right, well, I will have him do
that, Okay, But always have hope and always have faith, Laura.
It's it's not a lost cause. I just don't want to see you to
get into something that's built on a fantasy of love rather than responsible you know,
balance and love. H So just be strong. I appreciate your perspective,
and it's it's been tough. I mean we've been together for about five
years now, so yeah, it's you know, there's some things that we
degrede at and then there's other things that we don't, So you know,
I guess it's a matter of priorities for me. So yeah, it's just
if you could imagine if you were both contractors and one of you had a
ruler with measurements on it, and the other one didn't. How difficult it
would be to constantly try and build something because you're going, no, this
is a standard, and this is the standard by which you used to build
this, and he's going, I'm just gonna eye it and kind of guess,
and there's there's no there's no structure between the two. He may say
it's science for him, but that's not true. Science is observational, you
know. I find though, that he has like more base Christian values than
I do in certain ways, like for example, honesty and like truth telling.
He's very like I've struggled with that more than I think he has.
And that's something that I don't know. I find just characteristics in him that
are stronger and sometimes than what I see in my Christian friends. Absolutely,
you've put your finger on it too. And this is something that's confusing to
the Christian community and also to the non believing or humanist community, because humanists
are wonderful, Incredibly, the majority of them are wonderful people with great ethos
and structure to why they believe what they believe. It's just it's the practice
of it. It comes from nombwhere nowhere, so it's they practice it because
it's culturally right, and that will only take you so far, you know,
because culturally right in you know, Nazi Germany was different than culturally right
today. So there's differences that where it will break down. But absolutely there
are wonderful humanists out there that do great things, and our humanitarians and all
of these things. It's not about that. There is more to the truth
than just the application of it, you know, kind of as a shell
or the outside shell. They don't necessarily know where that comes from or what
the purpose is. And as we've said on the show many times before,
the purpose of the law is more important than the law itself, because the
purpose of the law is what you're protecting. If there's something to be protected,
then that's more important than what you're doing to protect it. And people
get confused with those things, and it's a long path and it's not one
that I recommend, and I asked that you go into it with a strong
head and being reasonable and not just caught up in the fantasy. But ultimately,
the truth is you don't respect his beliefs and he doesn't respect yours.
That's what it comes down to, and you both both might see each other
as being attractive, and you both might see each other as being fun,
but really that's going to you know, fall apart at some point, and
you're gonna have to trust each other's beliefs and you don't. You're gonna have
to trust, you know, each other's faith. And he has a faith
in the unknown on one sense of things, and you have a faith in
the unknown and another sense of things. And it can get very, very
cumbersome. So just keep those things in mind. And if he's bold enough
to call up, if he really has questions, please have them call up
and reference our conversation. Kf I AM six forty on demand