Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. One
Speaker 1: Peter five eight, be of sober spirit. Be on the
Speaker 1: alert your adversary. The devil prowls around like a roaring
Speaker 1: lion seeking someone to devour. Now why this matters or
Speaker 1: why I bring it up at all? It kind of
Speaker 1: points to how the enemy works and what the devil
Speaker 1: does to get in to your life, to get a
Speaker 1: foothold in your life. As you could imagine that one
Speaker 1: Peter five to eight verse that I read to you
Speaker 1: is the imagery if you've ever seen a lion on
Speaker 1: the prowl, that kind of moving back and forth, waiting
Speaker 1: to pounce. But they wait for that perfect, perfect moment,
Speaker 1: as does the enemy. And there are things that you
Speaker 1: do every day that open up little doors or windows
Speaker 1: into your life. And the things with spirituality that people
Speaker 1: don't understand. And something that makes it difficult to even
Speaker 1: understand what I do and Christianity is that I don't
Speaker 1: come barging into your life. You see, the door to
Speaker 1: your heart is one way. You have the key, you
Speaker 1: have the lock, you have the knob. Everything is in
Speaker 1: your hands. Who you open it for is up to you. Fame, fortune, power,
Speaker 1: what money, whatever it is that you think you want that,
Speaker 1: if you open up that door for that, if you
Speaker 1: say it all costs, no matter what it takes, that's
Speaker 1: when you welcome in the enemy. Ephesians four twenty seven says, simply,
Speaker 1: do not give the devil an opportunity. Don't give any foothold. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not about finding the devil in every nook and
Speaker 1: cranny in your life. It's about seeing the consequences of
Speaker 1: you inviting the devil into your life. It's not that
Speaker 1: the devil's going to show up pitchfork in hand, sharpening
Speaker 1: his horns and breathing fire and saying so uh, guiding
Speaker 1: plans tonight. I just kind of hoping we can hang out.
Speaker 1: It's not how it works. Tewod Corinthians eleven fourteen says,
Speaker 1: no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel
Speaker 1: of light. It's very easy to be distracted by the
Speaker 1: things of the world and to want them in such
Speaker 1: a way that you're willing to just crack open the
Speaker 1: window or crack open the door to get noticed or
Speaker 1: to move ahead. And that's all it takes. That little
Speaker 1: opening ushers in a world of pain. If you find
Speaker 1: parents to say I just want to be a best
Speaker 1: friend or a buddy to my child. That is a
Speaker 1: lazy parent that doesn't want the accountability that comes with
Speaker 1: being a parent. And as a believer, when you proclaim
Speaker 1: Christ as your savior, when you say that I am
Speaker 1: at the helm in your life, it is so important
Speaker 1: that you don't open these windows to the enemy because
Speaker 1: he wants you the most. He wants nothing more than
Speaker 1: to take someone that has faith and has proclaimed that
Speaker 1: faith in public and drag them through the mud. His
Speaker 1: desire is to destroy, to destroy everything you have, to
Speaker 1: make it look like you're going to get every wish
Speaker 1: you could possibly wish for, only to use those things
Speaker 1: against you. It's so you know, there's been books and
Speaker 1: television shows and movies written about these very things, searching
Speaker 1: after those goals. The entire Twilight Zone series is basically
Speaker 1: based upon the misconception of what you want and what
Speaker 1: you get in life. All you want is to be
Speaker 1: alone and to read. Well, then you lose your glasses, right,
Speaker 1: they get broken. I saw an episode yesterday where it
Speaker 1: involved the time machine and a man that was brought
Speaker 1: from the eighteen hundreds, right as he was about to
Speaker 1: be hanged. He was brought into modern society. The whole
Speaker 1: thing ends with another criminal cornering that eighteen hundred criminal,
Speaker 1: killing him and then putting himself in the time machine
Speaker 1: that he didn't even know what it was, and ending
Speaker 1: up going back to the eighteen hundreds at the exact
Speaker 1: moment and was hanged. Now, it's easy to sit back
Speaker 1: and watch all the pieces unfold, but when it's your life,
Speaker 1: when you're actually as my producer Neil often says, when
Speaker 1: you're in the pool, it's hard to see what's going
Speaker 1: on in the waters. That's why they have lifeguards outside
Speaker 1: of the pool. And I know it's not fun to
Speaker 1: talk about the devil. It just sounds like bad Sunday
Speaker 1: Morning radio, actually is what it's said, and that's the
Speaker 1: last thing we want to sound like. But you have
Speaker 1: to know that the enemy is real, and the enemy
Speaker 1: plays a part in your life, and the size of
Speaker 1: that part is up to you, and how you deal
Speaker 1: with it is up to you. These spiritualists and these
Speaker 1: people that are so they seem so open minded about things,
Speaker 1: are only opening themselves up to every possibility the enemy
Speaker 1: has for them. But as a person of faith, as
Speaker 1: someone who proclaims Christianity. You are to defend yourself against
Speaker 1: these things. How I'll tell you, the enemy is one
Speaker 1: of those things that a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: whether to make real to make fake. It's this cartoon character, pitchfork,
Speaker 1: this image of the devil, Satan, the enemy, the deceiver,
Speaker 1: the destroyer, the liar. Ephesians four to twenty seven says,
Speaker 1: do not give the devil an opportunity. That there are
Speaker 1: things that you do in your life where you just
Speaker 1: crack open the door. You think, ah, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna let the enemy in. And as believers,
Speaker 1: you need to protect yourself because he's waiting for opportunities.
Speaker 1: And it's not about these folks that say that the
Speaker 1: devil's under you know, the devil made me do it.
Speaker 1: Devil's under every rock in your life. But the devil
Speaker 1: is real. And there are opportunities that you make even
Speaker 1: easier for the enemy to get in your life. But
Speaker 1: you have the control there. It says in scripture that
Speaker 1: Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He's not
Speaker 1: going to come to you right in your face and
Speaker 1: say I'm the devil. Let me in because you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: James four seven says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil,
Speaker 1: and he will flee from you. Resist, resist the things
Speaker 1: of the world, Resist the things of the enemy. Resist
Speaker 1: those things that would have you going against your moral
Speaker 1: code and what you believe. Romans sixteen twenty says, the
Speaker 1: God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Speaker 1: The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. That
Speaker 1: is what ends up at the end. Until that time,
Speaker 1: you are to put on the full armor of God.
Speaker 1: When you have a moment, go to Ephesians six and
Speaker 1: read read about that armor and what you are to
Speaker 1: do to embolden yourself, to strengthen yourself, to protect yourself
Speaker 1: from the enemy, because he's looking for those openings, especially
Speaker 1: if you proclaim Christianity to be your faith. He's looking
Speaker 1: for that opportunity, that opening to come in and to
Speaker 1: destroy as only the devil does.
Speaker 2: Ron.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jesus Christ. Show hi you right, I'm
Speaker 1: good sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 3: I had a question about Exodus when they're in the plagues, when.
Speaker 2: Guy had killed all of Pharaoh's horses.
Speaker 3: Yes, my question is how did Pharaoh then.
Speaker 2: Chase Moses to the Red Sea, where to get those horses?
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't state This is often confused because of
Speaker 1: the way that it reads. It actually talks about the
Speaker 1: cattle in the field and the horses, and some people
Speaker 1: missed that part. It's talking about the cattle in the field.
Speaker 1: The pharaohs and the kings did not keep their animals
Speaker 1: in the field the same way. So if it was
Speaker 1: his horses and these are the ones that carry his
Speaker 1: chariots and the like, they aren't the ones that are
Speaker 1: in the field. Often the term all is used that
Speaker 1: way as well. In scripture, you'll find that the term all,
Speaker 1: just like in modern day, is sometimes talking about a
Speaker 1: great majority of, or the greater part of, or all
Speaker 1: of a particular category, and not necessarily all, as in
Speaker 1: the total sum of So in the context, if you
Speaker 1: read it over again and you take a look, you'll
Speaker 1: see that it's talking about the cattle in the field specifically,
Speaker 1: and the horses and the oxen and that. And when
Speaker 1: it's referring to all, it's not referring to all the
Speaker 1: total sum of all the animals. It's referring And you
Speaker 1: see this too, because it's even separating the Israeli animals
Speaker 1: and all of this. So it's in context. It's not
Speaker 1: all of the animals, it's all of the animals in
Speaker 1: the field in that particular category. And therefore, when you
Speaker 1: come across it, some people think, oh, well, it seems
Speaker 1: like a contradiction. It is not. It is a category
Speaker 1: distinction as to what's going on, and in this case,
Speaker 1: it's talking about the cattles in the field and not
Speaker 1: the pharaohs. All of the Pharaoh's true cattle and war
Speaker 1: horses that would be separate and installs and stables and
Speaker 1: not in the field as the rest. James, Welcome to
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 2: Good morning, How are you?
Speaker 1: I am well, James, how are you fine?
Speaker 2: I'm a driver. I don't get to attend church on Sunday,
Speaker 2: but I attend through the radio. Well, very thankful for
Speaker 2: your show.
Speaker 1: We sure would love to have you in church. But
Speaker 1: I'm happy you're joining us.
Speaker 2: My question deals with and it may be a green
Speaker 2: thing on my part that I haven't been able to overcome,
Speaker 2: but I'm an early Christians, so I'm struggling with a
Speaker 2: lot of questions. But the one on my mind today
Speaker 2: is uh, justification between someone who say, let's has had
Speaker 2: money all their lives, fancy cars, all the girls, you know,
Speaker 2: all the good stuff, and becomes a Christian and gets
Speaker 2: their rewards at heaven compared to a person who has
Speaker 2: been poor and desolate all their life, who also has
Speaker 2: their reward in heaven. It just it seems like one
Speaker 2: is getting the rewards on heaven and earth and one
Speaker 2: isn't it. I just I wondered if you could touch
Speaker 2: on the I don't know the fairness of it. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's not supposed to be fair.
Speaker 1: Well, it's excellent. I mean you you bring up a
Speaker 1: lot of really good points, James, and I know that
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem fair, But it's also perspective as well.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of qualifiers in your question, meaning that, uh,
Speaker 1: you've got to kind of qualify one what is fair too.
Speaker 1: You got to qualify what's good and what's what's you know,
Speaker 1: what are the rewards, because one reward to somebody is
Speaker 1: not a reward to another person. Ye, So the assumption
Speaker 1: that having wine women in song as a reward, I
Speaker 1: understand where it comes from. But uh, that's more you know,
Speaker 1: country music theology than it is Bible theology. There the
Speaker 1: key is My producer Neil always jokes that he can
Speaker 1: teach a man to get any woman he once, as
Speaker 1: long as the guy can learn to want the women
Speaker 1: he can get. And so when it comes to life,
Speaker 1: God wants you to see life differently, not to see
Speaker 1: those as rewards in the same way that the world does,
Speaker 1: but to see to be in a state of joy
Speaker 1: when those things are absent. Most people James tend to
Speaker 1: find ah think that joy. They mistake joy and happiness.
Speaker 1: Happiness is a momentary feeling of joy due to a happening,
Speaker 1: meaning that if you get something, you know, a piece
Speaker 1: of cake, then you go whoo, I got a piece
Speaker 1: of cake. I'm happy, and you go this is great.
Speaker 1: And then the cake's gone and you go, ah, there's
Speaker 1: no more cake. Yeah, you know what, you'd get along
Speaker 1: just very well with the crew here at the Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ Show. So there's this this thing where it's not
Speaker 1: about the cake. If it's only about the cake, the
Speaker 1: cake's gonna come and it's gonna go. You're eventually gonna
Speaker 1: eat it. The old saying you can't have your cake
Speaker 1: and eat it too means you can't anticipate the joy
Speaker 1: of eating a cake and then eat the cake and
Speaker 1: then anticipate the joy of eating the cake. It's sooner
Speaker 1: or later going to be gone and you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get both. You can't have the cake to want the
Speaker 1: enjoyment of it and then eat it too, because now
Speaker 1: the wanting of enjoyment's gone. So in life it's about
Speaker 1: finding those balances and God wants you. If you remember
Speaker 1: I said in scripture, the poor you will always have
Speaker 1: with you. That's not going to end. There will always
Speaker 1: be poor people. And you can dissect it and look
Speaker 1: around and say, well, it's because of this or because
Speaker 1: of that, sociologically whatever, But ultimately the key is not
Speaker 1: about whether you can be richer, whether you're poor. It's
Speaker 1: about where your heart is in the good times and
Speaker 1: the bad. You will come to know God through tribulation
Speaker 1: and trials, not through reward. Yeah, that's just the way
Speaker 1: it works. Everything you learn, James, everything that has value
Speaker 1: in your life comes from the struggle and the trials
Speaker 1: that bring it to you. And that is like anything
Speaker 1: of beauty in life. If you look at a fish swimming,
Speaker 1: or you look at a bird flying, they move with
Speaker 1: great elegance in resistance. A bird can't fly without the
Speaker 1: resistance of the air underneath their wings. A fish can't
Speaker 1: swim without the resistance of the water. That resistance is
Speaker 1: what they use to propel them in a way that's productive.
Speaker 1: It's not the productive part in itself. And so you
Speaker 1: can either stop and be weighed down by the trials
Speaker 1: in your life and go, Okay, it's done, it's over.
Speaker 1: I've got nothing more to give. Or you can use them,
Speaker 1: like the fish and the bird, to propel you into
Speaker 1: a state of understanding about those things and on. Once
Speaker 1: you get to a place where you understand them, you
Speaker 1: find the joy. That's not happiness, it's true joy, which
Speaker 1: happens in good times, bad times, all of those things.
Speaker 1: And so it's not that someone has more and that
Speaker 1: some Christians are going to have double the flavor if anything,
Speaker 1: having those things, being rich and having those those anchors
Speaker 1: on earth can be it can be an albatross around
Speaker 1: the neck of the Christian and make it very difficult
Speaker 1: to connect with God. So it's a matter of balance,
Speaker 1: whether you have money or don't, whether you have things
Speaker 1: or don't, James, it's about where your heart is. That's
Speaker 1: what God cares about.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much. That helps me a lot.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, James. I'm so glad you call. You'd be
Speaker 1: safe on the streets there, and you call any time.
Speaker 1: I love it when when new believers are are getting
Speaker 1: their their baby legs, the best questions come out of
Speaker 1: that sincerity. It's it's you know how children, Oh Heaven
Speaker 1: bless them when they point at somebody who's heavy and says,
Speaker 1: you know, say you're fat, or this tastes yucky or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. They they kind of unfiltered attitude. Well,
Speaker 1: when you're a babe in Christ, you're a new Christian,
Speaker 1: oftentimes the same thing, and it's great. It comes from
Speaker 1: a pure place of wanting to ask questions and wanting
Speaker 1: to find out the answer to something that just doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to quite make sense to you. And that honesty
Speaker 1: is beneficial. So when James calls up with something like that,
Speaker 1: I always always like it. Now, to further expand on that,
Speaker 1: keep in mind that the things that the world thinks
Speaker 1: are a reward aren't always a reward. The world comes
Speaker 1: comes at things kind of like the hedonistic type attitude,
Speaker 1: and the hedonists really came from a place, a philosophical
Speaker 1: place of trying to understand what good and evil was.
Speaker 1: So the hedonists would say, well, simple explanation, that which
Speaker 1: feels good is good and that which feels bad is bad.
Speaker 1: But that's not true. I know that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that thrust their fists into the heavens and say, God,
Speaker 1: why are you putting me through this pain? But think
Speaker 1: about it. Is all pain bad and has all pleasure good? No? Equally?
Speaker 1: So if not all pain is bad and not all
Speaker 1: pleasure is good, then you weigh them based on what
Speaker 1: they're teaching or giving you and how it's building you
Speaker 1: in character, not building your wealth, because in scripture it
Speaker 1: says that you can build up wealth and it rots
Speaker 1: or rusts. It doesn't mean anything. You can't take it
Speaker 1: with you, it doesn't have any true value. What hopefully,
Speaker 1: when you're successful here on earth, you use that to
Speaker 1: propel yourself to do more things, to interact with more people,
Speaker 1: to be more productive. I'm dealing with your purpose, your
Speaker 1: gifts and abilities. What is the meaning of life? Simply this,
Speaker 1: to utilize your gifts and abilities along lines of excellence,
Speaker 1: to the edification of others and to the edification of yourself,
Speaker 1: to the glory of God. Any money you get, or
Speaker 1: any any special attention or favor you have in life,
Speaker 1: you're to use it in that way to edify others
Speaker 1: and to propel yourself along with others. It's not about
Speaker 1: getting the biggest house or any of those things. Not
Speaker 1: that any of that's wrong. It's okay to have things.
Speaker 1: It seems that the pendulum in life tends to go
Speaker 1: hard left or hard right with people. Nobody finds that
Speaker 1: balance in the center. It's like, oh so it's okay,
Speaker 1: you know. I hear people complaining about, you know, pastors
Speaker 1: that have homes, these large homes or and there is
Speaker 1: a limit. I think if you're a pastor, there's a
Speaker 1: place where you should understand that the appearance it gives
Speaker 1: is one of a stereotype and one that is a
Speaker 1: turn off to many people both in and out of
Speaker 1: the church, and that it's not helpful. It depends what
Speaker 1: you're producing. However, on the flip side, that you as
Speaker 1: an outsider looking at a pastor, should understand that many
Speaker 1: pastors have other jobs and other interests and other things
Speaker 1: that are in their life that bring the money. Whether
Speaker 1: they write, whether they're musicians, Some of them hold down
Speaker 1: other jobs. Often they're married to somebody who has money
Speaker 1: or has other jobs as well. So these things should
Speaker 1: be taken into account so it doesn't look like somebody's
Speaker 1: fleecing the flock when certainly they are not. It's not
Speaker 1: about just the accumulation of these things. It's about what
Speaker 1: these things bring to your life in other's life, and
Speaker 1: how you deal with them when you do have them,
Speaker 1: and how you deal with them when you don't not
Speaker 1: having things. My producer Neil always is thankful that he
Speaker 1: grew up without a lot of money, big family, not
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and he's thankful because the creativity
Speaker 1: that it forced upon him. He had to learn to
Speaker 1: do things differently and to be more creative because you know,
Speaker 1: the toys were broken or it didn't have toys or
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. And oftentimes people will comment about
Speaker 1: his family, Wow, a lot of them are creative. They're
Speaker 1: all creative in their own right. How does that happen? Well,
Speaker 1: be broke? You know, when you don't have money, it
Speaker 1: tends to it tends to get the creative juices flowing
Speaker 1: in other areas and then that can be helpful. So
Speaker 1: that's a positive thing that comes out of something that
Speaker 1: might be perceived as negative. It's very easy to just
Speaker 1: broad brush and say, Okay, well, everything that feels good
Speaker 1: is good, and everything feels bad is bad, and that's
Speaker 1: just not the way life works. There's a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: There's struggles in getting a tooth filled at the dentist,
Speaker 1: going through an operation, and all the pain and and
Speaker 1: you know, recovery and all of these things. However, that
Speaker 1: is for a greater good. Studying, for finals, going through school,
Speaker 1: the struggles of the the initial parts of relationship, all
Speaker 1: of these things. You know, people say that, you know,
Speaker 1: marriage is hard all the time. I hear that marriage
Speaker 1: is not hard. Marriage is easy. Life is always easier
Speaker 1: with a partner. What's difficult is being selfless. That's what's difficult.
Speaker 1: Is you finding the ability to throw away all that
Speaker 1: selfish attitude and live for someone else and dedicate your
Speaker 1: life to someone else and be a good partner. That's
Speaker 1: what's difficult. Marriage is very easy. Two heads are always
Speaker 1: better than one, four hands are better than one. You know,
Speaker 1: it's there's so much to it that makes life easier.
Speaker 1: What makes it more difficult is being selfless. And in
Speaker 1: life it's the same thing. There's going to be times
Speaker 1: where you give up the pleasures or the so called pleasures,
Speaker 1: and really it's for a greater good. It's for a
Speaker 1: greater benefit. Bill, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3: Well, sir, hi Hi, I had a little question for
Speaker 3: you in regards to faith, okay, which may not be
Speaker 3: approprictly timed for our day and age, but faith comes
Speaker 3: in many different faces. Power of walking on water is it?
Speaker 3: Is it something that humans can aspire to through faith,
Speaker 3: through teachings well, such as this.
Speaker 1: Well, there are things that took place when I was
Speaker 1: here on Earth two thousand years ago that had a
Speaker 1: purpose to help understand who I was and why I
Speaker 1: was here, and they had a specific purpose. Now, as
Speaker 1: far as great signs and wonders, there are those that
Speaker 1: believe that they those same things can take place now,
Speaker 1: and that there are statements in scripture that say, you know,
Speaker 1: I did great things, but you will do great things also,
Speaker 1: And people assume, okay, well, that means here there's gonna
Speaker 1: be great signs of wonders still, And there's a theological
Speaker 1: debate about that. You can argue that in Matthew Matthew
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen, where you read about the walking on water
Speaker 1: incident as well, as you can read it in Mark
Speaker 1: six and John six as well, that you when you
Speaker 1: look at that, you're dealing with not only me walking
Speaker 1: on water, but encouraging others to do it at the
Speaker 1: same time as well. And their faith was not in
Speaker 1: the place where they could if you remember, and they
Speaker 1: fell through the water. So that implies that that there
Speaker 1: is a capability there that wasn't ever shown or it
Speaker 1: wasn't ever documented. The fear is that you get to
Speaker 1: these places where you get shamans, or you get groups
Speaker 1: of people who do magic tricks and make it appear
Speaker 1: as if they're doing something, and then it shows that
Speaker 1: automatically they have great faith. There's trickery out there, and there,
Speaker 1: as I said, theologically, there are those that argue that
Speaker 1: that isn't for now, That sign and wonders of that
Speaker 1: type were there for a specific reason at a specific
Speaker 1: time to point down a specific path, and that path
Speaker 1: is already seen through the special design of scripture and
Speaker 1: the words written down, and that it doesn't need to
Speaker 1: be recreated. So it has there's theological twists to it
Speaker 1: as well. But effectively, if you look just through scripture
Speaker 1: and you see the things that are stated in scripture
Speaker 1: when you read in First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, where you
Speaker 1: hear people quote all the time about you know, love
Speaker 1: is patient, love is kind, and all those things. It
Speaker 1: talks about the different gifts and abilities as well, and
Speaker 1: what part those gifts and abilities play in life. And
Speaker 1: there are those that argue whether those gifts and abilities
Speaker 1: like tongues or prophecy deal today and are useful for today.
Speaker 1: There if you think of life Bill as a child,
Speaker 1: and that the child's growing older throughout the centuries. But
Speaker 1: you can see that God dealt with the world this
Speaker 1: child differently at different stages of the child's life. So
Speaker 1: there are times where those things are important and important
Speaker 1: to the growth and the strengthening and the understanding of
Speaker 1: the child, which is the planet. And then there's times
Speaker 1: where they're no longer necessary or not important, and they
Speaker 1: become trickery or they become it becomes like a sideshow.
Speaker 1: So there are some that say, well, these things don't
Speaker 1: exist in that sense. In that way, the power still
Speaker 1: exists there and the use may be specific. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be somebody doing it, you know, as a carnivalact walking
Speaker 1: across the water. It would be for great purpose, just
Speaker 1: as it was when I was showing the disciple that
Speaker 1: it had a purpose. It wasn't like, hey, walk o,
Speaker 1: walka WALKA look what I can do. Check this out.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not falling through the water. There was
Speaker 1: purpose there and they were to have to be purpose
Speaker 1: now KFI AM six forty on demand