You are listening to Live from the Past on Des Moines Amplified.com. Thanks so much for being with us tonight. My name is Ben Foost. Did you just go, yeah, baby? No. I think you did. I was clear in my throat. It just sounds cool when I do it. It becomes a little awkward. That very well can be true. Lots of cool stuff coming up on the show tonight. I've got a ton of little stories that jumped out at me this week. We're going to talk a little bit about the singer Matthew West. He's got a new album coming out that conceptually, I thought, was just a really cool thing. We'll walk through that. He basically requested a bunch of people to send in their life stories, and he wrote their stories as the basis of the songs on his album. I don't want to sound really ignorant, but who's Matthew West? You may not recognize him. Oh, usually they're really popular people. He's not like the guy who played Batman. No, he's a Christian man. A legitimate Christian artist.

He also plays Batman. Who was the other guy? There was somebody at West. You're thinking of Adam West. Adam West, yeah. That's like before my time, even. He was Batman. He didn't play it. That was the real McCoy. That was him. The real Batman. So we'll talk a little bit about that. The Coran burner got a free car this week. I thought that was pretty interesting. A free car? A car? Yeah. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. We're included with this. Never mind. Mike's had a couple run-ins this week of one of the guys trying to witness to him, even after knowing that he is on a Christian radio show, fairly extensively, I might add. For hours.

I mean, almost. I mean, eight hours worth. And he also got sought out by a man looking for blind and deaf people. So that was creepy. Just looking like. Yeah. So here's the deal on that thing. So I'm hanging around in my residence. So anyway, a car comes rolling down the driveway, you know, and no one else is home except for me and the wife. And so I go rolling out there, and this gal, there's four people in this sedan, this gal cranks down the window and says, hey, do you know any blind or deaf people in the area? I said, no. You know, I said, but I can most certainly check with my wife. And so I go in the house. I say, woman, you know any blind or deaf people around here? She said, no. I said, okay. So I see you in that. So I come back out there, and I say, no, sorry, we don't know any blind or deaf people. And she goes, well, we're volunteers from the Blind and Deaf Foundation, and we just thought we'd go help out some blind and deaf people in the area. Just seeking them out, huh?

Yeah. Blindly, so to speak. Yeah, yeah. And so they said, thanks. And then they left. And I thought, what kind of organization is this? Like, your whole thing is centered around helping blind and deaf people, and so you just go door to door asking other people if they know blind and deaf people? That's how you get your audience? It's wild. Like, isn't there a registry? I wonder if it was legit, or if it's just people just… Looking to rob blind or deaf people? Or seeing if anybody's home at this time of day at your residence. Well, they certainly did not look like the… Well, I mean, if that was true, he kind of bailed on it. Like, doesn't it sound like he… Let's say they were just trying to see if you were home. Oh, you mean trying to rob the place? Yeah, I don't know. And see if he was home? Well, that's kind of… Now, claiming to be part of the blind and deaf organization, and then finding over these

people live so you can rob them, that's kind of slick. Yeah. But if that's your true goal, is to minister to blind and deaf people, this is a terrible way to go about it. Just driving up to random driveways asking where these people are. Yeah. Isn't there a registry? You have to sign a registry if you're deaf? Say, yes, I'm deaf? I don't know. I would assume you would have already gotten in the system somehow, you know, you're getting some, maybe some medical assistance and educational assistance and the government… Yeah, like, so if you call, like, is it tagged to your phone number or something? So, like, when you call 911, it says, by the way, deaf, or by the way… Well, often they have a special system. Yeah. You know, so the lights flash and stuff instead of… Hmm. Obviously, if you're deaf, you don't hear the phone ring. Creepity. I don't know. Did you read that article in the paper today about the spirit in the Bondurant for our schools?

No. So, Ben and I were going to buy this school. You remember this? Yeah, yeah. We were going to buy this 17,000 square foot school. It was a heck of a deal. And so we were going to buy it and live in there. And we didn't. Obviously, we were talked out of it by people smarter than us. And live with you? Yeah, maybe. And the insurance on it was outrageous because it's a school and it was like $2 million to insure it. But anyway, they're having some things. There's a ghost in there. And so some spirit seeker shows up at this place and says, you know, starts talking to the ghost and say, hey, if you're male, you know, blink the light. And nothing happens. Hey, if you're female, blink the light. And the light blinks in your ass. And so that's the big thing. Like, that's how you talk to ghosts is they blink a light. Well, ghosts, a spirit wouldn't be male or female.

Yeah, that's true. Ghosts are androgynous. Well, I would say there's no such thing as a ghost. What do you mean? Then there's no ghosts. There are no ghosts. We've talked about this. Yeah, that's right. I mean, to be absent from the bodies, to be present from the Lord, or to have faced judgment and be somewhere else. Yeah, but didn't we agree that that could very well be a demon? There could be demons, but just not a ghost. It's a demon. But acting like our perception of a ghost? A familiar spirit. Trying to pretend like, oh yeah, I'm old Uncle Herbert. Or a male or a female light blinker? Sure. Nick play games with you. You think that demon gets real bored? He's like, come on. Will you do something different? I don't want to blink this light.

This is terrible. This is getting old. I have the wrath. I have firepower. Do something. That's all you want of me? Anyway, scary school. We should have bought it, dude. I'm telling you. Hmm. I thought the Mennonites bought it. No, apparently that gal that we were going to buy it from still owns it. Oh, really? Yeah. Wait, so is it still for sale? No. I think they're selling tickets to Haunted House Jazz in there now. Well, isn't that convenient? There are spirits. Yeah, right. And now you can pay money to go. Yeah. Now, let's say that's…

Would it be dangerous for, say, Mike and I to buy a school like this with reported… I'd say no. Okay. If you're a believer, a Christ follower, the greater is he who is in you than he is in the world. But, I mean, am I provoking… Am I starting a fight here? Oh, no. Okay. Like, he's not going to switch out my caffeinated coffee for decaf? I should have them. I mean, again, stinking Christians. Jesus, go to bed at eight. Go on, then. No, your wife is very dangerous, Mike. What? We could get it at a discount, though. Why is my wife dangerous? I don't know. Huh. Tricky. Indeed. Oh, that's terrible.

Well, so, I guess, so the question is, this is creepy. I don't even know what to make of this. Oh, she broke the window. Can you get the camera out there? I'll see what's going on. That's not fair to you guys. There's funny stuff going on outside. There he is. Can you see him? Yeah. Yeah, I can see him. Okay, good. There's Jim right there. Okay. Come back over here. Oh, they're leaving. Anyway. Anyway, so back to these blind people. So, like, did it occur to you to think that maybe they're up to what's right? I mean, sometimes maybe you wait to open up a conversation about how to help people or, I don't know, talk to them about Jesus Christ. But you wait until you come across one.

They're, like, randomly seeking people out. Hey, maybe I'll find a deaf guy I can talk to. Here's the problem. Okay. This is what I see here. Either they're criminals, and they're very suave, or they're heartfelt, and they're idiots. How many people did he say were in there? There was four. Back to the hills. Chad says four people in the car can't be legit. That's got to be no good. Yeah. Who did they say they represented? A blind and deaf organization. Just some, I mean, no. It was the most general terms of a blind and deaf organization. Like, somehow they started an organization saying, hey, we're the blind organization. We're the deaf. Let's become one. Was it a newer vehicle or an older one? I'd probably say it was 98, 99, tan, sedan. Yeah. I believe it was four ladies.

What were the age range of the ladies? I'd probably say 20 to, I'd say 25 to 40. What was their weight? They were slightly, slightly bigger. Evidently, they can sneak into blind people's homes and eat. I'm pretty sure they're not getting out of the car unless there's a legitimate blind guy hanging around. We'll put it that way. Wait, so did they just roll down the window and kind of say, like, hey, you, man? Well, I came out to meet them because, you know, out in the sticks, you don't get very many people just dropping by. You don't ask them for directions or whatever. You know, they pulled down a long, winding driveway and wanted to know what's up. Well, now, what's the likelihood you're going to get robbed by four ladies? Well, I wasn't afraid of that. Four pineapple ladies that are in the car pulling up. Well, that's their gimmick. That's the stick. They walk in, they're like, I can't be accosted by four ladies. And then, wham, your bureau is missing. Maybe they just love people and they just… Well, it's possible. And they just picked out your house as, well, let's go ahead and try this one. Could you come over with these people? These people are obviously blind.

Look at that paint job. They couldn't have done that on purpose. I like people and then they made some elaborate backstory looking for blind and… Wait, actually, it's the combination of the two organizations that I think gets me. That seems shady. What do you mean? Was that offensive? Pineapple ladies? It refers to the shape of the pineapple. Sorry. You needed a visual. I'm with you. It's not like I can take their picture and say, hey, listen, I'm going to make fun of you on the radio. So, can you line up so I can get individual shots? At least get a silhouette before I get your dinner in the shape. Okay, so I'm going to call you broccoli. I'm just thinking that there's just several red flags that just make me go, I don't think you're for real. I'm just saying it was weird. You should have given them a couple bucks. I didn't have any cash on me. I guess they're out of luck. Here's the thing. Put it in Christian terms, right?

So, you want to take a group of missionaries out. You want to go witness to people. You start pulling up door to door and say, hey, do you know any non-Christian fellows around here? We're going to get them. Are there any pagans in the house? I have some things to talk about. I've got a t-shirt I'd like to get one. Hey, did you hear about that organization that sent t-shirts to the Chilean miners? It was like a Jesus film project, and it's coming out of, what's that big organization that runs from the school in the south? Big South Church Organization. No, I've forgotten what it was. Church South. It was, but anyway, like they sent a bunch of t-shirts to the Chilean miners, because they sent like an audio cast or an audio file of this movie they put together about Christ. And they got it to one of those guys that was down there, and he listened to it, and the other Chilean, some of the other Chilean miners listened to it, and they were inspired by it. And so they agreed to wear these shirts, and like a lot of the guys were wearing it when they came out, like they had that shirt on. What was the only clean clothes they had left? They were wearing it over the protective jackets, even. Am I the only guy who wondered during this whole thing? It was really kind of a cool story, but like, I wonder what these guys smell like. Oh, I'm sure it's repulsive. Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. I'm sure it's repulsive.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, there's just a lot of things that happened down there the last few weeks. I'm pretty sure they sent them like moist towelettes and stuff to clean up. Oh, really? That hole is fairly big. That's true. That's pretty cool. They all survived, though. Yeah, that's great. How about the dude that came up, and he wanted his mistress and his wife to be there? Oh, that was embarrassing. Yeah. And his wife's like, yeah, I think I'll go ahead and not show up. Yeah. So did you catch that, Mike? No, I got to half one. Okay. Yeah, so here's what this dude does. He's underground, so he's trapped with everybody else, and they're having these vigils. And so his wife's there at this vigil, you know, praying and thinking about him, and he noticed this woman that's like wailing, crying for this man, screaming his name out for that he is saved here. And so the wife goes up and starts talking to her, finds out that this is his mistress.

And this guy has got the stones to send back a note up that says, I want you both to be there when I'm pulled out. They've been together for a number of years. Yeah. Oh, and she had no idea? None. Oh, man. That kind of tells you, you want to have your life in order like Albee's, because you never know when you're going to be trapped in a gang. Yeah, really. I mean. Clean undies, no mistress. That's what's got to be going down if you're in the mine in Chile. You know, someone made a comment to me. Who was this? Just recently made the whole, you know, you should make sure you wear your clean undies thing. And they said, you know, actually, if you're in a situation where you actually, they're coming to help you, you've probably already soiled them. Yeah, you probably have. So it doesn't matter if they were clean ahead of time or not. But now, well, now that's at least good advice not to go sans undies, because then they're going to take everything.

You know what I'm saying? At the very least, you know, I mean, what if you're being accosted, you know, and then you can at least grab your pants and get out of there and at least get some pants to wear that aren't, you know, all messed up. I mean, can anybody really expect someone to go through a traumatic incident and then, you know, gossip about his dirty undies? Well, I wonder. You think they actually talk about it at the hospital? You shouldn't have seen the dump. Somebody had carrots. Ah, see? We've gone too far with that. Yeah, I do. Anyway. That still was pretty cool, though. Yeah. That they got rescued. Yeah. That was pretty cool. So here it was. It was the Jesus Film Project. It's a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, the massive Orlando, Florida-based evangelical ministry.

Did they write that in the copy? Massive? Yeah. What was it called again? The Jesus Film Project and it's a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International. Massive is kind of an opinionated term, isn't it? Like, there's not an actual… Massive compared to you. Yeah. That's kind of like Jared's sermon Sunday. I thought that was really good. Yeah. I think it was a great thing. I like a C.S. Lewis quote. It was massive. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. We're pretty good compared to you. He actually did a… Jared did a good job name-dropping the show. Yeah? He did.

Yeah. I was impressed by it. Although, you know, the… So, Jared's… The basic sermon on last Sunday at Pathway Church in Johnson meeting at Wallace Elementary at 9 and 10.30 a.m. Ching. We're going to need a bigger communion box. You should tithe because then I get more. Only one is more than you. Anything over 10 goes to Ben Feust. And Dan, for that Papa's on chair shirt he's wearing. Actually, the chat was very much wondering whether you're… Yeah, he did say communion box. What's wrong with that? Don't we keep a communion in a box? I know… Oh, a… Yeah, sure. Yeah, see? I see what you're saying. Oh, so to give more people communion? I think the perception was you were thinking offering.

No, I wasn't thinking offering. I said communion. I've said what I meant to say. What are you guys thinking? You money-grubbing fiends? Yeah. I want to minister more communion to people. You want to take their cash. Here's an opportunity to jump on you. I'm starting another Pathway Church just outside the doors. Anyway, the debate was whether Dan is wearing the same shirt from Sunday or whether he has two shirts. No, it is the same shirt. I've not taken it off since a week ago last Friday. Actually, I did have a different shirt on and changed it real quick before I came here tonight. Good. Good. Definitely. I thought it would show well on the camera. I was going to borrow a Hawaiian shirt to, you know, kind of make funny. But then I realized the only guy I know that's got one is you, and then you know what's coming out. I said, Dan, going to borrow a shirt?

You're going to work on that. So, anyway, you've listened to it live from the Path on Des Moines, Amplified.com. So, the Chilean miners have come out. They've got some fresh t-shirts from the Jesus Ministry folks. Mike has been randomly accosted by four pineapples looking from the blind and deaf organization, randomly seeking out disabled folks. Wait, did they say what they wanted, though? Or they were just looking for blind people? No, I think they were just looking for them. They didn't claim that they were going to minister them or help them out at all. They just said that we're part of the blind and deaf organization, and we were just hoping to find some around here. Four middle-aged ladies in a sedan looking for blind people. Yep. No other explanation. In an 11-year-old sedan. Yeah, 11-year-old. Yeah, I mean, it was well kept. I mean, the upholstery looked to be local plates. Oh, I didn't look. I didn't hear the car coming or going. I just noticed it by sight. So, it's not as if it was.

So, you don't know how long they've been out there sitting in the drive? No, I saw him pull in. That's why I went out. I met him halfway. Oh, I got you. No, Dave Bush is not on the show tonight. Sorry. Dave Bush was purported to be on the show a couple weeks ago. He didn't make it. Man. Remember, everyone's upset. One more disappointment. Everyone's upset. Hey, put his name in the fourth chair. I'll scoot over there every once in a while and say stuff. Okay. Okay, I'll work on that. I'll get that straight out. Maybe you can sing a little song. Yeah. His voice is going to sound something like this. I'm Dave Bush. I'm better than you.

I don't have to be good. Just better than you. Your show's terrible. Jesus, not for everyone, just for me. That was bad. Mine is completely inappropriate. Okay, so check this out. This guy kills me. So you remember the guy, the Florida pastor who was the Koran burner? Yes. The guy who said he was going to burn the Koran. Terry Jones. He's wearing that handlebar mustache. Very, very appealing. Yeah, yeah. All people who are guilty of something wear that handlebar mustache. So he's classic. So in the run-up to this book burning, Brad Benson Hyundai in New Brunswick offered Jones a vehicle if he backed down on his threat to burn the Koran. He's building bridges with a new Hyundai. Okay. And the general manager says, we heard on the news he was going to burn the Koran, and so he offers this up. So after, you know, widespread condemnation of his acts, he backs away from this Koran burning, says he got what he wanted, the conversation, whatever. Which never happened, right?

Okay, and then check this out. And then, so subsequent, a representative from Jones Church Dove World Outreach Center called Benson Hyundai recently to see whether the offer was still good. But, well, hey, might as well. It was, Jones is getting a 2011 Hyundai Accent valued at around $13,600. He said he would donate the car to a Muslim charity. Oh, come on. I can't take any more to this guy. Like, I am filled to the brim that I can handle from this man. Like, he is so transparently phony. It's just not even funny. How do you go from I am so opposed to you that I will burn what you believe to be the living word of God to I'll go ahead and be a very valuable vehicle because I'm supporting you? That's quite the two ends of the spectrum that I would never give a Muslim organization a dime. I wouldn't burn their book either. Yeah, right. It's like – here's the thing. Like, either you go whole hog or you're out whole hog. You know, so if this dude is going to say – you know, if he's standing on principle, his principle should have never wavered. Like, if he honestly thought that the Lord wanted to burn the Koran, which is not true. But if he honestly thought that a Koran burning was going to further the motives of Jesus Christ and spread the love, he should have done it anyway. He should have stuck with his guns until they dragged him to jail and beat him. You know, but obviously, you know, he wasn't with it. It was obviously just a publicity stunt. Yeah.

And so now he's backed out and gone completely the other way and is attempting to gain Muslim favor by handing over a car that he's – I don't know. I don't even want to say this. It almost sounds like blackmailed out of a local car dealership. He wants to stay in the news. Who's going to – like, let's say you're in the – maybe you're in the Muslim community and you – like, are you the guy that signs up and says, yeah, give me that Hyundai from the crazy handlebar man? Think about it completely on the other side. Let's say you're in the non-Christian community and you're like, I'm looking for a church to go to here in Florida. That guy holds my values. Yeah. Let's go there. He's got the consistency of a tuna salad. I mean, he can't keep it together. He's terrible. Yeah. He's terrible. I shouldn't say he's terrible. I don't know the back story, but he's probably trying to look all sensitive because everybody said he's insensitive. But then in the process of doing that, he just kind of, like, didn't think it through all the way. It's like, wait a minute. Now you're not being consistent. Why wouldn't you just not take the car? Yeah. I was like, hey, if they're going to – first of all, I wouldn't call and say, no, you're going to give that right.

Yeah. I would have said, hey, if they're going to honor their word, they will. If not, they won't. And you get on with your life. Yeah. What's he worried about being so sensitive for anyway? Oh, he's got to be that pretty badly. Pretty badly. Because he's an idiot. Well, I mean, it was not a wise choice. It was a terrible choice. I mean, there's nothing redeeming about it. I mean, it's almost so phony in the arrogance that he showed up with this idea that I just – I don't understand it. Like, I don't understand where his rationale thinking came from. Well, at the same time, I only heard one interview, so I don't know his whole story and all the things he said. The one interview that I heard him on, they were trying to make him sound like some extreme wacko guy. And actually, I agreed with, like, every single thing he said. He just didn't package it very well. And his actions weren't really lining up with Christian value, you know. But when they were going after him, he spoke the right words, just not the right – the way I would – You know, actually, that sounds like a pretty – something that I think most of us are probably guilty of. You got the right thing in your head. You might be able to say it pretty close, but then you take the wrong step anyway.

Like, you do the wrong thing or you make the wrong decision. Huge step into national spotlights. Well, yeah. I mean, I screw things up every day, but I don't claim to take down an opposing word, religion. You know what, though? If tomorrow morning every major news organization known to man showed up outside my house and started throwing cameras and microphones in my face, I'm not sure what I would say if, you know, if I had said – You know, I'm not – every word I say isn't golden. Yeah, but that's the thing is I think the difference is is that you would be caught by circumstance. He walked into it. He was asking for it. He sent out a press release. Yeah. You know, and he continued it, too. They were driving around. Yeah. Yeah. The big sign, burn the Koran on such a day. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, and the thing is is like you can make a wrong choice and get reminded of that pretty quickly that you've made the wrong choice and have a little humility and back off it. I think his mistake was making the wrong choice and then riding it.

Yeah. You know, that I think was the distinction for him. They say they're going to send out a bill. Hundreds of thousands of dollars or something. I think they should. For all this stuff. It's like, that's kind of wild. Yeah. We talked a little bit about that last week. How the guy. That's where I heard that. Yeah. You guys are good. You know, that's the thing. Like he has the right to free speech, but he doesn't have the right to free protection from the government after he runs his yap. Yeah. You know, so here's the thing. Maybe it boils down to that he took a leap and it was a terrible idea and he's really an all right dude and he just made a huge mistake. But I don't know, like, is it legitimate to say that if he was praying on this and he was truly seeking God about it, that it wouldn't happen this way? Mm-mm. Sometimes God leads you into, you know. Just to break him up? Say, look, you got too much going for you, Hyundai man.

I don't know. I can't take your promises. Steve and his last words were a great sermon in front of a bunch of people and then they killed him. Yeah. I mean, you know, that was all God, you know. That's not really an apples to apples comparison. Right. This guy's last speech was, I'm burning the crayon, but okay, I won't do it. Can I have my car? I don't know how you could not feel like a total duckhead calling in there. Hey, you got that car we were talking about after I made a real dull word out of myself? I'd have trouble with that. I mean, I think I'd have to have my secretary do it or somebody. But hey, will you call those people who are about to carry? What's the back story on this particular church? I mean, it's kind of like old news now, but I mean, like, it's not that large of a church, isn't it? No. Isn't this the one that was like only has like 50 people or something? Yeah, it's not a ton. Yeah, it's not a ton. Actually, he might be shooting pretty high when he says, what's his deal? The Dove Outreach Center? Hold on a minute.

Like, it sounds like the way that he's named this place, it's like a massive outreach center. But it's the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. Now, we've talked about that. He better be worldwide because you can't claim to be the Dove World Outreach Center. Actually, maybe he was trying to settle hypocrisy on his end because he wasn't worldwide and so made such a firestorm so that now he would be worldwide and he didn't have to change out the sign. Okay, well, he's completely legitimate then. He started riots across the globe. Legitimized himself. And, you know, maybe that's one of the things he said. I thought he's absolutely right. And his whole point was by him simply threatening to burn the Koran, look at the violence that erupted. It reveals the heart of the Muslim faith. It's not even a faith. It's not even really a religion. It's a government system that they throw. Well, that's the thing is I think it doesn't necessarily reveal the heart of the Muslim faith. It reveals the heart of extremist Muslims. I mean, you're going to throw them all in one basket? The squeaky wheel gets the grease, man. You know, it's not like the news is going to show you the content Muslims who go, whatever. No one cares about this crazy man in Florida. They're going to show you the guy. Until I see the millions of people say, no, that doesn't represent me.

Yeah, they're on the same basket. Yeah, but you know those people aren't going to get any press. That doesn't sell. Yeah, you know, that is like the same thing. If someone's going to represent a Christian, they're going to go for Phelps. They're going to find Fred Phelps and say, oh, yeah, there's the Christian. And we're the first one to jump up and say, yeah, that's not really us. Yeah, but who hears it besides me? You would be it. Our massive radio audience. You know what I'm saying? Pants will know that we were not a part of this. I think so. I mean, any conversation I'm involved with that comes up. If people bring him up and say, yeah, that does not really represent the faith of a Bible-believing. Yeah, but then I'd have to ask you how many Muslims you talk to that you've given them a chance to. Every day. Every day. I'm on blogs. Me and Cat Stevens are interacting all the time. I'm in my mom's basement every night going, hey, Muslim blogger. What's up? Good buddy.

Did you know Jesus does you? You know, it was really cool when we had a person who would not be named come to our church who is overseas in the Middle East and working as a Christian missionary. There are some wild stories going on over there how God is really reaching the Muslim people and showing up to them in some pretty crazy ways. You know, stuff that I have, you know, we kind of feel uncomfortable about even, you know, that it's not part of our normal thing. But God's doing, he's reaching some Muslim people out there. That's kind of cool. That would be a wild experience. Yeah. Indeed. You've been listening to Live from the Path on Des Moines Amplified.com. By the way, you can reach us in the studio if you so desire at 515-327-1007. Let's go to the phones right now, Ben. Okay. Go ahead, line one, please. Hey, this is David Booker. I got a little song I'd like to sing. Your show is terrible. I sent my demo to the Chilean miners. I love it. All right. That's terrible. Man, there was something you guys, I should have looked again tonight. There's something, as I was listening to last week's program, something you guys were talking

about. I was just like going, oh, man, I wish I was there. That was absolutely wrong. I think we wished you were there. Oh, yeah. It was a good show. What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what you were talking about? Well, what if the church guys were on? We talked about Crazy Reverend from Sioux City about that. That was it. That was it. That was it. I'm actually, you know what? You're on board with this, man. I'm on board. The scripture is filled with when a nation has ungodly, unholy judges, everything falls. And where are we at? We're in this place where a bunch of ungodly, unholy people have put in some ungodly, unholy judges. Did you just give a sermon two years ago about God instilled the government? He did. And here's the difficulty with our form of government and like any others. It is we are the government, the way the constitution is written is it's us, you know, so it's

not like, oh, well, Obama's the president. I guess we got to do whatever he says. It's like, no, we have in a few days an opportunity to have in a very loud voice say no, you know, or with these judges, we have the opportunity, we have the power. We don't have to overthrow anybody. We don't have to throw sticks. We don't have to have, you know, we have the power to just say no. That's how our government is set up. So if there's a certain rule or law, then, yeah, you're supposed to follow that. Like the one where you can't change it. Where you can't preach from the pulpit about following a particular political agenda. Now, wait a minute, though. Like, I would say, when I look at those judges, I don't see that they misinterpreted the law that was on the books. I think you have a full right to lobby for a clearer law within the state. I don't find that the judges really stepped out of line. They did, though. There is a law in the books that's very clear. Marriage is between a man and a woman. And they said, eh, no, it's not. They stretched it. They wouldn't have to stretch it. They had to flip it over.

They flipped it. They made stuff up. They created law, which is unconstitutional in what they did. Everything they did was unconstitutional. Where did you get your information from? VoteTheJudgesOut.com? I actually read their thing when it came out. Dissertation? People smarter than me talking. I listen to it. I go, oh, yeah, that makes sense. That's right. Yes, yes. I agree with all of you. But you see what he said. I just sit at my house and agree. Yes, yes. It's very, very good. You go to my mom's basement blog. Are you a Muslim? You'll never guess what happened today, friend. But I think it's totally within the spectrum of faith to say, here are some ungodly people that are forcing their way of life on us.

We don't force our way of life on anybody and say, you know what? No. Yeah, but that wasn't the discussion. The discussion was whether he can do it from the pulpit or not. But he can. The law says he can't. When in Rome, the law says no. That wasn't, the discussion was, well, actually, the law doesn't say you can't. It all just says they'll take away your tax status, which is a load of whatever anyway. I mean, they can't stop us from saying anything. Well, no, that's true. This isn't the USSR yet. Well, I think that you're basing it on, well, what are the consequences going to be? That's like me saying, well, the speeding law really doesn't apply to me because what are they going to do? Just write me a ticket and then I'll pay it. And so does that make it wrong to break the law just because I don't mind the consequence? That means, yeah. I mean, here's the consequence. Here's the law. If you don't mind the consequence, then, you know. It's no big deal. Just do whatever you want.

So I stole all that loaf of bread. What are you going to do? I've cut my hand off. You'll never guess what happened today, Buzzer Prince. Things went very sour. It's a good thing I have three arms. I got 66.6%. Now, Dan, you're not representing this correctly. There is not a state constitutional amendment for that in the state of Iowa. Not a constitutional amendment. There was a law passed by the legislature. Which the judges said violated the liberty and equal protection clauses that are in the state constitution. And the state constitution trumps the local law. Well, they did not. See, they're stretching all these terms and vocabulary now to include, well, what I decide to do in my bedroom means equality. It's like, that's not the intent. You know, I heard a discussion on this on a talk radio station. Was it ours? No. Oh. No.

So they kept getting the yahoos calling in, you know. The people that were supposed to be on my side of the argument. And they were just fouling it up. They were terrible. And so the big point was, you know, the radio show's host's big point was, is it's not doing social harm to allow this to happen. Like, what harm does this cause? And what no one ever brought up was, is what's the benefit to society? Like, you know, their big push is it doesn't harm society at all to allow this to happen. But if that's the case, then you don't pass laws to benefit a small minority of nothing. You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, the population of that tact is very small. You know, so it's not a betterment to society in general. And it's not a harm to society in general. So it's really not a law. You know what I'm saying? It is condoning sin. And saying, we're for it, and we applaud it, and we think it's really cool, and we're glad you're doing it. And the American Constitution was written in such a way that we are under a living God. And so it's all about pulling us away from God as much as possible, which is pulling us away from our Constitution the way it was written and intended. So you're on board with Crazy Preacher Man?

I am. He can't do it from the pulpit day. No, there's a law. But then it goes back to, that's different. I mean, it's different than, like, speeding and teaching God, which is over law, you know, is apples and oranges. If the law says, here's how I want you to live within the society, that's cool. But, you know, it was when the apostles were told by the rule makers, stop talking Jesus. They said, well, we must obey God rather than man, because we're talking eternity. We're not talking about, well, I want to speed. We want to take our donkey faster. You know, it was about, this is eternal stuff, heaven and hell. This is the fabric of society. I guess I'm missing how this applies to me directly. Let's put it that way. Like me, as a Christ follower, I could care less what they do. You know, like me, as an American citizen, I feel like I could be able to say, okay, here's what I'm going to vote for, here's what I'm not going to vote for. But, I mean, I got, as long as I got my, you know, my morality, you know, course is on, you know, like, if they pass the law or they don't pass the law, I don't, I guess I don't care. If you have to look at what's their, what's their ultimate goal? Their ultimate goal, you can see what they've done in other countries, you know. Who?

The gay lobby, the gay agenda. You know, if you look at Canada, that's not too far from us, but they'll pass the law, and their whole goal is then to get into the church and say, now you can't talk, now it's hate speech. If you talk about what, you just read a verse on homosexuality and God's opinion of it, then all of a sudden you're a hate mongler, mongerer, it's hate speech, we're going to fine you, we're going to throw you in jail, blah, blah, blah, do all this stuff. And that's the ultimate goal in this, is to make them feel good about their lifestyle, but also to shut down the church. It's ultimately what they want. Because I think, like, the concern that I would have is that the protection of freedom isn't consistent. Like, that's where the danger is more than anything else. Because, to be honest with you, what the state does and does not recognize the marriage, I could go with it about. It's irrelevant. Yeah, the state needs to get out of the marriage business as a whole. Like, that's part of the issue. If they said, look, Ben, I'm not going to ordain your marriage to your wife, like, whatever. Whatever. I've got married in front of God. So to that extent, whether the state says yes or no to a marriage between a man and a man, it doesn't mean anything to me.

The issue, and I think my only concern, and this is what Dan was getting at, is to the extent that now if the state is saying this is what a marriage is, and then we, as Christ followers, lose the freedom to follow Christ because of some freedom, if you want to think of it that way, that they've given to someone else. Like, if the protection of the freedom was equal, right, I know that there's no way that that infringes on my ability to follow Christ. We're in no different position than we are today. It's not like whether that law exists or doesn't exist is going to change the behavior of the person that's seeking it. So to that extent, that's why I don't care. Like, I don't think it does anything. You think you pass a law, you don't pass a law. It doesn't change necessarily the behavior of the people that are trying to follow that course. So what you're saying is you're more after a preemptive strike before it gets too far? Here's the thing. If you're bringing it to me and say, you know, vote for this yes or no, I'll vote for yes or no, and that's my freedom to do, I would expect everybody else to have the same freedom to do it. But beyond that, if I had assurances, like if I was comfortable that our freedom to follow Christ in the manner that has been dictated by God is just as protected as, or is protected with the same zealousness, I might add, that they're seeking this freedom, it doesn't bother me in a way.

Because then I still get to continue to follow Christ in the way that I want. I have the freedom to try to witness to those people under their freedom and using my freedom. So I think the danger, I think, is the unequal protection of the freedom of the Christ follower versus the lobby for that marriage. Well, maybe that's the case. That's what my concern is. Okay, so I think we're basically on the same agreement here. Like, whether they pass a law or they don't pass a law, like I don't care. Like, I just don't care. Like, as an American citizen… I don't think Dan agrees with that. Well, of course Dan doesn't agree with that. Well, no, I don't think the state has the ability to change the definition of marriage. They can say whatever they want. Well, that's what I'm saying. They can call it whatever it is. I mean, which is the reason why, to the extent of it, I'm not sure it's worth, I'm not sure it's worth, I think, how people are handling this particular issue. And we've talked about this before, about the one, the single issue that people really want to get on a horse about, I think you're closing doors in some of the ways that we're approaching this. You have a complete right to say, look, this doesn't fit in with my belief system. It's a complete right to say, look, I would vote against it if I had the option to.

But the freedom in this country that allows me to follow Christ in the fashion that I do, I think, is diminished if I try to reduce the freedom of someone else to do something even if I don't agree with it, because they don't agree with me. And if that's a roaming standard, that's what keeps, like, what we want to do. Under a shoe. Like, you have the very real possibility of being limited on how I can pursue Christ if I start saying, yeah, it's appropriate for the state to start limiting the freedom that those folks are asking for. It's not legitimate in God's eyes. So I'm not recognizing anything differently. Frankly, again, I think the state should get out of the marriage business, and I think you lose this whole complication. But as a whole, the very freedom that they're asking for in that particular situation should continue to protect me to follow Christ in the way that I see fit. So, I mean, that's why, to me, it's not a banner issue. But you think it's a double standard. I think it's been demonstrated that when following the same path in other countries, yes, it does, in effect, become a double standard. Their ultimate goal is what they want to do with it. Oh, yeah. And again, the motives, I could care less about the motives except for that they're being successful. You know, like, of course they don't, our belief structure doesn't fit in with the way

they live. Of course they're not going to support it, right? Of course their agenda is to say, you know, I want to live this way. I don't care for the guy that says, I don't get to live this way. I mean, we're kind of in the same position. You know, on both sides of each, we're kind of in the same position. I don't care for them and continue to follow Christ in my way so that we can still interact with them. I think, to a certain extent, the way that it's being approached, you have the very real possibility of cutting off people so that they write you off and misunderstand God in the process. Yeah. Yeah. Deepen. Yeah. I already touched on these homosexuals. Live from the past. Des Moinesamplified.com. I think we're all on the same boat here. I just think you guys are creeped out by the possible future infringement of rights. Which actually, if I'm thinking from a holistic standpoint, I probably don't agree with. I probably don't agree that it's okay to try to cut someone's freedom off for the potential infringement of freedom going forward.

Because I wouldn't appreciate, because I certainly, they could very well do the same thing to our ability to worship Christ. Which is the goal. It may very well be. But ultimately, ultimately, and from a big picture standpoint, that's not a winner. It's part of getting toward this state church that other governments have done, because it gets to the point where, well, if you don't say what the government says is okay, then we're going to cut you off, and we're going to close you down. And maybe they do, but I mean, that's kind of in God's hands. Yeah, it goes underground. I mean, so it always survives. Well, that is the question, though. Like, do you infringe on someone else's rights based on your preconception that they're going to infringe on yours later? I don't know if it's infringing on any rights. I mean, they keep calling it a rights issue. It doesn't change anything. Well, constitutionally, there's no right to marry. Right. I mean, that's why it should be an irrelevant thing. It should have happened. I mean, if they want to go do whatever. Like, it's not, it's, right.

I mean, I don't have any right to stop them from doing whatever they're doing. The state recognition of marriage is actually the bigger issue, that the state is involved in the whole process. Well, the state cares a lick about that my wife and I were married. Well, but on the same token, what do you care if the state says it's okay or it's not okay? I don't. Like, that's the overarching principle. I don't. If you're asking me from a moral standpoint, God's position on the matter, I'm obviously going to vote with God. However, to the extent that, you know, if that's how it goes through, you know, I'm not going to throw a fit anywhere. I mean, I'll give you my honest opinion, but beyond that, from a freedom standpoint, I can't very well look at them and say, you know, it's okay to infringe upon your freedom to do whatever you wish. The state, the state is the complication. That government has gotten in the middle of it is where the complication resides. That people are going to make moral choices that don't agree with Christ's perspective is pretty much a given. And that's it. I mean, legislating all of morality is irrelevant because you can have a really moral society that all ends up ultimately in hell just because they were real nice to each other. Well, you know, our goal is to bring people to Jesus.

And if they are maneuvering around in such a way as to make sure we can't do that, then that's where we get in trouble. Yeah, so again, I think, but I think maybe we're mistaken. I think the, and this position is mistaken if we're voting for protection of our own rights by voting against what they're looking at as a right. I don't, I don't think that's a, that's a congruent perspective. I agree. I think you have, I think you have a, have to be prepared for that fight and you had prepared very well to lose it if, if history pans out. But, but the preemptiveness I think is, is a bit hypocritical and on that particular nature. I, if, if there was a vote that said, hey, can we just get the government out of marriage and look, if, if you go to a, a church or a house of worship that says gay marriage is fine, you want to get married over there or however you want to do it. I don't, you know, that, that's up to where you serve. I don't, I don't agree with it, but, but really that's. Right. Because once again, it's the banner sin, right? Like you're going to make it, you know, like, like this guy, you know, two dudes got married over here and this guy's been stealing from the coffers the last six months, you know, what, which sin is the worst one, you know? I mean, which one is the, well, partly because they, they've made it that, you know, they, they keep pointing the finger back at the church saying, you guys are so old to talk

about. It's like, well, they keep throwing it in our face. They, they keep shoving it at us and saying, no, we have to accept it. It's like, no, we don't. No, we, we certainly don't. And, and we, we do have to love individual people and accept them. And, you know, I have no problem with any individual people. I have problems with some of the leadership of, of that agenda, you know, because they're, they're, I shouldn't say, and then as individuals, I don't, I don't know any of them. So I can't say, you know, oh, I don't like them. I could sit down with a meal and, and, and, uh, say the same thing about our guys. Exactly. Exactly. There's some really obnoxious people, but they're, they're very intelligent with how they, how they do things. They've, they've been working at it systematically and they're, they're eroding. It's all part of them, you know, what they've been doing to, to our society. And, and it's not ending well for the family. You know, our families are, are messed up. And then they say, well, look at the heterosexual marriages. That's no better. It's like, you're absolutely right. You know?

Well, for the same reasons. I mean, it's, it's, it's, the distance from God is the, keep throwing God out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So there. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's nine months in fellows without hitting a, more than 20 seconds on a hot social topic. So congratulations. There it is. Welcome to life in the past. On Des Moines, Amplified.com. Someone should witness to me. So here's the guy. So here's, here's the setup. So I go, uh, we're over painting this fellow's house. And, uh, uh, uh, the other, the other fellows who, uh, who weren't around, they could, we're going to make it that day. And so it's usually three of us working today. It's just me.

So I'm out there painting away, whatever. Dude come out. He goes, uh, you paint the house. I said, well, it's your house. Help me pay the house. I'm paying you to paint. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I said, well, I said, it's your house. He goes, I really want to. And I said, I'll be honest with you. It's going to be very awkward to be painting alongside you, painting the house that you're paying me to paint. He goes, ah, so he's painting house, me and him working at it. We're painting things. And, uh, so we start talking, whatever, and, you know, we get, you know, we get on the Jesus stuff and, and, uh, you know, he's talking about his kids or whatnot. And I say, you know, he goes, my daughter lives in Johnson. I said, well, I go to church in Johnson. You know, did she find a place to worship yet? And she goes, he goes, well, she was going to this in this place, but, uh, the pastor's daughter is gay and, and he won't, uh, come to grips with it and make mention of it.

And I said, well, I'm going to stay out of that whole thing. But, uh, we have a church, uh, in Johnson. You know, you're, you know, you're more welcome to, to stop by anytime you'd like. And, uh, he goes, well, you know, I was reading my devotional this morning. I'm like, all right. Okay. So me and this guy are going to have some stuff to talk about. This is going to be great. You know? And so, uh, and so, you know, we get to talking Jesus stuff and, and I, about a half hour in, it starts, the coin starts turning a little bit like, like we're not talking about the God that you and I know about the God that he knows and the one that I'm probably not familiar with. And it starts to, the conversation goes on and then, and then also we're going to lunch and now, and now he's, he's in full, full mission, mission bore here. Like I've never met the Lord in my life. I have no idea what, what his grace looks like. And, uh, and we're talking and we are talking and he, he looks at me now and he goes, Michael, I'm going to tell you something. I said, okay, I'm going to tell you something. I said, okay, I'm ready. And he goes, you know, the things I say here today, uh, you know, they're, they're coming straight from the Lord.

If you ask me tomorrow what I said today, I'm not going to tell you. He goes, I come right from the Lord. It was, it was preordained that you and I were going to end up in this position right here today. I said, at the pizza ranch? He said, yeah. I said, well, and so can I have some more chicken? This is where I start to get into trouble because, because I think the whole time I'm like preordained, come on, you know, I don't know if I'm buying this, you know, and then I start, I start getting worried and I start praying. I'm like, did you send this guy my way, Lord? Is there stuff for me to be listening to here? So then I've started to listen intently. Like God himself is looking me in the face, trying to tell me what to do, you know, and he's saying all this stuff. He's like, you should do this. Don't worry. These things are okay here and whatever. And I've learned some things too in my life. And, and this, I'm like, this, this, the Lord has said this man too big. And so I've eaten it up. Solid gold, you know, this thing's, it's great. You know, and he says a couple of things that I don't find biblically consistent.

So I try to cast those aside, get back to the main message. God was obviously mistaken. And he goes, everything's figured out. Everything's preordained. And I'm like, yeah, you know, like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a huge fan of that. I don't know if I believe in that. I know the Lord knows what's going to happen. I know he knows what's exactly what's going to do, but I don't know that he set it up that way. You know, sometimes life just happens, you know? Yeah. So anyway, blah, blah, blah, he's talking, talking, talking. At the end of the day, three, four o'clock rolls around. He convinced me that I have never, I don't know anything about Christ. I've never been saved. The whole, my last 28 years of life have been nothing. I've told him that I do a Christian radio show with a couple of fellas, you know? Doesn't change anything. The whole, the day goes completely on. And I've, I've never met the Lord as far as he's concerned. It was, it was very awkward. Very awkward. Like I was so excited when he said he was reading Galatians that morning.

And I thought, cool, you know, it's very rare that you find a guy that does, A, does devotionals, and B, wants to talk about it with another dude. I was like, we might have some good conversations here, you know? And then somehow it turned into that, like, I don't know Jesus at all. And I was like, this, it just puts you in an awkward position. Like, wouldn't you stop him and go, hey, I know the Lord, you know? And then he goes, but you know the Lord like I know the Lord. Here's some, here's some nuggets of wisdom that the Lord has bestowed upon me, you know? And he said that a lot. You know, the Lord has blessed me. The Lord has blessed me. The Lord has blessed me with this. And, you know, if there's one thing that I can, that I can oppress upon you, here's the three things you need to remember. I said, well, this ought to be classic. Okay, great, you know? I thought, you know, I'll keep this in the memory banks. I'll use it when, you know. Yeah, yeah. But weird people say stuff like this, and it sticks with you, you know? I'm like, okay, I'm ready. He goes, one, you can flip a map, finger to that map, and wherever you end up, no matter who you find in that town, there's three universal truths.

One, we're all born of women. One, I said, that's heavy. I'm with you so far. He goes, two, we all die. Even Christ our Savior died. I said, I'm with you. I'm with you so far. This is heavy. Yeah. He goes, that must have come right from God. Yeah. Three, you need Jesus. And I said, yes. I said, I'm going to take one of them truths and run all the way with it. The other two, I think, are again. I don't. They might not be, you know, stamped in gold material like you're thinking. We are all born of women, Michael. Right. Even Christ our Savior is born of woman. Heavenly Father, earthly mother. I said, okay, I'm with you. The thing is, like most of the day, I found myself going, okay, I'm with you.

I don't know what else to say when someone witnesses you to things that you know of the Lord, you know? Yeah. Like, it's just a real, real awkward position. I tried a couple things. If you read that John Acuff blog, he did a blog on it a couple months ago. It was July 8th. Here I actually got it. So here was his five ways to respond when a Christian tries to convert another Christian. Oh, nice. Okay, here we go. Number one, sing the chorus of Blessed Be Your Name. Said, flee, in almost a hushed whisper, lean forward and sing, he gives and takes away. If they don't immediately pick up on it, they go to some crazy kind of church that doesn't sing Matt Redmond songs. Back up slowly, and once you're out of sight, sprint. Number two, and five ways to respond when a Christian tries to convert another Christian, front hug. On the funny version of The Office, 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin's character once said that sometimes to get out of a bad situation, you have to make it even worse. He called it the crevasse theory. Same idea here. Though I'm a proponent of the side hug, sometimes the only way to fix an awkward situation is to make it even more awkward. So instead of staring gunfounded at someone witnessing to you, just front hug them. For a good 30 seconds, just hold them there in the Barnes & Noble saying, shh, as they try to speak up. They'll probably walk away after that or arrest you. Number three, sign language.

This is in the five ways to respond when a Christian tries to convert another Christian. Sign language. Every Christian on the planet has at one point been in a youth group musical drama that involves sign language as a dance move. So if someone tries to double save you, show them the sign for King or Jesus. If you didn't immediately visualize both of those signs right now, I'll pray for you. Number four, show them your Christian silly band. Or number five, buy them a copy of Stuff Christians Like, the book. Yeah, definitely. So there you go. That's a way to… I didn't do any of those things. Yeah. It's kind of freaky when someone who already is a believer and you tell them you're a believer, that that's not good enough. Yeah. I need to know more. Yeah. Well, that's what I was excited about. Like, me and this other Christian dude are just going to be… Yeah. Like, this is cool. Brothers in Christ. And help me kind of understand him, because I thought he was a whack job. He's coming out and painting his own house, you know?

He's just a nice man. You know, and I thought, I don't meet genuine niceness very often. Yeah. And I really honestly believe this guy's just a nice guy. Like, I think he had… And I mean, he talked to me about it. You know, he had some stuff going in his past. And he goes, the Lord took it all away from me. And, you know, said, look, you know, you're arrogant, you're pompous, and you can't have anymore. And then… And here he is, you know, five years later, painting his own house with me. The guy he's paying to paint his house. You know, I thought, what a nice guy. You know, so I listened to most of the stuff he was saying, you know, thinking, yeah, yeah. You know, this is pretty cool. You know, you meet another Christian dude that's willing to talk about it with you. We're just going to hang out and be Christian fellows together. You know? Yeah. Nothing weird. And then it got a little heavy. And I thought, well, that's the thing that plagued me most of the day, though, is when he said, you know, the Lord has preordained me to talk to you. You know, here's the thing of events that showed up.

And I thought, he could have, you know. Who might have just dismissed this as nothing? So what would you have said if he had come up with three completely off-the-wall things instead of, we're all born of women? You know, what if he would have said, you know, we've all evolved from dogs? Yeah. And, you know. You know what? I probably would have said the exact same thing I said. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Duly noted. I'm not going to disagree or agree either way. I'm just going to go, yep, I understand completely. Maybe that's weak on my part. That's a strong response, Mike. Who? Who is it? We all came from dogs. But, okay. I can see the resemblance. Here's the thing.

I am not quick on my feet. You know what I'm saying? Like, I have to be, it takes me a couple minutes to figure out what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it and how it's going to work. You know, and I've tried that before. I listened to a sermon by a great man named Sean Engel there one time. He said, the Lord will tell you what to say. Just get in the ring. Go. You know. And I've done this before and embarrassed both me and the Lord while I'm at it. You know, like I picked the wrong guy. I picked the one guy that, like, intellectually trumped me on Bible knowledge. Yeah. And then I way laced and I lay waste and I go. Never mind. Jesus. Those both of us. We're born of women. I'm out of here. All men will die. You know, and so. You know, like a lollipop. You know, the thing is, and I've talked to people about this before.

You know, like, there's no excuse not to witness to people. You know, but there are certain people that it's best left to certain people to witness to. Sure. Like, I don't go into a room for the atheist and start preaching the word of God. You know why? Because, like, you know their spiel, right? Like, they're intellectuals, you know, and they see things this way. And you know what? If you don't have, if you're not going to meet them where they're at, then don't go in there, you know? And so you've got to watch what you're doing. You know, you don't just. We try to send the cream of the crop smart guys in to talk to the atheist so they can boil it down to something that they're going to understand. The reason with logic and smart stuff. You know, and if they still don't accept it, whatever. You give it a shot and you try to meet them on their level. You know, but. Yeah, you don't send the fluffmeister in there. No. Yeah. Yeah.

No, you don't send Johnny cries a lot in there and try to explain to him what's what. You know, it's just, it's not going to happen. Oh, Jesus loves you. And so it's kind of the same way. You just. See? He loves logic, too. He loves that sometimes you love them and sometimes you don't. I don't know. It was a very awkward situation. And frankly, it tested my mental. Like, it got me talking to God a little bit more this week because I'm like, okay, like, I know you can send people to do things. Is this the dude? You know? I mean, I like to take, I will trust people to a volubility. Like, I never assume that they have bad intentions. You know? I get burned a lot because of it. And then whatever, you know, it is what it is. But, you know, you see a guy who's smiley and he's nice and he's helping you paint his own house just for the company. You know, he seems like a very nice man.

And then he claims to be a messenger or guide. Well, but he wasn't necessarily saying you weren't a follower of Christ. He just was saying, here's some things I've learned. He was. He took a very fatherly stance about it. Yeah, yeah. You know, like an older gentleman speaking to a younger gentleman. You know? Which is okay. Mentor style. You can look at things and go, okay. Yeah. But he wasn't like, yeah, you're pretty much going to burn. No, no. Not accusatory. If you don't get this whole born of woman thing, you're, you know. No. Nothing like that. Nothing like that. And, you know, and that's the… I like the deep wisdom of, we're all born of woman. Well, it's the pause after he says, we're all born of woman. That's really weird.

My mom's a woman. You know you're right. Everybody I can think of is born of woman. This is a universal truth. That is from God. That's wild. Yeah. It's crazy. It was just, it was a different experience. And the thing is, like, I think, you know, like, apart from the preordained thing, everything he said seemed pretty solid, pretty biblically okay. You know, I think he was just saying, look, I've, I think what he was boiling down to is, look, I've lived a lot of life. I've screwed a lot of things up. He was very happy. He was a happy-go-lucky fellow. Very calm. You know, just what you would expect an old, happy Christian dude to be. Did he buy your lunch? He did. He did. The two guys that weren't there, he said, well, I wish your cohorts would get here. We'd all go to lunch.

I said, well, I don't think they're going to make it. And he goes, looks like it's just us then. Let's go. You know, and I don't know. It was a very, it was put me out of my comfort zone. Well, you know what's maybe sad is I think culturally that's a bit creepy. But that's kind of the sad part. Like, I mean, what happened to them guys? That's a guy. That's a guy to run into. A guy that looks at somebody else, says, I'm willing to talk to him, share my story with him, take him out to lunch, let him smoke him a truck. Yeah. Yeah, that was the weird part. So he wanted to paint, he wanted to paint the door, you know. And he said, we didn't have the paint there. And I said, look, you know, if you really want to paint the door, I said, once again, I'm not in support of you painting this house that I'm supposed to be painting. But if you really want to get it done, I'll go get the paint. He goes, great. You can take my truck. This is a $40,000 truck, leather seats, whatever. I said, no, you know, I'm not going to take your truck.

And he goes, no, no, take the truck. And I said, no, you know, I'm a smoker. I don't want to smoke in your truck. He goes, you can smoke in the truck. I said, now you're just being ridiculous. I mean, come on. I mean, people who don't smoke, they abhor smoking, you know. Like, you're not 50-50. Either you're okay with it or it is absolutely the worst thing ever. You know, he's like, ah, you can smoke in my truck. I said, I'm not taking your truck and smoking it. I'm not going to do that, you know. And so that was kind of awkward. But, you know, once again, just an extremely nice guy, you know, could be, you know. Yeah, so nothing really. No, like, it wasn't. Weird. I mean, it's just nothing. I guess. Not typical. No, right. Like, it was weird because it was out of my comfort zone weird. Like, I don't know how to deal with that.

So, first of all, you know, people attempting to mentor me with good advice, not used to that. But, you know, kind of puts me on guard a little bit. Like, hold on there, chief. You know, like I'm dying in a sea of sin here. You know, I'm doing okay. Do I look like I wasn't born a woman? Once again. Just too boy, huh? Once again, a bit of a pride issue that we've talked about last Sunday. About, you know, and that's one thing I did get out of it is, just be quiet. Listen to the man talk. Why don't you just shut up for a minute? And he has said that, too. He goes, you know, Michael? I use my full name. Michael, you know what? I think that, you know what I've noticed the Lord's given you? And I said, okay. A job? He goes, he's giving you two ears and one mouth, and you use them in proportion. That's a great compliment. Yeah, and I thought, that's a really nice thing to say. Over the last five years, I can't say that I've gotten any better at that.

But that was a very nice thing to say, you know? And the fact that he even noticed, you know, the whole thing was just a weird experience. Because if you tell the story, the guy seems like a crazy man, you know? But, like, in face-to-face reality, he just came off as just the nicest guy. And he wasn't a Nancy man. He was wearing size 16 steel-toed boots. He's got to be 6'4". He does construction for a living, like traveling construction. So, I don't know, it was just wild. It was very wild. Wow. Dig on it. That is wild. I don't know what to do with myself after that story. I don't either. All right. So, you've been listening to Life on the Path on Des Moines Amplified.com. Hey, so earlier, I said we'd talk a little bit about Matthew West. So, Matthew West is a Christian artist. And basically, what he did was he asked his fans to submit their stories for his new project called The Story of Your Life, which was going to be the name of his new CD. And he received over 10,000 stories that people had sent in to him. The stories came from every state and 20 countries.

And he spent most of a couple months, like at a cabin in Tennessee, reading each one and then writing songs based on the ones that had stood out. He did an interview and he'd said that like 40, he'd written 40 songs and started about 150 more out of these 10,000 stories. And so, I thought it was really interesting. And there was one in particular that I was going to share with you. It's called, it was like the, it's the title, it's not the title track, but it's one that he said sums up the album. It's called My Own Little World. I forgot to get the, yeah. There's, I'm trying to think if you, if there's a song you might recognize from him. It's Motions. Like, it's talking about going through the motions. I don't want to go through the motions. I don't want to spend one more day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't want to go through the motions. I don't want to live one more. Oh, is that him, that one? Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's him.

So, that's not from the. Was he born a woman? Like going through the motions. You know, he doesn't, he doesn't really say whether he was born a woman or not. Hey. Oh, what's that? He was born a woman. We all die. You need Jesus. Those are solid. All three of those. I mean, he's, he's, that's pretty good. Pretty good shape. All right, so here's. You should meet this man. I'll see if I can get him on the show. So here's, I'm going to read this to you. Here's, here's his description. Bring the chicken. We're not going to know what to do with him. Sorry. Okay. Yeah.

Here's a description of, of the song. And then I'll, I'll let you listen to it. Because I thought it was, I thought it was pretty good. So, this is Matthew West. He says, As I'm not sure I fully understood just what I was asking for when I reached out to all of you and with the opportunity to send me the story of your lives. And perhaps God intended for me not to see the whole picture beforehand because I may have been too scared to follow through with his plan for this new record. As stories began to pour in by the thousands, I could quickly sense that not only was something special taking place but that my life was about to change. I spent two months in the Tennessee cabin reading every story and writing songs inspired by them. During those months, my eyes were opened to see the world outside my door like I had never witnessed before. It was as if a veil had been lifted, allowing me a rare look into the lives of everyday people. I read joyful stories about adoption and cancer survivors. I read heartbreaking stories of abuse and broken homes. And with every look into someone's life, something began to stir in my own. My own little world, which is the name of the song, was written one night in the cabin as I found myself humbled by the realization of just how sheltered my safe little Christian life is most days. For the first time, I was truly sharing in the hurt and the pain of these other people who I've never truly seen before, and it felt good. I first walked into that cabin with my own little world being population me. With each new story, God began to change all that. This is the song that talks about how the thousands of stories you sent opened my eyes and my heart to see the world outside my door through the eyes of my Savior, through the eyes of compassion. I can honestly say that this song is inspired by every single story that was sent in. In my mind, if this project were a book, this would be the first chapter. My prayer is that this song sets the table for the rest of the album. We must first get outside of ourselves, look beyond our population one, and begin to see the world in a different light if we are going to truly make a difference and live a life that is pleasing to God.

The last verse of the song became the prayer for this album. And it goes like this, So here's a live version of that he recorded at a radio station in California called Air One, and this is My Own Little World by Matthew West. In my own little world, it hardly ever rain. I've never gone hungry, always felt safe. I've got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet. In my own little world, population me. I try to stay awake during Sunday morning church. I throw a 20 in the plate, but I never give till it hurts. And I turn off the news when I don't like what I see. Yeah, it's easy to do when it's population me. There's a bigger picture that I'm missing now. There's a greater purpose that I could be living right now. Stopped at a red light, looked out my window. I saw a cardboard sign that said, help this homeless widow. And just above that sign was the face of a human. But I thought to myself, God, what have I been doing? So I rolled down to rim the eyes. I passed her by. But while I gave her some money, then I drove on through. Yeah, my own little world, reach population. It's a picture. What if I'm missing now?

There's a greater purpose that I could be living right now. Outside my own. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Give me open hands and open doors. Put your light in my eyes and let me see that my own little world is not about me. What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing now? What if there's a greater purpose that I could be living right now? I don't want to miss what matters. I want to be reaching now. With a greater purpose so I can start living right now. Outside. That was Matthew West in studio here at Life in the Path. Live. Thanks for coming in, Matthew. Thanks, Matt. He had to go. We'll see you, buddy. He had to take off. Those candy bars aren't free, dude. I'll tell you what. Musicians.

Give them an inch, they take a mile. Or if you're Ben, you give them the mile. Just start out there. That's a pretty good song. Yeah. It was a good song. When's the album coming out? It's out. It's out. You can go to MatthewWest.com. You can also pick it up on Amazon. I think it's out everywhere. You want to go three Zs on picking it up? What's it going to cost us? Twelve bones? I'll put in four. I think it's 16 bones. Oh, man. I'm out. Yeah. $3.50. I'm going to download a song at a time for the next 12 months at a dollar pop. There you go.

That sounds like something I can afford. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that would be pretty crazy, getting that many stories. You know? And some of them, no doubt, were probably pretty heart-wrenching. Oh, yeah. For them to be motivated. You know, if someone told me, send me my story for a song, I'd have nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I met this guy for lunch once. He was kind of weird when I was born a woman. You know? I mean, weird guy at the pizza house. Chicken and pepperoni. He said his name was Jesus. He was born a woman. I said, that's true. But, you know, his message there is pretty cool. When you get outside of your own story and your own life, and we spend so much time focusing on our own little world. So, even our discussion we had earlier, you know, we got all worried about, well, how's

that going to affect me? Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, I mean, you still got to handle the truth and stuff. But, I don't know. There's people all around us with stories that we just kind of gloss over because we're so consumed with our own world. And he basically said, hey, it's not about me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought, so, I'm actually pretty interested conceptually. This is just an awesome thought. It's an awesome thought when you're listening to a song and you can, I don't know, you can imagine a person behind it. I don't do much of that. I'm more of like a, I just listen to tunes, really. I don't really take them in. But, I'm afraid that if I were to buy this, see, I probably would. You'd probably get something out of it knowing that it's about. And, you know, if you go to his website, if you go to MatthewWest.com, he's got a lot of cool stuff on there.

Like, he goes through each, tells you the story behind each of the songs, like what the person had written in. And there was one from a girl who was just getting out of foster care. Like, she's 17 and she'll be out of foster care in the next three months when it was written. And she'll be out of the system and still has no family or whatever. But she'd given her life to Christ and she, you know, felt supported and it's like she had direction because of that, even though she otherwise doesn't have any familial ties outside of where she's going. So, that would be tough. That would be really tough. You think about it. That would have no, you know, no real family other than, at least she has a church now then evidently. She's a believer. Yeah. That would make the church family that much more vital and important to you. Like, what's your memory of Christmas? Well, when you were with these people and they were kind of creepy and that was, you know. Yeah. That'd be pretty wild. Yeah. What'd she say?

So, actually, the song, this was the story of your life. This was the lead track and that was her. So, it was, she said, my story so far is a 17 year is one of redemption and healing. I am an unloved, casted out and forgotten foster kid whose life never was like the kids I grew up with. I turned 18 and age out of foster care in two months and I still have no parents or family to love. I accepted Christ when I was five and this year was the turning point of my relationship with Christ. I no longer need anyone but God. He is my mother, father, etc. He has redeemed my life for victory and beauty. Things are still lonely sometimes, but I love the verse Joshua 1, 9. It reminds me every day that when it's finished on Calvary, I gained a best friend beyond any earthly ones. My story is extreme and painful, but through his blood I love, I have healing and I have hope. I'm now spreading that hope to friends and fellow teens in my same boat who need love. He turned me into a princess and now I am living out my duties until I reach my kingdom above. What's Joshua 1, 9? I was just looking it up here. Joshua 1, 9. Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous?

Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That's the English Standard Version, by the way. That's probably my new Bible choice. It would be. I'm converting from NIV. Moving my way around. Moving on. To a fresh text. But that is more Quine Greek-ish. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That would be pretty powerful for a person who's getting moved around every so often. And it would be powerful for anybody. But, you know, God's even with you when you're at a pizza buffet with a creepy guy. Yeah. Or he's with you when you're being brought in. I mean, your mind can go, but you're one of the stories this gal has. Yeah. I thought, actually, that weird, that God is with you thing popped into my head. We were talking about marriage stuff, I think, in one of our small groups.

And I got to thinking of, like, the types of arguments or minor tiffs that I have with my wife. If God was, like, standing in the corner next to the dog bowl, like, and I were checking with him after I said something, like, yeah, that's a solid one. That's what you're going to say to your wife? Yeah. Now you got her. Good one. That's true. You're very early going to get the thumbs up wink. Like, yeah, that's a good job. Like, unless we're arguing about how often we should be praying or sharing the Bible together, which is not, frankly, I don't recall having that argument with my wife, which means that everything else is fairly petty. And I thought, you know, I could be vindicated in that particular room. I might be able to out-talk my wife. She tends to out-reason me. If I win, it's because I out-talked her and frustrated her. Out-talked her in circles around her. Yeah. Yeah, and so, and that's sad. But, yeah, but I was thinking about how many times where I thought, oh, yeah, this is turning my direction. If I were to look at, you know, Christ in the corner and be like, yeah, keep that up. That's a good one. Like, it's unlikely. So it's just, I don't know, an interesting direction. Yeah, I think, mentioning marriage and wives, 1 Peter 3 talks about the husband-and-wife relationship and actually your prayers being hindered if you're not in good relationship with your spouse, with your wife.

And every once in a while that hits me, it's like, I better make sure, if for no other reason I'm right with God, that I'd be right with Cheryl. So, you know, even though she may have made me mad or I made her mad or I did something dumb or she did something dumb and I just went, well, I'm going to show her. I'm not going to, you know, whatever. I'm not going to talk to her for three days or, you know. Yeah, yeah. That's not my approach. But every once in a while, whatever, I'll just think, man, I better make sure I'm right with her because if I'm not right with her, I'm not right with God. And that's, I don't want that. Yeah. How did your anniversary vacation go? Pretty sharp. It was a lot of fun. I've never been to Hawaii. I've never, I mean, I know nothing about it. People tell, what island? I'm like, I can't even tell you what the islands are. I don't know. If I've not been there, you know, I still can't tell you. I still have to ask them what island we were on. Oahu, Waikiki Beach, Waikiki Beach, the big tourist area. But it was a blast. Mostly it's breathtakingly beautiful. I mean, the ocean, we did some snorkeling one day and it was just floating around in the water.

I mean, I almost wrestled a turtle. And, you know, this big, big honking turtle. What did he say to you? I didn't say a thing. But you'd watch the film. Did he say, vote for gay marriage, Daniel? If you are, I'm going to snap you. I mean, they have this big film, you know, all these rules and laws. You can't touch anything. And if it's, especially the turtles, you know, they're being protected. And so I almost drowned reacting, just like trying not to touch the turtle. Because, I mean, he literally swam right underneath me. And if I had put my hand down, I would have, like, grabbed him or something. I mean, I wouldn't. Did you consider touching him? Well, then I realized. I was like, ooh, I know. Now they said no. Then you could giggle. I got some pictures of him that got one of those little cheapo under camera. Is that scuba diving? Snorkeling. So I got one of those little $18 disposable underwater.

Oh, so that's not like the mask and you're rocking way low? Well, you do the mask and the air thing. So, you know, your air thing is only, what, 12 inches or so. So you're not, but the water is pretty shallow. Can you extend a tube, that thing? Like, can you put on, like, a 15-foot hose or whatever? I don't know. And just keep going down farther? I've never heard of that. But this is my first snorkeling expedition. So, you know, there's things I don't know. What island were you on? Oahu. I remembered it quickly. The whole time I got, what island are we on? Like, Oahu, idiot. Oh, okay. It was fun, but very relaxing. Partially relaxing. It was also extremely busy. We were, like, filled every minute of every day because you want to kind of do as much as you can when you're there. I mean, it's one of those probably for us once-in-a-lifetime things.

So, you know, we did a little tours, and a lot of it was on a bus. So everything you do is an hour, an hour and a half away from the motel. Oh, right, yeah. Did you ever see the man behind the curtain? You know, was it, like, a touristy, glossy facade, and then, like, the poor dumps of Hawaii, you saw it somewhere? That was some pressure. I'm coming in from the airport to the motel around a bus, and I'm just going, this place is a dump. I was like, I couldn't believe it. You know, there's shipyards and all this junk, there's all kinds of, like, gang symbols painted on walls and stuff, and I'm going, really? I mean, big money. This is it. Here I go. Wow. And, of course, then you get to the glitzy part, and it's all beautiful and palm trees and everything. And then they take you to the other side of the island where it's all just agriculture and it's nothing glitzy. It's just kind of cool. And most of the time, you're driving by the ocean. It's so weird to look at one side to the left or whatever direction you're going, and

you see mountains, and you look the other way, and you see the ocean, and it's just like this amazing. It's beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. I've never, every vacation we go on, you know, at the end, you're kind of like, I could go home. Yeah, right, yeah. I almost just sat there and thought, man, if I could figure out a way to stay. You would stay? I would stay. There's a lot of homeless, and I think that's probably those people who are just like, yeah. That's it. I'll make it work. I'll come up with something. I'll sleep on the beach. That's true. Being homeless in Hawaii cannot be as bad as being homeless somewhere else. In like Detroit or something. You know, I was thinking about that actually today. Like Hawaii's got to be one of those places where like, you know, it's not touristy because you've set up attractions. It's touristy because the place is just cool to be. It's just beautiful.

Yeah. I wouldn't appreciate it, but it sounds pretty awesome. I bet you could go around and you could see people of Dan's ilk having thought that very same thing. He's like, hey, man, what's your name, buddy, so I could pray for you. Well, it used to be Dan Hudson, brah. And then he was like, yeah, yeah, I'm Dan Hudson. Yeah. Like a bunch of guys who thought, yeah, I'm going to come here and find a way to just enjoy the land. Don't call me Skeeter. The Lord will bless me with pineapples. Exactly. There was a church in Beaumont, Texas. I've been there. You've not been to Beaumont, Texas. Okay, I haven't been there, but I really want to go. It's on my bucket list. What's drawing you to Beaumont, Texas? I heard if I go, they'll give me a free car. Call them. Tell them I'm ready to cash in. That's Florida.

Oh. Welcome to Beaumont, brah. This is why I don't talk to people. You don't say something. There's a church in Beaumont, Texas. It was running out a billboard. The billboard says, what a bunch of jerks, exclamation point, www.christcovenant.info. Christ Covenant? Yeah. So that's the name of the church. Christ Covenant Church in Beaumont, Texas. So someone rented a billboard to call everybody in that church jerks? What a bunch of jerks. Now, the church is the renter. Ah. They rented out the billboard. Okay. So if you follow their website and you click onto the picture of the billboard that's on the front page, here's the description. The church has failed. That's right. We've messed up big time. The church was supposed to be a reflection of the God it claimed to serve.

The church was supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. But for the most part, the church has failed. Our failure has left a bad taste in people's mouths. Our mistakes have led to a lack of credibility. Our messes have caused people to seek answers for this life elsewhere. And really, who could blame people for giving up on church? Gandhi had a very good point when he said, I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. What a bunch of jerks. Prideful, hypocritical, selfish, judgmental jerks. Christ Covenant Church, do you know what our response is? Guilty as charged. We are fed up with it just as much as you are. We've failed. We've failed you. We've failed each other. And the worst part is that we've failed to act like Jesus. And it's time to own up to our failure because only then can we turn it around. So no more sugarcoating it, no more pretending. That's what this is all about. We've decided that we want to turn it around.

We may not be able to change the past, but we can sure change the future. And we want to. We want to be a reflection of the God that we serve. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Yeah, when I was there, they were talking about it. We had a vote. They said, Mike, you're a jerk. Then they said, well, you're not a deacon. You can't vote. Then they decided to go this route. I don't know. Effective? I'd say so. I'm excited about it. I think you can read it and go, yeah. Whether you're a believer or people who think you're jerks probably think, yeah, they are jerks. What do you think it started? Like, what do you think? Like, is this a fairly new thing where people are going, look, the church is screwed up? Not outsiders of the church, but the church themselves going, this is not what it was meant to be. Like, has it always, because it feels like it's kind of kicking up in intensity, like, I don't know, over the last 10 years. I think it started from the very beginning, you know, because we're still human. We're still, I think it's the expectations we put on the church that we expect to be perfect because Christ was perfect, so therefore it used to be perfect.

But, you know, you've got, the church is a young thing, and you've got some dude selling property bragging about how much money, and then he, you know, he gave, and he kind of lied about it. And then he gets killed by God, you know, and then his wife comes in and says, yeah, we did that, and then she drops dead, you know, I mean, we've always been jerks. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was a jerk before I met Christ. I'm sometimes a bigger jerk now because I think I'm smarter than everybody. Right. And, yeah. But I think my, maybe you're asking, when has it become, from a Christ-following perspective, when did the tide really turn to start outing the church as the failure? Oh, is that what you're saying? Well, yeah, kind of. I did not answer your question. No, well, you did a little bit, but I guess what I'm getting at, like, it seems like usually the church protects itself. You know, like it's an amorphic animal. Like, our failures or what, you know, like, I mean, we've always screwed up, but we've tended to protect ourself, you know, and almost stick together blindly. You know, like, it doesn't matter what faction of the church or what's happened here, as long as you say that you know the Lord, whatever. We're in. We got your back. Well, and I think maybe that this type of attitude has followed getting away from, like, getting more direct relationship with Christ as opposed to the movement that is just being a part of a religion or being a part of a church. You know what I'm saying? Like, the kind of indoctrination type of stuff was pretty big in your 20th century. When people got used to the church as an institution, because the church did a lot of service as an institution to its benefit, you know, in the midst of your world wars, I mean, in a sense of chaos, that's where people head for comfort. And what's more comfortable than a church that's been sitting on that corner for 150 years? A church that, you know, doubles as a soup kitchen is a place where people go to feel surrounded by other people that are having pain.

And so that type of atmosphere, I think, actually has produced kind of the church as the institution as opposed to as Jesus as a relationship and the church as the people that are having a communal relationship and follow Christ. And I think maybe what we're getting is we live – I mean, there's stuff going on, but relatively speaking, we live in some peaceful times. A lot of our problems are festering as opposed to outright staring you in the face. But I think as we've gotten away from that, we've kind of been – we can walk away from the churches and institutions saying, well, it's not doing anything for me. I don't need the soup kitchen. Things are pretty much okay. Economy is bouncing back around. I don't have to go there for comfort or for solace or, you know, for someone to help me with the food pantry stuff, whatever. So I can kind of walk away from that. And so once you've lost that view of the church as the institution, all that's really left in your faith is the relationship with Jesus Christ. And I think you see things go one or two ways. Either we recognize that and people start to pursue that relationship, or it goes the other way where we say, well, this doesn't do anything for me at all. I really didn't have a relationship with Christ. I just had – I really liked the way I felt in the presence of this church body. And now, no, I don't really need it anymore, and they walk away from it. But I think it's that core – once you recognize your existence in a relationship with Christ, the church as the institution starts to fade away. And I think we kind of realize to a certain extent how the church may have glossed over some of the more important things for some of the more touchy-feely things. Like we feel comfortable in this atmosphere as a church. We want people to feel welcome, which is all true. But we want them to feel welcome so they'll be open to understand the truth of Jesus Christ, not because we just like people to feel good and enjoy a warm Pop-Tart. Right. So I think maybe that's the distinction. I think it's getting a little bit – it's a pretty consistent message from your barn burner Christian leaders in today.

I think you're seeing a lot more – it's not counter to our culture. It's counter to the church culture that I think had been coming through, you know, predominantly in the early 20th century. Got a small reprieve in the early 70s and then kind of came back in the 80s as an institution up through the early 2000s, you know. And I think we're starting to get away from that a little more and recognize that even our own church as an organization has the possibility to stand between us and Christ if we treat it as merely a social program for people as opposed to a distribution channel for truth. And I think that's maybe how we're getting to that point. Well, you know, I think people might be getting a little bit better about sniffing out, you know, a little integrity here and there. You know what I'm saying? Like all politicians and most, you know, hierarchical religious leaders are almost the exact same. Like you can tell as soon as they get on TV, well, this is going to be a load. You know, like this is, you know, you can look at whatever operations they're talking about and whatever they're saying and go, you know, this isn't genuine. You know, you're just a guy that gives a good speech. Yeah. You know, and I think people get tired of that crap. You know, people get tired of, I mean, name one politician that you've seen their speech anywhere about anything and not gone, this just doesn't apply to me at all. You know, actually, and that's too bad because I've seen a number of politicians, which I look at them, I see their stance and stuff. I think, yeah, you know what, I kind of like that guy. And then you'll see him get in front of a camera somewhere and he's like a total horse's butt. Exactly. You're like, where did this guy come from? Yeah. And you think, like, I didn't, I didn't, I'm not buying the show. I don't want to see the show.

I want a person that is going to handle these affairs. And I think, you know, it's, it's, there's, it's a hard, it's a hard thing because sometimes there's, there is charisma about someone who's being, who is truthful. And, and people will latch on to it because it's truth. And then, and then you run the risk of, of balancing between, you know, the, the charisma of that person and, and the truth of Jesus Christ. And that's a, you know, that's a tough thing. I, I'm always hesitant of anybody with more than three books. Anybody that's written more than three books weirds me out. Because I think, what does it take of three books together for? I mean, right. You should have been able to get this done in at least two books. Yeah. I mean, it's not to say there's, there's, there's wonderful authors who have produced like, like Christian, you know, authors that are trying to do, you know, help. And, and they've produced more than three books and they're fantastic. But like, I really get distrustful of, of a guy, one that's got his face on the front, Joel Osteen. I can't take that guy. He's got his goofy face and his, and his knuckle up to his chin. And I think, how did you even sit there for that poster? Like, I mean, without feeling like a real doofus. Don't shake your head, Daniel. You've done the exact same thing. You see the picture on the back of Dan's book? Dan, how many books you've written? Three.

I am at the limit. Just under. You can't do it anymore. I'm done. Actually, but if I remember correctly, one of your, one of your books was a collection of articles. Yeah, two of them. Okay, so I'm going to give you one. Another was just a sermon series thrown into a book. He's like a recycling center. See, I appreciate Dan's honesty on this deal. Yeah, I just took stuff I already wrote down and just put them all together. Yeah, that seems kind of cool. Go ahead and just throw that book. Yeah. If I, and I, I remember looking for it, but I, I couldn't find a viable internet picture of it. But like, the cover of one of Dan's books looks like the front of Gone with the Wind. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's what I was making fun of recently. Dude, did you do Amazon? It's such a small picture. You can find them. It wouldn't blow up quite a bit. Oh.

Isn't it called like the slice of life? What's it called? Uh, the book? Yeah. You're thinking of Hope from the Heartland. Yes, Hope from the Heartland. And then Daniel's on the back, and I dig this, dig this. Uh, mustache, uh, short-sleeved dress shirt. Tell me it's black and white. Uh, it's black and white. It's black and white. Hand underneath the chin. Look at the camera. I have some other dude that has Hope from the Heartland.com now. I used to have that. Oh, no. Did you not keep up the, you didn't keep up the famous? No, I didn't. I just thought, you know, it's kind of silly. Well, you'd think I'd be number one on the, uh, on the Google search. There's a lot more Hope from the Heartland than is provided by Dan Husson. Can you get a digital copy, Dan? Of the, of the book?

Yeah, like, like on the Amazon Kindle or whatever? Like, could you, is your book available for digital distribution on the new, on the new channels? Uh, I doubt it. And it was, when I did that, it was in the beginning stages, and you could kind of choose different formats. You could go and do that, and as opposed to hard print. And I went with the hard print. Simply because, it's kind of like in the beginning, you know, they had, what, what, what, what didn't, what went, uh, you had VCRs, and what was the other beta or whatever? Oh, beta, beta, yeah. You know, it's like, you don't know which one's going to catch on, and so I thought, I'm just going to go with hard print, because that's, that's done pretty well. Written text is done well over the years. Everyone, everyone's very happy with the written word. It just keeps going. You can put it behind lights and fancy cards, but it boils down to a written word, and I'm in. Oh, there it is, uh, paperbackswap.com. What, people are trying to trade it? I got three copies of Hope and Heartland. I'll trade you for Bazooka Joe Bubblegum. I had to type my name in it as well. Man, that's a nice photo. That's a good friend of mine, Clint Hansen, uh, who designed the cover. And he has a lot of pretty cool art, actually.

Um, I know you guys don't like this particular one. I would. I love this piece. Oh, he has my second one on there, too, Light for the Journey. Hmm, how much did you pay for this thing? Oh, there it is. And that one customer review with four stars. Where? Congratulations, Dan. Wait a minute. Did they write anything? On Amazon.com. Here it is. Hold on. What is mine? This guy is awesome! I would say Snappy Dresser. Here we go. Each story is filled with a personal experience that enhances the author's testimony of his faith in Christ. It is easy to find yourself relating to the stories as if they were your own. The book is a well-written series of short stories that anyone can enjoy. It is easy to be captivated by each one. The author keeps you interested always.

It's a great book! Exclamation point. Four stars. Debbie Chopka from Canton, Ohio. Do you know her? Dan. Oh, Daniel. Now I'm going to write one to counter it to get you back to zero. Hoping the heartland is hoping that there's a better book out there besides the one that I've bought. Well, now, wait a minute. So, Emma, here we go. Best sellers rank. Dan's, Mike, what do you guess Dan's ranking is on the Amazon? Currently? Best sellers rank. What number? It's got to be in the thousands, right? Just go ahead and throw it out there. 1,340. Wait a minute. So, of all the books available, Dan, is 1,340? 7,340. Dan, do you have a guess?

Oh, man. Probably 458,272 or something. Okay. Here we go. Amazon best sellers rank. The digits are 7,2,7,8,9,2,8. 7,000,000. I've gone up three since last week. That's just the hope for me. That's pretty good, Dan. That's hope for the heartland. You know, it was awesome. One day, I don't know, several years ago, I was playing around, and I just wanted to see it. You know, it was 1999 I did this, and it was probably five years later. I thought, yeah, like, it's disappeared, obviously. And they had a bunch of used ones on Amazon, and one of them was, like, going for $26. It was, like, signed by the author and all this stuff. And I'm going, wow, it sold for $12.95. Did you sign it? Really? Yeah, I had a bunch of little signings and stuff out there. It's really kind of funny. You went on, like, a book tour and everything?

I didn't go on a tour, but people would ask me to come to do these little signing things, and I started speaking all over the place. It was kind of fun. There's another one. Actually, here's one. Light for the Journey. Stories to Encourage Personal Growth. Paperback by Dan Hudson. It's a $9.85 plus $4 shipping, collectible, and is signed by the author, selling from Nebraska. You're worldwide, Dan. Man, Nebraska's pretty close to worldwide. Yeah, Nebraska and Ohio, you couldn't get any farther apart. Stone's throw away. Actually, now, here's the other one, Dan's other book, God's Top Ten, Unfolding the Timeless Message of the Ten. Dan, to your credit, this book was very good. I thought that sermon series was very good, and I thought the book captured it well. It was one of those things at the end, I thought, that was kind of good. I should just write that down. Yeah. Now, Grant, I didn't read your other two books, so in comparison, they may be just as good, but I did read the… I've read the other two. They're just little stories. I'll be honest.

I don't read that kind of stuff. I mean… It's too fuzzy for me. Yeah, it's very fuzzy. I can't read it. There was a different time in your life when you used to write fuzzy things. No, it was like one of those things I'd do, okay, okay, I've got to get myself to an emotion. So I'd take a story, then I'd just think, okay, what was the big emotion of that story? And then I'd kind of start out with some little thing. And people would come to me weeping. I would be mowing my yard, just like for the newspaper, you know, weekly newspaper. I'd be mowing my yard, and people would see me. They'd pull over and stop. Are you Dan Hudson? I'm like, yeah. Did you write that column? I'm like, yeah. I mean, it was weird. We never, since when I started, I probably did it, I don't know, four or five years. I can't remember. Well, longer. I did it when we still lived here for a while. But anyway, we could never go out to eat, ever.

There would be at least two or three people that would stop by. Man, thanks for that last column, blah, blah, blah. And I'm going, are you serious? I mean, like I said, I don't read this kind of stuff. I'm just like… Dan, you've got to start writing a column for the radio show so that we can't go out. Yeah, we should be able to not go out. Well, this is better because it's video of us as well. And I think… It's not selling like hotcakes, Dan. It must not translate. Well, it helps when you are the only thing in town. There was one print media. I thought you were going to say the only guy on the show. Me and Bendy the Hightailer. Just find better support. If I didn't have two 70-pound weights on my ankles, maybe I could get moving somewhere. We could really fly. A couple of pineapples in the studio. I could sell my books. You and your creepy Jesus man. Get out of here. So, let me ask this, fellas.

Let's say someone came up to us and said, Live from the Path radio show, I want you guys to write a book. What's that book about? You and Dan would have to talk about it while I go do something else. You don't have to do the writing, Mike. But we do have to come up with a message. I think we should title it Interacting with Creepy People. Yeah? I think that'd sell. It would never get written. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, chat. How Jesus talks to the world, which means how you should talk to the world. How to talk to different types of people about Christ. But you're not a good example of that. I know. I want to learn from this book. It seems like an interesting read. How do we do it? See, it's unfair because I know what Dan's going to say. He's just going to say one thing and then say it applies to everybody and say it the exact same way all the time. Okay, so this gets the chat livening up.

Here are our options. How to sell hot dogs via the mail. Yeah. Dodd food and underwear. Jesus and donkeys. Hmm. And donkeys. And donkeys. Hey, I pet a donkey this weekend. Really? As a matter of fact, I've had a heck of an experience the last two weeks. Saturday, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch and there was a half jack at this farm. And boy, he is just a lovely creature. He puts his big old fat head right on your hand and just sits there and looks up at you with his pretty eyes. Aw. Saying, take me home with you, Ben. Could you have a half jack? And then a week ago, it would be Sunday, not this Sunday, but the previous Sunday, we were horseback riding, me and my wife and our oldest daughter. And so we got to ride the horse. Man, that hurts. Have you guys ever gone horseback riding?

Just once. Boy. I mean, and I went in a full gallop and I was sore for a couple of days. Did it scare you? Yeah. Well, no, it wasn't scary. The full gallop? Did it freak you out? No. No, it wasn't scary, but it does just bruise. I always think, how do they not know that they can step on me and hurt me? Yeah, I walked up to the horse and you forget how giant of an animal this is. And I thought, this animal could kill me directly. And so I'm taking it real easy with the thing, trying to lead it around. I'm like, you go where you want, fella. Yeah, I'm just saying that. But anyway, this place, they had horses, so we went for a ride. And then halfway, so apparently the horse I had, this dude, is in love with one of the donkeys. And so when we got close to the thing, he just started kind of taking off towards the donkey arena. And there was a couple full-size donkeys there, and I went in and kind of got my picture taken with him.

It was pretty exciting. Huh. You got your picture taken? A couple of donkeys, yeah. Dude, what are the pictures for him? I don't know. The woman's got them. I'm certainly going to need a copy of that. Yeah, I'll put them on Facebook. They're pretty cool. Yeah, definitely. I was pretty just about it. We went to, we went, it was trash day in Altoona this week. Ooh. Ben picked up like a 1968 ladies' hair drying chair. Yeah, I get a call. I get a call at three o'clock in the afternoon. Hey man, dig this. He says, sends a text message picture of this gaudy chair, and then writes in the caption, how can I pass this up? And I say, you can't. And then he says, I didn't. So I show up, we're going to go out as a fam.

We go out as a huge family when we go out to do these things. Me and Ben and the wife, and we dump the kids off somewhere, and we call some buddies and whatever. We got like eight people going out. Put a Beverly Hills police truck looking for garbage. We got the trailer hooked up. We picked up two dishwashers this year. Wow. Yeah, one of them was working and in good shape. That's not the one I got. Yeah. I got the stainless steel one that I'm assuming doesn't work. I don't know. They didn't say either way. But it's like a $400 dishwasher. What could be wrong with it? That's right. You know, a $50 part. Yeah. There you go. A $200 part. It is. Well, no, this doesn't look.

I found pictures of it, but like he didn't post the pictures of the whole chair. It's just like the back of it. It's a Luxor Deluxe. He's got it on eBay or Craigslist. Craigslist. He's got it on Craigslist. Craigslist. It's probably been on there for three years. I don't, you know. Well, the guy was throwing it out, and he came out as I was picked. So I looked at it, and I said, I'm going to have to pick that up. So I start to lift it, and a guy comes walking out. He's like, hey, man, that still works. And I said, great. He said his wife has had it in the basement for a while, and she doesn't need it anymore. She needs to make room for other stuff. So they set it out. I thought, sweet. So even before I get rid of it, I'm definitely going to use it. I'm definitely going to sit in it and dry my hair and see how it goes. I've never sat in a chair like that. Have you, Daniel? Daniel, come on.

You've been in that lady drying chair? In the 80s, it was customary for men to get perms. And there were a few times. This would be around the same time you were writing in books, wouldn't it? No, it was before that. And there were a few times I got a perm. I'd perm just the top. Real tight little curls. And they'd put me in the little chair. Is it nice, though? You can't even feel it. Oh. I mean, it's just like you can hear it. Does it warm your neck or anything? No, I don't know. It's been a few years. I don't remember. I mean, it wasn't like I was expecting this whoosh. You know, it was just kind of like, oh. You know? So it's not like the hand dryer in the dude's room? Oh, no, the hair dryer. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Like there's a force of the hand dryer in the dude's room. Because it's like blowing, and then it's covered, and it has a little hole. So it's like a little bit of air coming through the holes. But it was just kind of like an even disbursement of fluffy little air. I'm definitely going to try it. Well, I'd like to try it before you get rid of it, then. Yeah. It's in your storage unit. Oh, yeah. That sounds like a sound fundraiser. Pay a quarter. Sit in the chair during a cafe. Pay a dollar. Hey, I actually always thought that we should have some sort of like worshiper of the week. And like, they get to sit in like a recliner or something. Because I thought, I could worship Jesus in this recliner. Why must I be uncomfortable to get the full effect of the Lord? Lord, I love you, but my legs are sure getting tired. What is it? I know where the Bible is. It's so puritanical where it says, if you love me, you'll be uncomfortable during church. You know what I'm saying? It's a better show, though, if you're uncomfortable.

Everybody else is sitting back. It's nice and comfy. And they look up at you and see you like. Yeah. Yeah, really. If you're a whole bunch of dudes with their chair turned backwards, sitting high school style, listening to the worship. I don't know. Maybe that would be so bad. I'll be saying, and then come forward, Rick Charlton. You're the worshiper of the week. The dude in the audience, and not the person on stage. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, I know. The guy in the audience gets to sit. Be comfortable. I misunderstood. Yeah, no, the guy on the stage is working. Well, yeah, that's what I was thinking. He's on the payroll. He better be standing the whole time. Yeah. Get to playing, monkey man. I'm seeing Phil on the drums with a lazy boy.

Yeah, no, no, no, no. You know what? I'm just going to get some coffee. I love worship and all of it. I can't do this anymore. So, what do you think, fellas? No. It's out. Why? You can have one per section. Yeah. Do a middle. Hey, now here's the deal. If you had recliners. No, that's not fair. You'll pick one guy, and everyone will get up from there and go sit on the other side, hoping they get picked in that. You want people to get in early to church and show up like they're supposed to. You put some recliners in the place. Maybe we'll hide. Well, you can hide it underneath the chair. What? Oh, like a golden ticket?

Yeah, the announcement. Oh, then you can. Well, why wouldn't I just like. Or stuff it in one of the jelly Bismarcks. We could do a drawing, like after the second song each week. Yeah. Have the heavy little ticket stub to get in, and then they could draw, and that'd be part of the announcement time. Yeah. And we'll rickshaw you out. You sit in the recliner, and then we pick it up rickshaw style and carry you out to your car. I like it. That's how you leave. Yeah. Or we get a series of the vibrating recliners. Yeah. There'd be this hum going on through the whole service. You could buy tokens with your tithe. Ooh. That seems like a mistake. Is that? Jesus cash.

Jesus deals in dinero. Anyway, just something to think about. Worcester of the week. Think on it. We're going to need a sign. I like it. They can take their picture and sell it for 20 bucks. Everything you do in Hawaii, they do that. I mean, we sat down at a restaurant to eat at a burger place. This guy comes up. Hey, smile. Okay, take a picture, and he comes back with an 8×10 printed, you know, $20. I know, thanks. Yeah. We bought a couple, like, at a different place. Yeah, I know. Well, I was just saying, hey, man, who's that guy in there? Did you say 20? I read a book by him once. It really gave me hope in the heart, man. We're always like, it's an 8×10. What am I going to do with an 8×10 and me eating a burger? You know, can you make it a 5×7?

Then I'd be like, yeah, give me a 5×7 for, like, 5 bucks. He didn't give me the option, though. He didn't print out one size. The burger place, I got the smaller ones, but that's the only place that had the smaller ones. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I can hardly have a 5×7 up of myself in my house. Like, it's like, I don't, I have mirrors, and things are fine. Exactly. But the 8×10, you're right. That's actually a little bit egotistical. I know. Well, look at that. Especially if you install a light and shine it on it. Welcome to my castle. Get one of those prints that looks like the painting, you know. Hey, now that would be a gig now, if you would take photos and make them into Paint My Number and then sell them back to me. Like, I take a photo, and then I give them to you, and then you paint my number, and, you know, you sketch it out, and then you sell me the paint and the board back, and then I fill it in. That would be a great Christmas gift for kids and for moms. Did someone do customize Paint My Number? Where's Olsen at? We've lost him. Another great industry that we need to start doing here, that they do in Hawaii, is this great under-industry of, like, there's attractions you can go to for free, but then, you know, they'll say, for $25, we'll take you there, and we'll give you the tour. You know, it's like, okay, you've got to pay to get to the zoo or something, but it's going to take you all day to the zoo.

I can get you through it in an hour and a half, and I know the stories. Yeah. Pay me $25, and I'll take you. And they're making a ton of money, so Cheryl and I are going to set up a little shop right by the airport, you know, and give people a tour packet, you know, and just say, here's what we're going to do. So, oh, you're going to the zoo today? That's awesome. You know, we're going to take you for $25 beyond, you know, your admission. We're going to give you the tour, and we can tell you stories about, you know, Rex the Rhino and this stuff. And we're going to come up with several different places in Des Moines that people want to see. We'll take them to the Capitol, which, you know, we won't tell them it's free, but we'll charge them $50 and get a whole bus load. That works pretty well. Come to the Capitol for $25. I don't think that many people come to Des Moines for touristy-type activities. Well, that's what the green van's for. We'll make a little sign for it. You can make this a profitable thing. Just because you say it's going to make a profit and then raise your eyebrows does not necessarily mean that it's going to indeed make a profit. That should be the extra sell. When I raise the eyebrows, then you know, oh, this one's for real. This is going to be profitable. This one's legit. Okay, here we go. So paint-by-number kits.

The primed cotton canvas is available in about 11×14, which is $89. 16×20, $115. What? 18×20 for $146. Wait a minute, and I can submit a photo and they'll do it? Uh-huh. They've got to be using a computer program. Yeah, I would assume so. Well, can we just get that? I don't want to be shanghaied by this thing. $150 for my own face. Okay, here we go. Power up your PC to create a stunning original painting that's picture-perfect for your space. How to paint-by-number. We use paint-by-number software available at colorwheelcompany.com to turn a photograph into a large-scale and expensive artwork. Yes. Yeah. How many of you know about that? That's kind of cool. How much is software? I don't know. Because actually, this is kind of cool. Aside from the egotistical take-pictures-of-myself, they went and found landscapes and stuff that they thought were cool and took a picture of that and then painted it and put it up in the living room.

That's pretty hip. Yeah, it is. Well, kind of. Like, you can only put so many paint-by-number stuff in your place. Well, I don't know. It depends what it looks like, I guess. I'm thinking I'll sell it as gifts. Yeah. I'm trying to make money here. I see that. I've got to buy a new shirt. They don't sell themselves. There's a free downloadmanager.org. It has a paint-by-number download. I don't really trust download places. You don't know what you're really going to download. Yeah, I would agree. What is this? No, I don't see it. It's like pre-made stuff. Okay. I'll keep looking around. You've been listening to Live from the Path on TheMorningAmplify.com.

Thanks for hanging out with us tonight. So, for the last – what do you mean there's more? Yeah, there you go. So, let's see. I was trying to think what we've got coming up next week. Oh, so next week we're going to talk a little bit. So, we talked a little bit about the church this week, but we're going to go in a little bit more detail about living outside the church. The concept that, you know, because of the church is hypocritical, or I think they're hypocritical, I think they have perverted the message of Christ. I think, you know, just being a part of that organization doesn't appeal to me, but I can be a Christ follower, and I have a one-on-one relationship with Christ. We're going to talk a little bit about that. So, if that's a perspective you have, you know, I'm interested in, you know, kind of what experiences have you had? Where is that perspective coming from? Does that fit? Is that biblically consistent with what Christ said when it comes to the church and that kind of stuff? So, we're going to talk about it a little bit next week, because I actually think, in the context of what we've been talking about, it's a pretty relevant discussion. Because I think sometimes we will, something goes the way that we don't think it should go, and maybe we want to bail.

We bail. Say, look, this organization, this group of people is a lost cause. You know, I have a direct prayer route to Jesus Christ. You know, why do I have to bother with the people part of it? But, so, you know, is there biblical consistency in kind of getting away from the church and running your own way with God? So, we'll get into that. And if you're listening and you'll be on next week, I'm actually really interested, you know, if there are times in your life where you have that perspective, or even if you still do, just to see where you're at with that. Because I think I know quite a few people that are in that boat. I only see Mike's nose right now. Yeah. You go, I was going to say, go back another inch. I'm relaxing. You there? No, he's back on. I'm the worshiper of the week this week. I'm going to leave him back in my chair. You don't need to engage. You can enjoy and sit back and let us sit. This is what our book writing, brainstorming meetings are going to look like. Ben's over there yapping about something.

Dan's over there looking at his computer and not paying attention. Imagining. And I'm just kind of sitting in my chair going, man, I wonder how much longer this is going to go on. Remember that time on the beach? I'm a hug, Wachiki. You know how we could make money. We could start making our own donuts. I'm sorry, are you saying something? No, so that's what's coming up for next week. And then the week after, we're going to talk about where to start. So if it's something where you're interested, you feel God may be tapping on you, but you're not, you know, you've never really dabbled before. You don't, you've never really prayed before. Or you've attempted to talk to God, or you're looking for a church, and you just, you just overall, you're interested. It sounds like something that you might be interested in, but you're not sure what to do now that you've got this inkling of a God in your mind. And so two weeks from tonight, we're going to talk about where to start. We're going to talk about going to different churches and what you're looking for. Oh, what's good about this one? What's not good about it? Yeah, I think it's…

If they have two pictures of Jesus both opposing each other on either side of the stage, the place is no good. And do they look more Anglo than Jewish? Yeah. Yeah, if they've painted an extra eyebrow so the Lord looks a little disappointed in you when you get there. Shame, shame, shame on you. So, you know, if there's anybody that you wanted to direct to the show at some point, because the conversation could be all over the place and wasn't sure when to do so, that'd be a good night. Like today's deep theological stuff. Yeah, no kidding. When do you want to tell others that you do listen to Live from the Past? That's a tough one. The t-shirts aren't selling. They have just this fabulous paint-by-number segment. I just love it. And that man in the purple shirt… He makes me weep. He was certainly born of woman. It's written all over him. And if you get a shirt that's just like a white shirt with black writing that says born of woman on it, I think that's…

It's honest, yet, you know, it assumes of some things. That would be a conversation starter. Born of woman, eh? What are you talking about? I don't know. It came from God. I've got two other things, but they're written on my belly. The porn of woman, Christ died. Let me check on belly part A. I'll have to flex just right. You guys came back just in time for me to show my belly on the camera. So congratulations. It froze up for a while. So, a recap. Next week, we're going to be talking a little bit about following Christ, but trying to do so outside of the church. And two weeks from tonight, we're going to talk about where to start. So if you're interested in a relationship with Christ, or interested in God in general, and whether you've dabbled a little bit in the past, or it's a new experience to you, and just, you know, what is this all about, that's what we're going to be doing two weeks from tonight, where to start in your relationship with Christ. So, during the week, you can catch us, if you would like to, at livefromthepath.org. There will be archived shows of the previous shows.

You can also sign up for the podcast. Also, you can check out the YouTube channel. Generally, during the week, we'll post one or two clips from the show. So you can go out there, and if you weren't able to catch the whole show, kind of catch highlights, or lowlights, whatever is more entertaining to put out there. And also, nope, nope, never mind. Scratch that. Also on the website, there are performances. We've had a lot of pretty cool bands that have stopped by. Jeff Arendale, I believe, most recently. Yeah, you know, and Jeff, I thought that Race, he did the song called Race, and I thought it was very good. And the first song he did, and I'm forgetting the title at the moment, was also very good. Like his, I think he's just well-written songs and catchy. So if you can check out Jeff Arendale's page at our website, you can also see clips from other bands like Syndrome of Fire, Saved on Sunday, on This Rock, and a bunch more other guys that came into the studio. And we'll be having some of those guys back here in the coming weeks, but just throwing it out there that we've got that stuff available out on livefromthepath.org. So once again, we thank you so much for being with us tonight, and we will see you next week. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path on Des Moines Amplified.com.