Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. And you're listening too live from the path. We're coming to the Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper.

Maybe you're not listening. Maybe you decided not to do the show because because you're knocked out by the the the Passion Musical experience, and you you can't collect… I think by definition, if they're hearing you, they're listening. Oh, no. Hey. That's a good point. I didn't even think that far. Okay. Good call, man. I'm here for that. Hey. So here's what's going on on the show tonight. So it sounds like at least Dan and I caught a little bit of the the passion… It's not… I don't why I keep saying experience. That's not right. A live broadcast The live… Musical Yeah. Drama. Travel? Does Is it a traveling show? No. So it originated in, like… It's Louisiana. Well, yes. So that's where it was, but they took the idea, I think, from Holland or something. Like, it was going on somewhere in in Europe, I think, and it seemed like a good idea.

And then… So they put it on, and it was like a… It it was interesting. I only cut the, like, the back half, and it was a it was a mix of, like, prerecorded video stuff throughout New Orleans that were supposed to be kind of modern day circumstances that otherwise reflect what would have been going on in Jesus' life.

And it's also kinda mixed with some narration and some live interviews as they carry this lighted up cross through the streets. And then there was also kinda like a main square

where the platform and stuff where all the music was. Had a live band there. Like, the the technical aspect of this thing was, I mean, frankly… Were some cool parts of it for sure. Yeah. I was I was watching it simply because I was amazed how they brought all the the technical aspects of this together. But, anyway, they would have, like… Some of the songs would happen there. Like, Jesus eventually ends up in this area and… Before Pilate and and that kind of stuff. So, anyway, it was… I I don't know, Dan. What were your what were your impressions from it? You know, I I caught in kinda like you. I caught in about the second half

at the point when Jesus and the two thieves were in a police vehicle driving to wherever they were going to the stage. Yep. And so so I I missed the entire first half where it sets the tone and and and so I don't know the… I mean, obviously, I know the story, but I like the idea of doing a modernized story so people of today's generation can look at it and go, oh, wow. So I was getting a lot of texts texts from people saying this is really cool. Yep. But I I missed that first half to kind of… Like I said, I jumped in midstream and I thought… Same thing. I I love… I loved the music. I I loved some of the the the broadcast,

the… Just just the the technical part about that. That's pretty cool. They really did a masterful job of that. I I don't know if I got a good enough feel for the whole thing. I mean, there was nothing wrong that I saw, like, scripturally that I thought, you know, big warning, red flag, or anything. So I enjoyed it. I didn't, like, love it like some of my friends did. I didn't dislike it either. I I I recorded it. I wish I could have, like, you know Yeah. Gotten the whole thing. So I give… I have a better analysis. But, I mean, it was cool. Mike w Smith was one of the disciples

evidently. I miss I miss all that. I didn't see him. Yeah. So they had, like, some big names in in there for… To to attract an audience. Yeah. They were walking through the streets. I don't know how far how far did they go carrying that cross a couple miles or something…. Long way. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it was it was live, and it was happening in New Orleans. It kind of this thought that that you have a bunch of people… I and mean, they weren't doing it, like, acting like they were Jesus. It was just like a crowd of people pulling this cross through town, and you kinda saw it go through parts of the French 0.25. I thought, yeah, light and dark is fine. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Carry carry a light across through there. Dig on that stuff. It was also, like, really polished Yeah. Which which maybe because I'm not a very polished person. I I… I'm kinda like, you know, I I I see I see the whole cross scene a lot more rugged and and and and,

you know, brutal. And and I'm not… I'm saying the wrong… Giving you a different impression when I'm… It just seemed a little glossy. I'm not a really glossy guy. Well… Yeah. And they did. And they didn't do, you know, they didn't do any any of the crucifixion stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, he was condemned to death, and then the cross is kind of there, and then they narrated through it. Now to be honest with you, I don't know how you would go about doing that on live television. Yeah. Yeah. And, frankly, that was part of the reason I was watching it. Like, how are they going to do this? And then it didn't happen. I thought, oh, well, that's a way to do it. It's usually when they bring in some kinda, like, red sheet and wind. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, to symbolize some blood has happened and then it kinda fades out. I'm glad they didn't go that route. It it was cool. Like, they… Mean, they would show people that were there were obviously emotionally involved. Yeah. You know? And it was kinda like, I I could see that happening as a believer thinking I'm, you know, part of this big event, and and it's the story of Jesus. So it takes you there. You know? And even the resurrection was kinda cool. Suddenly, Jesus, like, up on the top of this building. He's just shining light, and he's Yeah. White, and everything's okay. You know? And… This is what tells you, like, I'm I'm I'm in, a technical wonk, because he was up there. He's up there, like, across the street on this building that's probably, you know, 30 stories up or 20 stories up or something. And I'm like, and I was wondering, how do you get there? Yeah. Think of the… Think of a, how quickly he got up there, and they're like, it's windy. And they did a really good job of keeping the wind out of the microphones Yeah. For being out in the middle everywhere. And, like, everyone had in ear monitors, and I thought, man, think of the think of the amplifying that signal around so they're keeping stuff in time with a live band that is across the street. And I… Frankly, I was impressed. I was impressed by the whole operation. And and here he is. Like you say, he's windy. He's leaning over a building. Yeah. Met multiple stories up. He didn't look nervous. He didn't look like, yeah. This could be my last thing. I'm gonna die live. Right. So I was impressed with the with the people involved with it. Yep. Just I I I get kinda caught up. It's like like I'm thinking, did they use a golf cart or something? I'm thinking of all this stuff. You know, how do you get up there? They must have had the the elevator reserved obviously, you know, and. Heads up. Billions of dollars production money. Get a golf cart.

I mean, you had to get to the buildings. Someone is Through the crowds. The elevator. I'm thinking of all the wrong things. So It was it was… So, yeah, I caught an… I caught an… I think just right before Dan, before you got on, he was… There was a scene where Judas came to betray Jesus. And here's here's the thing. It was like… It was… I mean, they altered some of the lyrics and they used some some songs that were relatively popular. See, it's possible that you that you had understood the songs. As a matter of fact, Mike, did you catch any of it? No. They had Pontius Pilot singing, Mad World by… It was a Gear Juuls or something. It's one of my favorites. Yeah. I know. And so, like… And it it was interesting that you're kinda just thinking of this reflection. And here's the thing. I'm close enough. Like, I know that story well enough, and I care about what went on in it. Is that, to be honest, like, they… It was still… There were still some powerful moments to me, simply because I thought, yeah, Jesus was being betrayed by Judas, and that was rough times. Yeah. And Judas gave some, excuses to why this was a good idea, and Jesus still looks in his eyes and, you know, and says, like, you know, do what you gotta do. And like, regardless of how far you yank that out of the biblical story, because the Bible story itself means a lot to me, to see some sort of interaction like that go on, I still did go on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would like to know, like, there's probably reviews out there. What… Any, like, buddy who doesn't believe who watched it, what would they get out of that? I don't know. I saw I saw a number of people actually react to that because Variety carried a review of it. And of course Christians are on the back. Oh, I love it that Jesus is on the TV. I'm like, okay. I'm with you so far. Can we… You know? That…

Did you see that light across? I like that he created the world, and we're still happy he shows up on television. So, but… Excuse me. There were unbelievers who… Or they said, like, I don't really I don't really believe in all that stuff, but it was a powerful Yeah. It was a powerful thing, and, they certainly saw the message of love within it. And here's the thing. It's like, yeah.

I don't want you to miss Jesus, but, you know, they didn't see it poorly. Yeah. So I know it was… I would say, from what I saw, there were positive reactions to it. It wasn't necessarily a trolling ground for you guys believe in Bubkiss. This is stupid. And you can… As a believer, you can also be a little bit proud because he said the technical things. Sometimes Christians put stuff cheesy on. You you know, it's like, oh, you know, that's that… They'll know. We'll just put some smoke out there and they'll assume… Whatever, you know. So it was done well. No. It was. And the and the… I mean, the gospel story was told. I… He'd… Yeah. The Tyler Perry was narrating. I… Didn't back away from anything. I mean, he said… There's a couple times where he said, you know, regardless of what you believe, you can recognize blah blah blah about the story. And the truth is, like, all you can do is to to tell the story. Yeah. So so I would say that I saw, like, there were a couple things. Like, they had they had Mary singing a lot. And I'm like, hey. Here's the thing. I'm less invested in Mary's personal interaction with them simply because the the Bible doesn't spend as much time with that. And this goes a little bit about… You guys remember we were talking last week on the guy's hesitation on adding emotions and stuff into stories that weren't there. Now now here's the thing. It's like there are biblical interactions with this, but there were a lot of,

she probably sang four times, and I think she probably should have sang one. And I'm like, yeah. I'm I'm just… You know, I'm not as invested in that. So it would… That was a little much for me. It took you away from some of the the the action and narrative, so I don't know that I would have done that. And the truth is she never actually interacted with Jesus. Like, there's a there's a… They had her kinda standing by the cross. It's just a little bit different because she actually was there when Jesus was on the cross. Now granted, they they passed that part of the story. So, I mean, I I understand why. That seemed a little bit much for me. I thought, you know, let me get back. I like the action. Show me. Even the the interactions between Jesus and Pilate or Jesus and Herod, which they also skipped, like, those things would have been interesting. Yeah. So, you know, I couldn't give… Get… Done without that.

I saw I saw a review by a guy today, and he was basically, you know, do we have to retell the… Is it necessary to tell… Retell the Christian story in a modern thing for it to be powerful? And the answer is no. Of course not. But I don't think anybody was making that case. I, you know, I don't think that was what they're getting at. I'm not… I don't think they're saying, hey. It… The the the biblical story can't reach, people. The… In the first in the first century setting and stuff doesn't connect with people. I don't think that's true at all. I think people actually do connect with it. But, like, do I find anything wrong with that type of adaptation to try to communicate this… The story in that way? No. I just don't… Just doesn't seem… I feel like God can handle it. I don't think it's a deal. And, although the the guy that they chose to do Jesus, who I thought did a pretty good job,

I I just kinda looked up a little bit more information like that. And sure enough, two weeks ago, he released some sort of extremely saucy music video. And I thought, come on. Really? Does it have to be that? Yeah. Yeah. They had to find the guy that does the saucy music video. And like, you know, I think religion has nothing to do with God. Something something we're on our own path. I'm like, oh, dang. Yeah. What a real bummer. Yeah. And so then I was disappointed. I thought, I I know better than to Google stuff. When you get humans involved in some sort of godly art thing, I just have to not check them out. And, like, that's a bad witness, to be honest with you. And, like, obviously, they didn't care, but I was I was a little bummed out. Yeah. Yeah. I I just want people to love Jesus, and when I feel like they're involved in a Jesus type thing, and they don't smell like that, What a recap. You tell me there's one Jesus guy who's not qualified for that role. Like, you can't find a guy who loves Jesus that could do that. Anyway, so I was a little bit bummed out about that. But overall, you know, I… I'm not in love with it. I probably wouldn't watch it again, really. I I don't I might… I said I didn't catch the whole thing. I'd probably watch the whole thing once. Yeah. But, like, you know, I don't… I won't revisit it yearly or anything. But I… You know? Yeah. Wonderful reunion then. Every year. I could see that. Somebody bought the rights to it.

Netflix bought the rights to it. Oh. So I think I think you could you could probably catch it on on Netflix. But… Yeah. I think there were certain some cool aspects about it. I just think it's not a heresy. I don't, you know, I I don't… It's not gonna make my annual watch list, but I, you know, I think it was alright. I mean I mean Jesus was contemporary with his time. I mean, I wouldn't see him having a problem with that if he were here now. Jesus was contemporary for his time. I mean That's the only way to be. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, he wasn't always like Just living in the time he would. Exactly. I mean, that's my point. His stories were contemporary. He didn't always say, forget this modern stuff. Let's go to Jeremiah. You know, he he he just was what he was. You know, like today. It's a it's a it was a production based on any how you tell stories these days, you know. Temporary Jesus.

I've heard a lot of All I think is Don Johnson of it. He was there like, he… That's not right. Yeah. I I don't think… And I think that the point of the article, which I think is at least taken, is I don't think anybody is saying nobody connects with the biblical story. We need to refresh it or revitalize it. I I… Frankly, I just don't think that's what they were doing. But… Yeah. Just using the arts tell the story. Exactly. And to be honest with you, I… It worked. There was the… They had… And this is what… I just came in, like, at the last half of this, but the disciples were a bunch of homeless, gruff looking dudes sleeping out in a field next to Jesus. And all of sudden, the police arrive, and Judah steps out and is about to betray him. And the truth is the actual thought, departed… Regardless of what I had in my mind, it does attach the right, probably, connotations to what this looks like. You have a bunch of soldiers showing up. Judas is about to betray him. He comes out. Jesus kinda looks at him, and Judas looks back. And, like,

yeah. I think there's something being able to to put it in a context that you least understand, and that you could associate a a feeling with without otherwise investing that that the feeling is theology. I… Yeah. I don't I don't see any problem with that. And I actually thought, yeah. Okay. That that that puts it in a slightly not a changed perspective, but connects me to more to, like, what is actually happening there. And so I thought, yeah. That's it. Now they had the they had the two, you know, the criminals in the paddy wagon. I don't… I feel like that wasn't what was going on, you know, but they had to put them somewhere. And the guy the guy that they had is Barabbas. It

was a a perfect casting choice. Like, I I don't know what type of audition this guy had to go through, but it was basically, you're free. He looks around bewildered and then makes a run for it. He looks like they just let him out of amateur wrestling hour, and that's who they stuck up there on as the Barabbas. And… But one of the things that was, I was talking to my… One of my kids who was watching it, they had the crowd kinda participate and scream for Barabbas. Yeah. That was kinda cool. That'd be hard to be in the crowd doing that. That's what I told my daughter. I told my oldest daughter where they had to, like, they had to say, crucify him and give us Barabbas. And I thought, I don't care if you invited me or not. I ain't saying that. I know. That was going through my mind too. I thought, oh, man. They're really into this. It's… Oh. I get it. It has to happen. I don't wanna say it. Right. You think things I couldn't commit to. Right? Do you think it makes it hard for a guy, like, to cast himself as Judas?

Do you know what I'm saying? Like, could a Christian guy play Judas in a fictional adaptation of the story? I would struggle with it. And, like… And then I thought about, like, how do you agree to be… So they they… There's interviews with, like, Jim Caviezel when he was Jesus in the passion of the Christ. And I thought, like, like, that would be a very difficult thing to portray. But but then look at, like, the, like, some of the stuff that has to come out of your mouth if you're an actor in some of those stories. And, boy, I just feel like, I would have a I would have a hard time. In fact, there's, there's a lot of words that are, coming out of mouth in their in their tune, but anything that has any remote possibility, I'm like, no. I ain't saying that. I just… I'm sorry. I I don't care where it comes from. I don't care who's saying it. I, you know, I ain't doing it. Yeah. Yeah. But then again, I mean, to have a faithful bible reading, I have to say things that…

You know? And then the Jews said, crucify him. And I suppose I'm alright saying that because the religious leader said it, but it also kinda connected them. But if I had to act like I was that guy for 10 takes in a day Yeah. I mean, you can't just phone it in with just saying, hey. Crucify him. You know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta act mad and, like, crowd… Did have a hard time to… Did you notice? Mean, it seemed like it was a little reserved kind like, yeah. Cruciferous. Cruciferous. Cruciferous. Yeah. Because I kinda thought that dude was like, yeah, they're not doing that with… They're not robust. No. You know, it would be the good… It'd be the excellent timing if the Lord returns like on top of the building right next to the other guy. Be like, you might wanna step down. Golf. I'll take this nightlight.

Now let let me repull the audience. Who was that for Barabbas? Steve? Oh, it's okay because you're on TV. Like, here's the thing. As you press that conversation, like, oh, well, I don't know. I just… You know, there's no reason I'll say that. No. I won't be there. I'm sorry. That's the truth. What's everyone else gonna say? Yeah. Everybody else is doing it. Yeah. That's classic. They paid me to do it. Classic. Yeah. May the blood be on our kids. Oh, I didn't go that far. Hey. Anyway,

I I… It was it was it was interesting. Like, I don't… I certainly… I don't have… I don't think I have anything negative to say about it. And it's… Here's the thing is I can't watch some of that stuff because I'm I'm prone to overanalyzation harshly. Yeah. But the truth is if you take it for what it is, and just like the people that were in the crowd. Right? Like, if you take it for what it is, I I think it's something that you could certainly be emotionally involved with, and it doesn't have to be… And I I I get… Again, this this is certain groups of people that are gonna take this the wrong way, but I I I think, it's it's similar to when Paul says, like, that guy, you know, the gospel is being preached even to the guy that was doing it for the wrong things. Like,

just like I can go to a I can go to a church anywhere, and that guy can preach heresy, I'm still seeing truth… I'm still hearing truth of God. It will it will come into my mind correctly. It will meld with the Bible as it should regardless of what bummed junk came out of a guy's mouth. And I'm like, yeah. I love Jesus. You know? Not because I'm blind, but because it… Because I'm scripturally blind. Like, script scripture just, I'll take whatever you say. If I assume… Because I know the Bible, I'll I'll attach it to whatever is actually true to the Bible and be like, yeah. I love it. Praise Jesus. And so, you know, unless you're outright heretical where I simply cannot connect it anything good, I… You know, it'll come into my mind with real truth as opposed to whatever you said. And so, frankly, I can get positive things out of whatever you do. And, I suppose that's the positive thing about coming. Like, is it… Are there things that were part of that that could point some away from Jesus? I… You know, I don't know. I didn't really see anything where I thought, no. No. Yeah. You overdid it with Mary. She needs to… That's… Cut a song or two. But that's not really a… That's not a theological problem. That's just a a poor poor choice in your program. Alright. Well, I don't know. Mike, based upon the descriptions Dan and I have to put out there, if it shows up on TV, you watch it? No. Probably not.

You just ain't checking it out, I don't know. I just have a hard time getting gas stuff, but That's all. Nothing really excites me anymore. I I thought they're doing… Oh, sorry. No. Go ahead. They're they're redoing Ben Hur? I did see that. It's like Is Ben Hur a real man? You know, I've never actually seen the movie. Just, just a point of discussion. I mean, I remember Everybody loves Ben Hur. I don't think he has epic of some kind, and I'm like, I don't even know what that story's about. Yeah. I I mean, they put spikes on the side of the trailer. Whatever. I mean, it's cool, I guess. I mean, I haven't even… I don't even really know. Is it, like, the story of the Maccabees, or or or is it… Okay. Hold on. I don't even know. Here's the plot.

Charlton Heston as Judah Bin Hur in 8026. Judah Bin Hur is a well Top of my head. Yeah. I'm just I'm just spitballing here. Is a wealthy prince and merchant in Jerusalem who lives with his mother Miriam, his sister Terza, and her loyal and their loyal slave Semenitis and his daughter Esther. Esther loves Judah but is betrothed to another. Judah's childhood friend, the Roman citizen, Massala, is now a tribune. After several years away from Jerusalem, Massala returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison. Massala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and freedom of the Jewish people. The differences cause tension between the friends and results in their split after Massawa issues an ultimatum to Judah.

You know, what do we got here? During the parade for the new governor of Judea, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judah's house. Gradus is thrown from his spooked horse and nearly killed. Although Massala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam and Terza by punishing a known friend and prominent citizen he hopes to intimidate the Jewish populace. Judah swears to take revenge. What was all that? He meets… Boy, this is a lot longer here.

Judah returns to his home in Jerusalem. He meets Esther and learns her arranged marriage did not occur, she's still in love. Romans discover that Miriam and turns a contracted leprosy in prison expelled her from the city. He changed his mind and decided to seek vengeance on the Salabite people. Get leprosy in prison. Don't they put the lepers in their own camp so they don't spread it around? They don't put you in the jail. Well Maybe the Romans do. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe so. They don't care. That's true. I like to think leprosy is only a god's people disease, but that's not true. It's a common skin problem. Yeah. He changes his mind and decides to seek vengeance on Massawa by competing against him in the chariot race. Okay. Hold on. Blaming Roman rule for his family's fate, Judah rejects his patrimony and Roman citizenship. Learning that Terzah is dying, Judah and Esther take her and Miriam to see Jesus. But the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate has begun. Judah witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus, and Miriam and tears are miraculously healed during the rainstorm following the crucifixion. Judah declares, and I felt his voice take the sword out of my hand. So Jesus is in Ben Hur? Just his trial and crucifixion, and then the events that follow his crucifixion cause healing.

Yeah. That's believable. The bible will say that, but, like, I mean, dead men are walking. So, you know, you could tell me the people were healed, I… You know, seems believable. I had no idea Ben Hur was sitting biblical Jesus times. Yeah. I just thought somewhere around there, but I I… Yeah. I had… Like as a kid, I think I watched like a… The the chariot scene or something. I thought, oh, that's cool, but I had no clue what the story was. Mean? Who? Does that mean something, Ben? Reminds me of the Minecraft villager, Her. Her.

No. No. I don't know what that means. I don't think it has anything. Alright. Alright. Anyway, that's been her. So, yeah, remake. What are you what are you reading? That's not a review of the movie. It's like a synopsis in four paragraphs. Scene two. Yeah. It was a synopsis of the original Ben Hur movie Alright. From the Wikipedia. Hey. Nothing. I I I never saw it. You know what else I saw that they… And I actually kinda wanted to see this was Morgan Freeman's doing a… Something on National Geographic channel about

religions, like world religions. He's basically going out and seeing all these world religions and stuff, and they did one about prayer. And I thought… I just kinda interesting. A, because, you know, Morgan Freeman seems to carry a bit of heft with But it just it just be interesting to see… In in the light of what we we often think of what our faith is under,

derision. It's from a factual or or proclaimed factual perspective, scientific basis. And the things that they would mock about your… About the Christian faith carry consistency across all major faiths. Right? Everybody prays. Every… Like, 97%

of the world prays. 98 even of the world is praying to something. Even the AA meetings, they pray. Yeah. Could be this to the cigarette ashtray in front of to an ashtray, Dan. Have you been to an AA meeting? I have. Yes. Did they pray to an ashtray there? They pray to their higher power or whatever it is. Oh, so you get to pick it? Yeah. You pick what it is. So I'm just confirming that Yeah. People that you pray. They pray. The the point is is that, like, the the assault of believing in a higher power, believing in in the power of prayer, believing something bigger than you, like, it's not just thought… Like, current Western thought versus Christianity.

It's versus, like, the entire belief system of the world. And so… Throughout history as well. Yeah. Correct. Like, throughout all of history. Like, even even societies that have fallen away and were like, well, that thing is overdone. They obviously got something wrong. They believed in God. Like, they still prayed to gods. They believed in God's interaction. And see, see, the… There's thought that would say, like, it's just… It's born out of ignorance. But I I guess what I'm saying is is that, like, the… When people say, hey, prayer doesn't do anything, you're just talking to a fake somebody, it has no impact on anybody's life. Just know that, like, you're countering the practice and experience of not just Christianity, but, like, 97% of the world. Even our highly narcissistic society today talks about, can you send some good vibes? You know Yeah. Like, you're the god now. You know, just pray to yourself. That's true. And and do some good feeling for me. The vibes. Like, okay.

The beach boys have really screwed us. Yeah. So I, you know, I I I just… I thought it would be interesting then to see even as other cultures and other religions connect to that sort of thing. Here's the thing. It's like, all those things, even in religions don't follow Christ, are born out of some level of truth. It's just a nature of perversion. Right? Like, we share a concept of praying to God. It's just you you might be at a… What is it? I'm not not a corporate. I'm thinking of a a counterfeit.

You know? But the concept… Frankly, we're not disagreeing on the concept of a higher power of which I petition and and that kind of stuff. So it's… I thought it would just be kind of interesting, and they they did a advertisement for that during the the passion broadcast. And I don't I don't get the National Geographic channel, so I could check it out. Alright. Let's see. Hold on. There was something else in the news I thought was interesting. Well, where did this go? Oh, so I… There was an article on… At Relevant Magazine.

I think it was last week. It said the greatest false idol of modern Christianity. Mike, what are your what are your guesses? Greatest false idol of modern Christianity. Family. Family? Yeah. Dan, what do you think? Greatest false idol of modern Christian… Like American modern Christianity,

I'm assuming. Yeah. Oh, boy. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with… How do I put this in to a concise? The megachurch. Okay. Okay.

Guestman, what are your thoughts? That's about it. I know. Salvation. Okay. Okay. Good. We'll go with that. Alright. Alright. Let's see what we got.

Idolatry is a horrible dangerous thing. Sadly, far too many of us are guilty of it. I agree. You can see it in the way we complain about the megachurches and our salvation. Crap. No. Sorry. You can see it in the way we complain on social media, in the way we comment on the news of the day, unnecessary semicolon, in the defeatist, alarmist language in… That we use to describe the world. You see it in the way we furrow our brows and throw up our hands and slam our pulpits. I don't really do that. He's not speaking to my heart. It shows up in the lazy stereotypes and the religious rhetoric that flows so easily in church lobby coffee chats and extremist blog rants. It's as if everything has now become an imminent threat, Muslims, atheists, gays, the president, inner city criminals, Hollywood, illegal immigrants, the government, school hallways. The world outside the church building is broadly painted as a vile, immoral war zone with god's people hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. Parroting the politicized talk show host and reposting the latest terrible news stories, we perpetuate the now comfortable evangelical Christian narrative of impending destruction, and we make it clear at every opportunity, the sky is falling.

Though we will loudly, repeatedly, and confidently proclaim Christ as lord, in reality, many of us no longer practice faith in a god that has any real power, any true control, or inherent godness. We seem to have little more than a neutered figurehead deity who doesn't seem to be able to handle much at all anymore. He's lost his old testament swagger. Dig just beneath the sunny, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me bible covers, and the god's judgment is coming bullhorn warnings, and you'll find that much of America has imagined a powerless god who's mostly just keeping heaven tidy until all the Christians get there. In the meantime, we live in perpetually frightened freak out mode. The truth is fear has become a false god. One too many of us worship with complete and undying devotion. The symptoms of fear idolatry are pretty easy to spot. When you're not sure that god is there or that he'll really come through, you start to spend most of your time defending him in absentia. You become a self appointed crusader of truth whose mission is to do the holy work of policing the world just in case god can't or won't. You spend a lot of time calling out evil, forecasting disaster, and predicting damnation. When fear is your god, you start majoring in exterior sin management. You slowly yet ultimately turn all of your attention to things in other people that you're certainly really ticked that you're certain really ticked god off, and you make it your sacred business to modify their behavior in the name of Jesus. When your god isn't big enough, you'll try to do in others what you've decided he wants instead of actually trusting him finish the good work he began.

You believe in a Jesus who's integral to personal salvation in the afterlife, but is useless for the life we live now. He may… Actually, I guess when that might… You might prove right on this thing, because that's a… We we fear… We idolize salvation without anything else that accompanies it. Potentially half the point before, yes, man. So far, mega churches. Damn. He may be able to save souls, but he's apparently freaked out by a Muslim prayer breakfast or school prayer policy. Is that really God? Is that divinity? Is that the one about whom the psalmist wrote, the heavens declare the glory of god, the skies proclaim the work of his hands? Is that the god who spoke the world into being, calmed the seas, healed the blind, and raised the dead? So let's pray. Let's pray that all of us learn to stop worshiping the false idol of fear. Let's pray that our churches recapture a sense of the god who is worthy, not just to defending and quoting, but trusting. Let's pray for the rest for the rest to join humility that comes from putting faith in someone greater than ourselves and in the things we fear. Every day, even with the mystery that grows on the journey, my security is growing. I know how big my god is. Do you? I don't know, Mike. You got that right?

So I spent a good part of the last couple days watching a bunch of the I am second videos from the I I I don't know the website name. But there's a bunch of people that, like, basically record videos and explain how God saved them out of what they were doing. And, the whole gist of the video is is, you know, God is first, I am second. Yep. And thinking back while you were talking about that, I was thinking about all the testimonies and stuff of people that I'd listened to over the last couple days,

and not one of them not one of them said, someone brought to light my sin, and I decided to follow Christ then and there. Every single person that talked about how God pulled them out of something talked about feeling a void in their life that couldn't be filled with anything else, and then they met Jesus. Somebody talked to them about

someone, a God that found them to be significant and to mean enough that, they were willing to trade, his son and his life for theirs. And like,

to his point, that the way that most Christians talk about the world is not the way that people come to know Jesus. And, I agree. It is true. That is probably how we spend a good amount of our time calling balls and strikes on sin in the world and the stuff that's not supposed to be working and stuff that should be working whatnot. But like, I don't know if I can take the I am seconds as,

second videos as, you know, this is how it always happens. But I ain't met one yet where someone said, this is this is how you're going against the holy God. You need to change your ways. And then they turned to Jesus immediately. You know, by Jove, I do need to change my ways. And I love this Jesus character, which is rules associated. Exactly. Exactly. And boy, that, I mean, that's that's really sad. Right? Because like, I mean, what's… When we present the gospel, we generally represent… Wanna talk about everything that's wrong in your life and why that's against God and how you need to repair it.

Opposed to there is a there is a life, full of freedom and peace and joy, for you to enjoy knowing that you are significant and loved by the father. And it's basically giving you your worth already predetermined by the God that created you. And, we always wanna say, you know, here's the things that you're doing against him. You best you best turn about. Right? And there are turnabout conversations, but generally, are to be had with people that already know Jesus and have have asked for your help,

following. You know what I'm saying? Like, you… You're you're falling where you don't wanna be. You told… I just talked to you a month ago, and you said, this is where I wanna be. And then, you're not doing that. And so we're gonna have a turnabout conversation. But as far as talking to people about Jesus and the the life that God has created for them, boy, we really suck at that. We… Every… Everybody wants to be the watchman on the wall, you know, representing all of Israel, you know, looking at the wall, being the protector of the country type thing except in America. And so, yeah, we're all shouting about everything that's wrong. All… Everything we see that's… That we're afraid of. The fear he… He's he's got a good point or she or she, whatever.

I I see that a lot. Facebook is full of fear from Christians. Yeah. What if the wrong candidate gets, you know, nominated to the wrong party? What what if a certain law gets passed? Well, you know, what after another, after another, what what if we don't know how to read properly, you know, whatever. I mean, it it's just always it's it's it's it's one thing after another. And,

yeah. Yeah. I mean, the reason I think it's a big deal is because I'm actually slightly convicted of this. Like, I've I've participated in this wheel. You know what I'm saying? If you see bad stuff going down, and like, I I mean, I'm not I'm not in today's kind of dude, you know, where I'm flagging everything for being a… The start of the end, you know. But like, you know, sometimes my approach to introducing people to Jesus is, look, I mean, you have so much crap going on in your life. There is no possible way there's any redeeming value to it. And I I mean, I don't say that, like, directly, but that's what I mean. That's what I mean. Right? Like, I boil it down to what it what it actually feels like when it comes out of my mouth and and hits the heart of the guy across from me, that's essentially what I'm saying. I don't know how your life is has any redeeming quality at all. You should talk to God that's… That that can redeem it, you know, opposed to your life is is worthy now, and it's always been worthy. And that's because that's how you were created. And so…

Yeah. I mean, he had a lot of mindless dribble in there. But like the solid point, I guess, I took out of it was is that, the way that we represent the good news of Jesus Christ is we point out the bad news of everything else and hope by default you understand the good news that that Jesus has left. And that sucks. That's a terrible way to do it. That… That's that's probably the right that's probably the right thought process is that we… If we are leading primarily with bad news and risk, it's because we do not we do not either understand or not communicating correctly the good news of which… Of whom Jesus Christ is. Mhmm. Right? Like, if we are… It's… That means that we're reaching for the thing that is less effective than the reality, which is effective, but it's the only thing that we're able… Capable of doing. So which means we

we need to pursue Jesus closer, deeper, wider, farther so that we know Jesus better, in which case, it's easy to make the case of who Jesus is and what that means for who you are as opposed to just trying to kind of, I don't bat them around and scare them a little bit with some of the fear and idolatry stuff that goes underneath it. So I was thinking about this the other day is that… Of everybody's got this big idea for a website. Right? And so this is me. I've come up with this thing for this website. I think it's gonna it's gonna be helpful. But I thought I thought you could have people record their testimonies. Right? And then we'll flag them on categories. Right? Like the stuff that God saved you out of. And so you could basically go to this website and then you could search by whatever's got you entrapped at the moment. Whatever, you know, and then you could say, I wanna see videos and testimonies

of people who've gotten out of infidelity or people that have gotten out of alcoholism or people who've gotten out of drug abuse or, you know, child abuse or whatever. Like… And and, like, these are terrible categories. Right? Because I'm basically saying I want… I wanna start categorizing sin. But, like, I think there's enough… I know for a fact there's enough people that have been, you know, called righteous through the death of Christ and following him out of that sin that, like, people could just go to the website and say, look, I'm struggling with this. I wanna see somewhere where where Is there hope? Where following Christ has succeeded. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And not just a not just a flash in the pan or some quick fix that people are trying to tell me, you know, like, can I really get off of meth? Is there anybody that's done that? Everybody's telling me this Jesus thing is the answer? Is there anybody that can tell me a story that knows where I came from and gets it too? I'm I'm talking to people right now in the month of June. We're gonna do that here at Pathway. I… I'm talking to people, getting stories, and and I'm… That's that's the filter I'm going through. If I'm sitting there thinking, okay,

everybody tells me to stop looking at porn and I've tried and I don't know how. I wanna have someone come up and say, yeah, I used to do that. I don't do it anymore. Here's how I did it. Jesus. Here's how Jesus did it. Exactly. Yeah. And and and I'm kinda doing the same thing. Looking at categories that that would broadly addiction, you know, different things. Yeah. And yeah. Because stories are powerful. You know, it's just… They just are. Yeah. Yeah. Seeing seeing the way God has acted to his people are… Is extremely encouraging. Yeah.

And and I I think it's actually the long… It's the right thought process to to assume that God is using whatever he's done in your life to otherwise positively impact how other people see him. That's… Mean, that's… That you're you're part of the the reconciliation of the world. Go ahead and speak it. Make it happen in. You know what's funny is the people that have… That that that God has brought out of that stuff, they're the ones that are most willing to fire it up and tell you the story. Right? Like, here is the level of depravity I was involved in. Here's every detail you wanna know, and here's what God saved me from. Right? It's the it's the people that that are that are afraid of exposing their sin that are like, they're missing the whole freedom in Christ, you know. And so they're like, well, you ask them about their testimony or how they got saved and they're like, well, you know, I just… I was at church and I decided to get baptized and everything was good. Good. Good. You know, and then… And no one wants to hear from that guy, you know. Like not saying that there aren't people like that, but like there's a certain amount of of,

I don't know. There's a certain about a PR move going on there. Right? Like, everyone has a certain amount of sin within their lives and they're not even willing to meet the guy that that that's that's dabbling in it. We're not talking about the guy that's passed out, you know, on heroin underneath the park bench for three days. We're talking about the guy that has claimed to be a Christian his whole life, but was phoning it in. I gotta hear from that guy too. We need to hear the testimony of that man too, where he realized that he was not living in freedom and he was living in shackles and a lie. Right? That we have that we have just as many people walking that path as we do people that are admired by sin that they haven't even seen Mhmm. You know, the light that God's offering. So I feel like I'm gonna kick this website off. Yeah. No. I think that'd be pretty cool. We'll call it live from thepath.org. We'll post videos, and we'll do podcasts. My daughter is going on a little mission trip here in a few months, and,

part of it, she has to come up with her testimony that she's gonna share not only with the the other people on the team, but with with people in this orphanage and and and any opportunities they have. And she's really struggling because she… She's like, you know, she's kinda lived… She's one of those people. She's she's kinda like just always just Jesus has just been there, you know, and she's like, I haven't, I mean, and as a dad, I've never, she's not been through the big rebellion stage. I mean, she's never did any of that stuff. Yeah. You know, she spent her time at home studying rather than going out and doing whatever the boss is doing, you know, And she will buy her some marijuana. Well, we were in Colorado.

Taste the rainbow. We were talking about, well, look look what God has saved you from. You know, and look at your friends already who who are done some pretty big things in their life that that are gonna cost them. You you know? And and God has saved you from that, you know, because of your faithfulness to him, because of your love for him. You know, there's still a story there. Yeah. Like like you you don't you don't have to feel jealous of the person that was a drug addict and in jail and and and prostituting for, you know, twelve years and yeah, you know, gosh, just look at that. God saved you from all that. That's pretty cool. That's pretty powerful story in itself. And so I don't know what she came up with. She wasn't too impressed with that but Well. I'm like, I'm impressed. Well, here's the thing is you probably going to have to follow the the the gangbanger

testimony, right? You know I'm saying? And here you come up next, you're like, I followed Jesus my whole life. Anybody heard of Enoch? Any hands? Enoch, anybody? Now, everybody wants to talk about Paul. Yeah. Reverend Paul. Maybe if I threaten to kill all of you and then repent to that and then follow Jesus, then, will you be happy? I thought a naughty word toward you once. I stole that guy's pen.

Alright. Alright. Anyway, I… Here's… I'll long story short, we just gotta reframe how we're talking about the gospel. Right? Like, like, we know what the gospel means to people. You know what the gospel means to you, and sometimes you just forget. You you get stuck in the sandbar and miss the ocean. You know? No. I I I… That's the point, though. I think one the things we gotta be careful with is that, like, I don't think our… We are… It's not like we're not supposed to have a reaction to this. I have a reaction to Muslim prayer breakfast or school prayer policies. Like, I have reaction to those. I have reaction to, I don't know, things that go wrong in the world around me, things that are obviously filled with with with actions or directions that are not of God,

but it's it's not fear. It's not fear. It's a desire that people come to know Jesus. Anytime you see a group of people praying to a God that's not God, then I have a reaction of love and, desire that they come to meet Christ. When we react out of fear, that's when we take… Like, we do things that otherwise don't draw people to Christ or inform them who they are or reorient the world correctly. We just kinda whine about it. We whine about it for a while, and we kinda… We get in a group and we huddle and we all kinda whine together in a chorus and decide, boy, we're glad we're kinda getting out of this thing at some point or other. As opposed to saying, rightly, I have a reaction to the world, and it reminds me that they need Jesus just like I did. And then I figure out ways to share Jesus with the world. That's frankly why we're bad disciple makers and we're terrible evangelists is because we react out of things that fear as opposed to… In fact, we were just covering… It's a craziest we were covering Revelation eight nine tonight in our study. And, like, this… You you have this image in…

That breaks up the… As part of the judgment of the seals. And there's these martyrs under the altar, and they're they're saying, god, when will you avenge our blood? They're praying and stuff. And, ultimately, these prayer… God says, you'll wait. I'll I'll do what I want until more of you are killed. It's a very difficult answer to deal with. And so then you get this image of these prayers coming up into God's presence. And and then in a reaction to God hearing the prayers, you start seeing judgments fired upon the earth. K? They're reacting into to the things that that God's people were praying for. But but what you don't catch is these are these are things like a third of things are being, burnt up, and there's hail and fire and floods and darkness and all this stuff,

but they're calls to repentance. Even for the world of which god's people are saying, yes. Come down and judge it. God says, yeah. My reaction to that is to I will do whatever it takes to get people to recognize who I am and that they can turn to me, repent of their ways, and be part of my everlasting kingdom. And so, like, even even then, like, God… God's reaction, when we think we know what we're asking, God says, yeah. I'll do some of that, but it's because I want them to turn to me, not because I I want to take them out like what you're asking. Yes. That will ultimately happen. Yes. You can be you can be a goat. Like, it'll it'll occur at some point. But, like, even with with your cries for vengeance and you you want me to to come down with recompense, I will still call them to repentance, and I will do it in whatever ways necessary to get their attention because I've been through this with my own people. And sometimes I have to do drastic things to get them to know me. And so the cool thing is is that, like, what we see is, like, significant judgments upon the earth, at least in the trumpets.

Our God saying, I need your attention. You need to repent. It's time for you to come to me. And the truth is most of them In fact, almost always when when there's calls for repentance in revelation, they don't turn to him. But, like, if our reaction to things that are going on in a world that we were like, this is not good. This is not the trajectory that we want. If those things are actually attempts by God to call people to repentance, and we're we're hiding in fear saying, oh, crap. I can't believe this occurred. Like, we need the reinforcement that the early churches in Asia Minor need, except for different reasons. They're encouraged by God's judgment and it's caused repentance for the rest of the world, and we're we're freaked out about it and go hiding around and say nothing because we're so scared, and that's ridiculous. And, frankly, we can't be surprised that we're at… There… There's no headway. We're not making making progress on pointing people to Jesus because we're so excited about the fact that

that the world has kinda gone away from them that we forget that we are the hands and feet that actually start to move that needle the other direction. Our our our fear of these large groups, we put people in groups and then we fear them. Right? And then we post all the negative things about them. These people are terrible. Those people are terrible. Yeah. It it… Then it affects us in such a way that on an individual level, we see that person who who's just a dude or a gal, whatever, and then we put them in that that label and then that group, and then we can't talk to them because we're afraid of them. Right. You know? And and it is a a process of us retraining ourselves. I'm speaking from my personal experience here because because I'm I'm that guy too. You know? I used to to post the things in the negative, and they were all evil and terrible. You're all gonna die. And I thought that's really gonna show them, you know? And they'll… And

it hit me, a couple weeks ago when we went to a restaurant and our server was obviously a dude. Right? I mean, he had dude feet and dude hands and Yeah.

In in very big makeup, lipstick. Yeah. Women's clothing. I mean. Yeah. You you know. Aerosmith style. Dude looks like a lady. Yeah. It it was it was definitely the the the transgender or cross dresser whatever. Yep. And it

it was just my family. And there was a time when I would notice that. And and when they left, I'd be nice and cordial, and then I'd make some comment to the family. Oh, look at this. You know, The fear thing would come out. Yeah. Like, okay. I'm gonna protect my family, make sure they're afraid of this person too. Yeah. Because obviously, this person's, you know, whatever. And I, you know, I I I I didn't say anything. I didn't I didn't I didn't even… I honestly didn't even think anything. I just… I acknowledged in my head. Okay. Right. This guy needs some Jesus. Right? Yeah. That's a man. That's a man. And he's dressed like a woman and seems to be a pretty good server. You know? You got my pancakes out. Tip tip tip generously.

And we go out to the car and my whole family's like, do you do you know what just happened there? I mean, did you know who that was? You know, you know, like, did did you know that was a guy, right? I'm like, yeah. Yeah. They're like, they didn't know what to do with me, which which I… And in some ways makes me feel good. That means maybe I've grown, you know, to to a point where I can look at someone as a human being and a child of God or a person God created who wants them to be his child. Yeah. I'll say it that way. Yeah. But if if I immediately

label them and and block them off and say you're part of that group I don't like, how will we ever… Right. How will we ever talk? How will we ever have relationship? Maybe I need to go back there and say start coming there regularly and actually form a relationship. I don't know. That's gonna happen but just because it's an expensive place. But Lord, Lord, may I administer in the cheap restaurant? I guess I could get a burger. You have Sandy move to the McDonald's maybe? Exactly. Exactly. But anyway, I I I saw that as a victory in my own life and for me, you know, I don't want to like pat myself too much on the back but because that was a big step for me. Yeah. I mean, I I I literally didn't even think it. You know, it didn't it didn't

it never crossed my mind like this guy's a man. Right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I should eat this. He touched it or whatever. You know, it it… But it's taken me a long time to get there. Yeah. And of conscious repentance and and continually turning saying, who who do you think Jesus is gonna be hanging out with here? You know? Anyway. It's so funny because we are so ridiculous when it comes to that. Like Yeah. Like especially it's the most sheltered Christian folk will run into that and be like, like, they're automatically gonna assume he's gonna And look at your eyes. And say, by the way, I'm a woman. You know that. I I know that. Yeah. Leave me alone. You know what saying? Like Yeah. Everything is a political statement all the time. And like, there is, I mean, less than point 003%

of the world that are that big of jerks. You know I'm saying? They're like, wanna wear their beliefs on their sleeve and then smack you in the face with it. And and some people… Mean, it really is. It's just we talked about that earlier. It's an identity thing, you know, and a and a word thing. And and, yeah, that's that's really hard to shake. It really is. Like, some of that stuff you were you were you were born into. You know what I'm saying? Like, some of that was the family you grew up in, the neighborhood you were in, or or, you know, the homogenous way in which you grew up, but there was no one that wasn't like you. And then all of sudden, you get around people that aren't like you, and every half a stereotype you've ever heard, you're like, I wonder if it applies to this guy. Well, I'm just gonna assume it does, and then I won't get burned, you know. Yeah. Mhmm. And like… What what was I just what was I just listening to? They did a study on whether kids that grow up in a bilingual bilingual household, understand the perspective of other people better because of because of growing up in that environment. Basically, the the experiment that they did is they had like three cars. One was big, one was medium, one was small.

And then they hid… The the the kid got to see all three, but the kid could see that the smallest one was hidden from the adult. And so like basically, there's two in front of them, one was behind a wall, and they knew the adult couldn't see the one. And these kids were like three or four or whatever. And so the adult would say, hey, wow, those are cool cars. Can I have the smallest one? And they found that that most kids, like 80% of the kids that grew up in a bilingual household would try to give them the middle one because they understood from their perspective that was the smallest one. Right. But the kids that grew up in just a a a single,

language household would almost all the time try to give them the third one that the other person didn't see. And like they said, it was really odd to find the findings that that, like, because of of growing up in, you know, having to relay messages or to to be able to try to understand what they're trying to say in a different language even though it didn't sync up all the way with the other language, that that they started to look at the other person's perspective, way more often than the person that grew up in a completely homogenous, single language household. So anyway, the the reason I found that interesting is is because that that that comes very true

with with sometimes the way that we raise our kids in a in a Christian household. You know what I'm saying? It's like, we're not asking you to accept their other people's perspective as gospel. You're… We're just asking you to realize that they don't see the third car. You know what I'm saying? Right. They don't see it. And so when you try to explain the third car or judge them for saying, why don't you understand the third car? You gotta realize they don't… It's it's still behind a wall for them. They never saw it in the first place. And so, like, the the the… Some of the stereotypes and the judgments that we've made, you know, for years are all because we weren't willing to sit in the chair and realize that they didn't even know that third car was there. Right. So, anyway, it was a pretty interesting study. Yeah. Alright. Alright. Stop being afraid of stuff.

Boy, that opens a lot of… That opens up a lot of opportunity when we say, like, there's literally nothing I'm afraid of. Right? Like, if I look around and say, no. I'm not afraid of that. God's got that under control. God's got that under control. Especially, I would… You know, the the big the big things simply is a… It's a misappropriation of our understanding of who God is and any sovereignty he might have in the world to be afraid of that stuff and just say, well, what, like, to the extent that we can influence our reality, we do so. But, like, there just isn't any reason. What was I talking to somebody the other day, and I had to do with worrying, and someone was talking about the end of time stuff and stuff going on in school. And I'm like, I said, you know, are you worrying about this? And they were like, yes. I'm worried about this. I said, well, someone was trying to convince you to worry about something tomorrow And direct, where God said, you got enough to… Here's the deal is Jesus didn't say you don't worry. He just said there's enough to worry about already. You know, today's full of that stuff. There's no reason to put tomorrow. So I said anybody that's encouraging you to worry about tomorrow, you can just go and turn that off now. Like Dave Ramsey. I'm not… That's a complete perspective, Mike, but I…… On the website. I'm telling you what. I'm I'm slowly making a case against the key to financial health.

Dave Ramsey says to to, think about your long term investments. That's classified as worrying about tomorrow. Mike says that's anti biblical. I'm saying you don't need to live that way. I mean, you've got a whole… You developed a whole class about money. You know what I'm saying? Like, a whole class about money. You've you've just basically worshiped the thing that God says, don't worry about this thing. I got it covered. I'm just saying, I'm gonna come up with good biblical reasoning for this. There's something that gives me the willies about that about that setup. How many people you know don't go through that class once? They go through it like five times. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They don't ever stick. Do you know why? Because it's a worship buddy class. I think his point is if you do it properly, you don't have to think about it. Therefore, you don't worship it. Yeah.

I don't feel that way. Yeah. That's because you got some retraining to do, I'm thinking. I'm just saying I haven't taken this class. Take the class. I'm not financially secure and I ain't that worried about it. Yeah. I feel like the lord's got most of the cover for me so far. I'm gonna say when you get to be about 55, well, I'm not there yet. You get to be about 50. You'll be start going, Well, yeah. I don't know. Well, it's so for the lord to take care of this. Or I will accept my my my lesson surroundings. Either way, you ain't right, Rebsy. That's what I'm gonna say. That's prideful me saying I don't have listen to Rebsy.

Alright. You're listening to Life From The Path. Hey, you can check us out on the website. Go to lifeinthepath.org during the week, and you can listen to the podcast. You can watch performances. We basically got a bad name in the Christian music community. That's why we haven't had anybody on the show. They figured what we're actually up to. I gotta call some… We got people coming in the next couple of months, though. No. That's true. Many hope's gonna swing by. He's good, dude. Yeah. And so, I think we got some we got some stuff going on. It's really laziness. We just we just haven't got around to it. By that, I mean, Mike has not got around to it. Here's the deal. My repeated calls into Lecrae have gone unanswered. I'm not sure why he's not picking up my phone. Hey. He's he's afraid. You you call him back. You say, this is Mike Foose. Do not fear me. The Lord has got this under control. He's probably friends with Ramsey, and then I can't… No. No. I know who to talk to me.

I don't mean that stuff. I kinda do. I'm gonna think about that. I don't know. I think I mean that, but I don't think I do. I'm gonna think about it. Alright. Here, Mike, as you get some life in the past… Your life in the past put together, let me… Here's… We're gonna take a quick quiz on the categories who and what. Who did it? You guys ready? I'm ready. Alright. Here we go. Number one, who married his half sister? Lot, Nahor, Tara, Abraham. Abraham.

Boom. Abraham. His his half sister. All of the above. That that is not a available option. This is a descendant from Adam. Aren't we all brothers and sisters?

Who are the who are the names? Lot, Nahor, Tara, Abraham. Abraham. Don't let me say it again. Mark it down, Ben. But but wasn't that…

Sarah's not the half sister. Yep. That… Oh, that's why it was it was it was partially true. Well, that's true. This is my sister. Yeah. Hell. Keep it up, boys. Mike's confidence so far is writing Abraham unless anybody have a… Has a stronger Okay. Mike carries. Number two, who dreamed that the sun and the moon and the 11 stars bowed down to him? Joseph. Okay. Joseph. We're all in for Joseph here. That's easy. Three, to whom did the… God give the covenant of circumcision?

Abraham. Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, we're in for Abraham. Four, who led the Israelites into Canaan? Who who… Wait. Who's Noah Moses? That was number three, Moses. Oh, you said Noah and Moses. No. That's two different. Adam. Not a superman named Noah Moses. No. No. Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham. Okay. Got it. Joshua. Number four, who led the Israelites into Canaan? Moses, Caleb, Jephunah, or Joshua? Joshua. Joshua. Alright. Five, who wrongly taught that Abraham's and Isaac's wives were their sisters? Crap.

What? Who wrongly taught that… Oh, I'm sorry. Who wrongly thought that Abraham's and Isaac's wives were their sisters? King of Egypt. Abimelech, Ishmael, Ben Ami, Mamre. Mamre.

Isn't that the isn't the isn't that the oaks? Where's the… Where are the trees from? Isn't that where they got trees from, Mamre? Yeah. Wasn't it the guy that… Well, the king that tried to take Sarah as a concubine or whatever? Yeah. Isn't that in Egypt? Isn't that Abimelech? Yeah. Okay. It's not Abimelech. Who's Abimelech?

It's a it's a Jewish dude. Wasn't Abimelech the hair guy? David said No. That's Absalom. No. Abimelech. Okay. So what do we got here? He's a king. It's a it's a… We're going to Abimelech. So you got Abimelech, Ishmael, Ben Ami, or Mamre. Okay. It's not… No. That's… I was just gonna say it's definitely not that. It's not Ben Hur.

Guestman? You're the tiebreaker. Guestman, go ahead. I wanted to x out Abimelek. You're not… You I was against that one. Okay. I don't It's… I know it's not it's not Ishmael. So it's either Abimelek, Benami, or Mamre.

I think it's Ben. I'm almost certain to Bimelek. Jesmar, are you in for Mamre? 15%. Yeah. Alright. Here's the go. We're doing bit on me. Dan Dan says his voice. That's lot of weight on my shoulder.

Who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew? Esau. Esau. Yeah. Who tricked Jacob into marrying his daughter? Lot, Nahor, Tara, Laban. Laban. Laban. Both daughters. Yeah. So who stole the household gods of her father? Rachel, Leah, Zilpa, Bilha?

Rachel. Yeah. I think it's Rachel. Anybody else wanna wanna jump in on that one? Rachel, Leah, Zilpa, Bilha. It's Leah or Rachel. I'm gonna go with Rachel. Zilpa? They brought him to…

They took him on the way out when when Jacob was leaving. So that'd be after Abraham and Isaac. It's Jacob's wives, Rachel and Leah. They stole from Laban. Jacob. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Remember she acted like she was having her lady time, so she sat on the thing until we wouldn't find it?

So… Wait. But if that's both his wife, so which… You say is Rachel? I think it's Rachel. Sure. Guestman's in with a sure. Alright. We're going with Rachel. Number nine, who violated Jacob's daughter, the sister of Simeon and Levi? Lamech, Hamor, Esau, Shechem. Shechem. Shechem. Shechem. Here's here's the deal. A group of dudes does not forget which man brought

forced circumcision upon his land. Yeah. Number 10, who violated Absalom's sister Tamar? Amnon, Nathan, Nefeg, or Ibar? I think the last one.

Ibar? I don't know. I'm just making it up. Nobody's ringing a bell, man. Yeah. I I… I'm a I'm a in with Amnon. Nathan was the prophet. Yeah. With him. So I think I think it's Amnon, but I I, you know, I'm a I'm a I'm going with the Guestman 15 on that one. Oh, boy. This is gonna… This does not look good, boys. Let's see what we got here.

Oh, hey. That's what I'm talking about. Hey. Not bad. One, who married his half sister? We said Abraham. That is correct. Bam. Who dreamed that the sun and the moon and 11 stars bowed down to him? We said Joseph. That is correct. Guess what? Didn't wanna say that. To whom did God give the covenant of circumcision? We said, Abraham. That is correct. Yeah. Who led the Israelites into Canaan? We said, Joshua. That is correct. Who wrongly thought that Abraham's and Isaac's wives were their sisters? We said, bid on me. That is incorrect. Abimelech. The correct answer is Abimelech. Talk to me. No way. Talk to me. Six. Who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew? We said Esau. That is correct.

Who tricked Jacob into marrying his daughter? We said Laban. That is correct. Who stole the thousand of the household gods of her father? We said Rachel. That is correct. Who violated Jacob's daughter, the sisters of Simeon and Levi? We said Shechem. That is correct. Who violated Absalom's sister Tamar? We said Amnon. That is correct. Wow. We got nine out of 90%. The only one we went wrong is Dan's. The one that we put on the shoulders of, wait for it, pastor Dan. 90%

quiz has been taken a 108,000 times since 2003 with an average score of 74. We rocked the who and what, who did it quiz. I don't know. I mean, righteously, we deserved, like, 60%. Yeah. That's true. Most of those most of those answers were arguments. Dear life from the path. I'm a young man who is currently in college.

When I was an infant, I was circumcised, and I feel violated that my parents decided to circumcise me without my consent. What the hell are they supposed to act? Never mind. Sorry. Go ahead. This man obviously can't be dealt with. When the doctor performed the surgery, he took too much off, which causes me pain. When I was in grade school, holy cow, I was sexually assaulted by an older classmate, but I feel much more violated from the circumcision because it took a part of me that I can never get back. I'm filled with hate and anger toward my parents even though I know it is unfair to them because they believe they were making the right choice at the time. My parents know how I feel and are sorry, but I still have these negative feelings toward them because I can't get the procedure undone. Do you have any suggestions how I can overcome my dilemma and build a better relationship with my parents? I'm gonna say something. You guys can't ask any follow-up questions.

Why or how? Okay. Fair enough. But I think I read something. I think it's possible you can actually regenerate your foreskin. Why and how? I said, no.

Out. Alright. Alright. I forgot I forgot already. It's gotta be with So I'll just leave it at that. I bet if you eat lots more onions. Well, I think it had to do it. Pain is emotional or physical. No. Because I don't I don't believe him. I think he's full of crap and he's a grow up. He doesn't have a dilemma. I mean, does it look funny? He's wrong. He's just… He's he's thinking too much about his under regions. I mean, I'm not saying that I don't think about mine on occasion, but I've never looked at it and been like, that's handsome. You know what saying? It is what it is. I don't think there's an appeal to it. Yeah. I mean, if there's a pain… If he… If it's painful, like, if something associated with this causing physical pain I think it's mental. I'm confident they can do something about that. Yeah. They can work with it. Yeah. If it's something where you're just upset. 22 year old 22 open sore. Is that what it's got? Yeah. Really? It's like, no. It healed. It's not painful. Here's the deal. Every guy wants to think that they took a little bit too much and naturally, it's better. But I'm just, I'm not sure that's the case. I've got these herbs.

I I got an advertisement. No, seriously. It was bigger. Yeah. The doctor must have just gone ape wild. No. I know. That guy's ridiculous. He does not have a dilemma. It is… I mean, he's right when he says, I know that they can't do anything about it. There's nothing to be done. There's no reason to worry about it. There's no reason to be angry with your parents. People make a decision for health reasons. I get it. I mean, whether you did it when you have… You can make your own choice, whether you wanna circumcise your own dude, but, like,

what are they supposed to wait to ask? They thought they were doing the right thing for health reasons. Like, just give it up. I mean, if if if my parents cut off my thumb as an infant because something was going on that I didn't know, I mean, whatever. I didn't know. They they made the choice. I wouldn't for the rest of my life say, I have no thumb. You people are, you know, terrible. I'd be like, yeah. You know, man, I guess I'll live without my thumb and do things differently. I don't know. I mean, yeah, whatever it is, my point is, you you just keep going. So you're it to ruin your life right now to the point you're you're calling life in the path and and dude, you need to get over yourself. That's that's my advice. Yeah. The… I I would… The only reason I'm being a little bit soft here is because they happen to bring in that sexually assaulted story because, I mean, that's obviously rough. Here's my thing. How's that connection with him being circumcised? So here's what I think. It's like, obviously, I think he's he's under the impression he's dealt with that and that this other thing he's actually rightly seeing. My guess is obviously there's an imbalance in how he actually handles his own affairs. That probably has an impact on him. It probably is a source of embarrassment. It's tied to that area.

And, like, it would make way more sense to me if, like, he just hasn't dealt with that appropriately. And because he can't control that and can't do anything about it, he finds something more tangible to argue about here. I… That's the only thing I can think of. But, like, I mean, if if I throw that perspective out and they actually deal with the thing that you're saying, you're being ridiculous. Yeah. And it's just time to let that go. But go to a counselor and work with that. Yeah. Because that was real. What happened? Correct. Whatever that was that happened was real and needs to be dealt with. And so, yeah, that that would be my my my underlying assumption would be there's probably things attached with that that, like, are obviously traumatic, like, are not easy things to deal with, are real personal things in your life that you should be talking to somebody else about. And, frankly, I I think that will influence how you feel about the other thing. It's… It it seems just a little bit to to having not… Not that… I… I'm not saying you're to blame with this, but to to, you know, not having dealt with that fully,

and then you've kind of front loaded another thing that you feel like you at least have some tangible control over. Right? Because, like, if I can… Sometimes when you don't… When you… When you're in a circumstance where your control was taken from you, something you didn't want to happen happen, and you were you were violated and you had no power over that situation, a natural reaction is to take power, you can get it. And where what you can do is you have parents that are in front of you that you can yell at, that you can react to. It's a relationship that you can control, not whoever this person or circumstance was when when you were little. And so where you need power, you take it where you can, and it becomes destructive in your other relationships

where you're seeking to kind of fill it from out of this one. And I… It's not like I don't get it. It's just your stuff is focused kind of in the wrong direction. Secular says, the question was, do you have any suggestions on how I can overcome my dilemma and build a better relationship with my parents? Secular says, yeah. I have several. All of them involve talking to doctors. The place to start would be your student health center to determine exactly what is causing your pain and if there's a help for it. A doctor there may be referred to you to a urologist who may be able to get the problem corrected. In addition, I urge you to talk to a licensed mental health professional to help you work through your anger because it may be misdirected and result of the sexual assault you experienced in grade school. Yeah. Yeah. That all makes sense. Yeah. I agree. Dear life from the path. My husband and I live in a small house on a small lot. We don't have children, but love kids. Our problem is our next door neighbors whose two elementary school age boys have limited supervision. They're always in our yard digging and leaving their toys around. Honestly, their own yard is bigger. They constantly come over asking for candy. And the other day, while my husband was working from home, he heard someone trying to open the door and pushing the keypad for entry. Needless to say, it was one of the boys.

I've tried asking them nicely to treat their toys, etcetera, but I'm getting really frustrated and afraid. I'm going to lose my patience soon and blow. Please help us. Here's the thing. You have just run into what I like to call a little boy. These are how little boys act. They go where they're not supposed to. They try to get in doors that are locked. They leave their crap everywhere.

These are little boys. If you can get yourself a little bit of patience, maybe two years from now, they'll just go away, and you'll miss them. You'll wonder why they're not around causing a bunch of roast anymore. But, like, these are these are little boys. And this so far as I can see, unless they're vandalizing your place or digging holes in your yard, I… Yeah. I I mean, when you say you love kids… Yeah. I think that's… I think they're accurate there. Do you mean you like the idea of loving kids? Where they're napping. But like in the practice, you're not you're not doing it. Yeah. What they're saying is, I would like to be known as a person that loves kids. That's right. Just in practical reality, I do not actually love children.

Yeah. Because I mean, people… I… Here's the deal. Like, if I'm being really honest, I struggle with this with little boys myself. I have a hard time with little boys. I find them… I I only have girls, and little boys I find rambunctious, rude, full of energy, and tearing my place up. And like, I I have to step back and go, he's just a little boy. You know what I'm saying? Like some of his stuff is a little bit out of control and you gotta you gotta rein him back in, but, you know, boys respond okay to fences. You just gotta set them up and say, here's the deal, and they're gonna try to run into it a couple times, and you gotta let them. And then you say, get back in the middle of the yard, little man. You know, like, you you you have to you have to have enough love for that kid to realize that, you know, he is he's… They're just little boys. You know what I'm saying? You gotta let this go. Yeah. There's a level of hubris that says I can control my reality to the extent that I can make little boys not be little boys. Yeah. That's dumb, and you should just give me that up. If you were dealing with a rational animal, yeah, they'd just stay in their own yard if it's bigger and whatnot. But what… These are little boys. They see somewhere where they don't belong or is not theirs, and then they're like, I'd like to check that out. Yeah. I'm gonna go over there. Whatever it is, I mean, if it's dangerous and I think they have candy. Yeah. Look. They have a spy keypad where I hit the numbers and it makes a beep sound, and it might open the door I'm not allowed in. Beep beep beep. Immediately, boys are over there trying get into the thing. I'll push that thing all day and maybe see some peanut butter will jazz it up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta let this go. No offense

if you have to. I mean, I I suppose, but, like, here's the thing is that there is a certain thing that should humble the person when you look out and what you think of yourself doesn't actually match a reality. Like, you you… When you have to say, I think I love children, but then no. Like, you have to realize that you're actually the issue here. And the truth is one of the one of the greatest growth points you can go through as a human in connecting with other people is actually succeeding in sympathizing with someone's circumstance to the extent that it changes how you behave. Like, I… This is a… This is an example, and I'm not sure whether I have told him this actually publicly. My little brother… Like, we had a pretty big age gap between Mike and I and our little brother. And it was about 10 it was about ten years. And so I was, you know, 16,

17 when he's six, seven, five, whatever. And, like, really rambunctious. Like, he do that a lot of energy, and his whole life was weird. And so, like, like, I didn't know how to deal with him, and I had no patience for his crap. He'd Like, be running around the place making a big… I'm like, stop it. Stop it. I'm a spank you like I'll be spanking people. I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. I don't know how you stand in the corner. Like, I had all these, like, terrible arbitrary parenting things that… And, like, I got I got to the point, like, it just wasn't working. Like, nothing was doing. He would never do anything I told him to do. Wasn't acting like a real turd bucket. And so there was at some point where I thought, like, I just… I have no patience for this kid. And it hit me that I felt foolish. I felt really silly, like yelling at a child. Try… And even at that age, thought, like, this doesn't feel right. Like, I I… I'm I'm just… I'm trying to get him to do the things I want to do, but, like, what does he wanna do? Why is he doing all this? Why is he running around jumping on the bed? Why does he keep coming in here and talking to me? Why does he gets… Keep getting in the fridge, you know, like, all this stuff? And I thought, like, I just have no patience for this guy. And so

I kinda shifted and tried to become, like, ultra patient. But, like, he comes up and says, hey, Ben. I say, what? And, like, not not only say what, but I'm invested in whatever you have going on. The dude's running around like a maniac jumping on the bed. I say, hey, man. That looks like fun. Why are you jumping on the I'll jump on the bed with you. And, like, try… And, like, I tried to… Like, it was just a conscious decision that, like, I have to completely change how we look at this. And the truth is I am I am 10 times the father I would have been had I not gone through that process with my with my little brother. Because it it very much taught me that, like, if if I don't ever stop and live in their world for a little bit, and, it's just whatever whatever they interact with me, they're interrupting something I'm doing, and I and I have to assign a value as to whether I'm okay with that, then I completely devalue their experiences if they are not a person. And if they are not a child that has a relationship with me that I am, like, always weighing whether I feel like is valuable or not. Hey. You… Here's the truth is, and we gotta be careful with this as parents. Like, you wanna teach your kids not to but the truth is they are always interrupting because you know… You don't give them, the chance to talk with you when they're not. Right? There's… You're always doing something, whether you're talking with somebody else or you're reading something or you're watching TV or you're busy doing x y z. Well, every time they do something, it's an interruption. If you never give them the opportunity to interact with you, which feels like they were invited as opposed to that they had to interrupt what you were doing, you've put them in a bad spot.

And if every reaction is, hey. You've interrupted me. You have to wait. You've interrupted me. You have to wait. And I get I get that. Like, I have got a kid that's just awful at interrupting, like, has no sense of anything going on around her. So I understand that. What I'm saying though is that, like, have I built my life where, like, not everything… My interactions with people aren't always interrupting something else? Am I intentional about how I interact with you? So, like, now as I look upon neighbors, and I don't like other people's kids. I'm really working on that, but dang, I just don't like it. I don't like when people are in my yard. I'm like a crotchety old man. And I said there's this dude that always come into the door. And like some reason, I I finally started looking at people differently, and there were some kids out playing in my yard and said, heck yeah, man. Enjoy that yard. I ain't out there. You know, like, I don't get as much near as much fun out of my yard as that guy does. Rock on. You know? And so, like… And and somebody comes to my door. I'm not even convinced. I'm like, hey. Who's at the door? Yeah. Maybe I will talk to them and another human is interacting with me. That sounds like a good time. And, like, I hate that because I'm an introvert. But, like, sometimes you just have to change how you deal with people and recognize that, like, you'll never live life if you're constantly being interrupted by stuff or if, you don't sit and and look at that little boy and say, man, that guy's really having a good time. I wonder what he's got going on. How can I facilitate that little dude having a good time when he's in my yard? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Freaking enjoy that. Take a picture and say, yeah, that dude loved to come in the yard. He makes me smile when he comes and enjoys the yard. You know, how… Just enjoy people the same way you enjoy a squirrel taking a knob off whatever you put in a tree. People sit there and look at birds all the time and like, oh, look at the cute little birdie playing in nature and then you see a dude in your grass and you're like, get off the grass. Like, you're a jerk. Stop acting that way. Start interacting in somebody else's life and try to enjoy it from their perspective. Okay. Secular says, you say you have you have spoken to the boys, but have you spoken to their parents? That one of the boys will try to gain entry to your home. I assume thinking there was no one there is worrisome,

and the parents should be put on notice about it. Yeah. He's he's likely to be the Hamburglar. That's really… He's he's a criminal. He's just testing it out. I wish someone would come to my house and put me on notice for something. You know what I'm saying? Mike, you're on notice. Well, right on. Duly noted. In some neighborhoods, the outcome could be dangerous. If you can't if you can't get them to take action, then consider fencing your yard. Yeah. Trump it. Put the Trump on it. Just build a big old barrier. Here's the deal. You tell me the one thing that the kids are gonna enjoy more than getting in the yard is having a scale of fence to get there. Oh, yeah. They'll be they'll be there in five minutes.

You'll be lucky if the concrete sets before they're hopping over that thing. Let's do one more. Ready? Yep. Your life from the path. In 2004, my husband and I were contacted by a friend who had gotten into an abusive relationship and lost custom… Custody of her daughter. She asked us to go through the social services and adopt her little girl so at least she would know her baby was loved and well taken care of. Long story short, we did everything we could, but in the end, we lost our battle. The grandparents were involved and took over. It was heartbreaking after a year and a half of loving the girl to have to let her go. My niece works at an ice cream shop and saw our precious one recently. Would it be wrong to contact her and her grandparents now that we know they are in town? I'd love to visit and form a relationship, but don't know if it would be appropriate. Yeah. I mean, you'd ask. What the heck not? Yeah. Just… Yeah. Just ask away. I mean… Hey. Can we swing by? You're basically saying, look, I see another person. I'd like to I'd like to love on that other person. I mean, when you're like, should I watch my ways? You should probably just do that. You don't have any inappropriate things going on here. You're just saying, you know, I'd like to love on somebody. Can I do that? Yeah, the answer is yeah. I'd ask the grandparents or set it up or whatever do the proper way but. Yeah. Yeah. Just don't be sneaky about it. Yeah. I mean, don't hop the fence or whatever.

Play in their yard. Who? Well, that's easy. That was it. I I I I don't know. I don't… Yeah. Just… I mean, if you wanna do something and it might infringe upon someone else, then you ask them whether it's alright. If they say yes, you do so. If they say no, you do not do it. Seems like an easy way to interact with folk. Secular says, not knowing how bitter the battle to keep your friend's child was, it's hard to say how the grandparents will react if you reach out. I suppose it couldn't hurt to try, but do it via a letter so they have the option of contacting you or not. Do not contact the girl without their permission because they could perceive it as threatening. Yeah. I don't agree with any of that. I just… I'd I'd go talk to the grandparents.

Amano, amano. I mean, I wouldn't contact the girl directly. I think that makes sense. No. You could… Yeah. You can't do that. But, like, I don't know if I'd send a letter. I feel like that's Weasley. Yeah. Yeah. What what? So they… So that you can can give them the convenience of ignoring you? Like, I I don't know. That's kinda weird. Yeah. I care enough that we're gonna have this conversation. You're gonna have to tell me no to my face. Yeah. That's not forceful or wrong. That's just a human thing. Hey, I'd like to stop by. Oh, we're really not comfortable with that. Oh, that's too that's too bad. Yeah. Too bad I'm here. I took a job as a mailman. Now I got the root. I wanna stop by your pussy every day. I'm binocular tester. Heads up. Alright. You're listening to live from the path. Thanks for hanging out with us tonight.

I don't know if there's any broad lessons from the show here. Study up on your old testament. So so you can, I don't know, dominate us on the quiz? What what what… I don't know. What else we learned today? We're… Oh, don't be afraid. Stop with your fears. No reason to be afraid of that stuff. There's no God is God, which if you're… If if you find that you're not willing to talk to people about God, frankly, there's probably a level of fear in there somewhere. Because if you're focusing on who Jesus is,

and there's just a lot to wanna share and and see about people. And frankly, goes to how do you look at the world? You know, a lot times we pray for things like, can I see the world how God sees them? Do you see… Do you look down at people who deserve judgment and say, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to try to call them to repentance and share the good news of what my son has done on the cross for them? Can we look at people in a way that that puts them puts us in their perspective and smile at the little boy that's in the yard and and kinda recognize what other people are going through and sympathize with that so that we can know how to speak to them. So I just… I don't know. Maybe some things to look out as you head ahead into the week. And if you have anything you wanna let us know about, shoot us an email at info… Or excuse me. [email protected], and we will see you next week. Be faithful means. God will take care of the ends.