Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the path. And you're listening to Live From The Path. We're coming from The Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper. We just rebuilt the temple. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You you did what? If it's what you've been waiting for, it's finished. Woah. That's right. Temple down the red heifer? Yeah. Red heifer. Red heifer. Red heifer is done. Wait. I don't even know what that means. What's the red heifer? It's a type of heifer. Yeah. Yeah. They used always keep No. Get I read heifer. I gleaned that some random adjective name.

Does everyone know what a heifer is? No. Yeah. The the so there is a description that, like, this is the type of of heifer that is to be sacrificed in the temple. And so in preparation for the rebuilding of the temple, there's guys that are like actively raising money to become breeders of red heifers. So they could and they could synagogue tabernacle, they would always keep a portion of the the original one and they would of the ashes. Uh-huh. And then so they set up camp again. There was always a continuation.

That's the problem is we don't have the original from the last sacrifice. Yeah. So, yeah, they have to they gotta come up with a new one. Mhmm. That's and that's the Red River. Wait a minute. I I I just wanna make sure I understand the premise of what they're doing here. So let's say my birthday comes up in six months. And they're basically showing up with a cake and going, I'm ready for when the when when it arrives. I have one portion and the whole rest of the stuff really needs to happen yet, but I got to Heifer. Yeah. Yeah. The thing that is that is or or it's it's it's actually probably even worse than that. It's it's like your grandma showing up with the cut with the plastic cutlery and standing at your door six months in advance. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. That's what is. I mean, I don't get it. I guess what No. No. No. And I think Mike, you switched tones. I think it's false. It's false anyway. But that is I mean, we're we it's it's complete. Got it. Congratulations. If you were waiting on the sign, there it is. People listen to life in the past. Show is over. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Mean It's all done. Lock it up. We've we've tightened this thing. Here's what we got going on the show tonight. So,

you know, we don't we don't we don't talk about this all that much, but, like, there was there was a a a report released by the the British government that says that 80% of persecuted religious believers are Christians. And I think it's an interesting thing to talk about because the sense of what it is to be a Christian in The United States has an automatic assumption assumption of

of privilege, status, power, whatever. Like, this this belief that that Christianity is the is a dominant religion by people who are who are the haves, not the have nots,

and that the the religion itself is otherwise trying to oppress people. That it's the way it's oftentimes you'll see Christianity portrayed that way within the media. You don't see what did I see? I was looking at there's a website called lifehacker.com. And so, like, it's got a lot of, like, help articles and stuff like that. And they had a video. It was like, hey. A layman's guide to understanding Ramadan so that you can be an ally. And I thought, I've never seen anybody produce an article or video that says, hey. A layman's guide to Passover so that you can be an ally. Like, there's no attempt to say, here's how you can understand Christianity better as someone who may not so that you can understand how to interact with Christians. But there's a lot of discussion in our country around, like, here's how you otherwise become accepting of other of other religions. Mhmm. And so so what's interesting then though is that that it it's weird if from a western perspective, Christianity

is is kinda known as the, like I said, the haves, the religion of the haves. But like it's it's simply isn't true. It's a Christianity is the most widespread religion. It's in more countries than any other place. It is predominantly the religion of have nots of people who are who are oppressed, and and minorities. It doesn't happen to be the case in The United States. But as a whole,

Christianity as a matter of fact, even even if you think by numbers like the Christian, Christians in The United States do not outnumber, say Christians in, South America, of which they are a minority. And so, and generally oppressed and marginalized and poor and all the other things that you otherwise are looking at other religions and sympathizing with, Christianity takes bait. So anyway, I thought it was interesting though is to think of of Christianity as, like, by far the most widely persecuted religious group. And so anyway, I thought I'd read you to read some of that for you to maintain a healthy perspective of not only Christianity from a world stage, but what that means for,

Christians around the world. Like, we do live in a relatively safe, structure of of being able to follow follow Jesus in The United States. Take Sri Lanka, take Nigeria, especially. It's just getting Christians get pounded in Nigeria simply for being Christians. Like, there's there's no other reason. And so the the persecution that's going on with with Christians, it's just something that I think we don't always have great visibility into. And so, anyway, I just thought I'd read that. We can kinda digest and talk about some of that. Also, one of the things maybe we'll get to this if we have time, but

I was reading in Leviticus, or talking about, this this statute from Leviticus 19. And so this is in a a Leviticus, obviously, broadly is is God, providing, teaching his people what it's like to interact with a holy God and what it means to be followers of a holy God, how it expresses in their behavior. In this particular chapter, Leviticus 19, he's talking about how they're to treat each other. And, this is one of the things that he that he describes in the Leviticus nineteen nine. It says, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You should not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner, I am the lord your god.

And so broad premise is to say if you're gonna plant a field, you are intentionally knowing that you're not going to harvest all of it. You're expecting that you're going to leave the edges for the poor to be able to come get. When you go to harvest, you're going to drop some and you're gonna leave it. The poor is gonna get that too. They're gonna come and pick it up. And like, it's not as something you do as an afterthought. You don't harvest your whole field and then decide to give some to the poor organization for the poor. It's like built in to your goods that someone's gonna be allocated to people that are in need because the lord doesn't he wants people taken care of in his land. Like, he he built in the premise. And so one of the things that I wanted to talk about was is how

do we take that concept and live it out faithfully now? Because because I can't translate that. I can't transplant that very easily. Like, I can leave gleanings in my garden, but it's a small garden. I'm not a farmer. I I don't we don't produce enough food for my family alone to eat, let alone for it to benefit anybody else. And so as I think of our goods, the things that we harvest or have, that we otherwise use to make a living or to provide for our families,

And the call that says, look, it should be built in that you are going to, leave some, or know that some is to be available for those who need it. What are what are some ways of which we might be able to, like, faithfully adhere to that way of treating people in our modern contact? So but be thinking on that. We'll we'll come back we'll come back to that one and see if you guys have any thoughts on that because that's that's as I was reading that, I thought like if you think of some of the problems that we that we have in the world, we talk about different ways of helping people. I'm like, the lord built it in. He built in a way to think about this. It just doesn't translate so easily because we're not an agrarian economy.

And so but I the concept is is still good. It's still faithfully shows god taking care of people through people. And I think we can think of normal ways to like, oh, I give to this thing and I do this x y z, but like, I'm not I wonder if there's a more personal context to it because it was personal to every guy who owned a field, which was most of the guys. So anyway, put the thought on that. Also, we wanted to talk about there was an article it was I think it was an opinion. Hold on. Let me look. Yeah. There was a there was an opinion piece in USA Today at the end of it was originally published at the end of January two thousand eighteen. But the the the question was who buys a trafficked child for sex?

And the answer is otherwise ordinary men. And it was one of those articles. Dan had read it and he kinda shared it with the guys and like I I I don't know. It sounds like, Dan, you had a similar reaction, but I read it and I thought like, boy, actually, can't get past, like, at least five or six things in this article that are they're flabbergasting me and it's haunting a bit. And so, Dan, you said a similar reaction? I tell you what, it was hard to get that out of my mind, the thought of of because that's always been my question. Well, who who is purchasing this? You know? If we talk about sex trafficking. We wanna stop it. We go after The guy with the mustache and the evil cigarettes. Right. Right. Right. We try to shut down brothels, you know, the different things. But usually the people paying for it, they get nothing. They're not even after them. They don't even care. They just hang out until they do it again.

And and and who so it's like, well, who does that? Who who thinks, hey. A 12 year old would be great right now. A five year old. I'd love to have a five year old. Who who does that? And and it really gets into that in that article, and it just man, it just tears at your it really it literally rips at your soul. I mean, I I I couldn't get it out of my mind. I finally I shared it with you guys that I gotta I gotta do something with Yeah. I don't know what to do with this because I I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna actively do something to stop it. Yeah. And it goes back to, I guess, in my mind is, well, if the church is being the church making disciples, Jesus people don't rate five year olds. Right. So there's that.

But then it mentioned, well, pastors are out there. Yeah. But that means they're not Jesus people because they're raping five year olds. Mean, you know Right. Anyway, that's that's yeah. We can talk about more later, I suppose. But I mean, it's just an inherent mess. Really? I I mean That literally just made me sick to my stomach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's haunting. Alright. So we're gonna get to that. Man, we got a power packed show, Ben. I know. And then we'll do some advice on Dear Life From The Path. Let's skip the persecuted British one. We're gonna leave it be? No. Go ahead. I had someone make fun of me for being a preacher. Does that count? What? Woah. No. Not really. What regular shirt were you wearing? I was wearing my Jeremiah shirt. I'm sure it wasn't a Dan original. Otherwise, they would have focused on the shirt. No. It didn't really happen. I just try to think of persecution. We don't get it. So yeah. Yeah. We don't happened to me in my time. You know what? Here's the thing. It's it's like the the most persecution I've felt as a Christian, right, is when somebody at work gets a text messages and then they laugh and laugh, and I'm like, what was it? And they're like, you you don't you can't see this one, Mike. Yeah. It's not for you. Oh, yeah. Okay. You're Thanks, fellas.

I think I think the most I'd hate to even call it persecuted I've ever felt was I was at a party once in a college town and someone came up to me and said, you seem like an intelligent person. And I said, yeah. And we started talking and he just randomly started debating religion with me and I told him, said, yeah. I believe in Jesus. He goes, man, I thought you were a smart guy. And then in instead of continuing the conversation with me, he got off of the couch and left the party. Wow. The whole party? The whole party. He didn't leave the room. He left the party. Yeah. I'm going to throw up now. I'm not gonna let that go. I'm like, heck yeah, man. This seems awesome. Let's have this conversation. And then he left, and I'm like, I can't talk to him anymore. Like, no. He left he left the home. He he's gone. I'm like, oh, cats. Okay. Well, that's the end of that then. Right. I was gonna stalk him by the Aquarius. Yeah. Discipleship ain't gonna happen that way. I was gonna bring him another drink and be like, hey, man. You seem like an intelligent person. Let's have a conversation. Never happened. Alright.

So Mike's disinterest aside. Yeah. Go ahead. Relatively quickly. So this was from the Christian post. It said approximately four or five people persecuted for the religious beliefs are Christians according to a report prepared before the British government. According to the lengthy report, 80% of persecuted believers around the world Christians with Bishop Mount Stephen labeling it as an inconvenient truth. Explain that while the statistics derives from ten year old research by the International Society for Human Rights, it remains accurate accurate.

Let's see. Yeah. The inner report cited other research including a Pew Research Center study from 2017 which found that Christians were targeted for their beliefs in 144 countries. Christians have been harassed in more countries than any other religious group and have suffered harassment in many of the heavily Muslim countries in The Middle East and North Africa. The report went as far as to say that Christian persecution worldwide was not only increasing, but arguably coming close to the meet to meeting the international definition of genocide. The eradication of Christians and other minorities on paint of the sword or other violent means was revealed to be the specific and stated objective of extremist groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Northeast Nigeria, and The Philippines. Now wait a minute. I mean, you kinda breezed over that. How are they harassing them? Swords. Swords. I mean yeah. Yeah. It's not like, hey. Dumb shirt. Yeah. Right. It's it's not Christian. Dying. It's not American Christianity where it's like, hey, man. You can't have that at our school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. We are going to behead you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that's just pretty much what Jesus said. Yeah. It's a straight up attempt. Like, that's the thing I suppose. He he kinda told us. Is that, like,

on the the opposite side, hey, Christians are trying to convert me to Christianity. Right. Other people are eradicating Christians. Like, hey, we will not I mean, it goes back to that the the Nazarene. Right? Like, that that sign where where people were targeting specific folks in Iraq. But, like, it it is it is specifically on the foundation of your of their religion of which people are getting wiped out. It says let's see. An intent to raise all evidence of the Christian presence was made plain by the removal of crosses, the destruction of church buildings, and other church symbols. They explained that the final report is expected to be completed sometime in the summer. Over the course of the next two months, we don't care.

Yeah. Okay. Anyway, that's that's the that's the basic holistic report. Have you ever found yourself praying may maybe a situation in the news happens. You hear about, you know, some some Christians getting slaughtered or, you know, you know, something's happening. Yeah. And you find yourself praying for them, and then you have to change your prayer mid prayer because, my American prayer is protect them. You know? Don't let this happen to them. Yeah. And I'm thinking that's not their prayer. Their prayer is let them stand firm and strong in it. Yeah. You know? Yep. And I've I've, oh, many times had to, like, change gears. Then I kinda feel guilty for praying that prayer because I'm like, yeah. But I don't want them to go through this. Right. Then I think but I don't want them to be like us. Right? We're soft. Do you do you think they you think they wonder on the other half of that? Right? Like, you know, you think they pray at night, lord? I you know, we're we're getting beheaded here and those Americans are just tooting around no problem at all. You know, why? Why why are you allowing they're wasting their time thinking about us. Yeah. See, that's the thing. It's and and it reciprocal wise, I would think that. Right? Like, if if if persecution all of a sudden came to me, I would go, why are you allowing this to come after me? Yeah. Nothing's happened in Nebraska. Yeah. Nebraska seems alright. Are you what do you want me to learn? What I do. What are you trying to show me something? You know? And, like, I I thought it's way personal and god is it it and and and I think it's a symptom of of, obviously, my own pride and maybe maybe western Christianity. Right? Like, I'm like, hey, why? Why this mean? Was gonna say that's a rough jab, not from you, from the situation at my own thought process because, like, my prayers in my in my entire life have never been, oh lord, you know, don't but just protect me in this situation, but, like, kill me if you need to. Yeah. Like, help me stand through go down gracefully. Right. Exactly. Like, if I gotta go tomorrow, it's your deal. Like, I gotta go tomorrow. You know I'm gonna go stand and firm in who you are, and I'm excited to see you.

Know, You it's gonna be an awesome night when I get a chance to come meet you, papa. It's like, wow. I I think I prayed the other day about my truck working. And and even when I feel like I'm deep, I'm usually praying for the health of people around me. It's never like, hey, lord. You know, if I gotta die tomorrow, I gotta die tomorrow, but make sure it's because I love you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Just it pretend see, that's the thing. Studies like this, like, they're they're true and and I don't know how to make them sit on me correctly. Right? Right. Like, for the day, I will take it in and I will take it in well and I will I will it humbles me. Right? Like, it's a humbling position to go, man, I've got I I have it so good and I I take it so for granted and and and all this, you know, and then I will continue along my ways, and it won't ever it won't ever sink into the correct weight Right. Where I wish it would. Right? Like, that would be something that I would pray for. Like, let this sit on me and sit on me heavy to the point where it changes me. I don't wanna be this daft idiot. Right. You know? And and it it doesn't quite get there. Yeah. My my brain just went, hey, man. I should just move to North Korea. That's what I should do. But then, like, my brain is also telling me, I don't think that's what god's calling me for right now. I think that's just my knee jerk reaction. And then tomorrow, when I go back to praying that my lawn mower starts correctly, like, man, you're right. I don't let that sit on me hard enough. I mean, and it's not like feeling guilty doesn't you know, that's that's that's where I battle myself. Now I feel guilty. It's like, no. Okay. God's blessed us. Great. It's not what you're called. But that's probably why I'm so heavily involved, like, in in African stuff now. It is it's okay. I can do something. Right. You know, I don't have to die. I might, but I'll go over there. I mean, know, it's like I don't feel danger, but it's like I'm just continually supporting stuff that

we're making disciples over there. Right. Hopefully, it'll spread in that part of the world, you you know, and Exactly. It it's not it's not, like, bad that you're not seeking out the genocide of the crazy culture. It's like, it's okay to be the guy that feels called to the inner city of your local town. Like, that is still a war zone. Like, you still have we still have war zones here in The United States that is people are openly in defiance against god or, like, just reject reject entirely the concept of Christianity, and there's serious work to be done. We don't all I mean, I'm not saying don't go to Africa or don't go to the Right. The world's like. But remember, there's there's a spiritual war happening in the gas station across from your house. Yeah. Well, my calling is to the spiritually apathetic affluent people. Yeah. And and it's a tough calling. Rough. Yeah. They're not against it. They don't care. Yeah. Whatever. Think they've known Jesus for the past forty years. Yeah. Cute cute little church you got going. That's great. I'm gonna go out golfing or, you know, whatever. I mean, they just Right.

I can't tithe this month. My country club dudes are are coming Oh, and that's the thing is people that don't need Jesus for anything as far as they're concerned. Right. Right. They're not they're not praying for daily bread. They'll get their own bread. I've a 6 figure salary. I don't need to worry about where my next meal's coming from. Yeah. And and and actually wait. I think, Ben, you were telling me about that. There was there was some book written by this. He was a Chinese he was a missionary in China. Yeah. And, like yeah. He felt it hard for the for the for the pastors in America. Like, man, you guys are in a tough That's a tough that's a tough road to hope. Yeah. You know? Because you're you're you're offering them like, all the things we were just talking about this before the show started is is all the things that you can offer in a following Jesus life as you're alive here on Earth. Americans can tend to create for themselves. Right. Yeah. Can you can with with a certain amount of money, you can get a pretty good sense of security, a pretty good food intake, and make sure that your daily bread is met.

You can get you can find some kind of joy and experiences that can be bought. And and, like, all those things are are are possible. They're not quite as organic as you would have gotten them from the lord. You know, they're not as true. They're not as as maybe condensed full of of joy, you know, but we could make a pretty good replica of what joy looks like with money. Yeah. Which is why which is why Jesus talks about money specifically being a thing. Right? People passing through the eye on a needle for a rich dude and blah blah, you know, and and, like, you can't worship god and money because you can get darn close to making what you thought god had to offer with money. Right. Now if you finally take what god has to offer, you realize that money can't even come close. Yeah. Right? But, like, in your head, you go, this is the best that I could possibly do. My kids had the best shoes and Right. It fit the right name brands. Comfort and joy. Yeah. Like, god offers us joy. We can give ourselves comfort. Yeah. See, we don't we don't get persecuted from those people because they're spiritually apathetic. They don't care. Yeah. There there might be a few atheist, you know, radicals that that try to clamp down on laws or something. That's our persecution. But but but what most of the world is facing, we're not because Right. Absolutely. Surrounded by people who yeah. They just whatever. You do your thing. We're gonna do ours. We're fine. They did they're not angry at us for the most part. Yeah. We're just irrelevant. Really, really watered down fake Christianity

supports capitalism in The United States, and therefore, it will never really get eradicated. Well, you I mean, it's gonna weird it's weird train of thought to me, actually. But, like, you'd think that if the lord felt it necessary that that that was a constant weight to humble you, he would give it to you. Right? Like, he would give it to you to where? Because he loves you. He does all kinds of things because he loves you. He put he lets you go through things because he loves you. Absolutely. And, like And could be Not to say that that because he has not done it or does not continue to do it or impress press it upon you that it's not important that it sits on you

or that he doesn't love you enough to give you the weight, you know. But, like, it is an interesting thought to know if that would really do me some good. Maybe that's where my error in thinking is. It would really do me some good to allow that to weigh on me. I feel like I've asked god enough. It's your day. What what do you want me to do? What do you wanna do? You know? And if it was important enough for it to weigh on you to the point where it actually made a change in you, that he would do that because he loves you. It's all what I would do with my kids if I thought it was gonna do him any good, you know, is allow some things to settle on. So, I mean, you give or take that. It's probably a logical thing that's that's that's not necessarily applicable across the board, but, like, it does give you a different perspective to say, you know, god has put you in the place that you are. He knew exactly who you were going to be and what he created you to be, and you live where he intended you to live. And so there is something to be said about about doing what what what you're supposed to be doing in the situation you're in, even though it looks like we're we're half throwing it in. Right? Like, you know, I get to come to work and and, you know, working for Jesus in an air conditioned room. Yeah. Right. And and and so, like, I I I can count that as a blessing. Most of the time, I don't. But, like, I can count that as a blessing and say, god, what, you know, help me to suffer more so I could get a better perspective what this thing is. And he's like, look. There's air conditioning in your whole country. What do you want me to do? You take the I mean, honestly, it just it just doesn't make any sense. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. Alright then. I I don't think I can handle real persecution, though. I mean, I say that because I'm I'm thinking that because my idea of, like, suffering in ministry is, oh, man. Four families moved out of town and and and two families got mad and left, and and now we're down 15 families, and and I'm I'm moping around saying, well, god, you're really testing me, you know, and and, you know, Jesus, god, is this should I even be doing this? And, you know, I was like, I can be crushed. Yeah. And I'll I'll mope around for six months, and then I'll, you know Right. Then and I now I I'm embarrassed with my prayer life even a little bit because I'm having this hard hearted. God, know I'm stupid. I mean, I'm that to him. You know I'm an idiot, but I need I need help. You know? And it's

like, really? That's it? My life's not on the line. Right. Right. I mean, things are happening. Things are you know, whatever, blah, and all the I mean Yeah. In in every situation that I'm in, interestingly enough, it sounds weird, but there's a fan. As in, like, I have air conditioning in my truck. I have a fan that sits on my desk at work. I sleep with a fan on in my house. I mean, at all points in time, I I am aired out, but at the same point in time, it's like that kinda puts things in perspective where I'm like, I I don't have any. And and I don't know that that I'm living my life dedicated enough to to be Christ like that I even put myself in that kind of wheelhouse. That is interesting to think that, like

I actually follow my earlier train of thought is God has not removed the movement of air from you, Buva, because you're actually not willing to give it to him. And he's a gracious God who takes by choice, you know, sometimes by force. But, like, here's the thing. If you if you're like, a god you know, there's Jesus just hanging out on the other side of the door that has no knob because you have to open it from the inside. And you say and he says, if you I have great things for you if you're willing to give up that fan. And Bubba goes, no. We ain't talking about the That's Not today. You know, that's kinda crazy. Like, so so one of the the coolest experiences I ever had was when I went to The Philippines, and I I worked I mean, I I did not have an authentic experience. I was in a hotel the entire time. Yeah. But I went and and interestingly enough, one of first things I did the first day I got there was I asked where the local mall was so I go buy a fan. Because, like, I asked the hotel for one, they had no idea what I was talking about. Why? I'm a giant American man and I like to sleep with a fan on and they're like,

90% of this country doesn't sleep with air conditioning. You should've thought of that. You don't understand what you're dealing with. And so, like, I went to a local hardware store, and I bought a fan for my for my bedside, end table. Right? And so when I was leaving, like, I couldn't take it with me. I couldn't put a a small $6 fan in my in my pack and travel it back to The United States. And so there was a driver that I had the entire time while I was there. He was an amazing cool guy. And so I I'd asked him if he wanted a fan, and he cried. And I'm like, Gus, what are you doing? He goes, I've never had a fan and never had the luxury of having one. And so I gave him a fan and an extension cord, and he he cried because he was like, my kids will have a fan tonight for the first time in their lives. And I'm like Dog on a It cost six phones, Gus. Yeah. Like, that was nothing. I we gave him all of our cash because we decided he was a cool dude and we wanna help with the kids, and we weren't gonna exchange any of our Filipino pesos back into American dollars. So we pulled all our money together, end up being about $250 between all of us. Yeah. We gave it to him. He messaged me on Facebook maybe a year ago, and I haven't gone about it was in The Philippines three years ago three or four years ago, and he messages me. He goes, I hope you know that my kids are still in school because of that cash.

I'm like, what? He goes, yeah. The cash you gave me paid for their uniforms and their books up until this year, and it just ran out. And I'm like, that's that's insanity to me. And I'm living in a place where I have two two box fans that that are on me at all Double fan. No. No lie. Give it a win from both directions. One of my face one of my feet, and my ceiling fan at all times. I gotta leave my door open because I I'm ridiculous. And, like, I have to turn down my fans if I wanna take a phone call because it's so loud in my room. And I give a small desk fan to Gus and it changes his life. We're being That's what I'm living in. Being groomed for ineffectiveness. Oh, absolutely. The fact is like, hey, you cannot do anything unless the conditions are right. Anything goes down, I will I won't sleep for a week here. How many times you've done that with your bible reading? Like, sit down and you're like, oh, I forgot my drink. Hold on. Let me get my drink and then I'll read Nehemiah. And then you get your drink, you're like, I don't know. I I could probably go for something quick to eat, but I can do that while I'm reading. And this is cool. And then you get out your Instagram photo and you're like, me digging on the word with your your your Hey. On my memories today, don't judge me. There was an Instagram photo of me sitting next to the Gulf Of Mexico talking about how great dad is. Yeah. And then I remembered, I think I read a page from that. Bible that day. I'm sitting there taking photos of my bible on a table with the Gulf Of Mexico in the background. I'm thinking about Spiritual judge. Jesus. Hashtag Christ follower. One one page of Psalms. I'm good. God, let's talk about walking down this beach together. Yeah. And then I walked for ten seconds Will you hear my air conditioned truck. I'm winded, Lord. I wish I was lying about that. I ate a buck I ate a bucket of fried chicken on the beach by myself Oh. And then left the beach ten minutes later after reading one page of my bible, got in my truck, and then drove 3.5

back to the place that I had just driven three and a half hours from so that I could see the Gulf Of Mexico. You know, Ben's right. We're bred for we suck. We're ineffective. Yeah. Like, you know, when's where's the guy with the Instagram and taking a shot at him cleaning his closet out of all his goods? I'm following the lord's word today. You know? No. Giving everything up for the lord because I wanna be that camel that goes to the eye of the needle. I'm sending some stuff to Gus. That's what I'm being. No. Here's a here's a picture of me acting like I'm gonna dig on Nehemiah for hours. I was here for twenty minutes. I got lost in the language. I gotta figure this out. I watched the guy do it on YouTube with hand puppets. Lord, crush me. Yeah. I mean it this time. Crush me. Yeah. I'm I I don't know how many times they're like, hey. I'm gonna get up early. I'm gonna get up early and get this thing done. My alarm goes off at, I don't know, 06:15 or something, and I'm like, I'm weary, Lord. One day. One day won't hurt. I'm weary. I've only I've only rendered seven and a half hours. Right. I I got in a tight 12. Yeah. You know you know how it is. Yeah. You you were you were humanity once. Persecution of my sleep. Ask your son. It was a rough deal down here.

Oh, on. Yeah. He got me better. Yeah. I checked with him. He says he was up all night praying on a mountain. Yeah. And then and then he said, let's walk to Capernaum. Oh, yeah. I guess we'll go on a hike then. Is there not a horse? In the hill country of Judea. Oh, man. It's not even flat roads. That is the truth. I could not if at where I'm at in my life, I could not have been one of the apostles walking around with Jesus because the second Jesus said, let's walk to the next town, I'd be like, where is that town, Jesus? And like taxi? Right. Exactly. Like, there's wheels already. There's not a I mean, come on. There's got no way that someone can carry me to the It goes back to our to we talked about this maybe last year or something, but, like like, as as a western culture, we we value effectiveness or not effectiveness, efficiency, like, almost above all else. Right? And so, like, we really grab on to John when he's like, make the path straight. You know what I'm saying? Like, make it easy to get there. Jesus walking hills. Hill country of Judea. Stays up all night praying by himself. I can't pray by myself when it's bedtime, circa 11:30. And I'm like, I'm gonna fall asleep as I talk to the lord. You know, I last maybe five, seven minutes maximum. I'm out. Jesus been up all day healing people, goes out to the mountain, prays by himself all night, gets up. The boys are ecstatic. Where you been? Hey. Let's walk to Capernaum. Yeah. And then see all the disciples all day. In the hill country of Judea in cardboard sandals. Jesus, you want me to strike him down? And you tell me that's the most I mean, that cannot be Jesus didn't even plan his route for the most efficient ways. Right? Like, I it it just it it just boggles the mind that, like, we worship efficiency without even knowing that we're doing it. We we need we need to change our little fierce faith tagline thing.

I don't know what we changed it to, but I just suddenly, I'm feeling like we're we're we're maybe false advertising. Yeah. I don't feel fierce faith right now, guys. No. No. It's honest faith or honest faith. Okay. Yeah. Race is Okay. Good We're then. Never mind. Infuse grace. No. Grace for you all. No problem. Oh, man. No problem at all. I don't you know, sometimes my my my ego takes over and I feel like I'm a pretty tough guy, but then I get the conversations like this and I real Oh, we're just turning it in. I got I gotta have a I gotta be air conditioned everywhere. I gotta be honest I gotta be honest, Lord. I'm I'm not ready for the fan thing. I hear you pressing on my heart about it, but I'm keeping up one fan at least. As a random more secular side note, if the world does go under at any point in time, I

because if I don't have electricity, that means I don't have a fan. I remember last night I slept without a fan, which means that I'm gonna die just because I haven't slept in a week, and now I'm, like, hallucinating and I jump off a cliff on accident. If if I go to a hotel and and there's, like, no fans, I'll I'll often buy one. But if I'm, like, like, in an airplane, it's like I'm not gonna do that. I'll put my iPad on. There's some great fan noise. Oh, yeah. Have one. Yep. And I'm like, that's just stupid. You know the worst thing is you just need the noise? If I don't have the noise You don't have the wind? The airflow Yeah. Yeah. I'm out. It's a compromise. It's a For some reason, I have a fan on near me and I don't feel the airflow, I can't sleep. And if I just have noise happening, I'm out. I can't sleep. I love it. Dear father, power is out, send a chariot. You know what, fuck? I'll get the if power is out, I don't sleep. Ridiculous. I'm up. Okay. So alright. So here's here's here's what we can do. Will give you till next week, boys. We need some alternative taglines for the reality of our program. It sounds like so far it is, life from the path, we wanted to get up early but we was too hot.

Or the fan was too That is not a tagline for the show. That is a tagline for my adult life. Yeah. Eighteen to 27, boova. Oh, man. I wanted to get up, lord. But then you made the convenience of the fact that my phone is right next to me. I was able to change the alarm clock from seven to eight, and then I did that from eight to nine and nine to ten. Oh, crap. I'm late. Yeah. Tagline booba. Basically, the slide from the path that our tagline is but ellipses. But dot dot dot. I mean, we were gonna that's the truth. We were gonna. Honest faith, fierce grace, kinda dot dot dot.

Man, fellas, we gotta shape up. Dang it. Alright. We stink. Hey. And maybe you know it. Maybe you've been listening to the show and you're like, you know what? That's dead on, boys. You've doing that for years. Yeah. Replete hey. Reinforce the perspective so that we know we're not outlandish. That's (515) 517-0085. That's a lie from the path complaint line. Go ahead. Hit hit us up with the truth there. (515) 517-0085. You can leave us a voice mail or you can send us a text and I will check on that stuff once a week because here's the deal. It's tied to a different Google account and I have to sign out of mine to go check it and I simply won't do that on my device because I don't want it coming up all the time. Yeah. I look at it once a week when it's in the studio. So, I mean, I will respond to you, but it's it's gonna take a week. That's part of the dot dot dot thing. Was gonna say that was another one of the dot dot things. Yep. I know. Hey. We wanna honestly hear your feedback once a week. Yeah. Really don't I'm not paying on me. Here's the deal. I'm not really a big fan of of logging off my account and logging on to that. Now that's where you're wrong. I find this to be backwards of it and I find this to be wisdom and discernment.

I don't know, like, whatever this is this hot take, I don't know if I need it quicker than once a once a week. Now act now see that's it's also a a point at our current culture. Right? Like, you think because you got information fast that it's better. That's not necessarily true. Like, here's the thing. I find people can take stuff in way better if you're not peppering them with it all the time. Right? Like, if if if information comes to you once every other week, you're like, oh, yeah. Okay. That sounds alright. But, like, people beat the snot out of you and you're like, too much. That's too much information. That's the truth. And also, we we're a generation that, like, we exist in a place where we have access to the most information we ever have, but we know so little. It's like we we have access to everything at Google's fingertips, but then we actually don't remember anything and we don't have any actual knowledge. Mhmm. Like, I wanna look up a bible verse that pertains to, you know, any

kind of bible thought process or anything, a revelation, I can do it real quick. But when it comes to an actual conversation where I'm calling up things to talk to a non believer or a believer about revelation, I'm let me Google it real quick. It really does affect the way that you read your bible. Was listening to a guy talk about that today where he talks about that even when the disciples would call Jesus the Christ. Right? He would not he he never quite acknowledged that. Right? Like, he would always correct them to son of man almost every time. They would say like, when he asked Peter, who do you think I am? He's like, you're the Christ. And he's like, you will see the son of man. Like, he he almost always just changed it to son of man. He goes, watch him. Almost every conversation, I'm like, did I notice that? I've read these gospels. I mean, I don't know how many times. Right. And, like, I just do not take information in like that anymore because it's just as easy for me to turn around and Google and say, how often did the lord say son of man? And that's what I would do. Right. Right? Opposed to to to noticing patterns in the way that that, like, Jewish scripture was written or or the way that the bible is laid out. Like, I I just don't take stuff in like that, and I miss so much of it because of that. Because I can I I want the I want the quick fact and the quick number so I can make the point I wanna make, and I wanna make it right now in a slow in in a fast way? I wanna just make what I because this is what I wanna say. I'm amazed at how much I have forgotten. Mean, I honestly, I used to be able to snap right to scriptures. Yep. Oh, yeah. That'll be John four, you know, and I just knew all that stuff. It it's I I've never had that in my in my walk, in my relationship. I've never had that

able to pull up those kind of verses and things like that. It's always been a I've got a general idea of what that verse was, but, like, I can't do the people that can do that are are the most impressive people in the world to me. Like, if I can if you can hear some scripture and then say, oh, that's from this. And I'm like, I will never understand that. Like, I've never once thought, oh, yeah. That's actually Matthew 15. When Jesus is talking about this, I know the chapter before, and I know what's coming up afterwards. Like, I'm fairly certain that's a gospel because you said Jesus' name. Like, that's the closest I have to it. And if we're talking David, I got an idea of what book it is, but I'm not a 100% certain. It's you know, and and, actually, it goes back to the to the you know, it that's true with people who are good at anything. Right? But the thing is is we tend to look at them and think, man, they're just naturally gifted that way, and you missed every 04:30AM that they got up to practice it. Right? Those people that can nail that stuff out of the bible are the dudes that are reading the darn thing. Yeah. I mean, they're having at it. They're reading it all the time. Like and, like, I always thought, like, hey, man. That's a real religious stance to be like, if you can't just yank a verse out of the top of your head, I'm like, come on. Is that how we're measuring things? Well, what it does is measure how often you're in the lord's word. That's what it measures, and

it's true. That's a pretty decent measurement. And I don't think you get to call balls and strikes on on who's a follower of Christ or not based on that, but I think it's a pretty strong following when that guy obviously, he cares enough to get up and read his bible. But but like you say, we read it differently, though, now. Yes. Because you do. You just yeah. You hit a spot here and a spot there, and and you may not even like, maybe the way my mind works, I might not remember oh, yeah. I was you know, first Corinthians twelve sixteen. Yeah. I just remember it was, yeah. It's one of the epistles. I mean, I don't know. I I just don't remember the detail of it like I used to. I think that that's also, like, culturally and societally, the way that we bring in information has completely changed. Yeah. Yeah. The way we read books, the way that we write literature, the way that we take in media, the way that we were just talking about this before the show that that nowadays, my generation millennials, we don't read on news articles unless they're in lists. You cannot find a news article that that that millennials will really interact and react with unless it's, you know, the top 15 things that people are doing when they love somebody. They're right. Give me the top. I don't want all your chaff. Give me the week. Here are the top 12 cultural things that happened in 2018. Millennials take it in. It's like, no. I like, what? Why? And we always and the the the benchmark for what this is is we understand that that is the way that people take in media so well that that's where they sell advertisements. People sell advertisements after number nine Yeah. And three more after number six, and then another five right before number one because we're we're going through this and we go, oh, crap. Ad okay. Fine. I'm still gonna go through or I gotta click to the next page. Oh, crap. I still need to know what's at the end of this list. It's this weird sense of we have to have the finality of this conversation or of this topic. You know who did it? Casey Kaysom did that to us. Yeah. He did that. He he started the he he Top top 40 guy? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I'm young. And we got and we got drug into it. Shaggy. Scooby Doo from Shaggy. Like, that's Really? That's Casey. He's the same guy? Yeah.

Oh, that's kinda cool. We got drug into it, and he he did such a good job. We're like, you know what? Why are we wasting our time on on 60 or 70? Just give me the top 40. And I wanna hear it like the 53 song. That's obviously no good. Now give me the top 10. Now give me the top five. In the whole world? That's still pretty But but we don't pour ourselves into it. I mean, like, I I would spend back in the day four hours looking up a Greek word and parsing it, and I've invested in that in, you know, like, one sentence. Right? Yeah. Hours. I mean, that I might not even use in a sermon, but it flavored it. Right? Yeah. So I it stuck because I knew I knew exactly where that verse was. I invested my time in it and blood, sweat, and tears in it. And now within a millisecond, I click on a word on my software and it does all that for me. Right. Right. And I haven't done any of the effort. And so, like, I've forgotten how to parse verbs and I mean, I used to do this stuff all the time. Now I'm like, oh, yeah. There is priestess priestess. Stuff. I mean, I can't even Yeah. I just Actually, I think some of your problem here, Dan, is you're just old. I it's I I I thought that too. Mean, honestly, the brain the brain I mean, yeah, boss. It's not a jab. It's just an analogy. Don't let it weigh heavy on you. You're just old, man. I mean, some of that stuff just shows up. You know? You're not crap. I called your boss. So I'm like That's alright, sir. I'm working on it. But I have thought that. Sir Buva. Hey. Don't you bring that up. No. Know you bring it up. Don't you bring that up. Here's the thing. Is there something there's something to be gleaned from this, and I don't know what it is. Right? Because the top three things That'd be our next tagline too? No one has written down That's perfect. No one has told me the top three things to glean from this conversation.

But I'm sure there's something there's something very convicting about the fans. There's something very convicting about my my inability to get up and and read my bible like that. You're changing the world. Yeah. You know? There's something convicting that that that that people are are being persecuted throughout the world, and and Dan's right. If one person leaves your church and they say one negative thing about your sermon or whatever, you're like, why do you think it was that's all you're thinking about. Yeah. You're like, well, are they right? No. They're not right. They're just bad people. You know? That's it, fellas. Life in the path. I think there's something to be gleaned from this. I'm just not quite sure what it is. Dot dot dot. It takes us a long time to separate the wheat from the chaff. We're on ten years. So far, we haven't found any wheat. I was gonna say, ten years in, I bet we could parse together. Maybe three good shows? You ever wanted to know what chaff was? This is it. But it looks it looks just like Goodweed.

Live from the past. Jeff. You're listening to Live from the past. Jeff. Here's the deal. If we were a better show, we would be sponsored by Bob Eisenhower from the Eisenhower. Yes. We would. Hey. If you're buying or selling a home, give Bob a call. Here's the he has not actively sponsored with us for quite a long time ever since we left terrestrial radio, but he's still a good dude. He still does good work, and he's still a great realtor. So, hey, maybe if you need something from Bob, give him a call. (515) 979-2883. Shoot him an email, [email protected]. You, John, you can hook up with John at the Eisenhower team. He's good. Bill's good. They're all solid. Yeah. That's that's a yeah. They really are. They're great they're great dudes. Anyway, I have a I have a I have a magnet from from Bob from back in the old times, and I thought, you know and he's looking good too. And I thought, you know, he's he's good people, and he's a redemption for this part of the show. So I I bought a house through Bob eight years ago. Eight years ago. What? And he sends me a card every year congratulating

me on the on my purchase of the house, hoping it's going well, and like a gift card to somewhere. Every single year. That dude is a cool dude. I don't even know who we bought our house from. No idea. No? It wasn't Bob Eisenhower. No. Or you would know. I mean, we just kinda came to town and say, hey. You, do you sell houses? They said, yeah. And I I don't even remember the process. That is why people become realtors is because of that. At the at the end of your thirty year mortgage, you will still know who sold you your house. Bob Eisenhower. Do that. He invites me to his Easter egg hunt every year. Hey. We're having an Easter egg hunt. Not put on by his church, put on by him. They're putting on an Easter egg hunt. They take over a giant part of he's selling. And he just invites everybody. Travel without a fan. Bob Eisenhower puts on his own Easter egg. That's right. Bob, I'm sorry. I'm not a better man. Yeah. So sorry. Yeah. Life from the path. Sorry, Bob. Yep. Tagline again. These are good. These are good. Alright. It was the life from the path. So let's I I tell you what, I'm gonna I'm gonna give us a week on that Leviticus nineteen nine question. Okay. We're gonna think about so and this is for you guys on the on on the complaint line too.

How do we actively be faithful to this concept from Leviticus nineteen nine? When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your fuel right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner, I'm the lord your god. What might that look like in our context? And let's let's find some practical ways on how we might express that concept in our day to day lives and kinda be faithful in that thing. Hey, man. Just to hit the other side of that, it occurred to me after you read that that, like, the poor are coming to get it. Yes. True. They're doing something. There there's an action involved Yep. For them. It's not just giving them a handout, you know, or, like, gathering it up and then dropping it off as a blessing, you know, like, putting a bag together and being, here. Like, it's intentionally leaving something for someone else to be available for them to come get. It's not just work on their part that they have to do. Correct. Correct. Yeah. That actually that that was a weird that's it's a good distinction actually because I think I have I've talked about this this

section before and I think it's clear that, like, they're they're not having to work do work for the owner to to earn the the the what the harvest is. It's to be available. But they do actually still have to go pick it up. Yeah. They have to go go follow the person, go glean it, put it in the basket, do whatever they're gonna do with it. No one's preparing meals. Like, yeah, there there is some effort involved in it. Yeah. So anyway, put the put the put the thoughts on that. So this was here's here's the broad statistic

statistic. More than one million children according to the International Labor Organization are exploited each year in the commercial sex trade. Indie star columnist Tim Swearns, who the support of a society professional journalist, spent more than a year investigating a lucrative business where children are abused with low risk to buyers or traffickers despite tougher laws and heightened international awareness of the scourge. Here's the story. On the day she met Marcus Thompson, the girl later told the FBI she had been ready to leap from a bridge to end her life. She was only 15, pregnant, and alone on the streets. And in this wounded child, Thompson saw means to make money. He promised that if she left her small Illinois town with him, he would make her a model, grasping for hope she climbed back into his climbed into his truck. But the promise was a lie. Instead, in the summer of two thousand and fifteen, Thompson and his wife, Robin, forced the girl on a nightmarish six week trek across the Southern United States.

Photographed in suggestive poses and marketed online, she was sold out of hotel rooms and truck stops to any man with the money and the desire to buy sex. The justice system eventually would work well in this case in several respects. The victim was rescued and provided with treatment. The traffickers who exploited her were caught, pleaded guilty, and were sent to prison. But what of the men who paid to rape this child? What consequences did they suffer? Not a single one was ever charged. That same breach of justice is the norm in thousands of trafficking cases. About 10,000 children a year suffer the horrors of commercial sexual exploitation in The United States. Each victim on average is forced to have sex more than five times a day. Yet the buyers who fuel the child sex trade are seldom held accountable.

Most just blend back into their families, jobs, and neighborhoods until the next time. In the Thompson case, the victim too young for a driver's license told the FBI she was beaten once for attempting to escape and was threatened with being thrown to the alligators if she tried to run again. Marcus Thompson according to federal authorities raped the girl five times. Still, the child retained some independence, enough to say no when a buyer demanded anal sex. But her refusal came at a brutal price. The man who bought her complained to the man who sold her and she was beaten again. At a hospital in Saint Louis, the abuse finally ended when the girl was identified as a sex trafficking victim. The Thompsons, based on her descriptions, were arrested. Marcus Thompson is now serving a life sentence. Robin Thompson, who helped place the online ads and booked the hotel rooms, was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

In her victim impact letter read by Reagan at the sentencing, the girl wrote, it's hard to wake up every day and remember the people that I had sex with. In the past sixteen months, I've witnessed the worst of human behaviors, as a reporter, while reporting for this project, one that's taken me across eight counties, countries on five continents. I've talked to six year old six year old trafficking victims, visited a shelter where the oldest survivors were only 11, met a five year old boy living with his parents in a squalid broth on India, and interviewed survivors who were raped by hundreds of men. Yet the ordeal of that one child from Illinois beaten for saying no has haunted me in particular. It stuck in my mind because it exposes a harsh truth. In the sex trade, buyers and sellers view the children they torment as property, and property cannot say no. The project began with the question, who buys a 15 year old child for sex? The answer, many otherwise ordinary men. They could be your coworker,

doctor, pastor, or spouse. They're in all walks of life, a 17 year old survivor from the Midwest, trafficked when she was 15, said about more than a 150 men who purchased her in a month. Some could be upstanding people in the community. It was mostly people in their forties living in the suburbs who were coming to get the stuff they were missing. Now so far, does that fit what you were expecting? When we talk about people who buy I mean, what I suppose we're not we're not even it's probably true for also who's just buying in sex in general, but, like, who ends up having sex with under with children.

Are you surprised to find out that it is mostly people in their forties living in the suburbs who are coming to get stuff they were missing? Yeah. I I kinda picture seedy people that have no social life.

Yeah. Like like Socially awkward. Yeah. Yeah. Or out like, people who this is a hard subject to use words around because I feel like you're gonna use the wrong one. Like Right. People who who had no outlet for this at all and so are willing to accept the most degenerate options available. Yeah. Not people who are living lives that you otherwise might consider normal. Undereducated.

Yeah. Right. Like, who've who've ex who who have somehow have a skewed version of of accepted the wrong version of reality. It's here's what explodes, Dan, I suppose, is is how easily we are fooled into what and how I think of normal and how I categorize things as normal. Well, look, that guy's got a job and a family

and is relatively respected. Maybe he's got a decent pair of khakis. I'm like, oh, that guy seems like a kind of a normal dude. And it feels like who's buying sex with a 15 year old? Freaking normal dudes. Yep. Like our standard of normal is jacked up. Yep. The scale of the trade indicates that it's not a small number of men who pay to have sex with kids. A 2016 study by the Center for Court Innovation found that between 8,910,500 children ages 13 to 17 are commercially exploited each year in this country. 10,500

children each year. Several 100 children 12 and younger, a group not included in the study also suffer commercial sex abuse. The researchers found that the average age of victims is 15 and that each child is purchased on average 5.4 times a day. I've interviewed victims who are forced to have sex with more than thirty minute a week, more than 100 a month. To determine a conservative estimate of the demand, I multiplied the lower number of victims identified in study by the rate of daily exploitation and then by an average of only one workday per week. The result, adults purchase children for sex at least two and a half million times a year in The United States. Bubba, you think that high?

Do you have it in your mind that that might be that high? Yeah, me neither. I I I guess I it'd like, the the act itself is so inconceivable Mhmm. That to think about, like, how, like, how much?

It's outlandish how much. I mean, even if you're feeling desperate or whatever, you're paying for sex, and then as you see it's a child, how could you still even go, oh, yeah. I'm gonna go ahead with this. Like, oh, no. I was expecting an adult prostitute or something, or I I I don't know. Yeah. You know, it's like, yeah. How do you do you take the innocence of a child and do that to it? Yeah. Yeah. I just I I just don't

I mean, I I don't get I mean, there's nothing to get. Like, I I don't know. I don't ever wanna be in a mind frame that says, okay. I understand. Yeah. But but, like, later on in the article, it talks about let's see. It's attempting to put buyers who exploit children in a box to say that all of them are pedophiles, a small a small percentage of the population driven by deep sickness. But researchers and survivors say that that's not the case. International researchers found that the great majority of men who pay to exploit children are opportunists. They don't set out specifically to buy sex with the child, but neither do they walk away when faced with the temptation.

Survivors I interviewed report What is that freaking possible? So Right. Listen to what she says. Survivors I interviewed reported similar experiences. One of them exploited when she was 15 said only two men turned and left the motel room when they saw how young she was. Even those two didn't notify police about the ongoing abuse of a child. How is that possible? More than a 100 other men who paid to have sex with her stayed. They just didn't care about her age, she said. In the room full of sex buyers enrolled in a court ordered program in Seattle, I asked, do you ever think about the life stories of the girls and women you purchased? The men appeared uncertain about how to answer. Then a former once a week buyer arrested for attempting to purchase sex from a police officer posing as a 15 year old girl said, I don't wanna know how the sausage is made.

How did they not punch that person in the face Yeah. After that quote? I mean, honestly, the reporter. Yeah. I'll I don't so this brings up a a bible verse came to funny enough. A bible verse came to memory

when you were reading this, and it's out of Leviticus Leviticus 20. And it said the Lord spoke to Moses saying, say to the people of Israel, any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who give any of his children to Molech, they'll surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he has given one of his children to Molech to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and I will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech. And,

that's that's not what we're talking about here, but it's what we're talking about here. Right? And this is our backdoor. This isn't, you know, oh, India. I mean Right. It is there too. But Right. Two and a half million in The United States. Yeah. And god says, don't you close your eyes. Don't you close your eyes to that. Don't you act like you don't know that that's happening. And it's it's it's it's crazy to think

we we talked about the demand. It says another reason for the growing exploitation, buyers face little risk. If you're unluckily, if you get caught, it's fairly free of risk to travel to another country and abuse children. It's a low risk crime for domestic abusers as well. In 2015, congress strengthened federal anti trafficking laws prosecutors with more tools to go after sex buyers, but they've only modestly increased as a result.

Let's see. US Department of Justice was like the local government, state and local jurisdictions tend to use sting operations which undercover officers pose as exploited children to stop buyers. Although such operations net thousands of would be sex buyers each year, most of the men arrested plead down to lesser lesser claims. And it's rare for police and prosecutors to pursue buyers after they've paid to abuse children. That's true even in the most nauseating of crimes. Because we don't have the infrastructure to hold them or what?

It's not worth it? It's not It's not punishable long Prosecutors note that they face several obstacles in pursuing charges including the need to show that a buyer knew or should have known that the person he paid to exploit was underage. Victims traumatized, frightened, frequently dependent on drugs and alcohol often don't make strong witnesses. Prosecutors also must weigh whether putting a child on the stand where defense cross examiners can be can be rough will further wound the victim. We can find the guy who's who's the craft. We can find the guy who owns the Patriots because he got a handy from an Asian woman in Florida. Yeah. That's I mean, I get it.

Let's spend our time on it. But like, can we can we go I like this better. Can we go after this one? Let the old man be for now. I it's this this was this was tough and I think Dan, this was kinda what you were talking about earlier, like I guess it's a it's a thing you I think you know about. Right? Like, if someone were to say, hey, this thing goes on, you'd be like, yeah. Yeah. I I know what goes on. But, like,

it's tough to have it land. Maybe I just haven't I I haven't had it land in such a way as, like, like, the the the the the numbers are staggering and, like, the the blatant like, the the the that we're not making does does seem like we're making much progress. Right? Like, the people aren't being caught and and punished and and This is mystery. I like it. If you see someone catching a house on fire, you can go stop them. Yeah. You can do something. This is like we just know what's happening somewhere out there. Right. Do you hang out at all the truck stops? I

mean, do you put guards at every hotel? I mean, how do how what do you do? Do we volunteer to be guards at every hotel? You know what saying? Like, I mean But I wouldn't know if some dude's with his teenage daughter on vacation. I've gone on vacation with my daughter. Or is it someone with their victim, you know? We were asking about that. Wonder remember we were talking with Nate and Nate Baird and The Wings of Refuge. The Wings of Refuge folks

because they they they help with the victims. And I and we were looking for resources that says, like like, tomorrow's Tuesday. What do we do on Tuesday? How can we do this? Like, how can we in in our eighty day lives, like, how can you be a proper an advocate for this in such a way that, like, hey. Can I recognize errant behavior? Can I what do you support? Here's the thing. There's there's people doing this work. I when we say, like, the the the numbers are staggering about making this progress, it isn't because there aren't people that care about this. It's a difficult it's a difficult thing to fight because it doesn't tend to it's not happening, like, in my office building.

Right? And so I thought I might have found a list somewhere, going back to our list prompt, on things we might be able to do. But, like, I I think that's the struggle. It's it's it's not implicit. It's not, like, super obvious. We're like, hey. I'm gonna do something about this tomorrow. Except all I got is maybe I have a valid ministry to the apathetic, affluent,

you know, spiritual people because you turn them into Jesus people and they're not gonna they're the people raping the children. Yeah. According to this article. Yeah. It's a suburban 40 year old successful Right. Because person. Who are we looking for in our churches? We're looking for the mustachioed fella. We're looking for the wiry guy who doesn't got weird relationships. Right. It's like the if the churches stop playing games and and disciple, this will stop happening or slow down. I mean, one person who stops buying sex is one person who's not violating someone. Right.

Yeah. And I think I think that's that's a good point, Dan. Like, we have to own it's it's the like, the church is is is taking a long time to own up to pornography. It's taken it's taken a long time to own up that like we are our our standard of normal has has made its way into the church where sometimes I think maybe I don't think this is intentional among churches. Right? But this seems like a peripheral thing. We don't we don't have to teach on, hey. Don't rape children because our people aren't raping children. But you know what? Something something's going on. Somebody is. Somebody's doing it. Yeah. So

I've been I've been sitting back kind of intentionally for the last ten minutes listening to it, because I really didn't know how to quantify my reaction to that. And I realized as I'm sitting here trying to think of it, I I had two very distinct reactions to that. I think the first one is is, more so than I've been able wanna I'm crying right now because I'm so mad at this situation, and it sucks because I know my my

animosity and fury towards anyone that can that can do that to a child is is almost uncontrolled right now. But secondly, more importantly, we are in a place where we are fallen

in a fallen society. And we as an American church have to have workshops on how to talk to people about Jesus and how to bring people to this stuff and worried about the bible tracks that we use, worried about the the best ways to talk to people about It's just freaking to do

consequences to a fault. There are realistic consequences to the people that are affected children because there are people that follow Jesus and do mercy

that is It hurts. And here I am in a place where I'm still worried about my freaking fan and this is happening. That hurts. That's a lot. The beauty is you have a group of of teens That's Yeah. In you know, who are on either future

adults and also, you know I think that's why it hit me as hard as it did that I was listening to that. Like, the ages, like Yeah. It's scary. That's scary to me. If There's no good Jesus stuff that's gonna come from what's on my heart right now for the rest of that. So I'm just Yeah. I tell you what,

my my my wife works at a school here in town, a mile from this building, and she's in a position where she knows a lot of stuff, and it is insane what these kids are going through. We we we we talk about the kids and they're unruly. That's insane. Some of the stuff that's happening to these kids.

And I I yeah. What? We gotta get off our butts and make disciples. That that's that's all I can think of. There is, from that article, there is,

something that they do called the Aruna project And they they they their description is we free, empower, and employ those from the brothel system and bring them into an environment marked by holistic care to help build a bright future. They do it by, kind of sponsoring five k's to help raise money in in in areas.

They use the money to then, kinda, hire, workers, to give them legitimate work. Guys, there's a lot of there's a lot of people doing very important ministry work. There's there's a there's an organization called Saving Moses and their their their gig is they

start out simply by trying to set up night care for for children so that when their parents, when their mothers go do sex work at night, they don't have to take their children with them. They can leave the children somewhere. And like, guys, sometimes I I think we I I read some of these things and like, want I want a big solution. Mhmm. You know what? Like, the the person that's willing to say, look, I can I can help with this thing? I can give them a place to take their kid. But let's keep the kid out of out of the environment. I'd say we can't solve for everything right now. Let's help with this. And then it starts to create good relationships with the mothers, helps them find opportunity.

A lot of those places that we're saving Moses is doing work, it's frankly, it's, it's not just, hey, did I choose this life? Like, it's they're forced into it. They're trapped. So I I mean, I I 'm confident there are places to give there are places to give and to serve around us to these types of things. And I think part of it is to not not let it go and not to to to let the world, around us

have be a settled snow globe. The the thing that kind of once you once the dust went down, then everything looked as normal as it was until someone shook it up again and we opened our eyes and said, look at this thing that's going on around us. Like, whatever, this is a terrible thing. There's a host of things that probably fit the category. But, like, yeah. I think it's I think it is it is hard. Maybe maybe maybe what I'm what I have in my mind is that it's hard to deal with this not only because of that it's happening, but there's a guilt to the blindness associated with having not Mhmm. Spend any time or effort thinking about it. That makes it you feel you think any of that's Dan? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I mean or or or even just knowing because you've read the articles, you've heard the stories,

but just doing nothing because you think, well, I can't do anything. Right. I I suppose it's maybe it's kinda like the old, starfish story where they're all, you know, dying on the beach and your dudes throwing one at a time back. And then, like, what what do you do when I'm saving the starfish where you can't save them all? There's millions of them. It's like, like, save that one. I know that one. Yeah. If we could figure out how to save one Yeah. And then another one Yeah. That'd be great. But it's like, where do you start? I guess it's so inconceivable to me. I don't know where to start. I don't know. Right. I mean, I do my little things every year for Christmas. Our girls get stuff that that that people

who come out of trafficking are selling goods. You know, there's some ministries that do that, and there's one from India we always buy from and, one from Haiti, I think. I can't remember. That every year they get Christmas dresses that these girls have I mean, know, that but when I was doing something, it's not doing anything. I mean that's throwing some money at it. Yeah. So here's the thing. Here's what here's where I struggle, I suppose, is that like, it it it it it always we run the risk, I suppose, of saying, yeah, I I did that thing. I bought the I I went to that 5 k and I bought from from this organization. Bought the jammie pants. Yep. I did it. India. But I wasn't part of like, I didn't think I didn't point a guy out who was out walking out of the Motel six. Yeah. And, like, I feel a little feel like, well, am I really doing anything? And I think it's that's it's the same question we're asking when we're talking about international missions. You know, it's like, am I really doing anything? Yeah. I think, Dan, from your experience, like, know that you are doing something,

giving time and money. Something. Yeah. Something's happening. And so, like, I think it doesn't have to be it's probably not all or all or nothing. Like like, those are good things. Let's start with the things you know you can pull the trigger on now. I know I can I know I can do those things and then not give up on the say, was it was it look to take one more step in? And then from there, what does it look like to take one more step in? Well, you know, here's the thing. Like, in Africa, we we we know there's a huge child sex trafficking going on there. So we're planting a church in in June, and that's really part of my thought is is, well, let's change the culture then. Mhmm. Okay. Well, because that but but shoot. It's happening here. Oh, right? I mean Right. I mean,

I I don't know what to do here other than just do what we're doing and trying to bring people to Jesus, but I don't know a first step. Yeah. I mean, isn't that kinda what it points to is that

it it it is your people. Yeah. It's my people that are doing this. Right. Right? Like, these are these are our neighbors. Our coworkers. Yeah. That's right. They're the people sitting in the sitting in the chairs on Sunday, you know, singing singing when the when the cross ran red. You know I'm saying? And you're like, hey. I you know, may maybe you just maybe we just assume that if they're here to listen about Jesus,

that we shouldn't even have to bring up the fact that this is so far from god's heart. It's not even funny, and it is completely damaging. And and maybe we do. Maybe maybe we let I you know, I I it feels like maybe it shouldn't it should have it shouldn't have to be said. You know? Right. Right. But at the end of the day, it's it's some of our people doing it. This is just like when when when when the Catholic church comes up with this stuff, you know, and stuff happens and and and we have to turn around and look in the mirror and go, this is our people. This is our people. Not only allowing it to happen, but trying to soften the consequences for the people that are doing it. Yeah. And and and then us acting like it's not our people or that it's not a a concern within our group of people, whether it can't be any of our folks. I'm sure every pastor in America thinks that. It's not our people. There's no way. I know all our people. We're good. You know, they got regular struggles, marital problems here and there, financial woes or whatever, having a hard time handing their whole life over to Jesus. That's probably what it is. But it's definitely not child trafficking. Right. That's not us. Right. You know? Well, that can't be true, can it? That can't be true. Right.

And and and it's it's it's god's work. It's god the holy spirit's work to convict and to bring to him. And we're talking about if we can if we can just man, this is I mean, that's so hard. We could spread the gospel

well enough and loud enough and and honest enough that it it keeps that guy from ever entering in this in the first place. It's not like that we wish the man who's done it that you can't wish ten years ago, I wish someone would've caught him and and talked to him about Jesus. Because not only would he have not done this, but he'd have been out looking for the other guys that were too. It multiplies really, really fast. And I think it's us

I said, you turn a blind eye to the problem because it's not impacting you right now. And that's that's crappy. And it's so hard to take an issue that doesn't affect you and try to make it your principal thing. Right? It's way easier to notice when the power's out at your place and that power power to the rest of the world's a problem when it ain't working at your house too. That's why we that's why we have a hard time with persecution stories. We're like, I you know, I don't I have nothing to relate to there as much as I want to, as much as I wanna feel it for you. I just can't because it hasn't affected me yet. And, like, dang it. We can't wait till everything affects us before we get involved. And, obviously, it's affecting us now because it's our people doing it. People probably under the banner of Jesus Christ, probably dropping their own kids off at Sunday school. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. And we're letting we just we can't we can't we just can't allow that. We can't allow people to drift that far or to have that much rope or not understand what the what what following Jesus actually looks like. It looks like submitting to something bigger than you.

And maybe we're not clear enough. I don't know. I mean, obviously, we're not to blame here. But, like, there there's something to be said that we know it gets fixed with a life following Christ. We know that. And maybe I mean, that's enough. I don't know. Dang it. Yeah. I I don't know. There's not a tight summary here. I think this is, this is a pressing item. This is an ongoing thing. And I and I think

it's a yeah. It's a continued discussion. I so I was hoping to there there's a there's a lady named Vanessa McNeil who did a documentary called grid shock, and it's about, sex trafficking in Iowa. So, like like, now we've taken this article this guy's provided the perspective of what it's like nationally and internationally. She looked at it on a local level, has had excellent, like, rave reviews on her on this, documentary that she's put together.

And so I will, maybe I'll see if we can get ahold of her and and and maybe she can help, help us understand what does it look like locally. What does it mean for fellas like us? What do we what what can we do to actually be of help in situations like this? Because we don't wanna do we don't wanna support I wanna support aftercare. Right? But we wanna make aftercare not necessary.

Right. Yeah. That so that's the thing is that, like, here's here's where the western minds are great at. We're we're we're we're businessmen. We're root causes. Let's get to the let's get the brass tacks of this thing. What's the problem? And then we wanna be part of solving that. And then you've got but the truth is is that, like, it's not that's not how it works.

You can do that, but the reality of the situation remains what it is until the point in which that's done. That's why things like saving Moses exist, where the night care stuff exist. And so, like, I think it's I think where we we are more likely to get stymied for not knowing what to do than we are to have wasted effort on things that are part of the solution. And so I'd almost default to saying, let's let's I'll take anything in the train.

Give me anything in the sequence of events. How do we keep people out? Done. How do we help the kids? So they don't go with the prostitute mom Done. Some sow, some water, some plant. Right. Yeah. Give us just give us something. Give us a shovel. That's right. Right. Can we can we can we help can we connect with Wings of Refuge who are helping in the after part? Done. You know, like, I let's mistake on let's mistake on Chuck and the stuff wildly out there. Yeah. I overinvested and I just I don't know what happened. Yeah. That'd be better than today when you go, I didn't do nothing. Yeah. I don't know. I wasn't sure what to do. I did nothing. So I so I I chose I decided to hang out at a truck stop for an hour and see if I could pick anybody out. Felt real good that I did something because that was the thing. Fingering a dude for being the being the the the bastard. I mean, that I'm sure that feels good. Feels like you got something done.

And and I don't know. There's there's guys that do that. There's a the that guy from Remedy Drive, the band, Christian Band does that. He's involved he's part of going other places and being part of the sting operations. Get it's freaking all that. I get text messages from, like, twice a week from that organization that says five five girls freed, two young boys freed. Like, it's all it's it's awesome the work those guys are doing. That is not the only way that we can help. I would say be open to that. But like, let's start with whatever we can do and then and then just keep taking one more step in. I think that as you start getting connected with organizations, you start finding opportunities.

Yeah. Everybody everybody in this room has unique sets of skills taken style. Like, there's things that you can do to add to organizations that help figure out how to help with things, and I'm I'm sure you'll find a way to use them. You know, I was I was thinking, like like Mike, you were saying, we need to we need to be teaching people. Don't have sex with kids. You know? I think, well, is is that it or is it maybe a step back of just just plain lordship? Yeah. You know, I was like because you can't teach every situation, but if they get lordship or I don't know. I'm I'm trying to think concept. You know, like, what what what is what are we not stressing what are the people not catching enough? I think we teach we all teach the wordship. Yeah. But that you're right, Dan. I mean, you can't I was thinking about that when I was saying this, like, well, you're have a sermon series on not doing this. Right? I mean, like, it seems They're 13. No. Seems out of you know, just ridiculous Yeah. That you would even have to do it. But, like, all I can do is picture is just picture in the middle of a of a of you standing up and preaching going, look, fellas, is this you?

Is this you doing this? Because that ends today. You turn yourself in today. You'd be done with that today. Yeah. Today. It has to stop today. Because Because Jesus said so. Because Jesus said so. Don't don't do that to people. Just stop it. You know, and here's the thing. It's like and and and maybe I get fired up about this a little too long, but we take we take this train of of grace, and it's all true, and it's all from god's heart. It's true. And then we give people

the option, like, takes fifty years to stop doing the thing. Stop it. Just stop it right now. Just stop it. Yeah. It's not acceptable. The thought isn't acceptable. The fences that you set up that are too far are not acceptable. You should be fenced into a fence by fence this. You should live at your house by yourself the rest of your life if it keeps you from doing this. Like, let's start looking at at at things more pragmatically in a reality. If god means something to you and if if not sitting against your lord means something to you, put yourself in a tight room and stop acting like you deserve the freedom to act like this because you don't. You don't deserve that. I don't it's it's it's I it maybe it's more of an American thing. Right? Because we we bench everything on freedom. You should have the freedom to say, I know when I need to be prisoner. I know when I need to be chained to something. Yeah. Turn me in. Turn me in. If you did something, turn yourself in. If you're gonna do something, lock yourself in and then have someone else lock you in too. Set up so much accountability that you couldn't straight a farm if you wanted to. That's the guy that loves Christ.

That's the guy that wants to follow with all of his life. It says, I'll give you my freedom too. I'll give you my rights too. I'll give you everything because I love you and your god, and you have give shown me grace for what I've done up to this point. And we and and everyone always wants enough rope to hang themselves. And I don't think you understand following Christ right if that's true. If you know how much rope it takes to hang yourself, you should very well set up some fences, doors, and locks before that rope gets out that far because that's just stupid. It's just stupid and not well intentioned. Everybody makes mistakes on the fly, on the snap, in the split decision. They pick the wrong thing. Right? But if I can look at my life and go, this causes me trouble. This puts me in a place where I will sin against god and his people And and and tack all the sin all sin in the world together in a big pot and then point at this one in particular and say, I shouldn't be anywhere near any of these places ever because I love Jesus, and this has to stop.

And I think maybe some of the suburban folks with the nice khakis and the sweet house and the couple kids and whatever, we give them a lot more rope because they're like, there's no way they can't handle themselves. Look at them. They're doing just fine. It's not true. Give dudes a pass on porn their whole life. Yeah. I'm still struggling. Yeah. I'm still struggling. What's why? I get it. I know why. Is there any reason you've allowed yourself an uprope here? Is there any reason there's a computer still in your house? Is there any reason you have a smartphone? You don't wanna quit.

If you wanna quit, you'd be having an analog phone, and you'd still be paying bills by hand if it was important to you. This would stop. Yeah. Yeah. That I I I I think that's that's the core of it. We are we are we don't we don't believe in the inherent evil of sin. We do not believe that we can get caught. I don't know why people don't believe it. Like, I I certainly believe it. That that I am that I could be prone to things that I would that would surprise me.

And and you're right. Like, it doesn't take it takes one step, for example, to switch to a smartphone to an analog phone. That's one step. And you're talking about people who can arrange sex with underage children and can figure out a way to do it without getting caught by their wife, without getting caught by the authorities. They seem to be able to figure this out. They can't figure out how to take two decent steps to not do it. It's not because we can't think of it. It's because we're not afraid of it. We're we we are more willing to look and say, I will indulge this thing. I I don't I I just I I can't I can't comprehend the the the variety on the on the children piece. Like,

I I just don't I don't understand. We we don't we don't have a healthy fear of of of evil and we should. We don't have a healthy fear of what that of of the destruction makes. And maybe maybe that's it. Here's the thing. Is that like maybe maybe the maybe the child rapist isn't in your church. Right? But to recognize that like like this is the thing. This is why this is why the wages of sin bring death. Like, if you wanted something that that otherwise shocks your senses, just know that like this is going on around people that may be sitting around you and they think this is perfectly fine.

Like it is a it is a falseness if we look around our churches and be like, yeah, every you know, everyone's dealing with smoking and relationships with their family. We just want peace in the home and health. So those are the things we're praying for. We want better marriage relationships. Right? It's the thing that everybody loves the marriage sermons. Here's how I have a better relationship with my spouse because that's really what my problem is. Really? I mean, we got we got deeper seated problems here. And I I don't know I I don't know. I it's it's right it goes back to the lordship piece. Right?

When I when I when I have a proper understanding of who god is and what he hates, then I I should rather recognize what I hate and submit to what I'm supposed to hate because it is destructive to me. But maybe at its core, don't believe it's destructive. Hey, this thing's not so bad. Yeah. This thing's not hey, I've done this before. It didn't destroy me. I had prostitutes when I was in college and it wasn't a real big deal. Pick up a couple when I'm 40 or so and like, yeah, she looked a little young. You know I'm saying? Like, we I don't maybe we just don't have the sense of, hey. Maybe this really isn't destroying me. Maybe this isn't so bad.

Yeah. Boy, what a selfish perspective because that's the truth. That is the way most people think about it. That's what they said. Right? Like, if you treat it as property, the the the lens to which to look it through is is what is it doing to me? Now that people obviously take the pains to now get caught. They're afraid of getting caught, but not afraid of actually doing it. That's right. And and like it's it's it's it's an inner restriction that does not exist or that we're simply not willing to fight. And it's a shame here's I get I get it. You know? It's it's one of those things you can find in a mic. You can find an accountability man on smokes because it's not shameful. Yeah. Be like, oh, oh, everyone's trying to quit. No problem. I can find an accountability man who says, yeah. Sure. I'll I'll ask you how your relationship's going with your wife.

But, like, you got you got people who around are willing to talk to you about, look. I've I've had thoughts about something, and and I I need to talk to somebody. Because the thing is that that stuff breeds in freaking isolation. It it either normalizes or destroys you in isolation, and you will find yourself walking a path you'd ever thought you'd be on because there's no one that could even identify that that's the direction you're walking. Like, I got a handful of people were like, I I know enough to know like, any situation might trigger something. And so I say, hey. Like, that situation seems a little dangerous.

You should just keep your head up. We can at least have because the way I know enough. Right? But, like, I I guess what we're saying is is that, like, if this is something that's on your mind, speak it. You're gonna have to speak it because the thing that you want you the thing that you want more than actually doing is is is is stopping it. Even if it's To not do it. Yes. To not do it. You don't wanna do it. Let's let's say that we don't wanna do this thing. And so you know what? Like, let's embrace whatever might be embarrassing now. What might have been fleeted into your head? Okay. Let's let's let's start there because whatever that is is way better than doing it than going through something. And so, like, maybe maybe we gotta be be be clear about how we deal with each other and say, look. You got it on the mind? We need you to say it. Get it out. Yeah. Let's talk about testing. Let's start the program. Let's let's get studying and reading and and and and go into a counselor or whatever it is it's going to take and start changing your your your social situation so you don't put yourself. I get Hey. Oh, hey. It might destroy my life. I'll you what, destroy your life and somebody else's is you go through with this thing.

And it doesn't have to be that. I suppose there's a huge there's buckets full of stuff that we might, Jay, well, I don't really wanna tell anybody else about that. This is the thing I struggle with on my own. The thing that you struggle with on your own is the thing that will destroy you and people around you. Guaranteed. It will express itself in the end of your life or in the destruction of your life and probably at somebody else's expense every time. That's what destruction looks like. You you can you can you almost never set off a bomb that only takes you out. That's not how it works. You're taking somebody with you. And, like, they're not thinking about the girl. They're not thinking about the person that they're doing this to. That's the nature of selfishness.

Yeah. And and and I I I get it. Like, I it's not going to occur to you. Like, if your if your life is so self centered, like you'll get lost in that and you will make terrible, awful decisions that harm other people because you're so freaking selfish. And and part of the ways that you do that is you is is not being so isolated and allowing people to say, hey, you're thinking about yourself here. This is selfish. You should not do that. Whatever. I there's I'm sure there's a 100 solutions and that's a minor one. But, like,

I don't It's somewhere I mean There's a way to start. It's somewhere to start. It's somewhere to start. I mean and and, heck, I mean, even after this conversation, maybe it's time to take a good hard look at you. A good a good hard look at what you're hiding and what you need to get out on the table because it's it's a log spec. You know what I'm saying? Clean it up so you can help so you can help clean. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. You're listening to Live From The Path. Thanks for hanging out with us so far. It's actually we're it's pretty long show tonight. I appreciate you guys hanging out for these conversations. If you got anything you want to share with us on it, use the line (515) 517-0085.

We'd like to hear from you. Maybe you got some suggestions for us that you heard us talking about and you're like, hey, I got some first steps that we think would be helpful or I'm involved in trying to help in one way or the other. We'd like to hear it. I think that's true. I find that I know a lot of Christians who are just like, I don't even know what the right next step is. I'd be willing to take one, I but don't know what it is. And we are like stymied by indecision and inability to to to do anything.

And so if we can find a first step, maybe we can take it. So yeah. Yeah. Let us know. (515) 517-0085. I'd what we're gonna do. We are we're gonna leave that for our show tonight. We're gonna skip the No Dear Life From The Path. That's what you call for. Don't worry. There's I mean, we've done one literally every show prior to this point for a decade. Go back and enjoy one of those. Hit up the podcast. But we're gonna call this a night. We're gonna we'll try we'll see if we can get talk talk to Vanessa McNeil and maybe talk to her about what this looks like in our local context. Also, maybe put the thing on that Leviticus thing. Maybe there's some elements of those of here that cross.

And then if it and then from a personal level, like Mike was talking about, maybe this is the time guys, things you've been holding back from folks who you've given permission to speak into your life. Maybe this is the time to make sure you've been super clear about what your deal is. If you don't if if if you're isolated in that thing, I know it sucks. I know it feels like it's gonna be rough and here it might very well be. But let's let's hate let's hate the thing so much that we're willing to go through whatever inconvenience

or embarrassment or or difficulty that you think it is to talk about this thing that you might be thinking or feeling about. Let's let's do that now. Now is the time to do that and take and and feel free to take some pretty firm measures about it. Jesus talked about cutting off your arm. I think we're to understand that as hyperbole, but like not the implication.

The implication says, look, this thing is causing you trouble. How willing are you to say, I don't want any part of this? And if our willingness only extends to say, well, I'm gonna put a password on the site and maybe have some guy track what I'm doing online. If you got if your problem if that's not enough to deter you, then you need to find better deterrence and and takes and and some of the measures like, it it seems extreme to switch to an analog phone. That's not extreme. Grand scheme, that's not your arm off. No. That's regular living, man. Yeah. What do you care? What do you care? Yeah. I won't be able to do blah blah blah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, for what might be sitting on the other side of that, wreck your marriage, wreck somebody else's life, blah blah blah. Maybe you know?

Get a flip phone. Don't be an idiot. Yeah. We need to we need to find a provider. Need to what's the jitterbug? What do the old people use? I'm not hip to old people. Yeah. Alright. Fair enough. Alright. I yeah. I don't know. Maybe there's Christian provider of flip phones we can hook up with. Alright. Evening. Anyway, so we will we'll catch you next week.

In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to bye.