Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, you are Live from the Path. And you're listening to Live from the Path. My name is Ben Foost. I might change my name to Ben Faust. Give a little classical edge of the show. Give me some new clientele. What are your thoughts, Mike? I'm against it. Why? Why would you be against it? One, that's misleading. How else would anyone know your brothers? No doubt.

You could go by Mike Faust. I don't think it's acceptable. My criminal record seems to follow me everywhere. Don't use that lame, Mike. Hey, so welcome to Live from the Path. It's good to see you. You're listening to Live from the Path. Have fun. Sorry, that's not funny. No, that's funny. Do you have an extra cookie? No, no, no, no, no, no. Maybe the blood's just kind of going.

Never mind. Never mind. We'll get to it. Okay, so here's what we've got going for the show coming up later on in the show. We're going to do some Pope-style advice. I've got some for you, something that's been helpful for me over the past week. So, and the Pope-style advice thought is that if you were to walk out in your front lawn and you saw 10,000 people waiting for you to speak, some word of wisdom from your own life that you could share with them that they could carry with them, and they refuse to leave until you give it, you're a Pope for a day. Or you're on the Twitter. You see the Popes on the Twitter? Yeah.

I heard that. Yeah. Hold on a minute. Now, I feel like this 10,000 people is kind of unruly. Like, it's a flash mob style, or, I mean… No, they're sitting quietly, awaiting my every word. Oh, okay. They don't even cheer when you get up to the window? No, no, they're very quiet. Sounds like they're demanding words of wisdom. Okay, well, they're doing that, yeah. Okay, okay, anyway. They're flying.

We're going to do some Pope-style advice. We're also going to do, we're on week 28 from our GodIsImaginary.com. This guy's come up with 50 proofs that God is imaginary. We're walking through them week by week. We're on week number 28. And the proof is, notice how many gods you reject. And we kind of previewed this a little bit last week. We're going to talk about that and see if this is indeed a proof that God is imaginary or whether God continues to reign on high and holy. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. I don't, like, pre-read these, so, you know, it's all new and exciting to me. I like that we put a little variety, a little spice in your life, Dan.

Yeah, I do, too. Also, we're going to play America's fastest-growing internet game show, Secular vs. Solomon. I thought it was Angry Birds. That's not a game show. That's just a game. People would rather play Angry Birds. We went on technicality. So, the set of the game here is I'm going to give you a word of wisdom, a proverb, and you need to tell me whether it is secular, of a secular nature, or whether it is from the Bible, from Solomon. And if it is secular of nature, tell me what point of origin it is from, what country or region it originated from. Buva, where are you from originally?

Iowa. I'm going to assume that is not the right answer. Buva is not known for his proverbian-type speak. No, no, that's true. Hey, one other thing. One other thing. I was reading through 1 Corinthians this week, and the question is what if you instituted the church tribunal, recommended Paul style, to handle your day-to-day arguments and affairs? Do people do that? Do some churches still do that? I don't know. So, we're going to talk through that and see what that looks like,

see if you've ever seen such a thing, and maybe why people avoid it. Because I don't see a lot of it. I don't know why. I don't know why people avoid it. I still see Christians taking each other to court. So, anyway, we'll kind of walk through that, and thanks for hanging out with us through those things. Real quick, the sponsors for the Live from the Path broadcast are Valley Services Cleaning. If you go to valleyservices.net, they do commercial and residential cleaning. There's still time before the end of the year to, you know, get your house cleaned up, spiffed up. People are coming over for Christmas, and they can help you out with that. So, hook that up. It could be a nice gift for your significant other, whoever takes care of the cleaning in your place.

Yeah. Give them a day off. Here's what you're thinking. You're thinking you're going to clean it for them, and they don't want your 50% job. You know what I'm saying? They want it done correctly. So, there's a reason you're not the clean man in the first place is because you're no good at it. Yeah, like if you find yourself, if you've never taken the toothbrush to the back of the sink, if you have attachments to the vacuum but you don't know what they're for, you're the wrong guy. It's time to hire it out. Yeah, agreed. Okay, so call Valley Services. Go to valleyservices.net or call Charlotte at 515-277-5611.

They do not do back hair. That was the stipulation. Like in general, like when the back hair falls off? Either off you or if it's on your carpet. You're going to have to take care of that before they get there. I respect the line that they've drawn. I think that's fair. Also, on-purpose promotions, if you need anything printed up, you've got T-shirts, frisbees, I don't know, mugs, glasses. I don't think they do spectacles. Is that what you're talking about, spectacles? Furniture. That's right. Yeah, that might be.

They do on-chairs. They can do those chairs if people sit at soccer games. Like a director's chair. How about that? Heck yeah. So, remember we were at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival last year, and some guy brought like the King's fold-out chair. It's like everyone has regular standard-issue chairs. And this guy's, I mean, it looked like a 10-man tent of a fold-out chair, and he kinged himself in this thing. Those are awesome. For two days, and I thought. His feet were like three feet off the ground. Oh, it was awesome. He had to have a servant help him up into it.

I had one of those. I'm just saying it's completely worth the money. You had the servant or the King's chair? I had the King's chair. It's seven and a half feet tall, and it's about five foot wide, and it's got 12 coasters, or 12 drink holders. Because you can't get out of it once you get in there. A side satchel. No, I can get out of it. Fine. Don't accuse me of not being able to get out of it. I know certainly how to get out of a chair. I was able to jump in and out. It was the best chair I've ever owned.

Were they pretty pricey? I was, I think it was 90 bucks. Holy flying monkeys. That's outrageous. But look at, okay, so my situation is I'm a bigger gentleman, and I don't fit in those normal lawn chairs. How'd you get the servant to help you in? I had no servant. My servant was my feet. Wait, everyone has a servant. It's a King's chair, it's his. I think that almost means it comes with a guy to help you in, no? It did not help come with a dude to help me into the chair. That should come with it for 90 bucks.

I feel like for $90, it should have had a fellow. At least part-time. Either way. Part-time guy. I'd be very surprised if Jared Roy continues advertising our program. We can't seem to get a promotional opportunity on him without going askew. But visit Jared Roy at OnPurposePromos.com, and he'll be able to help you out. He does the work here for the show and for our church, and he does a great job. So visit Jared Roy there. All right. I'll tell you what. Let's talk about this Jesus tribunal. Yeah, let's do it.

That's what I like to call it. So in 1 Corinthians, it's in chapter 6, Paul talks about lawsuits against brothers. And here's what he says. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world, and if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the

brothers? So my question is, I don't think I've ever walked into a church where along the pamphlets for the kids group and the options to clean, help out the janitorial staff, is the sign up for Brothers Grievance Council. So, I mean, have you ever seen this inactive somewhere where you've been a part of a church body or seen someone else do it, Dan? Yeah. I think we should. I mean, I think it means what it says. That we, rather than taking people to court, should have mature enough people who can look at things objectively and say, well, you're wrong, you're right, you're right, you're here, let's do something, move back and forth, you know, and come to a conclusion on things. And you've had a, have you had a church situation where that's happened?

I attempted to. Oh, you attempted to come in and wade in. And it was in a nasty divorce type of thing. And the gal moved to a whole different state and called the pastor up there and said, here's the deal. Neither one of these guys can afford an attorney. This is a spiritual thing. It's not a, you know, let's get together and just talk. And we had several meetings over the phone and then he kind of turned on me. Really? Yeah, so I was kind of disappointed, actually, in the whole situation, because we should have been able to objectively sit down and say, come on, let's just be grownups about this. First, let's try to save the marriage.

And if that's not going to happen, you know, there's only so much we can do, then let's intelligently sit down and say what's really fair for both people then. And it was hard for him to be objective. That sounds bad coming from me because I was the guy saying, you know, make an accusation. He was obviously not objective. He disagreed with me, so he was wrong. Yeah, here's the thing. Like, I don't know that I've seen this. And I think it's frankly because I think people get to a certain point and they know that they don't want to bring Jesus into this. Yeah, exactly. They're like, look, I know what I think. I know what I think is right.

I prefer I don't want to bring Jesus into this. And so, like, it's kind of funny because you'll see it's people get involved in a church family and they get close and, you know, you're growing spiritually and everything's great. And then all of a sudden a conflict will happen in your life and you don't want the church involved anymore. You want them as far away as possible. I want to look holy. I want to look perfect. I got it all under control. Even if it's to your own detriment. I got a Jesus t-shirt. Exactly. Look at me.

I got a bumper sticker. Exactly. And a perfect life. Yeah. And there's no reason for me to bring my problems to you either for your help or for your discernment. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm involved in this. This isn't going well. Well, I feel like, you know, whatever, a lawsuit's coming, you know, they don't want to run it through a Jesus filter because you're going to have to admit that you don't, you should probably drop it and be wronged. I mean, when Paul's line is, why not be defrauded? I mean, the very guy that's going into the, you know, bring it to the, let's say, let's

call it the church tribunal. He says, hey, I've been defrauded. And one of the options might be, hey, man, why not be defrauded? Yeah, you have. You have been defrauded. You're going to go somewhere else. But Susie backed into my car. Yeah. Has this Susie said sorry? No. Suck it up. Yeah. Sounds like not only do you have a bent car, but hurt feelings.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Has she done it more than 70 times seven? Because I feel like you're in a weird spot here. And I think that's it. I think if you were to bring it in front of people, you are then looked at through the filter of what God calls us to be. Not with a relatively low bar of technicalities that the judicial system has to enforce. And I don't fault the judicial system. I mean, that's the grounds that they're in. But when you're called to act in a holy way, in a way that's set apart from the rest of the world, and that way tends to say, let it go, learn to serve other people, people don't tend to bring their grievances to that group.

Shouldn't we be able to? I mean, if we're really legitimately following Christ, shouldn't we be able to put things aside, like pride and greed and whatever it is that would cause you to sue someone and say, can we work this out? Yeah. I don't know why. Especially if you're getting objective third-party believers. Yeah. Here's the thing. Can people do that? I feel like God calls those people. Because here's the thing. It's like, I believe God supplies the people to provide this type of advice and this type

of counsel. Because there's people that would have an excellent heart on the matter, but no discernment. I am one of those guys. You know what I'm saying? I'm easily taken. I'm easily picked sides. I make rash decisions. I know this about me, right? But there's certain people around me that are included in my life because of my relationship with Jesus Christ that have excellent discernment. You know what I'm saying? They call things as they are without a bunch of him hauling around and doofsing about. And I feel like God calls those people and provides those people for our use.

So as soon as you find someone, especially within your church or within a Christian relationship that you know that has discernment, attach yourself to that man. You know what I'm saying? Like, run things by that man. Don't be ashamed. You know, don't feel like, hey, I do this all the time. I call some fellas in my life that make good godly decisions. And I say, look, here's where I'm at. Here's what I'm thinking. Here's the decision I'm about to make. Does that sound Jesus to you? And they say, no, it doesn't. And I say, all right, then.

I'm going to go back to the drawing board. Here's what you don't do. Don't put them in an awkward situation and say, what would you do? Just say, hey, here's what I've come up with. Does that sound right? No, it doesn't. So you can either say, tell me how that's not Jesus, or I'm going to go back to the drawing board and pray on it some more. Yeah, I mean, the last thing I want is going to a guy, another fallible human being, and saying, what would you do? It's like, you might just as well make a bad decision like I would. Yeah, I want to know. Basically, I'm saying, am I hearing from the Holy Spirit correctly?

Does that sound scriptural to you? If we both bounce this through the Bible filter, does it wash out Jesus on the other end? And as believers, isn't that a higher bar, we'll say, than a man-made law? You know, we're trusting this whole court thing, where we're going to people who are smart enough to know, like, say, American law, but not smart enough to accept Jesus Christ. They're not smart enough to acknowledge God for who He is. And we're saying, well, you know more about this than I do. Like, that's crazy. That's insane. Yeah, it's the same judicial system that awards millions to people who can't run a cup of coffee correctly. You know what I'm saying? I don't think they can be trusted.

They're easily swayed. Yeah, it's corrupt. Right. They see big, mean corporation and little doofus who can't hold a cup and go, that big, mean corporation has way too much money, this other person needs it. Right? They're trying to equal things out through the justice system instead of calling it what it is. Yeah, jury your peers. Have you met your peers? Yeah. Seriously, you wouldn't sit down and have coffee with most of your peers, and you want them to decide your fate in a litigious suit? Poor idea.

The purpose of an attorney is really not to solve things. The purpose of them is to go to court and make money. That's how they make their money. Yeah. So their goal isn't really necessarily to resolve your issue. And in a church setting, the goal is to resolve the issue. Yeah. I mean, we have completely different objectives. And, frankly, provide counsel to either stop it from happening again or hopefully guide you to the Scripture. Grow your relationship with Christ. How you could have handled this without bringing it to anybody. You're capable of handling it on your own, but when you can't seem to do it, one of you has got a blinder on from a scriptural perspective,

and the church council is there to kind of help you out. Well, I think it's silly we don't have more of that. Yeah, take that. Let's say your car got smashed up. The other person, whatever, you were ready to take it to court, right? They're like, we need this fixed. I feel like if you went to a church council and said, look, here's what happened. I was wronged. I'm thinking about taking it to court. The church kind of can step in and say, look, it's better to be wronged. Let's see if we can't take care of this ourselves. I'm sure we can scrape some cash together and at least get your car up and running. You know what I'm saying?

I feel like we're there for that. Would we get to wear, like, fun robes and have a hammer? Yeah, I feel like that's too far, Dan. Is it going too far? The hammer especially. Powdered wig and everything. Yeah, the robe thing. That's what no one ever asks me. You're not one of the discernment guys. I've got a unamum, unamum ready to go. As soon as someone needs advice, I put them on. And if that lights up, I've got to roll the dice. My breastplate with 12 stones.

I bought it on breastplate.com. Turns out it's made in Cambodia. I had no idea the Lord still used Cambodia. You know, it's just interesting to think at. And I think I agree why people would avoid such a thing. I would. But that's a shame. Listen to what Paul says. I say this to your shame. To your shame that you handle things this way. And that he's also countering the argument where someone says, you know, I'm not qualified to handle this. He's like, you know, you are to judge angels and you can't handle the things of this life. And we get that a lot from overplaying phrases like, who am I to judge?

Well, actually, Dr. Corinthian, you're quite qualified. It says you're qualified. Basically, I think it reinforces it. Like, God has provided you the tools. Like, you have a book full of stuff. You've got guys that have, like, volumes upon volumes of law. Pick up the book that the Lord has provided. Read it discerningly. And then start to apply. You are capable of doing this. You are capable of resolving conflict. These things don't need to divide and conquer the society. It's just, like, you're bowing out.

Someone else will take care of it. Someone else's responsibility. Someone else has been called to do these things. And Paul's saying, you've been equipped. Quit backing away from stuff and just live the life that God set you out to live. Well, I think sometimes they take this. Like, certain people don't feel comfortable in that situation because the speck in the log in the eye. You know what I'm saying? They're like, look, I still got a log in my eye. It's not for me to go around and judging people and telling them how they're living. But I think really the thing is, the whole point is, well, get the log out first and then, yeah, go ahead. There's people that have the log out. It's not an impossible thing.

I mean, everyone stumbles and falls. But not everybody keeps a permanent log in there. Because as soon as the log's in there, that's a pretty big amalgam that you've given a home to. If it doesn't fit, it'll leave. And so, you know, I feel like people, they don't want to put themselves up for judgment to be able to provide that service for other people. Sure. And I think maybe another reason other people won't go to the church, because there's actually been a couple, three situations similar to what I said that I've been a part of. It requires two parties that are willing to go all the way with it. And there's no accountability. Right. I mean, so let's say we say, okay, here's, we're going to divide things up, and you get the sewing machine, and you get the coffee pot, and you're going to pay so much per month for, you know. What if six months later, it's like, ah, I decided not to do that. Right.

I decided to quit writing the check. That's why they want the law on their side. Isn't that a serious disappointment? Oh, yeah, absolutely. To their shame. The binding nature isn't Scripture or people that are trying to discern Scripture in relation to your situation. But it requires the secular law. Exactly. Yeah, I'll do it. Well, no, actually, I didn't really like that. I didn't get the answer I wanted, so I'm going to go to Papa Secular, because, you know, Daddy God didn't give me what I asked for. Oh, what an embarrassment. It is.

We should slap, I think, all believers should go ahead and slap themselves right now. Do you, I don't know, do we need to be more prominent with this? Like, do you need to put out signs and say, hey, bring your problems right here? Should we be staffing a bench? Well, I don't think we're supposed to solicit it. I think that the idea is, if I have an issue, I should be going to the church and saying, would you help me solve this? That just doesn't happen all that often. Maybe people, it's one of those verses they just read past and think, eh. That's for other people. That's for other people. I'm going to the Attorney General. He knows Jesus, I'm sure of it. How about his wages garnished?

The church won't do that. That's true. Do we have to get some church thugs and heavies to go take care of some stuff? Okay, I feel like we need these church thugs. Yeah, I think it goes back to let your yes be yes. Oh, okay, you're welcome. Go ahead. No, you were ready to. No, I was going to say, I'm in. You're volunteering for the thug. I'm volunteering for the church thug thing. Jesus, should we call down the fire? It's the brute squad.

That would be sweet if you had a business card that said, John Boomer III, church thug. Church thug. Occasionally, I call down the fire. Have you paid your rent? You know, and I suppose there's opportunity for people to handle this wrongly. But maybe that's what it is. Maybe some of it's a mistrust of the people that otherwise do those types of things. You know, people have mistrust for clergy and eldership and, like, offices that are within the church. That you've seen abuse from. Which, no one reports on the guy who's not causing problems, right? So, like, the news is always negative. But, like, I mean, some of that creates where, like, well, who am I to trust this guy? He's a fallible human.

He's a guy who can't. I'm concerned that he's going to side with so-and-so. And, like, if you're on the losing end of it and you don't have a heart for the process itself and aren't buying into it, you're never going to be happy with the resolution. Well, that's why the counsel is what it is, right? Because it all gets vetted through Scripture, which hopefully filters out personal opinion. Like, we should be able, on most points, you know, the five guys in this room should be able to come up with the same Jesus answer. Right. The Bible is not wishy-washy. There's things that it didn't say and there's a, you know, there's interpretation to be had sometimes. Well, some things just going through the filter of godly, just knowing the word of God, you can come up with the conclusion. Here's what's really. Right.

We should be able to come out with almost, with probably the same solution every time, especially if we're praying on it. Especially if you ask God for the help, I can't imagine he's going to leave you asunder, you know? It seems odd to expect that out of a god, you know, that you devote your life to. So I would expect that if a council gets together, five dudes, five ladies, whatever, are praying on it and say, Look, we need to know where we're going here, Jesus. I can't imagine he just leaves you holding the bag. All right. Instituted. I tell you what, can we, can you do it via email? People want to arbitrate stuff. I tell you what, send us your problems. Info at livefromthepath.org. We need business cards.

Yeah. I'm going to get you that thug thing, Buva. Oh, I'm totally cool with passing it out. Okay. All right. I think that's going to work. Anyway, feel free to, we're just idea guys. Feel free to take this and institute it at your own place of worship. Just go tell your pastor, said, we need a tribunal. I've been reading the Bible and I feel like we should be doing this. I've been lifting some weights. I feel like we need the church thug position opened. I'd like to volunteer.

I feel it should be a paid position, 45 grand a year, at least. And then five bucks every time I bring a guy in here. That helps with the court costs. That's right. We're going to charge you for that advice. Not only are we cleaning up the streets, we're cleaning behavior. And this isn't just like Paul on a whim either. This was the very setup that Moses' father-in-law had him doing, right? Trying to judge all this stuff on your own. Said, you need some help? Appoint some dudes? Split them out? Handle their affairs?

If they can't get it resolved, have them rise it up and take care of it. And, you know, I don't know the names of anybody that was leading the smaller groups, but they must have been capable. Yeah. Moses said, yeah, those guys will work. Yeah. And actually, you know, they set the same thing up for, you know, after Jesus ascended back up to heaven. And the disciples set up almost the exact same setup when they started sending people out. All right. That's it. Try building it up. You're listening to Live from the Path. We are broadcasting here every Monday night at livefromthepath.org at 10 p.m. Central Time. Also, you can catch us on the Truth Network, 99.3 KTIA, every Saturday, also at 10 o'clock.

It's going to catch on. People don't like that. They're going to love it. So, also, if you want to find out more about the show, if you go to livefromthepath.org during the week, you can find clips from the show, including games and some commentary. Information on the Live from the Path Christmas extravaganza. Listen, there's still time to get there. It's a week and a half away, and it's time to clear the calendar. You've got, I mean, how many times do you need to see the Lawrence Welk special? And the clip from the Michael Buble thing is going to be on YouTube the next day. Come out to the live show. We're broadcasting at 730 at the Crown Point Community Center in Johnston, and we're going to have a bunch of the bands that have been on the show.

So, Jeff Arendale, Century Music Group recording artist Jeff Arendale and his band are holding forth. They're going to be the house band. And you've got folks like Sean Covington, Chris Roloff, Kevin Lindgren, Daniel Brown from Saved on Sunday. A couple of the guys from Sanctified are going to be in here. I mean, we just do, like, they're coming in droves, and they're going to do an awesome job and singing Christmas classics and a modern take on some of those. And it should be a lot of fun. Bring out the family. Be a part of the live studio audience. It's at 730 at Crown Point Community Center on Wednesday the 19th. All you've got to do is show up, no bells on. You don't even have to dress up if you don't want to. You should, though.

I mean, you should look nice. Can you wear a Christmas sweater? No. No. Here's the deal. You can sing, though. Like, you want to sing along? That's totally cool. Can I bring my bagpipes? Yeah, we… No, no. Dan, you're not the servant, man. Remember?

Run by somebody else. I'm bringing Dan to the tribunal for that bagpipes coming. Well, you know, I need to be, like, the apprentice tribunal man. You know what I'm saying? There's no way you can do anything right. Yeah. Anyway, we might pan the crowd to see who showed up. If there's, like, two guys, we're certainly not going to pan the crowd. We want to make it look like there were a lot of people there. Yeah, no doubt. But if there's lots of people, you may get a chance to be on the Internet. Worldwide web. Which is nearly impossible to do on your own.

Everyone sees that. All right. Tell you what. We're going to take a quick station break. We'll be right back with you. You've been listening to Live from the Path. Okay. Seriously, I thought, so check out this joke I thought of. This is for the Internet-only listeners, okay? I'm ready. All right. Dan can't answer this because I already tried this out. Okay.

So what body part, what part of the body is most likely to have an ailment for a guy that fears the end of the world? Oh, for heaven's sakes, Ben. The elbow. What? Think about it. Hold on. What body part is most likely to have an ailment for the guy that fears the end of the world? The brain. That's false. Mike. The nostril. No. The left behind.

You know that's classic. It's something. I don't know if classy would be the word out of you. How about my money back? You know what? You're not the discernment guy either. Forget it. Yeah. This is me having absolutely no reaction to that. The setup, maybe the setup was too long. We just dropped 10,000 viewers. Maybe they're discerning. They should run the tribunal.

Hey, wait. We're going to run the tribunal now. We should try to get them back real quick. What's your name? Come back here. Okay. I think that's an idea. All right. So anyway, you guys come out to that deal. Hey, give me a call. If you give me a call ahead of time, I'll make sure there's some hot chocolate there for you. Send me an email. Info at lifeinthepath.org.

Say, hey, I'm so-and-so and I'm coming. And I'll make sure we get some hot chocolate. I'll make a big deal out of it, too. And I'll say, so-and-so is here. Is here. Is here. And then I'll bring some hot chocolate over. What? The echo's too much? Yeah. I've overdone it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I see what you're saying.

Hey, welcome back. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path on 99.3 KTIA and here at livefromthepath.org. We appreciate you hanging out with us everywhere. That's probably not true every week. You're probably just dropping in and regretting it. Yeah, that's all right. Okay. Maybe it's on in the taxi or something. That's cool. All right. So I'll tell you what. Let's hit our proof. So we're on proof number 28 from the 50 proofs that God is imaginary.

From God is imaginary.com. Proof number 28 is notice how many gods you reject. And this is from the God is imaginary.com man. Here's what he says. There are literally thousands of religions being practiced today. Here are 20 of the most popular. I'm not going to give you all of them. Along with an estimate of the number of followers. Number one, Christianity, 2.1 billion. Islam, 1.3 billion. Hinduism, 900 million. Chinese traditional religion, 394 million. Five, Buddhism, 376 million.

All the way down to Scientology, 500,000 with the source of Encyclopedia Britannica. That's a little liberal on the Scientologist. 500,000. That's a bit much. What is this? Ten. Tenikyu. That's not really good. It's got more than Scientology. There's a Baha'i. I knew a Baha'i. I was related to a Baha'i. Seven million.

All right. Here we go. Here's this commentary. If you believe in God, you have chosen to reject Allah, Vishnu, Buddha, Waheguru, and all the thousands of other gods that other people worship today. It is quite likely that you rejected these other gods without ever looking into their religions or reading their books. That's quite the assumption. You simply absorbed the dominant faith in your home or in the society you grew up in. In the same way, the followers of all these religions have chosen to reject God. You think their gods are imaginary and they think your god is imaginary. In other words, each religious person on Earth today arbitrarily rejects thousands of gods as imaginary, many of which he or she has never even heard of and arbitrarily chooses to believe in one of them. The following quote from Stephen F. Roberts sums up the situation very nicely. Bob Roberts says, I contend that we are both atheists.

I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. He continues, A rational person rejects all human gods equally because all of them are equally imaginary. How do we know that they are imaginary? Simply imagine that one of them is real. If one of these thousands of gods were actually real, then his followers would be experiencing real, undeniable benefits. I agree there. These benefits would be obvious to everyone. The followers of the true god would pray and their prayers would be answered. The followers of the true god would therefore live longer, have fewer diseases, have lots more money, etc. There would be thousands of statistical markers surrounding the followers of a true god. Everyone would notice all these benefits and they would gravitate towards this true god.

And thus, over the course of several centuries, everyone would be aligned to the one true god. All the other false gods would have fallen by the wayside long ago and there would only be one religion under the one true god. Here is the payoff. When we look at our world today, we see nothing like that. There are two billion Christians and there are more than one billion Muslims. And their religions are mutually exclusive. There are thousands of other religions. When you analyze any of them, analyze spelled wrong, they all show remarkable similarity. There is zero evidence that any of these gods exist. That is how we know they are all imaginary. Instant reaction, Mike Foost. I feel like what his definition of what a god is is pretty light. Every other religion listed there, apart from the god of the Bible, is what is best for the worshiper.

What is best for me? What do I gain out of this relationship? How could things benefit me? I find it much easier to worship a god who says, things are for my glory because I am awesome and amazing and I love you enough to have a relationship with you. So here is the thing. It is like he is categorically lumping in the god of the Bible with all of these other gods when really all these other gods promise great things for you. You know what I am saying? Like he is saying, look, if you were to follow Baha'i, you will gain inner enlightenment and more cash. It is a religion. It is not the name of a deity. Yeah, Baha'i. It is the philosophy of Baha'i. But like if you were to follow this philosophy, these great things are going to happen to you.

And pretty much God says, look, in this lifetime it could go great. It could not go great. Your relationship with me will extend for eternity. I am not only offering you a relationship with me, but I am paying the price for you to have that relationship. I am going to ask you to change. I am going to ask you to give up your sin. I am going to ask you to get in a relationship with me. But I am God and I do not move for your happiness in this life. I do not know. I feel like I respect that a lot easier than I do self-glorification. Well, there is a couple of angles here that do not make any sense. The first one is to say that because there are so many that there is not one that is true. Right?

Like, for example, if I ask you. Like counterfeit dollars. So what is 5 plus 5? Troy? 10. Okay, good. So if I was in a group of 20 people and I asked 20 people what 5 plus 5 was and one guy said 10 and everyone else came up with a different answer, it does not make the 10 guy wrong. Right? Correct. That makes him unpopular, though. That is very likely. You snooty old monkey. So let's say just because 19 people believe something different than the one doesn't make the one thing that's a false.

So, like, that's a false premise. And it seems to imply that because so many people believe so many variant different things that one of them can't be true. And that's ridiculous. The other thing he said, he says we are both atheists. He just believes in one less God. And that's also not true. Like, atheism is a lack of belief. Yeah. And we just believe in different things. And so, like, that sounds like a clever quote and I'm sure plays well in the circles, right? But, like, you just redefined the word and said something, called it something different than what it is. So, like, on its basis, those two things don't make any sense. It's not a premise to say that because so many people believe different things that none of it is true.

That even seems like a bigger leap, right? Like, if he's going to 1 to 20 and he's saying, like, here's all the people that believe in this and this and this all believe in a higher power of some sort. You got 90% of the world that says there is some sort of higher power and you're the guy that says none of it's true. Like, that seems way more of an outlier than someone saying that one of them is true. Yeah, that's true. Everyone else is claiming to believe in a spiritual side of life. And you're the one guy saying absolutely not. He's Dr. No Soul. There is no soul. Yeah. So, I mean, it's just, I don't know, the whole argument is pretty convoluted. It's ridiculous. This is the weakest one yet.

I love the gap he makes of, you know, if they were believers in the one true God, you know, they would live longer, they would have more money, all these different things. So, this God of his is a real nutcase. He's a dog is what he is. He's trying to get a God as a pet, you know what I'm saying, to do his bidding. Right. I don't want to have diseases. I want to live forever in my flesh body. I want to have a billion dollars. Yeah. And because each Christian doesn't, or a Christ follower does not have that, means that they're not following the real God. He's basically saying, you're a God, make me a God too, and then I'll believe that you're a God. Yeah, when you let me win the lottery, and then everyone else I know that believes you win the lottery, and then everyone else I know that believes in you doesn't have a disease, then I might consider believing. That's ridiculous.

That's absolutely ridiculous. You know, one of the things that he said that I thought was pretty interesting is he's going through that list of things. He was talking about praying, right? The benefits would be obvious to everyone. The followers of the true God would pray, and their prayers would be answered. I thought, check. Good. That happens. Right. I'm glad I chose the right one. The followers of the true God would see it. And then he went into the – he went for something that I thought, well, I could actually agree with that. And then he went to the live longer, have fewer disease, and have lots more money.

There'd be thousands of statistical markers surrounding the – he's a statistic guy. He likes to see – Right, exactly. Things that he wouldn't believe in, right? Yeah. Because I could get you those statistics, but he thinks people that say those things are lying. Finish that last part, though. What's the last part he said? There would be thousands of statistical markers surrounding the followers of a true God. What was the part where he was saying – and everyone would recognize it and eventually come to know it? Yeah, so everyone would notice all these benefits, and they would gravitate toward the true God. That is generally our witnessing tactic. That is generally how we witness to people.

They notice that there's something different about us as Christ followers, and then they say, why is your life different? And then you say, because I know Jesus. Right? That's how we witness to people. Hopefully. Like it's not a – He's nailed it. He's read the pamphlets. Yes, he's seen every witnessing thing we put out. He knows exactly what we're talking about. He got littered with a guy with tracks. Yeah, don't just spout off at the mouth. Live a life that loves Christ, and people will flock to it on their own.

That's how I got here. You know what I'm saying? That's how everybody I know who knows Jesus got there. They saw a guy that loved Christ and said, what is going on over there? I want part of it. And then they asked him, and they said, this is the deal. This is what Jesus did. And you said, well, I feel like I'm in. You know? Yeah. That's not a strong case. That is – But now you think of it from his point of view, though.

Like I get stalemated with guys that do this, though. You know, they're like – How do you know you're right? That's the question. Yeah. How do you know your God is the right one? Yeah. And this usually comes from guys that don't want to submit themselves to anything, whether it be a church tribunal or a religion in general. Like they're just not interested in putting themselves up for judgment of any kind. Anything that would make them do differently than they're currently doing now, they'd rather say, that's not what I want. That's not even fair.

I'm not interested. I mean, these are also people – it's not like they've checked, right? It's not like they said, well, I've looked into it, and I feel like I can't discern which one is a true deity and which is it. Like their discernment hasn't gone beyond evaluating the spiritual feasibility of a Dyson vacuum and a box of croutons, right? Like, oh, well, that's not a God. There must not be a God at all. Shake, shake, shake. Have some on my salad. So I had this conversation with a guy one time. I was trying to talk to him about Jesus, and I said, look, you should read your Bible. You should read the Bible, and then we'll talk about it. If you have questions, you give me a call.

We'll talk. So I had him read Matthew, and I had him read three chapters a day, and I said, give me a call, and we'll talk to you about it every week or so. So I talked to him, and he had just got done reading where Jesus fed 5,000 people, right? And I said, so what did you take out of that story? He goes, well, I don't really believe that Jesus blessed the food and then produced it, that much food. I feel like everybody had enough, and then they just shared it. And I said, that's not what it said at all. And he goes, I like to believe in the goodness of people. And I said fish in their pockets. Yeah, I said, here's the thing. If there was that much food, I feel like they'd have just eaten their own lunch. Yeah, they would have brought their own lunch. Would have been starving.

And then not shared it with everybody, you know? I mean, what if there's like 10 guys that forgot to bring something? They're like, I guess you can have something. That's not generous. That's just lunch. That's just people having food, you know? Did everyone bring their own lunch? Yes, we did. Yes. Very good. Jesus wouldn't have been sitting there like, okay, they're not going to make it back to their homes. They're going to pass out of the way. Wait a minute.

They all have their own lunch. It turns out they have food. So no big deal. They have their own fish. They have their own bread. Look, everybody brought the same thing. Everybody brought fish and bread. It's the same fish and the same bread. Also, if that were the situation, if I were Jesus, I'd start firing disciples. Because when they go, Lord, we got fishes in love. We got like two. And he looks and he says, no, there's 10,000 here. I feel like you're no longer in charge of anything.

Peter, you're in charge now. There's so much. They had leftovers, and we were worried about it in the first place. Here's the thing that killed me, though. Like, I was under the mystical impression that if someone just read the Bible, they're in. You know, like, I thought, all I have to do is point them back to Jesus and have them read the Bible. And as long as we talk about it, there's no way he won't see it for what it is, you know, because it grabs you, right? Yeah, yeah. No, missed it completely. The people shared the food. And I thought, well, Lord, I feel like I'm at a missional stalemate. You know, I don't know what else to say. I pointed them to the Bible, they read it, and then came up with some kind of off-the-wall conclusion that has nothing to do with what you said.

I don't know what to do. Yeah, I'm scared of a world where we believe in the goodness of people. That's horrifying. That's exactly what I said. He goes, I like to believe in the goodness of people. I said, how's that gone for you the last 30 years? Yeah, exactly. I said, yeah, yeah. That's what I thought. Never mind. Man. Man, that's what I find funny about, like, his exact argument with stuff like this. Like, people only – he's thinking exactly – when he was looking at it, he was coming from his own point of view and not reading the Bible for what it is, right?

Like, he wanted to bring his own take in on it. And that's how we get watered-down versions of Christianity now. That's how we ended up with other religions because they didn't want to submit themselves to the authority of God and the Bible. All right. Well, that was Proof 28 from the guy at GodIsImagorated.com. Let's take a quick preview of Proof 29. That one was a low bar. That was better. He's going to bounce back. Here we go. No, no, no. It's round 29. God 28, imaginary man zero.

But Proof 29 is think about communion. Oh, boy. Let me give you the first paragraph. Because Christians have been participating in the communion rite for many years, they tend to forget just how bizarre this ritual is. The whole idea of eating Jesus' body and drinking his blood is grotesque in the extreme. All right. I see where he's going with this. Troy's exasperated. Yes. Well, so we'll hit that next week. Proof number 29, think about communion. And we'll think about it. I do it every Sunday.

Before I take it, I've got to make sure I'm right. Maybe you haven't thought about it the way he's thought about it. Apparently not. Here's the deal. I kind of like this guy. You know, I think I could sit down and be friends with him. Because I think he thinks like me. Because what he did is, I don't like God, so I've got to come up with 50 reasons that will impress people. He didn't think of the fact that, you know, 49 of them are really lame. He might have one legitimate thing in here. He's like, I'm really thinking about this. I could see myself doing that. I'd like to meet him.

I was going to say, what is it you have in common with this man? You find one thing and then you come up with 50 things. I try to make it like, oh, I'm going to really make this. This is really going to convince everybody. I'm going to find 50. It's like, then everybody looks at it and says, that's dumb. Yeah. Number one holds water. That's it. You get a half of a point and they're left at one and we're good. That's all I got. And now, for America's fastest growing game show. Secular or Solomon?

That's right. Now, see, I guess the intro said it was America's fastest growing game show. That's probably not true. That's a totally unverified statistic. But we're getting ready for secular versus Solomon. Here's the deal. I'm going to give you a bit of wisdom, a proverb. And you need to tell me whether it's a secular proverb or something from Solomon, a biblical bit of wisdom. And so, if you're on the chat, you guys can play along. And if you're listening on Saturday night on 99.3 KTIA, you can shout it out in the car. Everyone that's in there is going to love it. People love it.

Yeah. I mean, you've got to play it with some gusto, though. Don't be saying it to yourself or whistling or whatever. This is what's going to happen. Are you guys ready? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm pumped. Here we go. First one. No one. Oh, sorry. So, if it's Solomon, you've got to tell me that it's Solomon.

If it's secular, you've got to tell me where it's from. Quit looking, Mike. You peeking at the answers. No, I wasn't looking at the answers. I was looking at the chat. Oh, no, no. Okay. All right. I need a cookie, Ben. Me and Jacob, we've got that covered. Here we go. First, proverb number one. No one knows a son better than the father.

No one knows a son better than the father, secular or Solomon. Mike Foost. I'm going to have to go secular. And from which locale? The Tanzanians are a fatherly people. The paternal Tanzanians. John Buva III. No one knows a son better than the father. I'm going to go secular. And I'm going to say Danish. Dads are not biblical, according to Mike and Buva. Dan Hudson. I, as well, I'm going to go secular.

And that's got to be like a southern proverb. Southern America. You know, Tennessee. The region of Tennessee. Aren't they their own country now? Didn't they secede? No one knows a son better than the father. Secular China. China. Why did you raise your hand up? You said Tanzania. Tanzania is owned by China. It's a commonwealth.

They bought it during the Gulf War. Everybody knows that. Here we go. Secular versus Solomon. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Secular or Solomon. John Buva III. Solomon. Solomon. Dan Hudson. It just feels more like the Apostle Paul, but I'm going to say Solomon. Solomon, but I feel like Paul.

Mike Foost. Quit looking over here. I'm not. Secular Scotland. A Scottish. A Scottish word. Do you do a Scottish accent, Buva? Great, Scott. Okay, give me a do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. And let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. That's pretty good. It had to come from Scotland.

It's obvious. It rolls. I loved it. All right. That is Solomon, Proverbs 24, 17, according to the ESV. It's fired by the Apostle Paul. Who is from Scotland. I feel like Paul. Itches. Itches like Paul. Itches. I got a thorn of a side. It's got to be Paul today.

Tell me. Here we go. Tell me who your friends are, so I can tell you who you are. Tell me who your friends are, so I can tell you who you are. Secular or Solomon. Dan Hudson. That is a secular. I'm going to go Syrian. The Syrians. Look for identity in others. Mike Foost. That's a secular Scott Baio. Scott Baio is not a locale.

He's a one-man proverb machine. He is an island now. Scott Baio, the geographical region. John Buva III. Happy days has taken off. Tell me who your friends are, so I can tell you who you are. I'm going to go secular Zimbabwean. I got bad news for you. Scott Baio is not from Zimbabwe. I was just taking a guess on that one. The answer is, Pants is in with Norway. Solid guess, Pants. The answer is secular Bulgarian.

Yeah. Now think of what this means in Bulgaria. Tell me who your friends are, so I can tell you who you are. Mike, that means you're John Buva. What a roast, huh? We've cut ties. Welcome to my life. Careful of the company you keep. Here we go. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. Secular or Solomon. Mike Foost.

Solomon. Solomon. John Buva III. Solomon. Dan Hudson. Solomon. That is Solomon across the board. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered like pizza. The answer is Solomon, except for that pizza part. Proverbs 28, 26. They did not make a pizza pie in Solomon's time. Yeah. They called it a…

Something. I don't know what it would be. Sicilian rap. I don't know what it would be. They called it the Scott Baio. All right. Here we go. Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest. Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest. Secular or Solomon. John Buva. I'm going to call that one secular, and I'm going to say Swahili. That's a legitimate country.

I don't think Buva is even paying any attention. I think that's a language. Fine. Okay. I don't have wasps in Swahili. All right. You're going… Broadly, North Africa. Dan Hudson. There we go. I'm going to go secular, and it's got to be the Aztecs. Dan's got to do it like he's part of a drug deal. Yeah, man.

Here's what I saw. Here's the dig. One for you. One, two for me. Yeah, man. One, two, three for me. Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest. Mike Foost. I feel like that's Solomon. Mike says it's Solomon. Again, anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest. It's a bad idea, and it's from Malabar. Malabar.

Malabar. That's Solomon's cousin. It's a pre… He said, can I borrow your pad of paper? And he wrote it down. It's a pre-iteration of the Mars bar. Heyo. Scott Mayo. Scott Mayo. Let's tank it, man. Move it along. I can't. I can't.

The production manager decided to go searching around. Where's Malabar at? That's not a place. Oh, India. It's in India. It's like a province of India. Yeah, yeah. It's in India. Okay. All right. Very cool. Yeah, I knew that. All right.

Here we go. Exactly. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Secular or Solomon. Dan Hudson. It is a secular zombie land. Okay. Zombies. Mike. I've never heard a proverb that rang so true. That is indeed a fool who folds his own hands and eats himself. Yeah.

Mmm, butterscotch. I'm going to say the Netherlands. Okay. Secular Netherlands. John Booba. The secular, that dude from Florida that ate that guy's face. The chat says secular Obama. Thanks, Pence. That's not Pence. All right. Here we go. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 4. 5. What? Hey. I'm not using the ESV any longer. Can you get us some context? Can you pull up Ecclesiastes 4? I just want to see what the surrounding verses are. Solomon was talking about the zombie apocalypse. While he's looking that up, here we go. Did not see that. Dead. I mean, all of you.

Dead wrong. It couldn't have gone worse. I was like a proverb. Ecclesiastes. I mean, seriously. That seems like a big obvious. Holds his arms, eats himself. That's a depressing book. All right. Full of zombies. All right. Here we go. Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Secular or Solomon. Mike Foost. I think there's something that follows that. But blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, which would make it Solomon. Mike says windbag equals Solomon. Solomon it is. Stolen water is sweet. Steel for sweetness and good bread. Boova. Secular or Solomon. I'm going to go secular and I'm going to say Canadian. An indictment of the Canadians.

Water thieves. If you see a man with water in Canada, it's ill gotten. Dan Hudson. I'm going Solomon. Solomon. Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Solomon. Proverbs 9, 17. Indeed. All right. Let's look at Ecclesiastes 4. Then I saw. This is starting in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 3.

Then I saw that all toil and all skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after wind. Oh, okay. So that's a broad metaphor. Like you're eating your own flesh. You're ruining yourself. You're ruining yourself by sitting and doing nothing. And it's referencing Isaiah 9, the slice of meat on the right, but they're still hungry. They're either devourer on the lip, but they're not satisfied. Isaiah 9. Isaiah was written after Ecclesiastes.

It is the. It is the. He was not foreshadowed with Isaiah 10. It's a partner. Well, I mean, it's a. Yeah, it's a footnote thing. Let's see. I probably said that wrong. I don't know what I said. I just opened my mouth. I don't pay attention. All right. Here we go.

Let's call someone with discernment. Advice should be viewed from behind. Advice should be viewed from behind. Secular Solomon or Creeper. John Booth III. Secular Creeper. Okay. Dan Hudson. Creeper was an independent choice. Yep. That sounds like something out of Hollywood. I'm going to go. I'm going to go California and let's be secular.

We do countries here, fellas. Yeah, I was going to say. It has never been a state. I don't recognize them. Only the sovereignty of California who go bankrupt on the road and float away. In Malibu. Advice should be viewed from behind. Mike Foost. That's definitely secular. And I'd have to say Chile. Chile. Advice should be viewed from behind. Swedish proverb.

The Swedes. The Swedes. A healthy man is a successful man. A healthy man is a successful man. Secular or Solomon. John Booth III. I'm going to go secular. Chinese. Dan Hudson. Secular and. Because honestly, I wasn't listening. I was still stuck on the last one. I was thinking about Ikea.

Excellent. Dan. Secular. Yeah. Plenty of choices for the country. Cuba. We've got to get an atlas in here. Mike. I'll know three of them. A healthy man is a successful man. Solomon. French. It is a French proverb.

French Solomon. Solomon. They're just like Cuba. Charlemagne Solomon. These are the same guy. And like over 10. I'm not doing well. All right. Here we go. Final one. Do not give your strength to women. Your ways to those who destroy kings. Do not give your strength to women.

Your ways to those who destroy kings. What does it say about like your woman just taking it from you? Involuntarily. She sucks the energy out of you. I'm not saying anything either way. But I'll be just saying. A little before my wife says, look, I'm taking your strength. And I just don't. Cut your hair. Let's just. Let's say I can't defend myself. These are all hypotheticals. Solomon.

All right. Mike's in for Solomon. Dan. It's got to be about chapter two of Solomon. Maybe three. Okay. The non-biblical book of Solomon. Proverbs. John Boone with the third. Final answer. Solomon. Solomon. Do not give your strength to women.

Your ways to those who destroy kings. Proverbs 31. Whoa. I said three. 29 chapters off. You cited a non-book in the Bible and chapter two of it. The book of Mary. The people. You, either on purpose or a total accident on the radio dial, have been participating in America's unverified as fastest growing internet game show, Secular vs. Solomon. And I do hope you enjoyed it. You've been listening to Live from the Path. We broadcast every Monday night.

You can catch the live show. If you're listening on KTAA, God bless you. Thanks for hanging out. You can catch us live with video. I mean, you can even look at the guys that are talking. That's a mistake. But do it. Go ahead and do it. Check it out. Monday nights at 10 p.m. at livefromthepath.org. Also, you can sign up for the audio cast. And just this week, we can announce that we are now on Stitcher Radio. So if you download the Stitcher Radio app.

Stitcher? Stitcher. Like, I don't know, like someone who creates clothes. Solomon. And do a search for Live from the Path. You can search for us and we'll be on there. You can listen to the show at any time. There's also an audio player on the front of the website. You can watch old shows, clips from the show, as well as listen to the audio cast. So enjoy that. You can catch us during the week. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you the Pope-style advice this week.

And so the Pope-style advice is a thought that if you came out into your front yard and there were 10,000 people out there waiting for you to tell them something, kind of like they do sometimes where the Pope comes out and prays and stuff. But you're not the Pope. You're just a dude. And you come out of your house and you've got to give them some words of wisdom from your own life that you think can help them in their day-to-day. And here would – I'm trying to think of the best way to word this. Here's my – here's what I would say given Pope-style advice. And it's to picture this in your head. And for whatever reason, put yourself in the place of this thought. And this has happened to me recently, so I'll tell you that much. So I was standing out on somewhere.

And there's – you know, randomly there's stuff in my life that I just – I'm tired of dealing with. Things that are not going the way that they should. And it comes back up, and I just don't like it. And I thought, you know, it's just time to be done with this. And I was out walking around praying and stuff, and I was sitting out overlooking kind of a big opening somewhere in a building downtown. And for some reason, what I started imagining is Jesus kind of coming up behind me. Big brother Jesus, you know. And he puts his hand on your back, and he goes, no, it's not you. You're not Jesus. Quit looking at me. No, so, like, it's a thought that you're looking out, and I can – you know, Jesus kind of puts your hand on your back, and he goes, Ben, that thing that you're –

the thing that you're worrying about, it's taken care of. It's all taken care of. And, you know, and if this was my, like, real big brother, right, I would go, I don't know what you're talking about, man. I mean, what do you mean it's taken care of? He says, it's all taken care of. And then maybe you think about it for a while, and you think, self, yeah, but does Dad know? And he goes, yeah, Dad knows, right? God knows. Dad knows. And then maybe I'd ask, was he mad? And the answer is, yeah.

Yeah, he was pretty mad. You don't want to talk to him for a while. And then that was the next – that was a follow-up thought, right? Like, if my big brother had come up to me and said, you know, everything's taken care of, and I told Dad, or Dad knows, and he's mad, and I say, well, what do you think he's going to say to me the next time I see him? And he says, nothing. It's taken care of. And I'm like, I don't understand. You said he knows, and you said he's mad because I did something I wasn't supposed to. And you said it's all taken care of. I thought, okay, okay, I'm that far. Let's say I agree that it's all taken care of.

I said, but this thing's been following me around for a long time, so how do I know I'm not going to run into this again? And my big brother Jesus looks at me and he says, stick with me, and it will never happen again. Follow me, and it will never happen again. And I said, well, what if I stop following you and do the thing? Because that's how it would happen, right? If I stop, he says, if I don't stick by you, if I go do what I want to do and I do this again, you know, that's the only time it will happen. You stick with me, and you're done with it, and it's done. And so I guess my pope-style advice for this week is to maybe put yourself in what was my place and just thinking about, you know,

having the conversation that I would have with, like, that's the way I would explain it to a five-year-old, right, to try to get them to have an understanding of it. And I think sometimes we complicate grace. I think sometimes we complicate our own situations. And, like, it's as easy as what was offered. It's not cheap. It was paid with a very heavy price, but it's not cheap grace. But it is there, and it is that simple. Does Dad know? Yeah, he knows. Was he mad? You bet. But I've taken care of it. Stick with me, and this won't be a problem.

Now, I know very well that I won't always stick with him. I will go and do the thing that I want to do at some point. I will fail. But every time I walk back, it's the same conversation. And it's not cheap love, and it's not cheap grace. But that is the reality of the situation. And for some reason, like, that thought this week, and I could have explained that to you over and over again if I asked the same question, just brought me a lot of comfort and brought me a lot of peace this week. So that's it. That's my, I guess maybe it's not really advice,

except for it's to put yourself in that same place and in that same situation, whatever it is, whatever you've got hanging around your life. Like, think about Big Brother Jesus putting his hand on your back and saying, I've taken care of it. Stick with me. And that thing does not have to keep tailing you over and over again. That's beautiful. That's what it is? Well played. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path.

Hey, if you want to support the show, you can do two things. Please interact with our sponsors. They can use the business, and they keep us on the air. Also, if you could pray for the show, we really do appreciate it. Thank you for hanging out with us. Have a wonderful week. Come on.