Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. To live from the path. My name is Ben Feust. It sure is. You won't tell me what my name is. Second. Oh, man. I tell you what. Hey, this is an exciting week. Arendelle came in here and dropped some sweet news on us. I'm really excited. So here's the deal. We're prepping for this live from the path Christmas extravaganza coming up on Wednesday. And I don't want to lie to you, man. I don't want to set a wrong bar here. I really felt that it could have been a disaster. Indeed. It hasn't happened yet. It still could be. Because here's the thing to think about.

The same guys that put on this weekly radio program are putting on this Christmas extravaganza. Indeed. Now, we've done the right thing and brought in other talent. You know what I'm saying? Brought in more talented people than ourselves to kind of help bolster us. Bolster the show quality. I call this the Valley Services play, which is when at first you don't succeed, hire someone better to do it. No doubt. So, you know, just like we say, you should hire the Valley Services folks to come clean your place because you stink at it. And you don't do it as often. And they're just going to do a better job. Life from the path has gone the straight way with it and said, if you can't put together a good program, you find Arendale. And Arendale will put together a good program. And then you stick your name on it. Yeah, exactly. This is the same thing like if you're going to if you're going to put a bumper sticker or something on your car for a politician, you wait till after the election and then slap that monkey on. Yeah. Then you drive around. It's like, yep, I picked the winner. So anyway, this is totally working. And I'm excited about the Life of the Path Christmas extravaganza.

It's coming up this Wednesday. It fires up at 730 p.m. at Crown Point 70 Center. 730? It's at 730. You have time to go home, get a little something to eat, wash and spank the kids, and then bring them out for the Christmas. You know that kids go to bed at 9, Ben. Nobody goes to bed at 9 on Christmas. It's on a Wednesday. It's not Christmas yet. Yeah, I wasn't thinking about that when I set up a time. I thought, everyone stays up late for excitement of Christmas. And see, we're going to broadcast it on Christmas Eve on Monday. And so this is what I had in my head. I had this real magical time thing put together. But then it is a Wednesday night before Christmas. And it will be on KTAA. And that will be the Saturday before Christmas. So either way, it's not the lovely hearth-type atmosphere as a lovely Christmas Eve presentation. I feel like my kids can't go, Ben. I'm really disappointed. Keep them up.

No. Is nothing sacred? No, they keep growling. Yeah. I've told them how great Arendelle is, and they weren't buying it. You know, I've heard that you guys have even ordered snow for Wednesday. Did I hear that right? Hey, man, I ordered in spades. It's a coming. Look out. There may be four people there then. Okay. Here's the downside. If we have to go shovel the walk as well, that's really going to cut down on our setup time, Ben. Oh, don't lie. You're going to make me do it. Oh, yeah. Okay. Boo will do it. Yeah, yeah. John Boo III does a mean sidewalk.

Anyway, hey, thanks for listening to Life on the Path. So far tonight, if these first three to four minutes are any indication, the show is going to be awesome. Indeed. You've chosen the right show to listen to. Here's what we've got coming up tonight. A little later on, we're going to talk about your tongue. Now, listen here. More often than not, you need to shut up. And I don't mean to put that as precisely as I have, but I don't know how else to say it. You need to watch your tongue. And I've been thinking about this over the last few weeks with me personally and bits of advice that I've given to some folks and some reading in James. And we just need to be careful with your tongue. And so we're just going to talk a little bit about that. And I will grant that this seems to be a mild form of hypocrisy coming from guys that run a talk show. But let me give you two things. A, this is not a legitimate talk show. All right? Fair enough. And number two, we're just talking about stuff that we would normally talk about. We just happen to be doing it into microphones, right? So, like, I'm not propagandizing.

I'm just saying things that otherwise would come out of my mouth, whether there was a microphone here or not. Yeah, okay. So, under those grounds, I think we have right to talk about it. So, we're just going to touch on it just a little bit. It's been something that's out of my mind. And as James says, you can do a lot of damage with the tongue. And so we're going to hit that a little bit. Also, some advice on dear life and the path. See, we've been talking it up a storm over the last two weeks. We haven't even got to the advice. No, we haven't. And it's getting close to the holidays. And people need help. People are hurting. No doubt. There's a couple whoppers in there. So, anyway, we're going to take some questions and field some on dear life and the path. And, by the way, if you ever need some personal advice and you're totally bereft of any legitimate church, family, or decent human beings around you, you can always send them in to live from the path. Shoot us an email, info at livefromthepath.org. I would say call, but we don't do a phone. And the reason we don't do a phone is because, really, we're a group of guys who really should contemplate certain responses before we do it.

There's guys that can call in and just fire stuff off. We may not be those guys. No, no, no. I feel like we should sit on it. Yeah. We should really sit on it for a while. Yeah. And so we'll give the fake advice, like, right away. But if you have a legitimate problem, we'd probably like to think about it. Yeah, I agree with that. Or take it to that Jesus Tribunal that we talked about last week. I think that's an idea. Let me ask you. I thought maybe if people could send us some emails and say they were legitimately listening to the show, that maybe we'd have some stuff to send them. Yeah, so here's what I think you're going to do. And one of the things I'd like to do is welcome a new sponsor of ours. Capona's Coffee House in Ames has agreed to sponsor the show. And I don't know where we keep finding these people who are willing to make such mistakes, but I'm glad to have them on. And I tell you what, it is delicious. Yeah, the coffee's really good. It is really good.

But so anyway, one of the things that I think we're going to do is we're going to get some mugs that's got their logo on it and our logo on it, and we're going to give that away. Okay. So I'll tell you when, keep your email address fired up and ready to go, because when I tell you I want it, you shoot it to me, and then we'll put you in the jar and we'll get you some free mugs. And these are going to be pretty tasty mugs. I'm pretty excited. And we'll be getting them from Jared Roy at On Purpose Promotions. I've heard he does classic work, Ben. He does do classic work. He's doing the t-shirts for our Christmas extravaganza. I'm excited about that. Did you order me a medium? Because, I mean, I look super buff in a medium. I ordered the large. AKA a 12-year-old in a medium. That's mine. I mean, I mean, He-Man style. I can't be contained in a medium. Yeah. That ain't no doubt. Your belly's looking for shelter. I was going to say.

You ordered me the medium, too, right? Is that the sun? All right. So anyway, we're talking tongues. Not speaking in tongues. We're talking about how you use your tongue. Yeah. We're going to get to the advice. Mike has some Pope-style advice this week. I do. It's heavy. All right. Heavy Pope-style advice. Hey, man. And we talked about the Pope's Twitter account, right? Yeah, we did. Well, kind of. It's a side of the times, man. So, like, whether you love the Pope or not, I mean, he got so much business on this Twitter account. Like, as soon as he fired up a Twitter account, people are, like, sending hate the Pope's way. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty foul. Poor guy. I know. I mean, I don't care who you are. I don't know who's that invested in it, right? Like, if you don't love the Pope, just don't love him in silence, right? But, I mean, he really got a bunch of business for opening this Twitter account. Here's the thing. You know, people, for the longest time, they look at that position. They're like, this is great. He speaks on God's behalf, right? He's a step below Jesus in the hierarchy. And here's the thing. The bullets are always flying at Jesus. You've put yourself in the way. You know what I'm saying? And Jesus has the ability to handle that type of pressure because he's Jesus, and he's an all-knowing and loving God, and he can certainly hold down whatever words happen to come out of society's mouth.

But, like, I don't care who you are. If I suddenly got, like, a mass amounts of hate mail on my Facebook from people I didn't even know, I'd act like it didn't bother me, but it would bring me down a little. Like, what do they know that I don't? Maybe I am a schmuck, like they're saying. There's got to be something to this. How do all these people get my information? Everybody's talking about it. It's got to be true. I don't know. That's a pretty bold move on the Pope's behalf, but I think he maybe thought it was going to go differently. You know, like, he'd throw out words of wisdom, and people would be like, thank you, Pope. Thank you. Thank you, Pope. And that's not really how it's going down so far. Do you think that's really the Pope tweeting, or do you think it's just like the Pope intern who's like, okay, you need a job. We're going to give you a Twitter account. Yeah. Social media worker for the Pope.

When you get to the same level, you don't do your own tweets. You let other people tweet. No, I bet he doesn't type it in, but I bet he says what to say. You think so? Yeah. Does he say it in Latin? He does it multilingually, and so… I was going to say, they're hanging out in the Vatican. Some dude walks up and says, Pope, we need to know what you want to put on the Twitter today, and he just busts it out, and some dude's sitting there with a laptop, Twitter account. Pope says it. Tweet it. Tweet it. Don't make me take my hat off. I bet he sweats like a beast underneath the hand. I was going to say, I think that takes the reverence out of going to the Vatican and listening to him, and he's just like, dude, just check the Twitter. Are you kidding me? That would be pretty funny if he started talking. He's like, hey, man, I put that on the Twitter.

I feel like you're not paying attention. You all should have known about this. Why are you traveling to the Vatican anymore? It's on the Twitter. Here's the deal, Troy. People don't like a snarky Pope. You know what I'm saying? They don't like a real lowbrow, sarcastic cutter of a Pope. Listen here, Booba. I've been Pope and Holy. This is on the Twitter. I've been Holy for a lot of years. I wear an eight-foot hat. You wear a cheesehead. Who gives out the advice around here? All right, so here's the deal. We're also on week 29, proof number 29 from GodIsImaginary.com. This week, we'll go ahead and fire this one up. And the God is Imaginary man wants to talk about communion. And if you're fresh to the show, he's got 50 proofs that God is imaginary. God is 28-0, but we're going to keep walking through them because these are sometimes legitimate

barriers for people and at least resemble an argument that you might hear somewhere. So we're going to walk through them and see if we have an answer, as James would say. And so let's walk through his proof 29 that God is imaginary. And here he goes. Think about communion. Because Christians have been participating in a 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. Have you ever wondered where this ritual came from? Or why billions of people would participate in a ritual that is this bizarre? First, let's look at the part of the Bible that preaches the ritual. You find it in Mark chapter 14. Here's the quote. And as they were eating, he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said, take, this is my body. And he took a cup. And when he had given them, he gave it to them. And they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. There are a few lines in Luke chapter 22 that are nearly identical. And he walks through those.

He says, to any normal person, this sounds very much like the script of a gruesome horror film. It sounds like some sort of revolting satanic ritual. Why would that be offensive to a man that doesn't believe in God? I would assume he also doesn't believe in Satan. Pass. Good point. Mulligan. It definitely does not sound like the words of the all-loving creator of the universe. Imagine that you are a normal person. Booba, it's a stretch. And you have never been exposed to Christianity before. Now imagine that a Christian comes up to you and quotes John 6.53. Any normal adult would rightfully assume the Christian to be insane. Thus, you never see a bumper sticker that says John 6.53. Now he is right. There is a little production on bumper stickers on much anything else than John 3.16. What Jesus is demanding is cannibalism. What does your common sense tell you about all of this? What are we talking about here? What we're talking about here is cannibalism. And what Christians are doing looks exactly like a pagan satanic ritual.

He said that. If you're a Christian, the two questions you may be asking yourself right now, Booba. This is what you're asking yourself. I can hear your mind. Why in the world, clunk, clunk, clunk, that's your mind. Why in the world am I, as a sane individual, participating in ritualistic cannibalism? Cannibalism. How in the world did I stoop to this point? Two, why would I be breathing into the microphone? Three, why would an all-powerful, all-loving God demand that I do this? What sort of God am I worshiping? Here's his historical background. If you are curious, here's why Christianity contains this bizarre ritual. It is not the case that an all-powerful God in heaven demands this behavior. All the rituals in Christianity are completely man-made. Christianity is a snowball that rolled over a dozen pagan religions. As the snowball grew, it freely attached pagan rituals in order to be more palatable to converts. The Bible is always palatable. I would agree. Indeed. There's no debate in the public forum as to whether the Bible is palatable or not.

The process is described succinctly and accurately in the book The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This book offers these two accounts of the… Also a deity. Dan Brown, the beloved, here he goes. The vestiges of pagan religion and Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks become the halos of Catholic saints. The circle is not a universal item. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus becomes the blueprint for a moderate images of the Virgin Mary nursing baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual, the mitre, the altar, the doxology, the communion, the act of God eating, were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions. Summation from God's imaginary man. To any normal person, the practice of communion is one of the most bizarre things that Christians do. Jesus' cannibalistic tendencies offer explicit evidence that Jesus is not God. When you research it historically, you realize that Jesus was a human being like any other. The mythology of his birth, life, and death are pagan stories that are all man-made because God is imaginary. First thoughts, Mike Foost. Actually, I think he's taken the wrong end of the stick on the verses that he's reading. Jesus breaks the bread and says, do this in remembrance of me. It's the broken body that he's talking about, not exactly the eating of it.

I just assume you're going to eat the bread. But he breaks the bread and says, do this as my broken body. And as the blood is poured out, that's the wine that's being poured. It's not drink my blood. It's the wine that's being poured out is a symbolism for my blood being poured out. It's like if you have a picture of your wife and you say, hey, here's my wife. Everybody in the room knows that's not literally my wife. I'm not married to a piece of paper. It is the image of my wife. Just as the wine was an image of his blood, the bread was an image of his body representing what he was about to do. Yeah, I feel like he's stuck on the eating and drinking part of it. To me, when I read it, it seems like the symbolism is in the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine, not necessarily the eating or drinking. If it were literally cannibalism, the scripture would contain the words, ouch, and stop it. Right? Does anyone have a band-aid? Hey, man, we're waiting until tomorrow. Don't bite off my leg right now. Are you kidding?

You tell me that if left open to it, the overzealous yet tend to be obedient Peter wouldn't start gnawing on his right arm. I mean, it obviously is not cannibalism. It's just a weird reading. It's all about symbolism, and I would agree. I don't think the first thing I would run to trying to convert someone and really explain what we believe, a relationship with God and Jesus Christ and everything like that, I don't think the first thing I'm going to run to is, you know, Jesus at one point in time when talking to his apostles says, hey, you know, take this and remembers me and hands him some bread and says, this is my body, and then pours out some wine and says, this is my blood. That's not the sentence I'm going to use to bring them over to God. I don't know. It actually is a very powerful, it is, I would disagree with you, Mike. It's not the image of, it's not the pouring or the breaking. It is the bread, and it is the wine. Hold on, Dan. Okay, let me read it. Out of Luke 22. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you from now on,

I will not drink the fruit of the vine until God comes. 19. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He didn't say, eat it. I mean, assume you're going to eat it. He does another test. Well, yeah, hold on. So here's a clarification. John 6, starting in verse 53, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. All right, so Dan, maybe marry the two, like where Mike's coming from and how we should really look at it. I don't trust Luke anymore. I'll tell you that. Well, it is.

Doctors. My computer's acting funny. It is the perfect image of the entire completion of the Old Testament. All the sacrifices have been made. It was always, there was blood that was shed. There was a body that was given. And Jesus is coming as a sacrificial lamb. He is the ultimate lamb, the perfect holy lamb, giving himself in sacrifice for our sins. So actually, that would be a perfect thing. It is the picture of what Jesus did. That's exactly what you're telling someone about. This is how your sins are forgiven. Not through communion, but through the blood of Jesus Christ. No, and I… And through the body that he gave that was died, buried, and resurrected. That represents everything. And it is huge and powerful, and the imagery is so simple that that's what makes it so awesome, I think. Now, we were talking Pope a little bit ago.

They have a different view on the thing. It's called transubstantiation, where they actually literally believe it is literally the blood and literally the body of Christ. I think they're in error there. I hope the Pope doesn't tweet me there. Dan Hudson. Sorry. I am not in error. I was watching Live from the Path Monday night. And your casual dress is in error, Mr. Hudson. It's a powerful, powerful, powerful image that is the foundation of our faith. Once again, though, this guy has nothing to do with proving if God's right or wrong. It just proves he doesn't like it. I mean, I wish he would come up with a new website. We say this every time because he's still not answering his own question. How does that prove… I don't care if God said,

I want everyone to stand on their head and chew up peanut butter. That doesn't mean he's not real. It doesn't mean that's silly to say. You know, I don't… Like, I want to chew peanut butter. Right, right, right. This isn't proof. You're likely to… If you find something that you believe is outrageous and you may get more people to agree with you, but that doesn't make God not real. It's just, again, you're finding people that don't agree with God. Because, I mean, he could say you should eat other people. I mean, that doesn't make him not God. Potentially outside of his character. But, you know, I guess what he's saying, though, is he just disagrees, even if this was the case. He just frankly disagrees with God.

It doesn't make him not God. The Apostle Paul quotes the Lord's Supper, the beginning of the Lord's Supper, in 1 Corinthians 11. And when he came to give thanks, he broke it, said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this is the cup of the new covenant. In my blood, do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread, drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And really, he's talking about the church celebrating this,

and there were some who were doing it in an unworthy manner. In other words, they didn't really believe in Jesus, and they were taking it anyway. They did not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, as Messiah. And there were people literally getting sick and dying. And he was saying, hey, by the way, this is a big deal. Don't take it lightly. I always tell parents, this is a great snack time for the kids. It's like, no, it's really not a snack time. Not that I expect kids to start falling over or anything like that, but it's just,

it's one of those things you just take it seriously because it represents the most powerful event ever in the history of existence. It points back to the cross, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. And it is the foundation of our faith. He said, anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many of you are weak and ill. Some of you have died. Whoa. That's pretty heavy. That is heavy. What are you doing? Are you drinking a gallon of water? Trying to put on a semi-legitimate

radio program here, Boova. Can you pull yourself together? I wasn't on camera. My apologies to the listeners and viewers. All right. All right. Okay. So, I mean, yeah. Yeah. There was, I mean, quoting Dan Brown, that's a, that's a, that's a fiction author. That's pretty weak. That's like just quoting Luke. It's a mistake. I'll be honest, boys.

That really knocked the wind out of my sails. I thought I was onto something. I thought, well, you know, theologian Mike is retiring. I'm going to back to abrupt and rude Mike. He is useful. It's so much more fun. Great. Yeah. What do you got next week, Ben? Yeah. All right. So, God's 20, I don't know. Proof number 30,

which we'll hit, actually we'll hit in three weeks. Oh, yeah. Three weeks. We're on sabbatical. Yeah. We're broadcasting the Christmas Eve service or the, the Live from the Path extravaganza next Monday. And the following Monday, we're going to give you the best stuff for the year. I don't know what we're going to do. I feel like we have five minutes of material for that. It's New Year's Eve. My guess is people aren't out, you know, boozing it up on grape juice

and listening to Live from the Path. It could. Man, you ruined my New Year's Eve plans. It's like a good time to me. Oh, no. Ooh. Proof number 30, examine God's sexism. I'll give you the opening salvo. If you would like to prove to yourself that God is imaginary, here's one easy way to do it. Full colon. Capital, look for places in the Bible where God is an absurd, unmitigated jerk instead of the all-knowing, all-loving,

fully enlightened being that he is supposed to be. The utter contradiction proves that God is imaginary. In other words, look for the places God agrees with me. Yeah. Or disagrees. If he disagrees with me, he's a jerk. Wow. That's pretty, you know, ninth grade. Oh, that'll be fun. Okay. So, oh man, it's,

oh, for heaven's sakes. It's pretty lengthy. It's like a novel. Okay, I'll have to see if I can cut that down a little bit so I don't have to read the whole thing. I see the words misogynist and Afghanistan. Is there a Baptist church in there anywhere? You're going to have to truncate this thing. He's after some, one church all the time. I can't remember. It's the one in North Carolina that has free parking.

He don't like it. He don't like churches that have free parking. Plenty of free parking. I hate it. The Lord would charge tennis courts. All right, anyway, so that's where you can check. If you're interested in more, you can go to godisimaginary.com and take a peek through. See what we see. There's a bunch of folks out there that are rebutting this thing. Folks that certainly are smarter than us.

But I like to have a conversation about it and we like to talk through it. So that was God's Tony and I know as far as I'm concerned. We'll hit it next two weeks from now and we'll do proof number 30. Examine God's sexism. No way to kick off the new year with a little God is a sexist talk. And we'll get to that. Excellent. Thank you for listening so far to Live from the Path. By the way, you can catch us during the week

at livefromthepath.org. You can see previous clips including some of the games that we've played. You can take part of the Secular vs. Solomon quiz. Mike Donita. That's there from last week, man. That's not a good cookie. Stay out of it. That's a mistake. I'm already invested in it. You can also check out performances from previous artists including Bethany Joy Johnson who was in the studio a few weeks back. Double J. And previous clips from Jeff Arendale.

As a matter of fact, his entire CD release is out there posted. You can watch the full concert of the special event of the Jeff Arendale CD release party not here for me. And you can do that. And so Jeff, here's the exciting deal. Jeff has agreed to host the house band at the Live from the Path Christmas Extravaganza. Now without giving away the farm here, Arendale, how are things going? Is it going to be worth bringing your kids

out in the snow? Absolutely, it is. I was very, I guess I didn't know what to expect although you were very instrumental in getting the talent together and then we had a great rehearsal tonight. Sean Covington was there and Randy Dreesen and some other people. The house band, the band that I play with was there and it was, we started the first song and it was magic. So I guess, I don't know how

Christian magic is but I mean, it's kind of Christian magic. The Holy Spirit was there. How about that? We were like a bunch of warlocks. It was beat on drugs. Have you seen? That was a poor choice of words but you know what I'm saying. It's like The Hobbit. You've seen The Hobbit, haven't you? It was gold. I'll say that. Let's put it into show business terms. No, wait a minute. This isn't show business either but fantastic. I mean, just a great spirit

in the rehearsal, great attitudes. You know, everybody's doing it for the right reason. You know, it's to bring glory to God and celebrate the birth of Christ and you know, when you first explained to me what you were talking about, I think the theme that I got from you was it's going to be like Prairie Home Companion maybe on steroids or on Diet Coke or something and you guys are going to be doing your fun and frivolity

along with, I don't know, somehow getting the crowd, keeping them entertained when we're not and we're going to have people singing along with the songs. Yep. There'll be songs that they know, there'll be performances by various artists and just really looking forward to it. You know, and I think it's great too just to see Christians come together, Christian artists come together and join their talents, you know, for something greater. Yeah,

instead of fighting. Instead of the way we normally do. That's just awkward, you know. You know, that's one thing about Christmas. It just brings us together for once during the year. Yeah. When there's two Christian bands in the parking lot duking it out, you're like, what has happened? What has happened? He's doing banjos. Last time Covington was here, he straight up punched me in the face. No doubt. He said, we had to,

you know, start the show off with like a discussion on baptism or communion or God is speaking in tongues. We can do that God is sexist thing. Yeah, there we go. That place. Rural women in the church. You know that place. Welcome to Live from the Divisive Path. Let's all hug together now. I hope you grabbed a fork. Let's talk about the little bits of doctrine that I don't agree with you. But it's good. It's good. And Sean Covington

even is going to bring his mandolin. And you know, that's one thing too. We were hoping that Mike was going to play keyboards for us that night, but he couldn't. Not if Covington's playing the mandolin. Oh no, but we still, we still, there still might be room for you. Here's the thing. Covington's a free thinker. I don't get along with free thinkers. I thought you were a free thinker too.

That's why we don't get along. Actually, to be honest with you, that whole story about the Christian guys fighting in the parking lot, me and Covington last time he was in here. He said, I want to play the mandolin. I said, that's it. Not in my house. I was hoping that you could come to rehearsal so I could see, you know, what type of player. I mean, are you out in front player? Are you behind?

I'm very reserved. I'm very reserved. You know, are you capable of, are you capable of taking a lead? Can you, can you bring in different sounds? You know. Yeah, these all sound like technical terms and really, I just, I don't want to frighten you. I just set the stuff up. Those are the white ones. Well, and you know, I've seen you play before and you've got some skills, you've got some chops.

It was blues type stuff that I saw. That's all I know. Perfect. So it's going to be a blues Christmas. That's it. That's all there is. There's a bag of tricks I bring with me and as soon as they're done I just get off the stage. Well, I hope you do bring your keys and we've got a little bit of time beforehand and hopefully we can work you in if not for one or two songs and for hopefully the whole night. Here's what I had envisioned for Mike

because Mike's going to be playing, he's in there playing the piano. I feel like you're in a good spot to be like a, to be like a Paul Schaefer type of guy. Ladies and gentlemen. Like a late night guy where the guy in the band is kind of harassing the show from over to the left. Yeah, I could do that. I feel like that fits you well. Yeah, that's probably the best job for me. You'll need a slick, silky shirt. Yeah, I could critique things from feet away. Yeah,

there's no reason for me to critique up those. How are things going over there? Well, sure stinks over here, man. It says show's been dead from the path. That's what it is. Could have put a Santa hat on a fish and it'd be more entertaining. So here's the deal. I'm like way excited about this thing and I was excited when we started to think of it and for all the reasons I think Jeff that you were talking about, we are very blessed

for the show to have people that are willing to give their time and talent to God and to come up here and to share that with us and with the folks that listen to the show. We look like a shifty operation. We're on at 10 p.m. We're making you come out in the cold and the nubbins to come perform on the show and we've just had a lot of cool people come out and spend their time sharing their stuff with us and have those folks

kind of come together for this Christmas deal. I'm going to be entertained and frankly, that was my bar and so I really hope you all come out but just so you know, I won't be disappointed because I will enjoy the show most definitely. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, there's still time, right? There's still time to get your tickets. All I got to do is show up at the door and say I'm here for the free show and someone will just let you in. Absolutely.

And that's how it goes. You can bring as many people as you want to. If your lifestyle is hobo or nomadic in nature and you need a warm place to stay for the night, you might as well come to the Christmas program. Yeah, and go see Ben because you'll have five bucks for him, right? I will have five bucks for him. You better stock up, Ben. Can you guys break a 20? Oh, you can't? Tough luck. Airedale's holding on to that from like years ago. I got mine like a steel sieve. Hey, one other thing too

I wanted to say to people too is that we're going to be doing traditional favorites but in an untraditional way. But you'll know the songs. You'll vaguely find them somewhat familiar. It's going to have that woman doing it. Yeah, but you also will hear some favorites that I would say that are maybe more secular. We've got a few of those we're dropping in as well. I was surprised too. Pagan hits. That's what I'm saying. But we're doing… For warlocks and stuff. I always thought Here Comes Santa Claus

was, you know, especially Elvis' version was kind of a pagan Christmas hit. But if you go into verse 2, 3, and 4 that he's talking about God in there. Gene Autry, I think, he had it figured out. It's all about sharing the light of God and peace on earth and all that kind of stuff. So we'll have that as well. Is he the singing in the rain man? Gene Autry is the singing cowboy. He's the one that wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and apparently Here Comes Santa Claus and other millions of favorites. No kidding. Have you ever read

the book of Luke Arendale? Parts of it. You can't trust doctors. I saw the whole thing and I wrote a complete gospel for you, Theopolis. Except for that part. I gave up. I thought he was trying to vaccinate me and I bailed. Ben, we probably better… You're trying to influence me. I'll get the flu if I want to. We might want to take a break, Ben. Yeah, no, that's a solid idea. All right, you… Thanks for listening so far. Tonight, you've been listening to Life in the Bath. We'll be right back with you.

And we're back. Thanks for listening to Life in the Bath. Hey, I don't know what it was like for you guys, but that was a heck of a break. No doubt. I really enjoyed it. Hey, real quick, just to remind you, so when I ask for things that there's people that you want to do something for the show, there's two things that we ask. One, if you'd pray for the show, that would be awesome. We need it. And we could really use you praying for the show

that we talk about things that are otherwise that are glorifying to God and that our conversations ultimately are productive and that we can learn things from them and in the interim, hopefully you can as well or at least marvel at how we should have known it to begin with. The second thing is you can interact with our sponsors. We have three great sponsors with the show. Valley Services is a commercial and residential cleaning company in the Des Moines area.

Also, Ames and stuff. Hey, do not mock me. Stop it. Anyway, there's still time to kick the year off right and also hit it for the holidays. Have Valley Services come out and do some of that work that you don't want to do or can't keep up with. Go to valleyservices.net or call Charlotte 515-277-5611 and they can get you hooked up. It's the thing to do. I worked for them for a time like 10 years ago

and I am not up to the standard. I had to get rid of it. They do awesome work though and they're the folks that are scrubbing behind your, they're getting the toilet clean, they wipe down the bottom. Places where if you have to bend down, you don't clean, that's the type of thing that they do. Yeah, where you just close your eyes and you throw them up in the corner and you're like, I had to have done it. Yeah, I feel like I took care of the deal. Or you send the kid in, it was a learning lesson and you just, you assume that they took care of it.

It didn't happen. So anyway, go ahead and hit valleyservices.net or Charlotte 277-5611. Also, Kapanas Coffee, if you go to Ames, oh shoot, it's in Ames, Kapanas Coffee House in Ames and their website is ameskapanascoffee.com that's ameskapanascoffee.com and you can find more information about how they go about their business and what times of things they offer. I've been there, it's delicious. They also make a mean gelato. I'm not even sure what a gelato is.

Now here's the deal, I have bad teeth so I could not drink the coffee and then follow it up with a cold gelato. That would have been a mistake for a guy with my dental infrastructure but they do look fantastic and so next time I'm going to skip the hot drink and go with the gelato so I can speak to it a little bit more appropriately. What is a gelato? Italian ice cream. Yes, Italian ice cream. Oh, like a creamier version of the ice cream. Oh, okay.

So they have, do they have like the fufu drinks for guys like me who don't drink coffee? The fufu? You bet. You bet on like the little yogurt little thingies. They got gelato, man. Strawberry stampede type stuff. Strawberry stampede? Where do you get your drinks from, the pizza ranch? Rocky Road Rush. Can you get an eggnog shake? How about that? Can I order off the kids menu? Do you guys have chicken nuggets? Can I get a balloon with this? I'm Dan Hudson. All right.

Well, anyway, so if you're just, if you're trying Capone for the first time, I would recommend the Mex Mocha. The chocolate and cinnamon mocha. I'm a mocha man. The Mex Mocha's got a little tang to it. I would recommend that. So check that out. And finally, if you, for all your t-shirt printing, your Frisbees, your cups, your mugs, anything that you need

and you want your logo on it, Jared Roy's the man to talk to at On Purpose Promotions. Go to Jared. Jared's, first of all, he's doing the shirts for Our Life in the Path Extravaganza. The band is going to have them on and so will us guys. And so you can check those out. Now, I designed that. Like, if you don't like design, that's not his fault. That's my fault. But he did the printing for us

and did it very, very quickly. And he's also going to be there. He's going to be there singing. Very nice. He's coming out. So anyway, he's a great guy. Will he make shirts while he's singing? It's very possible. He does great work. You can make orders right there on the spot. Contact Jared Roy at OnPurposePromos.com. Dan, you know you're not supposed to talk during that stuff. Oh. Sorry about that.

Well, that was a question that I had. Nobody told me that. What color shirt is it? The red. Red? Okay. No, no, they're green. That's what I like to hear. Yeah, they're green. Green? Green, yeah. Yeah, because I'm trying to plan, you know. You do the plaid trousers,

then you can wear any color. Yeah. That's the way to go. Don't act like you don't have plaid trousers. Oh, no. No, I do. I had them freshly pressed. That's what I have in my closet. I was just drinking a strawberry stampede in them the other day while I was out cold. I've spilled it on me, but you couldn't tell. This is the way to live. Hey, oh, it's so,

boomer, boomer. That's fairly low rent. So you can, by the way, in case you want to check them out, you can go to Jeff's website. It's jeffarendale.com, and you can pick up a CD. He's released Not Here For Me. He's played some tunes off of that here on the show, and I highly recommend it. It's an excellent CD. Thank you. And it's got a sweet tree on the front. I always enjoy it. Actually, yeah, it's kind of half enlightening, half creepy,

you know, when you see it. What's behind the tree? Yeah. What's the tree all about? Is that a burning bush? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, could be on fire. Could produce pears. Who do, you know? You never know. Fruit of the vine? Looks like it's from Guatemala. All right, so anyway, you can learn more about Jeff by going to jeffarendale.com or hanging out

at any plaid trouser store location. You say, give me the Arendale. I'll take the Arendale. Here's the deal. Shut up. Pardon. No, that's what I meant. We need to be careful with our tongues and the damage that our tongues do. And maybe I noticed this this week. You know, there was a lot of very tragic stuff in the news this week. And so maybe this kind of stuck out

in me more than it normally would. But I'll be honest with you, it's just been something I've been thinking about over the last few weeks is how we react to people, how we talk to people, and how we use our tongues. And so, you know, there's some scripture in James that kind of points to this. And so I thought I'd read that and kind of talk about some stuff that I've been thinking about when it comes to, you know,

kind of keeping an eye on the tongue or how you're talking to folks. So here's a James scripture. This is in James 3. And here we go. It says, How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature

can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree,

my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. And so, you know, obviously that piece of scripture kind of highlights the dangers we have in our tongue and the power we have in our tongue is the most, is a very ready body part. It is part of normal communication, how we go about our daily lives.

You know, most people's work has to do, you're talking to somebody, you're interacting, you're communicating with people. But it can destroy things so quickly and so recklessly. It's so easy for your tongue to get you into trouble and frankly, from a broad scale, to miss, to ultimately misrepresent you. It's most likely to give you away in a moment

without telling the truth about you as a whole. And I think the way that we can look at this, I think to remember that is you've been in an argument with somebody, right? And they say something and you're like, you're just incensed about something that they've said. It's outlandish. You know, it generally happens with a spouse, someone you're close to. And you take, especially in the heat

of a moment, the thing that comes out of their mouth as if it represents hours, maybe days of forethought. Like they really thought through the thing that came out of their mouth and they intend it in everything that came out of their mouth. They mean it to its deepest core. It represents all context, clarity,

and accuracy and it represents their entire character and nature. Have you ever done that? Because the only reason to react in some of the ways that we do when we have those conversations is because we feel like this person has put a lot of, they mean completely everything that comes out of their mouth. And then the question to look at yourself is do you do that? I mean when you're

in the kind of the heat of a discussion with somebody, do you like think within all context, clarity and accuracy, the thing that comes out of your mouth? If you had had two minutes, let alone two hours or two days to think about how to respond to that, would you have responded in the same way? And if you don't do that, because you don't, I think the scripture bears that out, right? Why do we react

in such a way as if someone else does? As if someone else has spent that same amount of time? Because if we're thinking about it all, we know very well that they haven't. And that's why there's always apologies, especially you have this with the spouse, right? What is it, you know, half an hour, depends how long you hold on to stuff. I'm usually about a 15 minute guy.

I'm like, oh, sorry. You know, and you apologize because you didn't really mean it, but your tongue got away from you. It represents parts of your character because, I mean, you did say it. It did come out of your mouth. It obviously crossed your mind. But does it represent your entire character? Does it represent what you would say if you had the chance

to do it in a perfect circumstance? And generally, the answer is no. But it reflects, I think, the total destruction that your mouth can bring to you and to your relationships and how you respond to people in an instant, in a moment. And that's what makes the tongue dangerous. Ultimately, it tells partial truths about you but not entire truths about you.

And so, I guess the reason I've been thinking about it though is just think about how quickly we are to open our mouth and to respond to something without actually ever considering what we are gaining by doing it. Like, are you adding to a conversation or are you just adding to a noise? When I speak, I do this, like,

it's easy to rile up people that agree with you already, right? Do I speak knowing that I will irritate someone who doesn't agree with me but rile up backers for people who do? And if that's what I've done, did I gain it all? Like, was that progress? Or is it a wasted moment? Is it a wasted word? Just to get people that already agree

with something that you've said to go, yay! And the other guy on the other side and go, no, Ben stinks. I don't know. You see that social media kind of produces this. I mean, you have the ability to kind of say things and even day-to-day conversation. You want to, you fill time

getting to know people and talking with people and it's just a, I don't know. It's just something that I've been thinking about, about the things that I say. And I'll give you a quick example of when this came up. I've been reading, I've never read the Chronicles of Narnia books. Okay, so I thought, well, I'm kind of a literature guy and I thought,

well, okay, that seems pretty fun. They're quick reads, okay? I don't have a ton of time to read, but I can get through these. It's going to be great. And so, one of the, one of the books is called Prince Caspian. And there's a, there's a section in there where Aslan, who's the, who's the lion, is like telling the kids to go,

there's four kids that are in there, they're walking through the, through Narnia. And he's kind of showing himself and saying, you need to come this way. And one of the girls believes him but doesn't really follow him. And then somebody was like, no, you're not seeing him. He's not really there. I don't believe it. And so,

ultimately, they kind of figure out that he was really there. The thing he was asking to do was real. And one of the girls is named Susan and she was, she starts to apologize. She directly didn't do the thing that she would do and denied the thing that he was asking her to do and she goes to apologize to Aslan. And he, he has every right to be upset because he said to do this thing, it was for their own benefit

and they simply did not do it. And his response was, he takes a deep breath and he says, Susan, do you need a little extra bravery today? And then, as he's a big lion, he goes up and he kind of breathes on her. You know, does this feel better? And she kind of like buries her head in his big lion mane. This is, this is a fairly impactful in the book

because Aslan is a, is a Christ figure. And so it kind of puts, puts you in the perspective of dealing with Jesus in that way. But the reason that hit me was is I think, like when my kids do something wrong, my general reaction is to, is to treat it as if they did it on purpose. Right? When my kid is trying to spell, learn to spell and they make a mistake, what do I do?

I say, oh, here's, here's kind of where you made the mistake. Here's how you would correct that next time. Right? If my kid runs up and smacks the other kid, I say, don't smack your sister. Right? I treat the one, the spelling is a mistake. The smack is an intentional show of their character that needs to be squashed and stopped right away. In the story, ignoring what Aslan has asked

him to do, you know, I would take it, I, they would, that's rebuke. That's rebuke for me. Stop it. Why don't you follow me? This is the thing you were supposed to do. If you would have done it, it would have been better. His reaction was, do you need a little extra bravery today? You didn't do this because you were not brave. Right? This is a learning experience. And so,

that was a, that was a thing to me where I, where I, not only with my reactions, but how my tongue responds to a kid that, that was disobeying is, do I, do I use it as a teaching moment like I would if they were misspelling a word? It just happens to be an action as opposed to like a spelling thing. Right? Or, because I, I've decided that, that smack attempt at her sister

was an indication of her full character. My kid is probably rotten to the core. She's violent. Right? That's, I look at my reaction, I think, I don't really think that about my daughter, but sometimes do I react as if that is my, might be what I think? Does my tongue make it sound as if that's what I think? And, and it's, it's just a change of language. It's a change of approach and it's a change of a language

and it recognizes that your tongue has the ability to build up and it has the ability to tear down. Is there time for rebuke? You bet. Is there time for calling a situation what it is and, and calling sin, sin? Absolutely. But, but do we recognize, do we take people's actions in words and do we, do we paint their whole life with that brush? Or,

with the way that we communicate and the way that we deal with people, do we, do we give them just that margin of grace that says, you know, I, I don't do things the perfect way the first time either. Um, I, I'm going to give you a chance to clarify. I'm going to give you a chance to maybe show me that that wasn't, this is not reflective of your entire character,

your entire nature. And, and that's, and that's a communication thing and it's a word thing. And, um, I don't know, that's, that's just been heavy on me over the last few weeks about being careful about how I say things, how I respond to people. And am I, am I using one of the things that God has given me to bless him, to curse others, or even to, to put other people,

to tear other people down. Even if I think I'm doing it for the best reason, you know, is it important you know truth? You bet. But like, as opposed to saying, you know, get in the car, you're taking too long to get in the car. You're just, you're, you're jacking around. I want you to stop it. Or say, you know, do you need a little extra hurry today? Let me, let me give you a hug.

I gave you a bunch of hurry. Run to the car. I did that. Totally worked. Totally worked. So anyway, that's it. I know that was broad and a little bit rambling, but it's, it's, it's just a lot of incoherence in my mind about being careful about how I use, how I speak, how I talk, how I, how I respond to certain things and not, not out of, out of false buildup.

Like I'm not lying to build somebody up in a way that they shouldn't be. I'm not shining somebody on to make it seem like they're better than they are. But, you know, are we, are we using our tongues wisely? The same tongue that would share the gospel with someone, you know, am I using that tongue well when I talk to them in other ways about other things? So anyway, that's, that's,

I don't know. I don't know if anybody else, maybe it'll struggle with that, but that's just been something that's been on me over the past few weeks. I think I've always had complete control of my tongue. Mine has ruined me so many times it's not even funny. I don't like it when Ben talks like that because then I feel really convicted and I can't say anything the rest of the day. That really ruins Facebook. The whole purpose of Facebook is to lob out bombs and have people react.

I have been, you know, it's funny that you even brought this up, but like, my, like, you know, there's certain sins that I commit that just drive me insane because I do them involuntarily and as soon as it happens I go, ugh, dang it. and my mouth is the number one perpetrator of that. I say the worst things

sometimes and I go, dang it. I know better than that than to let that come out of my mouth. I know better than that. Usually after an encounter with me too. As soon as I have to get done talking to Dan. String of profanity. It's just terrible. But like, I do this at work and I'm like, I do this at work, I do this with, you know, just people that I run into and something will happen

and, you know, I'll say something and I'm like, that's gossip, man. Why did, you know better than that. You know better than to wade into that. You know better to stick your face in there and like, I just can't, for the life of me I can't stop doing it. Like, every day I repent of it. Every day I call it exactly what it is. I'm like, Lord,

I don't want to be this guy. I don't want this behavior and the next day I'll do it again. I'm like, dang it. You know, like, it's that one thing and it's, I don't know, it's kind of a, maybe how Ben's explained it, it's a, you know, a completely, just a different film, you know, a different point of view maybe instead of going at it from my point of view

where I keep trying to jump out of the same hole, maybe I just turn the camera a little bit, it looks a little bit different, maybe what comes out of my mouth is a little bit different, you know, but like, it's funny that that came up because that is, that is like the, my everyday struggle with, you know, when they say log in the eye thing, that's, that's my log. I continually run my mouth when I shouldn't, you know,

and it's, it's hard because, you know, most of the, most of my personality is pretty abrupt up front, you know what I'm saying, blah, but like, that gets, that crosses the line fast, really fast, you know, you have to be very careful if that's, if that's you and that is me and so, it's funny that that came up because it's, I've been really struggling

with that for the last, say, 30 years. Is that it? Yeah. Only 30 years. Yeah. And it's not one thing, it's another. I don't have a problem with profanity at all. It just, it just, it doesn't even come in my mind because it's been so many years I just stopped. However, what my problem with the tongue tends to be is I have these high expectations

for people but I don't tell them. So it's all internalized. Like, I'm thinking to myself every time I see Troy, man, I wish he was a Vikings fan, you know, but I won't tell you that, you know, and he comes in with this stupid Green Bay thing on and I'll finally just, after 20 years, well, not 20 years, after a while, I'll finally just be like, hey Ben, can you believe he's over there

wearing a Green Bay thing? You know, I won't tell him that, I'll tell Ben. Yeah. Which then starts a forest fire. Right, exactly. And then Ben says, hey Mike, you know what Dan said about Troy? You know what Dan said? I'm like, I knew Dan was a gossipy gussie, I knew I should go talk to him, me and him could be buds. And then he comes back to me and then my tongue's loose. Then you get mad and you swear at me. I guess,

you know, from my perspective, I think about my kids and how long, you know, I've got a daughter that's 20 and a son that's 27 and what damage I may have done in a way that my folks have done damage to me as far as the way I look at the world, the way I react to things. Is it too late to change that? I don't think so. No. I mean, is it too late to change my reaction?

But how do I remember to make that part of me every single day so that I don't, and even make it a reflex rather than, I have to think about this, I have to think about this. Right. You know, oh, I did it again. Oh, I did it again. I think that's the hard part, right? Because it's almost ingrained behavior, you know, and like I usually swear it off, right? Like I'm like,

that's it. I'm just going to not talk for three days and get past the hump. That's what I was thinking. My tongue swelling up. As soon as something like that happens, I always think, you know what? I'm just going to give up speaking until the Lord has helped me with my tongue issue. And then I don't do it. You know, I just don't do it. I make grandstands. I pray on it. I'm like, I'm going to do this. And then that always goes back to the religion thing,

you know, where I'm like, God, I'm going to work harder. And then about two hours later, I'm like, you know, I can't work harder. You know, I stink. Just let me give it to you. Well, yeah, let's replay. Let's try a different route. I'm sorry I said that stuff earlier, you know? And so, like, it's always nice because he always brings me

back into perspective where I'm falling and where I'm not catching his grace at full value. But I tell you what, it's pretty timely, Ben. It's pretty timely. I'm going to work on it. I'll give you a little extra something today, Mike. I like those books. I tell you what, thanks for listening to Life on the Path. You can catch us during the week at lifeonthepath.org. Please clear your calendar. It's still time.

Grab the kids. Come out to the Life on the Path Christmas Extravaganza. That's Wednesday. It'll be the 19th at 730 at Crown Point in Johnson. You can go to lifeonthepath.org for additional information. Mike, Pope Style Advice, you got like two minutes. I'm ready. Go. That should be pretty quick. Listen, don't ruin someone else's witness. Do not ruin someone else's witness. If they're, realize that if you're going to represent yourself as a person that follows Christ,

you are a fallen person. True. But, there are other people who are trying to represent a character of Christ to people and do not ruin their witness by taking the name of Christ lightly and claiming the name of Jesus and acting like you don't know Him. Like, I run into this, I've ran into this at work before where I've met some fellas and they're like, I love Jesus. I'm like, awesome! Like, I've been waiting for

someone else who loves Jesus to work here. This is great, you know? And then, like, they just, their behavior was not that of a Christ follower. And I'm like, you know, I've been praying intently on this place, you know, that my behavior will reflect the Savior that I know and you have claimed to love Jesus too and your behavior is not even trying. Not even trying.

I'm like, you know, I don't know. It's not like I haven't done this before. I've ruined someone else's witness too. You know, it's not just a, hey, I'm great and that guy stinks kind of thing. I stink as well. But, just realize that there are people trying to talk to other people about Jesus Christ and if you're going to claim the name of Christ, then claim the actions of Christ as well and at least try.

Yeah, no doubt. You never think yourself, you might think yourself as a failure, but it's tough to imagine that you're also treading on someone's face and their ability to do what God wants them to do, you know? Here's the thing, like, it's hard to watch people fail when they don't know Jesus. But I always come back to they don't know Jesus. You know, how would I expect them to act any different? People that claim to know Jesus

and act like that, I just, I don't know what to say. Like, I don't know what to say. I feel like it's sit down, me and you're going to have to talk kind of time, like, but I don't have the tongue for that, so I usually wait it out. I know where my line is. All right, you've been listening to Live from the Path. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. I hope to see you on December 19th at the Live from Bath

Christmas Extravaganza. You can listen to the show that our Christmas-y broadcast will go on, or excuse me, will broadcast the Christmas Extravaganza on 99.3 KTIA this coming Saturday, which would be the 22nd, and then we'll play the video of the show on our normal Monday broadcast here at Live from the Path.org. Thanks for hanging out with us. Have a wonderful week. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.