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

Am a Here in Young's. It's gonna be with you this evening. What are you guys drinking when you listen to the show? You got you folks at home. What do what do you got? You got a little a coffee, a little tea, a little water? I'm trying to figure out what people drink when they listen to the program. My mom says whiskey.

I think that's fair. Makes it go down easy. That's right. Alright. So here's what we got going on the show tonight. We are

around. We got a traditional stuff. Right? We got advice on Dear Life from the Path. We got anybody got any Pope style? No. No. Pope is out. Pope didn't make it. Hey, man. Pope's been around, people. I He's got best Pope ever. I know. He he really is. I kinda wanna pope.

Just just because this guy's it's just interesting to listen to. What what was he saying this week or today? He was he's been in The Philippines, and he he riled a bunch of people up because they were talking about birth control and he said, just because we're Catholic doesn't mean we have to act like rabbits. He said, he's a freaking pope. He's the best man. I tell He wouldn't be responsible responsible parenting.

Merge counseling with the Pope. Stomach. So, you know, anyway, he handles his own affairs. Alright. So anyway, that's that's one of the stuff we got going on tonight. Also, the boy who the boy who didn't see heaven, we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

I have, I have something else that is, I could do without. I came up with something else occurred to me this week, and I thought, yeah, I can, I can do without that? Mike wants to know why we even read the Psalms. Yeah. The whole thing confused me, to be honest with you. And it might just be my personality bent, but like, I don't know. Like, I've always had a hard time with the Psalms. And so I read them and I'm like, am I supposed to be agreeing with this or against what he's saying or feeling the same way? Because really, I got I feel like I got a lot more pages to go and there's a lot of Psalms here and I'm not really I'm not really, you know, picking up on it. So Psalms are tough. I I remember the you know, you first start becoming like a bible guy and you start reading stuff and you're thinking, I need something encouraging. I'm gonna read the Psalms and you open up like, smite him. Yeah. That's that's the Psalms. Yeah. There's a whole I think I can't I'm I'm holding through, the first 16 or whatever. I just got on the tail end of Job, and I'm like, Psalms. Alright. Fine. Let's do this thing. And I start reading them. I'm like, you know, he he he's basically saying, listen to me, Lord. Why are you so far away from me? I I've I've done nothing wrong. I'm righteous. I'm the best man ever. I'm like, am I supposed to be agreeing with this? And Job just got got yelled at for, like, 35 chapters for this exactly same thing, and Dave was just rolling it out. And I'm like, I don't know whether I'm supposed to be agreeing with this or or trying to think through it or I'm just confused. Alright. So we're gonna hit that. Why do we even read the Psalms? Also, secular versus Solomon tonight, boys. I got I got one put together. It's gonna be a doozy. I feel like I have you. I feel like you were in my clutches and you're gonna go down something fierce. I feel like I should bail. So, the nature of this game is I'm gonna give you a, a proverb and you do tell me whether it's a big biblical bit of wisdom,

or whether it's a secular bit of wisdom. And, you get a point for, for getting it right. If it's a secular bit of wisdom, you have to tell me the, country of origin. What kind of peoples believe in this, this wisdom that isn't, may or may not actually be biblical. Because there are hints of that stuff in some of the wisdom of the Alright. Alright. That's it. Oh, and also what the, five mistakes that will, destroy your church's effectiveness effectiveness and what to do about it. We may we may hit on that too. That was just something we were, kinda chatting about earlier this week, so we're gonna talk through that. Alright. Now before we get going any further, I wanna give a big thank you out to our sponsors, Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. Go to eisenhowerteam.com. And, this may or may not be the time to buy or sell a house. Bob Eisenhower is the man to do that. So if you are in the market or thinking about being in the market, get ahold of Bob. That's eisenhowerteam.com. He's a good friend of the show, a good friend of mine, and, I've had very

positive experiences with Bob and his team. Also, Westfield Veterinary Hospital, go to westfieldvethospital.com. You can set up appointment online, kick the ear off right by a stopping kicking the dog and bring them in for the, right checkup. Have them checked out for all the stuff that you're supposed to check them out. You know, fulfill those resolutions. What? I'm gonna tell you something about a dog. Okay. So this we had a neighbor and, some things happened at his place and whatever. And they said, well, look, we gotta get rid of the dog. And I said, what? He goes, yeah, we gotta get rid the dog. We'd like to give the dog to you guys. It's like a six year old golden retriever lived outside its whole life. And of course, the girls love this dog. Right? And I'm like, oh man, that always seemed like the curmudgeon here. So I'm like, sure, we'll get to dog. Uh-oh, this dog, I'm telling you what is he's a Houdini of of dogs. I mean, thing, I I every time I've tried to cage it or put it in a room even. Yeah. I mean, it's unstoppable. It knows how to get out of every kennel. I put I I I he broke the kennel. I I put I put one of those, climbers clasps on the kennel. Yeah. He opened it and got out. We put we put we locked him in a room. We didn't lock him. We just shut the door. He opened a round doorknob.

I mean, not even like the straight handled ones where you can like land on it with a pawn open it. Like he put two paws on it and let himself out. And so we put another door on there and then, and then, you know, get him get him barricaded in there, but we have a small cat door cut out so the cat can get in and out. He crawled through it. I mean, seriously, the dog is outrageous. I have no idea what to do with him. And the worst part of it is is he can't be disciplined. He's six years old and every time he does something terrible, you know, you look at him and be like, no, no. And he'll look at you like, it's, I forgive you for yelling at me. And then he'll just go back to doing whatever nasty thing he was doing before, taking food off the counter, breaking stuff, tearing things apart, and you're like, no. And look really mad at him. He'll just look at you like, I'm not sure why you're yelling, but I can comfort you. Like, you gotta be kidding me. That's the most frustrating dog I've ever had. Oh, no. You should take him to Westfield He'd probably escape. I'm I'm half worried that when I get home, the car will be gone, he's up at the gas station by an outpost and a can. He's outrageous.

Alright. Anyway, Westfield vet veterinary hospital. They're right here in Johnston. Take the dog in. Give them a call. They handle all kinds of pets too, a bunch of bunch of different folks. Anyway, you can do that. Thanks for listening to, to Life in the Path. And, if nothing else, even if you're not gonna frequent, frequent those establishments, give them a call, send them an email, knock on the door, and say, hey. Thanks for, thanks for response from Life in the Path. Alright, Mike. So so let me hear more about the Psalm problems.

Here's the deal. So so like I said, I was reading through I got through done in Job, which is my emotional high. And I I just kinda cascaded right into the Psalms. And, I I've never done well with the Psalms like they're they're, I don't know, maybe I'm just not bent in the, in the how I feel range, you know, and exploring the depths of what I think is happening or how it affects me. But, but I started reading through them and I'm like, you know, I, I can totally get on board with, with, you know, the, the, the adulation things and, and, and the glory that, that, that David's writing to God. I'm like, I feel it, but I don't feel it to the extent that he feels it. And so I thought, well, okay, well, that's a place to start, you know, so I, I kept reading through him and then like the next Psalm, he's like, you know, you've, you've let me down. You're far away from me. You I've done great things. Look at me. I'm I've, I showed you blameless and you don't appear. I'm like, wait a minute. You can't talk to God like that. Job just got to try to play that same argument and he got whooped on for like a three chapter straight. You know, you wanna keep this up? And so frankly, I'm just I'm just confused by the Psalms. Like, I know there's there's pearls and like, frankly, I get stuck on some of the Psalms will have, you know, phrases that they used in old hymns. And so then I'm I'm off track for at least five minutes singing. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. How much I stick? And I'm lost. You know, I'm like, and that's all keeps going through my head over and over again. I'm like, I'm getting nothing out of this Bible reading. And then I'll stop and pray. And I'm like, Lord Jesus, I'm confused by Psalms. And so I understand why you put them there kind of, but like, I'm having a hard time. So that that's kind of my question is is when people read, the Psalms, you know, what what why? What is it? Why? Why are they there? I'm having a hard time.

What's your experience, though, with the songs, fellas? Well, it's it's poetry. Lot of it is. And it's songs. So, yeah. You you read it differently than than history or doctrine or, you know, it's not a doctrine book necessarily. Although, it might have doctrine contained in it. Yeah. It's one of those things you kinda think, you disagree?

Did I Yeah. Motion and Yeah. And it Are you saying I have no soul? It's That's your weak spot. We forgot a soul.

You're not a deeply emotional guy. You're not at all emotionally driven. I mean, you you you know Not your love language. You're not gonna that's not how you resonate with things. I mean, you you read a story, you're looking for what's the action, what's the hero like, what are the virtues, but you're not so much looking at what was the, what is it that makes your wife cry? I mean, can the Psalms not be for me then? Like, there has to be There can be. Yeah. Can do it for you. I I I think you gotta to to digest them with the right perspective, right? So like, you you are getting a lot of different things with the Psalms. Like, that's kind of the cool thing about it is it's varied, but you can't read it in a linear fashion. You can't read that Psalm one goes with Psalm two. Yeah. Psalm two goes with Psalm three, right? Like and that's kind of a problem. You have to really dive in and digest that particular Psalm and let yourself kind of be putting in that in that kind of space. Like, what what situation is he in? Why is he what what would bring a man to say, you know, God, where are you? Right? And kind of let let just the the human emotion kind of play through. The Psalms are are actually of of of a of a lot of the stuff that's biblical,

are very honest portrayal of sometimes fallible men and how they're reacting to God. Right? Like, just because David said it doesn't mean it's gold. He he's, there's there's a number of, very curious items in the Psalms. But like, I I think we see a number of things come together and why the Psalms would be important. One, I think we get to see, kind of the emotions and the interaction with God of a man that God said, this is a man after my own heart, right? And so we get to see that man act a fool as well. There's a little bit of solace in the Psalms where you're like, that guy's outrageous and God still said, this man. Yeah.

As we get to see that. I I think we get to see a guy, like, where sometimes I might feel guilty by, like, saying look at a certain circumstance in my life and being, God, where are you in this? Because I I I'm the last guy. Like, I don't wanna be the guy that's, like, I'm blaming expected God to do something and he didn't and now I'm now I'm embarrassed or upset. But it's like, I just wanna know. I think it makes it reasonable to be like, to see that and see how David's reacting and Yeah. I don't know. There's a little bit of comfort in that if you can, you know, get a prosthet apart that he's acting like a boob. Yeah. Well, you look at at David, you know, he he's he's this manly man who'll rip the head off of a bear with his hands. And then he'll he'll wear his emotion on his sleeves, you know, and and, oh, lord, you're so far away.

He's everything. And then and he'll sit down and play the lyre, you know, like a a skilled musician enough that the the king Saul is like, hey, want that boy in my temple playing me for me personally. This guy has it all. And and, you know, I don't know. So so read the song while you're you're thinking of him ripping off a bear's head or something and that might help you. I mean, here's the deal. I'm not like a like a a testosterone driven goon. Do you know what I'm saying? Like like, but but, like, here's the thing is is what I what I'm actually taking from it is, like, there is a an entire football field of of dealing with God, and I work from the two forties. Do you know what I'm saying? I work from the opponent's 40 to my 40, and that's kind of where I live. Yeah. Kind of right in the center. I don't get I don't get too crazy, you know, down. I don't get too crazy high. I just kinda operate in the 40. And so, like, some of it is is that that the more of the truth is, god's probably designed me to operate from 20 to twenty. I may not be in zone to end zone, right? But like, I've probably been designed a little bit more than I've than I'm I'm giving credence to, but I don't know, right now, I'm just I'm I'm just it's hard to go from my Job mode, which I which I really love on, and then I the Psalms and I'm like, I can't take much more of this time, you know? Ain't nobody saying, here's how I feel. You know, here's what I'm feeling like. You know, I'm like, you know, where's the guys that are yelling, David? Where's where are those guys? Well, and, you know, I think the other the other thing then is to you may not recognize yourself in there, but recognize that other people around you may feel that way, right? And you have the ability to kinda understand them more

by by seeing how other people talk. Yeah. He's definitely a man of passion. Yeah. I mean, everything's either like you said, he he's high high. God is great. He's awesome. He's awesome to to smite my enemy. Right. Kill a man. Why am I putting up with this? Throw the babies. Well, who cares? Yeah. It's really a fascinating read.

But I I would say you know what I would say though? It's like a lot of people try to try to go through the songs like in chunks and I I I I really would just read like, I go one Psalm and then and then not necessarily move on to another Psalm. Yeah. Like You don't need to listen to the whole top 40 when you sit there. Yeah. Because actually, it does it starts to bleed together after a while, right? Like, my mind just starts to compartmentalize it like we sat here, he's pretty happy here. He sat here, he's angry here. You know what saying? Like, I don't actually pay attention much to what he's saying. Yeah. Mhmm. Yep. I I think that's one way to do is like, I can't you a lot of people will read something and then read a Psalm or a couple Psalms or something. I I wouldn't recommend reading ten, twenty, just like I wouldn't recommend reading poetry like that. Like, it's just it's just not a good way to take it in. It's not the right kind of essence of doing it. Unless it's like Shell Silverstein, you can kind of pass through those. Those are fun. Yeah. Yeah. That's not quite, David though.

Okay. Alright. So, so what do think, Mike? A recommendation to I know you meet another man like you and he says, hey, I'm struggling with the Psalms. What do you say to him? I say, you turn about 30 pages back and Job is there waiting for you. After you get done with that, you call me. We'll talk about what you need to change. Okay. Alright. I think that's fair. Alright. So so this week, I I ran into another something that I could just do without. Last week, I I could do without guys that say

that presuppose something that they're offering will bless me Mhmm. Or bless other people. It's just it's it's presumptuous at best. And so another thing that that I ran across this week that something that I could do without is this it tends I mean, it happens to in in all circles, but, like, I I see it, I guess, more pronounced in in Christian circles is this this false this outrage. This false outrage when people that don't love God act like they don't love God and then we're, like, on the floor about and can't and can't imagine that this is going on. There was a there's an article going around on grist.grist.org,

grist.org. All the way to grist, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Through the on the globe. So, and the title of the thing was why I'll never have kids and why you shouldn't either. And, and basically was the the the context of the article was, first of all, we don't we shouldn't be bringing any more people in here. We're running out of water. The the earth is basically we're destroying the earth,

governmentally, politically, environmentally. Like, why would you wanna bring any kids in here? And that's an excuse to not reproduce. But basically, you know, you really shouldn't shouldn't want kids. And, and plus plus this woman is gay, and so, you know, she never even considered having kids. It's really easy for, for the whole heterosexuals to bring, kids in, but,

gays just can't as easily. And so just we should give it up. We should give it up. We shouldn't bother having kids. And, and so I read this article because I saw some guys that were outraged about it. I'm like, maybe I should be outraged. I want in on outrage. So I I read it and I thought, I'm not outraged at all. This seems like a pretty reasonable stance from someone who doesn't believe what I believe on a number of different levels. And I thought, this outrage is completely uncalled for. This this this this tamper tantrum, this the world is coming to an end. Where does our culture come from? All this business. Yeah. All they did was take the life that you live around the people that you live it around, and one guy decided to write down his life. Right? Or a lady decided to write down his life as opposed to, you know, living it. And so, you know, like, I I can really do without some of this false outrage business. Like, let's just let's deal with the world for what it is. I'm not saying you can't get outraged or anything. I can't say that you shouldn't react to a culture that walks away from God. But, like, I think I it's just it's almost whining. It's almost whining about, oh, I can't believe these people are acting this way. Really? You can't believe they're acting this way. I can believe it. I I'm not surprised about this at all. Like, I've in fact, like, I've seen the way I act. And I you probably just, you know, need a little bit of alcohol and and throw my bible out for a couple years and you could probably, paint my life like that. So I don't know. I I could do without it. I could do without do without the false outrage as if we don't understand that when people don't love God, they do things that God wouldn't otherwise approve of and they don't live the life that we live and we need to stop being outraged about it. Yeah, you know what? Actually, makes it hard, like, like in our arena, as Christian media, like the world does not need one more Christian outlet that really spends its time bashing on everybody that doesn't know Jesus. Do you know I'm saying? Like, here's what this here's what the society is doing wrong, here's what the government has led us down the wrong path. These are all signs that people don't know Jesus, right? Like, it's basically just showing that the that the workers are few. You know what I'm saying? It's basically the Lord going, yeah, see? Yeah. I need more dudes.

And so and so it makes sometimes it makes it hard, like, you want because if you want a a popular Christian show, you kind of gotta be willing to bash on the opposition, right? Like, that's kinda what the game is. That and then that's what it's popular anywhere, right? That's why right wing conservative radio is popular because they spend all their time, not saying why they're they're great, but why the left moderate is terrible, right? Same thing with with leftist radio. All political radio is the same way and and actually most of Christian media has kinda turned out to that same way. And so, yeah, it's it's it's really fruitless, frankly, and and and there's really I mean, any amount of time, it's it even on our end, like, I'll check those articles out really just to see the depth of how poor it is. But like, I'm not there for the right reasons, right? I'm I'm there to be entertained for probably five minutes going, that's that's even farther than I thought. Yeah. You know, but that's pretty much it. It's all I'm doing there. You know, there's there's really no inherent value in it. Okay. Anyway, that's it. Something I could do without. Hey, if there's something you could do without and you wanna share it with us, send us an email [email protected].

And, if we select your email, Pete, then we would read it on there. That's the problem with being the only fan of the show. We know when you did not email. Yeah. I do. I know when Pete hasn't listened to the show because, you know, he usually he usually tweets something about a bit. And if I don't see anything, I'm like, hey, the one person that listens to the program didn't listen to speak. We're really on rough draft. We really hit the tape. By the way, Pete, I saw that on the Twitter,

and that was a picture of me. Yeah. Pete, you guys if you don't get a chance to subscribe to live from the path on the Twitter, there's been some interesting pictures of Buva courtesy of Pete. He's he's reported to be a heavy cuddler. I would cuddle you so hard. It's weird. There was a story out this week. There was a book about a boy who claimed he visited heaven

and it was quite a popular book. And he's he's recently come out and recanted the story. He said No. Said he made it up Oh, man. Heaven forbid. Yeah. And and they're they're they're finally they're pulling the book from the shelves. Now he's not the only guy on the shelf. So, I mean, they've not they've not cleared the shelf out by any means. Mhmm. But this fella, at least, is is now off the shelf. And so I I saw some interesting reactions for some for some Jesus folks. And and maybe this falls in the same category of the false outrage, but it's like it's very disappointing how invested someone is to something that is not biblical work. Right? Like Yeah. How how

big portions, chunks of someone's faith are tied into an experience experienced by someone else that didn't make the canon. And, like, I I don't know. Like, I saw some pretty heated arguments about about the legitimacy of the book and, like, I I get it. I I I don't believe it. That that's me. Okay? I I I know people that do believe it and I think they legitimately love Jesus. So there you go. It's not a hill to die on unless it starts screwing with your mind.

And I saw a higher percentage of people where it appears that it's been screwing with their mind than I would have guessed. I just I didn't I didn't think there were so many people that were so invested in the fact that this dude had gone to heaven and taken a peek around and and thought that Jesus was cute. Like, I just I I guess I didn't realize there was that much caught up in it. I just thought it was some people like, oh, that could be. Okay. Surprise to me. Is it is surprising. I think people, they they kinda cling to something like that because they figure it's proof, you know. See, we told you it was right. It's like, he was wasn't he like a a child Yeah. Mhmm. When I had He was a six years old. Six years old. So you're gonna, like, rest your faith and foundation on a six year old? The same kid that that that continues to think the Easter bunny stops by. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is that that's where you wanna put your rock?

Son, I've never read any of those books because I tend to I just don't care. I you know, it's like, it could be true. It might not. It might be a hallucination from, you know Chemicals in into the the chemical I don't know. Could be dead on. What I do know is what the Bible says. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. Here's the thing. It's like, when I hear these stories, like, my honest reaction is seeing Jesus would be cool. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Not whether the guy saw him or didn't see him, like, I what caused it? I don't I I just think seeing Jesus face to face would be pretty cool. You know what I'm saying? And that that's kind of what I take away from it. It gives me pause to think I'm pretty excited about that. Yeah. But And it's gonna happen sooner enough, the way it is. Yeah. It'll it'll it'll show up, you know, and so, like, I don't know. I I I there was a time when I was really interested in this guy, you know, where where people telling stories of where how they meet meet Jesus and they they meet their their their family or whatever, and I'm like, you know, there's parts of it I'm just not buying, right? Like, gourd God brings glory unto himself. I don't know the first thing that he's gonna do when you get up to be in his presence is that you meet grandpa. You know what I'm saying? That seems counterintuitive to me. I'm not saying it is. That just seems odd. Yeah. But like long story short, I, you know, I just wanna meet Jesus. And so, you know, I'm excited that that that other people are excited to do the same thing. And whether it's true, whether it's not true, like, I just think meeting Jesus would be awesome. So do do you remember the movie Ghost? Was that was that Patrick? Yeah. Patrick Swayze. Yeah. Yeah. When that came out That's Bruce Willis.

It was a different one. Different ghost. That came out, you know, Bruce Patrick is a Should've read the Psalms, dad, before you die. You know, he's with his girlfriend. He doesn't know Jesus, all this stuff, whatever. He dies and and and goes to heaven, you know. And the bad guy dies and goes to hell, kinda, know, in the nutshell, the movie. And I remember some gal coming back to church saying, I don't know how you could see that movie and not become a believer in Jesus, you know. They they were just excited it was gonna cause revival in the way and I'm like, this had nothing to do with Jesus. Yeah. You get to go to heaven because he was a nice guy. You felt sorry for him. Of course, he gets to go to heaven. I thought, it's unbiblical. The West How's everyone gonna go to Jesus? Westboro Baptist Church thinks the same thing about their science. I don't know how people could see this. It's not immediate compared to Christianity. Ghost evangelism. Think most of the stuff is spelled right. It's multicolored. It

has all the attractiveness of a garage sale. We put the word hate in there. Come on. There's a little bit of controversy to stir things up. I, you know, I I remember having a conversation when that heaven is for real came up by, with the other boy that had claimed to be been there. And, there were people or some folks that around me that have been reading it, and and they were like, hey, Ben, you wanna borrow? I'm like, no. That's alright. I I don't need to read that stuff. They're like, why why not? Don't you believe it? And I and I kinda went through and said, you know, if you die once and then you're in heaven. And my wife goes, so I I don't know where the I found the right woman. The right woman who can say something and then it stumps me. Like, something that I'm like, oh, I got this. I know everything. And then, like, a very simple basic question. My my wife goes, well, what about Lazarus? And I said, shoot. Lazarus puts a bit of a a linchpin in my coffins. I said, Paul wrote later. End story. Let's go.

Grab the kids out of the way at home. So so I may have backed on how firm I was because I thought, shoot, Lazarus. Yep. Interesting. But he didn't say anything either. So I thought, I still didn't wanna read it. But I thought at the the minute the minute I walk in any situation and I'm like ultra confident that I've got this like, all I need to do is I I always should ask my wife. Anytime I'm really confident, I say, woman,

I'm gonna explain something to you too and you tell me where I'm wrong. And she's gone. And I said, that's a good woman the Lord has sent me. You know, I've I've often thought about Lazarus, know. It's like, with all these books we have out in the modern day, thought, don't you think with like, we have, you know, apostle Paul's letters, we have Matthew, we have we have the gospels, we have all these ancient documents. Don't you think Lazarus would have written something down if it was that fantabulous, you know, of a story, that great story that he would have written? We kinda have that too. That did like one of the the the extra gospels of the story of At least a falsified account. Right? Yeah. Exactly. If you're gonna make up a story, why why attribute it to Barnabas, attribute it to Lazarus. Yeah. Was there three days. Don't like Paul. Let's just say Lazarus wrote this down. Chapter one

in which I stinketh. This was blown way out of proportion. I could feel my lips still burning. It's mad that they let off. Everybody likes to land on that I'm smelling. Here's the deal. First off, let me clear the air. That's right. The tabloid gospel letter. It wasn't like that. So was playing checkers in heaven, and then I heard a voice, Lazarus, come forth. No.

Luke's never liked me. He wanted to make it to take his turn to make me look foolish. Heck, I'm kinda glad Jesus didn't make any time. You ever live with those two ladies? One of them was all nagging about, and the other one don't do anything. Alright. We're gonna Lazarus.

That's all. We should publish a false account of Lazarus. Oh, yeah. We should definitely do that. I mean, don't represent his gospel or anything. It would it would be kind of fun to put together. Yeah. We'll just write the falsified account of Lazarus, and then we'll put it on the Internet. People debate it for days. Yeah. There's no evidence of this antiquity. I can't believe this is something The new pseudophographer. We we stained it with tea. Isn't it? Is that how it's done?

We'll we'll we'll carefully line out exactly how we made it look the way it looked. We'll publish it anyway. People will consider it the Lord's word and then they'll move on it. By the way, Jesus had a wife at end. Yeah. I don't know. Hey, the the sad part about this story is that the story of the publisher really public pressuring this kid to to not say it was false. Yeah. You know? I mean, I I just have little respect. I should maybe have more, but I don't have that much respect for publishers. But they're I mean, honestly, they're a business. They're trying to make money. A lot of them in the Christian world, they're making some good stuff and there's some good products out there. But why why would you discredit your own credibility by by doing something like that? You know you know what would be hard though is like being put in that kid's dad's position. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be that it would be impossible, but like, if my kid went through a life, you know, a life altering state and woke up and told me they saw Jesus, I feel like I would hug her and and let it be for a while. And then I would try to explain to her maybe a little bit later on how you you probably didn't. I'd say, you know, he's probably with you and and and whatnot, but like like, how do you how do you look at your six year old son or daughter and say, didn't -This is not you didn't see that, you know? Well, you know, and and what this kid said is he said, I I had I had said that story to get attention.

I hadn't read the Bible and he's been reading the Bible and he says, I it didn't happen. He said, made up for attention that there's the people are profiting off lies. This cannot be true based upon his reading of the Bible. And the end Mhmm. It was very very short succinct thing. I mean, he didn't go, like, I was kind of afraid that when I saw it that that maybe he's looking for some for some attention on the opposite side of this thing. But like, I mean, he wrote like three paragraphs, very succinct, did not provide any long arguments. He's just like, I made it up for attention. They should stop publishing it that no one should profit from these lies. Jesus Christ is the only way. Love this guy. Sweet. That was pretty good. Yeah. He really handled it well.

So, all right. Now I kind of wanna read it. But that's the same reason you wanna read that other crap, you know what I'm saying? Like Yeah. Just to see how far the depth of not true is. No. But there had to be some coaching going on for six I mean, for six year old there had to be some detail for a book. That's a whole book, yeah. I mean, that's true. You think there there's layers of lies that, you know, the You know, you know, it's very difficult actually. We're talking about about Christian publishing and even even Christian radio is kind of the same way where, like, I mean, you gotta fill the air with what with what people wanna hear, right? Like, it's still a you still gotta do it stay on, stay on. And, like, being the being the a publisher or a radio guy that has to say, like, this goes on. Hey, I completely disagree with this. I don't know if you guys remember. Remember when we were on we were on the 10:00 slot on Saturday nights, and we moved to seven because there was like a national he may even still be on here as far as I know. Yeah. But like a like a guy doing prayer over the air and like, I listened to this guy for probably forty five minutes one night and I thought, this is this guy this is awful. This is awful. Like, I I I can't I couldn't support this at all. And but but it's a very tough thing because I mean, like, obviously, people were calling in, they're interacting with it. I mean, I'm sure the guy who listen to our program will be like, a bunch of yahoos This doing is awful. They shouldn't be allowed on. I mean, I hear you legitimate.

Good point. But like but it's gotta be a very difficult thing, given the wide array of of meat content that is available in in a publishing world, in a blogging world, in a radio world. Because the more you say no to, the more a, you've you've limited your audience because, not people don't actually all believe the same thing Mhmm. Right? And and aren't always open to be hearing new things, I suppose myself included. But it's just a difficult thing. It's a very difficult thing to say to to to decide, is this okay? Am I vouching for this for even passing it on? No, that's true. Right? The the what what responsibility does a Christian publisher have for for publishing, you know, that I don't know, like, that one guy's book where he said he spent, you know, x minutes in hell or, you know, like, all those things and is

I would feel some level of responsibility if we were letting people on our show and they were constantly and they were saying things that I knew that I didn't think were biblically accurate to to have let them on. And I guess, not follow-up because we interviewed that one guy, the the Doomsday guy that was under the Herald Camping folks. Yeah. And so, like, we we had him in because we wanted to talk to him. Like, I was interested in his discussion.

We talked afterwards. We clarified where we stood on things and what what what we thought was the truth compared to what he said. And, like, I think that's okay. But I don't know. I I just wonder that there's there's some of that that worries me that, like, what kind of conscience or lack of do you have to have to say, well, I may not believe it, but I'll publish it for other people to buy and suck in even if I think it points them away from Christ in some way or the other. It's I'm not saying all that stuff does that. There's there's a wide range of things that I don't believe that I don't think points them from Christ. But like, I don't know. I that just seems like a very, very tough thing that I feel like I couldn't even handle. Like, I wouldn't be able to handle a job like that be I think my conscience would eat away with me. I can barely read a devotional. So, anyway, I just think it's difficult. Or the Psalms. I can read the Psalms. Oh, crap.

40 to 40. That's me. Junk. And now, for America's fastest growing game show, Secular or

Solid. Alright. You've meandered your way into America's fastest growing Internet game show. That's unproven. Asterisk, whatever it takes. Secular versus Sullivan. Here's the basic nature of this game. I'm gonna give you a proverb, a bit of wisdom. Wisdom. And, basically, the the goal is to can we understand do we know where wisdom is coming from? The things that we believe about life. Are they biblical bits of wisdom or they information that's coming outside of the Bible? Basically, we can gauge how much faith we're to supposed put into some of this stuff. So that's that's kind of the question on secular versus Solomon. So I'm gonna give you a this bit of wisdom or this proverb, and you need to tell me whether it's a biblical bit of wisdom or whether it's a secular proverb. And if it is a secular proverb, there will be a country of origin. And you need to try to tell me what part of the world this wisdom is is is coming from. And that's the name of the game. If you're playing along at the home game, get a pen and pen pen and paper out. You get one point for getting it right. You get an extra point for the country. Everybody ready to go? Oh, yeah. Oh,

Back off on the enthusiasm desk. Oh, yeah? Alright. Here we go. Number one, secular or Solomon. In the house of the righteous, there is much treasure, but trouble befalls the income of the wicked. In the house of the righteous, there is much treasure, but trouble befalls the income of the wicked. Secular or Solomon. John Buva. Proverbs.

Proverbs. Dave Herrick. China. China. Secular China. My Foust. India. Secular India. Dan Hudson. I think I think I'm gonna go Solomon. Dan's in for Solomon. In the house of the righteous, there is much treasure, but trouble befalls the income of the wicked. Is indeed Solomon, Proverbs 15.

Dang it, Eric. Proverbs 15. What? You know I don't know things. I just follow your lead. Hey, Mike. Once you get through Psalms, you can go right into Proverbs. It'll strangle whole thing. There's only a 150 Psalms you have to get. I lament. Here we go. Secular or Solomon,

where the hostess is beautiful, the wine is delicious. Where the hostess is beautiful, the wine is delicious, secular or Solomon? Dave Herrick. Italy. Secular Italy, Mike. I was also gonna say Italy. I'm gonna go with secular and and Bolivia. Lusty eyes in Italy

and Bolivia, Dan. I was gonna say Italy too. Where where else do they have wine? France. France. That's gonna narrow it down. France. France. Yeah. Went with France. California, but they they guys won't let me do that. Secular

California. Secular France. Secular France, where the hostess is beautiful. The wine is delicious. It is secular French. France. Yeah. That's it. Stole it from Herrick. Dang it, Herrick. What?

I know you were really mean in Bolivia. Give it easy one, Ben. Stop making me look like a fool. Oh, shoot. Hey, sorry. I just I got distracted because I looked over and so we we're playing the that opening for Secular versus Solomon on one computer and I went to I just noticed the video was still playing. Mhmm. And so hold on. It it melded over to sell You following this, Eric? I got nothing. The the base is really kinda throwing her off. Yeah. Base is I

I understood. You cut the house of the bull. El grand secretary of the secretary of the temple? It's of Solomon. Something like that. I thought it said cut your mustache every three days or be a fool. Anyway, if you watch secular versus Solomon on our YouTube channel, this man comes up next. He look he looks awesome, by the way. Hold on. Let me get you let me get you a shot of him. He's cooler than whatever we got going on. There he is right there. Oh, yeah. Oh. I need that beard. That's what I'm saying. Is an awesome beard. Stop stop listening right now. Go to our YouTube channel, watch secular versus Solomon, and then let her roll. The next man that comes on will be better than anything you saw. Here we go. Second Soldom. Secular or Solomon. A wise man changes his mind. A fool never will. A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. Secular or Solomon, Mike Foust? That's secular. Ireland.

Ireland, Dan Hudson. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go secular Greek. A Greek man. Secular Ecuador. Ecuador. Solomon. Solomon. A wise man changes his mind.

A fool never will. Dave Herrick, are you willing to change your mind on this one? I'm gonna stick with my answer. It's rough times. Spanish. You are the predicate. That's rough.

That it was a secular Spanish. I see what did there. You used wisdom and fool in the same place to try and trick us, man. Hey. I can't help the Spanish. They're like that. Secular or Solomon. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live secular or Solomon Dan. Solomon. Solomon.

Solomon. Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17. Dave Herrick. Solomon. Mike. Dang it, Dave. Mike, you're your own man. Come on. I'm barely my own man. I'm forty to forty, Eric. That's your new nickname, forty to forty? Solomon. Let me teach her. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. Proverbs

15. Oh, close. 15. That's a negative two points for posturing, Gulag. And the colon has been thrown in missteps. I've been reading proverbs every week for, like, a year now. I should know this. I was within chapters. Every day for a year.

Secular or Solomon, a cat goes to a monastery, but she still remains a cat. A cat goes to a monastery, but she still remains Sounds like the beginning of a joke. Secular or comedy, Jon Boovin? Secular Egypt. Interesting. Deverc.

You know, I'm thinking my mom said something like that at one point, but -Mama vercs. -Mama vercs. -Yep. A cat may go to the monastery. I'll go Italy again. Okay. Mike, I'm gonna go with secular and Rome. Rome. That's There a there are a lot of Rome is not a country. Monasteries in Canada. So I'm gonna go Canada for secular.

You say there's a lot of cat monasteries in Because in Rome, you're in Italy. I'm just saying. Mike Fooster, you're own man. I've been forty forty. My whole life. Today is no different. Alright. Press on, friends. Mike, I'm gonna accept Rome on your behalf. Yeah. That's a bummer.

You might as well etch it in stone, Dave. It was better than Dan's Canadian cat monastery. Hey. They'll go up north to get the grotto. Keep going north. You'll hit the Canadian First of what is the point of this? What what what does it mean? Cat goes to a monastery, she still remains a cat. I think it's merely for visiting the monastery does not change you. Yeah. Showing up at church doesn't make you a Christian. But if the cat stayed longer, he would turn into a tiger or a lemur. You Do think the cat went because it took a vow of silence? I say the cats never talk.

Oh. It also is unlikely never mind. Secular Ethiopia. See Ethiopia. I learned about I'm learning boys. I'm learning. I've had two weeks of things that shouldn't be said on Christian radio. I backed up on it.

Ethiopia. Never trust a cat in Ethiopia. It's putting on a show. Secular O'Sullivan. Here we go. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Secular or Solomon? Dave? It sounds like Solomon, really. Dave Zoom with Solomon, Mike. Solomon does not mention cities. That's a, secular

and, Brazil. Brazil, Dan Hudson. I'm I'm going I'm going Solomon. I I think the the ESV has a little twist that that, yeah, I'm going Solomon. Table side NIV versus ESV chat with Dan Hudson. I thought I'm fully converted. So, like, it's gonna be, like, 85.

And NIV. 84. Pretty soon, he's gonna pull these for rest He's gonna have the videotape at his own funeral going, You know what? I used to know this in the NIV, but I I I don't have the words. Since I quit reading the bible after age 30. Psalm 23, you know what? Just screw it. I'm dead. Alright. John. John Moova. I go Solomon Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. Alright. Whoever is can I get around? Yeah, everybody isn't. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Mike's stating that Solomon doesn't use city is not correct. That is Proverbs 16. 16,

the gap is getting wider, but Further away. I lament. If you're playing along at the home game, I hope you're doing well. Secular or Solomon, the devil tempts all other men, but idle men tempt the devil. The devil tempts all other men, but idle men tempt the devil. Secular or Solomon, my Secular.

Catholicism. The Balkan. Can I go back to Rome? Rome Rome. Brazil. Dan Hudson. There's a lot of lot of devil in, Haiti, so I'm gonna go secular Haiti.

Play on words, Dan. There's a there's a lot of devil here. We need a proverb. Just like in the proverb. There's lots of devils in the North. Don't don't trust that cat. It's putting on airs. John Buha. Secular Germany. Secular Germany. Herrick? Secular Morocco.

The devil tempts all other men, but idle men tempt the devil. Poland. Except change my Secular Turkey. Turkey. It's rough times. We could change the name of the game to Mike is a fool.

Save us on postage. Secular or Solomon. Why should Mike have why should a fool have money in his hand to I wished him it wouldn't have what he did there? Very clever. Very worldly, actually. I'm a king of a very small castle. Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense, secular or Solomon?

Mike. Solomon? Mike said it was Solomon. Yeah. Dan. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go secular. And

oh, where's a good money place? I hope this is not a highlight into your broad life decision making process. Dan's about to get racist here. Yeah. Dan, You turned me so bad, man. What? Oh. I I can't think of any country.

Are there any countries that have money? No one is poor but me. They all got high taxes. We're gonna go to Switzerland. Dan Hudson. Alright. Switzerland, Buva. Proverbs 12. Proverbs 12. Dave Herrick.

I'm gonna go secular England. England. Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? Is indeed Proverbs 17.

Oh, come on. 17. Adulations can come my way anytime. Switzerland. The highway sorry. Secular or Solomon, the highway of the upright turns aside from evil. Whoever guards his way preserves his life. The highway of the upright turns aside from evil. Whoever guards his way preserves his life. Secular or Solomon, Dan? Solomon. Solomon.

John Bubba. Solomon. Proverbs 22. 22. Dave Herrick. Solomon. Mike. Solomon. Why would he make mention of highways? That's a modern It goes into the city. It's a modern translation of an ancient proverb. Oh. There's the highways and the byways. You've been haricked. I'm in danger now.

Dan helped with highways and byways. Don't forget to credit Dan. It's like they say in the Canadian cat monastery, highways are of the Lord. The the great northern Canadian cat monastery. I

feel like I'm gonna go solo. The highway of the upright turns aside from evil. Whoever guards his way preserves his life. Proverbs 16. 16. 22 that time? Yeah. Yeah, I was six off. Do you know any proverbs?

I like your boldness. Yeah. Yeah. I like that if you're gonna go down, you're going down in flames. I like it. Booba has taken the extra step to give the to give the chapter of which no other man has made the extension. Just throwing that out there. That was the original plan of this game, guys. Agreed. I haven't been able to transition him over. They don't do chapter headings in the ES Well, the NEV NIV, that was chapter four. When I used to read my NIV, it would say, hello, Dan.

Now what do I got? Yeah. What's the translation now? I have for, as I call it, the good old days. Or before the devil ruled America. It took over Turkey. Yeah. Secular or

Solomon, the sparrow flying behind the hawk thinks the hawk is fleeing. The sparrow flying behind the hawk thinks the hawk is fleeing. Secular or Solomon? Booba. Secular,

native America. That is not a country. Yes, it is. No, it is not. Yep, it is. You have to pick one. America. Which one? United States. The United States, hundreds of years ago. That's that No, I mean, which North America. Which nation? This is what you've done for is boldness. I know. I know. I I didn't want I I know better than that shoot. Hopi nation. There you go.

That's right. Dave Herrick, what do you think? Secular or Solomon? Secular Hopi nation. I mean, it it's eagle, right? Or is it hawk? Sparrow flying behind the hawk thinks the hawk is fleeing.

Alright. I'm gonna go secular Egypt. Mike? That's a good one. Secular and Iran. We're we're kinda along the same line. I was thinking Syria, so I'm going secular Syria. I'm afraid that Dan and I have been in cahoots,

and I'm scared. Sparrow flying behind the hawk thinks the hawk is fleeing secular Japan. Also, the, homeland of the Hopi nation. They

moved to The Americas. Another problem with the slave trade. 1492. Shoot. Was that did I not restrain for relief? Yeah. Oh, that was anyway. Alright. Alright. Move it. You're out. That's the end. What? That's the end. I did awesome that round. Absolutely. I didn't miss a single one.

Might have a hawk in throat. Don't flee into that man's beard. I trust him already. Perhaps he has a book that will bless me. Alright.

Trusting face? I don't think so. I I don't I trust men with beards. They and they tell you That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard you say. Here's here's the the long beards is they tell you that, they tell you that, when you're a salesman, you're not supposed to have the beard, right? People don't trust guys with facial hair. I'm the opposite. I trust a man who's committed to a long beard. I feel like he's either homeless or trustworthy, and it could be both. Yeah. He's either homeless or trustworthy. Yeah, his company's policies like you gotta cut that beard and he's like, nah. Nope. Nah. No, but his performance is good enough that they can't get rid of him because because he's just good at his job. Yeah. That means that's the man you wanna talk to. Sounds like the kind of guy that can't read through Psalms. Obviously, have a lot in common. Let let me ask you this. Is is is a beard? I mean, can you blame your beard as if you don't have control of it? Like, let's say it smells.

It's taken on an odor of some kind. No. If someone say, hey, you stink. Is that I don't stink? My beard stinks like Is that cannot blame your beard for your hygiene. Is that far enough detached from you? No. Like no. Okay. It's growing from your face, bitch. What do you mean far enough detached from you? Jesus. Jesus. Like, you're in table in your living room, mister Blade.

I'm not responsible for that table. Would you refer to it in, like, the third person or something? It's like a I'm thinking anything more than six stitches out has a mind of its own. Ridiculous. We know. We gotta head back home. This dude's a beard's night to shower. He's sweetie, I would love to take out the trash, but the beard is just telling me it's not okay. I'll take a big mac meal, and the beard wants a big chicken. That's not something I would say. He's gonna leave parts of it in there all week. I know it. I can't I can't rule his life. He's his own man.

Dreads, really? That's what you wanted to do? You embarrassed my beard. You look like Jack Sparrow beard. Get off me. Alright, boys. I just thought I had a simple inquiry. You were wrong. Just you were so wrong. I kinda I'm seeking to grow on a friend. Alright? I just want a

friend. Are you gonna name your beard? Is that what's There's nothing name with naming your What would I name him? There's nothing. He has to have an older fella's name. Reginald. Okay. Here, you got five seconds or less. What would you name your beard? Oscar. I love that, man. I don't know why. Mike, go ahead. I didn't have anything. I was gonna say Oscar.

But it knows no love for Mike. Alright, Billy. So far we have Oscar and Billy. Go go ahead Eric. I'm not gonna name my beard but I'll name your beard Ben. It's Franklin. Yeah. Oh yeah. Alright. I'm okay with that. It's a stupid Franklin seems like a reasonable name for a man's beard. I don't know. I don't know. A ponder

Franklin's growing off your face. I'm gonna ponder these things in my heart. Go ahead, Hugo. What do you got? Duncan. That's cool. Yep. Yeah. Is. I have the full red beard, man. It has to be named Duncan. Okay. I think that's alright. I've settled on Atticus. I'm glad we can't speak into your life. That's the way to hold it. You went to Franklin and you settled on Atticus? These are all I mean, is always the beer, but I I feel like Atticus is a strong option. You have to name Herrick's beard.

And Franklin is an acceptable answer. I can I can do Franklin? Yeah. You can throw Franklin right back at him. No. I like I like Pierce. Pierce. Pierce? Yeah. Okay. It's very astute. It's refined. It's refined. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I feel like Herrick would have a a refined beard that would sometimes be at odds with your casual nature. I like your beard style. Thank you. Yeah. Aren't you going to wear tails, Dave? Alright.

You have a multiple personality disorder coming from your beard. Here's the deal. I would say the show's gone downhill, but we started in a valley. Yeah. There's nowhere to go. Let's see here. I if you have complaints about the show, that makes sense to me. Send an email at [email protected]. Would be glad to be entertained by that. And quite possibly change our ways. Although, if you noticed, I'm not open to, feedback on my life. So

you I I suggest you're gonna have to deal with it. Alright. Let's let's see. Mike, you got some dear life from the path. We got one before the break. Alright. Dear life from the path. Recently, a member of the family suggested that my mother Google the name of my sister's new living boyfriend. Oh, yeah. This is gonna be great. Another family member said he had done it months ago. When mom did, she saw that he's a convicted sex offender. We were all shocked as he has been very good to my sister and other members of the family. So far, we haven't said anything to my sister or her boyfriend and I am sure what to do. I have a small child and it makes me nervous. I don't know if my sister knows and I don't know how to bring it up. I'm upset with I'm upset with my family member because he didn't say anything immediately after finding this information. I'm upset at my sister if she knows and hasn't been honest with us. And I am set I am upset with this man. What should I do?

So I mean, it just a does sound like they're confident that this is the right guy? Like, it sounded like another guy by a different name. I think they post pictures Yeah. Of Okay. Okay. Yeah. They're they're sure it's him. You you have to know what the offense was. Was he an an 18 year old having sex with his 17 year old girlfriend? That puts you on the list. Did he get caught public urinating? Did he move because that'll put you on the list. Exactly. Which which none of those are appropriate. No. No. Yeah. No. We're not defending them, but they do they play into the context, right? That's different than raping your neighbor. Yeah. If he's had inappropriate contact with a small child, yeah, you got some you got some questions. Yeah. Yeah. I think an open and honest conversation is is necessary. I mean, you don't you don't hide, you know, you know, you don't like not be afraid of offending. Just say, hey, here's the deal. Wow, we didn't expect this. We we we found this.

What insight do you have? Or like like, either either it might surprise the person Yeah. And you'd want them to know. Or if they know, I don't know. It seems like a good opportunity to make sure, like, where they're coming from, why they're even permitting kind of this this relationship, this circumstance. Yeah. Because if you're on the list, you know it. I mean, it's not like gonna be a shock to you. What? Yeah. I'm on the list? I mean, mean, I would expect people to find that out somehow. Yeah. Yeah. Why did she not do her homework and and search the guy out a little bit? I mean I don't Google people. Was gonna say, don't think I've ever googled a girlfriend. I've googled George Washington. I have yet to meet him, but he I mean, that's it. I don't know. Don't you think it it doesn't if you're in a different life space, like, if someone's coming to live at your place A space. Yeah. That's a Christian thing to say.

Space a lot. That's where your beard You're opening your This home to is why I don't listen to Christian radio. They make up words. Life space. You tell them, Ben. Thanks, Eddie. I I got a friend who is not single anymore, but when she was single, she would and each guy she was gonna date, she'd do background checks. Yeah. And, you know, get on police records and stuff and do it all kinds of homework before she'd actually go out with him. Mhmm. Really?

Maybe I'm just a much more trusting of a person. But I don't think I've ever done that or ever will do that. Well, I mean, here's here's here. Let's get you out. The main point is is, like, I'm not sure why you're worried about the social ramifications of talking to the man who's a sex offender when your child is is, I'm assuming, falling in purvey of what he's done. But, like, the social ramifications of that conversation are the least of your worries. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like Yeah. Hey, brother. Are you on the sex offender list? Yes. Did you really do this? I did.

Okay, thank you. That's what I needed to know. Now, I'm sure if you wanna have a a farther conversation with him, you know, the Lord's got grace for this stuff. And there's no reason you can't love on him, like, you know, your kids are your number one priority when it comes to that type of situation and like being worried about what he thinks or what your sister thinks is just foolish. Yeah. You got your priorities weirdly gobbled up. Yeah. You wanna hear on, secular's advice? Yeah. Yeah. Secular says, first, let me tell you what not to do. Don't remain silent and stew. Tell your sister everything you have written to me and ask if she's aware that her live in boyfriend is on a sex offender website. If his offense concerned a minor child, it is possible that he is not supposed to be around children. And if he has been if he has been, that the authorities would like to know. But first, discuss this with your sister who may or may not be able to put your fears to rest.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that makes sense. Open conversation. What is you got another one, Mike? An island prepared one due to break constraints. Shoot, Keith. We got a little bit of time. Okay. Hold on. Dear lie from the path. My sister has been seeing a married man for two years. He has told her the only reason he is staying in this loveless marriage is for his daughter. Standard lie of a cheating husband. His wife found out midway through this relationship but forgave him when he swore he would stop, which, of course, he didn't. When I told my sister how wrong this relationship is and that she deserves better, I ended up alienating her. I've recently learned that his wife just had a second child and my sister's pregnant too. I'm sick to my stomach with all of this. I told her how crazy her situation is, but she refused to see how horrible the man she loves really is. She says she is fine raising this child alone, and if her lover is in their lives, then she will be satisfied with that. I am the only one freaking out about this. How do I deal with it and not totally lose my sister? Get over it. Your sister seems to know what's going on. She's a little delusional, but or else she's just okay being the other woman.

But there's not much that you can do from the from the back seat of the car. Yeah. That's, this is this has gotta be a truth that exists, I think, in any Christ followers life. Right? I frankly, probably true in everybody's life, but like there's the

the fact is is that you're going to live life in one way for for compelling reasons, And you're gonna be associated around people that don't and that make decisions that aren't that and that has negative impacts on their lives. In fact, if you're not around people like that, you're not doing the work of the kingdom. Like if you won't find yourself surrounded by folks like that. Yeah. So I I actually had this conversation with my oldest daughter this week. We were talking and and we were praying and that there's a couple there's a couple of friends of hers that she's been praying for. And she was talking about, you know, how do I help them understand to know to know Jesus? And we kinda talked through some of that stuff. And,

as part of that, I I can't think my youngest daughter said something to the effectives like, well, they will they'll know he's real when they when they meet him. I said, that's true, sweetheart. But if they if they have not believed in him, if they are not loved and followed him, they will meet him momentarily. And then, you know, then they will be separated from him. And, there was and I think there was a moment of realization in my eight year old's life. She started started crying,

because she was thinking of of these friends of hers. And and the truth is is that you're going to run into circumstances where as much as you want something for somebody, you have to figure out a way to live a life that is still around people that that will do that. That will have, either they don't follow Jesus or they make decisions that are that are totally like just jacking up their life. And if that if that can consume you and I I don't mean not impact you. It should impact you. That love does that.

But if it can consume you where you can't live at all or like you find yourself overcome because of all the all these issues that other people are having, like, know that feels like it's coming from a loving space from a loving position, but let but it will it will consume your life. Like, there's there's a healthy way to be able to deal with that. And that seems hard. That seems very hard. And and like in the moment I was having, I felt very I felt very sad, talking to my daughter because that she had she was bearing the burden of a friend of hers. And it was probably at the first time when she was old enough to really understand that. Like, you know, she said, oh, we were supposed to love Jesus. Oh, you know, we can know God. But I think there was a moment where she was literally bearing the burden of a friend who was not potentially going to spend eternity with Jesus by their own choice. Mhmm. And so,

we we talked through that kind of stuff, but but it was it's very difficult to see the weight of other people's lives and other people's decisions sit on other people whether it's a Jesus thing or not. But the truth is as Christ followers, like, your whole life is going to be that. And so you've there's gotta be healthy ways. This is where community is just awesome, like being around people that can help share burdens or help like, it has these situations that you can talk through and stuff because it's not it's not a unique thing. The circumstances might be, but the issue itself is not unique. And it will be something, like I said, if we're actually doing kingdom work, you're it's going to happen. It has to. That's just the nature of doing it. So I I very much sympathize with this woman. I'm and I'm sorry that she that this is her circumstance. It's difficult to watch other people, you know, act in ways that are harming themselves.

But the truth is is that like, you can still love her and respond in a healthy way to this so that it doesn't consume your life and understand that like you you're not making any progress by being consumed by it. It doesn't change her circumstance at all. And that that's kind of the get over. I mean, the truth is get over. The simple answer is the right it's the right answer. Like, you're going to have to get over the fact, that this person is making decisions that are harming themselves because taking that burden more and more upon yourself, feeling it more, thinking about it more, it doesn't change how how it's working in their lives and it's not gonna help. Mhmm. So it you can acknowledge it. You can understand it. You can prey on it. You can, continue to work in loving ways to try to influence that circumstance, but it cannot consume you. You're not called to let it consume you. And so you're gonna have to fight the tendency to do that because it feels like you love them more when you let it consume you more. And it's just it's not true. It just feels that way.

Okay. Secular's advice is, your sister is an adult. She has made her choices and may have to learn the hard way what you have been trying to tell her. Realize that as much as you love her, you cannot live her life for her. Let her know you're there for her and the baby because she's going to need all the support she can get. You've listening to live for the past. Thanks for hanging out with us so far this evening. Big thanks again to our sponsors, Westfield Veterinary Hospital, Westfield vet hospital dot com, and Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. Go to eisenhowerteam.com. You can catch us during the week at lifefromthepath.org. Shoot us an email with your comments, concerns, and pictures of your dog. That's [email protected].

If we don't see you before then, we will see you next week. If you're on the truth network ninety nine point three. If you're on the podcast, we'll be right back with you. Thanks for listening to live from the path. So there was this was this article that we were kinda talking about earlier in the week, and it was five mistakes that will destroy your church's effectiveness and and what to do about it. And so I think there's a couple of angles here. I'll I'll I'll read the mistakes and maybe see if you guys we had I think we had a little bit of reaction to them.

Here were the mistakes. One, promote community service. If people are serving their community because they wanna give back, then they will automatically assume a position of superiority over the one they are serving. This is not only unbiblical, but the humanizing the advantage and dare I say appeal of most community services that actually cost very little of us. It doesn't impact our budget or daily lives all that much. Once it's over, we can go back to the way we were before the event. I think there's some truth to that. Like Yeah. Yeah. It it is it the same thing as, like, are you putting on a a show of serving your community or, like, are you investing in in these people's lives and and and doing that? Like, I think you mean Will.

But Yeah. It's like man, I think I'm I'm sure we've done that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, hey, we're gonna help these people out. It's like, oh. That was that was pretty convicting to me. They're like, well, like, we're close but not really.

Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. And this is this is the kind to kind of doing the the things that Jesus told us to do separated from the heart of Jesus. Like, yeah, we're we're you can, you can you can do these things that you say, I I would like to feed people and maybe you do. But like, if you're just kinda if if it's like, yay, we fed people. Now next year, we'll do it again. Yay. And it's here's the deal is like, there's work that is temporary work. We have a food packing event coming up. Like, that's temp that's temporary work. Like Mhmm. We're not gonna fly the whole church over to where this food is going. We could. But, you know, like, they they do need people to pack food and pay for it and send it over. There's nothing wrong with that stuff. But, like, if we are getting our validation and saying, good, I've done the work of the Lord by popping in and popping out in people's lives, like, that's a misunderstanding of what the root of all that stuff is. Second was duplicate efforts by starting something new. Stop and think for a second. How many programs and ministries have your church started to serve others in the city? Now, think about how many churches are in your city? How many programs have they started? Usually, each of these have been started by godly people who are seeking to love those,

around them. This has kinda come up for us a few times where, like, we've talked about some things and then appropriately stopped when the question was, who's already doing this? Mhmm. Who's who's doing this and doing it well? Who's doing this and has attachments to other things going on? And how can we help them? Because the the the last thing we need is is groups of churches, doing the same thing and not together. Mhmm. Hi. We're the body of Christ, except for this is from our church. As a matter fact, like, we've talked, there were some places that that we've helped out,

and, there were some some sometimes, like, people were identified by, like, the shirt. And I thought, like, that's the last thing like, I don't really care to put even life from the path on a shirt and have everybody showed up in a life from the past shirt. Was like, I don't it's not the point. Mhmm. It's not the point. And so, I I do see you do see that a lot with churches. And, like, it's well intentioned. And I think a lot of it is because they just we didn't start with the question. Here's what we wanna do. We wanna we wanna help in this way. Is somebody already doing that? And can we jump on board with something they got going on? And maybe maybe they stink at it. Maybe you do have to start it up. That's cool. But, like, I I think it's just a failure to have asked that question and join in what what the what the people of God are doing as opposed to here's what our church is doing. Yeah. I love that one. Like, I've if if if I had to point something that I think that, churches are most, guilty of, with the way that they do ministry, it's it's that one. Right? Like, it it feels like a lot of back slapping

and, we're awesome kind of you know, mean, we spend half of our budget on the shirts on the shirts just so people know where you came from. That's ridiculous. I love this one. This is my favorite one. Yeah. I I I just don't like that stuff drives me nuts. I I I'm just I wish there would be I tried to propose it at our youth group. Right? I'm like, I wanted to I wanted to say, this year, we're gonna do ninja ninja service projects. Ninja because every time the youth group goes out, right? Everybody busts out the camera. Everybody wears the shirt, and then the Facebook is plastered with, like, 15 pictures of kids throwing water balloons and helping some guy. And I'm like, that's we're not gonna do that. I said, we're gonna get a group of five dudes or five ladies and we're gonna go out and we're gonna do something and you're not gonna tell a soul. I mean, you gotta tell your parents straight up where you've been, right? But like, other than that, like, you're not gonna tell anybody what you've been doing. You're just gonna go out and do something nice for somebody and serve some people and then go back to your daily life. Like, it's just kinda what you do between brushing your teeth and getting getting to school. And that's it. Right? Yep. And like, was so geared up for this, and then it it failed out. Nobody was digging on my ninja service projects,

and I was doing it by myself. I'm gonna say I probably wouldn't end up being you and me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bore. Anyway, maybe the shirt's what grabs people in. I don't know. Number mistake number three, view people as projects. Are your city restoration efforts relational or transactional in nature? How many people have had their lives changed as a result of your local missions efforts? Can you name the people you have helped? The reality of most of our efforts is that they consist mainly of one way transactions where people with financial resources give to those that have less. This allows us to keep people and their problems at a safe arm's distance, but we are left to wonder if those transactions actually help. We don't know what happens next because we don't know the person we've given to. People notice this and so does the city.

So I think there's a it's part of this element. The reason we've got comfortable with some of this stuff is because the somebody somebody reaps or someone plants other people someone sows other people reap, you know? Mhmm. So, like, oh, you know, I I I don't need to know that that something happened. And so, like, there's truth to that, but it's not a universal truth of which it is always

it was always okay to to, like, give in a small spurt and run, which sometimes I I think it it ends up on that transactional level and we just are comforted with, well, I don't know. We get that guy that we gave the banana to, maybe he found Jesus later on. Well, maybe he did. This is this is something that I found really confusing is is that donors will send their money off and they don't care what happens to it after that. Whereas investors are looking through the with a fine tooth comb, looking at how was that money spent because they're expecting something from it. Donors that it's like, hey, I'll write a check and not even bother. It's like that's the end of the story. With investors, that's the beginning of the story. And what I'm more interested in is partnering with investors. I I want someone who, you know, this is the beginning of the dialogue, the beginning of the of the relationship both financially and in in other ways.

With a donor, it's like, Well, thanks. We've got our seed money, but maybe we'll call you later. Right. Actually, that's a really good that's a really good comparison. Like, I work kind of in the financial industry, and, like, there'll be guys I mean, we publish these 130 page black and white eight point aerial font documents. Mhmm. And there's guys asking, like, hey. There's a paragraph on page 63. You got a question about fund performance on this guy from, like, the last six months. Something there's an anomaly in here. You know, like and they wanna talk about that stuff because of what they're they're they're expecting an output. Mhmm. And think of, if if if we're stewards of God's money Mhmm. Does God call us to donate or invest it? Right? Like, is is he asking us to to to just throw it away so that we can get a good self conscious of spent God's money in that way? Or, you know, are we are we following it through and really taking God's money and investing it for the growth of his kingdom, which is why we were giving it to have in the beginning Yeah. That's good. That's a good comparison. I was actually really kind of convicted by this one when I was they had a did a story on some some homeless people, a local news story, and they showed them down at the shelter. And like, it's the first time that I've been able to watch a a story about some homeless folks and go, hey, I know that guy. You know I'm saying? And so, like, I was watching the story, I'm like, I wonder if I know one of these people, you know? And, like, I did. And I thought, you know,

what I was convicted about is, like, I've met them, you know, we've we've handed some stuff out to them, but, like, I don't know them. I don't know them at all. Like, I could tell you their faces and kind of say that I've talked to them a couple times. And I thought, you know, I I've I've spent most of my time doing this stuff, like, on on one off events and, like, you know, just meeting and filling needs, right? But, like, this news story says they're down at the shelter. I feel like I should be down at the shelter. Maybe we should have some conversations down there, right? Like, because it was really front it was front end heavy Yeah. And not not a whole lot of back. And so I thought, you know, there's, while while I think the service is is is good and it's what God has designed, our hearts to do, The follow through is is is just as if not more important, you know, that they're they're getting a full story of like, I'm not just down here because I'm a great guy. I'm textbook 40 to 40. You know what I'm saying? I'm not a great guy, but I could certainly come down and get to know you and tell you about Jesus. And so I don't know. This one kinda convicted me a little bit.

Mistake number four was seek the welfare of your church. You may be thinking, isn't this a little crazy? What if something happens? What if we get taken advantage of? What if someone gets hurt or worse? We don't have the budget for this. The root of all these thoughts is desire to protect our church and ourselves. If the primary concern of the church is the comfort and safety of the church, it is obvious to the city around it and to the people they seek to serve. Well, I think that's true. Yeah. I think that's true. I feel like that one should hit home with a lot of folks. Well, I here's the deal is like meeting people the way Jesus met people and and following Christ in it's a risky business. Mhmm. And you're gonna run into risky people. When we were building this building,

we had bought some TVs for The Joint for for, like, all the kids areas and stuff so they could watch their the kids media and things. And so we had them of stored away in the office at the old at the old office area. And, there was a guy that was staying there that needed a place to stay. And so, you know, we'd agreed to to let him stay in there. And then while we were gone, he broke into the office and took the TVs. And, like, there's an element of, oh, man. But there's also an element of that's kind of the risk that you take by helping people. Right? Like, some guys will appreciate it and then some guys will steal your TVs. Yeah. And you can you can then not help anybody and protect your TVs, but then we probably didn't move the kingdom much. And so, like, I kind of looked at it thought, well, okay, it's just a it's just a price of helping people. Sometimes, like, sometimes they'll just take your television. It

was a bummer. Yeah. For me, that was the point that I knew I picked the right church. It was when among other things, we're at least positioned close enough to people who have that kind of need that they would be moved to steal TVs. Yeah. Yeah. And that the church was willing to make themselves vulnerable enough to the community that that would happen to them. It's like, okay, this is the church where I need to serve. Yeah. Yeah. I mean and there's I mean, there's probably elements of, you know, you don't, you don't bring in the guy that just just got off, you know, out of the prison and ask him and have six buddies if they wanna stay at your place without trying to put some level of under you know, things in place. You don't need to be a fool. What what's then so you don't need to don't need to be so open minded that your brain falls out. That makes a lot of sense.

But like, if you are if you spend your time trying to protect the things that you want to use to progress the ministry that you never end up actually doing ministry, like, that's a fail. That's a fail. Like those TVs. They're they're God's TVs. Yeah. May maybe he had you know, he knew it was gonna happen. I mean, he wasn't worried about it. Yeah. You know? And and who knows that something from that will ultimately, in the

middle of the night, speak to this guy's heart. He'll he'll be convicted of sin and repent and I mean I mean, who who knows? Or maybe nothing will happen from it. But Maybe they'll sell TVs to somebody and then they'll have big money. Who knows? They were on sale when we bought them. The Lord provided a cheap price. We got more at at a cheap price. Not as cheap. I got some Black Friday deals on those TVs. I was kinda disappointed in that. But, yeah, whatever. They came. I mean, we're fine. The Lord was after your haughtiness on your TV buying. Think we're fine. Mistake number five, ignore training and networking opportunities. Do you have other churches and organizations that you're connected to that are on the cutting edge of biblical resources and training? Do you have a support network that will help you make great decisions about what's next for your church? Have our pamphlet. Sorry. These mistakes can be crippling and a big waste of time, resources, and money, but they are avoidable. Oh, sorry. That was the that was that was the end of that paragraph.

These mistakes was he he provided solutions. Sorry. Ignoring trading and network opportunities. It's kind of the same deal, which is like, have you created your own castle? Mhmm. Are we building our our pathway kingdom that says, we, you know, we all it's like a not a Ponzi scheme, but like a Yeah. Like an Amway type system. Right? Mhmm. Like as a like, we're we're all salespeople of the gospel and we all report up to the big guy. Mhmm. And that is it's not thinking of it correctly. Yeah. Kinda like the the music that we were doing a few years ago when we had the

what was the thing we kept doing in the Midwest? Oh, the Spirit Midwest thing. Midwest. Then all a sudden, all these other churches were like, hey, we'll do our own, you know, thing. And pretty soon everything just failed because. Yeah. We could why couldn't we all just do it together as one big group, you know? And then we all have our own empires and Which is and actually, so like the the way that wins, we we had broadcast from Spirit Midwest for, three years. And, and then they saw like a there's a bunch of different churches that started inviting some of these artists at different times and saying, well, either we could do better or we wanna do it in our own place, and they did. Nothing was very well attended. And, now those churches aren't doing anymore. I haven't seen any any church. There's one there's one another festival that is kinda taken up, but, like, that whole infrastructure kinda crumbled. Right? Because people said, oh, hey, there's something good going on. We wanna hold it at our place. And, like, I here's do I like our place, but, like, we we've been talking through a couple events that we're gonna do. I'm like, you know, I don't really have a strong, unless it's the right if it's the right place, then cool. If it's not the right place for it, we'll we'll do it somewhere else. Like, I don't know what we care. It's just a building. It's just a place to put something. So, and and and acting like we are not surrounded by other people that love Jesus and that are trying to do his work is just foolish.

And fighting for our own resources, even to the extent that like, you know, if we're trying to build up, we we've talked about actually, we do some classes this this year. And, one of my questions was is like, who at some of these other churches that we know would be able to help teach some of these classes? Like, we can spend a bunch of time trying to draft a bunch of our folks and drag them around and pull them and try to fill them a boat with a bunch of knowledge they don't have so they can teach a class that we may or may not be pining for or find a guy that knows this stuff and say, hey, man, you wanna come by and share what the Lord has given you? Yeah. Because that sounds awesome. Yeah. Well, think think of like that exact exact same example with the with the music festivals or whatever. Like, think of if if number one would have been true here, right? Instead of start or number two, if, you know, people was starting a bunch of things on their own for like, well, where's God already working? Where's he doing? Where where can we help? Right? Yeah. Like it it it would have been it would have been to the, to the nth degree, the thing would have been rocking. Yeah. You know what? Instead, we we have it and and and and split it five ways. And now, mean, we literally have nothing. Like, it's just poor, you know? And like, and and for and for for whose glory and what end did that happen? Yeah. You know, it just, it wasn't a it wasn't a good one. And so like, I I don't know. I feel like the churches are are. And and this is me too. I'm not taking myself out of the pool, you know? Like, we're guilty of that, you know? And it's just, I don't It's it's losing sight of the big big picture kind of thing. Yeah. So the the solutions to these things, number one, was teach biblical mercy. And this is one of the I I I really like this. It says apart from Christ, we are poor, needy, enslaved, broken, and desperate. We don't help because we have so much. We help because we are no different. And so, I I really like that. And and it's the truth is is like you know, the what's accurate about all these things, it's not even a church level. It's a personal it's a it's a following Christ level. Right?

Like, do I do I wanna share my faith with other people because I think I'm supposed to or because I can't help it? Right? Because I'm following Christ and I can't help but talking to other people about him. Like, are we talking about trying to set in parameters? Do I do I do we put together the events, the transactional events because I think I should. Like, that's I think I should. I should do this thing, so I'm going to as opposed to I'm already there. I was already feeding the guy. I didn't know. Like, I didn't have to wait for someone to put something together. I put it together because it needed to be done, or I saw someone else do it, and I jumped on board. Those are things that we are compelled to do as people that are following Christ because Christ is doing them or did them, or things that we think would make us look like we're more following Christ, and then we do those types of transactional things. And that that's that's basically the root of of all of these things is, like, if we're following Christ,

we don't get caught in a facade because we're following Christ. We're not putting on a facade. We're just doing the things that following Christ does as opposed to, well, we should help people. We should evangelize. We should, feed these people. And, like, those are our attempts to look like we should as opposed to our actual effort to follow like we should. And that actually, I think, solves the root of what most of these things are. And so the number two was create solutions. How could your church create real solutions to the problems plaguing your city? There are no doubt unique gifts and strengths in your body that could be an incredible asset to the rest of the city. Problem is they don't see the church as a relevant solution to the problem. It would be an amazing picture of Unity for the church to stop creating duplicative programs and start investing their time, money, and resources in helping other groups succeed. I would contend that it would also be better stewardship of resources and ultimately more successful. I like this. Three was develop people through relationships. Tip take time for individuals. Christ taught the disciples to kinda do the same. Developing people requires relationships and relationships are messy and complicated. And part of this is time. Part and I'm in the same way like,

I am leveraged to the extent that the people that need me most couldn't get me if they wanted to when they needed me the most. And that's that I've that's I've done that and that's poor. And so like, you can't be all things to all people and and in your attempt in doing so, you end up being very unhelpful to most. Doesn't Paul say be all things to all people? I I have become all things to all men in an attempt to win some. In his in his But it's it's kinda contextual. He's not saying he's everything at every time. It's, hey. I went to this village and I became like them. And then I went to these other folks and I became like them in order to speak the gospel in a way that makes sense to them. What if you add the context, takes all the zing out of my zinger. Yeah. I'm sorry. It does that. Dang it, Harry. It does that. So, you know, like, I I was I was thinking about that again today and, like, you know, everybody's tied up with worthy things. Right? But, like, if there's six guys in my life that if they called me and they had something go on, you know, do I have

do I have the leverage? Do I have the time to be able to go over there without impacting a bunch of stuff negatively and spend time with them? I I probably haven't created that much left that much room in my life to do those things and that's poor. And that's not set that up well enough. So, so I some of the times, even if we try to create relationships, it still is a bit transactional even though we're we're trying our best to put it in with the model that we live. Sometimes we just gotta change how we live so that we can actually have relationship versus a series of what what are well crafted meaningful transactions. Number four, seek the welfare of your city. Oh, you let's see. Oh, no. No. This guy works. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven may be one of the most quoted passages used to encourage others. Ironically, that verse actually falls in the middle of a passage where God is telling a conquered and exiled Israel to remain in Babylon and make it their home. He tells them to seek the welfare of their city. It is in the midst of this difficult calling to make a foreign land their home and seek the prosperity of the city and people that have conquered them that he gives them the comfort of Jeremiah twenty nine eleven.

So, so dig in. Actually care about what's going on around you, and and not leave it to other folk. And then number five, seek out training and network opportunities. Get connected to organizations like For The City Network who provide ongoing and intensive training networking opportunities so that your church can be an effective salt and light in your city. I thought those were good. Mhmm. I thought those were good. I think they're they're they're real things that churches that are attempting to do the right thing are are struggling with. Mhmm. But I don't know if the I don't think the solution is just say change how we act. Right? Like, at the root of it, these things don't exist if we're not posturing a little bit. And so it's probably we gotta be a little bit honest with as we are as individual Christ followers and as a church and say, where am I posturing? Like, where am I following Christ in my life as a natural outpouring of following him? And where am I posturing a little bit to try to look more like it, without actually following to get there? So,

you know, do what you like, there's there's personal things for me. It's easy to look at a church body and say, oh, well, the whole church is stinking. I've got room on these. And so and there's some ways where I'm I'm not following. I'm posturing. Trying to fake it till I make it. So, anyway, that that's at the virginnetwork.org. It's five mistakes that will destroy your church's effectiveness and what to do about it. I think that's all we got going on. Anybody else got anything kinda hanging around on them?

No. Good. Excellent. I love what you're talking about here. Everyone knows everything. Sorry. Alright. Well, if you're hanging out on the podcast, thanks for doing so. We really do appreciate it. Thanks for listening. If if even if you do have legitimate complaints or suggestions for the show or, hey, you wanna meet for some hibachi or another type of buffet, we're gonna do that in the probably into March sometime. We're gonna hit up another buffet, and we'd love to have you come out with us. Plan our buffet stops two and a half months out? Yeah. Hey. The last time I tried to put a buffet together, it I it took, like, a month to finagle dates correctly. I can see here in Yeah. Sometime in March. Alright. That's alright. Well, I gotta save up for the buffet. You're so scared. Alright. Hey. Thanks a lot, man. Thanks for listening to live from the past. We'll see you next week.