Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the path.

Ever once claimed that it was good. Sometimes I go for candy after school. You think sometimes is the way to start that? That is an every time I go for candy after school. You guys have the Nappy Taffy? Make sure it's the saltwater Taffy. I I enjoy myself the artisanal Taffy's.

That's exactly what that guy looks like. Artisanal Taffy. I look like a guy that's a snobby snobby fella with four hundred and fifty pounds, but still eats all the artisanal foods. Are these eggs cage free?

I'm a eat a dozen of them. I just need to make sure they're cage free. I don't wanna have to stop and read it that way through. Is this a heritage breed of pork? Because I I'm really interested. If I'm gonna eat the whole hog, then I need to make sure it was treated well. Yes. I wanna know. I wanna know if they suddenly had a good family. Did it have a nickname? I'll call it its nickname a little his papa. I see. He ate his papa already.

I I asked, was his mama good doing? He always had to nurse Fat guy that cares about sourcing his food. Hey. You're listening live from the path. Thanks for

joining us. Hey. If you only catch the audio, the the none of what we're laughing at is gonna make sense to you. We're looking at the at the opening of the show, the opening credits video visual of the show. And we're talking earlier so at least it's this is we're we're talking about setting up a kind of a live event, which we haven't done for quite a long time called how to how to run a radio show for ten years and not succeed.

Buy Life From The Path. Because I I believe that our first show was the first or second week of March ten years ago. So in 2009. And so I believe we have reached that kind of ten year anniversary. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I mean, we got nothing to show for. No. Literally nothing. We buy our own shirts. It's not like there it's not like there's events that put our logos on things. Like, we literally put our own logo on the shirt and then we pay for it through a third party. Here's what we got. Here's so here here's here's where we're at. Here's where our success is.

The thrift store priest is now here. Okay. Yep. Absolutely. We Now we got a million hits onto YouTube. So we did. We do have a million Yeah. Hits on A thousand million. Thousand subscriber. Yeah. It was a million a million times someone took a look and said, well, 800,000 times someone said, I wanna watch Caps Sale. That's what I was just about to say. You and I both know that three quarters of that plus is Caps Sale. Yeah. Yeah. The legitimate golden nugget. Why why did you republish that? I'm gonna tell you right now. It's it's that is straight up proof that the attraction model of Christianity does not work. Nope. Right? Because what you think is is we'll get them in the door with caps for sale and then they'll click on some of our other Jesus stuff. That's not That don't happen. Yeah. That's what at all. They watch caps for sale, they leave a profanity laced comment about how crappy it is, and then they move on.

Yeah. Yep. Sounds about right. Alright. So, yeah, that's what we have. I tell you what, maybe we'll put this thing together because that's what people who are unsuccessful do. We continue to invest. And we say, you know what? Ceremony. Yeah. Straight. That's right. Wait. What? What did I just agree to? An awards ceremony. That is a good idea. That's a phenomenal idea. Yeah. Hey. To be fair, we're the only ones getting awards. We don't have guys on the show. Do. They get together and have give pats on her on the back and say That's true. Man, this is hey. Would you sing for me? I

mean, what? Yeah. We'll let Buva go extra windy on his acceptance speech. Oh, man. Oh, you know I will too. You know, took me so much to get here. You know, I I took a two year sabbatical, really. I don't know. I shouldn't even get a reward. That's because Dan's vying for the man who who makes it so we have to broadcast in color award. Alright. Here's what got going on the show today. Mike gets best scorekeeper of all time. Yes.

Alright. Here's what we're gonna go on the show today. So I I did I I ran into a couple articles. Oh, no. What hey. Are they lofty, Ben? So no. No. No. No. Not lofty.

What did oh, doggone it. My life is I think they ran away. My life is the garbage. Hey. Did you know, Mike, we were talking before before the show started about the bible project. Mhmm. And so so I don't know if you guys have heard me talk about, like, would say big significant movements in my relationship with Jesus are generally have generally been tied to interacting with

teachers who with with some way or another with with with teaching related to reverence to scripture

and the deepness thereof, Like being able to take to to explain or teach the bible in such a way that it that it is impactful and it is is deeper and that I can understand it more. And so there there were there were there were tranches of this and the last one

is tied to specifically Tim Mackie with the Bible Project. And so if you've not heard of the Bible Project, it's it's just a it's a company a group that came together and said, look, we just wanna start we wanna help people understand the Bible. It's kind of a combination of, like, a Bible nerd and a guy whom who started a company making how to videos. And so those guys came together and they said, look and and they wanted to start kind of explaining the bible and, like, they're it's extremely well done.

Like, the theology is is really good and it it's just, like, it's all super interesting. And so It does a great job of telling the entire story arc of the bible. Right? Like, if you were to read all of Ezekiel, you know, like, the lay dude, like myself, gets lost in there, like, with some of the language and stuff and then, like, why people why are people even upset right now? I just don't understand. Yeah. It's really good about giving the Bible as God's story from beginning from beginning to Revelation, you know, and and and showing where what the story archives of where where God's heart is in it and and and his relationship with his people and stuff. And they really do a fantastic job of looking the Bible at as a whole opposed to, you know, as as, you know, verse picking or even chapter picking. They're just they're nailing the whole thing as a as a story and it's it's always very, very well done. Yeah. So anyway, I bring that up though because we were taught that Tim Ackie also created a podcast called My Strange Bible where he was a he's a pastor at a church and had kind of his his old sermons and things that he'd been putting through on a podcast. He just finished up, like, he's he's got everything in the backlog published. I would rec highly recommend going through that. There are a few of those that I've the one on Jonah is just fantastic. Yeah. And so I would recommend starting with that one. Read just just listen to, like, the the the whole set of Jonah. And if you don't dig that, you won't dig the rest of it. But if you dig on that, you'll you'll dig on the rest. Anyway, the the reason I brought that up though is

I was interested to find out the reason they're in the place that they're in is they started making these videos and they basically said, look, we'll make more videos as if the if the last video pays for the next one. That's what however they were gonna do it. And so if it doesn't pay for the next one, we won't do the next one. And so they did a few and it started to get, like it it was really good and they got a call from Francis Chan. And Francis Chan says, look,

I'm setting up this network of house churches and I'm I'm trying to figure out how do you help people who've not gone to seminary teach the bible and and and and have a make sure they get it right. And what are some good ways to make sure people are having right conversations and understand right ways of reading and things like that? And he thought these these videos were doing a really good job and he said, do do do the whole bible? And they're like, you know, we're kinda working on it but it's gonna take it's gonna take like ten years. And so and they kind of explained the principle and said, look, we'll we'll we'll, you know, we'll do a next one when the previous video helps us pay for it. He said,

basically, you have our support. Money is not gonna be whatever you use you need made up for the next video, you got it. Basically in perpetuity. And so it only took they started kinda cranking them out and now they're up to like like 30 full time employees. They said after only like a year, I think it was, that they became fully established and then now they're not they don't require any any outside assistance to that anymore. But like it was basically the big the big leap was they were doing a good job and a guy like Francis Chan jumped in and said, look, think this is really valuable.

I'll make sure the we'll make sure the funds are there If you can keep cranking Can out imagine that phone call? Yes. Would've been awesome. Wouldn't it? Yeah. It's Francis Chan. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. You hang up. Yeah. Yeah. Francis. Francis. Yeah. Francis, you can give us a call on our on our complaint line at any point in time that you'd like to. Why don't you go hang out with your friend, Benny Hinn? Click. Yeah. You can hear Francis Chan smiling through the phone. You know, he's just he's just a happy dude. That would have been so awesome. Here's the thing. Both those dudes, solid. You know, just just solid. I I I couldn't I couldn't like them anymore. So, yeah, if you haven't checked out anything from the bible project before, I I mean, it it's fantastic for children. It's fantastic for me. I still love them. I think they do just the greatest job. They have some topical stuff on there, like understanding Messiah

and and and stuff like that. And they just they just do a really, really good job. Alright. So anyway, stuff we got going on today. Hey, there was a there was an article about pastor parking is is gonna be one of the ways to get church into paying taxes.

Did you read that, Dan? The pastor perking at hospitals? I heard something about that. Yeah. Yeah. So so this was from Christianity Today. It says, a new provision in the corporate tax code has some churches and other tax exempt nonprofits wondering if they'll really be on the hook for paying a parking tax this year. 2018 was the first year nonprofits were subject to a tax of 21% on employee benefits, like parking and transportation stipends under tax reforms passed by the GOP controlled congress the year before. The new tax is expected to cost nonprofits $1,700,000,000 over the next ten years. That's not really too much, to be honest. I mean, they they already sneak in ways like, we we we pay a property tax although we're exempt because we get rain on our property and the rain goes in this

a rain tax. Because you're using the the sewers. Right. So There's a tax for owning the property that isn't just exactly, hey, we it's the same property tax they assess everybody else. Right. I've already But used they just found ways well, because they don't charge residential

the rain tax. Right. It they can't get the churches. Right. Yeah. Tricky.

Tricky. So anyway, experts suggest that many churches do not meet the parking tax requirements as described in an interim guidance released by the IRS in December, but evangelical groups have still rallied in opposition. Yeah. That's a way to pull together for the right cause, boys. As recently as as recently as last month, Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission continued to lobby congress to repeal what its president's, Russell Moore, called a deeply un American tax on churches. I hate what we've there's been a great deal of rhetoric, no results. We now find ourselves weeks away from the tax deadline while many elected officials seem to hope this issue will get lost in the circus of the daily news cycle. Well,

it has. I suppose until now. The evangelical council for I don't care about all this. So the question I suppose is what what what's what's the broad stance, Dan? So, like, this has been floating around for a while. I mean, like, ever since people got a got a hair up to say, hey, we we shouldn't be

letting churches go tax exempt. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I'll be I'll be honest, I don't really get the full I don't grasp the full concept of I I I the first time I heard the reason churches aren't paying taxes, why they are taxes in the truth project, there's a there's a little pee there, and I need to hear that again because I was It's really pretty philosophical. It's not like, don't don't hurt the churches. It's because, well, this is god's property.

What who detached god, basically. The concept behind it. I I need to hear that again. First time I had heard that, and we've forgotten it. We've forgotten it as a we just I I forgotten it. Like, doing this for a 100 Yeah. And and no no knew I had no idea that was a situation

about our American history, why we don't So so, yeah, not very good resource other than I I know where I wanna go You're that Yeah. So I wonder so I so if that's the case,

I I suppose what the the prime question is, is that is that still true? Is that still where we're at as a country? Well, it was kind of a thing that we're beyond the country. The church is beyond the country. So it's not even like, we don't care if you believe it or not. It's I I'm, like, again, I'm just this has been years since I've even heard it, what I remember. I mean, is it wouldn't that's that's fallible, I suppose, to the extent that everything

gods. Exactly. But but this is, like, wholly set apart saying purpose of god opposed to road or I I feel like the New Testament kind of blows that up a bit. In which case, I I don't know if there's a ground to stand on.

I mean, if you wanna fight this as an American, I get it. If you're like, hey, this is the I I mean, if you wanna say, hey, this is not what our country stands for, babity babity, fine. As a Christian, I think you should just let it go. Either pay the tax or park farther away or something. I mean I mean, really. I so I'm not specifically asking, I suppose, about the

about the parking thing because that's only this only runs into a problem with the church if you, like, give a special spot for the pastor, like, if like, if you an employee. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because otherwise, like I mean, the place is is is empty during the day. I mean, does that count as a benefit? You get to soak up the air conditioning? I mean, what what do they count as a as a benefit?

I mean, I suppose there's nothing wrong with having a Yeah. 5,000 square foot place and one guy works there. Yeah. So the and specifically, this was the nonprofits were charged to tax a 20% on employee benefits like parking and transportation stipends. Oh. Do some churches pay for the pastor's car?

There's a mileage allow Oh, through the tax code, you mean? Allowance. I mean, but that's true for anybody that has a job has a job. You're right. That that's that's related to just being a private contractor, really. Yeah. Like an independent contractor, which is essentially what the pastor's acting like. Interesting. Anyway,

I well, so I'm in a position to not worry about this, I guess. I I wouldn't so I I would here's what I would say is I I find this to be inevitable. I think churches I think churches paying taxes seems inevitable. I don't know if it's ten years but I did certainly thirty. And

I would I would I would say, you can fight this all you want. But, like, two things are gonna it are gonna degrade it. One is you have in order for the for the government to stay out of the church's business, I think they're gonna have to to start allowing

themselves to be treated independently. And to the extent that there's an appearance that the government is doing a church favor one way or another, then I think you're gonna have a hard time keeping them out of your like, once you have it it's the same thing it's the same thing as the marriage discussion. Right? When you're when you're trying to define a church, if the if there's an institution that has a definition of what marriage is and now you're up against a federal definition of what that is. One of the ways out of it is to is to basically say, look,

we're stepping out of the conversation. I mean, would you take that would you take that trade as a church? Would you say, look, whatever, we'll pay your taxes. Stay out. Stay out of this business. You can't force us to do nothing. Deal? Like, if they offered that as a solution and say, look, if you don't if you don't want us to force, like, federal guidelines on on marriage on you, then pay taxes. It gets yeah. I don't think they'll do that because they'll do it on any business. They'll treat it like a business. But, like, it gets rid of all the Johnson amendment stuff, like, the stuff about politics and stuff. Like, that that's why churches now that we've had this conversation before is, like, I I don't know that many churches are actually adhering to whatever restrictions they believe exist about not talking things

or having political candidates there. But, like, any business can have any political candidate show up and do it all like, every politicians do it all time. They show up and they get talks from Beto O'Rourke and the president. And so, like, if you're treated at like a normal business, then there's no reason to have to make an exemption for the church. So here's what I just I see that direction happening where you're gonna have to make a choice to say what what the the common argument will be, the church is getting a special consideration and so that we have a a closer foothold on certain things within the church than we do on, say, a private business, which is true. That Johnson amendment stuff doesn't apply to anybody else. Right? It's happening to churches because of those those special types of things. The second thing that's gonna happen is the duplicit nature of belief systems within America as they start to become more and more disparate. As certain things start to say, well, I'm a church. I'm I'm a religious organization.

Then you're going to have such a wide variety people are likely to do this intentionally to try to exploit the tax code so that it gets re rendered specifically to keep out because the the the government's gonna not gonna wanna get get in the business of saying, this is a legit religion versus this is not a legit religion. And

even most of your Americans are not gonna wanna get into that fight because it's gonna be a difficult one to have and so they're gonna call the thing off and So like I like I said, I don't think it's ten years but I it might be thirty that I think ultimately you're gonna lose that And it's it might be nice to reach back. Because I think now that Dan Dan, you said that, I've heard that before. I've heard someone make that argument before very passionately and it might even be and it may very well be accurate. It has no bettering on where we're at today and what the political climate is or what people's tastes are for belief in that and the interaction between church and state. And so I I think that's inevitable and the only reason I say that is, like, I mean, Christianity has certainly faced worse things and so put it in your in your twenty year plan.

You know, we expect that as we start to pay off things or we start to do x y z in our ministry, we think our costs are gonna grow up incrementally by whatever the tax rate is. Call it 10%. And just and just plan for it and just know that it's there. And then if it doesn't show up for fifty years, great. You got a good kitty to go do something with. It's the year of Jubilee. Turn it over. So is there is there a distinct difference in the way that the the way the tax code sees like a four zero one three c corporation versus a church? No. I think no. That they're in this in this instance, it's just it's nonprofits in general. Okay. Gotcha. It says, a simple way for many churches to avoid the tax might be to remove any reserved parking signs for church employees such as the pastor. This calculation considers how many parking spaces are reserved for employees versus the general public. Take down the signs, they are said they won't be subject to the tax provision that went in effect on 01/01/2018.

Pretty clear, Dan. Alright. We're good. Now hey. Now you're gonna start seeing a reduction in the people that are willing to be called first lady because now you're playing for two parking spaces. Now, we have some handicapped spaces. I suppose we should be taxing them. I mean,

unless they work here. It's specifically to do with whether you're employed. What if you just painted a guy's face in the space? Doesn't necessarily mean other people can't park there. Can I call it the boova space without it being explicitly for boova? Is that the question? Yeah. Can you just say you know who? Yeah. Yeah. Or put a sign that says, maybe Dan will park here. I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean Dan will park here. Would be a nice spot for Dan. Maybe Dan will be here. It's a great spot. Interesting. Alright. Anyway, that one's gone. That's weird.

I I gotta be honest. That never crossed my mind. What do you mean? Just the whole The taxes in general? Yeah. Yeah. I have put zero thought into it. I apologize. I'm not really prepared for that discussion. Yeah. Haven't put a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would like I said, I I wouldn't put anything into it. It's not gonna have besides the parking spot thing but, like, I don't know a lot of places that are still doing that. It's denominational, really. People reserving parking spaces for Oak. Yeah. I like that. Maybe Dan will park here. Poured hours of thought into this. Hours of mono.

Okay. Let's see. There was there was another article that says, when it comes to making impact, the more popular something is, the less likely you are to make a difference in it. I mean, seems obvious, doesn't it?

Like, if it's people really dig on it, it'll be harder to change their mind. More popular meaning on when there's more people that believe in it, there's safety in the crowd. And so the the the main point of the article is to say, look, if you wanna in in impact something, you should start with the fringes. Yeah. I mean, you ever you you remember when people try to people wore the hammer pants? And, like, once they got them, they're like, I love these pants. And the rest of the world is like, man, those pants are ridiculous. I just I don't see it. And you just can't talk them out of it. Gotta fade out on their own. Ben's right. Mike Mike,

so when you heard that article from Ben, first

first thing that came to your mind Hammer hammer pants. Was the was the concept of the following of the hammer pants. Yeah. That is Ain't that wild? That is an uno. Yeah. First thing. I can't control how things fire up brain. Yeah. I relate to him. The more things when these are more popular, it's very difficult to deal with them, especially dealing with the fringes of the Hammer Pants population.

See, went I went straight to ice cream. I'm thinking that means, like, that's probably what you don't wanna start with if you're gonna go on a crusade against something. Everybody already likes it. I thought I thought about Fortnite, that game. Like, that's the big popular thing right now. Ben Ben, did you think about anything weird? When you're reading that article, did any kind of weird either food? No. Mine no. Mine was people, but I had already scanned the article. Mine thought like You didn't think about Hammerpants when you read the article? No. No. I I I really I thought okay. I thought about carnies.

Wait. Wait. Did you say carnies? Circus folk. Yeah. See, fellas, I'm gonna tell you point blank why

we are about to do the how to do a radio show for ten years and not really move anything on it. Because our four thought processes were carnies, Hammer pants, ice cream, and some video game. We can make a real difference in this world. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's the point of article. Hold on. Let's get on this. Oh, man. Let's let's take care of this Hammer pants. No one has no has never made a bigger impact on the world than than Jesus. You don't even need to be a Christian to see the obvious truth in that statement. Because of this, I'm convinced that it's in the DNA of Jesus followers to wanna make a difference too.

It's also in the great commandment and the great commission. Wanting to make a difference is embedded in the heart of every disciple. But how do we do that? With so many competing voices, so many areas of need, so many ways to approach this, how do we clear away the clutter and find an area of need where we can truly make a difference? We need to go narrow, not wide. To the edges, not the center. Work the fringes, not the mainstream. If everything you love is in the mainstream, normal pants, of the culture around you, it's very unlikely that you'll have much impact upon it. We have enough self esteem books. We're overwhelmed with church growth ideas. We don't need any more personality tests. We need something else. And you might be the one to help us find it. Instead of trying to get in on the action of what's hot right now, find something you love that's on the fringes. Something important that no one else or very few are paying much attention to, then shine a big bright light on it.

This is where impact comes from. It's not that you can't like things that a lot of other people like. If you're an MCU movie fan, that's fine. Keep liking it, but don't let that define you, booba. What's MCU? Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh.

Nerd. Even with Christianity. I was gonna say, was like, wow. I thought that might have been more common knowledge for us. Apparently, I'm just the nerd sitting over here. And You like the marble? I mean, I knew enough to point it at boob. I'll put it that way. Yeah. I think that's fair. Even within Christianity, if the believers around you all love one style of music or one type of church service, feel free to enjoy it and be blessed by it. But look to the fringes for impact. Find a forgotten corner of need of worship, of leadership, or ministry, and fall in love with the people in it. Then learn as much as you can about them, work as hard as possible with them, make them the focus of your prayer life. It can have a huge impact if you focus on a forgotten but important corner of ministry, rather than being just one more voice speaking from the mainstream to the mainstream. But here's the key. You can't do it just to take advantage of an overlooked market segment. It has to be something that you truly have passion for, something you love, people who matter to you, something that breaks your heart. So so if if

they're saying we should, like, start a polka worship if we, like, really love polka and we have a heart for the people. Please don't invite me to that. If you have a heart for polka people. I mean, I gotta be honest. I was super excited about this thing where we're like, look, just just talk about what Jesus talked about and then that's it. The rest of the god is he's on the rest. He will handle this. And then dressing up as the Poka man and meeting other Poke people and being like, I'll hit you with the Jesus information. Maybe it'll matter to you because you ain't got nothing else going. For the Poke people, they're singing about beer and stuff. They need Jesus. I mean So is this talking about, like, developing ministries? Yeah. I mean Or is this your is this is this ministering as a as a Christ follower to your circle of I think they're trying to tell you to fish in a shallow pond without saying it. You know what I'm saying? They're like, ain't no one else fishing. I was gonna say, like And there's a ton of fishes. When when it comes to to develop well, hey. I When it comes to to speaking to people about Jesus and and,

you know, spreading the word and things like that, that's I don't think you need to find some niche market for it. I think it's just talking in your circles of influence. Like, the people that you're around, you know, your family first and foremost. Then outside of that, where do you work? Where do you hang out at? Where are you at? You know, what stores do you frequent? Where you actually have legitimate relationships? That's where you can speak as as as an authority figure to people because they have a personal relationship with Not like I have to go and start a Dungeons and Dragons group on Saturday nights and hope that they're not worshiping the devil. We can talk about Jesus. That the rest of them are out on dates or something. That's not even a that's not even a word with Dungeons and Dragons. Don't judge us. I have passion there. Kyle will be here. No worries. I know I know Kyle's gonna show up. Kyle, you don't have a date. Don't lie to me. Get here.

No. I think I I think you work within your circles of influence. Just what's around you. So I remember that. Mean, we had that conversation once in a, like, in a church in a church it wasn't a staff meeting, it's like an elder meeting or something and and someone had asked, who's who's our market? And, like, I couldn't get past that that very thought. I'm, I mean, everybody. Right. I mean, who who's not? Who doesn't need to hear the word of Jesus today? Who's our market? Like I struggle with that. Yeah. And it it so but but here's there's also there's a reality of what you I I think it's answering two questions, two different questions, Buva. So, like, a church can generally be a thing. Like, it can't be 50 things. Like, it just can't. Like, you're only only putting on one one service, for his name Right. For example. And, like, maybe maybe you're doing a traditional and contemporary. But, like, that's a branch out into two things generally defined by music style and what kind of robe you're gonna But, like,

if you're talking, like, niche groups of people, I it's not a corporate thing to solve. I would say though, Buva, back to your point, it is very much an individual thing to solve and maybe the encouragement that I take from this is that is to not overlook it. When you're most likely to engage in what feels like the mass I'll give you an example as this it is a corporate example but it just occurred to me. I mean, of how many churches do Easter egg hunts? I mean, a ton.

Everybody's like, wait, we're gonna have this whiz bang Easter egg hunt. Is it a good event? Sure. So bring the community in? Fantastic. Get it maybe meet some people and get them to come here more a little bit more at ease because they made a good relationship. Fight. But, like, And if if everybody's doing an Easter egg hunt, like, certain certain groups of people are gonna come to that Easter egg hunt and you're just gonna trade the groups around. And you might decide that this x church or y church has the coolest Easter egg hunt. I I mean, I'm not sure on the impact of that. Like, some of that'll that'll hang but, like, that's not those aren't fringe groups of people.

And so the question is is that, like, are there other groups, broader groups of folks that you may interact with? Now, this is back to the personal level. Like, I think everybody's got them. I think everybody has some connection or other to something that is a little little niche. And the question is, are you have you unintentionally written some of that stuff off? Because I agree. Your it's your circle of influence. And one of one of the things that we risk is trying to use our circle of influence to dump people all into the same bucket when when they are a little bit more unique. And so, like, let's use the the varied nature of your circle of influence

to its to its most varied outcome. It's okay that it's varied like that. It's okay that, like, hey. You know what? Not everybody's instant reaction is, hey. Can you come into this kind of homogenous group? Because there's some people that just, like, it's just not their vibe and it's gonna take them a while to feel like it is. And then and then then the fam family has a connotation or or feels like a homogenous vibe even if people are real varied. But, like, if you just say, hey, everybody in my circle that I have influence in, my my gig is to try to get you to come to this

homogeneous church service. Like, it's not gonna work, actually. Like, there's gonna be groups of people who are just not gonna wanna be in on that until it feels like friendship, until it feels like family. And so I think if there is a value here to say, don't

don't write it on, like, for what may be fringe in your life within your circle of influence, I think it's okay just to embrace it for and call that for what it is. And and recognize that, like, a lot of times, there's there's less noise in those areas. There's there's no one there there's there's not as many people doing Easter egg hunts. I mean, who who who thinks that's not the case? Who goes, my reggae buddy's never gonna hear me on this thing? Not intent I think it's unintentional. I I think it's largely unintentional. Well, that's dumb. Right. But it is still We gotta write a whole article about it? Just shut it down. I'm acting that way.

Mike, do you have reggae buddies? I love the newspaper. I like to just write one sentence stories. This needs to quit. Love, Mike. I'm a start a blog post, Buba. Would you feel like you'd subscribe to that if I I would 100% subscribe to that. You're right. Look But I'm going back to my question. Do you have reggae buddies? No. Well

yeah. No. No. Okay. No. I just I I would be interested in meeting those fellows. I got some friends of mine that really like Def Leppard, and I don't understand the lick of that. I mean, they're just terrible. They're just they're just not good. Like, do they hang out together or do you just coincidentally have multiple friends No. I I saw who enjoy Def Leppard. I tell you what, I've had to ride in, like, some real long car trips with some fellows from work here lately, and the radio is a real problem. Like, it's just it's it's just a real problem. Like, get on a long car trip, I will fire up a bunch of my podcasts and I'll listen to Tim Mackie for a couple three four hours or whatever, you know, and on a drive and these fellas, I mean, they're good dudes but, like, we just can't we ended up settling on the Garth Brooks satellite radio channel.

That's only the thing everybody can agree on. It's a weird thing to come to in the middle of. Right? I mean, there's Between Tim Mackie and Def Leppard, right in the middle, Garth Brooks. I mean, we tried that that liquid metal station with the heavy rocking and that I mean, people can only tolerate that for a couple few songs. And then you go to the deep tracks of of the Grateful Dead and you're like, man, the Grateful Dead stink. These songs are awful. No wonder they're deep tracks. They're just bad. So, I mean, it's just I mean, a group of of more than say three guys, I think it's tough to find on a radio station. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Mike.

Can you put that on that, that new, new podcast of yours or that, publication where it's just one sentence? I I here's the thing. Can that be week one? We're two articles in of it, and just nothing's grabbing my attention. I'm just I'm floating all over the place. I can't think of anything of what you're saying. It's all good. I'm still stuck on hammer pants. So you do you. So, I mean, it's I feel like it's possible that your attention is distracted, given that mistake that happened late last week. I remember that. And

I I I just remember the text that you're like, I can't believe this dude, he keeps calling me Pope. Said I said, I don't know what that is. Is that some sort of weird name? But see, here's the deal is I put the wrong inflection on it because it was in a text.

It's pope. You had meant pope, but I kept telling my wife, I'm like, I don't know why they're calling him pope. It don't make any sense. It makes me feel all awkward. Yeah. Anyway, so you you were saying that there was some guy that that, mistook you for Yeah. Yeah, he did. And and and and he was insistent upon that I give him some kind of papal advice. Otherwise, he wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna leave him. So I thought about it for a minute and I realized that as I was talking to the man that it struck me on how

often Jesus goes off and prays by himself. I mean, for for long long ridiculous stretches of time. Right? To the point where even in in in there's one of my favorite verses that I was reading this week. It's there's one, it was in Mark one and Jesus had had healed a leper. And then the next morning, he gets up and he he's gone. He just leaves. He don't tell nobody. He's out there in a mountain praying or whatever. Nobody can find him. And everybody comes out and Peter finally gets him. He's like, hey, man. Everybody's looking for you. And he goes, we should go to the next town. I got some other stuff going. And doesn't even address the fact that he left and didn't tell nobody or that Pete they had a search party out for him. He completely ignores it and moves on. And then later in in it was in Luke, and I can't remember what chapter Luke it was. But it says he was in somebody's house and it says, and Jesus was praying by himself and the disciples were with him. So even when the disciples were with him, he's out there praying by himself. He just he just could not give any more of a rant to what's going on. He's he's he's talking. And so it got me to thinking,

like, I felt like I wasn't looking at prayer right. Like, I'm just I'm I'm missing this for some reason. I have no pull inside of me that wants to sit down and talk to Yahweh for, like, an even an hour. I'm like, just feel like it's draining me. You know, I mean, what are gonna talk about for an hour? You know, I I feel like I must really struggle with this. And so I was I was studying on it and I was I was praying on it this week. And, boy, I I I flat out came to the fact that I think of course, I think Jesus got the right idea. And I don't know how many people actually do this and do it well.

But, like, if you I've tried to pray by myself, like, even when the house was empty that, like, all the people were gone. And I still I I I still cannot keep my mind from wandering, you know. Like, I I can still hear that the window's open and then I'm like, lord blah blah blah. You know, maybe I should shut the window. What if the heat turned on? That would be stupid. I should probably get up and shut the window. You know, or you hear the dog moving around, you're like, what the dog took the toilet paper? I'm sure of it. That dog is eating the toilet paper right now. And so even with no people in the house, everything that I'm responsible for is within 20 feet of me. Right? And I just cannot seem to get my mind to stop worrying about or thinking about the things around me. And and and and the more I thought about that, the more I thought, man, maybe Jesus got this thing nailed. You know? And I'm not a big, like, sabbatical in nature guy. You know? Go out and just hang out in god's creation. Let it envelop you. And and I thought, I'm just thinking about it all wrong. Everything out there is god's problem. All that is his responsibility. None of it's mine. I don't control the wind. I don't control the clouds. I don't control the birds or the animals or anybody out here. None of this is any of my problem. Right? So if I'm praying out by myself in a at a at a mountain or at a park or somewhere out in the middle of a field and one deer runs into another, another one falls down, I'm like, I ain't responsible for these deer. I can go back to praying. It's none of my business, you know. And I thought, I just feel like we like to set prayer up as this as this really heavy thing because it's powerful. Right? Prayer has a lot of power in it. And because of that, I think a lot of complication gets attached to it. And it's nothing more than just it's a spiritual conversation.

You can't meet God at the quick trip. You can't say, Yahweh, I'll meet you at the Burger King. I got some things to discuss. You can't because he's spiritual. He's not physical. Right? And so prayer is nothing more than a spiritual communication between a man or a woman and Yahweh. That's it. And it's that simple. Right? And so, like, I I was thinking, like, prime examples. If I'm standing in the middle of a crowded room trying to talk to my wife and we're not hearing each other, we walk out to the balcony. We go somewhere else and have the conversation. We don't stand there and go, ugh, I guess we'll talk later. There's nothing we can do, you know? Like, that's There's no solution. That's dumb. That is dumb. So so I I think maybe overall, I was I was trying to encourage myself and and and and maybe encourage you if you struggle with the same thing that, like, not more spiritual or more awesome to be out in the in the nature. Right? You don't have to have the sunset coming up and and have clever words from Isaiah roll into your head. That's that's not what it is. It's I I'm having a hard time talking to God here. Maybe I should go somewhere else. Or sometimes you pull up to pray and you're like, I can't think of anything to say. Well, then just shut up. Just let Yahweh do the talking. Just be quiet. And then you're like, I feel like I gotta break the silence with something. No. You don't. But if you do, I mean, crank out the Lord's prayer if you want. It's it's it's not I mean, memorize it and use it when you're just you're empty, you know. And I'm I I will walk in and say, hey, woman. And that's it. And that's literally all I got to say. I could have skipped it. I could have not said anything to her because I got no follow-up if she goes, hey. And then that's it, you know? But it didn't stop me from talking to her in the first place. Just acknowledge I was there. And so

I think overall, what I was getting at in my pope style advice to this guy that called me to pope was was whatever it takes for you to talk to Yahweh, do that. Do that. Right? If you feel like you got a drone on for if you got five hours worth of content, five hours it is. If you got five minutes worth of content, five minutes it is. None is holy. None is more holy than the other. If you look at Jesus' example, he does both. He goes out and prays by himself, for for very short stretches of time. Remember when the disciples had a demon they couldn't get rid And Jesus says, okay. I got this. And then he's like, these problems can only be solved through prayer. He wasn't there but, like, two minutes. As as you're reading the story, he wasn't there very long. So he'll crack a prayer right out. Hey, father. Blah blah blah. Boom. Moving on. Couple seconds here and there. Not a big deal. Right? He's also gone for an entire night. It doesn't even mention, like, the next day, he'll, like and then he came back from the mountain of praying all night, and then they walked, like, 15 miles to the next town. And Jesus don't even care. It it he didn't find it draining. Right? He's refreshed by it. He's moving on. And so, like, both are fine. Whatever it is the conversation that you need to have, I maybe I'm just encouraging you to have it. If you feel like you have to say, look, I I if I don't set it up at 05:30 every morning and fence in time for this, it'll drift away on me. Okay. We'll do that then if you feel like that's necessary. But it's not more holy than the guy that just does it or does it for outside

or does it in his car. A lot of people like to pray in the car. To be honest, I find that a bit distracting. I'm I'm I'm glad I'm glad that you have you have found because there's more peace in your car, not as many things are breaking at once. Right? Like, your house is your house takes a little bit up a little bit more real estate, your apartment, whatever, there's more things going on in there. But in your car, you know, I suppose it's it's a little bit more peaceful. You can control the time. So I get that. But I still think maybe maybe we're all missing out on on Jesus' time with Yahweh. Right? Like, just by yourself out in nature or as close as I mean, the prayer closet will work maybe if you find that helpful. But, like, just no distractions. And that doesn't mean, like, the quietest part of your house because, frankly, I just don't I mean, you'll smell a weird stink in there. You'll be praying and go, man, something something happened in the kitchen. Did I turn the stove off? You know, then you're gone. Then you're gone. Yeah. Go somewhere where where where the earthly responsibilities aren't aren't around you anymore. And give yourself some time to

hear hear back to to for you to talk and for Yahweh to talk back. People are like, I just feel like God doesn't speak to me. Well, the last time I checked, I could probably replay your last 10 prayers and you're like, I like this. I like this. I thank you for this. I think this could change. I really wish you'd change this person because they're really starting to make me mad. Okay. Love you. Bye. And right. And God's he's on the other side of the phone getting ready to for a rebut and you're gone. You're gone already. You're out. You're done. You know? You didn't even give him a chance to respond. Not that I think you're gonna hear some kind of crazy audible voice, but, like, I mean, you give him a chance. Just spend some quiet time. Give it a shot. I'm terrible at this. It's not coming from a place of piety. It's coming from a place where I think it would be helpful. And Jesus' example paints not he prays more by himself than the bible records him praying with other people. He prays for other people, but it it's recorded way more his prayers are are on his own. So I obviously, I think that is, helpful. Get off my lawn. Okay. I think that one of the biggest deals that that I run into is I have that same kind of problem with with the the paying attention to my prayers and things like that. And and I I always run through and I make it so corporate because my list is,

here are my thankful fors and here are my needs. And that's my prayer time with God. And the only reason I do it that way is because I feel more stuck up if I start with my needs. Right. Than if I start with, hey, God. Here's what I'm thankful for. And and, like, the times that are actually, like, devoted to my prayer and devoted to spending time with God when I'm being conversational. And when it's legitimately like, God, I I know this seems fluid because you know everything, but let me tell you about my day. Like, let me just let me just replay what happened with you know, let me tell you what I'm happy about right now. Tell you what I'm sad about right now. You know, it's it was it's it's this weird moment. I've only done this. I probably had good legitimate prayer less than a dozen times in my And and the best times are when I'm just like, hey, pops. Let's just let's let's have a talk. Let's sit down because I'm I'm hurting, and I'm I'm in need, and I need to just sit down and chat with you. And it's when I take away from that, you know, the the thankful fors and the needs and when I actually break it down into, like, I'm getting a chance to talk to my my dad. Like, I'm getting a chance to talk to my father who who wants that conversation with me. Let's just have that. And it's way more meaningful and it's way more refreshing. By the time I'm done with it, I'm just like, wow.

I feel better. Like, I didn't need an answer from this this weird voice in my head, and I did, you know, I didn't need these crazy signs where my bible started flipping around like it was windy or something. Like, I just you know, it was nice to have you listen. It was nice to to spend the time with you. My one of my favorite songs is because I don't ever approach God this way is is by New World Son and it's called What You Wanna Do Today? And that's the chorus. It's it's maybe this time, I'll let I'll let you take the lead and I won't try to drag you around by your sleeve because every time what is it?

Either way, the the whole point is is like, so God, what do you wanna do today? Right? And, like, when's the last time you approached prayer like that? Like, hey, I'm up. Never. So what's happening? You know what? You got anything going? What do you what do you think? You know? I mean, you show up with your list, your needs, your wants, your whatever and your people around you. Half the time, I I I don't even know how to pray for them. And and so, like, because you know, it's even Jesus, right, especially on on the Garden Of before he's arrested, you know, he's praying that this cup could pass from me and says, but not my will but yours. And so, like, that's always stuck with me that I'm, like, lord, I really feel like this person needs a change a change or whatever. But I suppose if you think they're fine as they are, I suppose that's cool, you know. I'm not really sure what to pray for here. You know what I'm saying? Like, should I should I wish justice upon him? Because I I had in fact, I was talking to to my wife about this earlier this week is is the Psalms are mostly prayers from David. And sometimes you're like, boy, David, I feel like you're just asking for, you you know, for for straight justice. Right. You know, straight justice to be done. Stop. And, like, modern Christianity doesn't really hold that. We don't really hold much of justice. You know, we're like, help me to forgive this person that hurt me. Help me to to find a better way to deal with them, you know. And and I look I look not 400 pages back and there's David's like, just smite them. I'm done. I can see their eyeballs hanging out. Right. Trample them underneath your feet, Lord. I'm slightly disappointed you have not smited them yet. To be honest, Lord, I feel like you should've handled this already. And so it's a weird dichotomy because the Psalms don't provide God's commentary

on what David is saying. Although God does reference to be David as a man after his own heart. And so you go, I mean, sometimes God is a god of justice. God claims he never said he wasn't. Right? In in fact, he's the definition of whatever justice is because he said so. And so he gets to be that. But at the end of the day, you know, sometimes I look at the the the whitewashed way that I pray and and miss out on maybe some of the David Hart and go, look, Lord, I I want justice for this. That's that's what I want. If if if if I'm okay having justice for this, then give me peace about that. If I'm not and I need to find a more repentant angle to look at these folks, then give me that. But I you know, right now, I'm I'm on the David justice train and I'm I'm just gonna leave it there. And that's that's where I wanna leave it. And you I need you to help talk me out of it if that's what you wanna do or what, you know? And so it's it's just a more

a more realistic conversation. Right? Like, we're missing out on the if you break prayer down to the simple definition, is it's a spiritual communication between God and man. That's all it is. That that is literally all it is because you can't meet him physically or or at a coffee shop. So this is how we talk to him. And and you gotta give him time to talk back and you gotta talk to him like like you mean it. Like Jesus I mean, even before handing out the Lord's prayer, he doubles out on some advice on you making a big deal of prayer. It's why I have such a hard time with prayer circles. Right? Like, it seems almost that you're praying to the circle than to Yahweh. And actually, to be honest, that problem's on me because that's what it sounds like to me. That's not what everybody else is doing. I'm sure. I know most people. There's some, you know, but but on the most part, we're praying together to a common to a common god that we all share. And, like and you're sitting there worried, like, why is this pause going on for so long? When's the guy who's gonna be the ender? There's always the guy in the circle that you know he's gonna be the ender. I wish he just fired up, you know. But it just it makes it super weird. But at the end of the day, I think if you took a more honest approach

to your prayer life and just looked at God for who he is, for what he's asking of you, and that you approached it with some honesty and some ways to actually have that conversation not surrounded by your entire life, I feel like I would have a better, prayer life than I Ben. Yeah. Yeah. In this prayer circle.

Actually, that I think that's been a that's been a constant struggle because to for me to get that type of isolation requires me to take extreme measures. Right? Like

getting up super early, staying up super late. And the truth is is it, like, I just am involved in enough things that, like, those easily flow into those outliers. And so it's not it's it's it requires good habit and intentional intentional stuff. I was talking with with a actually a couple couple guys over the last few weeks

about how it's very easy for your life just to kind of float along. Like if you're doing a a a a relatively

regular job, you have a family, x number of kids, all number of friends, whatever. Like, you could go you could go six months and have not done anything intentional with your life. It has been carried along and it doesn't mean it's been carried along poorly. If you set your life up well so that you have, you know, good influences around you, church family and and a job that does something that's

worthwhile and you're trying to raise your kids and you're protecting your marriage, it doesn't mean that that your six months were wasted or that they're wrong. But, like, it does mean that that you can six months can go by and you may not have actually sat and said, look, I I'm going to do this or that thing.

It's just carried on. And in some ways, that's beneficial. It's beneficial to me, for example. It keeps me out of trouble because of the commitments that I have to my wife and kids and my job and my church. I don't have a lot of free time to do anything else to get myself in any type of problems. So many those are it sounds like they're bad fences. But it also means it makes me think back to this peripheral targeting business is that, like,

things will things will move as they move and so where things could otherwise change for the better, you have to be intentional. And so to the extent that you're not, it doesn't mean the things that you're doing are wrong, but it does mean that they they won't actually change for the better either. And that's and and and focused prayer, committed prayer is something that needs change for the better and that's something that I have to do and

be real real yeah. I guess just intentional. I mean and and to be fair, like, the the the thing that you said is, like, you'd have to set it up early in the mornings or late at nights or whatever. It's what Jesus did. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's like, he's gone. We got up early.

And and I've actually thought about my example of getting away from your responsibilities to go out to pray in the in the nature or whatever. It makes it sound like Jesus bailed out of Martha's house early so he didn't have to make the bed. That's not right. That's not what happened. I got more important things than you. I gotta go. Someone else make this bed. I like you know, you what I really love about those stories about Jesus is that, like, it's it's interesting where the bible provides commentary on how the disciples react to certain. Sometimes where they don't and you're like, really? Like, is this normal behavior? That's the problem, is you start to get a good historical perspective and you recognize that some behavior is normal or has some sort of context to it. And so then it starts asking you a bunch of questions where it's not clear, where they see him just he's just gone. And I'd be like, what the heck, man? Like like, did they say what the heck? Or they're like, well, he's gone. Oh, there he is up on the Yeah. Up on that mountain there. Yeah. He praying all night again. He shows

back up refreshed after twelve hours of praying and everyone else just dying. I would And, like, you have a number of examples where the disciples seem to be talking about something and Jesus, like, walking ahead of them. And, like, I I just you get the impression that it happened way more than the Bible documented. Like the time where he said, hey. More people are coming out. He's like, no. We're gonna go to the next town. Yeah. And he's, like, 10 steps ahead. They're like, hey, man. He's gonna keep doing this because this is weird. Yeah. There's more people coming. What are we gonna tell those people? They're just gonna be gone. It's like, well, they're gonna be upset with the brand. Yeah. They're gonna hate Jesus because he just left town. Yeah. Where they were or they were gonna they were gonna or they're gonna beat on him or something and he, like, slipped out. You know? Like or he hid somewhere. I mean, it's just funny to think of Jesus hiding behind our buck round and then moving on to the next broccoli like a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Alright. So given our preview our our recent conversation, we're gonna take a quiz on prayer in the bible. Oh, boy. Prayer in the bible. Number one, god spoke to oh, hold on. Camera's focused on Mike. Abimelech. You say Abimelech? Abimelech. Okay. Abimelech.

God spoke to Abimelech and told him that Abraham would pay would pray for him and he would live, a, b, prosper greatly in every way, c, develop leprosy which will stay in his family forever, or d, dip in the river seven times and be healed. K. So it's not d. Is it is it prosper greatly in every way?

I wasn't it Liv? This is this is over the Sarah business. Right? Where he had he had captured Sarah because they tried to lie and then Abraham said it was his sister and No. I feel it's Liv. It's simple. Liv.

I think I think so. Yeah. Okay. I don't lean into I don't remember saying prosper greatly everywhere. I'll trust you guys because I was thinking leopard. That's pretty bold. Two, why did Isaac pray to the lord for his wife, Rebecca? Because she was barren, because she had leprosy, got that out the brain, because she had been bitten by a snake, because the king had chosen her to be his wife. Barren. It's gonna be it's gonna be barren. Yeah. I don't know if she wasn't bitten by a snake or chosen by the king or had leprosy. Well, barren then. Okay. Wait. What did the priest Eli think when he saw Hannah praying? He's drunk. Yeah. Thought she was mad, thought she was drunk, thought she was holy, thought she was having a seizure.

I think that woman's holy. Look at the holiness on that prayer. Holy She got distracted a bit. Look at how holy she is. Is she got up early for something? She already made her bed. When Elisha prayed for his servant and the and the lord opened the eyes of the servant, what did he see? One, the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding towards them. Two, he saw men as trees walking.

Three, a mighty army was descending on them. Four, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Yeah. It has to be It says chariots of fire. Right? What was the tree walking? That was when Jesus healed the healed the blind man. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Five. When Elisha had prayed for the child of the of the Shunammite woman,

what did he tell his servant to do? A, see to it that the flesh of the child became warm, b, walk to and fro in the room, c, count how many times the child sneezed, four, call the Shunammite woman. Like, it was called a shoot them out woman. Yeah.

Hey. Look. I'm a need you to walk to and fro in here. Yeah. Why? I I I know that y'all are gonna laugh at me like this, but for some reason, I'm thinking it's the sneeze thing. Count the sneezes? I really like, I don't know why, but, like, I'm really thinking that's it. Yeah. Go ahead. Hang that around Boova's neck. I'm I'm fine with it. I don't know why, but, like, for some reason, I really think that's it. Nope. On a first test of Buva's intuition Yeah. We're going with count how many times a child sneezed. We'll see how the holy spirit speaks to you. You just bought yourself an albatross, friend. Six,

what did Elisha pray for the Arameans when they came down against him? One, that God would strike them dead. Two, God would strike them with blindness. Three, that God would show him a way out even though even although there was no way. Or four, that God would hobble their horses. Been a while. Who? Blindness. Elisha. And the and Arameans.

Arameans. Arameans. I think it's the blindness. I'm going blindness. Try going blindness? Okay. Seven, what did God do in response as Hezekiah wept to God in prayer? Healed him Nice. Killed him, killed his enemies, raised his child from the dead.

What was it? Hezekiah? Hezekiah healed him. Oh, healed him. Healed him. Healed his enemies, raised his child from Yeah. The Healed him. I I healed him for seven more years. Healed him. Healed him. Okay. Healed him. Eight. My landlord. What did the lord do when Job prayed for his friends? Laughed at him. One, sent his friends away. Two, brought more of his friends to comfort him. Three, restored his friends and gave them twice as much as they had before. Or d,

four, restored the fortunes of Job and gave Job twice as much as he had before. Final. D. Yeah. That's a d. Yeah. That 10 times? Was it 10 times? No. It's twice. 10. Thought it was seven.

I'd have to read it again. We're going with the last one. Nine. Who responded to Daniel's prayer of confession? I think it's a trick. The lord himself, the angel Michael, the angel Gabriel, the king Darius. Prayer of confession. Whose prayer? Daniel.

Prayer of confession? Would that be the king? That was he prayed for the confession of the country. Because the Darius was the one that

was, like, crazy and then came back. Right? No. No. That's Nebuchadnezzar. No. Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. Oh, okay. Darius threw him in the lion's den. Yeah. I think the lion didn't, Darius. Wait. No. Who responded to the prayer of wish I knew what they meant. Yeah. Read that again. Who responded to Daniel's prayer of confession? It was Michael Gabriel, god himself, or the king. Yeah. Oh. Oh, it's Gabriel.

Is that the one where he sent the Wait. It's it's it's Daniel seven. When he sends the messenger Daniel seven prophesying. And where he gets held up. Is that the deal? Is that the one? Yeah. Yeah. For two weeks and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just I it's the partial fast, the Daniel fast. It's the reference of prayer of confession that was that's that's tying me up here. Okay. We'll go with angel Gabriel. 10, where was Jonah when he prayed to God?

In the belly. On the Wharf at Joppa, in the boat about to be thrown in the water On John's on the road to Nineveh, in the belly of the fish. Belly of the fish. I mean, Longview, the road to Nineveh. Yeah. I mean, he ran from the wharf at Joppa, specifically away from the Lord.

In the boat, he refused to be in fact, the the foreigners prayed to God he did not in the boat about to be thrown in the water. I believe. Okay. Here we go. What about them? Sound a failure. Oh,

god. Question one. God spoke to Abimelech and and told him that Abraham would pray for him and he would live. That answer is correct. Yes. Question two, why did Isaac pray to the lord for his wife, Rebecca? We said because she was barren. That is correct. Yep. Question three, what did the priest Eli think when he saw Hannah praying? We said that she was drunk. That answer is correct. Man, I feel great about this. Question four, when Elisha prayed for his servant and the lord opened the eyes of the servant, what did he see?

We said the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. That is correct. You're darn right it Question five. When Elisha had prayed for the child of the Shunammite woman, what did he tell his servant to do? We said, count how many times the child sneezed. That is incorrect. Who knew? The correct answer is call the Shunammite woman. Like an albatross.

You know you know, fellas, I feel like after years of doing this stuff, you should stop trusting me. I mean, here's the deal. I even changed it back to call the Shunamite woman, and I thought That's probably better That's idea. Good. That's not fair. Am I is there anything group were going down as a group. What am I thinking of? Like, there was a resurrection of of of someone that I think that's VeggieTales. Yeah. No. Okay. No. So I'm obviously, the sneeze is wrong, but, like, I feel like You mean the major part of the answer. Yes. The sneeze is incorrect. I, for some reason, thought that was the right answer. I don't know why, but I'm I gotta look in because I feel like there's a resurrection story. I'm not interested in the motivation of why you got it wrong, Buba. Yeah. I also think Batman is real and chicken fingers are low calorie. You guys don't understand. I wish you knew it right. That chicken fries should just be called chicken fingers.

You ever seen those things? They look exactly like chicken fingers. Yeah. Alright. Lazarus sneezed and the stone rolled back and You know what? Hammer pants. Keep going. Why were you sneezing? It stinketh.

Alright. Number six, what did Elisha pray for the Arameans when they came down against him? We said that god would strike them with blindness. That is correct. Yes. Yep. Question seven, what did god do in response as Hezekiah wept to god in prayer? We said healed him. That is correct. Question eight, what did the Lord do when Job prayed for his friends? We said, restore the fortunes of Job and gave Job twice as much as he had before. That is correct. Question nine, who responded to Daniel's prayer of confession? We said, the angel Gabriel.

That is correct. Wow. Question 10, where was Jonah when he prayed to god? We said in the belly of the fish. That is correct. So what you're what you're saying is what you're saying is, fellas, that

when we did this quiz, we were we were pretty spot on. Yeah. And we got one wrong. Yep. One specific

We're not gonna point that out. Question wrong. I'm gonna And there seems to sneezes. There seemed to be an obvious joke answer that was put out by creator of this quiz. By a funny man.

And and a fellow funny man recognized that and went, I dig on those sneezes. Yeah. Yep. You know, I think we all learned something today. I think we did. You got smote by an 80 year old KJV only quiz creator. I think he hooked and reels you in and is laughing.

I think I think we all learned something today, and I think that's the more important part of us getting a 100%. Welcome back to the land of the living. You know, I'll count his sneezes in case he gets out of hand. He might have Make sure he didn't get resurrected with a cold. He's got seven sneezes. He's still dead. The lord the lord brings him back to life only be taken down by the common cold. He's a dumb man. That would have been a big deal back then, Mike.

You never know. They didn't have modern medicine. Who put the jalapenos in the balding spicy? Chew. I think there's too much pepper in here. This kid, he's having a hard time. You know? Tired. Should I call the Shunamite woman? No. No. No. Count his sneezes. No. Don't tell his tell his mom.

That's right. Don't tell his mom there's too many sneezes. What's going sneezes seven days. Either either walk back and forth in the room. Call the Shunammite woman Get that dead man a Kleenex. Or count those sneezes. He's he's grossing all over the bed. You know what? Kill him again.

I can't put up with all these sneezes. I can't deal with these sneezes. He's obviously in misery. How unsanitary? Alright. Now we answered total of nine out of 10 questions correctly for a score of 90%. So

close, but missed it by a sneeze. This has been taken 32,000 times since 10/12/2004, and the average score for this quiz is 69%. See, we did way better than the average. Yeah. That's true. They must have two boovas on their team. I

pray for anybody who has two boovas on the team, Mike. I feel terrible for that family. They just comedy all the time, the boovahs. Oh, man. Did you hear that one about the sneezes? Oh, yeah. Pick that one. I'm gonna be fine. On this one. You know, when we really be doing ourselves a justice, if we would have gotten a 100%? We would have we our our heads would have gotten too big. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not like the guy who says, it's the sneezes. I'm sure of it. I don't know. They're sneezes. This is the this

three seasoned fellas in the room that followed the guy that said the sneezes. Okay. Now that is a that is a valid point. That is yep. That's problematic. Should we trust Boova's intuition? No. We've known this show for almost a decade. You know no. The answer is no always, Mike. Alright. We got time for one advice. Ready? Yep. Yep. Dear life from the path. My husband Joe and I have been married forty five years and he drives me nuts. Yep. I've asked him countless times to use better table manners, speak proper English and treat others with respect. I'm not asking for perfection. This is three big things. I know I'm not perfect, but if some if someone pointed out something I was doing incorrectly or that embarrassed someone, I'd change what I was doing. Besides asking nicely, which I always do is to not belittle Joe, what can I do? It's hard to ignore.

Okay. What if Joe said, stop pointing out the bad stuff I do? Yeah. Exactly. Why don't you try and quit doing that? Speak proper English. Who did you marry? Okay. I'm gonna here here's my official.

This woman needs to go to a neurolog neurologist because there's obviously some dementia setting in. Been with this guy for forty five years. Forty five stinking years. Mhmm. And now suddenly, she's, like, picking at him. Something's wrong. She's not healthy. She's sick. She needs help. It's really turning south on her. She married a man who calls himself catfish. Maybe it's not dementia. May maybe she has hemorrhoids. Maybe she has arthritis. I don't know. Something is making her upset.

And it's not her husband. That's just an excuse. Hemorrhoids, She may have hemorrhoids. This guy doesn't have bad table manners, horrible etiquette, and speaks broken English. You know, really, you're right. After forty five years, it's a little hard to say. I've asked him countless times to use better table manners. I'd have given up after year 20. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been with him for forty five years, and I just now realized I married a Creole chef. What's happening? That's right. Old catfish just puts his elbows on the table. Ain't nothing you're gonna do. What I do to clown. Catfish, what you talking about? The kids are gone. The grandkids are gone. The dogs have all died. Yeah. There's nothing. It's just you two. Yep. I mean, get over it. She's just sitting in a corner scowling at them the whole time. Yep. Get your TV tray out and enjoy yourself. Yeah. You ain't coming to dinner, woman. Catfish ain't wearing no pants.

It's a touffe. Yeah. I mean, just get a dog so that something is less offensive than your husband. Yeah. Train your dog. He's not drinking out of the toilet. Yeah. Like that guy. Speak proper English. I just I'd really want some examples. Actually, that reinforces the potential that he's a Creole chef.

That's what I'm saying. Joe, I told you. We're not gonna do that at the table. Why did that happen? Got shrimp and two feet, baby. I wear no pants. Catfish,

why are you wearing no pants with the chili peppers on them? I'm spicy, baby. I'm spicy. Yeah. Where'd you get that catfish name tag? I bought it on Amazon. Why is he doing that? He's he's 45 years.

It's gotta be something throwing it over the edge. Yeah. We've been married for forty five years. You haven't done that. Now I do. I'm adding to the character of the the relationship, baby. My my wife would be thrilled if that was the only stuff wrong with me. Right. Forget this gal. This this guy seems awesome. I wanna party with catfish. I'd like to date this guy myself.

That guy seems great. He seems like a laugh laugh a minute. Alright. So I think the the to sum up the advice, the ship has sailed. Yeah. Yeah. You've been married for half half a century. Close to. It's too late. Yeah. It's way too late. That was the question. What can I do?

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Out out catfish the catfish, I guess. Yeah. I mean, start farmers not in the kitchen. I don't know.

Right. Put your knees in the salad and see what goes on. Alright. Segular says, after forty five years, you should have come to the realization that you cannot change another person. For the sake of your sanity, learn to change the way you react to your husband's poor table manners and bad English. Because he's a sloppy eater, consider eating with him less often. Oh. No.

No. I can't take this catfish. I don't care. Catfish got too many friends. I don't care. Because he's a blah blah blah. Because his grammar isn't up to par, try to remember that you married him this way and he managed to get the words I do out well enough to satisfy satisfy the officiant. As to his disrespect for other people, the next time it happens, don't ask him to cut it out. Tell him. Oh. Oh, yeah. That'll work.

Yeah. Hey, man. Dan, have you ever had someone say something different than I do when instructed? Like, what what was the noise? Usually, they're nervous enough. They'll just they'll just do whatever. They'll just say whatever. They'll just say whatever you tell them? Yeah. Yeah. Do you take this woman? Let me wait for sneezing. Catfish tastes what catfish wants.

Alright. You you made the mistake of listening to the live from the past. Hey. If you're just joining us for that Tim Ackie podcast, just know that, he gave up after ten years, not us. It's harder than that. We're still cranking out the hits over here. But if you wanna complain about the show, I mean, god bless you for your free time. Maybe you should pray to the lord on that thing if got you time to do that. But otherwise, you can give us a give us a text or a phone call. (515) 517-0085. That is not a live line. No. There's there's no one the thrift store priest is staying in here, his his hands are occupied. So, I mean, no one's picking that up. You'll be leaving a message or shoot us a text, but that's the complaint line. (515) 517-0085. We do thank you so much for listening to us on the show, especially if you've been hanging out for that full decade, you know.

We'll invite you to the show, get to that thing we're gonna put together if we ever do that, And you can you have the seat of honor. Congratulations. Eat Chinese food again. Yes. We that's what we need is we only ate out for Chinese when we were having to try to court a a advertiser. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. Let's do a buffet, a buffet night. Yeah. We'll invite people. It's Dutch treat. I mean, come on. Yeah. That's sorry. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Anyway, we'll see you when we see you. In the meantime, be faithful to me and God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.