Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. And you're listening to Live From The Path. We're coming from the, Pathway Studios here in Johnson And Proper. Hey, Buba looks like he's 10 years old in that opening.

Did you see Oh, I yeah. I agree. Believe he was. I'm fairly certain that was about ten years ago. Might have been 10 years old. No. That was probably five Anyway I didn't realize this I've I've not aged as gracefully. Put it that way. I just grew a beard and have hair now. Like, that's what I've got going for I have glasses. I have sunglasses. That count? I put glasses on the other day and somebody said I look cute. I need to get glasses. It works. Is it a cute thing? No. I mean, I don't Ben, can I borrow your glasses? No. I'm You like an extra pair? No. I know I don't wanna break them, that's why I bought new As as Christ loving men, do you think it's a good or bad idea for me to go get, like, a set of those hipster glasses that don't actually do any vision enhancement? It's only for looks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as long as as if if the question is prefaced, Ben, in my vanity, I wish to do the following,

then, yes, I I'm gonna I'm gonna ask that you stay away from that. That's fair. That's totally fair. Alright. Hey. You're listening live, Pat. Thank you for hanging out with us, on this fine evening. Here's what got going on the show. We've just got some Pope style advice. You got you got some preview on this Pope style? I'm gonna try not to give a really long one because you guys always yell at me about it. It's about understanding God's will Uh-huh. And how you are to react to that.

I mean, the question everyone's everyone always asks, boob. Right? Pope pope boob is on it. I don't don't think I can answer the whole thing, but I think god's given me some serious revelation recently about a part of it. Okay. And that's what I'm gonna offer you guys. Alright. Jesus calling on Bubba. He's he's gonna talk about God's will and what to do with it. Also, there was a there was a Twitter thread, like, a month ago from a guy named Dave Gas. And he was a pastor and, he he basically he's he's not a Christian anymore. And, like, well, I wanna read this thread,

and some of the things that he that he's talking about because, like, I mean, it it's heartbreaking. But then I think it also causes should cause, faithful followers of Jesus to ask real questions about how does this happen? Like, how how does a guy get in this kind of position Right. And and and and be and be here? And and what is it what should what is the church's reaction, to this kind of thing? So I I, like, I I don't know. I probably read this thing and I thought about it for a good two hours, I think, the first time I read through it. And then I came back to it and I thought, oh, man, I'm I'm in the same spot. So anyway, we'll we'll, we'll hit that up. Also, we'll do some, advice on Dear Life and the Path. And then if that'll sail out our day Sweet. I've got enough tea to keep us through to that much. And then after that, I'm going home. I think I got a two liter or so. Man, I'm empty. Uh-oh. Well, it's okay. We might have to speed the show up. No. I'm saying I got Dan's not gonna make it. I didn't say I got a two liter so that, like, we can go quick. I can offer Dan some.

Oh, what? Dan, are you willing to take a pull off Boova's half drunk Diet Coke? I mean, I I give it a I give it a shot. I'm pretty you drink from the bottle. Right? Yeah. Okay. That's probably a quarter diet coke and a quarter boova slaughter. Gross, man. No. Yeah, it is. I know how to drink not like a toddler. No, you don't. No. I don't I don't trust it. See? Wow. I feel like You're welcome, man. I'm still willing to go. Not backwashing into my soda is, is not something you can trust me with. Fellas, we should talk about my responsibilities in life if we're having trouble with my hygiene and drinking. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't have to speak to, you know, your faithfulness to the lord. I'm just saying it's looking a little weak. It's the beard. The beard does it. The beard? If you have a beard, you obviously have backwash. Yeah. Yeah. If you're wearing a wear Explain the obvious portion. It's just obvious. I shouldn't have to. Yeah. That's the nature of obviousness, Boomer. Yeah. That's why I'm contesting the obviousness of it. Crap. Alright. Actually, so here's here's the deal. Let's let's start with this character.

Alright. This is our this is our our man, Dave David Gas. Alright. David. Alright. He says, I am not a Christian anymore, full colon. A thread. Great. He's gonna put on a program here. So he wasn't a Calvinist? Apparently not. Apparently not. Sorry. Although I've heard him go in bad places. Here's the deal. I have seen that. Couldn't make it fifteen seconds, dude. I I tried. Here's Fifteen seconds. Here's the the biggest risk of that bucket of theology is, like, you you cannot, people bail from Jesus when they bail from Calvinism. They don't move from Calvinism to to a sense of free will. They just decide they're on the wrong side of the, of the lottery process. Yeah. Because they have to say I never believed anyway. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. It's it's it's I never thought of like that. It's a harsh it's a harsh,

it's a harsh deal, because people yeah. They they'll just they'll just bail completely, like, because they they tend to be so committed to that theology that they're either either it is so right and they weren't selected or the whole thing is bogus and they can't buy that any other side would be wrong would be correct, like, that that that there might be a,

an Armenian thought or some shade of it. Yeah. And so, anyway, it's it's it's a harsh It's a big pitfalls. Yeah. It's difficult. Anyway, he says, I'm not a Christian anymore, colon, I think. Full colon. After forty years of being a devout follower Forty? Forty. Okay. Twenty of those being an evangelical pastor, I'm walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades

in the making. In which case, I might question the forty years of being a devout follower. Yeah. Let's see. Maybe ten? Maybe devout's a strong word. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure I I I'm sure his story is interesting. I'm just saying like It doesn't really build his credibility to go to like, I spent ten years as a devout follower and then thirty years as, you know Kinda floated downward. I guess it was a down river situation. He says, when I was in eighth grade and I was reading Greek mythology, it dawned on me how much of the supernatural interactions between the deity, the bible, and the mankind sounded like ancient mythology.

That seed of doubt never went away. So he's had a problem since he was in eighth grade. Yeah. We're just gonna continue to fight against his devout Christian for forty years. Yeah. Here's and here's the thing. Here's the thing. I before we get too far down this path, this is I think this is this is a proper warning about someone's interaction with the faith of Jesus. But we gotta be clear that, like, you don't just get to use language however you want. Right? Like, would much rather him say, hey, man. Ever since eighth grade, like, this all just seemed a little bit above me. Not that I'm dumb but, like, ancient gods and interacting and and and versions giving birth and and, like so, like, I've always just carried this seed of of doubt in my mind. That is freaking honest. I said that. I'm

guessing he was a devout devoted to his religion. Yes, Dan. Let's see if Dan calls it right. He says, I was raised in a hyper fundamentalist family and it felt good to be in a system that promised all the answer and solutions to life. Yeah. Again. Buzzwords. Yep. And, so we we just call it out as we see them. I I don't I

don't see that Christianity promises that. Right. It promises all like, it the greatest of all answers and solutions. But, like, if you're if you're cranking on, every answer every day will be resolved by the this notion of

faith in Jesus. I I I don't know. I I wouldn't advertise it that way. Any disagreements there? No. No? Okay. Alright. So the problem is the system didn't work. Great. We agree so far. The promises were empty. Again, misapplied. The answers were lies. No, period. I don't trust. As an adult, my marriage was a sham and a constant source of pain for me. I did everything I was supposed to. Marriage workshops, counseling, bible reading together, date nights every week, marriage books, but my marriage never became what I was promised it would be. What's he missing?

He did the books, Dan. See see, books are written to sell, and, they might have some good content in it. They might have some good stuff, but but they I mean, if you're putting your all your faith into some book, like, hey, sex begins in the kitchen. I read that as a young man thinking, hey, this is really good. This is You serve your wife, you get all the sex you want. And and I was about ten weeks into that book, I realized that's not true. And forty years later, I'm like, yeah, it's still not true. I baked 30 muffins before I figured this out.

I mean Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so so here's the thing. Here's what he's talking about. He's got the he's got the shape right. Right? Like, when we talk about like, what what would we do? Hey, man. You need to read your bible together. Date nights every week, need to date your wife, counseling, marriage workshops. I mean, I guess, generally, it'd be like, yeah. But, like, underneath that, are are you individually following Jesus? Yeah. Yeah. That that's because then the work. You are 100%

involved in the system by your words. Yeah. You are in you are involved in in in right. The shape of it. But, like, if you do all of this and miss god Yeah. It's for naught. Those are the things those are the tools we give people to help them to get to a deeper level After a relationship make you get to a deeper level. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. This presupposes that you have a legitimate relationship and loving, lasting relationship with your father.

With all of those things makes sense. Yeah. But if you miss that, you're literally just going through the motions of what yeah. Exact yeah. Exact 100 Jesus busy work. It is Jesus busy Now here's the thing is that And this this whole situation makes perfect sense. This is a secular shape. Yep. Hey, books, counseling, marriage workshops and those and some of those folks are getting marriages to work out. So I I'm just, like, it it it it can't be the books. Right. Right? It can't be the marriage counseling. You you you're getting the shape of the thing and, like, I I've said this before but, like, if you look at when we talk about community, when in in fact, like, 95% of what of what Christians talk about community, the shape of that can be found in a local bar most most Friday, Saturday nights. Mhmm. K? People you can spend time with, they love you unconditionally, they're willing to listen to your problems,

blah blah blah blah. Right? But it it's the other 5% that makes the world of difference Mhmm. That changes absolutely everything. One of those being accountability, I might add. The bar guys aren't holding you to it because you you your world just changes when you get in there. And so alright. So anyway, so right now, we're, like, hey, I'm a devout follower. I got the shape of what I think cultural Christianity is really what I yeah. Think he's The the honest way to represent He read how to be a Christian on a macaroni and cheese box instructions. Yep. Alright. I was fully devoted to studying the scriptures. I think I missed maybe 12 Sundays in forty years. Well, don't you get a card. Shape? Completely memorized 18 books of the bible, that's impressive.

And and was reading through the bible for the twenty fourth time when I walked away. Okay? He's due to and he he doesn't speak to this. It doesn't do good to memorize it unless it's applying. Right. Alright. He says, I devoured all the Christian apologetics books that came out and none of them answered my questions regarding the nature of God and the problems I found within the scriptures.

Like, what? Does he say? Okay. We'll see. Maybe he says. I found these books to be trite, dismissive and full of pseudoscience and evidence. Okay. Okay.

I so, to that point, I have had that. Oh. There there was a lot of bad Christian apologetic work out there. Yeah. It's still humans writing things. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, they're not trying, they're not having legit arguments, they're not interacting with smart people, outside of, like, of the theology. Actually, I've noticed this, there's some, there's some Christian based homeschool curriculum that very much, hits this too where it's just it's poorly done, and you're you're The God has true things to say and you're dismiss Dismissing some of the things that people are talking about as if they people aren't talking about them, it does not do a service, to the to the reality of of God's truth. And so,

I would say that, like, I personally have I'd like There's a There I've read some apologetic stuff and, like, this is total garbage. Like, it's not even a good biblical argument, let alone it doesn't address, like, what people are actually talking about. And, like, talking outside of that doesn't do you any good. So, anyway, I I I will agree that some of that is true. I've also read many many, very good ones Yeah. And that, you may not you don't have to love the answer but it's it's well done, and it's not tried or dismissive. Okay. I found these books to be tried, dismissive, and full of pseudoscience and evidence. The more I read and studied the scriptures, the more questions I had. Literally, from the first chapter to the last, so many problems. And the more I learned about how the scriptures were canonized, the less I could believe in the inerrancy model that I had to espouse.

Dan, you ever do you ever I don't know. You ever run into that? Personally or you mean, like, talking to people? Yeah. Either one. Not not really. Not really? Yeah. I mean I mean, I guess there there were times, like, in in my initial studies of of learning all all of what he's talking about, I thought, you know? And then it was, like, kinda moved beyond it but Yeah. I don't know. Like, I know that it's a big it's it's a pretty fun thing. Actually, it's pretty popular, to be honest, to

to talk about how the scriptures were canonized. Hey, there were there were people involved. Right. And the truth is is, like, yeah, there there there's people involved in the whole process. Right. Exactly. Like, every book is I mean, that's why we put a guy's name on it. Yep. Paul. But it wasn't like yeah. Exactly. I mean, it wasn't like, the the mood of the moment of Right. Whether it was in or out. I mean, it it there was legitimate Yeah. That that's the that's the thing is that, like sources and citing things. Yeah. Right. Right. And again, like, up to that point, like, you could reproduce the the entire bible in, like, extant letters that we had. Mhmm. And, like, here's the thing, is the exact people are people are weird. Actually, I I've written this at work a lot. The presence of questions do not indicate the presence of a problem.

It's not the same thing. Just because something popped in your mind and go, hey, that's kind of funky or that could have been weird because here's the thing, the very same process of ex intentionally excluding something from scripture, because you don't want it in there, like, from from 1,700 out, looks the exact same as someone saying, this doesn't belong in here because it's false. Group of people looking at it saying, no. No. No one's been reading this. This is relatively new. It doesn't have any of the earmarks of any of the the consistent theology.

No. It it doesn't belong just because someone wrote it, which is this, like, yes, you could put mustaches and twisted fingers on these same guys and have them stroking their beard going, oh, we don't want it in because it will screw everything up. But, like, from seventeen hundred years out, it's gonna look like the exact same process. Right. And so, again, the the the fact that you thought of it doesn't make you a wondrous thinker. It it just means that, like, there there is a there is a trust. There's a faith when we as we react to scripture. I think it's a completely reasonable one. But, like, there is a faith that that God has worked through fallible humans to communicate an infallible message and, like, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a nature of faith in that except for, I continue to see it, prove true, to not return void and,

act, have those words be followed and acted upon in people's lives and see god's promises kept. Right. And so, you know what? I'm I'm still I'm with it. Yep. I stick with it because I've seen it. So, yeah, the fact that, like, oh, you know, I don't trust how it was canonized, I get it. It's a pretty popular thing to be have a bummer about but, yeah, the presence of your question is not the same thing as there being an actual problem. In forty years, I never was witnessed a single vent event that was supernatural, not one.

K. Time and again, I watched people die of cancer. Yeah. They're gonna I don't wanna be crass, but I mean, they're gonna that's gonna happen. Right. I did funerals for 47 people from the age of four to 96, of which there are evident here's their stories in the bible from people from the age four to 96 dying. So Yep. I don't know where that standard came from. I prayed in faith with hundreds of people for healing to no avail. God didn't answer prayers. Ah, it's our God doesn't heal a handicap guy. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that's now here's the thing. Mhmm. Here here's where I'm finding myself. Like, so far, there's a there's twenty percent of I'm sympathetic to some of this because I think that there's a natural sympathy for me for humans trying to digest something like the concept of God. I get it. I get it. And, like and I understand like, it's a common question. I've seen people pray in faith. There are biblical stories of people praying in faith and people being healed. Why isn't healing mine? It's a reasonable question. Mhmm. Right. But but, like, it doesn't invalidate

everything else going on if it doesn't show up in your life. And unless I say, god, unless you do it for me, I don't believe that you do it. Your your heart posturing is probably the reason these types of things are not happening. In addition to the fact that, like, it's not necessarily normative. And so I I just it's, I understand it. I don't know that the reaction to it makes sense to me because there's a there's a larger context. My devoutly Christian parents wait. God didn't answer prayers. Hold on. Here's the other thing.

Here's the other thing. If if that is the level of which you're I I I think you are blissfully unaware of how often God has answered prayers. Right. I've often found that. The lord is not responding to me. And then I get, like, two years out, I'm like, well, shoot. He super responded to me. Sure did that. I just decided it wasn't true at the moment and he was merciful and I was stubborn and obstinate. See, I think this guy's so far, one of the biggest issues that I'm seeing is he is trying to process God

through his human expectations. And, like, he's heard either biblically or from other people his expectations, and he has he has developed this identity from what he thinks God is and has not actually developed an identity from what God says he is. And, of course, you're gonna be disappointed by that. Like, 100. If if you're not finding yourself if you are the main part of your story rather than you are a small part of God's story,

this is absolutely going to happen. 100%. You will spend forty years as a devout Christian hoping to see things and hopelessly missing them. Right. And so I I I feel nothing but remorse in this situation. Like, that's that's hard and that's tough and empathizing with a human, that is that is difficult to do. But, like, how many times has this dude so far said I? Mhmm. Like Yeah. Actually, they all start with I. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. He is talking about the actions that he brought into this relationship with God. And I'm sure that there's some part of that can be blamed on the fact that this guy started this article by saying, I no longer have faith. So he's probably not going to personify God in this situation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But still, I mean, it it's it it it is it is telling the fact that you tried to process God through your window of understanding rather than allowing yourself to be a part of his story. Right. And see, here's the thing. It doesn't do any good. Like, if I if I read through the bible 24 times and memorized counted every time. It matters 18 books. I like, the question is Nice. Is that like yeah. Right? Again,

still no god. I know I know I will do a Twitter thread one day. I must keep my bona fides up. Like, like, if it is if if if it if it is not changing you, then you are wasting your effort. Right. Right? Like, it is it is it is not just a means for you to pick up system systemic knowledge. I I I have a theory, and I was gonna not say anything, but I think I will just just to to to see how this goes. Okay. Here's what I think his issue really is.

He's burned out. He's a pastor. Right? Yep. Because this happens Forty devout years. He's just tired. He's just tired. He no. Honestly, he he hasn't been taking Sabbath. He has he hasn't had a pattern of rest. He and every single human being will get to a point they just get tired. And if they and then they keep forging forward, you'll you'll feel like you've lost your faith. I know when it's time to go on vacation is I hate people, and and I'm not sure if I like god. Right? The next time Dan takes a vacation, I'm gonna text him and be like, are we good? Well, yeah. I mean, because you just I just think, oh, shoot. Boy, I'm seeing the symptoms. Still human. And some yeah. Yeah. And and and some guys just keep fighting through it. Yeah. And then they hit burnout, and then they just burn up. And, mean, missing 12 Sundays in forty years sounds like a guy's not taking Sabbath. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, this is the same husband and wife. He says, well, I never really did love them. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Yeah. Right. Something happened along the way. You weren't healthy in your relationship. Same thing with that's what happened to him and god. That's a theory. I'm I'm Okay. I'm rolling around. It's

it's Alright. So he says, my devoutly Christian parents were abusive. My marriage was a sham. Prayer was never answered. Miracles were never performed. People died, children rebelled, marriages failed, addictions occurred, all at the same rate as non believers. We call that life. Right? Yeah. Welcome to a fallen world. Actually, I just thought that people died, children rebelled, marriages failed, addictions occurred, old testament. Yep. Literally the entire thing. Yeah. Exactly. Which is here's the deal. The the the Bible is the story

of God interacting with the fallible people. And so I I wouldn't be surprised to find out that fallible people's story continues to have people acting in this way. Although, I would have contention with all at the same rate as nonbelievers. That's not true Yeah. Especially in marriages. I like, that was that got pretty common over the last, I don't regular eight to ten years or so to be like, yeah, we're we we've got the same marriage failure rate. It's not it's simply not true. A lot of that goes and this goes back to however often we talked about surveys, is people's, definition of Yep. Evangelical or Christian. It's the checkbox Christian. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Christian other. He says the system just doesn't work. Well, there you go right there. There you go right there. Man. This this

cultural, this blend of, like, western Americanism, cultural Christianity stuff, system failed. Yeah. Jesus' light will fail. Yahweh light will fail because he doesn't work that way. He doesn't offer a light version. Right. And so, yeah, like, this seems like a a a balance of things that don't that don't require, like, just submission to god. Take up your cross. It's a little gold chain. Yeah. You'll like it. Wait a minute. Are you saying that there's no diet Yahweh?

No. No. There is not. There is not. He's only full strength? No backwashed diet Yahweh. Yes. He runs in full strength, and that's it. I think that's And right. Yahweh's full strength is you're unholy. I'm not. Don't walk in here without without sanctification. Otherwise, you will die. Yeah. He knew we we don't work well in systems. Literally, he he developed the first one knowing that we would fail it and knowing that he would have to redeem it with his son's sacrifice Mhmm. Knowing full well entirely any system, we will fail.

And therefore, he has to show his love and his redemption and his grace and knew it was gonna work out because he, the one who does, and it's not us. Yep. It's not on our works, and it's not on our our it's literally we have to trust him, have a relationship, have faith in him, and one redeem. It doesn't sound like this guy has that at all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I hate to call that out because I I obviously have been in this place many times. I think no. Yeah. I don't want I don't want I don't want you anybody to hear me wrong. I think I think people

most people are susceptible to any one of these things. No. Absolutely. Again, from a cultural perspective. Like, where where it's if it's not grounded in kind of the right understanding of who God is and what he does and what that means for who you are and what you do, when it becomes a system, when it becomes a a mechanization, a

yeah, it will the the mechanization will burn you out. Mhmm. It just will. And here's the thing, you should freaking know that because if you know anything about how people are are are are living somewhere else in the world, how faithful Christians who outnumber Western Christianity by a ton, I might add, are not working under all of our mechanizations. And so, like, if it doesn't have to be the same, then it can't be the mechanization that is the core thing. And it's not that I can't express itself in some of those things, but, like, if you've adhered to that, that's the problem. And, like, when people say it's not a not a religion, it's a relationship, they the New Testament actually talks positively of religion. It just it's not it's not mechanized. It's not said, here's here's the factory of Christians. God didn't do that. Right. And so we don't have to do that either. It can be expressed in a lot of different ways. And I think that I think that's what the risk is. You subscribe to the newsletter, of what it looks like to to look and and smell like the thing.

And and even here's the thing, getting the thing right doesn't promise any of these things that you're people will still die, children will probably Right. Exactly. Will still rebel. There's still symptoms of a fallen world. Heck, the two first two people the lord created rebelled. I mean, I don't know what type of standard you're looking for. That's very true. But It it failed on us immediately. And he did it anyway. I think it's the point. Like, you're like, this sucks. I'm like, woah. I mean, in love, the the Lord still gives him the ability to chew. Yeah. Alright. So he says, I pastored mega churches and tiny churches. I did college ministry, camp ministry, youth ministry, music ministry, preaching ministry, church planning,

notch, notch, notch. And I was gonna say, I'm super excited for this guy's resume. And no Sabbath, Back to Dan's point, everything in the church except work in the nursery. And what I saw was people desperate for the system to work for this system. He failed them. Jesus won't Should have worked in the nursery. Yeah. Maybe that would have worked then. He would have just done you where his heart was. Oh, man. That was love that this guy just been humbled for a second. Oh, look at all this. I'm the pastor of this megachurch. Actually, nah. You guys take this Sunday. I'm a go hang out with the babies in the nursery, and god just calls and be like, yeah, man. This would've wanted the whole time. Plus, I mean, there's very few people on Earth who can say I pastored mega churches. Yeah. Right. I mean, I I think he's exaggerating. Point. Yeah. I mean, right?

Hold on. Fact check. Wonder if you can Google if he's read the bible 24 times. Okay. Hold on. There's an article from Christian from the Christian Post it seems. How many times is this He could have been on staff. I guess I was thinking as the head dude. So maybe he me he's maybe he's just Regardless, this is still He does the list for it. Accomplishments. Okay. Yeah. Former pastor who most recently led Grace Family Fellowship in Pleasant Hill, Missouri has renounced his Christian faith as a system rife with abuse and caused him mental and emotional breaks. Hold on.

Oh. Oh, wait a minute. Now I remember I remember something that I read about this. So let me let's finish this Yeah. And then I will and then I'll I'll I'll find that. Oh, hope I flagged it. Was that an article you flagged? Yes. Oh, doggone it. Hold on.

We're holding, Ben. Sorry. Wait. Sorry. This is ad. Time. I know. I know. I know. There was a somebody from his church responded. Oh, that's it was it good? Yeah. It was Okay. Good. Was gonna say, I almost just immediately went, oh, yeah. Awesome. But then I'm like, oh, wait. No. No. It was could very easily get really bad. It's interesting context. I'll put it that way. Okay. So let's finish this out and hopefully that can come across it. Alright. So des and what I saw was people desperate for the system to work for them. I would expect them to come to the church and to Christ in desperation wanting it to do something and I would expect that it would. And so

but I'm not surprised, I suppose, that the mechanization's There's thousands of teenagers at a time wrote blogs, was published, formed curriculum, taught workshops, was an up and comer reforming my denomination. The whole time hoping at some point it would click and become true for me, you should have quit. Now this part is the part where it changes for me and it makes me irritated. Yeah. If if it wasn't clicking for you, quit influencing people. Quit peddling something you don't believe in. Mhmm. Quit risking

something that could be true that maybe you're just not you're not grasping. I don't mean intellectually, but, like, if you ain't if you ain't feeling it, if you don't believe it's true, what kind of hypocrite continues to spit it out their mouth? Like, I will at least preface something if, like, hey, man. I'm struggling with this thing. Yeah. Like, we could have that conversation here. Right? Safe place to say, look, I I I don't know. I don't know. I hear it. I wanna believe it's true. Help me in my own belief. Right. What's what's what's going on here? That's not the same as being the guy who's writing blogs, doing every freaking ministry known to man, and peddling something that you ain't buying. Yeah. Back of my mind going, I don't Yeah. You hypocritical turd, that irritates me. Right? Because he he puts he puts, he puts the whole thing at risk, by by doing that. Absolutely. And that frankly, that's borderline abusive. If you do not believe it, shut up. Go sit down. If you can't figure it out, you don't have to be a pat Go sit into somebody else who does. Go work at the freaking Starbucks. You don't you don't have to have a job doing this if that if this isn't what if if this isn't your calling.

Okay. Alright. Well to make a clip of you saying that. An escape an inescapable, reality that I came to was that the people who benefit the most from organized religion were the fringe attenders who didn't take it too seriously. The people who were devout were the most miserable but just kept trying harder. Now, again, that's an extremely limited context.

You you you you asked that same thing in what ask Zebedee, Right? Is is does he buy that for Christianity in Zimbabwe? Do they buy that in Christianity in Ethiopia? Do they buy that from Christianity in the vast majority of places where you are not it's not a cultural thing that you get to be able to do positively and you get to share kinda with your country identity. Like, it is that is not it. That is not most people's experience. Right. So that is an extremely shallow thing to say. All the while, the experience I had within the church was that a lot, granted not all, people use the church for power and influence. Dude

who refused to quit his damn job, who didn't believe in it, for power and influence. Uh-huh. Many involved people in churches, Eunice is their small kingdom for personal control and ego. That's true

at some points. But I feel like you're the top guy. Just waiting for Ben to call him a brood of vipers. I I don't remember being this. Like, I read through this and I was real disappointed. Somehow, it's turned I've turned angry. Righteous indignation. And the entire system is rife with abuse and not just from the top down. Sure, there are abusive church leaders, but church leaders are abused by their congregants as well. Church people are just crappy to each other, and I've exchanged the word out. Dan? Yeah?

First people are just crappy to each other? I think it can be because they're humans. Yeah. Humans could be crappy to each other. Yeah. Humans in leadership positions, humans in non leadership more just because they're not sitting at your office. Here's the deal. It anybody that should anybody that looks at the church and has a higher expectation of what people actually do and the nature of especially especially, we think about your church, churches are open doors. Right. People walk in at every stage of their life. Right? And so now now, put yourself in the same position. The Lord the Lord picks out the Israelites and says, you're gonna be my people and you're gonna do this work for me so that all may know me. You're be my kingdom and priests, the mediators between the rest of the world and me and they stunk at it. The handpicked by the lord. The the welcome to the old testament. That's right. They they and they stink at it. They can't and they what do they do? They act like everybody else. Yep. They become elitist. They be they take their cultural things. They lift them up as if they're god's ordained, stuff for everybody. Pretty much everything wrong. They stink. Right? Which is the same thing you're accusing the church of, and I'm not sure there's a surprise here nor is it the same surprise that happens to any other group anywhere else. Right. And so I hear you but, you know, as a cudgelite, it's not my favorite. Wrong conclusion. Yeah. That's right. That's right. I spent my entire life serving, loving and trying to help people in my congregations. That could very well be true except for the premise of you lying about to continue about continuing to preach. He's making the whip. The

lies, betrayal and slander I have received at the hands of church people left wounds that may never heal. Now here's the thing, that comes with being a leader in anything that is of substance and consequence. Mhmm. You tell me the guy that runs GE can't say this exact same thing. GE sucks. Right? He can be this always treats their employees crappy, and it could be just, like, a handful of people. Lies, betrayal, slander, you're gonna a megachurch, let's just call you $2 or above. Everybody who's leading 2,000 people or above is gonna be the the nameplate and the figurehead of which every complaint about the organization comes. Mhmm. If you cannot handle running a large organization, you shouldn't do it. It takes it takes a certain type of dude. And my guess is 90% of the guys running churches that big probably shouldn't be doing it, but it can be done. And if you're not the right guy to do it, don't freaking do it. But don't don't show up there and be like, oh, it's a a big organization, and they I they told lies and slander about me. That's gonna happen anywhere you go, buddy.

Alright. The massive the wounds that will never heal. If they were lies, let them go. Massive this massive cognitive dissonance, my beliefs not matching with reality created a separation between my head and my heart. I was gaslighting myself to stay in the faith. Alright. Eventually,

I could not gaslighting myself. Come on. He's building the end of his case to be the woe is me, Art. It's not gaslighting yourself if you are doing it intentionally. Right. Gaslighting is a manipulative nature. It's to say, I completely am lying about all the reality that surrounds you to make con convince you that you're nuts. You don't do that to yourself, especially when you know your intent if you're saying I intentionally did it.

You goon, quit picking up Internet words and throwing them in somewhere. Alright. Eventually, I could not but maintain the facade anymore. I started to have mental and emotional breaks. I feel bad for that because I bet you did. Mhmm. When you have a set be awful. It had to be terrible. The separation of mind and heart in that way, that is awful. Yep. That is awful. And and, like, again, running a organization that big, there's slings and arrows coming at you all over the place. I I sympathize with this. You had some level of control over it, though. Right. Like, you're not completely disassociated here. My internal stress started showing physical symptoms. I agree with that too. I got that with, like, three people in a congregation, let alone 2,000.

I mean, I feel you. Being a pastor, a professional Christian was killing me. His own. He nailed it. He nailed it. Good for Christian. Good for him. Yeah. Glad he finally figured it out. I mean, he's found it. I don't know I don't know how this turned out so poorly. He's diagnosed it correctly. You know, the it doesn't surprise me. The guy that memorizes 18 books of the bible is smart enough to out exactly what he did wrong. Yeah. But but if he's not he doesn't have the right reaction to No. Exact no. That's what I'm saying. He figured it out. He saw the puzzle and then did nothing with it. Yeah. And then said, man. Yeah. I should just stop being a professional Christian. That might be a good start. I solved the puzzle. I'm not gonna actually fix anything. It's just Yeah. You know what I didn't see here? This is a good this I'm leaning on, towards Dan here. You know what? I didn't see a guy say, hey. Look. This isn't working out. I I I need to step away. Hey. You know the 10 commandments.

Take a break. Like, try like, refresh. Do something. And if he's hitting 10 dude, what did he say? Didn't miss 12 Sundays in forty years. When's he going to these marriage retreats writing all these blogs and business? I mean, I just like because he's so faithful to the Monday through Friday. God says, will find you. I will bring you rest. I will bring you rest. And you're like, screw rest. I will write a blog. I'm I'm just saying, I you know, for a guy who feels like he he tucks this thing up to the nines and and run with the rope taut, I feel like you missed kinda a big thing. A big thing. Alright. During

this time, I also found something amazing. I found a handful of people who were more Christian than any Christian I'd ever met and they weren't Christian. I found love in places where love wasn't supposed to exist. I found acceptance among people who were godless. Eventually, I could not maintain the facade anymore. I started to have mental and emotional breaks. My internal stress started to show in physical wait. He always say he wrote that twice. I didn't read it twice wrongly. He wrote it twice. I don't think anybody was accusing you of that. Don't tempt me, boova.

I'm animated. Alright. I learned that love is real, that acceptance is possible, that life is vibrant and full. But the church burdens people with fear, shame, and guilt, all for the purpose of maintaining control. That doesn't smell like Jesus to me. No. It's you know what? For a guy that wrote read your bible, like, 24 times, come on, man. You missed some huge statements.

Like, you missed them 24 times by your own and that's just how many times you read through it. Yeah. I can't imagine how many countless times you read that God wants you to have peace and rest. He wants your love. He wants a relationship with you to be loving to you. He's given you promises. He has given you so many things, blessings showered upon you because you keep screwing it up because you get in the way of it, man. And now you're saying your congregation and the church is missing this entirely because you led them that way? How many times did you read this to your congregation, dude? How many times did you read this to thousands of people and you read it out in god's words and you decided to tarnish it by not knowing what you're actually doing? That's sad. That is absolutely sad. You're right.

There is a lot of fear and guilt and shame when Satan is the one running things. When the enemy is doing stuff, he's slinging those arrows at you, like you just said. When he's got fear and guilt and shame, Jesus is literally constantly telling you, stop being fearful and trust me. Stop being fearful and stop worrying and trust me. Guilt and shame are not meant to be there. Sanctification through the holy spirit in your life, falling out sin, but not to make you feel bad, to make you feel closer to him. That is the point. It has nothing to do with, oh, I'm so bad. I can't do this right. That was the that's the whole point. Yeah. I But your response is important to go, I'm so bad. I can't do this right. Stop freaking saying I and saying I'm so bad. I can't do this right. Run to him because he can. Yeah. And he's the one who does this well. I don't know how many times, like, I I I've, I don't know how many times I've I've when confronted with, like, feeling this burden of of of sin or something in my life that my reaction was be, like, thank you. Don't ever let me don't ever leave me in this. Don't leave me so that I don't know it. Like, I've I've hunt me down in all of this Yeah. Whatever, like And and so, like, like, to read here's the thing, guys, it's it's it's this goes back to there's no Yahweh light, like, it's it requires everything or you or you get nothing. Mhmm. Like, you you cannot this this Christianity light thing doesn't work. You cannot read the Bible for and and and not want it to change you. If you're not open for it changing you, it will be a collection of stories. Right. And it will do nothing for and you will end up here and be like, well, I read it 18 times. And it will seem the same as Greek mythology. That's right. But let it change you once.

Like, read it once and let it change you then and then you're not having this problem. Like, that's I I've I've run into this in multiple interactions with with people, it's a bit like, you know, I I I read my my bible constantly and I'm, like and I'm looking at their lives and I'm, like, okay. How can that be? And and that this is how it can be. I read it because I I wanted something out of it. I wanted some kind of comfort from God, but I'm not willing for God to be able to say, look, these are the things of which you are are you are separating yourself from me. I I expect your life to change because Mike and Boob and I were kinda talking about this earlier today. In in in number six, like, god's got this whole big thing coming from coming out of the back the tail end of Exodus all the way through Leviticus, up up through the first few chapters in Numbers, and it's all this stuff about what to do and how to behave and sacrifices and stuff. And, like, number six ends with, now, Aaron, I I now that they've done all this, now that we're clearing all the chaff away,

let them receive my blessing. And, like and it's, you know, and, like, will god's light shine on you? It's the kind of thing you find in a card. But, like, it's it's it's the thing that, like, I'm clearing all this stuff away so that you can receive everything that I have for you of what it's like to be my people doing my work. What an honor and what a blessing that is. And we're going through there like, yes, but I wanna know that you are near me in my time of trouble, but I don't wanna respond faithfully to any of the things any of the chaff that you tried to to to clear away. And so the same people were like, yeah. Yeah. I I that's all I do is I cling to scripture, and I see 50 things in their life. I'm like, there's no way that you're like, you're clinging to it. Where are fruits? And it's saying, hey. I want you to go do x y, and you're like, yeah. But I just wanna stay here cling to the thing that meant something to me. And, like, it doesn't work that way. Love is a love in the Hebrew is not an emotion. Love in the Greek is not an emotion. These are both actions. The concept of an emotion is not exist in either one of those things. And so, like, again, your your system allotted for the shape of the thing, but, like, it requires an all in. And, like, no. God's kinda up up front with that. Right. Like, he's pretty clear that there's an all in here. Again It's it's not the it's not the the fine print. No. It's the straight up, this is what I expect. Yeah. Narrowing commandment is get love, the lord your god, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. He says it straight up. That is what I expect first and foremost is a command glove. Narrow door. No one gets to God except through me. Like, these are very clear things. Right. Alright.

Missed it. Only four times. I was part of a system that enslaves people. Yes. You were, and you were to blame. Yep. And I was both a slave and a slave driver. Thank you for owning up to that. We called chains freedom and misery happiness. We had hold on. Let I wanna come back to this. We had impossible standards that we could not meet, so we turned the attention on others so the spotlight wasn't on our own inadequacies. Again, you cannot be reading the scripture.

The the point is is that it is impossible. That is the point. It is impossible for you to do. Stop putting yourself as the covenant leader in this. Stop putting yourself in god's place. It's just like I said, if you try and interpret God through your expectation and your will and your plans, it will always fail. It will constantly and always. When you flip the narrative and understand that you are a part of his plan and you are a part of his will and you are to be interpreted in his actions

and as a part of his story, then you understand, well, maybe I'm not so important in this. I need to shut up and Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now I make I know. Right? Well, it's here's the thing. We had I wanna love the guy. Like, I wanna give him a hug and be like, dude, you don't realize God loves you so much. It's crazy. No. I bet he's involved in this.

So when he says we had impossible standards, like so here's the thing. And and this is this is the crux of the deal, right, is that, like, like, to your point, Pooh, I think we recognize that, like, we're not Jesus. That's why there's a Jesus because we're not him. Right? However, it the standard to be, to live like Jesus within the realms of a humanly body is is because through that, the world is most most properly blessed. Right? To the extent that we are in step with what the lord is doing,

again, just back to our number six, like, let's clear out the chaff, and we get the fullest extent of of what the blessings of god look like. For the most part, peace, Again, not not worldly blessings, right, but, like, the types of blessings that God gives, the good ones. And so, like, when we say we had impossible standards, yeah, it's it's it's the it's the fight for it is good. Right. It's it is good. And we said what we called chains freedom. We talked about this, I I feel like recently that, like, I don't have I don't look at a good solid fence that keeps me from jumping over the Grand Canyon as a as a problem with my freedom. Yeah. It's holding me back. Yeah. Like, look at these look at these chain we're like, hey, man. You're free to wander around. We put the gates up so you wouldn't fall off. Well, dog on it. I will not be hog tied. I'm just sitting in these chains. What the hell? What? No. Again. Just don't jump off a cliff. Internet words. I don't like this. Yeah. Alright. Eventually,

we turn the attention on others so the spotlight wasn't our own inadequates. Again, humility is a core core core tenet here. If you have to turn the attention on others so you don't deal with your own inadequates, you again, you just cannot I don't even know what you're teaching. What are filling up time with on Sunday? Right. I look at these things and I'm like, boy, I got a lot of teaching to myself this week. I hope you all also benefit. Eventually, I pulled the lever and dropped the bomb. Career, marriage, family, social standing, network, reputation, all gone in an instant.

Things that you stole on your lack of belief over a year by continuing to take those things when they should not have rightfully belonged to you. Yep. This house that I built on, on sand Has fallen. Has fallen. Oh, no. I appreciate it. If you would've react exactly. If you would've listened to the bible you were supposedly reading and teaching, maybe once you would've gone, oh, crap. I guess I was warned about this. Ex except that his his system, he figured was the rock. Yeah. He put it you know, that's that's been his issue. The motions. Yeah. Yeah. He He put his faith in everything that sounded right but nothing that actually was. Yeah. Well and and here's the thing is that, like, I I get it. Like, as you as you you move as you come to faith in Jesus,

it's normal to start taking on the shape of things. Right? Like, we like, we have this. Hey, you should join an accountability group. You should join a small group. You should start going to this. You start here's a bible reading plan. Wait. What what it's the shape of it isn't wrong as long as it's filled in, as long as it's not just the shape. Yeah. Yeah. You understand it's a tool. Yeah. It's it's not the end. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If you have if you have the love of God and Jesus in this situation, all of these will produce fruit. Yeah. That is exactly what will happen. That's right. If you are reading your bible, if you're being held accountable, if you're involved in community groups, if you're doing all this kind of stuff, you're in a loving and and God centered marriage, like, all of these things produce fruit if you are a part of the vine. This I'm sure So this is hard. This is hard because, like like you but, like, when I first when I first saw that this the people were talking about this, I thought there's there's gotta be lesson for the church. We've we've burned a guy Yeah. And we've not handled ourselves well. And, like, the more, like, there's probably aspects of that in here but he's propagating them. Right. Yeah. Exactly. He's got some responsibility This is this is not a failure of concept of the bride of Christ. This is someone that was involved in a church that missed

it. It's the difference between the building and the body. Yeah. And and here's the thing, you could have the body in a building Oh, 100%. You can have the shape but, like, it's just it right. It's just, like, there's the the core thing has to be right. Yeah. Otherwise, that the extra like, the other stuff is not gonna work. One is one is people showing up in a building and one is is the bride of Christ living actively and and serving

and loving. Yeah. He says, eventually, dropped the bomb, everything's gone in instant. And honestly, I didn't intend to fully walk away, but the way the church turned on me forced me to leave permanently. For those of you who want to yell at me, this guy, that's fine. Oh, no. He's gonna call me out. I know that many will call me an apostate, say I was never really saved. I didn't say that. Nope. I don't I don't know that I believe that. I think you just caught up in in a blinding thing, a success of the of of the enemy here. That I was a wolf in sheep's clothing and that a hotter hell awaits for me. Here's the thing. I don't expect that that he was that this was his motivation. No. I think I think, frankly, this is the most successful possible deceit

of of ye olde antagonist, right, is to get somebody who who who has a heart that wants to do the thing and then gets caught up, in the shape of it. Yeah. And misses, like, gets gets the gets the exercise right but but never is is not it's tough to tell, right, because I don't know this guy, like, I just know what he's saying here. But, like, where with that underlying faith

in Christ and, like, and being willing to humbly turn that stuff over to him and then, like, let your systems work them out as as it comes from there as long as that thing remains the core but that doesn't feel like this at all. And so, like, I I think I think this guy was was pickings and I think he got picked and so, no, I I I don't I don't imagine and that's just true for most of you know, then they take those surveys and they're, like, comes back, like, 25% of pastors or 50%, like, somewhere that, like, they don't believe in some of the stuff that they teach or something like that. Yeah. And you're like, how could this possibly be? And it's because they're right for the pickings and it comes to to some the stuff Dan was talking about. And so, like, it's it's one of those things where, like, if you're gonna take that role,

like, you gotta be right for it. You gotta be the right you gotta be the right person for it because, like, it's not an easy thing and so, I don't think this guy's heart changed. I think I think he he fell into a into a deceit and then it just played itself out. And, unfortunately, it burned him and it burned scores of people on the other side of it. And that's too bad. Yep. That's I I'm sure he yes. That's the thing. It's like, I think that's that is a that is a wrong reaction to be like, your intent his intent. I don't know if I I think his intent was probably for good. I think he probably wanted good. Subjected to a fallen world. Right. And just and and walked along with it and then there's there's there's truth in there. There's ability to find truth but, like, it doesn't look like the shape, like or it looks deeper than that. Yeah.

Let's see. You say that I was a wolf of sheep's clothing and that a hotter hell awaits me. And to you, I say I love you. You don't even know me. My heart your fake shallow Christianity means nothing to me nor your false love. Fain calls out the truth. Because it's not an action. When did you hug me last? I reject your emotions. My heart is tender towards you. That also sounds like Internet language. To those of you who have been in my congregations or under my teaching preaching, I sincerely apologize. I thought I was right. I thought I was doing the right thing. I believe that.

I thought I could fake it until I made it. Yeah. Well so I'm gonna go with that. I believe that. Although, he had the means to know the difference. Yeah. Had the means to know the difference. I thought I could fake it until I made it. I was wrong. I'm sorry. I love you. I have lost everything. And but here's the thing, it doesn't sound like you did. Right. You gave it up. Your marriage already I mean, yeah, like, that's what I'm saying. It's like, you didn't no one stole this from you. You stole it from them and then got upset because it because it was because you finally told the truth about something that you've been feeling since eighth grade. Right.

And so this is a reckoning of your reality. Mhmm. You didn't lose it. You didn't have it to begin with. You thought you had it. That was a deceit. Yeah. Storm came. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure maybe that's the only real problem in in some of these relationships too. Because I gave literally everything to serving Jesus and walking away has cost me everything. Again, I reject this pity party on your behalf. I I mean, I get it. Like, when you're if your if your life is is so entrenched in something, I get it. Right? Like, this is you get the same thing when people are are in in a in a crappy marriage. Right? Like, you you you found there were there's a definition in this thing. You gave of yourself to build this thing up that you thought was going to support you in such a way or, like, be for you forever and, like, I I I I understand. But, like,

it's there's it's a right reckoning of reality. The truth was there was a false in there somewhere. It doesn't even mean that it's yours. In this case, it is but, like, you lost something, but it was you lost the perception of something. It wasn't really there, actually. Yep. And, like and it stinks, but, like, you know, you wanted this reality. If it's bogus,

this should be if if it was bogus, this should be a time of vindication for you. This should be this should be your freedom, your exaltation. When people come come you said that it was turning people into slaves and you were enslaving people and you were a slave. When people go from slavery to freedom, they celebrate. Mhmm. This isn't that. This looks like a pity fest. Look what the church stole from me. Right. Mhmm. A guy that gets himself out of bondage, yes, you can curse the bondage but, like, I don't. It's the the tone of this doesn't sound like a free guy. It sounds like a guy who's still frankly, who some of this stuff is still weighing on probably because it's true. Yeah. Guilt and shame abounding. Yeah. Yeah.

But just we're not yeah. You've you've now replaced what you thought was was shackles and chains from the from the church. You've now given them to your and and have shackled yourself. He says, I gave literally everything to serving Jesus and walking away has cost me everything. All I can hope for is that the second half of my life can be full of love and genuine human relationships. I was wrong. I'm not faking anymore. Good for you on the last statement. Not faking anymore. Yeah. Good. Yes. Yeah. This is this is something that I and I won't go too far into this, but this is something that I'm fighting Mhmm. Right now. Fake. Yeah. And and good for you giving that up. Because I keep saying this. God god is waiting with with gold that's been refined, and he's waiting with white robes to be purchased is to give to you. You have filled your life and your existence with things that are fake because they came from you. Yeah. God does not change.

He is faithful to his promises. If you can humble yourself now and realize that you've given yourself fake and unreal things, if you ask him for real, he's gonna show up and he will give it to you. He is faithful in that and will will fulfill his promises. Yeah. You have a perfect opportunity right now. I've screwed up for forty years Yep. And I have messed up. And now, God has stripped me of my responsibilities and I've stripped myself from everything that's here. I wanna start here. Yeah. And this is the beginning of a possibility for a real and honest relationship with Christ. I I I hope you choose that. Yeah. And I hope that happens.

And I promise you, my friend, I'll be praying for Yeah. It goes remember we were talking about we were talking about that that sex trafficking story Mhmm. And and the one of the last things we were speaking of is, like, like, you just you just have to deal in reality. Like, no no matter what judgment you think is on the other side of these things, like, if you're a guy who finds himself it's got some sort of attraction to other underage kids, like, you know, like, you're gonna have to call it out now before you do it, like, unless you we'll just be honest with everything we got here. That's what the nature of real of of living a life that is open to to what God is doing, it is is not one that tolerates your deceit. Right? The thought that, like, oh, this isn't a thing for me or,

like, your where you have unbelief, let's call it let's talk about it. It's not even sin, like, some a lot of the the the unbelief that Christians struggle with, it's not sinful unbelief. It's just, like, hey, we're we're struggling with this concept Right. Of a of a holy god and a me and, like, okay. Jesus appreciates when you bring that to him. Yeah. Like, he wants that. We can work with this is workable. Right? And so, like, that's that's the thing is, like, there there's an underlying deceit here that you persisted in and that you own. You own. You own that. And I think if there's a warning here is to say it's like I I swear when the when the church and when us as as Christians and I'm saying this to me, I'm talking to Buva, I'm talking to Dan, like, when when at when we get to the point where we are just so

honest, like, we just don't even care about any facade of any of that kind and need a self deceit that says, no, this part is under control or blah blah blah, like like, the the word of god spreads and the and the fire of god spreads. And, frankly, it tends to happen in in cultures and in situations where people have nothing because they don't have any pretense to hold on to. Right. There is no sense of, like, cultural pride or, like, anything that they could put in front of it because they look around and it's just all laid bare and, at that point, like, stuff just stuff just rolls and, like, I I it's it's it's it it is certainly a significant problem,

I would say, kind of in in the millennial and in Buvanized generation, like like, we're too cool for school when it comes to some stuff. We're like, hey, we're not gonna be taken in by your advertising blah blah blah. Right? But our our own our own self deceit sure does smell nice and it is believable. We're very good at it. Yeah. And it's and it's and it's the thing we like it because it came from us. Mhmm. We thought of it like, oh, I'm not really struggling with that. I don't struggle with it that bad. It's not as bad as x y z. Maybe it's okay for god because I'm doing all these good things. Like, things that no one really would believe at all, but you you believe because it came from your own factory. Yep. And so yeah. So let me let me let me share this. So so the Christian posted had posted this and there was a follow-up by a guy named Justin Thuttle, who was a deacon at Grace Family Fellowship Church. Two interesting bits of detail came to light in his response. He went on Twitter and said that Gas was not entirely forthcoming,

which I laughed at in very immature fashion, about his faith journey and branded him an unrepentant sinner. On on he tweeted, he says, yes, he was my pastor when he walked away, in quotes. He actually just slept with a married woman, women in the church and got caught. He never repented and they still live together.

And you think Wow. I see. Last year, all the information came to light. The affair happened for almost a year before it was uncovered. So the whole I did everything right in my marriage part was kinda funny until I saw how many people liked his story. The Christian Post reached out to the church for further comment Tuesday, and a representative who asked to speak anonymously said, Thuttle's response is accurate. He said, Justin's input is accurate. I would only add that, and this part is funny, to our knowledge, none of the churches where Gas was on staff were megachurches. And after he resigned, he cut off all communications with anyone from Grace Family Fellowship. So if you remember the last thing he had said was I or one of the last things he said is, like, I wanted I didn't wanna walk away

but they basically Reaction for the church. I didn't intend to fully walk away but the way the church turned on me forced me to leave permanently when it says that he he resigned and then didn't talk to anybody else. So we didn't even get a full I'm already mad at this guy. And then he's told he's sold me a bill of goods. Yeah. Generic baking powder. No. This is we see this constant.

This is literally symptoms and is is pitfalls of of men and women that have this this relationship with God filled with Yeah. Rather than

and this is telling of of a fallen world where where our job is to respond Yeah. And and to to find our rest and peace and our and when we purchase anything that is even a fraction less than what God had, this is what happened. But we get caught in sin, we get caught in human thing.

God has set this up understanding that that is and he is of it, and he has shown us what it looks and and we keep we have sad sads Yeah. Where and I hope, but for nothing but

guy. See, when when Jesus is is the lord of your life, It it the system is irrelevant. All all the little church settings,

denomination, but then whatever whatever system we're talking about is irrelevant. It's vibrant. It's active. It's it's alive. It's it's it's energizing. It's it's it's fulfilling. It's all those things. But but if you're the lord of your life, you will you will poison any system and every system that's religious. Yep. And and he struggled with who was god in his life. Right.

Absolutely. Yeah. And and, yeah, I still don't I'm still I'm still kinda listening the whole time going, I don't know if it's it's the if it's the the Sabbath thing, you know, that could lead to to that or or could be just a blend of all of it or maybe I'm just made, you know, full of air. No. I I think you're right. I think there's it's very likely, right, like, all that stuff kinda come combined. Right. A certain sexual sin now that we know about, It's got that situation going on. It's got understanding who's the lord of your life. I mean, it it is it is unrementant sin. I can't imagine he started out fresh out of college or into college as an unbeliever. Yeah. Right. Right. I mean, he believed this. Absolutely. He absolutely did. Yeah. No starts this path That's the blend. Without some amount of faith Yeah. In god handling this. Yeah. And he always dreamt of being in a megachurch because he mentioned he was in several. And what what what happened was he failed himself when he decided to become the lord of it. Yeah. Yeah. You're absolutely right. Yeah. It just slid into it. And then rather than rather than owning up to it and being a freaking man and and the son of Jesus,

he decided to run and continue to sit continue to sit. Yeah. Man. Yeah. And and and that's a good I mean, so I just listen to all of us here, like Mhmm. There there just isn't any reason to continue a charade. Right. Like, let's just be honest with where that like, here's especially that a charade is implicitly a show for other humans only. Mhmm. Right? Because God is obviously aware, right? So, like, whatever posturing you have, you know that the Lord is not fooled whether you believe in that or not. And so the charade is specifically for other humans which even the notion of that is a posturing that otherwise points to the wrong direction. And and, like, it's a risk, I think, for everybody and, like, you know, whatever nooks and crannies that may exist, I think it's we just gotta go. We don't have time for this. We got we we got god sized stuff to do. Yeah. There's work to be done. There's no reason to get hung up on this kind of thing. Like, let's just call things for you're not you're not gonna find like, here's the thing. The guy who says, look, I I I got the inkling that I might I might be wanting to pursue a sin that I haven't pursued yet but I wanna get in front of it, great. Like, there's there's no shame in that. Yeah. There's no shame in saying There's victory in that. There's no shame shamans in saying, look, I there's there's parts of this

there's there's an old text here and I'm not really taking it all in. Right? It's confusing me. Could someone help me? That's why god put people on the earth to help. Mhmm. It's what they're for. Hey, there's this concept of of an all knowing holy creator god who I don't who I don't get to see when everything everything else I I have, I get to experience physically. I'm struggling because it's new and different. Yeah. Okay. Like, again, let's just not shame in any of these things. The the funny thing is is is I'm called back to this. This actually was my bible study today before coming in was this all stems and starts with a loving relationship with God. If you love him and call him your lord and your king and you believe in Jesus Christ as his son and his and is your savior and you call the holy spirit in your life, there is literally God's gift to us to stop this crap from happening. Mhmm. Like when we are obedient and in his arms and in his hands and loving him, the holy spirit intercedes for us and shows us that is sin in your life and calls it out. And our job is to respond

and trust in faith and in action, and stuff like this doesn't happen. With God's system and him at the center and him is lord and him loving this, he sets this up for you realizing that without him, you fail. With him, you succeed. That's how it goes.

It all starts there. That's the nature of it. Yeah. So oddly enough is, so I read this article earlier in the week and, I was chatting with some blokes down at the pub, about it and they had given the impression that the pope was in town. Oh, buddy. And I said, I don't I'm not buying it. That I don't, of course, I was on a tear, you know, I've been reading this thing and I was all hyped up and I said, that's the last thing I will hear from you today. There is no pope in town. So then they put me in some sort of chavel or whatever that they had and we rode over and, like, it was the darndest thing. I thought about two blocks out, I thought, what is this? What no. We're not going to Buva's house. And sure enough, these jokers turned in to Buva's place and they start looking up at his his balcony That's him. The apartment. They're like, hey,

that's the guy. I said, boys boys, you have you have been deceived. You have fell into the mechanizations of the world. Man. But anyway, they wouldn't leave. We're just chanting at him. They're like they're like, poop, poop. And so Buba comes out and he's, like, waving a chicken leg and a half a thing of Diet Coke.

That's my flagging standard. It's it's a chicken leg and half a Diet Coke. I I think that is the most wonderful thing he was ever said about me, and I appreciate it. He said, Now you never heard the pope look down and go, it's lunch, boys. What's up? But that's that's what that's what he did. Y'all want some? Take it easy. They wouldn't leave. They wouldn't leave, and frankly, I needed a I needed a trip back to my car. So I said, booba, just give him some advice. Give him something. So, babe, what what'd you tell him? Get him go away, booba. Oh, man. Hey. Stepping

out of that wonderful intro. We've been doing this for so many years, and every single time, I I always think you're actually about to tell a real story. And then three seconds in, I go, oh, crap. He's introducing I have limited skills in life, booba. Introducing Pope style. Every single time, I'm like, when was Ben at the pub? Like, who who goes to a pub? He just doesn't seem like a Ben Moodle.

So I I will tell you, I appreciate that that you've still caught me into that every time even when I'm the one who tells you, hey, man. I got this pub's outfit. Yeah. Yeah. You should see it go. Really should. Anytime it's like, this is yeah. Good job. So the the Pope's style advice that I have that I gave to these fellas that came in a Travelle, When you are trying

to interpret God's will in you, one of the biggest things that you can understand and this is something that's that's been screamed at me biblically within the last two weeks, I've dealt with with impatience recently like a lot. Like, I I I feel God moving in my big time. God's making changes, God is making moves. And so naturally, my my human response is to say, well, want the whole plan. I wanna know everything that's going on. I wanna see exactly what you're doing. I wanna know how that fits in and all this different stuff.

And there's not really a lot of biblical precedents to that being the deal. Like, there's just really not. You go in and and legitimately God, the way that God reveals this stuff is usually pretty pretty big at first is it starts with, hey, follow me. And that's that's that's math. That that's Jesus calling the fishermen to to be in his ministry. You read that, and it's it's almost upsetting to me if I look at it through a worldly perspective, which is he literally just says, follow me. Those are his words. And then the response is they get up, and they do.

And he doesn't say, follow me. By the way, eventually, I'm gonna make you guys apostles, and you guys are gonna get the the gift of the holy Right? You guys are gonna be, like, the the big deal in this situation, and you're gonna follow me, and I'm gonna teach you for a while, and you're gonna be involved in my ministry, and this will happen. He just literally starts with follow me, and they respond. And I find myself in awe of that because right now, I'm in this spot where I'm like, pops, I need you to tell me what's happening. I need you I need to know your plans. And his response is follow me. And it's taken me about a week of real solid prayer to start looking at that with joy.

And I'm I'm not there yet. I I'm I'm gonna be honest about the fact that I'm still I'm still fighting impatience, But I'm starting to turn that into joy because, like, biblically speaking, God does not change. That's how he calls people into amazing things. And that's how he calls people into beaut blessings for their life and and how he calls them to be a part and an instrument in his will. And so my prayers recently have just been kinda changing from God, I want you to show me your will in my life.

I've dropped those last two words because they're not important. And that's what's that's what's really changed a lot is I I stopped asking him for his will in my life. I don't need to know my specifics. I just need to know how I fit into his story. I don't wanna know how when I'm 70 years old, I'm gonna tell some great story about what I did for God. I don't want that. That's not biblical, and that is not the way that that he calls us to work.

I wanna know how I can fit into his story, And that paradigm shift for me has been so influential with really hearing things. Like I've struggled for my entire life feeling like I actually heard something. You know, feeling like I actually felt like God was was ordaining something in my life and and I've always kinda had to put it through this filter of is this real or is this OOVA coming up something? Am I am I developing this for my glory or am I allowing myself to be in his glory? And and once I kinda switch that to be this whole thought process of god, I'm okay with just hearing follow me. I don't need to know everything.

You know, biblically speaking, nobody really knows everything. Most of the stories we have, god doesn't lay out more than your next step. And that's been so important to me, has been understanding that, of course, from a worldly perspective and with my my human mind, I'm I I have a tendency to worry, and of course, I feel like I will be more faithful if I know the whole thing, but that's the is it's important to it's more difficult to be faithful in, I don't know the whole deal. I don't know the end.

I only know the next step that you're giving. And there's something so beautiful about that when you realize that my plans suck. Like, there's no doubt about that. I have lived my life by my plans and they don't get me fucked, and my will is not strong, and my strength is minuscule. I am not here by my own skill and my own will. I am here by his, and I'm created by him, and I'm called by him. And it's been so freeing, weirdly freeing,

that I just need to be patient with the fact that he's got. And it's the same thing you say at the end of the show all the time is the be faithful means god will handle the ends. I've I've heard that a 100 Yeah. If not more. And I I've always kinda saw it, oh, that that's a fun little catchphrase and things like that, but, like, I don't want that to be anthemic in my life. Like, I want that to be something that's real and active. It's absolutely true. My faith is in walking with him now. My faith is not realized in ten years when I'm married with four kids and I'm whatever job or something like that and I get to look back and go, thanks for showing me everything, god. Mhmm. My faith is in I'd have no idea what Wednesday is because I only have worry for today, and I trust you to have tomorrow.

My worry isn't tomorrow, my worries today. I handle what you've given me today. And like the the the concept of like the Enoch walked with the Lord three hundred years, that means he was just stepping every day. That's all it was. You get you get literally one of my favorite stories in the bible which is an Enoch walked with the Lord for three hundred years. That is one of the most faithful and wonderful things you can be I wanna be that and it literally just means it's it's the action. It's the walk. Yep. You you freaking walk and you make the next move God gives you and you wait and you patiently wait for him to reveal. Yep. And you have faith in him, trust in him, act when he tells you to act and you respond when he tells you to respond and most importantly,

the only way that you're gonna hear this stuff is if you're actively loving relationship with him. He is going to reveal things to you in time, whether it's through prayer, it's through the Holy Spirit interceding in your life, whether it's scripture because God does not change, and whether it's through people around you confirming your prayers and things like that, but that is 100% about God just moving in you, but your heart there too. And so that's the two things I got for you. I'll I'll call it Pope style a and b, which is understand that you have to be faithful in the means and understand that his his plans for you will be his time,

not yours. And second off, the way that you hear those plans to be in a and caring relationship with him that is active, personal. And then I told them to get off my lawn. And I got home and had a very interesting story to tell my wife. I said, I saw the pope today. And he lives in he lives in Altoona. He's

wearing a shirt that said our biscuits and made me really uncomfortable. I wasn't sure what was happening. Someone stole his hat and gave him a chicken wing. I don't know what goes on in there. My flag and my standard. My half drank Diet Coke and my chicken wing. I you know, I it's it's think about how how that that post style advice ties to kind of the the the conversation we just got out of. Is that, like, we you you won't be able to hear God speaking if you're so insistent upon having your own conversation. And if your conversation, generally, won't it comes

comes forth in the way of, well, here's what I wanna do and here's what I'm thinking about doing and here's here's how what type of person I am and here's how I behave. Like, some of those are are things that you want, some of those are human focused desires, some are lies that you tell yourself about whatever you're it's the chaff, right? You've got a stack of chaff that is you created out your own face and it's it's very difficult to hear God speak when you're doing that and so, like, yes, a lot of times people find we we we talk about, you know, the notions of of of of hearing God, sensing God more clearly during times of kind of intense prayer or solitude and, yeah, I I remember Mike talked about this, like, that that works because none of the other distractions are there But, like, at its core,

it's not that everyone, I think, is gonna hear from God in the same way or in the same method. But, like, I mean, if you've not tried actually clearing out chaff and say, actively fighting against unrepentant or persistent sin, you know, actually allowing like, giving God space to be God and and and do the things that he wants done as opposed to laying out for him and asking for his his blessing and the things. Like, if you can get yourself out of the way, certainly, you have an opportunity to hear

and for things to come through clearer because oftentimes, we just want it. We just want the output. We just want them to we want God to say, I'm gonna go ahead and do what I want, you scream over the top of that and then once I hear that, I'll give up the stuff that I'm doing. And so we we either choose to do that or it's just frankly how we persist. We just continue to act in such a way and say, well, if God wants my attention, he'll get it. I mean, yeah, but that isn't quite how he works, right? Like, he could do just about anything but he he's given you the ability to to, to invite that in Right. And he wants you to and part of the part of that way isn't just, God, will you speak into my life? God says, yeah, you know, I I'd like to but you keep wanting to have conversations about this pornography that you really dig on Yep. And these lies you wanna tell at work and these ambitions that you have, like, don't really wanna hear from me and so I'm not gonna interrupt your conversation that you've sustained for twenty years with something you don't wanna hear anyway. And so, yeah, I think that's the core thing. It's not a there is a sense of effort there but it's it's it's a it's a it's a willing to clear chaff and saying, look, I want I I so want to hear from God. I'm willing to throw everything out until I can hear it clearly.

Yeah. We we we always want everything to be sensational too. You know, we're out looking for the giant to slay. Okay, god. I'm going out. Show me a giant. I'm a man of faith. I'll do what you want. And we always forget that started with a hey hey, Dave. Take this sandwich to your brother. Yep. Right. I mean oh, hey. Yeah. The giant thing happened, but it he wasn't that wasn't the task. It's it's our pride and our self importance that get in the way of it. Like, literally, God says that, like, if you if he can trust you with little, he will give you much. Mhmm. And we wanna skip the little. We we wanna we wanna go right to I wanna be Moses. Yeah. You don't Moses wasn't ready to be Moses. Right. He tried to reject the covenant. Moses started with, hey. I murdered a guy, and now I gotta go spend fifty years in Midian. Like, literally, like, you're not ready to be You know, outside of outside of David, like, realistically, everybody in the bible who does anything major is, like, old or maturing. Right? Like, you just don't find, like Was Abraham in his seventies when he was called? Yeah. Like, there were yeah. So, like, if you think yeah. Think about all these, like, these faith

folks and we're like, I wanna be like them and, like, every what what is guys spent spent fourteen years to pick up two ladies, you know, like, we're like, he's gonna do great things in his life. He spent fourteen years working in a field. Right. You know? And then crop rotated. And, like and so, like, it's it's it's that kind of thing. And and you're right, like, even those measures, they're human measures. They're like, why would I I wanna be Moses because it would be it would be cool if I were Moses. And, like, if you have two people that can that can start the the sentence, hey, it'd be pretty cool if you'd much rather have God start the sentence than you start the sentence. Because you're it'd be cool if is probably not gonna be near as cool as you think it would be. Right. And God's it'd be cool if is twice as cool as what you think it's gonna be. Because because what happens? You get to the end of forty years and you think, I never was Moses. I quit. Yeah. Right. And then you write a blog. That's right. Mean, Twitter or whatever. It's a good thing Twitter's here because no one else is listening to me. Fulfilled with your plan. You're going to plans stink. Yeah. Your plans stink. Well and here's here's the thing. If you're gonna create your own plans, for

the for the at the very least, don't don't make them sound like they're god's plans. Yeah. But then they most certainly will fail. Like, I can plan to go to the store tomorrow, and I might succeed in that. Plan for dinner tomorrow. Yeah. Like, hey, man. I'm gonna make something fancier than I did before. Sweet. Those are your plans. You can execute that. That's gonna be fine. Yeah. But, like, if I say, hey. I got a really good I got a really good plan, and I'm gonna be the pastor of a to church this size. Mega churches. Yeah. And we're like, you know what? That's that sounds like God's arena, and I probably shouldn't be making promises on God's behalf Right. In his arena. He says, I don't care if you get tacos tonight, but I'll I'll settle as to what church you're gonna be in and to what size and to what effect. Aaron. Get off my line. Alright. We got, we got we got one one advice here. We gotta get this show on the road here. Let's see. Great great start. Alright. Here we go. Sorry. I was trying to pick between two. Alright. Dear life on the path, my husband and I are expecting a baby in a few months.

My father and his wife asked uh-oh. Must not be your mom. I was gonna say that's that's pretty Wait. What's that? Yeah. My father and his wife. My father and his dad is yeah. He's stepmom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100% stepmom. Or hated mom. I politely refused, and explained that there's no space in our small apartment. They sent it in anyway. They got it. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of it because it takes up most of the living room. The piece can't be returned, won't fit in my car, and I can't lift it anyway.

Sounds like it's not going anywhere. I mean, you said your husband was he does live there. Right? Oh. Anyways, I'm hoping the thrift store will pick it up. My questions are, must I send a thank you for a gift? I explicitly asked them not to send, and what should I say when they discover I've given it away? They're going to be angry. And how do I prevent this from happening again? Yeah. Yeah. Send a thank you card with a receipt for you giving it to the goodwill. Yes. That'd be hysterical. Someone will tax deduction. Someone will enjoy this. It can't be me. Here's here's like, I get that that's an inconvenience. Mom and dad, mom and mom and his or dad and his wife should not have sent it.

If they felt like they were just trying to it is a fake, whatever. Have a real conversation. Why are why are so many of these just dripping with, don't know how to interact with a human being? Yeah. Well, here's I think she's asking how to interact with human being. That's what I'm it's sad to me. I'm a tell you. Here's so here's the deal. I I I reject their, oh, we said it anyway. They're grown these are grown people. They're grown ups. Agreed. They shouldn't have said it. They should have said it. Yeah. Oh, no. They're 100% at fault for doing it. They just didn't care. I I gave it away. I we don't have room for it and I didn't want it. The feeling good about sending a big gift was more important than actually doing something else. I reject this. I you know what? There's there's a bucket of there's a bucket of behavior from grown ups that, like, look, just because you're a grandparent or something does not give you excuse to be ridiculous. If you are old enough to have raised someone who is now going to raise someone Right.

You should be able to go This They don't need it. It's not that important to send. They probably know what they need. Right. Exactly. They they Listen to them. The husband can probably look, hey. I understand the parameters of our apartment, and you just sent how many inches it is. No. Takes up the whole living room. And this is not the same thing. You wanna sneak the kids, cotton candy and stuff one night looking? I get it. Okay. That's a per grand on that. Prerogative of grandparent. Fine. Live your life. Sending giant furniture to my apartment? No. Furniture that you probably thought, wow. That's expensive and fancy. We need to send somebody that. No. Don't don't ever look at a piece of furniture and go, I like this. Perhaps so and so would like it. Yeah. No. I don't want your I don't want the couch you want. No. No. So I you know, yeah, I probably whatever. You're send them a card to, and say, hey. Thanks for Yeah. I I appreciate the thought, but we can't, like I said, you don't have room for this. Yeah. Thank you card would be would be passive aggressive. I went on I would have the conversation with them that says, hey. We really appreciate the thought that says this. We can't use it like we said we you we told you beforehand. Do you want it back? Do you want it back to either get your money back or trying to give it bless somebody else with it. Yeah. Is like

Bless the daughter you really love. Yeah. Exactly. Like, hopefully, they have another kid. They could be like, oh, man. Beth didn't really want this, but Susie might love it. Yeah. You could be self important in that situation. Alright. Yeah. I don't You're near no pretense to keep it. I don't just I again, people always have the sense they would attack on a bunch of stuff to, like, really embolden their case. Yeah. Like, of course, it can't be returned. It's an antique. I okay. It won't fit in the car. Like, I can't lift it. I don't expect you have to do this on your own. Sounds like you're in an apartment. Certainly, you have neighbors. Your husband's, I'm sure, a capable man. You're so socially awkward that you have no idea how to walk up to someone. Like, my dad and his wife sent me a really, really lame, like,

entertainment center for kids. Yeah. We gotta get rid of that. I mean, isn't this what, isn't this what Craigslist is for? Like, need help. $10. Yeah. Exactly. Somebody get this out of here. If you're not trying to get money out of this, you can get anybody to come get that. Yeah. There will be people that will come cut it in half for the spares and get it out of this out of the apartment. I'll pay you $5 to come get it. Someone will get it. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. You're making a bigger deal out of it. Okay. So do we have to send a thank you gift gift? Thank you card? No. No. That would be fake. We would have to have the conversation. Yes. Right. Do I them for it. Tell them you didn't need it, but don't be fake and send, like, the the picture of the dove and it says, thank you. We love you so much. Yeah. Yep. And it says, how do I prevent this from happening again? I mean, you can't. Mean, people who are gonna act like this are gonna do it. You cannot change, especially your parents

or your father and as well. Yeah. You know, I've I've got a really great situation coming up in in the near future. Both of my daughters each make probably triple what I make. I I will never be able to give them anything other than a, hey. Look at that. Yeah. Good job. Love you. Well, love you. So we'll never I'll never have this situation. Well, shoot, Dan. We prepared you for a reality that will never exist. Man, good. Don't ever don't ever send your daughter something that they expressly say, hey, dad. We can't we can't use that. I don't use need that crap. Actually, you could have a lot of fun with this and send them things that are ridiculous and, like, that aren't expensive, but they definitely don't need it. Like them into the situation. Reusable Kleenexes or whatever. Hey.

I thought you might want some of these. Hey. Do you guys, by chance, want this stuff, monkey? It's about $40 and it's 10 feet tall. Are you interested? No, dad. We can't do that. Well, I already bought it. It's on its way. I'm sending it your direction. Luckily, Amazon was delivering the day. The Amazon has caused this problem because, you can have it sent somewhere else. You can order all kinds of crap for next to nothing or just send it someplace place. You don't have take it over. Glad that the lord has not given me more funds than I already have because I would have way too much funds. I'd send people books that they have no business reading. Yeah. All kinds of stuff. You have fun with them. Did you order Poo Pourri? Is this? What I like? Send me a gift of a Lego Millennium Falcon. Yeah. I did. Figured your house needed some more Star Wars in it. Sekler says, write your father and stepmother a sweet note thanking them for their thoughtfulness and include it with with it a photo or two that show it crowding your living room.

That's that's a step Superb. Step farther than what I thought. You know what? Take this. You should eat a meal in it. Because he's That'd be hysterical. Here's the deal. Like, use it as a table for the dinner, and and that would be funny. Put the TV on it. Here's the Obin's general advice in life. Don't put yourself in the middle of things that are unnecessary. That? You wanna show a picture? You put yourself in the middle of an opinion.

Yep. Hey. Here's a picture. We're gonna show you what it looks like in a living room. You think it's too big. What are they gonna say? Oh, we think it looks great. We love it. Now, what did you do? Exactly. Do not put yourself stay out of things where you end up in the middle of things that cannot be arbitrated. This goes with being in the middle of arguments between people of which you cannot discern the truth. This goes for getting in the middle of two people's opinion. This goes for not inviting someone else's opinion when it is irrelevant to your action. It simply does not matter. Don't send the picture. To prove you don't have to prove your opinion. It's your house. You're perfectly feasible of having your own opinion saying, look. It's too big for our living room. Well, we think it's fine. Well, it's none of your business. It's our living room. You don't pay for the living room. That's right. You bought your own living room. Put whatever you want in it. Yeah. We told you we didn't know it. I I got rid I don't feel bad. You know what? Send it back and make them adopt a baby. Yeah. This is not a problem. So, yeah, don't don't ever kids don't have parents. Can use this. Here you Don't try to out clever yourself by trying to prove your opinion. Just have one, and that's good enough because it can be your opinion all day. Yeah. It's your pride and self importance that mean you have to prove it anyway. Yeah. Get out of way. And it's saying the next time you talk with them, explain the space is tight, unless they saw the picture and thought it was fun, and offer to have it shipped to them. I think not. What are you gonna what? Giant

changing table drawers? You would spend $90 to ship this thing to them? No. This is terrible advice. If they agree, you're off the hook. If they don't, sell or donate it. As to preventing this from happening again, much as you may wish to, you can't control what other people do. You tried that before, and it didn't work. Alright. Fine. We're on I'm I'm agreeing with your last bit of, yeah, advice. Everything else Ended strong. For heaven's sakes. Don't follow that. Hey. You've listening to Life From The Past. We appreciate you hanging out. It's a longer show today. Hopefully, you had a long jog or something. Yeah. You're getting, burning the calories and burning yours off. Hey. You got maybe got feedback on the show. Shoot us a call or a text message. That's (515) 517-0085.

That's a live from the Path to Plate line. (515) 517-0085. You don't have to complain, we but just figured that that was the most reasonable use of it. Likely. Yeah. But, I mean, if you have something nice to say, you can do that on the complaint line. It'll make me uncomfortable. Yes. Yes. That's for us. In the meantime, we'll see you next week. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.