Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. And you're listening to live from the path on live fromthepath.org,

live streaming on every possible device. Every possible device? Everywhere. Yeah. How you how you guys doing tonight? Everything looking saucy over there? Hey, man. We were much younger men when that when that intro was made. Yeah. Yeah. And here's the thing. Things haven't improved. No. I look much worse. People say, oh, like, time heals all wing… All wounds. I'm like, mm-mm. No. It doesn't. That's not what I see. Makes things worse. Yeah. I look at the mirror, I go, what's that? That's Dan, you look relatively the same. What's going on with that? Well, I drink a lot of tea Okay.

Salt. Dan, we're not gonna listen to your lies right now. We have a we have a full show to put on here. Hey, man. Also, we say we're we're from Johnston Proper on the show. Yeah. My wife, who's been listening to the show for a couple years now, thought it was Johnston Robbers. That'd be an awesome name of a town. Right. Johnston Robbers. But I don't know why she thought it was Johnston Robbers. I said it the other day because I was… We were driving on Mural Hay, and I was telling her we were on our way towards Johnston Proper. And I said that's where the show's at. And she goes, it's Johnston Proper? Yeah. She goes, I hear Johnston robber every time I hear that. Okay. Yeah. You're listening to live from the past. Live from Johnston Robert. Yeah. That's way cooler. Alright. Here… Here's what we got on the shoulder today. Just a quick rundown. Okay. So first of all, an article from Christianity Today. I'm loving this because it's a it's a summation of a bunch of quick hits from the Christian world. And some of them are laughably stupid, and some of them are are actually pretty interesting, and then some of them are just like church biddies arguing with each other. So, I mean, that ought to gobble up at least a couple of bits of conversation. Isn't it all church biddies just gobbling at each other? It really depends on the day. Yeah. Fair enough. Sometimes they Most days, yes. Yes. Fair enough. Sometimes they bring a casserole and everybody's friends. Truth.

We are also… We have some dear life from the past to cover. We also have an article. Dan is not a real real fan of Carrie Newhof. I don't even know how to say the last name. N I e u w h o f. Niehof. If you hadn't said that, could have said it, but now now… And I'm like, mind is confused. Niehof. Niehof. Okay. Niehof. Isn't it? Niehof. Have no idea. I don't know. Mike, no matter what the situation is, Mike, you are you are mispronouncing it. Niehof. Okay. So, anyway, it's an article called The Church Has an Image Problem, Six Ways to Fix It. And it's… And and really, it's a it's a hit piece on the modern church, and here's what we're gonna do. Instead, we're gonna say, you have an image problem.

Are these six good ways to fix it? So we're we're talking about But you, when you say you, who who are you referring to? We're talking about people that follow Jesus on a personal listening to life in the path? Yeah. We're talking about people that follow Jesus on a personal level. There's a good chance they have an image problem. So, like, we're we're… It's just a quick heart check and say, one, is this an actual problem Right. Right, if you're acting this way? And two, how do we fix it? Because trying to get the collective church from the top down to fix things is ridiculous. It never works. Right? You… It it has to be God's people deciding to follow Jesus. Yeah. Right. And then the church as a collective will do what God designed it to do. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. When it's a collection of believers that are working on themselves individually and that starts to pour out of the rest of their lives because they're following Jesus and becoming sanctified, church changes. Yeah. That is correct. And so not to say there's not a place for leadership, and, honestly, you know, we we believe in that kind of structure because the Bible believes in that kind of structure. But especially when it comes to image problem problems or ethos of how things get done that the Bible doesn't explicitly

talk to, like, these are holy spirit conversations and community driven things. And so, like, I I think we should be able to talk through them and say, look. Let's stop talking about the church as a big wide capital c church. That's how Jesus talks about the church, and that's his purvey to do so. That's how we kinda just deflect. That's correct. Right. You do it when you're reading scripture too. Oh, that's for the people in Galatians. Yes. Yeah. Those Galatia people. That's not for me. No. I'm not guilty of being terrible reading the Bible. Church. If at any point in time you read that somebody in the Bible is having a rough time and you think that does not directly impact you and how you're doing it too. Yeah. Man, those Israelites were idiots. Yeah. So are you. Actually, if you don't have a cursory reading the bible and start thinking that maybe you should change your name to Israel because you are guilty of this thing or the other. Right? That's when you're… You know, you're taking the Bible incorrectly. Because I… If you walk through life going, like, I probably… Fifteen years ago, I probably went, man, I don't know how Israel can keep doing this. Right? They keep… Right. God shows up and does this amazing thing, and then we're not, like, a month out, and they're acting like a couple behemoth apes. Why are you putting up the Asher poles again? Well, you know, there's there's a reason that so many times that god refers to us as sheep. Have you ever tried to see, you know, what what sheep are like when you're trying to hurt them? You know? It's just like just slap them on the head. Walk the other way. Slap them on the head again. Walk the other way. Oh, slap them on the head again. Up. You know? Exactly. And so if you don't read into the bible and go, what's the matter with these guys now? If you don't think, what's the matter with me? Then you're not reading it correctly. Because, like, when you read through Judges and and you're talking about Israel, it's like it's a matter… It takes them three generations to to put the Asherah poles back up. Right. With us, it takes about fifteen minutes. Right. Like, oh, yesterday, I made this great commitment. Okay. That was yesterday. Yeah. I forgot. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Lord, that was too So Change my mind. Grace upon grace. We need to internalize this stuff. What was that 70 times seven thing?

Yeah. Two forty nine? Keep rolling. Are you keeping really good check? Because I feel like I am. Okay. Also, we have John in studio. John, how's going? Hey. We're good. Excellent. Ben, I'm sure we'd like to do some kind of long winded biography. We're not gonna do that. Yeah. We're not gonna do that. So if you find something in your past that you find relevant to share today, we'd love that. Fair enough. Done. Okay. Here we go. Make it up if if you don't. Yeah. I'll make it up. Okay. Here's the quick hits from Christianity Today. First hit, missionary group buys luxury yacht. Oh, and other news briefs from Christians around the world. Oh, yes. Okay. Here we go. This is where I… I'm I'm kinda classic on the last three weeks of going, I don't know if you qualify as a Christian like you're saying because of the thing that you're doing is so anti what you're supposed to be doing. So let's see how this turns out. Okay. Here we go.

Headline. The first modern cruise line to focus on Asia has closed down following the financial difficulty brought by COVID nineteen and has sold the last of its fleet of luxury yachts to a German missionary organization. Genting Hong Kong Star Cruise's other ships were sold for scrap, but the the tapen docked in Malaysia was acquired by GBA Ships, formerly Gutt Bucher Fur Au, which works in partnership with Operation Mobilization. Oh, boy. GBA ship visit 15 to 18 port cities per year, providing aid and access to Christian books. Restoration of the thirty thirty one year old 85 and a half meter yacht is expected to take twelve to eighteen months. It will be renamed Doulos Hope. So so it's like these missionaries, they ain't gotta have a place to sleep. Right? I mean, it's not like necessarily they're

treating it like a a vacation. Right? No. It sounds like a mercy ship. Yeah. I mean, it's like… Maybe I was assuming the worst. Wait. Did did it say they were gonna be dropping off books? No. They give you access to books. I don't like that phrase because it makes it sounds like, look. You can you can read it, but you can library? You can't Right. Yeah. Like a a floating library that goes to the the places that don't have other books. Coming to our location. One of your books on that on that ship? I I could do that. Alright. Cool. Okay. They don't they don't need that, Dan. No. They they need it. It is great bathroom materials. Okay. Alright. Fair enough. So I walked into this thing thinking worse. I'm like, great. A bunch of missionaries has way overpaid for a boat, and they're like, this is how the lord wants us to reach the nations. Because here's the here's the thing is is is people do this. Right? When they're like, hey. We need to go to other countries

and and and preach Jesus. But when they go there, like, they're like, and we need to stay in, four star accommodations, and we need a bunch of people to support the lifestyle over there. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And so, like, they're not tent makers. They're not pawling themselves around and keeping up their… Right? They're like, just keep sending us money. And and so now granted, I've met a ton of missionaries that aren't doing that. Like, they legit join a community, and they work, and they fill a role, and they're they're bringing Jesus, and I think that's awesome. But the type of folks that generally make the headlines of Christianity today are not generally those people. They're the ones that buy yachts and go, the Lord wanted us to wanted us to… What was that guy that that would buy the plane? Right. Right. Right. $76,000,000. Copeland goes, look. I can't serve Jesus without this plane. Yeah. He moves on shore some places the second things happen. Exactly. I'm doing the word of god. I gotta fly to where the disasters happen the next day and make certain that I stay at least 30 miles outside of what happens because that's gross. What was it? What was that conversation? It's like him and Pat Robertson. We have a conversation on, like, the demons are on the commercial air. Yeah. It was some other dude. I can't remember his name. But… Yeah. The demons are on the commercial air. Yeah. They had to have fry… They had to fly private. Private plane. On a commercial plane, there's demons. There's demons. Demons in there. And I'm like We're trying to do the word of god. Like Here's the deal. Like, me and everybody I know. You know what I'm saying? It's it's, like, half sad at the fact that, like, he believes that or at least is putting it out there. But it's just as sad that people eat that up. Yeah. There are people that give them enough money to buy the $38,000,000 plane. Right. Because they're like, yeah. Them demons on the commercial ships,

and and we're not supposed to send our people that we love on the commercial flights because the demons are there. And here's $2,000 35,000 times to get your amount of money. It's ridiculous. Okay. Next next article. Quick cut. This one's a… Actually, we're just gonna do a quick thumbs up, thumbs down. Who care… Thumbs up or thumbs down to the men's… The missionaries buying this giant yacht at a great discount to do the Lord's work. Well, I mean, they're just doing books, I'm gonna go down? I mean Right. Wait. Yeah. Hold on. Providing aid. Nondescript. Is Nondescript aid. I I I need more. But I was gonna say. I… I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna lean up then. Okay. Dan's on So they gotta have a place to… I'm… I mean, if it's…

I I don't care where they got. They probably got cheaper than building a new one. Right. Even though it was luxury, it's like, I'm gonna go, yeah, I'm gonna go thumbs up. I'm gonna… Okay. Hold on. It's it's it's Rosh Hashanah. So we're gonna switch from the thumbs up to… We're gonna do one shofar or two. One shofar is pretty no no good. Two shofars is is brings the holy. What? So instead of being… Are you are you asking what a shofar is? Yeah. I have no clue what that is. You just say? Okay. It's Rosh Hashanah. It's the it's the Right. It's the Jewish New Year. It's it's the beginning of the festival season. Come on, guys. Yes. I'm aware of that, but what is a roshar? I'm not aware of any of it. A shofar. A shofar. I'm with you. A shofar is like the big ram's horn. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Oh, yeah. I got a plastic one downstairs. Yeah. Totally. Okay. So, anyway,

one shofar means you're not really celebrating. That's not great. Two shofars mean the party's happening. Wait. Yeah. Is… Isn't one charge, one retreat? No. No, Dan. In fact, we're gonna skip Dan because he's acting like this. I feel like we should go back to the thumbs up or thumbs down. No. We're not doing this. It was working really well. It's Horns mean things. I even had a gladiator reference queued up. Just… I'm glad we came up with the Rosh Hashanah. Okay. So so now it's missionaries on the… Buying the buying the yacht. John, are we at one shofar or two? I I I… I'm conflicted. I mean, I feel like it could be two shofars if it's used correctly, but I feel like we don't have enough information. The word aid without any type of explanation. That's that's what I'm saying. I feel like there's just not enough information there. That could be some really, really sketchy stuff going on. Right. Okay. Or they're showing up with a really good worship band. Exactly. You know what mean? It could be, you know People think that's a dollar high high dollar, you know, contemporary guys that are… They're vegans, and they're cost to keep a a cruise ship up. Probably a lot. It's yeah, I don't… You know, not to mention that, but to staff a cruise ship. You know? There's one guy at the helm. Yeah. Exactly. You know, how how do they… I I don't know. I guess how… I don't know. I… That… That's what I'm saying. I I feel like it could be really good, but at the same time, I am skeptical. So here's what we're gonna do. You're you're going with one shofar, but you're gonna see if the if the other shofar guy's in town. Yeah. So if you change your Yeah.

It could be. We… Yeah. A shofar Okay. And a harmonica. Yeah. And a harmonic. It's kinda like a one and a half. No. One and a quarter. Harmonica. Half a shofar is a harmonica? Yeah. Just not to stop this, but, Dan, you lost your chance. Okay? Yeah. Shut up. So don't don't be offering up your shofar opinions right now. Moova, do you also need to be banned, or are you coming around on this thing? I'm I'm coming around on this thing. I'm gonna go one Jafar.

Got a Jafar. Because, yeah, I don't trust the statement aid. Like, I just don't. I feel like that means, hey. We brought over 15 Instagram influencers, and and we started a coffee shop that is on our our luxury yacht, and we are here to offer luxury coffee beans to all of these hurt people. Mhmm. And by the way, here's our new book. It's at a discount to you. We will give it for 75% off of American prices, which possibly in your local economy might bankrupt you, but whatever. Okay. So one Jafar. Me to go two. I'm going two Shafar's end. Okay. Two Shofars. Buba, you're out for that Aladdin reference. That you got Jafar from Aladdin. I thought that was a Lanking reference, to be honest. Jafar? I don't know whether to think less of you or you might

I don't I don't remember a lot of the Disney stuff. Get one Shofar. That's that's probably… Alright. Think you get 0.5 a shofar. I was thinking gladiator because it's, like, up and down possibly, like, oh. Oh. Oh. No. I totally… When you said I had a gladiator reference, I tried to move past it, and then you seemed to tailgate it in anyway. I did. I felt like it needed to be there, so there was really no stopping me. Here we go. Dateline number two, China, Christian man escapes internment. This better be two shofars. I don't know what possibly could turn this sour. A 43 year old Christian man who was detained in the Jingjang Internment Camp alongside two Muslim u… Uyghurs. Are you a 100% certain you're saying these words right? Because that was with a lot of confidence. Has escaped the country and come to The US with his wife and son. An ethnic… Boy, these are a of different just say Ovalbeck Turturdekin? Ovalbeck Turturdekin,

an ethnic courageous who worked as a courageous Mandarin translator, became a target of the Chinese government brutal simulation program after he married a Kyrgyzstan native. He was detained for… I should have read this. He was detained for six months. Why is there so many weird words in there? Well, maybe because I'm from China. Is a country, by the way. I nailed the China part. You went jing jing real quick, and I did not know if that was right. It's not Kyrgyzstan. It's Kyrgyz… Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan. Anyway,

the man was detained for ten months and then suddenly released for no apparent reason. The family fled to The US with the help of a research fellow with the victims of communism memorial foundation, a Canadian surveillance of… Expert, and a McKinsey Group analyst, a family of American Christians, and a China aid founder, Bob Fu. Human rights lawyers will submit his firsthand canned account of Chinese government repression to the International Criminal Court. Why did you do that to us? That was was such a serious thing to talk about. Didn't escape. He just No. He was just letting go, and then he ran. Hey, man. That's biblical. Sometimes just gates don't… Aren't there anymore. Yeah?

Yeah. But he has escaped the country, except they did just… They let him go for no reason. And he was helped out of the country by… Listen to this list of people. By… Of a research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Fund. I don't know. I didn't even know that existed. That's a long winded deal. A Canadian surveillance expert. Who… Who's a Canadian surveillance expert? That's weird. A McKinsey Group analyst, a family of American Christians, and China aid founder Bob Fu. That's a lot of people involved. I'll give them all shafars, double shafars for everyone. Two shafars with Dan, John. Two shafars. Okay. Moving on. Two shafars from over here. Mike. Hey, Mike. I think you missed me.

I'm gonna go ahead and say two shafars for that one. Dateline Australia, Many baptized at cross raising. Boy, cross raising. I I I guess I can't trust these headlines. A record of a 130 aborigine people who were baptized by family elders and tribal leaders at a cross raising ceremony on West Arnhem Land in the Northeast Corner of Australia's Northern Territory. Cross raisings have become significant to first nation Christians as a time to renew a covenant between the land and god and prepare people for immersion. The practice dates back to the homeland movement of the nineteen seventies when many indigenous families returned to ancestral lands. Cross raising. You ever heard of that, Dan? No. I I assume it's self explanatory to raise. I mean, like, they raise a cross, I guess. Right. I mean, hopefully not in the traditional Roman sense. Right? Yeah. That's not good. I mean raise. That that… Yeah. Unless it's r a z e d because that's a good thing.

Yeah. I don't know. Shofars? Bubba. Two shofars? Two. People getting baptized? Yeah. That's solid. A 130 aborigines? That's nice, Dan. Yeah. Okay. I'll give that two shofars. Yeah. With shofars, John. Yeah. I mean, assuming, like I said, they're not, like, you know, sacrificing somebody on this this whole thing. Yeah. Two Shafar's. That was… It was just mentioned in in there at all. A separate mile march. They… Some places do that, though. They'll nail themselves to the cross and walk for a while. That's not in there, fellas. Okay. We don't think that you're say. Sometimes you have to read between the lines, man. Exactly. You know, they're… No. You can't just believe everything you need to between the weird things you say. Christianity today. It's the height of integrity journalism. Yeah. Yeah. Aliens. The man escaped that was let go.

Dateline, Ghana. Churches plant trees. Woah. Yes. The Christian humanitarian aid organization Compassion International and 17 churches came together to plant 4,000 trees to combat the effects of climate change. I'm gonna I'm gonna give that a zero. Hold on, Dan. Shafar's. The group hopes to plant 15,000 more acacia, moringa, avocado, and other species of trees in 20 locations across country.

Abraham Sutunya, an assembly's of god leader, said burning fossil fuels has disrupted the environmental order, becoming a threat to human life. The the mean annual temperature So is hell. Damn. We're in Ghana right now. What about the gospel? They need more trees. Dang it. The mean annual temperature in Ghana has gone up by one degree Celsius since 1960. Oh, no. No. Oh, no. And there are about forty eight more hot days and twelve more cold days every year. Continued climate change is expected to increase the mean annual temperature one to three degrees by 2060,

resulting in 20% decrease in rain and causing cyclical Resulting in us using more fossil fuels to heat things up because we're too cold. Yeah. It never ends. It's a circular zero. I'm sure this will come up. They don't get one. Oh, hold on. Quick shofars, and then I'm… We're gonna… I have a thing. Dan? None. No shofars at all, John. Yeah. None. Zero. Buva? Not a single one. Zero shofars. Put your money in the gospel. Yeah. Buy a cruise ship and go share the gospel around the world. Bring aid. So is this exactly, like, the type of thing that, like, you don't need to put on a Jesus shirt to get involved in? Yeah. Go ahead and plant trees out here. Right. Yeah. Exactly. If this is totally your thing, I… You know, whatever. I I I think it's No problem with planting trees. Right? But

when you make it a god thing and a church thing, like, you're legit taking resources away from people, but you're using this to save the world, and it's not what Jesus meant. Right. And and the thing is… And, like, I… Here's here's what I'm gonna say to you. And I know this is hard to take in, and I think I think you're just gonna assume that, like, I'm just on the opposite side of you politically, and this is why I'm saying this. And I can guarantee that is not exactly the case. I'm telling you right now that it is god's good world to deal with. Right? And if humanity is destroying it, he has shown up before and stepped in and taken care of his world. If he was not going to let Satan's devious plan of fooling humanity be the final word, I can't imagine he's gonna let our hairspray also defeat him in what he wanted to be his good world to deliver to humans.

So I'm not saying that we can't be good stewards to the world that we have. I'm not saying that we should take care of the thing that God has blessed us with. But if you believe that you are staying God's hand by by planting 4,000 trees, you misunderstand your role in this in this entire dichotomy. Right? I just think you're thinking too much like you're gonna sit… Like, god has a bunch of other stuff to do. I'll go ahead and take care of saving the world part with my trees. Right? 4,000 trees doesn't do boo. I know it sounds impressive, but, like, it don't do boo. Well, on the sermon on the mount, didn't didn't they plant trees when they left? Wait. No. That's not in there. In the rocky soil? And then the birds came and ate it. Jesus went, ah, they burned up. I also made the birds. What a turn of events. Also, you really wanna save the environment, take that money, and invest in, like, better beef farming. Yeah. Like, the only thing I can think of the way to fix that. Of trees in the bible is, like, when god said, yeah. Cut those down and make a big boot.

The cedars of Lebanon. No kidding. Destroy them all. So Right. I don't know. So so I guess what we're saying… And maybe I wanna back off what I said a little bit. I don't think that being a good steward of this earth or planting those 4,000 trees or 15,000 more is a waste of your time. No. Don't hear me wrong there. Right. Here's what here's what I'm gonna tell you. It's not your ministry. It's it's not you bringing the gospel to all the nations. You're bringing trees to all the nations. And, like, I don't know that you need a pretext of planting trees to also bring the gospel. Right? If you're if you're gonna go out there and you're gonna be like, this is what the church is doing, you're focusing on the wrong ends. 100%. Yeah. And and that's all. And, like, that's not to be… That's not to take away all your thunder as someone who loves the earth. I'm glad there's people out there trying to pay attention to to stuff that we're ruining, and we are indeed ruining things because we're humanity. We do that. But just don't sell it as, like, like, God's mission for you. I've I've… There's nowhere in the Bible that gives any direction like that. Spiritual there. I mean Nothing. Of needs. Be a good steward. That is correct. That's cool. Yeah. Agree. To it. Agree. Yeah. Take care of needs. That's a big deal. Like, take care of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate the macro level that you're trying to take of, like, hey. Ghana will lose 20% of its rainfall if we don't try and fix this tree situation. Yeah. So Like, there are also starving people in Ghana that you could have probably helped out with, like, developing actual farms that they could start growing their own stuff, irrigation systems,

more technology, more education, helping out people from a food perspective, shelter, things like that that are actually going to affect this generation now and make them feel Christ's love now. Yeah. And so I think also what… I mean, I think what we're missing here is, like, all these projections are based off scientific models that have tried in the last ten years, to both predict the effects of COVID, predict the effects of hurricanes and tropical weather like El Nino that was supposed to be a onetime event in 1987, and now El Nino or El Nino is here every year in some capacity.

They're like, we don't. It just depends on what jet stream it joins with to see whether it causes trouble. So, like, when you put all this stuff together, you're banking your entire support of what you're saying on scientific models and theories that they're they're not panning out for you right now. Right right now, all their… Every major scientific theory that they've come up in the last twenty years barely holds its own water. So just be careful in putting all your all your faith in it. That's all. Go to Mars, we're gonna terraform it, and then we're gonna destroy it just like we did here. It looked just like Minecraft, and I'll love it there. The gospel, on the other hand, has survived for a couple thousand years. Straight up. Yeah. Yeah. Shaken, not stirred. What? Two shofars. Nigeria. The headline, Nigeria, gospel singer's cause of death disputed. I don't wanna read that one. Skip it. One shofar.

Okay. Gospels… No. We're not doing it. Headline, Norway. More time? No. Headline, Norway. Neighbors quarrel over illuminated cross. Okay. This is gonna be boss. A 72 year old a 72 year old man. Okay. Right now, we're done. We don't have to read anymore to this. He's an old man. We know exactly the curmudgeony folk he's with. Yep. I mean, if you didn't put your red flag down after someone already picked up your mail, he's gonna go out there and be like, hey, man. You gotta get that flag down. Okay. Who's playing with Velcro? Oh, that'd be me. Damn. A 72 year old man claims an evangelical

Lutheran church's illuminated cross is a health risk because it may, quotes, tear open old wounds for people who attend the church's schools between 1955 and 1990. The Evangelical Lutheran Church Society, a small denomination with about 3,300 members, has apologized for the corporal punishment practice at its schools, but says that it has nothing to do with the cross on the skiing church built in 2021.

So the guy is arguing that the illuminated cross is just gonna, like, bring up PTSD for people who were corporately punished at this church for years. Yeah. And he's saying no? And, yeah, he's saying he should… It should shut down. Yeah. You got… You can't illuminate the cross because when people drive by, they'll remember that they went to that school and they used spankings. Or if he has people on his side. Because, like, I don't… It's gotta be more than just one dude raising this up that it made it onto an article. Yeah. It was just people complaining. Yeah. Well, here's the deal. People suck. It's just flat out truth. People suck.

And it sucks that you have those bad memories. Like, don't get me wrong. That's terrible. But, like, I feel like this is a weird thing to try and just flatten… Like, shut down. Well, here's the thing. It's that that church doesn't even exist anymore. It's on a different new one. It's a different church built in 2021.

I mean, here's the thing. The cross has caused all kinds of trouble. I'm doing two shafars for the cross. Dan says it stays. Two two shafars. If they take the cross down, how many shafars? Zero. Zero shafars. Don't give in. Bubba. Dub shafar. Double. John. I'm just trying to… I… The validity of why this is an article, I'm just not really sure. But I'm sorry. Let's read your blog on the Go

ahead, John. Gail is with your You know, I headlines. Oh, I I got spanked. That's that's that's PTSD. I I I now suffer from respect for adults. I,

you know, I mean, I… Again, I guess I… I'm I'm kinda signed with Dan, I guess. Yeah. I think the cross is awesome. I… Yeah. I I I gotta go against the crotchety old man who wants to get rid of cool things. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing. It's like if wounds tear open that easily, they weren't healed anyway. Yeah. So Very true. Go talk to somebody. Yeah. Even though you're 72. It's okay. I don't know. This… I I… We've talked about this in the past. I struggle a little bit here because, like, sometimes I think that, like, in our attempt to

come alongside people who are hurting, at some point, like, they have to want the same thing that you're trying to help them with, which is to heal from what was hurting them. Right. Right. 100%. They have to accept the grace that God is giving for the… For whatever sin either was they committed or was committed against them. They ought to have some some, you know, behavioral notice of like, I'm still allowing this to control my life and I'm still letting it dictate the things that I'm doing and I'm not saying any of that is easy but you do have to be heading in a direction of healing. Right? You do have to be… To say, it doesn't get to run my life anymore. So, like, yeah, it's the fact that god's people were beating kids with rulers from 1950 to 1990.

One Right. Listen. It was a different age. It just was. 100%. Very true. Right? And so, like, that church was not the only people doing it, and, like, I'm not Everybody was getting hit by And it wasn't even it wasn't even the church. It was public schools. You know? It was just… It's it… Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not saying that's right, wrong, or indifferent. I'm just saying it was a different age. Just like when you look, when you read parts of the Bible, when you read the whole Bible, right, it was written in a different age to a different group of people. The community was different. The social mores were different on what was acceptable and what was not. Mhmm. God's view of sin has always been the same. Right. God's character has always been the same. Right. So some of these things are gonna move and tilt a little bit except for what God says either separates him from you or brings you together. Right? So, anyway, all that being said is like, if that is still calling you wounds from things that happened, like, it ended in 1990. So now you're so now you're thirty five years since the place closed. Right? And you're still going… Even the smell of it reminds me of of we we spanked kids,

and it will open old wounds for them. Look. They need they need to move on from this. Yeah. Mean, bro, that… That's a you problem. That's a 35 year old you problem. Like, you've… What you claim to have been freedom was a was a giant rock that you tied to your ankle. Mhmm. Right? A bad thing happened and a… Listen. A bad thing happens to a lot of people. And, like, this sounds like I'm making light of the of the trauma that happened to you, and I I promise you I'm not. But I am telling you that, like, if you you you do have a choice to let it to continually let it define your life. Right? And it's gonna sneak back in and it's gonna try to take the driver's seat again and you do have choices to go. I'm no longer gonna let this determine the way I look at the rest of at at the rest of my life. Right? And, like, I'm saying this because there's much bigger traumas that have happened to people, and they're doing much better on on not letting it run their life besides the spanking guy from thirty five years ago. That seems like… It'd be like if my kids came home from school and said, so and so called me names. And I'm like, well, so and so who's also your age has a… Has cancer, and they're having a much more rough go of it. So I needed to take in with a little bit of perspective on what's actually happening to you right now. Right? Mhmm. This is… That's how I feel about this guy. K. Last one. Dateline.

What do we think? Andy Warhol brings Romans to church? No. I don't care about that. Andy Warhol brings Romans to church? Yeah. Okay. Dateline Italy. Andy Warhol brings Romans to church. An evangelical church in Italy attracted hundreds of visitors by displaying a minor work by the late pop artist Andy Warhol.

The church, Cheza Evangelica Brescia di Roma, offered its space for an art exhibit called… Titled prints and multiples as a way to love its neighbors and invite people to notice the active evangelical congregation operating in the heart of Rome. Warhol's screenprint of flowers signed on the back with a stamp that says, fill in your own signature with a blank line, sold at auction for $10. Okay. Now I'm interested. Shofars.

The church, somebody… They needed a place to hold their art exhibit. The church said, well, we got room. It's not offensive. Sure. Sure. What do we think? Shofars. Dub show. Double shofars. That's the way for the church to get involved with the community. John. I agree. Dub show. Dub show? I'll come I'll come two. Two shofars. Two shofars. Possibly a third one in a backpack.

He'll rip out. Maybe. Could happen. Yeah. K. That's it for Christianity Today hot takes. I think there's a couple other ones, something about Dominican Republic, but they're on their way out anyway. What?

Anyway, are we Oh, my gosh. We're just gonna glance past that comment? What? The Dominican Republic is on its way out anyway? I don't think it's gonna be a republic for much longer. That's all I'm saying. It's a horrible thing to say. Don't you read the news, Bula? About the Dominican Republic just going away? Yeah. No. I must have missed that one. It's it's a heartbreaker. Okay. Oh, another reason to just skip over articles about it. God. Cool beans. Dumb show. So we were gonna we were gonna talk about… We might push this a little bit, but I'm I'm super interested. I wanted to have a quick check on…

A couple weeks ago, we talked about books that we had read that had… That, like, that had honestly helped helped your faith. Right? Like, something that you would recommend to someone else that says, hey. I just wanna… I I I need something to read. I'm I'm struggling with the Bible, but I I do wanna read, you know, some things that are god centered and filled with the holy spirit. And we and we kinda went around the room and had some good some good insight. And I was wondering if you had the same insight with like like worship songs or even like podcasts that you were listening to. What I'm trying to decide right in this moment is is, like, if you had to pick… I want… I wanna I wanna table this conversation for next week because I I wanna give you a chance to think about it. But I am interested if you have, like, something right at the top of your head that floats, like, right to the top of the corn and goes, you know what? I would recommend this podcast to anybody. Or, like, I can remember when I was in I was in a tough spot, and, like, for some reason, this this song just spoke God's truth into me. Is anybody having something like that?

Yeah. I I have a… There's a song by Elevation Worship. Do it again. Mhmm. I just love that song. If I'm… There's been times I've gone through a difficult time and the words are just just kind of a healing thing. Like, you know what? God, you've done big stuff in the past. You can do it again. Mhmm. You know? Whatever whatever is going on, you you you got this. And and I have… That's been very encouraging to me at at multiple different times in my life and things… I mean, it's not that old of a song. I don't know how old it is, but when, you know, you're just feeling down or whatever, something's a roadblock, and I'd play that song. There's been multiple times in prayer rooms we have where that'll… I'll just play that over and over, and it just kinda reminds me that God's got this. Whatever challenge is ahead of me at the moment, he's got this. And it's it's, yeah, it's been a good… It's been one of the few songs that that just keeps coming back to me. Yeah. I mean, there's songs out there. You like it or whatever. It has a good tune, whatever, but this is just… Love I love the words of it. Yeah. Yeah. That's very cool. And, I've heard that song. It… It's… It it is amazing. Like, either worship songs tend to fall into one or two categories for me, the ones that stick around anyway. Like, there's all kinds of worship songs out there, and, like, I'll… Some of them I like just because I like the music or or, like, the musicians are just real good. You know? Yeah. I'm not saying the worship is not great, but, like, it doesn't, like, seem to burrow itself way down in like a couple of them do. You know? Mhmm. And some of them are… Like, usually, it's tied to

one consistency. Like, every time I hear it, like, I just smell Jesus. Like, I just I just… It smells like something that would come out of Jesus' mouth if he was just on the earth a little bit longer. He would have said something, you know, like a a a vote of of confidence in how much you can trust god and and, you know, and so some that you can consistently come back to. And then the other ones are… They're real situational. Right? Where where, like, I've been praying on something and then, like, I felt like God had had answered me through through a worship song or said, I want you to keep thinking about this. When your mind starts to go this way or your heart starts to go this way, I want you to just sing this back to me. Yeah. You know, and remember. That's just just a couple phrases from this song. It's like walk… Walking around these walls. I thought by now they'd fall, but you've never failed me yet. Like, okay. I feel like my world's crushing in around me. There… It's not. It's not. And, you know, it… Where's the promise still stands? Great is your faithfulness. Faithfulness, I'm still in your hands. This is my confidence. You've never failed me yet. You know, there's been multiple times I've gone to that and, yeah. Just… Dan, talk to this. Quit me a dummy. What am I worried about, right? Yeah. Yeah. Mean I Yeah. That's a one shafar for me. That's a… That's Two shafar for elevation worship and putting in. And Dan gets one. How

about you two? Podcast or song? I've got three. Three songs? If you're willing to let me talk about them. You get… Let me hear the first two, and I might veto the third. So the first one is build my life, the Pat Barrett song originally. Do you know what I'm talking about?

No. Yeah. Here. I got the list. So it starts with the worthy of every song we could ever sing, worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. So it's the it's the lyrics Is that abide? No. It's called build my life. Okay. Abide's my second one, though. That's awkward. Abide's a good one. So it's I will build my life upon your love. It's a firm foundation. I'll put my trust in you, I will not be shaken. Yeah.

Man, I have found myself on porches in a car, sitting next to a lake, whatever, driving all kinds of situations where I'm, like, broken singing those words. And, like, to

the point where it's, like, barely singing, it's one of those situations where you're, like, just speaking them because it's just wrecked you in such an awesome way of like like legitimately the the care and the the focus that God has given each and every single one of us in our lives and in all of our interactions and in everything we do, God has built us up through that, and he's built… We can build our lives upon the firm foundation that is him,

and it's just such an awesome thing that, like, in many moments in my life, I've been broken down and have needed to hear those words to know, like, where my true north is, and it's been such an awesome, awesome thing. And the other song is the abide song by kingdom culture worship. And that song, because I hated it. I hate that song so frigging much because it's the same thing over and over and over again. And you're just saying the same few words over and over again cyclically for, like, twelve minutes.

And the first couple times I heard that, I was like, this song is ridiculously long. Why is it still going? We have said this same musical phrase 30 times now. Stop. It's just get… It's weird. But then I started going like, okay. Where's my heart at on this? Because, obviously, I'm taking this in weird, that I'm angry that this song is longer than the average casting crown song. Like, what is going on right now? And it really, like, it broke me down from the perspective of I'm like, man, I suck at worship. Like I suck at prescribing worth to God through this act

and through the words that I'm singing. And instead of paying attention to the fact that it's a song that has a beginning and an end and it's discernible and it's short, I had to go, okay, what are these words? What do they mean? Why do I sing them? Why do I care?

Why is it in this outlet that it matters? And by the time I started like really taking that in and believing it to be more than just, this is a thing that we do before church,

or this is a thing that I do because it's on the radio or whatever, like truthfully prescribing worth to the king of this universe and the creator of everything that's good and holy and wonderful. I need to figure out how to say these words as an incense to him in his throne room and mean something with them. And it's a lowering of my pride and it is a lowering of my sense of self to be truthfully

and spiritually on my knees going, I am nothing in comparison to you, my creator God, Yahweh. You are the end all be all, the beginning and the end. You are beautiful and majestic and wonderful. And instead of just thinking, when is this gonna end? I had to lower myself and go, I hope it never ends. I hope this song goes on forever.

And it turned into, I was listening to it in a worship thing at a church that I really hadn't gone to, but like, it was this crazy thing that it didn't have a reason to be there other than worship. And so I was like, cool, gonna go for a worship hour and we're gonna sing the songs. But like, we're minute fifteen into this one and I'm on my knees and I'm just saying aloud the names of the Lord that I know, and I'm in tears and I'm weeping, and I'm like, holy crap, this is something that's real. Like I am saying through this musical phrase or through these random words or not even utilizing the words, you're just using this as an opportunity to use the names that he calls himself

as an offering of a prescription of worth towards him. And it just, it rocked me. And my faith, my worship has been different ever since. I wrestled with that song and then now love it. That's awesome. That's awesome. That one doesn't get a whole lot of radio play, Buba.

Yeah. No. I don't think so. There's a lot of the kingdom culture worship stuff that doesn't get a lot. It's kinda hard to pass on radio programming when it's, like, nine minutes long. Yeah. I know. At the base. It's like Da… Maverick City music is the same. They do songs that are, like, ten minutes long, and it's like, I'm pretty sure I heard this part already. Yeah. I'm not certain. They make them… They make those guys give a radio cut because they don't put up with the all day. Right. Yeah. Exactly. It's like, okay. Metallica, we're on minute number 12. Calm down. Let's let's fix it. Okay. You're not tool. John, podcast, worship tune? Yeah. Probably more worship tune. I think one that was a sidewalk prophet song that a few years ago just, yeah, just really, really cut to my heart. I've I've always been the guy that, you know, I I get down on myself. I… You know, I'm I'm not worthy of this. I can't do this. I'm, you know, I'd I'd… God. Why me? I… I'm not supposed to be here. This is, you know, there's no way. I'd… Why? And one of one of theirs that really, really hit me was, come to the table. And, you know, we all started on the outside, the outside looking in. This is where grace begins. We were hungry. We were thirsty.

Nothing left to give on the shape that we were in. Just when all see… All hope seemed lost, love to open the door for us. You know, come meet this mightily crew of misfits, liars, these thieves. There's no one unwelcome here. That sin and shame that you brought with you, you can leave it at the door. Let mercy draw you near. Come to the table. Come join the sinners who have been redeemed. Take your place besides the savior.

Sit down and be set free. Come to the table. Yeah. You know, and it's just… It's… And it's just such a good reminder that, you know, God… You know, look at the disciples. God used these blue collar guys who, you know, rough around the edges. They're… You know, I mean, this day and age, it'd probably be, you know, construction workers, truck drivers like myself. You know, whatever. You know? It's it's… And it and it… You know, there there's… Is there anything really, really special to these guys? Absolutely. You know? And it's because god loves them and god sees their value even when they can't see themselves. And that's… I know always been a personal personal struggle of mine is seeing

myself as God sees me. Sure. And that's… That song particularly was always always hit me hard and hit me. Alright. Yeah. You know what? I'm I'm too hard on myself. God loves me, and there's a reason he has me here. So… Yeah. Yeah. But That's that's very cool. I I always talked about, like, there's there's a couple three things about, worship that just amazed me, and one of them is is, like, when when a group of people sing together, they're automatically on key. Right? Like, people were built for that. Humanity was built for that. I mean, and and this is true at like at at concerts that aren't worship, you know, concerts as well but like like when you when you get thousands of people, hundreds of people together, even a congregation of people at a church together and they sing like humanity was just made to sing just like Revelation puts out. Right? Like, we're made to chorus

and we were made to sing as a as a as a bride and and it just sounds it turns into this beautiful sound, you know? And like worship has always amazed me in that way like how how like when when people get together and they're and they're actually focusing on what god has us singing about. Boy, it just it it it just really is it it's a thing. It's a god thing. Like, it's a holy spirit thing when everybody is singing together and like worship has always been a that for me and also how like it's I know people that couldn't… They just… They have never been able to memorize one Bible verse. Mhmm. But they can pump out song lyrics that are covered in Bible verses, you know, all day long. But if you ask them to try to recite a Bible verse, they're like, I don't know. You know? But, like, when they… When when times of comfort need to show up or when times of joy are missing or if they wanna celebrate, if they're if they just got nothing, like, they're… Even they can't even come up with something to pray. They can always come up with a song. Right? It's it's… When it… When… Like, god created music to pair

with with words and, like, your heart just I don't know, your heart just takes it in. Like it's food. Like it's the thing that your heart lives on is is like is is these these things put together with music and words because you you just… You will always go to them in times of of of struggle or in times of joy or when when your brain's not working and the logical functions of your of your anatomy aren't working, like, you can go to abide and go, I'm empty except for this. This is what I got left apparently. You know? And like mine's gonna be along the same lines. I I I can think of a thousand worship songs, but there's one of them. There's two of them in particular that I tend to use. And my steady Eddie is Yahweh by Red Collective. Mhmm. Yeah. I I just love… I I don't know. I just… And it never gets a whole lot of action. It makes me sad because Red Collective puts out a lot of good tunes, but Yahweh,

that's a that's a burner. And so that's my steady one. The one I can always go to and helps me recenter on what God who God says he is and who's… Who he says I am. And then, I remember just going through a rough, rough, rough time and I could not get the song, You Reign Above It All out of my head and it was and and and the chorus is super simple. It's just you reign above it all. You reign above it all over the universe and over every heart. There is no higher name. Jesus, you reign above it all. And, like, it just made me kept thinking because the thing that was just beating me up and knocking me knocking me down, I'm like, it's true. It's it's big and it's heavy and it hurts but like,

it don't sit on a throne higher than Jesus' throne. So, I I'm gonna give it up. I'm just gonna give it up. And so, like, I love that song. I don't even remember who sings it. But anyway Like Foost. It was it was… It's me occasionally. But like it's it's great. So I tell you what, if if you can think of… And I think we'll we'll get the podcast because like I listen to quite a few podcasts, mostly sermons and and bible project stuff. But like, I think we'll talk about that next week but two things you would recommend that some people listen to or some preachers that, you know, some online messages people can check out and something you'd recommend. Just keep that tool around the back of your mind. If you have a if you have a suggestion for

you know, worship songs that have meant a lot to you or you put these in, here, if someone said, look, I'm struggling to really understand the Jesus you're always talking about, what's a couple songs you could recommend? Why don't you hit us up on the complaint line? That's (515) 517-0085. That's (515) 517-0085. It's the Bob Eisenhower complaint and or worship line. And, yeah, just hit us up with some ideas. The one thing that that gets people lit up fast,

we're really divisive over speakers, and we're divisive over church culture and traditions, but, like, people will never complain about worship, like, almost ever. Sometimes you get the the the guy that just likes the piano and organ combo. I think that's fine. But, like, overall, I I don't know. Something about… Even… We we can all sing old hymns and somehow forget the fact that we don't go to the same denomination, and somebody passes the plate every week and other people are like, we only pass pass the plate once every three months. Otherwise, it's unholy. We can let all that go In Malachi. And just sing some tunes. Okay.

Let's get to this article from Carrie Neuhof. It's the… The title of the article is the church has an image problem, six ways to fix it. And we're gonna look at it as we, personally, as Christians, an image problem. Are these good ways to fix it? K. Here we go. It's no secret that local churches are struggling to get people in the building. There's a growing realization among many church leaders that getting people to attend church is is not just a post COVID challenge. At this point, it almost has nothing to do with COVID. As almost every church leader realizes, people have been drifting out of local churches for years. The decades long attendance trends have been almost all down into the left, and even the growing churches of a decade ago are fighting harder than ever to fill the room. Not the freaking point, incidentally.

While the reasons are varied, part of the reason for the struggle to get people to engage in church is that church has an image problem. The image problem isn't without foundation. The scandals, the abuse, the self righteousness, and the other unchristian behaviors of prominent and everyday Christians have created a huge chasm for the church, and the repentance, humility, and sorrow that ought to be there often aren't there, creating big challenge. So here we go. Let's see. Here are some reasons the problem exists and some suggested ways to move through it. One, politics. The moment you wait into partisan politics or political conversations that take a very narrow point of view is the moment you alienate at least 50% of the people you're trying to reach. So one,

this is probably true from the pulpit. There's… I I I don't think there's any question about that. Even you could look at our last three presidential elections and the way that we flip flop houses. Yeah. We're about fifty fifty in this country, give or take percentage or two. So the truth is is if you take the time in a pulpit to come leading with a political foot, you're gonna have a hard time catching 50% of them who've already stopped listening to you. Now what about as a Christian? What about as just a witness on the street of of you… Of talking to people about Jesus? You gotta poop, Moova, or you just thinking real I'm

thinking real hard. I… Oh, okay. Alright. Fine. Whatever. Jesus spoke a certain way and he talked about certain things and

talked very specifically about politics and like things going on in the government in his day and age. He didn't really give a lot of stuff to it. He prescribed a way that was right outside of any

governmental body or anything, prescribed the way to exist in his father's kingdom, in his kingdom, and that was the most important thing to do as a Christ follower, was to do exactly that. And I've run… We've run into this so much is the… I I didn't wanna say the American church, but I will, has fought for

this notion that we would we would hold Jesus higher if we had a government that did so. And if we had a government that had laws that aligned with our Christian views, and if we had laws that came out that that made more sense from a from a moral perspective aligned with Christian views, the world would just be a better play. And that's just simply not right. If we… I think it's not possible. Yeah. Also also it's not possible, but from the perspective of, like, you're there to to run after people's hearts.

If people start turning their eyes and their hearts to Christ and start moving that needle in their own minds because they're being changed by the Holy Spirit's existence within their life, you no longer have to fight in a political arena. You no longer have to fight in a governmental arena. You are fighting in people's hearts, which is how God's kingdom works. God's kingdom was never prescribed to change Rome. It was never prescribed to change the way that the governmental bodies existed or changed or worked.

His fight was in the hearts of men towards a less sinful nature through the sacrifice that Christ did on the cross so that we could have a relationship the way that it was originally intended with God in the garden. That is the fight. It is not political and is not to change governments. It's to change people at their core to follow Christ. So do you think if we were trying to ask this on an individual level then… Like, I I think we can agree from the pulpit. You're you're just flat out shooting yourself in the foot here. Yes. But, like, is it better, like, on the whole,

just to stay off talking about politics if you want to talk to people about Jesus? Yes. I'll put my foot down on that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I think the the problem happens

is we have the… Jesus is is above politics. Right? Which is what you said. I mean, it… It's… He he's about morality. He's about ethics. You know? That there's a kingdom living which which has some very Specific. Specific ways to live, being being holy. Right?

It's when we attach that to a political candidate or an anti candidate? Because maybe they are. I mean, maybe they're… They they truly represent evil, but then all of sudden, we're we're blasting a politician or a political party,

which which probably has a lot of good reason to blast, but then it becomes political. Right. You know, so how about if we just say, hey, like, Jesus really is for protecting innocent blood, you know, and and, know, we don't have to get into

how many weeks can a child be conceived before you can kill it or or, you know, get into all the the the political talk, but you can talk Jesus stuff above the political fray. I think the church is…

I don't know what I'm looking for, not required, but it's our obligation to teach the morality of the kingdom of God. However that falls politically. It… It's it's… I'm I'm trying to say this three ways, same thing, but but… Yeah. It's it's it's classic. Right? It's it's truth and love and the… And that comes in equal measure. Yeah. Right? And so, like, there are things that god says are true and like we got zero reason to back off of those and zero reason to hide them. I think we do…

Here's the thing is I think we struggle because we struggle with this in other areas of people that like if you try to teach the morality of God to somebody that doesn't believe in your God in the first place Yeah. Or has a horrible opinion of your God because the… Of some interactions they've had with God's people in the past or frat… Or or they invited some things into their life that is now running it. Yeah. Right? All these things are possible. And trying to have a morality discussion about your… About what your god thinks if they don't know your god, you're wasting your breath. Mhmm. You're wasting your breath. Yeah. We we need to talk about God first. Let's talk about that. Right? And see, I think that's in his image problem. It's not that the church is doing poorly, it's that people don't believe in God. Right. And so that's the issue. We're gonna just teach them what the Bible says, then, of course, you're not gonna like that because you don't like what the Bible says. Yeah. And you don't like the one who wrote it. Well, and here's the thing. It's like, I'm not even sure. Now once again, I'm not saying that there's not some spiritual warfare stuff going on here because I completely believe that there is. But, like, some people

don't… They they don't realize… When you try to talk about God, they don't realize exactly what you're talking about. Right? Mhmm. Like, I've been totally blown away in the last two years on what I assumed was everybody giving God the middle finger, and really, they've never met him. They… I mean, they've grown up in this country. I had some I had some people that, like, we were invited over to our house to watch chosen, and, like, they were so excited for chosen season three because they didn't know what happened. And somebody goes, they kind of smiled and said,

you mean when Jesus dies? Right? Because everybody knows it's coming, but they didn't. They had no idea that Jesus died. They were, I mean, they were visibly sad to find out that Jesus had died. And, like, the show had really broke their heart. And I'm like, I I thought everybody knew what we were into already. You know? It's a pretty good show and, like, it does a pretty good job, but, like, everybody knows that what's coming, you know, but they didn't. Uh-huh. And so, like… And I found that, like, we get a lot of twinkle in people's eye when you describe

the sin problem, right, and the creation problem where God has created people and has and has in in his image and likeness and said, look. I give you dignity and worth by giving a world to run. I wanna run this world through you. And then when sin happened, we were separated, and, like, that feels a way. You know? Sin feels a way, and everything less than what god thinks of us is less than and so like when you start to explain to folks that like, you're choosing the less than. Everything you choose to define yourself by is less than what god thinks of you and like for some reason, like, they look at god a little bit different than they did before. Right? They're like, you're right. That is kind of a problem. Yes, I do try to define myself by this and yes, it's not working and then, they're a little bit more able like open to listening to why god says that you cannot, why why life is so important,

why we care about who marries who. Right? Stuff that would appear to be politically none of your business, but god goes, it's all my business and anything less than what I'm offering is less than. And, like, if they see god that way, then those conversations go way different. You know? And so, like, yeah, politics, I… God gave us the freedom for it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be invested in your community, which is your country that you live in and stand for good and right things, but, like, you're not gonna you're not gonna win any political battles, like, on… And head them towards Jesus. If your if your goal is to make them a republican before you make them a follower of Christ, then you're wrong. You just… You're doing this wrong. Your eyes are in the wrong place. Yeah. If you're fighting for national politics, but you haven't fed the people in your community, I don't know if your heart's understanding what your responsibilities are for your community. Right. If we have a a representative government, I I think, you know, people get… I I can only vote for this person or that person. It's like, there's not a soul. There's very few people out there that truly represent me Right. As a god, man of god. Right. Mean, it's just…

So I'll go with the one who comes closest. But there's still… We just don't have the opportunity to vote for the Messiah. And sometimes people treat it that way. It's embarrassing sometimes just

see how the church responds to candidates and and they they flock all over them or against them. We have to be careful. And then every candidate changes when they're elected. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, they're just catering to… They put our vote. Yes. And so they say up through through They know that they're to us. Buzzwords to get the American church behind them. And once they get it, they are, I mean, wildfire for that stuff. Yeah. And then the second they're elected, they go, well, I promised a lot of stuff, and I got the vote, and I'm here. But now that it's reality This place is gridlocked. Yeah. They… Yeah. They're… Yeah. Exactly. Then then you run into the concept that you have a segmented government that, like, you may be executive office, but, like, you are still running everything through a congress and and all that. Like, it just…

Sorry. Yeah. It's just… It's rough. Which is… I mean, I'll I'll throw him out. Like, the the the Donald Trump. Right? There there there are some people who who jumped all in. Okay. Now let me also say he probably has represented me closer than any president in my lifetime Mhmm. Which surprised me. I think that surprised a lot of people actually. Yeah. Yeah. Some people in church treat him genuinely like the Messiah. Some treat him like the Antichrist because, well, he's had women. You know, it's like He's well, he's neither in the desert. Both, and he's neither. I mean, he's not both. He's neither. He he's just a dude who happens… I don't care if he believes it or not. He's… If he's gonna represent me, I'll vote for him the third time.

But but only because he comes close to my… Some of my views on some of the issues. Claims to. He's not perfect. What's that? He claims to come close to some of the things on some of your issues. Yeah. Yeah. And and and had… Did he do it perfectly? No. None none of them have. None of them. He's than anyone in my lifetime. Here's the thing is… And I thought this was really insightful, Dan, and I guess I hadn't thought of it before that you said. It's like, it would… Basically, we like to either jump on the good and the good and the good of political candidate or the bad of the bad of the bad. Like, they're the source of either one. Right? Like, your your candidate that that you believe to be good, like, we'd like to jump on them as if they're the source of good. Yeah. And they never were. Yeah. Right? And the same thing is true with the guy that you absolutely cannot stand and hate, and you're like, this guy's nothing but pure evil. Like, he's the source of it. They're going to their clientele trying to get as many votes as possible. He's a puppet, man. Yeah. If the person that's going for, like, local city mayor can still be, like, influenced by the local plumbing company because they're willing to give a thousand bucks into their campaign to go, hey. We really need to get some coding stuff taken care of because I'm running into some trouble over here. Can I get some permits? You don't think that's gonna happen at a national level where they're getting millions of dollars and things change? Right. Yeah. And, actually, the truth of the matter is is is… I mean, if we're being honest here, the way that I feel about politics is I think it's I think it's screw tape letters again still. Yeah. Think it's the same. Think it's just a way to get you turned off Distraction. Paying attention to what you're doing because it's really easy to get fired up about the things of god without getting fired up for god. Yeah. I wanna live in an America that's on fire for the actual living god.

That is the… I don't care who's in power at that point in time when it comes to a governmental body. I mean, we do this by making disciples. That's correct. Not by voting. Right. That's correct. Right. So… Yeah. So… Yeah. And and, like, this is not an advice column, but we're taking this out of the rafters and saying, brain… We're not blaming your preacher about this. We're talking to you. So, like, if you're if you're if you're leading foot is to talk politics, look. Just… You need to double check where you're at. Like, I'm not saying that you can't have these conversations like the… It's a free country, but but just watch what you're doing with your freedom. Right? Just because the country allows you to talk about politics in any way that you want to, just make sure that you're actually spending your time doing what you wanna do. And is it… And and if you're if you're gonna Matthew your way out the door and make disciples of other people, you might skip a little bit of the politics because you're actually not doing anything, and that's proven by our fifty fifty split for the last twenty years. Right? We are not gaining ground. So I I would just be careful. And that's why I'd I'd rather be known for what we teach on scripture than what candidate we Right. Are connected to or party or As it should be. And that's where usually all the Christians are out there fighting on the Internet about over the party or a person, and I'd rather…

I just want to be known for my view on scripture. Yes. And actually, I wanna be… And this has changed a little bit in me lately, and I don't know whether it's because of what God has me doing, but I do… Have a quick example on why why I why I think this way. But, like, I don't really wanna be known of… Like, firing out of the gate on a bunch of issues. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I need to introduce you to who Jesus is. Right. When you meet the creator,

the bible illuminates for you, and I don't have to discuss every every political thing you wanna talk about or every hot button issue of the day. Yep. Like, the holy spirit will work this out within you, and you're gonna struggle and you're gonna fight, but the holy spirit will do it. Now if he's called me to speak into your life on something very specific, I won't run away from That's different. Yeah. That's not… I'm not saying that we don't tell true things, especially if somebody asks or especially if the Holy Spirit's got you moving, but, like, I don't plan on going to every group of per… Of people that currently have a misunderstanding of way that God's life is supposed to be lived and say, by the way, here's a billboard sign on why you're going to hell because you you don't understand what you're talking about. Yeah. You're going to hell and I expect you to tithe. Do you wanna come to my church? And here's the thing. So, like, truth. We had a a we run a youth group up in town, and we had a kid that was been going to our youth group for a while, and their parents had no idea. So they come find out about it. And they're like… They said, hey, just so you know, my kid's been going to your youth group for the last month or two. And and without saying, I looked at my wife because that kid been coming to our youth group for, the last year and a half. And so their parents had no idea. So anyway, they they said, well, you know, they they… Their parents live… They're they're an alternative lifestyle. They're not something the Bible would agree with. And they said, well, they're real worried about their kid, and they're like, well, you know, what church is this youth group or what is it about? And the kid goes, you know, it's it's it's Mike and Jara. And they go, oh, okay. Okay. Well, they don't teach people to hate people. And I'm like, you know what? You're dead on right. I would not do that. I don't do that. Correct. Yeah. I I probably don't agree with the choices that you're making or where the direction you're taking your life, but you're right. Yeah. The gospel we're preaching is not about hating people because Jesus isn't. And I'm like, I love this. This has gone really well. That's it. Yeah. One of the core values of our church is intimacy with God changes people. And the whole idea is we wanna emphasize,

if you connect with God, God will take care of the rest. Yeah. I don't need to scream at you. God didn't have to scream at Isaiah. Stop your language. He he got in the presence of God and dropped to his knees and said, oh, woe is me, a man of unclean lips. Because when you get close to God, he changes you.

Us as humans, we're we're not gonna change the heart of another human. That's that's not our job. That's, you know, that's not… And we can't do that. That's not… Yeah. It's… Exactly. That's… Yeah. By just debate hard enough and long enough, we show you a chart. No. Yeah. Yeah. We that's gonna really show you. Right. We have to let god be god. We have to let the spirit do what the spirit does. You know? Yep. I'm much more hopeful that you come to heaven than that you vote alongside me. Mhmm. You know? I do think the more you know God, the more you probably will. Right. Because my views have come from God. Feel like a big part of what… I mean, him even including… I mean, yeah, I I think there probably definitely are some pastors that, oh, yeah. You gotta vote Republican or you're going to hell, you know, it's… Which is ridiculous. But it's, I mean… Yeah. But, obviously, there… You know, like, Dan, like you had mentioned, there are certain issues that are moral issues that, yeah, we have to stand firm on as to who we are, what we believe.

And I feel like people just automatically… Political. Yeah. Yeah. You turn it into… Whether you mean it to or not, whether you're sitting there preaching the truth of the gospel and bringing up anything political or not, you know, people just, in this day and age, just go right there. Yeah. You know what I mean? And that's… I I think that goes

back to… You know, I mean, I I read it. I don't remember where it was. It was so long ago. I read an article about, preaching and how a pastor is responsible for how people take their message,

you know, if that makes sense, which I I feel is really, really difficult because, obviously, you don't know everybody deeply that's gonna be in your congregation on a Sunday morning. You know? But but as said, like… And it's… You know, so if so it… Obviously, it would really, really affect how you would preach that. You know? I mean, whether you do all fire and brimstone or whether you… You know what mean? And that's… And I feel like that can just be really, really divisive and difficult, especially in this day and age. You know? So because, again, you know, anybody can turn anything political if they try hard enough. Right. You know? So

can we avoid that? I don't think a 100%. I don't think we can. Because, again, whether you're preaching it as political or not, people are gonna turn it that way. Yeah. Well, and here's don't agree with. The holy spirit is is involved with ears to hear. Right. Exactly. That's god's thing. And, like, you can't control that. And so, like, I I think once again, I… We're just talking about… Honestly, we're talking about running things, running more things by god. That's what we're talking about. Right? If you're gonna preach in front of people, I think you should pray on that. Yeah. And I think you should prepare that, like, you're gonna have to hand the thing over to god. And if it's time to… Like, there's a very intimate thing in iron sharpening iron. Right? If it's time for brimstone time and some… And people need to talk into in a very holy justice oriented way, and God said, that's what I want, then, I mean, you should pull up your britches and do it. Mhmm. Right? But, like, if you're trying to introduce people to the… To what the love, the all encompassing

grace filled sacrificial love of Jesus looks like, and you're trying to get that done by capitalizing their sin and then beating them with it. And telling them they're going to hell. I'm having a hard time seeing because Jesus didn't do that. He never lied. He never soft shoot anything. Right? But, like, he wasn't… I mean, he was perfect. He had a perfect balance of truth and love all the time. Like, he could say a really hard thing and, like, all you can do is just imagine somebody looking into his eyes and knowing that, like, that was coming from nothing… Nowhere but love. Right. You know? We struggle with that. Right. We have to try to… Because we're secretly sometimes repulsed, or we're like, you gotta get out of this now. There's an urgency to… Like, our love has a time limit on it. Like, I gave you the option. I told you what was wrong, and you went back to the sin, and I'm done. I'm done with this. And Jesus does not operate like that. Right? So we struggle with our own humanity here, and so the the right thing… And this is just… It's just humility. It's humility for us to go,

holy spirit, I'm thinking about doing this thing. Are you going to? Right? If you're not going, I'm not going. Right? But if you're going, I'll go. That sounds great. And I think all too often, you know, not not only just pastors, but even as Christians or… We we make decision of, I'm doing this for God. God, not bless it. Like, buy an a. You know? It's like, you know Cruise ship. Yeah. Right? You know, it's not not God is this where you're leading me. Yeah. It's… Yeah. Yeah. We got lots of books. Right? Yeah. Alright. Let's let's let's Moving on. Take a Number one, student politics. We're gonna roll right through these. Next one, scandal. The church should be a very safe place, free from abuse, corruption, and misuse of power. The fact that it's not is troubling on about a thousand levels. So on a personal level, yeah, this is true. You should be safe for people. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and that… And that's flat out it. And and here's the thing. The reason they're scandal is because somebody wasn't honest about a bad thing that happened. Yeah. Bad things happen. Sin happens.

People screw up. Yep. That's true in your marriages, in your relationships, in your jobs, the way you raise your kids. It happens with your pastor. When you screw up, you own up to it like now, like in no time flat. You own up to who you need to owe up to. You apologize for it. You make amends for what you've done, and you live an honest life. They usually become scandals because we are living a warped view of the kingdom of God. I'm protecting a number at the church. I need, you know, dollars and budgets and people, and then we'll cover things up. That… That's… We… Yeah. I mean, my stuff is how this church is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know? It… Yep. That's all that's all gotta go. And here's the thing. If you want people to believe that you're legit and that Jesus has actually done a change in your life, be a crazy counter countercultural

example of honesty. Well, and here's the deal. People see Jesus when people are honest about screwing up Yeah. And then God fixes it. Yeah. Look at the Bible. Look at every story in Like the like, literally, you are you are perverting your understanding of what your role is in the church. If you are in an elder or leadership role or anything like that and you think that it is on your authority or your power or your identity or your looks of whether or not Christ can work in people and the Holy Spirit reigns. Right? That is not how that works. God works with broken messes, and when he shows off because you screwed up, it is such a beautiful story. Such a beautiful story to go, that person was in sin and they owned it and they moved on from it, and their life has been radically different because God heals that kind of stuff. And so my mess isn't worse than God can handle because I've seen real people that love him deal with this stuff, and he just shines through it. Yeah. Yeah. And it comes surprise when you screw up. They're surprised when you try to pretend like you don't screw up. Right. Well, I mean, I think it comes back to church leaders trying to make followers of themselves and not followers of Christ. Yeah. In many ways. Yeah. Yeah. Number three, self righteousness. My guess is that you read this. You might say to yourself, well, at least I'm not as bad as those hateful hypocritical church leaders who make the headlines. I get it.

I feel that too, and that phenomenon is also called self righteousness. Yeah. This is… Yeah. Jesus talks about this. Yeah. Humility. Check your identity with the way that god calls you who you are. That's what this article needs to say. Number four, weirdness. Oh, jeez. These are the six image problems that the church has. Weirdness. I'm sorry. A lot of Christians Dang those hats. A lot of Christians end up speaking Christianese. If you're not a Christian, Christianese is weird. Yeah. Actually, if you are a Christian, it's still weird. Still weird. Yeah. We're just so blessed. I started to fall into this trap early in my ministry and realized I had I had to correct it quickly. If you speak in code, you'll have difficulty connecting with unchurched people. If you find yourself saying brother, sister, amen,

fellowship, tribulation, and the like, it tends to bring less credibility to what you do. Sure. That might work in your church circles, but if you're trying to reach your community, it's a barrier. Yeah. I find that… I feel that way about the word season. I was just about to say season. Yeah. I'm really glad I'm sanctified. Lord, really. Yes. Through the process of sanctification, the holy spirit really has taken control of my temple. And people are like, what did you just say? Yeah. It was it was hilarious. I I saw this video the other day that… Of of this exact thing of these people who were the… You know, a group of Christians from a church got together with their non Christian friends and and used these terms and made the non Christian friends try to guess what they meant. Right. Yeah. Exactly. And they're right about 50% of the time. You know? But it was just… It was… Yeah. It was ridiculous. Yeah. The original sin and fall of it was a crazy situation. They're like, wait. Like, your original sin? Like, what did you do wrong as a as a baby? Yeah.

The fall of explain it like… Like, we do this a lot in in public, you know, like, we… As we come before the lord's table, and everybody's looking around, but I don't even see a table. Like, what are you talking about? The bridegroom is present. Like, what? Oh, man. Alright. Number five, hate. But when hate becomes when hate becomes a primary characteristic associated with a Christian, that Christian no longer resembles Jesus. Now hold on. I need you I need you to listen to me here because hate hate does become different in the eye of the beholder. Yeah. Yeah. So so I think what we're saying here, Christian, is one, you know your heart. If you don't hate people, then don't hate people. Right? And let… Like, you love God, you love people. Two pretty solid commandments straight out of Jesus' mouth.

You need to follow those, and you need to act like they're important, like the two things that God told you to do. Now some people are gonna take in your love as hate. Right. Mhmm. An alcoholic thinks you hate them when you take away their bottle of vodka. That is correct. That is correct. And, like, here's the thing. And and this is true with raising kids too, by the way, and having relationships with other people, is other people don't get to control you on how you're gonna get fired up and believe things that aren't true and control your emotions. Okay? So I… I've I've had people tell me, you hate me, and I'm like, you know, for a 100% fact that I do not. And I'm sorry that you're taking it in that way. But I'm telling you right now, I love you enough to tell you this. Mhmm. And, like, if you are delivering that message with love and they take it as hate, pray pray that they don't. That's all you can do. You can't you can't get rid of truth. Right? And you can't skip it because

you love them too much. You love them too much to skip it. I remember giving this example recently where I was like, I said, look, my my daughter's taken up eating nails as her only sustenance. She bought a big old box of nails, and she came to me and said, dad, I'm gonna eat nails for every meal. And I said, okay. Let me ask you guys a question. If I let Grace sit around and eat nails every day, do I love her? Well, you're letting her do what she wants, but no, she can't sit around and eat nails. And I'm like, k. Now I just need to stop and apply that to everything in your life right now. And just think about this. Okay? They don't hate you.

They want you to stop eating nails. They want you to stop choosing your own pharaoh or what you want to enslave you. You have the freedom to enslave yourself. That's what we're doing. So the the the whole reason behind that Ben Fuszlong diatribe is sometimes people are gonna look at your love and take it in as as hate. You are privileged to know the difference between… Because you are a follower of Jesus Christ. He tells you what love looks like, and he tells you what hate looks like. And if you're not doing the hate, then you're doing the love, and don't worry about it. People are just people. They're gonna… They don't wanna hear bad things about themselves. Yep. But, also, don't be a jerk. I think that's a given. Mhmm. I feel like it's less of a given than you think. Yeah. A 100%. I I feel like so many Christians that in that instance, like, they're they're just so

fired up and about… And passionate about what they believe that they turn that love into. Yeah. You know, like, you know, look at the, know, the the Southern Baptist who stand on, you know, God hates gays, you know, and picketing things, and it's just… It's… You know, it… That what should be coming from, again, a place of love, it just turns into, oh, you're a rotten piece of junk, and Yeah. God, you know, we we can't stab this. You know, we can't have this. Even god doesn't love you. Yeah. Exactly. You know what mean? It's… And so I'd… And and I think that's because so many or so much

of the the church is just that spiritually immature, you know, because, you know, we… We've had a lot of conversations about this this week, that the church has lost what it means to disciple people. And, you know, and it's… We… And, I mean, I… Yeah. I mean… And that's… That… I think that's just what it is is we're so spiritually immature

as a whole. We don't know how to even show god's love, how to correct people correctly. Here's the deal. So sorry. Didn't mean to No. You're good. You can you can hate the concept of alcoholism. Right? Like, it's a it's a it's a deal, and it's it's it's rough no matter what. And you can take that to say that I'm gonna stand in front of alcohol stores with a sign that says, god hates alcoholics

because alcohol is sin, and you're a terrible blah blah blah because you drink alcohol. Mhmm. Or you could build relationships with people and get to know them to where they recognize that you're a safe place Well, that and that you're bringing something better. That sounds a little too biblical. Well, yeah. You you can you can come at the situation and get to know somebody and become a safe place for them to recognize that they can hand the bottle over to you because you hear them and you know them and you listen to them and you came to where they were and you work through that with them with god's love rather than just showing up and going, man, God hates you because you're an alcoholic. Does God hate the alcoholism? Yes. It's sin. It's idolatry, whatever you wanna call it, but it's not showing up at the place with the sign. It's being the person that the guy can hand the bottle to and go, I need to give this up. Yep. Wow. 100%. Okay. And then there's one more, but it's a pitch to get people to sign up for hegetsus.com. Of course, it is. The

biggest Jesus campaign ever. Hold on. Now I'm interested. Let's see if this is… Look at that. Hegetsus.com/.net. Yeah. Here we go. Don't go it alone is the number six. It's too easy to go it alone as a church leader to think you need to reinvent the wheel, to think you can right the ship by yourself. The problem with going it alone is not only will you fail to be as effective as you could be, but you'll spend far more time having far less impact. Blah blah blah blah blah. If you're looking for more and better resources, the he gets us initiative is an incredibly innovative approach designed to spark a national conversation about the greatest love story ever told. Really? This is five reasons or five ways that we can change our image and a sixth reason to get me some cash. These ads, which have earned… Had garnered 300

plus million YouTube views are designed to invite open… Spiritually open people to reconsider Jesus and maybe even church. There's a $100,000,000 worth of initiative money. You sign up for it. It's part of a campaign. Woah. Now I I don't… I'm not gonna say I don't like this, but I don't like it. Yeah. I'm not gonna say I don't like that. That's why usually avoid his stuff. Wait a minute. The the the tweetable thing for this whole article is good can win. Good will win.

Hey, man. There was recently a Michael Myers movie where they chanted evil dies tonight. That sounds the same as that kind of deal. Goodwill win. Well, what is good? God. The art of church I hate

the art of church growth. Wait. What's what's… A time tested plan to help your church grow again. Time tested by who? The book of acts? By this guy with a tablet? God wrote 66 books, but we've got a couple more. Hey. You forgot the skinny jeans. I hate this. This… I don't have enough bracelets to be at a cool church. I can't do this. What are we talking about? We're talking about churches not to get involved in scandal and misdeeds. I'm gonna tell you right now. You need to stop planning to grow your church. You need to let Jesus bring the problem and the solution. Right? When Jesus shows up with more people that can fit in your in your congregation, Jesus will bring a solution to put them somewhere. Right? He will create another service. He will create another building. He will split off some people to start church somewhere else. You need to let Jesus bring the problem and the solution at the same time. But, Mike, the demons are on the commercial airlines. The demons are on the the flying tube. That's why the good lord has a private jet and a payment on the yacht and the keys. The good lord gave us $38,000,000 for all you good people. Okay. We gotta get we gotta get out of here. This song's running long and windy. Here we go. We're gonna do a dear life from the path, and then we're gonna we're gonna cut a rug. Here we go. Dear… Hold on. Dear life from the path.

Living a boyfriend's house requires dealing with dad. Dear life from the path, I live with my boyfriend and his dad. That makes sense. I moved in two years ago to help them pay bills so they could keep living in the house my boyfriend grew up in, but the situation has become unlivable. My boyfriend's father is rude, racist, and self centered. It doesn't matter what we are struggling. He goes out and spends all his money on guns and fancy dinners for other relatives. Then he complains about how he's broke and has no money to help buy things for the house. He has also raised our rent because he has, quotes, debt to the IRS. Our rent? Oh, jeez. Which has literally nothing to do with me or my boyfriend. We can't talk to him without a big argument breaking out, and I'm at the end of my rope. It's too expensive to move, so please, any help or advice would be much appreciated. It's not too expensive to move. No. It is not and get out. It is not too expensive to a studio apartment

40 miles from the city center wherever you are, you'll pay 600 a month. You're not married. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's true. The the first problem was I moved in with my boyfriend. And his dad. And his dad to help them pay bills, but my boyfriend did not respond by giving me a ring. Can't see how anything's gonna go wrong there. Whoops. Big whoops. How many red flags is that? Man, I lost count. They can't afford any more red flags. The cost to die has gone up. Yeah. We got a real problem here. Leave. Yeah. And here's the thing. It's like she spent… She… She's told the story in a weird way. She's pinned all the problem on the dad. Mhmm. And, like,

one She disagrees with politically. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously. I mean, I don't know if I'd go that far if he's just straight up racist. I don't know if that's disagreeing with somebody politically. From somebody who wants him to be a racist. Maybe he just doesn't Are you saying I wanna be a racist or the the girlfriend does? Well, I'm saying that, like, she has a a list 10 miles long of the things she don't like about him. And so, like, if you really wanna get everybody on your side, tell somebody he's a racist. I mean, true. But, right, there is just as much of a possibility that there's rough stuff, and one of the rough edges is he's racist. Here's the thing. It's like, I… Everybody's forgetting about this boyfriend. Yeah. Their boobs. Yeah. You need to leave. Two years ago to help them pay bills. Right? So, like, your boyfriend's okay with this? Hey. Can you move into this place with me and my dad so we can keep our house?

Yeah. Your your childhood home is also not that important. Right. Like, I get it. Of course. I get it. Memories, all that good stuff. Yeah. Take a picture. Yeah. That's why we have memories. Right? God gave you the gift of remembering something so you wouldn't have to be there all the time. So Like, I'd really like to see my Rhino bike from when I was nine years old again. That'd be cool. But, yeah, like, leave. So you need to leave. If the boyfriend's happy there, let him stay. You can move out. Even if the boyfriend is in the IRS comes back. I mean Yeah. Yeah. You you gotta make a big choice here. Your boyfriend's a boob. His dad's weird and probably a jerk, and that also led to exactly why your boyfriend's a boob. And you made the I love that. Made a bad decision two years ago. Dad's awesome. It is now time. Luckily, you have the opportunity to go, man, the last two years sucked. I'm gonna change it. I want dad to buy me a gun and give me a nice meal. Yeah. Right? He's a nice meal? I feel like that's not really a nice meal. Like, that's… We went to Applebee's. We went to the Benegans. We went to the Applebee's, and we got the two for 20 this time instead of just splitting an appetizer. Boy, how old are these people? 15, 15, and 30. Holy cow. He's rude, racist, self centered, spends all his money on guns and fancy dinners, and then has to up the rent because he owes the IRS money. And, man, the price of guns has gone up. Right? Okay. Yeah. Our our overall advice is… Look, man. Leave. Look, young lady. You need to leave. You need to leave. You should have never gone in two years ago, but it's okay to make the decision now and go, man, this is bad. Yeah. That's right. Nothing's keeping her there. Yeah. You're not still commitment. You're not as stuck as you think you are. Yeah. Yeah. Trust me. You you… There has to be some way for you to get out. You may not be able to live a life of lavish comfort and being able to buy a $38,000,000 jet anytime soon, but you can get a place. It's gonna be crappy if you don't have the kind of money saved up that you should. Yeah. But guess what? Move into a crappy place for six months, then move into a less crappy place. Then move into a less crappy place, and then hopefully someday some dude comes along that loves you right, knows Jesus,

and will help support you in a right way. Yeah. Listen. We don't have to map out your whole life here. You know what We do. You need help. All that really needs to happen is you need to figure out who you are and not be the sole provider of reasonable wisdom for your loser boyfriend and his dad or apparently Dan. It's Rex and Reese. Wait. What? Reese's dad, Rex's boyfriend. Obviously, if she became a missionary and got onto a yacht, she'd be fine. Right. True. She'd be able to pass out books and aid at all times. Okay. Segler says, I hope you now realize that your boyfriend's father isn't going to change. His nature is fully formed. Dude old dog new tricks. Centered racist is who he is. Instead of continuing to buy things for the house, pay the man his rent and start saving for another place to live. If your boyfriend can contribute to that fund, he can move with you. If he's unwilling or unable to do that, leave and find a roommate with whom to share expenses.

And be grateful, very grateful you haven't married into this family and can escape with no entanglements. Move on. The sooner, the better. Yeah. Alright, secular. Okay. We got one more. Do we? It's been a long one. No? Yeah. We got one more. We got two minutes to go. We didn't plan about it. No. You haven't even found it yet. You think we're gonna get it through in two minutes? Schooler finds hard to make friends. No. Yeah. Let's read that.

Here we go. Dear life from the path. My daughter is in eighth grade at a small private school. Problem is she doesn't have any friends. Away from school, she makes friends easy, but around classmates she has known for years, she's quiet and awkward. She isn't invited to parties or other fun activities. She wants to make friends and join in conversations but doesn't know how. I'm no help. I had the same problem at her age. Would you ever same problem now? Her dad and I tell her high school will be easier, but she doesn't want to wait. Do you have something that might help her? Like what? A magic friend button? Oh, hold up. She makes friends outside of school. Yeah. Youth group. So she's not completely without any friends. Right. She just wants to make friends at school. Sorry. I mean, sometimes it's not that easy, but it might come naturally. I don't think there's a magic button. I hate this school. I hate this question right here. Yeah. You were the person that didn't want to make friends in middle school. Only because this is a this is a a law… This is a wrong way to look at helping

your child make friends. It's just it's just not What? Writing into us? Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. Here's… Okay. I mean, obviously, I can only speak from my own experience raising kids, but the truth of the matter is some people… He… If… Sometimes you don't wanna make any friends. Exactly. The friends that are available Oh, boy. Right? It's better if they just shrink you to a corner and not have anything to do with them. Have you met our goat? No. It's pretty cool. You should go hang out with it. And… But second of all, they will find people they will connect with. All your job is as a parent is to make sure they're not the one causing the outrageous amount of trouble. Right? So, like, if they're completely self centered and don't ever wanna do anything that anybody else wants to do on the playground, yeah, no one's gonna wanna hang out with them. Right? They Change your ways. Right? Just… I mean, get to know your kid and find out how they're talking to people. And if it turns out that their social skills are what's causing the problem, help them do better. If it turns out that, like, there's a bunch of jerks that don't wanna be their their friend, then, like, they don't need those kind of friends. They have friends outside of school. They don't have to have a complete friend support system every minute of their day. It's nice, and it is great. And I'd be praying for one. Like… And I would pray that god would answer that question for you, but it's not necessary. Right? Like, people go to work all the time, and their best friend ain't working there. You know? In fact, they don't even like most of those people. They just wanna stamp out the widget and go home. Yes. So, yeah, I I think that's about where we're at. Anybody else got any advice on that subject?

No. I think you hit hit the nail on the head. Yeah. For sure. Secular says, by the time seventh grade rolls around, clicks have usually solidified, and the members are not generous about admitting outsiders. Mhmm. I agree that things will improve when your daughter gets into high school. I don't. As freshmen, everyone starts out on equal footing. Not true. Not true. And because classes are larger and students are funneling in from other schools, there's more opportunity to meet new people, maybe. I speak from experience. Oh, you're also, like, 87. I was included when I moved to a new school in seventh grade back in 1910. The subject of social dexterity has been in my column before because readers of all ages ask about it. It's important to understand that few individuals are born socially adept. It's a skill that must be learned. Part of being social is showing an interest in others. The keys to being liked by both sexes are simple. Be kind, be honest, be tactful, offer a compliment.

I published a booklet called how to be popular for people of all ages. Oh, it's $8. It contains it contains many other useful tips. How to be popular and to make $8 off people? For polishing social skills, you can order one for your daughter by sending your name and address, plus a money order. Alright. Alright. What what would an 85 year old person say you do to be popular? I don't know. Not in bed Going down to the soda shop. Happened yet? Yeah. Yeah. Get some roller skates. If your middle school experience predates Marxism, then you have no right talking to anyone at this point in time. Yeah. Make sure that that you're listening to a show that everybody likes on the talk box.

Get yourself a nice spittle screw. Franz Ferdinand hadn't been shot yet. You have no authority here. I can't speak to this right now. Oh, sweet Moses. Okay. Let's see. Mike, what what do you… What would you say was