Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
Which Human Quality Do You Find the Most Interesting?
Join us this week during a thought-provoking exploration of the unique human qualities that connect us to our Creator. Whatever challenges you face, remember that your dreams, your body's healing, and your spiritual senses all reflect divine design working in your life.
We dive deep into the biblical significance of dreams, examining how figures like Joseph and Daniel received pivotal communications through their nighttime visions. Daniel's apocalyptic dreams, recorded nearly 600 years before Christ, contained remarkable prophecies that would later align with New Testament revelations.
The conversation expands beyond dreams to explore other uniquely human qualities that reflect divine design. We discuss the body's remarkable self-healing mechanisms—how a splinter works its way out, wounds form protective scabs, and cells regenerate without conscious effort. This innate healing ability parallels spiritual restoration and points toward intelligent creation.
We also examine the concept of "spiritual ears"—our capacity to hear God's voice not through physical sound but through inner conviction, scripture, and circumstances. As Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me" (John 10:27). This spiritual hearing requires attunement but allows divine guidance in our daily lives.
Listen.
Speaker 2:I lost my cheat sheet.
Speaker 1:I had this come in here earlier. I'm digging a little. I'm going to be antisocial.
Speaker 3:We are on your cheat sheet for today. Yeah Well, what is the? What did your cheat sheet say? Goodness?
Speaker 1:Oh, it just had the Bible verses on there for.
Speaker 3:For what we're going to talk about, For your unique peculiar.
Speaker 1:I've battled different things and then I threw something. I was talking to Pastor Holly and she threw something out. I'm like that's it Do then.
Speaker 3:So our topic today is what kind of qualities or what type of quality?
Speaker 2:of all the unique human or peculiar human qualities that god has given us, which ones do you find the most interesting or kind of strikes your curiosity?
Speaker 4:oh, you didn't add all of that in your text, and I feel like you stole, you definitely stole the best one, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, I was just driving, I wasn't even thinking about it, wasn't trying to figure out topics, I was just driving and it hit me like boom.
Speaker 4:See, that would have never been good for me, because I don't remember. I'll know that I dreamed, or had a dream but I can never remember anything of that dream.
Speaker 3:It's weird because since you sent that, I've been remembering my dreams and I never do, and I'm like that is weird. Maybe it's just my self-conscious, like hey, I'm over here, I can actually remember. But yeah, for those of you who can't figure, it out.
Speaker 2:I just pulled that one down out of the air. It's like yeah, that's an interesting one it is Because there's a lot of little things that God gives us that you know he doesn't give. I mean, yeah, I guess animals maybe sometimes dream that maybe they're chasing that hot dog, I don't know. Yeah, I went on a whale watching tour.
Speaker 4:While I was up in Massachusetts, we went up to new hampshire and did a whale watching tour. Well, those whales were just, they were chasing those fish. Let me tell you that's cool, that would be fun. I didn't even realize you could do that up there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was real fun so yeah, I saw a dolphin like I've never seen a dolphin that close, you know, when the waves are crashing down, but like that last wave, like at the clear edge of you know, basically on the sand, this dolphin was like hanging out there, just I mean, and it was okay, like it would just swim out and then come. And it was saturday, so it's kind of turnover day for everyone except us, because we went sunday to sunday so the beach was like empty, so I can.
Speaker 4:Well, of course, it's no wonder that, yeah, deciding to do it, you know today we saw a pod of dolphins as well while we were out, and she said they were the Atlantic white dolphins and she said they're very rare to be seen and they give birth in July. So the baby they were like three feet long. Oh my gosh, you know.
Speaker 3:So they were with their mamas, or whatever, they must all give birth around July, because the baby sea turtles were crazy. Where were you at Englewood, so it's kind of by Venice. Sarasota is where we flew into and then we drove like almost an hour south.
Speaker 4:I wondered, when I saw as many shark teeth as you found, if you were near. Venice somewhere.
Speaker 3:I seen those and I'm like, yeah, I'm not getting in that water right. It's crazy too because I had bought a sifter. Because, like the first day I was actually, I was looking for beach glass and I looked down I'm like, oh my gosh, are these shark teeth? Because they were everywhere and I grab. I'm like no way. So I send a picture. In our group chat you know our family chat I said, oh, I'm winning. You know four, four of them. I found tonight like who's next, and so I went and bought a sifter next day or something. But you were better off, like chase and my brother-in-law he was. They were out there sifting through the sand like deep. You were just better off on the beach looking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was crazy but those baby turtles, they, oh my gosh. When last year when I went at clayton and emma yeah where is there?
Speaker 1:I they're like they're near the annamarie annabelle island so when we went out early morning to walk, I always went out early and bennett wanted to go with me and we got out there and I don't know that the people that like watch for the baby yeah, babies, and uh, oh yeah like had me go get his sand there. And I don't know that the people that like watch for the baby yeah, babies, and oh, yeah, like had me go get his sand bucket and showed him how to put them in there and take them to the water and put them in.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so sweet.
Speaker 3:It was so neat yeah, I, I saw a couple girls like every morning. I think it said turtle rescue maybe yeah, that's, yeah, that's usually that yeah yeah, but and the one? Um, I was going to the beach in the morning and the guy said, hey, you want to see something cool, and I turned around and he had found this sea turtle in a car like the carport that we were in, and he was like I gotta, somebody's lights were on they went it went towards the light.
Speaker 3:Yep, and I mean, that was a hefty little you know. Walk for him throughout the night, he's. I'm going to help him and at least get him back onto the sand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because I know anytime I've ever been somewhere where the turtles have laid their eggs, they've always said to make sure your lights were out and not to leave them on at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is where Clayton and Kevin's condo is. They have their outside lights are all red, but they still were coming up around the pool you know. So that's where we were rescuing. It was so cute. There was one that a seagull had and Bennett is chasing it and this poor seagull and he's screaming and yelling. The seagull doesn't know whether to fly or what to do. Finally, he just dropped it. I saved you buddy I saved you.
Speaker 4:Just like Moana, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just like Moana, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean even I'm sure, like the animals have, I don't know like, I see Zara dreaming and stuff, you know, and sometimes I got to shake her. Yeah, my dog does as well. Yeah, so I know they're dreaming, I just don't know what.
Speaker 4:Well, mine always seems like it's a nightmare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's in a nightmare, she's, and she's normally like and I have to, you know, wake her up, to calm her down Hot dogs chasing them, turned on them. So what Bible verses did you find in your dream?
Speaker 2:Well, it's incredible just how much dreams are a part of the Bible. You know they're all throughout the Bible. Part of the bible. Um, I, you know they're all throughout the bible. Probably the most uh one maybe everybody would recognize right off the bat is, of course, an angel comes and tells joseph and asleep. You know, you know, mary's obviously through immaculate conception is yeah gonna have a baby.
Speaker 2:It's not his, and you know he's concerned about what to do because he's he has to think about the customs, what you would normally do in that situation. So an angel of the Lord comes and tells him you know not to be afraid, and this is what's going to happen, and so probably everybody is most familiar with that one. But when you start digging into it.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a lot of scripture that has to do with visions and dreams and you know, there's Joseph and a lot of times it's these, these kings, these emperors, these leaders. They have dreams and they want they always want somebody to interpret those dreams. So normally they bring in a magician. You know black magic mm-hmm you know they bring in all these. You know black magic.
Speaker 2:You know, they bring in all these other people witchcraft you know, all this kind of stuff to bring him in and try to interpret their dream. And Joseph, he's brought in because, well, nobody can interpret the dream, you know, and the King's getting mad, and you know. So Joseph is as you know, you know he was sold into slavery by his brothers, um, and so he's, he's brought in, uh, to interpret his dreams. But Joseph makes it very clear that, you know, this is not how I interpret, this does not come from me, it comes from God.
Speaker 2:So he's interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams the way, the way he is getting it from God, not just some random you know, maybe I, you know, I don't know what the magician's approach was, I don't know how they came to their conclusions, but I'm sure maybe they did spells and you know, it was a big, you know spectacle.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. So maybe it was more like entertainment. You know to interpret these dreams, but you know, joseph's actually trying to give him a vision. I remember this from, just from memory. But the Pharaoh, he sees visions like seven of this, like he sees seven good grains of wheat and seven bad grains of wheat, something like that. And he you know, and he wants to know what that means. And of course Joseph will tell him well, there's going to be seven good years, that that your kingdom is going to have, and it's going to be followed up by seven years of famine.
Speaker 2:So he's saying, like, use those seven years to get ready you know, and then your people, the people of egypt, will survive this if they prepare well, if they look to god, ask for mercy. And then when those seven you, you will suffer through that, you know, know, seven years of famine, but you'll come out, you'll come out all right. So he's, he's foretelling that and of course. But it all works.
Speaker 2:Yes, it does work to Joseph's advantage because of course his brothers will come to Egypt because they're suffering from the famine, and so they go to Egypt looking for, you know, they go there because the father tells them we'll go there, get some food so we won't die. So of course he sends his you know, the other sons out, all Joseph's brothers, sends them into Egypt to go get the food. And, long story short, that's where, you know, joseph of course recognizes his brothers, the brothers don't recognize him, and he puts them through all these tests so that in the end, you know, they'll come to I don't know if it's more or less they'll come to realize what they have done. They'll kind of realize that and Joseph, in a sense, is, he's getting justice, but he's also showing forgiveness and by the end of it, you know, he's hugging his brothers and of course his youngest brother, benjamin, he's hugging him. So not only does it work well for Egypt, but things come full circle for Joseph as well.
Speaker 2:So you know, god's work resolves itself with Joseph and the things that he went through, because of course, like I said, he's sold into slavery but then somehow he becomes one of the Pharaoh's favorites and then he has that redemption, he has that chance to look his brothers face to face again and resolve that situation. But I would say, if there's one book of dreams, I would say it's a book of Daniel of dreams. I would say it's a book of daniel, because most of the book of daniel deals with dreams, and a lot of the dreams and visions that he will have we will see in revelation. So he's, he's. I don't know if he's the first to chronicle the vision to the revelation, but it's pretty early on. This is like in five, somewhere between 593 and 538 before Christ.
Speaker 3:I never realized that.
Speaker 2:He's because, again, daniel is being asked to come in and interpret dreams. Come in and interpret dreams, and so he'll come in, and and again, he has the same philosophy as joseph. That you know divisions, that I tell you, and the interpretation I give you is through god, it's not through me you know it's not through a magician, it's not through some spectacle.
Speaker 2:so, uh, daniel will actually predict, um, some of the things that people will write later on in Revelation, and a lot of it he actually says throughout the book. He says he has all these visions of these creatures, you know, and the descriptions he gives of the creatures are almost the same kind of thing that will be described in Revelation. And he says, yeah, he goes, all these visions and everything scares me. It haunts him, it troubles him, and he doesn't even quite know exactly what he's seeing or what it's supposed to mean.
Speaker 2:But he does get very, very specific in a couple of them, and I think this is it's like a Daniel. Let's see Daniel 7, let's see if I can get this right 7, 13. It's in one of the visions he has. He says that, like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, he approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. So later on you will hear Jesus say you will see the son of man coming out of the clouds. So he pretty much describes exactly what will happen when Jesus comes back to earth.
Speaker 2:He's foreseeing that, but he's also foreseeing a lot of the scary stuff. He's seeing the four beasts and of course, they represent four kingdoms, and one of those represent four kingdoms, and you know one of those kingdoms is Rome. You know all the powerful kingdoms that these creatures represent. He's basically saying well, you know they will pass away.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:so he's, he's foretelling almost through the whole book until and it's kind of funny because the first time, the first time that he interprets the dream, the king will say well, we okay. He's, he's astounded and he's taken to his knees over it and he's, and it's, it's like he's, he's accepting God because of what Daniel has told him. But then immediately he goes and creates that image of gold, which I don't know if it's an image of him, but he wants people to worship this image of gold, the statue, and so it's almost like he's going back on what he first, on what Daniel had showed him he goes to honor himself instead of honoring God.
Speaker 2:And, of course, that's when the three men which I can never remember their names Shadrachach, meshach, yeah, uh, they'll, they'll throw them in the furnace because they refuse to worship you know the image of gold and all the things that the king wants them to do.
Speaker 2:So they throw him, so he throws them in the furnace, and again it's after that he sees that they survive that that once again. Then he's like oh my gosh, you know, now we could. We can only worship the god that shadrach and meshach and uh abe, I'll just call him abe, because I can't pronounce it abednego.
Speaker 2:Yes so it's like so it take the first time, doesn't take, yeah, so he goes whatever yeah, so he goes through all that again and then when he sees that you know, uh, their example, then he's willing to you know. Finally, say God today, worship is the one that we should be bowing down to. So, yeah, I don't know, maybe he had to see it for himself.
Speaker 3:Probably. You know one of those again it's like you don't see something you don't believe in something until you see it, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, if you read the whole book of Daniel I mean most of it it's not that very long of a book, but most of it he's having these visions, he's having these dreams and he's interpreting all these things and he's predicting what's going to happen down the road in Revelations. So if you think about it, we can have lots of crazy dreams and I think it's still a mystery as to exactly what they are, why we have them. I mean, I could look at most of my dreams and be like what was that?
Speaker 3:all about.
Speaker 2:It seems like it'll take different parts of your life and put them all together in a mixing bowl and just yes. Yeah, you know and yeah, a lot of times they don't make sense, but once a while you get one that'll kind of shake you and make you think a little bit. And um, so are men having the types of visions and dreams that certain men had in the bible? I don't know. Uh, they it does say that Daniel a lot of time. When he was having these visions he was into his 70s.
Speaker 3:That's interesting.
Speaker 2:But so is there wisdom. Can you find wisdom in your dreams? Can God bring you wisdom in your dreams? I'm sure that he can.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If he's done it before, I'm sure that he can. But I think it's the simple thing that dreams have always been from the Bible to. I know Shakespeare was big on dreams in his writings. Abraham Lincoln very much believed in the meaning of dreams. In fact he saw his own death in a dream. I think I've heard of that. So yeah, he saw his own death in a dream.
Speaker 3:I think I've heard of that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, he saw his own death and he said he actually walked into the East Room of the White House and saw. I don't know if he actually saw himself in the coffin, but he asked like who's dead in the White House? And he says the president, he's been killed by an assassin. And it wasn't a few weeks later.
Speaker 3:That didn't happen. He was dead.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so I mean it's a huge mystery, but I think it's something that's very peculiar, very unique for humans and everybody. They can all have the same effect on people. They can all have the same effect on people you know, but God only knows what you know if everybody has a true purpose when they dream. I don't know, it's a mystery, but I think that's probably one of the coolest things, because everybody does it. It's not right, right Just the chosen people or, you know, everybody from every walk of life has dreams.
Speaker 3:And then, even if you think even deeper into it, like it. You know you can only dream when you're in REM sleep and this and that all the all the things that have to align, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, I can remember a few.
Speaker 3:Probably about a year and a half ago, my mom was like because my grandma's been gone for like three and a half years now, yeah, and she was like you know, I've really been missing mom. And she said but I've been praying that she would, you know. You know, just come to me in my sleep and she's like, I kept praying it and praying it and it happened like the other night so I mean yeah even something like that.
Speaker 2:You know, like I don't get that once in a while I'll get you know, I'll get one of my parents in my dreams once in a while, because they're both gone.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and memories, memory itself is, I think, in part maybe linked to dreams, somehow.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because it's a lot of times your memories will.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Crop up in your dreams and I think, like with my parents. Parents, I think the first thing to go as far as memory and all that is their voice. For some reason, it's getting harder and harder to remember their voice yeah but then you will have a dream, or you will have a memory, yeah, and when you do it, it brings it right back, and then you remember it again yeah but so it's yeah it's strange.
Speaker 2:It's a strange thing, but yeah, the Bible is. I mean, it takes us forever to get through all of the different instances where the dreams actually come up in the Bible and they seem to all have. They seem to all have a purpose. Yeah, they seem to all have a purpose, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, am I wrong in saying a lot of Paul's letters, like Revelation, was his dreams. Some of them they had to have been.
Speaker 2:I know they had to be visions they had to be. I can't see it really.
Speaker 3:That's the way I've always looked at it.
Speaker 2:Unless God actually came down and showed it to him, right, I? Mean unless God actually came down and showed it to him Right. I would have to think it was something very similar to. But then you always wonder, you know, does he have access to Daniel's scripture?
Speaker 3:Oh, does Paul you're saying?
Speaker 2:Does he already have access?
Speaker 3:to.
Speaker 2:Daniel's story in the scripture.
Speaker 3:Well, because.
Speaker 2:I guess Daniel wrote it.
Speaker 3:Historically? Do you know where they were Like? Were they close or not? Historically? Well, daniel would have been like.
Speaker 2:I said Paul was a disciple of Christ.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:He's with Christ where Daniel is five.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:Almost 600 years before.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So he's well before so but even possible, but even like geographically a lot of the folk tales and things they do live on to the next generations, but would have to be kind of local. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah and yeah I guess the question would be is when, when, when do people start discovering the scriptures?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean you hear Jesus talk about things that have happened before him.
Speaker 1:That are in scripture.
Speaker 2:So he had that knowledge.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:I don't know if he just had that knowledge, because Because he was.
Speaker 1:Of who he was Right Son of God. Because of who?
Speaker 2:he was or you did have access to that and I do. I don't know. I think in the Chosen isn't there an episode where he goes I don't know if he goes into a synagogue or somewhere and they ask him to read the old Hebrew text.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'd have to go back and watch the episode again. So maybe they did, maybe they did have already access to these early books and they were able to draw from that and perhaps that's to draw from that, and perhaps that's paul drew from that and then perhaps he he had visions of his own, that kind of added to that, to that story.
Speaker 2:I mean just like any other historian would do, or right you know you, you take what you've, you know what you have and you build on it, and then you try to learn more about it and discover new things. And, of course, if God's speaking to Paul and yeah you're he'll, he'll be able to build off of those things. So but uh, yeah, I don't know I would think if I dreamed some of the things that Daniel dreamed and Paul dreams?
Speaker 2:uh, I'd be like what? What did I have to eat for supper? You know like well, I'm not going to eat that again you know, because there's some wild stuff. Wild stuff and, uh, you know, I always thought I don't know if has an. Has there ever been an artist that has, like you know, read these scriptures of say what Daniel dreamed of? What? Paul dreamed the revelations actually tried to draw these creatures and draw to look into that, because I mean that'd be something in itself because they're really descriptive.
Speaker 4:That book that I brought in that I found of my mom's, that was given to my grandparents years ago. There's some descriptive pictures in there of the stuff that you would see in Revelation. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just asking do you think has an artist ever depicted the things that Daniel dreams in Revelation? I, just I'm gonna have to look into that. Yeah, that's like I said I told him. I said if I was dreaming that stuff, I'd be like what the heck did I have for dinner last night? Yeah, you know, like I had some wild stuff that they you know, some visions that are just like.
Speaker 4:And then have you ever had like a recurring dream?
Speaker 2:Yes, you continue to have the same dream?
Speaker 4:Yeah, like what is the meaning of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think maybe the one that everybody has is you know, all of a sudden you're back in school, but you're alone in the hallway and you can't find anybody. You can't find your room.
Speaker 3:Oh really, I've never had that either.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you're almost naked.
Speaker 4:You know, you're like you never had that dream. I always have the dream like something's after me, but then I can't. I have no speech, I can't scream, I can't.
Speaker 3:Mine is specifically like that, but it's, I'm in like a sewer. Maybe that's why I'm married to a plumber, I don't know. It saves me. I'm talking. I can remember having this dream when I was like nine years old. Yeah, and it happens less frequently now. I haven't had one like that in years, but it's almost like I'm drowning, but it's like it's not really sewer, it's just like I'm in the sewer pipes, almost like, yeah, when you're in the, that little movie flushed away or like I don't know, and it's just bizarre and I just like where does this come from? You know, I think I might have even looked it up one day. I'm like this is, this has no relevance because, yeah, my friend would. She would remember like all of her dreams, like every single night, and she would always look them up.
Speaker 4:and no, you know it's very rare that I remember any of my dreams. Now I will remember, like if I wake up, if I've been dreaming about my mom, it's like I had that instant. Oh yeah, you know, mom visited, but other than that, yeah there's no remembrance of what the dream was about.
Speaker 2:Yeah I used to dream a lot that I could fly.
Speaker 3:But it was kind of funny because like with wings no, just kind of superman style yeah, just like from your feet, like super yep or.
Speaker 2:But there's one thing it would cost. This is so stupid, but the one thing it would recur is I would have to find an empty tin can and when I picked up the empty tin can I could fly that was your superpower yeah. So I don't know, maybe I mixed like popeye and superman right yeah, but I haven't had that one a long time. But yeah, I used to have that one quite a bit, huh yeah, so well, what do you guys have?
Speaker 4:go ahead, go ahead. Well, I was on vacation when you sent this text out me too.
Speaker 2:I wasn't like, by the way, I'm like nobody's answering me. I'm like, boy, this is a dud.
Speaker 4:Well, apparently this one, the crickets I'm like oh well, I'm on vacation and I really hadn't same.
Speaker 4:But listen, while I was there, I got a splinter in my index finger and I thought how strange, and the only thing. So I took this very personal not, um, but, and being in the medical field, I think that's just all god that just kept bringing to me how he created the body? Ah, to heal itself. Now, even though you can't specifically find scripture that says god created our body with the ability to heal itself, yeah, but there's many scriptures that correlate how God is our healer, uh-huh, uh-huh. But when I got that splinter, which I didn't even know, I got it when I got it, until it festered up and started to push itself out, yes, so there, in turn, came the oh, god created our body to get rid of things yep, yep that we don't need so specifically, even like cooper, I just noticed his little feet are peeling for the first time and I'm like, oh my, and how often does that happen?
Speaker 3:our dead cells, yes, slough off. Yeah, how, how you know?
Speaker 4:yeah, it happens pretty, we scrape our knee and it scabs over and it heals under there, and you know. But nowadays nobody wants to scab on anything. You know you go to the wound clinic and it gets debrided. But you know, anything that can be debrided will be debrided. But we all healed as children.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly our body made a scab, put a little dirt on them ones where you'd wreck your bike and you'd get all the little pebbles oh, yeah, yeah and it would scab up and you'd be digging them little.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I still have a star on my kneecap.
Speaker 4:So then you know. So then it made me also think. You know that, working in the medical field for 40 plus years, even before I was truly a Christian, before I had accepted Christ, all of my medical profession when people got a grim diagnosis or bad news from the doctor, you know, and they would want to talk to you when you went in you were the person who sat there and listened to them. But I would always say you know, we have to walk by faith, not by sight. Do you believe in a higher power? Do you believe in God and Jesus Christ?
Speaker 4:You know, yeah, that doctor might have said you've got six to eight weeks to live, but if you've got support and you can get your mindset to a positive mindset and you can look towards Christ, you know I've taken care of people that had that six to eight weeks diagnosis. That you know this is you're out, you're going to had that six to eight weeks diagnosis. That you know this is you're out, you're going to die within six to eight weeks and nine years later they're still here where they went into remission or you know whatever. But of course, the walk by faith and not by sight is in second corinthians 5, 7, but um yeah, they told my mom she had eight to 12 months, something in that time frame.
Speaker 2:She went for 15 years.
Speaker 3:That was kind of like Aunt Tanya. I think they gave her mom a year and she went 17. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I can. You know, and I'll be honest, you know my mom always I mean she always believed in Jesus. I mean that's one thing she always told me is no matter what you do, never turn your back on Jesus. But she wasn't always strong, you know she struggled with it a lot yeah, just a fear, I think in itself, yeah, you know, maybe, sure you know, uh would would cause her to have a lot of, you know, emotional problems that dealt from from that diagnosis right, a lot of anxiety around that.
Speaker 2:Sure, the unknown, yeah, yeah but again, I think you know god had her covered right because of her faith, even when she was scared, even when she did things. Maybe you look at her and go well, your face not very strong, but she'd always be that person where faith of a mustard seed yep, you'd always think like this, is it like she's done?
Speaker 2:yeah she's gonna give up and you give her a day she'd go off by she'd go in her bedroom by herself and she'd come out the next day like I'm not ready, I'm not done yet, right, you know?
Speaker 4:and sometimes just the people we surround ourselves. Oh, yeah, you know, like those of us who attend a church or we have a church family, you know it'll say go before your elders and be be anointed with oil. Have them pray over you and anoint you with oil.
Speaker 4:You know, and I mean I know, here in the United States we spend billions of dollars on scientific research, you know, to find better medicines or how to heal something, or how to come up with that solution of how we're going to make everything better. But I mean, in my 42 plus years I truly can say that those who had more or did claim to be Christian or have that faith, had better outcomes. Then and same with, when you're laying on your deathbed, those who were Christians, you could just see the peace, the peace on their face. Mm-hmm, he was in torment and literally he was reliving every terrible thing that he did. He would speak it out loud. He was like hitting at the air, stomping his feet, you know, but when you know to us, you, he looked like he was unconscious but he would be talking about all of these things that he had done and he was very tormented for 12 days. It was like he was just reliving from young teens to his current life.
Speaker 2:In those 12 days wow yeah it was, it was something yeah, but um well, the main thing is, it doesn't you know if you're covered under christ. It's his outcome. So it doesn't matter what diagnosis you have, it doesn't doesn. What diagnosis you have, it doesn't matter, you're going to go in his time regardless. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4:I wanted a convertible. So bad when I was young. I wanted to buy a convertible when I was 16 and my parents wouldn't let me. My dad insisted I buy that Chevy Cavalier. I wanted that Ford Mustang convertible so bad.
Speaker 1:Did that Cavalier run a long time? Oh it certainly did.
Speaker 4:It certainly did. But you know, I always say, when it's my time, it's my time. You know, whether I'm in that convertible or I'm in that Cavalier, or I'm in the air or wherever, when God's ready for me, it's my time. Yeah, yeah, you know. But you know, and Jesus Christ, he, you know. God created people to be physicians and doctors and and whatever. But the Hebrew word for healer is Jehovah Rapha, you know, and it means the Lord who heals. So but, and then there are several references six, six of them maybe where you know it says that Jesus will heal us or he will tell us. Maybe where it says that Jesus will heal us or he will tell us he'll come to us and tell us what to do, how to heal your. I think one of the scriptures is somebody needed boils healed and he told them to take the figs or the fig leaves and put it on the skin and it healed the boils. But there are a few scriptures that talk about God's healing, but honestly, nick, that was the only thing that came to me.
Speaker 4:I could not think I was only asking for one, I just yeah, yeah, but it was very personal for me for some reason, just so, but honestly, that was very good.
Speaker 1:Definitely, god is our healer. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yep, so Very good.
Speaker 1:Beth. Well, I danced around with that one in the beginning. Yeah, I wonder why, right and uh. Then I thought I couldn't really find anything that I was happy with with verses. Then I thought, well, you know, god gave us free will and I looked up I couldn't find any, really find any verses there either, and I thought, oh, that could get into some arguments because there's a lot of different opinions on that. So I was talking to Holly about it. She's like yeah, but what about your natural ears and your spiritual ears?
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that's a good one, yeah, yeah. So you know, in our natural ears we hear everything, and when we are attuned to God. You have our spiritual ears on. We can hear His voice. I think it was in John 10, 27. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I mean, he knows our voice and we know His. How many times have we prayed about things and we do?
Speaker 2:hear his voice.
Speaker 3:I mean whether we hear it in our heart or our mind right still, we have to have be tuned in yeah, and sometimes, like it won't always be your ears, sometimes it'll be your heart hearing it.
Speaker 2:Instead it goes back to our topic we had a few weeks ago you know, between hearing the word and receiving it completely different things all the time. So yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean like when, with Moses in the burning bush you know yeah Was, you know God wasn't visible. No, he spoke to him you know whether it was his spiritual ears hearing that.
Speaker 4:I'm sure it wasn't his actual years, cause all the chaos that was going on not to change the subject, but you know there's even scientific research that just listening, listening to amazing grace, can heal the heart and then like um, I always get a mixed up with elijah Elisha.
Speaker 1:Elijah that went, went hid in the cave and, uh, you know, god called out to him. You know where are you at. God knew where he was. Yeah, right.
Speaker 3:Exactly Right. He just wanted to hear yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know what?
Speaker 1:I read that one on Adam and Eve because I thought I would use that. But then I thought you know what? Did they actually see God? Because he walked with them. It said that he walked with them, so did they actually get to see him?
Speaker 2:You know, I think when he asked that question, like you said, he knows where they are. Oh yeah, absolutely, he's all knowing, but he wants them to recognize, because perhaps, caught up in the moment of whatever they're doing, you don't realize where you are, you don't realize the things you're doing wrong, you don't realize that you're going down a path maybe you shouldn't be going down until God makes you recognize it. So he's asking them to what are you doing? Where are you, so that you will answer?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think it's when you answer that you go oh yeah, what am I? Doing Because until you answer God, you know you don't think about what you're doing. I think we all do that, you know we, you know, every, every day, you can find yourself in a situation where, like well, I didn't handle that. Very well, find yourself in a situation where you're like well, I didn't handle that very well.
Speaker 2:You know I could have done that differently and you think, okay, why? Well, because I wasn't talking to God, I didn't ask him first. I had no, you know, I did not seek his counsel at all in what I just did.
Speaker 2:And until you actually come face to it and say, okay, where am I, what am I doing, why have I done it, you'll probably just keep on going down that road. Yeah for sure you know so. I think that's why God does that. He asks us questions and if we're wise enough to listen, we'll answer it ourselves. And then that's. I think, when you hear God, it's like oh yeah, I know the answer. You know, everybody knows the right answer to the question, but sometimes it's just we're not prepared to listen.
Speaker 2:We're not prepared to do it. We're not prepared to answer it, Right? So yeah, when he's in the cave, it's like, well, yeah, I know you're in a cave. Right, but do you know you're in a cave? Right, because sometimes you can say you don't know you're where you're at right.
Speaker 4:You know it's metaphorical. You think like yeah was.
Speaker 2:He was actually in a cave, maybe who knows? Maybe not, but that's true, your soul's in a cave right because you can't get out. You, just you.
Speaker 4:You've created this dark space for yourself yeah, yeah, whether it's depression or yeah, and you see no light, so you have no.
Speaker 2:Uh, which way to turn until God asks you to like look, just reach above your head. There's a little string there. You can turn the light on.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's all it takes, but until you're willing to like raise your hand, feel around up there and actually turn the light on which is looking to God Exactly. You can't, you won't do it. You'll just keep going around in circles in the dark trying to find your way out. Yeah, Simple as that.
Speaker 1:I have one in Revelations. It said Revelation 3, 22. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches, Not just what he is saying to us. Not just the churches and not just what he is saying to us not just the churches.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think a lot of the times when it talks about the churches you can almost cross that out and say to to the people you know to us like yeah, yeah, I think I think a lot of not necessarily historians, but a lot like I was just talking to my brother-in-law and he said his, um, he's worried.
Speaker 3:His dad is more focused on, like, not his relationship with god, but more of just like, the articles of the old testament and just all these historical things, and I don't know where I was getting with this. But I mean, what was okay, you, what did you just say, nick, that I was piggybacking off of?
Speaker 2:Hearing the word and receiving the word.
Speaker 3:It was after that Darn it, darn it, darn it, darn it, darn it. It might not have been for such a time as this.
Speaker 2:Right, maybe it was. I think I know what you're getting at. Yeah, are you trying to say like, yeah, he's interested in God, he's interested in the history of everything that's going on, but you're not so interested? Maybe it's like Beth what were you
Speaker 3:just Anybody can read.
Speaker 2:Anybody can read a book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, listening to the spirit, the church, when he's telling.
Speaker 4:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:The churches. But, a lot of time the churches are referencing.
Speaker 3:Yes, it'd be referencing people yeah, and I think a lot of the times, like in the new testament, when they talk about the churches or you know the set, is it the seven churches or the four churches? Seven, seven, that's what I thought. I think a lot of people just read it as the seven church, not a lot of people, but I think a lot of the ones that are focused more on what the Bible says but not the relationship with God and Jesus, if that makes sense. I think they are kind of missing the big picture of, okay, you know, yes, it could, it could be those actual seven churches or those seven you know, but it could also be something else and you need to have an open mind on that and, better yet, go to God for reflection and everything else, just to verify that you are indeed, you know, with a good heart with him and I don't know, he just seemed very troubled with his dad because his dad also just had his mom pass away from cancer. So he's kind of been, you know, just not lost.
Speaker 3:But second question you know second guessing and everything, and he's like I just, you know he's kind of diving deep into all the Old Testament articles, and I mean to Enoch, the book of Enoch. You know, like that's, that is my, uh, my nephew's name and it comes from because the, you know, the grandpa was so just focused on this one article and all these things and I'm like, well, okay, but I'm like, but where's the relationship? You know, I don't know. So, yeah, but maybe it will come and I hope it does?
Speaker 2:I really do. I think Americans have the same problem sometimes. Oh yeah, like we all could read the Declaration of Independence. We all could read the Gettysburg Address. We could all read, you know, and some people were just reading them. Yeah, that sounds nice.
Speaker 3:But they don't even, but you don't take it in you don't absorb it, you don't think about what it means.
Speaker 2:Today, Like when people read the Gettysburg Address, they're like oh yeah, Abraham Lincoln, he gave that speech at Gettysburg in 1863. It's history, Whoop-dee-doo. But if you really dive deep into that you can see how Lincoln was not only writing it for his people at the time, but he was writing it for all time, all the time. But he was writing it for all time so that we would all recognize how we got to this point in our history where we're killing each other and where we need to go, so we never end up in that spot again, again, yes.
Speaker 2:And so it's for all time, and I think that's the thing with the Bible. You can't just read it as history, which I love, the history of it too, I find it very interesting, but it's still alive. But it's still alive, but it's still alive. There's still much to learn from it and, like you said, you're supposed to come out of it to where, and if you read enough of the Bible, it'll tell you anyhow you're supposed to form that relationship with.
Speaker 2:God Right right, it's not just something. It's not a history lesson. Yeah, it's not a multiple choice A, b, c and D. Yeah, just you know an answer. It's no. You're building relationship based on that knowledge that God is giving you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. I just think the way he looks at it is when he comes to face with God. He's almost like, oh, like an exam at the end of it.
Speaker 2:You know like oh, what did you get from this book? What'd you get from?
Speaker 3:Daniel's book.
Speaker 4:And I of it, you know like oh right, yeah there's gonna be like what'd you get from this book, what'd you get from daniel's book? And I'm like I don't know if that's all. Yeah, when you get to heaven, there's gonna be an exam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm in trouble because I'm a terrible test taker, but that's not.
Speaker 3:That's not what's gonna happen it's crazy that I took it that route, because my the thing I was thinking of was like spiritual hunger, and it's crazy I even said that because now it's leading into that. I think, I think it's crazy that, like when you're so on fire when you first you know.
Speaker 4:When you first are saved, when you first accept Christ.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you know, and then we've all talked about it, how it, how you just die or the church dot not die, but you fall asleep, you know, and you just you're on autopilot or whatever mode you're going to be on and just sift your way through life. I'm like, oh well, he's, he's back there, but I don't know if I'm going to pick up my bible.
Speaker 4:Listen my granddaughter's 10 and a half. Sorry to interrupt, no, yeah, but so when I got up there every night, every night at bedtime, she had questions for me.
Speaker 4:Oh, you because she has really enjoyed coming to church with me, the few times that she's here, and so she wanted to know you know, how did you become a Christian and what was sin, and you know, when should you pray? How should you pray? You know she was asking me all of those questions every night. So about the third night she's like so okay, grandma, I want to learn how to become a Christian. So so we went through the steps. I just did the simple ABCs with her and so at the end I said to her so now, so where is you know, where is Jesus? You know? She's like well, grandma, he's in my heart. I'm like, oh, okay, so she's on the right page, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So I said, well, while I'm up here, I said we'll find a Christian bookstore and we'll go get you a Bible. So I Googled, like the local Christian bookstore and it was up in New Hampshire. So we drove over to New Hampshire, which is only a couple miles from my son's house, but so we went over there and got in that bookstore and there's like hardly any books. Lots of decorative pictures, jewelry, the cards. I'm like, where's all the Bibles?
Speaker 2:Looking around the storeibles, looking around the store, looking around to find a book in a bookstore nowadays, you know and and I'm like.
Speaker 4:So I finally just went to the, the staff, and I said I'm trying to find. I said my, my granddaughter's only 10 and a half, but she's an avid reader, she's very smart. I said I want a teen, a teen bible for her. I said, but where are your bibles? Yeah, yeah and um. And I said, and she said something to me about like well, where are you from? And I said, well, I'm from Ohio, I'm up here visiting. And I said you know, my Christian bookstore has a huge selection of Bibles, teen Bibles, king James, new International, whatever. And she's like, well, up here in theland states, christianity isn't a big thing. They had four, four bibles, four bibles all together. Not even like, no, no, teen, teen bibles, four bibles for me to choose from, to get lily, a bible. But and it was like a christian, oh, it was a christian bookstore. Huh, yeah, I mean, and I couldn't find the bibles I'm walking to and I couldn't like where are your bibles? So I had four bibles to choose from, but we found her one.
Speaker 4:So, and a little devotion, yeah that's odd, but yeah, she's like uh, christianity up here, faith isn't a big thing up here in the new england states.
Speaker 2:She said wow, that kind of surprises me really.
Speaker 3:I know that's what I was thinking, me too.
Speaker 2:That was kind of the heart of it in the beginning.
Speaker 4:Exactly yes, delaware and Boston area, you know? Yeah, I was shocked.
Speaker 2:Okay, hmm.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay Side note no, no, no Sorry.
Speaker 3:But some of the scriptures for spiritual hunger Matthew 5, 6,. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Psalm 63, 1,. My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land. There's a song like that, isn't there? Say it again my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, in a dry and weary land yeah, a lot of our hymns are obviously scripture, yeah, but then, um, I was also thinking like, okay, so whenever we do backslide, but then, you know, end up on the right track again. You know you're doing your time, you're not your time. You know you're forming that relationship, you're making it deeper and you know what makes you want to be better. You know be a better Christian. And I think, like serving you, you know, like just serving in the church in general, like yeah, not even in the church just serving god.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in general, you know, let's just talk about this for a sec. I was going to bring it up the beginning. Yeah, you know, ozzy osbourne passed away yesterday and one of the biggest questions what was he a christian? And of course you can look at his image and you can be like certainly not, there's no way.
Speaker 4:But we don't know we don't Nope Right.
Speaker 2:But I think sometimes that's the problem. We don't know. You know, he may have been in his own little personal relationship. He may never have talked about it. Yeah, I've seen him playing in times. He wears crosses and stuff like that, but his nickname's the Prince of Darkness, so he has that stage persona. But we don't know what really went on in his private life, what he really felt.
Speaker 2:But, sometimes I think that's the problem is we don't know, because that person never made an attempt to serve God publicly. To go out of your way to serve God and not so everybody will see that you're doing it, yeah, but just because that's what's in your heart to do. So that's that's what I always think when somebody passes away. If you have to say I don't know, that's a shame I mean that for that person, you've lost that opportunity in this world to share God's love.
Speaker 3:Especially the platform he had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so you've lost that opportunity. You can't get it back Now. Is that a deal breaker that you don't get to heaven because you didn't do that? I don't know, but to me, the older I get, I see how much more important it is to be doing it yes.
Speaker 2:You know, even because I always say I don't care what my faults are, I don't care how much backsliding I've done, I don't care if I cuss my coworker out today, I don't care if you know, whatever I've done today, I'm still going to serve the Lord. I'm not going to stop because I'm not perfect.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:Or because there's things I can't quite figure out. Nothing's going to get in the way still of at least serving the Lord and preaching his name and making sure people know about Jesus Christ. That's the whole key to me, especially as I get older. That's just, that's how I, that's how I'm going about it yeah. I don't think. You know, you don't go. Well, I got to wait till I'm perfect before I can get on a podcast. Start talking about.
Speaker 3:Jesus.
Speaker 2:Christ no, nope, completely wrong.
Speaker 3:Yep Right.
Speaker 2:And I think it goes back to what the Bible says about David, as he was after God's own heart. I think that's the mission. Yeah, as a person, that's what be after God's heart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Forming that relationship with him, trying to see like okay how can I see myself in God?
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, if you can, you know you can get the little scales out and be like, okay, you know what's all the ways that I can see myself in God If you put the checker in great, you know. But then you can put the checkers in. Okay, what faults do I have? What do I need to work on? That I haven't gotten yet, but I think if you've got enough checkers in there to where you were, you know you're serving the Lord, you're doing those things. I think you're doing pretty well, yeah.
Speaker 2:And sometimes that's all we can hope for is just to have that mission that you know. Yep, it doesn't matter, you know I didn't get the Mustang convertible but, I'm still working for God. It's not just. You know you're not going to wait until you don't wait until you get a blessing that you've been waiting for to start serving Him.
Speaker 2:You don't do it that way. It's just like you do it in spite of everything else. You continue to do it and that's like I said. That's the best I think you can do as a human being. I don't nobody wants to leave this world and say, well, you know, I don't know, I don't know how he felt about it. You know, that's to me the great shame. It's just like if you have to question yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:You know, not that. Yeah. Well, he said he was a christian but he did this. He did that. Okay, yeah, but I I think if somebody has um went out of their way to, to speak the word to, to spread the word, share it yes to spread his name, then you've done something.
Speaker 2:Doesn't matter to me whatever else you've done, you you've done your part for the kingdom, yeah, and if you've done that with good intentions, you know, seeking god's heart, just as david did, because we all know. I'd actually like to get into david's story a little bit because that's a very complicated story. Um, I can kind of relate to his story a little bit um, but he never stopped working for god, despite all his faults right and god never gave up on him.
Speaker 2:God still used him, and so that's what I think is important, and what you're talking about is, you know, that's where it comes from. It comes from, you know, seeking God. Yes, not just going through the motions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, putting a check in the box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, making sure everybody saw that you went to church on Sunday.
Speaker 1:Right, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the thing you know. Yeah, I think a lot of times it's just like well, as long as everybody knows that I went to church, on Sunday. Doesn't mean anything to God. Nope, because you might miss next Sunday and the Sunday after.
Speaker 1:Then you might roll for two months before you miss again yeah that has nothing to do with anything right, you could be sitting in church and still miss. Yeah, yeah, you could be daydreaming, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could be daydreaming, yeah sleeping.
Speaker 3:Yes, and the pastor would know about it. That's happened yeah, I just like I said, the older I get, I think it's the work that you do yeah that's the most important now I gotta ask about ozzy and good works, you know, versus yeah, uh, go ahead did the 190 million that he had raised for parkinson's. It's like, yeah, that's good works yeah but it doesn't mean you're gonna go to heaven no, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:I mean, and you know, and that's where you know we have a. You know, kindness is a big thing in our society today. Is everybody needs to be kind and I'm just like, yep, that's true, nothing wrong with that? No, no, but you better learn the origin, where it comes from exactly because I always say look to the bible, look at history. Before jesus comes along. There is not much kindness happening anywhere, I don't care where you are, whether it's rome, whether it's uh judea, where it's.
Speaker 2:You know, no matter where you look on the map before jesus comes along. It's a tough place to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a very dark, unfair, cruel, yeah, and in some ways the world is still that way.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah but with jesus it's a good way of looking at it.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a very dark, unfair, cruel, yeah, and in some ways the world is still that way.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, but with Jesus.
Speaker 2:It's a completely different. Yeah, you know you can have a completely different mentality about how to look. You know it's somebody that has scorned you.
Speaker 3:It's not all about power now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not all about, yeah, just having power. You know, it's a whole different. He brings this whole brand new idea to the world that even if you were a God fearing person, you really didn't think about things that way. Yeah, you know, and God himself, I mean, he was very wrathful, you know, and his love is still there. You can see his love, but it's very tough, it's very black and white and you're not.
Speaker 2:You know, it's hard to see, it's hard to see that there's any true hope for the human, for mankind, until Jesus comes along and be like you know, there's a whole different way of looking at life and looking at the people around you and you know what you should be doing in this world and you know and just setting it straight that everything good comes from me. You know. So all the kindness that we could spread, all the love we could spread, it's all good, but you can see sometimes where you know. I hate to say it, but Satan is using that against us.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know he just is. I mean, he's taking something that's meant for good and turning it into evil, just as jesus will do the opposite, and it's. It's that battle, and that's sometimes the way I see it. I see it like you can see the battle going on right in front of your eyes yeah, you can, yeah you know between god and satan.
Speaker 2:You just see it yeah, like and just yeah, satan can come along and dangle that kindness carrot, but he leads people to do things that God doesn't want us to do in the name of kindness, and it's just not what we're supposed to be doing. You just see the chaos that it creates, which, in the end, is exactly what he wants, because I always look at it as okay. There's two. Both of them are recruiting an army. That's what it's all about. They're both recruiting an army.
Speaker 3:Or a dodgeball team. Or a dodgeball team, yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll get to heaven and it'll be a dodgeball fight. That'd be like, yeah, and that's the way I look at it. It's okay. In the end, you're either gonna play for this team or you're gonna play for that team. There's no other answer you know, and you didn't even know you were gonna get picked for satan's team. You thought you were doing good.
Speaker 3:You thought or you thought you were just gonna sit in the corner and not play yeah well, that's not gonna work. You're either on this team or that team. You thought you were just going to sit in the corner and not play. Well, that's not going to work. You're either on this team or that team. You're not going to just say I'm not playing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no bystanders in this, yeah you don't just get to.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're going to end up on one or the other, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, you know, it's just people got to realize that Jesus is the true origin of anything from love and kindness and understanding and all that. It comes straight from him. It doesn't. We just didn't invent it. We didn't To me. We just didn't figure that out Right. Like you know, we all need to be nice to each other, despite yeah, it's like no, that's yeah, Satan's path is very wide and very easy. Yes.
Speaker 4:God's path is narrow. You have to, yeah, seek it out and find it.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I think on it that's the problem that people have. I heard somebody say the other day I can't remember where I heard this, I think I was listening to an interview, might have been an author or something and somebody said uh, I forget how they phrased the question, but it was more or less well, what do you think about Jesus Christ? And they were like well, I'm very fond of Jesus Christ, I think he was a great man and I think his ideas were great. He goes, but it's his father that I have a problem with. And I thought okay, I think sometimes, but if you think about it, it's like okay, there's something to that, because if you look at Jesus, who he was, it's like how could you not like him? You know, how could anybody meet Jesus and not like him? No, but the Father.
Speaker 3:Well, you start to put the Holy Trinity together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when you look at the Father, you know when discipline becomes an issue, you know, and trying to guide you and stop you from doing all the selfish thing that you want to do. That's when people start to have a with. Yeah, christianity is because, oh, I gotta follow rules, I gotta be reprimanding, there's repercussions for what I do. Oh, this is right. That doesn't sound like that's for me. I mean, yeah, jesus said he's got. That's a good idea.
Speaker 3:I really like that if I, if I can but if I can bend what he says to what I want to do then it's good.
Speaker 2:But if I, if I have to follow the ten commandments, if I have to, you know, follow all the words in the bible, everything that god expects us to do, if I have to have discipline, um yeah, I don't know then they're not on board that dark free will. And then, of course, they jump into well, yeah, I mean Jesus was great and his ideas were great, but look at the world. You know, if God was so great, why is the world the way it is?
Speaker 2:You know, we've covered this many times, and that's because they cannot look beyond themselves. They can't.
Speaker 3:To me it's like they can't see that battle going on between good and evil.
Speaker 4:They can't see that.
Speaker 2:There's these, you know two teams being, you know, recruited.
Speaker 4:Not looking outside the box, like I've worked with nurses that can't look outside of the textbook. If it wasn't textbook, well what's going on? That's not what CHF says in the textbook. You know every individual is individual. Their symptoms are individual. You better look at that patient from head to toe. Look at the color of their skin, look at their eyes, look at their. Are they sweating? And every?
Speaker 2:patient's different.
Speaker 4:Every patient is different.
Speaker 2:The medical profession is a perfect example of that. During the Civil War, they still did not believe in germs. And they almost had it figured out. And then, when president Garfield was shot after everything they had learned in the civil war, they probed him with dirty instruments and probe them with their dirty fingers and all this stuff, and they still didn't believe that germs existed. And that wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so it's just like. The medical field is a perfect example of you have to build on things, you have to learn from things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, when I started working as a nurse's aide in the 80s. We didn't wear gloves, no, we didn't. You took care of patients. You washed your hands. Well, well, remember. Some people washed their hands yeah you know, but you're caring for all of the body fluids. Rather, somebody had an emesis and threw up, somebody had diarrhea. You just used your bare hands until HIV came along. And then it was oh, universal precautions, we better start wearing gloves. Well then you had people who wore gloves but still didn't wash their hands.
Speaker 1:Well, I worked at a facility where you were allowed so many pair of gloves a shift and you washed your hands with those gloves on and went to the next person, oh wow.
Speaker 4:I mean it just yeah. I mean, we haven't even had gloves for that long.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you watch any of the movies from the 70s and they're smoking in the hospital. Everybody's smoking.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my patients were smoking in their hospital rooms, some with their oxygen on yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's just like think about that.
Speaker 4:I mean, that's like in my life nurses right at the nurses station, just smoking away yeah, yeah, yeah, that was in my lifetime, yeah and I didn't become a nurse till in the 90s and they were still smoking at the nurse really in the 90s, in the 90s.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's crazy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a perfect example yeah, you were earlier than the 90s no, you went right after school. I went down to rio grand first and then came back and, yeah, I hated chemistry. Yeah so, but chemistry hated me too twice around and I said forget it.
Speaker 1:No, I finished. Well, yeah, because I graduated and I started in 87.
Speaker 4:Wow, yeah I I I dropped out for a while, went back to being an aide for a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah I heard it's hard nursing school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, always been hard, it seems like too yeah, well, it's that uh mentality too of the the instructors, that they're just hard on you because, because they're gonna weed you out.
Speaker 4:They weed you out, you know, if you can't take that pressure, then get out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh sure you know. Yeah, Cause it's not the information in the book.
Speaker 2:You know it's not just how you're going to react in those situations.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I worked with a brand new nurse. She was green. She came out, she was in the med cart and she was looking for Tylenol. Patient needed some Tylenol. She couldn't find the Tylenol and I said to her I said do you have any acetaminophen in your cart? What's that? What's that? I said that's your generic form of Tylenol. Yep, there it was. Yeah, you know, it's like book smart versus life smart. Exactly, very book smart. No common sense, see, I thought.
Speaker 2:Tylenol was the generic term. I thought, it said how do you say it? Acetaminophen.
Speaker 4:Acetaminophen.
Speaker 2:I thought that was the proper term for Tylenol. Yeah, hmm, hmm.
Speaker 4:Vice versa. Yeah Well, we definitely learned. It's tomatoes, nick. Come on now. Well, you know.
Speaker 2:I figured they had to call it the other thing before Tylenol. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3:Yes, like the scientific term. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the scientific term is acetaminophen.
Speaker 4:It's minifin.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, yes, but it's always Tylenol, tylenol, tylenol.
Speaker 4:Same with Motrin and ibuprofen. Yeah, you know interchangeable. Yeah, but if you call it ibuprofen they're like what's that If they're the person that calls it Motrin?
Speaker 2:you know Advil, so yeah.
Speaker 4:Advil leave Naproxen, all of those yeah.
Speaker 3:Whose turn is it to pray? Probably mine, I don't know, Beth, know, beth gave me a look like I think it's mine because?
Speaker 4:okay, because didn't we have Pastor Michael? Pray, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, so it's my turn. All right, let me get it. Get it started for you here, dear precious heavenly father. We come to you. Lord, we just thank you that you did make each one of us unique, and, um, what a boring world this would be if we were all the same and we all fought alike. Lord Jesus, lord, you created us to be your hands and feet. Lord, I just pray that when we feel weak, we know that you are strong. And, lord, let us fix our eyes on you at all times. Lord Jesus, lord, I just ask and pray that you take us all home safely and bring us back to the next appointed time, and all these things I ask and pray in your son's most precious and holy name. Amen, amen.
