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
From Flying Totes To The Ten Commandments
Oh, red lights on. That means it's on, huh?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:I wanted to make sure that button wasn't messed up. We're good. I didn't want it playing the whole time we were talking. It's good, yeah. Yeah, you're good. It's not on. Alrighty.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:You know what this one is?
SPEAKER_02:Ten Commandments. The only reason I know that.
SPEAKER_04:Do you know the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_02:Not all of them. Have you seen the movie? Which one?
SPEAKER_00:The Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's two or three different ones.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, with uh Charlton Heston. Uh yeah, a long time ago. That's the one I watch. And I like Charlton Heston, though.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's that's really probably the best one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But that's not where we're talking, we're not talking about the movie. Oh, we are talking about the movie. We can. We can. But I don't watch it that much. I don't I can't quote any lines or it's been a long time since I saw it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean like back in 08. Oh wow. Yeah. 1708. No, it's not that old.
SPEAKER_00:Well yeah, we uh thought, you know what, that that's a uh topic of itself. That's a yeah, really is.
SPEAKER_04:Gosh, what was that three, four weeks ago that we briefly brought it up?
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Well, we you know we got a lot of ideas. It takes time to get to all of that.
SPEAKER_04:It does. So we think that's what we're gonna do, then something happens and we're and then I I started writing them down recently, so because we would always say, well, that's a topic in itself, and then we didn't we don't typically last episode.
SPEAKER_00:Beth got to tell her traffic story. Now I'm gonna tell mine. Traffic or tragic? Traffic. Well, it's tragic too. Oh boy, okay. Traffic tragic. And at first I didn't want to talk about it. This just happened yesterday, and at first I didn't want to talk about it because I feel really bad about it, feel stupid about it. But the more I talk to people about it, the more I laugh about it.
SPEAKER_04:So they're you weren't the one that hit someone on Maple Avenue, were you? Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00:That would not be my grandma hit laughing about the car.
SPEAKER_04:Sorry, sorry, grandma, I told your your secret. She hit someone taking Noah to school a few years back.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:In a car.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, I'm I'm only laughing because the person was okay, and you know, but yeah, I mean, it was right by the Claymont laundromat, um, like that weird turn right there. And I will say it was someone who had Down syndrome who wasn't watching the road anyway, and it was like 7 a.m. and you know, it's hard to see, foggy, dark, yeah, all the things.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. No, nothing like that. But could have been. Could have been. Yeah. So yesterday after work, I go up to Home Depot and I bought these 10 totes, these huge, like I think they're like 170 gallon totes. They made special for the big Christmas and Halloween decorations that they sell. So all my boxes are getting old, so thought, you know, these are perfect. So I went and bought 10. Now, mind you, one of these things is like not quite a half of this table, but like let's just say a quarter of it, maybe a little over a quarter. So these totes are huge. Yeah. Right? So I bought 10 of them. You didn't have them in the car, did you? Huh? You didn't have them in the car, did you? No. Well, no. So they bring them out and they're all wrapped up nice shrink-wrapped pallets, but I wouldn't be able to get that all in the back of the truck. So I wanted to get it in one load. So I thought, no. I'm gonna take five and five back to back, stack them inside of each other. And mind you, when you stack these things inside of them, you cannot pull them out without help.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, you're right.
SPEAKER_00:They're so these things are huge and they're heavy and they're hard to pull out. I'm like, okay, five and five. I'll then I'll put the lids on top and then I'll strap it down. And each and the lids, it's got these, it don't just have like two clips like a normal tote. It's got like two on each side. So I thought, you know, they're they're in there tight, they're heavy, I'm gonna have a strap on it. It'll be fine. Yeah, it'll be good. So I felt pretty confident when I left Home Depot that they were gonna stay in place. Well, I get off the Faircrest exit going back South 77, and it's not a mile, and all of a sudden I look back and there's it goes the straps go. Straps are loose, and there go all my lids. So there's eight to ten lids, and like I said, these are huge going into traffic.
SPEAKER_04:People are probably like, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and crazy enough, like they skidd across the highway, nobody was from what I could see, nobody was dodging nothing, but they were they were running over them, of course. But the crazy thing is I lost two of the totes. And like I said, they're stacked down inside of each other, and they didn't fall over anything. And it was the back two that were up against the back of the truck, so those totes had to come straight up out of each other and go out of the truck. And I didn't even see the totes coming out, so I didn't even know I lost two totes until I finally, and my wife's like, Why didn't you pull over when this first happened? I'm like, I don't know. I panicked and I was looking for I thought I'd hit an exit, come back through. I just kept going.
SPEAKER_05:Like, I don't even know what to do.
SPEAKER_00:So I pull over and I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, no. You know, I'm having one of those moments. And my first thought is Margie's gonna kill me. It was that was my first thought.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, those probably a hefty chunk of change, too, for those hundred bucks a piece.
SPEAKER_00:Oh man. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So uh I'm sitting along the side of the road, and all of a sudden I'm looking and I'm like, there's two totes missing.
unknown:There's two totes.
SPEAKER_00:These things are huge, and I didn't see it.
SPEAKER_04:Didn't see it, didn't hear it, nothing.
SPEAKER_00:So I call her and I tell her what happened, and she's like, Well, what do we do? And I'm like, I don't know. And she's like, Well, I'll call Charlie, my stepson, and he'll come up and help you. And you guys are gonna have to go up and down the highway and try to find them. Like, we gotta find them. Like, this is X amount of money, you know. She's getting pretty upset. And I'm just like distraught. Like, I don't just don't know how this happened. Why did this have to happen? So Charlie gets there, we start going up the highway. First time we didn't really see anything, so we looped back around. Finally, we see most of the lids laying around along the side of the highway. So there we are, South South 77, running across the highway, dodging traffic, trying to get these huge lids, run them back across the highway. And then we did another pass, and then we we found one of the totes. We saw one of the toast just outside Bolivar, sitting on the side of the road. So we go, so we get to so we get that tote, we pick it up. It only had a little hole in it. I'm thinking, like, yeah, if this would have hit somebody's vehicle, or and let's face it, like, if if it'd been a motorcycle or something, it could have been bad news. Yeah, yeah. Very, very bad situation. Um so we pick that tote up, we we get it in the truck, and long story short, we we still haven't found the other tote. So God only knows what happened to it. I almost think maybe a homeless person got it. Because it would be a great, nice little spot for a homeless person. And I'm hoping maybe that's what happened. Like there's some blessing in this that somebody got to have.
SPEAKER_01:Are your lids crushed?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. They're most of them are all broken up. So I'm like, okay, now what I'm gonna do. And she's like, Wow, you just want to tell them that they were damaged, you know, we're you know, I'm like, no, we can't do that. I'm like, I'm just gonna tell them the truth. I'm just gonna tell them how stupid I am. But I thought, you know, that you know, I thought it was good to go. And and I told myself I should probably go back into Home Depot and buy a couple more straps just to be safe.
SPEAKER_04:I thought, no, that's I've got this strapped in pretty good, I'm good. And I did.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, that's gonna be more money out the door. This strap is really tight, it's not going anywhere. These things are heavy. Yeah, it's good. Totally underestimated the situation. And this is what I do for a living, by the way, is shipping receiving.
SPEAKER_04:So it makes me more embarrassed. Supervisor.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, this stuff doesn't happen at work. So it just the whole thing is just upsetting. So I I called him this morning and I was like, look, I'm just gonna level with you. I picked this order up yesterday, I got down the highway, my straps gave way, I lost eight lids. So now I got these huge eight totes with no lids. You know, what can you do to help me? And I will tell you, and I had an experience last year with Home Depot because I had something wrong with one of my uh Christmas decorations that I bought. Their customer service is bar none, the best people I've ever talked to. They're they're they they're willing to help, they want to help right away. And luck would have it, she's like, Well, because they're a new item and because we just started shipping those out, you know, we don't have more in the store, so I can't just give them to you. She's like, if I had eight lids, I'd just give them to you. She says, But the only answer to the situation is you're gonna have to just bring back eight totes, we'll return them as we normally would. We'll give you credit for those, and then you can order eight more. And I'm like, Really? And they're like, Yeah, it's no problem. And I'm thinking like a lot of people would be like, hey, too bad. Like you left. Right. You signed off on them, you left, you know, it's your problem now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But they were fantastic about helping me out. So I um so Saturday, I think we'll be able to just return the eight. Hopefully, we'll get them there all in one piece. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We Jarvey has tons of straps, so if you need more straps, just let us know.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'm gonna wrap them a shrinker.
SPEAKER_04:You're probably gonna stop looking at the side. Yeah, the things I'm thinking now.
SPEAKER_00:I'm like, you dummy, you do this for a living. You could have brought shrink wrap with you, you could have and I just thought it'll be good, you know. Um, so yeah, it looks like I'm gonna be able to return eight. That's nice, order it, you know, get the credit for them, and then just order eight more, and I should be okay.
SPEAKER_04:That's good.
SPEAKER_00:So God is good, but yesterday I will be honest. After yesterday, I thought I have had no spiritual growth whatsoever. Because I was cussing, I was just, I was completely out of control of myself. Because at one point my wife calls me, and then I forgot that I had gone to the back and laid my phone, and I don't even think I told her this yet. I laid my phone on the back seat. So I go around to the front seat and I'm talking to her through the Bluetooth. So all of a sudden she's like, Okay, you're gonna have to call Charlie. So I'm like, okay. So then I go to call Charlie and I'm like, I don't have my phone. I'm like, where is my phone? And I'm like digging through the front seat, looking underneath the front seat. And now I'm thinking, I just lost my phone, and I don't even know how I did it. And I'm just like beside myself. Like I'm just like cussing myself, just I have lost it at that point. Yeah. And yeah, and so, you know, and at some point, Margie's like, Do you just want me to drive home? Because it was one of those situations where I was like, I don't even want to hear about it. Don't say anything about it. Yeah. And she's like, it's okay, you know, and she was a little heated about it first, but then she's like, It's okay, you know, it's okay. If I said anything, I didn't mean to say it, you know. And I'm like, I don't want to hear it. And I'm driving, and I hadn't eaten since lunch, and it's almost like 8 30, 9 o'clock. So so yeah. And finally she's like, just pull over, I'll drive. And she drove home and she stopped and got me something to eat on the way. But I'm just sitting there like, I thought I I thought I'd grown. And apparently I haven't because I lost all faculty whatsoever.
SPEAKER_04:Which is it just takes this.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, oh my, it was just terrible. Yeah, terrible.
SPEAKER_02:It happens.
SPEAKER_00:It happens.
SPEAKER_01:Margie gives Dave Ramsey a whole new line on budgeting money. I know how she is with the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was my first thought is she is going to kill me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What am I gonna not that I just lost them, not that anybody might be hurt back there, but then she is gonna kill me. I just spilled a thousand dollars out onto the road. And I was just like, oh my, you know, just and yeah, I I just like it, just like I said, I was like, I just felt like, you know, I got I got work to do. I thought I was I thought I was good in some of these areas. I'm like, nah, I just shattered every you know all of your own expectations, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know if it's like and I don't believe in the whole, oh, is it a full moon or a new moon thing? But there are some certain times where like yesterday might have just been that type of a day.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know, because I think what I didn't account for was that wind.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. When you were talking about it, I was like, that was the really windy day.
SPEAKER_00:And I think somehow that wind got up underneath. It probably did and just threw them straps, threw them straps right off. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, because that's because I'm still thinking, like, that's not even possible. Like for these two toast to come straight up out. I could see if they fell over and then but they had to come straight up. I'm like, how far did they like go up before they came down? And because I didn't even see them. That's the crazy thing. I didn't see them tumble out of the truck. I just saw lid. So I'm thinking at what point did these things just come straight up? So Margie was with you? Well, no, I went by myself, and of course that's what she said. She goes, I knew I should have gone with you. This wouldn't have happened if I'd have gone with you. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, just really giving it. And then the kids started giving it to me. Charlie was good about it, but everybody else started giving it to me, and I was like, I've had it. I don't want to hear any more. Like, yep, you guys are just perfect. You know, this would never happen to you guys. So yeah, I was just getting attacked on all fronts, and I was like, I just had it. I was just like, just lost it. So but I think all's gonna be well. God is good no matter the situations.
SPEAKER_02:So you only you only you only messed up eight of them? You have two good ones?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Because I had well, I had two in the back seat, Roger. That's how that works. My wife's like, you could have laid the seat down and put all ten of them lids back. I was like, I know all the things I could have done after. Sulha, coulda, woulda. Yeah, trust me. I know.
SPEAKER_02:But well, at least you're gonna still end up with ten.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think I'm gonna end up, honestly, I think I'm gonna end up with nine because there's one tote not accounted for. So unless we find it along the highway by this weekend, I just whatever. So it at best we'll have nine out of the ten. So at best, it'll be a hundred dollar loss. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Which, hey, if that's what if Joe Schmoe on Fulton Road has it, like using it as a hut. Are you just gonna let it be?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'll be like, that would make me actually happy. Yeah, like, okay, there's some good that came out of this. Somebody got a house out of the thing, you know. But yeah, I just and I can't imagine driving behind me and all of a sudden all these lids coming at you and totes. I'm like, oh my god, this could have been bad.
SPEAKER_04:I wasn't sure if you're bad. I wasn't sure if you're trying to if there would be a reference with the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I broke probably quite a few. You know. Like I I broke all but one. Do not murder. I was uh where is it? Where is it where is it? You should not you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Yeah, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02:How'd that work out for you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So not very well.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no. So, yeah. So I was exhausted by the end of the day. I've been exhausted today because I only got like five hours sleep, because obviously it was like you can't just go home and go to bed after something like that. You lay there and think about it.
SPEAKER_04:Contemplate life.
SPEAKER_00:You're just beating yourself up like you're totally- I'm like, I'm a total I was like, I'm a totally worthless person.
SPEAKER_04:Like I shouldn't be on the surface because you have to meet Chase's brother Jet because when you were like, Oh, you guys are just perfect, and then when you just did, oh yeah, I'm just totally worthless. I'm like, wow, this is jet. Yeah, this is jet to it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they just kept giving it to me and making little smart remarks, and I was just like, okay, you know. Nobody say anymore. It's just yeah.
SPEAKER_04:To be fair, I think a lot of men are like that. Like they just get more.
SPEAKER_00:We got it, yeah, or we think we got it.
SPEAKER_04:Or even like once people start like snickering about it, then like they just get even more mad, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. It doesn't make it funnier. You know, it's just like I'll laugh later, but not now.
SPEAKER_04:And it's like I'll laugh in a year from now about.
SPEAKER_00:You guys make me you know, like I'm this complete, you know, idiot. No, how could you let this happen? Could you let this happen? And even Maggie today was just like, that's all on you, how bud? How could you let that happen? Like, you know, I don't feel sorry for it because you know my dad would have, you know, if I ever need something, I'm just gonna call my dad. I'm not gonna call you. She was really giving it to me, like, gee, man. And I was like, okay, well, something bad is gonna happen to you someday. And you know, better think about how you treat people when something bad happens. That's right.
SPEAKER_04:Like, what if your dog what if he wouldn't answer? I'm not saying like he wouldn't, like I you know, I don't know, you know, but I'm like, what if he would be doing something? What if he's at work with no service? And your next call would probably be me, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Again, it's just like I'm the idiot, and everybody else just, you know, would have this never would have happened to anybody else. That was the moral of the story. Like, you know, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It'll be something to look back and laugh on. Oh, I'm already laughing.
SPEAKER_00:Like I see Charlie now running across the highway dumping traffic, and it's hilarious. And the wind's blowing and they're blowing, but you know, it's just like what it's like a movie, like you know, like you see in the movies like this is something Clark Griswold would have done. You know, now I'm out here on this highway.
SPEAKER_04:Well, my kayak has a hole in it because of because of something similar to that.
SPEAKER_00:And you don't realize how fast traffic goes until you were standing by the side of the city. That's true. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:No, I've seen my dad like put three kayaks in his truck. I was using his truck. I'm like, oh, okay, we'll put the three kayaks just how he always does. And I mean, he would show me if they're in this certain way, you won't need to strap them because they're like, one will go this way, one will go this way. And sure enough, one just goes flying, like right by the Y tavern. And and that I had a friend with me, and she's running across trying to get it, like, wait, wait, wait, there's someone coming. And back. I'm like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh, yeah, it was dangerous. I mean, that car, I mean, like I said, you don't seven you don't realize how fast 70 mile an hour is to take your stuff. Pushes you back when a that semi flies by.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's uh Jarvey used to do bridge work and they would do a lot of it at night. And he said you just don't realize, and you before you take a step out because you wanna you look at what you just you know welded or whatever he was doing with them, and he y he said you've got to be really careful because you just don't think about it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. So yeah, that's my traffic story. So your tragic traffic story traffic story. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I could have been a whole lot worse than it is.
SPEAKER_00:Seriously.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah. Yeah. Could have had a ton of cars involved.
SPEAKER_00:You know, but it's always those things like, okay, Lord, I know you like protected me in that moment. Why didn't you why couldn't we just back up to Home Depot? Why couldn't you name me do something different?
SPEAKER_04:So I maybe you guys needed that funny story in your life. I don't know. Yeah. Something to look back on and talk about.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, and oftentimes you think, okay, sometimes when something bad happens to you, it gives somebody the opportunity to do something good. Which, as I said, there's people at Home Depot were just amazing. Like how will because a lot of times when you call people, it's just Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about your luck. Sorry about your luck, you can't get anywhere. They want to keep passing you from you know, department to department.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Most of the time it's a dead end, but they was just like jumped right on it. They got right back to me, called me back, and said, Nope, we can't do this, but here's what we can do. You know, it wasn't like too bad, you're just gonna have to buy more. Um Yeah, they were just like, Yeah, we'll we'll take care of it, we'll take care of you. Like, well, that's so it gives sometimes tragedy uh gives gives people opportunity to show their best. So it's one good thing that comes out of it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, how do we want to take this topic? Um just about the Ten Commandments in general, or I know when we brought it up initially, it was kind of you know, people um Well, I think we need to just have a quick discussion about why why this happens in the first place.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Like what what leads, you know?
SPEAKER_04:People to point out.
SPEAKER_00:What leads Moses to make or well, you know, having a one-to-one with God and coming down with the tablets and having these specific commandments. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Um take it away.
SPEAKER_00:Oh me? History buff, right? I was hoping like maybe Roger could do that part of it, but I'm can you do that part of it? I could I can kind of do that part of it. I got to, I got to between the two of you, maybe I'll start at you enlighten me. So um obviously, you know the Israelites, all all all of the uh I guess here's how it is. They're worshiping more than one God because they feel the more gods you worship, the more blessings you're gonna get. But of course, in worshiping out all these other gods, you know, he's a jealous God, which he'll say in the Ten Commandments. Um it's by worshiping all these other gods, it's it's leading the Israelites to do all of these things that they shouldn't be doing. You know, like Moses comes back and he expects them to be God-fearing people and they're just doing every act of wrong that they wrong that they can come up with possibly can come on foot. And you know, Moses just beside himself, and um, so he has to go to God, and it's at that point that it has to be understood that okay, there's no more worshiping all these other gods. There's only one God, there's only me. And if we're gonna do stuff right, you know, if you people are gonna do right, you you you have to follow me and me only. There you we can't have this, you know, you can't just go worship anything you want to. It's just total chaos. Yeah. Um, as you know, as the Israelites are are showing with the way they're living their lives. It's yeah, they're living in total chaos and darkness and uh performing every act of sin you can imagine, and um God's had enough. Um I I think I think people's perception of the Ten Commandments, and there might be some truth to this, that it these Ten Commandments come out of anger and they come out of wanting to God to God wants to put his foot down on his people and limit what they're uh allowed to do. So it's almost like the Ten the Ten Commandments, it's almost feels like it comes down as a punishment for the way they're living their lives. Um I view I view it completely differently. I I think the Ten Commandments are coming out of love. But like any good parent, you gotta set some rules. You can't just let your children run the household. Yeah. Uh it'd be total disaster. I don't care how much you love your children, you can't just let them do whatever they want to do. Yeah. Um just it doesn't work. No. So, you know, God, through love and understanding that, you know, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to rein my people in here. We're gonna have to have to set some rules about how we should live our lives on a daily basis. Because God understands nobody understands sin better than the Lord. And what we you know, we've talked about this kind of when we did the Ripple of Sin episode. We've we we've talked about the fact that when when we sin, uh I I believe that God is always giving you plenty of opportunity not to do it. He's always speaking to you, He's always telling you I I I I can be honest, I I've heard the voice of God before telling me not to do things. And plenty of times in my life I would, you know, yeah, but let me do it my way. Because this is what I feel I need to do. This is what I feel is right for my life, this is what I feel is time to do. Yeah. Let me, let me, let me do it my way. And maybe you don't actually say that, but that's that shows in your actions.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You're like, I hear you, Lord, but I I want to do it my way. Because it I think it'll be faster. I think it'll get to me to where I'm supposed to be. Um this is what's truly gonna make me happy. Um but oftentimes that's the thoughts that lead us into sin. And when it comes to sin, God, I you know, God can like talk to you and tell you exactly what's gonna happen if you do, you know, X, Y, and Z. And you have every opportunity to avoid that sin. And and God can wipe that away, He can help you with that, He can help you to avoid doing those things. But you're gonna reach a point that once you commit the sin, then you can't now it's not that easy. You can't just wipe it away. I mean, Jesus Christ can, he can forgive you for that. But in the real world, in the world that we have to live in, once you commit that sin, there's consequences to it. And you have to answer for them in this world. And there's nothing you can do about that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so once once you hear the voice of the Lord telling you not to do something, and you go ahead and do it, then you realize that the sin you're committing, you can't just take it away because now you've hurt people.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_00:Now you've affected other people's lives. You you you've done it always, it always has a negative effect on the outcome of your life, on the outcome of the people in your life. And then you gotta do a lot of work that you wouldn't have had to do if you just done what the Lord told you to do. So it's not that it can't be forgiven, it's not that relationships can't be repaired, all of those things. But guess what? That takes a lot of work, and some things in this world with certain people can't be repaired. There's some people that just can't forgive something.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's just some things you can't overcome in the flesh in this world. I mean, Jesus can. Right. But you know, we have to take responsibility for that sin once we commit it. Because now God can no longer just say, Hey, you know, we don't have to do this. Yeah, I can lead you in the right direction to get you to do the right thing. But once you once you've done it's past that point and done it, then the Lord can't work with you that way. Now we got to do it a different way. Yeah. Now we're gonna have to, now you're gonna have to work this out with the the people that you love, the people in your life, the people that what you the consequences of that. And so when you're talking about the Ten Commandments, it it's just a list of things that's just gonna help us try to avoid if we do all of these things, then you can avoid those sins that are without a doubt, for no matter who you are, it's going to cause you problems in this world. And that's all the Lord's trying to do is to get to get us to live his way. Because he wants because he loves us and he wants to protect us. Yeah, he doesn't want us to commit those sins, he doesn't want us to have to uh to pay the price in this world for the things that we do. He doesn't want to see that happen, so that's why he writes these things. Um He knows, he knows what sin's gonna do every time we commit it, whether it's the smallest one or the biggest ones. And so some of the Ten Commandments, we look at them and I think we almost feel like they're out of date. You know, like, oh, honor thy father and thy mother. Well, what does that mean? Well, that's just it sounds outdated, doesn't it? Like, I mean, most people are like, well, what does that mean? It just sounds like something somebody knitted and framed and hung on the wall, like your grandma. Yeah, you know, and there's like it just sounds out of date, but there's a lot of truth to it. Um and then that in therein lies a lot of the problem. It's like when you look at the Ten Commandments, um, some of it seems out of date. Um, some people can use them as weapons actually to hurt other people.
SPEAKER_04:Um, there's a lot of different things that does someone have them like pulled up offhand?
SPEAKER_00:Can we go through them all? I got them in my study Bible here.
SPEAKER_04:So just in case no one knows about them.
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, and the first one, of course, is you shall have no other gods than me. So it And that was a direct result of what the Israelites were doing as they were trying to worship these other gods because they thought, yeah, we'll get more blessings. We can do whatever we want to do, because we, you know, and uh God had to set them straight. Like, I am the only God. Yeah. You know, all these other gods are false gods. You know, I am the only one you should come to.
SPEAKER_04:No one, no one but me.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. So, you know, my Bible says, you know, um, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven to worship them. And, you know, we were talking about this last episode with Halloween and a lot of things we were talking about. Yeah, we we have taken a lot of things in our lives, and it may not seem to us that we're worshiping them, but we are, because we we take, as we were talking about football, we all take that every Sunday. You know, we can put on our favorite player's jersey, and our whole day hangs on whether that player does well, especially with fantasy football now. A lot of a lot of young men, like they're so deep into that, like they're pulling money out of their paycheck to play fantasy football and to follow these players. And uh their whole being financially committed. Yeah, their whole happiness and lives on that day depend on how well those players do. Or just if your team wins or loses, you know, it could ruin your whole day if your team doesn't win. Um and that's just one example of you know, we worship idols. Yes, we do worship we it's on that level. You know, if we don't think about it that way, it's on that level of oh, we spend more time thinking about uh Patrick Pat Mahomes than we do about Jesus. It's so important if Pat Mahomes does well today. But what's Jesus doing today? Well, nobody cares as long as Pat Mahomes wins. And that's that's a reality.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. It's the truth.
SPEAKER_00:So is there any more backstory to the Ten Commandments, Roger, that you'd like to share or can add to that?
SPEAKER_02:I'm looking here. Yeah. Yeah, he's read two. See, thou shalt not not take the name of man oh well he's already uh addressed this one. Well that's stuff, but let's talk about that a little bit because some people shall not take the name of the Lord, Lord thy God in vain.
SPEAKER_00:But what does that now? Because some most people will say that means if you cuss you shouldn't say the Lord's name in vain. Is that all that it means? Or what is it really talking about when we should not take the Lord's name in vain?
SPEAKER_04:What how how have you taken it, Roger, in the past?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, do you take it just as well as it is a cuss word, or is there more to it than that?
SPEAKER_02:It depends well, I mean it doesn't depend on how you say it. You can say my God, my God and that's not taking the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_01:When you're doing it in prayer, doing it in prayer.
SPEAKER_02:But when you're doing it as a when you're misusing it. Or yeah, when you're misusing it in in in your in your in your talk.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Like if you're saying, Oh my God, about something that just happened.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, that's that that and a lot of times, you know a lot of times you're not saying it in that tone of voice. It's always right on elevated uh tone of voice.
SPEAKER_04:And if if it is your God, then why are you misusing his name, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Is it could it also potentially mean that you should never say anything is of God that isn't? Like you're you're using You're saying like, well, God wouldn't want me to wouldn't want you to do this, or it's basically if you're misquoting God, if you if you're if you're saying anything as if it were scriptural Well, God wouldn't want you to celebrate Halloween. Well, yeah, yeah. Or just like all of a sudden you're coming up with your own scriptures of how you see life, and you think God God says you shouldn't and it's like it's not a commandment, but you've made up number eleven. Is that uh that's just an example. Like you're taking the Lord's name because you're putting words in God's mouth that aren't there.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I think is that yeah. Yeah, it'd be so I've never looked at it that way, but yeah, I think that's just the same.
SPEAKER_00:You know, you're you're or you're telling people God's doing this or God's doing that, and really you don't have there's no like again, like if somebody's like you have no relationship. If somebody speaks in tongues and somebody gives the interpretation and it's not true, like you're just yeah you want to be heard that day, so you do whatever you wanted to say, and it's not the truth, so is that that's taking the Lord's name in vain. Like you're taking his word and his name and not telling the truth.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's just that's just another thought I had about it.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know if that's accurate or yeah, because the word was God, you know. The word is God. And the word is God.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And then we kind of talked about the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00:Beth's thinking over there. Yeah, I really am.
SPEAKER_01:What are you thinking about? I just when my when the older grandchildren were growing up, Abby, she was little, and she got on that oh my god thing. It just drove me nuts. And I finally said, you know what, Abby? I said, every time that you know, God might be walking through his house and stubbing his toe, because she's about six or seven. I said, He doesn't yell, oh my Abby. Right, right. I said, so why do you say that? Mm-hmm. And so as we I said this to her over and over, she was cute, and she'd go to say it, and she's like, I know, grandma. Oh my Abby. Oh my Abby. Oh my Abby. Oh my Abby. But it it bothers me. Even to see it in writing, the OMG. That bids me. Especially like the all capitalized.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And I don't know. Like my grandma, like when I was growing up, she worked for consumer support services, which is like, you know, MRDD, and like if you know, whenever you're a teenager for whatever reason, the R word is very popular. And it's like that was one word we could not say, and we could not say, Oh my god, you know, oh my god, in vain. And it was like if we did, we knew what our explanation as to why we shouldn't be saying it would be, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And so I think when you are saying when you're praying or talking to God and you're you're, you know, oh my god, oh my god, how I love you, or whatever. That's right, you know, you're giving him the reverence and respect and that he deserves. And then you're just taking that all away when you're using it the other way. Because you're not giving him any credit at all. You're using it almost as slang.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Okay. You know, we discussed that. Uh you know, I mean and I mean it's hard, you know. Especially this this day and age. This is back when, you know, we didn't have grocery stores and gas stations, you know. And when I was growing up well, until I was uh maybe in high school. Well, not maybe sixth or seventh grade. Uh if you didn't have gas on on Saturdays, Saturday night at ten o'clock, you didn't get gas until Monday morning. If you didn't have a loaf of bread, you didn't get it until Monday morning.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and people just think that's impossible now, but it really isn't.
SPEAKER_02:No. No.
SPEAKER_00:Like if you if that's the way things were, everybody would follow suit.
SPEAKER_02:It was that's not impossible. You know, and and you know, uh basically the only people that really had really worked on on uh on the Sabbath were those that are in in healthcare. You know uh there wasn't that many hotels, motels around. Uh you know, there weren't you didn't you didn't have to, you know, there wasn't a lot of people traveling.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know. I mean the the travel months were in the summer months. That's when everybody got their vacation, and that's when you that's when you did your traveling. In wintertime you stayed home. You know, and it just it was it was easier to keep the Sabbath. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure after the major interstates were introduced, things got really well yeah. That really changed things, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because it travel was so easy. Yeah. I mean, like I can remember uh my grandfather picked me up and we went we were going to Beckley, West Virginia. Okay. That's really not that far now. But when we went, we had to get down Old Twenty-one. And I'll never I mean, like, it took us forever to get there. Because if you ever been down Old Twenty-one, it's twisty and turny and up and down and twisty and turny and up and down. And you know, it just it's not it's not like it is now. You know, we're you know you can go from here to Ocean City, North Carolina in eight hours. You know, back then it took two or three days. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, at least at least two days. Yep. So they start having all them travel plazas, you know, popping up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then all night.
SPEAKER_02:You know, and then and then those people were they're starting, they're having to work on on the weekends, you know, because you know, okay, we got travelers. We got we've got you know, they they're gonna want they're gonna want gas, they're gonna want something to eat, they're gonna have an expel. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it's I think it also says, it says, um the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Yes. So it's like we we've almost got that confused now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we have now it's now we make it for us. Yeah. Because it's a it's a day we can go to church and then we can take off and we can go to Columbus.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I mean to go to Columbus.
SPEAKER_00:Well, some people are like, well, that's how I rest. I kick back, I watch football all day. That's how I get that's how I rest. Okay, it's not about rest. I just you know, it's it's supposed to be holy. Yeah. You know, you're supposed to keep it holy. Um but yeah, people are like, yeah, it is a Sabbath, I'm resting. You know, I'm gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01:And some of the words that's coming out of their mouths as they're watching it. It's not holy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But again, we're all guilty of it and one or another. You know, we you know most of us after church were thinking, oh, we're going to Subway, we're going to Jerry's, we're going, you know, everybody's doing something on a Sunday. Um and again, it's hard because a lot of times Sunday is the only day people have together.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, that's that's that's like when when I was when I was growing up, you know, Sunday was the was your visiting day. You went to to fellowship with your relatives. You know. Uh we used to go to my uncle's all the time out at the farm. And uh you know, we should when I was a kid, we used to have some good times, you know. We could we get down to Pastor Field and the Crick and build a dam and we had our own swimming hole, you know. Uh we'd take go-kart down down the road with the BB gun, we'd shoot cows along the road, you know, watch them run. Uh, you know, I mean it just but but then you know you're you also spent time with your family. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we would go to grandma's after church after church. We wouldn't even do that. And I don't know how, but she would have put on a spread like and she'd been to church that morning and been to Sunday school, and you come home and she was probably up at three in the morning.
SPEAKER_00:This you know wonderful spread that she's something I never really got to experience. As you know, the grandma Sunday I did dinner, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I it it wasn't ever like brunch or lunch, it was more dinner. But it was and I think it was more or less because she never knew what time people would be there. People were coming and going, you know, so it was like it was almost always ready by one or two, and then people could just graze on it, I guess.
SPEAKER_06:But yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So the next one, honor your father and your mother. Um but of course he says, he said, honor your father and your mother. Anyone who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. They're like, okay. So what does honor your father and your mother mean? I'll be honest, I can't explain this one.
SPEAKER_04:I can't either.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you mean I get it.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I mean. That's what comes to my mind.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's that's what I think, you know, is just be you know, uh respecting their you know, what what they've tell told you, what they're telling you. Uh you're not you're you're honoring them by doing what they tell you to do. As long as it's within the word.
SPEAKER_04:I guess I've always gotten confused as to why that doesn't just say respect your elders, then. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because that's another big, you know, it's not in here as that, you know, but it's it's basically the same thing.
SPEAKER_02:It's basic knowledge. Yeah. Yeah, it's basically the same thing. Yeah. I mean, I guess you could you could read into it, you know, however, whatever, whatever you wanted to read into it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But I think once when you teach your children as they learn to respect, you know, their mother and father, they also learn to respect others. Records. Yeah, that's true.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:See, my study Bible says this is the first commandment with a promise attached. To live in peace for generations in the promised land, the Israelites would need to respect authority and build strong families. But what does it mean to honor parents? Partly it means speaking well of them and politely. It also means acting in a way that shows them courtesy and respect, but not to obey them if this means disobedience to God. Right. It means following their teaching and example, putting God first. Parents have a special place in God's sight. Even those who find it difficult to get along with their parents are still commanded to honor them.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That part where it said the building families part.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and the part where it said, you know, if your famil if your parents are not aligned with me, you know.
SPEAKER_00:If you're going back to uh the situation with Israelites, you know, when you don't have strong families, that's when you do have a lot of lawlessness.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I think that was one thing, you know, like if you've got all these people sleeping with each other and and and and doing all these other acts of sin, all these uh forms of disobedience, then nobody's building families with that. Right, right. And so without that strong family unit, God's word doesn't it's it's whole hard to hold on to his word when you don't have that family structure.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Which definitely I think kind of what we're seeing in our world today is this we got generations of people that are really don't believe in the family unit. You know, they're not focused on building strong families. In fact, people seem to think that, you know, more people now are more comfortable being alone than they ever have been because of social media. Like you don't need you don't need to have actual friends and family because you can just spend all your time on social media. So you you don't have this um desire to go out and form relationships, strong bonds with actual people. Yeah. And when you don't do that, then I think you know it's it's hard to hold on to God's word. It's hard to have any structure in society because everybody's just again doing what the Israelites are doing, doing whatever you want to do and not having any focus on what it means to be a family unit, to do things together, to honor God together.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, you what what do you think about the thou shalt not kill? Yeah, that's a tough one.
SPEAKER_01:That is. I think it goes back to just when you're in anger and you're saying nasty negative things, you've almost like you've killed that person too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it may not even actually mean physical death. Yeah. Yeah, as in the form of the phone.
SPEAKER_01:It could be your phone, it could be your not necessarily your physical death, but it could be your spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. You know, in some ways it's like, you know, Cain kills Abel even before he strikes the blow.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like he's already had it in his mind that's that that's not his brother anymore.
SPEAKER_03:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that it's that's he's not worthy of being my brother. He's not, I'm not even taking that into consideration. Um, you know, he might as well be a stranger.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know. Um, so yeah, I I think uh, you know, th that's always the big controversy is you know, those that do commit murder, can they ever be forgiven in the eyes of the Lord? Yeah. That's you know that's a very common question. Um I always like to believe that that's possible for people, that they can, even after something like that, they can truly find the Lord and the Lord will forgive them. Um a lot of people have a tough time with that one.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Um, for many different reasons, many valid reasons. But I think a lot of those things come out of pain and unforgiveness and uh just again, the society that we've that we've created. Um, you know, there's I mean, there's plenty of people who kill people in self-defense. Right. That happens every day.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_00:Um it's it's still a sin to do that, even though they had to do what they had to do to protect themselves. Do you you still committed that sin?
SPEAKER_02:So Do you think do you think those those people if they if they ask for free ask for forgiveness, they received it? I think so. I mean, if that's truly what's in their heart, if they're truly willing to support it wasn't premeditated or it wasn't it wasn't planned, they didn't they didn't want to do it, but it was a n s necessary act.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And they and you ask for ask for forgiveness, then you received it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But you know, we won't be I even believe though that if there was premeditated and you had all intentions of being through and killing that person, then when you if if you move on in life and you you you get to know the Lord and you surrender it all to him, yeah, that you can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I do too.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and as we we said in the last episode, you know, we all believe that evil can get into people. Yeah. And so for whatever reason, you know, that evil could have crept into that person and caused them to commit these acts, that doesn't mean that the Lord still can't come into their life and wipe that away and you know, and take that evil spirit away and give that person a cleansing and give them that forgiveness. Now, yeah, Lord Jesus Christ might be the only person that's going to forgive them in the end, but that's the only one that matters. Exactly. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It really is. It's the only one that matters. Um, well, you know, people say every day, like, you know, uh, you know, if you harm a child, yep, we should just kill that person. It's very easy to say that. It's like it kind of it's like it makes sense. Like, how could somebody be so terrible to harm a child and the only answer is, you know, to to kill that person? And it's like, well, that's still wrong. Right. That's that's still a sin, no matter how justified you may seem, yeah, how right it may seem. That may be the easiest solution to that problem in the world we live in. But it's not it's not a solution in the eyes of the Lord. It's it's you know, you can't, you know, as he you know, as he says, you can't fight off darkness with darkness. You know, it just doesn't work that way. Um that just causes more because it I you know, it's it's one of those things where you can do a lot of things if you're justified, but most of the time that wears off and you're left with the reality of what it really is. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and and for you, you might never forgive yourself for the rest of your life after you've gotten past the passion of the moment or doing what you thought was right, and you may never forgive yourself for doing it. And that's tough. That's a tough life. You know, you're gonna search for forgiveness for the rest of your life, which is you know, that's that's that's tough to live with. So yeah, but that that's that's definitely uh that's probably the most controversial one as far as when we're when we start talking about forgiveness and how that affects somebody's life moving forward. And even I mean, even to the victims themselves, because then people start asking that question, well, why does this have to happen? You know, if somebody is covered by God, why why would he allow somebody to be murdered? So it it's just uh that's a that's a deep topic that, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's a tough one. But again, as I was saying, that's why that's why it's in the 10. Right. Because of how much pain it causes. It's one of those acts that, you know, once you've gone too far, I can't just fix this.
SPEAKER_04:Right. You can't just we can't just pretend you never did it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we could have done that if you again, if you would listen to me and how I want to do things, you know, this this could have been avoided, but now it's you know, we've now you got now you got a lot of work to do, which yeah. Which leads us to you shall not commit adultery. Um I'm in the bad company of Solomon and King David. I understand their story. I've been there, done it. I I'm as a Christian, I can own up to that. Yeah. You know, that my life led me to fall in love with a woman who was already married. And I don't doubt that we were supposed to be together. Yeah. Because I see where we are, and yes, I I truly believe that God does turn all wrongs for good. You know, even if because in my heart, well, you know, I had good intentions, like, no, Lord, let me let me let me do it my way. Yeah, let me do it in my timing because I feel like where I'm at where I'm at, where I'm at in my life, this is what I need right now. This this is what I feel is what I should do. Instead of listening to the Lord and saying, I'm not saying this isn't supposed to happen, but it's not this is not the way it's supposed to happen. Yeah. Like you need you need to listen to me, and we need to do it my way. I didn't do it that way. So I have to answer to that every day in my life.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's just, you know, and King David had to answer to it. King Solomon had to answer to it.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of people have a lot of people have to answer to it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, um, and it's and again, it's a number ten because once you do it, it it affects a lot of it affects family, it affects people very personally, and it's not something you can just you just can't fix it. Yeah. You know, it's again, you go so far, and it's one of those sins that now you got a lot of work to do. And there may be people that will never forgive you, you know, no matter what they've done. Right. It's just one of those things because they're just some people can't can't forgive. It's just the way that it is. And I have to be spiritually mature enough to say that's okay. I don't expect uh people to forgive me for that. I really don't. Um there's only one person I do expect to forgive me for that, and that's Jesus Christ. That's it. But I know that. I know the responsibility that comes with that for you know for making that decision. Um and yeah, it it's it can haunt you every day. But I think it's a good thing. It can always make you and for me, and I'm not I'm not saying this to build myself up, but that was very uncharacteristic for me. Like that was very like that that was something I would have never thought of handling that way, or something happening to me, or um that that's like the one thing in my life that I think, okay, I kind of lost yourself, myself, or my nobility that I had of how people look at me. And honestly, sometimes you think, you know what, I could I could cover up a lot of other things that I don't feel like I'm good enough in the eyes of the Lord, but that's one I can't. You know, I I can't do it. It's just the way it is. Um so it's just that's not who I am. Um and I think her and I's relationship is is an indicator that you know you do have we are two people who are very spiritual, that are very close to God that end up committing this. And it's just a fact. There's there's we did it. Yeah, it's how we chose to go about the situation, it was wrong.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um and we both answer to that all the time. We both still struggle with that at times.
SPEAKER_04:But I think uh how you m mainly go about it and you know how people are going to respond to it, I think that like you're not going to be shell-shocked whenever they start to and I think that in itself, like you at least and it it stinks. Like, why does it have to be that like that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, honestly, we um I mean, yeah, we've she's had some close family that have been very hard on her for it. The people that are supposed to love her the most are the people that have been the hardest on her in the situation, which to me doesn't really make any sense.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and that's a whole other I see that as a wrong, you know. Um but it but it is what it is. You know, again, we're guilty of that. There, you know, we have to take responsibility for that. But uh it's just like I said, our relationship is firmly founded in um, you know, having a relationship with God. And I didn't I wasn't going before I met her, I wasn't going to church, didn't think about going to church, didn't want to go to church. I was on a path that I shouldn't have been on in the first place. Yeah. So, you know, by meeting her, I met Florence, and Florence is the one that got me back into church because of her example. And so, no, it wasn't the right thing to do. But God I think God was still able to have to work it out all for good. Yeah. And somehow get me back into church to do what I'm doing now. Yes. Um, and and I would never, ever, ever, because I've had this experience, say you should do that. Right. I would tell anybody who is thinking about handling it that way, that is the last thing you want to do. Run, yeah because because I'm telling you it's gonna be the hardest thing. Yeah, you've got it's gonna be like a death. You you can't you can't handle it that way. Yeah. I would never because it's worked out for me, I would never tell anybody that that's the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And even even though it has worked out for you, you still have those.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Oh yes. Yeah, you live with it for the rest of your life, and it's just something that you can't. Yeah. You know. It's just you're reminded of it every day. And uh, but that's again, that's why it's a top tener. It's just one of those things that you know, it's it's a hard one.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, how about uh thou shall not steal?
SPEAKER_00:So if you're starving, you haven't eaten five days, and you walk into a grocery store and you steal a sandwich.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Happens every day.
SPEAKER_03:All the time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, steal or die.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um I think I think I think what he was talking about here is me stealing something from you. Like you you have you have something not that I'm not that I'm destitute or hungry or poor. But you have a book that I want. And it's your book.
SPEAKER_00:Out of greed.
SPEAKER_02:And I just I just I take it because I want it.
SPEAKER_04:I think we have to remember and go back to history and remember what the Israelites were doing. And you know, why did God give Moses these to write down? Like what was going on?
SPEAKER_00:I think a lot of the times we have to reference, and I think one of the Israels cannot move forward as a people unless we get these things under control.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because let's be honest, they're headed into the city, like the city of all cities. Like, we don't want that sin in there. Yeah, like I mean, they were horrible, you know. Like, we need to set them straight somehow. So, yeah, I like I think the ones that are kind of black and white like this one, I just try to think back to okay, well, what was going on, you know? And everything was going on, that's why he had to set something free. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And thou shalt not bear false false witness against thy neighbors. You're not supposed to lie about about well, did you see what Sid did? She stole this and she took this and and it's not true.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And that could be more than could be your neighbor.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah. Yeah, any anybody. Anybody that you come in contact with, you should never like gossip almost.
SPEAKER_00:That's almost and even when they're guilty of something, that doesn't mean that you go in and expand on the story. Yeah. For your own entertainment.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:For sure.
SPEAKER_00:If you're not speaking the truth, don't don't be, you know, if you've got a grievance against somebody, a valid grievance, it still doesn't give you the right to go and blow the story up to, you know, now you made the story even bigger than preach, Nick, preach.
SPEAKER_06:Bring it on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, nobody ever has that right. And that's how we were saying about, you know, Netflix and take taking out something and then and then actually putting untruths in there for entertainment purposes. It's it's not even fair to a convicted killer to have to have that done to their story, to their life.
SPEAKER_04:Because he's just as much a human being as I am.
SPEAKER_00:Why should you feel the need to go in there and make it even worse?
SPEAKER_04:Tie-dye it up some more a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for for the sake of a dollar. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:For your for the sake of your own um like you're getting something out of it. Like that's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like it's more it's because I want it. Because I feel the need to have it. It's you know, it's not so much out of survival. Because again, every God knows everybody's heart and why they do what they do. So I I would assume, you know, somebody's starving and that's their last you know, option.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Like eat or die. And I mean Okay, I think we can get past that one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I could be getting something like that here sh shortly with everything going on.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:The snap benefits and everything. Like I never really I didn't really look at it like that until yet last night when Chase's aunt was texting me about like our um pantry and stuff, and she's like, I I don't know, said just keep your doors double locked, and said I it could get scary out there, and it's sad that yeah, it might because people are going to be starving, you know.
SPEAKER_00:No, you know, and it's what how however you think about this personally or politically, um, yeah, we got a lot of people out there taking advantage of this system that we created, which guess what though? We created this system, we let it get out of hand. Right.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's just a f the fact. Yeah, so yeah, me personally, I don't believe people should be taking advantage of the system. If you can go to work and provide for your family, go to work and provide for your family. That's what you should be doing. Don't keep living off SNAP benefits for the rest of your life and teaching your children to do it. Right, yeah. That's not right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like it should be a goal to get off of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but it's not the children's fault either that their parents have decided to build their life program, and now they're gonna starve. And so now, yeah, now we've created this huge problem. Like, now what do we do?
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's too late now. You know, now it's now it's above our you know, uh our control. Yeah. It's so it's like, yeah, what do we do? You know. So, but that's why it's like, okay, we we need to we need to solve this thing from the ground up. Yes. You know, we you you can't just all of a sudden you can't just all of a sudden like take it away, but we can't just keep letting people live in the system because it's doing it is doing more harm than good to have this mindset of people in our society. Yeah, I think I don't have to work for anything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um if they'll just keep giving hands.
SPEAKER_01:But that's not good. The system has made people.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because we we let it happen. We didn't hold people accountable. Uh the government created this program and just let it just get out of control to where, well, it's too late now. Now you got thousands, maybe I don't know what the number, how many people are in this country actually depending on the phone.
SPEAKER_04:I think I read somewhere millions.
SPEAKER_00:I thought yeah. It's like that to think about that is crazy in an American society that we have to have millions of people relying on this program. It's like we we're we we've done something wrong a long time ago. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know to let it get this. You have somebody who works for$13,$14 an hour who doesn't really qualify for assistance, but you're they are expected to pay seven or eight hundred dollars a month rent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's easier to stay home and live on the system than it is to try to struggle and make it. Yep. Yeah. Pension pennies.
SPEAKER_00:That's the problem is you've got you've got an honest person who is going to work every day, like you said, making thirteen, fourteen dollars an hour, and just need a little help to keep feeding their kids properly, to keep so that maybe they can save that money to buy the washer and dryer, buy the you know, new furniture, buy the new car. Um that that's what would make sense to me is like, okay, if you've got hardworking Americans who are just struggling to keep ahead, as long as they're working, give them a little help. Exactly. There's nothing wrong with that. That's that's what it's supposed to be. Or yeah, if you got the guy that just lost his job after, you know, 15 years and he's in transition and he's got three kids and needs help, yeah, that's what it's for. Help that guy out. He's he's got a track record of going to work every day. But when you've got these people that have no track record and keep having children, and that's all that they're doing, so that they can rack up more SNAP benefits, it's like, okay, that's no, we can't we can't allow that to happen. You know, but again, you can't just let the kids starve. So it's a complicated issue.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Last one, we got one more.
SPEAKER_02:One more. This is thou shalt not covet thy covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
SPEAKER_04:This one I was the most excited about because covet covet is something that we can't really have or can't afford to have. And here we are talking about people with a thousand dollar car loans or car payments, you know, and like keeping up with the Joneses status. And it's like you know, pe you see that happening across the country, but no one ever talks about that Ten Commandment. And because let's be honest, it's it's a secret. Like, well, I'm not gonna act like I can't afford my$1,000 car payment that I chose to have a thousand dollar car payment for. Not me. I'm just saying other people, you know what I mean? But they're they're too embarrassed to say it, but it's like I feel like that's why this one's never talked about because they're just too embarrassed to say that that's what they're doing. But the reason they're doing it is because they're just trying to keep up with the Joneses next door.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yep. Everybody thinks they well, everybody feels entitled. Like I should have these things.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, I should be able to keep up with it's an emotional, like, oh me, me, me.
SPEAKER_00:Emotional high.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I should always have, you know, when the iPhone, what are we up to now?
SPEAKER_04:Gosh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I don't even because I don't follow that. I don't even follow it. iPhone 10 or I got it. Oh no, I think they're 15 now. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. When my iPhone broke and they said, Oh, well, we can take your phone in on a trade, and they're like, Oh no, we don't even want it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and they do that. They dangle in front of you. Oh, you could trade this phone in right now and get the brand new iPhone 15. And only and so there's people that anytime that new phone comes out, they gotta have it. The other one works just fine, but they gotta have it because they want, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and then I think too, you see, and I'm not picking on the younger generation, but they see, well, mom and dad had this, mom and dad had that.
SPEAKER_04:But mom and dad didn't have that when they were starting out at twenty-one and twenty-two years old. But they and they have to remember that they want to have that. Uh-huh. You know, and uh I've I've had to try to tell my sister that like, hey, mom and dad have that nice house out on what front because mom and dad have been working the same job, you know. They have they they are well established now. It it didn't used to be like that when we were growing up, you know, we were on the benefits and you know, we were pinching pennies and you know, all the things, and it's like it's not like that anymore. Like you can't automatically have that shy, like and she won't care if I you know say her name, but she you know, you can't automatically have that. Like you you have to build it, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like it's you have to pay your dues.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. Yeah, it stinks, but yeah, like you're in that um like growing pain. Yeah, you're you know, like that's what it is right now, and you just have to face reality.
SPEAKER_01:So we've kind of created that as parents because we've bought them that new home.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we bought them that new computer gaming system, and now they don't want to like it's gonna be like a culture shock, like wait a minute, yeah, you know, and they're gonna have that culture shock when it comes to now.
SPEAKER_00:I gotta afford this on my own.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:You know, it was always given to me.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I have I have all the same things that I think that's the difference, is these young kids have all the same things that we adults do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like, you know, like when I was a kid, I had toys.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't have uh things that my parents had worked hard to get. You know, like I didn't have my own phone in my room. And I didn't have uh, you know.
SPEAKER_04:And you know, I was like, I don't know, 12 maybe when I got my first phone, but the only reason I got it was because it was a flip phone, it was$20 a month, and I made sure I did twenty dollars somehow of chores, not even at my house. Like we didn't offer, like my parents didn't offer chores, but I would go to my grandma's, I'd go to my other grandma's somehow. I would make twenty dollars in 30 days to get that card. You know what I mean? Like none of them look like work that way anymore.
SPEAKER_01:No, well, complete generational. You can see it here. When I was 16, that's what I wanted was a phone in my room. Now I'm talking a phone that's hooked up to the wall. Yeah, and I can remember I got a pink phone that I just thought because it wasn't the one that hung up this way on the wall, it was one that sat down like that. I think they called it the princess phone or something. I was so excited about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But it just I was 16.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:I wasn't six.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you were coming into it.
SPEAKER_04:And your mom could turn it off. Yeah, and could listen to what you were saying and could yank it out.
SPEAKER_00:Your dad could come in and yank the board right out of the wall if you wanted to. Yeah, you know, yeah, with no cost to him whatsoever. That may not happen. You know, now one of yeah, right. Now one of these babies is hundreds of dollars. And and it's just like, and we we just think as parents, like these kids have to have it for their own protection. I'm like You're just telling yourself that we were kids. We would disappear for hours, our parents didn't even know where we were, and we're better off for it. Uh yeah, they just we think kids have to have all these things, and they have to, and it's just it's destroy like I said, it's destroying like I I can't imagine just starting out. Um Sid, I can't imagine starting out raising kids now. Yeah. With all of these things that you have to deal with and monitor, and just you know, you know, you know Coop's gonna be coming to you like, you know, my buddy's got the you know, iPhone. By the time he's old, it'll be iPhone 45, yeah, yeah. Whatever it's gonna be, and he's gotta have it. And he's you know, everybody else has it, I have to have it.
SPEAKER_01:And well, I think too, because of both parents working, we feel that guilt.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And so we well, we've we've just totally lost like honor thy father. Uh-huh. We've just totally lost the fact that we're the parents. Like we're not your friend.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We're your parent. We love you. We we want we want to see the best things for you. We're here to guide you. You're not here to tell us what we think or what you think you need.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We know what you need. Right. Right. You know, but now it's the other way around. Like now you listen to your kids and they should tell you, you know, uh, they need everything. You know, they, you know, there's no there's no boundaries, there's no growth. There's no everything is, you know, like I said, everything is just uh, you know, they're they're they're just they gotta have it all now. You know, there's no waiting until they're old enough to even understand that, hey, I got five hundred dollars in my hand. I never had five hundred dollars in my hand as a as a 10-year-old.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. In any forum whatsoever. And it's always in their hand. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's always in their hand. And they could throw it, they could leave it wherever, they can and it's like they they don't even get it.
SPEAKER_06:Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00:And we're doing it to our we're doing it to ourselves. Not me.
SPEAKER_02:You know when I got my first phone? About 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and it's easy because like it's under contract. So it's in your so you didn't really pay$500 for the phone, but you're paying on it. Yeah. So it's like, oh, it's only another$10 a month for the next one. 35 years. Yeah, exactly. You know, and we just we we've gotten this mindset that, you know, just we're willing. I yeah, I don't I think that's the problem with where we're headed. It's just parents no longer have any control um of what happens.
SPEAKER_04:But you know, we can't blame the kids though. We No, we did it. You know, that's the thing. Like it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But you can't convince the the well, some some some younger adults.
SPEAKER_04:You can't convince the generation that did it that they actually did it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Truth. That's so true.
SPEAKER_00:Because that means they'd have to give it up too. Yeah. That's the thing. You know, and it's nobody and nobody wants to give up anything. No. No. No. Even for the for the common good. It's like, nope, I am not willing to sacrifice that. Yep. Um, yeah, just not willing to do it.
SPEAKER_02:And just think Jesus sacrificed everything for us. Yeah. And we're not. And we're sacrifice a telephone.
SPEAKER_05:Nope.
SPEAKER_04:So do you ever think there was a person or is a person besides Jesus that has kept all these Ten Commandments? No. No. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Not a one.
SPEAKER_04:And I there was a on my one devotional, it says it's like the motherhood one that I've talked about, but it said trying to memorize scripture, like, you know, tips and tricks and stuff. But it said, you know, whenever my kid, um, my first kid was a toddler, I would turn on these songs for littles or something. And she had a couple different ones that she turned on, so I've been turning them on for Cooper. And the one was called The Ten Commandments. And I mean, this was like a day, like it was so so bizarre how it happened because we brought up the you know Ten Commandments when we decided that we're gonna do it, and then I had this devotional, and then she was like saying about these songs, and so I went and Googled or YouTube a couple of these different bands, and the one was about the Ten Commandments, and I was like, Oh, well, I'm gonna listen to this one because you know I want to see what just listen to the lyrics, and it said, No one can keep them all even on their best behavior. That's why we all need a savior.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. And I'm like, Yep, well, yeah, obviously.
SPEAKER_04:But it's like, yeah, no one, no one has, no one will.
SPEAKER_00:No, and like I said, as I said at the beginning, I don't think humans, we don't really understand sin. We do, but we don't.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like even when we see that that truck coming, we see the deadlights coming, we're staying in the middle of the road. Sometimes we just stand there. Like we know that we know the truck's gonna hit us, we know what it's gonna do to us, but we still stand there. So obviously we don't understand it. Um God is is the only one that truly understands sin and the outcome of it and all the effects that it has, which is I think out of love and protection for his people. Like I said, my people cannot move forward with the mission, with with my word, if if we don't start getting these ten things under control.
SPEAKER_04:And it wasn't, hey, here's these ten commandments. If you you know abide by all of them, you'll see eternal life. Like that wasn't the point of it. The point was like to show your commitment to your savior, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Like, yeah, and we're on a path here of no return.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:If we don't start following these commandments, these people are just becoming completely unruly.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, you know, like I said, the family units gone. You know, there's just no strength at all in in my word, and we're worshiping gods that they don't eat you know, that they just met yesterday or just found yesterday. Uh yeah, it's just my people and my word is just going to completely disappear from the earth if we don't get these. These are the ten things that are causing the most you know, he could have he could have made it the twenty commandments or the thirty commandments. But these were the ten things that were like, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's there's so many things that you could branch off of each one of them. Sure. Yeah. Means this, you know.
SPEAKER_00:But it's you know, it's like you know, it's like our bill of rights. We wanted to talk about our country and our bill of rights. There's those ten things that are like the foundation of what we believe as Americans that we should have and protect.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And of course, we're sometimes at a point now in our country where I mean, I don't e I don't even remember what all ten bill of rights are. I don't. But but they're so important, but most Americans don't even know what they are. Yeah. And that's safe to say, maybe a lot of Christians don't know what the Ten Commandments are.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know the big ones.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But sometimes, like, you know, don't covet or honor thy father and thy mother, or you know, you hear them but you don't understand them. Yeah. Um so it's, you know, that that's where we are. Um yeah, i it's it's not just a uh like I said, it's I wanted to say too, it's the Ten Commandments is not your certificate to judge. Yes. You should never have them in your back pocket as a as a you know, get out of jail freaking or something like that to just I'm gonna attack people anytime I you know what I'm seeing right here?
SPEAKER_04:Like the Book of Hooville. But yes, Mr. Mayor, true, but the Book of Hooville also says you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Like Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then he says something, and she's like, What does it say?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, it's in here, nobody was in here.
SPEAKER_05:Roger's like, What?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, this is getting scary. The Grinch The Grinch. Oh, the Grinch. Jim Carrey, 2008. No, 2007, 2008, or is it earlier though? It was earlier. Oh, yeah, maybe it was. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.
SPEAKER_04:2004, I think. Okay. I might have to phone Chase and ask him he'd know.
SPEAKER_02:Phone friend.
SPEAKER_04:Phone a friend. I'm s I'm surprised he hasn't turned it on yet for Cooper. This year. He's already turned it on last year for him.
SPEAKER_00:Well, November 1st. It'll be like I said.
SPEAKER_04:There was one year he turned it on in September. And I'm like, what are we doing, buddy? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, I was watching Christmas reels. I remember in summertime I was watching, yeah, like, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It was really hot. Christmas in July.
SPEAKER_04:Well. Any other parting words?
SPEAKER_05:No.
SPEAKER_04:No. Alright. I will pray us out of here then. All right. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you for this time we've had this evening, Lord. Um, I just thank you that we are able to gather here um and talk about the things that, you know, some people have questions with. And I just thank you that, you know, this was brought on Jenny's heart to do this one. Um, and I'm just thankful that we all, you know, came with just our own um words, words of encouragement, advice, you know, even just our own two cents. Um, you know, let this touch someone now, let it touch someone ten years from now. Um, I just pray for travel mercies and in your name. Amen.
SPEAKER_02:Amen. Amen.
Michael Brindley
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Beth Jarvis
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Dawn Reed-Enochs
Co-host
Nic Affolter
Co-host
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