How Do We Deal With Christians Who've Committed Suicide? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Clein and Johnathan Hernandez.

Jonathan Hernandez
So our question this morning is, "if you have known some people who knew Jesus and were great human beings, but resorted to suicide, how do you continue to keep that hope that they lost so easily? So this morning I'll let you kick that off Ben.

Ben Cline
All right. Well, normally we're joined also by pastor Gary Schick over from Emmanuel church in Scottsbluff, and we just wanna say that I hope that you're having a nice time with your family. And this is a question that came to us this week and, you know, this is a very difficult question. It's a question that is difficult to talk about, even amongst ourselves really. Like, you know, if we have, you know, this question come up in a family conversation it's difficult to talk about. The subject of suicide really is, it's not only difficult, but I think it's also a very complex topic. And so, you know, just trying to address this particular question, you know, the first thing that I would say Jonathan, to our listeners is that, you know, I'm so sorry for any loss that you guys might have experienced through the tragedy of suicide. You know, it's a tragic thing. It's not something that God wants for us, and it's a very painful thing to go through. So, you know, first of all to say, I'm sorry, and we grieve with you. You know, and the second thing is maybe more of a matter of advice when we're dealing with a question like this in particular. Is that, when we come across somebody who's dealing with thoughts of suicide, you know, we don't really know everything that's going on with this person. We don't know what they're struggling with and it's typically very difficult to know what's going on in the depths of a person's heart. And so it's so important for us, if we know somebody who's struggling with this, you know, it's important for us to work with them, to try to get them the help that they need. And so there's really a number of reasons why somebody might struggle with thoughts of suicide, and we don't know exactly what that is. It might be a physical thing that they're dealing with, it might be a loss that they're dealing with. There's a whole bunch of different reasons. But thankfully there are people out there who are very well trained to help those who are struggling with this issue. And, you know, there's a national hotline that you can look up, you know, if you're struggling with thoughts of suicide. We would encourage you first of all, to get in touch with the people at this hotline. It's an anonymous thing, from what I understand, and I can give you the number right now. It's 1-800-273-8255, and that's the national lifeline for suicide prevention. So, you know it in that case, you know, you need to call that number and get in touch with them. And, you know, if you know somebody who is having, you know, thoughts of suicide and you're afraid for their safety, the best thing for you to do is also to call the local authorities. So, but anyway, that's just part of this answer, you know, getting them the help that they need. But we have a more specific question this morning, right? And that's, you know, how do we keep the hope? Well, we all face trouble, and we can all even face despair in our lifetime at some point. But each one of us, what we have to understand is that we have access to the hope that God offers to us. And one of the places that you can go to in scripture and really see the depth of human emotion, is to the Psalms. And so real quick, I just wanted to read through Psalm 6, and this is a Psalm of David. I'm gonna read to you from the New Living Translation, it says, "Oh Lord, don't rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage. Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, oh Lord, until you restore me? Return, oh Lord, and rescue me. Save me because of your unfailing love. For the dead do not remember you. Who can praise you from the grave? I am worn out from sobbing all night. I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies. Go away, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer. May all my enemies be disgraced and terrified. May they suddenly turn back in shame." And, you know, I read through a passage like that and it's like, "well yeah, there's been times in my life where I've been there." Maybe to that extreme, maybe not to that extreme, or maybe further than that extreme. You know, we've been in places where we've been in despair and, you know, the Psalms also offer hope. Psalms 42:11, it says, "why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you at turmoil within me?" And then it says, "Hope in God. For I shall again, praise Him---my salvation and my God." And, you know, as we look to the New Testament, it offers the hope of God. And one of the things that I think that we can do to retain that hope that we have and to really cling to that anchor, that God is, to remember those promises. There's one in Romans 8:1 where he says "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." So if you know Jesus Christ is your savior, there is no condemnation from God. And that's, you know, something important for us to remember, to keep our hope intact. And then also, Hebrews 13:5 reminds us that God will never leave us and will never forsake us. So just some thoughts on this topic. I hope that that's helpful to somebody.

Jonathan Hernandez
Well, thank you. So I wanna try to tackle this from the angle of, how do we in our everyday life, I guess, continue to search for God and continue to walk forward in some of these areas. And so one of the first areas I wanna talk about is, examine your heart. In Proverbs 4:23 it says, "above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." And I think that's super important, that as we go throughout life, no matter if it's listening to somebody talk to us, or what are we listening to? What are we putting into our bodies? What are we watching on TV? What type of music are we listening to? All these things that are coming into our lives, we need to guard from some; actually probably quite a bit of that stuff, cause not all of it's really edifying to us. And so we need to make sure that we are guarding our hearts, cause we're all gonna experience difficulties. You know, so we see a lot of those things. And I think also, as we guard our hearts, we also need to think and look at, how's our attitude towards things. I think a lot of times I could become a doubter or a downer. A lot of times, if I don't guard my heart and allow myself to say, "okay, what area of my life is not in order or not into the place of what Jesus wants for me?" And so I could become a downer and as I start going down that rabbit hole, unfortunately, sometimes you grab a hold of somebody else and you bring them with you. And so we need to make sure that we're guarding our hearts, checking our attitudes, making sure that they're in a good place, you know? That way we're encouraging people instead of bringing them down. One of the second things we would look at would be, meditate on God's word. How much of God's word are we actually in, you know? Cause a lot of times we say, "Hey, make sure you read your Bible." And you're like, "oh man, I'm gonna read 17 chapters today," and then in reality, I read my devotional and that's about as far as I get into the word. So we need to make sure that we are in the word: we are studying it, we are reading it. There's so many exciting things in there. You could never read through the entire Bible and say, "oh, that was boring," cause there's just so much. And there's so much that God brings to the forefront as you read through it. I mean, how many times have you been reading through scripture and then all of a sudden you say, "I don't remember reading through that," even though you've read through the Bible multiple times, and through that section multiple times. So there's always something new and exciting. We need to make sure that we are reading as, whatever it may be. If we're reading through three chapters or we're reading through the Bible in a year, there's always something that we can look for through scripture. The other thing would be to pray; how is our prayer life? You know, I know when I first started going to church, my prayer life was "God bless my food, bless my family, Amen." And that was probably about it. And you know, I remember my pastor back then, he challenged us to pray for more than three minutes and I'm like, how does that work? You know? I've only prayed for three minutes. And so then, you know, just stepping into three minutes realizing, "oh, that was actually pretty easy." We took our church through this thing called The Journey, and we challenged them to pray for half a day and just to see the looks on their faces. I was like, "I was in the same place," you know? I've been that place. But just make sure that we keep our prayer life active, you know? There's always something that we can pray for. You know, there's always something that we can go after God in prayer for. So just grab a hold of those and just say, "Okay God, I'm gonna spend, whatever it may be," you know? The fourth thing would be to renew your mind. And we could see that in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is---His good, pleasing, and perfect will."

Jonathan Hernandez
I think a lot of times our mindsets get out of place or go into somewhere that it shouldn't be. If we're dealing with depression, then our mindset's always in that depressed place and we're always, you know, seeing those things and if you have anxiety, you know, your mindset's always, "what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen?" I've dealt with extreme anxiety in my life and I know how that can be just a rabbit hole of me just continuing to go into directions or places that God never intended for me to be in. And so, just allowing Christ to renew our minds, and we do that through reading the scripture and just allowing the scripture to really help remove some of these mindsets that we have, as we, you know, just live in our everyday world. So the next one would be to build up your faith in God, and we do that through, you know, making sure that we're in the word. Making sure that we have a prayer life. Making sure that, you know, even memorizing scripture, you know? So when we feel like the enemy is coming after us, you know, we have something to go back to, you know? If I don't have any scripture or anything like that when the enemy attacks me, what happens? "You're probably right, I'm gonna go with you," you know? But we see this as Jesus was tempted in the desert, that he had scripture that he went back to and he said, "okay, this, this, this," instead of saying, "oh, I guess you're right. Am I really the son of God? I don't know." He had scripture that he went back to, you know? He had the word of God that he used. And then we look at, offer praise and Thanksgiving. How much are we actually engaged in worship in our everyday lives? One of my friends, whenever I go over to his house, he always has praise and worship music playing. It's just softly in the background, most of the time you kind of really don't hear it. And until you really pay attention, they're like, "Hey, I know that song." And so, just finding areas, you know, places where you can just praise in that for that little bit. Just as you're driving down the street, instead of listening to whatever you're listening to put on some worship music and, you know, just spend, you know, it takes me two minutes to get to work. So that's not really a whole song, but I can listen to something to really just help me get into the place of praise as I drive to work. And then the last thing is that, make sure that we're nurturing our soul, our spirit and our body. You know, that we're actually taking care of ourselves. It's more than just the spiritual, cause we actually have a physical body here on earth. So if we're not taking care of it, well guess what, we're having to take all kinds of medication to try to get healthy. You know, so we just need to make sure that we're taking care of our bodies, that we're eating right, we're exercising, all the things that your doctor says that you should have been doing already.

Ben Cline
They know what they're talking about.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yes, they actually know what they're talking about. So make sure that you're taking care of your body, taking care of those things that you need to be taking care of. So hopefully that will help you guys as you kind of approach that in more of a daily discipline area of life. So, I guess we'll go ahead and close in prayer, unless you have something else that you wanna add to that.

Ben Cline
No, that's great. I just, you know, I think the last thing is just a word of encouragement. I mean, be encouraged in life, be encouraged in the word of God and be encouraged through prayer.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, and I think it's important too, that we are present within our relationships. You know that we can notice some signs, you know? Cause I always hear people say, "well, I wish I would've noticed a sign" and not saying that they weren't present, but a lot of times, you know, our friendships are more through social media, so we're not really seeing things. And so I think, as we build one on one in person relationships, that we're actually present in those relationships, we're hearing and we're asking the tough question, "Hey, how are you really doing?" I don't want to hear, "oh, I'm blessed and highly favored," you know, the Christian terms that we use. But actually say, "well, how are you really, really doing?" To getting down to some of those things.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? Keeping Hope in the Dark Times

Christmas at Carnton - Recently widowed, Aletta Prescott struggles to hold life together for herself and her six-year-old son. With the bank threatening to evict them, she discovers an advertisement for the Women’s Relief Society auction and applies for a position—only to discover it’s been filled. Then a chance meeting with a wounded soldier offers another opportunity—and friendship. But can Aletta trust this man? Captain Jake Winston, a revered Confederate sharpshooter, suffered a head wound at the Battle of Chickamauga. When doctors deliver their diagnosis, Jake fears losing not only his greatest skill but his very identity. As he heals, Jake is ordered to assist with a local Women’s Relief Society auction. He respectfully objects. Kowtowing to a bunch of “crinolines” isn’t his idea of soldiering. But orders are orders, and he soon discovers this group of ladies—one, in particular—is far more than he bargained for. Set against the backdrop and history of the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee, Christmas at Carnton is a story of hope renewed and faith restored at Christmas. 

Live not by Lies - Over the past few years, America has seen the rise of a chilling “soft totalitarianism—something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Progressives attempt to marginalize conservatives, traditional Christians, and other dissenters, sneering at the idea of civil liberties protecting their beliefs. Corporations now censor opinions with which they disagree. Technology is inching us toward a surveillance state, and consumerism has dulled our spirits and made us willing to accept a secularism imposed not by gulags but by “softer” means. Despite these warning signs, many American Christians fail to recognize the dangers, and even fewer know what they can do to resist. Meanwhile, the men and women who survived communist oppression have been sounding the alarm that their souls and their liberties are already at stake. In Live not by Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm and explains why it is so hard for us to recognize the threat of totalitarianism in our own time. He lays out the steps for resistance and shares stories of modern-day dissidents who preserved their faith and their integrity during a time of tyranny, revealing: 

• How to keep your sons and daughters in the faith, like the Benda family, whose six children remained devoted in the face of persecution

• How to stand firm, like Father Jerzy Popietuszko, who gave up his life to speak out against the the communist regime

• How to let go of bitterness, like physician Silvester Krcmery, who prayed for his captors every day of his thirteen-year prison sentence

• How to live not by lies, like Russia’s Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who refused to affirm anything he knew to be untrue, even at the price of exile

Too many of us are sleeping through the erosion of our freedoms, assuming that totalitarianism can’t happen in America. Live Not by Lies is the wake-up call we need—and will equip us for the long resistance.

Have you ever had that heavy feeling where it felt like life was throwing all it had at you? And all you know is that hope feels more out of reach than ever. Well, the people in these two new selections, whether they be fictional or real, feel that way right before they get their hope back. Within the first chapter of Christmas at Carnton, Aletta Prescott finds herself: without a job, soon to be without a home, missing her husband, and wondering how she is going to raise her son all by herself. The stress level is truly demonstrated to the readers when Aletta is, “wishing the Lord couldn’t see the doubts she courted, even in the midst of struggling to believe.” As the story goes on Aletta meets Captain Jake Winston, who becomes a kindred in life’s roller coaster of struggles. As they became closer, they began to regain hope in their circumstances, and realized that God is bigger than any trial. The other new book that I dove into this week was Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher. This subtitle explains what Dreher intends to tell his readers, “Survivors of Soviet Totalitarianism have a warning for us: It can happen here!” The definition of totalitarianism is: the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority. So, Dreher spends the first four chapters going in-depth into what totalitarianism is and how it affects those that it hits. Once again we are shown, not just two people, but a multitude, who are craving to be free from the oppression that seems to crush their spirits more and more. But then Dreher uses the rest of his book to show how priests and families helped generate hope for their people. Another book that talks about enduring life’s roller coaster is the book of Job. In chapter one we read that Job has many things to be grateful for: a wife, sons and daughters, land, animals, and an undying faith in the Lord. Job had everything that a man of that time period could ask for, that is, until the test began. The livestock and the land perished, his wife and children suffered terribly, and up to the end of it all his faith in God almost died too. But the devil couldn’t win that easily. In chapters 39-42 the Lord speaks with Job saying, “Hey, I know you just went through a lot of horrible stuff and you are beginning to lose hope, but I want you to remember something. I haven’t left you through all of this and will never leave you from this day forward. Don’t you know that I brought the world into being, from the smallest to the biggest detail that you can see. So don’t lose hope, Job, and never forget that I am in control.” Have you ever had that heavy feeling where it felt like life was throwing all it had at you? And all you know is that hope feels more out of reach than ever. So, do you want to know how to survive life’s roller coaster? Don’t ever forget that God is in control, and that his plan for you is becoming more and more clear every day. So come on down to the Cross Reference Library and check out these great page turners!

“I was always complaining about the ruts in the road until I realized that the ruts are the road.”

—Unknown

Acceptance in the LGBTQ+ Community - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastor Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Well I'll tell you what, I really wish that I had my cohosts with me today, because I got, I guess really not a very difficult question. But one that's culturally relevant and yet one that many of us, I guess, wanna shy away from, because there's so much war about it in our times. Nevertheless, here it is. I got this in an email from Russ Garrett the station manager, and here is what he wrote, "Hello Gary, I was wondering if your team would like to address this issue. This is an email I received requesting an interview with 'this' artist. Maybe you can help our listeners know how to respond to such people and what the Bible has to say about this issue. Thanks. Russ/Hope Radio KCMI." Alright, so the email that Russ received was this, and this is, I don't have a name with this, just an anonymous listener, "as we are well into pride month," which ended yesterday by the way friends, it was in the month of June. "As we are well into pride month, Rito Rhymes has been trekking his way through gay clubs as a cis-heterosexual man, and has experienced something he never expected, but needed...validation from the gay community. As someone struggling with evidence of his own attractiveness, based on persistent rejections from cis women, he noticed drastically more acceptance and validation from gay men as he immersed himself into the community's nightlife. Rito can delineate and/or rap the following: ---His own experience of more acceptance and love from the LGBTQ+ community. How an embrace from the LGBQ+ community helped him rebuild his confidence, and finally, how he is working his way to the top as a visionary nerd rapper." This email that was forwarded on to me from Russ left me with several questions, and maybe you as some of our listeners. And by the way, if this is one of those topics that you don't wanna be talking about in the home among younger children, this might be a point to either send them out of the room or come back and listen to this one later. But, it left me with a lot of questions. I guess I'm not fully culturally up to date, I didn't know what cis heterosexuals were (cis men, cis women). So, first of all, even to begin to respond to this listener, I had to do a little digging for myself. So, the definition I found online is essentially this, "A cis heterosexual, be it man or woman is a person who is identified at birth by a doctor as either male or female, and feels like that is what they are, male or female." Which, kind of interesting, the way it was phrased there. As if doctors are sort of randomly putting these titles on people based on some genetics, when the Bible's pretty clear, "In the beginning, God created them male and female. So, we already see the tension that we're going into, because as Christians we have a biblical worldview that says, "No, it's not doctors that assign us anything at birth. It's what God has created male and female, those are the two categories that we see in the scripture. Nevertheless, we live in a time where we just kind of want to gloss over that, and for a variety of reasons we live in a world that is redefining. And so a cis heterosexual is a person who would identify themselves, just in the good old fashioned way, Male or Female. Nevertheless, it is called, in our times, as what is identified by, at birth, by a doctor and then feeling in accord with that. Whether that person is of an orientation that is heterosexual or homosexual, but they would identify themselves with the sex gender of their birth. Next, I had to just dig in and ask the question, what is a nerd rapper? I knew what rap was, what rap music is. Apparently it's rap music that includes topics like technology and science. And then finally, I'm not even up to date on the Christian contemporary music chart, so I'm sure not up to date on the secular scene. Who is Rito Rhymes? Well, he's obviously a contemporary nerd rapper who seems to have been surprised by and appreciative of how he was received in the gay community, though not part of it. And finally, just in case anybody out there is not quite sure, although I think we probably all know about by now, what is pride month? Well, it's a month that's been designated as the month to promote, celebrate and affirm the LGBTQ+ community. Their lifestyle and the contributions to society of people who are identified with that movement and way of life. And certainly, you know, as with every month designation, we're talking about celebrating people who have come out from under an oppression of one kind or another in society, and yet have made positive contributions toward it. And then finally, in answer to the writer of the initial email's question basically is, he's wanting an interview with this person, some kind of a response. What can we say about the acceptance that Rito Rhymes says he has experienced in the gay community? Well, in a sense, we can't say anything good or bad, it's simply his experience. A person who's had his own struggles, a person who's struggled with his own identity, perhaps apparently not his sexuality. He identifies himself as heterosexual, yet he's kind of struggled to find his niche there, for whatever reasons. And I don't know him, I don't know how he treats others, but he hasn't felt well received by the women that he has reached out to. Nevertheless, he appears to have been received well by gay men. And I don't know enough about the gay community to really respond to that other than what I have heard, which is just hearsay, but that they are an accepting community, not only among their own, but among those who come among them. And particularly it seems, and again, this is probably a stereotype, but that the gay community in particular, often associates itself with the arts. And so, maybe not too surprisingly that a heterosexual rapper would find appreciation and acceptance when he has reached out to them and gone in among that community. But also this is posted to me and my co-hosts--who are not with me today--and from Russ asking, "So what's a biblical response to this topic and this issue in our times? And to this lifestyle in our culture, especially, perhaps to the mainstreaming of the gay lifestyle in our culture?" Well, the biblical response is twofold, and it's very simple. Number 1: The Bible calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, whoever they may be, regardless of all the things that divide us in the world today. Whether it's race or creed or even sexual orientation, the Bible says, "love your neighbor as yourself." And when Jesus was pressed on this question, He brought up the hot topic of His time. He gave us the parable of what we call The Good Samaritan, which in our culture seems pretty mild. In fact, there's even a Good Sam's Club out there. But if you were living in the Israel of Jesus' day, you would not call any club a Good Sam's Club, because the Samaritans were those people that the Jewish people of Jesus' community felt most distant from, most disconnected from, most at odds with. They did not even cross the line into each other's territories. There was, in the Jewish mindset, no such thing as a good Samaritan. And yet Jesus uses a Samaritan to describe someone who is being neighborly and kind. Without affirming what Samaritans believed or what they did on Mount Gerizim where they worshiped. Jesus used this; a person of a different life, a different belief, a different faith. It would've been regarded, and we would still regard it, as a cult offshoot of Judaism, which was not Judaism. We would not have probably wanted to use this as an example, but Jesus uses this very intentionally to say, "Look, this is how you treat people: you treat them with love, you treat them with respect, you treat them with support, you treat them with kindness. You share with them the good news of the gospel that washes away sins and truly changes lives in radical ways." Samaritans were so looked down on and it's interesting that when Jesus even addressed a Samaritan, the woman at the well, and here is a person who is in sexual sin. She's been married seven times, she's living with a guy now--she's not even married to him--and Jesus is treating her gently. And she brings up the topic of the whole Samaritan/Jewish divide and Jesus, He doesn't affirm what the Samaritans believe anymore than He affirms what she's doing sexually in her life. But He keeps bringing her back to the salvation question, which will change all of the other things in her life, and used the gospel as the powerful thing to change life. You know, this is a great one for us because we are living in a world where these issues are not pushed away in the closet anymore. There is so much that once upon a time, we all agreed: This was right, this was wrong, and if it was wrong, sure didn't do it, and there are some things we didn't even talk about. Now it's all on the table, it's all being talked about. And more than that, it's all being accepted culturally. So how do we respond to that? You know, we live in a time of what we might call, culture wars and slowly as Christians, I think we are learning that when we take up the sword of the state for the cause of Christ and just try and outlaw everything that we see in the Bible to be wrong, it comes back to bite us. It's not working out well. And maybe that's the reason that Jesus told us, and the scriptures told us, and Paul tells us in his letters, "we don't war with the weapons of this world. Those who pick up the sword of the state," as Jesus put it, "those who take up the sword end up dying by it." That's not our weapon friends. We take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And friends, I just want to give you a comforting thought: The gospel is far more powerful than the sword of the state. And really it is the only method capable of bringing lasting change, not only to a culture, but to the hearts of individual people and those that we love. And this again, is a topic where once upon a time you might have said, "I don't know anybody of that lifestyle. I don't know anybody of that orientation." Well, today you do, and you're in school with them, and you're at work with people of that lifestyle, and you probably have people in your extended family who are there.

Gary Schick
And so, how do we respond? Jesus has told us how to respond: You love your neighbor, you pray for your neighbor, you do good to your neighbor, you work for their good, and you share with them the good news of the gospel. All of that said, this does not mean that the Bible condones all lifestyles and all life choices, concerning marriage and sexuality, the Bible is very clear. In Genesis 1 and 2 we read, "In the beginning, God created them male and female," and I camped on this a little bit just as we were sort of even getting into this topic. Biblically, this is not something that a doctor decides. They're just identifying what God put there to begin with. Now, I know there are some genetic variations and things that can lead to some confusion, but essentially there from creation are what is called male and female. And interestingly enough, in the first marriage God brings together a male, a female, and calls this, "that relationship in which to become one." And Jesus comes along, and when he's asked about divorce, which was a hot topic in his time, (And it's still a hot topic in our day), and He affirms marriage, not as God allowed it. "Yeah, it can be broken under this circumstance," or whatever He says. But look at what God's intent was at the creation. That that should be our goal as well. What did God intend? And Jesus takes us back to Genesis 1 & 2 and He says, "in the beginning, He created them male and female and the two shall become one." And then Jesus says, "what God has made one flesh, let not man put us under." So, in that statement, Jesus is reaffirming everything that Genesis 1 and 2 tells us, not only about our sexuality, but also about the nature of marriage, that it is between one man and one woman. And He reaffirms what the Bible says about sexuality, which not only cuts out the LGBTQ+ approach to sexuality, but even the way many heterosexuals treat it. This is not something that you move into or try out for a while. "If it's good, if we like it, if we like each other. If the relationship seems good, then we'll sprinkle a little holy water on it and get married, tie the knot." No, no, no friends, sexual activity of any kind outside of marriage, the Bible prohibits, calls it sin. When we come to the topic of marriage, the Bible says it's between one man and one woman. And that is where the sexual relationship is to be, it is to be a monogamous union, not including anyone else's faithfulness within the relationship. And why is this? Because it reflects the relationship between Christ and his other counterpart, which is His church, His bride. And so marriage in scripture is taken to a very high place as to be this holy, monogamous faithful woman, or union representing the relationship of Christ and His church. So, even within the Christian Church there's many who are gonna balk at this, because this is God's ideal. And that it is to be a lifelong and healthy and beautiful and upbuilding relationship between one man and one woman. And we'll go farther with that. It is also to be a procreative union, or at least open to that gift. And again, this is not where our culture has taken it. We have made it all about personal pleasure, personal choices personal decisions; personal, personal, personal, if there's one thing that defines us as Americans, which is, we are people of choice. And yet the Bible says, "No, God actually has some other intentions for these things." So, nevertheless, that's what the Bible says, same sex relationships, living together relationships, relationships that were less than monogamous. This is not unfamiliar to the writers of the Bible. This was rampant, all of this. Everything that's going on in our culture today was fairly rampant in the culture of the Old Testament, the pagan cultures of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Hittites, the Moabites, the Egyptians. I mean, it happened among them. When we come to the New Testament era, the Greek and Roman cultures we're very accepting of all of these lifestyles. The only thing that's really different today, is that today in our culture the same sex partnership has been raised to the status of marriage. We did not see that in the ancient world. While these relationships were common, what was also still agreed on then was that the marriage relationship was for the purpose, essentially, of being a procreative union. And that can't happen in a same sex union. Male and male, female and female do not procreate, something else has to happen. And so, that is a sense in which we have gone a step beyond in our culture, but nevertheless, the Bible speaks to all of this. And again, rather than going to war with those who are different from us, and don't have the Bible's perspective, it talks about what the gospel can do. And it also takes sexual sins and it does something else we don't intend to do. For some reason, we tend to elevate those things. It levels them out with everything else. When Paul writes, in his letter to the Corinthians, who lived in a city that was very sex saturated. I mean, right there in Corinth was the temple to Aphrodite in which I guess there were something like a thousand prostitutes; that was how they worshiped Aphrodite. So talk about a sex saturated culture. This is what Paul writes, he says to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral." That is, those who take sexual activity outside of marriage be it heterosexual or otherwise. "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolators, nor adulterers." Those who break the marriage vow. "Nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts. Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunker, nor verbal abusers, nor swindler will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God." So Paul does everything that we don't like here. Number one, he does identify this sin as a sin, and there's a reason he didn't just randomly come up with it because he wanted to give a hard time to people in that community. No, this sort of sexual activity was very normal and accepted in the Greek culture, it may not have been something they would've called marriage, but it would not have been unusual. And he's bringing these people around to the biblical perspective and saying, "No, this is sin," but then he does something else that a lot of us don't like. He's not raising any sexual sin above other sins. He's putting it right down among those who are unkind to each other verbally. Something that unfortunately, a lot of Christians have no problem with, what today in the culture is called hate speech. And the Bible says, "you know what, hate speech is not acceptable either." He just blanketly gives a catalog of many sins: some that we would frown on, some that we would turn a blind eye toward and say, "you know what, God doesn't turn a blind eye toward any of this stuff." And then he says this, "and by the way, some of you found yourselves in each of these categories. There were some among you, Christians in Corinth, who at one time were among those who were sexually immoral, who were idols, who were adulterers, who performed sexual homosexual acts, who were thieves, who were greedy for money, who were drunkards, who were verbally abusive, who were swindlers. And you were among those who are not inheriting the kingdom of God, but you came to Christ. You heard the gospel, you received Jesus, and you were washed not just with baptism, but you were sanctified inwardly. You were made a new person, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God, and you have taken a new path in life." Culturally, we're told that people can't change. They can't come out of certain lifestyles. And I'll say it: a lot of things that Paul talks about in this list are hard things to break off of, setting aside the sexual identity question. I know of people who struggle and are dying under the addiction to alcohol. There are some things that are hard to break ways with. There are hard things to part ways with and take on a new path. But Paul is telling us that through the gospel and the power of the spirit, all things are possible. So what does the Bible say? Though it may not be politically correct, continues to call anything, but the marriage of one man, one woman in a monogamous relationship, open to the gift of children sin. On the other hand, for all those who don't fit that category who have fallen short, and Jesus says, "Remember, even anyone who has looked at a woman less fully has committed adultery." So guess what? We all fall into that category. At some point, the gospel says "yet, there is forgiveness, yet there is a way out. Yet, there is a new path, back to God's plan from the beginning." So, probably ruffled some feathers today. Love your neighbors friends, pray for them, have a close eye toward your own life and how well you are measuring up to the biblical ideal. And together let's be receptive of the good news of Jesus. What he died on the cross to cleanse us from. And seeking by the power of the spirit to honor Him with our thoughts, with our words, with our deeds, with our eyes, with our actions, with how we respond to one another, how we treat one another, how we accept one another and how we then in Christ choose to live.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? New James L. Rubart Books

Book of Days - “You will lose your mind. When it starts happening…you must find the Book of Days.” When Cameron’s dying father delivers this message, he brushes it off. Lose his memory? He’s only twenty-five. Find a book that doesn’t even exist. Foolishness. Nothing more than the product of his father’s dementia. But now, eight years after his father’s death, it’s happening. Chunks of Cameron’s life are just—gone. Even memories of his wife, killed two years ago, have slipped away. Could it be…? Is his father’s eerie prediction coming true? Desperate, Cameron is determined to fulfill his father’s last wish. He will find the Book of Days. But when a lead takes him to the small town of Three Peaks, Oregon, Cameron realizes dark secrets are at work. The townspeople, warm as apple pie at first, turn cold as liquid nitrogen when Cameron mentions the Book. As his mind works against him, Cameron discovers that friends may be enemies. And the one person Cameron can’t stand? She might be his strongest ally. But there are others seeking the Book. Others who will stop at nothing to get it. And they’re closer than Cameron ever imagined…

Soul’s Gate - What if you could travel inside another person’s soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing their deepest wounds. To help set them free, to step boldly into their divinely designed future. Thirty years ago that’s exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future. Now God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken over him three decades ago. A prophecy about three warriors with the potential to change the world…if Reece will face his deepest regret and teach them what he has learned. They gather at a secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning clarity—and how to step into the supernatural. Their training is only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue, a freedom even Reece doesn’t fully fathom. But they have an enemy hell-bent on destroying them and he’ll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest for true freedom and the coming battle of souls. 

The Chair - If you were given an ancient-looking chair and told Jesus Christ made it, would you believe it? When an elderly lady shows up in Corin Roscoe’s antiques store and gives him a chair she claims was built by Christ, he scoffs. But when a young boy is miraculously healed after sitting in the chair, he stops laughing and starts to wonder: Could this chair heal the person whose life I destroyed twelve years ago? As word spreads of the boy’s healing, a megachurch pastor is determined to manipulate Corin into turning over the chair. But the mysterious woman who gave him the piece insinuates it is Corin’s destiny to guard the chair above everything else. But why? Desperate, he turns to the one person he can trust, a college history professor who knows more about the legend of the chair than he reveals. Searching for truth about the artifact and the unexplained phenomena surrounding it, Corin soon realizes he isn’t the only one willing to do almost anything to possess the power that seems to surround the chair.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? The Prodigal Project series

Genesis - On just another Sunday, a man joins a group of friends for a golf game. A working mother, trying to balance career and home, skips weekly services. An internet junkie scours the web looking for comforting news but finds only unrest. Ordinary people who live their lives in an unsettled time, like most, are too overwhelmed by their own concerns to register the groundswell of changes taking place everywhere—until the instant when millions around the world disappear. Immediately, life after the Rapture becomes a chaotic battle for survival. Into the void steps Azul Dante, the charismatic leader of the Prodigal Project. He shines a light in the darkness of the End Times, his new world order representing a return to the promised land of the past. And in the beginning, seven hopeful men and women set out separately to find salvation in the Prodigal Project. Instead, they initiate a series of personal trials that will ultimately prove to be the sternest test of their souls…

Exodus - In the twinkling of an eye, their lives changed forever. Husbands, wives, children, all lost in what was first called “the disappearance.” Now many understand that with millions of Christians called home, the Rapture has irrevocably torn the fabric of their lives. They wander, rootless and searching, in the wake of events nearly too powerful, too overwhelming to comprehend. Some set out on a personal odyssey to reconnect with family, their past, with some semblance of order in a world menaced by the Muslim mujahideen. Offering hope, Azul Dante and his Prodigal Project remain a beacon in the swirling maelstrom of uncertainty that threatens to engulf nations, ideologies, and faiths. While on quiet street corners, in darkened homes, abandoned offices, wherever two or more are gathered, a small band of believers begins again to spread the Word. 

Numbers - Special Agent John Jameson has been assigned a daunting task—to take out the vicious leader of the militant Islamic mujahideen that has been menacing the world in the wake of the Rapture. Caught between his duty to country and his newfound faith, Jameson has learned a terrible secret. Desperate to relay this information to the highest levels of the American government, Jameson enlists the aid of journalist Cat Early. Caught up in chaotic events that neither could have ever imagined, the pair struggle to have their voices heard in the tumult of a world on the brink of catastrophic global warfare. Only one man seemingly holds the power to bring peace—the charismatic world leader Azul Dante. Global in scope yet powerfully focused on the lives of seven individuals struggling with issues of faith and allegiance to their country, Numbers, the third book of the Prodigal Project series, proves once again that: God can use even the most broken of vessels. 

Kings - Based on a Biblical interpretation of the Rapture, Kings continues the story of those caught up in the events following this world-upending event. Azul Dante, the increasingly controversial figure whom some nations hope will restore order to the world, recovers from a recent assassination attempt. Behind the scenes, another and even more sinister force exerts its powerful influence at a gathering of ten world leaders. While they meet, other events prefiguring the start of the last days have armies poised for battle. Meanwhile, the members of the seven set out to spread the good news of Christianity and salvation in a world desperate for answers and assurance. 

What we know about The Rapture and what is actually going to happen seem to be two totally different things. Authors like Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim Lahaye are world famous for their Left Behind series, which is filled with so many theories on what will happen to those who don’t believe in God and what the Bible teaches. And that is exactly what authors Ken Abraham and Daniel Hart dig into as well. But instead of putting us in the perspective of a confused airline pilot , Abraham and Hart take a different approach. They kind of played with the idea of: what if there was this organization called, The Prodigal Project, that gave those who remained on Earth some sort of “hope.” But the interesting thing about that storyline is, how can these characters gain any real hope without Jesus? And that makes me wonder what the leader of The Prodigal Project, Azul Dante, is really planning to gain by the giving the world false hope. In reality though, we also have an enemy who loves giving us false hope too. And he will stop at nothing to make sure that God’s people are distracted from where God wants them to be. But we can’t let that happen, because the hope we have in Jesus is so much more amazing than any kind of false hope that the devil tries to give us. So come on down to the Cross Reference Library and discover this interesting new series!

What Does God Have To Say About Stress? - Ask the Pastor

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Clein, Jonathan Hernandez, and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
So here guys is the question for today from one of our listeners. The individual writes, "I can't help but wonder if the cause of increased stress in so many people's lives, isn't the result of them thinking they don't need God. What does God have to say about stress? How can we address this topic biblically and give people real and eternal solutions? Jonathan, what do you think?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so I guess as we look through scripture, the word stress really doesn't pop up. But we see other things like anxiety or fear. Definitely, "Do not fear," shows up what 365 times I think, throughout scripture, and so we can look to some of those. I guess one of the scriptures that I was looking at was in Philippians 4:6, it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer, petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to the Lord and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." And so I think for me, stress has been something that really, burdened me for most of my life. You know, it's stress about the easiest and the smallest things to the biggest things. And you know, as we are, hopefully on the other side of COVID, I'm hoping we see a lot less stress in people's lives. But with this scripture, the thing I like, you know, really we need to present these things to God. "Okay, I'm struggling with the fear of COVID," or you know, whatever the fear is that we're struggling with. Our anxiety and those types of things, that we just take those to God and allow Him to just really, you know, cause it says, "guard your heart and your mind and allow Him to show us what we need to look to or look forward to." And then just finding things to help us deal with stress. Obviously, some worship music, just put on some worship music, you know, spend time worshiping or in the word. Those are definitely great areas to help reduce stress. And then also just look at, "Okay, why am I stressed?" Is it because of work? Do I have way too much stuff going on? And then just looking at those things that, "Okay, what can I take out of my life to help reduce stress?" And then just finding, for me, finding something extracurricular, like, I play disc golf. And so just finding a place that I can just go and relax, and a lot of times it's usually just talking to God as I'm throwing around Frisbees. So yeah! Good

Gary Schick
Good! Ben?

Ben Cline
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I was just thinking about, you know, the fact that that word stress is not actually mentioned in the Bible either, but you know, we definitely see other mentions of it. The word trouble is in there, talks about that as well, Jesus talks about that. But I think there's different areas where we maybe, typically experience stress in our lives, and Pastor Jonathan was talking about some of those things. You know finances, our jobs, our relationships, illness can cause a lot of stresses, hardships and trials and things like that. But one of the places that I was reading about, the fact that we're supposed to not be worried about those things in life, but to be relying on Christ, is actually in Matthew 6:25. It says, "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you'll eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you'll put on." And then it says, "Is not life more than just food and the body more than clothing?" So the example that's used there is, you know, the stresses that we experience because we're worried about those physical things in life, but then he goes on and he gives the example of God taking care of His creation. The creation that we can look out at and see. And so in verse 26 it says, "Look at the birds of the air that they do not sew nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" Then in verse 27 it says, "And who of you by being worried, can add a single hour to his life?" That's a question that I need to have going on in my mind over and over again, because I think quite the opposite happens when we worry, is that we maybe are taking years off of our lives. But then in verse 28 it says, "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself, like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass and the fields, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?" And then he says, "You have little faith." You know, what an interesting perspective as we think about the worries and the troubles and the stresses that we have in our life. God wants us to have faith in Him, and He wants us to be concentrated on Him.

Gary Schick
What a relevant, couple of passages you guys dug into. I mean, Jonathan with, "Have no anxiety about anything," boom! Right, spot on scripture for that. And then as you were talking, Ben, I was thinking, "and did Jesus mention about, 'and do not worry about gas prices?" But I mean, He was addressing that because He was talking about the everyday concerns. Where's the food gonna come from? Where are the clothes gonna come from? And today, you know, where's the money for the gas tank gonna come from? And here's the thing our listener, you know, I think in some ways, right? Yes, our culture has drifted from God and that has created stresses, but stress is part of life for unbelievers and believers and we all face it. I think the difference though, and we've been talking about it without even really maybe recognizing it, is the fact that as believers we have some resources to draw on that the unbeliever doesn't. And the thing that we've been talking about today, the name of the show is Ask the Pastor, but what are we pastors asking? And to answer your question, we're asking God's word. And so the scripture is so abundant. And again, you're right. The specific word stress may not have shown up in any of the translations we are reading. It might show up in some translation, but the concept of worries, concerns anxieties, and not only specific scriptures, but I mean, story after story in the Bible takes us to God's people going through some really stressful stuff and how God carried them through. This morning in Men's Bible study, we were talking about the life of Joseph, and talk about stress. He was thrown in a pit and sold into slavery, you know? And how faithfully God carried him through. As I was kind of thinking about this question last night, just to, I don't know if we ever mentioned it to you listeners, but basically we get the question the day before and we kind of all go home and think about it. And it's really neat how God puts together our answers the next day when we come together. But a verse that has just been so meaningful to me so many times in stressful situations: 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. The apostle Paul writes, "We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts, we felt that very sentence of death; but this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." So Paul doesn't give us the nitty gritty details of what was the stress, apparently the Corinthians knew something of what stress he was under in Asia. But he tells us that he would "despair even of life." And then he gives this wonderful perspective, "Yeah, we felt like we were even under the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but that we might learn in a sense to rely on God who raises the dead." And maybe you're out there just gasping for breath saying, "I don't know what to do." Time to turn it over to God friends, and to rely on the promises of God's word. You know, another great verse, Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you and uphold you with my righteous right hand." That's a verse I memorized a long time ago, going through some, what were called, Navigator's Material, they're a great ministry out of Colorado. If you will lay verses like that aside in your heart, God, the Holy Spirit can bring them back to you when you are in crisis mode. When you are under stress, just remember, "Hey, I am with you says the Lord." You know, Jesus words, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus wants us to give the big burdens to Him and just asks us to be faithful today with what He has for us to do. I think we so often get so ahead of ourselves. My worry is, I don't know about you guys, there are things mostly down the road, things that just don't usually happen, you know? And then the real things that maybe we should be stressed about, we never saw coming. But God gets them through, gets us through. I think another, and I think Jonathan addressed this so well, was just the importance of prayer. You know, for 1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." Romans 8:26 says, "But in the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray, but the spirit himself intercedes with groans, that words can't express." And then finally, and in a sense, our listener was doing this by asking us the question. But I think we do it in a much more personal way within the setting of a small group, Bible study, or the fellowship we have at church. And that is to share our burdens with one another in Christ. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ," which of course is to love one another. And so, by all means listener, don't feel guilty that you're stressed, stress happens. Stress is part of life. It's really more a question of, where do we channel that? Do we take it to God in prayer? Do we remind ourselves of the truths of God's word? Do we share our burdens with others to pray for us? Do we take the opportunity, as Jonathan put it, to just get outside and enjoy some of God's green earth and fresh air? Those are all healing things in stressful times. And in a way, praise God that we are in stressful situations, because that means probably that we're in situations where God can use us. I mean, look at the life of Paul, so much of it was stressful and yet God filled him with renewed joy every day. And may He do it for us too!

What's New at Cross Reference Library? On Fire for Christ

Unquenchable - What is your faith today? Is it an early spark, just beginning to flicker? A raging bonfire? Smoldering coals? Does your love for God burn so brightly that others are drawn to its radiance and warmed by its heat? Or has your passion cooled, your light dimmed, and your fire faded to cold, gray ashes? Throughout history, God has used the image of fire to represent his awesome power, and one day you will stand in God’s holy presence and see his burning love for you face-to-face. But until then, there is a life to be lived on earth, and the flame of your faith that once burned so brightly can falter in its storms. Whatever the condition of your faith, whether you burn with a feeble flicker or a growing passion, you can discover how to draw nearer to the heat of God’s eternal flame and fan the Spirit within you. Bestselling author Carol Kent takes you into God’s Word and into your own story, revealing the true power of the fire God has placed in you—a power that will stir your desire and embolden you to spark wildfires beyond your wildest imagination. 

The Twelfth Imam - Tensions are rising in the Middle East. Iran’s president vows to annihilate the United States and Israel. Israel’s prime minister says someone must hit Iran’s nuclear sites “before it’s too late.” The American president warns against a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and says negotiations are the key to finding peace. And amid it all, rumors are swirling throughout the region of a mysterious religious cleric claiming to be the Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam. Word of his miracles, healings, signs, and wonders is spreading like wildfire. CIA operative David Shirazi was born for this moment. He is recruited and sent into Tehran with one objective: use all means necessary to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons program, without leaving American fingerprints and without triggering an apocalyptic new war. But time is running out. 

Damascus Countdown - Israel successfully launches a first strike on Iran, taking out all of their nuclear sites and six of their nuclear warheads. American president William Jackson threatens to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish State for unprovoked and unwarranted acts of aggression. And the Twelfth Imam prepares to order a genocidal retaliation. Meanwhile, CIA operative David Shirazi has infiltrated the Iranian regime and intercepted top secret intelligence indicating that two Iranian nuclear warheads survived the attack and have been moved to a secure and undisclosed location. In danger not only from the ongoing war between Israel and Iran but also from the increasingly hostile governments in multiple countries, Shirazi and his team are in a race against time to find the remaining nuclear warheads before the most cataclysmic event in the history of the Middle East comes to pass.

Intergenerational Ministry Part 4

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Kiley Callaway, John Mulholland and Jon Simpson.

Jon Simpson
So, we kind of ended the last session and we kind of want to pick up there again and continue this bonus session. So we ended with a reading in Psalms, was it 77 or 78?

John Mulholland
Part of Psalm 78.

Jon Simpson
About the responsibility really, that God has certainly built into the nation of Israel. But really, we could go back and say, He built this into the creation, the way in which He created us as human beings. The way we're produced, the way that we knit together. And where this knowledge and how this knowledge and all this, is supposed to be passed on, it really is in the family. And so why don't you read that again, John?

John Mulholland
Yeah, so Psalm 78: Failed Family Discipleship. There are 72 verses, I'm just gonna start at the beginning and just read through verse four, which is where we ended off. "All my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to hear what I'm saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past, we've heard and known stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children. We will tell the next generation about the glory seeds of the Lord, about His power and His mighty wonders." So, there's a, I wanna say it's in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the reason, like, we have stories from the past. He says, "they're written as an example to us," and I think I'm getting the order wrong. Like, he talks about how they're written as an example, and they're written as a warning. I tell my people that, like, I basically have four sermons that I tell on repeat. This is one of those sermon stories; stories from the past to warn us and stories as an example. I think that's what the Psalmist is honing in on, like, "I will teach you hidden lessons from our past." So the things that happened, the historical things that happened to the Jewish people, were actual historic events. These are literal, these things happened, and they are parables, they're metaphors. They're teaching a deeper spiritual reality, and that is like, we don't want to just tell them, "Yeah, we were, you know, we came across the red sea and bladdy, blah, blah, blah." We wanna tell them what that means, right? And that's, you know, kind of our job as pastors, is not just to tell people what the Bible says, but what it means. And I just love verse four, "We will not hide these truths from our children." See that? That tells me that there's a tendency in our sinful nature to not---

Jon Simpson
Yeah, and like I said last time, there's even this message to parents, "you should not influence your children in the arena of what their faith is. What they're gonna believe in, they need to decide for themselves." And of course, we're getting into this in a lot of areas where children are being given the responsibility, whatever you wanna call it, to choose a lot about who they are. But this is a cultural value. I know people that, you know, my oldest daughter, she grew up, went to college and then after college she was working a job. She was around her peers and there would be, I don't know, conversations maybe about things happening in the world related to faith, related to politics or whatever. And I remember she said, "Dad, there's this girl in my office over at work, and she said, 'you know, growing up we never talked about religion or faith. We never talked about politics, in our home it never came up." To which my daughter said, "That's all we talked about in my home growing up." Like, I don't know how, you know, she just couldn't relate. But I know there's a lot of people, your faith is private, it causes conflict, so does politics. But these things are really important to our lives and how they work, and they're important if we're going to hand it off to the next generation. Then we have to talk about, and we have to be comfortable with it. But parents need to be empowered and encouraged. There's a way to do it that works, there's a way that doesn't. Like, how do you approach, you know, influencing your children without embodying them? How do you do a good job of impressing things on them, you know? And one of them is, you don't make a decision not to talk about these things.

John Mulholland
So you just used that word impress.

Jon Simpson
Yes.

John Mulholland
So the NLT does, (sorry I'll flip back to Deuteronomy, if I know my Bible), "Repeat them again and again," like that is in other translations and I think in the Hebrew it says, "Impress them on your children." And the concept of that is like, I have a clay tablet and what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna impress, I'm gonna rub on that clay tablet with a sharp tool, with an implement, and I'm gonna impress that into the clay tablet so that it looks like what I want it to, and that's gonna require time. Like, I'm gonna impress that on them and like, that's our role, and I think that we just live out the Christian faith.

Kiley Calloway
Right. But if we go back to Deuteronomy, can't we read that and just find some, just practical things that parents can do day-to-day that are simple? Yes, I believe it does.

John Mulholland
"Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strengths. You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I'm giving you today." So I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ. I don't mean, I go to church; I don't mean, but I go to small group. But I give, but I serve; if I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ I am not going to pass on the faith of Jesus Christ to my children. I'm not going to. It starts with, so the way, like I have all this written down.

Kiley Calloway
You have to be a disciple.

John Mulholland
Personal! This is a personal thing.

Kiley Calloway
Yes.

John Mulholland
Not just a Christian, a disciple. This starts with me. If I'm not a disciple of Jesus Christ, committed myself wholeheartedly, that doesn't mean perfectly (like those things we talked about off air), but I have to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Repeat them again and again to your children. Like, this is so practical. Talk about them when you're on the road or when you're at home, when you're going to bed and when you getting up.

Kiley Calloway
Home, road, and going to bed.

John Mulholland
So when I go to bed at night, I need to have some sort of religious interaction with my children. Pray with them.

Kiley Calloway
Awesome concept.

John Mulholland
It's amazing.

Kiley Calloway
Yes. So we still at our house, we swap each night. So like, one night I'll get my daughter and then the next night I'll get my son. We still put them to bed. Hopefully she doesn't watch this, because she's 15 years old.

John Mulholland
Right? I bet she hates that....No I'm kidding, she probably likes it.

Kiley Calloway
She loves it. And you know, she has a prayer that she prays religiously. She's memorized it, but it's hers, right? And then I pray for them. And now my wife takes it a step further, cause she loves to talk. But you know, she'll talk with them and all that, but we've been doing that since birth. And until they tell us, you know, we're too old for this, we'll probably still do it, but we do that religiously.

John Mulholland
So, but this ought to help us with what we ought to be encouraged to do for us and parents when you're at home. So here's the deal, if you're sitting at home and you're sitting in your living room and all of you are doing this (pretends to type on the phone).

Kiley Calloway
Get the Bible app.

John Mulholland
This is what you're discipling them into, is looking at their device. Like, what am I talking about with my kids when I'm at home? What are we talking about when we're on the road? Does everybody just retreat into their devices the second we get into our car? Or are we using that time to intentionally disciple? Like, you've got to decide that as parents. So that's like so personal, I have to be a disciple. I have a practical responsibility to my children and what if I don't have kids to the next generation? And then the last piece, "Tie them on your hands, wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates."

Kiley Calloway
Now, what does that mean?

John Mulholland
That's missional.

Kiley Calloway
What does that mean for us practically?

John Mulholland
That means I'm gonna get a Jesus fist bumper-sticker and put on my car! No, it means that I am gonna live out my faith in the marketplace. That means I'm going to like, this is like hands in scripture. When we read the word 'hands,' we're gonna take actions. We're gonna do Christian things: We're gonna love them, we're gonna serve them, we're gonna give generously. We're gonna, like, do Christian things. And then wear them on your forehead as reminders. It means our minds are gonna be oriented towards God. Write them on your doorpost of your house and, like, we are going to proclaim Jesus with our lives publicly. Not by holding up a sign, well it might be that, for some people it might be that. But we are gonna demonstrate that we have committed ourselves wholeheartedly to God's commands in the public square.

Kiley Calloway
Like, this is so easy---but so deep.

Jon Simpson
Well, it is pretty simple. And the breakdown, we just had a marriage retreat and we talked about, and every one of the things we talked about in all of this, there is, and people need to realize there's an attack against every piece in our world and our culture. And that is a spiritual attack. So we have an order that God created things with. The order is, as I taught in that is God: husband, wife, children. That's the order. So if you have a husband, the man in the home, is not connected to God in a way that he's following God, he's learning and growing spiritually. Then there's a breakdown in the rest of the structure in terms of this whole handoff. I mean, mom can be really serious about following Jesus and getting the family to church.

John Mulholland
And you know what? Thank God for that! How many families do we have in our churches where mom is the spiritual leader?

Jon Simpson
Yes! However that doesn't, there will be a breakdown there. So my challenge is that, "Yeah, men, you're called to be spiritual leaders and you've got to be moving in this arena of your faith and growing and engaged." And it makes a big difference when that happens. And so, I'm just saying there's a tax against so many things in all of this, you know, "oh, religion is for women and children, you know?" Whatever you want to do. And this gets handed off generationally because that's a belief, those are beliefs that are in our culture. And so, you know, just like in the nation of Israel when they moved into the land of Canaan, they had issues with the culture around them and constantly they were wooed away to follow the culture around them. And we have that same battle, it's probably the biggest battle we have. And just like in those days where it was, you know, demonic, satanic worship, that really they were being pulled away to. I mean, it's those kinds of things that we battle with today. But taking the responsibility and the church impressing this, you know, upon families and this is how it's supposed to work. Well, it's a challenge following Jesus and encouraging people to do it. I just encourage parents, like yeah, you know, it matters how you live your life. If you really grab onto this and follow Jesus, that is going to be the greatest influence, because your kids care about what you do more than what you say. How you live your life matters more than what you teach them. But use the church, back to our whole conversation, use the church as a reinforcement. It matters the church was created for you to help you grow as a family. So the church can provide ministries that are designed for your kids. It can help through a season of 'that's difficult' junior high and high school. Those are big pieces, you know, so coming to church matters, but you can't just put it all there. You've got to be working, your side of it as parents and understanding that God designed parents to do that. So thanks for joining us for this bonus episode. I hope that's been helpful and encouraging to you. We believe that God created you as parents to influence your children and to disciple them. We know that God has put this generational connection where grandparents play a significant role as well, and supporting and encouraging that. And so we just, our prayer for you is that you would continue to be empowered and that you'd live it out. You'd trust God's process, His plan, and that you would be following Jesus. We know if you are, then you're going to pass off your faith to the next generation. So thanks for joining us for this session and for the series. God bless you again.

Celebrating Father's Day at Cross Reference Library!

Dynamic Dads - You know what it takes to win in the workplace, but what about at home? Are you as determined to win at home as you are at work? Have you learned to balance the deadlines and demands of your job with the tremendous task of fathering? It’s a difficult balancing act—keeping your priorities right and being the best you can be in both worlds. With a little bit of knowledge, a strong commitment, and lots of prayer, you can be a Dynamic Dad, someone who wins at work and at home. In Dynamic Dads, Paul Pettit gives you everything you need to formulate your own strategy for pulling together a winning home team. Whatever else you accomplish on this planet, your role as a father deserves your very best. 

The Heart of a Father - Each brief story in this collection reveals the loving, wise, or comforting heart of an earthly father while pointing us to our heavenly Father, who is all-loving, all-wise, and all-comforting. As the stories tug at our heartstrings or make us smile, they reveal God and what He desires our relationship with Him to be. For “If you…know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11 NASB). For all dads who love their kids and all the grown-up kids who love their dads, these sixty stories will be read again and again, savored, and shared. They’ll bring a smile or tears—or both together—with accounts of a father’s provision for his family, his forgiveness, his hugs, and his companionship. These stories, written by many favorite authors, are perfect for devotional reading. 

Heart to Heart: Stories for Dads - There is no substitute for the love of a father, whether it’s the love of a biological father, a beloved teacher, a mentor, a pastor, or another father figure. Heart to Heart: Stories for Dads is an inspiring collection of classic short stories that will cause you to reflect about why the love of a father is so important—and so special. From the tale of the father who learns, almost too late, how to receive the love his little daughter offers him in a paper bag—to the heart-tugging story of the dad facing his first Christmas after a much-loved son is killed in action during World War II—these stories will grab your heart and touch your soul. Compiled by Joe L. Wheeler, long-time collector of great stories and books, this collection has been beautifully illustrated with classic engravings and woodcuts, each carefully chosen to add the perfect touch of remembrance.

What's New at Cross Reference Library? A New Jody Hedlund Novel!

The Heart of a Cowboy - Brilliant scientist Linnea Newberry is on the adventure of a lifetime, traveling the Sante Fe Trail with her grandfather, Dr. Powell, on a botanical expedition to Colorado Territory. She longs to be valued for her contributions and not seen as a helpless liability. But at every calamity she faces, her grandfather threatens to send her home. After watching his ma suffer and die in childbirth, Flynn McQuaid has sworn off women and marriage forever. Headed west to start a new life, he has his hands full not only taking care of his younger siblings but also delivering cattle to his older brother. He doesn’t need more complications. When Flynn rescues Linnea from drowning during a river crossing, Dr. Powell promptly hires Flynn—unbeknownst to Linnea—to act as her bodyguard for the rest of the trip. As Flynn fights against the many dangers of the trail, he soon finds himself in the greatest danger of all—falling for a woman he’s determined not to love.