Through the Eyes of Christ

0:00 Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Bumper Sticker Wisdom. I am John. I'm Terry.

0:42 Terry's yawning already. I'm sorry. He's been here two minutes. It's not even that. It's just been a long day. We even clacked early. I know. It's prior to our normal recording time. I know. Sorry for the way I look because I look a little rough. I know. Everybody. Say healing prayers over my wife. She had her neck surgery. Everything went well. Doctor said that. I have good bones. She has good bones. That's good news. She's complained more about the carpal tunnel surgery than anything. That hurts. She's got really nasty stitches and all that in there. But everything. Somebody asked me the other day. Asked me today. Are you going to take those out? I said, I'll probably take those out Saturday. But I don't think John's going to let me. No, I'm not. You're going to wait. You're going to wait until they're ready to come out. They'll come out. You don't take them out for yourself. You got to go see the doctor anyway. It's going to be fine. I know.

1:32 This is why I'm around, because you'll do stupid crap like that. But anyway, yeah, everything went well. Within five or six hours of the surgery, you were walking. You went a little ways. I mean, you were a little wobbly still because of all the medication and all that kind of stuff. But you were walking and able to go to the bathroom and all that kind of stuff. Maybe I'll post a picture on the show. I'll put a picture of the x -rays with the two screws poking into your spinal column and the bone and all that kind of stuff. So I've spent a week taking care of you or trying to take care of you where she would let me. Hey, I let you. You did a good job. You washed my hair. The thing that she was worried about about me doing right, I did it right. You did? I even gave her a chance. I let her go walk the perimeter. Like, okay, go check it. If it's not up to standards, you better come let me know.

2:32 I had two people like, what are you doing here? You had surgery Monday. I'm like, I know. I'm sorry. You weren't doing much. I mean, you're supposed to be on your feet and everything. They said walking's good. So still walking, you need to walk. And I'm like, okay. She said, don't sit longer than an hour. Get up every hour, walk around, do something. You don't got to walk a lot, but walk around, get moving. She had her grabber and she was picking up trash. Less than five pounds. It was less than five pounds. So anyway, enough of that. We will say a quick prayer and we will get started. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for every opportunity that comes our way. We want to ask that you help us to see those opportunities and take. Seize them every time we get the chance, Father God. Help us to have the wisdom and discernment to know when it's something that you've put in our path, Father God. We thank you that you are with us.

3:24 We just want to lift up anybody who's listening right now who needs healing over their body or in their heart or in their mind or needs help financially or just needs some love, Father God, that they can find some right here, right now, as they're listening to us, Father God. We love you. We thank you for your goodness and mercy, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. A woman. A woman. I don't know if you remember that from Fresh Prince of Bel -Air so long ago. Good Lord. What was it? The little girl on there, Ashley, was the character's name? She was on the woman thing. I guess it was. Maybe it's feminism.

4:09 I don't know if that's what I'm. It actually was, but at the end, she was very much about women this, women that, women this, women that, and all that kind of stuff, and they get to the end of the prayer. It's Thanksgiving, I think, is what it was. They get to the end of the prayer, and everybody says, Amen, and she goes, Ah, woman, and they all yell at her. Oh, I guess I've never seen that episode, I guess. Yeah, that was forever ago. Gosh, that was in the early to mid -90s. That's in the 1900s. I like the 90s. So, how are you today? I'm good. This is your first day without me. It was. And Casey, who's my Uber driver today, she drove me around today and she kept saying, Mom, I got it. Mom, I got it. I was like, I know, I know, I know. I know I'm not supposed to be doing that. You have to. So she did. She did really well. She took me to the doctor and gave blood because I have to go to the heart doctor on Friday. So he wanted me to fast. I didn't. Eat, drink. I just drink water.

5:10 So I did that. And then they couldn't find my paperwork when I got there. That's annoying. So mad. That's annoying. Yes, I was so mad. Amy was like, well, you look good. I said, yep. This one hurts. This does not. And she just looked at me and went, oh. She said, are you on Phenomenon? I'm like, yes. So she just kind of got on to me. I was like, I know. Amy Upton? Yeah. Really? Yeah. She goes, who's prescribed that to you? I said, my OB doctor. So she was like, oh. I said, I haven't taken it in like three weeks, I think. Yeah. You sound very far from your mic.

5:54 What's going on there? It's because my vocal cords are being choked. Okay. It's not that. It's not that. I feel like the microphone, like either it's turned funny or something, like it's not facing you properly. It's where it's always at. Is this a little better? That is a little better. I can't see my eyeballs. The camera can see your eyeballs just fine. Oh, I know. It's not my good side. I'll take it off a little bit. Please be careful. That's her neck cracking. I'm just kidding. Any wishes? No, I don't. It's going to keep my neck real still. It just chokes. It just, you know. So I don't know if you know, but on these mics, there's a little sweet spot.

6:38 It's right in the center of the mic, and there's a little design at the bottom of the mic. It kind of looks like a half a heart or whatever. If it's not pointed at you and it's coming from the side, you're not exactly talking into it. I'll look at it later. It's not necessary right now, but that's what. That's what I'm thinking is going on, is it's turned a little bit away from you. Is this a little better? That's much better, yeah. I don't like to hear, because when you back away like that, you start to pick up the echo, right? Oh, yeah. So you've got to be in the microphone, too. And what we've done in the room is good as far as noise deflection and stuff like that, trying to keep down the echo and everything like that. But in order to truly get rid of the echo, you have to fill the room with foam. And we did a good job at that. The foam anyway. Yeah, it's going good so far. Looks good. So far. Yeah. How was the first day back to work? It was messy. Yeah, I bet it was. There was a lot. It was a lot today. You were telling me you had, like, how many emails? Like, over 200 emails? Oh, no, no, no. I caught up on my emails Saturday. Oh, okay. And I had 750 unread.

7:49 Holy gee. Then, and I had been checking them on my phone. So some of that didn't account for the things that I had looked at, and I had to do time cards and stuff like that because that has to be done by a certain time. Yeah, because this is actually payroll. Right, right, to make sure people get paid properly. And then I came into work today, and I had another 200 -and -something emails that had to be read. So, yeah, it comes in hot and fast. It wasn't bad. Work was work, you know what I mean? It's still the same thing. They missed you. Yeah, they missed me. A lot of things happened while I was gone for sure. And, you know, it was, I think that, I guess something that's encouraging to me right now is, and I know I didn't handle this all perfectly, don't get me wrong, but having gone through some of the steps I've gone through with getting some help and things like that and kind of getting.

8:50 Getting some awareness of things that are going on inside my mind and everything. I've been able to process things a little better without lashing out all the time until I hit my head the second time. Okay, I'll set this up for you just so you guys know. But I was so mad at myself because I was proud of myself right before that. obviously I'm having to help you and I, I'm trying to be very patient because I'm, I know I can get agitated when I'm like in the process of something else. And you're like, you pull me away or whatever. And so I've been trying to just be like, just do it. Just do it. Don't, don't be an asshole.

9:36 Just do it. Right. And so like you dropped your pills that morning. I did. And that was Sunday morning. It was church day. Oh, it was. Cause I tried to try to bathe myself. Right. I even shaved my legs. Crazy. I can't believe you have my leg up that high. Got more flexibility than you thought, huh? Yeah, I was like, woo -hee! But you dropped your pills. I just got up and I did it. It was like seven pills. It wasn't a big deal. But getting down on my knees is not comfortable. No. You had left the room and I was in the bathroom and I'm taking my vitamins, right? And I had to repack my... Pill box. I have it. Yes. Anyway, I grabbed the vitamin C bottle and I grabbed it by the lid. I always do it. It's a giant bottle. I grabbed it by the lid. Lid was not on good. Or at all. Imagine there's a lot in that one. It was a bigger bottle.

10:34 It was a bigger bottle. It hit the floor like a drum. Boom. And pills. Well, all I hear is boom. And I was like, oh. That was after the fact. I was like, I thought you failed. So when they hit the floor and the pills went scattered, obviously I'm already like, mother sucker. You know what I mean? I want to be mad. You know, like, just chill. It happens. It happened to Terry. It happened to you. It's no big deal. Well, I feel like since I've had this, everything's just failed. And I'm like. Of course, because you can't bend over. I'm like, well, I can't pick that up. Guess that's going to stay there. Because I'm going to get my blood today. And I was like, um, I am. You pick up my purse for me. I was like, oh, my God. That's terrible.

11:19 I just left it in my, you know. Right. So I get down on my knees again, and this is like 150 pills, so it took me a minute. Now my knees are hurting. Rewind a little bit. Saturday, when I went to do our side job, i .e. the thing that she was concerned about me doing properly, I was weed eating. I was weed eating around the tree, and I hit that tree a lot harder than I thought I did because I just felt like I scraped my head. But I had a knot. But it's funny. My sister said the other day, she says, we look at the camera and you're always like. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, you know, the tree's there and you know it's going to hit you. You know, and I'm like, yeah. Well, when I'm mowing, I'm usually pretty good avoiding them. I guess it's just because I was doing something different. I was kind of more upright. And I did. I whacked my head. Good. Right there. And then Sunday, I'm picking up the pills. And guess what's open above my head? The cabinet door. Right on the spot.

12:16 Pow. Oh. Oh. And then I'm like griping at myself. I'm like, Jonathan Traylor, you were just freaking proud of yourself for not getting pissed off because you dropped all those pills. And then what'd you do? You know what I mean? So I'm like, golly, man. But anyway, it just feel like I've gotten to where or I'm getting to where I'm processing those things better. Still not perfect, as we know. It's okay. But better. It's one step at a time. It's all matters. She comes in there, oh, my God, what happened? And you're like, I dropped the pills. I was like, okay. I turned around and walked away. Did you fall? No. Did you hit your head? Because I'm like. I said in the same spot, honey. He goes, mm -hmm. I was like, okay. Yeah, that sucked. I know. I'm just like anybody else, man. It hurt. It sucked. It pissed me off. I was already frustrated because this is my second time on the floor picking up pills. I know. It's like when you drop... I don't know if you've seen this video. It says something like, when life hits you with one of these, and it's like somebody drops a towel or something on the ground, they go to pick it up, and it's like five times they snatch it before... No, I've never seen that. You have to... you know, you're going to try to pick it up and you keep just, just missing it. Yes. You know, the older you get, the worst bending over and grabbing things off the floor gets. Yeah. So, but yeah,

13:47 it, you know, I just feel like I've gotten better at that. And so there were things that were happy. The reason I said all that up is the reason I said that is because there was some things today that in other circumstances, I would have had a different attitude about. And so, I think that's encouraging, just knowing myself and being very transparent and honest with myself about who I am and my attitudes and my behaviors. So I think that was good, even though it was frustrating. I think I definitely have a problem with getting hangry. I get really flustered when I'm hungry and I can't eat. Oh, I know. I know. We argue about food sometimes. I think that's every couple on the planet of Earth. I see how many people post videos about that same issue. I know, but it's like, what are you cooking today? I was like, I already know what I'm cooking. Oh, I was joking with you. But I already had it under control. I was being a smartass. I know. And I was like, I expect dinner on the table when I get home. And obviously, I'm just joking. It's funny because you already pulled out the chicken.

15:02 I was like, I'm glad you pulled it out. You asked me to. Oh, I don't remember asking you. This morning. When I said that, you were like, I was going to do rice crispy chicken, but I got to go check and look at that chicken. And I was like, all we have is thighs. And I grabbed it and put it in the sink. Okay, yeah. I bought some extra little stricken strips, but I bought. Chicken strips. Tenders. Tenders. Tenders, you know. So. So, to get off our personal business. Sorry. Let's talk about. Whoa, whoa. I talk about our personal business a lot. I know. It's not football. It's not a. No, no. No, ma 'am. You don't get to do that. You don't get to act like that's all I talk about all the time. I know.

15:47 I'm not saying anything otherwise. But, hey. We need to talk about something. If it's not football, it's personal life. I was trying to move on to God, the more important topic. Yes, that's what we should be moving on to. Some Jesus. We need some Jesus right now. Please, Jesus. Desperately right now. I'm about to reach across here and snatch her. Let me put my brief on first. Just kidding. So we actually had planned for Brittany to be on today. She was. But something came up and she wasn't able to be here. Didn't really want to put you through the process of having to be on here with your neck brace on.

16:28 But you like to take it off for other things, so why not? Do you not? Hey, do you have to throw me on camera? Yes, because you do it to me. I would never. Really? Really. You do it all the time. I was up early this morning. This is going to be terrible. We are going to sit here. We're just going to saw on each other's necks all episode. Hey, I was up early this morning, everything. And you were like, hey, we don't want to walk out the door until 430. And I'm like, I'm up. You touched me at 350. I'm like, no, no, no. My alarm hasn't even gone off yet. You don't get to try to wake me up before the alarm goes off. No. The dogs were already in my face. I'm like, dude. No, they weren't. They were outside.

17:14 I put them out at 3 a .m. In my face. But they were out at 3 a .m. This is now 3 .50. This is 50 minutes later. You had plenty of time to nod back off. I did. I tried. It was in there when you lay there. It was like. Yeah. Well, at that point, I had taken my mask off because once I take it off, I can't put it back on and start all over. I'm sorry. I am sweating. It's a little warm in here today. That's what happens when it's like 106 outside. And this is the hottest part of the house right here. This is normally the coldest. Why put the sweatshirt on? Oof. I didn't even realize you were wearing a sweatshirt until just now. I know. So, anyway, like, you know, I'm open to talking about other things, but, you know, the purpose of the show is the cross. I agree. I agree. So now you guys see what we need Jesus for. See? We need him very much. Some days more than others, baby. Some days more than others. Oh, man, what a mess.

18:23 I like the idea, though, and it was kind of in my prayer from at the church yesterday, Pastor Mark. I don't know his last name. I don't know his last name. He's a cool dude. Oh, my gosh, so awesome. Everything he talks about just seems so apropos to what we do. It's very just down -to -earth, normal, regular. You know what I mean? Like, he's, like, even talking about, you know, being on the side of, like. I'm sorry. When we get to talking about sin and everything like that, and he's like, you know, basically just, you know, everybody who's, or you always feel like he was talking about the crowd, and he's like, some of you may be this, some of you may be that, and some of you may feel like. you're on your way to hell. And he's like, and I feel the same way too. If it wasn't for the blood of Jesus, you know what I mean? Like I'm one step away from that. The only step I got between me and that is Jesus. And that's really the only step you need. That's the only step you get is Jesus, right? Because that's what paid the penalty for our sin, right? Because the wages of sin is death. Yes. A death has to be paid. It's not physical death because we all have that. Right.

19:34 It wasn't about the physical part. It's the spiritual death. Yes. Permanent separation from God. Put your head on that for just a second. Think about, are you okay? It was just itching. You put some lotion on. I know. I know you do. We all go through seasons, times, periods where we feel like we're far away from God, separated from God, if you will. Yeah. When we aren't. He's always right there. All we have to do is turn back around. There he is. Yeah. Now, think about how you feel in those moments, and now think of literal. Permanent separation from God. Yeah. And how that would feel. That's crazy. It's terrifying. Very. It doesn't. That's being in the dark. It makes me like. That's being in the dark with no light whatsoever. Yeah. You know. Forever. But anyway, it's like being in the dark, you know. Yeah.

20:29 So permanent outer darkness. I think that's what Christ even says. Something, some kind of descriptor of that where he says. cast in the outer darkness right where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth i don't know if you ever remember hearing that from a previous episode where that jason and i shared a video of a pastor talking about weeping and gnashing of teeth and like the weepers are people who are like no you know what i mean it's like it's almost like the the people that like they know why they're there But they're hurt they are there, you know what I mean? And then gnashers of teeth is like, how dare you? You know what I mean? How dare you put me here?

21:12 You know what I mean? That's who I feel like people like that are ones that are like, get away from me. Depart from me. I never knew you. Those are the ones that are, look at all the things I did in your name. And he's like, yeah, you blindly and blatantly did that opposed to my name in my name. You know what I mean? In the long game, my best answer for anybody for all of this, and look, you can ask me, you know, if God is such an abundantly loving God, why would he ever cast you into hell? My question to you would be, well, why would a good father force you to be with him if you didn't want to be? Right. You know what I mean? Right. Why would a good and loving father say, no, I'm taking you captive, you're coming with me, whether you wanted to or not? That's not a good father. No, not at all. A good father lets you do your thing.

22:08 Yeah. Because that's what we want anyway. We want our freedom. We have to learn. I mean, like I said, I'm going to be there for you, but we all have to learn to walk the path that we need to walk. I'm right here. I'm just a hand away. Yeah. You know, I'll grab you and pull you back, you know. That's all he wants. You know, he just grabs you. Okay, I'm right here. We all have to learn. I mean, it's like your kids listen to you. Are they going to listen to you half the time? Most of the time, no. No. I mean. I think that it's difficult because it's so hard for us to quantify. And this is where people like me struggle because I think too much. And so I try to logic everything to death and turn it into something that I can understand. Yeah.

22:56 When it's not really like that. Understanding God's perfect, complete, unconditional love does not compute. It can't. Because I have never experienced anything like it. We can only go off of what we know. One human, not one human ever. They can say, I love you unconditionally. All they want. I promise you there's a condition on it. Burn me one time. Do this thing to me one time. Cheat on me. You know what I'm saying? Look, I could tell you all day, I love you no matter what, no matter what, no matter what. I'll never leave you. And then you do that one thing, right? Look, I'm kind of going to be tongue -in -cheek about this, and don't take it offensively, but it's like we were talking to somebody recently, and it's like, oh, he's a really good man, but he did that one thing. You know what I'm saying?

23:50 And Cat Williams has a joke about that, about like a 98 % good. You know what I mean? You're going to throw away a 98%. There ain't no 100 % good ones. Yeah, there's not. But you're going to throw them out over cheating on you. A funky little 2%. It's like, that's a strong 2, though, bro. But you see what I'm saying? It's like, look, there is no such a thing as a 100 % perfect good person. There was one, and that's the only one we can rely on. Absolutely. Right? But. We're going to throw away really good things and really good relationships because it misses the mark by this much. And that's how we think about God.

24:35 I missed the mark by this much. I don't kill anybody. I don't steal from people. I do my very best not to lie to people. I treat people with integrity and love and care and kindness, but I do this. I get angry. You know what I mean? I speak to my wife harshly. That's a sin. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to get cast into hell for a funky 2%. Golly, that's a good point. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, that's not how that operates. Yeah. It's just one of the things like we can't, I'm trying to express like we can't understand the perfection of that love. Yeah. Because we can only, we only operate in this little five sense reality. Yeah. That we can see, taste, touch, feel, and smell. You know what I mean? There's so much more to it than that. I actually don't even know how you come to an understanding of what that love really is unless you spend a lot of time studying, learning, researching, submitting, surrendering. You know what I mean? I find myself now, not always, but now, as I'm seeing myself going down the path that's opposite of what I know I should be. When I see myself going down the dark road, I find the light a lot faster. It's not that I don't ever revert back to the darkness. I get it. I understand that. You see it. You realize it.

26:08 This is not where I want to be. Let me step back over here. I know there's work that has to be done to be over here, but I'd much rather put the work in over here than go into outer darkness. and be a weeper and nasher and think of even, I don't even think we can conceive what it would feel like to be permanently removed from the presence of the creator. I don't think we can truly conceive it. I don't understand how people just don't believe, can't just, I mean, I get it, it's just words or whatever, but some of the stuff that you hear have actually come true.

26:50 I mean, not that this is the Bible, but I'm just saying. There are Bibles over there. I mean, but I'm just saying, I don't see how people just don't understand. I mean, I'm not going to say I'm perfect. Heavens forbid, I'm not. I think that Stein, not Ben Stein, that's someone else, but he's a comedian. We've watched his video numerous times where he was talking about, I believe in Jesus. Or I believe in God, I believe in him. And he starts talking about the Bible. How can you believe the Bible? The Bible's just a book. And he's like, no, no, no, no. Let me explain what the Bible really is to you. 66 books. Yeah. Written by 40 different authors. Yeah.

27:34 Spanning over 2 ,000 years. Crazy, yeah. And the thing, hold up, I want to see if I can put this image on the screen. I'll put it on our. Clips or whatever. Let's see. You're good. You're good. You're good. Here. Right here. Come on, Batman. Turn your head. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I've got to go really slow. Look at that. Every single one of these lines is a cross -reference in the Bible referencing itself. And this one. That leads way back over here. Those two things are separated by thousands of years.

28:23 You know what I'm saying? It looks like a rainbow. Yes. Right? But every one of these is a cross -reference within that 66 books. And these men are coming from different languages, different times, different communities, all interwoven and interconnected in what we call the Holy Bible. That is freaking phenomenal. It is insanity. And when you really start to put your head around the facts, right, because everybody wants facts. When you look at the facts of it, and the problem is, man, I don't know if I can say this right.

29:05 I don't know if I can even say it where it makes sense. The fact is. It's only uncomfortable because it's spiritual. Because it's connected to something that we can't understand, fathom, right? Now it's uncomfortable. It's like I talked about, I think our clip today from last week's episode is like, you know, I don't think you could ever hold a conversation with me and think that I'm dumb. Yeah, I know. Right? Until you hear that I believe in Jesus. and then the person sitting across from me will instantly change their mind about my intelligence because I believe in Jesus.

29:48 Really? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Think about that. Yeah, that's interesting. It's like that throughout. It's only because they don't want to receive or believe that this is possible. Or... They don't want to believe that this is the one way. You know why? Because this way doesn't allow me to do the things that this one does. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I can do all I want over here. I can do all these things. And then others, well, I can't do that, but I can do this one over here. It's like shopping churches. And I'm pointing at Christianity right now. Christians jump in and out of churches because it's... This church doesn't say what I want them to say. It doesn't match my feelings. Well, I'm moving because y 'all said that about, you know, some political thing, or you didn't say anything about this, or y 'all played music too loud, or you used a secular song to talk about Jesus.

30:47 Are you freaking kidding me? Yeah. What? It's insane. But why are you there? Why are you walking through the door to begin with? Why are you walking through the door to begin with? Is it to be with Jesus? Yes. Or to be with people? Because if you're there for people, you're there for the wrong people. For the wrong reasons. Yeah. You done lost. Yeah. I don't go there for that, you know. It's funny because I knew we had a speaker today. I'm like, who is Mark? Because if it's not Mark Green, I'm like. Yeah, Mark Green. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's who I thought it was whenever they said it. And then when he said Mark, when I saw him, I was like, oh. He goes, what are you doing here? I was like, I don't know this.

31:27 And he was like, when did you have surgery? I said, Monday. He goes. I said, just don't do this. This stuff hurts. We shared our podcast with him yesterday. We did. I hope he listens to it. Like we told him, don't listen to the first one. He goes, well, it's just like. He talks about for decades they've been doing this stuff. And he's like, yeah, we say the same thing about our stuff. Don't listen to our first one. Listen to our middle. Go somewhere around episode 100. We kind of hit our stride in there. But it's still evolving. Now, I think it's been over the last maybe 20 -ish episodes, 15, 20 -ish episodes. I don't put episode numbers in the title anymore. I just put the title. I just put a title. It's trying to evolve and change and make things better. This represents my walk with Christ to me. This is why I won't quit. This is why I won't give up. I won't quit doing it.

32:24 You're not a give -up person either. I'm not. I'm not. But this is so interwoven and interconnected with my walk with Christ that I feel like quitting on that quits on me. I know. I know you've heard that. This is something you've always wanted to do. I don't know why I feel like people need to hear my dumb voice saying the dumb things that come streaming out of my face. I think you have a great radio voice. Well, nobody's hiring. I know. Darn it. Well, you know, anyway. By the way, I'm a freelancer on Viber if you want to go check it out. That's right. There you go. This is a shameless plug for myself. But you understand what I'm saying. Like, this means something to me because this is me. This is you.

33:12 Yes. Right? But it's funny because I remember when we first started. You know, I had to go to church. I had to get full. I was that type of person that I wanted to go get full. I had to have praise and worship. I had to have this. But me, I'm a people person. Yeah, that you are. You know, I'm a people person. I want to involve people and pray over. Well, I was never prayed over, but I have lately, you know, or the last couple, about a year. About a year, yeah. So, you know, like I'm saying, I'm that person. Like we just said, Are you there for people? No, I'm not there for people. That's not what I mean. I'm there because I feel like God's putting me there for people. Right. To be there for people.

33:58 Because some people, I'm just one of those people, I'm going to pull you a little bit. Yeah. I pulled you. No, you're pretty relentless when you're pulling. I will say this. I'm going to say that, and then I'm going to contradict that. When it came to the church thing, you very much went hands off on me. Because I told you, if you try to push me, I'll run. I'll go the other way. Now, taking that approach is what I needed in order for me to come to the decision and understanding that that's where I needed to be. Not even for me. Not even for God. It was for me to not get upset with you over a situation. And I've explained the story on here before. But at the end of the day, it ended up being exactly for me. The motivation had nothing to do with going to God. It had nothing to do with my relationship with him. It had nothing to do with me personally. It had to do with me doing something to prevent an issue between the two of us that had nothing to do with you. It was all me. It had nothing to do with you. It was me. Yes, for once. Just kidding. But God used that. in order for me to now look at me 10 or 11 years later, look at the difference, the difference in the man, the difference in the husband, right? What have I always told you?

35:28 Everything I want, all I want is to be the best husband, father, friend, brother that I can possibly be. And I know where I fall short. Yeah, we all do. And I beat the... cheese out of myself over my failure. But you don't give yourself any credit either. So you have to, you have to learn to give yourself credit for those things. So that's not fair for you to beat yourself up. Yeah. I'm examining myself through the eyes of the enemy. Yeah, absolutely. Cause that's what he wants you to know. That's what he wants you to see. Right, man. Okay. There's another good question for yourself. Like if you could truly, Look at you, your physical body, your spiritual body, through the eyes of Jesus. What do you think you would see? I don't know. That's a good question.

36:24 Honestly, good question. If we're talking about from the eyes of Jesus. I don't think I'm worthy enough. Perfection. He looks at you in perfection. Yeah, he does. He does. You're God's masterpiece. Yeah. Your sin was washed white. His blood, red, red. So your sin could be made white. We all bleed the same color. I tell people all the time. We all bleed the same color. I don't care what color you are. Green, blue, green, purple, brown. Yeah. You know. I don't care. I don't care either. It has nothing to do with it, man, honestly. It has nothing to do with it. My job as a person is to learn. and do the best I possibly can, and I have chosen what I believe is the only way to be saved. I'm sorry. You don't have to like it. I'm asking you to like it. Okay, there's another question then. I think the thing is maybe people don't think they need to be saved from anything. You're probably right. That's very true. What have I done? I haven't done anything.

37:39 Ah, that's so good. That's so good. Well, and beyond that, this is thousands of years of the enemy working on us, making us believe that, making some people believe that hell's not a place. God wouldn't do that. A loving God would do that to you? That doesn't even exist. You know what I'm saying? Still kill and destroy. Yep. He's snatching it away from you as quick as he can. You know what I'm saying? And he's thinking good at it. Yeah, he is. And I'm not giving him credit. I'm just saying what's the facts. Jesus himself called him the ruler of this world. That's not giving him more power than he has. That's just a fact. Yeah. That's who he is. He also says he's a liar. It's in his nature to lie. He is a lie. Mm -hmm. You know what I mean? And so when he lies, it's consistent with his character. Character, yeah. And you know what he's doing to you all the time? Lying to you. Don't let him in your head. Because once he's in... That's way easier said than done, for sure. Look, our world's... The culture that we live in, I'm not even saying the world, the culture that we live in comes at us so fast.

38:54 Oh, yeah. So furious. You know what I mean? How physiologically people's... Bodies are starting to change because of how often we have our face in our phone. Remember your physical therapist talk to you after surgery about your phone? Yes. She was like, look, we got teenagers that have neck problems. Why? Because they're constantly like that. Yep. And now guess what's happening. You know those people that I'm terrified to become? I used to have a teacher. Bro, that's scary. I don't like the old people that like they're. Tire hair that's stuck down like that with her chin on her chest? That's freaking scary, man. I do not want to be like that. I don't either. That's why I go to the gym and work my neck.

39:36 What neck you got? I'll show. I don't have a chicken neck, that's for sure. You can't. You have hair on yours. I know I do. It's like, where are you in here? Can you pull those? Can you pull that skin back a little bit? Can you pull that skin back a little bit? I'm just kidding. I love conversations like this, but they always kind of make me a little nervous when I get to this point in the episode because I'm not real sure exactly where we're at, what we've been talking about. If we have a central theme, there may be one, but I don't really know what it is. Are we going to play him? Maybe. But I ask the question, if you could truly see yourself through the lens and the eyes. that Christ sees you with what you think we would see. And I said, perfection.

40:31 And I want to recant that and change my answer because of what Mark actually said yesterday. And he was talking about how... The point was see and seize. See an opportunity, seize the opportunity. And he's not talking about get rich quick schemes and stupid stuff like that. He's talking about eternal consequences type stuff. I want to change my statement on that. And not in such a way that I'm saying I'm wrong, because I think there is a piece of that. But something that Mark was talking about yesterday, he was talking about how Jesus would be on his way to doing something else. He's already got a mission, and somebody would interrupt him. Right. He would see the opportunity. He would seize the opportunity.

41:14 And he was talking about like, okay, the, the, this is in the chosen to rise was one of the best parts of the chosen. Whenever the woman with the issue of blood. Oh yeah. Touched his garment. Like he's on his way to resurrect somebody from the dead. You realize that, right? Like he's on his way to getting cold. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's getting cold. Rigor mortis is setting in, you know what I'm saying? They already got whalers at the house. And, um, the woman, Touched him. And she already knew that she would be healed just by touching the fringe of his garment. And the thing that he said that stood out to me, and he's 100 % right, is Christ made sure she knew she was seen. He turned and looked at her.

41:56 And what did he say? He goes, daughter. Daughter. That's what he would say. And all she touched, just wanted to touch a piece of his, the dirty part of his garment. Yeah. Just the dirty part of his garment. Closest to the feet. Yeah. Yeah. And so I believe that if we were to actually see how Christ saw us, I think that's the overwhelming feeling we would get is son, daughter. And look, while we don't know how to have unconditional love, there's really no deeper love than the love that you have, or sacrificial love than the love that you have for your children, if you're any kind of a parent. You know what I'm saying? Look, I know there's a lot of bad parents and things like that and whatever. I can't answer for that. All I can say is people who take that responsibility seriously and truly love their children as best they can mess it up a lot. I messed it up so much. I know I did. But at the end of the day, you don't sacrificially love anybody more than you love them. Right. You're willing to give up. anything just to get them what they want absolutely and to keep them fed and happy and and all that kind of stuff like you're willing to forego meals so they can eat you know what i mean i gave up a few of my own yeah for sure and so i think that if i really thought about it having now had the opportunity to think about it that's what i think christ

43:29 sees when he looks at us he doesn't see our sin he doesn't see anything in our character he just sees my son my daughter you know and if there is such a thing as unconditional love in the in the human way it would be for them yeah you know what i mean like because right wrong or indifferent you almost always have their back but the deal is is how many times was he stopped before he got there in that particular instance i don't remember I think it was just one. I think it was just one on that one. It may have been twice. I think it was twice. He was on his way to the synagogue. Yes. And then he got approached by the elder who had a daughter that had died.

44:18 And he's on his way to do this thing at the synagogue. He gets stopped by this elder, so he diverts his attention to go resurrect this girl. And then... On his way to do that thing that he got diverted for, he gets diverted again. So I think it was three. I think it was three. In one fell swoop. One of the interesting things, too, like, look, people. And it was a big crowd. It was a big crowd full of people. They were pressing all around him. They're pressing in on him. I loved it in The Chosen. It's because they don't describe that in the Bible. It says that the crowd was pressing in on him, and he feels the power go out from him whenever she touches his garment. And he says, who touched me? And I love when the chosen Peter goes, master, there's people everywhere. You ask who touched you? He's like, who touched you? What do you mean? Everybody's touching you, bro. But it's the faith. It's the faith that made her well. It's the love of Christ that redeemed to her after she was already faithful.

45:17 Yes. You know what I mean? Your faith is so powerful. It's the most valuable thing that we have against the enemy and for our Father. Absolutely. That's it. It's the most powerful thing, 100%. Absolutely. You know, I don't think that I have all the answers. I don't think that I'm all that smart as far as this stuff is concerned. I just try to talk like this is how I experience it. This is how I understand it. And people will sit here and talk about the validity of Scripture and the validity of the Bible. And Mark actually pointed this out yesterday. It was really interesting to me because it was something that popped into my mind when he said it. It was like, yeah, this is his book, and he didn't show up until chapter 10. Yeah. You know what that tells you? Everything he wrote before that, he was writing from someone else's memory. Right? He was writing down what he had been told before that. But in the midst of all that happening, he actually did meet Jesus.

46:18 And then the rest of the book is his personal account, right? So, look, there's always going to be naysayers no matter what you do, right? Like we've talked a bunch of times about haters are just going to hate, man. They're going to hate. Read the book of Daniel. That's the way it is, bro. You get thrown in prison for praying. Today, my friend was like, we were at the gym. Of course, I can't walk in the treadmill. I can't do nothing. Just going just to walk. You can't walk on the treadmill because it's not stable enough. Right. And my friend walks in. She's like, what are you doing here? I was like, I'm here because if I don't get back. And I'm going to let you know, I got up this morning and put my shoes on. OMG. I was like, oh, my God. I am so sore. And I walked for like 40 minutes. Yeah, you walked around and around and around. And it's funny. People were just looking at me like, you know what? I don't care what you think and what you think. I just kept going and kept going, and it didn't matter. And I had my neck brace on. Of course, I was starting to sweat. I was like, this thing is so, you know, because it's stuffy. It's stuffy, and you start sweating.

47:23 It's just you can feel it, you know. And then it's like she walked in. She's like, I'm proud of you. But you know what's funny? You know what Mark said when I went there to talk to him? He goes, you know what? He goes, at least you were there, and at least they knew that when people go to the gym, they just go just to go. You're going because, and you have your neck brace on, and you're going because you're. Yeah, think about the example that you're setting for other people. This is exactly what we're talking about, about setting the example of Christ to people. Yeah, the example you're setting for people. That's exactly what he said, and I was just like, I never. Never really looked at it like that, you know? Yeah. Who really wants to walk into a gym with a neck brace on? Yeah. Because I don't, but I mean. Yeah, so last thing I'll touch on before we kind of grind it down to the end is how sad the feeling is getting looked at the way I get looked at. I talked about this too.

48:22 After your neck surgery. And, you know, nobody knows the truth, right? They don't know that. I've been in the shower with you, washing your hair and scrubbing your body and all that kind of stuff, all the places. And they don't know that I'm getting me dressed, doing everything, but they see you with that neck brace on and your little thing on your wrists before you took the bandage off. And in my little compression socks. Yeah. And they, they, they see you and they look at you in sorrow and sorry, as though you're a battered woman. And then they look at me like I'm, Piece of crap, dude. I'm like. I'm just like. I'm not the cause of all this, but it hurts my heart that it's not their fault.

49:08 It's all about judgment. Right. People like Ben Messiah, like there's a bum sitting, and he's like, oh, you like that bum sitting here? Guess who showed up at church? You remember that crackhead on the street? Yeah, yeah. But listen. He was here. He was here. He was here for a reason. Don't judge a book by its cover. Open it up. Read it. Look at it. Because this binder could be like the best binder you'll ever see. And you open it up, it could be the most damaged thing you can ever imagine. But with it being like worn out and open it up. And it could be the best powerful tool ever. It could give you the best knowledge. It's like the Bible. Look how worn the Bible is. But when you open it up, look at the Bible. I love it when I see somebody with a worn -ass Bible. You know why? That Bible's been used up, bro. It's been opened and shut many, many times. My dad has a little red. It's the New Testament. It's all folded, and it's just rolled, and he just... I still have that thing, and it's in my cupboard, in my little thing. And I'm telling you, it is worn to states, but he would carry that to work with him because they used to have a Bible study at Affiliate.

50:35 And you know what's funny? My dad's not a bright man. Don't read well, but neither do I. But you know what? He would carry that Bible, and he would pray over this, and he would take that little Bible, and they had Bible study, and you know what? They kicked him out because he couldn't read. Shame. And it was like, but you know what's so funny? But he's never been into another Bible study ever after that. It came to mind for a minute, but it didn't last long. Yeah. Probably because I just didn't have. I don't know. Maybe it just wasn't for him. Maybe it's just too much. Yeah, maybe a little too much. Because you're also a little, your Bible says a lot. I try not to be. And it's not that. Some people just, I've gotten to where I'm like, oh, okay, I can get that. But people, it's just too much for us because the Bible is very serious business. It really is. It can be funny. Yeah. But it can also be very serious. It can be sad, but it also can be very joyful. Yes, but this book all by itself is life. Yeah. It can bring you life. It is life.

51:48 It can bring you hope. Yeah. It can bring you sorrows. It's life more abundant. Yeah. You know, but that's it. You mentioned it too, and I shared this quote a couple weeks ago. People are like books. Some deceive you with their cover. Others surprise you with their content. Absolutely. Right? That's Oscar Wilde talking about that. Ready for a joke? Okay. This is funny. Trying to find something that goes. I don't even know what our conversation was truly about. Because they used honeycombs. Because they used honeycombs?

52:28 Don't know. Why do bees have sticky hair? Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Let's do this one. Okay. Probably doesn't match, but it doesn't matter. Steven Acheson. Sometimes nothing good happens to you because you're the good that happens to others. Oh, that's good. I like that. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's not about you. Sometimes it's about what you offer and how you serve others.

53:14 You know, Christ even said he came to serve and not be served, right? He's a freaking, he's a king. And not only is he a king, he is the king of all kings. He's the king over all kings, and yet he came to serve you. And you. Yeah. And you. So, anyway, you guys, we appreciate you checking it out. We appreciate you listening. We want you to engage with us. If you listened last week, you know that we've got a lot of haters out there talking. They love to, the nonbelievers love to comment and make comments about. the validity or non -validity of our God. I challenge you guys to defend Jesus just as much as we would fervently, but with love and kindness. We will not condone hateful speech or hateful responses to anybody, even people who disagree or even say they hate God. I hate Satan, so I understand.

54:18 We love you guys. We thank you for being here. I want you to come along with us. If you need prayer, If there's any way that we can help you in any way, shape, or form, if you want to be involved in any way, shape, or form, reach out to us. Hit the email, vswinbound80 at gmail .com. We've got a website. You can reach out to us there. And I'm a freelance voice actor if you want to hire me on Fiverr. He's ready. I got zero jobs. So that's a joke. But anyway, we love you, man. Thanks for coming along. Peace out.