Life Beside Christ
Life Beside Christ
Spiritual Thorns, Halloween Hopes, and Jesus' Authority
Have you ever wondered if life's challenges are a divine test or simply part of our human journey? Embark with us on an introspective journey as we examine the spiritual notion of "thorns" as challenges influenced by sin and the devil. Inspired by a thought-provoking TikTok, we explore the idea that God might leave these struggles in our lives to foster reliance on Him, sparking a lively debate about humility versus spiritual strength. Dive into personal reflections and listener stories shared via email and Instagram, as we all learn to embrace the power that comes from acknowledging our need for our Creator.
Revisit the haunting nostalgia of Halloween traditions, as we reminisce about the vibrant trick-or-treating adventures of yesteryears. Jacksonville's modern celebration seems limited and stretched, sparking our hope for a revival of community spirit. Remember the thrill of picking the best neighborhood for candy hauls? We long for those days and wish to see them return, creating a festive spirit that brings friends and families together once more. Share in our memories and aspirations for a future where Halloween's joy is preserved for generations to come.
Through the lens of Paul Harvey's 1965 radio clip, "If I Were the Devil," we take a reflective look at societal shifts and their striking relevance to today's world. As we navigate through Harvey's eerie predictions, we draw connections to contemporary cultural challenges and the urgent need for spiritual awareness, especially with an election approaching. Join us as we unpack the profound stories from Matthew 8, discussing the cost of following Jesus and the unwavering faith of the centurion. Finally, get ready for an engaging Q&A session where your questions shape our discussions. Whether you're curious about theological debates or just want to weigh in on the best condiments for hot dogs, your voice matters.
We love hearing from our listeners whether it's criticism, advice, or just thoughts on the conversation we had. Find us or reach out to us here:
•Email: lifebesidechristpod@gmail.com
•Instagram: @lifebesidechristpodcast
•Intro/Outro Music: "Our Days" by David Hays
Carter's gonna bring us in today yeah, right what do you?
Speaker 2:mean, you go ahead, you do it so good so good welcome back everybody. There you go. No, I'm all right, you do welcome back there you go podcast.
Speaker 1:Um, it's just not the same. It's just not the same.
Speaker 2:No, it's like we're missing somebody. It's weird, like if we had a third guy, like a third best friend, maybe they could do that. Wow, wouldn't that be fun. Maybe they could do that. Yeah, they'd be so good at it. I bet good at it.
Speaker 1:I bet it's like I can hear their voice right now. Yeah, oh well, yeah.
Speaker 4:One can dream right.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, welcome back. I always forget this, but if you want to email us, you can email us at lifebesidechristpodcast at gmailcom, or you can find us on Instagram at LifeBesideChristPod. And one other thing I kind of always forget to do is ask you guys to share the podcast. Share it with a friend, leave a rating, send us feedback. We appreciate it, but we'll get into it. Carter, you got anything to get us going?
Speaker 2:Shoot. I've been praying a lot more.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, just struggling with it, you know, you kind of just get closer to God. Yeah. And I saw a TikTok. I got back on tiktok. I was on a two or three year uh, absence, abstinence, you know the word. Yeah, um break and I'm back, but mainly christian stuff on there, so that's good stuff, yeah. But I saw this thing. I wanted to get your thoughts on it. My thoughts, yep, your thoughts, okay, and our crowd I mean, we got a lot of fans out there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, if you want to say something about it, go ahead Also if you don't even have feedback for us and you just want to say hi and where you're from, we can kind of see states and countries people are listening from, but it'd be cool to interact with some of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if any of you want to just reach out and say, hey, listening from wherever, that'd be sweet. I love that idea. No, you're good, okay.
Speaker 2:So the thing was pretty much that everyone has this thing in their life that they're struggling with and he put it as a thorn in your body, okay, and the thought was God's not going to take that out, because without that thorn you don't need God in your life. You think you got through that struggle and all this stuff and I wanted to know your thoughts on that, if that was a goofy thought or if it was, if he was on to something. Run that by me one more time.
Speaker 2:So you have a thorn a problem, something you're struggling with an addiction, whatever you pray about it, or an illness or whatever, and god isn't going to just heal that instantly, because then you'll just I don't go on with everything.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I love the wording of that well, it's probably my wording is the problem, the way, that it sounds to me right now is saying that God's giving us these bad things so that we do keep that we feel like we have to stay attached to him.
Speaker 2:Well, take that part out of it. Just, you have problems in life. It's not God that's setting these problems on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's human's fault, right, adam and Eve caused that to be our reality, with bringing sin into the world, and the devil For sure. So I mean in that sense, yeah, obviously we need God, we want to spend eternity with him. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Ask me, you want me to show you the tiktok?
Speaker 1:take a little break, we can cut this up, sure, okay, yeah, okay, we'll plug it in right here why is that thorn in my life?
Speaker 5:because god is trying to make you dependent upon him. Man, would you hear me on this? On this, this side of eternity, god is far more concerned with your dependence than he is with your deliverance. I know there's a lot of us like God, deliver me and God's like no, no, no, I'm not, I'm not going to leave that thing right there to keep you dependent and to keep you desperate, and I'm going to use that to wear you down and I'm going to use that to weaken you as a man.
Speaker 5:And here's why this is the truth, right? Because if he removed that one thing from your life today, you wouldn't need him like you need him right now. If he took that thorn out of your flesh and you know what it is for you if he took that one out, you would not seek God like you seek him right now. If the temptation to look at porn went away, oh man, there would be no weakness, there'd just be pride. If all the anxiety magically disappeared which would be great, praise God for that you wouldn't find yourself in the presence of God each day.
Speaker 5:God, would you show up? God, I need you to do a work in me, if God took away that temptation to go to the bottle and to ease the pain with alcohol, there would be no desperation for God and you would just be another man coasting through life, having no idea what life is all about, believing the lie that you have no need of God. And men, look at me, you need him more than you could ever comprehend. Strong men understand this. Strong men don't buy into the lie that I got it and I can do it and I'm fine on my own. No strong men understand I need my creator and I need my father and I need him to show up in my life each and every day in ways that I cannot show up for myself. And God is leaving that thorn in you to remind you of that so I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think I'm still a little bit hung up on the wording of it. I understand the message he's saying. It starts off weird, I think. I think the way I see it anyway, so maybe I'm wrong. God is our father. A good father wants you to grow, and if that growing is through pain, then I think he's going to let you work through it, I guess with him recognizing it, I guess.
Speaker 2:Obviously, he can see it With you being able to lean on him through it.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think maybe the wording is just throwing me off. It seems like he's almost saying that he's giving it to us, that he's giving us the pain so that we can. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe I'm getting hung up on that, but I understand the message. I don't think God, I don't think he wants us to suffer. God doesn't want us to suffer. It's human's fault for and like I said, and devil's fault for sin coming into this world which gives us that pain and struggles. I don't know, I don't know what my thoughts are on that. I guess I'd be curious. Did you show your dad that I'd be curious to you ask did you show your dad that I'd be curious to see what he said? Just because I think it's just the way, I think it's just for me, it's just the wording of it. Like I said, I understand and I don't think parts of it. I think parts of it are definitely right where, like, we need to lean on him, we need God. But to me it sounds like he's saying God's giving us this pain.
Speaker 2:I understood it, as he isn't taking away temptation, yeah, where we just are fine with everything and don't struggle to sin.
Speaker 1:I guess, yeah, I get it yeah. And that's kind of how I took it. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:That's why I liked it. I was just curious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess in that thought he's not just going to remove it without us. So I guess if we got that thorn, it's our fault anyways. So I guess maybe I just need to think that we walked through that thorn bush, so now we've got thorns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:So that's our own fault, but God's not going to come by and pluck them out for us and make it not hurt, I guess. So I guess I can kind of get on board with that. It's sin that we need to overcome with God and instead of God just removing it for us without, I guess, learning from it, understanding that sin, if we stay in that sin it does separate us from him a bit, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a good thinking question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys can let us know what your thoughts are too thinking question. You guys can let us know what your thoughts are, too Um.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything really to jump onto after that. That's that related. I have a bunch of random things.
Speaker 1:I have a quick rant. This is not I love your rants. This is not a Christian related rant. Um, and I think I talked about it last year around halloween those daggum kids it's not that. Oh, it is jacksonville halloween. This is. This might be coming off a little strong, but especially from a macedonian outsider.
Speaker 2:Where's your roots?
Speaker 3:where's your yeah all right, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead no, you go I've.
Speaker 1:I've lived a handful of places, right like I've. I've been different places throughout different years, so I've experienced halloween as a kid in different places. I don't remember it being like it is now and I understand the way some communities set up the way they have it because of safety and all the crazy people out there now. But Jacksonville Halloween is maybe one of the dumbest things. It's so strong, but one of the dumbest ways to do trick-or-treating. I think there's two streets in all of Jacksonville that people basically trick-or-treat on Two streets. If you don't live on those two streets, there will be no trick-or-treaters. I had two last year like whatever I don't. I'm not saying that like, but like I remember going neighborhood to neighborhood as a kid yeah going trick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you saying, yeah for?
Speaker 2:well. So we had spots, we had hot spots yeah like just down the road from here, okay, so when did this change?
Speaker 1:I don't know, yeah, and it's two nights now I have a problem with that?
Speaker 2:and it's two nights now. I have a problem with that. You trick-or-treated on two nights, Yep Get out of here this year.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm wrong. They're not even doing it over Halloween because Halloween falls on a Thursday, or maybe they talked about it. Maybe they're not doing it this way, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong a couple times. No, you're good, I'll just go with it. But I think there was talks where they are doing trick-or-treating on the weekend following Halloween, like the weekend that's closest to Halloween. So if it was a Monday or Tuesday, they'd do it the weekend before or the weekend after. If it's later in the week, that's not even trick-or-treating then.
Speaker 2:That's. November or yeah, that's I uh yeah, on the weekend they're gonna, or whatever you're saying.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they are this year. I heard that they were talking about doing okay as I say already listening to Mariah Carey no kidding.
Speaker 2:I mean we're on to Christmas music at that point yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, it drives me nuts.
Speaker 1:I understand it, maybe a little bit in Jacksonville, if you want to split it up with South Jacksonville. If you're going to do that, is that how they do it?
Speaker 2:I don't know All I remember I quit going pretty young, but what? I do remember is jump out of that van. It was freaking cold.
Speaker 1:Let's go get some candy.
Speaker 2:That was part of trick-or-treating as a kid, yeah and we weren't city people. Yeah, so we'd kind of just like, oh, that's a big old house right there.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:They give out the full-size candy bars.
Speaker 1:The best trick-or-treating I remember was up in Duluth in Minnesota, because you'd pick out your neighborhoods.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Duluth is a fairly we't go like crazy far around the city, I guess, or like outside of it, but the loot's fairly large. But you'd have your neighborhoods and you knew where to go yeah you knew where the doctors lived. And oh yeah, you go get those large candy bars yeah, there was a house just down the way.
Speaker 2:I don't know whose house it was, but we went there two years in a row. I think I got like 16, 17 cents Two years ago. Huh.
Speaker 1:Two years ago.
Speaker 2:No, I just. I mean, you know, whenever I was a little tyke I got like 16, 17 cents one time.
Speaker 1:What? Yeah, it was sick. Did you get some change? Oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, Didn't have no candy Like dude. We're coming back here next year. This is fire. That's funny. I can get a piece of boat gum. Phew, it was awesome. Start jingling your bag a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was fired up, I just think I don't know. To go down one road, one street and then down another and then be done for the night. Yeah, like lazy parents shout out parents. And the two night thing I agree with. I think I don't understand that. That's like like, what's the point?
Speaker 1:yeah so like I was like trying to understand it and maybe they do do it this way, if they do south, south Jacksonville and Jacksonville and like, but I don't remember handing out candy as a kid, I feel like, yeah, the younger kids went out earlier, like dusk, you know. Yeah, and then the older kids were out until like nine or 10 or whatever maybe not 10, but like after when it was dark.
Speaker 1:It was clearly dark and you'd go. So if you were handing out candy, then sure you'd hand out a little earlier, and then if you're trick-or-treating, you go after.
Speaker 2:But I don't know that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I just think it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, it's not the same. We need to get back to the basics, you know.
Speaker 1:Like, get with your group of friends, you guys go neighborhood to neighborhood. Get some candy. Get some candy and you take it back to your house. You compare who got the most or what. Who got the best candy?
Speaker 2:and if someone gets in trouble then you trade Jacksonville. Don't ruin it for everybody. Let's still have fun the next year to come. You know we'll forget it. It's okay, sure.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you mean by that, some vandalism or something I don't know. Some troublemakers out there, that wasn't even talked about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know. I'm just saying there's probably some rules on that. That's why they're shutting down late and going two nights in South Jackson and all that.
Speaker 1:And also Jackson and all that. All I've heard is people saying it's so that people can hand out candy to trick-or-treaters too. That's stupid.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to hand out candy anyway, and Let the parents do that. You don't need to go two nights. You don't need that much candy Like come on. You don't like trick-or-treating, that much. You want one day a year.
Speaker 1:And also I know we talked about this last year if you're gonna trick or treat, say trick or treat, yeah, don't open the door, or don't let me open the door and you just stare at me, yeah that I'll close.
Speaker 2:I'll close the door right in your face.
Speaker 1:I don't care like you say trick or treat, hold your bucket out or your pillowcase or bag, whatever you got there and then what you say trick or treat.
Speaker 2:what do you say after you get your little candy?
Speaker 1:Thanks, you say thank you.
Speaker 2:And parents shout out, parents out there, make them say thank you. Make them say trick or treat one time. Just do it one time at my house, that's all I care about.
Speaker 1:If I had a house, a little cabin in the woods, seriously figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on, all right, Also, we love Jacksonville Shout out. Jacksonville. Sure, huge, huge Jacksonville guys Lived here all my life, so that was one of my things, halloween.
Speaker 1:That was one of my topics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I wrote it down. I gotta scribble it out right here. Whatever, second Okay, camping what?
Speaker 1:about it.
Speaker 2:Beauty of weather.
Speaker 1:Beauty of a weather, oh the weather is a beauty, I'll tell you what Good English.
Speaker 2:I get it. Love what I'm hearing. Freaking beauty Today. High of what? 68?
Speaker 1:About yeah.
Speaker 2:Some are saying 67. Beauty Perfect, get that fire lit up, let's go make some steaks in the woods.
Speaker 1:What's been driving me nuts is like the 41 in the morning but 85 in the afternoon. 85 is crazy, so dumb.
Speaker 2:How am I supposed to live, laugh, love in these type of conditions? You know what I mean. Come on.
Speaker 1:I can't get behind that one.
Speaker 2:No, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean, I get what you're saying, but I can't follow that train, you know.
Speaker 2:Do you live? Yeah, you're laughing right now. Come on, spread some love, brother, come on.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 2:Camping, can I?
Speaker 1:go. Maybe we need to take this to a solo podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, some are saying, Some are saying I mean come on.
Speaker 1:No, no, I'm just kidding, we going this weekend. No, I'm hunting this weekend Saturday evening, probably all weekend.
Speaker 2:Shoe. So no, I'll go Sunday night.
Speaker 1:I got school Monday. I am not getting up at 5 am from a campsite to get home and get to school. What if I?
Speaker 2:make you breakfast or something in the morning.
Speaker 1:We'll see, yeah but I wouldn't be able to go. I wouldn't get to the stand Sunday morning. We could both hunt. I don't know. We can talk about it, I guess.
Speaker 2:Where I'm at. I don't have permission there, but I know a guy. You know a guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know a guy, maybe know a guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know a guy.
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe we can talk In the works, in the works. It'll be in the works, okay.
Speaker 2:I'd love to camp, though I do want to camp. Oh, I want to go. So bad, I love it, freaking love it. Whatever happened to our trip out west? Oh, I became unemployed. That's what happened. That's pretty big, yeah, yeah, so money. But I am going westward in, not this weekend. Well, by the time this comes out, it'll be that weekend. You going to Okie, okie from.
Speaker 1:Muskogee, you going to a game? Yeah, oklahoma State versus who I don't know. I just show up, I going to a game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oklahoma State versus who, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just show up.
Speaker 2:I already bought a ticket. I don't know who they're playing. It's an away game, yeah, yeah. I've actually got to drive 10 more hours somewhere. It's all right.
Speaker 1:You're the only one showing up at the stadium.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got to get some orange, though, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gotta get some orange, though, you know, yeah, or something you know don't, yeah, I won't.
Speaker 2:Where are the other teams? Colors, whatever? They are kind of funny. I should. I don't know who. Yeah, I don't know who they're playing. I gotta do some research, um, but yeah, that'll be, that'll be fun. I'm very excited. Yeah, I haven't seen my ball in forever, um, like four months probably really probably huh fourth of july. How many months ago was that I? Don't know, do the math we'll save that for another time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, a couple minutes yep all right, you get us on track here no, I don't know if I have anything else random to talk about here oh, is the pub peddler coming up? Oh, I forgot about that oh, I love it yeah, brady, probably won't do that though no, I mean I mean that the other dude? Yeah that probably won't do that this year guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be fun, I love it. I love biking around town with the boys, with the boys.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was going to ask you any update on your go-kart.
Speaker 2:No, frame still broke. I haven't touched it since.
Speaker 1:No, looking for a new one.
Speaker 2:No, I just actually right before we did this, I was looking on Facebook Marketplace. I found one for $650. Oh, already got engine together, already ready to rock. And roll.
Speaker 1:I thought you were just looking for a frame, though yeah, but the frames are freaking like just as much.
Speaker 2:Why? I don't know. That's crazy, it's bull crap, because if I found a frame, it'd be pretty easy. I'd just have to do the same thing. I just did to that one, right, but now I know how to do it. So, um oh, I just did to that one, right, but now I know how to do it. So, oh, um, oh, I got a new headlamp, okay, so that was exciting. So next time we're searching for some oh Deer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our flashlights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe we can see Longer than like an hour. We can actually follow the blood, yeah our flashlights died.
Speaker 1:Maybe we can see longer than an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, instead of using our phones because our flashlights died and our headlamps died, so I got a new one. There you go and I got a new hat, and I got new jeans. That hat's goofy, though, dude. No dude, it's so warm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got it. You look like a freaking dweeb.
Speaker 2:You can't even spell dweeb Dweeb, you freaking nerd, spell it. No, you can't spell it. W what?
Speaker 1:Bro started with a W. What is going?
Speaker 2:on.
Speaker 1:D-W-E-E-B. Dweeb. All right, I was getting ahead of myself, right? That's a pretty bad one there.
Speaker 2:So that leads into my point. Right there, I'm spending too much money. As an unemployed feller I've been struggling with it.
Speaker 1:I'm employed and I still spend way too much money.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I love it and I should quit it, but I can't. No, oh man, I I love it and I should quit it, but I can't. Yeah, no, I do, I think I do really good, and then I don't buy a couple things and then I just go and buy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like once a month for me. Oh, I'm doing good, let me get some of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I spend too much yeah two day span so I gotta wear the hat date your money's worth, yeah, there you. There you go. It was like $10. Oh boy, If I wear it 10 times A dollar a day.
Speaker 1:A dollar a day, a hundred times.
Speaker 2:Shoot. You know the math on that. Anyways.
Speaker 1:All right, all right To get us kind of going into the right direction. I came across this Well shoot was a a reel of someone they were asking chat gpt um, a question along the lines of like if you were satan, how would you kind of work against god?
Speaker 2:in this world. But it made that, but it made me think of.
Speaker 1:I heard this video a long time ago, not a long time ago, a couple years ago maybe. This is a radio clip from 1965. I'm going to play it for us to listen, okay. And it's titled If I Were the Devil. Yes, okay, I love this one. It's crazy, I love it so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's titled.
Speaker 1:If I Were the Devil? Yes, okay, I love this one. It's crazy. I love it so much. Yeah, it's so good so listen to this, and then I don't know if I have anything to say about it.
Speaker 4:Get ready guys.
Speaker 1:It just reminded me of it and I'm like holy crap.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I remember getting chills the first time I heard this Buckle in, lock in and listen to this bad boy. Three minutes here, let's go, here we go.
Speaker 4:It is a little grainy. If I were the devil? If I were the devil, If I were the prince of darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness and I'd have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population. But I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, the. So I'd set about, however necessary, to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches.
Speaker 4:First, I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve Do as you please. To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good and what's good is square. And the old I would teach to pray. After me our father which art in Washington. And then I'd get organized. I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.
Speaker 4:If I were the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves, until each in its turn was consumed and with promises of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames, fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions. Just let those run wild. Until, before you knew it, you'd have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing. I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress and in his own churches. I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.
Speaker 4:If I were the devil, I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious and what'll you bet. I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich. I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun that what you see on TV is the way to be, and thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing, Paul Harvey.
Speaker 1:That's from 1965. Mm-hmm, that's from 1965. And I know we have some listeners that I'm not going to say that's an old video because I don't want to offend anybody but, you can hear it a little bit, yeah, but it is pretty crazy. It's crazy to see. I'm sure we could maybe in years try to kind of see where, not just our country but the world is going to. But it's crazy to think shoot, that's what 60 years ago about now, 60 years ago, that they can pretty accurately yeah describe what's going on how true that video is now, um which I wonder how true it was exactly 70s
Speaker 1:80s, and now it's just like even worse, even further yeah, it was crazy and the parts that like stuck out to me with it made me think of you know, with the election coming up and everything soon. It reminded me of that. Your dad talked about it around the last election during the Bible study, I think it was whoever we vote for, we should be praying that whoever gets elected and whoever else is making decisions in our country is doing it for the right reasons, and all that and putting god first. Still, I'm not the government, I guess, um, I don't know. It just was like it is crazy the way things seem right now and it's like yeah, I just need to focus on God.
Speaker 2:Especially like recent stuff I've seen kind of crazy, which kind of makes it more obvious to me that we can't trust in society and we just have to put all our faith and trust in God. Yeah. And to not do that is a weird gamble, I think, but I look at it probably differently than most people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know it's. It's just it was kind of like and that the video I was talking about before, where they asked AI to say if you were adult, if you were Satan, and what would you do to kind of destroy the church. In a sense it was the reason it made me think of this, because, like ai was giving like the same answers, I'm like, well, there's a video of someone from 65 talking about the same things. And here we are, but a little bit, just a little extra thinking, yeah, before we get into matthew, chapter 8, um that's how sneaky that little freaking snake is.
Speaker 2:Dude, sneaky little snake. We gotta look out for him, he's everywhere.
Speaker 1:Do you want to start or do you want me?
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter. I believe I'm further in than you.
Speaker 1:I'll kind of start then. Okay, kind of following along with how we've done it so far is we're not going to read through all of chapter 8 or each chapter, but we're past the Sermon on the Mount. So this is after that. But, like we've said, even going through the Sermon on the Mount, each chapter, there's just there's always way more in it than you think about before.
Speaker 1:you, like, are really trying to pick stuff apart I guess You're like, oh my gosh, like you could spend two hours talking about that, and that's not even what caught my eye initially. Yeah, so definitely go read the rest of chapter 8, whatever we don't talk about today and what we do, yeah, check us too. But the part that stuck out to me was Matthew 8, 5 through 13. It's the faith of the centurion, I guess I'll. It's a little long, but I'll read it real quick, in case someone's driving while listening or something like that and wants to know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:So it says when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, he said. My servant lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him shall I come and heal him? The centurion replied Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one go, and he goes, and that one to come and he comes. I say to my servant do this, and he does it.
Speaker 1:When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their place at the feast with Abraham, isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion Go, let it be done just as you had believed it would. And his servant was healed at that moment.
Speaker 1:So the first thing that stuck out to me was so this centurion did not have a jewish background. He was just another roman who likely believed, growing up anyways believed in the Roman gods. That was the first thing, because for someone, a Roman, to go out of their way and he had to have obviously believed at this point to go to Jesus and say, lord, he's not saying, hey, you, who you're, you seem to be doing these things. Would you mind helping me out? He's going to him and, lord, like I know, I know that you can do this. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Can you please help my servant? And that part was like I didn't really think about it that way before. It's like this guy, he is putting himself in harm's way If other Romans see him interacting with a Jewish person and this Jesus that's getting all this buzz around this area. He's not putting himself in a good spot and so his job is a military officer, so he's in charge of people. Like he said and like I said, the one of the parts that just it just stuck out to me so much was that he went there with such a great faith as Jesus said it. No one else up until this point, or maybe even ever, showed this amount of faith to Jesus about what he knew he could do. So he knew that Jesus had the authority to just say it, which was the next part that stuck out to me. I didn't really catch it. It goes into the same thing, but it's just like adding to it. I was reading it and it says I tell this one to go and he goes, and that one to come and he comes. I say to my servant do this, and he does it.
Speaker 1:I didn't really understand why he was putting that in there, like why he was saying that at first, the first time I read through that. But he's saying I have authority over people. I know what authority feels like and what happens when I say something. And he's saying Jesus, in some way he's seen, he's probably seen Jesus, whether it's teaching, maybe he's seen him heal. We don't know much about this guy outside of this, but he's been in the area. He knows who Jesus is, so he's probably seen Jesus perform a miracle, heal people, at least teach, or at the very least he's heard all this from the Jews that he's kind of patrolling around during all this time.
Speaker 1:So he's saying I know what authority is and I know that you have the authority. Just say it. You don't need to even come see him, just say it. And I know that you have the authority, just say it. You don't need to even come see him, just say it. And I know it will be done, because I know what that feels like. I say to do that it happens and I know that you have that authority to heal and to do all this stuff for anyone in this world. And that was like that was just more proof to his faith. It's not just him going out on a whim saying I don't want my servant or whoever this person is, to just die in my house or wherever and just say, well, everyone's saying he can do this stuff. Let me just go say, hey, go do this for me. He's going to him begging. Basically, I like I need you and I know you can heal this guy.
Speaker 2:And he believed in jesus and that he was what he was hearing, that he was um yeah, he came in very humbly and not in a way where he was like hey, I've heard these things, come prove it to me. Yeah, it was. I believe this. I believe you are who you say you are. You've got more important things to do. So if you just say it, I know it can happen, which is amazing. Obviously, jesus took note and made a short lesson out of it to his disciples.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so pretty cool story, the other part too. You kind of made me like when you said, you know, humbling himself. I guess in that is again like he's Lord. Lord, I need you, Like I. What do you say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he says, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.
Speaker 1:It's not. Hey, lord guy like I don't want you to come to my house because I don't want other romans to see you it's yeah, I don't deserve you to come to my house. I want you to like, I wouldn't stop you if you did kind of thing, but I don't deserve to have you under my roof, not like uh, okay, you're a jew, I'm a roman, you can't come into my house, but if you can do something, do it for me or come when it's dark.
Speaker 1:Don't let anyone see you. I don't deserve to have you in my house and I know that you can do this for me, but I thought that was a pretty cool little pretty neat yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like there's which we say this every time. Reading over this the last couple days, there's been a lot of ways I could have went with mine, yeah, and I don't know if me choosing one or the other is any more important. But, like we've said before, just get in and read a little bit. Yeah, that's once a day, or whatever. Just look at it.
Speaker 1:Maybe if there's something we don't cover and you just want to share your thoughts with someone over a certain, write in to us and let us know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that idea Because I mean we're definitely skipping over some stuff right that stuff that people would definitely be like.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's, we know that story kind of thing they might connect with it more, but this is just what we've um, well, keith has researched, is I kind of just looked over and be like I'll just take that one, I guess? Um, but just what catches our eye, Don't be shy to dig into your Bible, I guess is what I'm saying. So the one that I went after was the Cost of Following Jesus. It is Matthew 8, 18 through 22. So it's the cost of following Jesus.
Speaker 2:When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied Foxes have holes and birds in the air have nests, but son of man has no place to lay his head. Another disciple said to him Lord, first let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. And let the dead bury their own dead. So that last one is kind of confusing to me Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. And well, I guess I'll let you explain your thought on it. What we had talked about before on what you took that as.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was it kind of. It kind of relates to a part that I I kind of skipped over in the in the part that I read in the way that I connected, I guess. So, real quick, I'm going to jump back to um, verse 12. Verse 12 in chapter 8. He says but the subjects, sorry, I'll go 13. Sorry, so sorry. I'm going to jump back to verse 11 and 12 of Matthew 8.
Speaker 1:He says I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take the places at the feast with Abraham, isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. That was a weird little catch for me. It says Jesus is saying that the subjects of the kingdom are going to be thrown outside into the darkness, separated from God, where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The subjects of the kingdom are going to be thrown outside into the darkness, separated from God, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I didn't understand that one at all, and maybe I still don't. But my other Bible that I look at has the footnotes and I was looking at that like, okay, what is this saying?
Speaker 1:Well, it's saying that when Jesus is talking about the kingdom here, when he's saying the subjects of the kingdom are the Jews of this time that just expect to because they grew up a Jew to be in heaven. Like, oh, I'm from a Jewish family, I go to the synagogue and I'm just going to be kind of given my right it's my birthright to be in heaven with God, kind of thing, and that's not who God wants to spend eternity with. If you think you're just getting like, well, I deserve this because we don't. So with that, when Carter was talking about that in my head I was like, well, is he talking about where he says let the dead bury their own dead, where he's repeating himself, kind of. I was like, well, is he talking about the non-believers or the non-devout Jews? I guess at that time. So the people that, what did I say? Non-devout Jews? I guess at that time. So the people that, what did I say? What was the phrase?
Speaker 1:I can't remember, but that's how I took it and maybe I'm wrong. There's a great chance that I'm wrong in that part where it says let the dead bury their own dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there's somebody out there listening that probably has a better spin on it. But before just kind of thinking, I kind of thought the same thing as you like. Well, that's probably people that aren't following Jesus, or.
Speaker 1:Trying to follow the law at that time. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Think they're doing Following God but not actually doing the actions, I guess, and following him. But in this and I don't know how much we should trust chat GPT, I don't know. I don't know about that, but I did look it up just to get a kind of opinion or what the internet thought um, and it says it emphasizes the urgency and priority of following him over traditional obligations this reflects the radical commitment required to be a disciple, prioritizing spiritual matters over social and familial expectations.
Speaker 1:Familial that makes sense, though, that Jesus is saying hey, I'm not going to be here forever. Follow me, learn from this time that I have physically on this earth, and let that part take care of itself. Yeah. Because time's a little bit of the essence here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wonder like I'm sure this disciple had family or a wife or friends that could have buried him. I think we're reading into it too much. Maybe, but I think for that disciple to go right now is more important than worrying about what's going to happen there and then push it off.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like the other, the other time, where someone says like well, what should I do? And jesus is like follow me, don't like follow me, be a disciple. And he's like well, let me go back and finish my affairs. Like I gotta get things in order before I leave and he's like no, I think that's not how. This isn't the time for that yeah just follow me. And he doesn't follow, he doesn't go with Jesus. He goes back and wants to get his stuff in order and think of it like a house fire Like you can't grab your stuff and put it around.
Speaker 2:You got to go, brother. Yeah, that's the importance of it. Kind of weird, it's been on it, but just something popped in my head.
Speaker 1:Kind of weird to bet on it, but just something popped in my head, but we talked about it last episode and it's like we know that anything Jesus said, like he didn't waste a breath yeah, he meant everything he said and there was meaning to what he said. Yeah, so maybe we're not hitting it on the spot there In Matthew 8, verse 22. The dead bury their own yeah. Someone reach out and tell us.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I assume we're close. I think we're kind of getting the message there.
Speaker 1:I think the main thing is follow me, yeah, yeah, the urgency of it, the cost of following Jesus.
Speaker 2:That's literally the title of that little paragraph there. Um, and the other one that I picked up on was jesus replied and said foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests and the Son of man has no place to lay his head, meaning these animals have their homes that they go to. We're going to be on the move. There's going to be some struggle on this journey. It's not going to be easy. I mean it's not. It's gonna be tough, but follow me and we're gonna change lives and all this good stuff. Yeah, spread the word.
Speaker 1:I kind of take that as Jesus saying too is like hey, I'm for everyone yeah. I'm for everyone, like I'm not just gonna be in this spot, I'm not just going to be in this spot, I'm not going to be in this area. I'm on the move and I'm trying to reach as many people as possible, kind of thing, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's what I got from those four sentences.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then, like I said, there's some pretty good other passages in this chapter. Yeah, jesus called him the storm. Oh brother, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:We all fall for that right there oh yeah. Like trust. Yeah, it's so tough.
Speaker 1:I guess, to quickly talk about it, it's one of those things, though any one of us, any other person that was on that boat with Jesus, would have reacted the exact same way. Oh yeah, we all would have yeah. And I actually saw someone talking about this recently. It's like most of the disciples a handful of them at the very least were fishermen for their job, so they had been on the boat and on the sea a lot and probably through some bad storms and it this one's so bad that they're like hey yeah jesus we're gonna die if you do what's going on here, like are we gonna die on this boat?
Speaker 1:like do something, yeah, jesus. Like you have no faith, like, yeah, you think I'm gonna die on a boat. Like do something, yeah, jesus is like you have no faith, like, yeah, you think I'm gonna die on a boat. You think me of all people yeah no, but like it's like. What are you, what are you getting all worried about?
Speaker 2:kind of gangster play by jesus.
Speaker 1:There you have little just be sleeping and the boats getting crashed on by waves and stuff Got up and rebuked the winds and the waves and it was completely calm.
Speaker 2:It was back to that authority.
Speaker 1:Yeah Said hey.
Speaker 2:Pipe down out there. Yeah, the wind and the people, brother, true, true, yeah, it is crazy because those people too.
Speaker 1:They've spent so much time with Jesus, yeah. And then they're like who is this man? Yeah, the waves and the wind obey him. Yeah, I've seen all this other stuff, but that's some crazy stuff right there and to still be surprised by it is. Like I said, anyone else likely, I guess would probably have reacted the exact same way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's my judgmental heart is like at some point. I would know like yeah, I could be better than these people Like, come on, he's done all this stuff and you still ain't. No, I'd be not. I wouldn't be any of these people, I'd be worse, probably.
Speaker 1:But just before that, like Jesus heals many, and he's healed hundreds of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they've seen all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he just told a dude hey, I just healed that guy, you're good. Good, just go home, he's good.
Speaker 1:And then healing more after that, and they've seen all that. But to see him tell the wind and the waves to chill out and they're like, I still like to still just be perplexed. Yeah, yeah, it's wild, that's Jesus, yeah, that's our guy right there, here we go, gotta love him, yo, um, oh Okay, gotta love them Yo, um, oh, random, not with the Little lesson we had there.
Speaker 2:Do you have a Favorite? Or Just a Christian song for the podcast? For this little podcast, it could be your favorite song, or just one that you've thought of this week. And then all them fans out there, maybe they could say something, a little something, something. Give us a little music every now and then, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no kidding, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That one about Honey.
Speaker 1:Honey and a Rock. That's always a good one when they're singing it at church. Make me cry, bro, cry I like the way that the church sings it more than I do too, I think the church should.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit more rocky.
Speaker 1:No pun intended.
Speaker 2:They should do an album, I'd buy it.
Speaker 1:I don't know that one comes to mind. What was that one that they played? Was it last week or the week before I'd buy it Shoot Shoot? I don't know that one comes to mind. What was that one that they played Was?
Speaker 2:it last week or the week before, where you were like, ooh, I don't know, it was a banger though. Yeah. Boy. I remember that moment. I don't remember the song, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you were a little bit more jazzed up about it than I was. Yeah, it was decent. I get pretty fired up. Maybe I need to start coming prepared with the song. I can't think of one off the top of my head right now, anything else.
Speaker 2:I got a banger for y'all. It is Pray for the Fish.
Speaker 1:Pray for the Fish.
Speaker 2:By Randy Travis. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I feel like I've probably heard it before if it's Randy Travis but I don't know if I could recall it.
Speaker 2:It's upbeat, it's fire. Huh.
Speaker 1:All right, all right. Well, recently I posted on our Instagram some general feedback questions and got some hits back on that, and one of them was that you guys would like to have a little bit more Q&A from us. I guess Q&A from us. So if you want to send in some questions, it can be email, it can be Instagram Like I said, lifebesidechristpod on Instagram. If you want to just shoot us a question that maybe you just want us to answer, it could be a short answer or maybe we could. If it's a longer answer, we can take a look at it and try to answer a question or two in an episode.
Speaker 2:And it could be about anything.
Speaker 1:Literally anything.
Speaker 2:Like why this dude likes barbecue sauce on his hot dogs or something.
Speaker 1:Oh dude, this is actually pretty good.
Speaker 2:No, it ain't bad.
Speaker 1:That's what you said.
Speaker 2:Don't come at me like that. It ain't bad. It's probably third on the list, though.
Speaker 1:Fourth on the list though. Fourth on the list, whatever dude. Anyways, yeah, it can be anything. Yeah, but we appreciate anyone who has um answered any questions and given us any feedback.
Speaker 2:If you've made it this far in the podcast congratulations you are now one of our elite employees there you go. Yeah, not employees, no one of our uh yeah, platinum, platinum supporters there you go. Double platinum, there you go.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll let y'all go all right, thank you guys, see ya you.
