Know Your Shepherd’s Voice
Today I met with a pastor who’s a friend of mine. I share what we talked about.I break down Deuteronomy 10:12 News: Birthplace of Critical Race Theory and its impact on students.
Podcast 2 Transcript
This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast. This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.
Good day to you and welcome. I am B. R. Maul and on this podcast, well, I’m here to preach the gospel message, lead people to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and teach his followers how to stay the course on the narrow path, which as Jesus said, only few will find. So it’s not just about coming to the Lord.
That is of course, a huge step for salvation. That’s enormous, but it’s also about staying the right course and how to stay it. So it’s good to have you here with me. Let’s get started. Well, first things first, I do have some headline news. I get a lot of my news from the Epoch Times. That’s E P O C H, Epoch Times.
I encourage everyone to actually get a hold of them. Subscription is pretty inexpensive and it’s a great way to get real news, news with truth and not this mainstream media where they just wanna spin the story and tell us what they want. To believe. So headline news here is students speak out on anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-American culture at Florida University.
It’s a pretty lengthy article, some excellent stuff in there. So I’m not here to read the whole thing to you, but let’s just cover basically some of the, what the essence is all about. So across the country. I’m reading the article. Parents have pushed back against their community school boards for allowing radical race and gender theories in grades K through 12, but experts told the Epoch times that the same pushback hasn’t happened at the college level.
The birthplace of Critical Race Theory. So anybody who’s been keeping up on this critical race theory, often return referred to as just CRT. This is some very dangerous teachings. And yes, it’s been found out that it is right here in America in many of the states, but since finding that out, just maybe two years ago.
Parents all over the country are now taking over in the school boards. They’re not just letting anybody run ’em. The parents themselves who actually care and love for their children are getting involved, and I think that’s a good thing. The article goes on, CRT, the experts said is rampant across the nation.
Not just Florida. And that means conservative students nationwide are struggling to navigate college systems where they face disdain for their beliefs and encouragement to reject their core values. Unfortunately, that is what’s happening. Our universities have so many of them have become a, a place for the far left to bash Christians’ beliefs. So these young Christians who have perhaps just recently come to Christ, many of them still may not have come to Christ on their own. Many of these students are leaving their Christian homes and they still have questions. They’re stepping into these universities and of course these universities lie about what Christianity is or is not. Unfortunately, Christian students are being belittled and even worse in the classrooms, the professors are taking upon themselves to basically mandate how students are to agree with them or basically not be able to pass their grade. So here’s another quote from the reading here.
The article one student says, I can’t write what I truly believe. A girl named Mia said when I did that, she said I got an F. In order to pass a class, I have to affirm leftist ideas I don’t believe in when I repeat all the talking points and present them as ideas, I believe wholehearted, then I get a’s don’t end quote.
So that is headline news. Well, with that said, gonna move right along then to the message for today. And really what I wanna talk about is something that I did today, I met with a friend of mine who is a pastor at one of the local churches. And so he and I sat down and had a chance to visit.
Our discussion was pretty nice, and when I say nice, that just means productive because, well, we did talk about what’s going on in our world today, what’s going on in our community. We live in a rather conservative community where things don’t tend to happen quickly when it comes to change, at least historically.
That certainly is not the case now. Things even around here moving pretty fast, moving very. The conversation eventually then did go into specific details about what’s going on, and we talked a lot then about really what not, I don’t wanna say just the church, because that makes it sound like pastors and, the spiritual leaders, elders and deacons, deaconesses, whatever.
They tend to be the ones who are labeled as the church for some reason. A lot of church goers. Don’t see themself as needing to be a part of what’s going on. So I’m reluctant to say that the church needs to step up. I’m gonna instead, and what I actually was using for terminology when visiting with him was that Christians, Christ followers, need to get active, way more active.
Okay, so again, disclaimer, this podcast is for Christians who are looking to become stronger in their walk with the Lord. And for those who are seeking the Lord truthfully, I’m gonna let things fly. So back to what I was saying, we certainly as Christians as a whole, and, I take responsibility for that, a big chunk of my life was spent moaning and groaning about what’s going on and in the world.
But I always still viewed it as somebody else’s problem, but it’s my problem and it’s your problem. Things that are happening in the world today in our communities right here and now, Christian is our problem. We all need to be active in what’s going on. I’m not even gonna say more active cuz really I, I know plenty of Christians, or for those who even claim to be Christian, I don’t know for sure if they are doing little to nothing.
So let me get to the passage for today’s Deuteronomy, and it reads as such, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all heart and with all your soul. Now I encourage you and write that this down, Deuteronomy 10:12.
If you don’t have your Bible with you, I encourage you to sit down then later and read this a few times. But you know what? Instead of Israel, why don’t you put your name in there because this still applies to us today. Alright. I won’t get in the conversation right now, but sometime we will discuss the importance of keeping the Old Testament along with the New Testament and not just reading the New Testament thinking ah, the Old Testament doesn’t even apply anymore. That is far from the truth. But with that said, yes, this is directly, this is talking directly to us. God is talking directly to his children. Well, let’s, let’s break this down a little bit. So I’m gonna go a little slower, and with the conversation that I had with my pastor friend, yes, this is a huge, huge problem in the lives of Christians. And now Israel. What does the Lord your God require of you? Keep this in mind, the Lord your God. Requires this of you. This isn’t like a proverb where, well, if you do this, this is more than likely what’s gonna happen. And if you don’t do that, this is what’s gonna probably happen to, no, no. This is a requirement. We’re being told this is what we need to do and what do we need to do? Fear the Lord your God. Fear the Lord your God. Of course, this isn’t the kind of fear, like I’m scared someone’s gonna jump out and mug me. This is a reverent fear, and the best example I can think of is it’s the same type of fear a child will have with his or her parents.
Okay? That is what this is referring to. And often does when talking about the fear of the Lord. So that’s, that’s right there to fear the Lord your God. We’re seeing a big decay in that area because more and more Christians doesn’t really have the fear of the Lord to walk in all his ways so we are to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways.
Ways is another way of thinking of pathways and we, we hear that reference a lot in the Bible about being on the righteous path or the narrow path, but it is symbolic than, of course not a physical path, but the path of life. The decisions that we are making in life our moral attitudes. An outlook on things.
That’s a, that’s our path that we are walking. So to walk in all his ways, well, it, it really means just that in all his ways. And we see that so much today that, that too is not being honored. H how many churches really pick and choose what they want to? What they wanna follow. So they’re not walking in all his ways, but they’re walking in some or many, but not all.
Because so many churches today find, well, it’s just offensive. You know, we, we can’t necessarily hurt people’s feelings. Right. Of course that is PC politically correct, right? That’s what PC is, and many churches are abiding by the worldly law of pc, or not law, but moral standard, I should say. Well, that’s not God’s ways to love somebody doesn’t mean to condone their behavior and whatever.
So we are to fear the Lord your God. We are to walk in all his ways. Walking does imply effort, so we’ll get more in depth in that as well. But we really have to walk the path. In Psalm 23, it says, he leads me down the paths of righteousness for his names sake. He will lead us cuz he stays on the paths of righteousness and so he will lead us.
We only have to follow him. We have to take the steps though to follow him. What do those steps look like? Well, reading his word, that’s the biggest right there, reading his word. That is how you can know his ways. Once you know his ways, then you can walk in all his ways. By going to church on Sunday beloved does not constitute, does not stand in place of reading his word. Okay? And to love him. Fear the Lord your God. You have that reverence, that respect. You’re walking in all his ways, you are reading his word, you are praying to him, you’re communicating to him, and learning more about him and to love him.
So that’s three out of four. To love him. Well, what does loving him look like? Well, when we obey him, we are loving him. When we take the time to actually listen to what he is saying, what he is speaking to us, what direction does he want us to go in life? How many people take the time to actually pray to God before making major decisions? Very few, and even more so, even just lesser decisions. He wants a relationship with us. It’s the, it’s the one thing that God. Gives us that we get to choose whether or not we want to give it back to him, and that is our love. He gives us the ability to love, but he also has designed love in a way that even he himself, God himself, does not make people love him because it’s the kind of love that he designed for us to give to him.
In Proverbs three, five and six trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not onto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Okay? In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. He wants to be acknowledged and that is loving him. So if you are fearing him reverently and you are walking in his ways, you are loving him.
A person isn’t fearing him because I’m just so afraid and I don’t want him to see me. No. It’s not that kind of fear. And, and a person’s not walking, trying to follow his ways, even though they can’t stand it. No, just like a child with their parent. They, they love their parent. Why? Because they, they see mom and dad doing things.
They care for that child. But we have to be able to do that. We have to be able to read his word and just see what he has done, what he is doing in our lives today, in what he will be with the rest of his promises. That is loving him. And the last is to serve the Lord your God. And to do all this with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your heart and with all your soul.
We can’t pretend to be a Christ follower. And so there are many who speak the words, but they don’t live it. Their heart is not with him. They are dedicated verbally. They go to church cause that’s the best thing to do. It makes them look good, their families doing it. Perhaps friends or a significant other.
Whatever the reason might be, but people do it. And that’s not loving him. That’s certainly not with all your heart and with all your soul. So we want to help one another, right? We want to help each other to do that. And when I say that, I mean to love him and to serve your Lord your God, serving him, doing things that while we’re supposed to do. I don’t have time to go into breaking down the definition of love and, and what it looks like and, and all that right now. That’s for another time, another message. But you know, there’s kindness, there’s patience, there’s generosity, loving him, and also loving others. This certainly connects right into, of course, what Jesus made it very simple. If you love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and you love your neighbor as yourself, you have fulfilled the law, right?
Because Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, and so he certainly does not expect his followers to abolish it. He expects us to follow it. To do that if we love our neighbors as ourselves, then essentially we are fulfilling that because we can’t love other people without first and foremost loving God. So if you’re born again believer you have already done that you have already committed yourself. You have repented to the Lord that you are a sinner and that you need a savior, that he is your savior, that his blood washed away your sins, and with that, the Holy Spirit enters you and you are justified. It’s a one and done thing. Once that happens, you are a child of God, and now you are able to start loving other people. It doesn’t of course mean it’s like a, a magic spell that just suddenly poof, you become a better person. Now suddenly I can run out and start loving people. That’s the part of Sanctification and more on that on yet another podcast. . But in that process of sanctification, which of course we are sanctified in that process through reading God’s word, through praying with him, through meeting with brothers and sisters in Christ on a weekly basis, and of course worshiping on Sundays.
And that is what helps us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And honestly, it even helps for us to love ourselves and not a prideful, look at me, I’m awesome. Because that’s the worldly way the enemy wants you to do that. No, this is the Lord created me. I am in his image and I need to respect that. I need to take care of myself and appreciate how the Lord has made me.
Deuteronomy 10:12, please read that. I would encourage you to remember that because those four areas that I just talked to you about. So important. Back to the conversation with my friend. You know, he sees that he sees that all the time in his church, and when I was a pastor of a church as well, I saw that. I loved the people that I was pastor of, and I still love them so much.
But the problem is the world has got a grip. And when I say the world, well right now, Satan, himself is the king of this world currently, and he knows his time is numbered. His days are numbered, so that’s why things are changing so fast. He wants us to be complacent and content where we’re at spiritually.
And what I mean by that is what so many people are doing today. Go to church on Sunday. As often as they can, give as much as they can serve from time to time, maybe volunteer or be on a committee. But other than that, so many people do not want to give up their worldly lifestyles. So many Christians are so hung up on living the life the world encourages them to live. To make as much money as they can in the shortest amount of time so they can enjoy retirement. And I have to say, and I will say it right here and now as I did even with him today at lunch, is, that’s not biblical. There is nothing biblical about trying to make as much money as we can and to get a nice little padding around us so then sometime we can retire and do nothing but relax and have fun. But look at all the commercials, look at all the movies. I mean, people that are ti it’s everywhere. Financial institutes all have their programs lined up so people can retire. You know, it’s, it’s all about that end target. And Satan has done such a wonderful job at playing his cards that he’s succeeding because the majority of, even those who call themselves Christian, whether by name or by fact, are living the same lifestyle.
They may not swear as much as the unbeliever. They may not drink as much or get as sloppy. I don’t know. But that’s just because many are trying to be as good as possible, as if being good is what God wants us to do. He doesn’t want us to, to act good. He, wants us to do good and do it. Why? Because we love him. Because Jesus died for us. And so we’re just so giddy. The very fact that we know that we’re gonna have eternity, and as we read God’s word and he continues to pour into our hearts, all the stuff that he has done for us is doing for us and is going to do for us that we can’t get enough of good works because we love him and we fear the Lord our God.
Christians do not do good works in order to get into heaven. It is because we are going to heaven that we do good works cuz we are thankful and even though we can never repay our Lord Jesus Christ, we want to do whatever we can to give back. So brothers and sisters in the faith, if you’re in that category, if you’re, if you see yourself, it’s like, wow, you know what I’m just not reading the Bible. Or if I am, it’s just from time to time and you’re really not getting into prayer time if you’re not meeting brothers and sisters in Christ for the intentional reason, by the way of coming together in his name. He says, when two or three gather in my name, you know, he says, Hey, I’m present, I’m there with you. And yes, God is always present. He is omnipresent. But there’s a difference cuz there’s plenty of places that we know that God can actually turn away from a person and make his presence basically absent. and perhaps you’ve been there. I have, where I just felt like I was completely alone, but that, that was all to do with my own actions and what I had going on in life.
And we don’t want people to be there. We don’t want our loved ones, we don’t want our friends, but we’re also told we don’t want our enemies there because the absence of of God in Hell is gonna be the worst part about it , that’s gonna be the torment. And in heaven that being in his presence is gonna be the biggest blessing that we receive.
So if that’s you, open God’s word, just start reading. Gospel according to John. That’s a good book. John’s pretty straightforward. Proverbs, Psalms. , if you really want some uplifting psalms, cuz there’s different kinds of Psalms. Psalms of lamenting. Yeah. That can be kind of heavy. But the last five are very uplifting Psalms.
Just get into his word and, and don’t worry about, I can’t understand certain things. I mean, when the Lord spoke to me, he just said, Bruce, read get into my word and read it. And you know what? In time suddenly it’s like, wow. At church I open up my Bible and the passage that the pastor is talking about just so happens is one that I have a question mark by.
And wow, you know, the Lord answers it and he leads me there. And keep in mind too, he is not only omnipresent, you know, he’s omniscient, he’s all knowing. He knows when we can’t handle stuff. I’m sure it’s a gift that he doesn’t just suddenly, everything is understandable in his word as we read it. Because first of all, there’s a lot there.
I was really learning as I read God’s word. and then I was meeting with other Christians in our homes. That’s where he led me to so much wisdom and knowledge and that is where I grew the most. Reading on my own. And then, you know, getting together and on a regular basis talking about God’s word. Cuz yes, when two or three gather, you know we have fun, eat and, and have a good time and visit and fellowship as well.
But you know, we get together intentionally to talk and discuss God’s word. He delights in in teaching his children and you just can’t go wrong. You can’t by reading God’s word. So it was indeed nice to see my friend today, pastor, friend. And yes, it’s unfortunate that there’s a lot of stuff going on in the churches now that really shouldn’t be, but there’s a silver lining in all of that.
For example, with all the stuff that’s going on. Well, more and more people, as God shakes up his church, they can’t hang on anymore. The shake is too much, and they, and they , I guess I, I’m not a Christian, this isn’t for me. It’s unfortunate, but at the same time, the good thing is, is that God is separating the goats from the sheep.
Do you wanna know his voice? The voice of your shepherd? Well, Christian, the only way you can do that is, is reading his word. It’s not gonna magically happen. You’re not gonna just wake up after 10 years of, of being born again and suddenly, wow. You know, he just implanted a whole bunch of information in you.
And going to church is good. We go to church primarily to worship. We learn in the sermons. But we we’re there to worship him. We’re not there to get something. We are there to give something to our Lord. But he told me today that’s probably one of the biggest problems that he’s having, is he’s pushing so hard to get to get members to start meeting outside of the church in their homes, and nobody wants to do it.
I know some say, well, there’s plenty of justification. There’s reasons not to do it because of life being so busy and you don’t have to do that in order for God to love you, and so forth and so on. I’ve been there, done it, so I’m gonna lovely say I can gun all of the excuses down, and I mean that in the most loving, but most blunt way as possible that if you don’t have enough time well then you’re just doing too much in life. If we don’t have time for our Lord and Savior, which is of course, reading the Bible, praying and getting together with brothers and sisters in Christ, guess what? You just got too much going on. You really do anything that we find important near and dear to our heart we make time for. Now if you have any questions or comments, you are welcome to email me at questions@brmaul.com. Questions. That’s the word, not the question mark questions@brmaul.com. I am not a 501c3 so you are not able to write off for tax purposes, but if you are just in your heart, genuinely want to support this ministry then you can send your gift to B. R. Maul, PO Box 126, Frazee MN 56544 and of course you can go to my website at brmaul.com and that information is also on there for you. And that is much appreciated. So until next time, thank you so much for joining me and I hope you are indeed walking with the Lord and that you are seeking him out because he loves you so much and wants to have a relationship with you because when he hung on that cross, he was thinking of you specifically you.
Until next time,
God bless.
Songs
“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win
“Searching For A Sign” by Simon Jomphe Lepine