No! It Is NOT A Matter of Perspective!
When walking with Jesus Christ it is important that we, His followers, understand that it is NOT a matter of perspective, it’s a relationship with the living God. The world wants us to look at life how ever we want, but that’s not how life works.
Podcast 11 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.
Welcome and good day. I am B. R. Maul. It’s good to have you here with me today. This is the podcast Living God’s Way in an ungodly world. What this podcast is all about, it’s not about just talking about God’s family, but living in God’s family, so living God’s way in an ungodly world, it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge every single day, and it’s not getting easier for anybody who is living in this world and paying attention what’s going on around us.
It is not getting easier to live according to God’s ways. It is getting much, much more difficult, but it is good to have you here with me today. Not long ago. There’s some disturbing information that I have witnessed myself locally on things being taught in local churches, and it’s woke. It really breaks my heart that less and less preaching is going on about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and more and more preaching about how to get along in this world.
How to fit in in this world. How Christians, how are we supposed to act so we don’t rock the boat in this world? That breaks my heart and the reason it breaks my heart. Shame on all spiritual leaders. Doesn’t matter what your title is, titles mean very little. I don’t care if you’re a priest, a bishop, a pastor, whatever it may be, but shame on so many of these spiritual leaders, and I say spiritual leaders because Jesus acknowledged before he left that he needs those who are willing to feed his sheep. Now we are all his sheep. Oh, thank goodness for that. But for those that he places in our hearts to teach and preach his word, we are under shepherds and we are to know our shepherd as best as possible.
Frankly, I believe that’s the responsibility of every Christian, and that’s why I am spending the time speaking to you through these podcasts because it’s important that every Christian understands their role in the body of Christ. Because we have been deceived for hundreds of years now, and in the American society, I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but as Christians, we’ve gotten lazy.
And I say we because that was how I lived my childhood, my young adulthood, and even to my middle Ages where it was the responsibility of pastors and priests and whoever the spiritual leaders to do all the spiritual stuff for us. And as a sheep, I’m supposed to just follow the flock. And the flock is supposed to just follow the shepherd.
And so whatever we’re told to do, that’s what we do. God has shown me, beloved, how wrong that is, how wrong I was. I have repented of that sometime ago, and I don’t want that to happen to you. I want you to live a full life walking with our Lord. And that takes strength. It really does. It takes effort, 100%.
Proverbs 21 verse two. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.
Have you ever been in a situation where you take the stance, whatever that situation might be, a, a belief of yours and you’re convinced that you are right? There’s just no way you could be. And so you keep your stance. This is the truth. This is the way it’s been, and so I’m standing on this truth only to have it yanked from underneath you.
That foundation, which turns out to be nothing more than a rug, is pulled out from underneath you and you realize that you’re wrong and that you’ve been wrong the whole time. You remember what that felt like? It’s some pretty mixed emotions, that’s for sure. There’s of course our pride not wanting to admit it, embarrassment because of the fact that we’re wrong and hopefully there’s getting to the part of being humbled where we are able to say to ourselves and say to those around us, you know, I, I’m wrong, cuz that is when we start to grow what Proverbs 21, 2 is saying every of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. We can look at what we’re doing and justify it, and this corresponds to many different things in life. But when we’re talking about walking with the Lord, usually that comes from, well, being born into a Christian family, growing up, maybe going to a particular church and whatever that church teaches in our eyes, the way we see things, that is the way I look back at my childhood.
That’s exactly how I felt. My family was, uh, split down the middle. Catholics and Lutherans, of course, plenty of bickering about who’s right and who’s wrong. And the way I saw it then is that infant baptism, that was a biblical thing. There’s just no way. It couldn’t be, cuz my eyes, how I saw it, there’s no way I could be deceived, cuz first of all, I didn’t see myself as a stupid person.
I’m not implying that that’s what it takes, but that’s my pride, protecting myself. So I didn’t want to admit that I could just blindly follow. Which is exactly what I did, which is exactly what tens of millions of people do when it comes to religion. But we justify that and that’s why it’s right in our own eyes.
It makes it difficult, doesn’t it, to see the truth, but the Lord weighs the heart. So even when we do find out that we are wrong, we don’t want to admit that we are wrong and in our heart, we know that we’re wrong. Obviously, we can fool everyone, including ourself, but we cannot fool God. So how does this pertain then to what I’m talking about when it comes to being strong, and I’m not talking about faith?
We’ll talk about faith again another time. What I’m talking about is wisdom. We look at Proverbs 24, 10 if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. That is verse 10. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small, what strength is Solomon talking about? We can find that out if we look at a couple verses just above that.
Proverbs 24 verse five. A wise man is strong. Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. There we have it. So a wise man is strong. Why is a wise man strong? Because he has wisdom that makes him strong and we know that a man of knowledge increases strength. How does he do that? Reading God’s word, right? I trust that your time with the Lord has been going well since our last few podcasts.
If you are daily in his word, cuz if you are daily in his word. He is daily sanctifying you. Isn’t that something? But I don’t want to digress. So now that we understand that wisdom gives us strength, we can go back to 24 verse 10. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Well, what does that adversity look like in many forms?
And one that we are into these days, extreme into what I had mentioned earlier, these teachers and preachers preaching, wokism preaching things that is not in God’s word. It may sound good. It may sound like they’re talking about God’s word. Of course, they reference books of the Bible chapters in those books and the verses.
So naturally it takes on the look and feel of teaching and preaching of God’s. But we have to be mindful of what is being taught, even what I’m teaching right now. You need to reference God’s word for yourself, beloved, and read God’s word. Study God’s word. Look things up. Whatever you need to look up, talk to others who are also following the Lord and reading God’s word.
Grow with one another as you communicate. If your strength is small, if you have little to no wisdom when it comes to spiritual battles, when it comes to being deceived by false teachers, false prophets, in today’s time, well, you won’t be able to hold up a candle to it cuz Verse 11, kind of interesting says, deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
Try to picture that. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, who are drawn, what is that? People who are drawn to sin. People who are drawn to the lifestyle of this is my life, who are on their road to hell, death. Well, how can we deliver them? We need strength to deliver them. So as you become more wise by reading God’s word, by meditating on God’s word, and by praying to God, by talking with brothers and sisters about God’s word weekly with one another, you continue to arm yourself.
You begin to be able to put on the armor of God. You can defend yourself and use the sword, which is God’s word, and what about the second part of 11 and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. That’s the image of someone stumbling. They may be trying to stand straight to walk, right, but they’re stumbling.
There’s these stumbling blocks in their lives and many stumbling blocks in our lives are ones that we ourself put in the. Sins that we just don’t want to confront. Maybe there’s one or two that you’re having a hard time letting go of. Well, those are stumbling blocks. People are losing if they’re born again Christians, they are losing the blessings on this side of eternity because the Lord isn’t going to bless such lifestyle that is relentless on trying to keep just one or two sin.
Again, to hold back those stumbling to the slaughter, that again, takes strength, right? To hold them back. So we keep reading God’s word because we wanna be stronger so we can do what God is is saying. And what is he saying? We’re told to love our neighbors as ourself. And to do that we need God’s wisdom.
And this is assuming that you are born. Someone who is not born again, cannot obtain wisdom from God. We need the Holy Spirit to interpret God’s word. And that is why someone who is not a believer can pick up the Bible. And to them it is ridiculous. It is hogwash. Psalm 53, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
So the fool has already made it quite clear to him or herself that there is no God. And of course, not just verbalizing it, but it says the fool has said in his heart, so, which means that person is convinced there is no God. So of course they act like it. They act like there’s no God. Their lifestyle reflects that they justify.
They avoid church, going to church to worship. They avoid talking about God. They avoid all that for them to pick up God’s word and start to read. They’re not gonna get wisdom from it because the Holy Spirit is what helps us to interpret God’s word. He is our counselor. He is our helper, but with the power, the Holy Spirit, and of course for the Holy Spirit to be dwelling in us we need to be born again, born again as being born of the Spirit. We are all born physically. We are all born of water, the physical part, but not everybody is born spiritually. Once you are born spiritually, then the Holy Spirit takes resident inside of you and you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and so forever you have him as a helper, as a guide. Proverb 21:22, a wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold. A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold. Throughout Proverbs, you will read that oftentimes the wealthy, the rich and powerful, they see their wealth and their power as a stronghold.
This is saying that wisdom, a wise man, brings that down, can overcome. We certainly need wisdom then to be strong Christians. I mean, we need faith for by grace through faith, we are saved. If you look at, uh, Roman, or I’m sorry, Ephesians two, verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Not of works less anyone should boast by grace. By the grace of God, you have been saved through faith. Okay? That’s not our topic for today, but once we have that, we are born again to walk with strength. We go right back to wisdom and over and over in Proverbs, it is explained to us just how important wisdom is. In our walk with the Lord in spiritual battles against the enemy in overcoming obstacles and trials that are in our life, we need wisdom. And where does wisdom come from? It’s really nice cuz in Proverbs we can go right to the very beginning of the book, and Solomon is kind enough to bring that right away into the book.
Chapter one, verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction, the fear of the Lord. There’s that reverent fear, that love and respect is the beginning of knowledge. So when we have that and we are turning to God, that’s the beginning of it right there.
We need God. God is the sole source of wisdom, knowledge that we can gain in books. Sure, as wonderful as that is, go to college and we can learn science and math and literature. There’s some wonderful, wonderful things to study and to learn up, but that is worldly knowledge. That is not knowledge from God’s wisdom.
So that’s why there can be someone who is a brilliant mind, very smart, intellectually, top notch. But has little to no wisdom because they’re not following the Lord. Or if they are born again, they’re not actively following, they’re not reading God’s word. So they lack the wisdom. I’d rather be, uh, associated with some very wise Christians than brilliant minds of the world, without a doubt, without a doubt.
Now. With that said, I wanna just end on the note in Proverbs 21, verse 30. There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord. Isn’t that something? There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the. So when people want to argue that there is no such thing as God, or they wanna argue that Jesus was just a very good man, a very top-notch prophet, or that there are other ways to heaven, other religions that also work, none of it adds up and it can’t add up.
That’s why Evolutionists, they cannot connect the dot. Why? Because they wanna deny the existence of God and yet justify that evolution is real. I like to listen to Christian scientists on the radio and I hear what they gotta say, and I tell you what, they talk confidently and smoothly. Why is that?
Because these Christian scientists believe in creation. And that the world was created and there against evolution. And these evolutionists, they have no wisdom or understanding and there’s no counsel against God. So beloved take great comfort in knowing that our God, he is sovereign. He is omniscient so there is nothing that he doesn’t know. He’s omnipresent and he’s omnipotent. He’s all powerful. The very fact that he sustains life, it’s amazing to think of how he created everything, the moon, the stars, the ocean, all that stuff that is so powerful. The trees, birds, and of course people, all this stuff that’s going on. Not only was he the one who created it all, but he sustains it.
Take a moment and if you put your hand over your heart and feel that beat, that’s something that we take for Grant. We don’t have to think about it to sustain our heart, to keep it beating. It just keeps going. The same with our lungs. Put your hands on your, your rib cages. Take in a deep breath and breathe out.
In those few seconds, we’re aware of our breathing, but then we quickly forget as we just move on and we continue to breath. But have you really taken the time and realize the creator sustains that? Every heartbeat, every breath that we take, he sustains. A Christian is invincible until God has determined his days is called home.
God will see to it now whatever job that he has in store for each of his children, as his children lean on him and he guides them to do his will, that yes, they are invincible. History has shown. It’s the Christians during the Black Plague that stuck around to help people who are dying, and that’s where referencing his word, reading God’s word and asking him for that guidance, he will do that.
He will grant us that wisdom to know his will, to know what to do, the jobs that he gives us. How to do those jobs. Isn’t that something? That should be amazing to everybody who hears these words and who takes just a moment to really comprehend that, that whatever task the Lord has given you, he has given you the ability, he has given you the resources to do what needs to be done.
He’s not gonna just hang you out to dry or give you some task, and then you start doing it and he says, I was just kidding. Oops. I guess you can’t handle that. And that’s why even with the Covid 19 that happened, it awakened, I think many Christians, myself included, when I realized that the church was abiding with governments saying, well, what needs to be done is we just need to, uh, close shop everyone stay inside. And that’s that. That never did sit well with me even before we knew that it wasn’t the killer that we were initially brought to understand it was because it wasn’t killing our children and the young and healthy. So by definition, it was never a pandemic or an epidemic because if you look that up, it’s what a disease is killing the young and the healthy.
That’s bad. But without jumping into that any deeper, just going back to the fact that there were those who were in need of help in their homes, really needing just attention. Love. These elderly parents who were out on their own. My heartbreaks, knowing that so many died alone and some died even of loneliness.
As Christians, we don’t need to fear. We don’t need to fear Covid or the Black Plague. We don’t need to fear anything. If the Lord puts on our heart just to love other people, to take care of other people, if it’s his will, you’ll live through anything. You will walk through a fiery furnace and not only will you not feel the heat, but your clothes will not be singed.
You will walk through a sea with as the water parts to lets you walk on dry land, you will overcome. Why? Because you have the Holy Spirit in you. You have access to the power of God. Whatever he has, you doing whatever he wants done, he’s the one who gets it done. He just works through us. It wasn’t Moses that parted the Red Sea.
We save when Moses parted the Red Sea, we verbalize it that way because God worked through him and Moses had to step out in that faith and put that staff in the water and boom. But it wasn’t of course, his power, but God worked through him. So beloved, be careful, be mindful of what is being taught in churches these days.
So much is based on religion, and religion Is all man, manmade. Jesus. He wasn’t religious. No. We have no record of him going through these traditions and certain ways of worshiping. Not at all. He didn’t change himself. He didn’t change his own rules, his own laws. His own commandments. He didn’t change that stuff, but man does that.
This wokism it’s not biblical loving people, just the way they are accepting everybody for who they are, because that’s just the way they are. It’s not biblical. So I refuse to do it and it’s best if we don’t go to churches that are preaching and teaching that. Because loving our neighbor doesn’t mean condoning sinful behavior, whether it’s L G B T or whether it’s racism, whatever it might be.
So beloved, I pray. I pray that you continue in God’s word, that you continue to pray to him daily and read daily. And if you haven’t been, start gathering with brothers and sisters in Christ. Even if it’s one or two other people, when two or three gather in his name, he’s present and he loves you so much. We have a wonderful and awesome God all that he has done for us.
And he’s amazing because he has given us something that give back and that’s love that is so comforting and I take great comfort that he is a God of, of righteousness and justice and he’s a god of love. He is love and he designed love where it needs to be given in return not taken. And I pray you have done that and that you continue to do that with him.
That you love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and that you love your neighbor as yourself. I love you.
And until next time,
God bless.
Songs
“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win
“Piano Poem” by Bruce Zimmerman / “Dark Beauty” by Media Music Group
“Lonely Dusty Trail” by Jon Presstone
Sound Effects from Storyblocks.com