Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for being here. I'd love this as an honor. It has been for so long to do these episodes and to walk through these questions and to handle life and to deal with life alongside you, the listener, So thank you. I'd love hearing feedback, especially when I meet you out on the road somewhere, or at an event that I'm speaking at, or even someplace I just see you in public. I love people coming up and saying, hey, I listen to
your podcast. It's interesting to me because most of my life people have said, hey, I'm a fan of your music. I know you from your music, And now the last five years or so, I hear more and more people say I know you from your podcast, or I'm a fan of your podcast.
I'll see people on the airport and.
They say, hey, I'm a fan of and I'm thinking music and they say, your podcast.
That's so cool. It's so cool to me.
Not that it's not cool to hear the music thing, but it's different, you know, and this podcast is meaningful to me.
It matters to me.
So it's interesting to think that there are people out there that don't even know that I had a music career at all.
They just know me from the podcast.
That's really cool. You guys have been through so much life with me and we've all evolved together. I should say, as we walk through these questions with the biblical worldview, the email so that we could walk through these questions if you want to email me email podcast at grangersmith dot com and we'll walk through that like we're sitting in a truck, like we're driving in a cab of a truck. And you say, hey, grangereg I got a
question for you. Could we walk through this together? And I say yes, as if we're just old friends and the question could be about anything. Once again, podcast at grangersmith dot com. Something interesting happened last week. I had my pastor Marshall with me. If Marshall has been a guest on here many times, but we were dealing with a topic I believe the topic was last week it was how to handle multiple services in a church or how to think about multiple identical services in a church.
And I said in that video, hey, comment below if you're watching on YouTube, or if you're listening on another platform, like you may be doing right now at the end of this video or at the end of this podcast, go to YouTube and comment on the YouTube version of
this episode. If you want us to dig deeper on something, if you have another question within the question, comment that on the YouTube version, and that it's fascinating because there were a lot of people that came in there and had questions, and of all the episodes we've done, that's the first time I've really thought of it in that way that we could go to YouTube and on some of these videos we could dig deeper and come back.
And I texted Marshall and I said, hey, you might have to come back and we might have to do this, do more of that topic because there were a lot of people that had more further questions of it. And he was like, yeah, sounds good, let's do it. So I think we'll probably schedule Marshall to come back in and I'll just sit here with that YouTube video and go down the comments and see what you guys said.
And a lot of times it's like, hey, I agree, great podcasts, and sometimes it's like, hey, I wholeheartedly disagree completely. I disagree with everything you said, and we could talk about that. That's fair, you should have an opinion. And then there are other people that said things like, I agree to an extent, but here's a caveat in what you're saying. It only goes so far, but you forgot to say this stranger cool. So we could take that
and we could dive into that too. I think that's I think that would be helpful, encouraging for all of us. And I say that in a way too to also say, let's do that with this video as well. Those of you that know me know that I'm I don't typically prepare for these. I sit down with your questions as you email them, and if there's anything I say that you want me to double down on or you want to hear me. You disagree with it and you want
to hear me, have a rebuttal to your disagreement. Comment on the YouTube version of this episode granger Smith on YouTube and go find this episode. It should be the latest one and comment and I'll go through like I did this last one like five minutes ago. I was just looking at this and I was like, oh, this is cool. Okay, that might be something we can start doing. So that brings me to this first question once Again
podcast at grangersmith dot com. This one comes from Chad, and Chad says, my wife and I made the trip to Georgetown from Ardmore, Oklahoma a few weeks ago, and we were able to attend a Mayis church and the service and introduce ourselves.
To Marshall on the way out.
It was encouraging to worship and hear God's word being preached with your local church. That's so cool. I'd love to hear that. And this has happened several times that people have come to a Mais church in Georgetown, my church and come from the podcast.
So if you are one of those people, not a lot. Every once in a while, every a on a on a random.
Sunday, there will be a couple or one person that say, hey, okay because I heard I heard you mentioned this on the podcast. I'm always there, so if you want to come,
say hey, do that. The rest of this email from Chad, it looks like they It's a long email, so I don't want to read it all, but it looks like they were members of a church, they were in Oklahoma for a long time, and then the wife it looks like okay, okay, so they they purchased a home in Oklahoma and they kind of you know they built their
nest there, and then here's what he says. This last April, my wife was offered offered an opportunity to relocate with her current employer back to Kentucky, where she's from, and we felt ready to be close to family again. We made a plan to list our place for sale over Memorial Day weekend, and on the evening of April the twenty eighth, I got called into haul fuel to a rig and my wife didn't want me to go because it was bad weather, and I went and tried to
reassure her it would be fine. A couple hours later, there were multiple tornadoes on the ground. One was heading towards our property. My wife and neighbor were able to get into a safe room. Our place took a direct hit, flooding our house and destroying most of our property. Through this tragedy, we've had so much support. A neighbor invited us to their church. It's the church we'd been looking for all along. This is in Oklahoma, and we've attended
regularly since May. I'm feeling convicted to tithe going forward and possibly for the past five months. Hey, we don't feel comfortable going to a church while waiting for insurance to settle so we could relocate. Godly counsel for this situation would be much appreciated. Thanks, Ched, I think I understand what's going on, Chad.
So you are.
You guys found a place, You found this home in Oklahoma, you finally settled in there, and then your wife gets a job offer, and you guys all decide that's the best thing for the families to relocate to Kentucky. And then you decide that, and then a tornado hits the place in Oklahoma, and so then you're like, well, now the insurance has got to deal with this before we
could actually sell it. And it was even listed it as a tornado hit, it sounds like, and so you got everything's kind of on hold, and in the meanwhile, you find this good church you're attending. So that's an interesting question. It's an interesting situation, and it's a good thing to be thinking through and praying through. And you're specifically asking about tithing. If you're convicted to be tithing anywhere, I think that should say something you should listen to
that conviction and not just a church. Of course, I believe you should be given to your church. But because you're in this transition period, you're wondering what to be doing, and you could be convicted also on a for a ministry. You could meet someone that runs a ministry and you really believe in that ministry, and you could feel convicted to gift to that ministry. Amber and I will go through this. You know, Amber will come home and she'll go, Hey, I met this woman and she runs this.
Thing, and I think we should give to them.
And I'll say, okay, I'll trust your conviction on that, and then vice versa if it happens to me and I tell Amber, and we never disagree. It's always like, hey, if you're feeling convicted, let's do this. And I think that's what you're saying. You're feeling convicted to tie to this specific church, So there's nothing wrong with that and
you should listen to that. But here's the deal. You don't feel comfortable joining the church while waiting for the insurance to fix the property, so you could just sell it and then move away. And I agree with that, and that doesn't mean you shouldn't attend. I think there's there would be nothing wrong, and in fact, you would be encouraged to attend. This good church with your friends and tell the leadership of the church exactly.
What's going on.
It's like, Hey, my name is Chad and this is my wife and and we we love your church. We're actually moving to Kentucky. We thought we were going to move be moving sooner, but you know, this tornado and took out our property and so we're dealing with insurance and the rebuildings. Think good as no one was hurt, but we're going to re We're going to fix things, get it back into shape so we could sell it.
In the meantime, we're going to be here. We don't feel like we should be members here because we'll be moving, but but we want to be sitting under the wise teaching why we can. And I think that would be encouraging to the pastor. I think it would be appropriate to tell them that and they can kind of wrap their arms around you, help walk you through this transition. That's what they're there for. That's what a pastor would do.
Is it's you know, a pastor is a shepherd in your sheep, and you would be waiting your a sheep in transition going to another pastor and another another group of sheep right, So this this shepherd is handing you off to the other other shepherd in the meanwhile, he's gonna love you and take care of you while you're in his pasture. Okay, I think that's pretty straightforward. But what I would be doing to avoid that sounds like a difficult situation.
You've been in.
Outside of a church, looking for a church, trying to find the right church. I want to make sure that everything, in everything I've said, you're appropriately investing time in Kentucky so that you're not just gonna this house gets fixed, you sell it, you move, you get to Kentucky, you settle in, you go. Okay, now that I'm here, let's find a church, let's.
Get plugged in. Right, don't wait that long.
I know a lot of people, a lot of faithful brothers that have moved, and before they even found the place that they moved into, they made sure that the church they wanted to join was in the neighborhood, so they they base their move around the church instead of
the church around the move. And that's not often talked about or thought about, but most people they go and they say they're going to go, dear brother, mine, dear friend, he was actually an elder and at amaeis he moves to Seattle just this year and because of work, he had to go to Seattle and relocate. And Seattle's a big place, you know, there's lots of suburbs, there's lots of towns around it, there's ways for him to commute.
So they didn't as a family, they didn't look at the map and go, Okay, where is the place where our dream home is. What's the neighborhood that we want to live in that has the biggest yards so we could throw the football in the backyard. What's the neighborhood where I could park my bass boat in the driveway, you know, what has room for me to back out.
They didn't think about that in that way. They thought about it in terms of where is the church, the healthy church that we know of through our network of people that know good churches. Where are the churches that we would attend and then we could actually become members and serve. Where are those churches? And I think they found two of them, and that one was here on
the map and one was here on the map. And so from that they go, he's going there because he has a job, so he's also just going to build the relationship with his work. But he's going there and he's going to these churches and he's talking to the pastors there. Here's my situation, here's my name, here's my family. We're moving from Texas. We're going to come here, and we want to know more about what you're doing here
in this church. I mean that there's a lot more to it, but that's the main part of the converse is we want to see what this is like here.
And so they prayed through it.
He brought his wife, They met with a lot of wise counsel, prayed through it, talked through it, spent many times visiting these churches. They decided on the church. Finally they decided which one out of the two that they would they would like, and then from there they build the radius around that of where they would be willing to drive that that was in appropriate distance to work in church and kind of meet in the middle. What's what's in between my work and my church. Let's pick
a house in that area. And that's kind of crazy, that's totally practical, but in a way, people don't do it that way. And that's what Chad, that's what I'm warning you of don't move to Kentucky and go, Okay, now that we're here, where's.
A good church?
Do it the opposite right now, be finding the good church. Be traveling there right now. It's the spiritual leader of your household. Go to Kentucky right now during this transition period and use utilize the church you're currently attending, and use the leadership there and say, I'm moving to Kentucky. Help me, help me find a good, healthy church for my family. This is critical for my family, and we need to find a good church that feeds us spiritually.
And and then go there and find that church and interview the church.
Essentially, that's that's the word. You want to interview them.
And then you're going to and then build your radis and then look for homes around that church. And obviously and that are that's still a driving a decent driving distance for your wife to go to work.
Do it that way. Don't wait.
This is this is the most important thing that your email didn't say. Think about that. Think about tomorrow's church, and then as you're convicted tithe today's church, go and attend today's church. Involve yourself in today's church. You don't have to be a member there. You don't have to join. You're going to be joining in Kentucky. But right now,
during this transition period, it might be a while. It might be six months, might be eight month, it might be the year until this house gets fixed from the tornado.
Be thinking about Kentucky right now.
That was a long I'm sorry that was a long way through that answer, but I think it's important. Next question comes from Tommy says, good morning, Grader. My name is Tommy. I'm twenty three years old. I live in Kansas City with my girlfriend. Later this month, I plan on asking her to marry me. She is an overnight nurse at a nearby hospital. I drive a box truck and deliver snacks to nearby grocery stores and gas stations. Last week in your podcast, you weren't necessarily a fan
of a church with multiple services. You made some very valuable points. My issue is that we've been struggling to find a church that fits both of us with our work schedules, and both of us often work Sunday. Do you have any suggestions that can help out? Thanks stranger, Tommy. All right, Tommy, thank you brother. This is I mentioned that on that YouTube channel. There were a lot of questions. Probably the biggest complaint or disagreement I had with Marshall
and I discouraging churches with multiple identical services. Probably the biggest thing that I heard was, well, I work on Sundays and so I need to find a church that has a schedule that meets mine. And that's kind of what this question is. So I'm want to dive into this with Tommy, and I'm going to tackle this as if, like all these questions, as if we're driving down the road you asked me a question, we're in the truck together, I say, Man, this was me.
Here's what I.
Would say because specifically with this question, Tommy, I've been in your shoes. I've lived this, and so I can tell you, looking back in hindsight, maybe what I did wrong and maybe what I did right. So that's how we'll approach this first question. First question I have for I would have for you is you say I live in Kansas City with my girlfriend, and then you say later this month, I plan on asking her to marry me. So there's there's a couple of things that might be.
Out of order here.
I'm assuming you're saying you're living with or like same house, living with their same apartment. That's not a good way to start this this journey. It would be it would be going going against the Council of the Bible, if that's that's the way this was. So if that was the case, I would say, let's move out right now, let's let's separate right now. You're not you're not married, so let's not pretend like you're married. This isn't she's not your wife, So it's not pretend like she's your
wife until she is. And one of the implications, one of the smaller implications of that is it's going to be so much more special when you do marry or and you move in together for the first time as a married couple. It's going to be much more special. That's a small implication of a bigger problem that I'm seeing right here, of how the Bible would speak about
this specifically sexual sin. We have to eradicate that from our lives, right And so I would not encourage you to be living with your girlfriend in the same place, in the same apartment, same house in Kansas City.
I wouldn't.
That would be horrible, That would not be loving to me. If I said that was cool, man, let's move on. Then you say, later this month, I plan on asking her to marry me.
Let's do that.
Let's Tommy, Let's make sure that happens next month. We can't put that off because if something happens or tornado hits the forum, like the last question, let's make sure this happens. Okay, And and then when you're engaged with your fiance, that's the time then to start talking about what works for your church that you want to start together as a married couple. And Lord William raise some babies in Okay, So you see the order of events here.
You wouldn't want to be with your girlfriend talking about the church in a way that we need to pick this now. It's not that it's unhealthy to talk to your girlfriend about a church. You want to because you want to know that she's on the same page. But you guys are planning like you're married and you're not yet. So there's the nuance. Let's make sure that's taken care of. And then let's dive into the real question. If you've already dealt with everything I just said, let's move on
from that. And you see My issue with that, with the multiple services in a church, as we've been struggling to find the right church that fits both of us, that we'll work with both of our schedules, with both of us often working Sundays.
So it's a little bit.
Similar to the last question where I was saying, don't move to Kentucky and then find the church instead, Let's make church the priority. What if what if we lived a life Christians that actually says in the way that we live, not what we say, not what we post on Instagram, But what if we lived a life that reflected this idea that gathering with other Saints, other Christians,
other believers was very important to us. And what if we lived a life in such a way that career, jobs, finding homes, findings for our kids revolved around this idea that we're making a priority above all of that for a good, healthy church to sit under healthy, good biblical teaching from a good pastor, and a good church surrounded
by other covenanting members of that church surrounding us. What if we looked at it and lived a life that said career comes second to that where we live, in what neighborhood we live comes second.
To that where my kids go to school.
Comes second to that, second to being in that healthy church and showing up and giving glory to God through worship, through prayer, through wise teaching, which is the most important part. Is the preaching of the Word is the most important
part of church. I don't know if y'all know that, if I don't know if I've said that, or if you maybe don't know that, But the preaching of the Word, the text, whatever text that the pastor is working through that day, and if he's not working through a specific text, that's a huge problem. But that is the most important part of the church service is the preaching. That's why in the Reformation they moved the pulpit from the side to the middle. It didn't have anything to do with
the preacher. That had everything to do with the word. The preaching of the Word, the inspired word is it goes out into the converce congregation, is the most important part of the service. Knowing that the Word of God cuts sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Word does that as
it goes out and it does not return empty. So knowing that the word is going out through the mouth of the preacher through inspired scripture, that the preacher is reading that he has prepared and will apply that into your lives for these next six days until he sees you again. That is the most important thing. That is more important than the box truck that you drive, are the snacks that you delivered to grocery stores and gas stations. It's more important than the job your girlfriend has, the
girlfriend that I hope you marry soon. It's more important than all of these things. And if you align this correctly, like the Bible would say, if you put him first, we say that a lot right.
God first? What does that mean?
Are we living that or are we living a life that looks like that instead of just saying it on our Instagram bio God first, God above everything. And then listen to this temmy. I'm not knocking you at all, but listen how interesting it is to think about someone that says God first, I make God my first priority.
And then in the next tent it they say, I'm just trying to find a church that fits with my schedule because I work and I've got all these things going on in my life, and I'm just trying to find a church that fits me, my career and my work. I'm trying to I don't know, like, does that sound like someone that's putting God first?
No, it doesn't.
So this email, I really want to switch some priorities. I want to rearrange some priorities here. I want to get I want to turn the girlfriend into a wife, and I want to I want to make the job revolve around the church. And then, you know, an easy argument to that is you're like, well, Granger, this is my job. This is all I've ever known, this is this is what I'm talented at, this is this is the work the Lord gave me. So I need to
find a church that revolves around that. And I say this is when I say, hey, Tommy, I've lived this. I was a country music singer, touring for twenty four years, playing concerts on Saturday nights and traveling usually to go home on Sunday mornings, never available for church. For years, I was doing this and justifying it, and for a while I was actually attending a church that had a
five pm service, thinking this works. I got a five pm service, They got that church has like nine am service, eleven AM service, a noon service, a five pm service. That works out great. I get to pick the five. I don't know anybody else that go to this church. Because I only go to the five. I don't know who's showing up at eight or nine or eleven whatever.
And slowly I realized, now looking back, that was like taking a drop of Cini poisoning and putting it in my drink every day, Just a drop of poison, separating myself from the body of the church, separating myself from the believers, acting like my job was more important, acting like that's all I've ever known, and this is the talent God gave me. So I'm going to do this and that's going to keep me away from the church. But that's okay, because you know God, God forgives right.
These are things to think about, Tommy, these are things to wrestle with. Where are your priorities? I want to suggest that some of these things get rearranged. And this is a good example of a question that I would if you want to go back on YouTube and then go, hey, you're wrong, Granger, You're wrong.
And this is.
Why I disagree, totally disagree. And this is why you can't make everybody go to church on Sunday morning. Some people have jobs, Granger they can't change that, I say, I say, at least I could say I've been there, I lived that, I gave the job up. You know what, I don't regret that for a second. Hey, if you have a business out there online e commerce business, or you're thinking about getting into it, listen up. At ee we have used shopify for a long long time, all
the way back to the grangersmith dot com days. When I was first starting to sell shirts, I didn't know how to do it. I mean I could be creative enough to think about a T shirt that might sell at at a concert at the merch table, but I didn't know how to physically set that up and take care of customers when they enter the credit card information and it keeps track of that and you do the whole check out thing.
I don't know how. I still don't know how to do that.
And that was until we discovered Shopify, me and my two brothers at EEE, when everything started to change. It allows you to be creative and do what you do and then leave the technical stuff up to them. They know how to take customers, let them put your product in the cart and check out. And the best part about all this is that I really don't have to keep up with it at all. I just trust that Shopify is doing the job behind the scenes that allows me to be creative and them to be business minded.
So if you want to get a business going, or sell more, or use more of your time being creative, then upgrade your business and get the same checkout that we use with Shopify. Sign up for your one dollar per month trial period at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to shopify dot com slash granger to
upgrade your selling today shopify dot com slash granger. The email to ask me a question is podcast at grangersmith dot com or to die back in these and I'll say that I do think it's it's a good idea.
Whatever platform you're.
Listening on right now, to be able to go to the YouTube version of this episode and comment double down on this. Hey Granger, I disagree with you, or I totally agree with you, or I partially disagree with you.
Either way, you know, of course.
I don't expect to be right in your eyes every time I don't expect you to agree with me in everything that I say. I'm going to base my answers on a biblical worldview, meaning I'm going to balance everything off the Bible like it's a brick and your question is a basketball, and I'm going to bounce the basketball off of the Bible brick wall and see which way it comes back to me. And however it comes back
to me, that's gonna be my answer. So I'm not expecting you to always agree with how I see that.
That would be weird if you did. Anyway.
It would be like me saying my favorite flavor of ice cream is cookies and cream Bluebell, and every single person.
Goes me too, that's my favorite. That would be a.
Boring world if we live that way. We all have different flavors, and so that's okay. That being said, I also just don't expect and I don't plan on being right all the time. My hope is that I treat you like a friend of mine. As I read your question and we're just taking a walk through the woods, we're driving a truck together, and you say, hey, I got something I want to run by you, And I would say, based on the Bible. What I believe is the best answer to that. That brings me to the
next question comes from Josh. It says, Hey Granger. On a previous podcast, you spoke in favor of traditional burial instead of cremation because burial has historically been a Christian tradition. I have always wanted to be cremated because of the modern day process of embalming and preserving the body are just morbid and incredibly strange to me. Is embalming the body a preservation that Christians do today simply because signs
and technology allow for it. To me, it seems like burials should be in a pine box and nothing else, since when the body dies, our souls go on to Heaven. I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts on this because I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where it has an answer to this. Thanks and gig them Josh
from Spring Texas. Hey, Josh, thanks for the question, man. Yeah, and on that previous podcast you're talking about basically London, was sittating here London, my daughter was in the guest seat, and we were talking about burial versus cremation and how traditionally throughout millennia, Christians have buried the dead as a form of respect for the body, the vessel that has been given to us by God to live while we're
on this earth. So we understand when we say this, that has nothing to do with our life after this. The way that we bury does not determine where you end up after this.
Right.
That is only people that have faith and have put their trust and turned from their sin into Jesus alone. They have trusted and surrendered and have faith and repented from their sin and put all that trust into Jesus, the Messiah sent from God to redeem and.
Restore his people. That's it.
That's the only way to heaven. That's the only way to go to heaven, and to be with Him eternally, worshiping him in eternal glory.
That's it. So after that, and this is what I mentioned in the last podcast, there's a but.
There has also been this idea that we should respect this body while we have it, and a way to show the respect for the body that God gave us. That's flawed and sinful and fleshly and needy, but it is the body that He gave us to carry.
Out the gospel.
Here on this earth, then we should respect it by burying it instead of burning it. I say that. Let me tell you the caveat with this. My dad was cremated. My grandparents on his side were cremated. So I'm not coming to you from a vacuum saying all my family only only bury. I'm used to this idea of cremation. In fact, I remember back in twenty fourteen when I lost my dad, and I remember he always wanted to be cremated, kind of.
Like you, Josh.
And this is before I was in a place where I had these kind of discussions. I didn't have any kind of deep Bible conversation with anybody back in the day. So I wouldn't have discussed this with Dad. With my dad, I wouldn't have thought through this with him. That's okay, that's totally fine. I'm at peace with that. But here's
the deal. I remember they scheduled Dad's cremation for noon on a certain day, and it was in Waco, Texas, and that was about an hour west of where or hour east of where Mom and Dad live.
And so I remember looking at my.
Watch on that day and thinking to myself, you know, it's like eleven o three am. I wonder if they're loading Dad up in the Hurst, you know, Look down my watch eleven seventeen. Now they're probably driving by. Now Dad's in the Hurst, and I wonder if they made it to Valley Mills by now. Looked down at my watch eleven thirty one. I bet they're getting to the edge of Waco Lake heading out there. Just passed past the bridge. Look back at my watch again eleven fifty one.
Surely he's out of the car. They've pulled him out of the car. They're undressing him or whatever they do, put him on that table wherever he's going. Maybe the fire is getting hot, you know, got my watch again twelve o three, and I was thinking, I wonder if he's in there, the dad that I've always known my whole life, the big, big bodied man, very lovable, great hugs, big smile, big firm handshake, just crush anybody's hand when he shook your hand.
All that is that? All burning? Right now? These are thoughts I'm having, you know, as the sun here at my house.
I'm sitting here thinking about all this as I'm watching my watch and just imagining what's happening to his body that I loved, not as sult's not of soul. It's not a spirit. I understand that it's all different.
But it's it's still.
The body that I've always known that housed the soul of my dad, you know.
Maybe the best way to say it.
And then I remember thinking, you know again, it's like twelve twelve, twenty seven PM.
Yeah, probably pulled him out.
Now, it's probably just ashes, probably nothing but ashes by now. And then I remember going to Moms a week later and they had delivered it, and there he is in a plastic bag. There are there are his ashes. And I remember holding that plastic bag Dad's ashes, you know, and I'm kind of mashing, it's kind of squeezing it. I feel something in the bag and I kind of move it around through the plastic with my thumbs and there's a there's a big screw in there and some
bolts and a little bracket. I'm like, like, oh, that that was in Dad's ankle. He broke his ankle when he was in his twenties playing football somewhere and twisted it and broke it and needed surgery and they put those screws, and he always complained about it. You know, every time me the weather turned and it was cold outside or we were snowskiing, he'd be like, ah, that my ankle, I feel my ankle, got.
The screws in there, you know.
And there it was, right there, in this cold plastic bag with these gray ashes and fragments of bone and like dust, and there he is.
And it's just just a weird feeling. You know.
It's strange for a family member. So to say that embalming is weird, and burial is weird, and coffins are weird. I would say, amen, it is all that's weird. But my point is cremation is not better by any means. Cremation is not cleaner or better, or more compact or you know, more convenient. That's none of those things. We should recognize through this conversation. The death is not the
way it's supposed to be. We should see death as Christians, and we could recognize that in Genesis God created and it was good, the Bible says, and death was not part of that good. Death was a result of the fall of man. As we fell as mankind found. I say we because we have inherited that seed of Adam, that seed of sin. We have inherited that in ourselves, and that is clear. I have a three year old in my house, and it's very clear if you look at a two or three year old, that they are
little rebels at heart. They are little sinners, rebelling, wanting to push the boundaries as far as they can.
From the very beginning. We are liars.
And and thieves, and we rebel against our parents, and we have to be taught. We have to be taught what the Bible says. We have to Eventually, we have to be reborn, and we have to be given new hearts so that we become aware of that sin and our need for a savior, of Jesus who lived the perfect life and died for that death so he could defeat it and we get a victory over it, so we could see through cremation and through burial that this is not the way it's supposed to be. And we
shouldn't hold our eyes over it. We shouldn't try to not talk about it. We shouldn't go to funerals and call them celebrations of life and put balloons up and flowers everywhere and make it happy.
It's not happy. Death is horrible death is sad.
We should grieve over it, we should be disgusted with it, and we should immediately say how can we get past this? How could we get over death? And Jesus says, I am the only way. So let's not ever have a discussion about death or the way that we should bury without recognizing that death. Even an atheist would admit death doesn't seem right. It seems out of place from everything.
It seems very out of place. That everything you build and you love, and that all the people you get close to eventually they die and you put them in the ground, and you go to a tomb and you look.
At it and you put a rose on it.
Your mother, for instance, you lose your mother, and she's there in the ground, the one that loved you, the one that bore you, the one that gave you food when you're hungry, the one that nursed you as a baby. There's her body's in the ground, in the snow, and I put a rose on it. And somehow that's supposed to make it better. We should recognize through all that there's not supposed.
To be that way.
So we look to Jesus, who overcame death, who has the only one who's that who has had victory over death. He's defeated it. Okay, So that brings us to this question, what about embalming.
Is it that is that weird?
I say, yeah, of course it is. It's not supposed to be that way, and neither is cremation. It doesn't make it any better. And so that's why I argue, and it's not just my opinion. I think I stand on the shoulders of many, many, many Christians that come before me in millennia to say I think the respectful thing is to have respect for the body and put the body in a casket and put in the ground.
And I'm not saying and once again, my dad, my grandparents, all them, all the ones that were cremated, I'm not saying that they're going to hell for that. I'm just saying I think if I would have known what I know now, I think I would.
Have told Dad, Dad, let's bury you.
Especially in hindsight of looking back on the time that he was cremated, I think Dad would have been like, whatever, yeah, sure, put yeah, put me in.
A cast it, you know.
And on top of that, I've buried several pets in my life out here in the woods and behind my house, and unless you dig a hole deep enough and you seal that box tight enough, there is an animal that will dig up that body.
I hate to say that, but that's that's true.
I've had I have cat bones all over my woods that Maverick goes and pulls out because we've had codes that come and dig up cats that I've buried. So embalming is a process that helps prevent the natural decomposition.
Of the body, you know.
So, yeah, it's weird, but I think it's I think it is a alternative to at least consider as a Christian in respect for the vessel that was given to us by God.
We put it in the ground.
And we expect as Christians that that body will be resurrected and made new because of Jesus. I think that's enough for you, Josh, I hope it is. Brother, Thanks for the question. I'd move on to Brennan. Hey, Granger, I've been a fan for a long time. My question is,
is going to a school four hours away wrong? I'm going to a school in a couple of weeks and I'm moving four hours away, and I'm the only one in the family that has gone that far, and all of my family is not taking it well, and I want to know if there's a way that I could help them and make this a little less hard for them. Thanks for your time, Brennan. First of all, I want to say, brother, this is so exciting, this is so encouraging, and you're doing a good thing.
And I don't know.
Maybe you've been told this by your family, but if not, let me be the only guy that has told you this is a good thing. A boy your age should leave the nest and get out and spread his wings and try to fly and fall if necessary, and get back up and spread his wings again. That is what's always happened in human history boys and girls. Can't speak as much for girls because I didn't experience that, but as a boy I could tell you from experience and from history that getting out of the house is a
good thing. About your age seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, somewhere in that world, it's time to get out and make a name for yourself, to fail on your own, to fall and pick yourself up. Your parents have picked you up for so long, and now it's time for you to learn how.
To pick yourself up.
And you can only do that if you've left the nest and you've gone out on your own. So, brother, I'm so excited for you. You're coming in a long line of men that have done this before you.
And I'm not.
Necessarily advocating that school is what you need to do. Not everyone is made for school. Not everyone can afford school like college. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't get out of the house. I am such a big advocate for getting out of the house. And that could mean trade school, that could mean a university. That could mean going off to work on an oil rig. I could be going into the Marine Corps or the Army, or the Air Force or the Navy. Could it could be
military work like that too. But all of these things are part of the journey, right. This is part of the journey of figuring out how to use the tools that God has given you to go out and take what is yours and to figure out how how to act on those gifts and figure out how to find a church on your own, and how to covenant with your own with God's people on your own, not just
just under the wings of your parents. And then when you do that and you begin to figure that out, then you can go back home, and then you could live in your hometown, and you could get married to a girl, and you could raise them in your hometown just like you grew up, if that's what you choose, and you can if your grandparents right down the road, if that's what you choose.
But at least you know what it's like out there.
I went when I was eighteen, I left home and I went to Texas, A and m and my parents took me. Tyler was there, and Parker was there, and there were boys, and Mom cried. I remember that Dad was happy, you know, Dad was excited, maybe holding back some emotion. But Mom cried, you know, And I remember that last hug. She's scared and nervous and sad all at the same time. That's a sign of a good mama. I've got a feeling your family is going through that
as well. There's more of the unknown that's involved here.
They don't know you're two weeks out. They don't know what it's going to be like to lose their baby boy.
And if your mom didn't feel that way, there would be something wrong, right If mom was like, I can't wait for you to be gone. This is so exciting. I've already got your room redecorated.
That would be weird.
So the fact that they are taking this hard is probably a good thing. It means they love you, they care for you. That means you're part of the family. You matter to them, you know you fit with them, and you make them be what they are as a family unit. So embrace that acknowledge. That tell your mom, that tell her, Mama, I just want to tell you, Mom that I just I appreciate you all that you've
prepared me to do to go into this world. I've just been so encouraged all these years by your love, by your grace, by your discipline, from all the things that you've prepared me to do, and Mom, you've made me ready for this moment. I'm going to college, I'm going into the world, and I just want to let you know that I'm able to do that because of all the diligent work and all the prayers and all and everything you did as a mother to set me up for this moment. I'm able to do it because
of you. And this is so exciting for me.
So thank you, Mom. Have you told her that.
Something she needs to hear, and then set up something where you have you have specific times when you're gonna talk to her and specific times when you're gonna see her. Put it on a calendar. She needs to know that I'm speaking in terms of just the mother, but put the dad, put the rest of the family in there too. They need to know, we're gonna hear from you on FaceTime at five o'clock every weekday or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or just on Sundays.
But whatever's appropriate.
Whatever works good with the schedules, you're gonna talk to them at this time on FaceTime. You're gonna you're gonna get on there and you say, Mom, everything's going great. And then you're gonna say, and on the twenty sixth, I'm gonna see you, and I'm gonna come stay from the twenty sixth through the twenty eighth, and I'm gonna see you, and can you please make biscuits and gravy, you know, and then and then I'm also gonna see you the next month on the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth.
So put that down, Mama, and come stay with you. And she needs to know that she needs to see it on the calendar, and that way she can get through these moments of you leaving and go, Okay, I just got seven more days and I'm gonna I'm gonna see him again. I'm gonna see Brennan in seven more days, looking forward to that. And of course I get to talk to him tonight at five. So I'm sad, i feel lonely, I'm worried about him, but I'm gonna talk to him in about forty five minutes, just like I.
Do every night. That's all good stuff. She needs to know that she needs to hear that from you. She needs a plan.
She needs to be encouraged that she has set you up for this very moment and that you are so excited about this moment. And then know that her worrying about you is a sign of the love that she has. And then I don't want to leave this question without reiterating that I am encouraged by your brother, I'm excited for you. And then I feel like everybody should do this when they get to this age. They should leave
the house and go on and adventure. And that can mean a bunch of different things, but you need to get away from the parental units and get out of the house and try and fail and stand up and try to fly and figure out your wings haven't developed. And so you work harder and you get stronger, and this is how you come into your own to who God.
Has created you to be.
Brennan, and to all of you that have emailed, thank you and I love you and we'll see you next Monday.
Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you. Guys.
You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.
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