Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
You know, one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life with regard to a life change story. Is this. Cool, blessed, awesome young man named Jonathan Reinke. And I nicknamed him Young Thunder. A number of years ago. And Jonathan, your story God is going to use today in such power. And I know you've been in a spiritual war, haven't you, my man?
Yeah. No doubt.
I mean, it's been a battle over the last 24 hours ramping up to this, but here we go. Let's go man. Tell us what God's grace means to you.
Sure thing. So I was born into a Christian family. My dad is a pastor, and. And we went to church every week. I went on Wednesdays for youth group and and served regularly in the church. Was on ministry trips in middle school and high school. And when I graduated high school, I went to Moody Bible Institute, where I took 40 hours of Bible classes to get my communications degree. So I learned a lot about the Bible, and I was where I was well versed in it.
I got good grades, I graduated, I got my job here at Carl and Crew while I was a student, and I got saved, but I got saved at the end of the story, not at the beginning of the story. I had prayed a prayer when I was young, uh, five, and I got baptized when I was eight. But even though I believed Jesus existed, I didn't ever really care about following him, about doing what he asked me to do. Life giving things I wanted to do what I wanted
to do because I thought there was life in that stuff. And. so. Throughout my time in high school, mainly I was a really good hider. I acted like a Christian to the people that I needed to act like a Christian to. And I didn't act like a Christian to the people who I didn't need to act like a Christian to. Yeah. And I didn't feel any conviction about it. I didn't feel maybe I felt a little twinge here or there,
but it was easily brushed off. It it was just, you know, I'm gonna do me and I'll make time for God in my life later. No problem. And I felt pretty comfortable with that. I even pretty much convinced myself I was all good to go. You know, I tried to talk to people about Jesus in the midst of doing some, some horrible things that I, you know, I would absolutely never do again. And I'm thinking I'm they're all good talking to them about Jesus. Us. And
I'm not there myself. I didn't realize it. It wasn't until I got here to Carl and crew that. I was finally faced with the reality that I didn't really know him. Wow. I came into work. I don't know, probably one of the first Freedom Fridays I had been a part of. It was early on. Carl was talking about Matthew seven, which is Jesus says to a crowd of people that many will come to me on the day of judgment and say, Lord, Lord. And he will say,
I never knew you. Depart from me. But these aren't people that that are just crying out for a last minute thing. These are people that thought they were with him. They did mighty works in his name. And he said, no, I never knew you. Depart from me. And God started to put that on my heart that I never knew him. That scared me. I really wished Carl at the time you stopped talking about it because. Because you brought it
up a lot. And I think that was the Holy Spirit, not just for me, but for a lot of people. But it was for me too. And I fought that for a long time, two years. I said, no, I'm good. I know him, I know him, I'm fine. And I focused in on the grace of God. God's got grace for me. You know, he holds me. He forgives me. I told myself it was deception, that it was deception that that I was being told I didn't know Jesus trying to freak me out. And that wasn't true.
It was the Spirit of God.
It was the Spirit of God trying to trying to bring me closer to him. And. As the years went on, the years, not the months, I was still trying to fight it, but it was getting more and more impossible to fight it. I became very anxious. God was putting my sin right in front of me. The things that I had hid away, that no one knew about my life. And. I desperately wanted that off my shoulders. But I didn't want to. I didn't want to surrender it. And so I tried not to. And I said, God, you got
grace for me. You love me. You forgive me. I'm all good. I'm clean, I'm fine. And he was saying, that's not what I want of you. I want you to do something about this. And this is kind of what he used to get me to him as a whole. And he said, I want you to do something about this. You need to you need to bring it out into the open. I said, no, I'm not going to do that. And I fought it. I said, God, you got grace. You forgive me. You love me. I'm all good. And
he brought to me Luke 646. Not reading the Bible, just brought it to me in one of my God. I'm all good sessions. He brought to me Luke 646, which is why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say. And. He was right. I believed that he existed. I believed that he died for my sins. I was all good with that. But I had no desire ever to do what he said. I
just was going to live the life. And I think God was gracious to me by bringing the people around me that he did my wife, godly woman, the people on this show, and the consistent talking in the word. I don't think it would have been possible without those things in my life, but he brought those to me and it just the word kept coming at me and I had no defense. And So he finally brought me to my knees in his grace. Yeah, um, the anxiety
was so much, I couldn't. I couldn't go, you know, five minutes without just being smacked upside the head with it.
You were losing weight.
I was losing weight. I lost £30 in eight months. And I mean, it was it was 185 to 155. So it wasn't it wasn't like, uh, like I was going and working out at the gym and and going crazy on fitness. I was anxious and it was falling off of me. And so finally, when it all came to a head, I was able to say, Jesus, I need you. Will you help me? And he did, and he helped me. And I can say that my desire is to live a life for him. because that's where
life is. Because I don't believe that the sin path I was walking was the was the best way for me anymore. I believe that Jesus, when he says he's the way, the truth and the life means. When you follow me, I've got blessing upon blessing for you. So it's not that I've got a, you know, I've got to fill in these check boxes. So he's okay with me, but it's that I get to stand close to him so that I, I can experience the life that he has for me.
This help. I want to just talk with you. Friend to friend. Here. That help was was more than just. It was more than just rooting kind of sin out. It was Jesus Christ invading your life and taking it over for the first time, was it not?
Yeah, yeah, because it was, it was that the way of life before was impossible.
Yeah.
I didn't I don't want it anymore. And I still make mistakes. I and I have to wrestle with that. One thing that God's been bringing into my life recently, because he still works in me is that he said, Jonathan, you have a need to feel like you are in the right that you have. You've done all the things and that if there's any little thing that's even slightly not okay, you you have to go do this and you have to go do that, and you have to run around and try to make it okay. So you
can feel better. And, and that's a pharisaical part of me that just wants to feel okay. But he's helping me to trust in now the part of his grace where I can say, you know what? I'm following the Lord. I'm listening to his leading. But I understand that I still do wrong things and my God has me covered. He will lead me in the way to right things, but he has me covered and I don't need to try to earn it all on my own.
Man. I want you to hear our heart here today. This is a big deal. I just want to give you a few kind of points that I want you to hear very clearly. What Jonathan suffered from was a hallucination of salvation. We know that belief in God can be a mental assent to God exists. Jesus exists, and it's called cultural Christianity. The demons believe in God. They believe a lot of things that are true of him,
but they've not yet surrendered to him. When Jonathan says, and he cites from John 14 where Jesus says, man, don't let your hearts be troubled. And that's what God's saying to you today. He says, I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the father but through me. Cultural Christianity is a is a big problem in the West. It's a
big problem. I remember hearing a number of years ago, Louie Giglio and John Piper speaking in Atlanta, and they said, there are many, many in fact, I'm going to tell you what he said, John Piper and Louie Giglio, I forget which one said. It said there are millions of people across America and in the West who go to Bible preaching churches every weekend and are not born again.
And Jonathan's story is a picture of a hallucination of salvation, thinking you see something in yourself that is not there, and Jesus wants to pull down the blinders. Today, the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, and sometimes he will use cultural Christianity to delude you into thinking that you possess something that you don't have,
and God wants to save your soul today. It's a sobering thing because as Young Thunder wrestled with, there can be a moment of pride where you think, well, what do I do? I mean, right, Young Thunder. I mean, I'm raised in the church. My dad's a pastor. I went to Moody Bible Institute. Yeah, but you had the privilege of going to me, to Ali, to your bride, to your dad, and tell them I was lost. But
I've been found. My goodness. But walking through that, that's that's that's the grace of God that gave you the courage to share that story, right?
Yeah. Uh, the the biggest thing holding me back was, you know, what would people think? You know, because.
And what does that matter?
What does it matter at the end of the day? What does it matter what you know? But at the same time, my fears proved to be, uh, not they're not real unfounded because everyone I told was happy. Maybe some people had some questions or didn't understand everything right away, and that's okay. But at the end of the day, it was, you know, Jesus. And that's all I care about. And so I tend to be scared anymore if someone.
If someone hears a story of cultural Christianity and someone who was stuck in that trap but has been found by Christ. The people who can celebrate that with you are the people that you want to walk with on this new path. But today, God is calling some of you out of darkness and out of the shadows of cultural Christianity, into the light of a relationship with Jesus Christ. And today, I appeal to you, my friend. Don't let surface stuff keep you from the depths of the riches
of God today. In the Spirit of God I know is moving across this nation and in your heart today. And I say be reconciled to God. How? By belief in Jesus. There has to come a time when you surrender all to Jesus. We're not fit for the kingdom of God until we repent of everything on this broad path and say, God, although imperfect, moving forward, I want on this narrow path with Jesus Christ today. It's believing and saying, I believe, I believe, and I accept the truth,
that I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. And I'm not playing cultural Christian games anymore. Today I surrender my life to Jesus completely. And if that is you, I want you to do that today. This surrender of new life in Jesus Christ and coming out of cultural Christianity is one of the biggest. It's like the sun rising on your soul, and it's huge and it's big. and he's lightning. Your load that you've been carrying. And and you see it for the very first time. And
today is your day of salvation. And I'm just going to pray for you right now. And I'm going to give you some points of declaration along the way. God, you right now are moving across our nation and around the globe and I give you praise. I thank you so much for Young Thunder. I thank you for his story. I know that you brought him here to be an example, a model, a picture for people who are stuck in
cultural Christianity. That's why you brought him to our show, to save his soul and to be a stake in the ground for others to say, that's my story, young Thunder. And if that's your story today, and today is a day of salvation, I want you to just get to a quiet place, maybe pull to the side of the road, get to a safe place. And I'm going to give you a moment right now. And I want you to say these words right now. Jesus. All to Jesus. I
surrender today, every bit of me. It's been a cultural Christianity, but today I surrender all to Jesus Christ. I confess to you that you are Lord of my life. I believe that you died for my sins and you rose from the dead, and you're alive today. And I'm experiencing life now for the first time in my life. And so declare right now I'm turning around. Just say it loud. I'm turning around today. From the broad path onto the
narrow path. Declare aloud today I believe in Jesus. I accept the truth that he died for my sins, and I embrace it fully. And today I surrender all to Jesus and for you. This is a new day. It's a new day of salvation. And I'm going to ask you to be bold with what God's doing in your life until. Tell people whom you trust that you know are authentic followers of Christ. And I want you to go tell them today, and we want to help you. And I'm going to I'm going to give you a
link right now. Grab your phone wherever you are, grab your phone, and we've got a link that's going to have embedded links in it. They're going to be how to find a good Bible, how to find a good church where you can plug into what to look for in a church that you can plug into. A third link will have a a place for you to put your address. We're going to just send you a resource. We're not going to spam you. We're going to send you a resource of how to walk in God's power,
no longer with self-help or cultural Christianity going forward. So I want you to text the word new right now. New to 800 555 7898. Just text the word new. Right now to 800 555 7898. Just one word. Just new to 800 555 7898. If we have time, we'll shout out the last four numbers of your telephone number. but God is setting people free all across the nation today in Chicagoland and beyond. Just text the word new right now to 800, 555, 78, 98.
He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Watch what God can do. And we are seeing it today. I do not even have words to describe what God is doing. He's reaching in grace, extending hands of mercy, and calling people out of cultural Christianity and into the light of his grace and power. If you haven't been with us. Young Thunder shared his story here this morning,
and God has used it mightily. We are going to hear from Young Thunder again in this hour, but we just felt like we want to shout out the last four numbers and it's going to take a bit, but I want you to rejoice in what the Lord is doing today to reach into people's hearts, many of them very religious, very cultural, Christian in nature, but not born again and now saving them 49, 60, 93, oh nine, 57, 37, 36, 79, 22, 66 shouting out the last four numbers of your phone
number from area codes all around the United States, and probably some from Canada. 1855, 29, 68, 62, 47, 95, 22, 2926. Pick it up from there.
62, 82, 23, 43, 36, oh three, 92, oh two, 93, oh three, 40, 49 welcome to the family 52, 48, 33, 70 8930 930, 1545, 1368, 3706. Welcome 45, 35, 94, 80, 55, 86, 92, 92, 1590. Welcome 1053, 94, 59, 84, 25, 87, 93. Welcome to the family. A listener from Ohio 1672, 32, 78, 24, 80, 84, 55, 80, 20, 23, 67, 14, 12, 84, 48 Carl Go Ahead.
Zero nine, 31, nine, 6184, 76, zero, two, 48, 28, ten, 96, 75, 41, 87, 96, 46, 91, 90, oh seven, 53, oh two, 60, 21, 54, 87. These are people who have in the last hour, just moments ago, actually about 7 or 8 minutes ago, responded surrendering their lives to Jesus, coming out of cultural Christianity as a result of of young thunder testifying to the grace of God. And I continue on 5487, I got that 146 5754, 1467, 44, 32, 33, 32, 96, 77, 67, 26.
The last four numbers of these phone numbers pouring in, of people surrendering and finding life in Jesus. Freedom from cultural Christianity. 11 1442. 66 2076. Pick it up, Ali.
7115. 39. 82. 71. 25. Welcome to the family. 30. 52. 70. Oh eight 5069 0261 welcome. 3390 4472 welcome. 2874, 27, 29, 93, 94, 20, 53. Welcome to the family 087408940062 8294 4504. Welcome 4142 5316. Welcome to the family 2378, 33, 60, 88, oh nine 1671. Welcome to the family.
To each and every one of you. Father, in the name of Jesus. We thank you that the tomb is empty and our God is alive and you're still working today. God. We thank you for every one of these people. I have tears of joy and just great celebration in my heart for all of these that you're calling to yourself. It's an awesome thing, God and I pray your protection and those of you that have just surrendered to Jesus
know this that there will be a battle intensified. But the Lord who began this work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is his work. He begins it. He'll grow you up in it. He's got this. He's got this. All of God's children pray for these new followers of Jesus today.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
So many are surrendering to Christ today. You know, we'd planned on going a certain direction, but we're going to really be sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing here in this moment right now. Ali, what is on your heart, sister? The the movement of God is it's it's it drops you almost. It just drops you to your knees.
It really does. And you know, I there's something this isn't talked about much in the church. The idea that that this can that this can happen. And so initially it can rattle you a little bit. A story like young Thunders and you go, how can you be in church and in Bible school? And it like, how is that possible? But then when you really think about it, you go, oh wow. Like that can be that's prevalent. Prevalent is prevalent because of how we have culture ized Christianity.
It's a profound statement. We have cultural Christianity, and we've got a, a almost a code of behavior that you can fly under the radar and do a lot of Christian things without being born again. And I use Christian things in air quotes because, man, that's a misnomer. Uh, the the the interesting thing here, the word Christian is used three times in the New Testament if you're studying the ESV. And the interesting thing about the word Christian is that anytime it was used in the New Testament,
what did it mean, guys? What was coming on the heels of being called a little Christ is what they were called.
Persecution.
Persecution or death. So to claim the name of Jesus and to be Christian back in the day was poof. And so Christians not the best descriptors. As a matter of fact believer, we often look at that word and we go, believer. Is that is that a good word? It's a good word insomuch as you believe unto salvation the demons believe and they tremble, according to James, the
half brother of Jesus. So then you got to ask the question, well, Carl, what in the world is the best descriptor ready for this 369 times in the New Testament, the word follower or disciple is used. It's the best descriptor of having authentic faith with Christ. It means that when you put your feet on the rug, you are very imperfect, but you know that your Savior lives, the tomb is empty and you are following Jesus Christ. And so the most descriptive word is, are you a follower
of Jesus Christ? Have you surrendered all to him, gotten off that broad path? And on this new path, are we stumbling and bumbling? Yeah, I've got sacred scars that prove you can be born again and have great lessons to be learned and great grace still needed. That's the beauty of being a disciple of Christ. What's on your heart, young thunder?
I think that it's so important to talk about the follow aspect, not pharisaical like you got to jump through these hoops to be good with God, but a relationship with him isn't punching a time card and saying okay, bye bye. You know, it's what is. What is your relationship with your spouse, your best friend look like? It's you want to spend time with him because of who they are. You want to follow them because you know that's the the best route. Because you know there's joy there.
And with Jesus, there's life there. You you want a relationship with them. You. You want to grow with them. You want to walk with them. It's not just. Thanks. See? I'll see you when I get there. You know, he's here for us today, and he wants. He wants to be a part of your life. Yeah, and going to church once a week isn't checking any box. Isn't cutting it. Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's crazy because you look at Matthew seven, the very passage that young thunder, I get such a kick out of it when he shares his story in his mind. He was saying, shut up, Carl and Ali. Shut up with this stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah. And and yet God in his grace used Matthew seven, which is this classic passage in the sermon on the Mount that just says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, I never knew you. And it's it's like sobering. But wouldn't you rather hear the truth now than later?
Yeah, I I'll say this, that if you're feeling convicted with that today, there's also almost a sure chance that you are feeling very afraid of. What are people going to think? I've. I've been in the church for years. This is going to people are going to be upset. People are not going to like me. They're going to turn away from me because they're going to be freaked out. I'm going to be embarrassed. All those things come into your mind.
There's a Greek word for that.
What's that?
Baloney.
Baloney. It's true. Anyone who's worth spending a lot of time with, anyone who knows Jesus really is not going to be upset with you for that. They're going to rejoice with you. They're going to party with you because they know you know Jesus. And if they love Jesus, that's all they care about. At the end of the day, they may have questions, answer them for them, and they'll rejoice with you.
I was lost and I'm found. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. Coming up in three minutes. Listen, with the Spirit of God is doing here today, and we're grateful for so many surrendering their lives to Jesus today. Boy, I feel prompted right now. Somebody's listening right now. You have cultural Christianity, but you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ today. That can be changed. How? By turning around and repenting of your sin and turning your life over to Jesus Christ,
fully and completely holding nothing back. If the truest expression of your heart today is God set me free from cultural Christianity, I want to know Jesus personally. Praise God. God's spirit convicted you of that need. We didn't. But don't harden your heart when you hear the voice of God today. Surrender it all to Jesus and just confess to him. Jesus, I need you. Help me turn your life around today. Is that you, my friend? You're saying today I repent. Today I claim that the life that
Jesus lived and the death he died. He died for me, for my sins. It's a powerful thing when you confess with sober mind and heart. I'm a sinner and I need a savior. Wow. And if that's you today, you don't even. You don't need to go one more step except to your knees and surrender all to Jesus. Just say, God,
I give it all to you today. And this is if this is you, my friend, that you are repenting of your sin and you know you've been stuck in a cultural Christianity, we're going to hear your thunder story again in just a few minutes here. But if that's you right now, you don't have to wait. The story is being written in your heart right now, and Jesus is saying, I'm going to breathe life into your deadness.
My life. And you are being crucified with Christ. It's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you and the life you now live in the flesh. You live by faith in the Son of God. And he's changing you, my friend. It's just a declaration. It's not a fancy prayer. It's saying today all to Jesus. I surrender every bit of it. I'm turning around off this broad path. I believe Jesus died for my sins. And today I declare he is my leader. I'm going
to follow him. And if that's you right now, we want to help you with a phenomenal little simple resource that's going to tell you how to find a church with people in it. Maybe you don't have one of those, maybe you do, but maybe you don't. And you need to find a church that's got a resource. What to look for in a church with people that are going to help you walk with God. A Bible to find that you can read and understand. And then a resource we're going to send your way on how to walk
in God's power. And if that's you right now, I just want you to text the word new right now, 800 555 7898 and as Young Thunder said, and it's true, Ali, don't the the people that you fear might not understand that maybe you've been in church, you might have been an elder, you might have been a pastor. I've seen worship leaders, pastors, elders surrender to Jesus Christ after years of being in cultural Christianity. It happens. But do not let fear of man hold you back from a relationship
with God. Just text the word new today 800 555 7898. Just new to 800 555 7898. I'm going to give you a word here, Ali. Something's on your heart.
You know, I just saw one more come in. And, you know, sometimes it's there's a spiritual war. There's an opposition to this, to this message because it shakes you. It causes you to look at things that maybe you haven't wanted to look at. It causes you to assess your life in a way that can be uncomfortable. But as Young Thunder says, there's there's freedom on the other side of that.
Amen. Just text new to 855 five 7898. We'll shout out the last four numbers. They're pouring in again. 70, 14, 26. 17, 95. 95. 50. 1454. 55. Welcome to the family.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Jesus looked at a very bitter older brother of the son that came home. The story is of a wealthy man. Young son squandered his inheritance. Victim of his passion. Older son. Victim of his pride. Both separated from God. But he looked at that older brother and he said. Listen, this. This brother of yours, he was lost and is found. We had to celebrate, and that's what we're going to do. We've had so many scores, hundreds of people surrendered to
Jesus this week. As we share our stories of God's grace in our own life, and I'm just going to shout out the last four numbers that have come in in the last minutes here. Surrendering to Jesus for the first time. This is just in the last. Goodness sake. Seven, eight, nine minutes max here. 20, 87, 23, 98, 71, 92.
These are people coming out of the shadows of cultural Christianity and into the light of Jesus receiving Christ and life for the first time, 87, 84, 39, oh five, 47, 55, zero eight, 44, 66, oh six, 30, 63, 26, 64, 73, oh six, 97, 71. Pick it up.
36, 33, 82, 98, 79, oh one, 82, 89, 82, 34, 54, 97. Reading out the last four digits of your phone number. Those of you who texted new. Welcome to the family 6419 4709, 80, 85 4812. Welcome to the family 2719 6807 0750 1254. Welcome 57, 38, 99, 48, 29, 2299. 84, 1440. 5275. 9984. Go ahead. Carl.
1969. 9145. 1356. 2123. 1393 3320 203 83. 1878, 56, 78, zero zero, 1899, 72, 88, 65, 81, 97, 31, 86, 58, 15. Overwhelming alley. Take it from here.
6356. Welcome to the family. 77 1099 Nine, 79, 48, 27, 93, zero seven, zero nine, 89, 43, 90, 47. Welcome to the family 1553, 1702, 1724, 58, 29, zero one, 41, 49, 63. Welcome 82, 92, 75, 90, 13, 37, 40, 79, 73, 88. Welcome to the family.
I'm going to read on here 3570 zero six, 31, 2395 9914 welcome to the family. Wow. We are so grateful for the spirit of the living God who convicts and then comforts right on the heels of conviction, of a need to come out of cultural Christianity and into faith in Christ. Overwhelming.
Quick. A quick question that came in by text. I think it's a good one to answer. What do we mean when we say cultural Christianity?
Cultural Christianity is all the trappings, some of which we've adopted along the way. Simply put, if Jesus said, you can baptize in the name of Jesus and do mighty works in the name of Jesus, it's possible to it's possible to do a lot of things that appear Christian, but you're not yet born again. Jesus warned of it. And it's it's possible. And it can be things like going to church regularly, looking to serve, looking to be
a part of different things. The regenerating power of Jesus by the unction of the Holy Spirit is is not a a system that you're into. It's a Savior that invades you and a lot of cultural Christians have stepped into a system of Christianity. But Jesus is not about systems, is he, Ali?
No and no. And we think, when you think about Scripture, how often Jesus pushed back against the religious, the quote unquote religious people who were doing all kind of things, jumping through all kinds of hoops. And he kept trying to draw the contrast between, no, it's not about trying to live life by the law. It's not trying to earn your way to me. And for some, that was it was too much like they were like, no, this is we want a king. We want someone who's going to come and give us power now.
Yeah, you're right on. You know, I want to state this again. I think this is really important. The word Christian used to really mean something. And I'll tell you when it meant something 2000 years ago, it meant something big time. In the New Testament, you find the word Christian three times every time it's mentioned on the heels of the context of being called little Christs is what that means is there was a risk of, well, there were certain persecution. There was a risk of being killed
because you claimed the name of Jesus. So the stakes were high. It wasn't easy to slide into a cultural system. The stakes were so high that it caused people who were really not in Christ to say, yeah, I'm out.
And and that's true in many places across the globe.
Thank you for mentioning that. We are we have this great little bubble experiment going on here in America, and we've almost let the very blessings of God keep us from the power of God. And we've created a system that almost inoculates people to the real gospel. That's the great danger that we have. The word believers used 11 times in the New Testament. It's not even the primary word. Did Jesus say you must believe? Yeah, but the primary word Jesus used to describe authentic faith was when he
called people, follow me. Be a disciple of mine. It's used over 360 times in the Scriptures New Testament. So what does that mean? It means when you get up in the morning, you know that the tomb is empty. You're alive in Christ, and you're going to stumble and you're going to skin your knees, but you're on a path, a road less traveled. And that's what God wants for
you today. Coming up here in a couple of minutes, Doctor Michael Radonich pitching him a question, we're going to ask him, what's God doing in your life lately?
You're going to hear that. Plus his response to a major, major incident that's been in the news the last couple of days.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
All you got to do is look at acts 26. And what do you find, Paul? Before King Agrippa and I love this story. It's a great witnessing tool. You see Paul in three minutes and about 10s if you actually do it. Reading speed. Not that I timed it exactly, but I did. And you see him make a defense of the gospel talking pre-christ how he met Christ on the Damascus Road. And the best part? What God is doing to this very day. Verse 22. And we've got a man with us who's God is helping to this
very day. Ali.
Doctor Michael Reidel, Nick, professor here at Moody Bible Institute, also host of Open Line. We want to hear it. What's the fresh thing from your most recent quiet time with the Lord that he's doing in you?
I love it, I'm.
Going to comment on Paul before Agrippa. I just think one of the more interesting things to do is look at Paul's speeches in acts. When he's before Felix and Festus, he talks about his changed life. He talks about the resurrection, but he does not talk about the Hebrew Scriptures put him in front of a Jewish king like Agrippa. Put him in front of a Jewish audience. He talks about the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the great lessons
for evangelism. There is that we understand our audience and communicate in the terms that they need to hear.
Tremendous. That's a great observation. Uh, quick question before you get into your devotional story and your quiet time with God. How do we get some of those observations? How do you look at the word and begin to see those nuances? How do you do that?
Well, I'll tell you how I learned about that is I took Bible study methods with a guy named Howard Hendricks. May have heard of him.
Uh.
The way he made us do it was first day of class. He said, I want you to go home tonight, and I want you to make 25 observations on acts one eight. It doesn't matter what they are. At least 25. Write them down.
On one verse.
On one verse.
Wow.
Yeah. And anything. It's like, what is the conjunction here? What is the geographical locations? You know, you're looking for all these things and you're writing them down. And he says, if you have a question about what it means, write that down. That counts as an observation. And he said, take a piece of paper, fold it in half on the left side what you're observing on the right side. Write your questions and just write 25 at least, he said. So I did 37 that night. And because, you know,
I was I was driven by grades. I wanted to get a better grade. And the second day of class, he says, okay, for tonight, what I want you to do for your homework is make 25 new observations on acts one eight. If you did more than 25 last time, they don't count. Uh, you have to have 25 more. And so I did about 30 the second night. And it's looking for the most detailed minor thing to observe.
And you read so carefully that the result is that pretty soon you start noticing things that are are significant.
Wow. That's a perfect setup. Tell us what you noticed this morning.
Well, for me, I read a couple of passages from the Hebrew Bible in the morning and two from the New Testament. So today I was reading in first Thessalonians four. And it's kind of interesting because it says in first Thessalonians four he says in verse one, finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you've received from us how you must walk and please God as you are doing, notice as you are doing, do so. Even more so, he says, you have to
walk to please God. You have to love God basically, and walk in a way that pleases him and you're doing it do even more. And then I was continuing to read, and in verse nine he says about brotherly love, you don't need me to write to you, because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And he says, in fact, you are doing this. He says, you're already loving the brothers, but we encourage you, brothers to do so even more so. What's the basic truth
that Jesus taught about living the life for God? Love God. Love people? These two exhortations Paul says, you're loving God. You're loving people, but do so even more. Never get lax. And what struck me, too is that another thing I'm doing. I'm reading through a book about the book of Hebrews, and I was up to Hebrews two one through four about the danger of slip sliding away, the danger of drifting. And he talked about all the dangers of how it is that we drift in our walk with the Lord.
One of the ways we drift is we start coasting.
Doctor Michael Riedel, our guest right now, I wanted you to respond to the terrorist attack that happened in Boulder, Colorado, a couple of days ago. There's a lot of fallout from this. I'm not sure all of it's good. What are your thoughts initially when you heard this, being a messianic Jewish disciple of Jesus. And how should we respond as Christ followers?
The first question is why is this happening? And the reason it's happening is because of blood libels, false charges against Israel. That's one of the things that really bothers me the most. It's not that people just disagree with Israel. They disagree with what Israel isn't really doing. Yeah, and modern day blood libels are that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. There is no genocide in Gaza. Even when Israel is giving food, it's not the right agency. It
should be given through the UN, not through Israel. Well, part of the reason why Israel is doing it is because the UN was allowing Hamas to steal it and charge exorbitant prices to the people of Gaza to get it, and funding Hamas this way. So it doesn't matter what Israel is doing, right? It is being portrayed as wicked and wrong. And as a result, there are all these people who are now being motivated through these blood libels to take evil actions.
There's even false reporting with regard to the gunning down of 23 innocent lives in Gaza. That didn't happen 48 hours ago. It didn't happen. And yet it's all over mainstream news. So how do you fight that?
Of course, what Mark Twain said, you know, is a lie is halfway around the world before the truth can put on its shoes and leave. But we have to get out there as much as we can with the truth. And one of the things that Israel does is when a charge like that comes up, the Israeli military doesn't say right away it didn't happen. They say, well, we'll investigate this. We don't know. But what happens is, in the time that Israel is checking it out, the lie
goes all around the world. And that's what the problem is. And so we need to be active in promoting the truth. I was talking to a believer, a really godly believer who loves says God has a great future for Israel. He says, but of course we can't agree with what Israel is doing now. I said, why not? If you were attacked, wouldn't you defend your your nation? And he said, yeah, but aren't they going too far? It's because he's listening to the media.
I've got one caveat to throw in here. You are not saying that the IDF is absent of any bad apples in the crew. No, you would not claim that.
I am claiming.
This to make sure we're saying this.
There is there is no military that is more committed to doing what is right than Israel. It is, I think it's not the most moral, but there is no military that is more moral. I think just as the United States trains our soldiers to do the right thing, to put others first and take care of civilians, that's true. We do that. But are there bad apples? Absolutely. Same thing with Israel. There may be a bad apple here
and there, but that is not the norm. And Israeli soldiers that act out are governed by the military and they are dealt with. And the reason I know this, my son, when he served in the Israel Defense Forces and he was in a special forces anti-terrorist unit, he said they had more training on ethics and morality than they had on warfare.
Interesting, Michael. That's a I'm glad you threw that in. That's important piece. How do we respond as Christ followers to this?
Do our best to get the truth. Secondly, with anti-Semitic events like this, I think we have to prosecute our government. You know what happened with the campus protests? People would be arrested for taking over buildings, defacing, doing things like that, vandalism, and then they'd be released and there would be no prosecution. Charges would be dropped. So that's really important that we prosecute people, because the more you get away with that,
which gets rewarded, gets repeated. And so now people are getting more violent because everything else was being allowed. The other thing that happens is even people who were sentenced to, for example, community service for assaulting a Jewish person on campus right at Harvard, then they're honored later on, a year later after being convicted of a crime of assault and battery. They are then rewarded, so we have to be careful not to reward those who break the law.
I think we have to take seriously that this is a real problem, and if we don't deal with it immediately, it's going to get worse and worse. And the murderer of the two workers at the Israel Embassy a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, they have to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law because otherwise it's going to keep being repeated. But the most important thing we can do is use whatever voices we have to communicate what is true and not the lies that are being
promoted against Jewish people. We've got to do everything we can to keep the truth out there.
And we pray for peace.
Oh, this is what I'm praying for. I'm praying for the peace of Jerusalem to come through the defeat and surrender of Hamas. There can be no peace until Hamas gives up its weaponry.
Michael Ray Dolnick everybody.