Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
In the Spirit of God is here right now at work in many of your hearts. It's an awesome thing. Spirit of God convicts. The Spirit of God comforts when we've been transformed by the power of God. He directs. We want to get anchored in what the Spirit of God is up to. Just go to John 14, John 16, Romans eight. Do a deep dive on the power of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is on the move. Yesterday we had an interesting day. Phenomenal day at 180 Chicago. I pastor a church in downtown Chicago.
We have two campuses here in Chicago. I was downtown preaching yesterday. So many young people at this campus. It's unbelievable guys. Absolutely unbelievable. So we had 40 come away after the service that are young adults. So they're all in their 20s, a couple in their 30s, but they're all young. A couple of them were married and we were. We were talking about the stuff of life and love and intimacy. And my bride told me going in. She said, bub,
make sure you share the gospel. I'm like, I'm with you, babe. I love having my bride, man. She's. We were riding shotgun yesterday and it was so sweet to be teamed up together in ministry. And she was right. And I should never be surprised by this. But I had the privilege of watching two guys surrender their lives to Jesus Christ yesterday at that gathering of 40. Praise God. Yeah.
Isn't that sweet? One of them was a pastor's kid, and he just came up to me and he said, I've never fully surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, man. He says, I'm in a campus ministry. I'm in this. I'm in that. And I said, today is your day, isn't it? He said, today is the day, Carl. And I said, listen, this is awesome. And when we got done praying, I said, what are you feeling? He says, man, like a load of bricks is off me. I said, I want you to tell your mom and dad they're
going to cheer for you. You can get a little bit wiggy. You're going to hear Young Thunder's story on this this week because we're talking stories of salvation. But he was sweet. I said, you tell your mom and dad, you got to tell your you got to tell those that are close to you in your life and let them know what Jesus has done. So I can't wait for that report back. But it is so easy to slip through the cracks, so to speak, in our Christian
culture today. And there's so many different ways to slip through the cracks. I mean, you can be the prodigal that's being crazy. You can be the prodigal who's jumping through hoops and you can be super die. It's easy to slip through the cracks, isn't it? Super die.
Very, very easy to slip through. And Satan just loves it.
Yeah, he loves it. He's laughing all the way to the dark bank. Tell your story, sister. We want to hear it.
You got it. Um, basically, I, I grew up in a very dysfunctional situation. Very dysfunctional family. Went through a lot of abuse, physical, sexual, emotional, mental. And a lot of it was done by the hands of people that I thought were my safe people. They should have loved me. They should have protected me. And it was not only by their hands, but also people that surrounded me because of them. And when I would try to say something, I was either told I was lying or what did
I do wrong? I brought it upon myself. Or also.
That's a brutal accusation.
That's a very brutal accusation. But this one's even better. Don't do anything to disrupt this relationship for me. Don't ruin this for me. So just shut up and deal with it basically is what that is saying to me, especially as a child. Um, so yeah, very dysfunctional. So a lot of stuff's going on in my brain and in my heart of my value and who I was and continued for quite a while. The emotional mental continued for a long time, even through high school. So I'm
packing away and headed out to college and going to college. But, uh, as I look back, I realize, yeah, I packed up and went to college, but I also packed up all that junk. I took it with me. Yeah. And a lot of that anger, confusion, pain. Because again, like I said, these are people that were supposed to be safe and loved me. So if they weren't loving me and safe for me, then where's God in all this? So my anger extended even to God. Thanks a lot for this.
You didn't protect me. You didn't help me. Where are you? Where are you? So that just festered and festered and festered within me. And it continued to fester and fester even into adulthood. I just made a lot of wrong decisions. A lot of my personality. I became rather snarky. People were a commodity. I mean, if I wasn't important, you know, I didn't want to get married. I wouldn't have kids. Kids were a problem. Kids were in the way. Kids
kept you from dreaming and living, you know? So why would I want that?
No one's important.
Exactly. You know, why would I want that? And to understand who God was. I mean, I, growing up younger within the church, I mean, I knew who God there was. There was a God. I knew who God was. There was Jesus, his son. He died on the cross. We had Easter. We cracked red eggs, you know, that kind of situation. But there was no relationship. And I certainly wasn't a situation where, going through all this, I could go to Jesus because you didn't go to Jesus. There
was a flow chart. You don't bother Jesus. You go to the priest, you go to the adults, you go to a teacher, you go to a parent. But all of these people were unsafe to me, so why would I go to them? You know, so that didn't help me either. And as far as the word of God, may be ministering to me and breathing life into me. That wasn't an option either, because the Bible. Yes, it was sacred. It was the Word of God. But it sat on a end table and it got dusted once
in a while. So that was the situation. So I really didn't know where to go except for myself. And that was not the good choice. But yeah, I went for myself and my decisions and my thinking and where I was going and what I was doing. Get out of college. Again, the personality, the snarkiness, the the self, self, self all the way and just vindictive like anybody who wronged me. Boom! They got my revenge. I did not have time for you. You got my revenge. Because I
wasn't going to let it happen to me again. That kind of thing. No way. I wasn't going to let it ride. There wasn't an ounce of forgiveness if you wronged me. Or at least I thought I was being wronged. Let's put it that way, too. Yeah, but here we go. One night I'm working in the John Hancock building. It was the job. Beautiful gig, I'm telling you. We were on the observatory level. Was the offices of this of this job. And I'm working an overnight shift on the
94th floor of the John Hancock Building. And I took the Bible and I thought, okay, God, I'm going to give you one more chance. I'm going to give God one more chance. What am I thinking? Duh. But I'm going to give God one more chance. So I'm reading the Bible, and one night I go through Matthew, just kind of reintroducing myself to Jesus a little bit. And then I go into Luke, and then I go into Romans one. Oh, that always just takes my breath away. Romans, Romans, Romans,
it spoke to me all the way through. God used Romans to just strike my heart. Romans 839 especially that there's nothing, nothing that can separate me from the love of God. Because you have to understand, love was conditional. Love came with a price, and love can be taken. But not in Romans, Not in the gospel. No, not God's love, not the love of Christ. That's why he was on the cross. It wasn't conditional. It was unconditional. And that just took me away. And I literally fell
to my knees hard. I fell to my knees, arms up. I am bawling, I am crying, I'm like, God, I am so sorry. I my took out everything the wrong way. I am a sinner. I am a mess, I'm a mess. The checklist was long. I am so tired of doing this on my own. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm on this, you know, hamster wheel trying to figure things out. And no, I turn to you. I'm turning around.
I'm turning to you. And I just sobbed and my hands are up and I'm going through this and I'm just praying and sobbing and praying and sobbing and asking for forgiveness and asking him to take over my life. I'm giving myself to him. And I really, physically felt like all that festering, all that back trauma, hate, whatever revenge. It was. A backpack of cement, I always call it, literally fell off of me, I felt lighter. I'm a swimmer. I felt like I had come up and I had air.
I could just breathe and a warmth came over me. I will never, ever forget that moment, and I, I, I just gave my life to Christ.
You know, I'm going to I'm going to tell you something here. This is something that is, uh, I love doing this when you hear stories. So I've never done this, but I'm going to do it right now for you. Somebody's never done this for you. It's one thing to hear a story. It's another thing to hear it confirmed by someone who's close to him. Somebody is imperfect, but radically transformed by Jesus. Everything that she was before her
surrender to Christ has been changed. This is the beauty of the power of the gospel, the goodness of God, the grace of God. When she turned to Jesus, he turned her around. The gospel changes everything. Now she's a dancer. She's a lover of people. She believes the best. She extends mercy. It's all God, isn't it? Super.
It's only and only. Only and always God. And I just want to say, you know, it becomes to where if you have gone through this type of heaviness and maybe some of you even more, you are not a victim. Don't believe the lies of Satan. He wants you to feel that you're a victim. He wants you. He wants to keep a foothold on you. He wants to fill you with shame so you don't tell your story. You are not a victim. You are a victor in Christ. Tell your story.
Yeah.
Witness. Be a testimony to it. And I'm telling you. Romans 839. You are so, so loved. God does not want you to stay in your past. He does not want you there. He has so much purpose for you. And I want you to know and believe that today.
Yeah. The light yoke that somebody talks about is promised by Jesus himself. And some of you want that. But before even Jesus spoke of the light yoke, he had something really tough to say. And he has to say it to you and we'll give that to you. Coming up.
Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight. Super dei is in the crew. It's colonel and crew on Moody Radio. Video.
It's awesome. When you hear a story, you have new appreciation. Your your heart actually goes out and goes, yeah, I want to hug you right now. And the amazing thing about Super Di is that she's a she's a hugger. She's a dancer. She's a believer in people. I through the dancer thing in there for you. Super. Thank you. Not necessarily a spiritual gift, but boy, we sure appreciate it. She believes in people. She loves victory stories. She has compassion.
But she didn't always have that. No sexual abuse. Verbal abuse. I thank you so much for sharing your story. Super di. But it brings this. It brings this moment for us here that are two radically, almost feels like two radically different themes, but they're absolutely the same. And they're found in Matthew 11. I want to begin with one of the coolest things here are might get choked up. Come to me. All who labor and are heavy laden. And
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me, Jesus said, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I want to speak to you, my friend. You just heard my story, and we know that there's many thousands listening right now who have been burdened down with the weight of all kinds of injustice and pain in this broken and fallen world. That's real. Right? Let's
just sit there for a second. That's real, isn't it, Ali?
It. Absolutely. And maybe you just don't talk about it. That's you. It's part of your story. But like I said, you just. You've buried it and you just don't talk about it.
Yeah. The crazy thing is that on the polar extreme of this thing, And the very words that Jesus said right before, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. Was he. He said these words. He began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Now, the word repentance isn't an angry word. It's a sweet word. It's what somebody heard on the 92nd floor of the John Hancock building. Yeah, yeah. She heard turn around. Super die. Yes.
Because here's two things exist. Both. We have been hurt in this broken and fallen world, and we hurt people. And apart from the grace and power of God, we're going to stew in our anger, in our rage, in our disappointment, in our shame. And Jesus went on to say, woe to you, Bethsaida and Chorazin. For if the mighty works I did in front of you had been done in Tyre and Sidon. That's modern day Beirut, Lebanon, by the way, guys, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes. Here's the point. The point is repentance in our heart for you this week, as you hear our stories, is that you not be a person that stays in kind of the hamster wheel of the pain of your past, but that you own the pain of your own sin and walk in freedom. Both coexist. Isn't that wild, guys? He says, woe to you, Chorazin. Woe
to you, Bethsaida! And here's the point. You've got to have a touchpoint with somebody on two things one, the weight of the pain that she had from childhood all the way up through her tweens, even into her teens with abuse and neglect, and at the same time own the fact that, as somebody testified, Inside. There are things that we've done that has sinned against God and others, and we need a Savior. Both coexist. Isn't that amazing? That's the beauty of the gospel, guys. That's the beauty.
God sees it all. So he says, come to me, to you today. You're wearing a heavy yoke. I get it, Jesus says, but he also says, come to me, repent and turn around of your own sins. Both are there. And you've heard my story, and you've heard stories of grace, possibly before. And according to Jesus's words, it'll be better for those that have not heard the story of grace on the Day of Judgment, than for those that have heard and have not yet repented. I'm not saying that
to scare you. I'm saying that because I love you. This is the gospel. And I've often wondered, and I've actually had an opportunity to warn many people that being exposed to the grace of God is a beautiful thing for those who repent, but it's a very scary thing for those who don't. And my heart goes out to you today. I want for you to experience new life in Jesus Christ. I want you to come to the one who can take the weight off your shoulders, and
you can say to him, I'm heavy laden. And I also want for you to repent of your sins, because that's how the weight gets lifted. You know what comes first in the storyline in Matthew 11 is the warning to those who don't repent. But what comes second is the come to me now, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And you might be saying, well, what does this look like? Well, there's one key word I want to focus on here, and it's the word repent. And it's a beautiful word.
It's what somebody did when she fell to her knees. She repented of her sin and found freedom from the sins of others. That's beautiful. And I just invite you right now in the quietness of this moment, because God's quietly speaking into your heart. Please, friend, don't carry that weight alone anymore. The weight of what others have done, nor the weight of your own sin. Today you can give it to God. Repentance means to turn around. It's the most loving word going on this broad path that
leads to destruction. There are many substitute gods, and maybe your substitute god has been vengeance or bitterness. Your substitute God has been shame. And I want you to know Jesus wants to free you from that today 100%. He wants to give you total and complete freedom. And I appeal to you, friend. Don't wait till the day of judgment. Today is the day to repent and to give your life fully to Jesus Christ. It's so much more than being raised with a good book on a nightstand. So
much more than going to church. It's falling to your knees and finding the one who loved you so much that he sent his son to die for you, so that you will not perish, but you will have everlasting life. And I'm asking you to put yourself in the arms of God today for the first time in your life. I'm absolutely confident that the Holy Spirit is convicting. The Holy Spirit is comforting, and the Holy Spirit is calling this morning. And I'm asking you to surrender to Jesus today.
I want you to just pray along with me. It's a cry of the soul. It's a cry of faith. But today is your day of salvation, friend. Today is your day. Today is the day when you are no longer going to be carrying around this weight, and you are no longer going to go your own way to sort it out. You're going to repent and follow Jesus. So just cry out to God and see Jesus today, I believe. I believe you want to free me from
the weight that I'm carrying. And I believe you want to free me from my own sin in my life. And today I repent. Today I turn around. Today I follow Jesus. Today I speak the truth that you came into this world because you love me, and you died for me, for my sin and the sin of the world. And today I confess that I'm a sinner and I need a Savior, and I'm tired, and I'm asking you to carry this weight that I've been carrying for so long. Take it off my shoulders, Jesus. Today I give you
my life completely. Today I am a Jesus follower. And I give you my life completely. There are many of you right now who are surrendering your life to Jesus Christ for the first time. And we want to help you. We've got a link. I want you to get your phone because we want to help you today. And we're going to auto respond to one word that you're going to text us. And when you text this word, you're going to have a little tool in your hand that's going to show you how to find people who are
going to help you. It's going to show you where you can find a Bible that will be a guide for you moving forward if you don't already have one, and it will will have a little link in there that we're going to be able to send you via mail, some resources that are going to help you live now in this power that set you free from your sin. So it's really simple. Just text the word new right now to 805 five, five, 78, 98. Wherever you are, just text in that word because whom the son sets
free is free indeed. When somebody got up off her face and off of her knees. Everything was new, right? Super die.
Everything was new. It was amazing. And. Yes, exactly. That backpack of cement came off. I came up for air, and I just physically felt the warmth of God's love.
Tex knew right now, if today is your day of salvation, just text the word new to 800 555, 7898. You were surprised by the spirit this morning, and we're going to shout out in just a moment the last four numbers of your telephone number. We're blowing through some of our natural stops here. But that's okay, isn't it?
It's totally okay.
Just text the word new right now, wherever you are, to 805 five, five, 78, 98. If today is your day, where God is freeing you from a yoke of slavery. Just text the word new to 800 555 7898. Let's take time here, Ali, before we even spin a song here, let's shout out the last four numbers of those who are surrendering to Jesus today.
Yeah, those of you texting new, I want to read out the last four digits of your number. 2024 0550. Welcome to the family. 3208 79. 40. 43. 48. 49. 70. 37. 40. 82, 49 and 68. 18. Welcome to the family.
Amazing. Welcome to the family. God is making all things new for you. Continue to text as you feel led. We're here for you. There's no time. Stop on this text. New to 800 555 7898.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Oh my goodness. Super di Diana Berriman, uh, a colleague, friend, dear one that we love so much. One of the team here just poured out her heart about her story. God's redemption, his grace, his power, his ability to take a concrete backpack and throw it off of you. Super di.
Absolutely.
And look what God's doing, kiddo. Look what God's doing. He's saving people out of the shadows of darkness and bringing them into the light. And we've invited so many of you to repent today and to turn around and give your life to Jesus. And we know that there's without a doubt, there's many of you wiping up tears. Tears are a good thing. I've found that, uh, real men cry, real men cry, real women cry. And it's okay. But the tears of salvation are a tear of shame
draining out of you and joy pouring in. And Ali, we've had so many surrender to Jesus today. We've called out a ton of numbers here, but let's just affirm some more.
I've got some more welcomes. This is last four digits of your phone number. I want to welcome you to the family. 6056379 40 1178 3500. I want to welcome to the family. 6360 903, 43, 24, 68, 47, 74, 17, 53, 55, 65. Welcome to the family 09110.
That's so good. And I think 1178 came in as well. And, uh, way to go. Way to go. You know, it's an awesome thing, uh, for us to be able to come to you with the hope of the gospel. And I just want to speak to this one thing that happened here just now. I think there's a lot of people that have, um, in an attempt to reach people, sometimes we lower the bar of what salvation is. But one of the most one of the most abused and misunderstood words that we find and we've heard is the word repent.
But it's the most beautiful word. Jesus never said it, banging on a piece of wood, yelling at people. He said repentance like turn around. He told his first disciples, follow me. Turn around. Let's go. And we find in Matthew chapter 11. It's time to repent. It's time to turn around from the broad path that leads to destruction, onto this narrow path that leads to life. And Jesus
is clear if you are going to find it. But there are many of you today that are among the few, and we want to welcome you to the family from the bottom of our heart. Use that link that we sent you. We're here to help you not only step into this new relationship with Christ, but then to grow in him. And one of the big sticking points of growing in our relationship with God is that we have to wade through the morass of a cultural Christianity and boil it all right, down to living in God's power
and not bootstrapping this faith. Speak to that alley.
Well, you know, it's it's pretty common in Western culture to have some sort of a religious background. I mean, many, many people do. And sometimes it's linked to cultural. Sometimes it's linked to your origin, your family dynamic. And so you might have a religious understanding. And so I think sometimes that really muddies the water because you, it's, it's rare to meet somebody who's never heard the name of Jesus here in this country. Yeah.
It doesn't it.
Doesn't often happen. Most people have heard the name of Jesus, and most people have some sort of already preconceived idea about what it means to be a Christian.
Yeah. And my contention is, though, that we live among a lot of those people that have some vague idea. I am absolutely convinced we live among a vast millions and millions of people in America that have never had a fair shot of the good news of Jesus.
And I think the difference between, like maybe going to being a missionary to an unreached people group in some place where they've never heard the name of Jesus is here. You're having to wade through a lot of kind of undo some wrong teaching. I will never forget the person who said one of the reasons why they enjoyed the show is because growing up, they got bad information about the gospel.
That was a classic call.
And and I thought that for now, for years now is captured. What I think happens to a lot of us, you get bad information about the gospel. So it's not that you've never heard the name of Jesus, it's that you've never actually heard the gospel of what it means to be saved and what it really means to follow him.
Yeah, yeah. It's so true, Ali. And we're breaking. We're seeing breakthrough with the cultural Christianity that's cloaked so many of us. And we're going to be talking about this all week long. And you know, there's some of you that wonder right now. Where do I stand with God. Where do I stand with God? And that's a fair question. I mean, wanting to know you stand with God and
that he stands with you is huge. And one of the things that we want to do is have this juxtaposition of giving the clear gospel of who Jesus is and how he wants to transform you and walk you into that very abundance that Jesus spoke of. And the amazing thing is, is that we don't. We don't actually reach anyone. The Holy Spirit uses words to regenerate your soul.
And that's that's a powerful thing. You know what? I feel prompted that I want to give a resource because there were there was some time ago when I felt like, oh my goodness, people need to know and measure where they stand with God. Let's let's do this right now. Ali, this resource has been used by tens of thousands of people and there's many. They're going to want this today.
It's very it's pretty short. It's readable. It's right from the Word of God. It's our standard resource. It's nine ways to know you stand with God. He stands with you. Just text the word stand to 855 five 7898. Text stand to 800 555 7898. We'll send it right to your phone.
Yeah. That's great. What an awesome thing to witness. What God is doing here today. So many people called out of darkness and into the light. What a powerful thing. Father, I thank you for these newborn children. These ones that were carrying weight and are now free in Christ. And I pray in Jesus name. I'm reminded of Philippians one six that you who began this work in them will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus, and I thank you for that. In the name of Jesus,
we thank you. Amen.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's curling crew on Moody Radio.
How can I get that story to share with someone else? Just got that text message. We want to make it easy. If you ever hear something that you would like to hear again, or you'd like to share with someone in your life who you think would really benefit from it, just text the word show to 800 555 7898. Text
show to 800 555 7898. You're going to get back from us a link that gives you direct links so that you can listen whether you're on iPhone or Android, and that usually gets updated a couple of hours after we are our show concludes. So usually around 1030 or 11 Central time. So look for it. Then just text show to 800 555 78, 98. Another thing we like to feature is resources that are going to help you
take your next step in your walk with Jesus. And coming up, we're going to feature one that allows you to get into the Word of God with some context, some historical understanding right here. Produced at Moody Bible Institute, it's called today in the word. And if you've not heard about it, boy, we need to get you connected. We'll have a special guest coming up.
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.
This is going to sound super sappy. I just want to give you a warning. Um. God expresses his love to us in so many cool ways. And the sappy part for me is I've got two of these rescue cats. And I kid you not, God encourages my hearts with them in the craziest ways.
That's sweet.
And I kid you not. And one of them, we got on three legs. And when I told my wife yes, she's like, she's it's her second rescue cat. And she's like, this thing's wheezing. It's going to die. And can I bring it home? And I'm like, yeah, bring it home. And that sucker got home here. And I'm like, oh, Nelly, we're gonna have a cat that's stuck on one floor and it's on three legs. And it had been smacked by a car hit so hard that teeth had been knocked out, a jaw had been broken, a leg had
been broken. And I don't know why they did this. They gave my wife the pictures of this thing when she adopted it and it was bad. And come to find out, he was just a teenager at that time. We thought he was full grown, but he kept growing and God in his grace healed that guy up and he had PTSD from getting whacked.
Oh I'm.
Sure.
So what really got him was tin foil. Because it must have simulated the sound of something breaking or cracking or something. So he'd pull out a piece. Just a little piece of tin foil. This guy. So we got wood floors, and he's a big, hairy booger. So he's got hair coming out the bottom of his pads like crazy. Like, so much so his pads didn't can't hit the floor. It's just hair and and no joking. He's a he's a a Norwegian tree cat or forest cat. And um.
And he loves trees. So anyway, he's got hair coming out so long. No joking. Two inch hair coming out and lots of it from between his pads. So when he gets freaked out, he's just, like, doing this cartoon where he's just spinning out, trying to get traction. And I used to die for him because he started spinning out on three legs and that was hard to watch. Well, his leg gets healed, and now he's getting over his PTSD.
And he trusts me and he loves me. And he comes up to me and he just bumps into me and he's like, hey, can I get a neck rub? He's not audible, by the way. Of course, obviously.
But Karl has a talking cat. Whoa. Oh, okay.
But I kid you not, there have been times when I've been. Because, believe it or not, ready for a secret? Shh, shh. Don't tell anyone. Karl can get sad, too. Yeah, I can get sad. There's times when I've been sad. And God brings that crazy cat up to me. Named him Sozo. Means saved and healed. And sozo. Kind of like a mountain or a stream. Can encourage your soul. God saw fit that a stray cat with three legs, got healed up, spins out on hardwood floors would ultimately be a huge
source of encouragement for his son. Carl. Isn't that wild? Isn't that wild? Oh, how he loves you. Oh, how he loves you. How are you seeing God express his love toward you today? Make sure you look and see. Because he's doing it. He's doing it. Coming up, we got a got a treat for you, right, Ali?
Yeah. I mean, if you loved Carl's story about his rescue cats, you're going to love hearing about all the cool mentions of animals in the Bible this month. Today in the word devotional, we've got the author with us coming up.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
It's a dog eat dog world out there.
Ali.
Yes.
What in the cat hairs going on around here? Oh, I see where you're going with this. Come on, let's have a little bit of fun. Let's see what other.
Animal.
Reference.
Well, you told me that you were when you were in middle school. You felt a little.
Long in the legs, right? Well, um, you ever get.
Called.
Giraffe or anything like that? Giraffe?
I unfortunately, I felt kind of like an ugly duckling.
Oh, don't do that to me. No, I'm just just tell we're going. Animal. Ducks are fair game. They are fair game. I just my dad heart came out right there. I don't want that. Um, it's funny because you look in the scripture. And what do you find? Animals everywhere.
And not just in the garden? No, and not just on the ark.
No.
They're animals sprinkled everywhere in Scripture. If you start looking for.
Them, you got talking donkeys. You got people called dogs, by the way, the Samaritans. So dogs, Animals are everywhere. Jim Coakley. What's with animals in the Bible?
Yeah, they're all over the place, as you just mentioned. And of course, like many of our listeners, I grew up loving animals. I had unusual exotic pets. I had an American toad. I had instead of goldfish, I had a bluegill. And my roommate at college had a piranha, and we put him in the same tank and they survived with each other. Oh, I.
Thought you were going to give us something that we had to have a little ear warning on.
No, but my wife did put it down. One time at a church camp. I picked up this lovely green snake, and I wanted to bring it home. And she said, nope, nope, no, no snakes at home.
You know, I knew I loved Gail. Now I love her all the more. You need some wise counsel in your life, don't you?
Yes, I.
Do.
Doctor Jim Coakley is the author of this month's today in the Word devotional, which focuses on animals in Scripture. Why did you take on this as a topic for a whole month? This probably is going to, for most people, seem a bit obscure.
I like what Proverbs six tells us to do, because I think this really is the inspiration for the whole month's study. It tells us to what? Go to the ant, you sluggard. And so we're told to look at the animal kingdom. We're looking at the ant. And so we learn wisdom principles by looking at some of God's creatures, but they're also used symbolically. The lion and the lamb. You know, Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
Jesus the Lamb of God. The metaphors that are there, of course, we have associations with, you know, snakes with deception and and all sorts of, you know, kind of eerie associations with some things like in the book of Genesis, goats are always around deception, you know, they fool dad. Uh, again, uh, Jacob fooled Isaac with goat skin. Yes. Uh, we have the goats speckled and spotted goats. Jacob's trying to get
the upper hand with Uncle Laban. Uh, we have the brothers of Joseph dipping Joseph's garment in goat's blood to try to show evidence that he's been devoured by wild animals. So goats in the Book of Genesis are associated with deception. but they're wily animals, so it fits the kind of the nature of the animal itself.
You know, even the book of Job, for crying out loud. I mean, we got references to animals, some of which people speculate. Is this referring to what we would call prehistoric now? Right. So why?
I mean, right in Genesis one, they're part of the created world. And so we have the fact that God made them. And so there's lessons to be learned from what we have with that. And like you say, the book of Job, were you there, uh, all those questions that God asked job at the end of the book to kind of say, hey, you need to knock it down a little bit in terms of what you think, in terms of understanding my ways, because were you there
when the ostrich gave birth or whatever? I mean, so it's a way for us to kind of make sure that we realize God is sovereign and powerful and way wiser than you and I are.
You know, I wonder if we're missing something. And I genuinely mean this right now. I wonder if we're missing something that we know we appreciate animals, for crying out loud. You got these things called zoos, right? I mean, you go. We went to San Diego Zoo. Me and my bride about a year ago. It was epic. But I wonder if we are missing something. Scripture is clear. Ponder the ant. Right? I mean, so what's a good discovery that you had preparing for.
This.
Devotional?
One I don't think our listeners are necessarily going to like to envision, but in Isaiah 40, a wonderful passage about they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. And it goes on to say, and most translations say, they shall mount up as wings on eagles like eagles. And so we think, especially as Americans, we think of the American bald eagle, our national bird and majestic and full of symbolism. But I hate to break it to
our audience. There's no American bald eagles in Israel. They're not a native animal there. So it's not likely that they're thinking of our statuesque kind of national bird. You've been to Gamla. I've been to Gamla. There's a number of refuges in Israel for what is called the Griffon vulture. These are magnificent birds. They're ugly birds, but they're magnificent because they have long, long wingspan. And you go over and you see these cliffs and you see these birds
soaring effortlessly. And that's the whole point. It's not the fact of their beauty, it's the fact that they work so effortlessly to stay aloft. They should be sinking like rocks, but God keeps them aloft because of their aerodynamics. And so that's really then we can soar above our difficulties. But it doesn't sound so impressive for us to say we shall mount up like wings as vultures.
But when you see them, it changes everything.
It changes everything.
Doctor Jim Coakley, our guest right now. What's another animal reference that's maybe surprised you as you were doing your study?
Revelation chapter five. It talks about, you know, again, Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah, and it's mentioned as part of a song, the Song of Moses and The song of the lamb. And so we mentioned, of course, lion with Jesus. And of course associated with Judah. But then we go all the way back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In Genesis 49, we also have the mention of the messianic prophecy about Judah being the seed line, and Judah will lie down like a lion.
And so we have all these, these references. And it's interesting that the original Lion King, it's not from Disney, it's from Scripture, because right from the beginning, in a very poetic, lyrical section, Genesis 49, we associate lions. And throughout the Pentateuch, I should say it's also mentioned in Balaam's Oracles and in the Song of Moses we have lions mentioned, and then we have them at the end in the book of revelation, all associated with King Jesus.
And so lions associated with royalty again as a big image all the way through the ancient Near East, you go to ancient Near Eastern courts. You see kings killing lions pictured as lions. And so this shows they're royalty. But again, Jesus is King of kings and he is the original Lion King.
Give us a quick riff on the spirit and dove correlation.
Yeah. I mean, certainly, again, I think kind of similar to the eagle vulture. The doves are timid or.
Tender.
Tender. They're not at all threatening. And so we have then the spirit descending like a dove, kind of a comforter. Yeah. And of course, doves are used. Turtle doves are used as part of the sacrificial animal system. If you didn't have a sheep or a goat, a ram to offer. And so they're multi-use kind of purposes, both for food, for sacrifices, but also the nature of the dove itself is a great analogy.
Who'd have thunk it? So much from animals in Scripture.
If you want to spend some time in the month of June in this devotional, highly recommend today in the word. It is a phenomenal resource. Just text. Today we'll get you connected. Text today to 800 555 7898. Just that one word. Spell it out today 800 555 7898.