Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio crew broadcasting.
Live from NTB. National relationship with the living God who is setting captives free broadcasters. That's what it is. National relationship with Jesus Christ, who loves the world so much that he came to redeem us of sins, regenerate our soul by the power of the Holy Spirit, and give us new life, that we can walk in it. And by the way, I was reading this morning, second Peter chapter three, final words of Peter. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. That interesting thing, Ali. Grow in the grace. It's not that grace would grow, but that we would grow in the grace.
In the grace. That's a.
Huge distinction. We don't have to say, Oh God, give me your grace. He's he's lavished his grace on us.
Now we just have to. Isn't that great? With the help of the Holy Spirit. Grow. Yeah.
Grow in it.
Grow in it.
It's there. Are we going to grow in it? It's like going into this.
Womb.
World of power. What a beautiful thing. Okay, guys, we got a lot going on here today. We got voice of the martyrs. This is timely. There's a lot going around this world right now, but really quickly here. I've got an event on Saturday, and yes, we may get outside the boundaries of Chicagoland, but, ally, Saturday is going to be a fun time for your friend Carl.
For those of you in the Chicagoland area, I want you to know about this March 1st out in Villa Park. Carl's going to be doing a book signing for his book, Killing Sin Conquer the one Thing That's Defeating You. If you want the details for this event this Saturday morning out in Villa Park, which is the western suburbs. Text the word book to (800) 555-7898. Text book to (800) 555-7898. Yeah.
And when you grab that link, you might want to scroll down. Because down there buried in the bowels of the lake is a really cool thing. There's additional details that are really cool. Secret. It's there's some secret stuff in there. We need music. I know you almost need some bed music. Okay. Coming up, we're going to. Yeah. So text the word book to our number here. I don't even have the number up. Yeah I do 800 555 7898. I'm all right. That's it. That's correct. You
got it. Okay. We're going to roll here again broadcasting live from NB in Texas. And we've got a just a raft of great people coming on board, not least of which is Todd Nettleton. So keep it pinned right here.
Romans eight brought her to Jesus while broadcasting traffic overnight. Super die is in the crew. It's curl and crew on Moody Radio.
I think oftentimes we think and get in our mind a picture of an I'm walking in this great liberty, but the liberty that we have in Christ is some some oftentimes constrained by chains of earth, but unshackled spiritually. And I mean, that's the reality. We have this great American experiment going on, and yeah, Canada, you've got it too, where we're pretty immune to persecution, to the degree to which our brothers and sisters have it around the world.
But we have to be careful that we don't somehow think that that's the normal experience for Christians globally. I want to bring in a special guest right now, Todd Nettleton, vice president of message integration for The Voice of the martyrs. Well, it's easy to live in the in the West and think that persecution that was a thing of of Bible days. And obviously, if you are aware of things happening globally,
especially what's been in the news recently. Just give us what's on your heart this morning.
You know, one of the countries that is on my heart is Syria. We've seen a lot of change in Syria in the last three months, and some of it's very good. There have been church bells ringing that haven't rung for a decade. There have been churches gathering in their buildings that haven't gathered for a decade. Boy, that's
great news. I talked to a Syrian pastor last week, though, and he said what the pastors are hearing around the country in multiple places, what they're hearing from the government is not what the government is telling the rest of the world, like the government is telling the rest of the world, oh, we want freedom, and we want to have a place for all religions. And what they're telling the pastors in Syria is just, just wait. Wait till we get established. Wait till we get our feet on
the ground. Then we're going to come for the Christians. And so the Christians there are like, okay, what does this mean now? Obviously they know what it's like to live under persecution, but they're hearing a very different story from the new leadership of Syria than what the rest of the world is hearing.
Yeah. Abu Mohammad Al-julani is the new leader of that country, and he's got a $10 million bounty on his head back from.
From his al Qaeda days.
Yeah. I mean, one plus one is still two, isn't it, Todd?
It is. But the rest of the world doesn't want to necessarily pay attention to that math.
Yeah, so we know that. So we can bemoan that stuff all day long. But how do you help equip? Oh, boy, get choked up thinking about it. How do you equip people? Can you imagine living in a country where you know what's coming? Think about that. If you stand up for Christ, you know what's coming. That's brutal. Todd, how do you equip them? What do you. What are you.
Doing? You know, one of the one of the great things about that, though, is when suffering comes, you're not knocked off course by it. Like sometimes in America, if we suffer, we're like, Lord, how could you let this happen? I'm not supposed to suffer. I'm following you in a place like China or Syria. When you follow Christ, you know you're going to suffer. So it's not a surprise to you when it happens. How do you get people ready? I think there's a couple ways. One is helping them
drive deep roots into the Scripture, into God. The other thing is the stories of persecuted Christians. They hand down those stories within their countries. Oh, you know, this pastor was put in prison and he came out and he was still faithful, still following Christ. Oh, that person was beaten. And they showed up at church the very next week.
They didn't care. And so those stories strengthen me and you and our brothers and sisters who live in hostile and restricted nations to get ready to face persecution.
You know, when you think about it, I was thinking about this the other day with news coming out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the slaughter of Christians. And you know about just this, the simplicity of the gospel message that's so offensive, the cross that's so offensive. Isn't that interesting? You know, just and I don't know why that struck me afresh, but, man, that there's so much opposition to the cross.
Yeah. Well it's like, why does it bother you that I follow Jesus? Like, why should that bother you at all? But it is it is so offensive. And it's it's such a threat to these governments and these terrorist groups and these because they see how Christ changes lives. Yeah. If young people follow Christ, they're not going to follow the terrorists. And so if you're recruiting, that's a problem
for you. So it's partly it's a power thing. Like, God's power is so great that every other power is threatened by it.
I think we sell it short. We call it evil and this and that. At the end of the day, there's a massive demonic force at work. You can explain it in another way, because what Ali is saying is true. It's like, hold it, let's think about this. If you take any spiritual equation out, who would be against families staying together, growing, being happy, sharing their food with one another? But there it is. It sounds.
Really dangerous, doesn't it, when you describe it.
That way. Wow. Coming up in a few minutes. All right. Let's get some facts and figures from around the world. Can you do that for us, Todd? Let us know what's going on in just a couple of minutes. We're going to break it down for you.
It's Karl and crew on Moody Radio.
Broadcasting from grapevine just outside Dallas here in Texas for NRB. And we've got Todd Nettleton with us, VP of Message integration, voice of the martyrs guys.
Incredible ministry that serves persecuted Christians in the world's most difficult and dangerous places to follow Christ. You said you got a story you heard recently out of the Middle East. Can't give any more specifics, but tell us what grabbed your heart about this story.
I just sat down with a former missionary. They don't they don't use that word in that part of the world. But former missionary in the Middle East who was arrested and took him off to jail. His wife didn't know what had happened to him. She actually took their kids and left the country because she's like, I don't I don't know what's going on, but I want to get my kids out of here. And he was in jail.
Ended up being there for 13 days, which, you know, in the scope of things, not a huge jail sentence, but hard when you're the one in jail, when you're the one sitting there. He said two things made a huge difference, he said. One, he was arrested with two other believers and they were allowed to stay together. So there were three of them in the fire instead of just one, he said. That was huge, having brothers with him in jail. Wow. The other thing he said, he
said on day three they decided to have communion. He said, we didn't have, you know, juice, but we had water. And Jesus can turn water into wine. So? So we took our water and we took a little bit of our dinner roll bread and we had communion. And he said when they had communion on that third day in prison, he said it was like Jesus walked in. He took all the fear and all the frustration and all the upsetness, and he just took it out of the room like
it wasn't there anymore. Wow. And he said, from that point on, they had communion together three times a day while they were in prison. And every single time it was like Jesus walked in the room and said, I got this. I'll take care of this.
It's overwhelming when you hear those stories. You know, I've often wondered, do we know ahead of time that we're going to have the grace to go through that? You know what I'm saying, Todd? You know, you're. Yeah. We don't we can't say, oh, I can, I can, I can stand strong because it's not about us. It's about them being filled with the the power of God.
I had a chance to sit down with Hanley Greenwald, whose family was killed in Afghanistan, and I asked her that question. I said a year before this happened, would you have said, oh, yeah, I'm strong enough to go through losing my family. She said no, in a million years, I never would have said that. She said the grace to go through that and she compared it and I guess. Corrie ten boom said this first. She said the grace
to go through that is like a boarding pass. You get to get on an airplane, you don't get your boarding pass a year before the flight, you get your boarding pass when you go to the airport and check in. And she said, God gave me the grace to go through that. Even in the hours right before my our home was attacked, right before my family was killed.
You've got a unique vantage point because you're in this all the time. What do you want people to know that we don't know?
First pray, pray pray pray, pray, pray, pray. That's what persecuted Christians ask us to do.
Second, now hold on. Second, that's what they asked for.
That's what they asked for.
They don't ask for.
Not money, not.
Money, not saved.
Money. That's it. They asked us to pray. The second thing is, don't picture persecuted Christians as these depressed, downtrodden, sad people that have just gone through so much and they're just barely scraping through life. They are joyful. They are excited about what God is doing. And yes, they know that their suffering involved in that, but they are excited and joyful. Don't picture them as sort of depressed and beaten down by these things.
That's a good perspective shift.
It really is. How would you what do you tell people who live not under persecution? Certainly here in the West there's a growing intolerance for the Christian worldview. But absent persecution, sometimes you go because we know that faith thrives in under persecution. How do we live? How now shall we live? As Chuck Colson said, in the absence of it. But knowing that that could change at any time.
You know, I think a couple of things we need to exercise our faith muscles. Most of us live in biweekly reliance on our paychecks. We don't live in daily reliance on God. Our brothers and sisters in hostile and restricted nations. They live in daily reliance on God. They wake up every morning and say, God, if you don't show up today, I don't know how it's going to go. We don't have to do that. And so we don't. So so we have to figure out ways to exercise our faith on a day by day. Learn to hear
the voice of God. Hey. Do this. Hey! Turn left. That kind of relationship with God, and it doesn't. I don't think it comes naturally to us because we're not forced to live that way. Whereas our brothers and sisters who could go to jail today, they live that way all the time. But when you exercise those muscles, they grow strong. And you wake up every morning thinking, wow, I can't wait to see how God's going to show up in my life today. We need a little practice to kind of live that way.
I was talking with a guy who's overseeing a bunch of church plants, tens of thousands, and it's I asked him, I said I called him a couple of weeks ago, and it had that tone that I'm calling out of country.
Beep. Beep.
That's a dial tone. When you're. When someone's abroad. That's the dial tone. I'm the ring tone. And I left a message. They said, hey, when you get back stateside, give me a call. And he did. I said, hey, all right, what's the difference? What's the difference between saints? They're saints here. And he said, you know, boil it down to this. He said, the way we're making disciples and the ones that are really rocking and rolling and surviving storms is they have a great spirit of obedience,
he said. When they read the word and it says to do it, they do it. Unlike American or Western Christians. What do you say to that?
Todd, my boss at voice of the martyrs, Cole Richards, our president, talks about the knowledge obedience gap. We American Christians often have a lot of knowledge, but a low level of obedience. Our brothers and sisters, that you go into a village in Laos where somebody has very low knowledge, like like maybe they just have heard the gospel in the last two weeks, but they are 100% obedient to everything they know about it. We have to close that gap.
We have to bring our obedience up to the level of our knowledge.
And we can, by God's grace. Amen. And, you know, it's an interesting thing because the last couple of days we've been here, there's been a theme. I was on a panel with Chris Fabry and Michael Ray and, uh oh, for crying out loud. Oh, Ron Hutchcraft. And we were talking about, you know, what needs to happen here in our lives. And it's that early morning personal introspection where you go, all right, what's really causing me to go
here today? And I was getting ready to come down here to NRB, and, you know, I was having some time with the Lord, and I thought about, okay, we're coming down. You know, when you come into a room with a lot of new people and you're wondering about you. If I'm going to confess what everyone else does. We all think about, well, you know, what do I wear? How am I going to be perceived? And then you get in those environments and your jockeying and who's telling
what stories. And it is a freeing thing when the Lord says, you got nothing to prove. You got nothing to gain. You got nothing to lose. Just go be you in me and we're going to be okay. That's a freeing thing. Amen. And it's that early morning consecration where you get your. In fact, I forget. I think it was Ray who said in really humble tones, it's like, this is where we've got to start early in the morning, just going slow down. I am God's kid. And you
know what's amazing? The people you're ministering to, they do that every morning. They do out of desperate need.
And that's how you learn to hear God's voice. Like in that quiet time, daily, every day, some some days you don't hear anything. But the days he speaks. Boy, you want to be ready and you want to be there to hear it.
Yeah.
Todd Nettleton, the voice of the martyrs. If you want more on this incredible ministry, just text voice to 800 555, 7898. Text. voice to 805, 55, 7898.
I got to tell you, man, I saw the proof of this. I was at a funeral recently, just a few weeks ago, for a precious woman. Man, she was from Romania. She was led to Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of voice of the martyrs. When she was a teenager.
Which is amazing, she.
Was absolutely far from God. Had a friend invite her into this Bible study and she's like, what in the cat hair is this all about? She didn't say cat hair, but she goes into this thing and Richard shared the gospel with her, and there were just a few girls in this meeting. And then. Sabina. Sabina? Yeah. So his wife, um, came alongside, and I got chills right now. This woman began to grow and go with God. Now her her sons had to run from the bullets of Ceausescu's regime
into Czechoslovakia. And they escaped. and they ultimately brought mama stateside. But to hear the stories and the legacy of this woman who were radically impacted by voice of the martyrs, it was just, I got chills all over my body right now. I mean, I was going to stay there for a half an hour because Romanian funerals are like 2.5 hours. I stayed 2.5 hours because I'm like, this is epic. I mean, it was just story after story
after story, and it was open casket. And the and my friend who's in our church in Chicago and his brothers, man, they're they're just patting mom on the head. They're going, she's not here. But there she is. And oh, man, I'm telling you, man, it was one of the most awesome things what God can do to change, I mean, generations. And you've been a part of that for a lot of years with voice of the martyrs. You guys, I got to tell you, um, Ali said it. This is
a great ministry. I want you to get content here. We've got a link that's going to getting in the know on this stuff. That's half the battle. Voice of the martyrs has publications that they'll send to your home and even digitally. So I want you to get this link right now. Text the word voice. Voice to (800) 555-7898. Text the word voice to (800) 555-7898. Now, I want to thank you, brother, for being here today.
Thanks for.
Having me. Yeah. What a sweet time, guys. Text. Voice to 800 555, 7898. And it's good to stay informed, because that information of what's going on with our brothers and sisters around the globe, much like the epistles, would be writing back and forth. Right? Yes. Same. Same kind of thing. You're getting node up. Then you can stay humble and dependent on the Lord, if nothing else, just to honor them. For crying out loud, what a great
motivation to get on your face before Jesus today. Text. Voice. Have I said it yet? Voice did I get voice yes, that's the word. Voice to 800 555 78. 98.
She was trying to earn her way to God, but God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, I one of the craziest things that ever happened to me. And I don't know what happened. Have you ever had a short term addiction? Just a short term addiction where you're like, you get on to something and you got to have it? Yes.
Sheet, sheet pans of brownies. When I was eight months pregnant.
Okay. There you go.
Well, a short term addiction.
I had a crazy thing where I had to run to an ice cream joint. And you know me with sugar, right? No, you're not a sugar guy. No, but I went through a crazy phase about seven years ago for about a month, where it's like I had to have this fix. And one day I said, what time is it to my bride? She goes, it's the same time. I said, I got five minutes. Go with me. Let's go. We got five minutes. They're going to shut the joint down. And I got there just in the nick of time, and my bride
was like, you are absolutely crazy for this stuff. Well, we got a man here that's got people around the globe that are crazy for this stuff.
Ricky Dixon, recently retired CEO of Blue Bell Creameries, bestselling author of One Scoop at a Time Lessons from fear to Faith. Give us the story behind Blue Bell Creamery started here in Texas, right?
That's correct.
And thank you, first of most for allowing me to be on this morning. This this is awesome. An addiction. I've had mine for about 43 plus years, so I'll still call that a short term addiction, no question about it. But the book and the inspiration behind the book, one scoop at a time, it talks about my journey on
how God moved me from high school to college. I wrote a paper on Blue Bell while I was at Baylor, and from that I went back and I thought, you know, that that looked like a real fun company to work for. And so therefore I'm going to put an application in. And so my journey took off, and the book kind of goes through those steps. But really the heart and soul of the book is how do you have the peace that passes all understanding when you go through adversity
or stories and lessons, turning fear into faith. But most importantly in the storm. Not when the storm is over, but how do you get to the point where you really, truly just have the peace that no matter what? God, I know you have this and I'm just going to walk and follow where you're taking me.
I know you've got some stories of adversity, but time out a second here. You didn't inherit this thing. You filled out an application for Bluebell, put your name in the hat and Rose. How'd you come on here? There's a couple of subplots. How did God rise you through the ranks of Bluebell to becoming CEO? Let's. And I'm asking you seriously, how in the world did this happen?
It definitely is a God thing. There's no question about it. My journey took me all you know, from I started here in Dallas when Dallas Fort Worth, San Antonio, a couple of stops in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, back to Tulsa. But there was a defining moment in my career when they had asked me to move to Oklahoma, that I was really thinking this was a new position, a promotion, and in that moment, thinking that it got
real quiet. And finally, when the phone call came and they sat me down, all of a sudden we were having a review going the different direction and things I wasn't doing that they saw that I was doing before, um, things that I needed to be doing that I wasn't doing. Oh, and.
Honest with that.
Yes. And so I remember going back to the hotel, sitting on the bed and saying, God, I thought you moved me here for for this new region and this this, you know, to take bluebells into Oklahoma and beyond. And in that moment, in my spirit, I heard God say, I didn't move you here for a promotion. I moved you here for my purpose. And I realized at that point.
I had.
I left sinner, I had drifted away. And so I thought, you know, I could either leave or I can get serious about what he's doing. And I know it's ice cream, but it's so much more. And so I read really just my whole attitude and my direction. Not that I wasn't praying beforehand, but now I had a direction. So, um, I just felt like I better, uh, get serious about this. And through my journey, the next thing I knew, about five years later, I'm running our ice cream plant in
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and then they moved down to Texas. And, um, as I would say, when 2017 came and they asked me to be president, the rest was history. And I knew that this was a God thing. The most humbling thing ever in my whole life.
Rickey Dixon, our guest right now, recently retired CEO of Blue Bell Creameries, bestselling author of One Scoop at a Time Lessons from Fear to Faith. Coming up, he's got a story of a little bit of fear, a little bit of crisis and how God used that to move him toward faith. More coming up here on Carlin Crew.
This is Carlin Crew on Moody Radio.
Broadcasting live from NRB National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week. Ricky Dixon, our guest right now, recently retired CEO of Blue Bell Creameries, is about ten years ago on a Friday night, you got a phone call, thought what could this be? A work call on a Friday night? Usually not a good thing. Tell us about it.
Yes. And right before Valentine's on top of that. So, yeah. You know, when I got the phone call, I knew that this was probably not the norm. And we had just been notified that the product that we had produced had we had had found listeria in the product. And so obviously it was a game changer.
Is that a death sentence for a company like yours?
Well, you know, obviously, you know, ice cream is a very low risk product. It's not supposed to be in there. You take a, you know, a product, you pasteurize it and then you put it in a -20 environment. So it should be safe, kill everything. It's supposed to be there. And so at the same time, yes, you're exactly right. It's it's not supposed to be there, I should say. And so, you know, over the course of the next few months, we got to the point where we we
shut our plants down. We literally took all the equipment out of the room. We tore the floor up. We took the walls down the ceiling and really rebuilt the inside of our company. And we did that with the help of microbiologist and outside agencies. We looked even outside the ice cream industry. How can we make this an incredibly safe environment, even though maybe going too far? But the way we looked at it is no, you can't
go too far. And so today we test every single thing we make, and we wait till the tests come back before we put it out in the market. That way, we have the assurance that everything we we've done on the front end makes its way through the product.
What did you learn about God in that season? Because you're talking to a lot of people right now. They don't have listeria breaking out in their home, but they've got some kind of adversity going on.
Absolutely. And, you know, in life, if you live more than a minute, you're going to have at some point, adversity in your last segment was just incredible to listen to what's happening all over the world. Yeah, but but back here at home, adversity can come in so many ways. And what I learned is we're going to have it. So how do you prepare? And I love Mark for where he, you know, the disciples get on the boat with Jesus. He goes up to the front, goes to sleep,
and then the waves come. And while they're trying to bail the water out on their own, they finally go and wake him up. And when he wakes up, he they they ask the question, do you not care that we're going to die now? They're talking to Jesus, and what does he first do? He calms the storm, and then he looks and says, oh, ye of little faith. And and I take that as if Jesus can sleep
in the middle of a storm on a boat. That when I get to that point in my life where I think I've done everything I can do, which is probably a lot longer than I should, that I rest with Jesus and and that finding that peace in the middle of the storm, knowing that even the storm still going around me inside you have that calmness and the waves have stopped. And when you get at that point, I call it my second wind. If you're a runner, you get to the point where you want to quit
running and all of a sudden you have that second wind. Well, to me, that's the peace that passes all understanding.
A beautiful story.
Well, you've written this book. One scoop at a time. Stories and lessons from fear to faith. And I'm sure you don't write this as an expert who's arrived and who never battles fear and always stays in a posture of faith, right? I mean.
These battles maybe he has. Ali, I don't want to assume. No words in your mouth, but I mean you.
I'm sure you as you, even as you're writing, you're living this, right?
That's right. Absolutely. You know, what you do is you do. But at a lot more concentrated effort. You're on your knees in the morning every day. But at the same time, there's a tendency to drift. And I'm just being very transparent.
Appreciate it. But but when you get to that point where you're especially now a couple of years later when they asked me to become president and CEO, knowing that not just the 3500 employees and their families, but the consumer that's out there, that's been behind you, that stood beside you and waited until we came back. You want to make sure you do it right, but you're exactly right. You know, the fear is. There it comes. But that's where. Scriptures.
You know, I love John at the end of John 16, where he's talking to the disciples. He's getting ready to leave. But I'm going to bring you're going to get a comforter. And then he goes in John 17 with this long prayer about not just himself, but then you're going to have problems. But I've overcome the world. I think it's John 1633 that says, don't worry, I've overcome it. And so if we can anchor to that, and I love that word I say in there when the waves get high.
What are you anchoring? What are you anchoring to? And that's to Christ. So yes, fear is definitely there. But getting to the point where you get to the peace that passes understanding, it's an incredible feeling. No matter how dark it seems, it's around you.
All right. You're good on vulnerability. So I'm going to go here. What did you do as a young man that God grew you up and you didn't do as a more wise, seasoned man? Oh, wow.
That's a great question. I think that and I shared a little bit about this earlier. I go to fast pace and always have, maybe sometimes faster than allowing God to do what he has planned to do. I think patience in my mind when I've talked about my story, my wife says, you. You talk about patience like you have a lot and you don't.
Oh, hold it a second. You got a great you got a bride. That's a sister to mine. She speaks truth.
Absolutely. No. You know, and she's usually here. This was a little early, but I love her to death. And I said, I've got this one. You know, you get ready. But no, she's she's been my my biggest cheerleader. But she's very honest with me. And you know, so often that's the problem that we try to get ahead of God or we try to get ahead of life. And patience is probably the one thing that I could, I could have used a lot more of. You know, God, please give me patience. Just give it to me right now.
As soon as possible. Please give it right now. That's a great line. Boom! Crew. You know, I'm sitting here thinking, who's this for? It's for everyone. But I specifically believe that there's some of you that you're running a mom and pop. You're an executive. You're a leader in some way, shape or form. This book is going to be peppered with principles that leaders especially can take away here and go, whoa, this is wisdom here. You know, there's nothing like hearing
from somebody that's been there, done that. And Ricky's been there and done that. I love your name, Ricky, by the way. That's a cool thing. I mean, I wish my mama. Ricky. Yeah, that's a great name.
Well, back in the 70s, it was Ricky and Lucy. Yeah. Yeah.
That's right. I usually have a Ricky, and then I have a Lucy. Here's what I want you to do. Boom! Crew right now. Uh, text the word scoop. Get a link to this book. One scoop at a time, Ricky Dixon. Text the word scoop to 805 Five. Five. Five. 78. 98. Another great resource here. Scoop to (800) 555-7898.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. Its curling crew on Moody Radio curling crew.
Broadcasting live from NB here in Dallas, Texas. And we've got a tremendous man of God with us right now. I love Collin, and I want to just say this. This is so great. 15 can I read some numbers here? This is the absolute breaking radio rules right now. 15 million lives touched globally by Open the Bible in the last 12 months. 15 million. Wow. 230 plus countries reached through this global ministry. 650 radio stations that air the
daily program and 2.5 million estimated weekly radio listeners. And guess what? Before we're done here, we're going to tell you about how this message of the gospel is going to be going into other languages, just in time for this great resurrection celebration that we have coming up? Okay. Well, let's do the right intro here, Ali.
Pastor Colin Smith is founder and teaching pastor of the national radio program Opened the Bible, joins us in Dallas right now. We come all the way from the Chicago. Yeah, here.
We are to reunite in Dallas. Come on, man, you can drive five miles and go get a cup of coffee.
It's worth coming a long way to be with you.
Okay. Quick question. What's God doing in your life? What's the guy doing? Uh, God is.
Giving me a great sense of peace. Is the first thing that comes to to to to my mind. I am so grateful for the team that the Lord has placed around me. Um, as years go by, you realize how much you owe to to others, and God's kindness comes to us in so many ways through other people. And I am so very, very thankful for the team that the Lord has placed around me at the orchard, the church that I serve, and the team that the
Lord has placed around me at Open the Bible. I just have a profound sense of thanksgiving for that.
You know, I've heard recently, just anecdotally a couple different times, people reiterating that biblical illiteracy is a real problem in the church. I don't have any numbers to back that up, but I've heard it a couple times recently. One of your passions is to help us not just read, but
also understand the Bible. Bible sales we saw in the last year up 22%, but there still is this sort of gap between I have a Bible in my house, maybe I have one in my hand, but either I'm not opening it or I'm not understanding at all what I'm reading. Give us your heart on that.
You know, 20 years ago, I was absolutely convinced that Bible illiteracy was the great problem. Today, I'm absolutely convinced that Bible illiteracy is the great opportunity, because we're at a place where there is a new generation of people who really, really do not know the God of the Bible. And that's a very, very different kind of a situation from people who think that they. Know the God of
the Bible and have decided to walk away. And that's been largely true of many, many people, um, in recent years. But I think that there is a turning of the tide. Bible sales are significantly up. Um, in many cases it's people buying the Bible for the first time. Younger people are interested in exploring what they realize they don't know, and secularism has been feeding answers to people for such
a long time. At some point, people come to the realization, you know, what I've been promised isn't delivering, and maybe it's time to look at something else. So to encourage people, to encourage believers to to open the Bible, um, with someone who needs to know the God of the Bible is the great passion of my life. I just keep asking Abby the question, who is there in your life? Who needs to know the God of the Bible and just might be interested in opening the Bible with you
if you were to ask them? And I think that that's the great opportunity of our day.
Colin Smith with us right now, he is founder and teaching pastor of the great program Open the Bible. When you consider, as Ali was just alluding to, the numbers are staggering. Barnett just came out with a report the latter part of January forecasting trends. He says that we have 4% of the nation with a biblical worldview and relatively little. And what little is out there is ineffective in disciple making. I don't know if you've seen that research.
It's quite staggering. You've got a great vantage point, both globally and locally. What are the things that the the person listening to us this morning who has a big furnace of want to boil in in them, but they want to close that gap between. Oh, I got chills right now. Getting chills all morning. Um, they want to close that gap between want to and realizing many of these promises that God has in his word. What's in that gap, Pastor Colin?
Well, the gap, um, in regards to realizing the promises of God is clearly faith. But then the first thing is that we need to know what the promises actually are. Um, so, um, you know, in speaking, Karl, about 4% have a Christian worldview. How is a Christian worldview actually formed? That's the question. Yeah. And I've been persuaded by the example of pioneer missionaries, folks who've gone to unreached people groups, people who know absolutely nothing about the God of the Bible. And what's
their strategy? Their strategy historically has been to tell the Bible's story, because the way that God introduces His Son to us is by a progressive, unfolding story in which, step by step, the building blocks are actually put in place. Who is God? Who? Who am I? Why is the world as it is? What is the human problem? What is needed in order to put it right? All of these things are progressively unfolded in the Bible's story, going
from Genesis to Revelation. So that's why the big project of my life is to try and to provide resources that will help people grasp the unfolding story of the Bible, and then introduce other people to it and share it with them.
Coming up, one of those resources is going to be available a week before Easter. This is an exciting one man play that you are going to love. You're going to want to watch it yourself and share it. It's going to be in multiple languages. We'll tell you all about it. With special guest Colin Smith coming up.
You're listening to Kirtland Crew on Moody Radio.
Broadcasting live from NRB in Dallas, Texas. We've got special guest Colin Smith, founder and teaching pastor of Open the Bible. Something exciting coming just in time for Easter. The thief on the cross. First tell us. For those who aren't familiar with this passage of Scripture, give us the heart behind what this play is and then tell us about the play.
Yes. Well, the story of the thief on the cross, to my mind, is the greatest story for explaining God's marvelous grace to someone who doesn't get it. Because I think an awful lot of people have the idea that if you're going to get into heaven, you'll get there by living a good enough life. And here's this man who obviously didn't do that and was out of time in terms of starting to do that. And Jesus says,
today you will be with me in Paradise. So that just blows open people's minds as to, okay, on what basis then did he get into heaven? So it's a wonderful story to help people grasp the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have a one hour film of Stephen Baldwin performing The Story of the thief on the cross as a one man play. We've used it
in Easter at Easter for several years now. What's new this year is not only are we making it available in English for free on the Open the Bible website the week before Easter, but it's also being translated into languages that cover about more than 60% of the world. So we're talking about Farsi. We're talking about Hindi, we're talking about Arabic, we're talking about Chinese. So we're saying to people all the time, who do you know who speaks Farsi? Give them a link to the Open the
Bible page. And they can see in the week before Easter a presentation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a dramatic presentation. It's one hour. It's absolutely compelling. We think that it's a wonderful opportunity to reach out to friends and neighbors in whatever language.
Okay, we're going to give you a link here in just a moment. So get your phones ready. But I want you to, without giving away all your message. Uh, what should I say? The big. The big points. All of them. What is the most surprising thing about the thief on the cross? As you were studying and preparing to communicate that incredible story that even surprised Colin?
Well, the thing that was the aha moment for me was to realize that the thief on the cross died after Jesus. We know that because they had to break his legs and the Lord had already died. What that means is that he heard every single word that Jesus spoke from the cross. So not only did he come to faith, but then his faith was tested in the darkness. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And
then he heard the words of triumph, it is finished. So, uh, seeing the cross and all that Jesus accomplished through the eyes of the thief on the cross was to me something very wonderful. He was up close throughout these entire six hours that were the six hours that changed the world.
You know, you hit on something earlier. I want to go back to that. There is this pervading idea that man, if my good works could outweigh my my bad works. I hear that all the time. Just try to be a good person. And then when you're confronted with the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, then you almost the flip, the script flips and you go from, okay, now it's not just good versus bad. I cannot be perfect,
but the thief on the cross. My goodness, this is this story meets every single person where they're at, right? Is that why you mean tell us a story of how you've seen this be used already over the past couple of years.
Oh, well, we've seen many people who've come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the story. And that's why we're encouraged to keep working with it and to encourage people to to say, take this and use it and share it, share it with a friend. It's interesting that the thief on the cross must have had some real knowledge of God, because he said to the other thief, do you not fear God? So there was something there was an assumption there. There was something
in his background. My guess is that he had been brought up with the Ten Commandments, and that he had some awareness of them, but clearly he'd not practiced them. He'd gone off on his own way. He'd lived his own life, and it had been a life that was in obvious rebellion against the ways of God. But now he comes to the very end of his life. He's right on the brink of eternity, and he realizes that there really is a God, and that he is a few hours away from being in the immediate presence of God.
He says to his friend, don't you fear God? And then he realizes that the only hope he has is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ gives him this marvelous grace. It's tremendous. You must have heard Jesus say, father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. And he entered into the forgiveness that Christ died to release for all of us. It's a wonderful story.
Ali's right. The thief on the cross strips away so much religiosity, pretense, even the even the what can sometimes be distorted as the the grace of baptism, rather than a reflection of the grace of God. All those things are just. They just fall away. Yes. For the thief on the cross.
It makes it so starkly clear. And that's why it's such a wonderful story. So we want to introduce people to the marvelous, free grace of God in which we find reconciliation, forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the story to use, and I hope very much that this dramatic presentation will be something that people will say, well, now I could share that with a friend. Um, watch it with a friend. Um. You can. It's available for free download so you can invite some friends into your home.
You can just give them the link. There's all kinds of ways in which people can use it, and we hope that it will be a real means of bringing God's grace to many.
In the mission fields at our door here in America. Yeah, I mean, that's just absolutely true. So how many languages is it now? This this dramatic presentation?
16 languages this year. And we're very excited about that. And that's being done in partnership with the Gospel Coalition in various countries. And it will be aired on different media platforms. But I think the thing that I'm most excited about is how many Christians will be able to give this to a friend and say, here's the link. Have a look at this and let's talk about it.
Love it.
Just text open to 800 555 7898 will take you right to that web page. Text open to 800 555 7898.
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.
I want you to look for something that you can give God praise for. I got up this morning. Second Peter, the final words here in second, Peter and I just did a quick contemplation on this this morning early. And I thought, wow, this is phenomenal words, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. And let it be. Grow in the grace. Now this is what's important. Grace doesn't grow.
Grace does not grow. Grace is what it is. And it's all we need. Yeah.
And we can grow into it. Which is great.
Yes, that's the point. Yes, we grow into it. Yeah. And how do we grow into it? We go low.
Humility.
Yeah, we go low. Okay. We got something. I am fired up Saturday morning. I'm going to be up with bells on. I might even get up extra early to get ready for the crew.
You're always up extra early.
Is there ever a time.
What's sleeping in for you?
430. That's dynamite. You Give Me 430. Man, I feel like a new man. Carl's going to.
Sleep in till five on Saturday, and then he's going to be out at Villa Park. Yeah, starting at 9 a.m. to noon. Out in Villa Park for a book signing for his book Killing Sin. Oh, man. Hearing such incredible feedback on this book, I want you to get the details on the book signing. Just text book to 800 555 7898. This is in the Chicago suburbs. I realize that's a bit of a commute for many of you, but if you are in the suburbs, text book to 800 555 7898.
Yeah, grateful for you guys. And you want to look down as you get this link opened up. You just scroll down there a little bit and you go, whoa, that's a cool little surprise. So just text the word book and I can't wait to see it. We're going to have the promotions team out there. Andrew is in the back of the room. Andrew, are you out there on Saturday with me? Oh, Andrew's out there with me, and we got a whole team of folks that are going to be out there. This is live radio. That's
what we're doing. We got you guys bellowing from the back.
Live radio every morning. But this today we are live.
Yeah, I should say live with the crowd. We don't normally have that huddled around us like a room.
Full of people.
Yeah, so we're going to be out there textbook. And I'd love to see you if you're within striking distance to 805 5578 98.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
A lot of times when we think about, he won't.
Fail.
And then we go, is that true? I mean, really, how faithful is God? And oftentimes we only discover that when it really gets hot in the furnace.
Let's bring in a special guest right now. Just sat down at our table. Danette Joy Crawford, she's a speaker, author, TV host, evangelist. You said there is a joy. There's a joy that comes when life's going really well. There's a new grandbaby that's born, you get the new house, and then there's there's the joy that you have to fight for because life is so hard. Tell us a little bit about your story.
Yes.
You know, I accepted Jesus as my savior at the age of 17. I didn't grow up born again, grew up going to church, but didn't have a personal relationship. Accepted the Lord at 17. Started as a youth pastor at 19 and started traveling as an evangelist at the age of 21. So the last thing I ever expected to do was become a single mom did all the right things. I was nine months pregnant and five days before I delivered my daughter, my husband announced to me
that he was leaving. So my whole world came crashing down and all I had was a great big God and a little teeny baby. And I learned that God and I together are the majority. But I have to make choices just because somebody else has made choices outside of the will of God or bad choices. What counts as my choices? And I had to choose not to be shaken out of my faith, out of my joy. And I had to make a decision to go forward. One step of obedience at a time.
Trials come at us in every which way, shape and form. And even James said, consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. Have we ever met anyone that grew without a trial and I mean a trial? Do we really grow? I don't know, I.
Don't know.
I don't think so. There's a knowledge that can be gained, but it's usually on the heels of something pretty heavy. What were the things that you learned? And, you.
Know, the first part of that verse is consider it pure joy. So we focus on the joy, but consider it a real key is how are you considering it? The situation, circumstance? The first thing I was like, God, this is not fair. I've done all of the right things in life. You know all of this. Know? How were you considering it? I'm considering. God. You're still in control. God, you're still a good God. God, you're still faithful. That's
how we have to. That's the beginning step. And making the choice to consider it.
You know, because it's it's so easy to get stuck in that place of why in the world is this happening to self-pity, the self-pity and the and the big glaring why, that may or may not ever get answered this side of heaven. How did you reconcile all of the questions I'm sure you had? And then, as you begin to be a single mama raising a baby, the questions that I'm sure your little one had, how did
you reconcile that? Okay, I might not get these answers, but I'm going to continue to choose joy and march forward.
That is very key. And the Lord said, Danette, you have to understand that you don't have to understand, and the Lord will give you understanding Standing when he wants to. And it might be tomorrow. It might be in five years. It might not be to the other side when we get to heaven. But he said, everyone has a choice to make, and what's going to count is your choices.
I had to choose to forgive. I had to choose not to get in a self-pity party pit, and I had to decide to go forward on what God had called me to do and choose joy every day.
You know, I was talking to a man two nights ago, and I sensed in my spirit that he was trying to get out of the pain. And I applaud that. I pray to get out of pain constantly. And it's a it's a great prayer, but sometimes the way out is to go into it all the way and to feel it deeply and to not ignore it. I was reading last night, Psalm 13. Um, David embraced pain big time,
and he went into it. Now, I don't know if I'm explaining myself rightly here, but there's a sometimes we want to skip across the top of it rather than go into the depth of it. Not for the purpose of becoming a victim, but for the purpose of finding God meeting us at where we're really honest with ourselves. It's called.
Process. It's what I call the process. God's a God of process. You have to process it. It's like grief. Grief comes in stages, and I had to grieve the loss of my marriage, the loss of dreams and visions that I had. And you know, when you go through the grief, you have to go through the steps or you get stuck. You can get stuck in depression. You can get stuck in self-pity, you can get stuck in yesterday. But God wants us to embrace his grace, to embrace his grace today and go forward.
Yeah. Jeanette Joy Crawford, our guest right now. Coming up, she has a a release out just in a couple of weeks. The power of joy for women. What she wants you to know about choosing joy today. Coming up.
Your shot of hope to help you through the day. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Shot of Hope is right. We're broadcasting live from NB here in Dallas, Texas, and all across the United States, here and even into Canada. We're grateful for you being here. It's it's so sweet. Two days ago, Ali and I were asking listeners, why in the world do you come here? And that came out of the blue, that question. But the amount of response with one key word encouragement.
Staggering encouragement, wanting to take steps forward in your walk with Jesus, we've got a guest who's helping us do just that. Danette Joy Crawford, a speaker, author, TV host, evangelist. You became a single mom unexpectedly five days before delivering your child. Your husband said, I'm leaving. You know, you could you could go two directions with that. You could put your head down. Just focus on I'm going to make sure I'm good, which maybe you did for a season.
But then at some point you decided, I'm going to leverage this story that God's given me the one that maybe I didn't want to write, but he's writing, and I'm going to bring other people in and help other women choose joy. Talk about this devotional that you've got coming out.
Absolutely. The power of joy for women. And you know, the joy, the power of joy is not just for women, but this is targeting women. And, you know, every day we need to tap into the joy. Nehemiah eight and ten says, the joy of the Lord is our strength and the midst of whatever situation or circumstance you're dealing with, you can find joy. And as we, our joy is
rooted in the right relationship with God. As your heart is right with him and as you're trusting him, you can tap into an unshakable joy, a joy that's not shaken according to your situations and circumstances.
Yeah, and joy. I think it gets a bad billing. Oftentimes it's translated or interpreted that it's some kind of giddiness that doesn't recognize, but it's really a depth of understanding of the character of God. You've found that, haven't you?
Absolutely. And that is a really great way to explain it. It is a depth in understanding the character of God. God is a good God. God will bring you through in where you're at. It's not your final destination. You know, I had to make steps every day. I would set a goal. And in the beginning, there were months that my big goal was to get out of bed, to take a shower and put my makeup on because I was so devastated with my first child, the only child
I'd ever had. None of my biological family was in the area. So, you know, set your goals and go forward. Get in the presence of the Lord. When we're in the presence of God, through worship, through prayer, through studying His Word, we can find out and be reminded and encouraged of who we are in Christ and your your destiny. Your call has not changed just because your circumstances have changed. God hasn't changed and neither has his call or plan for your life.
You've got a book coming out. You also have a television program, Joy with Janet Crawford. You must get to hear stories of of women who, whatever their circumstances are in life, who have who have really been ministered to to give us a story that stands out. Kind of kind of one of your whys.
Well, I'll tell you when I first started our outreaches, we have 23 community outreaches. And God said, get your eyes off of yourself. That's a key. Whatever you're going through today, get your eyes off of yourself. I took what little groceries I had, and I took my baby, and I went over to low income, subsidized housing that became our Bread of Life feeding program, where we do door to door deliveries for single moms in low income neighborhoods. I knocked on the door. Long story. This girl got
saved and this is what she would call me. I had two nicknames in in the subsidized housing in the hood, the spunky white girl. And this is what she'd say. They would peek out their windows and they go, oh, here comes that spunky white girl. Ain't nobody can really be that happy. And then this girl got her life changed around. And her name was Tracy. All of her kids, she was living in an abusive relationship. Wasn't married to the guy. Long story. Everyone saved. She's leading worship in.
So many people's lives were changed. Just because I got my eyes off of myself and went to bring encouragement to somebody else.
Yeah, to the person that's listening right now going, How's God going to dig me out of this ditch? Well, you got the right question. How is God? Because you can't, but he can. And what an opportunity to feature something here that might be of huge encouragement to you.
Just text the word joy to 800 555 7898. Text joy to 800 555 7898.
Yeah. I want to thank you so much for being with us here this morning. It goes quick on drive time radio. Well, thank.
You for having me. It's been a blessing and an honor.
Yeah. Okay. We've got that keyword for you guys.
Text joy to 800 555 7898. Joy to 805 five five 7898.
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Over a year ago, a lot of tragedy, a lot of pain, a lot of heartache, and yet a lot of redemption.
Captain Guy Barak joins us right now. He's the Israel naval attache to the U.S. and military attache to the U.N.. You are here today or this week at NRB, representing the Israel or friends of the Israel Defense Forces, f IDF. Give us a little bit of an overview of what that is.
Good morning. First of all, thank you for having me here. It's an honor and pleasure and feel all the support here. So f IDF friends of the IDF is the organization that is with direct contact with the Ministry of Defense in Israel and got directly our needs. The IDF needs the soldiers needs to support them during the wars and even before and after the war, of course.
What are you seeing? Give us a story. Give us a story. What's on your heart?
So I'm serving the Israeli Navy for 26 years. Since October 7th. I'm sorry. Three years ago, I came to the US to represent the Israeli Navy here. And since October 7th, I represent the IDF. I was representing the IDF at the UN, which is another war zone. You can you can imagine. Yeah. Um, you know, Israel is a small country. October 7th touches almost, almost each and every family in Israel, including myself. Um, my wife's uncle was murdered in his house in Kibbutz Neros, in front
of his wife's eyes. And she was, uh, been captured as hostages in his hostage in Gaza. We were lucky enough that she was released in the first hostages deal, but I can guarantee she's not the same person. Um, and I lost also friends during this war. And in October 7th itself. So, actually, the personal tragedy mixed with the national tragedy. And it basically goes to every house in Israel.
Yeah, that's heartbreaking, isn't it?
It is. But we are a strong nation. We are a strong people, and we keep on fighting until the victory.
What are the primary needs that you're that you're seeing that the IDF is able to step in and meet?
Uh, you know, IDF been during this war adjusting for our needs day to day. If it's a special ambulances for the field that we can use blood plasma in rough roads. Um, treating PTSD, many of our soldiers and civilians suffering from PTSD post-traumatic after October 7th, since October 7th, of course, supporting the widows and the orphans and many, many other needs to support both our soldiers and our society.
Coming up here, we're going to have a link for you. Boom crew, a lot of you really do want to be a part of helping out where you can, and we're going to have a link for you. It's it's a sobering thing with the we talk a lot about news cycles and how quickly they come and go. And yet at the same time, some of the pain and the fallout from tragedies like October 7th linger on. And yet we can do something about it. That's the beauty of it. We'll talk about that straight ahead.
He was running from God, but God's love brought him home. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
We were really encouraged when we put out a question to you, boom crew, asking you, why in the world do you tune in here? And we didn't say that. And you need to know or I think you know, our hearts. We sure don't say it for our benefit. But the word back was so for our benefit, and it was a resounding to be encouraged in my walk in my relationship with Jesus Christ. That's beautiful, isn't it?
It is because, I mean, everyone put it in slightly different words. But that was the resounding, overwhelming consensus is that I want to be encouraged in my walk with Jesus.
The encouraging words out of First John. And I'm going to build some context around this here, and it picks it up in verse five of the first chapter of First John. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you. This is written by the only disciple that died in natural death, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Wow. Isn't that amazing? God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have
fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we're. We're not practicing the truth. We're lying to ourselves. Whoa!
It's a big deal.
So it's one thing to have a claim to know that God is light. But if we claim that he is light and yet we walk in darkness. Oh, no, we're not practicing the truth. So how do we practice the truth this morning? If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Look at what happens. You know, sometimes that relational divide that we experience as a result of being in the shadows. So step into the light, will have
fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus. His son cleanses us from all sin. Now, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. I want to encourage you today. I want to encourage you to take a moment to do some self-assessment. And you might say, oh man, you just told us you were going to
encourage us. I am encouraging you because to know that God is light and to walk in the shadows is unwise. But to take a moment just to say, God, I just bring to you anything from the shadows in my life, and I confess it to you. You ready for this? Everything is scrubbed clean. We're washed. It's like that whiteboard that's got all that residue on it. God scrubs that clean, and he's writing a new story in your heart today, and you'll have connection with others around us. How sweet
is that? And so I know it's so uncommon to hear. But that inspection, personal contrition before the Lord that says, God, search me, know me, try me. What a beautiful exercise today. As you're getting your day started, it will carry you.
Well, that reminder to examine any areas of your life where there's shadows or darkness, where you've chosen the darkness over the light and to bring it into the light.
Bring it into the.
Light. And Carl, you're right, this is encouragement because although it's uncomfortable to bring things into the light, sometimes it's lonely to keep it in the dark.
Oh, that's that's a big one.
Everyone who is in Walking in darkness. Keeping things in the dark is lonely because they've got things that they're hiding. They've got things that they feel like they can't tell anybody about. And you just kind of shrivel up in that when you hold it to yourself. But when you walk in the light, you give it to God. You talk with God about it, but then you bring in community of the of of God, who you can trust. You say, my brothers, who can help me walk through this,
my sisters who can help me walk through this? Now we've opened up the door to growth, to joy in the Lord. It's all better from there. Yeah.
And the interesting thing here is in this text is this if you walk in the light, you will have fellowship with one another. Isn't that interesting?
That is how it works.
So you might feel alone. Step into the light of personal introspection, wipe the decks clean, and then God in His providence and goodness will you will find fellowship beginning to happen, maybe as never before. And what a great way to start your day. So there's some encouragement for you.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio. We are Carl.
And Crew mornings broadcasting live from NRP in Dallas, Texas, and we are having a sweet time this week having conversations around the power of God to change lives. But we did not forget. No, it's near the bottom of the hour, and it's that time.
Making herself laugh. No matter who joins her, it's time for Ali thinks it's funny.
Well, have you ever seen fish in a band?
Fish in a band? Wasn't there.
A band? Fish?
No. No, no. Yeah. Go fish.
Oh. Go fish.
Okay, well, that's not what I'm talking about. Okay.
Fish in a band.
Just picture. Picture. Four little fish. They formed a band, but they do not use any musical instruments. Do you want to know why? Yeah. They have to sing acapella.
That is outstanding. Wow. That is outstanding.
My favorite jokes are the ones.
Oh! Hold it! Ali was losing it before she got through the hole. Couldn't get through. She couldn't get between aqua and paella. She lost it. It's so good. I just I couldn't.
Get it out. It was too.
Funny.
Next one. You know, everybody has house rules. Sometimes grandparents have house rules. Yeah. This one particular set of grandparents had a specific house rule that was a little unique. Grandma said to the grandkids, you cannot throw grandpa's false teeth. You just can't do it. You cannot throw them, and you definitely can't throw them at the vehicle. Do you want to know why?
Gotta know.
Because you might dent your car.
Oh, look at it.
Oh my goodness. The visual is so much more. Oh boy. So much more. Okay, I'm crying now. I really am laughing.
Harder than I.
Should. Wow.
Blame it on Texas.
Tech's jokes to 800 555 7898.
Text jokes to 800 555 7898.
Oh, Ali. Those were both so outstanding. You got to get them. Torment those around you today, folks. Text jokes to 800 555 7898. I commercial fished with the sea captain who, uh, he had dentures and he couldn't keep them in to save his neck. Oh, no. And when we'd wake up, like when it was a closure during our fishing, we'd wake up. And those those things were always sitting in a different spot. And so we'd sit on his teeth.
Oh, no. No.
I grabbed a cup of water one time, and thankfully I looked down and saw there at the bottom of the water.
But you never dented a car, right?
I never dented a car. You might dent your car.
Jeez.
Text jokes to 800 555 7898. Broadcasting live from NB. And we've got a guest coming up here in a moment that you're going to want to catch on the.
Silk from transform, Iran is going to be joining us.
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.
Broadcasting live from Dallas, Texas. National religious broadcasters. A big event here, and we've got the opportunity to connect with some incredible people. And boy, have we got a fine young lady right now.
Lana Silk with Transform Iran or the chief executive officer here in the US. Iran is one of the world's most hostile countries to the gospel. But you're seeing the church grow rapidly. I feel like I've heard that story before. Tell us a little bit about what's going on.
Yes. Ali, thank you for having me. The church in Iran is thriving. It's thriving. It's growing, it's strong. There are, of course, um, battles with discouragement. But when they see the way God is moving, it constantly stirs them on for more. And it's exciting to be part of it.
Give us a story, Lana.
So we were just talking earlier about God's supernatural work in Iran, weren't we? He is constantly working through that country and you know, God is doing his own thing. He is wooing people to himself, and he is so generous in allowing us to partner with him. But he can do it without us. Yeah. So here's an example. This is one of our pastors now in our churches. She was part of a muslim family. She was forced into marriage at 12. She had three kids through her teens.
And then around her 20th birthday, her husband, her brother and her father were murdered by the government. She's part of an ethnic minority group in Iran, where there's some political activities which led to their death. So she took that as a sign that she wasn't a good enough Muslim and decided to really press hard into her Islamic faith. She was praying more, fasting more wanting to please Allah better so that kind of judgment would fall on her again.
And as she began doing that, Jesus began appearing to her. So he would stand in the doorway in her room and put his arm out to her and say, trust me, come and follow me, or he would appear to her in her dreams. He would take her flying on these adventures that she described to me and saying, you know I'm trustworthy, you can follow me. And it would just continue. And then she started to notice that when she was praying her Islamic prayers, when she would go to say Muhammad,
the word Jesus would come out by accident. And so she would catch herself and think, wow, I need to redo this. This is wrong. Try to pray again and again, involuntarily. Instead of Muhammad, she would say Jesus. So over the period of time as this is happening, of course we know the power of the name of Jesus. He began to really touch her heart and she ended up giving her life to him. But now it's dangerous for her. She's in a muslim family, and they're very strong in
their faith. And they're not. It wouldn't be good for her if they knew.
Has.
Has she? Oh, so they don't know.
They don't know if they know. They would likely turn her in or kill her themselves. So she describes a period of time when she tried to keep it hidden. She would go hide in the bathroom and read her Bible there. That was the only place where she could have a little bit of privacy because, you know, in, in Iran, the, the male nearest male relative effectively owns the woman. So now her husband is dead. Her father
is dead. That means her husband's family take authority over her and her children, and she's probably living with them, and she has them in and out of her life constantly. She's got to be careful. But you know, when Jesus transforms your life, it's hard to hide it. Wow.
Talk a little bit about the the Ministry of Transform Iran and your commitment to it.
Yes. Well, the ministry is about reaching our country, reaching our country with Jesus's love and power up and down the country. The men, the women, the children, the illiterate, the educated women like this lady whose story I'm telling you.
Why is this such a passion point for you?
Well, I was born and raised in Iran, I love Iran. That's my country. That's my home. Eventually, I'll get to go back and see it again. And I. You know, God loves Iran even more than me. I think we only have a glimpse of his passion for the things that he puts on our heart. And I live for that.
When we come back. Lana, we want to talk about how widespread is the underground church and how does it even operate and what is the what are the faith stories you're getting out of there? We'll get that straight ahead.
This is Curling Crew on Moody Radio.
We're broadcasting live from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week. We've got special guest Lana Silk with us right now with Transform Iran. Born and raised in Iran before emigrating to the UK. The growth of the church in Iran has been Unbelievable. Tell us a little bit about the, the the information that you do have about the numbers and just how accelerated it's been.
Yes. Well, before the revolution in 79, we think there were maybe three, four, 500 at the most Muslim background believers in Iran. A few years ago, a research organization in Holland did some extensive research to try to ascertain the numbers. They think it was well over a million at that point. So and people are saying Iran is the fastest growing church in the world. So if we're if that is the case, we're probably one and a half, maybe closer to two. And that's just in the last 50 years.
How does the church grow? I mean, how does it you don't you don't set up rent a building on the corner and hey, put up the sign flyers.
Yeah.
Yeah. No. That's right. You know, the church grows in the way. It probably should. Yeah. Through the lives of people who are transformed by God's love and who are themselves bursting with Jesus in their life and want to tell people, other people then get saved. And it sort of it's fruitful, you know, in the way that I guess it should be.
What are so those stories where someone is now transformed by the power of God. They're living as light. They're bearing fruit. Somebody sees it, they ask him a question. Now you got a choice. Yes. Do I tell them who's buttering my bread? You know what I'm saying?
Exactly right. You know, they are so courageous and so inspiring in the way they are excited for those opportunities to bring Jesus to the people around them. And bear in mind, Iran is a country of people who are really under trauma, like just the oppression, the brutality of their government. So, you know, when you love a people group and you see that they are hurting, you know, you have the answer for their problems, you can't help but share it, even if it's going to cost you.
What can the American church learn from the church in Iran?
That's a great question. I think all of us who live in a free context can be inspired by the passion, the zeal, the sold out nature of the faith, of the people who live in countries like Iran. When we live in a free world, it's very easy to get comfortable to pick and choose, become a consumer really of our faith. You know which church is more fun? Which worship do I like more? Which Bible do I want
to pick up or put down? When you're in a context where you're persecuted, all of those sort of extras go away, then it's all in, sold out, whatever it takes.
How are you getting resources to the underground church? How are we getting Bibles? I mean, how does that work?
There are ways to take physical things in, and we have our secret ways, which we do. But most of it honestly is digital. Digital media is very powerful and effective. It's good quality and it's easier to hide. So we use satellite TV, radio, social media, but we also have an app where people can download Bibles, discipleship materials. So that's probably the most predominant way.
So let's say there's a million and a half followers of Jesus in Iran. How many of those have a physical Bible or even risk that? I mean, that's a huge risk, isn't it, to have a Bible in your on your person?
It is. It is a risk.
Um, it wouldn't be the majority, I would I would love to know myself, but I would guess it would be less than half that would have a physical Bible.
This is an awe inspiring. You know, it's the Spirit of God hit me with is the children? Yes. What are the stories about the children? I feel like I need to ask you that. Yeah.
You know what? I think that might have been the Holy Spirit prompting you that the children are really high on our focus this year. We've been thinking a lot about how do we empower and strengthen the Christian children. First, imagine the context in which you have an Islamic education. You can't tell your schoolteachers you're a Christian. Your whole family would be outed. You have to play this game
of being a muslim. You're being forced to study the Quran, to recite the namaz, and all of that is going on at school. Then you go home and the same people Moses, Abraham, Noah, have a different story and a different truth that you're being presented with at home. So that's a struggle. Imagine a five, six, seven year old having to navigate that. So we're putting a lot of resources together now in helping the children just get strengthened in their faith and then through them reach their friends.
I mean, imagine our kids having to go somewhat incognito. Yeah. And yet they're growing up in their relationship with Jesus. They see it in their mom and dad. Yeah. They see it in the underground church. Are they meeting house to house? Do they gather together?
Yes.
House to house, in small numbers. And as they grow, which they do, then we encourage them to split up, to keep the numbers small. So they don't. They're not detected so easily.
Some of you wonder right now or have wondered, oh, what's going on with those people? And you've heard some stories here today. You think about those children, and I want that to be an impetus for you to say, I want to grab a link. I want to help. This is a tangible way. Talk about return on investment. My goodness.
Yeah. The ministry is transformed. Iran just transformed to 800 555 7898. will get you a link to their website. Text transform to (800) 555-7898.
Lon. I want to thank you. I feel prompted to pray right now.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for our brothers and sisters in Iran and the children right now. Lord, we pray your protection over them and we thank you for their witness. I pray, Lord, that you would provide for them in every way that they're crying out for, and even surprise them today as we pray with your abundant grace, which is so rich and I give you praise today in Jesus name, Amen. And as we pray, the Spirit of God goes to work and you might
be prompted to join in to this effort. I want to encourage you to do it right now.
Text transform to 800 555 7898. Just text that one word. Transform to 800 555 7898. Get the link. Click it. Use it as the Lord leads. Yeah.
Lana. Thank you, thank you. You're an inspiration.
Thank you. Appreciate it.