Don't get down when you're seeing the worst, cause the last will be the first. What a day I'm telling you, all things will be new. Living up in a down world. Yeah we're living, yeah we're living, living up in a down world. Oh! This is Jimmy and Annette and we are excited and glad to be here with you on Living Up in a Down World, because that is exactly what we are endeavoring to do every day. Hello gorgeous, how are you doing over there? I'm doing great, how are you?
My goodness, you're stunning today by the way. Really? It has been pouring rain here in Texas, what has happened? We really, really need the rain, because we've been in a drought for several years, so to have this rain like this is just unbelievable. Very unusual. It brings me down, I need the sun. I noticed the shift in your mood over the last couple of days. Although we need it, I want it to be sunny and rainy, that would be better. I don't live in Seattle or Washington, never wanted to.
This is why we don't live there. Never wanted to. But we're so thankful right? I mean cause it's actually still as green as it was at the beginning of the summer here in the Texas Hill Country, which is not normal. Usually we burn up in July and August. And our neighborhood is beautiful. Beautiful. Hey we said wow, jinx. Oh my gosh. Got you. How old are you? I know, 12. We both said that at the same time too. 12.62, pretty accurate, I know jinxing. So hey, episode number 54, 74.
54, you're really on the brain. I just got off the phone with Mike Smith. He's a former Hollywood stuntman. For like Brad Pitt. Oh yeah, for the big boys. Big, big guys. Big stuff. And we were talking on the phone, not texting. He called, we're hosting him because he has two movies, two documentaries that he has produced. He's got an amazing story, mind-bending story. It is. And he's going to be here in Fredericksburg at Bridge Church with us.
We're going to have him show one of the movies on the 16th. Yes, the second documentary and it's called Into the Light. The first documentary has some F words, I didn't feel like it was appropriate for the church. It might not be appropriate. He wasn't dropping them, but some of the people in the documentary were. But the second one is called Into the Light. So good. It really exposes what's really going on in Hollywood. And in America too. In America. In terms of corruption.
The things he's learned and wow. Powerful, powerful stuff. We watched the documentary four times. And then met him a couple of times. Met him at Mar-a-Lago when we went in December, no, April. Then we met him and spent time with him in Dallas recently and said, hey, we want to bring this to our church. And his wife, Wendy. Wendy. And so we're excited. And we're going to be seeing another new couple in our lives that are impacting culture right now.
With what they're doing and what they're exposing. He's risking everything. He's literally, his career is gone. He has stepped into the light, so to speak. He's full of Jesus. God's just rocked his world. He got saved and it's just radically changed him. He's been in documentaries around and showing them particularly the second one. And they're very well done. Oh my, well he's a Hollywood guy. So the production's all professional and amazing. Again, it's called Into the Light.
If you can't get to a church and find it, then you can go online, Into the Light Movie dot. No, Into the Light dot Movie. Oh, okay. Into the Light, I don't know. Anyway, come to Furtishburg. Just come to Furtishburg and watch it. Google Into the Light Movie. We want them to come and watch it and experience it with the public because it is so powerful. You're going to hear a lot of aha moments. Oh my God. It was such an eye-opener for us.
It's one of those movies I need to watch over and over because there's so much information in there that you can't get it the first time. But it is so good to see. So yeah, it's going to be massive like wow moments. And just having Mike with us is going to be such a blessing where we get some time with him. And hopefully Wendy, hopefully she makes this trip. Sounds like she's going to. Sounds like it too, yeah. All I had to say is steak dinner. He was all in.
Yeah. Well anyway, we met him again recently. Yeah, in Dallas. This summer. And we were able to talk to him a little more one-on-one and just Wendy as well. And Wendy. We met Wendy. Get to know them a little bit better and then they were just all about coming to Furtishburg. So they're excited. But they're going to churches all over America right now. I mean he is so booked right now. He's meeting himself. Which is so crazy because when we met him he was like it's not getting much traction.
And then we went out that we were in the foyer of this hotel event center. And all of a sudden all these people including us came up to him and were like we want to book you. We want to book you. Most of us were from Texas, some were from California. They were from all over right? Yes. And it was like he just spoke that and God said no I'll show you. I'll show you what I'm going to do. He poured a deluge on him. It's awesome. We want it to do well. We really want it to do well.
So go watch the movie. In fact I'm going to look it up just so people have it because I think this is that important. It's Into the Light dot movie. I'm looking at it. Into the Light dot movie. I did it that quick. Because I already had it on my computer. Oh perfect. And the first movie is Out of Shadows. Which is also an eye opener and great to watch. Just don't watch it with kids. And in the movie you have a little bit of a good time so you can watch it with kids.
We just chose not to do the double feature. We just chose to do the second one. It's going to be great. But it's very very good. I'm super excited about that. So welcome to episode 74. That's why my numbers are all messed up. Because I was talking... Well you're not a numbers person. I actually kind of am. Oh. We're on day 425 of our carnivore journey. So I am a metrics guy. I do like metrics. Oh. Okay. Because you're keeping up with that. I'm not keeping up with that.
I'm not a numbers guy when it comes to money, but I am a numbers guy when it comes to metricing things, situations, circumstances, systems. I do. Yeah, I'm very much. So episode 74 and day 425 of our carnivore journey. Crazy, isn't it? That is. So tell me about your day so far. It's been busy because we're at the office today. We walked in the door and people started walking in our door, all of our staff.
It's always good because they just love to come hang out and then we end up talking about everything. We have all these meetings. I have one meeting after another, after another, after another. But today is our half day. We leave at noon. It's 1130 right now. Because we'll be back tonight for our biblical citizenship class. We're in session five. That has been phenomenal. I'm learning so much about the Constitution, about our original documents, our founding fathers,
and our church. We've had first three sessions. We were 137 people. Last week we were having storms. Could be some more tonight. Hopefully not. I hadn't looked lately, but we've been having a lot. Over two inches yesterday. I mean just boom, deluge. Our pool was literally overflowing. It was an infinity pool all the way around. And it's kind of a fake infinity anyway. Yeah, the backside of it. But now it really is. I was like, wow. I've never seen that much water. Very short amount of time.
The ground's already soaked, so any significant rain is going to pool up and cause flash flooding. Which right now we're just thankful. We're just so, so thankful. God's good, isn't he? You're supposed to say all the time. All the time. Oh, sorry. God's good. All the time. And all the time. God is good. You got that girl. You're so with it. So what's going on in your world? Oh, lots of stuff. My goodness. It has been a whirlwind of events.
Even since our last podcast last week, I mean Mr. Adam Curry, my brother from another mother. He finally had his 60th birthday yesterday. He leveled up. Tina had a big surprise party for him on Saturday. Friday night, which we couldn't talk about because you know, it was a surprise. Mom was the word. And that was the highlight of his probably whole life. I've never seen him so surprised. So it was a setup. So Tina, this is Adam and Tina Curry, our best friends.
Many of you know them. Maybe you don't. You're listening for the first time. They have an amazing podcast called Curry and the Keeper. You should check it out. Adam has an amazing podcast called No Agenda. Check it out. And so best friends and we were, Tina planned this party and it's a big deal. I mean, this is huge. His 60th birthday. People from all over. Over 60, around 60 people showed up to the party. And many of them from many places.
And what was cool about it was it was a total surprise. Annette, you were convinced that he knew it was coming. I was. I still am. But I know because I know he said, yeah, he's smart. We all know he's brilliant. Only because I can't imagine all these people coming in from everywhere and not slipping. But he said they didn't.
I think the highlight, though, for me is that one of his guests that was invited, we have spent some time with recently and called you and said that he wanted to be baptized. And so we baptized him in our pool on Saturday. Charles Mayfield. I'm going to put a clip of that or a picture of it on the newsletter. I'll get a screen grab from that. And that was beautiful. Tina, we couldn't tell Adam because he didn't know he was coming for a surprise party.
And so we sprung that on him and said, hey, you are coming to our house tomorrow at 11 because we're baptizing Charles. And that was beautiful. And some of his friends showed up from Austin, Harry and Rat, the mafia meat guys. Yeah, they came in and their girlfriends. That was a sweet time. Adam and Tina came over as well. And so that was a privilege. Charles, we're proud of you, brother. Super proud of you. It's a big, big deal for him. Kind of a fresh start, new beginning.
I mean, he's when an adult, an older male adult, especially or female, gets baptized. It's so special. It's much more meaningful. It is because they actually know what they're doing. It's not a kid who is like, oh, that looks fun kind of thing. I had sent him to our baptism class curriculum. And it's just it's a class. It's a thing you go through. You look up scriptures, you answer questions. And so I had sent that to him. He'd spent some time with that. And so it was really special.
And so what a weekend. I mean, we did that on we did the big party on Friday night. And we met so many amazing friends of Adam and Tina. And they've they've walked with them in various seasons and circles of their life. And I mean, from a New York banker to another dude that's on major carnivore, which is Christina Pearl's husband, Charlie. I think so. I think it's Charlie. I'm going to get his info because me and him need to stay connected. We really hit it off there. He's lost 50 pounds.
And that was amazing. Amazing. He's in phenomenal shape. So yay, carnivore. So we just got to meet a ton of just amazing people. So anyway, so fun. So happy for them. And now they and then on Sunday night, we went to one of our favorite little restaurants with them.
This is becoming a little tradition on Sunday nights, and that's to go to Friedhelm's in Fredericksburg, which is this total Bavarian old school like from when you step into this restaurant, it's like stepping into a time warp for sure. The time machine taking you back about 40, 50 years. And I love it. And we love it. It's always fun to go there and just enjoy it. And we're all tired. I mean, he does his no agenda show. He comes to church on Sunday morning. I've done my two shows.
He calls them shows. My service is back to back. So I'm always tired. And we're just all wore out. And we just show up all just come as you are kind of moment like doesn't matter. Throw your hair up, you know, for you, for the girls and me put a ball cap on. We go and we just always have a sweet time. It's just wonderful. So yeah, a lot going on. But we were off on Monday for Labor Day and didn't do anything because it rained all day. Awesome. Full day of rain. I think I had five cups of coffee.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure I did too. And you did too. We both did. But it was a nice. I needed the break because with the last couple of weeks. Every day we've had something going. So it was really a nice break. But then we went back to work yesterday. It was like, oh, wow. Here we are. Yeah. We're back in it. Here we go. We do a lot of what I call CBI's, casual but intentional meetings. Yeah, a lot of those. Every time we walk down the hall, go to the bathroom.
You end up running into somebody, oh, we just had a meeting. But it's all good. And God's moving and we're getting things. We're moving the needle on this thing. So again, welcome to our podcast. Go check out our website, livingupinadownworld.com. And on that website, you can leave a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter, which we put out usually on the same day or right around the same time. That way it lets you know that we've got an episode out. You can leave.
I think I said leave a review, but you can also write us. So I got a really cool, really cool email from Dave Foley. He and his wife, Lisa, we had a great time with them. We ended up going out to Augusta Vin with them and just enjoying just an afternoon of relaxation and getting to know them with Adam and Tina as well and their daughter, one of their daughters. So we had a great time with that. And so here's a big way you can help us here at Living Up and Down World.
Again, Jimmy and Annette is you can share this podcast with someone you think would be blessed by, might be encouraged by. We always kind of upfront talk about what's going on, but then my favorite part is when we start talking about what God's up to. And that's where we're going right now. So this morning I had a real eye-opener, I don't even know how to put it, conversation with the Lord. I was thinking about some things that are going on right now in our world and in our orbit.
And I just sometimes God drops a heavy Reve on you in the middle of doing something. We were getting ready. And what came to my mind was Dr. Henry Blackaby and his study experiencing God. A number of years ago, actually back when I was in seminary, someone had that workbook, it had just been released. So this would have been, wow, 1989, something like that. And it had just been released and it looked interesting on the outside. And I said, is this for one of your classes, seminary?
He goes, oh, no, no, this is a Bible study that's just been released by this guy. And he said, I can't put it down. So I went right straight over to the bookstore, bought one of the workbooks, not the book book, but the workbook. Cover to cover, didn't stop. You know me, I don't do cover to cover, right? And I did, I couldn't put it. And that's in the middle of seminary with all the papers I'm writing and stuff I was having to do, working a job, was a youth pastor back then.
And I literally, it so arrested my heart and it literally changed my life. And to this day, it still impacts me. Do you remember what the premise of experiencing God is? I don't want to put you on the spot. You do remember. Look for, look where God is working and joining, join him in his work. That, that is it. That's the basic premise. You look to see where God is working and then you realign yourself to him and you join him in his work.
That sounds simple, but if you stop and think about that for a minute, it's a game changer. It is a massive game changer. Whenever I'm up against things, for example, when we have decisions that have to be made or we're praying into or about something, I go back to that. I go, okay, where is God working? And whenever you see the activity of God, that's his message to you that he's at work.
So for those of you listening today, I mean, you may be in a situation, you're like, I just feel like God's not speaking. I just feel like I'm not hearing anything. I feel like, I feel like my prayers aren't getting above the ceiling. Have you ever been there? Oh, yeah. You just feel like your prayers aren't getting above the ceiling. And one of the things you can do is pull back and you should write this down. You should see where God's working. Where is he working? Start to look around.
Be observant. Be a watcher. Be a noticer. And start to look. And then when you see God at work, you'll get that aha moment, that this is that moment. And when you see him at work, that's his invitation to you to join him in that work. So let me share a scripture. And then, Annette, I want you to riff on this in a minute because you're giving me that look. Verse 17, John 5, 17, that look of I'm about to go to sleep because it's raining outside. And it's overcast. That look.
So John, chapter 5, verse 17, this is Jesus speaking. And it says, but Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now, and I have been working. So he's talking about the fact that his father's always, he never stops working. He's always doing something. He's always up to something. And Jesus says, and I've been working. Then on down in verse 19, it says, then Jesus answered and said to them, and it was to these Jews that were trying to trap him.
He said, most assuredly, I say to you, now listen, here's the key point. The son of man can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he, the father does, the son also does in like manner. And that's really the premise of experiencing God is you look to see he's been working. He's working right now, but we've got to begin to see what he's doing. So we want to become observant. We want to begin to be able to recognize his activity in our lives.
I think of the song Waymaker. Oh, wow. Probably one of my all time favorite songs. And it says there's a line in there about we might not see where he's working, but he's always working. How does it go? I have to sing it and I don't want to sing it out loud. I'm not going to sing it out loud either. But he's always working. And I think that's a lot of times he's working in the background and we don't know it. A lot of decisions that we make that might not be the best decisions.
He's already working because he already knew we were going to make those. He's already working to get us out of that or whatever into what he wants us into. But we have to be in tune to him. And that's the thing is we need to stay in tune. It's like you said, a transistor radio. Remember those back in the day? Definitely. Oh, I remember how it would hurt my ears when you would twist the knob and it was just all the static.
But once you got it totally in tune to that station, man, it becomes clear. Oh, that's good. I love K-Love radio and in my car, for some reason, as we're driving from Comfort to Fredericksburg, it goes in and out and it'll go to a Hispanic station, which I don't know what they're saying at all, or to a country station, but it's very convoluted. But once it gets back to the K-Love, to what I know and am familiar with, then it's just beautiful to my ears. And that's kind of how we are with God.
And we, you know, a lot of times when we think he's not moving, it's because we've moved away. And it's not because he's moved away. We've moved away. Maybe we quit doing the things that we used to do, or maybe we've allowed, you know, I was reading in the Word about how the sower sows the word and how it can be sown on different ground. And sometimes it just gets taken away, the seed that was sown because it was not sown in good crown. And we have to stay in tune.
And it's so important, especially in times that we're in right now, where we're so caught off guard by the things of the world every day, something going on, whether it's with Israel, whether it's with our upcoming election or the economy, going to the grocery store. Oh my gosh, you go to the grocery store. It's cost of groceries. It's ridiculous. I could fill up a basket. It used to be $40 an ounce, $300. But the economy is so good, you know, is what our administration says.
But I don't know who thinks that. I don't know where they're getting that information. It's delusional. It's very delusional. But we can get caught up in the things of the world. And then when things come our way, it can taint our ears and not be able to hear what God is really doing behind the scenes. And so I think it's really important to stay in tune with Him. Because how do you know if He's working if you're not in tune?
That's right. That's a great metaphor. I looked up that lyric you were talking about. And what does it say? Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working. I love that song. When I heard that song for the first time, I think it was Michael W. Smith and another woman were singing it. And I was like, what? Oh my gosh. This song was so impactful.
And it still is to this day. And I probably heard it for the first time, what, three years ago maybe, four years ago. But man, it's right. It's always working. Yeah, it really nails the heart of that. Going back to where we started with this, you look to see where God is working. And He says, Jesus said, my Father's been working even up until now, and I'm working too. So I mean, He's always working. That's not the question. The question is, can we see it?
Can we hear it? Can we know it? His activity. And I love what Henry Blackby says. And this has really so changed my life. Even today it impacts me. He said, you look to see where God's working. You realign yourself. But when you see the activity of God, that's God's invitation. Right, to join Him. So He's actually allowing you to see Him at work. So what does that look like?
Practically speaking. So for me, in terms of a decision that needs to be made, let's say I'm trying to decide on which way am I going to go with this? I've got choices A and B, and they're both good choices. But I don't want a good choice. I want a God choice. I don't want a good idea. I want a God idea. I don't want to do something good and ask Him to bless it. I want to do what He's already blessed and what He's already done. Does that make sense? I want to get in with Him.
And so depending on... So then what do you do? Well, you pray about it. Father, thank you that you show the way. You make clear the path. You make straight the path. One of my favorite verses, Lord, you order my steps, and you delight in the details of my life. That's Psalm 37.23. And then He brings confirmation. He starts to bring it, and it could...
It can come in a thousand ways, but for me, sometimes it'll be a scripture I'm reading that gets highlighted or daylighted by the Holy Spirit, and I go, wait, oh, wait, that's a clue. Or it may be a conversation I'm in with anybody. It could be anybody random. It could be a stranger. It could be somebody in the hallway of this church. It could be with you. It could be with anybody. And they say something right in line with that situation.
I call it multiples. You'll hear the same thing multiple times, maybe the same phrase, maybe the same principle. Maybe they were thinking about something, maybe the same Bible verse, but you'll hear it. Other times, it may be where you actually see God working in that scenario. You see it that it's blessed. You see that it has grace on it. You see that it has favor on it, because you see it working. You see God at work in it. And when you see it, that's his invitation for you to join him.
Now, you've got to be careful with the simplistic metaphor, because you may say, well, my marriage isn't going very good, and I seem to have this really good relationship with this lady at work, you know what I'm saying? And people could take that and turn it into something it's not. And God will never bless something that is outside of his. That's not God at work. That's not God. It's your flesh at work. And you've got to determine. I don't want to just overstate the obvious, but I kind of do.
But there are people that do that. Oh, my gosh. We heard of someone recently who left their family, their wife, to go to a new area, a new town, and left them because God said to go do it by faith, and left the wife because God said to do it. And I'm like, no, God did not tell you to do that. God would not tell you to leave your family to go do something for him. You either take your family or He didn't tell you that. God would never. That's a spirit, but not the Holy Spirit.
No. But we hear that a lot. You're insane. Yes. And this person didn't leave for a person left by faith like Abraham, but Abraham, he didn't leave his family. He took his family with him. He said, we're going to go, and his wife is like, well, where are we going to go? Well, wherever God tells us. Yeah, there is a rule of thumb for this. He will show us. But you don't leave your family. It just doesn't make sense. So a lot of people will use Scripture for their benefit.
And that's where you've got to make sure when you're interpreting Scripture and making sure something lines up with Scripture. So you ask, how do you know? Well, you know because it lines up with the Word of God. Exactly. It's not contrary. It's not something that takes you down the path of sin and destruction. It's something that brings life and hope, and it aligns with God's heart. It aligns with God's Spirit. It aligns with God's Word.
And so there's the real key to that, making sure that whatever you're looking at that looks to have favor on it, make sure it's lining up with God's Word. It's marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. It's marked by humility. It's marked by hope. It's marked by His presence. Now those are all strong indicators, and they are a part of this. And so that was a game changer for me.
And then when you and I got married, I introduced you to that study. It was one of the first things I took you through. And I was terrified of the study because it's extremely in depth. And it's very...it causes you to think deeply, and I don't know that I had ever thought that deeply about faith as I did. I think my faith was honestly more of a shallow faith, and this took me into a deep relationship with Christ. And I was intimidated because I wanted to impress you. I was going to say...
It was not about...and I felt like...because this was 32 years ago. But you asked me to walk you through this. I did. You said teach me. But I didn't know what I was getting myself into. And then as we were doing it, you were writing all this information in the discipleship book, and I had to think. I had to put my thinking cap on. And really think about your faith. And I had to think about my faith and what it says and what it means.
And now I look at it and I go, oh, well, that's a piece of cake. I could do that because I've grown up in the Lord. But even though I was a Christian, I wasn't a deep, faithful Christian. I loved God. I wanted to do right, but I didn't know Him intimately until I did that book with you. When we did Experiencing God Together, for one, it showed me how deep of a relationship you had with God. And we have since taken our church through that. We took our church in Abilene and many churches.
I've talked the principles. Yeah. Sometimes just pieces of it. Not like you go through the book. But yeah, taking the heart of it. But in Abilene, we went through a lot of the book together with the church. We did. Not so much here. Maybe a little bit of the principles here. I've given the principles here. You're off and on, and I'll bring it up. It keeps coming up. But it really solidifies your faith, I think, with God, because it causes you to really become a deep thinker and not so shallow.
And I think that's where the maturity comes. That's where when the tornadoes come, you're still standing, because you're not blown away. Yeah, we call it bent, but not broken. And I feel like that study was an integral part of my walk with the Lord, for sure. I love that. And I love that it impacted your life that way. Almost anyone I've ever shared this with, and even to spend a little time talking about it, it's been a big help to them.
And so for you that are with us today and you're hearing this, we want you to be encouraged. Our heart is for you to live up in a down world. That is what we're about. And it's to learn how to see the world in which you live through a biblical worldview, a biblical lens, so that you're not just interpreting events based on your own experiences. You're interpreting events based on God's Word. And so we want to invite you to get into God's Word. You have to get the Word in you.
The Word works, but you have to learn how to work the Word. But you can't work the Word unless you know the Word. And so it's a matter of, man, if you're not connected, I sound very 70s, man, if you're not connected in a local church community and you're not sitting under the teaching of God's Word, or if you're in a church that doesn't teach the Bible, you need to run like Forrest Gump.
You need to find a church that's teaching the Bible, teaching Scripture, where you can get taught, you can get discipled, and get raised up in the things of God's Word. Because once you have that, that starts to get inside of you, I'm not talking about 20 years study, I'm talking about you just hungry for it, and it starts to get in you, God will use it, and he'll help you actually be able to tell and recognize his activity. That's really what it's about.
When we see what he's doing, we get in line with him, and we start doing, you join him in that work. Amen? Amen. Hey, want to say thank you to all of you, those of you that write in, those that you encourage. We got two donations. Got some donations from? One from Martha, and one from James Barron. Thank you guys. Also, Adam Curry is always faithful. He and I, we just love to bless each other, and just encourage each other in terms of what we do.
That's through Boostergrams, and we do that on Fountain Platform. He boosted 77,700. There it is, Striper Boost. Thank you, Adam Curry, for that. I always appreciate that. Martha, and who else? Martha and James. And James. Guys, thank you so much for blessing us. Our heart is for this to bless you. Hey, it's been fun. We got a lot going on. We got a biblical citizenship class tonight. We do. I'm super stoked about that. We need to go home and rest up and get ready for the class.
We missed last week's session because our water was out. Yes. That was a joy, wasn't it? Yes. We love you guys. Thanks for being with us. We are so thankful. Have an amazing week on purpose. Hey, gorgeous over there. Have an amazing week. I'm already having an amazing week. You already are. Why? Because you're here with me. Why? And you. Living up in a down world. We love you guys. Be blessed. We love you.