Hello folks. This is Princess. You are listening to the Millennial Mustard Seed Podcast. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to share with your friends. That's tough. We're in a very tough spot. I think that what we're doing right now is a great benefit and virtue because it's an end around between this whole corrupt informational system,
media system. We claim to believe in a God who spoke the universe into existence and literally raised himself from the dead, and yet we're not going to believe that anything else exists in the spirit realm, even though His word tells us that they do. Their bodies weren't permitted to go to sleep like humans do, and they weren't permitted to go to heaven. So they wander the earth, You know, I've seen the eyes turn black to unknown tongues being spoken. These giants would love way up
in the island. The young Braves, The young men would hide up in the trees and wait for one of these 12 footers to come walking down the path and they would jump on them and kill them, drag them back to the village and the village would feast on the body. Freedom. Then people start to get weapons, they start to get armor, they start to build cities, they start to fortify their cities. Now God looks. Down and there's violence everywhere.
The battle, this war that we are at is not against each other. It's against these principalities and these rulers and these archons in the high places. It's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself. Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control because we have to take every thought. Captive and resist fear.
You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against the Kingdom of Darkness. Welcome back to the Millennial Mustard Seed. I am your host, Rod, and thank you for being here with me for another awesome episode. And this one truly is awesome. I'm joined by Doctor Mike Davis and this conversation we have you do not want to miss. This is so important. Topics like studying the Bible in its cultural context, emotional intelligence and the importance of that, well, you'll find out.
We cover boldness and confidence. Now what's interesting is in the word of God, we have God commanding us. Do not fear, do not be afraid. But there's some other verses in there about how we can apply this and actually make that so. God always gives us the recipe. He's not going to command us not to be afraid and to be bold and courageous without telling us how. And many of you may come to find that it's right here in the
word, literally a step by step. We should not allow the law that God has given us to depart from our mouth. Just going to drop that little gem here real quick, but stick around because this is one of those episodes where you want a pen and paper, where you can take some notes. This is the kind of teaching that the body needs. We need to be encouraged. We need to be able to find the truth and to walk through this stuff, learning it together in
humility. And let's face it, this time slot that we're living in, there's a lot of fear mongering, fear tactics, a lot of information out there that's causing anxiety, depression, suicides on the rise. How do we combat that? Well, God tells us right in His word and I love what I'm doing to be able to broadcast this stuff, to encourage you guys to read your Bible, to drop these gems where we can learn this stuff in a way that it's personable. It's not just for entertainment
purposes with this podcast. This is what I believe God is calling me to do and it's been an honor and it's been a battle to do it thus far. Let's take care of some maintenance real quick. I need you guys to leave me a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast catcher. Whichever app you decide to listen on, share the episodes with friends, family members, Co workers. Just share it on your social media. It doesn't matter. Help us get this thing out
there. Help us grow because we cannot do this without you. In the details in the show notes, you guys can find a link to purchase my newest book. The words are salt. We've got an excellent feedback on it. The recommendations are growing quite wide. Leave us a review on Amazon When you pick yourself up a copy if you're in the southeastern Pennsylvania area, or even if you just want me to ship you a
copy of the book, I can do that. While I can sign a personal message, Whatever you'd like, you guys would just have to reach out to me privately. You can find my e-mail address, the MMM Seed at proton dot ME in the details of the show notes. I do not believe that broadcasting is the only thing God is asking me to do. There's so much happening behind
the scenes. We continue to grow slow and steady, just like a Mustard Seed should shout out to brother David Chavis. I play one of his songs at the end of this episode and it is fire. One of the big things I want to announce that if you guys are in the tri-state area, if you're in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, June 27th through the 30th in Lebanon, PA, all things new is the name of this event we're going to have live.
SP Marcus Rodgers, Klaus Chavis, and a bunch of other brothers and sisters in Christ will be there. I will be there myself. So if you guys would like to meet me, meet the rest of the crew, come on out. We're going to have food, music. It's literally love in the streets. It's in the streets. This is going to be like a Christian block party. It's going to be wildly cool. So I hope you guys can make it. e-mail me if you have any questions.
And I think it's about time to jump into this episode. I'm ready. Are you guys ready? Let's go. Let's go. I'm Mike Davis. I am a pastor, corporate speaker and trainer as well as a coach. I'm a father and a grandfather, and what I have a passion for doing is helping people really to get their emotions to work for them rather than against them in terms of the the coaching and training that I do and also to help people to understand the Bible in its
cultural context. So that's what I do and I'm glad to be here and I welcome you all. Mike, it is an honor to have you back here on the Mustard Seed with me, man. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Episode 48. You know, we talked about Thoughts are Powerful and
renewing your mind. And you know, I just want to comment before we jump into it and just say it from my perspective, how important it is with diving through some of the fringe information and trying to make sense of the days we live in. Really to balance it out with, you know what am I walking tight and narrow? Do I understand taking thoughts captive Paul prays in Ephesians. What is it? I I think 6 pray for me to have boldness, right? A completion of speech and and
really it just tugs at my heart. So you're the perfect person to have here to just take us on this journey, man. It's. I'm excited. Oh, I'm glad to be here, so I'll help in any way I can. Well, let's do a real quick recap. Let's spend a couple minutes just talking about renewing your mind and and the power of thoughts and and just kind of the premises of what you do. And then we'll dive into some of
these questions I have. OK, well the the primary thing that I do really it it really is about renewing the the mind.
Though I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on the emotional aspect of that because I feel like so much when people talk about renewing the mind within the Christian context, the emotional aspect of that gets left out when you look at what the word mind in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the verse that we're kind of referring to when Paul said don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
The word mind there includes and it encompasses the the intellect, our thoughts as well as our will and our emotions. So renewing of the mind really needs to take place in all three of those elements. And those elements really are intertwined and they overlap with each other. There. As one of my teachers once said, in all thought, there's emotion, and in all emotion there is thought. And there's some nuances where that's concerned. But for the most part, that's
really true. So when we're talking about renewing the mind, we're really talking about getting our emotions, getting our thoughts, our will, and our emotions into alignment with God's truth. And Jesus told us it's the truth that sets us free. So when we get our intellect, our will and our emotions in alignment and conform to this truth, then we experience freedom mentally as well as
emotionally. Yeah, A lot of times people are just governed by letting emotions determine how they treat people or decisions that they make. And you know, it's really funny. I I released my book last month called The Words of Salt. And one of the little kind of poem parables I talked about is if you allow emotions to determine how you treat people, you someday you'll find out there's a deep hole and you threw the shovel out. You know, it's just not a good way to do things.
So the importance of emotional intelligence, I just can't express that enough. Let's consider this boldness right. Can you tell us about what that means in in the Greek and just give us, you know, a premises of what does it look like to be bold? Because I feel like a lot of times people get confused with arrogance versus boldness, right? We there's a lot of people out there beating their chest and saying listen to me and you're wrong and you're right.
And we see, I see a lot of that, at least some of the fields that I peer into. But just lay a premises for us. How does this really work? Well, you know, in in talking about boldness, I'll I'll start here with this. In the 1st century world and in the Greco Roman world, there were four virtues that were really considered what they called the cardinal virtues. These are like the most important virtues. There are a lot of different virtues, but there were four that were really considered
important. One of them was wisdom. That was one of the virtues. Self-control was another one. Wisdom so you had. So it was it was wisdom, self-control, justice. Sometimes in the Bible it's called the the New Testament, the Kyle Sunni which we call righteousness. So justice, righteousness, self-control and then wisdom. And the 4th one was courage. Courage is one of the elements. And so there was a lot that was written by different Greco Roman philosophers about the nature of
courage and what it looked like. And so when we're talking about boldness, that would be seen as an aspect of. Courage. So one of the things like one of the and I and I took some time to look this up just to refresh my mind where it was concerned. So one of the things when it talks about courage, let me read to you for a second here.
This is one of the Greco Roman philosophers and the reason I I'm quoting this rather than just starting with the Bible first is because these #1 these guys wrote about it #2 it gives us some insight into how the thinking was taking place during that time. So Cicero who was a philosopher, he said courage is the is the quality by which one undertakes dangerous task and endures hardships is parts are high mindedness, confidence, patience, perseverance.
High mindedness consists in the contemplation and the execution of great and sublime projects with a certain grandeur, magnificence of imagination. Confidence is the quality by which an important and honorable undertaking, the Spirit, has placed great trust in itself with a resolute hope of success. Patience is a willing and sustained endurance of difficult and arduous task for a noble and useful end. And then perseverance is a firm and abiding persistence in a
well considered plan of action. So they saw courage slash boldness as having different aspects to it. So there was you would contemplate, you would execute great things, you would have confidence that you would be able to succeed, you would have patience and endurance, and then you would have perseverance that you would be willing to persist
and to keep going. So in the 1st century world, you know when they were talking about boldness, and I I generally will say boldness slash confidence, and I believe you. For us as believers, we can put faith in confidence or trust in God. Where that was concerned, it was the idea of all of these things together. So a bird, a bold person, was
someone who would take action. A bold person was someone who would move forward, forward, regardless of the dangers, regardless of the situations that they might be facing. Regardless, they would they would keep going. They would persist even though there might be changing circumstances and events. If they believed in what they were doing, they believed it was important they would keep going.
As a matter of fact, and I'll say this one last thing here, one of the definitions of courage at that time was the idea that courage was also obedient to a higher law. So I think that's really important as we talk about some other things, yeah. So it was obedience.
So I I would say that one of the ways for us as Christians 'cause if you look at this from a Christian perspective, that what we're talking about is really doing, doing God's will regardless of what's taking place outside of us, with the with the confidence, the inner certainty that we will be able to successfully achieve God's will. Yeah, it reminds me. Hebrews 10, I think 35. It talks about not throwing away your confidence. There's this like rich and deep and great reward in it.
Yeah, and that. That's so encouraging. Yeah, can I can I actually read something where that's concerned? No, that's what it's one of the passages that actually it does talk about exactly what you said, confidence. It talks about courage in that verse. So to to set up the people that the book of Hebrews was was written to. And actually Hebrews most scholars believe it is actually a homily or sermon that was not so much as read. It was something that was preached to the people.
And in chapter 10, the, you know, so the people let me go back. The people were under great persecution. They were under persecution to turn away from their faith in Christ. So with that being said he writes to them the writer and says I'll start at verse 10. He's But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated.
And notice, he says, you endured a great struggle with with suffering, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly you became companions of those who were so treated you had compact. This is chapter 10, verse 32. I was starting that, verse 34 says, For you had compassion on me in my chains.
You joyfully accepted the plundering of your good, so they had all of their material things taken from them as a way of trying to shame them, to get them to turn away from their faith. So he says you had a you took joyfully the plundering of your goods, knowing you had have a better and enduring possession for yourself in heaven than the verse you just quoted. Therefore do not castaway your confidence which has great reward, for you have need of
endurance. Now notice this so that after you have done the will of God, you may see may receive the
promise. So within a 1st century context with what the writer here was saying, notice there's these themes here of endurance, taking things patiently and enduring and doing the will of God. He was saying to them, you were courageous in in the early years of your faith, you were being courageous and he was and he was reminding them of the courage that they demonstrated and he's encouraging them and exhorting them to not castaway their confidence.
So when we get into the how to's, this is going to be important when we come back to this because he's actually telling them how to maintain and sustain their courage and their confidence even in the face of difficulties, even in the face of persecution. Yeah, that's superlative. Wow. I mean, as I'm listening, I'm just, this is so necessary, what we're doing right now. But I believe the signs are there. God is gonna do what God is gonna do.
It's every yacht and title will come to pass, right? But the stuff that we're seeing right now, we're identifying. I believe most of us, even our own personal little bubbles are being affected in some way. It's very minute compared to what 1st century worldview, what they've really endured in the confident words there. So I think planting these seeds
is is quite necessary. Yeah. And and I think it's good to know because what he's telling them to do, he's he's literally in these verses giving them a strategy for to maintain and sustain their courage in the face of this persecution. And I think that's. Important because it's really good. Yeah, because one of the things that I teach about a lot is emotions. That I talk about strategies for being able to get your emotions to work for you rather than
against you. And too much of the times, we, we tend to think as Christians well, and I think we talked about this the last time. Well, you know, we're supposed to walk by faith, not by sight. And we have turned that to mean you're you're to trust God and ignore how you feel, when really what Scripture seeks to do is to bring our whole being into submission and conformity to the will of God, to the ways of God. So that includes our intellect, as I said before, our will and
our emotions. And the Bible actually lays out, and I've been studying this for over 30 years now, it lays out different strategies that we can employ so that we can get our emotions to, as I like to say, we can get our emotions to serve us in serving God. And the writer here, we're going to look at some other things as we move forward.
There are specific strategies. I believe that they are embedded in the tax they that they are strategies that God has given to us so that we can align ourselves with our align our emotions as well as our intellect, our our thoughts with God's will. And the one thing I tell people all the time is that whatever you can do while feeling bad, you can do so much better while you're feeling good.
Meaning that you have good, resourceful emotional States and one of those states is courage or confidence. You can do, it's easier. I I read a quote that someone had written that said our life contracts or it expands our life contracts or expands in proportion to our courage. And I thought that is so true. I believe it was a writer named a niece Nin and I don't believe she was a Christian, but she said our life contracts or it expands in proportion to our
courage. So just an everyday living. And I and I taught on this not too long ago at our at our fellowship, just an everyday living. You need courage if you're going to go out there, if you're going to do things, if you're going to accomplish anything. And this is what the ancient Greco Roman writers and philosophers understood. You must be able to possess and exercise courage. And too much of the time, I'll
say this one more thing. Too much of the time we people often will define courage as how do they put it? They, they, they. It's like that. It's taking action even if you feel afraid. To which I say, yes, that can be a way of thinking about courage, that you take an action even though you may be afraid. Or some people like to say feel the fear and do it anyway and they go, that's courage. I go that's one way of looking at it. However, that can be extremely
difficult. To to try to you know, I don't know if you've ever been afraid, Rod, but with you know, if you've got a lot of fear, it can be very difficult to take action the majority of the time. Why people don't take action on something. Why they don't move forward. Why they and and as we talked about before part of courage is acting in obedience to a higher will. For us as believer, that means God's will. What can stop us is fear, the feeling of fear.
So I tell people, well, yeah, it's true. You can feel the fear and do it anyway. I think it's better, though, to get rid of the fear and do it even better. In other words, replace the fear with courage and do it even better. Now what would be like a one or two go to strategies for, you know, embracing this courage and reiterating this sound mind through this process? You know, I've talked with a lot of people off air and there's a lot of fear.
You know what I've man, I've been seeing this happen where the non fringy people are now starting to inquire. You can see it in their eyes and like I feel it where they're not really apologizing but you can tell that they thought you were a kook, you know, 14 months ago and then they're kind of like, hey, you know, I just kind of wanted to ask what are your
thoughts on that? And and it's like I really love that people are starting to slow down and and question things because we see stuff on the news because there's all these messages and signals out there. So it's an opportunity for me to actually show myself an example of someone who believes and and just kind of engage and and answer at that surface level where it's like, well, I know you've heard probably the same things I've heard, but my belief consists of acting like a mature
man in Christ, right? Because in my my fleshly nature, I'm blowing in the wind. I don't know how to handle this stuff there. There's a a courage and confidence that I truly believe comes from the spirit, from the ruach, and it's hard to really explain that sometimes there's kind of a vocabulary breach, if you will. I know what what it kind of feels like. I know how God has showed up for me in my times of need, and I
know that I've been bold. But it's a great thing that you're here because you get to help me cover these chasms and put intelligent language to it so I can even just understand the depth myself. Yeah. Well, I think one of the things, so let me say real quick, I think people tend to think that emotions are too flighty, that they really can't be relied upon. And I take the exact opposite view.
Years ago I did a message and it came a signature message of mine, and it's kind of been transformed over the years. But originally it was called How to Train Your Emotions and people were like, what? And I go like, yeah, emotions can be trained. And I taught this years ago like I I, it was like almost 20 years ago, 'cause my my oldest daughter's around 10/11/12, thirteen years old and she's now in her 30s. She's, I think she's 30.
So I taught this years ago and at the time people were like, Mike, are you, are you serious? You can train your emotions. But now you know. Here we Fast forward almost 20 years later, 1520 years later. And this is what the scientific evidence is telling us. The scientific research is telling the psychological research, yet emotions can be trained. And when I was first studying and I got it from two sources, one, I was looking at the science, Two, I was looking at the biblical text.
So when it comes to courage, courage does not have to be something that is we, we hope we're going to experience, or I'll put it to you like this. It doesn't have to be something you passively wait to happen or you passively hope that you know you're waiting for it to take place and you're going to feel courage so you can take action. This is why a lot of times people will say, and I understand it well, just take
action anyway. Don't wait to feel courage courageous, Just act courageous, OK. And I To which I say, yes, that can work. And if you know how to do that correctly, you can actually get yourself to feel courageous by taking certain actions, I said. But another way is you can actually incline and direct your emotions towards courage. And people say, well, how do you
do that? So first of all, let me say, Ron, like you're talking about the Spirit and the holy, you know, the Holy Spirit. We're told to walk in the Spirit right now, and you would agree with that right that we're as believers. Absolutely. OK, so now, technically speaking, there is no verse of Scripture that acts that. There is no verse of scripture that says that one of the fruit of the Spirit is courage, though I think courage is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
It's just it doesn't mention it as a in Galatians chapter 5. But how do we walk in the Spirit? That's what I want to focus on. So the way we walk in the Spirit, Paul tells us this and we're told to keep in step with the Spirit. We're told how to do that in Romans chapter 8, where the apostle Paul says for they who are after the flesh, they mind the things or they're set.
They set their minds on the things of the flesh, but they who are after the Spirit mind, or set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Now, we may have talked about this the last time I was here, but that word for mine or set the mind on, it's one word in Greek, and it means to incline or to direct the intellect, the will and the affections towards something, or to align the intellect, the will and the affections with something. And what's that something?
Well, if you're walking in the flesh, you are inclining or directing or aligning your intellect, will, and emotions with what is of the flesh. If you're walking in the spirit, you're inclining your intellect, your will, your emotions, your desires with that which is of the spirit.
So what? And and the way it's written in Greek, it's in the active voice meaning that the subject of the sentence, which would be you or me, you know that we are to perform that action so we can incline, we can direct, we can align our intellect, will and our emotions with the spirit. So this means that it doesn't have to be sometime that you experience courage or it doesn't have to be where you're just passively waiting to feel courage.
You know, it's like when I teach on motivation, you know, people will say about motivation, you know, well, sometimes you got to take action and not just wait for a feeling of motivation. To which I go, yeah, don't wait for it, get yourself motivated. You never have to wait for motivation. You can motivate yourself if you know how. There's specific strategies. And it's the same way with courage. So somebody might be listening to us not say, OK, man, we'll get to the strategies.
What is it? So number 11, strategy, if we find in Joshua chapter one. So I'm going to read from Joshua chapter one and verse 7. And this is where God is talking to Joshua after you know Moses has died. Joshua is now the leader of Israel and God says to Joshua in verse I'll read from verse five. He says no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.
So one of the things that becomes a foundational stone that we can build upon for courage is to know that the Lord is with us. That's one of the things to know that he is with us. And Hebrews chapter 13 actually says, you know, I will never, ever leave, you know, forsake you so that we may build the say the Lord is with me.
Whom shall I fear? OK, now it's one thing to articulate that, OK, God is with me, but how do you move into a place of where you really do feel the courage and you're acting and and your emotions are aligned with that truth, that spiritual truth and reality that God is with me? Well, God tells Joshua I'm going to be with you as I was with Moses. I will not leave you nor forsake you. But then he says in verse 6, be strong and of good courage. So here he's telling him to be
of good courage. For to this people you should divide as an inheritance the language I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong. So he says it again, be strong and very courageous. Now notice this that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it, from the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. So notice here he tells him to be strong in courage, and then he says so that you may observe
to do according to the law. So remember we said before that one of the definitions in the 1st century Greco Roman world was that courage was also seen as obedience to a higher law. We see this directly in the book of Joshua. God tells Joshua be strong and of good courage. Why So that you may observe to do according to all of the law, so that you can do my will. So he tells me to be courageous, so there is courage needed to do the will of God.
Then he's so That's verse seven only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to the law. Then in verse 8 he He says it again, except this time he changes it. He says, verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you have good success and rob.
By the way, anytime you want to jump in there, just do so. He says, the first time. Have I not commanded you. Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. But he tells so In verse 7. Verse five he tells them to be strong and and have courage. Verse seven he tells them to be strong and very courageous, so that he could observe the law.
In verse eight he tells them, Now this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. So you can do my will. So rather in verse 8, rather than saying be be of good courage, so you can do my will, be courageous, so you can do my will. Instead, he says, meditate day and night on my law, that you may do my will. So what's the point I'm making here?
One of the ways that we develop and we nurture courage, and I believe it's in connection with the Holy Spirit. We're told in Philippians chapter 2, verse 13 that God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So God's at work within us to do His will. Philippians 212 says we're to work out our own salvation with fear and tribbling verse 13 says because it's God who works in you both to will and to do with his good pleasure.
So we cooperate with God. How do we work with God to develop and nurture courage? One of the ways we do that is by what we are meditating upon. What we meditate upon is going to Orient our mind, our will, and our emotion in a particular direction either, and depending on what you're meditating on, it will either Orient it towards fear or it can Orient it towards courage, again depending on what you're meditating on. By the way, this goes practically for any virtue.
So in let me just ask, am I making sense so far? Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I got scriptures just jump into my mind and I'm taking a back seat and learning as you go through all those well. And so I I I always say that biblical meditation is one of the lost. Arts. It's it's something we tend not to do. We we read our Bibles, which is good. We've got to read our Bibles. But do we take time to really meditate upon what we're reading? And I always say that meditation
is preparation for obedience. Meditation is how you assimilate truth and make it a part of you so that you can act on it and live by. So in Philippians chapter 4, verse eight, we're told whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just and pure and lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, courage
is a virtue. And if there is any praise or if there's anything that's praiseworthy it, then it says think on these things and that word think on. In the Greek, you know, it can also mean to meditate, meditate on these things, meditate on these virtues. Thayer's Greek English lexicon, which is one of the more famous
lexicons. It it it, it defines the word that's translated as think on, as to meditate upon something in order to obtain it. So one of the reasons that Paul in Philippians tells them to meditate on what is good and honest and just and pure and lovely, or whatever is virtuous or whatever is praiseworthy, You meditate upon that virtue so that you can make it your own. This is why I say meditation is preparation for action. Meditation is assimilation you.
The way you assimilate something and you make it a part of you is by meditating upon it. And we can get into and a few minutes just how did we do that? But this is what God was telling Joshua to do. He says, I want you to meditate. And it's interesting you're talking about the tongue. The word for meditate here in Joshua chapter one, verse 8, comes from the Hebrew term haggah, which means to to mutter
or to speak to oneself. So when God said yeah, This is why, This is why the verse is written. This book of the law shall not depart from out of your mouth. Exactly. So that you can meditate, you are to speak it to yourself day and night. So one of the ways you meditate is by what you are saying to yourself consistently, especially if you say it to yourself out loud. OK, so you and he said do it day and night. So this is a continual thing.
Not that you have to do it every single moment, but that you need to make time to meditate upon what you want to be a part of your life, another person's. Go ahead. I'm sorry. It just made me think I was making myself even giggle at this thought. Where the apostle Paul, Somewhere in the New Testament, he says if I seem beside myself, it's for Christ. Do you think he was walking around just, like talking to himself, Like, you know, like meditating on Scripture?
I mean, seriously, you know. That, that, that when he says beside myself, that was the idiot, Which means beside yourself was kind of like the way we use the days, like, oh what are you crazy? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As an Orthodox Jew, he probably
was taking time. I mean because he tells the Philippians to meditate all these things day and night and and I often say that this is something that I think believers we don't do enough of. At least we don't do it consciously and intentionally in order to reach specific goals for ourselves. Intentionally. That's powerful. That's. Because every you everyone meditates. You cannot not meditate. You're always thinking about something and you talk to yourself.
We all for the most part. There are some people who don't, but for the most part, everyone has internal self talk. I've done studies on the the scientific research that has been done on self talk. So we talked to ourselves. So God here is having us make use of something that he built within us to do as a way of nurturing confidence. Because he tells Joshua be courageous to do my work. But then he tells him how to be courageous to do his work.
He says meditate upon my word, day and night. So how does that work? Well, there's a couple of ways we can look at it. #1. Is that what we know that they're in? This gets into a little bit of neuroscience. So there's a part of your brain known as the thalamus. And according there's a book that is written called How God Changes Your Brain by Doctor Andrew Newberg. Doctor Andrew Newberg. I don't know if he's a believer. I don't. I I I can't really tell that from his writings.
But he has developed a field known as neuro theology and he looks at the impact that religious beliefs of every kind, the impact that it has upon the brain, how it impacts the brain. So he looks at different faiths and what he is seen as, what you believe about God, how you perceive God, how you perceive what you can think of as a entity called God. Some people, I don't agree with this, but they call it the
universe. But it's the idea of how you perceive the that which is greater than yourself. It impacts your brain and it changes your brain. So in the book he talks about something very interesting. He talks about the thalamus. And one of the statements he makes in the book is that the thalamus part of the the job of the thalamus is to make things real to you, to make something real to you, to take thoughts and to turn them into internal
subjective reality. So the and I for years before I had learned about this, I taught a principle in teaching about renewing the mind and stuff that I call the Reality principle. And the reality principle, simply stated, is whatever is most real to you is what you will act upon and live by. That's the reality principle. So this is where we can see people espouse a belief in something, but then they do the exact opposite of what they believe.
And that's what I look at. I go if you say you believe it, but you're doing something different, I there's something that you believe that's more real to you than the belief that you espouse. Because we are always acting on what is most real to us, OK? And that can be subjective. We may not in the moment be aware of what. So in other words, it's a belief, but it's at a deeper
level, to use that metaphor. So at a deeper level, it's most real to us is what we're going to act on and live by. Well, what Doctor Andrew Newberg found out is that if you repeat a thought over and over again, eventually that thought becomes real to you. Your your brain no longer distinguishes between that thought as something internal or something or it never. It doesn't distinguish between something that's external, that is physically real, and
something that's internal. Through repetition, a thought becomes an internal reality. So by so not so, what does God tell Joshua? He says. I want you to be courageous. I want you to be courageous. So you do my will. So then what he tells them to do. I want you to take my word, and I want you to meditate upon it day and night. Speak it to yourself day and night. Why? Because as you do that, my truth, my will, will become more real to you than anything around
you. And again, the reality principle is what is most real to you is what you're going to act upon and live by. So if my truth, if my world view, if the way, if the if the way of life that God paints for us in His word, if that becomes the reality, the way of life, he says we are to live. If that's our internal reality. And let me say this as a side note, we all have every human being has an internal reality that they live out of every single one of us. That's neuroscientifically true,
that's psychologically true. It's spiritually true. We all have an internal reality. Jesus says out of the heart proceeds fornication, adultery, murders, blasphemy, he said. Those things come out of the heart. Proverbs 4 tells us guard your heart. Why? Because out of it flows the issues of life. So we all live from the inside out. We all live from the internal realities that we've assimilated over the years. But what the Scripture tells us to do is we're to assimilate
God's truth into our hearts. And by meditating upon it, it becomes more real to you, you know. You know in in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says don't be worried about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink or wherewith all show you be clothed, right? He says don't be worried about it now.
I think all of us have at times, you know we struggled with our finances and it's like you know when you when money's low you get you got more month than you do money, you know and you're trying to he's like, OK, well how do I know? I was there. Yeah, he was like, God, how do I not be worried God. Jesus actually tells us. He tells us. He doesn't just say don't be worried and he doesn't just say trust in God. He actually gives a strategy. He says Behold the fowls of the
air. Consider the lilies of the field. If you look up those terms in Greek, it has to do with sustained, focused attention. It's not just a casual glance, it's think about. Contemplate how your father feeds the birds of the air. Think about contemplate with focus and tension how your father clothes the lilies of the field. So we're to meditate upon the attributes of God, and we're to
do this consistently. We're to do this continually so that becomes more real on the inside of us than the idea of we may not have enough Is is that making? Sense. Absolutely.
So one of my thoughts was as you were saying, you know, you know this emotion that comes out or you know our thoughts that what's inside of us. I was thinking about the verse that says it's not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles him, but that much comes out because they're, you know, you have these religious minded people that are arguing over did they wash their hands? What are they eating?
And so quick question though, like I'm looking at Psalms 27, verse 14 specifically and it says wait for and confidently expect the Lord. Do you think that that wait for, does it fall in line with like that meditation Because I'm reading it and seeing it closer to what you're depicting. Like as you were talking, I'm going, yeah, waiting for the Lord and confidently to expect the Lord. Be strong. Let and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.
Confidently expecting the Lord. And I'm thinking when I'm waiting and expecting for something, I'm thinking about what I'm anticipating. I'm dwelling on it. I'm recycling it back and forth, massaging it through. And it's just such such a beautiful connection. Yeah, it's it's, it's actually, yeah, it's a huge part of it because it's the idea waiting on the Lord. I remember it took me a while before I learned it. It's the idea of looking forward confidently.
But again, it's like how do you do that? That's why it says wait on the Lord, be of good courage, you know look confidently towards the Lord, you're expecting good things from him, but that it it doesn't just happen. This is why Jesus says, and I'm going to paraphrase, but I think this would be accurate to say he says meditate on the lilies of the field. Meditate on the birds of the air, how your Heavenly Father takes care of them.
Think about that. This is why over and over again you will see in the the book of Psalms, it'll say it'll it'll talk about the works of the Lord and and it encourages Israel to speak of his works from one generation to the next. The idea is talk about what God has done. This is another strategy, and by the way, to to to remember the works of the Lord, to speak of them. It's a way of meditating on it, because another word for meditate is siach, which means to speak.
It can mean to pray. It can mean to speak to yourself also. So there's this thing of of speaking out loud and speaking to yourself as well as speaking internally and meditating internally. Many You rehearse something over and over again that it it can. If you're focusing on what God has done for you in the past it can build confidence. So meditating is one of the strategies and somebody said well well how would I meditate you you you can't. Well let me let me I need to
back up for a second. So meditating on what God has done. Doctor Andrew Newbrook said, If you if you meditate on a thought over and over again, so if you're meditating like on the Lord is good, the Lord or you meditate upon what Jesus said that seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will, will and all these things will be added to you. So you're meditating upon that you're meditating upon. Behold the the, the lilies of the field.
How the Father takes care. You're meditating on that. If you rehearse that over and over, that will become more real to you. That God's care and provision will become more real to you. It's the way God has designed us. So when I when I talk about neuroscience, I'm looking at scientists discovering, not creating, discovering how God has made us. So it's like, whoa, this is amazing because like Doctor Andrew Newberg's book, How God Changes Us, It's all about
neuroscience, but he's looking. But who created us? Who made us? It's God. He put these things within us, and this is how we can start
directing them. So the scriptures always has already told us what to do. Way before neuroscience ever came into existence, it was already telling us what we needed to do, the practices we need to engage in on a regular basis in order to align intellect, will and emotions with what is of the Lord. Now what is also said by Doctor Newberg and also other neuroscientists is if you meditate upon something with a particular emotion that speeds
up, it accelerates the process of making it more real. So did you did you catch what I was saying? If you meditate with an emotion. With an emotion, yes. So are you saying, you know, in a sense, when we have the emotional intelligence, we can gear that emotion to drive us into meditating on the word of God purposefully, intentionally, And that speeds up the process? Yeah, that's fantastic. So emotion is not just a byproduct of renewing your mind.
Emotions are to be involved in the process of renewing the mind. So can I give you a quick illustration? Please, yeah. I'm going to show you this from Scripture. I'm not making this stuff up. So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, and I have my Bible right here, so it'll take me a moment to find it. But in Deuteronomy chapter seven, we have a great illustration of God telling Israel how to deal with fear and how to be courageous.
OK, so Deuteronomy Chapter 7, If you look at verse, it's verse 16. Well, we we, Yeah, we'll start at verse 16. OK. So let me give you a little bit of background. You know that there was a time when Israel, God had brought them, when he first brought them out of Egypt. He brought them to the to the, to the cusp of the land of promise. Right. And he tells Moses to send 12 spies to spy out the land. 12 spies go. They come back, they begin to
give their report. Caleb says Let's go up at once and possess it. We're well able to overcome it. This is Numbers chapter 13 and numbers 14. Caleb and Joshua says, don't fear the people of the land. They are as bread for us. The Lord is with us. Fear them not. So they're calling the people to courage. Joshua and Caleb are acting in courage. The 10 spies. The other 10 spies say we are not able to go up against the people of the land. This land is too big.
And then they say we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. And then in chapter 14, starting at verse one, all the people freak out and they go, why is the Lord brought us out here to die? Why he has he brought us out here in our for our our wives and our little ones to become a prey? So everyone becomes afraid. And then they say let's make a captain and go back into Egypt, right?
This is all because of fear. Remember before the quote where I was quoting the writer who said your life contracts or your life contracts or expands in proportion to your fear? I mean, I'm sorry in proportion to your confidence or your courage in proportion to your courage. They were contracting, they were drawing back, and rather than moving forward, they were wanting to go backwards because of fear, because of the the emotion of fear. But Joshua and Caleb had No Fear.
Joshua and Caleb said, let's go up and once impossess it, we're well able to overcome it. They said don't fear the people of the land. The Lord is with us. Fear them not. But the 10 spies and all the people were afraid so. And of course this is where how they end up wandering 40 years in the wilderness. It was part of the judgment of God. So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, God is getting ready to bring them back into the land. This time Moses is going to be
their leader. And God does not want to repeat of Numbers chapter 13. So this is what he tells them in verse 16, Deuteronomy Chapter 7. Also, you should destroy all the people whom the Lord God delivers over to you. Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. If you should say in your heart these natures are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them.
Now notice that God says you shall not be afraid of them. Now I've I've heard ministers take this and say, well, you know sometimes what what this is saying is sometimes you've got to take action even though you feel afraid. But actually what the verse says is you shall not be afraid of them. Matter of fact, the Septuagint of this passage says be courageous. And it is. It uses the same words. And the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
It utilizes the same words that Jesus used in John chapter 16 when he says in his words you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer. It's the same word that's used in the Septuagint or the Greek version of this Hebrew Bible. Be of good cheer, which means to be confident, to be certain, to be courageous. So God is actually telling them I want you to be courageous, but he tells them how to be, how to actually move from fear into courage.
He says you shall not be afraid of them, but but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand in the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God, due to all the people of whom you are afraid. So God's strategy for Israel, he says, When you see the people of the land, if you start to experience fear, what I want you
to do is I want you to remember. Zakar is the Hebrew term I want you to call to mine, and and to remember can be a form of meditation. I want you to call to mine. Notice this all of the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched arm by which the Lord brought you out of Egypt. So they were to remember. They were to rehearse. They were to relive in their minds through their memory all of the great things they saw take place in Egypt.
The signs, the miracles, the tin plays, the crossing of the Red Sea. They were to remember all of that. Now think about this. If they're remembering all of the great things that they saw God do, what would that create within them? It would create within them confidence. It would create within them courage. So here, God is not only just saying, remember, He's tapping
into the memory. He's tapping into a memory of the past, the great things He's done for them in order to stimulate the emotion of courage. And as they're rehearsing this over and over, it's going to create more and more confidence, more and more courage. And so that he's using the past in order to encourage them and strengthen their heart with courage in the present, so that they can move forward and do what?
God. So they can move forward and do the will of God. Because the will of God was for them to go into the land. What kept them from going into the land before fear? God did not want a repeat of this. So he tells them, what I want you to do is to call to mind the great things, all of the great things I have done for you as you go back to the past, that will stimulate courage in you in the present so that you can obey my will. Which is part of what courage
is, obedience to a higher will. So he gave them a strategy. You know who else used this strategy, David? David did. Yes, he did. If if you if you're in First Samuel chapter 17, when Goliath comes out and he challenges the Israelites, everybody runs right? And it's like, you know, Saul's like who's going to fight him? Who's going to be my champion? David, this young shepherd boy, says I'll fight him. And Saul says you are not able to fight him.
He's been a man of war since his youth and you're but a youth, meaning he's very experienced. David, you don't have any experience at all. And what does David do? He starts to remember. Yes, the. Lion and the. Bear, the lion and the bear. Let's go. He begins to remember what God has done to him, the victory that God has given him. And what does David say? It is very similar in structure
to what says here. God's told the people of Israel, You saw what I did it to Egypt. That's what I'm going to do to these people, David said. I overcame the lion and the bear, and this Philistine will be as the lion and the bear. Remember, we said that part of courage is the confidence that
you will succeed all of this. God is telling his people you can trust in me. But he tells them how to not just intellectualize it, like, well, you know, we should trust God. He tells them, for lack of a better way put in it, how to emotionalize it so that they're bringing in feelings, they're bringing in emotions through memory. They're remembering the great things that they have done through the power of God. They're remembering there's great things God has done on
their behalf. You know, one other group of people that that did this, the people we read about in Hebrews chapter 10. If you go back over to Hebrews chapter 10, we actually see the strategy being employed again. So back over in Hebrews chapter 10. Now what was the situation? These people are undergoing persecution. I just taught him this recently.
And I and I asked, I said, if you knew somebody who was undergoing persecution or they're really going through a difficult time, what would you tell them to do? What? What practices would you encourage them to engage in? And we get things like, well, I would tell them to pray and that's good. I would tell them to read their Bible. That's good. I would tell them to maybe call
someone and that's good. But this is what the writer to the people of the book, that the writer of the book of Hebrews, this is what he tells these people who are undergoing persecution to do. And we read this earlier, but now we see it, he says. Verse 32.
Recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with suffering, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. You had compassion on me. Now he's talking about the past. You had compassion on me in my chains. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you had a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
Therefore, or because of this, do not castaway your confidence, which has great reward for you have need of endurance, so that after you've done the will of God, you may receive the promise. So what does he tell them to do now? I'm going to say something that may sound a little bit controversial, but it's not. Because again, this is, these are other strategies that God has given to us as his people. But they're not told. Pray. They're not told fast. They're not told. Read your Bible.
More they're told. Recall the former days. In other words, this word recall is the equivalent to the Hebrew Zakar. He said, I want you to remember how you were in the beginning. I want you to remember how you stood strong. I want you to remember how you stood by me. I want you to remember that even though you went through difficult times, you endured, they took away everything from you and you endured that gently, joyfully call that back to mine. Why, It's the same principle.
What they remember, what they rehearsed, it was to stir up within them the confidence. This is how they don't castaway their confidence. This was actually a strategy that was used in the ancient world. Generals would do this with their soldiers if they were getting ready to go into a battle.
One of the ways And and Doctor David Desilva in his book Perseverance and Gratitude, which is a book that deals with the book of Hebrews, he talks about this and he says how generals would remind their soldiers of great battles that they won and it was the purpose of stirring up within them courage and confidence in order to face the present battle. So what the writer of Hebrew does is remind them of the
earlier days. And as and as Doctor David Desilva says, when it comes to persevering and moving and keeping to move forward, this is a great strategy. This is a great technique. So one of the ways that we can encourage ourselves in the Lord, to borrow from First Samuel 30, is by remembering times in our life when we've made it through. And we had difficult times, but we stood. We were enabled by God. He was there for us.
Or we can remember great things that God did for us in the past when it looked like we were not going to make it when it or we felt like we couldn't stand. And yet God empowered us. God held us up and we kept going and we saw it through. We were faithful and we were obedient. We have to like David. We have to like the people of Israel. We have to like the people here in the book of Hebrews. We have to remember the great
things God has done. And as you do that, as people do that you start to remember what God has done. It helps to build the feeling of courage and confidence. And so you're meditating on that. You're you're feeling that. You rehearse it over and over. I have a saying that whatever you give your mind and emotions to, you would develop a mind and emotion for.
So whatever you consistently give your mind to, whatever you consider, this is how you direct your mind towards the things of God, how you direct your emotions. You can call to mind great things God has done for you and it helps you to be confident so you and courageous so you can move forward and continue to do as well.
Yeah, that is so powerful. And hearing you say that, I'm, I'm just thinking there's times recently where I literally had the nudge to remember how God showed up for me in past chapters of my life. And as you're saying, it is kind of surreal. It's not like deja vu. But I'm having a moment where I'm just like, man, of course this is the episode I needed just as much as somebody else out there who's gonna be listening to this. They need it just as much it it it's so relevant right now.
And I love the fact that in this space on the Mustard Seed here, you know we do cover diversity of different things. It's not really a a narrow we only strict to you know some strict sense to see things one way. We we kind of dive into everything and I've been feeling for a while you know we messaged each other back and forth a
couple times. I was trying to get you on sooner than later, you know, the last couple months because I felt it, you know, just the oppression out there in the world and just trying to minister to people that, you know, I I have to walk away and just look up and go, God, OK, yes, you were there with me. I I remember and it's like drawing. It's I love when you say call those things back to mind, 'cause literally I'm thinking in my head like, hey, confident scenario.
That happened back in 2019, right? It's like a little bit of humor. But seriously, you really do have to call these things back. And I love the way that you're laying it out because there's more of a biblical premises for it then I think many people know. And then the actual implications of, you know what, When fear, fear arises, it it's like this shocked state where you can't actually make an intelligent decision, right?
So it's like you you, the whole thing with fear is the absence, momentary absence of actually comforting yourself with that confidence of look at the track record. God, what? You know, I had a guy, he passed away. His name is Carrie Williams. I worked with him years and years ago. But he would say Rod, think a one time when it didn't work out, when God didn't actually bring it together for you.
He would say that to me, you know, 'cause I'm like really early in the faith is like 8-9 years ago. And I would, you know, kind of be borderline frantic and he would just say simple things like that. And I'd kind of be like yeah, you're right. You know you're right. And now to just be maturing in Christ and to to be learning this stuff and this this is the foundation that we build on like a Berean.
We are studying and we're we're diving in daily with a readiness of mind to prove and to believe that which is being set forth in front of us that's in the word of God. So I think that what you're doing is phenomenal. It it's it's absolutely necessary. And you know, I I don't want to switch gears with a little bit of time that we have left, but I kind of want to maybe plant a seed and leave a bit of a cliffhanger for a Part 2 that we're going to be doing down the road.
And I know all of it fits together, but let's just kind of do a little cliffhanger on. You know Doctor Michael Hyzer used to talk a lot about understanding the Bible through the ancient context. Right. The narrative of of how it was written, who it was written to.
So just clean that up. It sounds messy when I say it, but just give us an overview of what we have to look forward to with understanding the Bible. Well, it's kind of like the things we're talking about, like to remember and stuff.
I I learned that because my my area of study and focus and I would say expertise is seeking to read the Bible in its original historical and cultural context and even words are conditioned by culture And so it is so important because what and I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few days as I've been hearing people say certain things about the Bible and what people are called to do and husbands and wives are called to do. And I'm going you know if you
don't read the Bible in its context in its original context and understand it in its original context. It's for the Old Testament. We're talking about the ancient Near Eastern cultural context. For the New Testament, we're talking about the Jewish context and the Greco ROM the 1st century Greco Roman world context. If you don't do that, you could end up missing what's actually being communicated. So to give you a a quick point,
Jesus says if your I be single. Well actually let me say this first. Well, I used to teach this in a Bible school and I would talk about idioms and the need for understanding culture. So one of the things I would do is I would say, OK I'm going to say to you a phrase and you tell me what it means and I would say you don't believe fat meats greasy people who look at me and go what I go you don't believe fat meat's greasy. They're like what does that
mean? I go, will you tell me what do you think it means you don't believe fat meat's greasy and and unless you now that is of idiom from African American culture. From the black culture specifically, really, if you were raised in the South or you had family who was raised in the South, which I I have my family's from Mississippi. For the most part. If you don't, if, if you didn't hear that growing up and you weren't part of that culture, you would have no idea what that
means. Now I know what it means because of having grown up within black culture. My grandmother would say it all the time. She would say it to me and she never explained to me what it meant. But by what she said the situation in which she said it in the tone of voice, which she said said it to me in I knew what it meant. And so the phrase you don't believe fat meat is greasy is a is an idiom that means you don't believe the truth when it's
staring you in the face. The reason why is because fat meat, or meat that's fat has grease. And so when you say you don't believe fat meat's greasy, it's like you're not believing something that's true and
evident. OK, now when I explained to people, they go, oh, I said, But if I had not told you that, you never would have gotten it. You never, I said, you could have looked at each of those words in the dictionary and it never would have given you the meaning of the idiom because it's not determined by each single word. It's all of the words together that convey a meaning.
So in the same way, when we're looking at the Bible, there are idioms, there are figures of speech, there are practices that are going on that are part of the culture and the people in the culture of that time period, they understood it readily. Doctor John Walton, who's an expert in the Old Testament, he often says the Bible. He often will say the Bible, while being for us, was not originally written to us. And I think that is so important. The Bible was not originally written to us.
It was not originally written in English. It was not originally written to 21st century Western Christians. It is for us but it was not originally written to us. So we have to go back and try to understand the culture. So as I was getting ready to say earlier, Jesus said one time if your eye be evil your whole body should be full of darkness. But if your eye is good, your whole body should be full of
light. If you look up the word good, like if your whole body, if your if your eye is good, your whole body should be full of light. You look up the word good, it'll say sound or healthy, OK. Or if your eye is sound or healthy, your whole body should be full of light. That still doesn't tell me what does it mean? And I would. Growing up, I heard people teach on that, and they I was taught that it meant you got to be focused on your goals. A good eye means to be focused
on your goals. If you're going to set goals, you got to be focused. Oh, OK. But as I begin to learn history and culture, come to find out, a good eye is actually an idiom. It is a Jewish idiom. And it's an idiom actually, that's used in the Old Testament, and it means to be generous. An evil eye, depending on context, means to be stingy.
And if you go back and you read the context in Matthew chapter 6 of what Jesus is talking about, it fits the context because he talks about giving, He talks about your treasure in heaven, where's your treasure being stored? And so Jesus saying, listen, if you are generous you should be full of light, really shows your spirituality. But if you are greedy and you hoard, you're filled with
darkness. Now if you look up those words again in Greek or even in Hebrew, you won't get the meaning of that from the Greek and the Hebrew. You have to know the culture and how the culture utilizes those terms. And it's that way with so many things within scripture. Again, when we when we tend to read the Bible, we tend to read it as if it was written directly to us and our 21st century settings.
And it wasn't. It was originally written to people in an ancient or Eastern setting, the Old Testament. It was originally written to people in a 1st century Greco, Roman and Jewish setting, the New Testament. So we have to be able to understand that culture and immerse ourselves, and that takes time. It takes study. We have to really study.
But then when you start to understand more of the culture, the things that you read that those people would have taken for granted because they they were part of the culture, it starts to make much more sense. You know, like so for me, growing up hearing you don't believe fat me's greasy, I understood immediately. Now when I said to you first, you know Rod, you don't believe fat me's greasy. Your your mind probably went huh?
I thought it was like a like a version of an honest Abe, like a guy who's always right. And it's like, you don't believe that meets Greasy. Like his name was like, that's me greasy. Seriously. That was my first. Thought I'm like, I really have no other idea what's going on here. My imagination led to that, so. So it's so little things like that, but but you know what? What you just said, that's what we do when we're reading the biblical text.
We will read it and we will kept our meaning onto this if we don't know the culture and so then we will derive out of the text something that the text never said. Yes. And that's why we're to study to show ourselves well approved, right, with gearing trembling and you know, there's a lot of study it does. But that means being a disciple, being a Berean as you said earlier. Yes, and and it's lifestyle then. So you know, there's a lot of
people that are playing well. It's kind of like, in a weird way from what I see now, this isn't across the board. This isn't subjected to everybody's perspective. But from what I see in the millennial generation, it's becoming kind of trendy or cool to be a Christian because it's like the new bad boy, right? It's like, oh, kind of going
against the grain. And it's like, you know, you have all these kind of borderline bold and some of them really genuine and honest whistleblowers who are out there calling it like they see it, right? Because right now our culture is saying what is good is wrong and what is wrong is good, right? We're seeing the flip flop. We're seeing this kind of stuff, so people really have a lot of the times, a good mode of a good heart. They want to honor and serve God.
But I think what we're doing here tonight, this is for all of us and and this is a lifestyle. This is not just, oh, it's kind of cute and cool now to become a Christian rapper because Christian rap is actually becoming something that the world is taking notice to when five years ago, nobody wanted to be a Christian rapper. I use that as the idea that, you know, what really makes the difference is when we hear the
voice. You know, when when Jesus is our shepherd and we're the flock, we don't hear another's voice. And I think that the way that I've been living, you know, Mike, I really look at it and I go, I have not knowingly but intentionally at the same time ignored things that I knew didn't settle and resonate with the deepest part of me. I would observe and I'd go that's not there's something off and it wasn't like that guy's a Sinner.
I don't believe his preaching. No, it was just it was like this caution of like something's off. I I can't. I can't go there. Something's not right. I don't get the green light. I don't care if 150 of you stand up and say the light's green. Go if I don't get that like if it doesn't stir up deep and become something that the the river of living water can can surfboard on, right. These ideas can't actually boogie board on what's flowing.
I didn't really want to participate, so I spent a lot of time biting my tongue, sitting back and watching. And now I'm starting to understand that God has me in this peculiar situation, you know, with people that are literally taking this journey with me. That's the premises of the show. Mike is in this day and age with a million messages and signals causing confusion and chaos. Let's take a journey together. Let's talk about this ultimate
truth. So what you have already laid down tonight for this Part one, I am super excited to have you back in the near future for a Part 2 and to to learn this together. Like, it's not about who's right. And it's not about arguing. It's it's about we love the word of God and we want to put on the mind of Christ. We want to lay aside denominational preferences. I'm not saying, you know, exalting A denomination or or saying don't be a part of one. I'm not. I don't want to beat up on the
church, man. I'm a we're the bride. I'm a part of the bride and I think that this is the perfect opportunity for us to show ourselves, you know, stewards of of of our time, of your talent, of your passion and we by diving in this together. Not only are you helping me by doing this tonight, but but you're helping tons of people out there listening. So just a lot of respect and
just I appreciate your time. Well, I appreciate you giving me the, just giving me a platform to be able to share these things that I this is like I said earlier, is a passion of mine to share these things, this information, the tools with people. And like you said, there's a lot of anxiety out there. Now since the pandemic, it's been studies that have been done, anxiety and fear has risen. We're seeing more fear, especially in our younger generation, Gen.
Z's, millennials. There is a lot of fear and anxiety and a lack of hope about the future. So I think as believers, if we can bring the truth of God and also bring the wisdom of how do you apply this, we can be a force for good to help people. Couldn't have said it any better and just plug in where you can be found real quick. One, they can actually e-mail me at MLD. Mike M as in Mike. L as in Lion D as in Dog MLD and the word training at msn.com. They can e-mail me.
They can also find me on Facebook. Mike Davis. I think it's Mike Davis slash Facebook the coach. I think my wife set it up like that. We are, we do have a website. We're redoing it. So it's going to be a while before it's up. But if they if they find me on Facebook could you and I are friends on Facebook And so if they can't find me directly, yes, I'd say just go look under Rod's friends that you find Mike Davis and they can friend me.
I friend people and then they can direct message me. I do respond to direct messages. That's one of the simplest ways that most people have found. Well, once again it was an honor and I am in high anticipation for a Part 2. Looking. Forward to it. That's it. That's the show you guys.
I'm going to ask you to share this with your friends, family members, with your Co worker, share it with your doctor and share it with your pastor coming to you from Southeastern Pennsylvania. God bless and goodbye. Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this hand from the Reaper. Now I don't hide who I am from the people. Now. Ain't no slide in their hand. Ain't no secrets. Now I'm saved. Shooting me out the trap in the grave. And they took me back on the strain.
Strain. Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this hand from the Reaper. Now I don't hide who I am from the people. Now. Ain't no slide in the hand. Ain't no secrets. Now I'm saying Get Me Out the trap. And the brave. They took me back when I strayed. Take me now. You can break me now. Let the move of your skin. If you would shake me now. You're the beep from the tails. Have to break me now from the streets and the stairs, trying
to take my crown. Your bird and the stand on it. Put the tooth like my hand on it through the booth. Put my fans on it. Whatever I do, I put your hand on it without a flinch. He gave his life to the cause with the scars on his wrist. You died in yourself. Nothing harder than this. I got nothing left to give but my heart as it is. Revelation the truth. Ain't nothing vain on it. Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this handful. Deeper now. I don't hide who I am from the
people now. Ain't no slide in their hand. Ain't no secrets now. I'm saved. Take me up the trap and the grave. They took me back from a strange train. Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this handful. Deeper now.