¶ Food, Books, and Cultural Differences
So , Oscar , you brought up this topic , so give us your thoughts .
Yeah , well , I like to read broadly Christian and Non . About once a year I'll read a book that would be categorized as self-help , perhaps you know . One of the more recent ones that I read that I thought was actually really practical was Atomic Habits multi-million book selling , you know , new York Times bestselling guy .
As I was thinking through it , though , I thought to myself man , there's all these guys , there's the Jordan Peterson's , there's the James Clears that are putting together these things that are helptical , practical tools . But what's missing and I like that you guys talked about those aspects that we can redeem what is the good ?
Some of these books are excellent books on helping us understand how we function right , the habits of our lives , the way emotions affect relationships , how to understand the people around you . Some of these books are really practical how to create healthy habits , how to grow up and just be an adult , because a lot of us have these like in this day and age .
There's like the false start pandemic , right , and then a lot of these books are just really well written , they're enjoyable stories , but what they're missing is , at the end of the day , there's are ultimately just more rules , just more morals that we're going to ultimately fail at doing , and that's the clear and distinct difference between the gospel and what could
be helpful self-help books . Is that , self-help books ? You are the hero of your own story , that's what . But If you do this , you will have the life you want . We're at the center of it , but the gospel tells us I am the problem and I'm not the hero of my story . Christ is the hero of my story .
You know , one of the biggest things that really , really made my family and me laugh when we first came from Lebanon was all the funny foods that you ridiculous Americans eat , like what .
Excuse me Like podcasts . No , it's just started with sane , sane thoughts , love and gentleness .
Just weird . Like what Example Should I sing Ray no .
Sing Ray . Sing Bit of a sting Ray .
Sing Ray , sting Ray , yeah .
Funny , funky foods Such as the thing I couldn't get was how much food was on the plate . When we came over here . I thought Rocky Mountain High food was just .
I'd never seen anything like it and that was a normal restaurant . Mark , can you imagine if Ray had gone to claim jumper ?
It's still around . There's one over by a .
We did go to a claim jumper . Pastor Gary took us here when you first got here .
Yeah , that's when they give you a whole big everything Well , because for Americans claim jumpers is like what , there's a sandwich the size of your laptop .
It's called the mother load .
Yeah , seriously crazy . And yeah , no , just just foods like macaroni and cheese .
Oh , I love macaroni and cheese , though Wait , you do like macaroni and cheese .
You're the kind who would , do you not like macaroni and cheese ? I have a funny relationship with it because it's like okay , I'll eat it , but who would get excited about ? Mac Is there , but wait , italians would get excited about . Macaroni and cheese , no well , maybe macaroni .
Macaroni and cheese .
They probably be insulted by it .
I did an Italian accent .
I was . I was so impressed . But don't they have like gourmet macaroni and cheese ?
I was just about to say I've had some like bougie .
Like lobster , mac and cheese .
Okay but I'm going to tell you right now , nothing beats Kraft Mac . Okay , come on . You know what ? Oscar ?
Every time I think my respect like cannot go lower for you . It somehow finds you . Like , stick around , you guys are crazy . You doctored up stuff to it . I just remember my mom . What's this stupid stuff ? So macaroni and cheese , love it . Rice a Rony oh wow , I love rice a Rony . See , you guys are proving my whole point .
What is rice a .
Rony Rice a Rony . I'm a Ranciska treat , san Francisco treat . Is it just rice Rice Rony 99 cents . They have a Posteroni too . You ever had Posteroni ?
Mark , yes , I don't eat anymore , but I love it . I love rice , rony , but my wife ? Well , let me eat it because it has MSG .
So , mark , as you say this stuff , do you feel shame ?
No , my mouth is watering . It's kind of like a chili cheese dog . If I can get some rice , a Rony mac and cheese and a chili cheese dog , Well , have in . This explains so much about us .
If you are what you eat , Mark , this explains so much about you . Hamburger helper .
Yeah , not a fan , oh miracle .
What did you guys grow up on ? Camel humps .
One hump or two .
Cabel ears Okay , I was going to be careful . Powdered milk yeah , that's good . Wait , that's real Powdered mashed potatoes .
Go back to the powder milk . That helped a lot of people in Africa . They'd send across powdered milk to people in Africa but water with it and they got milk Okay well , that's powdered water . You just have to add water .
Let's not talk about the exceptions .
Ray Powdered mashed potatoes , that's who I grew up on that I've never heard of that .
Well , I didn't grow up on anything Seriously , like all this stuff . A cup of noodle Okay , I like cup of noodle . It's quick , though we had to talk before about how ramen right , I wish they had cup of noodle flavor because it's so good and it's so quick . Yeah , but I feel , as I'm eating it , I'm eating diseases .
Okay , pause , pause , pause , pause , no applause . Here I go when I travel with Easy and we get to the hotel . First thing he does is he goes inside the little snack shop and what do ?
you get .
Do you get like , hey , do you have any fruit ? No , what do you get ? I don't remember what do I get . Snicker bar , what do you ?
get ? Oh , the good stuff . I thought you meant bad stuff . Yeah , snicker bars , candy chocolate coke , doritos Chocolate coke .
And this is the glorious thing . But I don't see you eat like that normally .
No , the glorious thing is , mark looks at me with like this disdaining , like judgmental attitude , while he would give his life for a wiener schnitzel .
We went on a snowboarding trip and we get to the cabin or whatever , and he pulls out these just bags . It looked like a youth retreat . It was just candy and chips and more candy . There was like four of us .
Okay , so my normal rhythm is I eat really healthy and I don't eat any sugar or junk . One day a week I'll have a free day , you know , but when I do travel , sometimes that throws me off .
This is why you said last episode you love to travel .
Did I say that I put the sugar on my frosted plate ? But no , I mean the thing . Oh , that was a one . Okay , I'll just admit there were a few things that we encountered when we came that just changed our lives Big Macs and frosted flakes .
Oh boy , I love frosted flakes . I can't eat that stuff . Do you still make that ?
Okay , but think of the simplicity of it . It's a stinking piece of . It's like a cornmeal with sugar on it .
Genius . We're not quite sure what it is .
but it is very good Manna . It's just obviously manna from heaven .
Manna yeah , but no , you know , in Lebanon you do everything for yourself . You don't have this instant stuff . You know you want milk . You milk the cow , you want to eat it . You kill the cow , you cook the cow .
I mean , nobody loves McDonald's more than you when we travel , oh , Big Mac Well it's consistent .
Do you know that in 10 years I've had McDonald's one time , and it was when we were on a road trip to go skiing ? Oh was it ? Yeah , but you made me stop .
The sauce . It's a drug . I'm convinced , Really . I haven't had a Big Mac in 34 years , mark , I'm going to break you .
I'm going to break you my son's 10 years old . The other day I was driving him home from school and he goes dad , what does McDonald's taste like ? Can we try it ? I'm not kidding , I'm serious . He's never once in his life had McDonald's . Well , please don't deprive your child .
We went into Taco Bell . My son , nathaniel , looks up and he goes dad , I want to eat this and I go . Well , there's a McDonald's right next door . So we went to McDonald's . He's never been . He looks up at the food and he goes I'm just not going to eat . When was this ? Oh , he was like 10 .
Oh , he was young yeah .
Yeah , he didn't want to eat it . A 10-year-old choosing not to eat McDonald's .
I make it my aim to not eat at McDonald's . I feel depressed . It's just that you're embarrassing .
I don't know what it is .
I'm like what's the matter with you ? What if someone sees me but I take it home ? Mark , you don't like McDonald's .
No , I mean , I eat it when I'm in London .
What happened when we went to Paris , betty ? We could have gone to a great restaurant .
Oh yeah , well , we'd rather have McDonald's than Orange .
Because you know what you're getting exactly .
Yeah , I love McDonald's , except the ketchup is different . All right , guys , stop talking about this stuff . We have a comment . This is from Bella Carlotta Fuqua . I love Easy . Hopefully Easy will read this because of the title she has . You , you are brilliant , bella Carol . You guys are the best . See , now you guys are included . How nice .
I look forward to new episodes . Never , ever stop posting . Please do an episode on conversation starters to spread the gospel and how to do so in a workplace where you don't want things to be awkward . I like that . We'll have to do that . Thank you for that recommendation , our friend , and thank you for saying you love Easy . Hey , it's about time .
I've been humble . I've been reading stuff about you guys leaving my name out .
You've been holding onto this one , though , once in a while , you know what .
You actually are onto something . We should ask the people topics that need to be discussed that we haven't discussed .
Yeah , right , in podcastlivingwaterscom , that really helps . Or leave it on the comments . Leave it on the comments . Leave it on the comments .
That really is helpful , yeah it really is .
By the way , before I transition , is there any weird food ? That's a weird word , now it is . Is there any transition ? But Easy wants to transition . Very true , any weird foods that you guys absolutely love , that people would be like unreal .
I put ketchup in my mac and cheese .
Oh , that's okay . I put Lee and Perrin's in my mac and cheese . What , Lee and what Like Worcestershire sauce .
Oh , I put an egg in my burgers .
Oh , I love that . I had that for the first time of the day . It was so good it's really good .
I like peanut butter with pickles .
No , you don't , I do . That's actually the thing . I've seen that before . Peanut butter pickle sandwich the other day . Why does ?
everyone think I'm weird for putting sugar on my avocados . That's weird , what ? What Are you for real ? This is a good case and point of seriously .
We can just move on Sugar .
This is a case and point On your avocado Of how upbringing can really affect you , because when I heard people use salt with avocado I was like what are you talking about ? Avocados only eaten with sugar that's all I've ever known all my life .
I feel like , as the only Mexican at the table , I'm the only one that can speak with authority on how to eat avocados .
Well , I hate guacamole . If that's where you're going , what Evil wicked . I will never eat guacamole .
There's no rules when it comes to food . I just think it's great to mix everything and just see how it works .
It's mixing your stomach anyways .
Are you guys the type that don't like your food touching ?
No , my daughter's like that though .
Touches in my tummy . Oh , I can't stand it .
You do too . Oh yeah , I have to separate certain things . Eventually , her food can't be touching each other .
But I've never heard of that . But that makes logical sense . Why would ? How does that make logical sense ?
Okay , take your Snickers bar and blend it up with your Turritos . No , blend it . Look , he's ready to say he does it .
I was a try . That sounds pretty good , but it does Wait . So on Thanksgiving , show what you saw , bless it up with your tuna casserole .
Take your Snickers and blend it up with your tuna casserole .
I would eat it right after I'm done eating my tuna casserole Exactly not touching and blended together .
No , I don't mind if it touches On .
Thanksgiving . Do you have like your mashed potatoes over here and your gravy over there ?
No , I put gravy over here , gravy on mashed potato . Why would you do that ? It's touching . It's things that should Whee . Stop it , ray . Those things should not be touching .
What did he ? Do I put ?
my jacket between my teeth .
All right friends .
It's his chalkboard . That's the way to get in and stop talking about that . It's his fingernails on the chalkboard .
This podcast is brought to you by Search and Rescue guiding unbelievers to the Savior , by Eddie Roman Roman , forward by Ray Comfort . I love Eddie man , that guy's passion for the gospel , for the lost , his consistency in leading teams reaching the lost . It all started with the ambassadors academy .
You had this conviction evangelized , never tried , looked up evangelism , founder of ministry , came , tended , became our producer , and now he's written a book . So make sure to check it out , friends . Search and Rescue guiding unbelievers to the Savior , by Eddie Roman forward by Ray Comfort .
I feel like we're talking about
¶ Self-Help Books vs the Gospel
Eddie Roman . There's one story I have to tell very quickly about Eddie Roman , and that is Eddie Roman , in the middle of Africa , sees this little kid riding a bike . He says , let me see that bike kid . He breaks the kid's bike .
Because he was trying to do BMX tricks on it and just walks away , he just walks away .
No , is that entirely true ?
That's all the part of the story I'm gonna tell .
Hey pour him a new bike . He did buy a new bike . It's slandering . Eddie , as we just mentioned in his book Put a bike's like 13 cents in Africa . All right friends . So don't forget that book and the Living Waters mug and the evidence study Bible all at livingwaterslivingwaterscom . Living Waters , oh livingwaterscom .
I got so excited right there , Oscar . Oscar became irrelevant yeah .
All right , friends , onto the topic why self-help books will leave you helpless . This was Oscar's idea , so it's gonna bomb . I know I can play a lot of games the least downloaded ever , yeah . So no , this is actually very pertinent because , Ray , you have been frustrated for years . Thank you for joining us .
Sorry , you have been for a long time frustrated by the fact that it's so hard to find evangelism books in a Christian bookstore .
Yes , you take your magnifying glass with you . If you ask Where's the evangelism section , there's no such thing . So I think we should qualify this way self-help books leave you helpless . What books are we talking about ? Because I checked the self-help Christian books and a whole stack of really .
We're talking about secular , secular yeah , make lots of money .
Yeah , how to become a millionaire in 24 hours . That's how to become a millionaire . Write a book that says that people are gonna buy it . That gives you money , right like New Age mysticism , okay yeah , and mysticism , because there's nothing , I mean intrinsic .
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to organize your time better right or how to eat better or stay fit right . Yeah , I want to help myself .
Well , there's one called seven habits of highly effective people . I thought , look at that . I read a synopsis of sure .
I've heard that book , yeah , and it's not that you can't glean things from from certain books , and and we encourage believers to think that way right , we're not like the Jehovah's Witnesses who are like , won't even take a tract because they want to control their minds .
We need to use discernment and everything that we look at what we really want to get into is that genre of books that are based on human philosophy , right , I mean , I know that through the years , as believers , as we've watched even secular movies with our , with our families , we will pause at times , and I'm talking about movies that are , that have a
redemptive theme to them , and we'll often , as a family we've mentioned it before we'll use something called clear play or vid angel that removes the filth and things like that .
But still , there are philosophies , right , that you need to step back and examine and To teach your kids to discern as they're looking at the world , because they're gonna encounter all kinds of things . So that genre of books that has those worldly , godless Philosophies and and why they're harmful and destructive .
So , oscar , you brought up this topic , so give us your thoughts .
Yeah , well , I do . I like to read broadly Christian and non about once a year I'll read a book that would be categorized as self-help , perhaps you know . One of the more recent ones that I read that I thought was actually really practical was atomic habits , multi Like million books selling , you know , new York Times best-selling guy .
As I was thinking through it , though , I thought to myself man , there's , there's all these guys . There's the Jordan , peter , peter sins , there's the , there's the James clears that are , that are putting together these things , that are helptical , practical tools .
But what's missing and I like that you guys talked about those aspects that we can redeem what is the good ? Some of these books are excellent books on helping us understand how we function , right , the habits of our lives , the , the way emotions affect relationships , how to understand the people around you .
Some of these books are really practical how to create healthy habits , how to grow up and just be an adult , because a lot of us have these , like in this day and age . There's like the false start pandemic , right .
And then a lot of these books are just really well-written , they're enjoyable stories , but what they're missing is , at the end of the day , there's there , they're ultimately just more rules , just more morals that we're going to ultimately fail at doing .
And that's the clear and distinct , this difference between between the gospel and what could be helpful self-help books is that , self-help books , you are the hero of your own story , that's what . But if you do this , you will have the life you want . You're at the center of it . But the gospel tells us , I Am the problem and I am not the hero of my story .
Right , christ is the hero of my story . I am not a machine that just needs to be retooled . I am an organic , living , fallen creature that needs to be redeemed . And so self-help books use them with discretion . They can be really practical and helpful , but turn to Christ for transformation .
Yeah , it's not about improving ourselves , it's about denying ourselves . Right , we don't need self-help , we need a savior . Christ is who we need , and you can fill your day with things to do , you can be the most practical A user of time and your talents and your treasure , but if Christ isn't at the center , well then you're just losing the mark . Right ?
If you have the ability to spend all your money to feed the poor , you have the ability to love in a way that's not actually beneficial to the person You're not actually loving . You're not actually being beneficial to the people around you . So if Christ is at the center of what you're doing , then then great .
Organize to the glory of God and do whatever you want to do , right ? So it's not so much that they leave us helpless as much as they leave us hopeless , and Christ is our hope . We need to be focused on what Christ has for us because you can become so organized . Think about it like this we organize our day and then we say God bless our day .
Here's my schedule for the day . Lord now bless my schedule , when , in reality , god does not often work like that , that God works in the intermissions and the distractions and the disruptions of what's going on . I have to work out my one hour today . Well , what if you don't work out ? I mean you lose your sanity .
I mean because oftentimes God uses rabbit trails inside of our lives to get our attention and to accomplish what he wants to accomplish . You know , it's been often said , if you want , you want to make God laugh tell him your plans for the day , right , well , I must be as fit as I possibly can .
That's okay to be fit , I mean body , the exercise , it profits . But what if God's desire for you is to suffer and not have the ability to do what you've always wanted to do ? Yeah , so make sure you're improving the spirit more than you're improving anything else , and that's only done through the Bible .
Remember , the Bible isn't a book , it's a library , and it's a library filled with 66 books . That'll help you .
Yeah , I love the angle you guys are giving on objective right , like why am I reading this ? And so easily people can actually switch out God's word for self-help books and they can switch out the gospel for self-help , self-help books .
And you know , I like the Ray Comfort approach , right , take a self-help Book and just change it instead of how to win friends and influence people , how to win souls and influence people funny .
You should mention that book because I read that , bought by Dale Carnegie about 35 years ago , and I absolutely loved it .
It's it's not really Christian book , but it's got principles in it that just make life work , full of anecdotes and stories and yeah , we're talking friends , about how to win friends and influence people , and Ray wrote a book that springboard is off of that how to win souls how to win souls and influence people .
Influence people , dale Carnegie . This is what he said . Obviously , circumstances alone do not make us happy or unhappy . It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings . Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within you . That is where the kingdom of hell is too .
So a lot of stuff , he said , had Christian stuff , but that wasn't really a clear Christian book , but it was very helpful , I found . Have you guys heard of Norman Vincent Peel ? Oh yeah , yes , he wrote a book called the power of positive thinking . He was the father of the positive thinking name it claim it .
So I think now I don't know what I think of him . Easy , doesn't think too much of him , I think . But Leonard Ravenhill said something it's amazing about Norman Vincent Peel Peel . He said this I find the Apostle Paul appealing and peel .
Well , that's awesome . Well , yeah , I mean , you know he's the guy that influenced .
Yeah , I'm trying to remember as we had lunch with his son .
We did , yeah , great guy , and yeah we were , we were , you know , seeking to build a bridge with him and but yeah , I remember , I Remember he was greatly interested by that's , the whole positive confession thing and positive thinking and man , I hear that stuff and it just makes my blood boil when , when , especially when it's it's something that is intermingled
with the gospel , mm-hmm . And so many people have been led in that direction , like the whole positive confession thing that's been picked up by word of faith preachers and and Prosperity preachers , like do you know how many people are superstitious ? And that's exactly what it is . Don't say that . What do you mean ? Don't say that .
It's like your words , you know they have power that no , if you say it , it's gonna happen . Where do we get that notion ?
that is total Garbage , garbage and to be clear , I'm not superstitious , I'm just a little stishers . You know , I like that . You think you brought it up , which is you , or you brought it up . When you go to one of you brought it up . When you go to like a Barnes and Nobles in a bookstore and you'll see rows and rows of air quote Christian
¶ Worldly Philosophies in Christian Books
books , but as you read through them , they're just self-help books Masquerading as Christian books . And and how does I you know I'm talking to the Christian like how do I distinguish the difference ?
If you're reading a book and God is positioned as your resource to get the life you've always wanted to have , the marriage you always dreamed of , to raise the children you really desire , to have the career that you want , if God is a resource to your felt needs only man , that's not the God who saved you . Yeah , god is .
God , is your Creator , he is your savior and it's his plan for your life , not your plan for your life . Does God give us Practical ways to have a beautiful , god glorifying marriage , to raise godly children , to to find a career with Excellency ? Yes , but that's not the primary purpose of what God intends to do in our lives .
Yeah , and it's keeping that , that main focus , and and recognizing too that the Lord has given us so many . I mean , look , time is limited . Right , we talk about that all the time .
We have such such limited time and you have a choice to fill your heart and mind with things that , yeah , I may bear some some helpful insights , but you're gonna have to weed through so much godless philosophy . Or you can go to trusted Authors that know the living God and who are gonna intermix ways to live with the author of life and the word of God .
That is our instruction manual . You know lots of good stuff that we can occupy our hearts and minds with .
Oscar was talking about . Go to any store buns and whatever and you'll see a whole stack of books , christian books . There's a market out there for them and you just slap God in the title as a secular book and you're gonna reach a bigger market .
Yeah , I've been amazed by how many do that , and what I'd love for us to do is to kind of talk about some of the worldly philosophies that we see springing up from these sorts of books that people go with , and I want you guys to just weigh in on some of these .
So one of the most famous mantras that we hear that's usually intertwined or interweaved into some of these books is follow your heart , follow your heart .
That's a big one and it's the kind of thing that and I talk about some of these in my book Fight Like a man and how the worldly philosophies can easily influence us , and oftentimes you'll see , this is the kind of thing , it's the go to right . This is when grandma and grandpa are writing the graduation card for you with their gift .
You're beautiful inside and out . Your heart is beautiful .
Follow your heart right .
I saw of Valentine's being yesterday . One of you guys said something about think of your heart is deceitfully wicked above all things .
Right , and so I want to camp on that for a minute . What do we do with that , mark , the whole mantra of follow your heart ? Ray just quoted Jeremiah 79 , the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked . Who can know it ? But a lot of people , especially young people . I just followed my heart .
Yeah , if somebody's legitimately believing that and saying that , because we don't need to respond to everything that's being said out there . But if somebody's legitimately believing that you just need to follow your heart , I might just try to invoke a question out of them . What do you mean by that ? What do you mean follow your heart ?
Especially if it's a believer ? I'm gonna say well , the Bible says our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked . So when you say follow your heart , what do you actually mean ? What are you saying with that ? What is the takeaway ? And then that invokes deeper thinking , critical thinking by asking a question and answering a question with a question .
So God helps those who helps themselves . It's another one of those worldly mantras that we kind of take for granted when in reality we can't help ourselves . We can only surrender . You'd be surprised the traditional mantras that we adhere to because we're just inundated through television and billboards and podcasts .
Never listen to a podcast unless it's a living waters podcast .
Preach . Yeah , yeah , follow your heart . The problem is your heart . That's the problem with follow your heart . But here's the other reality . We're actually every single person is , by default , following your heart . That is what we do . It is in our nature . We think we are thinking things , but we're primarily lovers .
This is Augustine's big argument is that we are not created to think , we are created to love . We love first , then we think , and I love the way Jonathan Haidt puts it in his book the Righteous Mind and I think I may have said this before , but he positions the way the person works and he says your heart is like the president .
The president comes out and he makes a statement here's the direction of our country , this is what we are doing . And then he leaves and your brain is like the press secretary it comes out and it starts gathering information , data , research , googling things to defend the position the heart has already made .
In other words , you don't think your way into believing something , you love your way into believing something , and that's why I say you are always following your heart . What we need is a transformed heart . We need God to replace our wicked heart with a heart after the Lord .
So , in other words , we need to invite ourselves to not follow our fallen hearts , but follow Christ as he changes our hearts . Wow .
Steve Jobs , sorry , Carol .
No , go ahead .
Steve Jobs said follow your heart , but check it with your head . Which is the world philosophy ? Does it make sense ? Is it just emotional or does it make sense ? But what we say is follow your heart , but check it with a word of God .
Amen , and that was the point I was gonna bring up . Augustine got it right in terms of our love . What a weird hill to die on , isn't it terrible ? Yeah , and , by the way , it's Jonathan . Hate , not hype . But yeah , that is the problem , right ? The problem with follow your heart , and this is what we often see in society .
Why did you marry this unbeliever ? Well , I just followed my heart . My heart told me this was the right thing to do . Well , your heart lied to you and your heart is deceitful and wicked because your heart is conflicting with the word of God . Guys , without the foundation of God's word , we are lost . If we don't have foundation , we are lost .
There is a way that seems right to me . The end of that way is death .
Now , and it's because , again , we have created this idol out of ourselves .
You need to love yourself . Your problem is you don't love yourself . You're loving other people too much .
Right , that's another one . I have it listed here , love yourself . So let's jump into that one , since we're there .
Oh , we're infatuated with ourselves , right ? I have a friend who has like a few mirrors inside of his office .
I don't think I'm gonna realize it . It's way more than a few .
Honestly , our favorite picture is a mirror for all of us .
It depends how old you're getting spent .
Yeah , no , it's so true , Mark . But yeah , we need to address that because what happens is right . Scripture talks about love your neighbor as yourself , right ? Ephesians talks about no one ever hated his own flesh but nurses and churches . You're to love your wife as your own body , right ?
But this is the misunderstanding , because Christ also talked about hating your life , talked about dying to yourself , laying your life down . When scripture is talking about love of self , it's talking about the natural order of things in the realm of what is automatic for us in terms of self-preservation , right .
I mean , we feed ourselves and we clothe ourselves and we bathe ourselves and we don't abuse and beat ourselves down . That's what it's talking about . It's not talking about this inordinate self-worship where it's all about me , right , because the greatest love of all . Right , that's the most re-comprompting you've done today .
So Ray picked that was gonna do the mute , but I missed it .
Yeah , Ray picked up his phone to make out like it's a remote control to mute me . And dropped me . It was terrible .
I picked a box of chocolates up the day before yesterday and I offered to a guy in the boardroom and it fell on the ground . But the problem is the stupid gravity thing . That's why I spilled the milk .
But then Ray picked up all those chocolates , put them in the box and then offered them to you yesterday and I was watching you eat them , Wait what ?
Remember those chocolates that were really good . They didn't go on the ground . Yeah , oh , the ground chocolates .
Yeah , he easily took them . It was very nice of him . I thought these had been on the ground , but he still takes them .
Wow , he spit hair out of your mouth . I'm about to take my own , father-in-law to court . I can't believe this Okay but right . So it's that whole worldly foster . But that's what the word's talking about when it talks about love , not this , like you know , yeah , and this goes back to Augustine's view of sin , which he says disordered loves .
The problem with us is that we love the wrong things at the wrong times and the wrong ways , and so we prioritize ourselves over others , ourselves over God , and so forth and so on .
Ultimately , again , I love Charles Taylor and his quote , his book A Secular Age , because he points out that there's ultimately two different ways that we can develop our own personal identity . There's a traditional view and a modern view . Right now we're talking about the modern view .
The traditional view is that you look to your nation , you look to your country , you look to your tribe and whatever your tribe , your nation , your country is doing , you find how you adopt yourself , you suppress your inner feelings and you conform to the needs of your tribe . But he points out there's a problem with that .
What happens when your tribe takes a moral slide ? You'll have to adopt that new moral behavior . You'll subject yourself to the moral failures of the tribe because you don't want to be kicked out . That's traditional view . The modern view is the opposite Instead of looking out , you look within . You look inside and you go . Who do I think I am ?
What does my heart say ? How do I love myself ? And then you demand that the world conform to your air quote authentic self , which is a phrase that we hear all the time in self-help books how to discover your authentic self . Here's the problem with that One . Our hearts are a moving target . You're gonna wake up one day feeling thinking one thing .
You're gonna wake up the next day feeling and thinking another . Here's another problem . What happens ? Because this happens inevitably to every single one of us we look inside of ourselves and we think I'm worthless , I'm a hypocrite , I'm a nobody , I'm a failure , because we all know that we
¶ The Gospel vs. Self-Help Philosophy
don't meet the standards that God has given for us . What happens , then , is that we have this standard for ourselves that we can't meet , and depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation shoots through the roof in our culture because we keep telling everyone look inside of yourself to figure out who you are , to give yourself value and worth .
The good news of the gospel is that you have been authored by a God that can give you more value and worth than you could ever give yourself , and , unlike your heart , that's a moving target . God is a stalwart .
He stands , still , never changes , and so the answer to this fake , depressing , dangerous gospel is that you were created in the image of God and he gives you a value and a worth living for .
No , I'll put it on Oscar and the cross puts that on steroids , amen . Yeah , yeah , and that's oftentimes what's missing in a lot of these self-help books . Even a lot of Christian self-help books , right , I mean , how many have we been told about ?
Or we've looked at and it's like this is a quote unquote Christian book , but it's a crossless book , it's a Christless book and you can almost not blame the unbeliever who's writing something that you know obviously isn't based on God's word . But when someone is professing to know Christ and to know his word , and then it's just kind of like an afterthought .
It's really tragic , you know . So , yeah , so love yourself , you know , and that is so . It's just so opposite of what scripture calls us to do in terms of .
But didn't Jesus say we're to love our neighbor as we love ourselves ?
I'm gonna punch you , Mark Smith . No , no , no , but I love you .
I have a question for you , Izzy . We've been talking about self-help books written by Christians . What about self-help sermons ?
Oh , even worse , Even worse . No , you're right , because a lot of preaching today is basically that right . It's really just a motivational speaker , self-help talk , and so that , again , is the whole thing of like .
You know , it's a sermon without the gospel at the center of it , and the gospel isn't just the tool for salvation , it's the treasure house and the ever-flowing fountain of life-giving truth from which we live . The benefits of the gospel are huge , and that needs to be intertwined in everything that we do .
That sort of preaching appeals to the carnal nature , uncrucified nature . A false convert would latch on to the prodigal going back to the father to get more money . Rather than make me a servant , God becomes your servant .
True Frey , I saw something you wrote . Was it something you wrote the other day ? You were talking about the prodigal son and you were talking about how there or maybe it was in a video you did about how you know some there are some that come to God as prodigals , because it's like the prodigal son coming to the father .
The money's run out , rather than I've sinned against heaven and in your sight , right , you have something to say .
Yeah , yeah . What's missing is the modern preachers are fearful to say to the prodigal you're desiring filthy pig food , that's what your heart seeks after . Pornography and fornication , all these things you know are unclean . Well , all is an unclean thing and a righteous deeds are as filthy rags .
So they stay away from the law because they don't want to condemn and show the prodigal that he's desiring filthy pig food . But that's what brought him to his senses , that's what made him cry of sinned against heaven , sinned against my father and in against heaven . That's what made him go back and say I'm not worthy , make me your servant .
When that is forsaken and the prodigal isn't shown that his desires are unclean , he goes back to his father and says you be my servant . Because he's never seen his uncleanness . He's never said I've sinned against , never seen that he's sinned against heaven . So God becomes a servant . That's what's missing .
Yeah , oh , man so good . Yeah , well , here's another one . Man is basically good . So again , self-help books , self-help books , and sermons and talks and all that . They're based on a philosophy , right .
Shoplifting .
What's that ?
Self-help is shoplifting ?
Yeah , pretty much , but right man is basically good . That's a philosophy that so much of it is based on .
Don't you hear it at funerals ? That's when you hear it the most . That trumpet is sounded at funerals . You know , here's the head of the mafia , but he was basically a good person . He had a really good heart .
Raid debunked that with our dropping of the wallet in Santa Monica . Was it Santa Monica ? Oh , that's right ?
No , it was . Yeah , it was Venice Beach .
Venice Beach dropping a wallet , having some money in it , having your hidden spy camera on chasing after the person saying , did you find my wallet ? And people denying it .
Yeah . This guy says no , no , no , didn't see it . I said you can keep the money in it , we'll interview you if you'll talk about it . He says , yeah , I found it .
You know , I've read a handful of books by critical theorists . I've read Karl Marx , and one of the things that's interesting is that how do you explain the problems that we face with the philosophy that man is basically good ? Here's how they would explain it .
They would say that man is basically good , and what corrupts them is the authorities placed around him , and so those authorities need to be reformed or removed entirely . And so Wait , the authorities that are basically good . Right , the authority . That's .
The point that I'm making is that they'll look at society and go well , society misuses the man , and so the man is bad . Who created society ?
Yeah , Was it man , did man , who are supposedly basically good that's exactly so , man is basically good and it's a surroundings that causes corruption .
He should not be sent to prison .
He should be taken care of yeah , well , and that's the- .
Correctional institution rather than a prison , and of course , this is where .
So , first off it's like well , who created this society ? Man did . But then the second thing is that if you're gonna buck authority , then eventually you're gonna buck God , amen . You're gonna say well then , if man's basically good , then God's the problem . Religion's the problem , that it's suppressing and it's the thing that's causing the issue , and that
¶ Nature of Man and Redemption
is the cultural milieu that we live in right now .
One of the fun things I've ever done is when someone says in an open air situation , humanity is basically good . I see you got a wallet and he says , yeah , drop it down here and come back in an hour and see if man is basically good . I've never seen anyone do it , drop their wallet and say I'll just trust the goodness of man .
Yeah , no , that's why it's lip service to something that they know doesn't work in the real world .
It's not reality Because every single person goes home and locks the front door , that's exactly , and locks their car .
Yeah , and look scripture is clear Romans 5 , 18, . Therefore , as through one man's offense , judgment came to all men , resulting in condemnation . Even so , through one man's righteous act , the free gift came to all men . So I mean it's clear that sin is a reality . That is what our basic nature is . We're fallen , we're broken . Psalm 51 , five .
Behold , I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin . My mother conceived me . The sooner we're honest with ourselves about what our true nature is , the sooner we will seek after the remedy .
And it's a relief to say I'm guilty , I'm a sinner . God's made provision for it through the cross . Let's move on .
Well , ray , you've talked about this often too . We see this play out in the real world , in that when there's been a celebrity who's been convicted of a crime , and they justify and sugarcoat it , people are not ready to be merciful . But when they're like , no , I have no excuse , yeah , I'm just , I'm a terrible person . This is what I did .
That almost brings me to tears when someone's that honest .
Yeah , and it's rare to see because I think too it shows how strong the fallen broken nature is when I think most realize this is this bodes best with the public . They still can't fully do it . They still have to interject some kind of face saving justification . You know , mark , here's another one . God wants you to be happy . Yeah , it's not big .
Well , in Ray's book , god has a wonderful plan for your life . He points out the fact it's not about happiness , but about righteousness . Doesn't matter how happy a sinner is on the day of wrath , without the righteousness of Christ they will perish . Does that work for word ?
Pretty close , that's pretty good Funny accent , because we will find plenty of people like our neighbors who are happy , who have a well-paying job , whose kids are healthy , there's plenty of finances and food inside their lives and they're happy . So how do you begin to share with them ?
You gotta wait till they get unhappy , if that's what you believe they need , and that's when you slash their tires and pray that their house burns down .
Can you imagine Genius Like an evangelist justifying doing all that so he could make people unhappy ? So they're ready for the gospel .
Yeah , so I think there's a difference between happiness and joy . There's a joy and expressible and full of glory , and that is in spite of our situation and circumstance , not because of it . Ray goes on inside of the teaching and he talks about how . Why am I teaching your teaching in front ?
of Ray . That's like I've been doing that the last 10 years .
With the Titanic right . Imagine what is the why am .
I teaching . Your teaching Remind me of a mug I've forgotten .
Imagine , all right . So here you have the Titanic . The Titanic is going down in the North Atlantic , right , All these people are dying , Spoiler alert . And then you have the women and the children inside the lifeboats , yeah , as they see their husbands and fathers perish before them .
If you could interview the mother and the children and you would ask them are you happy ? Right , are you happy ? Well , they have a joy knowing that they're saved , but they're not happy knowing that their loved ones are dying . Right , there's a difference . So it's not about being happy , it's about being righteous .
And , as we have a joy that's inexpressible , full of glory that God gives us in spite of our situation and circumstance , well then we realize everything's okay . You know , it's like how can you be so joyful in the midst of difficult times ? Well , because this isn't my home , because I'm just passing through , right .
When I'm done here , I'm going over to the doctor to try to get my finger worked at . That's all tweaked , right . But after that I'm going to hang out with a couple who's the woman lost her father just a couple of days ago . Right , she's focused , she's focused . She has a joy knowing that her dad was saved . But you can't tell her to not be sad , right ?
I mean , there's a time to mourn , so God doesn't want you always to be happy , but there is a joy that can be attached in the midst of that . But we rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life . That's why we rejoice .
And the Titanic thing is all around us . People are being swallowed by death , and so we should be like Jesus , a man of . He had joy unspeakable above his fellows , but he was a man of sorrow . He was acquainted with grief .
So it's a paradox as a Christian , we have this tremendous joy that we're in the life but we're saved , but all around us people are dying without the Savior , and that should make us grow . Wow , that's good .
Yeah , and the whole thing is , it's like with the follow your heart thing right , if you can't blame , if you can't blame it on your heart , well , my heart led me then you're going to blame it on God . God wants me to be happy , and I say that . People say that , to spite God's word . It's like well , why are you doing this ?
You're divorcing your faithful , wonderful wife . Well , I'm not happy . God wants me to be happy , so I know this is the right thing to do . When's this happening , wicked ?
God forbid . Can you blame it on the rain ?
Blame it on the no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no , no . Blame it on the swing . Yeah , you know what I'm saying . I'm saying what I'm saying . All right , guys , back on track . All right , so you have , we have a video track all up . God wants you to be happy . One final one . We'll do this one quickly . You only live .
Once we referenced Yolo in a reason . Yolo .
Yes , Yolo .
You only live once . But that is another self-help type of philosophy . You only live once , so what ? Live it up and do whatever you wanna do .
A drink can be merry , for tomorrow we die . Why did I steal that ? You only live once , it's right , but it's eternal . You're gonna make sure where you're going .
Yeah , no , you don't live once , you live twice . You gotta live a life , but a life that's more than just nice , a life that's great , a life that's focused on the word , or else it's a life that's absurd . Oh Okay , well , that actually was pretty good Freestyle , freestyle .
Was that really freestyle yeah ?
Honestly , you've never said that before in your entire life .
No Easy , that was the first time . I don't wait to come back . No , no , he does it all the time he really does . Praise the mark . Come on , I've been rapping to you for so long , yeah , but that was good .
That was still the smooth .
That was still the only good one . Okay , so , but yeah , but that's a lie , because you actually got the one .
Took a minute to recover from that . Compliment to the hip .
You live twice , right , yeah , you live once in this life , and then you're gonna live an everlasting life , and you're also gonna die twice if you don't know the Lord . So , man , that , though , should fuel us to live with greater passion .
Born once , died twice born twice died once Right .
No Jesus , no peace . No Jesus , no peace . Someone else said that I didn't make that .
I just heard you say it , though I'm looking right at it .
Yeah , yeah , but seriously , though , that should fuel the Christian knowing that , hey , life , in other words , is short , that's another mantra , but that's tied into it . So , yeah , there's everlasting life . So live now for eternity . Invest , because I've always said when we spend time , we waste it Just like if you just spend money like crazy .
But if you invest time , it's gonna yield return . Invest it in the eternal . Come on , come on , come on , Come on preach it , preach it .
Should I wrap some more ?
No , no you're good , I don't think you can , and that's time All right for I ounce , for I ounce , for I ounce . There are people running around the country saying someone in France going .
he's talking to me France .
All right , france , don't forget . Search and rescue . Guiding a believer to the savior by Eddie Roman , the Living Waters , 11th Sunday Bible livingwaterscom . Thank you for joining us . Good things are happening , guys . God is using this podcast and you're helping making it possible . Remember podcastlivingwaterscom .
Comment , subscribe , tell others , share no , not share the singer . Share the singer , mark . I know you were thinking that . I don't think that .
Thank you for joining us .
France . We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcastcom . It's extremely evident that we still have no idea what we're doing .
It's also the cure for insomnia .
Oh , that too . Whichever they like , shh , we'll see you next time .