We'll be right back. Don't get down when you're seeing the worst. Because the last will be the first. What a day I'm telling you. All things will be new. Living up in a down world. Yeah we're living, yeah we're living. Living up in a down world. Oh! This is Jimmy DeNette and we are living up in a down world. We are living up in a down world. We are living up in a down world. We are living up in a down world. We are living up in a down world. We want to welcome you to today's show.
And hey beautiful over there. It's been a minute. Oh my goodness. More than a minute. Like a month. It's been about a month. We've taken the time off which was really good. And we needed to. And yeah, it's kind of fun to be back. Talk about our month. Did some things happen in this world? Last year we took two months off for a sabbatical. This time it was more of a you call it a sabbatical refresh. I just call it a vacation. All I said was every year in July we're taking the whole month off as
vacation. There's nothing Sabbath about it because we were busier than we were for our Sabbath. So I wouldn't even use the word Sabbath. But it was good. I mean we were able to go to Colorado for a week. We went to Naples Florida for a week. And I had a million things around the house to do. Things to fix. We had people working in our home. Faucets and lawn mowers. It was not a vacation. Except for the time we left. Not that I'm complaining. You sound like you're complaining. I do. I know.
I've only had one cup of coffee. I'm working on number two. I just took a sip of mine for the first time. Why are we even doing this podcast? Turn it off. Let's start over. We probably need to. But the thing is, if you think about it, you've got to think about what a vacation is. It's not just to rest. It's to do the things that you can't get done because of work. Who made that? Where did you get that definition of a vacation? Honey, because that's the thing.
I thought a vacation was for rest and relaxation. It was not always. And to do some fun things. No, it's to work around the house. I didn't force you to work around the house. When I get halfway through this cup, I'll mellow out a little bit. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I enjoyed working in the lawnmower in 100 degree weather. You only had to do that for one day out of... Oh my gosh! A whole month off. I paid the dude for it. And one day you had to work
hard. Not that I'm bitter. You sound bitter. But you know what? The lawnmower got worked on. We actually sold it. Yay! We made enough money for our next vacation. It's not just some little dinky lawnmower. This is like a 54 inch zero turn craftsman. It has not been used in two years. It's like a dragster on the rock. You had to make sure that it was in perfect condition for the new owners. And it is in perfect condition. So what? You used a couple of days of your time. I know.
And we wanted it to be a blessing to them. We did. First of all, he's a veteran. So that's a big deal to me to make sure that what we give him is excellent and is a blessing to him and his family. And better than the way we got it. Even though we got it new, it looked brand new. It's unbelievable. So you did good. Thank you. You did good. It was worth it. I didn't like doing it on my vacation. I know. But that was just
a day or two. Having the house worked on for a week while we were...that was a little bit harder. But I mean somebody... I wasn't able to flip the switch. Yeah, but somebody still has to be there and we still have work that we're doing. It is what it is. But we did Colorado. We finally got to rest. I felt...well, Colorado... That was right before. Was right before. And we've talked about it. We already talked about that. And we didn't really unwind until we went to Naples though.
Totally agree. And that was what? Three weeks into this thing? Three weeks in. And that was the best trip ever. We've never been to Naples, Florida before. Never even... But I want to go back. I never thought that...I mean that wasn't even in my... I never thought about it. Because it's usually Destin or Panama City. Right, right. We like the beach. It was phenomenal. It was amazing. Naomi worked her magic with all of our points. So we got to... Who's Naomi? You just say that like people know.
Naomi is Brian's Mandale...Pastor Brian Mandale's wife. She's my assistant. Our assistant. Our assistant. But she works more for me than you. Because I still end up having to do your stuff. But she's so amazing with juggling points on credit cards. Because we have a couple of credit cards that we use and pay them off. We use them as debit cards. But we play the game of points. Points game. And we got to stay at the Ritz-Carlton for what? Nine days? Eight days? Eight days. It was amazing.
For free. I mean it didn't cost us. Other than the resort fees and whatever food we ate. So...and then our flights were free because we had points on that. So we try to find ways to go to really neat places and not have to pay much out of our pocket. And so... The points game now is like what our parents used to do with SNH green stamps and gold bond stamps. Exactly. But now the stakes are a lot higher. They are. And we hardly ever pay for any airline tickets. Because
we have a Southwest card. So it helps. Did your mom do the stamps thing? My mother did do the stamps. There was an SNH stamp store in public Texas where I grew up. Piggly Wiggly too would take stamps or whatever. Or give you stamps. You get stamp books. Boy I haven't thought about this in decades. But they would be these little booklets and you'd get stamps every time you bought groceries and you'd fill up your books and then you'd cash them in for value. You're really aging us. At a store.
It's real. Hey I'm cool. I'm relevant. Oh is that right? Yeah. Oh okay. I can wear skinny jeans. You're so skinny you have to wear skinny jeans. All of your jeans are skinny jeans. No kidding. No. But yeah it was a lot of fun. I think we so enjoyed it that I talked to Naomi on our last... It was our last night there and I was like we're not ready to go home. And she said then stay. I've got some points I'll share with you and then you can just share them back. And I was like oh
okay I knew you'd think about that. So we stayed what? Three more days. We stayed three more days. Two more nights. Three days. Three more nights. Three days. But we weren't ready and that I was kind of surprised when I told you that I wasn't ready to go and you said then let's stay. I was like really? I really had to go restful. One of the most restful vacations for me personally I've ever been on. And you got treated like royalty there. We did. It was which I never...
Hence restful. Yeah. Because they really take care of you. And you really get to rest and enjoy the beach. It was just phenomenal. Of course the beaches, the Florida beaches on the golf side are just the white sand. They're gorgeous. The water's blue. You get to stay on a private beach so you're not in the milieu of hundreds of people. Sharkfest. Where the shark frenzy happens. It was just so relaxing. And I love the fact that you said let's figure it out.
So I actually looked it up to see how much it would say it would have cost us $2,500 to stay. Yay for points. And I was like I don't think we're going to do that. I like this points game. And so yeah. It was great. What was great, it's always great when you and I get to go away together. And we do. We do everything together. I always say this. I wear it out. I know it's not Jimmy and Annette. It's not Jimmy or Annette. It's Jimmy and Annette.
And I mean that. And so when we get to go away together alone by ourselves, something amazing happens in our marriage and our dynamic. Because we work together all the time. But we're in a different mindset. When you're working together, you're working. I mean there's different. I remember Jean Haig said to me Sunday, she said I'm so glad y'all got to get away
and got to. And I said you know it's really interesting because people think because we work together, you know, we have this wonderful marriage and relationship. The problem with it, there is a challenge with it. The problem with it is that all we talk about is work 24-7. So we have to literally go out of town. We can't even just be at our home. Really. We go, when we go step out of town, it's like we lay off work. I mean we literally, that's the only time I did not work. You didn't
work at all, thank goodness. But for me, I don't take my computer with me. I don't do any of the work that I normally do. But when I'm at home, even if we're on vacation, I'm working. I can't stop. So for two full weeks, one in Avon and Vail, Colorado, and then the other time in Naples, I didn't do any work. So I really had two weeks vacation. It is literally the most rest that I ever see yous when we do that. So we both have to unplug. It's easier on me because I always do my daily devotions.
That's a part of my own journaling and my own devotional. So to me, that doesn't feel like work. It's pleasure and it's life-giving to me. You didn't do it during our vacation. I actually took a week off, a little over a week. And you did the whole sabbatical last year. You literally didn't do it. Yeah, I remember. You decided to unplug the whole time. I thought I did that. No, you unplugged the whole time because you said you needed to. I don't remember. But anyway, yeah, you're right.
But what I was getting to is that when we can get away, it's literally, I used to say this years ago, and I don't know if I've said it recently, but it's like driving off the battlefield. Because here's what people don't understand about ministry and ministers, pastors, being pastors of a church. It all looks good because we always have our Sunday bests on, right? We're always smiling. When we're in the church, we're greeting people, we're connecting, and it's a perpetual party. And I love that.
That's not fake. It's genuine. But when we're not with people and in that environment, which is most of the time, it's warfare. We're fighting demonic and satanic forces. And more so now than we have in a long time. Because of what's happening. And it's because the enemy wants to take us out. And if a pastor and his family is healthy, that's a powerful force in today's world. It doesn't take much to stand above the crowd these days. Just be healthy and functional.
But when you are that, and when you walk with Jesus as on point, and God's working and moving, the enemy just comes out full force. And it's not always through people. There's a tendency to think, oh, that means you're getting attacked by people. No, it's not. It's mindset. It's mental. It's emotional. It's dreams. You said you had some horrible dreams. I had horrific dreams all night last night. I don't even want to share them because they're that bad. Yeah, you didn't even tell me what they're
about. No, I didn't. And I it was it's such spiritual warfare. And I literally, I woke up and then ended up going back to sleep. And then going, oh my gosh, that was the worst dream. And then a different dream in a different type of spiritual warfare. I'm like, so now we're being fought in our dreams. I mean, like really heavy. Because it's been happening a lot lately. And I'm like, golly, it's, we're in really perilous times. Really perilous times in this world. Now, there's a good side
to that. The good news to that, or the good thing about that is that's how we know we're over the target. Yes. That's how we know that we're moving the needle in the things of God and the things of the kingdom is when we are under this barrage of mostly mental, emotional, spiritual attack. It can be physical too. I mean, because sometimes your health drops down. You're going, wait, this is inexplicable. I'm doing great. I'm eating right and taking care of myself. And then I pull a hamstring or
whatever. You know, there's things that happen. It's not always spiritual. Sometimes it's just you stepped off the edge of something, off the pool or the stairs or something. But I know when we're really in the zone, when we're getting flack. And when I say flack, I mean mental, emotional, spiritual. Sometimes it's through folks, but that's very rare. That's not even the main thing. So anyway, we're definitely over the target right now. And you know, spiritual warfare,
it can happen. It can happen with people, but it can definitely happen in your dreams. It can happen in your thought. Oh, your thought. The battlefield of the mind. The battlefield of the mind. You can start going down places that you used to go down maybe before you were saved. And it can just be a barrage of thoughts on your mind and just take you over. That's uncanny. I was actually thinking of the word barrage. Really?
Well, we're watching some series on World War II right now that are fascinating. We're documentary nerds. And we're relearning our history and we're going back in. But that word barrage is such a clear word. It's a defining word. And that is exactly what it is. It's like the Luftwaffe of Germany. You know, they were the kings of the skies. And they would just bombard. I mean, they were intense.
It's called the Blitzkrieg where they would come in and just give everything they had on a certain point. And that's how spiritual warfare is. The enemy doesn't fight fair. I mean, Hitler didn't get his ideas from Jesus on how to fight war. He got them from the enemy for sure. I mean, he was demonic and satanic. And there was all kinds of occult stuff surrounding him and his inner circle. Particularly Himmler and who was that other guy? Gorring? Gorring was dark. There's several.
Very into dark, satanic, occult stuff. But you know, if you don't study what happened in the past, we're destined to repeat it, which we are right now. So I think it's really good that you and I both are on the same page and feel like let's go back. Let's see. Let's read. Let's watch these documentaries and read books and get familiarized with what has happened because we need to know so that when we see any kind of resemblance of that going on in history, we'll know where it came from.
And it's really, it's all enemy based. And if you think about it, we were saying this last night as we were watching a documentary on Robert Bobby Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy for President is the name of the documentary. Fascinating. Like four parts. Four or five.
But what I, what was interesting, I kept thinking as we were, as I show the footage from the 60s, particularly the 60s and early 70s, you know, the riots in the streets, the burning of buildings, the campuses going nuts over the Vietnam War. And I thought, I told Annette, I said, I told you, I said, it hasn't changed a bit. We've not progressed. We've not grown from. We've not learned from history. I wrote this to, I actually posted this, but I also sent it to Steve Maxwell and another pastor.
May we never forget the original intent of our founding fathers. If we forget, revise or erase our history, we are doomed to repeat it. And that's spinning off of a narrative that others have used that, you know, if we forget our history, we're doomed to repeat it. So I spun off of that because we got to get back to the original intent of our founding fathers. And let me give you this quote from Patrick Henry. This has become one of my favorite quotes.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was Patrick Henry. One of my favorite quotes from our founding fathers, bringing that clarifying and defining word of this is what this is founded upon. And what I'm finding and you're finding that as we move back toward that and try to direct others back toward it,
that's where the fire comes. That's when the enemy says, oh, no, you don't. No, you don't. No, no. This country has progressed beyond those ancient teachings. That's old news, old history. Those are days gone by. And we're like, oh, no, we're going back. I said this to Tommy who works with us. He's part of our staff. Just a few minutes ago when we were talking about, he was talking about the sermon from yesterday or from Sunday. And I said, you know, here's what happened
to me. The revelation I got was that America was not a good idea that God blessed. America was a God idea that we have a responsibility to steward. And we've not stewarded it well, at least in our generation. So those of us that are waking up to this are saying, we got to get back to the original intent. We've become more evil-minded. Oh, my goodness. The world has spun out.
If you think about it, back in the days of Abraham, Noah, and all, I mean, back in the Old Testament, those kings were evil. I mean, Like I said, nothing's changed. It's the same. It goes back to the same things. The pride of life. Yes. The lust for power. The lust for money and prestige and position. Greed. All of those things are still so at play, which tells me humanity is not advancing, which tells me we need a Savior. We need a real king, not an earthly king. We need a heavenly
king. We need our heavenly Father. And so let me just run quickly through what's happened in the last few months since we kind of leaned into this. On Thursday, June 27, President Biden and ex-President Donald Trump, former President Donald Trump, met for their first scheduled debate. As expected, it was a disaster for Biden. Which I think we talked about on our last show. Yeah, we may have touched on that. On July 13th, so things
started to progress. On July 13th, former President of the United States, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt while addressing a crowd at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Now, I'm not going to go into detail. Everybody's seen the footage on that. I think the thing that's interesting to note is how Google throttled anybody who was trying I don't know if they're doing it now because they got outed on it because I noticed there was a shift in it because I've been testing it.
That if you were to Google Trump assassination attempt or, you know, Butler, Pennsylvania is Trump, the first three things that came up on Google when I Googled it, I put in, this is literally what I put in, attempted Trump assassination attempt. Those three. Yeah. And the first three articles, first things that came up were all about Kamala Harris. Had nothing to do with Trump. Nothing to do with what I just Googled. And that got discovered. It got outed on social media.
Everyone's talking about it. I think they shifted that because I went back and did it again after all that happened and sure enough all the Trump stuff came up. So I think they got busted. They got caught. But that's what's happening are these big tech companies that are woke, that are far radical leftists. They're operating off of Marxist and Socialist ideology. They're throttling
stuff. Yeah, they are. And, you know, when Elon Musk took over, you know, bought Twitter and then it became X, you know, I had my questions about is this a good move? But you know what? Right now, that's one of the only main platforms where you can still say what you want to say. And he's saying some stuff too. He has become a Trump backer because he sees what's happening and he sees where things are going. Which is interesting. I think he grew up... He's South African. Elon is? Yeah, that's
his background. Didn't he say something about or his parents Christian? I'm not sure about that. I was wondering where he's getting...where his values came from. Right. Because he's got the right values. Well, he's articulating some things. Recently in an interview with Jordan Peterson, he talked about how he's kind of a cultural Christian. Peterson was pressing him actually. I'm proud of Jordan. I go Jordan. It was good.
Pressing him in a good way, not a bad way, but a good way to think through what he believes and try to get him to articulate his beliefs. It was a great interview. Check it out on YouTube. Just put in...it's everywhere. Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, it's there. We watched it. It was fascinating. But he used this... I'm kind of a cultural Christian. But hey, you know what? He's making strides. It's kind of like Joe Rogan would say something similar to that where he's Christian-ish.
But that's still not going to get you in heaven. That's the thing. People think because I'm good. Because I do the right things. I vote for the right person. I even read my Bible over now and then. I know some stories in the Bible. But that's enough. I've been to church on occasion. Or I've been to church my whole life. Yeah, that's true too. People think that's enough. And it's not. It's about a true relationship with God. You've heard this.
I even seared this on Sunday that in the average human there's a space between the middle of your brain and the middle of your heart is 18 inches. I've heard that forever. But there are people who miss heaven, who miss eternity, who miss salvation and knowing God on a personal basis by 18 inches. Can you imagine getting to the end of all of this and realizing in your head you were like, yeah, I believe God's good guy. I believe Jesus was a real person. That's awesome. Yay. Yay. Go church.
But you never actually embrace the free gift of salvation that He offered. My gosh. By 18 inches. That's going to be a wake up call. And we hear that all the time. Well, I'm a good person. Oh, I know. So God's not going to let a good person. What's not about that? No. No. It's just not. And it's not about being nice. So that was on July 13th, assassination attempt. That was a good little springboard and some other things.
But these are important things. And then under pressure from top Democratic party figures President Joe Biden announced his call from the 2024 presidential race on July 21st, 2024. And I said this comment, if you read the definition of a political coup, this was textbook. Yeah. And then in the wake of that he endorsed Kamala Harris. And the media who has butchered Kamala Harris from the I mean, because she's a joke. She's a meme waiting to happen every time she opens her mouth. They did a
complete 180. Yeah. And all of a sudden she's a rock star. I know. That's what's... I mean, the people that were... And there's video of newscasters and what not saying these disparaging things about her. And now they're just, oh, she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. All that is is the media machine. All that is is the political industrial complex going into work, kicking into high gear to get their girl elected. And don't buy it. Don't believe it. Don't believe what you see. Right.
Or what you hear. Let me just say this just as a caveat. I tell my church this all the time. I'll tell anybody I'm talking to. You do not vote for a party and you do not vote for an individual. Right. Who cares? You know, I'm not electing my next elder here. I'm not voting for my next elder. I'm not voting for a pastor for a church. I'm voting for a leader who has proven and shown that they will stand up and fight.
That they will, that they are strong enough to convince the Soviet Union to back off. To shut down the war in Ukraine. Right. To secure the borders of our nation, particularly our southern borders right now, which we're the number of sick, demented, evil criminals that are coming over our border because of the Biden administration right now is insane. It's insanity. The fentanyl problem right now in Arizona is killing. Last year over 100,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses. It's unreal.
100,000. There's not that many cities over 100,000 people. So full city of people died because of fentanyl. That's coming over particularly Arizona. Thank God, Governor Abbott in Texas is beginning to shut things down. They just want a court case where we're able to keep up the border, these border barriers that it turned, the Biden administration sued. And by the way, has anyone still said why they're doing
this? I know. I told you, you should just write Chip Roy and find out what is his take on that. Tell me the bottom line. Why? And we know it's votes. We know that. But why are they not saying that on the news? Why are they not saying this is why we are pivoting? I mean, they're not. No one is saying it out loud. That's what I'm frustrated about is like, would somebody just tell me why and how legally he can do this? You know, I thought the president didn't have that kind of power, you know, the
executive branch. So anyway, a lot of questions obviously, you know, and who knows, the world's insane. Remember what our friend said years ago, when you're in sin, you're insane. When you're in sin, you're insane. And right now the world is in sin, and so it is insanity. It's crazy down there. So next one, Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Friday, August 2nd. Boo. The Democratic National Committee, the DNC, held a virtual roll call.
This is interesting. A virtual roll call vote to select their presidential nominee, which began on August 1st. On August 2nd, she secured enough delegate votes to become the Democratic presidential nominee. No party, no convention, no vote. From people. The people had already nominated Joe Biden and said, you know, millions of votes. We want Joe Biden as our next nominee. And their own party betrayed them, went behind their back, and without the people's approval did this.
This is the party that is saying, you know, talking about how everybody is a threat to democracy. Parents that care about their children's education in public school are a threat to democracy. Police officers, you know, who have in God we trust on their car, are a threat to democracy. People who read the Bible are a threat to democracy. People who believe that God gave the rights, the equal rights to this country and is the governing, they're a
threat to democracy. Well, you bet we're a threat to democracy because this country isn't a democracy. I'm about to get on my soap box. I'm about to put my black robe on from the Black Robe Regiment. In the spirit of John Peter Mueller. But this country was never a democracy. Democracy is mob rule. Democracy means the majority rules. That's not, this is a constitutional republic. We are represented by the Electoral College and by representatives. We're a representative government.
And so when you hear people say they're a threat to democracy you should say, yes, indeed they are and they need to be because a democracy is a dangerous government. Our founding fathers understood that and that's why they set it up as a constitution. We operate under the rule of law by the constitution and the bill of rights. And that's, that is our guide. And anybody tells you anything different, they don't know their history or they're lying through their teeth.
Most people don't know. I was going to say most people just don't know because we have been so far removed from it that we have to go back and review our history because you just forget. You forget because you're about the day to day in the future and you don't think back. One of the best things I've done recently is go back and reread the Declaration of Independence. When I read that it lit me up and I, there has been several times when I've been
reading it and I start to weep. I mean it gets on me because I realize I've played a role in my complacency and my apathy and my indifference. This is on me. I don't want to take responsibility for my part. Anybody running for office should memorize it. Oh my gosh. Anybody. Or at least have it in front of them so that they're constantly looking at it. We hold these truths to be self evident. I mean we've been given these rights from our nature's God and the God of nature.
I mean we're going to give our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. I mean these are things, these ought to be phrases that we know by heart. Just like we know scripture because they're reminders that God is in charge. And this is, we get our rights from Him. But it was said on the MSNBC commentator made this big bold declaration and she said, you mean to tell me these Christians, these people think that God gave them the right to the government for this country? If that's you, then you're
a threat to democracy. Well you know what? I am a threat to democracy. Because democracy is demonic and will not work. It'll be mob rule and it can be even more manipulated than the system we have which is being manipulated right now. So I'm not even going to go into the Olympics lunacy from the sick opening ceremony celebration of debauchery and evil. From that to the approval of a new category sports. Again it just shows you how far we've gone. We're not on a slippery
slope. We have fallen off the cliff. And if Christians think that's okay, that's a big problem. I have a big problem with any church or any pastor or any individual who thinks it's okay. And I would question, I would question their faith. I would too. Because we've got to be real. We've got to stop being nice. And we've got to begin to call out what's going on in the spirit of the prophets who would speak into culture and say this is wrong. We've moved away from God
and we've got to get back. And I would take it a step further and say we've got to get back to God's word as the basis for everything we do. And if we don't, we will go over the cliff and we'll look like Europe. We're already dangerously there. Again it's the Christians. We have capitulated to the world and we're not any different. We don't look any different than the world and that's where we have a problem. That's why people don't take us seriously. This is why people
aren't coming to Christ. It's on our watch. It's on our watch. But we, so many Christians believe that that's the pastor's job. It's not the pastor, it's the pastor's job to equip but it's our job to be the salt and light in the world. Along with the pastors we're all in it together. The pastors are to help you divide the word of God. Help you understand the word of God. To inspire, to motivate, to encourage. To encourage you to get in the word for yourself.
They're not the end all. No. They're the ones saying, check me up on what I'm saying. You do the research. People don't want to do that. But don't take my word for it. Read for yourself. Ask God to give you revelation of the word and then let's go win the world. But we've just, I don't know what's happened. I literally don't know what's happened. Well we got complacent.
You know, I mean we have a whole gap generation where digital technology just came in right on the heels of the last war and our generation didn't have to fight for this. And so we got lazy. We got complacent. We became indifferent. And we lost our voice in the public square. And so now we're paying the price. But here's the thing. We have to ask ourselves, is it hopeless? And I say, no it is not. It may look daunting. But you know what?
Everything in history that was won for the good costs something. And so to have hope and believe that change can come is going to cost the price. And this is where we have to get off of our, as I say, our Blessed Assurance and get moving again and get involved in the processes. Starting with voting. We got to, if you're not registered to vote and you're listening to this podcast. And you're a Christian. My gosh. Specifically. Get off your Blessed Assurance and go register
to vote. It's so simple. You can go online at gov.org. I mean it's or.gov. I mean government, I forget what it is. Just Google. I hate even saying Google at this point. But anyway look up how to register to vote. It's so simple. You can do it easily online. We're doing our voter registration drive in our church. I think starting this next week. Every church should be doing that.
Every church should be doing that. We should be registering believers who will get out and vote for the platform that is most aligned with biblical values. And so get out and vote. There's other things that can be done as well. First of all we want you to vote. But we also want you to I got a few things here. To suit up and show up. I love what Colby Wilt said. He's the Texas director of Citizens Defending Freedom. He said suit up and show up. Pastor Ron Lewis out in North Carolina
says it this way. He says live holy and show up. And I say let's put those two together. Live holy. Suit up and show up. Live holy. Suit up and show up. What does that mean show up? That means attention. Why not go to a city council meeting and just listen? And while you're listening pray that the Holy Spirit will invade that space. And that a spirit of revival will come on those public servants. We call them leaders. But they're really public servants.
And we need a spirit of revival to fall on our public servants. Our elected officials. So go show up. Suit up. Live holy. Suit up. Show up. And I always say this. Leave your torch and your pitchfork at home. Don't go in fighting half cocked. Not knowing what's going on. Not really understanding the issues. You go in in a different spirit. And you bring the presence of God into those spaces. Show up at a school board meeting. Again not to fight. But to see really get a sense of what's going on.
How about having a conversation with a school board member instead of cutting their head off. How about finding out what they're about. How about praying for them by name on a regular basis. This goes for every arena. Another one is volunteer to serve at the Patriot Academy. That's local to us obviously. Volunteer to work as an election official. You can become an election officer. It's a simple training where you can help out with elections.
And we have the president of our local Republican party goes to our church. Bruce Coleman. Wonderful, wonderful guy. Bruce Campbell. Great guy. And you can sign up and get involved in that. And I always say this. Educate yourself and question everything you see and hear on mainstream legacy media. And then here's the last one. Don't think someone else will do it. Someone else will step up. This is on us. This is our time. So anyway I want to give one quote. Enter the risk arena.
Totally trusting in God because of our love for Him. This is the grind. The Bible calls it being conformed to the image of his son. Steve Maxwell who is the co-founder of Citizens Defending Freedom. Well we've had an amazing time. I mean I hope you've gotten something out of this today. One of the things I want to leave with you is just a scripture and it's this.
In Mark chapter 8 verse 27 Now Jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea, Philippi that's just north of the Sea of Galilee. And on the road he asked his disciples saying to them, Who do men say that I am? So they answered John the Baptist but some say Elijah and others one of the prophets. He said to them and this is the question I would pose but who do you say that I am? I love that. Why is that profound? Why do you think that question hits and lands
so hard? Because I think that's a question that we all need to ask ourselves. Who is he really? Who is he really? Is he just a teacher? Is he someone that's historical? That someone you've read about or heard about but that's all. You don't know anything about him. Most people don't. Most people really don't know a lot about him. Unless you've really studied the word and what I love right now is we're, I'm reading, I'm almost through with every one of the gospels. I'm reading Luke
right now. I'm in Luke too. Not Luke chapter 2 but I'm in Luke as well. I am too. Luke chapter 2. I love Luke. But I've already read all the other ones and I'm so enjoying reading the gospels and understanding more who Jesus is through the gospels. Through the lens of the apostles. I'm reading them over and over and over and it's just what I love about the chosen two. You see Matthew and John and you, when I'm reading those books I see them. Even though it's not real but it gives me context.
I am so enjoying reading it because every time I read it I get something else out of it. I get a nugget that I haven't received before. That's what I love about the word of God is you can read the same thing over and over and over and receive something new every time. But yes I think that we all need to know who Jesus is. We need to ask ourselves that question. Who is Jesus to us? If we can't answer that in a way that shows relationship then we need to question
who He really is. We need to question do I really have that relationship with Him? Do I really have it? Or is it just someone I know of? There's a big difference between a husband and a friend. A big difference. When you were my friend before you were my husband I knew bits and pieces about you. When you became my husband I know everything about you. I know the most intimate areas of your life because you've shared those with me.
I've shared those with you. There's an intimacy that you and I have now that we did not have when we were boyfriend and girlfriend. That's a difference. Is He your boyfriend or is He your husband? Think about that. That just came off the top of my head. It's the intimate knowledge that you can only have with someone that is your husband, that is your wife, that is your soulmate that you're spending the rest of your life with, that you've
intertwined everything. We've intertwined every area of our life. That's what Jesus wants of us. I love that you day lighted that question, who is Jesus to you? That really is the question of the day. I posed that question to both services on Sunday. I've changed the way I do altar calls. I used to do it secret, man, like secret ballot. You can just pull out a card and check the box.
But what I'm finding is that if we will not stand in a room full of people who care about you and who are cheering you on and who are for you, when it's the safest, there is no way we'll stand out there. In the Baptist Church where I came up as a young, I was 18 years of age, the preacher would have you come forward. You'd walk the aisle. Man, so many churches have done away with that. There's no cost.
The cost for me when I walk the aisle, the last week of my senior year of high school was all the students that knew me. They knew how wild I was. They knew that wild kid. They watched me from the back of the church get up and walk all the way down and tell Pastor Reese that I wanted to be saved. I want Jesus in my life. I think people are afraid that they're going to blow it or mess up so they don't want to stand up because they don't want to look bad if they do. Because
it is a process. Spoiler alert, we are going to blow it. We are because we're human. But our goal is to live the best we can and to always keep Him as Lord so that we don't blow it. And that's the power of the Holy Spirit is to empower us not to blow it. He empowers us. But we have to do our part. We don't just become robots. Oh, we're Christians. That's why it's called a walk. Exactly. You walk with Him. It's a process. And it is a learning curve. Hey baby, stop bumping
the table. Oh, sorry. I believe that if we You're preaching. I know. Sorry. If we would see and help people see that when they're standing up they're not saying their perfection. They're saying now I'm going to do my best through God's help to become the person He's called me to be. That's what being a Christian is. And on Sunday when I made that call and I made it hard I said I want you to stand to your feet. If you prayed the prayer to say I want Jesus to be the
center of my life. I've given my heart. I want to be saved. I want to be born again. I want you to stand to your feet. People stood. First service one person. Talk about courageous. And she wasn't a young. She was an adult. One adult stood. And I thought my good Lord bless her. Oh Lord bless her. I went over and said something to her at the end. And then in the second service a lot of people stood. And I just thought
you know what? If they'll stand in here and be seen then they're going to stand out there. So kudos to everybody who gave their heart to Christ who said yes. They answered the question who is Jesus to me. They answered the question. He's now my Lord. He's now my Savior. It was a beautiful time. Well it's been a minute since we've done a podcast. I think the one thing I would want to say is if you do appreciate we invite you to go to our website livingupinadownworld.com
Go there and check it out. I write a daily blog slash devotional. It's on there. They're all listed. You can just click on it. It says blog. Go there. And it's just a very short two to three sentences or small paragraphs. And daily word and it will encourage you and we want you to get in the word. And this is one way you can get in the word. Also we have all of our archives. This is number 70 by the way. Wow. Yeah. Episode 70. And that will be on there as you're hearing
this. Of course it's on there but all the archives are there too. So go to our and leave a review. Write us a note. We'd love to hear from you. Where you're from. What you're up to. If you have any questions spiritually speaking we're here to encourage you on the journey and help you to fight the good fight of faith for God's glory. Anything to wrap it up baby? No I think that's good. I would just pose the question. Who is Jesus to you? And really ponder that. Ponder that question over the week.
And decide is he enough? I love you girl. When you're spiritual hubba hubba. I'm always spiritual what are you saying? Alright folks we're out. We are living up in the down world. Would you do the same? God bless you. We love you.