Latest / Karl and Crew / The Hospitality of Need with Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton & Abiding Dependence on God with Ron Block

Transcript

The Hospitality of Need with Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton & Abiding Dependence on God with Ron Block · Karl and Crew

• 0:00
  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
• 0:06
  S1: and crew.
• 0:07
  S2: Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome what seems
• 0:11
  S2: impossible and live as you never imagined.
• 0:15
  S1: Delivering the truth daily.
• 0:17
  S3: If it were possible to have every worldly gain available.
• 0:21
  S3: And you're forfeiting your soul. There's no amount of gain
• 0:25
  S3: that would make it worth it.
• 0:26
  S4: Our own way never ever works. Because it's apart from
• 0:29
  S4: the life source, which is God.
• 0:32
  S5: For me, growing up, love was always conditional and can
• 0:36
  S5: be taken from you. Christ's love can't. And he went
• 0:39
  S5: to the cross with my mind and my heart that night.
• 0:44
  S1: Now from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
• 0:48
  S1: and Crew.
• 0:50
  S3: Who doesn't love a good origin story?
• 0:53
  S4: Everyone loves a good origin story. You gotta tell the origin.
• 0:58
  S3: It start. Oh, boy. As mentioned a little while ago,
• 1:02
  S3: this is the 100th year of Moody Radio. We are
• 1:07
  S3: celebrating our 100th birthday this month.
• 1:11
  S4: That's pretty crazy.
• 1:12
  S3: Anyone else's mind?
• 1:14
  S5: Yes, totally. And God's faithfulness through that. But wow.
• 1:18
  S4: That's it is not easy to keep anything going for
• 1:22
  S4: 100 years. No. But no. And it's all God, it's not, uh,
• 1:25
  S4: it's not like, oh, we just, we had the best
• 1:28
  S4: station managers and we had the best VP of radio.
• 1:32
  S4: We have great people who work here. Yeah. But God's
• 1:35
  S4: faithfulness is the thing that sustains it all.
• 1:37
  S5: Gospel is unstoppable.
• 1:38
  S3: 100 years proclaiming the gospel. The first broadcast here on
• 1:43
  S3: Moody Radio, was a two hour program on July 28th, 1926. Unbelievable.
• 1:52
  S3: And you know, the cool thing about being a part
• 1:54
  S3: of something so historic, like Carl and crew is about
• 1:59
  S3: almost ten years old.
• 2:01
  S4: Yes. Uh, it would be.
• 2:03
  S3: It will.
• 2:03
  S4: Be actually, it would be this month that. No, this month,
• 2:07
  S4: next year that it's ten years old.
• 2:08
  S3: Yeah. So we have been a little chunk of that history.
• 2:13
  S3: Just a small little chunk. Yeah. And the cool thing
• 2:16
  S3: about something like Moody Radio is that the mission has
• 2:20
  S3: not changed. The voices have changed many times over. The
• 2:25
  S3: technology has improved. Yeah. You know, from those I want
• 2:29
  S3: to hear you're going to hear some clips. And all
• 2:32
  S3: throughout this month, we're going to be bringing in familiar
• 2:35
  S3: voices from the past. You're going to be hearing stories
• 2:39
  S3: this morning. You're going to be hearing from Phil Shapard,
• 2:41
  S3: who is kind of our resident historian here at Moody Radio,
• 2:45
  S3: a longtime radio guy. Oh, yeah. He co-authored a book
• 2:49
  S3: just out by Moody Publishers. This is Moody Radio 100
• 2:52
  S3: years Proclaiming the gospel. What. We've gotten to be a
• 2:56
  S3: little piece of that history and the gospel changes everything, right?
• 3:01
  S4: It really does. It really. And it's fun over. I mean,
• 3:03
  S4: so much has changed over the almost ten years that
• 3:06
  S4: we've all been here, uh, together at least. But the
• 3:11
  S4: gospel has been the thing that has never changed in
• 3:14
  S4: the midst of everything that we do and are doing.
• 3:16
  S3: And one of the, the awesome things about working for
• 3:20
  S3: Moody Radio is, you know, people who've listened for a
• 3:23
  S3: long time, they usually have a favorite personality, uh, over
• 3:28
  S3: the years, you know, you have people who will still
• 3:30
  S3: talk about, uh, Bob Murfin. Oh yes. Or Mark strand.
• 3:34
  S3: Or maybe you listened during the Chris Fabry days. He's
• 3:37
  S3: in afternoons now. But the thing that most that I
• 3:41
  S3: hear most often about Moody Radio is the impact that
• 3:45
  S3: it's had on people's walk with the Lord. It's never
• 3:49
  S3: about a person, even if people have a favorite personality,
• 3:53
  S3: which is totally fine. Yeah, it's always about what it's
• 3:56
  S3: meant to them over the years.
• 3:59
  S5: And their family.
• 3:59
  S3: And their family. People who grew up with Moody Radio
• 4:02
  S3: on in the background, maybe a grandmother who first introduced
• 4:05
  S3: him to him and introduced them to Moody Radio. So
• 4:08
  S3: I'd love to just do a quick a quick pop
• 4:10
  S3: up poll. And if you are new to us, hey,
• 4:14
  S3: that's great, we welcome you and we are glad that
• 4:16
  S3: you are here, even if it's just been this week
• 4:18
  S3: you just started. But I want to know how long
• 4:21
  S3: you have been listening to Moody Radio, or how long
• 4:24
  S3: Moody Radio has been a part of your family. Just
• 4:27
  S3: give me a quick text message. I would love to
• 4:29
  S3: know where you are listening from and how long you've
• 4:33
  S3: been listening, particularly if you've got some history with Moody Radio,
• 4:37
  S3: as I know many of you do. Quick text message
• 4:39
  S3: 805 557898 805 557898. Diana, how, how long does your
• 4:51
  S3: moody radio history. How far back does your moody radio
• 4:54
  S3: history extend.
• 4:55
  S5: My moody radio history started in the late 80s. I
• 4:59
  S5: was with another company, but I was helping with traffic
• 5:02
  S5: and news and sports via that company. So my involvement
• 5:06
  S5: did begin with Bob Murfin.
• 5:07
  S3: With Bob Murfin.
• 5:08
  S5: Yes. And then I joined mid mid 90s physically over
• 5:12
  S5: here with the Greg and Chris show.
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  S3: So cool. And we're going to be hearing from Diana.
• 5:19
  S3: I mean she's, she's the longest running part of Moody
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  S3: Radio from our team. So we're going to lean on
• 5:25
  S3: her a little bit. But we July is going to
• 5:27
  S3: be a very special month. It's going to cap with
• 5:29
  S3: a big birthday party at the end of July that
• 5:32
  S3: you're going to be able to be a part of
• 5:34
  S3: through radio. Of course, we. I would love to be
• 5:36
  S3: able to open up our studios and have everybody just
• 5:38
  S3: come in and have a big birthday party. I don't
• 5:41
  S3: know that that would be feasible, but we are going
• 5:43
  S3: to do our best and bring it to you on
• 5:44
  S3: radio with some with some voices from the past. Okay.
• 5:47
  S3: We've got listener in Tampa, Florida, who's been listening for
• 5:50
  S3: 17 years. Awesome. 17, 1756. Seven years, 14 years. The
• 5:57
  S3: couple listeners who. Six months. Yeah, 1.5 years. Has anyone
• 6:02
  S3: been listening for 20 or more years to Moody Radio?
• 6:05
  S3: Just send me a text. Oh, listening to the mid
• 6:08
  S3: since the mid 60s, listening from Oak Park.
• 6:10
  S4: That's awesome. That's 60 years.
• 6:12
  S3: That's a lot of years. 35 years listening to Moody Radio.
• 6:16
  S3: That's from 1240. Keep them coming. We'd love to hear
• 6:18
  S3: from you this morning. How long have you or your
• 6:21
  S3: family been listening to Moody radio 805 557898, 800 555, 78, 98.
• 6:31
  S1: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
• 6:35
  S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
• 6:39
  S1: Moody Radio.
• 6:40
  S3: So many of you listening to Moody Radio this morning
• 6:42
  S3: have been with us for a lot of years, which
• 6:45
  S3: is awesome. 8289 listening for 15 years. We've got a
• 6:48
  S3: listener in Chattanooga, a couple listeners from Chattanooga, MB w.
• 6:53
  S3: Listening for 40 years. Listening for four years 6509. Listening
• 6:59
  S3: in 1997. Started listening over ten years. Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• 7:05
  S3: Been listening during service calls down by the station. I
• 7:07
  S3: would see the sign. I would see the moody radio sign.
• 7:11
  S5: Wonderful.
• 7:12
  S3: Awesome. So many of you texting in this morning. I'm
• 7:15
  S3: so glad that you are with us and that you
• 7:17
  S3: have stayed with us over so many years. Yeah. Personalities
• 7:21
  S3: have changed. The sound has changed quite a bit. But
• 7:25
  S3: boy oh boy, that commitment to the gospel 100 years
• 7:27
  S3: proclaiming the gospel. What did one of those early broadcasts,
• 7:32
  S3: what did it sound like? We've got a clip for you.
• 7:35
  S3: Take a listen to this.
• 7:37
  S6: Good afternoon, radio friends. This is the Moody Bible Institute
• 7:41
  S6: of Chicago, the West Point of Christian Service radio station WMBI.
• 7:48
  S6: The station, which is dedicated wholly to the service of
• 7:51
  S6: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. WMBI. Transmits by authority
• 7:58
  S6: of the Federal Radio Commission on a frequency of 180
• 8:01
  S6: Kilocycles and the program which is being brought to you
• 8:06
  S6: during this hour, is broadcast from the auditorium of the
• 8:11
  S6: Institute and is brought to you by your announcer. H
• 8:17
  S6: a Hermansen, assisted by Mrs. B a Lovelady. As we
• 8:24
  S6: did last week, we'll have to beg off honoring all
• 8:31
  S6: the requests that have come in for this period, because
• 8:35
  S6: last week was letter week at WMBI. Hundreds and hundreds
• 8:40
  S6: of letters came in and many of them with requests
• 8:43
  S6: for special numbers for special programs. And I have here
• 8:49
  S6: in my hands a handful of requests for this period,
• 8:52
  S6: which it will be impossible for us to honor. We
• 8:56
  S6: trust that you will forgive us if we do not
• 9:00
  S6: try to include them.
• 9:04
  S3: Love that the early crackly sounds requests for special numbers.
• 9:09
  S5: Were so excited to.
• 9:10
  S3: Have Christian radio programs. What a special thing.
• 9:13
  S4: It was letter week.
• 9:14
  S3: Yeah, to.
• 9:15
  S4: Be.
• 9:15
  S3: Able to bring a Christian Radio Moody Radio, one of
• 9:18
  S3: the oldest, longest running Christian radio stations. We have Phil
• 9:23
  S3: Shepherd with us as we celebrate 100 years of Moody
• 9:26
  S3: Radio coming up.
• 9:27
  S1: It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 9:34
  S3: July 28th, 1926. It's a bright summer day. A singer
• 9:40
  S3: stepped to the microphone on a brand new radio studio
• 9:44
  S3: here at Moody Bible Institute. Listeners heard the first words
• 9:48
  S3: from the initial broadcast over the air. I want you
• 9:52
  S3: to know him. Bill Shepherd joining us right now. He
• 9:56
  S3: has spent many years, served over 30 years as national
• 9:59
  S3: operations manager of Moody Radio. He's a moody, a moody
• 10:03
  S3: audio archive expert for sure. The new release, his book,
• 10:07
  S3: This is Moody radio 100 Years of Proclaiming the gospel. Oh, Phil,
• 10:11
  S3: where do we even start? Give us a little bit
• 10:14
  S3: of a context for understanding what was the radio landscape
• 10:18
  S3: like back in the the 1920s when Moody Radio entered
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  S3: the scene?
• 10:24
  S7: You know, it was very much like the wild, Wild West.
• 10:28
  S7: There were people taking frequencies or wavelengths, as they called
• 10:32
  S7: them back in those days. And people saw a lot
• 10:35
  S7: of opportunity to make money because commercial radio, even though
• 10:39
  S7: it had been experimental in the decade before on small operations,
• 10:44
  S7: it wasn't commercial until 1920. And there were a couple
• 10:48
  S7: of people at Moody Bible Institute, Coleman Crowell, for one,
• 10:53
  S7: who saw the opportunity to advance the gospel. And so
• 10:56
  S7: they were praying from 1923, they prayed for three years
• 11:01
  S7: for a radio station to raise, to be raised up. Uh,
• 11:06
  S7: in fact, uh, the business manager of the institute AF
• 11:09
  S7: Gaylord was convinced of the potential because of Coleman Crowell
• 11:14
  S7: and and his ideas. He was a recent graduate of
• 11:17
  S7: Yale University with electrical engineering degree. And he had the
• 11:20
  S7: smarts to make it happen.
• 11:22
  S3: Share a couple of highlights from those earliest broadcasts. Those
• 11:27
  S3: those first couple moments on air. We just heard a
• 11:30
  S3: little bit of of one of the early shows. It
• 11:33
  S3: sounds totally different than most people are used to listening.
• 11:36
  S3: If they've been listening here in the last decade or so.
• 11:39
  S3: But talk about those early broadcasts.
• 11:42
  S7: Well, they were very simple. And the fact is they
• 11:46
  S7: were pioneering. They had nobody to follow. In fact, in
• 11:50
  S7: the introduction to the new book, This is Moody Radio.
• 11:53
  S7: This is what Kevin and I wrote to the visionaries
• 11:56
  S7: who learned through trial and error the pioneering concepts that
• 12:01
  S7: created Moody Radio. Generation after generation of Christian workers dedicating
• 12:06
  S7: their gifts and talents, standing on the shoulders of those
• 12:10
  S7: who preceded them. It was a matter of following the
• 12:14
  S7: best practices that you could think of and. And then
• 12:19
  S7: a lot of trial and error. All of the early,
• 12:21
  S7: early pioneers said it was trial and error, and they
• 12:25
  S7: got feedback. People called, people wrote letters. In fact, a
• 12:29
  S7: letter week 1929, they received 5000 letters in one week.
• 12:35
  S7: So they got feedback. And because Christian radio was new,
• 12:39
  S7: they had never had anything like it. It was a
• 12:42
  S7: wonderful time in the life of the church. They had
• 12:46
  S7: a friend throughout the week that would encourage them when
• 12:50
  S7: they needed uplifting. They were encouraged by WMBI in Chicago.
• 12:55
  S3: Wow. What was the. What was Chicago's reaction? Was there
• 12:59
  S3: any early opposition to Moody Radio in this in this
• 13:03
  S3: new thing that had come or that was being broadcast
• 13:06
  S3: now from downtown Chicago?
• 13:08
  S7: Interesting that you had asked that, because the Chicago Tribune
• 13:11
  S7: on the following morning on the first page had not
• 13:15
  S7: a criticism, but listen to what Elmer Douglas said. He
• 13:19
  S7: said at 730 the dedicatory program of station WMBI the
• 13:24
  S7: Moody Bible Institute. The tone of this new station is
• 13:28
  S7: remarkably pure piano. Instrumental, vocal and voice tones seem to
• 13:34
  S7: be transmitted with the last degree of technical perfection. The
• 13:38
  S7: musical program was high class in every sense of the word.
• 13:43
  S7: Our first critic, and it was a good one. But
• 13:47
  S7: also that day we heard from WGN, which was the
• 13:51
  S7: tribunes radio station, and they said that we had to
• 13:55
  S7: go off the air because we were out of tolerance
• 13:58
  S7: on our broadcast signal. But Coleman Kroll, uh, evidently was
• 14:04
  S7: quite a precise man. And as I said earlier, electrical
• 14:08
  S7: engineering degree, uh, he basically told them that's impossible. We
• 14:14
  S7: are within specs, and we never heard back from WGN.
• 14:18
  S7: But interesting enough, there was a list of stations who
• 14:22
  S7: were acknowledged for their technical perfection. Ah, let's just say
• 14:27
  S7: their quality and WMBI was on that short list. And
• 14:31
  S7: oddly enough, WGN was not. So we have a the
• 14:35
  S7: empirical evidence that we were solid, clear, and we were
• 14:41
  S7: on the ball as it related to technical expertise, all
• 14:44
  S7: from the very beginning.
• 14:45
  S3: Phil Stafford, our guest this morning, is we are celebrating
• 14:48
  S3: this month 100 years of Moody Radio, 100 years proclaiming
• 14:52
  S3: the gospel. This is Moody Radio as the book just
• 14:55
  S3: out that Phil co-authored. You know, when the. What role
• 14:59
  S3: did music play in those early broadcasts? And talk a
• 15:02
  S3: little bit about what had to come together for those
• 15:06
  S3: sounds to be broadcast? I mean, Jonathan, our current engineer,
• 15:11
  S3: he presses a couple buttons and we can play any
• 15:15
  S3: number of songs with just the press of a button.
• 15:17
  S3: But that was not so back then, obviously. Explain a
• 15:20
  S3: little bit what that was like.
• 15:22
  S7: Well, there were no buttons to push back in those days.
• 15:25
  S7: If you wanted to have music, you had to have musicians,
• 15:29
  S7: you had to have singers. And one of the benefits
• 15:32
  S7: that Moody Radio WMBI in those years had was it
• 15:37
  S7: had the best Bible teachers because of the faculty of
• 15:40
  S7: the Moody Bible Institute, and it had lots of singers
• 15:44
  S7: and musicians because of the students that had brought their
• 15:48
  S7: talents to Moody. And what a perfect opportunity for them
• 15:52
  S7: to use it for the Lord. And their skills were
• 15:55
  S7: used to create music. And so in the very beginning,
• 15:58
  S7: Wendell Lovelace was the first program director, and he had
• 16:01
  S7: a secretary, and he said we were the staff. And
• 16:05
  S7: what he would do would coordinate with students to come in.
• 16:09
  S7: A student would receive a little pass with their name
• 16:11
  S7: on it, and the time they were to show up
• 16:13
  S7: at the studio. So there was order in what was
• 16:17
  S7: taking place there. And they were able to maintain not
• 16:20
  S7: only the Bible teaching, but also the music. And the
• 16:23
  S7: music from the very beginning was, uh, was honoring to God.
• 16:27
  S7: And I, I really think that even the fact is, uh,
• 16:31
  S7: WMBI came on the air on July 28th, 1926. It
• 16:35
  S7: was a Wednesday evening, but the studios had been built
• 16:39
  S7: a half year earlier in anticipation of receiving that license.
• 16:44
  S7: But it didn't come. It didn't come. And so in
• 16:48
  S7: anticipation of it coming, the institute leased time on WENR.
• 16:54
  S7: And from March 3rd, 1926, they broadcast a couple hours
• 16:59
  S7: a day from the new studios, but over a different
• 17:02
  S7: radio station. So when July 28th came, they were ready.
• 17:08
  S7: They had already perfected the schedule. So to some degree.
• 17:13
  S7: And they were they were up and going. It was
• 17:15
  S7: almost like they had an audition or I should say
• 17:18
  S7: a rehearsal for a half a year. So when they
• 17:20
  S7: went on the air, they had it down.
• 17:23
  S3: Phil, as you have been, this has been such a
• 17:26
  S3: labor of love for you. I know you are. You
• 17:28
  S3: have spent a lot of time putting together the stories
• 17:32
  S3: and assembling this book. Let's talk about the 100 years
• 17:35
  S3: of proclaiming the unstoppable gospel, because the gospel is where
• 17:39
  S3: it begins and where it ends. That has been the
• 17:42
  S3: thread throughout every history, every decade of of Moody Radio's history.
• 17:48
  S3: What has this meant to you personally, as you've gone
• 17:50
  S3: through and just seen the faithfulness of God over 100 years?
• 17:56
  S7: Well, you had asked earlier listeners, how long have you listened?
• 17:59
  S7: I didn't text him because I was listening here. I
• 18:03
  S7: have memories of the mid 60s. So what is that,
• 18:07
  S7: 60 years. So I've been listening for to years. My
• 18:10
  S7: mom would faithfully play WDLMAM960 in our 1961 Mercury. I
• 18:17
  S7: can still see the dashboard and the radio in the
• 18:20
  S7: middle there up top WDLM because w was right in
• 18:24
  S7: the middle of the dial. So the little needle was
• 18:26
  S7: always in the middle of the dial. And so my
• 18:29
  S7: earliest memories were listening to W D, l, m, and
• 18:32
  S7: then when I was in third grade, my Sunday school
• 18:34
  S7: class got to go out to the radio station and
• 18:37
  S7: Dean Sipple, the first station manager. He interviewed me, asked
• 18:42
  S7: me my name, so I. I was on the radio
• 18:46
  S7: in 1963, so it's meant a lot to me. And
• 18:51
  S7: when I started really following Christ, making it sincere, seriously
• 18:56
  S7: making him the Lord of my life in the early 80s.
• 19:00
  S7: W d l'm Moody radio was instrumental in helping me grow.
• 19:06
  S7: Many old time listeners would remember Doctor Robert, a cook,
• 19:10
  S7: the man who always said, you know, walk with the
• 19:12
  S7: king today and be a blessing. There were times I
• 19:15
  S7: would sit on the edge of my bed and listen
• 19:17
  S7: and pray. It just meant so much to me. And
• 19:20
  S7: that's why I'm so thrilled I get to be a
• 19:22
  S7: part of this. And I've been a part of it
• 19:25
  S7: now since 1981, when I started at WDM, the station
• 19:29
  S7: that I went to as a boy, I ended up
• 19:32
  S7: working there, and from there came to Chicago in 1983
• 19:35
  S7: as an announcer on WMBI.
• 19:37
  S3: Wow, Phil, what a joy to have you with us
• 19:40
  S3: this morning. You're going to be hearing more from Phil
• 19:43
  S3: and other voices as we march through this very special month.
• 19:47
  S3: We are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Moody Radio.
• 19:51
  S3: I want you to text the word radio to 805 557898,
• 19:57
  S3: text radio to 805 557898.
• 20:04
  S1: Take your next step with Jesus today. You're listening to
• 20:08
  S1: cast and crew.
• 20:10
  S3: Well, this whole week we have talked about what it
• 20:12
  S3: looks like to be dependent on God and a beautiful picture.
• 20:15
  S3: Hopefully you're starting to grasp that or have it at
• 20:18
  S3: the forefront of your mind. But what about how God
• 20:21
  S3: allows us to depend on one another? Sometimes depending on
• 20:25
  S3: God is one thing. Depending on other, people can feel
• 20:29
  S3: maybe a little more scary. I've got two guests with
• 20:32
  S3: me this morning. They co-authored a great book, Kevin Chandler
• 20:36
  S3: and Tommy Shelton. The book is called The Hospitality of Need.
• 20:41
  S3: How depending on one another helps us heal and grow together. Kevin,
• 20:45
  S3: I want to go to you first. Give us the
• 20:47
  S3: backstory of how this book came about.
• 20:52
  S8: Tommy and I have been friends for, gosh, most of
• 20:54
  S8: our lives a long time at this point. And, um,
• 20:58
  S8: I have a ministry called We Carry Kevin, where we
• 21:02
  S8: work with families with physical mobility related disabilities. And a
• 21:07
  S8: question that I get a lot is how do I
• 21:10
  S8: invite people into my needs? How do I ask people
• 21:14
  S8: to help with my needs because I'm in a wheelchair. And, uh,
• 21:19
  S8: and so just through a lot of prayer and discussion
• 21:23
  S8: decided that maybe the best way to answer that was
• 21:26
  S8: to give examples from my life, um, about how I've
• 21:30
  S8: done that sometimes well, and sometimes not so well, but
• 21:34
  S8: by the grace of God, that worked out. And, and
• 21:37
  S8: through that process, um, realized that there were some examples
• 21:41
  S8: that Jesus gave us in his time on earth. And
• 21:44
  S8: so Tommy and I had always wanted to write a
• 21:46
  S8: book together. And I asked him if he would come
• 21:49
  S8: in and be a part of that process and really
• 21:52
  S8: expound on what we see in Jesus's examples.
• 21:56
  S3: Yeah. Kevin Chandler. Uh, he co-authored the book with Tommy.
• 22:00
  S3: He also has a non-profit. He mentioned we carry Kevin
• 22:04
  S3: and he speaks worldwide about friendship and disability. Tommy, I
• 22:07
  S3: want to go to you the title of this book,
• 22:09
  S3: The Hospitality of Need. When we think about hospitality, usually
• 22:14
  S3: it's us thinking about how we can prepare for others,
• 22:18
  S3: whether it's welcoming people into our home hosting. But how
• 22:23
  S3: is need in and of itself, and even allowing others
• 22:26
  S3: to meet our needs? A form of hospitality. It kind
• 22:29
  S3: of turns it on its head a little bit.
• 22:31
  S9: Yeah. So in just my recent last few months, I
• 22:35
  S9: think I would if I was rewriting the book, I
• 22:38
  S9: think I'd call it. I don't got this. Um, my, my, uh,
• 22:43
  S9: in my personal life and in my home, my house, uh,
• 22:46
  S9: my family, we've just had a lot of real profound
• 22:50
  S9: needs that stacked up kind of back to back to
• 22:53
  S9: back house stuff with a big house, plumbing, flooding thing
• 22:57
  S9: and unfolding saga of mold and then cars breaking down
• 23:02
  S9: and all kinds of stuff. And, you know, and I'm
• 23:04
  S9: preaching from the pulpit every Sunday, and I ended up
• 23:07
  S9: basically having to confess all of this to my congregation,
• 23:10
  S9: that my family's in real rough shape, that we need help.
• 23:14
  S9: I was almost shamed by my church for letting things
• 23:18
  S9: go unspoken for so long. Wow. Like my church leapt
• 23:22
  S9: into action and they even raised some money on a
• 23:25
  S9: GoFundMe because my insurance didn't cover the damage to the
• 23:28
  S9: house at all. Not one dime. And they were almost angry.
• 23:32
  S9: They were almost kind of put out that I let
• 23:35
  S9: any of those needs kind of stack up without asking
• 23:39
  S9: for help. And it really was interesting because the running
• 23:42
  S9: joke was, didn't you write a book about this?
• 23:45
  S10: And I said, I said, to be fair, I co-wrote it.
• 23:47
  S10: I did, I co-wrote the book.
• 23:49
  S9: But yeah, living it out, you know, the thought is
• 23:52
  S9: one thing. Even writing about the thought is another thing,
• 23:54
  S9: but living it out and is a completely different thing.
• 23:57
  S9: And I was so profoundly blessed by how eager my
• 24:02
  S9: congregation was to leap into action to, to serve me.
• 24:07
  S9: And it just struck me as how, how desirous we
• 24:11
  S9: are for it to be the other way around.
• 24:12
  S10: Yeah.
• 24:13
  S9: And it was like just proving the, the principles of
• 24:16
  S9: the book for me in real time that I really
• 24:19
  S9: want to be the one who meets needs. I really
• 24:21
  S9: don't want to be the one who has the need.
• 24:24
  S9: But it was such and continues to be such a blessing.
• 24:28
  S9: And I really kind of almost like want the same
• 24:32
  S9: blessing for other people like, you know, praise the Lord
• 24:36
  S9: when you have a need and you need to ask
• 24:39
  S9: for help because it is so it's so humbling, but
• 24:43
  S9: not there's no shame in it. It's all just humbling.
• 24:46
  S9: And you end up praising the Lord in receiving that help.
• 24:49
  S3: Wow. So much there. You know, you said, praise the
• 24:52
  S3: Lord for having to ask for help. I mean, Kevin,
• 24:57
  S3: I'm going to go back to you everything. I don't
• 25:00
  S3: know if it's just our pride or some of it
• 25:03
  S3: is culture. We don't want to admit that we have needs.
• 25:07
  S3: We fight against it. We want to project an image
• 25:12
  S3: that says, I can take care of this. Tell me
• 25:15
  S3: about your own experience of having to rely on other
• 25:18
  S3: people and the both the challenge, but also the beauty
• 25:22
  S3: of that. Give me your perspective.
• 25:25
  S8: My experience has been that, you know, there are times when,
• 25:29
  S8: because of my needs, I because of being in a wheelchair.
• 25:32
  S8: I need help with using the restroom and making food
• 25:36
  S8: and eating food and driving places and everything. Um, in
• 25:41
  S8: life that really involves moving around and, uh, so often
• 25:46
  S8: that I can be tempted to feel like I'm a burden.
• 25:49
  S8: And yet just as Tommy was pointing out, you know,
• 25:54
  S8: when we help someone, when I get to help someone,
• 25:58
  S8: I feel the joy of that. I feel the fulfillment
• 26:01
  S8: of that. And so I'm robbing others of that wonderful
• 26:09
  S8: feeling and experience. If I don't invite them into my
• 26:12
  S8: own needs, I'm providing an opportunity for people to feel
• 26:17
  S8: a sense of fulfillment or, or ownership or, you know, engagement. And,
• 26:24
  S8: and so that's, uh, my needs can be a tool to, um,
• 26:29
  S8: to really build people up and build, build others up.
• 26:34
  S8: And the other aspect of that is that as people
• 26:37
  S8: come into my need and help me with things, I
• 26:41
  S8: get to pay attention to their needs by proximity. We're
• 26:44
  S8: closer to each other and my needs are being taken
• 26:48
  S8: care of, so I don't have to worry about those.
• 26:49
  S8: I can I can turn my attention on them. And
• 26:53
  S8: through all of it, you know, oftentimes that leads to
• 26:57
  S8: deeper relationship and ultimately points both of us involved to
• 27:04
  S8: the Lord and our dependence on him.
• 27:07
  S3: Tommy, talk a little bit about your friendship with Kevin.
• 27:10
  S3: How did you two meet?
• 27:12
  S10: It's a fun story.
• 27:13
  S9: We met on a couple different layers. Kevin's mother ran
• 27:18
  S9: a crisis pregnancy support center, helped to run a crisis
• 27:21
  S9: pregnancy support center, and I volunteered. So I met the
• 27:25
  S9: whole Chandler family through that. I also was a DJ
• 27:29
  S9: on our local Christian radio station. So Kevin was a
• 27:33
  S9: fan of the show. The Chandlers were fans of the station.
• 27:37
  S9: So when I moved to Florida, we kind of stayed
• 27:39
  S9: in touch. And when he needed to visit, he and
• 27:42
  S9: my friend, uh, came down and stayed with me. So
• 27:46
  S9: there's even some hospitality that goes into us reuniting as friends.
• 27:49
  S9: And then we just stayed in touch on a much
• 27:52
  S9: deeper level, talking about different subjects, scripture, movies, the church.
• 27:57
  S9: And then, you know, maybe we should write a book
• 27:59
  S9: together someday. So we did.
• 28:02
  S3: That's awesome. Kevin, what's the difference between asking for help
• 28:06
  S3: and inviting people into your need? Is there a key
• 28:10
  S3: difference there?
• 28:12
  S8: Yeah. You know, there is a key difference. I think
• 28:15
  S8: it's subtle, but it's important as a lot of big
• 28:20
  S8: things in life are. And I think it's all about
• 28:23
  S8: our posture. When you are asking for help, it's kind
• 28:27
  S8: of a it can be, I should say, a transactional,
• 28:32
  S8: you know, I'm here. You're there. Yeah. Sort of thing. Hierarchy.
• 28:36
  S8: You could even say, uh, and yet inviting someone into
• 28:40
  S8: your knee, that's just a term that we came up
• 28:43
  S8: with to try and find that balance of more of
• 28:47
  S8: a shoulder to shoulder approach instead of me saying, hey, Tommy,
• 28:51
  S8: I need to use the restroom. Can you take me
• 28:54
  S8: to the restroom? The posture is more of, hey, I
• 28:57
  S8: need to use the restroom. Could we do this together?
• 29:00
  S8: And it becomes a yeah. Again, a shoulder to shoulder
• 29:03
  S8: project that we get to step into together because I
• 29:07
  S8: think a visual might be that our need is a
• 29:11
  S8: house that Tommy and I, for example, can walk into together.
• 29:16
  S3: Yeah.
• 29:16
  S8: To fellowship rather than I am the need or I
• 29:20
  S8: am the burden. It's like it's a third party that
• 29:23
  S8: we get to come into together.
• 29:25
  S3: That's a great picture, Tommy. What do you hope that
• 29:28
  S3: readers are challenged or encouraged by in this book? Because,
• 29:32
  S3: I mean, in the course of a lifetime, you you
• 29:34
  S3: never know when you're going to be in the position
• 29:37
  S3: to be the one who has the needs. Uh, you
• 29:40
  S3: said earlier most people would much rather be the one
• 29:43
  S3: who can meet the need than the one who has
• 29:45
  S3: the need. But what do you hope challenges readers who
• 29:48
  S3: who pick up this book?
• 29:50
  S9: I am excited that we are able to push against
• 29:54
  S9: what I think is a kind of a myth of
• 29:58
  S9: sanctified self-sufficiency. And I'm a preacher. You know, you know,
• 30:02
  S9: by calling and by trade. So I tend to look
• 30:05
  S9: at things through the lens of, you know, what is
• 30:07
  S9: the church preaching? What is it teaching? And I think,
• 30:10
  S9: and I don't think we did this on purpose, and
• 30:12
  S9: I don't know if it's America or what a lot
• 30:15
  S9: of the teaching that I hear coming from the church is.
• 30:18
  S9: One of this is how you can be more self-sufficient.
• 30:21
  S9: You know, you get out of debt, you become a
• 30:23
  S9: better employee. You become a better husband? You become a
• 30:26
  S9: better father. You become a better neighbor. And I think
• 30:29
  S9: it's all about this is how you don't have to
• 30:32
  S9: need other people. And I see that as running rather
• 30:36
  S9: antithetical to especially the the whole of Scripture, but especially
• 30:40
  S9: in the new covenant call that we have as the
• 30:44
  S9: church is, no, we're not called to be self-sufficient. We're
• 30:47
  S9: called to be actually interdependent. You know, we're all dependent
• 30:52
  S9: on Jesus. So it really is a myth that we
• 30:56
  S9: could be independent because none of us can be living
• 30:59
  S9: with Christ without him helping us. I mean to say
• 31:02
  S9: the absolute least of what Jesus has done. So I
• 31:05
  S9: guess I just want to recapture that. It's okay to
• 31:09
  S9: have needs, but but literally, it's almost like a call
• 31:12
  S9: to inventory your own life. And what are all the
• 31:16
  S9: opportunities for fellowship and interdependence that I am keeping from
• 31:21
  S9: the rest of my family and the rest of my
• 31:24
  S9: church family. Like, what are the ways that I am?
• 31:26
  S9: Like Kevin already said, what are the ways that I'm
• 31:28
  S9: robbing other people of an opportunity to step in and
• 31:32
  S9: meet need together?
• 31:33
  S3: The book is called The Hospitality of Need. How depending
• 31:36
  S3: on one another helps us heal and grow together. Text
• 31:40
  S3: grow to (800) 555-7898. I know you've been encouraged and challenged
• 31:46
  S3: by this conversation. Just text grow to 805 557898.
• 31:52
  S1: Your shot of hope to get you through the day.
• 31:55
  S5: You are so, so loved. God does not want you
• 31:59
  S5: to stay in your past. And I want you to
• 32:01
  S5: know and believe that today.
• 32:02
  S1: You're listening to Carl and crew.
• 32:04
  S3: Love that conversation with Kevin and Tommy. He's. I think
• 32:09
  S3: it challenges. I don't know, it was it was challenging
• 32:12
  S3: to me. Anyone else find it challenging?
• 32:14
  S5: Oh, absolutely.
• 32:15
  S3: Hit right to.
• 32:16
  S5: The.
• 32:16
  S3: Heart. We are just so slow to ask for help,
• 32:19
  S3: you know. And I remember when my son was little.
• 32:23
  S3: He was. He's only. He's 13 now, but he has
• 32:26
  S3: almost caught me in height. Guys, this is.
• 32:29
  S4: It's grown fast.
• 32:30
  S3: And it's you know, that's always a big milestone for boys.
• 32:33
  S4: Yes. When they outgrow an adult family.
• 32:36
  S3: You outgrow an adult. And I mean, he had he
• 32:40
  S3: knew it was going to take longer. Many of his
• 32:42
  S3: friends are past their moms, but their moms are also
• 32:45
  S3: five four. And I'm like, when your mom's almost 511,
• 32:48
  S3: then you it's going to take some.
• 32:50
  S4: Years for.
• 32:50
  S3: You. So he's like, he's, he's between five eight and
• 32:54
  S3: five nine now. So he's like, almost, he's, he's I to,
• 32:58
  S3: I almost passed me, which, oh, what's a mom to do?
• 33:04
  S3: But I remember he started getting, he was one of
• 33:07
  S3: those kids that got frequent nosebleeds where anyone anyone nosebleeds.
• 33:12
  S4: No I'm.
• 33:12
  S3: Not. Oh my goodness. And so he would he would
• 33:15
  S3: wake up sometimes remember the first time that he had
• 33:19
  S3: a bloody nose in the middle of the night? He
• 33:20
  S3: was maybe you still in a crib. So he was
• 33:23
  S3: anywhere between a year and 18 months. And you know,
• 33:28
  S3: the first time you have no idea what's going on.
• 33:30
  S3: You're just like, they wake up and there's just blood
• 33:32
  S3: and it's it's a mess. Oh, man. But they started
• 33:36
  S3: to become, you know, fairly frequent. Sometimes it's humidity, sometimes
• 33:39
  S3: it's the air is too dry or, you know, any
• 33:42
  S3: number of things. If he gets hit with a basketball
• 33:45
  S3: in the nose, like hoo boy. But anyway, so one
• 33:48
  S3: night in particular, this was a couple years he'd already
• 33:52
  S3: been dealing it with with it for a couple of years.
• 33:54
  S3: He was probably around five. So I wake up one
• 33:57
  S3: morning and I see there's like little droplets of blood,
• 34:02
  S3: like a little trail. And I'm like, hey, buddy, are
• 34:06
  S3: you are you good? And he was like, I, I
• 34:08
  S3: had a bloody nose in the middle of the night.
• 34:10
  S3: And I said, well, well, why didn't you wake me up?
• 34:13
  S3: He's like, no, I know, I know you haven't been
• 34:16
  S3: sleeping great. I didn't want to wake you up. I
• 34:18
  S3: just dealt with it myself. Oh, and okay. Was this
• 34:22
  S3: an emergency? Absolutely not. But there was something in my
• 34:25
  S3: mama heart that broke a little bit to hear him say,
• 34:28
  S3: I didn't want to bother you. I didn't want to
• 34:31
  S3: wake you up, so I just tried to deal with
• 34:34
  S3: it myself.
• 34:35
  S4: Because for your perspective, you're like, you would never be
• 34:38
  S4: a burden. You can wake me up.
• 34:40
  S5: Anytime.
• 34:41
  S3: Anytime, day or night. And you know what I think
• 34:45
  S3: about that little story and how often we when it
• 34:48
  S3: comes to our relationship with God, we kind of take
• 34:51
  S3: the same approach. Like, have you ever heard somebody go, ah,
• 34:55
  S3: I mean, God's got so many other things to worry about.
• 34:57
  S3: I don't want to bother him with this little concern.
• 35:00
  S3: You know, he's trying to run the whole universe, don't
• 35:02
  S3: you know? And even if we don't say that, we
• 35:05
  S3: kind of have this, like, I'll go to God with, like,
• 35:07
  S3: the big stuff, right?
• 35:08
  S4: This isn't big enough to take to God. I'll just
• 35:10
  S4: handle it myself.
• 35:11
  S3: Like, do we do we have that same approach where
• 35:14
  S3: we're like, I, I got this one. I mean, I've,
• 35:17
  S3: it's not like a life or death thing. I can
• 35:20
  S3: handle it. When it comes to dependence on God, do
• 35:23
  S3: we realize how much God talks about his desire to
• 35:29
  S3: help us?
• 35:31
  S4: 100%. He desires it.
• 35:33
  S3: He really, really wants to hear from us and not
• 35:37
  S3: in a like, perfunctory sort of way, but like, I
• 35:41
  S3: want to read to you Psalm 121. I lift up
• 35:45
  S3: my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
• 35:50
  S3: My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
• 35:53
  S3: He will not let your foot be moved. He who
• 35:56
  S3: keeps you will not slumber. You're not waking him up
• 35:59
  S3: in the middle of the night, by the way. Behold,
• 36:01
  S3: he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The
• 36:05
  S3: Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on
• 36:08
  S3: your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day,
• 36:12
  S3: nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you
• 36:15
  S3: from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord
• 36:18
  S3: will keep your going out and your coming in from
• 36:21
  S3: this time forth and forevermore. My favorite part of that's
• 36:24
  S3: the whole all of Psalm 121. But my favorite part
• 36:27
  S3: is those first two verses. I lift up my eyes
• 36:31
  S3: to the hills. From where does my help come? My
• 36:34
  S3: help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
• 36:38
  S3: The qualifications for him to help you. Oh yeah. He
• 36:41
  S3: made heaven and earth. So whatever you got going on today.
• 36:45
  S4: He can handle it.
• 36:45
  S3: You're bringing it to someone who made heaven and earth.
• 36:48
  S3: For goodness sake.
• 36:49
  S5: Nothing's too big.
• 36:50
  S3: Nothing's too big for him. And so, you know, I
• 36:54
  S3: want to link this because I want to open phone
• 36:56
  S3: lines here. And Carl often talks about how when we
• 36:59
  S3: share our testimony, an important part of sharing it is
• 37:03
  S3: how is he helping you today? So it's, it's awesome
• 37:07
  S3: to share about the point of transformation, the moment of salvation.
• 37:11
  S3: Maybe he dragged you out of something way back in
• 37:14
  S3: 1976 and you've been walking with him. How is he
• 37:17
  S3: helping you to this day? And that's kind of pairing
• 37:21
  S3: this with acts 26, when Paul is standing before King
• 37:24
  S3: Agrippa and he tells his whole testimony and his conversion
• 37:27
  S3: story and the kind of guy he used to be.
• 37:30
  S3: But then in verse 22, he says, to this day
• 37:34
  S3: I have had the help that comes from God. And
• 37:37
  S3: so I stand here testifying both to small and great.
• 37:42
  S3: So I want to open the phone lines. I want
• 37:44
  S3: to know, how is God helping you to this very day?
• 37:49
  S3: That's simple. What is it that he's helping you with?
• 37:53
  S3: What are you going through? That you have the help
• 37:55
  S3: of the Lord? You know you're not alone in it.
• 37:57
  S3: How is God helping you to this day? Freedom Friday ish.
• 38:01
  S3: I mean, tomorrow's a holiday. So we're going to do
• 38:03
  S3: a little Freedom Friday on a Thursday. How is God
• 38:06
  S3: helping you to this day? 805 557898. (800) 555-7898.
• 38:14
  S1: Your shot of hope to help you through the day.
• 38:18
  S1: This is Carl and Crew on Moody Radio.
• 38:21
  S3: How is God helping you today? You know, I used
• 38:25
  S3: to serve in a ministry, an incredible mom's ministry with
• 38:28
  S3: a great friend of mine, and her name is Mandy.
• 38:31
  S3: And one of the things, you know, you have friendships
• 38:33
  S3: with people and you start to learn the things that
• 38:35
  S3: they say often. And one of the things that I
• 38:37
  S3: always remember her saying, whether it was a parenting challenge
• 38:42
  S3: or something we were dealing with in ministry, there were
• 38:45
  S3: challenges there. And she would always say, the Lord is
• 38:47
  S3: helping us ally. The Lord is helping us. And she
• 38:50
  S3: would say that all the time. And it was so true.
• 38:53
  S3: No matter what we were facing, the Lord is helping us.
• 38:57
  S3: Psalm 121 is kind of where we're camped out. I
• 39:00
  S3: lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does
• 39:02
  S3: my help come? My help comes from the Lord who
• 39:05
  S3: made heaven and earth. Sometimes we're slow to look to
• 39:09
  S3: the hills where our help comes from. God wants to
• 39:13
  S3: help us. So I'm asking you, how is God helping
• 39:16
  S3: you to this very day? 805 557898. Such an important
• 39:21
  S3: part of your testimony to share with people. Tony. First
• 39:24
  S3: time caller from Marion, Indiana. How has God helping you
• 39:28
  S3: to this day?
• 39:30
  S9: Well, uh.
• 39:34
  S11: I've been married 31 years and God has shown me priorities.
• 39:43
  S11: I almost lost my wife on Sunday. And she just
• 39:50
  S11: showed me that no matter what his status. And he'll
• 39:54
  S11: get us through.
• 39:55
  S3: Yeah.
• 39:57
  S11: Uh, everything checked out normal. Everything's good. Praise God. And
• 40:01
  S11: they have no idea. They they they told us it
• 40:04
  S11: was really crazy. You know, people take melatonin for sleep
• 40:07
  S11: and they think it's okay. And they said that that's
• 40:09
  S11: the only thing they can think of. It threw her
• 40:11
  S11: into a low heart, you know, they threw her heart
• 40:14
  S11: arrhythmia off and, uh, depressed her, you know, made sure
• 40:19
  S11: things didn't react the way they should have. And she
• 40:21
  S11: went out. But, you know.
• 40:23
  S3: Tony, is she back home now? Tony.
• 40:25
  S11: Yeah. She got, she got, she came home. They let
• 40:27
  S11: her home come home Tuesday evening.
• 40:28
  S3: Awesome.
• 40:29
  S11: Tony. She says she feels normal. She's a little tired,
• 40:32
  S11: but our faith is in the Lord. And he'll get
• 40:34
  S11: us through.
• 40:35
  S3: Awesome. Tony, thank you so much. First time caller, 31
• 40:39
  S3: years of marriage and you're seeing God help you to
• 40:41
  S3: this very day. Praise God that your wife is back
• 40:44
  S3: home and doing well. Avon calling in this morning from Lorain, Ohio.
• 40:49
  S3: How is God helping you to this very day?
• 40:53
  S12: The amazing thing about the Lord in my life, um,
• 40:56
  S12: he is helping me in every way. Um, the sanctification
• 40:59
  S12: process is amazing because it, it starts when I wake
• 41:03
  S12: up in the morning from everything from my attitudes to
• 41:06
  S12: the strength to get up and, and continue and to
• 41:09
  S12: trust that I'm going to make it through the day. Um,
• 41:11
  S12: with all the trials that come, so I. The Lord
• 41:15
  S12: helps me in absolutely every single way. My transportation, my business,
• 41:20
  S12: my bills, everything. My attitude and just. The Lord is
• 41:24
  S12: helping me in the sanctification process in every single area.
• 41:29
  S12: And that's what's amazing to me. Yeah, that's what's the
• 41:31
  S12: most amazing thing is my attitude, the way I think,
• 41:34
  S12: the way I look at things and just, I don't know,
• 41:36
  S12: it's just amazing. It's life changing.
• 41:39
  S3: Dan, thank you so much from Lorain, Ohio. Let's go
• 41:42
  S3: to Christina from Daytona Beach, Florida. How is God helping
• 41:45
  S3: you to this very day?
• 41:48
  S13: Good morning Allie and Carl and crew team. God has
• 41:52
  S13: truly proven himself so faithful to me over these last
• 41:55
  S13: few years, especially. I'm a blind woman. I've been blind
• 41:59
  S13: for nine years now. Um, to the to the credit
• 42:04
  S13: of my daddy, who went to the service when he
• 42:06
  S13: was 14 to take care of his own family. He
• 42:08
  S13: raised us to be very self-sufficient. And sometimes it has
• 42:12
  S13: been to my detriment because I love to. I love
• 42:15
  S13: to do everything by myself, but I'm learning. Every day
• 42:19
  S13: I pray and I ask God sometimes for the simplest things.
• 42:23
  S13: I said, Lord, please help me with this. By the
• 42:25
  S13: power of the Holy Spirit and I'm able to live independently,
• 42:29
  S13: cook for myself, do all types of things, but I
• 42:32
  S13: definitely give the praise and the glory to my Lord
• 42:34
  S13: and Savior, Jesus Christ.
• 42:36
  S3: Christina, thank you so much from Daytona Beach, Florida. Appreciate
• 42:40
  S3: your call, sister. As you're listening this morning, I want
• 42:43
  S3: to ask you, how is God helping you to this
• 42:47
  S3: very day? Because yes, we tell the story of how
• 42:50
  S3: God called us out of darkness and into light, but
• 42:53
  S3: it's that's not the only part of our story that's
• 42:56
  S3: worth sharing. We want to tell people what is what
• 42:59
  S3: does your faith matter today? How is he helping you.
• 43:04
  S1: Start your day moving closer to Jesus. You're listening to
• 43:07
  S1: Carl and crew.
• 43:09
  S3: Well, we have a treat for you this morning. We
• 43:12
  S3: have a special guest and we are going to get
• 43:14
  S3: to the reason for the interview. He's written a book
• 43:17
  S3: called Abiding Dependence Living Moment by Moment in the Love
• 43:21
  S3: of God. But his background, he's a banjoist, guitar guitarist,
• 43:26
  S3: rather a vocalist, a songwriter. His music has been featured widely.
• 43:31
  S3: His playing has been featured on albums by Dolly Parton,
• 43:34
  S3: Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, maybe you know some
• 43:37
  S3: of those names. Also Fernando Ortega. So I said, Ron,
• 43:40
  S3: can you get us started this morning with just a
• 43:43
  S3: little bit of a banjo riff? Can you give us
• 43:46
  S3: a little something? Because this is not an instrument that
• 43:48
  S3: we always get to hear very often. So give us something, Ron. Well,
• 44:00
  S3: if that doesn't make you feel like 4th of July. Ron,
• 44:03
  S3: thank you so much for being with us this morning.
• 44:06
  S14: Oh, thanks for having me, Ali.
• 44:08
  S3: Give me a little bit of your backstory. How long
• 44:10
  S3: have you been a musician?
• 44:13
  S14: Oh, I was 11 when I got my first guitar and.
• 44:17
  S14: But I was just sort of strumming, strumming, playing cowboy
• 44:20
  S14: songs and, uh, and, but then I heard bluegrass when
• 44:24
  S14: I was 12. And so dad got me a banjo and, uh,
• 44:27
  S14: he says, uh, I got you a banjo when you
• 44:30
  S14: were 13, and you didn't come out of your room
• 44:32
  S14: till you were 21. And it was kind of true,
• 44:36
  S14: kind of true. But by the time I was 16,
• 44:38
  S14: I had a car and I was working for my
• 44:40
  S14: dad's music store and, but I was mobile and I
• 44:43
  S14: went to festivals and jams and, and I was just absolutely,
• 44:47
  S14: as they say here in the South, I was eat
• 44:50
  S14: up with it.
• 44:51
  S3: When did you become a follower of Christ? Which did
• 44:54
  S3: you fall in love with first? Did you fall in
• 44:57
  S3: love with music first and then fell in love with
• 44:59
  S3: Jesus or the other way around?
• 45:01
  S14: Well, my mom, uh, had a history of like inner childhood,
• 45:06
  S14: horrible abuse. And she was on her third marriage, uh,
• 45:12
  S14: with my dad. And but then I was born in 64,
• 45:17
  S14: and in 66, she got saved.
• 45:19
  S3: Mhm.
• 45:20
  S14: So the, the, my two I had two older brothers
• 45:23
  S14: and I grew up with a different mother.
• 45:25
  S3: Wow.
• 45:26
  S14: Like she, she remarkably transformed because she found out she
• 45:29
  S14: had a father who loved her and, and, and she,
• 45:34
  S14: she was just taken up with church and Bible study and,
• 45:37
  S14: and she loved me really well. So by the time
• 45:40
  S14: I was six, I went forward in church. Wow. And, uh,
• 45:43
  S14: you know, I accepted Christ, whatever that means to a
• 45:45
  S14: six year old. But mom, mom got me the Family
• 45:49
  S14: Bible Library by Thomas Nelson. And I read a Bible,
• 45:52
  S14: the Bible stories, and she bought me a Bible, which
• 45:54
  S14: I still have. I was, I was six and, uh, and, but,
• 45:58
  S14: you know, really to me, I, and I was also
• 46:01
  S14: as I got eight, nine I was also reading Greek
• 46:03
  S14: myths and stuff. So God was a little bit Zeus like,
• 46:07
  S14: because I was reading a lot of Old Testament stuff
• 46:10
  S14: and it was a little bit like Zeus and less
• 46:12
  S14: like Jesus. And, uh, so it was, I was about
• 46:15
  S14: 17 and I was in a really legalistic church for
• 46:19
  S14: about nine months, which is a gestational period. And, uh, and,
• 46:24
  S14: and I felt terrible every, every Sunday when I went
• 46:26
  S14: home instead of feeling full of power. And, and, uh,
• 46:30
  S14: I had a conversation with a great friend of mine
• 46:33
  S14: named Eric Uglum that, uh, he said at one point
• 46:35
  S14: I was pouring all this out to him and he said, Ron,
• 46:39
  S14: we're not saved by what we do or don't do.
• 46:41
  S14: We're saved by trusting God. And I went home and
• 46:45
  S14: I read Galatians, which I'd read many times before, and
• 46:49
  S14: all the light bulbs went on. Wow. And so I,
• 46:52
  S14: I think, I think really that's the point at which
• 46:56
  S14: I understood, began to understand who God is and what
• 47:00
  S14: he wants. And that. So that was really that's what
• 47:04
  S14: I mark as the real beginning of my journey with God.
• 47:08
  S14: So I was 17, so it was really post. I was,
• 47:10
  S14: I was playing music and, and having fun with that,
• 47:13
  S14: but I, I've always had this thread of reading the Bible.
• 47:18
  S3: I love it. Ron, thank you so much for sharing
• 47:20
  S3: that with us. Ron block our guest. Let's talk about
• 47:23
  S3: abiding dependence now at the age of 17, you reading Galatians,
• 47:28
  S3: the lights go on and you start to see that
• 47:30
  S3: it's not about me trying to earn or work my
• 47:34
  S3: way into this salvation thing, that it's by grace through
• 47:37
  S3: faith alone. When did you start to understand what it
• 47:41
  S3: looked like to really walk in daily dependence on God?
• 47:45
  S15: Well, I had.
• 47:46
  S14: Uh, you know, back then I had a, a preacher
• 47:50
  S14: that was he was teaching, you know, you're when you,
• 47:54
  S14: you're saved to and you go to heaven when you
• 47:56
  S14: die and you're forgiven. And, but and then he was
• 47:59
  S14: also he taught Matthew six that if you seek God
• 48:04
  S14: and seek Him in his, his kingdom and his righteousness,
• 48:07
  S14: then food, shelter, clothing all this will be given to
• 48:09
  S14: you as well, right? So God takes care of our
• 48:12
  S14: needs as we trust him to do that. And so
• 48:15
  S14: I was a kid that wanted to play music. And
• 48:18
  S14: so I went, oh, if I seek God, he'll take
• 48:21
  S14: care of my needs so I don't have to worry
• 48:23
  S14: about the future. And, and the things that people in
• 48:27
  S14: my family were saying, how are you going to own
• 48:29
  S14: a home or raise a family and all that? So
• 48:31
  S14: I had this dual track of trusting God for, you know,
• 48:36
  S14: my sustenance and taking care of my needs and also
• 48:40
  S14: going to heaven when I die. But I did not
• 48:42
  S14: at all understand who I was in Christ. And so
• 48:46
  S14: I was just a separate, independent me with maybe a
• 48:50
  S14: little bit of God in me, Christ in me. And
• 48:53
  S14: then and then there's this great big I that was
• 48:56
  S14: trying to live my life like independent me rather than
• 49:00
  S14: Christ indwelt dependent me. And I didn't find that until
• 49:03
  S14: the mid 90s. Or let me say it, begin to
• 49:06
  S14: find that. Yeah. Find out who I am until the
• 49:08
  S14: mid in the mid 90s.
• 49:10
  S3: Yeah.
• 49:10
  S14: And it changed my life. It changed how I responded.
• 49:13
  S14: It changed everything. And of course you grow in that
• 49:17
  S14: and you learn to get quicker at abiding and returning
• 49:21
  S14: to recognizing your. In Christ is seated above all principality,
• 49:27
  S14: power and might and dominion and every name that is named.
• 49:30
  S14: And you're also indwelt by Christ who has the, the power, uh,
• 49:35
  S14: the love and the self control inside of you that
• 49:38
  S14: we've been given.
• 49:39
  S3: The book is called Abiding Dependence Living Moment by Moment
• 49:42
  S3: in the Love of God. It's a 40 day devotional,
• 49:45
  S3: 40 day meditation that goes deep into the beauty and
• 49:49
  S3: richness of the gospel. What are some of the mistaken
• 49:52
  S3: ideas about God and our relationship with him that you
• 49:56
  S3: sought to dispel in this devotional.
• 49:59
  S14: That, you know the biggest thing I encountered both in
• 50:03
  S14: myself and in other believers is the idea, the false
• 50:08
  S14: idea that you you were saved to go to heaven
• 50:12
  S14: when you die, and now you're down here and you
• 50:15
  S14: pray to God up there to do things and help you.
• 50:19
  S14: The reality is you were you died in Christ. Actually,
• 50:25
  S14: not not just positionally, but you actually the old you
• 50:29
  S14: is dead. Yeah. And it doesn't seem dead because you
• 50:32
  S14: still have stuff in your psychology and your soul that
• 50:35
  S14: you have to deal with, and God wants you to
• 50:38
  S14: deal with that with him. But you are dead. The,
• 50:42
  S14: the old you that was, that was the the old
• 50:45
  S14: you that the Adam life you is dead. And now
• 50:49
  S14: you are a Christ life you and and that Christ
• 50:54
  S14: life you is activated by faith, by believing the word
• 50:58
  S14: of God. What it says about you, and then stepping
• 51:02
  S14: out and acting as though it were true. And now
• 51:05
  S14: you're going to in doing this, you're going to it's
• 51:08
  S14: a learning curve. You're going to fail, you're going to
• 51:10
  S14: get up, you're going to fail, you're going to get up,
• 51:12
  S14: you're going to fail. And as you go along, you're
• 51:15
  S14: going to find a much steadier walk as you go along.
• 51:18
  S14: And you just keep getting up and you accept forgiveness
• 51:22
  S14: of God, and then you keep walking in who you
• 51:25
  S14: really are. You always return. If you sin, you always
• 51:29
  S14: return straight back to who you are and you go,
• 51:32
  S14: that is not who I am. I am one spirit
• 51:34
  S14: with the Lord. I'm holy. I'm dearly loved. Uh. Sin
• 51:38
  S14: is not my nature. Yeah, my, my nature is righteousness.
• 51:43
  S14: My nature is goodness and love to other people. So
• 51:46
  S14: that's the biggest thing is this, this idea that has
• 51:50
  S14: been propagated in through a lot of church teaching is
• 51:53
  S14: this idea of God is separate and holy, and he's
• 51:57
  S14: apart from us, and he's up there somewhere. And then
• 52:02
  S14: we have maybe a little bit of a deposit of
• 52:04
  S14: life in us that kind of helps us maybe overcome
• 52:08
  S14: some stuff. It's like the powerful life of the Godhead
• 52:11
  S14: in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead lives in
• 52:14
  S14: bodily form. Yeah. And you are filled full in him.
• 52:19
  S14: That's what it says. So all the fullness of the
• 52:22
  S14: Godhead lives in Christ in bodily form. And for one,
• 52:25
  S14: we're in him. And. And we're in that fullness of
• 52:28
  S14: the Godhead seated in heavenly places right now. And all
• 52:33
  S14: the fullness of the Godhead is in Christ in bodily
• 52:36
  S14: form in us. So the fullness of the Godhead lives
• 52:39
  S14: in each side, inside each one of us. And it's
• 52:42
  S14: hard for us to believe that because we look in
• 52:44
  S14: the mirror and we go, oh, I did this and
• 52:47
  S14: I did that. And we define ourselves by our past actions.
• 52:52
  S3: And not by our present. You know, think about Romans six.
• 52:55
  S3: That's what's coming to mind as you were talking. Romans 611.
• 52:58
  S3: Really the whole chapter. But verse 11, in the same way,
• 53:01
  S3: count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in
• 53:04
  S3: Christ Jesus. So even if I don't feel, I feel
• 53:08
  S3: like this war within me, that that our spiritual reality
• 53:12
  S3: is that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ. Right?
• 53:15
  S15: Yep.
• 53:16
  S14: Absolutely.
• 53:17
  S3: Ron, thank you so much. You've painted the picture beautifully
• 53:19
  S3: for us. Abiding dependence, living moment by moment in the
• 53:23
  S3: love of God. Ron Block, our guest this morning. Just
• 53:25
  S3: text Ron RON to 800 555 7898. Text Ron to
• 53:32
  S3: 805 557898.
• 53:35
  S1: She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
• 53:40
  S1: Super di is in the crew. It's Carl and crew
• 53:44
  S1: on Moody Radio.
• 53:45
  S16: Well, it is Thursday. It is just past 630 central time.
• 53:51
  S16: And that means it's time.
• 53:52
  S3: For make it a metaphor. This is our opportunity to
• 53:55
  S3: hear from Young Thunder. We give him a story. Jonathan
• 53:58
  S3: has a knack for finding the spiritual application for just
• 54:02
  S3: about everything, so we give him a story. His challenge
• 54:06
  S3: to make it a metaphor.
• 54:08
  S1: For finding nuggets of truth in everyday life.
• 54:11
  S17: It's a metaphor. It's just a metaphor, dude.
• 54:13
  S18: That's a metaphor.
• 54:15
  S17: It's a metaphor. I know it's a metaphor.
• 54:17
  S1: It's time for make it a metaphor with young thunder.
• 54:22
  S3: So I was out with my family, my husband, my
• 54:25
  S3: two kids, and we were walking back to our car
• 54:28
  S3: through a pretty busy parking lot, and all of a
• 54:32
  S3: sudden I hear a voice that sounded a little bit frantic. No.
• 54:38
  S3: Come back. And I and I look, and just as
• 54:42
  S3: I turned my head, I see this little boy, probably
• 54:47
  S3: no older than two, maybe three years old, and his
• 54:51
  S3: mom is standing behind at the trunk of the car.
• 54:55
  S3: She had backed into this space. She's at the back
• 54:57
  S3: of the car, was loading some things in the toddler
• 55:02
  S3: as toddlers are want to do it. So as she's
• 55:07
  S3: trying to load up the car, he takes off past her,
• 55:11
  S3: around the car, and I look and in a split second,
• 55:15
  S3: he is on the move. So I hear the panic
• 55:20
  S3: in her voice. I quickly see this toddler. And so
• 55:24
  S3: I did what any mom would do in that situation.
• 55:27
  S3: I was wearing probably 3.5in heels, but my instinct I
• 55:32
  S3: got down in full catcher stance like I play for
• 55:35
  S3: the Cubs or something. I extended my arms as wide
• 55:39
  S3: as I could possibly get them. I'm standing between her
• 55:42
  S3: car and another car. I stand with my arms spread
• 55:46
  S3: as he bolts. I'm totally now blocking his path. He
• 55:49
  S3: has no option but to run directly into me. I
• 55:52
  S3: grab him with both arms and scoop them up and his.
• 55:58
  S3: Another woman who was with the mom, I'm guessing maybe
• 56:01
  S3: an aunt or a grandma. She was standing right next
• 56:05
  S3: to me, but she had a cane, so she. Her
• 56:07
  S3: mobility was limited and she just looks at me and
• 56:10
  S3: she goes, great reflexes. And so in a split second,
• 56:16
  S3: I was able to be the catcher and keep this
• 56:20
  S3: little toddler from running, which was directly behind me, which
• 56:23
  S3: was all of the moving cars. And it was one
• 56:27
  S3: of those mom moments where she had we both had
• 56:31
  S3: the same thought in mind. We knew that this was
• 56:34
  S3: in a second. And I've been on the other side
• 56:36
  S3: of this, too. You need a little bit of help, Jonathan.
• 56:40
  S3: Make it a metaphor.
• 56:41
  S4: Oh man, I love this story, I love that. Okay,
• 56:44
  S4: let's just we're gonna walk it through. Okay? So we
• 56:47
  S4: can find the metaphor. Yes. As we go. So, uh,
• 56:51
  S4: you know what I think about? I think about the
• 56:53
  S4: fact that. And I'm gonna pair you with the other
• 56:56
  S4: mom because you're both moms. So you had to care
• 56:59
  S4: for this child. Uh, that that I think is is
• 57:04
  S4: conjoined because you understand it. You you've been there. You've
• 57:07
  S4: been in those moments, you're a loving mom who cares
• 57:09
  S4: for her children. And it reminds me of the love
• 57:13
  S4: of the father.
• 57:14
  S3: Mhm.
• 57:15
  S4: We run away more than we'd like to admit. We
• 57:20
  S4: take off down the road like a little toddler. Uh,
• 57:23
  S4: who who doesn't know the dangers that are ahead of him?
• 57:26
  S4: Even sometimes we we think his parents. How do they
• 57:29
  S4: not know how dangerous this is? But we don't. We don't.
• 57:34
  S4: In the spiritual metaphor, we're the toddler running off down
• 57:37
  S4: the street and we're about to run into danger. I
• 57:42
  S4: think about Romans 838 and 39 where Paul says this,
• 57:48
  S4: for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
• 57:50
  S4: nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
• 57:53
  S4: nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
• 57:55
  S4: will be able to separate us from the love of
• 57:57
  S4: God in Christ Jesus. This is the thing I thought
• 57:59
  S4: of the love that the father has for us. And
• 58:05
  S4: that's why I'm conjoining you and this other mother. Because, yes,
• 58:08
  S4: that mother had the love to say, no, you're running
• 58:11
  S4: into danger. Come back. And you had the love for
• 58:13
  S4: this child to be able to stop and catch him
• 58:16
  S4: and stop him from running into danger and keeping him safe.
• 58:21
  S4: The father loves us the very same way. His love
• 58:24
  S4: for us is infinite. It doesn't matter how many times
• 58:28
  S4: we run off into danger. If we are his, he
• 58:33
  S4: keeps us. He never stops loving us. He never stops.
• 58:36
  S4: He never says, man, I caught you last time. Figure
• 58:39
  S4: this one out on your own. We get hurts and
• 58:42
  S4: scrapes and things from our running away sometimes. Yet he's
• 58:46
  S4: always there to pick us up. He's always there to
• 58:48
  S4: get in the catcher's stance and say, I'm stopping you
• 58:51
  S4: from doing this because I'm running. I'm running to you.
• 58:54
  S4: This time. I'm catching you. I'm coming back. I'm getting you.
• 58:58
  S4: Because sometimes we don't come back to him on our own.
• 59:01
  S4: He has to get us. He has to come and
• 59:03
  S4: get us. I just think about the infinite love of
• 59:05
  S4: the father and and think about that today. I think
• 59:08
  S4: one of our greatest things is understanding really how deeply
• 59:12
  S4: the father loves us, because that deepens our relationship with him.
• 59:19
  S4: Think about how many times you've run off and how
• 59:23
  S4: many times he shouted after you, even though you've continued
• 59:26
  S4: to run. And then sometimes he jumps in front of
• 59:29
  S4: you and gets into that catcher stance and says, I
• 59:32
  S4: know you're running. I've still got you. And he pulls
• 59:35
  S4: you back in. It's the infinite love of the father
• 59:37
  S4: and it's a beautiful thing.
• 59:39
  S3: Make it a metaphor. He's done it again, folks. He's
• 59:43
  S3: done it again.
• 59:44
  S19: We're getting closer sometimes. Very well.
• 59:47
  S3: Love that spiritual application. Sweet, sweet story.