Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Thursday June 25, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, good morning, friends. It is Thursday, June 25th. I'm your delighted to be here, host Greg Miller. And this is Beliefs, Ballots, and ⁓ well today we're banged up Bulldogs. ⁓ for those watching on video, and I can't possibly imagine why anybody would be watching this on video. You may notice I ⁓ we got a little little ordeal, little dislocated shoulder ⁓ from trying to be competitive athletically at an age where I should no longer be competitive athletically. So We're gonna move past that. We're ⁓ we're working off the injured list today, but ⁓ that is the explanation for why we didn't produce anything yesterday. I was ⁓ I was in the emergency room getting a dislocated shoulder reset until about 530 or so yesterday morning and just didn't have the energy or focus to do much of anything productive yesterday. So we're back today with a with what I hope will be a good message. That the message today is don't mistake God's silence for God's absence. And the scripture verse comes to us from ⁓ from a book that I gotta be honest, I don't study a lot, don't know a lot about, and haven't read a lot, so this was nice. It's ⁓ Habakkuk, one of the Maya prophets, chapter two, verses one through three. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. And this is the Lord's answer coming. Then the Lord replied, Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and it will not delay. I think this is one of the more un misunderstood passages, but it's it's one that's very relevant, and I think I think we can tie this home so all of us can use it. ⁓ you know, people often focus on the the vision portion of this, but I think they're missing the context here. This is not Habakkuk is in no way celebrated. He's he's questioning God. Make no mistake about it. He's he's looking around. And as I think some of us have have been guilty of from time to time, he's he's simply looking around at everything going on around him and saying, Hey God, where where are you? Hard not to think about that right now. When when we look around the the just the absolute silliness and the evil in this world that seems to just go about its business with no repercussions. Sometimes any of us, even us most devout of Christians, can look around and go, hey, hey, God, what where are you? How are you allowing all this to happen to us? and so I think that's something that that very much ties home to to current events. And you know, Habakkuk here is and it's simple. We were all guilty of this. He's just frustrated because he doesn't understand God's timing. And and you'll notice God doesn't rebuke him for asking questions. God in no way Is offended by our questions or or put off by our questions. And instead, God, instead of getting angry or pissed off at Habakkuk for questioning him, he just says, Hey, says something profound. Stand your ground. Stand your watch. In other words, just stay faithful. And I think that's what God is calling most all of us to do these days. You know, stay faithful, stay alert, stay where he has called you to be. And and what God is saying here to Habakkuk, and what I think He's He would say to all of us if we'll listen to him is. I'm still here working in your life, even when you can't see it. You know, I I know a lot of us, I mean, how how many people today, and and myself, you know, can I can definitely relate to some of these on this list? You know, how many people are asking, hey, why why isn't my marriage getting better? Why won't my child come back to the Lord? Why why does evil seem to win so often these days? Why why are dishonest people allowed to prosper all the time? You know, and then the big one is why do I keep praying and not seeing answers? You know, these are these are the kind of questions that I think Habakkuk was asking God. And God's answer wasn't, hey, here's the timeline, here's what I'm doing. God's answer was still just trust me, it's my timing, not yours. And that is a very profound and powerful thing. It's it's ultimately what faith is all about. Faith is not is not believing in God's works because you can see it. It's believing in God's works even when you can't see it. Faith, the the the the analogy, the the framing of the picture I've always liked to put faith is faith is taking that next step even when you can't see that next step. You know, it's it's just it's an element of being patient, allowing God to work on his timeline and understanding that as frustrating as it is, and as much as we question it, invariably his timing and his plan is always, always better than ours. All guys, on a lighter note, before we get into this more serious stuff, we have 72 days until Georgia football. And as I have continued to state day after day, I cannot wait. We're we're gonna we've kind of gone back and forth. We've had some historical number 72s or or roster numbers based on the days till kickoff. ⁓ today we're going to we're we're looking into the future. ⁓ I will absolutely mispronounce this young man's name, and for that I apologize. But the the current number 72 is a young man out of out of, I believe out of Garner, North Carolina. ⁓ and I'm gonna do my best. It's Akenay Agboko, ⁓ big time offensive line prospect. He was a top 50 player in the nation. You never want to expect on true freshman to contribute, especially not on the offensive line, because I'm telling you, it in the SEC, the line play is grown man football. And just, I'm sorry, eighteen-year-olds just usually aren't ready for that. Word out of camp that all spring, this kid is impressing the coaches. This this kid is in line to see the field a little bit as a true freshman on the offensive line. And, you know, barring injuries and and whatnot in the in the unpredictable nature, the the the coaches and the the staff in Athens are really high on Iboco. And I I think the future's really bright. Hopefully we'll see him ⁓ hopefully we'll see him pushing defensive linemen and linebackers out of the way for for the next few years. As we ⁓ we get back to a little more serious topic, and this is one that I was I was doing some ⁓ Some scrolling and trying to find something to talk about. And I came across this story. And this is probably a story a lot of you guys haven't heard. ⁓ there's a recent s ⁓ Supreme Court decision this week involving a Rastafarian pastor ⁓ named Damon Landor, I believe. ⁓ and what basically what happened is he got sent to prison and the prison officials shaved off his dreadlocks. Well, if you know anything about Rastafari is the dreadlocks are part of their religious culture. It is it is a big deal as part of their religious freedoms. And the court blocked his lawsuit for any damages, monetary or otherwise, which kind of leaves you with the question of hey, if if religious rights can be violated with with no repercussions, what's really the point of even having religious light rights? You know, what what good is a right if there's no accountability for violating it? In other words, you know, we we all love and myself include we all love religious liberty when it protects our religion. But the real test is whether or not we're willing to defend religious liberty when it's on a religion that we don't agree with. You know, rights without accountability, and this is a perfect example, it's just words on paper. If if our government or any government can can violate somebody's conscience and just shrug and say, sorry, there's there's no remedy for this. What's done is done, then that right and all rights start to feel more symbolic than real. You know, taking this from A Christianist appointment, that then the reason why this matters is we should never build our view of liberty and freedoms and rights just around our group. If if religious freedom only matters to us when it's our religion, then we're not defending religious liberty at all. We're just defending our faith. ⁓ and now good. God calls us to defend our faith. I defend my faith all the time, but that's not this topic. This topic is about religious freedoms and religious liberties as a whole. ⁓ Proverbs chapter 31 verses 8 and 9. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. God's calling us to defend the rights of everybody, whether we agree with their beliefs or not. And we get into the book of Matthew, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 12. It's the golden rule, people. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. The golden rule applied to religious liberty. If if we want to be able to have our own religious freedoms, then we have to be willing to defend the religious freedoms of others as well. The three talking points for today is the first one's what we just talked about. Religious liberty cannot be just for Christians. If if we want the government to respect our our Christian conscience, then we've also got to want the government to respect the conscience of others and and their beliefs and let those be be. Enforced as well. ⁓ and too, and on a bigger scale, this is not just on religious f liberties and and freedoms. This is something I believe wholeheartedly ⁓ across the board. Governmental power absolutely needs limits. You know, prison is is not supposed to erase your dignity as a human. ⁓ obviously, as prisoners, you you lose certain freedoms because you deserve to lose those freedoms based on your actions. ⁓ But that doesn't mean that the individual human stops being an image bearer of God and they should not lose their religious freedoms and and and and again in this case that this should have been something that could have been worked around. And then number three is and this is again not just for for this particular instance. This is a big, big picture point here. Accountability matters. A a right with no consequences for violating it, it's a pretty weak right. If if officials, if if anyone can knowingly violate your religious protection and face absolutely no meaningful penalty at all, then how do how do any of us trust the system that's designed to protect us? You know, as as a conservative, obviously I I 100% believe in in law and order, but that doesn't mean the government gets unlimited power. You know, I I believe real conservatism should defend the ordered liberty and defend the rights that are given to us by God. Not defend the state power with absolutely no accountability. You know, as as it as it applies to this particular story. You know, obviously today, you know, the way I look at it is the question is not as a Christian, the question is not whether or not I would agree agree with this pastor and the the Rastafarian theology. Clearly I don't. There's there's a lot of things that we would disagree with on that level. But the question is whether or not I believe the government should just be able to trample his religion and his conscience and his religious freedoms and walk away untouched. And as as a Christian, I cannot say that I want religious freedom for me, but then not want religious freedom for others. It just that's that level of hypocrisy just won't stand. If if liberty is to be real, it has to be real even when it's inconvenient. As we wrap up and we and we get back to the the original theme of the day in the book of Habakkuk, you maybe somebody listening to this. And you know who you are. May maybe, maybe something's been waiting on you, and and maybe you've done what the Bible calls you to do. Maybe, maybe you've been praying for months or years. And it's it's natural. Maybe maybe you're wondering, you're looking around, wondering, hey, God, where are you? God, have you forgotten about me? Well, the the the prophet here, Habakkuk, is reminding us that, and it's a simple line and it's easy to say, but it's hard to do. Waiting is not wasted when God is the one you're waiting on. As always, guys, get your Bible, say your prayers, love one another and tell the truth. God bless.