Latest / Karl and Crew / Redeeming Your Time with Jordan Raynor and Building Daily Devotion with Asheritah Ciuciu

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Redeeming Your Time with Jordan Raynor and Building Daily Devotion with Asheritah Ciuciu · Karl and Crew

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  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
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  S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide. Overcome
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  S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. Start
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  S1: your morning with a laugh.
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  S2: Practical from the Bible. Tips and tricks to kill. Not
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  S2: tricks but tips and tricks. Tips and tricks to kill.
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  S2: Tips and tricks.
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  S1: Delivering the truth daily.
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  S3: All of my attempts to, you know, prop myself up
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  S3: with achievement in good works. Well, God wasn't impressed by that,
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  S3: even if other people were.
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  S2: The gospel changes everything.
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  S4: Freedom in Christ. Man, it's like that backpack of cement
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  S4: just falling to the ground.
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  S1: Now from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
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  S1: and Crew.
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  S5: So where do you go to do your quiet time?
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  S3: Good morning. Kicking off with the question this morning. quiet time.
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  S5: Devo.
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  S3: Devotional prayer time. People have a lot of different ways
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  S3: that they describe the time that they set aside, usually
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  S3: to read and study the word to, to pray, to
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  S3: hear from God. Yeah. Do you have a place where
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  S3: you go in your house? Maybe. Or maybe you sit outside.
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  S3: You have a favorite place. Diana. Boy, I.
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  S6: Love going to the lakefront. I'm fortunate to live next
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  S6: to the lake, Lake Michigan, in the Chicagoland area, and
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  S6: I love going there. Of course, it's been winter, so
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  S6: that's kind of put a little dent in that time.
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  S6: So yeah, managing your, you know, devotional time well, but
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  S6: that's my favorite place to go is the water.
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  S3: Yeah, I. There's something about sitting in nature. Yes, absolutely.
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  S3: And I'm waiting for the weather to warm up because I'm,
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  S3: I'm like you, one of my favorite things to do
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  S3: is actually to, to walk like to, to do like
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  S3: a prayer walk. Oh, yes. I've got a favorite spot
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  S3: in Chicago where you. You can see all the skyline,
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  S3: but you can also see a lot of nature. And I,
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  S3: and I just, I just love that. But it's been
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  S3: far too cold for that. So I do have a
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  S3: chair in like I have a, in our office, there's
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  S3: like a chair that's been repurposed many times over. I
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  S3: think I originally bought it when I was pregnant with
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  S3: my first child, who's now.
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  S6: Oh, it has memory then.
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  S3: 16 and so that was the chair that I would
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  S3: sit and I would rock her and put her to sleep.
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  S3: And now it's become the, the chair that I chair.
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  S6: Yes.
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  S3: So it's got a lot of history in our house. Oh,
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  S3: and you know, when you think about the time that
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  S3: you spend with the Lord, that precious sacred time, you
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  S3: don't have to have a set spot. There's no there's
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  S3: no rule here. There's no legalism here.
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  S6: I've used my commute well, often.
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  S3: Maybe it's the car, but sometimes it can feel a
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  S3: struggle to even get that time at all. You're thinking
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  S3: about thinking, well, you're talking about a place. What about
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  S3: just the time? Trying to get in in a busy day.
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  S3: What is supposed to be most important but can actually
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  S3: start to slip down in terms of priority? Yeah, if
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  S3: we're just being honest. Coming up, we've got a special
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  S3: guest and she's one of our favorites, particularly around this topic,
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  S3: building devotional habits, establishing quiet time, finding those rhythms for rest,
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  S3: for reflection, for time with the father. As Cherita Chuchu
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  S3: joins us, coming up here on Carl and Crew.
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  S1: It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
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  S3: Usually pretty soon after you become a follower of Jesus Christ,
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  S3: you start to hear some of the terminology that gets
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  S3: thrown around. People talk about doing their devos or having
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  S3: their quiet time or their devotional life, and maybe you
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  S3: didn't know what that meant right away, but you didn't
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  S3: really want to ask, what is this thing called quiet time?
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  S3: Or it's possible that you've been in Christ for a
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  S3: lot of years. You know exactly what people are talking
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  S3: about when they say quiet time. But somehow that close
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  S3: connection with Jesus in that time carved out to spend
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  S3: with him always feels like it's missing something. Like you're there.
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  S3: But man, are you meeting with Jesus. I want to
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  S3: introduce a special guest, Ashreeta Chuchu. This is such a.
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  S3: Your heart is to help people cultivate this quiet time,
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  S3: this intimate time with the Lord. Uh, first of all,
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  S3: welcome to Carl and Crew. You're one of our absolute favorites.
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  S3: Why do you find such joy in talking about this
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  S3: topic in particular?
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  S7: Because it is just such a mind blowing invitation to
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  S7: come into this space of not just knowing about God,
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  S7: not just learning facts about him and Bible trivia, but
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  S7: actually knowing him and being known by him. A space
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  S7: in which your heart is open to the Spirit of God,
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  S7: and he searches you and speaks to you and leads
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  S7: you in ways that affect your day to day life.
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  S7: That is what I am passionate about helping people delight
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  S7: in the presence of Jesus. It's so much more than
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  S7: what we typically think of when we think of quiet time.
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  S3: Ashreeta Chuchu, our guest right now. She is a national speaker,
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  S3: best selling author, founder of One Thing Alone Ministries, which
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  S3: is an online ministry that helps overwhelmed women find joy
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  S3: in Jesus. You mentioned the things that we feel like
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  S3: we're supposed to do. So most people would say, okay,
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  S3: my quiet time. It should consist of some time reading
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  S3: God's Word. So I'm opening my Bible. Maybe I have
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  S3: a devotional book to sort of support me in that,
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  S3: and then maybe I close my Bible and then, okay,
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  S3: it's time to pray. So I close my eyes and
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  S3: I sit there and I talk to God, or I
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  S3: try to and then after maybe 15, 20 minutes, maybe
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  S3: an hour even, I'm on to the next thing. Sometimes
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  S3: it can feel like that can become the routine, but
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  S3: we don't feel like it's doing anything. And is it
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  S3: okay for me to even say that?
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  S7: Doesn't it feel kind of like taboo? Like we shouldn't
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  S7: talk about being bored with the Bible. We shouldn't talk
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  S7: about this unease of, am I missing something here? Right?
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  S7: Surely there's got to be something more. And when we
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  S7: talk about quiet time, I mean, even the term itself
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  S7: is kind of like it's got to be quiet. But
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  S7: what if you have toddlers running around the house? What
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  S7: if you're charged with caring with an elder parent who
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  S7: is in your home and needs your attention? What if
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  S7: your life is not quiet? And even when you sit
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  S7: down to try to spend time in quiet, it doesn't
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  S7: go the way you expect it to or the clouds
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  S7: don't part to to this divine revelation. And I think
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  S7: we need to be careful even with good practices or
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  S7: best practices, right? What you described and what's often prescribed
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  S7: to Christians, it's not word of God like there's nowhere
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  S7: in the Bible where God says, thou shalt read your
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  S7: Bible every day. Thou shalt spend 60 minutes in study
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  S7: or prayer. We need to be careful to not turn
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  S7: into these legalistic things that we ought to do to
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  S7: somehow secure the approval or pleasure of God. If you
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  S7: are in Christ. Then when the father looks at you,
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  S7: he sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus. You can't add
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  S7: anything else to that. So let's stop trying to earn
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  S7: God's approval with what we do. That's legalism. That's trying
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  S7: to perform for him. Instead, I like to shift the
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  S7: perspective and the conversation into what is God's invitation to us.
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  S7: And it is always relationship. So if we want to
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  S7: talk about reading the Bible, it's not to read the Bible,
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  S7: to check something off a list. It is asking God,
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  S7: would you open my eyes to understand how you reveal
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  S7: yourself here in the word, to delight in the fact
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  S7: that God wants us to know him and he does
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  S7: that as we read Scripture. If it's prayer, let's delight
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  S7: in conversation with God. It's not just running through a
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  S7: laundry list of, you know, my kids right now are like, God,
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  S7: would you help us go on this trip? And would
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  S7: you give us these kinds of neighbors? And would you
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  S7: put a chick fil A in our neighborhood? Right. They
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  S7: have this wish list about and hey, God wants to
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  S7: hear the desires of our hearts, but he wants that conversation.
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  S7: He wants us, yes, to share with him. But also,
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  S7: do we pause to listen to what he might want
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  S7: to say to us? The good Shepherd still speaks, so
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  S7: in some ways it might be doing some of the
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  S7: same actions. But the heart motivation is different. Jesus says
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  S7: to the Pharisees, you read the scriptures and yet you
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  S7: miss me. They speak of me. So one of my prayers,
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  S7: ally years ago that totally transformed how I approach this
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  S7: is God. May I not miss you in Scripture. Would
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  S7: you open my eyes to see and savor Jesus in
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  S7: all of these things?
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  S3: Ashreeta Chuchu, our guest right now. Coming up, I'm going
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  S3: to ask her about a pretty big trip her family took.
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  S3: And when I say big trip, I mean like months long.
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  S3: They were out of their house on a pretty epic adventure,
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  S3: and I'm going to ask her about it and how
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  S3: it has affected her relationship with God. More coming up
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  S3: here on Carl and crew.
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  S1: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
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  S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
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  S1: Moody Radio.
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  S3: We've got Ashreeta Chuchu with us right now. National speaker,
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  S3: best selling author, founder of One Thing Alone Ministries. Back
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  S3: from a pretty epic adventure with your family. Tell me
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  S3: about this trip you took.
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  S7: Oh my gosh, Ali, it was epic. We spent two
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  S7: months in the southwest. Eight weeks of road tripping with
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  S7: our camper like travel trailer. And we lived, I think,
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  S7: a total of 56 days in a space that is
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  S7: about the size of our bathroom and closet put together. Wow.
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  S7: And in so many ways, we were like, are we
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  S7: crazy for doing this? But it's the culmination of a
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  S7: years long years and years of dreaming and planning and
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  S7: really just kind of following a hunch that for our
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  S7: family in particular, we could use more time together, away
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  S7: from our screens, away from our routines together in God's nature,
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  S7: adventuring and exploring together. And it was just such a
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  S7: good thing for our family.
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  S3: As you spent time really outdoors, because obviously you were
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  S3: in your camper for some of it, but you got
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  S3: to really stop and pause and kind of take in
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  S3: the beauty of all that God's created. What did that
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  S3: do for your relationship with God?
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  S7: Yeah. I mean, how much time do you have it
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  S7: part of it, Ali, is just a reminder of how
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  S7: small we are. I think of how Scripture says, what
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  S7: is man that you are mindful of him? We got
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  S7: to hike in the Rocky Mountains. We stood on the
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  S7: edge of the Grand Canyon. We got to see just
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  S7: ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, just so many incredible
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  S7: natural wonders and also like human made things on this trip.
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  S7: And again and again. It was the majesty and beauty
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  S7: of God in creation. And even though, you know, just
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  S7: kind of to tie this segment with a previous one, my,
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  S7: my quiet time, quote unquote, didn't look anything like what
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  S7: it is at home. It was a whole lot more
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  S7: time hiking outdoors and as a family, we memorized Psalm 121.
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  S7: I lift my eyes up to the hills. Where does
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  S7: my help come from? And as we would hike down
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  S7: into Bryce Canyon and see these different rock formations, telling
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  S7: our children, look at the handiwork of God and that
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  S7: he would be so good as to give this as
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  S7: a gift to us. What does that say about the
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  S7: heart of God the Father toward us? So many organic,
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  S7: beautiful moments of teaching that would just then boomerang right
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  S7: back to my heart. Ali. Yeah, like I was there
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  S7: telling my kids something and then it was like God's
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  S7: Spirit saying, no, this is for you, too.
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  S3: It's so beautiful. You know, you took me there just
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  S3: in my mind. And I think about even. I live
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  S3: in a big city, I live in Chicago, and I can.
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  S3: Sometimes I'll just get to a place and I still
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  S3: see skyscrapers, but I'll just go to a place where
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  S3: I can see lots of grass and lots of trees
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  S3: and some flowers, and I'll just try to look up
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  S3: at the sky and look at the trees and look
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  S3: at the birds. And it's, you know, it's nowhere near
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  S3: the epic adventure that you went on. But there's something
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  S3: about just getting outside. Even if you live in an
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  S3: urban setting and just taking your eyes up a little
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  S3: bit and talk a little bit about this idea of
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  S3: having a devotional personality, sometimes we think about devotions as
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  S3: kind of one set way, but what do you mean
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  S3: by the devotional personality?
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  S7: Yeah. So for years now, I've been asking our readers online, like,
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  S7: how do you best connect with God? And I was
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  S7: intrigued that some people, like you said, it's when they
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  S7: stand on the beach and they see the waves coming in,
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  S7: or they go out to that urban park and watch
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  S7: the birds fly over their heads. That that is when
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  S7: they feel closest to God. And other readers were like, no, no, no,
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  S7: it's it's when I'm doing an inductive Bible study and
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  S7: I learn something new that I didn't know before, like
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  S7: that just, oh expands my heart and I feel so
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  S7: close to God and others like, no, no, no, it's
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  S7: when I'm out. Like serving those in need, serving in
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  S7: the soup kitchen, being the hands and feet of Jesus,
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  S7: delivering a meal. That is when I feel closest to God.
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  S7: And over the years, I was like, I really think
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  S7: God has given us different personality types, so to speak,
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  S7: like how we connect to him, how we feel close
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  S7: to him. And I think we do the church a
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  S7: disservice when we compare ourselves to each other, when we say, oh,
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  S7: I'm a better Christian because look how much time I
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  S7: spend doing X, Y, and Z. And you don't. Instead
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  S7: of celebrating the diversity of the body of Christ, that God,
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  S7: our creator, made us in different ways to connect with him.
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  S7: So we put together a quiz to kind of invite
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  S7: people into the freedom of discovering how did God create
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  S7: you to connect with him? Is it watching the sunrise?
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  S7: Is it doing an inductive study? Is it, you know,
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  S7: going out and serving the poor or, uh, putting on
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  S7: worship music and singing at the top of your lungs?
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  S7: I think we can all do all of these things,
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  S7: but especially if you're feeling bored in your quiet time
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  S7: or you feel like you're stuck in a spiritual rut. Uh,
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  S7: let me just encourage listeners to take that quiz and
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  S7: maybe try a new, fresh, creative way to connect with God.
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  S3: As a choo choo. One thing alone ministries if you
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  S3: want that devotional personality quiz. Other great resources on her website,
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  S3: as well as a YouTube channel where she has guided prayers,
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  S3: Bible study tips. You can get all of that. Just
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  S3: text delight to 800 555 7898. If you want resources
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  S3: from Ashreeta, just text delight to 800 555 7898.
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  S1: Take your next step with Jesus today. You're listening to
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  S1: Carl and Cru.
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  S3: You can learn a lot about life from kids. If
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  S3: you've ever spent time with kids, whether you have your
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  S3: own children or grandchildren or you serve in the nursery.
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  S6: I was going to say serving in church.
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  S3: You spent any time with children. You learn. Sometimes it's funny,
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  S3: sometimes it's profound. You know, I remember when my son,
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  S3: he was probably maybe 6 or 7, somewhere in that
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  S3: age range. And he had been battling with a lot
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  S3: of fear, particularly at night time. And he would get
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  S3: really nervous going to bed. And, and so we would
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  S3: tell him different Bible stories and different things to try
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  S3: to help him manage some of what he was feeling.
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  S3: You know, kids can feel in their small little bodies,
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  S3: they can experience some pretty big emotions.
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  S6: Yes they.
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  S3: Can. And so I remember, um, we were driving to
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  S3: prayer meeting one night, and he was. I was sitting
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  S3: in the passenger seat and my husband was driving and
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  S3: we were driving to the church and it was probably
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  S3: around dusk. Prayer meeting started at seven, so it was
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  S3: starting to get towards being dark at night. And we
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  S3: were driving and my son was sitting in the back
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  S3: seat diagonal for me and he, he started asking me
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  S3: a question that seemed very odd at the moment. He said, mom,
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  S3: where are the birds? And I was and you know,
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  S3: sometimes when you get a question, it doesn't even hit you.
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  S3: You're like, what?
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  S6: Yeah.
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  S3: I said, well, what do you mean? He's like, where
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  S3: are the birds, mom? Where are the birds? And he
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  S3: just kept asking me, where are the birds? I said,
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  S3: I don't, I don't know, I don't see any birds.
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  S3: Maybe they're maybe they flew south. I don't know what
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  S3: bird the birds. And I'm looking around and I didn't
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  S3: it was in the rush of trying to get us
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  S3: into the prayer meeting. I didn't really even totally process
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  S3: why he asked the question. I don't even know if
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  S3: we ever found a bird. But we got into church
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  S3: and we're sitting there and at some point he sort
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  S3: of tapped me on the shoulder and I leaned down
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  S3: so that he could whisper in my ear. He said, mom,
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  S3: I wanted you to show me where the birds was
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  S3: were because I was nervous and I thought and it.
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  S3: And it hit me. And Matthew 626 was the verse
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  S3: that he didn't quote, but it's the one he was
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  S3: thinking of. Look at the birds of the air. They
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  S3: do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
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  S3: and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not
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  S3: much more valuable than they? So whatever he saw or felt,
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  S3: I don't know if it was emergency vehicles or police lights.
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  S3: Something had made him feel afraid. Fearful. Maybe we're not safe.
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  S3: Maybe something bad is going to happen or has happened.
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  S3: And so in his mind, where are those birds? The
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  S3: birds of the air, the ones that don't sow or reap,
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  S3: but yet your heavenly father feeds them? And how much
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  S3: more valuable and am I right than the birds?
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  S6: Are we? Yes, exactly.
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  S3: Took my breath away when I when I realized that
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  S3: that's the connection that he made, that that simple kind
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  S3: of random request. Where are those birds? I need to
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  S3: see some birds right now. Was his way of saying
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  S3: is I need to be reminded that I'm safe and
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  S3: that God cares for me even more than he cares
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  S3: for those birds. How much more valuable am I than
• 18:01
  S3: they coming up? When you think about the things that
• 18:04
  S3: make you feel afraid, the things that stress you out,
• 18:07
  S3: the things that get your heart racing quickly. Any number
• 18:11
  S3: of things you know, sometimes it changes when you when
• 18:14
  S3: you grow up a little bit. But we all have
• 18:17
  S3: stressors and things that put us on tilt a little
• 18:20
  S3: bit and rob us of our peace. How do we
• 18:23
  S3: live a life where we stress less? That's what we're
• 18:26
  S3: going to talk about with Doctor Charles Stone coming up
• 18:28
  S3: here on Carl and Crew.
• 18:30
  S1: Your spiritual pit stop to keep you going in the race.
• 18:34
  S1: You're listening to Carl and Crew.
• 18:39
  S8: Stress less nine habits from the Bible and Brain science
• 18:43
  S8: to build resilience and reduce anxiety. What I love. Can
• 18:47
  S8: I say it again? The more we dig archaeology, the
• 18:50
  S8: more you find the truth of God's Word to come alive. Yes,
• 18:54
  S8: the more powerful the telescopes, the more you see the
• 18:59
  S8: wonder of the stars, the more powerful the microscopes, the
• 19:03
  S8: more you see the the God of details. And this
• 19:07
  S8: is why brain science and the Bible do go together.
• 19:11
  S8: We got these crazy little stress balls in our hand
• 19:15
  S8: that actually look like brain. Miniature brain matters to me.
• 19:19
  S3: These are pretty cool.
• 19:20
  S8: They're really cool. Doctor Charles Stone, can we look at
• 19:24
  S8: brain science in the Bible and have some aha moments here?
• 19:27
  S8: My man.
• 19:28
  S1: Absolutely.
• 19:30
  S9: Give us the basic working.
• 19:31
  S3: Definition of stress. We all have felt it. But is
• 19:34
  S3: there something to it that maybe we don't see.
• 19:37
  S10: Basically, it's the way God designed us. He designed our
• 19:40
  S10: body and brain to respond to threats or demands or uncertainty.
• 19:44
  S10: Now the problem comes is when we don't respond well
• 19:48
  S10: or when we perceive things to be true when they're not.
• 19:52
  S10: So that's a simple truth. And then you can also
• 19:54
  S10: kind of imagine a coin. There are two sides to
• 19:56
  S10: the stress coin. On the one side is the event,
• 20:00
  S10: the precipitating event out there or in our mind that's
• 20:03
  S10: one side. The other side is how we respond. And
• 20:06
  S10: that's where our choices come in. And the power of
• 20:08
  S10: the Holy Spirit comes in when we respond in healthy ways.
• 20:12
  S8: It seems like, Doc, that there are, you know, having
• 20:16
  S8: been a pastor now for many decades, one of the
• 20:18
  S8: great maladies in the average life of a believer, a genuine,
• 20:25
  S8: transformed disciple of Christ, who's been rocked by his grace,
• 20:28
  S8: is because of a lack of understanding how to deal
• 20:32
  S8: with stress. We try to avoid it or suppress it.
• 20:36
  S8: But does that ever work? I've never seen it work, doc.
• 20:40
  S10: Not at all, Carl. In fact, there's a term called
• 20:43
  S10: stress avoidance. When we try to structure our lives in
• 20:48
  S10: such a way that we think we don't face an
• 20:51
  S10: experienced stress, it actually is stress in itself. And yeah,
• 20:56
  S10: you know, I was a Christian. I was a smart guy.
• 20:59
  S10: Degrees and stuff like that. And I didn't realize some
• 21:02
  S10: of these biochemical kinds of things going on inside of
• 21:05
  S10: me do profoundly impact how I feel. And it doesn't
• 21:09
  S10: mean I'm less of a Christian because I feel those
• 21:11
  S10: kinds of things.
• 21:12
  S3: Doctor Charles Stone, our guest right now, we gave you
• 21:15
  S3: the title of the book, which includes nine Habits from
• 21:18
  S3: the Bible and Brain Science to build resilience and reduce anxiety.
• 21:22
  S3: Let's get those habits coming up with our guest, doctor
• 21:24
  S3: Charles Stone.
• 21:25
  S1: Your shot of hope to get you through the day.
• 21:28
  S4: You are so, so loved. God does not want you
• 21:32
  S4: to stay in your past, and I want you to
• 21:34
  S4: know and believe that today.
• 21:35
  S1: You're listening to Carl and Crew.
• 21:38
  S3: So how do you overcome stress and anxiety? Nine habits
• 21:41
  S3: from the Bible and Brain Science. A part of the
• 21:44
  S3: title of a book written by our guest, Doctor Charles Stone.
• 21:46
  S3: Give us a couple of them. Let's start with the
• 21:48
  S3: first one that you would start with. Recommend people starting
• 21:52
  S3: with if they're battling stress.
• 21:53
  S10: You bet. Well, this is one that's very, very portable
• 21:56
  S10: at sees and Bri, you know, all through the Bible
• 21:59
  S10: we see the word breath or breathe in like 100 times. Well,
• 22:02
  S10: neuroscience has found that deep breathing. Yeah. Especially on the exhale,
• 22:07
  S10: activates a key nerve, which slows our heart rate and
• 22:10
  S10: dampens the stress response. And so when I say seasoned breeze,
• 22:14
  S10: I mean this. When you're in a stressful situation, do
• 22:16
  S10: what you can to stop. Get away if you can.
• 22:19
  S10: If you're in a heated conversation, take a break. Just
• 22:22
  S10: stop and then take a breath. This is called the
• 22:25
  S10: physiological breath. And I'll just kind of illustrate illustrate it. So,
• 22:29
  S10: you know, we breathe in, we breathe out. We breathe in,
• 22:31
  S10: we breathe out. Here's how that physiological breath happens. You
• 22:36
  S10: breathe in and then breathe in another little bit. Hold
• 22:39
  S10: it for maybe a second and then and have the
• 22:42
  S10: outbreath a little more extended than the in-breath. Well, what
• 22:45
  S10: neuroscience has found is that actually can calm you at
• 22:48
  S10: the moment. It really does work. So that's the physiological sigh,
• 22:52
  S10: so to speak.
• 22:53
  S8: I love this actually. The first time I heard that
• 22:55
  S8: was from my son, who had done a deep dive
• 22:57
  S8: on this deep breathing thing, and he gave me the
• 23:00
  S8: he did the same thing over the phone that you
• 23:02
  S8: just did on air here. Um, how does this work?
• 23:05
  S8: And we aren't going to be able to cover all
• 23:07
  S8: nine of these, but if you had another habit that
• 23:09
  S8: stuck out, what would you say is like just vital?
• 23:13
  S8: And I love that deep breathing because then you can
• 23:15
  S8: gather yourself to, in my estimation, that now we let
• 23:19
  S8: God intervene here. Right, Charles.
• 23:21
  S10: Yep, yep. I think a second one that kind of pairs,
• 23:24
  S10: that is what I call reveal how you feel. You know,
• 23:27
  S10: we live in a society now where anxiety is really high.
• 23:30
  S10: I mean, we're all kind of in a little heightened anxiousness. Sure. Well,
• 23:34
  S10: the place to begin is to acknowledge that name, that
• 23:38
  S10: difficult emotion, whether it's anxiety or worry or fear. Name it.
• 23:42
  S10: Not stuff it, not push it down. Little phrase is this.
• 23:45
  S10: Name it to tame it. And here's the way you
• 23:49
  S10: can do it. Distance yourself from it. Have a little conversation.
• 23:52
  S10: Don't know if you guys can kind of talk to yourself.
• 23:55
  S10: You know, hopefully in private I do. I talk to myself.
• 23:57
  S10: It's having a conversation with yourself. Third person. Let's say
• 24:00
  S10: I'm mad at my neighbor and his name is Kevin.
• 24:02
  S10: Good guy. I'm not mad at him, but here's not
• 24:05
  S10: the way to do it. I am so mad at Kevin. Oh,
• 24:09
  S10: that's not the way to do it. Here's the way
• 24:11
  S10: to do it. Have a conversation with yourself. Okay, Charles,
• 24:14
  S10: I see that you are angry at Kevin. What is
• 24:18
  S10: the appropriate God honoring step? So that's what I call.
• 24:21
  S10: Reveal how you feel. Create a little separation from you
• 24:25
  S10: and that emotion.
• 24:27
  S8: Well, we find it in scripture. Talking to yourself. Why
• 24:29
  S8: so downcast? Oh my soul. Right, Charles?
• 24:32
  S10: Oh, absolutely. And of course, King David, you look throughout
• 24:35
  S10: the Psalms, he was so radically transparent. And that's, I think,
• 24:41
  S10: a huge quality to model.
• 24:43
  S3: What's one of the most valuable lessons that you've learned
• 24:45
  S3: from your own journey with stress?
• 24:48
  S10: I think probably one of the biggest lessons is that
• 24:52
  S10: stress opportunities are all around us. We do have control
• 24:57
  S10: over what we do in response to that stress. The
• 25:00
  S10: problem is when we don't have those tools in our toolbox.
• 25:04
  S10: But as I've learned through my stressful life experiences, some
• 25:09
  S10: maybe more than others and others have been more stressful.
• 25:11
  S10: It's recognizing that stress is. Yet we have one certain
• 25:16
  S10: one in that stress that has got himself in His Word,
• 25:21
  S10: and we can trust what he says and trust him.
• 25:24
  S8: It's interesting when you say that. First off, I got
• 25:27
  S8: to tell you it's just your voice Talking seems to
• 25:29
  S8: be a stress reliever. So I'm going to get you
• 25:30
  S8: on my speed dial to just have a recorded message
• 25:33
  S8: that I constantly listen to. Charles. You know, some people though,
• 25:38
  S8: go to the word and it's almost too stressful to
• 25:41
  S8: get anything out of it.
• 25:43
  S10: Mhm.
• 25:44
  S8: I'm just I'm just really cutting it straight here. What
• 25:47
  S8: do you say to the person that goes, I'm in
• 25:49
  S8: the word. There's something going on there where we've got
• 25:53
  S8: to slow our heart rate. Even there, isn't there? Charles,
• 25:56
  S8: what can we do to let that word be that
• 26:00
  S8: drink of water we need when we're parched from our worry?
• 26:04
  S10: Yeah. Well, I think one thing that we can do
• 26:06
  S10: is recognize we need to be softer and kinder to
• 26:10
  S10: ourselves when we read the scripture. If you read the
• 26:13
  S10: scripture with open eyes, it's going to the Holy Spirit's
• 26:17
  S10: going to bring conviction.
• 26:18
  S8: Amen.
• 26:19
  S10: And the reality is, we are in process. We're in
• 26:23
  S10: a sinful world. We have this brokenness that came from Adam.
• 26:29
  S10: And when we are a little easier on ourselves. I
• 26:32
  S10: believe the Lord will honor that. And when we are
• 26:35
  S10: easier on ourselves, we can think more clearly and we
• 26:38
  S10: can kind of hear his gentle promptings in our heart
• 26:42
  S10: rather than kind of bearing down on us. And sometimes
• 26:45
  S10: we grew up in real difficult, you know, even a
• 26:47
  S10: Christian environment, a harsh environment. Yes. That can affect us.
• 26:51
  S3: Doctor Charles Stone yeah, this is really good stress. Less
• 26:54
  S3: nine habits from the Bible and Brain science to build
• 26:57
  S3: resilience and reduce anxiety. If you want the link, just
• 27:01
  S3: text stone to (800) 555-7898. Text stone to 800 555 7898
• 27:10
  S3: 800 555 7898.
• 27:14
  S1: Standing on the rock each and every day. You're listening
• 27:18
  S1: to Carl and Crew.
• 27:21
  S3: There's something about the month of March that makes you
• 27:25
  S3: start filling up bags of things that need to get
• 27:29
  S3: out of the house.
• 27:31
  S6: Yeah. I mean, you've been closed up for the winter.
• 27:33
  S6: It's that idea of opening the windows, get the fresh
• 27:35
  S6: air in the.
• 27:36
  S3: Spring cleaning vibe.
• 27:38
  S6: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:38
  S3: You know, this week I took no joke five, like,
• 27:44
  S3: contractor sized garbage bags of stuff to the donation center.
• 27:52
  S3: And it felt so good to get that stuff out
• 27:53
  S3: of the house. I had my both of my kids.
• 27:55
  S3: I said, okay, we need to like create a create
• 27:59
  S3: a assembly line system to get the bags first down
• 28:02
  S3: the stairs and then from the stair, from one set
• 28:05
  S3: of stairs to the set of stairs to get to
• 28:07
  S3: the garage and then into the back of my SUV.
• 28:12
  S3: And it was, I mean, it was totally full. And
• 28:15
  S3: I said, okay, the next chance I get, all of
• 28:18
  S3: this has to come out. And it was, you know,
• 28:21
  S3: my kids clothes and, and shoes because kids go through,
• 28:25
  S3: you know, their growth.
• 28:27
  S6: Oh for.
• 28:27
  S3: Sure. Wear a pair of shoes fits for a month
• 28:30
  S3: or two.
• 28:30
  S6: At.
• 28:31
  S3: Best. So we just had a bunch of stuff that
• 28:33
  S3: had just piled up and it felt good to get
• 28:35
  S3: it out. See, you're looking around. You're going, okay, what
• 28:38
  S3: can I streamline? What can I.
• 28:41
  S6: Bless others with.
• 28:42
  S3: Exactly? And I think it's this time of year. It's
• 28:44
  S3: the spring cleaning vibe. It's the desire to get ready
• 28:48
  S3: for summer, to kind of shed off some layers physically
• 28:51
  S3: and metaphorically. So true. I think I just shed off
• 28:55
  S3: the excess so that you're running strong. You know, this
• 28:57
  S3: week we've been talking about getting it together in a
• 29:00
  S3: lot of different ways. There's the physical spaces. We talked
• 29:03
  S3: about the emotional hoarding, the kind of the stuff we
• 29:06
  S3: can hold on to that we want to shed as well.
• 29:09
  S3: Coming up, we're going to talk about redeeming our time.
• 29:13
  S3: Sometimes our schedules, our sense of productivity or lack thereof.
• 29:18
  S3: We want to take a critical look at. But what
• 29:20
  S3: if we've been going about time redemption all wrong. Coming up,
• 29:25
  S3: our guest says maybe we're starting from the wrong point.
• 29:28
  S3: Maybe we need to reassess our starting point when it
• 29:30
  S3: comes to how we manage our day. You're going to
• 29:33
  S3: love him coming up here on Carl and Crew.
• 29:36
  S1: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
• 29:39
  S1: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
• 29:43
  S1: and crew on Moody Radio.
• 29:48
  S3: We've been talking about getting it together this week, and
• 29:51
  S3: it's easy when you say something like, get it together.
• 29:55
  S3: That usually for most people that comes. What comes to
• 29:57
  S3: mind is this idea that I need to take a
• 30:00
  S3: look at myself, make myself better in some area, wherever
• 30:05
  S3: I've been falling short. And that's a very man centered approach. Obviously,
• 30:09
  S3: when we are in Christ, the starting point is never
• 30:13
  S3: me trying to do something, trying harder, working harder. We've
• 30:17
  S3: got a special guest. I want to speak into this topic.
• 30:21
  S3: When it comes to time redemption. How we spend our days.
• 30:24
  S3: Jordan Raynor, our guest this morning, a leading voice of
• 30:27
  S3: of the faith and work movement. He's helped millions of
• 30:30
  S3: Christians in every country on earth connect the gospel to
• 30:34
  S3: their work. Jordan, glad to have you with us this morning.
• 30:38
  S3: When did this become your emphasis, this sort of the
• 30:42
  S3: integration of faith and work and helping people. As your
• 30:45
  S3: website says, your work matters for eternity. I'm here to
• 30:48
  S3: help you see how and what to do about it,
• 30:50
  S3: I love that. When did that become your life's mission?
• 30:53
  S11: Yeah. Ali. Good morning. So this happened about ten years
• 30:56
  S11: ago for me. I was exiting my second company as
• 30:59
  S11: an entrepreneur, trying to figure out what I was going
• 31:01
  S11: to do next. And what I wanted to do was
• 31:02
  S11: start another business, but frankly, didn't feel the freedom to
• 31:05
  S11: because I felt like if I really wanted to be
• 31:07
  S11: on the varsity team of the Kingdom of God, I
• 31:10
  S11: would go move to a mud hut 5000 miles away
• 31:13
  S11: from home to make disciples. And it was a mentor
• 31:15
  S11: of mine who pulled me aside one day and said, Jordan,
• 31:17
  S11: now you're missing it. He said, you're a talented entrepreneur.
• 31:20
  S11: You served others with excellence. Why do you think you
• 31:22
  S11: have to be a missionary or pastor to do ministry?
• 31:24
  S11: Don't you get the work itself? Is ministry and not
• 31:28
  S11: just your evangelism in the work? All of it. God
• 31:31
  S11: delights in all of the work we do in a
• 31:33
  S11: godly way. And so Ali, that blew my mind. I
• 31:36
  S11: never heard that before. I never heard that before. God
• 31:39
  S11: tells us he is holy. He tells us that he
• 31:41
  S11: is a God who creates and works. And long before
• 31:44
  S11: the Great Commission in Genesis one, we have the first
• 31:46
  S11: commission to create in his image. And so that changed
• 31:48
  S11: my life, Ali, and set me on this relentless quest
• 31:51
  S11: to understand what God says about our work. And in
• 31:54
  S11: response to the fact that our work matters for eternity,
• 31:57
  S11: how should we work in light of that? And one
• 31:58
  S11: of those responses, as Paul says in Ephesians five, is
• 32:02
  S11: to redeem the time because the days are evil.
• 32:04
  S3: You know, when we we do a lot of different
• 32:07
  S3: topics here on our morning show, and sometimes we will
• 32:11
  S3: ask people about the one thing that seems to kind
• 32:14
  S3: of get them stuck. Karl, who is, is out today,
• 32:17
  S3: but our lead host, he's really passionate about this, about
• 32:20
  S3: sometimes it's identifying that one thing that has you stuck,
• 32:24
  S3: that when that gets unlocked, man, there's real freedom. And
• 32:27
  S3: a lot of times there's a theme around what comes
• 32:30
  S3: in and time redemption is big and it comes in
• 32:33
  S3: with different, different wording. I feel like I failed to
• 32:38
  S3: be productive or that I waste a lot of time,
• 32:40
  S3: or I procrastinate. And although that on the surface sounds
• 32:45
  S3: really kind of mundane, maybe to people like, well, there's
• 32:49
  S3: not some terrible addiction or something else going on, but
• 32:52
  S3: so many people feel like the time slips away. I
• 32:57
  S3: have the intent to spend my days a certain way,
• 33:01
  S3: and boy, I get to the end of days, the
• 33:03
  S3: end of weeks, the end of years and feel like
• 33:05
  S3: I just wasted so much of that. Do you hear
• 33:08
  S3: that from people?
• 33:10
  S11: I hear it all the time. The word I hear
• 33:12
  S11: a lot is I'm swamped. I you know, I keep
• 33:15
  S11: trying to get ahead, but I'm swamped. I feel overwhelmed.
• 33:18
  S11: And I love that the Bible uses that word to
• 33:21
  S11: describe Jesus's disciples some 2000 years ago in Luke eight,
• 33:25
  S11: when Jesus in the boat with his disciples, it says
• 33:27
  S11: that the boat was being swamped by the wind and
• 33:30
  S11: the waves. And we know the rest of that story, right? Ali.
• 33:32
  S11: Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind and the waves, and
• 33:35
  S11: all is calm. And I would argue that the same
• 33:39
  S11: solution to the disciples being swamped by the wind and
• 33:44
  S11: the waves is the exact same solution to you and
• 33:46
  S11: I being swamped by our never ending to do lists.
• 33:50
  S11: The solution is Jesus Christ. It is not a to
• 33:54
  S11: do list app. It is not having the right daily planner.
• 33:57
  S11: The ultimate source of peace in the midst of being
• 34:02
  S11: swamped is Christ alone. Because you guys say it in
• 34:05
  S11: the intro of the show, the gospel changes everything and
• 34:09
  S11: it changes our approach to time management. I don't do
• 34:12
  S11: time management exercises in a wild goose chase to find
• 34:17
  S11: peace because I have ultimate peace with God through the death, burial,
• 34:22
  S11: and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I don't do time
• 34:24
  S11: management exercises to get peace. I do them as a
• 34:27
  S11: worshipful response to the peace that was secure through Christ alone.
• 34:32
  S11: And that is a radically different foundation from what the
• 34:36
  S11: world says is the path to peace and productivity.
• 34:39
  S3: So yeah, let's, let's dig a little deeper there, because
• 34:42
  S3: I know that that's a big premise of your book,
• 34:44
  S3: The Starting Point. So most of time redemption plans start
• 34:49
  S3: with what and why do you feel like it's a
• 34:51
  S3: faulty starting point?
• 34:53
  S11: A lot of it starts with setting big goals or
• 34:56
  S11: getting your to do list in order, right? Or prioritizing
• 35:00
  S11: your commitments. Or in the words of the seven Habits
• 35:02
  S11: of Highly Effective People, starting with the end in mind.
• 35:05
  S11: And all of that is great. All of those can
• 35:08
  S11: be very important tools for redeeming our time, but we
• 35:10
  S11: got to start at the cross. That has to be
• 35:13
  S11: our foundation because it is only when I measure the
• 35:17
  S11: cosmic chasm upward between me and God that Christ closed
• 35:21
  S11: for me on the cross, realizing that God died for
• 35:24
  S11: me when I was his enemy. That I can have
• 35:28
  S11: peace regardless of how productive I am. Because if I
• 35:31
  S11: can believe that Christ died for me when I was
• 35:33
  S11: God's enemy, I could certainly believe that God loves me
• 35:36
  S11: on my least and my most productive day when I'm
• 35:39
  S11: feeling totally swamped and when I'm feeling on top of
• 35:42
  S11: the world. And once I meditate on that, once I
• 35:46
  S11: understand and swim laps in the pool of the gospel daily,
• 35:51
  S11: if you will. Ironically, it actually makes me more ambitious
• 35:54
  S11: for the work. It makes me more ambitious to redeem
• 35:56
  S11: my time, because working to earn somebody's favor and love
• 36:00
  S11: is exhausting. But working in response to unconditional and unmerited
• 36:06
  S11: love and favor from our Heavenly Father. That's intoxicating. I
• 36:11
  S11: want to be productive. Not because I need to or
• 36:13
  S11: not because I feel like God needs me to, but
• 36:16
  S11: because I want to make God's love known through my
• 36:20
  S11: life and work. And as I steward this vapor of
• 36:23
  S11: a life.
• 36:24
  S3: You know, that's such an important distinction because even if
• 36:26
  S3: we wouldn't say it out loud, I think many of
• 36:29
  S3: us do feel like when we've not been productive, when
• 36:32
  S3: we are swamped, as you said, when we have not
• 36:35
  S3: accomplished the things that we set out to do, that
• 36:38
  S3: we are God's kind of mad at us and that
• 36:41
  S3: we want to get back into his good graces by
• 36:44
  S3: having a good tomorrow, a good, productive next day. I mean,
• 36:49
  S3: that thinking slips in very easily.
• 36:52
  S11: Super easily. It's workspace productivity, right? It's like I screwed
• 36:56
  S11: up and I've got to clean this mess up in
• 36:59
  S11: order to be right with God. That is the antithesis
• 37:02
  S11: of the gospel, right? We are productive. We redeem our
• 37:07
  S11: time not because we are afraid of the wrath of God.
• 37:11
  S11: The wrath of God has been satisfied in Jesus Christ.
• 37:14
  S11: Praise God. Alan. Right? Yeah. The wrath of God has
• 37:16
  S11: been satisfied. So I don't do it because I'm afraid
• 37:18
  S11: of the Lord. I do it because I'm in love
• 37:21
  S11: with the Lord who saved me. And I believe that
• 37:24
  S11: one of my responses to the gospel, again, as Paul
• 37:27
  S11: says in Ephesians five, is to redeem the time because
• 37:31
  S11: the days are evil. Jen Wilkin, one of my favorite
• 37:33
  S11: Bible teachers commenting on that verse, says, we are commanded
• 37:37
  S11: to be time redeemers, right? Those of us who buy
• 37:40
  S11: back as much time as we can and employ them
• 37:43
  S11: to productive ends for the glory of God and the
• 37:45
  S11: good of others.
• 37:46
  S3: Amen. Jordan Rayner, our guest this morning coming up. He's
• 37:49
  S3: got a book. I want to talk a little bit
• 37:51
  S3: more about redeeming your time. Seven Biblical Principles for Being purposeful,
• 37:55
  S3: present and wildly productive. Not mildly, not somewhat, but wildly productive.
• 38:02
  S3: What does that look like? Practically more with our guest,
• 38:04
  S3: Jordan Rayner coming up here on Carling Cru.
• 38:07
  S1: You're listening to Carl and Cru on Moody Radio.
• 38:12
  S3: Well. Did you know that God loves you? No matter
• 38:15
  S3: how productive or unproductive your day happens to go. Isn't
• 38:20
  S3: that comforting? Jordan Raynor, our guest right now, he's the
• 38:22
  S3: author of Redeeming Your Time Seven Biblical Principles for Being Purposeful, present,
• 38:26
  S3: and Wildly Productive. He's twice been selected as a Google fellow,
• 38:30
  S3: served in the white House under President George W Bush.
• 38:33
  S3: I think all of us have a desire to be
• 38:35
  S3: productive that's hardwired in us, right? But why? What are
• 38:40
  S3: some of these principles? Break down some of the principles
• 38:43
  S3: that can help us get there. And from the right
• 38:45
  S3: starting point.
• 38:46
  S11: I'll just breeze through a couple. Number one, we got
• 38:48
  S11: to start with the word right, the Word of God. Listen,
• 38:50
  S11: if all you care about is being productive so that
• 38:53
  S11: you can earn a promotion or make more money, I'll
• 38:55
  S11: be frank. Time in the word doesn't make a whole
• 38:57
  S11: lot of sense. But if we care about truly redeeming
• 39:00
  S11: our time and spending our life on things that matter
• 39:03
  S11: for eternity, we have to know what's on God's heart
• 39:06
  S11: for eternity. Principle number three from the book that's been
• 39:09
  S11: really helpful for readers. Jesus spent a lot of time
• 39:12
  S11: dissenting from the kingdom of noise. We often saw him
• 39:16
  S11: in lonely and solitary places, which stands in stark contrast
• 39:20
  S11: to our lives today. We are constantly consuming news and
• 39:24
  S11: information and social media, and more and more and more
• 39:27
  S11: noise and information which blocks our ability to think, to
• 39:31
  S11: prioritize our to do list, to be creative, and to
• 39:35
  S11: listen to the voice of God. I'll give you one
• 39:38
  S11: more principle number seven from the book eliminate all. Hurry.
• 39:41
  S11: I'm stealing this phrase from my buddy John Mark comer,
• 39:43
  S11: who stole it from a bunch of other people. Uh, listen, Jesus,
• 39:46
  S11: all throughout the Gospels was masterful at eliminating hurry. And
• 39:51
  S11: yet he was also incredibly busy. I like to think
• 39:55
  S11: of busyness as this outward condition of the body, of
• 39:57
  S11: having a lot of things to do. But hurry is
• 40:00
  S11: this inward condition that you could feel in your bones
• 40:03
  S11: and your soul. So Jesus was quote, out of his mind,
• 40:07
  S11: end quote. According to his family, busy with the work
• 40:09
  S11: of the Lord, but he was never busy in a
• 40:12
  S11: way that made him frantic or anxious, or caused them
• 40:15
  S11: to snap at other people in his life. He embraced
• 40:18
  S11: productive busyness while ruthlessly eliminating hurry from our lives. So
• 40:23
  S11: those are just three of the seven principles that I
• 40:26
  S11: see in the gospel biographies for how Jesus managed a
• 40:29
  S11: 24 hour day.
• 40:30
  S3: Well, it's interesting because I don't think we think about
• 40:32
  S3: Jesus's time management.
• 40:36
  S11: No, because we forget that the Gospels are biographies.
• 40:38
  S3: Right? But clearly, there were many, many demands on his time.
• 40:43
  S11: Yeah. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man, which means
• 40:49
  S11: he had to steward the exact same 24 hour time
• 40:52
  S11: constraint that you and I are faced with today. And
• 40:55
  S11: I'll be honest, Ali, for the first ten years of
• 40:57
  S11: my career as a tech entrepreneur, I look to Jesus
• 41:00
  S11: for wisdom about salvation, and I look to the world
• 41:03
  S11: for wisdom about productivity. How arrogant of me not to
• 41:08
  S11: look to the author of time for wisdom about how
• 41:13
  S11: to manage this time that he created and graciously gave me.
• 41:17
  S11: And so that's what this book is all about. It's
• 41:19
  S11: looking at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the biographical
• 41:23
  S11: documents that they are to study, how Jesus did it,
• 41:27
  S11: how he accomplished so much by the world's standards, and
• 41:30
  S11: way more importantly, by God's. And how we can practically
• 41:34
  S11: redeem our time in the model of our Redeemer here
• 41:37
  S11: in the 21st century.
• 41:39
  S3: You know, the one of the challenges of the 21st
• 41:41
  S3: century is the. You mentioned the distractions. And for many people,
• 41:45
  S3: screens in particular tend to be what eats away at
• 41:49
  S3: a lot of the time that maybe we, in our
• 41:53
  S3: best light, be able to want to spend on doing
• 41:55
  S3: other things. I heard someone say, nobody sets out to say,
• 41:59
  S3: I think I want to spend 36 hours staring at
• 42:02
  S3: my phone this week. But when you when you total
• 42:05
  S3: up the numbers, that's usually where a lot of people land.
• 42:09
  S3: How do we start to get victory over the things
• 42:11
  S3: that pull us in?
• 42:14
  S11: Yeah, it's a great, great question. Ali and I got
• 42:16
  S11: lots of tips for this in the book. I'll give
• 42:18
  S11: you one that's not in the book. That's been a
• 42:19
  S11: game changer for me recently. And I swear I have
• 42:22
  S11: no financial relationship with this company. There's a terrific device
• 42:25
  S11: out there called The Brick. It's a little two inch
• 42:28
  S11: magnet that you could put on your refrigerator wherever you
• 42:31
  S11: want and what you do. You physically tap your phone
• 42:34
  S11: to the brick to disable whatever apps and websites you
• 42:37
  S11: want until you return to the magnet and tap your
• 42:40
  S11: phone again. And it's been a game changer for me. Ali,
• 42:44
  S11: to be use my phone as a tool rather than
• 42:48
  S11: my phone. Being a tyrant that uses me as a tool,
• 42:52
  S11: as an endless user, quote unquote and consumer. It allows
• 42:56
  S11: me to focus on only the things that help me
• 42:58
  S11: create life in my family and my work, and ignore
• 43:01
  S11: everything else until I go back to that brick device
• 43:04
  S11: and untap it so it's get brick. I think you
• 43:06
  S11: could just Google get brick and you can find it
• 43:08
  S11: pretty easily, but that helps me turn my phone from
• 43:11
  S11: tyrant to tool so that I can redeem my time,
• 43:14
  S11: especially at home as I'm discipling my kids.
• 43:17
  S3: That's awesome. You know that we've talked a lot about
• 43:19
  S3: the kind of the shame you can feel when you
• 43:21
  S3: don't redeem your time, but there's also the the pride
• 43:25
  S3: you can start to feel. Some people are very, I
• 43:28
  S3: don't want to say naturally, because maybe that's not accurate,
• 43:31
  S3: but some people do tend to get more victory in
• 43:33
  S3: time redemption. They tend to be very, very productive. You
• 43:37
  S3: may have a family member or a colleague who, by
• 43:40
  S3: the end of the day, they just seem like they've
• 43:41
  S3: knocked out more tasks than anybody else in the office place.
• 43:45
  S3: And you, if you can just you can slip off
• 43:48
  S3: that high ridge on either side of the shame of
• 43:50
  S3: feeling like I've not been very productive or a sense
• 43:53
  S3: of self pride and self, almost an arrogance. That's that says,
• 43:59
  S3: I am man, I, I get so much done. I
• 44:01
  S3: get more done in a, in an hour than most
• 44:03
  S3: people do in a day.
• 44:05
  S11: Yes. And the gospel is the answer to both. Right.
• 44:08
  S11: We've talked about how the gospel is answer to the
• 44:10
  S11: shame side for the person who feels unproductive. But the
• 44:13
  S11: gospel is also the answer to the prideful person. And
• 44:16
  S11: by the way, I'm raising my hand right now. This
• 44:18
  S11: is where I can default to look how productive I am.
• 44:21
  S11: I'm so much more productive than everybody else. Yeah. What arrogance.
• 44:24
  S11: I am forgetting that it is only by God's grace
• 44:28
  S11: that I have learned these principles and practices. It is
• 44:31
  S11: only by God's grace that I have this discipline. It
• 44:34
  S11: is only by God's grace that he brought mentors and
• 44:36
  S11: books and software into my life to make me productive.
• 44:39
  S11: Every good and perfect gift is from above, from the
• 44:43
  S11: father of heavenly light. See James one right? So I
• 44:45
  S11: can't take any credit for it. I can just receive
• 44:48
  S11: it as a gift from God and give him all
• 44:50
  S11: the glory. And that allows me to approach my productivity
• 44:53
  S11: from a far more humble, God honoring place.
• 44:57
  S3: Give us a story as we. My last question for you.
• 45:00
  S3: I know you work a lot with Christian leaders helping
• 45:03
  S3: them maximize productivity in a Christ honoring way. Give us
• 45:08
  S3: a story. Obviously no names, no identifying details, but a
• 45:12
  S3: story that kind of motivates you to keep doing what
• 45:14
  S3: you're doing.
• 45:15
  S11: My motivation? Gosh, I could tell. I could tell hundreds
• 45:19
  S11: of stories. The one that's coming to mind. I'm talking.
• 45:21
  S11: I'm thinking about a friend who who runs a massive
• 45:24
  S11: division of the American Red cross. Um, huge budget, um,
• 45:29
  S11: on her team. And, uh, man, this woman is in
• 45:33
  S11: a position of great power to serve the very marginalized,
• 45:37
  S11: materially poor that Jesus called us to care for in
• 45:40
  S11: Matthew 25. And she is just operating. She would tell
• 45:43
  S11: you she's operating at an entirely different level in terms
• 45:46
  S11: of pure productivity by the world's standards than she ever
• 45:49
  S11: was before she encountered these biblical principles from the life
• 45:52
  S11: of Christ. But I think what's more important is she's
• 45:55
  S11: doing it in a Jesus like way. She's doing it
• 45:58
  S11: in a peaceful way where she doesn't feel crushed. her
• 46:02
  S11: soul doesn't feel crushed by the heavy burden of responsibility
• 46:06
  S11: of not doing everything perfectly. She's able to approach productivity
• 46:10
  S11: from a life giving rather than a life sucking way.
• 46:13
  S11: Not because of my words in this book, but because
• 46:16
  S11: I pointed her to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That
• 46:20
  S11: frees us from that soul crushing burden, right? But also
• 46:23
  S11: motivates us to abound in the good works that God
• 46:26
  S11: has prepared for us to do. So I can call
• 46:28
  S11: her out by name. She's a phenomenal leader. Her name
• 46:30
  S11: is Doctor Linda Brady, running the Red Cross in North Texas.
• 46:33
  S11: She's a phenomenal leader and man, she is redeeming the
• 46:37
  S11: time because the days are evil and she's doing it
• 46:39
  S11: for the right reasons, for the glory of God and
• 46:41
  S11: the good of others.
• 46:42
  S3: Great place to land. Jordan Raynor, our guest this morning.
• 46:45
  S3: If you want more on his book on resources, text
• 46:48
  S3: redeem to 800 555 7898. Just text that one word.
• 46:53
  S3: Redeem to 800 555 7898. Thank you Jordan, so much
• 46:59
  S3: for your time this morning.
• 47:02
  S1: Get to know the team behind the scenes. Follow Carl
• 47:05
  S1: and crew on Facebook and Instagram.
• 47:10
  S3: Tell me I'm not alone with this. Do you have
• 47:13
  S3: a task or 2 or 10 that you've been putting off?
• 47:19
  S3: You've been meaning to get to it, but you haven't.
• 47:22
  S3: Sometimes it's like actual things to complete to check off
• 47:26
  S3: the box. Sometimes it's that prompting, that nudge toward reach
• 47:32
  S3: out to that person. And so you file it away
• 47:34
  S3: and go, yeah, I do need to reach out to
• 47:36
  S3: so and so. I do want to. I owe them
• 47:38
  S3: a phone call. Oh, I do want to go visit.
• 47:41
  S3: There's somebody who in comes to mind right now who
• 47:44
  S3: I have been wanting to go visit. She's in a
• 47:47
  S3: care facility and I want to go visit. But then
• 47:50
  S3: the weeks pass, things get busy, schedules fill up, and
• 47:54
  S3: it doesn't happen. I'm just being honest with you about
• 47:57
  S3: my own life. Have you experienced this? I want you
• 48:00
  S3: to text me the 1 or 2 things that come
• 48:03
  S3: to mind for you as we talk about this, that
• 48:06
  S3: you had every good intention to do, but haven't. 800
• 48:13
  S3: 555 78, 98, 800 555 7898. Coming up, I'm going
• 48:20
  S3: to give you a verse that's going to guide you
• 48:22
  S3: in how to pray that some of these tasks you'll
• 48:25
  S3: get completed.
• 48:27
  S1: A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
• 48:32
  S1: in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 48:37
  S3: It's Chris Tomlin. How good it is. Well, you've been
• 48:41
  S3: putting off organizing photos, cleaning up digital clutter that came
• 48:45
  S3: in by text message, cleaning out that bedroom closet. Oh,
• 48:49
  S3: some self-care and home organization. A lot of it around
• 48:53
  S3: the home stuff. That's sometimes the easiest stuff to put off.
• 48:56
  S3: But then there's the visiting the friend calling a relative
• 49:00
  S3: that came in as well. I think those are the
• 49:02
  S3: ones that maybe hurt the most. When you put off,
• 49:05
  S3: you have the Holy Spirit prompting to do something. As
• 49:10
  S3: it pertains to to a person and you miss the opportunity,
• 49:14
  S3: you don't follow through. The text message that doesn't get sent,
• 49:18
  S3: the phone call that doesn't get made, the visit that
• 49:21
  S3: doesn't happen. I want to give you a verse. I
• 49:25
  S3: came across this verse a couple of years ago and
• 49:27
  S3: I said, you know what? I'm going to make this
• 49:29
  S3: my verse for the year. Second Thessalonians 111. I'm going
• 49:33
  S3: to read it to you in the New Living Translation.
• 49:35
  S3: This is Paul. This is his words to the Thessalonians,
• 49:38
  S3: his prayer for the Thessalonians. He says, so we keep
• 49:41
  S3: on praying for you, asking our God to enable you
• 49:44
  S3: to live a life worthy of his call. And then
• 49:47
  S3: listen to this next part. May he give you the
• 49:50
  S3: power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts
• 49:54
  S3: you to do. Let me read that to you one
• 49:57
  S3: more time. May he give you the power to accomplish
• 50:01
  S3: all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
• 50:05
  S3: So there's the faith prompt. That's the first part, but
• 50:09
  S3: the actual follow through. The accomplishment that happens by God's power.
• 50:14
  S3: So I want you to write down this verse. If
• 50:16
  S3: you've been struggling with following through with not just the
• 50:19
  S3: tasks around the house, but those Holy Spirit promptings to
• 50:23
  S3: do something to move in a certain direction, but you
• 50:26
  S3: put it off. Second Thessalonians 111. We want to pray
• 50:30
  S3: for ourselves, for our children, for our loved ones that
• 50:32
  S3: God would give you. Give me the power to accomplish
• 50:37
  S3: the good things that my faith prompts me to do,
• 50:40
  S3: because the prompting is good. But the follow through is
• 50:44
  S3: where the rubber meets meets the road. Second Thessalonians 111.
• 50:49
  S3: Check it out today. Coming up, we've got a special guest.
• 50:52
  S3: Do you want to stress less? Boy, do we all
• 50:56
  S3: coming up.