Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Thursday 4/23/26
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, what's up and good morning guys. Welcome back to the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots and Bets. And I'm welcoming back probably nobody because I think I'm the only one here and I don't think anybody listens or participates in this. But anyway, welcome back. is Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. And this is our daily episode. I'm your host, Greg Miller. We're going to get into the Bible verse real quick and we're going to talk about some scripture and then we're going to... talk about some real world current stuff. We're gonna have a couple of sports plays for the day and then we're gonna wrap things up and try to get out of here in 10 to 12 minutes and get on with our day. The scripture of the day is following a pretty consistent theme for what we've had this week. I feel like my daily devotional has kind of got me locked in on a particular theme. Maybe this is God's way of telling me this is something I need to be working on. It's Philippians chapter four verses eight and nine. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you. Again, this is not one that is, this isn't overly deep or overly complicated. This is not something that that we need to try to make into more than it is. It's simple. It is just telling us to focus on those good and true things that come from God, that come from Jesus, that you know at your core are things you can build on. Focus on those and then let's put that into practice for our everyday decision making and our habits and our fact checking and all the things that we know we need to be doing in this crisis. crazy, chaotic world that is just spinning out of control around us. We talked yesterday, we kind of came up with a little five-part checklist and we're gonna try to stick to that for now. You know, this verse, focusing on the truth, focusing on the good is a very consistent theme, like I said, for what we've been talking about. And I think what it's asking us to do here is to focus on those core beliefs that you know to be true. stay true to those and anytime something challenges those, it should cause you a real moment of reflection to come up and ask yourself, hey, this goes against everything I have believed, I have read in the Bible, everything I believe to be true. And that should be more than just a momentary pause. If something is challenging one of your core convictions, core beliefs, one of the biblical truths that you have adhered to, you should tread lightly in those situations and really do your due diligence before you move forward in any direction. The second one we're to talk to, and again, we want to focus this on own truths, own purity, own good. Commit to one small habit a month. Something good for you, something that you know will give you a sense of clarity, a sense of peace, a sense of purity. it can be commit to a few minutes of reading the Bible a day. can be like we talked about yesterday, commit to a daily prayer routine. It can be something simple. Go for a 10 minute walk and listen to some worship music. Commit to one small habit a month that you know will input something positive into your life because Lord knows the rest of the world is going to continue to try to input negative into it. The third practical takeaway is, and we kind of touched on in the first one, is to create a sort of a pause ritual. And in the first point, we're talking about anything that challenges one of your pure core convictions to really take a pause and step back. This is more of an in a general. I like to do this and you know, whether it's pausing before responding to an email or a text or a post online or sometimes even in a face to face conversation. And it's really hard to do. Take a pause. Just gather yourself for a second to ask yourself what... What am I really being told here? What is really being implied to me here? Because a lot of what we're dealing with is overreactions, misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and it just spins out of control. So it gets back to a general theme, but anytime you're dealing with something that you could see causing some sort of escalation, just take a few seconds, pause, and try to be a little more deliberate in your response instead of just reacting. The fourth point, and this is one that I think a lot of us can really focus on, this is actually one I feel pretty good about. it's in situations that are causing you any sort of consternation or despair, ask yourself, is there something good in this? And if so, what can I do with it? And what you'll find is more often than not that some of the testing and tribulation moments in your life will actually lead to something good. And if they don't directly lead to something good, they will teach you something that can lead to something good in the future. So, you know, it's, it's, it's very cliche to say, you know, find the silver lining, try to see the good in everything. But I think there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of real world application to that philosophy. And I think more often than not, it can, it can help you end up on a more positive path. If you just choose to find the good and look, sometimes it's hard. I know people that make it hard to find the good in them. Some folks out there would probably tell you I could be one of those people at times that it's hard to see the good in. But just about everything that we come across in this world, everything we encounter, I promise you, if you look hard enough, you look from the right angles, you can find something good in that thing or you can find something good that God can use that thing to teach you. And then the fifth point is, and it's kind of a consistent theme from yesterday, and it's to create some sort of recovery and focus protocol that... that whether it's once a week you have a ⁓ Sunday Sabbath, I think the world would be far better off if we all got back to adhering to the Sabbath and taking one day away from everything else and just focusing on our family and our personal relations and then our relationship with God, obviously. But even if you're not going to take a true Sabbath, just find a way to create a 30-minute-a-week rest period where you literally just sit and you just kind of reflect on everything you've done. And you try to focus on anything that you can pull from those moments to apply to future thing. You know, for me, a lot of that, it comes in my prayer time. It comes in my reading the Bible time. It's amazing how often these daily scripture verses seem to hit me right between the eyes. And it's God telling me, hey, I know you're dealing with this. Here's what I think. ⁓ And that's how I choose to interpret it. So it's a lot to ask, but man, the world right now is throwing so much at us. But I think if we make a conscious effort and we make a ⁓ commitment to trying to find the biblical good in all these things and trying to focus on the true, the good, and the pure, I think that will help us all. I wanted to, and again, this current event and kind of new revelation really applies to what we're dealing with here. I wanna touch a little bit on what's been coming out in the last day or so. on the Southern Poverty Law Group. And for those of you that know, I mean, this has been a left-wing organization that has literally made it their mission to fight something that I would tell you doesn't exist. I am almost 50 years old and I have yet to meet a white supremacist in my life. Do I think that there are some racial tendencies and that underlying almost all of us have some sort of racial bias? Yeah, I mean, I think that's human nature. but I don't know any true racist the way that the left tries to make us think it is. And it is certainly not near as big of an issue as they try to present it. So anyway, the Southern Poverty Law Group has been all involved over the last 10, 15 years, taking who knows how many contributions and how much federal tax money and all that's coming out. And I'm not gonna get into the details. Do your homework, do your research, go check out what's going on with the Southern Poverty Law Group and just see. But the point I want to make on this is not the details. It's not in what's now being relieved or revealed. It's the fact that guys like me and folks that believe what I believe have been telling you for 10, 12 years what was going on. And it's always been hidden. It's always been swept under the rug. And now it's starting to come out. And this is a perfect example of what we're talking about here. It would have been easy when so much of what you see on social media is leading you believe that they're the good guys and we should be supporting what they're doing. And yeah, who doesn't want to end racism? Well, the best way to end racism is to stop talking about it and stop spending money on it because it really doesn't exist in today's world. But this was something where we have been lied to for over a decade and a lot of us knew it. And it's a perfect example. A lot of us simply refused to come around, refused to change our opinion because we knew what was going on. We could see it with our own eyes despite what the mainstream media and social media was trying to tell us. Apply this to other things in the world. This is happening. all over our world today. You are being presented a narrative, you are being presented a story that is in no way reflective of the accurate truth or reality. And that is something we all need to be cognizant of because so much of what's out there is just trying to drive a narrative and like we talked about yesterday, it is just trying to divide us. This is a perfect example. If someone on the left is looking at me saying, don't support the Southern Poverty Law Group, they immediately jump to it. Well, I must be a racist. And that is simply not true. The reason I don't support them is because I knew what was going on behind the scenes. They were laundering money. They are literally just supporting democratic campaigns. And in some cases, they were paying KKK leaders to institute white supremacist riots just for effect. It's documented. Go look at it. I'm not making this up. But all along the way, we were told they were the good guys. trying to end racism. And most of us knew it's not true. That's not pure. And it's not right. So that's a good example of a real world current event example of something where we have been told something for over a decade that most of us knew wasn't true and wasn't accurate. And some of us were actually strong enough to stand to our convictions and stay true to what we believe. And that's what we're asking here. Like, get in the Bible, form your own opinions. And when something goes against it or doesn't feel right, like we all know. when we're first presented with something, there's a little voice in our head or a little feeling in our gut that says, yeah, I don't know about this. That's a good thing. That's coming from God. Pay attention to that. You'll be better off. All right, we're get into the plays for the day. I know that's ⁓ all anybody cares about. We actually had a nice two-in-one day yesterday with a plus 120 winner. So that doesn't suck. We won't complain about that. We did get burned again on the Royals Tigers or Royals Orioles under. won't make that play today. We're not going to let it beat us three days in a row. The three plays for today are we got the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets. We're going back over that seven and a half. These teams have been putting up some runs. I see no reason that doesn't continue today. Minnesota at New York over seven and a half. It's a little bit of a homework pick here, but give me the Braves minus 130 at Washington. Braves have been playing really well. Obviously I'm a Braves fan. I think this is a good price on what I think is a superior team. The Braves have been hot. There's always a chance that Washington gets this last one at home, but I like the Braves win and a plus 130. I'm going to take a stab there. And then we're to go to the NBA for the final play tonight. We're going to, we're going to get Cleveland at Toronto. Give me the home team Raptors. Give me the Raptors. Last I saw them, there's plus two and a half. I kind of think they might win the game outright. If you want to sprinkle a little on that money line at, 120, 125 or so that that might not be a bad idea. Uh, but give me the Raptors plus the two and a half at home. As we wrap up, we talk about getting in the truths and focusing on the truths and the pure and the good. And that leads me perfectly to something I have to address. Today is an absolutely beautiful and wonderful day for me personally. It is my 10 year wedding anniversary to the most amazing and beautiful and vibrant young woman I could possibly ever have imagined ending up with. Haley Miller, I love you more than I could possibly tell you. and however long God gives me on the rest of this life I've got, then I'm going to spend it with you and I'm going to spend it trying to become the man you deserve me to be. I love you, sweetheart, and I can't imagine life without you. And it's been a process and you have helped shape me and you have helped convict me and you have helped make me a better person. But we're just getting started, baby. We got a long way to go and it's going to be a beautiful life. As always, guys, in closing, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love each other, and tell the truth. God bless.