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LIVE at Hillcrest Academy · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Music.
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  To flavor, to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Spice. How you doing, Don? Sounds like good stuff, right? Spice to our life?
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  Right. Hey, guys. You've grown.
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  It's good to see you guys. What, twice as many kids? Yeah, about twice as many
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  as last time we were together.
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  I was a facilities manager two years ago, so welcoming him back here.
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  And we relish the thought of being here.
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  You always got to put that pun. I'm sorry.
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  Yeah. All right. We'll jump right into the questions here. First one.
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  Can God really forgive me?
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  Can God really forgive you? Yep. Oh, yeah. In fact, he can forgive me and he
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  can forgive everybody here.
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  First John 1, 9 basically just hangs the idea of us confessing our sins.
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  And then he is faithful and he is just and he will forgive us our sins and cleanse
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  us from all unrighteousness, which means the action on our part to get God's
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  forgiveness is to agree with him.
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  I mean, he already knows everything we've done. So if we confess our sins,
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  he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.
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  We just have to get past our pride enough to be able to confess them.
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  And the hard part is that next one. And so if we don't believe he can,
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  if we don't believe we've ever sinned, then we make God out to be a liar because
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  he knows good and well we did.
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  And my pages get stuck together. If we claim we have not sinned,
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  we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our hearts, in our lives.
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  So yeah, confess our sins and he will forgive us because in one way or another,
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  that's accepting the fact that he is God and knows righteousness, what that's all about.
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  I've gotten a lot of questions about why the name Relish.
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  So if you will just get to the other questions, if you're interested in that,
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  then you can go to episode three that we did titled Your Spiritual Journey.
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  And it's in the intro in that one. You can hear my mom's story about tomatoes.
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  There you go. Yeah. That's in there. Yep.
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  Has to do with Relish. It does. Next question. And how do we know that the Bible isn't manwritten?
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  Hmm. Because it was written by so many. It's not singular.
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  In other words, there's many authors to the books that are in the Bible.
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  The difference is that there's one spirit behind it, and that's God's spirit behind it.
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  So it is God-inspired, God-informed as it goes to paper.
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  It comes from our faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
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  Hebrews 11, verse 1. So if your faith is in Christ and in the Bible,
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  then it's not hard to make that bridge to say, you know,
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  God could inspire all these authors with the same inspiration to write one complete
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  manual, if you will, 66 books.
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  It's the same spirit behind the entire Bible. And that's why when you start
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  studying it, like we do in apologetics, you realize it's not,
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  That many different authors, but it's one spirit written through many hands.
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  All scriptures, God breathed. All God breathed, yes.
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  You got there, 1 Timothy. Good job. I did. Dude? I was waiting for you to say
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  it. Oh, okay. I never did. And you got there. Yeah. See? You're doing good, Ron.
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  If God can do anything, why doesn't he erase evil? Ah, because evil has a purpose.
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  In other words, how would we know what good is unless there was some idea of what bad is?
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  There was a contrast. I mean, light and dark are contrasts, right?
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  We can't figure out what good is unless we understand what evil is.
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  And in contrast, those two things with each other, God leaves then evil in this
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  realm so that we understand what his goodness is and what righteousness would
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  be. and to live into that.
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  So it serves a purpose. It's not fun.
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  And it's like tests and trials. They're not fun either, but they serve a purpose.
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  Every teacher in here gives tests, right? Even the PE teacher.
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  And most kids would say that's evil, right?
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  Did we get it? No. Okay. We've got kids that love tests here. This is a unique group.
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  I never liked tests, but they do serve a purpose in that they contrast what
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  we know and what we don't know.
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  And that's proven out in the test.
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  Evil is sort of like that because it's tests whether or not we know what good is or not.
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  It's the contrast. So we need evil, not that we like it or that we promote it.
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  We could go a whole lot longer on that one. I know.
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  We're on time. We want to get as many questions done as we possibly can.
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  And then some of these we'll probably delve into more deeply in the podcast in the future.
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  So hang on. Some of these we can, Don could talk about for probably 45 minutes.
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  So we'll save those. And part of that's just because he's a preacher.
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  What do you think the hardest thing about following Christ is?
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  The hardest thing about following Christ is just exactly what he pointed out,
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  that part where we take up our cross and follow him.
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  Because in almost any scenario, living as a Christian will put us in contrast
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  with the world around us.
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  And putting us in contrast with the world around us will somehow or another
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  get us into those hard situations where we've got to take a stand.
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  Take a stand because we're Christian. Take a stand because Christ has asked
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  us to because we've studied scripture and we see it there.
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  And so I would say the hardest part is taking up our cross and following him
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  because that ain't easy stuff.
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  That's hard. Would you include like trials and tribulations in there?
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  Like true, because it was just like it says in James chapter two,
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  chapter one, verses two through four.
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  God is making us stronger. So he uses tests and trials to help us do that.
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  It says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you endure trials of many kinds,
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  because, you know, the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance
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  when it's finished its work leaves us mature and complete, not lacking anything.
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  That's God's design for us as his followers to be able to strengthen our faith.
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  I'm in a class right now on healing prayer and the aspects of healing prayer.
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  And to be a prayer warrior, we study the fact that we as Christians need to
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  increase our capacity, not only to love, but also to endure the hardships that
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  life normally puts before us.
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  And then as we enter into the lives of others, they bring their stuff to our life.
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  So our emotional and spiritual capacity must grow in order to be able to minister to others.
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  Well, I think all of us as Christians in one way or another want to be able to minister to others.
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  In doing so, we need to be willing to increase our capacity to suffer well and
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  come back to joy before the Lord.
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  Yeah, kind of walks into one of these next questions. Why do you think God lets people suffer?
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  Is it to strengthen and grow your faith? It is to strengthen their faith.
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  I just talked about James's passage, but I think Romans speaks more to that.
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  Romans chapter 5 says, Therefore, since we've been justified through faith,
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  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we've also
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  gained access by our faith into the grace in which we now stand.
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  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so,
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  but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces
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  perseverance and perseverance character and character hope.
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  And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our
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  hearts by the Holy Spirit, which he has given us.
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  In other words, Paul already understood that the trials and tribulations and
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  the sufferings that we go through as Christians,
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  first of all, because we're Christian and we live in contrast to the world around
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  us, second of all, because he wants to increase our capacity to live lives that reflect who Jesus is.
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  It's going to be it's going to be that we're going
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  to have those tests because he wants to
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  increase us increase our hope and increase our character in other words part
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  of the reason that we as christians will stand out to the world is we bring
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  a maturity because of what we've been through that is in contrast to the world around us,
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  That's a short answer. How do you like that one? It is. He's kind of dove deeper
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  into some of these in past episodes.
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  So if you're interested, you can always look back at shows. Yeah.
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  But these are good questions and pertinent questions to where we're living right now.
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  What would trials or suffering look like?
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  What would that look like in your life? Well, I could personalize it and say,
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  so there's been many transitions in my life that were not easy or are fun.
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  That's a trial, if you will. Losing my son, that was a trial.
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  That was, and I even had the moment where I said, okay, God,
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  here I've done all these things for your church, and I'm doing these things
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  to get ready to be a pastor again. and why would you take my son?
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  And as if God said it, because at this
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  moment, I wasn't thinking in that direction. He said, my son died too.
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  As if God was trying to say, hey, I know where your pain's at.
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  I know what it feels like.
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  Those trials and tribulations then form us and maybe come form us to be more like Jesus.
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  I mean, Jesus didn't have a cakewalk.
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  I mean, the best man who ever lived didn't have a cakewalk in life.
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  He had all these Pharisees who had their opinions, and the Sadducees had their opinions.
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  And then the people around him had all these illnesses that he worked with.
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  So he didn't have a cakewalk either.
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  I think God, how can I put it this way?
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  God knows what you're going through He knows what you're going to go through,
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  He sees us each worth the investment.
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  Of him walking us through trials so that we can be stronger and more resilient
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  and more able to help someone else in the future.
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  I think that's a key piece that we often lose as Christians.
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  We think that, oh, poor me, I'm going through this terrible trial.
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  And we don't realize that God may be working in us and through us so that we
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  could be prepared to minister to someone else.
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  I think Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, but I'll have to look that up.
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  I mean, he talks about us going through things in such a way that we're ready
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  to help others. Oh, it's chapter one.
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  It's 1 Corinthians chapter one.
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  Okay, maybe not. Oh, here.
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  Because of the grace given to you in Jesus Christ, for him who is enriched in
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  every way, in all knowledge and speaking in all your knowledge because of your
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  testimony about Christ that confirmed in you.
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  Therefore, you don't lack any spiritual gift and he will keep you to the end.
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  Ah, come on, that's not it either, but it's, there's a spot and I can't, you got me.
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  Part of the comic relief in this is that the questions try to be hard enough
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  to stump Don so he can't just answer them cold.
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  I know it's in Corinthians. I'm pretty sure it's 1 Corinthians,
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  but Paul talks about us going through trials and tribulations in such a way
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  that we can help others, like as if there's a reason for it.
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  Just to like help Don out here, he usually comes up with a reference. Sorry.
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  I'll keep looking for it, but it's not right now. You mentioned the why question
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  you asked God about your son, and not to pick on you specifically because we
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  all have probably asked him the why question,
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  but is it appropriate to ask God a why question? Absolutely.
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  David was really good at it. If you read the Psalms, David asked God every once in a while, why?
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  Why is this and why is that? And I think it's really speaks of God's faithfulness
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  in the fact that he often will answer it either in the moment or through someone
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  else as to why we're going through what we're going through.
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  There's a reason God has a plan. He's got a plan for my life.
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  He's got a plan for your life.
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  Part of our faithfulness is realizing he's the one with the plan and then being
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  willing to say, OK, thy will be done on earth. and even in my life, as it is in heaven.
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  And being able to say, I trust you, God, that even in the deepest of muck,
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  you're gonna see me through to the other side. And I do.
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  Of course, I've got the advantage that I've walked with the Lord for over,
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  do I date myself? Yeah, over 50 years.
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  And I've got all these situations in my life where God has seen me through.
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  And they haven't been fun.
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  But I am who I am today, for better or worse, because he has formed me through
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  his faithfulness and answering prayer. It's good stuff.
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  There were several of these, but what passage of scripture do you like to share
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  first with somebody who doesn't know Christ?
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  Oh, well, I sort of like to go through Romans. And so I'd start in Romans chapter
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  one and say, you know, all the evidence is out there.
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  And then Romans chapter three, 23, we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God.
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  And we have, none of us are perfect. Wait a minute, let me check.
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  Well, there might, oh, the Marcus is out here.
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  Nobody's perfect, folks. We've all fallen
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  we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory those are the places i'd start
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  in fact if you study the book of romans you can actually walk a person to faith
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  through romans because paul wrote
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  it as a theological treatise to a church that he had not even met yet,
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  so it's really good it has a lot of theology in it that's where i'd start,
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  It's a good one. Is hell a real place? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's hotter than Florida.
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  Yes, it is. It is a place of judgment. That's true.
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  Yeah, I believe totally in hell. I had a lady one time who came to church and
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  she said she didn't believe in hell. And I said, oh, really?
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  You don't believe in hell? Have you read your Bible?
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  Well, some of it. And I knew she was an avid reader. I knew if you gave her
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  a book to read, she would just consume it.
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  So I said, hey, how about you take a couple of weeks and read your Bible?
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  And then we'll visit that question again.
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  And she came back and she came with this startled look on her face.
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  She said, there is a hell. And I said, yeah, I knew that.
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  I mean, it's described in the Bible. It's graphic in the Bible as to what hell consists of.
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  But if you don't believe the Bible's true, then you probably won't believe hell.
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  It's true either. So in all of her readings, she never came across.
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  I thought that was wild. Yeah. She said she read her Bible quite a bit and she
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  hadn't come across that.
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  But when she read it front to back, there is a hell. Yes. Okay.
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  She got it. That's the important part.
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  What if God never answers your prayers?
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  And there's sometimes that. Okay.
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  God can answer yes, and God can answer no, and God can answer not yet.
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  So I'm not sure he never answers the prayer. He answers the prayer,
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  but maybe not the way we want it to be answered.
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  And I have found in my personal life, walking with God, that the difference
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  often is whether I've yielded my will to his or whether it's something I want.
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  And James talks about that in chapter four, probably better than I can say it.
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  So we'll just do James's rendition because he says it this way.
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  You do not have because you don't ask God. And when you ask,
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  you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what
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  you get on your pleasures.
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  And that's where he's talking about the fact that if we pray for something,
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  we need to pray that it fits within God's will for our lives and the lives around us.
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  I mean, we might be asking, you might be praying for a friend or a girlfriend
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  or a win last night. Sorry.
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  Didn't happen. I know. I'm sorry.
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  But we need to pray that God's will is done and that we are given the opportunity
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  to prove beyond a matter of fact that we have faith in the creator of all things.
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  And we have faith in the one who answers these questions, these prayers,
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  that he knows what we really, really need.
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  And he also knows what we really don't. And that was the bell.
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  Does that mean we're done? Corbin, that means we're done. Okay.
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  Corbin shakes his head. That means we're done. Well, it's really been good to
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  see you guys again. I wish I could get to shake all your hands,
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  but that's a lot of hands.
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  And God bless you. Thank you, Rowan. Thank you, Don. Thank you for putting it on the spot.
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  We're willing to put it on the spot.
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  God bless your day. Thank you for joining us for this podcast.
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  Feel free to become part of this ministry by sharing with others our goal is
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  to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who god is and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Music.