Latest / The Rhett Palmer Show / Walking Where Jesus Walked: George McMann’s Visit to Israel

Transcript

Walking Where Jesus Walked: George McMann’s Visit to Israel · The Rhett Palmer Show

0:12
SPEAKER_00: Tell all the world about Jesus, George.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
0:15
SPEAKER_02: Great.
0:16
SPEAKER_02: How are you?
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Good to see you.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Where are you from originally?
0:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh actually, I'm from New York.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: New York.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, from Long Island.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've got a lot of those down here.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh you remind me of a friend of mine years ago, back in the 60s, from that area, you know.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: He ended up becoming a Scientologist, and then I never heard from him again.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: But you became a Christian, and you just got back from Israel.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: First time ever?
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Yes, first time ever.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: And what an amazing trip it was.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: It's really something.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: All these things we talk about in church.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And if you really do love the Lord, you know, your favorite subject is the Lord.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden you go, and uh down the via della Rosa, the way of suffering.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it's even now I could cry.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: It's something very emotional about getting more attached to where the King of Kings actually walked in humility and healing others, and yet they rejected him.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And uh by the way, if you're but half my family's Jewish.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to get them.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're I don't know about Jesus.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, my niece um but uh you know, uh if you read the book of Isaiah, it plainly states that uh you know they will look upon the one whom they pierced.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: And God sending an emancipator, and he will not be handsome, we should know him.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Very complicated prophecy that said he will he will be uh he will come he will be born in the house of bread, which is Bethlehem.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: He will be he will come out of Egypt and yet be called a Nazarene.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: And we know Jesus, right, was born in Bethlehem.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh and the irony of that, of course, is the sheep that they use for Passover, they usually cultivate in Bethlehem.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Jesus was, and then of course went into Egypt to hide from his enemies, and then came out as a boy when the pharaoh or whatever was died.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And oh no, the it was the the uh the Romans, I guess, the Roman big shots.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh so what's the first thing you saw?
2:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, the fur one of the first places we went to was Caesarea Philippi.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: Um going down to the ocean and just being on the shore of the Mediterranean was just incredible uh to stand there.
2:32
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, living in Florida you can go to the ocean anytime.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: Um but this was it was spectacular in in a lot of different ways.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: Um each day we were out touring, I thought excuse me.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Was it a tour bus?
2:53
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I like going on those tour bus with a tour company, yeah.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we had an awesome, awesome guy who really had great history.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: Um you had to be licensed in Israel to do that.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a profession.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: And this guy had been doing it for over twenty-five years.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: Twenty-five years.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: So um going to these sites and explaining where you were and then knowing the Bible um was uh him knowing the Bible um and giving, you know, pieces of scripture even as we were talking.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Gosh, I'd like to go back.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I was there in seven 19 uh uh eighty-five, I think it was, and we were shooting a music video to my song The Empty Tomb, which they debuted on the 700 Club.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: But I got there, and of course I was only maybe knew the Lord for three years.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: I I never even knew what Easter was until I was got born again at twenty-nine.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: So I think I was about thirty-three at the time.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: But I'd love to go back now, now having read more of the scriptures, more sticks to it in my head, and you're gonna recognize a lot of these places as a seasoned believer, you know.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, how long have you followed Jesus?
4:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh I came to Christ when I was fourteen.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: Did you really?
4:10
SPEAKER_02: You're one of those good for you.
4:12
SPEAKER_02: It's been I was part of the early Jesus Revolution.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes that took place in the 70s.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: Um, I had some older siblings that got pulled into that tied, and um the oldest uh of my siblings uh she came to the Lord first, and then it just kind of filtered down through the rest of the family.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Now uh so uh uh uh were your pastor's son or anything like that?
4:44
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Um but we were non-denam?
4:48
SPEAKER_02: We were we were Catholic.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: Um my dad when I was ten was tragically killed on the Long Island Railroad, and my mom at 38 years old had the responsibility of raising eight kids.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: Eight children, eight kids.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh my you really were Catholic, or they were well eight children.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: So w where were you in that group?
5:14
SPEAKER_02: We uh number five.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Number five.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Um but it must have been a lot of pressure on the two eldest.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: To take over dad's place.
5:23
SPEAKER_02: But when we were old enough to work, we went to work.
5:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh I couldn't wait to get my first job at thirteen.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, my I lost my dad too, just we have this in common.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: I lost my father.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: He was killed in a car accident the day before my fifth birthday.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: You know what's really weird?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: A bird flew into the house, which is supposed to be a bad sign if you'd listen to the Italians.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: The phone rings saying he was killed.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, I'll never forget that.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give this.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: So you were brought up Catholic.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: So um the funny thing is, I used to be kind of reticent about Catholicism because I had a group uh when I first became had this marvelous traumatic experience at 29 and came to know Jesus, I thought they all had come out of the charismatic movement, which is a movement of the Holy Spirit and the gifts thereof that are in and the it's sort of a segment of the Catholic Church.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Um but um so I kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater, and personally, personally, I don't believe in praying to saints, but I I keep asking these priests I ran into, and they say, Well, you you ask friends to pray for you, so they believe some of these and you hear some of these stories with the with the priests or the friars or the or the I was just watching a small movie on on the on a monk last night, and uh he had some miraculous encounters, and so there's there but anyway, so um you know I think a lot of people are kind of like put off with the Mary thing or they're put off with the the um the uh the the the saint thing but there's the I've been going to because there's a church uh there's a church that's a choice in uh Stowe, Vermont, where I spend my summers.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And one is uh and I've interviewed the pastor, great guy, had a miraculous encounter, but they also, you know, uh wear the colors and stuff of pride.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, and God, one of the eight abominations is pride, ironically.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I know that I'm called to love everyone.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not going to call sin not sin.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say that so whether it's divorce, I mean, people, you know, they they pick on the poor homosexuals.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't know what causes that.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Is it natural or is it a demonic uh influence?
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh whatever.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I don't know that we should always be picking on, you know, if you're I don't care who you are if you're a sinner.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to serve you.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think that uh you don't clean a fish and then catch it.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Catch the fish.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, there should be open seating for anybody, not in leadership positions.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: But I think there should be open seating for what have you been doing?
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Who you've been Saturday night, if I had a church, I'd be advertising all over the place.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I don't care who you've been sleeping with or who you haven't been sleeping with, I don't care what you've done or what you've neglected to do.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: There's a seat here with some loving people.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have a friend of mine, so I don't get that much out of church.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: She's married, two kids.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you know, it's not always about what you get.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: You might sit next to some lady that lost her entire family this week.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: And as you get older, how old are you?
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh 66.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I'm older.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm 70.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm 70, I'll be 73 next month.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I have found late in life that the greatest joy comes when I'm in service of others.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Not out for me.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Right.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, so uh so so go go with the idea that you're gonna help somebody else out, you know.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so uh Israel.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Now were you you just got back?
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Were you fearful of uh you know the violence we keep hearing of?
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Did that into your mind or not at all?
8:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh before I left on the trip, I had a certain amount of apprehension about actually going.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you'd be a fool not to and contemplated actually setting a different plan in place, staying home, allowing my wife to go, and someone else to take my place.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: You actually thought this through.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: Um and I relented and I thought, I think I'm I'm I'm giving too much weight to this, and I need to just trust that if our pastor and the people over there are declaring that it's safe enough for us to be there, I don't want to miss this experience.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Did you encounter any violence or any bombs or anything?
9:32
SPEAKER_02: No, um, we did have one area where we did not go, and that was because our tour guide uh actually had experienced something about a week or two before we arrived, and that was in Shechem, uh in the Samaria area, and he was there with a group touring that area.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh some uh Palestinians took up rocks and started throwing rocks at them.
10:07
SPEAKER_02: So he safely got everyone on the bus and they got out of there before it you know became a bad situation.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: So he opted to uh take that off of our itinerary.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, it'll be 40 years this year.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: I'll uh in November uh I will turn 73.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: So it'll be precisely 40 years ago that I went there to shoot that music video for uh for the song The Empty Tomb and to be debuted on the 700 Club.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: But uh what I did is I accidentally, I was in one of the buses and I left the uh the um tripod.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Now a tripod has three legs and you you attach the camera to the top and it gives you a steady.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: We didn't need steady cams back then.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Now even with a little iPhone, we have the steady cam build, which used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: It's in every iPhone.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so uh I left the tripod up above your head in the bus.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: So it was in a leather case, you know.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: So who would know what it was?
11:03
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden we got off the bus and we're walking along and what's going on?
11:10
SPEAKER_00: They think there's a bomb that somebody left on the bus.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And I forget 40 years ago, so I don't really remember, but I was with Dr.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Jim McLaughlin, the uh professor at uh Renssela uh Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And uh uh somehow they got to us and found out that it was me that I'd left that I left the tripod there.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: So we were the center of attention for a wee little bit, you know.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: So don't leave your tripod or your equipment on the bus when you get off.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, did you go to Masada?
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Um that's the big tall place where they had the wells up on top.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: No.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Where'd you go?
11:49
SPEAKER_02: So uh our first day we went to Caesarea Maritime, Caesarea Philippi, uh Mount of the Beatitudes.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Now wait a second, you went to the Beatitudes.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Now that's the I'm all I remember is wasn't wasn't that near a body of water?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Um it was a big I remember a big flat, lots of grass.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh that's the the the grass and uh landmass area where they believe um uh Jesus uh spoke.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: I think it was how many how many Beatitudes are there?
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Um I think there's eight.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: I think there's eight, you know, but uh you know Mahatma Gandhi, uh who by the way probably would have been a follower of Jesus, he said that was the greatest speech that he'd ever heard in his life, that he ever read in his life.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know, Mahatma Gandhi went to a church in India.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: I do you see the picture over there?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a Miyam Arun Gandhi, his grandson.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Well Mahatma had gone gone to a Catholic not a Catholic a Christian church, and they said he wasn't suitably dressed and would not let him in.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: This little brown man from uh who was a uh uh uh a um lawyer at the time, a young lawyer.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And uh so I I bring that up only because we need to learn the lesson.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh God likes you know what the nature of God is, George?
13:13
SPEAKER_00: His nature is to be hidden.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed like as you get to be older?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: I remember I was dating someone years ago and she would you know, somebody would come in and they look disheveled.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: And she always was giving away money to these people.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you know, you gotta you gotta f find this out because then she found that this guy was very prosperous.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, you go into Vincent's Italian here and you got everybody dressed up in suits and ties.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, when you're young, you think, oh boy, those are the big shots, they got money.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, most lot of them are struggling young lawyers that may not be making much at all, and some other guy sitting over there hasn't shaved for three days, sitting over in the corner, and you find out he's the local one of the local billionaires, you know.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: God likes to hide, hide his treasures.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it's written in the scriptures, you probably know this, that Jesus was not handsome, that we should take notice of him.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
14:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, people think this this blonde, blue-eyed guy or white is gonna show up.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, did you get to see a Nazarene when you were there?
14:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh we saw lots of different people.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: They have brown skin.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was not black, but he was not white.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about it.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Right.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: He's like a God perfectly set him in the middle of the world where he was brown, not black, and towards white, but not white.
14:25
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: You know?
14:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think one of the most significant things that I picked up on when we were there, a lot of the sites, the biblical sites that we went to, they have built churches and things over it.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: So one of the things we went to see the first day we were there, we went to the house of Peter's mother-in-law.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: Oh, did you?
14:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, and got to see the remnants of what is actually still there, the division of the rooms and how the house was laid out, set up in a circular fashion.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And literally built right over the top of that is uh a Jewish synagogue.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: Oh, really?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and got to go up into the synagogue uh and uh spend some time uh uh just now when I was there I found the Jews to be very accommodating and openly, and there was no criticism because there are some Hasidic Jews, I guess, that uh have not been so nice to passerbys, but generally the Jewish people are very happy to have you there because of course you represent income.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean tourism I think is one of their yeah, their big income producers.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: And the tourism and the people from the US are coming back to Israel.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I want to go back to Israel.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: They're touring, they're seeing.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: Um we saw a number of different tour groups uh from different companies uh in some local places where we went to eat.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh hundreds and hundreds of people from different parts of the US uh all gathered having lunch and just going just going to see these really all.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: Did you go to the garden tomb?
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Because I personally that's where I shot my music video at the garden tomb.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: There are those that will s that say that it was in the but it it says obviously Gilgartha is now a business.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: But you look up and you can see the skull.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And people want to say that, you know, and wasn't the wasn't his burial close to the skull.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: So And m parts of what you've probably saw 40 years ago and even just a few years ago have fallen off of that face of the skull.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: The nose is no longer there.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, the remnants of what is there now are the eye sockets.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, and you can still see the outline of the nose.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, just to to be in that place.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: And when we went to the garden tomb, yeah, uh there has been talk and some speculation as to whether or not this actual site was uh the place where they laid Christ's body, where he resurrected from.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: And the pastor from our church at Revived Church in in Stewart pointed out to us uh later that uh it is his very strong belief that this is the site where they lay Jesus' body and he rose from the dead because the practice back in Roman times was when they rolled the stone in front of the tomb, they would affix a metal pin and hammer it into the rock on either side of the rock and attach ropes to those pins so that the stone could not be moved.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: And the remnant of a pin metal pin that was buried in the rock is still there.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: You can put your finger on it and touch it when you go into the tomb.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Pretty cool.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Um it's changed a little bit since I was there.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Um I've seen some recent pictures where they have they put up a, I think they put up a bar, you can't go into the tomb anymore.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: When I was there, you could go into the tomb.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you can go in.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you can, good.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: And they have actually added some very nice areas walking through there.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, after we visited the tomb, uh as a group, uh, we had uh a sheltered pavilion that we were able to go to, and the people at the garden tomb that run that site provided us with communion.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: Really?
19:08
SPEAKER_02: In little wooden olive cups we had some grape juice and some matzah cracker, and we had communion together at the garden tomb.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh one thing about the garden tomb, though, and this is just to alert people, there was some evangelist who was saying, Send me money, and uh I'll send you some uh dirt from the garden tomb.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: And I said, There is no dirt at the garden tomb, it's all solid rock.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I know this is because I will confess my sin now.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: I had on a suit and tie and a and a and a and a kerchief here.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, I took off my my out of my pocket here, you know, dressed up my kerchief, and I scraped the side of the wall with a credit card to just get a little bit of the dust.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And I put that in my bucket.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: So I know I you know, I was thinking, you know, Rhett, if everybody did this, there wouldn't be any of the tool left, you know, because of very porous rock.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: But there was no dirt.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I bring this up is be alert, folks.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah be alert and be wise, you know.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh be uh be as gentle as doves, but as wise as serpents, Jesus said, right?
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, by the way, I want people to know about you, George.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh mentioned this a couple times during the interview.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh but you uh you uh are a writer, you have a couple children's books out yourself.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but you uh have books for other people that are actually uh available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: You help people get published.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: So if you've got a book in you, uh make sure you contact me and I'll give you over to Joyce so I can get my percentage out.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: No, but seriously, yeah, uh it's it's you get people going because uh you know people have been converted by the things they've read.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: You know?
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you like to how did you fall into that?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Because what did you do for a living before you retired?
21:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm semi-retired.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: I have a license in the state of Florida and three other states for insurance.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I have a 214 license.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: So a 214 classification for being able to sell life and annuities.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: A 215 license gives you the ability to sell life, annuities, and health insurance.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: But you're not doing that actively.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm not doing the health.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: How did you fall into this thing of now?
21:29
SPEAKER_00: I met you by the writers group.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: What's the name of that writers group?
21:33
SPEAKER_02: Um Wordweavers.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: Wordweavers International.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: They they meet uh a couple times a month.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh third Saturday of the month.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: One time only or two?
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Um there's a group that meets up here in the Vero area, and I meet with a group down in the Jensen Beach area with uh Penny Cook.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Penny Cook, yeah.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: So Penny, by the way, guess anybody has heard of Penny Cook, and the title of her book is about prayer, right?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Yes, pursuing prayer.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: And she uh she had this is an amazing story, folks.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: She had a son who was addicted to alcohol, heroin, and who knows what else.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: For 13 years, she prayed for her son every day and prayed and prayed and prayed.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: That's probably why she wrote a book on prayer.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but it's Penny Cook.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: And uh so anyway, after 13 years, 13 years, he wakes up on the beach, just like the prodigal son, and comes to his senses saying uh no more.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And he ends up going to that place down south to here where they take take uh alcoholic mass.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was at Dunklin Memorial.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Duncan Memorial.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: And then he gets converted, then he goes to school in Australia to preach uh Bible school, meets the young lady who is the uh secretary to the president or the dean, whatever, and they fall in love, get married.
22:53
SPEAKER_02: Now he's married, children, and is the pastor of the church in at Hillsong.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: Is that crazy?
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Crazy.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: It's never crazy when it's God.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: So it's amazing that you know that his life was spared.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And I bring this up that if you're a mom or a grandma or grandpa or dad, and you're praying for your child, God's God's very slow coming.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
23:17
SPEAKER_00: He and he he's not the they say he's the 11th hour.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: I have found my Abba Papa father, he's about uh 10 seconds to midnight when finally shows up.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: And I think he does it in that manner, so we know it's his involvement by his hand.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, Dr.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Schuler has said, Have a dream, and have a dream that's so big it cannot possibly come to pass without the Lord helping you.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So you have so George helps people uh put their books together.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: This is this is not an advertisement, but just in case someone is interested, what uh um what's the name of your organization?
23:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh so uh a couple of months ago, about four months ago, um after some nudging, not only from my wife, but from other people in the book community, yeah.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Um I formed my own agency.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're George McMahon and the owner literary is for McMahon Literacy Literary Agency.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: McMahon Literary Agency.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: Um have a couple of local locations for local authors.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: And you've also made some inroads very unusual because not everybody can get in Barnes and Noble, and you help people get Barnes and Noble, but so I spent a number I spent a fair amount of time at Barnes and Noble working on different things within my writing craft a number of times a week.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: It happens.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Um that sounds like classical music set you're reading.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what is it?
24:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh it's a Taikosky.
24:50
SPEAKER_02: I have a book.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so we have uh uh right now I have one display at the Barnes and Noble in Jensen Beach.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: Um we will go back to two displays after the holidays.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, I also have a bookstore not too far from here.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: It's an independent bookstore up in uh Sebastian.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: Um called Riverview Books.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's right on the water.
25:22
SPEAKER_02: And um I have a couple of coffee shops down in Port St.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: Lucie in this uh Stewart area, uh just pushing to try and get uh people noticed.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Well I think it's important that there be somebody out there who's a Christian who takes on Christian artists and help them because sometimes you say you want to do it.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Look, I have to be honest with you, I have I think it's probably eight books I've written.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: And uh one is so long ago that my mother had read it in its entirety.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: It's been sitting there ready.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: It's about my interviews with famous people, and it's called Private Moments.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: It's not he said this, this, I asked this, they said that.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: It's about my encounters of how I met the rich and famous and what they're really like behind the scenes.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh but uh here is 20 years and I still don't have it out.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes like running into you, maybe that'll provoke me to actually get it out.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: But let's get back to Israel for now.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: We can talk more about that later.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, so um you went to the beat uh where the Beatitudes were spoken.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Did you go to the Sea of Galilee?
26:21
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we actually got to go on a boat.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: You didn't go on the Sea of Galilee.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Um I was baptized in the Sea of Galilee.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: Tour guide.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: I was actually baptized in the Jordan River.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: You were where Jesus and John were baptized.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist, yeah.
26:38
SPEAKER_02: And but what in the very place where they believe Jesus was baptized.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's hard to think when you get there and you realize that you know uh every people knew everybody.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: There's a guy sitting there by the main synagogue or temple or whatever it is, and he's blind.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: And they know Bartimaeus their whole lives.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly this Jesus comes walking by, and uh, this guy's healed.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, and also Jesus was from Nazareth.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you talking about?
27:09
SPEAKER_00: This is who how can he be the Messiah?
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, he's he's he's he's uh what's his name's the Joseph's son, the carpenter.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know, and so he, as he said, a prophet is not without recognition, save his own town.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: It's funny, those next to you will always be the ones that have the lack of faith in what you're doing.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: But and it's so it's so much God.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God uses like I say, whoever you are, uh, remember this.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: It's not about uh your your outside image.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh God it says in the Bible that Jesus was not handsome, that we should take notice of him.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: And so uh it's also written that he had um curly hair, like a tight curly hair, I forget how they call it called in the scriptures, like a sheep.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: So we know that he was of dark skin, and he had she oh his hair was like wool, and he was not comely that we should take notice.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Which I think is kind of like very typical of God, because he uh he he he likes to hide things.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Because we in our arrogance think, you know, they've got to have titles and be beautiful and handsome or whatever, and uh, you know, so we don't we have no idea what he was like.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: And it says that he was clothed in humility.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you, because I am humble, I am lowly.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: It's from Jesus.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you know, Book of Proverbs says humility comes before riches, honor, and life, and God resists the the the arrogant or the prideful, right?
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Those people using the word pride with arrogance.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the time on the Sea of Galilee was spectacular.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:47
SPEAKER_02: Why uh and being on the boat, um the boat we were on was really good size.
28:54
SPEAKER_02: We were a group of 35, um, plus our tour guide and a couple of guys working on the boat.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: What kind of boat was it?
29:02
SPEAKER_00: Did it look like a biblical boat?
29:04
SPEAKER_02: Um, no, it was um, I guess I don't know if there's anything typical.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: There was seating all around the outside where you could sit and just meditate if you wanted to do that.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but the boat was equipped with uh system uh like a PA system where the guy had a microphone where he could talk to everybody.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: Um uh and he had uh a system where he could play music.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: So someone in our group had brought some music and he was able to insert that into his system and we had some praise and worship music that we were able to do right on the Sea of Galilee.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is the Sea of Galilee so significant?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: So there might be somebody who's tuned in here and uh they don't know what that is.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: That's that's so Jesus was out on the water with the disciples, right?
29:58
SPEAKER_02: So we we actually stopped and the captain cut the motor to the boat in the spa in the place where they believe it was, where Jesus actually walked on the water uh uh to Peter, uh called Peter to come out of the boat uh and come to him.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Um also still this there was a violent storm that came.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, there were waves, and to see that um here's something that some people don't probably realize.
30:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh when you think Sea of Galilee, it is very large in size for the area that it expands and runs.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Um but it is not a saltwater body of water, it is freshwater.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: Um and when you look at the Sea of Galilee, it's almost like you're standing uh if you're on the shore, like you're standing on the shore of a very large lake, if you would.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: So um that was uh amazing um to be out there to experience that, uh to spend an hour out on the Sea of Galilee uh and just have a time as a group um and to be able to worship and to do that.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: At times did you almost want to pinch yourself going like here you are?
31:33
SPEAKER_00: I didn't get to take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, but I can imagine being out there, you know, here you are, thousands of miles away from home, and you're going, Am I really here on the valley of water?
31:44
SPEAKER_02: I I think I felt that not only at the Sea of Galilee, but in a lot of the places that we went to.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: How about Gethsemane?
31:54
SPEAKER_02: Did you go there?
31:55
SPEAKER_02: We did.
31:56
SPEAKER_02: We went to not only the Garden of Gethsemane, um we went we did not we weren't able to go physically go into the garden itself.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: And it's not a very big place.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: It's a very small garden.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Um when we were there, uh there was a gardener uh in there, and he was working and trimming some of the hedges um and taking care of and pruning and cutting things back.
32:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh so one of the things I felt led to do, I took a picture of this rose bush.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: Beautiful pink rose that had that was in full bloom.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: And this is where?
32:44
SPEAKER_02: In the garden?
32:45
SPEAKER_02: In the garden.
32:46
SPEAKER_02: And I took my camera and I got close up and zoomed in and took a picture of the flower.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: And then I went to my tour guide, leader, Mike, and I said to him, I said, Mike, since you're friends with the gardener here, would you ask him if he would consider cutting uh a bud that has bloomed and died off?
33:14
SPEAKER_02: Um I'd like to be able to take that home with me.
33:18
SPEAKER_02: So he said, Well, show me the rose bush you're talking about.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: Um and he reached through the fence and tried to pull one off, and he said, I'm gonna go talk to him, I'll see you in a little bit.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: So when I did see him about a half an hour later, he came up to me and gave me uh a clipping from the rosebush that had a bud that had not actually opened yet.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Really?
33:48
SPEAKER_02: So when we got home um to USA or home to your hotel?
33:53
SPEAKER_02: Home to here in the US, um, I was able I I brought that uh through a carry-on and um went to uh Lowe's and did some research, got a pot.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: Um when we got home first, I put it in water for a couple of days um and then I've I've planted that bud and the stem uh in a pot and you know, followed what it told me to do, uh giving it a little bit of water every day and take an uh a two-liter th soda bottle and slide it down over it to give it really good humidity.
34:41
SPEAKER_02: It kind of acts like a uh So you think it's gonna survive?
34:44
SPEAKER_02: I hope it does.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: I hope it takes root and I hope it does.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, roses are quite important.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't normally give out this information, but there are those of us who have experienced the fragrance of roses when the Lord has come to visit us.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: And uh so and uh I cannot lie or deny what happened to me, and that's that.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Yeah, the roses.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: And that was right in the garden.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, for people that don't know, uh in the garden, that's where was that where the uh the officials caught him, captured him?
35:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh that's where they uh came uh and uh while he was praying to the father, yeah, uh sweating drops of blood.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: As if sweating blood, but yeah.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Can you take this this from him?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to die.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: He was uh all human and yet all God at once.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: We have no idea.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: So there is a physicality in in reading that.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Um our pastor experienced something similar to that as he shared with us.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Um what I had about the fragrance?
35:52
SPEAKER_02: No, about the the physically having and what that is is uh in his experience being overcome with a wave of grief from the death of his first wife.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes, um he experienced such grief that during his crying and wailing, the blood vessels within his eyes actually um puffed up, uh puffed up, swelled up, um they didn't actually burst through the skin.
36:28
SPEAKER_02: Um but hearing that and knowing that the grief and the anguish that Christ took on uh in that place was so great that the blood actually flowed from his face.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: So now uh so you were in the Garden of Gethsemane.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: I remember being there.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: We shot some scenes to another song I wrote called Jerusalem over there.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: Um I remember the trees, the olive trees.
37:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: And they're everywhere to go in Israel.
37:04
SPEAKER_02: So two of the other places I think that were very significant for me.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: Um and one of them was we went to the home of Caiaphas the High Priest.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Now if I know the name, I'm trying to remember the story.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so um this is the high priest who plotted with Judas um for the betrayal of Jesus.
37:32
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh the high priest went to the garden the night that they arrested him.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: And while we were at the the the home of Caiaphas, um we went we had the the opportunity to go down into the cell where they actually held Jesus overnight before the crucifixion.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: And that cell it's not very big.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: It's hollowed out of rock and the only way to get down into it back then when it was used to to put Jesus in the cell was through a hole in the floor that's still there.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: And the way they would get him down into the cell is they would put ropes underneath the ceiling.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: The floor above, yeah.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh the floor above, okay.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: Um and they would put ropes under his arms and lower him down into the cell.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: Um and to be in that space thirty-five of us up along the walls of that and to spend time contemplating um and knowing that he was there um was overwhelmingly powerful for every oh yeah.
39:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't think there was a dry eye in or in the space.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: So it was a time of reverence and reflection and you know, to think that uh someone could love you enough that they would give up their very life.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said no man hath greater value than to give up his life for his fellow man.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: Right.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's quite an extraordinary it's quite extraordinary in that uh okay, so how can you think about it?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Think about it just with normal reason.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: How could somebody prove, how could God prove that he loved, that he was loved?
39:42
SPEAKER_00: How could he do it?
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh feed you, uh buy you a three million dollar car, uh I mean he comes to earth and heals people, even Josephus, who was a uh uh uh uh um a Jewish um journalist that wrote about Jesus, and uh and then of course we know that the disciples, all but one, uh actually would not refute or deny that they had seen him after his resurrection and were killed because they would not deny.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: You would you die for something you knew not to be true?
40:17
SPEAKER_00: No, probably not.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: You'd res what are they called?
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh rescind or whatever the right word is.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: And uh no, and they died.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, Peter, you said you were at his mother-in-law's house, and he was hung upside down, they say.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not worthy to be hung in the same way as my master.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: Um so it'll be interesting to see how how those people ended up in heaven, you know.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you figure it there's twelve tribes.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: A little ironic that there's twelve disciples.
40:43
SPEAKER_02: Right.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: You know.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'll bet you if we find out their blood types and could really look into it, you'd find out that they have one from each of the tribes, I'm certain of it.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh but uh the most important thing is he he uh over three hundred and something prophecies, he would come, he would come be born in the house of bread, that's Bethlehem.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: He would come out of Egypt, he'd they they ran down there because they wanted to kill the firstborn because they knew a Messiah supposedly was coming, and then after the the enemy of the boy was dead, they came back and they went uh he l was reared in in na Nazareth.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: So there's a very complicated prophecy.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: He'd come from the house of bread, Bethlehem, he'd come out of Egypt and yet and yet be called a Nazarene.
41:24
unknown: Right.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Pretty spectacular.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: If we look in Isaiah, it says we will look upon him whom we pierced.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: And he was he was smitten because of our iniquities, and by his chastisement we are healed.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean Yeah.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people do the research.
41:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were actually given an opportunity also on one of our days to go to the Western Wall.
41:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh the Wailing Wall.
41:51
SPEAKER_02: Um and we were uh uh given opportunity to actually go down to the wall um if we had prepared prayers um people we wanted to pray for that we brought those we brought those with us.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: Um I had three and we were able to go up to the wall um and stand at the wall um and pray, uh, put our hands on the wall and then take our prayers and put them into the cracks of the Western Wall.
42:31
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
42:32
SPEAKER_00: Pretty amazing pastor of uh of a church up in Liberty, New York.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Now that town is predominantly uh Orthodox Jews.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: So he, being a uh follower of Jesus, has made friends with a lot of the rabbis.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: So I was staying with Pastor Rich I Nuso and his wife Kathy, and uh and as we were leaving one day, he wanted to take me down to introduce introduce me to this rabbi.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: So as we were leaving, his wife says, Say hello to the rabbi for me.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: So I wrote a song.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Would you indulge me if you don't mind if I'm gonna sing a little bit of it?
43:05
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Say hello to the rabbi, say hello for me.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi, tell him I've been set free.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Well I flew to Jerusalem.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: I wailed at the whaling wall, had a vision of Elijah.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Through the fire I heard him call, I heard him call, I heard him call.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi, say hello for me.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi, tell him I've been set free, amen and hallelujah Hallelujah and amen.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeshua he came once and he's coming back again, back again, back again.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi, say hello for me.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi, tell him I've been set free.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I flew to Jerusalem.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Wailed at the whale and wall, had a vision of Elijah.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Through the fire I heard him call, I heard him call, I heard him call.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Say hello for me.
44:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's pretty that's pretty awesome.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: All from my friends saying, say hello to the rabbi when you're going down, you know.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: They're from Long Island where you're from, too.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, in case you just tuned in, we're talking with George.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh George and I got to meet each other this past year.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: He uh goes to a group called Word Weavers.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian person with a dream, um I belong to uh Word Weavers myself.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: I've written uh eight books, none have been released, because I guess I'm chicken that they're not good.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: You always want you know that's egotistical because oh, that won't be good enough.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: What happens if it was really good and success- I mean made a lot of became successful?
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I could be embarrassed if it's not right.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: It's uh you gotta get over that pride, you know.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so uh I have to get over that pride.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so uh you started this uh organization.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, you didn't start Wordweavers, but that's in down at Port St.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Lucie.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: It's also up in in Indian River County, and they have their once a week, once a month.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: Once a month, I mean I come to the one up here in in uh in Indian River County, right?
45:20
SPEAKER_00: And then I go to the second one the next week down in St.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Lucie County.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: So if you have any dreams, you'll find other people very accommodating, uh very loving.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a pretty small group.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a dream, you might want to find it what ward where it is.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: But there you'll find a guy named George, and George is seated beside me.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: He just got back from Israel, his first trip to Israel.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yet he came to know Jesus as a 14-year-old boy, and uh and now you're in your 60s, and so you waited a long time.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: Long time.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: Long time to get there.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: And I will say this, I went when I was 33 to shoot a music video for my song The Empty Tomb.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: And um I still marveled that I got to go.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'll literally cry real tears going, how did that happen?
46:04
SPEAKER_00: Because I was dirt poor.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: I was living in the ghetto of Troy, New York, and I did jingles for radio and TV.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't do a lot of them, but I did a number, American Red Cross, and uh anyway.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: So um, so this guy who I introduced Calvary Chapel to started going and he was converted.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: And so um he said um he owned a business and he heard me on the heard one of my jingles on the radio, and he says, I want one of those.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: And so he said he and it was thousands of dollars, you know, because you have to go up to Canada and you have to hire the musicians.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: That's where I used to do all my recordings up in Canada, in Ontario.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh where was I at the Summit Sound Recording Studio, still in business now.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: And uh so uh what was the story I was telling you about going up there and what was I saying?
46:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you were talking about your recording time at Summit Studio.
46:59
SPEAKER_02: Yes, Summit Studio and following that, yeah, and how you recorded in Canada.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what do we we're what were what was I getting to?
47:07
SPEAKER_00: What was the subject we were talking about before?
47:09
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, you sang that awesome song.
47:12
SPEAKER_02: Say hello to the rabbi.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to the rabbi.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: Say hello to me.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I gotta get that recorded one of these days.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: I should hand it over to Doolin.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Doolin has this uh he has an app where you can actually uh sing a song to it and they'll put they'll put all the instrumentation behind it.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty amazing.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, Doolin's responsible for the songs.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: If somebody has uh uh comes up and has a a podcast here, he creates a musical piece for them coming in and going out.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, very good.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, and uh and uh and and the intro and the outro and also the visuals who take care of the whole thing.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: But uh so anyway.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: So so uh let's see.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh we still have a little bit of time.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure that we've uh we're talking with George.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: George just got back from Israel, his first trip to Israel, and uh I'm sure you're you're carrying a lot.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean Your wife went with you?
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: So she's a believer too.
48:10
SPEAKER_02: Yes, and a group of uh 35 people from our church in Stewart, and that is Revived Church in Stewart, Florida.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: Um, right off of ninety-five.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: Is that a denomination or non-denomin?
48:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's a non-denominational, um spirit-led, uh, word and spirit, and the focus of the fellowship is bringing the word of God and the spirit of God back together.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and which is very important because it says in the end times they there will be people that will deny the spirit and the power thereof.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Right.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: Um and I'll just say on on my uh for me, speaking for me only, uh, man fears that which he cannot control.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, I can understand things getting out of hand.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Right.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: If everybody has a prophecy every day, and you know, they but we need to be careful about these things because in days of old, if a prophet uh what he said did not come to pass, do you know what happened to them?
49:09
SPEAKER_00: They were stoned to death.
49:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: That's in the Bible.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: So these people that are so flip just to say, thus saith the Lord, better watch out, you know.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'll tell you, didn't you you this is a story you don't know, but I'm gonna say it because I want to give glory to my father in heaven.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: I was brokenhearted about thirty-five years or so ago.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: I was in Schenectady, New York, at a home of Jews that had come to know Jesus as their Messiah.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: And they were newborns, and we're all voting and I'm just devastated with this heartbreak.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a horrible time.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're all we we're in a circle.
49:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, five or six of us were praying.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: And this is a true story, so help me God.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: That this man put his hand on my shoulder and he said, The Lord is telling me you're gonna leave, you're gonna move out of New York State.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Upstate New York where I was and you're gonna end up in Florida, outside of Orlando, and you're gonna have a radio show.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about it.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hold it in front of me, you know.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about it.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, I we went to Africa, to Zimbabwe as a short-term mission.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: I did a concert there.
50:18
SPEAKER_00: Then I went and I did um I went to uh Haiti.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: I was actually flown down to Florida to do a patriotic concert at Gerald Durstein's Christian Retreat Center.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: And this Catholic lady was there who was on fire for the Lord, charismatic, and she said the 61, they had nine children, eight that were living.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, when we got back to Sarasota, when we were in Sarasota, do you want to go to Haiti?
50:39
SPEAKER_00: I went to Haiti with them.
50:40
SPEAKER_00: We came back.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: Then they said we're gonna drive over to a place called Vero Beach, where Vero Beach, oh, okay.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: And we all got in the station wagon, drove over here, and that's my introduction to Vero.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: And months later I would drive down 95, going to see my brother who lived in Key West, he and his wife.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh I said, Oh, that's that town I was in.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop in.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: One thing leads to another.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: I end up moving here.
51:03
SPEAKER_00: A year later, the LA Dodgers uh hired me to sing at the July 4th celebration, you know, 9,000 people in the arena over there.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was a guest on a radio show.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: And the day after the concert, a man calls me and said, Hey, are you on our station?
51:18
SPEAKER_00: I said, Uh yeah, yeah.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: Come down here and I want to talk to you, please.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I drive downtown in Vieiro Beach, and uh I said, Is there a problem?
51:26
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: He said, Uh, you have personality, and we've got a boring radio show.
51:32
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to be in the radio business?
51:34
SPEAKER_00: And so uh started off at a whopping$50 a week.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: Very part-time.
51:40
SPEAKER_00: But it helped me make my car payment.
51:42
SPEAKER_00: I was tickled.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: And then one thing led to another, and Jack Eriman, who was a Jew up in Sebastian, owned a restaurant called Hurricane Harbor, he had escaped the Nazis.
51:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh that other show had ended because of some things that went went down politically.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: And anyway, so uh he said, You need to be on radio, you have personality, I'll pay for it.
52:02
SPEAKER_00: So he bought the time from the radio station.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: And then after nine months, he said, I'm only gonna pay one week a month.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: You've got to go get advertisers.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like Oprah's story, it's small time though.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: We're the same age, by the way.
52:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh, next thing I know, I got advertisers, and then I ended up being on an hour every day and two hours and three hours every day, and now it's 32 years later.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
52:21
SPEAKER_00: In a short time, it'll be 33 years.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: But there's the prophecy.
52:24
SPEAKER_00: The man has hand on my shoulder, and so I didn't remember it for the first couple of years, and I went, Yeah, oh my word, I forgot the prophecy came to pass.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, you shall leave New York State, you're gonna live outside of Orlando, somewhere in Florida, and you're gonna have a radio show.
52:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's amazing.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to find out who that man was that said that to me, because he was a true prophet.
52:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: A modern day prophet.
52:50
SPEAKER_00: That's simply amazing.
52:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, and and folks, if if you're orphaned, you were orphaned, your dad died when you were 10.
52:57
SPEAKER_02: No, no, 14.
52:58
SPEAKER_02: No, 10.
52:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was 10.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: My dad was killed a day before my fifth birthday.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: And uh he says he is the father to the orphan.
53:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh he also says, Bring me to remembrance of my promises.
53:11
SPEAKER_00: So I always always say, You promised.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: So if you want favor with God, he says, Bring me to remembrance of my promises.
53:20
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget the Lord after he's blessed you, because that that that's uh that's not a good thing.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you always be thankful.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything we forgot to say about your trip to Israel you want to say before we say goodbye?
53:35
SPEAKER_02: Um, I just want to say um make the time.
53:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'd like to encourage people to find a way and go.
53:45
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's such an amazing place to see and go.
53:49
SPEAKER_02: I'll talk quickly about one other place that I personally went to, okay, and that is the Antonio Fortress.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
53:59
SPEAKER_02: And that is Herod's palace.
54:01
SPEAKER_02: Oh, and while we were there, we went into the room in space where the Roman soldiers actually flogged and whipped Jesus and put the crown on his head.
54:16
SPEAKER_00: Really?
54:16
SPEAKER_02: The original floor is still there.
54:22
SPEAKER_02: And I'll say that a week before I was supposed to leave on the trip, I took a really bad fall at one of our uh uh properties that we own and fell on my left knee uh so hard that I thought I shattered the knee gap.
54:40
SPEAKER_02: And when we were in the Antonio Fortress in that room, um I felt the Spirit of God tell me uh very plainly and said to me, Give it to me and I got down off the bench and got down on my knees and I don't know how long but I wept and wailed uh for the pain and the suffering, not for me, but for what for the pain and suffering that I was feeling in my body, but for the pain and suffering in that space that Jesus felt.
55:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh not just for me but for everybody.
55:26
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll run through a very quick list of some other places.
55:32
SPEAKER_02: Hold on.
55:32
SPEAKER_02: No, was your knee healed?
55:34
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: Um almost left that out, George.
55:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
55:38
SPEAKER_02: So um had some give it to me.
55:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
55:44
SPEAKER_02: And I got down on my knees and I just gave over all the pain, the things that I was feeling experiencing.
55:52
SPEAKER_02: Um a couple of about a day or two later, um, after that time of being in there, and I have no pain in the knee right now.
56:04
SPEAKER_02: Some bruising that's still there.
56:08
SPEAKER_00: I had a I had a bad knee and Reinhard Bunke, I happened to meet him at a gas station, world famous evangelist.
56:14
SPEAKER_00: I said, Would you pray for my knee?
56:15
SPEAKER_00: He did, and I felt like little feelings, almost like worms in there, uh-huh, and it was healed.
56:21
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes now, now this is sounds, this is a little extreme.
56:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of these people that want to deny the spirit of they won't get this.
56:28
SPEAKER_00: But it'll come, uh pain will come back, and I'll say, No, no, no, the Lord healed that.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: I bind you up in the name of Jesus, get off of my body, and it'll go like that.
56:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like this thing has this uh this agenda that is supposed to come and harass me.
56:40
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, no, no, that was healed.
56:42
SPEAKER_00: And you lying spirit go in the name of Jesus.
56:44
SPEAKER_00: And it says that sounds weird.
56:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm a guy never thought I'd believe in Jesus, but I gotta tell you something.
56:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I believe Jesus.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: So quickly, uh, yeah, we got about uh two minutes left.
56:54
SPEAKER_00: No, five minutes.
56:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
56:56
SPEAKER_00: Five minutes.
56:56
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I'm just gonna run through a list of places uh we went to.
57:01
SPEAKER_02: We went to Jericho.
57:03
SPEAKER_00: Jericho.
57:03
SPEAKER_02: We went to the Jordan River, got baptized in the Jordan River.
57:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how was that feeling?
57:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh it was amazing.
57:10
SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
57:11
SPEAKER_02: Did your pastor do that?
57:12
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
57:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
57:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
57:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh we went to the Dead Sea.
57:16
SPEAKER_02: I floated on it.
57:17
SPEAKER_00: Did you float on it?
57:18
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
57:19
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so you're the because of the salt, you're floating on top.
57:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yep.
57:24
SPEAKER_02: It's very thick.
57:25
SPEAKER_02: There's no life there.
57:27
SPEAKER_00: Very salty.
57:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, I said earlier we went to the house of Caiaphas.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
57:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh we went to the Temple Mount.
57:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happened on the Temple Mount Mount?
57:37
SPEAKER_02: Is that where they had the transfiguration?
57:39
SPEAKER_02: Dome of the rock.
57:40
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that is the place where um it's currently occupied um by the Muslims occupied.
57:52
SPEAKER_02: Is that where Abraham and you can't go into it?
57:54
SPEAKER_02: Um you can see it from the atmosphere.
57:56
SPEAKER_02: When I was there, but you cannot go into it.
57:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, you could when I was there.
58:00
SPEAKER_00: I went in there.
58:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the Dome of the Rock.
58:03
SPEAKER_02: But we walked the grounds there, and while I was walking the grounds there, I looked down and found a pearl.
58:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh just a random pearl that was there.
58:16
SPEAKER_02: And I picked it up.
58:18
SPEAKER_02: I kept it, brought it home with me.
58:21
SPEAKER_02: Um I don't believe it's real.
58:24
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't matter to me if it's real or not.
58:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, but to know that I found a pearl on the Temple Man.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was You know, you mentioned the the Mount of Beatitudes.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: Now this will sound like another weird story, it is true.
58:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
58:38
SPEAKER_00: I believe there's eight Beatitudes and uh some man, a complete stranger, comes up to me and hands me a paper bag.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: And it has eight oranges in it.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
58:50
SPEAKER_00: And next I turn around and he's gone.
58:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I it's like you have these miracles, and because you see the person in flesh, was that an angelic being?
59:00
SPEAKER_00: And I I presume the eight uh oranges represent the Beatitudes.
59:05
SPEAKER_00: Right.
59:06
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
59:07
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean blessed are the poor, folks.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: It means blessed are those who are hungry and know they have need of God.
59:14
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
59:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, if uh you need to you need to know a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise.
59:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:23
SPEAKER_00: So quite a fascinating trip.
59:25
SPEAKER_00: Anything else finally?
59:26
SPEAKER_00: Because we're out of time.
59:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh just want to say if there is anybody out there, an author that needs help.
59:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, we are in Stewart, McMahon Literary Agency.
59:38
SPEAKER_02: LLC.
59:39
SPEAKER_00: And we'll have you back in the future and talk more about that.
59:42
SPEAKER_02: Be happy to help them with looking at the city.
59:44
SPEAKER_02: That's a great name of the agency again, is McMahon Literary Agency.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, wonderful.
59:52
SPEAKER_02: In downtown Stewart.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if you don't, if you forget that, you can call me Rhett Palmer and I'll tell you what he said.
59:59
SPEAKER_00: But uh, all right, have a great day.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: And remember, someone somewhere needs your random act of kindness as it's written, give unto others, and your light will rise out of the darkness like the noonday sun.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_01: Tell the world about Jesus.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_01: Tell them his love is true.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_01: Tell all the world about Jesus, tell them he loves them too.