Published Dec. 24, 2025, 9 a.m.
9am Merry Christmas celebration with Karen the Riveter and Ralph the IT Guy! We will be bringing in Christmas with a focus on love and encouragement celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus! X/Twitter: https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1mnGeNzeLbRJX Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/636616148890812/videos/1414895653664564 Rumble: https://rumble.com/v73erlg-bnn-brandenburg-news-network-12242025-merry-christmas-celebration-ralph-and.html https://rumble.com/v73ernq-bnn-brandenburg-news-network-12242025-merry-christmas-celebration-ralph-and.html Odysee: https://odysee.com/@BrandenburgNewsNetwork:d/bnn-2025-12-24-merry-christmas-celebration-ralph-and-karen:2 BNN Live: https://Live.BrandenburgNewsNetwork.com Guests: Donna Brandenburg, Karen the Riveter, Ralph the IT Guy
Good morning and welcome to Brandenburg News Network. I am Dawn on Brandenburg and it's the twenty fourth day of December twenty twenty five. And Merry Christmas Eve, everyone. This is going to be a great year coming and we've got a wonderful, wonderful year coming up. I'm just looking forward to everything, really. Nothing is as it seems, and the positivity going on right now can be realized every day. It's all a state of mind. And in the meantime, I'm going to call in Ralph and Karen. How are you guys doing? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, man, we got all kinds of texts in the private text here. This is awesome. So what's the plan for today for you guys? Don't everybody speak at once. I got just a little bit more wrapping I'd like to do, but I'm mostly prepared already at this point. There are no presents. There's no presents here. There's no presents here. I'm going to dinner with family. And Other than that, I don't know. Probably doing some research. Maybe cleaning the house or something. Going outside if the sun ever comes out. It's still all icy here in our driveway. It's like, well, do you risk your neck walking out? Or do you just walk the path to check on the chickens? I guess I could do that. I think we got time. I'm still trying to do my tip. We got a little bit of a delay this morning. Yeah, we do. Yeah, I like to try to make as many of the presents that I give as I can just because you can make them a little more personalized to people than what you can buy. I also get a lot of presents from people that I find at antique stores. Just because anymore, antique stores are not all antiques. And sometimes you can find some really interesting, unusual things that there's absolutely no demand for, except for maybe one person needs this thing. And so you can find some really unique stuff that way. Oh, Donna, you're frozen. I'm kind of moving around slowly. I'm frozen? You froze, and then you fast-forwarded. No, I can see you, and I can see you moving, and I can hear you, but your face completely froze, your audio froze, and then you fast-forwarded on my screen to catch up. Yeah, I don't know how it was frozen. Okay, well, you know what? We're going to go ahead and continue this on. I'm pretty sure TikTok, I put my TikTok video out and they were having a hard time approving it, I'm sure, because I said the name of Jesus, God forbid, you know, that appears to be sort of like saying China, you know, you never know. Now I'm going to see if I can get, oh, you know what? I got to do this on a different screen. Hang on a minute. Let me try it one more time. All right. Come on. Video. I got a cool video to show you guys. And I hope I can bring it up here. Keep talk amongst yourselves a minute while I deal with some of these. You know, this is we talked about this earlier. Honestly, the fact that there are so many people that are alone and Ella Richards got on the other day. And he said it was really comforting hearing the normal stuff, you know, just hearing somebody's voice in the room. And so we decided to come on today and wish everybody a Merry Christmas. And hopefully everyone has a wonderful holiday. Learning ways of coping with some difficulties and unrealized expectations and that sort of thing. But also focusing on the real reason for the season, which I think is great. incredibly important. So talk amongst yourselves one more time. And I'm going to try to get this video I posted up because it is hilarious. We might have to do it a different way. But we're going to keep trying. So talk just for a second, guys. I got it. Hang on. Ta-da. Here we go. That was quick. I thought it was going to be much more difficult. Sorry, trying to not slip on everybody with the delay we've got this morning. Yeah. Okay, well, we'll be patient. Here we go. I'm going to play this. It was the night before Christmas, the snow deep and white. The reindeer were set for their long winter flight. Can you guys hear it? That audio is skipping pretty bad here. Yeah, I can't really hear it. It's coming in in little tiny chunks. Okay, well, let's try it one more time. Maybe it'll catch up. I wonder what else I could do. I could probably close something down. Let me see. Yeah, that's what we're going to do. I'm going to close a few things down, and let's try it one more time. Here we go. Last gifts with care. The scent of hot cocoa honey. in the air. Santa sat slumped in his chair by the fire, his nose red and runny, his fever grew higher. He sneezed. I'm as sick as can be. Outside of the workshop arose such a clatter. Chopper arriving. What could be the matter? Away to his window, old Santa did dash, threw open the shutters, and drew up the sash. There on the snow, touching down with a thump, Marine One arrived with President Trump. Donald stepped down onto the snow with a confident stride and a soft orange glow. Hey, Santa. Trump called. You look tired, so tired. I'll be Santa this year. It's a job I admire. I've handled much bigger. Believe me, it's true. The economy, China, I'll handle this too. Santa just blinked and he started to grin. Hello, my old friend. Come in, come in. I've done this for centuries, year after year. A night off sounds nice. It's... Oh man, this is really going poorly. Oh, they're not going to wreck my Christmas spirit. We're just going to keep going. Let's try it again. Try it a different way. Here we go. Can you hear it? No. Okay. So still bad. We're having some technical difficulties here. Let me take this down a minute and let's see if this will work. All right, let's try this. This is pretty funny actually. So let's try it again. Tell me if it, if I got a lag or it's coming through. It's still not working. I can see that. So, so we'll have to try something, try it later and we'll just, yeah, you're hanging on a minute. I just got a little technical support from, from someone. Hang on a second. And Go ahead and talk, Karen. Just talk for a minute. Tell your favorite Christmas memory. Okay. Well, I remember when I was little, I remember not worrying too much about how much to expect. I knew my parents weren't rich enough. But I expected presents anyway. And we were, you know, as most little kids are, excited. But we didn't have, I think we didn't have money for a Christmas tree in this particular year. And so my dad got pretty clever. He took the hat rack and a hula hoop. And he tied the hula hoop down near the bottom with tinsel up to the top of the hat rack. So we had streams of tinsel coming down, tinsel or whatever you call it, garland or something, down from the top to the bottom of the hula hoop. And it made a tree shape. And must have had some lights, I think. And us kids thought that was the coolest Christmas tree ever. So it didn't matter that we didn't have the money for the traditional way of doing things. But they still made it kind of cool for us. And luckily for them, the creativity made it even better then. than it would be on any other year. So that's one of my favorite ones. And as an adult, I can see that from a different perspective than from when I was a kid. But, um, That's about the only Christmas memory I have in particular. We generally, I remember, open up presents and stuff. I remember and have photographs of certain things that we did and Christmas presents that we opened and such. But that's the memory that stands out amongst all the rest. And now I'm pausing because I'm trying to think of what to say next. I guess I could say... While having the average kind of Christmas growing up with the expectation of the giving and receiving of presents, I didn't have a strong proclivity to the materialism aspect of Christmas. And now, as an adult, without kids, that's even more pronounced. I just don't do it. as a lot of other people do. I think having time to spend with friends and family and gifting things in a different way is more important than, oh gosh, the shopping that everybody else does. I'm so relieved that we don't do that because I think it just gets watered down into... A sense of responsibility that I have to give something to other people, even if it doesn't matter what they like, what age they are. You know, I need a gift for a fourteen year old girl. What should I do? I don't know her, but she's my cousin or she's my niece. And because we're going to an event, I have to have something for her. And I would rather not disappoint. But okay, here's a candle set. I just despise all that. It's just, oh. And I've been there on the other end of that. I've been that kid where the aunt bought us something that was really age inappropriate because it had been a few years since they saw us. So they give you a toy and you're like, what is this? Yeah, I tend to like to keep a stock of somewhat silly presents for situations like that. Like a book on how to defend against an attack from garden gnomes or something like that. Just goofy presents to make somebody laugh. And to be clear, I'm not against other people doing what they want to do for Christmas. You know, whatever. To each their own. And if giving presents and a ton of presents is your thing, okay. You know, do that. Enjoy it. I know what that was like, and we enjoyed that. But I'm content. Yeah, I very much enjoy either making stuff for people or finding unusual things for people. Really, I do that all throughout the year. I don't just do it around Christmas, but I'll just keep them in storage. And then when Christmas comes around, I'll wrap a few of them and do that. But I try to keep that in mind, just not even right at Christmas, but throughout the year. And it really does... Make things a lot easier because then you can find stuff that's unique to people as you're able to find it rather than trying to think about something specifically all at once. You can try and think of them. You can think of them all year, you know. Yeah, I like that approach. And then I try to make stuff as much as I can. And sometimes I'll even find, you know, things that I've bought and say, yeah, I'm going to wait on this because I can make something that's cooler than this this year. And so, yeah, I'll do that sometimes. And I mean, that's one situation where having a You can design stuff up that's really, really hyper-personalized to somebody that might have their name or something like that right on it and generate it on the computer and then print it out. And now they've got something that's incredibly unique to them that's a one-of-a-kind thing. And some of those things can be a lot of fun. Like Akira and the Riveter with heart hands? Yeah, three printers are awesome. Okay, guys, I think I'm back up and in business here. Can you hear me? Your video and audio are synced up now. Okay, so this is what happens, and I just watched a whole bunch of people jumped off because they said, you know, I'm sure they thought that it was not working, and we went, oh, now they're back again. So I think we got things all restored here. You know, this actually is not a surprise to me because of the amount of censorship that I've seen in the last week, and it's across the board. But if you're doing things for God, if you are literally – making making a dent in the evil somewhere you're going to come up against things that are going to be difficult and you got to just keep going and not let them discourage you and not let them stop you and such so we're going to be talking about the spiritual implications of christmas And I still want to try to see if I can play that video a minute. Let me see if I can get it up and going. I ended something that was a memory hog for me. So I think we can start over right now. So if anybody left and you know people that left, tell them, hey, she's back on again. They didn't knock her out totally. And I think that'll be fun. And also I've got the lines opened up today as far as if you have stories of Christmas, that you want to share with people, give me a call or a text. I'll bring that number up for you again. And you can just call and become part of the show today. We'll try to give everybody a chance to talk. And I know that a lot of people are really feeling very alone right now. And like Karen was talking about not liking certain things about the holidays. Not everything is positive in any situation. So you got to kind of deal with a mixed bag, right? So let's hear your favorite memories and try to bring some Christmas cheer to each other. And you know, something that was really coming to mind this week for me is that really Christmas is not a Christian holiday. It was not originally a Christian holiday, but it became one. And this is something that I've kind of I've seen this in other aspects of life too. And this is why I think it's kind of pertinent in that Christmas was originally not a Christian holiday. It was a pagan one. And I mean, it was kind of a combination of several different pagan ones really, but it was somewhat conquered and converted to a Christian holiday and shoehorned in. And it really kind of brings to mind the idea of Caesarea Philippi and the the on this rock I will build my church thing. Sometimes that's interpreted as being just referring to Peter. Sometimes it's referring to literally building on the rock that contained the gates of hell, basically, in a lot of the religions of the time, or the cults that were there. it also kind of, in my mind, expresses the thought of, well, take something evil and convert it to good, you know? And we kind of see that too with Christmas. It's now celebrated as a celebration of Jesus's birth, which really shouldn't be in December, most likely. However, um, That's when it's celebrated, and it has kind of taken over a lot of those pagan roots. And I think that can be applied to a lot of things in life, that there are a lot of things that Satan means for evil that God can use for good. And you have to be open to the possibility that, well, yeah, it might be evil right now, but potentially... There are ways to kind of parry that into something that can be used for good and to spread the word of God to people who would otherwise be unfamiliar with it. That's really what God does. He uses all things work for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. So even when things go poorly, and I had a few situations this week, I could talk a long time, but I'm not going to bore you all, right? But the biggest problems that I see that I have to deal with in the world are people that just refuse to get along and they end up blaming each other and trying to compete with and one-upsmanship each other, that sort of thing. And it causes such a rift in the workplace and in relationships and family divisions and that sort of thing, just to get their pound of flesh because they think that they are so so hurt, you know? Well, everybody is. I mean, we're all of us right now in trauma. Don't feel bad about it. If you aren't feeling a little bit of a disappointment in the world, you're probably not human or you're not... Nobody is one hundred percent happy all the time. It's unrealistic. But it's what you do with those moments that can change everything. And we're supposed to be here to be light in the world and to serve the world and such, not to set up all of these expectations. And when one or two things goes awry, lose it on everyone because I didn't get my way kind of stuff. You know, sometimes if we can sit back and I'm saying this because of experience, OK, because I don't get things right all the time. Nobody does. OK, so. So as we learn this whole process together, we can look at each other and say, yep, you've got the right to feel that way. You've got the right to be angry that things aren't coming the way that you want it to be done. Like information through the Epstein Island redactions and such. You've got the right to be angry because you were told one thing and they didn't fulfill what they said they were going to do. Okay. But with that in mind, sometimes situations are a little bit more complicated in that one specifically. All war, and we're in a war, we're in several wars actually, is deception. and i don't like it i won't engage in that kind of nonsense because i absolutely did have huge disdain over liars cheats thieves and any behavior that goes with it i think we should be up front with each other we should be honest and that that goes to relationships if something is not going the way that that um is abusive or anything else you have to say something you've got to be honest Like, I don't like the way you're talking to me right now. So we're going to end this conversation and put a barrier there, that kind of stuff. Knowing how to hold boundaries when it's truly a negative situation. Most situations, though, can be handled by just... being a little quiet at the time and letting that person talk, but not saying, well, he's wrong and I'm going to set the record straight right now because they're just wrong. Well, you know what? You might be wrong, too. And it may be they're not they may not be right. You may not be right. And the answer could be somewhere outside of the realm of what either either person is thinking in in a conflict. So you just sit and listen for information. rather than listening to respond or being right during the holidays, usually works out a lot better. And sometimes people are so... I had an experience in the last month with someone who has been in my life for a very long time. Can't say I like this person, okay? But I'm stuck with this person because of the way families are constructed. Let's just put it that way. And... This person was so angry at everything that went into a screaming rage that lasted probably about forty five minutes. OK, and it was directed to me. It was absolutely directed to me. There was no two ways about it. But what was said was frustration. It had nothing to do with me. It was the way this person thinks, and I understand that. So I just sat and I listened, and I'm like, well, they're blowing off steam right now. This has nothing to do with reality whatsoever. Life sucks for this person. And so I didn't take it personally. I just sat there and let it play out and was patient, was very patient with this person. And that's what you do when you do conflict mediation because you're going to get yelled at because people don't know what to do or what to say or how to say it a lot of times or even coming to a resolution. So they're going to take their bound of flesh out of whoever's sitting there that is listening to them. So you might want to just stop it before it starts. Or you might want to go in another direction and listen to them and let them blow off steam. And all of a sudden they look at you like they don't even know why they were angry. And you can say, sounds like you've got a lot of stress in your life right now. I'd probably feel the same way if I were you. And end it. You know, without having to change their mind. Because after they think about it for a while, what's going to happen is they're going to go, boy, I was a real jerk. And or I needed to say that, and I was right to say that. They may react in a lot of different ways, but what does it matter to you or me or anybody else? If it decelerated the situation and you brought peace into a bad situation, it's a win and um one one thing that i've always kept with me is is a uh it's one of my favorite sayings and it's one of my life goals i don't always do this because if you've ever seen me handle something that's a bad situation and i'm going to use discernment with someone say in the government who is absolutely criminally and has criminal intention behind them. I take no prisoners. I will literally go in there on my little pony with my armor on and the proverbial swords are flying, okay? And and it's usually pretty epic. OK. And and nobody nobody really likes to see that or wants to see that. But there comes a time where you have to do that when somebody is intentionally hurting others. But most people, they are kind of just swimming around like a bunch of, you know. i don't know fish in a pond they don't really know what they're doing they're see everything is scary so they react instead of respond they don't think things through and it's in the moment burn everything to the ground if that happens you just look at them and go huh looks like you really have some stress right now And, uh, you know, tell me more if you want to listen to, if you don't just end it, you know, it depends on the situation and there's not one size fits all on this. But anyhow, this person was into, I think it was a forty five minute of cussing and swearing, calling me every name in the books. And then once that was done, it was sort of like, it was sort of like, uh, I laid out the proper behavior going forward and, uh, And it got real quiet real quick. But it gave that person some time to process. And they probably went away going, yeah, that needed to be said. Yeah, that needed to be said. Well, you know, calling people's names just shows their lack of maturity and such. And so I don't take it into me personally. It's like, okay, they got a lot of growing up to do. Still got a lot of growing up to do. And have no ability to see the world for what it is and make a positive change. All they want to do is watch everything burn down. And so I don't participate in that kind of stuff. It's not, it's not positive for anyone, but it goes back to, you know, the holidays and proper, proper handling of situations when they go bad and take some practice, you know, where nobody's going to get it right. I don't always get it right. But the more you dive into this with the right mindset of bringing Jesus into the world and being peace in the, in the midst of a storm, no matter what, no matter what, and you're not worried about taking hits. Anyhow, my saying is that's been one of my life mantras that it's okay to take the, take the blame for something, even if it wasn't your own fault. if it brings healing to others. That's a higher purpose, much higher purpose. You don't have to take it into yourself and let it wreck you. You can just let it go and go, huh, yeah, they got a lot of learning to do. Get rid of it right there. Don't hold onto it and go on and do something happy like a cup of coffee. and think about something positive. And the other thing that really gets Satan, which I'm on a rampage against this right now, is do something positive so that every time something negative happens, you turn around and say, perfect, I am absolutely going to pray for somebody who's not saved. I'm going to bring joy. I'm going to smile through the bad times so that every time a demon or Satan hits you with anything, you're just going to turn the music up to glorify God. You're going to put on a happy face and you're not going to let it touch you or injure you so that they take your time, they waste your time, they waste your joy and such. Go right over the top of it as if it ever existed. It's going to be just like a Biden presidency, just as it's going to be as if it ever existed. Or all these bad guys, I can guarantee you that. So look at like, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar, how many evil things he did and how how much bad he did. And then you get into the book of Daniel and you look at his interactions with Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. and how that turned him around to the point where it personally turned him around to the point where it turned around the entire Persian Empire and brought them to God. And look at Paul in the New Testament and how many of the early Christians he persecuted and unalived. And I love that word. It's a great, it's a great thing. Yeah. These crazy things that you'll make up. Yeah. Screw censorship. Yeah. But and, and how, when he came around to, to Christ, how, how, how big of an impact, how just absolutely enormous of an impact that Paul had on spreading the word of God. And how both of those are great examples of God being able to turn around a bad situation and really parry something that was kind of the worst aspects of humanity into motivation to do good? Well, we only change when there's, there's people, human beings are very lazy. You know, we're, we're, we're built that way. We want to, all animals are in our bodies, our biology, you know, it's like they conserve energy. And so if there's a chance to rest, a person, people, animals will conserve their energy and do nothing. Think about a day where you're literally relaxed and you're away from the stress. and how it just really feels good to sit quietly sometimes and process things. And we don't have nearly enough of that time where we're sitting there processing, praying, and literally closing the world out and taking those breaks. It's really, really important. back to the fact that we're in a spiritual war. I'm listening all over the place to how many people are beating up on President Trump and what is happening out there and how their expectations aren't being fulfilled. We are in a war. And I have had people around me that have been found in an unalive situation, okay? We're in a war, and it has gotten to be very, very serious. There is so much bad out there and people that are willing to do bad things. And that's not just in the government, that's your neighbors. That's sometimes us when we do things and all of a sudden we have to go check our behavior and such, but we're going to have to bring everything has to be out in the light, dark to light. And some of us have to have the courage to go into those dark places and face it. And a lot of times that means facing it alone. Because of the fact that there's very few people that are true fighters and warriors. And I understand. That doesn't mean join it, but definitely face it. You face it, you go in, and that's what Jesus said in Caesarea Philippi. He said, the gates of hell will not prevail against you. That means go in there and set it straight. Bring in the light of Christ and abolish and abandon any darkness and evil. You can only do that if you're speaking up against it and or you're holding people accountable. which is clearly my path forward here, which I kind of enjoy. I'm going to see if this is going to play now because this is kind of funny. And I say kudos to President Trump. And they know things that are not out in the public. And so I tell you right now, no one, including myself, should pretend to be in the know. on things. We might be in the know on some things, but there is a lot of disinformation out there and putting our trust in God either, and it comes down to a choice. Do you trust God or do you trust your own understanding? If you're trusting your own understanding, you're going to fail because we don't have a front row seat on any of this. I have some ideas of how things are going. I don't know everything. I can make some guesses. And I can also say that I've been in certain places and tell you what I have seen that doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up to me. And so it's like, okay, things are different than what they're putting out in the public. And it's probably because if the bad guys know all the plans, they're going to know how to subvert it. So a lot of things, there's different things going on from different areas to keep the bad guys confused. And that's a good thing because we have to clean this thing out from top to bottom. We can't just do a way to clean it out just to satisfy our need for vengeance or to see things done right. No. This has got to be done to absolutely stop this evil that's going on, this global satanic death cult that's been going on for thousands of years. I got a cool thing to tell you guys about later, because there's actually some archaeological digs going on right now. I'm a nerd, right? And we're all nerds here. And that is going to change our perception of what we think is real. And if you can't bend with that, if we can't bend with that, when more information comes forward and we find out we didn't have it all figured out. things that can't bend a little bit are going to break. But anyhow, let's listen to this. And I just want to say Merry Christmas to President Trump, all the white hats out there, all the good people that are fighting behind the scenes, all the patriots that are there, everyone that's listening to this broadcast. If you stick with us this long, I know you're... you're probably a serious patriot because anybody that doesn't want to hear this stuff, they're going to go somewhere else, okay? And so the fact that so many people have stayed with the channel and have been listening to it and such tells me that you really do want the truth. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it for people. We've had enough of that. And if something's wrong, I'm going to call it out. And so are the people here on this channel. And during the show. So let's listen to this and say, thank you, President Trump. Merry Christmas to you and to everyone out there. We love you. We're going to stand with you to the end, even if things don't meet our expectations, because I believe that some very, very good things are happening. It's just taken a little longer than what we wanted or expected. So here we go. Oh, deep and white, the reindeer were set for their long winter flight. The elves were all wrapping the last gifts with care. The scent of hot cocoa hung sweet in the air. He sneezed and he sniffled, he coughed and he wheezed. Oh dear, Santa groaned. I'm as sick as can be. Outside of the workshop arose such a clatter. A chopper arriving. What could be the matter? Away to his window, old Santa did dash, threw open the shutters and drew up the sash. There on the snow, touching down with a thump, Marine One arrived with President Trump. Donald stepped down onto the snow with a confident stride and a soft orange glow. Hey, Santa! Trump called. You look tired, Santa. I'll be Santa this year. It's a job I admire. I've handled much bigger. Believe me, it's true. The economy, China, I'll handle this too. Old Santa just blinked and he started to grin. Hello, my old friend. Come in, come in. I've done this for centuries. Year after year, a night off sounds nice. It's so cozy in here. Trump strutted inside the workshop with flair. The elves all stopped working to ogle and stare. These elves, Donald said, they're incredible folks. The best in the business. is they're really no joke we're gonna have christmas like never before the big is the best that's what we're here for he loaded the sleigh with his own special touch more gifts we need more this isn't enough the bag overflowed stacked right to the top all made by the elves and santa's workshop then onto the sleigh he climbed up with great pride melania's cookies tucked right by his side he cracked the gold with reindeer took flight now dasher now prancer let's do this thing right on comet on cupid on donder and blitzen we'll make history tonight and poems will be written the reindeer responded with thunder and sparkled off through the sky they blazed into the dark for the daughters a doll with a pretty pink dress for the sons a race car shiny red the best because boys will be boys and girls will be girls it's just common sense. It's the real world. To Democrats' houses he came without spite. Even though they'd complain and they'd fuss and they'd fight. He's a fascist! He left them face masks and ninety-five so that they'd feel safe when driving inside. Their cars all alone with windows rolled tight. They're still double-masking at such a sad sight. Greta Thunberg bobbleheads too. Little voice box that screams, how dare you? In one quiet house, Trump knelt by the tree. When a little boy woke, he'd got up to pee. Santa? He asked. Santa looked different. More orange, less beer. Not Santa. Trump said with a wink and a grin. But just as good looking and way, way more thin. The boy rubbed his... President Trump? Trump just smiled and gave the kid a fist bump. Then held out a flag. Red, white, and blue. Merry Christmas, young man. This is for you. Before heading north, Trump cinched up his coat. One last present to give to the cartel book. No missiles tonight. It was Christmas, you see. Instead, he dropped something more natural. The reindeer let loose with a thunderous sound and magical droppings swiftly rained down. A special made. It sparkled, exploded, and it's quite deadly, too. Boom, went the speedboat. Blam, went the truck. Out into the sea, blew the criminal thug. But Trump wasn't done. He swung around back. I'll finish them off with a quick double tap. Another pass over. Here, and the cartel's whole shipment had just disappeared. That's how we do Christmas, Trump shouted with glee. Merry Christmas, you scumbags. This gift was from me. Trump finally turned north. The sun filled the sky. The reindeer were tired, and so was the guy. Old Santa was waiting with Coco in hand. Well done, Donald Trump. That was all just so grand. It was nothing. Believe me, I do this all day. I love delivering toys in your sleigh. The people are happy, the presents delivered, the drug boats are sunk, and justice delivered. He handed the reins back to Jolly Saint Nick. Call me again whenever you're sick. You saved Christmas this year. God bless you, my friend. Trump nodded and turned. The trip had to end. Marine One lifted off into the sky and Santa waved back with a tear in his eye. Trump leaned out the window that cold Christmas day real loud so Santa could hear him say, To the soldiers abroad and the farmers at home. To the builders, the truckers, wherever they roam. To the cops and the nurses, the teachers, the vets. To the kids in pajamas and the family pets. And even the haters, the losers, the fakes. And even Pelosi, that treacherous snake. Santa heard him exclaim as he grew out of sight. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. But then Santa heard one more thing at the end. Let's make America great again. Okay I think this is absolutely hilarious. That was funny. isn't that funny i think uh i think it's very funny but i and i just i think that everything they're working on right now nothing is as it seems you know he is a wonderful figurehead but nobody does anything alone you know so so as we uh as we look at what's the structure out there there's definitely teams that are taking things on and and it's going to be okay we just got to be a little patient and realize that we have to work through things a little bit. So where are we going to go next, guys? And realize, too, that we're not responsible for the outcome. This is God's world. We're asked to walk and we're asked to do things. But ultimately, the outcome of those things, if we rely on ourselves, we'll screw stuff up. It's got to be God's outcome for the best outcome to actually happen. Okay, talking about archaeology a little bit. In plain sight, earliest Jesus is God inscription found deemed greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scroll. Scientists are going gaga over the earliest inscription declaring Jesus is God, claiming that this eighteen hundred year old engraving could change the understanding of Christianity. That's pretty cool. That is very cool. And they just recently found, too, the earliest, I believe it's the earliest evidence of a Christian church on top of Caesarea Philippi. It's very amazing if you study this. I actually bought a Jewish oil lamp for my dad years ago that was from Jerusalem. And they knew that it was a Jewish lamp because it had the seal punched out of it. And it was kind of a cool thing, kind of a cool find. That's very cool. Yeah. And it really meant something to my dad. I miss him terribly. You know, he was very, very centered on Jesus. and realizing what that meant, what that meant to all of us and what he accomplished on the cross. So I actually, Ralph, I printed out, let's go through this a minute. Hopefully people will be just, we're not, we didn't plan anything today, guys. This is just like normal, but I just thought it would be a good thing to come on and talk about certain things that that can grind, they can grind, ground us into the season. Grind us into the season. Yeah, that's what presents do, right? And that worship of the material world, trying to find things that are a little more meaningful and helpful for other people. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts, will perform this, Isaiah nine, six, and seven. Think about how many years apart that is from before that foretold the birth of Jesus. It's amazing. Any thoughts, guys? Well, probably my favorite translation to read has been, the Tree of Life Bible, the Messianic Jewish version, And one of the main reasons that I like that so much is there is such an emphasis on not only back but also forward references throughout the Bible. Because Messianic Jewish is basically studying Jesus in a Jewish context, right? So they have footnotes all throughout the Bible saying, In the Old Testament, pointing to where it was fulfilled in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, pointing to where things were foretold in the Old Testament. And those forward and back links are so cool to read through and see just how well connected everything is and how perfectly everything lines up. It's really cool to see that. Very fun. Luke two one and it came to pass in those days that there went out. Are you there? Yes. Am I stepping on you or not? Not on me. Okay. I heard something in the background, so who knows? Went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth onto Judea, onto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be taxed with Mary. his espoused wife being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Should we smash a preconceived notion here, Ralph? Yeah, there's so many of them, it's not even funny. Remember all the manger scenes we see with the donkey? They were very poor. That would be like driving a Lexus. It didn't happen, okay? A very adorable Lexus. A very adorable Lexus. Everybody loves donkeys, right? Yeah. Yeah, and it's very likely that, well, here, we'll get to that in this next verse. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And what were the inns at the time? Family homes. They went to their families. And their family rejected them, probably ostracized them because they weren't married yet. And they were just engaged and Mary was pregnant. And so they were kicked out of the in disgrace of that family home. Think about that. Think about the relationships we have within our families, not being accepted, not accepting others, and how healing it is if there's one person there who gets you and accepts you for who you are. Typically, human beings really suck at being unconditional. OK, there's almost always a transactional conditional point there. That's not how God loves. God loves us all. And we're all welcome because every one of us is flawed and we're learning and he believes in us and he loves us anyway, which is totally amazing. Right. But think about that. Showing up for a family to a family to stay during the census time and having them kick you out of the house to go sleep in a dirty barnyard. And not the kind of barns that we think of now. They were caves. Caves filled with centuries, feet upon feet thick of poop. Manure, yeah. He was born upon a pile of manure. And when I think about it, which I think is really a special, it's an accurate way to frame this. When Jesus came here and when we ask him and we accept him as our Lord and Savior, he comes into our hearts. He changes us. He changes the way that we look at the world. And it's true. It's true. When you talk about being born again, you are born again. You're a new creation. I've seen people who don't even remember Christ. the past that they had because God took it all away from them. They were forgiven and it was, it will never be brought up again. But think about it. He doesn't come into perfect hearts. He comes into our hearts that are imperfect, that are dirty with sin, that are dirty with things that we do wrong. He doesn't come because we're perfect. He comes into us imperfect and says, it's okay. We'll do this together. He walks with us as perfect. We walk through life and it's, it's amazing. It makes more sense when you realize that he was born on your, he comes into our heart, our, as sinners, our manure, and he, he loves the way and walks us through it. Yep. And another interesting thing here too, that I think is significant is that, do you notice why they went to Bethlehem? it was because of the lineage of Joseph being from there. And so the significance of Joseph being basically the father figure in Jesus's life as he was being raised, while he is the son of God, he was also being raised by Joseph and So that was also kind of considered a part of his lineage. And I think that's also important for anyone out there who is, you know, like an adoptive parent or a step parent to consider how important that role is in a child's life. Yeah. And when, when I think about Joseph, he is probably one of the most, um, made the most Godly choices and selfless choices. and choices to be embarrassed, to be ostracized of anyone in the Bible. He was totally, he's a totally amazing person for what he did, and what he, he listened to God's voice, and he took it on anyway. You know, kind of amazing. And he, you know, he was willing to listen to and do whatever he was asked to do, including then taking them all to Egypt. And that is not a short distance from Bethlehem to Egypt. That's a long ways to go. That was a tough road with a small child. Anyhow, and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not. For anything you remember today, fear not, because I think we're going to go through some... Difficult times coming up, but it needs to happen. But fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was With the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men. And it came to pass the angels were gone away from them unto heaven. The shepherds said to one another, Let us go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the same which is told to them concerning the child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child, His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Any commentary here, guys? I guess in talking to the whole fear not thing and the subject of kind of conquering and converting evil to good, It also brings to mind the story of Jesus walking on water and how the deep water like that was seen as analogous to hell at the time. And so to a large extent, Jesus walking on water was just walking right over hell and it talks about him just about walking past the boat that they were all on. And yeah, like they did, like, you didn't even see it. He just kind of walked past and go head into the other side of Lake here, guys. Yeah. It's just, it's just hilarious. And then, you know, the, the, uh, I don't know that, that whole story of just basically just, you know, if, if you are a child of God, He's there to protect you. You don't need to fear it. It may not always feel good, but we know, honestly, we know when there's evil around us, we feel it in our spirits. And it doesn't always feel good, but that doesn't mean you have to fear it. It has no jurisdiction over you. Let's talk about it in a governmental court situation. There's no jurisdiction if you are in Christ, if you've accepted him as your savior. They can cause you some problems, but it's only going to go so far because they're on a leash at that point in time. So there's nothing really to fear. And feeling things that don't feel good or that aren't quite the way that we want it doesn't mean that it's dangerous or doesn't mean that it's even bad. It may be something that's necessary to move us to a better place. Well, and it may well be dangerous. But on the other hand, you've got... God's got your back. You have protection. Yeah. And it's like, well, let's go back to the, to the realistic verse here. It's not the things are always going to go well, but it's better to, you know, there's, there's a time for things to end. And like Jesus gave up his life for us. There are times for that. And there's, you know, and, It's not something to fear. It's really not something to fear. We'll pick that up in a little while because I've got some cool stories about that. And I've got other people who have had near that have had, let's just call near death experiences is common term, but it's actually crossing over and seeing what the other side looks like. There is nothing to fear, absolutely nothing to fear. So anyhow, Matthew one, sixteen and Jacob beget Joseph, the husband of Mary, whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon, Babylon are fourteen generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon, unto christ are fourteen generations now the birth of jesus christ was on the wise when his mother mary was a spouse to joseph before they came together that she was found with child out of the holy ghost then joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make a public example of her was minded to put her away privily i gotta stop there okay so when we go to family gatherings why make a scene You know, sometimes we can do things with a little bit more an eye on healing rather than being right and making a scene on other people who have maybe even hurt us. And that's a good thing. Going in backward to put the covering on Noah. Yep. If you love people, sometimes we make allowances for people's failings because hopefully they'll do it for us because we're going to do it too because we're imperfect. But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son. and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and his name is Jesus. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, Herod the king, behold, there came the wise men from the east, unto Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen a star in the east, and have come to worship him. This goes back, too, to the story of Daniel and the conversion of the Persian Empire to God in that what's east of Bethlehem? Well, it would have been the Persian Empire, and it all ties back into that in that it goes right back to the story of Daniel and how they were brought to God. So this wasn't just like, Out of nowhere, this was again tied way, way back into history and set up long before this. There are so many things that are cross-referenced. In the Bible, and is the Bible a complete text? No, it's not. There were other books there. There was the Council of Nicaea that left some other books out, and I think it's profitable to read them all, as many as you can. There's a bunch of books that are referred to in the Bible that we have now that aren't in the Bible. They're referred to by it, but they're not in it. Enoch? Enoch? Enoch? I think just in the Old Testament, if I remember right, there are at least seven books that are referred to but not present in the Old Testament anymore. It's not to say that the Bible needs to be discounted, because I believe that God has his hands on everything, and he gives us what we need. Not maybe what we want, which is coincidentally what President Trump talks about a lot, but what we need. It's some of his songs that he plays when he does rallies. That's a theme he keeps coming back to. So let's see, where did I leave off? For we have seen a star in the east and come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Looks like they were kind of like worried about their little power structure, wasn't it? And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judea, art not the least among the princes of Judea, judah judah judah for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people israel then herod when he had privily called the wise men inquired of them diligently what time the star had appeared and he sent them to bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you found him bring him me word again that i may come and worship him also When they had heard the king, they departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures... They presented him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which the gifts are interesting. It equipped them for the trip to Egypt. They were going to need that. And they were also burial spices so that they knew that he came to die. And that's why he was here. And the gold, it gave them the passage that they needed to get to Egypt. to make sure that Herod didn't kill him along with all the other babies that he killed. There's so much that is packed into these verses here that it would take a lifetime just to go through these and go over and over them again and understand the meanings that are there and what was really said. Yep, absolutely. And there's so much of it that gets tied in with each other, that cross-references things, that it really is beautiful to go through that. And if you can ever find a version of the Bible that has all of those cross-references, I think the CSB translation, if I remember correctly, also has a lot of those, as well as a bunch of the different versions from the different manuscripts as retranslated. Because there are some minor differences in some of the original manuscripts, but shockingly less than you would think. Well, the Tree of Life Bible is also chronological, which our normal Holy Bible is not chronological. And so... it comes in chronological order so you can kind of see what came first in a timeline, which is super interesting. Yeah, that's really nice. If you can go through those references and sometime just read parts of this and then go through the references and go read each of those references so you can see where they were referring to this long, long ago back in the Old Testament. And then go through those sections of the Old Testament and see where their references point in the New Testament. It all ties in with each other so well. Yeah. And the timelines of it are really interesting. And also the lack of timelines when there are parts of, when there are pieces that are a little bit missing, like, you know, when the sun and the moon were created to make in the creation that were a marker for day and night, what happened before that and how much time passed? Because there wasn't a sun and a moon to mark the day and the night. So how long was that there? There's a lot of questions that we may never know until we ask God face to face in heaven, and that's okay. So let's go down, and I think this is a good way to approach it because I don't know how many churches are actually teaching the salvation message, which truly sets you free. Here, not just when you die, but it sets you free. And you can live and live without fear and live without regret and live without remorse, knowing that it's going to be okay and you're accepted as you are, not as we are going to be, but as you are right now with the love of Christ. Only the Spirit of God would excite someone to ask this question, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer. and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ . The question is appropriate. For you, the questioner, share the same common problem to mankind. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way . Your problem is not that you were born into this world in the wrong circumstances. but that you have withstood all of God's just and righteous demands on how to live your life. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." Luke, verse ten, verse twenty-seven. Can anybody out there raise their hands and say that they did this all perfectly? Good, because nobody has, okay? You have ignored the very scriptures that were intended by the living God as thy guide for living your life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew four, four, but much as you treated an ordinary human book, perhaps you may even know someone who has brought your lost condition to your attention. Blame and accusatory tones, which we were talking about, right? Not okay. Not okay. Don't do it. Got people in real big trouble in the Garden of Eden. I'm just going to say that. Not a good place to go because it's going to turn around and bite you in the behind, right? who pleaded that now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Second Corinthians six, two. Still others may have prayed for you that you would repent and believe the gospel. Mark one, fifteen. Before it was eternally too late and you have continued to resist. Now you are afraid that it's too late to flee from wrath to come. Matthew three, seven. Would you like to comment on that a minute, Ralph? I saw a message here. While you were going through that, I was looking for a video that was really good on the subject of the forward and back references. It's kind of a long video, but it's the testimony of a man named Stan Telchin, who was a culturally and ethnically Jewish guy who was pretty much an atheist. that came to realize that Jesus was the Messiah by trying to prove that he wasn't. Particularly using the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, and realizing how many of those things actually did point directly to Jesus. And his testimony is amazing. Very cool. If the thought of Jesus Christ as the complete answer to your problem sounds trite or an oversimplification, then you're wrong. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, John. Would it not be reasonable for the Creator to make the most important things to sustain the spiritual life in men the most accessible. He has. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John three, sixteen. Again, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own way and the Lord hath laid on him Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all . Instead of depositing this vital information in the vaults of some individual business, government, or religious organization, He is freely revealed through the manifestations of His Son. And this was manifest, the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him . Even much of organized religion is forgotten or undervalue the significance that Jesus is the answer to all of life's questions. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. First Thessalonians five, twenty three, that their everyday sanctified Christian living has likewise evaporated. And instead, should we not spend our entire lives proving the completeness and sufficiency of Jesus Christ for every circumstance in our life. But of him are ye, and only if you can number yourselves with those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. First Corinthians one thirty through thirty one. Okay, so now what again is salvation? It's universal in that addressed to the world. God so loved the world, John three, sixteen, graciously and freely offered without possible payment. Can't buy your way in. Can't work your way in. It doesn't work that way because we can't do enough good to erase the things that we've done bad. It is a gift of God. Ephesians two, eight. It's common in that it is offered to whosoever will. Revelations twenty two seventeen. I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. Jude three accessible solely by faith from a child. Thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Second time. Second Timothy three fifteen. granted to only those who repent of their opposition to god there it is right there it's the opposition to god is where we get ourselves into trouble okay he tells us things we should listen to him and do them but do we do that no we're like two-year-olds we're going to say but do you really mean this and then we do things our own way doesn't work well repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of christ jesus for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts, two, thirty-eight. Not for those who presume they can or will repent tomorrow, as the Holy Ghost saith, today, if ye hear his voice. Hebrews, three, seven. And for those who preserve in faith, ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew, ten, twenty-two. It's your move. In the last days before the second coming of Christ, we are told, and I will show wonders in the heaven and, hang on a minute, let me get rid of this before I close my computer down a minute. And I will show wonders in the heaven and in earth, fire and blood and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance. And the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call, Joel two, thirty through thirty-two, life is fleeting. Know not what ye shall be tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor, and appeareth for a little time, and then Don't again waste your opportunity to repent. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that cast upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans is a great book. It really lays out the reliance on faith and not works and how important that is. Well, think about it. How was Abraham saved? By faith. It was faith in God. And how do we walk through all situations? It's faith in God, knowing that he's good all the time. He's always going to do what's in your best interest. Maybe a little rough sometimes. He may ask you to walk some tough paths, but there's a reason for everything. And we're being trained. We're having things removed from our lives and from our own hearts that maybe aren't good, that will go to self-hurting or hurting others. But every single one of us has fallen short. And it wasn't our fault. I'm not assessing blame for this. We were born in this way. He knew what he was doing. He gave us free will and knew exactly what was going to happen. And he loved us anyway, because he wanted an actual relationship with him. Not that we would all be robots. So we had to find out that we were wrong and say, okay, help me to walk this life because I screwed things up beyond recognition. I can say that. in different parts of my life, I think everybody can realistically look at yourselves and say, man, I screwed this up. I'm not going to do that again. But there's a key point here, and it's the repentance that means turning away from sin. You can't just say, God, I believe in you. Jesus, I believe in you. But tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing over and over again, and you're going to forgive me anyway. That's not love. Think about when we treat each other that way. I'm sorry, but we do it again. It's like an abusive spouse that beats their wife. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. And then the next day goes back to beating his wife again or a wife that beats the husband. And you can go both ways, I guess. But, you know, when you repent, that means you stop the bad behavior. And that's how we show love. God, we really mean it. We love him. He knows the difference between fakes. I'm just going to tell you that I'm pretty extra sure that he knows when somebody's lying to him and when they're actually mean what they say and are going to do the right thing or if they're going to continue on in sin. Pretty extra sure that's not going to end well. Not sure how it's going to end. Not God. Not making the decisions here. Don't know. Can't judge it. But pretty extra sure he probably is not going to look favorably upon that. And that wouldn't be a thing to stand in front of him with. you know, hanging out with them and in the next life. I've got something else here, which is really, really interesting and explains the Christian faith and I go over this every year at Christmas. I do it with my family. I do it for myself. So I understand these references and really understand what's going on. And I think I'm just going to read this a minute unless you want to have a little conversation first. And then we're going to go ahead and read through this a little bit so that it's another perspective. And I think that it's important to read other perspectives because we learn different ways of thinking. You know how somebody teaches you something and they may have said it a hundred times and all of a sudden somebody else says it and all of a sudden you get it. It clicks. Or they may say something just a little differently and all of a sudden it clicks and we have understanding. That process is never going to quit. It's going to go throughout our lives. And that's a good thing. If you can't look back on your life and cringe, you're not moving forward and you're not learning. This is great. Sherilyn says we can't attend a church service for Christmas because we have our special needs daughter mourning. We are much appreciated. You know what? We do the same thing because I have a special needs daughter too. She's missing half of her brain from an accident that she had before we adopted her. She is very complicated. And there's a lot of things that we can't go to either. And to all the caretakers out there, I feel your pain. The people who are taking care of older people and the people who have special needs people in their lives, God bless you and realize that God is mightily with you through this time and his favor rests upon you. And I really appreciate you, Cher Lynn. That's a fantastic thing. And thank you for commenting. So let's just read through this a little bit more. The Christian faith is counterintuitive in a number of ways. Remember, I've been telling everybody that when you follow God, it's going to look like you're out of your mind sometimes. And that how can this, when I ran for governor, oh my gosh, everybody's like, you got to be out of your mind. I'm like, No, I'm not going to be drinking the Kool-Aid here and I'm not doing things the same way and I'm not taking donations and I'm not taking the Smurf donations. And I'm going to tell people to keep their money because the people running for office don't need your money. Neither do any of these NGOs. You keep your money, find somebody around you to take care of your family and other people that are close to you. But you know what? Anybody that's going to be honest with you is going to not take your money. They're going to say, you keep your money. Let's fight and do this together. Anyhow, it's counterintuitive, but perhaps none so much as in its perspective on suffering and particularly its perspective on suffering persecution. We may see this most clearly in the actions of the apostles who, after being imprisoned and beaten, left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. Any comments here? I'm looking for color commentary, guys. I'll take that as a no. Of course they must not have been surprised to suffer persecution because, as I pointed out in a couple other recent articles, Jesus has told them to expect it and evaluate it. But he did more than that, as he does more than that to us. Jesus tells us to embrace persecution, embrace it as his will. When things go bad in your life, embrace it. It's going to work out and it's going to be okay. Things are being changed and altered and moved out of your life that are negative. And it's painful. Sometimes when things are removed, it's painful. But you got to trust God knowing that you're doing the right thing and it's going to be okay. When you're hated by evil people, it's a pretty good sign you're on the right track. That's right. That's a badge of honor right there. You don't want to be friends with people that are doing evil. Hang on one second. I am going to have to tell somebody to text me a minute. Any more comments while I'm handling this? Okay, so a thought of softening embrace to endure. It's certainly true that we need to face persecution with patience and perseverance, but Jesus seems to call us even more than that. He said we should go so far as to embrace persecution. That's not to say we should never pray for it to be lifted or that we should flee from it or that we should never turn to the courts where we can appeal for justice. For these may all be good and honorable actions to take, but it does mean that as long as we face true persecution, We should rejoice in it. Jesus said, blessed or happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He even says rejoice and be glad in persecution. Are we seeing persecution across the globe? You bet we are. You bet we are. And I don't think it's going to get any easier anytime soon. But that doesn't mean we stop. stand strong and continue to rejoice and know that you're being counted worthy he's not going to give you more than what you can handle if you're being persecuted he knows he knows that you're going to be the one that's going to be able to stand for him in this world and bring light into bad situations you know you look at the book of acts and what happened to paul when he came to be a Christian and the persecution that he was put under himself. And really the, the, I consider acts to be less about if you actually read through it, there's, there's a lot of the book of acts that is not so much about the acts of the apostles. it's actually about, it's more or less, a lot of it is actually a legal drama about how Paul used the legal system to be able to justify the Christian faith to those who were in power and how much he was persecuted for that, but how he kept going through it and he kept appealing his case to the point where he appealed his case all the way up to Caesar. And the tenacity with which he fought his legal case in that is really something to study and to model your actions off of. He came up against all kinds of different roadblocks. But in the course of that, he was able to minister to the rulers and judges at each level, the people keeping the jails at each level, the guards, and it gave him all kinds of opportunities to be able to spread the word of God to people who would otherwise have not listened. And the way he did that is really pretty interesting. If you read through it, it's about, I don't remember exactly where in Acts that part of it starts, but it's about halfway through And then it kind of continues on into Romans. But Acts goes through a lot of that. I don't remember what verse it is, but there is a verse later on. I think it's in Corinthians, one of the books of Corinthians, where he's talking about don't stand up against your rulers because God put them there. And they're supposed to be governing you, and that was God's will to put them there. But by the same token, Paul did go through all kinds of legal means to stand up to corrupt rulers and to hold them to account for what they were doing and to prevent them from doing any further harm. And so there is a pattern there and a precedent to show that, you know, this is a righteous thing to do is to use legal means to hold people accountable. You know, that's perfect. And he brought it right to me. He was a provocateur, just like Jesus was. He stayed. He chose to stay in prison in order to force the issue. Yep. And You know, what would Jesus do? Well, you know, that does not exclude flipping tables and chasing people with whips, you know. Accountability. I mean, we have to have accountability and we have to have justice. God is a perfect balance of that. And he's the only one that can truly and justly judge a human heart. And human hearts are very complex. Well, there was another thing that I saw too about the story of flipping tables and stuff in that where that was, I saw somebody that did a study on the location within the temple that that would have happened. And where that was was actually in the area that the Gentiles were supposed to be in. And the Jews at the time would have been in a different part of the temple. that the Gentiles were not allowed to go in. And so this was- Second class citizens to the Jews. Yep. This was also a- the people that were doing that were the money changers and such, were specifically targeting and going after the Gentiles and excluding the Jews from that whole additional taking advantage of them. They would go through a different area of the temple. So Jesus was also taking people to account, the people that were taking advantage of specifically the Gentiles and kind of, you know, I don't know how to explain this. They were pulling rank as the Jews, which were not religious Jews. It was a corporatocracy, and it was based on money and commerce. And so they were trying to pull rank and keep everybody else in a position of secondary so they could have the control and the money. And Jesus would have no part of this. And a person who really lives with God does not see the differences. You know, I'm pretty critical, actually, about I'm very critical about a lot of the Christians that I see about throwing all people into one basket. and saying, well, they're this, you know, they're Muslim, they don't want to kill us. You know what? You sound stupid when you say that, honestly, because though you can see some similarities, not everybody is the same. And you have to address it. Are they breaking the law on an individual basis or are they not? And if you can't do that, you don't have a just ability to determine anything. When you see how the Christian church has been infiltrated, the Christian church is absolutely apostate. Jesus talked about it. It's talked about in Revelations. The Christian church is apostate. And you know what they worship? A lot of it? There's a lot of witchcraft in the churches. Claim it and frame it. Say the spells. Say the correct word to God. Say it over and over again. Chant whatever else you're going to do. Because you can hold God to a contract that way. That is wrong. It doesn't work. And it's the same as witchcraft. Also, the worship of the golden calf. Look at how many people claim to be Christians that are absolutely worshiping this change to money and the promise of money and riches and living by the Spirit is absolutely being lost. There's no security in gold or silver. There's no security in the material world. The only security we have is walking with God Almighty on this earth, doing the right thing, not doing it for transactional, but doing the things that are totally in conflict with the way that most people see the world. That's living by the Spirit. It's not sitting there being in the know and saying, oh, invest in this, invest in that, and it's going to go great. Well, it might. But it's wrong. And so the smallest things in our lives most often are the biggest things. Not the huge things that give people bragging rights. The small things that nobody sees. Only God sees them. And that's doing it for God. Having all the gold and silver, that's going to fall flat. I can guarantee you that. Just like crypto, it's going to fall. All of it's going to fall. At some point in time. But the only thing that will stand and stand towards the end is God Almighty. The Jews were wrong back then. The Jews are wrong now. And I'm just going to come right out and say it. So are the Christians and so are the Muslims and so is everybody else. We're all imperfect. Nobody's making a good judgment and getting down to the underlying cause of all of it. And so I think that's worthy to talk about at some point in time, because if we can't stay over the mark of what's good and evil, we can see trends. I'm not saying that if there's a group of people that's a subgroup of another group or an entire group that's waged war on us, you can say, okay, you guys made bad choices. Doesn't mean everybody in it's going to be evil, though, either. And on individual basis of our lives, we've got to be very careful of that. In an institutional way, there is a little more latitude to make to identify threats, especially like in the war that we're in right now. We're in war. We're in several wars. We're in a spiritual war, number one. And if you can't see it, you're probably not walking with God. If you're walking with God, you're going to see it. You're going to see the demons around you. You're going to see angels and demons. And you're going to know what's right and what's wrong. And it won't take you too long either. That's what we all aspire to. Jesus came for all of us. All of us, not just the Jews, not the Gentiles, not Muslims, not Islam, not Hindus, not Americans, not Chinese, not blah, blah, blah. Go to every other country, subgroup, men, women, color, race, whatever you want to call it. He came for all of us. You remember the song that we sing when we were kids? Jesus loved the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they're all precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. I remember singing that as a kid. And what a great thing to have everybody, let's bring that back into schools, for gosh sakes, and get out of this programming thing. It's ridiculous. I don't care what color you are. I don't care if you're male or female. I don't care who you are. I don't care where you're born. None of that. You know, first, you know, we should be talking God first, really. And Jesus came for the tax collectors who... You know, they were considered unclean because they were handling Roman money. And so they were not allowed to be in the temple and worship like everyone else was. So, you know, they were the unclean people. He came for the prostitutes. He came for the lepers. He came for all of the people that were lost. Jesus came for the island of misfit toys, which all of us are. Yeah. He didn't come for the perfect. He came for us. He spoke out against the Pharisees, the religious people, you know, and how things had gotten corrupted. He talked about how the, you know, the good Samaritan, well, Samaritans were considered heretics at the time. And There's a lot to that, to remember that he came for all of us, not just the ones who are regularly going to church and outwardly have perfect-looking lives from the outside. No, he came for everyone, all of the screw-ups out there, everyone who's made a mistake, screwed up their life, who's willingly doing it. It doesn't matter. You're still God's children, and he still you know he still loves all of us and he came for all of us to save all of us if we would accept it yeah it's a gift it's just a gift and all you really have to do is just say yes i i can't do this alone i make mistakes and i and i and i regret these mistakes and it's weighing on me And ask God to take those sins away from you, and he'll carry them for you. And he'll carry them, and he'll say, you're my child. I love you. Let's get up and do this again. And every day is a new day. And every day you can say the same thing, and he will get up and help you again if you truly mean it. If you're just going to say, yeah, I accepted Jesus as my Savior, and I'm going to go out and punch somebody in the face that I punched in the face yesterday, it's not going to work out well, okay? Because then you're espousing a lie. You have to be willing to change. It's an empty apology. It is an empty apology, exactly. And I don't think God likes those too much, just because he's kind of a truth kind of guy. Think about this with politicians, too, and people that run for office. We keep voting the same people back in that have been lying, cheating, and stealing from us forever. Why are we voting for these people expecting something to change? They don't mean it. They don't mean a word coming out of their mouth. And we're going to have to make some, if we want the world to change, it starts with us and making those discerning judgments on how to conduct our lives. And if we don't see anybody around us that's got any integrity, do it anyway. Be the example. If you don't have one, be one. And that's what God wants us to do. And if you do have an example, be a good example anyway. And now people have got two. Yeah, there you go. That's perfect. So is it really possible or really reasonable? It is because we know God is sovereign and that nothing happens apart from his plan, which means that in some way our suffering is God's will. It's not a mistake. It's not meaningless. It's not nothing. It's an opportunity to respond to God's sovereignty with hope and trust and godly character. It's an opportunity to shine God's light in the midst of darkness. What an honor. You know, think about it. Six reasons to rejoice in persecution. How is it possible to rejoice even though something is painful as persecution, even during that? Well, let's go to six reasons you can rejoice and be glad when you're persecuted. First thing is this, persecution proves your citizenship. You are a follower of a savior who was persecuted, even though he lived a life that was perfect and unblemished. Still, the religious authorities, the civil authorities, the common people all turned against him and put him to death. if that was a story why wouldn't it be yours he told you it would be yours he said take up your cross and follow me we should expect to suffer like jesus suffered in that way persecution is proof of your citizenship in his kingdom proof of your alignment with jesus you're willing to do the right thing Anyway, no matter what, you're still going to do it. You're not looking for agreement, and you're not looking for the crowds to go, oh, you're such a fabulous person. You're going to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, and you do it for Christ. Uh-oh, Karen's here, and you said the C word. Citizenship. And? What's that? I said and. And? Yeah, there we go. So, and then there's this persecution displays your faith. Passing through the test of persecution proves the validity and strength of your faith. It strengthens it too. You'll never know how strong your arms are until you have to lift something heavy. And you'll never know what your faith is made of until it is put to the test. James said, Many fall away when their faith is tested, but those who truly love the Lord will persevere and emerge. with their faith tested, proven, strengthened, they can rejoice. Also, persecution shapes your character. In Romans five, Paul said, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. Romans five, three and four, it takes tremendous heat and pressure to form a diamond deep within the ground and it takes suffering and pain even persecution, to form Christian character deep in your heart. Persecution is a means God uses to conform you to the image of Christ. There's another reason. Persecution equips you for service. Through persecution, God is equipping you for deeper service to him. As he writes, Second Corinthians, Paul has suffered deeply, and this is what he said. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction. Why does God offer comfort? He goes on so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction and the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. He knows that in the suffering he has been comforted. so that he can now extend the comfort to others. He has been made more useful to God's purposes because of this persecution, and that's true of you as well. And then there's a fifth reason. Persecution produces communion. In your suffering, you'll experience a deep fellowship with Christ because you're actually joining in his suffering. In the very next verse, Paul says, For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. You are being persecuted because you are united with Christ. You are suffering in Him, for Him, and with Him. And God meets you in your sorrows. He draws you close. He ministers His comfort to you. You know, it's an amazing thing when you've been through some real stuff and you can look at things for what they are and respond and not react. That is a huge gift of going through some tough times. And then there's another reason you can rejoice in persecution. Persecution provokes longing. It causes you to look forward to elevate your gaze beyond this world. This world is temporary. It's nothing. There is nothing that more clearly shows that the world is not your home than persecution. There is nothing that makes it more obvious that you don't belong here. And so there's nothing more likely to shift your gaze from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of heaven. When everything in your life is great, when everyone around you loves you and affirms you, it's easy to say, hey, the world isn't so bad. But when you're hated and mocked, you understand these are not my people. This is not my place. And if this isn't, then what is? The kingdom of heaven. Persecution makes you exercise your faith to believe that the kingdom is real and the kingdom is coming. and the kingdom is your true and final home you rejoice that your heart is being uprooted from this kingdom and planted in the kingdom still to come you rejoice and are glad and all that god has promised and will soon fulfill for these six reasons and many more you can rejoice when you're being persecuted and so i'm going to stop there because um I think there's a lot we can say about it. But the reality is, is that, you know, the other side, I've talked about it a little bit, but I literally was able to see the other side. God let me see it. And I didn't want to come back. I'm going to tell you that right now. I was pretty angry about coming back. I'm like, no, don't make me go back. And there's not a day that I don't think about it. Other people who've had near-death experiences will tell you the same thing. It's so beautiful. It's so amazing. The incredible flood of love and forgiveness. And nothing matters anymore. There's no hate. There's nothing bad there. And it's like you kind of are like, everything's just okay. In the presence of God, everything is okay. And he's funny. I'm going to tell you that right now. The other side is really amazing. And it's beautiful. It's really, really beautiful. And it's something not to feel sad or sorry about. you have something to really look forward to. Here we do work. Don't feel sorry for yourself if bad stuff happens. It is a good thing. Just go through it and go, these guys. And it's like, so help me. I'm going to hold you accountable. That's fine. It's good to have that mindset. But realize that we have good days and bad days here. It's teaching us a lot. God uses all things to teach us. And it's, it's a beautiful thing. Don't let it stop you. Keep going. No matter what, keep fighting, keep being strong, keep your, keep your mind in a good, good shape because when bad things come, it'll roll right off you like water off a duck. You might be a little annoyed for it and shake it off a little bit, but it'll roll off you like water off a duck and you pick up, pick things up and you just continue on. It's, it's amazing. Not try and hasten the trip there. Cause we're here on assignment and we've got a job to do and, Yeah, don't slap God in the face with that kind of crap because he's not going to buy it either. You're here to do a job. Carry that with honor and pride and dignity and with ethics and doing things the right way, even if everybody around you fails and does the wrong thing. Don't jump into their swamp. Do the right thing. You're not allowed to go AWOL. You got stuff to do here. But when the mission is over and it's your time, it's going to be great. Yeah. And you know what? Find other people that are strong in the Lord. There are people out there that are like that, that have lived a long life, that have had a lot of knocks that they've gone through, and they've learned to get up and walk again, even after everything is just completely melted down. they learn to walk again and tomorrow it's a new day it's a new day every day and we can we can approach it as a new day with new successes and new things we need to work on it's not the end of the world and when we get rid of ego and go you know what uh tomorrow i'm going to be as big of a screw-up as i am today that's okay i'm going to keep walking through this until everything is accomplished that god has laid before us not asking for a different path asking for the strength the ability and the provision to walk the path, not our path, not what we have planned, but the path that he has planned, because it will be good. And it's going to take you places you never dreamed you'd ever go in your entire life. And quite an adventure. So Ralph was trying to trigger me with the word citizen, get me to talk. I've been there, and then I muted because apparently the sound, there was a sound issue coming through via me. So anyway, I decided to write down some words that I think are very relevant to this discussion that start with C, but are not citizenship. So first one, I have several. The first one is child. We're supposed to be seen as children of God. We are the creation of God. There's another C for you. So if we believe that truly, then we would have to see Jesus as our brother. We're adopted into the faith. He is therefore our brother. We don't usually think of him that way because we think of him as this, you know, high and mighty other than, yeah, well, he was a man, right? So we can see him as our brother. That's okay. He is a child of God just like we are. Correction is another C word. A correction in my definition, especially in dog training, is an action or event which motivates for future success. People argue about whether correction is appropriate to dog training. I'm not going to argue that. I know it's appropriate to dog training. It's appropriate because it's natural. If you go too far, it becomes something else. But if it is an action or event which motivates for future success, it's a correction. God will do that as our father. So will the world. And the corrections of the world are not usually very nice either. But so those things sometimes direct us back on a path where we need to be if we accept them with faith as a priority. So in something, quote unquote, bad happens, if we see it through eyes of faith, it's not necessarily bad. It's just something that we have to deal with. Another one is communion. This is something I think, something that bothers me about Christmas. People who don't talk about Jesus for the rest of the year, except maybe Easter. We're going to go to church and we're going to say we're in church and we're going to make a big show of everything and then walk out the door and absolutely screw everybody in our path, financially or whatever. Easter, yet another non-Christian holiday. Exactly. Christians have taken over. So there's a hypocrisy of this concept of worshiping baby Jesus when we don't even know exactly when he was born. I don't think it's necessary. So we make up a date and we celebrate his birthday. Did he ever tell us to? They worshipped him on his birthday or the time shortly thereafter because they recognized who he was and what he was going to be doing for the people. It wasn't about the fact that he was born. Yes, it's a miracle, and we can celebrate that. But if you believe in Jesus and who he was, then you have a responsibility to recognize and act on the message of his death and what that means. Because his death is a far more important story. And The Christians in the Bible in the New Testament tell us that they were worshiping that fact regularly. On the first day of the week, they came together to break bread. They were remembering together in another communion with one another, recognizing the death and resurrection of Christ and what that means, that he defeated their sin. He defeated death. He took upon him all the sins that had been and that will be, and he defeated those through death. He had to separate himself for the one and only time from his father in order to be able to do that because he couldn't take his father's presence with him. He was alone. And that's why he was so disturbed when he was on the cross or before the cross, especially when he was in the garden. That's what I think he was worried about. I don't think he was worried about the torture that he was going to receive. I think he was worried about leaving the presence of his father and doing this terrible thing. But he successfully did that because of love. So if we see him as a brother, as we should, we should love him as such. We should love God as our creator and as our father. We should accept correction so that we can join them through death. And if you know that, and if you believe on that, and if you act on that throughout your life, and as Donna said, we will make mistakes because we're not Christ. We're not perfect. He is the measure of that perfection. And if we try for that, then we have that opportunity in the end. What else could we possibly be afraid of? As you said, if we die and go to heaven, that's the best thing possible. so why are we worrying about death what what is the greatest fear that we have speeches you know delivering speeches to the public clowns are you afraid of spiders most people the worst thing they're afraid of is death we know that christ already overcame that for us Then we we have the opportunity to wear christ the other seed call him call him christ Call it christmas if you want to but christ is the key Because if we're going to quote unquote wear him Then we got to represent him like if you got a bumper sticker that says i'm a christian on the back of your car Are you more likely to you know yell at other people? As you're driving around flipping the bird You got to act like this your whole life. You got to remember that. Oh man, I, I fight this now. This is, this is Karen being vulnerable and true and honest. I have had a lot more cussing in the last year on my part that I'm proud of for sure. I am very tempted by this. That is not wearing Christ, but I, That's an outlet for my anger, and that's not where I want to be. It's one of those things that I personally have to deal with. And everybody's got something. I mean, probably a lot of people listening have things that they feel are much worse than cussing because they probably cuss more regularly than I do. But the thing is, when people take the Lord's name in vain, I hear it. That's not just flippant to me because I have that awareness. It comes through my filter. I was taught as a child that you don't say such things. You don't take the Lord's name in vain. You don't say it so freely that it means nothing to you. You don't say, I hate you ever because Christ died for you. So that you have an opportunity for the forgiveness of all your sins and that means he has given that forgiveness for everybody else, too And that's why i've been saying lately that um, in fact, I think I said it to you the other day don about how Um, I admire jesus for his patience with other people And i'm learning that more and more all the time, you know, like you were talking about with trump um I don't care or invest myself so much in what is going on around us on the national level, international level. I don't care about Venezuela. That's somebody else's problem. Why invest my carers into it? That's a burden that God's got for me. I don't care. I don't care what the congressmen are or aren't doing in the fake clown show of government. It doesn't matter to me because I live in a more spiritual world. Can I affect anything by telling a congressman what to do? No. Can I affect something at the township level? I might be able to make a difference there. I might be able to send notices and make differences in those ways. Local action equals national impact. Well, why would I sit at home and worry about all what Erica Kirk said yesterday or what Trump said when he posted he was so mean? Who cares? It's all me. It's all gossip. If you're not there, you don't know. And so why spread something that you may be just picking up the gossip line and spreading something that you don't know because we're being lied to on so many. So there's better things to put our time and our mind and our energy to. That's my point. Try not to get too emotional about what you see on TV. A lot of that is scripted. Most of it is fake. It's designed to make you feel things and react to things that aren't healthy for you. See things through a Christian filter and then you can live with a much more even keel emotionally and spiritually. It's not always easy. I admit to that. Sometimes I get fired up about something, but I try to not invest my emotions in stories that the TV wants to tell me. I watch the TV just to see what other people are worried about. I laugh most of the time. Or what a terrible thing. We've had a lot of children dying lately in West Michigan. Parents. parents deliberately killing their children or grandchildren, um, accidents that could have been avoided. Um, those are sad stories, but I don't also get involved with them. And if I don't know someone directly that way, um, again, you could see those sad stories coming through the TV or social media and invest yourself in that sadness, or you could see the world through God's light and try to do something helpful for other people. Um, And wear that Christ on you in a more healthy way. Because if you get bogged down in that negativity, you're not going to be able to help anybody else. True story. Donna, you said something earlier I wanted to offer you to say because you were talking about how you miss your dad terribly. because I don't have so strong of a connection to holiday events for me. And my parents are still living. I don't have that as a... as a struggle, but there's a lot of people who have lost loved ones in the past few years, especially as a result of the evil that is pervaded through COVID shots and et cetera. And so there have been a lot of people who feel a connection to those loved ones in the gap where they're missing in these holiday events. So I thought as someone who has experienced that, maybe you can offer a few words to help people um, who understand that like you do to get through it? Well, you know, I guess, I guess the way that I look at it is I know what my dad was all about, especially my dad. Um, um, my mom had some difficulties in life. I'm just going to say that. And some of the difficulties that I've had through my life came from, came from, uh, some pretty serious ones. I don't want to go into it right now. But my dad, I knew who my dad was and what he stood for and such. And he was a very, very good man. And I know I'm going to see him again. I absolutely know I'm going to see him again. And so I just see it kind of like as a little bit of a vacation. And so it's a new normal when somebody passes away. And I just look at it as, you know what, I'm gonna make them proud. Every day of my life, I'm just going to do what needs to be done. I'm going to pick up the things that needed to be done, and I'm going to try to carry it as best as I can forward. And I know he's proud of me. I know he was very proud of me, and he still is proud of me because it's not like he's dead. He's just alive. He's just taking a vacation. We just can't see him. But I guess I don't have as hard of a time with death as most people do in general, because I know that I really know, understand. And quite honestly, I think once you're walking with the Holy Spirit, you can see the continuity going forward. And so I just don't. I don't necessarily even really feel the loss. I miss him. There's days where I'm like, man, I wish I could just talk to my dad about it because he's, first of all, he's the smartest person that I've ever known in my life. And he was like a freaking encyclopedia, right? And dad would give me an absolutely unbiased evaluation if I asked him a question. He was always moral. He always conducted himself with integrity. He was absolutely brave. He would step into any situation without a backwards glance. If I knew my dad was around, nothing was going to go wrong because he was going to step in front of any threat. He's a great example to have to look at and know that that's what our Father in Heaven is like. He really was. When he was younger, he had some issues. And I remember when he got saved, because he wasn't always that way. When he was younger, he had some real problems. But the minute that he accepted Jesus and people that knew him said there was no better testimony to the salvation of Christ than my dad. And in the transformation that comes with becoming a Christian. And nobody could deny it. It was that amazing. He had some anger problems when he was younger, very serious anger problems and such. And when he accepted Christ, it all pretty well disappeared. And it was like a snap of a finger. It was that quick. And so I just know where he is. And I'm happy for him. I know he's in heaven. I know he's in the presence of God. How can you feel sorry for that? And instead of saying, wow, he's there. He beat me to the end goal here. And, you know, I hope he's having a good time up there. And he's not really up there. I do believe that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's right here by us. We just can't see it. And I think they can see us. I think they're here and they can see us. It's a, you know, we've been taught that it was a total separation. It makes people feel really panicked and such, but I don't think there's this, I don't think the separation is real. You know, Jesus walked through walls. He was, he was with people's presence. He would come into view at, at will. And so I kind of think that we've had a misconception of what heaven is. It's here. It's here now with us. We can't see it. We'll be translated. We'll, we'll, we will be in the presence of God fully. But here we're kind of in a very gray, dull, foggy existence that is truly marred by sin. What I really look forward to, if you ask God to give you his eyes to look at other people, he will. And you'll be able to see through the fog and see their personality for who they really are. Are they acting badly because they're a scared little kid that never really grew up? You'll be able to see it and their behavior will make more sense to you. And then I think that's part of growing up. But I think they're here with us. I don't think they ever leave us. Well, I like the idea of thinking of someone like that is still living and using them in a present tense. You know, they did this or that in the past, but you still love them. They're still here in a sense. Um, because of, if nothing else, even if you don't believe as Donna has, and you believe they're, they're often a distant place and, and can't look down on you or can't speak to you. They're there in your heart. They're there in your memories that, and they're there in heaven. So they are alive in that sense, not in the earthly sense, but in a spiritual sense. So I, why not recognize that by using, um, Their name was President Pence. Yeah. They're still alive. And we can't say, oh, this person was a bad person. He's going to hell or anything like that because none of us has the ability to judge that. Only God does. And I'll tell you, when I crossed over and I have a couple of times, it's really kind of crazy. But when I crossed over, you could tell the difference between the people and the angels, right? Um, they're, they're definitely different. And, uh, uh, but the amount of love and joy that's there was kind of amazing. It's very, it feels very, very old, like older than anything we could ever conceive of. And, uh, very old, very established, very beautiful. The colors are more beautiful. The things that you see are more vivid and everything feels more, more. Um, it's, it's, it's amazing. I can't, I have a hard time putting it into words actually to really describe it, but I just don't feel, I don't feel bad for my mom and dad have passed on. I really don't. I'm like, man, they're up there having a great time. You know, they're in the presence of God. How can I feel bad about that? So the things that are different here, I'm going to pick up where they left off. And carry things on. It may be different, but I'm not going to feel bad about it. I'm just going to do things to serve God here, whatever that may be. And that's what my focus is. That's why I have an easier time with going on when things change. And I mean, human beings, we mourn the loss of the familiar. All of us do. You know, it's the same grief reaction we have. We mourn this loss of the familiar and test it in your own lives. If you've ever lost something that meant something to you, not just a person, a job or tradition or a thing, you'll feel a little bit of grief over that. Oh, I wish I had that back, right? And you feel those losses. Lose a job sometime, you'll feel that grief of losing that and feeling abandoned and such. I mean, it's human nature. But when we realize that this, everything here changes, everything here gets erased and we move on and that's okay. And what's to come is better than what's here. Even President Trump said that the best is yet to come. If the world all melted down tomorrow, if the oceans, if the mountains were thrown into the sea, if there was nothing here that we could, we would even recognize that Is that the worst thing that could happen to us? No, not really. Look at it as an adventure. You're in summer camp, okay? Deal with it. Let's make it into something and be that rock during the storm for other people. And when we look at Lot's wife, she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Ralph's talked about it many times. Is it that she turned into a physical pillar of salt? Probably not. She looked back and she was so salty that of what she was missing, that she couldn't go forward and do anything that was, was worthwhile because she stayed in that mindset of going back, you know, don't look back. I remember my dad telling me that when I had, I had, uh, he, he lost his mind. He had dementia. He goes, there's things you're going to have to do. He said, I had to do it with my mom. And he said, I'm going to tell you what he goes, don't look back. don't look back make the decisions that need to be made and go forward he's like i understand those hard decisions god understands those hard decisions people that have lived that really lived a life understand those hard decisions that we make sometimes good sometimes we don't make them so good and we learn from that it doesn't condemn you for anything you're learning Move forward and don't look back because what's coming is going to be even better. If things are removed from your life or changed, guess what? Pretty extra sure that God's going to trade you up on something that needed to be gone, that was weighing you down, that you needed to get rid of as a dead weight. to move forward into something more better and glorious. And now that really comes about talking about faith. Faith isn't that you get your own way. Faith isn't claim it and frame it. That is one of the most disgusting aberrations of faith I've ever seen in my life. Claim it, frame it. You do this, God's going to give you that for it. You know, you're going to get this, that, and the other thing. Like, woohoo, you know. No, that's not faith. That's a slap in the face to God. He may, he may choose to bless you with, it's all on him, you know, whatever he wants to do. But the faith is, is having the faith and the trust in God's character, not his circumstances around you, but knowing he is good all the time and following him without faltering anyway. I think, you know, we talk about, People we call normies. The other day we were talking about people who have a less than IQ than we have, and we may be above average. But people grieve in different ways and at different rates. And so there may be some people who have to deal with that today, tomorrow, this weekend, New Year's, where... Somebody is grieving in a different rate or in a different way than you are for the same person or the same loss. And it's important to allow for that, to allow some grace for that, help them with it. Maybe you can move that along for them in a healthy way instead of chiding them for not doing it the way that you're doing it. Because it's really easy for people to do. Yeah, think about it. What did they teach you, the people you've lost? What did they teach you? What did they give of themselves to you that they invested in you, in your life, in wanting that character to be good? Honor them. Honor them by remembering those great things that they taught you. The lessons like of my dad, the lessons of bravery. He was brave. I'm going to tell you, he went into a burning building that had a gas leak that was on fire. He went in there when I was a little girl and he shut the gas off and then came back out of the burning building. And he didn't have to do that. He was just standing. There was a firefighter. He just was brave. and you know standing in in the gap when but he was also incredibly empathetic if there was a tragedy around him he was the first one in and the last one to leave and making sure that everything was okay and he and he was incredibly optimistic about when things went bad you know he be bitch about him a little bit. Of course we all do, but, but he was very optimistic and he just got in, got to work and got her done. He, you know, he didn't sit there and, and stew about it or whatever. He was an action guy. And so thinking about what are the people that you're missing teach you. If it was something important to you, carry it on. Go make the cookies. Go bring them to somebody else. Sing the Christmas carols. Do the things that make it just to remember. It's not a sad thing. Get your tears cried out. I very rarely cry. And the reason being is because I cried all my tears out when I was a little girl. And that's called, I was thrown into some very, very bad situations. It wasn't my fault. And then things that happened, they were not ideal, very, very bad things. And as a child, you don't have a lot of choice to choose those things. But you know what? They earned me a lot of change in my life, the way I look at things. I'm not afraid of anything. And, and I very rarely cry because I cried it all out when I was a kid, which gives me puts me in a position to when things go wrong. I very rarely cry. I just go right to okay, we're going to fix this thing. And, and just jump in and roll your sleeves up and go to work. But big girl britches on. Yep, you pull your big girl panties on and you go, this is what we're going to do. Things aren't working exactly right. But guess what? I'm not going to stop trying to make it right until the day I die because I don't like bad stuff. I've seen enough of it. I've experienced enough of it. And I'm not going to let it happen to the other people around me either because I would rather die than not try. There's a silly movie that I watched, I don't know, some time ago. There's a line in it that I really appreciate. The young man died in a war and his father is very upset by this. He didn't want him to go to war, tried to protect him from it. And he vowed that he wouldn't drink until his son came home safe. And that didn't happen. So he ends up drinking profusely and he's not in a good state of mind. He's grieving really hard. And this woman who's very close to him says, you need to be the man that your son didn't have a chance to be. And that broke through him and real quick, he was sobering up and, you know, we probably going to wash his face and straighten his tie and he's going to get back to work because he realized. There's work to do that his son would have had the opportunity to do if he hadn't died in the war. But there's a gap missing that way. And so that kind of straightened him up. And I think that's a good way to look at it, too. You know, like you said, honoring the memory of someone who is lost means you've got to fill a gap there. What can you do to honor their memory with your life? Like you said, who were they and what did they appreciate? Usually when someone dies, you'll hear where a family starts a charity in their honor or something. It may be they make a park bench, you know, with their name on it or something like that. Or they wear sweatshirts that have their face on it. You know, there's these physical ways of kind of remembering who they were. But what can you do with your life that honors the memory of that person and the loss that you feel personally? What could they have done for the world that you can kind of pick up the slack there? And don't waste it because every hurt that you've ever experienced can be turned into something just amazing. Don't waste that opportunity to do good because it's an honor when you've had pain and you can have that mental fortitude. by relying on Jesus, you know, you rely on Christ, God, and you know, God Almighty, Jesus was, you know, was, as I showed in the picture, the reference was Jesus was God, and in a man in a meat suit, okay, like the rest of us, we're all a spirit in a meat suit, you are not this body, you are the spirit that lives forever. And the difference is, where are you going to spend eternity? Are you going to spend it with the golden calf? Or are you going to spend it with God? It's your choice. He lets you walk through the door. He made a way. But he's also going to give you the choice to do that or not. And being with the ultimate in love, I think that that's probably a wise choice. I wouldn't go into the other one because you're going to end up in something that's a million times worse than it is here. And the things that you hate, that you don't like to see in the world, you're going to be there. And that's why wouldn't you want to be in the presence of pure love and acceptance? And why would you honor that? It doesn't make any sense to me. It's illogical, you know? And God exists. He exists. Even if you go back to the Big Bang Theory, this is one of those dumb discussions. Well, you know, we all created the Big Bang Theory. It's like, okay, so who created the stuff that the Big Bang came out of, even if you believe that crap? It's like, it doesn't make any sense. They've never been able to create life out of nothing. The only one that can do that is God, all right? So we can't do those things. We're different. But with the Big Bang, all of the matter just came from energy. Yeah, it's just energy. Well, we're the energy. You've done it. All the energy has just always been there. Yeah. Let's not worship God. Let's worship vibration at this point in time. You realize that people that worship vibration, though there is vibration in everything, but they worship it and they cut God out of it. It's vibration. It's the answer to everything. Okay, guys. Let's go through this again. That's still creation. Still creation. You're worshiping creation. If you worship vibration, maybe a tool to get some, you know, to, to, to change some things, but you're still worshiping creation. Okay. We can't even fathom what God's like. So. The energy was always there and just kind of invisible. And it was there before the big bang. And then that just kind of happened at the big bang, but we can't accept that God exists, but we can accept that energy just, you know, just kind of existed. Yeah. What happens if things change and all of a sudden spaceships land on the, on the earth? It's going to change anything for anybody. It's not me. Cause I'm just going to go like, well, this is an interesting turn of events. It'll be going well, well, well, when things completely go to pieces or things surprise you that you can't relate to. What if we find out all these things that we thought were just stories were true. It's going to change your faith in God. It's not going to change my faith in God. I'm going to change a thing. It's just something else. God's big enough to be able to create all kinds of different stuff. Yeah, he's big enough. We can't relate because we're confined by time and space and these bodies. But that doesn't mean that our soul is. We're not confined to that. I love this. Questions? When I was a teenager, I took a page out of a National Geographic magazine and stuck it on the wall along with a lot of other things. And this particular one was probably Egypt. Probably Egypt. There was a skeleton surrounded by gold. They had jewelry and coins, all kinds of stuff laying on top of this carcass, basically. It was a skeleton. And to me, it was a great image. It says you can't take it with you when you go. You know, here was a people who did everything they could to preserve a body and to pile on top of it things that they thought would help this person in the afterlife. And nothing happened with that. It didn't work. They were still they still. decomposed and they still the gold is here still and they didn't get to take it with them when they went and if they didn't worship god because they had these other idolatry type beliefs they probably didn't get into heaven either i don't know i can't like you said i can't judge that But it was a good reminder to me that, you know, that concept that you can't take it with you when you go. So what can we take with us? What do we leave behind? For me, again, not having kids. What kind of legacy? You know, within a generation, nobody's going to remember my name unless I do something worthy of it. And I don't know. I don't know. The things we do in the spirit develop a record. And so what we take with us is the record that we have created. It's not the physical things. And the only one that it really matters to or should matter to is God Almighty. He understands your record you're creating. He understands what you've done, what you've done, where your heart was. Even if you fell down and you had good intentions, He understands your record. And that's what we take with us. is the record and the relationship with Jesus. The great report of record. So you're saying capitalized the great court of record. Well, it really is. We're developing the record. And so it's an interesting concept. Look at how many times the government was mentioned in the scriptures that I quoted this morning. The government will be on his shoulders. It's all about, there's all kinds of government there. And there's courts. There's courts that are called out in the Bible. It's like you're developing records. a record and the book of life. Think about the book of life and the record that you're creating. You take with you the record. And what does that look like? That's a real interesting question to ponder in this adventure that we have. The things that we do, the things that we put our time into, the things that we, the people we bless, the love that we've given, the spiritual gifts that you've exercised are part of your record. And, you know, it's like ponder that. What do you want to be part of your record when you go face-to-face with God? He already knows, okay? It's not going to be like this big aha moment. You know, He knows. Everybody knows that's up in heaven right now. Remember the multitudes that are watching? They're all watching this. It says it in the Bible. It's pretty darn clear. Your record's out there. But guess what? You're going to have to face it. And so, you know, we take that record. So, you know, when I say go out and live for Christ, be the light in the dark world and create beauty, peace, honor here. And that day you with your intentions, good intentions, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a really good day. I don't think, you know, the day that you get to heaven is going to be anything sad. It's going to be a great day. It's going to be a really, really good day. But while we're here, we bear everything, we hope everything, and we get in the fight, and we fight it to our last breath, unwavering. You might not like it all the time. You might have to have a few minutes just to let off some steam and such. That's healthy. That's healthy. He's not expecting us to be perfect. That's not part of the deal. He is. So anyhow, well, this was a fun show. I need to get to my day because I've got some cooking and wrapping and all that good stuff to do. I have to see where everybody's at. I have to call a few employees and set the stage here for the weekend and go spend time with my caveman. I affectionately call my husband's caveman, okay? So no question about the masculine part of him. He's like a guy's guy's guy, okay? And so I need to go speak to the caveman and plan the day out today. And, and I say that, I say that with kind of jokingly. And I think it's, I think it's funny. He thinks it's funny too. So, so there you go. Let's say a prayer for everyone right now. I would love it if, you know, I put my phone number out there. If any of you are in need of prayer, text me and I'll pray for you. Special prayers, I won't say anything to anyone. I don't gossip about stuff like that. I think that's evil. When people tell you something, you don't go tell anybody. It is evil. If you do that, totally evil. Keep it to yourself and never to be spoken of again, ever. Not for leverage, not for being in the know, not for anything. Zip it. So it's a great way to create peace. You know, to be trustworthy is a really great thing to create peace. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day and every day. And I'm just going to say it. Happy birthday, Jesus. We celebrate your birthday. We know that it was probably in September or October at the Feast of Tabernacles. But we love you. And this day, we celebrate your birth into this world. The beautiful time that that was a salvation of mankind. And we thank you that you love us so much that you would rather die a horrible death and be with us forever because your death was sufficient for all of us to make a way. We're so thankful for everything that you've done. We're thankful for the food, our families. Help us to see people with your eyes, eyes of empathy, of care, of compassion. Help us to exercise our spiritual gifts. We desire them all because we want to be like you. And help us to manage them once we get them. Sometimes it's a little bit of a struggle when we are given spiritual gifts and we're still trying to figure out how to actually use them and not go to the downside of the gifts because they do. They have upsides and they also have downsides if not exercised properly. Thank you so much. for Karen, for Ralph, for all the wonderful people out there. I pray that you would draw close to each and every one. You know the struggles that they deal with. You know their hearts. You know the difficulties they're facing, the losses, the things that make them sad. And you also know the things that make them really happy. and that feed and fill their souls. I ask that every single person who's listening comes to salvation in Christ, not just when they die, but here every day, every minute as we lean on you and we walk through this world, this little adventure that we're on in learning and learning to be more like you and becoming what it is that you have us each planned for being. We all have a different path. You didn't make us as cookie cutters. We're not all the same. We have different opinions. We see things differently. But we're brothers and sisters, and it's kind of a beautiful thing. The differences make us stronger, not the similarities. And I thank you for that. Help us to be tolerant, have empathy. Help us to be the light in this world, to honor you with everything we say and do. We ask for your strength, your provision, and mostly your provision in wisdom and discernment, knowing what to do with discernment, seeing what things are, and then wisdom to know what to do or how to carry it out, to have an effect around us, to be your body, your body, the body of Christ in this very dark world. It's great. Thanks for making us candles. Fantastic. Love it. The challenges we face every day, we celebrate them. We celebrate everything that goes on, both good and the persecution, the things that are tough, because you're just making us stronger every day. And thank you for that. we ask that you would be with those that have had that loss, that don't know how to quite cope with it, and that they would cope by drawing closer to you, and that they can feel your presence, that your presence would fill every single person's home, their presence, and that the joy of the season, the joy of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, comes in and washes away all their tears. banishes all darkness, banishes all sin, that we may walk together in strength and in unity, putting away those things that were meant to divide us and celebrating every minute you give us here to live for you. Thank you. Thank you for everything. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. So there we go. Well, any last words here? Make it quick, guys, because I got to make some calls. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. But I'm also going to do this. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Got to do it. Go to governor.com, even though I don't go there very often. It's a protest, right? Because I'm the best non-conceiter who's ever not conceded in the history of the world. And you guys need to be the best non-conceiters who's ever not conceded to evil in this world, too. And do the opposite. Do what's not expected by the world. Surprise them. Do some surprising things and make your adventure and your record an epic one. So with that said, Merry Christmas. God bless you all. God bless all those whom you love and God bless America. Make it a great season. And I will see you. I'm not sure about Friday, probably not Friday. I'll see you next week, Monday. And it's going to be a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Take the adventure at hand. Take the adventure at hand. Merry Christmas, guys. Thanks for being here. I love you guys. You guys are so amazing. So are you.