God Doesn’t Want You Happy
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
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He's just a regular guy with a cool job that God loves for some reason. Welcome to The Steve Marston Show, a daily journey in learning how to live more like Jesus, conversations with those that God is working through, and dad jokes. It's the most unique show you'll hear today. Now, here's Steve. And away we go. The Steve Marston Show is back. So glad that you're a part of it, especially those of you listening on radio.
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We always want to say a special shout out at the top of the program to those of you listening on 99.5, the Word in Little Rock and in the surrounding areas, as well as those of you listening on AM 630, the Word in San Antonio and surrounding areas. We are super pumped about being with you every single day at three o'clock. And those of you that are here every day, making us kind of appointment listening, we are so grateful for you.
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I just can't say thank you enough for everything that you mean to this program. Ditto goes for those of you that are listening on your own schedule, on your own time, because that's a big part of media as we all know right now. And being able to go back and listen to programs, whether you're doing it chronologically or not, again, thankful that you are taking part in the Steve Marston show. Coming up in a little bit, we're going to be joined
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by Emerson Collins. He is from Focus on the Family, and Focus has such great ministries that just their tentacles just kind of go all over the place in our culture, whether we really realize it or not. And one of the things that they do is bring your Bible to school. It's really pushed towards not just high school students, but really even junior high students all the way up.
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through college age, it is completely legal for you to bring your Bible to school. And not only that, there's so much more that is legal than not when you start talking about faith in the public schools. And we're going to be talking to Emerson about all that, and I'll let you know that their website really breaks everything down. Anyway, we'll be getting to that coming up here in just a little while as well. And we'll also have our segment that we call That's Not in the Bible.
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We're going to break some myths again today, as we do every week. Things that sound right, but just maybe aren't exactly what the Bible truly says. We'll get to that in our second segment. But first, let's talk a little bit about this whole thing about being happy. I know that is what we all say we want, right? Happiness is the key to life, because you can't...
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control your job, you can't control all of your relationships, you can't control a lot of things in life. But boy, if you could just be happy, that's the end all be all. You can get through anything else. And when you ask new parents or new grandparents, what do you want for your child or grandchild? Well, I just want them to grow up. I just want them to be happy in life. And I think that's...
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admirable and of course we all know what that means. However, I don't think that's the biggest thing we ought to be focusing on. Happiness doesn't necessarily mean contentment and contentment is what I think we're driving at. I think whether we're up or we're down, whether we're having a lot of money, not having a lot of money, whether we have experienced
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things difficult or maybe it's kind of smooth sailing right now, just being content where you are and in the circumstances, that means so much more. In fact, I would go on to say that happiness is a lot of times a false oasis, right? You hear those analogies all the time. You're in the middle of a desert and you're parched and you see that vision because
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your brain plays tricks on you and it looks like this beautiful fountain of water and you go to dive into it and it's just a phantom, it's not really there. I really think that's what happiness is in life as well. Now I know this is sounding like such a downer Steve, you don't want people to be happy? No, no, no, it's not that I don't want people to be happy. I think we just try to find happiness in the wrong places.
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happiness is not going to come from our bank accounts. Happiness is not going to come from our kids. It's not going to come from our marriages. Although all these things can be sources of happiness, we just can't find true happiness there. So that sounds, again, pretty bad. Is there any kind of hope? Is there any kind of way to have some joy and some happiness, Steve?
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And I'm glad you asked because there absolutely is. See, I don't think God wants us happy. What I think from reading scripture over most of my adult life and seeing all the things that I've seen in 52 years of living, I've come to know this, God doesn't want us happy. Instead, God wants us obedient because
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When we are obedient, that's when we find our greatest happiness, no matter what life throws at us. Obedience to God's Word and to God's will is what sets Christians apart, I think, from everyone else. And again, it's not something that we're better than anybody, or we have some kind of inside track on how to...
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you know, have a better life. It's the fact that we take God at His Word, and when He says to do something, we do it. When He says not to do something, we do it. And we allow whatever consequences to happen because of those decisions to be left at His doorstep. Charles Stanley, the great longtime pastor of
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First Baptist Church in Atlanta had the in touch ministries. In fact, he's gone on to be with the Lord now, but he still is heard every single day on both of our radio stations here that carry this program. Charles Stanley's wonderful little slogan always was, obey God and leave all the consequences to him. And that is such a pithy little statement, but I think it says volumes for what
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the Christian life really ought to be. And it's really no harder than making our mind up to do it, because we know a lot of times what to do. It's just that we just don't carry out and do it. I can remember back when WWJD was a big deal. Do you remember the little cloth bracelets? We all had them and we would wear them and it just had those letters on there for what would Jesus do? And we were supposed to look at those
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cloth bracelets and have it be a reminder of whatever situation we're in to do whatever Jesus would do in that situation, which was a great reminder and a great physical, tangible thing we could have. But from my own experience, yeah, I knew what Jesus would do, but I didn't always do it, right? So it's not questioning, well, what does God want me to do in this particular situation?
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90 % of the time, we know what he would want us to do. It's just us not following through. And when we don't follow through, that's when we lose the joy of what it's like to be a Christian. Because listen, when we follow him, that's where the greatest happiness, the greatest joy is found by far. But because
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I guess it's our sin nature. It's just our wanting to be the captain of our own ship and to make all of our own decisions that we wrestle against that and we push back against that. And it's so silly when you take a 30,000 foot view of it because, I mean, after all, God created life. I right? I mean, that was His idea, this whole thing called life. He created it. He gave it to us. So don't you think He has the
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best ideas of how to live it, of the things to do to get the most joy and satisfaction out of it? Of course he does. So if we would just get to the point where we would say, okay God, I'm going to obey you and I'm going to set aside me being happy for me looking for you and looking to you for guidance and then not only hearing what you have to say,
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but doing it as well. That's where we'll find our true happiness. More in a minute.
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Welcome back. The Steve Marston Show continues. Discipleship has never been as much fun. Thank you for your company. And on Tuesdays, we do a little feature called, That's Not in the Bible. It's kind of in the vein of the old Mythbusters TV show. Remember that? And I know there's a lot of people that listen to the radio, especially, but those...
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listening to the podcast could fit in this category as well. And that is, people that don't necessarily claim to be a Christian are listening. They just kind of want to see what the other side thinks and have it in kind of a judgment-free zone where they can kind of just be in the shadows and kind of listen and kind of take notes and just determine whether or not this stuff is real and stuff worth being investigated. So if that's you,
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Again, whether you're listening on radio or listening through the podcast, you're welcome here. Anytime you'd like to stop by, please do and stay as long as you'd like. But I think a lot of times with the Bible, whether it's people on the outside or maybe even new Christians on the inside, we kind of get bamboozled a little bit into thinking there's some things that scripture says when they really don't say it at all.
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Or maybe if they do, it's a little bit different than what conventional wisdom says. So let's get into it. That's not in the Bible for this week. Now, when you look at the Bible, when it starts talking about money and starts talking about wealth, it seems like there is a kind of helter-skelter kind of thing. At some points in the Bible, it seems like that rich people are
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welcomed by God and it seems like God has a particular blessing that is on them that's maybe not on other people and then you read some other passages and it seems like, well no, he condemns the rich people and he's lifting up the poor people and the poor people are the most important and they somehow because of their disadvantages in life here and now have some kind of special access
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to God. let's talk about that. Let's talk about the need of possessions and material things for this life. Now, obviously, there are things in this life we have to have. Shelter, know, transportation, food, all of that stuff is necessities. They're not necessarily things that can be done without, to be able to continue physically just
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day in and day out living. However, there's a lot of us that are blessed with more things than others. And what does the Bible say about that? Well, really, the Bible, when it comes to money, is pretty neutral. I mean, basically, it doesn't matter whether you have some or a lot or a little. That's not the dividing line. And that's hard to get sometimes because you listen to Jesus talk.
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especially when he tells his disciples how hard it is for a rich person to get into heaven. It's like he said, a camel going through the eye of a needle. Now just think about that analogy for a second. I mean, think about a needle and how small it is and then the little eye part is where you put the thread. So imagine a huge camel trying to go through that eye. That's what Jesus said.
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It's like for a rich person to get there, to heaven. Now, in that first century audience that he's talking to, his disciples, they're looking around and thinking, well my gosh, who can be saved? Because in their minds, the way they have been taught in their culture, that hey, people with the most stuff have been blessed by God the most and have somehow come to a point where they know more.
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and have a special insider access than the rest of them do. And Jesus is trying to blow that out of the water by saying, no, it's hard for a rich man to go to heaven. And the reason is not because necessarily in and of itself the money or the possessions, but because those are roadblocks. Those make us independent of God.
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What Jesus was trying to drive out there was dependence on God is what is most important. No matter what your bank account says, if you can not allow your possessions and the things that you have take advantage of you and put a barrier between you and God, you're doing good. Now, you look over in the book of 1 Timothy and Paul talks about money.
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and a lot of people misquote it thinking that money is the root of all evil. Well, no, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Meaning, greed is what it really boils down to. Really wanting to hoard as much as you can and going after the things of this world and really collecting
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and piling up all kinds of stuff. Now, again, Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the Bible is not against people having stuff. mean, good grief, go back to Solomon. Solomon, you'll remember what was his most famous thing. He was asked for wisdom as the new leader of the nation of Israel to guide the people, to know what to say and do, because he was just a young guy. He's like, I don't know how to lead these people. Give me wisdom.
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Well then on top of that, God gave him more riches and treasures than you can imagine. But it wasn't anything that was negative. God just chose to bless him in that way. So when you start thinking about the things of stuff, the things of material possessions, and how they dictate our spiritual life,
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Only way they can is when we let them get ahead in priority of God and our relationship and our walk with Him. If we can keep it under control, if we can keep it in its proper perspective, then we are doing well and we are doing what God has said because again, God doesn't care one way or the other how much money you have or don't have.
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What he cares about is you following him, me following him. So, whenever you hear someone talk about possessions and you talk about things that make life better for someone and you maybe get this idea that the Bible is against it and that the Bible has awful lot to say about money being a bad thing or possessions being a bad thing,
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Just know that that is not in the Bible. It's those things having possession of you over God. That's where the differential line is.
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Welcome back. The Steve Marston Show continues. It's where faith and fun both are taken seriously. And we're glad that you're spending some time with us today and got a special guest that we want to bring in. This is an annual event that we get to talk to Emerson Collins with every single year. It's focused on the families, bring your Bible to school day. And it's something that I know has really taken off and really
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has become increasingly popular every single year that it's been going on. So Emerson, welcome back. Great to have you here again, my friend. How are you? Hey Steve, thank you so much for having me. Doing great and so excited for this October 1st for bringing Bob with the school day. God's going to move in a mighty way, brother. He really has because I can just give you some anecdotal stuff with school districts right here in our area where I am of how hungry not only kids are,
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for the gospel. But we are seeing in school districts all around our area administrators and teachers asking for churches to come by and pray for them, for Bible studies to be started. I mean, it is an amazing thing to behold all of what God is doing. And it's really had its genesis, I think a lot of it, with Bring Your Bible to School Day.
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Praise the Lord. Yeah, the next generation is so excited for events like this one. We just had a... you had the poll last week. Yes. We saw an incredible turnout for that as well. Students just going to their flagpole, praying for their schools. It was incredible to see the Lord move in that. And now, know, a week later, we get to bring our Bibles into schools, be the hope and the light that we just prayed for, for our schools. And Steve, you're exactly right. The trend that I've seen with people
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has been just incredible to see our program started in two thousand fourteen with just nine thousand eight thousand and actually brought their bibles to school faithfully praise the lord and then last year twenty twenty five now we have one point three million since participating bring their bible to school got it grown this program he has grown it by impacting parts of young people across our nation and pray the lord continuing to go to continue to advance his gospel after events like point
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And that's the thing is we're seeing this generation of, think, know, 18 to 25 year olds really be serious about their faith. But it's so encouraging that not just that specific target group, but the ones behind it are seeming to have the same kind of goals and trying to really find out about faith and really try to live out their faith. So it is exciting. Let's jump in the way back machine a little bit. Let's start it.
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back at 2014, how did Bring Your Bible to School Day get started? I mean, I know Focus on the Family does so much good in our culture with every kind of ministry that they reach out to, but where did this start? How did this come about? Yeah, so in 2014, Focus on the Family was looking at our culture, and we were seeing a large jump kind of away from truth, away from kind of the anchor of truth, and we saw Bibles.
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being taken out of public schools. And what a tragedy that is. It's the most printed book in the world. It's the most important book in the world for multiple reasons. And we decided, hey, that's a tragedy. Let's bring the Bible back into schools. It's the message of hope and life and healing that we so desperately need. is that anchor of truth. It's a compass that puts us in the right direction. So focus on the family. Started bring your Bible to school day to celebrate.
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To celebrate those things I had just mentioned and so yeah, like I said earlier 8,000 students brought their Bibles to school faithfully and praise the Lord God has just continued to grow this program and since it started off kind of as a response to the culture it has actually now grown into a proactive evangelistic type of program now where students are just so excited about sharing their faith in Jesus Christ the hope in life that we have in the gospel that I think that because of that transition that shift in programs
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mindset young people have just taken it and championed it across the nation. And I believe that's why we have over a million participants now year over year. So praise the Lord, Steve, God is at work in the next generation. And I believe we're actually anticipating 1.5 million participants this year, bringing their Bibles faithfully, sharing a message of hope and life to their schools. That is something because like you say, I can remember back, I mean, it doesn't seem like it's been that long ago, but 2014 was actually quite a little ways ago. And
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when all of that was happening, they were saying, yeah, you can't talk about Bible, you can't talk about Jesus religion. And the thing that we kind of, that Focus was leading the charge on was, yes, you can. Even in a secular school setting, a teacher can talk about Jesus and the Bible in context of a historical account. And then if a question is raised in classrooms,
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The teacher can, and I think is obligated in a lot of states, to tell whatever they know about the subject, whether it be Jesus or whether it be the Pythagorean Theorem, whatever. If a question is raised, that opens the door for even a teacher. So there was so much misinformation there for such a long time, and I was so glad that Focus stood on the front lines and said, wait a minute, and started pushing back against the culture a little bit.
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Yeah, that's right, Steve. I can't tell you even today how many parents have to remind that their students are protected under the First Amendment to share their faith in schools. As long as you're not disrupting the thing that's happening in these places, you can have a conversation about Christ in the gospel. You can open your book, your Bible during the reading period. And for all the teachers or educators listening, please go down to our website, bringyourbible.org. We have worked in partnership with the Alliance Defending Freedom to create
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an entire educators guide for you in terms of what you can and cannot do in your schools. You pretty much prefaced it pretty well there, Steve, but please go check out the educators guide. We want to, of course, respectfully represent Jesus Christ in the public spheres, and we want to encourage and equip parents, educators, and students to go and do that. Absolutely. And again, when you're talking about kids opening up their Bible and sharing their faith and everything,
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I think the number one rule, and again, you could refer to the website, but I think the number one rule is as long as it's not disruptive, as long as you're not supposed to be doing something else, it's all everything's on the table. That's exactly right. The key word here, yeah, is non disruptive. Steve, you're exactly right. Students, not standing on our desk.
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not start starting to your hard brawls, right? But we are there's something to be said about the quiet confidence in Christ and His Word and bringing your Bible to school. You'd be surprised, Steve, how just this simple act of faith, carrying your Bible in between classes, opening and reading it during a free period, to open the door for many students to share the gospel with their classmates, even bring their friends to faith. I get to read some of those awesome stories, Steve. And it's just so amazing to see and to hear what God is doing in our schools today.
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Emerson Collins is our guest here from Focus on the Family, and coming up on October 1st, it's Bring Your Bible to School Day, and it's something that has been going on now for over 10 years, and it has just grown by leaps and bounds, and we're discussing it here. And again, we'll hit that website before we finish up our conversation again to let educators know what and what they cannot do. And again, it's so wide open that you'll be probably surprised at how much you can.
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do and say as an educator and in the classroom. But I wanted to talk a little bit more about some of these stories that have come through, because we hear this all the time and we just hear the kind of the surface level stuff. Some of the stories that have been posted are just amazing. And do you have a few of them that you could share with us? Of course, oh man, it's hard to pick just one, but one comes to mind immediately. Actually, speaking of just opening the door.
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to your fellow classmates. One girl brought her Bible to school last year and she had actually, she was in early high school, but she had written in the margins of her Bible, just her cries out to the Lord. And when she had written in those margins, she was actually wrestling with suicidal ideation, but the Lord, praise God, had brought her through that, but she had those notes in her margins. And so when she opened her Bible to quietly read during a free reading period, a friend had actually walked by her desk and saw those notes.
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in her margins, her cry to the Lord. And her friend actually shared with her she was also having similar thoughts. Well, that opened the door for this young girl to have a conversation with her friend, to share that passage with her friend that had brought her through that very difficult time in her life. It allowed her and her family to come alongside this other young girl and her family. And just a couple of months after this, friend got baptized into the church and is now a believer in Jesus experiencing the hope and life and healing comes.
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from that and is getting the help she needs for those thoughts. Steve, you never know just from a simple act of faith, bringing your Bible, opening and reading it in the public sphere, how that can open up the door to even save a life. So that's one of the stories that comes to mind. Another just heartwarming story is of young David in Michigan. Two years ago, he participated and brought his Bible to school, opened it also during a free reading period. And the teacher saw that and picked it up and actually read to the class the story of Nazark.
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Well, enough students were interested in this Bible reading that David started a Bible study after school where he and his friends and he and his little second grade friends play tag for 15 minutes and then they read the Bible together from his Bible. And that Bible study actually has continued now to this day and has grown immensely. Praise the Lord. I get to see stories just like this one. If you want to see some of them for yourself, check out our hashtag, hashtag bring your Bible on speaker Instagram.
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and see some of the awesome ways God is at work in the hearts of our young people. Emerson Collins is our guest from Focus on the Family and Focus back in 2014 started Bring Your Bible to School Day, which comes up on Thursday this week. Now, in this, normally in the old days, it may have been a little bit tough this late in the game to kind of get involved with it as far as maybe, you know, with posters and letting people know. But with all the
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downloads and everything available. I would imagine it's not too late for people to get the materials to be able to put out around their school campuses, right? No, no, it's definitely not too late. Please, please go to our website, BrainBible.org. We have all the resources to help equip you and your students so that they feel prepared on the day. We've got a legal memo that we created that you can... I encourage you guys, please print out as soon as you can and hand to your teacher or principal.
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so that they are aware of your First Amendment rights, as well as just being notified you'll be participating on the day. We've got those student rights information. We also have conversation guides that you can go through with your student as well, just to help start the conversation about Christ and the gospel with their classmates. We have answers to tough questions about Christianity that they may face on the day. We have a social media guy. We have answers to some questions like, hey, is the Bible true? Important things and good things to know before you go.
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into the public sphere with your Bible just so that you're equipped and prepared. But of course, Steve, if you don't have the answer to a question and there's an infinite number of questions you may get, none of us have all the answers. I encourage our students just to respond humbly. Say, hey, I don't have the answer to that. But would you like to come to church or youth group with me this week? We can have my pastor together. It opens the door for us to invite our friends to our Christian sphere, our Christian family, for us to encourage them to also
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partake in this beautiful community that we get to be a part of. It certainly does because the power of an invitation is so big. survey after survey after survey, shows that if someone would just invite me to church, I would probably go. And we as believers a lot of times shy away from this so much, but you're right, using your Bible at school could be an excellent way of just saying, hey, why don't you come to Youth Group? Why don't you come?
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hang out with us, and just be a part of... because everybody was looking for community, whether you're a teenager or a preteen or, you know, even as adults. We're all needing community, and this is a wonderful way to be able to open that door for sure. Emerson College is our guest here on the Steve Marston Show, and we're talking about this Thursday's Bring Your Bible to School Day, and we're encouraging really everybody, right, from kindergarten all the way up through the college ranks, right?
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Yeah, that's exactly right. And I would actually want even to go farther beyond that because, I can't tell you how many stories I read each year of students actually who are hesitant to participate and bring your Bible to school day until mom or dad picks up their Bible and my Bible to work if you bring your Bible to school. So parents, let's also be the example to our kiddos and hey, our workplaces need Christ as well. So I encourage you parents, pick up your Bibles, bring your Bible to work.
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when you can, and be the example to your kiddos of what it means to be an advocate for Christ in the gospel where you are and where you've been planted. That is such a good point because it's always more about what they see versus what they hear, right? That's an excellent point. Okay, just before we wrap up here, we got a couple of minutes left. Let's go through it again.
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Where can they go for the website and getting the materials and everything for Bring Your Bible to School Day, Emerson, coming up on Thursday? Yeah, for everything we discussed in this interview, visit our website, bringyourbible.org. That's bringyourbible.org. We have everything right there that you could possibly need to get prepared for the day so you can a great experience. And of course, even if you can't visit the website or do any of the things we talked about during this, pray over your student.
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sure they have their Bible with them on this Thursday, October 1st, so they can be a light for Christ in their schools. And then they can also share on social media, right, with hashtags for pictures and different things that are going on with Bring Your Bible to School Day. That's right. Please, please use our hashtag, hashtag bring your Bible, and share your story on social media. We want to highlight your story on our pages.
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as well as we may be reaching out to your student to encourage them. And maybe they may get a shout out on our magazines that focus on the family clubhouse magazine. We love to encourage kiddos by highlighting their stories in those magazines. They can see themselves just being a bright light for Christ, encouraging others in their faith. That is fantastic. It's such God's great work that you're doing there at Focus on the Family, Emerson. We really appreciate your time, buddy.
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And God bless you. And we just pray in expectancy for some great turnouts and some great stories to be happening from Bring Your Bible to School Day coming up on Thursday. Amen. Thank you, Steve, for having me. Absolutely. That's Emerson Collins, everybody, from Focus on the Family. Again, I would encourage you, please make sure your kids, your grandkids are participating in this. Bring Your Bible to School Day is an amazing thing. And it again just highlights
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the rights that we do have in this country. It seems like a lot of times that we're losing our freedoms, we hear people complain about that. Well, if we participate in stuff like this, it will go a long way to preserving those freedoms. So don't let it get away this Thursday. And again, I thought he was so good with the fact that, you know what? Parents, bring your Bible to school too. They'll learn so much and see so much in us.
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doing versus just hearing, which by the way is their verse for Bring Your Bible to School this year, James 1 22, where it says, be doers of the word and not just hearers only. It's one of my favorite Bible verses of all time and I'm glad to see it being used with Bring Your Bible to School Day. So again, focus on the family, do an amazing job in all of their ministries, but especially this one. Bring Your Bible to School Day is October 1st.
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Steve Marsden Show continues. It's the Christian radio show and podcast that really matters. And it's a thrill and a delight as always to be with you. Let's get to some of the stories that you may have missed. This comes from For King and Country, the Christian music band that is just so good. They basically took all of last year off to do some songwriting and to put together a brand new project. And Luke Smallbone, one of the
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members of the band says the new album is a collection of journal entries from his life. It's called The Most Beautiful Colors. That's the name of the album. And the brothers, Luke and Joel Smallbones, stepped away after last year to give them the opportunity to spend more time at home with their families, but also, as I said, to create some more music. And they said, I think when this album came out, because we were at home, it was just...
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been shaped by the beautiful mundane. I think sometimes people think that they're only doing significant things for Jesus if it's not mundane. He said, I would just generally rebuke that and say, no, it's the mundane that is the foundation of the rest of your life. That comes from Luke Smallbone, and he's absolutely right. That's such a wonderful point that it's the little things. Day in and day out, the routine
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When we're faithful in that, he's so right. That's the foundation of our faith. Because it's when the big things come and the things of life, whether they're good or bad, that just blow up our world. It's because of the mundane faithfulness that we're able to handle better whatever comes in the big gargantuan things. Does that make sense? He goes on to say,
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I just don't feel good enough. I don't feel like I'm a good enough husband. I don't feel like I'm a good enough father. I don't feel like I walk with Jesus the way I should. I just don't feel good enough a lot of times. However, he says it's not about me and my actions. It's about him and his faithfulness and me just being willing to follow. Boy, I like that a lot. So anyway, for King and Country's new album called
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but the most beautiful colors. And by the way, you remember the other day we talked about that album also includes a song with Jessica Simpson. Those of you that grew up in the 90s, you'll know who that is. So you can check that out wherever you get your music. This has been a story that has been going around the last couple of days. I don't know if you're familiar with this Christian organization called Life Surge. Well, their founder has agreed to a permanent restriction.
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in the Department of Justice case but denies any wrongdoing. So let's get into this a little bit. The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with its case against Joe Johnson, the founder of the Christian company Life Surge. The settlement gave the DOJ the central relief that it sought, permanently barring Johnson from the organization as well as promoting, selling, and assisting with or participating in charitable real estate.
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Bargain sale transactions is what the heart of the lawsuit was now Johnson admits no wrongdoing on his part the settlement documents require no money monetary payment from him now the form a former CEO of life surge said that The events were Basically what life surge did were one-day events across the United States which offered education in trading real estate and business
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Johnson said he left his role as CEO of LifeSurg last September and now serves as the founder role. says LifeSurg was neither named as a defendant nor accused of any wrongdoing in the DOJ's pursuit of Johnson. However, LifeSurg has been the subject of some investigative reporting from Mother Jones, which is a website that links more to the left, and Pablo Torre finds out, also an investigative journalism site online.
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raised questions about the organization's practices, as well as the celebrities, including Tim Tebow, who speaks for and promotes LifeSurge. And again, this LifeSurge basically would just teach you about how to buy and sell and flip real estate and trading and all the kind of ins and outs for a price where you come in and you get the training and blah, blah. And they would bring in these special speakers like Tim Tebow.
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And, uh, anyway, it's turned out to be a little bit more, maybe not on the up and up, I guess, at least that's what the, uh, the OJ was looking into for sure. And as for Tim Tebow himself, he has told reporters that he is pausing his relationship with LifeSurge as the investigation continues there. And again, I don't think Tebow has done anything wrong. I think he was just paid a speaker's fee, just like any other organization. It's just.
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kind of what has the organization done outside of these different Christian celebrity speakers. Here's something a little bit on a more higher positive note. J.R.R. Tolkien has joined C.S. Lewis in the Westminster Abbey's Poets Corner. Tolkien was a devout Catholic author whose beliefs shaped the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings will be honored with a memorial in the Poets Corner at London.
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Westminster Abbey alongside his close friend C.S. Lewis. Westminster Abbey announced that the memorial to the author, scholar, linguist, and artist is scheduled to be unveiled next spring coinciding with the 90th anniversary. Wow, 90 years of the Hobbit and the 50th anniversary of the Similarian. Easy for me to say. Tolkien and Lewis met while they were both teaching at Oxford University and became lifelong pals.
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They're the central figures in the Inklings, an informal literary group whose members gather to discuss the ideas and to read their works. And then as for Westminster Abbey, the Reverend David Hoyle highlighted Tolkien's Christian worldview in the announcing of the memorial. He said, I am delighted that there will be a memorial to J.R.R. Tolkien in the Abbey and that the memorial will be a thing of beauty.
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The Hobbit was read to me when I was a boy and when I was a little older I read The Lord of the Rings, then I read it again. We will remember a master storyteller, a scholar, and a man with Christian imagination and a writer who helped some understand that a commitment to life and virtue might be costly and courageous. So yeah, that's pretty cool to get to see that J.R.R. Tolkien is going to be taking his place there in Westminster Abbey.
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To me, that's gotta be long overdue for sure. And then one more quick story here. There's a world relief organizations are asking President Trump to raise refuge cap and prioritize persecuted Christians across the world. Basically, they wanna make sure that there's some funds can go to help our persecuted brothers across the world, especially in South Africa. So hopefully,
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President Trump and his administration will see that as a need and do that.
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Here at the Steve Marston Show, we're serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke, too. The dad joke of the day comes to us from the home office in Haskell, Arkansas. What do you call a fish wearing a bow tie? Sophisticated.
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I think it just makes sense if you really think about it. Steve Marsden Show rolling on, helping you live more like Jesus. I want to tell you a quick thing that we've got on our website that I don't think we talk about near enough, and that is our free PDF. It is Five Tips for Bible Study. I really think it will help you out as you try to grow in your faith, because we talk about that a lot.
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learning God's Word, being able to handle God's Word rightly and correctly, and doing so with confidence. And I think a lot of times that's where we lack. We want to be dependent on maybe a workbook or a devotional book to help us out in those areas because we just don't feel as confident that we can open up to a passage of Scripture, be able to look at it, and be able to correctly interpret it and correctly
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apply it. Well, this PDF can help you do that. It's just strategies, it's just tips of what to do when you get ready to open up God's Word for yourself. So if you think it'll help you, we want to give it to you absolutely free, no strings attached, you just fill out the little form and boom, it'll come to you as a direct download PDF, absolutely free, five tips for Bible study. I do, I think it'll help you out. You can get it
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Again, absolutely free at SteveMarsdenShow.com. SteveMarsdenShow.com. Okay, let's get to faith between your ears. Speaking of learning God's Word and being able to have it in between our ears is so vitally important for the growth of our faith. And we are learning this week Jeremiah 9, 24. And the Bible says this,
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Let him boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord." That has so much there in those brief little statements. But man, anything that we should want to boast in, let's boast in that. That we understand
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and that we know God because God practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. Those things, he declares, is the things that he delights in. So let's learn that Bible verse. However it takes you to learn it, let's do so. And again, there are no excuses. There are no, oh, I can't do that. That's too many words. No, it's not. It may take you...
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longer now than it used to to learn things, but you can memorize just as well as you ever could. So let's put it to memory. Jeremiah 9, chapter 20, or verse 24. All right, we're just about out of time for today. We leave you with your next step. I think your next step after listening to today's podcast is to make sure your kids and grandkids bring their Bible to school on Thursday. We're out of time.
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Back on the radio tomorrow at three o'clock. I'll be hanging out at SteveMarsdenShow.com until then. Adios.
