Christians! If Jesus Came Back This Week, Would You Be Ready?
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. Okay, welcome in. The Steve Marston Show is underway, and I am so grateful to be with you. I want to say a special shout out to all of our radio listeners.
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This show started years ago now on 99.5 The Word in Little Rock, Arkansas. After a few months, it was picked up by AM 630 The Word in San Antonio, Texas. And every single day since then, both radio stations have been broadcasting this show at 3 PM weekdays. And we are just eternally grateful for that. We're also especially grateful for those of you listening online on your own schedule, grateful to be with you as well.
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Now coming up here in our next segment, we're going to do our Sunday morning takeaways. This is where we get interactive with you and we ask you to tell us about the sermon you heard yesterday and maybe some of the little truths or nuggets that stood out to you that will be able to help you as you move through the week. We do this because not only can we brag on Jesus in this, but we can also encourage others by just knowing what God is doing in the lives.
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of people just like you and me that are listeners and consumers of this program. But I wanted to start with something that I think every Christian needs to answer. Now, as believers, we've already wrestled with the existential questions of, you know, what is our purpose? What is the meaning of life? Is there anything orderly to this existence?
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If you are a follower of Jesus, if you have laid your sins at the foot of the cross and you have decided, am going to make Jesus not only the Savior of my life, but the Lord of my life and take up that cross every single day and walk through life as a follower of Him, then we've all come to the conclusions of what those existential questions are. We know
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what the purpose is because we actually have a purpose now. We know the meaning of life and we know what this all points to and it's not some random just chance. It's a very ordered, very structured kind of deal that we're living in. However, I think there is another question that we as believers maybe haven't wrestled with enough, maybe haven't answered.
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in the affirmative enough. And that is knowing everything we know that Jesus is coming back soon. That's His last promise to us after everything that happened where He came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, know, exchanged His righteousness and His holiness for our unrighteousness and our unholiness so that we could have a way to the Father after all of that.
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The last thing he said that he's going to do is to come back and he's going to right all the wrongs and he's going to bring us to where he is. That's his last and great promise to us and that's what we put our faith in and that's what our hope is in. That's what allows us a lot of times to even face this crazy nutty world because that's the ultimate hope. Jesus has done everything
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He said he was going to do in the past, so we're putting our faith that that final promise is going to come true. But what if we knew that Jesus' coming back would be, let's say, by the end of the week? You've got five days before Christ comes back. Are you living what Christ has called you to live out? Are you the disciple that he would expect?
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but more importantly that you would want to be. That's a good question. And I got to thinking and wrestling with that because I know in my life, I grew up a big radio guy, okay? I loved radio and I loved especially listening to sports on the radio and I still do it to this day. And I always thought I could do sports on radio.
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And that's what I worked toward for a lot of my twenties and thirties. I had gotten to a point in music radio where I didn't feel like they were, you know, taking me seriously and not allowing me to be promoted up. was kind of stuck in a part-timer deal. I thought, well, the one dream I've always had is to work for like a university, to be able to be their media guy and to do.
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their football and basketball and baseball play by play, you know, to be able to cover those teams and be able to make a living doing that. That was the ultimate goal. And I remember having the chance where I thought, okay, I'm going to now participate in that dream. I'm going to actually work towards that. And I got really close. I did. In fact, I was up for a...
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position at a school that was not a huge university, but it was Division I in athletics, which means the highest echelon. And I was excited and I thought, here we go, this will be a stepping stone to a bigger job and I will be able to use this gift for the glory of God. That was my whole mindset. And as I got to working in it and then pursuing that dream,
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All of a sudden it changed and everything that the employer had promised me was kind of pulled out from underneath me. So in the span of literally 15 months, I went from being ecstatic about this opportunity to being able to fulfill what I thought was the one thing I really wanted to do with my career to having nothing, to being out of work.
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just in that quick of an amount of time. And I remember pretty distinctly God telling me, you know, and again, look, I'm a Southern Baptist. God doesn't speak audibly to me. And I don't hear the voice of God a lot of times outside of Scripture. But I do remember this one very clearly. It's like...
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hey, you've done what you've wanted to do, I've let you pursue that dream, even though it didn't last 30 years like you thought it was going to last, you got to do it. Now it's time for you to do what I want you to do. I just remember having that in my spirit. And I got to thinking, that's what I'm called to do, is doing things that lay down my hopes, my dreams, and pursuing.
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what God has. That means reaching out to others. That means being able to do and say no to myself and put others' needs ahead of me. And that's what happened in my life. And I feel like if Jesus were to come back in five days, I think he would be happier with me now than in any other time in my life because I have
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laid all of my hopes and dreams at the foot of the cross and said, God, I want to do what you would have me to do. But have you done that? You know, it took me a long time. It did. It took me, gosh, 15, 20 years to realize it. But now as I'm getting towards, you know, my 50s and in through my 50s, I'm realizing that I'm
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just really starting to find out what God really has for me. I don't want you to wait that long. Look and examine your life, because I can't do it for you. No pastor can do it for you. It has to be between you and God. You have to examine your motives, examine your heart, and ask, are you the disciple that Jesus would want you to be right here, right now, this very moment?
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Because if he came back at the end of the week, what would he find you doing? Would he find you being about his business or being about your business? Now again, I'm not here to judge and I'm not here to make you feel bad about anything. I'm just here to bring the question because I think it's important and I think it's relevant for all of us as believers to make sure
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that on the regular we're asking these questions so that we can be everything he's called us to be. right, stick around. More of the Steve Marsden Show next.
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The Steve Morrison Show continues. Thank you for being a part today. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. On Mondays, we like to do what we call Sunday morning takeaways. We go back 24 hours and ask you to tell us about the sermon that you heard yesterday. And we do it for a couple of reasons. One is to brag on Jesus, just what He spoke to you about. And secondly, to be an encouragement, because other people hear this and
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something about hearing how God is moving in the lives of others encourages us to realize, yeah, know, God speaking to them, they're no different than I am. He can speak to me as well. So we'll be getting to yours here in just a second. But first, let me tell you about mine. I am fortunate and blessed enough to go to a church where we actually have a Sunday night service. And I know that's not kind of in vogue anymore, but...
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We do have one, and a lot of times it's the best sermon and service of the week. And last night was really good. My pastor was talking about Jesus being the Good Shepherd, and then he transitioned that into Acts, where the Apostle Paul met for the last time with a group of elders from the church at Ephesus. And it's recorded for us there of Paul...
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feeling compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. And this, he knew was going to be basically a death sentence. The people that he was talking to knew it was going to be a death sentence. And this was kind of the culmination, the last time that they would see each other face to face after more than three years together working and pouring out each
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and every drop of energy and the whole blood, sweat, and tears kind of thing to make sure the gospel got out to all of that area, especially into Asia and on and on. It was an important three years in the life of the Apostle Paul. And now he knows that this is the last time he's going to be with these people that he had shared so much with.
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And it's very sad. At the end, you know, there's a lot of tears. They're hugging one another. They're saying their goodbyes. And it was a powerfully emotional thing. And I'm so thankful that God put it on the heart of the guy, Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke. He also wrote the Book of Acts to record this. Luke, I guess, instinctively knew this was a big deal and recorded the conversation. And I'm so grateful that he did because it shows the heart.
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of the Apostle Paul who was so powerfully used by God to be the overseer. know, if you work with a good boss, you work with someone who is extremely well-versed in what they do, you know there's a lot of leeway you can get away with. You don't have to have all the answers because, you've got the guy or the girl that really can help you out if you get into trouble.
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Well, that's what all of these leaders really were about with the Apostle Paul. I mean, if any kind of theological question popped up or any kind of dilemma of what would Jesus have us to do, I mean, they had the ear of an apostle who met with Jesus face to face. I mean, that's pretty stinking cool. And it's a very good resource to have, right?
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Paul is telling them, you're not going to have me anymore. And to be on the lookout for people who are going to spring up, because it's not if they are, it's when they spring up, to try to lead people astray and to try to be those wolves in sheep's clothing to damage the flock. He says, be sure and be aware that's your first and most important role.
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And I think a lot of times we look at that as maybe a pastor's job, but really anybody who is a true disciple of Christ that is really wanting to take the next step and go layers deeper cares about the condition of the flock as well and wants to make sure that everything that is done and said is in purity and done and and reached out to the way Jesus would do it.
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very serious charge and a command that Paul put on those people. And wow, it was just something that you read that kind of text, that little speech, and it is, man, it's certainly powerful. You can find it in the book of Acts. I would encourage you, if you have a little time today, to check it out. It is Acts chapter 20, where Paul is talking to these people and it starts,
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in verse 17. Okay, let's get to some of your Sunday morning takeaways. I'm always encouraged and interested in what you have. Let's see, Morgan checked in saying the sermon she heard about was standing firm in my faith while not affirming sin. That's good. Lynn said making your dash count, meaning she put her name and saying the year of her birth with the dash.
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to be determined. So what are you going to do in the middle in that dash? That's good stuff. Marie said, I'm sorry, Eric said, the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and the end. Jesus is not only the start and the finish, but He's everything in between. like that. Kim said, Genesis chapter 3, the fall of man and the inception of sin, the serpent deceives Eve in the garden. Okay.
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Chris said, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the immorality in the church. And that's another one of the deals from the Apostle Paul. Let's see, who else checked in? Oh, Jay Cleveland checked in. I love that name. Jay said that the sermon he heard was about the parable of the sower or how people respond to the message of God. Yeah, that's such an interesting little part of Scripture where...
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you know, Jesus talks about there's the sower that goes out and sows seed and there's four types of soil, which we can extrapolate a little bit to being four types of people or four types of responses to the gospel. And it's really powerful stuff. Thank you, Jay, for checking in. Who else? Oh, Cindy said, the pastor...
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walked out to the instrumental version of Aerosmith's Walk This Way. Okay? And he preached out of Ephesians chapter 5 saying, Walk in God's will and be fulfilled with the Spirit by surrendering not just a few hours on Sunday morning, but every part of your life. Wow. Now, all right, you know, I think that's an amazing sermon. I think that's truly needed to hear.
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Coming out to walk this way from Aerosmith? You know, I don't know. Maybe I'm getting to be a stick in the mud, but I don't know that that's needed. But hey, thank you, Cindy, so much. Back with more coming up.
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Welcome back. It's the Steve Marston show. Discipleship has never been more fun. And I'm so glad that you are joining us because we get to talk right now about one of my favorite ministries that happens every single year with Operation Christmas Child. Now, Operation Christmas Child is a ministry that my church has gotten behind the last several years. It really has involved everyone from the smallest child up to
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the oldest adult in our church being coming together to put these shoe boxes together for these kids all around the world. And we've done up to 3,000 boxes every single year. And that's not to brag, that's just to say how much we believe in Operation Christmas Child. Now, we're going to be talking with one of their spokespeople.
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And a lesser podcast host, let me just tell you the truth. This is a little inside baseball. Okay. A lesser podcast slash radio host would talk to the person off air and get a correct pronunciation of their name. And they would try it out, maybe say it three or four times in practice. And then once everything was rolling, then they would say, Oh yeah, here's my friend and pronounce the name.
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Perfectly without any flub-ups and just like they oh, yeah simple do it all the time Right. Well, that's not how we roll around here I'm gonna try to do this just by looking at the pronunciation guide that was sent to me and You just tell me if I get close to this. Okay, so on the phone with us now is Operation Christmas Child a manual OC era
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Is that right? Is that even close, Emmanuel?
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Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. That's good. Okay, is that good or is that right? Osire is the right way. Osire. Osire. See, I knew I was going... I wanted to try, but I failed. But that's okay. Emmanuel Osire is our guest, and he is someone who is involved heavily with one of my favorite ministries, and that's Operation Christmas Child. And you have a very interesting story, Emmanuel, about how you were...
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recipient of a shoe box that Operation Christmas Child People packed and sent to you in Uganda when you were growing up. Let's talk a little bit about your story. Yeah, so I received the shoe box when I was a little boy in Uganda, 13 years old. And at the time, me and my family were going through what I love to call a wilderness. It was poverty, lack and scarcity of literally everything.
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One of the things I remember was getting meals. Getting meals was a challenge. Some days we had two meals, other days we had one meal, and on the bad day we had porridge, and that was it. And so it was amidst challenges like that of housing, school fees, or what we call tuition here, among others, that my mom met a lady from Operation Christmas Child.
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and they organized an outreach at church. Thanks be to God it came to pass. I remember the day, the beautiful sunrise, the excitement in the air, and the warmth in our hearts when we saw a team from Operation Christmas Child bringing in the big brown patterns with shoe boxes. Now, the long story short, when I received my shoe box, I felt special, I felt known, I felt loved. And even as a little boy,
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I had like God was speaking to me, of course not out loud like thunder, but quietly in my heart, Emmanuel, I know you, I love you, I will never leave you nor forsake you, your name is written in the palm of my hand. So that's a little bit of my experience receiving the shoebox, Well, let's talk a little bit about had you known or heard of Jesus Christ and His forgiveness and the way that He could come in and change your life.
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Had you heard about that up to this point as a 10 year old? So Steve, my situation was kind of different from other children. I come from a pastor's family and being a pastor's family, you know that, you know, we learn to pray when we're still in our mother's womb. Sure. We give our lives to Christ like a hundred times. You know, whenever they make an altar call, you're the first to give your life to Christ.
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Sure. So I have enough insurance to go to heaven. I'm kidding about that. Anyway, so what I'm saying is this. For me, receiving the shoe box was a reminder that God was still in the life's boat with me, with us. And so during the difficult situations, I was like, God, where are you? You know, we are worried about God, but we don't see nothing.
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And so the shoe box came in a time that assured me that God was still in the life spot with me. So for me, it was an assurance. Steve. That is amazing. So I'm reading part of your bio here, and it says, because you talked about the hard times that you and your family went through. And I'm reading here, it says that your father left the country and never returned to Uganda. What was the story there?
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So my dad went to the UK to attend a conference. However, things did go as planned. So he got visa issues and he wasn't able to come back as expected. Oh, wow. And so I like, yeah. And so I like to think about it like, you know, ship without a shepherd. We do like, you know, ship without a shepherd is a dangerous scenario.
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You know, it makes the ship prone to attacks. You know that the ship that provides protects and preserves. Yeah, so that's kind of the story about that, you know, living in the country. OK, well that just goes to show how God can use Operation Christmas Child and has used it because a lot of times these shoe boxes are packed and sent to people and they're used as gospel tools to be able to introduce people to Jesus.
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maybe for the very first time. But this is so encouraging and so inspiring that God would use something as simple and almost as random as a shoe box to be able to reassure you of His love and His protection and the fact that He has never ever left you, even in the hardest and most unfair of times.
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Yes, correct Steve. And in one of my definitions of a shoebox, I say that a shoebox is a big gift that comes in a small package. It's like a ray of light in the darkness. It's like a sound of sweet melody amidst the noise. It's like a river in the desert. So what I'm trying to say is that a shoebox may look small, but man, it's a big, big gift that makes a huge
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difference too. It really does. And maybe we need to backtrack a little bit here and let those who are listening go, wait a minute, a shoe box? What are you guys talking about? Well, Samaritan's Purse does Operation Christmas Child where they literally ask us to fill shoe boxes with different items. And they have a whole list that you can put into the shoe box. And it's everything from hygiene items to little games and toys, right, Emmanuel?
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Correct, that's correct, yes. Yeah, and so you pack those up and they take them in Samaritan's Purse, puts them on airplanes, and they use them as opportunities to bring the gospel to people who maybe have never heard it before in their lives and to be able to, in Emanuel's case, to show him that he still loved, even though life had seemed so hard and so unfair with his dad.
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not being able to return to country because of visa restrictions while he was out, now this was a confirmation. So I'm so thankful that God has used that in your life. as you grew up, that happened when you were 10 years old, as you grew up and your mom, like you said earlier, developed that relationship with an Operation Christmas Child worker at the church to host an event, how did God bring you from
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Uganda to the states to be able to talk about all the great stuff of Operation Christmas Child. Yeah, thank you Steve for the question. Really interesting question there. So my wife now was already in the states. Her dad had won what we call a diversity lottery visa and so this allows you to come in the US at live, live and work here. So he had two of her daughters come over.
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One was my wife, so they came to Colorado and when she had got her citizenship, she had me join her too. So that's how I come to the US team. Oh, that's amazing. I love that. So so tell me about the culture shock from leaving Uganda to coming to the United States. What were some of the things you first? Noticed what were some of the things that just kind of blew you away from life here versus life there?
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Good question Steve. I must say that Life in the US and life in Uganda is like day and night is so different So one of the things that you know got my attention was how? Kind of everybody was you know minding their own business, know, mm-hmm And which is not the case from you know in Uganda. The other thing was the cold winter in Colorado
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I bet. What is like the lowest temperature that it gets in Uganda normally? I would say like maybe 70 or 60. Oh my gosh, I bet that was. Yeah, so 7. I mean it is pretty warm. It's pretty tropical all year round. Right now when I came to the winter in Colorado, I was like.
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Are people supposed to even live here? My winter. Listen, I live in a state that's further south than the Colorado. And I feel that way. I'm not sure that people, don't know why people spend the winters in Colorado. I really don't. It gets brutally cold. It gets brutally cold. I'm glad that you're, I'm glad that you're joining us now.
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With Operation Christmas Child, you've been able to, I guess, tour not only Colorado and stuff, but you're able to tour the entire country, right? Yes, I'm now a national speaker. So let's talk a little bit about that. What does that mean to be a national speaker? And what does it mean to you personally to be a national speaker for Operation Christmas Child? Oh my gosh, it's such a blessing to me.
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You know, given my, I believe it's one of the purposes and plans God had for me. I love ministering. I love traveling. So it just, you know, clicks with me. I just love it. I find it a special privilege to go out and share with people how God brought me out of the Mary clay and set my feet upon the rock. And many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. So it's really, really amazing. Love it.
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I'm so thankful and I love the joy and the passion that you have that's just coming through your voice here. Emmanuel from Operation Christmas Child is joining us here on the Steve Marston show. Now coming up real soon, November 16th through the 23rd is the collection week. It's for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. So if your church isn't involved with Operation Christmas Child, it's still not too late. You can go to the website and tell them a little bit about
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what's, okay, let's do it like this, Emanuel. Let's say I'm a church leader or a pastor and I'm thinking, I've never really heard of this ministry from Samaritan's Purse. Walk us through how it comes to be that you get your shoe boxes, you pack them, and you send them away.
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So this is kind of a picture of everything So it all starts during National Collection Week I'm sorry really not let's drop back before the National Collection Week the different parking parties Yeah, different either schools or churches So that's where it starts you you know You join a parking party or I can also say it starts with the individuals buying the items buying the shoeboxes Going to the parking parties
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And then collection week, this year is November 16th through the 23rd. You drop all the shoe boxes to the different drop-off centers. Thereafter, the shoe boxes will go to the different processing centers. That is mid-November through to December, where the boxes are processed. And after that, these boxes will be taken to the different places, they suppose.
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to go to rate the different children out there. I hope that helps, Steve. It does help. And I just love Operation Christmas Child. And again, it's something as so simple as these little items packed in a little shoe box that makes such a huge difference in the lives of people, whether it's getting them to understand who Jesus was, maybe for the first time ever, or someone like you who was going through some really difficult times.
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to where it just was a great reminder and a great reassurance that God still has a plan for your life. So, Emmanuel, I'm so thankful for you, and I'm so blessed to be able to have this conversation and so thankful for Operation Christmas Child. So we look forward to National Collection Week again, which is November 16th through the 23rd. And if your church would like to be a part, I know my church has done somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 to 3,000
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shoeboxes every single year because our church family believes in it so much. And it's not too late for yours to be involved. So go to samaritanspurse.org and do a search for Operation Christmas Child or you could just throw that in to one of the major search engines, just Operation Christmas Child. And again, you'll be able to see pictures of the kids that get it and exactly how to buy a shoebox.
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and to pack it and to do all the things to make sure that kids like Emanuel know that Jesus still loves them and is still there present with them. And of course, an opportunity for them to be able to hear the gospel for maybe the first time ever. It's such a beautiful and wonderful ministry. Emanuel, so grateful for you, my friend. Thank you so much for allowing us to take some of your time today.
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And God bless you, my friend, and I hope to be able to see you down the road sometime very, very soon. Okay. Amazing. Steve, I've loved it. Thank you so much for the time and blessings like rain. What a beautiful story of God's faithfulness and just assurance. That's Emmanuel Osiré. And yeah, I know, I know, I butchered his name at the beginning, but see, lesser podcast hosts would have asked him how to pronounce the name.
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beforehand so that they got it right. I wanted to go in blind. I wanted to make sure that I tried without a net. You see, I got to get some kind of respect for that, some kind of credit, right? Sure, yeah, sure I do. See, I'm getting thumbs up from the people across the glass. That's good.
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Welcome back. The Steve Marston Show continues. It's the Christian radio show and podcast that truly matters. Thank you for listening. Let's get to some stories that you may have missed. This one is something that goes back to what we talked about a lot on Friday being the anniversary of September 11th, 2001.
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I had no idea about this. Maybe you have heard this story, but there was a Bible found at Ground Zero. Are you familiar with this? A guy named Joel Meyerowitz said he could still smell it. The concrete, dust, the scorched steel, the wet paper. The photographer spent nine months inside the World Trade Center after September 11th's attacks in 2001.
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and the one object he carried out of the wreckage still holds the smell. It's a single page of a Bible burned into a twisted piece of metal shaped like a heart. Have you heard this story? Because I have it. The page of the Bible was opened to Matthew chapter 5. Firefighter Stephen Koffner
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found the fragment back on March 30th, 2002 while searching through the debris for victims. He handed it to Meyerowitz, who had an official access to the photograph site for what became the World Trade Center Archive, a body of work now held by the Museum of the City of New York. The object is small, gray, and hard to forget. It measures roughly 13 inches across. The paper and steel were pressed
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into one thing by the heat and the type on the page is still very readable. Out of all the pages of the Bible that it would be open to, this, Meyerowitz says, is remarkable. The page shows Matthew 5, about verse 38 and 39, which most Bibles print under the heading of retaliation or eye for an eye. It's from the Sermon on the Mount.
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And the page from Matthew 30, verse 5, man what is wrong with me? Why can't I read this? Matthew chapter 5 verse 38 and 39 which says that you've heard it's an eye for an eye but I tell you to turn the other cheek. And Myrowit said he gave the artifact to the National Museum for September 11th in Lower Manhattan.
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The museum catalogs it as a recovered Bible and it is, the staff brought it out for Pope Francis to see back in 2015 when he visited the memorial. But that's the first time I've ever heard that story. What an amazing, amazing little artifact. And you know, I know a lot of people might look at that and think, wow, what a coincidence and what have you, but you know, I really believe
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that God does some of those things like that, leaves these little things behind so that we can see that even though that was such a horrific day in our country's history, in fact, probably the most horrific day, He was still there, still.
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part of everything knowing that yes, it seems and was incredibly bad, but he never left and he never forsook any of those people that were there on September 11th, 2001. Just powerful stuff. Kirk Cameron is in the news. In fact, it's about his podcast. Now, I don't know if you've heard of this lady that calls herself an apostle. Her name is
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Catherine Crick. She was an inspiring actress. She was a dating show contestant and now she's healing and performing exorcisms and praising her Christ-like spiritual father, Jeor Davy, whoever that is, receiving praise from her followers. She's the leader of this five-fold church in Los Angeles and it has more than two million social media followers.
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and Christian leaders are raising alarms about it. And Crick's videos are circulating where people in line to meet her at book signings are just falling over and shaking and all kinds of other things. So Kirk Cameron and his son James took this topic on in their podcast. And James said when non-believers point to Crick as an example of Christianity, it paints all of Christians.
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in a bad light and that we're crazy. That's good point. He's right about that. But then, Kirk Cameron did something wise. He said, let's put it to a test, whether this lady is really a quote unquote apostle or not. There's a five point test, he said, for such situations to make sure that it's not just his opinion, but what does the Bible say about it. And first up is the scripture test, asking
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Is it consistent with what we read in the Bible? Crick's videos don't depict the attitude of the apostles in Jesus' time in the scriptures when demons are cast out and people are falling to the ground to worship them. Cameron said, Jesus, apostles say, stand up. I'm just a man. I'm not God. And they point toward Jesus. That's very true. Second test is who becomes bigger with this ministry, Christ or the person?
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claiming special power, revelation, anointing or authority. Clearly, crick becomes bigger, Cameron said. So we've got two big X's on the first two points. The third point is the gospel test. Are repentance, faith, holiness and obedience the finished work of Christ central and Christ being central or people chasing experiences and manifestations? Another good point. And again, Cameron says, Crick fails.
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this one. Number four, Cameron noted that Jesus tells us to examine fruit and what does her ministry produce over time? Well Cameron said Crick is producing experience and chaos and a hyper spiritualization of euphoria not actually growing the kingdom of God. So she fails on that one. And then finally there's the Berea test. Cameron said asking our
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followers encouraged to examine everything against scripture or is questioning the leader treated as questioning God? When leaders become the mouthpiece for God on earth, he said that's when you have cult leaders. This is where we get into some dangerous territory, he said, with some denominations of Christianity. And then this is so important. He says this sermon is vital because sometimes we get lost
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in the love and in the tolerance of Christianity and they think, well, I'm not supposed to judge, I can't really judge. Although we're not the judge of the universe and we're not deciding her eternal fate, but we are to judge rightly and not hypocritically. Kurt Cameron is five out of five on this. This is exactly right. good stuff out of him. You can check it out. His podcast is called The Kurt Cameron Show. We're back with more after this. Don't move.
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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 Alexander, Arkansas. And it's another classic. I used to be addicted to hokey pokey, but then I turned myself around.
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Classics, you just can't beat them, right? It's the Steve Marston Show. Thank you for letting us be a part of your day, night, whatever. We're glad that you are joining us. And if you're trying to live out your faith just beyond Sunday morning, which I think all of us are, I mean, I hope that you are, well, I'd love for you to subscribe to our YouTube page because that's what we do every day. We are finding ways to do that, to go layers.
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deeper in our walk to be more like Jesus than we were three weeks ago, four weeks ago, every day of progression. So if that's something that maybe is on your heart to do, come join us. youtube.com slash Steve Marston show. would love to have you be a part. And every week we do a Bible verse where we learn it together.
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through the week. Now, this week's going to be a little bit different because we've got some radio commitments we're going to be doing in the middle of the week that's just radio only. So we're going to start this week both today and then on Friday's show with a brand new Faith Between Your Ears verse and then we'll carry it over to next week. So we'll get a jump start on it here.
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It's one of the most powerful verses in all of scripture, and I think it's something that we need to have memorized because it was some 800 years prophesied before Christ came to earth by the prophet Isaiah. And Isaiah 53 is just the definition of what Jesus came to do. And part of that is Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5.
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and it's our Faith Between Your Ears verse where we're going to memorize this. was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him, the chastisement that brought us peace and with His wounds, we are healed. Some of the most graphic and hard to read and comprehend exactly the
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suffering that Jesus went through, but Isaiah talked about it, like I say, 800 years before it happened. So let's learn Isaiah 53 verse 5, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed. Just amazing, amazing words. So let's memorize that.
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and get it in between our ears. We'll be working on it again coming up Friday here on the Steve Marston show. Before we leave, every day we like to give you a little call to action, a little thing we call your next step. going back to our first segment where we talked about where's your relationship with God? Are you where you need to be as a disciple, as a believer? Think about, ponder that question, meditate on it, and then make changes if necessary.
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Alright we're out of time for today. Join us again coming up the Steve Marston Show returns before you know it. Adios!
