Church Business Meetings, Bible Bargains & Fun Friday
FULL TRANSCRIPT
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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. So how's this for something to talk about on a fun Friday? Which Bible character would you trust?
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to negotiate the price of a car for you and why? I think that's brilliant. Hey, welcome in. It's the Steve Marston show. We are on the radio, AM 630, the word in San Antonio, as well as 99.5, the word in Little Rock. And you know how I like to do on Fridays, take things a little more lighthearted, have a little bit more fun. And I thought this post is excellent. I wish I would have come up with it myself, but I give credit where credit is due.
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A guy named Art Rayner posted this. Now, look, I don't know Art Rayner. He runs an outfit called Christian Money Solutions. He's written a couple of books and of course he's got a podcast. Who doesn't, right? And again, I don't know much about him so I can't really recommend anything outside of this post to you about him. But I will take it for granted that he uses his left and right turn indicator while he's in traffic and that...
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He has good manners, especially around people that are older than him. And by looking at his profile picture of social media, he does not have a contemporary liberal hairdo. got a contemporary liberal hairdo. What in the world is wrong with you? OK, so let's dive into this post from Art Rayner. Again, it's which Bible character would you trust to negotiate the price of a car for you and why?
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Okay, so there was a lot of brilliant answers. I just thought this was so good. The first one that popped up was from Sam. Sam said he would choose Jacob because Jacob is the heel grabber and he can work a deal. No doubt about that. Mark said Abraham because he got God to drop the price for saving Sodom and Gomorrah from 50 to 10 godly people. And then he put in parentheses, though ultimately he couldn't come up with 10, but the bargaining was top-notch.
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See, that's a great pick. I don't know that I would have thought about that. I think Abraham may be the best answer here, but let's move on. Let's see what else everybody said. Mercy said Abraham because he was universally liked and people were always giving him stuff. Plus, he was a great neighbor. Well, that's true too. Leray says, I guess it's Leray, L-E-R-A-Y. Maybe Leray, probably Leray. Elijah is his choice because...
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he could outrun the car for a better deal. You know, talking about Elijah running off the mountain and everything. Yeah. Okay, Mitch said Joseph because Joseph negotiated the Egyptians out of all of their possessions and got everything for Pharaoh. That's a good point, you know, during the whole famine coming after the seven years of Plenty. Tim said his answer would be Paul.
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He's still talking and the salesman will break and settle to get free of us. Oh, I see. just Paul just kept on and kept on and kept on and finally wore him down. That's good. Again, we're going through which Bible character would you trust to negotiate the price of a car for you and why. This comes from a guy named Art Rayner on X. Let's see, a guy named Jay said Zacchaeus, but only after he met Jesus.
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Because Zacchaeus was a tax collector and you know in those days tax collectors could collect as much money as they wanted to as long as the Roman government got what they required. They didn't care how much over you charged. Victor says, God, he just says what it is and we're done. Okay, yeah, but that's that's kind of cheating. You know, obviously God can do that, but we're talking about Bible people, real flesh-and-blood people that
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lived through scripture. Let's see, Solomon was Jeff's answer because that cut the child in half story, know, negotiating between the two ladies about which child was which. Yeah, that's not bad answer there. Mike said Judas, and I think maybe he's just trying to be funny there, I don't know, because I Judas got what, 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus, but yeah, I'm not sure he was the best negotiator in the whole world.
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Again, we're going through this list of which Bible character would you trust to negotiate the price of a car for you and why here on the Fun Friday edition of the Steve Marston Show. Sam said, another answer for Jacob. The band was born negotiating. He literally negotiated his way out of the womb by holding on to his brother's heel. Yeah, we mentioned that a little bit earlier. Judson said, James the apostle. He was a businessman. Okay.
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John said, Goliath of Gath, he said until he ran into David and then in parentheses and the Lord, he pretty much got what he wanted. Well there's a good point, you know, being almost you know nine and a half feet tall that'll set the intimidation factor very high for sure, no question about it. Alright, let's continue on here. The disciple investor says,
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The shrewd manager from Luke 16 is who he would choose. Jesus commended the guy for cutting down debts to close deals. If the Lord calls that shrewd, he's my guy at the dealership. That's another great answer, I'm telling you, really pretty good. That guy may not be the guy you want to marry your daughter, but you could probably do worse in car negotiations than that guy. Marty said,
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If I were getting a Honda, I would just have the disciples do it. It's just a dad joke, he said. Let's see, GC says that he would have Moses' father-in-law, Jethro. Again, another great answer. When you look back into the Old Testament and you see Moses moving the children of Israel, he was carrying out of slavery into the promised land or toward the promised land. He had so much on his shoulders and Jethro was the one.
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who encouraged him to delegate and to make sure others help carry the burden. So he could negotiate, good stuff there. And finally, Enrique, this is a good answer as well. The Bible character he would choose to negotiate a car deal for him and why? He chose Adam pre-Eve. He said, because there would be no distractions for him. Okay, I get that. So anyway,
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It's a great little post there from Art Rayner on social media. I just thought it would be fun to go through which Bible character would you trust to negotiate the price of a car for you and why. Love to hear your answer. You can shoot me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com. Really quickly, let me tell you about our free PDF that we've got at our website, stevemarschdonshow.com. It is Five Tips for Bible Study.
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this is a chance for you to download it and to be able to rightly handle God's Word. Because I think a lot of times we get intimidated when we start trying to think about, well, I don't know about opening up God's Word to try to find anything for myself because I'm afraid that I won't interpret it right. I won't be able to just, you know, handle it correctly. So you tend to lean more on people
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who have already kind of been there, done that with devotionals and commentaries and workbooks and things. And look, those things have a place. Absolutely they do. But there's also something to be said to being able to make the most out of your time with God where you can put away all of those other people's views on things and see things clearly for yourself. And that's what this little PDF helps you to do. Again, it's called Five Tips
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for Bible study and what it is is just strategies. They're just things you can do and to put in place while you are studying the Word. Now look, I didn't come up with these. These are not original with me by any stretch of the imagination. However, they do work. They work for me and I've kind of tailored a few from a lot of different sources and I think you will find them beneficial. So if you are ready to kind of take the next step in your
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faith walk to go a little bit deeper in your Bible study and to be able to, like I say, open up God's Word and really feel like you're learning something and it's something the Holy Spirit is revealing to you and it's just you and God together as one. Yeah, this is for you. So just go to the website stevemarshtonshow.com. stevemarshtonshow.com. There at the top of the page you'll see on the menu a free download. You can scroll down and get a
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look at it as a banner there as well. But it's just to help you. It's just to put into your hands. Absolutely free. It'll come to you as a digital download. SteveMarsdenShow.com. Five tips for Bible study. Okay, welcome back. It's the Steve Marsden Show. Discipleship has never been more fun. And it's time for our unwritten rules segment. We do this on Fridays. These are the rules that no one ever wrote down.
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but that everybody that's gonna be in the church bubble needs to know about. And today's topic is unwritten rules of church business meetings. Now look, I don't know how many of you under the sound of my voice are Baptists, but if you are, it kind of sends a cold chill down your spine, doesn't it? When you hear the word business meeting, it's just like, oh my gosh, it's just like being in school and the teacher says, oh, we've got a pop quiz. It just, oh.
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mercy. They're just the worst. Those of you that are in non-denominational churches and churches that don't do business meetings, well first of all, I'm a little jealous, but second of all, here's the thing. I don't know that you're real Christians. All right, I know that's a little stiff. That's probably not true, but you do need to know the unwritten rules of church business meetings. Okay, so let's get started with number one. Number one unwritten rule of a church business meeting
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is you never say, this should go quick. You have now guaranteed a minimum runtime of 90 minutes and at least one discussion about something nobody knew was a problem. Can I get an amen? How about this one? An unwritten rule of a church business meeting, the smaller the dollar amount, the longer the discussion. At a $400,000 building project, can you namelessly pass and
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minutes, but a $63 purchase for the nursery will require three motions, two amendments, and an investigation. Can I get an amen? How about this one as an unwritten rule for church business meetings? Someone will ask a question that was answered in the report everyone received 10 minutes ago. The person will be holding the report while still asking the question, Can I get an amen? How about this one? Never underestimate
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the spiritual significance of the thermostat. The early church debated circumcision. Your church will debate whether 72 degrees is an appropriate use of the Lord's money. Can I get an amen somebody? How about this one? A motion cannot be made simply. First, someone will spend seven minutes explaining why they're trying not to cause any trouble before immediately causing some trouble.
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Can I get an amen? Here's another unwritten rule about church business meetings. Any discussion is the most dangerous phrase in the Baptist language. It's the parliamentary equivalent of handing somebody a toddler and a sharpie and then leaving the room. Yeesh. Can I get an amen? How about this one? If someone begins with, well, I've been a member of this church for 37 years, you better buckle up.
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Whatever comes next is not going to be about the Great Commission. Can I get an amen? All right, we continue on here on the Steve Marston show with the unwritten rules of church business meetings. How about this one?
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Nobody actually knows Robert's rules of order, but there will always be one man in the back who is extremely confident that you're doing it wrong. Can I get an amen? How about this one? Every discussion eventually becomes a discussion about something that happened in 1998. Nobody remembers exactly what happened, but several people were there to oppose it, and they remain that way. Can I get an amen?
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How about this one? All in favor say aye, will be loud and clear. All opposed will be from three people coughing. The minutes will report that the motion passed unanimously. Can I get an amen somebody? All right, let's move on. Continuing with our unwritten rules of church business meetings.
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There is no church conflict so complicated that someone won't suggest forming a committee. And there's no committee so unnecessary that someone won't volunteer people who aren't at the meeting. Can I get an amen, somebody? Here's another one. The person who says, well, I just don't want to keep everybody, absolutely intends to keep everybody. You may want to text your nearest of kin. This one is a good one as well.
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Once the meeting has gone past an hour, people will vote on just about anything. We have a motion to relocate the church to Saskatchewan. Second! Can I get an amen? And last but certainly not least, the most unwritten rule of a church business meeting is this one. The most powerful parliamentary procedure is somebody's wife standing at the back
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holding her purse. No motion is required. Meeting is adjourned. Can I get an amen somebody? Well, that's good stuff. If you would like to contribute some stuff to our unwritten rules segment, we do it every Friday. We would love for you to send me your topic and we'll put together a list. Just do it at stevemarschdonshow.com or you can email it to me steve at Salemmedia.com. Okay.
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Let me invite you to join us in what we're doing here on the program. Now, I know you're already a member of the little family that we've got, the community that is happening. Without you listening and sharing videos and telling your friends and stuff, this program doesn't really exist and doesn't have the growth that it has been showing. However, if you are a business owner and you would like to get your message out to people that are listening to this program, who are serious about their faith, people
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that are wanting to take the next step with Jesus and grow deeper. If that's the kind of people you want as customers for your business, please let me know. We can hook you up whether it's with traditional radio or digital marketing. I've got people literally all over the country that can help you. If you're listening on the radio in San Antonio or in Little Rock, I can hook you up there. And if you're listening on the stream online anywhere else, I got peeps, I got people. So...
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Make sure you let me know what you would like to try to do and we will get you hooked up with it and get your business mentioned here on the Steve Marston show. Again, it's crazy inexpensive and it will help this show continue to grow. But we also want to be able to introduce our growing audience to your product or service. It's a ultimate win-win. So again, shoot me an email, Steve at Salemmedia.com and I will put you into
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uh, the right people points you to the right people and we'll get you a message heard here on the Steve Marston show as well as Steve Marston dot show.com and, uh, the radio stations and whatever else. again, if you're digging what we're doing and you think you would like to be a part of it, we would sure appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about it and to try to earn your trust and earn your business. And again, we've got some great people that are listening and people that want to do business with people.
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who are like minded. again, shoot me an email. Steve at Salem media.com back after this.
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Welcome back. It's the Steve Marsden show. So glad to be with you. And on Fridays, we like to have a lot of fun around here. And part of that is talking to our friends over at pluggedin.com, take out everything that's going entertainment wise from the newest movies that are hitting to streaming shows and on and on. And we welcome in our buddy, Eckelberry. Brett, how are you doing, man? Steve, I'm doing good. Thanks for having me on again. Absolutely. Yeah, it's been a little bit, but I am glad to have you back now. Look,
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Being a movie reviewer, I guess this is a good time for you because it's one of those things where there's so much going on for so long and then you kind of get a little chance to exhale a little bit because there's not so much going on this particular week. So that makes for a little slim pickets for us to talk about, but I'm sure you're enjoying the break a little bit, right? Yeah, we find ways to keep ourselves busy around here, but it's appreciated sometimes. Yeah, I bet it is. Okay. So again,
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No real blockbusters are coming out this week to major theaters, but I mean, everything everybody's still talking about is in game and how it's setting up for the fall version that's coming out with the Marvel movies. Let's talk a little bit about that. And of course, it was recut with all the different post movie scenes. Let's dive into that a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, that was the big box office surprise.
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this last weekend with that uh... a movie from twenty nineteen pop the box office uh... avengers in game technically avengers in game on the floor is what they're calling it so if the really some avengers in game but it's with uh... about three or four additional minutes of footage so uh... that ratio is uh... maybe not super generous giving given that it's a three hour movie uh... but it was enough to pull people into the theaters
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to watch and maybe families who had kids who were too young to watch in game the first time around, maybe they contributed to that as well. That was kind of the box office surprise that topped all of the other movies this past weekend. Yeah, that is. mean, I guess it goes to, I guess a little bit of marketing, knowing what's coming out and what's not for them on a softer week to release. But still, you're kind of surprised by that. That doesn't happen that often.
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movie this old gets re-released and tops the box office. Right. I guess it's that level of success that usually, you know, depending on what re-release that will come out, Star Wars re-released, I think the prequels recently and you know, they did fairly well. yeah, when one of these re-releases tops the box office, maybe it tells you a little bit more like you suggest about the movies that are coming out that week. But people are still very interested in superheroes and Avengers Doomsday that's coming out in December.
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This movie is really designed to kind of gear people up for that. Yeah, it is. And I know a lot of people are looking forward to it. And I think these Marvel movies are finally getting the point. Because one of my main complaints about it is somebody that's kind of the casual guy that doesn't follow Marvel and is not geeking out over everything. You know, I take my two sons who are just over the top Marvel fans to these movies.
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They know every person. know every Easter egg. They know the backstory behind everything. And I'm sitting there and a lot of times going, wait a minute, I don't know who that person is. I don't know what's going on. Why are they here? You know, the whole thing, but I think they're slowly coming out of that, right? I, you know, I think, so I, I hope that maybe they learned a little bit of a lesson from some of their TV shows, kind of the glut of those TV shows that we went through where some of them were not bad. Some of them were maybe less than great. Uh, but
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that almost feel like required reading. well, you didn't see the extra five TV shows? Well, then you're going to be really locked here. So hopefully what is coming out, especially with Doomsday, will allow viewers to just kind of jump right back into the story and be able to enjoy it. And again, that'll come out later this fall. So since there's not a whole lot to talk about in theaters this week, let's look ahead to next week. What are some of the things on the horizon for us?
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Sure, yeah. Looking ahead, we have a few things here. The social reckoning is a big one that, while I don't think it'll be family friendly per se, it's going to be a big deal. It's a follow-up to the social network. David Fincher's movie from the early aughts that starred Jesse Eisenberg talking about the rise of how that came about, especially with where we're at in the culture today.
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The social reckoning seems like it's going to lean more into some of that track, some of the effects that social media have had on us. So that'll be a big one that's coming up next week. In addition to that, maybe a more family-friendly option, we have an Angel Studios film that's coming out called Angel and the Bad Man. This is actually a remake of an old, I believe it was John Wayne, Western film.
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Uh, but it started Zachary Levi and, it looks like it could be, it could be an interesting story, uh, from angel studios. Oh, that, is interesting. I hadn't heard about that. That's a remake of a John Wayne movie. mean, I remember, you know, was Rooster Cogburn not terribly long ago was remade, you know, and who was it? Not Jeff Daniels. was, uh, Oh, uh, can't remember Jeff Bridges got the wrong Jeff. He was phenomenal in that. loved, I loved his, his take on it. was.
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So good, but maybe we can look forward to something that good from Angel Studios. So that should be fun. One other thing, speaking of older movies, by the way, it's a Steve Marston show, and Brett Eckelberry is our guest from pluggedin.com, which is a ministry of focus on the family, and it is a well-done website. I mean, you wouldn't expect anything less from Focus on the Family, but it gives you, and I say this, Brett, in the nicest and most positive term,
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It's information overload. You get so much information about every aspect of the movie, the TV show, the streaming series, the book, the video game, the album. It's all there and you can read it for yourself. The guys at Plugged In don't try to persuade you, hey, you ought to do this, you ought not to do that. Just gives you the information and then you can make the best decision for you and your family.
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And I just love it. So you ought to bookmark it because it is that good to just check back in on the regular. Anyway, I was going to say about, you know, we were talking about older movies. I love the fact that you guys have gone back and done reviews of like these classic movies. I remember it started with like Star Wars. went back in and did a whole, gave it the whole plugged in workup for the original Star Wars trilogies and stuff. And now
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The original Frankenstein movie from 1931 is hitting streaming, and you guys have a wonderful little review over it. Yeah, you know, it's really fun for us to do as well. Whether we've seen the movies before or maybe, you know, we've heard about them, they're in the cultural consciousness. So we've experienced that, but we haven't actually seen the film. I know I've had several experiences like that, but yes, Frankenstein, 1931, the original Frankenstein film.
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was reviewed by one of our plugged in staff members, Bob Hoos. And Bob Hoos, he loves black and white, although he was thrilled to get this assignment to go back and dig into Frankenstein, which as he writes in his review, really goes a lot deeper into kind of these theological themes and concepts and ideas. It's really wrestling with something, some impressive topics.
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That, know, when we just see the big green monster, we tend to kind of think like, oh yeah, you know, okay, it's a classic. It's a classic, but people might be surprised at how deep it really is. That's something because that's one of the reasons why it is a classic, but you're right. think so many of us, oh yeah, Frankenstein, we know, or at least we think we know all about it, even though we really haven't seen it for ourselves a lot. And that's certainly the case with me. I've seen, you know, the highlights like everyone else, but this will be fun to sit down and...
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kind of watch the original in black and white and be able to see it, you know, on the big screen. It'll be fun. Brett Eckelberry is our guest from Focus on the Family's pluggedin.com. And we're just talking about all things kind of that are going on as far as movies and different entertainment choices. But you guys also do some technological stuff to keep everyone updated on everything technology. And I know that
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that includes some of these blogs that you guys are doing. And I know that, like I'm looking at one of them right now, that's finding faith in frightening films, five horror flicks that dig deeper. You know, that's one that just was released today as we're recording this. I mean, that's a wonderful little deep dive into what, you know, lot of people, you know, again, necessarily don't do Halloween and I get that and we all understand that. But for those who are looking for some,
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some kind of movies to kind of set the theme for late autumn. This is a great resource. Well, yeah, we hope so. honestly, that was a fun blog for Paul A.C., our director, to do. Because when we think of horror movies, you know, a lot of times, and I think it's a fair thought, think, I don't want anything to do with that. But what we see, just because we're plugged in and we're reviewing a lot of these different movies,
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There are some horror movies that really wrestle with the idea of like good versus evil in like a very upfront way, right? Because of the nature of horror movies, because of the nature of evil and what's being presented on screen, it naturally lends itself to the question, okay, well, if there's an evil over here, then that means that there must be some sort of a good over here to contrast it, right? So.
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There are some really interesting questions, philosophical questions, theological questions, excuse me, that some of these movies raise. Now you got to be careful. You can't just go to any old flasher flick. And so that's why we wanted to put together this list. Frankenstein is one of the movies that the original Frankenstein is one of them that are, that's on here. Um, move like signs, uh, even, even something like, uh, the, exorcism of Emily Rose. Uh, these are movies that should be approached with
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Caution for sure, but for those who are You know Maybe a little bit on the older side and are interested in digging into this there There are some interesting faiths topics that can be pulled from some of these films and our blog is there to guide you through it Well, you're so right about that because if there is evil then by definition there has to be good, right? I mean, there's that's really not a question that
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Really, I don't think, right? Because if we determine that something is evil, then there has to be a counterbalance that's good or else it would just be net neutral, right? Right. Well, that's exactly it. And then frankly, I think some of the worst horror movies that I've seen try to pretend that may not exist and they just want to show you the bad stuff. it's, well, there's nothing here then. There's nothing here of substance. So if you lose that piece, you know, you're losing a lot of what would make it effective to begin with.
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Absolutely. Brian Echolberry is our guest from pluggedin.com, a ministry of focus on the family, here on the Steve Marston show. Now, I know that not only do you guys do the books and the albums and the movies and streaming, but you also do some YouTube channel reviews as well, right? We do, yes. And that's something now, people are spending so much more time on YouTube. I have a person that I work with.
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He tells everybody all the time how old he is. He's 68. And he says, I spend more time on YouTube than I do any other television station. That's amazing to me. People just are just consumed with it. Well, and I would say that gentleman is part of the growing trend because YouTube really has become almost like its own hub for entertainment. really is. And just the size and volume and the
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widespread adoption of YouTube I mean I think it's something like 95 % plus people who have access to the internet like use YouTube so it's pretty ubiquitous but what we've I'm glad you bring up our YouTube reviews because There's so much out there. There's so much content that we're just trying to provide Hey, here's here's this channel something's going on in this panel and people are being drawn to it It's popular for some reason here are the reasons why
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People are being drawn to that and maybe there are some positives you can take away. Maybe you hear some negatives. I'll give you an example. We just reviewed this week. I'm going to butcher the name because if you see a spell, you'd understand. It's like Kurskestatt, which seems like a German word to me, but it is an animated educational channel that has over a million subscribers on YouTube. And it's a pretty cool channel. They have these little animated
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videos, they dive into educational topics or like what if questions from a scientific perspective. Seems pretty good, right? Like, okay, my kid could learn something from this. But the channel also approaches things and they self-state this as well in their channel from an optimistic, nihilistic perspective, which frankly sounds, man, as contradictory as you can get. Well, that's what I was just about to say. Isn't that contradictory?
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I would say so. would say so. I think they try to present it in a certain way, but that's the types of that we want to provide these reviews for because even though there might be some value in some of the videos if your kid is interested in watching them and can learn a lot, you should also know that they'll be exposed to this very contradictory and anti-biblical worldview. Absolutely. And that's the thing. You're so right with YouTube being so ubiquitous now that
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There's so many channels and kids are just all over the place. And it's our job as parents, as people in their lives to shepherd them through, hey, this is not the best thing maybe that you ought to watch, but boy, there's just so many of them. Where do we start? And you guys kind of fill in that gap for us. So I mean, that's a big, big help for what you guys do there at Plugged In. And I know that I talked to Paul Ase about the...
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That 125 page kind of reference book guy that you guys have out as well. That's a big guy. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We love our tech guy. We're very proud of it. Yeah. We put together. Yeah. It's pretty robust. Like you said, 125 pages. Just what parents and individuals need to know about our current cultural and technological landscape. You know, like how AI is influencing everything. That's everywhere.
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right now, what to be aware of with some of the major problems and concerns that parents are dealing with, especially worrying about their kids, social media and mental health, all sorts of things like that. Our tech guide is available for free at pluggedin.com for anyone who would like to dig into that. There's a lot there. And again, it's such a wonderful resource that you could almost use it as a, well, let me look at YouTube and go find that. And then let me find this other category. It just, it is just a perfect little resource to help.
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parents out because we know it's the Internet's not slowing down and all of these different channels and these different options are just going to continue to compete for our kids and we just got to be on top of them. And I'm so glad that you guys see that need and help us with that for sure. Give everybody another quick little thumbnail of where they can connect with Plugged In. Absolutely. Yeah, so pluggedin.com. That's our website, pluggedin.com. We really want to
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get that info out there for parents, for individuals, so they can make the best decisions for themselves and for their families, along with our blog, our tech guide, talking about entertainment and technology. PluggedIn.com. Really appreciate your time, Brett. Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it. Steve Marston Show rolls on. It's where we help you live more like Jesus. It's good to be with you. Let's get into some of the stories you may have missed. And there's a lot of them today and a lot of good ones as well. This one,
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bizarre, but it has a great ending. A couple was struck by lightning while holding hands and they credit a good Samaritan for saving their life. Here's what happened. Aaron and Claire had just dropped their three kids off at church youth group and they were enjoying one of their regular date nights. After dinner they went for a walk and while they were walking hand-in-hand a storm rolled in and lightning struck them.
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Yeah, Aaron woke up on the ground in severe pain, unable to understand what had happened. He said, my first thought was we got hit by a car. I thought maybe a car just ran us over from behind because getting struck by lightning is nothing that would have ever entered into my mind. And then he looked around and saw his wife, Claire. She had stopped breathing and turned blue. Aaron was desperately trying to reach her, but couldn't.
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control his body temporarily. He said, I wanted to get to Claire, but I just couldn't get up. I couldn't really move. It was the worst pain of my life, he said. But then, four strangers nearby were running toward the couple. They called 911, and one of them even started performing CPR on Claire, despite never having done it before. The couple has since formed a close relationship with the strangers who rushed to their aid. Their pastor said,
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They had help getting the children home safely that night while neighbors stepped in to care for their yard and pool as they recovered. Aaron said the outpouring of support has given him a whole new picture of the church in action. He said it's very humbling to know that people are out there that really care for you and the church is doing what it's supposed to be doing. We're not just a building, it really is the people that are around you and it's been amazing to watch.
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And he said, through it all, the couple said they never lost their faith despite all of the setbacks. Boy, what a crazy story, but thankfully it has such a good ending there. Franklin Graham is in the news. You know, he's Billy's son and the guy who started Samaritan's Person does Operation Christmas Child. Well, he is gearing up to bring the gospel to Manchester in the United Kingdom.
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He says people are searching for answers that only God can provide and he'll be speaking this weekend as a part of the God Loves You Tour. Franklin said people are searching, there are a lot of hungry souls that are looking. He said they're looking for truth. That's exactly what they're looking for. And he said you want to be able to speak in such a way that a child can understand and that an adult understands.
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You don't want to sometimes speak over the top of a person's head. said, I don't want to do that. Anyway, he goes on to talk about the tour, comes amid differing reports about the religious beliefs of young adults in the UK. Some studies suggest that certain groups of young people are more likely to hold specific religious beliefs. And there's other reports that assert non-religious identity among younger generations in the UK is a permanent shift. Graham, for his sake, says,
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His experience at evangelistic events has convinced him that young people are actively looking for spiritual answers. He said in London last year, 60 % of the people who responded publicly to an invitation to receive Christ were young people, and it appeared many of them to be younger than 30. Well, that's really good news because you start listening and reading accounts from regular mainstream media about the religious beliefs of those in the UK, and it's not a...
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Not a pretty picture for sure. And Graham said that before he stands before thousands in Manchester, he said he does not know how many people will respond in the right way. He recalled an event from when he first began preaching evangelistic messages that he would give an invitation to accept Christ and no one came forward. He said, you never know. We don't know the outcome. God knows that. He says we are just to be faithful.
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to make sure that the gospel is presented and give people a chance, an opportunity to say yes to Christ. And he's so right about that. mean, you know, whether it's your pastor on Sunday morning or something like this, it's just our job to go out and tell and preach and make sure that it's communicated clearly and that the Holy Spirit has reign to do His work to convict hearts. God's not keeping a scorecard on how many people come to Christ out of our ministry. All He's doing
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is up there wanting us to take advantage of the opportunities to tell. You know, it's good stuff. Let's see. Oh, this is a neat story. There's a lady named Anastasia Rogers. You may have been keeping up with her. She's a pro-life activist and she was arrested in San Francisco outside of a planned parenthood and it says the charges against her has been dismissed. In a recent Instagram post, the pro-life group
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Survivors of the abortion Holocaust announced that all charges against Rogers had been dropped in connection with a 14 second video filmed outside of the San Francisco Planned Parenthood. The prosecutors alleged or allegedly sought to intimidate the Planned Parenthood staff. That's what the prosecutor said. The video led to, uh, Anastasia being arrested and charged under California's
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Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The state law makes it a crime to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to interfere with someone seeking or providing reproductive health care. Rogers also was placed under a protective order restricting her sidewalk outreach. And then she said this, just over one year ago, I posted a 14 second Instagram reel yesterday, the FACE Act.
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charges I get filed against me were dismissed for a year I watched my time my energy my first amendment rights and For a part of that time even my ability to sidewalk cancel can't council get dragged through the courts She said California took me to trial, but they couldn't convict me. They even wanted to try again, but God had other plans It's over. We beat the face act. Remember that God is faithful Wow, what a testimony cuz yeah that
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That place, California, man, they are hostile toward anything that would hamper abortions from taking place. And I'm so grateful that people like Anastasia Rogers and other heroes of the front lines are there doing what they can, staying within the parameters of the law to be able to just provide an alternative to help pray with or just be there for these ladies in crisis pregnancy. It really does.
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set us apart as believers when we're able to do that with a compassion and a care and a love for those who are going through this amazingly difficult time in their life. They need a friend and that's exactly what they're trying to provide. They're trying to provide counsel, education, leadership, and just a shoulder to cry on and lean on. Back with more in a minute.
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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 Bernie, And it's a classic. Why don't eggs tell jokes? Because they would crack each other up. There's just something about the classics, right? Especially on a Friday. It's the Steve Marston Show.
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Discipleship has never been more fun. Faith Between Your Ears is our weekly feature. I guess, well, it's a daily feature, really, where we take one Bible verse throughout the whole week to learn. So the question now is, how are you doing with it? Are you, you've got it memorized? Pretty close? And again, don't get all tripped up on having everything down letter perfect, word for word. That's not the point of the exercise.
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It's for us to know what it says and to be able to get it in between our ears so that it will like counterbalance everything that comes at us from life to those little voices in our heads. So the verse we've been working on all week long is such a good one and it has so much power and meaning in it. It's Jeremiah 9 24 and I'm going to try to do it here. I know I'm going on the honor system, but I'm going to close my eyes and I'm going to try to
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do it without looking, without any help, because I'm right here in the same boat with you. My scripture memorization has been lacking for a long time too, so I'm working on this. Let's get to it. Okay, here we go. Eyes closed, but him who boasts, let him boast in this, that he understands and knows me, says the Lord, that I...
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practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For these things I delight in, declares the Lord." Okay, yeah, not too bad. I didn't hit it word for word, but it really does have a powerful meaning that if we're gonna boast in anything in our life, look and kind of puff our chest out and say, look at me, do it because you know and understand who God is.
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and that He's the one that practices justice and love and righteousness. Those are the things that God truly delights in. love it. Jeremiah 9 verse 24. That's faith between your ears verse for this week. Okay, before we jump out of here, let me remind you that when we hit 250 subscribers on our YouTube channel, we're going to give away a John MacArthur study Bible. All the study notes from Genesis through Revelation are included and it's a beautiful
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volume made out of calf skin. is just top-notch value, a couple hundred bucks maybe, 150, something like that. So if you haven't already, go to youtube.com slash Steve Marston Show and join us. And you will not only be getting, be ready for the celebration, but also you will know whenever we upload a new video because we upload videos on the regular all the time. So check that out for us.
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As we get ready to leave you, we always leave you with a little call to action. We call it Your Next Step. And after today's feature into the podcast, we think your next step ought to be have a little fun with your Christian life. It doesn't need to be so serious all the time. We don't have to have such a burden. It can be a lot of fun. Let people see that. OK, we are out of time. For those of you listening on the radio back Monday at three o'clock,
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SteveMarsdenShow.com. Until then.
