Don’t Quit: How God Uses Ordinary People Who Stay in the Fight
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.
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Yep, yep, yep, yahoo! Welcome in. It's The Steve Marston Show and we are back. Happy that you're joining us and just like the Open said, we're here every single day to help you live more like Jesus. That's the ultimate goal of the program and we've got tons of ways we do that and we're gonna get started today by talking about something that is a little tough for me to talk about, honestly, just because
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it makes me a little vulnerable because I'm kind of showing some of my weaknesses here. So you bear with me as I go through this. And maybe this might not seem like a big deal to you, but it kind of is to me. And it's something I've thought a lot about over this weekend because I felt like I really blew it. And that's momentum, not losing momentum to be more specific. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, like not too long ago,
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I really made a concerted effort to kind of get back in shape, go to the gym, work out, build cardio up, build strength up, not to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but to get into shape. At one time in my life, I was fairly athletic. And I just want to get back to that point because I just kind of reached that age. We get to your 50s and all of a sudden it's like, yeah, you got to start taking care of yourself. And that's what I did.
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For the most part, I have done really well with the program, getting up, going to the gym, starting my day there, and really have noticed a lot of difference. I've started eating better too, and really taking a lot of steps to make sure I'm getting the proper macro nutritional stuff in, right? You know what I'm talking about? If you've gone down this road, it can be a rabbit hole, but
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I didn't even know the term macronutrition until recently. And it's just basically a breakdown of, you know, calories and fat and protein and just to kind of help you judge what you're putting in your body. And all of that has been, I want to say, fairly successful, although I'm not where I want to be yet. I still feel like I weigh too much and I still feel like I'm not as defined.
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muscularly as I want to be. So it's still a work in progress for sure. But it's all about momentum. And this can translate to more than just weight loss and being in shape. I think this really can go overarching to any area of life. But over the weekend, man, I just lost all momentum. mean, I worked out every day, Monday through Friday, did pretty good eating.
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And then over the weekend, man, I just was on a seafood diet. You know what I mean? Just ate everything that I saw. And I felt so guilty about it Friday, you know? And then I thought, well, I'll do better Saturday. Saturday rolls around, guess what happens? Back to the same bad habits. Okay, I've blown it those two days. Let's hit it hard and regain ground on Sunday. And then you can guess what happens.
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It didn't. And I ended last night thinking to myself, what is wrong with me? I felt like I've progressed so good last week and then in three days time, I have just blown it all up. And it was almost if I didn't go to the gym, you know, or I didn't eat well the first part of the week. It might as well not have because of the way I finished the week. And I was really down on myself and really
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frustrated with the fact that I lost momentum. And I think...
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That happens to all of us. It could be in our walk with Christ. It could be in a relationship. It could be in your job. But there are those things where you just kind of let things go and you kind of coast a little bit or you kind of think, you know, I've been putting in all these hours and been doing all this. I deserve this kind of break. I deserve this kind of whatever.
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Maybe to a certain extent you do. mean, cause again, all work and no play, you know, is not a good formula for success by any means. However,
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Momentum is something that is so hard to keep going, but it pays off and you know that it pays off. So that's why you get doubly frustrated with yourself when you allow it to kind of wane. And the more I thought about it all last night and was like I say beating myself up about it and I finally took it to prayer. You ever done that? You ever have prayer be your last go-to? Look as a
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Christian radio talk show host and podcaster, that should be the first thing we go to. I mean, right? I mean, that's something you would expect me to do first. And I would expect me to do it first too, but I didn't. It was about the last thing that I came with. And as I approached God about it, you know, I felt like, God, I have been a glutton. I have been...
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not caring about really my health at all and I've just been doing and going without discipline and I know that's not what you called me to be. You have called me to beat my body in a submission. know, Paul talks about that in his writings that the things that you don't want to do, you do.
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and then the things that you want to do you don't do, those things happen, but you've got to be more disciplined in it. And so as I was thinking about that and praying about that, I just felt God's peace come over me knowing that I was forgiven, knowing that, yeah, you blew it, but don't give up. Keep going in the fight. Because it would be so easy to say, you know, I've spent
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the last three days off of the plan and what's the use? You I'm never going to lose any more weight. I'm never going to get into the shape that I want to be in and feel better about myself. So I can't do it. I'm just going to give up. Have you ever been there? Maybe it's with your walk with Jesus. Maybe it's like, man, you know, I can't get my prayers answered. I can't feel like that God is moving in my life.
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even though I see him move in the lives of others, I desperately want that, but I just don't know where to start. But the beautiful thing is that God is there. God cares and God understands. Because one of the most remembered things that I've ever heard from a pastor is that God has factored in our sinfulness.
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You can even say it in some ways God is factored in our stupidity. Both works. But He knows that. He knows that we're at best just frail creation that has been broken by sin. And He's quick to forgive. He's quick to restore. The thing we have to do is accept it. The thing I have to do is come to Him knowing that He accepts it and forgives.
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And I have to do the same thing. And thankfully, he's given me another day to start again. And so far today, I've done really well. Back on my momentum is starting to shift the other way. I've done well eating today. I've been already to the gym and really put in a good workout. And I feel better about myself already. And it's just those little things.
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when you spend time with God that are really illuminated, when you really take it to Him, the really nitty-gritty hard areas of life. So that's what I encourage you to do. If you're feeling kind of in that rut, you're feeling like you've lost momentum, don't wait any more time. Take it to Him. Lay it all out. He knows it anyway, but there's just something about
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putting all your cards on the table in front of God and allowing him to move and work in your life and give you that peace and that forgiveness and that understanding that is so lacking a lot of There you go. That is today's opening statement. Stay with us. Much more coming up.
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Okay, welcome back. It's the Steve Marston Show. Our ministry of the month is Dr. Michael Youssef and leading the way. He's got a brand new book called Winning the Invisible War that we can put into your hands. You can win this book no matter when you're listening to this podcast or radio show. If you're listening live on AM 630, The Word in San Antonio or the all new 99.5, The Word in Little Rock, you can get this book.
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by emailing now, steve at Salemmedia.com. But even if you're listening at midnight two weeks from now, you can still email in and get your name in the hat. So go ahead and do that. Winning the Invisible War by Dr. Michael Youssef. This identifies and defends against the devil's strategies and schemes. It helps you apply the power of God's word to your everyday battles and also helps you utilize the full armor of God. That's that
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famous passage in Ephesians 6 that Paul writes about. So yeah, a very good book and it could be yours. Winning the Invisible War from Leading the Way's Dr. Michael Youssef. Go ahead and email me steve at Salemmedia.com for your opportunity to take this book home and have it in your own library. And don't forget, September 19th is when Michael Youssef and Chris Tomlin are going to be together for Awake Houston.
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at the Financial Center in Sugarland. This big event is going to be huge and you can get tickets now at awake houston.com or at one of the two great radio stations websites. That's am630theword.com or 995theword.com. So check out that and you can be sure and be a part of that big night as well. Okay, so on Mondays we like to go and
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review what happened yesterday in church. We call it Sunday morning takeaways where we like to get interactive with you and find out from you what really stood out in the sermon and what is something that you could take from that and carry into your week this week. Well, I usually start, and let me just say that I have an amazing little small group class that I'm fortunate enough and blessed enough to be able to lead.
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and we had a completely different lesson that we had went through and it was good and we finished it up and someone brought up a question that tied in with the lesson but it was more about the end times and I thought, oh man, that's kind of a loaded question and we're almost late as it is getting out. So I thought I'll just give a little quick answer because I didn't want to blow the person off because that's the worst thing you can do as a leader, right? So I gave a little answer and then all of a sudden,
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you could just tell every person in the room, their ears perked up and their eyes kind of got wide as we were talking about things that were supposed to be happening in the end times. So I thought, I don't want to lose this. This is an opportunity that God has given it seems like. So we started talking about it and I started kind of outlining the two major views of the end times. And there's the one that says there's a pre-tribulation
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rapture of the church, meaning a catching away of the church where you don't experience God's wrath and you're in heaven through all the time of judgment on the earth only to return with Christ when he returns to earth to rule and reign for a thousand years. Now other people look at that and see something totally different. They see what's called an amalelial.
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millennialist view, meaning that basically most of what we see in Revelation is more figurative with some literal stuff. And I tried to be as fair as I could because I know there are people that kind of wrestle with that and I certainly don't want anybody just to take my word for it. mean, because honestly, I grew up my whole life hearing about the pre-tribulation rapture. I had never heard any other kind of view.
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until, gosh, you know, in the last five or eight years. And it got me to thinking, well, have I been taught wrong? I really wanted to know. So I explored it for myself. I started looking at and reading people who have that, ah, millennialist view, which is, that's a hard word to say. Can't we come up with an easier term than that? But anyway, looking at that view and then looking at the view that I have been grown...
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grown up with and even doing even more research into it, I have personally come to the conclusion that a pre-millennial rapture of the church is exactly what's going to take place. Now, I'm not here to convince you and I wasn't there to convince them that my view is correct. However, I encourage them. Look it up for yourself. See what you can find and dig around. But I just think myself, there's so much
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evidence that points toward a pre-trib rapture versus more symbolism to me. that's just the way I see it. And there's lots of examples I could give, but we just don't have time to get into it. But I was really heartened by the discussion we had over that because people are curious. Even those of us who know Christ as our Savior are wondering and still not
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sure about the book of Revelation. And let me just encourage you, if you fall into that camp, man, don't be scared of it. Look into it. The Bible promises a blessing for those who do. I mean, take it seriously. It's not in code. It's not something that's hard to determine or wonder what he means by that a lot of times. There's a lot of straightforward stuff, probably more than you realize. All right, let's get to some of yours here. Fran checked in and said she...
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heard a sermon from Ephesians chapter 4, said, what in my life grieves the spirit? What do I need to get rid of in my walk to grow closer to Christ? Thank you, friend. Donnie said, what will people say about you when you die? What will be the highlights of your life and legacy in your obituary? Will it mention what you did for God or just worldly accomplishments? That's good.
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Neil checked in with his Sunday morning takeaway. He said, I need to have a better attitude while driving. Maybe they did anger. Maybe is what I'm trying to read into the comments there from Neil. Brenda checked in and said, we talked about generosity and living radically. Thank you, Brenda. And then Roger also checked in and said, if you claim to be born again, then you need to act like it. Amen, brother. I think that's such a big key.
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that we overlook a lot of times that, look, if we're going to be someone who says we're of the book and wants to be of the book, we got to start acting like we're of the book. And that means denying ourselves and taking up our cross every day, right? That's what being a disciple is all about. That's going a level deeper, right? For sure. Okay, we've got more of the Steve Marston Show on the way. Don't go anywhere.
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Conversations are up next.
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Welcome back. It's the Steve Marston Show, we are glad to be joined by our buddy, Steve Teal. It's been a little while since we've connected with him. He's from very bold ministries, and he's been a busy little guy here the last few weeks. Welcome back, buddy. It's good to reconnect. Steve, it's great to reconnect. I really appreciate you, and it's an honor and a joy to be with you on your show today. Well, you are nice to say that. And we're starting a new feature. In fact, you're kind of the guinea pig.
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We're doing a deal where we're starting to have guests relay wisdom for future guests. You're going to kind of do it blind. So I'm going to give you a few minutes to think about a good piece of wisdom, good piece of advice that you could pass along to whoever our next guest is. And I'll start by giving you this piece of advice. about this? let's go. Hope is contagious. I really believe that, that if you can continue to
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push out hope, others will join in. So that's my piece of advice for you. A little word of wisdom. That's a great word of wisdom. man, that's just awesome to hear. And a great reminder today as we're in the thick of Peanut Butter Bowl. And just a great reminder. feel like the Lord has been telling me, remember why you do Peanut Butter Bowl.
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And part of the reason that we Peanut Butter Bowl is to bring not just food, but to bring hope to people that are facing food insecurity. so hope is contagious. Steve, that really encourages me today to keep going so that we can not only feed people protein that they need and kids and families that also bring them hope. So that's awesome advice.
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and really encouraging today. So thank you, Steve. Well, good. So let's jump into Peanut Butter Bowl. Now, some folks, especially being familiar with AM 630, the word, I haven't heard of you talking about this and you've been on numerous times, but let's kind of back up a little bit. Let's reset for everybody and talk about how Peanut Butter Bowl started and what exactly it is.
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Yeah, boy, well, I don't know how much time we have because that question, I can go long or I can go short, Steve. We've got about 15 more minutes. Okay, all right. Well, yeah, well, that's good. Good parameters to know. I always give credit to God because I don't mind telling people I'm not that smart.
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I really feel like God gave me the idea and somewhat ironically, as we're both radio and podcasts guys, when I first started doing a radio show, a different show than very bold radio and podcasts called Beacon Radio, my first actual interview was with a food ministry, Daily Bread Ministries in San Antonio. Wonderful. Uh, good friends with this, the executive director, Marcus Walker before then, uh, was Seth Keene, who was the founder anyway.
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I was getting ready to interview him. I got the tour of this amazing warehouse, all this food that was going out with that hope that we're talking about. And I saw all this peanut butter on a table and I said, what is that peanut butter for? And he told me it was actually a different ministry, another great ministry called Snack Pack for Kids San Antonio. And he said, they feed kids that don't have food.
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on the weekends. immediately, Steve, it popped into my head, and this is the Holy Spirit, this is the Lord Jesus, this is God. I mean, I just felt peanut butter bowl. I didn't even say it to him. just knew peanut butter bowl. And I knew that at the time. One of my good friends was head football coach at the San Antonio School called Johnson.
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And then another good friend who used to be in my youth group when I was a youth pastor was now the head football coach at a high school called Brandeis in San Antonio. And they played each other and immediately I just felt like if we could call their game peanut butter bowl and those two communities collected peanut butter that would go for snack pack for kids, San Antonio, bringing hope and bringing food to kids that are chronically hungry, then man, we would all win.
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And, uh, and I would even say back in the, that part of it was because I went to their first game that wasn't a peanut butter bowl and they were facing each other. And my wife, Chris and I, uh, sat on one side for the first half and we went to the other side for the second half. And at the end of the game, I was still kind of miserable because one of my really good friends did not win the game. And, uh, so then, uh, uh, fast forward and, I see this peanut butter. God gives me this idea. And I go to them and say,
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Can we call your game peanut butter bowl? And of course they both said yes. And that's where it all started back in 2016. We're celebrating our 10th anniversary this year, 2026. And of course what God's plan was, and I felt, I felt along with God like we'd start with those two schools, but then we'd expand and hopefully keep expanding. And that is still our vision today. So we have about 120,
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Texas high schools involved this year, but we're hoping to get to Little Rock. We're hoping to get to Tennessee. We're hoping to get to Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico. You know, we want to see God continue to grow this thing. But for now, He's got us in Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Burleson, and now McKinney, and we're just, man, and Laredo. We're just excited to see what God does. That is amazing. And the great part about it is,
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kids are going to get fed because of going to football games and people getting involved. It is just amazing. And I'm so thankful for people like you, Steve, because you had that kind of vision. You had that heart. But yet so many of us, for a myriad of reasons, will say, we can't do it. There's all kinds of obstacles that pop into our head as to why we can't. But yet, you did what you were supposed to do. You did what you were called to do.
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God took your like little five loaves of two fish and turned it into the peanut butter bowl. Absolutely. Absolutely. In fact, that's a scripture that stuck with me many years ago, just Matthew 14, 16, and it's in Mark and Luke. just says, Jesus turns to the apostles and says, you give them something to eat. And I totally feel like we have two slices of Wonder Bread and half a jar of crunchy peanut butter, but let's go. Let's see what God can do. And that's what we've done.
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It has been both total dependence upon the Lord. In fact, having done it for our 10th anniversary, I just keep going back to Lord, this is your thing. You came up with it. run with it. It is totally in your hands. And I even say, Lord, know, sometimes you feel like, we want to add more schools because we want to feed more people. But sometimes I say the Lord,
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you bring to us the coaches that we're supposed to team up with. We want the partnerships that you want and that's what he's done. And I do have to say this because if it wasn't for coaches, we would have maybe one game after 10 years, maybe we would have zero games, but we have coaches that I started with, Coach Ron Ridiman, who just retired from Alamo Heights.
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Um, and many other coaches I could name who have grown peanut butter bowl, because what happens is when I went to him and said, okay, coach, you know, think we should expand this after three years, not just two schools. Let's get some more schools involved. He was the one who texted, uh, other coaches and said, Hey, do you want to do peanut butter bowl? And because it was him, because his leadership and credibility and relationships with other coaches, they said, yes, if I had like cold called coaches.
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you know, we're not going to get anywhere. So God puts in place, whether it's a little boy with five loves and two fishes, or if it's Philip and Andrew who have enough faith to come to Jesus and say, what can you do with this? He puts together a team and that's really what he's done. So I give credit, of course, to Jesus for what he is doing and running the show, but also for great coaches that really care about their communities and they care about teaching their
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community and their kids, their players, their athletes about giving back to their community. Steve Till is our guest here on the Steve Marston show talking about the Peanut Butter Bowl. He's also the founder of Very Bold Ministries. And you would think with everything he's just described, the Peanut Butter Bowl, that would keep him busy, you 365. But you've got so much other stuff going on. You've got books coming out. You've got all kinds of other things. Let's dive into some other things that Very Bold is doing.
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Well, yeah, let's do that. And I will say this too. I have a wonderful team. Peanut butter bowl is definitely 300, 365 days for three months of the year. So about a hundred days of the year, it's 365 feels like 24 seven, but we have a wonderful team that makes it all happen. So I have a hunger relief coordinator. have a video guy that's a husband and wife, Justin and Michelle. We have graphics from Arturo from Safegut. We have
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prayer warriors. My wife, Chris Teal is an incredible prayer warrior and I would not keep going if it wasn't for her prayers and also Scott Munson. And again, I can name many others, Logan Ramirez. So I am grateful to have an amazing team to team up with and it's been great. But you're right. Very bold is not just peanut butter bowl and that is by design. It seems like God likes me to do some different things.
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Uh, the radio and podcast, of course, is a blast. And the books that we're working on now, um, are spiritual warfare books. So this is kind of a new thing for us, even though it's been around since Adam and Eve and, uh, the serpent in the garden, but it's, really just been the last about eight years that God has opened our eyes to, man, there are spiritual.
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battles going on every day, and it seems to me, Steve, that just generally speaking, western Christians, American Christians, sometimes we're just going through the motions unaware of how Satan is targeting us. So it's been...yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say, I can't disagree with you more on that, because I think so many times we have in the West especially been lulled to sleep by Satan, and to talk about
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an unseen spiritual realm just sounds kind of hokey and kind of corny, but when you read the Bible, it's there. I think maybe God is doing us a favor by not allowing us to see it, you know? And a lot of times, because we would probably be shocked at what's going on all around us in the spiritual realm. I think you're right, and I think in a way,
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you know, reminds me of, um, Elisha and, uh, kind of forget the scripture reference. Maybe it would be second Kings three, maybe ish. Uh, somebody can call me out on that, but, you know, Elisha, when he is surrounded by a human army and his servant is like, like I've done often freaking out like, Oh my gosh, what's going to happen. And Elisha says, Lord, open his eyes. And when he,
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of course opens his eyes and you know the Bible really well. He sees the holy angels that are there, the holy warriors that are there. And Elisha says there are more that are for us than against us. And to me, this is this I believe is a new season that's happening in the church. I believe that God is opening our eyes and now maybe he is like protected us, like you said, but now I think it's a new season of
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open your eyes because if we have our eyes open, we can defeat the enemy. We can do our part to bring the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness. And I think that's what Jesus calls us to do. So that's been incredibly rewarding and helpful for us. We are helping Christians basically one on one.
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Helping them to identify like is there something are you under a possible spiritual attack? There's something that could be plaguing you tormenting you because if there is we've been trained and taught to Understand there's a pretty simple way Pretty straightforward way to identify something's there and if it's there get rid of it So we've we've just really been blessed
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And just think it's a new time for the church, the American church, like we talked about. Now it's time Jesus is saying, like, open your eyes. Let's see what's there. Let's understand what's there so we can do battle. Absolutely. I love that. And just to maybe correct you a little bit, Second Kings chapter six. But you were close. You were close. Thank you. Right there at it, I asked for it. Yeah, no, you did. And our crack research staff was able to see it.
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really quickly. So that's great. So we just got a couple of minutes left. Let's talk about how people can get in contact with Very Bold Ministries, whether it be through the podcast, whether it be through the Peanut Butter Bowl, and all of that. Sure. Yeah, for sure. If somebody wants to donate for Peanut Butter Bowl, they can go to peanutbutterbowl.com, and you can go to slash give and find if your high school is on our drop-down menu of 120 teams.
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You can give on behalf of them or you can just give right there with find your school below. If they want to support Very Bold, they can go to verybold.com. They can of course donate, but also they can reach out to me at steve at verybold.com. I'd love to hear anybody. If they're going through something, they're looking for prayers or they just have questions about, man, am I maybe just under spiritual attack, but I'm Christian. I can't be under spiritual attack. Can I?
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then I'd love to talk to them and sit down with them. So those are the easiest ways. Of course, we're on AM 6.30 noon every Saturday, bringing Very Bold Radio and Podcast. But yeah, those are some great ways to reach out to us. Let's quickly talk about a guest. Who's coming up on the Very Bold Podcast? Right now.
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Right now, peanut butter bowl season. I see. It's all peanut butter bowl season. So I couldn't even talk about some of the guests coming up because right now it's a little bit of pause right now. but yeah, we always have great Christian difference makers with testimonies and stories like we've had with you and many other people. It's just always a blessing to bring that encouragement. Yeah. And you can always go back and listen to the archives because like you say, you have
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talked to tons of people over the years and it's just there's some good stuff in there for sure. No, Thank you. really appreciate that. Thank you, Steve. Yeah, no doubt about it. So again, it's verybold.com. Check it out. And then you can again, there's 501 C3. You can make your contributions there. And that's what's really cool is the drop down menu. I love that that you've got that there as a, as a part of it so that necessarily if someone can't come to the school that night to participate.
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They can do so online is just a pretty, pretty amazing. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. You know, all credit to our web guy, Logan Ramirez for whenever I need to update it, which it seems like is almost daily. I mean, he makes it happen. just have an all star team. So I'm very grateful for the Lord putting them in place. All right. And before we let you go, let's get your words of wisdom for our next guest, whomever that may be. Right, man. Okay. Once.
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Once you said that it's for the next guest, I thought of probably, I'm joking now, about 35 things. Ephesians 4, 26, 27, in your anger, do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Very Bold Ministries at verybold.com. Steve, thanks so much. Steve Marsden, thank you, man. You're the man.
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Welcome back. It's the Steve Marston Show. We are glad that you're here. And it's always fun to welcome in a friend. And this guy I've known more than almost half my life, it seems like, is Casey Longing. He happens to be the youth pastor at the church that I attend in Beebee, Union Valley Baptist Church. And I wanted to bring him on because he's, well, first of all, the oldest youth pastor, I think, in the world. But he's also been given some incredible opportunities
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to be in schools to preach the gospel. We're gonna get into all that as we get started. So, but first, welcome to the show, man. Glad to have you. Hey, thanks Steve. Thanks for giving me a few minutes of your time, brother. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Okay, now we start every conversation with kind of a look back to a piece of advice that was given by our previous guest. This is totally blind. He had no idea you're the person that was gonna be next. So,
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This came from Steve Teal who is from Very Bold Ministries and he said he wanted to pass along this, Ephesians chapter 4 verses 26 and 27 being, are not letting anger overtake you and not letting the sun go down on your wrath. So take that for what it's worth, brother. That's the word, man. I love it. That's it. Okay, so let's start with this. You have been on the front lines of
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being in public school systems and being able to see God open all kinds of doors for not just school assemblies where you can teach good character classes, but actually present and teach the gospel. Yeah. It's been nuts, You know, probably, I don't know, several years ago, I just go with 2016-2017.
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I went and met with a friend of mine who was a principal at our middle school and kind of pitched this idea of character classes, which was brought to me by, honestly, Steve would be a great dude for you to interview on your show. His name is Chris Franco, and he's a youth pastor, student pastor in Conway, Bologna area. But anyway, I'll send you his information. But he's the one that told me that he had done this and gotten the Bible back in school. And I said, how?
37:19
So he put me in contact with this organization called Character Under Construction, which is through Rock of Ages Ministries. So reached out to that dude, and the dude came and met me for lunch at Cabot. And he said, before we get started, he said, I want to ask you one question. I said, what's that? This dude's name's John Benson. And John said, is this a concern or a burden? And I said, I guess it's a burden.
37:47
And he said, good, that's what I wanted to hear because if it's concern, you'll pray for it from time to time. But if it's a burden, it will drive you. And so that put me on the path with Rock of Ages Ministries. started a partnership and they do it like a training session. And it was, it was kind of, you know, kind of felt like I was kind of in the high weeds, especially with the legal part, which though I'm glad I did it.
38:16
because it let me know what I can and can't say in the classroom according to the law. Now, I'll push pause right there and say that Rock of Ages Ministries, this is a nationwide organization and the character under construction portion of it, which is what I used back in 2016-2017 timeframe, it has been
38:46
opposed all the way due to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court has upheld their efforts with Rock of Ages ministries. And so everything that I took into the school is, I mean, we're on the side of the law or the laws on our side, however you want to put that. so giving that, giving that information to the administration, dude, it's just,
39:14
It's just more tools in your toolkit. And I would say to any student pastor, any pastor, any lay person that's listening out there that is wanting to get prayer, wanting to get the Bible back in your school. Let me just encourage you with something that Bill Clinton in 1993 expressed in some presidential papers, papers is that character should be taught in our schools. And this is what Bill Clinton said.
39:45
One of the greatest resources for character is found in the Holy Bible. And your audience can Google that. They can research that for themselves instead of taking the word of some guy. So that put me on a path to, you know, knowing and educating myself on the law. And so I went and presented that to this principal at our middle school. And she said, go for it.
40:15
So I did. And I bought the material from this gentleman, from John, and I realized that may have just caused a red flag for somebody that's listening. It cost me 300 bucks, a one-time purchase. And that material, if I were to use that just on Wednesday nights, and I'm saying this to that bivocational youth guy out there, because I was bivocational for 10 years, I'd get the stroke.
40:42
Um, if, I were just to take that material and teach it every Wednesday night, there's enough material there to teach for the next three and a half years. If I just taught it on Wednesday night. And so I took that and me and my wife, Lynn, we, we began to look at it. We just began to tweak it to help it fit us and our presentation style. And so we launched it in the middle school.
41:11
Again, 2016, 2017, I could look at my notes and give you a better detail, but, but dude took off like a rocket. And we went from, they gave me four classes a week to about eight classes a week at the middle school. They gave me the social studies portion and the curriculum is people from history, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant.
41:41
a guy named Eric Wehmeyer who is a blind man that climbed Everest and it teaches these life lessons but then also backs up scripture or has scripture to back it and it tells their story and their set of challenges through what does the Bible say about that. Now let me tell your audience right now that I cannot go into the school and teach the Bible from a devotional standpoint.
42:10
So what does that mean? I can't go into a classroom like, I'm leaving as soon as I get done with you. I'm headed up to the school to talk to the volleyball team. I can't go into a setting and say, hey, if you die without Christ, you'll perish for all eternity in a place called hell. I can't do that. But what I can do is reference the historical Jesus and say that a man named Jesus
42:40
who walked this planet 2,000 years ago, it's well documented, said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So that's a great anti-bullying message. that's, we've kind of used that to get into the school. Now here's the cool part, Steve. When I say that, I always follow it up with the same Jesus also said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.
43:10
Now, I know the law, and here's the great part about it. And so I want to encourage that one man or woman right now that's listening that is wanting to do something. The way the law reads that if I bring up a subject and a student raises their hand and says, hey, what does Jesus mean by that? Well, then the door is thrown wide open because the same law says,
43:38
that as an instructor in that school or in that subject, I am bound by law to tell you everything I know about the question you just asked in the subject matter. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You are bound by law to answer everything you know? Everything I on the subject. So let's say that I'm a math teacher and I'm teaching the Pythagorean theorem. Well, if a kid will ask a question, well, what does this mean or help me understand this?
44:06
then that same law for the math teacher, the English teacher, the science teacher is binding me as an instructor in character. Well, how does that work? How does that affect me? Oh, well, let me share this with you. Let me tell you a real quick story. The same guy that got me on this trail, John, he taught a lesson, and it's in the set on forgiveness. And it was about Cory Tim Boone.
44:35
And I'm sure a lot of your audience knows who that is. Sure. And she later in life met the actual Nazi prison guard that took her sister's life. Upon meeting that prison guard had found Christ and asked her forgiveness for the pain and the torture and the horror, the tragedy that he brought on her life.
45:04
Corey said, I forgive you. while my friend John is teaching that class in a public school, I believe this was in New Mexico. If I, if I'm getting my story straight and I can, I can call him and verify all this and I I'm happy to give you his information. So you might want to even interview him, but the student raised the hand and said, God can't forgive a Nazi to which John said,
45:34
Well, we're not talking about God. We're talking about Cory 10 boom. But since you've brought up the subject, who can God forgive? Wow. Which is perfectly within the law to which John tells the story prompted a conversation in this classroom of about 20 plus kids. One young lady said, well, according to John three 16 and then quoted the verse, which sparked this young man to.
46:01
Nazis, God can't forgive that, which brought in this whole concept of grace. Long story short, at the end of the period of instruction after the bell rang, so the students have seven minutes of free time, John shared the gospel with anyone that wanted to stay. made the, he made a plea to the class, if you want to know more in this brief period of non-instruction between classes, I'm happy to share with you. Dude.
46:30
18 young people gave their life to Christ in that seven minute span between classes. And so that prompted different things happening. And so here's what I've just got to share with you to really bring this thing home. I approached our high school principal a little over a year ago and I said, Mr. Edwards, I want to start a club. How do I do that? He said, I don't know. I guess you just start one. And I said, okay, let's do it.
46:57
And he said, you've got the parameters to start a new club. have to have, I think it was 35 students sign up for your, for your club. he said, we'll do a rush week. So all the different clubs will be out there. They'll be represented. They'll have posters. Some of them will have PowerPoints. They'll have signup sheets. They'll have these cool little booths. And I said, okay, so can I do that? And he's like, yeah, man, come on.
47:22
And so I go into the, to our career tech building and this whole hallway as all this cool stuff, balloons, balloon arches, cool, super high tech videos that all these kiddos are running. Bro, I'm, I'm, I'm 56, 57 years old. like, I don't know how to it. I look for the.com button on the computer, man. And so this is no joke. This is no joke, man. I took a white eight foot table, a brown folding chair.
47:52
two pieces of paper and a pen. No poster, no balloon, no nothing. And you would be amazed at how much attention that drew. I had the biggest crowd of kids around a blank table with a blank sheet of paper. It's the reverse psychology of it. Absolutely, dude, absolutely. And so I sat there and I would just let a crowd build up.
48:22
And then I would stand up and say, who? This was the question that I asked. Does your school need more kindness or less kindness? And 100 % of the time they said we need more. And I said, well, this is what this is. We're going to teach kindness according to the Bible. When my very first group, there was probably, and I'm just guessing 3040 kids in the group stand around the table. And this one young man in the very back, he's a high school student. He said,
48:53
I don't believe in your God in your Bible and he was of some Native American spirit belief. I said, okay, well, evidently this kid was a little bit of an influencer. of the crowd began to walk with him when he walked off. And I said, can I challenge you on that real quick? So he turned on a dime and came back. Well, the crowd came back with him.
49:21
And I said, does your belief system offer any sort of encouragement to your fellow neighbor? Be kind, be nice. He goes, Oh yeah. I said, well, dude, that's all I'm after. I'm just coming at it from what the Bible says. I'm not here to throw rocks at your belief system. And he thought about it for a minute and say, this is no joke. He was the first kid that signed up on my class. And when he signed up the group that he influences, they all signed up. So I'd have
49:49
I had to have 35 kids. had 104 sign up the first day. Wow. And it went from there. We started with, we averaged in the high school, uh, our very first class, the most we ever had was 94 students. And then we jumped over to the junior high. Now that's where it's really taken off like crazy. We average, and I want your listeners to hear this. We average 250 students, uh, each week.
50:19
And it was so much so that they gave me, the principal gave me her second period class to teach character. And it was, it's full. We were in the cafeteria and we ran out of seating. had kids sitting on the floor. Because literally all I'm doing is teaching what the Bible says about good character. It shows that students are hungry, they're broken, they're hurting. And only, and I want your listeners to hear this.
50:48
only the Word of God can fix that. Amen. That's right. That's it. So that's where we're at now. That is amazing. I wish we had more time, brother, but we just run. We're just running low on time, but it is so amazing. Let me ask you to give. Do you mind giving out your contact information if there is a youth pastor or some other church leader that feels like, hey, I want to try to get involved in our schools? How can they get in contact with you?
51:17
Man, I mean, you can get ahold of my email is refuge at uvbc.church and the church's phone number is 501-882-6189. Sounds great. Before we let you go, what's one piece of advice for our next guest? To that person out there that is like they want to quit, man, don't stay in the fight. Keep fighting. It's worth it.
51:45
Casey Longing, youth pastor of Union Valley Baptist Church in Beebe. Thanks, brother. Thank you, my friend. Love you, bro.
51:55
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 from Franco in New Brunsville, Texas. He said, Steve, what do you call cryptocurrency that works only in August? I don't know. What do you call cryptocurrency that works only in August? That would be sweat coin.
52:24
Welcome back to the Steve Marston show. would love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel. In fact, we need you to. Don't make us beg. Please, please go to our YouTube page and subscribe, like and hit that notifications bell so you'll know when we upload new content. It really would help this little tiny radio show podcast take to the next level. We would sure appreciate you doing that again. YouTube.com slash Steve Marston show is real easy to find. So please.
52:54
Again, do I sound bad? Do I sound beggy? Because I am, but I don't want to sound that way. Okay, good. I got the thumbs up sign. again, youtube.com slash Steve Marston Show. Okay, let's see what else is happening around the world with some other headlines going on here. This one comes to us from our friends over at churchleaders.com. There's a movie called Amazing Grace.
53:23
I'll be honest with you, I've never heard of the movie, but apparently it came out like 20 years ago. And it first introduced a lot of American audiences to William Wilberforce. Now, if you don't know that name, maybe you ought to watch this movie, but you definitely need to throw it in a Google machine because William Wilberforce was a force, no pun intended, in getting slavery abolished in England. And he had a big effect on
53:53
people in America as well once the colonies started to really start thinking about independence. You need to check out William Wilberforce. And again this movie is going to be re-released. The producer Bob Belz talked with churchleaders.com and the decision to re-release the movie wasn't just because of celebrating the anniversary. He said, really think it's a classic and I think it's evergreen. I think this film
54:20
needs to be shown from generation to generation to generation. He said, we feel like a younger generation right now needs to see this film because it could have an impact because of its story of a guy who literally changed the world. And he went on to say, it's a guy that very few people know about, just when the timing is right and our hope is that many of the younger generation that have never seen it or know who he is will have an opportunity to see the film.
54:47
And he even talked about Wilberforce's devotion in his life. Belts explained that for every year, for 20 years, William Wilberforce put a bill on the floor of Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade, and it finally passed in 1807. Think about that. Every year for 20 years, he didn't give up. He just kept on. He said,
55:15
If I had a chance to go back and ask William World War Four a question, he said, that's what I'd like to ask you about, his own deep devotional life. So yeah, look for that movie. You don't have a release date or re-release date as of yet, but we'll keep you posted on that. Again, the movie is called Amazing Grace. What else is happening here? There's another guy that's in the news. His name is Mike Posner. Now look.
55:42
I'll freely admit I'm not the coolest guy in the world. I don't know who this guy is, but he's a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter, best known for songs called Cooler Than Me and If I Took a Pill in Izbo. Okay, again, I have no idea what those are. But he's talking about in his latest Instagram posts about a life-changing journey that led him to give his life to Christ and be baptized. He said, a year ago I got down on my
56:10
knees and gave my life to Christ." He said that to his 1.4 million Instagram followers. He said the journey began as a Christ-centronic, Christ-centrinsic events. Boy, why do they use so many big words? That's not impressive. It's just hard to read. Among them were conversations with Christian friends who deeply shared personal details that they couldn't have known about as well as a powerful moment during a small church service.
56:39
when he felt like electricity moved through his body, leading him to a deep feeling of oneness. And then he goes on to have this quote, me, to be a Christian means to inspire with all your mind, body, and soul to live as Christ did, to forgive all other people with an impossible level of compassion, grace, and most of all, in all caps, love. Well, I like that. Sounds like he really has got a good handle on what it really means to be a disciple.
57:08
He said he acknowledged that he's not trying to tell others what to believe, but he said keeping his faith private just no longer felt authentic. See, I think that's such a good point because we all come to that realization, I think, after some time. You know, we feel like we're just learning. We don't know a whole lot about Scripture and about the Bible. But boy, as we grow, as we get more mature in the faith,
57:35
We have to let it out. We have to let people know. It's just something inside of us to be able to encourage people, if nothing else, just to let them know that there really is hope. There really is a sense of purpose and sense of peace that defines my life. And I could share it with you, you know, that kind of thing. And then he said, along those same lines, to not share this would be inauthentic and I would feel like I'm hiding.
58:04
part of myself from my audience. He said, I'm not hiding this part of my life. I'm very proud of this part of my life. So very cool. Again, the guy's name is Michael Posner and he may be the most famous musician in the world today. I mean, he may be Taylor Swift level recognition. I just don't know who he is. So that I don't know that says more. I'm sure I'm positive that says more about me than it does him. And let's see one more story here.
58:34
Alicia Childers warns against deliverance influence. Have you seen these people, these deliverance influence that are all over Instagram and on X? She wants people to know that Satan is real, but Christians should be aware of these influence out there who would love to sell you a bill of goods about how Satan works. She goes on to talk about, due to the state of our culture, many Christians are pondering the reality of evil.
59:02
and perhaps some are realizing that Satan and demons are real and not just theoretical. And she says because of this, there's a lot of people out there trying to sell you a bill of goods. And she's right about that. She went on to talk about three things to look for. She said, here's a word of caution. First point she made is how Satan works is that he holds no power over believers. Secondly, she urged
59:31
everyone to test everything against scripture. That's probably the biggest one. And third, that Satan is real, demons are real, Christians are given explicit instructions on how to battle these attacks. She is right on all of those accounts. Good stuff. Okay, stay with us. More of the Steve Marston Show coming back before you know it. Don't go away.
59:56
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 from Franco in New Brunsville, Texas. He said, Steve, what do you call cryptocurrency that works only in August? I don't know. What do you call cryptocurrency that works only in August? That would be sweat coin.
01:00:25
Welcome back to the Steve Marston show. would love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel. In fact, we need you to don't make us bag. Please, please go to our YouTube page and subscribe, like and hit that notifications bell so you'll know when we upload new content. It really would help this little tiny radio show podcast take to the next level. We would sure appreciate you doing that again. YouTube.com slash Steve Marston show is real easy to find. So please
01:00:54
Again, do I sound bad? Do I sound beggy? Because I am, but I don't want to sound that way. Okay, good. I got the thumbs up sign. again, youtube.com slash Steve Morriston Show. Okay, let's see what else is happening around the world with some other headlines going on here. This one comes to us from our friends over at churchleaders.com. There's a movie called Amazing Grace.
01:01:24
I'll be honest with you, I've never heard of the movie, but apparently it came out like 20 years ago. And it first introduced a lot of American audiences to William Wilberforce. Now, if you don't know that name, maybe you ought to watch this movie, but you definitely need to throw it in a Google machine because William Wilberforce was a force, no pun intended, in getting slavery abolished in England. And he had a big effect on
01:01:54
people in America as well once the colonies started to really start thinking about independence. You need to check out William Wilberforce. And again this movie is going to be re-released. The producer Bob Belz talked with churchleaders.com and the decision to re-release the movie wasn't just because of celebrating the anniversary. He said, really think it's a classic and I think it's evergreen. I think this film
01:02:21
needs to be shown from generation to generation to generation. He said, we feel like a younger generation right now needs to see this film because it could have an impact because of its story of a guy who literally changed the world. And he went on to say, it's a guy that very few people know about, just when the timing is right and our hope is that many of the younger generation that have never seen it or know who he is will have an opportunity to see the film.
01:02:48
And he even talked about Wilberforce's devotion in his life. Belts explained that for every year, for 20 years, William Wilberforce put a bill on the floor of Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade, and it finally passed in 1807. Think about that. Every year for 20 years, he didn't give up. He just kept on. He said,
01:03:15
If I had chance to go back and ask William Wilberforce a question, he said, that's what I'd like to ask you about, his own deep devotional life. So yeah, look for that movie. You don't have a release date or re-release date as of yet, but we'll keep you posted on that. Again, the movie is called Amazing Grace. What else is happening here? There's another guy that's in the news. His name is Mike Posner. Now look.
01:03:42
I'll freely admit I'm not the coolest guy in the world. I don't know who this guy is, but he's a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter, best known for songs called Cooler Than Me and If I Took a Pill in Izbo. Okay, again, I have no idea what those are. But he's talking about in his latest Instagram posts about a life-changing journey that led him to give his life to Christ and be baptized. He said, a year ago I got down on my
01:04:11
knees and gave my life to Christ." He said that to his 1.4 million Instagram followers. He said the journey began as a Christ-centronic, Christ-centronic, trisic events. Boy, why do they use so many big words? That's not impressive. It's just hard to read. Among them were conversations with Christian friends who deeply shared personal details that they couldn't have known about as well as a powerful moment during a small church service.
01:04:40
when he felt like electricity moved through his body, leading him to a deep feeling of oneness. And then he goes on to have this quote, me, to be a Christian means to inspire with all your mind, body, and soul to live as Christ did, to forgive all other people with an impossible level of compassion, grace, and most of all, in all caps, love. Well, I like that. Sounds like he really has got a good handle on what it really means to be a disciple.
01:05:09
He said he acknowledged that he's not trying to tell others what to believe, but he said keeping his faith private just no longer felt authentic. See, I think that's such a good point because we all come to that realization, I think, after some time. You know, we feel like we're just learning. We don't know a whole lot about Scripture and about the Bible. But boy, as we grow, as we get more mature in the faith,
01:05:36
We have to let it out. We have to let people know. It's just something inside of us to be able to encourage people, if nothing else, just to let them know that there really is hope. There really is a sense of purpose and sense of peace that defines my life. And I could share it with you, you know, that kind of thing. And then he said, along those same lines, to not share this would be inauthentic and I would feel like I'm hiding.
01:06:05
part of myself from my audience. He said, I'm not hiding this part of my life. I'm very proud of this part of my life. So, very cool. Again, the guy's name is Michael Posner and he may be the most famous musician in the world today. I mean, he may be Taylor Swift level recognition. I just don't know who he is. So, I don't know. That says more. I'm sure. I'm positive that says more about me than it does him. And let's see one more story here.
01:06:34
Alicia Childers warns against deliverance influence. Have you seen these people, these deliverance influence that are all over Instagram and on X? She wants people to know that Satan is real, but Christians should be aware of these influence out there who would love to sell you a bill of goods about how Satan works. She goes on to talk about, due to the state of our culture, many Christians are pondering the reality of evil.
01:07:03
and perhaps some are realizing that Satan and demons are real and not just theoretical. And she says because of this, there's a lot of people out there trying to sell you a bill of goods. And she's right about that. She went on to talk about three things to look for. She said, here's a word of caution. First point she made is how Satan works is that he holds no power over believers. Secondly, she urged
01:07:31
everyone to test everything against scripture. That's probably the biggest one. And third, that Satan is real, demons are real, Christians are given explicit instructions on how to battle these attacks. She is right on all of those accounts. Good stuff. Okay, stay with us. More of the Steve Marston Show coming back before you know it.
01:07:55
Back here on the Steve Marston Show. Thank you for listening. We really do appreciate it whether you're doing it live on our two amazing radio stations, AM 630 The Word in San Antonio or 99.5 The Word in Little Rock. We're grateful that you're here or you may be listening two weeks from now at midnight. So whatever your story, thank you for joining us as we roll on. Now every Monday
01:08:26
We like to do a little thing called Faith Between Your Ears. And for those of you that are new, I want to explain it because it's something I think is really important. We try to learn a Bible verse together every single week here on the program. We take some time and we go through it. And I think it really is important because, well, really two reasons. Number one is...
01:08:53
Whenever life starts to slap us around, whenever those voices inside our head start to say all the negative stuff, whenever we feel like we're just less than and life is just totally out of control, how do you counterbalance it? Well, to me, the only way we can is with Scripture because situations and circumstances in our life will always change, but God's Word doesn't.
01:09:21
That's why we need it in between our ears and in our heart so that we can make sure we know what to hold on to, what's really real and what's just trying to make us fear, right? Well, second point along those lines is the fact that I think it's the primary way we're going to get closer to God. I mean, we all want that, I hope.
01:09:49
to have a deeper, stronger relationship with Christ than we do right now. Well, I think learning Scripture, memorizing it is the key to doing that, to going level or two or ten deeper, right? So this verse we're going to look at this week is Hebrews 11, 6, and it says this, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must
01:10:19
first believe that God exists and that two, He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. Yeah. So let's learn that verse together. Let's memorize it however you do that, whether that's through writing it out longhand, doing it on a Post-it note, and putting it somewhere where you'll see it on the regular, or just saying it out loud over and over. That's what you need to do.
01:10:45
Let's learn God's Word. Hebrews 11, 6, our faith between our ears verse for this week. Okay, we wrap up the show with what did I learn today? Well, I tell you what I learned from our two guests that, you know, it doesn't matter what we have to offer God, just like those little boy in Scripture with, you know, the few loaves, two fish, God took it and multiplied it and blessed it beyond belief. Well,
01:11:14
That's exactly what we've seen in those two guys' lives as well. And I think it's a great lesson for all of us to just be available, hear God, here's what I have, take and do with it whatever you can make out of it here. I freely offer it to you. I think that's all that He's really waiting for, for you and for I to do. Okay, we are back tomorrow with the Steve Marston Show.
01:11:42
live on the radio at three o'clock anytime on the podcast and on YouTube. And if you missed anything, head to Steve Marston show.com till three o'clock tomorrow. Adios.
