How to Answer Logan Paul—and Every “Good Person”—About Heaven
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. Okay, welcome in. The Steve Marston Show is underway. Especially grateful for those of you listening on the radio.
00:29
Day in, day out, I mean, you are just like the sunshine. is a thrill and a delight to be with you, whether you're listening in the Little Rock area on 99.5 The Word or in the San Antonio area on AM 630 The Word. Thankful is not the best word to say. It's the only one I can think of, but I am just so tremendously grateful for those of you that are just our heartbeat and our soul.
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and our foundation of this program being here every single day. The rest of you are joining us maybe through your phone, from the podcast app, or from YouTube, or even our website, stevemarstonshow.com. And maybe you're listening to this months or maybe even years after the original release date, but I'm glad that you're stopping by. I'm glad that it's piqued your interest to click on it and to join us here.
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So we've got a big show coming up for you. My son Tyler from the YouTube channel 1189 is going to join us. Now we've had him on the program a lot. 1189 is a wonderful resource. It's a video series that breaks down every single chapter of the Bible. And the video we're going to talk about today is probably the most exciting chapter in the Bible. If you just break it down to
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readability and like from a literature aspect, this has everything you can imagine in it and it's such a wonderful real account of what happened and Tyler is going to join us and we'll talk about that coming up. We'll also have our Christian Explain Yourself segment. This is where we kind of break down some of the things we do as Christians because I know there's a lot of people who listen to this program and maybe aren't
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necessarily followers of Christ, or maybe if you are, you just don't understand maybe why we do some of the things we do, so we're going to try to shed some light on that coming up as well. But I wanted to start with something a little bit, kind of 201, you know? That's kind of what I feel like this program tries to shoot to be every single day, is a deeper level course in Christianity, taking that extra couple of layers
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deeper in our walk with Christ. So I try to find fun and unique ways to be able to explain these and to be able to help you live more like Jesus. And I came across Bryce Crawford's appearance on the Logan Paul podcast. Now, Bryce Crawford is a 22-year-old evangelist, and he's a viral sensation.
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There's a lot of kids in that younger generation that are listening to him. And that platform has grown to the point where people with more mainstream podcasts are inviting him on to talk and to share his faith. Several episodes ago, we broke down his appearance on Howie Mandel's podcast. Well, he's now been invited to do the podcast with Logan Paul. And Logan Paul,
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is another social media influencer. He also wrestles part-time for the WWE. So he's got an incredible following and Logan Paul has serious questions about the faith. He's had the Kinectlis on who are apologists. He has had even Joel Osteen on his program and he's not afraid to ask legitimate serious questions of people of faith.
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And I thought this would be a little fun exercise for us because he was asked by Bryce, kind of Bryce's trademark question, and that is, on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your level of assurance that you're going to go to heaven? Well, I want you to listen to Logan Paul's answer, and I want you to, in your mind, critique it and in your mind decide why his answer is right or not.
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Let me play the clip and then we'll talk about it on the other side. Here's Logan Paul from his podcast with Bryce Crawford answering the question, how assured on a scale of one to 10 are you that you're going to heaven? I feel like I'm a good person. I feel like I'm a human who's made mistakes but is also like trying to be the best person that I can be. And now at 31 years old, if,
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a thought crosses my mind or something happens where I I feel like oh like that's not like my my my instincts of that's not a good thing like kick a little more than they have in the past and I don't know I just feel like it kind of feels promising that like I'm gonna I'm a good enough person to get into heaven I think okay can you do a quick summary and tell me what's wrong with Logan Paul's answer here okay let me play the clip for you again and I want you to
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Analyze it in your brain and figure out Exactly. Why are he goes wrong here? I feel like I'm a good person I feel like I'm a human who's made mistakes, but is also like trying to be the best person that I can be and now at 31 years old if If a thought crosses my mind or something
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happens where I feel like, my instincts of that's not a good thing kick a little more than they have in the past. And I don't know, just feel, it kind of feels promising that I'm good enough person to get into heaven, I think. So what do you think? How would you answer Logan Paul there? And again, this is not to bang on Logan Paul, because there are gonna be people in our lives that answer this.
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the exact same way. They could be family members, co-workers, people we know from school events with our kids. They're everywhere and this answer is so prevalent. So how would you handle it? Well see for me, I think the problem with the answer is the pronoun use. How many times in that little 36 second sound bite did Logan Paul use the word I? It's
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all throughout it, probably a dozen times. Look, whenever we're talking about spiritual things and we're talking about how Jesus comes to live inside of someone and provides a way to heaven, all of that should not have the word I attached to it. It should all be about He and Him and what's promised to me because of the cross, not because of anything that I have done.
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So let's listen to Bryce Crawford's answer, and I want you to notice the analogy that he uses and how he makes it so real world and so conversational with Logan and Logan's co-host here. Let's listen to Bryce Crawford on the Logan Paul show. We can't work our way into heaven whatsoever, no matter the more. And I recognize, like, there are alcoholics that have quit alcohol without Jesus. There are people that have conquered porn addictions without Jesus. So I don't think, like, what comes with Jesus?
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Deep spiritual transformation and meaning and purpose that can't be substituted out with an AI robot or someone taking my job or someone getting the promotion over me There's deep meaning purpose significant satisfaction security that comes with Jesus that that can't be robbed from us when we follow him, right? But the analogy that I would say is like if I gave you guys You know two tickets courts had to the Lakers game and you went in there and you scan the ticket you walk down and security stopped you guys He was like what?
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why am going to let you in? You're going to be like, well, I got tickets. And he's going to say, well, how did you get the tickets? And you'd be like, well, Bryce gave them to me. They're a gift. In the same way, like, Christ is the gift for us. He's the ticket punch. If the standard for heaven is perfection, I don't know about you guys, I ain't getting in. I don't meet that criteria. So once again, that's 22-year-old Bryce Crawford. Boy, how mature is he for a 22-year-old, right? On the Logan Paul podcast talking about how to get into heaven and how not.
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I just love the way he slipped in that sports analogy because he knew who he was talking to. Logan Paul is an athlete and would relate exactly to what he was saying about courtside tickets to see the Los Angeles Lakers. Now that may not be your style. You may not be someone who knows one end of a basketball from another. So that's fine. You don't have to use that analogy, but it is such a wonderful template to use because
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whatever you can associate with that person, something that they're interested in, you're able to drive the point home even further. And here's the thing, if we don't answer the question correctly for them, who's going to?
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We're back here on the Steve Marston Show. Thankful for you joining us today.
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It's where faith and fun both are taken seriously. And one of the things we like to do every week is to do this segment called Christian Explain Yourself, where we kind of go through some of the things that we have in Christendom and explain why we do it. Because I know there are a lot of people that are listening, especially the radio audience, that look at this as a safe place, meaning they don't
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necessarily have a faith journey, that cool phrase, know, they're not necessarily a church go or someone who would identify as a Christian. There's up to 30 % of people listening to Christian radio at any one time that fit that category. Did you know that? Yeah, it's true. And same thing for the podcast. I'm sure there's some of you that are kind of scrolling through and just seeing podcasts like this one and maybe clicking on it just for a chance to hear.
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what's being said about different things. So if that's you, let me first tell you that you're welcome and you're always welcome here on this podcast and on this radio show. But there's also things that we do that sometimes even believers wonder, what's up with that? So I thought today we would tackle the one that's kind of maybe the biggest one, or at least it's probably top three, and that is why
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Do we say, Jesus name, after every prayer? What's the purpose of that? Well, let's get into it here. Because I know probably you think, well, I'm sure it's in the Bible somewhere that we're supposed to do that, but don't really know. Well, let's blow off the opaqueness and let's clear some stuff up, okay? So here we go. Why do we use in Jesus name as an ending to our prayers?
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It comes from Jesus himself, especially in the book of John. He says it a couple of different times, and basically he says this, whatever you ask in my name, I will do so that the Father may be glorified through the Son. So let's just hammer that down and get this settled. It is biblical praying in Jesus' name. But here's where some kind of misunderstanding can kind of come in, right?
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It's not a magical phrase. It's not some kind of hocus pocus formula that opens some kind of door for us that previously wouldn't be open, right? You can't say, you know, that God is going to be obligated to do whatever we say just because we say in Jesus' name. You say, wait a minute, isn't that what Jesus just said? Yeah, but that's not how it works. In Jesus' name,
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means this. Think about it like an ambassador. know, every country has an ambassador from another country, right? And if you went as an ambassador of the United States to another country and you were there, you are in that country representing the president and not only the president and all of the government, but all of the people
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of the United States. So whenever you are talking, that's as if the President or the entire country is talking. You are speaking on behalf of them. So when you pray in Jesus' name, you're literally saying, Father, I'm coming to you because of Jesus, under the authority of Jesus, and I want what I'm asking to be consistent with His character and the will of Jesus.
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The Bible even talks about us not having things even though we're praying in Jesus' name because we're asking for the wrong things. We're asking with greedy hearts, with hearts bent towards ourselves and not towards God. James is clear about that. So that's why it doesn't work saying, God, I come to you now in the name of Jesus and I really want you to provide me transportation. And I think the
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best transportation you can provide me is a brand new 2026 Ferrari. I think I would need that to get around town and to be able to live a good life and be able to point towards you because you've given me the best. You are the best. And so in Jesus name, I ask for you to send my Ferrari to me. But it simply doesn't work that way.
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Now, I know there are some people you'll come across on television and maybe even on radio that will kind of buck up against that and say, oh yes, God will answer prayers like that. Well, He just doesn't because it's not us asking for Him to have His will done. Now, the question will arise, well, if God already knows everything that we're going to pray for, why even pray and why tack on in Jesus' name at the end?
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That's another legitimately good question. And I think the answer of it is this. Yes, God is sovereign. God knows everything about us, our wants, our needs, everything, before we even come to Him in prayer. But what our prayer does is it shows a humbleness. Because even though in our brains we know that God knows everything and God is already at work in our situations,
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There's something about us humbling ourselves to God's plan. God said, this is the way I want you to do it, so do it. And when we say, well, I don't want to do it that way, but we say, okay, even though my flesh doesn't want to do it, I'm going to do it because you said so. We humble ourselves and we say, God, here's my needs, here's what's going on. And it doesn't even have to be your needs. I mean, it could be, God, here's my anger.
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Here's my bitterness. Here's my just total upset feelings over this situation. I'm just going to lay them down at your feet. And I'm going to humble myself and allow you to take it from me and I'm going to leave it here with you because you said to do so. And I do this in Jesus' name knowing that that's where the power comes from. That's where the authority is.
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and that because he had the authority on earth and has given it to me, I humble myself and I follow his example of saying, here, God, take from me this. Lord, here's my need about that. And I do it all in the name of Jesus because you simply ask me to do so. And I choose to believe and I choose to follow.
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your example as to the way I ought to live my life. When we do that, when we say that and we get it in its proper perspective, we are then executing things the exact way that Jesus has asked us to do it and our faith will grow because of it. It's not because I say that, it's because the Bible says that. So that's the reason why we say, Jesus' name after every prayer.
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Back after this.
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Welcome back. The Steve Marston Show continues. Discipleship has never been more fun and we're thankful and grateful always for you being here and being a part of the festivities. And every week we like to bring on my son Tyler. He is the content creator for a YouTube channel called 1189. It's a video online Bible commentary where he goes through and breaks down every single chapter of the Bible and does it for free. No paywall, no clickbait, no...
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None of that. It's just a resource for you and your family to be able to take advantage of. And first of all, Tyler, thanks for the time. Glad you could join us, Yeah, it's gonna be back. Well, it is. It's good to have you here. And I know we kind of teased this and set this up on your last appearance, how the chapter that dropped, I think it was yesterday that you did. Acts chapter 27. If you were just to look at this as purely
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from a literary kind of just good read, fun read, this may be the best chapter in all of the Bible. Yeah, it's really thrilling. mean, it's just really, it's a really fun read. Of course, it probably wasn't as fun to live through it for Paul. So basically what has happened is he's in the middle of this trial regarding this riot in Jerusalem, and it's been
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dragging on he's been moved from place to place and all that and and basically we had to do is appeal to court of caesar the emperor and so that means he's got a set sail for italy well he's he's uh... on the voyage there uh... in you know in custody he's he's got a bunch of uh... roman guards escorting him and uh... and there's a shipwreck it's where there's this really terrible storm uh... and paul even says that before time he says hey guys
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If we leave right now, we're going to be caught up in a storm and the boat is going to be destroyed. Of course, nobody listens to Paul. They go about their business anyway. There's the storm. get blown way off course. They're supposed to just be sheltering for the winter on the island of Crete. They end up getting blown all the way to an island called Malta and they get shipwrecked there. But despite all of that, Paul says, hey, I've got a message from God. He says the ship is going to be destroyed.
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But everyone on board is going to be safe. Everybody on board is going to survive if we just stick together. And so all of this really tense situation is being held together really by Paul and really by the spirit. Because you've got the sailors who try to desert. You've got the soldiers who are ready to kill the prisoners if they do shipwreck and all these things.
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And Paul is the one constantly at every turn doing the right thing, living out his faith. Even in this life or death scenario, he's continuing to live by the standards of Jesus. And that is encouraging other people, speaking truth to other people. He's sharing his limited rations. They've had to limit their rations because they've thrown all the food overboard. And all these things he's sharing, he's encouraging, he's praying, and he's thanking God publicly. And what do know by the end of the chapter?
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because of Paul's, because Paul has been faithful to God, God is faithful back to him and he brings Paul through the storm and he survives and then because of Paul everybody else on board also survives. My son's... yeah, go ahead. so what's pretty cool about that is it's really a picture of the gospel. know, Jesus, Paul is acting like Jesus. He's doing the right thing even in a
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really tense scenario and it brings, uh, he acts as a righteous representative to save everybody else along with him. My son, Tyler and my grandson Joel making an appearance as well. He's a, what is he three months old now? Three months old. Yeah. He's hanging out with dad today. So you're doing a little dad duty as well as doing your shot here on the show. So we're glad that both of you are joining us, but yeah, let's,
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Let's quickly go back to what you were talking about when Paul said, Hey, if we all stick together through this, we're going to make it through. This is a prison ship. This is, got 270 plus people on this boat and they're all, you know, they're all people, not necessarily the best character in the whole world. And yet Paul stands up and says, if we stick together, we'll make it through this time. Can you just imagine how they must've just thought, who is this guy?
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And what was he talking about? Yeah, I mean, you've really got the the three different kinds of classes of people on board the ship is you've got the prisoners who are, you know, being sent to Italy, being sent to the courts for, you know, some reason we don't know, but it can't can't exactly be a good one. And then you've you've got the Roman soldiers who are, you know, they're worshipping the cult of the emperor and all these idols. And and they're relying on them to save them, to get them through the
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through the storm and they're also really fierce and scared because if any of these prisoners get away, they know that it's their neck on the line. So they're really, really tense with the prisoners. a fragile relationship, obviously. And then you have the sailors too. And of course the sailors are just, know, salt of the earth men, you know, just regular guys in the first century world. They're not...
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educated or anything, but they are... and so they try to escape. And Paul knows that they're going to need their expertise, especially when they run aground. They're going to need the expertise of the sailors to make sure that everybody on board survives. I said Tyler is our guest here on the Steve Marston Show. We're talking about his YouTube channel 1189, and this particular video that just dropped is on Acts chapter 27.
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Here's the thing too, when you start thinking about the part where they get shipwrecked. You know, they're trying to do everything that, especially in ancient world, the smart things to do as far as battling this storm. what is amazing to me, and I don't think I really put two and two together until you kind of pointed it out in the video, is that they were just trying to get from one side of the island of Crete to the other.
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to be able to winter to. And that turned out to be the biggest mistake that they made because it got blown so off course. But I think it's a great little kind of analogy and analogous to our lives a lot of times. We just want to try to do something that we think is smart and right. And it turns out sometimes to just get us completely and totally off the course we ought to be on. Yeah, that was one thing I really kind of drew out on this reading in particular.
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was this idea that in the ancient world especially, you didn't travel in the winter. And so at the time that this ship is departing, they know that they're not going to get to Italy before winter hits. And so really they're trying to just find a shelter on the island of Crete. And so they end up getting to one port there and they want to make it to the other side of the island. And so whenever they, that means whenever they leave,
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They're not packing. They don't have provisions to get all the way to Italy. And they end up getting blown way off course. so, yeah, whenever Paul says, hey, guys, I really don't think we should be doing this. I think we should really stay here, it's the pilot and the captain of the ship that say, I think we can just make it. If we just squeak by and can get to the other side of the island, we'll be at a better port to harbor for the winter. And then that's when the storm comes in.
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and they get blown all the way to Malta. And so, yeah, that was one thing I picked up. And yeah, I think it really speaks to the fact that man, know, man makes our plans. We make our plans, but God's really the one in control. And we never know what any given day actually really has in store for us. So I think, yeah, that's a great reminder. Yeah, I think it is as well. And the point of it too is that when we...
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take things into our own hands, even though we may feel that in our terms would be the Holy Spirit convicting us and us not listening to it and still going out on our own. That's when we kind of, in the same kind of metaphor we're using here, kind of get out from underneath the hand of God and we start experiencing all the storms there. Tyler is our guest here. He's my son and he's got the 1189 YouTube channel and it is just phenomenal. He does such a good job of breaking down
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not only the Scriptures and tying it together with other things from previous Scriptures, especially when you're talking about in the New Testament tying it back together with the Old Testament, but also breaking down just some of the terms and some of the things that are kind of taken for granted in Scripture. I noticed that, you know, there was a lot of nautical terms that are used in Scripture that a lot of times we would just kind of...
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glance over and think, I wonder what that means. And you kind of even stopped and you broke that down, which I thought was really helpful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there was one, there was quite a bit of research that had to be done, especially for this chapter, because it does feel, you know, just the vocabulary that's being used is really different from what you find in the rest of the Bible, which is really interesting. I think one thing that kind of speaks to you is Luke in general, all of
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Luke's between his gospel and the book of Acts, you really see that he has a little bit different vocabulary, a little bit more expansive vocabulary. And so I think the two things that that kind of points to is number one, you know, it kind of shows us a little bit more about him, how we know he was a doctor, how we know he was probably pretty educated and so has a little bit more of a bigger vocabulary. But also, I think it shows the fact that he was a Gentile, right? The other gospel authors
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were Jews. so, well, I should say we don't know that Luke was a Gentile, but he's definitely writing for a more Gentile audience, or at least an audience mixed of Jews and Gentiles. And so we know that the other gospel authors were Jewish. And so their vocabulary was shaped by the Hebrew scriptures. So a lot of times it's the other gospel authors. Of course, Luke still has lots of quotations and allusions to the Old Testament, but it's really
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When you compare them, you can really see the difference between the way Luke is writing versus the way Matthew or John is writing. something else that really stood out to me in the video was the fact that how the pilot of the ship saw Paul's example and the way that Paul conducted himself. And then when it came time for the ship to run aground, just as Paul perceived that it would, he listened to Paul and he
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Paul was able to gain some influence with him that way, and I think that still works in the 21st century as well. We may not always see eye eye with people in the world, especially people that are maybe in positions of power, but God can open a door if we're just living our lives the way God has called us to, to have that influence with some people who we would maybe not think so in any other way.
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Yeah, absolutely. I think about things that first either think it's a first Timothy, it might be in second Timothy, where Paul says, you know, pray for your leaders, pray for the authorities, the governor, people in power. And why does he say to do that so that you can live a quiet life? Right. The idea is not to be rebellious and just just for the sake of, you know, be in that way. The point of
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the gospel is to let all people know who the true King is and where people in authority and power get their power and authority from. That's from Jesus, from God, the one true King who's on the throne, right? And so the idea is that even if they disroot you, even if you don't convince them, even if they don't convert to Christianity or act perfect like
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You would you would hope that they would you can still live a quiet life and you can still do your ministry without unnecessary Attention being put on you, right? And so yeah, I think that's a another good application point is you know treat leaders and and rulers with respect not because You know not not because we're worshiping them but because we're worshiping the one who gave them the authority
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Absolutely. So we got just a couple of minutes left. Why don't you give everybody a little tease of what's coming up next with 1189 and how they can get in contact with you? Yeah, the last chapter of Acts, Acts 28, I think is already out whenever this will be broadcast. So we're really excited about that. we will have wrapped up the book of Acts. kind of, on the one hand, kind of draws everything together. You see
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Paul get off the boat and get off the island they were shipwrecked on, right? And he makes it to Rome and begins preaching the gospel there in Rome, which is really cool on the one hand. But it's also kind of anticlimactic because you don't actually see what happens with the trial before the emperor. So it's really interesting the way the Book of Acts ends, and it really shows us how the story isn't over, that we are
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called to continue taking the gospel to the ends of earth. So check that video out. You can check it out right now at youtube.com slash 1189 type at the words or search it in the search bar. It's completely free. It's just a channel that is a resource for you. And I want it to be a resource for as many people as possible to be able to enhance their scripture study and their love of reading the word of God. So
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It's just a commentary. It's just my thoughts on every chapter of the Bible, and we're working through it, and we'll see what comes next. But yeah, you can check out all of Acts right now, as well as every chapter of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy. Well, that's awesome. And it sounds like, too, that our buddy Joel has kind of given it up, and he's finally gone to sleep. Is that right? Yes, he has. He's ready for his nap. That's tremendous, because
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He continues to be a prodigy, you know, because you were about, I think six or seven before you made your debut on radio. He's three months, three months. So there you go. Yeah, there you go. All right. So again, check out 11 89. It is really, really fantastic. And again, just to underline the fact that it is not a paywall. It's not clickbait. It is just a lot labor of love that Tyler has undergone to be able to.
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help you out in your Bible study. All right, bud, you guys have a wonderful day, and we'll talk to you soon, okay? We will. You too. See you later. Love you, kid. Love you, Yeah, how about that? That's right, three generations of Marston's on the program at one time. How cool is that? Because my son, grandson, the first grandchild in the family on the program here today with his dad, my son. Really cool stuff. And again,
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Check out 1189. I know that sounds like nepotism and stuff, but honestly, when you get there and you open it up and you start watching these videos and see the research that he's done and see the time and effort that he's put into it, it is just top shelf. And you're going to love it. And I think it's really going to help you in your Bible study and in your walk with Christ. Because like I say, he does pull out all kinds of
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little interesting tidbits and things that really connect things from one story and one book to the next. And it just really all fits together and works well. So check it out, youtube.com slash 1189.
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The Steve Marston Show continues. I'm really glad that you're here. It's the Christian radio show and podcast that matters. Time to look at some of the stories that you may have missed. I don't know if you know this guy, Dr. Dino. His name is Kent Hovid and he is a creation evangelist. He's got a lot of books and videos about creationism and some of them sound really, really good.
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Here's the thing he spent like nine years in federal prison on tax related charges. Now he says he's innocent of those, those charges, whatever. And he's paid his debt to society. So now he's back out and free and he runs this place called dinosaur adventure land. It's supposed to be a theme park somewhere in Alabama. Okay. Now Dr. Hovitt is back in the news because of a podcast he was on several months ago.
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where he talks about how the prison system in the United States is unbiblical. And again, like I say, he spent a lot of time in federal prison. So, here's what he said, we shouldn't have prisons at all. Under God's law, you find them, beat them, or kill them. There are no prisons. People in prisons in the Bible are the heathen prisons. Under God's law, the only reason you lock someone up is for medical reasons. He says, know,
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like quarantine or something for them. He goes on to say, under the Bible law, if you steal somebody's sheep, you pay back for sheep. There's no jail time. If you murder somebody, you get executed. If someone rapes your daughter, you don't want to have her having to watch him in jail for 20 years and hoping, oh, he may not be getting out someday, but we don't know. No, watch him get executed, he says. You go spit on his grave. Yeah. Ken Hoeven said,
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Such an approach would allow victims to emotionally heal that way and would be much better for society and much cheaper. Again, this is resurfacing after several months. And when asked to kind of explain himself and do a clarification of his thoughts and trying to maybe help him out a little bit here, the Christian Post was told Dr. Hovind does not have time.
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to read or to reply to emails. Okay.
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Another story, this one really sad. There's a New England Patriots football player named Eli Raritan and his wife Anna. They are leaning on their faith after the death of their infant son Peter. This one's difficult to listen to, but listen to the way God has used it. In March of this year, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child. However, the baby was diagnosed with a
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fatal condition in utero. And this was what Anna wrote on her Instagram page. Our angel Peter was born on September 11th. When Eli and I went in for our 20 week anatomy scan, excited to see our sweet little boy, our hearts were forever changed. Our little one was diagnosed with ancephalopy, a fatal condition in which he would not survive outside the womb. We are absolutely devastated.
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that we are unable to bring our baby boy home. I'm grateful to have loved him deeply, kept him safe, and have been his home for the past nine months before he was called back to heaven," Anna said. And Anna said that it's easy to glorify God when life is going well, but it is in our deepest trials that we are drawn closer to him. She said, we may not ever understand the why behind this journey, but the one thing we know with certainty is that God
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Promises to care for his children. I believe our little boy was a loving was lovingly knit together in my womb by God Knowing how deeply he would be loved by our family's friends Eli's and Eli and me Though this time is His time with us was very brief His life is still precious his purpose still meaningful and he will forever be a part of our stories Wow
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Such a heartbreaking story for that young couple, but God is there holding them, and God is there right alongside of them every single step of the way. That's the wonderful, blessed hope that we have as followers of Christ. Here's another story you may have missed. Michael Keller, he's the son of Tim Keller, and he shares some advice for pastors in a brand new book.
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that he wrote with his father, or at least started writing with his father before he passed. This comes to us from ChurchLeaders.com, another great website. Church leaders would be careful not to be so concerned about what's wrong in people's lives that if they fail to affirm what is good, said Michael Keller. Keller, who himself is a pastor, believes ministry leaders should recognize the good desires behind cultural stories people live by.
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show where those stories fall short and help people find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. This is the framework that he used in a book which he co-authored with his late father, Dr. Timothy Keller. Michael said, I think a lot of times pastors, and I'm a pastor myself, you want to get straight to what's wrong. But if you don't affirm, then you scold. He said in an interview with churchleaders.com about the book called The Stories
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we live by, seven cultural myths that fail us and the story that never will. He goes on to say, it's the same thing in parenting, right? Yes, you should critique and tell your child what they're doing wrong, but if all they ever hear is just the negative, they're going to tune you out. I think what happens is we get afraid of affirming because we're worried that if we affirm, then people will think that we're actually in agreement. There's a real big question
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right now of can we love somebody and disagree with them because in this cultural moment we're in a place where people say if you don't agree with me then you don't love me but I'm like no come on you can disagree with someone and still love them so that's why we can still affirm and say I love you I'm for you I think there things that you could actually hold on to that are good but here's where it's actually fallen down again in this
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interview with churchleaders.com, Keller goes on to talk about how he and his father Timothy began working on this a long time ago. When the book came out, Making Sense of God, he asked me what I thought of it, talking about Michael from his dad. And being his son, was kind of like, great, for the super philosophical who will read it, easy for me to say. I wish there were some Cliff Notes version of this, Michael said. And so,
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His dad said, well, let's do that. Let's put together a little more easier to handle and digest book. And that's what's come of it. The stories we live by, seven cultural myths that fail us, and the story that never will. Love that. You can check that out wherever you download books. OK, stay with us one more segment to go. It's the Steve Marston Show, and we're back in a flash.
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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 Jacksonville, Arkansas. I told my friend 10 dad jokes to make him laugh. Sadly, no pun intended.
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perhaps a little bit too high brow with that one. We'll have to talk to the people at the home office there in Jacksonville about that. It's a Steve Marston show, where faith and fun are both taken seriously. Coming up tomorrow on the program, I think you're going to be excited about this because some of our biggest numbers that we've had over the last several weeks, especially on the podcast, has been when we've talked to our friends over at pluggedin.com. So Brett Eckelberry is going to join us.
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Adam, who normally is on Fridays, had some surgery. Thankfully, everything went well. He's just recuperating from that. Paul Ase, who's also joined us in the past, he's on vacation. So Brett is the next man up and we're going to talk to him about things that are happening in the not only entertainment world, but also culturally and technologically as well. So I'm looking forward to that tomorrow here on the Steve Marston show. Let's get to faith between your ears. This is where
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We learn a Bible verse every single week, and we take every day to break it down and to be able to commit it to memory, because I am just convinced that the way we grow our faith, the number one way is by knowing His Word. Because once we know it, we're able to trust it and we're able to apply it, and it just makes that faith muscle that we have, it just builds it up and strengthens it.
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So the verse we've been working on all week is Jeremiah 9.24 and I'm learning it along with you just like you are. But let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who practices steadfast love, righteousness, and justice in the earth. For these things I delight in, declares the Lord.
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And I love that part at the end. He could have just said, I say because I'm the Lord or I whatever, but he declares it. It's a bold statement. These are the things that I delight in. So you want to know the heart of God? He's all about love, justice, and righteousness. So if we're going to boast, let's boast that we know Him. And that's just good stuff. I just get chill bumps thinking about it. Again,
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If you haven't got it committed all the way to memory, that's all right, keep working on it. Don't quit because it will pay off the work that you're doing. Jeremiah 924. All right, just before we close up shop today, we always leave you with a call to action. We call it your next step. And I think, especially after listening to the first segment of the podcast today, our next step is to continue to be ready every single time.
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that someone starts bringing up questions of faith and bringing up questions about how Jesus can make a difference in the real world where life gets hard and nitty and gritty. Yeah, we have to be ready for those answers because again, if we aren't, who's going to? Okay, we're out of time. Back tomorrow on the radio at three o'clock. I'll be hanging out at SteveMarstonShow.com. Until then, adios.
