Spiritual Warfare Is Real: Surrender, Purpose & Living an Authentic Faith
FULL TRANSCRIPT
00:01
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.
00:23
All right, and here we go. The Steve Marston show is underway. Thank you for being here. Whether you're listening live on one of our two amazing radio stations, AM 630, The Word in San Antonio, deep in the heart of Texas, or on the all new 99.5, The Word in Central Arkansas. Glad that you're here. Maybe you're listening two weeks from now on your own time. Whatever your story, thanks for joining us.
00:52
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01:21
And if you like this show, you're gonna enjoy being in the know with YouTube. So again, youtube.com slash Steve Marston Show. Gonna start today with something that we talked a little bit about in a previous episode, spiritual warfare. Now, I know that may make your eyes roll a little bit, because sometimes you hear that term and you think, really, spiritual warfare? But it is a real thing.
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I really believe that there are.
01:57
tons of spiritual things going on all around us, and we just can't see it. And why we can't see it, I'm not sure. I mean, at least we can't see it with our physical eyes. But there are a battle going on raging every single day, every single moment for not only the souls of men, but also the relationships that God has with His own people.
02:26
Because if the devil can't get us completely away from God, separated from him, if we've already placed our faith in him, the thing that he can do is drive wedges into our relationships. He can't do anything about our soul, but he can hinder how well we live our life and how much God is a part of our life on the day to day.
02:55
It's a very serious thing and Paul talks about it a lot, especially in Ephesians chapter 6. But what are some practical things about spiritual warfare? What does it really kind of look like? Well, I think I had some a little bit last night, early this morning. And let me just set the stage for you. I have tons of stuff going on here at the radio station between this show...
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between all the other responsibilities that I have, helping clients record their programs, meeting with other clients to talk to them about how they can best utilize their podcasts or their radio show to help grow their business and so on. So there's just tons of irons in the fire and this job is just like,
03:51
your job, I'm sure, in this day and age, we're all wearing four or five hats. I mean, I can remember back, and it didn't seem like that long ago, that I worked at radio stations and basically you had one job. Maybe two, but for the most part, there was enough staff to take care of everything in their own kind of wheelhouse. And you worked together to make things happen.
04:21
But now that's just not like that. We're all spread incredibly thin. I know your works like that. Can I get an amen? So that can lead to a lot of thought and a lot of how am I going to get everything done? And I remember waking up, because I'm at the age now where I sleep and then I wake up and then I go back to sleep. Do you feel me? I wish it wasn't like that.
04:50
I wish I could sleep all the way through, but I just can't anymore. So I would wake up and before drifting back off to sleep, what's the first thing that came to my mind? Well, it's all this stuff that's going on at the station. It's all the different clients that have to be taken care of. It's all the different ideas of coming up with for this program to super serve you as the listener to the Steve Marston show.
05:20
to super serve our other clients and doing promotions and making sure that some events that we've got scheduled are going to go off and making sure we have invitations sent out from that and on and on. And I started to realize as all of those thoughts were just zooming through my head, it was first robbing me of my sleep, but then second, it was also robbing me
05:49
of peace and of joy. And I realized right then and there, this is the very definition of what the Bible talks about when it says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in the heavenly places, meaning an unseen spiritual realm. That's exactly what was happening to me this morning. And I had to
06:20
on purpose, intentionally say, I'm not going to do that. I almost even said it out loud. I'm not going to focus on that. I had to instead turn my focus and turn my attention to God. And I said, God, I don't want to think about all of this right now. I don't know that I can fix anything right now. In fact, I know I can't. I just want to rest. I just want to be at peace. I just want to be in your presence.
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I started just praying for my family, lifting up my son and my daughter-in-law and my new grandson, and my daughter and my second son. And as I'm praying these prayers, I'm feeling that peace be restored, and I'm feeling that I'm kind of winning the battle. And then guess what happens? Another thought of what all we have to do in the next few days zips through my mind.
07:18
And all of sudden, I'm starting thinking about it again. And again, I have to go back and say, I don't want to do this. God help me. And there for a few minutes, it helps. And then again, here comes the fight back at me. And it just kind of went on for, I don't know, probably 15 or 20 minutes until finally I was able to get some peace and drift back off to sleep. And I think the reason for that
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is because exactly what is found in the book of James. It's a very simple Bible verse, but it's so powerful and I'm telling you, it works because it just worked for me this very morning and that is, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Look, it took a little bit. It took, like I say, I don't know exactly how long because it was the middle of the night and I didn't want to look and see exactly what time it was, but it's true.
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I recognized it as a battle. I recognized it as something that was spiritual in nature and I fought it by saying, God help me and taking my mind and focusing it on the blessings that I have in my life and actually praying for those people and thanking God for the situations that I have that are good.
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that are lovely and that are of a good report, right? I purposefully did that. Now, I won the victory in that battle because of it. And look, I don't want you to think that I'm saying this to pat myself on the back like I'm some kind of super Christian that, Steve's got it all together. I do not. I'm the furthest thing from having it all together. But...
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I do know that it works because I've tried it before. Now, do I do it all the time? Do I make it a practice of always turning and leaning in toward God whenever these situations arise? No. I wish I could say I do, but I would be lying to you and I don't want to do that. But I can for sure testify that when I do it, it works.
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and it will work for you. You just have to try it. Thanks for being a part of the Steve Marston Show, the Christian radio show and podcast that matters. It's great to be with you and we've got our Ministry of the Month giveaway for you right now. It's Michael Youssef and leading the way. It's heard every day on our radio station in San Antonio, AM 630, the Word, at 830 in the morning.
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and Dr. Yousef has a brand new book called Winning the Invisible War. You can take this book home right now. All you have to do is send me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com. And it doesn't matter when you're listening, whether you're listening live on the radio as it happens, or if you're listening on your own time, it doesn't matter. Just shoot me an email and you'll be put into a drawing for one of these books. this is, again, we talked about spiritual warfare at the top of the show.
10:42
This one is your biblical guide to spiritual victory, applying the power of God's word to your everyday battles, recognizing the seductive, destructive philosophies that have infiltrated our culture and resting in the already and yet to come victory of Christ over Satan. Dr. Youssef did a great job on this book and you can have it again. Just send me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com and
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Don't forget about Awake Houston. It happens coming up on September the 19th. Dr. Youssef and oh by the way, Chris Tomlin is going to be leading a night of revival, a night of just 100 % pure authentic worship. And you can be a part of it. Tickets are on sale right now at AwakeHouston.com. You can also check it out on the radio station's websites as well for that.
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big event coming to the financial center in Sugarland, Texas on September 19th. Dr. Michael Youssef and Chris Tomlin. Okay, let's get to one of our favorite segments of the week and this is, that's not in the Bible. This is where we like to take and bust up some myths because you remember that old show Mythbusters? My sons used to love that show. It was where they would take things you would see in a movie.
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or a television show that seemed amazing and decide whether scientifically it could really happen. And they would either say the myth is confirmed or the myth is busted. Well, that's kind of like what we want to do here with this because there's so many things that we have people running around talking about saying in Jesus' name that's not exactly true. So we want to make sure
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we are biblically solid enough to know when we hear something like that, that we can say, wait a minute, that's not in the Bible. It's the whole purpose of this exercise. So let's get to it here. There's a saying, it may be the most popular saying that's wrong, that so many people believe, Christian and non-Christian alike, and that is, God helps those who help themselves.
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Okay, now I know the spirit behind that. I know that there is some truth to, you can't just expect God to do everything for you. That you can just sit around and go, well, I really need a job, so I'm just gonna sit here behind my desk at my house and I'm just going to wait for the phone to ring or an email to be sent to me.
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that is going to have my dream job. That's not the way it works, obviously. You do have to put forth some kind of effort. You have to send out resumes. You have to make phone calls. You have to actually get out of the house and go to where a prospective employer might be. But that's not saying that that's the reason God helps you, because it's not.
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God doesn't look for us to do anything for ourselves because He knows at the end of the day that we can't. And especially when you're talking about spiritual things. Because we live in a society that rewards hard work, or at least it should. At least we feel like that's the way it ought to be. So we put in the good stuff and good stuff.
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that happens in return. That's justice. That's the way things should work. However, when you start talking about spiritual matters, our goodness can't measure up to God's goodness ever. We can't do anything to make Him think, oh my goodness, look at Steve down there. Look at how good he's being.
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Look at the way he's loving people and caring for people. That's so good. Well, in my own strength, I'm not probably doing it for the right reasons. I'm probably doing it for a pat on the back or some kind of recognition from God. It's not the way it works. God judges the heart. It's not what you do. It's the reason why you do it. So this whole thing when God helps those
15:35
who helps themselves is just totally false. We can't do anything to earn our salvation. We can't do anything once we are saved to keep our salvation. It's all about Him. It's His goodness, His righteousness, His holiness. It's Him holding on to us and not us holding on to Him. It's just the way it is. And there's peace
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and such satisfaction there when you truly get a hold of that. When you realize that I can't make it on my own. I can't push the boulder up the hill anymore. There's such freedom and such peace to be found when you just rest in Him. That's why Jesus talked about, come to me those who are weary.
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and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Because in the spiritual realm, in the spiritual way of things, when we try so hard, we can maybe move the boulder a little bit, but then what's the tendency? It rolls right back down the hill and we have to start again and it wears us out and it robs us of our peace and our joy and our purpose. It's only when
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we come to the point where we realize that it is true that God is the sustainer, God is the grace giver, God is the one holding us and keeping us versus us having to do it ourselves. It's so refreshing and so just life changing. And I pray that if you haven't experienced that, that you would, that you would just lay the burden down.
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of trying to be everything that you can for God and just abide in his presence because that's the way he designed us all to be.
17:52
Welcome back. It's the Steve Marston Show and we are glad that you're joining us. And look, hit our YouTube page. It's brand new and we need more followers. Don't make me back. Just head to youtube.com slash Steve Marston Show and like, subscribe, hit that notification bell, all that stuff. It really does make a difference. We want to welcome in our guest today. She's such a special person, a great friend and an accomplished business leader as well.
18:20
as an entrepreneur, this lady just is kind of a jack of all trades. Her name is Christine Faith and she joins us here on the Steve Marston show. Welcome in, Christine. Thank you so much, Steve. Okay, so every episode we have a different guest and the guests leave little words of wisdom for the guest that comes in behind them and they don't know who it is. They just leave a little message. So
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We had Casey Longing, who was the youth pastor, or is the youth pastor, of Union Valley Baptist Church in Beebe, and he left this. He said, don't quit. No matter what happens, don't ever give up. So there you go. Take that for what it's worth. That is great advice, Steve. Yeah. Okay. So let's get into conversation with you. You have got so much going on. You always have.
19:16
You are the founder of Searcy Living Magazine, which has been a staple of that community for such a long time, but you're also the founder and kind of heartbeat behind the Imagine and Believe Foundation. And that provides incredible resources for those who are fostering kids all around the Searcy area. And really, more than that, lot of different counties are represented every time.
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that you open the door. So let's... where do you want to start? I would love to start by saying for your listeners, if God has put something in your path, I think one of the things that I did not realize early on, but I see it so clearly looking back, is that the one thing is completely intertwined with the other.
20:13
When I started the magazine, I had no clue what I was doing. just kept moving forward one step at a time. If I would have looked at the big picture, I probably would have been too fearful to keep moving forward. it just kept unfolding. because my next publisher's note is actually going to be on this, all of the ways the magazine changed my life. But I became a foster parent because of the magazine, because a school asked me to get involved.
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in a situation where a child needed clothing. And that turned into, it's a long story, but that turned into me becoming a foster parent, which a couple of years later turned into this ministry of Imagine and Believe starting. So the magazine's been going for 25 years. The foster care program, oh.
21:06
It's officially been a nonprofit for over 10 years, I believe, but it really started unofficially probably about 20 years ago, maybe 21, 22 years ago. But one thing happened because of the other. They are just so intermeshed with each other. So I just see how God opens these doors and they open other doors and then they open other doors. And I just keep seeing that that seems to be a pattern.
21:36
Well, let's talk a little bit about the magazine first since that was launched. Let's dive into kind of what was the genesis behind you starting that magazine? Because like you said, you didn't have any kind of publishing background or any idea about how to do a magazine, yet you have, and it has been wildly successful. You're still publishing even now. How did that all come about?
22:03
Um, well, you know, of course in, in, with kingdom perspective, it was not an accident, but you know, at the time it felt like it. I was actually a real estate agent and there was things I liked about real estate and there was things I really did not like about real estate.
22:21
And the company I worked for produced a brochure and I just naively thought, well, if they can do that and they don't know anything about publishing, then I should be able to do it. Of course, why not? Yeah, why not? You know, and so I just kind of stumbled along and it, you know, I just remember, you know, like delivering it and thinking, wow, I hope people are really reading this. And they were and they were interacting.
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and they were excited about it. I feel like my excitement kind of grew because of their excitement. But I also specifically remember a moment, I could tell you exactly what road I was driving on, what I was passing at that time. And I had just hit, you know, which I think all business owners do.
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a point in the journey where I just didn't know if it was going to fail or succeed. It was definitely being widely read, but the business aspect of it and the bills and the demands and just everything, that had hit a point of just being overwhelming. And it hit one of those points where I'm like, is this even gonna work? And I remember exactly where I was when I said, God, it's yours.
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It's not mine. I surrender. I give literally everything to you. If you want me to go to bankrupt, then I'll praise you. If you want me to be successful, I'll praise you. But it's all yours that I surrender. And I really look back on that moment and I feel like it was the first time in my life I truly can say I became a Christian. Wow. you know, before that moment,
24:11
I feel like, you know, I said the cute little prayer and I've gone to church my whole life. And, and, know, like, like I went through the motions, but I don't really feel like I had ever really surrendered. And I feel like we all have to look at our hearts pretty deep and, and see what our, the intent of our heart is. And, you know, there's so much of, of American religion that's just kind of, you know, like, well, if you check these box.
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and you're gonna go to heaven and your life's gonna be wonderful. And that's... He's calling us to hard stuff. He's calling us to be disciples, making disciples. He's calling us to surrender. And that's not always talked about, but I feel like I got it in that moment. Well, that is so key because so many times, especially when it's a business that you own and it's all of your money, all of your blood, sweat, and tears involved in it, that's got to be the hardest thing to surrender.
25:08
Because this is your livelihood, this is everything for you, and yet to take that step of faith, boy, that had to be the hardest journey you'd taken up to that point. It was, but you know, over the next two weeks after that surrender, it didn't just fall apart, it actually started greatly and rapidly improving. Wow. And it, you know, in my mind, it could have gone either way.
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but I had to be willing for it too. If I had the mindset of, I'm going to surrender and then everything's going to be wonderful, I don't really feel like that would have happened because God wanted my whole heart. That's so good because I'm so envious of that because I say that, I talk that talk, I want to walk that walk too. I hear guys, there's a program that follows us here on 99.5 The Word.
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His name is Steve Gregg and he has the Narrow Path Show and he's on all kinds of radio stations all over the country and basically he's said the same thing. If God wants me to be on this radio show, I will be. I've done it for 30 years, but if tomorrow it's over, it's over. And just to have that sense of it's okay, it's peace and just total God's in control.
26:31
and not any of me is such a thing that I gotta work on myself. I'm so glad that you were able to do that and able to live it out. That's amazing. Walker, Christine Faith used to be Walker, is joining us here on the Steve Marston Show. And you talked about getting involved with foster care and how it's kind of been hand in glove with the Searcy Living Magazine. Talk a little bit about how that got started.
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because you went from not only a foster parent, but also to an adoptive parent, right? Yes, I did. And that journey is such a mixed bag because there is so many experiences being a foster and adoptive parent that were just so amazing and just incredible. me just give you a short example.
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I was asked to take a blind child once. She was four, she was blind. She wasn't completely blind, but legally blind. And I will never forget taking her kayaking. And I put her in my lap in the kayak and she started crying and I'm scared, I'm scared. And I just calmly said, just trust me, just trust me. And she calmed down and she had the best day of her life that day. I mean, I just can't tell you the joy I got.
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from watching her have that experience that she probably will never have again. I hope she does. But I know that that day will be something she will treasure forever. those kind of moments are literally priceless. But I could also tell you stories of children that, like when you have to have your faucet replaced for the third time in three months, because somebody
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used it like a year shift and for the third time it's costing you $400 to call the plumber and buy new faucet. know, or the time pencils and Q-tips got stuff down the drain. know, people don't think about those crazy things that a foster parent is dealing with, which is why I feel like the foundation is so important. You know, it's a place where,
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know foster parents new and experience can communicate together. They can you know get the resources that were able to provide. You know like like we are having an event this week for back to school and I got a phone call one day a couple weeks ago when the lady told me our organization wants to donate $4000 worth of things that you need.
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And so now we have enough socks and underwear for all our foster parents to come and just get what they need before back to school. And a package of socks might not sound like a big deal, but when you took in three kids in the middle of the night that are complete strangers, you already have to. And it's just all of this stuff at the last minute. That's a lot. That's a big help to them. It really is. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.
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Well, even if they've had the children for a while, they still need that support because guess what? Somebody might have cost them $500 in a plumbing bill that week. Exactly. So that $10 package of socks times three, four, five can really feel overwhelming. And we just try to take away that little straw that might have broke their resolve to keep helping children.
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you know, by just providing things and experiences and support and love from the community. And it's just a joy. Christine Faith is our guest here on the Steve Marston show, and we are talking about her life and her career, and it's all kind of been intertwined as seeing how God has worked through it. And we talked about Imagine and Believe the Foundation because you being you,
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didn't just say, I want to foster and I want to help adopt kids. You said, hey, there's a whole community out here that's not being served. I can help do that. And that led to the foundation, which led to that amazing warehouse that's there in Searcy where people that are fostering can come and like you say, not only get socks and underwear, but find just about everything else that they need.
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It's been an amazing journey and I just feel like all your listeners need to remember, you know, there's so many people that I meet just in everyday life and they don't understand that God gifted them with amazing gifts. People that are out there doing these kind of things aren't, you know, you know, blessed or special. I mean, they might be, but only because they see it and they're walking in it.
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But I believe that everybody that follows God has got just a special gift and a special ministry. And it might be that it's pouring everything into teaching your children about the Bible, and they're going to grow up and change the world. It might be that you encourage somebody in the grocery store, paid for somebody's meal behind you, and they were, you know, maybe they didn't commit suicide that day. Maybe they were able to
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do something spectacular because you gave them that gift. know, just leaving a prayer card with your tip, with your meal at a restaurant. There are so many ministries out there that are simple things that are really changing the world. And I hope your listeners realize that you don't have to be doing something that's public and obvious. They are all gifted.
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if they're walking, you know, with God, He's going to give them a special gift. They just need to see it in themselves. We only have about a minute and a half left, but tell us quickly about, imagine and believe how if someone knows someone that's fostering or maybe they're fostering themselves and want to get involved with you and the warehouse to be able to take advantage of the resources, how can they do that? Sure. Our phone number is 501-593-52.
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And if they call that number and nobody answers, there's a message with another number that will get answered right away. That's because I don't always carry two phones. Don't blame you at all, Yes. And so we help foster and adoptive parents across the state, but they have to be non-relative foster and adoptive parents. We're helping the people that are taking in complete strangers' children. So that's how they can get involved.
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and we have a Facebook page that's pretty active and we post a lot of things on there. So that's a lot of helpful information. So yeah, we're pretty easy to find. Yeah, check it out. Imagine and Believe Warehouse. It's the foundation as well on Facebook. You can see it. It's in Searcy. Easy to find. So before we let you go, we gave you the little words of wisdom from the previous guests. So what do you want to leave words of wisdom wise?
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for our upcoming guest. If there is one thing in life that I wish I would have learned years ago that I feel like I am just now getting a really good grip on and having a pretty big awareness of, it is stop worrying about what people think of you. Just worry about what God thinks. And I wish somebody would have told me that years and years and years ago because the
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The older and wiser I get, the more I see that his opinion is all that matters and everything else is just so temporary. I could have said it better myself and not a better way to end the interview. Christine, Faith, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Steve. It was a pleasure to be on your show today. Welcome back to the Steve Marston Show. And if you do me a solid, go to our YouTube page and like, subscribe, hit that notification bell.
35:01
It's all new and we are trying to get to our next milestone, which is 300 people. know it didn't sound like a lot, but it really will help us out to get the show into more people's viewing. So please go to youtube.com slash Steve Morrison show. Okay. It's time to welcome in our special guest today. This guy's always a ball of fun. He's a guy I've come to know over doing the course of this show. It's a, it's, it's good to have him back. It's Tara and Phillips.
35:29
from the Refuge Church. How are you doing, my man? I'm doing great. How about you? Well, it's excellent. And I know that you always have... You're so passionate about following Christ and being a disciple of Christ. And you and I were kind of chatting the other day about just different things that have been going on. And I know you're involved with a lot of different things. So let's start talking about this place called the David Mirage Foundation. What exactly is that?
35:59
So the David Marantz Foundation is a foundation that has put together a group of pastors and leaders across the country that are coming to Colorado, excuse me, in October. And we are building these cohort groups that are gonna go back to different cities across Texas and start working against antisemitism, meaning in our churches and our communities. It's amazing how antisemitism is within the church even.
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I know. know, the Catholic Church is really what started it many, many years ago. And then you had Martin Luther. And I was shocked when I started doing a study on this. And I found out that, you know, in the beginning, Martin Luther was like, hey, you know, we love the Jews, blah, blah. And then he calls them dogs. He calls them all kinds of names. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute here. Don't you know that the scripture is all about Jews, two Jews about Jews? Exactly. Well, here's what happens is...
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they have a misreading of Scripture thinking, the Jews killed Jesus, so obviously it's their fault, so we gotta make sure they pay, which is such a misreading. Oh my gosh, that's just straight from the pit of hell. Well, and it's like, okay, so it's called replacement theology, and they try to replace the Jews with Christians and say, Christians are better.
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You know, it's amazing how much artwork there is that from the Catholic Church to the to Hitler and all the way through that would create this artwork to make Jews look a certain way as propaganda to get people to change their thinking. We see it today. I mean, it's no different. We see this kind of thing happen today, but the Catholic Church would have paintings of a person kneeled down with a blindfold around their face holding something as in like submissive.
37:53
And then you would have this Christian figure standing to the side with a crown or a robe on, holding a staff. Excuse me. And it was that, it was their way of depicting that the Jews were lesser than. And so you tell people that are ignorant and ignorant is the root of ignore. And so if you have people that are ignorant to the truth, they began to believe that. That's right. That's right. And they ignore what the truth is. So we find ourselves in this place.
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Excuse me, of, of having anti-Semitism in the church. I see it with Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. I've been to Israel twice and I have seen four months so I could tell you stories. Um, because I went with a group called Kufa Christians United for cross international. Um, and it's an amazing ministry. And we went over there. I'm at Danny Teresa, a guy who literally came up with the idea and built the fence.
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around Israel and Jerusalem, actually. what's crazy is there's only certain places that there are walls. And they meticulously came up with how do we build something that keeps people out, the terrorists out, but also that doesn't say to people, we don't want you in. And I experienced every day there are at least, and I may be wrong on the numbers, but I think this is correct.
39:20
Almost a million people are let into the Jerusalem area that are not Islamists, but they are, what's the word? my goodness. Like Gentile? Well, Arabs. Oh, Arabs. Arabs, sure. They come into their country and they work and they go back out. Now who does that? Yeah. And even in, in Shukok where these guys parachuted in,
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and to this concert area and killed all these people in Gaza. I've been there. And what's crazy is I stood at a place in Gaza that is or not in Gaza across from Gaza, 12 miles across from Gaza, an Israeli town. And in this town, they had this massive playground. And at this playground, they had these they look like concrete block buildings around. I was like, what is this? And they said they're bomb shelters. What do you mean they're bomb shelters?
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because Gaza, who's funded by Iran, which is crazy because they live like trash over there. And people in America go, well, it's the Israelis, man. It's genocide. They don't treat them right. The Israelis built a power plant and a water plant that you can see standing in this city looking across to Gaza. And I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. How come I don't know about this? because they don't publicize it.
40:46
But yet the Iranians send them millions of dollars and they create bombs to lock it over to these cities like this one that has a park where kids play and these kids got to run and get bomb shelters and they have about five seconds to do so. It's crazy. It is crazy. And you know, I can remember growing up, you you would always have pockets of the crazies, the kooks that didn't believe in the Holocaust and Jews were the problem. But for the most part, we were all like, you know, reverential to them because
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of what they have been through as a people, from going all the way back to the biblical times. And you're so right. The door has swung so far to the other side that you've got people in churches that are doing and spewing the same kind of hate. some of them try to make a differential between the government of Israel versus just Jewish people in general. But still, it's such a slippery slope.
41:44
Look, Satan has tried to take out the Jewish people from day one, you know, and that's what it really gets down to. This is really spiritual warfare, even though it is a lot of physical warfare, the root of it is spiritual. I have a friend of mine that was my guide on the first trip that I went to Israel, Yoav Rotem. He's in the United States right now, and he put out a video that I put on our church webpage, and he's standing, okay,
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at the border of Gaza. And there are 600 trucks lined up. This was just this last week. There's 600 trucks lined up. And he said, here's what people don't understand. These trucks have not stopped before the war happened, before they parachuted in. These trucks lined up and would take food and water and everything else into the Gaza area during the war and after the war. He said, but you're not going to hear that. Yeah. Because these people, you know, it all comes back to really Islam, ultimately.
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Over the last couple of weeks, I did a two-week series on anti-Semitism, and then I did a sermon on Islam. And if you see what's happening within the United States, they have a goal and a purpose, and it is to destroy the United States. They've tried to do it. Europe is terrible right now. They come in, they have a goal, they act all nice, they act all kind, and then the next thing you know, they become your friends. Once they become the majority, then they start looking at Sharia and these other things. And America's got to wake up.
43:12
And they're using this, the enemy is using this same kind of thing. Because the truth is, if you listen to Tucker Carlson and you think about how bad the Jews are, I don't agree with everything Netanyahu does. But here's what I know. The Old Testament does tell me, whether he says it or not, it does tell me to honor the Jewish people. And he's asked the question before, him and Candace, are they really God's chosen people still, these people today? Well, I would say, well, here's how we know.
43:42
If you read the end of the scripture and you read the end of the story, we find out that in, I think it's Revelation 7, think it is, he chooses 144,000 Jews to be the evangelist through the tribulation when the church is gone. Those 144,000 are Jews from every tribe. So if they would read just a little bit further...
44:08
in the end, they would find out that they are still God's chosen people because He's going to choose the remnant of the chosen people that He had before. Tarrin Phillips is our guest here. He's the pastor of the Refuge Church in San Antonio, and we were talking about this David Mirage Foundation. So is it open for just anybody who wants to come and be a part of this training session that you guys are going to have? How do people get involved with that? So the foundation right now is just getting started.
44:37
And they are, they're just trying to grow and kind of get some things going. Um, gosh, man, I've just become a part of them. can go to David Mirage. It's M E R A G E foundation.org and you can check it out. It's an incredible foundation. Um, they are, they're just trying to help people understand the difference between what, what is antisemitism? What is it really? Where did it come from? Where did it start?
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It's crazy that they are the one people group that everybody just wants to destroy. I know. Yeah. You have to ask yourself why? I mean, and you know, Scripture says the world will be blessed by you. It would blow people's minds if they knew all the things that were designed, built, and created by Jewish people that most people have no clue about. That's right. And then, of course,
45:34
Messiah came from that line too. you know, it just, it starts there and it goes all the way down. You're right. There's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it. So as we continue to visit here with Terrence Phillips, he is the pastor of the Refuge Church in San Antonio. I know there was something else you wanted to touch base on and that's about this new kind of churches and hospital ministry that's going on. Talk a little bit about that.
46:02
So it's not new to us, but it may be new to a lot of other churches. We here in church circles, in the last many years, it's come out to be a hospital church. And what is that? Well, myself and a church in Fort Worth called Sitting on the Hill Church, where I was on staff at for many years, and a guy named Derek Bledsoe is the pastor there now. We do what we call hospital church ministry. And it's messy. It is...
46:30
It either irritates people, ticks them off, or they love it. Because what happens is somebody comes to our church and we say, look, this is a safe place for you to share your mess. Scoobala, crud, crap, whatever you want to call it. Okay? A lot of people don't like that, but that's what it is. And scripture calls it Scoobala, rubbish. And that is the mess inside of us that if we don't deal with, we can't see God like we need to. I mean, our churches, bro, are filled
47:00
every Sunday and pastors are trying to do a good job. But here's what we found. If as goes the leader, as goes the church, most of the time, and John Maxwell, everything rises and falls with leadership. So what we have tried to do for years is we've tried to help leaders understand that you can get up in a pulpit and you can fake it. Okay. Maybe you make a paycheck and you know, okay. Or you can risk everything and see,
47:30
And it will cost guys. So, mean, the average first Baptist church in America today is not going to do what we did. They're just not, they'll say, well, we'll have a, we'll have a, a, a celebrate recovery group. Okay. Well you do that. Celebrate recovery is bad, but if you don't have a facilitator that lays their crud out on the table, their scubala, they're rubbish and shares every detail, pornography, lies, sex, cheating, whatever. And you go, do we have pastors like that?
47:59
Oh man, do we have pastors like that. They're full. Our country's full of it because they're just men who are sinners. But the problem is we have, these pastors have been taught that you can't share your rubbish. You can't share your stuff because if you do, you're going to lose your job. Well, in some cases they need to, because what they need to do is lose their jobs so that they can get their soul back, you know, essentially, and get the relationship back with God.
48:28
There's a great verse that I love. It's Matthew chapter 5, verse 23 and 24. says, he's talking about if you present your sacrifice at the altar, and all of a sudden you remember, oh man, you're at a worship service, essentially, in today's terms. You remember not that you have something against somebody else, but that they have something against you, a family member, an associate, somebody who visit, or you've hurt somebody.
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or maybe they've hurt you. It says, leave your sacrifice at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. And then there's two words in this passage, if and then. In the beginning it says, if you are presenting a sacrifice, if is a choice. And then, and the later part of the passage in verse 24 says, then come and offer your sacrifice to God. What we have seen and our experiences that most people go to church every Sunday or Wednesday,
49:26
and they have so much scubala and rubbish in their life, they don't know how to worship. They think it's just singing a song. real sacrifice and real laying it down and worship to God is the hard stuff of confession and laying it out, getting your heart clean so that you don't keep doing the same things over and over and over again. But this is scary stuff.
49:55
because people go, if I share my sins with other people, they're going to condemn me. What we say is, look, our church is filled with people who share their scubala and their crud, and they ain't worried about your sin because they got enough of their own sin to worry about. And what we experience is in all... we do 12-step groups, Biblical-based, Jesus-driven, we do codependency groups, we do divorce recovery groups, but we get down and dirty.
50:23
And what we see is we see a lot of people, our church is not huge because people either love Tarrin Phillips or they hate Tarrin Phillips as a leader. And we get involved in their business. If they come to our church and they start sharing their hurts and pains, well, guess what? We can't just say, okay, hey, go and we go do life with us. We're going to do life with you and we're going to walk through this cause it's messy. And you know what? That's just don't want to do that. They don't want to do that. And
50:49
Honestly, that's what the church really should be. And so thankful that guys like you see that need and are on the front lines doing it. You're there at the Refuge Church in San Antonio. Okay, before we let you go, we gave you your word of wisdom from our previous guests. What kind of words of wisdom do you have for our upcoming guest? Man, listen, I would say 1 John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness.
51:19
Here's the catch. You don't have to ask forgiveness of your sins. And here's why. Because if you accepted Christ, you already gave your sins to him. You don't have to keep doing that. What you have to do, because he's already forgiven you of your sins, you have to confess it to him. There's a difference between asking for something, a question, and waiting on an answer, and knowing the answer and confessing it. So I guess that's the best wisdom if I could give anybody, even for our next guest, a...
51:46
So good. And that's a perfect way to wrap things up, man. It is always a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for your time, brother.
52:01
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 Lori from Sheridan, Arkansas. Lori says, why did Noah never have trouble finding parking? A little biblical joke here. Why did Noah never have trouble finding parking? Because he always knew where to dock.
52:31
Thank you, Lori. Continuing with the Steve Marston show here today, your daily dose of encouragement. Thank you for letting us be a part of your day. And we are really proud of our new website. It is really so good. I don't want to pat myself on the back too hard, but we have done an amazing job. God has really opened up some relationships that helped me figure out the best way to do this. And I think it's really good. You need to check it out.
53:00
SteveMarsdenShow.com. It's going to be a complete database repository for everything that we do here on the program. It's so much more than just a radio show or podcast's homepage. We're really going to have a search bar where you can type in different subject matter and find articles and also find interviews about all kinds of things. It's going to be topical.
53:29
and it's going to be good. It's a work in progress. We're still just getting our feet wet, but we would love for you to check it out. SteveMarsdenShow.com. Okay, let's see what else is going on making headlines around today. This is a sad story, but also an incredibly hopeful story. There is a guy named Mike Stone who serves as pastor of a church in Blackshear, Georgia.
53:56
And he apparently is a high ranking guy in the Southern Baptist Convention and has served on many committees and different things like that. Very well known in those circles. He shared that his daughter, Sarah, has just entered hospice care. And I'm going to read you the statement that he made on Instagram, but then I'm going to tell you what his daughter said. So here's what the family said. After a courageous battle,
54:25
battle with numerous physical illnesses. Our precious Sarah has entered hospice care in our home," he said. Our entire family faces the days ahead with faith in Christ, confident in the resurrection, and the blessed assurance that our sovereign God does all things well. Now, that's incredibly impressive when you hear someone who is living out their faith even in the hardest times.
54:54
But I want you to listen to what the young lady who has just entered hospice care, what she wrote back in February on her Instagram page. Sarah said this, maybe your miracle isn't a healing. Maybe your miracle is God showing you how to have faith, contentment, and joy in spite of your circumstances. That, my friend, is even better than a healing. And again, this is a young lady, Sarah.
55:24
who is just into her mid-20s, early 30s, that is on hospice care. Listen to the hope that's in that, and that peace that's there. Because we hear people talk all the time about how God wants us healed, and God is going to provide healing for us because we call on His name. Well, Sarah, who's going right through the midst of it, it is now...
55:53
in the valley of the shadow of death is saying maybe your healing isn't a miracle but having faith and contentment and joy despite the terrible circumstances. Wow, what a perspective. God help us all to be able to have that if that ever comes into our lives. Speaking of people who are battling,
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Phil Johnson who you may know from grace to you. He is the longtime voice on that program for dr. John MacArthur That's heard on both of our radio stations a.m. 630 the word in San Antonio as well as faith talk 99.5 and Look Little Rock. Oh, I said it wrong. Did I dog gone it they changed the name of it It's 99.5 the word now in Little Rock. We're gonna have to have one of those jars
56:47
You know how they have a swear jar on some movie sets when little kids are around and one of the actors or producers or somebody says a bad word, they throw money in the jar. I'm have to do that to make sure I keep that it's not called faith talk anymore, that it's 99.5 the word. So I already owe probably a dollar or two right now. So anyway, back to Phil Johnson. He...
57:15
had told his followers in a social media post not terribly long ago that his cancer was in remission. But now he's come back and said that that has been short lived. Cancer seems to be making a rebound. He said, and it's the kind of blood cancer that lets the proteins in my blood attack other organs. He's got multiple myeloma and it's not curable. He said, but the treatment
57:45
should make it go back into remission. The goal is I understand it, Phil Johnson said, is to keep me alive long enough for something else to kill me. Again, you gotta have a sense of humor about these things or it'll just drive you crazy and you would really go completely insane. So that's good stuff. Let's keep praying for both of these families. Phil Johnson, again, the former executive director and voice of grace to you with John MacArthur.
58:14
and Mike Stone and his precious daughter, Sarah, going through incredibly hard times right now. One other little note here, there's a band called Fit for a King. Gotta be honest, never heard of them before, but they were a Christian band and heavy on the word were. Now they're touring with a group called Motionless in White, who are known for, are you ready for this?
58:43
burning Bibles on stage. Now it's probably not real Bibles, they're probably just props made to look like Bibles, but it's because they are just completely and totally against everything that God stands for. At least in their minds what God stands for. They have a song called Thoughts and Prayers that they perform on stage when they do this at least
59:13
quasi-burning of a Bible, and the reason they do it is to make a statement that thoughts and prayers don't work in situations. Well, know, look, they're going to have to answer to that one day themselves, and I don't wish that on them at all. The best thing we could do is pray for those people and lift them up so that they somehow come to realize that what they're doing, even though they're
59:42
heart and passion may be correct about injustice and about things that they see going wrong, but the ultimate judge and the ultimate good in this world is not us as people, but God alone.
01:00:03
Steve Marsden Show is back proving every day that following Jesus can be a lot of fun. Happy to have you here. And one of the things we do every day is we try to learn a Bible verse. And we start on Monday with the verse, we call it Faith Between Your Ears, and every day we kind of break it down and we try to learn it so that by the end of the week we have God's Word hidden in our heart. And look, I don't want to hear, well can't memorize.
01:00:32
Yes you can. You absolutely can. I know you think, I can remember the song that was number one on my birthday when I was 10 years old. Sure, you can, but I can't remember where I had breakfast yesterday. I get it, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just takes a little effort, takes a little bit of intentionality, and that's what I'm here to help.
01:01:02
You do. So here we go. Hebrews 11 6 is faith between your ears verse for this week. It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who comes to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. So basically what that saying is is faith has to be there first. You've got to believe that God exists and that God is good and that God loves you and that God has a plan.
01:01:31
and none of that is negotiable. It is all the time true, no matter what anything else seems or feels like. And second unto it is that he rewards all of those who earnestly seek him. And people kind of maybe get on that and say, well, wait a minute, we're not supposed to do things for rewards. Well, I don't know. God says that he's going to reward us for earnestly, truly, sincerely.
01:02:00
passionately seeking after him, I'll take the rewards anything he wants to give me. That's the way I see it. So let's learn Hebrews 11 6 and commit it to memory not so much that we know the passage word by word without missing a beat. It's not so much that. It's actually understanding the meaning. It's knowing what the word says and the whole reason is because
01:02:30
In this life, we have so much chaos and craziness going on that this counterbalances all of that. Having the Word of God in between our ears that we can recall at a moment's notice whenever life becomes topsy-turvy, we can stand on those strengths and on those promises of what Scripture says. So again, let's memorize.
01:02:59
Hebrews 11 verse 6. It's our faith between your ears verse for this week. Okay, we wrap up the show with what did we learn today? Well, I think that I learned the most is that spiritual warfare is real and victory is possible. You just have to continue to be resistant of the devil. Resist him and he will flee. That's a promise.
01:03:28
that God has given us that we can hold on to even when it seems like everything is turning against us. So there you go. Okay, that's the show today. Back on the radio live at three o'clock tomorrow. Anytime online, check out our YouTube page, subscribe to it and everything else at SteveMarsdenShow.com. Till tomorrow, adios.
01:04:03
Steve Marston Show is back, proving every day that following Jesus can be a lot of fun. Happy to have you here. And one of the things we do every day is we try to learn a Bible verse. And we start on Monday with the verse, we call it Faith Between Your Ears, and every day we kind of break it down and we try to learn it so that by the end of the week we have God's Word hidden in our heart. And look, I don't want to hear, well can't memorize.
01:04:32
Yes you can. You absolutely can. I know you think, I can remember the song that was number one on my birthday when I was 10 years old. Sure, you can, but I can't remember where I had breakfast yesterday. I get it, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just takes a little effort, takes a little bit of intentionality, and that's what I'm here to help.
01:05:02
You do. So here we go. Hebrews 11 6 is Faith Between Your Ears verse for this week. It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who comes to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. So basically what that saying is is faith has to be there first. You've got to believe that God exists and that God is good and that God loves you and that God has a plan.
01:05:31
and none of that is negotiable. It is all the time true, no matter what anything else seems or feels like. And second unto it is that he rewards all of those who earnestly seek him. And people kind of maybe get on that and say, well, wait a minute, we're not supposed to do things for rewards. Well, I don't know. God says that he's going to reward us for earnestly, truly, sincerely.
01:06:00
passionately seeking after him, I'll take the rewards anything he wants to give me. That's the way I see it. So let's learn Hebrews 11 6 and commit it to memory not so much that we know the passage word by word without missing a beat. It's not so much that. It's actually understanding the meaning. It's knowing what the word says and the whole reason is because
01:06:30
In this life, we have so much chaos and craziness going on that this counterbalances all of that. Having the Word of God in between our ears that we can recall at a moment's notice whenever life becomes topsy-turvy, we can stand on those strengths and on those promises of what Scripture says. So again, let's memorize.
01:06:59
Hebrews 11 verse 6. It's our faith between your ears verse for this week. As we wrap up today's show, it's always fun to look back and see what we've learned. And for me, it's been real easy. Our guest, Taryn Phillips from San Antonio, said it, scubala. It just means all your stuff, all your junk. Gotta get rid of your scubala. I'm gonna start using that in my everyday conversations.
01:07:27
All right, we are finished for the day. Join us live again on the radio tomorrow, 3 p.m. Everywhere else online. For anything you may have missed, check our website, SteveMarsdenShow.com. And don't forget, go to YouTube.com slash Steve Marsden Show, like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. It will really, really help us. Okay, until the next time, we get together. Adios.
