January 27, 2025 • 67 mins
Need Prayer? Send us a text on how we can pray for you!
In this episode of Christ Forge: Locking Shields Podcast:
What Do We Do With All The Good News
Where Christian Conservatives Should Be Moving To In 2025
90-Day Forging Challenge
Jason Perry is a seasoned Security Expert, CEO of Trident Shield, and the Pastor of Christ Forge Church. A former Navy SEAL, SWAT Officer, and Paramedic, Jason has walked the path from atheism to becoming a steadfast Christian Warrior. His 44-acre farm serves as a hub for ministry, training, and preparedness, reflecting his dedication to faith, family, and resilience. With a passion forged through trials and triumphs, Jason equips believers to face spiritual and practical challenges with courage, purpose, and faith in the unshakable truth of God’s Word.
Christian Warrior Talk is Sponsored by Trident Shield, your trusted ally in violence preparedness. Trident Shield helps safeguard your loved ones with expert training and consulting. Trident Shield, defending faith through empowered preparedness because together, we save lives."
Welcome to Christian Warrior Mission: the ministry where Christian warriors are forged, equipped, and united for the battles of life and faith. Our channel is dedicated to empowering you to stand firm, advance the line, and claim victory for Christ’s Kingdom. We offer two powerful streams of content:
Christian Warrior Talk: Join us for a dynamic fellowship show where every episode challenges you to fight three essential battles:
Heart Alignment: Begin with a prayer of gratitude and humility, aligning your heart with the Lord.
Relational Pursuit: Deepen your relationship with Jesus by studying His Word—one chapter at a time—and through prayer.
Fellowship & Accountability: Build strong, iron-sharpening relationships as we invest in one another’s growth.
Centered on the Five Pillars: Faith, Family, Fitness, Fundamentals, and Finances, our discussions span Scripture, discipleship, tactical preparedness, self-defense, homesteading, and more.
Christian Warrior Church Sermons: Experience powerful expositional and topical sermons streamed live from our sanctuary:
When to Watch: Christian Warrior Talk: Live on X, Rumble, YouTube, and Facebook on Wednesdays at 9 PM EST.
Christian Warrior Church Sermons: Live at 11 AM EST (in-person/online).
All content will be uploaded to podcast platforms the same week they aired live.
Nehemiah 4:14
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, everyone welcome to Christ.
Forged Locking Shields aChristian fellowship show where
we fight three battles.
All right, we won.
We fight to get a humble andgrateful heart aligned onto the
Lord.
We check all of our grumblings,our gripings, our pity parties.
You know everything that iswrong in the world and we
remember how much is right inthe world.
(00:21):
We all have pain, we all havesuffering, we all have problems,
but somewhere, a lot of placesand a lot of people would pay a
lot of money to have yourproblems and not theirs.
Okay, the Lord is good to usand the best way to have a good
(00:41):
relationship with the Lord is tobe humble and be grateful.
Right, so that is the firstthing that we do.
Two I'm going to take off myglasses until it's time to read
here.
But two we deliberately pursuea relationship with our Lord and
Savior by studying his holyword and through prayer.
Three we spend time infellowship with iron, sharpening
(01:05):
iron, holding each otheraccountable through the Forge
Challenge, the 90-Day ForgeChallenge and beyond.
But we invest in each otherhere.
We submit all aspects of ourlife faith, family, fitness,
fundamentals, finances to theLord and we hold each other
accountable.
All right, we do that in ourFacebook group where we log what
(01:30):
we do in each of those fivecategories faith, family,
fitness, fundamentals which isyour skillset sharpening and
adding to it, as well asfinances.
Okay, so that's what we do here.
Um, and I am a day late forthose of you who who noticed, um
, the show, you know,historically has been on Friday
(01:54):
nights, but I've been doing somuch travel, um, for work, doing
a lot of, uh, you know, activeshooter and security consulting,
training for Christian clientsall around the country,
particularly schools, churches,organization, faith-based
organizations that I'm usuallydriving from, you know, the
(02:19):
airport, you know, particularlygoing West East Coast, or, you
know, know, or a long drive onfridays, because everyone seems
to be booking me around onfridays, um, or thursdays, and
I'm traveling back on friday.
So we might be moving this showpermanently to saturday night,
which you know we'll.
(02:40):
We'll see, but that might bewhy, you know, I don't see a lot
of our, our normies on here,meaning our, our traditional uh,
folks.
Also, I want to welcomeeveryone who's been subscribed.
You know, recently subscribingmay have seen some of our shorts
out there.
We're new to the short game.
I'm really, you know, again,I'm a one-man here.
(03:02):
So I know we're not the mosttechnically polished.
I know we're not high-endproduction here.
I mean, this is my sanctuary,my office, our home church.
You know as well as our formertwo-car garage right that we
converted into this space, soyou know nothing fancy here.
(03:24):
We're not high-end, high-tech,high-anything.
We are people just like you whoare trying to walk out a
biblical worldview and leadothers and prevent others from
falling in traps and pitfallsand avoiding the struggles that
we ran through.
We created this community, thisshow, this church, this
(03:46):
fellowship, this training groupwhatever you want to call it to
reach other people out there who, after being saved, looked
around the churches and foundnothing but beta males as
pastors and effeminate men orworse, women pastors as pastors
and effeminate men or worse,women pastors and um and and
(04:08):
just didn't feel like they had ahome in the church.
Um, and then trying to find apastor who's actually walking it
out in his own life.
Right, you know you want to.
You want to narrow out how manypastors that you can actually
follow.
Look at their life.
You want to narrow out how manypastors that you can actually
follow.
Look at their life, not whothey were before they were, you
(04:31):
know, pastors, because we allhave a past right, but are they
leading their family?
Are they leading their familyand are they discipling their
family?
Are they passing on theirChristian identity?
And too often we were seeingweak sauce leaders who put on a
(04:52):
great PowerPoint presentation onstage and could put the plastic
smile on, but there was nosubstance to them.
You look at their families andthere were catastrophes.
So that's why we're here.
We're here to teach otherChristians or to walk alongside
other Christians and shareknowledge, because we don't know
(05:13):
everything.
I don't pretend to knoweverything.
I'm not some seminary educatedpastor, I'm a lay pastor.
So again, hello Lauren, myamazing wife.
It's good to see you here andstrength and honor to you.
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
(05:36):
So we don't know it all.
We are here to walk out abiblical worldview to, I believe
you know, push the masculineChristianity to embolden men to
be strong leaders and defendersof their house.
And unlike many Christians whoare going down this path,
(05:59):
particularly my reform brothers,I believe in strong women as
well.
My wife is not some prettylittle flower to be protected in
.
My daughters aren't going to,you know, they shouldn't have be
able to fight or do any of thatstuff Garbage, garbage.
I believe that our men shouldbe strong leaders in the house
(06:24):
and should be protectors of thehouse, but the women should be
shield maidens.
They should have their back andthey should be able to handle
themselves as well.
So we believe in prepping here.
We believe in raising yourfamily away from the secular
world, all right away from thesecular world.
(06:48):
We homeschool.
I would also endorse classicalChristian education.
Some of those schools havereally reinstated my faith for
group education again.
Just some of them are sosquared away and inspiring.
Very well done.
But we believe in disciplingour own kids.
(07:09):
So no need for the youth pastorto do it, which too many
Christians do.
We do it, I do it, my wife doesit, and we're not perfect, we
struggle and we're here to poolresources and to pool knowledge,
because we could always dothings better.
(07:30):
Right.
That's what this is all about.
So let's go to the first battle.
Let's get a humble and gratefulheart and go before the Lord in
prayer.
Heavenly Father, lord, I thankyou.
I thank you for this group ofpeople joining me through the
Internet, around the world, nowand later, who will hear this on
podcast platforms, on varioussocial media platforms.
(07:50):
Thank you, lord, lord I, Ithank you for your common grace.
I thank you for your creation.
These, this universe stars,stars, the moon, the sun, earth,
everything on this earth, fromthe mountains to the oceans and
(08:12):
everything in between, all thelife, whether it be plant life
and its diversity andamazingness, the animal kingdom,
fish of the sea, birds of theair and that walks the land.
(08:32):
Lord, you are amazing,brilliant, magnificent and
everything you do is good.
Lord, we thank you for giving usanother day today to get it
(08:52):
right to turn back to you if wewere walking away from you or
never walked toward you.
Lord, we thank you for thehonor of serving you, if we are
saved, and for another day todie to self, to become more like
you, jesus, and less like us.
We thank you for the trillionsupon trillions of cells that are
(09:15):
in the human body, that had towork near perfect for us to even
be here, and when you take thatand multiply it by everyone we
love that's still with us today,that number is unknowable.
Lord, we thank you for all therelationships in our life, the
(09:42):
people who love us and thepeople we love, those that
aren't with us.
We thank you for every momentwe had with them.
May we keep their memory goingforward.
May we never take for granted amoment with a loved one, a
friend.
Lord, we thank you for everysunrise, every sunset, the sound
(10:03):
of children laughing and thebirds in the morning, waves
against the shore, the smell offresh rain and good food cooking
, the taste of good food anddrink, a touch of a loved one, a
warm fire on a cold day, a coldnight, a cool breeze on a hot
day day.
(10:32):
And we pray that this time thatwe have glorify you, serve you
and that it would please you,and I pray that we would serve
you with every beat of our heartand proclaim you with every
breath of our lungs.
In Jesus' name.
We pray, amen, all right.
Hey, steve Raleigh, welcome backto the show.
It's been a bit, bro.
And where have you been on theforging challenge, brother?
I haven't seen your name.
(10:53):
I better see it startingtomorrow, day one for you under
my day 14 and Lauren's day 12.
All right, we're all ondifferent days and that's okay,
but you got to come back becauseyou're one of the good ones
that we have out there, brother,and we love you.
So strength and honor to you,steve.
(11:15):
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
So tonight's reading was fromthe other day for me and it's
again made its way into mybattery of anti-pacifist
(11:41):
doctrine in the Bible andpushing back against wickedness
and what we're called to do.
So let's go to Proverbs 24, andI'm reading out of the ESV.
Lauren, if you're still here,if you haven't gone out, could
you bring me my new Bible that afriend of mine at a nonprofit
(12:04):
got me and I'm really thankfulfor it.
It's beautiful and I'd like toshow it off, if you have the
chance, when you come in.
It doesn't have to be right now, but I'm going to read out of
the ESV Study Bible.
Okay, proverbs 24, verse 1 Benot envious of evil men, nor
(12:29):
desire to be with them, fortheir hearts devise violence and
their lips talk of trouble.
By wisdom a house is built andby understanding it is
established.
By knowledge the rooms arefilled, thank you, with all
(12:50):
precious and pleasant riches.
A wise man is full of strengthand a man of knowledge enhances
his might.
Let's talk about verse 5.
There, a wise man is full ofstrength.
So, yes, he's wise, but also awise man is full of strength.
(13:14):
So if one is wise, one wouldnot allow themselves to become
feeble or preventable, whichwould be the fitness aspect of
what we do.
We have to be functional, wehave to have strength, we have
to be dangerous, and a man ofknowledge enhances his might.
(13:36):
What is that?
well one would say that thatwould be fundamentals, your
skill set, your knowledge base,how valuable you are.
For by wise guidance you canwage your war.
(13:57):
In an abundance of counselors,there is victory.
So look at that A wise man isfull of strength, and a man of
knowledge enhances his might.
For by wise guidance you canwage your war, and in abundance
of counsel is there is victory.
That would be your war counsel.
Talk about having a group ofmen or women, depending on who
(14:21):
you are, know your fulltestimony, you know theirs.
They know all your weak spots,they know your weak spots and go
to them for counsel.
Wisdom is too high for a fool,and in the gate he does not open
(14:42):
his mouth.
Sorry, wisdom is too high for afool and in the gate he does
not open his mouth.
Wisdom is too high for a fool.
In the gate he does not openhis mouth.
Whoever plans to do evil willbe called a schemer.
The devising of folly is sinand a scoffer is an abomination
to mankind.
(15:03):
Now here is something aboutcourage.
Courage, verse 10.
If you faint in the day ofadversity, your strength is
small.
If you faint in the day ofadversity, your strength is
(15:25):
small.
And here.
This hits like a sledgehammerRescue those who are being taken
away to death, hold back thosewho are stumbling to the
slaughter.
And then verse 12, which is tocompound on this, to say, you
(15:48):
know, talking about those whodidn't try to claim ignorance on
the trains of Auschwitz andother things.
So, verse 12, rescue those whoare being taken away to death.
Hold back those who arestumbling the slaughter.
If you say, behold, we did notknow this, does not he who
(16:09):
weighs the heart perceive it?
And God, god knows you know.
Does not he who weighs theheart perceive it in God, God
knows you know.
Does not he who keeps watchover your soul know it?
And he will not repay manaccording to, and will he not
repay man according to his work?
God knows, when you knowsomething you can't hide from
(16:39):
him.
So not doing the right thing toprotect those going to
slaughter.
Protect and hold back those whoare stumbling.
God help you.
Verse 13.
My son, eat honey, for it isgood and the drippings of the
honeycomb are sweet to yourtaste.
(17:01):
Know that wisdom is such foryour soul.
If you find it, there will be afuture and your hope will not
be cut off.
Lie not in wait as the wickedman against the dwelling of the
righteous.
Do no violence to his home, forthe righteous falls seven times
and rises again, but the wickedstumble in times of calamity.
(17:28):
This might be surprising tosome.
Do not rejoice when your enemyfalls and let not your heart be
glad when he stumbles, lest theLord see it and be displeased.
Turn away his anger from him.
God does not delight inpunishment of sin.
Threaten not yourself becauseof evildoers and be not envious
(17:59):
of the wicked, for the evil manhas no future and the lamp of
the wicked will be put out.
My son, fear the Lord and theKing and do not join with those
who do, otherwise A disasterwill arise suddenly from them
(18:22):
and who knows the ruin that willcome from them both.
Again, I'm just constantly blownaway by Proverbs and how
amazing they are.
So here is a Bible that I gotfrom my friend from Operation
Logos.
They are part of the Paul StiegMinistries and they send out
(19:01):
Bibles to um veterans, seals etc.
And they sent me um thisamazing.
They asked me what version Iwanted and I got a legacy
standard bible.
This is my first lsb um.
I really am enjoying the legacystandard bible on that
translation and, um, it's got atrident on it for one, because I
was a seal, and uh, and it'sgot my name on it.
So I'm really thankful to chrisand to operation logos, um,
(19:22):
also to dan lucardo who got theword out there, and then my good
friend chris who, uh, you know,went to buds with um and you
know, now here we are both inministry.
So pretty crazy stuff.
So, um, again, thank you.
So let's, let's now get to ourthird battle, shall we?
(19:45):
Let's get to fellowship.
So I was just in California,southern California, for four
days, um, doing active shooterconsulting for an organization
out there, and while I was therea wildfire started not too far
from my hotel.
I could see it flare up in thesmoke and people were evacuated
(20:07):
and in fact the client that Iwas working with was concerned.
In fact the client that I wasworking with was concerned.
You know I asked me to come inearly to talk about possible
evacuations, their facility.
So you know my hotel was fullof evacuees from that area of
(20:39):
Southern California, not LA, andyou know as well, with a lot of
firefighters in there.
You know non-local firefightersstaying in the hotel.
So it was kind of interestingto be there, kind of on the
periphery, not involved in thefires per se, but in and around
people who were going through orinvolved in that, and getting
(20:59):
to see that with my own eyes.
I'm always so grateful when Iget to go blessed, to get to go
help fellow Christians deal withprotecting their people and
their organization, whether it'sthrough active shooter training
or hardening their facilitywith a security site assessment
(21:24):
or authoring crisis managementplans, emergency action plans,
emergency operation plans,whatever you want to call them
all hazards plans.
And while I was in town, I gotto hang out, did a four-hour
lunch with an amazing friend ofmine from my past where, when we
(21:46):
knew each other, neither of uswere saved saved.
I get saved at 37.
He gets saved at 30.
And now we're both, you know,very active Christians, and so
(22:06):
that was great to get togetherand to share an evening and
share a meal and to shareexperiences and testimonies, et
cetera, because he was a diehardatheist as well.
Oh, I think I just saw Brandy.
Come on, brandy, good to seeyou.
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
(22:31):
So I went there and got myburrito fix.
I swear, the whole time I wasthere I had, uh, three carne
asada burritos a day.
I was there because I can't geta good burrito anywhere east of
california, anywhere outside ofcalifornia.
Even in texas, I couldn't finda good burrito.
So carne asada burrito withextra guacamole, no rice, no
(22:54):
beans, no, nothing, it wasamazing, so anyways.
So, steve, I understand yourlack of desire to do the forging
while on the road.
I mean my workouts.
The fitness aspect of myforging has been the worst of
any launch.
(23:15):
Yet you know I get to hit thegym.
Today.
My diet is cleaned up.
You know I'm not doing 100%carnivore, we're doing like a
paleo low-carb.
You know paleo-keto kind ofthing, you know.
But we're going to eat fruit.
You know just nothing.
(23:36):
You know we're trying to keepthe starches and the pasta and
all the other stuff to a minimum.
But, um, yeah, man, you knowalso, while traveling, that's
what my body like you guys youknow.
Trying to do fitness on the road, having a knee replacement and
(23:57):
sitting in a car for hours or aplane for hours and hours, and
hours, is rough.
You know, I've got a bad backfrom a horrible parachute
landing where I hit the ground,a parachuting accident.
I hit the ground doing about 70miles an hour and I've never
been the same.
Hit the ground.
Parachute accident.
I hit the ground doing about 70miles an hour and I've never
(24:18):
been the same.
But, um, you know, stayingfunctional and trying not to
become totally broken whenyou're on the road, you know is
has become a challenge.
Now I got things that work forme.
I've learned that if I takemuscle relaxants when I'm lying
in hotel beds um, good to hearSteve put that up on the screen.
(24:40):
So you know, I find that if Itake muscle relaxants that my
back does not tend to go intospasms as much in a hotel, even
after sleeping on some prettyhard beds, and then some
(25:03):
stretching around, doing somewalking, really helps my knee
and the rest of me go.
So taking extremely hot showersreally helps as well.
And then, you know, having youranti-inflammatories, vitamins,
all those other things that youtake really can help.
So anyways that I understandthe whole aspect of doing
(25:29):
fitness on the road.
There are some guys like therock and these other guys who
get up at like two in themorning to work out, and all
those stuff.
I still haven't recouped mysleep from my knee replacement.
I'm just starting to finallyget some sleep.
You know, um, for those of youout there who are considering
getting a knee replacement, justunderstand you're not going to
(25:50):
sleep well for at least a month.
I'm going on way past that bythe three-month mark.
I am starting to get some rest,which is good, and I'm off all
pain meds.
I'm not even on typically onany inflammatories.
I took some anti-inflammatories, like I said, on the road.
I took some today, but minimal,minimal.
(26:12):
Road.
I took some today, but minimal,minimal.
So Brandy said Christ Forge isthe hardest thing I am doing.
It is a very hard thing, butbeing a Christian is a very hard
thing.
You know, when you're doing itright, dying to yourself is very
painful and it is against theway the world is.
(26:35):
So you know, trying to hold allaspects of your life
accountable.
You know I don't expect you.
I mean, if you're, you'resuperhuman, if you can do great
in faith, family, fitness,financials and fundamentals and
financials, you're superhuman.
(26:58):
You're going to do better atsome times and you're going to.
You know one of the things thatI really struggle with being a
CEO and an A-type personality.
If I couldn't do something 10out of 10, I didn't want to do
it.
I didn't want to do it, Iwanted to do it at a high level
and and and I would let perfectget in the way of good and
wouldn't do anything because itwasn't going to be perfect.
(27:18):
So you know, with like doingthis, forging and not being able
to work out as much for beingon the road and having some
challenges and all these things,um, just cleaning up my diet
made a difference, just tryingto make sure I get enough sleep
and to try to stay out of a backattack, or, you know, my
(27:39):
shoulder was getting reallycrazy hurt, but today I was able
to, you know, do some goodworkout in the gym.
Today I'm still staying really,really light for me, but
progress right.
So my point is in the fivefundamentals.
Any progress forward is betterthan not moving or worse, going
(28:07):
backwards.
Right, some days you're goingto be able to take five steps
forward.
Right, and that's great.
Let's say you got all fivefundamentals and you got all
five forward, and that's great.
Let's say, you got all fivefundamentals and you got all
five.
Four, and that's great.
Some days you're only going toget three.
Some days you may only get one,but you're still moving forward
.
All right, you know.
And if you want to say you know,if you want to even break it
down even further, let's say youknow you could do.
(28:29):
You know three levels of things, right, you could really crush.
You know fitness and you didyour steps for the day.
Right, you know your 10,000steps for the day.
You did your workout and yourdiet was great, right.
So we'll say that's three outof three for that day.
Even if you just did one thingthe steps or the diet you did
(28:53):
two out of three.
And you move the ball forward.
All, right and just.
And all you guys out there wholove food, if you work out,
that's one, you get your steps,that's two, we'll say.
And then you eat like crap.
Well, that's minus one, right,so now you're back to only one
(29:14):
step forward instead of two,right.
So that's why you can see howsome guys can advance really
quickly because they're doingall three steps and then others
not so much.
So again, don't let a perfectget in the way of progress.
Any forward momentum,particularly in the beginning,
(29:35):
is good, particularly if you'recoming from a um, a
deconditioned body, one that'sgot a ton of injuries, like
craziness about in San Diego.
You know my knees killing mebecause I did a long drive down,
got on a plane, did you knowwhatever East to West coast
flight, um, another drive, andI'm there and now my ankle is
(30:00):
hurting.
It's like what the heck isgoing on.
You know, I'm there, I'mwalking around and do stuff and
I'm gimping around, I'm going upand down stairs, I'm going to
take one step at a timedownstairs and I take one step
at a time, you know, and it's.
You know who understands.
You know that, hey, you pick upsome bumps and in some
imperfections, and some scarsand some bruises when you serve
(30:20):
your country for a long time andyou're doing that and it's fine
.
But you know, it's just.
You know, when you haveconditions like a knee
replacement or a bad back orwhatever it is, and then all of
a sudden you get like it feelslike an ice pick is in your
ankle out of nowhere, you know,and that's because body is not
used to limping and gimping somuch.
(30:41):
So, again, getting mobile andmoving forward in that is
important.
Same thing goes in all of them.
Some days you're going to beable to read four chapters of
the Bible.
Like I say, some days you'regoing to be able to do an old, a
new, a proverb and a psalm, andother days you might only just
(31:02):
get one chapter done.
Some days you might not evenget in your Bible and you just
might have to pray.
You just didn't have the time,you didn't there and you just
need to spend more time inprayer, and that's fine, right?
The thing is to do something,connect with God in some way
every day.
Don't be like, oh man, I'm justgoing to pass this to him.
(31:25):
No, no, pray, pray, pray, pray.
Okay, you know, that is key,you know?
And then in family, sometimesyou get to have 10 out of 10
experiences.
You get to go on a date nightwith your wife and you get to
(31:47):
have.
You get a babysitter and time.
You get a babysitter and time.
The day where Lauren and I canvanish for a weekend is going to
be an amazing day for me.
I miss just having my wife tomyself.
I absolutely adore her in everyway and want to spoil her in
(32:09):
every way.
Want to spoil her in every way.
And right now, with three youngkids, a farm, a hungry business
and everything else going on inher life.
That's just not a reality rightnow.
So sometimes it's an hour, ahalf hour that I just get to
(32:32):
talk to her.
You know we get.
Sometimes the kids might sleepin and we'll get an
uninterrupted cup of coffee holysmokes.
You know, don't, don't, don't,don't.
Not get those moments becausethey're not perfect, because
(32:52):
you're not at a table drinkingwine dressed to the T.
You know, whatever Sometimesdirty sweats, unshowered, stinky
, but available is the bestyou're going to get and you're
going to regret if you don'twake.
You know if, if you didn't, ifGod forbid anything should ever
(33:15):
happen and you didn't take amoment to reconnect.
Now I came back and you knowconfession, you know you're back
for four, you're gone for fourdays.
When you're out of theenvironment is way different
than the people who stayed inthe environment right, different
than the people who stayed inthe environment Right.
When you're the one who leftand came back, you tend to like,
(33:36):
even though you know there arethings I enjoy about traveling
Flying is not one of them.
You know restaurants, friends,but traveling without Lauren
just reminds me all those timeswhere I was in the military,
going around the world and I hadno one to share that mountain
(33:57):
view with or that amazing cafewith.
So you know, I'm on the roadand I'm missing my family, my
family's together and when youcome back into that environment
you want to feel missed.
You know, right now one of mydaughters is really into me and
(34:18):
one of my daughters not so much.
She's just at a different stageof development.
She's a five and a half yearold and my three year old is all
about me.
I mean, she's become my wingmanand just about everything.
And you know, and I've beenhome and she's, she's 100% been
(34:38):
on my heels the whole way andI've been taking that
opportunity to pour into herRight, um, and then I get brief
spurts with the other one.
I mean it's not awkward, it'snot, she's not unkind or
whatever.
She doesn't seek me out as muchas the three-year-old does, you
(34:59):
know.
And so, again, it's making dowith what you've got and keeping
the ball moving forward infamily, with relationships.
And my mom I came home and mymom and at times have had very
estranged relationships.
We had a big discussion not toolong ago, everything on the
table again, and I'm movingforward and, you know, came home
(35:22):
and got a hug and there's aconnection and you know, and and
that has been fantastic, um,moving the ball forward on that.
Did I get a hundred yards onthat one?
No, I've got three and a halfyards.
Right, with my three-year-old,I got a touchdown, you know,
with my wife, I got a field goaland with my daughter my other
(35:50):
daughter, daughter I got.
Well, I'm probably going tofield goal with her too.
Okay, so maybe I got a firstdown with my mom, right,
football analogy, those of youout there who don't know Right,
so, so again, it's all aboutkeeping the ball moving down the
field, not going backwards andnot just staying there.
(36:12):
Don't let perfect, get in theway of good enough progress, all
right.
And the other thing I wanted totalk about today was, you know,
is what to do with all thisgood news.
Right, I have become addictedto the good news out there.
(36:32):
Right, I have become addictedto the good news out there.
You know, since Trump has takenoffice, I no longer wake up the
morning and morning to see ifwe're going to be in war or what
calamity has just happened.
I wake up to see how we'regoing to be winning.
You know, and um, it issupremely uplifting to be able
(36:57):
to turn on the news and brandyhas way more confidence in me
than I have in myself.
Jason, are you and lauren goingto make right, a trident shield
, christ forge type of bible oneof these days?
We may make a devotional.
Um, if I found it to be helpfulas we continue authoring
(37:22):
content and and running forgingshere and doing men's groups
here and and continuing toevolve our ministry, um, there
definitely will be some type ofthings.
I mean, we already do activeshooter training, we already do
(37:44):
firearms training, we already do, you know, a ton of different
things here, and we already do adiscipling type of training
here called the forging uhweekend forging um.
So it's possible we may getthere.
Um, it's really just abandwidth issue right now,
whereas I need to throw as muchtime and resources as I can at
(38:05):
Trident Shield because that paysthe bills.
I mean, that's what pays thebills and the bills need to be
paid, and you know we're diggingourselves out of a massive hole
.
Like you guys, you know wesuffered a horrible downturn
with COVID, running an activeshooter security consulting
(38:25):
training business.
During COVID we took a 90% lossto revenue for multiple years
because no workplace, noworkplace violence.
No school, no school violenceto prepare for Everyone was out.
So we were out of a job and weracked up a ton of debt during
(38:48):
that time, just like mostbusinesses that are still around
, many folded.
So it's going to take us stilla while to get out of this, but
you know God is blessing us.
We are doing great.
We are doing exactly what wewant to do.
(39:11):
We are helping the body ofChrist become good shepherds and
protecting their flock.
Can't think of a better thingthan that, can't?
It's an amazing, amazingcalling and job and I'm blessed
to do it, blessed to do it.
But you know, getting up andwatching all this good news.
(39:34):
It's good food for the soul,particularly because we're not
used to that right.
We're used to, you know, trumpbeing attacked for four years
while he was there, investigatedall these things.
While he was there,investigated all these things.
Steve says devotional would begreat.
You're a good writer with a lotof stories to share.
(39:55):
Thanks, man.
I appreciate your confidence.
Maybe someday I'd have toorganize those thoughts, but so
we'll see.
Organize those thoughts, we'llsee.
Growing this community, thisforging community that we're
(40:16):
doing right now.
That is what I need to focus onHelping you guys do your own,
helping you grow in those fivepillars of your life the faith,
family, fitness, fundamentalsand finances.
That is key in holding youaccountable and helping you in
(40:37):
your relationships and helpingyou with your walk with the Lord
.
That is what I do, helping youtactically as well.
What I do, helping youtactically as well For those who
want to become preppers andwant to be responsible and want
to know how to defend themselvesand their families and those
they care about.
(41:05):
So, so, so, watching all thisnews, enjoy it while you have it
, but the thing is is you havethe wind at your back.
Don't drop anchor right now anddo nothing and don't just coast
(41:28):
.
Now's the time, while you'renot being bombarded with bad
news and with obstructionistgovernment, to really take some
ground for the Lord in your life, to hit the gas, to expand, you
(41:53):
know, to start investing inpeople.
Maybe invest in anotherbusiness, keep prepping, keep
growing your skill set.
Don't be like, ah, trump's,fine, we're good because he can
(42:17):
be gone tomorrow.
Guys, I don't know what theworld would look like if that
happened.
So take in the news, watch it,you know.
So take in the news, watch it.
You know watching pete, petehegseth get confirmed while two
moon bats, murkowski and collins, voted against him.
(42:38):
Of course the, the troll turtle, the deep state troll turtle,
um McConnell, you know um votedagainst him as well.
All those people should beretired, all of them.
(43:03):
So Tulsi Gabbard was confirmedtoday.
Marco Rubio, I mean, it's justso uplifting for once to be
winning like this.
Just don't let that becomecomplacency for you.
Use it as fuel and accelerant,right.
(43:29):
Use it as an accelerant to keepmoving forward in your forging
and bring others on board.
There are going to be peopleout there who are going to be
open to our way of life asthings get better.
(43:53):
You know it's crazy.
For a time, when I was goingthrough Bud's training and you
know I was just out inCalifornia, like I said, there's
nowhere else in the world Iwanted to live in other than
California.
And while I was out inCalifornia I said there's
nowhere else in the world Iwanted to live in other than
California.
And while I was out inCalifornia I was in the only
place in America that had goodweather.
It was like 70, 75 and sunny.
(44:14):
Everywhere else was likefreezing, cold and miserable,
even like.
While I was gone, florida gotsnow, louisiana got snow.
It was ice cold.
Here my neighbor's house burntdown like this, like directly on
the next to our property, inthe back um craziness.
(44:35):
And there I am in california,which so many people live in,
and I wanted no part of it.
All I could smell again wasexhaust from all the vehicles.
It's brown and concrete andugly.
It was a nice to be in a placewhere there was a every
(45:02):
restaurant, a variation of arestaurant you could ever
imagine.
Good food everywhere, greatservices everywhere.
You know ultra conveniences.
Prices were out of control, outof control, gas, insane.
And it was just.
(45:23):
Let me know again Tennessee man, I'm so thankful for Tennessee
Smell of honeysuckle andeverything else in my backyard
Smell of clean mountain air,compared to Florida, which
smelled like you were sucking ona tailpipe as well.
California, same thing.
(45:46):
Anywhere where you got millionsand millions of taxes.
Same thing here.
None of that, none of it.
Last thing I wanted to talkabout today, where you should be
(46:07):
moving to in 2025.
Now I've gone long and hard atpeople for not moving when you
had the best economy and housingmarket ever, and everyone who
was slow and didn't move and wastoo choosy and too picky is
(46:29):
stuck exactly where they were.
They move nowhere.
They talk about it for years,they daydream and they go
nowhere.
Trump's presidency, you havefour years to get this to get
out of there before the next,because we don't know what's
coming.
You don't know what's coming,but if I was you, where I would
(46:53):
go?
I would look at Tennessee.
I think North Carolina isactually safe as well, south
Carolina.
So places I like here are, youknow, the Northeast Tennessee.
Chattanooga is another area Iwould look at.
So here between here andknoxville, right johnson city,
(47:13):
tennessee and knoxville, um, sothe northern northeast corner,
um, I would also look at WesternNorth Carolina.
Northwest North Carolina issome of a beautiful country, so
Blowing Rock Boone is tooliberal.
Mountain City, tennessee isstill one of the hot spots that
(47:36):
I would look at where realestate is still relatively
affordable.
You have a ton of amenities inBoone that you can shop at if
you don't mind dealing with someDemocrats over there, some
crazy liberals from AppalachianState, or you can make the drive
and shop in Johnson City,tennessee, which we know a lot
(47:58):
of people who do that.
If you want snowy weather andmore seasons, I would look at
Idaho.
Joseph Gathicolson, you movedno, you moved to Alaska, didn't
(48:19):
you?
You're in Alaska.
You're in Maine and moved toAlaska.
I wouldn't recommend Alaska,even though it's something
that's on my heart to go outthere to live in the great
(48:43):
outdoors and all that stuff.
I don't think it's nearly asconservative as the state as
Tennessee is.
I mean Tennessee.
I can't say enough about it.
Your taxes are low, right, youdon't pay for abortions here.
There's no trans garbagedollars going to trans garbage
(49:07):
here.
It's still really affordablecompared to everywhere else in
the country, um, but they're.
The services here are going tosuck, just like they suck in
alaska.
After seeing some joseph stuffthings here, I wouldn't want to
have a count on the governmentto help me to educate a special
needs child here.
You know, being dependent onthe government for anything is
(49:41):
never a win situation.
Never, ever, ever.
You're always going to get theworst of the worst.
You have to achieve enough tobe able to improve your family's
life, which is challenging.
The Bible says he who does notprovide for his family is worse
(50:03):
than an infidel, worse than anunbeliever which, trust me, when
you get laid off or let go andyou're struggling to provide, it
(50:28):
becomes a five alarm fire man.
Five alarm fire on your soul.
You got to prioritize that witheverything you can Now.
(50:50):
North Carolina, great Greenville, south Carolina, is a booming
town that we almost considerit's just so hot in the summer.
So Greenville, south Carolina,is exploding.
It's doing very well.
It's got an airport.
It's one of the cheapestairports to fly out of in this
region.
That's the one I typically flyout of when I'm trying to save
(51:11):
money.
It's about two hours.
For me it's greenville,spartanburg.
Greenville's nicer thanspartanburg, um.
And then you get, liketravelers, rest, which is of
that which is still in themountains, which is a little bit
cooler.
We didn't see a lot of acreagewhen we were trying to buy there
(51:33):
.
Again, I think that city's beenblown up for a while.
In fact, if you're driving on 26and you're going from North
Carolina to Tennessee, you'regoing to notice something that
North Carolina is much nicer.
There's it's, there's morepeople there.
(51:54):
The towns typically are nicerbecause there's more money and
there's way more people there.
The mountains are all you know.
You can't.
There's no green on themountains because they're all
full of houses and then youdescend into Tennessee and it's
nothing but opportunity.
But it can be dumpy.
It's definitely not nice house,nice house, nice house, nice
(52:15):
house, nice house.
It's nice house, okay House,trailer trailer.
Nice house, okay, house,trailer, nice house, trailer,
nice house, you know, and peoplewho are used to older, more
(52:36):
established neighborhoods, whereit's been gentrified for 100
years are going to struggle withit.
There are towns and parts oftowns that are newer
neighborhoods or where the oldmoney was, and you'll find what
you're more used to like, say,in Virginia.
But Tennessee still is full ofopportunity for people who are
(53:00):
not rich, who want to come downhere and have a house and maybe
some land.
Not as much as when I came downhere four years ago and I put
my money where my mouth was andI bought a house sight unseen
(53:25):
and we got 44 acres and a brickranch that has turned out to be
a gem.
Lord blessed us, lord blessedour obedience, so I would look
(53:48):
at those places.
I would avoid texas witheverything I had.
Politics in texas are greatmostly, but it is not a preppers
area in the slightest.
An unnatural environment mightas well be the surface of Mars.
It's dry.
If anything happens, they'regoing to be Mad Max, because
(54:12):
there's too many people in anarea that can't sustain any
population without every belland whistle that technology has
to offer.
Farming is very hard work,joseph.
It really is.
We don't necessarily farm right.
We raise animals here, so weraise cattle.
We raise, we have dairy meat orbeef cattle, we have pork, as
(54:39):
in hogs, and we have chickens,turkeys and ducks and we've
grown a garden okay, anormal-sized garden, and we've
done a massive load of potatoes.
Before no Texas had a bunch ofCalifornia, empty into it,
(55:02):
brandy, and again, you know,texas has a lot of um, a lot of
restaurants, a lot ofconvenience, a lot of everything
you want.
If you want to live in an uglyplace it's pretty ugly other
than probably like Austin drovearound there, try.
I wanted to move to Texas witheverything in my body.
I went there at, hadopportunities there, I drove
(55:22):
around and I could not like it.
I'm like this place is too darnugly.
Went all over northern dallasand the hills over there
grapevine, flower mound andbeyond and I'm like, nope,
(55:42):
garland, garland.
Now I hear Austin's beautiful,but Austin's all liberal and if
you stay in a blue state.
(56:05):
It's just a matter of time Untilthey come.
For you, man, it's just amatter of time.
I mean, look at what happenedin Canada Neighbors were
snitching on Neighbors forhaving people over On the
holidays.
That's what socialism does, youknow?
(56:30):
I still have family that livesin Massachusetts and I beg them
to get out all the time, butthey're too lazy Lazy, what I
know is too lazy to move.
Either it's important to youand you make it happen or you
don't.
You want everything to line upthe sun, the moon, the stars.
You're never going to movebecause it's never going to line
(56:51):
up.
Perfect, it didn't line up,perfect for us here.
We just had to jump.
Not everyone has the courage todo that.
It's tough.
West Virginia is a place that Iwould look at.
(57:15):
I don't see that.
It's not as red as it appearsto be voting wise.
It looks as red as possible,but they still have 75 years of
Democrat rule or more, wherethey have laws and taxes and a
bunch of Northern West Virginia.
Northeast West Virginia is fullof a ton of DC elites elites.
(57:40):
So again, you're dealing with alot of a lot of Democrat policy
and a lot of anti-business,anti-growth agenda there.
But it is beautiful and thereis opportunity and there is land
there and it is a good preppingplace.
Virginia, southern Virginia, isabsolutely gorgeous.
(58:06):
It's as nice as anywhere inTennessee.
It's as nice as anywhere inNorth Carolina.
I don't trust Virginia to stayred in the slightest.
I was living in Virginia and weleft.
I was living in Virginia and weleft.
(58:29):
Now, as Trump decentralizes DCand you know, maybe he's able to
get rid of K Street and get ridof all the government agencies
that are so full there thatoverload Nova.
He's going to be so full therethat overload Nova.
He's going to be maybe able toflip Virginia red, depending on
(58:54):
how many go and who goes where.
But then you're exporting bluevotes to red states.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to work, but
geographically it could work.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to work, but
geographically it could work.
I just don't trust Virginia tostay that way and your tax
dollars still go to abortion andeverything else, whereas here
and I think Texas, they don'tFlorida, florida, northern
(59:19):
Florida, maybe Florida is sodarn hot, it's so flat, let's
face it.
If you're not on the beach it'sawful Hot, humid, flat rain all
the time.
Great growing season forprepping.
North Dakota, south Dakota,montana those are North Dakota,
(59:49):
south Dakota, montana are placesI'd look at.
Again, more expensive Wyomingit's hard to get in and get out
of, but I'd look at that as well.
Again, very expensive in thenice places.
Again, very expensive in thenice places.
(01:00:16):
Northern Alabama has some keyopportunity places that we saw
where it was pretty mountainouson the northern tip of Alabama,
warmer than it is where we are,but you can still get mountains
in Alabama.
Who would have thought, right,that's the southern side of the
Smokies.
North Georgia is anotherlocation where that's mountains,
(01:00:38):
where you have the Smokies thatyou go to.
But it's Georgia.
They've gone blue at times.
I would avoid Maine, I'd avoidNew Hampshire, unless you had to
(01:01:00):
stay in the Northeast.
Then those are options, but Idon't trust any of them.
They all want blue.
They'll be blue forever.
So Lawrence said it best hereBasically, tennessee is the best
(01:01:21):
option.
So come join us everybody.
Exactly, exactly that's all Iwanted to talk about tonight.
Basically, tennessee is thebest option.
So come join us everybody.
Exactly, exactly that's all Iwanted to talk about tonight,
and I want to go get some timewith my missus, so I'm going to
pray us out, we'll wrap it upand we'll call it a night and
I'll see you tomorrow for church.
So, heavenly father, lord, wethank you for this group.
We thank you for the people whotook the time spend.
(01:01:45):
We thank you for this group.
We thank you for the people whotook the time, spent time with
us, and the people who listen tous now, who watch us now or
later, online or on a podcastplatform.
We're so thankful for everybodywho invests in us and us with
them.
Come alongside us and fightwith us and pray with us and
help us get through this time.
And fight with us and pray withus and help us get through this
(01:02:06):
time.
Lord, it's so easy to get caughtup in the world and to spend
one hour on a Friday, saturdaynight talking about you and
things about you and trying towalk out a godly worldview with
your family and how to raiseyour family in a godly way, to
make it all about you is theleast we can do and we're happy
(01:02:29):
to do it.
But I pray that you blesseveryone and you put upon their
hearts where you want them to goand help them move there and
show them.
It does require faith, that itdoes require intestinal
fortitude, and then you can'twait for every I to be crossed
or every I to be dotted andevery T to be crossed.
(01:02:49):
That's not how you work, lord.
We must have faith.
I also pray that everyone wouldnot be distracted by all the
good news and stop makingprogress in their own life and
stop pushing the envelope andget comfortable.
(01:03:10):
Lord, comfort is the enemyforging right now.
Whether they're strugglingfinancially or struggling with
their fitness, or they don'thave a lot of skills, or they're
having trouble with theirfamily members or loved ones, or
(01:03:32):
they're struggling to get inyour word, I pray that you would
meet them at that point ofcontact, lord.
You would drive them to bebetter in all aspects to
surrender all their life to you.
So now I pray a prayer ofblessing and peace for this
(01:03:56):
fellowship, for the persecutedchurch, for our troops overseas.
Our first responders at homeare veterans of yesteryear.
I pray the whole world would notgo into World War III and I
pray for President Trump, forall of our leaders.
You would protect them and thatyou would drive them, lord, to
(01:04:17):
do your will, your will alone.
Lastly, I pray for America.
Pray that she would humbleherself, turn from her sin in
her knees, seek your face andyou would see her and heal her.
We could once again be onenation under god, indivisible
liberty and justice for all.
And I pray then.
(01:04:39):
Now pray that this congregationwould come to attention to put
on the full armor of God.
Strap on the shield of faith,pick up the sword of the Spirit,
boldly walk forward to join theshield wall Locking shields to
the left and right.
We march forward to take groundfor your kingdom, for your
(01:05:00):
glory forever.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
God bless you everyone.
I will see you tomorrow atchurch, 11 am Eastern Time.
Bye.
All right, everyone welcome to Christ.
Forged Locking Shields aChristian fellowship show where
we fight three battles.
All right, we won.
We fight to get a humble andgrateful heart aligned onto the
Lord.
We check all of our grumblings,our gripings, our pity parties.
You know everything that iswrong in the world and we
remember how much is right inthe world.
(00:21):
We all have pain, we all havesuffering, we all have problems,
but somewhere, a lot of placesand a lot of people would pay a
lot of money to have yourproblems and not theirs.
Okay, the Lord is good to usand the best way to have a good
(00:41):
relationship with the Lord is tobe humble and be grateful.
Right, so that is the firstthing that we do.
Two I'm going to take off myglasses until it's time to read
here.
But two we deliberately pursuea relationship with our Lord and
Savior by studying his holyword and through prayer.
Three we spend time infellowship with iron, sharpening
(01:05):
iron, holding each otheraccountable through the Forge
Challenge, the 90-Day ForgeChallenge and beyond.
But we invest in each otherhere.
We submit all aspects of ourlife faith, family, fitness,
fundamentals, finances to theLord and we hold each other
accountable.
All right, we do that in ourFacebook group where we log what
(01:30):
we do in each of those fivecategories faith, family,
fitness, fundamentals which isyour skillset sharpening and
adding to it, as well asfinances.
Okay, so that's what we do here.
Um, and I am a day late forthose of you who who noticed, um
, the show, you know,historically has been on Friday
(01:54):
nights, but I've been doing somuch travel, um, for work, doing
a lot of, uh, you know, activeshooter and security consulting,
training for Christian clientsall around the country,
particularly schools, churches,organization, faith-based
organizations that I'm usuallydriving from, you know, the
(02:19):
airport, you know, particularlygoing West East Coast, or, you
know, know, or a long drive onfridays, because everyone seems
to be booking me around onfridays, um, or thursdays, and
I'm traveling back on friday.
So we might be moving this showpermanently to saturday night,
which you know we'll.
(02:40):
We'll see, but that might bewhy, you know, I don't see a lot
of our, our normies on here,meaning our, our traditional uh,
folks.
Also, I want to welcomeeveryone who's been subscribed.
You know, recently subscribingmay have seen some of our shorts
out there.
We're new to the short game.
I'm really, you know, again,I'm a one-man here.
(03:02):
So I know we're not the mosttechnically polished.
I know we're not high-endproduction here.
I mean, this is my sanctuary,my office, our home church.
You know as well as our formertwo-car garage right that we
converted into this space, soyou know nothing fancy here.
(03:24):
We're not high-end, high-tech,high-anything.
We are people just like you whoare trying to walk out a
biblical worldview and leadothers and prevent others from
falling in traps and pitfallsand avoiding the struggles that
we ran through.
We created this community, thisshow, this church, this
(03:46):
fellowship, this training groupwhatever you want to call it to
reach other people out there who, after being saved, looked
around the churches and foundnothing but beta males as
pastors and effeminate men orworse, women pastors as pastors
and effeminate men or worse,women pastors and um and and
(04:08):
just didn't feel like they had ahome in the church.
Um, and then trying to find apastor who's actually walking it
out in his own life.
Right, you know you want to.
You want to narrow out how manypastors that you can actually
follow.
Look at their life.
You want to narrow out how manypastors that you can actually
follow.
Look at their life, not whothey were before they were, you
(04:31):
know, pastors, because we allhave a past right, but are they
leading their family?
Are they leading their familyand are they discipling their
family?
Are they passing on theirChristian identity?
And too often we were seeingweak sauce leaders who put on a
(04:52):
great PowerPoint presentation onstage and could put the plastic
smile on, but there was nosubstance to them.
You look at their families andthere were catastrophes.
So that's why we're here.
We're here to teach otherChristians or to walk alongside
other Christians and shareknowledge, because we don't know
(05:13):
everything.
I don't pretend to knoweverything.
I'm not some seminary educatedpastor, I'm a lay pastor.
So again, hello Lauren, myamazing wife.
It's good to see you here andstrength and honor to you.
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
(05:36):
So we don't know it all.
We are here to walk out abiblical worldview to, I believe
you know, push the masculineChristianity to embolden men to
be strong leaders and defendersof their house.
And unlike many Christians whoare going down this path,
(05:59):
particularly my reform brothers,I believe in strong women as
well.
My wife is not some prettylittle flower to be protected in
.
My daughters aren't going to,you know, they shouldn't have be
able to fight or do any of thatstuff Garbage, garbage.
I believe that our men shouldbe strong leaders in the house
(06:24):
and should be protectors of thehouse, but the women should be
shield maidens.
They should have their back andthey should be able to handle
themselves as well.
So we believe in prepping here.
We believe in raising yourfamily away from the secular
world, all right away from thesecular world.
(06:48):
We homeschool.
I would also endorse classicalChristian education.
Some of those schools havereally reinstated my faith for
group education again.
Just some of them are sosquared away and inspiring.
Very well done.
But we believe in disciplingour own kids.
(07:09):
So no need for the youth pastorto do it, which too many
Christians do.
We do it, I do it, my wife doesit, and we're not perfect, we
struggle and we're here to poolresources and to pool knowledge,
because we could always dothings better.
(07:30):
Right.
That's what this is all about.
So let's go to the first battle.
Let's get a humble and gratefulheart and go before the Lord in
prayer.
Heavenly Father, lord, I thankyou.
I thank you for this group ofpeople joining me through the
Internet, around the world, nowand later, who will hear this on
podcast platforms, on varioussocial media platforms.
(07:50):
Thank you, lord, lord I, Ithank you for your common grace.
I thank you for your creation.
These, this universe stars,stars, the moon, the sun, earth,
everything on this earth, fromthe mountains to the oceans and
(08:12):
everything in between, all thelife, whether it be plant life
and its diversity andamazingness, the animal kingdom,
fish of the sea, birds of theair and that walks the land.
(08:32):
Lord, you are amazing,brilliant, magnificent and
everything you do is good.
Lord, we thank you for giving usanother day today to get it
(08:52):
right to turn back to you if wewere walking away from you or
never walked toward you.
Lord, we thank you for thehonor of serving you, if we are
saved, and for another day todie to self, to become more like
you, jesus, and less like us.
We thank you for the trillionsupon trillions of cells that are
(09:15):
in the human body, that had towork near perfect for us to even
be here, and when you take thatand multiply it by everyone we
love that's still with us today,that number is unknowable.
Lord, we thank you for all therelationships in our life, the
(09:42):
people who love us and thepeople we love, those that
aren't with us.
We thank you for every momentwe had with them.
May we keep their memory goingforward.
May we never take for granted amoment with a loved one, a
friend.
Lord, we thank you for everysunrise, every sunset, the sound
(10:03):
of children laughing and thebirds in the morning, waves
against the shore, the smell offresh rain and good food cooking
, the taste of good food anddrink, a touch of a loved one, a
warm fire on a cold day, a coldnight, a cool breeze on a hot
day day.
(10:32):
And we pray that this time thatwe have glorify you, serve you
and that it would please you,and I pray that we would serve
you with every beat of our heartand proclaim you with every
breath of our lungs.
In Jesus' name.
We pray, amen, all right.
Hey, steve Raleigh, welcome backto the show.
It's been a bit, bro.
And where have you been on theforging challenge, brother?
I haven't seen your name.
(10:53):
I better see it startingtomorrow, day one for you under
my day 14 and Lauren's day 12.
All right, we're all ondifferent days and that's okay,
but you got to come back becauseyou're one of the good ones
that we have out there, brother,and we love you.
So strength and honor to you,steve.
(11:15):
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
So tonight's reading was fromthe other day for me and it's
again made its way into mybattery of anti-pacifist
(11:41):
doctrine in the Bible andpushing back against wickedness
and what we're called to do.
So let's go to Proverbs 24, andI'm reading out of the ESV.
Lauren, if you're still here,if you haven't gone out, could
you bring me my new Bible that afriend of mine at a nonprofit
(12:04):
got me and I'm really thankfulfor it.
It's beautiful and I'd like toshow it off, if you have the
chance, when you come in.
It doesn't have to be right now, but I'm going to read out of
the ESV Study Bible.
Okay, proverbs 24, verse 1 Benot envious of evil men, nor
(12:29):
desire to be with them, fortheir hearts devise violence and
their lips talk of trouble.
By wisdom a house is built andby understanding it is
established.
By knowledge the rooms arefilled, thank you, with all
(12:50):
precious and pleasant riches.
A wise man is full of strengthand a man of knowledge enhances
his might.
Let's talk about verse 5.
There, a wise man is full ofstrength.
So, yes, he's wise, but also awise man is full of strength.
(13:14):
So if one is wise, one wouldnot allow themselves to become
feeble or preventable, whichwould be the fitness aspect of
what we do.
We have to be functional, wehave to have strength, we have
to be dangerous, and a man ofknowledge enhances his might.
(13:36):
What is that?
well one would say that thatwould be fundamentals, your
skill set, your knowledge base,how valuable you are.
For by wise guidance you canwage your war.
(13:57):
In an abundance of counselors,there is victory.
So look at that A wise man isfull of strength, and a man of
knowledge enhances his might.
For by wise guidance you canwage your war, and in abundance
of counsel is there is victory.
That would be your war counsel.
Talk about having a group ofmen or women, depending on who
(14:21):
you are, know your fulltestimony, you know theirs.
They know all your weak spots,they know your weak spots and go
to them for counsel.
Wisdom is too high for a fool,and in the gate he does not open
(14:42):
his mouth.
Sorry, wisdom is too high for afool and in the gate he does
not open his mouth.
Wisdom is too high for a fool.
In the gate he does not openhis mouth.
Whoever plans to do evil willbe called a schemer.
The devising of folly is sinand a scoffer is an abomination
to mankind.
(15:03):
Now here is something aboutcourage.
Courage, verse 10.
If you faint in the day ofadversity, your strength is
small.
If you faint in the day ofadversity, your strength is
(15:25):
small.
And here.
This hits like a sledgehammerRescue those who are being taken
away to death, hold back thosewho are stumbling to the
slaughter.
And then verse 12, which is tocompound on this, to say, you
(15:48):
know, talking about those whodidn't try to claim ignorance on
the trains of Auschwitz andother things.
So, verse 12, rescue those whoare being taken away to death.
Hold back those who arestumbling the slaughter.
If you say, behold, we did notknow this, does not he who
(16:09):
weighs the heart perceive it?
And God, god knows you know.
Does not he who weighs theheart perceive it in God, God
knows you know.
Does not he who keeps watchover your soul know it?
And he will not repay manaccording to, and will he not
repay man according to his work?
God knows, when you knowsomething you can't hide from
(16:39):
him.
So not doing the right thing toprotect those going to
slaughter.
Protect and hold back those whoare stumbling.
God help you.
Verse 13.
My son, eat honey, for it isgood and the drippings of the
honeycomb are sweet to yourtaste.
(17:01):
Know that wisdom is such foryour soul.
If you find it, there will be afuture and your hope will not
be cut off.
Lie not in wait as the wickedman against the dwelling of the
righteous.
Do no violence to his home, forthe righteous falls seven times
and rises again, but the wickedstumble in times of calamity.
(17:28):
This might be surprising tosome.
Do not rejoice when your enemyfalls and let not your heart be
glad when he stumbles, lest theLord see it and be displeased.
Turn away his anger from him.
God does not delight inpunishment of sin.
Threaten not yourself becauseof evildoers and be not envious
(17:59):
of the wicked, for the evil manhas no future and the lamp of
the wicked will be put out.
My son, fear the Lord and theKing and do not join with those
who do, otherwise A disasterwill arise suddenly from them
(18:22):
and who knows the ruin that willcome from them both.
Again, I'm just constantly blownaway by Proverbs and how
amazing they are.
So here is a Bible that I gotfrom my friend from Operation
Logos.
They are part of the Paul StiegMinistries and they send out
(19:01):
Bibles to um veterans, seals etc.
And they sent me um thisamazing.
They asked me what version Iwanted and I got a legacy
standard bible.
This is my first lsb um.
I really am enjoying the legacystandard bible on that
translation and, um, it's got atrident on it for one, because I
was a seal, and uh, and it'sgot my name on it.
So I'm really thankful to chrisand to operation logos, um,
(19:22):
also to dan lucardo who got theword out there, and then my good
friend chris who, uh, you know,went to buds with um and you
know, now here we are both inministry.
So pretty crazy stuff.
So, um, again, thank you.
So let's, let's now get to ourthird battle, shall we?
(19:45):
Let's get to fellowship.
So I was just in California,southern California, for four
days, um, doing active shooterconsulting for an organization
out there, and while I was therea wildfire started not too far
from my hotel.
I could see it flare up in thesmoke and people were evacuated
(20:07):
and in fact the client that Iwas working with was concerned.
In fact the client that I wasworking with was concerned.
You know I asked me to come inearly to talk about possible
evacuations, their facility.
So you know my hotel was fullof evacuees from that area of
(20:39):
Southern California, not LA, andyou know as well, with a lot of
firefighters in there.
You know non-local firefightersstaying in the hotel.
So it was kind of interestingto be there, kind of on the
periphery, not involved in thefires per se, but in and around
people who were going through orinvolved in that, and getting
(20:59):
to see that with my own eyes.
I'm always so grateful when Iget to go blessed, to get to go
help fellow Christians deal withprotecting their people and
their organization, whether it'sthrough active shooter training
or hardening their facilitywith a security site assessment
(21:24):
or authoring crisis managementplans, emergency action plans,
emergency operation plans,whatever you want to call them
all hazards plans.
And while I was in town, I gotto hang out, did a four-hour
lunch with an amazing friend ofmine from my past where, when we
(21:46):
knew each other, neither of uswere saved saved.
I get saved at 37.
He gets saved at 30.
And now we're both, you know,very active Christians, and so
(22:06):
that was great to get togetherand to share an evening and
share a meal and to shareexperiences and testimonies, et
cetera, because he was a diehardatheist as well.
Oh, I think I just saw Brandy.
Come on, brandy, good to seeyou.
Strength and honor.
Strength and honor, strengthand honor.
(22:31):
So I went there and got myburrito fix.
I swear, the whole time I wasthere I had, uh, three carne
asada burritos a day.
I was there because I can't geta good burrito anywhere east of
california, anywhere outside ofcalifornia.
Even in texas, I couldn't finda good burrito.
So carne asada burrito withextra guacamole, no rice, no
(22:54):
beans, no, nothing, it wasamazing, so anyways.
So, steve, I understand yourlack of desire to do the forging
while on the road.
I mean my workouts.
The fitness aspect of myforging has been the worst of
any launch.
(23:15):
Yet you know I get to hit thegym.
Today.
My diet is cleaned up.
You know I'm not doing 100%carnivore, we're doing like a
paleo low-carb.
You know paleo-keto kind ofthing, you know.
But we're going to eat fruit.
You know just nothing.
(23:36):
You know we're trying to keepthe starches and the pasta and
all the other stuff to a minimum.
But, um, yeah, man, you knowalso, while traveling, that's
what my body like you guys youknow.
Trying to do fitness on the road, having a knee replacement and
(23:57):
sitting in a car for hours or aplane for hours and hours, and
hours, is rough.
You know, I've got a bad backfrom a horrible parachute
landing where I hit the ground,a parachuting accident.
I hit the ground doing about 70miles an hour and I've never
been the same.
Hit the ground.
Parachute accident.
I hit the ground doing about 70miles an hour and I've never
(24:18):
been the same.
But, um, you know, stayingfunctional and trying not to
become totally broken whenyou're on the road, you know is
has become a challenge.
Now I got things that work forme.
I've learned that if I takemuscle relaxants when I'm lying
in hotel beds um, good to hearSteve put that up on the screen.
(24:40):
So you know, I find that if Itake muscle relaxants that my
back does not tend to go intospasms as much in a hotel, even
after sleeping on some prettyhard beds, and then some
(25:03):
stretching around, doing somewalking, really helps my knee
and the rest of me go.
So taking extremely hot showersreally helps as well.
And then, you know, having youranti-inflammatories, vitamins,
all those other things that youtake really can help.
So anyways that I understandthe whole aspect of doing
(25:29):
fitness on the road.
There are some guys like therock and these other guys who
get up at like two in themorning to work out, and all
those stuff.
I still haven't recouped mysleep from my knee replacement.
I'm just starting to finallyget some sleep.
You know, um, for those of youout there who are considering
getting a knee replacement, justunderstand you're not going to
(25:50):
sleep well for at least a month.
I'm going on way past that bythe three-month mark.
I am starting to get some rest,which is good, and I'm off all
pain meds.
I'm not even on typically onany inflammatories.
I took some anti-inflammatories, like I said, on the road.
I took some today, but minimal,minimal.
(26:12):
Road.
I took some today, but minimal,minimal.
So Brandy said Christ Forge isthe hardest thing I am doing.
It is a very hard thing, butbeing a Christian is a very hard
thing.
You know, when you're doing itright, dying to yourself is very
painful and it is against theway the world is.
(26:35):
So you know, trying to hold allaspects of your life
accountable.
You know I don't expect you.
I mean, if you're, you'resuperhuman, if you can do great
in faith, family, fitness,financials and fundamentals and
financials, you're superhuman.
(26:58):
You're going to do better atsome times and you're going to.
You know one of the things thatI really struggle with being a
CEO and an A-type personality.
If I couldn't do something 10out of 10, I didn't want to do
it.
I didn't want to do it, Iwanted to do it at a high level
and and and I would let perfectget in the way of good and
wouldn't do anything because itwasn't going to be perfect.
(27:18):
So you know, with like doingthis, forging and not being able
to work out as much for beingon the road and having some
challenges and all these things,um, just cleaning up my diet
made a difference, just tryingto make sure I get enough sleep
and to try to stay out of a backattack, or, you know, my
(27:39):
shoulder was getting reallycrazy hurt, but today I was able
to, you know, do some goodworkout in the gym.
Today I'm still staying really,really light for me, but
progress right.
So my point is in the fivefundamentals.
Any progress forward is betterthan not moving or worse, going
(28:07):
backwards.
Right, some days you're goingto be able to take five steps
forward.
Right, and that's great.
Let's say you got all fivefundamentals and you got all
five forward, and that's great.
Let's say, you got all fivefundamentals and you got all
five.
Four, and that's great.
Some days you're only going toget three.
Some days you may only get one,but you're still moving forward
.
All right, you know.
And if you want to say you know,if you want to even break it
down even further, let's say youknow you could do.
(28:29):
You know three levels of things, right, you could really crush.
You know fitness and you didyour steps for the day.
Right, you know your 10,000steps for the day.
You did your workout and yourdiet was great, right.
So we'll say that's three outof three for that day.
Even if you just did one thingthe steps or the diet you did
(28:53):
two out of three.
And you move the ball forward.
All, right and just.
And all you guys out there wholove food, if you work out,
that's one, you get your steps,that's two, we'll say.
And then you eat like crap.
Well, that's minus one, right,so now you're back to only one
(29:14):
step forward instead of two,right.
So that's why you can see howsome guys can advance really
quickly because they're doingall three steps and then others
not so much.
So again, don't let a perfectget in the way of progress.
Any forward momentum,particularly in the beginning,
(29:35):
is good, particularly if you'recoming from a um, a
deconditioned body, one that'sgot a ton of injuries, like
craziness about in San Diego.
You know my knees killing mebecause I did a long drive down,
got on a plane, did you knowwhatever East to West coast
flight, um, another drive, andI'm there and now my ankle is
(30:00):
hurting.
It's like what the heck isgoing on.
You know, I'm there, I'mwalking around and do stuff and
I'm gimping around, I'm going upand down stairs, I'm going to
take one step at a timedownstairs and I take one step
at a time, you know, and it's.
You know who understands.
You know that, hey, you pick upsome bumps and in some
imperfections, and some scarsand some bruises when you serve
(30:20):
your country for a long time andyou're doing that and it's fine
.
But you know, it's just.
You know, when you haveconditions like a knee
replacement or a bad back orwhatever it is, and then all of
a sudden you get like it feelslike an ice pick is in your
ankle out of nowhere, you know,and that's because body is not
used to limping and gimping somuch.
(30:41):
So, again, getting mobile andmoving forward in that is
important.
Same thing goes in all of them.
Some days you're going to beable to read four chapters of
the Bible.
Like I say, some days you'regoing to be able to do an old, a
new, a proverb and a psalm, andother days you might only just
(31:02):
get one chapter done.
Some days you might not evenget in your Bible and you just
might have to pray.
You just didn't have the time,you didn't there and you just
need to spend more time inprayer, and that's fine, right?
The thing is to do something,connect with God in some way
every day.
Don't be like, oh man, I'm justgoing to pass this to him.
(31:25):
No, no, pray, pray, pray, pray.
Okay, you know, that is key,you know?
And then in family, sometimesyou get to have 10 out of 10
experiences.
You get to go on a date nightwith your wife and you get to
(31:47):
have.
You get a babysitter and time.
You get a babysitter and time.
The day where Lauren and I canvanish for a weekend is going to
be an amazing day for me.
I miss just having my wife tomyself.
I absolutely adore her in everyway and want to spoil her in
(32:09):
every way.
Want to spoil her in every way.
And right now, with three youngkids, a farm, a hungry business
and everything else going on inher life.
That's just not a reality rightnow.
So sometimes it's an hour, ahalf hour that I just get to
(32:32):
talk to her.
You know we get.
Sometimes the kids might sleepin and we'll get an
uninterrupted cup of coffee holysmokes.
You know, don't, don't, don't,don't.
Not get those moments becausethey're not perfect, because
(32:52):
you're not at a table drinkingwine dressed to the T.
You know, whatever Sometimesdirty sweats, unshowered, stinky
, but available is the bestyou're going to get and you're
going to regret if you don'twake.
You know if, if you didn't, ifGod forbid anything should ever
(33:15):
happen and you didn't take amoment to reconnect.
Now I came back and you knowconfession, you know you're back
for four, you're gone for fourdays.
When you're out of theenvironment is way different
than the people who stayed inthe environment right, different
than the people who stayed inthe environment Right.
When you're the one who leftand came back, you tend to like,
(33:36):
even though you know there arethings I enjoy about traveling
Flying is not one of them.
You know restaurants, friends,but traveling without Lauren
just reminds me all those timeswhere I was in the military,
going around the world and I hadno one to share that mountain
(33:57):
view with or that amazing cafewith.
So you know, I'm on the roadand I'm missing my family, my
family's together and when youcome back into that environment
you want to feel missed.
You know, right now one of mydaughters is really into me and
(34:18):
one of my daughters not so much.
She's just at a different stageof development.
She's a five and a half yearold and my three year old is all
about me.
I mean, she's become my wingmanand just about everything.
And you know, and I've beenhome and she's, she's 100% been
(34:38):
on my heels the whole way andI've been taking that
opportunity to pour into herRight, um, and then I get brief
spurts with the other one.
I mean it's not awkward, it'snot, she's not unkind or
whatever.
She doesn't seek me out as muchas the three-year-old does, you
(34:59):
know.
And so, again, it's making dowith what you've got and keeping
the ball moving forward infamily, with relationships.
And my mom I came home and mymom and at times have had very
estranged relationships.
We had a big discussion not toolong ago, everything on the
table again, and I'm movingforward and, you know, came home
(35:22):
and got a hug and there's aconnection and you know, and and
that has been fantastic, um,moving the ball forward on that.
Did I get a hundred yards onthat one?
No, I've got three and a halfyards.
Right, with my three-year-old,I got a touchdown, you know,
with my wife, I got a field goaland with my daughter my other
(35:50):
daughter, daughter I got.
Well, I'm probably going tofield goal with her too.
Okay, so maybe I got a firstdown with my mom, right,
football analogy, those of youout there who don't know Right,
so, so again, it's all aboutkeeping the ball moving down the
field, not going backwards andnot just staying there.
(36:12):
Don't let perfect, get in theway of good enough progress, all
right.
And the other thing I wanted totalk about today was, you know,
is what to do with all thisgood news.
Right, I have become addictedto the good news out there.
(36:32):
Right, I have become addictedto the good news out there.
You know, since Trump has takenoffice, I no longer wake up the
morning and morning to see ifwe're going to be in war or what
calamity has just happened.
I wake up to see how we'regoing to be winning.
You know, and um, it issupremely uplifting to be able
(36:57):
to turn on the news and brandyhas way more confidence in me
than I have in myself.
Jason, are you and lauren goingto make right, a trident shield
, christ forge type of bible oneof these days?
We may make a devotional.
Um, if I found it to be helpfulas we continue authoring
(37:22):
content and and running forgingshere and doing men's groups
here and and continuing toevolve our ministry, um, there
definitely will be some type ofthings.
I mean, we already do activeshooter training, we already do
(37:44):
firearms training, we already do, you know, a ton of different
things here, and we already do adiscipling type of training
here called the forging uhweekend forging um.
So it's possible we may getthere.
Um, it's really just abandwidth issue right now,
whereas I need to throw as muchtime and resources as I can at
(38:05):
Trident Shield because that paysthe bills.
I mean, that's what pays thebills and the bills need to be
paid, and you know we're diggingourselves out of a massive hole
.
Like you guys, you know wesuffered a horrible downturn
with COVID, running an activeshooter security consulting
(38:25):
training business.
During COVID we took a 90% lossto revenue for multiple years
because no workplace, noworkplace violence.
No school, no school violenceto prepare for Everyone was out.
So we were out of a job and weracked up a ton of debt during
(38:48):
that time, just like mostbusinesses that are still around
, many folded.
So it's going to take us stilla while to get out of this, but
you know God is blessing us.
We are doing great.
We are doing exactly what wewant to do.
(39:11):
We are helping the body ofChrist become good shepherds and
protecting their flock.
Can't think of a better thingthan that, can't?
It's an amazing, amazingcalling and job and I'm blessed
to do it, blessed to do it.
But you know, getting up andwatching all this good news.
(39:34):
It's good food for the soul,particularly because we're not
used to that right.
We're used to, you know, trumpbeing attacked for four years
while he was there, investigatedall these things.
While he was there,investigated all these things.
Steve says devotional would begreat.
You're a good writer with a lotof stories to share.
(39:55):
Thanks, man.
I appreciate your confidence.
Maybe someday I'd have toorganize those thoughts, but so
we'll see.
Organize those thoughts, we'llsee.
Growing this community, thisforging community that we're
(40:16):
doing right now.
That is what I need to focus onHelping you guys do your own,
helping you grow in those fivepillars of your life the faith,
family, fitness, fundamentalsand finances.
That is key in holding youaccountable and helping you in
(40:37):
your relationships and helpingyou with your walk with the Lord
.
That is what I do, helping youtactically as well.
What I do, helping youtactically as well For those who
want to become preppers andwant to be responsible and want
to know how to defend themselvesand their families and those
they care about.
(41:05):
So, so, so, watching all thisnews, enjoy it while you have it
, but the thing is is you havethe wind at your back.
Don't drop anchor right now anddo nothing and don't just coast
(41:28):
.
Now's the time, while you'renot being bombarded with bad
news and with obstructionistgovernment, to really take some
ground for the Lord in your life, to hit the gas, to expand, you
(41:53):
know, to start investing inpeople.
Maybe invest in anotherbusiness, keep prepping, keep
growing your skill set.
Don't be like, ah, trump's,fine, we're good because he can
(42:17):
be gone tomorrow.
Guys, I don't know what theworld would look like if that
happened.
So take in the news, watch it,you know.
So take in the news, watch it.
You know watching pete, petehegseth get confirmed while two
moon bats, murkowski and collins, voted against him.
(42:38):
Of course the, the troll turtle, the deep state troll turtle,
um McConnell, you know um votedagainst him as well.
All those people should beretired, all of them.
(43:03):
So Tulsi Gabbard was confirmedtoday.
Marco Rubio, I mean, it's justso uplifting for once to be
winning like this.
Just don't let that becomecomplacency for you.
Use it as fuel and accelerant,right.
(43:29):
Use it as an accelerant to keepmoving forward in your forging
and bring others on board.
There are going to be peopleout there who are going to be
open to our way of life asthings get better.
(43:53):
You know it's crazy.
For a time, when I was goingthrough Bud's training and you
know I was just out inCalifornia, like I said, there's
nowhere else in the world Iwanted to live in other than
California.
And while I was out inCalifornia I said there's
nowhere else in the world Iwanted to live in other than
California.
And while I was out inCalifornia I was in the only
place in America that had goodweather.
It was like 70, 75 and sunny.
(44:14):
Everywhere else was likefreezing, cold and miserable,
even like.
While I was gone, florida gotsnow, louisiana got snow.
It was ice cold.
Here my neighbor's house burntdown like this, like directly on
the next to our property, inthe back um craziness.
(44:35):
And there I am in california,which so many people live in,
and I wanted no part of it.
All I could smell again wasexhaust from all the vehicles.
It's brown and concrete andugly.
It was a nice to be in a placewhere there was a every
(45:02):
restaurant, a variation of arestaurant you could ever
imagine.
Good food everywhere, greatservices everywhere.
You know ultra conveniences.
Prices were out of control, outof control, gas, insane.
And it was just.
(45:23):
Let me know again Tennessee man, I'm so thankful for Tennessee
Smell of honeysuckle andeverything else in my backyard
Smell of clean mountain air,compared to Florida, which
smelled like you were sucking ona tailpipe as well.
California, same thing.
(45:46):
Anywhere where you got millionsand millions of taxes.
Same thing here.
None of that, none of it.
Last thing I wanted to talkabout today, where you should be
(46:07):
moving to in 2025.
Now I've gone long and hard atpeople for not moving when you
had the best economy and housingmarket ever, and everyone who
was slow and didn't move and wastoo choosy and too picky is
(46:29):
stuck exactly where they were.
They move nowhere.
They talk about it for years,they daydream and they go
nowhere.
Trump's presidency, you havefour years to get this to get
out of there before the next,because we don't know what's
coming.
You don't know what's coming,but if I was you, where I would
(46:53):
go?
I would look at Tennessee.
I think North Carolina isactually safe as well, south
Carolina.
So places I like here are, youknow, the Northeast Tennessee.
Chattanooga is another area Iwould look at.
So here between here andknoxville, right johnson city,
(47:13):
tennessee and knoxville, um, sothe northern northeast corner,
um, I would also look at WesternNorth Carolina.
Northwest North Carolina issome of a beautiful country, so
Blowing Rock Boone is tooliberal.
Mountain City, tennessee isstill one of the hot spots that
(47:36):
I would look at where realestate is still relatively
affordable.
You have a ton of amenities inBoone that you can shop at if
you don't mind dealing with someDemocrats over there, some
crazy liberals from AppalachianState, or you can make the drive
and shop in Johnson City,tennessee, which we know a lot
(47:58):
of people who do that.
If you want snowy weather andmore seasons, I would look at
Idaho.
Joseph Gathicolson, you movedno, you moved to Alaska, didn't
(48:19):
you?
You're in Alaska.
You're in Maine and moved toAlaska.
I wouldn't recommend Alaska,even though it's something
that's on my heart to go outthere to live in the great
(48:43):
outdoors and all that stuff.
I don't think it's nearly asconservative as the state as
Tennessee is.
I mean Tennessee.
I can't say enough about it.
Your taxes are low, right, youdon't pay for abortions here.
There's no trans garbagedollars going to trans garbage
(49:07):
here.
It's still really affordablecompared to everywhere else in
the country, um, but they're.
The services here are going tosuck, just like they suck in
alaska.
After seeing some joseph stuffthings here, I wouldn't want to
have a count on the governmentto help me to educate a special
needs child here.
You know, being dependent onthe government for anything is
(49:41):
never a win situation.
Never, ever, ever.
You're always going to get theworst of the worst.
You have to achieve enough tobe able to improve your family's
life, which is challenging.
The Bible says he who does notprovide for his family is worse
(50:03):
than an infidel, worse than anunbeliever which, trust me, when
you get laid off or let go andyou're struggling to provide, it
(50:28):
becomes a five alarm fire man.
Five alarm fire on your soul.
You got to prioritize that witheverything you can Now.
(50:50):
North Carolina, great Greenville, south Carolina, is a booming
town that we almost considerit's just so hot in the summer.
So Greenville, south Carolina,is exploding.
It's doing very well.
It's got an airport.
It's one of the cheapestairports to fly out of in this
region.
That's the one I typically flyout of when I'm trying to save
(51:11):
money.
It's about two hours.
For me it's greenville,spartanburg.
Greenville's nicer thanspartanburg, um.
And then you get, liketravelers, rest, which is of
that which is still in themountains, which is a little bit
cooler.
We didn't see a lot of acreagewhen we were trying to buy there
(51:33):
.
Again, I think that city's beenblown up for a while.
In fact, if you're driving on 26and you're going from North
Carolina to Tennessee, you'regoing to notice something that
North Carolina is much nicer.
There's it's, there's morepeople there.
(51:54):
The towns typically are nicerbecause there's more money and
there's way more people there.
The mountains are all you know.
You can't.
There's no green on themountains because they're all
full of houses and then youdescend into Tennessee and it's
nothing but opportunity.
But it can be dumpy.
It's definitely not nice house,nice house, nice house, nice
(52:15):
house, nice house.
It's nice house, okay House,trailer trailer.
Nice house, okay, house,trailer, nice house, trailer,
nice house, you know, and peoplewho are used to older, more
(52:36):
established neighborhoods, whereit's been gentrified for 100
years are going to struggle withit.
There are towns and parts oftowns that are newer
neighborhoods or where the oldmoney was, and you'll find what
you're more used to like, say,in Virginia.
But Tennessee still is full ofopportunity for people who are
(53:00):
not rich, who want to come downhere and have a house and maybe
some land.
Not as much as when I came downhere four years ago and I put
my money where my mouth was andI bought a house sight unseen
(53:25):
and we got 44 acres and a brickranch that has turned out to be
a gem.
Lord blessed us, lord blessedour obedience, so I would look
(53:48):
at those places.
I would avoid texas witheverything I had.
Politics in texas are greatmostly, but it is not a preppers
area in the slightest.
An unnatural environment mightas well be the surface of Mars.
It's dry.
If anything happens, they'regoing to be Mad Max, because
(54:12):
there's too many people in anarea that can't sustain any
population without every belland whistle that technology has
to offer.
Farming is very hard work,joseph.
It really is.
We don't necessarily farm right.
We raise animals here, so weraise cattle.
We raise, we have dairy meat orbeef cattle, we have pork, as
(54:39):
in hogs, and we have chickens,turkeys and ducks and we've
grown a garden okay, anormal-sized garden, and we've
done a massive load of potatoes.
Before no Texas had a bunch ofCalifornia, empty into it,
(55:02):
brandy, and again, you know,texas has a lot of um, a lot of
restaurants, a lot ofconvenience, a lot of everything
you want.
If you want to live in an uglyplace it's pretty ugly other
than probably like Austin drovearound there, try.
I wanted to move to Texas witheverything in my body.
I went there at, hadopportunities there, I drove
(55:22):
around and I could not like it.
I'm like this place is too darnugly.
Went all over northern dallasand the hills over there
grapevine, flower mound andbeyond and I'm like, nope,
(55:42):
garland, garland.
Now I hear Austin's beautiful,but Austin's all liberal and if
you stay in a blue state.
(56:05):
It's just a matter of time Untilthey come.
For you, man, it's just amatter of time.
I mean, look at what happenedin Canada Neighbors were
snitching on Neighbors forhaving people over On the
holidays.
That's what socialism does, youknow?
(56:30):
I still have family that livesin Massachusetts and I beg them
to get out all the time, butthey're too lazy Lazy, what I
know is too lazy to move.
Either it's important to youand you make it happen or you
don't.
You want everything to line upthe sun, the moon, the stars.
You're never going to movebecause it's never going to line
(56:51):
up.
Perfect, it didn't line up,perfect for us here.
We just had to jump.
Not everyone has the courage todo that.
It's tough.
West Virginia is a place that Iwould look at.
(57:15):
I don't see that.
It's not as red as it appearsto be voting wise.
It looks as red as possible,but they still have 75 years of
Democrat rule or more, wherethey have laws and taxes and a
bunch of Northern West Virginia.
Northeast West Virginia is fullof a ton of DC elites elites.
(57:40):
So again, you're dealing with alot of a lot of Democrat policy
and a lot of anti-business,anti-growth agenda there.
But it is beautiful and thereis opportunity and there is land
there and it is a good preppingplace.
Virginia, southern Virginia, isabsolutely gorgeous.
(58:06):
It's as nice as anywhere inTennessee.
It's as nice as anywhere inNorth Carolina.
I don't trust Virginia to stayred in the slightest.
I was living in Virginia and weleft.
I was living in Virginia and weleft.
(58:29):
Now, as Trump decentralizes DCand you know, maybe he's able to
get rid of K Street and get ridof all the government agencies
that are so full there thatoverload Nova.
He's going to be so full therethat overload Nova.
He's going to be maybe able toflip Virginia red, depending on
(58:54):
how many go and who goes where.
But then you're exporting bluevotes to red states.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to work, but
geographically it could work.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to work, but
geographically it could work.
I just don't trust Virginia tostay that way and your tax
dollars still go to abortion andeverything else, whereas here
and I think Texas, they don'tFlorida, florida, northern
(59:19):
Florida, maybe Florida is sodarn hot, it's so flat, let's
face it.
If you're not on the beach it'sawful Hot, humid, flat rain all
the time.
Great growing season forprepping.
North Dakota, south Dakota,montana those are North Dakota,
(59:49):
south Dakota, montana are placesI'd look at.
Again, more expensive Wyomingit's hard to get in and get out
of, but I'd look at that as well.
Again, very expensive in thenice places.
Again, very expensive in thenice places.
(01:00:16):
Northern Alabama has some keyopportunity places that we saw
where it was pretty mountainouson the northern tip of Alabama,
warmer than it is where we are,but you can still get mountains
in Alabama.
Who would have thought, right,that's the southern side of the
Smokies.
North Georgia is anotherlocation where that's mountains,
(01:00:38):
where you have the Smokies thatyou go to.
But it's Georgia.
They've gone blue at times.
I would avoid Maine, I'd avoidNew Hampshire, unless you had to
(01:01:00):
stay in the Northeast.
Then those are options, but Idon't trust any of them.
They all want blue.
They'll be blue forever.
So Lawrence said it best hereBasically, tennessee is the best
(01:01:21):
option.
So come join us everybody.
Exactly, exactly that's all Iwanted to talk about tonight.
Basically, tennessee is thebest option.
So come join us everybody.
Exactly, exactly that's all Iwanted to talk about tonight,
and I want to go get some timewith my missus, so I'm going to
pray us out, we'll wrap it upand we'll call it a night and
I'll see you tomorrow for church.
So, heavenly father, lord, wethank you for this group.
We thank you for the people whotook the time spend.
(01:01:45):
We thank you for this group.
We thank you for the people whotook the time, spent time with
us, and the people who listen tous now, who watch us now or
later, online or on a podcastplatform.
We're so thankful for everybodywho invests in us and us with
them.
Come alongside us and fightwith us and pray with us and
help us get through this time.
And fight with us and pray withus and help us get through this
(01:02:06):
time.
Lord, it's so easy to get caughtup in the world and to spend
one hour on a Friday, saturdaynight talking about you and
things about you and trying towalk out a godly worldview with
your family and how to raiseyour family in a godly way, to
make it all about you is theleast we can do and we're happy
(01:02:29):
to do it.
But I pray that you blesseveryone and you put upon their
hearts where you want them to goand help them move there and
show them.
It does require faith, that itdoes require intestinal
fortitude, and then you can'twait for every I to be crossed
or every I to be dotted andevery T to be crossed.
(01:02:49):
That's not how you work, lord.
We must have faith.
I also pray that everyone wouldnot be distracted by all the
good news and stop makingprogress in their own life and
stop pushing the envelope andget comfortable.
(01:03:10):
Lord, comfort is the enemyforging right now.
Whether they're strugglingfinancially or struggling with
their fitness, or they don'thave a lot of skills, or they're
having trouble with theirfamily members or loved ones, or
(01:03:32):
they're struggling to get inyour word, I pray that you would
meet them at that point ofcontact, lord.
You would drive them to bebetter in all aspects to
surrender all their life to you.
So now I pray a prayer ofblessing and peace for this
(01:03:56):
fellowship, for the persecutedchurch, for our troops overseas.
Our first responders at homeare veterans of yesteryear.
I pray the whole world would notgo into World War III and I
pray for President Trump, forall of our leaders.
You would protect them and thatyou would drive them, lord, to
(01:04:17):
do your will, your will alone.
Lastly, I pray for America.
Pray that she would humbleherself, turn from her sin in
her knees, seek your face andyou would see her and heal her.
We could once again be onenation under god, indivisible
liberty and justice for all.
And I pray then.
(01:04:39):
Now pray that this congregationwould come to attention to put
on the full armor of God.
Strap on the shield of faith,pick up the sword of the Spirit,
boldly walk forward to join theshield wall Locking shields to
the left and right.
We march forward to take groundfor your kingdom, for your
(01:05:00):
glory forever.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
God bless you everyone.
I will see you tomorrow atchurch, 11 am Eastern Time.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.