November 14, 2025 • 56 mins
Pastors' Perspective is a one-hour call-in program where listeners can call in and get answers to questions about the Bible, Christianity, family, and life. The program is live Monday through Friday from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Pacific. You can call 888-564-6173 to ask your questions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello and welcome to Pastor's Perspective. It's karaoke day here today,
so if you call in.
Brian Broderson might just sing you a song. No, he
only has one song. He only has one song. He
only has one song, and I was surprised to realize
he knew the lyrics.
But he does and he can even do the voice
and it was a big hit, you know, back in
(00:39):
the day. It was, uh, so of course I know
the lyrics. I don't know the title, but I know that.
I think the title is Under the Under the Sea
so this is all for for you who are listening.
This is all because last Saturday afternoon we went and
saw our granddaughter and the rest of the ensemble uh
(00:59):
from Cavi Chapel High School drama team put on.
Uh, The Little Mermaid Little Mermaid and Brian was very,
very impressed with the whole production. It was really, really,
really well done. I was talking to, um, one girl
and she was telling me that she was, um.
(01:22):
She was one of the princesses and I said I
was shocked at how great your harmony was and how
you guys were just right on key and she said
I was one of those doing harmony and I'm like
that was amazing so it really was it was a
great drama production so good and the singing was extraordinary
and the choreography was excellent but speaking of drama productions, um,
(01:46):
the Christmas coffee, which is December 6th, the women's Christmas coffee.
Well, that'll be drama for sure. It'll be so fun.
It's the God who has a name and we're having,
oh yes, Carmen, Carmen Imes, yeah, and she is just,
that's the book that she wrote, right? She's a professor
at Viola. She's just absolutely amazing. I had her, I
(02:06):
interviewed her on Women Worth Knowing and she's been on
pastor's perspective, but now is the time that you can
buy those tickets. Uh, you can buy them online.
Um, Christmas coffee, I think you just go to Calvary
Chapel.com and go to women's events or chapel. I'm sorry, CCCM.com. Yes, well,
(02:27):
I went to women.ccm.com and there it is. That's where
I found God who has a name.
Very cool. And that's December 5th or 6th. What's the date? 6th,
a Saturday. Very good. So yeah, get your tickets so
that you know if someone works during the week or
we had a lot of teachers who want to come
and they were like, could you do it on a Saturday?
(02:48):
Or yes we can. Of course I'm not doing it.
I get to go this year. I have the pleasure
of just going and enjoying, which will be really nice.
It's so good. I haven't experienced much of that and
now I get to, so that's been a real.
That's been a real treat. It might be hard for
you to, after years of leading it for you to
just sit there and you might want to say, no, wait,
(03:10):
you forgot to do this. It's like, Oh wait, it's
not mine anymore. I didn't actually ever lead it. I'm, no, I,
there were always, we always had committees and we always
had somebody who kind of took charge. I think they
kind of realized that my administration skills, uh, I get distracted.
So my administration skills can
Be easily distracted so that I omit or forget because
(03:34):
I've talked to somebody and they have such an amazing
story and then I'm thinking, oh, you should be on
Women Worth knowing this story is so fantastic and I
love interacting with people that's one of my favorite things
and I get to do a lot of that at
the Christmas coffee and probably more this year. Also, not
only do you have a program.
But they also have an incredible boutique with a lot
(03:57):
of homemade items and in the gym and so there
will be jewelry, candles, uh, the sewing clutches there and
they always have such fun items and all donations that
they receive go to um.
Go to facilitate blankets for the homeless, um.
(04:20):
Uh, children's clothes for Africa, uh.
Orphanages as well as um some orphanages in the Philippines
so it's really worth um going seeing and I promise
you'll enjoy it. So one year they had baby clothes
they had a baby clothes.
(04:40):
Um, kiosk, but I didn't have any grandbabies at the time, right?
And now I have, we do, we have one. We
have a perfect, perfect little one, little princess, a little princess. Um, OK,
let me, as opposed to Little Mermaid mention, yes, so
it was last week sometime, um, you know, when I
(05:03):
got back from England and I talked about, you know,
the festival that we do there and we talked about
kind of we're in a, in a crisis.
And so we did a crowdfunding thing and we um
we reached our goal.
Um, this morning, which was so absolutely amazing. So I
(05:25):
want to thank anyone and everyone who contributed in any
way and uh for those who prayed for this, I
am just really, really thankful. I mean, it was a
kind of a week of a lot of prayer, fasting,
and just, you know, looking to the Lord and saying, Lord,
(05:47):
you know, is
Is it your will? Is it, you know, your, your
plan for us to, to at least do 2025 or 2026.
And so we had a minimum amount that we had
to raise in order to just commit to 2026. So we,
so we reached that amount, and we will see where
we go beyond 2026. But we're, we have
(06:09):
All the confidence right now that OK the Lord's with
us for one of the greatest things about the the
crowd funding was um all the young people that actually
made um little videos and to find out how Jesus
met them at creation fest, the testimonies, I mean, um,
some are Christian kids that said, you know, they had
(06:30):
no passion for Jesus, they weren't really interested and their
parents were taking in this event.
And how their lives were upended and they encountered Jesus
and there were others who talked about not knowing the
Lord at all happening to go in there and just
amazing and a lot of people who live in the
Cornwall area also donated because they love um what that
(06:53):
festival does for all of.
Cornwall, um, it's just amazing in Devon. There were some Devon, Devon,
there were some Devonshires talking about it too, yeah, so anyway, um,
thank you to everyone who prayed for that, and you
can keep praying because we wanna, and you can keep
giving too. I was gonna say yes, you can keep
donating festival, yeah, I don't, I don't know, um, when, uh.
(07:15):
Yeah, I think Sunday will be the, the final day. So,
but it's been great. So go to creationfest.uk.org.uk. Oh well,
that's a, that just says .uk, I guess they both work.
I don't know. Oh, OK. Look at that. I mean, that's, yeah,
that's a new URL because it's always been.
Either do.org or or uh creationfest.co.uk but this is even better,
(07:43):
simple creationfest.uk. Cool. Alright, 888-564-6173. Let's begin with a question
that was sent in online. This is from Ashley in
Oceanside who writes, this question is in regards to who.
Christians should associate with. As I understand, we as Christians
are not to separate ourselves entirely among people who do
(08:04):
not believe because Jesus sat among sinners. However, in 2 Timothy,
Paul gives us a list of characteristics of people to
have nothing to do with, like lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, etc. So would you please elaborate on this?
I think that what he's saying in Timothy is just
the prevailing attitudes of the last day, you know, he
(08:24):
calls them perilous times because these are some of the
pervasive attitudes, but I, I think um in Galatians, Paul's
isn't it in Galatians where Paul says if anyone calls
himself a brother but has these kind of Corinthians 1 Corinthians,
that's it 65 and 6, yeah 55 and 6. I
was thinking about those who will not inherit the kingdom
of God, but go ahead.
(08:46):
Well, actually, the Timothy Passage is the same. The Timothy
Passage is it's people, the, the people that Paul's referring
to there are people who profess to be believers, but
live in this way. So it's essentially saying the same
thing that he's saying to the Corinthians, you know, for people,
because he, he says about them, they have a form
(09:07):
of godliness, but they deny the power of it.
And so they, they appear, they have an outward appearance or,
you know, they go to church or whatever the case
might be. Somehow they're identifying with the, you know, with
the Christian community, but they're living contrary to what scripture says.
And that's those are the ones that Paul and Paul
(09:28):
is really in talking to Timothy there, he's, he's really
even more specifically talking about false teachers.
I think you've got the same thing in the in
Jude also where he says you know even though they're
feasting with you at your love feast um they're they're
just uh you know I think what you have is
(09:49):
what do they call it a cat among the pigeons
or you know a wolf among the sheep and I
think Paul is saying you know beware these type of
people that come in and they're there just to fill
their appetite rather than to um.
Really walk with Jesus and I think that's what he's
saying so um.
(10:10):
I think we're still supposed to be evangelistic and I
think that yes there's you know an opportunity to share
with others you know OK Brian, you're gonna have to
help me with this passage because he says I'm not
talking about those um outside because then we'd have to
go outside of this world that's the Corinthians Corinthians, but
if anyone calls himself a brother, so in other words,
(10:32):
Paul's saying we're still going to interact with this world
and we need to, you know, one of the things
I want to say this about the um.
Growing up in the during the time of what we
call the Jesus revolution, it was so exciting and everybody said,
I want to use my talents to serve the Lord. I,
I just want to use whatever I had. So if
(10:53):
you need your haircut, you could go to a Christian
salon and have a Christian do your hair. If you, uh,
there were even like Christian restaurants you could go to
to eat and there were.
Um, you know, Christian, um, what, uh, produce places you
could go and so the idea was like, well, we
want to help Christians and there were, um, Christian, um,
(11:15):
builders that you would go to those Christian builders and, um.
Not everyone who claimed to be Christian and had a
business was actually Christian, but they capitalized on that, uh, well,
I know some carpet layers and so they capitalized on
this to get the business, but they knew the naivety
(11:36):
or the kindness and the love of certain Christians and
so they took advantage. But my real point is this.
I feel like the church kind of withdrew from the
world and the church has a tendency to do this
um throughout different ages in history where they withdraw from
the world so much that they're no longer an influence
(12:00):
on nonbelievers they're no longer evangelistic and I think about how.
Um, when art and some of the great works of
art in the Middle Ages were, uh, so had such
uh Christian overtones and biblical themes and then all of
a sudden it seemed like the Christians withdrew completely from
(12:21):
the art world and from the arts altogether and so
then it was almost like there was a a takeover
by the enemy and it it just it it.
You couldn't even think of a Christian painter or and
and the same thing with the writers, they started just
writing all these, you know, only Christian books that only
(12:43):
appealed to Christians instead of books that would um appeal
to everybody and then yet have that um witness in
them and so I think it's very important that we
continue to seek to be evangelistic and a witness to
people in these in.
In this world and you know if if we stop
going to Christian, I mean stop.
(13:06):
Um, you know, only going to Christian clothing stores, only
going to Christian hair salons. I mean, I love giving
business to those who are outright, you know, like in
and out with the, with the scriptures on their cup,
but we need to make sure that we are proactive
in going to some of these places and intermingling with
(13:30):
unbelievers so they can see our light and come to Jesus. Yeah,
and that.
I was actually going to go right to those passages,
you know, Jesus says, um, he says two things. He says,
you are the salt of the earth and you are
the light of the world. And both of those require, um,
(13:50):
salt in that context. He's talking about salt as a preservative.
And in the ancient world, you know, they would use
salt to preserve, um, yeah, but they, but they would
use it to preserve. The point is the salt had
to come into contact with the, you know, whatever it was, yeah,
the fish, fish, fish, yes, but other meats as well.
(14:13):
But anyway, it had to it had to make contact.
So when Jesus says you're the salt of the earth,
but then flavoring as well, but then you're the light
of the world, of course light is needed when things
are dark.
So you don't go, you know, hide and just turn
on your light for you. Let your light so shine
before men that they will see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven. And again, a city that
(14:35):
is set on a hill set on a hill, and
you know.
So it's so important that we can, we are in
places where we can shine.
That being said, what are we to do when like
national Christian companies or Christian companies, Christian ministries, uh, say
we need to boycott this particular place or this particular
(14:56):
coffee shop or whatever because they are going against our
Christian values.
Yeah, I think you have to pray about those things.
I don't think that, you know, I, I feel like
we make these blanketed policies and blanketed decisions so that
we don't allow people to pray and seek the Lord themselves,
you know, um.
(15:16):
In Proverbs 35 and 6 it says trust in the
Lord with all your heart and do not lean on
your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your paths and I think it's
really important to pray. Sometimes the restrictions that they give
us are, are really impossible to um.
(15:37):
Not drink coffee in the morning. That's horrible, you know,
but they're really, really difficult to carry out and so
I think again when we're withdrawing.
At times like this we're we're condemning sometimes Christians who
work at those places and so I think it's you've
got to be careful about that. I remember a couple
(15:58):
of years ago there were a couple of companies, you know,
that the Christians were saying you shouldn't shop there and
boycott there and I was talking to a young Christian
guy who was coming to church at the time.
And you know, we weren't talking about that at all,
but he just happened to say, yeah, I work at
this place and that he worked at both of the
places that were being boycotted by Christians. I thought, OK,
(16:18):
this is a problem. But, you know, this going back
to the passage that you that you've been referring to
Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, he says this, he says, I,
I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who um,
Well, back up a little bit. He says, I wrote
to you in a letter not to associate with sexually
immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of
(16:40):
this world or the greedy, the swindlers, the idolaters. Otherwise,
you would have to leave the world. And so, you know, and,
and I, you know, of course, we've been around a
long time, so we've seen lots of boycotts come and go.
And I remember a time where it was like,
What can we buy? Yeah, can we go seriously, everything
(17:04):
had some.
Connection to some and some of them were so weird
it was like you don't know there's actually satanic you
know practices and I can't remember the company well actually
I do. I'm not gonna say it but it was
just like are you sure? I mean I know they
make my laundry detergent, but you're saying they do something
where they're, you know, doing the laundry detergent. Remember that
(17:25):
remember the Campbell's Soup Crusade like that Campbell's Soup but
we never did Campbell's Soup anyway so well we always
thought it was satanic anyway.
No, Brian just thought I had MSG in it, so
we couldn't do it. Well, that's satanic. Yeah, so no,
but there was, there was an idea that, you know,
somehow there was like, you know, Campbell's company was satanically,
(17:47):
you know, whatever, yeah, so you have to be really,
really careful, and you know what I think too as believers.
We, we make too big a deal sometimes about what
we're against when what we're, you know, and Brian one
time said this and it was so wise he said,
(18:07):
you know, they do those things because they're ignorant of God.
You know, when you were a sinner, it's because you
were ignorant that there was a God that loved you
and there's so many that are so ignorant that there's
a God that loves them.
And when they find out that there's a God that
loves them they're just like changed they're revolutionized and so
(18:28):
a lot of times people do this because they're empty
and they need God in fact that's why they do
it they're empty and they need God and so I
think they deserve our mercy and our compassion and you
know how can I help you to find Jesus you
know here I am and I know him but again
if we if we would stop broadcasting what we're against.
(18:49):
And we would broadcast what we're for. The Holy Spirit's
the one that comes in and sanctifies and changes people
and um does the, you know, clean up work. Exactly.
Very good. Ashley, thank you for sending in your question
and now let's go to the phones. 888-564-6173 is the
number to call. Jose in Long Beach watching us on YouTube.
(19:11):
Let's wave hi to Jose. What's your question for us today?
Uh, thank you for taking my call.
You're welcome. And uh, my question was, uh, 2 Samuel 24:1, uh,
which says, uh, the Lord stood up against Israel, that
the Lord provoked, uh, David to number the people, right?
(19:36):
Right. And, uh, and we have a first chronicle says
Satan did it, right, right, 21 1. So who, who
was it? Satan.
It well, it was, this is a, this is a
passage that kind of, or, you know. Yeah, it's a
good question. Yeah, but it, but it teaches us something too.
(19:58):
And ultimately it teaches us.
With the kind of lesson that we see in Job
that Satan is restricted. So Satan can't do anything that
God doesn't allow him to do. So when we say,
you know, when we see it says, you know, God,
then what we're talking about there is as far back
as you go, God is sovereign and nothing's out of
(20:21):
his control.
And so God allows Satan, Satan is the, he's the
active agent in the um the temptation, but he couldn't
do that unless God had allowed him to do it.
So that's why we have one reference, uh, telling us
that God did it and the other one telling us
more specifically that it was Satan who did it. And also,
(20:43):
it was a test for David too, you know, whether
he would.
You know, because I think that David again, you know,
he went through these times where he gave into temptation,
and this is a time when he thought, you know, I'm,
I'm getting pretty great. It was out of conceit, you know,
I wanna, I want to know how big the army is.
And even when he said that to his assistant, uh, Joe,
(21:04):
Joe's like, uh, no, no, don't, don't, don't do that.
You know why, why do you even want to know?
And he was captain of the army. Yeah, and actually
by now they'd had quite a bit of trouble because
David had done a few things that.
But I mean if anyone would be for numbering the
army you would think it would be Joab because he
could say yes this is how many but he was
like no no don't do it but it said that
(21:26):
the king's uh word prevailed and so you see that
Job was obedient even though it went against his own
conscience and then and then it's not, it's not too
long before David.
Realizes he's totally convicted like what have I done? right?
And then you've got this incredible thing that God allowed
it I think not for the punishment so much but
(21:49):
so that he could show David and all of Israel
that they needed atonement they needed a place of sacrifice
and so you have this angel that comes and stands
on the uh what do you want to call it
the threshing floor.
Of this uh Jebus site and David sees this angel
(22:10):
standing uh they're holding off the plague and David runs
and offers a sacrifice right there at that place because
he realized it was a a holy place and that
they needed to and that would later become the place
of the the temple and so you see where God
allowed it in that he showed David um how bad
(22:31):
sin was and the consequences of sin and that he needed.
Um, that, that Israel needed a place, uh, for the
sacrifices and atonement, mhm, and you've got to remember too
at this time there was no tabernacle. The tabernacle had
been destroyed by the Philistines. So what you had instead
is you had this tent, they called it the tent
(22:53):
of David, and that's where the Ark of the Covenant
was housed, but it doesn't look like there were sacrifices
during this time, so it's also reinstitution of the sacrifices.
What do you think, Jose?
Yeah, uh, and why was the Lord was angry with Israel?
What was the reason? Well, it, I mean, there's two things. There's,
(23:14):
you know, the, the, you know, when you're reading through
the scriptures and you see, um,
You know, like the kings, for example, I've just been
reading through Kings and Chronicles again and and Samuel, and
you know, you'll have a righteous king and you'll have
a wicked king, and then you'll have a king that's OK,
and then you'll have one that's, you know, bad, but
(23:36):
not too bad. Then you'll have one that's just absolutely horrible. Um,
but also in the background you have the people. And
so sometimes the king, um, is
When the king is wicked, the people go with the wickedness.
When the king is righteous, the people don't necessarily go
(23:57):
with the king. Some do, but, but a lot of
them will just, you know, remain in their rebellion. And
I think that's what's happening here with, um, this time
with David. So, um, David is, you know, he's had
a lot of turmoil in his kingdom at this point,
because of his own sin.
Um, but the people are just basically doing their thing.
(24:19):
So God is, he's gonna, this is going to be
a time of judgment for the people.
Thank you Jose for calling in today to Pastor's Perspective
at 888-564-6173. And now we'll talk to Charlotte in Riverside
who's listening on FM 107.9 K wave. You can call
in to 888-564-6173. Brian and Cheryl Broderson will be here
(24:41):
till 4 o'clock. So Charlotte, what is your question for
us today?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Hi, um, thank you for taking my call. I was
having a conversation with my son. He lives in Virginia
and he's just learning about Christianity, and I tried to
explain this the best I could, but I don't think
I was explaining it correctly. His question was, is he
knows that we're.
Not supposed to um idolize or worship the saints and Mary,
(25:09):
but his question was, why can't we use them as
kind of like you pray to them to ask them
to ask God, kind of like an interpreter, and he
said that.
The problem that he's having understanding is um the intercessions
like 1 Timothy 122 through 1, he's saying that he's
(25:32):
having trouble understanding why he can't do that like the
Catholics do, like what is the difference? If you can
explain
that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, well, he's, he's in the right passage because this
is where the answer to the question is.
And it's the, you know, the, the answer is there in,
in verse 5, where, um, Paul says, you know, he's
talking about interceding and, and so forth, you know, praying
(26:02):
for kings and for people in authority, and, and then
he says, this is good and it pleases God our Savior,
who wants everyone to be saved and come to the
knowledge of the truth. And then he says, for there
is one God.
And one mediator between God and mankind, and that is
the man Christ Jesus. So, so basically, the, there is
(26:25):
just one mediator. So Mary is not a mediator, she
can't mediate. The apostles can't mediate. That's not, that's not
what they do. Now that people, you know, they they
were of course here on the earth a long, long
time ago, but now that they've gone into glory, they
are not.
Um, they're not actively doing anything like that conscious of
(26:48):
what's going on on earth. Yeah, so there's no, there's
no point in doing it, you know, it's, it's really,
this is so fascinating too, because recently.
Uh, the new Pope, uh, Pope Leo, he came out
with an incredible statement, because, and what's so incredible about
it is how many centuries this idea has been there
(27:12):
within Roman Catholicism that Mary, uh, was also part of the,
the redemptive, like a co-redeemer with Jesus. And that's been
taught in in the Catholic Church for centuries.
And he basically just came out and said that is
not accurate. Jesus alone is the savior of the world.
(27:33):
And it's like, whoa, that is huge for him to
make a statement like that. And essentially what he's saying
is the answer to the question of your son.
There's nobody else, you know, Jesus is the one mediator
between God and men. That's what Paul said right here
and that is still true today. Also, you know, I
think about Jesus in John chapter 16, he's saying, you know,
(27:56):
you have, um, not asked anything in my name to
the Father. Ask in my name and my father will
give it to you if you want effective prayers, then
you ask.
Through Jesus and because of what Jesus has done, Mary
did not die for our sins and none of the
apostles died for our sins. None of the saints died
(28:18):
for our sins. They died because of their own sin.
Jesus was the only one without sin who died for
our sins who can make intercession for us and, and
those passages in John, you know, if you, if you
look at say John 14:15, 16.
And 17 you're gonna see in there at one point
Jesus says, you know, ask in my name and he says,
(28:40):
and I do not, I'm not saying to you that
I'm gonna pray for you for basically the Father himself
loves you, the Father Himself loves you because you loved me.
So Jesus is saying, look, you can, you can pray,
you know, through me because you trust me you can
pray straight to the Father. So don't you think too
that Jesus is saying um in my name because he's
made the way.
(29:00):
Because you know we read in Hebrews chapter 4 that
we can enter into the holy of holies with boldness
through the blood of Jesus Christ and so I think
when he says in my name in the work that
I've done for you so you can enter in, I
don't think he's saying, you know, just go yourself he's
saying you can go because I have done this work
(29:22):
of dying for you and.
You know, making the way open. Amen, sister. Preach. Amen. Charlotte,
thanks for your phone call today on Pastor's perspective. We've
got to take a break now. We'll be back in
just a little bit with more of your questions. 888-564-6173
with Brian and Cheryl Broderson in the studio until 4 o'clock. 888-564-6173.
(30:15):
We're back on Pastor's Perspective. 888-564-6173 is the number to call.
We've got Pastor Brian Broderson and Cheryl Broderson from Echoesof Mercy.com.
I don't think I did the formal introduction at the
beginning because we wanted Brian to sing Under the Sea
for us, and he didn't. He did in the studio
for us, and he doesn't actually sing it as much
(30:37):
as hum it.
And he heard he was doing the little accent. He
actually did the words. That was amazing with the accent,
with the accent, yes, um, is it Sebastian? Yeah, you know, yes,
of course I know he's got daughters. Anyone with daughters,
any father with daughters. OK, uh, real quick, Lee, Sunday
(31:00):
night 6:30.
Yeah, PM. of course, Sunday night. In the fellowship hall
at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, we have the Back to
Basics live Bible study. And this Sunday night, we are
really winding down here in the Book of Acts, but
this Sunday night we're doing um chapters 25 and 26
(31:23):
and 26 is one of my favorite chapters because it's
Paul before Agrippa.
And it is just so powerful. Yes. So we'll be
doing that and then the following week we will finish
up with the final two chapters of Acts. And so yeah,
come on out if you want to just have an
old fashioned Bible study. That's pretty much what we're doing
on Sunday night. I love that scripture in Acts chapter
(31:45):
26 where Paul looks at Herod and says, why should
you think it's strange?
That God should should raise the debt. If you're dealing
with God, why should that be anything that's too hard.
But I love it when he says.
Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know you do. Yeah,
(32:05):
it's so powerful. Very good. So, uh, in case you've
heard that there's no churches doing Bible studies on Sunday
nights anymore, uh-huh, Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, uh, Sunday nights
at 6:30. And thank you, Pastor Brian, for pointing out
the redundancy and saying Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.
There's no need to say that. It bugs me. You
could say night or you could, I did it Sunday morning.
(32:27):
I was, I didn't know I was, um, not irritating
Brian by, by, can I say how you're irritating me?
It's Sebastian. It's under the sea humming. It's been for
a full week, you know. I'm gonna work all the lyrics,
and I will be singing that song.
To you in its entirety serenade over the weekend, it'd
be funny to do it as you were cooking dinner.
(32:49):
That would be a great. No, I'm the one who
cooks dinner. Oh well, there you go, chopping onions or something.
He's eating it. OK. 11 other thing, Cheryl, tell everybody
a little bit about, um, echos submercy.
Echoes of Mercy, our new ministry, well, it's evolving in
a good way, um, as the Lord is showing us
(33:12):
more and more what it is to be and what
he wants and so, um, right now our, our goal
is to just be available to um share where we're
asked and invited to um to go.
And to share or recently when we were in England
we had the opportunity just to go and be part
of another church's prayer meeting, uh actually two prayer meetings
(33:35):
and just fellowship and these young people just wanted to
ask us questions. They're not Calvary, they're a different denomination,
but they had quite a few questions for us and
they just wanted to hear from an older couple who
love Jesus and it was so um.
It was so incredibly edifying for um us to be
able to do that and we got to pray for
(33:55):
them um in fact it was great because one of
the women I prayed for the Lord gave me a
word for her and she starts crying because the word
was so accurate as the Lord will do and so
we had that and then we got a chance to
Brian got a chance to speak at a church in um.
East Dulwich and what's really exciting is uh the couple
(34:16):
uh Patrick and Sarah we met them when they were
in their twenties and now he's got this church in
East Dulwich and we were with their grandchildren.
Which was just amazing we got to fellowship we got
to um see some of our friends from um our
Westminster days and it was just so great and then
we also got to fellowship with some people from Premiere
(34:37):
Radio and I got to um meet with Michelle Paris
and pray just a lot of um incredible opportunities and
what Brian and I want is not so much.
We don't want, uh, not the conference thing we really
want to have more of an intimate connection with others
through echoes of mercy so we'd really like to do
(34:58):
what we call huddles where you just sit in a
group of people and you listen and you pray and
you just share your heart and they can share their
heart and so we're looking to do more of that
in the future through echoes of mercy and again like
I said.
Um, it's just kind of, you know, developing and one
of the things is, of course, you know, I have
(35:19):
my gracious Words ministry on that's, uh, the radio ministry,
Bright House Back to Basics radio ministry. I also have
the podcast Women Worth Knowing where every week I'm either
interviewing or I'm studying, um, a woman. I just got
finished with a three parter on Marie.
Um, Dyer Taylor, who was the wife of Hudson Taylor,
(35:41):
and even as I'm reading the book I'm, I'm quoting
to Brian different things that Maria said and uh we
found that their lives had so many parallels to some
of the spiritual warfare that we're going through. It was
just absolutely so amazing because you know Peter says resist
the devil, um.
Knowing that your brethren are going through the same things
(36:04):
and so when I do Women Worth Knowing or I'm
studying and I'm reading about these women, I'm realizing wow,
nobody's exempt from trials. Everyone's been through it but the
the wondrous thing about the women worth knowing.
Is these are women who have overcome they're overcomers through
Jesus Christ just like Revelation says now to him who
(36:25):
overcomes Jesus has these blessings so it really I think
strengthens women's hands to persevere uh through trials and so
that's that's just kind of what's going on right now
with uh with echoes of Mercy also Brian and I
uh will do pastor's perspective together on Fridays which we
really enjoy. Yes and there's a newsletter.
(36:46):
That I don't think has come out yet, but you
wrote one and I think it just might have today
or yesterday because I proved it. Oh, OK, well then, no,
but I, OK, well, there you are. But you can
sign up for the newsletters. You could on the website, please, please. echoesofmercy.com. OK,
let's talk to Brenda in Laguna Niguel, who called 888-564-6173. Hi, Brenda,
(37:10):
what's going on? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Yeah.
We have, uh, two daughters, aged 27 and 29 now,
and we raised both of them in the church, and, uh,
they accepted Christ and they, when they asked to be baptized,
(37:31):
we had them baptized. Um, now both of them no
longer believe in Christ.
Um, the 2 seven-year-old, it was through a European history teacher,
and the 29-year-old just stopped, uh, or told me in
May that she had been reading the Bible, asked God
(37:52):
to make it clear to her that he exists, and
he didn't. Mm.
So they're coming for Christmas and I don't know what
to do because Christmas is all about Jesus. Keep it
that way's gone to church, yeah, keep it that way.
You celebrate Jesus and you know Paul talked about how
(38:13):
we were to provoke, um, like unbelievers by our joy
and our love and.
Um, let them see your love for them, let them
see your absolute joy, your passion for Jesus. You keep
up those traditions that honor Jesus. Just keep doing it
like this is what we do. We celebrate Jesus in
this house, and you know, um.
(38:35):
I, I would guess that they're trying to be very
liberal and very, you know, like cool with the world
and so right now cool with the world is like
oh yeah I'll celebrate with you so I, I would
just do and just let them know well you know
this is what I do because I just love Jesus
so much and I love you so much, you know.
I have found that those commitments I have so many
(38:57):
friends who made those commitments and walked away from Jesus
but realized in their thirties and their 40s that they
couldn't live without Jesus and the Lord brought them back. Um,
I love the testimony of Ryan Reese, um.
Uh, Sharon and Raoul Reese's son who wasn't walking with
(39:17):
the Lord, and Sharon used to pray, Lord, at least, um,
could you save him during the tribulation or could he
see because she had just given up all hope on
Ryan and Ryan was a big partier. He was, um,
advancing in, um, secular business, doing great, and he happened
to be in South America and just this conviction by
(39:39):
the Holy Spirit came over him and he had this
encounter with God.
And he ended up reading the Gideon Bible that was
in the nightstand next to him and so it's not
too late don't stop praying we've had uh I remember
one of my daughters, my oldest daughter saying, you know, mom,
I just want to believe but I just can't.
(39:59):
And you know I just love the world and I
remember I just went to prayer like crazy and for
us God was merciful and for her it was only
probably a 3 month, you know, also you know I
had my mom praying and you know my dad now
honey so I had a whole team working with me
to uh.
See her come back to Jesus, but you just keep
(40:22):
praying because God hears the prayers of moms and you just, uh,
treat them like they still believe, treat them like they
still believe like all of you still believe and let
them remember uh the sweetness of the home that they
grew up in that made them want to walk with
Jesus because what does a European uh history professor have
(40:42):
over Jesus? I would suggest this there's a book by
Tom Holland.
That's a history of the world and it deals with
the history of Europe quite extensively and he's considered one
of the best historians, uh, in, in the time that
we live in right now and Tom Holland wrote a
book called Dominion and Tom Holland, uh, is not yet
(41:04):
according to him, a professing Christian.
But he believes that everything good in society was influenced
by Christianity and he shows what a difference that Jesus
Christ and the gospel made in Europe and all over um.
You know, he goes to ethicist he just shows what
(41:24):
what society was like before Christianity came and what it
was after Christianity infiltrated so he even talks about how Westerners,
you know, why do we treasure love? Why do we treasure, uh, faithfulness?
Why do we, uh, still hold these things up and
why do we expect people to be honest, uh, when
(41:45):
they testify in court? It's because these Judeo-Christian.
Ethics um have not um were given to us by
Christianity and they have not.
Uh, left our minds that you're still influencing us. So
that's a fantastic book. I would suggest giving it to your,
your 27 year old for Christmas and saying, you know,
(42:07):
I just thought you might be interested in this. Yep,
it's called Dominion by Tom Holland, and then we were
also talking about Ryan Reese. His book is called Kill
the Noise, and you can also hear Ryan here on
Kwave Saturday nights at 9 o'clock. So does this help you, Brenda?
Yes, it does. Thank you. All right, thanks for calling,
(42:27):
let's just pray for Brenda right now.
Father, Lord, do you know the heartache, um, because you've
had a lot of prodigals and you know what it's
like and you know Brenda's heart and how it's breaking
for her daughters and Father, I pray that you would
bless her Christmas, that she would have an encounter with you,
that she would celebrate you. I pray that you provoke
these two girls, uh, to jealousy, even that they'd want
(42:49):
to come back, that they'd want to feel what uh
Brenda feels that they'd want to experience what Brenda is
experiencing in you.
Lord, let them see the joy of the Lord radiating
through Brenda. Let them feel your love radiating through Brenda. Lord,
let every decoration speak to them of what they've left behind,
(43:11):
of the goodness of God, of the, the glory, and Lord,
we especially pray for this 29 year old who so
desperately wants an experience with you, wants you to reveal
yourself to her.
And Father, we know that's what you do and so
we're praying that you would reveal yourself to Brenda's girls
in a strong and powerful way and bless this Christmas
(43:32):
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Boy, we've heard that
story so many times though, haven't we? I mean, you know,
going to college, getting, you know, a little bit of.
Uh, education from a, you know, a secular perspective. You know,
there's a great quote from, I, I, I don't know
if it's Blaise Pascal. I can't remember exactly who said it. Uh,
(43:55):
but it was somebody like that. Um, and they said, uh,
They were talking about the sciences. They said a little bit,
a little bit of science.
will make you an atheist, but by the time you
get to the bottom of the cup,
You're a believer again. I thought, you know, and that's
what happens like a little bit of knowledge. So you
(44:16):
take a history class, your professor's bashing Christianity, and you're like,
oh yeah, it's terrible. They did all of these bad things.
But you know, you start going a little deeper and
you're like, oh, wow, this is, this is why, like
you're saying, like Tom says, this is why we actually
uh care for the poor. This is why we have compassion.
(44:37):
This is why we think that, um, you know, we
should treat people in in positive ways instead of negative ways,
because that's not how the world existed before Jesus came
into it. Correct? Yeah, you want to hear something interesting.
I could tell you later, but I'm I'm telling you
now Bernardo, who started all the orphanages, um, like George Mueller,
(44:58):
but Bernardo who started all of them, you have the
Bernardo uh charity in England, he originally signed up to
be a CIM, a Christian Inland Mission missionary, yeah, that
he had um something that kept him China Inland Mission, right?
And he had something that kept him from being able
to go and he realized his calling was to the children.
(45:20):
Isn't that interesting? Interesting. Yeah, sorry.
I delineate. Yes. Oh, it's great. OK, Denise in Moreno Valley. Hello.
Welcome to Pastor's Perspective.
Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure.
Um, I have a question. It's, it's weighing very heavy
on my heart. It's weighing very heavy on my husband's heart.
(45:41):
His dad is transitioning into, uh, life after death and
so he's, he's passing, he's in hospice and there's a
lot of um controversy butting of heads between my husband
and his siblings over cremation and what to do with
the remains after the cremation. Can you enlighten me on
(46:05):
what would be the proper way to
To dispose of the, the remains.
Well, I, I think that's something that people just, you know,
decide to do. Usually the question is, is creation is
creation is cremation allowable for Christians? And the answer I
(46:29):
think would be, um,
Yes, because all creation is, is creation. I keep saying
that all cremation is, is a speeding up of the
natural process. OK, you're saying that you got that from
my dad. I did. Yes, I borrowed it from him,
stole it. Yes. Oh, he left it to me. He did.
It was it was in his will.
(46:51):
Um, so, so, you know, OK, so getting that out
of the way, you, yes, Christians can be cremate. But then,
you know, what you do with the, the ashes at
that point, that's really just a personal decision. I recently, uh,
for a friend went out and we, um, scattered her
father's ashes out in the Pacific where he, there was
(47:14):
a specific place he wanted to.
be scattered near where his wife, her mother had been.
Also her ashes had been scattered. So now does your father,
is he able to speak at all? Because I think
I would ask him what he wanted.
You know what does he want? What he's not able to. He's,
(47:34):
he's just, he's just kind of like they, he's in
a lot of pain and they have him sedated basically, yeah,
but you know, 90, yeah, the, the, yeah, I'm sorry,
the ashes are just a remembrance, but there are better
ways to remember, um, him.
You know there are things that he loved and he
(47:55):
treasured and if it's about how to remember him the
ashes could almost become idolatrous if if you're not careful
whereas if you remember him by something he loved like
you know we're doing this because dad loved this or
we're praying for these people because dad really cared about this,
I think that is even a better way to honor
(48:17):
him the ashes are ashes.
You know they, they mean nothing it's, you know, if,
if he had was buried, nobody could have a part
nobody could have, you know, anything of him you would just,
you know, see a grave marked with a grave marker
and so the ashes really I know that they seem
(48:38):
to hold value but they don't bring them back they're
they're nothing and what matters is the legacy that he
left and how much better maybe to.
Write out the legacy uh of what he meant to
you and why he's so special and why you care
so much and ask each person to contribute something of
why you know grandpa or dad is so important and
(49:02):
what he said or what he loved or how he
meant to you and maybe you could bridge this with
all the family if you ask them all to contribute
something and you put it together in a book with
pictures and I know that they have.
You know, memory books that you can do online where
you can, you know, give them these submissions and you
can give the pictures and I think that might be
(49:24):
something that everyone gets one of those and the ashes maybe,
you know, you decide together but I just think that
the ashes are what they are they're ashes, they're not
the person.
So, Denise, um, I just out of curiosity, what is
the dispute?
That my husband wants to keep a small portion to
(49:47):
have a pendant made a pendant for himself, OK, and
then they, but the others don't want him to do that.
They want to spread them. They're saying no, that he
can't do that, that, um, that.
Yeah, that it's wrong to keep any of it, to
separate the ashes that they need to be spread and
let go. Mhm, yeah.
(50:10):
Well, yeah, I mean, obviously that's something they're gonna have
to figure out between them. Yeah. Denise, thanks for calling
in today to Pastor's perspective, and I will go to
Elias who's watching us on YouTube in Anaheim. So we'll
wave to Elias and uh what's your question for us?
Hey, uh, how's it going, everybody? Um, good before I
(50:31):
give you my question, I, I just wanna give a
little context, um.
For the last 3 years or for 3 years straight,
I was praying for God to heal my mom. Um,
and last year on December 4th, coming up on the year,
she passed away, uh, she did know the Lord, um,
but my question is whether or not I prayed to
(50:52):
God to heal her or not. The outcome was the same.
So my question is, uh, doesn't that make my prayer pointless,
and am I seeing prayer wrong?
You know, I think that we have a misunderstanding of
prayer because we often think that prayer is to get
our will accomplished, but prayer is actually to bring us
into the will of God and to give us insight
(51:14):
and understanding to what God is doing. So when you prayed,
as um another pastor I know of, um, Tim Keller
used to say God answers in the best way. He
answers in the way that was best for your mother,
even though right now you can't feel it or sense
it or see it.
And he answers in the best way um for for
(51:35):
you and so I think that prayer is always essential
and important and I think, you know, of course we pray,
you know what we want, but we also leave our
hands open for God to answer that prayer in any
way that he wants to.
Prayer is never in vain, but if prayer is so
that you can accomplish your will, then, um, you're, you're
(51:58):
exploiting prayer and you're misusing it because prayer is really
to say, as Jesus did, not my will but your
will be done. I mean Jesus prayed 3 times, let
this cup pass for me, but even so, not my
will but yours be done. So the ultimate prayer.
Is your will be done? And when Jesus taught his
disciples to pray in Matthew chapter 6, he said, when
(52:18):
you pray, pray in this way, and he talked about
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So every prayer, that's the, that's the ultimate goal is
that the Lord's will is done.
What do you think, Elias?
Um, I mean, uh, it still doesn't sit well with me,
(52:39):
you know, she was in pain for like 3 years and, um,
It's like, uh, I just, I just feel very discouraged
and I felt like, uh, almost like a God took
me as a joke or something. Yeah, he didn't. That's,
that's not true. Yeah, and, and Elias, you know, listen,
there's
Millions of people that have gone through the exact experience
(53:01):
you're describing that your, your mother has gone through. Um,
my wife's mother, you know, lived for many years with
total dementia, total. She had no recognition of anybody. And
you know, she served the Lord her whole life. She
was a faithful pastor's wife. She was a Bible teacher.
She was all of those things, but for about 10 years,
she was completely gone.
(53:22):
And the Lord could have taken her at any time.
I mean, it would have seemed to us like it
would have been so much easier for her to go
before she did, but she didn't because God knows things
that you don't know and he knows things about your
mother you don't know. And so when we presume that
we actually know more than God, that's when we make
(53:43):
a mistake. So we, you know, there is the point
of faith where I have to say.
OK, I didn't love her as much as God did
and I didn't know her as well as God did,
and I wasn't working in her life like God was
actually working in her life, even though I couldn't see it.
But remember this too.
(54:05):
She's in glory. That's all past and she's in glory
eternally now. She's in the very place that she was
ultimately created to be in in the presence of God so.
You know, rather than just kind of continuing to hold
on to disappointment or resentment, just begin to rejoice that
(54:26):
your mom's with the Lord and she's not saying to Jesus,
why did you let me suffer for three years? You know, she,
she didn't say that to him. I can guarantee you that.
Yeah, it's just, it's, um, excuse my tears, but it's,
it's still very hard. Yeah, absolutely, because you loved her
(54:46):
and that's good that you loved her too. It it
is hard. Death is just the worst.
That's why Jesus came and died and rose again to
destroy death. And one day, you know, as he tells us,
one day he will wipe away every tear. There will
be no more death, nor crying, no sorrow, nor any
more pain, for the former things have passed away. That's
(55:07):
where we're headed, but we're not there yet.
Elias, thank you for your phone call today here on
Pastor's Perspective, and that is all the time we have
on today's episode. We will archive it on Facebook, YouTube,
Apple Podcasts, and Spotify in just a few minutes if
you want to hear it again, to share it with
your friends or just to take notes, whatever you want
to do, and you can find that online. And then
(55:28):
if you have a question for us, you can call
us on Monday. You can also submit your question online
as
And email either through the pastor's perspective Facebook Messenger or
you can DM us on the pastor's perspective Instagram, or
you can scan the QR code that you're seeing on
the bottom of the screen right now on YouTube, Facebook,
and Instagram, and that'll take you right to the pastor's
(55:49):
perspective page at Kwave.com where you can submit your question.
We'll see you at church on Sunday, and we'll talk
to you again on Monday here on Pastor's Perspective.
Hello and welcome to Pastor's Perspective. It's karaoke day here today,
so if you call in.
Brian Broderson might just sing you a song. No, he
only has one song. He only has one song. He
only has one song, and I was surprised to realize
he knew the lyrics.
But he does and he can even do the voice
and it was a big hit, you know, back in
(00:39):
the day. It was, uh, so of course I know
the lyrics. I don't know the title, but I know that.
I think the title is Under the Under the Sea
so this is all for for you who are listening.
This is all because last Saturday afternoon we went and
saw our granddaughter and the rest of the ensemble uh
(00:59):
from Cavi Chapel High School drama team put on.
Uh, The Little Mermaid Little Mermaid and Brian was very,
very impressed with the whole production. It was really, really,
really well done. I was talking to, um, one girl
and she was telling me that she was, um.
(01:22):
She was one of the princesses and I said I
was shocked at how great your harmony was and how
you guys were just right on key and she said
I was one of those doing harmony and I'm like
that was amazing so it really was it was a
great drama production so good and the singing was extraordinary
and the choreography was excellent but speaking of drama productions, um,
(01:46):
the Christmas coffee, which is December 6th, the women's Christmas coffee.
Well, that'll be drama for sure. It'll be so fun.
It's the God who has a name and we're having,
oh yes, Carmen, Carmen Imes, yeah, and she is just,
that's the book that she wrote, right? She's a professor
at Viola. She's just absolutely amazing. I had her, I
(02:06):
interviewed her on Women Worth Knowing and she's been on
pastor's perspective, but now is the time that you can
buy those tickets. Uh, you can buy them online.
Um, Christmas coffee, I think you just go to Calvary
Chapel.com and go to women's events or chapel. I'm sorry, CCCM.com. Yes, well,
(02:27):
I went to women.ccm.com and there it is. That's where
I found God who has a name.
Very cool. And that's December 5th or 6th. What's the date? 6th,
a Saturday. Very good. So yeah, get your tickets so
that you know if someone works during the week or
we had a lot of teachers who want to come
and they were like, could you do it on a Saturday?
(02:48):
Or yes we can. Of course I'm not doing it.
I get to go this year. I have the pleasure
of just going and enjoying, which will be really nice.
It's so good. I haven't experienced much of that and
now I get to, so that's been a real.
That's been a real treat. It might be hard for
you to, after years of leading it for you to
just sit there and you might want to say, no, wait,
(03:10):
you forgot to do this. It's like, Oh wait, it's
not mine anymore. I didn't actually ever lead it. I'm, no, I,
there were always, we always had committees and we always
had somebody who kind of took charge. I think they
kind of realized that my administration skills, uh, I get distracted.
So my administration skills can
Be easily distracted so that I omit or forget because
(03:34):
I've talked to somebody and they have such an amazing
story and then I'm thinking, oh, you should be on
Women Worth knowing this story is so fantastic and I
love interacting with people that's one of my favorite things
and I get to do a lot of that at
the Christmas coffee and probably more this year. Also, not
only do you have a program.
But they also have an incredible boutique with a lot
(03:57):
of homemade items and in the gym and so there
will be jewelry, candles, uh, the sewing clutches there and
they always have such fun items and all donations that
they receive go to um.
Go to facilitate blankets for the homeless, um.
(04:20):
Uh, children's clothes for Africa, uh.
Orphanages as well as um some orphanages in the Philippines
so it's really worth um going seeing and I promise
you'll enjoy it. So one year they had baby clothes
they had a baby clothes.
(04:40):
Um, kiosk, but I didn't have any grandbabies at the time, right?
And now I have, we do, we have one. We
have a perfect, perfect little one, little princess, a little princess. Um, OK,
let me, as opposed to Little Mermaid mention, yes, so
it was last week sometime, um, you know, when I
(05:03):
got back from England and I talked about, you know,
the festival that we do there and we talked about
kind of we're in a, in a crisis.
And so we did a crowdfunding thing and we um
we reached our goal.
Um, this morning, which was so absolutely amazing. So I
(05:25):
want to thank anyone and everyone who contributed in any
way and uh for those who prayed for this, I
am just really, really thankful. I mean, it was a
kind of a week of a lot of prayer, fasting,
and just, you know, looking to the Lord and saying, Lord,
(05:47):
you know, is
Is it your will? Is it, you know, your, your
plan for us to, to at least do 2025 or 2026.
And so we had a minimum amount that we had
to raise in order to just commit to 2026. So we,
so we reached that amount, and we will see where
we go beyond 2026. But we're, we have
(06:09):
All the confidence right now that OK the Lord's with
us for one of the greatest things about the the
crowd funding was um all the young people that actually
made um little videos and to find out how Jesus
met them at creation fest, the testimonies, I mean, um,
some are Christian kids that said, you know, they had
(06:30):
no passion for Jesus, they weren't really interested and their
parents were taking in this event.
And how their lives were upended and they encountered Jesus
and there were others who talked about not knowing the
Lord at all happening to go in there and just
amazing and a lot of people who live in the
Cornwall area also donated because they love um what that
(06:53):
festival does for all of.
Cornwall, um, it's just amazing in Devon. There were some Devon, Devon,
there were some Devonshires talking about it too, yeah, so anyway, um,
thank you to everyone who prayed for that, and you
can keep praying because we wanna, and you can keep
giving too. I was gonna say yes, you can keep
donating festival, yeah, I don't, I don't know, um, when, uh.
(07:15):
Yeah, I think Sunday will be the, the final day. So,
but it's been great. So go to creationfest.uk.org.uk. Oh well,
that's a, that just says .uk, I guess they both work.
I don't know. Oh, OK. Look at that. I mean, that's, yeah,
that's a new URL because it's always been.
Either do.org or or uh creationfest.co.uk but this is even better,
(07:43):
simple creationfest.uk. Cool. Alright, 888-564-6173. Let's begin with a question
that was sent in online. This is from Ashley in
Oceanside who writes, this question is in regards to who.
Christians should associate with. As I understand, we as Christians
are not to separate ourselves entirely among people who do
(08:04):
not believe because Jesus sat among sinners. However, in 2 Timothy,
Paul gives us a list of characteristics of people to
have nothing to do with, like lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, etc. So would you please elaborate on this?
I think that what he's saying in Timothy is just
the prevailing attitudes of the last day, you know, he
(08:24):
calls them perilous times because these are some of the
pervasive attitudes, but I, I think um in Galatians, Paul's
isn't it in Galatians where Paul says if anyone calls
himself a brother but has these kind of Corinthians 1 Corinthians,
that's it 65 and 6, yeah 55 and 6. I
was thinking about those who will not inherit the kingdom
of God, but go ahead.
(08:46):
Well, actually, the Timothy Passage is the same. The Timothy
Passage is it's people, the, the people that Paul's referring
to there are people who profess to be believers, but
live in this way. So it's essentially saying the same
thing that he's saying to the Corinthians, you know, for people,
because he, he says about them, they have a form
(09:07):
of godliness, but they deny the power of it.
And so they, they appear, they have an outward appearance or,
you know, they go to church or whatever the case
might be. Somehow they're identifying with the, you know, with
the Christian community, but they're living contrary to what scripture says.
And that's those are the ones that Paul and Paul
(09:28):
is really in talking to Timothy there, he's, he's really
even more specifically talking about false teachers.
I think you've got the same thing in the in
Jude also where he says you know even though they're
feasting with you at your love feast um they're they're
just uh you know I think what you have is
(09:49):
what do they call it a cat among the pigeons
or you know a wolf among the sheep and I
think Paul is saying you know beware these type of
people that come in and they're there just to fill
their appetite rather than to um.
Really walk with Jesus and I think that's what he's
saying so um.
(10:10):
I think we're still supposed to be evangelistic and I
think that yes there's you know an opportunity to share
with others you know OK Brian, you're gonna have to
help me with this passage because he says I'm not
talking about those um outside because then we'd have to
go outside of this world that's the Corinthians Corinthians, but
if anyone calls himself a brother, so in other words,
(10:32):
Paul's saying we're still going to interact with this world
and we need to, you know, one of the things
I want to say this about the um.
Growing up in the during the time of what we
call the Jesus revolution, it was so exciting and everybody said,
I want to use my talents to serve the Lord. I,
I just want to use whatever I had. So if
(10:53):
you need your haircut, you could go to a Christian
salon and have a Christian do your hair. If you, uh,
there were even like Christian restaurants you could go to
to eat and there were.
Um, you know, Christian, um, what, uh, produce places you
could go and so the idea was like, well, we
want to help Christians and there were, um, Christian, um,
(11:15):
builders that you would go to those Christian builders and, um.
Not everyone who claimed to be Christian and had a
business was actually Christian, but they capitalized on that, uh, well,
I know some carpet layers and so they capitalized on
this to get the business, but they knew the naivety
(11:36):
or the kindness and the love of certain Christians and
so they took advantage. But my real point is this.
I feel like the church kind of withdrew from the
world and the church has a tendency to do this
um throughout different ages in history where they withdraw from
the world so much that they're no longer an influence
(12:00):
on nonbelievers they're no longer evangelistic and I think about how.
Um, when art and some of the great works of
art in the Middle Ages were, uh, so had such
uh Christian overtones and biblical themes and then all of
a sudden it seemed like the Christians withdrew completely from
(12:21):
the art world and from the arts altogether and so
then it was almost like there was a a takeover
by the enemy and it it just it it.
You couldn't even think of a Christian painter or and
and the same thing with the writers, they started just
writing all these, you know, only Christian books that only
(12:43):
appealed to Christians instead of books that would um appeal
to everybody and then yet have that um witness in
them and so I think it's very important that we
continue to seek to be evangelistic and a witness to
people in these in.
In this world and you know if if we stop
going to Christian, I mean stop.
(13:06):
Um, you know, only going to Christian clothing stores, only
going to Christian hair salons. I mean, I love giving
business to those who are outright, you know, like in
and out with the, with the scriptures on their cup,
but we need to make sure that we are proactive
in going to some of these places and intermingling with
(13:30):
unbelievers so they can see our light and come to Jesus. Yeah,
and that.
I was actually going to go right to those passages,
you know, Jesus says, um, he says two things. He says,
you are the salt of the earth and you are
the light of the world. And both of those require, um,
(13:50):
salt in that context. He's talking about salt as a preservative.
And in the ancient world, you know, they would use
salt to preserve, um, yeah, but they, but they would
use it to preserve. The point is the salt had
to come into contact with the, you know, whatever it was, yeah,
the fish, fish, fish, yes, but other meats as well.
(14:13):
But anyway, it had to it had to make contact.
So when Jesus says you're the salt of the earth,
but then flavoring as well, but then you're the light
of the world, of course light is needed when things
are dark.
So you don't go, you know, hide and just turn
on your light for you. Let your light so shine
before men that they will see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven. And again, a city that
(14:35):
is set on a hill set on a hill, and
you know.
So it's so important that we can, we are in
places where we can shine.
That being said, what are we to do when like
national Christian companies or Christian companies, Christian ministries, uh, say
we need to boycott this particular place or this particular
(14:56):
coffee shop or whatever because they are going against our
Christian values.
Yeah, I think you have to pray about those things.
I don't think that, you know, I, I feel like
we make these blanketed policies and blanketed decisions so that
we don't allow people to pray and seek the Lord themselves,
you know, um.
(15:16):
In Proverbs 35 and 6 it says trust in the
Lord with all your heart and do not lean on
your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your paths and I think it's
really important to pray. Sometimes the restrictions that they give
us are, are really impossible to um.
(15:37):
Not drink coffee in the morning. That's horrible, you know,
but they're really, really difficult to carry out and so
I think again when we're withdrawing.
At times like this we're we're condemning sometimes Christians who
work at those places and so I think it's you've
got to be careful about that. I remember a couple
(15:58):
of years ago there were a couple of companies, you know,
that the Christians were saying you shouldn't shop there and
boycott there and I was talking to a young Christian
guy who was coming to church at the time.
And you know, we weren't talking about that at all,
but he just happened to say, yeah, I work at
this place and that he worked at both of the
places that were being boycotted by Christians. I thought, OK,
(16:18):
this is a problem. But, you know, this going back
to the passage that you that you've been referring to
Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, he says this, he says, I,
I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who um,
Well, back up a little bit. He says, I wrote
to you in a letter not to associate with sexually
immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of
(16:40):
this world or the greedy, the swindlers, the idolaters. Otherwise,
you would have to leave the world. And so, you know, and,
and I, you know, of course, we've been around a
long time, so we've seen lots of boycotts come and go.
And I remember a time where it was like,
What can we buy? Yeah, can we go seriously, everything
(17:04):
had some.
Connection to some and some of them were so weird
it was like you don't know there's actually satanic you
know practices and I can't remember the company well actually
I do. I'm not gonna say it but it was
just like are you sure? I mean I know they
make my laundry detergent, but you're saying they do something
where they're, you know, doing the laundry detergent. Remember that
(17:25):
remember the Campbell's Soup Crusade like that Campbell's Soup but
we never did Campbell's Soup anyway so well we always
thought it was satanic anyway.
No, Brian just thought I had MSG in it, so
we couldn't do it. Well, that's satanic. Yeah, so no,
but there was, there was an idea that, you know,
somehow there was like, you know, Campbell's company was satanically,
(17:47):
you know, whatever, yeah, so you have to be really,
really careful, and you know what I think too as believers.
We, we make too big a deal sometimes about what
we're against when what we're, you know, and Brian one
time said this and it was so wise he said,
(18:07):
you know, they do those things because they're ignorant of God.
You know, when you were a sinner, it's because you
were ignorant that there was a God that loved you
and there's so many that are so ignorant that there's
a God that loves them.
And when they find out that there's a God that
loves them they're just like changed they're revolutionized and so
(18:28):
a lot of times people do this because they're empty
and they need God in fact that's why they do
it they're empty and they need God and so I
think they deserve our mercy and our compassion and you
know how can I help you to find Jesus you
know here I am and I know him but again
if we if we would stop broadcasting what we're against.
(18:49):
And we would broadcast what we're for. The Holy Spirit's
the one that comes in and sanctifies and changes people
and um does the, you know, clean up work. Exactly.
Very good. Ashley, thank you for sending in your question
and now let's go to the phones. 888-564-6173 is the
number to call. Jose in Long Beach watching us on YouTube.
(19:11):
Let's wave hi to Jose. What's your question for us today?
Uh, thank you for taking my call.
You're welcome. And uh, my question was, uh, 2 Samuel 24:1, uh,
which says, uh, the Lord stood up against Israel, that
the Lord provoked, uh, David to number the people, right?
(19:36):
Right. And, uh, and we have a first chronicle says
Satan did it, right, right, 21 1. So who, who
was it? Satan.
It well, it was, this is a, this is a
passage that kind of, or, you know. Yeah, it's a
good question. Yeah, but it, but it teaches us something too.
(19:58):
And ultimately it teaches us.
With the kind of lesson that we see in Job
that Satan is restricted. So Satan can't do anything that
God doesn't allow him to do. So when we say,
you know, when we see it says, you know, God,
then what we're talking about there is as far back
as you go, God is sovereign and nothing's out of
(20:21):
his control.
And so God allows Satan, Satan is the, he's the
active agent in the um the temptation, but he couldn't
do that unless God had allowed him to do it.
So that's why we have one reference, uh, telling us
that God did it and the other one telling us
more specifically that it was Satan who did it. And also,
(20:43):
it was a test for David too, you know, whether
he would.
You know, because I think that David again, you know,
he went through these times where he gave into temptation,
and this is a time when he thought, you know, I'm,
I'm getting pretty great. It was out of conceit, you know,
I wanna, I want to know how big the army is.
And even when he said that to his assistant, uh, Joe,
(21:04):
Joe's like, uh, no, no, don't, don't, don't do that.
You know why, why do you even want to know?
And he was captain of the army. Yeah, and actually
by now they'd had quite a bit of trouble because
David had done a few things that.
But I mean if anyone would be for numbering the
army you would think it would be Joab because he
could say yes this is how many but he was
like no no don't do it but it said that
(21:26):
the king's uh word prevailed and so you see that
Job was obedient even though it went against his own
conscience and then and then it's not, it's not too
long before David.
Realizes he's totally convicted like what have I done? right?
And then you've got this incredible thing that God allowed
it I think not for the punishment so much but
(21:49):
so that he could show David and all of Israel
that they needed atonement they needed a place of sacrifice
and so you have this angel that comes and stands
on the uh what do you want to call it
the threshing floor.
Of this uh Jebus site and David sees this angel
(22:10):
standing uh they're holding off the plague and David runs
and offers a sacrifice right there at that place because
he realized it was a a holy place and that
they needed to and that would later become the place
of the the temple and so you see where God
allowed it in that he showed David um how bad
(22:31):
sin was and the consequences of sin and that he needed.
Um, that, that Israel needed a place, uh, for the
sacrifices and atonement, mhm, and you've got to remember too
at this time there was no tabernacle. The tabernacle had
been destroyed by the Philistines. So what you had instead
is you had this tent, they called it the tent
(22:53):
of David, and that's where the Ark of the Covenant
was housed, but it doesn't look like there were sacrifices
during this time, so it's also reinstitution of the sacrifices.
What do you think, Jose?
Yeah, uh, and why was the Lord was angry with Israel?
What was the reason? Well, it, I mean, there's two things. There's,
(23:14):
you know, the, the, you know, when you're reading through
the scriptures and you see, um,
You know, like the kings, for example, I've just been
reading through Kings and Chronicles again and and Samuel, and
you know, you'll have a righteous king and you'll have
a wicked king, and then you'll have a king that's OK,
and then you'll have one that's, you know, bad, but
(23:36):
not too bad. Then you'll have one that's just absolutely horrible. Um,
but also in the background you have the people. And
so sometimes the king, um, is
When the king is wicked, the people go with the wickedness.
When the king is righteous, the people don't necessarily go
(23:57):
with the king. Some do, but, but a lot of
them will just, you know, remain in their rebellion. And
I think that's what's happening here with, um, this time
with David. So, um, David is, you know, he's had
a lot of turmoil in his kingdom at this point,
because of his own sin.
Um, but the people are just basically doing their thing.
(24:19):
So God is, he's gonna, this is going to be
a time of judgment for the people.
Thank you Jose for calling in today to Pastor's Perspective
at 888-564-6173. And now we'll talk to Charlotte in Riverside
who's listening on FM 107.9 K wave. You can call
in to 888-564-6173. Brian and Cheryl Broderson will be here
(24:41):
till 4 o'clock. So Charlotte, what is your question for
us today?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Hi, um, thank you for taking my call. I was
having a conversation with my son. He lives in Virginia
and he's just learning about Christianity, and I tried to
explain this the best I could, but I don't think
I was explaining it correctly. His question was, is he
knows that we're.
Not supposed to um idolize or worship the saints and Mary,
(25:09):
but his question was, why can't we use them as
kind of like you pray to them to ask them
to ask God, kind of like an interpreter, and he
said that.
The problem that he's having understanding is um the intercessions
like 1 Timothy 122 through 1, he's saying that he's
(25:32):
having trouble understanding why he can't do that like the
Catholics do, like what is the difference? If you can
explain
that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, well, he's, he's in the right passage because this
is where the answer to the question is.
And it's the, you know, the, the answer is there in,
in verse 5, where, um, Paul says, you know, he's
talking about interceding and, and so forth, you know, praying
(26:02):
for kings and for people in authority, and, and then
he says, this is good and it pleases God our Savior,
who wants everyone to be saved and come to the
knowledge of the truth. And then he says, for there
is one God.
And one mediator between God and mankind, and that is
the man Christ Jesus. So, so basically, the, there is
(26:25):
just one mediator. So Mary is not a mediator, she
can't mediate. The apostles can't mediate. That's not, that's not
what they do. Now that people, you know, they they
were of course here on the earth a long, long
time ago, but now that they've gone into glory, they
are not.
Um, they're not actively doing anything like that conscious of
(26:48):
what's going on on earth. Yeah, so there's no, there's
no point in doing it, you know, it's, it's really,
this is so fascinating too, because recently.
Uh, the new Pope, uh, Pope Leo, he came out
with an incredible statement, because, and what's so incredible about
it is how many centuries this idea has been there
(27:12):
within Roman Catholicism that Mary, uh, was also part of the,
the redemptive, like a co-redeemer with Jesus. And that's been
taught in in the Catholic Church for centuries.
And he basically just came out and said that is
not accurate. Jesus alone is the savior of the world.
(27:33):
And it's like, whoa, that is huge for him to
make a statement like that. And essentially what he's saying
is the answer to the question of your son.
There's nobody else, you know, Jesus is the one mediator
between God and men. That's what Paul said right here
and that is still true today. Also, you know, I
think about Jesus in John chapter 16, he's saying, you know,
(27:56):
you have, um, not asked anything in my name to
the Father. Ask in my name and my father will
give it to you if you want effective prayers, then
you ask.
Through Jesus and because of what Jesus has done, Mary
did not die for our sins and none of the
apostles died for our sins. None of the saints died
(28:18):
for our sins. They died because of their own sin.
Jesus was the only one without sin who died for
our sins who can make intercession for us and, and
those passages in John, you know, if you, if you
look at say John 14:15, 16.
And 17 you're gonna see in there at one point
Jesus says, you know, ask in my name and he says,
(28:40):
and I do not, I'm not saying to you that
I'm gonna pray for you for basically the Father himself
loves you, the Father Himself loves you because you loved me.
So Jesus is saying, look, you can, you can pray,
you know, through me because you trust me you can
pray straight to the Father. So don't you think too
that Jesus is saying um in my name because he's
made the way.
(29:00):
Because you know we read in Hebrews chapter 4 that
we can enter into the holy of holies with boldness
through the blood of Jesus Christ and so I think
when he says in my name in the work that
I've done for you so you can enter in, I
don't think he's saying, you know, just go yourself he's
saying you can go because I have done this work
(29:22):
of dying for you and.
You know, making the way open. Amen, sister. Preach. Amen. Charlotte,
thanks for your phone call today on Pastor's perspective. We've
got to take a break now. We'll be back in
just a little bit with more of your questions. 888-564-6173
with Brian and Cheryl Broderson in the studio until 4 o'clock. 888-564-6173.
(30:15):
We're back on Pastor's Perspective. 888-564-6173 is the number to call.
We've got Pastor Brian Broderson and Cheryl Broderson from Echoesof Mercy.com.
I don't think I did the formal introduction at the
beginning because we wanted Brian to sing Under the Sea
for us, and he didn't. He did in the studio
for us, and he doesn't actually sing it as much
(30:37):
as hum it.
And he heard he was doing the little accent. He
actually did the words. That was amazing with the accent,
with the accent, yes, um, is it Sebastian? Yeah, you know, yes,
of course I know he's got daughters. Anyone with daughters,
any father with daughters. OK, uh, real quick, Lee, Sunday
(31:00):
night 6:30.
Yeah, PM. of course, Sunday night. In the fellowship hall
at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, we have the Back to
Basics live Bible study. And this Sunday night, we are
really winding down here in the Book of Acts, but
this Sunday night we're doing um chapters 25 and 26
(31:23):
and 26 is one of my favorite chapters because it's
Paul before Agrippa.
And it is just so powerful. Yes. So we'll be
doing that and then the following week we will finish
up with the final two chapters of Acts. And so yeah,
come on out if you want to just have an
old fashioned Bible study. That's pretty much what we're doing
on Sunday night. I love that scripture in Acts chapter
(31:45):
26 where Paul looks at Herod and says, why should
you think it's strange?
That God should should raise the debt. If you're dealing
with God, why should that be anything that's too hard.
But I love it when he says.
Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know you do. Yeah,
(32:05):
it's so powerful. Very good. So, uh, in case you've
heard that there's no churches doing Bible studies on Sunday
nights anymore, uh-huh, Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, uh, Sunday nights
at 6:30. And thank you, Pastor Brian, for pointing out
the redundancy and saying Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.
There's no need to say that. It bugs me. You
could say night or you could, I did it Sunday morning.
(32:27):
I was, I didn't know I was, um, not irritating
Brian by, by, can I say how you're irritating me?
It's Sebastian. It's under the sea humming. It's been for
a full week, you know. I'm gonna work all the lyrics,
and I will be singing that song.
To you in its entirety serenade over the weekend, it'd
be funny to do it as you were cooking dinner.
(32:49):
That would be a great. No, I'm the one who
cooks dinner. Oh well, there you go, chopping onions or something.
He's eating it. OK. 11 other thing, Cheryl, tell everybody
a little bit about, um, echos submercy.
Echoes of Mercy, our new ministry, well, it's evolving in
a good way, um, as the Lord is showing us
(33:12):
more and more what it is to be and what
he wants and so, um, right now our, our goal
is to just be available to um share where we're
asked and invited to um to go.
And to share or recently when we were in England
we had the opportunity just to go and be part
of another church's prayer meeting, uh actually two prayer meetings
(33:35):
and just fellowship and these young people just wanted to
ask us questions. They're not Calvary, they're a different denomination,
but they had quite a few questions for us and
they just wanted to hear from an older couple who
love Jesus and it was so um.
It was so incredibly edifying for um us to be
able to do that and we got to pray for
(33:55):
them um in fact it was great because one of
the women I prayed for the Lord gave me a
word for her and she starts crying because the word
was so accurate as the Lord will do and so
we had that and then we got a chance to
Brian got a chance to speak at a church in um.
East Dulwich and what's really exciting is uh the couple
(34:16):
uh Patrick and Sarah we met them when they were
in their twenties and now he's got this church in
East Dulwich and we were with their grandchildren.
Which was just amazing we got to fellowship we got
to um see some of our friends from um our
Westminster days and it was just so great and then
we also got to fellowship with some people from Premiere
(34:37):
Radio and I got to um meet with Michelle Paris
and pray just a lot of um incredible opportunities and
what Brian and I want is not so much.
We don't want, uh, not the conference thing we really
want to have more of an intimate connection with others
through echoes of mercy so we'd really like to do
(34:58):
what we call huddles where you just sit in a
group of people and you listen and you pray and
you just share your heart and they can share their
heart and so we're looking to do more of that
in the future through echoes of mercy and again like
I said.
Um, it's just kind of, you know, developing and one
of the things is, of course, you know, I have
(35:19):
my gracious Words ministry on that's, uh, the radio ministry,
Bright House Back to Basics radio ministry. I also have
the podcast Women Worth Knowing where every week I'm either
interviewing or I'm studying, um, a woman. I just got
finished with a three parter on Marie.
Um, Dyer Taylor, who was the wife of Hudson Taylor,
(35:41):
and even as I'm reading the book I'm, I'm quoting
to Brian different things that Maria said and uh we
found that their lives had so many parallels to some
of the spiritual warfare that we're going through. It was
just absolutely so amazing because you know Peter says resist
the devil, um.
Knowing that your brethren are going through the same things
(36:04):
and so when I do Women Worth Knowing or I'm
studying and I'm reading about these women, I'm realizing wow,
nobody's exempt from trials. Everyone's been through it but the
the wondrous thing about the women worth knowing.
Is these are women who have overcome they're overcomers through
Jesus Christ just like Revelation says now to him who
(36:25):
overcomes Jesus has these blessings so it really I think
strengthens women's hands to persevere uh through trials and so
that's that's just kind of what's going on right now
with uh with echoes of Mercy also Brian and I
uh will do pastor's perspective together on Fridays which we
really enjoy. Yes and there's a newsletter.
(36:46):
That I don't think has come out yet, but you
wrote one and I think it just might have today
or yesterday because I proved it. Oh, OK, well then, no,
but I, OK, well, there you are. But you can
sign up for the newsletters. You could on the website, please, please. echoesofmercy.com. OK,
let's talk to Brenda in Laguna Niguel, who called 888-564-6173. Hi, Brenda,
(37:10):
what's going on? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Yeah.
We have, uh, two daughters, aged 27 and 29 now,
and we raised both of them in the church, and, uh,
they accepted Christ and they, when they asked to be baptized,
(37:31):
we had them baptized. Um, now both of them no
longer believe in Christ.
Um, the 2 seven-year-old, it was through a European history teacher,
and the 29-year-old just stopped, uh, or told me in
May that she had been reading the Bible, asked God
(37:52):
to make it clear to her that he exists, and
he didn't. Mm.
So they're coming for Christmas and I don't know what
to do because Christmas is all about Jesus. Keep it
that way's gone to church, yeah, keep it that way.
You celebrate Jesus and you know Paul talked about how
(38:13):
we were to provoke, um, like unbelievers by our joy
and our love and.
Um, let them see your love for them, let them
see your absolute joy, your passion for Jesus. You keep
up those traditions that honor Jesus. Just keep doing it
like this is what we do. We celebrate Jesus in
this house, and you know, um.
(38:35):
I, I would guess that they're trying to be very
liberal and very, you know, like cool with the world
and so right now cool with the world is like
oh yeah I'll celebrate with you so I, I would
just do and just let them know well you know
this is what I do because I just love Jesus
so much and I love you so much, you know.
I have found that those commitments I have so many
(38:57):
friends who made those commitments and walked away from Jesus
but realized in their thirties and their 40s that they
couldn't live without Jesus and the Lord brought them back. Um,
I love the testimony of Ryan Reese, um.
Uh, Sharon and Raoul Reese's son who wasn't walking with
(39:17):
the Lord, and Sharon used to pray, Lord, at least, um,
could you save him during the tribulation or could he
see because she had just given up all hope on
Ryan and Ryan was a big partier. He was, um,
advancing in, um, secular business, doing great, and he happened
to be in South America and just this conviction by
(39:39):
the Holy Spirit came over him and he had this
encounter with God.
And he ended up reading the Gideon Bible that was
in the nightstand next to him and so it's not
too late don't stop praying we've had uh I remember
one of my daughters, my oldest daughter saying, you know, mom,
I just want to believe but I just can't.
(39:59):
And you know I just love the world and I
remember I just went to prayer like crazy and for
us God was merciful and for her it was only
probably a 3 month, you know, also you know I
had my mom praying and you know my dad now
honey so I had a whole team working with me
to uh.
See her come back to Jesus, but you just keep
(40:22):
praying because God hears the prayers of moms and you just, uh,
treat them like they still believe, treat them like they
still believe like all of you still believe and let
them remember uh the sweetness of the home that they
grew up in that made them want to walk with
Jesus because what does a European uh history professor have
(40:42):
over Jesus? I would suggest this there's a book by
Tom Holland.
That's a history of the world and it deals with
the history of Europe quite extensively and he's considered one
of the best historians, uh, in, in the time that
we live in right now and Tom Holland wrote a
book called Dominion and Tom Holland, uh, is not yet
(41:04):
according to him, a professing Christian.
But he believes that everything good in society was influenced
by Christianity and he shows what a difference that Jesus
Christ and the gospel made in Europe and all over um.
You know, he goes to ethicist he just shows what
(41:24):
what society was like before Christianity came and what it
was after Christianity infiltrated so he even talks about how Westerners,
you know, why do we treasure love? Why do we treasure, uh, faithfulness?
Why do we, uh, still hold these things up and
why do we expect people to be honest, uh, when
(41:45):
they testify in court? It's because these Judeo-Christian.
Ethics um have not um were given to us by
Christianity and they have not.
Uh, left our minds that you're still influencing us. So
that's a fantastic book. I would suggest giving it to your,
your 27 year old for Christmas and saying, you know,
(42:07):
I just thought you might be interested in this. Yep,
it's called Dominion by Tom Holland, and then we were
also talking about Ryan Reese. His book is called Kill
the Noise, and you can also hear Ryan here on
Kwave Saturday nights at 9 o'clock. So does this help you, Brenda?
Yes, it does. Thank you. All right, thanks for calling,
(42:27):
let's just pray for Brenda right now.
Father, Lord, do you know the heartache, um, because you've
had a lot of prodigals and you know what it's
like and you know Brenda's heart and how it's breaking
for her daughters and Father, I pray that you would
bless her Christmas, that she would have an encounter with you,
that she would celebrate you. I pray that you provoke
these two girls, uh, to jealousy, even that they'd want
(42:49):
to come back, that they'd want to feel what uh
Brenda feels that they'd want to experience what Brenda is
experiencing in you.
Lord, let them see the joy of the Lord radiating
through Brenda. Let them feel your love radiating through Brenda. Lord,
let every decoration speak to them of what they've left behind,
(43:11):
of the goodness of God, of the, the glory, and Lord,
we especially pray for this 29 year old who so
desperately wants an experience with you, wants you to reveal
yourself to her.
And Father, we know that's what you do and so
we're praying that you would reveal yourself to Brenda's girls
in a strong and powerful way and bless this Christmas
(43:32):
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Boy, we've heard that
story so many times though, haven't we? I mean, you know,
going to college, getting, you know, a little bit of.
Uh, education from a, you know, a secular perspective. You know,
there's a great quote from, I, I, I don't know
if it's Blaise Pascal. I can't remember exactly who said it. Uh,
(43:55):
but it was somebody like that. Um, and they said, uh,
They were talking about the sciences. They said a little bit,
a little bit of science.
will make you an atheist, but by the time you
get to the bottom of the cup,
You're a believer again. I thought, you know, and that's
what happens like a little bit of knowledge. So you
(44:16):
take a history class, your professor's bashing Christianity, and you're like,
oh yeah, it's terrible. They did all of these bad things.
But you know, you start going a little deeper and
you're like, oh, wow, this is, this is why, like
you're saying, like Tom says, this is why we actually
uh care for the poor. This is why we have compassion.
(44:37):
This is why we think that, um, you know, we
should treat people in in positive ways instead of negative ways,
because that's not how the world existed before Jesus came
into it. Correct? Yeah, you want to hear something interesting.
I could tell you later, but I'm I'm telling you
now Bernardo, who started all the orphanages, um, like George Mueller,
(44:58):
but Bernardo who started all of them, you have the
Bernardo uh charity in England, he originally signed up to
be a CIM, a Christian Inland Mission missionary, yeah, that
he had um something that kept him China Inland Mission, right?
And he had something that kept him from being able
to go and he realized his calling was to the children.
(45:20):
Isn't that interesting? Interesting. Yeah, sorry.
I delineate. Yes. Oh, it's great. OK, Denise in Moreno Valley. Hello.
Welcome to Pastor's Perspective.
Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure.
Um, I have a question. It's, it's weighing very heavy
on my heart. It's weighing very heavy on my husband's heart.
(45:41):
His dad is transitioning into, uh, life after death and
so he's, he's passing, he's in hospice and there's a
lot of um controversy butting of heads between my husband
and his siblings over cremation and what to do with
the remains after the cremation. Can you enlighten me on
(46:05):
what would be the proper way to
To dispose of the, the remains.
Well, I, I think that's something that people just, you know,
decide to do. Usually the question is, is creation is
creation is cremation allowable for Christians? And the answer I
(46:29):
think would be, um,
Yes, because all creation is, is creation. I keep saying
that all cremation is, is a speeding up of the
natural process. OK, you're saying that you got that from
my dad. I did. Yes, I borrowed it from him,
stole it. Yes. Oh, he left it to me. He did.
It was it was in his will.
(46:51):
Um, so, so, you know, OK, so getting that out
of the way, you, yes, Christians can be cremate. But then,
you know, what you do with the, the ashes at
that point, that's really just a personal decision. I recently, uh,
for a friend went out and we, um, scattered her
father's ashes out in the Pacific where he, there was
(47:14):
a specific place he wanted to.
be scattered near where his wife, her mother had been.
Also her ashes had been scattered. So now does your father,
is he able to speak at all? Because I think
I would ask him what he wanted.
You know what does he want? What he's not able to. He's,
(47:34):
he's just, he's just kind of like they, he's in
a lot of pain and they have him sedated basically, yeah,
but you know, 90, yeah, the, the, yeah, I'm sorry,
the ashes are just a remembrance, but there are better
ways to remember, um, him.
You know there are things that he loved and he
(47:55):
treasured and if it's about how to remember him the
ashes could almost become idolatrous if if you're not careful
whereas if you remember him by something he loved like
you know we're doing this because dad loved this or
we're praying for these people because dad really cared about this,
I think that is even a better way to honor
(48:17):
him the ashes are ashes.
You know they, they mean nothing it's, you know, if,
if he had was buried, nobody could have a part
nobody could have, you know, anything of him you would just,
you know, see a grave marked with a grave marker
and so the ashes really I know that they seem
(48:38):
to hold value but they don't bring them back they're
they're nothing and what matters is the legacy that he
left and how much better maybe to.
Write out the legacy uh of what he meant to
you and why he's so special and why you care
so much and ask each person to contribute something of
why you know grandpa or dad is so important and
(49:02):
what he said or what he loved or how he
meant to you and maybe you could bridge this with
all the family if you ask them all to contribute
something and you put it together in a book with
pictures and I know that they have.
You know, memory books that you can do online where
you can, you know, give them these submissions and you
can give the pictures and I think that might be
(49:24):
something that everyone gets one of those and the ashes maybe,
you know, you decide together but I just think that
the ashes are what they are they're ashes, they're not
the person.
So, Denise, um, I just out of curiosity, what is
the dispute?
That my husband wants to keep a small portion to
(49:47):
have a pendant made a pendant for himself, OK, and
then they, but the others don't want him to do that.
They want to spread them. They're saying no, that he
can't do that, that, um, that.
Yeah, that it's wrong to keep any of it, to
separate the ashes that they need to be spread and
let go. Mhm, yeah.
(50:10):
Well, yeah, I mean, obviously that's something they're gonna have
to figure out between them. Yeah. Denise, thanks for calling
in today to Pastor's perspective, and I will go to
Elias who's watching us on YouTube in Anaheim. So we'll
wave to Elias and uh what's your question for us?
Hey, uh, how's it going, everybody? Um, good before I
(50:31):
give you my question, I, I just wanna give a
little context, um.
For the last 3 years or for 3 years straight,
I was praying for God to heal my mom. Um,
and last year on December 4th, coming up on the year,
she passed away, uh, she did know the Lord, um,
but my question is whether or not I prayed to
(50:52):
God to heal her or not. The outcome was the same.
So my question is, uh, doesn't that make my prayer pointless,
and am I seeing prayer wrong?
You know, I think that we have a misunderstanding of
prayer because we often think that prayer is to get
our will accomplished, but prayer is actually to bring us
into the will of God and to give us insight
(51:14):
and understanding to what God is doing. So when you prayed,
as um another pastor I know of, um, Tim Keller
used to say God answers in the best way. He
answers in the way that was best for your mother,
even though right now you can't feel it or sense
it or see it.
And he answers in the best way um for for
(51:35):
you and so I think that prayer is always essential
and important and I think, you know, of course we pray,
you know what we want, but we also leave our
hands open for God to answer that prayer in any
way that he wants to.
Prayer is never in vain, but if prayer is so
that you can accomplish your will, then, um, you're, you're
(51:58):
exploiting prayer and you're misusing it because prayer is really
to say, as Jesus did, not my will but your
will be done. I mean Jesus prayed 3 times, let
this cup pass for me, but even so, not my
will but yours be done. So the ultimate prayer.
Is your will be done? And when Jesus taught his
disciples to pray in Matthew chapter 6, he said, when
(52:18):
you pray, pray in this way, and he talked about
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So every prayer, that's the, that's the ultimate goal is
that the Lord's will is done.
What do you think, Elias?
Um, I mean, uh, it still doesn't sit well with me,
(52:39):
you know, she was in pain for like 3 years and, um,
It's like, uh, I just, I just feel very discouraged
and I felt like, uh, almost like a God took
me as a joke or something. Yeah, he didn't. That's,
that's not true. Yeah, and, and Elias, you know, listen,
there's
Millions of people that have gone through the exact experience
(53:01):
you're describing that your, your mother has gone through. Um,
my wife's mother, you know, lived for many years with
total dementia, total. She had no recognition of anybody. And
you know, she served the Lord her whole life. She
was a faithful pastor's wife. She was a Bible teacher.
She was all of those things, but for about 10 years,
she was completely gone.
(53:22):
And the Lord could have taken her at any time.
I mean, it would have seemed to us like it
would have been so much easier for her to go
before she did, but she didn't because God knows things
that you don't know and he knows things about your
mother you don't know. And so when we presume that
we actually know more than God, that's when we make
(53:43):
a mistake. So we, you know, there is the point
of faith where I have to say.
OK, I didn't love her as much as God did
and I didn't know her as well as God did,
and I wasn't working in her life like God was
actually working in her life, even though I couldn't see it.
But remember this too.
(54:05):
She's in glory. That's all past and she's in glory
eternally now. She's in the very place that she was
ultimately created to be in in the presence of God so.
You know, rather than just kind of continuing to hold
on to disappointment or resentment, just begin to rejoice that
(54:26):
your mom's with the Lord and she's not saying to Jesus,
why did you let me suffer for three years? You know, she,
she didn't say that to him. I can guarantee you that.
Yeah, it's just, it's, um, excuse my tears, but it's,
it's still very hard. Yeah, absolutely, because you loved her
(54:46):
and that's good that you loved her too. It it
is hard. Death is just the worst.
That's why Jesus came and died and rose again to
destroy death. And one day, you know, as he tells us,
one day he will wipe away every tear. There will
be no more death, nor crying, no sorrow, nor any
more pain, for the former things have passed away. That's
(55:07):
where we're headed, but we're not there yet.
Elias, thank you for your phone call today here on
Pastor's Perspective, and that is all the time we have
on today's episode. We will archive it on Facebook, YouTube,
Apple Podcasts, and Spotify in just a few minutes if
you want to hear it again, to share it with
your friends or just to take notes, whatever you want
to do, and you can find that online. And then
(55:28):
if you have a question for us, you can call
us on Monday. You can also submit your question online
as
And email either through the pastor's perspective Facebook Messenger or
you can DM us on the pastor's perspective Instagram, or
you can scan the QR code that you're seeing on
the bottom of the screen right now on YouTube, Facebook,
and Instagram, and that'll take you right to the pastor's
(55:49):
perspective page at Kwave.com where you can submit your question.
We'll see you at church on Sunday, and we'll talk
to you again on Monday here on Pastor's Perspective.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.