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March 24, 2022 • 55 mins
Breaking the myth of the Boring Christian
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Episode Transcript

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(00:01):
The following is a presentation of FCBFaith It's the hour Glass on the FCB
Radio Network. Hello, Hello,Hello, hello everyone. It is so

(00:24):
good to be back with you guys. This is Bruce hagens Hagen and guess
what, guys, we are backin the fact with the hour Glass.
It's good to be back. Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, thank you,
thank you, Jesus, thank you. Say okay, okay, go
ahead, go ahead. So lookwhat's you been up to? Him?

(00:45):
Hanging with you. That's what Ido. That's all you doing. That's
all you do. All right,all right, Well that's good. I
mean, you know, we've beenbusy. Um, we've had some things
happening to hear in the l andyou know, if y'all if we have
some new listeners, we're from Cleveland, Akron area, and yeah, you

(01:07):
know, we had some some eventshere in the land. You know,
the All Star Game and you knowa lot of events and a lot of
concerts and a lot of parties thathave been going on. So you know,
it's been a busy time in Cleveland. But God is still faithful.
He's still sits on the throne,and we ain't got out of line,
doing nothing that we ain't supposed tobe doing, or nothing. I ain't

(01:29):
gonna tell you that I wasn't supposedto be doing. But we have been
having fun. That's right, that'sright. So listen. With that being
said, what was the topic today? The topic you know you forgot?
You just just lost her? No, I got it. The topic for
today is breaking the myth of theborn Christian. Wow. That's deep,

(01:53):
right, Wow? Breaking the myth? Yes, because the myth is that
when you are a Christian, orbecause you about you say you about this
walk with God, people think becauseyou're supposed to be so holy, you
can't do anything. And your nightlife means Bible study and prayer meetings.
You know, you in church fivedays a week, all day on Sunday

(02:15):
and you don't do anything else.And just because you're a Christian doesn't mean
you can't enjoy yourself and have fun. There's nothing boring about the annointeen,
though. It's the annointeent that breaksto you. It's the annote that breaks
the yoke. So there's nothing boringabout being a Christian. Whether you're single
or married, you can still havea good time and enjoy yourself. I

(02:36):
know we do. Yeah, andthat's true, that's true, but you
know, it's it's a bad repwhen you know, you hear people say,
well, you're a Christian, youain't supposed to be Well, you
know what you mean, you ain'tsupposed what I ain't supposed to be doing.
I can't go to well, Imean, because that's just that's what's

(02:59):
the society has said we have to. Once you once you walk into a
church and declare you're a Christian oryou make it known that you're a believer,
people just automatically think that you arein this bubble. You know,
your only friends or church friends.The only thing you do is church events,
you know, church picnics and cookoutsand chicken dinners that kind of stuff,

(03:23):
and there's there's a whole life tobe lived. That does not mean
that we're in church all the time. I mean, you and I heard
are Christians, were ministers or counselors. We don't spend every day in church
because actually being a Christian really doesn'thave a lot to do with being in
church. It's about how you livein your life. Well, you know,

(03:46):
we always talk about the church,the church, the church, the
building. It's not the church,right, the churches and you right,
so you know, I don't haveto be in the in the building,
right, you know, to bea Christian or you know, to be
the church. But you know,and you know what boredom it's boring.

(04:12):
What does that actually mean? Imean boring? You know, that's that's
like an emotional state. That's emotionalor a physical state, you know,
experiencing a lack of mental stimulation.Yeah, you know, and people like
a lot of times people think toobecause you're a Christian, that means you're
not gonna be doing certain things.I mean, it's it means we're not
gonna be in a club and we'renot gonna be you know, drunk and

(04:35):
falling all over each other and allthat kind of stuff. But you can
have fun and stay sober and youcan have fun. I've never been to
a club, so I know you'regonna have fun and not being in a
club obviously. Well, you know, just like on the movie Friday when
Chris tell ice Cube, you know, stimulate your mind, create, you

(04:57):
know, you gotta you know,you got to go outside of the box
of what everybody else is thinking.Yeah, you know, God wants us
to enjoy life on Earth, youknow, absolutely to enjoy because when we

(05:17):
get up there, it's gonna beham Yeah, I mean, you know
what I'm saying. We're talking aboutwhen we get up there, we're talking
about normal sickness. No more.I ain't gonna have allergies, you know,
I ain't gonna be sneezing all that. I ain't gotta worry about COVID
and the chills. I ain't gotto worry about the flu. I'm talking

(05:38):
about walking on the gold pavements,you know, I'm talking about looking at
all the colors. I'm talking aboutgetting my wings and then I go ahead,
go off in my matches and Imight even invite you. Rashima.
Oh well, you know, thankyou. I appreciate you thinking about me,
but it ain't up to you.But I appreciate the box. But
it's gonna go down. But weneed to tap into one of the reasons

(06:00):
we started doing this show. Oneof the reasons we started doing Eurglass was
to talk to people about living lifeon purpose as a Christian. Okay,
so when we even just that onesentence means, you know, as a
Christian, you can you're going tohave fun and you can do things,
but it doesn't mean you have tomeet society's requirements on what fun is the

(06:29):
sister. This is why it getsmuddled because people think, you know,
people are judgment by the wrong setof values. First of all, you
know, you and I have fun. We go, uh tomorrow, We're
go into the car show. Youknow, in a few months, we
go on to Broadway. We're gonnabe on in the theater quite a bit
this summer. We're going to seeWe're gonna see Alvin Ailey dance at all.

(06:58):
It might be a little warm committed, you know, but you never
know. It is Cleveland, itmight not be. But my asking and
I'm gonna rappers at Kay County onthe back just for my people and kids
that are Cleveland. I love y'all. But yes, yeah, that's that's
something. That's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. But you know it's funny

(07:18):
because they you know, people tendto think that just because you don't go
out to the bar or you don'tgo to the club, that your life
has ended. Right like you justcan't you know, you can't ask no

(07:38):
more. You know, you're aChristian, don't don't don't want to see
you danswer right, you're a Christian, don't want to see you drinking and
don't want to be drunk. Well, we'll see. The crazy thing about
that is it ain't a sin todrink. No. Who made the water

(07:59):
into why Jesus. That's right,that's right. He was the well I
think that was his first miracle.Where was he at a wedding? I
mean we're talking about the reception,you know, party it right, right,
right? How fun? You knowit says it don't be in drunkenness,

(08:20):
But we're right. But we're talkingabout enjoying yourself time. I just
enjoying yourself and being and being responsible. Yes, you know, that's just
that's just being responsible. Yeah,yeah, and that's good. That's good.
But whether you're single, married,you know, whatever your status is,
you don't have to put yourself inthis bubble of being um, you

(08:41):
know, just so sancti fat andso holy, you know, because like
like like you just said, honey, the churches in you, so the
churches in you, you're already sanctifat and holy. That's right. You
know, you don't have to walkaround putting holy oil and holy water on
people and all that kind of stuff. You know, just live your life
and enjoy yourself. You know.We we do a whole bunch of stuff

(09:03):
outside of church, and all ofour friends aren't church folk, and they
don't have to be. No,I'll be a lot of our friends a
church, but we you know,we still hang out at the barbecues with
them. Yeah, I mean,because I mean it's not like they don't

(09:24):
know who we who we are,are, we are how we are.
It's a respect thing. Yeah.You know, Now when when we if
we at an event and the bottlestart flowing and people start swaying, that's
our que We we go and letthem, you know, let them do
what they go do. But upuntil that time, we were having a
good time. Yeah, And that'strue, you know. And you know

(09:50):
it's funny because the word says,if you are doing something and you offend
that person by doing it, youstop doing it until they leave. Right.
But how we feel is, youknow, if we are in the
place and this is this is ruleof thumb. If I'm somewhere and they're
in a group of people doing somethings that I don't do, I've removed

(10:13):
myself, right I mean because ifthat was because if we didn't, we
wouldn't go to family gatherings. Wewouldn't go. You know, we have
friends that throw cookouts and parties allthe time. We have family that get
together all the time. We haveyou know, we have a lot of
people we know. We get invitedto things, you know, all the

(10:33):
time. And we love to comefirst of all and show our love for
the people that we know. Butwe like to show our support for different
organizations, different events. But whenit gets to that that place where you
know, the alcohol is taken over, you know, and things aren't quite

(10:54):
as things are starting to get alittle murky, that's when you just sail
cast time for me to go,y'all do what y'all do? Hey,
look, because you know, ourpeople ain't gonna stop drinking, right and
but and that's just us being respectfulof what other people do. It's not
for I personally, don't feel likeit's for me to rebuke and condemn people.
You live your life. I haveto decide if that fits, if

(11:16):
that works for me. Yeah,you know what I'm saying it don't work
for me? Is that you know, because we know how folks get when
you especially, you know, everybodyoutside drinking and eating, and at some
point the food is less of afactor and it's more like, you know,
the alcohol is doing the talking.So that's just a respect thing for
me. I'm gonna respect you andyou do how you do. I respect

(11:37):
your house. But I got togo yeah, you know, because you
know where we come from. Mypeople's gonna twist up in front of you
no matter what. Yeah, they'regonna twist, They're gonna drink. They
don't care you. They're not right, you know. But I believe we
kind of sometimes as Christians put iton ourselves to make other people are uncomfortable

(12:01):
because we are Christians. You knowwhat I'm saying. It's like, you
know, you go to a yougo to a gathering and you walk in
and you know, and we've seenthis many times. You know, you
come here and somebody that's that's savedand they say, well, you know
that. You know your cousin that'ssitting back drinking on the hind again,
smoking the joint, and he like, what's up because he was like,

(12:24):
oh, I'm blessed, you know, I who praise the lot. You're
like here, like, man,really, really you know, gonna hit
up out of here because because youknow what I'm saying, I'm about to
drink and twist one. You know. Well, here's here's my attitude towards
all that. Of course I don't. I don't like it, but I
never had. It's not about beingquote unquote Christian. That's never been my

(12:46):
cup of tea. But I don'thave to heaven or Hell to put anybody
in that's right. So I'm notjudging anybody. What you do. First
of all, what you do withyour body is your business. Like I
said, I have to decide ifit works for me or not. If
I'm comfortable in that situation, orI need to see you, I need
to talk to you, then I'lldo that. But if not, then

(13:09):
I know I'm gonna have to catchyou on another day. That's my choice.
Yes, And even when I dothat, and I you know,
and we both know, we've beenin situations where we have some radical believers
where they come to the family gatheringand they want to rebuke everybody and tell
everybody how what they're doing. Thatis not my calling, that is not
my purpose. God has never toldme to do that. So I'm not

(13:35):
doing it. You know, I'mstaying in my lane. That is not
why I come to events. Idon't come to judge. I don't come
to term my nose up at nobody. I don't. I'm not coming to
talk to you about salvation in thatmoment because that's clearly not where you It's
clearly not where your head is rightnow. So I'm not doing any of
that. What I am gonna dois be respectful of you and your place,

(14:00):
your house, whatever, and I'mjust gonna come and I'm gonna love
on you and let you know I'msupporting you and I love you. And
if that's how you know, ifit started getting smoky looking like a Cheech
and Chong movie yourself, I'm out. That's when I got to go.
And I'll talk to you maybe atanother day, at another time when all
that ain't going on. But thatdoesn't mean, you know, as a

(14:22):
Christian, I still I believe thatin all aspects and in all relationships,
my job is to show love whereveryou are, whoever you are. Because
I don't I really believe. IfI don't, I don't believe I have
the right to say I'm a Christian. So you ain't go go to the

(14:45):
spot. And after my mask forthe smoky I asked him do he know
where he's gonna be? No,that ain't the time I had that conversation.
You know what I'm saying. Now, ain't the time do you know
where you going to be? Okay? Thanks, haven't had that conversation.
And I think, you know,a lot of times, you know,

(15:05):
I think we get put in bubbles. But at the same time, I
think as Christians, we put ourselvesin bubbles because we do tend to when
we say we you know, holyand we sanctified, we do tend to
put ourselves on this pedestal, thisholiness pedestal that we really can't put ourselves
on, as God has to dothat for us, but we take it

(15:28):
upon ourselves and we do tend to, you know, we come into these
rooms or these gatherings with this highand mighty attitude. Yeah, you know,
and it to me, it's it'slike and you're walking into an environment
being offensive, you know, andthat's not okay. But we think because

(15:48):
we're sanctified, and because we canquote a couple of scriptures, you know,
or because we've been asked to doa little sermon at at church or
something that we know, we thinkwe have the right and we're entitled to
act that way towards people that aren'twhere we think we are, you know,
and all that is is different levelsof judgment. You know, you're

(16:14):
judging where you are, You're judgingwhat a person is. And if you're
coming, excuse me, if you'recoming in a spirit of love, none
of that matters, because if youreally think about it, at the end
of the day, that's really notyour place. It's not your place to
do all that judging. It's yourplace to show love, period. And
if you find that you can't showlove, you shouldn't be there. Yeah,

(16:37):
you know. And that's how Ilook at our walk, you know,
my walk as a as a woman, my walk as your wife,
you know, my walk period.If I can't show love and I can't
come in my genuine self, thenI'm not gonna I'm not gonna show up.
But when I do show up,I'm not coming there to talk to

(16:59):
you about church. If that comesup, fine, you know, I'm
always open for the conversation, butthat's not where I'm coming. You know,
I'm not coming like aunt Esther fromSan Franci with my Bible under my
arm, trying to see saving beateverybody until they want to run to the
church house. That's not that's notwhat I do. Yeah, you know,
And I mean to be honest withyou. When we step into a

(17:22):
place, it ain't even about evenannouncing, you know, that's why,
you know, you know, itain't even about announcing. You know,
well, I'm a I'm a minister, you know. You know, you
know we're here for one purpose andone purpose only, and that's for the
celebration or whatever is going on rightright, you know, that's to have

(17:44):
fun with them. You know,My fund us doesn't have to include the
drinking are twisting? Well, youknow, I hey, you know that's
good, you know, up toy'all, I ain't got nothing to do
with that. But I'm going toread something because we know that it says
there is nothing new under the sun. Nothing what's been doing, what's happening

(18:04):
now has been happening years ago andyears before we even came out of our
parents wound one of my mom's womb, you know. And I want to
read this out of Ecclesiasties, youknow, from my man Solomon you know,
one of the wild. You know, Solomon got it in. He
ain't mine party. You know,he did his thing. And this is
what a reason. Ecclesiastes two,in the twenty fourth verse, it says,

(18:27):
and this is coming out of ESV. There's nothing better for a person
than that he should eat and drinkand find enjoyment in his toil. This
also, I saw, is fromthe hand of God, now right there
alone. You know, you work, You work all week, you know

(18:49):
what I'm saying. You work hard. The weekend, come you play,
and you enjoy yourself, eat,drink and be married. You know,
from the toil from what you did, what you've been doing all week,
you know, messing with these negroes. You know what I'm saying, that
they're getting all the mean cut thatout down. Nope, what I'm saying,

(19:15):
that's it. Okay, I'm sorry. All right, Well you should
you shouldn't, but you should enjoyyourself all types of people, all types
of people that you're dealing with.Okay, you should be able to at
the end of that. You shouldbe able to enjoy your life. You
know, you should be able totake vacations and take a night out and
hang out with friends or by yourself, you know, whatever the case may

(19:38):
be. Well, okay, isthat okay, you should be able to
do that. But what does itlook like for a Christian to do?
What? What? What? Whatwould what would all? Right? What
would you do? What? What? What? What is your what is

(19:59):
your consc that of having fun?Oh? I can't really put that into
one description, but there are alot of things that I do that we
do that's fun, you know,hanging out on the weekends, going to
the show, going to a concert, um, you know, going to
these different events that they had atfor All Star Weekend. I thought it

(20:22):
was great, you know. Imean we went to the DJ Battle.
Who would have thought we would bethere? But I had a ball.
Couldn't front on the DJ Battle.I have a ball, so I don't
you know. Um, I guesssome folks might not think that was right
for two minutesters to be there.But I mean, well, let me

(20:45):
let me because I got offensive aboutthat. You mean I can't come to
the DJ ball. I didn't sayit, honey, I mean I was
there with you. I can't besaying something I'm trying to but you cut
me off. So you know,but I mean, we grew up in
that era. It was basically aneighties nineties type vibe. We're children of

(21:07):
the eighties. We graduated high schoolin eighty nine, so we came up
with hip hop. When hip hopfirst came out, that term that was
that's our generation. So we grewup with that. So I had Yeah,
I mean, we came up withit. Um with that, that
eighties nineties, that's our that's ouryear. Those are our years, our

(21:30):
decades, you know, so andwe and even with that, you know,
people think because you're Christian, youcan't listen to certain music. And
I am aware that certain music isnot okay okay for your spirit, But
that does not mean I listened togospel music all day every day. I

(21:51):
love music of all kinds, Rand B, hip hop, I love
it. I still listen to it. I don't listen to a lot of
the new stuff, partly because Ican't understand it. But and I know,
when hip hop first came out,Run DMC first came out, our
parents said the same thing. Youcan't understand them boys. What are they

(22:12):
saying? I remember my mama sayingthat, you know, so there are
certain genres that I do still loveto listen to, and I still do
listen to. I don't listen togospel all day. I love jazz,
probably because I'm married to you,but I do. I love jazz,
and there are days when that's whatI listened to because that's you know,

(22:34):
that's what I listened to when I'mcleaning the house or whatever. But I
mean, I just think we haveso many stereotypes and myths about how a
Christian is supposed to live and howChristian is supposed to be. And because
I'm Christian, I can't listen toyou know, Michael Jackson no more.
I mean, that's just craziness tome. You know, I listen to

(22:55):
clean stuff. It's always clean.I don't listen to the voge or stuff
that. But again, that's neverbeen my thing. So I enjoyed myself.
Well, I'm gonna tell you something, and I'm gonna be very transparent.
I'm a very big fan of TupacTupocalysses. Now, it ain't the

(23:21):
cleanness, but it's Tupac. I'ma very needed to make that announcement on
this show because I'm a very bigfan of Biggie. Okay, weren't you
before party? Weren't you before?Yes? Okay, so that's what I'm
saying. It don't it doesn't change. You might not listen to everything you

(23:47):
used to listen to back in theday. But I believe the best,
the very best Gang Star CD thatever came out was stepping into the arena.
What you know about that? Idon't know nothing about it, you
know why? Because that wasn't mything. You see the square that I'm
sure whatever. Okay, But anyway, still as a Christian, that doesn't

(24:10):
that doesn't down, That doesn't diluteme for being a Christian. It don't
make me any less than a Christianbecause right, no, it doesn't,
you know. So it's like,okay, it doesn't. I mean I
think sometimes, like I said,I just think society and people in general
want to put you in this bubblethat you can't do nothing. And then

(24:30):
a lot of times that's why peopleuse, you know, like when you
ask them why they won't come backto church or why they won't come back
to Jesus, they they stay awayfrom Christianity because they feel like they have
to give up so much stuff.You know, Um, and yeah,
you do have to give up somethings, but you don't have to give
up your entire life, because that'snot the purpose of being a Christian.

(24:55):
The purpose of being a Christian itis for you to learn how to live
your best life God's way. It'snot about you. Know, when people
say they live in their best life, they really don't know what they're talking
about. Because if God is nota part of that best life, you
are not living your best life.And another thing about that term that I
don't like in this probably has nothingto do we're talking about today, But

(25:18):
I don't like that term because Idon't like people say I'm living my best
life because to me, that putsa cap on where you at. You
know what I'm saying, if youif you declare it, I'm living my
best life now, okay, butyou've got look twenty thirty forty more years
ago. Yeah, does that meanyou're Does that mean you've peaked right now?
Yeah? That's not good. Soyou don't like Sky's the limit neither?

(25:41):
Then no, because Scott, there'sno limits in stack. I don't
like limits at all. I don'tlike limits. I don't like barriers.
I don't like people putting me ina box, you know that kind of
stuff. I don't like any expressionsand I don't repeat any expressions that I
feel put me in that quare,so to speak. All Right, so

(26:02):
listen, we're gonna take a quickbreak and we're gonna dive back into this
just a little more. And uh, this is a pretty good topic.
Uh, we're gonna take a break. Family. This is Bruce Hagens and
Hagen and this is the hour Glass. We'll be back this GLASSCB Radio Network,

(26:26):
Welcome back, guys. This isthe hour Glass. I'm Bruce Hagens
and I'm Rashima Hagens. We're talkingabout I didn't know he's gonna ask me
anything, you know, breaking themyth. We're talking about breaking the myth
of the born Christian people. Yes, boring, boring. You don't like

(26:47):
that word. Huh you know what? You know what that's like cussing in
well said Christianity had to be born. It's not, it's not. I
mean, you don't look here.Once you get the fire came front of
them, came front of the ChristianLook, you know what, I think,
No, living life as a Christianis actually easier and more enjoyable because

(27:10):
for me it knowing that I'm doingwhat God wants me to do in my
pursuit to do things God's way takestress off of me. Well this thing,
though, where did we go wrong? Thinking that when you became a
Christian your whole demeanor had to changewhere you get stiff and you know you

(27:33):
had to do the these and thedolls and you know, well, I
don't know about that, you know, because you know from the the Trinity,
you know what what you know?I don't know. I think I
know growing up because I came upunder a certain denomination where your wardrobe was
dictated. That was kind of youknow, like uh, and what I

(27:56):
mean by that is because in thedenomination that I actually came up under,
um, you know, you hadyou could only wear dresses. You weren't
a lot to wear pants. Youcouldn't women couldn't wear makeup. They couldn't
wear nail polished, you know,anything besides a little powder and maybe some
lip gloss. And it couldn't bethe real shiny stuff because they would call

(28:18):
you Jezebel, you know if itwas too shiny. Um. You know,
you everything was dictated to you andhow you had to dress and how
long your skirt had to because itwasn't enough to wear a skirt that had
to be a long skirt. Youknow, even even as a kid,
you know, I came up andthat my mother would make a lot of
my clothes. She had to makethem a certain length for me to go

(28:45):
to this church. I went tochurch with my grandma, and so it
was really interesting to me that asI got older, I went to another
denomination. They didn't have the samerules. Okay, well hello, let
me ask you this, that denominationthat you went to, that you had
all those restrictions, what kind offun did you have? Um? I
didn't have fun on Sunday. Ihave fun on Sundays because I was with

(29:10):
my cousins, but there was itwas not easy to have fun because it
was stressful because you literally have peoplethat were watching you and monitoring you and
measuring your skirts and you couldn't sit, you know, you had to sit
a certain way. You had toyou know, every everything about your behavior
was being watched. So do youbelieve that would brings those that are in

(29:36):
the world kind of stifles them fromcoming into the Christian life? Absolutely,
because if you're if you're out hereand you're just being you know, like
people say, you're just doing youyou know, you just live in life.
And you go into this building andhonestly, as soon as you hit
the steps you feel the oppression inthe door. So as soon as you

(29:56):
walk in, you feel all theserules. And if you are new,
you're being told all these rules atonce. It's overwhelming, yeah, you
know, it's stifling. Yeah,And then you're trying to not you know,
you're trying to like comprehend it andadjust to it all at the same
time. And that's very discouraging becauseyou're trying to do right. You're being

(30:19):
told this is what God wants youto do, and this is how you
show your obedience to God. Butyou've got all these rules, which are,
by the way, not in theBible. And you know, if
anybody ever asks why you got todo all this stuff where all these rules
coming from, nobody can give youa scripture other than to tell you that

(30:41):
women are supposed to be mode.You know, women are supposed to be
modest and meet creatures, which istrue. But meekness is not defined by
a skirt five inches passion need.Yeah, and you know another thing when
you say about when I had askedyou, does that stifle the world from
venturing of being a Christian? Theword of the Lord says, a glad

(31:03):
heart makes a cheerful face, butby sorrow of heart, the spirit is
crushed. So we got people comingto say, okay, I'll try to
come into the house to see andwhen they get there, the spirit they're
getting crushed. Right. You know. But if you're taught if that's your
first experience in Christianity, or youknow, if you're not very knowledgeable on

(31:26):
Christianity and you're taught that that crushingis what being a Christian feels like,
then you will go that way andjudge everybody else that is not. So
there's no fun. There's no joyin that. There's no joy in that.
You know. How can you bejoyous when you always trying to make

(31:47):
sure you adhere to rules and youjudging everybody else to make sure they're doing
the same thing. Well, youknow what he said, he said,
take that plank out of your eyefirst before you take the salt. You
know that plank, I mean thatspec out of the other person's eye,
you know, So we you know, we get, but that only applies
when you're aware that there's a plane. But you know what, whoever who

(32:08):
not always aware, you know,That's what I'm saying. So we in
the same. So we get tothis place where you know, we you
know, we get cleaned up,and we think we arrived. You know,
we've been depth. You know,we come back and get the holy
ghost fire. You know, we'respeaking to time, and then we started
talking about you. Yeah, youknow, and that's the first mistake we

(32:29):
make. Yeah, you know.And for me, I don't know.
For me, I once you havethat that experience of having that encounter with
Holy Spirit and you start speaking into us, I don't I don't know
how you turn away from that,because once I got that experience, I
wanted it again and again and again, and you know what I mean,

(32:51):
like and I want to stay inthat place. That's a beautiful place to
be. And the beautiful thing aboutjoying as a Christian and having fun as
a Christian it's here, it says. So whether you eat or drake or
do whatever you do, do allof the glory of God. It don't

(33:14):
matter what. You know. It'slike, He's like, look here,
do what you're gonna do you know, just don't get all crazy with it,
right. I mean, we havewe have commandments. We have the
whole Bible that tells us how tolive a life, you know, as
a Christian and as a you know, as a man a woman of God.
The Bible tells us how to liveas women, tells us how to

(33:35):
live as men, tells us howto raise our children, tells us how
to be a good spouse. Youknow, the Bible tells us how to
do all that we need to do. Nowhere in the Bible does it say
you can't have fun. Nowhere inthe Bible says you can't drink, And
nowhere in the Bible does it sayyou aren't supposed to live a happy,

(34:00):
joyous life. You know, nobody. I mean, I don't. I
feel for men and women who havetried or who are in the in their
faith walk and feel like that attitudeof denial and denying myself some fund or

(34:21):
some pleasure or whatever. You know, common sense says, you know,
you don't go out here and actthe fool. You know, you stay
faithful to your spouse if you're married, you don't fore an a cade if
you're not. You know, that'sjust common sense stuff. And if you're
committed to doing what God wants youto do, you'll be you can do

(34:43):
that. But I just I feelbad for folks when they when they get
into this mindset that because I'm aChristian, I just can't do nothing.
Yeah, to me, that's justsad. There's nothing about God or when
Jesus walked the earth, he neverever told people that couldn't do nothing.

(35:04):
He never said that he was withthem. He I mean, he was,
like you said, he was atthe wedding with them, made the
wine. It's not that you can'thave a drink. Just don't be a
sloppy drunk. You know, it'snot you know, it's not so you
know, and and and then too, the way you treat your body.

(35:27):
You know, as a Christian,drunkenness is abuse. So it says all
all things in moderation. Don't abuseit, don't go crazy with it,
don't hurt anybody while you're doing whatyou're doing. You know, those are
just fundamentals of being a Christian,and not even just being a Christian.
Those are just fundamentals of being agood person. And if that's what you're

(35:51):
trying to do. There's just somethings that you won't have an appetite for
anyway. You know. That's whyI say when people do certain things,
it's not my cup of team meeting. I don't have an appetite for stuff
like that. So it's not evena temptation for me. It's not an
issue and it's not a struggle forme to walk away from it. But
as far as me living my lifeand enjoying myself, I'm going to enjoy

(36:13):
myself as long as God has mehere. So if you're Christian, you
can still go on the time joiningit? Well, it ain't the time
joining the more. But can youstill go on the cruise on that particular
cruise? No, I did that. What I had been on that cruise
when it was around that is notwhere you would go. You try to

(36:36):
be at dis walk. There's areason they used to say, what happens
on the cruise, stay on thecruise, carnival, get yourself on the
cardival. Yeah, you know,but look, des why what we were

(36:57):
talking about even just having a littlesip a little drink, uh. First
timody five in the twenty first verse, it says no longer drink only water,
but use a little wine for thesake of your stomach and your frequent
elements. A little, only alittle. But that's what I mean.
Everything in moderation. And I thinkyou know, I think it well from

(37:22):
from the beginning of time. Youknow, it's human nature to abuse everything.
You know, we we abuse everything, which is why we always get
in the trouble. You know,there are things that you know we God
allows you to do certain things,but you're not supposed to abuse. Well,
here, let me let me,let me, let me be transparent.
Okay. I used to drink,right, Yeah, I U I

(37:46):
used to drink, and I said, well, this year and maybe eighteen
years clean and sober, right,I abused that privilege. I'm drinking,
So let's look at it in thisform. I abused that, and it
says don't be in drunk in thisI abused it. So what happened was

(38:08):
it had to be taken away fromme because I would have killed myself.
I'm saying. So it's not thething or where. Okay, I can't
have fun anymore because I'm not drinking, but it's the thing of Okay,
the Lord saw fit. Okay,listen, we need to take this from
this dude, because he about tokill himself, you know. But we're

(38:30):
gonna still give him something I want. And I'm going somewhere with this.
We're gonna give him something. I'mgonna give him something. I'm gonna give
him me. So he will havejoy in his life if he just continue
to keep his eyes on me.So when I keep my eyes on Jesus,
the Author and the finisher of myfaith, my joy is complete.

(38:53):
I'm full, and my heart isfull of joy, and I can now
have fun in a different opacity.Right, Yes, because you now experience
things that bring you joy that don'tinvolve alcohol. Yes, And that's the
purpose. That's why we shouldn't abuseanything, because the only thing we should

(39:14):
be dependent upon is God. Whenyou get dependent on your drugs and your
alcohol things like that, that's that'snot that's not where God wants us to
be. Doesn't want us to bedependent on anything but Him. So,
I mean, I there are plentyof things we do just to have fun.

(39:37):
Ninety eight percent of them don't involvealcohol at all. Because Bruce does
not drink at all, and I'mnot a big drinker, but every once
in a while, if I wantto cocktail, I'm gonna have one.
You know. But but probably evenmore than nineteen percent. Most of stuff
we do has nothing to do withalcohol at all, and most of stuff
we do don't even involve partying.But if we want to go somewhere and

(40:01):
like I said, support this familymember. You know, it's like when
you know family members have get togethers. Are they they're having a wedding or
something? What you're not gonna gobecause you're a Christian? Right, God
loves marriage. That's why would younot Why would you not go to the
wedding and show you show your love, show your support. So I mean,

(40:23):
yeah, we're gonna go, butI mean we know how, We
know how people are. The weddingreception gets going and everything is good and
everybody eating, but we know whatto start looking like when it's starting to
get you know how your people wantto get down. You know who want
to get down? That's when weget That's when we go to the car,

(40:45):
you know. I mean I've evenhad a few of my people say,
hey, Bruce, it is aboutto get real over here. You
might want to leave that. Yeah, So because they know real role like
that, you know, and andand the beautiful thing about it is to
me is that you have a relationshipwith your people that know where you are

(41:08):
and they respect that so and yourespect them. So you know, like
they said, it's the Bible says, you know, if you're doing something
and it's offensive to them, youdon't do it. I get that.
But for us and our people,it's like this, they're about to get

(41:29):
it on. It's about to godown. So you know, who am
I to say, Hey, y'all, I'm in here, don't you know?
Yea, do what you do.We'll go somewhere else because all people
will be like, look here,dude, we ain't we ain't on that.
Well you know, yeah, Imean you know what it is when

(41:51):
you're walk into down so you know. But the beautiful like I said,
but the beautiful thing is they're saying, hey, Bruce Mishima is about to
get real up in here. Imight want to leave now. Okay,
okay, I get it. Youknow, we'll call you later. All
ye see your next next wedding,yeah, next barbecue whatever. It's all

(42:14):
good. But I believe as Christians, when you show that type of love,
when you can show that type oflove in a setting such as a
wedding or a reception, and withoutreservation or without bashing, or without start
throwing it up your Christianity. Theyall see that in you and say,

(42:37):
well, it must be something tothis, because they didn't act like that,
They didn't do this. You know, we didn't get that, you
know that stare like, you know, we're doing something wrong. They celebrated
with us. So it must besomething to this Christian walk, right,
you know, And that's what weshould display. That's what we should because

(43:00):
like we were talking about earlier,you know, an earlier segment, you
know, coming into a room judgingeverybody, it's not Christian. First of
all, it's not Christian. Itdoes not bring anybody closer to Christ.
The purpose of a Christian is tospread the Gospel and to bring people closer
to Christ. Right, So ifthat's our purpose and that's our first calling,

(43:25):
how are we doing that if we'realways judging people? And when I
catch people, you know, Iremember one place we were at, in
particular, one church we were at, and they were very judgmental, and
I remember they used to make littlecomments to me, you know, judging
this system. That's sist or whatever, And I just had to ask them

(43:49):
by what authority are you judging people? That's good because and the reason I
asked that is from what lens areyou looking at somebody comparing it to your
life that you feel you have theright to judge somebody else. Just because
you in church all day on Sundaydoes not give you the right to judge

(44:10):
other people that only come on Tuesday. So the anointing of that person doesn't
give them the right. No,the anointing should. The anointing should convict
you not to do that, ifyou really are anointed, if you really
are annointed, you should be convictednot to act like that. So I

(44:34):
just, you know, and that'sprobably why they stopped talking to me.
I don't know, but anything heredoes at this point. But you know,
sometimes you just have to ask questionswhen people do certain things because and
my purpose for asking questions and notto make somebody feel bad. My purpose
for asking questions is just make somebodythink and give them another perspective of what

(44:55):
they're doing. Yeah, you know, it's always you ain't never been there
before, you know exactly. That'sexactly where I'm coming from, Like and
you know, it's like it's likeit's two things that that kind of trip
me up at church, the newChristian, because the new Christian always comes
in and they you know, theyfeeling themselves and they love cocky, and

(45:16):
they judging the ones that ain't beensaved and baptized yet. And then you
got to experience older Christians that justfeel like nobody's going to get to that
level that they're at, you know, and we forget what it was like
when we were those people that werelooking down on you know, we forget
what it was like when we cameto church the first time and we really

(45:37):
didn't know. We didn't know God, we didn't know you know all we
were just trying to get something andwe didn't even know what we was coming
up in there for. We justknew we needed something. You know,
we forget what that's like when we'rewalking in a church. And then,
like I said, when you walkin and you got all these judgmental Christians,
you know, that's not a goodplace to be. That doesn't make

(46:02):
people want to come back. It'snot walcoming. It doesn't make them want
to come back to church, doesn'tmake them want to join it sometimes it
doesn't even make them want to getclose to God. And that's where we're
getting it wrong, you know,And that's just that's just where I'm at
with it. So when when peoplesay stuff like that to me, that's

(46:22):
why I respond the way I do. Not trying to check anybody. I'm
just trying to give them another perspective. And sometimes, you know, just
trying to remind folks, you know, you forget what it was like when
you came up in here like that, Just like the person that comes in
the church in the dress that theywore to the club the other day.
You know, everybody don't have yourwardrobe. Everybody does not have the means

(46:45):
to buy, you know, anappropriate outfit. You know, God says
come as you are. We're supposedto be a come as you are type
of church or type of congregation.You know what happened to accept people as
they are? Too much fun?Much fun? Okay? You know?

(47:08):
Is it a fun factor? Isit? You're not you know, since
you're not that Christian? You know, but you can't have that kind of
fun, all right, you can't. You know, where do you get
Where is the level where you getto where you have been accepted. You
don't know. I don't either.But the thing is, as a Christian

(47:31):
you can still have fun. Yeah, you know, we still go roller
skate and you can still roller skate, still go bowling. What you can
roller skate. I cannot roller skatelike I used to. Why not?
I'm just I need to get backon it, though I really do.

(47:52):
Roller skater now is an exercise inmy time. So now, yes,
and you are a great skater,you know what, I can get down
on the fall by fall, Iain't dead. I ain't dead, no,
not by no stretch of imaginations.But yes, as Christians we do

(48:13):
have fun. They're still you knowfun as being a Christian. There there's
a place where we don't go thatwe don't have fun. And the thing
about that is we are we aresuch in a place where I guess I

(48:38):
want to say, where we arereally in the end times of some terrible
things happening. And we see stuffthat's happening in current events in the world
and it frightens us a little bit, you know, and the where the

(49:00):
lawyer says, you know, evenwhen we what's going on, and you
know, with this war, youknow, Jesus said there would be wars
and womans of wars, but don'tbe alarmed, you know. So you
know, we're in this place wherethings are happening, and it kind of
stifles you from even having fun becausenow you want to dive into the Bible,

(49:20):
live even deeper. Now everybody wantto be a theologian because they you
know, I gotta get this.You know, God's gonna give you what
He's gonna give you, but hesays, to enjoy your life. Why
you have it here, enjoy thattime. So I think as as Christians,
we have to give ourselves permission tolive our life. We have to

(49:44):
give ourselves permission to have fun andnot be so caught up in all the
rules that come with being in acertain denomination or even a certain church,
because what's important is that we're livingby the Word of God, not the
rules of the church. Okay,yeah, the rules of the church the

(50:07):
building. So it's not the church, it's the religion, the rules of
religion, the rules of another personthat's not a Christian but comes up with
a man made theology on how aChristian should be. That's not a Christian.

(50:31):
That's that's like, what's that oxymoreright, that's kind of crazy.
Yeah you are are you are givenme religion being a Christian, but you're
not a Christian yourself. So doyou have advice for you know what?
Yeah? I got you know what. People that want to know how to
have fun and still be a Christianslook here, this is the thing in

(50:53):
a nutshell Christianity. Being a Christianis showing and displaying the love of Christ
given the truthful Gospel, unjudgerated wordof Him. Not judging another person on
what they do, how they dress, what they love, how they eat

(51:15):
what. It has nothing to dowith that. You know what. We
ain't got a heaven or a hellto put anybody in, said David said,
I send against you, Lord,and you are alone an nobody thinking
about you know what? Another personis saying, this is what I suggest.

(51:36):
Enjoy your life. Enjoy your lifeas a Christian. Those who are
not Christians look and see, andand and taste the Bible says, he
says, taste and see that Iam good. Trying. What else do
you have to lose. There's nothingyou have to lose. Taste and see

(52:00):
that the Lord is good. Thisis about your salvation. You know or
where you're gonna be. But asfar as Christians, Christians have fun.
We go skating, we go toparties. You know, you may want
to take a sip or two,so what you know you we may go
out and eat, drink, fellowshipwith other people. That's what we do.
We go out and we talk withother people. With fellowship with other

(52:22):
people. We talk with people thatare not Christians, we talk with people
that are Christians, we talk withpeople that are religious people. We talk
to people that are atheists, chatteredto the agnostics, and we and we
there, but we display and thejoy of that is the Christian walk,
the Christian way, enjoying ourselves becausewe're doing what He wants us to do.

(52:44):
Can I say something that go aheadand say that was what I was
doing over here? I thought thatwas holy hand, I said, I
got something to say. So Iwant to encourage, ok, everybody this
listening to do a few things.One, to please share this broadcast and

(53:06):
let people know about the Hourglass.Two, I want to encourage you that
if you, if if our showis feeding into your spirit and helping you
in any kind of way, pleaseleave us a review, a message,
and let us know what this showis doing for you. We need to

(53:27):
hear from you. We want tohear from you. We're on Facebook,
and of course you know how youcan listen to us. But I want
to end. This is the lastthing I'm gonna say. I want to
end just letting you all know thatbeing a Christian does not mean that you
have to live in some restrictive boxwhere you cannot enjoy yourself and you got
to get all your fun out ofyou before you commit your life to Christ.

(53:51):
That is not what being a Christianis about. Have fun, enjoy
yourself, dive into the Word ofGod. Let God show you what that
means in your life and what thatmeans for you in your relationships and in
your endeavors. And continue to listento us because we're gonna keep talking about
it. And I just want tothank you all for listening to the hour

(54:15):
Glass. Thank you for sharing thistime with us. We love you,
and we just want to keep sharingthe Word of God and the love of
God with you, and also havefun with you and praise the Lord with
you, and laugh with you andcry with you, and look forward to
being that that person that you needto be that we need to be.

(54:37):
We love you, We give honorand God and we give him praise for
you. I am Bruce Hagens andI'm Rashima Hagens, and you have dealt
with us on the hour glass.Bye bye. CFCB Radium Network, First

(54:59):
Class BRU podcasting worldwide
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