#32 - How to keep your fire lit (PART 2) - Unreligious

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to the Unreligious Podcast. Every Monday, we spread the
love of Jesus without judgment or by laws, focusing solely
on Jesus Christ and the Bible. I am Chris, and
I am Big Drew Ski, my bro, I'm why this
one's this one's this one's.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Drewski and Chris really had to power through this one
because I'll be honest with you, you know which you know,
let Chris tell us on struggles here in a minute.
But dude, I was like, it was funny because I
said I just recorded, not either way. And then I
got to thinking. I was like, and I don't know.
If he can't do it, I may just go to

(00:57):
bed and try to do it like Saturday sometime. And
then you're like, no, dude, I want to power through it.
And I was like, oh, it's Chris is powering through it.
I got a power through nearly just sick and see him.
So you actually kind of motivated me. But like, dude,
like just being real though for a minute, it's like,
you know, these the podcasts are not easy, dude. It's

(01:19):
a grind. I mean, I can't tell you how many
times I've heard people say, oh, well, isn't it just
like you know, you just basically hit record and talk.
It's like, yeah, if if that's all it was, there
wouldn't be so many abandoned podcasts on the podcast platforms.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah. Like literally, I was sitting there going, well, when I,
you know, first idea of this whole podcast with you,
and I was like, how hard can that be? You know,
you record some videos, you know, thirty minutes to an
hour long, and you throw them up on YouTube and
that's that. I had no clue but death, and then
not only that, but the podcast that we do, the

(01:58):
research that's required because the topics we talk about. I mean,
if you do a political podcast, think about it. You
just sit there with the news up on screens on
both sides of you and just tell everybody how wrong
everything is. We have to dive in and study for
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I mean, you know, now, if I had my
old set up, which at some point I'm going to
set back up, I mean yeah, I could have like
literally like five or six screens going and be like, oh,
you know, just sound real smart. But but you know, still,
it's like you said, it's a serious thing. So it's like,
you know, when we try to study and you know

(02:36):
and actually prepare and stuff. But yeah, it's dude, it's
I mean, I was talking to a couple of different
people that I know that did podcast before that you
know eventually just quit doing them. It's like, dude, Like,
people don't realize how much of our crime this is.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's like it's a Thursday night in the middle of
the week. We both got to get up early and
stuff for work. And then it's like, you know, it's
it's a lot, dude. Like, like I said, there's so
many people out there. It's like, oh, you just hit record.
It's like, hey, dude, yeah, if it was just hitting
record and posting that, that would be you know.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I mean, yeah, you want to do If you want
to do TikTok videos all day long, that's no problem.
But to do a legit podcast that actually has some
substance to it and some meat on the phone to
talk about it's different.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah. So I was like make shift. I was posting
a comment there to put on the video for the YouTubers.
But yep, if you guys have any questions comments Bible, uh,
you know, or what to try to say, prayer requests
or just anything like that. Feel free to email us

(03:47):
at the Unreligious Podcasts at gmail dot com. H don't
forget to like, subscribe, share and review this podcast. Those
reviews help us out a lot. We're trying to get
We're trying to get ranked, so that helps us do that.
It's just literally if you go to leisure religion or

(04:08):
you know whatever, the different types of categories and stuff,
that's you know, if it ranks like first to however
much or whatever. We're trying to get ranked. But we
are on YouTube and Facebook, which, to be honest with you,
I've been slacking a lot lately. Time has just been
really get away from me. But we are on them.
Follow us and we'll update it from time to time,

(04:31):
and then we are still running the deal. We're still
running the let's see if I can pull it up
real quick here. I wasn't prepared for that, but we
are still running the limited time deal on the merch.
I was one of the first five hundred. It's limited
edition design. We are running that until June first, so

(04:54):
there's still a little bit of time left to get
some to get that design. After you first, it's gonna
go away and we're gonna walk the key and nobody's
gonna be allowed to get it. We might do another
one that like five thousand or something orright, you know,
I don't know, but just all kinds of different stuff.
So check that out on our tea spring. I'll put
a link to that in the description. Other than that, Chris,

(05:19):
how's your week.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Been, brother? You know how it's been. It's been rough again.
I've got some kind of stomach thing going on. It's
not the flu, it's not a virus, it's something other. Uh,
my wife made an appointment. I actually went today to
a gastro entrologist and I've got a CT scam first
thing in the morning. But yeah, they're they're leaning towards diverticulitis.

(05:44):
So I don't know, man, We'll see how it goes.
But yeah, so if if you hear some like grumbling
noises in the background, that's just my stomach, don't worry
about it. It's it's all good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean
it's rough. And I've prayed and prayed and prayed. You know,
don't let the end me stop me from this podcast
any more than it already has. I've already had to
have drew on here twice without me, and that's just

(06:06):
a bummer all the way around for both of us.
So trying to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's just not the same without you.
I mean, don't even wrong. I've hosted podcasts by myself,
you know, in previous podcasts and stuff, but it's just
it's just not as much fun without you. Man.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
The good news is is this is one of like
this one's kind of back to back over to my side.
So you know, if you listen to last week's podcasts,
me and Chris are kind of alternating topics so well,
you know, like Chris will take a topic that'll go one, two, three, seven,
whatever episodes, then it'll come back to me. I'll take
a topic, and we're just kind of alternating that way.

(06:46):
We actually have time to sit down and study. So
other than that prayer requests, I've got your health, Yeah,
got your house.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
On that one. I want to change the prayer request
on that from praying that our house sell in Portugal
to just praying for patience and perseverance for my wife
and I until it does sell. We have had, Drew,
I got to tell you, we've probably got hundreds of
people praying for that house to sell, and it has

(07:20):
not soul, which means God is saying, wait, it is
not time yet. He's got something. He's working for us.
We know that, So now we just have to have
the patience to wait until the right people come along.
We had people look at it Monday of this week.
They looked at our house and a few others, and
well they picked one of the other houses. So I

(07:41):
know God's got the weight on right now. So it's
just a matter of we just need the patience of
perseverance to get through it until He gets it all
out in the open for us.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
All Right, So I added Dietes, I'm still praying for David.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, yeah, please update on him. They went to the
oncologist or whatever, and they're stopping his some of his treatment,
so he's pretty much out of options now.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
So okay, you're supposed to go down to visit him
here pretty soon too, right.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
We were supposed to go last weekend, but then I
got sick, you know, I woke up not feeling good
with my stomach, so we didn't go. We're trying to
go next month in June sometime to see.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Him for sure, Okay, Well to think thing pressing, Uh,
I've I'm gonna add basically, Ah, I'm just gonna blanket

(08:55):
statement suicidal thoughts because I've it's just that's something that
keeps popping up more more and more to those that
are around me. Just I'm just hearing more and more
stories about people that they're affected and just all kinds
of different stuff. So you know, but so I'm gonna
add that just because that's something that's pressing. Add something there.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
No, I was no, I was trying to move the
screen up when I kept highlighting it. But yeah, that's
a that's a very very good topic, dude. We we
we have that around us right now too.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
So yeah, it's just there's a lot of people that's
dealing with the and that's just something it just keeps,
it keeps popping back up, and you know, I think
that it's it's just a demonic stronghold. Yeah, but yes,
I'm gonna add that. And then other than that, I
think we're good to go ahead and bring it up

(09:47):
and get rolling. Chris is feeling bad, so I'm he's
gonna try to push through. But I'm gonna we're gonna
try to efficiently get through it to where he can
you know, uh, he can get on and get it rested.
So but all right, Dear God, we just thank you for,

(10:08):
you know, the freedom to be able to sit here
and talk openly. And we're actually technically recording this episode live,
so I'm not sure who else can even hop on
here and hear what we're talking about tonight. But we
just thank you for the freedom of religion here in
America to where we can just sit and openly talk
about you and our beliefs and listen to opposing beliefs,

(10:31):
and we just we just thank you for all the
blessings that we overlook. I mean, just the technology that
me and Chris are using, the you know, just all
the things that goes into that. God, we do pray
for Chris's health. We pray for hopefully a speedy diagnosis
to where the doctors can just we just pray that
you guide them to a quick solution and they can

(10:55):
just get to the root of the problem quickly and
be able to diagnose this so that they can start
treat and get Chris back to filling one hundred percent.
You know, God, you know his heart, he's literally just
trying to do everything he can to live for you
and serve you, and the enemies just attacking him right now,
and we just pray that you put your hand over

(11:15):
him and you just comfort him and get him through
this rough patch, because he's had every possible obstacle thrown
in his way and he keeps on trucking. So we
just pray that you guide the doctors to a quick,
speedy diagnosis, a quick speedy and efficient treatment so that
he can get back and be one hundred percent and

(11:35):
hopefully not have any long lasting issues from the current
things that's going on. God, we also pray not only
that you know Chris's house and Portugal cells, not only
that you guide them to the correct home, but we
just pray that your will through all this be done.

(11:57):
You know. We just pray that you be with Chris
and you be with Audrey and their family during this time,
and we just pray that you give them patience and understanding,
and we pray that you just you keep the walls
up to where you know the stress and the weight
and all that doesn't fall on them and just overwhelm them. God,

(12:17):
and we pray that you give them the vision to
look at all the good things that's going on right now,
the time spent with families, it's part of their story,
their testimony.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Go.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
We just pray that you show them the positives through
all this and that you'll just slow time down, that
they can just enjoy this time instead of stressing about it.
And it's just the changing of the seasons. But we
just pray for patience and perseverance and just clear understanding
the vision that you'll again that your will be done,
and we know that you're working on something and you're

(12:51):
gonna make that situation and it's going to work out
because everything that you do is for the greater good. Also, God,
we pray for Chris's cousin, David and his cancer journey.
You know, if it, if it's in your will, we
pray for healing and that you can you know, we
can intercede on on David's behalf and you can put

(13:14):
your hand over him and kill him in a supernatural
way that only you get credit for. But God, if
if that is a part of your will, we just
we hope that you give Chris a chance to go
down talk to David, maybe witness to him and lead
him to you to where they both have that closure
and that blessed assurance. God. I also want to pray

(13:36):
for the demonic stronghold that that is is suicidal thoughts
and suicidal tendencies. It's something that's out of all time
high right now. Me and Chris both feel like we're,
you know, in the end times, we're we're creeping towards
just closer and closer to going home. But God, that
brings on a lot of anxiety from people, and I
just pray that you be with those people in this

(13:58):
hard time, this time the need and it's literally just
it's just an attack on the enemy God. And there's
a lot of good people that is listening to the
enemy whisper in their ear and tell them things like,
you know, oh, will you just be better off if
you know everybody runs, You just be better off if
you took your own life and things just be easier,
and you know, you're such a bird. And that's just

(14:20):
literally straight from the devil. And it's a demonic stronghold,
And we're asking you in Jesus' name to it if
there's anybody that has those thoughts or that's dealing with
this and they're listening to this podcasts that they walk
out any of just the enemy's attempts to try to
get them to take their own life, because it's none

(14:41):
of you. God, You want us to live in the
full capacity and the blessings that to have for us.
And we just pray that you can help us. Me
and Chris. People that's listening to this podcast take this
seriously and really try to reach out and affect those
around us for your keep them And just if there's

(15:01):
any other prayer quest anybody that might be listening to
us right now, I pray that they lift him up
in your name and that you can meet them where
they're at and it's in your heaven name. We pray. Yeah, dude,
I just like I said, I was thinking about suicide,
not me, dude, I just was thinking about the topic

(15:23):
of R and Dude, I just think that's just a
straight up demonic thing, bro, Because like I was sitting
there thinking, I'm like the devil when he took Jesus
up to the top and said, oh, well you know jump,
you know, it's like he was basically trying to get
him commit suicide. It's like I'm pretty sure Job's wife,

(15:45):
you know, which the Devil had free reign to torment
him and said, now you know, I think she's on
my team. Let me just leave her here. I'm pretty
sure at one point she basically said, curse God and
like kill yourself. And it's like all throughout the Bible
you see that, it's like some godly person is like
trying to do the will of God, and then that,

(16:05):
you know, Devil tries to step in and be like, hey,
why don't you just just kill yourself? And it's like
it's just something that I think a lot of people
is dealing with.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Man, So do we have another topic? What do we
have another podcast topic.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
That?

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Well, I can say there's a lot of references to
it in the Bible.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Dude, Well, that's something I was maybe thinking about doing
for my next one, possibly because I know people that
have struggled with that and then have attempted it and
honestly do The common theme is in their mind they thought, well,
it would just be easier or it would be better
for everybody else if I wasn't here, like I'm such
a bird and I'm dragging them down. I'm doing that,

(16:48):
And they convinced themselves that like I'm doing this just
and noble thing, and it's literally just the devil.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
So yeah, I mean it's a bad, bad it's a
bad it that in itself is pretty much an epidemic
in our contry.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
So tonight's topic is, uh, there's no good way to
segue from like suicidal thoughts and to keep your fire with.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
There's just not So I'm not actually, but if you
have your fire lit, you're probably not gonna have suicidal thought.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Maybe so, So just to catch you guys up, So
this is part two. Last week we talked about I'm
basically going through like eight different things of how to
keep your fire with the First thing is you have
to have a need for a fire, which is just
an openness to God. I'm comparing a literal fire to

(17:48):
your spiritual walk. The literal sense is like, dude, you
have to have a need to build a fire, like
there's no need to build a fire while build a fire,
But the spiritual meaning is like, you have to have
a need or an openness to be willing to accept
God or at least be open to the option of God.
Number two is the spark slash heat source. If you're

(18:10):
starting to fire, you literally can't have a fire without
a spark. The spiritual connection that is spiritual conviction, and
the encounter with Jesus, that first initial spark where you
know you start feeling convicted, you feel him start tugging
at your heart, and it's that first initial spark that

(18:31):
you feel in your Christian walk. And then we started
talking a little bit about flame. But that's where we're
gonna kind of pick up and I'll probably just rehash
flame out a little bit. So again, you have to
have a need for a fire or a want to
build a fire, if you want to word it like that.
You got to have a spark. Again. You know, we're
the flint. Jesus is the blade. He's literally just chipping

(18:53):
away at us, and all we have to do is
literally just be willing to submit and allow him to
create that spark. So number three is flame, and I'm
basically comparing flame and a lot of these are kind
of interchangeable, but your flame is basically like your Christian walk,

(19:14):
the fruit that you bear. Right again, you can't have
a Christian walk if there was never a spark, Like
if you never encountered Jesus, you never felt conviction, you
never got saved, you know you never just dedicated your
life to Jesus, then it's impossible to have a flame
because you never had the spark. So the flame is
the result of a spark catching onto the fuel, which

(19:36):
we'll get to the fuel here a little bit later.
It's the visible result of combustion. The spiritual application of
the metaphorical flame is some people try to walk to
Christian walk without ever having a spark. That's why they
feel spiritually dry or disconnected. They have encountered the source,
which is Jesus. But true salvation brings change. You can't

(20:01):
fake fruit. When you're saved, the Holy Spirit begins to
produce visible fruit in your life. The Bible says without sorry,
faith without works is dead. Works isn't required for salvation.
It's just kind of evidence thereof. And the analogy is
that the flame represents your walk with God. So again,

(20:22):
once God lights the flame in your life, it becomes
your responsibility to keep it burning. If you're drawing close
to God and you're feeding your fire with his word,
his worship, obedience, your fire is gonna stay hot. And
there's different types of fuel. We'll talk about that if
we get to it tonight. But if you neglect it,

(20:44):
it's gonna fade. God provides the spark and the source,
but the consistency of the fire depends on your walk
initial thoughts.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
My initial thought would be, if you think about a campfire,
for instance, you get that spark going, you get the
flame going, you get everything going. It's nice and warm,
you've got light, you got warm. But if you walk away,
or even when you go to bed and you leave
that fire, say just embers. What a fascinates me, Drew

(21:21):
is I think once you've had the fire burning, kind
of like the seed you always have, the embers are
down there glowing somewhere, you can go out to your
campfire tech most times out or not. The next day,
kick some of the ash off the top and you'll
find hot coals and then you just I mean, like
to fire again.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Well this is one too. We talked about it after
the episode last week. But dude, when me and you
used used to work in trut driving school, we worked
outside year round. Fire was like essential because like the
way it was set up, we were outside, like if
you worked on yard it was just a big gravel
lot and we were teaching people how to like you know,
back trucks up and pull them forward and do pre

(22:03):
trips and stuff, and of course the ac and here
didn't work in most of them. And then we had buildings,
but like the school rules were basically like you're not
allowed to be in them, or like the students could
go in and get coffee and if they wanted to
read over the pre trip and stuff they could or whatever.
But like we as instructors, we were just outside. And
it was funny because it was always like, oh, why

(22:25):
don't you just hop in to ride with them. It's like, dude,
the heater doesn't work. It serves no purpose, you know,
But dude, I can't just just golden the truck. I
can't tell you how many times though, Dude, I had
students walk up that would be like, hey, is it
cool if I make the fire you know this morning?
I was like, yeah, sure, no problem. And then you
like walk up and they've built a pyramid with like

(22:46):
the biggest logs on the bottom and then the medium
stuff in the middle, and then like the kindling is
on top and they're like sitting there with a lighter
trying to light it. It's like, dude, like this is
not do this you know, but how many times did
we walk away from the fire to go like back
up with trucks and stuff. When we come back, like, dude,
what did you guys do? Like the fire's like out,

(23:09):
or it's almost dead because they were throwing wet wood
on it, or you know whatever, or you know, they
started building a fire, but then like you know, you're
not paying attention. They're just literally hitting it with like
a lighter fluid. It's like, dude, there's no actual substance
to this, but yeah, that's exactly how it is, like
you know, and I'm going to get into some other

(23:29):
parts about like you know, just the different types of
fuel and stuff. But ultimately, at the end of the day,
like no one else is responsible for your flame, but
you like it is up to you. And there's times
there's times where like men, you know, it's like there's
times that we just get distracted, which you know, Keith

(23:54):
Boggs always says in our Men's group, if the devil
can't make it good man a bad man, he'll make
him a busy man, meaning like he'll just distract you.
And so sometimes like we just get distracted and it's
like we have full intention of like keeping our fire burning.
But then we just get a new job, or we

(24:17):
you know, a new TV show comes out or new
you know, video game or whatever it is, and we
just get distracted. There's a new Netflix show that comes out,
or we just get busy with work or whatever it is,
and we just look away and it's like that fire.
And then it's like we look back, you know, after

(24:38):
some time, and it's like, whoa dude, Like, what happened
to my fire? You know? And at the end of
the day, like you know, like I said, nobody is
going to protect your fire, but you like, that's up
to you. So some scriptures that I pulled Matthew five sixteen.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may

(25:01):
see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven
Galatians five twenty two twenty three. But the fruit of
the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self control. Against such there is no law. Philippians two
twelve through thirteen is about the white bears. Therefore, my beloved,

(25:25):
as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,
but now much more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
who works in you both to will and to do
for his good pleasure. And then James two seventeen thus

(25:49):
also faith by itself it does not have works, it
is dead. And then the faith without works is dead.
Which for some.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Reason, man, that one right there, faith without works is dead.
This is a very controversial subject.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, it can be. I guess it depends on how
you Now. There's some people that take this to me
and that like, oh, well, you can lose your salvation.
Other people say you can't. Like there's always people on
both sides of it. You're out versus for some reason,

(26:31):
I didn't put what section this is in, but it's
verse fourteen through twenty six, is it. I think it's
James two fourteen through Okay, yeah, yeah, I think it's
James two fourteen through twenty's six. Sorry, I'm reading my

(26:56):
notes here and I got jacked up here. But yeah,
this can be a little controversial. But I'm going to
read this section and then we'll kind of talk about
it a little bit. But which, again, James is a banger.
I mean I've told people for a while now, like, dude,
it's short easy to read, dude, it's such a bath.
But so starting with fourteen, what does a profit? My brethren?

(27:17):
If someone says he has no faith but does not
have works, can faith save him? If a brother or
sister is naked and desolute, destitute of daily food, and
one of them says to him, depart in peace, be
warmed and filled, but you do not give him the
things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also,

(27:39):
faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.
Show me your faith without your works, and I will
show you my faith with my works. But you believe
that there is one God, you do dwell, or you
do well. Even demons believe in trim. But do you

(28:02):
want to know, o foolish man, that faith without works
is dead. Was not Abraham or Father justified by works?
When he offered Isaiah Isaac his son on the altar?
Do you see that faith was working together with his works,
and by his works was made perfect? And the scripture
was fulfilled, which said Abraham believed God, and it was

(28:24):
accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the
friend of God. You see then that a man is
justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise was
not rayhab The Harlowe also justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them sent them out another way.

(28:47):
For the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead. Also. Now a lot of people
take these passages and they take them to mean like,
you know, basically like, well, if you're not doing works,
then you're not really you know, like you're not. Like
they try to tie in works with salvation, like you

(29:10):
can lose it, you can do this or that. Again,
it's not that works is required for salvation, Chris, Christianity
is not a works based salvation. It's just you have
to think about it from the standpoint of like what
did Jesus say? He said, if you love me, you
will keep my commandments. So it's not that you know,

(29:32):
he's gonna like kick you out or nothing like that.
But it's just if you truly love God, you truly
love Christ, you're going to want to follow his word.
You're gonna want to help out your neighbor, You're gonna
want to help Oh this, you know this elderly lady
is struggling with to get her card across the the

(29:54):
the parking lot at the grocery store or whatever. You know.
So going back up to kind of the fruits that
are read. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. It's
not that you try to have these fruits and you

(30:15):
work towards having these fruits. It's just the closer you
get to God, he's going to change your heart and
you're just gonna have these fruits, you know. So when
it comes to your fire again, it's not that you
try to do good things or whatever to make God
happy or whatever. It's because you love Christ so much

(30:36):
you have a heart for his people. It's like you
remember that Christian song come a while back. I think
it was, Oh, I can't remember. It wasn't Jeremy Camp,
but it's one of the other guys. But it was
that give me your eyes for just oh, Brandon Heath,
give me your eyes food just one second. It's when
when God comes into your life, he creates a wholely

(30:58):
new creature. He gives you a whole new name. You're transformed,
you're changed, and it's out of that love that you
should there should be some good fruit somewhere. Like you
shouldn't be the most complainingness, maddest all the time, you know,
causing problems and stirring up strife at work. And like
you know, at your job, you shouldn't be the most

(31:20):
miserable person there. You know, you should be different, you
should be set apart. And so when you're looking at works,
a lot of people read that and they get twisted.
It's not that you're trying to do works because you're
trying to get to heaven or you're trying to keep
your salvation or whatever. It's just like Jesus bought you
with a christ and it's like if you love him,

(31:42):
you know, it's just like with your dad. You know,
like you're gonna go out of your way to do
things for your dad because you love him so much.
It's not because he asked you to do them. It's
like you just do them because you just it's just
out of love and abundance, Like I just wanted to
do something nice for you. But but again, you're flying.
It's just your Christian walk. And so when you're looking

(32:03):
at your Christian walk, what is the fruits of your
Christian walk? Like are you, you know, And again I'm
not gonna like necessarily knock cussing or say that you're
better or worse than anybody, But it's like, dude, if
you're running around work and you've got the worst cuss
in mouth and you're drunk all the time and you're
fighting people every time, and you're spreading gossip and causing strife,

(32:25):
and you know when you look at your Christian walk,
that's kind of the evidence of your flame, your fruit.
So again, I know it's kind of heavy subject, but
just we are kind of some of your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Well, I think the faith without works, you nailed it.
I don't think I could have said it better through
it goes hand in hand. Faith and work to go
hand in hand. When you have truth, faith and you
have truly and I mean truly surrendered yourself to Geez

(33:01):
and to God, you gain that faith, you gain the
Holy Spirit, and with that comes a new heart. Your
heart is softened. You don't have that hard heart anymore.
You don't look at the world the same, You look
at the world with more pity than anger anymore. Once
you have that faith. So I think that there's and

(33:25):
I know you've seen this too, Drew. There's a lot
of people who say, oh, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian,
I'm a Christian, and in some ways they just don't
even show. I mean, they say it out loud, but
their actions and the way they live their life and
the things they do are complete opposite of it. So
I think that if anybody out there is looking for
a Christian that is actually has that faith, look at

(33:48):
how they act as a person. You'll know. You'll know
if somebody is really in the faith, or if somebody
is trying maybe to get into the faith and they
haven't got there. But you'll know because somebody who's in
the faith is going to be gentle, They're going to
be kind, they're gonna be willing to help wherever they can,
do whatever they can. That's shining delight. That's the flame
we're talking about. That's what people see in Christians. And

(34:09):
of course you're going to have your you know, non
believers and people who pursue Christians saying, oh, yeah, you know,
they're all about love, Oh we love everybody, he do
gross you know, yuh, But they don't realize that that's
what our God calls us to do. And if everybody
lived that way, and if everybody showed that flame in
their heart and in their life, the world would be
a completely different picture. So I think that faith without

(34:31):
faith without works is dead because you can't have faith
without works. It comes when I used to claim, oh
I'm a Christian. You know the flash in the pan
I told you about that custimony. I used to claim,
oh I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I never showed
it outside of church. Outside of church, I was just me,
that was whoever I was so, but at church I

(34:53):
was this Christian. So I think that now that I
have the faith, I try to I try to show
that flame to everybody. Hey, this is this is I
want to help you. I want to be good. I
want to I want to make the world a better
place for all humans. So faith without works the reason
I said it's kind of controversial, Drew. Sometimes is a

(35:13):
lot of people say, well, how is that true? The
thief on the cross, what works did he do for?
You know, for his faith? He didn't have faith as well. Well.
I mean we could really get into some deep theology
on this as far as what your your works on earth,
are you in heaven and I mean, you are some

(35:34):
people going to be better than other people. I Mean
there's a whole theology on that. I don't want to
get into that. I'm just saying that you don't have
to worry about doing the acts if you have the faith,
because they're just gonna come. They come together.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Just like, yeah, like you said, it's not that you
don't give money to charity or you know, like you know,
like I said, help an old lady cross Street or
whatever it might be. It's like you don't do those
things because you're trying to make it to heaven and
you're trying to keep it. You do them because it's
like you're just so in love with with your creator

(36:12):
and so at one with him that it's like you
just start adapting, you know, like God's heart and God's
heart for his people. And again it's like, you know,
I've become happier overall as a person, you know, and
it's like I'm just happy more, and it's like I'm
just more willing to do It's like you know, walking
around work and there's times where like I just like

(36:34):
pick up trash or whatever, and it's like it's not
really my job, but like I just or you know,
like we have a conveyor belt at work, and it's
like sometimes I'll be going to grab a hamper and
I'll notice that a couple of things fell off the
other side of the conveyor belt, and so the workers
on this side will literally have to go like all
the way around because you can't get like under it.
They have to go all the way round, you know,

(36:55):
halfway from a splant to walk around and get it.
It's like, well, I'm already here, and just grab it
and throw it up whatever. You know. A manager asked
me to, you know, drop something off yesterday at that
was quote unquote on the way to where I was going.
But it was really like by the time I got
went out or route, went and dropped it off and

(37:16):
then came back, it was actually like forty minutes out
of the way. But it's like and I was kind
of like, dude, I know. I was like, nah, it's like, man,
it's cool. I was like, I don't mind the health,
I said, it's just I mean, you know, I already
worked like ten hours a day. He started laughing. I
was like, but no, because and just all it was was,
you know, one of the customers. The power was out,
and so the driver couldn't take the stuff up to

(37:38):
the second floor because the elevator didn't work. I guess
they didn't have stairs or he had a lot of
stuff or whatever. But it's like it's just you just
but you want to do things because for one, it's
part of your witness, but for two, it's just like
when you have this and I'm not, it's not like
I'm perft. Like there's times where yeah, I'm grumpy. There's
times where I get upset or oh, come on, somebody

(38:00):
cuts me off in traffic, and I'm like they make
signals for reason, you know. It's like, yeah, like I'm
not perfect that it's just majority of the time though,
it's like it's just a form of your witness. And
again it's works is not required for salvation. It's just
kind of evidence thereof And again, you know most of

(38:24):
your Bibles it says faith without works is dead, like
your fire is dead, like it went out. There's no life,
there's no there's no light, there's no flame, there's no
it's just it's just dead, meaning like you're claiming to
be a Christian, but really like have nothing of value.

(38:48):
There's no source, there's no light. It's just dead, you know,
and so.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Would be a Christian but you don't show Jesus.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, and it's it. But you know, and like I said,
we're not saying that it's required. You know, there's a
lot of people on both sides of the spectrum. There.
We can get into some deep theological stuff, but you know, again,
your Christian walk, the fruits of your walk, your closeness
with God. Now we're going to get into fuel. We're
just specifically talking about flame, but the flame is your

(39:19):
Christian walk. What does your Christian walk look like? Now,
before you answer that for yourself, think to yourself, if
my pastor was to walk into my work and go
around to everybody that I work with and say, hey,
can you tell me a little bit about Drew? Hey
can you tell me a little bit about Chris? Like
if your pastor was to walk in and you're not

(39:40):
in the room and go around and ask everybody that
you worked with, hey can you describe Drew to me?

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Like?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
What are they going to say? You know? And so
when you think about your walk, like, just be honest again,
we're not like judging me and Chris didn't go to
church for a long time. We steal jack stuff up
from time, like we're not perfect, but we're just we're
just basically speaking out loud as we're going through this
walk with you guys.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, everybody understand, we don't. We're not even close to perfect.
I've done so much sending him mes stuff in my life.
I don't want anybody to think that we ever are
boasting or saying we're better than anybody else, because I
consider myself better than nobody, literally nobody, So I don't
want anybody to get the wrong impression. We're just trying
to inform everybody of what the.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Work is without we're working through this stuff in real time,
and we're just vocalizing the things that we're going through.
I mean literally, like Chris talked about that flash and
the pan Christian and when he snapped out of that
and you know, and started moving on, that's exactly what
we're talking about. So that leads into number four. Number

(40:49):
four is your environment you're surrounding. So metaphorically, let's say
you start this fire and let's say you're inside. Okay,
well guess what, You're gonna catch the house on fire.
They're gott to move that fire outside, or you got
to put it in a fireplace, or hey, I built
this fire outside, but oh no, it's starting to rain. Right,
so you decided, hey, I have a need for a

(41:11):
fire and open us to a fire. I've built this fire,
I got my spark, got my flame all right, Cool dude,
I got a fire now. Okay, So now you're talking
about your environment, right, So again the fire analogy is
where you build a fire affects how well it burns.
A fire will die in a storm unless it's protected.

(41:32):
If you start a fire inside, you need a proper
setting like a fireplace. If you start your fire outside,
you have shelter for that fire. Is it about the
storm if it rains, as your fire going to go out?
These are all questions about a literal fire, But again,
what's the spiritual application? Just like a fire, your spiritual
walk needs protection from the elements. Your environment affects how

(41:58):
your fire burns, and ultimately you're responsible for maintaining it.
So no one else is gonna protect your fire. It's
up to you to guard it. You might have to
quit hanging out with certain people, you might have to
quit going to certain places, you may have to quit
listening to certain types of music. There's certain things that

(42:21):
in your environment are gonna affect your fire. Now again,
as a Christian, it's not we're not saying, hey, we
don't love you, I hate you, stay away from me.
But there's just times where you you may have to
remove yourself from a circle and talk to it from
the outside. There might be people in your life that
are you know, just they When you're around them, you

(42:43):
you do things that you know you shouldn't. You know,
you go up to the bar, you get drunk, you
get in a drunk bar fight. You know, then it's
like you wake up in a jail cell or you know,
you go out with this person and this person's always
you know, amping up, I do You'll get that girl's number. Hey,
we'll get that that boy's number. Go do this, Go
do that. It's like there's times where again, there some

(43:04):
stuff might have to change in your environment. Posters in
your room. You know. I know a guy who he
for years he had this like poster of like a
half naked It was like one of those like those
model calendars you know that each month has a different
girl or whatever had one, but had one of those

(43:25):
in his shop for years. Well, you know, he just
recently started kind of getting right with the Lord and
changing some things and whatever. And he told me, he said,
you know, this is random, but you know that, like
the bikini calendar I usually have hanging up in my shop.
I was like, I did notice it last time I
was there. Yes, it was very I mean because it's

(43:45):
like literally your eye kind of goes and I was like, whoa.
But he was like, yeah, I just I just didn't
feel right about leaving that up anymore. And I was like, dude,
that's awesome. And he's like, yeah, it's just I'm literally
kind of tempting myself all day long about like looking
at it, you know. And I was like, dude, that's awesome.
But posters in your posters on your wall, I mean,

(44:09):
you know, there's all kinds of different things about your environment,
but you know, your environment may have to change in
order for your fire to continue to burn. This is
a good one right here, But thoughts, dude, I was
going to look it up right now. I don't know

(44:30):
where it's at in the Bible, but yeah, this is
a this is a good one because this is probably
the hardest one for anybody, especially new in the faith.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
It says in the Bible, I gotta find it somewhere.
Maybe you can later, but put it in the nose.
But it says if a if a branch doesn't bear fruit,
you're to cut it away and throw it into the fire.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah. I think that's actually, says Matthew.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah, it says, if it's not bearing fruit, it's better
to cut it away. And that's taught. That's referring to
things and people in your life if they're and this
is so hard because they're you know, there are a lot.
I would say probably every family out there has a split.
You probably got some who are Christian, some who aren't,
or some who have some kind of feet, and some

(45:19):
who don't. And so it's it's.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
So John fifteen, this is Jesus talking. He says, I
am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he
takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes.
Which is an amazing analogy. I was literally just prune
in my wife's to made a plant like earlier. But

(45:47):
again it's like when you're pruning something and you have
a plant, well one of those little you know, branches
or what you're gonna call them. Whenever the leaves start
to kind of turn black or bran or whatever, they
start to die, you have to prune that off or
it's gonna affect the rest of the plant, you know.
And that's like an amazing analogy because it's like, dude,

(46:09):
that's part of it. But every branch that bears fruit,
he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are
already clean because of the word which I have spoken
to you. Abide in me and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides
in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

(46:32):
And then he goes on to talk about I'm the vine,
You're the branch, is he? He kind of sort of
repeats himself a little bit, But again, just a phenomenal analogy.
I'll go ahead and drop that was a great point
that he brought up. I'm gonna drop that into notes
as well.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
So, yeah, man, that's that's what I keep referring to.
And the reason I keep referring to that there is
because as much as it hurts, and I'm telling you, brother,
I'm gonna try not to get emotional, but it hurts.
I've had to prune some of those branches in my
own some of those people that were really close to me,

(47:07):
but we're gonna bring me no good. They were just
dragging me down no matter how many times I tried
to stay on the straight and narrow. Every time I
got around certain people, I felt and it happened every time.
So I mean, those are things that I had to
you know, I have to prune those branches because they're
holding me back from my own growth in my own faith.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah, it's not something that's easy to do, man. Because again,
i'm one of my favorite verses Galatians six one and
following I'm gonna pull out the King James version. Actually,
let me pull up relations further. If a man is

(47:53):
overtaken in any trespassed, you, who are spiritual, restore such
a one in a spirit of gents on this, considering yourself,
lest you be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of cross. For if anyone thinks himself
to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

(48:14):
But but yeah, you know it talks about uh where
was that relations six? Okay, there's a part in there.
I'll try to find it. We might have read it
on another one. But it also talks about like, you know,
you want to restore your brothers in chriss, but if

(48:36):
they're going to drag you down, you know you gotta
let it. You just gotta let it go or whatever.
Oh here you go, it said one, uh yeah, yeah, yeah,
so in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you
also be tempted. So and there's different versions say different things.

(49:00):
So I actually think the CSB version. Let me read
the CSB. That's that's the BIB my study Bible. You
usually read brothers and sisters. If someone is overtaken in
any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual restore such a person
with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that

(49:21):
you won't also be tempted. That's that's why I had
that stuck in my brain because my study Bible CSB.
But but yeah, like you want to restore a brother,
but if they're gonna drag you down, you have to
cut those those branches otherwise, because if you get drugged
down with them, you're not helping anybody. You're not helping yourself.
You're not helping them, you're not helping anybody else in

(49:44):
your community, your church. You're gonna be worthless because you're
gonna be drugged down then to hit with them. So
there's times where you got to put a little cushion.
And you know, there's a great analogy. When you're in
the baby dedication, somebody was talking about, you know that
Bible Versus says fill your quiver with arrows and then

(50:05):
if you basically, if you fire that arrow basically, and
I forgot how it was that's worded it, but it's
like if you fire the arrow in the right path
or whatever, they'll stay on the right path. I'm butchering it.
But but they were talking about how, like the reason
why they're using an ar row is because it can

(50:26):
reach stuff that you can't reach. Meaning if you train
your kids up the right way and you fire that arrow,
their walk and their influence is going to reach somewhere
that you're never gonna be able to reach in your lifetime.
And and again, I just I think it's one of
those things. There's time you have to put a little cushion.

(50:47):
There's time where you have to fire an arrow instead
of trying to you know, swing with a hatchet or something.
It's like you have to try to hit them from
the far and hope for the best. But and that's hard, dude.
Like actually, when it's somebody that you really love and
it's like you want to be there for them and
help them through it, but then before you know, it's
like dad, you're pullings both into quick saying, I.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Think the uh the word we're looking for here, excuse me,
is discernment. We are required to try to bring them
around and show them the light, the fire. We're talking
about the flame, But you have to use discernment because
after so long, if you're not getting through and they're

(51:32):
starting to drag you down, it's yeah, that's the cern.
You have to decide, Okay, is it time to cut
this away or do I still have maybe a chance
to help this person. When you've decided that that person
is not going to accept your help no matter what,
you got to use discernment. You got to cut that away.
And as bad as it hurts, everybody needs to realize,
as bad as that hurts, are you going to allow

(51:55):
that one person or those people to cost you your eternity?
And comparative well and also and it's hard. It's a heart.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
So you might have been friends with this person for
thirty years and you guys were in best friends in
oscool or something. But it's like, but is that person
more important than your kids, your wife, your family? You know,
And it's just these are hard decisions that you have
to make. And it's the same thing. God feels the
same exact way, how mean times as God said, dude,

(52:25):
listen to the idiots. Stop doing what you're doing. You know,
like you just keep doing it over and over and over,
and it's like I've got so much more planning for you,
but you're stuck right here in this one spot. You know.
It's like God feels the same way. But sometimes you
need to or you may need to remove yourself from
toxic people who hinder your spiritual growth. You may need

(52:48):
to move away from harmful influences such as certain types
of music, entertainment, or places. Find a Bible believing church
where you can be fed and grow, get rooted in
a Bible based small group where you can be challenged
and supported. H you know, there's a lot of different
areas that we you know, sometimes need to kind of prme.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
So yeah, you know, let me, can I just say
something right now, like I love that you put such
a certain types of music or entertainment. I want to
talk about that for this second. The different types of music,
Oh excuse me, we have I think you can find
it doesn't matter if it's thrash, metal, hard headbang and rock,

(53:33):
if it's country even now like hardcore rap, you can
find Christian. You can find Christian in almost any genre.
So it's not that hard to switch up because now
you don't have to switch your taste in music. You
just have to switch what you're listening to the lyrics.
I mean, I really and I think that mays.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
I think I've talked about it before on here, but
I had to stop listening to the country dude because
they were just glorifying the lukewarm wa lifestyle. And it's
like literally in the same verse, you know, they're talking
about getting drunk on Friday and Saturday night and then
going to church on Sunday and getting up and working
on Monday, and it's like, you know, it just so

(54:15):
blurred the lines between right and wrong, black and white,
that I've gotten this mindset of like, oh, I'm just
like a good old, you know, Southern guy. I work
hard and you know, go home to my family and
I drink a little bit. But I still, like, you know,
I still pray to God from time to time, and
I did. I had to stop listening to it because

(54:35):
it put me in this mindset of like Luke Warm
is like, you know, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Yeah, So I just wanted to bring it up. If
you all are using U soul, well, I love rap,
and you know there's not. Yeah, there is Christian rap,
trust me, I've heard it. I've listened to it. There's
Christian reggae, there's Christian everything. You can find it if
you want to. And actually it's better because you know
you enjoy that that genre of music, so you can
put that on and now you're getting fed. You're getting

(55:04):
that fire fed instead of smothering with lyrics that are
going into your head that you don't even realize.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
The Holy Spirit is at work in you, guiding, convicting
and helping you change. God meets you where you are,
but it is up to you to protect and nurture
the fire that He has started in you. The truth
is your fire has not protected it can easily be
smothered by the storms of life or distractions. Guard your

(55:32):
fire keep it burning by consciously choosing to be in
the right spiritual environment. Here's some key scriptures. First Corinthians
fifteen thirty three. Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts
good habits. Evil company corrupts good habits. Psalm one one

(55:55):
through three. Blessed is a man who walks not in
the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path
of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law he meditates day and night. He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

(56:18):
that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose lief
also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
Proverbs four twenty three. Keep your heart with all diligence,
for out of it springs the issues of life. He
Brews ten twenty four. Let us consider one another in

(56:40):
order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as it is, or as
is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and
so much the more as you see the day approaching,
and then Galatians six one through three, which I've already read.

(57:01):
But again, you know, and this will wrap up on
this one. We'll get to fuel, oxygen all that stuff
next week, but it's be a three parter. But again,
protect your fire, protect your flame. I mean, honestly, did
we do a whole episode on flame? Noe? We did

(57:24):
flame and environment. We could have done a whole episode
just on either one of those two. But it's so important, guys.
And again, I know you think that you're a loan
I guarantee that there's people in your area that's searching
for a Bible study as well. There's not a Bible
study that you got to start one small group church.
There's all kinds of different tools and stuff, but any

(57:48):
other did you have any thoughts, anything you wanted to add?

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Nope, this is a great series Drew has put together
here as you can tell, well, this is this, dude,
this is fired.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Let's see what you did?

Speaker 1 (58:05):
You get that? Ea? See what I did there? Yeah,
this is this is really good. I'm enjoying this, as
a said, as my stomach is, I'm I'm enjoying this series.
I really am uh. I just would like to say, Rizel,
if you are still listening, hold on Covenant's coming.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
He Chris has been working on this.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
I've already I've already yeah, I've already put I mean
a bunch of notes together. I just got to get
him into our Google docs. But yeah, we're gonna we're
gonna be doing Covenant real soon, Razel, So hold on,
we're gonna we're gonna rock that one out.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
I might be able to wrap this up to one
more episode.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
We'll not We'll not push it.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Yeah, I mean, if it goes to it is what
it is, but Covenant will be next. Chris has got
plenty of time, and I'm still deciding on what I'm
gonna do next. Like I said, right now, if I
had to do an episode right now, I'd maybe say
suicidal thoughts. But who knows, God might put some house
in my heart. But I hope that you guys are

(59:06):
a lot out of this.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
We need some customer feedback here, Like we keep throwing
these these topics out and I'm not nobody's saying, oh, yeah,
that's great, or no, we don't really care about Like
I was thinking about doing the Armor of God doing
an episode on each piece of the Armor of God.
I mean, but tell me what you think people, and
we I we'd love to hear back from you.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Yeah, I mean, I've talked to several people in person,
and it's always liked, you guys doing great. I love this.
I love that, you know, and Garrett's like our number
one listen there, and I pretty much talk to him
like every day, so he always gives me good feedback.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
I might have to I might have to buy him
one of the first five hundred hoodies here in the future.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Well, we've got let's see, this episode will be dropping Monday,
but today is the twenty seconds, so I think the
Monday is Monday's Memorial Oh yeah, you got a happy
Memorial Day, you know which I guess you know, happy
is not necessarily the right verbage, but I meant to

(01:00:12):
add that to the notes, to say something about Memorial Day.
But but yeah, I hope that you guys have a
safe Memorial Day and you guys remember what it's actually for.
But again, I hope that you guys are getting some
out of this. Just in conclusion, keeping the fire lit
requires spiritual diligence and divine dependency. Like a real fire,

(01:00:33):
it must be fed with fuel. You gotta read, obey,
and live out God's word. It's got to be ignited
with heat, supplied with oxygen. And again, we're gonna get
into the rest of the parts of this later, but
I hope that you guys are getting some out of this,
even just a quarter of what me and Chris are.
I know you guys are listening because I see the

(01:00:54):
numbers again. Make sure you guys leave us a review,
like subscribe, share all that run stuff, give us feedback.
You know, if you're I mean, if if you don't
say a thing, we're just assuming that you're liking it.
But if there's a specific topic you want us to cover,
reach out. But other than that, that's pretty much all
I got. Do you have any closing thoughts?

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Nope, nope, we're good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
All right. Well, I am Big Drew Ski and I
am in the Unreligious podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Y'all think

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#32 - How to keep your fire lit (PART 2)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#32 - How to keep your fire lit (PART 2)