Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, everyone enjoyed voting so far. Let's give a big
Rabba clause, thank you voting for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What a good group. Man. It's Monday night, Monday night,
I know, I know.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
All right. We'll start with this one. Supernatural events in Africa.
We hear of supernatural charismatic type gifts being prevalent in
Africa that are not here in the US.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Is this true? No?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
All right, next question. Anything further on that one?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, No, it just uh, the worldview, the predominant worldview
and sub Saharan Africa is an animistic worldview, and there
is an absolute belief in supernatural and a tendency to
(00:54):
explain everything supernaturally and tendency to talk about everything in
those kinds of terms. But the idea that somehow there
is more supernatural activity, it's just not. It's just not
born out a greater tendency to explain all things as
(01:17):
supernatural activity, yes, but a greater preponderance of supernatural activity. No.
There's also not nearly the evangelistic success in sub Saharan
Africa that people talk about, right. You hear reports, so
(01:38):
you know it's Africa and salvations in Africa and Southeast
Asia and all these other most of them are grossly exaggerated.
It's rife with syncretism and very poor evangelistic practices with
a soft cell goss spool, and people are responding to
(02:04):
that and to other things. So it makes the work
there very hard.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
And the Pentecostal kind of invasion as well.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, the Pentecostal invasion and the Pentecostal invasion is another
thing that's misunderstood. People think they see and when we
say Pentecostalism on the African continent, we're not talking about
like you and I understand Pentecostals, right, that's Pentecostalism light
where we are. We've got people who you know, are
(02:36):
on the front lawn of a church eating grass or
drinking gasoline, or bringing their wife who's infertile to the
elders of the church for them to sleep with her
so that she can become fertile, or I mean, we're
talking like way out there stuff. And a lot of
(02:56):
people think, well, yeah, you know, we're exporting that into Africa.
Actually we're not. The animistic worldview is very conducive to that.
This understanding that, for example, their cosmology is there's there's us, right,
and this is this is the realm of where we live.
Above us, there's a spiritual realm that is the realm
(03:17):
of the ancestors, and above them there's the realm of
the spirits. And above that, you know, there's the realm
of the gods or the deities or whatever. And so
when something is happening to you, you've you've created, you've
you've committed an offense somewhere along this hierarchy. And so
you need to go to a witch doctor, a holy
(03:39):
man who can number one tell you where the offense
has been committed and number two tell you what you
have to do in order to overcome the offense so
that he can get you a breakthrough familiar language right
to this spiritual hierarchy. And then all of a sudden,
Roman Catholicism or Pentecostalism comes along and they start talking
(04:01):
to you, and it sounds very similar, right, And so
what do you do? You take that and mix it
with this. Right. That's why Pentecostalism is so prevalent there
because the syncretism with that world we same thing in
South America. Animistic world views in South America and the
two most popular things there are what Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism, right,
(04:24):
not because those two things are more successful at marketing,
but because with the syncretistic, animistic worldview, it's easy to
put those things together, so that that's what we're seeing.
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Does the Bible support age of accountability?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Do all babies go to heaven? There's a Bible support
age of accountability? Known? No, there's there's nothing in the
Bible that would even remotely support the idea of the
age of accountability? Do all babies go to heaven? I
don't know. Bible didn't. Bible didn't tell me that. I
don't know. I hope so, but I don't know where
(05:04):
the Bible speaks I speak about to say, it sounds
like a Luther statement there. That's good, Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
If the father is unable, uh, unable, how can the
mother encourage manhood in her sons? Maybe even unwilling or
not not?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yea, in the pure Yeah, so we're just doing like
any question, like any He's like, wait, what did I
talk about that? Did I talk about? Like? I know,
I'm jet lagged, but yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, you know,
and in encouraging manhood in sons or womanhood and daughters
(05:47):
is a function of worldview. It's a function of being
committed to a biblical cosmology, to a biblical worldview, to
a biblical explanation of who we are. Right, what is
a man as a woman? The Bible teaches us that right.
Our culture has a lot of information about that, and
(06:08):
it has a lot of misinformation about that. So what
we're encouraging, whether a husband is president, or a father
is president or not, or whether a mother is present
or not, what we're doing is the same thing. Is
we are trying to point our children to Christ as
the picture of ultimate manhood. And by ultimate manhood, I
(06:31):
mean ultimate humanity right, and men and women as created
in the image of God as being necessary and equal
and complementary pieces of that ultimate manhood. So what we're
trying to do is encourage a biblical worldview as it
relates to those things. And one of the problems even
(06:54):
inherent in the question is the assumption that the way
to get to manhood is to look at a man.
The right way to get to manhood is to look
at God. Right, every father is broken, Amen, every father
(07:18):
is broken, and every mother is broken. So even if
there is a mother or father in the home. We're
pointing through them to the ultimate reality and hoping that
in spite of that broken misrepresentation, that our children get
to the right picture. That's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
A homeschool education is growing among Christians. What other means
can we employ to awaken our brothers and sisters in
Christ about this without being accused of adding to the gospel?
So kind of promoting promoting homeschool over public school education
as it comes.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think the important thing for us to do is
a couple of things. I'm gonna beat this drum a
worldview issue. What is education? Right? We don't need to
be having debates about we need to do this, we
need to do that, we need to do the other.
There's this model, that model the other model, because even
if you're going to do education in your home, you
(08:23):
can do education in your home. That's secular human right.
So it's not about the location of education. We have
to get to what is education? What is its purpose? Right?
Education is discipleship. That that is what it is. That's
the purpose of education, And how do we most effectively
(08:46):
disciple our sons and daughters and all things were made
by Him? And for him. How do we best educate
them in a way that holds to that and that
teaches them all things through that perspective? And that Lens
and I think when we start talking about that, and
(09:09):
and it did again because the end of the question
is how do we do that? How do we do
that without being accused of adding to the gospel? Well,
what I'm just what I'm talking about is the gospel
right and and and gospel centered education and gospel focused education,
and how the Gospel would would mandate that our education
look that way. So I think that's the way that
(09:31):
we do that, rather than advocating for the way I
do it, the way they do it, the way whoever
else does it, because we need to be innovative and
creative in the way that we educate and disciple with
our children.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, how does the Christian worldview shape our understanding
practice of justice? How does this affect our apologetic toward
social justice?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think the example that we talked about, you know,
this picture of you know, Johnny and Susie. The idea
of what is right, what is just? That idea is
born out of our worldview. Social justice is a product
(10:17):
of secular humanism, there is justice, and there is injustice.
The very concept of social justice is antithetical to biblical
justice because social justice is based on the equality of outcomes.
Biblical justice is not. Biblical justice is based on equitable
(10:38):
distribution of justice, period And in Biblical justice, we're not
striving for the same things that that that that social
justice is striving for. You know, social justice and assumes
that all disparity is a result of discrimination. The Bible
(10:58):
doesn't assume that at all. The Bible assumes that there
is disparity built into fall in creation, right, And so
you know, the social justice as a concept comes from somewhere.
You can't just like throw a word and adjective onto
a biblical concept and therefore make that concept. Biblical social
(11:22):
justice is an ideology. It is an ideology that was
born out of cultural Marxism, and it is antithetical to
the biblical worldview. So we need to be careful even
with the words that we choose to use.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
All right, moving on family worship, what does that look
like in your home? Could you advise us on how
to begin that and to continue that family worship?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, you know, family worship is something that's been practiced
historically by Christians, the idea that we gather together in
our homes on a regular basis, on a daily basis,
that we read together, that we sing together, that we
pray together, that we acknowledge God and thank Him for
(12:12):
his goodness and his mercies. That we have an obligation
to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction
of the Lord. Amen. As husbands, we have an obligation
to wash our wives in the water of the words,
so on and so forth, and so the concept of
family worship is born out of those duties and obligations,
and out of patterns that we see in the Bible,
(12:34):
from the Old Testament on through. And so it is
a simple practice of gathering ourselves together daily to pray,
to read, perhaps to sing, but just to acknowledge God,
and to make that a practice that lays the foundation
for who we are and what we believe as a family.
(12:56):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I'm a bi vocational pastor that hit a pretty series
point of burnout last year. I still have a deep
passion for ministry, but I'm struggling to live that passion
out like I used to do. You have any advice
for how I can regain my strength.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, you know, I think when we come to something
like that, it's really important to go back and talk
about I love you know. A lot of the modern
biblical counseling movement that has been so helpful in the church,
and one of the one of the aspects of that
is understanding the difference between fruit and root. Right, if
(13:38):
we just look at fruit, you know, I'm burnout, I'm tired,
I'm discouraged, I'm whatever. Okay, let's do things to deal
with that. No, no, no, root, What is at the
root of that? Right, Let's let's dig down beneath whatever
it is that you're experiencing right now and talk about
what it is that has led you to that. Do
you have wrong expectations? Do you have unrealistic expectations? Is
(14:02):
there sin in your life that has been inconsistent with
the holding in practice of your office? Are there issues
with your with your personal health that that that you're
not you know, are you sleeping? Are you eating right?
Are you exercising? Are you I mean, there's a lot
of things that that that could be leading to that, right,
(14:25):
and those things, depending on what your answer is, it
would lead you in different directions. Right, So don't just
deal with fruit, get to the root. And then once
you're at the root of what this thing is. Now
it may be just as simple as you know, eat better, exercise,
(14:47):
get you some sleep, you know, learn how to unplug.
Or it may be as significant as you know, there's
some serious, you know, sin issues. There's some some some
some unrealistic expectations that could never have been met in
the first place. And where do those come from? Get
rid of them? Right, So you got to get to
(15:09):
the you got to get to the root and not
just deal with the fruit of that. And that's true
for so many of the things that we wrestle with,
all the gospel.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Is it easier to share the gospel in Zambia or
in the United States?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Wow, I don't know, Probably Zambia, Probably, probably Zambia. I
think there's more hostility to the gospel in the United
States right now than in most places, right and more
more hostility. Zambia is a constitutionally Christian republic, wanted few
(15:48):
in the history of the world. Actually, you know what
that What that leads to also as a lot of
you know, cultural Christianity and of course all the syncretism
and all these other stuff that's there, So it has another
set of problems, but hostility to the gospel is not
one of them. So I would think in that regard
(16:08):
that it would they would be easier to share the
gospel there, but it might be at times harder for
people to receive the gospel there.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And kind of a subset to that question, would they
would the knowledge of the Gospel be more prevalent in
Zambia or the US? Or has the distortion taken place
more in the US When you present the gospel, do
you have to really lay out the components?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, you know, I would say it's interesting, Yeah, I
would I would say that there would be as big
a difference in the understanding of the gospel in Texas
and California as it would be in America and Africa, right,
because I mean America. That America is huge, right, There's
(16:57):
three hundred and twenty million of US and there's what
fourteen million Zambians. So you can't really say in America
we dot dot dot and we know that if you've
got if you've gone from Texas to New York, you
recognize that you can't make a blanket statement about America
much easier to make a blanket statement about fifteen million
Zambians and it is about three hundred and twenty million Americans. Right,
(17:19):
So there would be huge differences between sharing the gospel
in Texas and sharing the gospel in New York, right,
or sharing the gospel in Oregon. So, yeah, there are
huge differences and there would probably be. But there would
probably be more significant differences between sharing the gospel and
Texas and going to Oregon than there would be in
sharing the gospel in Texas and going to Zambia. If
(17:42):
that I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
See in regards to your answering question number two, when
you say we're created for God's glory, what does this
actually mean? Can you help explain God's glory in living
for God's glory?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah? So you know, God, God is ultimate being, ultimate truth,
ultimate reality. He is glorious, and God creates the world
and He displays his glory in and through creation. So
(18:21):
inherently everything in creation exists as a display and manifestation
of God's glory. We exist as a display and manifestation
of God's glory. It's a small picture. God's glory cannot
be contained in all the universe, right, you take the
sum total of the universe from the tiny atom all
(18:43):
the way to the largest heavenly bodies and everything in between.
And it is a small picture of the glory of God,
but a picture nonetheless, right, And so we are part
of that, and so by that we exist inherently for
God's glory. But then there's another piece. And here's the
(19:08):
other piece. The other piece is there's an aspect of
God's glory that only we can display. And that aspect
of God's glory is God's mercy and grace. Now watch this,
because a lot of people are like, well, you know
God so good? Then you know why does the great world?
(19:29):
Why does sin come into the world? And why is okay,
I want Mars to display God's mercy and grace. How
does Mars display God's mercy and grace? That's pretty tough, right,
(19:49):
How about the atom? How can the atom? You look
at the atom and you put it under a microscope,
do you see mercy and grace? No, you only see
mercy and grace where there is sin and redemption. So
even sin being in the world is a necessary prerequisite
(20:12):
for the display of God's mercy and grace, so that
we can fully comprehend his glory. Now running you on that, right?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
All right? Just a couple of quick ones here, a
couple more questions. How has your role changed from being
an elder pastor of the church in Spring, Texas to
now being running the university? And differences and pros and cons.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, being a being a dean at at a university,
it's very different. I'm allergic to administrative duties. I am
a visionary leader. And yeah, we're finishing up going through
(21:07):
accreditation right now. And I think, just like the heavens
declare the glory of God, I think the accreditation process
is evidence of the fall. And I hate it. I
love teaching. I love the vision of what it is
(21:30):
that we're doing the establishment of a of a, a
classical Christian, liberal arts, biblical worldview university in Sub Saharan Africa.
I mean just it's it's a phenomenal thing to be
a part of. But I it's it's rough man, that's yeah,
(21:53):
this is this is this is a challenge for me
in so many ways, but I love the fruit of it.
And uh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So all right, a pretty easy one here. Your favorite
dead author and your favorite living author.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Wow, both of those are hard. I just I love.
I love the Puritans. I love the writing of the Puritans. Yeah,
I don't know, it would be tough that yeah, that
(22:34):
would that would be tough. So I'll just put them.
That's my favorite dead author. I love the writing and furitures.
But at the same time, you know, there's there's there's
other writers that I just really enjoy who are not
(22:57):
even Christians. They are just some fantom plastic writers. And
I love the written word. I love people who who
are masterful at the written word. You know. I have
my my my second grandson is named Langston Langston after
(23:26):
who Langston Hughes. Why because my daughter was raised in
my home right and and and we love writers, and
the Langston Hughes is just I mean, his writing is phenomenal.
(23:47):
My grandson's name is Ezra Langston. And people go, well, yeah,
see there you go, right, you're raising Vody Bakams home,
so you get Ezra the biblical name, and you get
Langston from you know, the literature. No, Ezra jack keats
another author, right, because that's that's us in a nutshell.
(24:08):
I love and so I try to teach my children
to to love the written word and two and two
and to savor that and too and to and to
use that and to you know, become better at doing that.
(24:29):
So I guess that's a long way to say. I
don't know that I can answer that question. You know.
It's like saying, who's my favorite kid, you know, whichever
one I'm talking to at the moment.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The very last question, are podcast important to your regular feedings?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Are podcast important to my regular feedings? I hope not,
because I never listen to podcasts. So if they are,
I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I just yeah, I
just never have I don't listen. I don't listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
All right, Well, that does wrap up our time tonight.
Everyone give Vody a big round of applause. Thank you so
much voting, and hey, appreciate your questions. I probably did
not get to six or seven more than we'll try
to answer them tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, we'll start at
the same time. Thank you guys for being here. Many
of you have driven a long ways away, some of
you have hotels here, You've driven so far, so we
(25:25):
definitely appreciate that. Let me pray and we'll be dismissed.
And make sure you buy everything off of his merchandise table. Please, God,
thank you so much for this wonderful body of believers
who love you, desire to know more about you. God,
thank you for letting us gather here tonight and focus
on your word and just to listen to voting. And
we thank you for his salvation. We thank you for
(25:47):
providentially guiding him and growing him over the years and
allowing him to be here tonight to feed and to
help equip us as believers. Lord be with everyone as
they leave here, Give them safe arrivals to their different destinations,
and continue to grow us.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yes, and we pray Amen Amen mm hm
Okay, everyone enjoyed voting so far. Let's give a big
Rabba clause, thank you voting for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What a good group. Man. It's Monday night, Monday night,
I know, I know.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
All right. We'll start with this one. Supernatural events in Africa.
We hear of supernatural charismatic type gifts being prevalent in
Africa that are not here in the US.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Is this true? No?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
All right, next question. Anything further on that one?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, No, it just uh, the worldview, the predominant worldview
and sub Saharan Africa is an animistic worldview, and there
is an absolute belief in supernatural and a tendency to
(00:54):
explain everything supernaturally and tendency to talk about everything in
those kinds of terms. But the idea that somehow there
is more supernatural activity, it's just not. It's just not
born out a greater tendency to explain all things as
(01:17):
supernatural activity, yes, but a greater preponderance of supernatural activity. No.
There's also not nearly the evangelistic success in sub Saharan
Africa that people talk about, right. You hear reports, so
(01:38):
you know it's Africa and salvations in Africa and Southeast
Asia and all these other most of them are grossly exaggerated.
It's rife with syncretism and very poor evangelistic practices with
a soft cell goss spool, and people are responding to
(02:04):
that and to other things. So it makes the work
there very hard.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
And the Pentecostal kind of invasion as well.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, the Pentecostal invasion and the Pentecostal invasion is another
thing that's misunderstood. People think they see and when we
say Pentecostalism on the African continent, we're not talking about
like you and I understand Pentecostals, right, that's Pentecostalism light
where we are. We've got people who you know, are
(02:36):
on the front lawn of a church eating grass or
drinking gasoline, or bringing their wife who's infertile to the
elders of the church for them to sleep with her
so that she can become fertile, or I mean, we're
talking like way out there stuff. And a lot of
(02:56):
people think, well, yeah, you know, we're exporting that into Africa.
Actually we're not. The animistic worldview is very conducive to that.
This understanding that, for example, their cosmology is there's there's us, right,
and this is this is the realm of where we live.
Above us, there's a spiritual realm that is the realm
(03:17):
of the ancestors, and above them there's the realm of
the spirits. And above that, you know, there's the realm
of the gods or the deities or whatever. And so
when something is happening to you, you've you've created, you've
you've committed an offense somewhere along this hierarchy. And so
you need to go to a witch doctor, a holy
(03:39):
man who can number one tell you where the offense
has been committed and number two tell you what you
have to do in order to overcome the offense so
that he can get you a breakthrough familiar language right
to this spiritual hierarchy. And then all of a sudden,
Roman Catholicism or Pentecostalism comes along and they start talking
(04:01):
to you, and it sounds very similar, right, And so
what do you do? You take that and mix it
with this. Right. That's why Pentecostalism is so prevalent there
because the syncretism with that world we same thing in
South America. Animistic world views in South America and the
two most popular things there are what Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism, right,
(04:24):
not because those two things are more successful at marketing,
but because with the syncretistic, animistic worldview, it's easy to
put those things together, so that that's what we're seeing.
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Does the Bible support age of accountability?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Do all babies go to heaven? There's a Bible support
age of accountability? Known? No, there's there's nothing in the
Bible that would even remotely support the idea of the
age of accountability? Do all babies go to heaven? I
don't know. Bible didn't. Bible didn't tell me that. I
don't know. I hope so, but I don't know where
(05:04):
the Bible speaks I speak about to say, it sounds
like a Luther statement there. That's good, Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
If the father is unable, uh, unable, how can the
mother encourage manhood in her sons? Maybe even unwilling or
not not?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yea, in the pure Yeah, so we're just doing like
any question, like any He's like, wait, what did I
talk about that? Did I talk about? Like? I know,
I'm jet lagged, but yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, you know,
and in encouraging manhood in sons or womanhood and daughters
(05:47):
is a function of worldview. It's a function of being
committed to a biblical cosmology, to a biblical worldview, to
a biblical explanation of who we are. Right, what is
a man as a woman? The Bible teaches us that right.
Our culture has a lot of information about that, and
(06:08):
it has a lot of misinformation about that. So what
we're encouraging, whether a husband is president, or a father
is president or not, or whether a mother is present
or not, what we're doing is the same thing. Is
we are trying to point our children to Christ as
the picture of ultimate manhood. And by ultimate manhood, I
(06:31):
mean ultimate humanity right, and men and women as created
in the image of God as being necessary and equal
and complementary pieces of that ultimate manhood. So what we're
trying to do is encourage a biblical worldview as it
relates to those things. And one of the problems even
(06:54):
inherent in the question is the assumption that the way
to get to manhood is to look at a man.
The right way to get to manhood is to look
at God. Right, every father is broken, Amen, every father
(07:18):
is broken, and every mother is broken. So even if
there is a mother or father in the home. We're
pointing through them to the ultimate reality and hoping that
in spite of that broken misrepresentation, that our children get
to the right picture. That's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
A homeschool education is growing among Christians. What other means
can we employ to awaken our brothers and sisters in
Christ about this without being accused of adding to the gospel?
So kind of promoting promoting homeschool over public school education
as it comes.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think the important thing for us to do is
a couple of things. I'm gonna beat this drum a
worldview issue. What is education? Right? We don't need to
be having debates about we need to do this, we
need to do that, we need to do the other.
There's this model, that model the other model, because even
if you're going to do education in your home, you
(08:23):
can do education in your home. That's secular human right.
So it's not about the location of education. We have
to get to what is education? What is its purpose? Right?
Education is discipleship. That that is what it is. That's
the purpose of education, And how do we most effectively
(08:46):
disciple our sons and daughters and all things were made
by Him? And for him. How do we best educate
them in a way that holds to that and that
teaches them all things through that perspective? And that Lens
and I think when we start talking about that, and
(09:09):
and it did again because the end of the question
is how do we do that? How do we do
that without being accused of adding to the gospel? Well,
what I'm just what I'm talking about is the gospel
right and and and gospel centered education and gospel focused education,
and how the Gospel would would mandate that our education
look that way. So I think that's the way that
(09:31):
we do that, rather than advocating for the way I
do it, the way they do it, the way whoever
else does it, because we need to be innovative and
creative in the way that we educate and disciple with
our children.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, how does the Christian worldview shape our understanding
practice of justice? How does this affect our apologetic toward
social justice?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think the example that we talked about, you know,
this picture of you know, Johnny and Susie. The idea
of what is right, what is just? That idea is
born out of our worldview. Social justice is a product
(10:17):
of secular humanism, there is justice, and there is injustice.
The very concept of social justice is antithetical to biblical
justice because social justice is based on the equality of outcomes.
Biblical justice is not. Biblical justice is based on equitable
(10:38):
distribution of justice, period And in Biblical justice, we're not
striving for the same things that that that that social
justice is striving for. You know, social justice and assumes
that all disparity is a result of discrimination. The Bible
(10:58):
doesn't assume that at all. The Bible assumes that there
is disparity built into fall in creation, right, And so
you know, the social justice as a concept comes from somewhere.
You can't just like throw a word and adjective onto
a biblical concept and therefore make that concept. Biblical social
(11:22):
justice is an ideology. It is an ideology that was
born out of cultural Marxism, and it is antithetical to
the biblical worldview. So we need to be careful even
with the words that we choose to use.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
All right, moving on family worship, what does that look
like in your home? Could you advise us on how
to begin that and to continue that family worship?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, you know, family worship is something that's been practiced
historically by Christians, the idea that we gather together in
our homes on a regular basis, on a daily basis,
that we read together, that we sing together, that we
pray together, that we acknowledge God and thank Him for
(12:12):
his goodness and his mercies. That we have an obligation
to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction
of the Lord. Amen. As husbands, we have an obligation
to wash our wives in the water of the words,
so on and so forth, and so the concept of
family worship is born out of those duties and obligations,
and out of patterns that we see in the Bible,
(12:34):
from the Old Testament on through. And so it is
a simple practice of gathering ourselves together daily to pray,
to read, perhaps to sing, but just to acknowledge God,
and to make that a practice that lays the foundation
for who we are and what we believe as a family.
(12:56):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I'm a bi vocational pastor that hit a pretty series
point of burnout last year. I still have a deep
passion for ministry, but I'm struggling to live that passion
out like I used to do. You have any advice
for how I can regain my strength.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, you know, I think when we come to something
like that, it's really important to go back and talk
about I love you know. A lot of the modern
biblical counseling movement that has been so helpful in the church,
and one of the one of the aspects of that
is understanding the difference between fruit and root. Right, if
(13:38):
we just look at fruit, you know, I'm burnout, I'm tired,
I'm discouraged, I'm whatever. Okay, let's do things to deal
with that. No, no, no, root, What is at the
root of that? Right, Let's let's dig down beneath whatever
it is that you're experiencing right now and talk about
what it is that has led you to that. Do
you have wrong expectations? Do you have unrealistic expectations? Is
(14:02):
there sin in your life that has been inconsistent with
the holding in practice of your office? Are there issues
with your with your personal health that that that you're
not you know, are you sleeping? Are you eating right?
Are you exercising? Are you I mean, there's a lot
of things that that that could be leading to that, right,
(14:25):
and those things, depending on what your answer is, it
would lead you in different directions. Right, So don't just
deal with fruit, get to the root. And then once
you're at the root of what this thing is. Now
it may be just as simple as you know, eat better, exercise,
(14:47):
get you some sleep, you know, learn how to unplug.
Or it may be as significant as you know, there's
some serious, you know, sin issues. There's some some some
some unrealistic expectations that could never have been met in
the first place. And where do those come from? Get
rid of them? Right, So you got to get to
(15:09):
the you got to get to the root and not
just deal with the fruit of that. And that's true
for so many of the things that we wrestle with,
all the gospel.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Is it easier to share the gospel in Zambia or
in the United States?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Wow, I don't know, Probably Zambia, Probably, probably Zambia. I
think there's more hostility to the gospel in the United
States right now than in most places, right and more
more hostility. Zambia is a constitutionally Christian republic, wanted few
(15:48):
in the history of the world. Actually, you know what
that What that leads to also as a lot of
you know, cultural Christianity and of course all the syncretism
and all these other stuff that's there, So it has another
set of problems, but hostility to the gospel is not
one of them. So I would think in that regard
(16:08):
that it would they would be easier to share the
gospel there, but it might be at times harder for
people to receive the gospel there.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And kind of a subset to that question, would they
would the knowledge of the Gospel be more prevalent in
Zambia or the US? Or has the distortion taken place
more in the US When you present the gospel, do
you have to really lay out the components?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, you know, I would say it's interesting, Yeah, I
would I would say that there would be as big
a difference in the understanding of the gospel in Texas
and California as it would be in America and Africa, right,
because I mean America. That America is huge, right, There's
(16:57):
three hundred and twenty million of US and there's what
fourteen million Zambians. So you can't really say in America
we dot dot dot and we know that if you've
got if you've gone from Texas to New York, you
recognize that you can't make a blanket statement about America
much easier to make a blanket statement about fifteen million
Zambians and it is about three hundred and twenty million Americans. Right,
(17:19):
So there would be huge differences between sharing the gospel
in Texas and sharing the gospel in New York, right,
or sharing the gospel in Oregon. So, yeah, there are
huge differences and there would probably be. But there would
probably be more significant differences between sharing the gospel and
Texas and going to Oregon than there would be in
sharing the gospel in Texas and going to Zambia. If
(17:42):
that I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
See in regards to your answering question number two, when
you say we're created for God's glory, what does this
actually mean? Can you help explain God's glory in living
for God's glory?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah? So you know, God, God is ultimate being, ultimate truth,
ultimate reality. He is glorious, and God creates the world
and He displays his glory in and through creation. So
(18:21):
inherently everything in creation exists as a display and manifestation
of God's glory. We exist as a display and manifestation
of God's glory. It's a small picture. God's glory cannot
be contained in all the universe, right, you take the
sum total of the universe from the tiny atom all
(18:43):
the way to the largest heavenly bodies and everything in between.
And it is a small picture of the glory of God,
but a picture nonetheless, right, And so we are part
of that, and so by that we exist inherently for
God's glory. But then there's another piece. And here's the
(19:08):
other piece. The other piece is there's an aspect of
God's glory that only we can display. And that aspect
of God's glory is God's mercy and grace. Now watch this,
because a lot of people are like, well, you know
God so good? Then you know why does the great world?
(19:29):
Why does sin come into the world? And why is okay,
I want Mars to display God's mercy and grace. How
does Mars display God's mercy and grace? That's pretty tough, right,
(19:49):
How about the atom? How can the atom? You look
at the atom and you put it under a microscope,
do you see mercy and grace? No, you only see
mercy and grace where there is sin and redemption. So
even sin being in the world is a necessary prerequisite
(20:12):
for the display of God's mercy and grace, so that
we can fully comprehend his glory. Now running you on that, right?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
All right? Just a couple of quick ones here, a
couple more questions. How has your role changed from being
an elder pastor of the church in Spring, Texas to
now being running the university? And differences and pros and cons.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, being a being a dean at at a university,
it's very different. I'm allergic to administrative duties. I am
a visionary leader. And yeah, we're finishing up going through
(21:07):
accreditation right now. And I think, just like the heavens
declare the glory of God, I think the accreditation process
is evidence of the fall. And I hate it. I
love teaching. I love the vision of what it is
(21:30):
that we're doing the establishment of a of a, a
classical Christian, liberal arts, biblical worldview university in Sub Saharan Africa.
I mean just it's it's a phenomenal thing to be
a part of. But I it's it's rough man, that's yeah,
(21:53):
this is this is this is a challenge for me
in so many ways, but I love the fruit of it.
And uh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So all right, a pretty easy one here. Your favorite
dead author and your favorite living author.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Wow, both of those are hard. I just I love.
I love the Puritans. I love the writing of the Puritans. Yeah,
I don't know, it would be tough that yeah, that
(22:34):
would that would be tough. So I'll just put them.
That's my favorite dead author. I love the writing and furitures.
But at the same time, you know, there's there's there's
other writers that I just really enjoy who are not
(22:57):
even Christians. They are just some fantom plastic writers. And
I love the written word. I love people who who
are masterful at the written word. You know. I have
my my my second grandson is named Langston Langston after
(23:26):
who Langston Hughes. Why because my daughter was raised in
my home right and and and we love writers, and
the Langston Hughes is just I mean, his writing is phenomenal.
(23:47):
My grandson's name is Ezra Langston. And people go, well, yeah,
see there you go, right, you're raising Vody Bakams home,
so you get Ezra the biblical name, and you get
Langston from you know, the literature. No, Ezra jack keats
another author, right, because that's that's us in a nutshell.
(24:08):
I love and so I try to teach my children
to to love the written word and two and two
and to savor that and too and to and to
use that and to you know, become better at doing that.
(24:29):
So I guess that's a long way to say. I
don't know that I can answer that question. You know.
It's like saying, who's my favorite kid, you know, whichever
one I'm talking to at the moment.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The very last question, are podcast important to your regular feedings?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Are podcast important to my regular feedings? I hope not,
because I never listen to podcasts. So if they are,
I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I just yeah, I
just never have I don't listen. I don't listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
All right, Well, that does wrap up our time tonight.
Everyone give Vody a big round of applause. Thank you so
much voting, and hey, appreciate your questions. I probably did
not get to six or seven more than we'll try
to answer them tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, we'll start at
the same time. Thank you guys for being here. Many
of you have driven a long ways away, some of
you have hotels here, You've driven so far, so we
(25:25):
definitely appreciate that. Let me pray and we'll be dismissed.
And make sure you buy everything off of his merchandise table. Please, God,
thank you so much for this wonderful body of believers
who love you, desire to know more about you. God,
thank you for letting us gather here tonight and focus
on your word and just to listen to voting. And
we thank you for his salvation. We thank you for
(25:47):
providentially guiding him and growing him over the years and
allowing him to be here tonight to feed and to
help equip us as believers. Lord be with everyone as
they leave here, Give them safe arrivals to their different destinations,
and continue to grow us.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yes, and we pray Amen Amen mm hm
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