December 8, 2024 • 28 mins
Be The Light of the World
Made a finicial mess for his family
The Story of Noah
Made a finicial mess for his family
The Story of Noah
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Around this time of the year, everywhere you look, you're
out and about, family, friends, working, doing whatever, you'll see
people putting lights on everything, their houses, Christmas trees. Lights
become the focus in so many ways around this time
(00:27):
of the year. Lighting becomes a theme of sorts for
the holidays. And that's something special about this. Actually, there's
something about light that gets attention, stirs people's emotions. If
(00:50):
you have seen movies or have been to Las Vegas,
you see the lights everywhere. It's been kind of a
ongoing thing with Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Bigger, better, brighter.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
If you go in any main street USA, you'll see
lights trying to get the attention of the people that
go by. Hey, over here, shop over here, Look at
what we have over here. These are our services over here,
all with blinking, flashing, bright, colorful lights. In scripture, you're
(01:27):
called to be the light unto the world. Matthew five
fourteen through sixteen says you are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead,
they put it on a stand and it gives light
(01:49):
to everyone in the house. In the same way, let
your light shine before others that they may see your
good deeds and glorify your father and Heaven. That's a
good word. You may take light for granted, it's everywhere.
It's easy to use your flip a switch. It comes on,
(02:12):
but it wasn't always that way. There's something precious about it.
When you're called to be the light of the world
in scripture. There's something special about that to be bright,
shining throughout any time so that you can be seen,
(02:32):
kind of like those beacons in front of those stores
we talked about, blinking, flashing with all their color and
all their brightness to get the attention of those that
go by. When you do acts of kindness, when you
(02:53):
live your faith out loud so that people can see it,
people see and take notice. They'll take notice of the
things you're doing. They'll take notice of how you are
and how you act, and in turn, this glorifies God.
(03:14):
As it says in Matthew five, it glorifies God because
people see the things you're doing, people see how you're acting.
So when you live your faith out loud, it covers
all the senses. People will know what you believe by
the way you live. To love God is to want
(03:38):
to be better, to want to be a better you
to take the time to purify yourself each and every
day as a process the same you would to keep
clean or have hygiene physically. This spiritual hygiene is a
process every single day to cleanse yourself in a way
(04:03):
that people will take notice. You want to be a
light for others, a living example to those around you,
And when you're honest about yourself, you show those around
you the things that you do well so that they
can give credit to God. Obviously the glory goes to God,
(04:25):
but also those things that you don't do so well,
those are seen too. As long as you respond properly
to them, others will see them and learn from them
and grow the same as you. The light that you
shine and every day is the knowledge of your salvation
(04:48):
through the death and on the cross and the resurrection.
If you get caught up and just your everyday life
and the things you have, the tasks, the things you
have to do each day, you'll lose sight of the
bigger picture, the more important picture. And with the holidays here,
(05:08):
of course, there are things that are pulling your attention
in every which way. But this is a great opportunity,
a great time of the year for you to check
yourself and make sure that you're living in a way
or expressing your faith in a way that glorifies the Father.
(05:29):
That you are that light on the hill. You can
tell when somebody tries to hide a lot. As it
says in Matthew five, you if you have a lamp,
you don't put it under a bowl. What a silly
illustration if you think about that to take at this
time lighting a candle and putting it under a bowl
(05:51):
where it is of no use to anyone. On the contrary,
the scripture says that you put it on a stand,
you put it high, you put it where everyone can
see it, and everyone gets use of it. So if
you come across either a time in your life or
other people in your life, and you find that they're
always looking for a path to the darkest place or
(06:15):
a place to hide, they're not living and maybe you're
not living in in that healthy space looking to to
shine your light. It's not about pride, it's not about
(06:35):
glorifying yourself. On the contrary, it's about glorifying God. It's
pointing to God, just as the as the moon reflects
the light of the sun and gives glory to the
Sun immediately when you look at the moon knowing that
it's not giving its own light. The same happens.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
When you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Exude and illumine with with who you are and the
things you've learned through scripture and the things you've learned
from other believers, the things you've learned from living life
in a godly way. Well, by doing that, by shining
that light, it gives glory to God. That light, that
(07:18):
passion for salvation and for the things of God, points
back to God. It shows that you are a believer.
It shows that you know the reality of what took
place in the Cross and the beauty importance of the resurrection.
(07:40):
Tewod Corinthians four to six says, for God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Light so important over and over in scripture, used as
(08:03):
an illustration of those things that are good. Darkness doesn't
want anyone to look upon it. Darkness wants to hide darkness,
wants to sit in a place where nobody can see
the good things or the imperfections. But when you look
good or feel good physically, don't you want to go
(08:27):
out everywhere? Don't you want people to see you? And
that can be tied to vanity, that could be tied
to pride. But imagine having inside you such a burst
and a desire to show people the love of God
that you have. And I'm not talking about standing on
(08:49):
a corner with a bullhorn. I'm talking about living in
such a way that you shine, that you are a physical, living,
breathing example of being that light to the world. When
you find yourself running from being seen, when you find
(09:13):
yourself hiding, putting yourself, as it said in Matthew five,
under the bowl, so that the light can't shine anywhere,
you have to ask yourself, are you living as a
light unto the world, or are you hiding in the darkness.
(09:39):
So the holidays, You've got Christmas coming up, and something
that surrounds in one way or another is lights, whether
they're on houses or Christmas trees. Light has this wonderful,
hypnotic and powerful beauty to it. It becomes a part
(09:59):
of the holidays most certainly. Matthew five fourteen through sixteen
says that you are to be the light of the world.
It goes on to say that that having a light
and putting it under a bowl is silly. It doesn't
serve anything. You want to put the light the lamp
up high like a town built on a hill. Everyone
(10:24):
sees it, everyone knows it's there. You are to be
living in a way that you desire to be a
better you every single day. In doing that, you glorify God.
Scripture says that for you to be the light, the
true life, the light, you have to have self control.
(10:47):
Thessalonians five five through ten says, you are all sons
of the light and sons of the day. We do
not belong to the night or the darkness. So then
let us not like be others who are sleep, but
let us be alert and self controlled. For those who
sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk at
(11:08):
drunk at night. But since we belong to the day,
let us be self controlled. Putting on a faith and
a love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation
as a helmet, for God did not appoint us to
suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He died for us so that whether we are awake
(11:32):
or asleep, we may live together with him. It's powerful imagery,
the concept of being in that light. The light of
the believer should grow brighter and brighter every day as
you learn that self control talked about there. Don't fall
into the darkness of ignorance or rebellion.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Be that light, Be.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That source where your light grows brighter as the day
goes on and your life goes on, so that people
can look at you as an example. Proverbs four eighteen
and nineteen talks about the path of righteousness. It's like
the morning sun. It gets brighter and brighter throughout the day.
You should be like that. Remember God will light your path,
(12:20):
and there is no darkness in God. Psalm one nineteen
one oh five. Your word is a lamp to my
feet and the light for my path. Tom, Welcome to
the Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Hello Jesus, Hi, Tom.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I've created a terrible financial mess, and I don't know
how to make things right.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
What kind of financial mess? Bad investments or bad choices.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Or very bad choices? I have three small children eight
ten and a wonderful wife, and we're going to lose
our house in about two weeks. I have a small
business that's in trouble because of my bad financial decisions,
(13:13):
and I want to make it right for everybody.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I just.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I can't believe I made these mistakes, and I don't
know what to do next.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Did you know they were bad when you did them?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I'll take that as a asked.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, I guess not consciously, but in the back of
my mind I was worried.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Were they illegal?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, okay, they were just bad financial choices, doing things
that you shouldn't be doing for whatever reason, not having
the collateral, whatever it is. So you made these decisions,
and now you're suffering the consequence.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, my wife and children are two.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, well that's how households work.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
And the people in the company, well.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
They trusted you and I left down. Indeed, unfortunately, there's
not a quick fix. You know, there's not something now.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It's now.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It's whatever needs to take place, whether that's shutting your
doors or whether it's moving on plan B, whatever it
might be. The situation is, by the sounds of things
so dire that there's not a quick fix.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Now I'm afraid the people in my company will abandon
me and there will be no company. At that point,
I have no income for my family.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That's a good possibility.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I'm trying to find a job and in this economy
that's not working very well.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Have you sat down with all the parties involved and
told them what's going on and where you're at.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Most of them are the people closest to me in
the company. There are freelancers that we hire that we're
very very late paying, and I have not explained everything
to all of them.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Was this just financial decisions? Or oh yeah, where was
the money going? Where was the what was the mistake?
In your eye? Without getting into specifics, but was it greed?
Was it complete mismanagement? Was it taking more money than
you should have? Was it not putting money back into
(15:24):
the company?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I took money out of the company to try to
start a second business, and that business did not work.
It hired people at salaries and opened a second office
that put another financial strain on our first business, and
that turned out to not work. So I had to
(15:48):
close that office and lay those people off.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So I just tried to grow too quickly.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, why I wasn't looking at the money. I have
a CPA, and I was incorrect to put it all
on him, But I guess I felt, if it's out
of sight, out of mind, I can focus on growing
the company while the CPA make sure we're okay financially.
And he gave me warnings from time to time, and
I guess I didn't. It just didn't register how serious
(16:20):
those warnings were.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, And I mean it does all come back to you.
CPA is a tool, you know, like a wrench or
anything else, but you ultimately are the orchestra leader, and
that's going to be in any business that you set up.
You've got to have the vision and the execution, you know,
just like you're responsible if one of your freelancers did
(16:43):
the job wrong, you would still be accountable. So now
you're in this predicament, and unfortunately, I would love to
be able to wave a magic wand over it and
say that it's all going to be okay. But and
it will eventually, but right now you're looking at having
to say some very tough words to people you probably
have grown care about, and then your family. So I
(17:04):
would say at this point though, You've got to be
completely honest with everybody involved, and don't hide anything, don't
try and sugarcoat it.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Say this is.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Where we are at. I've been happy to lead and
to make decisions. Many of us have reaped the benefit
of my good decisions as well as your good decisions. Unfortunately,
we also reap the consequences of my bad decision. And
this is where we're at, and this is the truth.
This is where I see us going. This is my
(17:38):
concern if any of you are capable or in a
situation financially to hang on with me and to hold
tight and see if we can't turn this around. I
would be honored to still have you and my company,
and I'm opening up the floor to discussion and insights
on how we might rectify this. But if you need
(18:00):
because if your families and so on and your responsibilities
need to leave, I understand that as well. But this
is what took place. They need to know. Anybody involved
needs to know and understand.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Well.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I have told most of the people. There's a few
more I need to tell. I guess freelancers.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
This is a family discussion that everybody needs to be
in one room and sit down and go over it,
and you need to be held accountable. You need to
remember this moment as a business person and as a human.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Being certainly affected by family horribly. Is it okay to
pray for help? You know, all my life I've prayed
to thank God for hell wonderful my life has been.
And in the past two months, I've started praying for help,
praying that God will help me out of this. And
I feel guilty praying to ask for things when I
(18:49):
always used to pray to but to be grateful.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's nothing wrong with praying for help or insight or
direction or any of those things.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The guilt.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Is either completely misplaced or it comes from the fact
that you know you did something wrong and you knew
what was wrong when you did it. So that's gonna
be between you and God, apparently at this point. So
the key Tom is to know that absolutely I love you.
(19:22):
That doesn't change. That's not circumstantial. People get in this
circumstantial Christianity as if it's you know, home, when things
are good, everything's fine. No, if anything, this will bring
us closer. This will bring your family closer. As long
as you deal with it properly, you're gonna make mistakes.
That's a little tip from me to you. Look around
everybody's pencils. They have little this little pinkish red thing
(19:44):
on the bottom. It's called an eraser. It's there because
everybody makes mistakes, everybody. So you've got to allow yourself that. Now,
if there was some if you were getting greedy and
you grew too quick, and you were trying to and
you felt you were unstoppable all these things, then that's
something you need to deal with and you need to
work through that, otherwise we'll come and bite you in
(20:05):
the tail again.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I think it was a little bit of that, but
mostly I was trying to make the company growth, to
make it up to everybody, because I mean, we were
starting to have in some financial problems and I thought
the solution was to be even more bold and risk
taking and that would make the company much bigger and
I'd be able to pay everybody pay them back.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And there's bad situations. It happens in business. It just does.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It could be a great idea wrong time. It could
be you know, a great idea wrong place. So you
have to as a businessman, you have to look at
that honestly and say, Okay, is this plan still viable.
It's just because of the market currently not a good thing.
You have to do all these things because you're looking
at it's multifaceted. You as a father, you as a
business person, you as a boss, as an employer, all
(20:54):
of these things you need to look at separately to
understand them separately, and and you have to know your
part in this otherwise you are doomed to repeat it.
As far as your family, you need to be honest
with them and gather their support. I just think that
these things to be done in group settings where everybody's
accountable and everybody can share their feelings and be honest
(21:16):
about it is the best situation. And asking for God's
help completely legitimate. You're going to have immediate needs and
then you're gonna have wants, and they're going to be
two different things. Immediate needs shelter and food for your family,
and it may not be what you're accustomed to.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
And we're going to be living in the office basically.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh well, there's going to be a lot of changes
right now. And my prayer and hope is that your
wife is someone of great substance that's going to stand
with you and be with you as a partner in
this and find out a way out. But it's going
to take some time. It's not going to be overnight,
because it wasn't overnight in which you built this problem.
(22:01):
But the key is to not continue down a path,
don't get the gambler's heart right now, and start thinking, Okay,
how can I how can I rectify this quickly?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
How can I be a hero? How can I let
that go?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
I tried to be a hero to my wife and
start a business with her. That's the one that didn't
work well.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The business sense is hit and miss, even with the greats.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So you need to allow yourself the failures and as
much as you rejoiced in the successes, and you need
to go into survival mode, which is to not fix
things because it sounds entirely broken, but to sustain as
much as you can sustain. And right now, that's going
(22:52):
to be your family, and just as it is going
to be with everyone else that you employed, that their
families are going to become the focus of their lives
as well and the most important thing. But you can
welcome them, and you can maybe find a smaller model
to where you can sustain things, and it won't be
the house you were used to, and it won't be
these types of things, but it will be to sustain.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Seek God, and all of this.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Be in you know, in constant touch with God, not
in some sort of bail me out mode. That's why
I'm talking to you. People get start feeling weird about that,
and God's going listen, that's not our relationship. Our relationship
is not based on good, bad, or anything else. It's
based on us talking and spending time together.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So don't ever feel guilty. The world wants you to
feel guilty. Oh look, he only goes to God when
he's in pain. No, that's that's the devil that wants
you to feel that way. You come and you see me,
and you speak to me, and you pray and you
go to church and you do those things and you
get yourself right and focused and stable, because that'll help
(24:01):
you for making them the same mistake twice.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Kurt, Welcome to Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Good morning. Hi, I'm having a little trouble taking the
story of Noah literally.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well that's a pretty big club, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
So, yeah, there seems to be a lot of evidence
that at that time period there was a local flood,
but globally, there's no indication that there was any mass
extinctions that took place. There didn't seem to be any
disruption with the Egyptian culture or the Mesopotamian culture. So
it just I mean, I was wondering if you can
(24:42):
kind of explain that.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, there's a lot going on, and when you get
into the culture part, there's a there is more than
we're going to get to in a couple of minutes.
I'll tell you that, And I'm going to recommend a
book to start off for you that's obviously not just scripture,
and it's called The Genesis Flood by Henry Morris and
John Whitcomb, and that'll be for longer reading and some things.
(25:06):
But there are some extra biblical evidences that do raise
an eyebrow and I think have to be shuffled into
the fold as well, that point to this concept of
a worldwide catastrophe that would look like a global flood.
In addition, you've got the anecdotal you've got things like
(25:26):
there are many different cultures, many and belief system outside
of Christianity or Judaism that have stories of a worldwide deluge.
So you start there and you work your way in.
There are amazing amounts of fossil graveyards on every continent,
(25:47):
large amounts of coal deposits that would require what constitutes
a very large and rapid covering of huge quantities of vegetation.
You've got oceanic flo fuscils that are found on high mountaintops.
So there's there's other things other than just well, I
don't see this or I don't see it written here,
(26:09):
or I don't see it experienced here. That really, if
you're gonna, if you're gonna say those things, you have
to look at the other side and be fair and say, hey,
there are some things in the strata that are different,
the sharp knifed edge of some of the layers, and
that it happened rapidly, and that it wasn't any certain
type of erosion. And there are many scientific things that
(26:30):
that are looked at that are unexplained. It's like, I
don't know why that's like that at this point, I
don't know why those things have formed the way they do.
And uh, you put those together, and I think you
have equally as a chunk of information to make you
go hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
There's there's more to it than just.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I don't think it happened because X, Y and Z,
and I don't think it's fair to say there isn't
evidence for a worldwide deluge. I think there is, on
the contrary, some absolute evidence that something took place that
in such a way that would put oceanic fossils on
top of mountains, that would cause big fossil graveyards that
(27:19):
had these massive coal deposits that happened due to a
rapid covering of vegetation. I think all that stuff needs
to be shuffled in. And I realize when you're dealing
with things like Noah's arc, really, when you see that
conceptually as to what the arc actually was and what
(27:41):
is being said, it's not necessarily what you think the
biblical account is. And there is much more plausibility to
that story as it stands than one might think because
the story might have been modified or told this way
or told that way. But I'm talking strictly opening scripture,
(28:02):
looking at exactly what it says, and applying that to
known sciences and physics and things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Around this time of the year, everywhere you look, you're
out and about, family, friends, working, doing whatever, you'll see
people putting lights on everything, their houses, Christmas trees. Lights
become the focus in so many ways around this time
(00:27):
of the year. Lighting becomes a theme of sorts for
the holidays. And that's something special about this. Actually, there's
something about light that gets attention, stirs people's emotions. If
(00:50):
you have seen movies or have been to Las Vegas,
you see the lights everywhere. It's been kind of a
ongoing thing with Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Bigger, better, brighter.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
If you go in any main street USA, you'll see
lights trying to get the attention of the people that
go by. Hey, over here, shop over here, Look at
what we have over here. These are our services over here,
all with blinking, flashing, bright, colorful lights. In scripture, you're
(01:27):
called to be the light unto the world. Matthew five
fourteen through sixteen says you are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead,
they put it on a stand and it gives light
(01:49):
to everyone in the house. In the same way, let
your light shine before others that they may see your
good deeds and glorify your father and Heaven. That's a
good word. You may take light for granted, it's everywhere.
It's easy to use your flip a switch. It comes on,
(02:12):
but it wasn't always that way. There's something precious about it.
When you're called to be the light of the world
in scripture. There's something special about that to be bright,
shining throughout any time so that you can be seen,
(02:32):
kind of like those beacons in front of those stores
we talked about, blinking, flashing with all their color and
all their brightness to get the attention of those that
go by. When you do acts of kindness, when you
(02:53):
live your faith out loud so that people can see it,
people see and take notice. They'll take notice of the
things you're doing. They'll take notice of how you are
and how you act, and in turn, this glorifies God.
(03:14):
As it says in Matthew five, it glorifies God because
people see the things you're doing, people see how you're acting.
So when you live your faith out loud, it covers
all the senses. People will know what you believe by
the way you live. To love God is to want
(03:38):
to be better, to want to be a better you
to take the time to purify yourself each and every
day as a process the same you would to keep
clean or have hygiene physically. This spiritual hygiene is a
process every single day to cleanse yourself in a way
(04:03):
that people will take notice. You want to be a
light for others, a living example to those around you,
And when you're honest about yourself, you show those around
you the things that you do well so that they
can give credit to God. Obviously the glory goes to God,
(04:25):
but also those things that you don't do so well,
those are seen too. As long as you respond properly
to them, others will see them and learn from them
and grow the same as you. The light that you
shine and every day is the knowledge of your salvation
(04:48):
through the death and on the cross and the resurrection.
If you get caught up and just your everyday life
and the things you have, the tasks, the things you
have to do each day, you'll lose sight of the
bigger picture, the more important picture. And with the holidays here,
(05:08):
of course, there are things that are pulling your attention
in every which way. But this is a great opportunity,
a great time of the year for you to check
yourself and make sure that you're living in a way
or expressing your faith in a way that glorifies the Father.
(05:29):
That you are that light on the hill. You can
tell when somebody tries to hide a lot. As it
says in Matthew five, you if you have a lamp,
you don't put it under a bowl. What a silly
illustration if you think about that to take at this
time lighting a candle and putting it under a bowl
(05:51):
where it is of no use to anyone. On the contrary,
the scripture says that you put it on a stand,
you put it high, you put it where everyone can
see it, and everyone gets use of it. So if
you come across either a time in your life or
other people in your life, and you find that they're
always looking for a path to the darkest place or
(06:15):
a place to hide, they're not living and maybe you're
not living in in that healthy space looking to to
shine your light. It's not about pride, it's not about
(06:35):
glorifying yourself. On the contrary, it's about glorifying God. It's
pointing to God, just as the as the moon reflects
the light of the sun and gives glory to the
Sun immediately when you look at the moon knowing that
it's not giving its own light. The same happens.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
When you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Exude and illumine with with who you are and the
things you've learned through scripture and the things you've learned
from other believers, the things you've learned from living life
in a godly way. Well, by doing that, by shining
that light, it gives glory to God. That light, that
(07:18):
passion for salvation and for the things of God, points
back to God. It shows that you are a believer.
It shows that you know the reality of what took
place in the Cross and the beauty importance of the resurrection.
(07:40):
Tewod Corinthians four to six says, for God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Light so important over and over in scripture, used as
(08:03):
an illustration of those things that are good. Darkness doesn't
want anyone to look upon it. Darkness wants to hide darkness,
wants to sit in a place where nobody can see
the good things or the imperfections. But when you look
good or feel good physically, don't you want to go
(08:27):
out everywhere? Don't you want people to see you? And
that can be tied to vanity, that could be tied
to pride. But imagine having inside you such a burst
and a desire to show people the love of God
that you have. And I'm not talking about standing on
(08:49):
a corner with a bullhorn. I'm talking about living in
such a way that you shine, that you are a physical, living,
breathing example of being that light to the world. When
you find yourself running from being seen, when you find
(09:13):
yourself hiding, putting yourself, as it said in Matthew five,
under the bowl, so that the light can't shine anywhere,
you have to ask yourself, are you living as a
light unto the world, or are you hiding in the darkness.
(09:39):
So the holidays, You've got Christmas coming up, and something
that surrounds in one way or another is lights, whether
they're on houses or Christmas trees. Light has this wonderful,
hypnotic and powerful beauty to it. It becomes a part
(09:59):
of the holidays most certainly. Matthew five fourteen through sixteen
says that you are to be the light of the world.
It goes on to say that that having a light
and putting it under a bowl is silly. It doesn't
serve anything. You want to put the light the lamp
up high like a town built on a hill. Everyone
(10:24):
sees it, everyone knows it's there. You are to be
living in a way that you desire to be a
better you every single day. In doing that, you glorify God.
Scripture says that for you to be the light, the
true life, the light, you have to have self control.
(10:47):
Thessalonians five five through ten says, you are all sons
of the light and sons of the day. We do
not belong to the night or the darkness. So then
let us not like be others who are sleep, but
let us be alert and self controlled. For those who
sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk at
(11:08):
drunk at night. But since we belong to the day,
let us be self controlled. Putting on a faith and
a love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation
as a helmet, for God did not appoint us to
suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He died for us so that whether we are awake
(11:32):
or asleep, we may live together with him. It's powerful imagery,
the concept of being in that light. The light of
the believer should grow brighter and brighter every day as
you learn that self control talked about there. Don't fall
into the darkness of ignorance or rebellion.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Be that light, Be.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That source where your light grows brighter as the day
goes on and your life goes on, so that people
can look at you as an example. Proverbs four eighteen
and nineteen talks about the path of righteousness. It's like
the morning sun. It gets brighter and brighter throughout the day.
You should be like that. Remember God will light your path,
(12:20):
and there is no darkness in God. Psalm one nineteen
one oh five. Your word is a lamp to my
feet and the light for my path. Tom, Welcome to
the Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Hello Jesus, Hi, Tom.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I've created a terrible financial mess, and I don't know
how to make things right.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
What kind of financial mess? Bad investments or bad choices.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Or very bad choices? I have three small children eight
ten and a wonderful wife, and we're going to lose
our house in about two weeks. I have a small
business that's in trouble because of my bad financial decisions,
(13:13):
and I want to make it right for everybody.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I just.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I can't believe I made these mistakes, and I don't
know what to do next.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Did you know they were bad when you did them?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I'll take that as a asked.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, I guess not consciously, but in the back of
my mind I was worried.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Were they illegal?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, okay, they were just bad financial choices, doing things
that you shouldn't be doing for whatever reason, not having
the collateral, whatever it is. So you made these decisions,
and now you're suffering the consequence.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, my wife and children are two.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, well that's how households work.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
And the people in the company, well.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
They trusted you and I left down. Indeed, unfortunately, there's
not a quick fix. You know, there's not something now.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It's now.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It's whatever needs to take place, whether that's shutting your
doors or whether it's moving on plan B, whatever it
might be. The situation is, by the sounds of things
so dire that there's not a quick fix.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Now I'm afraid the people in my company will abandon
me and there will be no company. At that point,
I have no income for my family.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That's a good possibility.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I'm trying to find a job and in this economy
that's not working very well.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Have you sat down with all the parties involved and
told them what's going on and where you're at.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Most of them are the people closest to me in
the company. There are freelancers that we hire that we're
very very late paying, and I have not explained everything
to all of them.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Was this just financial decisions? Or oh yeah, where was
the money going? Where was the what was the mistake?
In your eye? Without getting into specifics, but was it greed?
Was it complete mismanagement? Was it taking more money than
you should have? Was it not putting money back into
(15:24):
the company?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I took money out of the company to try to
start a second business, and that business did not work.
It hired people at salaries and opened a second office
that put another financial strain on our first business, and
that turned out to not work. So I had to
(15:48):
close that office and lay those people off.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So I just tried to grow too quickly.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, why I wasn't looking at the money. I have
a CPA, and I was incorrect to put it all
on him, But I guess I felt, if it's out
of sight, out of mind, I can focus on growing
the company while the CPA make sure we're okay financially.
And he gave me warnings from time to time, and
I guess I didn't. It just didn't register how serious
(16:20):
those warnings were.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, And I mean it does all come back to you.
CPA is a tool, you know, like a wrench or
anything else, but you ultimately are the orchestra leader, and
that's going to be in any business that you set up.
You've got to have the vision and the execution, you know,
just like you're responsible if one of your freelancers did
(16:43):
the job wrong, you would still be accountable. So now
you're in this predicament, and unfortunately, I would love to
be able to wave a magic wand over it and
say that it's all going to be okay. But and
it will eventually, but right now you're looking at having
to say some very tough words to people you probably
have grown care about, and then your family. So I
(17:04):
would say at this point though, You've got to be
completely honest with everybody involved, and don't hide anything, don't
try and sugarcoat it.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Say this is.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Where we are at. I've been happy to lead and
to make decisions. Many of us have reaped the benefit
of my good decisions as well as your good decisions. Unfortunately,
we also reap the consequences of my bad decision. And
this is where we're at, and this is the truth.
This is where I see us going. This is my
(17:38):
concern if any of you are capable or in a
situation financially to hang on with me and to hold
tight and see if we can't turn this around. I
would be honored to still have you and my company,
and I'm opening up the floor to discussion and insights
on how we might rectify this. But if you need
(18:00):
because if your families and so on and your responsibilities
need to leave, I understand that as well. But this
is what took place. They need to know. Anybody involved
needs to know and understand.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Well.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I have told most of the people. There's a few
more I need to tell. I guess freelancers.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
This is a family discussion that everybody needs to be
in one room and sit down and go over it,
and you need to be held accountable. You need to
remember this moment as a business person and as a human.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Being certainly affected by family horribly. Is it okay to
pray for help? You know, all my life I've prayed
to thank God for hell wonderful my life has been.
And in the past two months, I've started praying for help,
praying that God will help me out of this. And
I feel guilty praying to ask for things when I
(18:49):
always used to pray to but to be grateful.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's nothing wrong with praying for help or insight or
direction or any of those things.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The guilt.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Is either completely misplaced or it comes from the fact
that you know you did something wrong and you knew
what was wrong when you did it. So that's gonna
be between you and God, apparently at this point. So
the key Tom is to know that absolutely I love you.
(19:22):
That doesn't change. That's not circumstantial. People get in this
circumstantial Christianity as if it's you know, home, when things
are good, everything's fine. No, if anything, this will bring
us closer. This will bring your family closer. As long
as you deal with it properly, you're gonna make mistakes.
That's a little tip from me to you. Look around
everybody's pencils. They have little this little pinkish red thing
(19:44):
on the bottom. It's called an eraser. It's there because
everybody makes mistakes, everybody. So you've got to allow yourself that. Now,
if there was some if you were getting greedy and
you grew too quick, and you were trying to and
you felt you were unstoppable all these things, then that's
something you need to deal with and you need to
work through that, otherwise we'll come and bite you in
(20:05):
the tail again.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I think it was a little bit of that, but
mostly I was trying to make the company growth, to
make it up to everybody, because I mean, we were
starting to have in some financial problems and I thought
the solution was to be even more bold and risk
taking and that would make the company much bigger and
I'd be able to pay everybody pay them back.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And there's bad situations. It happens in business. It just does.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It could be a great idea wrong time. It could
be you know, a great idea wrong place. So you
have to as a businessman, you have to look at
that honestly and say, Okay, is this plan still viable.
It's just because of the market currently not a good thing.
You have to do all these things because you're looking
at it's multifaceted. You as a father, you as a
business person, you as a boss, as an employer, all
(20:54):
of these things you need to look at separately to
understand them separately, and and you have to know your
part in this otherwise you are doomed to repeat it.
As far as your family, you need to be honest
with them and gather their support. I just think that
these things to be done in group settings where everybody's
accountable and everybody can share their feelings and be honest
(21:16):
about it is the best situation. And asking for God's
help completely legitimate. You're going to have immediate needs and
then you're gonna have wants, and they're going to be
two different things. Immediate needs shelter and food for your family,
and it may not be what you're accustomed to.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
And we're going to be living in the office basically.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh well, there's going to be a lot of changes
right now. And my prayer and hope is that your
wife is someone of great substance that's going to stand
with you and be with you as a partner in
this and find out a way out. But it's going
to take some time. It's not going to be overnight,
because it wasn't overnight in which you built this problem.
(22:01):
But the key is to not continue down a path,
don't get the gambler's heart right now, and start thinking, Okay,
how can I how can I rectify this quickly?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
How can I be a hero? How can I let
that go?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
I tried to be a hero to my wife and
start a business with her. That's the one that didn't
work well.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The business sense is hit and miss, even with the greats.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So you need to allow yourself the failures and as
much as you rejoiced in the successes, and you need
to go into survival mode, which is to not fix
things because it sounds entirely broken, but to sustain as
much as you can sustain. And right now, that's going
(22:52):
to be your family, and just as it is going
to be with everyone else that you employed, that their
families are going to become the focus of their lives
as well and the most important thing. But you can
welcome them, and you can maybe find a smaller model
to where you can sustain things, and it won't be
the house you were used to, and it won't be
these types of things, but it will be to sustain.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Seek God, and all of this.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Be in you know, in constant touch with God, not
in some sort of bail me out mode. That's why
I'm talking to you. People get start feeling weird about that,
and God's going listen, that's not our relationship. Our relationship
is not based on good, bad, or anything else. It's
based on us talking and spending time together.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So don't ever feel guilty. The world wants you to
feel guilty. Oh look, he only goes to God when
he's in pain. No, that's that's the devil that wants
you to feel that way. You come and you see me,
and you speak to me, and you pray and you
go to church and you do those things and you
get yourself right and focused and stable, because that'll help
(24:01):
you for making them the same mistake twice.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Kurt, Welcome to Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Good morning. Hi, I'm having a little trouble taking the
story of Noah literally.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well that's a pretty big club, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
So, yeah, there seems to be a lot of evidence
that at that time period there was a local flood,
but globally, there's no indication that there was any mass
extinctions that took place. There didn't seem to be any
disruption with the Egyptian culture or the Mesopotamian culture. So
it just I mean, I was wondering if you can
(24:42):
kind of explain that.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, there's a lot going on, and when you get
into the culture part, there's a there is more than
we're going to get to in a couple of minutes.
I'll tell you that, And I'm going to recommend a
book to start off for you that's obviously not just scripture,
and it's called The Genesis Flood by Henry Morris and
John Whitcomb, and that'll be for longer reading and some things.
(25:06):
But there are some extra biblical evidences that do raise
an eyebrow and I think have to be shuffled into
the fold as well, that point to this concept of
a worldwide catastrophe that would look like a global flood.
In addition, you've got the anecdotal you've got things like
(25:26):
there are many different cultures, many and belief system outside
of Christianity or Judaism that have stories of a worldwide deluge.
So you start there and you work your way in.
There are amazing amounts of fossil graveyards on every continent,
(25:47):
large amounts of coal deposits that would require what constitutes
a very large and rapid covering of huge quantities of vegetation.
You've got oceanic flo fuscils that are found on high mountaintops.
So there's there's other things other than just well, I
don't see this or I don't see it written here,
(26:09):
or I don't see it experienced here. That really, if
you're gonna, if you're gonna say those things, you have
to look at the other side and be fair and say, hey,
there are some things in the strata that are different,
the sharp knifed edge of some of the layers, and
that it happened rapidly, and that it wasn't any certain
type of erosion. And there are many scientific things that
(26:30):
that are looked at that are unexplained. It's like, I
don't know why that's like that at this point, I
don't know why those things have formed the way they do.
And uh, you put those together, and I think you
have equally as a chunk of information to make you
go hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
There's there's more to it than just.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I don't think it happened because X, Y and Z,
and I don't think it's fair to say there isn't
evidence for a worldwide deluge. I think there is, on
the contrary, some absolute evidence that something took place that
in such a way that would put oceanic fossils on
top of mountains, that would cause big fossil graveyards that
(27:19):
had these massive coal deposits that happened due to a
rapid covering of vegetation. I think all that stuff needs
to be shuffled in. And I realize when you're dealing
with things like Noah's arc, really, when you see that
conceptually as to what the arc actually was and what
(27:41):
is being said, it's not necessarily what you think the
biblical account is. And there is much more plausibility to
that story as it stands than one might think because
the story might have been modified or told this way
or told that way. But I'm talking strictly opening scripture,
(28:02):
looking at exactly what it says, and applying that to
known sciences and physics and things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
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