Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [11/19]

Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [11/19]

Episode Transcript

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You're listening to KFI AM six fortyon demand. Thanksgiving is Thursday. But
unfortunately, sometimes during trying times,maybe you're going through something in your life,
relationships or work, maybe finances aren'tso great. All these things,

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Life continues to do what it doeson earth regardless of holidays. Right but
as Thanksgiving approaches, and you havethese things in your life that have caused
turmoil or pain or frustration, itcan be very difficult to find things individual
things in your life to be thankfulfor. But being thankful shouldn't be a

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state saved for good times alone.If you wait till things are good and
going well to only be thankful,you miss a little bit of what God's
doing in your life. God callsthe believer to be in a continual state
of thankfulness. God's sustaining love doesn'tchange for you. Right in good times

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are bad. God doesn't say,oh, well, I don't love you
anymore. Your relationship may change withGod if you're doing things that are harmful
to you, or you're living alifestyle that may be damaging. That may
cause issues with your relationship. ButGod doesn't change how he feels about you.

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And good times are bad now.Likewise, your thankfulness should be the
same in good times or in badtimes. If you look around and you
get caught up in just the circumstancesin your life, you may not feel
like there's much to be thankful for. But I assure you there are things

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to be thankful for at every moment, in any time of your life.
And if you get into that rutthat why me, or woe is me?
Or look at all the bad thingsgoing on in my life, you
may miss the picture, the trueimage that God has for you and the
things that He's creating for you inyour life. One Thessalonians five eighteen says,

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give thanks in all circumstances, forthis is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus. So are you inthat place where you can give thanks for
everything, not just for what youwant or what you enjoy. If you
get the attitude like a child,where the child's only happy when they get

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what they want, when they getexactly the thing they want when they want
it, then you're being like thatchild to God. If you get that
mindset that kicking and screaming or throwinga tantrum the grocery store or the toy
store or whatever it might be.You become that child to God. Your

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relationship has to be bigger, broader, and more realistic. I remember seeing
on one of the home video showsnot too long ago, they were showing
clips of the holidays, in particularChristmas. They were showing kids receiving gifts,
and the parents were sometimes playing jokeson them or doing gag gifts or

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goofy things. And then there weresome videos where it was merely them videotaping
their holidays and it would show thekid's reaction to a gift. Now,
if you're a parent, you knowit's not always easy to guess exactly what
kids want or get the right specificone, or maybe they have an eye

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for a particular color or something orother, and sometimes you're going to get
it wrong. Well, in thisvideo, it's exactly what took place.
Had you have this child receiving somethingslightly different than what they had wanted,
but it was quite sweet. Iwas this young child opened it up and
said, oh, this is sogreat. It's not the exact one that

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I wanted, but this is sogreat, and that kind of attitude of
well it may not be exactly whatI want, but the more important thing
is that this shows me that myparents care. Now, God, unlike
parents, knows exactly what you needand exactly what you want, and they're

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not always the same thing. They'renot always the things you want aren't always
what's best for you. So God, in his infinite wisdom, will always
do what's best for you, andyou may not always like it. But
being in that state where you learnto be blessed in the place you are

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right now, that place you're standingright this moment, not just where you
want to be, not that nexttime or if I get this then I'll
be happy. No, being blessedin the place you are right now,
knowing that that godly promise that Godwill never leave you or forsake you.

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And it's it's difficult to be thankfulall the time. It's difficult to be
in that state of thankfulness, andI understand that. But the key,
as always on as it is oneverything, is to remain focused on God,

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putting God first, putting God aboveall all else is what puts you
in that mindset of thankfulness. Isit difficult to always be thankful? Absolutely,
it is difficult, But if you'refocused on God, you'll see it,
you'll be in that thankful moment Psalmone oh seven, Verse one,

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give thanks to the Lord, forhe is good, for his steadfast love
endures forever. Not getting lost inthe circumstance and being lost in God is
to know that God is steadfast inhis love, that the things that God

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promises will endure forever. During eachshow here on the Jesus Christ Show,
I refer to you all the time, all the time, and you've heard
it over and over that the trial. I refer to the trials in your
life as life situations. Now wesay that in the show because they change

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just as circumstances. Circumstances change.I want you to know that these life
situations will change. You must remindyourself that God transcends situations. God transcends
something that is going on just inthe moment, these situational issues, and

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that He has a plan for you. And I know when you're in the
middle of the pain, when you'rein the middle of the frustration, it's
hard to remind yourself of that.It's hard to remember that God has a
plan for you. But he does. And the key to this this time
of the year, with Thanksgiving justaround the corner is to find that mindset

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of being thankful always, not beingcaught up in the circumstances. The enemy
would love for you to be caughtup in the minutia, to have the
little things in life in your faceall the time, to where you can't
think about anything else. It's justabout those things. If you get focused

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on the little picture, you missout on everything around you. And there's
so much going on, so manythings where God is putting blessings in your
life or taking away those things thatare cursing it. And like the child
illustration we talked about earlier, thechild may not understand that a particular sugary

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cereal or candy or something is notalways good for them. They'll kick and
scream and be frustrated and mad atyou as the parent for not allowing them
to have it. But ultimately,it's not only what you give that is
going to be the blessing to achild, it's what you take away and
protect them from. Same way Godin your life. God not only is

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blessing you by putting things in yourlife, placing the things that you need
when you need them, but Godblesses you by the removal of things that
are damaging or threatening to you,the things that may pull you down or
may have you spiral out of controldown a path that's not going to be
beneficial for you. And only whenyou are there in that mindset, only

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when you sit in the present andunderstand that God will give you what you
need when you need it and takeaway those things that are are not good
for you. Only in that momentare you truly able to be thankful for
all things, not just circumstances andthe things going on around you, but

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for everything. Thanksgiving right around thebend. It's coming up quickly. Unfortunately,
when Thanksgiving is coming up in theprimary focus of the the whole holidays
to be thankful, maybe things aren'tgoing so well in your life or you're

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going through something. Then when you'rein the middle of that, it's hard
to go, Okay, I'm goingto dust it off, all of the
ugliness that I'm going through and justbe thankful. Could be financial things,
relationship things, but all of thatplays a part in where you are in
your mind, and it's hard tofind that place to be thankful to God

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when you feel that your life isin an upheaval, When you feel that
your life is turned upside down.But God calls you as a believer to
be in a continual state of thankfulness, not something that is bent or twisted
by the things going on in yourlife, but always is steadfast focusing on
the things of God, always knowingthat it's about God and what God brings

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in your life or what God takesaway, not just the stuff. So
good times, bad time, timesdoesn't matter. First, Thessalonians five eighteen
says give thanks in all circumstances,for this is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus. So it doesn't saygive thanks in all circumstances except for A,

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B, C and D. Itsays, be thankful, give thanks
in all circumstance. We talk abouton the show often about life situations,
and we say that because they change, and I want to remind you over
and over that they're going to change. So if you call today and we
talk about your life situation, Iwant you to think, hey, this

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can change. If it goes fromgood to bad, it can go from
bad to good. You got toknow that God transcends any of these situations,
these issues that are in your life. God has a plan for you.
It's easy to be thankful when wonderfulthings are happening, when great things
are going on. But about thosedesert times in your life, when God

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seems to be gone and good fortunedrives up. You have to be in
a state of thankfulness there, soyou can call them desert times versus dessert
times. The dessert times everything alwaysseems to be going well and you're thankful,
But in the desert times you haveto be thankful. Also, look
for the little things in life youmight be taking for granted. Thank the
Lord for them. Thank God notonly for what he provides, but also

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for what he takes away. Beconsistent in your gratitude towards God. Remember,
life is not just those circumstances.And when you get to that place
where your spirit is louder than yourhead, where you're aware that He is
consistent regardless of what's happening around you, then you can truly be thankful in
all circumstances. Jim, welcome tothe Jesus Christio. Oh I would I

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am well? Jim? How areyou? I'm good? Kind of what's
going on? Well? I've gota long term amatrum shorting up just because
I know you don't have a lotof time. I have since two thousand
and six been struggling with my faithin you, and I know it's not

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the right thing to do, butit's been a struggle. I've lost both
my parents at a very young age. My dad died in two thousand and
six and fifty five, and mymom died in two thousand and ten at
fifty eight, and I've kind oftaken it out on you and held you
responsible. Now, within the lastthree months, I've had my dad heavily

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on my mind. I've seen himin the mirror when I look just like
him. I've seen him in themirror when I looked in the mirror.
I've had I don't even necessarily thatthere were dreams about him, but I
think he's come and seen me inmy dreams and basically telling me everything that
I'm doing right now is wrong.And the other day I was listening to

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some country music and the first foursongs to come on country music were my
dad's favorite four gospel songs, andit was on a country music station,
not a gospel station. So itgot me thinking that what I have been
doing is wrong now, whether thatcome from my Dad. Where that come
from you, I'm not sure.But what I'm calling you for today is

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I know that God waits patiently,He doesn't give up on us. I
know. I know that you guysare gonna sit there and wait for me
to come back to you. Buthow do I go from in lacks of
a lack of a better term,pure hatred for the loss of my parents

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back to where I used to bewith faith in God and basically giving praise
every day for the life that Ihave and not make it seem like it's
a selfish gesture, No, Iunderstand. Part of that is to understand

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that that the Father is your fatheras well, in the sense that it
seems that your family has has allgraduated to go on to heaven and you're
looking around going, hey, thatthat doesn't seem fair. They seem too
young. But to keep in mindthat that God is part of that equation

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as well, and that God ispart of your family, and that you
still do have family in a differentway. Absolutely, But that's kind of
the first step is to understand thatthat's still that still exists and that still
takes place. As far as theother part goes, that being angry at
God and thrusting your fist to theheavens is not the antithesis of the love

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of God. There there are alot of people you don't talk to in
life that you don't know and youdon't care about. This is not one
of them. This is a situationwhere you were hurt and you want to
get God's attention in a very specificway, and you do that by doing
what you do in a human relationshipto try and get their attention. And

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I don't think any of that iswrong to begin with. I think it's
okay to be mad. I thinkit's okay to be upset and to feel
like you were cheated or that something'smissing, or that too much burden was
put upon you. But if you'renot in God's word, if you're not
reading it, if you're not tryingto understand those things, if you're not
in prayer, if you're just inthrusting fists mode, that it takes longer

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to heal because you're not actually inthat relationship with God at the time,
And the only thing that's going tohelp you heal from this and understand it
is being in that relationship. ButGod's not judging you. It's not like
God's some sort of ex friend orsomething who's going to hold a grudge and

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say, well, I don't know, you didn't talk to me for so
long, therefore I'm not gonna I'mnot gonna talk to you. Now.
That's not the way God works.God's ready, willing and able and right
there. He never leaves you,never forsakes you, and is right there
and all you need to do isneed him and he'll be there. No

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magic tricks. Okay, So theprocess is one of honesty, and I
know that that's a concern of yours. It's like you don't want God to
think one or the other. ButGod's not reading your actions that way.
God's reading your heart, and togo into it honestly, start reading again,

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start spending time with God. Youmay never get an answer as to
why your parents were taken at thetime they were, But as you know,
there are people that grow up withtheir parents at all. There's everyone
has their their life and the processof that life, and everybody's assumption is

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that it's going to go to acertain way for a certain length of time,
and there's no guarantees. So thethe place to be is that place
of of appreciation to appreciate you.Do you feel that you appreciated your parents
less because they died early? No? Not at all. Okay, do
you think you would have loved themmore if they stayed longer? Yeah?

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How so? Well, I wouldhave had more time to love them,
I guess. I mean I stilllove them, don't get me wrong,
But I'd have had more time tospend with them. So I don't think
I would have loved them anymore,but I would have I would have had
more time to love them. Yeamore time to love them. But it's
not like you would have loved themmore in some sort of you know,
qualitative sense. It's just it wouldhave just been more and there will be

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that time. There will be timeto say, spend with them again,
just not here. And their purposewas for God, just as your purpose
is for God, and you needto go continue on that. It's it's
sad and it's frustrating when you losepeople. I get it, but you

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can't lose God. He's He's gotthe keys to the understanding, for one,
but also that it's the first thingyou learn, you learn that death
is imminent. It's strange that it'sthe one thing that everybody knows is coming,
and that it doesn't have a particulardate. It's not set the way

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people think it is. People think, ah, though people live to ninety
or whatever, there's no set date. Yet. It's the one thing that
everyone's surprised by. Yeah, canI ask you one more just one more
quick question? Of course, whatis I don't know the Bible very well
as far as where to find things. Is there a section of the Bible

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that will help aid in the healingof the healing process basically, well,
go to and read the entirety ascripture. Scripture is there for understanding and
healing, it really is. Butif there's if you're looking for tiny morsels
that will be helpful, uh,you know, just to be able to

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pick up and read. I wouldsuggest reading front in the Book of Psalm.
If you go through the Book ofPsalms, it's filled with people in
different states of pain or frustration orthings going on and still in their in
their their their state of loving God. The Psalm three, for instance,

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is title Victory in the face ofDefeat. So uh, it's often about
looking for guidance in times of pain, or when you go down a path
that you didn't think you were goingto go down to through and I think
that that can be very very helpfulfor you as well, just to give
you some peace at times. Sothere's a place to start. Thank you

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very much. I appreciate it.You're welcome, and I hope that we
hear back from you as you kindof understand little bits and pieces or there's
you know, epiphanies that you comeacross or you build, continue to build
that bridge. Feel free to callback anytime. I will. Thanks.
I appreciate that in the process ofpain, in the process of going through

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these things, it's hard to continueto have faith. I will also recommend
as some nonscriptural books that tie intothat. The problem of pain and a
grief observed by C. S.Lewis are really wonderful ways of seeing somebody

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deal with those with those very issuesas they pertain to God. You can
find them just about anywhere on anybookstore or online, but they really are
a great insight towards a godly persongoing through or looking at, either academically
or in his own life, theprocess of pain, losing someone and not

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understanding things, and it can bevery powerful to see somebody be honest about
those things from a theological standpoint,because the assumption is the moment you raise
your fists or you get mad,that you've cut yourself off from God,
and that's just not the truth.It's still a very honest and responsive feeling.

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God is still listening. It's whenyou shut God out completely and you
have indifference. As it's been saidbefore, many, many times, the
opposite of love is not hate.It's indifference. It's not caring at all,
one way or the other. That'sthe place God doesn't want you to
be. But being at a placewhere you're angry is at least still in

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a place of caring and having real, deep and authentic emotions. And if
you're still if you're in that place, that's still a place God can reach
you. That's still a place thatGod can work with, and it's still
a place of great honesty and focusupon God. It's not turning yourself away

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from God, it's actually focusing directlysmack dab in the middle of God,
just with anger. Joe in Glendora, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
It's a pleasure to talk to you. Jesus. I had a question that
once I knew him, I knewsomebody who gave ten percent to their church.

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Yes, put, I think theBible says, and then they treated
people lousy the rest of a week, the church or the person. No,
the person treated the people lousy always. But he gave us ten percent,
so he, you know, reallythought he was doing the right thing.
Maybe with a ten percent, butI wanted to compare that to somebody
who couldn't afford the ten percent buttreated people nice. Well ten percent,

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How could you not afford ten percentof something. No, I'm talking about
ten percent of your income you're supposedto give to the church. Well,
that's not accurate. The Bible doesn'tsay to give ten percent. And this
is often, you know, amisconception of tithing. There's tithing deals with
a tenth in Hebrew and it wasan Old Testament principle and basically it was

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taxes. But you pay taxes nowbecause you're not under a theocracy. You're
under in the case of the UnitedStates, you're under a republic, and
that particular case, you're paying taxesand so that's taking care of the running
of things. Now. The newTestament principle is different. It talks about,

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you know, Christians are commanded togive entirely of who they are.
It's considered a living sacrifice in Romanstwelve one and two when it talks about
giving materially or giving of the goodsthat you have. Second Corinthians eight one
through five, it says give asthe Lord leads, and it says to

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give with a joyous heart, andit says to give till it hurts at
times, you know. So thesharing of material goods is absolutely a principle
in Christianity, and in the NewTestament the tenth giving a tenth or what
people call a tithe, and thetithe doesn't exist for today, but a

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lot of churches still refer to itas that. And that's fine. But
taking a portion of what you get, Joe and giving it is a wonderful
thing. Now, as far assaying that you knew someone who gave to
ten percent of his income, butthat was a jerk all all week long,
well that's I don't know what totell you. There are people that

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are jerks out there. I'm notsure how they coincide with one another.
Because I know people who don't giveto the church anything in are jerks.
So I'm not sure how I thinkpeople look for excuses not to give the
church. If you don't go tochurch, then don't give. But if
you're in that church, if you'retaking from them, if you're taking the
air conditioning, if you're taking theseating, if they wear and tear on

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the carpet, if you're hearing themessage, if you're utilizing their daycare,
if you're using their services as achurch, you're part of that community and
you're putting in to that community.You're saying that. Listen, I don't
want my pastor to have eight jobslike some of them do, because they're
trying to serve God. And nowthey've got to be all over the place

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just to try and make ends meetso they can serve God. And in
addition to that, they're on calltwenty four to seven because people need their
pastor. And yes, there isthe other side of that coin. There
are pastors that live very high onthe hog and they're hard to get a

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hold of, and they have securitydetail on them and people with walkie talkies
and all kinds of stuff. Andyou're going, wait, when did church
become this, but there's places inbetween as well, and to understand that
balance and how that works, Ithink is important. There's nothing wrong with

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a church taking in money. There'sa lot of usage usage of that money
that people don't know about, Joe, Philippians funds and different funds where those
churches set aside that money so thatwhen people discreetly and quietly come to them
that are part of that family,not just somebody off the street saying now

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I want you to give me money, but somebody who's a part of that
church family is in stress or inunfortunate circumstance. Church often without blowing bugles,
without you know, running around tellingeverybody and putting it in the daily
paper help them out, and youdon't see those things. Everybody wants to

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condemn the church for receiving money.And in the particular case that you bring
before us, Joe, yeah,there are people that think that tithing is
going to get them into heaven andif they just give ten percent everything say
okay. But if you know,throughout scripture there were examples the young widow
who had very little money and shegave what she could, and the rich

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man gave more didn't mean that therich man was worth more to God.
It's about giving and making sure you'rea part of it and that you're not
just taking. People look for excusesnot to give at church, not to
give, not to spend money,not to you know that like this,

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make an excuse that this person thinksthey're so great because they gave. Well,
no, I don't know about thatperson. They didn't call. But
Joe, I sure hope you don'tuse it as an excuse not to participate
if you are actually involved in thechurch. KFI AM sixty on demand