November 24, 2024 • 26 mins
In Love With a Non Christian
The Copetition between Demonations
Cremation
Jesus Tempted in the Desert
The Copetition between Demonations
Cremation
Jesus Tempted in the Desert
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI A six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Jeff, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi you, Jeff,
how can I help you?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey, Jesus, nice talking to you. I've fallen in love
with a non Christian. We've been together for about six years.
And I guess if I were going to ask the
question playing blank to maintain my relationship with God, should
I walk in to the my house today and break
(00:36):
up with her? Or is this a relationship that could
somehow work as a Christian?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, of course it can work. There's I think a
lot of people want to jump to the conclusion that
it's impossible. It's not. It's it can be incredibly difficult
in ways that you cannot even imagine, and they usually
creep up pretty quickly after marriage. Could be even more
difficult with children. Children Bringing children into the equation makes
(01:13):
it exponentially more difficult. So is that a goal? I mean,
six years into a relationship, obviously you're a little slow
on the Yeah, why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I think I just I think both of us have
probably had a few a little bit of bad luck
in the past, and that's more of it than anything
that we've just been slow. And you know what, time
just flies. It seems like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So do you know what bad luck in relationships actually
is called? No, I'd love to know foolishness.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Foolishness okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And so really, unless someone outright lies to you and
misrepresents who they are as a human being, then the
foolishness on the two of you somewhere. So if she's
had bad people in her life, it's because she's chose to.
And if you've had bad people in your life, it's
because you've chosen.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This one's working out really nice, and that's why, you know.
But I've still got that little gunshy well, and just
that issue of faith is still kind of bothers me
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But you stick around, you waste her time and yours
six years of it so far.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Exactly. But I again, I just don't want to give
this up.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's just too good, okay, because I mean, it's it's
really a tiny verse. Do not be bound together with unbelievers?
For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship
has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with bail?
(02:55):
Or what has the believer in common with an unbeliever.
So really the verses that talk about this, and often
it can be misconstrued. Really, the concept of being equally
yoked is being bound to an oxen of same strength
and purpose and focus. Because if you have two oxen
(03:16):
and one is smaller, then you can't plow straight. One's
either going to be weaker and pull it down, or
if they are both strong and wanting to go in
different directions, they're going to be pulling the plow in
different directions. That's the visual and the difficulty there is.
(03:38):
You imagine trying to build a house with another carpenter
and you believe in using a ruler, and they believe
in organic measurement. Well, I like to guess and just
eyeball it. That seems like well, usually the person with
a ruler starts making the excuses. Well I'll just double
(04:00):
check their work and I'll go over there. It ends
up not working in many many ways. It's not impossible.
I don't like when people say it's impossible. It can
be difficult, and in relationships that usually are selfish to
begin with, a lot of people go into relationships thinking
I just want somebody to be able to cheer for me,
(04:21):
or watch me do what I do, and to eat
the things I like to eat, and go to the
places I like to eat with me, And that's not
really a relationship. So in this case they can be
quite difficult. You have to remove a lot of selflessness,
which is what you should be doing in any relationship.
(04:42):
But now you're yielding not only to your partner, you're
yielding to a whole different mindset. So you may say, well,
I would do anything for her, but then when she
wants to do something that it comes from whatever her
faith is or lack thereof, now you're going, oh, well,
I can't participate in that because that's not my faith.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Right, it is a thought that, over a lifetime that
somebody may come into my faith. Is that a pretty poor.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Uh well you may go into hers.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Okay, that Jesus I promise will never happen.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, well I'm just saying that. I Well that then
then why risk it. Here's the thing I get love.
It's a beautiful thing. I get connection and and kinetic
response and the sparks that happen, I get chemistry. All
of that. I created it. It has a wonderful place.
(05:47):
I just think people make excuses to do the wrong
thing so much because sometimes it's easier or convenient because
it's right now. And that's not to say that you
guys don't have something wonderful, but if you really honestly
go into it, sitting down and talking it out, how
are we going to raise the kids your faith or mine?
(06:10):
When we come to a life problem deals with X,
Y and Z. I've had somebody call the program not
too long ago stating that married to his wife and
they have different views, and that they've always gotten long
and it's always worked out well. They've got four kids
or three kids, and we're having a fourth and she
(06:33):
was done. She didn't want kids anymore, and she wanted
to get an abortion, which is a total, totally against
He never saw it coming. Wasn't something that had come up.
It wasn't against her worldview, but it was against his.
And quite frankly, he called from California. It's not in
his favor, it's his business, but not really so legally
(07:00):
it was on in her situation. Was she had the
ability to make the decision, and that's not something somebody
might think about down the line. And these are the
types of things you need to ask Jeff and really
make sure that it's that it's what you want, because
these things will arise and you may find yourself in
(07:21):
a situation and you have to go into that going okay,
as long as you know, okay, this may happen and
that's that may be the way it goes down, and
you may have to go with the flow, not her
going with a flow. Sam. Welcome to Jesus Christio.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Hello, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm well Sam, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well? My mother passed away about four years ago and
she's from ILLINOI and she's like Methodist and I think
is what she was baptized. But okay, he had five
kids and wasn't really active into the church because my
father passed away at sais and I and she lived
(08:06):
her life totally, you know, unconditional for all her kids.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
I was just you know, wanting to make sure that
that you know, I don't know how that bolence goes
to going in there and say I got a mother
in law who's a Roman Catholic and she goes into church,
I CA's hunting the time clock, but then she'll come
home and and not not really act upon anything where
it's like my mom gonna give everything.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You know, well, it's not. It's not a race, and
it's not that type of game. And I know that
a lot of the different denominations go back and forth
with one another as if you know, there's some sort
of contest, and wow, look how good I am, or
look at least I can pretend I'm good, or look
how much time I spend in church or anything. Put
all that stuff aside for a moment, Sam, and I
want you to think about you know who who your
(08:56):
mother was, and uh the claims that she made with
her life, and and trust God to fill in any
gaps that can be filled in. There are people that
are baptized and they live their life for God, and
yet they struggle with the church or these types of things.
(09:17):
Yet they're still very devout in their own way. And
you're not going to find a perfect Christian. But you
have to trust God in these situations. You can't know.
But there's no reason. There's nothing that stands out in
the story that you shared with us that stands out
and says that your mom is anywhere but in heaven.
You know that your mom is to think that your
(09:39):
mom is not somehow with God. It doesn't make sense
to me. So be at peace with that. I know
that this is a question that comes up every now
and again, Sam, someone will call in and say, oh,
family member never really talked about God, or I don't
know if they really meant it, or maybe they were
(10:00):
in church all the time, whatever it might be. You
can't always know. I can assume based on things that
they said. And if you know that they gave their
life to Christ, and they followed me, and they followed
my word and all those things, then you can pretty
safely say, well, that seemed to be the balance of
their life. That seems to be what they followed and
(10:22):
the focus of their life. But to sit there and
worry about it at this point it will do you
no good. Just trust that God gave every opportunity, as
he does for everyone, the best opportunity possible to make
a decision for God, to live for God, and that
(10:44):
in that decision it was honored with a ticket to heaven.
As they say, really it's about it's not about ignorance,
and people get caught up in that. And I know
it's really easy to make Christianity Christianity out to be
the bad, like it's trying to exclude everybody, but it's not.
As a matter of fact, it's really allowing people to
(11:04):
do they're bidding. If they don't want to be with
God for seventy years on this planet, they don't have
to be with God for eternity. But if someone seeks,
so one genuinely seeks, then they'll find. And I say
that when I knock on your heart and that door
of your heart, all I ask is that you open it, Yvet,
(11:31):
Welcome to the Jesus Christ. Show Hi you Vet, you there?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Hi, Yeah, I'm sorry, there's an ambulance coming by. I'm like, well, anyway,
my question is regarding cremation.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
My mom has like six.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Burial plots for us, and I think she's gonna just
think that at the end of our you know, life here,
we're going to be all wrapped up.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
And all neatly stacked together.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And I'm kind of not feeling that.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And I was wondering, is there is.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There a biblical there's something biblical that's.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Against cremation, Like.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Now, our Jewish brothers and sisters have concerns about cremation,
but Christians do not. There there is nothing in the
Christian theology that would have a problem. The truth of
the matter, and I don't mean to get gross on this,
but the physiological reality is that all bodies with long
(12:31):
enough time are going to look like they were cremated anyways.
So there's no I think there's a comfort level for
some people and they feel better when a body's buried.
I think it's part of the grieving process, and people
feel like, well, they're still right there, they're just not
moving anymore or doing anything. But the honest to goodness
(12:55):
reality is they're decomposing, they're breaking down to their simplest form,
and that'll continue to go on for a long period
of time. So if you feel like getting cremated, so
be it.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
There's there's nothing. I'm so there's nothing biblically nothing, because
for a while it didn't. The Catholics also have a well.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
There are different there's a different doctrine that people will
you know, adhere to, and that's really religionists. That's nothing
biblical that's going to say, hey, this will cause a
problem because ashes to ashes, dust to dust from the earth.
You came to the earth, you will return. There's nothing,
there's no problem with the concept of cremation, there's people say,
(13:45):
well what about you know, there's different people that have
different beliefs about the rapture and what about being raised
from the God created you. God's not going to go
oh no, now the pieces are scattered. How am I
ever going to put that back together? Does anybody have
the original and instructions? That's just not how it works.
So you're fine. If it's a personal choice, and it's
(14:07):
becoming a more popular choice actually these days, then so
be it. That's your choice. Cool, nothing too soon.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I hope, Oh no, hopefully not.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Okay, then you might want to write it down somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Then for safe keeping to the family.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And of course my mother has a fit, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Like, well, respect that and ask her what her concerns are.
And maybe there's something there, but I think there We
talked about this recently too, the concept of ghosts came
up and all of this, and I will tell you
more than anything else I talk about on the air,
When I talk about ghosts and that that ghosts don't
fit into the theological structure of Christianity, people light up.
(14:52):
They just light up. And I think that there is
a there's an intense desire to not make things be over. Now,
the skeptic could look and say, well, that's all of
religion is looking for a do over or an everlasting
or any of these things as well, and that's that's
a very legitimate point. But likewise, or similarly, humans are
(15:13):
always looking for one more minute, kind of that, you know,
cuddling in the morning when you've got to go to
work and it's five more minutes, five more minutes, let's
just cuttle, five more minutes. Everybody's looking to squeeze a
little more life out of life. And when someone passes,
I think there's comfort both in the concept of ghosts
and all of that, but there's also comfort in the
(15:34):
fact that the body's right there. It's right there, and
you can go visit it, but it's not it's no
more important there than the headstone is, or the grass
or the tree next to it, or they're all the
same thing at this point. And I think sometimes there's
a different comfort and going, well, the body's there, we're
(15:56):
all going to be together, but you're not right, and
you're all to be together in a rotting state. So
a rotting state, it's not going to be different from
a burned state, which is is a rapid a rapid
process of decomposition, so it's the same same. It's an
(16:17):
emotional thing. So if your mom has emotional issues with it,
then try and be sensitive to that and ask her,
you know, what her concerns are and why. But really, biblically,
there's there's nothing to it. There's really there's no offense
to God. If the body's burned or if the body's buried,
(16:41):
ultimately they returned to the ground.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Well, it might have been that I mentioned maybe putting
me in Tuesday's trash might be a good option.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Well, now you know why you upset your mother, because
because you are a dung disturber and you were poking
at her, why would you try and upset her.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
No, I didn't do that intentionally.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It was just kind of like because I just feel
I mean, they're just ashes.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
I don't it's just not truly me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, but I think she just told your mother that
you wanted to be buried in a garbage can, and
you didn't expect her to have any sort of response.
I think her, but it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Was the whole. I think it was the whole being
cremated things was what sets her off, and she doesn't
want any of us to be cremated. And I think,
I don't know. I guess I should ask her why that.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Is and where that comes from. And because for her
to just, you know, automatically buy six burial plots.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I mean, was your mom a pretty controlling person?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Probably?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, I'd say probably too. That may just be her thing,
and she whenever somebody And the reason why I ask
is because your mom's not here to defend herself or
to make her own argument. But whenever somebody tries to
control a situation, that means they have built expectations and
that expectation is now the standard in which they're trying
(18:14):
to have everything fall into that expectation, and when something
goes awry or something goes in a different you know,
a lot of times parents are upset that their children
are homosexual, not because they're homosexual, but because in their
head they were thinking it was going to be a
certain way, and this is what the child was going
to be and they were going to grow up and
this is what and that there was this pattern and
(18:36):
it's because of their expectations they're let down, not because
of the individual or the person. I would hope. And likewise,
you're letting her down. Not because you're letting her down,
but because she had an expectation or expectation is you know,
because what parent is buying plots for their kids? Yeah,
because you're not going to be part of that family
(18:58):
in the same way, in the same sense, every family
moves away, every family starts a new branch. That's kind
of the way things work. So you borrow, you bury
the whole tree in one place. It's not going to work.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So I'm thinking about our children and our spouses and
our like.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Art exactly exactly what will you do with them? But
that's the that's the mentality, is controlling her family and
the structure of her family. People do this all the time.
Well we have to go visit our family for Christmas,
and well what does that mean, Well go visit the parents.
Well if that's the way things always work, then your
(19:38):
parents would be visiting their parents and you wouldn't have
anybody to visit with. There's people don't understand the cycle.
They only understand that that little branch that they've created,
and they try and hold onto that branch. But the
cycle is not built that way. It's built to go
off and to explore and to do your own traditions
and to do those things. And there are times where
(20:01):
mother or father can be very controlling or they think, well, no,
this is the expectation, because this is how I thought
it was always going to be, not ever factoring in
that the children that you have are going to be
independent human beings with their own ideas, their own wants,
their own desires, and own thoughts of how things should
be themselves. So I think maybe your mom's plan is
(20:24):
being thwarted a little bit, and she's upset about that.
I don't think she thinks you're going to hell, or
that God's not going to be able to find you,
going oh my gosh, or it's going to get mixed
with dirt and he's going to recreate you and you're
going to be half dirt monster and half human, or
there's nothing like that. I don't think she's worrying about that.
I think she's going, that's not the way I set
(20:47):
this up. Honey. Does she have a nickname for you? Well,
she's going to make one up after this, I'm sure,
but just try. I think so you already know what
you want to do helping your mom understand it, and
being kind to her and allowing her to digest it
properly is probably a good thing. Try not to, in
(21:12):
my humble advice, try not to use the terms like
trash can or things like that. Maybe we'll we'll keep
her out of that mindset. But theologically, you're aoka Yvett
if you want to get cremated, Yeah, they see, and
then I will bloom forever, reaching towards the sky pointing
(21:34):
to my final destination, which is heaven. And maybe that
would that would rock her boat a lot less. Okay, good,
and now go live long and prosper a thank you,
you're welcome, Thanks for calling you vat. That is a
thing that there's a couple other things going on there. Obviously,
the theology question is the simple one. There's nothing specific
(21:58):
that would pertain to Christians about cremation. But there's obviously
the little spin there with the mom buying the plots
and wanting everything to be a certain way, and uh,
you know, often parents can be controlling that way, they
even want to. When somebody's getting to the point where
(22:18):
they're planning where you're gonna be when you're dead, that's
a little bit that's a little bit controlling. On one side,
it could be sweet that they're thinking ahead and wanting
to make sure their family is together. But families branch.
It's the way they do. Again, if really the families
were going to be together, then your parents would be
buried with their parents, you know. And then that if
(22:41):
you have siblings now and they have kids now, then
they're gonna be buried together. It just doesn't make sense.
It's not the way things work. Families do split, they
branch out. It's the way it works. And understanding that
can be a very powerful thing, they say. In big families.
I'm telling you, there's all always a point where everyone's
(23:02):
getting together all the time for all the holidays, and
all of a sudden, people have kids and husbands and
wives and they grow and then it's like, well, they're
not showing up, they're not coming anymore because they're creating
their own traditions and branch the same way your family
did originally. If you don't allow that, then it gets
(23:22):
perverted or muted or massive. You have to have everybody
over and it just becomes huge. And I know that's
strange because it means for difference, But that's how people
grow and commit to their own self and the vision
of who they are. Steve, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
(23:48):
Hello Jesus, Hi Steve.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I am well, how can I help you?
Speaker 6 (23:55):
A little background? I'm fifty eight. I had my daughter
head or first grandchild, about ten months ago and they
and up until that point my church life, I've really
never attended church, you know, as far as just never
(24:18):
attended church when I was a child. Maybe a little bit,
but not real good continuity as far as being in church. Anyways,
I've been going to church with my son in law
and my daughter, and you know, I reading through the Bible,
(24:43):
and like say, Matthew Matthew Ford, it says then Jesus
was led by the spirit into the desert to be
tinted by the devil.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And the doubt, the doubt I have.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Is, you know, Jesus is God, and so why would
why would he be tempted?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Well, you keep in mind, I'm one hundred percent God
and one hundred percent man. People assume it's like fifty
to fifty or something like that, and the only way
for that to be legitimate, the man part would need
to be tested and tempted. If you put a murderer
(25:29):
in jail with no other people, he doesn't murder, but
that doesn't make him morally better because he doesn't have
the option. There is no one for him to murder.
Therefore there is no murder. But it doesn't mean that
his heart is changed or his heart has a dedication
to to the cause and the moral cause. So in
(25:55):
this case, if I'm not tempted at all in the flesh,
then there then there, then I'm not refraining from anything,
and then there's no moral judgment there. The key has
to be the moral judgment, and the moral judgment comes
from being tempted, having those things UH put in front
(26:18):
of me, dealing with pride and the desires of the
eyes and lust and these types of things, and saying no,
k f I A M six forty on demand
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Speaker 2 (00:06):
Jeff, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi you, Jeff,
how can I help you?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey, Jesus, nice talking to you. I've fallen in love
with a non Christian. We've been together for about six years.
And I guess if I were going to ask the
question playing blank to maintain my relationship with God, should
I walk in to the my house today and break
(00:36):
up with her? Or is this a relationship that could
somehow work as a Christian?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, of course it can work. There's I think a
lot of people want to jump to the conclusion that
it's impossible. It's not. It's it can be incredibly difficult
in ways that you cannot even imagine, and they usually
creep up pretty quickly after marriage. Could be even more
difficult with children. Children Bringing children into the equation makes
(01:13):
it exponentially more difficult. So is that a goal? I mean,
six years into a relationship, obviously you're a little slow
on the Yeah, why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I think I just I think both of us have
probably had a few a little bit of bad luck
in the past, and that's more of it than anything
that we've just been slow. And you know what, time
just flies. It seems like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So do you know what bad luck in relationships actually
is called? No, I'd love to know foolishness.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Foolishness okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And so really, unless someone outright lies to you and
misrepresents who they are as a human being, then the
foolishness on the two of you somewhere. So if she's
had bad people in her life, it's because she's chose to.
And if you've had bad people in your life, it's
because you've chosen.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
This one's working out really nice, and that's why, you know.
But I've still got that little gunshy well, and just
that issue of faith is still kind of bothers me
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But you stick around, you waste her time and yours
six years of it so far.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Exactly. But I again, I just don't want to give
this up.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's just too good, okay, because I mean, it's it's
really a tiny verse. Do not be bound together with unbelievers?
For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship
has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with bail?
(02:55):
Or what has the believer in common with an unbeliever.
So really the verses that talk about this, and often
it can be misconstrued. Really, the concept of being equally
yoked is being bound to an oxen of same strength
and purpose and focus. Because if you have two oxen
(03:16):
and one is smaller, then you can't plow straight. One's
either going to be weaker and pull it down, or
if they are both strong and wanting to go in
different directions, they're going to be pulling the plow in
different directions. That's the visual and the difficulty there is.
(03:38):
You imagine trying to build a house with another carpenter
and you believe in using a ruler, and they believe
in organic measurement. Well, I like to guess and just
eyeball it. That seems like well, usually the person with
a ruler starts making the excuses. Well I'll just double
(04:00):
check their work and I'll go over there. It ends
up not working in many many ways. It's not impossible.
I don't like when people say it's impossible. It can
be difficult, and in relationships that usually are selfish to
begin with, a lot of people go into relationships thinking
I just want somebody to be able to cheer for me,
(04:21):
or watch me do what I do, and to eat
the things I like to eat, and go to the
places I like to eat with me, And that's not
really a relationship. So in this case they can be
quite difficult. You have to remove a lot of selflessness,
which is what you should be doing in any relationship.
(04:42):
But now you're yielding not only to your partner, you're
yielding to a whole different mindset. So you may say, well,
I would do anything for her, but then when she
wants to do something that it comes from whatever her
faith is or lack thereof, now you're going, oh, well,
I can't participate in that because that's not my faith.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Right, it is a thought that, over a lifetime that
somebody may come into my faith. Is that a pretty poor.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Uh well you may go into hers.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Okay, that Jesus I promise will never happen.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, well I'm just saying that. I Well that then
then why risk it. Here's the thing I get love.
It's a beautiful thing. I get connection and and kinetic
response and the sparks that happen, I get chemistry. All
of that. I created it. It has a wonderful place.
(05:47):
I just think people make excuses to do the wrong
thing so much because sometimes it's easier or convenient because
it's right now. And that's not to say that you
guys don't have something wonderful, but if you really honestly
go into it, sitting down and talking it out, how
are we going to raise the kids your faith or mine?
(06:10):
When we come to a life problem deals with X,
Y and Z. I've had somebody call the program not
too long ago stating that married to his wife and
they have different views, and that they've always gotten long
and it's always worked out well. They've got four kids
or three kids, and we're having a fourth and she
(06:33):
was done. She didn't want kids anymore, and she wanted
to get an abortion, which is a total, totally against
He never saw it coming. Wasn't something that had come up.
It wasn't against her worldview, but it was against his.
And quite frankly, he called from California. It's not in
his favor, it's his business, but not really so legally
(07:00):
it was on in her situation. Was she had the
ability to make the decision, and that's not something somebody
might think about down the line. And these are the
types of things you need to ask Jeff and really
make sure that it's that it's what you want, because
these things will arise and you may find yourself in
(07:21):
a situation and you have to go into that going okay,
as long as you know, okay, this may happen and
that's that may be the way it goes down, and
you may have to go with the flow, not her
going with a flow. Sam. Welcome to Jesus Christio.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Hello, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm well Sam, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well? My mother passed away about four years ago and
she's from ILLINOI and she's like Methodist and I think
is what she was baptized. But okay, he had five
kids and wasn't really active into the church because my
father passed away at sais and I and she lived
(08:06):
her life totally, you know, unconditional for all her kids.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
I was just you know, wanting to make sure that
that you know, I don't know how that bolence goes
to going in there and say I got a mother
in law who's a Roman Catholic and she goes into church,
I CA's hunting the time clock, but then she'll come
home and and not not really act upon anything where
it's like my mom gonna give everything.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You know, well, it's not. It's not a race, and
it's not that type of game. And I know that
a lot of the different denominations go back and forth
with one another as if you know, there's some sort
of contest, and wow, look how good I am, or
look at least I can pretend I'm good, or look
how much time I spend in church or anything. Put
all that stuff aside for a moment, Sam, and I
want you to think about you know who who your
(08:56):
mother was, and uh the claims that she made with
her life, and and trust God to fill in any
gaps that can be filled in. There are people that
are baptized and they live their life for God, and
yet they struggle with the church or these types of things.
(09:17):
Yet they're still very devout in their own way. And
you're not going to find a perfect Christian. But you
have to trust God in these situations. You can't know.
But there's no reason. There's nothing that stands out in
the story that you shared with us that stands out
and says that your mom is anywhere but in heaven.
You know that your mom is to think that your
(09:39):
mom is not somehow with God. It doesn't make sense
to me. So be at peace with that. I know
that this is a question that comes up every now
and again, Sam, someone will call in and say, oh,
family member never really talked about God, or I don't
know if they really meant it, or maybe they were
(10:00):
in church all the time, whatever it might be. You
can't always know. I can assume based on things that
they said. And if you know that they gave their
life to Christ, and they followed me, and they followed
my word and all those things, then you can pretty
safely say, well, that seemed to be the balance of
their life. That seems to be what they followed and
(10:22):
the focus of their life. But to sit there and
worry about it at this point it will do you
no good. Just trust that God gave every opportunity, as
he does for everyone, the best opportunity possible to make
a decision for God, to live for God, and that
(10:44):
in that decision it was honored with a ticket to heaven.
As they say, really it's about it's not about ignorance,
and people get caught up in that. And I know
it's really easy to make Christianity Christianity out to be
the bad, like it's trying to exclude everybody, but it's not.
As a matter of fact, it's really allowing people to
(11:04):
do they're bidding. If they don't want to be with
God for seventy years on this planet, they don't have
to be with God for eternity. But if someone seeks,
so one genuinely seeks, then they'll find. And I say
that when I knock on your heart and that door
of your heart, all I ask is that you open it, Yvet,
(11:31):
Welcome to the Jesus Christ. Show Hi you Vet, you there?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Hi, Yeah, I'm sorry, there's an ambulance coming by. I'm like, well, anyway,
my question is regarding cremation.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
My mom has like six.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Burial plots for us, and I think she's gonna just
think that at the end of our you know, life here,
we're going to be all wrapped up.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
And all neatly stacked together.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And I'm kind of not feeling that.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And I was wondering, is there is.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There a biblical there's something biblical that's.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Against cremation, Like.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Now, our Jewish brothers and sisters have concerns about cremation,
but Christians do not. There there is nothing in the
Christian theology that would have a problem. The truth of
the matter, and I don't mean to get gross on this,
but the physiological reality is that all bodies with long
(12:31):
enough time are going to look like they were cremated anyways.
So there's no I think there's a comfort level for
some people and they feel better when a body's buried.
I think it's part of the grieving process, and people
feel like, well, they're still right there, they're just not
moving anymore or doing anything. But the honest to goodness
(12:55):
reality is they're decomposing, they're breaking down to their simplest form,
and that'll continue to go on for a long period
of time. So if you feel like getting cremated, so
be it.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
There's there's nothing. I'm so there's nothing biblically nothing, because
for a while it didn't. The Catholics also have a well.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
There are different there's a different doctrine that people will
you know, adhere to, and that's really religionists. That's nothing
biblical that's going to say, hey, this will cause a
problem because ashes to ashes, dust to dust from the earth.
You came to the earth, you will return. There's nothing,
there's no problem with the concept of cremation, there's people say,
(13:45):
well what about you know, there's different people that have
different beliefs about the rapture and what about being raised
from the God created you. God's not going to go
oh no, now the pieces are scattered. How am I
ever going to put that back together? Does anybody have
the original and instructions? That's just not how it works.
So you're fine. If it's a personal choice, and it's
(14:07):
becoming a more popular choice actually these days, then so
be it. That's your choice. Cool, nothing too soon.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I hope, Oh no, hopefully not.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Okay, then you might want to write it down somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Then for safe keeping to the family.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And of course my mother has a fit, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Like, well, respect that and ask her what her concerns are.
And maybe there's something there, but I think there We
talked about this recently too, the concept of ghosts came
up and all of this, and I will tell you
more than anything else I talk about on the air,
When I talk about ghosts and that that ghosts don't
fit into the theological structure of Christianity, people light up.
(14:52):
They just light up. And I think that there is
a there's an intense desire to not make things be over. Now,
the skeptic could look and say, well, that's all of
religion is looking for a do over or an everlasting
or any of these things as well, and that's that's
a very legitimate point. But likewise, or similarly, humans are
(15:13):
always looking for one more minute, kind of that, you know,
cuddling in the morning when you've got to go to
work and it's five more minutes, five more minutes, let's
just cuttle, five more minutes. Everybody's looking to squeeze a
little more life out of life. And when someone passes,
I think there's comfort both in the concept of ghosts
and all of that, but there's also comfort in the
(15:34):
fact that the body's right there. It's right there, and
you can go visit it, but it's not it's no
more important there than the headstone is, or the grass
or the tree next to it, or they're all the
same thing at this point. And I think sometimes there's
a different comfort and going, well, the body's there, we're
(15:56):
all going to be together, but you're not right, and
you're all to be together in a rotting state. So
a rotting state, it's not going to be different from
a burned state, which is is a rapid a rapid
process of decomposition, so it's the same same. It's an
(16:17):
emotional thing. So if your mom has emotional issues with it,
then try and be sensitive to that and ask her,
you know, what her concerns are and why. But really, biblically,
there's there's nothing to it. There's really there's no offense
to God. If the body's burned or if the body's buried,
(16:41):
ultimately they returned to the ground.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Well, it might have been that I mentioned maybe putting
me in Tuesday's trash might be a good option.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Well, now you know why you upset your mother, because
because you are a dung disturber and you were poking
at her, why would you try and upset her.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
No, I didn't do that intentionally.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It was just kind of like because I just feel
I mean, they're just ashes.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
I don't it's just not truly me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, but I think she just told your mother that
you wanted to be buried in a garbage can, and
you didn't expect her to have any sort of response.
I think her, but it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Was the whole. I think it was the whole being
cremated things was what sets her off, and she doesn't
want any of us to be cremated. And I think,
I don't know. I guess I should ask her why that.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Is and where that comes from. And because for her
to just, you know, automatically buy six burial plots.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I mean, was your mom a pretty controlling person?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Probably?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, I'd say probably too. That may just be her thing,
and she whenever somebody And the reason why I ask
is because your mom's not here to defend herself or
to make her own argument. But whenever somebody tries to
control a situation, that means they have built expectations and
that expectation is now the standard in which they're trying
(18:14):
to have everything fall into that expectation, and when something
goes awry or something goes in a different you know,
a lot of times parents are upset that their children
are homosexual, not because they're homosexual, but because in their
head they were thinking it was going to be a
certain way, and this is what the child was going
to be and they were going to grow up and
this is what and that there was this pattern and
(18:36):
it's because of their expectations they're let down, not because
of the individual or the person. I would hope. And likewise,
you're letting her down. Not because you're letting her down,
but because she had an expectation or expectation is you know,
because what parent is buying plots for their kids? Yeah,
because you're not going to be part of that family
(18:58):
in the same way, in the same sense, every family
moves away, every family starts a new branch. That's kind
of the way things work. So you borrow, you bury
the whole tree in one place. It's not going to work.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So I'm thinking about our children and our spouses and
our like.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Art exactly exactly what will you do with them? But
that's the that's the mentality, is controlling her family and
the structure of her family. People do this all the time.
Well we have to go visit our family for Christmas,
and well what does that mean, Well go visit the parents.
Well if that's the way things always work, then your
(19:38):
parents would be visiting their parents and you wouldn't have
anybody to visit with. There's people don't understand the cycle.
They only understand that that little branch that they've created,
and they try and hold onto that branch. But the
cycle is not built that way. It's built to go
off and to explore and to do your own traditions
and to do those things. And there are times where
(20:01):
mother or father can be very controlling or they think, well, no,
this is the expectation, because this is how I thought
it was always going to be, not ever factoring in
that the children that you have are going to be
independent human beings with their own ideas, their own wants,
their own desires, and own thoughts of how things should
be themselves. So I think maybe your mom's plan is
(20:24):
being thwarted a little bit, and she's upset about that.
I don't think she thinks you're going to hell, or
that God's not going to be able to find you,
going oh my gosh, or it's going to get mixed
with dirt and he's going to recreate you and you're
going to be half dirt monster and half human, or
there's nothing like that. I don't think she's worrying about that.
I think she's going, that's not the way I set
(20:47):
this up. Honey. Does she have a nickname for you? Well,
she's going to make one up after this, I'm sure,
but just try. I think so you already know what
you want to do helping your mom understand it, and
being kind to her and allowing her to digest it
properly is probably a good thing. Try not to, in
(21:12):
my humble advice, try not to use the terms like
trash can or things like that. Maybe we'll we'll keep
her out of that mindset. But theologically, you're aoka Yvett
if you want to get cremated, Yeah, they see, and
then I will bloom forever, reaching towards the sky pointing
(21:34):
to my final destination, which is heaven. And maybe that
would that would rock her boat a lot less. Okay, good,
and now go live long and prosper a thank you,
you're welcome, Thanks for calling you vat. That is a
thing that there's a couple other things going on there. Obviously,
the theology question is the simple one. There's nothing specific
(21:58):
that would pertain to Christians about cremation. But there's obviously
the little spin there with the mom buying the plots
and wanting everything to be a certain way, and uh,
you know, often parents can be controlling that way, they
even want to. When somebody's getting to the point where
(22:18):
they're planning where you're gonna be when you're dead, that's
a little bit that's a little bit controlling. On one side,
it could be sweet that they're thinking ahead and wanting
to make sure their family is together. But families branch.
It's the way they do. Again, if really the families
were going to be together, then your parents would be
buried with their parents, you know. And then that if
(22:41):
you have siblings now and they have kids now, then
they're gonna be buried together. It just doesn't make sense.
It's not the way things work. Families do split, they
branch out. It's the way it works. And understanding that
can be a very powerful thing, they say. In big families.
I'm telling you, there's all always a point where everyone's
(23:02):
getting together all the time for all the holidays, and
all of a sudden, people have kids and husbands and
wives and they grow and then it's like, well, they're
not showing up, they're not coming anymore because they're creating
their own traditions and branch the same way your family
did originally. If you don't allow that, then it gets
(23:22):
perverted or muted or massive. You have to have everybody
over and it just becomes huge. And I know that's
strange because it means for difference, But that's how people
grow and commit to their own self and the vision
of who they are. Steve, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
(23:48):
Hello Jesus, Hi Steve.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I am well, how can I help you?
Speaker 6 (23:55):
A little background? I'm fifty eight. I had my daughter
head or first grandchild, about ten months ago and they
and up until that point my church life, I've really
never attended church, you know, as far as just never
(24:18):
attended church when I was a child. Maybe a little bit,
but not real good continuity as far as being in church. Anyways,
I've been going to church with my son in law
and my daughter, and you know, I reading through the Bible,
(24:43):
and like say, Matthew Matthew Ford, it says then Jesus
was led by the spirit into the desert to be
tinted by the devil.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And the doubt, the doubt I have.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Is, you know, Jesus is God, and so why would
why would he be tempted?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Well, you keep in mind, I'm one hundred percent God
and one hundred percent man. People assume it's like fifty
to fifty or something like that, and the only way
for that to be legitimate, the man part would need
to be tested and tempted. If you put a murderer
(25:29):
in jail with no other people, he doesn't murder, but
that doesn't make him morally better because he doesn't have
the option. There is no one for him to murder.
Therefore there is no murder. But it doesn't mean that
his heart is changed or his heart has a dedication
to to the cause and the moral cause. So in
(25:55):
this case, if I'm not tempted at all in the flesh,
then there then there, then I'm not refraining from anything,
and then there's no moral judgment there. The key has
to be the moral judgment, and the moral judgment comes
from being tempted, having those things UH put in front
(26:18):
of me, dealing with pride and the desires of the
eyes and lust and these types of things, and saying no,
k f I A M six forty on demand
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