Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. What
clouds your judgment? Have you ever given that any any thought, person, place, thing,
whatever it might be that clouds your judgment because you
(00:20):
know right from wrong. Of course you do. Even those
who do wrong in life know right from wrong. You
can go to the extremes and you can think about criminals.
The murderer might take someone else's life, so you may
assume because of that that the murderer thinks it's okay
(00:43):
to take life. Not necessarily, because if you try to
take the murderer's life, he will know, or at least believe,
what you're doing is wrong. The thief may break in
and steal from others, but try to break in his
place and steal his things, and he'll know it's wrong.
(01:10):
Although there are certain absolutely types of psychosis that play
a part in crime, I want you to think of
it a little bit differently for a second, because the
truth is, criminals often know right from wrong, but they
allow things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy, any of these
(01:33):
things to cloud their judgment. It's not just as cut
and dry as well, they're crazy, they're different. It's not
about that sometimes yes, that plays a part, but really
it's a justification. It's a justification in their mind to
do wrong. Their judgment gets clouded and foggy based on
(01:56):
things going on in their life. Now, what does this
have to do with you, Well, you too let things
in your life cloud your judgment, and oftentimes it's the
exact same list of things that I just read that
criminals use. Things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy. These things
(02:20):
play a part in your life as well. They play
a part in your life where you use them to
kind of judge things a little differently, maybe on a
bell curve at work, in your relationships, in your everyday life.
You are letting things cloud your judgment. Just like you
may treat a friend differently even if they did something wrong,
(02:44):
you may not point it out or you may not
tell them is you're doing things a little differently because
your friendship. When it's not about your friendship as much
as it's about the truth or what's right, your blind
devotion to things in your life become false idols, and
those false idols, whether you like it or not, steer
(03:07):
you away from your better judgment. Even unhealthy devotion to
good things can end up clouding your judgment, can end
up being something, something bad, something ugly, something that can
be damaging to your spirituality, even your physicality. It could
be you can take on things in your own life consequences,
(03:31):
punishments because you're kind of playing fast and loose with
rules based on your clouded judgment. So if you are
super devoted to anything, if you're devoted to something and
(03:54):
it surpasses all of the things in your life in
a way that you will skew your judge based on
that thing. Whatever it may be, there's a problem. And
maybe it's the devotion to your political party. Goodness, it
can even be devotion to a sports team of some kind.
(04:15):
You've seen things go horribly wrong because people's devotion to
a sports team. So a political party, a sports team,
your ethnicity, maybe your blind devotion to a job or
your family ties. Think about your job being blindly devoted
(04:35):
to it. Do you have one standard of rules in
your life and you say, well, this is right and
wrong as a person of faith, But when it comes
to your job, you go, oh wow, you bend the
rules a little bit. Well, sorry, I have to make
a buck or I have to do this for the
shareholders or whatever it may be. That if you get
(04:56):
to that point, then your devotion is to your job
and not to what is right or wrong. So it
could be your job, it could be your family ties.
You treat your family in a way where you never
correct them or they can do no wrong. I see
this a lot with parents nowadays. Your child can do
(05:18):
no wrong, but everybody else's child is the problem. You're
not judging based on the facts, your girlfriend, your boyfriend,
even your religion. Your blind devotion can get so intense
that you can outlook or overlook the things that are
right and wrong. You've seen this in the news countless times,
(05:40):
with like the Catholic Church, where people pushed really heinous, ugly,
ugly crimes under the rug for the sake of protecting
the church for all intents and purposes. That's what it
comes down to. So when you hold these things above
(06:01):
right and wrong, you're really holding them above God. Your
actions stop being guided by the purity of what's just
or unjust, and it starts to be guided by what's
best for you or what's best for your team, whatever
it might be. But it's important that you are just
in life period or will, It will eventually catch up
(06:24):
with you. If you don't judge yourself and your actions first,
then you'll be judged by others, just as the Church
has been countless times throughout history one Corinthians eleven thirty one.
But if we judge ourselves right rightly, we will not
be judged. Unfortunately, the church spends so much time judging
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the non believer and everybody else around them. They forget
that's not even their concern. As a believer. It's not
your concern to be judging the non believer. Your concern
is the believer, or is your fellow believers, those that
have faith like you do. God even says to focus
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your judgment on those in the church and not the
non believer. First Corinthians five twelve and thirteen says, what
business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?
Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge
those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you. Start
(07:27):
with your own. You should be pointing fingers of things
that are going on in the church. That's how it
gets better. Don't let your judgment be clouded because of
your own agenda and justifications. If you condition yourself to
justify bad behavior or bad judgment with the little, tiny
things in life, you will soon find yourself justifying your
(07:48):
bad behavior and judgment on the big things as well.
You must use your discernment judge things righteously based on
the facts, based on the facts of the circumstance, not
just how they affect you or how they may appear.
John seven twenty four says stop judging by mere appearances,
(08:11):
but instead judge correctly. There is a right way to judge,
and that's the way you're called to live your life.
Scripture also says that if you have blind devotion to
something that you're destined to go down the wrong path.
Proverbs nineteen two. It is not good to have zeal
without knowledge, nor be hasty and miss the way. You
(08:34):
get caught up in something, whatever it might be, and
you don't care about anybody that is different than that,
and so your judgment gets skewed. If a criminal focuses
on its gang, affiliation or selfish needs, he will morally
blind himself and never be able to see the truth.
(08:58):
And if you only focus on your race, your political affiliation,
your religious denomination, you will be doomed the exact same fate.
Simply put, you should do things because they are righteous,
and not do them if they are unrighteous. Period, If
you cloud your judgment with a blind bias, your judgment
(09:21):
will be both blind and biased. If you witness a
fellow Christian, someone of the same race, or some other traitor,
whether it's the political affiliation, whatever it is that you
may share with them, and you witness them break the law,
it shouldn't make a difference to you. God sees and
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knows all. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from God.
So it's not about knowing right and wrong. You know
right and wrong, But there are things in your life
that can easily cloud your judgment and impair you from
making righteous decisions because you have this blind devotion to things,
(10:08):
and it can be all kinds of things. It could
be your ethnicity, it can be a political party, your job,
your family relationships, your religion. It's just a matter of
you putting those things on such a high place that
now you don't judge things based on the facts or
whether they're righteous or unrighteous. You judge them based on
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how they fit into your bias or your agenda or
these types of things. Wrong is going to be wrong,
and it should be seen that way. God sees and
knows everything. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from him.
Ecclesiastes twelve to fourteen says, for God will bring every
deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is
(10:53):
good or evil. The Psalmist called out to God for
discernment as you saw him one nineteen sixty six says,
teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.
Do you spend that kind of time with God? Do
you look to seek God's truth and knowledge in things
(11:15):
or just your own? The world tries so hard to
conform you to its morality. You must fight. You have
to fight any urge to give in to compromise on
what you know to be true. That should be your standard.
Romans twelve to two says, do not conform to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
(11:37):
of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and
perfect will. Culture, beliefs, political views. These are all good
things in one form or another, as long as they
(11:58):
don't cloud your judgment with their own worldly agendas or
their own worldly philosophies. Colossians two eight see to it
that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive
philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual
forces of this world rather than Christ. What causes good discernment?
(12:22):
While the Word of God makes it very clear, good
unclouded discernment comes from an abundance of love mixed with
knowledge and deep insight. And those things specifically come from God,
nowhere else. So if you seek those things in the
rest of the world, you won't find them. You find
(12:43):
them in the Word of God. You find them with
God's people through prayer these things Philippians one nine and
ten says, and this is my prayer that your love
may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
so that you may be able to discern what is
best and may be pure and blameless for the day
(13:07):
of Christ. Frank, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Hello. First of all, thank you very much for
taking my call. I'm grateful for you, and I'm really
grateful for the program that you have. It's been an
inspiration for me multiple times.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh that's kind of that. I'll say I'm happy to
be here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Well, my problem is very similar probably two millions of others.
We're just struggling. And I've had several career challenges over
the last ten years, and a divorce, some other small
issues that everyday stuff that people go through, but one
(13:59):
of the scary things for me. And I've been a
Christian for a long time, since eighty four, I think
it was and I believe in the power of prayer
and I believe it all things are possible through Jesus.
But the last few years, I've really struggled to find
(14:21):
things that will help restore some joy and happiness in
my life. I have not really honestly felt happy in
anything for a long time, and I'm a little scared
about that. And I try to do things that I
know that I enjoy. I love to play guitar, I
(14:45):
love to go for walks in local parks. I pray,
you know, friends and family and going to church and
things like that. But I just it's hard to get
out of bed in the morning. And that sounds like
a it's silly thing to say sometimes, but I need
(15:07):
a stronger source to help me get through. And I'm
wondering if you can help well.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Of course, there's many different aspects to this. In the
broad sense, Scripture is very clear that joy and happiness
are two different things. So think of happiness as a
momentary feeling of joy due to a happening. So if
you play guitar for a little while, if you go
and you do something, a walk in the park, whatever
it might be, you might get a tiny bit of
(15:36):
joy based on that happening, and that becomes happiness. It's
really it's fleeting happiness. That's why people continue to seek
it because it's not something that exists in its entirety
throughout your person. But joy is James one to two says,
count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials
(15:56):
of various kinds there and that's a reoccurring message throughout Scripture.
And to be in that state of joy, and so
joy is something you should be in. It has nothing
to do with circumstances. It's you're in the state of
joy because you're breathing. That's the mere existence should put
(16:19):
you in that state of joy. Doesn't mean that you're
going to be jumping up and kicking your heels all
the time. But if you're not going to find it
there in the mere fact that you can pull air
and experience this gift of life. There's nothing there's no
thing you're going to do that's ever going to make
that more wonderful. Having said that there, the body is
(16:42):
made up of many things, chemicals and balances and all
of those things, and if there is an imbalance, there's
nothing wrong with going to see a doctor to see
if there's something that needs to be put back in balance.
And that's outside of the scope of this program. We
focus on the moral issues, not medical. But as Christians,
there's no reason why there's this weird thing when it
(17:05):
comes to ailments. When it comes to physical ailments like
a broken bone or something that people can see and
touch and it's very tangible, they have no problem. It's
very simple. It's like, well, why would you walk around
with a broken bone? But when it comes to mental ailments,
that even that term alone makes people nervous because it
sounds like they're unhinged or they're gonna, you know, go
(17:28):
nuts and run around in the circle and they're going
to cause problems. But there's many levels of concern and
things that can need focus. With the brain and the
way it works.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So I wonder if I'm sorry to me to cut
you off. No, no, please, There's an underlying problem that
I'm struggling with here, and I'm sort of hesitated to
bring it up.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, please do.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
About ten years ago, I left a decent job because
I felt in my heart and in my mind and
after several things that by all accounts shouldn't have happened.
Whether it was good luck or timing on the right
thing and the right people, all signs pointed to the
(18:13):
fact that I need to be in a classroom, that
I need to be a school teacher. It's in my family,
it's in my blood. I love being there, it's where
I feel i'm at my best. So I made some
very large sacrifices because I felt that God truly had
a plan for me to be a leader, to be
a good example, to be a shining light to young people.
(18:35):
And so I made a lot of sacrifices. And it
is not my main My main complaint is I believe
God gave me that fire, that passion, a desire to
be in a classroom, to be with young people and
to go through the teaching process that I love so much,
(18:57):
And I made a lot of sacrifices to get there
to make that happen, and it didn't happen for reasons
that were out of my control. And I'm I'm resentful,
I'm angry, I'm frustrated. You know. I remember one of
the stories from a Bible where and God said, you know,
(19:18):
give me your best, you know, and and you know
there are stories about making sacrifices, sacrificing their people, sacrificing
their their their best animal or possession, and giving their
best to God. And I did that, and I'm just frustrated.
I'm wondering, why would he give me this passion and
desire to to do that and make me feel like
(19:41):
that's where I should go? Uh And then you know,
to find out it's never going to happen. I'm struggling
with that for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So what do you mean it's never going to happen?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Sure, I'll take a step back for a second. Well,
in public schools and K through twelve, if you have
anything more than the minimum requirements, for example, if you
have anything above a bachelor's degree, so if you have
a master's degree or a PhD. The public school districts
(20:16):
usually have an additional stipend or a salary bump for you. Okay, well,
in the past, you know, I ever sence two thousand
and six and two thousand and seven, especially in California.
You know how bad the budget problems have been here.
So schools will not hire anybody with that already has
a master's degree or PhD because they don't want to
(20:36):
pay the extra money. In addition to that, public schools
are notorious for not hiring anybody over a certain age.
It's just that's just the way it is. Whether they
admit it or not. It's not the point that's it's
just not going to happen. I mean, I had a
glowing resume to be a school teacher, to be in education,
(20:59):
and I couldn't be at the time of day from
a Swiss walckmaker. It just I've been trying for seven years,
and every year you get further in further way from
being in that loop and and having that chance. I'm
going to be fifty next year or so.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Oh boy, get out the get out the cane, sir,
and the wheelchair. My goodness, fifty, don't you know fifty
is the new forty.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I'm not sure. Yeah, I keep telling me about that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But okay, Frank, I really want to kind of expand
this a little bit. First of all, being attentive to
God is an amazing thing and something that many people
don't do. They're they're not attentive. However, I do find
a pattern in those that are attentive that still wrestle
(21:54):
with their their deep humanness against their spirit. So what
happens is, on occasion God will we'll call or put
you know this burning inside you, and you will feel
the spiritual calling of that, and inevitably you will humanize it.
(22:17):
You'll throw all the human things on top of it.
The assumption is that God wanted you to do this
because of X, Y, and Z, and you don't know that,
and you don't know what's being taught here. And the
disappointment then as we went down another path earlier about
the possibility of chemical things or what have you, and I,
(22:38):
you know, think that that's always a reasonable thing to
look at. But the the other is expectation. Disappointment comes
from expectation. Okay, so you finding that ditch where you're
sitting and you're going, this is not what I wanted,
is because you expected something God never said. This is
what's going to happen, ABC D and going, and they're
(23:01):
going down the entire explanation of what's going to take place.
He said, seek this. Now, if God says seek this,
your assumption you're the one plugging in all the pieces. Well,
because I'm supposed to teach children, I'm supposed to do this,
I'm supposed to do that, And that's not necessarily true.
He may just want to teach you something in that
(23:21):
process about yourself. And people forget that. They get lost
in this path that they've created in their head because
God says, go forward, and you say, okay, go forward.
There's a mountain forward. He wants me to climb the mountain,
and he wants me to buy all this gear and
he wants me to do that. And he said no,
I said go forward. That's what I said. And you said,
(23:43):
climb the mountain and all these things. So sometimes you
have to strip down to the very simplicity of the
message or the calling. Rather than adding all the you
added all the furniture to it. God says, here is
a room, and you said, okay, well I'm going to
put up drapes and we're going to do this. And
(24:04):
sometimes you build expectations in that as to what might happen,
and it's going to be some glorious thing. God has
called many people to the mundane, and that has limitations
or walls, and not okay, get to the top of
the mountain. Sometimes he just says, go to the mountain,
and you have to be hyper attentive and continue to listen.
(24:29):
But don't build those expectations, because with those expectations becomes
it comes disappointment, and with disappointment comes frustration. With frustration
comes to disconnect from God.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, okay, and then the.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Enemy sits on your shoulder and says, wow, he promised
all this, And think about how many times you mentioned
to me what you gave up?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Do you think that's God or the enemy?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah? I get it.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
So the enemy sits there and going, man, he did
the same thing to me in the desert. He sits
on your shoulder and he goes, wow, you sure gave
up a lot. Man, you've been doing this for God,
and man, you're getting tired and fatigued. You're not even
teaching kids, which is the calling, which wasn't necessarily the calling.
But he pushed you in this direction. And now he's
(25:24):
letting you down. No, because that wasn't part of the
calling necessarily doesn't mean it's not. This may be all
part of it, but you need to go back to
square one and be attentive to what God is doing
and be in peace and in the state of joy
(25:45):
and whatever that is, even if it means nothing, even
if it means there will be no teaching gig, there
will be nothing, whatever it might be. You have a purpose.
Who knows just yet what that is. Maybe because of
the financial issues of two thousand and six, two thousand
and eight and that put a hold on that has
(26:07):
become a process in the teaching, you know, has become
this thing that's kind of assumed and you knocking on
the doors slowly breaking then that down. Who knows. But
God has given you. Don't add to God's calling. He says,
do this, don't go oh do this because of Oh
you want me to do this, then you want me
to do that. No, he says, just do this and
(26:28):
for now. If that's what you've been called to, then
that's what you should do. And be attentive and say
I'm here at point A where you told me to go,
and I'm standing by waiting for the next call, but don't.
He's never calling anybody into you know, illness or poverty.
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In that sense, there's no sense that you can't get
a job or can't continue living life as you're being
attentive to God. They're not mutually exclusive there. And I
think that that, you know, people get a calling and
they kind of drop everything sometimes and sometimes it's just
come stand over here for now and getting you set up.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It's really easy to get into that mind frame that
you just explained, well, he's calling me in the directions
that that must mean that this thissess and this is
going to happen all that. It's just it's really easy,
and I can see how I developed that over time.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
That's humanness. And you get ahead of God and then
you turn around and you go, well, where is he.
God's like, I'm standing right here where I told you
to meet me. And you're like, oh, well, now I'm
at the top of the mountain. I never said go
to the top of the mountain. I said move forward.
So I think that you're very sensitive to what God
has to say, and I think that's wonderful. So be attentive,
(27:46):
go back to where he sent you take a deep
breath and enjoy life in its fullness, good, bad, ugly otherwise,
and stand in that place for now, Frank, and trust
that God will speak to you. Jennifer, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I am well? How are you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm wonderful.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I have a question.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I say my prayers at night before I fall asleep,
but sometimes I question the way I pray, and I
wonder if I'm doing it correctly. Generally, I just I
go over my day, I give thanks, I pray for guidance,
I pay pray for strength. I pray for everybody I
can think of. Sometimes I fall asleep when I pray,
(28:30):
and I just I feel I feel guilty. Sometimes maybe I'm.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Not doing it right.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
What part is making you feel guilty or what part
is making you feel you're not doing it right?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Well?
Speaker 3 (28:41):
When I fall asleep in the middle of a prayer,
sometimes then you know, but just you know, I don't
pray for things. But I don't know, I just maybe
I just you know, I wasn't brought up with religion
or or you know, I'm understanding really and so I've
kind of had to find it on my own and
so I just wonder, you know, is this Am I.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Doing this right?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Well, yes, there's a couple of things that it says
in scripture that would be an issue. And some of
the things were like mantras or when you're saying something
over and over and over again rather than talking with God,
connecting with God, and things like that. But if you're
just making requests and you're you're connecting your you're kind
(29:26):
of talking to God like any other relationship. The scriptures
give you in Matthew six, give you a breakdown, you know,
the Lord's Prayer, and it says, pray, then in this way,
our Father, who art in heaven, how it be thy
name the Kingdom come, that will be done on earth
(29:47):
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also
forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, and
deliver us from evil. So if you break that down,
you will find that that prayer will give you a
guideline of how you should pray, praising God, asking for
(30:09):
certain things that you need, your daily bread, asking for forgiveness,
and you can use that as kind of a guideline
how to pray, But I think you're doing just fine.
Kf I am six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. What
clouds your judgment? Have you ever given that any any thought, person, place, thing,
whatever it might be that clouds your judgment because you
(00:20):
know right from wrong. Of course you do. Even those
who do wrong in life know right from wrong. You
can go to the extremes and you can think about criminals.
The murderer might take someone else's life, so you may
assume because of that that the murderer thinks it's okay
(00:43):
to take life. Not necessarily, because if you try to
take the murderer's life, he will know, or at least believe,
what you're doing is wrong. The thief may break in
and steal from others, but try to break in his
place and steal his things, and he'll know it's wrong.
(01:10):
Although there are certain absolutely types of psychosis that play
a part in crime, I want you to think of
it a little bit differently for a second, because the
truth is, criminals often know right from wrong, but they
allow things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy, any of these
(01:33):
things to cloud their judgment. It's not just as cut
and dry as well, they're crazy, they're different. It's not
about that sometimes yes, that plays a part, but really
it's a justification. It's a justification in their mind to
do wrong. Their judgment gets clouded and foggy based on
(01:56):
things going on in their life. Now, what does this
have to do with you, Well, you too let things
in your life cloud your judgment, and oftentimes it's the
exact same list of things that I just read that
criminals use. Things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy. These things
(02:20):
play a part in your life as well. They play
a part in your life where you use them to
kind of judge things a little differently, maybe on a
bell curve at work, in your relationships, in your everyday life.
You are letting things cloud your judgment. Just like you
may treat a friend differently even if they did something wrong,
(02:44):
you may not point it out or you may not
tell them is you're doing things a little differently because
your friendship. When it's not about your friendship as much
as it's about the truth or what's right, your blind
devotion to things in your life become false idols, and
those false idols, whether you like it or not, steer
(03:07):
you away from your better judgment. Even unhealthy devotion to
good things can end up clouding your judgment, can end
up being something, something bad, something ugly, something that can
be damaging to your spirituality, even your physicality. It could
be you can take on things in your own life consequences,
(03:31):
punishments because you're kind of playing fast and loose with
rules based on your clouded judgment. So if you are
super devoted to anything, if you're devoted to something and
(03:54):
it surpasses all of the things in your life in
a way that you will skew your judge based on
that thing. Whatever it may be, there's a problem. And
maybe it's the devotion to your political party. Goodness, it
can even be devotion to a sports team of some kind.
(04:15):
You've seen things go horribly wrong because people's devotion to
a sports team. So a political party, a sports team,
your ethnicity, maybe your blind devotion to a job or
your family ties. Think about your job being blindly devoted
(04:35):
to it. Do you have one standard of rules in
your life and you say, well, this is right and
wrong as a person of faith, But when it comes
to your job, you go, oh wow, you bend the
rules a little bit. Well, sorry, I have to make
a buck or I have to do this for the
shareholders or whatever it may be. That if you get
(04:56):
to that point, then your devotion is to your job
and not to what is right or wrong. So it
could be your job, it could be your family ties.
You treat your family in a way where you never
correct them or they can do no wrong. I see
this a lot with parents nowadays. Your child can do
(05:18):
no wrong, but everybody else's child is the problem. You're
not judging based on the facts, your girlfriend, your boyfriend,
even your religion. Your blind devotion can get so intense
that you can outlook or overlook the things that are
right and wrong. You've seen this in the news countless times,
(05:40):
with like the Catholic Church, where people pushed really heinous, ugly,
ugly crimes under the rug for the sake of protecting
the church for all intents and purposes. That's what it
comes down to. So when you hold these things above
(06:01):
right and wrong, you're really holding them above God. Your
actions stop being guided by the purity of what's just
or unjust, and it starts to be guided by what's
best for you or what's best for your team, whatever
it might be. But it's important that you are just
in life period or will, It will eventually catch up
(06:24):
with you. If you don't judge yourself and your actions first,
then you'll be judged by others, just as the Church
has been countless times throughout history one Corinthians eleven thirty one.
But if we judge ourselves right rightly, we will not
be judged. Unfortunately, the church spends so much time judging
(06:46):
the non believer and everybody else around them. They forget
that's not even their concern. As a believer. It's not
your concern to be judging the non believer. Your concern
is the believer, or is your fellow believers, those that
have faith like you do. God even says to focus
(07:07):
your judgment on those in the church and not the
non believer. First Corinthians five twelve and thirteen says, what
business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?
Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge
those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you. Start
(07:27):
with your own. You should be pointing fingers of things
that are going on in the church. That's how it
gets better. Don't let your judgment be clouded because of
your own agenda and justifications. If you condition yourself to
justify bad behavior or bad judgment with the little, tiny
things in life, you will soon find yourself justifying your
(07:48):
bad behavior and judgment on the big things as well.
You must use your discernment judge things righteously based on
the facts, based on the facts of the circumstance, not
just how they affect you or how they may appear.
John seven twenty four says stop judging by mere appearances,
(08:11):
but instead judge correctly. There is a right way to judge,
and that's the way you're called to live your life.
Scripture also says that if you have blind devotion to
something that you're destined to go down the wrong path.
Proverbs nineteen two. It is not good to have zeal
without knowledge, nor be hasty and miss the way. You
(08:34):
get caught up in something, whatever it might be, and
you don't care about anybody that is different than that,
and so your judgment gets skewed. If a criminal focuses
on its gang, affiliation or selfish needs, he will morally
blind himself and never be able to see the truth.
(08:58):
And if you only focus on your race, your political affiliation,
your religious denomination, you will be doomed the exact same fate.
Simply put, you should do things because they are righteous,
and not do them if they are unrighteous. Period, If
you cloud your judgment with a blind bias, your judgment
(09:21):
will be both blind and biased. If you witness a
fellow Christian, someone of the same race, or some other traitor,
whether it's the political affiliation, whatever it is that you
may share with them, and you witness them break the law,
it shouldn't make a difference to you. God sees and
(09:42):
knows all. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from God.
So it's not about knowing right and wrong. You know
right and wrong, But there are things in your life
that can easily cloud your judgment and impair you from
making righteous decisions because you have this blind devotion to things,
(10:08):
and it can be all kinds of things. It could
be your ethnicity, it can be a political party, your job,
your family relationships, your religion. It's just a matter of
you putting those things on such a high place that
now you don't judge things based on the facts or
whether they're righteous or unrighteous. You judge them based on
(10:28):
how they fit into your bias or your agenda or
these types of things. Wrong is going to be wrong,
and it should be seen that way. God sees and
knows everything. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from him.
Ecclesiastes twelve to fourteen says, for God will bring every
deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is
(10:53):
good or evil. The Psalmist called out to God for
discernment as you saw him one nineteen sixty six says,
teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.
Do you spend that kind of time with God? Do
you look to seek God's truth and knowledge in things
(11:15):
or just your own? The world tries so hard to
conform you to its morality. You must fight. You have
to fight any urge to give in to compromise on
what you know to be true. That should be your standard.
Romans twelve to two says, do not conform to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
(11:37):
of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and
perfect will. Culture, beliefs, political views. These are all good
things in one form or another, as long as they
(11:58):
don't cloud your judgment with their own worldly agendas or
their own worldly philosophies. Colossians two eight see to it
that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive
philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual
forces of this world rather than Christ. What causes good discernment?
(12:22):
While the Word of God makes it very clear, good
unclouded discernment comes from an abundance of love mixed with
knowledge and deep insight. And those things specifically come from God,
nowhere else. So if you seek those things in the
rest of the world, you won't find them. You find
(12:43):
them in the Word of God. You find them with
God's people through prayer these things Philippians one nine and
ten says, and this is my prayer that your love
may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
so that you may be able to discern what is
best and may be pure and blameless for the day
(13:07):
of Christ. Frank, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Hello. First of all, thank you very much for
taking my call. I'm grateful for you, and I'm really
grateful for the program that you have. It's been an
inspiration for me multiple times.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh that's kind of that. I'll say I'm happy to
be here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Well, my problem is very similar probably two millions of others.
We're just struggling. And I've had several career challenges over
the last ten years, and a divorce, some other small
issues that everyday stuff that people go through, but one
(13:59):
of the scary things for me. And I've been a
Christian for a long time, since eighty four, I think
it was and I believe in the power of prayer
and I believe it all things are possible through Jesus.
But the last few years, I've really struggled to find
(14:21):
things that will help restore some joy and happiness in
my life. I have not really honestly felt happy in
anything for a long time, and I'm a little scared
about that. And I try to do things that I
know that I enjoy. I love to play guitar, I
(14:45):
love to go for walks in local parks. I pray,
you know, friends and family and going to church and
things like that. But I just it's hard to get
out of bed in the morning. And that sounds like
a it's silly thing to say sometimes, but I need
(15:07):
a stronger source to help me get through. And I'm
wondering if you can help well.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Of course, there's many different aspects to this. In the
broad sense, Scripture is very clear that joy and happiness
are two different things. So think of happiness as a
momentary feeling of joy due to a happening. So if
you play guitar for a little while, if you go
and you do something, a walk in the park, whatever
it might be, you might get a tiny bit of
(15:36):
joy based on that happening, and that becomes happiness. It's
really it's fleeting happiness. That's why people continue to seek
it because it's not something that exists in its entirety
throughout your person. But joy is James one to two says,
count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials
(15:56):
of various kinds there and that's a reoccurring message throughout Scripture.
And to be in that state of joy, and so
joy is something you should be in. It has nothing
to do with circumstances. It's you're in the state of
joy because you're breathing. That's the mere existence should put
(16:19):
you in that state of joy. Doesn't mean that you're
going to be jumping up and kicking your heels all
the time. But if you're not going to find it
there in the mere fact that you can pull air
and experience this gift of life. There's nothing there's no
thing you're going to do that's ever going to make
that more wonderful. Having said that there, the body is
(16:42):
made up of many things, chemicals and balances and all
of those things, and if there is an imbalance, there's
nothing wrong with going to see a doctor to see
if there's something that needs to be put back in balance.
And that's outside of the scope of this program. We
focus on the moral issues, not medical. But as Christians,
there's no reason why there's this weird thing when it
(17:05):
comes to ailments. When it comes to physical ailments like
a broken bone or something that people can see and
touch and it's very tangible, they have no problem. It's
very simple. It's like, well, why would you walk around
with a broken bone? But when it comes to mental ailments,
that even that term alone makes people nervous because it
sounds like they're unhinged or they're gonna, you know, go
(17:28):
nuts and run around in the circle and they're going
to cause problems. But there's many levels of concern and
things that can need focus. With the brain and the
way it works.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So I wonder if I'm sorry to me to cut
you off. No, no, please, There's an underlying problem that
I'm struggling with here, and I'm sort of hesitated to
bring it up.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, please do.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
About ten years ago, I left a decent job because
I felt in my heart and in my mind and
after several things that by all accounts shouldn't have happened.
Whether it was good luck or timing on the right
thing and the right people, all signs pointed to the
(18:13):
fact that I need to be in a classroom, that
I need to be a school teacher. It's in my family,
it's in my blood. I love being there, it's where
I feel i'm at my best. So I made some
very large sacrifices because I felt that God truly had
a plan for me to be a leader, to be
a good example, to be a shining light to young people.
(18:35):
And so I made a lot of sacrifices. And it
is not my main My main complaint is I believe
God gave me that fire, that passion, a desire to
be in a classroom, to be with young people and
to go through the teaching process that I love so much,
(18:57):
And I made a lot of sacrifices to get there
to make that happen, and it didn't happen for reasons
that were out of my control. And I'm I'm resentful,
I'm angry, I'm frustrated. You know. I remember one of
the stories from a Bible where and God said, you know,
(19:18):
give me your best, you know, and and you know
there are stories about making sacrifices, sacrificing their people, sacrificing
their their their best animal or possession, and giving their
best to God. And I did that, and I'm just frustrated.
I'm wondering, why would he give me this passion and
desire to to do that and make me feel like
(19:41):
that's where I should go? Uh And then you know,
to find out it's never going to happen. I'm struggling
with that for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So what do you mean it's never going to happen?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Sure, I'll take a step back for a second. Well,
in public schools and K through twelve, if you have
anything more than the minimum requirements, for example, if you
have anything above a bachelor's degree, so if you have
a master's degree or a PhD. The public school districts
(20:16):
usually have an additional stipend or a salary bump for you. Okay, well,
in the past, you know, I ever sence two thousand
and six and two thousand and seven, especially in California.
You know how bad the budget problems have been here.
So schools will not hire anybody with that already has
a master's degree or PhD because they don't want to
(20:36):
pay the extra money. In addition to that, public schools
are notorious for not hiring anybody over a certain age.
It's just that's just the way it is. Whether they
admit it or not. It's not the point that's it's
just not going to happen. I mean, I had a
glowing resume to be a school teacher, to be in education,
(20:59):
and I couldn't be at the time of day from
a Swiss walckmaker. It just I've been trying for seven years,
and every year you get further in further way from
being in that loop and and having that chance. I'm
going to be fifty next year or so.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Oh boy, get out the get out the cane, sir,
and the wheelchair. My goodness, fifty, don't you know fifty
is the new forty.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I'm not sure. Yeah, I keep telling me about that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But okay, Frank, I really want to kind of expand
this a little bit. First of all, being attentive to
God is an amazing thing and something that many people
don't do. They're they're not attentive. However, I do find
a pattern in those that are attentive that still wrestle
(21:54):
with their their deep humanness against their spirit. So what
happens is, on occasion God will we'll call or put
you know this burning inside you, and you will feel
the spiritual calling of that, and inevitably you will humanize it.
(22:17):
You'll throw all the human things on top of it.
The assumption is that God wanted you to do this
because of X, Y, and Z, and you don't know that,
and you don't know what's being taught here. And the
disappointment then as we went down another path earlier about
the possibility of chemical things or what have you, and I,
(22:38):
you know, think that that's always a reasonable thing to
look at. But the the other is expectation. Disappointment comes
from expectation. Okay, so you finding that ditch where you're
sitting and you're going, this is not what I wanted,
is because you expected something God never said. This is
what's going to happen, ABC D and going, and they're
(23:01):
going down the entire explanation of what's going to take place.
He said, seek this. Now, if God says seek this,
your assumption you're the one plugging in all the pieces. Well,
because I'm supposed to teach children, I'm supposed to do this,
I'm supposed to do that, And that's not necessarily true.
He may just want to teach you something in that
(23:21):
process about yourself. And people forget that. They get lost
in this path that they've created in their head because
God says, go forward, and you say, okay, go forward.
There's a mountain forward. He wants me to climb the mountain,
and he wants me to buy all this gear and
he wants me to do that. And he said no,
I said go forward. That's what I said. And you said,
(23:43):
climb the mountain and all these things. So sometimes you
have to strip down to the very simplicity of the
message or the calling. Rather than adding all the you
added all the furniture to it. God says, here is
a room, and you said, okay, well I'm going to
put up drapes and we're going to do this. And
(24:04):
sometimes you build expectations in that as to what might happen,
and it's going to be some glorious thing. God has
called many people to the mundane, and that has limitations
or walls, and not okay, get to the top of
the mountain. Sometimes he just says, go to the mountain,
and you have to be hyper attentive and continue to listen.
(24:29):
But don't build those expectations, because with those expectations becomes
it comes disappointment, and with disappointment comes frustration. With frustration
comes to disconnect from God.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, okay, and then the.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Enemy sits on your shoulder and says, wow, he promised
all this, And think about how many times you mentioned
to me what you gave up?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Do you think that's God or the enemy?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah? I get it.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
So the enemy sits there and going, man, he did
the same thing to me in the desert. He sits
on your shoulder and he goes, wow, you sure gave
up a lot. Man, you've been doing this for God,
and man, you're getting tired and fatigued. You're not even
teaching kids, which is the calling, which wasn't necessarily the calling.
But he pushed you in this direction. And now he's
(25:24):
letting you down. No, because that wasn't part of the
calling necessarily doesn't mean it's not. This may be all
part of it, but you need to go back to
square one and be attentive to what God is doing
and be in peace and in the state of joy
(25:45):
and whatever that is, even if it means nothing, even
if it means there will be no teaching gig, there
will be nothing, whatever it might be. You have a purpose.
Who knows just yet what that is. Maybe because of
the financial issues of two thousand and six, two thousand
and eight and that put a hold on that has
(26:07):
become a process in the teaching, you know, has become
this thing that's kind of assumed and you knocking on
the doors slowly breaking then that down. Who knows. But
God has given you. Don't add to God's calling. He says,
do this, don't go oh do this because of Oh
you want me to do this, then you want me
to do that. No, he says, just do this and
(26:28):
for now. If that's what you've been called to, then
that's what you should do. And be attentive and say
I'm here at point A where you told me to go,
and I'm standing by waiting for the next call, but don't.
He's never calling anybody into you know, illness or poverty.
(26:49):
In that sense, there's no sense that you can't get
a job or can't continue living life as you're being
attentive to God. They're not mutually exclusive there. And I
think that that, you know, people get a calling and
they kind of drop everything sometimes and sometimes it's just
come stand over here for now and getting you set up.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It's really easy to get into that mind frame that
you just explained, well, he's calling me in the directions
that that must mean that this thissess and this is
going to happen all that. It's just it's really easy,
and I can see how I developed that over time.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
That's humanness. And you get ahead of God and then
you turn around and you go, well, where is he.
God's like, I'm standing right here where I told you
to meet me. And you're like, oh, well, now I'm
at the top of the mountain. I never said go
to the top of the mountain. I said move forward.
So I think that you're very sensitive to what God
has to say, and I think that's wonderful. So be attentive,
(27:46):
go back to where he sent you take a deep
breath and enjoy life in its fullness, good, bad, ugly otherwise,
and stand in that place for now, Frank, and trust
that God will speak to you. Jennifer, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I am well? How are you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm wonderful.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I have a question.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I say my prayers at night before I fall asleep,
but sometimes I question the way I pray, and I
wonder if I'm doing it correctly. Generally, I just I
go over my day, I give thanks, I pray for guidance,
I pay pray for strength. I pray for everybody I
can think of. Sometimes I fall asleep when I pray,
(28:30):
and I just I feel I feel guilty. Sometimes maybe I'm.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Not doing it right.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
What part is making you feel guilty or what part
is making you feel you're not doing it right?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Well?
Speaker 3 (28:41):
When I fall asleep in the middle of a prayer,
sometimes then you know, but just you know, I don't
pray for things. But I don't know, I just maybe
I just you know, I wasn't brought up with religion
or or you know, I'm understanding really and so I've
kind of had to find it on my own and
so I just wonder, you know, is this Am I.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Doing this right?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Well, yes, there's a couple of things that it says
in scripture that would be an issue. And some of
the things were like mantras or when you're saying something
over and over and over again rather than talking with God,
connecting with God, and things like that. But if you're
just making requests and you're you're connecting your you're kind
(29:26):
of talking to God like any other relationship. The scriptures
give you in Matthew six, give you a breakdown, you know,
the Lord's Prayer, and it says, pray, then in this way,
our Father, who art in heaven, how it be thy
name the Kingdom come, that will be done on earth
(29:47):
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also
forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, and
deliver us from evil. So if you break that down,
you will find that that prayer will give you a
guideline of how you should pray, praising God, asking for
(30:09):
certain things that you need, your daily bread, asking for forgiveness,
and you can use that as kind of a guideline
how to pray, But I think you're doing just fine.
Kf I am six forty on demand
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