June 16, 2025 • 18 mins
Right Thinking with Steve Coplon.
This week's show is called "This Is Not Our Home." Please tune in and hear Steve share stories of his deep faith, which gives him the strength and courage to carry on with an attitude of thankfulness despite living with tremendous adversity. This show will help you face your hardships.
In this episode, I reflect on perseverance through a deep faith that emphasizes our spiritual existence beyond the physical world. Titled "This Is Not Our Home," I share lessons learned from my friendship with Steve Thomas, whose blindness taught me to maintain a higher perspective amidst adversity.
Drawing from martial arts, I highlight adaptability and the warrior mindset. Anchored in scripture, I encourage listeners to cultivate gratitude and trust in the Lord's plan, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
This week's show is called "This Is Not Our Home." Please tune in and hear Steve share stories of his deep faith, which gives him the strength and courage to carry on with an attitude of thankfulness despite living with tremendous adversity. This show will help you face your hardships.
In this episode, I reflect on perseverance through a deep faith that emphasizes our spiritual existence beyond the physical world. Titled "This Is Not Our Home," I share lessons learned from my friendship with Steve Thomas, whose blindness taught me to maintain a higher perspective amidst adversity.
Drawing from martial arts, I highlight adaptability and the warrior mindset. Anchored in scripture, I encourage listeners to cultivate gratitude and trust in the Lord's plan, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
There must be lie starting brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Got to beepers. Why I am hi, Sky four of you.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, today's episode number four hundred and thirty five, Right
Thinking with Steve Copeland is very pleased to announce that
this week's show is called this is Not Our Home.
Tune in and here Steve share stories of his deep
faith that gives him the strength encourage to carry on
with an attitude of thankfulness despite living with tremendous adversities.
(01:05):
This show will help you face your hardships. Well, I
really do hope that this show will help you.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It may not.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You may not understand what I'm going to try to
say today, but I think in time it will. My
wife's always pointing out that a lot of the things
that we see in some of the younger generations will
call it maybe people just aren't ready yet. You know,
as we get older, we get a lot of life experiences,
(01:36):
and sometimes what we think someone needs to do to
make their lives better they just might not be ready
for it yet, they might not have had enough of
their own personal experiences to fully understand. So anyway, maybe
if you don't understand my message today, in a few
years or in fifteen years, we'll go back and listen
(01:58):
to it again and go.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Oh wow. Steve said that fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Anyway, I got a text message from a really close
friend of mine on Father's Day and it said, Steve,
I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day to day.
I always keep you in mind as you have a
ton of family and health challenges on your pleate. But
I love your persistence and relentlessness. Well, thank you, thank you,
(02:28):
Bill for that beautiful encouragement. I love it that there's
so many people that I care about me and they
pray for me. And what I'd like to do today
is just get right to the heart of the matter
and talk about what it is that I am able
to do that keeps me going on. Oh, about twenty
(02:49):
some years ago, I had a close friend. His name
is Steve Thomas, and he's about my same age. And
when I owned a marina down an ocean view, I
got very in bob with Steve. My partners, and I
needed to buy a house that he owned that he
used as a rental so that we could tear it
down and build a dry storage. And that's how I
(03:11):
got to know Steve, and I got to know his
mother and his sister, and it was just a beautiful,
a beautiful time for in forming a new relationship.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Steve was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
When Steve was about eleven years old, he had rheumatoid
arthritis and it caused him to go blind. And for
a number of years, my wife Don and I and
his wife we would go to the Virginia Stage Company.
We had seasons tickets for a couple of years and
we'd go to five or six plays a year, and
(03:42):
Steve called me his wingman.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, I'd hold on to him while we.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Crossed streets and you know, there's a curb coming up,
you got to step up and get up onto the curb,
et cetera. His vision was very interesting. He was totally blind,
except that he described it that he did have one
little teeny field division. And understand that if you take
a soda straw and close one eye and hold that
straw up to your eye and try to look through
the straw, you barely can see anything, he said, he
(04:10):
has that much vision, just there's this one spot that
he can see. So as we would go to this,
to the theater all the time, his head would never stop,
slowly just panning across the stage to try to see.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
What was going on. Steve was a remarkable person.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
He was a brilliant person, and he had a natural
gift for being able to memorize and quote scripture that
some of it I don't know that he ever had written,
read before, or heard. But he told me something that
had a lasting impact. That's one of the most powerful
things anyone has ever told me. We were talking about,
(04:54):
you know, developing faith in Christianity, in Christ and and
he said to me, he said, Steve, this world that's
around us, this is not our reality. It's not our reality, Steve,
he said, our reality is a spiritual place. He said,
you know, we were created in God's image, we were
(05:14):
spiritual beings. And he said, so, I just want you
to know, Steve, that no matter what's going on around
you in this physical world, pain, hardship, suffering, just all
these things, anxiety, fear, he said, those don't exist in
the spiritual plane. When you're with the Lord. And so
(05:36):
he said, here's what I want you to see. Picture
it like the spiritual plane, as if you're always walking
on a cloud, floating above this physical world. It's almost
like I always describe it that when you look down
at your feet, imagine just a way forer thin cloud,
(05:57):
so that you can just sort of hover above the ground.
And he said, and as you go through life, Steve,
his name was Steve, and my name was Steve. So
when I say Steve, I'm talking about him, and maybe
maybe me when he's talking to me. Anyway, he said,
when you go through life, Steve, if you start experiencing
anxiety and fear, it's because you have let yourself drift
(06:20):
back into the physical plane and you are not living
in the reality of the spirit. And he said, when
you get like that, as quick as you can lift
your feet back up and step back up onto that cloud,
re enter the spiritual plane. Well, I hope you understood
it the way that I just described it. It's like
(06:41):
you know, when you're when you're living in the spirit
with the Lord, these things they don't exist, fear, anxiety,
and so forth. And so once once he shared that
with me, it fit very very well into my attitude
already about life. There was there was There was a
(07:02):
karate master back in nineteen seventy two. His name was
Master James Roberts in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I always admire him.
I went to a karate tournament. I was a white
belt in karate in seventy two. I had just started
out with American Karate Academy and I had had a
(07:22):
surgery and I was out for a couple months and
the first night I went back to the karate school
in February. I had the surgery over Christmas the year
a couple months before, and I started training again. I
wasn't stretched out enough and I threw a sidekick and
I pulled my right leg hamstring muscle well. Two weeks later,
(07:46):
the school was going up to Fredericksburg from Richmond to
participate in.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
A tournament, and I went.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But I didn't have use of my right leg normal.
It was my hamstring. I couldn't kick with it, and
it was I had to be very careful not to
re injure it or injure it further. And being the
way I am, when I got to the tournament, I
sought out Master Roberts to thank him for allowing me
to participate in the tournament. It's just one of the
things I've always done in my whole karate career, seek
(08:16):
out the host of the tournament and thank them for
letting me be there. And Master Roberts, I think at
the time he was a sixth degree black belt.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
He spent a few minutes with me.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
He liked it that I was polite enough to thank
him for being able to participate, and he asked me
a few questions about myself, and then I took the
opportunity to ask him this question. I said, Master Roberts,
my right leg sidekick is my best weapon.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I rely on it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And I said, but I pulled my hamstring two weeks
ago and I can't use it. I said, I know
that karate is a self healing art. Could you maybe
show me a stretch so that I could heal my
hamstring quicker so I could regain use of my sidekick.
What he said to me changed my life. He got
within inches of my face, eyebought eyeball, and he put
(09:06):
his finger up between us and he went, no, no, no,
you must modify your technique in order to compensate for
your injury. Otherwise the others they will leave you behind. Well,
let me break that down just for a second here.
Basically what he was saying was, are you going to
go through life crying that you can't do this or
you can't do that, or you're going to make adjustments?
(09:29):
And I just absolutely called on to what he said.
And that is a warrior attitude. It's it's like you
go down the street and you're always just tell people
that one time I had my collar bone was broken
and I had my arm in a slim and I
(09:52):
had to travel to Chicago, and sometimes traveling from the
convention center back to the hotel or something, you may
have to go down to our CALLI be by yourself. Well,
what if you're walking down a dark alley and you're
carrying a briefcase and you got your arm in a sling,
and all of a sudden, three people come out from
the shadows to assault you, to mug you and say,
(10:14):
you know, give me your wallet. Well, first of all,
I think the smartest thing to do would probably be
just to give them your wallet. My method would be
to say, oh, hey, hey, I appreciate you guys, So
look you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know, there's not much in my wallet. I just
appreciate if you let me move on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
But the bottom line is is that there may be
situations where it's going to happen and you might not
be able to be polite enough to exit and have safety.
But the point is, are you going to say, hey,
time out?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Guys?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I can't really tangle with you right now because I
got my arm.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
In a sling.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So how about if I come back next month when
I'm healed and we can go at it now. Sometimes
you have to take life head on as it comes
to you. You don't have the opportunity to have it
all the ways on your terms. But what I've learned
to do is a couple of things. First of all,
the best self defense is to not be there. And
(11:09):
so if you can just basically give them your wallet
and not not risk any anything, then you replace your
driver's license, stop your credit cards, that'll be good. But
for me, what I'm trying to talk about is my
attitude of being able to persevere to carry on despite hardships.
And I have a tremendous amount of people that I
(11:29):
come in contact with, a lot of family, friends, people
When I go into the hospital for a couple of
days to be in my antibiotics that that are really
they they honor me by by telling me how they
appreciate my attitude so much, and they ask questions, how
do I, how do I? How do I do what
I do? Well, I'm going to tell you right now
what I how I do what I do? And that's
(11:51):
that's today's whole show. And it's not going to take
too long, I don't think. My wife listened to a
series by Rick Warren, the author of a purpose Driven Life,
and she said, Steve, you ought to listen to it.
It was on the Lord's Prayer. And I listened to
some of it. It was five or six thirty minute
type A sermons. And then she read a book by
(12:17):
a woman that said that she memorized when she was
five years old the Lord's Prayer. She said that her
grandmother had her memorize it, and that she said, but
when she memorized it for a long time in her life,
there were just words. She didn't she didn't really know
what it meant. Well, there's a difference between reading something
(12:42):
and internalizing it and really feeling it and understanding it.
And so for me, what I'm trying to say to
you is that so I'm twenty three is one that
I like to speak to today, and I want to
read SOLVEM twenty three, and then I'm going to explain
why this is the King James version. The Lord is
(13:03):
my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the
still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
YEA, though I walk.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. For Thou art with me. Thy rod
and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
(13:41):
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Amen well reading or hearing a scripture, a song and
living it and being in the spirit the spirit as
Steve Thomas talked to me twenty some years ago, with
(14:01):
me for me my response to Donna when she said
I ought to read I are to read the Lord's prayer.
This was on twenty three and I said, sweetheart, I said,
let me just tell you. You don't know the hundreds
of times that I've gotten through whatever I have to
face in life by being with the Lord. And I
(14:24):
told her of this experience that when I go through
surgeries twenty three or four of them, radiation treatments forty
seven of them, when I lay there and I have
a brief moment of anxiety, don't really want to be there,
just a twinge of like fear, then I have to
(14:47):
stop that right away. And so what I do is
I go back to what Steve said to me, and
I just go to the Lord. And there's Deuteronomy thirty
one six that says be strong and courageous, do not
be afraid or terrified because of them. For the Lord,
your God goes with you. He will never leave you
nor forsake you. What I'm trying to say is, as
(15:10):
I lay there on a table to take radiation or
a journey to go into a servier, or whatever it
may be, as I go into a closeness with the Lord,
everything else in my life disappears and I'm there with
the Lord. Dwelling in a place that's of the spirit.
(15:32):
And as I pull out most wonderful verse four. So
I'm twenty three. Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the Shadow of Death, Oh fear no evil, for
thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me. When I'm with the Lord. I know that
I'm safe. I know that I'm protected, and I've gotten
(15:56):
through all of my hardships, all of my difficulties. I'm
here now to speak to you to just hope and
pray that as you go through your life, you won't
just read scriptures or hear scriptures. You will immerse yourself
in the spirit and to be there with the Lord
(16:16):
and know that everything around you is just of the world,
but that we are spiritual beings, and that we are
going to be able to experience eternity with the Lord,
and that I call it heaven on earth right now.
You don't have to wait till you die to be
close with the Lord. So what I'm saying is the
(16:39):
way that I get through all my hardships and all
my difficulties is to just pray to the Lord, be
close to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And give it all to him and trust him.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And that's about as far as I want to go today,
just to give you the fundamentals of how I deal
with my life, my physical life, like Master Roberts was
telling me to change, and I'm very disciplined and I
keep moving forward doing my best. And I have an expression,
I've lost a lot of my abilities as I've gotten
(17:12):
older and through my illnesses, but I always keep trying
to move forward. I don't know how much of my
old self and my vitality and my strength and my
abilities I'll be able to regain, but I do know
that I'm going to keep trying and go as far
as I can, and no matter what else, I'm going
to be thankful every day of my life to the
(17:35):
Lord who has just given me his love. And I
just ask everybody to just move forward with your life
and just do the best you can. But the greatest
prayer you're going to have is every day just to
let the Lord know how much you love him, and
to thank him and ask him what it is that
you can do for him.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
God bless each one of you, and have a wonderful
week thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week and
remember don't quit plan ahead, it will get better. God
bless you, and have a great week
There must be lie starting brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Got to beepers. Why I am hi, Sky four of you.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, today's episode number four hundred and thirty five, Right
Thinking with Steve Copeland is very pleased to announce that
this week's show is called this is Not Our Home.
Tune in and here Steve share stories of his deep
faith that gives him the strength encourage to carry on
with an attitude of thankfulness despite living with tremendous adversities.
(01:05):
This show will help you face your hardships. Well, I
really do hope that this show will help you.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It may not.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You may not understand what I'm going to try to
say today, but I think in time it will. My
wife's always pointing out that a lot of the things
that we see in some of the younger generations will
call it maybe people just aren't ready yet. You know,
as we get older, we get a lot of life experiences,
(01:36):
and sometimes what we think someone needs to do to
make their lives better they just might not be ready
for it yet, they might not have had enough of
their own personal experiences to fully understand. So anyway, maybe
if you don't understand my message today, in a few
years or in fifteen years, we'll go back and listen
(01:58):
to it again and go.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Oh wow. Steve said that fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Anyway, I got a text message from a really close
friend of mine on Father's Day and it said, Steve,
I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day to day.
I always keep you in mind as you have a
ton of family and health challenges on your pleate. But
I love your persistence and relentlessness. Well, thank you, thank you,
(02:28):
Bill for that beautiful encouragement. I love it that there's
so many people that I care about me and they
pray for me. And what I'd like to do today
is just get right to the heart of the matter
and talk about what it is that I am able
to do that keeps me going on. Oh, about twenty
(02:49):
some years ago, I had a close friend. His name
is Steve Thomas, and he's about my same age. And
when I owned a marina down an ocean view, I
got very in bob with Steve. My partners, and I
needed to buy a house that he owned that he
used as a rental so that we could tear it
down and build a dry storage. And that's how I
(03:11):
got to know Steve, and I got to know his
mother and his sister, and it was just a beautiful,
a beautiful time for in forming a new relationship.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Steve was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
When Steve was about eleven years old, he had rheumatoid
arthritis and it caused him to go blind. And for
a number of years, my wife Don and I and
his wife we would go to the Virginia Stage Company.
We had seasons tickets for a couple of years and
we'd go to five or six plays a year, and
(03:42):
Steve called me his wingman.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, I'd hold on to him while we.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Crossed streets and you know, there's a curb coming up,
you got to step up and get up onto the curb,
et cetera. His vision was very interesting. He was totally blind,
except that he described it that he did have one
little teeny field division. And understand that if you take
a soda straw and close one eye and hold that
straw up to your eye and try to look through
the straw, you barely can see anything, he said, he
(04:10):
has that much vision, just there's this one spot that
he can see. So as we would go to this,
to the theater all the time, his head would never stop,
slowly just panning across the stage to try to see.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
What was going on. Steve was a remarkable person.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
He was a brilliant person, and he had a natural
gift for being able to memorize and quote scripture that
some of it I don't know that he ever had written,
read before, or heard. But he told me something that
had a lasting impact. That's one of the most powerful
things anyone has ever told me. We were talking about,
(04:54):
you know, developing faith in Christianity, in Christ and and
he said to me, he said, Steve, this world that's
around us, this is not our reality. It's not our reality, Steve,
he said, our reality is a spiritual place. He said,
you know, we were created in God's image, we were
(05:14):
spiritual beings. And he said, so, I just want you
to know, Steve, that no matter what's going on around
you in this physical world, pain, hardship, suffering, just all
these things, anxiety, fear, he said, those don't exist in
the spiritual plane. When you're with the Lord. And so
(05:36):
he said, here's what I want you to see. Picture
it like the spiritual plane, as if you're always walking
on a cloud, floating above this physical world. It's almost
like I always describe it that when you look down
at your feet, imagine just a way forer thin cloud,
(05:57):
so that you can just sort of hover above the ground.
And he said, and as you go through life, Steve,
his name was Steve, and my name was Steve. So
when I say Steve, I'm talking about him, and maybe
maybe me when he's talking to me. Anyway, he said,
when you go through life, Steve, if you start experiencing
anxiety and fear, it's because you have let yourself drift
(06:20):
back into the physical plane and you are not living
in the reality of the spirit. And he said, when
you get like that, as quick as you can lift
your feet back up and step back up onto that cloud,
re enter the spiritual plane. Well, I hope you understood
it the way that I just described it. It's like
(06:41):
you know, when you're when you're living in the spirit
with the Lord, these things they don't exist, fear, anxiety,
and so forth. And so once once he shared that
with me, it fit very very well into my attitude
already about life. There was there was There was a
(07:02):
karate master back in nineteen seventy two. His name was
Master James Roberts in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I always admire him.
I went to a karate tournament. I was a white
belt in karate in seventy two. I had just started
out with American Karate Academy and I had had a
(07:22):
surgery and I was out for a couple months and
the first night I went back to the karate school
in February. I had the surgery over Christmas the year
a couple months before, and I started training again. I
wasn't stretched out enough and I threw a sidekick and
I pulled my right leg hamstring muscle well. Two weeks later,
(07:46):
the school was going up to Fredericksburg from Richmond to
participate in.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
A tournament, and I went.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But I didn't have use of my right leg normal.
It was my hamstring. I couldn't kick with it, and
it was I had to be very careful not to
re injure it or injure it further. And being the
way I am, when I got to the tournament, I
sought out Master Roberts to thank him for allowing me
to participate in the tournament. It's just one of the
things I've always done in my whole karate career, seek
(08:16):
out the host of the tournament and thank them for
letting me be there. And Master Roberts, I think at
the time he was a sixth degree black belt.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
He spent a few minutes with me.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
He liked it that I was polite enough to thank
him for being able to participate, and he asked me
a few questions about myself, and then I took the
opportunity to ask him this question. I said, Master Roberts,
my right leg sidekick is my best weapon.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I rely on it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And I said, but I pulled my hamstring two weeks
ago and I can't use it. I said, I know
that karate is a self healing art. Could you maybe
show me a stretch so that I could heal my
hamstring quicker so I could regain use of my sidekick.
What he said to me changed my life. He got
within inches of my face, eyebought eyeball, and he put
(09:06):
his finger up between us and he went, no, no, no,
you must modify your technique in order to compensate for
your injury. Otherwise the others they will leave you behind. Well,
let me break that down just for a second here.
Basically what he was saying was, are you going to
go through life crying that you can't do this or
you can't do that, or you're going to make adjustments?
(09:29):
And I just absolutely called on to what he said.
And that is a warrior attitude. It's it's like you
go down the street and you're always just tell people
that one time I had my collar bone was broken
and I had my arm in a slim and I
(09:52):
had to travel to Chicago, and sometimes traveling from the
convention center back to the hotel or something, you may
have to go down to our CALLI be by yourself. Well,
what if you're walking down a dark alley and you're
carrying a briefcase and you got your arm in a sling,
and all of a sudden, three people come out from
the shadows to assault you, to mug you and say,
(10:14):
you know, give me your wallet. Well, first of all,
I think the smartest thing to do would probably be
just to give them your wallet. My method would be
to say, oh, hey, hey, I appreciate you guys, So
look you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know, there's not much in my wallet. I just
appreciate if you let me move on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
But the bottom line is is that there may be
situations where it's going to happen and you might not
be able to be polite enough to exit and have safety.
But the point is, are you going to say, hey,
time out?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Guys?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I can't really tangle with you right now because I
got my arm.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
In a sling.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So how about if I come back next month when
I'm healed and we can go at it now. Sometimes
you have to take life head on as it comes
to you. You don't have the opportunity to have it
all the ways on your terms. But what I've learned
to do is a couple of things. First of all,
the best self defense is to not be there. And
(11:09):
so if you can just basically give them your wallet
and not not risk any anything, then you replace your
driver's license, stop your credit cards, that'll be good. But
for me, what I'm trying to talk about is my
attitude of being able to persevere to carry on despite hardships.
And I have a tremendous amount of people that I
(11:29):
come in contact with, a lot of family, friends, people
When I go into the hospital for a couple of
days to be in my antibiotics that that are really
they they honor me by by telling me how they
appreciate my attitude so much, and they ask questions, how
do I, how do I? How do I do what
I do? Well, I'm going to tell you right now
what I how I do what I do? And that's
(11:51):
that's today's whole show. And it's not going to take
too long, I don't think. My wife listened to a
series by Rick Warren, the author of a purpose Driven Life,
and she said, Steve, you ought to listen to it.
It was on the Lord's Prayer. And I listened to
some of it. It was five or six thirty minute
type A sermons. And then she read a book by
(12:17):
a woman that said that she memorized when she was
five years old the Lord's Prayer. She said that her
grandmother had her memorize it, and that she said, but
when she memorized it for a long time in her life,
there were just words. She didn't she didn't really know
what it meant. Well, there's a difference between reading something
(12:42):
and internalizing it and really feeling it and understanding it.
And so for me, what I'm trying to say to
you is that so I'm twenty three is one that
I like to speak to today, and I want to
read SOLVEM twenty three, and then I'm going to explain
why this is the King James version. The Lord is
(13:03):
my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the
still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
YEA, though I walk.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. For Thou art with me. Thy rod
and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
(13:41):
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Amen well reading or hearing a scripture, a song and
living it and being in the spirit the spirit as
Steve Thomas talked to me twenty some years ago, with
(14:01):
me for me my response to Donna when she said
I ought to read I are to read the Lord's prayer.
This was on twenty three and I said, sweetheart, I said,
let me just tell you. You don't know the hundreds
of times that I've gotten through whatever I have to
face in life by being with the Lord. And I
(14:24):
told her of this experience that when I go through
surgeries twenty three or four of them, radiation treatments forty
seven of them, when I lay there and I have
a brief moment of anxiety, don't really want to be there,
just a twinge of like fear, then I have to
(14:47):
stop that right away. And so what I do is
I go back to what Steve said to me, and
I just go to the Lord. And there's Deuteronomy thirty
one six that says be strong and courageous, do not
be afraid or terrified because of them. For the Lord,
your God goes with you. He will never leave you
nor forsake you. What I'm trying to say is, as
(15:10):
I lay there on a table to take radiation or
a journey to go into a servier, or whatever it
may be, as I go into a closeness with the Lord,
everything else in my life disappears and I'm there with
the Lord. Dwelling in a place that's of the spirit.
(15:32):
And as I pull out most wonderful verse four. So
I'm twenty three. Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the Shadow of Death, Oh fear no evil, for
thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me. When I'm with the Lord. I know that
I'm safe. I know that I'm protected, and I've gotten
(15:56):
through all of my hardships, all of my difficulties. I'm
here now to speak to you to just hope and
pray that as you go through your life, you won't
just read scriptures or hear scriptures. You will immerse yourself
in the spirit and to be there with the Lord
(16:16):
and know that everything around you is just of the world,
but that we are spiritual beings, and that we are
going to be able to experience eternity with the Lord,
and that I call it heaven on earth right now.
You don't have to wait till you die to be
close with the Lord. So what I'm saying is the
(16:39):
way that I get through all my hardships and all
my difficulties is to just pray to the Lord, be
close to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And give it all to him and trust him.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And that's about as far as I want to go today,
just to give you the fundamentals of how I deal
with my life, my physical life, like Master Roberts was
telling me to change, and I'm very disciplined and I
keep moving forward doing my best. And I have an expression,
I've lost a lot of my abilities as I've gotten
(17:12):
older and through my illnesses, but I always keep trying
to move forward. I don't know how much of my
old self and my vitality and my strength and my
abilities I'll be able to regain, but I do know
that I'm going to keep trying and go as far
as I can, and no matter what else, I'm going
to be thankful every day of my life to the
(17:35):
Lord who has just given me his love. And I
just ask everybody to just move forward with your life
and just do the best you can. But the greatest
prayer you're going to have is every day just to
let the Lord know how much you love him, and
to thank him and ask him what it is that
you can do for him.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
God bless each one of you, and have a wonderful
week thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week and
remember don't quit plan ahead, it will get better. God
bless you, and have a great week
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