Mike Friezer’s journey is all about rekindling that first love with God, and trust me, it’s a ride worth taking. He dives deep into the importance of nurturing our spiritual lives with diligence and discipline—basically, if you wanna grow, you’ve gotta put in the work. We chat about how our relationship with God can transform our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, especially when we realize that our image is shaped by His. Mike’s insights are sprinkled with personal anecdotes that highlight the absurdity of life’s twists and turns—like how a simple Bible study led to a whirlwind romance and a new chapter in his life. So, if you're ready to dive into some solid wisdom wrapped in sarcasm and relatable stories, stick around; this chat might just spark your own journey back to your first love with God. The podcast kicks off with Mike Friezer discussing the importance of discovering one’s first love for God, particularly in today’s fast-paced and often superficial world. Friezer shares insights from his new online course, “Discover Your First Love,” which aims to help individuals reconnect with their spiritual roots. He underscores the necessity of diligence and discipline in the Christian walk, likening the need for spiritual nourishment to physical sustenance. As the conversation unfolds, Friezer reflects on the biblical narrative of creation and redemption, emphasizing that humans were designed for a relationship with God from the very beginning. He touches on themes of sin and redemption, explaining how God’s grace is a constant in our lives, urging listeners to embrace their identity as created in His image. The episode is filled with humor and relatable anecdotes, making profound theological concepts accessible and engaging.

Takeaways:

1. Discovering your first love for God is about rekindling a genuine relationship with Christ, not just rituals.
2. We need to embrace daily spiritual discipline with diligence to grow in our faith and relationship with God.
3. The importance of meditating on God's Word and writing down scriptures is emphasized as essential for spiritual growth.
4. Mike shares his personal journey of faith, illustrating how life experiences shape our understanding and relationship with God.
5. The podcast highlights that, in today's society, many are spiritually lukewarm and need to wake up to their faith.
6. Understanding that God operates outside of human intellect, and faith is essential to grasp His truths is crucial for believers.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. firstloveforgod.com
2. first-love-for-god.com
3. discoveryourfirstloveforgod.com

Foreign.

Welcome back.

My name is Ashley and this is the Black Sheep Christian Podcast.

And today I am honored to talk to Mike Friezer.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley.

Great to be here.

Thanks.

I'm so blessed to have you here reading and coming across your profile.

I think this is a very interesting subject to talk about, especially in today's world, about discovering our fire, discovering our first love with Christ.

And I think that as an American, I think this is something that we need to go back to the basics with.

Amen.

Wow.

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head there.

That's, that's, that's.

Yeah, that's my desire.

Yeah.

Tell me about what led you.

Now, first of all, I'm jumping ahead because you have a website.

Excuse me, sorry.

You have a website so people know what I'm talking about, which is first love for God.

Now it's first-love-for-God.

Think I see.

No, if I see dot com.

So I want to start off with that.

All right.

That's a go to website that needs a better name, which I will get eventually.

I'm really just getting started on this agenda.

Oh, okay.

And so in this course that I've developed got launched on December 16th of last year.

So my agenda is to get people to know about this course and find out if there's an interest and if they want to pursue getting into and applying ourselves to this course and to anything that we do.

We need to have diligence.

We need to have some discipline.

And that's what it requires for spiritual life.

It requires diligence and discipline.

And when Christ gave us the way to pray about the model prayer, which I call it, he says, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

He said we need daily bread, you know, and he was using a physical need we have for daily bread the same as we have a need for daily bread, which is the word of God.

And we need it daily too.

So one of the things that I've learned about God is God always shares his infinity with us in practical ways.

And he's the God of creation and all things that he created.

He uses those things to.

To show us who he is and how life is realized through what he has created, how he's created us.

And his images, just an amazing creation because human beings are the only be create, you know, existing living thing in creation that are created in his image.

No, animals are.

The angels were not created in his image.

Plants are not created in his image.

There's all kinds of living things, you know, of the sea and whatnot, and God's created them all.

But the human being, he created in his image, and he has an ongoing active relationship with him.

If we come to know him as our heavenly Father and the God of creation.

And it has to do with, you know, sin that's in our life, and that's what separated us from having a good relationship, was our parents, Adam and Eve were in sin.

We've inherited that sinful nature.

And God has always been about redemption and redeeming us.

And when Adam and Eve sinned, the first thing he did.

Well, when they sinned, they realized they were naked.

And so they, they.

They were.

Well, they were.

They.

They felt shame because they realized they were naked.

And God said, told you you were naked?

He said, did you eat of the forbidden fruit?

And what they did to cover their nakedness, they took fig leaves and covered themselves with fig leaves.

But that wasn't the requirement God wanted to.

To use to cover their sin.

It was the shed blood of an animal.

It was the skin of an animal, and that animal had to shed its blood to cover their sins.

And so, as I've realized that God has been showing us a picture for the first 4,000 years of time, the need for our sins to be covered.

And it was that picture of an animal shedding its blood to cover our sins.

And that's what the skin did, covered our sins.

And then He, God himself, came and lived among us as a man, as a human being.

And his name was Jesus.

Prior to that, I think recognized as the word of God.

And he lived, he lives among us so that he could shed his blood because he was the perfect sacrifice that we need.

We needed our sins to be paid for, not covered.

So we've had 4,000 years of history with God showing us how great he is, how mighty he is.

And out of that, he brought the nation of Israel from where the Messiah came, the bloodline of Israel, and how he became the father of Jesus because he's the one that impregnated Mary, you know, because it was man's sinful nature that passed along the sinful, sinful nature.

And God needed a son that was born in our image and in his image to be our sacrifice.

And it was his son he gave himself.

It's just.

It's just an amazing, incredible story.

As you, as you dialogue and sit down and have time to share this with people, if that's the way the dialogue goes, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's where we're at right now, you know, we've jumped right into it.

And this is, you know, the, the.

The.

We covered a big time span here.

We covered 6,000 years of history, you know, but there's just so much good, good news.

We there.

And we realize that God has never changed.

You know, he always deals with.

With sin.

And he rewards us when we.

When we're obedient to him and when we listen to him.

And obedience comes from hearing what he's saying.

There's a slogan in our church that is, we say, obedience will appear when the word of God you hear.

So when you start hearing what God's saying, it transforms you and you start becoming obedient because, you know, so God just makes sense what you're telling me about yourself.

And I see who I am.

I'm looking at your.

Your Word, and your word is reflecting you in my.

My mind, in my heart.

It's like a mirror.

I'm into your Word and I'm seeing you, and I'm starting to see myself as I should based upon what your Word transforms my thoughts into.

And it's.

It's a, It's.

It's a life and is.

And it's.

And it takes devotion and it takes a relationship with God.

God is always faithful.

And he's.

He's done it all.

He has.

And, you know, it's.

I like, thanks for reading that and going through that history, because I just had a thought bubble.

Okay.

It was the fact when you talked about they ate the apple and they're like, we're naked.

And God's like, who said you were naked?

But he put.

But he clothed them.

Yeah.

My thought was quite.

My thought is this.

And that is, as parents, when our kids say something to us and we're like, no, that's.

That's not correct.

It's this.

And we try to correct them, but God ended up accommodating something that was wrong, which I quite find so interesting.

Like, he was like, you're not naked, but I'll clothe you anyways.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Which is.

Which is a really interesting action, like, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Well, God knows our need.

And I don't exactly understand what all.

What life was like before sin was in the world.

But obviously they weren't clothed and they weren't ashamed.

But I think it had to do with something with sin coming into their life and their relationship with God had changed and the relationship with each other had changed.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, and they had a different relationship at one time with God than we did.

And the neatest thing is I talked about earlier about being created in his image, you know, and here's how I believe that we're created in his image.

Now, we believers of the Christian faith clearly understand that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Three personages, but one God.

And these three personages are always in unity.

I call him the God of Tri unity.

And we commonly say he's a triune God, but I say he's the God of Tri unity.

These three personages are always in unity.

There's no division at all.

But before, when Adam and Eve were created, they were created in God's image and their image was fine.

But when sin came in, their image became marred.

And their body, soul and spirit, which I believe we have, we have three identities in one.

We have a body.

And in this body it close, it houses the soul and the spirit.

And so we're three identities in one.

But when sin came in.

Now there's an argument going on with these, these three personages.

And that that's what sin did.

And so there's an argument going on or our image is marred.

It's not that we're not created in the image of God.

It's that our image is marred by sin.

And so that sin needed to be covered at first because God wanted to continue the relationship.

And, and, and he had a plan for redemption, for the redemption of mankind.

You know, nothing ever surprises God.

Yeah.

You know, he didn't take him by surprise when sin came into the world.

But he always has a go to plan.

He's.

This is the, this is how I've come to understand the sovereignty of God, that you just, you can't get ahead of him.

Yeah.

And, and, and, and so the thing I've learned to do and want to do is I want to be.

I want to, I want to be right by his side, that I want to be yoked with him.

And that's what Christ.

The picture Christ gave us.

You know, he said, you know, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

He said, you know, you know me.

He says, I'm not behind you pushing you.

I'm not in front of you pushing, pulling you.

I want to be by your side.

I want us to be yoked together, yolks on his shoulders.

We're shouldering this thing together.

And so he wants us to have this relationship.

And that's, that's what My course is about how, how this relationship is, is always evident of what God is trying to restore us.

And when we go astray, to bring us back and, and have peace with our fellow man.

You know, a scripture we quote so much at Christmas time is Isaiah 6, 9.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and it says, and the government will rest on his shoulders.

So we thought, wow, that's incredible statement.

The government resting on this child born to us is what he was saying.

This is how God always views him.

He views things from an eternal perspective and has a.

Has prophecy involved and what he knows is going to come about.

So he just fills us in totally with a few words.

But then he gave.

He says, and his name shall be called.

And I think he has seven names here.

His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace.

And those seven names, they all cover God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace.

You know, a counselor is known as our Holy Spirit.

Our Holy Spirit counsels us today.

You know, our Father in there we have our Heavenly Father.

And he's mighty.

You know, see, the mighty things that he does in the Old Testament, the mighty things he does in the New Testament, and the mighty things he does today, the miracles and the things we, you know, as we have a relationship with him today, he's as much a part of our lives today as he's ever been.

So it's an amazing, amazing story that we're a part of and he's the author, but we're helping him write it because we're side by side.

We're helping him write our part, our portion as we go along.

It has to do with the relationship.

Yeah.

So the, so this.

And I want to really, you know, highlight the value that's in this online course.

You know, it's.

It's an easy go to.

It's a story about things that have happened in my life, things that have happened in other people's lives, and just how he's.

I relate how he works through history and the value that we have and the value we gain when we learn to listen to God and hear His Word.

So it's just amazing relationship.

And he's our Father and he cares about us.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Well said.

Now you have a beautiful story yourself as far as redemption.

Yeah, well, you know, I think about when I came to know Christ as my Savior, which was before I was a teenager.

I. I didn't get saved because I had trauma in my life.

I got saved because I went to a vacation Bible school.

It was just, it was the right thing to do.

There's nothing wrong, you know, so I didn't need a trauma to get saved, but it was the right thing to do.

So I believe I asked Christ to be my savior before I was a teenager, but I didn't grow because the church I went to just wasn't.

I, I didn't even know what born again man or had salvation was.

All I knew was I, I was saved.

That's what I was told at this vacation Bible school.

And it was a decade later until I learned what it meant to be born again or that I had salvation in Christ and what it meant.

And really the, the word eternal life became a new, a new word in my vocabulary.

I, I, we, we could identify with eternal life in those first 10 years of my being saved.

So I, I, but by the time I got to that place in my life, I, I had some, some things in my life I needed to get rid of.

Yeah.

And so I had, I had a lifestyle that wasn't a good, you know, a profitable lifestyle and I needed to get rid of it.

So God worked with me through that and it was just amazing his patience.

But more than anything, it was the fact that I got into a good Bible believing Bible sharing church, body of believers and the man who shared the word of God, his name was Chuck Westgate and his wife was named Sandy.

And they're still with us today.

And the impact that that ministry had on me and the people of that church started me, it just brought me to life.

It was, it was time for revival.

And so I wanted to be, remain revived all my life.

And so, you know, basically I, I, I talk in my online course that God called me to be a minister of the Word of God when I was 26 years old.

Wow.

And of course, you know, you think then, which was a long time ago for me and I thought, you know, everybody's a go to, you got to go to college somewhere, go, you know, go to Bible school or somewhere to get the training you need.

That's what I thought it was going to do.

But it just didn't turn out that way and I got sidetracked and, but I felt that God called me to preach.

But so I talk about in the course that I spent 40 years in the wilderness like the Israelites did.

And the Israelites trained, were trained for 40 years.

You know, they learned, they seen God do miraculous things for 40 years because he was teaching them and bringing them about.

But anyways, so when I was like 66 years old, my wife and I started a house church.

So that was my 40 years.

So that was my 40 years of training.

And since then, all kinds of things have just been developing.

And of course, this online course developed, which I got it, recorded the video and stuff and, and got it written.

And it's just an amazing story.

And it's all put in this 15 video course and it's accessible right now, and it's only accessible, easily accessible on Facebook.

You go to discover your first love for God and you'll see my go to page.

Come up there and you can find out a little more about me on this page and decide whether you want to enroll in the course.

The course is $55 and it's.

And it's a really go to devotional.

And so here's what I've done.

You know, this was completed and I.

And I wrote it and worked on it studiously, you know, to develop the dialogue and do the videos.

And so here it's all done here just a week ago.

I got to go through my own course now, and I'm going through this course that I wrote, and I'm just loving it.

You know, first of all, I'm pretty familiar with a lot of the scriptures, but just to hear them again and just to see the dialogue that's associated with this is heartwarming.

So that's where I'm at, you know, with.

I'm taking my own course right now, and I'm just.

Yeah, I've just started.

And I think it really should be looked at as a devotional because these video, you want to give yourself at least 20 minutes every day, you know, and you.

And so I started going back because I'm revisiting the first four video, first four videos and stuff.

And so I encourage people.

There's a lot of scripture that's in the video.

And so after the video is over on this course, you have the ability to.

To type in the scriptures that you heard during the video.

And so this is the first key step in anybody's life to take the word of God and pull it off the pages of the word of God and write it down on your own.

And this is just typing it down.

That's a good start.

But I write things down on cards all the time.

I'm just writing things down in cards right now because I carry them with me.

These are Bigger cards, but I usually have index cards.

And I, and I, and I write the scripture down and I carry it with me.

Wow.

And I'm, I'm meditating on God's Word of God day and night.

Wow.

That's what to do.

And it, it just is my, it's my first love.

Yeah.

So that's, so that's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's beautiful.

Thank you for sharing that, especially with the cards.

Yeah.

Because I think, I think that's a really nice tool and a good tool for somebody who knows needs it.

Especially because, I mean today is really, there's a lot of distractions.

And so we, we have Bible apps, you know, we have different types of translations.

I mean, we have all the tools that we can have in order to read his Word, but yet we just not getting in it.

Well, God tells us, he said, you're ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And what that means is, in my understanding is you're just smelling the food, you're not dining on it.

And, and, and to, and to just look at the, just to read the Word of God and go on from there.

You're just smelling the food, you're not dining on it.

And how we dine on it is, take time to meditate on it.

I think it is.

The Lord is my portion.

I have promised to keep your words.

And so what I've learned to do is take portions of the Word of God and remember them and meditate on them.

And it can be any portion that you desire.

If there's something you like about a portion of Scripture, take it out of the, of those pages and write it down and keep it with you and meditate on it and really remember it word for word.

And it does something to me every time.

I, this July will be 19 years since I started that.

And it's, it's what God revealed to me.

And I, and I'm not, I'm not turning back.

I put my hand to the plow and I'm not looking back.

So that's, that's where, where I'm at with, with that.

That's beautiful.

So that's beautiful.

I, I think.

Go ahead, go ahead.

Because it says, you know, and, and I get.

This is my, this is my, my scriptural reference for why I do this.

Because the Israelites, he said, you know, write these words on the lentils of your house and on the door posts.

He said, carry them with you put them on your wrist.

You know, something is reminder of these words that you want to remember this portion, and.

And that way you have it with you.

And of course, you know, I. I don't.

I. I change what I'm remember.

Once I got something really remembered and recalled and I feel good about it, then I'll move on, you know, and it's just like I'm dining on something else now, you know, and it says, and.

And one of the problems with the church today is it's lukewarm.

And lukewarm is not the place to be.

It's.

It's worse than being cold, you know, because.

Because if you're cold, you know you're cold.

And if you're hot, you know you're hot.

But if you're lukewarm, you think everything's all right.

And you don't know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

And Jesus says to the lukewarm church, he said, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.

I thought, wow.

God's asking, though.

He said, take my word, you know, he says, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so you may become rich.

And I think the word of God gets.

Is.

Is gold.

It gets refined by fire as we listen to it.

And the Holy Spirit starts speaking to us with these words.

And we take time to hear.

We take time to listen.

And like I said, meditation takes time.

If it doesn't take time, it's not meditation.

Yeah.

And so he talks about this in the Word a lot, but remembering and recalling and keeping and holding and treasuring the word of God.

So.

And I. I know that, you know, people have.

Have Go to verses that they really cling to, you know, if they're in calamity or something, or maybe it's a word of praise too, that.

That they'll shout from with the Word of God.

I'd like to hear the word of God quoted because it's God.

It's God speaking to us.

It is.

So.

So it's.

It's.

It's my first love.

I'm.

I'm in love with the Word of God and hearing God speak to me

as you should be.

I mean, at the end of the day, that's all God wants us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, at the end of the day, all God wants is a relationship.

I mean, that's why he created us.

That's why.

Yeah.

I mean, he had.

I mean, he didn't.

It wasn't like, a quick decision.

He thought of deeply about it.

Yeah.

The.

The details that he gave us and all that he created for us.

And, And.

And it says in.

In Genesis 1, I. I gotta turn here quick, because I'm not.

I want to make sure I quote just right.

Genesis 1, 26 and 27, when he created mankind.

And here.

Here's how we know there's.

There's a Father, Son, the Father of the Word, and the Holy Spirit were involved.

He said.

Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image, in the image of God.

He created him.

Male and female.

He created them.

Foundational truth right there.

Male and female.

You know, that's all there is.

There's not any.

There isn't anything in between.

And we are created in his image.

And all the controversy that's going on now with the.

With.

With the pronouns of people and.

And.

And.

And the transgender is because their.

Their image is so messed up.

They.

They just.

First of all, they don't have a relationship with God.

And, And I. I. I know people that.

That even can have a relationship with God can get caught up in things like this because we're sinners, and we've got to have a relationship with God, and we can't.

I don't know how to have a relationship with God without His word.

I don't.

I don.

I don't know how to pray without his word.

I say 95% of my prayer life is God talking to me because I'm looking at His Word and I'm remembering it.

And then if there's anything to say after that, I say it.

Yeah.

But I let God talk to me.

Yeah.

And all of our journeys are different, though, you know, as far as how we get there, who we are in ourselves and our plan and our purpose.

Yeah.

And so all of us, we.

We eventually get there.

Yeah.

Well, I. I got.

I got a son that's going through some rough things right now, and I'm trying to coach him.

You know, he's not at all, you know, in a good place yet, but he's had some real upheavals, and so he's, you know, I'm trying to coach him to.

I said, go to.

Go to the book of Proverbs.

You know, there's just some, some portions of scripture.

It makes so much sense and there's so much wisdom found in so few words.

You know, I don't, don't, don't go and read, you know, something.

You're not ready for solid food.

You know, you're ready for something.

It's easy to, to calm your, your wits down and get on the right path again and find your.

Find your place in life.

And so.

Yeah, like you said.

Yeah, I'm glad you, you wrote that, you said that, Ashley, because everybody is at a different place.

Yeah.

And.

And so that's why I, as, as a minister and as we minister in church, we, we carry on a lot of conversation because our church service isn't like most people's.

We are a conversational church.

And I, I have a message prepared.

And, and when we all have the notes, you know, I don't, I don't have notes reading from, and preaching to people.

We're, we're sharing the word of God and everybody gets a chance to share.

And so we find out that everybody's in a different place, you know, is what they're dealing with in life.

And so we know that the, the Bible clearly tells us that we're all individual members of the body of Christ.

Yeah.

Each individual member has its own function.

And we're not all the same port, you know, member.

We're all different portions of the body.

But the body, when it, when it's, when it's redeemed by God, everything functions together.

Yes.

And there's unity in the body.

Yes.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, well said.

So when I, when I, Some of the trials that I went through was with one of the most, the most grievous thing in my adult Christian life is I went through a divorce.

And that was the most grievous thing I ever experienced in my adult Christian life.

Did not want to get divorced, but my wife and I, there's things that happened in our life because of business and disagreements and stuff, and we didn't know how to be grounded enough or how to ground ourselves in the word of God to avoid this divorce.

And it happened over a long period of time, but it was just misery, misery.

And so I ended up divorced.

And there's no sense going through anything about the gory details.

It happened, you know, and what we do now after that is the important part to overcome, you know, this divorce.

And so one of the things that God.

God shared, you know, I, I don't want to Be alone.

Because man.

Men don't like to be alone.

So God.

God gave me a.

A.

An incredible woman.

And so when this happened, the music started ringing in my ears again.

You know, life was so miserable prior to that.

There wasn't even any music in my.

My heart.

And when I met the woman who's now my wife, song started coming together.

And that's where the song for this course came from.

God wins again.

And so that's what.

That's what I wrote.

Because.

Because of that, I. I started writing.

Go spread the news all over town that we've been seen without a frown.

Of course, I was talking about me and my wife, you know, and so.

Go spread good news God wins again.

And it's just an amazing thing that God brought us together and we were both believers, you know, and we decided we're going to get married after we met.

We got married 10 weeks after we met.

And.

So it was just amazing how God brought us together.

And so how long have you guys been together?

Well, we've been together.

We're almost seven years now.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

March.

And I was just gonna introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Mike Fraser.

And she did it for me.

She goes, mike Friezer.

She said, I'm Cindy Ham.

We had graduated from high school together, so we had a little history.

We knew each other was.

But we didn't know each other as Christians.

And.

And the bond that comes about because we were both yoked with Christ was what made us comfortable to get married 10 weeks later.

The unity that was there.

Yeah.

And that's just how God works sometimes.

Yeah.

So the song got written, and now the song I'll just read.

So the song has developed and the words have changed, the tune has changed, but the message is still the same.

God wins again.

The first verse of this song is called.

It says, go spread good news throughout the earth Our need for God from our first birth be born again.

Christ paid for sin Go spread good news God wins again.

The love of God found in his word made known to us when it is heard Wake up from sleep.

Our song has been go spread good news.

God wins again.

So that's.

That's the first verse.

And these are the verses that I use in this online course.

And I.

And I have four videos for that first verse there.

And I talk about the different things and things that happened in my life.

And of course, I share the brief story about how Cindy and I met and.

And.

And how.

How God just always is.

He's always working.

He's always working.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's beautiful.

Thanks for sharing.

That's really beautiful.

I. Yeah.

I mean, it takes people years to even get to that point.

So.

Yeah, 10 weeks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I. Yeah, I won't.

I won't.

There's all kinds of details.

I'm encouraging people to.

To get the course because it's a good course to get to.

To learn some devotion with yourself that you might not have known was available.

And.

And we're just delighted, you know, we found it hard to light in the Lord and we say, this is the way it should be, you know?

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Wow.

So

anyways.

Wow.

Switching gears, that was a lot.

I'm trying to find where I'm at.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

So here we go.

Where.

Where am I at?

Okay, here we go.

Oh, yeah.

Here we go.

So you describe as a time that God given place, space and opportunity.

And looking back, how has your definition of your part in this world changed from your youth to today?

How my part changed, you know, because even as, you know, as you're growing, you know, there's so much you learn growing up, just maturing as a human being.

And so it's.

And it's the same thing with growing in the Lord, you know, how.

How do.

How do you grow?

How do you mature in the Lord?

And I think here, again, it has to do with how we digest the word of God.

Because if you're just always, you know, God talks about when you're an infant.

When you're an infant, all you drink is milk.

Right.

When you're first born, you know, and any.

Any animal, you know, if a puppy's born, he can only drink milk.

He can't eat solid food.

Well, that's the way it is with infants, too.

They gotta drink milk.

And God says that's the way it is for an infant.

That's.

That's been born again.

A human being has been born again.

It doesn't matter what age you are, whether you're born again as a.

As a preteen or.

Or you're born again when you're 39 years old.

My neighbor across the street, he's got an amazing testimony.

His name's Dwayne.

He didn't come to know the Lord until he was 39, but he.

He had to grow too.

He had to start out with, you know, with milk, you know, and learn things.

But he grew fast.

He really Grew fast.

He really grew fast.

He was starving.

That was a hungry baby.

Yeah, but when, when people who are, who are grown adults and, and they're still dabbling in the milk, you know, they're not going to grow.

And, and he talks about that in Hebrews.

He says, you know, I guess I'll have to read that quick.

That portion in Hebrews from chapter five.

He says, concerning him, we have much to say.

He's talking about Jesus Christ.

And hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

He says by this time.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you ought to be mature in the Word of God, yet you have need, once you have need for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food.

He said you're still drinking milk.

Said for everyone who partakes of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness.

For he is an infant, he's still a baby.

But solid food is for the mature who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

And so if you're not getting into the Word of God to learn how to live your life, you're just trying to get by and not be responsible for anything beyond, you know, daily living or whatever and grow, you're just going to be happy with.

Well, you're going to be.

You're going to be lukewarm and you're going to think everything's all right.

Well, God wants us to grow.

And so the same Word of God that at one time was milk is going to be portions of it are going to be now become solid food because of the way you digest it.

You're hearing more from the same portion of Scripture, and maybe you're also incorporating other portions of Scripture to enhance that portion.

Because all Scriptures is written by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

And so we're to accurately handle the Word of God.

So as you accurately handle the Word of God, you find that the Word of God always complements itself.

It never contradicts itself.

And if you find portions of the Word of God that contradict one another, well, you're not digesting something right.

And so as we learn to compare Scripture with Scripture, then we're starting to digest the same Word of God.

And it's going from milk to solid food.

And it's how we digest the Word of God that takes it from.

It's not.

There's just certain specific words the word of God that are milk and some are solid food, but I think it's how you digest it.

And this is what God explains to us, you know, about what happens with the word of God.

And some of the things we think are, are of great importance.

Are, are.

You know, he said, yeah, you should.

These should be foundational truths in, in your, in your life.

Move on from there.

You know, how, how are you going to.

How if you want to run a business, how are you going to run your business?

Are you going to run your business according to my fairness?

Are you going to run your business according to the ways of the world, you know, and be shrewd and, and, and maybe basically unethical, but still say, well, I'm just, I'm just doing this because I got a, I got a family to feed or I got bills to pay.

No, that's not, that's not the way to look at it at all.

The love you'll find and the guidance you'll find and the peace you'll encounter if you do it.

God's way is just far beyond that in the way of prosperity.

So that's what I've learned and so that, you know, that's what I've learned as I, as I've grown is you've got to make different decisions and you got to wait for yourself to grow.

And I remember I wanted to build a trucking business and I, and I didn't wait upon the Lord.

And that was one of the problems with.

I didn't know how, you know, and I, yeah, I didn't know how.

I just thought I had to make a step and just if it.

Pick up the pieces, if it fell apart, but things, it just didn't work right, you know, And I did made decisions without my wife at that time knowing it and stuff.

And it was a calamity.

So I think that as we learn to digest the word of God, and that's why I find it so important and why I am so compassionate about this online course.

You know, I can, I can talk about this.

I, I'm glad.

Talking about it every day of the week and, and stuff.

But, but this course I've developed and you'll find value in it.

I could give you the course, but you aren't gonna, you probably aren't gonna think as much of if I give it to you, but if you have to pay for it, you're going to want to get your money out of it.

And not only will you get your money, you'll be getting Some eternal rewards from what you learn from the word of God.

And hopefully it will get you on a path that you'll be digesting solid food the rest of your life and being a better parent, being a better employer, being a better employee.

You know, my youngest son, Elisha, Easy, he's a pretty good thinker and he, but he's got to get overthinking his way.

So he's in the book of Proverbs now and, and saying, wow, this is just amazing.

This, what these phrases are saying and how, how, how succinct they are for making sense.

He said, I'm writing them down.

Yes.

You've got your, your, your.

You're ringing the, you're ringing my heart.

You're strings of my heart.

Yeah.

What do you think is.

Go ahead.

Sorry.

And so, so as you learn this, this is my, this is my joy.

And you're not going to be.

Might be like Mike Frieser.

You're going to be like you, you're going to be like Ashley.

You know, you know, if I was to use you as a personal example, you know, you're going to be like you, like God has you as an individual to be, but you're going to be a part of the body of Price, the body of Christ.

That fits right in.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you have a question?

Yeah, yeah.

No, no, it's okay.

You, you just given a lot of information, a lot of tea.

A lot of tea.

Yeah.

What do you think is holding us back?

Because you said lukewarm.

Why?

What are you finding?

What's holding people back to stay in the lukewarm?

I, I think I, I think one of the problems we have, like I said, when you were sharing about all these information we have, we're ever learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth.

I think the first thing we need to do as a believer in the word of God, I, I think we need to find a translation that is translated, is accurately word for word from the best, you know, that's in the English dialect, you know, and so you can just lean, lean on that.

And I'm not one to go from translation to translation.

If I have a good translation and I use the New American Standard Bible, that's one of them.

That's a good translation.

Accurately translated word for word from the original language that was written in.

And then I listened to it and I put my trust in that translator because they've accurately translated it.

And it just starts ringing in my ears and I'm not looking for somebody else's idea what the word of God is saying.

Saying, I'm just giving it time for the Word of God to speak to myself.

And I don't, and I don't go to commentaries, I don't use a study Bible right now.

I do use a concordance because that has an accurate, really concordance will have the meaning of the words and where all they're found.

But other than that, I just let the Word of God speak to me.

But it takes time.

And because we're in this fast paced quick lunch society, we want an answer right away.

I want to know what it is right now and I'm going to do whatever I can to come up with the answer.

Well, you might come up with the answer, but it might not be the right one.

So you've got to let know whether it's the right one or not.

So we need, we need to take time and be patient and wait for the Word of God to speak to us.

And, and so there's no quick lunch, no, there's dining every day, but there's, there's no, there's no fast meal with, with God, you know, and sometimes we do need an answer and he can, he, it comes up.

But many times as we're dining daily with Christ, we have this ongoing relationship and we learn patience and we learn to, to digest and we learn wisdom.

You know, you know, it says Jesus Christ, you know, delighted in, in the fear of the Lord, you know, and that, that was, what does it mean?

Well, he, as he was living here on earth, he, he had left up, he had left his home in heaven, his identity with God, you know, to come here to take on the, the likeness of man.

And he had, he had to learn everything, but he showed us that it can be done and.

He showed us how we can do it with his help.

Now because he didn't have a fallen nature, so his body, soul and spirit were always in unity even when he walked the earth.

But he was in a dying body and he came.

And when he took on a form of a human being, he was born into a body, was going to die, but he came for that very purpose, to die on the cross.

Not only to be a part of death, but to die on the cross to shed his blood for our sins and pay for our sins.

So the story continues, the story goes on and on and on about how God is always providing.

So well said.

Yeah, well said.

In this journey.

What surprised you the most?

Well, surprise, I guess the, that it's not, it's not Anybody's intelligence that helps them to understand the Word of God.

It involves being able to read and allowing yourself to think.

And so when our founding fathers wanted to make sure that they had schools for everybody to learn to read because they wanted to be able to read the Bible.

And that was used to be.

One of the, that used to be a main course of curriculum in our schools was, was the Bible.

And it says, Jesus says, I praise you, Father.

I face you.

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

I thought, well, I don't make.

Why would he hide things from the wise and intelligent and reveal them to infants?

Well, he's saying, if you have to be wise and intelligent to understand him, I, I would, I would have never done it.

Yeah.

He's saying, you do not have to be wise and intelligent to understand me, but you have to depend on me as an infant depends on its mother.

If you depend upon my word as, as an infant depends upon his mother, then you'll start to understand who I am.

And then if you are wisdom, wise and intelligent person, you'll be able to use that wisdom and intelligence to serve me in mighty ways.

You know, it's not that there isn't some value in you having, having a high intellect.

Yes, you'll be able to learn.

Use that intellect for, for my glory.

And we see people that, I see people in our government right now that the intellect they have and, and, and the, the understanding they have of truth and being able to share it and make sense of it and, and combat wickedness with the truth.

You know, we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free.

And there's going to be a lot of people to disagree, but it has to do with godlessness.

You know, he said, I praise youe, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth.

You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

Yes, Father.

For this way was well pleasing in your sight.

I thought, man, that's a, that's a bold statement.

Was well pleasing your sight, but it's because it's pleasing in his sight.

Because it's not wisdom and intelligence that helps us understand who God is.

It's by faith and it's, and it's just looking at His Word and letting the Word speak to us and people who are faithful with the Word of God and accurately handle it and accurately practice it that might be able to share some truths also.

Then he says, all things have been handed over to me by my Father.

And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the sun.

And anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal.

Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Here, here's the, here's the key thing.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Wow.

So I already shared about being yoked with Christ.

You know, he just said, this is how we're yoked with him, you know, and, and, and we, we.

I quoted that scripture from Isaiah 9, 6, you know, for, for the government will rest on his shoulders.

Well, where's the yoke?

Rest.

Rest on his shoulders.

You know, we, we, we.

We take God into government.

Don't get, don't, don't, don't take God into government.

That's, that's what, that's what, that's what we need.

That's part of our responsibility of handling accurately the word of God as solid food.

And we'll know how to influence our government once again, like our founding fathers did, because they were mature believers.

Our, our founding fathers and mothers, they, they were, they were, they were solid Christians.

And that's what, that's what made the nation and that, that's what the kingdom age we're a part of.

And I, I'm looking for worldwide revival.

You know, I was just sharing it yesterday on a, on a, a video I did about.

You know, there's all kinds of people in colleges.

You know, there's a lot of, some great things happening in colleges.

You know, people are coming, praising the Lord.

A lot of people are getting saved.

And I say, well, that's, that's great.

You know, a lot of people are getting saved.

That is called resurrection from the dead.

When you get saved, you're resurrected from the dead.

Because we're born, like it says in a song, go spread good news throughout the earth.

Our need for God from our first birth.

We've had a need from our first birth and asked to be born again.

So there's a lot of people that are coming to know the Lord and that's resurrection from the dead.

But then there's a lot of people in colleges, a lot of people in our churches that look like they're dead because they're lukewarm or they're sleeping.

But when they wake up from the word of God, that's revival, because you can't revive a dead person, you know, you gotta, you gotta resurrect me from that.

You gotta get resurrected first.

And then once you're resurrected, if you find yourself falling asleep or lukewarm, then revival takes place.

And that's what happened in my life.

I got revived and I, I, I'm, I, I, I put my hand to the plow and I'm not looking back.

Yeah.

So good for you.

Yeah.

So that's, that's what my, that's what my course is about.

That's what my ministry is about in, in the, the house church that I'm still a part of.

And so the things that I'll be doing, like what I'm talking to you, this, I'll be using this for, for probably doing YouTube things, you know, for shorts on YouTube and stuff to share with people how we've had this, this conversation, you know, and you've asked me questions and I'm sharing with you what, you know, what was, what this, this online course is about.

So.

Yeah.

Mike, I really appreciate you today.

Your story is beautiful.

You have shared a lot and a lot of scripture and I'm very grateful for that, that you referred.

I feel like I did all the talk and I hope I made sense.

No, no.

The spirit led you and that's all that matters.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Yeah.

So I appreciate you.

Where can they find you one more time?

All right.

Right now I'm working on YouTube, you know, to get that up and going, which is a really good go to.

But right now I'm only on Facebook, easily to be found, and it's under the search for me on discover your first love for God.

And that page will come up and it's, and it's well laid out.

There's a lot of things just on the page itself for you, for you to digest and say, is this course for me?

Is there anything I'm interested in here?

And then there's also a 5 minute and 32 second video there.

And on this, you just listen to me talk about the things that were faced in the life and what caused me to, you know, promote this video and the value of meditating upon the word of God.

And so you can make a decision from that and then you can enroll.

And then there's, there's these, the 15 different videos you can watch.

They're 10 minutes plus or minus, you know.

Yeah, 15 videos and, but you don't need to rush through them because you'll have it for the rest of your life.

You know, you have it for as long as you want it.

And.

And then you can participate also by.

By putting things in.

In the.

At the end of the.

Each video and writing out the scripture verses and things that happen when you start writing out scripture verse.

You.

You can't.

You can.

You can explain to somebody, but they're not going to experience it until they do it.

Yeah, you will not experience it until you do it.

I can tell you it's a great thing to do.

You say the way I think it is, but you aren't gonna.

You're gonna experience it until you do it.

Yep.

Yeah.

That's what.

That's what it takes.

So that's it.

Discover your first love for God.

And that's really has become the.

The go to words for this course, but the name of the course is called God wins Again your Love.

And the song's in there.

And so I'm going to learn to get pieces, bits and pieces, the song out on YouTube and things.

And so I'm just at the beginning stage.

Okay.

And it's been a delight talking with you.

And thanks.

Thanks for reaching out and getting.

And let me know you was available podcast.

Well, thank you.

Thanks for reaching out to me first.

Yeah.

Yes.

Because quite honestly, this is my first recording for the.

For the new year.

So.

Is it really?

Yeah, for the new year.

Hallelujah.

So.

So now what will you do?

Will I be able to get a.

A, a copy of this or how do you.

How do you.

How do you post it?

Yeah, we'll talk after we're still recording.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

Well, anyways, y', all, it's time for us to go so we can have additional conversations.

But remember, God is love, and God wants you to show his love to the world.

Until next time.

Later.