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Genesis of Judah Part 2 | Part 2 Shall be First | Lion of Judah Podcast EP 002
Episode 24th March 2026 • Lion of Judah Podcast • BENJAMIN MILLER
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Summary

In this episode of the Lion of Judah Podcast, Hosts Marcus Green and Benjamin Miller share a powerful personal testimony about faith, family, and learning to trust God through uncertainty. From parenting with purpose to navigating life transitions, they break down what it looks like to live by the Word—not perfectly, but faithfully. If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of your next step, this conversation will encourage you to lean into God’s provision and keep moving forward.

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LionofJudahPodcast

What You’ll Learn

  1. How to trust God when life feels unstable
  2. Why faith + obedience matters more than perfection
  3. How testimony can strengthen others and build real spiritual confidence
  4. Practical ways to start growing: Scripture, consistency, and community

Chapter Timeline (based on the MP3)

00:00 – Welcome + episode introduction

02:10 – Vision of the Lion of Judah Podcast + what’s coming next

11:00 – Parenting, family leadership, and being the example

25:05 – Transitioning into business ownership + responsibility shifts

32:55 – Faith growth through pressure, pain, and real-life challenges

42:45 – The call to ministry + spiritual awakening moments

45:15 – Trusting God in life’s storms (what that actually looks like)

52:05 – God’s provision in unexpected places

55:25 – Facts vs. Truth: renewing your mind in the Word

01:01:15 – The power of testimony: why your story matters

01:03:35 – Coming to Christ as you are (and letting Him do the work)

01:11:10 – Faith over perfection: consistency beats hype

01:17:50 – Seeing God in creation + recognizing His messages

01:27:40 – Final encouragement + what to expect in future episodes

Key Takeaways

  1. Start small and stay consistent: one verse a day can change your mindset over time.
  2. Your story isn’t just for you—testimony is a tool God uses to reach people.
  3. Faith isn’t denial; it’s choosing God’s Word as the final authority.
  4. God’s provision often shows up after obedience—not before.

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🎵 Music Credits / Tribute

Intro Music: Xtra $avage — huge thanks for the intro music!

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Transcripts

Benjamin Miller (:

Bye!

Benjamin Miller (:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Lion of Judah podcast, episode two. Glad you all could join us again. This is pretty much a continuation from episode one. We are hosts, Marcus Green. Your co-host, Benjamin Miller. And we are here again to take a journey through the word of God to point folks to the truth.

of Jesus Christ, his salvation, and just to have discussions with believers and non-believers alike with the intent of pointing folks to salvation. Amen. We are glad to ⁓ once again dive into this endeavor. This is our second go around. If you look at our first video, we were looking at it and

We, it is definitely an upgrade. This go round from what it was last time, ⁓ lighting and equipment that we actually look like, not like professionals, but not like amateurs. so he's, Ben's got the, the, the breath guard on the microphone, ⁓ spending time as a, ⁓ praise and worship singer in church. ⁓ you can smell breath on microphones.

It's not something you think, like, man, this is an inanimate object. gonna collect bad breath. No, you can smell breath on microphones. And he's got the little breath guard on there. So we're moving up in the world whenever you got breath guards on mics. That's always a good thing. So we are again. This is part two. Last time we spoke for pretty close to two hours of you guys just getting to know us and know our background, where we.

from, how we got from there to here, what God has done for us. And we just want to continue to let you all know who we are. Kind of a deep dive into us before we, ⁓ you know, go and interview other people and get their stories. We feel like you guys need to know who's speaking to you first before we go into anything else. But ⁓

So we left off speaking about ⁓ our families. We had just gotten out of our formidable years, you at ⁓ School of Warrensburg, me in the Air Force. And ⁓ we talked about our experiences leading up to us departing those different stages in our lives.

us being married. know I spoke about my wife, you spoke about your wife, I spoke about my kids, but we did not speak about your kids who are considerably older than mine. It's what seemingly you would have spoke about your kids before mine because your kids were dang near grown by the time I had my first one. So uh let us know about your seed.

Yeah, I'll dive into that. ⁓ Before I do that, I did want to mention ⁓ because we just vaguely hit on kind of the whole ⁓ idea around the podcast and what we're going to be doing, but wanted to expand on it a little bit. We've got ideas for multiple show types. so just to give you all an understanding of where we're headed, we you can see behind us, ⁓ we got a pool table behind us.

and the vision is eventually we'll be sitting at that pool table with six or seven ⁓ folks per session, ⁓ big roundtable discussions, and we want people of all types to ⁓ come to the table with us, have ⁓ deep dive conversations.

related around faith, questions that individuals may have about, why would God allow this or what does the Bible say about that or just general discussions. ⁓

trying to give clarity and truth to ⁓ anybody that's interested. And so that's one particular show that really kind of started this whole idea. And then we will also be doing some probably two-on-one, us two interviewing another individual to kind of get their life story for a portion of the show and then testimony for maybe the second half of the show. And really, really interesting.

in doing that. We've already had some conversations with a couple individuals that ⁓ we know it's really going to be a blessing for people to hear just how God has impacted the lives of people and to kind of hear what others have gone through. It's always ⁓ encouraging to me to hear some of these stories and just hear what people have gone through and what the Lord has done for them in those situations.

When we tell y'all that while we've ⁓ spoken to some folks who we would ⁓ like to have on the show, when I tell you that their testimonies are amazing, I mean, it's nobody but God that can do what is happening in these people's lives. And you think you know what's going on with some folks, you never really know until you sit and talk to them.

You'll see someone with a smile on their face, but you don't know what it took to get them to smile again. And it is amazing. I'm excited to have them share their stories on our platform. We have ⁓ tons of other ideas of people who we want to ⁓ speak with, people from ex-gang members, drug dealers.

We want to speak on different subjects like ⁓ grace and people from different denominations and folks who may not agree with us. You we're going to have discourse. It's going to be in love. They may disagree with us. They may agree with us. may, you know, ask what they must do to be saved. But we have a lot planned for you all. you know, strap in. It's going to be a wild ride and all for the glory of God. ⁓

forward to it. It's going to be something. It's going to be exciting. Yeah, absolutely. I'm definitely looking forward to it. as Marcus alluded to already, we've already jumped by leaps and bounds from our setup on show number one. You can actually see us in this one. We got some lighting.

We're going to continue to improve as we learn how to run this operation and how to run these buttons on the mixer and everything like that. So just bear with us as we learn and grow. ⁓ The whole purpose of this isn't a bunch of fancy special effects, but it's really just getting into the bare bones of what the word says and sharing the truth. so. ⁓

Hopefully we'll get some fancy stuff for some intros and outros and some sound effects at some point, but that's not the point of this. So if you're, if you're here to see something that's going to wow you as far as a special effect, ⁓ we're going to attempt to wow you with the word. And so we hope that's what you're here for. There's one special effect that I know is on the board. ⁓ You discovered that last time and I know where that button is. So that's.

that and the applause button. That's all that I know. Yeah, so yeah, we'll grow by leaps and bounds and hopefully not have to use that trombone too many times. But that's all right. That's the starting point. That's the basement. And we'll just go up from there. Hopefully that's the last time you have to hear the trombone out of us. Or somebody says something dumb like, oh, Jesus will know it's kind of.

You'll do whatever we say. then without their knowledge, I'm just going to be like, if you hear that, you know, you said something erroneous. So hopefully we'll have too many of those, but it's bound to happen. Yeah. So that's where we're headed. That's where we're at. We're, we're growing each and every day, each and every week. ⁓ just, just like we're trying to do.

in our knowledge of the word of God. And so that's a that's a big piece of why we're doing this. I can speak for myself anyway. ⁓ A lot of a lot of what I'm hoping to get out of this is just my own personal growth, learning from the questions that others ask and and us diving in together and just figuring out what what is the truth, because we know already that none of us have that full understanding and that full truth.

And it's a ⁓ lifelong endeavor to get to that. And so that's what we're striving to do. ⁓ If anybody watches this podcast and says, hey, I've got a great testimony or I'd like to share what I've been through because I think it could help some others, please reach out to us. We've got people in mind that we're already reaching out to, but by all means, we would love to. ⁓

to get your testimony and be encouraged by what you've been through as well. Absolutely. the word says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. You won't know how much it will help somebody knowing that ⁓ they may be going through the same thing you went through. And to know that you made it gives them hope that they can make it too. So it's not just for you.

God bless and thank God that he delivered you from your situation, but your situation can help so many mother so many other people Unbeknownst to you. So we want to rejoice with them that rejoice We want to pray for those who are still struggling with some things and we just want to be an overall blessing and Expand the kingdom of heaven Absolutely, so with all that ⁓ I'll jump right in back to where

where we talked about getting started. children, yeah, I love my kids more than about anything on this planet. ⁓ And ⁓ the Lord blessed us with two kids, a son and a daughter, which is what we both desired. And ⁓ we decided at that point that we were to and through, but. ⁓

You know, they're a blessing. Children are an absolute blessing. And so a lot of people can't believe when I tell them that I've got a son that's 20 and a daughter that's 18. It's crazy. And sometimes I can't believe it myself, but it's, I'll tell you this, with you having younger kids, it's a blessing to be on this side of adulthood with my children. I'm enjoying.

fathering adults. It's just different, but ⁓ it's always a new challenge, always a new topic. feel like they would listen to you a little bit more as adults than kids. I don't know. ⁓ I'm dropping as much wisdom on them as I can, but the challenging part is you kind of just got to let them go and do their thing. so

You know, my daughter, it's been a few months back, shortly after she had turned 18, she had asked permission to go do something. And I basically just share with her and said, you know, I wouldn't advise you to do this. And here are the reasons why I wouldn't advise you to do this. But at the end of the day, you're grown. I'm not gonna keep you bound up by my rule. I'm just gonna give you...

Here's the wisdom that I've got and here's what I would do. Now do what you, you know, what you think is best and just know that, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna be the one that has to deal with the repercussions. So, as I kind of expected was her having her first taste of freedom. went against my better judgment. ⁓ and so it's, I really, I think part of, of parenting adults, ⁓

gives me a more of a an understanding of to some extent what the Lord sees when he's dealing with us as his children because here we are we're we're grown. ⁓ He's given us the wisdom of exactly what we should and shouldn't do in his word. And if you study it you know right from wrong. But nevertheless we still find ourselves slipping and ⁓

It's it's got to be frustrating. certainly must be frustrating because as a as a parent of an adult child, I'm sitting here and I'm frustrated because I'm like, I can tell you exactly what to do and what not to do. But then I got to leave it to you to listen. And so it's it's just a different journey. now, man, the the blessing of the kids, you know, they we had them shoot. So so Keita and I got married when I was 21. She was 19.

And I'm a little bit surprised we didn't get a little more pushback from anybody at that point in time. Cause I'm thinking about my kids now being about that same age that we were when we got married. And if they were to come and be like, I'm getting married ⁓ six months, I would be like, what? Do you think you're ready for that? ⁓ And they would, they would, I'm sure in their own little way.

probably say you can't say nothing, dad, because you did it. But ⁓ I mean, true. But like, you know, Keita, since we were kids, we all grew up together. Yeah, you, me and Terrell, her, his wife's brother, like we literally grew up together from like kindergarten. Terrell came into came to Cameron in kindergarten. But so we probably knew him since then. And Keita was in Head Start. So it's not like

Yeah, you just met this person at the whatever wherever the kids meet nowadays, but You got a little bit more leeway than if if b2 came up Yeah, I met this take the basketball game and no we we talking about moving in or getting married or something I feel like you have a little bit more of a Solid foundation to object to them if they said something like that

Yeah, and it's different too, I think with us having grown up in church together, think having, obviously having ⁓ the same faith as the individual that you're marrying is massive. ⁓ you know, that has definitely paid dividends through the course of our marriage through difficult situations. So yeah, if the kids came up, I would still have that reaction.

But now we got married young and so we had kids young. was, I guess if do the math backwards now, I'm 43, Ben's 20. So I was 23 when we had Ben and then I was 25 when we had Aliyah. back then it was like, well, at least we'll still be young when the kids are growing and out of the house. ⁓

It's ⁓ we've reached that point. It's amazing how fast time has flown, but both the kids have have, you know, truly been ⁓ great kids. They've they've had their their ups and downs like everybody does and dealt with some some things along the way. But I couldn't ask for better children. ⁓ You know, they. They're always keeping me laughing.

They've always got something funny to tell us and share with us. And they're both doing great in their own right as far as pursuing their degrees and Aliyah pursuing real estate and Ben going after his business degree. And so I'm just excited to see what God has in store for them. I know it's gonna be great things. so, you know, that...

Raising children is, I tell everybody, is the toughest thing I've ever done and still doing. And also the greatest challenge and the most rewarding. it'll also take you to a place, ⁓ there's things that I never thought possible before that...

pass through my mind as a father, ⁓ you know, where it's somebody does something or, or, you know, treat your child a certain way and it'll literally have you contemplating murder in certain situations. and that's something that I never, never even knew was something that could pass through my mind as a real option. And, ⁓ so it, ⁓ it's something that will

grow your faith to different levels and different ways than other challenges. And it's like I said, it's one of the probably the most rewarding challenge I've ever dealt with. And so just really looking forward to where these kids are headed and helping them, really just trying to help them surpass anything that the kid and I have ever done. wanna see our children go far above and beyond anything that we were ever.

able to accomplish and so I think as a parent that is that has to be your mindset for your children is is how can I how can I set them up better than than I had it and Lord willing they'll be able to do the same for their children and our grandchildren so um yeah no one ever wants to hate on their kids like nah man I I only got the 12th grade you need to you know drop out at

freshman or something or no everyone always wants their kids to do better than them. But I would be I wouldn't know how anyone would even how they're living if they didn't want that for their kids. If they if they're so selfish to where they want to continue to shine and not let their kids shine or be so self-centered or like nod. No I was state champion and I'm going to maintain that record at the school.

your son's coming up and he about to break your record and you're like, nah, let me give him some bad food so he'll be able to have a bad game or something. ⁓ everyone always wants their kids to surpass and really speaking on your children, man, I've watched them grow. I've known since they were babies. ⁓ Your first born son is my godson. And man, you and Keita have done an excellent job.

I'm so proud of those kids. I love them like they're my own there and to see where they've gone in their short life is amazing. And if you all know, your son is ⁓ ridiculously good basketball player and seems like they're the kids and whatever they put their hand to, they've excelled in it. And you all have done a marvelous job.

and even just instilled in them ⁓ right and

I was singing some song, a song from the band called Brothers Johnson. It's like, Get the Funk Outta My Face. anybody that knows that song, the chorus is like, Get the funk out of my face. Get the funk out of my face. And I was singing that and Aliyah thought I was cussing. And she's like, Daddy, Uncle Marcus said, Get the funk out of my face. He thought I was singing the F word.

She had to have been like three or four or something back on your old house up north. But I thought that was so cute that she knows, like, you know, if I ain't supposed to be saying this, you ain't supposed to be saying it either. But they've been a joy to be around and to watch them grow. And yeah, I really look forward to seeing them whenever, you know, they they get to the full swing of adulthood. I have no doubt that they'll.

they'll represent and reflect what you all have put in them from a young age and be exemplary ⁓ grown folks. But yeah, you guys just done a great job at them and couldn't be more proud of them myself. I appreciate that, man. was ⁓ like everybody says, there's no manual on how to raise kids. so. ⁓

You're constantly trying to figure it out. And now that the kids are grown, we do have some conversations with them. And they'll bring some things up that we could have done this better or that better. at the end of the day, Keaton and I have talked about it. it's like, as much as we wish we could have got everything right, we know without a doubt in our minds that

We did our very best in every scenario. ⁓ Wasn't always right. Definitely could have been better options in certain scenarios, but that's how it is with raising kids. And so it was never for lack of effort to try to do what was always going to be best for the kids. now it's rewarding to see them being successful. They both got jobs and they both ⁓

stacking up their money and trying to figure out how to get ⁓ enough to get moved out and be fully independent and just figuring it out. So it's really cool to watch and just be a part of that. ⁓

you know, have a good relationship with the kids even after they have reached an age where they don't have to be around, they don't have to interact with us. ⁓ It's not a have to thing, it's, ⁓ we've...

through the grace of God, we figured out a way to parent in a way that they're still comfortable coming to us and sharing with us. And for that matter, just hanging out with us, doing fun stuff. now it's just couldn't be more grateful how that whole...

scenario of kids growing up and where they're at right now, where they've gotten to, just grateful to the Lord that he's protected them, them, and just blessed them to be where they're at. So we had kids, we just, it felt like we spent all of our 20s and 30s really just.

Kind of grinding on the career path and raising kids and like you say, we've been playing so much basketball growing up. Man, me and him spent a lot of time in the gym. I'm the rebounder and he's running around. I'm just rebounding and passing out to him and he's getting hundreds of shots up. And so we, for literally for years, we were spending like three to five days a week in the gym.

And then on the weekends, would be a tournament, hopefully a local tournament. But a lot of times we'd be traveling for tournaments. so, you know, a lot of a lot of what we were doing was kids activities. Aliyah was doing a lot of horse riding. She did ⁓ swim, swim for a couple of seasons. She was riding horses. Yeah. Didn't I know that she used to love to ride horses. That was that was one of her things. So she.

She did that, she was swimming, she ran some track. So the kids kept us super busy. And then, ⁓ you know, just in addition to that, just working and trying to take care of everyday business. So that was the busyness, that was life. And then, you know, I was at...

Working at Jay Dunn for 18 years, doing a lot of big construction projects. And over the course of the last few years at Dunn, Keita and I started talking about ⁓ some different things and some options of starting a business. things Dunn had sent me up to Omaha to start up an operation up there. ⁓

that went really well, had a really great team of people that I was working with. And we grew a really successful operation up there. In about five years, we went from about a million dollars of revenue up to like 130 million dollars of revenue. so.

Needless to say, they were needing me in Omaha more than I could give them with the kids at the stage they were at and being to just start playing basketball at State Fair Community College and Leah was going into her senior year. so, know, Keita and I discussed it and decided, yes, it's time to go ahead and take that leap of faith. The Lord had really been dealing with me a lot. so,

We started up Alliance Construction Company and we've been doing that for a couple of years. and, ⁓ man, that has been, that has been something like, I expected the business to be a challenge. expected starting a business is going to be hard. Like the, just the, all the ins and outs of it, know, setting up an accounting system and, ⁓ trying to get contracts and.

What I never expected and it's just ⁓ probably just my own silly oversight, but what I never expected to encounter was how much starting a business would force me to increase my faith because it's like, it's a, it's a huge challenge. But when you go from like a company like Jay done,

the, you know, multi-billion dollar company, rock solid, you know, great, great pay, great benefits. Everything is, it's the, you're in comfort mode at JE Dunn and then you step out of that. And, ⁓ and it's like, you gotta, you gotta put all these things in place and you gotta get things set up and you gotta, you're everything in the business. Now you're not just, you don't just serve a single position in a business that's massive.

that was at the beginning of:

At that point, I thought, well, you know, we could probably get by for a few months before we needed to get another client. And here we are about to be November. We're still one client. ⁓ Now we're picking up jobs ⁓ that we started bidding, but through the course of this year, I've truly had to embrace the faith and the

trust that guy's gonna give me this day, my daily bread and I'm gonna get through today and give my best to him and to the work that's at hand and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. And man, it's a refining fire to be in that position, but it's one that is

At times it'll strain you, don't get me wrong, but it is one that I just appreciated. I was driving home yesterday just thinking about it and I know who I was listening to, but I had somebody, I had a pastor on my phone speaking and they were saying something about, you know, we always...

We're always praying for something to be over with and want to be on the mountain top. But it's the traveling through the valley that is really what makes us and what just strengthens our faith, strengthens our walk. ⁓ Because if everything was just peaches and cream, like, would you really pray that hard? Would you really?

I mean, you might give it voice service to say, I trust you, Lord. But it's to say whenever you're not facing nothing. Yeah, it's a different story when you. And for me, ⁓ I think what I realize ⁓ was that. I don't know if I would say ⁓ finances was an idol, it was certainly something that I've chased. ⁓

I've gave it as much effort as I can to provide for my family the best way I can. But I think this is a season where the Lord is putting me in a different scenario where I just have to realize like none of this is, I didn't earn any of this. And so.

just like I didn't earn it, can all go away. But at the same time, it's weird because what I'll say is, if I just did the math, like I said, at the beginning of the year, if I was just doing the math, I'd have been like, ah, we got about three or four months, and then we got to really get something on the books. And here we are 11 months later, and you know.

Jehovah Jireh has not failed us yet. so, man, I don't even know what to say beyond that. other than, you the point I'm trying to make is this season that we're going through is just ⁓ one of the most rewarding that I've experienced. And in the midst of the middle of this year, I mean, this year has been

I can't explain the growth that I've experienced this year just through these business challenges and having to trust. But in addition to that, my father got sick in March. And so that's the story in itself that I'll go through if I got to kick it over to you and give you some time to share. ⁓

That might be a whole nother episode, but going through that situation with my father has been ⁓ one that's pushed me closer to God than I've ever been in my entire life. And I was explaining to, I think it was to you and Tracy when we were talking on a couple of weekends ago that through that situation with my dad, I had to get so close to God to get through it.

that then coming out the backside of it, I knew what that felt like. So I never wanted to, I never wanted to feel that separation to where I wasn't that close again. So now it's just, know, my Bible study is even much the more in depth. My prayer life is much the more in depth. ⁓ You know, we got this podcast going. This had been a thought, but I think

now it's time to go do it. so:

as far as spiritual growth as:

for this particular endeavor, this podcast. I'm excited for the business that we've got going on the construction side. I'm excited for the other ideas that we've got in the hopper. We really, really are striving through the business side of things to ⁓ generate some finances that will then allow us to really be a blessing to others. We know a lot

folks that could use a lot of assistance. And there's just some things that we really like to be able to do. I really like Pastor Darius Daniels and he's always saying, Lord, let me be an answer, not just let me pray for somebody, let me be the answer to somebody's prayer through what I'm able to do because of the blessings that God gives us.

Man, that's kind of where I'm at as of right now. Like I said, I'll dive into the stuff with my dad and that whole testimony maybe either in another episode or later in this one, but I'll kick it back over to you and just say, you know, I guess take us from wherever you want to take us from. I don't know where you left off, but pick it up from wherever you feel like. I just wanted to chime in on what you was talking about this year.

and ⁓ the growth that God has allowed you to go through. And ⁓ really, it's ⁓ not just with you. ⁓ This endeavor would not have proceeded had there not been ⁓ growth and a push ⁓ on a push in my spirit.

try since, you I came home in:

I've served as an assistant pastor and youth pastor and everything in between. I've done all kinds of stuff. But it wasn't until the past year and a half, close to two years, that I got some real wind in my sails to do more than just preach behind a pulpit.

come up with the sermon and try to make folks dance and shout and whatnot. Somebody who don't know God can go online and plagiarize somebody's stuff and present it as their own in a church and get a very emotional response in a packed church and whatnot and they'll call that ministry. It was after, I don't even know how I came to this, but watching like an apologetics video with

Preston Perry, shout out to Preston Perry, maybe one day he'll be on the show. ⁓ I watched it and I was like, huh, this seems interesting to me. And I kept watching a few videos and then it got in the algorithm and now I got like all these apologetics videos and now I'm watching guys like God Logic or Avery Austin, ⁓ David Wood,

Christian Prince, Sam Shimon, ⁓ so many others, ⁓ Jai and DOC, ⁓ so many others, and it pushed me to get in my Bible more, because now I'm being presented with stuff, with knowledge that, like, being in church my entire life, being in ministry for ⁓ almost 20 years, I'm like, what? I didn't know the Bible talked about this. I didn't know that... ⁓

Christ was fulfilling prophecy at Calvary, prophecy in Psalms 22. I didn't know all this stuff and stuff about God's trying nature. There's so much stuff, so much information that I had to get and look in my word about that I was not pushed to do that any other time in my life. And I feel like this will not happen if I had not put in more work.

to know who God was more than I ever had before. And now I feel like I'm saved all over again. You know, when you first get the Holy Ghost, you're like, I want to tell folks about it. I'm going to go to school and tell folks, hey, you better be praying over your lunch and all kinds of stuff. Now I feel like reinvigorated with God because just getting this word and knowing about him more. ⁓ we ⁓ got a group text with a couple other guys.

a couple of brothers that we hope will join us at some point on there and we're sharing videos and scripture and ⁓ perspectives on stuff and now there is ⁓ a fresh ⁓ drive towards Christ and to get people to know Christ, who he is, stuff that I felt now that I didn't feel preaching behind a pulpit. Nothing against that, nothing against anybody who does that.

I just felt like if I didn't preach another sermon, I'd be cool. I just want people to know who God is. And without that drive, without that growth in this year and a half, two years without your growth and what God has brought you, this will not happen. Then what was in my head and what was in my spirit about us being in ministry together wouldn't have come to pass. I didn't look for this. I, I

I thought I was maybe one of those instances where you're man, that God or is that just me? You know, talking my inner monologue. I didn't know if it was that. But now I'm like, this was definitely God. You because I didn't look for it. And that's how sometimes God works when you don't expect it. Whenever you're not looking for him to do something, that's when you're like, all right, now I can do it. Whenever you're like, Lord, I need you to, I need you to do this, this, and this.

by this, this, this time and this, this, and this way. God, God don't work for, he don't work for us. We work for him. I mean, we gonna tell God what to do, how to do it, when to do it. So whenever you just say, not my will, that will be done. Whenever you surrender yourself, whenever you like take that leap of faith, whenever you stepped out of the safety of the boat that was J.E. Dunn and started going into the unknown. Whenever I just started submitting myself to be,

⁓ Talk more and to learn more and to know that I don't know anything and be prepared just to have knowledge and parted into me and then God can use a willing heart God can use someone who ⁓ comes to the realization that they need him and and Whenever you seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness Then all these things gonna be added to you then the business will be blessed then, you know doors will be open but we've got to be

Number one, know that God is faithful. Trust and believe who he is. Know what his word says. We can't expect God to move on something if we don't know what he said about us. And we can't waver between two opinions. And the Bible says, know, double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and shouldn't expect anything. If I'm wavering between God's going to do it, God ain't going to do it. God's going to do it. God ain't going to do it.

He's not obligated to do anything because I'm double minded going back and forth. And what do I believe? Do I not believe it's not only you say yes and we're learning about this. ⁓ Our pastor has been talking about this for some time. Just rest. Whenever God whatever God says it believe in it and go rest. Don't stress over it. Don't be losing those sleep over it. Just rest. That is the ultimate sign of faith. Whenever you can just rest whenever

Uh, uh, Christ and his disciples were in the ship and everything was going, uh, uh, haywire and, and, and, and the, and the, the, the winds and the waves were going against the ship. What was Jesus doing? Sleeping. He wasn't worried about that. He wasn't worried about nothing else. We were just reading. Uh, I was reading last night. Yeah. I was reading. My wife was reading. We were about Jonah, uh, just before they threw him out the boat. No, I was reading. He was sleep.

before they threw him out, everyone like, who's God's mad at us? Who's doing this? And Jonah knew it was him. He didn't deny it. He knew, yeah, it's me. But he went in the boat, went down and started sleeping. And they had to go wake him up. So whenever you just trust God, you can rest. You can be confident to know that God, whatever I'm doing, your word says it, I'm a trusting you. That's one of the hardest things. Absolutely.

I still struggle. ⁓ even, even today was a situation like that where it's almost like, and I don't know if everybody feels like this, but I have this kind of internal tension that if I'm not working hard all the time, that things aren't going to pan out my way. so like exactly what you're saying is I've got to, anytime my mind goes to that place,

I've got to take a step back and be like this, you know, not that you shouldn't put your best foot forward and put effort into the things you're doing, but if you really think that the, the amount of effort that you put in has to be a maximum for anything to prosper, then you've, you've missed it already. And so I'm that's, that's one area where God's really been working on me.

throughout the course of this year is I've always just been like, gotta grind, I gotta grind, I gotta grind. I'm still like that, but I'm shifting that more into my grind is more in my word and in my relationship with him. like you just said it, seeking the kingdom first and not worrying about the other stuff. I mean, if I truly trust him, then he said it. So.

If I'm seeking kingdom first and giving that my grind, then I'm not gonna worry about this other stuff. Now that doesn't mean that it doesn't come into my mind like, I need to be doing this, I need to be doing that. But you just gotta take those thoughts captive and that's one area that I feel myself growing in ⁓ to your point. So. writer says that he knows what we stand in need of even before we ask it. ⁓

I'll give an example and then I'm kind of getting to caught up with where I am today. ⁓ My previous employer, I worked for a ⁓ company that I was on the road constantly, constantly on the road. And I'd be driving everywhere from Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Arkansas, Oklahoma, quite frequently.

nd this is I started there in:

tech me to see my kids again and it was just so frequently and I remember I had to go to a job in Little Rock, Arkansas. I got to a job site and as soon as I got out of my truck to a job site, I got a notification on my calendar saying that like as soon as I got back in the town, I'd be home for a couple days and then right back on the road and I remember I remember like it was yesterday. I didn't I didn't I didn't pray.

I didn't really complain, but I was just like, I gotta find something else. I, like said, I didn't pray about it, but God knew what I stood in need of before I even asked him. Fast forward a couple weeks later, I'm back in Kansas City and ⁓ on another job site and ⁓ I come across this guy, this company that,

Hired me that subcontracted me to do this job and on the job. There was a foreman there and another HVAC apprentice and Now I get the talking I setting up and excuse me setting up for the job must do for him and Get rolling and sitting around talking to this guy for I don't have two hours as my Job is as I'm conducting it and he's asking hey, we're

He says, we're looking for a couple apprentices if you want to change the scenery, you want to do something new. And I'm like, I absolutely do. You know, yeah. And so I'm asking questions like, guys travel a lot. No, not really. And, know, there's some jobs out of town, but that's you and far between. And you're home every night and all that stuff. And I'm like, Lord, I didn't pray for this. But is this you? And ⁓

You know, it was getting into commercial HVAC and it was a union gig. And I always heard people talking about, know, you need to know somebody to get into the union, your uncle, daddy, whatever your grandpappy. I know nobody but Jesus. And some guys like it took me years to get into a two, three years, and I had to keep applying and try to find somebody. I applied one time and I got in with one of the.

t took I applied in. March of:

Was it March? Yeah, March. And I was starting my first day in June. So it's only a few months from the time I applied to my first day. Meanwhile, other folks are trying to find hookups to get in, trying to get their foot in the door, waiting years to get in. I'm like, God, I didn't even ask for this, but God knew what I needed before I even asked him for it. And he says he literally put the job in my lap. Now,

⁓ Is it like my dream job? I still don't know what my dream job is. I'm 44. I don't know what I want to do when I grow up. But I thank God that it is that I'm home. I've been I've been gone for like one week in the four years I've been with him. I've been gone one week. ⁓ I see my family all the time. Yeah, I go to school for it, but. ⁓

I spoke with my wife and like, hey, this is going to require me to go to school two nights a week for five years in my apprenticeship. But when we're done, you know, this would be more lucrative than anything I've ever done before. It supports our family, even though I haven't turned out to be a journeyman yet. I'm like, Lord, when I'm a journeyman, thank you, Jesus. And this is, again, could be the biggest paychecks I've ever had. And it is it is open doors for us to live a little bit.

work that, if I make that in:

I'm just like Lord you are amazing. I didn't have to go through what everyone else went through Just because he takes care of his children He knows what we stand in need of if we put him first and I put him first and like I'm able to Know if my wife doesn't want to work. She doesn't have to I told her that I kind of grit my teeth telling her that because I know no anything helps But I told her it's your prerogative if you don't want to work, you don't have to

God has blessed her to be able to open her own business. And so the perils of being an entrepreneur, she feels it, she knows that. But ⁓ we're only one contract away from her matching me. And ⁓ so she's growing and there's some frustration sometimes and I get that. People talk about how...

people just don't want to work. want free money and they want this, that and the other. At first I used to be like, man, shut up. But here in some of the, the stories that my wife has, she, she has her part in recruiting for ⁓ some clients and like some folks just don't show up to interviews. like, you're trying to get a job, but they just will ghost her. Step one. Right. What should I do to get a job? Attend the interview?

That's probably good advice. They have to do a a she has to do a phone screening with them before they actually go in to an actual interview with the company and they won't even show up for a phone screen. All you got to do is pick up the phone and talk. But some folks won't do that. So I'm like, yeah, maybe these folks don't want to work. But still, God is good as blessing her and open up doors. But man, if we just put God first, he will he'll take care of the rest.

And it hasn't always been easy. ⁓ You know, there's been times where I have ⁓ stepped out the boat and instead of keeping my eyes on Christ, I looked around and saw the reality of what's going on. But one thing I've learned is that we've got to be able to know the truth from the facts. Yes, the facts are that there may be bills on the table. Facts are that

You know, need the kids need new clothes and new shoes. The facts are ⁓ that you're, you know, struggling at some point during your job or whatever. But the truth is, God says, I'll supply all your needs according to my riches and glory. The truth is that God said he'll make us to lender and not to borrow. The truth is that he'll continue to keep us in perfect peace. Preach, preacher. That's that's the difference between the truth that I understand what I'm going through.

⁓ Peter stepped outside the boat and it was only natural for him to see the storm going around him. I can't fault him for taking his eyes off Christ because the reality is things go crazy. But the truth is if we keep our eyes on God, he'll bring us through it. And it's funny, we read that story how Peter started to sink whenever he took his eyes off Christ. But we don't realize the Bible says that

Christ just reached down and grabbed his hand. That means he was already at arms with the way from Jesus. And then he started taking his eyes off and started saying, you already making it that far. You're making it. We're making it to our goals. And we don't realize how close God is to us. If we just keep our eyes on him, we're not that far away. We're almost at our goal. If we just I know it's rough. I know it's it's it's almost against human nature.

to not pay attention to the distractions, to not pay attention to the reality of life. But the truth is, if we just keep our eyes on him, he is just a reach away. And he walked with them back to the boat. He was out of the boat. ⁓ They got in it. So Christ had to walk with them back to the boat. So God will take us to where we need to go, to where we need to back to safety. If we just continue to keep our eyes on him, he'll carry us through the storm.

and bring us back to where we can find comfort and security. And that's how, I don't even know how to start talking about that, but. That's how we try to live our life. And I know it's rough, especially if you don't know Christ. And we're trying to tell people, no, this is who we trust in. Well, I'm going through this. can God let me go through this?

Man, I've told you and Tracy that T.D. Jake said all Christianity is is one beggar telling another beggar where they got the bread. I may not be able to convince you that, you know, that God is faithful and all these things. I can tell you what worked for me. You know, I was broke, busted and disgusted. I gave Christ a chance and he brought me through. I was dirty, stained with sin, about to lose my mind. I gave it to God. That worked for me.

I don't know what you going through, but I'm just telling you what kept me from slipping my wrist. I just tell you what kept me and my family fed. If you could try it if you want to. I'm not trying to convince you. I'm just throwing the seeds out there. Whether it falls on good ground or falls on stony ground. Whether you water that seed. That's what I'm just throwing it out there. Let it let the results come as they may. That's all I'm supposed to do. And hopefully.

You know, they have the same experience in getting to know Christ and the beauty of holiness and remission of their sins. I hope that happens, but all I could do is tell them Jesus, that's it. That's all I know. That's all I've known all my life. ⁓ I could appreciate the people who've actually, you know, been through the muck and mire and come through the streets or whatever and actually have like

testimony where they should be dead or they didn't came up out of the pen or whatever and able to tell them, hey, this is what got me out of that. I feel like folks like that, man, they can reach folks that an old church boy can't. You know, how am I supposed to tell an addict how to kick their addict? I've smoked weed like four times. I don't know nothing about that. ⁓ I never liked drinking, so I was never known alcoholic. just I drink sometimes because

people around me was doing it. It never tasted good to me. The only thing I could drink was like Zima or Smirnoff because it tasted like Sprite lemonade. wouldn't know brown liquor drinking, dude. wouldn't drink no beer tastes like turpentine. It was disgusting. I'm like, how can people even drink enough of this to like it? It was never good to me. I can't. You didn't try that peach snob. Shout out to Max Curtis. Shout out to Max Curtis. Maybe get him out here one time.

Well, how could I reach somebody who's had that struggle when I didn't have it? So I can appreciate the folks who God has brought out of there, who's brought from the bars, who's brought from the crack houses, that's brought from rehab and being able to reach somebody else. we're going to have some of them join us and have them give their testimony and what's God done for them. But man, I just love them.

Bottom line, I love Christ because he first loved me. I'm not worthy, I'm not deserving of it. Man, he's brought me from a little old country town in Northwest Missouri and brought me to see the world and brought me back safe in uncertain times. And man, I've seen coffins loaded up on the planes that I used to work on with flags draped over them. And God shielded me and protected me from that fate. And man,

He kept me from making mistakes. He brought me out of mistakes that actually did make. he's just been so faithful to me when I did not deserve it. And I cannot help. I can't but tell of his goodness to somebody else. I would be not just doing him a disservice. I'd be doing my self a disservice. I'd be doing folks that I can't claim to love a disservice if I did not tell them about Christ. I'm off my soapbox. I felt like I went on a 20 minute rant there, but.

Hey, that's the whole purpose and mission of this podcast. So you're not out of line by any means. I, you know, I'm excited because what you just said is exactly what we're endeavoring to do is to bring individuals on that can relate to anybody and everybody that may be watching this. ⁓ you know, we might not, we might not be able to relate because our

Our stories may be too far different, but hopefully through the course of this show, we'll have individuals on that can speak exactly right down your street and help shed some light on what God did for them, how they got through it. So I think I don't wanna take up a lot of time, but one thing.

I don't know how many episodes if we get, if we get people to watch one or two episodes, I want to make sure to say one thing, ⁓ that I think is, is not abundantly clear if you don't go to church a lot. And even if you do go to church a lot, this was not abundantly clear to me. ⁓ but I think it, it needs to be clarified to the believers and the non-believers is there's to, to where Marcus just said that.

he loves the Lord and there's nothing he did to deserve salvation. ⁓ I think there's a ⁓ misconception amongst most that

You know, for me to for me to come to Christ, I got to I got to get my life right. Right. I got to be I need to do I got this whole laundry list of things that I may not read the Bible, but I know that these are sin. And so until those are gone, I can't I can't think about, you know, coming to church or come to Christ or or picking up my Bible. And it's like that couldn't be that couldn't be more further from the truth. It's actually a 180.

from what reality is, is you come to Christ with all that mess that you've got. You don't have to clean up any of it and just take those steps toward him. through the course of life, he's going to work that stuff out that you're struggling with. You can continue to struggle and continue to have a relationship with Christ. That's every believer's journey. And that's my journey. That's Marcus's journey.

I can speak for everybody even that would lie and tell you that they've got it all figured out and that they're living a sin-free life. That's not the case. And so there is no level of righteousness and cleanliness in our human understanding that could please God. So it is strictly by His grace and Jesus on the cross, dying for our sins.

that we can be saved and having faith in that. And so it's through our faith that exactly what I just said happened and that Jesus was the son of God and that he was the atonement for all the sin of my sin, Marcus' sin, the entire world of all humanity from the beginning, from Adam all the way till, you know, the last person that lives on this planet. ⁓

None of us are righteous in our own right, matter how long we've been in church or how long we've been saying our prayers and reading our Bibles. ⁓ Just know that you don't have to do anything fantastic other than believe. And so that's, we're here to answer questions. We're here to share the gospel, share the truth. And I firmly believe that if you are

questioning these things, there's a reason. And I believe that in these days that we're in, I think God is drawing people in. And so I don't think it's coincidence if you've got questions that that's on your heart. so, ⁓ man, would, I know it's a lot to just start diving in and trying to read your Bible and understand it, but I would challenge anybody to.

Just start with, know, even if it's a verse a day, just start and reach out to folks that can help answer some questions and get you a good study Bible that has some good commentary, get you a translation that you can read that is easy for you to understand, at least to getting started.

ll that kind of stuff that in:

few days of a years long ⁓ Bible plan, reading plan. 97 % of what I read has been on my phone. You ain't got to go, you can go to the app store and just download it right there. You ain't got to go to Mardale. You ain't got to go to wherever and there's any translation you can find. So really you are without excuse to be able to access the word of God. You may not understand it, but just like Ben said, read Jesus web. That's a whole

That's a whole Bible verse, two words, Jesus' web. Something, if you give God a little bit, he can work with that. You don't need to be a preacher, you don't need to be deacon, you don't need, just be you, just be available. Just say, God, here I am. That's all that he wants. He can work with that. That's it. Amen. And I would...

I'm a big fan. I'm doing the same thing as you reading through a year long plan. Mine doesn't wrap up until the end of the year, but I have found ⁓ reading the chronological order through my reading plan has been very beneficial to me just because you start understanding things in historical sequence versus if you're unaware of this, if you just try to read the Bible from

the front page to the back page, things are all out of order. Even in a given book, if you were to read Jeremiah, those prophecies are not written in chronological order. And this is stuff that I didn't understand until I started reading through the chronological ⁓ order of the scripture. so it's hard to make sense of things when they're not in order. But if you're just getting started,

I probably wouldn't, I probably wouldn't try to tackle Bible in a year because you're going to, especially chronologically, you're going to spend a whole lot of time in the Old Testament. I would say jump into the gospels. That's dense reading, reading the Torah. Making it through Numbers and Deuteronomy and Leviticus. I was like, I was about to quit five books. That's where everybody quits. Everybody gets.

Genesis, you start in Genesis like, this is good. This creation. There's some, there's some stories in here. got, we got, ⁓ Noah, we got, we got a number of different things, but then you, yeah, you start getting into the law and so and so we get, and that's, ⁓ it can be rough. So, ⁓ I'll get off that soap box. I just want it. I just wanted to encourage everyone. If you only tune into two of these, I wanted to make sure to tell you.

You don't have to be perfect to come to Christ. As a matter of fact, you should be filthy when you come to Christ and he'll perfect you from that. You you take that first step and keep walking with him and he'll do the rest. It's nothing you're going to do, but it's all about faith that he's going to take you where you're trying to go. So, right. If Christ can use, if God can use ⁓ a murderer like Saul and

You think you can't use a ⁓ someone who, you know, adulterer, you think you can't use you? think you can't use a liar? mean, there's been people that lie in the Bible that God still use. David killed, he set somebody up to be murdered. God can use anybody. ⁓ You don't, you won't be perfect enough. None of us will. ⁓ folks won't be good enough.

Yeah, here's the thing. ⁓ you know, obviously as Jesus is walking around teaching and preaching ⁓ during his ministry, there were plenty of folks that were quote unquote church folks, ⁓ many, many Jewish leaders, ⁓ Pharisees that believe that they were following all the right laws and they were as clean as could be. And and those were the ones that ⁓ Jesus preached against.

more so than anyone. would, he was hanging out with the prostitutes and the drunkards and the sinners. And, you know, the others were just, they were too good to even accept what he had to say. So it just reinforces my point. Just, just give him a chance. He's not looking for you to be perfect. And there's, there's not one of any of us that could claim perfection. So.

⁓ As uppity as some church folks can be, ⁓ just know they don't have it all together. If they're faking like they do, they probably need to reevaluate their understanding of the scripture as well because again, it's nothing that we've done. It's all about faith and trusting that...

that atonement that Jesus served on the cross and his resurrection has basically wiped our slate clean as long as we believe and trust. so there's no, everyone's got a past, you know, it's, it's, no, we're not, I'm not proud of, a whole lot of things that I did. And ⁓ truth be told, the, the, the most pious and

so-called saved person in the church, they got a pass too. ⁓ Only difference is that ⁓ a lot of people pass has been covered. You they didn't have camera phones and whatnot whenever I was doing whatever I was doing. ⁓ There wasn't no social media. I think they may have just been coming out with MySpace, but ⁓ you know, if there had been these ⁓ current day

Creature conference in:

and mercy and love that we don't deserve. Yeah, we we we just encourage everyone to not look at them their own self man and think that you can get it together. Let me get to God first and then or let me let me get myself together and then I'll go to God. That's that's that's this is what that deserves. I already found a way to use the trumpets. I was waiting for that.

That's that's ⁓ a erroneous statement to think that you can get yourself right Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. You can pay your taxes help old ladies across the street ⁓ Do whatever and it's still won't count for nothing unless ⁓ You give yourself to Christ and him make you righteous. He'll make you righteous not not ourselves not

whatever we think we did, not being a good person. I hate hearing that. Oh, I'm a good person. You don't get out of here with your good person self. I had to keep myself from going off on this lady one time. She's like, well, I don't need to go to church because I'm a good person. I don't know why it just hit my ear so in a way that made me want to just react in a way that I know I shouldn't have.

But, I didn't, thank God I didn't. ⁓ And I tried telling her about Christ and she was standing firm that she did not need, I don't need religion and I know I'm a good person. I'm like, all right, I'll leave you in the hands of a just God. And.

Couple years later, she passed away. And I don't know if she gave her life to Christ between that day and her demise. But if she didn't.

I mean, I know what I want. I'm no one's judge, but I could just go off with the words that you rejected them so hey It's on you all I could do is let you know and Compel men to come but the Bible said they don't receive you just go ahead and dust your feet off Yep, and keep on going what whenever you think someone doesn't listen to you there will be somebody else who will and Yeah, it's it's it's

We really have, we have no, no, ⁓ no excuse in these days. Even the Bible talks about ⁓ us not having an excuse and Romans one. ⁓ Whenever we go into a Bible study kind of segments, looking that up, but the Bible talks about how we just look at stuff in creation and then just seeing how everything is that we have no excuse, not to acknowledge God, that there is a God.

Really, I don't see how people can be like, you know, look at the cosmos, look at the human body, how we're put together, our different systems within our body, the circular system and all this other stuff, how your body has like defense mechanisms against disease and viruses and all that stuff just happened to come together on its own. It's evolution, man. Have you heard the

it's kind of a scientific argument for God in the sense that it's something about gravitational pull and it's like if it were off by just the tiniest of fractions that there'd be chaos. The planets wouldn't fall into the solar rotation the way they do and so it's like, huh.

Could this all just be coincidence? It's harder for me to believe that it just magically happened than it is to believe that a man died on a cross and he was God in the flesh and that God said, there be and there was. That makes sense to me. Call me crazy versus there was nothing and then there was a bang and

there was all this stuff and then there was all this evolution. And now here we are talking, we used to be, you know, climbing around in trees apparently. ⁓ you know, so anyway. That's another, that's another thing, another episode for itself, know, intelligent design versus, you know, magical bang that when there was nothing, that nothing created everything versus an uncaused cause. But that's something to dive deeper into.

another time but yeah that's man I feel like we we've covered a lot in the hour and 20 minutes we've been going on

feel like they've kind of caught up with who we are. You got anything else? ⁓

I'll just, let me see if I can even figure out how to work this first. Let's see if I can pull something up. If I can, I will share one more thing. While we're on the idea of cosmos and science and creation, this kind of goes into my testimony about my dad.

So I'm play the video then I'll give a description of what is even going on here.

So this is me on a walk. You can see back here the double rainbow. ⁓

My dog Snoop is over here. He's a menace. He thinks he's a full grown Doberman. He's just a men pen, but he led us on the walk this day. This particular day, I had gotten a phone call from ⁓ my stepmom telling me that my dad had, ⁓ this is after several months of being on hospice, he had taken a fall the night before and he was in the hospital.

And it wasn't looking good that he probably didn't have a whole lot of time left. And so, um, I'm taking my daily walk with the dog and just kind of in such a, such a stupor, um, from the news that I had received that I was literally just letting Snoop lead me around. I'm like, wherever you want to walk, I'm just pull me around on the leash. Cause I don't even feel like thinking hard enough to direct you where we're going to go. That's kind of.

That's kind of where I was at mentally. And so he starts to ⁓ lead us around and takes us on a long journey ⁓ all around the neighborhood. And ⁓ then, you know, we go, we go down the streets. There's nothing going on. I'm getting tired of walking and he, he turns and we get to kind of the street, this street, but we're about a half mile. ⁓

away and I look at him like, so where are going now, man? I'm you brought us all the way out here and he turns this direction. And mind you, I'm just I'm just praying as we're walking and just. You know, hoping for the best for my dad and he turns right in and as soon as he turns, I see this double rainbow. And. Man, it just it. ⁓

I knew it was like instantly, obviously I'd gotten the news, but I felt like as I saw this scene and I can't even fully give this ⁓ justice, but I will pull up a couple of the pictures that weren't the pictures I took, but amazingly I was able to find some pictures of this exact same ⁓ rainbow scene.

from ⁓ that same day from a different angle, people got some pretty amazing pictures. And it just, to me, it's just, there's certain times when God just speaks to you through his amazing creation that is, ⁓ whether it's being up in the mountains or, you know, I was, this was a really, really tough day and I'm out walking with.

with the dog and I'm asking him to leave me around. wouldn't have walked this way, so I wouldn't have seen this scene. ⁓ But here is, here is, is the same rainbow. I don't think you can see the double in this one, but I saw almost this exact thing. I saw the double rainbow and then between the two rainbows, I saw, ⁓ I saw that lightning strike and ⁓

is one of these situations where you just, you can just feel God is sending you a message. And I just had a feeling in my, when I saw this and the news that I had just gotten, I knew that my dad wasn't going to be around very long at all. And I just felt like at this point, it's like, this was a message from the Lord just dealing with me. Like it's going to be all right.

which at this point in time, my dad had still not accepted Christ in his life. And so I'm like, you know, just, just dealing with all this stuff of my dad is about to be gone. And I just wanted him to be saved. And then I see this and I'm just like, it's like reassurance that's going to be all right, but it still wasn't all right. And it was the very next day that

We went visiting him and ⁓ long story short is he accepted Christ. And then it wasn't 24 hours later that he had passed away. things like this, some people say, that's just, that's coincidence. It's a rainbow. It's a lightning struck. You can believe what you want to believe, but I know when God's talking to me and I know that he was talking to me on that day. And

He's just amazing. Just for my own, I guess, giggles, if you will, if you want to call it that. Let me stop sharing here so we don't have this. I did do ⁓ a quick chat GPT ⁓ question. I said to the chat, said, what is the probability of seeing

a double rainbow and seeing lightning strike in between the two rainbows. And of course, AI will work its magic and come up with all these equations. ⁓ by the end of its math that it had figured out, was like one in 10 million or one in some million. so it was like, yeah, I figured it was pretty low probability that you're going to see that.

⁓ So sometimes God will just give you a sign when you need it. And to your point earlier talking about the job, you needed the job. He just manifested it for you. And he knew that in that situation with where my mind was at, where I'm just like, I'm so messed up at the point where I'm like,

Dog's taken me on a walk effectively, I'm not taking the dog on a walk. So I was pretty backwards in my mental process on that particular day. ⁓ But ⁓ he came through and showed me enough to know that it's gonna be all right. And then it wasn't even 24 hours later that it was all right. So. ⁓

God is good, I don't know what else to say, but he's amazing and ⁓ I'm looking forward to having many of our guests on to share ⁓ what amazing things that he's been able to do in their lives when they're at their lowest points. so hopefully you'll continue to ⁓ tune in. Hopefully we'll be able to inspire at least some action out of you or

At least some questions and, you know, potentially if, like we said early in the show, if you've got a testimony of your own that you'd like to share, please reach out to either one of us and we'd be happy to try to figure out some dates and times that we can sync up. So that's all I got. ⁓ Anything else before we sign off? A couple of things.

like stay for the greens. ⁓ I'll give a. Hey, we cut. come from. We grew up in church and we know that at the end of the church, at the end of service, there's a benediction. I'll give the benediction. I feel like we need to do that after each stream. Let's be a quick one. May the Lord watch between me and the while we're absent, one from another.

In name, amen. We'll see y'all next time. Amen. God bless you.

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