WWUTT 1025 Q&A 3 Letters, 24 Elders, and 500 Brothers?

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00:00

What can be godly about sending mail to someone? Who were the 24 elders in Revelation 5?

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And after his resurrection, did Jesus appear to 500 brothers? Or were they 500 men and women?

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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

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Bible study in God's Word. That we would not be tossed to and fro by ever -shifting wind of doctrines, but we would hold fast to the gospel of Christ.

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Visit our website at www .tt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

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Becky. You're welcome. Being Friday, we take questions from the listeners, and you can send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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or through the mail. Yes, snail mail. Send it to First Southern Baptist Church, 1220

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West 8th Street, Junction City, KS 66441.

01:03

Today, we have quite a bit of mail. We do. It's exciting. Like literal mail.

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Yes, snail mail. Real mail you get in your mailbox. Yeah, my favorite kind.

01:14

Not digital mail, but actual mail. I actually love checking the mailbox, but I hate checking my email.

01:21

Yes, I know, because on your phone it says you have 11 ,842 unchecked messages.

01:28

I've looked at them. I've breezed over. Most of them are junk mail anyway. I just don't take the time to delete them all.

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Then delete them. I know, I know, I know. You need one of those. I think there's an app you can add where it's like a

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Nuke delete or something like that. Just totally wipes out your inbox. But the problem with that is

01:47

I'm saving on to some of those emails that are from like, I think one of them's from Mimi, and one of them's from people that won't ever email me again.

01:57

Well, print them off and put them in a book. Well, there's that.

02:05

I bought you a printer for a reason. Yeah, but this was like years ago. Then go find them.

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And you just recently bought me the printer. And, I mean, you just leave them on your phone or in your email inbox or whatever.

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Yeah, yeah, moving on. So, our snail mail over here. So, yes, we got some mail in the mail.

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And one of them was a package from Australia. We opened this package while we were at church.

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And there were people that knew what was in the package. We got to Friday last week, and we decided not to do that package.

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And so then on Sunday at church, there were people asking me, hey, wait, you didn't open your package. Yeah, you didn't do it.

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But I'm glad we waited, because we actually got more mail. Yes. In between. So, now we can do kind of like a program that centers around all of the snail mail.

02:58

Mail mail we get. Mail mail. That sounds so weird. Well, if it comes just to me, it would be mail mail.

03:06

M -A -L -E -M -A -I -L. But it's not just to me, it's to both of us. I'm going to start with this beautiful little card right here.

03:15

Oh, that's really pretty. This is from Eileen, and it has Psalm 27 -1 right on the front.

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The Lord is my light and my salvation, the strength of my life. I like the lighthouse.

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And then a beautiful little lighthouse picture. And some people think this stuff is like kitschy and cheesy. I love this. I do too.

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I'd buy a bunch of these cards. She actually tells us how we can buy these cards. Oh, neat. In this card.

03:40

Cool. She tells us about it. Okay, so here's what she says. Dear Becky and Gabe, I'm behind on my podcast.

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And yesterday heard one from July where you talked a bit about mail. Becky mentioned not liking it when your mail carrier drives by without stopping.

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You remember that? Yes. Okay. Yes. I am a mail carrier. Oh, awesome. So many people wait.

04:04

So many people complain, especially senior housing facilities. Everyone, well, perhaps 92 % of the people that I've interacted with want a non -bill.

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They want non -political mail. Elderly especially just want to be thought of.

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We all do. However, be honest, how many letters have you written recently?

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Yeah, so guilty. We are so quick to text or message people, but few sit down and write.

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Please use your platform to encourage a simple action. If everyone sent one person a letter, then one to two days later, all those people are encouraged.

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Spread smile and joy, especially to shut -ins. Send a thank you, a simple hi.

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Tell them how you are praying for them or just let them know that you are thinking of them. Include a track, perhaps write a verse on the envelope, maybe whatever.

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If you like getting mail, please try sending mail. It brings me joy to see someone happy to see a real note in their mail.

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So in many cases, you brighten the day of two people. That's awesome. Eileen's day and whoever she's giving mail to.

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Simple things go far and people don't like to take the time. Please encourage that more. This card was in a pack from Dollar Tree.

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Nice. Eight for $1. Eight of these little cards for a buck. I have actually done that.

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And you get a little Bible verse cards like this at Dollar Tree. Yeah. How about that? Yeah, it's really neat.

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And you would also be supporting local commerce. That's right. And not buying from Amazon, but visiting your local

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Dollar Tree. You don't have to spend a lot or be fancy. Thank you for your podcast and writing with me out there.

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I listened to some of yours, Wretched, some audio books, Pandora for music, because I can't stand radio anymore.

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I'm with you there. There's a reason why I left radio. You help encourage me on the way.

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Thank you both. Hope you enjoy your day. Eileen. Aw, that is so sweet. She got all that in this little card.

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So I appreciate that, Eileen. And as I was reading that, yes, so convicted. So convicted.

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I can send a little card like this. How much would it take to just get a little card like this?

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I have cards like that. Write a little note in there. I have stockpiled cards. I know you have. And stamps.

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So we have everything at our fingertips. We just don't do it. Except for the time. That's right. We haven't been doing it.

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This is going to be a new family activity. Yes. We're going to sit down. Finally. And we're going to write some cards together.

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I'm so excited. Yes. I wrote my grandma once, and she actually felt so guilty about not writing me back that I feel guilty about sending her another card.

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Don't talk anybody out of it. But at the same time, I'm actually thinking about just continuing to send her a card every week or maybe even every other week.

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Depends on how it fits. But just saying, you know, I'm thinking about you. I love you.

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You know, that kind of thing. Because her schedule and my schedule, I don't think they add up very well, because every time

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I call, she's out. So I think that would be really cool. As connected as we think we are.

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Right. Sometimes that connectivity can remind us that we're actually really quite disconnected from one another.

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Yeah. I mean, everybody's sitting in the same room looking at their phones rather than each other. That's true.

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So that right there says disconnect. I love this. I love that she sent that.

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It's a great idea, Eileen. And I was convicted by it. Just taking a little bit of time to reach out to someone.

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We do have shut -ins at our church, and we have people that are taking care of them.

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But it's not always easy for me to get out. And yeah, like Becky said, having a schedule that lines up with theirs, to go over to their house when they're not napping, you know, something like that.

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But being able to take the time and write a card. Have I even gone that far? So I think that's a terrific idea.

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And we can know that we're even brightening a mail carrier's day when we're sending somebody a little personal note.

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And you can even call your local retirement home.

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Yeah, the local retirement home. Right. That's what they're called. I always use the wrong term. You can get a list of the people that are there and say, hey, if I wanted to send cards to everybody there.

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Our church wants to write cards to everybody because they love when the kids come over from the church.

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Yes. And they have so many activities. Like ours here in town, they have a scheduled out activity time where the kids are welcome to come join them for their craft time or their game time and stuff like that.

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They actually really love to have visitors. Yeah. I highly encourage it. They're very open with wanting to let you know, yeah, here's who all of our residents are.

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So if you want to have your kids at the church write cards and design cards for them and send them to them, they would love to participate with you in that.

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They really do a great job with that. This next card here, I wanted to start with that one because that kind of fits our mail theme for today.

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This next one. We need a mail song. Here's the mail. It never fails. No, not that one.

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It makes me want to whack my tail. When it comes, I want a whale.

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I want a whale. This is true. I do want a whale. We got a package, as I said at the very beginning, and this comes from Elizabeth in South Australia.

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I kind of knew what was in this package. She didn't tell me she was sending me a package. It didn't alert us to this at all, but nevertheless, when

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I got a package from Australia, I knew. I just knew there was a certain thing that was going to be in this package, and sure enough, it was.

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So she says, to Pastor Gabe and Becky and family, we ought to be sharing this with the kids as well.

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We should. We'll do it tomorrow. Just a quick hello from Australia to say thank you for the blessing that you guys are.

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My long commute to work is made so much better with your company. Elizabeth, PS, if y 'all haven't eaten

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Vegemite before, and then she included it in the package.

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Pro tip, toast, butter, a scraping of Vegemite. Don't put it on like jelly or jam until you're used to it.

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I can send you a video demonstration. Well, Becky and I went ahead and watched a video demonstration of somebody doing

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Vegemite. It was actually a video with Hugh Jackman, and Hugh Jackman, the actor from Australia, and Becky didn't know who

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Hugh Jackman was. I'm sorry. If you follow us on Twitter, then you know that whole exchange, what happened there.

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Anyway, so we've got some Vegemite. I have repented, I have apologized, and yet tonight

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I was about to say his name wrong. I still need to go back and learn. Jackman Hughes?

11:08

Yeah, what was his name? I was going to say Jack Human or something. Jack Human. Oh, dear.

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So, this is Vegemite, and I have had this before. It was over 20 years ago, and there's a reason why

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I haven't had it in 20 years. But we have some other things in here, too.

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We've got these lovely caramels. Now, they're Jersey caramels, so Jersey caramels came from Australia.

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Okay. I have no idea. I'm sure they're not made in New Jersey. Let's see. They're packaged in South Australia.

11:47

Yeah, but I wonder... 100 % Australian owned. There you go. But, yeah, they're called

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Jersey caramels. And then we have these Tim Tams, which is like a little chocolate cookie, and these are fruit chocs.

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Wait, I'm missing the Australian accent. Fruit chocs. Delightfully unexpected.

12:08

There we go. Oh, sorry. That was way too cockney. No, no, no. That was more like a... Yeah. Try again.

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...Bert from Mary Poppins. Try again. I was even watching an Australian movie recently, and I can't find my

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Australian accent. Put you on the spot. I'm sorry. G'day, mate. Delightfully unexpected fruit chocs.

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I don't know if that worked or not. But anyway. Kind of. And then, let's see. Is that...

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And then this black licorice. Yes. Black licorice is the same no matter what continent it comes from. I'm not going to eat that.

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I'll try it. Yeah. You can give it to your mom. Because you said your mom likes black licorice. But I have to share it with Arya.

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Oh, does she like black licorice? Yes. Arya loves black licorice. I think I remember you telling me that. Yes. She's our four -year -old.

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Yeah. The four -year -old. She loves it. Well, try it with Raya, too. She'll eat just about anything. Just about.

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And she'll also tell you if she doesn't like it, too. And if I remember right, she didn't really care for the black licorice.

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She wanted to. She really wanted to like it. She wanted to. She tried it. She was like, mmm.

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What is that? I don't know. Anything that looks like a black hole. I don't think I want to... I don't think I want to ingest.

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Vegemite is not quite a black hole. But it's pretty dark. Okay, I'm opening this jar here.

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Hang on. I don't want to smell it. I want to taste it before I smell it. So, we've pre -made some toast here.

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We're going to spread this on some toast. You're going to trust me to do this? No. I'm going to give this a shot. I'm going to give it all over my computer here.

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Yes, you are. And your Bible, too. Okay, let's try. Just a little. Little tiny. Just a little bit.

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Just a little tiny bit. Okay, I'm going to spread it on the corner of the toast there. Okay. There you go. There's yours. All right, thanks.

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I'm going to make some for me. We'll eat it at the same time. We've also brought bottles of water down. We have.

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Just in case. Kind of prepping ourselves here. Now, Vegemite. I can't remember what's in it.

14:07

We're going to read the ingredients first before we try this. Before? Oh, dear. What am

14:12

I doing? I'm putting more on here. You are. I'm ready to go. Okay, so ingredients.

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Yeast extract. It says it's concentrated yeast extract from yeast grown on barley and wheat.

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Salt. Mineral salt. Malt extract. Color. Flavors. Niacin.

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Thiamine. Riboflavin. See, I don't like malt. Yeah, malt is in here. I know you don't like Whoppers.

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No. That's what these fruit chalks made me think. They look like Whoppers. But they're with peaches.

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It's like the chocolate center of a peach. See? No. That's the picture on the front. No. So this is, as I was describing this to Becky, the

14:56

Vegemite, as I was describing it to her, I said, so if vegetables could poop, it would be Vegemite. I knew you were going to fit that in there somewhere.

15:04

It's a garden turd, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, my goodness. Stop. All right. So we've got our

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Vegemite toast here. Yes. Okay, you ready to give this a go? I'm going to eat it at the same time.

15:17

Here we go. Ready and go. Nope. That is way too salty.

15:32

Whoa. Oh. Yeah. Thank you, Elizabeth, but. I don't know what

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I was expecting, but not that. I'm glad that was only a little bit.

15:47

Uh -huh. All right, we got bottles of water ready, so we're going to take, we're going to wash that down a little bit.

15:54

So it's not as bad. After you choked it down a little bit. I'm not sure

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I would take a second bite, but you know, it's not as bad as I was anticipating, honestly.

16:07

But now does garden turd not fit that? You were doubting me, but now

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I've. I'm ashamed. Now, the first time

16:21

I had it, I told you it was it was 20 years ago. The last time I had it, I had it on a cracker and it was a great big gross gob of the stuff.

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Oh, I can't. No, it was a lot. No, that's so wrong. It was. It was so awful.

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So I might as well have taken a spoonful. Yeah, it pretty much was. And so salted cracker on a salted cracker is already taste kind of salty.

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Oh, it's not kind of. That's that's a lot. It says B1 essential for brain function.

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B2 supports your nervous system. B3 essential for energy release. Folate helps fight fatigue.

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So you should get all kinds of energy from this babe. I should. You want me to stick this up there with the breakfast foods?

17:06

I mean, if the kids like it, sure. Give it a shot. They like raisins and stuff. So raisin isn't even comparable to raisins.

17:15

What's the matter with you? They like stuff. I don't. She doesn't like raisins.

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But just because you don't like raisins doesn't mean you compare Vegemite to raisins. Well, no, but I put it in the same category.

17:27

No, thank you. I think I'll pass. All right, granted.

17:33

Thank you, Elizabeth. That was very kind. It was. It was very wonderful for you to send this package. We're not done yet, though.

17:38

We got the sugary stuff next. Do we want to do that first or the black licorice?

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Let's do the black licorice. You can eat some black licorice. No. I am not. Hey, if I tried something

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I really didn't feel like trying, then you've got to try something that's really good. Okay, but I know what black licorice tastes like, and I know it's not going to be any different.

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And I didn't remember what Vegemite tasted like. I just knew that I didn't like it. Yeah. Now I know.

18:07

Oh, see, you can't even get the package open, so we can't have any licorice.

18:19

All right. Oh, my goodness. That is the biggest piece of black licorice I've ever seen. So we have a knife here.

18:24

We're going to cut, like, a little sliver off to save the rest. That is gigantic. Just in case. It's like a sausage.

18:30

It does. It's huge. There you go. I'm used to the little

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Twizzlers. I mean, on the front of the package, if it said, like, contents are as big as, that wouldn't even be accurate.

18:44

It's bigger than that. It is bigger. Good gracious. Oh, I dropped mine. Man, I dropped my licorice.

18:51

Try again. It's from Australia. It's probably going to be black licorice with Vegemite in it.

18:56

Oh, stop. Well, it is plant -based, and always has been. All right.

19:03

Do you know the opera Mall and the Night Visitors? Are you familiar with that? No. There's a scene in the

19:10

Mall and the Night Visitors where Namal is asking one of the three wise men what's in his box.

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The song is called This is My Box. He's got this chest of drawers that he travels around with.

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Okay. One drawer has beads in it because he loves to play with beads. Okay. But in the third drawer, he keeps licorice, licorice, black sweet licorice, black sweet licorice.

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Have some. No, you're not familiar with this opera? Nope. Anyway, I was always appalled at that, though.

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I was like, no, what are you doing to the poor kid? Giving him black licorice. Hey, back then, this was probably as sweet as it gets.

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I don't know what's on this. It's probably crumbs from our toes. Yeah, it is crumbs from our toes. So it probably did get some

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Vegemite on there. I'm taking the crumbies off. All right. Ready? Ready. Go. Man, that's strong.

20:04

Tastes like black licorice. You know, in a teeny tiny little itty bitty bite that I took, it's really good.

20:15

It's better than the Vegemite. I'll give it that. Yes. Definitely better than the Vegemite. I just am not a black licorice fan, but I'm sure

20:23

I'm going to love these. So let's open these up. I bet your Aria is going to love those. Becky, she's still eating her black licorice over there.

20:30

And that's like a first ever. Ever. Tear here. False advertising. Hang on.

20:36

I think I've got some scissors. And they have the same problems. In Australia, their packages don't open down there either.

20:43

There we go. All right. So now what did you open up? I am opening up the

20:48

Fruit Chocs. This is one I really want to try. All right. Here you go. So it's chocolate.

20:54

Chocolate covering a peach. I'm going to dive right into this, and if it's full of Vegemite, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.

21:03

Delightfully unexpected seeing you here. It's what it says on the bottom of the package.

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It's so delightfully unexpected seeing you here. Okay. Hey, I was going to read that.

21:15

Bring it back. Apparently trying to catch you looking underneath, I guess. It's gluten free.

21:22

It's energy. It's energy. Well, it says energy right there. Pure energy. Be treat wise.

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Enjoy a balanced diet. This is going to turn me into Captain Planet if I eat it. So this is the original recipe.

21:35

Okay. It just says milk chocolate. I'm eating mine. I'm eating it right now.

21:40

Go for it. Oh, that's good. There's like a little hint of orange in there almost.

21:51

Okay. So it has milk chocolate, which is made from sugar, cocoa butter, cream milk powder, cocoa liquor.

22:02

That tasted like I expected it to taste. Soy. Soy. Don't get to gross ingredients now.

22:10

No, I'm not. I liked it. Here's the sugar dried peach and dried apricots. Ah, I think it's a little bit of the apricot.

22:18

Yeah, the peach and the apricot there. That's what I'm getting. Peach and apricot together. All right. This is.

22:23

It tasted different than what I was expecting. So I was wondering what else was in there. This is a Tim Tam and this is large.

22:30

It's really good. This is like a chocolate. On the fruit chucks. This is a chocolate covered chocolate cookie.

22:39

So a lot of chocolate in your Tim Tam. You want to try that? I am not sleeping tonight. All right.

22:48

Okay. So what's in the Tim Tam? Because you'll be burping up that Vegemite. That's why you're not going to be sleeping. Oh, stop. Okay. What's in the

22:53

Tim Tam chocolate? I just told you. It's just chocolate. It's a chocolate covered chocolate. That's it? Just chocolate.

22:59

All right. And it says we can win three wishes. $100 ,000 plus win $100 hourly.

23:08

You know, Elizabeth, we become grand prize winners through this package. We'll certainly share the prize with. Oh, yeah.

23:13

Definitely. I don't even know how you win. I didn't read all of that. But this is.

23:18

$100 hourly. Arnott's Tim Tam original. Here we go. Ready? Okay. I really like that.

23:30

I am not a chocolate fan and I like that. It's really tasty.

23:37

It reminds me of the Keebler, but better. Like the same kind of.

23:44

Trying to think of which Keebler. Like the regular elf cookies. Is that what you're thinking of? Yeah. Because the chocolate tastes the same.

23:51

Yes. Okay. But more rich. Does that make sense? Yeah. That's really good. Well, because it's chocolate outside.

23:58

It's not the cookie outside. So yeah, definitely more rich. All right. And then we've got these

24:04

Jersey caramels. Oh, man. Quit eating your cookie. No, I like my cookie.

24:10

Just set it down right there and don't let it touch your Vegemite. Five. Okay.

24:16

Here's a caramel for you. All right. Caramel. No. It has caramel.

24:23

Caramel. It has caramel on either side. And then it has a white streak down the middle.

24:29

Yes. What is that? White caramel. I mean, I'm sure that's what makes it

24:35

Jersey. Ingredients. Sugar. Glucose. Soft icing. Ah. Maybe it's the icing.

24:41

Oh, soft icing sugar. Ah. Condensed milk. Flour. Vegetable oil.

24:46

Water. Flavor. Gelatin. What's up with them and vegetables? Salt. Just kidding. Made in Australia from 100 % kangaroo.

24:55

Oh, whatever. Had a kangaroo on it. Okay. Here we go.

25:01

Ready? That's not as chewy as I expected.

25:08

Mm -mm. Not as caramelly as I expected. But still really good. It is really good.

25:13

It's kind of tangy. Maybe it's just because I ate it after the chocolate.

25:18

I'm going to say, I'm still tasting some of that Tim Tam. It's really good. I don't know that I rinsed my palate out well before eating that, but it is good.

25:25

Well, I forgot to take a drink. Yeah. I did too. Yeah, my bad. But it's really good. It's still good. Just didn't have that.

25:31

So if you guys hear chewing like every once in a while throughout the podcast, it's just me. Didn't have that like gooey stretch out caramel quality to it.

25:40

That's what I was kind of expecting. I was expecting that. Yeah. Didn't get that. That was really good. Well, Elizabeth, this was like the best package ever.

25:47

So, thank you. And I have to give credit where credit is due. She's not the first one to do this for us.

25:53

I was going to say. J .R., our friend in Canada. Yes. Had also sent us a box of Canadian foods.

25:59

I think this was before you were on the podcast, though. I believe so. Because it was a couple years ago. And the box got wet.

26:06

So we never had the chance to try the foods. Dive in on all of it. Yeah. And it wasn't our mail carrier's fault.

26:13

No, no, no. It was us. Yeah. I couldn't remember how the box got wet. But after that was like. I think it was on the table.

26:18

And then somebody spilled. Might have been. It was really wet, though. It wasn't just like, oh, well, this is salvageable.

26:24

No, it was all toast. It was bad. So I'll have to tell J .R., hey, send us some

26:30

Canadian food. Yeah. And we'll do that on the podcast sometime. And we'll have to send him back a package of some

26:35

Kansas food. What, sunflower seeds? Maybe. I don't know.

26:41

I'll have to get creative. Maybe some honey. Oh, yeah. We've got a local place that does some great honey.

26:48

Oh, yeah. And some jams. Mm -hmm. But yeah, we're kind of limited on Kansas only.

26:55

We can get you some American stuff. Kansas only, that's a little tougher to come by.

27:02

Well, you've got Kansas City barbecue. Yeah, that's true. But I have to admit, Texas barbecue.

27:08

You find those good, authentic Texas barbecue places. They have like the nice bark on the outside of the pork or the brisket or whatever it is that you're eating.

27:18

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I have had better Texas barbecue than I've ever had barbecue anywhere else.

27:24

Mm -hmm. So as much as Kansas City wants to brag on its barbecue, it doesn't compare with Dallas.

27:30

Sure. Best barbecue I've ever had was in Dallas. You don't agree? Mm -mm. I don't think you ate at the places I've eaten.

27:36

No, I didn't. Because see, I was skeptical, too. Yeah. It was Tom Buck that took me to the place that I went and ate.

27:41

Well, see, there you go. I wasn't there. And I mean, the first—

27:46

I'm still skeptical until I taste it. The first bite, I was like, yep, best barbecue I've ever had. Yeah. It wasn't even a contest.

27:52

My eating out gets a little complicated, though, with my allergies. That's true. But this place, it was just barbecue.

27:58

I know. Didn't have to worry about shrimp, nothing like that. Shrimp on the barbie. It was just brisket or pork.

28:04

That was your choices. All right, this next question or next letter here.

28:10

Snail mail. Snail mail. Mail snail. Mail mail. Authentic mail.

28:15

There we go. This comes from Colton in Texas. See our envelope? Oh, that's awesome.

28:21

It has WWUTT on there, and amazingly, that still got to us. That is great.

28:26

Our local post office is kind of funny. Yeah, well. We still received this letter, even though it said, what?

28:32

On the front of it. Yeah, but the postal workers are very nice. They are. Very kind people. Yes. It's just ridiculous.

28:38

Whenever you want to mail something to someone in Junction City, it has to go to Kansas City first.

28:43

Which is two hours away. Two hours. And then comes to Junction City. And then comes back two hours. Yeah, you wonder why the price of stamps is going up.

28:51

That's why. Because they do ridiculous stuff like that. I'm sure that's not just here. No, it's nationwide. Yeah.

28:57

Somebody just. I don't get it. Because in the town that I grew up in, there were two drop boxes.

29:04

Yep. In town and out of town. Yep. You can mail something in town. Yep. Now we have to mail something in town, we have to send it to Kansas City.

29:14

Yeah. This is Colton. He says, dear Mrs. Becky and Pastor Gabe.

29:20

I think that's the best address that I think that I've seen. That's great. Because when you do dear

29:26

Pastor Gabe and Becky, it can be confusing to think that the person's calling us both pastor. But to start out this way, dear

29:33

Mrs. Becky and Pastor Gabe, that's pretty good. Eileen started out that way too. Oh, did she?

29:39

See, I didn't give credit to Eileen. Let me look at Eileen's. Dear Becky and Gabe. Not pastor, but it is still there.

29:46

Yes. Dear Mrs. Becky and Pastor Gabe, ladies first. My name is Colton Knight and I'm 11 years old.

29:53

Aww. Hi. I love your what videos so much, I bet I've seen every one.

30:00

That's neat. That's over 250 videos. That's a lot. I also enjoy listening to your podcast regularly.

30:05

The reason I sent you this letter is to see if you can answer my questions. Number one, who are the 24 elders in Revelation 5?

30:13

And number two, this is a question that our own son would ask. How did the dinosaurs die?

30:20

Yep. If they were on the Ark? Our son would ask a question like that too. Yep. Let's go to Revelation chapter 5.

30:27

We'll read about the 24 elders. Starting in verse 1. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

30:52

And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

30:59

And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it's seven seals.

31:11

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

31:26

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

31:44

And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain.

31:51

And by your blood, you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

31:58

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth.

32:04

Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

32:25

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

32:38

And the four living creatures said, amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped.

32:45

I got that Vegemite crawling back up into my throat. No, stop. So what was something that you saw coming up repeatedly there, other than the

32:55

Vegemite coming back up, that you saw happening in regular mention there in Chapter 5 of Revelation?

33:03

Somehow there's a question in there. I just couldn't, I couldn't formulate it. Numbers. Numbers, right.

33:10

So we have numbers that are regularly occurring here in Chapter 5. So you had the, between the throne and the four living creatures, you had a scroll with writing on the front and the back and it's sealed up with seven seals.

33:23

Among the elders, I saw a lamb standing and it had seven horns with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

33:33

Numbers have significance through the book of Revelation. Oh, yeah. What we're reading here is apocalyptic literature.

33:39

Every book of the Bible has a particular genre of literature that it's fitting into.

33:45

So right now on the podcast, we're going through Acts, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're going through Psalms on Thursday.

33:55

Acts, as we did our introduction to the book of Acts on Monday, is an adventure story.

34:01

Right. So it's a narrative. You're reading it as a narrative. Of course, what we're reading is true, but it fits in kind of an adventure story type of genre.

34:09

Okay. And the Psalms, of course, are poetic. Right. So you're going to read the poetry of the

34:15

Psalms differently than you're going to read what you are going through in the book of Acts. The book of Revelation is no different.

34:22

There is a particular kind of literature, genre of literature, the book of Revelation fits, and it's what's called apocalyptic literature.

34:31

Okay. Because we're talking about things that are to come. There are also things that have already happened and things that are going on now.

34:38

Right. But we're looking at things from a certain vantage point that we in our limited finiteness don't get the chance to be able to see.

34:48

John is having this privilege to look into eternity, and he's seeing how in the fullness of time, the plan of God is being accomplished and fulfilled through Christ.

34:58

That would be amazing. That would be incredible to see. Paul, and I've made this theory, this assertion before,

35:05

I believe that Paul saw the same thing. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he talks about seeing things that no eye has seen nor ear has heard.

35:13

But Paul was not the one that God had appointed to write about what it was that he saw.

35:20

So he was not going to talk about what God had privileged him to see, but he wasn't going to be the one to write about it.

35:27

John was going to be the one to write about it. Okay. So he wrote in Revelation what I believe Paul probably saw as well, but John is the one that God actually appointed to write this book.

35:37

The close of canon would come from the one who was the last apostle to die. Okay. So, and as I've made the argument before,

35:45

I believe that Revelation was written after 70 AD, and so it would have been after every other apostle had been martyred except John.

35:52

Okay. So John is writing what he is privileged to see from this heavenly perspective, and numbers have a huge significance in Revelation.

36:02

Now, this is not numerology from the standpoint of we can add up all these numbers and we can calculate dates that God is doing things.

36:12

That's not what I'm talking about. Because we're not supposed to know. Right. But it's clear that numbers always have significance in scripture.

36:18

Right. Well, always. I mean, there are numbers that are significant and they repeatedly come up, like the number 12.

36:26

Right. There's the 12 tribes of Israel, and then Jesus chose 12 apostles. Right. And so the 24 elders represent both those saints in the

36:37

Old Testament and the saints in the New Testament era. Interesting. So whenever you see that number 12 come up, it's referring to the people of God.

36:47

It might be referring to the people of God in those that were prior to the cross, or it might be talking about those who have come after the cross, or it just might be 12 as a significance to talk about those who are the people of God.

37:00

But 24 is 12 and 12 together. So it's showing those who were in faith before Christ came and those who were in faith after Christ came.

37:10

That's the reference to the 24 elders. The four living creatures are significant as well.

37:16

They represent creation. So, not creation like personified creation, but the number four typically ties into creation in some way.

37:25

Okay. So like we have four seasons, for example. Oh, okay. Or there's four directions on the globe, north, south, east, and west.

37:33

And so you might read something about something coming from the four winds or the four corners of the earth.

37:38

Right. And that's a reference to it coming from all of creation. Got it. So the four living creatures would in some way be symbolic of the creature praising the creator.

37:49

Okay. Ezekiel also saw four living creatures. Right. So what

37:54

Ezekiel saw is also what John is seeing. The Old Testament comes into the book of Revelation a lot.

38:00

In fact, there are more Old Testament references in Revelation than there are actually verses in Revelation.

38:06

Oh, wow. Yeah. I have a what video that talks about that if you want to go. I was thinking so. Yeah. See, kind of a 90 second brief.

38:13

Here's how to read the book of Revelation. Okay. Sort of a thing. And I took all of that from Votibachum when he did his series on Revelation.

38:20

So then, again, the 24 elders represent the people of God. They fell down before the

38:27

Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

38:32

Now, Catholics will take that verse literally and say, see, this is why you should pray to saints because the saints take your prayers and pour them out before the throne.

38:42

But that's taking the passage too literally. Okay. This is a symbolic of something.

38:47

It is not literal prayers in a bowl that's being taken before the throne and being poured out. All this is representing is that the prayers that we pray are symbolized by incense because what we offer to God is lifted up like a fragrant offering unto the

39:03

Lord. Right. Which is why they would burn meat and stuff. Right? Because the fragrance of it.

39:08

Well, yeah, there are references to sacrifices being offered to God and the fragrance was pleasing to the Lord.

39:13

Right. That's what I mean. What that symbolizes is. Is different? Yeah, somewhat different because it symbolizes that the wrath of God was appeased by the offering that was given on the altar.

39:23

Oh, that's right. Okay. Whereas incense being burned, like as you're burning it, smoke goes up.

39:29

Right. So, it's symbolic of prayers being offered unto God. Right. So, all this is meaning to show with that symbolism here in Revelation 5 is that the prayers of the saints are heard by God.

39:43

Oh, okay. They are taken to the Lord and they are heard by Him and there is a response to what it is that we ask.

39:50

They're not taken literally by saints and given to God. Right. We are the saints who are praying those prayers to God.

39:56

Amen. So, anyway, there you go. There's the, I even added a little bit extra there for you,

40:02

Colton, but there's who the 24 elders are. They are the saints of God represented by those who were in faith before the coming of Christ and even after Christ.

40:12

So, given that we're talking about elders in particular, I think we're talking about those who were shepherds.

40:19

Okay. And teachers of those who would receive the word of God and come to faith and grow in faith because of the word that was shared or spoken with them.

40:28

Gotcha. So, yeah. So, you have the 12 tribes of Israel might be representative of the prophets and then the 12 elders of the

40:36

New Testament might be the apostles. Okay. Because as we read in Ephesians chapter two, the church is built on a foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

40:49

Right. So, next question, Colton, number two, how did the dinosaurs die if they were on the ark?

40:56

Well, this is actually an extra biblical question. We would not have the answer to this question for us in the

41:02

Bible, but my theory would be that something just came about where the dinosaurs eventually gradually died off.

41:10

I don't think it was some world ending event like a meteor struck the earth or something like that.

41:16

Right. But animals go extinct and we see that all throughout the fossil record. There are animals that lived in a certain period, era of time and don't live anymore.

41:26

There are even certain conservationists, conservatories, would you call it a conservatory?

41:33

Yeah, something close to that. Where they specialize in breeding and raising certain animals that have -

41:40

Conservation, yeah, something like that. They breed and raise certain animals that are not found in abundance anymore.

41:49

Right. And I actually learned about this of all places by watching a DVD commentary and there were some animals that were used in this period piece.

41:59

It was like a movie that took place back in the 14 or 1500s or something. And I think it was even older than that.

42:04

Anyway, it showed these oxen that had these massive horns and the director doing the commentary on the

42:12

DVD said that these would have been the actual oxen from that time period. But they are not alive in abundance on earth anymore.

42:20

There is a group of people that specializes in breeding these animals and keeping them alive so we can use them in period films just like this.

42:28

So, yeah, kind of interesting. So, just like there are animals that have died off, it would have been the same with the dinosaurs as well.

42:37

When we went to the Creation Museum, this was a few years back, but they had an exhibit at the time that we went and visited where when you walked in the door they had all these different booths and kind of historical markers and when you went and read each booth it was talking about dragons and how there have been various occasions or occurrences of stories of dragons even since the time of Christ.

43:01

Right. And all of these cultures that historically ancient cultures that have had these stories and lores of dragons was very likely tales or accounts of dinosaurs is what they were talking about.

43:16

Because that name dinosaur is very new. It's only a few hundred years old. It's not like people back in the days of...

43:23

You used to call them dinosaurs? Yeah. Yeah. Back in the days of Job. Look, a dinosaur. They were just animals.

43:28

There's a Diplodocus. Yeah. They didn't say that. They were just the large animals. So, you have dinosaurs described in the

43:34

Bible like Behemoth and Leviathan. Right. Leviathan being one that's even described as breathing fire.

43:40

Well, that sounds like a dragon. Yeah, it does. It doesn't sound like a dinosaur. We really don't know what the dinosaurs looked like.

43:46

We have kind of an idea. I really don't think they look like they did in Jurassic Park. That's not the way that I think of dinosaurs looking.

43:54

You think they were polka dotted and hot pink. Yeah, right. Hot pink. I don't understand why we think of them as these large scaly animals.

44:03

Why do we just not assume that they didn't have fur or hair or something? Like you see more current renderings of the raptor, of the

44:12

Velociraptor. Right. They're making it look more like a bird now than they used to. Because the hollow bones or something like that.

44:18

Well, no, it wasn't the hollow bones. It's the way the pelvis is kind of turned and things like that. The way it stands.

44:25

Right. And the way they theorized that it moved. Right. But all we've got is a skeleton. That's all we have.

44:30

True. So, there's not a reason for us to just automatically believe that, well, that looks like a lizard or it looks like, you know.

44:37

So, therefore, that's what it is. And that's where the name came from. When the first dinosaurs were being unearthed, they gave it the name dinosaur, which translated is terrible lizard.

44:48

That's what it means. So, now we just have this vision or this view. Terrible lizards. Right. All these giant animals that we unearth being these terrible lizards.

44:57

But we don't live in the kind of world anymore that would be habitable for an animal of that size.

45:03

Oh, definitely. So, as the world changed gradually, animals got smaller.

45:08

People didn't live as long anymore. Because you read in Genesis about these people living hundreds of years. Right. Even Abraham lived for 175 years.

45:16

And people just don't live that long anymore. So, as the environment changed, everything on earth started to change.

45:22

God said, my spirit will not contend with man forever. His days will be 120. So, gradually, as the world changed, it just became less habitable for dinosaurs.

45:31

Yeah. So, they either died off or through microevolutionary processes became other animals.

45:37

Not too far off. Right. Of what they previously would have been. But just not the animals like we're digging out of rock anymore.

45:45

Right. Like crocodiles. Yeah. Which I think, yeah, crocodiles were around during the time of the dinosaurs.

45:52

I don't know that that animal's changed all that much. There probably are some animals that were just like what ended up on Noah's Ark.

45:58

There are some huge pictures. Or pictures of huge crocodiles, rather. Don't we have, it's like in the

46:04

Topeka Museum or something. There's that giant sloth. Things the size of a grizzly bear.

46:10

Bigger than that. You know what I'm talking about? No. I thought it was in a museum in Topeka, just down the road from us.

46:16

Maybe I saw it in a different place. I don't remember. There's just this huge, ginormous sloth. And they've only uncovered a skeleton of it.

46:23

I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking that was in a different place. There's all kinds of animals. Dinosaurs have captured the imagination.

46:30

And that's what little boys love to play with. They love to play with dinosaurs and dragons. So, that's what our son wanted.

46:36

He wanted dinosaurs and dragons. Yep. So, that's what we think of them. As these big, giant lizards. But there were all kinds of animals that existed long ago that don't exist anymore.

46:46

Yeah. So, basically, to answer your question. It's not in the Bible. So, we're just guessing.

46:52

Yeah, we're just guessing. I'm just talking. Best guess. At this time.

46:58

I'm not a scientist. I don't know. Maybe we'll find out in the future. But there's some scientists that don't know. This is true. So, be careful there.

47:04

All right. I think that's everything. We're coming up on about 50 minutes here. I've got a couple of other questions.

47:11

One of them is going to take longer than 10 minutes to answer. Okay. So, I'm not going to do that one here. Oh, I'm going to go ahead and answer

47:17

Brian's in North Little Rock, Arkansas. And then I'll save these other couple of questions for another podcast.

47:23

This was not a letter. This one's email. So, we're breaking from our letter theme. Mail, mail. Brian says,

47:31

Pastor Gabe, when talking about how many eyewitnesses there were to the risen Jesus, you mentioned Paul's statement in 1

47:36

Corinthians 15, 6, about Jesus appearing to over 500 brothers at once.

47:42

You then say, and that's not just talking about the women who had also seen Jesus alive.

47:47

So, you might even be talking about as many as 1 ,000 people saw Jesus in the flesh between his resurrection and ascension into heaven.

47:53

First, I think you mean to say that doesn't include the women who had also seen

47:59

Jesus alive instead of that's not just talking about the women who had also seen Jesus alive. Yes. As articulate as I come across sometimes,

48:06

I, too, have language flubs. Yeah. So, that is probably. Most of the time we catch them. That is probably what

48:13

I meant. You're correct. Second, the word used here in the Greek that is translated brothers in the

48:19

ESV is adelphois, the masculine plural dative form of adelphos.

48:25

You use dative. That's a word you're familiar with. Yeah. You do your Latin studies. Yep. It's in our

48:30

Latin, our noun cases. Yep. One thing about Greek, just like Spanish and several other languages, a masculine plural may refer to a mixed group of both men and women, especially when the noun in question changes from masculine to feminine simply by changing the ending of the word.

48:47

So, linguistically, the 500 number in 1 Corinthians is most likely an inclusive group counting both men and women.

48:54

I would disagree, and here's the reason why. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. In verse 3,

49:00

Paul says, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

49:31

So, why would I not think that when Paul is talking about 500 brothers there that he would also be including sisters in that number?

49:39

Because he's only talking about men. Yeah. That list only includes the men. And we knew that there were more than just men that saw

49:47

Jesus alive. Right. The first persons that saw him alive were the women.

49:53

Mary Magdalene. They saw that he was gone. They saw that he was gone, but Mary Magdalene encountered him in the garden.

49:58

Oh, that's right, yeah. Before Jesus then said to her, go and tell my brothers that I am alive.

50:05

So, what we have here in this list in 1 Corinthians 15 is only men. Therefore, when

50:10

Paul says 500 brothers, in context, we would have to conclude he was only talking about the men.

50:15

Right. And it seems like even men in a teaching capacity here, because you're talking about the apostles and those others who have gone out spreading the gospel and accounting for what it was that they saw.

50:26

That's not to say we're talking about 500 teachers, but we are talking about 500 men who would have been those to share the gospel account.

50:35

Right. So, therefore, I don't think that that could include the women. Now, when I said in the podcast that it could have been as many as 1 ,000 people who saw

50:43

Jesus alive, I think that's a really generous number, because it would assume that there were as many women as there were men who saw him alive, and it may not have been.

50:55

But still, I'm presenting the argument of the possibility that there could have been as many as 1 ,000 people that saw

51:03

Jesus alive between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. So, good question, Brian, but I do think that the 500 brothers that are mentioned there in 1

51:11

Corinthians 15 is only pertaining to men. Mm -hmm. But we do know there were women, and in fact, there were even women in the upper room when the

51:19

Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, the 12. Right. There were women that were there that saw the appointing of a new apostle to replace

51:29

Judas. Mm -hmm. So, the women still played a very integral, important role in the spread, the advancement of the gospel, and even there in the very first and early church.

51:40

But just the 500 brothers is only talking about the men. Right. That's it.

51:47

That's it. All right. So, that's our broadcast. Thank you so much. Next week, we are getting into that chapter in Acts.

51:53

Oh. We'll be talking about the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. That might be the next week.

51:58

We'll finish Chapter 1 this coming week. Okay. That's what we're going to be looking at. Wonderful. All right. So, once again, if you want to send us some snail mail, you can send that to 1st

52:08

Southern Baptist Church, 1220 West 8th Street, Junction City, Kansas, 66441.

52:14

Attention what? Attention to what? Or Pastor Gabe and Becky. I think that was on one of these envelopes.

52:21

Yep, right there. Becky and Gabe Hughes dash what? That was from Eileen in Iowa.

52:28

So, thank you so much, Eileen. And otherwise, if you just want to shoot an email, send that to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

52:37

God bless you all. Let's conclude with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together on this broadcast.

52:44

And I pray that this was edifying for others, that we would know the call that has been given to us to know the gospel of our

52:52

Lord Jesus Christ, which is our salvation. And in love with our Savior and knowing that his gospel is what saves, we would take that to the world so that there are many others who would hear the gospel and know the truth and believe and live.

53:07

We thank you for our listeners and the wonderful gifts and notes that they have sent to us. I thank you for Eileen's charge that we would even be more mindful of sending letters and messages to people saying, we are thinking about you, we're praying for you, that it might brighten someone's day.

53:25

And we were certainly brightened to receive this package from Elizabeth and enjoy this good food that she had sent to us from Australia.

53:32

Some of it. And for Colton's blessed heart and the questions that he asked.

53:40

A wonderful to hear even from our young listeners. And I thank you for the question from Brian as well. May we all be edified and encouraged by what we read in the word of God.

53:49

Looking forward all the more to that day when our Lord Christ returns. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

53:55

We pray in his name. Amen. Amen. I got to move all of our snacks.

55:08

Yeah. You've blocked my headset in. Sorry. Sorry, I love you.

55:19

Oh my goodness. Oh, that horrible, horrible noise. I love you.

55:25

I don't know who put it on there like that, but I did not. I haven't done that in years. I did not do that.

55:32

I thought I had so mastered sound by this point. I was done with ever having to throw feedback in my ears again.

55:40

I'm so sorry. That's what you get for having me in here. I'm sorry.

55:45

Oh my goodness. I repent. I'll go upstairs. My ears are still ringing. Whoa. I'll go upstairs.

55:52

I'm sorry. You're fired. I'm fired. When I was in a band, it was almost like every show.

56:00

Some point in there, somebody would turn a mic on, they would stand in front of a speaker, something, and it would just blow feedback in every monitor.

56:10

That is like the worst. Do we want to actually open these now, or wait until we get to them?

56:15

We'll get to it, because I'm definitely not eating the licorice. What? No. You have to try the little taste. No. I know exactly what black licorice tastes like.

56:23

But not from there. Black licorice in Australia tastes like black licorice from a sewer.

56:29

It's the same. It doesn't matter. You should try Darryl Leah black licorice. It doesn't matter. This is batch 37.

56:35

It doesn't matter. You give it to your mom. Batch. Okay. Hey, it contains molasses.

56:42

Do all of them contain molasses? They all contain molasses. But this is no preservative. It's like molasses with no additives whatsoever.

56:50

We've got to quit talking about it. We're going to have our whole show pre -show. Whole show pre -show.