Beach Walk- Keeping Priorities Straight

The Beach, World Events, and the Need to Keep Priorities Straight

Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of the conversations that matter podcast. On the beach right now in Santa Barbara, California. My wife and I decided to take one night and go somewhere. We've been staying in LA and Santa Barbara is really nice.

I've driven through here. I've never actually stayed here and I highly recommend it. Of course, it is more expensive than sometimes you initially think like booking a hotel room was the fee I thought that I was gonna get from or pay was not the fee I actually paid because there's There was over $30.

I think I was it was like 40 bucks of just local. I wasn't even state just local fees. And so it's a tourist area in California and It's I I don't know how much you'd have to make to live here, but I think it'd be a pretty penny beautiful though beautiful scenery beautiful nightlife you have mountains you have the ocean right here and Anyway just figured I would take a little walk by the beach and show you Kind of what I'm enjoying.

For those I know some of you don't get a chance to go to the west coast. You can maybe see the mountains behind me there. Yeah, sort of there. They are mountains and palm trees and I wish it was more than a day, but I Wanted to talk about a few things.

I'm not exactly sure where this conversation is gonna land but I was having a conversation with my brother a few days ago and He apprised me of something. I had not been a paying much attention to. Because let's face it How many of us Americans actually pay attention to international politics?

It's probably one of our weaknesses. On in the political realm at least we tend to pay attention to what's happening in our country but there's a lot happening all over the world and I try to every once in a while.

I'll go to the Epoch Times website. That's probably the news website I go to more than any other and I'll read Chronicles articles sometimes but other than that, I'm not seeing much and he tends to look at I believe the BBC and some other left-leaning websites, but they give international politics that takes on international politics and so he was telling me that Brazil is in turmoil right now and he explained the whole thing with their president who's more conservative and of course unfortunately, I guess hated by Conservative media in our country and kind of marked as a fascist or something.

I I don't know a lot about him what I do know is that he is opposed the Marxists in Brazil though and that He has a lot of popular support but put that on the shelf for a moment who you know, the His policies and all that He was elected in a landslide in 2018.

Well There's another election coming up and the expectation because they've been watching what happened here in 2020. Is that there's going to be funny business and the Supreme Court has a lot of say Apparently in the whole presidential election process and there's some heavy suspicion that the Supreme Court is going to get involved and It's gonna be rigged essentially and so there's a lot of turmoil there and the possibility of Violence and revolution and and I thought wow when I when he was telling me all about this I said wow, you know I didn't even know about that situation and And and then Yesterday, maybe it was two days ago now the What was trending on line was this Nord Stream 2? pipeline and how it's been blown up in a section at least and The United States, of course is being blamed for it.

And it looks pretty bad. It looks Very much like it could be the United States that did this and I'm just on this beautiful beach, right? You want to talk about World War three? Look at this Doesn't seem to match what I'm talking about, I guess but Really the the main thing that I wanted to say is that things can change really quickly.

We saw that in 2020 but I Mean they can change even more drastically and more quickly sometimes. Think about World War two or World War one or really almost any war but I mean you have an assassination the Archduke Ferdinand and Then within a year the cunt the whole of Europe is just in tatters and World War two happened very quickly I think we are already in World War three personally, but it's it's more similar to the Cold War right now and There's more of a technological warfare going on and there's a lot of Spying and espionage and all the stuff we associated with the Cold War but it could go hot real quick and With with all the Instability and turmoil around the world and angst and the different globalist Elites elites who want to push globalism but have different ideas about what that should look like fighting with one another.

We could have a major War in no time and that's just a possibility. And so what does that mean for us? What is there anywhere you can go to escape this? Can you? Just take them out to a beautiful place like this and say I'm just gonna hunker down I'm gonna kind of take whatever I've saved and just purchase Patriot food supply packets or something make sure if you do that though you need to get some Gold River green tea with it, but am I gonna go to Alaska or some a remote place and just hide out or You know, how do I escape this?

Christians, the Dominion Mandate, and Ordinary Responsibilities

I think that's a natural human Desire we want to try to avoid pain and Hardship, and I don't think that's always even a wrong thing. I think that's something that To some extent God put that in us that's where we're wired that way.

We have nerve endings and when we get hurt we recoil in pain. We say we think to ourselves. I'm not gonna do that again. I don't. I want to avoid that. That's what keeps us safe but sometimes especially for Christians we have to put a stop to the reflex we might most naturally have for a few reasons one and the main one in my mind is that serving Christ means Making disciples of the nations and there's no option for us.

That doesn't include ministering to people. Doesn't mean you need to be in an urban environment. You can be in a rural environment, but there needs to be people that you're ministering to. It means that we need to take the Dominion Mandate seriously, which includes among other things being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth and That that's a general command I believe.

It's it's not I know there's single people out there that this doesn't. That it's gonna look different or at least it doesn't apply to directly perhaps depending on what stage of life you're in but in general, that's something that we should be facilitating and Obviously you have to be in an environment where that's possible where you can generate an income support a family raise children and Being a hermit in the woods or on a beautiful beach like this as I've passed many people who are Wow, that is stunning.

That is absolutely stunning right here. You got the Sun coming up and you got boats back there. Anyway, I need to get back to what we're talking about here. So You know as I look around in California, there's a lot of homeless people too and different stories for different ones, but for some of them that is the that is the story of their life they've.

They can get paid. Or at least get benefits. I mean, I see several of them with cell phones. To they don't need to work. They don't need to take responsibility. They can just kind of hang out at the beach if they want.

And some of them that's a choice. They prefer that and I Just think as Christians we have responsibilities. We have commands. We have obligations. We're supposed to care for our households provide for them we're supposed to provide for the next generation including saving up an inheritance for our children's children.

We have commands from the Lord spiritual gifts. We're supposed to be serving within the church. It doesn't change even when things get dire politically globally. So we need to be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves and.

Practical Preparedness, Skills, and Knowing the Bible

So what does that look like in my life? Well, I probably am NOT the poster child for Trying to Outlast or survive whatever it is that might be coming. But you know, I do take some healthy precautions and that means being able to defend myself that means being able to Know how to use Some I'm trying to be delicate since I have to go back home to New York here and even in California.

The laws are not such that they are favorable to people who are into the Second Amendment, but read between the lines. You got to be able to defend your family in that way and be proficient at it. You don't want to be just someone who buys purchases tools that you don't know how to use.

Speaking of tools you need to know some basics on how to repair Mechanics for your car if you're a man I'm talking specifically to men. I mean, it'd be good for women to know too, but I think you know knowing how to Fix stuff around the house.

Maybe even build stuff build furniture. I mean, I I think changing your hobbies around to to more productive and useful ends Can be very helpful. I know people who have done this where you know, they're their hobbies used to be there just wasn't Much to take away from it after there wasn't a product, but when you have Activities you can be involved with that have a tangible product at the end of the process.

Or get or you learn a skill that's beneficial that can be a better Use of your time and sometimes it can be more enjoyable. So gaining skills one of the things that I aspire to is learning another language and So if you live in the United States Spanish is the most common language to learn and I think that's a really good language to learn.

But I think I'm thinking a little outside the box and thinking. Okay. What are the world's superpowers that? If they gained influence ascendancy in this country or if there was a war and they won. What language would I want to know.

Not a very pleasant thought but learning the language can be fun so maybe learn Chinese or Russian or a language that you think is going to be important on the global stage at some point. Know your Bible obviously really well and that's probably if we're looking at the order of priorities that that really should be up there number one but Know what the the Word of God expects and know how to teach the Word of God understand and Relay the truth in it so that you're not held captive by worldly philosophies and by false prophets false teachers.

Seminary Drift, Evangelical Politics, and Learning to Think Biblically

Along this line. I just wanted to say because I I put this out this morning on social media. You know people ask me about What seminaries to go to how do I know where to go that's safe so I can learn the Bible and my response is you know Seminaries are some of the last places I trust at this point and It's very hard for me.

I don't really have a lot that I can say to people to assure them. Hey, you're this is a good seminary or you should go here because from 2014 to 2017 before MLK 50 before David Platt's infamous speech on racial disparities at t4g.

I Was writing blogs about what I was seeing out there public blogs and I put links to these. You can go to the info section on this video. I'll try to see if I'll try to remember to put in there, but they're definitely posted on my social media pages and In 2014 I was noticing that young evangelicals were against becoming more and more against the American dream.

I defended the American dream I defined it. So you have to go look at the article, but I I noticed something was wrong. 2015 I wrote an article defending our border from an unvetted refugees in response to specifically evangelical opposition.

In 2017 I wrote two articles defending our history from specifically Evangelicals of virtue signaling anti-racism talking points and correspondence with BLM. In 2017 I defended political conservatism against specifically evangelical support for Democrat narratives and Also defended in an article the true gospel against a Marxist derived racial reconciliation gospel pushed specifically by evangelicals and These are all things I was the only reason some people have wondered like how did you see that or know?

And I'm like I had the benefit of being in seminary. So I saw where the sausage was made, but I think more than that. My parents gave me a pretty strong biblical framework and when I went to secular university I had to Apply that it was a grid I Had to be discerning.

I was prepared there were I knew the ideas I was gonna get we're gonna be in opposition and I had to look for him and make sure that I didn't Imbibe them and I'm you know, it's very possible and I'm actually it's very probable that I did imbibe some of them Just because it's very hard With the amount of error that we are being fed To shine the light of truth, but I know where the truth is.

I know how to work through it. I have the tools and if I'm corrected which happens I get things wrong sometimes and people correct me and when they go back to the Word of God and they Use as Martin Luther said reason in Scripture.

Then I know I know what to do. I know the process I know how to find truth and that's the important thing is being able to know how to find truth. So when you encounter these different obstacles to truth Something goes off in your head and you think wait a minute.

That's not right. That's not what the Bible says. That's not that's not even what makes common sense. So learning how to think and Specifically how to think and reason your way through Scripture. I think it's going to be a vital importance.

And of course, it's necessary, especially if you're raising children and and leading a family you you have got to know The Bible and so these aren't things that are really Revolutionary. You know the things that make sense for everyday life whether there's emergencies or wars or rumors of wars or not make sense in the.

They make sense in the normal course of life, it makes sense in the in the times of emergency. They they always make sense. And so it's a matter of just being prepared and I think also If I could add something to it.

And this is probably one of the ones that I'm not as good at but I need to get better at it's also Prioritizing what's important. Over the last week there have been some social media scuff scuffling and just some arguments that I I'm not on Twitter anymore.

Thank goodness. But some people. And some of you very well-meaning and I understand I totally understand want me to get involved with. Some questions that you know, maybe at some point I will but what I've I've learned.

That I don't need to necessarily react to everything that happens online and. And this is for all of us. I think our minds don't need to be held captive to that. We're not. Our minds shouldn't be held captive to Twitter algorithms.

And now I know I sound a little bit like Russell Moore. Don't I because he attributes social media algorithms to all the division among us and I don't think that's the case. I think there's fundamental diametrically opposed differences we have and they're playing out on social media and It's yeah, certain people are profiting from rage and everything, but that's nothing new.

It's just taking it's just in a different format a different platform but I think We as Christians do need to guard our minds. We do need to take our thoughts captive to Jesus Christ and That means in part We can't be obsessed with social media.

Here's a few things that I have asked myself that have helped me determine whether or not I'm too focused on. What's happening in the news cycle which changes now every hour? When I get up in the morning, do I check social media first or do I pray first?

When I go to bed at night, is that the last thing I do or I have is my phone somewhere else or at least turned off or if it's turned on it's not accessible. I'm not using it. That's hard. That's a hard one for a lot of us, isn't it?

We we're used to it now so much. If something is said about me online. Sometimes you got to respond. I'm not saying you don't but is the gut reaction that you must. You this is of the highest priority.

Drop whatever you're doing and focus only on that. To the detriment of other responsibilities you might have. Well, that's a bit of a general question, but Apply it to your own life in your own situation.

What does God want you to do? You know if you haven't if you're a husband and you haven't really Discipled your wife yet that day or You're not regularly in the word with her. Should you be spending that energy in that time on social media arguing with?

People who probably aren't really putting a lot of time into their own families. These are all just questions that I think. Wow, that's beautiful. Look at this man speaking of priorities. This is part of what's making me think of it.

I'm looking out and I'm thinking my goodness. God is so beautiful and awesome and just absolutely beautiful here and Wouldn't I rather be walking here looking at this praising the Lord then. Then online.

Fighting battles right now and there's times to fight battles. It definitely is. Absolutely. Obviously You're hearing this for me, and I believe that that's a big part of my platform is trying to hedge against these errors, but you've got to remember the main thing and so I'm saying this to myself because I don't always keep that balance where it should be and I'm getting better, but I Want to be more about God's reputation than my own or even necessarily.

You know that my political allies in this country. I want to. I'm on team Jesus, right and God is doing a work in this world and guess what? It makes more of a difference. When you spend time praying about a problem.

Then it does I Believe put it putting it in God's hands giving it to him. Then it does putting our own efforts into it. That doesn't mean we don't put our own efforts into things. We definitely do that's the means God uses most often but.

But we need to to give it to him and to trust in him and to have faith in him and not to put our trust in chariots and horses and I I definitely see some tendencies out there to sometimes alliance with people.

Maybe we necessarily shouldn't or to in tighter ways than maybe we necessarily should I think there's a place for club cobelligerency but to Put our trust in horses and chariots into political solutions ultimately and to Function as if those are the only solutions and.

And they're not and God whatever's coming whatever you're worried about that could happen geopolitically. The Lord is in control still. We just we have to remember that He was in control in Soviet Russia and Communist China even when horrible things happen that I I will fight as hard as I can to make sure they don't happen in this country but despite all my best efforts.

And despite all your best efforts Sometimes bad things are gonna happen, aren't they? And that's where our true faith is gonna be challenged. I was talking to someone the other day about Just living a dystopian life and Seeing the dysfunction and the evil and how do you do this?

And of course we have we have Daniel in Scripture. We have a model To look at to see how you do that. How do you is there a way to try to? Even rise in the ranks and become a good influence when everything around you is evil.

I mean Daniel is head of the Magi. I mean my goodness, that's Now I'm in charge of all these false priests great so. But he he had authority and he didn't compromise. He wasn't doing a political calculation in his head every five seconds and that's really what I'm trying to Discourage you and myself from doing is let's not think the political.

Let's not not everything's political and We got to turn it off sometimes and if you can't handle it, then sometimes it is wise to focus on the things that you actually have influence and responsibility toward and Some of us might think we're doing a lot on social media some of us are but sometimes that impact is minimal compared to the impact you can have on those you tangibly know around you and Most especially the your family and your church the responsibilities God's given you so anyway I was talking to this person and I Was just I said, you know, there may be a responsibility or a time.

There may be a Scenario that you can't avoid in which you're thrown in prison. I mean, how does that sound and I don't want that. I want to be out here. I want to be free out here. Look at this but there may be a time when you can't avoid it and That scenario is what God wants is that if that's true.

If God if it's God's will for you to go to prison. To be on the losing end of a political battle to be punished for it. Is that something that you can deal with can live with? That's a question. We got to ask ourselves.

If we have faith in the Lord, none of us want that. But if we have faith in the Lord, we know that that's his will and that's an inevitable scenario. Just because we're living in this world and America's going the way it's going and I live in America.

And you know if you can avoid it good but When if you take into account all the responsibilities you have and you realize man, I need to be here and that means risking myself. Saying things that could get me in trouble get me canceled or worse.

Can you live with a good gracious God? Allowing that and then using you through that. That is a hard question. It's one that I wrestle with. Because again, we want to avoid pain we want to avoid and that's a God-given thing we should try but when our duties our calling and when we know that the sovereign hand of the Lord is in it and There's no escaping it and it's either our convictions or punishment.

We need to choose punishment we need to. We need to do the right thing despite the Circumstances that the negative circumstances that might arise from doing the right thing knowing in the end. That as beautiful as it is in this world, and I'm at one of the points in which it's the most beautiful.

There's a place far more beautiful than this and there's a communion that we can have with God. But he promised never to leave her nor forsake us. So there's a there's a communion we can have with God even in the darkest of places there's the light of Christ still shines and.

Eternal Perspective, Beauty, and Living for What Endures

And so when I come to a place like this, I'm just reminded about How good God is? How amazing his creative ability is and if this is good man, it must be really good after after death. Or when we see Jesus come.

And I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to that day and Putting our minds on eternal things is I think how we live in the temporal realm. People who don't put their minds on eternal things and try to live in the temporal realm are gonna wind up Hyper-politicized or if it's not political, it's something else.

It's there they're focused on something of this of this tangible existence that doesn't give them meaning or purpose. Doesn't answer the big questions. But you become stressed you become anxious you become you pursue things that are in vain.

I was just yesterday in Hollywood. My wife had never seen That section and since I was I was born in California. I come out all the time. I've been to Grauman's Chinese Theater and That whole area in West Hollywood before it's not a place I make a habit of going but she thought I just want to see it so we went down there and I thought wow, look at all the glitter and just all these you walk all these stars on the sidewalk now with homeless people and litter and just.

Not like it was when I remember but they had these stars for mostly dead people. People that couldn't take it with them. People that enjoyed perhaps the height of success. Maybe even people that have a good legacy right now, but guess what?

Probably a good third of the people the stars on the sidewalks at least or more. I don't even recognize their names some of them were popular in the 1920s 20s 30s 40s long before I was born and they aren't remembered except because they have a little plaque somewhere and That's what the Bible says does the Bible says that the earth is fading.

Its lusts are fading. The one who does the will of the Lord will endure forever so if you live for that if you consider yourself to be a failure if people aren't remembering you or if Your political objective isn't doesn't win or if you know You aren't you don't reach some level of success in this life that you think you should reach if you live for those things you're going to be discouraged, but if you live for eternal things and you keep perspective and you Put the responsibilities God has for you at the fore.

You're not going to be hopeless and discouraged. You're gonna accept the circumstances that arise and you're gonna rise to meet those challenges to the best of the ability that you have and Whatever ability you don't have you're gonna leave to the Lord.

And that's the only way there is to live. So I hope you enjoyed this little talk by the beach. Don't expect too many more of them. I'm looking forward to getting back to my desk and doing some podcasts, but But for now, I'm good with this I we can we can put that off a little while.

God bless.