Fred Rerun Butler Interview

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Fred discusses the ministry of Grace to You and then launches into a conversation about perpetual reruns.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle
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Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
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My name is Mike Abendroth, and I have some very, very, very good news today.
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Do you like my modifiers? It's one after another, after another. And here's the good news today.
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While I was tempted, very tempted, to have a rerun today,
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I thought I would rerun my interview with Fred Butler. Fred, welcome -
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Yes, we rerun our interview. Welcome to No Compromise Radio. This isn't a rerun, but you're back. This is my second time
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I've had you on. I must like you somehow. I know what has gotten into you, that you like me like this.
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Fred - I don't think I've even been on Bible Thumping that twice yet, and here I am again. Mike -
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Well, I know the large cheese platter that you sent. I think that helped grease the skids.
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And you like that sausage, too, that I added to that. I did, I did. Fred - That's that special lion meat sausage.
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Mike - Oh, yes, I liked the lion meat when I was a kid. We called summer sausage
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Tarzan meat, and so that's a way to get a child to eat summer sausage and a variety of those cheap sausages.
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Fred - My mother never had a call on anything. I just liked sausage, so I was happy to get the sausage.
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We're talking to Fred Butler today. Fred, tell us a little bit about what you do. Grace to you, so our listeners who missed the first interview can understand who you are and the ministry the
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Lord's given you. Fred - Yes, well, I have the wonderful privilege of overseeing our volunteer ministry here at Grace U, and we have about 150 so volunteers.
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Most of them are senior saints. They have retired, and they want to spend their time serving the
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Lord in some fashion, and they come out, and they help put together the monthly offers we offer through Grace to You.
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So you get a little letter in the mail that says, hey, do you want a free book from John MacArthur?
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We'd love to send this to you, and they, people respond to that. It comes back to us.
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We process it, and I print out the labels and organize the mailing, and these dear saints come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, package up the materials, match all the letters and all the names, and send it out the door for our donors, and I get to oversee them, get to know them, get to talk to them.
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They are an absolute blessing to serve, and they get to serve me as well. They let me preach at them every once in a while, too, which
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I'm grateful for, and yeah, it's great. It's a good time. Fred, now if memory serves me, in the old days, it used to be 1 -800 -55 -GRACE.
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If people want to call and get put on that mailing list, receive MacArthur's CDs and books.
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Yeah, that's the same exact number. That's exactly, your memory is very good. I'm glad to hear that.
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Fred, tell us a little bit about this ministry. You've got MacArthur and, let's say, the new book,
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Parables. I don't know what it is, probably $18, $19 list, and if you ask for the book, it's sent for free.
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How does that all work? I know John is very generous and gracious and wants to get the Bible and books about the
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Bible in people's hands, but how can you send out so many books and stay afloat? Yeah, that's a good question.
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I'm kind of wondering that ourself. No, the, you know, I think years ago, grace to you, at one time, back in the late 80s, early 90s, this is way before my time, way before, they were in some kind of financial bind and they were in some significant debt, and John is just sort of like, look, we're totally doing this wrong.
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We shouldn't be, we shouldn't be trying to get money from people, from our resources. Look, God's given us this ministry.
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Let's send this stuff out for free. If God blesses it, He'll bless it, and we'll be able to stay afloat.
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And we went with that model, and we've been with it ever since. I think they changed that probably right, right before I came on board as a part -time, you know, wet -behind -the -ear slub seminary student when
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I was just here working here part -time, and they've been that way ever since. And John's like, look,
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God's given us this blessing. I wanna teach God's word. We wanna get it out to people. So we're just trusting the
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Lord to just help us out, and God's raised up faithful folks over the years who support us.
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They obviously gel with our ministry here because they appreciate what John does and the stands he takes and the things that he does, and, you know, so they're willing to support that.
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There's not a whole lot of ministries out there who really wanna take a stand in our society against some hard issues, and even in Christian circles, in red -state evangelicalism, there are issues that John has addressed that's gotten him into a lot of hot water.
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I'm sure you're familiar with some of that stuff, and he takes the hits. And, you know, and I think the people who really are hungry for truth and wanna know the word, they appreciate that, and they're gonna recognize that.
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They're gonna support it. So God's been very faithful to provide for us, and, you know,
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John would give everything away here at our ministry if he could. You know, obviously, he had to pay bills, and I'd like to feed my babies, that sort of thing, but, you know, that's his heart, and I think
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God honors that. That's our heart. We all wanna serve in that capacity. I'm glad that we're in a place with our ministry that, you know, people who can't afford a book, you know, hey, just ask for it.
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We'll be happy to send you a copy of it, and we always want to maintain that mindset and that, you know, that reason for why we do what we do.
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You know what I mean? Well, my problem is when they ask for an autographed copy, you're the guy that signs John's name.
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Now, is that really true? No, I have a stamp. So what it is is a little inkling.
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It's a special kind of ink that they use. I've got John MacArthur's signature on it. I just put that in there.
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Some India ink or something. And if you would lick your finger, like I know you would probably do, and you would touch it to make sure that it's really on there, it would smear.
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So you would think, oh, well, John signed it. See how that works? I do. Now, in all seriousness, you're at Grace To You probably even now.
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When John's around Grace To You and swings by and talks to some of those dear senior saints, tell us how
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John treats them. And, you know, we're used to listening to John or reading his books and Gospel According to Jesus, Ashamed of the
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Gospel, Reckless Faith, Strange Fire. You think he's some kind of polemical guy only.
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But give us the back side of, the backdrop of this, the other side of John.
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John's a very gracious, sweet guy. And I think you're right. I think most people see him as this harsh, you know, very cold, analytical preacher who goes after charismatics or whatever it is.
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But he's not like that. He's a very generous fellow and loves the Lord and loves the people he serves.
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And when he comes into Grace To You, if he just so happens to be a volunteer day and there's people in my room, you know, where they congregate, he'll stop in and say, hi.
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And now many of them know him. They've babysat his kids. There have been volunteers are now home with the
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Lord that knew him and called him Johnny to his face. I mean, you don't call
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John Johnny to his face, but there were a few that would do that. And, you know, he loves them and knows them.
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I think there was even one gal who might've even babysat him when he was a kid. I mean, you know, it's that kind of connectedness.
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But you know, that spills out in the other areas of his life. And I think when you were here probably a long time ago now, you remember hearing some of them stories too.
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I think there's like one famous story about him. Mark, his youngest son was playing football or something.
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This is one of these apocryphal stories I hear here at Grace Church. He got injured at a football game.
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And it was like the last game of the season. I think he had finally talked his mother into coming and seeing him play.
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And of course he gets his leg broken, you know. So he was at the emergency room and everybody's there kind of crowded around in the emergency room.
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And so while they're waiting for all of the, you know, x -rays and everything to kind of come in and what's the prognosis, what's going to happen.
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There were some biker guys that come in and their buddy had been injured in a car accident or something on the freeway there in LA.
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And John, like he's prone to do, he just kind of wanders over there and starts talking to him a little bit.
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And, you know, they're all, you know, emotional about their friend getting, you know, wiped out on his motorcycle and everything.
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Not sure if he's going to live, you know, all of that sort of stuff. And so John's like, well, you know, you guys are from out of town.
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You're not from around here. If you want to, we're not going to be at our house. Here's the keys to my house.
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Go and help yourself to anything in your refrigerators, a bath, there's a bedroom with a bathroom in the back, you know, make yourselves at home.
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And, you know, and the only thing is, is I want you to come tomorrow and hear me preach at church. You know, we're going to be here for a while.
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So don't worry about, you know, imposing on us. And, you know, how many pastors do you know that are like that?
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You're going to, there's these sons of anarchy guys, you know, that come in with these tattoos and these biker guys.
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He's going to open up his house to them and, you know, give them some ministry there. And, you know, did that, you know, they came the next day from what
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I understand. Now, did any of them get saved from that? I don't know. But, you know, it's that kind of example that you like and appreciate from John and you hear from him and just see that played out in his ministry.
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He's not this, you know, they only have, I think most people have kind of this one view of him and he's this certain kind of, you know, stoic guy, but he's not like that.
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You know, he's very genuine, loving, generous guy. And I've really appreciated learning from that over the years.
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Talking to Fred Butler today on No Compromise Radio, a friend of the ministry and a personal friend as well.
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Fred, I have in front of me research points to mental health risks associated with meatless diet by Ray Boyd.
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Now, one of the things I know about you is you, you know, you love some steak tartare.
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Sausage. Yeah, say sausage, I know. Now talk to us in light of, even when I think of Colossians chapter two, there are people that want to submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to the things that all perish as they are used according to the human precepts and teachings.
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These have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, severity, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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When you think about meat and vegetarians and maybe Christians trying to be more spiritual by not eating meat, what goes through your mind?
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Well, I just sort of shake my head and I'm like, well, that's too bad that you think that, but I'm going to enjoy this nice prime rib that I put up in the oven.
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Now, you know, there is this movement that is sort of has seeped into the evangelical church.
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And it's funny that we're talking right now during the Christmas season. I know this episode probably won't air until April next year.
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So - Oh, you are really funny. You're so fired. You're fired. Well, right now you usually hear all of these articles that come from sadly from evangelicals where they're like going after people for eating too much or eating rich foods or whatever, anything like that.
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And like, look, am I a little chubby? Yes. Do I tell people that you need to eat poorly?
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Well, no, of course not. But there is no, what really bothers me,
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I can get animated about this and I'll probably start rambling all over the place, but it just really is a bothersome that people try to assign some kind of spiritual value to health and eating healthy.
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And it's really sort of comes from this progressiveness, progressivism has kind of invaded the church during the 20th century, where if you're not at the optimal of health, well, then somehow you're not spiritual.
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And that's not to say that we're irresponsible, we eat bad stuff and we smoke all the time and drink, and you got this liberty that you can abuse.
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But at the same time, you cannot impose upon people this notion that there's some kind of really, you're really somehow closer to God because you're willing to eat vegan or you're not gonna eat certain kinds of food or you're not gonna eat pork.
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I remember a long time ago, I had a dear friend who got all into this health,
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Christian health stuff. And he was like, into this thing about, it was called a colonic or something, and these clinger cells.
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A colonic is like an invigorating enema or something like that. That's what we think they were. But I was just like, why do you feel like you need to do that?
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That kind of scares me a little bit, that you think that somehow your body has gotta be so spiritual that you've got to subject yourself to this.
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And I think it lasted for like maybe six months with him because this diet had him eating all kinds of horrible concoctions that looked like really gray sludge.
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I mean, it's the only way you can kind of describe it. It's all mixed together in a blender. And it's like, look,
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God's given us these wonderful things to eat, given us animals to eat. Eat them and enjoy them in moderation like the
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Bible tells you to do. And if you wanna put a little garlic sauce on it and eat it with baked potatoes with some pepper on it, well, then go for it.
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I just don't understand why people have to attach some kind of spiritual value to that.
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I always call that, it's basically the food Pharisees.
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And they always come out at Christmas and they get on to you about what you're eating. Don't you eat that fattening rib because it's gonna be bad for you.
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Okay, well, whatever. I'm gonna eat the fattening rib because I happen to like the fattening rib and I just don't wanna drink wheat juice for Christmas.
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You know what I mean? I don't like it. Wheat germ oil juice. Fred, the other time of the year that the food
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Pharisees come out, that would be during Lent. Especially now, you notice a lot of Gospel Coalition articles written about that.
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Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of weird. Somehow all these Catholic things somehow add to our spiritual journey, our faith journey.
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You just used a word that you are not allowed to use on No Compromise Radio. Faith journey.
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You know, I think, Fred, I think this is occurring these days because in my opinion, it's easier than mortification of your flesh or denying yourself.
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Let's say to yourself, let's say you ponder, okay, how can I love the Lord today?
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Well, I can either sacrifice some things for my wife and try to serve her, or I just watch what
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I eat. I mean, I know which one's easier and which one's harder. Right. Yeah.
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Usually for most people, they'll say it's harder for me to sacrifice some things for my wife because we're very selfish like that.
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But yeah, I know what you mean. I would say, if you're gonna be like that,
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I would be a lot more like, hey, why don't you, instead of spending your time sitting down at Twitter, and if my wife hears this, she's gonna hold me to this.
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But from the internet or from gaming or whatever you might do as a hobby, and hey, honey, let's go for a walk outside or hey,
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I'll help you in the garden, digging these roots up that you wanted to get rid of or whatever it might be, and spending some quality time or even more so with your kids.
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You know, honey, I will watch all five of our children by myself and you can go with your girlfriends and enjoy your tea day down at that little tea place and talk and talk about homeschooling or whatever you wanna talk about.
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There you have some genuine sacrifice. Now, Fred, in all the years we've known each other, why haven't you invited me for tea time at that little tea place?
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Well, because you're always up in Santa Cruz. If you were, we would do that. Oh, good. We would,
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I would be all over that. That would be kind of fun. We'll have to try that. Yeah, no hats or anything. I don't wanna do that.
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And you have to wear something frilly, I'm sure. Well, you know how I like maybe tie -dye or something like that.
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Fred, I was listening to someone a while ago and they said, along these food lines, while the palate of Americans has become very, very regulated, thought about, controlled, planned, calculated, at the exact same time that has been happening, their sexual palate now has no boundaries.
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So you watch what you eat, but you don't care who you sleep with. How do you explain that? Yeah, well, that just shows you the brokenness of the way people think and their psychology to where, well,
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I mean, both of those things definitely have to do with your personal pleasure, our own selfish desires and what we pursue.
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I mean, I would imagine a person who's gonna have, and I think it's
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Dan Phillips who coined the term this gland dollar just like the way he said that.
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You're gonna worship of your glands, as it were. You're gonna pursue sex. You're also gonna pursue thinking that somehow you're sophisticated because you've got to pursue this, you know, pursuit of wonderful food.
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And, you know, it's all kind of external in some fashions and it panders to our flesh.
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And, you know, I hear what you're saying. It's like one of them is more, you go to the food, you wanna do, you're gonna eat good stuff, drink the best coffee.
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But then when you, you know, with the other one, it's with whoever you happen to come across and is willing to, you know, mess around with you.
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It's definitely a messed up way of thinking. What really kind of bugs me about that is how we have this society now that really is prudish when it comes to any kind of talk of, you know, sexual things and everything is like somehow they have this feminist mindset and you're degrading women or whatever.
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But then at the same time, they're teaching us in school, like you need to introduce kids to this so that they won't, you know, have any sexual hangups or whatever it might be, or they won't get pregnant.
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The more education, the better is kind of the mindset. But they're just creating another generation of people who really are gonna be degrading women and abusing their bodies because that's what you're teaching them in school.
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You know what I mean? So true, Fred, we don't have tons of time left. Tell our listeners about your blog.
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When I type in my URL line, H, first, usually Hulu comes up and then
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Huffington Post. But if I type in H -I -P, then
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Hip and Thigh comes up. What's, what's the actual - Joint pain medication.
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Yeah, see? By Jake. Uh -huh, yeah, Geritol and stuff. Is it hipandthighatwordpress .com
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or something? Yes. I started that a long time ago, back in 2005 for the purposes of just sort of having a theological outlet.
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Everybody was going to Blogger at the time. It used to be a blogger, Blogspot. In fact, the old version is at Blogspot.
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And you can go look at it and see how crude it looked. But, you know,
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I wanted to just address things and be funny and put goofy videos online and things of that nature.
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There were issues that I wanted to write about and address like eschatology and the King James Only stuff and the age of the earth and creationism and other various, you know, things that come along and homosexual stuff and revisionism with that.
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And, you know, I started doing it on my free time at work and at home.
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And then kids got in the way. And now it has dwindled and has started to suffer a little bit, because I've not put a whole lot of new and original content up.
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I've come back. You know, honestly, I don't have a whole lot of hits. It's a very obscure blog on the worldwide web.
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We're way off the dirt road, you know, down the main super highway there. In Arkansas somewhere.
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And, you know, but the people who come there, and I get notes every other week or so.
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You know, because I have my face, my Gmail account, my five pointer at Gmail if people want to shoot me an email.
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And they'll say, hey, look, I was struggling with this issue in our church. And you happened to write a blog about this.
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And it really kind of helped me rethink the way I'm thinking about whatever issue it is. And when
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I read that, even though it's one guy, somewhere in Ohio, well, then
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I'm, that just warms my heart. I mean, well, you know, God's using this in some fashion. I started, you know,
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I did all kinds of different subjects. You'd be surprised. I think I had a friend of my mother say, hey, have you ever read this book,
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The Harbinger? And I'm like, well, no, I have really no interest in reading the book, The Harbinger. And so she had questions about it that I couldn't answer.
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So I went and checked it out of the library, read it, wrote a couple of reviews. And I've had a lot of people who've come around and like, hey,
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I saw that you reviewed that. That was really good. I needed a review like that because I've never read this book and I've just heard about it.
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And people want to do this Bible study at church. And now I don't want to do the Bible study at church. So that makes me feel good that I'm having some kind of meaningful impact there.
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You know, even though it might be small, you know, at least I have the opportunity to get some of my wit and my wisdom out for public consumption, you know what
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I mean? I'll be the judge of that. Yeah, there you go. And hopefully, and thankfully you've got like, you know, very sophisticated taste, so you like that kind of stuff and I appreciate it.
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Well, in all honesty, I like your humor and I like your wit and especially your likable when you retweet something
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I do. Well, your stuff is, you just throw these softballs and I'm like, oh,
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I've got to make a comment. I was making comments with the Charisma News online and then they blocked me because I would retweet their tweets, you know, when they were talking about how there were going to be, you know, portals to hell opening up in Switzerland because of the collider they had going.
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I was like, what, you've got to be kidding me. Well, Fred, time goes by so fast.
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That is 24 and a half minutes and of course reruns, it seemed like they go faster. So thank you for being on No Compromise Radio today.
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Fred Butler, he resides out in Western Arkansas that is probably Santa Clarita area and hip and thigh, you can type in.
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You can also, if you want to call for books, John MacArthur books, 1 -800 -55 -GRACE and who knows,
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Fred might answer. Alrighty. Thanks, Fred. All right, see you later. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.