March 3, 2023 Show with Jake Peacock on “A One-Armed Martial Artist’s Testimony”

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this third day of March, 2023.

I am thrilled to have as a first -time guest today the son of someone that I recently interviewed.

Some of you may know that not long ago, I interviewed Gavin Peacock, who is a former

UK footballer, otherwise known in the United States as a soccer player, professional soccer player.

And Gavin Peacock is currently pastoring in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

And he began to mention his son during that interview, his son

Jake, who overcame the challenges of having one arm and, in spite of that very serious challenge, became a martial arts champion.

And when I heard Gavin describe this, I immediately said to Gavin on the air, we've got to get your son on this program.

And he was just as excited over that prospect as I was.

And when I contacted Jake, he was equally as excited and graciously accepted my invitation.

So I'm thrilled to have on the program Jake Peacock, who is a martial arts champion, owner of Dunamis Martial Arts in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Jake Peacock.

Thanks a lot for having me on, Chris, I'm looking forward to it. And did I pronounce your martial arts school correctly?

Is it Dunamis or Dunamis, or how do you pronounce that? I say Dunamis, but I think the proper pronunciation is actually

Dunamis. Okay. And what does that mean, actually? The Greek words used in the

Bible to describe God's power. So words like strength, power, and ability would be used to describe that.

Praise God. I'm glad that you affiliated something as important as that with the name of your school.

Well, before we go into your own background and your testimony, tell us about this school. What is the specific kind of martial arts you teach there?

Or maybe there are multiple kinds. And tell us about the other details. Yeah, we have a few different kinds of martial arts we teach there.

We teach Muay Thai and boxing. So the striking aspects of...

We run kids programs, adult programs. We have every kind of person come through those doors and has decided to open up this gym as a place to build a community and to also teach a skill set that I think is very much day and age and a great skill set to have anyway.

Keep you active. And perhaps this is just a guess, but maybe if you move back a little bit further away from your screen, because for some reason you're breaking up sometimes.

I have no idea why. Usually that doesn't happen with Microsoft Teams. But perhaps that will be helpful.

Well, if anybody either lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, or you're passing through and you need to go to a gym, contact

Dunamis Martial Arts. That's D -U -N -A -M -I -S

Martial Arts dot com. Dunamis Martial Arts dot com.

And one person that should be familiar to many of our listeners who actually trained with Jake at that gym was the world -renowned

Vody Baucom. And in fact, on my Facebook publicity for this interview,

I posted a photograph of Vody and Jake training together. That must have been quite an honor for you,

Jake. That was a great time. Yeah, Vody hits like a truck as well. I took a beating that day.

Well, I have a feeling he thought it was a great honor for him to be at your gym.

And if he ever shows up again, make sure you urge him to return as a guest on Iron Trup and Zion Radio.

It's been very difficult to get Vody back on the program due to his very hectic schedule.

So we're always looking for opportunities to have him back on the broadcast. He's one of the most important evangelists and authors in the 21st century as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to give right away our e -mail address to our listeners if they have any questions, whether they be on Jake's specific testimony, whether they be on a

Christian response to martial arts in general, or whatever you may want to ask, a question that may be provoked by something that we say during this interview.

Our e -mail address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. If you live outside of the

USA, only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Well, Jake, let's start our story with your childhood, the household in which you were raised.

I know your dad is a Christian, but I'm not sure, I can't remember from the time that I interviewed him, when he actually came to Christ in relevance to the time you came into this world as a child.

So tell us the kind of atmosphere in which you were raised and so on. Yeah, for sure. My dad came to Christ at 18 years old, so before I was born, and I grew up in a very loving home.

Both my parents were Christians, and I was raised with a lot of love and I had a great childhood, me and my sister.

And I went to church and I knew about God and would hear

God talked about in the house and at church, but I never really took that faith as my own until I was a little older.

I was in Christ, maybe close to 19, and I went to a

Christian university. I graduated high school, went to a Christian university and met obviously a lot of Christians at that time and began to be influenced by them, reading my

Bible, more time in prayer. And it came to a place in my life where I realized my need for a

Savior. I realized that I'm trying to hold on to certain reins in my life and still trying to be my own

God to some extent. And I needed to give that all up and give full control to God.

And when I did that, it was absolutely freeing for me. And ever since I've been walking with Christ, ups and downs along the way, but I'm still a strong Christian and that's shaped my life thus far.

Praise God. And can you tell us about some of the anchors, the negative anchors,

Satan's anchors, that were at one point in your youth preventing you from realizing that you needed to repent and to fall to your knees, cry out to Christ for grace and mercy and forgiveness and salvation?

What were those things in this life that perhaps you were unwilling to give up or that were troubling you about the faith, things perhaps you didn't believe, etc.?

Sure, yeah. I think obviously the root of it was my pride. And I really struggled with my identity.

And this brings me into, you know, martial arts. At the time I was competing as an amateur athlete and I got a lot of praise for that.

And, you know, I got interviews and people knew I was this martial artist.

And so I took my identity from myself as a martial artist and how people viewed me as winning and as being this kid with one hand that was doing really well in a combat sport.

So I struggled with my identity and finding that in anything but God. And when

I realized this, and it was by the grace of God I did realize this, I realized that I needed to repent.

I needed to take a break from martial arts as a whole. So I actually stepped away from this for a couple of years.

And when I came back to the sport, I had a right relationship with God. I repented of my sin and finding my identity outside of God.

And, I mean, I would say that I'm a better martial artist now than I ever was because I find my true joy and happiness and contentment in Christ.

Amen. And I have a suggestion for you. Perhaps turn your camera off since we only need audio.

I turned mine off because that may be the cause that you occasionally break up. And I want our listeners to hear every single word from your mouth.

Let's even go back further in your life and tell us how it came to be that you had one arm.

Yeah, sure. I think an amniotic band got wrapped around my arm and it just stopped it from growing.

My parents didn't even know because back then they only had one ultrasound and I was lying on my side of the ultrasound.

So they couldn't tell that this had happened. So it was quite a shock to my parents and the rest of my family and the nurses and doctors.

I've never known any different. I think that's been a big help to me. I think it's a lot different.

Someone that's born with all their limbs and then loses one later on in life, that can be really challenging.

But I never found anything I couldn't do and always found a way to do something that I needed to do.

Now, people react differently when they are faced with serious, severe, enormous obstacles.

Sometimes, I'm sure, especially when it comes to someone having a disability as serious as missing a limb, they are not going to be overly enthusiastic about being involved in any activity where they may embarrass themselves, they may shy away from sports in particular or any other kind of activity.

In fact, there are many people who, out of the fear of humiliating themselves, they wouldn't be involved in an athletic event or competition of any kind, even if their hesitancy doesn't involve anything as serious as you faced.

It may be that they are just not very coordinated because they haven't really trained themselves, even by playing sports when they were kids, and they just shy away from that whole arena of things because they would rather play it safe and just watch the events than participate in them and get embarrassed.

But what was your approach to this? I remember there was a point when

I was interviewing your dad, Gavin, since he was a professional soccer player, that he tried to get you involved in that for a while, but that failed and somehow you wound up moving on to the martial arts.

Tell us about that. I was always into sports throughout my childhood. I played various different sports.

So you were never intimidated by this enormous disability that you had? Yeah, do you know what?

I think I have been blessed with a go -getter mentality.

I've always attacked things I never shied away from anything, and I think that's just a blessing from God.

I do struggle with missing a limb or some sort of handicap, and they don't want to put themselves in a sports setting.

I never had that issue. I played lots of different sports, and my mum decided to put me in martial arts one day at seven years old.

I just took it from there, really. I loved the sport and just really had a great time doing it and just progressed from there.

Praise God, and there have been others, even in professional sports, baseball and football, who did achieve a relative amount of success, even competing with one limb missing.

So it is interesting that you boldly took upon yourself the challenge of not only enjoying being involved in sports, but excelling in them in spite of this missing limb.

As far as participating and joining the martial arts realm, was this something that your dad,

Gavin, was at all familiar with? How did you become familiar with it, other than perhaps movies or some other way?

Tell us about your whole attitude towards that, because there are different attitudes, as you probably are aware, amongst

Christians when it comes to something like martial arts, when it comes to even boxing, when it comes to kickboxing, and things that are clearly defined as contact sports, where the goal in some way is, at times, not in all contact sports, but at times there is a clear intention that you're going to in some way harm another person.

You're not intentionally trying to do them serious harm or permanent harm, but enough harm in the event itself, during the event, where you would have a clear advantage and win.

But tell us about that whole realm of your attraction to martial arts and how you got involved in it.

Yeah, for sure. When I was young, obviously I'm watching Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so there's a lot of martial arts in that, and I was always attracted to that.

My dad used to watch boxing from time to time, so that's all that they had experience with.

My mum and dad decided to put martial arts as a touch contact sport at the time, and that was my first real experience with any martial art.

I have had discussions with people in the past, Christians and non -Christians, about what

I think about contact sports, what I think about combat sports in particular, when the objective is to fight somebody else and to come out on top.

I always tell people that as long as I'm competing within the rules of the sport and I'm giving glory to God by doing that, that I mean my opponent no harm, we're going to compete to our fullest and our hardest against each other, and on the night, may the best man win.

But again, there's no anger involved. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Martial arts teach self -discipline, they teach you to be in control of your emotions, so there should be no over -aggressive behavior or anger in your heart when you are competing against somebody.

So I think if you're competing like that in any combat sport, I don't have any conviction on the contrary to that.

Well, it's interesting. There are even some Christians, it's probably a small minority, as actually being a

Bible -believing evangelical Christian, you would likely be a small minority in whatever endeavor you participate in, in the secular realm, as a career or as a hobby.

But there are even Christians involved in the mixed martial arts.

There seems to be an obvious intention and purpose during those events to, as I said before, not to permanently injure somebody, but you're trying to hurt them in some level, incapacitate them and so on.

And what is your view of that and how similar is the martial arts in which you are participating to that?

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, the sport I'm in, Muay Thai, you fight a five -round fight and you either win by unanimous decision, so racking up points by scoring techniques on your opponent, or you can win by knockdown or knockout.

So the fact of the sport is, yeah, there is a high degree of contact. But again,

I never have in my mind that I'm going out there to hurt my opponent.

We both agree to the rules of the sport, we both agree to... And we're going to both do our best and respect each other and just pray and hope that no one gets severely injured, obviously.

And we're going to go to our first break right now. And I have a request from you, brother, if you could log out of Microsoft Teams and then log back in, maybe that will improve the sound quality, because most of the time it's absolutely fine, but there are times when you cut out and I'm so fascinated by your story,

I don't want anybody to miss a single word of it. I can do that right. Great.

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We are now back with Jake Peacock, our guest today, who is a one -armed martial arts champion, owner of Dunamis Martial Arts in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and son of former

U .K. footballer and pastor Gavin Peacock. We are addressing the theme,

A One -Armed Martial Artist Overcomes the Odds Against Him and Excels in His Sport.

Jake, we do have a listener, Cindy in Findlay, Ohio, who says,

My children were all very athletic, so sports were a big deal in my family.

My eldest son excelled at baseball and basketball. His only son, six years old, loves sports and was born blind in one eye.

At this age, he plays basketball, soccer, and has recently begun wrestling.

I imagine that as he gets older, he will be much more limited in his interests. When he was born and this news was presented to my son,

I encouraged him to never look at him as a victim or instill in him that he is deficient.

What advice or encouragement, either practical or spiritual, would you have for my son and grandson?

Yeah, that's an amazing story. And to be competing and playing in those sports, that's amazing.

And I think if the grandson sticks with it,

I think anything would be possible in any sport. And there's a variety of different organizations that specialize in adaptive sports as well.

But that's great to hear. I think surround yourself with a good team. And I'm not sure if your son and grandson are believers.

But if they are, at the end of the day, God can open and close doors.

And your grandson will find opportunities as they come about.

So that's really great to hear. We have CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who wants to know, have you encountered other

Christians in the martial arts field? Yes, I have, mainly in the

States, actually. When I have traveled to the States, I've met a few different believers in my sport, coaches and athletes, fighters themselves.

And that's always an encouragement, and you always have a special bond with those people.

The martial arts community is small, so anybody that you do come across in your sport, you feel pretty close with already, but even more so when they are a

Christian. Well, thank you for the excellent question,

Brother CJ. Keep listening to Iron Trumpet and Zion Radio and spreading the word in Lindenhurst, Long Island and beyond.

We have an anonymous listener who says, I have a friend who is a martial arts instructor who is a

Christian. But one thing that troubles me greatly about his school is that he has on the premises

Asian pagan artwork and statuary, and even incorporates some of the phrases and postures that are inherent to certain

Asian pagan religions. I was wondering what your approach to this is.

Yeah, I've actually had a few people reach out to me over social media with this same question.

They've been Christians themselves, just starting out in the sport, and they've had these concerns.

I think they're good concerns, and if you are having these concerns, I think they're right. Because there are certain martial arts that are rooted in other religions, and there's a lot of Buddhism involved in martial arts.

And some of the spiritual aspects can be quite strong in some gyms.

As far as my gym goes, obviously I'm a Christian, and I'm very convicted about these things.

So we stay well away from those traditional aspects that would be associated with martial arts.

But I think it's very important to recognize what those things might be, and to either distance yourself from them, or eventually you might have to find a different gym that maybe doesn't practice those things.

Now, were any of those things inherent to the martial art that you have excelled in, the specific martial art?

In other words, have you had to remove things that were traditionally a part of that art?

Or was there nothing that was offensive to God or Christianity that was even a part of your specific martial art to begin with?

No, there for sure was. Muay Thai is from Thailand, and Thailand is heavily

Buddhist, so the majority of Thai fighters you would see, it's called sealing the ring.

So they would go around the ring and bow to each corner in an attempt to,

I think it's an attempt to keep out evil spirits as it were. Obviously I take no part in that, and I think it's been quite a testimony to people to see me, when

I get in the ring I don't go to the four corners and bow, I just stand in my corner. And the other fighter may do as he pleases, and that has happened before where my opponent has done his thing around the ring, but I stand there and I don't take part in that.

Has that become something that is fairly well known about you in your industry and in your sport, when people obviously must see that as a difference, they're watching this match, and they see you not participating in the bowing.

So is that like something where it's well known, oh, Jake is a Christian so he doesn't do that kind of thing?

Yeah, I believe so. I believe it has become quite well known that I am a Christian. Obviously I don't hide it, and I try my very best to be outspoken about my faith in Christ, and to use my fighting career as a platform to make

Christ's name known. So people have noticed that, people have messaged me after fights and been encouraged by what they've seen, so I'm thankful that I can be an encouragement in that way.

Christopher in Western Suffolk County, Long Island, New York says, I attended a martial arts match that my friend's daughter was involved in.

She was a preteen, and I was surprised since my friend is a strong Christian, and raises his children very strictly in the faith, and his daughter, who was involved in this match, is a professing

Christian even as a young girl. But nonetheless, I was shocked when she was going about the motions of bowing here and there, because that is what her school participates in.

And the father fluffed it off as being trivial, because he knew that she was not attaching any spiritual significance to those motions.

Do you advise that Christians not allow their children to be involved in such schools and matches where they may be compelled to do these movements?

Right, I can't speak to the exact situation there, because I do know that in some karate -based martial arts, you bow as a sign of respect to your opponent, or to your coach, or to the referee.

And that's not a spiritual thing. That would be like shaking somebody's hand.

So in that instance, if she was bowing in respect to her opponent, showing respect to her opponent or the referee,

I don't think that that's an issue. If there's stuff that goes further, and there's a lot of stuff even in the gym as they're practicing the sport, and even extracurricular stuff that they're being asked to do that seems spiritual,

I think that's when you really have to be careful. But as far as that specific situation,

I couldn't be too sure on that one. But if it were not the form of protocol or even just common politeness, if it was not involving that, where you are bowing to your opponent or your instructor in a way that is not evidencing idolatry, would you encourage a

Christian parent not to let their child be involved, where they may be instructed that they have to be involved in idolatrous postures and motions?

Yeah, if that's the case, then for sure you have to find somewhere else. And there are definitely options out there, right?

Even within the same sport, within the same martial art, you may come across another gym that doesn't do things in that way and doesn't have idolatrous worship or spiritual practices.

So if you can find another gym, another sport that doesn't do that, then great.

If not, then that's just the cost of following Christ, right? Amen. And by the way,

I forgot to ask you, do you know or are you familiar with Jeff Durbin, one of the pastors at Apologia Church in Phoenix, Arizona?

No, but I was in Phoenix last year, so I wish I had known him because I would have swung by. Oh, he is a martial arts champion himself, and he was involved.

I can't remember which aspect, I've got to ask him, which aspect of the mutant ninja turtles or the ninja mutant turtles, whatever order those are in,

I can't remember. But you said that as a little kid, they were an influence on you.

Yes. He was Donatello and Michelangelo, I believe were the two names of the turtles, that he actually was in costume somehow and something that was involving that very famous children's program and movies.

And he was also a choreographer, a martial arts choreographer. That's incredible. And he is a

Reformed Baptist pastor in Phoenix, Arizona now, along with Dr.

James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries and two other pastors. So I've got to get you guys hooked up.

Oh yeah, you've got to connect me so I can say thanks for giving me some inspiration into my career.

Now, as far as the—oh,

I'm getting an email from a listener, the same listener that contacted us before,

Cindy in Finley, Ohio, is saying that Jeff Durbin was also in Mortal Kombat.

Oh, wow. As far as your gym is concerned, how do you, if at all, evangelize those that train there and are students there, if that's the correct term?

Is it something that's more obvious? Is it something where you say, hey, if you'd ever like to visit my church,

I'd like to tell you more about what really motivates me and what is the most meaningful thing in my entire life, that kind of thing?

Or is there some more obvious and overt efforts to evangelize in your school?

Yeah, there's a little bit of everything, really. You know, just in the overall presence in the gym is different.

You can tell there's a difference to our gym than other boxing gyms or kickboxing gyms.

The music we play, there's no swearing, and you know what? Most of the members, they actually catch on and they don't talk as they would outside of the gym.

So that's great to see that it's kind of caught on a little bit. But then we also have a few members from our church that are in the gym as well, and they've joined.

So there's always conversation going around. We're inviting people to our church, and eventually

I'd like to start a Bible study at some point. Life's pretty busy right now for me.

But eventually I would like to start, because there are a few Christians in our gym, I'd like to start a little Bible study that we can invite members to and hold it at the gym.

Just a little casual thing, maybe half hour once a week would be a really unique situation to have.

Amen. And is your gym basically not only specifically to train people in martial arts, but also just for people who want to get in shape, stay healthy, and that kind of thing?

That's exactly it. It's for everyone. It's for someone that just wants to learn the technique, for someone that wants to get fit, and for people that want to compete.

So it really does attract all people with all kinds of motives to get into the sport.

Great. Well, we are going to our midway break right now. The midway break is always a bit longer than the other breaks in the show because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida, who airs this program, they are required by the FCC to localize

Iron Sherpa Zion Radio and all of their programming geographically to Lake City, Florida, and they do that with their own public service announcements that they air during this midway break.

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Try to write down as much of the contact information that our advertisers provide in their commercials so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers and reply to them.

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USA. Don't go away. We're going to be right back with Jake Peacock right after these messages from our sponsors.

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen of Iron Sherpa Zion Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd, on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about, and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel, and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

And there's more great news. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sherpa Zion Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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Chris Arnzen, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd at the

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It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sherpa Zion Radio listeners from all over the world.

Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sherpa Zion Radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland, going back to 2005.

One of my very favorite guests on Iron Sherpa Zion is Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sherpa Zion Radio, Dr.

Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.

Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the

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If you visit, tell them Joe Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener from a tie in County Kildare, Ireland, sent you.

As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor.

Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has had a long -time partnership with our friends at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

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Oh, hail the power of Jesus' name.

This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially. Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers who strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God.

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign

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Before I return to my guest, one -armed martial artist Jake Peacock and his story, we have a couple of very important announcements to make.

First of all, folks, if you love this show and you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com,

click Support, then click Click to Donate Now. You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion.

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We also want to remind you that I never want anybody in my audience giving the church where you are a member less money than you're accustomed to giving that church every

Lord's Day in order to give us a financial gift. In other words, never cut in to the finances that you have allotted for your

Lord's Day giving to your own church. Never do that in order to bless us. And also, if you're really struggling to survive and make ends meet,

I don't want to add to the mountain of unpaid bills on your kitchen table by you giving us a gift.

Wait until you're more financially stable and back on your feet before you send us a financial gift.

The two things that are very clear about finances in the Bible is that we are commanded to provide for our church and our family.

Providing for Iron Sharp and Zion Radio is obviously not a command in the Bible. But, if you love this show, you don't want it to disappear, and you have extra money above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands of providing for church and family, you have extra money collecting interest in the bank, you have extra money for benevolent recreational and trivial purposes, please share some of that money with us.

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Also, I am inviting all men in ministry leadership to the next

Iron Sharp and Zion Radio Pastor's Luncheon on Thursday, April 13th, at the

Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. My two guest speakers are Dr.

William Webster, who is a Banner of Truth author, and Rev. David T. King, who is a

Presbyterian pastor in Katy, Texas, and they have also both co -authored a massive, groundbreaking, three -volume work together called

Holy Scripture, Ground and Pillar of Our Faith. And this is a free event, and not only is it free, and not only will you eat for free and hear the

Word of God preached for free and fellowship for free, you will also receive a heavy sack of free, brand -new books donated by Christian publishers all over the

United States and the United Kingdom, which they have been doing ever since the 1990s, when my precious late wife,

Julie, first launched these Pastor's Luncheons. And so,

I don't know how you could turn that down as long as you can get to Loisville, Pennsylvania, by plane, train, or automobile, and I hope many of you do, as many of you do every year.

On top of that, the three days following the Pastor's Luncheon at a different church,

Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I'm also arranging a free three -day

Bible conference featuring those same two speakers, Dr. William Webster and Rev. David King, on the theme,

The Gospel, Removed by Rome, Rescued by the Reformers, and Rejected by Modern Evangelicals.

And that is three days, Friday the 15th, I'm sorry,

Friday the 14th of April, and Saturday the 15th of April, and Sunday the 16th of April, at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, also free of charge.

If you want more details, or if you want to register for either or both of those events, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com. And last but not least, if you are not a member of a

Christ -honoring, biblically faithful church, a theologically sound, doctrinally solid church, no matter where on the planet

Earth you live, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches, including the church where my guest's father,

Gavin Peacock, pastors in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And so, if you need a church, please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line. I have helped many people in our audience in all parts of the planet Earth find churches, sometimes even within just a few minutes from where they live, and that may be you, too, if you are spiritually homeless, as it were, without a good, solid church home.

chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send a question to Jake Peacock.

chrisarnson at gmail .com, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

We have an anonymous listener again who wants to know, how do

I encourage my son, who is a preteen, who is very discouraged because he is very non -gifted, at least in this point in his life, in any athletic endeavor that he attempts to participate in?

That's a good question. I think consistency is key.

I think he has to keep working hard at it. You know, there's lots of things in life that don't come very naturally, even for myself, but I've had to, you know, work hard to the glory of God and do my very best.

And at the end of the day, that's all you can do. If you're doing your best and you are seeking to glorify God in what you do, whether you succeed or fail, ultimately you succeed in Christ.

Amen. And obviously, I'm sure you would agree that trying different sports that then the child is currently involved in may eventually lead to finding the niche sport that he may even have inherent gifts in and doesn't even realize it.

That's it, exactly. That's what happened with you. That's exactly what happened with me, exactly.

I've literally played nine different sports and I ended up finding karate and then

Muay Thai, and it took a while to get there, but here I am today and love the sport and I'm doing well at it.

Well, praise God for that. And thank you, Anonymous. And by the way, Anonymous, if you are a first -time questioner, all the first -time questioners in the

Iron Trip and Zion Radio audience receive a free New American Standard Bible. So let me know if indeed that is the case with you, and if so, provide your mailing address so that cvbbs .com,

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, can ship out to you a free New American Standard Bible, of the publishers of the

NASB. Well, I'd like you to continue on more with your own story of maintaining a strong Christian reputation and identity in a very dangerous activity.

Yeah, sure. I can just touch on something that has been quite encouraging for people in the past.

When I was a new convert, I still struggled with my sense of identity, where I took my identity from.

And growing up with one hand, there was a lot of stigma around that, and that I was made fun of at times.

I was never severely bullied or anything like that. But after you became a martial artist, you were only made fun of once by that individual.

Well, it's the thing. Because I became a martial artist,

I think people respected me after that. And then I started to take my identity from the wrong thing.

I started to take my identity from my skill set as a martial artist and my wins, like I had said previously in this interview here.

But to the point where I was so insecure about my arm, I would wear long -sleeved shirts out of the house, and I wouldn't wear a short -sleeved shirt because I was too shy about my arm, or I'd get frustrated when people would stop and look and ask questions.

So I think one of the biggest things for me and the biggest telltale signs that I had come to Christ and I'd given him all control over my life was the fact that in an instant

I felt secure and I felt a sense of purpose, and my identity wrapped up in Christ, that I did not need to be self -conscious about my arm, the way

I looked, or whether I won or lost in the ring. And taking that two years away from the sport helped me understand that, helped me to get right with God and to put all my trust in Him and not

God and something else. So I think that if that can be an encouragement to kids in sport or even adults in sport, yeah, do everything you do to the glory of God.

And if it's taken away from that, if you're struggling in any way, taking your identity from anything but God, then you need to address that situation, repent and get right with God because that's the be -all, end -all at the end of the day.

B .B. in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania says, I believe I heard a baby crying in the background.

I'm wondering if that means you eventually also found a wife and started a family.

Good ears, good ears. I was trying to keep them quiet. He's our son,

Charlie. Me and my wife, Krista, I met Krista at university, actually at the

Christian university I attended. And we got married, I think, eight years ago now. And we actually have another one on the way any day now.

She could go into labor while I'm doing this interview. Wow. Well, congratulations.

Thank you. Now, forgive me if this question sounds crass or rude, but I'm just curious, when you met who was eventually to become your wife, was the fact that you were missing an arm any kind of a deterrent to her that she later shared to you?

Did you have to win her over in spite of that obvious disability that you had?

And I don't even know. There obviously are different opinions, especially in this politically correct age and woke age where you have to be careful about using certain phrases or you'll be blacklisted.

But is it okay to say disability in your mind or handicap?

And how did your wife, before she was your wife, respond to that obvious situation with you having one arm missing?

Yeah, for sure. My wife, she's a great woman. And she didn't really see me any other way.

She saw me for who I was and never thought I couldn't do anything.

She was great right from the beginning. I don't think she had any thoughts about my arm other than obviously noticing the obvious.

But outside of that, it didn't affect anything really. Well, praise

God for that. And may God raise up many, many, many more women and men who have that attitude towards a potential spouse, especially that somebody's faith, if they are indeed

Christians themselves, should be infinitely more important than anything else about that individual.

You said you've been married eight years. Well, if your baby was crying, is that your first child and the second one's on the way?

Because I was going to ask if any of your children have taken an interest in what you are doing, but obviously if it's an infant, that wouldn't be the case.

Well, believe it or not, our two -year -old, yeah, that is our first child, but he's already throwing some punches and kicks.

And I'm assuming maybe even the baby in the womb is doing that. Yeah, well, yeah, the baby's definitely kicking, that's for sure.

Now, how young do you recommend a child start to participate in a martial arts program?

At our gym, we say five years old. Any younger than that, and the attention span just isn't there, for a class setting at least.

Maybe for private training, you can start a little younger. But as far as a group class, five years old onwards is a great age to start, and I started at seven.

Do you have any anecdotes, stories about people who you met as a result of your martial arts experience who were led to Christ?

Oh, let me think. And while you're thinking,

I'm going to give our email address to our listeners again. It's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

As always, give us your first name, at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. And let me add to that question, perhaps not coming to Christ, but at least interesting encounters, maybe somebody who began openly opposing you, rejecting your school because of your faith.

I haven't necessarily had that, but we have had people at the gym, someone that came to the gym many years ago.

We opened five years ago, and they were with us for the, I think, our second year, and then they moved out of town.

And I recently actually, it was like two months ago, I got a message from him saying that he's been convicted of his sin, and he knew

I was a Christian because we chatted briefly about it at times at the gym. And that he's become a

Christian, and he's given his life to Christ and attending a church, so that was very encouraging.

We also have a lot of Muslims in the gym. Lots, like a high percent of our gym members are actually

Muslim. So there's been some very great conversations that I've had with, you know, three of them are brothers, and they're actually my professional athletes, so I travel with them quite a bit.

So I've had a lot to chat with them. They're very open to chat with me.

But they've been raised in Islam and are very religious. So they are very religious and yet are open to conversations about Christianity with you.

Very much so. I've actually found that a lot of the Muslims at the gym are quite open to talking.

Well, another person I've got to introduce you to, if you don't know him already, is one of the pastors alongside of Jeff Durbin at Apologia Church, Dr.

James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, who has debated many Muslims.

In fact, he was the only Christian to participate in a religious event in the largest mosque in the world, which is in South Africa, I believe.

And he has also been involved in events, I believe, also in the largest mosque in the

UK. And he has developed friendships with some of these men.

It's not all about hostility, as one might think. There are

Muslims out there who are very gracious, even in spite of serious differences.

Differences that even entail eternal life. And Dr.

White, in spite of his kind and gracious attitude to his Muslim opponents, he makes it very clear that without the blood of Christ, without trusting in his finished work and his resurrection and ascension, that you cannot enter into eternal life.

So he doesn't candy coat these things when he's having debates and dialogues with Muslims. But in spite of that, he has developed very warm friendships.

Amazing. Amazing. And, well, as far as the community is concerned in Calgary, what, if any, is the buzz around, did you say it was pronounced,

Dunamis martial arts? Dunamis Muay Thai, Dunamis martial arts, yeah.

I mean, is there anything that you have heard about that people in the community notice that there's a difference about this school and that there is a

Christian base to it? Yeah, for sure. We've had quite a few comments from people that come to our gym from other gyms.

Believe it or not, there's a lot of gossip and drama between gyms, as there is in any kind of business.

Even churches. Yeah, sure, even churches, right? So in any sphere of life, there is that competition and hostility at times.

But we've very much made our gym a place where you work hard, you keep your head down, you stay humble and try to build a very good community that kind of just gets on with it.

And we've had lots of people come into our gym and say that they've recognized that there's something different about the gym.

And you can read that on our Google reviews online, actually. There's quite a few people that have shared that about our place.

We have a listener, Thomas in West Islet, Long Island, New York.

I have a friend named Thomas in West Islet. This is not him. Thomas in West Islet, New York wants to know, other than your missing limb, what was the greatest hurdle that you had to overcome in the realm of martial arts?

Not to sound cliche, but it was my pride. My pride would hinder me in performing to the best of my ability.

That's interesting, because most people, possibly even most Christians, might think, even if they recognize pride as a sin, that it would be an enhancement to what you do.

But you're saying that it's a hindrance. Yes, for sure. I feel much more free when

I am more humble and less prideful. And when

I am competing to give God all the glory, I feel like I am able to compete freely and to the best of my ability.

And then I'm not worried about winning or losing. I'm just out there doing what

God has given me the skills to do. And I think God has blessed me with a very unique skill set, and even taken away a limb of mine.

And so I think I've reached an audience, and can be an inspiration to others, and above all that, point them to Christ.

Now perhaps you should distinguish, differentiate pride, which is sinful, from self -confidence in the gifts that God has given you, because those are two different things.

Yeah, I think recognizing where your skill comes from.

Yes, you have to work, and you have to work hard. But it isn't just through my hard work that I have the skills that I have, and I'm able to win competitions.

It is only because of God's grace to me that I'm able to train hard, and it's only through God's grace that I'm able to perform as I do in the ring.

I think if you understand that, and that you are not the source of your skill, but that by the grace of God you've been given these gifts, and the ability to, and the health, that's the other thing, the health.

And, you know, any time I could get struck down with an injury and maybe never compete again.

So God has really blessed me with a healthy body, a good mindset for the sport as well, and I think you've always got to be looking upwards instead of horizontal, and that helps.

Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, wants to know, I have heard that people who have specific disabilities, like a blind person or a deaf person, or it could be a multitude of other handicaps that that person needs to overcome in their daily activities, those things that are initially detrimental eventually begin to enhance and strengthen other areas of their life, even physically.

Is this the case with you being a one -armed martial artist? Have you any advantages that you've developed that makes your fighting style perhaps a surprise to your opponent and giving you an advantage that they may never even dream you had?

Yeah, I believe that that is completely correct. I think growing up with one hand made me more of a go -getter, as I said earlier on in the interview.

It made me very strong -willed, sometimes not the best of things, but it did make me very strong -willed.

It made me persevere. It gave me good character, and I think that that's what's helped me in my sport, and I'm able to train hard, and I'm able to go out there and give it everything

I have, because years and years of going through maybe some adversity has really strengthened me in ways, so I think that's very, very true.

Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, wants to know, have disabled people actually come to your gym to improve their health or even learn and excel in a sport such as martial arts because they've heard about your story?

I had someone ask me this question the other day, actually, and I haven't had too many people with disabilities come through the doors, surprising enough.

I thought maybe opening a gym, and I opened a gym with the idea that that would attract some people with different limitations, but I haven't had too many people come through the doors of my gym that do have those disabilities.

I'm going to take a risk here. I won't mention the person's name, who's a friend of mine. I hope that I do not insult him in any way.

I don't think he would be insulted by this question, but I have a friend who has gotten his son, one of his sons, involved in boxing.

He actually has hired a professional boxing trainer, and this young man, who

I believe is 10, I think, is doing quite well.

But sometimes his father laments that he thinks his son doesn't have the killer instinct that one needs to be successful in boxing.

And, of course, he doesn't mean that literally, but he thinks his son is too kind and gracious and loving.

And, by the way, this person is not a member of an evangelical church.

He is in the process of searching. He's on a journey. He's not there yet. So I'm not saying that this is a bonafide, repentant believer in Christ, but I have told him that he should not, if he wants to honor

God and he wants his son to honor God, the last thing he should want is a killer instinct in his son's mind and heart, and that that would not be an essential element to being a success in boxing.

I have seen documentaries on professional boxers, and, of course, there are some that brag about having such a killer instinct, and there are some that are very humble men who never had nor wanted that and yet achieved great success in the ring.

What's your opinion about that whole concept of the alleged need for a killer instinct?

Yeah, I agree with you on that, what you said there. You don't need a killer instinct.

You do need a certain mindset. You do have to have a certain competitive edge to you, like in any high -level sport, but particularly in a combat sport where you are going toe -to -toe with another person.

If you don't have some sort of mental edge, you may get seriously hurt, and it might not be the sport for you.

But to say killer instinct, I don't know if that's necessarily correct.

And I could give, like, two examples off the top of my head, and I'll give very, very, very famous examples here, and maybe people will disagree with me, but that's fine.

You've got Mike Tyson, who everybody would say had a killer instinct. Not the nicest person, either, and made it to the very top of his sport.

But you also have Muhammad Ali, who never... He came across as a very, very game fighter, and he was one of the greatest of all time to ever do it.

But you would never categorise Muhammad Ali as being a killer or having a killer instinct.

In fact, he was seen to be quite gracious to many opponents when he could have done them serious damage and serious hurt.

He actually laid off a little bit, and there's many occasions when he's done that, so I think that's a good example of two people.

And all of his bravado was presented in a comical way. Very comical. You never really believed he...

Well, let me backtrack. Except when he was going to fight Sonny Liston, which put him on the global map after he beat

Sonny Liston. He seemed to be quite nasty and aggressive in a genuine way then, but after his career really launched, it just seemed to be about comedy, maybe psyching out his opponent, but he never seemed to be ruthless in his demeanour.

I'm sorry, in any direction. Yeah, for sure. A lot of mind tricks there, a lot of games that he'd play, and he was quite funny and comical, and lots of people would say very arrogant and proud, but I think he was a pretty kind man, as far as in the boxing world goes, and there's two examples then of the polar opposites, right?

So you do not need to be an absolute killer to make it in the sport of boxing. In fact, this is a very tragic and sad case of irony.

Perhaps you are aware, even though you may be too young to remember this, but you may know it as a matter of historic record in the sport of boxing, but there was a famous and even now infamous match between Ray Boom Boom Mancini, a professional boxer, who fought a

South Korean boxer, Kim Duk Ku, and prior to the fight

Mancini was behaving much more like a gentleman and a respectful individual, and it was

Kim Duk Ku, his opponent, who was actually threatening, and it seemed believable and to be truthful on his part that he wanted to kill, physically kill,

Ray Mancini, and tragically the reverse happened. Ray Mancini accidentally, he did not intentionally do this, of course, but he wound up killing in the ring

Kim Duk Ku. In fact, you can see a documentary on this, but there you have an example of someone who had no killer instinct, who basically demonstrated superior fighting skills than someone who was all about the killer instinct.

Yeah, it's very tragic. Am I making, is what I'm saying making sense there? Oh yes, very much so, yeah, it's very tragic.

And he was broken, Boom Boom Mancini was broken after this, and in fact he had a very moving encounter with the widow of Kim Duk Ku, and I believe one of their children after the death of Kim Duk Ku, and he was just, it really for a while crippled him mentally and emotionally that he had killed this man.

And in fact, how do you respond to Christians who will say that even if there is any remote possibility of something like that happening in a sporting arena such as martial arts, that you shouldn't be a part of it?

How do you respond to that? And how do you feel about boxing being a different form of sport?

Yeah, I think, you know, I've done boxing training for many years, and I've been around boxers, and it is a very different sport because of the sheer amount of damage that you can take to the head, or that you will take, it's inevitable really.

So I think it is a different sport to the sport I'm in, even though I do some training and some sparring in that sport, it's quite different.

There is a lot more head trauma, so you do have to be careful. But today it's extremely unlikely that someone would die in the ring because of the sheer amount of medicals, and there's a lot of paperwork, and there's commissions behind every sanctioned event.

So if you're fighting on a sanctioned fight card, there are an extensive amount of doctors' medical assessments that you have to go through, and CT scans, and MRIs, and physical examinations just to be cleared to fight now.

So it's very unlikely that you would end up killing someone in the ring.

In fact, Kim Duk -Koo tragically perished in the ring in 1982, so that was quite a while ago.

We have to go to our final break right now. Oh, and by the way, I just want, before I forget, our listener in Findlay, Ohio, Cindy, again chimed in by suggesting that George Foreman was a world -class boxer who did not demonstrate a killer instinct.

Nice, good boxing knowledge, Cindy. And I can't remember,

I mean, eventually he became a very lovable, humble, gracious man, but I can't remember what his behavior was like before he fought

Muhammad Ali and lost to Ali. I just remember him being very quiet, unlike his later demeanor, but he always had the demeanor of humility and humor later on in his life.

And then came up with the great George Foreman grill as well. And I believe was the oldest heavyweight in history to win a championship.

But we have to go to our final break right now. If you do have questions, please send them to ChrisOrenson at gmail .com

and send them quickly because we are rapidly running out of time. ChrisOrenson at gmail .com.

Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. We'll be right back after these messages, so please don't go away.

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Orenson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia, again for the

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Welcome back. Jake Peacock. I'd like you to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we go off the air today.

Well, I think if I could say one thing, it would be from 1 Corinthians 10, 31.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Whether that's, you know, your office job, whether that's being a husband, a mother, being a child, a son, a daughter, in martial arts or whatever sport you play, do all to the glory of God.

Praise God. And I want to make sure that everybody knows if they would like to visit this gym,

Dunamis Martial Arts, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the website is dunamismartialarts .com

or Dunamis, D -U -N -A -M -I -S martialarts .com.

Thank you so much, Jake, for being an extraordinary guest today. I also urge our listeners to look up the interview

I conducted with his father, Gavin Peacock, a former U .K. footballer, a .k

.a. soccer player, who is a pastor in Calgary. Just type in Peacock into the

Iron Trip and Zion Radio search engine, and that will be the only interview that comes up.

I've never interviewed anybody else by that name, other than the eventual adding of Jake's interview, which should be available very shortly.

I hope everybody has a blessed, a joyful, a safe and healthy and Christ -honoring weekend and Lord's Day.

And I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.