37 Burst results for "Muslim"
Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
A highlight from The Professors Disillusionment
"Welcome to Gospel in Life. This month we're looking at directional signposts through history that point us to Christ. All through the Old Testament from Genesis to Jonah, you see signs that point us to Jesus. Listen now to today's teaching from Tim Keller on Pointers to Christ. Verses 15 to 26. Then I thought in my heart, The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart, This too is meaningless. For the wise man, like the fool, will not long be remembered. In days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise must die. So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things that I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days, his work is pain and grief. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. But to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after, the win. This is God's word. one Now, of the things that an awful lot of people have said is that Ecclesiastes is a great book. In chapter 97 of Moby Dick, I know it so well, Melville says the truest of all books is Ecclesiastes. Thomas Wolfe in a pretty well -known American novel, You Can't Go Home Again, he says, one of his characters says this, Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, the noblest, the wisest, the most powerful expression of humanity's life on earth, the highest flower of eloquence and truth. There's an awful lot of people who talk like that, say this is the best book in the Bible, this is the truest, this is the greatest. But I can almost guarantee you that none of them felt that way the first time, not the first time they read it. Because what you have when you first read Ecclesiastes, what you're struck with, is a teacher, a professor, as we'll see, in absolute despair. The very first verses, the first few lines of Ecclesiastes go like this, meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. And of course, the passage I just read is just the same. And so you have someone in utter despair with the bleakest view of life, and the reason people generally get very confused when they read it, people who are believers, people who believe in God, people who have the traditional faith, they say, I'm confused because it seems like he's contradicting everything the rest of the Bible says. And people who don't believe or have trouble believing or who are not as believing, when they read it, I'll tell you what they say. What they say is, who needs this? They say, this guy is a professor, this is the kind of guy who drinks himself into a raise on the left bank talking about the meaninglessness of life, this is the kind of guy who makes these art films that, you know, are so bleak and terrible that play in obscure little corners of Greenwich Village. Of course, the world has people like that, but most of us aren't like that, we don't see life like that. Who needs this rant? Who needs this pessimism? Now, the reason why it's so confusing is because a couple of things are missed. The first thing is because people don't realize the instructional approach. We don't exactly know who wrote Ecclesiastes, I won't get into the debate, it's debatable that Solomon writes, it doesn't matter because in the very first line, he calls himself a teacher, a word that can mean a professor. And if you read Ecclesiastes, you'll realize that this man, and it's the only book like this in the Bible, this man is running a seminar. He's not lecturing, he's not preaching, like a good philosophy professor, he's running a seminar. He is making you think. He is goading you with questions. Ecclesiastes, unlike any other book of the Bible, is not pedagogy, it's andragogy. Pedagogy literally means child instruction, memorizing, wrote, you see, drill, spoon feeding. Andragogy is a word that means adult instruction. Goading, asking questions, getting people to look at their own foundations, discovering truth for themselves. That's one of the reasons why Ecclesiastes seems so odd. But the other reason it seems so odd is because people, I don't think notice, unless you look clearly and I'm going to try to show you this morning, that the teacher is looking at life all the time. He's always saying, I see, I see, I saw this, I looked at life and I saw this, but he looks at life in two different ways and he goes back and forth between them. Let me show you the first way he looks at life and the second way he looks at life. It'll teach us a great deal. The first way he looks at life, in the first view, let's say how he looks and what he sees and why he sees it. Now, the first way he looks at life is he looks at life under the sun. You notice how three times in this passage, verse 17, 20 and 22, he says, I found this meaningless under the sun. I saw all my work under the sun was meaningless. This is a term that's used 30 times in the book. This is a term that is not used anywhere else in the Old Testament, so it's clearly critical to and very important to the whole book. And what he means by this, almost all the commentators I've ever read agree, what he means by under the sun is life here and now considered in isolation from anything else. Life under the sun is, he says, I'm going to look at the world as if this life under the sun is all that there is. I'm not going to look at life above the sun. I'm not going to think about God or eternity or heaven or hell, see. I'm not going to think of anything beyond. I'm going to look at life as if this is the only life we have, at least the only life we know. You know Carl Sagan in the beginning of every one of his Cosmos PBS segments, in the very beginning you'd hear Carl Sagan's voice come on and he would say, the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Now most people are not atheists in the strict sense like Carl Sagan. What Carl Sagan is saying is, this life, this world, there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no eternity, okay? There is nothing but this life, life under the sun, there's nothing else. Most people aren't atheists. Most people would say, well, I believe in God, but the modern person says, I believe in God or something, but we can't know. We can't know God's will for sure. We can't know about the after. We can't be sure. And so essentially the modern person says, we have got to live life as if this is the only life we know. And the teacher says, deal. I'm going to look at life as if it's the only life we know. That's how he's looking at it. That's the first way he looks at it. I'm going to look at life under the sun. But what does he see? What he sees is absolute inconsequentiality. Now, he kind of looks at it in several ways. He notices the injustice. If you look down, he says, it's unjust. Some people work very, very hard and never enjoy the fruit of their labor, and other people who don't deserve it at all enjoy it. And then he says, and worse than that, it's possible that you could work very hard to accomplish something in life, and then when you die, not only don't you get it anymore, but some fool comes along and takes over, and next thing you know, everything you've worked for is gone. You build an institution. You establish a school of thought. You do some good deeds, and somebody else comes along afterwards and just ruins it. But you see, that all is just, those are all just symptoms. Because up in verse 15 and 16, he really gives you the bottom line. In verse 15 and 16, as I read, he says, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. He says, therefore, this is meaningless, for the wise like the fool will not long be remembered. Now what he's bringing out here is something, again, incredibly modern, but something he's trying to grab you by the scruff of the neck and show you. And we're going to talk about why, but for now, let's say the what. We'll talk about why he's doing this, but right now, let's say what he's looking at. And what he is saying is, a wise life, a wise action, or a foolish life, a foolish action, a compassionate life, a compassionate action, a cruel life, a vicious action. In the end, makes no difference at all. None at all. If it's really true that life under the sun is all there is, if it's really true that when we die, that's it, and eventually the solar system dies, in other words, eventually something will sweep everything away, civilization will all be swept away, it won't make a bit of difference how you've lived at all. And therefore, there is no way, if you realize that life under the sun is all there is, that you can say one action is more significant than another, because it makes no difference in the end at all. Now, that's very bleak, you say. And the question comes up, why, you know, we're all smart people, we walk around, why is it that the average person, and the average person in Western culture who shares the teacher's premise that this life is all we know, but they go on out there and they don't feel that life is meaningless, they don't say one thing is as insignificant as another, that everything is ridiculous, everything is meaningless and vain and futile, no. So why does he, and here's the reason why. He looks at the whole of life, the big picture, and we refuse to. The key is, take a look at this question that he brings out, I have been meditating on this question for some years, and I just saw something this week that I'd never seen before. Here's the question he asks, and he dares you to ask the question. He says, down here in verse 22, what does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? That's the question. Every word is significant. First of all, he says, assuming that this life is all there is, first of all, he says, what is the gain? What do you get? What is the difference? Now, why do you ask that question? Because he's really showing us that you ask that question about any individual piece of your life, do you not? If somebody says to you, I would like you to go to the corner of so -and -so place, and I would like you to stand there for an hour tomorrow, you would say, for what? Well, the person says, I don't want to tell you, I'd just like you to do it. And you say, no, no, no, no. I want to know what difference it'll make, what gain there will be, otherwise it's a waste of time. You would never do anything. If it made absolutely no difference at all, if nothing came of it at all, you'd never do anything. But the thing that, in other words, we look at every part of our life like that. But the reason that the teacher comes to despair, existential despair, is because he uses a little word in that question that is so critical, and that is the word all. What do you get from the whole of your life? And the reason the average person shares the teacher's premise but does not share the teacher's despair in this world, in this Western culture, is because we refuse to use the word all. See, the average person, I mean, there's probably a lot of people right here listening to this, and you're going to sit through the 30 minutes or whatever, but you would never sit through 30 minutes personally with somebody. If somebody sat down and said, well, what do you believe about life? And you said, well, I'm kind of an agnostic, I'm kind of a, I sort of believe in God in general, it might be true, but the one thing is all we know is that we're here, we don't really know for sure why we're here or where we're going or, you know, we can't be sure. Now, the person says, well, in that case, you must, you have to look at life and say that nothing means anything, that there's no right and wrong ultimately, there's no significance between one action over another, that no one action is more meaningful or more significant than the other. And you wouldn't stand for that. You would say, oh, give me this, I took philosophy 101, this meaning in life, so philosophers need this, philosophers ask the big questions. The average person, the average person lives for the daily things. Sure, I don't know, I'm an agnostic, but I'm optimistic about life, why? Because when I take a boat ride in Central Park, I feel good, it's meaningful. When I hug somebody I love, it's meaningful. When accomplish I something at work, it's meaningful. When I do a compassionate deed as opposed to a selfish deed, it's meaningful to me. I'm having a fine life. You can't throw all this on me, you can't put me back into philosophy class. Now, you know what you're doing? You're refusing to ask the word all. There was an old Mutt and Jeff cartoon some years ago. Remember Mutt and Jeff? And at one place, Mutt, Jeff comes up and there's Mutt, and right in the middle of a street, right in the middle of a, you know, a road, a street, he has built a very, very tall pile of stones, and at the top of the pile of stones, there's a lantern, and Jeff says to Mutt, oh, Mutt, why did you build this pile of stones? Oh, he says, that's easy, so I could put the lantern up there. So that it's up high so that it gives a lot of light. Oh, okay. Why did you put the lantern up there? Well, I want the lantern up there so the cars will see the pile of stones and they won't crash into it. Why did you put the pile of stones there for the car to crash into? Well, so that I could put the lantern up there. Now, what is he doing? It's very simple. He's finding meaning of one part in the meaning of another part, but he's refusing to ask the question, does the whole thing have any use, or is it just stupid? Why do you work? Usually, a person says, I'll tell you why I work, so that I can do things that I like to do. I have avocations, I've got hobbies, I've got leisure, I like travel. Why? Well, that really recharges my batteries. Why? So I can work. See, the lantern is for the stones, the stones are for the lantern, and if you refuse to stand back and say, but what is the whole thing for? What is the whole thing for? How do you know your whole life isn't stupid? That your whole life isn't pointless? How do you know your whole life is not just a very, very large stone lantern in the middle of a highway? How do you know this? Now, here's what the teacher is saying. The teacher is saying, grow up. This is not pedagogy, this is andragogy. Don't be an ostrich. Ask yourself the question. If you would never do one thing, if it made no difference at all, okay, it would be meaningless, it would be a waste of time, unless it made a difference. What difference does your whole life make? What are you living for? What difference does it all make? Now, the average person just does not want to hear this. I had a little conversation with somebody, by the way, I know very well, I'll get back to why I think this was a valid conversation, but it's a dangerous one. I had a conversation not too long with somebody I knew very, very well, and this person had just said, what he said was, he says, you know what, the way you know what's right and wrong is, there's no reasons for it, there's no way to know what's right and wrong, you just have to know what's right and wrong in your heart, and if you know in your heart, then it's right, and then you just need to do it, and that's how you live, that's how you find meaning in life. And I said, well then, what do you say to Hitler? He felt it real hard in his life, and he did it, so that was okay. Oh no, my friend said, well you know, he says, the trouble is, most of the people's hearts in the world know that what Hitler was doing was wrong, therefore it was wrong. And I said, well you know, up to 150 years ago, most of the hearts of the world thought slavery was just fine. Do you think slavery was just fine? No. Why not? And he just looked and he shrugged and he says, you know, these things are so complex, if you think about this, you'll just dig a hole. Now this is a person I knew a very long time, and it was very, very cordial. Now here's the question. The teacher is saying, when someone says, I don't need to ask this question, I don't need to ask this question, what you really are saying is, my optimistic agnosticism, and that's the worldview the teacher is trying to absolutely smash, my optimistic agnosticism will fall apart if I ask that question. It can't deal with that question. It is demolished by that question. It is absolutely inadequate to that question. Optimistic agnosticism. Life under the sun is all there is, but there's moral truth. There's human rights. There's human dignity. Listen, if your origin isn't significant, you come from nothing, and if your destiny is insignificant, you're going to nothing, have the guts to admit that your life is insignificant. And stop talking, as if, on the one hand, you feel like you can poke holes in other people's inconsistencies. You'll poke holes in Muslims who say, I believe in God, but then they do something wrong, or Christians who say, I believe in God, do something wrong. You'll poke holes in everybody else's inconsistency, but you won't look at your own. You know, Jean -Paul Sartre made a very interesting statement. His most famous essay was right after the war, 1946. He wrote his essay called Existentialism and Humanism, and this is what he said. He says, God does not exist, and we have to face all the consequences of this. The existentialist is strongly opposed to a certain kind of secular ethics which wants to abolish God with the least possible expense. The existentialist, indeed, thinks it is very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding any values disappears with God. There can be no a priori good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. So nowhere is it written that we must be honest. Nowhere is it written that we must not lie, because the fact is we're on a plane where there's only us, human beings. Dostoevsky said, if God didn't exist, everything would be permissible. That is the very starting point of existentialism. If God does not exist, there is nothing within or without that can legitimize any conduct. Now, you know what is very interesting to me? Sartre took this idea, life under the sun is all there is, and you know what he says? He says, don't talk to me in any way that says that you believe that one kind of conduct is more legitimate than any other kind. One of the things that's come out recently, he died in 1980, one of the things that's come out over the last few years is what a misogynist he was. Jean -Paul Sartre was very bad to women, the women he knew, and he was very misogynist, but you know what? Whenever I read the people who accept his premise about life, and then get very upset about it, if he was alive, he would rise up, and he was only 5 '2", so that's, he would rise up, and he would say, please. He would say, you want to be free. You want to say, I am free to do what I want to do. You want to be free. As far as I know, this life is all there is. I'm not controlled by eternity, by moral absence, by God. I want to be free. Then you have got to have the guts to accept the utter meaninglessness of all distinctions. You want to be free, fine, but you have to accept it. Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. Come on. You know, Christians look like real hard -nosed skeptics compared to a view that says, life under the sun is all there is, but I'm optimistic. I have meaning in life. I can enjoy things. I know some things are right, some things are wrong. I know it's better to be compassionate than to be violent. I know these things. Talk about blind faith. Talk about naive religiosity. why Now, is he doing this? Because he also tends to see life, the preacher, the teacher, the professor sees life in a different way. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during His life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see Him meeting people at the point of their big, unspoken questions. The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in His book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Encounters with Jesus today when you give at GospelInLife .com slash give. That's GospelInLife .com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.
Rollye James
Fresh update on "muslim" discussed on Rollye James
"No man to make a love to very you jealous man neither and kiss you is ready nor to lay caress low any you other for man that you get the may idea intrude and in that our love was by commandment the way Steve Alaimo co -produced three that all I right so you and locally it absolutely made impact but it wasn't the only thing this guy came up with a number and of things several including several an things album but the and upshot black is of beautiful this is yeah RCA 1968 got a little interested in Prince Buster and the Ten Commandments a man a woman and the Princess Buster answer record so in 1968 they Buster put I'm out and a two not -sided sure where one Nick picked side it up but was he mentioned Prince that Buster the flipside and was the other side Princess was Princess Buster so that oh impact he had the as RCA well reissue but from but 1968 those that who who you failed to know make were fans make of it well it has lasting history to to this day as far as a Prince like and I said he was prolific in the 70s really and he he he became remained a in Muslim and at that in Jamaica point he he found was it actually difficult in the movie to The tailor Harder They his Come style he towards was a cameo role a as Rastafari a DJ but audience what he did was but he moved to Miami at that point and ran a jukebox company for a while and retired from the music business as and in far the interim because as as he had been so on prolific stage earlier but in his behind career stage of did course a number who of who things catches on to this the UK he ever it wasn't northern soul but it was it was the ska revival and he he while was he awarded remained Order out of of the Distinction limelight a ultimately lot by of the Jamaican his his government music for his didn't contribution to music and and a number of well other things let and sadly me let's he see 2016 left us he there died you in go a hospital after in Miami having and heart problems it and was I think he it was he actually had been having strokes earlier I think he had one in 2009 where he no longer could walk you're and talking then it about was just at least like a dominoes dozen albums and one after another as and then far in as 2016 in the early Jamaican finally days it finally tons died but of he was things including he was on you whammy know until they providing were sold the sound systems and so like that's the deal I say as they went for went Nikki R after wfun debuted his top 40 and stayed that way until Jack Roth who had a 1550 that was WRIZ pretty much the bought end of end of whammy and the 1260 WWOK debuted on frequency it but meanwhile and Nikki Lee went to actually went to Orlando and he was on OKB the Nikki Lee show and and one of the denizens continued of and Miami he's radio had put he's up no longer an with air us check but of it's Nikki from interesting because from one the 60s of these did and that I you was know so they pleased heard it that they liked his it and family I thought his well that daughters that's and terrific the granddaughter all all Nick with commented the positive lives positive kick on now you can hear the air checks of course you know all that all that kind of stuff is is oh on in YouTube December and and I let you think hear I a little think the of one it that but they what feature really is intrigued 1968 me was the in spot for Amco but we'll get there
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Muhammad then begins to change his tone, and now he begins working on these campaigns, these military campaigns and conquering, and that's when you get verses where he says, you know, fight the unbeliever, and he becomes a much more angry habitual in his behavior towards others. So again, later in life, he begins to amass a large following, and he leaves his peaceable ways, he begins to raid caravans, he drives out Jews and Christians. Upon entering a new area, the people always had three choices. When Muhammad came to Islam, life goes on, no problem. Number two, you pay the jizya, which is the tax. You have to pay this tax to remain in your faith, but apart from that, within society, you will never be as high as a Muslim. You're always lower, you're not allowed to do all certain offices, and you would be seen as a less than. So you have to pay this tax called the jizya, and you're less than the Muslims in society. And of course, the third choice, if you don't want to do either of those things, is death. So you had these three choices when Muslims, when Muhammad came to town. And Muhammad in his life, he oversaw over 80 military expositions. He didn't go on all of those 80 expositions, but he was in charge of sending them out, and some 20 of them, he did actually go on. So this is some of the political life of Muhammad. So with that history in mind, in your brains, let's move on to what I have titled street Islam. So a lot of the times when you talk to Muslims on the street, they're not going to just be quoting to you a deist about this, that, and the other. And so what is it that most Muslims that you are going to encounter? What is it that they're going to think? What is it that they're going to know? So number one there, most Muslims don't want to blow you up, okay? A lot of times when you talk to people, they're like, I'm about talking to Muslims because, you know, I've had so many Muslims apologize to me for 9-11. Lots of them. They're like, listen, I just meet this guy, you know, his name is Muhammad Abdul-Rahman, and you're like, hey, how are you? I'm so sorry for 9-11, I'm so sorry. I don't even know you, and you're apologizing. But there's so many Muslims that apologize for that, and they're like, well, that was terrible, that should have happened. I've had many Muslims tell me, listen, al-Qaeda, those guys are terrible, listen, al-Shabaab, all these guys, they're terrible, they're not real Muslims, et cetera. So you don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be afraid. Now, maybe if you find yourself in Iraq or Somali or something like that, all right, now we can talk about being careful. But for the most part here, there should be no fear in our hearts to speak to a Muslim. Now, if a Muslim really, really, really followed the Quran, they were a fundamentalist to the core, then there should be maybe a little bit of fear. I've told some people, one of my Somali teachers back in Kenya, as he's teaching me words, he would always teach me, as we're going through the body parts, he's teaching me these different words, and so he'd be like, for your head, and he'd be like, yeah, you know, someone puts a gun through your head and shoots your head, you say, madaw, and this is your head, and no, you're like, your hand, gaan, if you have your hand and someone's going to cut off your hand, you say, gaan. As he's teaching me the body parts, it all has to do with losing those body parts. I was like, why do we have to lose everything? My question, why can't you just say you write with your hand? But no, everything was either getting shot or stabbed. And he had told me, have you ever been to Somalia? And I was like, no, no, I'd like to go one day. And he's like, yeah, you should come and visit my family. And then he looked off in the distance, he's like, no, they would kill you. So there's some places where you do have to be careful, but it's not here. Anyways, number two, most Muslims don't really understand the theology of Islam. Most Muslims don't really understand the theology of Islam. And sometimes it could be comparable to some Christians. There are some Christians, unfortunately, where you ask them, what do you believe as a Christian about the Trinity? What do you believe as a Christian about this, that? And it's like, well, I don't know, that's just what we've always believed. And that's why. So there's a lot of Muslims who don't have a deep understanding of their faith. And so when speaking to a Muslim, you don't have to think like, oh man, I haven't read the Quran, I haven't read all the Hadiths, I haven't had all of this experience. It's not a problem, because you might know a little bit more than them on some things. So that's no reason to fear speaking to them. Number three, there are many passionate Muslims and many cultural Muslims. There are many passionate Muslims and there are many cultural Muslims. Just like in Christianity, you have Christians who really seek to love and know the Lord and they grow and they walk with them every day. And then you have people who say that they're Christians, but really they just, they come Sunday and they take up space, but they have no desire to love Christ in their life. They have no desire to grow in their relationship with God. And so you have, it's the exact same, you have people who are very passionate Muslims about their faith and they really believe what they believe. And then you have other Muslims who don't really care, it's not a big deal. And so you never know who you're going to be talking to. You don't have to think that every single Muslim you talk to is working for Al Qaeda. No, they might not care at all, even about their own faith. So anyways, there's many passionate, there's many cultural Muslims. Number four, most Muslims would love to talk with you about Islam and Christianity. Most Muslims would love to talk to you about Islam and Christianity. It's very, very true of Islam. They're very, very open to talking about their faith. They would love to engage with you about what you believe, about what they believe. You know, for us, I think, especially as Westerners, you know, if you sit down next to somebody like at a coffee shop and like, if you look at them, it's like, oh my goodness, what are you doing? You're going to call them, pull out the phone, start calling 911. You're like, oh, this is saying hi. But for a Muslim, you know, you can just be, and it's true of most all foreign cultures, but you know, you can just be sitting there and just strike up a conversation. And you know, your second question is like, oh, what do you believe is a Muslim about Al Qaeda? And they would be more than happy to discuss that with you. So really, there's no fear in striking up a conversation. In our hearts, maybe, but for them, it's not a problem. Go ahead, ask as many questions as you can, but you know, it's true. Most Muslims are taught again and again about the errors of Christianity or most Muslims are taught the errors of Christianity. So the religion of Islam is primed against Christianity. So many things within the faith of Islam is built upon rejecting Christianity and Judaism. So, you know, for us, as we come and learn about salvation is by grace and through faith, and we have all these understandings about baptism and the Lord's supper and all of these different things that we hear preached about from the scriptures. Many times within the preaching that comes from the imams and the monastics, the preaching is set in juxtaposition to Christianity and how these Christians are polytheists, they're tritons, they believe in multiple gods, you know, and so it's always compared to the errors of Christianity. So recognize, when you go to talk to a Muslim, they have more than likely heard many, many, many, many, many certain things warning them about you and your faith and the errors of Christianity. And so it's not like, you know, if you or I were to talk to a Hindu and we're like, what do you guys believe in? Say that again, I have no idea. When you talk to a Muslim, for the most part, they're going to have not correct understanding of Christianity, but they will have some understanding and they will have arguments against your faith from the get-go. So those are just a few things to recognize on the street level when you go and speak to them. All right, getting into the key doctrines. So we have 14 minutes, we're going to try to get through this. All right, who's preaching today? Dan? Dan? Okay, so key doctrines. Sacred writings, we've already discussed that, the Quran, the Hadith, and then the third leader, there's the Torah, the Zebur, and the Njil. So the Torah is the Psalms, and Njil is the Gospels, or the Gospel singular, and I'd like to make a big deal about that. Some Muslims, depending on who they are, they will either say, yes, yes, we love the Old Testament, we love the Psalms, we love the books of Moses, we love all of that, that's so good. We believe in the Gospel, but your Bible has just been corrected a little bit in certain places. Or some of them will say, oh no, those books are totally fine, we believe them. But then when you start showing them things, then they begin to recognize, oh, there's issues. The reason being is Muhammad believed he was a prophet of God, he said that he was in line with all the other prophets, and that the other scriptures spoke about him. So the Old Testament and the New Testament speak about Muhammad. But Muhammad, as we said, he didn't know how to read, he couldn't read, and he had heard various stories. So Muhammad had never read the Bible. Muhammad had heard stories, many of them were Gnostic stories, and Muhammad believed that everything that they said he was in agreement with. Later on, when Muslims are able to read the Arabic Bible, they recognize, oh wow, this has nothing to do with what Muhammad was teaching. Therefore, what is the conclusion that they have to come to? The Bible's been corrupted. Because Muhammad said that he's in line with our scriptures, and that he's just a prophet, and everything he says lines up with that, and now that we're reading it, we see it has nothing to do with it, therefore you have corrupted your scriptures. And we'll get into discussing that here in a bit as well. But that is the reason for that. They'll say they believe those books, just that they've been corrupted. Another key doctrine of Islam is that they deny the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. They do not believe that Jesus died on the cross. They believe just before he was about to get taken that some say it was Judas Iscariot, some say it was just another person. God transformed that person to look like Jesus, and that person was taken and crucified, but Jesus was ascended up into heaven. And they believe, this is a side note, but they believe that, they believe in the second coming. They believe Jesus is coming again, but he's going to come, he's going to break all the crosses, he's going to kill all the pigs, and he's going to send all the Jews and Christians to hell. So that's their thought of the second coming. But they deny the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. They think it is fictitious. Thirdly, Muslims believe that Jesus was just a normal man who was a prophet. They respect him, they respect Isa as a prophet. They think you should listen to him, but only if you listen to their version of him. He was by no means God incarnate. That is blasphemy, that is shirk, that is the only sin that is unforgivable. You commit shirk, and it never would have happened, there's no forgiveness for that. If you say that God, if you ascribe a partner to God, so if you say we have to believe that Jesus is God, in their mind Jesus is a man, you're calling a man God, therefore you've committed shirk, you're never ever going to be able to be sacred. And so that's why it's so incredibly difficult for a Muslim as they think about the idea that Jesus is the incarnate son of God. To them, if they do not, it's over. So that's three. Number four, Muslims believe the Bible has been corrupted, and so we will have lots of good discussions about this. All of these things that we're looking at in the next few lessons, I guess, we're going to go in depth about how do we defend against these accusations that the Bible is corrupted. What do you say? Do you say, no it's not? And they say, yeah it is, no it's not. How do we engage someone when they level this accusation against us? And so Muslims believe the Bible has been corrupted. We are going to talk about that here soon. And then Muslims deny the Trinity, of course. First of all, they have a faulty understanding of it from the Quran, but secondly, they have no understanding of a triune God. They believe in Taqi, which is like a form of monotheism, but excluding a triune God completely. So they would deny the Trinity to them. That's the last one. So how do we share the Gospel with a Muslim? Well, first of all, we need to know your faith, know our faith. If we know our faith well, I mean that's almost as far as you have to go. You don't even have to get into all the Muslim type of things, all these long understandings, this, that, and the other. If you know your faith well, how many of you have ever heard of Nabil Qureshi? I know Brent has. Yeah, I know a few people who know Nabil Qureshi. Nabil Qureshi, he was a Muslim, and he talks about how he spent many times engaging Christians, asking them questions. And a lot of the times when you would ask Christians questions, they would be like, I don't know. I don't know what's the question. Why do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? How can God have a son? I don't know. That's a good question. And you're saying that they would never have answers, and then you would just blast them. Why would you believe something silly? And until one day, he sat down with a man who knew his faith well, and they had four years worth of conversation. And eventually, Nabil became a Christian, and became a Christian apologist, and just a wonderful man who loved the Lord dearly. So knowing our faith is really the most critical thing about each one of these points, whether it be Mormonism, and so on. If we know our faith well, then we can always throw away the nose. Number two, be capable of explaining the reliability of the Scripture. When you're engaged, when you're going to talk to a Muslim, you are 100% absolutely going to talk about the reliability of the Scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity, and incarnation of Jesus Christ. Those three things, four things, 100%, you will discuss them if you have a conversation with a Muslim. So if in your mind you're like, I have no idea, after filming the Bible's good, therefore, that's where the answer ends, then there's going to be a problem. So being able to explain those things. And again, I think that most of all of us here will be capable of having that conversation. Again, I'm hoping this will be a supplemental help to you in these conversations. And all of this is presupposing that we want to share the gospel with Muslims and Mormons and everything, but I know that's a good presupposition to have, and it's true. So number three. Number three, then, don't say, don't say, that's just what we believe. Because in reality, when we talk to a Muslim, a lot of times that's what they're going to say. Well, that's just what we believe. But that's not a good enough answer. That's not a good enough answer for anybody on anything. That's just how it is. That is not a logically sound argument. That's just because. So we don't want to say, just because. We want to have a full-fledged response that we can give to them. Love them, care for them, invite them over to your house, invite them over for a cup of coffee, bring them a gift. Many times, Muslims come from other countries. They're a warm culture. They enjoy talking. They enjoy these types of things. And if you show up and you give them a gift, if you talk to them a few times, it's going to mean the world to them and showing that you actually care about them, that they're actually your friend. And so, yeah, invite them over, be friendly, give a gift, whatever. Just show love towards them, which is, of course, something well-known. And then lastly, pray for them. Tell them that you're praying for them. Say, hey, you know what? I'm praying for you. I prayed for you today. I prayed for you about this. I prayed for you about that. Have those conversations with them. It will mean a lot to them. And so, yeah, many, many, many other things, again, could be said, but we're going to jump into Mormonism. Are there any questions before we move on on Islam? Any questions? Yeah. Yeah. In English, I would just say God, for the most part, they, they don't have your problem with that. Cause I've heard a lot, even speaking Muslims in English, I've heard them say God, they don't, sometimes they say Allah, but sometimes they just say God. So it's not a problem. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes. Yeah, you can. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can. They're definitely more separated and like in a more traditional home. I think that there will be, that would probably be a problem, but if a lady's working at Walmart and she probably went to the job and like, you know, pants and you know, the regular, I don't think that would be a problem. You could, you could strike up a conversation. A lot of times, if you're, if you're really conservative, a man will not touch a woman. So if you put your hand out to shake her hand, she might be like, so, and vice versa. So yes. Yeah, they can be, but yeah, no, I'll say yes. Yes. They are. If a Muslim handed you a track, what would you do with it? I'd probably go with it. That's good. That's good. So yes, they can be, but I almost would rather have a conversation, a relationship with them, even if it's a small one and then give them something like, if you had a choice between have a two minute conversation, give them the track or just walk by and give them the track, 100% have a two minute conversation, give them the track. That I think is great. But if you just like, because you know, like stood outside of Moscow before, but that doesn't, anybody else? Okay. All right. Hold on to your seats. We are going into Mormonism, a brief history of Mormonism. So Mormon church was founded by Joseph Smith and was born, he was born in Vermont, 1805, 1820. Smith claims he has a revelation of two divine beings, which he said were God the father, God the son who spoke to him. And they said, guess what? All of the churches are in apostasy. Everyone's doing it wrong. Three years later in 1823, Smith says an angel named Moroni showed up and he's got these golden plates and says, Hey, you know, I'm going to give you what would become the book of Mormon. And so Joseph Smith goes through this process of translating it in 1827. And he puts his head in a hat and then he says what the book of Mormon is. So it's kind of weird, but a guy, he writes it down and Smith is dictating it while his head is inside of a hat and he's saying what is on these golden tablets, which are written in ancient Egyptian. It's a very weird story that has zero proof because believe it or not, when those wonderful golden tablets were written in ancient Egyptian, Joseph gave them back to the angel Moroni when he was done with it. So we don't have this to look at, unfortunately. So that's 1827, translating the Book of Mormon. 1830, Smith then found the institution that is called the Church of Christ. 1838, he changes the name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has the Book of Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, which are also important writings. So getting down to, and again much more can be said, this is a very, very brief, but getting down to their key doctrines, I just want to touch on this very, very briefly. The first two. Number one, the key doctrine, of course the Book of Mormon is huge, the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and lastly the King James Bible. We'll use the King James Bible. One of the tricky things when you talk to Mormons is they use the exact same language that you do. You and I, you could be very comfortable speaking to a Mormon, and you could be like, do you believe that you're saved by grace through faith? And they're like, yeah, we do. That's so cool. And you'll have a lot of conversation. You're like, wow, it sounds like we believe a lot of the same stuff. But they have the dictionary, if you open up the dictionary and look at what they mean by that, it's entirely different. So that's one thing that you must keep in mind. So for example, when you're speaking of God, they often refer to him as Heavenly Father. And we're like, okay, yeah, we can track with that. And we might think you're speaking of God the Father as we are, but I assure you they are not. Mormons have a very strange understanding of God. So Mormons believe that all people alive today are the product of Heavenly Father and his many spirit wives. So all of us were spirit children of Heavenly Father and his many spiritual wives, and we used to live back up in heaven with him, and we passed through the veil of like forgetfulness is what they actually call it. The veil of forgetfulness when we come into this world so we don't remember anything from that past life. We've been sitting here to be tested and kind of see what's going to happen. Joseph Smith says, speaking of God, furthermore, he says, we have imagined, we have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil so that you may see these are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are very simple. He was once a man like us. Yea, that God the Father of us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did. And I will show it from the Bible. But Joseph Smith believes that God the Father used to be a man the same as you and I. Just as we live here on this earth, he did the same. God himself was once as we are and now is an exalted man. And so in Mormon teaching, there is the possibility that you, if you are a good Mormon, you one day will be a God of your own universe. You can be exactly as God is to us. You can be the same in your own universe. And so really there's a limitless possibility of number of gods within Mormon theology. And so the understanding that God was once a man in a sinful man just like you and I is something that is part and parcel with the idea of the universe. You don't ask those questions. It just kind of goes back and keeps going and going and going and you can't really say. But we will, next week we will discuss in depth on Islam. I just kind of said, hey, we're going to talk about the reliability of scripture. Hey, we're going to talk about the Trinity. So next week when we get down to how to share the gospel with Mormons, we're going to go into depth a little bit more. How do we defend monotheism to a Mormon when they say, hey, there's multiple gods, essentially. And we're going to focus in on that. We're going to focus in on these various doctrines in the weeks to come. So on Islam, I just kind of briefly went over it. We didn't really dig into the scriptures, but in Mormonism, atheism, Jehovah Witness and these other things, we're going to really dig into the scriptures. So next week, I promise we will use our Bibles. Sorry that we didn't use much today, but I will go ahead and end there. So I think we are dismissed.
BTV Simulcast
Fresh update on "muslim" discussed on BTV Simulcast
"Months low that we saw in the prior session. So on the S and B 500 mini were called lower by three tenths of 1 % U .S. Treasury yields on the move again we move higher across the curve by about four basis points Eurodollar one of three and then Brent crude holding steady at ninety dollars and seventy cents a barrel. I want to get to the volatility because that's ripped higher as well. It went above 20, which is a key level that signals increase skittishness in the market. That's the highest reading that we've had since about May. From there I take you to how bond traders are positioning in U .S. government debt because they're targeting tenure yields about 5 % within weeks. On a level, technical which is that what this chart looks at for the U .S. long Treasury index. It is heavily oversold. You're going to tell me, show me the RSI. Here's the RSI, the relative strength index of 20 .8. The oversold line is at 30. Here's the caveat. Traders have been buying a number of bearish hedges for new risk as the Treasury market extended the sell -off. Most of that option action has been in November and December expiries and BNP Iperiba thinks that year -end target is now 4 .3 % for tenure yields. From there I take you to because we've had quite a bit of volatility. This is what we're looking at in terms of the action since September 1 for Brent Crude. OPEC Plus keeps talking about price stability. This year not the look of price stability. It's going to be a talking point for the Joint Monitoring Committee. They're going to convene later today. delegates are not expecting any recommendations to change policy as Saudi Arabia and Russia continue to lead the output curbs. Also look out for that inventory data. Let's get out to the markets in Asia and get a bit of a broader perspective from there. Avril hong joins us from our Singapore studio. So run us through that some of the nuances of a sea of red at the moment. Avril? Yeah indeed This is cross asset where we're seeing the pressure in the markets in the region and that sell off accelerating in US government bonds is really starting to affect these Asia financial markets it's spreading havoc for one thing we're seeing the MSCI Asia -Pacific headed towards technical correction that is the region's benchmark today the losses are being led by South Korea and Japan markets now it's not just stock markets that were jolted by the US job opening data we also saw the impact on the Japanese currency in New York trade so let's take a look at how it fared and it breached the 150 level against the greenback at one point so it was just after the data was released out of US the and then within a matter of seconds move back down to the 147 level and this prompted speculation that the Japanese officials had stepped in to prop up the yen so far the top currency official in the country has declined to confirm if there was indeed intervention but worth noting here that it was only a weakness of 0 .2 percent which brought us past the 150 mark so that suggests that the key catalyst was the breach of the 150 psychological level there if there was indeed intervention now we're also watching commentary out from the central banks of Korea and Taiwan that said that they will step in to stabilize FX if necessary yourself thank you for keeping watch on what the Bank of Japan fascinating to see whether we're going to sustainably breach 150 against the US dollar for yen let's get to the hospitality industry because the five hotel chain is basically synonymous with party lifestyles Instagram influencers in Dubai now the firm is broadening its horizons by buying a stake in one of Europe's most famous clubbing brands we'll be speaking to the company's founder and chairman in just a moment but first let's get you up to speed with the short but colorful history of fire mention Dubai and for most people images of the Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab and Atlantis spring to mind but for a growing number of the younger generation in particular this is they're thinking of you in just a few short years the five Palm Jumeirah and five JBC hotels have established themselves as iconic Dubai landmarks they've leaned heavily on club culture, celebrity DJs and Instagram influences to position themselves as two of the aspirational destinations but that rapid growth hasn't come without controversy five came in for a lot of scrutiny during the pandemic as its hotels were packed with tourists who were escaping lockdowns in Europe raising some concerns about social distancing measures and there were even some instances of violence plus there's regularly criticism online from those who the see hotels as symbols of debauchery in a Muslim country. But the chain isn't letting any of that slow it down it has a new venue set to open later this year plus five just has taken a 340 million dollar stake in the famed European clubbing brand Kasia giving it control of the hotel and nightclub division and helping to expand its footprint in global the hospitality sector. That was Greg Tanner they're reporting from the front lines now let's get out to the five founder and chairman Kabir Shandani Kabir run us through what the rationale is behind the latest Pasha Good morning and thank you very much for having me so we are fundamentally the company hospitality but largely driven by entertainment and what we are aiming to achieve with this acquisition is a domination of entertainment that we can offer our consumers not only season seasonal wise in terms of summers in Ibiza and winters in Dubai but also the quality of artists that we can bring because
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Satan is more than capable of masquerading as an angel of light. And we are warned by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1.8. Paul says, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel, other than the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, let him be damned, essentially. And so Paul says, hey, listen, if anybody else is coming around and, you know, they say, hey, I'm an apostle of God, or hey, I'm an angel, like, believe the gospel in which I am presenting to you. And Paul says, if they do that, but it doesn't line up with the gospel that you have received, then that person is to be accursed. And so we've seen that Muhammad is on the losing side of these biblical scriptures and mandates for us. And so, again, this is just a brief understanding of the revelation of Muhammad. Now, again, much more to be said, but let's get into his family and politics here. So when it comes to the life of Muhammad, of course, many of us, we don't know much about Muhammad. As Westerners, he's not somebody that piques our interest. But just to know a little bit about who he was as a man, of course, if you speak to a Muslim, and this is not at all the place to start, when you speak to a Muslim, you shouldn't go in and be like, yeah, well, guess what? I think that your apostle was possessed by a demon. Not a place to start. So these are good things for us to know, but not necessarily, you don't want to start, this. So I was talking to some of my neighbors, our Muslim neighbors. We were sitting on a bench chatting and we were discussing Islam and Christianity. And I was asking them about, oh, what's his name? He wrote the Satanic Verses. He was stabbed. Yeah. I asked him right after that it happened. I was like, so let me ask you this. I'll do it. And Muhammad, one of my friends, my neighbors, let me ask you, what do you think of the guy who stabbed Solomon Rushdie? Good Muslim? I don't know. They're like, good Muslim. I was like, so if I said something bad about Muhammad, let's not go there. So anyways, you know, just keep that in mind. So, so getting into the life of Muhammad. So Muslims, of course, I'm going to tell you, Muhammad is the, he is the best example of a man, the best example of a husband, the best example of a religious leader. He's the best example of everything. You name it, he's the best. Muhammad is just, he's as good as he gets. Now, how does that line up with historically how Muhammad lived his life? Well, Surah 4, 3, the Quran tells us that you are only allowed to have four wives, no more. Four wives, no more. Now Muhammad, because he was a very special prophet of God and God loved him very much, sit down and put on a verse that said, actually, Muhammad can have more than four wives because he's special. And that just so happened when Muhammad went to go visit his son-in-law, his son, who was adopted. So it's his son, but he's an adopted son. He goes to visit his son, and as he goes, he pulls back the curtain into the tent and his son is not there, but his son's wife is there and she is not fully clothed. And so Muhammad goes home, he gets a revelation from God, believe it or not, that he's supposed to marry her and that he's allowed to have five wives as opposed to the four that God had previously commanded. So his son divorces his wife, Muhammad marries Zainab, and the rest is history. So this is one of the wives. This is the fifth wife of Muhammad, but that was not Muhammad's favorite wife. Muhammad's favorite wife was Aisha. And again, you may be thinking, okay, Joshua, you're just saying these things because you're Christian. You don't like Muhammad? No, no. It's all there in their sources. You can read all the hadith. His favorite wife was Aisha. She was six years old when they got married, and she was the son of his good friend Abu Bakr. But I want to read this. I want to read this just because I think it does help us have an idea of what type of person Muhammad was and something to have in the back of our mind when we're listening to our Muslim friends talk about what a good person he is. But many hadith say this very thing. I'm quoting from a hadith here. It says, the messenger of Allah married me, speaking of Aisha, when I was six and consummated the marriage with me when I was nine and I used to play with dolls. That is the hadith. And so this is the type of person that Muhammad was. So you have Aisha, you have Zainab, and you have many of the wives that Muhammad would eventually marry. He had many children. And so when you speak to a Muslim, they're going to say, he's the best person, he's the best husband, he's the greatest father, and they have defenses for all of these things. They don't think any of these things. If they're learned, they'll have defenses for all of these things. Some of them have no understanding of any of this, and it shocks them when they find out. But one of the things that is very true, most Muslims don't have a full understanding of who the real historical Muhammad was. They have the version that they have been told and taught, but as to understanding who Muhammad actually was, it is usually very efficient. And so much more again can be said about his family life, but for the sake of dignity and for the sake of our time, we're not going to go into the rest of it. Lastly, politics. Muhammad was a very politically smart person. He started out with a few followers, and in his early days, if you read the Qur'an, they always talk about you have the Medinan, and you have the Meccan time, and so in the Medinan time is when Muhammad was in the city of Medinan. It's when he had to flee from Mecca because he's trying to get the Christians, he's trying to get the Jews, he's trying to get the polytheists to agree with him and believe in him that he's an apostle God. And nobody's buying him. They're like, no man, you're a fraudster, get out of here. And so he has to flee, and at that time, if you read the verses in the Qur'an, he's very warm, and he's trying to bring people into his fold and help people follow him. He's very kind. He's very gracious in his speech, but as the years continue on, he begins to gain followers from the various Arabic tribes.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Of things, looking at how when we speak and reach out to those who are around us, specifically we'll be talking about Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and then atheists as well. What are some things that as we seek to point them to Christ, what are ways in which we can engage them well? And so we are going to do those things together here. And with anything that you talk about, especially other world religions, I know pastor has been going through different denominations in the morning and kind of looking at some different aspects of denominations. I thought this would kind of be somewhat in line with that, looking at other religions and ones that are a little bit more common to you and I, maybe some less than others, but how is it that we can engage with them well? And of course, many things can be said about Jehovah's Witnesses, what they believe, Muslims, what they believe. And so the point of this isn't to give an exhaustive discussion about everything in which a Muslim or a Mormon might believe, but just to give us some handles that we can hold on to in our brains as we discuss the gospel with them. I know for myself, sometimes if I see someone on the side of the road and let's say I know they're a Jehovah's Witness, you know, there was times in my life where I would say like, ah, well, I don't really want to engage with them because I don't really know what they believe and I don't know how to answer all their questions, so I'm just going to, you know, I'm not going to talk to them. Whereas with Mormons, I had a lot more understanding of Mormonism and I had talked to a lot more Mormons. When a Mormon would come to the door, I'd be like, ah, come on in guys, like you want to come in? I'll get you some water? I'm like, let's chat. Because I had a better understanding of the Mormon faith and I felt like I was ready to engage them. I felt like I was ready to have an answer for questions and try to point them to the gospel. And so the point of all of this is to equip us as a church, to equip us as saints, as we go out into the world, at your jobs, in your neighborhood, with your family members. We might not all have a Mormon cousin, but you probably have an atheistic coworker. And so being able to engage them with the gospel and feeling that you are equipped, and I know many of us are, many of us are, so I hope this will just be a supplemental help to you in that endeavor. And so we're going to begin working through these notes. And if you look at your notes, the first one is Islam. And I recognize that Islam is not huge in the Midwest, in Omaha, Nebraska in particular. For sure there are Muslims. I've talked to a few since we've been here, walking around different parts of Omaha, but you almost have to go and find them. But I'm sure that even, I know, I'm speaking to Dan Williams and others that there are coworkers even here in Omaha that are, hold to the Islamic faith. And so I want to walk through each one of these religions together, give us a little brief understanding of their history. And because Islam is so big, where we are in Mombasa, a large portion of Mombasa is Islamic. A lot of times you'll have Somalis in particular that we're working with. The father will be here working in America and he will, they'll live here as a family for many years, but eventually as the kids get older, they send their kids back to a place like Mombasa because it's not, you know, a war-torn place like Somalia, but there's a large Islamic influence there and they want their children to be brought under that Islamic influence. And so we'll have a lot of Somali Muslims that are there, the kids in the model are there, and they're being taught and trained in that Islamic culture, and while the dad is here in America working and supporting them. And so there's Muslims here and I hope I'm writing that. I hope, I know a lot of times we can be afraid of Muslims, but there's, for the most part, there's no reason for that theory. So what I want to do is spend a little bit more time on Islam because again, it's something that we have been very, very engaged in, spending many hours talking with Muslims, and so it will be a little bit more in-depth, but I will try to walk through this one quickly. So today for the Sunday School, September 24th, Understanding the Other Side, we're going to be looking at Islam and Mormonism. Just out of curiosity, just out of curiosity, how many of you have either, you know, neighbor, relative, co-worker, whatever, who is Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, or atheist? Just raise your hand. Just probably raise your hand. So at least somebody, right? There's somebody. Now if he just said Muslim, there might be like two hands that go up, but that's all right. We'll get to the others, okay? So very briefly, I'm going to try and be brief, okay? I was trying to be brief with these notes and they ended up being 11 pages, so not off to a good start, but that is all right. So as you've seen in your notes, Islam, A, the history of Muhammad, early life. So of course, whenever you speak of Islam, you're speaking of Muhammad, and so if you talk to any Muslim, they will talk to you about the prophet Muhammad, and then they'll go on to say, just be upon him and ramble on these Arabic blessings about his name, but Muhammad was born in AD 570 and he died in AD 632. And in his life, living in Saudi Arabia, born in the city of Mecca, he had a rough childhood. His parents both passed away as a young boy. As a six-year-old boy, he went off to live with his uncle, or his grandfather, and then as an eight-year-old, as his grandfather died, he went off to live with an uncle, and so he was kind of moved around from family to family. He joined in the family business of being a camel caravan driver, so he would go on all of these long trips across Saudi Arabia, Syria, with his uncle and others that they were working for, traveling all over the place, delivering goods. At that time, in Saudi Arabia, of course, at this time, it was not an Islamic country as we think of it today, but there was all sorts of Gnostic Christianity, which is no Christianity at all. It taught a dualistic type religion and many, many problems with some Judaism, other pagan religions, polytheism. There's just a hodgepodge of religion going on in Arabia at that time. And so Muhammad would have come across all of these things as he's traveling around, listening to stories, discussing with other people. The Quran itself tells us very little about Muhammad himself. We don't really understand much about Muhammad at all if you've got random passages that don't really connect with anything, and you have to have some sort of grid to really be able to understand that. And you find that grid within the other important literature in Islam, which are the Hadiths, the Sirat, and these other religious important books that give the traditions and the understanding of who Muhammad was and what he did and all of that. And so in the Islamic literature, we discover these things about Muhammad, where he was and what it was like for him growing up and these other things. And so you might think, okay, you know, the pastor's going through Quranicals, and so we don't really want to go through any more genealogies with Muhammad and figure out who his grandpa and all of those people were. And that's not the point of discussing him being moved around and all of these things. But it is important to note that Muhammad was exposed at a young age as he's traveling all over to various religions. He's hearing different stories as he's traveling around. He's hearing stories from Gnostic Christians, again, who are not Christians at all. And if you read and study the Quran, you find that Muhammad oftentimes quotes things in the Quran that he either thinks are biblical excerpts, or he thinks that they come from the Jewish scriptures in the Old Testament. But as a matter like the Arabic Infancy Gospel of Matthew and these other Gnostic gospels that no Christian would have accepted, what Muhammad quotes is that he believes that they are, in fact, the Christian scriptures. And so this happens time and time again. Muhammad thinks he's quoting from the Bible, but he's really quoting from the Jewish Talmud. And this happens oftentimes. And so the understanding that Muhammad had of Christianity is by no means what you and I, and so even if you read the Quran, you see that Muhammad believes that the Trinity, the Trinity that the Christians believe in is God the Father, Mary, and Jesus. Of course, no Christian believes that the triune God is made up of Mary, and not even, if you want to try to point the finger at Catholics or Orthodox, not even Catholics or Orthodox go so far as to worship Mary. And so there's just a, in many ways, a bad understanding, for lack of a better word, a bad understanding of Christianity within the mind of Muhammad. But at the age of 25, Muhammad is employed by a woman named Khadija. He starts running his own caravan. He eventually marries this woman, and then he begins, as we get on to point number two there, Quranic Revelation, Muhammad begins to really seek after God. He wants to worship God. He wants to know God. And Muhammad goes away. He begins to go into a mountain near Mecca. He goes up into the mountain. He goes into the cave, and there he's fasting. He's praying. He's seeking to know Allah, which is just the Arabic word for God. And he wants to know God. He's trying to have a closer relationship with him. And again, for the sake of time, we're not going to go into any lengthy accounts of Muhammad and the experience he had in the cave. But what happened as Muhammad is there praying and fasting is Muhammad says that there is an angel named Jibril, which is Gabriel. And Jibril comes to him and says, Muhammad, read. And Muhammad says, I can't read. And the angel says, well, first the angel squeezes him very hard. Muhammad says it hurts him. It squeezes him very hard. And it says again, read. And Muhammad says, I can't read. And so this goes on. It's kind of like, I don't know, a Three Stooges play. But Muhammad just keeps telling the angel, I don't know how to read. And the angel beats him up a little bit and tells him to read again. And it just goes on and on and on until eventually Muhammad, you know, starts to recite parts of the Qur'an that the angel Jibril is giving to him. And so this happens, and Muhammad comes home. As I'm quoting, I'm not quoting, but the place in which I'm getting this story from is from the Hadith, it's from the Surah, it's from the Islamic tradition itself. It's not some, you know, angry Christian writing from their seminary office saying like, ah, Muhammad was, you know, this crazy guy who's getting beat up by an angel as he's reciting the Qur'an. And this is all from the Qur'anic sources, Sahih al-Muslim, Sahih al-Bukhari, and so on. And so Muhammad then, he runs home to his wife, he hides under their covers, and he is petrified from what has happened. And he tells his wife, he's like, I don't know if I was meeting her with a demon or what happened, but it scared me and it hurt me and I don't know what happened. But his wife assures him, no, no, no, it was God, God is speaking to you, you should go back. And so Muhammad goes back, he continues to go back to this mountain, to this cave, and there he continues to receive revelations from this angel. And Muhammad goes on to say, this is a quote from, again, one of the Qur'anic, one of the Islamic resources here, Sirah Rasula, says, Muhammad is quoted as saying, I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So I went forth to do so. And then when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, oh, Muhammad, thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel. And so the Gabriel goes on to tell Muhammad, do not kill yourself, you're the apostle of God, you can't do this. But there's multiple times in the life of Muhammad while he is receiving Qur'anic revelations where he seeks to kill himself, he tries to throw himself off of the mountain. And furthermore, there's other accounts of people saying that at that time, Muhammad was possessed by a demon. So these are just some facts to keep in the back of our mind. As we think about this, even within the Qur'an, Surah, I had printed off, originally it was going to be in your notes, kind of a glossary of terms, because I know using a lot of these Surah and Ayah and all these type of things, you might not all know what that is, but Surah is just chapter and the Ayah is the verse. And so in the Qur'an, Surah Adam 1, 22 to 25, 69, 41 to 42, Muhammad is trying to refute the idea that he is demon-possessed. And so he's arguing against the Jews and the Christians and are saying like, nah, we don't think you're demon-possessed, man. And he's like, no, I'm not. And he's trying to argue against that idea. And so this is just kind of a bit of a background as to how the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad. And so we might ask the question, well, do you think that Muhammad was just making all these things up? Is he just a total, is this all just a fabrication of his mind? I personally believe that Muhammad was not just making these things up. If you look at the scriptures and you see in the Old or the New Testament, you see various times when angels appear to Abraham, Mary, the Lord Jesus, Isaiah, there's many encounters where angels come and speak. Even the angel of the Lord comes and speaks to people. And many times people recognize that, oh man, like I am speaking to an angel and they are startled and there is awe and wonder that is within them as they speak to an angel. Not always, but we never see an angel of God coming and beating somebody up and hurting them and then causing them to become depressed and wanting to kill themselves and so on. And so what I believe is that as you look at the life and the story of Muhammad receiving the Qur'anic revelations, his desire lines up much more with, as we read in the gospel, these, and again, not saying this to be crude or rude towards the Islamic faiths, but faith. But you see a herd of pigs when they are enveloped by demons, high-tempered toward the cliff and jumping off. We see Judas Iscariot, when he is the son of Perdition, when he is, it says, the Bible says that the devil goes into him and he betrays Christ and turns Christ over. Shortly thereafter, himself, Judas, killing, many believing, killing himself. And so it just doesn't seem that Muhammad truly had, of course we don't believe that Muhammad is a prophet of God, but it would be much more in line that, yes, Muhammad did have a revelation, but it was not from God, but rather, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 and 14, for such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism: Muslims and Mormons
"Of things, looking at how when we speak and reach out to those who are around us, specifically we'll be talking about Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and then atheists as well. What are some things that as we seek to point them to Christ, what are ways in which we can engage them well? And so we are going to do those things together here. And with anything that you talk about, especially other world religions, I know pastor has been going through different denominations in the morning and kind of looking at some different aspects of denominations. I thought this would kind of be somewhat in line with that, looking at other religions and ones that are a little bit more common to you and I, maybe some less than others, but how is it that we can engage with them well? And of course, many things can be said about Jehovah's Witnesses, what they believe, Muslims, what they believe. And so the point of this isn't to give an exhaustive discussion about everything in which a Muslim or a Mormon might believe, but just to give us some handles that we can hold on to in our brains as we discuss the gospel with them. I know for myself, sometimes if I see someone on the side of the road and let's say I know they're a Jehovah's Witness, you know, there was times in my life where I would say like, ah, well, I don't really want to engage with them because I don't really know what they believe and I don't know how to answer all their questions, so I'm just going to, you know, I'm not going to talk to them. Whereas with Mormons, I had a lot more understanding of Mormonism and I had talked to a lot more Mormons. When a Mormon would come to the door, I'd be like, ah, come on in guys, like you want to come in? I'll get you some water? I'm like, let's chat. Because I had a better understanding of the Mormon faith and I felt like I was ready to engage them. I felt like I was ready to have an answer for questions and try to point them to the gospel. And so the point of all of this is to equip us as a church, to equip us as saints, as we go out into the world, at your jobs, in your neighborhood, with your family members. We might not all have a Mormon cousin, but you probably have an atheistic coworker. And so being able to engage them with the gospel and feeling that you are equipped, and I know many of us are, many of us are, so I hope this will just be a supplemental help to you in that endeavor. And so we're going to begin working through these notes. And if you look at your notes, the first one is Islam. And I recognize that Islam is not huge in the Midwest, in Omaha, Nebraska in particular. For sure there are Muslims. I've talked to a few since we've been here, walking around different parts of Omaha, but you almost have to go and find them. But I'm sure that even, I know, I'm speaking to Dan Williams and others that there are coworkers even here in Omaha that are, hold to the Islamic faith. And so I want to walk through each one of these religions together, give us a little brief understanding of their history. And because Islam is so big, where we are in Mombasa, a large portion of Mombasa is Islamic. A lot of times you'll have Somalis in particular that we're working with. The father will be here working in America and he will, they'll live here as a family for many years, but eventually as the kids get older, they send their kids back to a place like Mombasa because it's not, you know, a war -torn place like Somalia, but there's a large Islamic influence there and they want their children to be brought under that Islamic influence. And so we'll have a lot of Somali Muslims that are there, the kids in the model are there, and they're being taught and trained in that Islamic culture, and while the dad is here in America working and supporting them. And so there's Muslims here and I hope I'm writing that. I hope, I know a lot of times we can be afraid of Muslims, but there's, for the most part, there's no reason for that theory. So what I want to do is spend a little bit more time on Islam because again, it's something that we have been very, very engaged in, spending many hours talking with Muslims, and so it will be a little bit more in -depth, but I will try to walk through this one quickly. So today for the Sunday School, September 24th, Understanding the Other Side, we're going to be looking at Islam and Mormonism. Just out of curiosity, just out of curiosity, how many of you have either, you know, neighbor, relative, co -worker, whatever, who is Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, or atheist? Just raise your hand. Just probably raise your hand. So at least somebody, right? There's somebody. Now if he just said Muslim, there might be like two hands that go up, but that's all right. We'll get to the others, okay? So very briefly, I'm going to try and be brief, okay? I was trying to be brief with these notes and they ended up being 11 pages, so not off to a good start, but that is all right. So as you've seen in your notes, Islam, A, the history of Muhammad, early life. So of course, whenever you speak of Islam, you're speaking of Muhammad, and so if you talk to any Muslim, they will talk to you about the prophet Muhammad, and then they'll go on to say, just be upon him and ramble on these Arabic blessings about his name, but Muhammad was born in AD 570 and he died in AD 632. And in his life, living in Saudi Arabia, born in the city of Mecca, he had a rough childhood. His parents both passed away as a young boy. As a six -year -old boy, he went off to live with his uncle, or his grandfather, and then as an eight -year -old, as his grandfather died, he went off to live with an uncle, and so he was kind of moved around from family to family. He joined in the family business of being a camel caravan driver, so he would go on all of these long trips across Saudi Arabia, Syria, with his uncle and others that they were working for, traveling all over the place, delivering goods. At that time, in Saudi Arabia, of course, at this time, it was not an Islamic country as we think of it today, but there was all sorts of Gnostic Christianity, which is no Christianity at all. It taught a dualistic type religion and many, many problems with some Judaism, other pagan religions, polytheism. There's just a hodgepodge of religion going on in Arabia at that time. And so Muhammad would have come across all of these things as he's traveling around, listening to stories, discussing with other people. The Quran itself tells us very little about Muhammad himself. We don't really understand much about Muhammad at all if you've got random passages that don't really connect with anything, and you have to have some sort of grid to really be able to understand that. And you find that grid within the other important literature in Islam, which are the Hadiths, the Sirat, and these other religious important books that give the traditions and the understanding of who Muhammad was and what he did and all of that. And so in the Islamic literature, we discover these things about Muhammad, where he was and what it was like for him growing up and these other things. And so you might think, okay, you know, the pastor's going through Quranicals, and so we don't really want to go through any more genealogies with Muhammad and figure out who his grandpa and all of those people were. And that's not the point of discussing him being moved around and all of these things. But it is important to note that Muhammad was exposed at a young age as he's traveling all over to various religions. He's hearing different stories as he's traveling around. He's hearing stories from Gnostic Christians, again, who are not Christians at all. And if you read and study the Quran, you find that Muhammad oftentimes quotes things in the Quran that he either thinks are biblical excerpts, or he thinks that they come from the Jewish scriptures in the Old Testament. But as a matter like the Arabic Infancy Gospel of Matthew and these other Gnostic gospels that no Christian would have accepted, what Muhammad quotes is that he believes that they are, in fact, the Christian scriptures. And so this happens time and time again. Muhammad thinks he's quoting from the Bible, but he's really quoting from the Jewish Talmud. And this happens oftentimes. And so the understanding that Muhammad had of Christianity is by no means what you and I, and so even if you read the Quran, you see that Muhammad believes that the Trinity, the Trinity that the Christians believe in is God the Father, Mary, and Jesus. Of course, no Christian believes that the triune God is made up of Mary, and not even, if you want to try to point the finger at Catholics or Orthodox, not even Catholics or Orthodox go so far as to worship Mary. And so there's just a, in many ways, a bad understanding, for lack of a better word, a bad understanding of Christianity within the mind of Muhammad. But at the age of 25, Muhammad is employed by a woman named Khadija. He starts running his own caravan. He eventually marries this woman, and then he begins, as we get on to point number two there, Quranic Revelation, Muhammad begins to really seek after God. He wants to worship God. He wants to know God. And Muhammad goes away. He begins to go into a mountain near Mecca. He goes up into the mountain. He goes into the cave, and there he's fasting. He's praying. He's seeking to know Allah, which is just the Arabic word for God. And he wants to know God. He's trying to have a closer relationship with him. And again, for the sake of time, we're not going to go into any lengthy accounts of Muhammad and the experience he had in the cave. But what happened as Muhammad is there praying and fasting is Muhammad says that there is an angel named Jibril, which is Gabriel. And Jibril comes to him and says, Muhammad, read. And Muhammad says, I can't read. And the angel says, well, first the angel squeezes him very hard. Muhammad says it hurts him. It squeezes him very hard. And it says again, read. And Muhammad says, I can't read. And so this goes on. It's kind of like, I don't know, a Three Stooges play. But Muhammad just keeps telling the angel, I don't know how to read. And the angel beats him up a little bit and tells him to read again. And it just goes on and on and on until eventually Muhammad, you know, starts to recite parts of the Qur 'an that the angel Jibril is giving to him. And so this happens, and Muhammad comes home. As I'm quoting, I'm not quoting, but the place in which I'm getting this story from is from the Hadith, it's from the Surah, it's from the Islamic tradition itself. It's not some, you know, angry Christian writing from their seminary office saying like, ah, Muhammad was, you know, this crazy guy who's getting beat up by an angel as he's reciting the Qur 'an. And this is all from the Qur 'anic sources, Sahih al -Muslim, Sahih al -Bukhari, and so on. And so Muhammad then, he runs home to his wife, he hides under their covers, and he is petrified from what has happened. And he tells his wife, he's like, I don't know if I was meeting her with a demon or what happened, but it scared me and it hurt me and I don't know what happened. But his wife assures him, no, no, no, it was God, God is speaking to you, you should go back. And so Muhammad goes back, he continues to go back to this mountain, to this cave, and there he continues to receive revelations from this angel. And Muhammad goes on to say, this is a quote from, again, one of the Qur 'anic, one of the Islamic resources here, Sirah Rasula, says, Muhammad is quoted as saying, I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So I went forth to do so. And then when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, oh, Muhammad, thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel. And so the Gabriel goes on to tell Muhammad, do not kill yourself, you're the apostle of God, you can't do this. But there's multiple times in the life of Muhammad while he is receiving Qur 'anic revelations where he seeks to kill himself, he tries to throw himself off of the mountain. And furthermore, there's other accounts of people saying that at that time, Muhammad was possessed by a demon. So these are just some facts to keep in the back of our mind. As we think about this, even within the Qur 'an, Surah, I had printed off, originally it was going to be in your notes, kind of a glossary of terms, because I know using a lot of these Surah and Ayah and all these type of things, you might not all know what that is, but Surah is just chapter and the Ayah is the verse. And so in the Qur 'an, Surah Adam 1, 22 to 25, 69, 41 to 42, Muhammad is trying to refute the idea that he is demon -possessed. And so he's arguing against the Jews and the Christians and are saying like, nah, we don't think you're demon -possessed, man. And he's like, no, I'm not. And he's trying to argue against that idea. And so this is just kind of a bit of a background as to how the Qur 'an was revealed to Muhammad. And so we might ask the question, well, do you think that Muhammad was just making all these things up? Is he just a total, is this all just a fabrication of his mind? I personally believe that Muhammad was not just making these things up. If you look at the scriptures and you see in the Old or the New Testament, you see various times when angels Abraham, appear to Mary, the Lord Jesus, Isaiah, there's many encounters where angels come and speak. Even the angel of the Lord comes and speaks to people. And many times people recognize that, oh man, like I am speaking to an angel and they are startled and there is awe and wonder that is within them as they speak to an angel. Not always, but we never see an angel of God coming and beating somebody up and hurting them and then causing them to become depressed and wanting to kill themselves and so on. And so what I believe is that as you look at the life and the story of Muhammad receiving the Qur 'anic revelations, his desire lines up much more with, as we read in the gospel, these, and again, not saying this to be crude or rude towards the Islamic faiths, but faith. But you see a herd of pigs when they are enveloped by demons, high -tempered toward the cliff and jumping off. We see Judas Iscariot, when he is the son of Perdition, when he is, it says, the Bible says that the devil goes into him and he betrays Christ and turns Christ over. Shortly thereafter, himself, Judas, killing, many believing, killing himself. And so it just doesn't seem that Muhammad truly had, of course we don't believe that Muhammad is a prophet of God, but it would be much more in line that, yes, Muhammad did have a revelation, but it was not from God, but rather, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 and 14, for such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
The Eric Metaxas Show
"Mother Theresa and Me" With Actress Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz
"Back. It's my privilege to be speaking with the actress and producer Jacqueline Vricci Cornaz. I keep trying. You were just telling us the story of so so this film Mother Teresa and me. There are two storylines. One is the story of Mother Teresa whom you play in the film, but the second storyline involves this girl you were just telling about telling us about named Kavita and so that's happening in a contemporary time. In other words, this is she when she goes to Calcutta and she meets the Sisters of Mercy. She does not meet Mother Teresa because this is years after the passing of Mother Teresa. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. There is one moment actually where Mother Teresa holds her in her arms when she you know took her out of a burning hut. So as a baby Kavita she's in the arms of Mother Teresa, but I don't want to tell more about Kavita because it's it's so interesting. I think for the audiences to discover themselves the whole Calcutta story because and Mother Teresa really changes the life of this young woman. Well, it's interesting you talk about. I don't know how you phrased it, but Mother Teresa was you know putting her faith into action and this is a big thing. The the the great Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer about whom I've written this was his central idea. If you can boil things down was that unless you're living out your faith, you really don't have faith. You have to live it out. You have to put it into action and in a way when you put your faith into action, it deepens your faith and so it's kind of a conundrum because it's it's the two go together and I think a lot of times the tragedy of many Protestants or evangelicals because I wrote a biography also about Martin Luther is to say it's just faith as though it's this intellectual thing and they forget that I must put it into action. Otherwise, perhaps I have no real faith and so it's an important idea and I'm so I'm excited that in this film you give people an opportunity to see that because that's something that people often think of Christianity as just a series of doctrines or beliefs and that's not right. Well, on one hand, of course, we see Mother Teresa as a Christian as a Catholic nun, but we also feel this universal energy of love because this nanny of Kavita, she says, you know, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, we all need the same love and I think that's the main message of the film because our world needs a lot of love to you know to develop and to overcome all the film doesn't take a position, but it wants to inspire people to live with more love in action.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Missions and Evangelism 101: The "What"
"Word of God. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Thus far the reading of God's Word, brothers and sisters in Christ, you probably know that the word gospel means good news. You, most of you probably know this. When this concept is used in the Bible, it speaks of the proclamation that whatever was wrong has now been made right. And just a very brief survey of this in the Old Testament, perhaps the most famous passage and well -known passage for the concept of the gospel is found in Isaiah 52 verse 7. It goes like this, how beautiful upon the mountains, now keep a, put a pause on that phrase right there, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who says to Zion your God reigns. It's upon the mountains. You get this picture that's there that the runner is taking his position on perhaps the tallest peak of whatever mountain is around Jerusalem and he's shouting to everybody your God reigns. In other words it's a very public thing. It's not a private thing. It has to do there with the announcement that the exiles are returned from captivity. Yay! It's a very public thing. He's got thousands of people right there right behind him or a couple hours they're gonna storm your city and it's a good thing. This is how we know that your God reigns. In the time of the New Testament it refers to a person who was designated to run or sail in front of an army that just won the battle against the enemy. And the guy would call out to the city in very similar terms, we've won! I don't know if he would fist pump or anything like that but this person who would bring good news, he was referred to in the New Testament times as an evangelist, the one who brings good news. He would bring good news of victory for the good guys, good news of defeat for the bad guys and there'd be this kind of nonverbal understanding that everybody okay if you're not a part of that city if you're not a part of that country there would be this nonverbal understanding that y 'all better get your act together right and get in line with this king who just won this victory. This message of victory would then bring confidence that you belong to the right king and he can defend you and he can fight your battles for you. I mean what a good news, what a sense of confidence that you would have in your king who just fought for you. We've been thinking about how the church heralds this gospel of Jesus Christ for a number of weeks now largely because of the Boardwalk Chapel trip and if you were here last week you kind of got a little snippet of what our students did out there. They sang the gospel, we showed a little program of a little bit of what we do there with singing of the gospel, they did skits that are based upon the gospel, you've seen how they've evangelized to me, even as I played the role of someone who they, an average person who they would normally find out in the boards and stuff like that, and how they led me to Christ. This is something of the product of what we've been meditating on for a bit now. Firstly we've seen the why of missions and evangelism. Why is it that we do missions and evangelism in the first place? We saw firstly that that it has to do with the mission itself. We also saw that it has to do with, which by the way the mission as we saw in Ephesians 1, it begins firstly primarily in the mind of God. Okay and then moving out a little bit farther we've seen this because of the mandate that that we have and the means that we have in order to do it. And then we moved on to think of the how of missions and evangelism, just how is it that this is to be done? Well we're to do it with confidence, with readiness and joy. Oh tonight we're going to be looking at the what of missions and evangelism, particularly evangelism for us. In other words okay pastor I get I get it. I get the philosophy of it. I get the theology behind it. I understand kind of the head knowledge that the conversion of the sinner is on God's terms and it's according to God's provision. It's according to his means. Okay I get I get this. And I also get the sociology. I also get the psychology of that it that I need to be confident. I need to be sure in the success of God's plan that I should be ready, that I should be joyful in doing this. Okay I get that. But what do I say? What is it that that I say or what are the basic kind of basal concepts that are in that that should be in my mind to inform me or kind of orient me towards evangelistic activity? Just what do I do? What do I say? Well that'll be on tonight's agenda. The what of missions and evangelism. And there's many ways to do this, many programs available. I suppose you could get kind of just pick one that suits you best. But what we'll be doing just tonight is to survey the most basic, the three most basic concepts that should be on your mind in the work of evangelism particularly. Firstly as it is written in your bulletin, the power of the law. Secondly the problem of the heart. And then thirdly the provision of the gospel. And to start our first point I want us I want to emphasize something to you. Take a look again at Ephesians chapter 2. I want to overemphasize this to you that Ephesians chapter 2 is my personal go -to location for whenever I share the gospel or whenever I have to think about something with a gospel lens. Ephesians 2 is my go -to. This is perhaps my number one passage that I most often go to for all things gospel related. So if you want to put a star on this page or perhaps put a perpetual bookmark here or whatever you will be very well served in knowing this passage, knowing the address of this passage. I've turned to this passage many times on many occasions with all manner of people coming from all kinds of backgrounds. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, so -called progressive Christians, many many others. I found that this passage at least for me most sufficiently expresses the end the essence of the gospel. I've also found that it handles a lot of errors and misunderstandings about the gospel as well. We can say that Ephesians chapter 2, this passage that we just read out of just a second ago, gives us a fulsome and yet digestible survey of the entirety of the Christian experience which makes this passage fit the book of Ephesians rather well actually might I say. It fits the book of Ephesians as a whole very very well. This book, mind you, doesn't have a specified reason for it being written. It's about the basics of the Christian life and our unity with with Christ, our union with Christ, and our unity with one another. And so this passage fits this book very well. So all that to say that I highly commend to you this passage for your reference. There's other passages like this but please have this very passage for your quick reference memory. But for the power of the law, we're looking at the power of the law right now, we come to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, our passage which says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Well the first order of business in terms of the what of evangelism, at least when I do it, is the exposure of a life that's lived in defiance of God. You got to expose, we got to expose a life that is lived in defiance of God. In other words, we start with what's most obvious, that there are trespasses and sins in which the unconverted currently walk and by which they are characterized. They're known in the Bible as those who commit trespasses, those who commit sins. Now the technical difference, mind you, between trespasses and sins is something of the knowledge and their wilfulness. A sin in the Bible is a missing of a target, that's what a sin is. It's when someone tries to do the right thing but can't quite get there because of some default, they fall short of what they're supposed to do, they fall short of the glory of God, they fall short of what they're striving for, it's a missing of the target. A trespass on the other hand is an overstepping of a known boundary, it's an overstepping of a known boundary. It's an awareness that something is right and yet they want to do whatever is opposed to it anyways and they end up doing that. In short, technically, sins are when people don't do what they're supposed to do and trespasses are when people do what they're not supposed to do. Now the authors of the Bible don't always bring this distinction out all the time, mainly because they're making other points. I'm thinking of 1st John 3 verse 4. John there says sin is transgression of the law, he doesn't make that distinction as apparent right there as Paul does in this this passage. He's making another point in that very passage but here in our passage Paul highlights the relationship between the two. Now the big question that underlies this very passage is the question, what determines sin? What determines sin? How do you know what constitutes a transgression? And this is where the power of the law comes in really handy. Just as in verse 2 you see you're following the course of this of this world, the spirit is now at work and the sons of disobedience. Just as disobedience can only rightly be demarcated by whatever obedience looks like, sins can only be known in reference to the law of God, specifically in the Ten Commandments. Okay, sins can only be known in reference to the law of God, particularly in the Ten Commandments. So what we have here is that any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law means that something is sinful. And so how do you apply this to evangelism? Well we start with the power of the law that exposes sin. Usually I say something like this to someone, have you ever lied? It's a very cut -and -dry sort of question, have you both have told lies before? Okay, have you ever hated someone? Matthew chapter 2 chapter 5 verse 22, Jesus says that if you've hated anyone, as a matter of fact if you've even called them a fool, you've committed murder in the eyes of God. So we've lied, we've also committed murder in God's eyes. Have you ever used God's name in vain? God calls that blasphemy, right? So we've lied, even if it's a if the of use the name of God as something that's a throwaway statement. That's tantamount to blasphemy. It's taking the name of God in vain in the Hebrew literally means as though it were nothing. It were a thing of vanity. It's just like anything else. So using the name of God as a throwaway term, which our culture is very, it's a very popular thing to do nowadays, that's the essence of breaking that commandment to take the name of God, to not take the name of God in vain. That's called blasphemy. So we've lied, we've murdered, we've committed blasphemy in God's eyes, and we could keep going I suppose in order to show that we've done all manner of things according to the Ten Commandments. We've committed adultery, we've coveted, we violated the Sabbath, we've dishonored our parents and so on. The law of God is able to expose sins for exactly what they are. Now this is a tactic that I do. I kind of hang out there for a little bit, okay. I kind of hang out there for a little bit in order to drive the sentence of guilt to their hearts from the from the mouth of God himself, from the very law of God. I kind of hang out there in order so that they they know they come into personal contact with the sins that they've committed. So the law therefore is a base indicator that kind of equalizes everyone out and determines that all people everywhere have sinned, all people everywhere have transgressed the law of God, and all people everywhere are in need of grace and mercy. This is where you start with the power of the law. Secondly we move on to the next related point, the problem of the heart. Verse 3, here we see something of a progression of sorts. It continues from the previous verse where we read of the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. In the last couple of verses that that we considered understand we that the law of God has the ability to call sin exactly what it is. The law of God has the power to call sin, sin. Therefore we know that our actions are sinful in some way. In other words we've either not lived up to the commands of God or we've willfully broken it. However I want you to see that there's a progression here in that verse 3 diagnoses the reason why we've acted in disobedience it's because it's what comes most natural to us. And the reason why it's most natural to us is because there is a problem with our hearts. That's the reason. There's a problem with our hearts, the innermost aspects of our being. God doesn't merely recognize us outside of Christ as quote people who commit trespasses and sins, right? Even particular ones. As much as he recognizes those outside of Christ as sinners, transgressors. In other words as Saint Augustine says we don't we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. Again we don't sin I'm we're sinners. In my version of it sin indicates that someone is a sinner. It's far worse to be a sinner than it is to have committed sin in God's eyes. And we can see this in our passage here. Namely that we all as the passage says once lived in the passions of our flesh. Now that doesn't mean that you know the body is a bad thing or you know to have a desire is is a bad thing or something like like that. He means when he says this this phrase he means that the passions of our flesh stand in stark contrast to the will of God. And it's the passions of our flesh that produce the transgressions and the sins in which we once walked. In other words the corruption of the heart is the very standpoint from which all actual sins take place. Most commonly we refer to this as original sin which is the problem of the heart. Original sin is the problem of the heart. That is we inherit or we are imputed with as the theological term the guilt and the corruption of Adam's first sin to us. His sin nature becomes ours by being from Adam's line under his headship. And this means that when we sin we sin out of our own sin nature. Again original sin is the position of the heart. It is the problem of the heart that all of us had which affects all aspects of all of our being. I say I usually say this that that sins are not as great as sin is. And this forms for us mind you one of the strongest standpoints that again flattens the whole of humanity out so that every single one of us are in one box. Makes really it makes things very convenient that sins the sins that are pointed out by the law of God indicates that we are sinners. The problem has never been any one sin. The problem has never been any one transgression that has kept us from the grace of God. It's our whole sinful nature that is itself the problem. And so long as the sin nature is there as long as verse 3 says as long as we are by nature children of identifies us as rebels and therefore we're we become worthy recipients of his wrath and curse. So how do I bring this to people? I'm glad you asked. How do we know what do we say? I begin something by saying yes if you've lied you've stolen you've blasphemed in God's eyes you've murdered you probably have done a lot more things and you've most likely done them knowing that they're wrong. You know why that is? You know why you've acted in this way? You know why you have done this? It's because that you have a heart that produces wickedness. Jesus says in Mark chapter 7 verse 21 out of the heart comes evil thoughts out of the heart comes sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these things come from within and they defile a person.
Crypto Critics' Corner
A highlight from SBF Deserves Human Rights
"Welcome back everyone. I am Cass P. Ancy. I'm joined as usual by my partner in crime, Mr. Bennett Tomlin. We're both good today. We have already recorded an episode, so we're dumping in... dumping in? That's probably the wrong way to put it. Get him out! What happened to the other? Can't even stop it! The episode's just sliding through its walls! We're pouring trash out of our mouths! We're vomiting and spewing all over you. Hey, works are all in! Not the way I wanted to start this episode, but there you go. Welcome back everyone. We're going to be talking about a subject that I wrote an op -ed about, and Bennett wrote a piece about as well in the newsletter for Protos. Something we both seem to care about that the reaction to was pretty mixed. Honestly, I expected more vitriol for my statement, but yeah, it was pretty mixed. Some people liked it, some people hated it. We're both making the argument that while it is pretty funny, in a sense, to see SPF struggling and in pain, I think everybody gets some real value out of that in terms of they're like, yes! A guy who's hurt so many people, and legitimately, right? This guy has damaged thousands of people, probably ruined dozens if not hundreds of people's lives for a significant, if not forever, amount of time. So seeing him in pain, people are enjoying a lot. But I think that it's a more important point that's being stated by him. And basically, he went to court and said that he's not getting his medications on time. He's on, as far as we know, I don't know how many medications he's on, but we know for sure that he's on NSAAM, and he's on Adderall. Now, Adderall, I'm sure most people are familiar with. It's for treatment of ADHD and some other mental disorders. NSAAM is a pretty serious drug, as far as I can tell, in terms of its effects on you. And it seems like he's taking a lot of it, for both of them. For both the, I guess I don't know, I don't know, I'm not a doctor, I don't know what a lot is. Basically, he's not getting his drugs, and he's not getting the vegan meals he wants. He wants vegan meals, and he's not getting those vegan meals, because I guess the prison system is basically like, why should he? He's not special. But therein lies the problem, which is, don't you think prisoners should be getting the medical treatment they need? And don't you think they should be getting basic food given to them, even if it's something demanded like vegan food or vegetarian food? Yeah, why don't you get us started off on that? No, I think this issue is kind of multifactorial and multifaceted, and I understand why a lot of people are having the feelings they're having. And so first I want to acknowledge that Sam Bankman -Fried's experience with the justice system has been one very much shaped by his privilege, right? Like he was able to find the people to put up his massive bond, and even after like repeated bail violations connecting with the VPN, doing all these other things, he remained free until he started doing what I'm not going to say is legally witness tampering, because I'm not a prosecutor, but that feels a lot like witness intimidation. As soon as he started doing that, now he has to go back to prison. In case anyone is unfamiliar, let me stop you right there. In case anyone is unfamiliar, just so you understand, Sam Bankman -Fried released Caroline Ellison's personal diaries. Now Caroline Ellison was the head of trading over at Alameda Research at the time of the collapse, and he released these very personal kind of sensational diaries to the New York Times, which is just wild, as you said, like he had been reprimanded before for his bail violations and kind of pulled to, he was skating on thin ice already. And I do get why people are like, well, if you didn't want to go back to jail and get treated like crap, maybe you should have thought about that. Understood. But anyway, sorry, I just wanted to give, paint a little color there. Like that's absolutely true. Sam Bankman -Fried was lucky to get the bail conditions he did and should not have been violating them. And repeated violation of bail means he should be in pretrial detention. And like one of the other things that's come up is Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional lawyer, wrote a motion, wrote a letter to the court describing Sam Bankman -Fried's treatment and like insisted that if Sam Bankman -Fried were to be detained, where he was talking about being detained, not having access to a computer would make preparing his defense much more difficult and that represented like a potential constitutional issue. And I think there's a bit of merit there. But, and this gets into like the bigger problem here, that these problems are so much bigger than Sam Bankman -Fried, right? Like not just Sam Bankman -Fried should be able to get their medications and like a diet in accordance with their moral wishes. Everyone being held in pretrial detention is presumed innocent until proven guilty. These are people who deserve to be, like, to have reasonable standards while they're being detained, should have access to things that help them prepare their defenses, should be able to receive medications they need, and the United States justice system fails to provide that for such a vast number of inmates, including, because he is there right now, Sam Bankman -Fried. Yeah, I mean, I think actually part of this for me calls into attention how serious the issues are in the justice and penal systems of the United States of America, right? Because here we have possibly one of the most famous white collar criminals of all time, not just of the past year or two, of all time. He's up there with Elizabeth Holmes and Bernie Madoff. Like this guy is going to go down in history as one of the biggest financial scammers and possibly, allegedly, maybe he'll get off and no crimes were committed in fucking La La Land. But anyway, my point here being that this guy is as big as it gets. And the fact he's still being mistreated in prison or in, sorry, excuse me, in pretrial detention in jail speaks to how broken the system because imagine how the people with no voice are doing right now. Imagine how the people who don't have money to pay for bail even, so end up in prison or in jail for weeks, if not months before they go to trial. Like these are real issues that are happening every day to millions of people, not just SBF. And that's the important part of this. That's why I'm glad there's some attention being brought to it, whether or not people agree with whether SBF should be given these basic human rights. I think he should. Whether other people think so, I guess is just how angry they are with him. Yeah, I especially understand why like other people who have had experiences with the criminal justice system might end up feeling particularly frustrated themselves because they'll be, they may see it as, I had it even worse than that and I didn't even steal $9 billion from my customers, you know? And so I certainly understand there's lots of reasons for lots of people to be lashing out, but like you said, fundamentally the thing is people deserve rights. They deserve to have access to these things that help them form their defenses and they deserve a strenuous defense on their behalf in the justice system. And those things are important, those things, we should strive to provide those to everyone. And everyone happens to include him. Yes, and a lot of these issues are totally fixable as far as I'm concerned. Like vegan meals, there's a lot of people pushing back on my statements about that. I was like, oh, give him his vegan meals, just give it to him. Everyone's like, well, he doesn't necessarily deserve to have, it's not like it's covered by the Constitution. And i .e. there are prisoners who are Jewish or Muslim in prison who are given kosher meals and halal meals, right? To meet their religious needs. The pushback for the veganism that I heard was, well, this isn't a religious thing. I want to push back on that and just say one, vegan meals are incredibly easy to cook. We're talking about rice, bread and vegetables. Like if you're not already, if you don't already have those things available for prisoners, there's a problem. All of those ingredients should be actively there for you to be able to make this thing. I know that they make vegetarian meals for vegetarian, probably because there's Hindu prisoners, and some of them need to follow strict vegetarian meals and guidelines, right? But we are equipped to handle this. We have the money, we have the rules and regulations in place that this should not be an issue. It's crazy to me to push back on the idea that this guy can eat vegan food in prison. The thing I want to highlight there is there often are legal protections for people with sincerely held religious beliefs to get access to certain things, like you're talking about kosher halal and things like that, and often our prison system fails to do what it's legally supposed to in many of those cases as well. Again, this is just an example of the pattern and history of human rights abuses across the U .S. penal system. There's a reason international human rights organizations regularly raise alarms about the U .S. prison system, and it's because there are regular and massive human rights abuses in our prison system. Yep, and that brings up another point that I brought up, which is people I think like to assume like, oh, well, this guy's a big fucking scammer. He deserves to rot in jail and get shivved and get treated like shit. I hope that's what happens. And I go, okay, just for some perspective here, 5 % of the entire U .S. population is going to spend some time behind bars. So if you're not the one who ends up in jail at some point or in prison at some point, someone you know absolutely will, 100 % sure, 100 % sure, right? If you go outside and meet people, someone you know will go to jail or prison. Do you want them to be treated respectfully and with dignity, or do you not give a shit? Do you really think like anyone who's in jail, anyone who's in prison deserves the worst kind of treatment? It's time to reflect on these things, you know? We live in a society. It's true, though. Like we shouldn't be, the fact that it's such punitive measures, right, instead of worrying about recidivism, instead of worrying about rehabilitation, instead of worrying about making sure that these people don't repeat their fucking problems when they go back into society, we're focused on hurting people as much as possible. And the reality is, if Sam Bankman Freed gets 15 years in prison or something, 10, 15, 20, and is treated like horseshit the entire time, like no human rights, do you think he's going to come out a like capable and reasonable human being? At least if you try to rehabilitate him, he's not necessarily going to be as bad. At least you can say you tried. Like just damaging someone repeatedly, we know what that does to people. So I just don't understand this at all. And I think people need to reevaluate their, like vengeance is just so easy. And I think people really need to reevaluate where their morals and ethics lie when it comes to this. I get it. It's easy to hate SPF. He is a total scammer. He lies constantly. The dude cannot open his mouth and speak any honest truth for years on end. He's like, his behavior is disgusting. He's as despicable as it gets without getting into like murder and other horrifying crimes. Right. He's disgusting. Fine. He's also a human being. Like, I don't know, man. It just the reaction was just so it was kind of like, man, I don't understand how so many people think this is acceptable. Yeah. And like that's what you're up with. Ed was about. And there was definitely a lot of people who agree that human beings deserve treatment as human beings, which is good. The other thing I want to talk about besides this, which is also something we talked about a little bit in our Reggie Fowler episode, if people want to go back and listen to that. There's been still conspiracy theories about Sam Bankman Fried and his ongoing criminal prosecution, including the fact that as part of our extradition treaty with the Bahamas, we have certain responsibilities about when charges are introduced and when people are extradited. And those were not necessarily followed with Sam Bankman Fried, which has since required certain charges to be removed from the current trial date. And the allegations either incorporated in to other existing charges or other charges are pending reintroduction for months down the line. Yes. And so those charges are not really going away. And as we've talked about before in the case of Sam Bankman Fried, if prosecutors really wanted, they could go through and add one wire fraud charge for like every single person who sent money to Alameda Research under like the false pretenses that it was going to FTX or something. Right. And so prosecutors can and potentially will still scale up his prosecution in the future if that's what they think is justified and appropriate. So I've just been a little bit frustrated with some of the conspiracy theories around those dropping of charges. And like the other thing I want to emphasize, just to kind of make sure people understand this, just because Sam Bankman Fried is pleading not guilty right now does not mean he will continue to plead not guilty. Often you are required to plead not guilty initially, even if you think you are guilty, just because like the system's not ready for you to plead guilty yet. And like that's an actual thing that exists. And I want to be clear here, too. If you have a capable legal team behind you, which as far as I know he does, you're generally not going to plead guilty right away. Why? Well, you're not going to get anything in return, right? If they don't offer you anything and you go, I plead guilty. Well, they're going to accept your guilty plea and they are going to hang you from the gallows. You've got to get something in return. And to get something in return, you're going to play a little bit of a game. And that, unfortunately, whether we like it or not, is a part of the legal system. Right. So you have to have something for them, for you to plead guilty, give them something and them to be like, OK, well, then we'll cut you a deal. And that's what SPF is hoping will happen. That doesn't mean that's what happens. That doesn't mean he gets only five years or only 10 years or who knows. But that's what SPF wants to happen. And we don't know if it will. Yeah. Sam Bankman Fried's goal, as far as I can tell right now, is basically to muddy the waters, cast doubt on key witnesses and the evidence they're introducing. Try to place the blame like his mens rea, his head state for many of these decisions. Say that that state was induced by legal counsel and other things to make it so that prosecutors don't want to add more charges. That'll be hard to prove. So that, like you're saying, he can eventually come up with some deal where he shares whatever information he does have in exchange for a reduced sentence. Yada, yada, yada. That's the meta probably of what his team is planning to do. The other thing I want to emphasize to people is from where I'm sitting, and again, we're not lawyers, we're definitely not prosecutors, we're not experts. But it seems quite likely to me that Sam Bankman Fried is going to prison for much longer than Sam Bankman Fried would want to go to prison. Any time is more than he wants. Yeah, but there are already guilty pleas from almost all the rest of like the top executives at FTX. They have full cooperation, access to all the communications, like all the text messages, all the records, all the logs. They have such an over what, four million pages or something was the initial like discovery they're sending over to him. There are massive quantities of evidence, powerful cooperating witnesses, like he's in a really bad place. And that's just for evidence. I want people to understand that. This is just, we're just saying like, oh shit, there's a lot of evidence against this guy. So he's in trouble on that front. But I want to point people to a recent guilty white collar criminal, Elizabeth Holmes, okay? She is going to be doing nine years in a federal prison, okay? She just had her second baby. She was pregnant during the trial. If that isn't going to win you some, you know, benefit of the doubt and some, oh my gosh, well at least, you know, she's a mother now. We got to make sure that she's able to spend time with her kids and they don't grow up without a mom and blah, blah, blah. She's doing nine years behind bars for her crimes. She didn't hurt nearly as many people as Sam Bankman Fried. She only hurt mostly just very wealthy people. So like in terms of that, just reflect on that, right? That's nine years for someone who did essentially a smaller fraud that hurt less people and is a more sympathetic character. You think SPF is going to get off? Fucking wake up, dude. There's not a chance in the world. I'll bet anyone. If you think he's not going to, if you think he's genuinely going to do no time, I'll bet anybody. I'll bet anyone. But Cass, Cass, he donated to President Biden and was part of some vague conspiracy involving Zelinski. And he met up with Gary Gersler, right? Whatever. I just don't, it's so, it's so, I'm so past it. And then, and for me, the one thing I also want to emphasize here is how obviously failed the cash bail bond mechanism is in general, right? And I think proof of this is SPF. SPF gets $250 million bail bond. Obviously, the way it works, in case anyone's unfamiliar, is you pay roughly 10 % of that and you can get out. If you don't have the money to pay for it yourself or the collateral to pay for it yourself, you can usually get a bail bondsman to take on that, that collateral obligation for you partially, and then you have to pay back a loan on that obligation. What did this accomplish, right? We have to reflect on this. What did it accomplish? He put up, they put up $250 million to get Sam Bankenfried out of detention. Then he goes out, he starts spreading rumors, getting in touch with journalists he's not supposed to, breaking all the rules of the bail that he was given with this money and this collateral, and now he's back in detention again. So it accomplished nothing. It allowed him to break some rules and, as you said, muddy the waters and make things more complex and weird. Another individual who just got a big, gigantic, I think the largest in history in terms of actually being paid for, Joe Lewis, who is the owner of Tottenham Hotspur and the Albany, which is where SPF was living when he got in trouble. This guy just got in trouble, too, for insider trading and fraud, and he put up a $300 million bail with his yacht and private jet. So what do we think this is going to do? I mean, this guy's a billionaire. He can buy a new jet tomorrow. He can buy a new yacht tomorrow. It doesn't matter. He can go run away if he needs to. Nothing is going to stop him from doing that, right? Unless you put an ankle monitor around him. You ensure that you're tracking him with GPS and satellite tracking, that you ensure that he isn't leaving the country. You take his passport. There are protocols to ensure it, and none of it has to do with money. We need to get rid of this cash bail bond system, like, immediately. It doesn't make any sense at all. I strongly agree. I think the cash bail bond system is, like, one of the clearest examples in our criminal justice system of how we have codified a certain privilege for the most privileged, right? That once you have money, you can avoid these things that others can't. And as you're saying, the only real differentiator between these cases is whether or not you have money when you're accused of a crime. That shouldn't be the goal of our system. The platonic ideal of our legal system is one that treats, like, the most downtrodden and the most, like, wealthy and powerful as equal as you possibly can. And, like, there's limits within reason of how far you can take that, perhaps, but, like, that's the ideal, and cash bail bond is just one example of where we don't even try to do that. Yeah, that's right. It's just an obvious advantage for rich people, and really no advantage for anyone who doesn't have the income to deal with this kind of thing. Yeah, it's just a very gross, gross, broken system that needs fixing. Well, and if you listen to, like, testimony of certain convicts and stuff, like, when you are destitute prosecutors and DAs have been accused of using that as leverage, basically, because they know you're going back into whatever horrible detention facility you're in, they know you're more desperate to strike a deal or to say whatever to do whatever because you don't want to go back. Right. And to be clear, like, it's one of the founding principles of our country is kind of this innocent until proven guilty, right, that you aren't going to be treated like you are guilty, even if everyone, like, watched you do the crime. Like, until we prove it in a court of law, you are innocent, and so, like, reasonable bail without having to pay an arm and a leg just seems like the right thing to do here as a country to follow our guiding principles. Like, maybe I'm shouting into the void here, but like this, it's just something I think is necessary for us to talk about, and something I really do think can be fixed within our lifetime. Like, I don't expect the entire penal system to get overturned. I hate the idea that private prisons do what they do in our country. Yeah, that they exist. Like, that they aren't more heavily regulated. Like, that's why there's so many people in prison in our country. I have no doubt about that. But, like, if we're not going to change that anytime soon, and we're not, then the least we can do is ensure that bail bond is working properly, that prisoners are getting their medicine, that prisoners are getting the food that they need. Like, obviously within reason, right? If somebody says, I'm on an only Wagyu steak diet or something, I understand being like, go fuck yourself. Who's going to be the first indicted Bitcoiner to argue that they have a moral conviction that requires them to have only red meat? I would think they would already be in there, right? There's got to be a few dudes who are already in prison trying to argue that already. That I don't fucking buy. There's a limit to even how far I will go in terms of my sympathy. But yes, I do think we need to reform this stuff. SPF is a good jumping off point for that, so we thought it was worth talking about. I understand some people are just going to be like, SPF isn't going to change this. But we can make this a point of retention of this information for everyone in crypto. To be like, we need to change this. A lot of people do focus on this stuff and they understand the corruptness of it in cryptocurrency, and that's good. But a lot of people also don't care about criminal reform and the justice system. And I think it's probably time to think about it. Because some of you are definitely going to go to prison.
The Maverick Paradox Podcast
A highlight from The problems of evil
"In today's episode I'll be speaking to Raphael Cohen -Algamal about the problems of evil. How can you reconcile individualism and collectivism? Has multiculturalism failed? And what happens when the rights of the state are in conflict with the rights of culture? Raphael discusses his book and provides an academic viewpoint on these tricky dilemmas. I create clear thinking and decisive leaders who can amplify their influence. Contact me to find out how I can help you or your organisation. And today our guest is Raphael Cohen -Almagor. How are you doing? Good, how are you Judith? I am doing great, thank you. Tell me what sort of things make you giggle or laugh out loud? What makes me giggle? Good, cynical, sharp, statement jokes. Things that make me think and then see the irony behind them. And yeah, make me giggle. Tell us a little bit about you. I'm an academic, I've been in academia all my life. I did my bachelor degree at Tel Aviv University in political science, sociology and anthropology and then continued to do my masters in political science at Tel Aviv University. I pursued a doctorate at Oxford University at St. Catherine's College. I'm very patriotic about my Oxford College and then started to research and teach at the Hebrew University, went to the and Institute then I moved to University of Haifa. I spent a year at UCLA, I spent a year at Charles Hopkins University. I spent some time at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Studies, then moved to the UK, been to of course Oxford and then University of Hull and then University College London and presently I'm the Olof Palme Visiting Professor at Lund University in Sweden. Besides academia, I am sort of a public person. I established some organization in my life. So back in 1983 I established a second -generation Holocaust Remembrance Organization in Israel and later I established a Centre for Democratic Studies and then I established the Palme Jews Institute and I established the Middle Eastern Studies Centre at the University of Hull. So I like to do practical things. I'm not the usual academic because I have many many interests. You told me that today we're going to speak about the contrast between group rights and individual rights which is subject of my two last books. One of them is Just Visible Multiculturalism, maybe you can see that, published in 2021 and I consider this as one of my major works. Took me 10 years to write this book and then the other one is my most recent book which is called the Republic Security and Secularism which is on the fight of France against how women dress, especially Muslim women dress. In France I was fascinated by the fact that in France people are so preoccupied by the fact that women dress. I mean why should you be? There are people that can think that the government should be preoccupied by rather than how a woman dresses. She does it every day. So I went to France to study that and that's a subject of my most recent book but other than that I'm interested in problems of evil.
Simply Bitcoin
A highlight from How Bitcoin is Quietly Taking Over the World | EP 814
"Yo, welcome to another episode of simply Bitcoin live or number one source for the peaceful Bitcoin revolution. We cover breaking news culture, medical warfare. We will be your guide through the separation of money and state shout out to my legendary cohost and brother for holding it down these last couple of days, uh, go, it was going through, uh, some, some personal stuff. Um, and what I got to say about that is cherish the ones you love. Um, you know, you're, sometimes you're not going to spend, uh, that's what I got to say. Cherish the ones you love, appreciate them while they're still around. And, uh, and yeah. Um, but anyways, today's going to be a great show. Uh, we're going to cover the topic. Bitcoin is taking over the world. It really, really is. Um, it was just announced it actually, we covered this initially, uh, when it was dropped on Forbes, the article is Oman's bold Bitcoin play $1 .1 billion investment on Bitcoin mining infrastructure. We covered this during the bit block boom episode. That episode was a little, a little interesting because we were backstage and we had to talk in like golf voices and stuff. But the reason that this is so big, and we're going to dive into the details of this, the significance of this, because it is very, very significant. Is that gonna make the minute? I'm going to make the case for you guys that Bitcoin's incentives stay winning. Bitcoin's incentives are quietly taking over the world. Uh, this isn't, this isn't just had, this didn't just happen in Oman. It was a couple of months ago where we were, we covered it for you guys. Also an article from Forbes. The headline is the kingdom of Bhutan has been quietly mining Bitcoin for years, right? So you have, and this is the case that we were making. We made this when this initial news came out of Bhutan, we were trying to tell you guys like, look, this will most likely happen in other countries. Boom. It just happened in another country. And why is that? Why Bitcoin, right? Well, because Bitcoin monetizes, it gives stranded energy value, right? Nothing in the world does that. Bitcoin does that. So countries that perhaps they didn't care about Bitcoin, uh, in Oman, it's just a, it's a heavily Muslim country. You can even say it wasn't, uh, it wasn't appropriate for them to use a currency like Bitcoin. Well, they changed their minds on that, right? And this is a testament to show Bitcoin's incentives and how you can't resist them. Um, and also there's this post by Jimmy Song. I'm going to see if I could pull it up, but he was basically covering the news, uh, coming out of, of black rock. And a lot of people were, were a little bit worried that black rock was going to kind of infect Bitcoin and all that. And I never forget this quote from Max Kaiser and the quote was basically like, you don't change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you. And, and, and I really think that's true. Right. Um, and I think it, you know, it was originally sourced in the Satoshi white paper, um, or maybe it was a Satoshi white paper, but it went something like this, right? You're more incentivized to play by Bitcoin's rules than you are to try to cheat it. Right. So when you see these countries getting excited, when you see these countries wanting to partake, wanting to benefit from, you know, number go up technology and these crazy incentives, um, you know, the question that I have, the, the, the, the statement that I have for you guys, you know, it's not governments, uh, it's not governments that are going to try to fix Bitcoin or try to co -opt Bitcoin. It's Bitcoin that is going to co -opt governments. And that is because it is a system of aligned incentives and it is a system that rewards you more by playing by the rules than by trying to cheat the system. Um, and I think that this is a phenomenon that's going to be very strange to people because you're used to a lot of these, you know, huge container institutions or these huge countries that have these massive, uh, governments, these massive bureaucracies doing bad by their people. But I wouldn't say that it's necessarily because these are evil people and they're twirling their mustaches and they're scheming and they're saying like, ha ha ha. Uh, like, you know, like we're gonna, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do like these bad things and you know, we're gonna screw these people. We're gonna enslave people. What I think you're seeing is the result of a broken architecture of, of the broken architecture that is Fiat, the misalignment of incentives that is Fiat. Uh, so when we say fix the money, fix the world, I do not think that's a, that's a, that's an overstatement. I really believe that because I think that if you fix the base layer, if you fix the incentive structure of the world where everyone can win, um, you start incentivizing good behavior. And I think you've seen this in El Salvador. I do not think it's a coincidence. I'm sticking by my word and I know I got a lot of flack on this, but I've talked to Jimmy song about this. I talked to Max Kaiser about this when we were at bit block boom and I'm sticking by it. I do not think it's a coincidence that in the first country that made Bitcoin legal tender, the elected official is actually doing the job of which he was elected to do. And my case, my theory for that is because you have a society where the incentives are now aligned. You have a society where the base layer is now based on truth. It's not based on lies like it is in Fiat. And I think that all the evils that a lot of people will interpret it as evil that you're seeing out of the world economic forum are like, I like to call it the container conference or, you know, a lot of these, uh, these, uh, people call it the deep state. I call it the administrative state because it's right up in your grill these days. Uh, these actions that are, they seem counterintuitive like, and we're going to play you a video of, of Mitch McConnell in a second during the number segment where, you know, they're sending billions of dollars to fund wars, but then there's homeless people on the streets in their countries. I don't think that's because these people are inherently evil. They're just incentivized to do that. Why? Because of Fiat and like, think about it. If you're a politician, you get elected, what are you incentivized to do? Are you incentivized to do good by your constituents? No, you're incentivized to get as close as humanly possible to the money spigot. If you fix the money, right? If you, if you have a sound money society and politicians don't have this elite privilege of being able to create money for free that everyone else has to work for, what is their only other mechanism of raising money or staying employed? They have to go directly to their constituents and say, listen, I have an idea. I'm going to raise taxes in order to pay for this.
Cinemavino
A highlight from Trollhunter
"And welcome back to cinema vino, but it's good to have you guys here with us. That's good to be here. We got Sean Jordan, but it's your boy. And my name is Todd Wofford. And it's good to be here. Summer chaos continues. We're down on our home stretch wrapping it up. We just got a couple more movies to go. Yeah, we don't have long to go. We're almost at the Labor Day weekend. It's almost through September. It's time. Put away all my white outfits and just move on with life. So yeah. Do you put away the white album too? Do you stop listening to it? I do. I go for the gray album after Labor Day. So I go with Jay -Z. DJ Danger Mouse. I go Black Album. DJ Danger Mouse. DJ Danger Mouse. DJ Danger Mouse. Jame Judy Dench. Jame Judy Dench. If I hear Yamo be there one more time. So beautiful Michael McDonald. That's a great baritone by the way. Grace Baritone and all the rock. You know all the words. I hate Michael McDonald. Yeah. What about the Doobie Brothers? I like the Doobie Brothers pre Michael McDonald. Okay. I had like the best of Doobie Brothers CD and like disc one. Awesome. Disc two. Awful. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, so we are drinking Riesling and we're talking about Troll Hunter. Oh, this is lovely Riesling. Yeah. German Riesling. Yeah. It's just German. Couldn't find a Swedish Riesling? They're out there somewhere, I'm sure. Norwegian. So obviously Summer Chaos to bring guys up to speed. We spin a random wheel or we picked random movies and then we spin a random wheel and pick a random wine to go with them. So this is all just. Or spirit. Or spirit or beer. It's willy nilly. Anything goes. Or Todd gets bored and just makes it some seven sevens that are like oddly strong. We don't actually see the process of Todd picking booze. So sometimes it's just like you guys are drinking rum. Sometimes you're not meant to see how the sausage gets made. I think he definitely has put like a finger in every single drink that he's given to me. A hundred percent. More than one. Smells like a sweaty hot dog. Yeah. Sometimes I go full bowling ball in there. So it adds to the three fingers. Three finger profile. That's a bad name. Tastes like Todd's fingers. We all three finger profile. Tastes like what Todd's fingers have been in. That's going to be the first line of my autobiography. It's the terroir. It is the terroir. So we're going to talk about the wine a little bit from the start. I got my notes right here all ready for you. Riesling is known primarily as a German rattle but you'll see it grown in a lot of other places such as Australia, France, the US and Canada. Australia is actually your second biggest rower of Riesling. Rieslings have a reputation as a sweet white wine but you actually got a pretty good wide variety of between dry and off dry. Pretty much any kind of flavor profile of white wine there's a Riesling in that range somewhere. Alsatian wines tend to be on very dry side from France. And then... This one's a little off dry, right? Yeah. This one definitely falls kind of in the between area. And then you go all the way up to Trokenberne Auslese which is going to be just sticky sweet. I mean just like... Hot sticky sweet. Yeah. I'm hot. Sticky sweet. From my hand to my feet. Yeah. Like Todd's fingers. So for food pairings you're going to put this with Asian foods, Indian foods, any kind of spicy dish. With the sugary sweetness of the wine will definitely kind of balance things out for you. Rieslings are coming usually at a good price point. They can be anywhere from $10 to $25. They don't tend to be crazy expensive. You drink them obviously very chilled but any kind of a bold spicy dish you can do a Riesling with. But you can also do them with holiday meals, kind of lighter cuisine. So like... You're actually going to get to do a Riesling tasting in Germany in November. Ooh. That's right. You're going across the pond. That's right. Pinkies up. Pinkies up. That's going to be fun. Yeah. I'll be able to taste it straight off the vine. You have to take lots of pictures. Yeah. Lots of pictures of Zavino. If I come back with Wiederhosen I'm going to be so happy. I would be disappointed if you don't. Yeah. In a big old box of shrooms. So this is going to be... Let me see if I can pronounce this correctly. Correctly. This is A .C. Chrisman, Faltz Riesling. Yes. I'm working on my like great escape like Nazi Gestapo for... accent Sandre. It's really about Bono. Weingutzeit. Yeah. Weingutzeit. That's like the quality. This is like a high quality Riesling. I think in German that literally translates to wine good. Yeah. Good wine. Yeah. It's like this is one of the top quality Rieslings that you can get. So about 25 bucks. And yeah. This one's going to be definitely kind of in between off dries where I put this one. It's definitely not sticky sweet. It's definitely not bone dry. But yeah. A little scale for you. If you're shopping for Rieslings from dry to sweet, you've got cabinet, which is K -A -B -I -N -E -T -T, spätlese, auslese, berna auslese, trocken berna auslese, and eiswein. So that's what you're looking at on the shelf. That's from dry to sweet. And this one's trocken, right? Yeah. Well, yeah. This is going to be... Well, that's a trocken berna auslese. So this is going to be kind of in between. So this is not quite the berna auslese. So this is going to be more towards the cabinet spätlese side of sweetness. This will be... So go for cabinet if you're looking for dry. Go for auslese if you're looking for pretty sweet. And then once you get up to berna auslese, it's going to be just hummingbird feed sweet. So this one definitely has some good solid like sugar to it. But I do give Riesling to my hummingbirds. They fly sideways. And then they have a great afternoon. Those wings slow wading. When they get drunk really fast and then they also sober up equally as fast. It's that heartbeat that just goes 100 miles a minute. But they can't hit that feeder once they get drunk. They can't get that beak in there. They self -regulate, you know? Yeah. Well, nature does that for them. They flap one wing at a time. They just got to... They're going to leave edibles out for the squirrels. Oh, that's great. Don't give me ideas. So Trollhunter, a little background on this one. This is your pick, Drat, right? Yeah. Sadly, I didn't know I was coming tonight. So I never got... Long story short, I'm watching my niece this week. She's two and a half. And I woke up at 5 .15 today. So that's, you know... Where am I? Yeah. So sadly, I didn't get to watch this again before this, but I've seen it twice. Lovely young lady. Yeah. I can't remember what happens at the end. I was going to say, when was the last time you watched it? Not too terribly long ago. So this may be... It's educational for you. In the last two years, I want to say. Okay. So a little bit about Trollhunter. This was released October 29th, 2010. So long ago. That was almost 13 years ago. Gross. Yeah. Actually, I got to say, I think I watched this probably in 2011, 2012. So it had to have been pretty recently after it came out. Because this was a magnet release, which they did a lot of straight to DVD stuff, picked up stuff that was on the film festival rotation. I don't think this ever had a theatrical release. I mean, I'd heard about it. Well, stateside maybe, right? Yeah, probably. But I mean, if it's small enough, it probably had film festival releases with no actual theatrical. I'd say that's probably why the worldwide box office gross. I couldn't find it. It probably wasn't there. That's why. There you go. Budget of 3 .5 million. I don't know if that's in Norwegian money, and I don't know what Norwegian money even looks like. So it's called a skribu. Two very different answers. Did you make that up? No. Run that about me one more time. What was that? Skribu. That's very Swedish chef -esque. So on IMDb, it has opening weekend of $5 ,585 in the US. That's US dollar. Okay. That's probably like 40 or 50 million in Norwegian. And the budget was 19 .9 million nock, which I think is Norwegian kroner. That's beads. That's the larger denomination, but the lower denomination is skribu. Skribu. So it's like cents. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This grossed over 2 ,000 matroska dolls or whatever. Well, it's like two cents. Yeah. They did a good box office in those little dolls that you get another doll inside and another doll inside. It brought in a lot of those. You got dinks, then you got skribus, and then you got sickles, and then you got nuts, and then you got galleons. That might be Harry Potter. So 515 is doing you real good, isn't it? We just lost our Norwegian listener base. Now, I like that guy. He's got good comments. I can never read them, but they're great. Yeah. They're all related to skribu. Well, I Google translate all of them, so I get the gist. So this had a budget of 3 .5 million skribu. This a is found footage fantasy horror film. Vaguely in the similar vein as Blair Witch Project. That's the vibe I got a lot of, a little bit of Cloverfield, that kind of vibe too. Found footage. Yeah. It has some elements of Jaws. It also has some dark humor, moments of dark humor. I mean, very dry humor. This has become a cult hit over time. So very simple plot, has two film students and their camera person trailing a man they believe to be responsible for bear poaching in the mountainous Norwegian countryside. He is Hans, played by Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen. Otto Jespersen. He is part Quint from Jaws, part Ahab, part Unabomber. Yes person? Maybe. Yes person. It's like having a yes man. You got a yes person. Now I'm going to have to work on my Norwegian. I don't know. I don't know nothing about that. In their attempt at fledgling expose journalism, the students stumble onto a wild story that Hans is actually a troll hunter who attempts to manage and contain the troll population all while also participating in a government project to keep the story buried from the general public. He's more like a troll ranger, really. He's like a park ranger for trolls. Yeah, because he obviously has, and I have like a kind of a weird shambling respect for the trolls, like he has a weird, you know, healthy fear of them. Respect your enemy. Yeah. Well, it's more like a, you know, a naturalist who, yeah, you don't want to contend with bears, but you respect that bears are a living thing that deserve to coexist. But you don't want them to get in your Mazda 6. No. No. Is that a car? That's a Mazda. Yeah. That's a smaller, it's a sporty, very small, I don't think a bear could fit in there. I don't think I could fit in there. Good mileage, though. The Mazda 6? Yeah. I think you're going to get high 20s, and that's not bad for a... The red ones are faster. Yeah, for a sportier sedan, especially because they have that rotary engine that gives you good speed. So... Yeah, that's right. You have a Mazda now. That's right. You're a Mazda. We're part of the Mazda. You know all the specs. Positive traction. Exactly. You've got quadraphonic. Hans hunts the trolls with a massive UV apparatus, which exposes them to their greatest weakness, which is sunlight, either real or artificial sunlight. This either turns them to stone, or it detonates them into a big, hairy pond of goo. The two students attempt to document Hans' story before they either get eaten alive, or the government confiscates their footage or silences them altogether. So that's what I've got for description. So, Trav, this was your pick. Yeah, I'm going to let Sean go first. It's been a while since I've seen this. It's been a while. I love this movie because it is so off the wall. It starts off kind of slow, and it's sort of a slow burn early on, but then it ramps up pretty fast, and you just get into it. For the budget that it was, it's a very good movie. Good -looking movie. Good -looking movie? I mean, with a budget of $19 .9 million, you know, you've got to have some assets being put into it. But the nice thing about doing the found footage is you don't have to dedicate resources to good writing and editing. You can just sort of have these real shoddy jump cuts and things just kind of go all over the place. You don't have to actually end it that well. Spoilers, because you wanted to remember how it ends. Basically, the main reporter guy ends up getting rabies, finds out he got rabies from the trolls, and then ends up running away with the footage. Takes the cameras because the government folks are coming to take the footage. Which the government folks are not like dudes in suits with sunglasses. It's just like a guy in a parka. Oh yeah, we're going to take your footage, okay? Hey, you can't have footage? I'm going to take that from you? We'll give you 4 ,000 scuba for your footage. We've got to put that joke to bed, guys. I'm sorry. You opened that can of worms. You created a monster. I apologize to all Norwegians. But, I mean, it just sort of ends. It just sort of like he runs away with the camera and then there's, you know, some text on a black screen of exposition of this is what we think happened. This is unsubstantiated. Faux exposition. Yeah, faux exposition. Multiple experts have analyzed this footage and determined it's authentic. It's like, okay. But it's fun. It's a fun movie. It's goofy. It's a little, I wouldn't even say like sci -fi or horror. Dark comedy? Yeah, I get a lot of comments about that. I guess. Yeah, because there are really comedic moments, right? Like they hired the Muslim camerawoman and they're talking about whether or not her fact that she's a Muslim will attract - Does she believe in God? Is she? It's Christians? I don't know. We'll find out. Whatever. Yeah. It's a little bit like Gremlins 2. Like, wait a minute. They can't eat after midnight. I mean, it's always midnight somewhere and it pops out. It reminds me of the scene in Clue where they find the dead body again after finding so many dead bodies and they're just like, go to the other room, see the dead body. It's like, she's Muslim. Does that count? We'll find out. We'll see. We'll see how hungry they are. We'll do it for science. But yeah, I just love, I love the lore building of like the trolls are, they follow all these old rules. Like he's putting tires under bridges because trolls live under bridges, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's like, oh, they eat the bones of, or they smell the blood of a Christian man. It's like that's what sets them off. And then he comes walking into the big, like the, the bear suit that's like a suit of armor. I think, yeah, when he's under the, yes, because he has to take the blood from the troll. And so to do that, he has this giant, ridiculous syringe. Yeah. Just goofy. Yeah. Just goofy. I can tell they had a lot of fun making the movie, but it's, it's good. It's a romp. Yeah, it is. And yeah, it hits on all those, to me, I mean, I put the word Tolkien -esque in my notes of like, it hits the Tolkien -esque tropes. I mean, obviously it goes further than that, further back from that, like folk tales of trolls, but you also, I got to put like the Hobbit vibe, you know, the trolls turning into stone. Turning into stone. Yeah. But with like a tinge of bureaucracy. Yeah. There's a little bit of like that sort of, I don't know, pseudo X -Files thing of like, we've got to cover this up, you know, the government's got to step in and never happened. But, you know, of course that's exactly what it would look like if the government did have a troll hunting agency is he would have to fill out this form of like troll extermination. Yeah. But yeah, it's not some guys in some bad -ass car in black suits, it's like some guy in a Saab with a vest on like, oh yeah, let me see your footage over there. I'm going to have to delete your camera. It also reminded me somewhat of Blade where they're like fighting some old, you know, folkloric beast with like all the tech of today. It was just like, but on a shoestring budget, like Blade and Whistler where they're like, we're not exactly the March of Dimes or Hellboy. Yeah. We're just grabbing stuff. Well, no, Hellboy had a whole, you know, like a group behind him. I don't know, Blade had some cool tech though. Blade did. And a bad -ass car. But they were, you know, just a shoestring budget trying to, they're upset that their department doesn't get more funding. Right. They're like, this is what we got. He's just, he's like, I'm tired. I don't get vacation. Like, I just, I don't care. Yeah, you can film me. I don't care. I go where I'm needed. Great weather. I have that in my notes. I was like, I feel like Travis. I'm watching Sun and like in for my like rating, it's like, this is good weather. This is like good, foggy, rainy weather. I love it. And you know, they cut to like the mountains and the kind of cool, misty, you know, again, like Lord of the Rings vibe, the cool, misty mountains. And it's like good weather, you know? Yeah. I felt right at home in this flick. And I love, like you said that. Yeah, I've been saying that for years. You said like Quint from Jaws. That's exactly what I was thinking, too, is that when they have to, when they were filming him from afar, you know, found footage films are kind of difficult to do ever since what Blair Witch Project, obviously quintessential. Cloverfield also did it well. I love a giant kaiju monster. Paranormal activity? I have never seen any of the paranormals. Well, maybe I'm kind of a giant pussy. Come on. OK, well, hey, we got October coming up. That's true. But I think there's oh, I might have seen the end of quarantine, the one where there's like zombies. There's like a fire or something and news crew goes in there and they have to close. They have to quarantine the building or something. They're like, shit, there's something in here with us. I think I've seen that. Maybe. So I've heard good things about that. And it was a remake of a foreign film, I think. But those Quarantinos. Yes. But I hadn't seen a found footage from Robert Rodriguez's band. Yeah, I hadn't seen a found footage film in a while. And this one was actually the reason I got Netflix, because I was stealing my brother's Netflix. He was trying to watch something at the same time. And I was like, ah, fuck it. Fine, I'm going to buy it. So I watched this whenever it was on Netflix and I had heard good things about it. Which it's not anymore. Yeah, it's not. Couldn't find that anywhere. Bastards. Yeah, but I love the the fact that, you know, with not a huge budget, they're able to do more with less. I mean, all their money obviously went into the special effects and the trolls, which looked damn good. They looked really good. Yeah. You would think with this on paper, you're like, this is not going to be great. But it. Yeah, it looked lovely. It's a huge, giant fucking Godzilla troll at the end. First of all, where the fuck is he sleeping? Like how is he in the mountains? He's in the mountains. Yeah. But God, that thing's dick as big as a 40 foot long school bus. I don't know. I'm at school. I just said bus. I don't know why I said school bus. But yeah, I loved Hans in it. He was just fed up and was like, fuck this. But I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw it. And then there's a pseudo, not a sequel exactly, but kind of along the same vein, a movie named Just Troll came out in 2022.
The Aloönæ Show
A highlight from S13 E02: Writer's Path: New Book Release Discussion
"Hello, welcome to The Loney Show. I'm your host, John Lee Loney. In this episode, don't have regulars because reasons, as always. As for our guest, she's from Houston, Texas, and she does Houston, Texas, I guess. Well, she's also an author, just to make it clear. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Saborna Roy Chowdhury. Hi, thank you so much for inviting me. This is an honor. And I, as you said, I do live in Houston, Texas, but I'm also an author. And I wrote two books. My first book was called The Distance, which came out in 2013. And more recently, my second book was published by a good, you know, small publisher, Houston based publisher, and called Black Rose Writing. And the name of my second novel is Everything Here Belongs to You. Oh, nice, nice. Thank you. Welcome. And how long have you been an author for? So actually, by profession, I'm a chemist, and I teach chemistry in community college. But around 2004, you know, I was in between jobs and looking for something to do. And I decided, I decided to take a workshop, you know, I used to live in Boston at that time. And there's a very great writing workshop in Boston called The Grub Street. And I took a workshop, you know, short story writing workshop from one of the teachers there. And the beautiful thing about this teacher was he gave us a great writing prompt, he said, you know, I'm going to switch off the light and step outside. And you guys go into deep meditation for at least five minutes. And then when I come back, and I switch on the light, you will pick up the pen, and you will start writing whatever comes to your mind. And you're not going to stop yourself, you're not going to edit yourself. If you see any images, you're going to write about that character. So when he did that, you know, when he switched the light back on, I saw the image of a girl. And I instantly recognize that girl, she was kind of very, very thin emaciated, you know, she had a lot of beads and strings on her body. She was, she had this deep, you know, sad eyes. And I recognize that girl. And I remembered that girl from years ago, you know, when I was child, she used to work at my aunt's place in in in India. And so that character came to me, and I did not stop myself, I picked up my pen, and I just started to write about her. And then it grew into a short story. My very first short story called Bengal Bansun. And when it came to sharing it with the rest of the class, you know, at Grub Street, I was really terrified because here I was, you know, a chemistry teacher. And all of a sudden, I write a short story, and I have to share it in front of my whole class. So I did read it very hesitantly. But you know, most of the class was very appreciative, they really liked it. They gave me great feedback. And most importantly, the teacher said, you need to send this out, you need to send out your work. So I sent it off to a publication, you know, the only one I sent it out to it was called New York stories. I sent them my very first short story. And I heard back from them right away. They said they want to publish my short story. So this was really surprising to me. And this is how my journey started. And later on this, the short story was nominated for a push cut price. So that's when I knew, you know, that I like writing. Wow. Very good. Nice. Thank you. Welcome. And are there any more books that you're in the process of writing? Yes. Well, the one I just finished, and the one that just came out, I'm trying to promote that. And it's called Everything Here Belongs to You. And strangely enough, you know, in between, I wrote another book called The Distance. But this the short story that I was just talking to you about the Bengal Mansoon one, never really left me. So that girl, you know, the girl with the big eyes, she had a problem. She had her father come in every single month from the village and take away all her money. And, you know, she used to come and complain to my aunt. And she used to say, my father is using me like a bank. He's taking away all my money. I don't know what to do. And my aunt was, you know, my aunt is a good person. She really wanted to help this girl. But there was nothing she could do. She, other than consoling her, there was nothing she could do to help out this girl. And then something really terrible happened. One morning at six o 'clock, my aunt was calling her name. She was asking her to come down. She used to live in the girl used to sleep in the terrace room. And the girl was not coming down. So my aunt went upstairs to look for her and found the girl hanging. And she was she was hanging from the ceiling. She had used her sari as like a noose. And my aunt tried to revive her. You know, her body was still warm. My aunt tried her best to bring her back, but she couldn't. And then the father came back from the village and blamed my aunt for for killing this girl. And, you know, the whole the slum came down to our house and started to break everything. So, you know, this this story, even though I captured most of it in Bengal monsoon, I felt like I had not done justice to the whole story. And the girl and her father were not leaving me. And they were still hunting me. So there was something incomplete there. And so even after I finished my first novel, those images did not go away. And I thought that I should expand the story and I should complete the story and I should bring those characters back. So I just I just made the girl a Muslim in my second book. And I continue with the story. You know, the this helpless girl whose father comes every single month and takes away all her salary and she's hopeless. She has no future. Everything is dark around her. She doesn't know where to go. She feels trapped. And that's how I came to write my second novel, Everything Here Belongs to You, which is right now available in the bookstores and on Amazon. All right, then. Very good. So where do you see yourself 20 years from now? 20 years from now. I would like to say I wrote 20 books, but that's not going to happen because each book for me, you know, takes a very, very long time. The distance did not take that much time distance. I think I took only three to four years to write. But my second book, Everything Here Belongs to You, I wrote it for five years. And then I met my agent, Julie Stevenson, you know, from M .M. Q .L .T., M .M. Q. Lit. And asked she me to edit my book. And this editing process went on for three years. So she asked me to make, you know, major changes like change the POV. OK, from omniscient narrator to close third person, then write it chronologically. Make sure you have a very close connection between the sisters from the beginning. You know, major changes change the tense of the novel. So this went on and on. And so that took three years. So that was a total of eight years to write my second novel. So if this is the way I write, I don't think in 20 years I'll accomplish much. It could be worse, to be honest. It could be worse, to be honest. Yeah, I have friends who wrote. Sorry, I think my phone is talking. So, yeah, I have friends who wrote a novel for 20 years. So, yeah, if you if you want to do something perfectly, I guess you have to put in the time. Yeah, absolutely. How did you spend? Sorry, go on. No, so that's that's my 20 year plan to write. Very good. How did you spend your last birthday? My last birthday? Eating cake? Yeah. No. Yeah, I don't focus much on birthdays. My family does. My family definitely made sure that I cut my cake. Yeah. But if I'm writing a book, I'm usually so immersed in the fictional world that I don't pay much attention to what is going on in my real life. All right, then. What is your favorite quote? Oh, my goodness. I don't have one on the top of my head. Do I have to answer this? I mean, you don't have to. Yeah. So go on with the flow. Okay. Okay, I'll take that. Yes, then. If you could create your own job title, what would it be? I would be a full time author. I don't want to do anything else. I think the most meaningful thing we do in life is right. Because I'm able to give voice to, you know, the most voiceless people, the most neglected people, people who cannot defend themselves, who don't get justice, if I'm able to bring them to the forefront, and I'm able to make them make other people visualize them and understand their pain and understand their sorrow, and I'm able to give them justice. That is the most important thing I can do. That's very good. What is the best way to start the morning? I would say, well, there's a real answer, and then there is a hopeful answer. The real answer is I get my girls ready for school, and that's not a peaceful process. So I'm rushing them, I'm pushing them, I'm trying to get them on the school bus, and my mornings are not peaceful or restful enough. However, if I were living, I were, you know, living my ideal life, I would love to wake up and do a long meditation. And I would like to connect to my subconscious and see who is plaguing me, who is bothering me, who is sitting in there, and I would draw out those characters and I would talk to them and I would put them down on the page. And that would be the peaceful start of a morning, to be able to write, you know, at least two to three pages without interruption, without the phone ringing, without the internet, without having to communicate with the outside world, just to be able to write and meditate. That's my ideal life. Very good. Would you rather sleep on the wall or sleep on the ceiling? Sleep on the wall or sleep on the ceiling? I've never heard a question like that before. I would sleep on the ceiling, yeah. Yes, that's a good option. Yeah, because I can see the world from the top, right? I have a larger and bigger and wider perspective of things. And I basically, you know, when I wrote my first novel, I mean, the second novel, sorry, I used omniscient narrator, and that's kind of your place on the ceiling, because you get to see everyone, what they're doing. If they're doing mean things, bad things, you know, hiding things from you, have secrets, you basically have a view of every single character in that room or in that house, right, if you're on the ceiling. So I would definitely want the ceiling position. But my agent says I should write in close third person. Intriguing. Yes. Oh, yes. Very good. Would you ever try space tourism? Actually not. Especially today, you know, today in the news, did you see how this vessel tried to go in the depths of the ocean and never came back? It was blown away. So I'm very, very nervous about getting into claustrophobic places and where I have no control, and other people taking me, you know, promising me things, making me sign papers and taking me places. And then I do not know if I'll make it back. And there's a lot to do on Earth. Itself, right? There's a lot to improve right here. I don't need to go to space. Yes, that's a very good point. You'll never know what life hits at you. Yes. What fictional item do you wish you owned in real life? What fictional item? Do you wish you owned in real life? Let me think about this. And it's a fictional item. It's not a real one. My daughters will tell you a lot about Harry Potter things that they want to own. Fictional item. Can you give me an example of fictional items? Well, you said your daughters like Harry Potter, so possibly a magic wand, then there's lightsabers from Star Wars, a couple of video game items like the mega mushroom from Super The magic wand sounds very attractive because when I cannot wake them up in the morning to go to school, I can always be the magic wand and make them do things for me, right? I mean, every mother wishes she had a magic wand and she could control her children. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Where do you spend most of your free time? First of all, being a teacher, a mother and a writer, I have no free time. But I to write, I do go to a coffee shop and I can only write in a coffee shop because it kind of takes away the pressure of writing. It kind of takes away, you know, the fear of writing because I have so many people surrounding me and there is this chatter, this laughter, this camarade, you know, the smell of coffee. Everything takes away that extreme pressure of having to accomplish something or to finish something or to get something done. And I'm able to relax in a coffee shop and actually do some writing. And then, of course, when you come back home, that reality strikes and that you'd have so many chores to do and so many other things you have to get done, right? And so the coffee shop is my escape. OK, I can see that. This is a question from the very top of my head. Have you heard of a drink called banana friche? Banana friche? Banana friche? Friche? Yeah. Have you heard of it? I have never heard of a drink banana friche, no. I get that a lot from a lot of people. It's understandable. So do you want me to try it out or? Sorry, what is the question? So I asked you, have you heard of a drink called banana friche? No. Oh, that's all right, because I get that every time. Yeah, something from that came from the top of my head. Sure. Yeah. Would you rather? If you recommend it to me, if you recommend me the drink, I'll definitely try it. I do not know where to get it from. Well, well, it's a concept at first, but maybe a few years down the line, it can become a thing. So, yes. So definitely, when it becomes a thing, I'll give it a try. All right, very good. Would you rather not be able to open any closed doors or not be able to close any open doors? Both. I don't want to close any open doors for anyone who is a minority and needs those open doors. And so what was the first part again? So I asked you, would you rather not to open closed doors or not be able to close open doors? Yeah, so second part, I don't want to close any open doors for people who need it. Yes, very good, because there's opportunities in front of you. You must seize it. That's true. Yes. But, you know, be inclusive as well. I mean, you don't want to seize it just for yourself, but you seize it for everyone else. Yes, everyone is free to open and enter the door. Yes, the door should not be closed for anyone. Exactly. What's your favorite season? Spring, because I cannot tolerate the heat. I live in a place called Houston, Texas, and it does get extremely hot. And when it gets hot like that, you know, it's hard to function. So spring here is beautiful. You know, the flowers bloom and the birds come out the usual spring thing. And so and we can all go for long walks. So spring definitely is beautiful in Texas. All right, then. Nice. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? So I would go back to India. Right now, I live in Houston, Texas. So let me tell you this in a more poetic manner. Give me one second. So basically, I grew up in Kolkata, India. Can you still hear me? Yeah, I can still hear you. Okay, so I grew up in Kolkata, India, and I grew up in a middle class Hindu family. And, you know, I mean, if you read my second novel, I featured the house I grew up in in this in this novel. And, and like, like the characters in my novel, you know, I used to live in this hundred year old house with my extended family, with my aunts, uncles and cousins. So because it was a hundred year old house, and it was it was like a crumbling mansion, and it had two wings and two floors, but there was no one to take care of this house. So years of neglect, you know, had left this house in very poor condition. My house had, you know, cracked tiles on the floor and yellowing walls and broken windows, everything needed repair. And during the monsoon season, you know, water dripped from the roof and and we had, you to collect the water, and everything had to be covered, you know, our antique furniture, our paintings, our encyclopedias, our photographs, everything had to be covered with plastic sheets. And so it was really hard for us to maintain this house, you know, there was like spiders behind the clothes horse and termite mud piles that went up the walls. And, you know, all the grandfather clocks that just kept on chiming at wrong hours. And if you looked at the skylight holes, you would see pigeons nesting there. Then when I turned 19, I left Kolkata and I came to America and I settled down here. Right. I came as a student. I finished my chemistry degrees. And finally, you know, I got my job in Houston. I settled down here. But I left behind this house, this house, which is full of history and, you know, my childhood tales. And I and somehow this house still remains alive inside me and it shows up in my book, especially in my second book, I would say this house is my main main backdrop of my second book. And now, you know, I have a relatively comfortable life. I live in the suburbs of Houston now. Here, you know, I have a wooden house which has central air conditioning and it has modern appliances. I have, you know, carpet that covers all the floors and I have, you know, all my walls are really well painted. I have modern furniture. I have a spacious living room. Every every week we have lawnmowers who come to trim our lawns and prune the bushes and, you know, our driveway and sidewalk looks so clean. They almost like they glisten like glass. And my existence right now in Houston is very neat, tidy, comfortable, hygienic, whatever you want to look at it. But unfortunately, whenever I pick up my pen to write either a short story or a novel or a poem, I I don't write about the suburbs of Houston. I still find myself, you know, going back to that old mansion that I left behind in Kolkata and I'm still pining away for for what I left behind. So I don't think, you know, as I age, this nostalgia will go away and somehow I will I will end up living living in that old house again years later. OK, I can see that. Sorry for the very long answer. That's all right. I enjoy it. It's fabulous. Thank you. You're welcome. What kind of music do you often listen to? I don't know if I am a Bengali and we have a Nobel laureate, author, songwriter. His name is Rabindranath Tagore. And I used to learn his songs. I used to learn his music and I still listen to that. I just I listen to Tagore songs all the time. It calms me down. And once once again, it connects me back home. It's part of my nostalgia. Very good. When things break, do you prefer to fix them or replace them? I always try to fix them. I hold on to old things. You must have guessed that by now. And I have a very hard time throwing away things because all your old things have a memory. And as writers, when we when we when we touch things, old photos, old albums, even, you know, somebody's glasses or somebody's shawl, we feel things in our fingers and then something can become can become a spark for a new project. So, yes, I repair things and I keep things and I grab onto things and I hold onto things and I don't want to let them go. My husband is opposite. He's a neat, tidy person. And he would rather get rid of things and clean up the house. And he's an engineer by profession. So you can see that we have completely different personalities.
Evangelism On Fire
A highlight from Ghizlaine Taft's God Story
"Welcome to Evangelism on Fire podcast. My name is Mark Thomas, an ordained pastor, a teacher of the bestselling Book of All Time, your host, and most importantly, your evangelism coach. In each week, I bring you an on fire message to empower and coach you to live the most exciting life God has created you to live by actively sharing your faith in Jesus with others. I'm so thankful for our time together today. It's such an honor spending time with you, Evangelism on Fire nation. This podcast will truly inspire you, and I believe that it will inspire so many people that you know. And if you're inspired and feeling moved to share this, then please message some friends. Post this on social media and let people know about this episode so we can get this message out there more. I appreciate you and everyone listening right now. And a quick reminder, please subscribe to our evangelism on fire over on Apple podcast right now and leave us a review at the end of this episode of the part that you were inspired by the most and spread the message of evangelism on fire forward. The youth today represent the future of our country. Many of them are putting their hope in everything other than God, they are being deceived. Grandparents aren't taking their grandkids to church like they did in the past. The church has been dwindling, which means the younger generation is not hearing about God and his word nearly as much as they used to. That's why it is so important for us to get in front of them and make sure that worldly desire is not leading them astray. We want to let them know that there is hope for them through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In order to do this and to make an impact, we need your help. We need you to join us on this mission of being an inspiration for the younger generation. To do this, become a partner at evangelism on fire ministry. Being a partner means making a commitment to give whatever you can to help us on our mission. We can't do this without you. We can't do this without the support of God's kingdom. Let's reach the world with the most important message that exists, the gospel message. Join us for the plans we have for ministry in 2023 by becoming an evangelism on fire ministry partner by going to today's show notes and clicking on the giving link to become a monthly partner by setting up a monthly donation or go to our website evangelismonfire .com. Click on the donate button to give a monthly reoccurring donation or a one time gift. Thank you for joining us to give hope to the world. Welcome evangelism on fire nation. And this is your host, Mark Thomas. Welcome to episode 151. In last week's episode 150 and in today's episode, we are going to the evangelism on fire podcast archives and I am putting in your ear the top two rated God stories from all of the God stories in our podcast archives. Today, I want you to listen to this amazing God story of Gigi. She grew up as a practicing Muslim who now follows Jesus with a fierce love and passion as a Christ follower. This is one of your favorite all time God stories on evangelism on fire podcast. So I want you to sit back, listen to this amazing, amazing God story and enjoy evangelism on fire nation. I have a special guest with us today. Her name is Gigi and I'm so excited to have her on our podcast today. She has an amazing testimony of what Jesus has done in her life. So Gigi, say hello to evangelism on fire nation and tell us a little bit about yourself so we can get to know you. All right. Good morning evangelism on fire. I pray that my message blesses you today. Yes. Yes. Amen. Yes. So let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Ghislaine Labar Taft, but I'm known as Gigi as my close friends call me. I was born and raised in Morocco in North Africa. I am actually the product of a French Catholic mother and a Muslim Moroccan father. How crazy is that? Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. That is right. They met in med school. They wed and they had two boys and a girl. That would be me. And since I am the youngest, I had to toughen up at a very, very young age. So when I was three years old, my mom had had enough of not being fully accepted by my paternal family. She didn't want to convert to Islam. And my father, who was very cool and very opened while he lived in France, became very Muslimish, so to speak, when he went back home. And that's part of the culture actually. So while on vacation, she met an American and just up and left us. My dad, who was a prominent doctor, found us a nanny who loved us unconditionally. And Pastor Mark, I truly believe that that's where my unconditional love for others come from. She really felt that in me, you know, those back. Right. That's amazing. To this day, it actually touches me to the core that someone would be willing to leave her just family to care for us. It actually brings tears to my eyes, truly, you know, so that's sacrificed right there, you know. And the reason she did that is at first she would come and take care of us during the day, but I would cry and wouldn't sleep all night because I missed her so much. So she gave it all up and came to live with us. Wow. That is so amazing. And you're right, Gigi. I mean, what a great expression of unconditional love. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so when I was six years old, my father died in a plane crash. There were 60 doctors on board. One survived to tell the tale. Very sad story. My dad's younger brother, my uncle, and his wife took us in. They had three kids. We were three. And you would think we were the Brady Bunch, except we were not a happy family, unfortunately. So my uncle, and like my father, was a practicing Muslim and taught us to pray five times a day, which is how we pray, how Islam teaches you to pray, basically. It would yank us out of bed to ensure that we had prayed. So literally we would be asleep at night and he'd yank us out to make sure that we had prayed. Not having the time to pray meant that you would pile up your prayers. Islam requires the faithful to pray five times per day and allows you to make up those prayers if you are busy or if you forget, basically. Allah is the authority and he's not to be questioned. Actually, nothing is to be questioned, period. So I grew up really fearing and hating this punishing God who sat up in heaven and seemed to enjoy tormenting me, at least that's how I felt, right? Nothing was going right at that time. When I was 16, I found my mom through the embassy, the French embassy, and I ran away. I literally went to school one day and ran away. My mom lived in New York. She sent me a plane ticket and I came to the US with not even my toothbrush, I tell people. My brother, $20. And that's what I had in my pocket. So you not even a toothbrush and you had $20. That's all the money that you had with you. That's all I had with me. And I crossed the ocean and came to this country with absolutely nothing, an empty heart, broken empty heart. I had left my brother and that's what happened. So it took a few months because we had to wait for the visa. My mom had gotten me a visa and I left Morocco. I never returned until 2013 when my brother, who's biologically my cousin, but as I had said before, we were three and they were three. So we call each other siblings, brothers and sisters. When he got married, he insisted for me to go back. And that was my first time back, 80s. So of course being the way I was, I looked for love in the wrong places. And I met a young man and we had a very bitter divorce and I moved to Florida. I was an empty shell and I studied religion, trying to find gods all over the place. I thought, well, if it's not in a guide, there has to be a God somewhere. And I landed on an ashram studying Buddhism. And I felt like that Buddha's teachings were calm, loving, and that was something that I could follow. Meanwhile, I earned my degree in teaching in education, but couldn't find a job. So I had to move to Charlottesville, Virginia to teach French and Spanish at a local high school. So that's pretty much what happened, like how I grew up, so to speak. That's an amazing, unique story of your life. It really is very different. So let me ask you this, Gigi, like when you came to this country, to our country with only, again, you said no toothbrush, only $20 in your pocket. What empowered you to have the courage to make that move with only $20 in your pocket? My brother wanted me to leave. He knew, my older brother knew that my family was trying to marry me. So in Islam, they marry people at a young age, really, or something. And people were starting to look at me and ask my uncle for my hand in marriage. And he was considering it. And at the time I was 16 and my brother wanted me to study and be educated and do something with my life. So he's the one who pushed me, really. Yeah, that is so awesome. So how did you discover Jesus as your savior, as a once practicing Muslim? Well, one day my friend Bob and his wife invited me to Efford Baptist Church, which is a church here in Savannah County, for their daughter's baptism. I really didn't want to go because I didn't believe in Christianity. You have to understand, for Muslims, the Trinity is not only foreign, but it's absolutely horrible. How can you be God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, right? It's just not heard of. So I really wasn't interested in religion and Christianity, but remember, I had a big heart and love that was instilled in me. So I went with a gift, because I love to give gifts, and I really did not go for any religious reasons. After all, what kind of a God would allow a three -year -old to be abandoned by her mother? Or what kind of a God would allow a six -year -old to lose her father to be raised by an authoritarian uncle? emotionally, My uncle physically, and sexually abused me, and that was hard for me. Yeah, so of course you're thinking, if there is a God, what kind of God will allow that pain and suffering into my life? Right, absolutely. And so at the end of the service, the pastor made an altar call, which I ignored completely. Actually I was thinking, I need to buy food, I need to do this, I need to do that. And he then asked everyone to stand and sing, give thanks with a grateful heart. And honestly, I don't even remember what happened. All I know is that the flood of tears emanated from my eyes. I couldn't even stand, and I crawled to the altar. Oh, wow. You literally, you crawled to the altar? I could not walk, Pastor Mark, and that is the God's honest truth. I couldn't even carry myself. I crawled there, and while I was crawling, I felt all the guilt from years of sin, all the shame, all the hurt, all the anger leave my body. Wow. I just felt instantly renewed, like a renewed body. And it was all replaced with love, with hope, with gentleness, with kindness, with goodness. Really the fruits of the spirits just oozed out of my body. The love of God, that love and peace that really encompasses all understanding. And literally, I met Jesus, my Lord and Savior, at the altar that day. Wow. And you literally, you weren't going to let anything stop you, Gigi. You literally crawled to the altar to accept Jesus as your Savior. I really did. I really did. Physically, I couldn't even do it. I just crawled. That's the bottom line. Wow. That is what I'm talking about. Wow. So you weren't ashamed of the gospel. You knew that Jesus was calling you and you crawled to the altar to receive him. And on your way there, he is totally cleansing you. And you're being reborn with each inch that you crawl to the altar. Wow. I just absolutely love that. You know what? You got me fired up. Just tell me that story of you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Wow. It's amazing. I still sometimes have to pinch myself just to be like, wow, I can't believe this happened to me. Yes, I was saved. I didn't feel the big, you know, anything. It was big. Right. It was big. Oh, wow. Wow. So if there's anyone listening to our podcast right now and they're thinking about coming to Jesus and, you know, accepting him as your Savior, but something that's holding them back. I want you as someone who literally physically crawled to the altar to receive Jesus. What would you tell that person right now? I would just say, just go. What have you got to lose? Honestly. Yeah. What can you lose? Just run. Don't even think about it. Who cares what others think? You know, the whole time I was there, I was like, oh, my gosh, what if somebody sees me? What if somebody recognizes me and my sins? And I just run, crawl, do what you have to do. Yeah, that is so good. Gigi said run, crawl, do what you have to do. Just don't hesitate and wait to accept Jesus as your savior. If he is calling you right now, don't wait. Just crawl to him. Run to him. So Gigi, how long have you been a Christian? I've been a Christian since 2003 when I received baptism. Wow. Since 2003. So what was your life like before you made a decision to follow Jesus? So honestly, as a Muslim, I was very bitter. I didn't understand Allah. And since nothing was to be questioned, we just went through the motions and we followed the teachings. I was empty, though. I was a high school teacher, so I was a contributor. I was really contributing to society. But I felt numb on the inside. I loved on children, but I had no love for myself. I chose abusive men to fulfill a void and I would then leave them or they would leave me. And that gave me like a feeling of justifying my victimhood. I was just a victim basically in this world. It was a dark period in my life, to be honest. Yeah. But living without having a relationship with Jesus Christ is really rocky. It's a costly life. I mean, the Bible is clear. It says the wages of sin is death. And I was dying on the inside. Yeah. Yeah. And many times that spiritual death will lead to an actual physical death. Exactly. Exactly. And maybe not for me, because I was teaching, I was coming home, but I was dying on the inside. And so, of course, you have anxiety takes over, depression takes over. So, yes, eventually, you know, suicidal thoughts were my middle name at one point. Oh, wow. That is darkness. Hey, Gigi, if there's a Muslim practicing Muslim listening or anyone who is outside of the faith of Christianity and they've been searching or they're considering searching for Jesus as their savior, especially to a practice of Muslim, you know, what would you what would you say to encourage them? I would say read the Bible. It's very factual. The history doesn't you cannot you cannot refute history, right? It's written. And I would say so study it for sure. But but have an open heart and just just come and visit a church, just meet the people. There's no questions that will not be answered. There's no doubt that will not be answered. People will put their arms around you and not judge you. I remember saying to Pastor John, who was the pastor of the time, an effort Baptist, I remember saying, but I don't understand the Trinity. And he would say to me, he would put his arms around me and say, keep coming back. Yeah, I would say keep coming back. That is so good. That is so good. Now, I know evangelism on fire nation. You're probably wondering what I'm wondering, you know, about Gigi. So, Gigi, how did your life change after you became a Christian? So after I became a Christian, I felt really free from the inside out. I felt free from oppression. You know, we're in a time where people talk about oppression. I felt free from oppression, which I had created in my own mind. And I will venture to say anyone who feels oppressed is because they have created that in their own mind. I had been a victim as a child, but now I'm a victor. I'm victorious over everything. Yes. My self -esteem is stronger. And I did that really by speaking positively as well. The Bible says we are snared by the words of our mouth. And I choose to speak life every day around me, around the people that are with me so that I can continue to be a positive person. I don't feel broken anymore. I don't feel ugly. I don't want to commit suicide anymore. I don't pursue every broken man to try to fix their life. That was my thing, right? Let me find the most broken person so I can fix them. Yeah. So I actually stopped dating. So I had decided to stop dating for a while so I could date myself and get to know myself. Yeah. Say that one more time. That's so good. I want everyone to hear that again. For sure. I stopped dating, going from one man to another, and I started dating myself. I had a relationship with myself. I started loving on myself, taking care of myself. And I prayed to God. I wrote down actually what I wanted in a man. And a year later, I met my husband, Mike. And we have been married for 21 years now. We have an awesome kid together, which is a whole story with our son, actually. And I wish I could say that everything was easy and smooth since I've been a Christian, but that would be lying. Right. It's not that smooth. A lot of people think, well, I'm going to become a Christian and everything will be perfect. And that's not so. We had, for example, we had to, we tried to have a child for three years and nothing happened. And at the time, like I said, I was a teacher at a local high school and I would see these 16, 17 year old get pregnant. And I would say, God, I'm serving you. I'm here 100 % for you. Why am I not getting pregnant? Right. We depleted a bank account with in vitro fertilization. And I was praying one day and I heard God loudly and clearly say, be still and know that I am God. And then he said, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And right then, right there. And then I went into all the fertility drugs and I flushed them in the toilet bowl. And I said, we're stopping this. God knows my heart and knows I want to be a mother. And that's what's going to be. Wow. So you totally trusted in the Lord with all your heart that he, not the fertility drugs, not anything else, that he was the one that's going to provide you with a child that you have a heart desire for. Yes, amen. Exactly. That's what I did. And I remember the devil one day saying to me, see, you're not pregnant. Like every month would pass. And you say, see, look at the God you serve. You're not pregnant. And I would literally open the front door. I could still see myself doing that. I would open the front door. I would put the Bible on the floor. I would stand on it and I'd say, devil, flee out of my house. I am standing emotionally, spiritually, and physically on the word. Amen. That's praise God. That is so powerful. So powerful. Two years later, two years later, I remember I even went and bought a pair of little shoes, like baby shoes, and I would put them in the living room because that was one thing with my husband. I'd always have to pick up his shoes. And that was very annoying to me. Right. So, so I bought little baby shoes and I would put them in the living room and pick them up and put them back. And it might sound crazy to some, but you have to visualize what you want in life. You have to speak it. You, if you want it to manifest, you have to manifest it by faith first, really. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That is so true. And I want to encourage everyone listening, Evangelism on Fire Nation, whatever dreams God has put in your heart right now, I want you to visualize those dreams like Gigi did with having the expectation of her child and speak those things which be not as though that they're going to be and trusting God for him to bring it to pass and for him to manifest your dreams. So that is so good, Gigi. Hey, what now? This is the question of the day. OK, what what's one thing about your testimony that you've never shared with anyone? OK, so I have I've never shared with anyone that I have had two visions of Jesus, and that was while I was a Muslim and Jesus was rescuing me. One, when I was nine years old, I tried to commit suicide and I was we had we had a house that was very, very high and I was upstairs and I thought I should throw myself from the second floor building. And and he appeared to me and told me that he loved me and that scared me so much that I just rebuked him right away. Like I was like, no, I literally said no, because there could not be a Christian God in a Muslim family. So that I mean, if my family had heard of that, they would have destroyed me. I don't even I can't even imagine what could have happened to me, honestly. So so I just rebuked that and let it go. And the second one was after I had graduated from from college and all, I was in my bed and I was just crying because I felt like there was nothing for me to do. No one loved me. I didn't care. I was a victim. Nobody cared. And I wanted to kill myself. And I closed my eyes and I pictured myself throwing myself in the abyss. And I felt this hand, this huge hand pick me up and put me back on this mountain. And it happened like three times that same day, that same moment. And when I looked up, there was a bright light around me. The room was all bright and actually my eyes were open. So it's a it's a true vision, like not a dream or anything. And and Jesus was telling me that everything was going to be fine. Wow, that's absolutely amazing. Hey, I want to thank you so much for, you know, sharing those two really their personal touches from God. And I just I considered an honor and a privilege that you're sharing that part of your testimony that you've never shared with anyone before. Gigi, thank you so much for having the courage to do that. Thank you for having me, Pastor. Absolutely. Now, if someone's listening to this podcast right now and they haven't committed to following Jesus, what's the number one thing you want to share with them? If someone is listening today and I hope they are, I urge you to give your life to Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross to show me and you have to love that unconditional love, really. You know, it's one thing to love, but it's another thing to have that unconditional love. He offers us forgiveness of our sins. He washes them all away as we confess with our mouth that he is Lord. He took someone like me. Sometimes I think God has a funny sense of humor. He took someone like me, a piece of coal, and turned it into a diamond.
Andrew Tate Motivational Speech
A highlight from STOP BEING LAZY - Andrew Tate Motivational Speech
"I understand don't people who say they lack motivation in life because I'll make this extremely clear. If you're not pushing and striving for something, life is so mundane. I've always had this problem with literal crippling perpetual boredom. I was bored. I had no money. I'm carrying boxes of ice. I'm a smart guy. I'm not playing chess anymore, right? This is, I'm 34 now. So this is quite a few years ago. It's before the internet, before Facebook was all big and nothing. What do you do with your life? What's there to do? I thought the only, I need to do something which drains me so that I can go to sleep at night without frustration. And if I kickbox, if I run three miles to the gym and then fight for three hours and run three miles home, at least I can sleep. I literally couldn't sleep. I wouldn't say it's ADHD, but I was just frustrated. And then on top of that, I've always had this huge frustration in regards to money. Even though I was poor, I'd grow up around a bunch of other poor kids and we'd be walking to school or walking to college and a Ferrari would drive past and they'd go, oh, cool Ferrari. And I'd say, doesn't that annoy you? And they're like, what do you mean? And I'd be like, he knows he's hacked the matrix. Don't you see? How does he have 400 grand for a car? He knows something we don't know. Well, aren't you annoyed that there's people out there living a lifestyle that we can't ever aspire to. We're never going to work in a job and pull this off. Doesn't this bother you? And they all be like, no, but me, it was, I was always angry. I was always angry, not angry in a go to jail way, but just in a, I was angry. I was like, something isn't right. Something doesn't add up. So I kickboxing was my answer. I just started kicking, kicking people's ass and I felt a little bit better. That was kind of how it worked. At what point did you realize you were like world -class at this? So when I, my first day in the gym, I walk in my coach, it was four Bosnian men, men. I was a child. It was four Bosnian men in this tiny little terrible gym. It was not like a commercial gym or commercial class. And he said, can you fight? And I said, yeah, I've done karate for a few years that I got knocked clean out on my first day, of course. And I guess they expected me to never come back, but I kept coming back. And my coach said to me, look, after about a year, he said, look, I want to put you into a fight. And he took me down to a town called South End on C and my first fight was in kickboxing. My first fight was actually MMA and it must've been a little over a year because I was 18 and I was fighting a 24 year old security doorman. And being a stupid American, I thought pounds and kilos were the same because I weighed in at like 82 pounds. He weighed in at like 90. No, I weighed in at 82 kilos. He weighed in at 90 kilos, which is an 8 kilo difference, which is almost like 20 pounds. And I was like to my coach, is that a big difference? He's like, no, no, don't worry about it. I was like, okay. Thinking back, a 20 pound difference is a big difference in fighting, right? And I got in there and I won. I didn't win necessarily through skill, but I just kept going and I just outgassed him and towards the end, I'm just on top of him, just punched him in the face, right? And now I'm only 18 years old. So from there, my coach was like, okay, you have some potential. And I knew for a long time, it was, I believed it was my only way out because like once again, before the internet and stuff, I'm going to college, I finished college. I don't believe in university because I'm too smart to get in debt for formal education. I'm too smart for that job. So I finished college. I'm working these sales jobs. I was always a good salesman. So I'm working sales jobs. I'm bringing in, you know, 3000, 4000 a month, whatever, but I thought my only way to get rich rich is fighting. I couldn't think of another way to get rich and I didn't fight only to get rich, but I saw light at the end of the tunnel. So that's all I wanted to do was just fight, fight, fight. And so at what point do you go fight for the first world championship? So I fight for my first level world championship on two days notice. So I'm in Slovakia. There was a town. I'm going to tell everyone now on this podcast, I'm going to give the secret away. If you go, if you're bored right now, if you're watching this on the internet, load up Google maps, right? And there's a town called Kosice, K -O -S -I -C -E, and it's on the opposite end of Slovakia to Bratislava. So Bratislava is the capital and then you have Kosice on the other side. It's four and a half hours drive from Bratislava. It's about four hours drive from Warsaw and about four hours drive from Budapest. It's in the middle of nowhere, but all the villages and all the towns, everyone around this little town, every hot girl within about 400 square kilometers lived in this town because there's no, there was nowhere else to go. Right. And they were all there. And when I was going there, this is pre -EU. They didn't have the Euro and me and Tristan used to go there on holiday because we would clean up. And when I say clean up, my brother, and when I say clean up, I don't mean clean up, like you clean up on holiday with some in Mexico. I mean, clean up with tens, like supermodels, it was unbelievable. And a beer is like 30 cents. And we're the only men there who speaks English. So I was in Kishidze and then I got a phone call from Amir saying he has a world title fight in two days. So I was just really drunk at the time. And I was... Amir is my coach, sorry. He was Bosnian Muslim. He fought in the Yugoslav conflict. He got shot six times and didn't die. That's the deal. Right? So he's still like a father to me. And I must've been crazy. I was like, okay, I can't explain, and I want to say this in a way where it's truly understood. When I say I didn't give a shit if I lived or die, I don't mean that in a sad, suicidal way. I mean that in an empowered, charging at the gunfighter. Back then, I didn't think I had anything that really made me really give a shit about living. Not in a doo -doo -doo sad way, just in a, let's go out, in a blaze of glory then. I'm not rich. I don't have nothing. I'm just banging girls in Slovakia with us. Who is this guy? So it was against the French world champion Jean -Luc Benoit was his name. And the opponent pulled out and they needed a guy on two days notice. And I had to lose six kilos, which was around 13 or 14 pounds in two days. Is that easy or hard? That's hard, bro. 13 pounds in two days is a long way to lose. So I just stopped eating, stopped drinking, sitting in saunas, spitting out all the water, just dying. Finally made weight, went to France, fought in 12 rounds. My first ever 12 -round fight as well, fought him. And they gave the decision to him, but I was wrong. I beat him. I beat him. I beat him. I didn't knock him out, but I beat him. Is this one of the four world championships, or this is the fifth? Well, it should be, yeah. But the tape was so convincing, the tape was actually sent off to the ISKA, the fighting organization, and they demanded a rematch. They knew I won, right? But he's France. He's French. He's in France. And fighting has a lot of politics to it. You have to understand, I mean, UFC is UFC, the real big ones. But outside of the smaller ones, it makes more sense for the French promotion of a French champion. They'll sell a lot more tickets and a lot more pay -per -views of the French champion. So basically either you knock him out or it's going to go down. It's kind of like that, right? So they commanded a rematch, and I rematched him seven months later and knocked him out in the eighth, and I became world champion. Okay. Why keep going once you've won? There's always a new mountain to climb. I mean, that's kind of, that's a good question, because that's also kind of the reason I quit. Because it's like, why keep going? Well, there's always someone new to fight, and I'm still not financially where I want to be. And I don't know what else I want to do with my life, so I'll keep going, right? So I fought again. I beat another Frenchman, and then I fought again. And then I beat two Dutch guys to become four -time world champion. But one day I woke up and I was like, is becoming five -time world champion going to improve my life? I mean, I've already got, do I need five belts? How much money do they pay for these fights? 3 ,000 bucks, 2 ,000 bucks. It doesn't even, you need to work on the side. You're giving up all your free time to get punched in the face. Like, it's a terrible decision. Like, I don't know why I decided to do it. But eventually, once I was world champion, I'd get like 100 grand to fight, but I'd give 20 % to my manager. Then the UK, with the UK taxes, 40, 50 % would disappear. And sometimes you only fight twice a year or whatever. I was certainly not rich. I didn't consider myself rich. So you get like 30 to 40 % of what? Yeah. And I didn't consider myself rich. Like, 30, 40 grand chunks, but twice a year, maybe three times a year. I'm living in London. London rents. I need a car. I'm trying to know, like, you're not rich in any way. And that's actually the reason I retired, because I woke up one day and I thought, I'm giving six hours a day of absolute focus and energy to this. And I believe I'm smart enough that if I put that much tenacity into something else, I can be a multimillionaire. I truly believe that. I was like, I've realized now I've reached the pinnacle of kickboxing. My choice is either to change over to MMA, which I was offered to do earlier in my career, but at the time, the kickboxing contract paid more money. I had to pay the bills, so I went kickboxing. Change over to MMA, learn to wrestle, change over to UFC, blah, blah, blah. But this is also like seven, eight years ago, where even the UFC didn't pay the money it pays now. But the UFC still doesn't pay that much money, from what I understand. No, if you're like top five or champion, yeah. But most of the dudes you're going to see there on the prelims, they're getting 10 grand a fight, nine grand a fight. It's nothing, right? So it'd be like starting my career all over again. And at the age of 28, I thought, I don't have the gumption to start again. I've been through hell for this. I've broken my hand eight times. My ribs have been broken. I don't want to do this all over again. So what do you do when you realize that, hey, maybe I don't want to keep fighting? I decide to get rich, Rich. What does that mean to you? When you're sitting there, you're getting 30, $40 ,000 kind of net on a per fight basis. Is rich to you like, hey, I want a couple hundred thousand dollars, a million bucks, 20 million dollars, a billion dollars? I want 30 or 40 ,000 every month. 30 or 40 ,000 every month, so about half a million bucks a year. I thought if I had that much money, I could do whatever I want. Okay. That's what I decided. So what's step one that you do? So step one is, maybe that's how we ended up here together, my friend. Step one is, I decided to be very logical about it, chess player, right? So I was like, I want money.
The Refiners Furnace
A highlight from UNCLEAN
"Hi, everyone. Good morning. You're welcome to the Refinance Faunus podcast and we are trusting the Lord to help us understand his word. We also trust him to bring so much light to very that aspect of our lives that we are struggling in and then he will cause his face to shine upon us in the name of Jesus. I hope your weekend is going well. I hope that your week was blessed. I hope that all is working out for you for good. And I also want to believe that sincerely you are growing in God daily. I think I've told us early that this is really it's going to be number one, a very deliberate affair. It's going to be an extremely deliberate action. Yes, it has to be extremely consistent. I mean, it has to be so, so, so, so consistent because the process of transformation is never easy. It's not going to be easy. You know, anyone that told you that this was going to be an easy adventure. I think that person lied too. I think I've said this severely, but we are trusting the Lord that truly our lives will make so much meaning to him, even as he is going to help us get rid of our excesses. Yes. Even as he's going to help us get rid of the old man in us. So child of God today, I came to want to talk about a man actually, not Jesus, but a man that truly was a Christian. A man that, you know, represented Christ to to his generation and to his, his best of abilities. And, you know, I just started coming to share the story with us. We'll see how the Lord is going to help us. Okay. Just hope you understand that there is the Gentile and there is the Jew. Okay. We want to look at this thing practically. Okay. Because Jesus Christ was majorly a Jew. He was from the Hebrew background. Salvation as people in the Jewish religion, the Jewish sect as at that time was only believed to have come for the Jewish or the Jews. Okay. Now follow me carefully. Follow me carefully. You see, if you're not a Jew, if you're not from the Jewish tradition, if you're not from the Hebrew sect, you're not supposed to have anything to do with salvation. And I've told us carefully in my previous episodes that, um, when we're talking about salvation to the Hebrew, I mean the average Jewish man, salvation to him before Christ was, um, like, it take over, like a coup d 'etat. Maybe I should use that word. Yes. It was like a coup d 'etat, like a very serious, um, political, you know, governmental, uh, war. When someone is going to come and fight the existing government, take over the government and then make things easy for his followers. That was the mindset because from prophecy, they interpreted the prophecy wrongly. No one had an accurate understanding about what prophecy was. Everyone was, they were just religious. Yes. They were extremely religious. So when Jesus Christ came to the scene, okay, they were like, they were surprised. What is this that you are telling us? Aren't you supposed to start recruiting boys soldiers? You are the Messiah. That's why it was very hard for somebody to believe that, he is the Messiah. How can you be the Messiah? I am a hundred years of age and you call yourself the Messiah. All I have been believing for the past hundred years is that when the Messiah in court will come, the Messiah is going to do what? You know, take over the political government and you have been existing here for maybe two years. You are here for two years and you have been existing. In fact, you are called what you call the carpenters. You have been existing here. You are not doing any thing in regards to what we believe and then you are telling us you are the Messiah. In fact, highest we have seen is you gathering 12 reckless, you know, disappointed, frustrated men. You call them your disciples. How are we supposed to believe you, sir? Amen. So this was, this was, this was just believe, believe me. This was it. This was it. No one was ready to buy into that idea that, ah, Messiah, you are not recruiting boys. We are not in a training for the takeover. It also defeats the Roman empire. If, if I am sure I understand my prophecy, I hope you know that a Jewish, I mean, an average Jewish man was a student of prophecy. Yes. An average Jewish man had a clear understanding of the Torah. I mean, the book of the law. Yes. He had that clear understanding of what Torah was about. That's why you see a child of five years who will be able to recite the calling David, recite Isaiah, recite Jeremiah, recite Ussiah, pay attention and you'll be blessed. You know, that's why sometimes I look at our generation today and, and you know, a Christian will be in trouble and then, and then doesn't have I mean, spiritual backup. I mean, there's no scriptures. There's no word from his spiritual. And do you know that Jesus Christ was only able to communicate with the teachers of the law at the age of 12, because of his background as a Jewish boy. See, it's not magic, but pay attention. Jesus Christ at the age of five, I mean, I hope you know that Joseph, Jesus's father was a devoted Jew. Pay attention and you'll be blessed. And, and he morally, morally, he had put in a lot of energy on Jesus. So it would have been so impossible for a child at the age of 12 pay attention, not to have that communication skills. I mean, this was, it was normal. I mean, believe me, go, go back to your Bible history. Check. Amen. But there's something about Jesus. I think we have this situation all over. There are people you see and something exceptional just comes on them. That was the situation of Jesus. But I tell you the truth that an average Jewish boy, 10, 12, 5, will be able to recite the Torah. Sometimes when you go into what they call it now, the, what do you call it now? The Muslim sect. Yes. You see their young boys able to, now it's just the same situation, but something came upon Jesus that it made him exceptional. Okay. Pay attention and you'll be blessed. Now we are going somewhere. Okay. So the salvation, the redemption, the Messiah talk and prophecy wasn't really what these guys expected. They saw something different. I think I've said this several in my previous episodes. They saw something extremely different from what they have been expecting or what they have been taught to expect. Amen. So when Jesus came and then told them that he is, or not that he is, people started saying, we have made the Messiah. It was really hard for people to believe, especially the teachers of the law. Are you telling me that those guys didn't want salvation, but they were frustrated at what they were seeing. I'm telling the truth. In fact, they will never believe that someone will be coming to contend with their religious knowledge. Oh God, you are the Messiah. What are you doing, arguing with us? Imagine you are telling me that I am an old wine skin, that there's something called a new wine and a new one was, are you following me? Pay attention and you'll be blessed. So it was so strange. I mean, I mean, the whole thing was so strange and, and you know, an average man would not like contention. So they had to fight Jesus back to back because what they knew all their lives, what they have been taught all their life was extremely different from what they were seeing. Amen. So, so, so, uh, when we talk of salvation, salvation was, was major, majorly for the Jews and the Gentiles. I mean, any other person that is not a Jew, that is not from the Hebrew sect was not even supposed to, I mean, enjoy what salvation is because, because, because the idea of the Roman reign has been an existing thing for a very, I mean, a very long time. So if you're not a Jew, you don't understand what it means to be under the cage of the Roman empire. Pay attention and you'll be blessed. So it was Apostle Paul that came and mean with this accurate knowledge of the word of God and by the revelation of the spirit, he was able to expand that Jesus Christ did not only come for the Jew or from the people from the Hebrew background or the Hebrew or the call it now sect that he came for everybody. And then, and then it went, Oh, the Jews or the Gentiles. So it gave an opportunity for, for the Gentiles to also tap into the multitude of the totality of Jesus Christ. Okay. I hope you're fooling me. Anyways, there's a link, there's a link attached to this podcast episode. So if there are questions, please, you send it via the link and then we will, I'll attend to all your questions by the message of God. Okay. So our podcast episode today will be centralized on Cornelius, Peter and the conversion of Gentiles. Okay. Pay attention and you'll be blessed. So our central text will be act chapter 10 from verse one to two, or we are going to read more than that actually, but our emphasis will be acts chapter 10. So, so in regards to these, you know, the disciples and everything in regards to this very scene that I've been trying to expand, many people pay attention. Many people started having revelations. Many people started having revelations. A lot of people also, a lot of people also had, many people had revelations, you know, what, what, what will I say now? This is it. Okay. This is it. Many people have revelations, but, but, um, uniquely a man by the name Cornelius was recorded. Now I, I hope follow me carefully. I don't want to say a lot of things because I know some people are not going to take it kindly. Okay. But, um, while you, you are able to study your scriptures, you should be begging God to, um, help you, help you expand on some things to you. Okay. Now you won't tell me that it was only, um, one man in his entire generation that had a revelation about now don't, don't be, don't be, don't be religious. Don't be, don't be too, um, prophetic or something. Now people kept wondering, I hope, you know, we'll talk about revelation about dreams. Now it comes in different ways. Okay. Um, a light can fall on someone and what you've been struggling to understand for years, you just understanding it in seconds. Now people get to wonder, is this thing real? What is this thing that the Jewish people are talking about? And people get to wonder, and I think peculiarly, okay, peculiarly, God had to use Cornelius because of the popularity of his position. Pay attention. I've told you separately that for everything that the law will do, I've said this in my previous episodes, if it is not to the end that he be glorified, trust me, there is no need of him doing it. In fact, the God I know will not do it. Okay. Okay. Matthew chapter five talks about your light shining and to what end was that light that men will see and what the end result of the totality of what God will ever want to do is what that is glory be seen. Okay. So you cannot tell me that it was only Cornelius. Okay. Just like you telling me that in the 21st century, there is only one man of God that has seen Jesus. No, no, no, no, no. You can't do that. You can't do that to me. Amen. So a lot of people might have had, but, but Cornelius was recorded because of the peculiarity of what God would have or God wanted to do through Cornelius. Okay. So, um, Act of Gospel chapter 10 speaks about a Gentile who was devoted to God, maybe to other Gentiles, but their devotion to God was not as loud as Cornelius. Now the Bible speaking about Noah is that Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord and that, that, that you could see how the Lord picked interest in Noah because of the peculiarity of his genuineness to God. Okay. A lot of people were there. I know some people will come. No, are you, are you right? No, are you accurate? Are you sure? Some people were doubting. Some were hardly denying. I mean, rejecting the other. Some people were considering. Is it, is it right? So at the end, it was only his family that believed in him. Now pay attention and you'll be blessed. Pay attention. So there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man, and one who pay attention, fear God, and with all his household who give arms generously to people and pray to God always consistency. So Caesarea was a predominant, predominated Roman city on the shores of the Mediterranean in Judea. Okay. So it was the headquarters of the Roman governor of the province of Judea. So archaeologists have discovered a stone from a building in Caesarea inscribed with the name Pontius Pilate as actually not necessary. So Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army, a patriotic Jew. Okay. Of that day would materially dislike or even hate him. Now Cornelius was a Roman, an officer in the Roman army. Okay. A high ranking. I mean, very high ranking officer pay attention. Now, I think I've explained this earlier, Jew. Now Jew had nothing to do with Gentiles. So when we are talking about salvation, it is for the Jew and not for the Gentiles, according to all they know. I think I made, I took my time to explain this. Okay. So Cornelius maybe heard about it. I think, I think I've explained it. He might have been contemplating and you know, you know, is this God, is this God they are talking about Jew? How can they, how big God is this? So as a typical Roman, he had been exposed to Roman gods, Jupiter or God's Zeus, Mars, Venus. I mean, these are the, the varieties of the Roman gods. So he had, he had varieties to choose from. He wanted to serve, but the guy was like, come the God of now God. So this is God. So he was contemplating. And I mean, somehow we paid attention to his spirit and then followed. I think if you want to understand this very phrase, you should go back to my podcast episode on wooing of the spirit. I told you in that episode that for every point in life, you wouldn't say that God is not faithful. No, the spirit had blown so fast to the heart of men. But the question is how many people paid attention to the wooing of the spirits? Okay. So Cornelius paid attention. So he might have been contemplating just like the men in the days of Noah. Some people, some people might have gotten the whispers of the spirit listening to this man, but they were still, do you understand me? They were still not paying attention. How many times will the spirit speak to you, sir, ma? And you're still ignorant. You still choose to be ignorant. Pay attention. Is it but found they had been exposed to the enlightened concept of Judaism and they had become devoutly monetized. Okay. So Cornelius was in the category of what the Jew called Godfarers. Okay. So they actually, Cornelius actually feared God. So these were Gentiles who loved the God of Israel. Pay attention. Now they are heard stories. Remember faith commit by what? Hearing. They are heard. So out of hearing their faith, follow me carefully. They were sympathetic to the, to and supportive to the Jewish faith. Yet they stopped short of becoming full Jews in lifestyle and in circumstances. So Jewish people of that time respected and appreciated these God fearing Gentiles, but they could not share their life and homes food with them because they were still in fact Gentiles and not full Jewish convert. Okay. Now, if you're following you understand that I've been saying this in my previous episode, that it's not about saying to a Jewish man, you can't say you fear God. No, no, no. Have you gone through the process of circumcision? Do you, there's a lot of things, a lot of things. I think, I think one time I was watching a movie and I was like, come, it was a Jewish movie. And one guy, what I call them, a zealot. Yes. That's the name. That's the name they call this guy. A zealot wore an apparel that was actually not, I mean, in the context of the Jewish and a Jewish religious leader was condemning. They had to seize it from the zealot. They had to seize the apparel. Now, now it's that serious that these guys pay attention to details. Okay. How, what you eat, what you say, the things you, that's why these guys did not like John the Baptist because I think, calling a Jew, a viper at that time, man, you have committed a sin. Don't worry, let me not bore you with that. So, so, so they couldn't actually share their life because of the peculiarity of what they were. Okay. So even if these guys feared God, but they won't accept that they truly feared God because they're not actually, you know, they are not like them, they are tradition, they are Jewish converts, I mean fully. So because of the way the life and heart of Cornelius is being described, we see a man who obviously had a real relationship with God. Come, come. These guys had a relationship at the time. Now, oh my God, help me. Oh, I don't, I don't expect to deviate because I've not touched what I want to touch, but I want to pay, I want you to pay attention to this again and again. Now, this man had a relationship with God and how was this relationship established? The Bible says that Cornelius prayed to God always. That takes us back to Luke gospel chapter 18 verse 1. To this end, Jesus made a parable that man ought always to pray and not to fail. Now, all Jesus trying to do, to bring man into sync with God. Now, Jesus came that he will, I mean, realign man to God, but for that realignment to be consistent. Prayer has to be constant. Yes. So Cornelius had a lifestyle of what? Praying always. Now check out the lives of men who could pray always, who were always praying to God. Always they had a life with God. So at the same time, he was not part of the mainstream of the Jewish life. So God sends an angel to tell Cornelius to get Peter. Okay. Now, because of the relationship with God, God had to appear maybe to an angel to Cornelius and then, you know, so let's read about, let's read about chapter 10 verse 3 to 6. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your harms have come up for a memorial before God. Ah, I love this. Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon a tanner whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do. So we are not told specifically here that Cornelius was praying about this ninth hour. No. But it was the ninth hour. I mean, what you call three o 'clock that this vision came. So this was a customary time of prayer for Jews. So imagine he was observing these things. So also as Cornelius related incidents to Peter in Acts chapter 10 verse 33, he specifically said he was praying at the ninth hour. So we are not actually sure. So this was not a dream nor did an angel physically appear to Cornelius. Okay. This was not a dream and it was not a physical. So this was a vision that came in the mind's eye of Cornelius at the same time. So it was so vivid that Cornelius would later say a man stood beside me in bright clothing. That's Acts chapter 10 verse 30. When you check, you're going to see that. So it was significant that God spoke to Cornelius directly, even calling him by name. It was so significant that Cornelius responded with a healthy fear of the heavenly and the holy. So this shows that Cornelius had a real relationship.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Casey Diaz (Encore Continued)
"Folks, welcome to The Eric Metaxas Show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit LegacyPMInvestments .com. That's LegacyPMInvestments .com. Welcome to The Eric Metaxas Show. Did you ever see the movie The Blob starring Steve McQueen? The blood curdling threat of The Blob. Well, way back when, Eric had a small part in that film, but they had to cut his scene because The Blob was supposed to eat him. But he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest. Eric Metaxas! Staying in my conversation with Casey Diaz, he's the author of the shot caller gangbanger's a Latino miraculous escape from a life of violence to a new life in Christ. Casey, the story is crazy, beautiful, amazing, and it's true. So you're telling me now the guy comes in there to kill you and he can't do it? And you lead him to faith right there, the man with the shank in his hand. Now, I would think that in the prison world, they're going to put a hit out on his life and they're going to put somebody else to kill you. So, I mean, what happens that day, the next day? Well, for several years, two years, actually, there's these little notes that we used to write when we were put a hit or we needed something to be moved from one prison yard to another that were called kites. And so I started to use that system to witness to other gang leaders in there. And shortly after that, one of the founding members of MS -13 came to Christ through one of those kites. And then another gang leader from a gang in South Central Los Angeles came to Christ. So there was about four or five of us that started to really witness out there. And we were going through the wringer for two years. But after those two years, over 200 inmates at New Folsom State Prison came to Christ. And there was a big celebration that took place in that prison. This is just amazing. I'm amazed. I have not heard this story because this is like, to me, this is national news. If the news were not crazy and avoiding this kind of stuff. But let me ask you, you talked about hard candy, whatever. What was what happened? You said that there's a well, we would get jumped, you know, we'd be walking to whatever, an appointment or on the yard or to chow. And the next thing you know, there's 20, 40 inmates on top of you beating you. Or they'll walk into your cell and and do that. And when did this happen to you? Oh, countless amount of times throughout those two years. And do you feel the freedom to defend yourself? I kept I try to keep my promise of not doing anything. So and there's some details on that in the book that I go into. But for the most part, I just because you certainly could have killed a few more people. Yeah, absolutely. And the temptation came at one point. Well, because they're sort of trying to kill you. Yeah. And, you know, and it's it's overbearing. And you and you think and I remember having this conversation with God. And I said this to him, I said, you know, I gave everything up for you. I gave it all up for you. And this is what I what I get. And if you ever tell the Lord something like that, you're going to get a response. And here's the response to me was you didn't give anything for me. I give it all. I give it all up for you. He said that to you. And that was a calming moment for me that I came to to to understand that it was him that gave it all for me. I didn't know Jesus could be sassy. That's like a that's an amazing response. Yeah. Yeah, that's an amazing thing. But it was it was it was truth that, you know, that that that bear witness in my spirit that he's right. You know, he gave it all up for me wasn't the other way around. So you said this goes on for a couple of years and a lot of people come to faith in Jesus as a result of your standing on that table and being willing to risk your life. I mean, you risk your life. You basically at that point gave your life, except God gave it back to you. Yeah. And it's by God's grace that I ever made it out for parole. And made it out here. So what happened at this point? You said you go before a parole board. I mean, you're you're going through living hell for a few years there, even although you're so on fire in your faith that you are converting others in the midst of this situation. When how do you come up for parole at this point? Came up for parole on this particular morning. I didn't know that, you know, it was just to me, it was just another parole date. You know, you go every year, some of us go every three years, some of us every seven years. So to me, you know, I didn't I had no expectations of getting out any time soon. But at the moment that I got paroled, it was a surprise. In fact, one of the questions that one of the members said was, you know, why should we let you out? And my response was, you shouldn't. I deserve every minute that I have in here ordered by the court. In fact, I think that I should have been dealt stronger, and a bigger sentence should have been given to me. So I don't deserve freedom at all, and I'm okay with that. And that is the moment that I was granted parole. Did they know your story? I guess they have been watching what's happening. They had watched, they had seen, you know, prison guards had seen, there was riots that happened. I mean, there's so many stories that I share in there that, yeah, that God just, his supernatural hand upon my life was just one miracle after the other. Apart from your book, has anyone told these stories of this revival in this gang prison? No, I've been sharing it since the book release. I've been all over the country sharing it. Because this happened how many years ago? Over two decades. And we've never heard this story until now. I mean, it's, as I said, to me, this is national news. This is big stuff. And it's kind of amazing that nobody knows about this, all these guys. Now, so you get out and now what? You get out to what? What's your life? I get out to nothing because I have nothing on. So I moved out to a little town in California where I didn't know anybody and nobody knew me. I looked out for a church. I saw the church. I finally found one and got plugged in. Francis Proctor was still with me. See, that's amazing. This woman is the hero. Yes, she is. She's going to have a big mansion. Yes, she is. When we're in heaven, we won't have jealousy. So we're not going to be jealous. We'll be all right. I mean, can you imagine that this woman, it was her prayers. I mean, it's that simple. Like, that's the power of prayer. That's an encouragement to me. Wow. So you stayed in touch with her? Yeah. In fact, that whole prison ministry that would go there was at my wedding when I got married. They were all invited. They were all. Yeah, well, I would think they should be. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. So how long were you out? What did you do for a living once you get out? My uncle owned a hardwood floor company, so he hired me. I worked there for, you know, minimum wage. But I'll tell you this, my first paycheck, I had never made a dollar, honestly. So this was my first paycheck where I had worked a 40 hour week. And it was one of the best feelings that I ever had. And you, how old were you when you got out? I was, I think, 24 or 25, somewhere on there. Man, you lived like three lifetimes before that age. That's just unbelievable. So, and how long were you in that situation? Because now you're going to this church, you're in touch with this woman who had been coming into the prison. And how long, you got married, obviously. I got married, yeah. So I'm surprised too. You got married. And where were you at that point? How did you meet your wife? I met my wife at church. She's Lebanese. She comes from a Muslim background. She was the first one to convert to a Christian faith in her family. From the Muslim background. Yeah, from a Muslim background. And we met at church and we started to work together in the youth ministry. And after that, we ended up getting married and we've just finished celebrating our 20th year anniversary and three kids later. Three kids later. Yeah, I have two daughters and one son. One daughter that's at Azusa Pacific and the other one at Biola. We're going to do another segment, folks, so hang on. We'll be right back with Casey Diaz. The book is The Shot Caller. Tell me why Relief Factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question just the other night I was asked that question. Well, the owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right. Designed to heal. And I agree with them. And the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients. Yes, 100 percent drug free ingredients. And each one of them helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. That's the point. So approaching from four different angles may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. If you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three week quick start discounted to only nineteen ninety five to see if it'll work for you. It has worked for about 70 percent of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more on one of them. Go to relief factor dot com or call eight hundred for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Legacy Precious Metals has a revolutionary new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. In a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your metals of choice and choose to have them stored in a vault or shipped to your door. You'll have access to a dashboard where you can track your portfolio growth in real time. Any time you'll see transparent pricing on each coin and bar. This puts you in complete control of your money. The platform is free to sign up for. Visit Legacy PM investments dot com and open your account and see this new investing platform for yourself. Gold can hedge against inflation and against the volatile stock market. A true diversified portfolio isn't just more stocks and bonds, but different asset classes. This new platform allows you to make investments in gold and silver no matter how small or large with a few clicks. Visit Legacy PM investments dot com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool that they've added. Please go check it out today. That's Legacy PM investments dot com.
Mark Levin
Suspected Armed Muslim Kills Officer, Injuries Others in Fargo
"This guy happens upon a car accident. He goes up to the situation there, the accident, and he shoots three Fargo police officers in cold blood, shoots them, murders one of them, critically wounds two others. Thanks What do you think Van? Can you Now, if I'm a leftist like Van Jones, a Marxist, I take that situation and I applied to all Muslims in America, but it doesn't apply to all Muslims in America. Any more than something that happened applies to all whites in America or all blacks in America, you jerk. Thank They now know that he was en to the Fargo street fair, which is a big event there with an arsenal of weapons and explosives in his car. He's going try to and slaughter as many people as he could. Cops. Fargo's not exactly, know, you a community of a lot of blacks and minorities. He's here to people kill than people. Now, what happened was a fourth Fargo police officer Zach Robinson. Took heroic action. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Checked out this car.
The Charlie Kirk Show
A highlight from Ask Charlie Anything 152: Michelle Obama's Ethno-Narcissism? Christian Alliance with Islam? Mike Pence Said What?
"The U .S. dollar has lost 85 % of its value since the 70s, when the dollar decoupled from gold, and the government seems bent on continuing the tradition. Charlie Kirk here. From now until after the elections, the government can print as much money as they want. The last time they did that, inflation went up 9%. Gold is the only asset that has proven to withstand inflation. Invest in gold with Noble Gold Investments. You will get a 24 -carat, one -fourth of an ounce gold standard coin for free. Just use promo code kirk. Go to noblegoldinvestments .com. That's noblegoldinvestments .com, the only gold company I trust. Hey, everybody. Happy Monday, Ask Me Anything episode, where we take questions from you, the audience. Student Loan Bailout, again by Joe Biden. Should Christians partner with Muslims in politics? And did Mike Pence say he doesn't care about America or has no concern about America? Is it true? That and more. Email us your thoughts, as always, freedom at charleykirk .com and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa .com. That is tpusa .com. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. Brought to you by the loan experts I trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandtodd .com.
Mark Levin
Mark Levin: Democrats Attack Whoever Tells the Truth
"Certainly no ally or democracy. He basically gave a west kiss to the murderous dictator Born happy to meet with Xi and so forth and so on. I So think Victor Davis Hanson had it about right when he as this is a little speck on the face of the earth this country. It's got less than 15 and million people yet the Democrat Party, the Marxist, the radical Biden, I would add, like how they treat them. Why? Well, I agree with them because they're Jews. That's why. He wouldn't do this to a Muslim country. He do wouldn't it to anybody else. All right. Very important editorial when I return. Yeah. listeners, beloved I want to talk to you about Young America's Foundation, Young America's Foundation, also known as YAF save President Reagan's ranch home. So future generations could discover his and your conservative ideas. YAF is the the leading conservative organization teaching college, high school and middle school students your conservative beliefs. I visit recently to the Reagan ranch was spectacular. I can see why there's no better place for a student to learn your serve it of ideals that at the Reagan Ranch and YAF's 22 ,000 square foot Reagan Ranch Center called a
Dennis Prager Podcasts
A highlight from Preserving Standards
"Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the daily Dennis Prager podcast to hear the entire three hours of my radio show Commercial free every single day become a member of Prager topia You'll also get access to 15 years worth of archives as well as the daily show prep subscribe at Prager topia Hello my friends In the middle of summer they did they have the all -star game who won who won Sean? Wow the National League won does the National League now have the designated hitter Have they adopted it? Maybe that's the reason they got used to using that. I mean, it's just speculation. I Don't like the idea the whole point of baseball Was that the pitcher who almost never knows how to hit what was a Wednesday night was last night Okay, you're driving me crazy, but it was not intentional The whole point of baseball was that the manager and the team had to figure out a way To decide do we keep the pitcher in or not? since every player in baseball must bat as well as field and Then they knocked it out because they thought the fans want to see more home runs It was not love of baseball It was love of revenue that the Major League Major League Baseball changed one of the most important aspects of the game and It is just typical That there is It's hard to find an institution that asks what is best for the the larger Entity whether it's America or in this case baseball. What is best for it? They don't ask that See that's why I Saw some internet place that cited me Dennis Prager All his life has been asking has been saying that there is a question to be asked. It's the most important question How does society make good people? Because you you chip away at its foundations one by one by one by one and people Don't react a lot of a lot of fans even like the rule But oh good the pitcher could stay in and we just have a guy who does nothing but hit that's just great it's fun What's better there's an article today actually that sort of Represents exactly what I'm saying in the Telegraph in Britain Couples who decided dual income and no kids too good to give up Britain isn't having enough babies and now the state pension is under threat Yes, that's exactly right who's having who's having babies in the Western world It's disproportionately religious people religious Christians and Jews and for that matter Muslims Religious people are having babies But Hey religion religion doesn't make people do anything better Who needs religion I have me So people don't ask what's better for society. They were asked what's better for themselves It Every aspect of life But they're all as I said small so they don't they don't alarm people I Have I've spoken about the question of how people dress in public all of my life and By the way in this regard religious people are generally not any better God doesn't care what you wear to church you many wonderful people have called my show over the course of decades to tell me that God doesn't care. I don't even understand the notion. God doesn't care what you wear to church really I Well, maybe we should care People why did why did people dress up in the past because it was a way of honoring your fellow citizen and honoring your society But in other words it represented The larger question what's better for not me It's easier for me to to dress utterly casually but but what is better for society It's better for society if you marry and have children It is better for society if you dress nicely whether it's at school or a church or at the office or Even on an airplane Men walking on grown men in t -shirts and shorts Whenever I see that I ask myself can I imagine my father Going out in public in a t -shirt and shorts Not talking to the beach not talking about obviously at home Going on an airplane And Now it seems to almost not almost everybody but to I would say a majority of people including conservatives that I'm Sort of tilting at windmills here and it it doesn't really matter.
Dennis Prager Podcasts
A highlight from Perspective
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! 2500 feet! Time to pull our shoots! 25? Did you hear you could save up to 25 % off grocery store prices at BJ's Wholesale Club? Did you say save up to 25 % at BJ's? Yeah! Save up to 25 % at BJ's! Woah! That's like saving up to one -fourth of - Oof! Eww. That's gonna leave a mark. BJ's. Absurdly Simple Savings. Shop today. Not a member go to BJ's comm simple savings Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the daily Dennis Prager podcast to hear the entire three hours of my radio show Commercial free every single day become a member of Prager topia You'll also get access to 15 years worth of archives as well as the daily show prep subscribe at Prager topia calm you Hello, everyone I'm going to begin with a subject that has nothing to do with news of the day Which is not unique I do it periodically when something is on my mind. I like to share it Because it's I Think it's important So I'm reading a book on World War two except this one is with regard to Japan not Germany and once again, I am reminded of the atrocities that the Japanese inflicted upon the peoples they conquered in Asia, I Had known for example Trigger warning here for those I Won't be graphic I know my I'm serious my producer Is Despite his persona Extremely sensitive not to himself No, I said not for yourself exactly So the Japanese in conquering China Used Chinese civilians just randomly picked the way the Nazis Used Jews and Russian prisoners for medical experiments Cutting people open without anesthesia and I won't tell you the others. I'm well aware of them I've studied good and evil all my life Especially good because it's so much rarer And They used Korean women as you probably know as coke so -called comfort women women Young women whom they would take and have Japanese soldiers rape Repeatedly Does dozens of dozens of soldiers And I don't know ten a day whatever the mass rape was So now I'm reading about their treatment of Filipinos They would gouge children's eyes out smash the children against walls to have their brains shattered and They too used Filipino women in the exact same way. I did not know that till I read this book Why do I tell you all of this? a Number of reasons one is I don't find the trips to Hiroshima Meaningful That vast numbers of people in Hiroshima Nagasaki because of the atom bomb suffered Is known and is is horrible But the general Trend these of Pilgrimages to Hiroshima is to portray the Japanese as victims and the Japanese have largely accepted that role I Have been to Japan a number of times. I enjoy my trips there very much. I Find the people particularly friendly So This has nothing to do with feelings towards Japanese nothing zero it has to do with feelings towards right and wrong and I realized something that dawns upon me periodically The ignorance the overwhelming ignorance among people Americans among them but not solely Americans the ignorance of the world and its past Is staggering Essentially people most people know nothing They know George Floyd, that's what they know They don't know what the Japanese did They know that the Americans dropped an atom bomb on Two cities in Japan. That's all they know It's like all they know is about American slavery But they don't know about Muslim Arab slavery Of Spectacularly greater numbers and Even greater suffering in many instances because they so often castrated the men And it was to say the least there was no anesthetic in those days Because they didn't want them reproducing Everything that we are told or largely everything is rooted in ignorance People just don't know what has happened They don't know what is happening today How many readers of the New York Times know that the Columbia journalism review Excoriated the New York Times in Washington Post for its years long lying That's the Columbia University journalism review. It's the gold standard of journalism Magazines or newspapers. What's not a newspaper? journals I'm shocked that they even did it to be honest. Columbia is as woke as you can get There is a great Prager you video when what is the title of it let me know when you know People don't know How many times do I say to you we know what they know and they don't know what we know Meaning the left. They don't know what we know Left and right tend not to know what the Japanese did Russian collusion and the death of journalism is the name of the five -minute they're all five minutes Prager you video You should see it The left depends upon ignorance to make its case America is Portrayed as if it alone essentially was this horrible society The left compares America to a semi -perfect country The right compares America to other countries there is no other way to make a moral judgments and Noah was a righteous man in his generations says the Bible in Genesis The man and whose family God saved from the flood He was righteous in his generation Because that is how you are supposed to judge people in their generations We have a video one of the oldest of the Prager you videos It's magnificent given by a Catholic priest historian on the atom bomb You should see that one too, you should see them all In our way, we're trying to fill the Grand Canyon esque holes Craters of ignorance Our motto is we teach what should be taught It's not an ad for Prager you and if everything's free anyway but Prager you It is a statement of the role that It needs to play I try to play that role in this show That people do not know what the Japanese did When they speak of American racism has one leftist Ever uttered the words Japanese racism Japanese racism Meant that you could be medically experimented on you could be gang -raped every day That's what Japanese racism was about Filipinos were inferior Chinese were inferior Koreans were inferior How many kids at Yale know this I contend zero Maybe three Hey, how many professors at Yale know this Racism So I thought I'd share that with you it's coming up a few weeks right the annual pilgrimage to Hiroshima is in it in August My heart breaks for those people who were burned to death Who are fixated by lack of oxygen But I think people need to know what brought it on You Natural disasters airline cancellations and runway near -misses supply chain issues Inflation rising interest rates and sky -high government debt.
Evangelism On Fire
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism On Fire
"And, um, just, I mean, I'm not perfect, but we all, you know, we all gonna get it together, but it's try to suck them in your heart. Like I said, I'm not perfect. I can't judge nobody, but we got to get it together. And also, um, my name is Blount. I'm a local rapper in the Richmond VA. If you want to check me out, you can look me up on YouTube, South Side Spanish, ENT, and I appreciate y 'all and I appreciate you Mark. Yeah. Appreciate you. And so you no longer consider yourself a Muslim. You consider yourself a Christ follower. Thank you so much for your time with us today, Blount. And I would love for you to come and visit us at our church thrive church. Hey, the good news is we're not going anywhere. We're there every Sunday. So I know you're coming soon. And thank you so much again for coming on today to share your experience with our evangelism on fire audience. I appreciate you. All right, my sister, God bless you and evangelism on fire nation. I will see you next Tuesday for a brand new episode. God bless you and have the best week of your life. Thanks so much for your time with me today. It's been an amazing time and thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey of sharing your faith in Jesus with others. Make sure to check out the show notes for a description of today's show along with other details. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple podcast as well. I really appreciate feedback evangelism on fire nation. So share a review on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one has told you lately, God loves you. I love you. You matter and you have divine purpose. Now it's time to go out there and share the boom the gospel message with others. Make sure to join me for our next episode.
Evangelism On Fire
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism On Fire
"He is the only way to eternal life. He died on a cross, according to God's plan, as full sacrifice and payment for our sins. We believe he rose from the dead on the third day spiritually, and he is physically immortal. For the next 40 days, he was seen by more. Listen to this, by more than 500 eyewitnesses. His wounds were touched and he ate meals. He physically ascended to heaven. Jesus will come again visibly and physically at the end of the world to establish God's kingdom and to judge the world. Who do we believe that the Holy Spirit is in biblical Christianity? The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is a person. He's not a force or energy field. The Holy Spirit comforts, grieves, reproves, convicts, guides. He teaches and he fills Christians. The Holy Spirit is not the Father, nor is he the Son, Jesus Christ. And what do we believe in biblical Christianity about how to be saved? Salvation is by God's grace, not by an individual's good works. Salvation must be received by faith and faith in Christ alone. People must believe in the hearts that Jesus died for their sins and that he physically rose again, which is the assurance of forgiveness and resurrection of the body. This is God's loving plan to forgive sinful people. And this is what we believe. What happens after death in biblical Christianity? We believe that all believers go to be with Jesus after death. All people await the final judgment. Both saved and lost people will be resurrected. Those who are saved will live with Jesus in heaven. Those who are lost will suffer the torment of eternal separation from God, which is known as hell. Jesus bodily resurrection guarantees believers that they too will be resurrected and receive new immortal bodies. Evangelism of our nation. Listen, here's some other facts, some other beliefs and some other practices about Christianity biblical that we have always got to keep in the forefront of our mind. We believe in group worship, usually in churches, but group worship can take place anywhere. It can take place in your home. It can take place in a public place. It can take place anywhere where two or more believers are gathered together. You know the deal. Jesus said where two or more are gathered, he is in the midst. So group worship could take place anywhere. We do not believe in secret rites. We celebrate water baptism and the Lord's Supper, otherwise known as communion. We believe to actively volunteer in missional efforts. We believe that we should aid to those in need, the poor, widows, orphans and the downtrodden. Jesus said that we would be known as his people, his children for the love that we have for one another. And always keep this in mind that Christians believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah promised to Israel in the Old Testament to knock. And always remember that Jesus said his followers, and I just mentioned this a moment ago, but it's so good that I've got to mention it again. Jesus said his followers, his children would be known by their love for one another. Evangelism on Fire Nation. Hey, thanks so much for joining me for today's episode. I hope that I've given you some insight of what it means to be a Muslim. And I hope that I've given you more insight of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Join me next Tuesday for episode 141. We're going to be taking a look at another world religion. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Hey, you've got to tune in to see what world religion I'll be focusing on. See you next Tuesday here on the pod episode. God bless you and have the best week of your life. Thanks so much for your time with me today. It's been an amazing time and thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey of sharing your faith in Jesus with others. Make sure to check out the show notes for a description of today's show along with other details. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple podcast as well. I really appreciate feedback. Evangelism on Fire Nation. So share a review on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one has told you lately, God loves you. I love you. You matter and you have divine purpose. Now it's time to go out there and share the boom, the gospel message with others. Make sure to join me for our next episode.
Evangelism On Fire
"muslim" Discussed on Evangelism On Fire
"Submission in Arabic, referring to submission to God. Muslim, one who practices Islam, refers to one who submits to God. So let's talk about Islam. Who is the key person or founder? The date it was founded and the location it was founded. Muhammad 570 -632 is the final seal of many prophets sent by Allah. The Islamic calendar began in AD 622 when Muhammad fled Mecca. The main sects are Sunni and Shiite. What are the key writings of Islam? The Quran. The Quran was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. The biblical law of Moses, Psalms of David, and the gospel of Jesus, the angel, are accepted But Muslim scholars teach that Jews and Christians have corrupted these original revelations. Hey, truth bomb right here. This is what they believe in. This is not the truth. We know that Jesus is the way, the only way to the father and no man can come to the father, but through him. I'm just giving you the facts of their key writings and other facts of what they believe in the Islam faith, you know, what Muslims believe. What do Muslims believe about who is God? God, Allah is one. The greatest sin is Islam is shirk or associating anything with God. Many Muslims think that Christians believe in three gods and are therefore guilty of shirk. Human attributes such as fatherhood cannot be associated with God. What do Muslims believe about who is Jesus? Jesus, Isa in Arabic, is one of the most respected of over a hundred and twenty four thousand prophets sent by Allah. They believe that Jesus was sinless, born of a virgin and a great miracle worker. But they do not believe Jesus to be the son of God. They believe that his virgin birth is like Adam's creation. They believe that Jesus is not God and God is not Jesus. They believe that he was not crucified. Jesus, not Mohammed, will return for a special role before the future judgment day, perhaps turning Christians to Islam. Again, don't hate the messenger. I'm just giving you the facts of what the Islam world religion believes. What do Muslims believe about who is the Holy Spirit? They believe that Allah has or is a spirit. Muslims reject the biblical concept of the Trinity. How to be saved? This is what they believe. Humans are basically good, but fallible and need guidance. The balance between good and bad, deeds determines eternal destiny in paradise or hell. They believe that Allah's mercy may tip the balances to heaven as his will is supreme. What do Muslims believe what happens after death? They believe in resurrection of bodies. They believe in fear of eternal torment is a prevalent theme of the Quran. Paradise includes a garden populated with hurries, which are maidens designed by Allah to provide sexual pleasure to righteous men. Here's some other facts, beliefs, and practices of Islam. Followers are called Muslims. They go to mosques for prayers, sermons, and counsel. Holy efforts to spread Islam, Jihad, five pillars of Islam, confess that Allah is the one true God and Muhammad is his prophet, pray five times daily facing Mecca, give alms, money, and they fast during the month of Ramadan. And they believe that they should make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime. So these are some of the beliefs about Islam that Blount did not know. And keep in mind that her father is a Muslim and her mother is a Christian, a Christ follower. So I shared with Blount, hey, it's so important to know what Muslims believe about who God is, about who Jesus is, about who the Holy Spirit is, and compare that to biblical Christianity, the faith that your mother proclaims. And I asked her, I said, hey, I'm going to share with you biblical Christianity. I'll share with you from the best -selling book of all time, some scriptures. And let's compare these two faiths. And you just tell me which one you believe is more credible. So the same conversation that I share with Blount about biblical Christianity is the same foundational belief that you, as a Christ follower, listen, if you claim to be a Christian, man, you've got to know these foundational truths that I'm going to share with you today. So this leads us right to our challenge time of the day. You know what, evangelism on fire. You know that in almost every episode we have a challenge time. Man, I've got to challenge you. I've got to challenge me to get to the next level of our walk with Jesus. And without a challenge, we'll remain stagnant. So here's our challenge time. Today, this is what you need to do. You need to examine yourself to see how familiar you are with biblical Christianity. In other words, what do you believe in your pursuit of following Jesus? Do you know the person or who the founder is? Do you know the date and location Christianity was founded? Do you know the key writings? Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who is the Holy Spirit? Do you know how a person gets saved? Do you know how to be saved? In other words, can you explain to someone or do you have a full understanding of what happens after death? And do you have a knowledge of other facts, beliefs or practices that you should be familiar with as a Christ follower? Well, here you go. Here's the basic foundational beliefs of biblical Christianity. When you know this, you'll be rooted and grounded and you'll have a full assurance of your faith as you follow Christ. So here we go. Who is the key person or founder? What is the date and location of Christianity? Jesus Christ founded Christianity about AD 30, AD 33, somewhere in that time period in the Judean province of Palestine, known as Israel today, under the Roman Empire. Followers of Jesus Christ became known as Christians. What are the key writings of biblical Christianity? The best selling book of all time, God's Word, the Bible, was written originally in Hebrew and Aramaic, Old Testament and Greek New Testament. Who do we believe is God? The one God is triune. In other words, one God in three persons, not three gods. You have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind, in biblical Christianity, often the title God designates the first person, God the Father. God is a spiritual being without a physical body. He is personal and involved with people. He created the universe out of nothing. He is eternal, changeless, holy, loving, and he is perfect. Who do we believe is Jesus in biblical Christianity? Jesus is God, the second person of the Trinity as God the Son. He has always existed and was never created. We believe that he is fully God and fully man. The two natures join, not mixed as the second person of the Trinity. He is co -equal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. In becoming man, he was begotten through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Truth bomb, this is what we believe in biblical Christianity. Jesus is the only way to the Father salvation, and
Nearly Numinous
"muslim" Discussed on Nearly Numinous
"Moreover, even between a sect from one nationality, the degree of commitment to what they call Islam varies from person to person. For example, you may have a friend or colleague who says I'm a Muslim, but he or she, for example, never pray or sometimes during his alcohol and the like. Things that your other Muslim friend doesn't do and considers them contrary to Islam. So in this case, you are someone who doesn't know much about Islam and have been in touch with many Muslims, might ask yourself, do Muslims, drink alcohol or not, do Muslims, for example, shake hands with someone of the opposite gender or not, and yes, this can pose serious challenges for Muslims who practice Islam in such cases. For example, I've seen and heard about the drinking culture here in Canada at universities or more in the workplace. I mean, I mean, I heard about many academic or business meetings, casual, gatherings, or Christmas parties that are sometimes held in the bars where many practicing Muslims are reluctant or actually are not religiously allowed to go there and yes, so they can't be socially integrated with the people around them, their friends, their colleagues, and so on, but I think it's because of the differences of behavior, mostly. The planner don't know how, for example, should do. I didn't know. Maybe. Like me, for example. No, because this is something, yeah. Yeah. I ask, for example, a Muslim from challenges. Most of the day consider this that we have very important meeting in bars. We can't join, but some of our friends say we are Muslim and they go. And they're not practice think Muslim actually. That's in. Practicing Muslim count. And yeah, mostly I think experience so much, but I think when you explain for people, for example, for colleague for boss, as a mother, I can't come. They don't insist to gather. All time in bar, for example, in the birds. Yeah. It's mostly when we are not aware of someone else's cultural, I don't know, backgrounds or I don't know how to say that. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. These days I saw that, for example, it's very common that any organization or any one who wants to plan ask about food restrictions. Always they ask about how do you is or what is your restriction? I think it's a good idea to add one another question. What is your another religious restriction? For example, and that's your butt. I've noticed sometimes for different events at queens. There's a question about dietary restrictions that they're going to be food, but then there's often also this question about, is there anything else that we can do to make that we can better accommodate your needs? Yes, it was great. The open endedness of that question, so it could be anything it can be something related to disability. It can be something about religious practice. It can be like anything. Yes, it's great. It's great, I think. Yeah, for example, in this case, they can route that they can write that we can't come to bars, for example, for the party, or threatening. Yeah. So what do you, what do you think the future looks like for Muslims in Canada? Future this question is very difficult to answer. At least for me, what is certain is that Canada's Muslim population is growing due to immigration conversion and bears. And I think Islam and Muslims are a still somewhat exotic presence in Canada..
Nearly Numinous
"muslim" Discussed on Nearly Numinous
"For conservatives, one person for green and 1% other. That's really interesting. All those percentages and stuff. I find the fact, especially of that non Muslims tend to have less Canadian pride than Muslims. Yes. Yeah. They emphasize both. So what challenges do you think that there are for Muslims in Canada? Good question, Jacqueline. Muslims are a minority group in Canada and minorities always face many challenges, no matter why they are a minority. Of course, I have to mention that according to various studies and service Canada is a good country in terms of respect for the rights of minorities. But if I want to return to the question, I think the great challenge to Muslims here are probably in all non Muslim majority countries is to be able to live securely with Islamic norms, Islamic norms of belief and behavior and sometimes this could be a very difficult task. In the case of Canada, I think some of these challenges are due to society and some are due to differences in behavior or beliefs among Muslims. Themselves, for example, build 21 in Quebec, which bans some civil servants including teachers, police officers and lawyers, government lawyers from varying religious symbols at work is allowed that violence the right to freedom of religion and unfairly focuses on people who express their faith through what they were. So this law actually causes this proportionate harm to some minorities like hijabi women, women who are already marginalized. And it kind of systematic discrimination. Yeah. This is an example of the challenge that Lao or kind of society poses to Muslim. But I think most of the challenges from Muslims are of the second kind. I first mentioned that Muslims in Canada are heterogeneous. There are many cultural differences in the behavior of Muslims, more importantly, are different views on what is a slum or rather what are the religious duties of Muslims..
Nearly Numinous
"muslim" Discussed on Nearly Numinous
"By the desire to escape political oppression and persecution. To add something interesting. Apparently, based on official document, actually there were more than 150 Arabs on board the Titanic and 20 were saved, including 17 years old from Sheila and his family as I read this in the book written by professor Leo attacking about shares in America. She had a family and all of them were died and she came to Canada. She came to a United States. So did her family all die on the Titanic? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, and yes, but at least we know that at least this group of family had the Islamic background. But probably most other Arabs had Islamic background too. Yeah. And yes, this was about the whole story. If I just, if I just focus on Canada specifically, the first recorded Muslim family arrived in upper Canada from Scotland in the early 1850s. Four years after Canada's founding in 1867, the 1871 Canadian census found 13 Muslims among the population. And 8 years later, the first Canadian mosque was constructed in Edmonton, when there were approximately 700 Muslims in the country. By 2011, the Muslim population passed the 1 million mark more than 3% of the total population. And representing one of the fastest growing religious group, 7 67 of Canadians were Christian at that time, 24% had no religion. And 3% over Muslims. So yes, Muslims are an integral part of Canada today. They are lots of masks around Canada, lots of Islamic school, Muslim cemeteries, hallo restaurants, Sophie mystical society and so on. Yeah. That's really cool. So you've looked into some research regarding Muslim dispersion and integration. Identity and political orientation in Canada. Could you tell us a bit about what you found in this research? Sure. I've brought some interesting data with me today. Two thirds of all Canadian Muslims live in just two cities. Throw no in Montreal if we add Vancouver at Montreal Calgary, we can say that more than 80 percent of Muslims live in this big cities. Regarding Canadian identity for Muslims according to the 2016 national survey of Muslims in Canada, conducted by the environment institute, most Canadian Muslim 94% expressed a strong or very strong sense of belonging to Canada. The survey reveals that asteroid majorities consider both the slum and Canada to be very important parts of their personal identity. 83% of Muslims were very proud to be Canadian compared with 73% of non Muslim Canadian who said the same thing. Yeah. Yes. And yes, Canadian Muslims reported Canada's freedom and democracy as the greatest source of pride. It's worth mentioning that non Muslim Canadians affiliated with a religion are not as likely as Muslims to place a strong importance and their religious identity. But are also less apt to place a strong importance on their Canadian identity. Except for mainline protestants. Non Muslims overall are more likely to identify with being Canadian for the 3% than with their religious identity to any 8% with another one quarter 24 placing equal emphasized on both their Canadian and religious identities. If one to talk about political orientation and estimated 79% of Canadian Muslims voted in 2015 federal election, according to post election pool conducted by many research and yeah, we can see that 65% of Muslims voted for liberals and 10% for NDP to any person for 2%.
Nearly Numinous
"muslim" Discussed on Nearly Numinous
"Ten days or two weeks or so and for example, in 2016, the number of participants reached around 25 million to visit the Karbala you search for example for the picture, it's really amazing. Yeah. Yes, and you ask about reason for importance of pilgrimage in Islam, the pregnancy bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims. If they want to talk general about hatch or Karbala for Shia Muslim and actually this journey, though physically important could be. Actually there are an inner journey to and it is a spiritual aspect of the journey that is very, very important for Muslims. And it's a chance to start a new life before God and before the individuals. Yeah. For example, had it so if could be really and starting point again in your life, you can start living with another, I don't know, view to the world and be forecast. Yeah. Of course, you move to Canada a few years ago. But I was just wondering, in general, what does it mean to be a Muslim in Canada? Yeah, to answer this question or any question about Muslims in general, I should first mention that about 2 billion Muslims exist worldwide with infinite diversity and race language, culture, and geographical distribution. And as religious research in how religion is intertwined with this element, right? So maybe want to talk about Muslims in the world, we have to ask more specific questions, which Muslims, in which region in which sex, as Canada is a multicultural society, it's the case particularly in Canada. I mean, Muslims are quite diverse here. They include people from culturally and linguistically distinct society in the Middle Ages, for example, East Asia is South Asia, Southeast Asia.
The Current
"muslim" Discussed on The Current
"Experienced racism because You are a muslim woman. Certainly the times that. I've experienced the most overt hatred out on the streets in toronto. For example being spotted in. The face have been times when i've been wearing job but honestly matt as a muslim woman i am so tired of being asked over and over and over again for us to recount our experiences of personal violence and trauma to be forced to perform our grief and our devastation over and over again for the public when nothing fundamentally changes because this requirement that we prove our humanity over and over again by talking about our grief and our pain and our violence continues to exist while the conditions giving rise to the fact that muslims humanity became something that was put into question they needed to be proven in the first place unchanged and so even now he supposedly having this conversation about islamaphobia. We're still primarily focusing on hate crimes and interpersonal Instances of violence. We're not talking about the fact that we have a war on terror that has killed as many as two million muslims in three countries alone in the first decade of the war on terror alone so that's the devaluation of muslim. Life has been the entire premise of this war on terror. We're still not talking about the fact that we have canadian government officials who have been complicit in the torture of muslims. Not only have. They not been punished. Many of them were actually promoted or received awards while the canadian government continues to spend two million dollars per year fighting the claims for compensation for the survivors. We're not talking about the fact that the liberal and conservative parties alike voted for a lot call zero tolerance robert cultural practices act a lot effectively labeling muslims as barbaric and so when we think about the conditions that give rise to hatred against muslims. It's not just the extremist discourse of of white supremacy parties and. it's not just individual acts occurring against against muslims on the street. It's the systemic structural state-sponsored devaluation of muslim life that ensures that the killing and torture of muslims persists and that there is no justice for it in this country. What is the effect of that that that larger constant devaluation as you describe it on you individually. I mean it. Sounds exhausting. In some ways and i and i do really Again i appreciate all three of you coming on to talk about your own personal experiences but to your point there's a weight that comes with that right there certainly a weight that comes with that and it's not only the weight of this perpetual violence against muslims. But it's the weight of the perpetual the nihilism about violence against muslims. So that even in the wake of the quebec mosque shooting when six muslim men were gunned down in cold blood. After being in prayer at a mosque even in the wake of this over acts of hatred against muslims. It's still took the federal government. Four years to even make a tokenistic declaration of january twenty ninth the anniversary of that attack as a day of remembrance and action on islamaphobia and so the devaluation of muslim life is is manifest only in these policies that continue to kill and torture and surveilled and harassed muslims. And i've just mentioned some of the things that have been happening in canada but we also cannot forget the yemeni Women men and children who are being slaughtered enabled by canadian arm sale. The palestinian women children and men who were slaughtered in the eyes of the whole in front of the eyes of the whole world while the canadian government continues to officially oppose an international criminal court investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity palestinians. It's this perpetual silencing and indiscipline station of this global structure of violence against muslims that continues to ensure that not only violence against muslims persistent. That we can't even talk about it that there has been so much opposition to even using the term islamophobia in public a ridge in your life on campus. Do you feel supported in your community disappointed in your city. I know that you're one of the very very few female muslim students within your engineering. And business program at western. So do you feel supported. They're honestly i would say in all reality. No can make it on us to why i think. A lot of people. And especially at western. I made very to that muslims. Nietzsche pay five times a day rate so g to this. I've gone to higher ups and been like we only have one prayer space in uc c. Which is our community center. And it's always over capacity like it's always a capacity because of the people who need to use it. It's not accessible. There is no a door for anyone in a wheelchair to automatically open up and everything And we have gone multiple times over the past. I'm going into my or theater now. So it's been four years in the advocating for another space and Under the guise of multifaith through even a pilot space. And we haven't gotten anything because he won't take our concerns seriously if the if the community wants us to feel safe especially with the london rate and especially at western. They need to take her concerns seriously and provide us the opportunity for us to practice under the freely without imposing on us and making us feel bad about it and then as well as not to just brush off every time we do ask for space because if we can give and this goes for workplaces to if you give your employees smoke breaks than you should be able to give them time to pay as well as and as well as location. It doesn't really take much but the amount of push back ongoing going in terms of getting appears base. It's actually like it's i. I don't know whether out of the situation things are going to change. But i really do hope. The university takes concern seriously. Because it's not a matter of something being optional. This is about who we are entity should be able to practice. Our religion feely wate. I know that you helped create A support system. You mentioned what was happening to muslim women in edmonton and the attacks on women there. Tell me just briefly about sisters dialogue and what that did for women like yourself that was initially just a pop initiative we we saw the conversation around A wind attacks happened to our sisters edmonson. How the conversation was just around safety and self defense. But there was no conversation about mental health and victim support and we as women The movement that you know we want to reframed it narrative and and we organizer panel discussion and and it's gone on to become Initiative that is so women centered and what we call until oppressive and with an intersectional lens that support women from diverse backgrounds with the muslim or from other communities and At this time where it'll whatever it is happening. it's happening to a lot of our communities. and this dialogue. We have this framework where we do a lot of Intercommunity dialogue whether he is the indigenous community the black or asian community. Because we're all hurting and and we just need to come together and not working silos Because we have a common enemy which is heat and and to Comment you know. But yes There's been in the wider and wider. Sense you know like we all have our push no grief and The collective as as muslims. But it's also a sense of like our humanity is less is always there You know on whether in the in the world stage And when when muslim life is lost that it's it's it's less it i'll humanity is not as as important as someone else and a lot of it has to do with policies and what our leaders do you know That to that point disease. I mean what would you like to see. What specific actions do you want to see taken to address it. Because we've seen mean in the wake of this attack politicians of all stripes of come out and they say we support the muslim community. We stand with muslim community. What do you want to see in terms of action behind those words. Many of the same politicians have been deeply implicated perpetuating the very same policies that are the well from which individualized private islamophobia springs from. I think it is so vital that we begin our conversation by understanding the connections between the type of hate that we saw manifest in its most forum on the streets of london with this whole broader constellation of laws and policies and practices. That are not only premised upon but actually profit from the devaluation and demonization of muslim life. Because unless we start with that conversation we end up thinking that the very same counter-terrorism apparatus the very same policing apparatus that is the very source of systemic racism. We ended up thinking that this is the solution to systemic racism and to stomach islamophobia and that is extremely dangerous. Are you confident that those politicians will address this. I mean there were speeches in the house of commons yesterday but none of the politicians for example would directly address bill twenty one in quebec which has been the source of great Debate consternation within muslim communities and beyond for what it limits people their ability to do. Are you coughing at the politicians will take the steps that you are calling for. I think if there is any trend that we see in canada and we know this from the experiences of our indigenous sisters and brothers and from our black sisters and brothers and wealth as well if there is any trend. In canada there is there is no more Visible trend than the fact. That canadian politicians are very fond of proclaiming their their multi-culturalism of performing Their anti-racism in ways that are the most superficial ways possible. So when we look at previous efforts supposedly to address islamaphobia For example the m one three report on a systemic racism and islamophobia that was convened in the wake of the quebec mosque shooting. There is nothing in that entire report about any of these laws and policies Underlying systemic islamaphobia. That we've talked about instead. They decided to spend more time debating whether islamaphobia was even the appropriate term to be using and so even in these forms when we're supposedly dedicated to addressing islamaphobia even in the wake of a massacre of muslims. In a mosque we are still not permitted to talk about what the real source of. The problem is here still. I'm not confident unless we maintain canadian pressure in the days and weeks and months and years to come to actually address the source of the problem. I apologize. We just have a few seconds left. But are you confident. In the wake of what's happened in your city that you'll see change. I'm confident the muslim community. I'm not confident. The politicians doing much I am confident. And i guess my peers the people around me Especially those who aren't listening out westerner hopefully help and stand with the muslim community in Getting the chains that we deserve But again everything's up in the air because a lot of things are done performed lee so at this point i'm hopeful but i don't know for sure this is a difficult moment and i know it's difficult to talk about but it's really important as well and i really appreciate all three of you joining us this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you matt reach answering a fourth year student at western university in london ontario. Wate rachmat is a community activist in edmonton. As kanji is a legal academic who studies systemic islamaphobia. She was in toronto for more. Cbc podcasts go to cbc dot ca slash podcasts..
News 96.5 WDBO
"muslim" Discussed on News 96.5 WDBO
"Muslims. I guess he must body of Atlanta. It doesn't ever die. Stays single Take animals in Vita Alibi. Lovely the lined up and then to Columbia O'Connell Group on Mitchell. You see Also the Julio's last quarter of the lateral. A piece of steak. Oh, develop a billion this central Florida Fairgrounds. You know the badges and exit of nervous. A single window come from I wonder if the student go cake officer wearing a cap. Freedom. Okay, don't really, really want to fight. Taking mark. Maybe, like a little bit. Just let it be so come and put the same man. Yes, I don't really, really want to fight anymore. Get in the morning and just let it be. No matter First freedom. Is anybody there, doll? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. Okay? I don't really, really want to fight anymore. You really wanna take it? No more. Maybe, like a little bit. That's letter B was coming from a man. Yes. I don't really, really want fighting much taking more anyway. Just let me come with you better.
News 96.5 WDBO
"muslim" Discussed on News 96.5 WDBO
"Muslims, a gamer buddy of their land with eggs. He does know that they say's bundles. Cinco just imaging and wealth in the same manner to is still the Super Lisa over again. Soon came in Kanta Carol G. Nicki Minaj Contessa Demon on the job, Isa Nichols. Becomes sort of a press agent can also get you Don't Dude, local man's I don't think you're taking this big battle trying to get justice. Come. Holla! Hello. I wasn't in the clubs. That was my jail on television, McPhail said. It's a new day. I'm in a new place. Yes. Um no decent face. Tell him to back off. He want to slack off calls you got to do. It's me, Carol G. We let them rest threw up the one up on us because they let in the Mexico or don't see lip on in lockup sandwich smell my wrist. Does it, boys? Honestly, but I'll see, let alone a like a man. Most You gotta do. Cavil Chief. Thank you very much. That queen with a queen..
Verbal Outpost
"muslim" Discussed on Verbal Outpost
"Well my doing then if you run and some no i do wrong but yeah at that moment. I remember being really really confused. Okay you do what you need to do. I need to do in that case. I i think one thing that became apparent was Just how just how confusing some people made it honestly. So i think with the four schools of all that up slightly fine. I mean some people may want to follow modern day. Scholars find whatever as long as a valid opinion of prey but then when it comes to send jamaat's and organizations that that that's where i start getting a bit of a headache now i just not think i'm way too old for any of that. I think what was one memories. I have from when i was at university was a. Oh gosh it was. I don't know what happened university now. These societies gosh just being completely blunt. It was about five six different local organizations in nottingham trying to take control of the islamic society. Remember yeah so it is just is crazy is crazy but or i I think we'll have to eddie on that note with go by minute left in summary. Actually wh- what about a very interesting conversation. We're here. I'm going to bring it back to your Your spectrum again. So we started up from the middle. We went to the left or the way we went to start from zero. Who and minus one hundred and then we've gone plus about well. Let's say from zero to around seventy. I'd say i don't think any religious person beyond seventy seventy two thousand seventeen. Yeah yeah i mean. One of his lowly humans up between zero seventy So yeah and yeah. We've we've finished talking about Some of our experiences and just that point where we became a little bit more religious. And what that was like Just how confusing it can be at times. So many different opinions and so many different groups. We should absolutely cover that in a future session. Shallow right you've been listening to the verbal outpost. Thank you for listening. Hopefully you've listened to one of it.
Verbal Outpost
"muslim" Discussed on Verbal Outpost
"Vary significantly from on top of axes And being muslims just one of many many different components that forms as Probably quite significant component but. Yeah there's lots of the traits to his And yeah the. They are a lot of people that all-muslim that may not be as religious practicing good. Yes what would we switch points towards And people that leave. You need have to question. Actually how how much did they really now is. Little bit side in the first instance where the left but have they really left. Have they really left So yes interesting interesting okay okay and actually. What's interesting is of seeing When we talk about a couple of weeks ago went down a bit youtube. Where a bit hold as watching some of these video. Some some some of these debates between ex muslims and muslims and one thing one thing became quite apparent was many. I'm not saying all but many of the ex muslims would not know very basic things like so that just further reiterates your point where he'll how much did they really know. How informed were they about islam. That's only that person can answer about. Did they actually understand islam to begin with. I mean for all we know a group of these post people that we were discussing today. The reason that might be doing these things is because they don't realize is unethical on islamic to do so unless just the culture and last been brought up him again. I don't believe that necessarily excuses them from in bringing home corruption to society but it could be a potential cools as well. Okay interesting how about we have a look at the other hero really liked you. You've drawn up in my mind minus one hundred and a hundred other than anybody would be hundreds but if we say round. So seventy tops. I'm probably quite out. I think we'll probably away from that as now accept it from wherever they do too but his an interesting one and we've talked about this as well. I think that's a nice thing about this. Is that actually would follow on a lot from previous conversations but we talked about how personal journey and how we started to become a little bit more religious and we start practicing religion a little bit better but can it be quite confusing. 'cause one thing i keep on coming back to is that must community is not moneyless. We are not a monolith. There's no one type of mosque yet. This even jokes that you know if you If you if you put through muslims in a room you'll get five different opinions. Say yeah this yeah. Yeah so we. We are not a monolith so when you started becoming a little bit more religious. Did you find it confusing. So i mean looking at the other side. Now we've talked about the minus one hundred. We've talked about drug dealers. We've talked about people Sort of in the middle of that may have a muslim name. But don't particularly an and you say the muslim but may not attached to any of the The halloween haram may not necessarily adhere to that do not partake in any of the religious festivals. So what about the other side now. Those people that were coming up with more religious Do you would you confused by the amount of different groups and types of muslims out when you became a little bit more religious. Were you confused. I think for me when i started practicing Practice i mean praying really attentively. I guess the word accepting islam and and that's quite important distinction as well. And i know we keep on saying practicing book by the i would say just praying five times a day and not doing any of the huddle. I'm stephanie the bat. Yeah sorry. I mean i think what i first started at that point. I wasn't really exposed. I guess is the word to all of the groups illiterate. Just gives it. Let me fix them up appraise and try and get to the budget to do this press. That's really where i started and start getting into the community by going to the messiah then making new friends etc. That's really what. I had more exposure to these other groups but the me personally i wasn't really interested in the group side of things I always feel like the groups and the different functions can get confusing. Islamics easy for us if we stick to the call. Then we're going to make our life easier rather than trying to get confused on bogged down with descriptors. This and that group does that wiser a difference. I think it was the cool. That's we were in the safe zone. A the base says the jalandhar clear and then in between the gray area. So i think it'd be keep yourself in klay hal then you're okay but you start wondering into the gray area that's when you get into dangerous territory as it will i think it's easy full Possibly because of the we born into a muslim family so we had even though we may not have been practicing. We had maybe renew which local mosque the afam nego to So we follow the way they pray and those teachings that we've had even little that we did from family with the whole group side of things. He wasn't really so much an issue for me. So prayed the way my family told me to pray or the my locally. Mom taught me to pray There was all two distinct moments for me. It's not like this. Huge thing whale that while i was wearing i found out that islam can be taught in english because my previous experience was old in either bengali. Orbital hadn't been goalie acapella speak it very well or do i didn't understand the word So in terms of my mustard experience in never understood anything. That was going while i was reading. Goran didn't understand. The arabic didn't understand the order to the mamba speaking. They didn't speak english. I didn't know what was going on. When i first introduced to a slum went to i think it was like toko something was old english a lot while accu understand what islam is about That was a big deal for me. Nothing festival exposed to groups was when i was when it was time on those. I'll you know there was a brother. Must be like let's pray and he's the i've already prayed a search started. I was hunting for a hundred. A for shafie had already started now before he's afraid of you already and he saw it saying this and this okay.
Verbal Outpost
"muslim" Discussed on Verbal Outpost
"Yes in in some of the grounding the conversation reality what perception do you have about these people. Because i think i would probably take you a little bit further and say yeah. These people have caused quite significant hominy community as shafique. There is an argument that she the circumstances and we did talk about a few weeks ago. The circumstances have caused them to be like this but actually less looking flipside. Everybody's responsible for their own actions you get to a certain age and you're responsible for your own actions and that cannot be used as an excuse to absolve yourself of making any mistakes that you are responsible for your own actions and what you do And in terms of repentance on your deathbed as well again usually would say. That's that's fun. We can't judge another person us between them and they lured but if we assume like where he said that actually the basic is that if they died on their weight picking up drugs for the next deal with that was going down We assume they didn't repent just based on that. Based on some common sense facts. This is the outwardly visible. We don't know wilson on inside somebody's house between them allies into and and just because somebody is in that negative one hundred area guests described. It doesn't mean they have to continue on that path. You know like i mentioned adults. We make choices in life. Yes we may have had a bad start life as mentioned but is that really an excuse to continue that way because if the drug dealer for an example A pretty sure. If if you're doing it for years you're gonna surely make enough money to say of made enough to get out of this life now making an active choice to continue or discontinue. Surely it's not that easy. I don't know i feel that you guys are really simplifying things. Just you're your drug dealer. You've made enough money. That's it you can just kick kick habit. I mean these drug dealers are probably drug addicts as well and you know if you're addicted to something. It's not easy for you to get help and get off new people in australia. And the hold on the money side of things. Maybe they just drug. Maybe the education isn't good getting employment. You know getting those opportunities. I don't know. I just feel like being really simplified on is not as a really complicated issue look but just mentioned about people who might be addicted to drugs affect to me. I guess that would fall under the side of things that they don't have Sound of mind because of the influence that they owned diff- will show pops the pens lifted as the los asia. They they count. Pups might be paused because they have no conscious mind. How do you know these us on tell addicts then depending has been lifted on all of them for the argument. Count to that really. Tough is if somebody's actively going out and selling it. We're not talking about by now we're talking about sellers deforming of business and they're going out actively looking for customers lullabies my understanding of what un's question is it it is. I think mississippi realistic for a moment. Right because we've we'll see. I'm sure all of us have seen trump dealers all things associated with drugs happening in wherever just out and about something just looks a little bit fishy and get. You can use some arguments if he now some of them personally. Okay and that's all well and good so positive but still people dealing drugs and they can be absorbed. You can't shift that responsibility. Kate with grown adults. If it's a childhood twelve thirteen euro actually. They've been groomed into it right. They're not able to determine what is right wrong. Good bad they could have been groomed into these are grown men women who deal in drugs okay. Just taking that example. It's actually. I'll be harsh with them and say just the default position is that no we on. We don't make any excuses for them. Is what i would say is actually. We should take quite a hauch line with them. Will the harsh line either because obviously this particularly mom saying dungeons on them. And obviously you're saying you should be harsh with these people now. What about those. But one thing is what is accountability now Does the community decide that. Hold on if a particular person is not acting various that they'll be held accountable and these are the particular things that will happen to them. Hoda mississippi kiss. We're not so by hauch sean. I'm not saying the vigilantism all go chasing after minor sincerely like the work anyway but Again remember what token about perception here say what we'll do. I'd say we'll do. We'll continue the conversation after the break in cello right. It's been great We'll continue it So don't go anywhere. You've been listening to the verbal outpost. We've been talking. We're talking about the way we perceive drug dealers at the moment which is interesting. So don't go anywhere. stay with us. And we'll carry on talking about that in the next segment and la que. Space you don't go anywhere Salaam only the law were better cata. Who besmellah him and we back. You are listening to the verbal outpost and it's been a very interesting conversation con not controversial but with other little bit debate in the studio here At you know some debate just a good friendly conversation But differing views And that's very important to understand a sentence subject from different perspectives. So it's very important to do that. So what we've been talking about so far actually is. We've tried to be a little bit more realistic. And we're just talking about the perception that we have found that all of his foam judgments on people. It's just a reality okay. It's effective life that we all form some form of a judgment with a good judgment negative judgement. Whatever is we do form judgments on people on scenarios on certain things right so we've been talking about what what would i can be on So the bit of research by murray. Actually we talked about people.
Verbal Outpost
"muslim" Discussed on Verbal Outpost
"There's no you know if that person is in religious you don't gonna be able to relate to them really on the basis than i mean personally based on my experience on the people i've known it hasn't really always been a religious thing so my closest friends and everything that is based on their personality rather than how religious person is. And i mean you. I've got mixed bag a friends you know. Some are really religious. Simone solve in between by their personality. I'm drawn to an to the people that keep close to me. You know they're all good people interesting Good and then. In terms of we move onto the next cohort. Actually there's another cohort not wants to cover off as well. it's interesting. There's a video of an imam from birmingham. And i remember this where he talks about drug dealers so muslim drug dealers and he stresses the muslim community in the massages should not even pray janata over them because of the fifth now that caused within communities and just to be clear that's drug dealers have not repented that have not repented so there's been a couple of incidents of north Would trump deed has been involved in of been killed during drug turf. Ause i don't necessarily agree with that. So i'm not endorsing that in any way shape or form. But it's an opinion that somebody has An imam from birmingham We can set you up on youtube so about those people within our community. Maybe a little bit here advice. Would you offer those people within our community that openly to and also illegal things. Yeah people like drop-dead is what's your perception towards him out. I wonder whether with the past few weeks we've talked about which about a month ago. My last show as well as age mature matured in our thinking and been a little bit more lenient with people trying to make connecticut. But what about those people that actually on really making an effort are still muslim attitude in quezon. Horrible things i think for me. I'm just kind of picturing a progress bar you'd like so you'd have zero progress in the middle old up to one hundred doing everything you can be. As good of a muslim you can The people believe you described initially would be zero where they're not doing anything in terms of practicing slum but they do say you know how hold faith to islamic and i believe in law a believe in islam but do anything about it so they would. I guess if we're talking about a bit of a numerical value they will be zero banal. I think we're talking about people who have actively gone backwards to towards minus one hundred so they've gone the other way. They're going the opposite direction. I'm said this is not just. I'm not doing anything good. I mean you you touched upon. This was before where people say. I'm not doing anything. But i'm still a good person so it shouldn't be an issue. We've had these comments before. I'm sure that now we'll see we're talking specifically about people who are doing and i think if who to give advice we have question then various why are you on the one hand claiming and saying you all muslim but then everything you do and say is contrary to that. How do the two go hand in hand effectively the to if you put me in the same picture. It becomes a bit of an oxymoron. They just completely contradicting into the. Can i just check with you. Because that's very interesting seeing these numerical values in a bit spectrum developing here so you said people sent some zip religiousness you is. Is it going from one hundred two minus two hundred. The scam young just as as a as a very simple diagram. So you've got from in the middle you've got zero on the right you've got one hundred and another other left you got minus one hundred. That's just the very basic bar. I guess if you like of somebody. My police themselves and then has has been controversial. Wants i mean again. I mean we're not saying anybody's out outside of the photo of slow but in terms of as closest to leaving a slum will get the minus one hundred days so zero a thing the definitely the minus one hundred. Aw on the on the board line. Because as i say not only are they on the one hand saying muslim pine fair enough dispute but everything you do and say literally goes against that must the issue In if somebody believed in something why would you not. Why would you go against is is the question that they really need to ask themselves. Yeah yeah i mean. I'm not it's difficult. You know when you look at someone from the outside and you see okay the drug dealers or what not unless you really personally know them quite difficult because of what we're doing now is making a judgment about drug dealers know causing harm to society and we're not in their position. We don't really know what they've been to. What the what they've been through. Sorry and what they've been influenced by and maybe it's we've had a much easier life whereas for them they they haven't maybe they haven't had a stable family and maybe they haven't had the right people in their life to sort of influence them on them in the right direction. You know imams obsolete. It's their job in within the community. Continue bring people to slow. But they can't relate to the jones street Kid who's the drug. Neither in the corner. Imam goes out to him. He relate to him. You need particular type of skill to be able to talk to people in relate to people feel like so many moms just out of touch and this particular mom you mentioned Who was saying look shouldn't even do genetic on these people is like i don't know i mean we're not scholars This person's obviously maiden has this opinion based on evidence know on his studies that he's done all whoever he's consulted with my personal opinion. I think that's wrong. I don't think you should be regardless of how much harm they call society. If the particular person said identifies as a muslim whether they're practicing the faithful all obviously they might be sincere end the whole repentance thing as well as the never repented how you know people repent in their bedroom people repent in the breath dealing. How would you solve note. That person has repented before they died. i think it's quite difficult for someone to say look. Don't do nas on that person because of drugs either.