Hello folks. This is Princess.
You are listening to the Millennial Mustard Seed Podcast.
Thanks for listening. Don't forget to share with your
friends. That's tough.
We're in a very tough spot. I think that what we're doing
right now is a great benefit and virtue because it's an end
around between this whole corrupt informational system,
media system. We claim to believe in a God who
spoke the universe into existence and literally raised
himself from the dead, and yet we're not going to believe that
anything else exists in the spirit realm, even though His
word tells us that they do. Their bodies weren't permitted
to go to sleep like humans do, and they weren't permitted to go
to heaven. So they wander the earth, You
know, I've seen the eyes turn black to unknown tongues being
spoken. These giants would love way up
in the island. The young Braves, The young men
would hide up in the trees and wait for one of these 12 footers
to come walking down the path and they would jump on them and
kill them, drag them back to the village and the village would
feast on the body. Freedom.
Then people start to get weapons, they start to get
armor, they start to build cities, they start to fortify
their cities. Now God looks.
Down and there's violence everywhere.
The battle, this war that we are at is not against each other.
It's against these principalities and these rulers
and these archons in the high places.
It's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself.
Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control because
we have to take every thought. Captive and resist fear.
You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against
the Kingdom of Darkness. Welcome back to the Millennial
Mustard Seed. I am your host, Rod, and thank
you for being here with me for another awesome episode.
And this one truly is awesome. I'm joined by Doctor Mike Davis
and this conversation we have you do not want to miss.
This is so important. Topics like studying the Bible
in its cultural context, emotional intelligence and the
importance of that, well, you'll find out.
We cover boldness and confidence.
Now what's interesting is in the word of God, we have God
commanding us. Do not fear, do not be afraid.
But there's some other verses in there about how we can apply
this and actually make that so. God always gives us the recipe.
He's not going to command us not to be afraid and to be bold and
courageous without telling us how.
And many of you may come to find that it's right here in the
word, literally a step by step. We should not allow the law that
God has given us to depart from our mouth.
Just going to drop that little gem here real quick, but stick
around because this is one of those episodes where you want a
pen and paper, where you can take some notes.
This is the kind of teaching that the body needs.
We need to be encouraged. We need to be able to find the
truth and to walk through this stuff, learning it together in
humility. And let's face it, this time
slot that we're living in, there's a lot of fear mongering,
fear tactics, a lot of information out there that's
causing anxiety, depression, suicides on the rise.
How do we combat that? Well, God tells us right in His
word and I love what I'm doing to be able to broadcast this
stuff, to encourage you guys to read your Bible, to drop these
gems where we can learn this stuff in a way that it's
personable. It's not just for entertainment
purposes with this podcast. This is what I believe God is
calling me to do and it's been an honor and it's been a battle
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It doesn't matter. Help us get this thing out
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The words are salt. We've got an excellent feedback
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quite wide. Leave us a review on Amazon When
you pick yourself up a copy if you're in the southeastern
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the MMM Seed at proton dot ME in the details of the show notes.
I do not believe that broadcasting is the only thing
God is asking me to do. There's so much happening behind
the scenes. We continue to grow slow and
steady, just like a Mustard Seed should shout out to brother
David Chavis. I play one of his songs at the
end of this episode and it is fire.
One of the big things I want to announce that if you guys are in
the tri-state area, if you're in New York, New Jersey, Maryland,
Delaware, June 27th through the 30th in Lebanon, PA, all things
new is the name of this event we're going to have live.
SP Marcus Rodgers, Klaus Chavis, and a bunch of other brothers
and sisters in Christ will be there.
I will be there myself. So if you guys would like to
meet me, meet the rest of the crew, come on out.
We're going to have food, music. It's literally love in the
streets. It's in the streets.
This is going to be like a Christian block party.
It's going to be wildly cool. So I hope you guys can make it.
e-mail me if you have any questions.
And I think it's about time to jump into this episode.
I'm ready. Are you guys ready?
Let's go. Let's go.
I'm Mike Davis. I am a pastor, corporate speaker
and trainer as well as a coach. I'm a father and a grandfather,
and what I have a passion for doing is helping people really
to get their emotions to work for them rather than against
them in terms of the the coaching and training that I do
and also to help people to understand the Bible in its
cultural context. So that's what I do and I'm glad
to be here and I welcome you all.
Mike, it is an honor to have you back here on the Mustard Seed
with me, man. Thank you for being here.
Thank you. Episode 48.
You know, we talked about Thoughts are Powerful and
renewing your mind. And you know, I just want to
comment before we jump into it and just say it from my
perspective, how important it is with diving through some of the
fringe information and trying to make sense of the days we live
in. Really to balance it out with,
you know what am I walking tight and narrow?
Do I understand taking thoughts captive Paul prays in Ephesians.
What is it? I I think 6 pray for me to have
boldness, right? A completion of speech and and
really it just tugs at my heart. So you're the perfect person to
have here to just take us on this journey, man.
It's. I'm excited.
Oh, I'm glad to be here, so I'll help in any way I can.
Well, let's do a real quick recap.
Let's spend a couple minutes just talking about renewing your
mind and and the power of thoughts and and just kind of
the premises of what you do. And then we'll dive into some of
these questions I have. OK, well the the primary thing
that I do really it it really is about renewing the the mind.
Though I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on the emotional
aspect of that because I feel like so much when people talk
about renewing the mind within the Christian context, the
emotional aspect of that gets left out when you look at what
the word mind in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the verse that
we're kind of referring to when Paul said don't be conformed to
this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
The word mind there includes and it encompasses the the
intellect, our thoughts as well as our will and our emotions.
So renewing of the mind really needs to take place in all three
of those elements. And those elements really are
intertwined and they overlap with each other.
There. As one of my teachers once said,
in all thought, there's emotion, and in all emotion there is
thought. And there's some nuances where
that's concerned. But for the most part, that's
really true. So when we're talking about
renewing the mind, we're really talking about getting our
emotions, getting our thoughts, our will, and our emotions into
alignment with God's truth. And Jesus told us it's the truth
that sets us free. So when we get our intellect,
our will and our emotions in alignment and conform to this
truth, then we experience freedom mentally as well as
emotionally. Yeah, A lot of times people are
just governed by letting emotions determine how they
treat people or decisions that they make.
And you know, it's really funny. I I released my book last month
called The Words of Salt. And one of the little kind of
poem parables I talked about is if you allow emotions to
determine how you treat people, you someday you'll find out
there's a deep hole and you threw the shovel out.
You know, it's just not a good way to do things.
So the importance of emotional intelligence, I just can't
express that enough. Let's consider this boldness
right. Can you tell us about what that
means in in the Greek and just give us, you know, a premises of
what does it look like to be bold?
Because I feel like a lot of times people get confused with
arrogance versus boldness, right?
We there's a lot of people out there beating their chest and
saying listen to me and you're wrong and you're right.
And we see, I see a lot of that, at least some of the fields that
I peer into. But just lay a premises for us.
How does this really work? Well, you know, in in talking
about boldness, I'll I'll start here with this.
In the 1st century world and in the Greco Roman world, there
were four virtues that were really considered what they
called the cardinal virtues. These are like the most
important virtues. There are a lot of different
virtues, but there were four that were really considered
important. One of them was wisdom.
That was one of the virtues. Self-control was another one.
Wisdom so you had. So it was it was wisdom,
self-control, justice. Sometimes in the Bible it's
called the the New Testament, the Kyle Sunni which we call
righteousness. So justice, righteousness,
self-control and then wisdom. And the 4th one was courage.
Courage is one of the elements. And so there was a lot that was
written by different Greco Roman philosophers about the nature of
courage and what it looked like. And so when we're talking about
boldness, that would be seen as an aspect of.
Courage. So one of the things like one of
the and I and I took some time to look this up just to refresh
my mind where it was concerned. So one of the things when it
talks about courage, let me read to you for a second here.
This is one of the Greco Roman philosophers and the reason I
I'm quoting this rather than just starting with the Bible
first is because these #1 these guys wrote about it #2 it gives
us some insight into how the thinking was taking place during
that time. So Cicero who was a philosopher,
he said courage is the is the quality by which one undertakes
dangerous task and endures hardships is parts are high
mindedness, confidence, patience, perseverance.
High mindedness consists in the contemplation and the execution
of great and sublime projects with a certain grandeur,
magnificence of imagination. Confidence is the quality by
which an important and honorable undertaking, the Spirit, has
placed great trust in itself with a resolute hope of success.
Patience is a willing and sustained endurance of difficult
and arduous task for a noble and useful end.
And then perseverance is a firm and abiding persistence in a
well considered plan of action. So they saw courage slash
boldness as having different aspects to it.
So there was you would contemplate, you would execute
great things, you would have confidence that you would be
able to succeed, you would have patience and endurance, and then
you would have perseverance that you would be willing to persist
and to keep going. So in the 1st century world, you
know when they were talking about boldness, and I I
generally will say boldness slash confidence, and I believe
you. For us as believers, we can put
faith in confidence or trust in God.
Where that was concerned, it was the idea of all of these things
together. So a bird, a bold person, was
someone who would take action. A bold person was someone who
would move forward, forward, regardless of the dangers,
regardless of the situations that they might be facing.
Regardless, they would they would keep going.
They would persist even though there might be changing
circumstances and events. If they believed in what they
were doing, they believed it was important they would keep going.
As a matter of fact, and I'll say this one last thing here,
one of the definitions of courage at that time was the
idea that courage was also obedient to a higher law.
So I think that's really important as we talk about some
other things, yeah. So it was obedience.
So I I would say that one of the ways for us as Christians 'cause
if you look at this from a Christian perspective, that what
we're talking about is really doing, doing God's will
regardless of what's taking place outside of us, with the
with the confidence, the inner certainty that we will be able
to successfully achieve God's will.
Yeah, it reminds me. Hebrews 10, I think 35.
It talks about not throwing away your confidence.
There's this like rich and deep and great reward in it.
Yeah, and that. That's so encouraging.
Yeah, can I can I actually read something where that's
concerned? No, that's what it's one of the
passages that actually it does talk about exactly what you
said, confidence. It talks about courage in that
verse. So to to set up the people that
the book of Hebrews was was written to.
And actually Hebrews most scholars believe it is actually
a homily or sermon that was not so much as read.
It was something that was preached to the people.
And in chapter 10, the, you know, so the people let me go
back. The people were under great
persecution. They were under persecution to
turn away from their faith in Christ.
So with that being said he writes to them the writer and
says I'll start at verse 10. He's But recall the former days
in which, after you were illuminated.
And notice, he says, you endured a great struggle with with
suffering, partly while you were made a spectacle both by
reproaches and tribulations, and partly you became companions of
those who were so treated you had compact.
This is chapter 10, verse 32. I was starting that, verse 34
says, For you had compassion on me in my chains.
You joyfully accepted the plundering of your good, so they
had all of their material things taken from them as a way of
trying to shame them, to get them to turn away from their
faith. So he says you had a you took
joyfully the plundering of your goods, knowing you had have a
better and enduring possession for yourself in heaven than the
verse you just quoted. Therefore do not castaway your
confidence which has great reward, for you have need of
endurance. Now notice this so that after
you have done the will of God, you may see may receive the
promise. So within a 1st century context
with what the writer here was saying, notice there's these
themes here of endurance, taking things patiently and enduring
and doing the will of God. He was saying to them, you were
courageous in in the early years of your faith, you were being
courageous and he was and he was reminding them of the courage
that they demonstrated and he's encouraging them and exhorting
them to not castaway their confidence.
So when we get into the how to's, this is going to be
important when we come back to this because he's actually
telling them how to maintain and sustain their courage and their
confidence even in the face of difficulties, even in the face
of persecution. Yeah, that's superlative.
Wow. I mean, as I'm listening, I'm
just, this is so necessary, what we're doing right now.
But I believe the signs are there.
God is gonna do what God is gonna do.
It's every yacht and title will come to pass, right?
But the stuff that we're seeing right now, we're identifying.
I believe most of us, even our own personal little bubbles are
being affected in some way. It's very minute compared to
what 1st century worldview, what they've really endured in the
confident words there. So I think planting these seeds
is is quite necessary. Yeah.
And and I think it's good to know because what he's telling
them to do, he's he's literally in these verses giving them a
strategy for to maintain and sustain their courage in the
face of this persecution. And I think that's.
Important because it's really good.
Yeah, because one of the things that I teach about a lot is
emotions. That I talk about strategies for
being able to get your emotions to work for you rather than
against you. And too much of the times, we,
we tend to think as Christians well, and I think we talked
about this the last time. Well, you know, we're supposed
to walk by faith, not by sight. And we have turned that to mean
you're you're to trust God and ignore how you feel, when really
what Scripture seeks to do is to bring our whole being into
submission and conformity to the will of God, to the ways of God.
So that includes our intellect, as I said before, our will and
our emotions. And the Bible actually lays out,
and I've been studying this for over 30 years now, it lays out
different strategies that we can employ so that we can get our
emotions to, as I like to say, we can get our emotions to serve
us in serving God. And the writer here, we're going
to look at some other things as we move forward.
There are specific strategies. I believe that they are embedded
in the tax they that they are strategies that God has given to
us so that we can align ourselves with our align our
emotions as well as our intellect, our our thoughts with
God's will. And the one thing I tell people
all the time is that whatever you can do while feeling bad,
you can do so much better while you're feeling good.
Meaning that you have good, resourceful emotional States and
one of those states is courage or confidence.
You can do, it's easier. I I read a quote that someone
had written that said our life contracts or it expands our life
contracts or expands in proportion to our courage.
And I thought that is so true. I believe it was a writer named
a niece Nin and I don't believe she was a Christian, but she
said our life contracts or it expands in proportion to our
courage. So just an everyday living.
And I and I taught on this not too long ago at our at our
fellowship, just an everyday living.
You need courage if you're going to go out there, if you're going
to do things, if you're going to accomplish anything.
And this is what the ancient Greco Roman writers and
philosophers understood. You must be able to possess and
exercise courage. And too much of the time, I'll
say this one more thing. Too much of the time we people
often will define courage as how do they put it?
They, they, they. It's like that.
It's taking action even if you feel afraid.
To which I say, yes, that can be a way of thinking about courage,
that you take an action even though you may be afraid.
Or some people like to say feel the fear and do it anyway and
they go, that's courage. I go that's one way of looking
at it. However, that can be extremely
difficult. To to try to you know, I don't
know if you've ever been afraid, Rod, but with you know, if
you've got a lot of fear, it can be very difficult to take action
the majority of the time. Why people don't take action on
something. Why they don't move forward.
Why they and and as we talked about before part of courage is
acting in obedience to a higher will.
For us as believer, that means God's will.
What can stop us is fear, the feeling of fear.
So I tell people, well, yeah, it's true.
You can feel the fear and do it anyway.
I think it's better, though, to get rid of the fear and do it
even better. In other words, replace the fear
with courage and do it even better.
Now what would be like a one or two go to strategies for, you
know, embracing this courage and reiterating this sound mind
through this process? You know, I've talked with a lot
of people off air and there's a lot of fear.
You know what I've man, I've been seeing this happen where
the non fringy people are now starting to inquire.
You can see it in their eyes and like I feel it where they're not
really apologizing but you can tell that they thought you were
a kook, you know, 14 months ago and then they're kind of like,
hey, you know, I just kind of wanted to ask what are your
thoughts on that? And and it's like I really love
that people are starting to slow down and and question things
because we see stuff on the news because there's all these
messages and signals out there. So it's an opportunity for me to
actually show myself an example of someone who believes and and
just kind of engage and and answer at that surface level
where it's like, well, I know you've heard probably the same
things I've heard, but my belief consists of acting like a mature
man in Christ, right? Because in my my fleshly nature,
I'm blowing in the wind. I don't know how to handle this
stuff there. There's a a courage and
confidence that I truly believe comes from the spirit, from the
ruach, and it's hard to really explain that sometimes there's
kind of a vocabulary breach, if you will.
I know what what it kind of feels like.
I know how God has showed up for me in my times of need, and I
know that I've been bold. But it's a great thing that
you're here because you get to help me cover these chasms and
put intelligent language to it so I can even just understand
the depth myself. Yeah.
Well, I think one of the things, so let me say real quick, I
think people tend to think that emotions are too flighty, that
they really can't be relied upon.
And I take the exact opposite view.
Years ago I did a message and it came a signature message of
mine, and it's kind of been transformed over the years.
But originally it was called How to Train Your Emotions and
people were like, what? And I go like, yeah, emotions
can be trained. And I taught this years ago like
I I, it was like almost 20 years ago, 'cause my my oldest
daughter's around 10/11/12, thirteen years old and she's now
in her 30s. She's, I think she's 30.
So I taught this years ago and at the time people were like,
Mike, are you, are you serious? You can train your emotions.
But now you know. Here we Fast forward almost 20
years later, 1520 years later. And this is what the scientific
evidence is telling us. The scientific research is
telling the psychological research, yet emotions can be
trained. And when I was first studying
and I got it from two sources, one, I was looking at the
science, Two, I was looking at the biblical text.
So when it comes to courage, courage does not have to be
something that is we, we hope we're going to experience, or
I'll put it to you like this. It doesn't have to be something
you passively wait to happen or you passively hope that you know
you're waiting for it to take place and you're going to feel
courage so you can take action. This is why a lot of times
people will say, and I understand it well, just take
action anyway. Don't wait to feel courage
courageous, Just act courageous, OK.
And I To which I say, yes, that can work.
And if you know how to do that correctly, you can actually get
yourself to feel courageous by taking certain actions, I said.
But another way is you can actually incline and direct your
emotions towards courage. And people say, well, how do you
do that? So first of all, let me say,
Ron, like you're talking about the Spirit and the holy, you
know, the Holy Spirit. We're told to walk in the Spirit
right now, and you would agree with that right that we're as
believers. Absolutely.
OK, so now, technically speaking, there is no verse of
Scripture that acts that. There is no verse of scripture
that says that one of the fruit of the Spirit is courage, though
I think courage is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
It's just it doesn't mention it as a in Galatians chapter 5.
But how do we walk in the Spirit?
That's what I want to focus on. So the way we walk in the
Spirit, Paul tells us this and we're told to keep in step with
the Spirit. We're told how to do that in
Romans chapter 8, where the apostle Paul says for they who
are after the flesh, they mind the things or they're set.
They set their minds on the things of the flesh, but they
who are after the Spirit mind, or set their minds on the things
of the Spirit. Now, we may have talked about
this the last time I was here, but that word for mine or set
the mind on, it's one word in Greek, and it means to incline
or to direct the intellect, the will and the affections towards
something, or to align the intellect, the will and the
affections with something. And what's that something?
Well, if you're walking in the flesh, you are inclining or
directing or aligning your intellect, will, and emotions
with what is of the flesh. If you're walking in the spirit,
you're inclining your intellect, your will, your emotions, your
desires with that which is of the spirit.
So what? And and the way it's written in
Greek, it's in the active voice meaning that the subject of the
sentence, which would be you or me, you know that we are to
perform that action so we can incline, we can direct, we can
align our intellect, will and our emotions with the spirit.
So this means that it doesn't have to be sometime that you
experience courage or it doesn't have to be where you're just
passively waiting to feel courage.
You know, it's like when I teach on motivation, you know, people
will say about motivation, you know, well, sometimes you got to
take action and not just wait for a feeling of motivation.
To which I go, yeah, don't wait for it, get yourself motivated.
You never have to wait for motivation.
You can motivate yourself if you know how.
There's specific strategies. And it's the same way with
courage. So somebody might be listening
to us not say, OK, man, we'll get to the strategies.
What is it? So number 11, strategy, if we
find in Joshua chapter one. So I'm going to read from Joshua
chapter one and verse 7. And this is where God is talking
to Joshua after you know Moses has died.
Joshua is now the leader of Israel and God says to Joshua in
verse I'll read from verse five. He says no man shall be able to
stand before you all the days of your life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
I will not leave you nor forsake you.
So one of the things that becomes a foundational stone
that we can build upon for courage is to know that the Lord
is with us. That's one of the things to know
that he is with us. And Hebrews chapter 13 actually
says, you know, I will never, ever leave, you know, forsake
you so that we may build the say the Lord is with me.
Whom shall I fear? OK, now it's one thing to
articulate that, OK, God is with me, but how do you move into a
place of where you really do feel the courage and you're
acting and and your emotions are aligned with that truth, that
spiritual truth and reality that God is with me?
Well, God tells Joshua I'm going to be with you as I was with
Moses. I will not leave you nor forsake
you. But then he says in verse 6, be
strong and of good courage. So here he's telling him to be
of good courage. For to this people you should
divide as an inheritance the language I swore to their
fathers to give them only be strong.
So he says it again, be strong and very courageous.
Now notice this that you may observe to do according to all
the law which Moses my servant, commanded you.
Do not turn from it, from the right hand or to the left, that
you may prosper wherever you go. So notice here he tells him to
be strong in courage, and then he says so that you may observe
to do according to the law. So remember we said before that
one of the definitions in the 1st century Greco Roman world
was that courage was also seen as obedience to a higher law.
We see this directly in the book of Joshua.
God tells Joshua be strong and of good courage.
Why So that you may observe to do according to all of the law,
so that you can do my will. So he tells me to be courageous,
so there is courage needed to do the will of God.
Then he's so That's verse seven only be strong and very
courageous that you may observe to do according to the law.
Then in verse 8 he He says it again, except this time he
changes it. He says, verse 8.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe
to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your for then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you have good success and rob.
By the way, anytime you want to jump in there, just do so.
He says, the first time. Have I not commanded you.
Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be
dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
But he tells so In verse 7. Verse five he tells them to be
strong and and have courage. Verse seven he tells them to be
strong and very courageous, so that he could observe the law.
In verse eight he tells them, Now this book of the law shall
not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and
night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is
written in it. So you can do my will.
So rather in verse 8, rather than saying be be of good
courage, so you can do my will, be courageous, so you can do my
will. Instead, he says, meditate day
and night on my law, that you may do my will.
So what's the point I'm making here?
One of the ways that we develop and we nurture courage, and I
believe it's in connection with the Holy Spirit.
We're told in Philippians chapter 2, verse 13 that God
works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
So God's at work within us to do His will.
Philippians 212 says we're to work out our own salvation with
fear and tribbling verse 13 says because it's God who works in
you both to will and to do with his good pleasure.
So we cooperate with God. How do we work with God to
develop and nurture courage? One of the ways we do that is by
what we are meditating upon. What we meditate upon is going
to Orient our mind, our will, and our emotion in a particular
direction either, and depending on what you're meditating on, it
will either Orient it towards fear or it can Orient it towards
courage, again depending on what you're meditating on.
By the way, this goes practically for any virtue.
So in let me just ask, am I making sense so far?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I got scriptures just
jump into my mind and I'm taking a back seat and learning as you
go through all those well. And so I I I always say that
biblical meditation is one of the lost.
Arts. It's it's something we tend not
to do. We we read our Bibles, which is
good. We've got to read our Bibles.
But do we take time to really meditate upon what we're
reading? And I always say that meditation
is preparation for obedience. Meditation is how you assimilate
truth and make it a part of you so that you can act on it and
live by. So in Philippians chapter 4,
verse eight, we're told whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just and
pure and lovely. Whatsoever things are of good
report. If there be any virtue, courage
is a virtue. And if there is any praise or if
there's anything that's praiseworthy it, then it says
think on these things and that word think on.
In the Greek, you know, it can also mean to meditate, meditate
on these things, meditate on these virtues.
Thayer's Greek English lexicon, which is one of the more famous
lexicons. It it it, it defines the word
that's translated as think on, as to meditate upon something in
order to obtain it. So one of the reasons that Paul
in Philippians tells them to meditate on what is good and
honest and just and pure and lovely, or whatever is virtuous
or whatever is praiseworthy, You meditate upon that virtue so
that you can make it your own. This is why I say meditation is
preparation for action. Meditation is assimilation you.
The way you assimilate something and you make it a part of you is
by meditating upon it. And we can get into and a few
minutes just how did we do that? But this is what God was telling
Joshua to do. He says, I want you to meditate.
And it's interesting you're talking about the tongue.
The word for meditate here in Joshua chapter one, verse 8,
comes from the Hebrew term haggah, which means to to mutter
or to speak to oneself. So when God said yeah, This is
why, This is why the verse is written.
This book of the law shall not depart from out of your mouth.
Exactly. So that you can meditate, you
are to speak it to yourself day and night.
So one of the ways you meditate is by what you are saying to
yourself consistently, especially if you say it to
yourself out loud. OK, so you and he said do it day
and night. So this is a continual thing.
Not that you have to do it every single moment, but that you need
to make time to meditate upon what you want to be a part of
your life, another person's. Go ahead.
I'm sorry. It just made me think I was
making myself even giggle at this thought.
Where the apostle Paul, Somewhere in the New Testament,
he says if I seem beside myself, it's for Christ.
Do you think he was walking around just, like talking to
himself, Like, you know, like meditating on Scripture?
I mean, seriously, you know. That, that, that when he says
beside myself, that was the idiot, Which means beside
yourself was kind of like the way we use the days, like, oh
what are you crazy? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. As an Orthodox Jew, he probably
was taking time. I mean because he tells the
Philippians to meditate all these things day and night and
and I often say that this is something that I think believers
we don't do enough of. At least we don't do it
consciously and intentionally in order to reach specific goals
for ourselves. Intentionally.
That's powerful. That's.
Because every you everyone meditates.
You cannot not meditate. You're always thinking about
something and you talk to yourself.
We all for the most part. There are some people who don't,
but for the most part, everyone has internal self talk.
I've done studies on the the scientific research that has
been done on self talk. So we talked to ourselves.
So God here is having us make use of something that he built
within us to do as a way of nurturing confidence.
Because he tells Joshua be courageous to do my work.
But then he tells him how to be courageous to do his work.
He says meditate upon my word, day and night.
So how does that work? Well, there's a couple of ways
we can look at it. #1. Is that what we know that
they're in? This gets into a little bit of
neuroscience. So there's a part of your brain
known as the thalamus. And according there's a book
that is written called How God Changes Your Brain by Doctor
Andrew Newberg. Doctor Andrew Newberg.
I don't know if he's a believer. I don't.
I I I can't really tell that from his writings.
But he has developed a field known as neuro theology and he
looks at the impact that religious beliefs of every kind,
the impact that it has upon the brain, how it impacts the brain.
So he looks at different faiths and what he is seen as, what you
believe about God, how you perceive God, how you perceive
what you can think of as a entity called God.
Some people, I don't agree with this, but they call it the
universe. But it's the idea of how you
perceive the that which is greater than yourself.
It impacts your brain and it changes your brain.
So in the book he talks about something very interesting.
He talks about the thalamus. And one of the statements he
makes in the book is that the thalamus part of the the job of
the thalamus is to make things real to you, to make something
real to you, to take thoughts and to turn them into internal
subjective reality. So the and I for years before I
had learned about this, I taught a principle in teaching about
renewing the mind and stuff that I call the Reality principle.
And the reality principle, simply stated, is whatever is
most real to you is what you will act upon and live by.
That's the reality principle. So this is where we can see
people espouse a belief in something, but then they do the
exact opposite of what they believe.
And that's what I look at. I go if you say you believe it,
but you're doing something different, I there's something
that you believe that's more real to you than the belief that
you espouse. Because we are always acting on
what is most real to us, OK? And that can be subjective.
We may not in the moment be aware of what.
So in other words, it's a belief, but it's at a deeper
level, to use that metaphor. So at a deeper level, it's most
real to us is what we're going to act on and live by.
Well, what Doctor Andrew Newberg found out is that if you repeat
a thought over and over again, eventually that thought becomes
real to you. Your your brain no longer
distinguishes between that thought as something internal or
something or it never. It doesn't distinguish between
something that's external, that is physically real, and
something that's internal. Through repetition, a thought
becomes an internal reality. So by so not so, what does God
tell Joshua? He says.
I want you to be courageous. I want you to be courageous.
So you do my will. So then what he tells them to
do. I want you to take my word, and
I want you to meditate upon it day and night.
Speak it to yourself day and night.
Why? Because as you do that, my
truth, my will, will become more real to you than anything around
you. And again, the reality principle
is what is most real to you is what you're going to act upon
and live by. So if my truth, if my world
view, if the way, if the if the way of life that God paints for
us in His word, if that becomes the reality, the way of life, he
says we are to live. If that's our internal reality.
And let me say this as a side note, we all have every human
being has an internal reality that they live out of every
single one of us. That's neuroscientifically true,
that's psychologically true. It's spiritually true.
We all have an internal reality. Jesus says out of the heart
proceeds fornication, adultery, murders, blasphemy, he said.
Those things come out of the heart.
Proverbs 4 tells us guard your heart.
Why? Because out of it flows the
issues of life. So we all live from the inside
out. We all live from the internal
realities that we've assimilated over the years.
But what the Scripture tells us to do is we're to assimilate
God's truth into our hearts. And by meditating upon it, it
becomes more real to you, you know.
You know in in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says don't be worried
about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink or
wherewith all show you be clothed, right?
He says don't be worried about it now.
I think all of us have at times, you know we struggled with our
finances and it's like you know when you when money's low you
get you got more month than you do money, you know and you're
trying to he's like, OK, well how do I know?
I was there. Yeah, he was like, God, how do I
not be worried God. Jesus actually tells us.
He tells us. He doesn't just say don't be
worried and he doesn't just say trust in God.
He actually gives a strategy. He says Behold the fowls of the
air. Consider the lilies of the
field. If you look up those terms in
Greek, it has to do with sustained, focused attention.
It's not just a casual glance, it's think about.
Contemplate how your father feeds the birds of the air.
Think about contemplate with focus and tension how your
father clothes the lilies of the field.
So we're to meditate upon the attributes of God, and we're to
do this consistently. We're to do this continually so
that becomes more real on the inside of us than the idea of we
may not have enough Is is that making?
Sense. Absolutely.
So one of my thoughts was as you were saying, you know, you know
this emotion that comes out or you know our thoughts that
what's inside of us. I was thinking about the verse
that says it's not what goes into the mouth of a man that
defiles him, but that much comes out because they're, you know,
you have these religious minded people that are arguing over did
they wash their hands? What are they eating?
And so quick question though, like I'm looking at Psalms 27,
verse 14 specifically and it says wait for and confidently
expect the Lord. Do you think that that wait for,
does it fall in line with like that meditation Because I'm
reading it and seeing it closer to what you're depicting.
Like as you were talking, I'm going, yeah, waiting for the
Lord and confidently to expect the Lord.
Be strong. Let and let your heart take
courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.
Confidently expecting the Lord. And I'm thinking when I'm
waiting and expecting for something, I'm thinking about
what I'm anticipating. I'm dwelling on it.
I'm recycling it back and forth, massaging it through.
And it's just such such a beautiful connection.
Yeah, it's it's, it's actually, yeah, it's a huge part of it
because it's the idea waiting on the Lord.
I remember it took me a while before I learned it.
It's the idea of looking forward confidently.
But again, it's like how do you do that?
That's why it says wait on the Lord, be of good courage, you
know look confidently towards the Lord, you're expecting good
things from him, but that it it doesn't just happen.
This is why Jesus says, and I'm going to paraphrase, but I think
this would be accurate to say he says meditate on the lilies of
the field. Meditate on the birds of the
air, how your Heavenly Father takes care of them.
Think about that. This is why over and over again
you will see in the the book of Psalms, it'll say it'll it'll
talk about the works of the Lord and and it encourages Israel to
speak of his works from one generation to the next.
The idea is talk about what God has done.
This is another strategy, and by the way, to to to remember the
works of the Lord, to speak of them.
It's a way of meditating on it, because another word for
meditate is siach, which means to speak.
It can mean to pray. It can mean to speak to yourself
also. So there's this thing of of
speaking out loud and speaking to yourself as well as speaking
internally and meditating internally.
Many You rehearse something over and over again that it it can.
If you're focusing on what God has done for you in the past it
can build confidence. So meditating is one of the
strategies and somebody said well well how would I meditate
you you you can't. Well let me let me I need to
back up for a second. So meditating on what God has
done. Doctor Andrew Newbrook said, If
you if you meditate on a thought over and over again, so if
you're meditating like on the Lord is good, the Lord or you
meditate upon what Jesus said that seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things will, will and
all these things will be added to you.
So you're meditating upon that you're meditating upon.
Behold the the, the lilies of the field.
How the Father takes care. You're meditating on that.
If you rehearse that over and over, that will become more real
to you. That God's care and provision
will become more real to you. It's the way God has designed
us. So when I when I talk about
neuroscience, I'm looking at scientists discovering, not
creating, discovering how God has made us.
So it's like, whoa, this is amazing because like Doctor
Andrew Newberg's book, How God Changes Us, It's all about
neuroscience, but he's looking. But who created us?
Who made us? It's God.
He put these things within us, and this is how we can start
directing them. So the scriptures always has
already told us what to do. Way before neuroscience ever
came into existence, it was already telling us what we
needed to do, the practices we need to engage in on a regular
basis in order to align intellect, will and emotions
with what is of the Lord. Now what is also said by Doctor
Newberg and also other neuroscientists is if you
meditate upon something with a particular emotion that speeds
up, it accelerates the process of making it more real.
So did you did you catch what I was saying?
If you meditate with an emotion. With an emotion, yes.
So are you saying, you know, in a sense, when we have the
emotional intelligence, we can gear that emotion to drive us
into meditating on the word of God purposefully, intentionally,
And that speeds up the process? Yeah, that's fantastic.
So emotion is not just a byproduct of renewing your mind.
Emotions are to be involved in the process of renewing the
mind. So can I give you a quick
illustration? Please, yeah.
I'm going to show you this from Scripture.
I'm not making this stuff up. So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, and
I have my Bible right here, so it'll take me a moment to find
it. But in Deuteronomy chapter
seven, we have a great illustration of God telling
Israel how to deal with fear and how to be courageous.
OK, so Deuteronomy Chapter 7, If you look at verse, it's verse
16. Well, we we, Yeah, we'll start
at verse 16. OK.
So let me give you a little bit of background.
You know that there was a time when Israel, God had brought
them, when he first brought them out of Egypt.
He brought them to the to the, to the cusp of the land of
promise. Right.
And he tells Moses to send 12 spies to spy out the land. 12
spies go. They come back, they begin to
give their report. Caleb says Let's go up at once
and possess it. We're well able to overcome it.
This is Numbers chapter 13 and numbers 14.
Caleb and Joshua says, don't fear the people of the land.
They are as bread for us. The Lord is with us.
Fear them not. So they're calling the people to
courage. Joshua and Caleb are acting in
courage. The 10 spies.
The other 10 spies say we are not able to go up against the
people of the land. This land is too big.
And then they say we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers.
And so we were in their sight. And then in chapter 14, starting
at verse one, all the people freak out and they go, why is
the Lord brought us out here to die?
Why he has he brought us out here in our for our our wives
and our little ones to become a prey?
So everyone becomes afraid. And then they say let's make a
captain and go back into Egypt, right?
This is all because of fear. Remember before the quote where
I was quoting the writer who said your life contracts or your
life contracts or expands in proportion to your fear?
I mean, I'm sorry in proportion to your confidence or your
courage in proportion to your courage.
They were contracting, they were drawing back, and rather than
moving forward, they were wanting to go backwards because
of fear, because of the the emotion of fear.
But Joshua and Caleb had No Fear.
Joshua and Caleb said, let's go up and once impossess it, we're
well able to overcome it. They said don't fear the people
of the land. The Lord is with us.
Fear them not. But the 10 spies and all the
people were afraid so. And of course this is where how
they end up wandering 40 years in the wilderness.
It was part of the judgment of God.
So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, God is getting ready to bring them
back into the land. This time Moses is going to be
their leader. And God does not want to repeat
of Numbers chapter 13. So this is what he tells them in
verse 16, Deuteronomy Chapter 7. Also, you should destroy all the
people whom the Lord God delivers over to you.
Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their
gods, for that will be a snare to you.
If you should say in your heart these natures are greater than
I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them.
Now notice that God says you shall not be afraid of them.
Now I've I've heard ministers take this and say, well, you
know sometimes what what this is saying is sometimes you've got
to take action even though you feel afraid.
But actually what the verse says is you shall not be afraid of
them. Matter of fact, the Septuagint
of this passage says be courageous.
And it is. It uses the same words.
And the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
It utilizes the same words that Jesus used in John chapter 16
when he says in his words you shall have tribulation but be of
good cheer. It's the same word that's used
in the Septuagint or the Greek version of this Hebrew Bible.
Be of good cheer, which means to be confident, to be certain, to
be courageous. So God is actually telling them
I want you to be courageous, but he tells them how to be, how to
actually move from fear into courage.
He says you shall not be afraid of them, but but you shall
remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all
Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw the signs and the
wonders, the mighty hand in the outstretched arm by which the
Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God, due
to all the people of whom you are afraid.
So God's strategy for Israel, he says, When you see the people of
the land, if you start to experience fear, what I want you
to do is I want you to remember. Zakar is the Hebrew term I want
you to call to mine, and and to remember can be a form of
meditation. I want you to call to mine.
Notice this all of the great trials which your eyes saw, the
signs and the wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched
arm by which the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
So they were to remember. They were to rehearse.
They were to relive in their minds through their memory all
of the great things they saw take place in Egypt.
The signs, the miracles, the tin plays, the crossing of the Red
Sea. They were to remember all of
that. Now think about this.
If they're remembering all of the great things that they saw
God do, what would that create within them?
It would create within them confidence.
It would create within them courage.
So here, God is not only just saying, remember, He's tapping
into the memory. He's tapping into a memory of
the past, the great things He's done for them in order to
stimulate the emotion of courage.
And as they're rehearsing this over and over, it's going to
create more and more confidence, more and more courage.
And so that he's using the past in order to encourage them and
strengthen their heart with courage in the present, so that
they can move forward and do what?
God. So they can move forward and do
the will of God. Because the will of God was for
them to go into the land. What kept them from going into
the land before fear? God did not want a repeat of
this. So he tells them, what I want
you to do is to call to mind the great things, all of the great
things I have done for you as you go back to the past, that
will stimulate courage in you in the present so that you can obey
my will. Which is part of what courage
is, obedience to a higher will. So he gave them a strategy.
You know who else used this strategy, David?
David did. Yes, he did.
If if you if you're in First Samuel chapter 17, when Goliath
comes out and he challenges the Israelites, everybody runs
right? And it's like, you know, Saul's
like who's going to fight him? Who's going to be my champion?
David, this young shepherd boy, says I'll fight him.
And Saul says you are not able to fight him.
He's been a man of war since his youth and you're but a youth,
meaning he's very experienced. David, you don't have any
experience at all. And what does David do?
He starts to remember. Yes, the.
Lion and the. Bear, the lion and the bear.
Let's go. He begins to remember what God
has done to him, the victory that God has given him.
And what does David say? It is very similar in structure
to what says here. God's told the people of Israel,
You saw what I did it to Egypt. That's what I'm going to do to
these people, David said. I overcame the lion and the
bear, and this Philistine will be as the lion and the bear.
Remember, we said that part of courage is the confidence that
you will succeed all of this. God is telling his people you
can trust in me. But he tells them how to not
just intellectualize it, like, well, you know, we should trust
God. He tells them, for lack of a
better way put in it, how to emotionalize it so that they're
bringing in feelings, they're bringing in emotions through
memory. They're remembering the great
things that they have done through the power of God.
They're remembering there's great things God has done on
their behalf. You know, one other group of
people that that did this, the people we read about in Hebrews
chapter 10. If you go back over to Hebrews
chapter 10, we actually see the strategy being employed again.
So back over in Hebrews chapter 10.
Now what was the situation? These people are undergoing
persecution. I just taught him this recently.
And I and I asked, I said, if you knew somebody who was
undergoing persecution or they're really going through a
difficult time, what would you tell them to do?
What? What practices would you
encourage them to engage in? And we get things like, well, I
would tell them to pray and that's good.
I would tell them to read their Bible.
That's good. I would tell them to maybe call
someone and that's good. But this is what the writer to
the people of the book, that the writer of the book of Hebrews,
this is what he tells these people who are undergoing
persecution to do. And we read this earlier, but
now we see it, he says. Verse 32.
Recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you
endured a great struggle with suffering, partly while you were
made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations,
partly while you became companions of those who were so
treated. You had compassion on me.
Now he's talking about the past. You had compassion on me in my
chains. You joyfully accepted the
plundering of your goods, knowing that you had a better
and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
Therefore, or because of this, do not castaway your confidence,
which has great reward for you have need of endurance, so that
after you've done the will of God, you may receive the
promise. So what does he tell them to do
now? I'm going to say something that
may sound a little bit controversial, but it's not.
Because again, this is, these are other strategies that God
has given to us as his people. But they're not told.
Pray. They're not told fast.
They're not told. Read your Bible.
More they're told. Recall the former days.
In other words, this word recall is the equivalent to the Hebrew
Zakar. He said, I want you to remember
how you were in the beginning. I want you to remember how you
stood strong. I want you to remember how you
stood by me. I want you to remember that even
though you went through difficult times, you endured,
they took away everything from you and you endured that gently,
joyfully call that back to mine. Why, It's the same principle.
What they remember, what they rehearsed, it was to stir up
within them the confidence. This is how they don't castaway
their confidence. This was actually a strategy
that was used in the ancient world.
Generals would do this with their soldiers if they were
getting ready to go into a battle.
One of the ways And and Doctor David Desilva in his book
Perseverance and Gratitude, which is a book that deals with
the book of Hebrews, he talks about this and he says how
generals would remind their soldiers of great battles that
they won and it was the purpose of stirring up within them
courage and confidence in order to face the present battle.
So what the writer of Hebrew does is remind them of the
earlier days. And as and as Doctor David
Desilva says, when it comes to persevering and moving and
keeping to move forward, this is a great strategy.
This is a great technique. So one of the ways that we can
encourage ourselves in the Lord, to borrow from First Samuel 30,
is by remembering times in our life when we've made it through.
And we had difficult times, but we stood.
We were enabled by God. He was there for us.
Or we can remember great things that God did for us in the past
when it looked like we were not going to make it when it or we
felt like we couldn't stand. And yet God empowered us.
God held us up and we kept going and we saw it through.
We were faithful and we were obedient.
We have to like David. We have to like the people of
Israel. We have to like the people here
in the book of Hebrews. We have to remember the great
things God has done. And as you do that, as people do
that you start to remember what God has done.
It helps to build the feeling of courage and confidence.
And so you're meditating on that.
You're you're feeling that. You rehearse it over and over.
I have a saying that whatever you give your mind and emotions
to, you would develop a mind and emotion for.
So whatever you consistently give your mind to, whatever you
consider, this is how you direct your mind towards the things of
God, how you direct your emotions.
You can call to mind great things God has done for you and
it helps you to be confident so you and courageous so you can
move forward and continue to do as well.
Yeah, that is so powerful. And hearing you say that, I'm,
I'm just thinking there's times recently where I literally had
the nudge to remember how God showed up for me in past
chapters of my life. And as you're saying, it is kind
of surreal. It's not like deja vu.
But I'm having a moment where I'm just like, man, of course
this is the episode I needed just as much as somebody else
out there who's gonna be listening to this.
They need it just as much it it it's so relevant right now.
And I love the fact that in this space on the Mustard Seed here,
you know we do cover diversity of different things.
It's not really a a narrow we only strict to you know some
strict sense to see things one way.
We we kind of dive into everything and I've been feeling
for a while you know we messaged each other back and forth a
couple times. I was trying to get you on
sooner than later, you know, the last couple months because I
felt it, you know, just the oppression out there in the
world and just trying to minister to people that, you
know, I I have to walk away and just look up and go, God, OK,
yes, you were there with me. I I remember and it's like
drawing. It's I love when you say call
those things back to mind, 'cause literally I'm thinking in
my head like, hey, confident scenario.
That happened back in 2019, right?
It's like a little bit of humor. But seriously, you really do
have to call these things back. And I love the way that you're
laying it out because there's more of a biblical premises for
it then I think many people know.
And then the actual implications of, you know what, When fear,
fear arises, it it's like this shocked state where you can't
actually make an intelligent decision, right?
So it's like you you, the whole thing with fear is the absence,
momentary absence of actually comforting yourself with that
confidence of look at the track record.
God, what? You know, I had a guy, he passed
away. His name is Carrie Williams.
I worked with him years and years ago.
But he would say Rod, think a one time when it didn't work
out, when God didn't actually bring it together for you.
He would say that to me, you know, 'cause I'm like really
early in the faith is like 8-9 years ago.
And I would, you know, kind of be borderline frantic and he
would just say simple things like that.
And I'd kind of be like yeah, you're right.
You know you're right. And now to just be maturing in
Christ and to to be learning this stuff and this this is the
foundation that we build on like a Berean.
We are studying and we're we're diving in daily with a readiness
of mind to prove and to believe that which is being set forth in
front of us that's in the word of God.
So I think that what you're doing is phenomenal.
It it's it's absolutely necessary.
And you know, I I don't want to switch gears with a little bit
of time that we have left, but I kind of want to maybe plant a
seed and leave a bit of a cliffhanger for a Part 2 that
we're going to be doing down the road.
And I know all of it fits together, but let's just kind of
do a little cliffhanger on. You know Doctor Michael Hyzer
used to talk a lot about understanding the Bible through
the ancient context. Right.
The narrative of of how it was written, who it was written to.
So just clean that up. It sounds messy when I say it,
but just give us an overview of what we have to look forward to
with understanding the Bible. Well, it's kind of like the
things we're talking about, like to remember and stuff.
I I learned that because my my area of study and focus and I
would say expertise is seeking to read the Bible in its
original historical and cultural context and even words are
conditioned by culture And so it is so important because what and
I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few days as
I've been hearing people say certain things about the Bible
and what people are called to do and husbands and wives are
called to do. And I'm going you know if you
don't read the Bible in its context in its original context
and understand it in its original context.
It's for the Old Testament. We're talking about the ancient
Near Eastern cultural context. For the New Testament, we're
talking about the Jewish context and the Greco ROM the 1st
century Greco Roman world context.
If you don't do that, you could end up missing what's actually
being communicated. So to give you a a quick point,
Jesus says if your I be single. Well actually let me say this
first. Well, I used to teach this in a
Bible school and I would talk about idioms and the need for
understanding culture. So one of the things I would do
is I would say, OK I'm going to say to you a phrase and you tell
me what it means and I would say you don't believe fat meats
greasy people who look at me and go what I go you don't believe
fat meat's greasy. They're like what does that
mean? I go, will you tell me what do
you think it means you don't believe fat meat's greasy and
and unless you now that is of idiom from African American
culture. From the black culture
specifically, really, if you were raised in the South or you
had family who was raised in the South, which I I have my
family's from Mississippi. For the most part.
If you don't, if, if you didn't hear that growing up and you
weren't part of that culture, you would have no idea what that
means. Now I know what it means because
of having grown up within black culture.
My grandmother would say it all the time.
She would say it to me and she never explained to me what it
meant. But by what she said the
situation in which she said it in the tone of voice, which she
said said it to me in I knew what it meant.
And so the phrase you don't believe fat meat is greasy is a
is an idiom that means you don't believe the truth when it's
staring you in the face. The reason why is because fat
meat, or meat that's fat has grease.
And so when you say you don't believe fat meat's greasy, it's
like you're not believing something that's true and
evident. OK, now when I explained to
people, they go, oh, I said, But if I had not told you that, you
never would have gotten it. You never, I said, you could
have looked at each of those words in the dictionary and it
never would have given you the meaning of the idiom because
it's not determined by each single word.
It's all of the words together that convey a meaning.
So in the same way, when we're looking at the Bible, there are
idioms, there are figures of speech, there are practices that
are going on that are part of the culture and the people in
the culture of that time period, they understood it readily.
Doctor John Walton, who's an expert in the Old Testament, he
often says the Bible. He often will say the Bible,
while being for us, was not originally written to us.
And I think that is so important.
The Bible was not originally written to us.
It was not originally written in English.
It was not originally written to 21st century Western Christians.
It is for us but it was not originally written to us.
So we have to go back and try to understand the culture.
So as I was getting ready to say earlier, Jesus said one time if
your eye be evil your whole body should be full of darkness.
But if your eye is good, your whole body should be full of
light. If you look up the word good,
like if your whole body, if your if your eye is good, your whole
body should be full of light. You look up the word good, it'll
say sound or healthy, OK. Or if your eye is sound or
healthy, your whole body should be full of light.
That still doesn't tell me what does it mean?
And I would. Growing up, I heard people teach
on that, and they I was taught that it meant you got to be
focused on your goals. A good eye means to be focused
on your goals. If you're going to set goals,
you got to be focused. Oh, OK.
But as I begin to learn history and culture, come to find out, a
good eye is actually an idiom. It is a Jewish idiom.
And it's an idiom actually, that's used in the Old
Testament, and it means to be generous.
An evil eye, depending on context, means to be stingy.
And if you go back and you read the context in Matthew chapter 6
of what Jesus is talking about, it fits the context because he
talks about giving, He talks about your treasure in heaven,
where's your treasure being stored?
And so Jesus saying, listen, if you are generous you should be
full of light, really shows your spirituality.
But if you are greedy and you hoard, you're filled with
darkness. Now if you look up those words
again in Greek or even in Hebrew, you won't get the
meaning of that from the Greek and the Hebrew.
You have to know the culture and how the culture utilizes those
terms. And it's that way with so many
things within scripture. Again, when we when we tend to
read the Bible, we tend to read it as if it was written directly
to us and our 21st century settings.
And it wasn't. It was originally written to
people in an ancient or Eastern setting, the Old Testament.
It was originally written to people in a 1st century Greco,
Roman and Jewish setting, the New Testament.
So we have to be able to understand that culture and
immerse ourselves, and that takes time.
It takes study. We have to really study.
But then when you start to understand more of the culture,
the things that you read that those people would have taken
for granted because they they were part of the culture, it
starts to make much more sense. You know, like so for me,
growing up hearing you don't believe fat me's greasy, I
understood immediately. Now when I said to you first,
you know Rod, you don't believe fat me's greasy.
Your your mind probably went huh?
I thought it was like a like a version of an honest Abe, like a
guy who's always right. And it's like, you don't believe
that meets Greasy. Like his name was like, that's
me greasy. Seriously.
That was my first. Thought I'm like, I really have
no other idea what's going on here.
My imagination led to that, so. So it's so little things like
that, but but you know what? What you just said, that's what
we do when we're reading the biblical text.
We will read it and we will kept our meaning onto this if we
don't know the culture and so then we will derive out of the
text something that the text never said.
Yes. And that's why we're to study to
show ourselves well approved, right, with gearing trembling
and you know, there's a lot of study it does.
But that means being a disciple, being a Berean as you said
earlier. Yes, and and it's lifestyle
then. So you know, there's a lot of
people that are playing well. It's kind of like, in a weird
way from what I see now, this isn't across the board.
This isn't subjected to everybody's perspective.
But from what I see in the millennial generation, it's
becoming kind of trendy or cool to be a Christian because it's
like the new bad boy, right? It's like, oh, kind of going
against the grain. And it's like, you know, you
have all these kind of borderline bold and some of them
really genuine and honest whistleblowers who are out there
calling it like they see it, right?
Because right now our culture is saying what is good is wrong and
what is wrong is good, right? We're seeing the flip flop.
We're seeing this kind of stuff, so people really have a lot of
the times, a good mode of a good heart.
They want to honor and serve God.
But I think what we're doing here tonight, this is for all of
us and and this is a lifestyle. This is not just, oh, it's kind
of cute and cool now to become a Christian rapper because
Christian rap is actually becoming something that the
world is taking notice to when five years ago, nobody wanted to
be a Christian rapper. I use that as the idea that, you
know, what really makes the difference is when we hear the
voice. You know, when when Jesus is our
shepherd and we're the flock, we don't hear another's voice.
And I think that the way that I've been living, you know,
Mike, I really look at it and I go, I have not knowingly but
intentionally at the same time ignored things that I knew
didn't settle and resonate with the deepest part of me.
I would observe and I'd go that's not there's something off
and it wasn't like that guy's a Sinner.
I don't believe his preaching. No, it was just it was like this
caution of like something's off. I I can't.
I can't go there. Something's not right.
I don't get the green light. I don't care if 150 of you stand
up and say the light's green. Go if I don't get that like if
it doesn't stir up deep and become something that the the
river of living water can can surfboard on, right.
These ideas can't actually boogie board on what's flowing.
I didn't really want to participate, so I spent a lot of
time biting my tongue, sitting back and watching.
And now I'm starting to understand that God has me in
this peculiar situation, you know, with people that are
literally taking this journey with me.
That's the premises of the show. Mike is in this day and age with
a million messages and signals causing confusion and chaos.
Let's take a journey together. Let's talk about this ultimate
truth. So what you have already laid
down tonight for this Part one, I am super excited to have you
back in the near future for a Part 2 and to to learn this
together. Like, it's not about who's
right. And it's not about arguing.
It's it's about we love the word of God and we want to put on the
mind of Christ. We want to lay aside
denominational preferences. I'm not saying, you know,
exalting A denomination or or saying don't be a part of one.
I'm not. I don't want to beat up on the
church, man. I'm a we're the bride.
I'm a part of the bride and I think that this is the perfect
opportunity for us to show ourselves, you know, stewards of
of of our time, of your talent, of your passion and we by diving
in this together. Not only are you helping me by
doing this tonight, but but you're helping tons of people
out there listening. So just a lot of respect and
just I appreciate your time. Well, I appreciate you giving me
the, just giving me a platform to be able to share these things
that I this is like I said earlier, is a passion of mine to
share these things, this information, the tools with
people. And like you said, there's a lot
of anxiety out there. Now since the pandemic, it's
been studies that have been done, anxiety and fear has
risen. We're seeing more fear,
especially in our younger generation, Gen.
Z's, millennials. There is a lot of fear and
anxiety and a lack of hope about the future.
So I think as believers, if we can bring the truth of God and
also bring the wisdom of how do you apply this, we can be a
force for good to help people. Couldn't have said it any better
and just plug in where you can be found real quick.
One, they can actually e-mail me at MLD.
Mike M as in Mike. L as in Lion D as in Dog MLD and
the word training at msn.com. They can e-mail me.
They can also find me on Facebook.
Mike Davis. I think it's Mike Davis slash
Facebook the coach. I think my wife set it up like
that. We are, we do have a website.
We're redoing it. So it's going to be a while
before it's up. But if they if they find me on
Facebook could you and I are friends on Facebook And so if
they can't find me directly, yes, I'd say just go look under
Rod's friends that you find Mike Davis and they can friend me.
I friend people and then they can direct message me.
I do respond to direct messages. That's one of the simplest ways
that most people have found. Well, once again it was an honor
and I am in high anticipation for a Part 2.
Looking. Forward to it.
That's it. That's the show you guys.
I'm going to ask you to share this with your friends, family
members, with your Co worker, share it with your doctor and
share it with your pastor coming to you from Southeastern
Pennsylvania. God bless and goodbye.
Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man.
I hide in this hand from the Reaper.
Now I don't hide who I am from the people.
Now. Ain't no slide in their hand.
Ain't no secrets. Now I'm saved.
Shooting me out the trap in the grave.
And they took me back on the strain.
Strain. Deeper now.
I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this hand from the
Reaper. Now I don't hide who I am from
the people. Now.
Ain't no slide in the hand. Ain't no secrets.
Now I'm saying Get Me Out the trap.
And the brave. They took me back when I
strayed. Take me now.
You can break me now. Let the move of your skin.
If you would shake me now. You're the beep from the tails.
Have to break me now from the streets and the stairs, trying
to take my crown. Your bird and the stand on it.
Put the tooth like my hand on it through the booth.
Put my fans on it. Whatever I do, I put your hand
on it without a flinch. He gave his life to the cause
with the scars on his wrist. You died in yourself.
Nothing harder than this. I got nothing left to give but
my heart as it is. Revelation the truth.
Ain't nothing vain on it. Deeper now.
I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this handful.
Deeper now. I don't hide who I am from the
people now. Ain't no slide in their hand.
Ain't no secrets now. I'm saved.
Take me up the trap and the grave.
They took me back from a strange train.
Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man.
I hide in this handful. Deeper now.