Speaker 1: What's up everybody? Welcome back to the podcast, So glad
Speaker 1: you're with me. The format of this what I do
Speaker 1: is I answer your questions. If you have anything about
Speaker 1: any subject, email podcast at drangersmith dot com. We'll put
Speaker 1: it in the cube and man, we'll arrange this and
Speaker 1: try to put together the best questions we canswer that
Speaker 1: I could answer them like we're just sitting in the
Speaker 1: cab of a truck or sitting around a campfire, and
Speaker 1: they really could be about any subject. Just ask that
Speaker 1: you keep it about a phone link long so that
Speaker 1: it doesn't get overwhelming. But what I want to do
Speaker 1: first is I want to answer a question that I
Speaker 1: got in person about a guy named Blake Mikoski. Blake
Speaker 1: is the founder of Tom's Shoes, and you might you
Speaker 1: might remember Tom's. It started two thousand and six ish
Speaker 1: mid two thousands, something like that, and ended up being
Speaker 1: wildly successful. He sold shoes, and he was inspired by
Speaker 1: going to Argentina and seeing all the kids there without shoes,
Speaker 1: and he decided to start a shoe company that when
Speaker 1: you bought a pair of shoes Tom's is the name
Speaker 1: of the shoes, he would donate one pair of shoes
Speaker 1: to children that didn't have any, and it took off.
Speaker 1: I mean, people loved to buy a product and knowing
Speaker 1: they were helping kids and they were putting shoes on kids.
Speaker 1: I mean, who wouldn't. It is and still is a
Speaker 1: great cause. As time goes on, Blake ends up having
Speaker 1: a lot of competition with a lot of other companies
Speaker 1: that bigger companies that try to push them out and
Speaker 1: are taking the idea and saying, hey, this is we
Speaker 1: could do this too, We could do philanthropy and give back,
Speaker 1: and people buy into that. Customers go, hey, I want
Speaker 1: my dollar to matter, and if I'm going to buy
Speaker 1: shoes anyway, I want it to matter. Well, a lot
Speaker 1: of other companies decided to compete. Some of them even
Speaker 1: came in and said, well, we'll give two pairs of
Speaker 1: shoes for everyone. You know. So through all this Blake
Speaker 1: uh making hundreds of millions of dollars on Tom's. He
Speaker 1: begins to struggle over time, and this is where the
Speaker 1: question came to me from a lady the other day
Speaker 1: who asked me thoughts on this. She talked about possibly
Speaker 1: sending her boyfriend, who was struggling a little bit with life.
Speaker 1: Evidently to this retreat that Blake put on, evidently, and
Speaker 1: the reason for this retreat is because Blake began to
Speaker 1: struggle and this is what I kind of want to
Speaker 1: think about today. He began to struggle with the idea
Speaker 1: of if I'm going and I'm doing I'm helping people out,
Speaker 1: and I'm helping all these kids, thousands and thousands of kids,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing good for all this all these worldly things,
Speaker 1: and I'm helping poverty. But I'm not feeling any better
Speaker 1: about myself. I'm not feeling fulfilled myself through all of
Speaker 1: this good stuff. I'm doing all this philanthropy. So what
Speaker 1: do you do? So he starts searching, like, well, maybe
Speaker 1: there's more to life than helping kids, because on the onset,
Speaker 1: you look at it and you gobdude, the goal of
Speaker 1: life is to help kids impoverished countries have shoes. And
Speaker 1: so if I could start a business and be a
Speaker 1: capitalist entrepreneur, live the American dream, make money, design cool apparel,
Speaker 1: and at the same time help kids around the world,
Speaker 1: that's my purpose in life, right, So then my purpose
Speaker 1: is fulfilled and my job and then this becomes my identity,
Speaker 1: and that's a really good identity. I get to live
Speaker 1: out this dream of helping kids and around the world.
Speaker 1: And then suddenly he realizes there's more to it. He
Speaker 1: feels empty, and so he feels unfulfilled, he feels he
Speaker 1: feels depressed, he feels like he doesn't have a purpose,
Speaker 1: which is very strange. And the reason it's strange is
Speaker 1: because you would expect that kind of story from a guy,
Speaker 1: a movie star or a big you know, pop such star,
Speaker 1: or or a professional athlete that's done at all and
Speaker 1: and feels like they still haven't done it, they haven't
Speaker 1: accomplished the purpose yet, And you don't expect to hear
Speaker 1: that kind of thing from someone that's actually trying to
Speaker 1: help out the world. So what do we do with this?
Speaker 1: What do we do with this? Well? I looked him
Speaker 1: up and I started to see what he's doing today
Speaker 1: and how he is fulfilling himself, and how he is
Speaker 1: this guy Blake, how he's trying to fix this whole problem,
Speaker 1: and this is how he's trying to fix it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pull up this video. I'm gonna screen record it
Speaker 1: so you could see what I'm what I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: Here you go, I'll shut up.
Speaker 2: Here, that's the path of that's the Hoffin process. That's
Speaker 2: you know iiO energetic therapy, and that is working with
Speaker 2: a plant like ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is no fun. I mean
Speaker 2: it can be euphoric in some moments that it can
Speaker 2: be a really really difficult teacher. And for me, it's
Speaker 2: had me really look hard to myself that I didn't
Speaker 2: really want to look at. I mean, one of them
Speaker 2: is is just you know, my need to be in control.
Speaker 2: I mean, just showed me this like the darkness and
Speaker 2: the shadow side of me thinking I'm helping people by
Speaker 2: trying to control them or I know what's better for them,
Speaker 2: whether it's my wife or my kids or my brother.
Speaker 2: This need to think that I know what is right
Speaker 2: for someone else, So I know that kind of incredible egotism.
Speaker 2: Ayahuasca's just like throwing it right in my face and
Speaker 2: then like you silly, silly man. Life is not to
Speaker 2: be controlled, just to be lived. And when you're constantly
Speaker 2: trying to control life, you don't give God or your
Speaker 2: spirit or whatever ayahuasca is bringing up in you the
Speaker 2: opportunity to actually give you what you really need. Because
Speaker 2: you're fighting and you're resisting it by trying to control
Speaker 2: it so much. That's the path of love.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what he's promoting now is essentially psychedelics. He's
Speaker 1: talking about ayahuasca here in this video, and he's going
Speaker 1: around and he's speaking to a lot of people. Briefly,
Speaker 1: I spent probably ten minutes this morning kind of researching
Speaker 1: what Blake is up to now. A guy that has
Speaker 1: lost his purpose and yet had a purpose that most
Speaker 1: people would think, most people in the world would think
Speaker 1: is really noble, and yet we learn that he's now
Speaker 1: depressed and looking and searching, so he turns to psychedelics.
Speaker 1: Ayahuasca is made famous through the Native Americans who used
Speaker 1: ayahuasca to get in connection with the Great Spirit. And
Speaker 1: so now he's experiencing these psychedelic trips and he's wanting
Speaker 1: to promote this so that it becomes legal. And there
Speaker 1: are several states I looked at up at one point.
Speaker 1: There are several states that are completely legal now with psychedelics,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of them that aren't psychedelics.
Speaker 1: Let me look this up real quick for serious serious
Speaker 1: reading me. Psychedelics legal in the US. Let's see what
Speaker 1: Let me just type in map, see what that does. Oh, perfect,
Speaker 1: this is exactly what I need. So, psychedelics are legal
Speaker 1: in of course, California, Oregon, excuse me, Washington, Oregon is
Speaker 1: legal for recreational use. California is completely decriminalized. In California,
Speaker 1: excuse me. Colorado is legal for recreational use. It looks
Speaker 1: like Missian and the up is decriminalized completely. Uh, New York,
Speaker 1: maybe a few others, all the ones that you would expect,
Speaker 1: except Michigan. That's kind of strange, right. So, so what
Speaker 1: Blake is doing is he's trying to push this, the
Speaker 1: legalization of this, because he's pushing for this for PTSD.
Speaker 1: He's pushing he's pushing for veterans that suffer with horrific experiences.
Speaker 1: And like he said in that video, it's not always
Speaker 1: easy to go through the psychedelic trip because it's digging
Speaker 1: up things. It's connecting you with God. It's definitely a
Speaker 1: lowercase G God that he's referring to, or great Spirit
Speaker 1: or spirit of yourself or whatever it might be, the universe.
Speaker 1: The karma. Psychedelics are connecting you with that, He's saying,
Speaker 1: So what do we do with this? As Christians? What
Speaker 1: do we what do we say to these things, Well,
Speaker 1: one go to the Bible. We always go to the
Speaker 1: Bible for any kind of questions like this, and we
Speaker 1: need to be prepared to have an answer or to
Speaker 1: have some kind of basic understanding. And really the purpose
Speaker 1: of this podcast in so many ways is not ever
Speaker 1: for me to just feed you the answers, but more
Speaker 1: so that we could learn how to think on our
Speaker 1: own and learn how to answer questions on our own.
Speaker 1: And so maybe my encouragement would be to just kind
Speaker 1: of model my thought process as I hear from this lady.
Speaker 1: She's talking about Blake Mycoski's I look him up. He's
Speaker 1: talking about psychedelics. He's a guy that is given back
Speaker 1: to the world for decades and yet still feels unfulfilled.
Speaker 1: What's missing here? He thinks it's psychedelics. So what is
Speaker 1: my process? As I'm kind of working through this, I
Speaker 1: go to the Bible. First. Peter five eight says be
Speaker 1: sober minded, be watchful your adversary. The devil prowls around
Speaker 1: like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. You'll see
Speaker 1: many times of the Bible it talks about the mind
Speaker 1: and the clarity of the mind, and so anything that
Speaker 1: goes against the clarity of the mind. And anything that
Speaker 1: dulls the mind, that smokes the mind, that numbs the mind,
Speaker 1: is something we have to stay away from because why
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says that the adversary, the devil, uses
Speaker 1: these numbed minds to make his attack so that he
Speaker 1: could devour. That's really scary stuff. The spiritual warfare is
Speaker 1: terrifying stuff. First, Thessalonians five to six says, then let
Speaker 1: us not sleep as others do, but let us keep
Speaker 1: awake and be sober. Be sober, be awake, clear mind,
Speaker 1: be awake, be sober. Don't go to sleep. This is
Speaker 1: obviously not talking about a physical sleep, but an awareness.
Speaker 1: Don't go unconscious spiritually, stay awake. Feed your feed your
Speaker 1: mind with clarity, take captive every thought. Understand the gospel
Speaker 1: that God, a holy God, is separated from people that
Speaker 1: have become rejecters of Him. And to that separation that
Speaker 1: we have caused through our own sin. All of us,
Speaker 1: none of us are good. None of us could go
Speaker 1: to Argentina enough times and give shoes to kids, but
Speaker 1: enough of us, all of us have created the separation
Speaker 1: individually between us and our God and God. Knowing that
Speaker 1: knowing that there was no hope to ever reconcile us
Speaker 1: or to bring us back to him, knowing that there
Speaker 1: was no hope for us to do this on our
Speaker 1: own sins his only son into the world. Jesus, who
Speaker 1: goes to the cross, dies the death that we deserve,
Speaker 1: takes the punishment on the cross of all the sin
Speaker 1: that we deserve from rejecting God, from being reject doors
Speaker 1: of God. Jesus comes to reconcile God's people back to himself.
Speaker 1: That's the gospel. So we look to that, we looked
Speaker 1: at the cross. We remember our depravity. We remember we
Speaker 1: can't be good enough. We remember that we can't buy
Speaker 1: enough shoes for kids, even though it's a great thing
Speaker 1: to love kids, and we should do that, but not
Speaker 1: because we're earning anything or trying to figure out an identity,
Speaker 1: but instead as an overflow for the fact that God
Speaker 1: loved us enough to sind his only son into the
Speaker 1: world so that whoever believes in him would not perish
Speaker 1: but have eternal life. The overflow from that kind of
Speaker 1: love then makes us go into the world and want
Speaker 1: to give shoes to kids, but not the other way around. Right.
Speaker 1: Galatians five nineteen says, now the works of the flesh
Speaker 1: are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, inimity, strife, jealousy,
Speaker 1: fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and
Speaker 1: things like these. I warn you, as I warn you before.
Speaker 1: Paul says that those who do such things will not
Speaker 1: inherit the Kingdom of God. That's interesting, right, I mean
Speaker 1: you could say that that term sorcery can refer to
Speaker 1: the use of drugs for magical or hallucinogenic purposes, which
Speaker 1: align very closely to psychedelics.
Speaker 2: On p.
Speaker 1: Four seven, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore,
Speaker 1: be self controlled and sober minded. For the sake of
Speaker 1: your prayers, Jesus says in Matthew six thirty three, seek
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek first the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
Speaker 1: will be added to you. We're encouraged to seek Him,
Speaker 1: not some other way to get to him. See, there's
Speaker 1: so many ideas that that psychedelics, for instance, allows us
Speaker 1: to channel God, or to channel the Great Spirit, or
Speaker 1: to bridge us from this world to His from earth
Speaker 1: to Heaven, from the present to the spirit world, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. And so psychedelics provides, as
Speaker 1: it said, is it's thought to provide that bridge. In fact,
Speaker 1: God says I made a bridge his name is Jesus,
Speaker 1: to fill the gap of separation between you and your sin,
Speaker 1: the separation that you cause, that your sin has caused.
Speaker 1: I made the bridge for that. And he is Jesus,
Speaker 1: the Son of God, came in the place of us
Speaker 1: and dies on the cross. Right. That's the gospel. So
Speaker 1: that the bridge to the spirit world or whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, is already built. We look to
Speaker 1: him with a clear mind. Romans twelve two. Do not
Speaker 1: be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
Speaker 1: renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern
Speaker 1: what is the will of God, what is good and
Speaker 1: acceptable and perfect. The transformation and renewal of the mind
Speaker 1: should come through God's word and the Holy Spirit, the
Speaker 1: acknowledgment of the Sun, and not through some kind of
Speaker 1: mind altering substance like a mushroom or a psychedelic in
Speaker 1: any way. We have to remember this. We have to
Speaker 1: remember that ayahuasca or whatever. Blake, what's his name, Mi
Speaker 1: Coskey is promoting here, and it's easy to see on
Speaker 1: the outside looking in and go, Yeah. The guy is
Speaker 1: searching for his identity, not knowing that he has made
Speaker 1: in the image of God in need of a savior
Speaker 1: that has been provided to him. Should he look to
Speaker 1: him and by faith, by then he would be saved.
Speaker 1: If he believed in the Son, he would be saved.
Speaker 1: He would his identity would be fulfilled. God would say
Speaker 1: to him, Jesus would say to him through the gospel,
Speaker 1: like I heard through my guilt with losing riv you
Speaker 1: hear through the gospel. You can't be good enough. You
Speaker 1: can't give enough enough shoes to kids in Argentina. You
Speaker 1: can't be a sufficient father on your own. I give
Speaker 1: you my identity. Through belief in Me, you are inheriting.
Speaker 1: You gain an inheritance of the Kingdom of God. You
Speaker 1: yourself become adopted as sons of the Kingdom, not from
Speaker 1: anything you do, but by faith through Me, from my
Speaker 1: divine right. So we look to Jesus as the substitute,
Speaker 1: and our identity flows from that. Our identity flows from Christ.
Speaker 1: How could you know anybody? How could anyone know themselves
Speaker 1: without knowing the one that made them, and that that
Speaker 1: would go for anything. How would you know? How would
Speaker 1: you possibly know anything without first knowing the maker of
Speaker 1: the thing. How would you understand your own heart or
Speaker 1: your own identity without knowing the maker of your heart?
Speaker 1: Who is your identity? You're a child of God, you
Speaker 1: were you were saved by grace through faith if you're
Speaker 1: a believer, so we look to him and then your
Speaker 1: purpose from then on ising glory to God, which may
Speaker 1: be bringing shoes to Argentina, Lord willing, or it might
Speaker 1: be faithfully working in whatever job you have. This podcast
Speaker 1: has brought to you, guys by better help you know.
Speaker 1: Amber and I benefited a lot from therapy. You might
Speaker 1: have read that in my book Like a River, and
Speaker 1: Amber and I could both say that as we went
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Speaker 1: really opened up with a therapist. It helped us a lot.
Speaker 1: It honestly did. And I could also say that it's
Speaker 1: also a little bit uncomfortable to pack up everything and
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Speaker 1: a hold of me, remember cameo dot com slash granger Smith,
Speaker 1: or download the cameo app and search for me Granger Smith.
Speaker 1: I could do a quick video message saying happy birthday,
Speaker 1: happy anniversary, congratulations, I'm sorry, whatever it might be. I
Speaker 1: record a video on my phone and send it straight
Speaker 1: to you saying whatever you need me to say to
Speaker 1: whoever you want me to send it to. Again, that
Speaker 1: is cameo cimeo dot com slash Ranger Smith, and I'll
Speaker 1: send you a message today. All right, let's answer some
Speaker 1: of these questions. If you have a question for me,
Speaker 1: email podcast at grangersmith dot com will put it in
Speaker 1: the queue here. Could be about any subject, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with Peyton. It says, good morning, Granger. My
Speaker 1: name is Peyton. I'm twenty years old and a college
Speaker 1: student studying accounting. Recently studying accounting. Recently, one of my
Speaker 1: best buddies from high school asked me to not only
Speaker 1: be in his wedding, but to officiate it. This is
Speaker 1: a huge ask of me because I want his wedding
Speaker 1: to be what he wants, and I'm a bit nervous
Speaker 1: about doing this part for him. I have been growing
Speaker 1: in my faith a lot in the last year and
Speaker 1: I think I could do the job. But is there
Speaker 1: any advice or wisdom you could lend to me? And
Speaker 1: how do I go about doing this the right way?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Peyton? All right, Peyton, thanks for the email.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great question and I have personally
Speaker 1: struggled with this, so I think it's probably good too
Speaker 1: to bring it up. I personally have officiated, probably not
Speaker 1: a lot. I'd say no most of the time, but
Speaker 1: I've probably officiate officiated six to ten weddings, and each
Speaker 1: time I've done it, I have said to myself, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do this anymore with increasing intensity. And
Speaker 1: the reason I've said that is not because it's not
Speaker 1: because I don't like to do it. It's not because
Speaker 1: it's not because I don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: It's not because I think I'm doing a bad job
Speaker 1: for the family. It's different. It's a spiritual thing, and
Speaker 1: I get a little bit and I get a little
Speaker 1: bit worried for this. This is the reason I believe,
Speaker 1: as we know, weddings are the most important decision that
Speaker 1: you could you will make in your life outside of
Speaker 1: Christ and picking your spouse and making the decision to
Speaker 1: love them, which is what marriage is really. It's it's
Speaker 1: making a decision to love someone through sickness and in health,
Speaker 1: through riches and poor So to to make that kind
Speaker 1: of decision should be celebrated and it should be supported
Speaker 1: and encouraged by your community. Now as Christians, we believe
Speaker 1: that the marriage is ordained by God, and it's an
Speaker 1: institution reflecting the covenant that God makes with his people.
Speaker 1: And so because of that kind of reflection of that covenant,
Speaker 1: which is essentially a promise, there should be marriage counseling
Speaker 1: that happens before it, and there should be there should
Speaker 1: be a wise counsel that walks with you after it.
Speaker 1: So I believe that the person officiating should be able
Speaker 1: to do all of those things the counsel before walking
Speaker 1: into the day of the actual exchanging of the vows,
Speaker 1: and then walking for years, perhaps decades after the wedding itself.
Speaker 1: Those are roles that I'm saying that should be in
Speaker 1: my mind fulfilled by the pastor of the local church,
Speaker 1: in the local body that you and this guy and
Speaker 1: his wife are members of. You coming in and kind
Speaker 1: of swooping in or me doing the same thing on
Speaker 1: the day of the wedding and saying all the right
Speaker 1: things and getting them to say their vows and telling
Speaker 1: who puts the ring on wet finger, and then telling
Speaker 1: them to kiss the bride. You doing that is such
Speaker 1: a tiny, tiny fraction of what it means to be
Speaker 1: married for them, and so even though it's an honor
Speaker 1: for him to ask you to officiate it, and you
Speaker 1: might think that you're making him happy by saying yes,
Speaker 1: I think it would be more encouraging and you would
Speaker 1: be a better friend to tell him no. This should
Speaker 1: go to the local pastor who holds the position of
Speaker 1: walking you and your wife and Lord Willing your future
Speaker 1: kids through life together. So you go to him, and
Speaker 1: he goes to you and says, I was there the day.
Speaker 1: I stood before you too, and I oversaw before God
Speaker 1: the vows that you said. And we were there, us
Speaker 1: three in counseling for months before the wedding, and we
Speaker 1: walked through this. So now that we've arrived at this
Speaker 1: problem that we're having, I want to tell you I
Speaker 1: was there, and I want to walk you through because
Speaker 1: I know you and I stood there. Right. That's something
Speaker 1: of the pastor gets to say, gets the privilege in
Speaker 1: the honor of saying because he's walked the path with you.
Speaker 1: So I think in a wedding, you choose someone who
Speaker 1: will be there for you decades Lord Willing after and
Speaker 1: a friend is not that. An Elvis impersonator is not that.
Speaker 1: And a washed up country singer is not that I
Speaker 1: want to. I think I feel strongly about that, and
Speaker 1: I think Peyton, it would take a lot of courage
Speaker 1: and you might risk offending him. But I think instead
Speaker 1: maybe the question would come up at that point, what
Speaker 1: if I don't have a pastor. I think it's a
Speaker 1: really good time to find one for a wedding. Yeah,
Speaker 1: finding the local church, finding the pastor, and if you
Speaker 1: go to a local church where the pastor doesn't have
Speaker 1: time to marry you, that's another story and probably an
Speaker 1: indication of a church that is not very healthy. Next
Speaker 1: question says it's comes from Ira. It says, Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Ira Massed. I live in Washington State.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the encouragement that you give through
Speaker 1: your podcast. The question I have is how to have
Speaker 1: a good Bible study. My wife and I recently started
Speaker 1: one in our living room, and I've never attempted anything
Speaker 1: like this before, so I'm a little bit nervous, and
Speaker 1: I know that you have a lot of experience in
Speaker 1: public events, in public speaking. There are three things I
Speaker 1: could think of that I would like advice on how
Speaker 1: to avoid. Number one, I don't want to create a
Speaker 1: cliche where new people avoid joining if interested. Number two,
Speaker 1: I don't want to have a gossip center. Number three,
Speaker 1: I want to avoid creating a Bible thumping crowd where
Speaker 1: discussions are geared towards us being the only right people.
Speaker 1: Three things I want to advice on how to achieve
Speaker 1: is number one, where we just studied the Bible for
Speaker 1: what it is and what it says. Number two, I
Speaker 1: want to I would like to have a good Christian
Speaker 1: and family atmosphere. Okay. Number three, I'd like to have
Speaker 1: the gospel preached to where if someone comes once or
Speaker 1: many times, they would hear it. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for advice. To look forward to hearing from you soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks Ira. I'm trying to follow this, Arah, and I'm
Speaker 1: encouraged by your willingness to do all this stuff. You
Speaker 1: are asking for advice, and you're very specific in your question.
Speaker 1: I'll give you that three things that you want to
Speaker 1: avoid and three things you want to achieve in a
Speaker 1: Bible study with your wife in your living room. So
Speaker 1: I think the way to kind of avoid these three
Speaker 1: things and the way to achieve your three things would
Speaker 1: be kind of the same answer, and that is probably
Speaker 1: there might be a misunderstanding on what a Bible study is,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not. As crazy as it might sound,
Speaker 1: a Bible study essentially means study the Bible. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting that that really has been lost. It seems so simple.
Speaker 1: What's a Bible study. It's a study of the Bible.
Speaker 1: And instead, what I think we see is groups get
Speaker 1: together and they instead study how to navigate life life.
Speaker 1: And what I mean is you say, hey, we're having
Speaker 1: a Bible study. What's it on And you say, well,
Speaker 1: it's on marriage, or it's on parenting, or it's on grief,
Speaker 1: or it's on managing money. And they say, great, I'm in.
Speaker 1: But you called it a Bible study because none of
Speaker 1: those things should matter. Instead, it's studying the Bible. Otherwise
Speaker 1: you'd say, hey, we're having a Christian get together to
Speaker 1: discuss managing money. And that's fine and that's encouraging, but
Speaker 1: that's not a Bible study. The Bible study, in its
Speaker 1: essence would be you pick up the Bible and you say,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a Bible study on the Book of Romans,
Speaker 1: or on Galatians, or on First Corinthians, or on the
Speaker 1: Four Gospels, or on the Book of Ruth, or on
Speaker 1: Genesis or on half of Revelation. It doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: But as long as the Bible is the study, then
Speaker 1: you would rightly call it a Bible study. So I
Speaker 1: would encourage you, Ira, to let's start with, you know,
Speaker 1: something basic like Romans, and say we're going to do
Speaker 1: a Bible study on Romans. And what do you do
Speaker 1: with that? You literally walk through Romans every week. So
Speaker 1: you meet, say Mondays in your living room and you go, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: welcome everybody to the Bible Study. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1: If you're new, We've got some you know, some food,
Speaker 1: We've got a few drinks, We've got you know, whatever
Speaker 1: you want. And we are reading, in case you didn't
Speaker 1: know it, reading through the Bible, because this is a
Speaker 1: Bible study, and we're going to walk through the Book
Speaker 1: of Romans. And we're going to start with guess what
Speaker 1: Romans won. That's where you start. And we're gonna today,
Speaker 1: on this Monday, we're just going to talk about either
Speaker 1: you could say, Ira, chapter one, or the first five verses,
Speaker 1: or the first ten verses, or the first two chapters.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter. You can make it nice and
Speaker 1: round and neat and just say today we're going to
Speaker 1: study chapter one, and next Monday, if you come back,
Speaker 1: we're going to study chapter two. And so the gospel
Speaker 1: that you want is going to be in there and
Speaker 1: you'll be able to discuss that. And as you walk
Speaker 1: through chapter one, you read it, you study it line
Speaker 1: by line, you think about it. You have an exegesis
Speaker 1: which you're reading into. You're taking out, excuse me, the
Speaker 1: implications of what's inside the text, meaning who wrote it,
Speaker 1: why he wrote it, where he was when he wrote it,
Speaker 1: about the time he wrote it, to whom he was
Speaker 1: writing it to. These are all things that you talk
Speaker 1: about and discuss as you're walking through Romans chapter one.
Speaker 1: And at the end you don't have to spend much
Speaker 1: of it, could be fifteen minutes of that, and then
Speaker 1: you start talking about from there, what are the applications
Speaker 1: that we could take away in this study from reading this,
Speaker 1: What could we learn. Let's go around the room, who
Speaker 1: has some thoughts about this, who has some thoughts about
Speaker 1: what we can take from what Paul said in the
Speaker 1: first chapter of Romans. And then you could pray specifically
Speaker 1: for that. Let's pray with the first chapter of Romans
Speaker 1: for our own lives. You can't go wrong doing this,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna fix all the all of these problems
Speaker 1: once you get the Romans too, You're not gonna have
Speaker 1: a problem with your gossip center or your Bible thumping
Speaker 1: crowd where you're geared at, you know, gossiping towards other people.
Speaker 1: All these things are just gonna go away. But it's
Speaker 1: a lot easier than you think. I would encourage against
Speaker 1: instead doing the Let's help us be better people. Let's
Speaker 1: know more about ourselves. Let's know more about our marriage,
Speaker 1: our money, our grief, our happiness, our success. Instead, let's
Speaker 1: look to the Bible and look to see who God is.
Speaker 1: And as we learn who he is, the overflow of
Speaker 1: that has massive implications on what we do with our
Speaker 1: money and our marriage, and our grief and our success
Speaker 1: and everything else comes flowing from our knowledge of God.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, Thank you. I next question, Ariana says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: this isn't a super deep question like some of the
Speaker 1: ones to receive, but it's important to me, so I
Speaker 1: thought i'd ask. My fiance and I are getting married
Speaker 1: in August, and we're both twenty one. He'll be twenty
Speaker 1: two by then, So in this day and age's standards,
Speaker 1: we're still pretty young to be getting married. My question is,
Speaker 1: how could we as young as a young Christian couple
Speaker 1: prepare for our marriage aside from taking pre premarital counseling
Speaker 1: which we are doing with our pastor. Good Additionally, what
Speaker 1: is some advice that you can give for having a
Speaker 1: Christ's centered marriage? Thank you so much, love the podcast.
Speaker 1: Ye ye, Well, this is great that it ties in
Speaker 1: with that first question or one of the first ones
Speaker 1: about the guy officiating the wedding, because automatically here you're
Speaker 1: setting yourself up in a much better way by doing
Speaker 1: this counseling with your pastor. And I hope that you're
Speaker 1: connected to a local church. And so if you're not
Speaker 1: connected to the local church with the pastor that's officiating,
Speaker 1: do that, pursue membership with that pastor and then walk
Speaker 1: with that pastor and the other pastors at that church
Speaker 1: and the other members of that church forward into your
Speaker 1: future with this marriage, and have them encourage you, keep
Speaker 1: you accountable, keep you from drifting away from each other,
Speaker 1: from both each other and from God. And so the
Speaker 1: church body as you get involved and you serve them
Speaker 1: and you're encouraged by that you will hold each other
Speaker 1: accountable in a way that keeps the marriage so that
Speaker 1: you're not slipping into some kind of temptation or sin,
Speaker 1: or frustration or anger towards each other or distrust for
Speaker 1: each other. Instead, you hold you're held together by the
Speaker 1: unity of the community, which is a beautiful thing. As humans,
Speaker 1: we need community, So I would lean into that. Next
Speaker 1: question says from Jack. Says, dear Granger, I'm twenty one
Speaker 1: from Fairfield, Montana. I have actually met you a few times,
Speaker 1: and I've struggled with marijuana useed and yet I want
Speaker 1: to give my life to christ. I do not want
Speaker 1: to be a cultural Christian. I spend time in the
Speaker 1: Word and pray constantly, but seem to but can't seem
Speaker 1: to conquer this sin. I have cut back, but still
Speaker 1: continue to fall. I love your advice. Thank you, Yeah, Jack,
Speaker 1: Thanks for the question, buddy. This ties really good into
Speaker 1: the first segment that we did with with the Iowaston
Speaker 1: And it's interesting that you say it this way because
Speaker 1: marijuana is not addictive. It's not an addictive substance in itself,
Speaker 1: but what you're getting is you're getting the numbness that
Speaker 1: you're getting from it. Is the addicting part. Because there
Speaker 1: is something else in your life that is needing to
Speaker 1: be numb, then you want to live in the state
Speaker 1: of numbness, if that makes sense. So it's not the
Speaker 1: chemical addiction, it's the it's the addiction to the numbing itself,
Speaker 1: which is a thing. And this is something I would
Speaker 1: love to walk in person with you, because you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't tell me that you you can't tell me
Speaker 1: that you want to really quit this and then tell
Speaker 1: me that you can't seem to conquer it, because I
Speaker 1: would say, I wonder, I wonder why you can't conquer
Speaker 1: because you have to go and buy it, you have
Speaker 1: to store it in your house, you have to use
Speaker 1: it in whatever way you're using it in Montana, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's an edible or you're smoking it
Speaker 1: or you're vaping it, and I don't know, but you
Speaker 1: have to go through a lot of trouble to actually
Speaker 1: do it. And so the first thing with getting rid
Speaker 1: of a habit is getting it out of your sight,
Speaker 1: restricting the availability of it. So get rid of it,
Speaker 1: get out of your house, don't be around other people
Speaker 1: that do it, which is probably what's going on here.
Speaker 1: If you are struggling with a bad habit, then one
Speaker 1: of the things you need to do immediately is disunit yourself.
Speaker 1: Is that even a word, is to pull yourself away
Speaker 1: from the group that's doing it, because this peer pressure
Speaker 1: is nearly impossible to beat. If you're hanging around people
Speaker 1: every day that do it, if they're doing it at work,
Speaker 1: you're going to need a new job. If all of
Speaker 1: your friends are doing it, you're gonna need new friends.
Speaker 1: That's just there's another way to say it lightly. You're
Speaker 1: gonna need new friends. You're gonna need new people. You're
Speaker 1: gonna need a new crew, a new community around you.
Speaker 1: If you really want this to happen, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: rid of it out of your house. You're going to
Speaker 1: start hanging around people that keep you accountable, that say, hey, Jack,
Speaker 1: stay away, man. I see your eyes, I see your
Speaker 1: glazed over. See what's going on. And I already talked
Speaker 1: about all this stuff with psychedelics at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the podcast, So I've already told you kind of the
Speaker 1: reasons you shouldn't. But if you don't want to be
Speaker 1: a cultural Christian, it starts here, and it starts with
Speaker 1: the gospel that I've already said a couple of times
Speaker 1: on this podcast. But if you if you trust that
Speaker 1: Jesus became the substitute for your sin to reconcile you
Speaker 1: back to God, if you trust that He did that,
Speaker 1: then it takes so much pressure off of you trying
Speaker 1: to be good enough because you're not. Jesus says, you're
Speaker 1: not trust in him. And the overflow of that, that
Speaker 1: that effect of that knowing that you're loved UH will
Speaker 1: then overflow into into all of these problems and these addictions,
Speaker 1: and you'll you'll hate You'll begin to hate them enough
Speaker 1: that you'll put it down and you'll hang out, hang
Speaker 1: around with people to keep you accountable, including the local church.
Speaker 1: Next question, it comes from Christina and says, Hey, Grangeer Leila,
Speaker 1: I've been struggling with whether or not whether or not
Speaker 1: enforcing my personal boundaries honors God and the plans he
Speaker 1: has from my life. I've learned a lot about forgiveness
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, and I've been able
Speaker 1: to heal from a lot of past hurts. But I've
Speaker 1: chosen to maintain a boundary of no contact with my
Speaker 1: in laws in spite of forgiving them for things that
Speaker 1: happened in the past. My boundary keeps myself and my
Speaker 1: children safe from the threat of them repeating past behaviors
Speaker 1: that they refuse to acknowledge or apologize for, and I
Speaker 1: have felt justified in doing so up until recently when
Speaker 1: I started wondering what God would want me to do.
Speaker 1: I know he calls us to forgive seventy times seven,
Speaker 1: and that He forgave and forgives all of those who
Speaker 1: have hurt him. That's an interesting way to say it.
Speaker 1: Can I still live a life that honors God while
Speaker 1: holding onto personal boundaries that keep people, that keep people
Speaker 1: from me and my children's lives. I think that's what
Speaker 1: you meant to say. Thanks for your insight and your advice, Christina.
Speaker 1: There is a difference, and we say that. I've said
Speaker 1: this a lot on this podcast because I think it's important,
Speaker 1: and I'll keep saying it forever if that's what it takes.
Speaker 1: But there is a difference between forgiveness and trust, and
Speaker 1: you don't trust these people, especially if you don't trust
Speaker 1: these people around your children, then you do all you
Speaker 1: can to protect you and your children. And that has
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to do with forgive. If you don't trust somebody,
Speaker 1: you need to know that trust is earned. Forgiveness is
Speaker 1: freely given. We love and we forgive seventy times seven.
Speaker 1: But that has nothing to do with saying. And so
Speaker 1: then I invite you back into my life, and I
Speaker 1: invite you to bring your toxicity back into me and
Speaker 1: my family and my kids and corrupt us from the
Speaker 1: inside out. I invite you to do that because that's
Speaker 1: what I'm called to do. I'm called to forgive, and
Speaker 1: that is those two things are not related at all.
Speaker 1: You need to be responsible as a mother, and that
Speaker 1: responsibility includes protecting your children against the toxicity of other
Speaker 1: people and family members. And you're also called as a
Speaker 1: Christian to forgive, and so you forgive them and you
Speaker 1: create boundaries. And it doesn't have to be a problem
Speaker 1: with both of those things. Those two things don't have
Speaker 1: to be at odds with each other. So what God
Speaker 1: wants you to do is keep your children safe and
Speaker 1: love others as you love yourself, and forgive. And I
Speaker 1: believe you could. You could accomplish all of those things
Speaker 1: at the same time. And I don't think. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a problem. And then and then At the
Speaker 1: same time, since I don't know your story, I also
Speaker 1: have to be careful as I'm talking to you that
Speaker 1: maybe there's a grudge that's unnecessary here. And if we're
Speaker 1: talking about physical safety or you know, abuse of any kind, great,
Speaker 1: then separate, create boundaries. But if you're just talking about
Speaker 1: a grudge, like they they want to take my kids
Speaker 1: to do this, and and I want to take my
Speaker 1: kids to do this, and they don't believe that they
Speaker 1: should be they should play soccer. They believe they should
Speaker 1: play baseball, and I love soccer and I don't like baseball.
Speaker 1: If it's something trivial like that, then this is a
Speaker 1: different conversation. That's a weird grudge, and you gotta let
Speaker 1: it go, and you gotta you gotta love them, and
Speaker 1: you gotta love them as you love yourself and bring
Speaker 1: them into the family. But I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: what you're talking about or not. But if it has
Speaker 1: anything to do with safety or these kind of threats
Speaker 1: that you're saying, then no, this has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with forgiveness. Okay, So I hope that there's a distinction
Speaker 1: made between trusting someone and forgiving someone. And I still
Speaker 1: think It's a great question and I'm glad you asked it. Y'all.
Speaker 1: That's all the time we have today, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: the vulnerability in these questions and I want to encourage
Speaker 1: you guys to keep on sending them. Podcast at grangersmith
Speaker 1: dot com. It's my email and Levy. We'll see you
Speaker 1: guys next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me
Speaker 1: out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube,
Speaker 1: subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and
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