Speaker 1: Does it make me selfish for wanting him back down
Speaker 1: here with us. What's up, guys, Welcome back to the podcast,
Speaker 1: episode two hundred and one, and thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: I've got a I'm actually sitting almost exactly in the
Speaker 1: same spot that I have been sitting for about one
Speaker 1: hundred episodes or more, but I'm turned a little bit.
Speaker 1: So if you're watching this on YouTube or other apps
Speaker 1: that allows you to watch the podcast, I've been messing
Speaker 1: around today with a different setup. I'm like, ah, you
Speaker 1: know what, two hundred plus episodes, Maybe I'll change the
Speaker 1: setting around a little bit. Maybe I'll change the scenery
Speaker 1: around just a little bit. So comment below, especially if
Speaker 1: you're on YouTube. Comment below, say I like the new setup,
Speaker 1: or come on, man, I missed the old setup, which
Speaker 1: is literally just turning everything this direction. The wall on
Speaker 1: my left is usually straight behind me. Awesome. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So trying some new things, trying to change it up
Speaker 1: a little bit, and I like it. I'm actually comfortable.
Speaker 1: I'm in a more comfortable chair, So that's good. What
Speaker 1: I do on this podcast. If you're new here is
Speaker 1: I answer your questions. You email me Granger Smith Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. And I answered them. Now, lately,
Speaker 1: I've been talking about my book Like a River, which
Speaker 1: came out on August first, and just been so encouraged
Speaker 1: by so many people getting that book and either listening
Speaker 1: to the audiobook or are reading on Kendle or the
Speaker 1: hardcover itself, and so much so that we've had a
Speaker 1: supply chain issue for a second. We're back doing great again.
Speaker 1: Amazon's like on a two day delivery like normal. But
Speaker 1: for a while there was like a four day period
Speaker 1: where Amazon was out of books. So the publishers getting
Speaker 1: them books because they just they went out faster than
Speaker 1: people thought. Yeah, praise God for that, and praise God
Speaker 1: for so many listeners that are that are hungry for
Speaker 1: a book like that, a book that helps navigate grief
Speaker 1: and loss and suffering in a way where you know
Speaker 1: that there is there's hope, and there's joy, and there's
Speaker 1: peace and there's rest and there's purpose on the other
Speaker 1: side of that kind of pain. So I say that
Speaker 1: to introduce a different kind of questioning. We're still the
Speaker 1: same old podcast, but I'm almost encouraging questions from the
Speaker 1: book itself because I think it's it's only appropriate that
Speaker 1: if anyone reads the book and they think, oh, I've
Speaker 1: got I've got a question about that, Or there's something
Speaker 1: he said in there, there's a certain line he said,
Speaker 1: or or how does he know that's biblical? Like he
Speaker 1: said that, but how does he know that's right? Or
Speaker 1: is that just his opinion. If you want to ask
Speaker 1: those kind of questions, certainly that's great. Grangersmith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Or if you just want to ask
Speaker 1: a question about something else, like you know, a relationship
Speaker 1: or a work issue, I'm gonna answer it like I'm
Speaker 1: sitting in a comfy chair, sitting with you in the
Speaker 1: living room and we're just walking through something, you know,
Speaker 1: two buddies in the cab of a truck, two people
Speaker 1: sitting around a campfire, and you say, hey, may can
Speaker 1: I run something by you? Well, that's how we're gonna
Speaker 1: that's how we're gonna talk about it. So let's jump in.
Speaker 1: And the first question comes from Josh and the subject
Speaker 1: line says advice. The email says, Hello Granger. I'm Josh.
Speaker 1: Life has been rough this year. I lost my grandpa
Speaker 1: back in March, and the night of this funeral, I
Speaker 1: lost my uncle. Life hasn't been the same since I
Speaker 1: lost my grandpa. He was my rock, my go to
Speaker 1: person for everything, rather it be advice or just to talk.
Speaker 1: We talked about everything day. We talked every day about everything.
Speaker 1: Visited often. It seems like no matter what I do,
Speaker 1: I can't seem to get over the bump in the
Speaker 1: road to heal my losing him. I visit his gravesite often,
Speaker 1: as often as I can. I know he's up in
Speaker 1: heaven with my Grandma and my dad. Does it make
Speaker 1: me selfish for wanting him back down here with us?
Speaker 1: Any advice for me to help with this pain? Thanks
Speaker 1: in advance. PS. I went to your show in Clearfield.
Speaker 1: Was hands down the best concert I've ever been to.
Speaker 1: Been following you for ten years. Josh, thank you, buddy,
Speaker 1: and I'm so sorry about your grandpa. I didn't know
Speaker 1: your grandpa, but you did, and you loved him, so
Speaker 1: I say, I wish I could have known him. He
Speaker 1: sounds like a great man. And it's not lost on
Speaker 1: me that you also mentioned the fact that you've also
Speaker 1: lost your dad, so I'm imagining that this is the
Speaker 1: loss of your grandpa is also in a way stacked
Speaker 1: on top of the loss of your dad, probably leaving
Speaker 1: you as the head mail of your family, and if
Speaker 1: you're anything like me. When that happened to me, at
Speaker 1: being the oldest child and losing my dad in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: already had lost my grandpa, I felt like an overwhelming
Speaker 1: feeling of man, I didn't sign up for this, like
Speaker 1: I didn't. I wasn't ready to be the head man
Speaker 1: of the house, you know, I wasn't ready to beat
Speaker 1: the patriarch, if you want to use that term. That's Dad.
Speaker 1: He's still had a lot of time left in him.
Speaker 1: And sometimes these these positions, these roles in our life,
Speaker 1: are put on us when we don't feel qualified, and
Speaker 1: we don't certainly don't feel ready, but nonetheless, here it is.
Speaker 1: So what are you gonna do with it? This is
Speaker 1: the hand that you were dealt. You have said here
Speaker 1: that it's been within a year. I don't know the
Speaker 1: time frame. No, you said, yeah, there is a time frame.
Speaker 1: I lost my grandpa in March, then you lost your uncle,
Speaker 1: so that it's been this is a recent email. So
Speaker 1: this you know, it's been within the last four or
Speaker 1: five six months that you have realized I am I'm
Speaker 1: the head guy. Now. I want to tell you a
Speaker 1: couple of things. The first thing I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: first and foremost is whatever you're feeling right now, in
Speaker 1: this time, you're still in the ground zero period, as
Speaker 1: I call it. Whatever you're feeling right now is totally
Speaker 1: norm what's okay? So you're like, man, I feel guilty,
Speaker 1: I feel selfish, I feel sad, I feel I feel
Speaker 1: like indifferent about everything. Whatever you're feeling is okay. You
Speaker 1: have permission to feel whatever you want to feel because
Speaker 1: you're in ground zero right now. If this was six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight years down the road, I'd say, bro, we got
Speaker 1: to talk about some things. You talk about these feelings
Speaker 1: you're having right But that's not the case. This is
Speaker 1: still recent. What is that March, April, May, June, July, August.
Speaker 1: You're six months in Okay, you haven't gone through the
Speaker 1: round of all the first yet. Like you're going to
Speaker 1: have your first Thanksgiving coming up, that's a tough one.
Speaker 1: First Christmas, your grandpa's birthday, your dad's birthday, the day
Speaker 1: you lost him. That's a tough anniversary. So until you
Speaker 1: get through, really through all of those, then it's still
Speaker 1: not time to discuss the appropriate emotions that you're having
Speaker 1: in response to this kind of grief. Okay. So first
Speaker 1: I want to give you permission to say whatever you're
Speaker 1: feeling is okay, and that includes let's get specific here,
Speaker 1: that includes this feeling down here where you say, does
Speaker 1: it make me selfish for wanting him back down here
Speaker 1: with us? Okay? So you have permission to have a feeling,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna include selfishness in that. But let's unpack that.
Speaker 1: Let's unpack that I'm trying to see in here. If
Speaker 1: there's a reference to God, if there's a reference to
Speaker 1: your faith, there's not, I don't think besides heaven. You
Speaker 1: mentioned heaven. That doesn't do anything for me. No, you're
Speaker 1: just curious. That doesn't mean anything. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: get a baseline here. What I want to do is
Speaker 1: I want to talk about many times death in this situation,
Speaker 1: specifically death, It opens up a longing within us that
Speaker 1: we might not have recognized before. It gives us a
Speaker 1: certain kind of home sickness. Right, and you've kind of
Speaker 1: mentioned that with he's up there with Grandpa and grandma
Speaker 1: and Dad. Well, that gives you a sense that, well,
Speaker 1: I I'm not with my family anymore like Grandma, Uncle, Dad, Grandpa,
Speaker 1: They're all in another place and I'm here, So I
Speaker 1: feel disconnected from my family. And that, in a sense
Speaker 1: gives you a feeling of homesickness, right, And it gives
Speaker 1: you a yearning and a longing in a way that
Speaker 1: you might not have felt before. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: argue with with you that that's a good thing. It's
Speaker 1: a good thing that you have this, this longing for home.
Speaker 1: What does that do for you? Though? Like? Where does that?
Speaker 1: Where does that drive you to? Does that drive you
Speaker 1: to a feeling of resentment and stress and anxiety and
Speaker 1: you're gonna going to go off the deep end and
Speaker 1: get stuff out of your system and rebel against society?
Speaker 1: Is that where you're going? Or are you saying I
Speaker 1: have a longing for home, I have a longing for
Speaker 1: this in your case, here in this email heaven where
Speaker 1: I no longer feel at home. Here, I feel a
Speaker 1: longing like I don't. This isn't my forever home. It's
Speaker 1: what I would say in like a river of the book.
Speaker 1: And so would that drive you to be a rebel? No,
Speaker 1: it would drive you to learn more about your creator,
Speaker 1: to want to know who God is, as revealed in
Speaker 1: the Bible and the scriptures, because the more you get
Speaker 1: to know him, the more you get to know your Creator,
Speaker 1: the more comfortable you are with your forever home, and
Speaker 1: the more hope you have of being there with him,
Speaker 1: not with Grandpa and Dad, but with your Creator, the
Speaker 1: giver of the gift. Like your dad and your grandpa
Speaker 1: and your grandma and your uncle were gifts. Imagine being
Speaker 1: with eternally, spending time with in the presence of the
Speaker 1: giver of the gift. What I want this feeling, this
Speaker 1: selfish feeling to do. What I want this selfish feeling
Speaker 1: to eventually do is manifest itself into a hunger for
Speaker 1: forever home, a hunger to drive yourself in a way
Speaker 1: to appreciate what you have here in one sense, and
Speaker 1: learn who your Creator is in another, so that you
Speaker 1: can be connected with that feeling of this place, the
Speaker 1: place that you know you do finally belong, and death
Speaker 1: has the way of just uncovering that for us, and
Speaker 1: it's amazing. So, Josh, you're in ground zero. Use this.
Speaker 1: This is like this wind beneath your wings right, use
Speaker 1: this wind to drive you to towards God, as revealed
Speaker 1: in the Scriptures, As revealed in your local church and
Speaker 1: not against him, because if you go against him and
Speaker 1: you choose a different path of rebelling, you will feel
Speaker 1: further and further from Grandpa and Dad and uncle. I
Speaker 1: promise you, I promise you. Next question, subjectline says your
Speaker 1: dad's old truck. Hey Granger, I'm a huge fan and
Speaker 1: loving the book so far. Or I had a couple
Speaker 1: of cries today. I started reading this morning and I
Speaker 1: just can't put it down. Anyway, you talked about how
Speaker 1: you rolled your dad's truck over. Then you mentioned that
Speaker 1: the driver's door is missing. How did you do that?
Speaker 1: Love the show and all your wisdom. God bless Justin
Speaker 1: from Big Rapids Michigan. Never heard of Big Rapids. I've
Speaker 1: heard a Grand Rapids Michigan, but never heard a Big
Speaker 1: Rapids Michigan. That's interesting. Yeah, So for those of you
Speaker 1: that might know Earl Dibbles, this is in all the
Speaker 1: original Earl Dibbles music videos and the original Country Boy
Speaker 1: Part one, Earl Dibbles is driving this pickup truck that's
Speaker 1: missing a door and earle. You would think that Earl
Speaker 1: made it famous, but actually it was my dad. As
Speaker 1: I talked about in the book, like a river. It
Speaker 1: was my dad that would drive this one door truck
Speaker 1: with a rolled up you know, looked like a smash
Speaker 1: coke can roof on this truck. And he would drive
Speaker 1: it through town with no shame. That's just what he did,
Speaker 1: and so people recognized him like there's the one door
Speaker 1: truck guy, you know. And the truck itself wasn't pretty itself. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'll explain what happened. I rolled it over when I
Speaker 1: was probably eighteen seventeen something like that, maybe sixteen, somewhere
Speaker 1: around those three years. And I was ironically, I was
Speaker 1: at Earl Devil's house, the house that we filmed in
Speaker 1: front of, and we were cleaning that out. Tyler Parker
Speaker 1: and I and I went down there with the truck.
Speaker 1: We drove down there and it's a little bit on
Speaker 1: a little bit of an incline and the truck is
Speaker 1: a standard three in the tree and I put it
Speaker 1: in neutral, didn't put the emergency brake on because it
Speaker 1: wasn't moving, you know. I rolled up the house at
Speaker 1: the bray, got out of the truck. It wasn't moving.
Speaker 1: About thirty minutes later, a stiff breeze rolled in right
Speaker 1: and kicks in the back of that truck a little bit,
Speaker 1: just enough, just enough of an edge, and it starts
Speaker 1: moving that truck. By the time I looked out of
Speaker 1: the window of that old house, I saw the truck
Speaker 1: just inching along, just barely moving down this dirt road.
Speaker 1: I thought, whoops, ran out there. But by the time
Speaker 1: I ran out to the porch, it had picked up
Speaker 1: speed and it was going too fast for me to
Speaker 1: catch it. And it went right into the fence, the
Speaker 1: cattle fence, and that front left tire rolled up on
Speaker 1: that cattle panel and it was like a little ramp
Speaker 1: for it, and it just flipped it right on its top,
Speaker 1: like slow motion. To me, because I'm running behind it,
Speaker 1: I just see this truck flip and I thought, oh no,
Speaker 1: what My first thought is, I gotta call Dad. I
Speaker 1: don't want to call Dad, but I got to call him,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the first thought. And I remember walking out.
Speaker 1: You know. The first thing I did, of course, is
Speaker 1: Tyler and Parker and I put our hands on the
Speaker 1: side and try to try to possibly push it over.
Speaker 1: That didn't work. I saw oil coming out of the
Speaker 1: front grill, just dripping down. You know, trucks upside down, well,
Speaker 1: we see these these linemen driving by these they're going
Speaker 1: to fix it some kind of telephone pole. And they
Speaker 1: had a truck with a big winch on it. Right
Speaker 1: around this time. I go running out of there out
Speaker 1: to the county road and to flag them down. And
Speaker 1: then they stopped and they came over and and I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, man, I flipped this truck. And they're
Speaker 1: like you okay? Are you okay? Man? I was like,
Speaker 1: I wasn't in it. Long story, I wasn't in it.
Speaker 1: And they were like, yeah, we'll help you. So they
Speaker 1: pulled that truck over there and hooked up the cable
Speaker 1: to the bottom of it, and they said, man, this
Speaker 1: winch will turn it over, but we can't guarantee that
Speaker 1: by the time these wheels hit the ground it doesn't
Speaker 1: just break the axles. And we're like, yeah, well, it's
Speaker 1: too late for worrying about that now. So they hooked
Speaker 1: it up and just as slow as they could, they
Speaker 1: tilted that truck and just once it got to straight
Speaker 1: up ninety degrees, it just started falling and went bam,
Speaker 1: landed on all four tires, balanced a little bit blew
Speaker 1: out of shock, but I didn't care, and it actually Uh,
Speaker 1: it started right up. The engine started right up. So
Speaker 1: that was that. And then your question was you mentioned
Speaker 1: the doors driver's door is missing, So that around that
Speaker 1: same time, I had a little puppy in the back
Speaker 1: of my truck, a little dog, and that dog was
Speaker 1: in the bed of the truck when I was in
Speaker 1: the barn and I was pulling out of the barn,
Speaker 1: and I had the door open, the driver's side door open,
Speaker 1: and that dog was jumping up and down, and I thought, Dad,
Speaker 1: gumm it, I don't want this dog to jump out
Speaker 1: of the truck, and I'm gonna run over it, you know.
Speaker 1: So I've got my head turned around and I'm looking
Speaker 1: behind me as I'm backing out of the barn. Totally
Speaker 1: forgot that the door was open, and that door just
Speaker 1: just slowly bent into the barn, and I stopped real quick,
Speaker 1: realized what I did, pulled forward. But then after that
Speaker 1: the door the hinges were bent, and it was Anybody
Speaker 1: that's ever seen anything like that knows that once you
Speaker 1: bend those hinges it's near impossible to ever get it
Speaker 1: back to the original shape again. So the door never
Speaker 1: closed right. It always had a gap in it always
Speaker 1: had an air gap and water gap. So Dad just
Speaker 1: you know, he was mad at me, but he ended
Speaker 1: up just said, let's just take the door off. It'd
Speaker 1: be much better. Instead of having this rattley door, we
Speaker 1: might as well just take it off. So that's what
Speaker 1: we did, and that's why the truck had the beat
Speaker 1: up roof and the door missing. Take a break and
Speaker 1: be right back podcast is brought to you guys by
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Speaker 1: an intimate, in person, two day leadership conference held in Austin, Texas,
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Speaker 1: connect and community and experience transformation. As always, if you
Speaker 1: want to connect with me and get a personal video
Speaker 1: message from it, you can do that at cameo dot
Speaker 1: com slash Granger Smith. You could also download the cameo
Speaker 1: app and search for me Granger Smith. That's super easy
Speaker 1: to find me on there. Request a video. I'll say
Speaker 1: whatever you want me to say, Happy birthday, happy anniversary,
Speaker 1: maybe a word of encouragement to anyone, including yourself. It's
Speaker 1: a great gift last minute. If you don't know what
Speaker 1: to get someone, hit up cameo dot com slash Granger
Speaker 1: Smith and I will say whatever you need in the
Speaker 1: phone and send it right to you. All right back
Speaker 1: to the podcast in the new setup room. Let me
Speaker 1: know comment below if you if you're digging the new setup.
Speaker 1: It's hard because I produced this podcast by myself well,
Speaker 1: and I also film it and record it myself, and
Speaker 1: so it's I actually set up a stuffed animal in
Speaker 1: the chair whenever I'm getting ready to record, so I
Speaker 1: base my lighting and my focus and everything on a
Speaker 1: stuffed animal, so I never really know how how it
Speaker 1: looks until Paul gets a hold of it, edits it,
Speaker 1: puts it out. So hopefully this is good. Otherwise we'll
Speaker 1: make adjustments for next week. Email email me if you
Speaker 1: want me to answer a question for you. Grangersmith Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. We've been talking a lot lately
Speaker 1: about my book Like a River, and if you haven't
Speaker 1: gotten a copy yet, you can find it wherever you
Speaker 1: love to buy books, including Amazon, Barnes Andnoble dot com,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Nobles physically in the store Walmart Walmart dot com.
Speaker 1: I typically say, and I don't get any kickbacks or anything,
Speaker 1: but I think Amazon is super easy because you could
Speaker 1: order it and then it arrives in two days. A
Speaker 1: lot of people are listening to the audiobook, which is
Speaker 1: cool to me. I'm the one that read it. Yes,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people can get that knocked out
Speaker 1: while they're driving to work and commutes. A couple commutes
Speaker 1: and it's done. If you're a book person, you like
Speaker 1: the paper pages, you could do that too. Let's get
Speaker 1: to these emails Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. First
Speaker 1: question here on the second break subject, Cline says broken,
Speaker 1: hurt people period Like a River. Email says, Wow, Granger,
Speaker 1: your book was an amazing testimony. I binge read that
Speaker 1: book in just two short sittings. I could relate so
Speaker 1: much to the book. I've purchased five copies and I'm
Speaker 1: passing them out to people I know that are struggling
Speaker 1: and hungry for purpose. Honestly, I feel like I'm going
Speaker 1: to be buying more sooner than later. People are broken
Speaker 1: and looking for an answer. Just want to say thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for your podcast, social media and yeeee ambassadors.
Speaker 1: One person in particular, Lake Fulture shout out to her.
Speaker 1: Between your platform and hers, something has flipped a switch
Speaker 1: in my life. I want to help people give them
Speaker 1: hope through God's word. My question is this is the
Speaker 1: book you mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read.
Speaker 1: What software or apps did you use for that? Oh?
Speaker 1: Hang on? In the book in Like a River, you
Speaker 1: mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read. What
Speaker 1: software or apps did you use for that? Looking forward
Speaker 1: to seeing you preach in Columbus, Ohio. Okay, great, thank you, Drew.
Speaker 1: They came from Drew, and he's talking about in my
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in reading a Bible plan so
Speaker 1: that so that you could read the Bible in context
Speaker 1: and not necessarily in small quips from devotionals. I think
Speaker 1: devotionals are fine as a supplementary spiritual pick me up, right,
Speaker 1: but not to learn who God is, and not to
Speaker 1: nourish you and fill your soul for what you need
Speaker 1: in the scripture. Devotionals are not good for that. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me say that one more time. Devotionals are great.
Speaker 1: They're fantastic, and I would recommend you have one or
Speaker 1: two or three. I'd recommend you still give one to
Speaker 1: someone for Christmas that you like, Okay, but they are
Speaker 1: not for your They are if in terms of a meal,
Speaker 1: they are more like an appetizer or a dessert. But
Speaker 1: they should never be looked at as the main course
Speaker 1: of the meal. They are not where you get your nourishment,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Your nourishment's going to come from
Speaker 1: reading the Bible, the Scripture in context. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I advocate towards some kind of reading plan that
Speaker 1: gets you working in context. What does that mean That
Speaker 1: means you're not searching the Bible for one little line
Speaker 1: or for one section about one subject. Instead, you're reading
Speaker 1: the Bible as a whole so that you could learn
Speaker 1: who God is. And you're like Granger, you always say
Speaker 1: stuff like that, Well, it's fundamental, the scriptures, the Holy Bible.
Speaker 1: The reason we have that is not so that we
Speaker 1: could we could learn what job to take next. It
Speaker 1: is not so that we could learn which girl out
Speaker 1: of the three we should marry. Okay, that the Bible
Speaker 1: is in our possession so that we can instead learn
Speaker 1: who God is. Why is that important? Because when you
Speaker 1: learn who God is and you learn to love your career,
Speaker 1: then you desire to imitate him and instead of needing
Speaker 1: specific direction on specific things in life, instead, as you
Speaker 1: learn to imitate him, you learn what choices he would like,
Speaker 1: the choices he would make, the things he would love,
Speaker 1: and the things he would hate. You learn that through
Speaker 1: time with him, as you learn who He is in
Speaker 1: the Bible itself. So take, for instance, a few questions ago,
Speaker 1: we got a question about somebody that had lost their grandpa. Now,
Speaker 1: somebody that loves their grandpa that much like they do.
Speaker 1: In that question, I would assume that they know him
Speaker 1: very well because they have spent so much time with him, right,
Speaker 1: They have watched him, they've seen him interact with other people,
Speaker 1: they have had endless conversations with him, and they have
Speaker 1: soaked that in so much, so much so that when
Speaker 1: he's gone, when Grandpa's gone, you could then go to
Speaker 1: a restaurant look to mean you and go, I know
Speaker 1: what Grandpa would order. You could see a stranger on
Speaker 1: the street doing something and you go, I know what
Speaker 1: Grandpa would say to that stranger. You could be flipping
Speaker 1: through selections of things to watch on YouTube and you go,
Speaker 1: I know what Grandpa would think about this show. You
Speaker 1: can see a comedian and go, I know Grandpa would
Speaker 1: laugh at that or not. I know Grandpa wouldn't like
Speaker 1: that joke at all. That's what happens when you spend
Speaker 1: time with somebody. So that's the purpose of the Bible
Speaker 1: is you learn who God is, as revealed in sixty
Speaker 1: six books, in the entire narrative of the full cannon
Speaker 1: of the Bible itself. You learn who God is in
Speaker 1: the same way that a boy would learn as grandpa.
Speaker 1: So then you walk through life and you go, what
Speaker 1: job should I take, well, I know I know what
Speaker 1: God would think about this. What girl should I marry?
Speaker 1: I know what God would think about this relationship? I
Speaker 1: know what God would think about this. I know what
Speaker 1: God would want for me because I know oh him,
Speaker 1: and I want to imitate him. I want to make
Speaker 1: decisions like He would make. Right. So that's why I
Speaker 1: advocate for reading it in context. If you read little
Speaker 1: pieces and you cut them out and you take this example,
Speaker 1: this life thing here, in this life example here, then
Speaker 1: you're just you're you're taking specific instances and you're missing
Speaker 1: out on the point. Okay, So that was not your question.
Speaker 1: But your question is what do I use to read
Speaker 1: the Bible and to get my understanding of it through
Speaker 1: the translations? Right? So I use an app called Lagos
Speaker 1: l O g os and it is a fantastic app
Speaker 1: for you could read the Bible if you're if you're
Speaker 1: like you like the physical pages, great, absolutely, that's great.
Speaker 1: I read something called the McShane plan and that gets
Speaker 1: me through the New Testament twice, the Psalms twice in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament once through a year. In fact, London
Speaker 1: is doing it with me right now, and she's crushing it.
Speaker 1: And Amber's doing it with me, and my pastor Marshall
Speaker 1: at a Mais Church is doing it with me, and
Speaker 1: my mom is doing it with me. I believe Parker
Speaker 1: and Amy are doing it, and Tyler just started. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people in my immediate circle that
Speaker 1: are reading the McShane plan. You could switch translations. I'm
Speaker 1: an ESV reader, but I do my devotional reading, which
Speaker 1: means my reading plans. I change the translations every year.
Speaker 1: So I've done n IV ESV. Right now I'm doing
Speaker 1: the CSB, which is cool because on lagos you could
Speaker 1: just switch the translation and you might see things that
Speaker 1: you didn't see before. Certain things might stand out. Now
Speaker 1: with logos, you could This is not sponsored by the way.
Speaker 1: You could touch a word on the screen and it
Speaker 1: pulls up the Greek or Hebrew, and it pulls up
Speaker 1: the other translations. So I can go to translation comparison.
Speaker 1: That's a page. I swiped to that, and I could
Speaker 1: see the King James, I could see the NIV. I
Speaker 1: could see all of the other translations. Boom, right there,
Speaker 1: there's that verse and here's what the King James says.
Speaker 1: And I can compare that and go, oh, I actually
Speaker 1: understand it better now that now that I see the
Speaker 1: King James for instance. That's that's an example. There's endless
Speaker 1: commentaries and resources on the Logos app, so I love it.
Speaker 1: I love that, and I've been doing that for about
Speaker 1: three years now. So I hope that answers your question
Speaker 1: and let me know if you you want to go
Speaker 1: further on that next question. Subject CLIENTE says like a
Speaker 1: River and struggling to surrender. Hi. I'm Randy from Red Bluff, California.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty three and I have two little girls. One
Speaker 1: will be five at the end of August and the
Speaker 1: other two in November. My littlest always says cute baby
Speaker 1: when Maverick is on the screen. I love watching the
Speaker 1: Smiths and listening to your music. They love watching the
Speaker 1: Smiths and listening to your music with me. I read
Speaker 1: Like a River as soon as I finished, I went
Speaker 1: back and listened to the audiobook while ordering four more
Speaker 1: hard copies to share with family and friends. And I
Speaker 1: need them to hear your messages. I cannot even begin
Speaker 1: to describe how badly I needed to hear your messages myself.
Speaker 1: While I haven't suffered from losing a child, I have
Speaker 1: lost several close people in my life, some that went
Speaker 1: too soon and two that were sick for too long,
Speaker 1: So thank you for this book. My question for you
Speaker 1: is about surrender. I've had the sobbing, choke choked, whisper
Speaker 1: in a ball on the floor moments crying to Jesus
Speaker 1: asking what to do and to help me figure out
Speaker 1: what his purpose is for me. I've always felt so
Speaker 1: lost and like I've been meant for greater things by
Speaker 1: helping people in some way. But I have no idea how.
Speaker 1: I've told no one about these moments or that I
Speaker 1: feel this way because I have no plan to back
Speaker 1: those thoughts up. I have felt incredibly pulled this year
Speaker 1: to search for him and learn his word, But when
Speaker 1: I read the Bible, I walk away with so many
Speaker 1: questions and have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of
Speaker 1: it all. I am new to this. I wasn't raised religious,
Speaker 1: and my own husband and his family gave me grief
Speaker 1: for even buying a Bible, calling me a Bible thumper.
Speaker 1: I fell alone with whom I'm supposed to be supported
Speaker 1: most by in my search for his love. That's a
Speaker 1: capital age his love. How do you surrender when you've
Speaker 1: had those not rock bottom but current. Let me read it,
Speaker 1: how do you surrender when you've had those not rock
Speaker 1: bottom but current take you under moments only to surface
Speaker 1: for air filling, hungry to learn his love, yet confused
Speaker 1: and a lot more lost than before. Sorry for the
Speaker 1: link the email. Thanks so much for all you do
Speaker 1: in your family. Much love, God blessed Randy. All Right, Randy,
Speaker 1: A lot to unpack here. I want to start by saying,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the for reading like a
Speaker 1: River and getting the four other copies. And let's try
Speaker 1: to walk through your question, just super casual. Let's walk
Speaker 1: through what it means to surrender, what it means to
Speaker 1: be in these rock bottom moments that you say that
Speaker 1: you've been on. And you say, I've told no one
Speaker 1: about these moments you have now, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being vulnerable enough to do that. And
Speaker 1: then you say, when I read my Bible, I walk
Speaker 1: away with so many questions and have trouble with surrendering
Speaker 1: to the certainty of it all. That's that would be
Speaker 1: an apologetics issue. And you say I'm new to this.
Speaker 1: That's understandable. You weren't raised religious and you have a
Speaker 1: husband that's now given you grief for any of this. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that is a lot to unpack. But the answer,
Speaker 1: I think it's more simple than you might think, and
Speaker 1: it's very underrated and not talked about too often in
Speaker 1: our society today. It's probably the most obvious answer I
Speaker 1: can give you, and it's probably the least talked about
Speaker 1: these days, right, and that is the local church. What's
Speaker 1: missing from your email and what's missing from a lot
Speaker 1: of these questions from different people on this podcast is
Speaker 1: the purpose. The purpose of a local church, the way
Speaker 1: that it's supposed to function, which is absolutely biblical. Gathering
Speaker 1: together on the Lord's Day on Sunday mornings with fellow
Speaker 1: believers is absolutely a command by Jesus. It's absolutely a
Speaker 1: New Testament, Old Testament. It's this is a complete canon
Speaker 1: Bible command. Okay. So avoiding the local church, not being
Speaker 1: plugged into a local church, or casually attending occasionally a
Speaker 1: church that's not as healthy. Maybe it's just a massive seeker,
Speaker 1: sensitive lights going crazy, big band playing. No one really
Speaker 1: knows anybody personally. You certainly don't know the pastor because
Speaker 1: there's so many people, there's no way you could ever
Speaker 1: get close enough to have a conversation with him. If
Speaker 1: any of those reasons are you, then you are missing
Speaker 1: probably your biggest tool, your biggest asset, your biggest support
Speaker 1: system within your new walk as a Christian. And I
Speaker 1: am not underestimating what I just said. It is that
Speaker 1: important finding a local church with a appropriate amount of elders.
Speaker 1: That's another word for pastors to match the appropriate amount
Speaker 1: of people that show up on a Sunday so that
Speaker 1: the sheep, which is what we are as a congregation,
Speaker 1: can be shepherded appropriately. You can't have too many sheep
Speaker 1: for one shepherd, otherwise he can't possibly know where they
Speaker 1: all are and how they're all doing. There is no
Speaker 1: fence big enough for that, So you need some more shepherds.
Speaker 1: The bigger your church gets, the more shepherds you're going
Speaker 1: to need to make sure that you have an adequate
Speaker 1: over the flock in a way that you could answer questions,
Speaker 1: you could walk through life struggles. The church should function
Speaker 1: in a way where you say, man, I'm having trouble
Speaker 1: with my husband right now. He is an unbeliever. He's
Speaker 1: actually calling me a Bible thumper, and I really just
Speaker 1: want to know more about the Bible in fact, and
Speaker 1: what you ask me. I read the Bible and then
Speaker 1: I walk away from it with more questions. Well, it's
Speaker 1: great that you email this podcast for that, and I
Speaker 1: certainly could give you my best advice. But I'm only
Speaker 1: here on random times that I find your email in
Speaker 1: my random inbox out of many emails. That is not
Speaker 1: an adequate source for you to be fed and nourished
Speaker 1: and shepherded and taught and rebuked occasionally and encouraged. I'm
Speaker 1: not that for you. But a local church is that.
Speaker 1: That is the reason they function. So you getting plugged
Speaker 1: into a local church where you you find like minded
Speaker 1: people with you, and you could express your concerns. You
Speaker 1: could express your problems. You could be vulnerable. You could say, look,
Speaker 1: I'm having trouble understanding this, and someone goes, can you
Speaker 1: meet for coffee? And we could what are you talk?
Speaker 1: We have in trouble with Isaiah the Book of Isaiah?
Speaker 1: You don't understand it? Are you cool for coffee on Wednesday?
Speaker 1: And we could walk through whatever you're talking about. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe we could talk about it together. And you're like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: here's another thing. This is what's crazy. You said, I
Speaker 1: have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of it all.
Speaker 1: Totally understandable. I mean, that's that's doubt. I mean, doubt
Speaker 1: is biblical. Thomas had doubt, Peter had doubt, that the
Speaker 1: disciples themselves had doubt. So it's not surprising for you
Speaker 1: to say it. And it does not mean that you're,
Speaker 1: you know, in some way in trouble, okay, because the
Speaker 1: more you the more you mature the Lord willing, the
Speaker 1: less that doubt becomes. But here's what I'm trying to say,
Speaker 1: a church itself is maybe the greatest apologetic. Apologetic is
Speaker 1: a defense of the faith. It's how we Christians defend
Speaker 1: our faith. And there's all kinds of methods and ways
Speaker 1: to practice apologetics, but maybe the greatest apologetic is called
Speaker 1: ecclesial apologetics. Ecclesial apologetics, and that means apologetics of the church.
Speaker 1: The church itself becomes a unified apologetic in what way
Speaker 1: when you notice that there are believers gather on a
Speaker 1: Sunday morning and there is something special about them, not
Speaker 1: that they're perfect. In fact, in many ways they are not,
Speaker 1: but they operate almost as an organic unit. They operate together,
Speaker 1: they help each other. They lift each other up. They
Speaker 1: care for people that are underprivileged, or or the poor,
Speaker 1: or people that are disabled, or people that are disadvantaged
Speaker 1: in any way. They actually care. A hurricane comes through
Speaker 1: some town and they're going off with their chainsaws together
Speaker 1: to help these people they don't even know, to clear
Speaker 1: the wood from out of the trees that have fallen
Speaker 1: in front of their house. They're they're going to hospitals
Speaker 1: to raise money for kids that have terminal diseases. They're
Speaker 1: they're helping each other move from one apartment to the
Speaker 1: next because there's there's a woman that's that's a widow
Speaker 1: and she needs she needs to move a dresser and
Speaker 1: a mattress. And people come over from the church and
Speaker 1: they help, and then they gather and they cry together,
Speaker 1: and they do life together. And so many times you
Speaker 1: could see that in a society that seems like it's
Speaker 1: falling apart, right in a society that feels so ununified,
Speaker 1: a society that becomes obsessed with politics and race and
Speaker 1: all different viewpoints right and left and everything in between.
Speaker 1: And then you go to a local church, a healthy church,
Speaker 1: and you see all different kinds of races, all different ethnicities,
Speaker 1: all different ages, all different economic groups, coming together, unified,
Speaker 1: living together, making life together, sharing joy together, sharing and
Speaker 1: sorrow together. And you go, who are these people? I mean,
Speaker 1: surely there's something strange about it, there's something supernatural about
Speaker 1: this group. That's what a healthy church should look like,
Speaker 1: and that's what it should put off. It should literally
Speaker 1: put off a defense of the faith in itself. E.
Speaker 1: Colesial apologetics is what a healthy church puts off. If
Speaker 1: you are plugged in there and you have made a
Speaker 1: commitment and to become a member of a church like this,
Speaker 1: where you're plugged in and you have questions, It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter the level of knowledge that you have. You come
Speaker 1: in as a brand new believer, you come in as
Speaker 1: a twenty year plus believer. You plug in where you
Speaker 1: are and you say, I want to help serve. How
Speaker 1: could I help serve this congregation? What are we doing
Speaker 1: for the community, what are we doing for each other?
Speaker 1: And you live in that for a while. These doubts
Speaker 1: that you have, the questions you have about the certainty
Speaker 1: of it all, as you say, the need to surrender
Speaker 1: and the how to starts to become more focused and
Speaker 1: more clear. As you're plugged into this local body, not
Speaker 1: just listening to a like this, not just reading a
Speaker 1: daily devotional, not just watching some sermon on YouTube, but
Speaker 1: physically gathering with the body, which is called the bride
Speaker 1: of Christ. The bride of Christ is what the church
Speaker 1: body is considered. When you do that, you are thereby
Speaker 1: gaining one of your biggest, biggest earthly assets as a believer.
Speaker 1: And if you're not doing that, you're missing out on
Speaker 1: the biggest, apologetic, the biggest, greatest benefit you could have
Speaker 1: the local church. So don't neglect to gather with the
Speaker 1: local body on the Sunday morning and other times that
Speaker 1: they might meet. I think that's so important, and I
Speaker 1: think you're in a great place for this because you're
Speaker 1: not going to be the only one that has a
Speaker 1: husband that's a non believer. You're not going to be
Speaker 1: the only one that's new to the faith. You're not
Speaker 1: going to be the only one that has doubts on
Speaker 1: how to surrender to a certainty of it all. And
Speaker 1: that's a beautiful thing. We all need community, and to
Speaker 1: know that you're not alone helps tremendously. We love you, guys,
Speaker 1: See you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the
Speaker 1: granger Smith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You
Speaker 1: could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
Speaker 1: If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that
Speaker 1: little like button and notification spell so that you never
Speaker 1: miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a
Speaker 1: question for me that you would like me to answer,
Speaker 1: email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yi