Staying On Track

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Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show with today's guest host, our Christian Body Shop guide, Jerry Mathis.

I say this calls for action, and now. Good morning, and welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show. And of course, I'm Jerry Mathis. And this morning I got the grooviest thing sitting in the studio with me and Bob Young.

My brother drove the GTO, and every time I hear that song, it just brings back great, great, great memories. Hope we got a lot of good stuff for you today. I'm glad everybody's with us today, and I'm really tickled to be here with Jerry. We always have a great time in here. Oh, absolutely.

I tell you, anytime I get to be around Bob, it's always a blessing. This morning, we're without Robbie. Robbie is at an entrenchment event that's part of the masculine journey, the boot camp, but also they do the entrenchment, which is sort of like a mini camp where they do it at a church or I guess any event, wherever they can have it at or wherever they can sponsor them. But it's an event where they do a lot of the stuff they do at the boot camp. They do it on Friday.

You go home and come back Saturday morning. So Robbie is there with that event. And also, when I was sitting there reading through some of that stuff, it's kind of looks like a pretty neat event. And I thought, you know, if your church or men's group is interested and have been thinking about doing a weekend event, this may be the perfect way to kind of get your toes in the water, dip them in there. I think you can get more information on it by going to masculine, www masculine journey.org.

Oh, I guess you could probably just type in or Google masculine journey radio and find that information. I got the opportunity to participate in a couple of the boot camps years ago. And when I think back, I realized how long it's been. And it was really, really, really awesome.

And I had the good fortune of being able to go with my son one year. And we just had such a great time. It was such an uplifting thing.

And it's, it's very, very, very worthwhile. And you get a boost, like you can't, you know, when you get away like that, and submerge yourself in God's word and, and, and personal maintenance and stuff. So many times we forget about our taking care of us and staying on track with with doing the things we need to do this to stay with the Lord. Because if we don't, if we don't stay on track, you know, it's just so easy to, to drift away. And a weekend event like that is just always a boost.

Absolutely. And what Bob was just saying really ties into the topic this morning for the show is staying on track and that staying on track on the road with our vehicles, but also staying on track in life, because both of those are, it's a lot of opportunities to get off track. And this morning is also a calling show. So I'm going to encourage you, if you have a story of staying on track or getting off track or how to get back on track, you know, give us a call.

And the calling number is 866-348-7884. I've had a lot of things where this week show up in my life, I've had some septic issues, I've had some plumbing issues. And they're not at our house, it's at a rent house I have.

And the young man's just such a great renter, he doesn't ever call about anything. And he's just, you know, I had kind of let things get behind and lost track of what I needed to be doing. And, you know, just because I don't live there, it doesn't mean that that house doesn't need a little taking care of every now and then. So we're trying to get caught up with that and get back on track and get that place up to speed again. And it's been challenging. A lot of things have come at me this week that I don't have a lot of experience working with.

And it's been an eye-opener for me, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean, life is, you know, Bob, we all know, and as you were talking a little bit about going to the boot camp and going with Robbie and, you know, always, I know that story and stuff and how God works through that. And so, you know, it's sort of one of those things where we get so busy and we kind of don't see what God's doing in our life sometimes. And the opportunities that we talked about before we went on the air, we were just talking about how time flies and how quickly time will evaporate.

And we don't even, you know, we miss so many blessings along the way. I was talking to Jerry a while ago who says, when you're young, a year seems like a very long time. Like if you're six years old, a year is a sixth of your life. Well, if you're my age, one year is a sixty-fifth of your life.

And that's a different fraction completely. So I'm starting to really grasp all of our lives. We heard, you know, time flies and, and as you get a little older, it really flies by and it just all that. And you don't really grasp that until you get here. And then it becomes so real because, you know, it just, zoom, where did this year go?

Or that month is gone already. You know, it's just, it's just amazing how quick things go by. So another reason to stay on track and, and keep up with things.

Yeah. As you, as we were talking too, before I went on air, but your granddaughter said going on, you know, won't be long, be turning two years old. And I'm thinking, wow, I, I think I was just, just a couple months ago. I find myself almost every day, at least once a week, I was like, somebody say, well, how long ago was that? Oh, that's four or five years. And then when really, you know, sit down my wife and really try to track how long something was, it's a whole lot longer than that four or five years that I, I thought it was, you know, because once again, time's flying. It doesn't wait on us.

That's for sure. I'm going to be sort of get ready to dive into, you know, staying on track with our automobile, staying on the road and also staying on track in life. I'm going to read a passage, which I really love this passage in Philippians, which really kind of brings it all to rest for me and sort of gives me the, you know, why we need to stay on track and also encouragement to stay on track. And some Philippians two starts in verse one, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing of the spirit, if any tenderness or compassion, then make my job complete by being like-minded, having the same love being one in spirit, one in mind, do nothing out of self ambition or vain consent, rather in humility, spit that out, value others above yourself, not look into your own interests, but each of you in the interests of others. In your relationships with one another had the same mindset as Jesus Christ, who in the beginning, in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

Now that just the thought of this, that passage, just that word there that Christ came here just to be a servant. When you said the part about put your interest in others, I've said it so many times that the best therapy for me if I think I'm having a bad day is finding somebody to help or figure out a way to get your focus off of, to get the focus off of me and start thinking about trying to help somebody else. That is the best medicine for me there's ever been, because if I'm trying to help somebody else and focused on them, then I'm not worrying about my stuff. And we get self-consumed and it's so easy to do, but it's really, really, really therapeutic for me to try to find somebody to help. I think that's what God, I mean, he created that in us.

I mean, then I'll continue on. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that was above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

You know what? We're going to come back. We're going to dive into that a little bit in the passage. We're going to talk about, you know, how to stay on track and that passage is powerful. We'll be right back.

And again, this is a calling show 866-348-7884. That I'm the coolest thing around, little buddy going to shut you down. When I turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, G-G-O. Wah-wah. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah.

I'll tell you what. If that song won't make you move, that just reminds me of the old Frankie Valley, not Frankie Valley, Frankie something. Anyhow, they had those old beach music movies and stuff and them dancing around out there and that style of music right there has always been special.

Bring back memories, that's for sure. Oh, yeah. Well, this morning, again, this is a calling show 866-348-7884. I'm Gerry Mathis with Bob Young and we have a call coming in from Nancy. She woke up early this morning in Washington, so good morning, Nancy. Good morning. Thank you so much for being there, for doing this show.

Thank you for listening. Oh, yeah. It is a huge blessing every week. Just wanted to make a comment about getting off track. We, the bride of Christ, are big time guilty with that. You know, we have been so blessed in this nation just with, you know, whatever we need and our founding fathers, father's danger coming that we would become, as it is realized, just so apathetic about following God, so lazy about following God, getting used to having all the things that we needed and with that comes just almost like a permission, you know, to pursue our own desires and passions and not God. And so as we lay that, as I lay that guilt at the feet of the bride, also our men, as you were talking about earlier, our men have just gotten off track. There is so much violence in the Pacific Northwest right now, mostly government legislation that is so hard to come against, but it's to the point where women are feeling really unsafe. There are so many violent attacks on women. And again, that's just the passions of men getting misplaced and getting off track. And so I'm so grateful for you for addressing this issue this morning.

Absolutely. I mean, the thing is, I think part of what you mentioned is, you know, we sort of drift away from our roots in a lot of ways because we do think we have a better way of doing it or think we have a better idea instead of going back to, you know, what this country was built on and stuff, you know, we kind of drifted away from that. And also, I think we as a culture get complacent and then all of a sudden when we start doing that, we don't stand up for our values and we think it's better just take a step back. And that's really not what we should do. I mean, as we open up the book, God's Word, we know the end of the story. And as we sit there and I've said this many times and a lot of conversations, I have to feel I don't know the time or the day, but I know today we're closer than we were yesterday. But I also know that God's Word tells us, you know, as the world turns against our Lord and Savior and we see that, we're not to sort of get into a cocoon and just sort of, you know, pull in and throw up the white flag and just say, OK, there's nothing I can do. God calls us to be bold, to stand up for the truth. Yes. And that's where we have failed, unfortunately. And part of it is there's a scene in one of C.S.

Lewis' book, I think it's The Silver Chair, where the green witch is kind of casting a spell on the protagonist. And she's saying, is there really a sun above because they're under the ground? And they're starting to doubt. And then one of the characters puts his hands in the fire to kind of wake himself up, shock himself out of this, to say, yes, there it is. There is a God.

There is an above ground. You know, and we're going to do that. And we kind of lost that passion, in a sense, to do the things of God. I wish I had my reference with me, but God says so clearly in His Word so many times, I have laid out the path for you and all of the blessings that you were looking for. Everything that you're seeking to satisfy your desires are there if you would follow me, but you would not.

And that's kind of where we are. Absolutely. So I just pray every day for His mercy that we, the bride, will get it and we will seek to be the good, like you guys are doing with the ministry to single parents, particularly single parents families. Yes, Jesus' labor of love. Great, great opportunity to serve.

Yes, if each of us in the body of Christ would, you know, get together like an army to divide up the places where we see God's truth and His love being needed to be brought into the situation. We could give the best so much, you know, even without good leadership in our government. Oh, absolutely. Well, Nancy, we thank you for calling. Thank you for being a listener.

And you know what? God's going to continue to, God doesn't change. And He calls us to be ambassadors for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's that we should take that seriously and boldly. Thank you for calling this morning. And I think we have, thank you, Ms. J from Greensboro. OK, I think, OK. You still there? Can you hear me? Yeah, but we can hear you. We'll fix and go to a break and we'll be right back with you, OK?

OK. All right. Thank you for listening Christian Car Guy Radio. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com.

That's got more what we call standard others charge. Good morning and welcome back to Christian Car Guy Radio. Jerry Mathis with Bob Young. And we have Mrs. J from Greensboro on the line. How are you doing this morning? Can you hear me? I can hear you. Oh, good, good.

Because the last time I got cut off, you didn't get through. Well, I think we had a little something was going on there, but we've got it. We can hear you loud and clear now. Well, shout out to you, brother Jerry for hosting and for brother Gilmore and also for brother Scott.

All right. So so so stand on track. I feel like I was running after the train the whole time in between the track, never catching it. And because of low self-esteem, drugs and a lot of other things that was in my life at the time, low self-esteem was being one of the greatest ones.

Shame. So many things that hit me. And, you know, once I accepted Jesus Christ in my life, it was like a bullet lightning.

I guess you could say that. And it changed my life tremendously and then started increasing my faith. And then I asked God for wisdom, how to stay strong in my faith, because you're still weak. You'll be weak every day if you don't ask for that. So I try to renew my vows with him, with communion with him personally and with friends. And that's how I stay on track.

And the another thing is when I pray with him, I expect to get some kind of answer back. So I'm I know I think you know that I do. He gives me the gift of poetry with song. Absolutely. All right. Can I sing the song?

Yes, sing away. And it's about the bride, the young thing about the young lady that he was talking about. It's right on point with that. This time, Jesus is going to be better than before. This time, Jesus is going to be sweeter than before. Now, this time you're my King. This time you're my Lord. This time I say I do. This time I want to be.

I want to be your faithful bride. I'm going to be running back to you. I'm going to be running back to you. I'm going to be running back to you. So that was it was different from me running after the train. It's like running to him now.

You have a great voice. What a blessing. I'll give you.

It's a word. But it's really the thing that happened in my life, really running after that train. And now I'm running to him. I was running the wrong direction before.

Absolutely. I just want to say that to everybody, you know, let them know that, you know, if you get it from me, he'll do it for you. Stay on track with it.

Some of the things you shared, I have more experience with than I wish I had. But there's just a there's never it's never too late to make the turn. It's never too late to get on track. It's never too late to get in touch with God and get a little bit more in line with his plan.

And just it's it's never guaranteed that we stay exactly where we're supposed to be. But we can dial it back in and tune it back up and get redirected in just an instant. And thank you for your call this morning. Yes. Thank you.

All right. We also have Sarah Linda calling in also from Washington, another one that got up early. And Bob, you know, the thing is, just like Mrs. J, that we need to always realize we're never out of the reach of God's grace.

Amen. Sarah Linda, how are you doing this morning? Oh, I'm doing fine this morning.

I'm here on the Kitsap Peninsula in Port Orchard. Anyway, I've got, you know, 95. I figure I'm on the I'm a big train, but I've got an old fashioned, you know, one of those steam engines. And, you know, it's one of the old ones that huff and puff. But they were always reliable. The little train that could.

Yeah, that's right. And, you know, I'm pulling 95, you know, cars of experience. And I have to pull off the track, you know, every once in a while, let the big Amtrak go through. But I got to keep chugging ahead. And that's important that we keep on that track. But and I'm you know, I'm writing all these things and I've got to send some of these poems and songs. And I really enjoyed that last song that I was hearing. That was a blessing, wasn't it?

That was great. My boy, I used to be a mezzo soprano, but now I'm down in the bass because my train is pretty old. But it's still putting ahead and I've got to be able to write that, you know, like I said, anyway, I pull these 95 cars of experience every 95, that I just have to, well, I have to keep chugging ahead and get it done. I've got to, I'll be, you know, only a few, four years and plus before I have 100 cars.

I have to get this right and done. And I think it's just keeping on track and keep moving ahead because the bride is making herself ready to meet the Lord. And it's going to, we want the whole train full of all the passengers to pull into the station. Amen. Amen on that. All aboard. Yeah, I tell you. All aboard. That train with those 95 cars, I'll tell you what, I guarantee those 95 cars are full of trials and blessings. That's right. And we just got to keep heading.

I started off when I was six and a half. But, you know, all your experiences of full life is there and God is with us. And we just got to keep plugging ahead. Amen. Amen.

And I love that Nancy from this state. So I just, we all, we're all in this together and the bride is making herself ready. Absolutely. Amen. Amen. Sarah Linda, thank you for calling in and thank you for getting up and listening to us on Saturday mornings. It's always a blessing to hear you call in. Well, Bob, Bob, as we were talking about staying on track in life for one, it's also going to talk about our Christian walk. Just a moment.

I think a little bit of Sarah Linda and also Mrs. J and other callers. And as we're sitting here thinking about it, you know, part of our struggles in life is that we don't really realize when we get off a track. It's sort of, I always go back to that story of the frog and, you know, you boil it in a pot of hot water, put it in cool water, and you start putting the temperature and the water starts boiling and it never even tries to get out because it just subtly, the heat increases and it didn't even recognize it. Sometimes our life is like that.

You make such a great point. It's not like you wake up one morning and then decide that I'm going to get from right here way over there, way over there. And then it's not a big decision. It's a drift. It's a gradual thing that'll slip up on you and before you know it, you're so far off track that it can make it a little more challenging to get back on track. And it's funny you say that because it's just happened to me so many times. It's kind of like if you're driving down the road, if you look over here at something on the side of the road, all of a sudden you're drifting toward it. Your car and everything is drifting over here out of the way because you take your eye off the goal, the target, the track. You lose your focus and then all of a sudden you're way off track. And it's happened to me so many times. And a lady at church said it best, you know, when you feel distant from God, guess who moved?

Because God's right there. He doesn't deviate. He doesn't change his way of loving us or anything. But if we feel distant, we're definitely the ones that moved. Yeah, and as you said, it doesn't happen overnight and a couple of the things that are signs of getting off track spiritually. We'll come back, we'll circle back to these.

I want to talk about them a little bit more, but I want to just throw them out there, just sort of food to think on for just a moment. Isolation. You know, nobody wakes up in the morning and say, today I'm going to quit having contact with any of my Christian friends. When you separate yourself from God's people, rationalization.

Life gets busy, so you just sort of think there's other things more important. It's not important to go to church. It's not important to be around Christian friends, not important to be Christian activities. It's not important to serve. I've got other things that are more important. So you rationalize stepping away.

And it happens, doesn't happen overnight. Be right back. Christian Car Guy Radio, again a call-in show, 866-348.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Gonna save all my money. Gonna buy a GTO. Get a helmet and a roll bar.

And I'll be ready to go. Can't get out the homeowner. Can't let them know. That I'm the coolest thing around. Little buddy gonna shut you down.

When I turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO. Good morning and welcome back to Christian Car Guy Radio. I'm Jerry Mantis with Bob Young and it's been a great morning. As I look up at the clock, man, time flies.

Fun, fun, fun. I figured out who the Frankie I was trying to remember at the beginning of the show was. Frankie Avalon and Nefunicello. And that name just left me.

I believe I misspoke and called him Frankie Valley. But it happens when you get there. Remember that 65 years old, you were talking about that a minute ago. Real quick before we go to Brenda in Washington.

I want to just hit a couple more of these. We talked about isolation. And also the things about rationalization, desensitizing. Where we no longer, things that used to bother us don't bother us anymore.

I mean that means you're getting off track. When the things, you know, you'd feel uncomfortable being around. Or hearing somebody or going to a certain movie or clicking on something on the internet. That could be one of the biggest problems in this whole country is the desensitizing. You know, things that used to would have caused an uproar are just taken as okay stuff now. Yeah, I mean you even watch what's happening in the education system and stuff. You know, where you're teaching our kids.

My daughter's a teacher and what you see and hear is just, I mean it just breaks my heart. And it's almost that being desensitized, it doesn't bother people anymore. And being intimidated. Where we are worried about what other people think. We're intimidated to pray at a meal because what will people think? We're intimidated to walk away from something because what are people going to think? You know, we need to be bold. Well, some people have been shocked but if they're eating with me, they're going to get their hand held. And there's going to be some word cast upon the food before I start eating. And that's one thing I have taken, you know, strictness about.

I'm real firm about that. Yep, and then the last one I want to mention is procrastination. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm going to get into Bible study. I'm going to start going to church tomorrow. I'm going to start doing it next week. Or after I get this done, I'm going to start doing that.

That's a bad path to travel. Guilty as charged. All right, we have Brenda in Washington. Good morning, Brenda. Hi. I think you guys have been listening to what I've been doing or something because my husband, this is a physical and spiritual thing, how they relate kind of in our lives.

My husband has diabetes and he's in the hospital and it's kind of a prayer request. He could lose his toe but it didn't start that way. We kind of slid in to not getting the shots and not taking his numbers and just exactly what you guys are talking about, not paying attention. Drifting, huh?

Yeah, drifting, exactly. And making other things higher priority and not paying attention to them. And the words that the RN said was, this is a wake-up call. And I'm actually thankful that it got to this point just because of the fact I've been trying to get my husband to wake up more on his part, you know, just being aware that you've got to get your numbers and stuff like that and not knowing exactly how to get his attention.

And I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm just saying both of us have to play in this. But I think God a lot of times will give us wake-up calls and I'm just fortunate that he's in the hospital and I believe God is there and will help us. So I thank you for your program and it was still just right on this morning.

Thank you for your call. What is your husband's name? It's Charlie. Charlie.

I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to just take a moment, just pray for Charlie right now and thank you for calling and thank you for listening. Dear Lord, right now, Brenda called in until the concern and the anxiousness in her voice as her husband is in the hospital and I just pray that Charlie gets the care he needs and also, you know, Lord, you're the great physician and I just pray that you step down and you work through that medical staff that you'll come to the and give them the knowledge of what it takes to get Charlie back up and get him healthy and get him on the right path and back on track. So be with them, bless that medical staff as they continue to perform miracles.

Lord, they didn't get that knowledge from nowhere. It came from you and they work miracles through hospitals and through doctors and the nurses and that's what we're praying for now. So be with Charlie, be with Brenda and just thank you for this morning.

Your son's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Brenda. Thank you for Mark. Thank you for watching. God bless you, Gary. God bless you. She was talking about something big getting his attention and it's like there was a farmer out in the field and a preacher's driving down the road and the farmer's out there with a big old stick hitting his mule in the head and the preacher stops and walks out there and says, you can't be doing that.

Why are you doing that? He says, I'm getting his attention. And sometimes it takes a stick to the forehead to get our attention and I've got several sticks to the forehead this week that's got my attention on staying on track in another area, but I hope it'll bleed over into the other part of my life and help me get a little bit more on track there too.

Oh, Bob, I probably got a stack of broken sticks that have been hit over my head. We have Clay calling in from the Durham area. Clay, good morning. Top of the sanctifying Saturday morning to both of you gentlemen.

It's nice to be able to talk to you all and everything. I've just been listening to what has been said and shared, but I was also listening to something that was talked about before, one of the pastors that does a little snippet here and there, and I really like to hear him. But I heard something earlier in the week that really caught my attention. This pastor used two words.

One word was learned and the other one was taught. You're learning about the Bible, but you don't really get to learn until you're taught something. I share with many people over the last few weeks and months and years, I'm coming up on six years or six and a half years that I've found Truth Radio, and I'm very thankful to the Lord for that because that's what I share with people.

I don't listen to the idiocracy that's out there. I listen to Truth Radio because you have so many godly men preaching God's word, and the other day when I heard this, I share with people that I love digestively fed. I heard some people talking about training, getting on or off the train, but it's also what is being carried.

Josh Turner came out a few years ago about Long Black Train. You hear things about running away or running to. I always find it interesting that when you can hear something from a pastor, and especially when it has something to do in the message that they're preaching, it has a lot to do with how you can digestively be fed that overall situation. I give thanks to that because I was able to send somebody a text message and share with them about a pastor, what I heard, the message that he's preaching, and he talked about healing. I sent this to somebody, and they said, Well, my son needs healing. You know, I prayed about that. Clay, I hate to cut you off, but we're running out of time. Thank you for calling this morning.

You know what, words of the awful wise that you're speaking there, we all need to run to God instead of running away from Him. This morning, it's been great having Bob in the studio, and I'm able to be with him. It's just a blessing.

I had a blast. Thank you, brother. All right, and also real quick, as I mentioned Jesus' labor of love, if you go to the ChristianCarGuide.com, see Jesus' labor of love, a great opportunity to serve, pray for those women and those families that need transportation. Maybe you're able to help in some way. So again, this is the Truth Network.