The Spiritual Condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. Have you had a mentor in life? Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to the program.
We have a great show today, and we're going to begin the first of several programs in talking about the people that shape our lives. You know, really, all of us. Are an amalgam of the people that have prayed for us, helped raise us, invested in us. And obviously, our parents have immeasurable impact in the people that we are and the people that we become. But you know, one of the great blessings in life, and the Word of God talks about this: about the older women investing in the younger women that are growing up, and godly men helping influence the boys and the men that are growing up.
All of us, one of the great blessings in life, and I could talk a long time about this, are the mentors that invest in us. And maybe you can look back even now and think about the people that meant a lot to you. Maybe it was your first-grade teacher who taught you how to read. Maybe it was a kindly neighbor who showed you how to crank the mower and cut the grass. You know, I think about those mentors in our life that not only in just general Things we do, but spiritually for the gospel, they influence us.
Well, I've got a man on the program today that is just such a hero to me and so many others, Dr. Jim Burns of Homeward. He has written books, he has done speaking and broadcasting. His podcast, Homeward with Jim Burns, is influencing people. And he is just, he's one of the good guys.
He's just one of the people that the Lord has used in so many ways. And I've looked very much forward to this. Dr. Burns, it is a great honor to speak with you. You've served our nation and served millions of listeners and people, and ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ in so many great ways.
And to talk about mentors, I can really think of no better person to solicit wisdom from than you.
So thanks for being with us for a while.
Well, Alex, thank you. And I, again, right back at you. I love what you do. I love what you stand for and how you relate to the world. It's a beautiful experience.
To be with you today. Great, great.
Well, God bless you. Before we go too far, your website, your podcasts, the work you do, how many people find you? Homeward.com, H-O-M-E-W-O-R-D, home with kind of the word of God around it,.com. All that information is there. Yep.
You know, getting ready to start recording, we were talking about some of the people that we have known and loved, like Dr. Dobson and Shirley and Josh and Dottie McDowell. It's interesting with all of these people and so many more, the Grahams, Billy Graham, who You know, I make no secret about what a hero he is to me. Me too. But, um, You know, it all comes back to home and family, doesn't it?
The heroes we've had, the persons that we've tried to minister to, marriage, parenting, family, home, the role it plays in our lives is immeasurable, isn't it? Oh, it really is. I mean, even research shows that the greatest spiritual influence in a child's life is mom. And I wish dads could do a little better. But dads are second, then grandparents.
Then relatives and friends and peers, kind of the same. And then the church. That wasn't my case because I wasn't raised in the church, but the vast majority of kids would say that their most spiritual influence is their family. And you know, we say here at Homeward: when you reach the family, you reach the world. And fascinating enough, you could be a Christian or not a Christian, you could be a conservative or a liberal, you still love your family.
And so I think that's a very important way. And I love the movement that God is doing right now in family ministry because it's really reaching out. The church has kind of woken up to this fact that we can, you know, reach a world by talking about their family and how Christ can help make a difference in families. And we see that. It's a great testimony.
Well, you know, from the very beginning, the Lord instituted two great things: the home and the church. And he works through both of those entities to reach the world and fulfill the great commission. Yep. And that's when they work together. It's so good.
When the church, you know, you bring the church together with the home and they work together and partner, and, you know, good things happen. There's recent research that actually shows that if there are faith conversations in the home, helped by the church, that kids will stay in the church. We've got kids running away from the church and leaving the church and fleeing. But the studies are showing now both, I mean, there's studies, different parts of the United States are saying up to almost 300% better chance they'll stay in the church if they have faith conversations in the home. Amen.
And the church can provide help with helping parents because nobody feels equipped to do it, helping parents have those kind of conversations. You know, there was a book, and I want to hear your salvation testimony, but there was a book about 10 years ago, a sociologist, well, two, Bradford Wilcox and Mary Eberstadt. And the title of the book, How the West Lost God. And it wasn't an overtly Christian book per se, but it did talk about declining church attendance. And here was the fascinating thing, and I'll say this, I'll throw it back to you.
In this book, Everstadt and Wilcox, they said, the conventional wisdom is that college is liberal and students go away to college and they generally get secular. But here's the thing. What. Opened up the falling away from church in this book, How the West Lost God. They said it was first the breakdown of the family.
In 70 and 71, California and New York had no fault divorce. As more homes were divorced, more and more children did not grow up with their biological mother and father. That really the secularization of the Western world was more, they said it was less about how liberal the classroom may or may not be and more about the breakdown of the family. And they basically said to restore the spiritual foundations in the lives of upcoming generations, restore the ethic of family. And again, it was not a preacher.
It was not a Christian book necessarily. But I mean, I think that would be what our messages are. The family, everything rises or falls with the state of the family. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, going way back, you and I weren't around, but in World War II in Great Britain, I did my PhD work in Great Britain.
And one of the things they kept saying in Great Britain was that 76, 78% of the people during World War II were going to church. And I understand there was a war going on.
So people come back to church. But today, they'd be lucky if there was six or seven percent. And when people look at what happened to the church in Great Britain, and you know, some great things going on in Great Britain, by the way, but What happened, they said, is they missed a generation of helping families and helping marriages. And so they kind of drifted from the church in Great Britain doing that, and the church. you know, all of a sudden became Not as relevant.
And I honestly think that in today's world, we're beginning to see a movement of churches coming alongside these families, helping them learn how to parent and be confident about their parenting, helping them do marriage that's in a different way. And I think that's going to make a difference in this next generation, which we're all worried about.
Well, there are some exciting trends about young people and young adults that are saying one of their goals is to get married and have children. And I want to circle back to that. For those just tuning in, Alex McFarland here, we're talking with Dr. Jim Burns of Homeward. And I want to hear how God raised up Jim Burns.
Can you tell us your story?
Well, you know, I was not raised in the church. And my parents, because they were, you know, Americans, thought they were probably Christian, but I didn't know the church at all. And I asked a young girl, I live here in Southern California, asked her to go to the beach on a Sunday because that's what you do here in Southern California. And she said, well, I've got to go to church. And do you want to come?
And I was really intrigued by it because I honestly was one of these kids who, in a post-Christian world, I didn't even understand that. And so I went and I was just enamored with it. I loved it.
So this is Jesus Revolution time. If you read or if you saw the movie Jesus Revolution, I was a part of that. I love that movie. Yeah.
So I was a part of that. I weeped at that movie because I went, oh my gosh, I was there, you know. But now, were you reached through like Chuck Smith or Calvin? I went to a Bible study Monday, Chuck Smith, Thursday, Chuck Smith. Lonnie Frisbee, who was in that movie, was Wednesday.
And I went to every one of those. And then I went to this young woman's church, which was a different church outside of that place. But I was very influenced as a junior and a senior in high school, made a commitment to Jesus quite quickly. Felt like I was called to ministry. I didn't know what that meant.
And my parents were. Upset. The reason was because my brother played for the Chicago White Sox. I was an athlete, and they said, you're going to lose scholarships if you, you know, get involved in faith issues. And By the time I was 17 years old, I was a youth assistant youth worker at a church, and I loved youth ministry.
And I felt called to help kids. And today, you know, I'm an old guy, but I wake up in the morning going, How do I help kids make right and wise decisions about Jesus?
Now I'm doing that by helping parents help kids because I think that's for me in this generation. But there was a season where, you know, I was speaking at the youth events. I think it was a quarter of a million kids a year that I was speaking to, and I love that. And I still do. At Christmas, I sit with our families down the road here, teens and some of the preteens.
Because my parents used to say, Jim, you can come and sit at the adult table. And I'd think, oh, you guys are boring compared to this.
So my background, Alex, was not being raised. I went to a Christian school instead of going to some places where I had scholarships. And I can remember I didn't know, I called Job Job, and I was a religion major, which was hilarious. And Saul's, I couldn't get Psalms down because it seems like it's a very simple thing, but when you've never heard the word before, You, I was like, you know, so I'm in college as a religion major, not knowing, you know, the books of the Bible. And being at a Christian college was my foundational.
But then, you know, you mentioned mentors earlier. You know, I had to find mentors quickly. My dad was an alcoholic. He was a good guy. He wasn't a horrible person, but, you know, but he didn't know intimacy.
My mom was a beautiful person, not a Christian. They both became Christians. They have amazing, wonderful testimonies here at the end of the story.
So I had to find mentors. And so in college, I found people who were, you know, influencing me spiritually and, you know, both in person, but then there are things called paper mentors.
So, you know, you mentioned Billy Graham when we were talking. And, you know, Billy Graham became more of a paper mentor. I didn't know Billy Graham. I didn't spend any time with Billy Graham, but I listened to everything he said and I watched him on TV. I went to a crusade and I read books about him and I wanted to be like him.
You know, well, that's so a lot of times when we're looking at the mentor, as I look at the mentors in my life, not all of them are famous. I mean, I'm thinking of a guy named Terry Hartshorn. He's in his 80s today. He's totally a mentor of my life. People don't know him, but I think sometimes there used to be bracelets.
What would Jesus do?
Sometimes I just get to, what would Terry do? Because he has such a love for God and such a generosity. And he's an elder in a church. And just so he and his wife are so wonderful.
So, you know, you find people and you pick them out. I don't think you even have to say, for me, I didn't go, will you be my mentor? They just sort of became. And Chris, but I had to lean into that.
So I spent time with people who were influencing me. And I could, you know, the list goes on. Yeah.
Well, you know, I think about this. When I became a Christian at 21 and I was a college student and I got involved in this church, there was a deacon named Milton Ferguson. He's in heaven now. He just recently passed away. And I couldn't explain it.
I just wanted to be around this man. He and his wife were helping with the youth a little bit. And I was going to this college Bible study. And folks, one of the ways that you might find a spiritual mentor and you glean from their life, it's the people that you're drawn to. I mean, you see people who love the Lord, who are being used by God, the people who kind of have their life together, not because they're clever or something, but because they've built their life on Christ.
And your life will get together. We're going to have to take our first break. But, Jim, isn't it true? It's the Christians that you're drawn to. And invariably you learn and their life begins to shape your own.
No, exactly. And the people that we're drawn to oftentimes are not famous people. There are sometimes, but it's the people who we see, how they treat some how they treat a waitress, how they do life, how they for me, early on, I was like, wow, this is how you do marriage. Because I didn't know how to do marriage. And I'm thinking, I'm going to get married one day.
I want to do it like these people, not like I saw in my home. Yeah, exactly. We're talking with Dr. Jim Burns of Homeward. Folks, how to find a mentor and the value of mentors and maybe even being a mentor.
Stay tuned. We've got a brief break. We'll come back with more life-changing truth because The meaning of life is Christ and His will for each of us. Stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Charlie Kirk is coming to the Grand Strand August 21. He's one of the world's most influential social media voices and one of the people most responsible for the resurgence of young people standing up for America, getting registered to vote, and learning about our Constitution. Hi, Alex McFarland here. You are invited to part three in our speaker series, Conversations That Matter, with Charlie Kirk, Thursday night, August 21, 7 p.m.
at the Alabama Theater on Highway 17 in North Myrtle Beach. For tickets, visit the Alabama Theater website at alabama-theater.com. Hear Charlie Kirk, August 21, and there will be open mic question and answer. For complete information on the speaker series, go to alexmacfarlane.com slash conversations. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely.
Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here. What an honor to be speaking with Jim Burns, someone that has just touched. Millions of lives, my own included.
For one thing, thank you, sir, for making time to be with us today. Oh, my pleasure. Absolutely. My pleasure. We've got a common friend, Mike Segovia, who is producing this, and he's a great guy.
And we have to put up with him periodically, his jokes. Yeah, exactly. In the previous segment, you mentioned something that, again, I'm thinking of all the conversations I want to have with you. The Jesus Revolution movie. That was so significant.
You know, it's funny. I was just in an event and I was talking to a man who was led to the Lord by Lonnie Frisbee. You mentioned Lonnie Frisbee. And I bumped into a guy that Lonnie Frisbee decades ago had led to Christ. But for those that may be unaware, and I think this is really important, I believe the Jesus movement was a great awakening.
Yes. And you were there. You were at the epicenter of it. Could you tell us about that season of what God did in America?
Well, it was more than just the movie, or it was more than just Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Pastor Chuck Smith was leading that. Lonnie Frisbee would speak on Wednesdays, and he was present at other times too. But it was a movement that was really interesting because culturally, the church had pretty much been using more of the European style of worship, which I actually love. It's beautiful.
And they had moved to, you know, kind of a rock band, almost folk, more folk. And so kids like me were drawn to that. We were going because there was this amazing cultural experience. And I remember, Alex, it's really interesting because in 1970, when I became a Christian, I was going to that church and it was a little tiny church. In fact, there's a song by a group called Love Song.
There's going to be a big documentary coming out here real soon on Netflix on Love Song. And they had little kids. Country church on the edge of town.
Well, this isn't really country. Country, you know, country in the Greensboro area a lot more than I know country in Orange County, California. But it was this beautiful song and beautiful place. And we would go and we would get there about five o'clock. The service would start at 6:30.
We'd get there at five because we wouldn't find a seat. And we would take our Bibles, and they're big, thick Bibles.
Okay. And we'd take our Bibles, put them on the pews because it was a little church that had pews. And then we would go over to the Taco Bell and get something to eat and come back.
So we're saving seats, right? And it was almost like a youth group meeting. And then the Pastor Chuck would get up there, beautiful man, incredible teacher of the word. And the music was always great. And, you know, we would learn from him.
And then Lonnie would come on Wednesdays, and I went almost every Wednesday. I now realize, I think he gave the same sermon every Wednesday. And it would kind of be his testimony, and then he would have, you know, people come forward to become Christians. I now look back and I watch thousands of people become Christians. I just had lunch with a friend who became a Christian sitting next to me when I was there as a high school kid, right?
And his life, the trajectory of his life.
So there was this energy that was so incredible that mixed. Good, solid Bible teaching with music that we related to as kids. Yeah.
Where we weren't relating as much to some of the songs or the way, I mean, I didn't mind organ music, but again, I'm 16 years old. I'm loving that there's somebody singing about Christ and bass, beautiful songs. And those songs were more almost songs out of the word now that I look back. But those kinds of things were drawing all of us. It wasn't just happening there in Costa Mesa with the Jesus Revolution.
It was happening all over the country, kind of leading out in the United States, but all over the country, you know, there were groups popping up that were, you know, worshiping God, getting into the scriptures. And it was, it became, like you said, it was a movement of God. It was a great awakening. And what a privilege to be, you know, somewhat a part of it. I'm not the banner child for that, but truly became a Christian during that time and then never looked back.
And I'm so grateful for, you know, those times. And I don't talk enough about that probably. Probably in terms of my past, because that was, I was, I was in the midst of it. And, you know, when you talk about like experiencing God, you know, and you're in the book Experiencing God, it talks about go where the Holy Spirit is leading, go where God is leading, and jump into it. Yeah.
A lot of us just sort of accidentally jumped into it. And it was a great thing. There was a big event in Texas, Explo72. Exactly. Were you there?
Did you go there? I was not there, but I was a college student at the time, a young, young college student, and I couldn't figure out how to, how to, I wanted to go, but I couldn't figure out how to pay for it to get there. And I was jealous of some friends from California who got in an old beat-up VW Beetle and made it to Texas. They had trouble coming back because the engine blew, I think. But You know, they said it was a life-changing thing.
So you had events. We had never heard of those kinds of events. You had Billy Graham Crusades. I went to a Billy Graham crusade when I was 16 at Antime Stadium here in California. But you didn't have the youth events like Explo and a couple of other things that were going on.
Yeah.
I had the great privilege of interviewing Bill and Vanette Bright actually a couple of times. And Bill Bright, he's in heaven now. Folks, you need to know who Bill Bright was. And let me strongly encourage you to read his book, Witnessing Without Fear, fantastic book. But he talked about Explo and the Jesus movement.
And it really was a legitimate great awakening. And I know it's 50 years ago, but still, folks, I think that one of the great realities is to, as a Christian, no matter who you are, as a Christian, you have the chance to do things that matter for eternity. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. And, Jim, I would love. To see another great movement of God, I've heard it said that God answers prayer, God works, but the one prayer God doesn't generally answer is encore.
In other words, the movement that he's working in the world today, it's not going to look exactly like the Jesus movement or anything. Talk to us, and then I am going to get to mentors, but what does it mean individually to walk with the Lord every day? Good days, hard days? What does it mean to walk with Jesus? Yeah.
Well, you know, it's being consistent. And I'll be honest with you, I think people, even like Bill Bright, would say, and you talked about Bill Bright, who what an influence in my life, too. You know, there are mundane days. You just do it. I mean, this morning, I read my one-year Bible, which I've been doing since 1983.
And I can't tell you, Alex, that I had a big life, you know, a light shone and went crazy, but it's just the discipline, the spiritual discipline of spending time with God on a regular basis and spending time with his people on a regular basis. It's the basic things that we know and do. We just don't do it.
So, like me, I want to lose a little bit of weight. I know how to lose weight. I just don't sometimes do it.
So, I think if you're going to walk with God over the long haul, you know, I would ask people, I remember asking a man named Jack Hayford. I was speaking at the Promise Keepers Pastors Conference years ago, and I was going to come on to speak, but I said, Jack, what is the secret to your leadership success? And he said, I had to say no to good things to say yes to the most important things. Jack, what are the most important things? And then he said, and I expected him to say these high, grandiose things.
And he said, well, spending time with God. It's making sure that I have a good relationship with my wife, my kids, my grandkids. And oh, I have time.
Well, he was a pastor of a mega church. He wrote books. He was the president of a college. He was the president of his denomination. But it It kind of sounded mundane when he said his answer was: well, you know, I make sure that I'm in the word every day.
I make sure I'm praising. I make sure I'm in worship. I'm like, You know, I was expecting something greater and grandiose, but then I started asking other people that. And that's almost what they would always say. It was the, it was practicing the spiritual disciplines, some days amazing, and some days, okay.
Yeah.
And not expecting every day to be, you know, some big high point. Exactly. You know, I love Matthew 6:33 that says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things be added. And, folks, we're going to have to take a break, but here's the thing, and I need to hear this as much as anybody. We often think about what we do, but God cares about who we are.
And if you're listening to this program with Dr. Jim Burns and myself, do you know you can come to Christ today or you can come back to Jesus? And on our website, alexmacfarland.com, there's a tab, what does God say about my relationship with him? Go there and remember, Jesus is as close by as a prayer. His arms are open.
You can turn to the Lord today, just as you are, where you are, and his arms are open to receive you. Stay tuned. We've got a brief break. We'll come back more with Jim Burns after this brief intermission. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you invest a financial contribution to see young people saved, people give their lives to Christ, and people care about God and country? If you would please make a donation securely online, you can give at alexmacfarland.com or please mail a check to TNG P.O. Box485 Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. Your gift will be faithfully handled, fruitfully used, and we thank you in Jesus' name.
Uh He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex here.
So honored that you're listening. Thanks for listening, and thanks for everybody who's been praying for our big summer events. Let me encourage you, if you would, please go to alexmacfarland.com/slash conversations because on September 14, we've got Lauren Green of Fox News about the state and future of the local church. And then October 3rd and 4th, I'll be doing an apologetics evangelism training October 3rd and 4th at the Greg Rolls Theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And if you want to learn how biblical worldview is really part of what we're called to promote, not only the gospel, but remember in Matthew 28:18 through 20, where Jesus said, Make disciples, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
How do we think? Think biblically. How do we incorporate that into the lives of our children and our own lives?
So, October 3rd and 4th, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I'll be doing just personal training on evangelism, biblical worldview, and apologetics. If you'd like to be a part of that, we would love to have you there. And of course, every weekend somewhere, we're in the Western Hemisphere.
So, thanks for checking out alexmacfarlane.com and thanks for your prayers and support. Our guests, and what a privilege, Jim Burns. Before we resume our conversation, Jim, give your website, your podcast and shows. How may people find all that is Homeward? Yeah, all about Homeward is homeword.com, H-O-M-E-W-O-R-D.com.
And they'll find everything they need to know. And it's a really great website, Alex, because we send out a weekly culture brief that's free. We send out things that can come alongside parents. We have four values: strong marriages, confident parents, empower. Kids and healthy leaders.
And so, all of our content, all that we do, is about those four values. I love what you said in the previous segment: that, like Dr. Jack Hayford or some of the other leaders, growing in the Lord and being in the Word, it's not some great epiphany.
Sometimes it's just day by day going through, we say mundane, but it's really not. There's just a lot to be said about consistency, isn't there? I really think so. And when I see people who are who are In it for the long haul. There's finishing well.
You know, I'm at that age where I now talk about finishing well. I go, wait, I didn't even think about that when I was 22 and on fire and whatever. But now that you start thinking about it, it's the people who really are consistent. Day after day after day. And that's how I think people stay spiritually healthy.
I think that's how families. Improve. I think that's how you do marriages. You know, we, Kathy, and I have just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, and we're on some television show. And they said, What, what's the secret?
And Kathy went into, she said, God, and she had all these things. And I just said, Perseverance. Amen. And they said, Her, and I laughed because the person said, Her answer is a lot more exciting than your answer. And I said, Well, we could talk about you know physical intimacy and all this, but we did just kind of laughing.
But again, I think it's you know, it's just that it's the perseverance, the consistency. You know, continuing to be a learner. You talked about Bill Bright. At the end of his life, he was on oxygen and he happened to still be speaking. And we were speaking in Honolulu.
Somebody said, Can you come to Honolulu? And I said, Well, yeah, let me pray about that. Yeah, I can go. And there's 4,500 people. And I heard Bill speak literally with oxygen in his nose.
And it was phenomenal. And then I went, I was doing a workshop and I see Bill Bright in the back of the room. And I think, here's a man who's at toward, very much at toward the end of his life. He comes up afterwards and said, you know, on that point three, and he's asking me questions. I'm thinking, here is a hero of the faith.
He's still learning. And, you know, he didn't have to go to that. He could have, you know, he was in Honolulu. He could have been out in the. You know, by the water or something, still learning, still, you know, being discipled, still, you know, growing in his faith.
And I think that's the kind of person I want to be until I die. I mean, significance is never accidental.
So living a significant life and a meaningful life and a life dedicated to God is not accidental. Grace is. From God. We have nothing to do with that. But when it comes to growing in our faith and staying strong and making the kind of decisions, we've got to roll up our sleeves and.
Make it happen. And I'm not talking about a work salvation. I'm talking about discipleship, which takes some energy. I want to get your response to this. I've told this story a time or two, but it just kind of made a huge impact on me.
Because as a Christian, all of life is stewardship. Salvation is a free gift, putting our faith in Jesus. But then I really, and some of my early mentors impressed this on me: that, you know, we have our life and our time, and then we have our mind, and we have our influence. Of course, we have, you know, God entrusts money to us. And Look, the decimal point might be in a different place, but the principle is the same.
We're to be a faithful steward.
So, Keith Richard, the lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, and I'm bringing this up not to say that you should emulate their lives or anything like that, but this blew me away.
Okay, he's 81 years old. I saw him being interviewed a few months ago, and he offhandedly mentioned that he takes guitar lessons. I think in New York City, from some of the jazz guys that are really, really great. And the interviewer was like, wait a minute. I mean, you're the guy that wrote all You know, jumping jack flash satisfaction.
You take guitar, you're 80. At that point, he was. Keith Richards said, Well, yeah, I mean, I know I've got all these recordings and I play lead guitar for the Stones. He said, But I've still got musical goals I'm trying to reach. And at 80, my point is.
That's commitment, that's perseverance. And if a celebrity is still trying to set and reach goals. How much more so we as believers, whether it be to make prayer a priority or to be a better spouse, or to Make some Impact for the gospel, that made a powerful impression on me: that we are to always be stewards. I think that's one of the best illustrations I've ever heard on something like that. And here it is from a lead guitar player of the Rolling Stones.
But that's what we can do. And we can do that with the spiritual disciplines of our life. And the people who are doing that, I think, are the people who are finishing very well and being used by God in ways that they sometimes don't even understand. And the people who let it slide are the people who are struggling sometimes. And again, I'm not making it simple.
Life doesn't, just because you take lessons from the jazz doesn't mean that your jazz playing on the guitar is going to be as good as they are, maybe. And it's the same with learning about prayer. There's things we can continue to learn.
So we just do it. It's not magical. But that also means when you talk about stewardship, we a lot of times think about the finance side, which is true. But we also have to think about. Just the stewardship of our time and our talents, and we're giving that to God as well.
Do you know the author John Steinbeck years and years ago wrote for Sports Illustrated a little bit? A lot of people don't realize that. I had no idea. You know, the Red Pony and The Pearl and all those great stories. But he told a story about when he was in school and he had a writing assignment.
Anyway, he helped a student that was a struggling student. He helped a guy write a paper. And then he wrote essentially the same paper. And the guy that he was tutoring got an A, and he got a C. And he asked the professor, he said, Look, I helped that guy write his paper.
Why'd you give him an A? And he said, Well, for his level of talent, that was definitely a work. And I know you helped him. But you. Just turned in something, you phoned it in, you got a C, and you know you're an A student.
The reason I share that, and we're almost out of time, I feel like when we meet Jesus face to face, we want to be able, like 1 John 2:28, meet the Lord unashamed. Maybe I'm a one talent guy. You're a ten talent guy, but we need to do the most we can with what he gave us. And we shouldn't slack off in our personal walk, in our ministry to our family and our spouse, and serving the church. Give us a challenge about how to use what the Lord entrusted to us, and then one day joyfully face Jesus knowing that we were the best steward we could be with the life He gave us.
Yeah.
You know, I think we wake up every day and we say, God, how can we be used today? And it's usually not in the big, grandiose things. I mean, you know, God uses you in big, grandiose things, Alex, in ministry. But, you know, I think we have to listen to him and be watchful. The Bible talks about being watchful.
And I think sometimes that means what I'm to do is spend a little more time with my wife today. Call my grandson. I have three daughters.
So call my daughter, do whatever. Do the little things, but listen to what God wants us to do. And when we do that in small things, then I think that's what we're called to do.
So it doesn't have to be the big grandiose. I don't think usually it's not the big grandiose. It's usually the simple small things that. Begin to change a life. When that happens, we can change the trajectory of a family if we put our energy into that in terms of our family.
There's nothing greater than that. And, you know, we're not going to get a lot of. Nobody's going to. You know, know that we're even doing some of the things we do. We just make that happen, make go in that direction.
Do it daily, do it regularly, and you look back at your life and you say, Wow, this was well done. We saw this when our daughter recently.
Well, recently, it's been a couple of years now. She got married and we were all together, and I put my arm around Kathy. And I just said, wow, you know, it's not perfect looking at the whole family was playing in a pool. They got married in Italy. And I said, you know what?
This is so good. And, you know, we could whine and complain about stuff that goes on in family at the same time. We think we were able to change the trajectory of a family by being the transitional generation. You know, the Bible talks about you inherit the sins of a previous generation. The third and fourth generation, but you also, right after that, the Bible says, but the love of God lasts for a thousand generations.
And I think we're really called to be people who promote the love of God to our generations, and then watch what happens as time goes on. The voice you're hearing is Jim Burns. And, you know, we always say this: Jesus is as close by as a prayer. Maybe you've got many joys that you celebrate and think back on.
Well, glory to God. Maybe you've got some things that you wish you could just as soon forget. Do you know the beautiful thing about it, Joel 2:25? God promises that I will restore the years the locust has eaten. Today, just where you are as you are, lay it before Jesus.
He'll forgive whatever sins you've done. He'll heal whatever's been done to you. That's just how great our God is. And He's the God of the second and third and hundredth chance.
So today, come to Christ, come back to Christ, and remember, 1 Corinthians. 15:58, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. We'll talk more on a future show. Thanks for listening. Keep us in prayer, and remember, Jesus loves you.
Alex McFarlane ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmcfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-Yes, God, and the number one. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1.
Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
