I've Seen My Work. I Need a Better Savior.

This is the Truth Network. Uh Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger and this is the program for you as a family caregiver celebrating now 14 years on the air. Most of them here with American Family Radio and I'm very grateful for them. And for the opportunity they've given to help address the needs of family caregivers all over this country and now all over the world.

Our podcast is downloaded in how many countries? Like over 100 countries. The need is universal. It is the human condition. If you love somebody, you're probably going to be a caregiver.

If you live long enough, you're gonna need one. It's just that simple. This is the way it works. And so how do you help those who help those? How do you help somebody stay strong and healthy as they take care of someone who is not?

And that's what this program is all about. And I'm very, very grateful that you're here with me today. HopefortheCaregiver.com. HopefortheCaregiver.com. Many years ago, I was flying from Nashville when we lived there to Montana.

And we had to go that was back when Northwest was an airline.

Some of you may remember Northwest. And we had to go through Minneapolis. And so I was on the plane with this guy in Nashville. And we're flying to Minneapolis where I would make my Change and go on out to Montana. And so I was talking with the guy and I said, well, what takes you this way?

And he said, I'm going to this event in outside of Minneapolis. And he mentioned this Organization that he was attending, and it was a cult.

Now, he didn't call it a cult, but that's what it was. And it was a Church of Enlightened Sciences or whatever kind of thing. And they're going to have a big meeting. Evidently, there's the big headquarters for this place. He had material and literature and everything.

and a pretty big um headquarters for this place outside of Minneapolis. And so I was talking with him about this, and I said, Well, tell me about your cult. You know, what kind of cult things do y'all do there when you have your cult meetings? And, you know, I didn't know what kind of cult handshake was involved in this thing. And I was respectful.

I did not. mock the guy and and I was respectful to him to have a conversation'cause I wanted to see where this would go and what where his thoughts were on this and why he would join such a a place and a thing and spend time going to it. And I said, well, what are what are some of the things that you guys believe at your cult? I'm sorry, but I didn't say that. But I said, what are some of the things you guys believe at this thing?

And he started rattling off a lot of the stuff about the path to self-fulfillment and all that kind of stuff. And you've heard all these kinds of things before.

Sometimes, sadly enough, you've heard it in church circles. But he started rattling these things off, and then he said something that really stood out from everything else. And It came on the heel of me asking him a question. I said, Well, so what's the goal? I mean, what does this offer you?

And Why would you be involved with this? I mean, there are a lot of self-fulfillment things out there. What's special about here? What do you do here? And he said, Well, we go into ourselves, we look inside ourselves, and we are shepherding ourselves and becoming.

Our own Savior to further our enlightenment process. I said,'Brother, let me stop you right there' I said,'I've seen my work. I need a better saviour. And he didn't know how to respond to that because he's like, well, I didn't mean to our Savior. And I said, no, no, no, I understand what you meant.

But I I said, I need a better Saviour. And that's when the conversation. It took a different direction.

Now he wasn't very much interested in what I had to offer, but he was respectful. But I didn't also try to argue with him about any of his stuff. I just simply said my own journey of understanding who I am. And how desperate my need is for a savior, and I cannot save myself. nor can some cult, nor can anything else on this planet.

And that brings me to why I've been having this conversation now for several weeks. On this program On Caregivers and Theology.

Now why am I doing that and how does this connect to this guy on the plane going to a big cult gathering. And I'll tell you why, because we as caregivers live with constant reminders. of our great need. and the need of somebody that we love. And that constant aggravation.

You ever get a splinter? This weekend, I got one, and it was just annoying. It was just really annoying. And it seemed like every time I moved my hand, I was feeling it, and I thought I got it. I didn't, evidently, and so I went and performed some minor surgery on myself.

You know, and I hate to do that with knives around my hands at any point, but I did do it. And I think I got it out. I'm pretty sure I did. But every time I move my hand, it seems like it was just aggravating it. And that is a tiny Example of what it's like as caregivers that we have a constant source of painful irritation.

And yet it goes even deeper than that. It's emotional, it's spiritual, it's distressing. We see things that are very unpleasant to see, and it never stops. We can't fix it. We can't change it.

We can't get to it. I had worked on that splinter. Oh my goodness, I had worked on it. And I thought I'd got it. And the problem is, I need a magnifying glass because my reading glasses are just not enough.

And so, but it would just irritate me. My whole, every way I held my hand, playing the piano, writing, anything like that, it was affected by that thing. And that's just a splinter. Imagine when you're dealing with somebody in chronic pain. Imagine when you're dealing with Alzheimer's.

Imagine when you're dealing with all these other things that we as caregivers deal with. And it focuses your attention on that and that alone sometimes. to the point where you can't do anything else but deal with that issue. And it affects the way you approach any other issue because it's grabbing at you. That's why I'm talking about this.

That's why I'm going to spend the time on this. is because we as caregivers are Just Besieged with these feelings and with this struggle and with these challenges. And raise your hands if you've been. In this journey of yours as a caregiver, Beset with people around you who want to give you some type of. Quote unquote.

Encouragement, and they say things to you that are either more heartbreaking to hear or nebulous at best. And you're like, really? You know, this is what I've been talking about last week when people say, I got a word from the Lord for you, and all that kind of stuff. And they start saying these things to you. And the Lord told me to tell you this, and so forth.

And this is how we become even more. burn down. Because that is not an easy yoke. Jesus said, take my yoke on it. What does that even mean?

It means that Christ is not promising that what you carry will feel light. He's promising that you will no longer carry it under the crushing delusion that everything depends upon you. That's The whole point of what this guy was telling me on the plane: we look inside and become our savior. Oh, no, brother. Brother, I can't become my own savior.

If it depends on me, I've already seen my work. I I I gotta have something greater than me. I can't get part of a cult that's going to try to teach me how to be my own Savior. How to say things and name it and claim it. I can't do that either.

I need something. Far beyond anything this world can offer, and far beyond anything that the mind of man can offer. Do you see that? And and one of the things I really despise in any type of organized religion. is when they have secrets that are not known.

to the masses. where you have to have certain levels of credentials to get into secret places, whether it's some type of vetting ceremony or whatever it is. I don't care even if it's a stupid secret handshake. The point of the gospel is it's available to everyone to know. There is nothing hidden in the redemptive work of God through Christ.

It's right there. I don't have to go to some kind of secret high-level meeting in Minneapolis to learn how to become my own Savior like this guy did. I had no hope of doing this. I had a Savior that came to me. A Savior that condescended to me.

I don't have to manufacture religion of how to get to him or how to get to whatever I think is God. God came to us. That was the whole point of the incarnation. And there was the whole point of his life that he lived sinless to offer an atonement. That was the whole point of all this.

to give his life to ransom us from God's wrath. I don't need... a path to enlightenment We have the light himself. And that is hope for this character from we'll talk about this more when we come back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. HopefortheCaregiver.com. HopeforthTeCaregiver.com. While you're there, go out, take a moment and see all that I have available to you. Take advantage of it.

It's all out there, particularly my substack. You can go to straight to caregiver.substack.com if you want, but you can link to it from my website. And I put everything out there, virtually everything is free. And you can subscribe to it with an email. It'll push it right to your phone.

And every article I put out there is free.

Now, after two weeks, it does go behind a paywall because that's where the archive is. But everyone I publish, every article I publish, it's free. Take advantage of it. They're not long articles. You know me.

I don't even know that many words.

So take advantage of it. Go out to hopeforth the caregiver.com and you'll see more or go straight to caregiver.substack.com.

Okay, in the last block, we've been, well, actually for the last several weeks, we've been talking about caregivers and theology, and some of you may, you know. Say that and say, you know, Peter, I'm not, I'm a caregiver, I'm not a theologian. I disagree, en contraire. I hate to break it to you, but you are. We're all theologians.

Theology simply means the study of God. Every time we ask, where's God? We ask a theological question. Every time we cry out, how could a good and loving God allow this? We're asking a Theological question.

Every time we cry out, How long, O Lord? We're talking about theology. The question is not whether we are theologians, the question is, how good a theologian. Are we? What do we believe about God?

Where do those beliefs come from? Are they anchored in what God has revealed about Himself, or are they built upon our feelings, our fears, our traditions, our experiences, or what other people have? told us for caregivers. This ain't academic. our theology comes into the hospital room with us.

It sits beside us in the ICU. It is Everywhere. We go when we go to bed at night, when we're woken up in the middle of the night, our theology is right there with us. What do we believe about God? What we believe about God determines what we reach for.

When the physician walks into a room with a look on his or her face that says this ain't good news. But I got my diagnosis this year of cancer. My theology was very much in my face at that point. And before the break in the last block, I was telling you about the man on the airplane with me who was going to a cult meeting where they're going to teach him how, in effect, to be his own savior. I call it a cult.

He didn't call it a cult, but I did. Become his own savior through self-enlightenment. And I said, Brother, let me stop you right there. I've seen my work. I need a better savior than me.

I do not need self-enlightenment. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. The psalmist said, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We did that last week for our song that every caregiver ought to know. The light comes from outside of me, not inside of me.

Believe me, I've dug around down there, and a team of others have too. It ain't there. There's no light there from me. And that's the bad news. But the good news is, I don't have to fly to a cult meeting in Minneapolis to try to be my own savior and end up becoming more spiritually confused, by the way.

We don't have to go to Minneapolis for that. We could be confused in some of our churches, bookstores, and concerts and television programs and radio broadcasts. It can come from inside our own hearts. That's why we need Scripture.

Now I seek out good teachers. I I want to learn from pastors and theologians. I have several that are mentoring me and who have over the years who understand Scripture more clearly than I do. God has given teachers to his church and I am grateful for them. A faithful teacher says, Here's what the text says.

Open your Bible and examine it with me. That is entirely different from someone saying, God gave me a special word for you. See, when a pastor explains a passage, I can study that passage. I could ask questions. I can compare scripture with scripture.

I can learn how to do hermeneutics. I can do all those things. But when someone says God told me to tell you, well, the authority moves away from the public word of God and into a private experience that I'm not able to examine. If I disagree with a teacher, we can return to the text. If I disagree with someone who says God told me, Then it appears that I'm disagreeing with God Himself.

Do you see why that's a problem? That is exactly why, when somebody moves from here's what the text says, to I have a special message for you outside of what God has revealed, well. Guess what? That conversation is over for me. Look, I may continue caring about the person.

I may believe that they are completely sincere. I've known people like this, but I'm not going to submit myself. to a claim of divine authority that cannot be examined through Scripture.

Now Over the years, I've been on the air now 14 years this month. Many listeners to this program have reached out to me over these years, and they've said things such as, You have amazing insights. You put words to what I feel. You're seeing exactly what I'm thinking today. And I appreciate that.

I really do. I truly appreciate that. Thank you for that. But let me be very, very clear. I have no word of knowledge I have no secret message from God.

I have not received any special download from heaven apart from Scripture. I have been simply a caregiver for forty years. I have watched relentless suffering up close, and I have become an accidental theologian because I kept asking the same question for forty years while poring through Scripture for answers.

Now, I've sought out pastors and teachers who help me understand the text more clearly.

Some of them know the Greek and the Hebrew better and all those kinds of things, but not one of these teachers. and I can go all the way back to Bible college. Back in the early 80s, not one who helped me through any of this journey. profess to have a special word of knowledge for me. Instead, they all said essentially the same thing.

we are all beggars, showing other beggars where the food is. Whatever insight I possess. comes from forty years of standing at the bedside, making mistakes. Good gracious. asking questions, studying Scripture, and listening to wiser people who kept pointing me back to the text.

Now, if I say something that puts words to what you feel, I am grateful. But just because I say it into a microphone doesn't mean that I am exempt from being tested. You examine what I say. If it agrees with Scripture, receive it because Scripture says so. If it departs from Scripture, reject it.

regardless of how confident or sincere I sound.

Now I'll tell you something personal. When I was well, I'll tell you everything personal on this program. When I was about eight years old, we had a number of people in our lives who were involved in the charismatic movement. I remember watching the 700 Club when I was a kid. It was on television, and we only had three channels on UHF, and it was on UHF.

And they said viewers could call into an eight hundred number and someone would pray with them. And I was feeling sick or distressed about something. I can't remember all the details. It might have been I mean, we ran around barefoot playing, and I remember stepping on a nail one time and it really hurt and I didn't like it. And maybe I was recovering from that.

I don't know. But for whatever reason, eight-year-old Peter decided to call.

So I called the number, and someone prayed with me, and whatever distress I felt eased enough. that I wrote them back a letter afterwards. And thanked them and told them: here's, I mean, I felt better after this. You know, whatever it was went away or healed up or whatever. And I appreciate that experience to this day.

I was a a hurting child or frightened or sick or something. and a Christian took the time to pray with it. Did that matter to me? And that still matters to me. I've also been a guest on the Seven Hundred Club several times.

met Pat Robertson, Terry Museum, and many of the other people there, and found them very delightful. but someone praying with me is different than someone claiming that God privately revealed information about me. Or for me. Prayer says, let's take this need together to the throne of grace. Private revelation says, God has given me information about what He is doing in your life.

Stella's a very different claims, aren't they? And we need to understand the difference. I bring this up because I've got a letter this week. Very kind letter. following last week's program and She was genuinely troubled and asked me an honest question.

She told me she had experienced healing while watching a word of knowledge segment on the 700 Club. A host described a particular condition, announced that God was healing someone, instructed that person to claim the healing. She was healed. And then she asked me, Are you saying that's illegitimate? Are you saying that is false prophecy or even sin?

And that question deserves a direct answer. First, God heals. God hears prayer. God asks us to pray and ask Him. He asks for others to pray for us if we are sick.

God answers prayer. He is sovereign over every disease, injury, physician, medication, and human body. And you know what? This woman's testimony, I rejoice with her, and I join her in thanking God for the healing she experienced. But there are two different statements here.

God healed me. And then God told this television host that He is healing someone right now. The first is a testimony to God's mercy. The second is a claim of direct revelation. And a person's healing may establish that that person was healed.

It does not automatically establish that the television host possessed private knowledge of what God was doing. When you're speaking to thousands and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, you say somebody right now is being healed of a headache.

Well, guess what?

Somebody has a headache and they're watching and they're saying, Lord, relieve me of this headache. And whatever, for whatever reason, God relieves it. For one person and not the other, I don't know. But you see where I'm going with that. God may mercifully answer prayer, even when our explanation of what happened is imperfect.

And I've got a chapter I was writing on my next book about that very thing and me and Benny Hinn. Wait till you read it. You have to wait for the book to come out. Bottom line is scripture. Must interpret our experiences.

Our experiences do not get to interpret scripture. Do you see the difference? The phrase word of knowledge, by the way, appears in 1 Corinthians 12, but that passage does not describe the modern practice of announcing an unidentified Illness to a television audience and telling viewers to claim their healing. Plus, I really struggle with the whole thing of this is the word of knowledge segment of our program. Like we've got it segmented.

I mean, I do a broadcast show, and now at the last segment of the show, I always do a song that every caregiver, a hymn that every, I can't imagine, okay, this is my time to have a word of knowledge. I, I, that in itself just kind of makes my eyespin counterclockwise.

So, the whole thing about word of knowledge, let me just ask you a quick question. Is that word of knowledge? Basically saying that what Scripture says is insufficient? Is what we have in Scripture sufficient? or not.

And if it is not, then we got a bigger problem. If it is. Then why does this person get a special revelation? They may have great insights, they may be very, very smart, and they may be intuitive on a lot of things, but that is different than a claim of special revelation. Do you see the difference?

So it really comes down to one simple question. Is Scripture sufficient? 2 Timothy 3:16 through 17 says, All scripture is breathed out by God so that the servant of God may be complete, equipped, free. For every good work. By the way, I would suggest to you that doing the work of a caregiver is good work.

all of Scripture is breathed out by God so that the servant of God may be complete equipped. We are complete and equipped for the good work of being a caregiver. Because of what Scripture says, Acts 17, 11, the Bereans were called noble because they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things and these things meant what Paul was preaching to them were so. When the Apostle Paul preached, How much more so? For television people and radio people like me.

This is what we do. We examine. We test it against scripture. That's the whole point of all this. His word is sufficient.

It cannot fail. God has spoken, and let's continue studying it together because that is hope. Indeed, for the caregiver. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. HopefortheCaregiver.com. Hopeforth the Caregiver.com. We're Continuing on in our discussion of, you know, what do we believe?

Why do we believe this? Why do we care? Why am I talking about this? Why am I doing any of this stuff? And I'm glad you asked.

Thank you for asking. You don't I spent a very, very long time. sitting in pews at church and listening to ministers. going to Bible studies, going to Even healing ministries, all these things. And I would hear people say things.

and I could not bridge the gap. Of what I was seeing at home or what I was seeing at the hospital. I remember one time, and y'all don't tell anybody this, okay? This is kind of embarrassing, but a friend of mine told me they were going to have a healing service at their church the other night. And I said, Well, can I send Gracie's prosthetic leg and y'all feel this?

Okay. Um I mean I I was pretty acerbic. And I think this audience would understand why, because that gets annoying to listen to people talk about we're going to have a healing service on Sunday night.

Well, why not have one now? You know, you ever seen revival signs? We're having a revival in two weeks.

Well, do we have to stay dead until then? Because you don't revive something unless it's dead.

So, do I have to stay dead for two weeks before we have a revival? Do you see what I'm going with this? Do you see the kind of questions I ask when you've got a relentless splinter in your finger? As I mentioned earlier, when you've got something that is digging at you. And you cannot reconcile it with what you're hearing and seeing all around you.

In the church culture, where people say things, God told me this, and you're over there thinking, I'm going back and forth to the hospital, I'm praying, I'm having people anointed with oil, I'm doing all these things, and nothing's happening. I'm watching the 700 Club, I'm hearing the people do it with the word of knowledge, I hear all these things, I see all these things, and nothing is happening. Nothing is changing. In fact, in some respects, it's getting worse.

So now what do I do with that information? How do I deal with this? This is the the question that I have struggled with for a lifetime. And again, as I told you in the last block, I am not here to in any way promulgate myself as anything other than a caregiver who is a clear sinner. No question.

I mean, no question. And Has seen the redemptive work of God in his life. in such a profound way that I've got to tell people about it. While I'm still looking at suffering on a regular basis. That's who I am.

I mean, I look at these Bible teachers and these scholars and these wonderful pastors and so forth, and I see these people, and I'm thinking, wow. I mean they're amazing. You know, and Gracie had on some YouTube videos the other morning because she wasn't able to make it to church. And before I was leaving, I was going to go down there and play the piano. And she was listening, and I was watching some of these teachers, and they were just like.

Wow. I mean, these are just such gifted people when it comes to being able to see these things. And I envy them. And I mean, not in a bad way. I mean, I'm not over here like coveting that, you know, kind of thing, but I want to be that way.

And so I try to study. Hard, and I've got, like I said, I have some pastors and teachers who spend time with me. And I ask hard questions. And never once do the Put their Fingers up to their temple and try to divine the answer. Look like that guy from Psych.

Remember that show? You know, he just kind of looked like he was trying to divine the answer. They don't do that. They said, well, let's go to the text. Let's talk about the scripture.

Let's go back to the Word of God. Let's examine it together. And then you go home and look at it by yourself, and you struggle with it. Wrestle with it. Call me back.

We'll wrestle with it some more. But none of them claim to have anything other than what is on the written page. And this is what I want to drive home to my fellow caregivers because I have been pulled into all kinds of different directions by people. I've had things thrown at me. I've had people come up and say the most ridiculous things to me.

I have watched people on television do these things, and I've watched this for a lifetime. And particularly when you're going through chronic suffering. And it never seems to end. And people want to come up with a reason why this is happening. And so they want to tell you about that reason.

They want to put that reason on you. And then they want to somehow use scripture to give them a reason to say that to you so it makes them feel better.

Now if that sounds harsh Well, that's only because it is. Because that's what they do. And you've seen it. And if you haven't seen it, stick around for a while. You'll see it.

But when you've done this for 40 years, believe me, you see it. And I had to deconstruct, or no, let me be clear. I had to be deconstructed. And relearn things. I had to unlearn things and then relearn things.

about the things of God. And I was demanding that God function in the way that I had. perceived that he would. And he didn't do it.

So now what are you going to do? And Most people don't have a situation that is going to go on for as long as ours has gone on. It will go on a long time, but but chronic everyday suffering that is relentless. And there are a lot of people dealing with stuff far worse than me and Gracie. And there are a lot of people dealing with stuff are less than Gracie and me.

But we have a s sort of unique is a quasi unique situation that has gone on for so long and it's been so relentless. There's never been a plateau So it's just constant. It never planes out. And because there's just relentless pain and relentless. Suffering and challenges and heartache and all these kinds of things, it forces these questions out of the basement of your soul.

And you've got to reconcile with this. And if God isn't going to function the way you thought he was going to, or that you want him to, you've got to come to some kind of. reckoning with this. And after I had floundered around and acted like a the north end of a southbound horse. But after I'd done this, I had to come to a reckoning of This Jesus that I hear about.

this gospel. that is being preached. And I had to ask myself a very basic question. Christian, what do you believe? And then that leads to another question which I mentioned in the last block.

Is Scripture sufficient? is what I have in my Bible The Scriptures that I have, is it sufficient for me? Is his grace sufficient for me like he said it was for Paul? These are questions that I ask and I can't move pass those questions until I reckon with those questions. I don't get the luxury of saying, sure, let's move on now.

No, there is no moving on. That's where I live. That is the place where I camp. If you trace the Israelites' journey from Egypt To Israel. It is not a 40-year journey, it's about two weeks.

But God had them just r go around in a circle. Just camping out there. It's not a big space. I mean, you know, I could make it across Montana in that time, and Montana's a pretty big place. This was not a lengthy journey, but it took 40 years for them.

Why?

Well, there's a lot of sin and all that kind of stuff, which I certainly understand. But there's a point where God is shaping. A people. And sometimes he uses very, very uncomfortable things to do it. In fact, I would suggest to you that.

Like we have with our surgeons, I mean, there are tools that a surgeon will use that I don't even want to touch, look at, I don't want to even know about. They'll go in and do ghastly things to my wife in an operating room with ghastly instruments that I don't even want to know about. It is painful. It's very painful. But in their hands they know what they're doing.

Well, some of them. What about God? Is that a picture? Of a greater surgeon, the greater physician. who uses sometimes very, very painful things in our life.

To accomplish something, To force an issue. to shape a people. to shape a person. And it seems to always come down to Christian what do you believe? What is it that we are confessing that we believe?

And so when I Go through this series that I'm doing on theology. I'm not doing this to be academic. That's the last thing on my mind. I'm doing this because I know there are going to be times in the middle of the night when you're going to wake up and you're going to turn on the television and somebody's having a word of knowledge about somebody, somebody saying the Lord has told you to do something or them to do something, and you're going to question, you're going to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, is that for real?

Well, I got a healing because this person had a word of knowledge. No, you didn't get a healing because anybody had a word of knowledge. You got a healing because of the mercy of God. Period. End of discussion.

No man is offered anything, and they may say things I don't know. But I would always question it. If the Apostle Paul was questioned and Scripture said it was noble, To be questioned.

Okay. Good theology doesn't mind questions. Ask away. And there are a lot of things that we cannot know. Scripture talks about this in Deuteronomy when Moses was saying, he said, these are mysteries of God.

There are things that God keeps to himself that are mysteries for him, they're not for us. And that's one of the reasons Hebrew scholar told me God abhors fortune tellers and diviners and so forth like that, because they're delving into the m the his realm. That belongs to him. He knows what's coming to morrow. He knows what's coming to morrow.

That's not our job to know what's coming to morrow. That's God's purview. And so those are things that we cannot, but He has given us the entire breadth of His decreed word so that we can know Him. And we can know who he is, what his attributes are. If I say to you right now, God is good.

What are you going to respond with all the time?

Well, that's a really nice thing to say. But what are the implications of that when you're looking at somebody giving up their legs? Is that what you would say to Gracie as she's going down to surgery to give up her remaining leg? Hey, God's good, Gracie. Is that is that what we do?

He is good. He is merciful. He heals. And I know that even as I was pushing her down to surgery. But what are the implications of this?

Particularly if he doesn't heal. Is he less good? Is he less merciful? Do you see how it's important for us to ask really good questions? And then go to Scripture together and say, okay, what does the Scripture say?

What what where do we lean on this? And we start with Proverbs. lean not on your own understanding. But in all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths. He's not going to show you the map.

He'll just direct your path. If he ain't going to show you the map, believe me, well, you've tried. Hey, I tell you what, you argue with him for a while, and I'll sit back here and wait for you to come up with a good answer because I think that would be a marvelous. Change of pace. If you may get further with God in arguing with Him than I have, and I've, and you know what.

All the best to you on that one. But Like I said, I've spent a lifetime doing this. I've spent a lifetime asking the same questions every single day. and going to scripture and hearing about this grace. about this redemptive work.

about this great Savior. who sees us in our distress and comes to us. and has rescued us from something far worse than anything we look at on this planet. And that is hope for this caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We'll be right back. Mm. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosberger. Glad to be with you.

HopefortheCaregiver.com. HopefortheCaregiver.com. I Hope and trust that you have found this. At least Thought-provoking that we can have this kind of dialogue about these issues and. You know, throw it out there and let's examine it.

And if you have questions on it, if I have questions. created more confusion in you than you had before listening to this program. Feel free to write me like the wonderful listener did from last week and said, Look, I hope I clarified it. I hope I made some sense out of what her issues were. And I'll follow back and she'll let me know.

And I want that kind of dialogue with you.

Now, if you want to argue with me, be prepared okay if you're Genuinely questioning something, I'm going to do the best I can. And if I can't go down that deeper road with you, you know what? I'll bring in some experts who can. And I'll be glad to do that, but I'm not here to argue. You know, I I have field tested every question I've asked.

you and myself throughout this program and so many more. And the laboratory that I work in, the classroom that I work in. Has an awful lot of monitors that beep, doctors and nurses, and medical staff that come in and out, and a lot of pain, and a lot of screaming, and a lot of blood.

Okay, that's the laboratory where I have worked all these things out.

So I I don't sit in safety in in muse on these things. I really, I really spend the time pursuing it, and then I go back to the Word of God. And I wrestle with it and I wrestle with it. You know, kind of like Jacob, after he wrestled all night, he got a limp out of it.

Well, I kind of walk like quasi-modo. But I'd rather limp around and look like Igor from Frankenstein. And knowing that I have wrestled with God. And that I have come to understand him better than I did before I wrestled with him. And it's worth every limp, it's worth every scar, it's worth every tear, every moment of agony.

To know that I know that I know, and to know what I have believed. And that's what I would have for my fellow caregivers because this stuff will bowl you over. It will come when it's the most inconvenient, the most unfair time. and you will be hit with stuff that is just brutal. and I would have you have something to hang on to.

in the midst of that craziness. That's why I do this program.

So, if you have any questions, go out to the website. You can go to standingwithhope.com. There's a contact form there and let me know. And while you're there, look at what we do. And I am going to ask you: if you have gotten something out of this program, help me do more of it.

We were able to raise sufficient funds to send the supplies over for this particular shipment to Africa. And I want you to know how much I appreciate this audience getting involved. We are still working on raising money for the Bibles. And the hymnals that we're going to be sending that our church replaced those, the one they've had for years, and we're going to send them over there to the clinic in Ghana. And if you want to support what we're doing with the prosthetic limb outreach, or if you want to support.

Or if you want to support the caregiver outreach, which is this program, the podcast, all the things that we do. for family caregivers. I would welcome the help.

Okay, if you see value in it. Get involved. Put your shoulder to the wheel with me. And we're going to go out there to the best of our abilities and reach into these very lonely, dark places where caregivers can feel heard and understood and have somebody with credible experience point them to safety. That's it.

And the safety I'm going to point you to every time, all the time. Each time. Is the word of God. Because there's no other place to go.

Now you can try that on your own if you want. But again, I field tested this. For a lifetime, there is no other place to go. My mother asked me not too terribly long ago and was doing a pretty rough stretch when we were in the hospital. and for five months and she said, How are you doing?

How how are you coping with this, Peter? And I said, well, mom. I have really good theology. She said, But yeah, but how are you coping with this? I said, Mom, I have really good theology.

And I don't say that to brag. Anyway, I have a long line of great teachers who have put their hands on my shoulder and said, look. It's important for you to understand what you believe and why you believe it. You're not going to be able to withstand otherwise. And I have wrestled with these things.

And when I land on a square, I may not have many squares, but the square I'm landing on, it's bedrock. It's not going to collapse under me. Like the hymn writer said, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. twofold, by the way, his atoning blood and his lived righteousness. That is extended to me.

That is the imputation of both of those. The blood and his righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand. That's what the hymn writer wrote. Paul got to the point where he just said, I preach Christ and Christ crucified. Is that sufficient?

Is the Word of God sufficient for you? Is the decreed Word of God what you have in your hands? Is that sufficient for you or not? That's the question I want you to ponder on. After today's program.

And if you don't know your word. Mm-hmm. Today's a great day to start. Memorize it. Memorize it.

And I'm going to leave you with a hymn that every caregiver ought to know. And it was written in the 1940s by a Scottish evangelist. Husband and wife. And I'm just going to do the the um the chorus of it. Seth worked as a conductor and a motorman for the Glasgow tram system.

And while he was there, he helped lead the Tramway Christian Association, and they distributed Bibles and Christian literature by railway. And he left the railway and became a full-time traveling evangelist. And he would write the lyrics and preach, and she wrote the music. And they had a little small organ, his wife, Bessie, and they were. Pretty innovative for their day.

They were using um projected lantern slides during extended gospel campaigns that they would do, and you know, kind of like an overhead projector kind of thing. He wrote this on a train uh traveling somewhere between Edinburgh and and Glasgow. And it's it's a course that Gracie have sung for a lifetime. And in the most dire of circumstances, I promise you that we have, again, field-tested these in very, very tough situations. And it's one that you can remember in the dark watches of the night.

That's why it's a hymn that every caregiver ought to know.

So let's go over to the caregiver keyboard. Very simple song. Living my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and free.

Isn't that a great, I mean, isn't that a great hymn? To know and to sing in the middle of the night because that's it. And Paul and Silas were singing hymns around midnight in prison. They weren't singing this one, it wasn't written until the 1940s. But What a him.

And what a text for us as caregivers. To Remember In those crazy moments, when everything seems to go, we're so discouraged and we're thinking, This is never going to end. This is not going to get resolved. This is not going to end the way we want it to. God is not doing what we want Him to do.

We focus our minds back on this and sing this tiny little chorus. Two, and I put in that cord fork just because I wanted to. Yeah. A great salvation. And free soul with great salvation sorrows and free.

A great hymn for us as caregivers to be reminded of when we are facing with all kinds of stuff to know that we are kept secure in Christ. If he saves you he can keep you. How's that for good theology? If he can save you, he can keep you. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.

Whatever we're going through in this world. through His providence, through His hand, however painful it is, and I don't particularly like it, And Gracie certainly does it. But we trust him.

Well, why do we trust him? See, that's the question. That's what I've been trying to. Explore it.

Well, why do we trust it when those words say we can? What does that mean to us?

Well, go back and look at Genesis 15. Abraham believed God. and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He took him at his word. And that's where I want us to be as caregivers, so that when we hear things from other people saying things that are as they're working out whatever theology they have, that we don't have to get pulled into some of these things.

that we can stand secure knowing, okay, you know, I know whom I have believed. You know, I know my Redeemer liveth. I know that he saved my soul. from something far worse. than being a caregiver for forty years.

Okay? I know he did this.

So I can have some things that Remain unanswered? maybe even for all eternity. But what I cannot do without is the assurance from his word. That I cannot live without. Because that is what gives this caregiver hope.

I put more of this out at caregiver.substack.com. I hope you'll take a look at it. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll see you next time.