Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.
And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.
Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Oh, welcome to If Not For God with Mike Zwick. I was thinking about what we're going to talk about this week. I've been going through the book of Romans.
Just really been reminded about the grace of God. Watching a Seinfeld episode. I saw Kramer. He saw this guy in the hospital and he said, this guy's the pig man. He looked like a pig and half man or whatever. And he goes in there, tells George, George Costanza, that he found this guy pig man. And George said, I wish there were more pig men out there. And Kramer said, why is that? And he says, because if there were more pig men out there, then women would find me more attractive. And, you know, but it kind of reminded me of the gospel. You know, I guess in our own way, where some of us say. That's not a kosher situation.
That was not a kosher situation. But, you know, it kind of reminded me of the gospel where, you know, and I've heard people say this is, you know, I'm a pretty good person. Or as long as I'm not hideous, like the pig man, then I should be able to sneak my way into heaven. I think the Bible tells a little bit of a different story. I love the word grace. I mean, it's one of my favorite words in all the Bible. So tell me what's up with grace and Romans Chapter five from your perspective. Yeah, it was really all of them, man. There were so many different parts in the first five chapters, but it was Romans five.
And it says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. We've all done it where we say, man, I've got to do better. I've got to do better. I've got to do this.
I've got to do that. And I believe in excellency. I believe in trying to do our very best for the kingdom. Matter of fact, it says in Colossians three twenty three that whenever you work, whatever you do, do so as if you're working for Christ. And I believe here at the Truth Network, we always try to do our best.
And I think we all strive for that. But at the same time, we can't work our way into heaven. We can't make it on our own. And so without a savior, number one, we can't get in. And number two, without the savior, I don't care how good we are, we're not going to get in. And so I don't know that I do feel like there's kind of a balance there where we realize that it's all about his grace and that no matter how good we are, we all miss the mark.
And until we can get to that point to where we realize the depravity of our own souls, I don't think we could ever really look up. Well, the beauty of what you just said, I love that verse. There's the word peace right there. And you might remember that Jesus, when he came to his disciples, the first time they had a little, you know, get together in the upper room.
And you remember what he said? He said there wasn't a lot of peace in that room prior to Jesus's arrival. I mean, the reason they were in that room is they were scared to death. I mean, they thought, you know, this could be the big one.
They're coming to get us. And so it's fascinating to me that those are the first words he says, which are shalom, okay? And I don't know if you've ever studied the word shalom, that word peace, but it has so much to do with this season, right? Because we're coming into Christmas and boy, if there was ever a time the world needed some peace. And oh, by the way, it can be in you because that's, you know, that's what Jesus gives with the gospel. It's like peace.
And so just some neat little things for you to think about. The root of the word peace in Hebrew, you've heard the word shalom. Well, the word fire has the same root. And I don't know if you've ever looked at the flame of fire. It's just there's a certain grace, right? As it's just constantly moving back and forth and all that stuff's going on. We just had that bonfire, you know, at the... Oh, that's nice.
It was. But here's another one that I find really cool, and it certainly goes with Christmas when it comes to peace, is the word snow. Has the same root as the word fire, has the same root as the word shalom.
And so just think about the last time you were in a really big snowstorm and you're outside and the snow is falling. You know, you sense that peace, right? Is that not just beyond cool, those words?
I could add a couple others. Interestingly, quail. Quail.
Right, what they ate in the desert, you remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, think about a quail, man.
When a quail is not in its covey, it ain't happy, and it's starting to call for more quail, right? Yeah. And there's apparently a certain peace that's not unlike snow, that's not unlike fire, that's in that word. And just as you go into Christmas, like, wouldn't it be nice, right, to have the peace that transcends all understanding?
Yes. And I like the other word, grace, right? Grace. Because he's your favorite. I mean, you're his favorite.
Like, you couldn't even, if you tried, no matter, you know, that Jesus is full of grace, which is favor, which means that when you, you know how it is when you're around somebody that really, really just likes you? Yeah. And you can see in your eyes that you're their favorite? Yes. And you just like to be around that? Yeah. Well, so here you are, Jesus walks in, he says, peace, right? Yeah. And you can sense that you're his favorite, and then he says, interestingly, in that same little sentence there as he comes out in John chapter 20, he says, as my father has sent me, I now send you.
Well, here's another interesting little fun fact. The word sent that, by the way, is mentioned 40 times in the Gospel, my father sent me. He says this 40 times before he gets there. He says, my father sent me. He says, now I sent you. Guess where the root word of sent, in fact, I bet you know this if you really think about it, because you've heard the word sloam, right?
Missionary homes? I know you've heard it. Yeah, yeah. Right. Well, that's sent, right? The pool that he sent the blind man. Yes.
Right? And so guess what the root is? The same as snow, the same as fire, the same as quail, the same as shalom, because think about the peace. If I know that what I'm supposed to do, if I'm on the way to like a mission from God, like the Blues Brothers, I've got all this peace because Jesus sent me, right?
There's no angst in that. And so something to think about, I've been thinking about it this Christmas. You know, when you're talking about that, I go back to Romans chapter four, because really what I've been reading is all throughout the book of Romans. And Stu, we actually, we had our Bible study on Saturday and Stu brought this up and he said that Martin Luther. Stu came out to Mabin? No, no, no. He, over the phone.
Oh, okay. But he was telling us that Martin Luther was really inspired by the book of Romans. But Romans chapter four, here it is again, what then shall we say it that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this matter. If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does scripture say?
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work, but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. I mean, that kind of goes against everything that we're taught in a capitalist society in America. You know, we're told work hard and then you'll get your rewards.
And this says no. Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain and he washed it. That sounds sort of a gift, like Christmas.
Yeah, like Christmas. And he washed it white as snow. I'm reminded of the story of our friend Dr. Alan Wright from Reynolda. He told the story one time where he said that his son, I think it's Bennett. What he said about Bennett was he said Bennett worked so hard to be successful. I mean, his dad was actually going to take him out to play golf and he said, no dad, I've got to get this project done for school.
I need to get this paper done for school. And so his dad said, you know, I'm proud of you for doing what you need to do. He says, but what pushes you to do it? He said, well, dad, I know that I'm already accepted by you no matter how I perform. And because I'm accepted, that pushes me to do more. And I feel like I've kind of had that realization as well.
I had a friend of mine, Sharon Hungerford, and she sent me an email a while back. And in the email, it was really it was just a it was it was great. But what she was talking about, she says that she felt like she had a word from the Lord for me. And I was like, OK, you know, I was just trying to figure out like what what could it be or what might it be or whatever. But basically what she said in her word was that in my seeking out Abba, I sense that I should ask him if he has a word for you.
The following is what I heard. Always seek him for confirmation and test the spirit. Abba, do you have a word for Michael's wick? He is my most prized possession, but he does not even know it. Tell him, Sharon, give him this gift for me. Sharon says, yes, Abba. Michael, I formed you. I planned and purposed you. I am your Abba. You have looked to a man who chose himself over me and you.
And I was like, wow, that was good. You know, rejection, as do I. You fight labor hard for my acceptance, my approval when you already have it. I could not love you more. I love your zeal for all things righteous. I love your courage to press in and through, even when feeling afraid, afraid of failure. Michael, you cannot fail me.
I will not let you say law. Pause and think about this. Michael, you are mine.
One hundred percent mine. Fear not ever. And if you do, allow my perfect love to wash over you. Rest in this truth. If you never did another work for me, I love you and I am pleased with you. I give you my rest. My love is everlasting.
You are mine and I am yours always. And she says that Abba, and you probably know this, Robbie, is the Hebrew person. Intimate form of father, daddy, God. The children of Jewish families call their fathers Abba. And my dad was Jewish.
He was raised Jewish. And so sort of had a little bit of that. Go back to the beginning of that. You said there was a man. That was kind of confusing to me. Yeah, she said you look to a man.
Right, that part. You look to a man who chose himself over me and you. And I think in, you know, you know, in many ways, that may have been my dad because he wasn't he just wasn't interested in God or anything like that his whole life. And we've talked about this before. Maybe at the last moment, he had a conversion experience, hopefully, where Marsha Wade prayed for him. But the I don't know, ever since I read that every once in a while, when things get a little rough, Robbie, guess what I read? But but on the other hand, and this is kind of where I was talking to you on the way over here, was that since I read that, since I know that I'm already accepted by God and I don't have to do anything to earn his acceptance. It makes me want to do even more for him because I know that he loves me unconditionally. I mean, how many people do we have in our lives who really love us unconditionally?
It's probably very few. Right. Which gets back to, you know, in so many different ways. I just feel like with all that has gone on in the last two years, that the whole world is looking for peace. I mean, like, it just feels like this constant, you know, another dear friend gets sick. Another dear friend is in ICU, another dear friend, we're worrying about their oxygen levels. And then you get a little sniffle and you're thinking, hmm. And, you know, you obviously try not to make an agreement that you feel bad. But, you know, still the stuff is just it's called trauma.
And when it's weighing on you like like it has over the last two years, just take COVID, no other events. And we've had plenty to worry about, then all of a sudden, you know, we have a new opportunity to push into Christ like we never, ever have. Right.
Because it's changed so many different things. And then, oh, you know, there's I'm sure you've read this somewhere, Wars and Rumors of Wars. Yeah. But how about, you know, oh, there aren't going to be any turkeys this Thanksgiving or, you know, and all these different things. I don't know if you're hearing the same thing. Oh, there's a shortage of this. There's not going to be any that this is going to happen.
That's going to happen. I mean, I've obviously lived 60 some odd years at this point in time, 65, six, and I've seen a lot of stuff. But honestly, this is such an opportunity to find peace, to find that idea of, wow, God chose you, Michael. And he's thrilled to death. And, wow, what he has for us is really very peaceful.
It is. And, you know, it's interesting when I'm thinking about this. You reminded me of a story. We used to go to a Bible study with the John G. Lake Ministries, and we have some friends, Tiger and Elena, and another guy named Joel. And Tiger and Elena were on the show, but they told me, they said that we went out one morning and we were knocking on doors, just asking people, do you need prayer? And they said they went out the whole time and they were just about ready to go because it was about 15 minutes before. And they said, we're going to go knock on one more door. And the last door that they went to was a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter. And they all decided to give their lives to Christ. What Joel had told them before they went out, he said that the place that we are in our society right now, he said, the fruit is so ripe.
He said, all you kind of have to do is tap the tree and it's just going to fall right off. And I think what he meant by that was that people are looking for something right now. It was interesting. I saw a study and they said that the people who are the most interested in looking to God or looking to something spiritual are the younger people. And what's happening is you've looked at what's happened over the past 20 or 30 years in this country. And everything that they told us would make us happy, I don't think has made us happy. I mean, you know, we've said, hey, we get more and more and the more and more that we get will make us happy. But I like the quote by G.K. Chesterton.
What he said was, he said, it is not that we find meaninglessness in the lack of things, but we find meaninglessness when we have an abundance. You know, we can kind of get everything that we want now. You know, I mean, we can go to McDonald's. You know, people all around the world in Africa, all these different countries in Asia, they would love to live in the United States. But people in the United States are not happy because they don't have a piece. And I don't care how much money you have.
I don't care how great things are. I mean, unless you have Jesus, you have no peace. And on the other side, I mean, I know some of the poorest people out there who have hardly anything and they have so much joy because they have the love of Jesus. Well, it's a cool thing. And there's a very interesting verse and, you know, in Psalms 119, verse 70.
And, of course, 70 would be a pretty significant number and it happens to be in the Tet section. So, it's the idea of hidden goodness somehow. And King David through the Psalm up to this point is being persecuted by these proud people. So, when he says, their hearts are as fat as grease, he's referring to the proud people. He says, their hearts are as fat as grease, but I delight in my law.
Now, there is a very interesting thing. Now, you might remember that Marie Antoinette, when she was being chased by the, you know, the peasants who said, we need bread, we need bread, you know, and they all came to her. What did she say? Well, they say she said, give them cake. Let them eat cake.
Let them eat cake. And the point is, is that your heart gets so fat because it doesn't have to struggle for anything that you can't relate to these people that don't have bread to think that, well, you know, let them eat Twinkies, you know, whatever. The situation is, but the point is, is their hearts are as fat as grease because there's no, how do you get fat? You get fat because you don't struggle. It's like you're in this cocoon, right, in order to get the wings to fly, you got to do some struggling because you got to build up those wings, right, in order to be the butterfly that God has in mind for you. And so what King David says to the backside of that is where he works, his struggle is delighting in the law. In other words, as he gets to this place, right, it's like a workout for your soul. Because if you delight in all the stuff that you just essentially are, all these things you're talking about, you end up with, you know, Pharaoh syndrome. Okay. You know, a heart that gets really hard.
And the reason it's hard is it's fat, it's indulged, it's indulged, it's indulged. But the cool thing is I've been thinking about this really all day. It's just been on my heart that I don't know if you've seen the movie.
Well, I know you have because you've been to boot camp. It's called The Butterfly Circus. There's this guy who's got no arms and legs.
His name's Nick Vyachek in real life, but he's called Will in the movie. You ought to go see it on YouTube. It's only 20 minutes.
It's spectacular. The reason it's called The Butterfly Circus is the whole idea of you got to struggle to get out of the cocoon. But here's this poor guy. He's got no arms and legs and he's been in this freak show. And, you know, the tagline on him is, you know, years a man that was cursed from birth. You know, that God turned his back on him and all this stuff.
And the problem was the guy kind of believed it. Well, there's this scene where he's down at the river and, you know, he's trying to get in the water with everybody else to swim and nobody will help him. And he starts screaming, help me, help me, help me. And he actually falls down on a rock and he's laying there.
You can imagine this guy, no arms, no legs. He's on this rock. And the ringmaster goes by him and he screams, aren't you going to help me? And he goes, oh, no, I think you'll manage.
Will is sitting there struggling, struggling, struggling to get up. And he finally gets up. And when he gets up, man, he is so pumped.
He's like, woohoo. You know, he doesn't have any arm, but he's wiggling his shoulder like, look at me, look at me. And then he falls in the water. And then everybody's thinking, you know, there's no way this guy can swim.
Right. And all of a sudden when his head pops up, because he's just wiggling this little piece of a foot he kind of has, and he's wiggling his shoulders, he comes up to the surface. And when his head pops up, man, that is one happy dude, because he realizes that with enough struggle, right, that stuff can happen. And so as this happens, right, he starts to get out of cocoon. Best part of that whole scene is at the end where he dives from this death-defying act from this big thing, comes down into this water. But then up comes this little boy who's also crippled on crutches. And he lays his head on Nick's chest, right, and just hugs him as the mother looks on that has got the crippled boy. And you see 2 Corinthians chapter 1 has come to life, right? The God of all comfort has comforted you so that you can comfort others with the comfort that you've been comforted with.
Well, if there ain't no struggle, you don't get no comfort. So he's reading about Harriet Beecher Stowe today. She wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah. And her father was a famous preacher. Her brothers all became preachers.
One of her brothers became a famous preacher back in the 1800s. But what had happened was, was she wrote this book because she was so devout in her faith, she actually lost one of her children. One of her children died by drowning. She realized how horrible it was to lose one of her children. And she saw these African Americans who were slaves, they would just sell their children off and they would never get to see their children again. And she said, this is abhorrent. I can't stand for this.
I'm going to have to do something about it. She wrote this book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and they supposedly Abraham Lincoln said, so you're the little woman who started this war. I mean, it was it was the next to the Bible.
It was the second most read book of the of the 19th century. But it was interesting thing happened after she had that success and after she did. Well, she ended up looking into spiritualism and she started to look at all these different religions and stuff like that. And it's just interesting that when when when things are tough, when things are rough, a lot, not always, but a lot of times you end up looking up to God.
But then when things tend to get better, you go, I'm fine. Now, thank God later on and Solomon Solomon. I mean, thank God later in her life, I think she ended up joining the the Episcopal Church.
And so I think it worked out pretty well. But, you know, it almost makes me wonder, maybe success isn't isn't all it's cracked up to be. I mean, you look at you look at Jesus when he was when he was talking and he said, blessed are the poor. Well, you said he says the poor in spirit. No, in Luke six, he says, blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, I have come to preach the good news to the poor.
Well, it's not wise because because they don't have anything else to look to. They don't have their own wealth. I mean, when when when Jesus talked to the young man who was very rich, the guy said, I mean, pretty much said, hey, I'm a pretty good person. And Jesus says, well, sell everything that you have and give it to the poor. Come follow me. And the guy went away.
He didn't want to do that. And so as long as you're clinging to anything other than Jesus, man, I think you missed the mark. And when I really read this Romans, really the first five book, the first five chapters of Romans, it really helped me to get a better understanding of God's grace so that there's nothing that I've done to earn this thing. No matter what I do, it doesn't make me any better than anybody else. And, you know, we'll say they say, well, we get rewards and stuff like that. But, you know, even even with that, I mean, if you're just serving the Lord so you can get rewards and I always wonder if is that the right reason to do it?
I don't know. I mean, I do it. You know, as a matter of fact, it says that we love him because he first loved us. And that's that's the gospel. I love natural curiosity. And that's what children have.
Like, what does that mean and how does that work? And so at the boot camp, I had some neat questions. One of my favorite questions that that, you know, and it was a guy it was probably about my age. And he comes up and he goes, Robbie, can I ask you a question?
I can't. I hope you've asked God already. But if I'll be, you know, because we do that at boot camp, we ask guys to go to God before they come to us. He says, well, I've asked God, but I'm just wondering if you have an answer to this. And essentially said, you know, why doesn't God do something about Satan?
I mean, here he's causing all the shenanigans. But, you know, I just don't understand. And I said, well, the fascinating thing is that question right there. It was, you know, Robinson Crusoe. That was a famous question that Friday asked after Robinson Crusoe taught him all about Jesus and all the stuff, you know, about Christ. And it taught him about the Bible. You might remember Friday was the guy that he met there on the island after Robinson Crusoe was stranded.
And Friday said these famous words, which is what always echoed in my soul. Why God no kill devil. Okay.
Okay. Why God no kill devil. Well, no devil, no struggle, no struggle, right?
No poor in spirit. How all that stuff kind of works together, you know, in the struggles that we have through COVID that hopefully it takes us to the point where we are trying to go after that Shalom. That fire, that snow, those quail, right? And once you get a good dose of that, people are drawn to that. What should they do, Mike? Cry out to Jesus.
How do they do that? Just ask him to forgive you of your sins and follow him all the days of your life. As a matter of fact, once you do that, once you do decide to do that, he tells us to get baptized. If you've never been baptized before, I encourage you to find a local church that you go to Calvary, right? Calvary Baptist. They'll do it there. You can contact them in Winston-Salem.
You can contact Robbie or myself. But it's a serious decision and it's an exciting decision. And it's like, you know, when you were talking about all this stuff with COVID, Robbie, it's like, man, I mean, I just had my friend Bob who called me the other day, called us on Saturday during the Bible study. And he said, guys, I think I'm on the way out. Something had happened. His pancreas was shutting down. And he said, I'm fine with that.
And I mean, how many people do you know? He was serious. I mean, he said, yeah, I'm fine with that.
He said, because if I'm not okay with that, then what do we talk about all the time? What do we talk about eternal life, the hope for eternal life? If all we have is this hope for this life, then when we leave this life, there's nothing else. I mean, but if we're truly looking towards heaven, I mean, when we leave here, that's great.
It's even better. If not for God? If not for God.
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