The Serenity Prayer

Vanguard is owned by our investors, so we all sit on the same side of the table. As an advisor, you look out for your clients.

We look out for both of you. That's the value of ownership. Visit vanguard.com and discover ownership.

Fund shareholders own the funds that own Vanguard, Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology. And we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network.

It's about to start in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Have you thought about your loved ones and their financial security if the unexpected happens? Plan for the future with PRCUALife.

Do it for them. Since 1873, PRCUA has been ensuring that which is most precious, life, as well as protecting its members and their families financially, helping craft robust retirement plans. Join PRCUALife today and take advantage of its affordable life insurance plans, competitive annuity rates, and additional member benefits. Did you know that you can lower your income tax bill and boost your retirement income by opening a new PRCUALife, annuity, or transferring your existing account? Earn up to 3.75 APY with one year guarantee and $500 minimum deposit. Get to know us better. Visit PRCUA.org or contact your local PRC representative at 336-776-7456.

PRCUALife, protecting life through all its stages. All right, for my YouTube channel, it's If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.

If Not For God with Mike Zwick today. And Mike, you just said something real profound, right? You said that lately, since you've been studying more, spend more time with the Lord. The more I spend time with the Lord, the more I read the Bible, the more I am focused on the things of the Lord, the less the things of the world seem to bother me. When I think about it, we were just talking about politically and stuff like that.

There was a time in a year ago, two years ago, where this stuff was driving me crazy. But if you're an alcoholic or if you're a former alcoholic or a former drug addict and you've ever been involved with AA or NA or OA, which is over-eaters anonymous, or there's one NA, I think, for drugs, or there's a gambling anonymous, or whatever it is, one of their key points that they always go back to is the serenity prayer, where he says, God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And so, yes, I still try to do what I can to make a change in the world.

I try to, you know, we vote, we get involved, we pray for the unborn, and we do everything that we can do. But ultimately, we realize, as it says in Scripture, it says that the Lord, He places kings in there, and He removes them. So, ultimately, it's up to the Lord who's in there or who's out of there. But there's an old song, and it says, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And so, what you're not hearing me say is, don't get involved.

What you're not hearing me say is, don't do anything to make a change in the world. That's what we do all the time. We actually have our friend Jamal here, and he has a, it's a Wednesday in the Word Facebook page. So, if you're ever on Facebook, or if you're on there now, check it out. Follow them on Facebook, the Wednesday in the Word. But, you know, what we really, really, what I really have learned is that the closer I am to Jesus, the less that the things that are going on in the world seem to bother me, so.

Very cool. The 119 Psalms you may know is broken up into 22 different sections, which are the 22 Hebrew letters. And the same last letter is the letter Shin.

And in that section, it starts out with, princes persecute me without a cause. And interestingly, as it comes down, and I quoted this this verse last time, that it says, seven times a day I'll praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. But the very next verse after that, which is beyond spectacular and a bit challenging, but when you said that, Michael, I couldn't help but think of this verse, which it says, great peace have they, which is shalom, great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Well, when you hear the word shalom, you hear that sound, and that is the letter Shin. So, not surprisingly that you would hear that, that each of those verses start with that particular letter. But the idea of the letter Shin is really spectacular, and as I understand, that it has a lot to do with judgment, right? Because all those things are going on, but the letter Shin is like a fire, and the fire is refining. So, every time you eat a piece of food, I don't know if you thought about this, Michael, but every time you eat a piece of food, some of that food is going to go to nourish your body, and some of it's going to go out as waste.

Well, it's the same thing with your whole life. God is refining you, which he does through the fire, right? And some of your life is going to make it through the fire, and other it is going to be dross, just saying. And so, the whole idea of that letter is the idea of this refining process, and all of life, all of life in so many different ways is refining so that we will be, right? Just that purified version that when, you know, they heat up the silver, you've heard this before, right?

When it gets just perfectly refined, what happens? Then Jesus can see his reflection in it, and then, wow, it's ready, you know? Yeah, there was a song—I don't know if you've heard about this—there was a movie that recently came out, and it was Lee Strobel who did this movie. Did you, have you heard about the movie, or seen anything about it?

It's on Pureflix, but I believe it's called, he did The Case for Christ, and I think this movie was called The Case for Heaven. Have you heard of it? Yes, I've heard it, and I have Netflix, and it is, I mean, not Pureflix. I have Pureflix.

I canceled my Netflix, and then I made a mistake and mentioned in my podcast that I meant to correct myself that I only watch Pureflix, for the most part, because I know I'm not going to go wrong. I always find cool, unbelievable stuff, so I've not seen The Case for Heaven, nor did I know it was done by Lee Strobel, but I'm going to check it out now, Mike. You're intrigued. You know, I watched it, and I probably watched that movie three, four, five times, and it was interesting, because he was probably, had come from the background of saying, well, you know, I'm really skeptical of these near-death experiences, but what he did was he studied them over time, and he showed, he actually told a story of a woman who was, who had actually clinically died on her deathbed, and her soul like floated up, and she said she went on top of the roof, and she said there was a blue shoe on the roof with one of the strings that has crossed over on the other side, and she gave intricate details of this shoe that was on top of the roof, and she had never left her bed, but they went back afterwards, and they went up on that roof, and they checked, and sure enough, it was just like they said. There were so many examples of people who have passed away, and whether it was for a few minutes, or a few hours, or whatever it was, and they were able to tell, to come back and say, hey, you were talking, you guys were talking about this in the waiting room while I was under the knife, or whatever it was, and another story somebody told was that they said the doctors, you guys, when I was out, and they were completely out, they said, you guys were discussing this, this, and that, and sure enough, in just about all of these cases, it's a case for heaven, man.

I mean, it's, you know, the Bible says that the fool says in his heart that there is no God, and I believe the further and further that we look into this thing, I think the more that we really see, hey, this thing is for real, and once we find out that good news that Jesus saves, I want to share it with people. That's really cool you mentioned that, Mike, as the host of the Christian Cargo Show for a lot of years, I've had so many people calling over the years, it just literally blew my mind with such stories. I mean, blew my mind with such stories, and I've had a chance to, oh boy, I could just, I could do 15 shows just on these stories, but one of the most remarkable, I mean, is there was a man by the name of, or he is, he's still alive, his name is Bruce Veneta, and this guy, like, oh my gosh, just a bit of the story is a little bit hard to hear, but it's helpful to hear it. He's working on a semi-truck, right, like a big, huge 18-wheel truck, and the jack cuts loose, and he's trapped, boom, it comes down, the frame itself crushes him between his creeper that he's on and the concrete. Right in the middle of his, you know, stomach, the small intestines to be specific, and they said there was only like a half an inch clearance between the floor and where that, that, that, in his ministry, by the way, is called Sweet Bed Ministry, so he, from his perspective, died right there when this happened, and who wouldn't? I mean, this, this truck landed on him, and, and whatever, but an ambulance came, and all these different, and he's having the experience you're talking about, he's floating around up there. Yeah. Again, if you go to sweetbedministries.com, the story's all there, he's wrote a book, he's floating around up there, and this woman sees the accident scene, and all the ambulances, and she pulls over to the side of the road, and she begins to pray for him, even though she'd never met him in his life, and immediately, like, I forget exactly how it worked, but immediately there was a response from this angel that put me back in my body, and it hurt like crazy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, as he goes into the story, it just seems so phenomenal, but as he, he goes through all that he went through in order to live through this experience that should have killed any 15 people, you know, God had this in mind, and, and, and you're, you couldn't be more right. I mean, there is a case for heaven, and there's a case for prayer. Like, if you don't think your prayers count, man, I've never forgotten that story. I've never forgotten it, and I've heard many, many along those lines, you know, when you host a show like Christian Car Guy, which is live radio, and you, weekly, you know, it's my favorite thing in the world, anybody who listens to my show knows, I want to hear your testimony, I want to hear what God did in your life, I want a God sighting, somebody tell me what God did, you know, how could you beat that?

I mean, your testimonies are powerful, unbelievably powerful, and so, man, the stories I've heard, and I couldn't agree with Lee Strobel more. I mean, there's a case for heaven that's unbelievable, and, and certainly, you're right, things are not as they appear. Yeah, and we've talked about this before, but that when you have a, when you have your eye on heaven, that you, you tend to be a little bit happier down here, a lot happier down here as well, because the things of the world go strangely dim. I mean, when you, you know, I think it's James 4-14, it says that your life is like a vapor, you're, it's poof, you're here, and then you're gone, and so, why are we so worried about this, this life, which is so, such a short period of time, when we really should be focused on heaven, when we really should be focused on eternity, and so, you know, here, here's a couple of other things that I saw, the, you know, talking about the earth, the, the size of the earth is perfect. The earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the earth's surface. If earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free nitrogen, like Jupiter.

Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gas to sustain plant, animal, and human life. The earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly negative 30 degrees to 100 to 120 degrees. If the earth were any further away from the sun, that we would all freeze any closer, and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the earth's position to the sun would make life on, on earth impossible. The earth remains the perfect distance from the sun, while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 miles an hour. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the earth to be properly warmed and cooled each day. And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the earth for its gravitational pull.

The moon creates important ocean tides and movement, so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents. And so many times, I mean, whether it's an atheist or agnostic, and they look at us and they tell us, and they tell us, hey, you know, you believing in God is, is like, you know, believing in Santa Claus or, you know, or something like that. And I'm saying, you believing, you not believing in God is like believing in Santa Claus because the evidence is all around us, man. I mean, and ultimately when we talk about it and we think about it, that we were created for a purpose. God created us for a purpose and, and they've shown other animals that are out there. They don't have that same purpose in mind that we do. They just think, hey, I want to eat. I want to drink.

I want to do whatever I have to do to get throughout the day. But no, God created us for a purpose to know, to think about eternity. The Bible says that we all think about what's going to happen when we die.

We all think about it in eternity. And so, you know, whatever it is that you're focusing on, well, I hope that you're focusing on Jesus. And if you're not focusing on Jesus right now, it's not too late.

Read your Bible, pray, you know, go to church, spend time with other Christians. I mean, this is an exciting life. I can't think of anything more exciting than serving the Lord.

And I've heard people say, oh, well, you know, I tried being a Christian, but that was boring. I got to say this, you were doing it wrong. I wish you could get a little more excited, Michael. I mean, you know, you got to have a little enthusiasm. Don't you know you've got to be warm or hot, you know, or otherwise he's going to spit you out of his mouth.

You know, I always like to try to figure out the volume for Mike because it could go from way down here to all the way up to the blasting. But it's cool, you know, because that's the thing. You can see the passion in it. And, you know, when you really think about it, wow, I mean, apart from me, you can do nothing like your next breath.

It's counting on him. You know, you could really worry about global warming if you want to. I mean, if you want to. My mother-in-law, you know, she was like, Robbie, are you aware that the earth is? Yeah.

Black people in Texas are really hot right now. I mean, you know, there's there's all sorts of things if you want to just begin to worry. Oh, my goodness.

Yeah. You know, fear is out there. And it's especially in the times that we're living in right now. Satan would love nothing more for you to take all that bait. He keeps baiting that hook with here's a little COVID fear for you. And then how about how about some of this fear? How about some of that fear?

You know, but what's really cool to me is you see every time what Satan meant for evil, God meant for good, right? Like right this very minute, a lot of people are concerned about what's going on in Kentucky and all the floods that are going on. I can assure you, right this very minute, Andy Bowersox, if you know Andy Bowersox, I mean, he's floating around Kentucky somewhere. I'm telling you.

And he's looking for people to bless because God's going to use those things for good. And I'll never ever one of my favorite interviews. One time I was first gotten into radio. It wasn't long, terribly long after 9-11. And there was this question that everybody was asking. How could God let this happen? How could God let this happen? How could God let this on 11 or 9-11? How could it happen?

And this guy that I was interviewing said there was this dude, man. He was covered in the in the in the debris. You know how that all the people were covered with dust that came out, you know, that day during he was on Ground Zero in New York City. And he came out and he was covered with all this stuff. And everybody's going, how could God let this happen? How could God let this happen? And this dude says, he says, I got to tell you, I wasn't a believer in Jesus until this happened. He said, but now let me tell you.

He said, if it weren't for God, every day would be 9-11. I mean, and there you go. It'd be worse than 9-11, by the way. I mean, if you think things are hot, if you think, let me explain hot. You know, you know, there's the thing is that this is a point like, whoa, I love that. I'll never forget it. If it weren't for God, every day would be 9-11, much worse.

Every single day would be 9-11 and much worse. And so there's, there's a, I think it's in the, in the book of Job and I'm trying to remember where it is, but it says that sometimes the Lord actually strikes people with an illness. And so there's people out there who say, no, the Lord would never do that. That's from the devil. But what it says in the, in the book of Job, and I'm trying to remember the chapter that it says, the Lord will strike somebody with an illness and they'll be down to skin and bones. It says, but if they cry out to the Lord, the Lord will heal them and they'll become just as good as they were before, if not better. But you know, it says, if you read the book of Job, you know, he, he says, though, though he, though he strikes me, I still will serve him, or though he has afflicted me, I still will serve him. And that so many times when we are afflicted and when we do have a tough time, it's, maybe it's a way of God getting our attention. When the, when the COVID thing first came out a couple of years ago or whatever it was, there were many people out there who were upset. Why is this happening?

Why is this happening? And there was a guy over in Hillsboro and he said, I think God is using this to get our attention. I think it worked for some people. Oh, it, you know, it gets our attention in so many different ways and, you know, therein lies, you know, again, what God, what Satan meant for evil, you know, God uses for good and that whole idea of that purifying shin, right?

That, I mean, things get hotter or colder as the case may be in order for us to find real answers, right? And, you know, another cool thing I get to do because God just blessed me to work at Truth Broadcasting is I often record testimonies from guys at Winston-Salem Rescue Mission. And I don't know how many I've recorded over the years, but probably hundreds. And it's amazing how, like, I remember when I did this a couple of days ago, this guy had lived under a bridge in San Francisco for 15 years and God kept turning up the heat, right? He kept turning up the heat and he said, finally, I just went down on my knees and I prayed, God, can I live like a human being again? Can I, can you give me back a life?

Can I live like human being? And this dude's brother that he had not seen in some 30 years or something, like, he comes out of the blue as an angel, sets him up at the Winston-Salem Rescue Mission, like, and he finds the Lord and here he is, right? Because what? Because God just kept letting the heat get turned up until finally, you know, he's broken.

And he said, you know, now look, and it's unbelievable. This guy's brother came up out of the same situation as he did, which was horrible. Their parents, you know, mistreated him.

They were abused, all sorts of stuff. But when everybody had died in this brother's life and he went looking for the only person that he had in his family. Now, how cool is that? That in the midst of that, you got two lives that are connected and brothers, right? And the idea of brotherhood or sisterhood, you know, it's really, it's unbelievable that not only do we get to spend eternity with God, but Mike, it says right in Mark chapter 10, and you might remember this, one of my favorite verses that anyone who gives up lives, you know, family lands for my sake and the sake of the gospel will not fail to receive 100.

Mark that down in your book somewhere. 100 mothers, sisters, brothers, not fathers. Right? Right.

And so, you know, he's handing out him 100 and he says in this present time. And so think about the brothers that you have and the sisters and how they hold you up when, because I still fall to fear you do too. On your way, Tom, sometime today, some bill will come in, something will happen. You go, oh, but man, you got brothers, you got sisters.

They're out there praying for you. Yeah. And I think you said, Robbie, before you started doing the show, you may have had one or two friends.

And that was, that was if you said, but after you became a Christian, now you have all sorts of friends. Oh yeah. Yeah.

When I was in the car business, it was every man for himself. Yeah. You know, I didn't have a friend in this world. Didn't know I didn't have a friend in this world, but I really didn't.

That's right. And the same with me. It's been the, it's been the exact same thing. The, but once you, once you come to Christ, you realize that there are people who, who really love you and really care about you.

I mean, I had a, had a birthday yesterday and I have had going on 500 people who wish me a happy birthday. I mean, it's just amazing because I remember BC before, before I met Christ. It was tough.

You know, I, I, I tried to do it on my own and I couldn't do it on my own and it was too tough. You know, everybody knows Psalm 23, maybe the second most popular Psalm is Psalm 51. And David is actually, he actually wrote this down after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He had killed her husband Uriah.

And I think they lost a child. I mean, so he was going through a really tough time, but this really speaks to people because they, they can understand this. He says, have mercy on me. Oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you. Only you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that I may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness.

Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God, oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.

Do good design and your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in your right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. The part that it really spoke to me, he says, were in verse 16 of Psalm 51, he says, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. And we talked about this a little bit on the last show, Robbie, but that it's almost like we're, you know, we're sometimes we say, I need to do this. I need to do that.

I need to do this and the other. And it's good to work for the Lord. It's great.

The retirement benefit is phenomenal. But what I hear him saying in there, he says, it's not so much what you do for God, but it's your heart towards God. Yeah. It's almost spectacular in all sorts of levels, but it's really cool to me that he says, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Well, that's interesting. So he was saved, huh?

Yeah. And he says, don't take your Holy Spirit from me like, whoa, he already has it. Like, hmm, that's very interesting couple of things that are in that Psalm there for you to ponder. Um, and, and that idea of he looked forward to Christ because who was promised, right? It was his kid. I mean, you know, it's the son of David.

Yes. And so, you know, the whole thing is just like, how cool is that? What he said was, restore to me the joy of my salvation.

You know, therein lies a real beautiful idea. Like, do we remember the joy of our salvation? Do we know the Holy Spirit's with us today? Let me just tell you one little thing that I know the Holy Spirit's with me. Like on my way to work every day, I quote 119 Psalms.

Dude, it's really, really fun. I delight in doing that. I don't want to sound like, you know, it's something, but let me tell you how I do that. The Holy Spirit gives me the next line every time. And so anytime I wonder, is the Holy Spirit still with me? I just start quoting something and I go, Oh, he gave me that. He gave me that. Cause I know I don't, I don't have it within me.

I'm 66 years old, man. I can't remember all this stuff, but how do I remember it? How did you think about that verse you just thought about Michael? How did you think about that that you just thought about? How could you just picture Jesus in your mind?

How did all that happen? Well, let me tell you not for God. All right. For my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like subscribe and hit that notification bell.

So you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Consider joining the Polish Roman Catholic union of America, also known as PRCUA Life. PRCUA Life is a fraternal benefit society that offers a variety of different life insurance portfolios for all stages of life. PRCUA Life also offers fixed indexed annuity plans with the yield up to 3.75% APY. As a fraternal organization, the PRCUA provides member benefits such as education, scholarships, sports tournaments, numerous Polish American cultural programs, and much more to become a member. And for more details, visit PRCUA.org or contact local PRCUA representatives at 336-776-7456. Consider joining the PRCUA Life this week. Agent for a quote today.