Christmas Special

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Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolod. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Welcome back to The Man Up Show. Your host, Nikita Kolod, and you might have guessed it, this is our Christmas special. And with me to celebrate this special holiday, none other than the man himself, the Christian Car Guy, Robby Dilmore. Robby, welcome back to The Man Up Show. Ho, ho, ho. I'm glad to be here.

Ho, ho, ho. Well, that comes to mind as well. Robby, you're going to be a regular on the show here, I think.

I don't know. But I mean, there's so many hats you wear in addition to producing The Man Up Show and Q&A with Koloff. But nevertheless, always a blessing to have you on the show. And these specials have become just really special to me. Well, and Christmas is just around the corner. And so, you know, we're on the, you might say the eve of Christmas, right? I love Christmas Eve. What is, what do you love better, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

You know, that's fascinating. When I was a kid, I would tell you really Christmas Eve, because, you know, you would imagine so many things, actually the whole season, right? Like, you know, from December 1st clear through December 24th, it was just like all the stuff that was happening, all the excitement was building, and it was just building, building, building, building in hell.

And I love that. So the anticipation of Christmas coming, and I guess it takes on a different perspective depending on your age, right? I mean, you know, as you mentioned, you know, in your childhood, right? I think back to my childhood, if I can think back that far.

Yeah, I guess I can. But, you know, the, you know, the unwrapping of presents and, you know, how many are going to be under the tree with, you know, with your name, did you ever do like, like, yeah, okay, let me ask you that. Did you ever, because like, I know people who would like unwrap, carefully unwrap the gift, like, and to figure out what to find out what it was, and then rewrap it and put it down and then come Christmas morning, you want to be completely surprised, you know, by what was in, in the box.

Not me, I'm not, not amongst those, but how about this? Do you remember the Sears catalog, Sears would come out or pennies or whoever, they had a Christmas catalog, right? And that thing came out in late November. And then, you know, oh, you would, I peruse that thing for hours trying to figure out, you know, what would be the, you know, the thing this year that, you know, that was put on my list. But interestingly, my parents didn't usually wrap many gifts. Okay. Santa's gifts were always under the tree, just out in the open. Now the wrapped presents came from mom and dad.

Okay. Well, I'll tell you, I spend many a late night hours wrapping every gift for my kids, which this is pure torture here, but late, late, late night, late to bed. And of course they'd wake up early and want to, you know, rush out and see what was there for them.

But, but I do know, so that's interesting, isn't it? Different family traditions where some don't, like you said, some don't wrap certain presents. It came straight out of Santa's bag, right in there. But I bet you, you know, I remember one night we got the kids, you know, one of those houses, you know, play house, right? And I put it up in the living room or wherever it was.

We had Christmas that year and I was up, literally, trying to, it was a three man job that was just being, trying to be accomplished by one man. You know, you've done that. So have you, and yeah, so we're talking about different stages of life, right? As a kid, you're the anticipation of what might be, what might be under the tree for you.

You know, as you grow up and move on into, you know, through your teenage years or obviously the, the gifts shift and change. Now, let me ask you those catalogs. Did you like circle things, like to give your parents kind of a, like, Hey, wouldn't mind if I got this for Christmas, right?

You can remember doing that like circuit. I gave him a list with the page numbers. With the page number. Look on page 46, halfway down the page, it circled right there.

That's the one. Boy. And boy, I have times change, right? Now you just got to set up like, like an Amazon code or something. Oh, and I've gotten them from my kids, believe me.

And my grandkids. For real? Oh yeah. They send you the little link, you know, and boom, you press it and that's how you order it. So now it's a virtual catalog. Oh yeah. Yeah.

There's no, you don't have to get the Sharpie out and circle the actual catalog. It's virtual. But it's interesting.

You're right. I hadn't even thought about that. You go from the anticipation of your own gift to the anticipation of what's it going to look like on your daughter's face when she gets it? What's it going to look like on your wife's face? You know, what, what is it going to be like when they receive, you know, and, and the anticipation that you go for is, is, is changing in the, in the, as the seasons go.

Yeah. You're going to make me choke up here, Robbie. I'm glad we're, I'm glad we're on air.

I'm glad I'm not on television right now. You're going to get me to choke up here. So, but what about, and you know, you said, so yeah, so different seasons of life and, and as a grandparent, you know, what's, what's it going to look like? You said, you know, you talk about what's going to look at your wife's face, your kid's face. Now what's going to look like on the grandkids, right? And what, what? Oh my goodness. Their reaction or their, their response to what they might get.

Right. And you're hoping it's joyful, but, but so did you ever, let me ask you, did you ever get a, a, a gift that you weren't overly joyful about? You know, I was one of those people that like, man, if I opened it up and it was closed, it was an immediate bummer. You know, I could tell, you know, by the way it felt, it was limp, like, oh, this is another pair of socks from, from aunt Bessie, you know, right. Well, one of my favorite later memories here lately, you know, I have two grandsons that are almost the same age. So, you know, a couple of years ago when they were like three and four, my daughter actually, and we all knew they were getting them, gave them boxing gloves because they're always beating up each other. I mean, it's just what they do, you know? And so like, man, you should have seen the scene when they got these boxing gloves. I mean, those things went on their hands in two seconds and buddy, it was on like Donkey Kong and we, and Nagita. I mean, I'm pretty sure there was at least one Russian sickle thrown and some people that looked like they were going to get knocked out. And no, no bloody noses.

No, no. Well, that's good. That's good. No black eyes.

Yeah, they could, they could survive the Russian sickle perhaps, but not, yeah, not, not a black eye, but so, so, well, that's, that's, well, that's, that's pretty cool to see. So, you know, we're talking about the different stages of life and your anticipation and, and well, do you have a, like a memory of like what was one of the, again, can be from any stage, but what are your favorite things you got? One of the favorite gifts you got? Yeah, I do remember what I would say is one of my most, and it was a gift that I didn't see coming. For those who know me well, I'm divorced before I married my wife now of 35 years and the year of that divorce. My mother flew me to Albuquerque where she was living at the time. I lived in Georgia at the time and she and I watched It's a Wonderful Life together on the couch.

Talk about getting choked up. That was a great memory. Oh, man. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's a great movie. You know, I know you mentioned, I know, I know you have a tradition in Thanksgiving to watch the movie Elf.

I'm going to help get the lump out of your throat here. And the laughs you get from watching the movie Elf. But man, yeah, it's a one, which is what probably one of my favorite movies is It's a Wonderful Life. And I know I was traveling with some of my children up to see my mom in Minnesota one year.

We stayed in Indianapolis, Indiana. And it just so happened there was a stage, like a live theater, like next door to the hotel we were staying at. And I saw that they were going to do a stage production of It's a Wonderful Life. And so fortunately there were tickets available and and it was like a dinner theater, you know, like one of those dinner theaters.

I'd love to see that. It was so good. And then when we got to my mom's house, you know, like, Mom, do you got to you know, do you got to I think I think Blockbuster was still an agent myself here, apparently. But what I think if she didn't have it, I think we maybe went and rented It's a Wonderful Life. And so then we watched the actual movie and I was amazed at how they were able to pull that off on a live stage and make it look identical to the movie. And what's your favorite part of It's a Wonderful Life? Well, you know, for one thing, my mother is a dead ringer for Donna Reed.

And my father ain't too far from Jimmy Stewart. So, you know, for me, I you know, when I looked at it, I was picturing my parents, you know, completely. And so, you know, the scene where, you know, they're coming through the bushes and he's going to lasso the moon for her. And then when she marries him, you know, and she fixes up the house when it's raining. And if you've seen the movie, I hope you have. And then she shows that scene of, you know, of him lassoing the moon and all that. It was very romantic to me and truly love exposed. You know, obviously you're going to see it later in the movie as well.

But at that point in time, yeah, that's one of my favorite parts of that movie. And of course, for me and, you know, my mother being it now, the funny thing is, is my youngest daughter, Mariah, is a dead ringer for my mother. Wow. And so they both, in fact, I watched the Donna Reed show the other night with Tammy. I was like, do you not see the uncanny resemblance between Donna Reed and my mom and Mariah? I mean, it's crazy.

Wow. And so if you haven't seen it, can we just encourage you on this Christmas season? If you've never seen It's a Wonderful Life, go, I guess, Netflix or wherever you need to go find it and watch it. And if you can, watch it as a family. I mean, it's a great, what a great family thing to do together, right?

Would you say? Yeah, yeah. And it's really based on, you know, angels and God and those things have given somebody an opportunity to see what a wonderful life they've really had. It's a way for you to reflect on your own life. Yeah. You know, they're in a season when it's a pretty good time, you know, to reflect on, you know, because you're coming into New Year, you've got another year, right, to begin to plan, which now you love to do. Yeah.

But at the same time, be thankful for what God's done for with you. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. I'm Nikita Kolof here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kolof Fans, and like it and follow today. If you would like to support Kolof for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of the newly upgraded life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.kolof.net and donate today. And for those who maybe don't know, and this is not to be a movie spoiler in any way, but especially if you've never seen it before, but what a resounding message throughout that movie that, you know, here's a guy thinking he doesn't have a wonderful life, only to realize just how wonderful his life really is, right? Right. Again, without giving the whole movie away, but let me just kind of tease you with that. And, you know, there's another one I really, and I don't know about you, but there's so many good classic Christmas movies out there, but Miracle on 34th Street is another favorite of mine.

Miracle on 34th Street. So which version is your favorite? The original.

Yeah. The original version. And you can see, it's kind of funny, you can see the color, you know, obviously now with technology, they do the colorized versions and all that, but it's still just not the same. That's got to be in black and white. As the original black and white.

Yeah, and you got to see, you know, only in the original do they pile up all the letters. Mm-hmm. Right.

All the evidence of faith. Right. Which is such a strong Christmas message. Right.

That it's based on what do you believe. Mm. And that idea of, you know, to me another great Christmas movie is, you know, the Santa Claus, right? Mm-hmm.

And in that famous line in that movie is, you know, seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing. Mm. And that's one line you can take and just write it down and think about it for a long time because it's completely been my experience that the closer you walk with Jesus, the more he helps you see what it is that he's teaching you to believe.

Mm. Well, that just really kind of feeds right into, you know, some of the little notes, you know, I'm big on notes and searching and researching and, you know, obviously, you know, the Christmas, you know, the old expression, the real reason for the season, right? You know, there's some out there that perhaps up to this point, their perspective is Christmas gifts and, you know, ornaments and lights and meals, food, right? And, you know, in celebration of, of course, family and those sorts of things. But really at the foundation, Christmas is really all about good news, right? At the very foundation, it's about, it's not the good news of special gifts, although those special gifts, those memorable gifts mean, certainly mean something.

It's not the good news of a big meal, although it is fun to gather together as hopefully as family and or friends, you know, and have a big, big meal. It's not the good news of festive music and beautiful lights, although that's a part of Christmas, it can be, right? And songs and movies and even church productions and, right, as well. Christmas is about the good news of God's love at the very foundation. The Bible says every person desperately needs God's love. In fact, we're lost without it, without God's love. We're lost as a white goose in a snowstorm, aren't we, Robbie?

Oh, man. Directionless, get that word out, without protection, without real joy. And our potential eternal impact upon the world is unrealized without God's love. And it's unthinkable to me. I've thought a lot about it in the last few weeks.

That's the time of year to do that. That here you have this infinite God. Like, if you walk outside, especially like here recently, and see all the stars outside, I hope you get in a dark place where you see that, and you see how infinite God is.

It's like unbelievably big, like this thing that's bigger than all that, He's bigger than all the universe because He's obviously outside that. Somehow or another, He thought so much about Nikita that He shrunk Himself down from being all that infinite, and came to earth as a man knowing not just the sins I did commit, but He knew the other shenanigans I have yet to pull. Right, right. And He made that, and actually, when I've thought about this lately, He almost, it would appear that I'm more important than Him, to Him. You know how He tells you that others are more important than you?

That's true humility. Right, right. And so His own life He gave up for me. But in order for it to do that, Christmas had to happen first. And that very trip of knowing that you're going down there to do this is just really like, man, it blows my mind, that kind of love, that I'm more important to God than God Himself is to Him.

Especially knowing, you know, I'm going to, probably this afternoon I might go three hours without thinking in one time, it breaks my heart, but I know that, you know, I'm asking Him to help me with that, but it's still the problem. Right. But He's still right there. And our fallenness and our brokenness, right, and the good news of Christmas, to reiterate what Robby's saying, is that God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost, right. In John 3 16, very famous foundational scripture, right, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Right.

There's only one God, Christ, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Right. Truly human, as you said, He was truly human and gave Himself to rescue all of us. That is pretty hard sometimes to wrap your head around, right Robby, but nevertheless, that's what God did. Well, see there's the operating word of what you just said, wrap. If you think about that word, the original Christmas present came wrapped. Come on.

Right? He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, come on. Right, and later in that tomb, He got wrapped again.

Yeah, fast forward about 33 years. Right, He was wrapped twice. Yeah. And so He was, you know, but the whole point of wrapping and, you know, the beautiful thing of Hebrew, it helps me feel words, and so I love to study it. But the idea of that word in Hebrew is to be gathered. See, when you said wrap your head around, you literally, there's no way I can wrap my head around like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. But it's part of the delight of Christmas for me since I've become a Christian is trying to wrap my head around something this unbelievable that not only wraps me, but actually more importantly to me, and I'll bet to you too listening, is those people I dearly love, I want them wrapped with Jesus. I want them wrapped into the family more than I want myself, right? I want my grandkids, I want my friends, I want that person, you know, that all of a sudden, you want everything wrapped because everything wrapped gets gathered. You know, and I just got this visual of, you know, many are going to spend this weekend as we embark upon the Christmas season, wrapping gifts, right?

Wrapping boxes, wrapping presents, you know, and then the opportunity to, whether it's Christmas Eve, as some do traditionally, or Christmas Day, Christmas morning, that some do traditionally, opening those gifts. I'm just reminded, Robbie, as you're speaking of the greatest gift, and I'm reminded of Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. God saved you by His grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we've done so that none of us can boast about it, right? And so for the listeners out there, Robbie, who are getting ready to celebrate this Christmas season, right, as we embark upon it, whether it's wrapping gifts or getting those presents ready to, you know, for a child, a grandchild, or for a spouse or a loved one, or for a friend, you know, in the midst of all the Christmas parties, many that have already happened, but even more that will happen over the next couple of days. And then the gathering together of family and friends, what would you add to and or say to our listeners out there in addition to what you've already said? Well, you know, it's interesting that the first herald, according to John, what he did was he was a witness to the light. And Christmas is, you know, the season of lights just is. And so when you tell your story, when you saw Jesus, whatever that looks like, especially in this season when people are more susceptible to listen to you, right, because we all have those relatives, they won't listen to you.

Right, right. But again, all it is is a siding on your part of when you saw God in something. It didn't have to be your original salvation story. You saw Him this morning in something that you saw somebody do, but you know that that was God. In other words, we didn't come to be the light. We came to bear witnesses to the light.

And so I really think that in any way, shape or form, anything we can do to help gather, to help wrap some more presents is to share, you know, what it's going to say. You're going to receive power or you're going to overcome by the blood of lamb and the word of your what? Testimony. It's going to be your story that impacts for the kingdom.

You know, you should. I'm reminded of the song Hark, the Herald. Right? Angels sing glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise. Joyful the triumph of the skies with thy angelic host proclaim.

Christ is born in Bethlehem. Do you have a favorite Christmas song, Robbie? I do.

I do. And then it has to do with, and Stu and me and a lot of folks probably listening went to Calvary Baptist Church and we had a pastor. And he had a heart for Jesus. Like, wow. Like you could see it. And he could sing and every Christmas Eve he would sing. Oh, holy night. Like you never heard it because it came from his heart.

Like you could just like it was. Oh, holy night. And when, you know, people are being reconciled and all the stuff that comes in that song, he could package it like only pastor courts could and anybody ever heard him sing it.

No, it's exactly what I'm talking about. And it wasn't what I hear you saying is it wasn't just a performance for him. And so, you know, as we wrap up this show today, this Christmas special, Robbie, thank you for being a part of this and just showing your heart here as I'm sitting in the studio and we're sharing back and forth. It's for me anyway, and maybe for the listeners out there, we can sense your sensitivity to the newborn king. And any last words for those as they get ready to gather together, open presents, watch movies, sing songs.

Any final thought? My final thought is thank you for allowing us in and for listening to Nick's show. I mean, it's a wonderful thing to be able to express God in some way. And I'm so thankful for you and a chance to take part in this. It's awesome.

Thank you. And I hope that all of you out there, if you don't have a favorite Christmas song, think about what that might be. If you don't have a favorite Christmas movie, think about what that might be. And when you open presents this Christmas season, think about the greatest gift ever given and the gift of salvation and just how God sent his one and only son just for you.

If you were the only one, if there was not another human walking the planet, the Bible says he still would have come and still sacrificed his life upon the cross for you. So as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, give that some consideration. And I hope that this is the best Christmas you've ever had. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Man Up show. Robbie Dilmore, The Christian Car Guy, always a pleasure. Go out today and live a God-filled, God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up show now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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