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Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. Sometimes, occasionally it works out where I get to have somebody in studio and I don't have to call you, and with me today, the man of the hour, the tower of power, way too sweet to be sour, Dr. Duane Carson.
Welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Thank you, thank you. I'm so glad to be here, although I am a little nervous of the questions you're going to bring. Well, actually, I'm nervous of the questions you're going to ask me, but until we get to that point, let's introduce our audience. Of course, you've developed an incredible ministry called Date the Word, and I want to talk about that, but give our listeners just a quick backdrop on your family. Let's talk about your family, talk about your bride and your children and a grandchild. I'm so blessed to be married to my wonderful wife, Danita. We met at Liberty University after a couple years of dating, got married in 1988. So, I think we're in the 34th year now, getting 35 years of marriage under a belt, maybe more. Math was not my strong suit, but we'll let our listeners do the math on that. No, I think we're hitting the 36th.
Anyway, she's going to go, what is wrong with you? Sorry about that, Danita, but we have four wonderful children, Christy, Katie, Kirk, and Clayton. We have a dog named Casey. Everything's with a K. And then we have a grandson named Logan. He's in Pennsylvania, and his dad didn't keep up with the Ks.
He went a different route than the Ks. But he's five, and so we have a wonderful family, and I'm part of the family of God. February 15th, 1983, I got saved. That was quite a little Ric Flair right there, Dr. Duane.
I just want to say it right now. Anyway, I won't hold that against you. So, yeah, that's a whole story, and we've developed that story on the Man Up show and how you grew up in a religious home or environment, but it was at the age of 22, really the invitation of a little 12-year-old to really soften your heart and for you to accept Jesus. It's almost like a Nicodemus story, right?
That's right. You know that you must be born again, and you're like, how's that work? But you were, at age 22, born again. And then you told me, you were on staff up at Liberty for how many years were you on staff at Liberty University? Almost 25 years there with Dr. Falwell. Twenty-five years.
Some of the greatest years of my life, and watching that Liberty University grow as Dr. Falwell dreamed, and steps of faith that were incredible. He said, we're going to do, and it's like, God, if you don't come through, we're done. Yeah, yeah.
So what would be, so, I mean, to have a mentor like that in your life, is there a favorite memory that kind of pops in your head? Maybe that's one of them, right, that he said, we're going to do this, and then God has to come through for it to happen? It's the prayer memories. Okay. When he did say, we're going to be doing this, and let's go pray about it. Okay. He was big on prayer then.
Big time. Okay. And he had a statement, nothing of eternal significance ever happens apart from prayer. And whenever I go back up to Liberty, one of the places I always go is to the prayer chapel.
Okay. And I was just up there not long ago, and I went into that prayer chapel, and there were students in there praying, and I'm like, nothing of eternal significance ever happens apart from prayer. They're putting themselves in a place where God can use them greatly. The power of prayer. The power of prayer. Wow. And actually, part of a sermon that I'm ministering, challenging people with right now, especially at our man camp and our men's conferences, our man-up conferences and man-up dinners, is challenging people with the power of prayer. Yes.
And that prayer works, and then kind of break that down for them. So let's fast forward over the years. So you're on staff, you're at Liberty, but over the years, something else developed, something called Date the Word. Date the Word.
You're wearing the t-shirt there, the polo shirt there. Take a couple minutes and talk about what is Date the Word, and how did it all happen? Well, trying to help people get back to memorizing the Word. Okay. Because I learned that I would need to memorize, I would need to meditate, and then apply God's Word that would bring about transformation.
We talked about that before. And the memorization is so key. You've got to do more than just read it. You have to memorize Psalms 119 and 11. And so I came up with different ways, but one was just looking at different dates. And what quick verse could match that date?
And here, my birthday is 12-23. Well, I looked at 1 Samuel 12-23, and here Samuel says, God forbid that I should sin against God by not praying for you, by ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the right way. Well, I look at that verse and I go, my ministry is about prayer and discipleship. I had a verse that really matched my own life. Well, how does that work with other verses? And so we just kept working until we finally got verses to match every date, all 365 days, which is amazing. I really do have, in many cases, six or seven verses. Multiple scriptures for a particular date. I know you shared with me my birthday being March 9th, and then you've got maybe a half a dozen different scriptures that I could reference.
Okay, so keep going. So as we think about dating the word, date, to date the word, I wanted to help people get back to delighting in the word. Because of Psalms 1, it's so important. David said that blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord.
Then he'll meditate. Well, what do you delight in? And Jeremiah said your words were found, and they became the joy and the delight of my soul. Well, if I'm in God's word, it will become something that I delight to have, but as a delight in it, I'm going to want it even more.
It's like having the best meal of every day. And so I'm going to delight in it. But then I also understood, to date God's word, I've got to become attentive to God's word. And there's a verse in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 3, where it says the people were attentive. And a lot of times we go to church and we hear a sermon, but we were not listening to a sermon. Sometimes we're having a quiet time, and we're reading, but we're not listening.
We're not attentive. And I still can recall a teacher saying, give me your undivided attention. Well, that's the idea of being attentive to God's word. And you know, if you're attentive to God's word, you're going to see new things. Someone just said to me the other day, I just saw something in God's word I'd never seen before. Well, that's the beauty of it.
I remember Dr. Falwell talking about that after 60 years in the faith. He's like, I just saw something new. And I'm like, you just saw that? He goes, well, I just saw it.
I don't know how that works. It just all of a sudden comes to life. Being attentive, God will bring his word to life. But it does take time, Nikita.
Like anything, it takes time to develop, right? So you've developed this, an app and a website. I know you mentioned our dear mutual friend, Stu Epperson Jr. when he first heard about this said, go get the domain name DateTheWord.com. So that, which is the website that people listening right now could go, hey, I want to learn more about dating the word of God so they can go to the website. In fact, when you informed me of that, I went immediately signed up every day in my inbox. And now it's become a part of my morning routine is reading. Because it's not just a scripture now. You developed a devotional to it as well. We have a Date The Word daily devotion that goes with that verse. Yep. So Date The Word daily devotional.
So I've incorporated that into my daily routine now. So that's one option. Another option, people more techie can go download the app on their phone, right?
What all can they get on their phone if they download the app? If they go there, there's going to be these tiles. And right off the bat, you're going to see verse for the date.
So then you want to look at that. Whatever the date is. Whatever the date is, you're going to see a verse.
And then if you want to read more, you can read a daily devotion. We also have verses for any date, which means that if you want to find out what your birthday verse is, like mine was 12-23. Go to December, go to 23, boom, there's your verse. Yours is March the 9th, 3-9.
Stu Epperson's 10-16, he always loves people to send him gifts. 10-16, October, there's verses there. So you want to be able to give a verse to somebody for their birthday, for your grandchildren, your children, your spouse. That's the place to go. We also have on there, because of prayer, on the app, because of prayer, there are seven prayers to pray for your pastor. There are five prayers to pray for your family at the Colossians 1-9-11. And then if you are athletic, if you've got someone in your family that's athletic, you've had a jersey, it could be from sports or it could be upward.
Think about upward. You have a jersey that has a number on it. I have a verse, sometimes a chapter, that will go for every number from 0 up to 99.
Wow. So here you've got, here's the number five. Someone's wearing number five, like Johnny Bench, years ago. Number five, the big catcher, best of all time, right? Johnny Bench. Number five, 2 Timothy 2-5.
Athletes not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So there's a verse for athletes to be able to think on. I had a young man say to me, my number's 13. I don't want Philippians 4-13.
Everybody has that. I said, I hear you. Go with 1 Corinthians 16-13. Because it says, stand fast, be firm, be brave, stand fast for the Lord.
He goes, that's my verse. That's awesome. And so parents, you can get this for your students out there who are involved in athletics. Coaches, get this for your players. That's incredible.
The app. And I want to mention this too, something came to mind because you had shared with me how when you were first being mentored, that young lady's dad said, memorize Psalm 1. Psalm 1.
That's the place to build your life. Here's a question. Aren't you glad he didn't say, memorize Psalm 119? Here's why I bring that up.
Another mutual friend of ours? Yes. When you start talking about memorization, last year, his name's Robbie Dilmore.
Yes. And Robert put it on his heart to memorize Psalm 119. I'm like, whoa.
That's 176 verses. I'm like, whoa. I said, Robbie, are you serious? I know. I'm like, wait, what?
But I'm glad he told me Psalm 1 that only had six verses. Wow. That's right. Okay. So datetheword.com, that's the website people can go to and sign up.
And I want to encourage you to go get signed up. Or for the techies, they can download the app. Download that app. Date the Word. Date the Word. Go into your app store.
App store. Look up Date the Word. Come on. And there it is.
It looks like a calendar. Yeah. And download that.
It's all free. That's amazing. And then start learning God's Word.
That's amazing. Dr. Duane Carson. Come on. Date the Word. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.
We'll be right back. When your eyesight is at stake, it pays to travel to one of the world's leading eye surgeons. Dr. Johnny Gaten is an author, speaker, Christian leader, and a committed family man. He is also a pioneering cataract and glaucoma surgeon. That's why I chose him for my eye surgery.
Check out Dr. Johnny Gaten at eyesightassociates.com. If you would like to support Koloff 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 his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Well, it is Q&A with Koloff. So, doctor, what's your grandson call you? Papa? Papa D. Papa D. All right. I'll just call you. How about Dr. D? Dr. D. Dr. D. Dr. D. All right. Let's segue to your first question for me.
What do you got for me today? I hope I can answer it. You're a very schooled man. I'm hoping I can answer it. Well, I do have to ask one on your past of that wrestling thing that we love to watch. Good. A wrestling question.
Good. So, who mentored you? In the wrestling world? In the wrestling world. So, it's interesting because the majority of guys, especially nowadays, but they go to a camp or a training school, something of that nature, a lot of people assume, and apparently, it's on Wikipedia, but it's not accurate, and a guy named Eddie Sharkey, who actually mentored a number of my wrestling peers, a number of my friends, and so I guess because of my association with them, they automatically assume Eddie mentored and trained me. However, the unique part about my story is the day I walked into Jim Crockett's office in Charlotte, North Carolina, in June of 1984, no amateur wrestling background, none, I'm a football guy, right? So, I'm an athlete, but I'm a football guy, number 81, by the way.
Date the word, number 81, okay? So, I'm a football guy, no amateur wrestling background, no professional training, but some of my buddies who had gotten involved shared a storyline with me about becoming the nephew of this legendary guy named Ivan Kolov, the Russian bear, right? And so, gave me a phone number, called the promoter in Charlotte, having a five-minute conversation, showed up the day he said to be there without another conversation. This months later, showed up the day he said, wrote the date down, drove to a city I'd never been before, drove 1,200 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, walked in, introduced myself, Nikita Kolov, born in the hallways of Charlotte that day. And then for the next two to three months, Ivan Kolov and Don Kernodle and I would get to the town a couple, three hours early, and they'd bump and thump all over the ring teaching me the mechanics of wrestling. Then I'd have a very, very short match, and they were the world tag champions, so they'd have a world title match, I'd sit in their corner, Ivan would sit in my corner, and then every night on the drive home, we'd talk about what was called the psychology of wrestling, why they did what they did and when they did it, and how to draw that fan into the story.
So Ivan and Don get a major part of the credit, Dusty Rhodes would be another one that gets some credit, and then I was fortunate to be in the ring, guys like Ric Flair, Rick Steamboat, I mean some incredible guys. So anyway, yeah, that's who mentored me. And for the spiritual life, when we think about the mentoring, you had to learn the mechanics of wrestling, and now it's learning the mechanics of spiritual warfare, and we need mentors, you're listeners, you need mentors, you need to be a mentor, but you need to have mentors, and we ask that question, who is your Paul, who is your Timothy, who's your Barnabas? It comes into your life, so that's why I just wanted to know who helped you out from that standpoint of life, but then who's that spiritual mentor? So great question, and for those who may be out there in Listening Land and you're like I'm not sure what he means by a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy, so let me quickly define that, so a Paul is an older man, more spiritually tuned in you might say, more seasoned in his walk with Christ, and it's not even so much about age, to get to that question, to answer that question, Jay Stewart, who's been my pastor for now for over 30 years, is actually younger than me by age, by physical age, but older than me spiritually speaking, and so Jay is one of my mentors, another by the name of Ronnie Raven, who Ronnie's in his mid-70s, he's been in ministry, he literally, literally has preached over 10,000 sermons in his lifetime, I think he started about the age of 14, and has them all documented, Doc, he's got them all documented.
And now with AI, that thing, he'll be preaching when he's in heaven. Right, right, so Ronnie in his mid-70s, we met about 25 or so years ago, so I looked to him, I regard him to be like a spiritual father of Paul as well, and then as far as a Barnabas, that's somebody that is my peer, Proverbs 27, 17, right, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of his friend. So there's, I'm fortunate, I mean, Lex Luger comes to mind, I've got Ed Bowman comes to mind, Jeff James comes to mind, Josh Gillum comes to mind, I've got several guys around me that are like my peers, but Pastor Jay and I meet on a monthly basis, we just have for years, so he's a Paul, but he's also kinda doubles as a Barnabas for me, okay.
Equipping and encouraging. Yep, absolutely, and then last but not least, the Timothy, the latest one comes to mind is Josh Jones, Joshua Jones, who was going to UNCC, University of North Carolina, Chapel, not Chapel Hill, Charlotte, UNCC, Charlotte, UNC Charlotte, and while he was going through his four years of schooling, he asked, his friend Roy Jones is a dear friend, and Josh asked if I would mentor him while he was going through college, and so I did that. So presently, I don't have a Timothy that pops into my head currently, so I'm on the lookout for another young man who now I can sew into and pour into, yeah, well, this young man sitting across from us could be a good candidate, right? So okay, so anyway, so that's, yeah, so for all the listeners out there, Paul Barnabas and a Timothy mentors, right, we all need mentors. A good friend, General Jerry Boykin calls it a battle buddy, everybody needs a battle buddy. Gotta have a battle buddy.
As well, so okay, do you have one more for me, or we're gonna call it a day? You know, I just, having watched you many years ago, I tried to age you, but many years ago, aging me, all good, who gave you the slam of slams that's like, oh, man, I can't believe he just slammed me, I just wanna, just curious. Well, and actually, so the Road Warriors, yeah, so I'm not sure how much wrestling, how far your wrestling goes back, but, so there's a tag team called, as far as I'm concerned, one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest, the Road Warriors.
Some might argue that point, but the fact that Animal was a dear friend of mine, I actually recruited Animal out of high school to play college football with me, and then when he quit, he actually technically recruited me into pro wrestling, gave me Jim Crockett's phone number to call, right, I told that story earlier. So these guys did something called a press slam, where they literally, because of how strong they were, both Hawk and Animal could, and it didn't matter how big you were, they could press you over their heads. In fact, I'll tell this story real quick, I was spotting Animal on what was called a seated military press, it's like a shoulder press, behind the neck, so see, so kind of visualized, you're sitting on a bench, so you're not standing, and it's not a machine, it's an Olympic bar, and he's doing reps, and I'm spotting him, and it's behind the neck, so it's not like in front, right, which behind the neck's even more difficult. Doc, I'm spotting him, and he's doing reps with 365 pounds.
Seated military, behind the neck. Now most people on their best day would love to do a bench press of 365 pounds, in fact just recently I heard the average person in a gym can't even do a 225 pound bench press, right? All that to say, we're in a match, we're in a match, we're in the ring, and I always said it, I go, dude, you saved those press slams for somebody else, that ain't happening with me, right? That animal, my dear buddy, my good friend, caught me off guard one night, I forget where we were, but it was Ivan and I against the road warriors, and man, before I could blink, he had snatched me up and pressed me over his head, now I'm 285 pounds, right? But he snatches me up like I'm a feather, so I thought, all right, wise guy, so you know, normally you kind of brace yourself on a guy's shoulders, stabilize yourself, I'm like, all right, dude, so I just went Superman on him, and I just put my arms out, and you know, and so, like he had, at that point, like full weight, well, it didn't bother him, he didn't blink an eye, and he held me up there in that press slam for, felt like forever, I don't know how long it was, so he finally dumps me, right, boom, and I get up and I go over into the corner, and I look over and there's him and Hawk over like hee, hee, hee, and like hee, hee, hee, hee, hee.
And I said, one time, but never again, buddy, so yeah, and so he never did, he never did get me up in a press slam again, now my antennas were up and my guard was up, but, so there's a road warrior story right there for you and all the other wrestling fans out there, so. Thank you for that. Well, Dr. Dwayne Carson, man, you're amazing, Date the Word, I want to make sure everybody goes and either downloads the app or goes onto the website, datetheword.com, goes into their app store and downloads this, and they are going to be blessed beyond measure, I know I already have been in the short time that I signed up for this, so. Well, you've been a blessing to me, thank you for this. Thanks for coming in today, and thank all of you, again, you're just so faithful to tune in week in and week out and helping spread the word, both of the Man Up show and Q&A with Kolov, hey, like I said, if you'd like to get a call from The Russian Nightmare, go to kolov.net, submit your request, and we'll get it scheduled and get you on the show.
Go out 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 kolov.net and donate today. If you are enjoying Q&A with Kolov, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Kolov, 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. Nikita Kolov here, if you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem Motor Cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at wsmcthenumberone.com because you are number one. This is the Truth Network.
