This is the Truth Network. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Ho, ho, ho!
Merry Christmas! That's right. Wait a minute. I thought this was the Man Up show.
It is. With your host, Nikita Kolov, The Devil's Nightmare. But today, on this special holiday Christmas, at least this special show, we're going to talk to and talk with, in studio, the one and only, the Tower of Power to Sweet-to-be-Sour.
That's right. You know him as the Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, welcome back to the Man Up show on this special Christmas edition. Oh, I can hear the bells ringing. I should have had bells. I should have had bells. Come on.
No, in all seriousness, it's always a joy and a pleasure to have you on the show. And Robbie, it's Christmas edition, so it's Christmas. It's Christmas. Yeah, and the thing that's always intrigued me about this time of year, it really has, is my most downloaded show of the Christian car guy show ever was Where Are You Christmas? Where Are You Christmas? I remember Mary Lou Who singing that, Where Are You Christmas?
And I used to remember that you were this way. And so I can't help but think that as people go out there looking for a podcast, that's the question that's burning in their heart. They enjoyed some type of Christmas when they were a kid, or maybe they've lost a loved one, and they're just searching for it. Like, where are you? Because it usually means something where I don't feel alone, I don't feel hurt, I don't feel this. I feel part of a celebration, and I'm not feeling it.
You bring up an interesting point. Of course, there's a lot of holidays that we now celebrate in America. I almost feel like there's one for every day of the year, but I might be exaggerating that slightly by about six. But anyway, all I had to say, Christmas is a pretty big one.
I mean, typically, for many people. But holidays in general, Robbie, wow, you just made me think of when you said loss of a loved one, some holidays, including Christmas, can be pretty tough for people, right? Especially if they lost someone close to their heart or a loved one near a holiday, and especially Christmas, right? And always, this is my first Christmas without them, right?
Right. A daughter, a wife, a husband, whatever it is, this is my first Christmas without them. And all my memories for the last 40 years with my husband at Christmas all come flooding back, and he's not there.
And however that works, depending on the child or whoever it was, it makes it really difficult. But it gets back to the idea, interestingly to me, the whole idea of holiday actually came from holy day. And that idea of holy is actually close to God. And the closer you get to God, actually, the closer you get to holy. And there you go. And bringing about, of course, Christmas sometimes is known for peace and joy.
Right. When you see maybe the old school, old days, getting a Christmas card in the mail, some still do that. I occasionally mail out a Christmas card.
I used to be kind of adamant about that. Like certain people, I would mail one to every year or have one available. When my children were little, I always had a Christmas card on the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.
And in there, they knew they were going to get a few American dollars in there that they could spend however they chose to or wanted to. But words like joy and peace and any other words come to mind when you think of Christmas beyond joy and peace? Love. Love.
Come on. It's a huge one as For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, right? But Christmas is not about His crucifixion and the sacrifice of His Son. Christmas is actually about?
Right. The birth. The birth of Jesus, right? Celebrated around the world, Robbie. Not every holiday is celebrated around the world, right?
But Christmas is, correct? Yeah. He came wrapped. Wrapped in swaddling clothes. I like that.
That's good. Come on. It was the ultimate gift given and the ultimate wrapping in so many different ways. He would be wrapped at Easter as well. Gift giving. And of course that brings up another, for many, kind of a focus of Christmas, right? Is presenting those, presenting others with gifts and the wrapping. I think about, I sometimes, you know, if I'm over at my children's homes around this holiday season, which sometimes I am, I have to kind of chuckle again because I know one son-in-law and daughter in particular will like be up to the wee hours of the morning on Christmas Eve wrapping every single gift that they have and to surprise all the kids, you know, Christmas morning when they wake up. And the reason I have to chuckle is I remember for doing that for them, for my girls, you know, laboring all, you know, what seemed to be all night long and then them wrapping on the door, you know, I feel like I had about ten minutes of sleep.
And I'm like, ah, the sun's not up, go to bed, you know, come back when the sun's up, you know. But what are some special memories about Christmas maybe you have, let's just say in your childhood. Are there any special memories in your childhood about Christmas?
Oh, I love that question. Yeah. I, at one point in my life, lived in Michigan. My father worked for Buick and so at one point we obviously landed near Flint in a place called Grand Blanc. And it got really cold there and really snowy. And I was an adventurous teenager. I was continually trying to man up, you know.
Come on. And so my parents gave me this really cool, like, quilted long underwear and this quilted jacket and these snow boots. And so I had this, like, whole deal. And so I was like, Mom and Dad, would you let me, this is, right, right up, they got the week between Christmas and New Year's, no school. I said, will you let me go out for a week and just live off, because we lived out in the woods somewhat. I said, can I go out just and live off the land and my, you know, my new stuff.
And they did. And so I had a little, you know, pup tent and axe and some matches and whatever. And I went out determined for a week to just, you know, and sometimes sub-zero, like, freezing. Freezing weather, yes. I'm familiar.
And probably three feet of snow on the ground. And I had the time just, like, I completely, I completely manned up, survived. Yeah. Yeah. I found a way to crack the ice, you know, with a hatchet where the river came in where all the minnows would feed.
And I ate fish. Come on, really? Yeah, really. It was fun. Man. You can imagine this young boy, you know, just out there, you know.
Living off the land and in the wild. It was fun. It was fun. Wow. What a great memory. Nanook of the North.
I had no idea. I was sitting next to Nanook of the North here. That was for that time, yeah.
For that window of time. And for those who don't know, maybe down south who listen to the show or around the world. We have listeners that go, this show goes around the world.
And thank you, all of you in other parts of the world who listen to the Man Up show. When Robbie mentioned long, like the underwear. Long underwear. The long underwear. You're like, what's that? What's that? Like down to the knees?
No, no, no. It's like from neck to the ankle, right? And these were, when I say quilted, it was nylon and it looked like, you know, like a jacket that you put on. This stuff was warm, man. Warm. So that was your undergarment for those who don't know.
Because you're like, what's long underwear? Anyway, not to highlight that, but if you're not familiar with that, because I remember growing up in Siberia. Oh, that's right. You were growing up in... You almost said Minneapolis, Robbie. I was going to say Minnesota, but I was wrong. Siberia. Well, Minnesota via Siberia. You know, the Russian nightmare, you know, migrated through Alaska down to Minnesota.
No, not really. If you don't know that whole story, go get Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, and you can get it in hard copy off my website, Koloff.net, autographed. Or, thanks to this man here, Robbie Dilmore, who labored for hours in the studio with me last year, it's now available in an audio book, Audible, in my own voice. And was that a fun project to work on, Robbie?
It was so cool. You heard my whole life. Right. They document a story. God is all about testimony. And that book is a testimony to God. And he's the hero of that story, and you read it, and you're going to come away going, man, look what God did.
Look what he did. And since this is Christmas edition, he has given me – I'm fortunate to be gifted. He has given me quite a number of different gifts, as he has for you.
So let me just ask you this then. So you shared kind of a growing up story. How about as a dad, as a parent, do you have a favorite story that maybe pops in your head, a Christmas story?
Now you have children, and you're a dad. Any quick favorite story there? Yeah.
Absolute favorite. It's easy. One year, we were supposed to – our church had this deal where we were going to go help out a poor family, right? So we go down – or what we thought was going to be a poor family.
You know, somebody was out on their luck, whatever, and we go down to the church, and we had like a gift pack of stuff that we were supposed to take. And when we go to this house, man, these people literally – I'm not kidding you, man. There's an Acura in the driveway.
This house is nicer than our house. Somebody give you the wrong address? I was like, okay, maybe he's out of work. I don't know.
I can't speak to that, but this wasn't the experience I wanted my kids to have. And so I was talking to Tammy, and she said, oh, man, there's this lady, a Bible study man. One time I had to give her my coat because she didn't have a coat to wear, and it was just like, I know.
And so let me see if I can get her address. And so she gets her address, and we drive down there, and it's a trailer park, right? You can picture the scene, and we would get there. These people are heating themselves out of a 55-gallon drum in their front yard because their heat's been shut off, right? And there's a whole family, like four or five kids, and there they are, and they got no money, no money for Christmas dinner, whatever. And we'd start praying with them, and my kids were like, man, we'll give them our toys, you know, whatever. We got to get them a Christmas dinner. So we actually get their heat turned on, and we go shopping, you know, for food for them. And I just remember my kids, they totally went from this is what I'm getting for Christmas, but what they got for Christmas that year was to watch God come for that family and to be able to spend some really amazing time with them over, you know, that next couple of days as God blessed them and allowed us to just be the pastor again in the ways that He blessed us, to be able to bless them.
And by far and away, I mean, you can talk about all, that's the one I'll never ever forget. Okay. Yeah. And you reminded me of, of course, our church, you know, over the years when our girls were small or were little, you know, same type thing, we wanted them to experience the, you know, the gift of giving, right?
Right. I mean, you know, and it's one thing, you know, who doesn't love receiving a gift? I certainly love receiving a gift, while at the same time, you know, the old saying, better to, a bigger blessing to give than to receive, right? And I can think of the numerous times in what our church would do is pick out essentially a particular neighborhood or kind of an area of our community where we were pretty certain, you know, they probably wouldn't have any gifts underneath their tree or, or any, you know, wrapped up presence.
And so that's, that's what we did. And so some incredible memories from, from, from being able to take our children to experience that for themselves, you know, as opposed to just talking about it, but actually putting some labor to it, some love to it and, and doing that. And, you know, Christmas, of course, you know, you think about Christmas, Robbie, you think about Christmas carols, you, you know, I think about, obviously, you know, we're talking about gifts and packages and wrapping and festivity, right? Parties, a lot of Christmas parties, sometimes for whatever company maybe you're working with.
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Go to eyeassociates.com for more information. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Did you ever host any Christmas parties at your house for like your close friends and that sort of thing? Well, you know, as a business owner, I don't know how many Christmas parties we put on. A lot. Yeah. Probably at the office or?
All of the above. So, you know, we did them offsite, onsite at my house. Yeah.
Anyway, you know, sometimes, you know, when times were really good, we'd go to someplace like the Grove Park Inn and just have a festival, a Pinehurst, you know, you try to find someplace that really, you know, would be an eventful type of thing. Kind of stand out. And, you know, because you want people to feel special, right? This is a special time and they're special people because, you know, as an employer, you realize that they're the ones that got you there, right? It's a whole team deal. And so it's a really neat thing to take part in those.
I haven't been able to do it in a number of years, but it's a great thing to do. Yeah. Well, and, or if I, you know, seasons, things change, right? The seasons change and there was a time when I was, I'd say more engaged in the business world, you know, prior to all the, you know, the focus on ministry.
And so now, you know, things have shifted. I used to enjoy hosting 20, 25 of my business associates, you know, at the house and play fun games, you know, some of those games. Is there a game that pops in your head? Any Santa games that pop in your head that you maybe had played back in those days? Anything come to mind or maybe not, but, oh yeah, yeah, there's, you know, all kinds of, you know, charades where you use all sorts of Christmas things. And I've even really, really fun one is to do family feud Christmas thing, you know, where, you know, you build out these teams and it's this family against that family and, you know, you try to pick the number one answer and all that, you know, you get the family feud game to get the, to get the stuff.
That's really fun. So, so for our listeners out there and, you know, people come from all different walks of life and, and, you know, some, of course we're talking about, you know, the whole reason for the season, the actual reason for the season as we're producing this Christmas special edition show. It's really about the good news, right? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I mean, that God had been preparing this scene right since the fall, at least probably since way before the beginning of the world.
I mean, I shouldn't say probably for certain he did. And like when you were, the more you studied the Bible, the more you realized the little aspects, little pictures that he painted of what he would do in Bethlehem long before, right? Jesus arrived. And what's amazing is some of the different Christmas productions that have been done, of course, over the years with, you know, the, the shepherds in the field and the wise men, you know, coming to find, you know, the, the chosen one, right. And a lot of great, lot of great illustrations that, that have been done over the years at movies and TV shows, et cetera, really depicting that whole story. And one of my favorites overall personally that really brought the Bible to life for me is a series called the chosen by a man named Dallas Jenkins and incredible what he has been able to, to produce incredible script writing and actors. And it is a show, but for me personally, man, it just brought so much of the Bible to life for me.
And I've made one trip to Israel so far and got to walk the streets of Jerusalem and, and stand in what they believe to be the empty tomb and, and, and, and go to Bethlehem where, you know, a couple of the spots where they they're like, Hey, we're, this is where Jesus was. And, you know, when I think about, you know, some of the different production, I'm thinking about how the good news too, is really about God's love. Right. And I mentioned the word love earlier, I say joy, peace, and you said love, right. And so at the end of the day, you might say really Christmas is an opportunity to focus on the love of God, the love he had to send his only one and only son into the world. Right. And just in, in a sense, how desperately, really we all need God's love.
Don't we Robby? That's a giant hole, but also that, you know, the, the, the whole celebration clearly is that we can love others, right. So that they can see God's love in us to some extent, because, you know, obviously as you love others with the love God gives you, you know, they see and feel part of something that they, you know, a fellowship that, that maybe they've never been in felt like they were included, never felt appreciated. And so it's a real opportunity because it is a fellowship holiday. It's not meant to. And that's why it's so hard when you've lost somebody in your life, but it's not meant to be something you share it alone.
Experienced alone. Right. And, and, you know, just reminded some of the reasons, some of the reasons for the season, I mean, you know, Jesus, Jesus came re really to rescue mankind is one way I would phrase it.
Right. He came to rescue mankind. I like to say he left the comfort of heaven, right. And put on the earth suit, some call it the dirt suit.
I sometimes refer to it that way. But just to, just to walk out and to model for us what it looks like to love God, right. To love the father, the heavenly father. And so what are your thoughts on him being willing to do that and, and display that for us to, to try to draw others in, into that relationship with Jesus? Well, you know, I think John chapter 10 is one of those, you know, Good Shepherd passages where he talks about the sheepfold, right. And he talks about that, you know, I am the door of the sheep, the door into what? The door into the sheepfold. Well, I don't ever give much thought to it, but he was born in the sheepfold, right. Because Bethlehem itself was where they kept the Passover lambs, right.
And so when he was born in a manger, just look at John chapter 10 with that in mind this Christmas season and go, wait a minute, this whole idea of the sheepfold, no wonder he could be the shepherd of the sheep because he literally was born in the sheepfold. Yeah. Yeah. And then the irony in a sense of the, of the shepherds being the first ones to exactly be informed and, you know, words that come to mind when I think about Christmas, Robbie and me, you know, these aren't typical words that some might associate with Christmas perhaps, but words like rescue, recover, reconnect. And I just want to say to all of you out there, as you're listening to this show today, if you have never reconnected and we need to be reconnected, right, Robbie, I mean, you know, the fall of man separated us from God. And so Jesus comes as a bridge, if you will, to rescue, recover mankind and reconnect mankind back to the King of the universe, the God of the universe.
Right. And so at the all said and done as we're out celebrating this Christmas season, exchanging of gifts, eating a food and experiencing parties and whatever else it may ensue at the end of the day, Robbie, that's really where, what it boils down to, right, is, is, is that personal relationship with, with Jesus reconnecting with that. That was really my personal struggle with the gospel was, you know, if God was really God, you know, why would he have to kill his own son?
He could have come up with a better plan than that. I mean, it's just, but I didn't really understand why Jesus had to come. I didn't understand that when man was separated from God, that he literally, you're born dead.
Like you don't have a way to connect with God. And so Christmas is about God's plan unfolding that he would send his son because he knew that the only way to do that was to show such love that he would. And so what happened in that manger, in that sheepfold was God was showing you how to join the flock, right? How to enter through the sheepfold is to come through the door. And that door is Jesus who was sent for that very reason that, that we could be connected that when Adam was separated from God, we got no way, other way to go, but literally that blood, which is Jesus.
And he said, yeah, there's no remission of sin other than the blood of Jesus, right? And he said, I am the door. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the good shepherd.
There's so many I am's in there, right? And I just want to, on this special edition today, you know, if you've never established, reconnected or established that personal relationship with Jesus, you know, there's no cookie cutter prayer, but you know, something that's like, dear Jesus, you've promised that if I believe in you, everything I've ever done wrong will be forgiven. I'll learn the purpose of my life and accept, you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day. And so I just want to encourage you, you know, think, think on that, confess your sin, believe that he's your savior, put your trust and faith in him. It comes through grace, really by grace, through faith.
It's not anything you can do to earn it, but you can just receive it as a free gift. It's the best gift. It'll be the best Christmas gift you'll ever receive is the gift of salvation, surrendering your heart and your life to Jesus. So I encourage you today, if you never have, turn over every part of your life and just give him full control. I think of it this way, Robby, a familiar song, Jesus, take the wheel.
Last thoughts, Robby. Darrell Bock Yeah, I think that it is such an opportunity as you can sense that the whole world changes to red and green. You can see it all around. Why is December all about this holiday? Why are so many people impacted? You know, there's clearly something going on in spite of how the world is actually fought against the message. The message continues to go out as you're listening to this very minute that man, something is greatly affecting this season and will next year as well.
Get to know him. It's your chance today. And it is interesting that the whole world and essentially someone probably in every country most likely, whether they're out front with it or in some cases because Christianity is not well received in some nations, perhaps more in private, but somebody somewhere is celebrating the birth of Jesus, the real reason for the season, right? So Robby Dillmore, great to have you on this special Christmas edition.
Thank you so much. Christian Carguy, where can they go to hear your one of many shows? Robby Dillmore Christiancarguy.com is always the link for me and however that works. Darrell Bock Okay, christiancarguy.com. Go check out the one and only Robby Dillmore and hey, if you do make a decision, you pray a prayer, you received Christ into your heart this Christmas season, man, email me.
Go to coloff.net and email me and let me know. I would love to hear and hey, I could perhaps send you a free gift if you'll message me and let me know that. Thanks for tuning in today. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas. And until next time, go out today and just live a God-filled and have a 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.
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