This is the Truth Network. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time To Man Up. Welcome back to another episode of The Man Up Show. Yours truly, Nakita Golov.
Once The Russian Nightmare, now The Devil's Nightmare. Hey, who is old enough to remember the dating game? Like for real, let's go way back here. Like some of you are old enough to remember the dating game.
I had to do a little research here, I think it first launched in 1965, right? And, you know, it kind of, they had bachelors or bachelorettes on asking questions, you know, and again, trying to set up a date, right? Well, with me today, we're not going to talk about like the dating game and we're not going to resurrect that old show. But what we are going to talk about today is dating the Word of God.
That's right. Date the Word and with me in studio, what a privilege and an honor to have Dr. Dwayne Carson with me in the studio. Welcome to the show, Doc. Thank you. Thank you.
So glad to be here. I don't know whether I'll call you Dr. D or Dr. C or just maybe Dr. D.C. I don't know. How about Dwayne? All right. All right. I'm cool with Dwayne.
Dwayne. You know, when, of course, we were at the NRB kind of side by side at the convention in Nashville, which really I kind of first got wind of what you have developed here. We're going to jump into all of that here in a moment. But right away, you know, when for our listeners out there, when they hear date the Word, oh, wow. Okay.
So in a sense, it's kind of a dating game in a sense and I want to hear how that whole concept came about. But really, before we get there, tell us about Dr. Dwayne. Yeah. Well, grew up in Lynch, outside of Lynchburg, Virginia. Some people may recognize that name because there's a school there and a church, lots of ministries. Big school.
Big school now called Liberty University and Dr. Jerry Falwell and I grew up in Amherst County, Virginia, across the river is the way Dr. Falwell would like to say. And I grew up religious. And I am thankful for that religious upbringing. That foundation, so to speak. That was a foundation with grandparents and parents went to church. But religiously?
Yes. Religiously. Religiously. Okay. Unfortunately, though, there was more of a works-based salvation being taught to me. I was trying to weigh the balances and I just couldn't seem to get rid of the guilt. Rules. Rules over relationship, maybe? Yeah.
Perhaps. And something strange came into my life one time about being born again. And I didn't know what in the world that was about and I didn't have any follow-up.
And by the time I was 16, 17, I had moved into a stage of rebellion. And first time I met Jerry Falwell, had an eight-pack of beer in my hand. Okay. And he came up, saw me, and he shook my hand.
Scared to daylights at him because I thought I was going to die, but he shakes my hand. How you doing tonight, young man? No judgment. No judgment.
No. He was a friend towards sinners. And a couple of years later, a 12-year-old girl in another store would come up to me and she was a neighbor, neighbor being five miles away because I grew up in the country. But this neighbor, she came up to me and she said, Dwayne, I wish you'd come back to church.
And her name's Tammy. And I said, Tammy, I just don't think church wants to have anything to do with me. I don't fit. I don't fit in. And I really don't think God wants to have anything to do with me. And I know I don't want to have anything to do with him. And sweet little 12-year-old Tammy talking to a 20-year-old rebellious guy says, well, Dwayne, all I can tell you is I love you and God loves you.
Wow. Well, about a couple of days later, Sunday afternoon comes along. I'm watching football and God slapped me upside the head and said, hey, boy, that 12-year-old girl was bold enough to invite you to church and you need to get to church. So I drove to church and I walked in that back door and everybody saw me. And that would start.
All eyes on Dwayne. And that would start a spiritual journey that I would then get born again, answer the call to preach. I was at Criswell Bible College in Dallas, Texas, and the next thing you know, God says, go to Liberty. And I'm like, Lord, I don't want to go to Liberty. Go to Liberty. I go to Liberty. I would be there a couple of years involved with student leadership. And next thing I know, I got hired to be one of the campus pastors that had never been a campus pastor's office at Liberty.
I'm one of them and got the privilege to work side by side with Dr. Falwell from 1988 until his death in 2007. Wow. That's amazing. Let me interrupt you real quick because for all our listeners out there, I mean, your story reminds me of another story in the Bible, actually. I was almost going to say, Dwayne, are you sure your name's not Nicodemus, you know?
Right? Jesus had that comment, right? Hey, you must be a very religious man, a very educated man, but couldn't wrap his head around what Jesus was trying to convey, right, that you must be born again. In your story already, I feel confident is resonating with a listener out there, Dwayne, in that either A, what they've done, God just wouldn't accept them because of what they've done or B. I thought God was so upset with me, he would never want me back.
Yeah. Or B, that you just don't want anything to do with God. I'm guessing we may have a listener out there that right now has that perspective, right? But your story, and I want to encourage all of you out there, if you fall into one of those two categories, really listen, dial into Dwayne's story today because I believe it's going to minister to you and you can have a life-changing experience. And it was life-changing. For me, being born again brought about something I had never known before. I had known God, but now I call him Father. Being born again gives you a relationship with God where he's no longer God, he is your Heavenly Father.
And as soon as I got saved, I called him Abba Father, and I knew then I was changed, a new relationship with my God in heaven, who's now my Heavenly Father, and it's just been an incredible journey. Now, as I did get saved – How old were you? 22. 22, okay.
22. I got a lot – I got to get cleaned up. I'm a mess. And Tammy's father, of all the people, Bill Crawford, said, come to my house. And I had some questions, and I won't go into all those questions, but I had some questions, and he said, well, before we get into your questions, let's just get some basics down. Number one, turn to Psalms chapter one and read it. So I turned to Psalms one, I found it, read it. He said, memorize that by next Sunday.
I want you back here at my house. Those six verses need to be memorized. Wow.
No pressure. Okay, so I memorized Psalms one. I get back to his house, and he says, now, build your life off of Psalms one.
You got to be able to take God's word and meditate on it day and night, and it's going to transform your life. Now he's getting me to Romans chapter 12. But he's going to take me by Psalms 119.
How shall a young man cleanse this way? Psalms 119, nine. By taking heed according to your word. And then comes that clinching verse, Psalms 119, 11. Your word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you. And I knew I had a lot of sin that had to get out.
I had to be able to resist temptations. So Bill's teaching me, whatever temptation you're facing, we're going to memorize ten verses on. So I'm learning God's word. I'm learning God's word. And so as I'm doing all this, memorization becomes one of the big keys of my spiritual development. It's the memorization that's going to lead to the meditation that will then lead to the application. But it's got to start. Say that again.
Say that again. It's the memorization. And then the meditation that will lead to the application.
That's good. So I memorized a lot of scripture. And I was doing a Bible study with a group of football players back in about 2001. And the funny thing was I was taking a class for small groups. And I'm the one that oversees about a thousand small groups at Liberty.
But I needed to get academic credit working on my doctorate. So I take this class and part of the class assignment was you have to lead a small group. Well, it's summertime. How am I going to lead a small group during the summer? Who's here?
Everybody goes home there. It'd be a real small group. Real small group. And all of a sudden it hits me.
The football players are here. So I go down to the football locker room and, hey, guys, Pastor Carson here. And I'm going to lead a small group on Monday nights.
And I got to tell you guys, I would love to have some of you come and be a part of my small group. Crickets. They came in droves, didn't they? Crickets. And then I said, and my wife will cook dinner for you before we do the Bible study.
And hands went up everywhere. Free meal. I'm in.
I'm in. And they had heard the rumors about how good my wife cooks, and she can. So seven or eight guys show up at my house, and we're doing this Bible study.
And Nikita, one of these guys raises his hand. Hey, Pastor, how do you memorize scripture? I'm not teaching on how to memorize scripture.
I'm teaching a lesson that I'm trying to get academic credit for. But I had been around long enough to know when you're teaching a small group and someone asks a question, well, that's like Jesus. He's walking with his disciples. I was like, hey, Jesus, what about? He would teach.
I go, I got to teach him a moment. I paused everything. And I said, well, I've taken a number of techniques. There was a guidebook called Survival Kit. And I took that Survival Kit, and I used that. It gave me verses to memorize.
And then there was those navigator cards, and I used those. I got challenged to memorize 10 psalms, because you never know when you're going to need a psalm. And one of them was Psalms 56. And when I was diagnosed with cancer, guess where I went to? Psalms 56. When I'm afraid, I will trust in you. At that moment, I needed that psalm.
I had it hidden in my heart. Well, I'm telling them about how I learned from John MacArthur. Read Philippians, 30 days in a row, every day, all four chapters.
Guess what's going to happen at the end of the 30th day. If you've read it, all 30 days, you would almost have it memorized. Repetitively, right? Repetition leads to rejection. Repetition versus all learning. Repetition.
Yes. And then I said, well, guys, there's something weird, too. I got challenged by a roommate who said, wouldn't it be kind of neat if you saw a number, and when you saw the number, you thought of a Bible verse? And as weird as it sounds, at that moment, I looked over and I saw on the TV in our apartment the clock, and it said 633. And I said, what do you mean, like, 633, Matthew 633, seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added unto you? He said, yeah. You see a number, think of a Bible verse. OK. So I've been doing that.
And we're all the way up now to 2001. I'd just been playing games. I'd see a road sign. I just tried to think of a Bible verse. And so this guy says, what do you mean, if I give you my birthday, you could have a Bible verse for it? I said, well, I don't know.
But try it. He goes, my birthday is October the 13th, 1013. I go, well, that's too easy. First Corinthians 1013, no temptation has taken you. Romans 1013, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, then all these guys start throwing out their birthdays to me, and I knew verses for them.
Romans 101. So I get up the next morning going, that was really weird. And I laid out all 12 months.
And I just started writing. If I knew a Bible verse that would match the date, and I had 225. And now my mind starts going, there's got to be a way. There's got to be a way to come up with 365. And now we have a thing called Bible online, and you got you got Excel. And I took the Bible and downloaded it into an Excel document. I've got to sort it because it could only work chapters one through 12, right, one through 12. And it can only work one through 31 for the day.
Well, of the 31,000 verses, 12,000 matched. Challenge your company, business or you personally like to partner with me in supporting co offer Christ ministries the man up show and men up minutes go to colaf.net and click the Donate button. You can give monthly and only or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. If you would like to support coal off for Christ ministries for a gift of $25 Nikita 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.
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Go to eyeassociates.com for more information. Something happened called Facebook and I started putting a verse on, a verse for the date. And people loved it. And then they came up with a thing called Birthday. And so I would send people and say, this is your birthday verse.
And people loved it. And we fast forward, I come to Winston-Salem, I meet some man named Stu Epperson, Jr. and we're having coffee and he says, tell me what you used to do at Liberty. And I told him about being the campus pastor over discipleship and how we develop students to love the Lord and serve the Lord. And as we were talking, I don't know, just came a moment where I just said, hey, Stu, when's your birthday?
And his birthday is October the 16th. And I said, well, Stu, there's an interesting verse in the book of Judges. And he's like, what? I said, yeah, the book of Judges has a verse for chapter 10, verse 16 that matches your birthday.
And it says, if you'll get rid of your idols, God will have mercy on you because he can't handle when someone finally repents, he has to show them mercy. And I pulled up the verse and then showed it to him. He's like, wow, that's crazy. He said, what did you just do? I said, well, I gave you your birthday verse.
He said, I don't understand. I said, well, every date I have a verse, a verse for the date. And whatever the date was, I gave him that verse for that day. And then he said, you need to get the domain name, date the word. And I called my wife and I said, honey, I don't know what this means, but Stu Epperson said, get the domain name, date the word. And he started dreaming about a ministry that we could help people get to know God's word in a unique way by using verse for the date, but call it date the word so that they're getting to know the word. And since that time we've launched this ministry and that's the background on date the word. Darrell Bock Well, and so listening out there to this history, I'm just fascinated by the history.
And I kind of put the cart before the horse because you talked about your wife and her involvement. Take a minute though, Duane, and tell us about your family. I mean, how did you meet her?
And we'll dive back into more of date the word. Duane Johnson Well, I did date, got Liberty, the dating game. Darrell Bock So you played the dating game with her for a little while.
Duane Johnson There was a day when I saw her and I was like, wow, Lord. And the truth of the matter is we were in a student leadership meeting and she had stood up and given a testimony of some things that happened in her summer that was very difficult. And she was telling her she was just living for the Lord, even though things have been really difficult with her family, with a friend.
And I joke a little bit, but I'm very serious. I did the next morning get up and pray, Lord bless her. And then I said, the Lord did exceedingly abundantly above because he brought me into her life. So sure enough, we would meet and start dating. And it was one of those, my wife's name is Danita.
And I can tell you, I got the helpmate of helpmate. She has come alongside everything that I do, all the ministry I ever did at Liberty. She was right beside me. Everything I did in Ohio, everything I did at Salem Baptist Christian School, she was right beside me.
And now we're doing Date the Word together. Darrell Bock And you've been married how long? Duane Johnson Thirty-six years. Darrell Bock I would attest to you there. Thirty-six years, children? Duane Johnson Four children. Darrell Bock Okay. Duane Johnson Christie, Katie, Kirk, and Clayton, all with K's because preachers have to have alliteration.
And all four of them are serving the Lord fantastically. I have one grandson. His name is Logan. And this Easter, when we were together, he shared with us after dinner, he said, everybody get ready for the presentation. I'm like, what are we talking about? And he comes up and he's got this egg carton, a dozen eggs, and he opens it up. And I learned that it's this thing called the resurrection eggs. And he walks us through these 12 eggs with the last one being, pay close attention now, Papa D. That's what he calls me.
He said, pay close attention. And he opened up the last one and it was empty. And he said, this one doesn't have anything in it, because the grave is empty.
Darrell Bock The tomb is empty. Duane Johnson And I wanted to shout. I mean, here's my grandson of five at this point. And I was like, oh, my word. My Easter was made right there.
My five-year-old grandson is giving me the story of stories about how Jesus died for us and rose again, empty. Darrell Bock Come on, out of the mouth of babes. Duane Johnson Yes, sir.
Darrell Bock Out of the mouth of babes. Okay, so that's it, because I want our listeners to know about some of your family as well. And so, okay, so let's fast forward back to present day. You and your wife, you've developed this date to word.
Just a way for people. I know I get mine every day. In fact, I was reading it before I came to the station today.
I pulled it up and read in April 2, right? So, 1 Corinthians 4, 2 says, Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. And then you go on, so somebody that signs up for this, you go on to kind of describe or go into a little more detail, required to be found faithful, and then you go on to describe that. And so the development of that, because it's developed into an app, and of course, people can sign up and receive this in their inbox daily.
So before we run out of time, take a minute and talk about the development of all this now. So we had the verse and we were putting it on Facebook, but then we start finding out people wanted to have more than what Facebook could give, really. Than just a scripture.
Just a scripture. So we start writing a daily devotional. And people, I would text it to them, I would email it to them. Well, with Stu coming along, he said, create a website and let people sign up for it. So if somebody wants to- Get the domain name. I got the domain name, date to word. Date to word. So now if you- Dot com.
Yeah. Date to word dot com. You can go to that website and you can sign up. And every morning, Stu says at 5.15, I'm going to be getting an email. I don't know how that works. I'm just out of time. Yeah, 5.14, actually.
Yeah, 5.14. Wow. Some people are getting it. Okay.
Because we have people who get up and go to work and they want to have that quiet time. And so this becomes a way- Yeah, different time zones or whatever. Yes, sir.
Yeah. There's a way where you can get into God's word with the verse for that date, make it memorable. What's April the 2nd, 4.2? 1 Corinthians 4.2 comes right to your mind. Okay, I'm supposed to be found faithful doing what? And I give the devotional where I break it down with your time and your talent and your treasure and your temple and your testimony. Temple and your testimony, come on.
Yeah. So are you desiring for the end to be Jesus saying, well done, my good and faithful servant. Well, this is what 1 Corinthians 4.2 says. So if a person's out there listening, they want a different type of devotional, one that matches today's date, go to the website www.datetheword.com or go to your app store and download Date the Word. And then from there, there'll be every day you'll see right off the bat, there's a verse for today's date, verse for today's date, then you just click on it and you may not want to subscribe at this point, but at least that gives you the ability to see and then from there you can say, okay, I want to be able to be on the subscription list.
Now, everything's free, everything's free. And then with this, we've also put on here verses for any date on the app. You can also see this on the website, under the calendar, because people have birthdays and people love people celebrating their birthday. Hey, what's the scripture for my birthday? Yeah, what's the scripture for your birthday? And yours, I think, is March the 9th, 3-9.
Good memory. It's very good verse for 3-9, like 2 Peter 3-9, that God's not—slack concerning his promise that some people came outside, but he's long suffering that all would come to repentance. Come on. And then there's Philippians 3-9, but we can go into all that, but on the app—I'll just use Nikita here as an example—I just go to March, I come down to 9, I hit that, and all of a sudden I've got all these verses there with 2 Peter 3-9, 1 Kings 3-9, 1 Thessalonians 3-9, 1 Corinthians 3-9, Philippians 3-9, Proverbs 3-9, and that's right there for you.
Come on. And then you pick what verse you want to give to a friend. Okay. So, I love it.
In the Word of God, with its 31,102 verses. Yes, yes. That's amazing. Okay. So, before we run out of time, one more time, so they can go to the website, datetoword.com. Yes, sir. And they can go there, sign up there, which I did as soon as I learned of what you were doing, and or download the app, go to their app store.
What do they look for in their app store? Date the Word. Date the Word. And when you type in date, keep writing.
Okay. I've heard some people say they can start getting dating sites. This isn't about a dating site. This is about Date the Word. And someone typed in Date the Bible. Well, that doesn't work either. It's Date the Word and download it. You know, it's Apple, Google. You can download it. And then from there you'll see all these different levels, different tiles. My daughter's trying to teach me how to use this thing.
It's called tiles. And I would encourage your listeners, if they've got anybody in athletics, I have verses now for athletics that go from 0 to 99. So if someone has a jersey number, let's say they had number 5, 2 Timothy 2.5.
Unless the athlete competes according to the rules, he is not crowned. So I have a verse for that, too. Come on. So this is all part of Date the Word. So I told you we were going to talk about the dating game today, okay?
And you may or may not remember this at the convention. I was kind of busting your chops a little bit. Because I talk about, hey, I challenge men in our conferences and camps, hey, are you dating the Lord? Are you engaged to the Lord? Or married to Jesus?
Where do you fall on that spectrum? And after you get married, remember, we need to keep dating our wife. So keep dating the Word.
Dating the Word, dating the wife, keeping it fresh, right. And hey, I want all of you to go out there and one, keep Dr. Duane Carson in your prayers first and foremost. And hey, go download the app. At least go check the app out. Go to the website.
Check out the website. I'm telling you, you will not disappoint. Each day now, it's part of, I've just worked it into my daily regimen. Each day now, I go to my email, my inbox. I get my Date the Word, and I spend time meditating on that.
I like what you said. Memorize leads to meditation which leads to application. And so that's our – Dr. Darrell Bock And that's transformation. Dr. Darrell Bock And that, oh, I love it. That's transformation. So transformational.
Hey, you get the Word, you get in the Word, the Word gets in you. And I assure you, it will transform your life. Dr. Duane Carson, thank you for being part of the show today. Dr. Darrell Bock Oh, thank you for having me today. What a joy.
Dr. Darrell Bock Come on, come on. And thank each and every one of you, day in and day out, and week in and week out, I should say. You're so faithful to tune into the Man Up show. Thank you for helping to continue spreading the Word and go out and live a God-filled, God-blessed day.
Go out and Date the Word. 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. 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. 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. Nikita Koloff here.
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