There Is No Promise Of Tomorrow

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. With me today, you know, it's always fun.

You know, names mean something, words mean something. And today with me today is none other than Lance Bacon. Lance, welcome to the Man Up show. Thank you, Nikita. I greatly appreciate it. What an honor to be with you. Well, it's great to be, of course, we're no stranger to one another. We'll dive more into that as we get into your story.

But I got to ask you right out of the gate, even with that little introduction that I did, that brief introduction I just gave. Out of curiosity, random question, Lance. How much ridicule, how, the last name Bacon, how much razzing have you taken over the years with a last name like Bacon?

At all, if at all. I got to tell you, today, in these days when Bacon is like ultra uber cool, everyone's like, oh, that's the greatest name ever. And my answer is always, where were you when I was in second grade? Oh, come on. It was brutal when I was young. Today, it's like everyone thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

So, okay, so on that note though, so you can't leave my listeners hanging and our viewers hanging. You've got to at least give one little, so give one example of just how brutal it was. What pops in your head? Probably one of the worst ones was back in the day I was in high school at the time. And the lady who was announcing our names, when she saw my name, she just totally froze. And she was like, bassoon. And I'm like, Bacon, like the food. I mean, it's B-H-O-N. Bacon, this thing was like French or something or whatever.

Yeah, so I think she was ashamed to say it, that it was Bacon. So, for the next year, everyone called me and then they just transferred it over to my first name being Lance. Everyone called me Lanky Bassoon. So, I became Lanky Bassoon for the rest of the year. Oh, my gosh.

I'm like, that's even worse than having the name Bacon. I mean, come on. Yeah, come on. Like, right? I don't know. It just kind of struck me as I was thinking about that, thinking about our interview today. Like, I got to just ask you.

It's random, but I wonder if he got razzed when he was young. Now, you're up in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area currently. But so, were you born and raised there? Or where were you being raised up when that was going on?

I'm all over the place, Nikita. I was born in East Tennessee. Good wrestling country, of course.

Yes. Wrestling country, I should say. Wrestling, that's right. I was just in small town Elizabetha, near Johnson City. Moved up to Northern Illinois when I was a young kid and joined the military out of there and was all over the world forever and a day. And came back and ended up settling in Virginia and been here for, good day, 25 years. 25.

I wasn't expecting that. A quarter of a century now in the Hampton Roads area. Well, and by the way, thank you for putting on the uniform. So, moved around in your youth and then decided to join. What prompted you, just out of curiosity, what prompted you to join the military?

Well, I came from a family that has a longstanding military service. So, it was not unfamiliar to me and kind of a rite of passage and pride. But in full transparency, I also realized I was getting into some bad stuff. And I needed to grow up a little bit. I needed to get away. And I needed some opportunities that were not going to be afforded to me elsewhere.

And so, I thought, okay, well, here's an answer. I'm going to join the military. And didn't really think very highly of myself in those years. But this was an opportunity to go and make something of myself.

And that's what I did and never looked back. Well, and it would make sense, especially if you got razzed a lot as a kid or even as a teenager with your name. When it comes to your own esteem or belief in yourself, that's understandable why you might approach those years that way. And I've heard that a number of times. Guys are like, yeah, I joined the military.

What you just said, I really needed to grow up. And I thought that learning the disciplines that the military would teach would help me do that. So how long, Lance, was your military career then? Well, unfortunately, it was only eight years. I was planning on full career. Career, okay.

Yeah, I was headed to warrant officer school. And of all things, I was playing basketball. I don't even like basketball, dove for a ball, felt a pop in my wrist, was misdiagnosed for five weeks.

By the time I saw a specialist, he was like, yep, you're getting reconstructive surgery and your career's over. So I was a very disgruntled young man, angry at the world when that happened. Yeah, I bet. Well, of course, I can relate back to my college days when I know you know some of my story, but when my freshman year, when I shattered my leg, the bones in my leg in the game, and at 18 years old, like you're saying, thought, you know, leg shattered, dream shattered, life shattered, life is over, you know, as I knew it, but certainly overcame those obstacles. And so, you know, just quickly, a couple places, any places you traveled while in the military that stand out to you, like that was a really cool experience.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. For military, I did a lot of time, Middle East and Far East, and I am just bought and sold on the culture of the Far East, the land, the people, the atmosphere. Unfortunately, because it's gone downhill since reverting to China, but for me, Hong Kong was the greatest place in the world. I've lived in mainland Japan for a considerable amount of time. Can't wait to get back there.

Love it. Love the Philippines. Singapore, phenomenal. I was just really kind of a Far East guy. Didn't spend a lot of time in Europe. Basically was a lily pad just hopping from one to the other. So nothing against our European folks, but I was a Far East guy and loved it.

Okay. Well, you and I have that in common. And what I mean by that is, so in my wrestling days, or as you alluded to, my wrestling days, Japan, I made three tours to Japan, and I do tell people too similar in that one of the favorite places I've ever gone. I mean, the people, just how polite and respectful and cordial. And it was amazing. And of course, just the country itself. And then from a ministry standpoint, I have been to Singapore.

I chaperoned my oldest daughter, Taryn, her youth group with a good friend, Pastor Joe Phillips. I think he brought me as kind of the security, you know, at the time. But, and forewarned us, you know, no chewing bubble gum, you know, right? And all the things that can happen to you if you break the Singapore law, right? Talk about strict, and probably the cleanest city I've ever seen to date still, Singapore. Isn't it though? Yeah. Yeah, unbelievable. I mean, you could eat off the streets in that place. Yes, like for real, like people think we're exaggerating, but I thought the very same thing.

I'm like, these streets are so, I mean, there wasn't a speck of trash, a speck of dust. It was amazing. So anyway, well, that's pretty cool. So we have that in common as well. And so, well, and so I want to, we're going to talk about your transition and how we've met, of course, you know, me coming up your way, but take a moment to tell us about, tell us about family. Tell us about your family, Lance. I'm blessed. As a matter of fact, I haven't had a chance to tell you this, Nikita, but our son and his family live out in the St. Louis area, and they just welcomed our fourth grandchild, a grandson, Dallas. Aww, nice. Congratulations. He was, man, he was 9.5 at birth.

I mean, that could be a big kid. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so my wife and I, I am blessed with a phenomenal wife, Crystal. She is a minister as well.

She's a credit union manager, active in ministry, phenomenal worship leader. We have four kids. Going back to the name, we affectionately called him the bacon bits. But now we're adopting the grandkids into that title. We have four of those, and they're awesome. And I just couldn't ask for a better family.

That's amazing. And so how many years have you been married? We are coming up on, we've been 25 years. 25 years, put you on the spot there, right? Yeah.

Guys love it. We've been together 28, but we've been married on the 25. So you've been married, I'm trying to pay attention here. So you've been married right around the same length of time that you've been in the Hampton roads, Virginia area.

Yeah, that's exactly right. So we, uh, we met the, the, when I got discharged from the Marine Corps, it was on a Friday on Monday. I started work as a managing editor of a newspaper. First person I met when I walked in the door, uh, was Crystal.

She was the classified ad manager. Oh, okay. Um, yeah. So, uh, about a year and a half later we start dating and then it starts getting serious. And right after, um, she and I are, are making the lifelong commitment, I have the opportunity to come up in the DC area and, uh, right, uh, at the national level, uh, and, uh, be an editor for military times papers. And so we took that and, uh, at the same time I'm being called into ministry. So I became, uh, the proverbial tentmaker preacher and worked a job and worked ministry at the same time.

And that's how we came to Virginia. Well that, that, that was good. That's going to parlay me right, right into my, my second question.

Let me get a little side note here again. So much relatability today, Lance, you know, because my daughter just last night, uh, I knew there was another grand baby coming any day. Didn't know when, um, and so she, she texted me last night. She said, uh, baby is on the way, you know, contractions all night or whatever.

And then, then, uh, I, I saw baby is here now. I've yet to see any pictures or get a name or any statistics or anything yet. Um, but there are a few hours behind to tell people they're over, they've been, uh, celebrated 10 year anniversary in Maui, Hawaii. They live over there.

And my son-in-law Brandon is a, is a civil engineer, has a company over there. Um, so that'd be number 13, Lance. Number 13. Yeah. Crazy.

Right. Well, thank you. We congratulate each other here on these new grand babies.

The quivers are filling up. So well, so on that note, uh, of course I've been up there many times and in fact, coming up, uh, coming up the middle of March, the 15th of March, we're going to go and man up a men's breakfast there at your church. And then, and then you got me, hold me over for Sunday to, uh, to preach. But before we get there in details on that, what, so when that transition from what into ministry, like how did that happen? How, how'd you know that you knew like, okay, this is where God's leading me is to become a pastor or get involved in ministry. Give us a little quick backdrop on that.

Yeah. Uh, I'll, I'll keep it as short as I can, but knowing, I knew that I was called into ministry at a young age, but I unfortunately encountered church hurt. And I use that as an excuse to run from God. But my wife, very first date we ever went on, she took me to church.

Uh, she was kind of perplexed that this heathen guy that she had met knew so much about the Bible. Um, and I guess I became her project, but, uh, she got me back in church and, and I started going to church just to please her, but then God started drawing me and speaking to me. And sure enough, there came that day where he was just tugging at my heart and I went to the altar and I said, you know what, Lord, I abandoned my call. I have, um, neglected, uh, this gift you have given me, and I'm sorry, uh, please forgive me.

Just accept me back and I'll clean toilets or whatever. And I realized I had my shot and I felt the Holy Spirit hit me and say, uh, stand up. Uh, we got work to do, resume, resume that call and we're moving forward. And I didn't know it at the time, but God was working all things together for good. He had built a testimony. I had been through some stuff I can now relate to people who have, and he uses that to, uh, to overcome. And so God didn't, uh, waste anything. It was not necessarily his perfect will, uh, but he turned it to good.

And that's, uh, that is to my blessing. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. If you would like to support Kolah 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.kolah.net and donate today. The Man Up Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gaten as one of our longest running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gaten is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world renowned speaker, writer, and author.

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So a couple things you said there, I made a note of, because it's quite interesting. I mean, if I've heard those words, church hurt, once, I've heard it, I don't know, a gazillion times, a lot of times, right? And to your point, people do sometimes use that as an excuse to, whether it's run from God like you said, you know, or, you know, just, you know, kind of shake our fist at God or when, you know, really people, I try to help them realize, you know, the church hurt is from people in the church who are just as broken as you are. I mean, we're, because we're all broken, right? We're all flawed. I mean, you know, all, Romans 6, 23 or 323, you know, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right? And so there are no perfect people out there, you know, short of Jesus himself. But the other thing in what you said, I made note of was, so from the church hurt, and then finally surrendering, praise God that he's a God of second chances, right? God of second chances. So even if we do run from him or, you know, use church hurt as an excuse to not pursue a relationship with him or follow him, it's never too long as we're fogging a mirror, right, Lance? Or breathing air, whether it's the thief on a cross, there's always a chance, there's always hope that you can, you know, surrender your heart and life to Christ and begin to follow him, right? Amen. That's so true. Thank you, God, for that.

Yeah, absolutely. And so what, so you're up in the area, let me say this, something that's popped in my head, speaking of, you know, it's never too late till you breathe that last breath. One of your peers kind of up in that Virginia area, who I just met, I just met last fall, and we really connected and he was, he was all prepared to bring me in for a men's breakfast and preach over a Father's Day weekend, and then I get noticed, I'm like, I mean, I was gonna say Coach Mack, Pastor Mack passed away.

And I'm like, wait, wait, what? And just out of the blue round, on a family vacation on a cruise ship, right? And how well did you know Pastor Mack? I knew pretty well, his church is on our district. So we did a lot of events together and things of that nature, and there's not a lot of people who didn't know Pastor Mack, because in addition to being an awesome man of God and pastoring a great church, he served on the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors, had been chairman, vice chair, was just reelected to that. So I will say, you know, we just, we had a funeral yesterday, as a matter of fact, and one of the elements, of course, we're talking about all the ministerial side of it, because he was on the state board and was so integral in youth camps and things of that nature for the state. But when they started talking about all of the work he did with the prisons, with the transportation departments, with all of the various regional government facilities, I was blown away. I was like, this guy has touched more lives than we will know this side of heaven.

I mean, he was only 48. It was a tragedy indeed, but you know what, for him, he has received a well-deserved reward. And I thank God for that. And I just pray for all those who are left behind that they find the comfort of God, but that we also remember that our life is not guaranteed, it's a vapor, it's a blink, it's done. So let's make the most of every day and let everybody you know, know that you love them and appreciate them.

Well, yeah, that, and I'll just tag onto that. Because there is no promise of tomorrow, and for all our listeners and viewers here, you know, to make sure your heart is in the right place, meaning that, you know, you don't just have a head knowledge of that plan of salvation, but that story's made the 18-inch trip from your head down to your heart. That's what happened for me, 17 October 1993, I had the head knowledge, I understood the salvation plan, but I never accepted it or received it into my heart and received Jesus into my life until 1993, and there's been an amazing journey ever since then. And so, so Pastor Mack, 48 years old, certainly is the evidence that you just never know any given day. Again, on a cruise ship with his family, and the next thing you know, he's, he's, and not only did he make a, I'll just say, Lance, a big impact as you're describing in all these different varied ways, but man, he was a big imposing figure too, I remember that, I'm like, wow, that's a big dude right there, right, like, I mean, he was, he was a big dude.

And I think, I think that the conference, we were doing a man-up conference, and he was one of the guest speakers, I think he had to slip out like maybe an hour or two before it was done, because he had to drive like four or five hours just to get to another meeting, as you're referring to, because of all these committees and different things that he was doing. So, well, let's, let's, let's take a minute, so I'll, you know, I've been up with you before coming back in, in mid-March there, in fact, a good friend of mine, George, as I call him, George the Greek Pantis, is actually bringing me in for a local wrestling event there in the Hampton area, we'll get all that information up on my social media, on, I'm old school, so on Twitter, alright X, fine, whatever, but, and Facebook, we'll get all that information, but we'll get the information too about the breakfast we're doing with you, and the Sunday service, so take a minute before we run out of time here, we're almost out of time, but we still have some time, and tell us about the church you're pastoring there in Hampton's Road, Hampton Roads. Yes, sir, so our church, we call it Greater Discipleship Center, and we wanted a name that people, when they read it, they understood what we were about, and this goes back to what we were talking about a minute ago, Nikita, the issue of church hurt, you know, we hear people all the time say, oh, that shouldn't happen.

You're right, it shouldn't happen, but one of the problems that we have is when people come to that saving knowledge of Christ, unfortunately, we don't spend a lot of time helping them mature and grow up, there's a lot of people raised in church, but not raised in Christ, and that's where the church hurt comes from, so our focus is helping people to know their identity in Christ, overcome anything from the past, become everything God has called you to be, and then go out in the world, our mission statement is we build disciples who rebuild lives, and that's the main goal, and that's an important topic for men, especially because, you know, we as men, we don't like to admit our faults, and even if we come to a point where we will admit it, we sure don't want to talk about it, and that's where you got to have good discipleship, good men of God who can trust one another and grow in that grace and knowledge. Well, and I appreciate that vision, I really do, and I think I'm up to approximately about 1,500 churches now that I think I'm just going to stop counting that I've had the privilege of ministering in, and when it comes to salvation, I mean, I'm an evangelist, right, so I want to see people come to Christ, but I also want to see them take that next step, as you're talking about, and be disciples, so I love that greater discipleship center in Hampton, Virginia, Pastor Lance Bacon, and we're going to be there, we're going to do a men's breakfast from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday morning, March 15th, and then at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 16th, I'll be bringing the Word there, and what's the website for the, like, Lance, if people are traveling through Hampton, or even in the surrounding area, and they want to come and visit, what's the website? Yes, sir, it's simply greaterdiscipleship.com. Greaterdiscipleship.com, and I love what you said, too, I wrote this down, I may steal that from you, do I have permission to steal this from you?

Absolutely. Raised, lots of people raised in church, but not raised in Christ, man, we could do a whole show just on that statement right there, and so I really, I appreciate your heart for discipleship, but I try to encourage people, we need more and more and more and more of that, and, you know, Lex Luger and I do these camps, Lance, I know you know about them, the man camp, and what's amazing to us is, you know, men that will come to camp, who, again, just to your point, to drive home the point, raised up in church, like, yeah, I've been in church my whole life, I was at a church recently in Staley, North Carolina, Lance, it's been there since 1755, yeah, and I love history, right, and the guy at lunch with us, he's like, yeah, I was pretty much born in this church, he goes, well, not, you know, not literally, my mom didn't, he goes, he's like, yeah, it's mid 70s, right, he goes, but like, I basically have been in this church my whole life, and I'm like, wow, so like, you know, almost, you know, basically 75 years or whatever, right, that he's been in that church, and it, but it just reminded me of being in church, but, you know, are you also in Christ, so I say all that to say, men will come to our man camp, who've grown up like Ray, been in church his whole life, but in a camp setting, when they draw away from all of life's distractions, as we know the world can pull us in every direction, God brings the revelation to them that they, at best, you might say, they have religion, but they had yet to establish a relationship, sometimes it's at camp that they give their life to Christ and get saved, and then that then begins the process of discipleship, so we send them home and hopefully, and we have follow-up as well, so, we've got about a minute left, parting words for our listening, viewing audience, Lance? I just ask that God's grace be upon everybody, and as Takeda said, if you don't know Jesus in a saving grace, definitely get plugged in and find a church that can help you grow in that grace, and I promise you, it will be the best journey of your life. And don't waste another moment, as Pastor Mac most recently proved, there is no promise of tomorrow, and if you are, or happen to be in mid-March, I'll just say, it's not uncommon for us to have guys drive, you know, a couple hours, you know, an hour, a couple hours, you know, to come to a breakfast or something, or maybe you were a wrestling fan, and you know, you have an interest in meeting the Russian nightmare, then come on out to Greater Discipleship Center, if you don't have a home church, and you're in the area, come on out that Sunday, and you'll get to hear me preach the word, I really, I appreciate you, Lance, I appreciate you, appreciate your heart and your love for people, and your heart for building God's kingdom. Thanks for being a part of the show today. Thank you, my friend, my blessing. All right, and to all of you out there in listening land, we thank you as well, for each and every week, being so faithful to tune in and dial in, help spread the word on the Man Up show. Until next time, God bless. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts.

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