Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits.
Now, live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. What an exciting day. It's Passover tonight at twilight and the full moon is there and all sorts of ways that we can see how God uses our passions to build the kingdom.
And then tomorrow, how fun, it's Palm Sunday. So as we head into Holy Week, you know, how fun it is to me that we get to have these two guests today on Kingdom Pursuits. Number one, I've got Julie Castro with me and she was at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.
I met her there and they are doing a film that is unbelievable. She's with Thirst No More Productions and I Am Life, Wonderment in the Womb. Welcome, Julie. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk with you.
I am excited to talk with you. And this film is like, what artistic expression of the amazing thing that God does every time you think about it. Every time there's a conception, there's something absolutely spectacularly amazing going on. And you guys, you spent a whole movie to try to show that artistically.
It's absolutely beautiful, Julie. Where did that concept come from? Interestingly enough, it actually came to me in 2019 when I was at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. And I had a television show at the time. And I kept on seeing this reoccurring theme of people I was interviewing and it was all about life. And so I thought it was actually a television show.
Well, it turned out every time I tried to edit the television show, I was like, nope, nope, nope. And I sat on the idea until about 2021. And a friend and I were praying and she said, because I knew there was something to do with life.
And I have a friend, her name is Julie as well, and she has a prophetic dance team. And from there, when we were praying, it was like, let's show life in a completely different way. People have seen fetus photos, they've seen documentaries of men and women and their experiences. We've seen protests.
We know it's all polarized. What can we do to change hearts and minds towards the beauty, value and celebration of life? And the Lord gave me to show life the first 40 weeks through dance. And that's what we're doing.
Yeah, wait, we've got a whole bunch of stuff lined up for you all today with that. And then second up, we have Dr. George Miller. And he has authored an amazing book called The Holiness Experience. And interestingly, he uses the word and it's evolution. So, you know, Dr. Miller, I found that fascinating. But I got to tell you that holiness is a gigantic man, like, so beautiful and so important to every pastor, so important to all of us.
What an adventure God has you on. Well, about 10 years ago, the Lord led me to write a book called The Holiness Experience and its evolution. And the reason for it is it is because of the community that we live in. I saw many, many churches who that was declining. And we have to remember that our motive is the Great Commission.
Right. And so we we wrote a book, The Holiness Experience and its evolution. Then the Feast for Harvest is that one of the subtopics, main topic. And we want to say that this book has a step by step process of planting new churches and growing existing churches.
We feel that the focus will be one that will grow and make it all churches healthy if people are willing to come together and work and plan. That's beautiful. Absolutely. Well, I know neither of you have been on the show before.
I don't think. But you're fixing to see that part of my show is what my audience expects is that we're going to play a little shenanigans before we get into the deeper, more profound stuff. And so speaking of holiness, right? So part of shenanigans is just simply Robbie's going to tell some dad joke kind of riddles and you just suffer through it or enjoy it, depending on your taste and humor. And if you can guess one of these, you know, that's oh, man, we love it when that can happen. And I've been training my producer for years on how to get these. And so he's he's gotten pretty good.
We're going to see how he does today. So first up, the Holy Land. You know, we're talking about holiness. So the Holy Land is not I don't know if you knew this. It's not a fake place. What is it? The Holy Land is not a fake place.
What is it? What do you think? Dr. Miller or Julie is real. You're right. Is is real.
Oh, yeah, yeah. There's a hole in the link. But he is real.
Let's take it further. He is real. Yeah, there he is real. He is OK. So here's a little bit tricky.
The whole we could say the whole land is where he is. You're right. He is. That is. You couldn't be more right.
So this one's a little harder. Why isn't holy water used in vaccines? What do you think, Nick? Why isn't holy water used in vaccines? Because we are holy. That's true.
That's true. But the other answer might be because you can't take the Lord's name in vain. In vain. Oh, my goodness. All right.
Yeah, yes, yes, yes. And my personal favorite on the list before we get to the extra riddle that people can call in and win today. So what do you call a man who can perform any task to an adequate degree? Again, this man can perform any task to an adequate degree, and he teaches holy women good habits. What do you call this guy? He's a jack of all trades, and he teaches holy women good habits. Holy women good habits.
You would call him. Is it a nun or a priest? You're close. He's a jack of all trades and a master of none. You got the habit part and you got the holy women. Yeah, there you go.
Jack of all trades, master of none. Just to, you know, really. Anyway, you knew at the end of those shenanigans Nick knew anyway that I would have a riddle that you could call in and win today. And so if you can answer this riddle, they'd call in at 866-348-7884.
Here it is. What holy day comes tomorrow that features an animal ridden by God that was the best choice hands down? Oh, let's say this could be an easy one. What holy day comes tomorrow that features an animal ridden by God that was the best choice hands down? 866-348-7884, 866-34, truth. And Nick, if they can answer that riddle, tell them what they'll win.
Absolutely. Yes, you'll be winning a prize from our Kingdom Pursuits Prize Ball. They can get anywhere from a book, date the word calendar, or you know, we send a back structure. You just don't know what we have in the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Ball. 866-348-7884. What holy day comes tomorrow that features an animal ridden by God that was the best choice hands down?
866-348-7884. This will be fun. So we've got to go to a break when we come back.
Hopefully we'll be taking all your calls about that very easy question. And we're going to get into this amazing book, The Holiness Experience and Its Evolution and what we can learn from it, as well as I'm very excited. Wait till you see. It's all at KingdomPursuits.com, by the way, the trailer for The Wonderment in the Womb.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom so fun today. We have Dr. George Miller and his book, The Holiness Experiment and Its Evolution, excuse me, not experiment, The Holiness Experience and Its Evolution. And Julie Castro with Thirst, No More Productions and their film, I Am Life, Wonderment in the Womb. And it's such an amazing project.
So absolutely beautiful. Again, all those, the information on those, you'll find them at KingdomPursuits.com and links to the film and the information on that, as well as you can just order Dr. Miller's book. Just go right there to Kingdom Pursuits and you can get it off Amazon. In the meantime, we have Kristin is with us and Pinedale Church has got an event we want to let you know about real quick.
So Kristin, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. Good morning.
How are you? I am excited. I love Easter. I love Pinedale Church. And so something's got to be good. Yeah, we've got a great drama and musical coming up, April 19th. We have two programs that day, a three o'clock and a 6 p.m. showing of the program More Than Just a Man, arranged by Richard Kingsmore and created by Christopher Mackin and Kimberly Messer. And a really neat story about ministry, life and resurrection of Jesus, the death.
But it's seen through the eyes of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. So it's a neat twist on the story and it's got some really personal touches at the end. So we're excited about it. Let me just tell you, I'm excited about it. I, you know, as you were talking about it, I went, oh my goodness, listen to that. So for a lot of you listening, you may know that my boss and the founder of the Truth Network's name is Stu Epperson, wrote a book, The Last Words of Jesus. Richie Kingsmore, who is the one who apparently has set up the music for this, is an unbelievably gifted, a lot of people that have gone to Calvary for years would know Richie, was their worship leader for years and years.
Richie is a fabulous talent and if he did this, I'm telling you, it's going to be worth going to. And so it's going to be next, it's next Saturday? That's March the, excuse me, April 19th, which is next Saturday, right? The day before Easter.
It's like Easter Eve. We are busy today getting the set up and finished and preparing for this because that's a great ministry tool for us. And we are super excited to share the message in this way.
And it's a little different twist to it, which we also enjoy. So we hope you'll come out and join us. I hope everybody will too.
And you tell my friend Richie that Robbie said, hi, man. That's awesome. I'm so excited for you guys.
That's going to be amazing. You will do. All right. God bless.
You have a great day, Justin. All right. Thank you so much.
You're welcome. All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
All right. That sounds fun. It's at Pinedale Church again next Saturday, the 19th.
I'm sure if you go to their website, Pinedale, you can find out all about it, get tickets or whatever you need. So getting back to, Julie, your production, as you said, it's through dance, but there are so many visual things with this dance that can you kind of explain it? So you're going to take people through conception to birth? Is that what's going to go on?
Correct. And so we basically every scene is approximately two and a half or three minutes long. And we start with conception where you see a woman holding a hula hoop, representing the woman. And you see another woman and it's all female dancers that are dancing this.
And she has like a long silk veil to represent the male. And then we bring the two together and God is speaking in that moment about, you know, I have called you, my love has called you into being. From there, then we go into, we talk about cells multiplying, then the spine begins to develop and we take the viewer through the process.
Now it is creative and we've taken creative license. So there might be some things out of sequence or some things happen simultaneously. So even though, you know, like the spine is developing, the brain's developing, arms and legs are starting to develop, we can only show them sequential.
And that is what we have done. And each scene is its own separate dance with its own separate costumes and its own separate props. And I'll give you an example. In the very beginning, when the backbone of the child, the child's spine is being developed, God says to the child, and the woman who is the principal dancer representing the child who was talking, he says, I will be your backbone. And it's a staff. And when you, the backbone hits the floor and there's, I don't know, it's just something about this movie. It's God's movie. And he is showing life in a different way.
And he's speaking to each viewer, however they need to be spoken to. This is, and I just followed what the Holy Spirit told me to do. And so we, it's, it's about, about 80 minutes long, so about an hour and 20 minutes. And it has music and it has dialogue between God and the child. And so, yes, go ahead. We got time to cover more of it. Believe me, it's going to be an absolutely amazing experience for you. And again, you can find out about that at KingdomPursuits.com.
But I want to go back to George, I mean, Dr. Miller. And so holiness itself, you know, back at the turn of the 20th century, right, the holiness movement was huge. And churches were growing like crazy, springing up all over the place. And so it's interesting that you would use that term. And it's kind of cool, isn't it, that, that, can you kind of tell us how that, because I think a lot of people view holiness with a sort of a different lens than maybe God does.
Yes. Well, I'm a member of the Holiness Church. And as I said before, the title of my book is not the Holiness. This is, this book was created out of the examining of this holiness experience. Seeds for Harvest is the name of the book, Kingdom Building for Christ. The idea of it is, is that holiness challenged young people, connect first people, population, mobilize committed people, and new churches as a result of the great commission that Christ has given.
That's where the holiness comes in. The book is Seeds for Harvest. But we want to make sure the public understand that there is a process, there is a great process of planting and growing new churches. The book was written to assist church leaders and developers in focus and direction as it relates to church planting and growth. And when our churches grow, that means the probability that we could touch the citizens of that community and make our world a better place. And that is the focus of this writing that I did.
Right. So when you talk about planting these churches, like here comes this new pastor, here comes this new ministry, from a standpoint of, you know, what do you feel like should be his key, obviously the great commission, but practically, what is he going to do when he shows up in town? Well, the thing about it is, we got to love like Jesus. We got to live like Jesus. And we got to love the unbeliever.
When we show love, that has an opportunity to draw people closer to Christ, to somehow change or convert their behavior into a believer's behavior. And this is a process. It is ongoing, and we don't reject anybody because in time, it's not us that will do the change. It is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that could cause a person to be a new individual. And that's my way of answering that question.
Right. And so, you know, to the other question, back to the one I originally said, I said, you know, from a standpoint of holiness, a lot of people don't view it in that lens. And so the first word that probably would not come out of most people's mouths when you mentioned holiness is love, right? However, you know, God is love.
And the word holiness in Hebrew is kadosh, and it starts out with the letter uf, and that has to do with proximity, how close you get to God. And the closer you get to love, interestingly, the more holy you become. And so I love that you start out with that. I really do.
It's absolutely spectacular when I think about it, that how can you miss, right? If pastors would go about trying to love like Jesus, you know, people saw that, it's pretty attractive, right? That's right. And the philosophy that I have for our church, of course, we started from zero about 10 years ago. And right now we have about 400 individuals that have joined our church. We're not saying that everybody in the church is saved.
Everybody in the church has conformed to God. But what we're saying is that when we make contact with those individuals, the long-term goal is ultimately for them to become a believer, to become a believer, and change and follow the steps that Christ has left for us, to love, to obey His will, et cetera. And so, but this— That's beautiful.
Unfortunately, Dr. Miller, we've got to go to a break. When we come back, we've got a whole lot more, talking about wonderment in the womb, and again, the holiness experience. But also, I can't believe nobody's called in to tell us what day tomorrow is that features an animal ridden by God.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. You know, the idea of this show originally and has been, I guess, for nearly 20 years now is, you know, God puts a word on your heart, and maybe that word is to make a film or to write a book or maybe to teach a Sunday school class or maybe you're supposed to teach sailboarding at summer camp or something. God put it on your heart to do it. He takes you on this adventure, and then, oh, man, you sit back and you see what, through your obedience, God just blesses your socks off. And so we try to get folks every week that have taken that step of obedience and share where God's used that to build the kingdom, and it's absolutely amazing, and how God has brought so many amazing people over the years. And we would love, always, you know, you can go to kingdomforsuits.com, contact me, easy enough. You've got somebody that you know wrote a book or that did something that just, man, this person is a teacher of special needs people or whatever it is that you just see. God gave them a challenge.
They stepped into it. And so you just reach out to me, kingdomforsuits.com, and I would love to have them on. I dearly love to see what God puts on people's hearts and what that ends up being. And along those lines, Julie Castro, like, oh, my goodness, if you go to kingdomforsuits.com and you watch the trailer for this film, and you see, like, I got to talk to, I think it was, was it you or did I talk to your partner that is the dance person that I talked to at the NRB? Was that you?
No, it was me. And the passion that went into this project, like, oh, my goodness. It was like, man, if there was a Kingdom Pursuits topic, this one is it.
Because what you got to learn, like, what God came after you as you were doing this, because like you said, the Holy Spirit was leading you, and he touched your heart with these scenes, right? Oh, my gosh, I still weep. And I watch things. And I will tell you that we did a beta screening of the movie in March. And we realized there's some things that need to be done to it.
But I look at it, watch the movie, and I'm adding to the script. And I still weep. I'm still weeping. And the interesting thing is, I've even had a couple of testimonies from women in the beta screening who were touched by the Holy Spirit.
And they go, something happened. And I don't understand it, but God is healing me. And I'm believing that the Holy Spirit is going to talk to every single person very differently, because God knows exactly where they're at, what they need to be healed of. And I'm just honored and humbled that he would choose me to do this movie, because it is not a Hollywood movie by any means.
And so you have to go into it with an open mind, because we don't want to limit God. But by the same token, the production is excellent, you know, based on the trailer. Thank you. Well, and I'll tell you what. It looks wonderful.
I mean, I was really like, man, I can hardly wait. Well, and I'll tell you, thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it, because the cinematographer, that was an God-ordained moment, how I met this man. He's not even a believer. But I'll tell you what, God is working on him. I'll bet.
This is one of the best cameras that you can use in filming. And so, and he had an eye and he caught the vision of the movie. And that was the key. And when I met him and I saw his reel, I said, oh, my goodness. And he listened to us pray every single time before we started dancing. And he heard and we prayed at the end. And so God is moving. And that's the whole thing. I will tell you, Robbie, that this movie, this trailer won first place in San Francisco Art House Film Festival.
San Francisco, of all places. It's like Dr. Miller was saying, you know, his doors are open. This is the audience that we want to reach.
It's going back to the Great Commission, right? As believers, we believe in the sanctity, the loneliness, the value of life. But for those who don't, that's who God's going after.
And we just let the Holy Spirit do the rest once they've watched the movie. That's so beautiful. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, Dr. Miller, how long ago did God put it on your heart to write this book?
You said four years ago? Yes, that's right. And it is, we have worked this book and it is, I've used the strategies of this book, the step-by-step strategies for planting and growing new churches from scratch. And we have taken a church from zero up to almost 400 people in about three or four years. And a study growing, now we are expanding. We are getting ready.
We have a building project on the go. And it is a way of reaching people who was basically non-believers that were, I guess, in the street, partying, etc. But now they have conformed to the will of God. And we feel that we're going to be, you know, we'll leave a positive legacy as it relates to doing the things Christ's way, and embracing the Great Commission. What Jesus said, go on, make the cycles of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and, Lord, I'll be with you always. And we are standing on the command that Christ has given, and we feel that we have made a great difference in the community in which I live. Darrell Bock Right.
It sounds like it. So where is that church? James McPherson It's in the city called Louisville, Mississippi, northeast Mississippi. And it is in a town of Louisville, it's about 50,000 people. Darrell Bock That's beautiful.
Absolutely amazing, right? And to see God at work as that church grows, and you see community happen, right? Because if it's best on love like you talked about, then, you know, when you see one family loving on another family on another family, especially when things come down, then man, you know God is up there smiling. Because we were meant to be in a community, right? We weren't meant to hang out alone, like so many people, unfortunately, are doing today, right?
James McPherson That's right. And one of the things I see is that regardless of what lifestyle the person is in, we go to the person and we show love. And I think sometimes that brings them to a point of being different. It brings them not only closer to God, but it helps them and teach them how to build positive relationship with other people.
And in our communities where you have the violence and all of this, it impacts those things. And we are striving to continue to do it. And we just pray that God will give us the wisdom to continue to take them to the next level because the purpose of us doing this was to grow churches, new church plants, and then we want to teach at the movement that we're in, the Holiness movement, our young pastors to do the same thing. Darrell Bock Yeah, that's a really—you know, our God just multiplies. You know, that's his—the whole idea of birth to begin with, whatever you're talking about, Julie, is that it's multiplication. And new life is coming through these new churches, but it's also the opportunity and so glorious that when you see a church come to life, it's not unlike the film that you're making, right?
Julie Keefer Oh, exactly. I'm going to tell you what, life in general—we don't even realize, and what we've tried to do with this movie is show that the development of the child—this is a human being that is worth keeping, and that person has a plan and a purpose that only God knows. And even in the movie, he starts to show the child—now, remember, in The Womb, we're not really remembering any of this stuff, but then as adults—and it's not only life in the womb, that's what the movie's about, but I'm talking life in general. Listen, I'm 65 years old and I'm producing a movie for the very first time.
The latter years are better than the former, right? And so at 65, here I am doing something completely different that I've never done, but it was God's will. Who would have ever guessed?
And if people would understand that, you know, life is not over, even in the worst of times, and the worst of circumstances. Darrell Bock We've got to go to a break, I'm afraid, Julie, but when we come back, we've got a lot more, so stay tuned. Don't want to miss out on any of this. We'll be right back.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Darrell Bock Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom, and so fun today. Here we are on Palm Sunday Eve to enjoy Dr. Miller with his holiness experience and its evolution, as well as Julie Castro with her film, I Am Life. That's the name of the film.
I Am Life, the wonderment in the womb. And again, if you go to KingdomPursuits.com, you can see a way to get Dr. Miller's book, or you can find out more information on the movie from Thirst No More Productions, I Am Life. And Julie, when do you expect now that it's going to be out? Julie Castro Well, because of the beta screening, we've got some more work to do. But we want it God's way, and this is what he's doing. So I'm going to say within the next three to six months, I don't know for sure, but it's God's timing.
But I am believing that it is this year that it will release. Darrell Bock Wonderful. And of course, you let me know, and we can maybe get you back on, and we can talk about, you know, what it's been like since it started out. But, you know, we only have a couple minutes in this particular segment being the last one. I just want to make sure you get said anything that you wanted to say today that you haven't had a chance to say. Julie Castro Well, what I would say is, please go on and watch the movie trailer, and please share it with others, because we want to get the word out that life is beautiful, that we want to save lives, both physical and spiritual lives. So please share it.
And, you know, I'd love to come back on, Robbie, once I know when it's going to release and where it's going to release. Listen, this is my faith of walk of faith. Darrell Bock Yeah. Julie Castro Walk of faith. Darrell Bock Walk of faith, that's right. Julie Castro My walk of faith, because I don't know what I'm talking about. That's how I've done this movie. And he brings the funds as I need them, and I just say, Okay, Lord, this, you do what you want to do, and I will be obedient. Darrell Bock That's beautiful.
Absolutely. So Dr. Miller, same question to you. What did you want to say that you didn't get a chance to say today? Dr. Miller Well, I just certainly would like for the public to consider buying this book, Amazon. It is Seeds for Harvest is a book that is really interesting. It gives a step by step process of planting and growing new churches. And we feel that this book will seek to help churches to reach out to people that they would normally wouldn't be reaching out to. And we feel it's a good book, and we feel like it's making a great change in our community in which we live. And we encourage you to buy this book. Darrell Bock Yeah, well, that's the idea, especially for pastors that are sitting there wondering, What do I do to connect with my new church, congregation?
Or maybe you've been struggling for some time and thinking, Gee, these people had this kind of success. And you're not in a big, huge city to be growing from 40 to 400, right? If you're up there in northern Mississippi. And so is it sort of a rural community?
Dr. Miller Somewhat. It's a little small town, but then the community, I'm gonna say the rural portion of that community is very large. And that means that we have to get out and travel to meet people or to meet them at some of the businesses. And we recruit them that way. So and we got a lot of youth as well.
We must have 400 youth in our church at this time. And so I just want to say to the public, just read this book and just look at the steps that we have taken. You just got to draw close to people or people who feel maybe ashamed to come to you.
You can come to them and show them that they are valuable resource. And that draws them into the family of God. Yeah, that's absolutely beautiful. And so was there anything that snuck up on you when you're writing that book, Dr. Miller, that God had for you didn't expect when you were writing it? Well, one of the things I had written a book called the... I read another book. Now, as I was completing this book, this book came to mind, Seeds for Harvest.
The Holins experience was one thing. And I wrote about the organization that I'm a part of. But Seeds for Harvest is more of a personal approach to evangelism, personal. And when you can change the mind of a person that you know was going the other way, it gives you as a believer, it gives you encouragement to continue on doing the same thing. And so, Seeds for Harvest is a step-by-step process of planting and growing new churches. And I believe that bishops and pastors should embrace it because it'll give you some different thoughts and ideas.
I didn't go into all of the strategies and techniques that we use, but this book has got plenty of good information. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Again, every single person coming into the family is certainly another one for the kingdom. So amazing. Well, thank you guys both so much for being on with me today. It was so much fun, Julie, to talk with you again. And Dr. Miller, you guys were wonderful, just absolutely wonderful. Thank you. And so now, we got a whole lot of truth coming on you in The Truth Network. We got Encouraging Prayer with Dr. James Banks, followed by The Masculine Journey starts here now at 12 o'clock in Winston-Salem and other markets close by, like in Ohio. And then that's followed by Man Up with Nikita Kowal. So much truth coming at you on The Truth Network.
