Kingdom Pursuits - Loaded For Bear & LYON

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it. Share it.

But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Wow, are we loaded for bear today on Kingdom Pursuits? We're loaded with bear. And first up, we have a lion.

You know, in order to be loaded for bear, you got to have lions with you. So fortunately, we have one. Ed Lion, my good friend with the Persecution Project. We still got work to do, don't we, Ed? We do, Robbie. Thanks for having me on the show again today.

Oh, it's always such a joy to have you. And you know, I'm really anxious to kind of hear an update on what's going on, you know, there at the hospital. We've been working on it. But for our listeners that weren't aware, you know, of what we've been doing, you worked with the Persecution Project, and you guys had this hospital project. Can you kind of bring us up to date a little bit? Sure.

Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for the invitation again. Yeah, with you, you know, your donors, your listeners have been incredible donors for this hospital building project that we have. It is the Jigeba Maternity Ward that we're building in Jigeba, it's in the Nuba Mountains of North Sudan, and an area that's been under attack by the North Sudanese government for a number of years. And now we just have this opportunity to, there aren't that many medical facilities in the entire Nuba Mountains, which is about the size of the state of Georgia.

There's only a handful. So this one area in particular didn't have any medical hospital, they would have to travel, you know, six or seven hours by vehicle. And then without a vehicle, it's days to get to the nearest hospital. So we saw a lot of women that were in need of maternity care. And then Dr. Tom Katena, who works at Mother Mercy Hospital, was training Dr. Ahmed Zechariah, who then was inspired by Dr. Tom and encouraged by Dr. Tom to construct a new hospital in a remote area so that more Nuba residents could be helped. And so we're in Jigeba, and we've been partnering with him for a number of years now.

Biggest need right now is to furnish the new building that has been completed for the maternity ward. Yeah, I'm so excited to get more information on that. And also with us this morning, my good friend Bill Mixon, who just started a new Facebook. Yeah, I just had all kinds of friends that were just sort of going through a blah through all this coronavirus, trying to figure out what in the world to do.

And, you know, I've had a pretty good time through this coronavirus, because I like to get out and hike and I like to get out and walk. So I put together a Facebook page, Forsyth Fun Things to Do. And we're opening up some in the community, there are things to do. But there's beach music going on at Midway and country music up at the parkway. If you haven't ever been up to the music center on the parkway, it is a spectacular way to spend some time.

They've got a museum and they've got professionals that come in and just kick the heels up. And what a neat thing, you know, one of the we discovered this in my life, you know, a long time ago, actually, but that one of the holy things in life is play. Is play, right? Fun things to do. It's like God designed us to play. And if you look at the word play in Hebrew, you're going to see that there's all sorts of aspects to that word is holy.

And of course, you know, they played the music that was the praise God with and play in so many different ways, you know, as part of having fun and what a neat passion to go after. So we got that. And then third up, I told you we were loaded for bear.

We have another friend that has been with us before. We have Ron Basie. And Ron is the author of the book Walk on from Valley of Despair. So we have from fun to despair here. You know, we have quite a variety that and I just dropped him with the skills of my fingers. But anyway, he is going to be with us.

He's the author of Walk on from the Valley of Despair to the Mountaintop of Praise. And so this might be a good time to do my riddle if I didn't try to drive my... She's looking at me like, don't do this to me. You hung up on the guest and then you're going to know.

I won't do it. I'll do it in a minute because the riddle has to do with walking pill. But Ed, oh, she got him back. So we'll get him on here. Good morning, Ron. I'm sorry I dropped you, but you're on now and it's good to have you back with us.

Walk on from the Valley of Despair to the Mountaintop of Praise. Robert, it's Ron Basie. It's good to be with you again. Sorry about the breakup there. Oh, it's okay. It's okay. And so Ron is in Texas actually, right?

Yes, I'm in San Antonio. And the story is... Well, I'll let you share a little bit of the story of what led to this book with our listeners. Well, short story.

I started teaching the book of Habakkuk several years ago when I was in seminary and various Bible studies in churches. And then I just became enamored with the book and decided to write about it. But in the middle of writing about it, our son was killed in the war, killed in Albania on a mission with the Air Force.

He was special ops. And I stopped writing for five years. And then God worked his miracles in my life, and he put me back into the teaching of high school students. And the book came alive again, and I was able to finish it. And it truly is a book of timeliness for today. We actually had it reprinted last year because people today are living in a lot of despair, which is the absence of hope. And that's the key theme of the book is that in the sovereignty of God, we always have hope that we can turn to no matter what's going on in our life. Yeah, I can't even... You know, that's just really, really difficult stuff. And I find it fascinating that God had put it on your heart to start that project. And then, you know, the loss of your son and how God brought you through that, and so that a lot of people obviously can share in how God encouraged you, is the way that clearly they can, like 2 Corinthians says, you know, he comforted us so that we could comfort others with the comfort he comforted us with.

That's true. Absolutely beautiful. And having Ron on before, let me just tell you, he has some insights in the book, Bill, you're going to like this, of Habakkuk, that just like, you know how I love the Song of Solomon and I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on? Anybody that knows me?

Ron loves the book of Habakkuk, and he is going to share some stuff on the show today that I think will absolutely astound you. So we only have one minute, so I still, I don't have time to get to my riddle, which has to do with walking, so we're going to get back to my friend Ed, who's, where are you at today, Ed? I'm on my front porch in Virginia up here in the Blue Ridge Mountain, and we have a fall festival going on about a mile and a half from my house today. They have limited it due to the COVID restrictions here in Virginia, but for the participation, but there are still tons of people going up and down my road.

So if you're hearing cars in the background, that's what's happening. But it's a beautiful day in Virginia, it really is. I'm really, really glad, and it brings up something, since I got a minute to talk about, something I really wanted to talk about on today's show, is a lot of people have called in complaining about some of the political ads that have run on our network lately. And we've never really had the amount of complaints that we are getting currently, and I just want to help people to understand that the federal communication, FCC decides a lot of these things, when it comes to political advertising, they are probably stricter on that issue than anything that I'm aware of, and there's lots of laws that were written, obviously, by politicians to make sure that their stuff gets aired no matter what on every radio station that they want to play it on.

So if you have a, if you have a license to be a, you know, this type of radio station that we are, which is considered a commercial radio station, if they, if they make the ad, you got to play it. So I know some people really offended by some of the ads that they've heard recently, but understand this has nothing to do with what we believe here at The Truth Network, but it does have to do with us believing in the law of the land and obeying what, what it is that God has, you know, given us in order to keep this license so that we can use this signal to promote the gospel. So we got a whole lot, we're going to have riddles coming up. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And as I said, we're loaded a bear with, loaded for bear with lions today, because we've got to add my old friend, Ed Lyon with the Persecution Project, Bill Mixon, my good friend with Forsyth funds to do, and Ron Breakey, who's walk on from the Valley of Depression to the Mountaintop of Praise, walk on. So you might guess that we do have these riddles. And speaking of walking, right? Oh, I didn't crack myself up with these. So, you know, when you think of walking your dog, you may want to reconsider that in certain countries.

Oh, why Robbie? Because say, if you're walking your dog in China, the way they do that is usually with veggies and they're trying to get it tender. They just got sad. You don't want to walk your dog that way. But you do have to admit when the Chinese take their cookware to a party. Yeah. They walk the walk. They walk the walk. Don't you think, Bill? I think they do. Ed, wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, I would agree, Ron. They walk the walk. Walk the walk. Walk. Yeah. And if they were cooking with their walks in their old, you know, Valiance and their old voyagers, those would be Plymouth's. Then that's when they use their Plymouth walk. Yeah, you can never mind. You want to go back to walk the walk.

How early were you up this morning? Yeah, really. I can't figure that one out. It'll come to you. So thinking about walking in your car, you know, if you were to do that, you could use a towel, and then you would have a walk absorber. He does enjoy this.

I love watching how much he enjoys this. So at the end of all those, I could see that I just wasn't resonating with my walk jokes, but I personally enjoyed them a lot. So here comes the riddle. Who in the Bible walked around and around seeking the kingdom of seven? There you go.

Who was that in the Bible? If you know who walked around and around seeking the kingdom of seven, you call us at 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH, and if they can see the kingdom of seven, you call us at 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH, and if they can guess that, then tell them what they can win. Oh Robbie, we're gonna walk the walk and talk the talk. We got a lot of stuff just stockpiled inside the Kingdom Pursuits prize closet.

Could be a book, maybe Ron Bracey's book, could be a t-shirt, you never know. We're just gonna dig deep. All right, 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH.

All you gotta do is tell us who in the Bible walked around and around seeking the kingdom of seven. So getting back to you, Bill, and fun things to do. For Scythe Fun Things to Do, you can get to it by forcyhthfunthingstodo.com and then log into your Facebook page, or you can, in Facebook, go to forcyhthfunthingstodo. Join, and if your church, if some organization you know of that's having something fun for a family to do, post it, put some information on there. So what if I live in Rockingham County?

Ah, you're welcome to put on there. Wake County. We really, really, it's North Carolina, but we're trying to figure out things for people in Forsyth County to do, but by all means they can drive to, Mount Airy's got some wonderful things going on this weekend, pumpkin patches. Cartersville's got some events that are listed on there. There's some restaurants reopening, some museums.

Mount Airy is an awesome place. They've got a regional museum there. Are you aware that's not Forsyth County, Bill? Yes, but somebody from Forsyth County can drive to the next county and have a wonderful day, having lunch, and then drop by the museum, the regional museum. So it's fun things for Forsyth families to do, and I don't care if you want to drive to the other end of the state, but it's good to know that there are dozens and dozens of things going on this weekend, and we're going to keep the page up so that you can plan ahead and enjoy getting back into the real world.

Wear your mask. There you go. So speaking of fun things, you know, when I think of the book of Habakkuk. We're back at that, huh?

Ron, but seriously, in today's climate that we're in, right? This book is very, very helpful to trying to get a glimpse of what God had in mind for us, right? It is, Robbie. It's very timely. One of the things that's very timely about it is that people are asking the question, where is God in all of this? Well, Habakkuk opens his book, and it's apparent that he has been asking God, where are you, for a long period of time. And he continued asking God where he was for a long period of time, until finally God answers him. And in his answer to Habakkuk, God says, Habakkuk, I'm working in your world, in your world, but you won't believe what I'm doing.

And that's what we need to understand in our world today. God's working. We're just not hearing him. We're just not seeing him because we're too busy with our own concerns.

In fact, at the end of chapter 2, Habakkuk writes these words. He says, But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. We think God's silent. We're the ones that need to be silent, because God is on his throne, and he is in control, and what is happening is for his purposes. And we may not understand his purposes, but we can rest assured he's at work. And in his own timing, he will reveal, as he did to Habakkuk, what he was doing.

And then it'll be up to us, rather, we're going to respond like Habakkuk did, when Habakkuk said, The righteous will live by faith and will walk on, no matter what the circumstances of life are. Yeah, and Ed, as I think about what's going on in the Nuba Mountains, how many times have you guys seen something that it looked like, where could God be and all that, with these bombs dropping and all this stuff? Yet, God's doing a tremendous work in the body of Christ there, in the Nuba.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I can't help but think that God ordains the timing of everything and the fact that you have Ron on, at the same time that you're talking about the Nuba Christians, and all that they've suffered over the years from their government, you know, they were definitely, they would have the ability to be in the valley of despair. But, you know, they, there is that Christian remnant in there, about 30% of the population of the Nuba are Christians, and strong, strong in their faith, you know, meeting, meeting in the midst of bombings that I've been to right after we had, I was in one area one time, and it was a Sunday morning, and we were having tea and coffee before the Sunday service. And we were up against the mountains, you know, big boulders that you could hide behind, and all of a sudden, on the other side of the mountain, the North Sudan government army started lobbing artillery shells into our area. And I counted them because, you know, doesn't happen every day here in the U.S., does it?

No, I would, yeah, I'm with you. And within one hour, they shot 40 of them into this area where, you know, they knew a majority of the people were Christians. And so I'm looking at the pastor next to me, and I ask him, I say, does this happen every Sunday? And he said, yeah, pretty much every Sunday, they know when we worship, and they try to disrupt our worship. And so at 11 o'clock, for some unknown reason, they just stopped the artillery bombardment, and I looked at the pastor again, and I said, all right, you know, we're pretty safe here behind these boulders, what do we do now? And he pointed out in the middle, underneath these big tall trees, where they had the church, you know, the branches, he had a log set up where people sit on the logs for their pews and stuff. And he said, we go out there and we worship. We praise God.

And I said, okay, not knowing that, you know, whether or not the North Sudan government was going to start artillery shells again. And we've had probably a good 150 people show up for service, and it was a, the pulpit the pastor spoke behind, he was filled with shrapnel holes. And, you know, they're in, they're on the mountaintop of praise, because they have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, even in the midst of all of this.

And yeah, there's despair amongst the people at times, but then they, they refocused and the pastors are there. And yeah, I mean, it's just a wonderful timing that you have us on at the same time as Ron with his book. Well, this is completely God, believe me.

Yesterday afternoon, I had no guests except Bill. And so God put this together, I'm actually quite excited about it. And actually, Ronna, I'm, you know, that, that verse that you mentioned where it said, you know, we need to be silent and God is speaking. I'm listening to these shells that Ed's talking about.

I was wondering what you're thinking about that. Well, as you know, you've read the book, the year that led that I lived prior to becoming a Christian in the full offense of being a Christian was the year I spent in the war in Vietnam, flying combat missions over North Vietnam, having friends killed, captured, facing death many times myself. I can fully understand what Ed is experiencing there because the motto of the reconnaissance is alone, unarmed, and unafraid.

Well, get rid of the unafraid because there was a lot of fear, but I know for a fact that it was only God who kept me alive during those periods of time. Wow. And that's what ultimately drew me to him. Yeah. What a beautiful thing God is doing. And we think, you know, those bombs dropping is something to think about. Anyway, we've got so much more Kingdom Pursuits coming with Ron and Ed and my friend Bill. So stay tuned. We got a Riddler on the line. Orlando is going to be with us. When we come back, we're going to find out about... Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom.

And today we are really loaded for bear. As you can tell, if you've been listening with our lion, Ed Lion, and with the Persecution Project, talking about what's going on in the new but mountains, Ron Bracke walk on from the Valley of Despair to the Mountaintop of Praise, which you can tell he's a Vietnam veteran, and what a story. And, you know, what God's doing through all that is just absolutely amazing. Bill Mixon with fun things to do in Forsyth, which is... all these are, by the way, at KingdomPursuits.com.

You can find out all about the Persecution Project, Bill's ministry fun things to do, as well as Walk on from the Valley of Despair, which is an amazing book based on the book of Habakkuk. But we are, as always, blessed to have, you know, wonderfully neat shows on The Truth Network. I'm literally blown away all the time at what God has provided with us on Saturdays on The Truth Network, which are a lot of networks. Their Saturday programming is not...

I mean, God just gives us awesome stuff, like, unbelievable. So one of those is Amy Cabo and The Cure. And Amy is with us. She's got a show coming on at one o'clock Eastern on The Truth Network. It's called The Cure.

And this week, Amy, you're loaded for Bear. You're going to be dealing with teenagers. Yes, thank God. They're awesome. Today we actually have Dylan, a psychotherapist, who's going to be nice enough to help us understand our teenager better in these trying times, despite their growing challenges.

Sometimes, unfortunately, it's the kids who pay the biggest price. So today, we want to acknowledge them and hope to bridge any gaps of communication we may have. That's just absolutely wonderful.

So her show is going to be live. You're going to be able to call in that, that same number, 866-348-7884, coming up at one. Thank you, Amy. God bless. Thank you, Robby. You too. Have a beautiful day. Have a great show.

I'll look forward to listening to it myself. Okay. Nice.

God bless you too. Thanks. Bye. Bye-bye.

All right. Next up, we have Orlando, who is in High Point. And he may understand who in the Bible walked around and around and around, actually seeking the kingdom of seven. Orlando, who might that be? Well, good morning. Good morning, Orlando.

It's good to hear from you. The answer for everything in life is always Jesus. But if you say the answer in Hebrew, Jesus, they'll give you the answer that you're looking for. Yeshua. That's right. That's right.

Yeah. That's how you get to heaven. Yeshua was the one walking around Jericho. You're exactly right. And the Israelites.

And they were, obviously, they'd actually just crossed over. So what a wonderful answer. I love the way you put that. Which in Hebrew means salvation, right, Orlando? That's right. It absolutely is. And I don't know if you've ever seen the verse, it's in Jeremiah, where it says the Lord's going to, I think it's Jeremiah 31, where it says the Lord's going to do a new thing.

The bride encircles the groom. That's right. Also, yeah. And so in a Jewish wedding, if you ever attend one, the bride goes around the groom seven times.

Seven times. It's called a chuppah. That's right. Under the chuppah. And so they're sort of bringing down the walls of the husband's heart. And so I love, love, love what you said, because the concept is, and I think about it, I ask Jesus sometimes, what can I do to love you like that?

What would that look like? And it's a beautiful thing to ask God how to love him. I know it. Thank you, Orlando. I love your answer. It's just beautiful.

Same here. Thank you. God bless. So Bill, I'm sitting there thinking that man, a lot of people, and in fact, I just, what you said a minute ago, I, when he was talking about the bombs dropping in Vietnam and the bombs are dropping, you know, Ed was talking about the bombs dropping in the Nuba Mountains, and then these people, they go out and worship, right?

Probably even without masks. And what Bill said, he said, you know, he said, yeah, they're not afraid of the bombs dropping, but you know, how many churches are locked down because they're afraid of this disease? And, you know, I don't know what that wells up in you.

I mean, you're the one that said it, so I'm. Well, yeah, I was driving up in the mountains on a Sunday morning and was amazed at the little churches and I drive by one and the parking lot was full and the people were sitting in the cars, evidently listening to the sermon one way or the other and drive by another church up there in the parking lot was full and they all set up in outside chairs and drive by another little church and it was obvious that they were all just inside praising and worshiping and then all the churches here in the big city are just scared to death to open their doors. So it's nice to know that the churches are opening back up one way or another, but I know, I know that there are a lot of churches that are just financially barely making it because they've shuttered their doors.

So Ed, obviously you experienced that in the Nuba Mountains and now you're up there in Virginia. What does that feel like to you? Talking about the church closures and how we're dealing with COVID.

Yeah. Well, I attend a little small church here in Virginia and we only missed a few weeks back in the spring. We're trying to do social distancing to, you know, as best we can. We've sectioned off every other queue and, you know, masks are kind of optional up to the individual.

The leadership is trying to obey Governor Northam's mandate for mask wearing, but you know, otherwise it's up to the individual. But I'll tell you, we only have a few families that are staying home and they're listening, you know, through Facebook apps or Zoom or anything else we can do. But we've been blessed so far. We haven't had any cases in our church and it's just been a blessing to meet together. And yeah, it kind of puts it in perspective when you think of what they were dealing with. You know, the bombs have stopped the last couple of years in the Nuba, but you know, nothing stopped them because they recognized where their hope and they wanted to worship the Lord.

I mean, they really would not stay home no matter. And you hear about this, you know, Chinese churches meeting underground and, you know, hidden away, but they're meeting. And maybe for these big churches in big cities, maybe it's time to start the small groups up, you know, and have homes open up again and invite small numbers of people from the church so that they can have fellowship and encourage one another, pray with one another. And you know, if you get small groups together, you can socially distance in people's homes or out on front porches or whatever.

There's always a solution. So Ron, what do you think Habakkuk would say to us? Well, I think he said very clearly that we have to walk by faith.

I hear that in what Ed's saying. I'm teaching seniors this year at a Christian private school, and we are in full school mode. Our classes are open. I teach in an open classroom. We do follow procedures of staying safe by many things, but it's just a great experience to be with the children back in the school environment. And I believe that's exactly what Habakkuk would say, that we, even though, in fact he ends his book by saying, even though all of the things that I am used to, my temple, my family, my city, all of those are destroyed, yet I will be joyful in God my Savior, for the sovereign Lord is my strength, and he enables me to walk on the high places of praise, as done in the matter of faith, hoping and trusting in God.

And we've not had any cases of the virus in our school, and we've been in school for a month now exactly. So I agree with Ed. I think we have to start making some moves. I love, love, love that verse in Habakkuk. I really, really do. I think the way I read it, he actually says he makes me to walk on my high place. I don't know if you've ever looked at that aspect of it, but anyway, when we come back, we have more from the Nuba Mountains, and from Ron and my friend Bill on Fun and Forsythe. So we've got one more segment of Kingdom Pursuits.

Stay tuned. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom today. We are blessed to have with us Bill Mixon, fun with fun things to do, in Forsythe County, and his Facebook group that he's working on there, Ed Lyon with the Persecution Project in the Nuba Mountains, and Ron Bracke with his book, Walk On from the Valley of Despair to the Mountains, the Mountaintop of Praise.

And so how wonderful we were talking about that. But I can't help but note, Bill, that I know for you so much of what you consider to be fun is to walk. Well, I like to get a nice hike. We've got a lot of wilderness areas in North Carolina, and it's just wonderful to go up to Hanging Rock and put in a few miles or go over the border up to Grayson Highlands. There's just an awesome place up in Virginia to go. And then Linville Gorge. It amazes me the folks that haven't ever heard of or visited Linville Gorge in North Carolina. You never heard my story of how I got lost in the winter.

Yes, I have. I've got to tell you, you're one of those that if there's not phone service, where are you going to go hike? Make sure I got a couple good compasses with me. But the idea of walking on to the mountaintop, and I love, I really, really, really, really do love to have spent some time in that last verse there of Bracke that Ron was talking about, where he's going to make your feet to walk on your high places.

There's certain places that you can walk, Bill, that I can't walk, and there's places I can walk that you can't. And he's making a special place for you. Well, you know, there's some spots in North Carolina where you can hike up above the tree line and just have an unbelievable view of everything around you. And I really feel connected to God when I can take a three or four mile hike out in the wilderness area and just look off into the vista, especially if there are lots of clouds around.

And there's just a great way to commune with God is to take a nice long walk with or without a good friend. And so interestingly, Ed, you're there quite often in the Nuba Mountains, and so their feet are fitted quite differently for their mountaintop journey than ours are here, right? Well, that's what I was thinking. I mean, yeah, they don't even call it walking up there. They call it footing. So whenever you ask how long it is to a certain location, they'll tell you in footing hours, you know, well, footing is two days. For instance, from some of the sections in even South Sudan, they will foot all the way up to Jigeba Hospital because that's the nearest medical facility.

It'll take two days to get there. So you can imagine if a woman's pregnant and needing to deliver her baby and wants to do it in a safer environment of this hospital, then, I mean, it's virtually impossible to do that at that late stage of pregnancy. So we're also, we have an ambulance to help take some of these women up to the Jigeba Hospital.

And, you know, I do want to give you a brief update. Since our last talk, and I don't know how many weeks ago that was, we have really raised enough support to deliver 80 hospital beds and mattresses. They've already been delivered up there. Some chairs, desks, cabinets, even trolley carts and drip stands, they've all been delivered exam couches. And so the progression on this maternity ward is coming right along.

And, you know, talking about the mountaintop of praise, I just want to thank you and your listeners and just give praise to God for all he's doing, partnering together to equip this maternity ward for the Jigeba women. Yeah, and we're kind of coming in the landing, yeah, coming in for a landing on this. And so how much more on this particular campaign do we need to get to where you guys were hoping? Well, we've got kind of a new, we've reached the limit on this particular aspect of the furnishing. But now we're looking for fencing. And we're also doing some generators that we need, some labor to put up the fencing and then some training. So that's the next one before we get to the medical and lab equipment, which would include things like incubators and x-ray machines and anesthesia machines, even down to the stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs and centrifuges and microscopes. And, you know, the list goes on and on for the final stage. So, you know, even the ambulance that we have for them is in need of repair right now.

They just had an accident up there somehow, but with all the muddy roadways, they flipped off. And so that needs repair. So, you know, the funds for Jegeva Hospital will go to all of these different aspects of making it a final fully functional maternity ward. That's awesome. Well, I want to give the last minute to our friend Ron. And I know your book's been reprinted. And what would you like to share, Ron, that you maybe didn't get a chance to get today? Well, here's what I'd like to leave everyone with. Habakkuk begins the book in despair, looking for answers from God. And God says, Habakkuk, I'm going to give you an answer.

There's a vision coming and I want you to write it so that the people will see it in their times in their times of need. He closes the book with the great vision of the majesty of God. That God is the deliverer that's coming. And all mankind and all of its various histories has always sought for a deliverer. And the deliverer is Jesus Christ, of course.

And so the reason Habakkuk is able to continue on that mountaintop journey is because he's seen the glory and the power and the presence of God. And I would just encourage people to look for that and to have the hope that he's there for them. Thank you, Ron. I appreciate it. Thank you all so much for listening to Kingdom Pursuits today.

You can find all this stuff at KingdomPursuits.com. Now stay tuned for So Much Truth. The masculine journey starts here now at 12 o'clock. Encouraging prayers up next. Don't forget Amy Cabo at one and oh, Nikita Kolov, man up at 1230. So Much Truth coming at you on the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network.