A triple threat

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. You know, I'm always excited about shows I do, but let me just tell you, this one we are loaded for bear and they're all in the studio. Like, how cool is that?

So, you know, I'm so excited because you feel so much warmth when everybody's in the studio, nobody's on the phone. And not only are they in the studio, but I mean, these people are like, oh my goodness, they're poster children for how does God take your passion and use it to build the kingdom. So can you imagine somebody like from Russia with a passion for chopping off people's heads? Like, some people called him the Russian nightmare and, you know, he had a whole deal going on. Now, I mean, like, can you picture this now? How can you turn that into Jesus? Well, guess what?

It's happened. And so we have with us the one, the only, Nikita Kolov, the Russian nightmare. Robbie, you better be careful or I take your head off your body. And he transformed me from Russian to American.

How about that? The Lord is good. Great to be here with you, Robbie, in studio. So we are so excited here in the Truth Network because we are exploring the possibility of having a new radio show called Man Up with Nikita Kolov and some of the stories he has inside of what God has done in professional wrestling really just makes a hair on my arm stand up. Nikita, you've seen some amazing, amazing things.

I have. I've been very fortunate over the years to travel the world and certainly utilize the platform now of professional wrestling or as the southern viewers know it as wrasslin'. You do that wrasslin', don't you? Apparently I do. How do you spell that?

And I've had the fortune, the good fortune of meeting people from all, I mean, celebrity status, all kinds of backgrounds and some who know and love the Lord and others who don't who I've then had the opportunity to really just share my heart with and or my testimony with and if nothing else or at very little, plant a seed hopefully in their heart that one day that that seed would take root and they'd see the light and give their life to Jesus. So yeah, we're gonna, I'm excited about the potential. It's time to man up, boy, in our day and time. It is time for men to man up, isn't it?

Yeah. And so we're like, we're loaded. I'm telling you, I've got another good friend. And the last time I saw her, I was floating on my back in Nassau with my wife on my side and this lady comes up.

I'm glad you're not dressed the same way today. Because we are on an energized ministry, ministries cruise where Andy Bowersock is my good friend. He's been on many, many times. This ministry is out there to help pastors refresh and get them, you know, the time to rejuvenate and those kind of things. Hearts for pastors, pray for your pastor too or all that stuff. Well, how fun that Cindy is with that ministry and you were out there ministering to pastors right there out there in the water. Yes, we were. And so Cindy is actually here at the studio today to begin a new promo process of helping people come and to pray for their pastors, get involved with energized ministries and some of the things that they're doing.

Really cool. We have some inside scoop for you too. We have Andy here, but we're not, we're not letting him out of the bag just yet because you know, he's a little dangerous. We don't want to just get Andy on there anytime.

But we also have another friend of mine goes way back to actually when I was in the car business, my kids were at Calvary Baptist Day School. Herb Burns. Some people call him Herbert, but it's Herb, right? That's right. But I gotta tell you, Robbie, I'm a little nervous today.

You know, I've been to Russia many times and just, just, just let me know if my head leaves my body today. There's a sickle involved and he hasn't pulled it out yet. So you're good. You're good.

Okay. So anyway, Herb wrote a really cool book for somebody my age. It's called never stop and never stop.

What? Well, that's a good question because when I finished my first book, I said, God, what do you want me to do now? And he said, never stop. So that became the title of my book. So it's called never stop asking, discovering and sharing. Those three words have changed people's lives. So as you might imagine, if you've listened to kingdom pursuits, speaking of stop, you know, have you seen the new signs at the deer crossings?

Have you seen those? Cindy? No, they say the buck stops here. That's what they say. They don't use a little animal anymore. And I don't know if you noticed this, but all the pigs last week stopped sunbathing. Why? I knew you'd wonder.

They were bacon in the heat. Yeah, just saying. And I don't know if you knew this, but my dentist would simply not stop working on my teeth. You know why? Why? Come on now.

He was abscess obsessive compulsive. That makes sense, right? And do you like that? I got it. And he's groaning over here. That's pretty good. He's not alone. And then you could imagine just if you know me and you've ever seen me. Right. And you know, my teeth and you're familiar with my teeth, you know, and he got a good look at my two front teeth.

He said, we've got to engage in some stop gap measures. I love your smile. I will not laugh at that. Come on. I've got Andy chuckled with that. Come on, Andy. Tell us your real thoughts. I honestly cannot think what is more painful than listening to your so-called riddles on a regular Saturday morning. Yeah.

We're that too for that matter. But anyway, thankfully we all love you Robbie. So I know you're going to be proud Herb. Going along with your book. I actually got to get into the riddle here.

Okay. So I'm done with the painful dental stuff. You know, no more extraction. Just never stop Robbie. Just never stop.

So go along with Herb's book. Don't stop. I really love this riddle. Where in Ecclesiastes does it say that once you're in the salvation army, there's no such thing as choraleve. Once you're in the salvation army, there's no such thing as choraleve.

You know, in other words, where does it say that you have no power over your death and no getting out of the war? There's no getting out. No retirement. No retirement.

It's just not in there. So if you want to call in today at 866-348-7884. Beth Ann, time for the win. Oh Robbie. Exciting. It's actually a copy of Herb's book, Never Stop. Asking, discovering and sharing. So you get all that just for answering where in Ecclesiastes, I mean actually giving you the book.

I didn't tell you what chapter and verse does it say that you have no power over your death and no getting out of the war. In other words, no choraleve. 866-348-7884, 86634 truths. So getting back to Cindy, how long have you been with Energize? I've actually, well that's a difficult question. I've actually been working there daily for over a year. It was a year in March, but my connection to Energize goes back to when it's first initiated and the idea was actually a brainchild of my husband's and he and Andy were good friends and my husband was a pastor and we had some difficulties in ministry and Andy was able to give him and my son an opportunity to go out and have some recreation and being able to have that opportunity to be out in nature and to get away had just revitalized my husband in a way that he hadn't had that opportunity before and he said, you know, I'm not the only one who needs this kind of reprieve and escape and the opportunity to recharge and went to Andy with the idea and together over coffee and a napkin.

They kind of drew out an idea for what Energize could be. Well, Nikita, have you ever noticed that if you start to get your head up out of the foxhole that Satan will come after it in a difficult way? 100%.

I think it's interesting the timing even knowing, meeting you guys, knowing what you do. I had a conversation with a pastor yesterday, yesterday, who told me six of his friends because of all this craziness that's going on right now. Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson-Tada and don't you love Psalm 84 where it says that no good thing does God withhold from those who walk uprightly. Years ago I used to think that if I finished my chores, went to church, said my prayers, kept myself from fighting with my sisters, God would do good things for me. He'd give me good grades, a good college to attend and a good husband and all I had to do was keep my nose clean and be obedient.

It's the way we reason, isn't it? If we obey, God will give us financial blessings and more. If we do our part, God will be forced to do His. Well, I live long enough in this wheelchair to now have a better idea of what God thinks is good because if we walk uprightly, He'll give us courage. He'll give us contentment. He will not withhold grace and He'll give perseverance and endurance, all good things.

Oh, today, friend, remember that these things, these virtues are God's idea of good. Hi, this is Adam Holtz and you're listening to Plugged In. The very people who are running science are the people who believe the world is flat and I'm going to prove them wrong. The new movie, Radioactive, now streaming online, introduces us to researchers Marie and Pierre Curie. Their discoveries together would lead to the X-ray machine and new cancer treatment and eventually the atomic bomb. Radioactive takes us behind the scenes of the Curie story. Marie's stubbornness is almost her undoing, but Pierre helps her channel her passion, which leads to two Nobel Prizes for Marie. Speaking of passion, we see a lot of the physical kind here. Marie also has an affair after Pierre dies tragically. Violent war images turn up too, so we're giving Radioactive a 2 out of 5 for family friendliness.

Read the full review at PluggedIn.com slash radio. I'm Adam Holtz for Focus on the Family's Plugged In Movie Review. We're to provide and protect for the life we've created. That's what men are for when a life is created. Men have obligation and accountability when it comes to human life, as Steven Arterburn suggests on Focus on the Family Minute.

When you don't do that, you will eventually experience the guilt and shame from destroying that life. And it's not just the man that's involved with the woman. There's often a physician or a minister or a father. Other men get involved and pressure the person. And one of the things that I've said to many women over the years, you might be feeling horrible that you had an abortion, but a lot of women, they didn't have an abortion.

They had an abortion done to them. And so us men have to step up and be the man. As a man, you can have strong influence in the pro-life movement. More from Steven at FamilyMinute.org. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom.

And we are so—oh, this is so much fun today. We have with us Nikita Koloff, Koloff for Christ Ministries, and so much other things that he's involved in. It's just amazing to see, as well as Herb Burns, the author of Never Stop. We're going to get into that book here shortly. And Cindy Annan and Andy Bowersox with Energize Ministries. And just to kind of get everybody into the discussion to catch up, even me, because I found out during the break I wasn't completely on the right page. But essentially—well, let me let Andy tell this a little bit of the story.

Andy— Yeah, because we're going to get back to Nikita's story here in just a second. But, you know, a lot of your listeners know, Ravi, I'm one of the founders, along with Cindy's former husband Dave Annan, who started this ministry to provide care for pastors. And specifically we focus on preventive care and prayer support. And during the break, just to catch the listeners up, we were just talking about how if you're not busy doing what the Lord has called you to do, to making a difference, the devil kind of leaves you alone. But where we focus on leadership care, it's because people that are effectively drawing others closer to Christ and introducing them to Christ, they are under an all-out attack.

And so right before the break, Nikita was going to tell us a story about a pastor he just talked to, and I want to hear it. So let's go right back to that. Well, you have—I mean, your ministry is a much-needed ministry, and your question was what happens when you stick your head out of the hole. I mean, there's a target on your back, there's a target on your chest. You are targeted by the enemy. And so my conversation just yesterday with the pastor was, with this craziness that surrounds us right now, he told me yesterday he's literally had six pastors who just said, I'm done, I'm out, because they don't want to confront all this.

I didn't get all the details, but six of them, quote, retired during this whole last few months because of the craziness, and they just didn't want to—right? So a target, and that ties into you, but don't stop. Well, these six guys chose to stop, you know, what I'm guessing they were called to. And so that's an amazing ministry, and preventive medicine. I was listening to something yesterday, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, right? So what you guys are doing, I just commend you, and even your book is don't stop.

That's it. Don't stop. And so what a beautiful thing from my perspective, because I was—you know, Andy's a good friend, and he loved your husband. I mean, he loved your husband, and his illness, he had cancer, and he was dying. Deeply, deeply, deeply affected his brother, who loved him. And so it went after Andy's heart a lot, what went on over that period of time. And how—I was going to say, how unbelievably cool is it, Andy, that his wife is not stopping? In other words, she's taking the legacy of what her husband did, and using it to build the kingdom. Yeah, I mean, I know we don't have time to get too deep into everybody's stories here, and we certainly want to hear about Herman and his book, but you know, one of the things that I think is such—so much of the redemption for their particular family—I often tell people, I feel like I lead a family ministry for the Annan family, because if we get a chance to hear some of Cindy's stories, they have been under attack for years, for decades, Robbie, for decades.

And it's not just them, it's pastors and Nikita. Like I know, when you're out there doing amazing things, and you see just even one life come to Christ, like it is like, it's just—what we say is leadership in any level invokes a criticism of some, but leadership in the spiritual world invokes an all-out attack, and the manifestations are different every time. So that's why, like, I'm super proud of Cindy and the work that she's picked up after Dave passed, she's come in and helped out, some of her kids have been working in our ministry, and it's just exciting to see literally the national and even international impact that we have now 11 years later. Super excited. But I told her, I'm gonna shut up, I don't want to talk here, I'm gonna let these guys fill in the rest of it.

So I'm excited that somebody's gonna call in. This is a really hard riddle about, you know, where in Ecclesiastes does it say you have no power over your death and no getting out of the war, but it's an extremely critical little passage that was quoted to me one time by a 104-year-old woman who was the biggest Bible scholar I ever met in my life, and she was like unbelievable, her name was Miss Beck, and I do this devotion that Somerset Retirement Home had for years and years and years, and she was the one that led it, and she would charge me up, like, Robbie, you gotta get in there, you're anointed, you know, this 141, 104-year-old lady, she played the piano. Like, electric played the piano, I mean, like, she was on fire when she played that thing. In 104, I saw it with my own eye, you had to see her to believe it, and one time I said, well, Miss Beck, at what point in life do you slow down? And she quoted me this verse, and I've never ever forgotten it, like, really? That's in the Bible? That you're never supposed to stop, so Herb, God gave you that, and you wrote a book?

I did, and because he asked me to never stop, I said, well, what more do you want me to share? And he said, well, you know, look at the family, look at the work environment, look at your faith, and give readers guidelines, guideposts to connect them, to lead them, to give them direction, to have wholeness in their life, to ask what it is that they didn't know before. And let me tell you, as you go through the book, you'll see a series of questions that I ask you to ask others as well in the workplace, to ask your family members, about your grandparents. Don't let life go and not know what your heritage was. I mean, we are losing our heritage in America.

If you just look at the news with what's going on, they want to wipe our heritage out. So we've got to never stop asking and discovering and seeking the truth, not only for ourselves, but also for our faith. And the book talks about how to find, re-find your faith by asking, discovering, and sharing. That's so cool. Oh, thank you, Beth Ann. That deserves applause. My jokes don't get them, but you do. That's just, you know, thank you.

Anyway, it's so cool. Last night was my wife's birthday. And we, and we, and we took her mother, you know, and my daughters that were all out and out back. You could get more than six, unfortunately under the circumstances, but nonetheless, I was sitting there and the Holy Spirit just said, Robbie, you know, Nelda looks really left out. She's got hearing aids, so she she's got them turned down in a restaurant. She can't hear anything. Nelda's my mother-in-law. And those who'd know me know, well, know that we're not the best of friends, but we're trying. So I'm sitting there and I go, you know, Nelda seems so left out.

It's just sad. You know, she just seems like she's over in a corner. I know she's got her hearing aids turned down. I said, Hey, Nelda, you were the only one who remembers the day Tammy was born. Why don't you tell us what went on? And she lights up. I mean, she lit up and I realized I'd really done something good for her. She, she told that she drove herself to the hospital and we didn't even know that none of us knew the stories, you know, all the stuff that her husband was working and, and she was freaking out. So she drove herself to the hospital, the whole story, you know, and, and you could just see that she, you know, the, the place that she had in the story, which is, you know, obviously none of my daughters would be here. None of us would be here if it weren't for Nelda. And so it was really cool as, as you're talking about, I love genealogy and those kinds of things.

And so, you know, that's, that's just part of the way that we can man up Nikita, you know? Well, it is, again, I just, I love, I love God's timing. I was going through a bunch of past CD sermons and listen to some CDs and things that I did. And speaking of heritage, I had the, and it's a whole story for, for another time, how the Lord reconciled the relationship with, with my own father that I didn't have for about 45 years, but I did have for the last, about the last eight or nine years of his life. In fact, even brought him on the road with me in some of the churches. I said, boy, I'm listening to the CD and, and his testimonies on the CD of when he grabbed the old rugged cross. And I mean, just the tears in it, you could hear the tears, you could hear his voice crackling because he said, I can't tell this story without thinking back to that day that I grabbed the old rugged cross. And something interesting too, on the last father's day I had with him together, I had 10 questions that I sat down to ask him. One of which he shared that nobody knew because a lot of the old veterans don't really open up. Right. But he shared with me a story on how he liberated a concentration camp in Germany, which was, and it was, and it was detailed and it was like, it was like you were there.

I mean, the minute you weren't for the first coal off to man up, apparently I, my dad manned up before me. Yes. And led, led me, encouraged me to man up. That's right. So yeah, so that's, that's cool.

Well, go ahead. Herb, you had something you wanted to share and we ripped the mic right out of your mouth. He had it. He just about swallowed.

Yeah. Well this book also has 14 stories written by other people. Uh, one of them is called twice broken and it's about, uh, um, JC Martin who was a world series catcher for the New York Mets. So it talks about when he was playing for the Cubs and the Yankees won first place and he thought he was in a good position to win the world series next year. And the management traded him down to the last place team, the New York Mets. And he just said, God, I don't understand what you're doing to me. And a year later he became a world series national baseball champion because based on not stopping, not stopping. And his wife sit down and prayed with him at the table. He was in tears, honey, what do we do? And he, she said, you just have to have faith. God has a plan for you.

And the plan was a year later, he would be a world series baseball champion. One more short story, uh, at least say pronin in Ukraine, at least Russian. I like that. Oh, well I'm going to say, I'm going to say Ukrainian, at least say pronin. Uh, when the occupation took place in Ukraine, he's a pastor of a church in the thugs took over the political structure in the thugs in government, one of the church to support the criminal activities.

The church said, we're not going to do it. And we'll follow up on the story. Uh, after the break, but it's an amazing story that at least he has, uh, and, and all right there where the Russian sickle, you know, was, was birthed. So I'm right outside the Ukraine.

The sickle was birthed right outside the Ukraine. So we've got Cindy, we've got, we got her, but we got it all at kingdom pursuits. By the way, you can order the book, find out about energized ministries, how you can pray for them.

Stay tuned. Hi, I'm Johnny Erickson Tata. And don't you love Psalm 84, where it says that no good thing does God withhold from those who walk up rightly. Years ago, I used to think that if I finished my chores, went to church, said my prayers, kept myself from fighting with my sisters, God would do good things for me.

He'd give me good grades, a good college to attend and a good husband. And all I had to do was keep my nose clean and be obedient. It's the way we reason, isn't it? If we obey, God will give us financial blessings and more. If we do our part, God will be forced to do his. Well, I live long enough in this wheelchair to now have a better idea of what God thinks is good. Because if we walk up rightly, he'll give us courage. He'll give us contentment. He will not withhold grace and he'll give perseverance and endurance, all good things. Oh, today, friend, remember that these things, these virtues are God's idea of good.

Here's a Renewing Your Mind Minute with Dr. C. Sproul. It's very possible that you are one of those with whom God is angry every day. That anger can be removed. There is a way of escape from his wrath, and that, of course, is found in the work of Christ. That's what the cross was.

It wasn't a demonstration simply of Christ's meekness or of His righteousness or of His heroic self-giving. Jesus took upon Himself the wrath that we deserve. And so I point you this day to the One who has borne the wrath of the Father for you if you have put your trust in Him.

For today's special offer, visit renewingyourmind.org. Look at the world tonight, the problems we've got. Billy Graham. Jesus said before His coming that here on earth the nations would be in turmoil. We have political problems, racial problems, social problems, moral problems. Wow, that seems kind of bleak, doesn't it? But there is some good news. Could the problems be solved?

Yes. There is no problem too hard for God to solve. If the world would suddenly turn to Christ, a relationship would be built between the races and between the nations in which I believe we could have peace. Peace. It begins with you and your relationship with Jesus Christ. We can tell you how to begin that relationship at findpeacewithGod.net. That's findpeacewithGod.net from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom and we're so blessed today to have with us her Burns, the author of Never Stop, Andy Bowersox and Cindy Annan with Energize Ministries and Nikita Koloff with Koloff for Christ.

We're loaded for the Russian bear, all that kind of stuff. But right now I really have a treat. My good friend Amy Cabo is with us. She's the host of The Cure, which is going to be on at one o'clock. And talk about a cure, she's got a cure for marriages today.

They're in trouble, hopefully. She's got Mark Johnson. But before we get into that, Amy, I have to ask you a question. Last week you had your daughter on the show, which was so wonderful.

You remember? Thank you. Yeah, she is. She's so sweet. And she was talking a little bit about the sexuality of dancing and of how it's over sex these days.

It was a great show. But your daughter has the ability to say your name. Like I say Amy Cabo, it just sounds like Amy Cabo.

But when your daughter says it, she has that little like twist to it. So can you say Cabo the way it's supposed to be said so I can just hear it? Cabo. As in Cabo St. Luca.

Cabo. It's so good. If you listen to the show, pay attention this time, Beth Ann. When they do the intro, you're like, and now here's Amy Cabo.

And the way she says it is just like you can't, I can't say that because I don't have that. It's just beautiful. It's pretty good. It is good. I know I'm making much of a little bit. It's okay.

I just, these are the things I like. So anyway. You know, she never practiced voice over. That was one time. That was it. And we just recorded and it was perfect.

The girl is super talented, not just because I'm her mother. This is a one take wonder, no doubt. But you have some help on marriages today on your show.

Yes. Uh, you know, really what family or marriage is a challenge these days, especially when evil is added to Beth. You know, the nuclear family, the great pressure. I know this because even we see as it is, there's so many divorces that when people hear that we've been married 20 years, they're impressed. So Dr. So Dr. Mark Anthony, I mean, Dr. Mark Johnson, Dr. Johnson and I are going to discuss how it is that some marriages succeed while others fail and hope that we can help people remember that marriage is a sacred company until death does its part.

So they no longer consider divorces an option. But what's cool, like I know this cause I know the Cabos, I'm not saying it right, but you know, I know Amy and Boris. And I wish everybody could see Amy and Boris together.

And since I've read Amy's book, I know the story, which is fraught with a lot of pain, especially in the areas of sexuality and all that stuff that would seem like it would affect a marriage greatly. But if you could see Amy and Boris together, like they are having so much fun. Like little kids that are just playing all over the place.

Like when I was in Nashville with them, every time I saw them, they were off on some new adventure. They were going to do, and they, they just delighted in each other. And, and, and I think that that's really cool. Amy, I don't know if it's because of the many years been married or because they think we're newly words because people have told us, are you guys newly words?

You guys do you delight in each other. And so I'm anxious to hear your show today on marriage. I got to run, but Amy, thank you. And remember it's on at one o'clock on the truth network and you can call in live and ask her what's her secret. So stay tuned.

You've got so much coming. Thanks, Amy. Bye bye. So when we left our hero, herb, you got that wrong. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. You wrote this book that takes a hero.

Believe me, I can't write a book. So to finish the story up about Elise, uh, said his church on fire. He moved to a Western Ukraine, became part of the seminary there.

And I was introduced to, um, Slavic Fiz, who's the president who wrote a story in the book about how to spread and start new churches in Ukraine. And it is spreading like wildfire. It's unbelievable. Uh, I wish we could track the spread of Christianity. We're tracking so many things. I wish we could track how faith is growing in our nation today.

It's amazing. So here you go. We're running out of time. I thought that people would all be calling in with my Ecclesiastes verse. It's 866-348-7884. If you think you have the answer to, right, you have no power over your own death and no getting out of the war. Where is that in the book of Ecclesiastes?

866-348-7884. And when you do that, you get to never stop. You get the whole book, not just two or three chapters.

We have the whole, you get the whole enchilada. So how cool. But getting back to Energized Ministries and you guys are, this is a really interesting time to be in Energized Ministries, right? You didn't see this one coming when you started planning for 2020, did you? So Cindy, what are you seeing these days?

Well, it's been really difficult. A lot of the things that we had planned and on our schedule have been canceled. Um, COVID canceled. We had a golf tournament. We had a cruise lined up for a hundred pastors to go with us on the summer hits cruise. And that was canceled. We had a ballpark, our fifth anniversary at Energize the Ballpark at the ballpark in Winston-Salem. And we had a wonderful artist all set and we had a wonderful program and a time to really celebrate five years of our doing this.

And all of it has been canceled due to COVID. However, God had another plan. So where has he focused your energies while you've had the time to do it? Well, just like the churches have had to switch gears and learn new things and think about other ways to do ministry, we've gone back to the drawing board numerous times to try to figure out what God wanted us to do during this time. And one thing we have been doing is on Wednesdays, we take our Energize, pray for your pastor bus out and do pastor tours. And we call it We Treat Wednesday where we visit a number of churches, you know, half a dozen churches or more and stop in, give them a physical treat, have some frozen custard and then have a time of prayer and encouragement.

Give them a gift bag, introduce ourselves to them and have an opportunity to pray with them as well to let them know that we're still here for them and we're their friend and want to be there to help and support them. So, yes, we also have our lodge energized lodge. And so during this time, it's a place for pastors to take a retreat for a couple nights and to get away with their families or a staff retreat.

It's up in Virginia, 600 acres and a beautiful place. Oh, let me tell you, I've been there and I've done that. They, oh my goodness. Like, and you would agree Nikita that when you get out in nature, I mean, what it means for a pastor to get out there and now there are deer and antelope playing all over the place. There's actually bears, not Russian ones, I'm afraid. They're not the big grizzly ones, but they're black bears. And they're right there in a cornfield sitting there eating corn. I saw them with my own eyes. Like what's up with that?

Well, they might've migrated from Russia, even though they're black bears. I don't know. But no, I'm just amazed at what you guys do. I mean, in today's day and time, again, I can't emphasize enough.

I go back and so I'm going to go back. I would, I'm not a pastor. I would say I have a, I would say I have a pastoral heart, but I'm not pastoring a church.

And I have to get two quick conversations. The conversation with that pastor yesterday, like they can't win for losing whatever decision they make. Like he's like, Oh my gosh, I got a doctor in my church that said, why are you bringing us back together? And then I've got people in my church going, why aren't you bringing us back together? My pastor goes, you know how many people got mad at me? Cause I didn't make masks, a requirement. I said, look, your grown adults make your own decision.

And he goes, so they can't, these guys can't whiz. You guys do have your work cut out for you. That's for sure.

That's what I'm seeing. I'm going to jump back in here. You know, we often talk about it in Christian circles and even in sales circles, like win-win situations, right? And how, if I'm truly like serving the Lord, being a steward right there, what I want is your success at the risk of my success, right?

If I'm truly like humbling myself and stepping down. But in this situation now, there is no win-win. It is a lose-lose no matter what.

And so you're right. We hear it every single day, the stress and the tension to mask, not to mask, to meet, not to meet, meet in the parking lot, meet inside, meet on the, on the internet. Like it is a never ending.

Everybody's upset and tense right now. So we need the prayers your pastor needs the prayers. I'm thinking we should never stop. I'm just saying, don't stop. Go for a retreat to the lodge and then don't go ahead and get your retreat in, but don't stop. We have a Riddler calling in. All right. Okay, man, this is your time.

Maybe you didn't choose this, but you're here now. You're going to go out there and be an all-star caregiver. Cook, clean, be there emotionally and physically. You got to dig deeper, drive them to physical therapy, doctor's appointments, because that's what caregivers do. Don't give up. Show the world that you're tougher than tough. Caregiving is tougher than tough.

Find the care guides you need at aarp.org slash caregiving brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is John MacArthur with another edition of Portraits of Grace. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth. Gentleness refers to humility, meekness, non-retaliation, traits that our prideful society often equates with weakness or cowardice. Christ Himself was the epitome of gentleness when He was on earth, yet He wasn't weak or cowardly. He defended truth and never compromised His integrity or disobeyed His Father's will.

His power was always under control. Our society has little use for meekness. The macho, do your own thing mentality characterizes most of our heroes, but you're called to a higher standard. This is John MacArthur looking forward to bringing you more Portraits of Grace. Whatever the challenge, whatever the crisis, whatever the disaster, God has a plan. And this week on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how the Lord dealt with the Pharaoh of Egypt in a decisive way, but spared the lives of His chosen people in the process. Tune in for the details this week on A New Beginning. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. I mean, what a group he's given us today. Like, oh my goodness, we're so blessed here at the Truth Network. It just blows me away.

Herb Burns, the author of Never Stop, Andy Bowersox and Cindy Annan with Energize Ministries, and Nikita Koloff with Koloff for Christ and so many other things that he gets involved with. But right now I have a real treat, because somebody knows my riddle, I think. I'm sure hoping. We have Clay is in Raleigh, Durham. So, Clay, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. Brother Robbie. Hey, brother, how are you? God bless you, man. And I know you were thankful that the boot camp is over, but I know you were thankful that you have four wonderful people in that studio with you this morning, especially a wonderful person, Mr. Nikita Koloff, that I used to follow and watch on wrestling. And yes, I still do, brother, believe it or not, with all the stuff that's going on.

But I'm going to tell you what, man, you really caught my attention when you were doing what you when you were in action, because I tell you what, how could anybody stop a person like that? But, you know, I give thanks to I give thanks to, you know, Mr. Ivan. I know he's gone away and he's with the Lord and everything. But I'm going to tell you what, man, you were you were forced to be reckoned with. And, you know, I remember back in the days when all those people that like you were around and I give thanks for you, man, because, you know, it's just interesting to know. I didn't think that you were you knew the Lord.

But when I heard from Brother Robbie that he went to this convention thing and that, you know, I said, well, man, Nikita Koloff coming to know the Lord and he was like he was. But anyway, so all things are possible with God. I'm just saying, yes, sir. All things, not not most, not some, but all. So, Clay, do you have you got an answer to the risk?

He really did, Robbie. Yes, you do. I'm going to help you through it. It's in Ecclesiastes. It's somewhere close to the eighth chapter. Right.

OK, well, one more time to say you have no power over your death and no getting out of the war. It happens to be, you know, just let me just say, well, the first number of the chapter is also the number of the verse. So give it a shot. What?

It's Ecclesiastes eight. What? I don't I'm not sure what to do. And I can tell you, I've got a short I've got a short riddle for you. OK, here you go.

There once was a lady from Nepal who wore a newspaper dress to the ball, the dress code on bar and burnt the entire sports page, one ad section and all. How's that for you? You're exactly right. You're going to get a book.

It's called Never Stop, Never Stop. Wait a minute. Well, Clay, what's your what's your last name so I can autograph the book for you? It's Edison. And sorry, I'm not related to Thomas. You know, tried that didn't work, but he brought the light today, you know. OK, Clay Edison, I'll sign it for you. Well, Clay, I got to run, but I got to tell you, this has been awesome, man. I appreciate you calling in.

I guess it has never, ever forget your riddle. And the lady with the paper dress. Thank you very much. Hey, I'll tell you what, I'm so full of energy. If you would have heard me call in yesterday and talk to Brother Matt Slick about the guy that he had on yesterday, I'm going to tell you what me and I, Brother Matt said I should have my own radio show because of what I was sharing. Well, there you go.

And we cannot obviously do this without listeners clay. And we're so appreciative. Well, I just want to give thanks for each one of you all that are on there today, because I know that it's like me.

The Lord has called us to be the people that we need to be to be able to spread God's word. And I shared yesterday and I'm sure I got to run. OK, we'll be careful running. All right. Thanks. Bye bye. All right. God bless you all. Thanks. All right. Bye bye.

But I do. I just feel like this thing that's burning on inside of me, that's saying in the last days, the love of many will grow cold. OK, we know it says that, and Barna did a little research and you're very familiar with that, Andy, that literally one third, one third of the Christians in this country that attended church in February of 2020 are no longer attending anything, not online.

They're not doing a thing. OK. And so I could complain about that, but that's not the answer. It says the love of many will grow cold.

So what can I do? I can get hotter and hotter and get more on fire and more in love with Christ and more in love with everybody that I can come in contact with, because right. And Nikita, if we're going to build this fire, we're going to do it with love. We're not going to do it with complaining. We're not at the core of all.

It's a heart issue. All of the things surrounding us are at the core really have to do with the heart. And for those who have eyes to see, to your point, I mean, scripture is being fulfilled right in front of us.

And I'm not surprised that one third, if not even more than that, have grown cold. And again, what a great, what a plan of the enemy, right? Isolate, isolate, separate, distance us from each other and we grow cold. Hey, we're going to give you a chance to love your pastor before we leave, too. Like if you're listening right now and you're local, contact us. We'll come visit your pastor on a We Treat Wednesday, help them get scheduled at the lodge.

And we love you guys and love being here. It's Energize Ministry. They're at Facebook all over the place.

The link for their websites at my website, of course, the Key to Koloff, Koloff for Christ and Herb's book all there at KingdomPursuits.com. You can get hooked up on all of them. And again, if we just start loving on people with all we got, we just burn hotter and, and, and, and, you know, people are going to be drawn to that. That's what the deal is. So burn hotter, be brighter.

Yeah. We thank you for listening because right, we can all burn together. So thank you for listening. You got encouraging prayer followed by the master journey starts here now at 12 o'clock. So much truth coming at you.