Friendship with God

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. Oh, wow. Are we loaded for bear today on Kingdom Pursuits? I am so excited. I haven't seen the studio this full in a long time as far as Kingdom Pursuits. We get this kind of group in here on Masculine Journey often, but to have this for Kingdom Pursuits just makes my heart go pitter-pat. So we have just, you know, we've had the folks from Hope in the Morning, you know, Emily Curtis's book, this amazing, you know, what God did. I guess is the best way to put it is he put together this collection of stories of folks that have been through really difficult situations of loss. And, you know, the Hope in the Morning is just the neatest play on words.

And if you're like me and you love puns, I know they just honed in on it. And so today we have a special treat with them. We have Brighton, Jillian, and John who have a story of Hope in the Morning. So Brighton, can you give us just a brief idea of what you're going to be talking about?

Yeah. So in 2016, I met a man, a wonderful man named Adam Lang, and we got married in August of 2016. And five weeks later, he was killed by a drunk driver who was running from police. And yeah, my story is just how God, you know, transformed my life through that, but also just seeing his goodness and his grace through all of that as well. So all of us or most of us have people in our lives or maybe we ourselves are still struggling with someone that we lost or something like that. And so these stories are so valuable as we get a chance to see how others have come through that struggle.

And so this book highlights those and we constantly are getting new ones. And so we got that for you. But then also kind of on another angle altogether, we have Angela Barker, who I met at a subway two Saturdays ago.

Many know I'm a pastor of West Asheville Baptist Church. And so we'd stop to eat lunch. And then there was this wonderful T-shirt on there. This lady walked by and says, yeah, it was your mom. And said, friendship with God. And I looked at that and I said, what a neat shirt. And then she went on to tell me that her daughter had written this book.

And I said, well, I got to have you on my show. And so she brought her family today. And so Angela is a young lady. How old are you, Angela? I'm 26.

She's 26. And here's this amazing, so friendship with God, if that isn't inviting, I don't know what is. And so, you know, tell me about the title alone. How did you come up with that? Well, I kind of came up with the book first before the title, but I wasn't even planning on writing a book at all. I was just sitting at home one day, delighting myself in the Lord, reading the Bible. And God spoke to my heart. And I started to write down what he told me and more and more came.

And it was so much that I had to just grab a notebook. And from that point on, as long as I was faithful to find the time to write, God would always give me something to write. And friendship with God is really about different Bible characters throughout the Bible and their friendship with God and the virtues that make a good friendship with God. Oh, and it is virtues that we're going to talk about. Her title of her chapters are Meekness, Trust, Faithfulness, Love, Courage. And then we'll get to what's in the conclusion so you can see that all those are a pack.

But I told you we were loaded and we are. Next up we have Tanya Skelly. And so Tanya has an amazing event that's coming up actually at the theater in Greensboro coming up September 21st.

It's called Pray North Carolina. And it features such speakers as my good, good, good friend Alex McFarland. So Tanya, welcome. Well, thank you so much for having me on. Oh, I'm so excited about this. I saw Alex's picture front and center and I went, man, you're loaded for Bear yourselves up there.

And this is coming September 21st. And so, you know, how did this come about? We don't need to pray in North Carolina. We have our act together. Yes, indeed. It actually started in Rowan County.

We live in Salisbury. And almost nine years ago, a group of people, we started coming together, a bunch of churches the first Saturday of the month, coming together to pray under the banner in the blood of Jesus Christ. And now we're going into our third year of all 100 counties in North Carolina coming together to pray. Oh, wow. And I'm so excited about that. This is the kind of thing, like I had the absolute amazing honor of going to the Million Man March that happened in Washington, D.C.

I'm going to guess it must have been in the mid 90s. And there were over a million people praying on the square or whatever you want to call that at the Capitol. And there is no explaining that experience to someone that has never been in an event like that, where there are that many people seeking God with their whole heart at the same time, all in the same place. And so, you know, the idea that you guys are doing that for our state is so exciting. And then you've got all these wonderful prayer leaders that are going to be with you.

So that's coming up September 21st. And so it is kingdom pursuits. And just, you know, in case you thought I was going to leave you without some shenanigans.

Ah, think again. So speaking of friendship. Now the fun begins. Now it's time to play Chanel.

Oh, yes, it is. So we were we're getting ready in the studio and these folks didn't have a chance to be told that. You know, your job for this show is to laugh at these jokes. Very good. They're they're starting off good, Nick. So in what country? Here we go, Nick.

This is for you. In which country was the sound checked? The sound checks were invented by two friends. I guess you didn't know. But do you know what what country they were invented in, Nick?

I have no idea. What do you think? Emily, you know? Oh, she knew. She got it. Check one and check two. All right.

Well, my friend was bragging because he had this new 3D printer that he said he could print a gun. I wasn't impressed. You know why? Come on, John. You know why? Emily's on a roll. What do you think? I told him I have a Canon printer.

I've had it for years. Oh, you're going to like this one, Nick. How do blind spouses know if they're being cheated on by their friends? How do blind spouses know if they're being cheated on by their friends?

They feel it's bumpy? I don't know. Braille? I don't know. You're close. Oh, yeah?

All the signs are there. All right. And this one, since we talked about this on the Christian Car Guys show, why does some guy try to impress girls by drawing Ford Maverick pickup trucks and Dodge Rams?

They want to pick up chicks. Good, good. Nice. That was a good one.

They're actually pickup artists. And so, you know, I actually have a – you can call in and win today by answering this question. So I got to – this is wide open. You just tell me, who is Jesus' best friend? If you can guess that. Nick, tell them what they can win. Absolutely.

Yes, you would win a prize from our Kingdom Pursuits Prize Ball. If you know the answer to Robbie's Riddle, just give us a call at 866-348-7884. That's 866-34-TRUTH. The question is – and it is not a trick question.

I'm wanting a deep answer here. 866-348-7884. So I like this friendship with God.

Who is Jesus' best buddy, best friend? 866-348-7884. We got all sorts of stuff in the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Ball we would love to share with you. And obviously, I bet you we can even get you a free ticket to the prayer in North Carolina event. Is that right, Tanya? Well, the tickets are free.

Oh, you went and spoiled my spy. I tell you what, we're going to give out many. I know you are. And the prizes are endless as far as that prayer is concerned. So we're going to be looking forward to that. We'll be right back with a whole lot more on Prayer in the Morning, friendship with God, and the Pray and See event. Not to mention your answers to who is God's best friend.

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Consider adopting today and take some time to learn more about American Humane's other work, including their efforts to rescue animals in need, certify the humane treatment of farm animals, help ensure the safety of animals on the silver screen, and protect our planet's amazing endangered species at AmericanHumane.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 blessed, really, really, to have just poster children all over the place for this idea. We have Angela Barker, who's the author of Friendship with God.

We have Brighton, Jillian, and John with Hope in the Morning, as well as Emily and herself, who are still in the audience with us. And, very cool, we have Tanya Skelly with her Pray North Carolina event, which is coming to the Carolina Theater in Greensboro. If you've never been to the Carolina Theater in Greensboro, it's a real treat all by itself. So if you're in Charlotte today, or maybe you're in Indiana and you just feel like driving to pray for North Carolina because you know how bad we need it.

Well, you can do that, and it's free, like when you get here. But the Carolina Theater is absolutely cool, and it's right there, and that's going to be happening on September 21st. We got all kinds of information on that. But I want to get back to the story that Brighton was telling us about losing her husband. And so, we got Jillian in the studio, too, which is her sister. Jillian, yeah.

Jillian. Well, see, you went and spelled your name with a G. No, your parents did, whatever. They did.

They made it very difficult. Thanks, Mom. Yes, I bet I'm not the first person to talk. You are not. No. I could see the look on her face when I said, but I will never do it again. I'm going to respell it myself. There you go. That works. I should have just let you keep it that way. That's all right. It's all right.

It's all right. Oh, before I get there, just to show you that I have total lack of concentration, I'm shocked that no one has called in with this answer. Who is God's best friend?

866-348-7884. Like, all the lines are open, and you can win one of these fabulous books or something. Like, by the way, this book, Hope in the Morning, like, I was counseling somebody in my church, and man, handed the book. Like, it was perfect, and I could see their eyes light up that they could read these stories about people that had gone through stuff like that. And so, I'm curious, Jillian.

Yes. What's your part in this story? Well, my husband and I, John, we actually are authors of another story, so we've been through our own story.

But in relation to Brighton, yeah, that was a difficult time to walk through and see, you know, your family member go through something so shockingly tragic. Right. And so, whose story was first?

Mine. Oh, okay. Yep. And so, God had comforted you that you might comfort your sister some? That's a good way to put it. Yeah, probably. Very different circumstances, but having walked through that, you definitely can, you know, almost come on the other side of that and see how God has been faithful and that he'll be faithful again. And so, your story a little bit?

Yeah. John and I had been married about a year, and we found out we were expecting. This was in 2005, and we were very excited, and at about 20 weeks, they noticed that some things were off. And so, we ended up finding out that our daughter had trisomy 18, which is a genetic disorder similar to Down syndrome and that it's, you know, a misrepresentation of the chromosomes. But for whatever reason, trisomy 18 is not compatible with life.

And so, there's many things that can contribute to, you know, health issues and just span of life. And so, 60% of those babies, they die in utero, and of the 40% that don't, 90% of them die before they are one years old. And so, we went on to have faith, and she had a very full little life, but she lived to seven months. And so, it's just about a story of her life and how we honored her through that and enjoyed her.

Her name was Faith, and she just strengthened our faith, and she touched very, very many lives just in that short seven months. Wow. And so, how long from Faith's passing did you lose your husband, right? Oh, 10 years. Yeah, about 10 years.

Okay, so it was, wow. Quite a bit. And so, the cool thing about the book Hope in the Morning is not only does it share their stories, but it shares scripture, it shares poems, and different things along those lines. We're going to get to those in a minute, but we want to move back here to Angela. And, you know, I had a chance to read, they have a booklet out of just the first story, which is Meekness. Which, you know, I love the fact that you were writing about people that actually weren't friends with God, and really you would be amiss if, I think, one of God's best friends, which, by the way, you still haven't called in of 866-348-7884. I'm shocked. This is not a trick question. Just tell me what, nobody's ever lost in the history of kingdom pursuits.

Just call me, 866-348-7884. But, Angela, Moses was, but part of the reason he got to be as close to God was— Because of Meekness. Right.

Yeah. The Bible says that God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. And the Bible also says that Moses was the meekest man on the earth. And we need Meekness to have a friendship with God.

You have to be meek to even realize you need God, first of all. And Moses was meek enough to realize that he needed to submit himself to God's call. And God called him to do something completely crazy. I mean, Moses had just been living in the land of Midian for years and years.

And then, bam, God speaks to him through that burning bush and says, go deliver my people out of Egypt. And Moses submitted to that plan. And Moses was teachable. Moses, after God rescued them out of Egypt, Moses was meek enough to receive the Ten Commandments.

Moses was faithful to God to keep doing what God had called him to do. And most of all, what applies to us today, I believe, is that meekness, it repents. Nobody likes to admit that they're wrong about something. But unless we're willing to admit that we're wrong, we can't get back on the right track. And we need to realize that we need to repent of what we've done wrong and ask Jesus to forgive us. Because Jesus has come to forgive us of anything that we've done wrong. And we can have that friendship with God when we realize that we need to be meek and repent. And when we do that, Jesus forgives us instantly. And we can have this great friendship with God.

So you might hear a little enthusiasm from Angela. Which, you know, I think God is obviously channeling that and giving you an opportunity to share this testimony. And one of the neat things is that happens to be one of my favorite words in Hebrew, it's anav. And if you break it down a little bit— The word meekness?

Right. If you break down the letters of anav, the very first letter is an Alef. And that letter is the same letter that starts God's name of Adonai. It also starts the name of Adam. It starts the name— Dude, I didn't know that! Of Abraham, yeah, yeah.

And interestingly, the last letter is a bet, which is the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And it has to do with home. And when you put God in his house, he's kind of the head of the house. Yeah. All right? And it has to do with the priority of things, right?

Yes. And so we realize that God's house is gigantically the priority. The middle letter in the word anav is anun. And that letter has to do with, thy word is a lamp unto my feet.

Now, that's the first verse in the nun section of the 119th Psalm. Wow. Okay? And so it has to do with what you really believe. Mm-hmm.

Wow. And so if you really believe God knows it and I don't— Yes. Yes. Then you're beginning to take a step towards anavness or meekness, which is amazing. Because, as you well know, it's the very thing that Jesus would talk about of the beatitude, right? Yes.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Oh, pretty cool. Yeah.

Pretty cool. So we didn't want to forget—we're lining you up for this idea of prayer, right? Because, Tanya, we are so excited about this event. How did you come to be the spokesperson? Well, I was one of the founding people when it happened in Rowan County almost nine years ago. And we actually formed a 501c3 so that we could take it across the state a little over four years ago. And we built a team to go into counties. We would love to see every county become a Pray County. Pray Wake, Pray Guilford, Pray Forsythe.

And we went into one county, and about a month later, COVID happened. We got Pray Randolph right here, because we got two pastors in Randolph County. Angela's father is a pastor as well as myself. So we got to get Pray Randolph County. What the heck? Let's get it going.

It's absolutely beautiful. But I got to move to Andrea is calling from Indiana, because she knows who Jesus' best friend is. So we want to talk to Andrea real quick. So, Andrea, who is Jesus' best friend? Well, is it a trick question, or is it the most obvious? Every Christian knows.

I want to know what you think. Well, it could be the most obvious one, that we all know who his best friend was. With one that says, do you love me? But I guess, I just found a scripture about friends, because I know that this is really close to my heart, because Jesus is my best friend. And there's a scripture that says, you are my friend if you do whatever I command you. And so if I call you not servants, the servants know of not what his Lord doeth. But I've called you friends.

So I guess we are his friends. You got it. That's actually the answer I was hoping for. Are you serious? I was.

I'll never ever forget. That's exactly the answer. You are his best friend. Are you serious? Yes, I'm completely serious. I knew that.

Now? I'll never forget this story. I had this friend, he was really beating himself up, because in World War I, he had to shoot a bunch of children. Not in World War I, excuse me, in Korea. And these kids were on a suicide miss, and they had bombs on them, and they had to shoot them.

In order to protect their own troops. And he was still, felt horribly guilty about that, clear into his 80s. And I was trying to talk to him. And I said to him, Vinny, who's the closest person you know to God?

And I was thinking he was going to talk to his pastor, and I was, you use that as an angle to try to help him. And Vinny says, me. And I was like, oh, right answer. Perfect answer, Angela. Andrea, we're going to get you that book. And I am so grateful for your call again. We've got so much more Kingdom Pursuits coming up. Stay tuned.

And Alex. Hey, Alex. How did the interview go? I did it. I got the job. I can't believe it. I knew it. Let's meet up later to celebrate.

And Diego. Mom, I got first place at the science fair with my volcano project. That's amazing, sweetie.

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I'm so lucky to get to be part of this. So we have Angela Barker. She is the author of Friendship with God. You got to hear a few moments with her a minute ago. We have Tanya Skelly with a Pray North Carolina event coming to the Carolina Theater in Greensboro, Saturday, September 21st.

Got so much to tell you about that. And then we have Hope in the Mornings group that, you know, we have some of the authors. You know, each story in her book, Hope in the Morning, has different authors, including Joni Eareckson Tada and some other, you know, fairly famous ones. And the forward is actually written by, his name escaped me. Joni Eareckson Tada actually wrote the forward. Oh, she wrote the forward.

Alistair Begg wrote the gospel presentation for the back, and Joni Eareckson Tada wrote the forward, and John MacArthur wrote a review. Yeah, they're all in there. It's like preggo spaghetti sauce.

It's just loaded with all that. So very, very cool. But I want to get back to you, Tanya. What would you want our listeners to know about this event, other than, obviously, we desperately need to pray for this country, especially in September of 2024? Amen.

We do. Well, first off, like you said, the tickets are free, and people can go to our website, which is pray-nc.com. Get your ticket. There's 1,075 seats. There's going to be worship music.

It's from 12 to 2. The doors are going to open at 11. But we're going to be praying about the things that we know are plaguing our towns, our cities, our state, our nation. We're praying for our first responders. We're going to pray for the unborn. We're praying for students and godly marriages. You name it, we're praying for it because God wants to hear from us, and that is how we battle. We're in a spiritual battle. We battle on our knees, and we pray to him, knowing that he's big enough to handle every one of our cares and concerns. Right, and I'm fascinated by the team that you've put together.

Don't you have Al Wood? And you've got all sorts of amazing folks. So how did you collect that? Well, you know, it's interesting. I mean, well, God does it. God brings the people together, for sure.

But you know what? I will say our ministry was founded on John 17, 21 through 23, before Jesus went to the cross. He prayed for believers yet to come. And so that was us. And he prayed that we be unified. As I am in you, you are in me.

May they be unified so the world will know that I was sent. And you know, we can look around, and we can see that so often we stay in our silos, and we're not great about crossing the street. But God calls us to it.

We need to be doing it. And so you will definitely see that in the believers that are coming together. We come from different backgrounds, different walks of life.

But what we have in common is Jesus Christ. Oh, it's so amazing. You know, it's fascinating. You mentioned that passage, because the week before last, you know, I just had this amazing experience where God showed me that not only was he in my heart, but I'm in his.

Amen. And he has this expectation that I'm supposed to walk around in there. Right, right. And he showed me this in a really amazing way, but the part of it, and actually that was the very passage that he took me to. He said, you know, I am in you, but you are in me. And so if he is in my heart, then we are in fact in his heart.

And when we look at things from that perspective, we see things like spectacularly different. Right. We're now operating under his authority, and we're praying that we can view things through his lens and people through his lens. Right. And so you've had a chance to experience this prayer event before. Can you share with our listeners? Because I have some sense of it, obviously, as I've been to some prayer events, but I would love to know what your experience was at the last one. Yeah.

Oh, wow. Well, our last one was held in Raleigh the first few years. So this is our third year. The first few years it was in Raleigh. The first year we were actually at the Capitol Steps and Anne Graham Lots was our keynote speaker. Last year we were actually going to be at the Capitol Steps as well.

But God just opened up the clouds and it poured down brain and it wasn't going to stop. And there was a church across the street, Catty Corner from the Capitol Steps, First Baptist Wilmington Street. And they contacted me and said they knew about the event.

They were going to open the doors to their church. It's available to us if we needed it. And we needed it. The rain was coming down sideways the next day.

We couldn't do the event on the Capitol grounds. And it ended up being one of the sweetest times ever. We even had homeless people that came in and worshiped off the streets with us. But it was it was such an incredible time. You know, we have worship music that we start off with.

And what we haven't had on the Capitol steps is the ability to put the songs, the words of the songs up on the screens on the Capitol steps. But we were inside the church. And so everybody sang along. And it was just it was such a beautiful picture. We had children there all the way up to the elderly.

We had blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics. It was just such a beautiful picture of the kingdom. Right. And as those people are worshiping, they're there to pray. Right.

And in other words, they bring God in. It's each person that walks into the auditorium so you can experience that. Coming up September 21st, it's a Saturday. Sounds like it's going to start at 11 of the Carolina theater in Greensboro, which is right downtown.

So you get a chance to see all those big buildings and find a unique parking place. It'll all be there when you have a chance to do that. But moving back to Brighton.

So Brighton, I'm I'm curious. So you're I can't even I can't even think of losing my wife. Even that, you know, but lose them at that period in your marriage. What what scripture? How did Jesus come for you? So even just in those moments, I was just thankful.

It's every step of the way, seeing the Lord's hand in all of it. And that one of my one of the elders of our church actually got to the hospital hospital before me and knew that he had passed away before I did. And so when I got there, I was met by him, not hospital staff, but him.

And he was able to tell me that he was gone. And so even just comfort in that and what church to go to. And so this was in California at the time in Bakersfield is Grace Bible Church of Bakersfield. Oh, yeah, that's kind of a beautiful church. And John MacArthur's church, for those who don't know, right? No, no, no. Yeah.

So this this is in Bakersfield, California. But I yeah, I did attend his church for a while when I was in L.A. But yeah, so just having up, you know, one of the elders there just to comfort me and let me know immediately, just pray, pray with me and have that there. And so throughout just the mourning process and the grieving process, one, it's not linear. You know, there's ups and downs and, you know, good days and bad days.

And I'd have good years and bad years and things like that. But seeing the Lord's hand through all of it, I would really rely on James reading through James and counting it all joy and what that means. It doesn't mean that there's not sadness and there's not mourning, but that you can have joy and hope in one what is to come. But also what God has given you with the blessings that he has given you. And one of the exercises that I would do is write down all of the things that God has blessed me with in this moment on that day to remind myself that there that God is good and there is goodness to be seen. And that there that doesn't take away those things that are hard. But God is faithful and he will be faithful to work, you know, in in someone's life when they are going through that trial.

So I love James and fascinatingly, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I have the advantage of having that old Bible that through all these different trials I had. And that was my go to. Right. Like, oh, no, I'm supposed to get this joy. I'm not exactly sure how, you know, but it was really a challenge. Right. Something that that you could really so Gillian.

Not Gillian. How about you? What scripture or was there something else that that just really helped you find your way? Throughout my pregnancy, I journaled a lot, just wrote down kind of what I felt. I wrote out my prayers. I think at the time I was only 21. So I was very young. And I remember having the faith that the Lord could change this.

The diagnosis could be wrong. But one verse that really we meditated on. We're going to stop there because we've got to go to a break. So I know you're wondering about this verse. Well, when we come back, you're going to find out about that verse or maybe you got to answer about God's best friend.

Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four. We'll be right back. From Love Worth Finding Ministries, here's pastor, teacher and author Dr. Adrian Rogers with a treasure from the word. In Psalm 126 and verse two, when God's people got right, notice what it says. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.

I would like for your home to be such a happy place that your neighbors who don't know the Lord will look at you and see the laughter and the joy that is in your home and say of you, the Lord's done great things for them. And one of the marks that God has done something great for us is that our mouths are filled with laughter. Now, laughter is a gift from God. I have a friend named Ken Davis who is a comedian, a godly comedian.

And here's what Ken Davis said. Humor is a way of saying I am not okay and you are not okay, but that's okay. God loves us anyway.

People who are secure in their awareness of God's love and who have experienced His love and forgiveness are free to laugh. For more about Love Worth Finding and Adrian Rogers, visit our website at lwf.org. . Yes, God really loves us. But for a lot of people, our attachment to the past outweighs our commitment to the future. We have to stop looking back and start looking forward.

The Truth Network encourages you to forget the past. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. Oh, wow, what a group God has put together for us today. We have Tanya Skelly with the Pray North Carolina event coming to the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, Saturday, September 21st.

That's free and you by all means want to make your way there that day. And we have all these folks here with hope in the morning, their stories. It's amazing what God has done with them when we left our hero, Gillian. She was going to share with us how God had given her some Scripture as she was journaling, which I think is a beautiful, amazing thing to do as you're going through severe loss, severe trial of any kind, that those journals that I have are some of the most precious to me because they tell me, and I'd forget, you would forget a lot of what you thought if you didn't have it written down.

Very true, yeah. The verse that I was going to share was Lamentations 3, 22 through 23, which it says, For the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So that just, I was able to cling to that knowing that I didn't maybe have grace or mercy for that.

You know, I don't have that for the next five days, but I do have it for this day and this moment, and I can get through that. And, you know, her life just, it was so short. It was only seven months. But I would do it all over again just because of how she changed me and my husband and the story that we've been able to share and those who've, you know, lost a baby.

And she still, her sweet little life is still, she would be 19. It's still impacting people, you know, 19 years later. That's the Lord's faithfulness. That's so beautiful. And again, if you get the book, which I hope you do, Hope in the Morning, or you go to their website and get your own story involved, however you get involved with Hope in the Morning, you know, there's lots of stories there, lots of interesting things on what you say to somebody going through that, what you don't say to people going through something like that. And just to help us all be sensitive, you know, to what that is. And so along those lines, Bryton, what did you hope to share today on the radio that you're going to get a chance to share? I would just say that there is hope. If you are in a trial or you're going through something that seems impossible, or it seems like, how am I going to get through this? There is hope. And it's in the Lord. And he's going to get you through that next minute.

It may not seem like he can get you through the next, you know, decade, but he can he can do that and just take it one minute at a time because there were days where it was okay, I can get through the next five minutes. The Lord's going to bring me through that. And just clinging to the scripture, clinging to those passages in the Psalms, Psalm 6 was a big one that I clung to. So find that finding that hope in the Lord, not in outside sources, but in the Lord and in him alone. And that is what will will get you through those trials. And so we got John here, who we have left off the, you know, but we've saved the best for last.

No, not necessarily. So, John, what did you want to get said today that you haven't had a chance to say? I think a lot of it is in the title Hope in the Morning. When you go through these kinds of sufferings, it's just awful. And the experience, one of the things that's difficult about going through something hard is the way people interact with you. And they don't know how to how to bless you through that suffering.

And so that they often can say flippant things or unfeeling things or dismissive things. And so it's good for people to know that when people are suffering, it is hard, hard thing. And there's nothing you can necessarily say other than the truth of scripture. God's word is what got us through it.

It's what got us through Brighton's experience. It's God himself that we need. So I think that's the real thing I'd like to say. Absolutely. It's just when you're supporting somebody, weep with those who weep, suffer with them and pray with them. But don't be flippant. Don't be dismissive. Don't blow it off and say, well, God's good anyway.

And just say that without understanding that there's a lot of suffering going on. Absolutely. Wonderful. Wonderful.

So, Angela, we want to give you a minute. Oh, well, I think maybe the most important thing I could say is to reiterate the fact that I am a young person. And I know that there's young people out there that might feel like they're the only young person that really is passionate for Jesus or other young people who maybe they've gotten away from God. And I want to tell you, you don't have to wait till you're old to experience Jesus. Jesus is wonderful.

And just enjoying the journey with him throughout your whole life is so wonderful. When I look at all these friends of God, it was a step by step thing that he had them go through. And not to go through, but he was leading them towards something amazing.

Abraham had his promised son, Isaac, at age 100. But it was through all these steps of faith. It was the trust to obey him and to go out into that promised land.

It was Moses being meek to obey God. And I just want to give people the opportunity to have that friendship with God. God is like your best friend.

Wow, we ran out of time. Tanya, real quick, what do you want to make sure people know? Yeah, believers come out on September 21st. Bring your unsaved loved ones, friends, neighbors, coworkers. We're going to be sharing the gospel as well. You don't want to miss this time to worship the Lord and with your brothers and sisters.

Carolina Theater in Greensboro, September 21st. That's a Saturday you're going to be there. And wow, I appreciate you all so much. Again, the book is Hope in the Morning. And the other book is Friendship with God. You can find them on Amazon or wherever good books are sold, I assure you. That's all I want to tell you. Thank you for listening to The Truth Network.