This is the Truth Network. Wow, I can't believe we're already doing the last, Nick, we're doing the last Kingdom Pursuits of 2024. Excited about what God's going to do in 2025, but we're so excited that you've tuned in today to listen.
We've got such a show lined up for you, you know, what God has done in 2024 in so many different ways. We have two really neat people I get to talk to. One of them, quite often, is Pete Berbelies. He is one of my co-hosts on the Christian Car Guy Podcast. We do a thing called Horns of Light, and so I just call him Horns of Light Adventures. And so, Pete, welcome to Kingdom Pursuits! Thank you, Robbie. It's just so good to be here today and to be here with my friend Jay, who just has such a passion for seeing people come to Christ, and just a beautiful, beautiful life and a beautiful testimony of what God can do when somebody surrenders everything to him. Right, and it's neat how God brings all that together in so many different ways in harmony, right? He finds people, and they're gifting and uses that gifting and obedience. And in my opinion, one of Pete's amazing gifts that he has is the gift of obedience. And in doing that, to just introduce him a little bit, he, you know, God told him to go pray in Petra Jordan. And, you know, he's a surveyor out there in Illinois, Kansas, those kind of places, you know, and like, man, all of a sudden, God says, go pray in Petra Jordan.
And Pete does that. And then when Pete does that, how exciting, you know, God does this miraculous thing, obviously through the prayer and how you felt. But can you take the folks back there for just a minute as we're introducing you, Pete, to what happened there in Petra?
Sure, yeah. It was basically just, you know, I went and prayed with a friend and had some verses that Arnold Fruchtenbaum felt was related to Petra Jordan. And at the end of our time of praying those verses, just the presence of God just really came in a very special way. And you can feel it and just asked a friend to take a photo of and capture this moment and just raise my hands up to heaven to thank the Lord for this adventure. And just as my friend was getting ready to take the picture, a beam of light kind of came down and he just started laughing and just kept saying, I hope I'm able to get this in the photo and then something along those lines.
And then he took the picture and he was able to capture it. And it was just kind of one of those things that let me on a long trail of many other things and kind of connected us as a result of Habakkuk 3. And there's a story there.
Oh, there's so many stories. But, you know, again, just to introduce the idea of like, man, sometimes you just, you know, God sends you on something that seems to not make that much sense at the time, but then in obedience, oh my word, what ends up happening is absolutely spectacular. And that was actually kind of the idea originally behind Kingdom Pursuits is that so many folks out there, God has, you know, put it on their heart to write a book or he's put it on their heart to do a movie or even teach at a Christian camp or whatever that may be. And they do it. And then all of a sudden, oh my goodness, God takes that and just takes them on the wildest adventure.
They had no idea the joy that would be involved in that. And so our next guest, Jay Peters with Jesus Revival now, and they're in Illinois. And Jay, that's exactly what happened to you, right?
Yeah, that sums it up pretty good, Robbie. Thank you for having me on the show today. Oh, it's so fun. It really is, because you guys are such good friends.
And, you know, it's so cool. It really is, as Pete said, nobody loves to hear about fruit more than the listeners of Kingdom Pursuits and hear about people coming to Christ, especially young people. And you're certainly getting to see that in large numbers, right, Jay?
Yes, it's been just amazing. I don't think I've ever seen the hunger that I see right now that I've been doing youth ministry for about 30 years. And what I've seen in the past five years and in the past, like I would say the past, even the past year, it seems to have increased, especially amongst like high school and college. There's a hunger there. They don't always know it's for the Lord. But it's like, once you show them this is what your appetite is for, they're unstoppable.
You know, we have some of the kids that we're meeting with, a couple of them live with me, and then we have kids that literally we're connecting with on a daily basis. And it's nothing, you know, it's not some special program or anything. It's literally reading the Bible, sharing, praying, doing life, and you know, not trying to hype anything up, just giving them just God is the gospel, right? And it's been it's been incredible. And it's it's really, really, I feel like so much of what these past 30 years is just preparing for what God is doing now. And that is so and so you guys listening, I'm telling you, there are some stories coming your way from both these guys that that are really remarkable or what God's done in 2024 as we finish out this show, but neither of these guys are written, Nick, I don't think they're ready for what they're about to experience. Because they don't know that part of Kingdom Pursuits is shenanigans, right?
And so, you know, I had such a topic, I couldn't lay it down. But part of you know, getting into the whole field of Kingdom Pursuits is, it's time to play right speaking horns. Ah, you're wondering. We had a temporary delay, but the idea of shenanigans is always that my listeners get a chance to hear, you know, Robbie's dad jokes slash riddles, and then get a chance to call in and win, which is part of what we enjoy doing here on Kingdom Pursuits. So speaking of horns, as I mentioned, Nick, and of course, if Jay or Pete, you feel like you have an answer to one of these, by all means jump in except the last one, which is we want people to call in and win. So why would you put horns on your laptop?
Right? If you thought about that, Nick, why would you put horns on your laptop? If you guys feel like chiming in, just just go ahead.
Yeah, it increases its RAM capability. Yeah, so there you go. And so what do you call a battle where the only weapons are truck horns?
That would be a fight to the death. That's what'll get you. Why did the Boy Scout decide to call his business fixing horns? What, excuse me, did the Boy Scout decide to call his business fixing horns on cars and trucks? He was a Boy Scout, that's helpful. Beep, repaired.
Beep, repaired. And my personal favorite on my list of corny ones before I get the actual riddle today is what did who the clown use as his clown horn? What did who the clown uses his clown horn? I have no idea. Who knows?
Who knows? So at the end of those shenanigans, you knew I'd actually have a riddle for you to call in and win today. And so if you can answer this riddle, then you can win today from the prize vault.
So here's your riddle. What horn is the church waiting to hear sound in 2025? What horn is the church waiting to hear sound in 2025? If you can answer that, Nick, tell them what they'll win.
Yes, they'll be winning a prize from our King of Pursuits prize vaults. Give us a call at 866-348-7884. Yeah, we got to go to a break. When we get back, we'll get to the actual meat of the subject of what's going on with Jesus Revival Now USA and Horns of Light Adventures. But in the meantime, what horn is the church waiting to hear sound?
Call us 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And today we're so blessed, we really are, to have good friends of mine, mostly Pete Berblies and Jay Peters.
Jay is with Jesus Revival Now, and Pete Berblies does the Horns of Light podcast with me on the Christian Car Guy podcast that we feature usually weekly, part of his adventures as we continue to go down that road. And we're going to get to them in a second. But first off, we have Laura is in Ohio. She has an answer to my riddle. What horn is the church waiting to hear sound in 2025, Laura?
I'm going to say the Ram's Horn. Yeah, there you go. Is that correct? You couldn't be more correct. It is. That's awesome. Isn't it? Isn't it? Won't it be cool? I mean, if you want to sound it right now, I would be good by me. How about you? Me too.
It could happen in 2024, and I would not be heartbroken in one little bit. But yeah, that Ram's Horn is sometimes called a chauffeur, right? Yeah. Have you ever had a chance to play a chauffeur? I have not, but our pastor has played it in church before.
Oh, how cool. And is he good at it? Yeah, he's pretty good.
It seems to be a very difficult instrument to play. We have a big guy. I'm six foot five, but this guy's probably six foot six. He's huge. And I'm not very heavy. He probably weighs about 265.
I weigh about 185. So this is a big guy, and I call him the chauffeurian. And we do these boot camps here in North Carolina. And so whenever we are starting a new session or whenever we go to eat or whatever, he goes out there and plays the chauffeurian so we can all get ready for the big blast when it comes. And I love the fact that you made reference to the fact that it was a Ram's Horn, and it will definitely stimulate our Ram memory.
Yeah, that's true. Well, Laura, where in Ohio are you calling from today? Perryburg. Oh, cool. Well, I am so grateful that you listened to us up there. And you have a Happy New Year, okay? You too. God bless. Thank you for calling in. All right, getting back to Pete.
Excuse me, I wanted to get back to Jay. So Jay, when I look at your website, you guys are doing these boot camps too. And you've got all sorts of interesting events that are going on. So what are you looking forward to in 2025?
So yeah, the Revival Boot Camp, this will be our fifth annual one that we've done. And that's always a real highlight. By the way, I just happen to have a chauffeur with me here in my truck. I usually carry it wherever I go.
Oh, good for you. Yeah, we do the same thing. We usually start our conferences off with the sound of the shofar and then we'll end it with that too. It's kind of an opening and a closing and really a commissioning when we end the conference. But it's a three-day conference. We have people come in from really all over the world.
Typically, we'll have between 12 to 15 speakers for those three days. We provide meals for the people that are there and attending. And it's been really a life-changing event. And the reason I really felt compelled to do it is I believe everybody carries something, something unique, something that they can contribute to the body of Christ. So what's been beautiful is having people come from other regions that are carrying whatever God has gifted them with and then being able to bring that to the people that we have in our region. I guess just to be pretty honest, it's the region I'm in, it's been a little starving for the message of a revival. Things have been changing, but what's been really neat is to be able to have people that are running in revival that are living this thing out from all the corners of the earth and have them come together for three days and really pour into our people, pour into myself. It's been a beautiful, beautiful event these past five years now. That's awesome. And so, you know, have you got a little nugget that you remember from last year's that really helped you in working with your youth and that kind of thing?
A little nugget from last year, wow, like rattling me. So one of the things that I guess stood out that I had shared is when you decide to step out and, you know, for those who are hearing things today and maybe God's really been stirring them, I think one of the things we don't often always anticipate, we have certain fears and things when we step out, but one of the things that's going to happen to you, that's going to try and shut you down is right away is you really put yourself out there. You put basically a target on your back that you're going to live a life of revival. You're going to live a life of fire.
You're going to live boldly. Immediately, there's going to be much that's going to come against you, the world, your own flesh and the devil. And one of the things that I had shared from that time from last year was is to never ring the bell. And what I was referring to is in the Navy Seals when they do their, if you've heard of like their hell week, you know, it's a very intense week that the Navy Seals are trained. And throughout that week, they're pushing you to your limits. And the reason they're doing that is they want to see, you know, if you can survive this, then we can trust you when we put you out in a real war we put you out in a real battle. But in the during that training in the center of the camp is a bell.
And throughout that week, they are going to test you. And they're going to tell you, you know, when things are really going hard, hey, all you got to do is ring that bell. You ring that bell, you can walk out of here, get some hot chocolate, you can relax all the pressures off, just ring that bell. And I think in as it relates to our walk before the Lord, you know, I think the devil's always there, and the world's always there, just say, Come on, just ring the bell, it'll be easier. You know, you don't have to go through all this, you don't have to, you know, to endure this, you don't have to go through this persecution, all you got to do is ring that bell.
And we have to be determined, I believe, like Paul was an x 26. He said he was not disobedient to that heavenly vision. And we can look at Paul's life, where many, many times, you know, you're being stoned, beaten, everything that Paul went through, persecuted by the church, the Judaizers, everything he was facing, it would have been so easy for him to give up.
But he said in the you know, in like, you look in then Second Timothy, that he finished his course, you know, he had fought the good fight. And I want to encourage everybody listening today is you might be stirred and wanting to step out, realize everything's going to come against you. But Jesus is worth it.
Don't ring the bell, keep going, fulfill all that the Lord has called you to be writing this life. And so, you know, Peter, I, you know, what Jay says, you know, certainly is stirring. And I can think of lots of examples from the Bible. And, you know, certainly, it's a matter of faith, right? That, you know, to believe that, you know, you have what it takes to believe that Jesus is in you to give you what it takes and all those kind of things. But I can't help but think of somebody that, you know, on when God calls you to some of those adventures, and you go to your wife thinking there's no way this is going to happen.
Sometimes, right? You ran up against all sorts of things, but you still, you carried on. Yeah, it was, for me, you know, I didn't want to tell my wife when the Lord had said to kind of go to Petra, Jordan.
And I was just keeping that in all day. And finally, she turned to me and said, what's wrong? Because we were visiting our daughter at Samford, which is kind of where your daughter also went to school. And then, and then I told her, and because she was like, what's wrong?
What's wrong? And then she was like, I told you, you were going to the Middle East this year, kind of a thing. And somebody come and spoke and it ended up. Yeah, it just ended up being that she ended up being for it.
And, you know, I had no grid for that. So to kind of think that, you know, she might think I'm crazy or whatever, and I called a friend and his initial response was kind of you're nuts. And, and so but what's really cool, I don't know, kind of going along with what Jay said, if he's willing to share, but he really had that moment in his life where God said, you know, is, is this, are you going to quit? Kind of a thing. And that's kind of a, he's had to pursue through a lot of personal adversity.
And I don't know how much he's willing to share. But that moment seemed to be a defining trajectory moments where things kind of really ramped up. All right, Jay, you're set up.
Yeah, you don't have to share it because I've shared it before and in different settings. And I'll try and summarize this, but essentially, you know, got radically saved at the age of 16 out of drugs and addiction and just really wanting to end it all struggling with suicide. And I had an intervention of the Lord radically saved on fire. You know, went to Bible college, went to Moody, graduated from Christian life college, you know, just pursuing, you know, kingdom pursuits, right?
Right. Get married, doing youth ministry, you know, going, going, going, going, going. And, but kind of what happened and, you know, it's a slow fade, so to speak, but I think really just what I'll call churchianity just got too comfortable. You know, we're doing ministry and things are happening and, you know, you're meeting with kids. Oh, Jay, I hate to jump in right in the middle of churchianity, but we're excited to pick it up on the other side of it.
Yes. We got to go to a break. When we come back, we got more on, you know, Pete's opportunity to have a testimony as a test is coming, I think. And we're going to hear, I mean, Jay's testimony. When we come back, we're going to hear a lot more.
Stay tuned. We're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. So blessed to have with us today, Pete Berberlies and Jay Peters. Jay is with Jesus Revival Now USA, and Pete, of course, with Horns of Light Adventures, we do on a Christian Car Guy show podcast when we left. But before I get back to Jay's story, I want to remind everybody, if you go to kingdompersuits.com, you're going to see right there on the front page, Jay's ministry. He's got an awesome Facebook page, which is Jesus Revival Now.
You can either just go Jay Peters, Jesus Revival Now, or either one. And then he's got a website, if I'm not mistaken. And these are all linked at kingdompersuits.com, by the way.
So you can just go there and get there. But Jay, your website, is it jesusillinois.com? We have a couple of domains. It's jesusillinois.com, kind of our home base, our home mission. And then it's also jesusrevivalnow.com. So either one will take you to our website. Yeah, so if you want to go to that boot camp coming up in 2025, those kind of things, it's all there, either at kingdompersuits.com or Jesus Revival Now, or again on Facebook.
This is amazing stuff. And so when we left our hero, Jay, he was in the middle of churchianity. Yes, not a good place to be because it's kind of the Revelation 2 and 3 where you're comfortable, but yet you've lost your first love, you're living lukewarm. Most people that probably would have looked at my life wouldn't necessarily think that.
They would think, oh, you and your wife, you're good Christians, you're sharing the gospel all the time. But I began to really be stirred in my heart knowing that there's something more and didn't realize how that was, what was going to take place to kind of bring me to that place of, I'll just say a place of desperation. God takes us to the end of ourselves and we need to stay there. So what happened with my wife and I is my daughter, who was 16 at the time, came to us one night and said that she'd been molested for the past two years. And as it turned out, it was actually somebody who was at the church. And a bit of a long story short, obviously it's something like that.
You face that, it just takes the wind out of your sails. The church we were at at the time, we'd been for a long time, really didn't want to do anything with that. We had gotten the authorities involved. Again, a bit of a long story, but essentially we were not able to have that played out in a court. So it was just a huge devastating thing you had to work through and we ended up having to leave the church. We'd been out all these years working through with my daughter, with my family. It was one of the most difficult times that we ever went through as a family. And along with that, we began to go to another church and just really kind of step back. We were teaching at a Christian school, but we really stepped back from any ministry other than that to be restored, to kind of process everything. And about two years after that, my oldest daughter had come to us and just really shared, again, I'm going to make it a little bit shorter, but essentially she was just going to go and do her own thing, not following the Lord.
It was like you're down, you've had the wind knocked out of you, and then it's like you're down and you feel like you've been kicked. So my wife and I, I'll never forget the night we had gone with my daughter, had gone out to eat and then she'd shared that news with us. We're driving back home, just my wife and I, and it's one of those drives where you can hear a pin drop.
Neither one of us are saying anything. It's just hard. And on the way home, I realized, well, I'm really low on gas. I need to stop at the gas station.
So I stopped there. I get out of the vehicle. There's a guy next to me.
He's pumping gas. And per usual, I would strike up a conversation. I would share the gospel as you feel the Lord prompting you and the Holy Spirit. And that night I felt that, but I remember in my mind, I'm telling the Lord, oh, like, no, I'm done. And it was like a lightning bolt. And I felt this voice of the Lord that was saying, is that what it's going to take to stop you? And it was just, it hit me so hard when I felt the reality of that, like this, all these things that had happened, this was going to be the thing that was going to shut me down and make me not really be who God has called me to be. It was just, you know, I'm explaining it, but it happened in an instant. And I remember saying in my mind, no, like this, this resolves within me.
No. And I turned to the guy, I shared the gospel with him. I got back in the car.
I looked at my wife. I said, okay, here's what we're going to do. From now on, every time that, you know, the enemy comes against us, something happens. We get, you know, try to be discouraged. We're not going to shrink back. We're actually going to use that as fuel to press forward.
So if we get hit once, we hit 10 times back. I said, that's how we're going to go forward. And I remember she just looked at me and she was like, okay. And we drove home and it wasn't like things changed overnight, but all of a sudden it's like the Titanic slowly turned around and it was, it was about, you know, after a few months, I'm like, something's happening in the spirit. Something's happening in our lives. Everything began to shift. And then January, I'll never forget January 1st, essentially the beginning of the new year.
Here we are, coming on 2025. But in January, the very beginning, I was challenged, again, a long story, but I was challenged. I am a filmmaker as well. And I was challenged to do a movie on how the church could reach the LGBT community. And when that came to me, I knew that there was going to be a lot of opposition.
I knew this was going to be like, man, I'm going to get people to hate me no matter what I do here. But I really felt like the Lord said, I want you to do this film. And I said yes to that. And what happened in that, that when saying yes to that, it was like, if you've ever been surfing, it's incredible when that wave picks you up and you're in the ocean, you don't do nothing but hold on. That wave, it's literally carrying you. And I remember it felt like for the past 30 years doing ministry, I was just paddling out to catch the waves, exerting, it's a lot of work.
You're plowing. But I remember when I said yes to doing that film, I felt like finally I hit the wave and I'm on the surfboard. And now like I'm just being carried.
It was the hardest, easiest thing I've ever done. But I can tell you right now, Robbie, here we are 2025. It's like that, when I got on that surfboard, it hasn't stopped. The momentum is still there.
It's even, it's increases. My wife and I, our lives, our lives were completely changed around. And that's how it all started when we resolved that no, we're just going to, everything that comes against us, that's going to be the fuel to lead us forward. The greater the resistance, the greater the breakthrough.
And that was a turning point. That's beautiful. Absolutely. And so the movie itself, is that something people can go see or is that available? Yes.
So actually right now it is. I have it on YouTube. I think I want to say if you go to our site, you can, it's like under media, I think, I'm not positive. But if we, if you go to our YouTube channel, Jesus Revival Now, oh, I hear the, I hear the, yeah, it's Jesus Revival Now once again.
And what's the name of the movie? It's called Opening the Door, Homosexuality and the Church. There you go. Opening the Door, Homosexuality and the Church, right there on YouTube, I bet pretty easy to find. I'd be anxious to see that myself. We'll be right back with more with Pete and Jay.
Stay tuned. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. What a blessing it has been today to hear more of Jay Peter's story.
He's with Jesus Revival Now, USA and Pete Burblies with Horns of Light Adventures. And so, you know, I couldn't help but note, Pete, as I was listening to Jay's story and thinking about the whole idea of don't ring the bell. He certainly made that point well, but your own life, right? It seemed like Satan used a similar sexual abuse out of the church to kind of try to ring your bell, but it didn't work.
Yeah, and that was kind of really one interesting thing was when Jay and I connected, you know, we've had similar stories and similar trials that we've had to walk through. And, you know, I would just say that whatever dark path that, you know, you may have to walk through that valley of the shadow of death moment that inevitably we all face at some point in time in our life. Just don't give up on the Lord.
He's faithful and a new day will come. And I would just encourage people that may be in that time, especially during this holiday season, you know, sometimes all you could do is just let the Lord know how much you love Him. And sometimes that's all you can give.
But I would just encourage people, if that's all you can give, give that to the Lord and stay connected to other believers during that time, something that I didn't necessarily do the greatest job of, but fellowship's really important. And just, you know, appreciated that connection. Well, again, to point the question more directly, apparently. It's all right.
It's all right. From my perspective, you have some really important insight, right? That as you face some, you know, good friends that have been, you know, their daughters had been abused and stuff in the church that really, you know, set you on a different kind of path church-wise and things like that. But, and you kept hearing those church leaders, you know, talk about that, you know, David had sinned and, you know, you got to forgive and dah, dah, dah.
Speak to that, because there's a lot of wisdom there that I think the church needs to hear, and here's your opportunity. Sure. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.
Right now, in the midst of it, actually here in Kansas City. And so I guess a few things is I would encourage, if you're a victim who's been, most of the time, I won't say most, a lot of the times, the church isn't going to do the right thing. So find yourself a support system. And one way that you can kind of gauge as to how people are going to respond is if you start talking about sexual abuse or sexual sin, and they immediately go to David, they're going down the wrong path, and they're probably not going to support you. But if they go into the teachings of Paul and his direction that Paul gave to Timothy as far as elders, which by default is pastors and leaders of the church, to those same standards, if that person is willing to see that as the primary truth, then you're finding yourself a good path. And I guess the hardest thing in the midst of it is just you're longing for them to do the right thing, and they don't.
And that's the inconsistency. I mean, it's one thing to go through the abuse and those types of scenarios. But you expect, especially leaders and elders, to do the right thing, and oftentimes they don't. And for me, it was in the one case that we had to deal with when we kind of got that call, and there's a scandal going on in the church, is I just kept pushing. I pushed to the board.
The board didn't want to hear it. Then I got in touch with Focus on the Family, and the final path would have been to go to the state's attorney. And in my situation, I didn't take that path.
And maybe I should have. I don't know that the state's attorney would have really done anything in this scenario. But in the end, that same person went on to continue kind of an abusive clergy pattern, although I don't know if he fell sexually. But it ended up kind of destroying another church and hurting good friends.
And typically, if a person is doing something, willing to cross that line once to gratify a need for pleasure, they're going to keep crossing that line. So by standing up and by speaking out and by doing the right thing, you have the opportunity to prevent a whole multitude of sins, others from being abused. And there's that one verse that says, if you're able to turn a person, you cover over a multitude of sins. And that really is the case, and that really is the case, especially in this area, because it's not only that person, God helped restore that person who has gone through that abuse. And there's also just the church body as a whole that's so impacted by these types of scenarios. So if you're a church, if you're a board, do the right thing. Do the right thing. Don't restore and use David as an example. He's a king.
It'd be like putting President Trump in the same guidelines as a pastor. Darrell Bock Wow, I hate we got to end this. It's been so spectacular to have you guys. Jay Peters again with Revival USA. And that feature film is easy enough to find on YouTube. Just found it, Opening the Door, Homosexuality in the Church feature film. It's Time to Talk is what the whole thing says. But again, if you just go, you know, Opening the Door, Homosexuality in the Church, easy enough to find. And again, Jesus Revival Now USA. And of course, Pete Berbelies is on the Christian Car Guy podcast, easy enough to contact them. And again, Jay's got that big Jesus Revival boot camp coming up, so you can get all that done at KingdomPursuits.com. Right now, I just thank you so much for listening to The Truth Network. I thank you guys for being on with me today. This is The Truth Network.
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