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How about feeling a little love today? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey friends, welcome to The Line of Fire broadcast. This is Michael Brown, not taking your calls today, but you're going to be edified. You're going to be blessed. You're going to be encouraged. You're going to be challenged. We're in a super divisive time in America right now.

You don't need me to tell you that. You don't need to turn on the radio or get online to have someone tell you that we are really divided as a nation, but we're also really divided as churches, sometimes even families now. I mean, you think of it, you have to make agreements.

Okay. We don't talk about politics right now, you know, or Thanksgiving when it comes because things are just so divided. Unfortunately, the body of Christ, followers of Jesus. There is great division in our midst too, and not, not healthy differences, not healthy diversity, not healthy airing of varied opinions, but we're downright nasty, full of judgmentalism, tearing each other down rather than building each other up. We've talked about this before in my book, Evangelicals at the Crossroads, where we passed the Trump test. There is a whole chapter and the title of that chapter is, have we failed the love test? And I've addressed it before. My answer would be, yes, we have failed it thus far.

We have failed it. And it's a serious test when you think of this, that Jesus says in John 13, by this will the world know that you are my disciples. If you have loved one for another, that that's the standard that Jesus gave. He didn't say that the world will know you are my disciples. If you drive out demons, the world will know you're my disciples. If you heal the sick, the world will know you're my disciples. If you feed the poor, the world will know that you are my disciples. If you preach the gospel. Now, all those things on various scales are important and are demonstrations of our being followers of Jesus. But when he said the number one way that the world will know, excuse me, that we are his disciples, that we belong to him, that we're part of his family, that we're part of this faith that he is leading in the world, part of this holy movement that is leading in the world, that the way, the primary way they'll know it is the love we have for each other.

Now we're going to give you a lot of scripture today and here's what I want you to do rather than saying, oh boy, does this one need it or that one need it. You ever done that? You're sitting in a church service. You're thinking, man, I wish my husband or my wife where I wish this kid, I wish this one was here. I wish mom and dad were here.

I wish my neighbor was there. This is really for them. Well, when you're done applying it to yourself, by all means, share it with others or post this on social media and say, hey, let's all take a look at this, but, but I want to speak to you just kind of face to face, ear to ear, one on one. Well, when I started radio about 13 years ago, a gentleman who had been involved in radio for decades said to me, I appreciate your passion, but you're basically having a one on one conversation with someone driving their car. In other words, I'm not here to shout at you. I'm not here to preach to you. I'm here to talk to you as a friend, as an older brother in the Lord.

Now, some of you are older in the Lord than me and older in years than me, but for many 65 years old in the Lord, almost 50 years, that would make me an older brother. So I'm here to make an appeal. I I'm here to encourage, I'm here to challenge. And so much of our division is public. So much of it is about Donald Trump. You say, are you saying we all have to agree and vote?

No, no, no. Quite the contrary. One of the major goals of evangelicals at the crossroads, one of the major reasons I wrote it was to say, can we unite around Jesus even if we divide over Trump and those of us who are Trump voters, can we vote for him without compromising our testimony thus far in many ways, I feel we failed both tests. We failed the test of uniting around Jesus even if we divide over Trump and we failed the test of voting for him or supporting him without compromising our testimonies. So by God's grace, we need to step higher now. And it's it's critically important. Someone was interacting with me privately and this is someone who was in the Lord and not working with the Lord now, but used to send kids to church and said, I don't let them go now because they'd be going with people who are, you know, Trump supporters.

And how can you vote for a man like that? And so, I mean, this is the level of division that we're facing right now in America. So let me let me share some scriptures with you. Is that all right? And trust me, I examine myself by these constantly. If you say, you know, Dr. Brown, we appreciate your articles because you tackle controversies, but you're gracious towards others. Someone said that I treated some people he didn't really think they were worthy of this treatment, but I treated them with exquisite courtesy. I try to do that, as you know, with folks that call in and differ to still be gracious. When other Christian leaders attack me, I try to respond truthfully but graciously.

And listen, you have to understand that that's not my nature. That's Jesus in me. That's how he's changed me over the years. That's how he's helped me to be a different person. So if in any way I've modeled that for you, then recognize if if God could work through me in a way that there is gentleness and grace and respect and love, as opposed to just argument and tearing down and sarcasm, which is the way my flesh would go, if you see any grace in me, then no, that's all the Lord. That's all him. And if he could do it in me to whatever level I'm at and have to keep growing the rest of my life, then he can do it in you.

He can do it in each of us. And it's not a matter of compromise. Well, I'm not going to come. I'm not compromising anything, not an inch, not a fraction of an inch consciously before God. I am standing for truth regardless of cause to consequence.

Doesn't mean I'm right on everything. All right. But it means that where I understand an issue before God is best to understand that I understand for that regardless of whether I lose friends, lose income, lose favor, whatever, lose respect, have to honor the Lord.

Same with you. We have to we have to put truth first and foremost and honoring the Lord first and foremost. But there's a way to do that where we're not nasty with each other, where we're not simply judging each other, where we're not claiming to know the motives of one another's hearts, where we're not believing the worst about each other as opposed to believing the best about each other.

All right. Let's look at some more scripture. Galatians chapter five, beginning in verse 13, reading from the tree of life. Brothers and sisters, you were called to freedom. Only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another for the whole Torah can be summed up in a single saying, love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not destroyed by one another.

Can I, can I read that last verse again? If you bite and devour one another, whoa, this is a serious warning here. Watch out that you are not destroyed by one another.

Whew. Let's take a deep breath and drink that in. Yes, we have freedom. We are not under a legal code telling us every detail of what we wear and what we eat and what we say. And you look, if, if you are a traditional Jew, there are prayers you pray that are set prayers. When you use the bathroom, you pray certain prayers before a meal, certain prayers, lengthy prayers after, you know, when, when you see, you know, it's a beautiful thing in nature is a set prayer you pray. And for traditional Jew, this is a beautiful expression of their heart for many.

It's a, you know, they find it good pulsing that you're, you're not under that. You have freedom, but you have freedom to do good, not to do bad. We are freed from sin, not to sin.

And to sum up all of the, all of the Torah, all the law that God gave summed up in love your neighbors, yourself, love your neighbor as yourself. Otherwise Paul says you bite and devour one another. You're going to destroy each other. You're going to be consumed one by another.

It's like a snake swallowing itself, you know, starting at this tail and swallowing itself. I mean, that's what we are doing. We are destroying ourselves, right?

You know, the cutting off your nose to spite your face. That's what we're doing when we tear each other down. Galatians five, let's, let's look again here beginning in verse 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are clear. And as I'm reading this, I want you to ask yourself and your communication with others and your interaction with others about political issues, cultural issues, issues where we have differences in your communication with others in the Lord and social media, face to face, by phone, text, are you communicating in the flesh or in the spirit?

Now the deeds of the flesh are clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions. Let's focus on a few of these words, hostility, strife, rage, dissension, factions. Is that characterized the way we interact with each other?

Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you just as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit God's kingdom. It's not the way we live. That's not who we are. But the fruit of the Ruach, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. If you cut us, we should bleed love. That's what I've said for many years. In other words, this is not some show we put on. This is not, oh praise the Lord, nice to see you, and some false smiles.

No, this is who we are. We do care about you. We do love you. People feel it. People know it. Once they get to know you, once they get past the outward formalities, they can tell if you care.

They can tell if you're doing something with sincerity. So if we're walking in the spirit, there is not going to be a spirit of dissension, a spirit of factionalism. There's going to be rage. There's going to be love. There's going to be peace. There's going to be joy.

There's going to be kindness. And again, I'm simply saying we need to live in the spirit by the word and demonstrate to a watching world that we love one another. There are ways that you can have deep, strong differences and do it with tremendous love. Listen, when Dr. James White and I debate, we're both strong debaters. By strong debaters, I mean we can argue our points forcefully and really cut through the opponent's points as we find them to be faulty. So we understand strong debate.

But when we have debated each other on issues where we differ as brothers in the Lord, what we hear overwhelmingly from people as well, you can really tell that you love each other. Here we're making our differences clear. We're making, oh, you're in error here. No, it's a serious error there. I differ here. You're misinterpreting scripture here.

No, you're wrong here. And we make it very clear, but it's done based on love. Why can't we do that with our political differences too? We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. So friends, the standard is the word. The standard is not Mike Brown. The standard is not Pastor So-and-so. The standard is not this speaker, this teacher.

The standard is the word. God calls us to live in obedience with his word, in harmony with his word. God calls us to walk in truth and to walk in love. And he calls us to love one another as Jesus has loved us. And it should be that supernatural and that wonderful that the world sees it.

Hey friends, Michael Brown here. We're talking about our need to step higher in our communication, our need to grow in the grace and love and knowledge of the Lord. And in the midst of a politically and socially and culturally and spiritually deeply divided nation, we need to demonstrate unity in the church. I want to read something to you.

We're getting into a lot of scripture today, not taking any calls. I want to read something to you that my wife Nancy wrote. She poured her heart out on Facebook one day. And I may read this again later in the show.

And she has been, I mean, we talk about this constantly and sometimes she's just overwhelmed in tears with a burden. She said, if I could, I would beg all believers to stop biting and devouring one another, especially over politics and Trump. This is not the heart of God. The attacks and slander and hatred that is aimed towards the ones that are commanded to love with all sincerity and purity is so far from everything I know about the Lord. It's difficult to understand how we got here.

Jesus said that the world would know we are truly his disciples by our love for one another. How far we have fallen. Friends, I remember, I remember earlier in the year, it was right before the COVID shutdown, so still traveling. Only this year, late year before when I was getting gripped afresh with this. I mean, this is a burden I've carried for many, many years, long before Donald Trump was president.

A burden I've carried for many years about how savage Christians can be online and social media. You say, well, that's just been in people's hearts. Well, and now it's coming out for the whole world to see. So it's time to deal with it.

Right. You know, maybe you've been fighting some sickness, you know, secretly. And one day you collapse at work. OK, now everybody knows you got to fix this thing. It's been there all along, but now it's become even more evident.

Got to fix this. But I remember some months back when Nancy got freshly burdened about this in an overwhelming way. And I had been freshly burdened as well.

I remember sitting in an airport and we were talking at an airport and we were talking on the phone. I said, I'm just writing on this subject now again, addressing it again. And she was beside herself with tears. I mean, she would go to pray and was so overwhelmed that all she do saw.

But God, what happened to us? And please hear me. Please hear me. You don't have to lecture me about taking a stand. OK, I have lost a lot over the years by standing for what I believe to be true.

I am blackballed from many places where I could speak, especially to the secular world and secular media, because of stands that I've taken. I understand that. I understand what it's like to literally put your life on the line to preach.

I've done that overseas. I mean, literally, you know that there are people there ready to riot that could be attacking violently, that have killed others in the past. I'm not exaggerating. I'm giving you a literal I'm telling you exactly where it happened. I still want to mention specific places and names now. But I knew getting up to preach what it could cost, what the consequences could be. And there've been other settings where we knew it could trigger a riot or something really dangerous if we preach what God laid on my heart to preach. We did it with my translator together.

We did it. I understand that. I've been spat in the face for the gospel. I understand that.

You don't have to lecture me about taking a stand, but you don't have to be nasty, immature, mean-spirited, obnoxious, judgmental, divisive to take a stand. You can do it in a way that honors the Lord. You could do it in a way where at the end of the night, if non-believers are watching, they'll say, you have such love for each other. I find that remarkable that you have such deep differences politically and such different perspectives on these issues. You have such tremendous love for each other.

That's incredible. Why is that? People should be attracted to us rather than say, I got enough of that in the world. I find more unity in the bar. I find more unity, you know, going to some debate club than listening to Christians. Here, some more scripture. Ephesians chapter 4. Therefore, Paul writes, I, a prisoner for the Lord, meaning I'm in jail because of my testimony of Jesus. Paul said to the Galatians, don't, don't, I, I bear scars for Jesus. Don't, don't you bother me.

All right. So he said, here, I'm writing as a prisoner for the Lord. I'm in jail, he's saying, because of my faith. And that's for you. Therefore I, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you, this is Paul writing from prison, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you recall with complete humility and gentleness, with patience, putting up with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Ruach, the unity of the Ruach, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of shalom, the bond of peace.

So let's look at this again. This is our calling to, to be ambassadors of the Messiah. We must walk worthy of that.

What does that mean? This is for the sake of unity, with complete humility and gentleness, with patience, putting up with one another in love. Yeah, we're going to have differences, put up with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Ruach in the bond of shalom. You know, friends, before I got saved, many of you know my story, heavy drug user, and I was in high school and, you know, there are cliques of people in your school. All of you have been to, haven't been home schooled, so you've been to public school, a private school, a big school, but you know, you're at your cliques and there are groups of people you don't even know exist because you're not part of their group. You don't know their culture.

You don't know who they are. And then now you get, oh, now you're in with this group. And I remember meeting some folks that were some of the drug user hippie types in the school, a little bit older than me, most of them. And as I started using certain drugs, I found out about this community and started hanging out with these people. I don't know how many there were, whether it was 30 or 50 or 80 of us or 20 of us.

And I don't know the exact numbers, but I remember going over to somebody's home and some, some gal from the school. I remember she was a white gal and her boyfriend had a black father and a white mother. So he had that, you know, skin color that you would expect. And he had a, he had a big Afro and he was part of the black Panther party, you know, some, he was a little bit older, but that was, that was, that was kind of the crowd there. And but when I first met them, because they had like the hippie ethic and Hey man is love, make love, not war, peace, baby, you know, that was kind of their ethical home with the black Panther salute, you know, the other side of it.

But I remember meeting them and there was somebody who wasn't there and, and he, he was a heavy drug user, but he was more with the crowd that would like get into fights and that kind of thing, kind of, you know, not the hippie style. And, and, and someone's like, yeah, we don't want to say anything negative about him, man. You know, I thought, wow, what a great group, you know, what great ethics. I mean, the deeper you got sinful, lousy people like everybody else, but initially it's like, wow, this is, they're really practicing it.

It's like peace and love, joy. And this is cool. And man, I liked this crowd. And you know, I became part of that crowd.

I know I was a foul person. The fact is though, when you get saved, you have a similar kind of experience, especially if you have no church upbringing, or you've never been around a real believing church, you get saved. You think everybody's just like, they're saints. Oh, they're amazing.

They're wonderful. I remember getting saved November, December of 1971. So it was winter. So the guys in the church, you know, they would, they'd come to service wearing, you know, long sleeve shirt. They normally had a jacket, like a blazer.

Sometimes we wear a tie, but you know, always, you know, formal shirt and blazer, but long sleeve shirt for sure. And then the weather got warm. And one of these guys, he was in his sixties.

So we were at 16, 17 years old. The weather got warm and guy comes in with a, you know, formal shirt, but a short sleeve shirt and a tattoo. It's like tattoo. What?

This is, this is early seventies, right? So tattoos were much less common. And it's like, we didn't know you weren't, weren't saved. We had the guy had been on a chain gang. He was arrested and someone tried to kill him.

Once the gang threw him in the trunk of a car. We just thought you were always saved brother, Nick. You always love Jesus, you know, and then you get to know people better.

He was a wonderful brother, loved the Lord, but you get to people, know people better. You realize, okay, they're still human beings. They may really love the Lord. I mean, they were wonderful, godly people.

I was around with great testimonies and I spent hours and hours with them and, and they had great testimonies and they lived godly lives, but you know, there, there's something about that attitude where you just love people and you think the best about people that's precious in God's sight. I don't mean that we're naive. I don't mean that we close our eyes. I don't mean that we're stupid.

Uh, all right. You know, we're, we're not talking about someone just got out of jail, you know, was a child abuser. They just got out of jail and they say, praise the Lord. I'm saved now.

I'd like to babysit your kids. No, I'm not talking about opening yourself up for, for destruction and not protecting your families. I'm talking about an attitude, an attitude where in terms of my interaction with you, not even talking about loaning you, you know, I've got a million dollars, our family savings for the last 10 generations. And you're a notorious, you know, swindler, but you say, Oh, look, man, I've changed.

Can you lend me that money for a new business venture? No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about attitude. I'm going to love you. I'm going to be patient with you. I, I'm not going to be demeaning. I'm not going to be insulting. And all of you who say, well, the States are high. We have a right to be like that. I would say you don't understand the heart of God and you don't understand the spirit of God. I understand. Yes. What it's like to take controversial stance.

I do it day and night, and I'm hated for it by the second. So be it, but by God's grace, I will do it in a way where the issue is the stand, not my obnoxiousness. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome. Welcome to the line of fire.

Michael Brown here. I am not taking calls today, but we're digging into the scriptures together. I'm not catching up on breaking news or anything. And what I'm talking about today is of special relevance as we're just a few weeks out before the elections. And I can't remember any time in my life where America was more divided than it is now and when believers were more divided than we are now. So I can't fix the problems in the world or call worldly people to act like followers of Jesus, but I can call on each of us and examine my own life and say, are we conducting ourselves in a way that honors the Lord? All right. When I wrote evangelicals at the crossroads, will we pass the Trump test?

I put the title where I thought it should be. This is about evangelicals. This is about followers of Jesus. You put in all Christian conservatives, OK, from different backgrounds. But because white evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump and it raised questions, how could we, the values voters, the character counts, morality matters, people, how could we possibly vote for someone like that?

Right. That's why I've specially interacted with evangelicals as an evangelical. But there are many other Christian conservatives from different groups that are not evangelical to vote for him. But I felt this was a crossroads moment for us in our history, that we were the ones being tested. And the primary test was not will we vote for Donald Trump or not. The primary test was if we vote for him, can't, which which I plan to do, can we maintain our testimony before the world while doing that?

That's one. Two, can we unite around Jesus, even if we differ about Donald Trump? I'm thinking back to a caller named Moe, who's around 80 years old, a black brother who prays for President Trump when he heard he had the virus, immediately joined a prayer group to pray for his healing and recovery, spoke to me with graciousness, with a sense of pain and brokenness. But explain how you could never vote for Trump. And we had our discussion about it. Friends, you can have deep differences. You can have passionate differences, but do it in a way that our brother did with graciousness. And he said, look, I don't see how anybody could vote for him for the following reason. Share your heart.

That's fine. And then someone would respond, hey, I don't see how you couldn't vote for him for the following reasons. And bear in mind, I've done interviews on shows, especially since my book came out, Evangelicals at the Crossroads, I've done interviews on shows where the perspective of the host is, how can you be a Christian and vote for Trump or how can you be a Christian and not vote for Trump?

I've been on both types of shows and know where people are coming from passionately and interact with people that I differ with pretty much every day of my life. Can we do it in such a way? Here, think of this challenge.

You ready? Can we have our differences about the president in such a way that the watching world will learn about Jesus? Think about that.

I'll tweet that out. I haven't already. Can we have our differences in such a way that the watching world will learn about Jesus through our interaction? We'll be attracted to Jesus through our interaction. Let me give you some more scripture.

Again, not taking calls today. Romans 13, 8 through 10. Paul says, Owe to no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Torah.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandments are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fullness of the Torah. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

All right, so let's think about this for a minute. If you steal from your neighbor, you're not loving your neighbor. If you commit adultery with your neighbor's spouse, you're not loving your neighbor. If you bear false witness against your neighbor, you're not loving your neighbor.

Well, if you tear your neighbor down with vicious words, if you falsely judge your neighbor, if you demean and mock your neighbor, you're not loving your neighbor. And we are called to love one another by what standard? The way Jesus loved each of us. All right, let's look at some more scripture.

Just want to share the word, let you feel the weight and the force of the word. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3, verses 14 and 15. Again, reading from the Tree of Life version. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And then 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, John chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. Loved ones, dearly beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God for God, is love.

Friends, listen, I don't want to give a moral lecture here as someone sitting in some superior seat, looking down at others, because I'm reading these words and I'm asking myself a question. I'm asking myself a question about my own attitudes and the depth of love that's in me. Let me ask you a question, all right, especially to men who are real sports fans, but maybe, you know, ladies that are sports fans as well. Have you ever had a sinful attitude, a totally loveless attitude, based on rivalry?

What do I mean? Okay, you're watching a game, you hate the other team, you think they break the rules, they always win, you know, your team comes up short and really don't like them at all, think their players are arrogant, coaches are, whatever it is, it's all the, you know, if you lived in their city, you probably love them, right? But whatever it is, history of growing up, rivalry between cities, maybe your parents had a certain, your dad had a certain, whatever it is, you got your team and you totally root against the other team.

Totally root against the other team. And in the middle of the game, the star of the team gets injured, all right? And have you ever thought, I hope we can't play again the rest of the game so we could win? Have you ever thought that? I've had thoughts like that, repented before God, it's like, what? I'm hoping the injury, what? I mean, even if it's a fleeting thought, it's like, what ugly, sinful, carnal, immature, inexcusable kind of thought is that?

Glad that someone's injury is more serious, you can win a stupid game. What? I've actually had that happen in my own heart, though. Where did, how ugly, how base.

That's what we can do as human beings. And now that a spirit of, how can you describe it? Chaos, anarchy, just a spirit of fighting and division just loosed on the nation. It's almost like one of these things where, you know, you go to someone's house for dinner and when you arrive, they're throwing stuff at each other, you know, and, you know, hitting each other over the head with plates and spilling food. It's like, what happened to your family? Yeah, well, this is a little family dispute. Next thing it got out of hand.

Next thing people started. And in some places they're shooting each other. That's what we're doing spiritually, friends.

It may not be with guns, but it's with words and life and death are in the power of the tongue. Isn't that what's written in Proverbs? Look, early on in the primaries, in my days of staunch opposition to candidate Trump, I said, hey, I've got some free advice for you.

You're going to love it. It's not just advice, but it's free. And my advice to candidate Trump was read a chapter of Proverbs every day. That was basically the advice. Or here's some key verses about the tongue in Proverbs.

So go through those verses and it'll do you good. Friends, that advice would stand today. I mean, I would honestly say that the one person that can defeat Donald Trump, November 3rd is Donald Trump. And that had he conducted himself differently in many ways, I don't mean being weak. I don't mean being spineless. I don't mean being compromised. I don't mean refusing to fight back for what's right. But if he simply lived by some of the biblical council, how a wise man lives, how a fool lives, how a king is supposed to conduct himself, if he had lived by those, he would have so many more voters.

He would have so many more people that agree with him on the issues, but just feel so repulsed by who he is and how he operates and the division that he's brought and the destruction he's caused that they feel they can't vote for him. So that council remains true. But I don't know if he has a relationship with God or not. God knows that. But I do know that we do. We are part of the body. We do. I hope he does, but I don't know.

God knows. We are called to conduct ourselves a certain way. And decades back, I started going through Proverbs over and over and over again, teaching on it, going through it. And I realized that while I had a lot of knowledge of the word, I mean, relatively speaking, I know a little, but compared to others, I had a lot of knowledge of the word. And I did hear the voice of the Lord speaking and leading that I didn't have as much wisdom. To this day, I don't have the practical wisdom that Nancy has, just in everyday matters and simple things.

And she just knows much more and has more insight and things like that. But I realized, okay, I need wisdom. I need more wisdom. And, you know, I go through Proverbs over and over. When teaching a class on Proverbs, let's say one week I was going to teach on the tongue, another week on humility, another week on another subject, that each week I'd speed read through Proverbs each week and pull out all the relevant verses. So just keep immersing myself. Other times just for months and months, just read a chapter of Proverbs every day. So you're basically going through Proverbs roughly once a month. Just keep doing that over and over and over and teach on it.

And as you teach, you're convicted. Friends, God knows what he's talking about. God knows what's best.

God knows what leads to life and what leads to death. Why not make a fresh study of Proverbs and just go through every relevant verse on the tongue, on controlling our temper, on treating others and just pull them all out. I mean, it's easily done now with our, you know, having a Bible on cell phones and everything else.

Just pull the verses out or write them out, put them in, you know, put them in an email, email them to yourself and start every day just reading through them or during a lunch break, meditating on them. It's remarkable the wisdom that's there. And it's remarkable that if we'll live by these things, if we will stand by these things, how much better our lives could be and how much better the lives of those around us could be. Let us love one another, for God is love.

Let us love one another, for love is from God. This is not mamby-pamby. This takes maturity. This takes commitment. This is serious. This is not for the faint of heart. Losing your temper, yelling, screaming, accusing, belittling, attacking, anybody, any child can do that.

To walk in love requires maturity and discipline and grace. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Are you ready to be bombarded with the word?

Are you ready to be bathed in the word, flooded with the word, drenched with the word, washed with the word, encouraged with the word, challenged with the word? Well, great, then you're listening to the right broadcast. Michael Brown, great to be with you. Friends, I'm not trying to be a competitor to Rush Limbaugh or Ben Shapiro or Dennis Prager or Mark Levin or Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham.

They're each doing what they're doing. I'm here as your voice. I'm here seeking to bring a biblical perspective to everything that we do.

I'm here to call us to be like Jesus. So in the midst of our political and social differences now, can we demonstrate to a watching world how much we love each other? You may have to delete 90% of your recent posts. You may have to just refrain from writing for a while. You may have to say, I get in the flesh so easily.

These issues are so volatile to me. Step back, get with the Lord, worship, pray, get his heart, and then reach out, then interact, then share your differences. Okay, here's what the Lord, God Almighty, our master, our king, our redeemer, our savior, here's the way he calls us to live. 1 Corinthians 13. This is the love that we are to walk in.

Ready? Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not brag.

It is not puffed up. It does not behave inappropriately. It does not seek its own way. It is not provoked. It keeps no account of wrong. It does not rejoice over injustice, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Friends, that's what we're called to walk in. That's what is so attractive to people. Look, it's a hostile world out there. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. People should come into our buildings, come into our meetings, come into our social media pages and say, you folks are different.

What is it? Well, Jesus has changed us. Let's keep looking at scripture. 1 Peter chapter 2.

For you were called to this, because Messiah also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps. Well, he overturned the tables in the temple. Peter's not saying that's the example you were to follow, to go into the temple in Jerusalem if it existed and start overturning tables.

He didn't say you were to do that. Jesus did that by direction of his Father, right? He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. When he was abused, he did not return the abuse.

While suffering, he made no threats. Instead, he kept entrusting himself to the one who judges righteously. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we removed from sins and might live for righteousness by his wounds you were healed. You, like sheep, were going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Here, let me give you some wisdom from Proverbs. In the last segment, I talked about meditating on Proverbs, reading through it a chapter a day in addition to whatever other reading you're doing, outlining or underlining certain verses to deal with the tongue and how we conduct ourselves, and then meditating on those till they get into your heart and mind. And as I said earlier in the show, to whatever extent you see me as someone that acts graciously towards those who differ, to whatever extent I've been able to model that, trust me, it is the grace of God at work in my life.

It is praying and crying out to God and meditating on his word and being broken by him. It is not the way I've always been. Ask folks, especially the longer back they knew me, the more they'll tell you, oh no, that was not the way he was.

So to whatever extent, to whatever extent, God knows, you can tell your own view, but to whatever extent I've modeled that, if I can, you can. When I was hot, I was so hot-tempered before I was saved that my best friend even gave me a nickname because I changed into another person. He used to call me Craig the Evil Genie when I just become like a different person. Seriously. God could change me.

He could change anybody. All right. Proverbs 15, 1. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Let's just focus on that for a minute. So like, ah, and you just, you respond gently.

It turns away wrath, often softens things and, okay, everybody calms down, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Hey, did you just look at me funny? Oh yeah, you think I looked at you?

Oh, who are you? Now you have an odd brawl. I was interacting with someone on Twitter the other day and it started out kind of hostile towards me and I graciously pushed back. It ended up with private messaging to find out how this person's doing with God.

And they thanked me for the interaction. There's a way that we can turn things friends. We must. Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25, verse 15. Through patience, a ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue can break a bone. Do you want to change people's hearts?

Be patient. Is the goal to win the argument? To come out looking right?

Or is the goal to win someone? To change their heart? To change their attitude?

Right? That's what we want to do. We want to change their perspective, change their attitude.

A soft answer, soft tongue breaks the bone. Look at what Jacob James says. Chapter four, verse one. Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from? It's a good question, right? Don't they come from this? Name of your passions that battle within your body parts? Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from?

Are we in the midst of constant quarreling, constant conflicts? Where do they come from? Don't they come from this? Name of the passions, the lusts, the fleshly desires that battle within your body parts? Ooh. So Jacob James is telling us that there's constant strife and division and quarreling that comes from somewhere, comes from the flesh.

That's where it comes from. First Peter. First Peter chapter one says this. Now that you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth, leading to sincere brotherly love, love one another fervently from a pure heart.

Let's break this down. You've purified your souls in obedience to the truth. So you've turned away from the world of flesh. You're not following Jesus. Your souls have been purified.

What does that lead to? Sincere brotherly love. You're in the presence of God.

You get his heart. How does he feel about his children? How does he feel when we're savaging one another as his children? I mean, think of it just in a military way.

You know, here's the army and they're supposed to be fighting the enemy and they're shooting each other. How much more the family of God is supposed to be loving each other. Now that you've purified your souls in obedience to the truth, leading to sincere brotherly love, love one another fervently from a pure heart. To all my brothers and sisters who differ with me on different issues, theological, social, political, do you love me? Do you love me? Oh yeah, I love you. Oh, really? Really love me? Really concerned about my well-being?

Really carry that? Do you love me fervently from a pure heart? And how do I feel about those that I strongly differ with, that strongly differ with me?

Do I love them? Look, these are challenging questions. And in the natural, we're always going to fall short. But by God's grace, we can live differently.

And by God's grace, we have to live differently, friends. And look, I look at the presidency of Donald Trump as a giant test for the world, for America, and for the church. That's how I look at it. A giant test for us. Will it reveal our hypocrisy? Will it reveal our double standards? Will it reveal our lack of love? Will it reveal our lack of spirituality?

I believe it's revealed the above so far, all right? And this is someone who voted for him in 2016 and plans to vote for him November 3rd, all right? So I say these things as a Trump voter, but not as a Trump apologist, not as a Trump defender. Rather, I'm an apologist for the gospel. And as I've said time and again, I preach Jesus crucified, resurrected, not Trump elected and re-elected. Jesus is my message. My message to each of us is, let us love one another as he loved us, because he said that's how the world will know there was children.

Let me read again this plea from something Nancy posted some months back on her Facebook page or in the midst of a thread. Nancy said this, if I could, I would beg, capital B-E-G, I would beg all believers to stop biting and devouring one another, especially over politics and Trump. This is not the heart of God, the attacks and slander and hatred that is aimed towards the ones that are commanded to love with all sincerity and purity.

So far from everything I know about the Lord, it's difficult to understand how we got here. Jesus said that the world would know we're truly his disciples, but our love for one another, how far we've fallen. Hey, can I encourage you, if you recognize maybe through this broadcast to the Holy Spirit dealing with you, that you have been carnal in your online behavior or your interaction with others, to apologize just as publicly as you've sent, to say please forgive me for my angry tone or for my attacking others or for my judgmentalism or for my questioning your salvation based on your political vote or, you know, wherever you think you need to, and then say, hey look, you know, pray for me because I want to be more like Jesus. That does not mean compromise, that does not mean wimpiness, that does not mean weakness, that does not mean anything negative, only positive, being like him, emulating his ways, his conduct. We are strong, we stand, we have backbone, we don't bow down to the system of this age, we stand for our convictions regardless, but we do it in a way that honors the Lord. Let us love one another, let the world look at us and say, hey, those people are Jesus followers. Friends, I have a whole chapter in Evangelicals at the Crossroads that deals with this, so if you have the book, revisit that chapter, I believe it's chapter 3. Get the book, it'll help you, but above me on all that, get in the Word, meditate on the Word and say, Jesus, I want to be more and more like you. The world needs to see Jesus in me and in you. Another program powered by the Truth Network.