Favorite Car... Good Old Days

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This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show. With today's guest host, our Christian Body Shop Guy, Jerry Mathis.

I say this calls for action, and now. Good morning, and welcome to Christian Car Guy radio. And again, this morning, this is a call-in show, so if you get a chance, give us a call at 866-348-7884. And I am Jerry Mathis, a Christian Body Shop Guy, filling in for Robbie this morning, who is in Alabama with his daughter graduating from college. So I know it's an exciting weekend down there with family, and just hope to having a great time and safe travels back to Winston. This morning on Christian Car Guy radio, we're going to kind of divert it in a couple different areas and got a lot on the plate, so we're going to try to work our way through it. And also to make that happen, we've got Christian on the other side of the glass as our producer. And this morning, man, I don't know what I'd done if he wouldn't have been here.

We'd have been silenced as gold, and that's for sure. This morning, we're going to talk a little bit about what it takes to get your car ready for spring. And also when I was doing that and thinking about kind of the things to prepare your car for spring after the long winter and stuff, it started making me think about, you know, those cars, it's easy to do that when you really care about your car. And so my question is this morning, what was that one car that you own now or have owned in the past that just sort of put a smile on your face and joy to your heart every time you even think about it?

Because that was sort of your pride and joy. That was that one special car. And I think we've all had one of them.

If you have that, just give us a call and let us know what that car is and a little bit about it. And also this morning in the second segment, I'm really looking forward to Nikita Kolov, the Russian nightmare, if you remember him from the wrestling days. We'll be calling in, man, he has a lot of things going on with his radio show, men's ministry things going on and happening.

So he's going to call in on the second segment. We're going to talk to him a little bit, but also this past week, we're in the middle at Pinedale Christian Church. We do a 40 day devotion where the whole church does it. And we every day have a devotion and do some reading and scriptures. And it's just a really a neat thing.

This is done for the children in preschool all the way up to our adults are all doing a study together. And this year it's on the book of James. But also one of the passages in that book is from Matthew 7 21 to 23. And if you get a chance to look at that, we're going to talk about it at the end of the show, because that's one of those verses that man, it is a lot of things in a few words, but it's also one of those verses that always kind of trouble me, kind of saddens me a little bit.

So we're going to talk about that. But then, you know, the other thing about that is the fact that, you know, God cares for us and stuff. And so everything we do, it's just important that we allow Christ to be part of it. If it even means keeping our car clean and whatever we may do. And also we're going to talk a little bit today about Jesus' labor of love, which is a great opportunity for people to be able to help those people in need.

You know, we don't realize just how important an automobile is and how critical it is for a lot of people. I tell you what, before we get going, we have a call coming in. So I'll go ahead and we'll take that call and we'll see what we have.

Tim from Washington. Yeah. Let's see. So I have to replace, I have a Chevy Malibu 2005, and I have to replace a TGR valve. And I've done the kind of work in the past. And it was nice when you had a torch doing exhaust work, just heat the bolts up and they loosen up real easy. But in this case, I can't get a torch in there. Is it better to do it when the engine's hot or cold to avoid breaking the bolts off? Really what I would suggest, and I have, is that they make like a couple of lubricants you can spray on, let them soak overnight. And most of the time that will loosen it up. And it really, a cold bolt will break a lot easier than a warmer bolt, or at least it'll help the treads with the backing it out.

But I would definitely soak the bolt for at least overnight one night and see if that doesn't loosen it up. Okay. So soak it. And you're saying it would be better to do it after the engine's warm? Yeah.

Because it goes the same thing. You're just trying to really get it where it just loosens everything up. And sometimes there's no way around breaking off a bolt, just the way these things are torqued.

And really, some of them are really just hard to get to where you really can't get good leverage on them. Oh, I can get leverage on it, but I'll just spray into that. Yeah. I would definitely just spray it down with, they make a couple of different kind of lubricants that you can spray in that'll soak in and it's a penetrating oil that'll soak in and most of the time free it up. And also when you're loosening up a bolt that's sort of rusted together or fused together, kind of work it back and forth.

Don't just all the time put all the pressure going, trying to loosen it up, try to go tight back, just kind of moving it a little bit, just trying to get that broke loose. All right. Thanks. All right. Thank you.

Okay. Back to, as far as keeping your cars and how to keep them and prepare them ready for spring after the winter, I just wanted this morning to also go through some of the steps because we kind of forget about our automobiles and stuff and we don't really think about, man, the investment that they are. And especially now with the cost of vehicles and also the, just the ability to be able to purchase another vehicle is, you know, it's just important to be able to continue to, to get all you can out of a, out of a motor vehicle.

They're just so dang expensive for one thing. And there's some little simple things that we can do, you know, and I always start out with the very first thing to be able to get your car ready for summer and spring is to do a good washing is to clean that thing and get all of the, you know, the salt off of it, all of the, you know, the winter grime and just really do a good job. And a lot of times that I'm gonna start with the interior because a lot of times we always think about the exterior of the vehicle, that that's where you're going to get the grime and the salt and the rust will get started in on it and stuff, but also clean the interior. I mean, really take it take your mats out, vacuum it out because also you're dragging all of that stuff inside your vehicle and just get it a good wipe down, put a treatment on all your leather or plastic parts. And, you know, cause that sun will definitely cause a lot of damage on these dashes and, and door panels and armrests, which you start seeing all the cracking and stuff. A lot of that can be prevented by putting a, you know, just treating them and taking some kind of, you know, an armor all, or there's plenty of products out there to just kind of keep them where they keep their electricity instead of drying up.

And that sun will do that in a heartbeat. So I encourage you start with the inside, work your way to the outside of the vehicle and doing the winter. One thing with all the grime and the salt and the brand and everything else on the car, it gets all up under the undercarriage. So when cleaning on, you know, if you don't have a high pressure hose, at least go to the coin operated car washes and reach up under there with the wand and clean out, clean out in all the fender wells and everything else to get all of that residue out of there, because that's where a lot of the rust will start, especially up here, up in, up at north and northern part of the country or somewhere where rust is already going to be an issue. You know, just really take that extra time to really wash all that out of there and get that stuff where it's not settled in there and packed, because the next thing you know, that's where you're going to start having problems in our business that raised body shop. It's not unusual for a car that spent a lot of time up north or on the coast to come to the shop for repairs. And when we get in there and put it up on the lift and stuff, you see where the frames and the suspension parts have already started resting so bad. The vehicle is almost unsafe to drive.

And it's just where it's just been neglected. Sometimes, no matter how much you do that, it's going to happen, but you can still do things to kind of slow that whole process. After you get the thing underneath the carriage wash, man, really just don't get the car washes going through, do a decent job of knocking that dirt off of them and all of that residue from the winter. There's nothing like doing a good old hand washing and wash that thing. Start from the top and work your way down so you don't have the, you know, you don't have all of that residue bringing it from the bottom to the top of the vehicle, scratching it up. And when I'm talking about scratching, never, ever send your car through a car wash that has the bristles and stuff. Always try to do one that doesn't touch it because those things can get stuff caught in them. And then they just really are devastating to the paint job of a vehicle. Another thing is keep it waxed.

And I always suggest for my cars and my wife's car and daughter's car, I try to wax them in the spring and in the fall. We'll get back to all of that in just a moment. But again, this is a calling show.

Give us a call at 866-348-7884. I'm Jerry Mathis from Ray's Body Shop and Record Service. Christian Car Guy Radio Show will be back at you in just a moment.

Welcome back to Christian Car Guy Radio. I'll tell you why this morning, like I said, it's a great morning and I am really looking forward to my next guest who is calling in. Not a stranger to the Truth Network. Nikita Koloff, which is, for all of you who go back a few years, the Russian nightmare, in which I love the beginning of his, on his website it says, you know, the Russian nightmare, once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare.

And that is certainly true. Nikita, I think you just came off of a, did y'all just come off of a boot camp and everything else this week? Well, I did. Good morning. How are you sir?

Hey, I am doing wonderful. Hey, before I ask you a question, I threw out to the listeners this morning, what was your, what is your favorite car? The car that just, the one that you just always wanted, that just brings a smile to your face when you think about it? What would that be?

Well, let me think. Well, in Russia, I wouldn't know what the name of it would be, but how about the US car? Yeah, and I don't know the Russian name for it either, but the American name is Corvette.

That would be the American version of it. Quick funny story, it was a dream as a kid to own one, and in 1986, during the peak of my, really kind of part of the peak of my wrestling career, I went and bought a gold ragtop Indy kart base car edition Corvette and still have it 1986. Wow. Yeah, there you go. Hey, you can't get much better than that. The Corvette.

I mean, that is the dream car. Well, Nikita, one thing that man, as I said, you're from, everybody should be familiar with you with the truth network. Uh, tell me a little bit radio show and how they can get it.

I know it's on a lot of these stations will be carrying it, but also I think they can also go online and listen and also podcasts for the show. And they can, and let me mention real quick. You mentioned the bootcamp actually called band camp. Uh, Robbie Dilmore's camp is bootcamp. Yeah. Uh, my camp is called a band camp with a total package Lex Luger.

So one of my wrestling peers, I'm going to give you a quick crazy port. So we came off that camp. We, we wrapped it up. Uh, yesterday we had three salvations, six water baptisms, six fiscal healings confirmed. Uh, men got their hearts back, lots of freedom and we equipped them. We empowered them. And then we deployed them back home last night.

And our next one will be in the fall. They'll be able to get more information on my website, along with how to connect to, uh, the BANA podcast and the radio show that airs on Saturdays on truth radio network and in several different markets. And, and now a TV version of that, my brother, I have a TV version of morning. Yeah.

Morningstartv.com. They can go watch a television version, completely different show, same format, but, uh, the man up show, they can find a YouTube, Facebook, and a soon to be on another network called all nations TV. So God has really opened up a lot of doors for me to get the gospel message out and all these different platforms. Yeah. And well, you just said you told about the baptism and stuff, man, is that not, it's pretty cool when you sit there and just see how God works. I mean, when, when, when men, when, when followers of Christ and even those that don't understand Christ just are willing to open up their hearts and humble himself, man, God can do some amazing things and 100%. And, and, uh, if that we witness at this past week, and I like to say, I tell my staff, I go, look, we're here to kind of facilitate and kind of organize, but let's do our best to stay out of God's way and let him do what he does best. And that's touched the heart of men, whether it be spiritually as we saw through the salvations, uh, emotionally, mentally, physically, I mean, we talk about, you know, what it means to be a good steward and take care of this physical body while we're there. And of course we saw physical healings. And so God is just so, so good and just so grateful and thankful, uh, that I get the privilege of facilitating these camps along with my, my peak performance partner, Lex Luger. That's pretty fun too. I can imagine. And I know you just told about the God, how God moved in that.

What would be just, can you share just one story that just kind of, that'll stick coming away from that retreat? Wow. I know he's trying to narrow it down, probably. Yeah.

To try and narrow it down. I'll just say this. This was probably one of the more diverse groups, um, we we've ever had. Uh, I, by that, I mean, some of the participants, uh, uh, we had to, uh, we, well, we had first, we had, uh, a full-blooded Canadian Indian who's a chief of his tribe. Um, he was, he was one of our campers.

We had two black brothers from Aiken, South Carolina, John and Marvin. Um, we had, uh, a diverse group from pastors to marketplace, you know, blue collar, white collar, uh, an Anglican Bishop, uh, who is a part of our staff and men from all different backgrounds, uh, of life, who all gathered together for one common purpose. And that is to lift up the name above all names, uh, the name of Jesus and to make his name famous. That was the objective over the, uh, over the, over the course of the week. And, uh, that's probably the best story that I could share without narrowing it down to, you know, 25 different stories.

Right. And, you know, it's kind of that whole, that story right there is just, it's so powerful in the fact that sometimes we just need to pull ourselves. And this is what I like about what I'm reading about, uh, that the man up camp and stuff is the fact that, you know, you sort of pull yourself out of the world in a sense, and you're not worried about that phone ringing and who's on the call, what I need to be doing at work, what I need to be doing with this, that, that it's just really just you and our Lord and savior. And then all of a sudden those around us that you think you have nothing in common with.

Yeah, we do. That is the fact that common thread is Jesus Christ that pulls us together. And you see God work through that. And is that not powerful? The world could just be that way.

It is. And of course we encourage men, you know, judges tell everyone listening up front, we encourage men to set their phones aside as what you just said. So they're not a distraction. Let me, let's be honest. The phone is probably the most major distraction in our world today.

Um, glued to the hand of many attached to the hip, if you will. And, and I asked at the end of the week, Hey, how many of you feel much more freedom and Liberty having been off your phones for several days and almost every single hand went off and some are like, man, I don't even want to pick it back up at this point, you know? Um, but, but to set those aside and I'm reminded of a scripture, James four eight, that says, draw close to me and I will draw close to you.

And that's what we offer these guys as study to get away and draw close to him. Hey Nikita, can I get you to stay? You're listening to the truth network, truthnetwork.com.

You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com I'm Jerry Mathis and we're back with Christian car guy radio. I'm going to come right back to Nikita in just a moment because I don't want him to get out of here without me getting a little bit information about the conference coming up in August at Fort Mill, South Carolina. But first I'm going to take Dan who is calling in from Washington and I'll get back to Nikita. Dan, how are you doing this morning?

I am doing well. You were talking about hand cleaning. I was out washing my car and I, we had a lot of pollen that had fallen and gathered around the base of the windows. But more important was the windshield wipers. I had noticed the windshield wipers were streaking a little bit and I got out and cleaned them. There had been a lot of pollen built up on the windshield wipers and that's quite an important thing to take care of. Oh, absolutely. And that's one of the things when I go down the list, I'm going to mention windshield wipers because during the winter when you're getting snow and ice off your windshield, it really destroys those wipers.

So it's important that I always suggest at the beginning of the spring to change out your wipers and most people can do that or you can go to most automotive parts stores and they'll even change them out for you. But yeah, and getting that pollen off that car and stuff, that's the important part about doing that hand washing. Okay. We do appreciate your show and we enjoy the different aspects that you bring up from time to time. All right.

Yep. Thank you for calling in and have a have a great, great weekend. And I'm back to Nikita. And again, Nikita, I really thought I was going to lose you there. But one thing I want to just take a moment just to ask you, I know you have also a conference coming up in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and you just give a little bit about that and how they can get signed up for that.

I think it's a couple of days. And and I will say I've heard Nikita speak a couple of times. And if you get that opportunity and you need to need to need to take advantage of it. He's certainly a man that is passionate for for other men, passionate for followers of Christ, but most importantly, passionate for Jesus Christ and the gospel.

Well, I appreciate it, Jerry. I'm excited. This could be a first first conference of its kind there at Heritage Conference Center. And as you mentioned, Fort Mill, South Carolina Man Up Conference. And we have an incredible, phenomenal lineup of speakers. I mean, everyone from WWE wrestling champion Lex Luger to NBA All-Star Al Wood, the Benin brothers. A lot of people know who the Benin brothers are. They're very successful in the marketplace, in the business world. Book writers, authors, speakers of themselves, world renowned evangelist Frank Shelton, Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin from Black Hawk Down.

Anyone who's seen that movie, General Boykin, Rick Joyner, Chris Reed, so many others. It's going to be an incredible lineup of speakers. August 25th to the 27th. There's a hotel right on site, about 100 rooms available at the hotel there, right on site at Heritage Conference Center.

And they just go to MorningstarMinistries.com and they'll find out more information and or how to register and or go to my website Kolov.net and they'll be able to get more information there too, including the podcast and how to connect with me on social media and everything, Jerry. So that's going to be a huge, huge conference there. August 25th to 27th, Fort Mill, South Carolina Man Up Conference. It's time, Jerry. It is. Time for Man Up.

It's well past time. Hey, also go on to go on to Nikita's website and online. And I also saw the other day for stumbling through that, I saw where you had a couple one day events at different churches and stuff that they can see and get rid of that if it's in the if it's in their area. You know, I encourage you do that because, man, like I said, Nikita, you are you are certainly an inspiration to a lot of people and have an awesome story. And man, I hope you're able to fill up that, fill up the conference, fill up that hotel, fill up Fort Mill that people know that people that are followers of Christ and love Jesus Christ are there for a purpose. I appreciate. Yes, sir.

And the goal, of course, is to get just like the man camp is on a smaller scale is to equip and empower men through teaching and training and fellowship. And we're going to have some fun there, too. We're going to have a movie night. We're going to have a night of social on Main Street. It's going to be an incredible time, whether you come to part of it or hopefully all of it. I hope to see all you men of all ages. Bring your sons, man, grandfathers, sons, grandsons. I mean, 13, 14, 15 year olds will be welcome to come. And it's just going to be phenomenal.

And again, they just go to MorningstarMinistries.com and click on events and they can register right there for the Man Up Conference. All right, Nikita, I'll let you go. I know you've you're ready to wind down.

Been a been a been a busy week. And again, man, just thank you for your ministry. Thank you for your heart, for for serving and your heart for men.

And most importantly, your desire to serve our Lord and Savior. Have a great week. God bless you and all the listeners out there. God bless you.

Set your gaze on Jesus. You'll never go wrong. Absolutely. And then for a lot of you on this same network, make sure you tune in to Man Up with Nikita Koloff this afternoon. Nikita, thank you and have a great one. I tell you what, if you get the opportunity to attend the Man Up Conference in Fort Mill, I just encourage you to do that. And if you'd like I said, if you've ever had the opportunity to hear Nikita and his passion and his drive, and it is it's uplifting and certainly right about one thing when he says it's time for us guys, men to man up. And it's been well past that time. We're living in a world we look out there and it just seems, man, it seems upside down, havoc, chaos and everything else.

But there's only one answer and that's in Jesus Christ. We'll go back to the list of things to do to prepare your car for spring. And I'm going to go ahead and skip to since when Dan called in and talked about the pollen on the windshield. That's what I want that to get by how damaging winter is on your windshield wipers. And it's just because all of a sudden you look there and you were coming into the summertime, the thunderstorms and the rain and all of a sudden you're getting streaks in your windshield. It's just that these wipers have been just damaged because they've been on with ice on your windshield and just tears them up and just doesn't allow them to work properly.

And the last thing you need is to be in a vehicle that you can't see out of properly. So I encourage you to make sure you do that as part of your your preparing for winter. Check your battery. Also, a lot of people think that batteries, you know, my batteries don't go bad during cold weather, but also batteries go bad with with hot weather. And that is also puts a toll on it because you are putting more of a drain on your battery when you start running your air conditioning and stuff like that. It's just a lot of drain on the battery. So you have one that has a week sale or a couple of week sales, then the odds are it's going to leave you stranded at the most inconvenient time. So I encourage you to check your batteries. And again, most parts stores will do that for you for free. Check your air conditioning.

That's another one. You don't want to get be 100 degrees and realize that, man, my air condition didn't really cool in the stuff. Now is the time to go ahead and get that check. Check your tires. Also, the same thing is with wipers being put through a lot of strain and tearing and stuff during the winter. Also, your tires are also that same situation that the roads are rougher and ice and snow on the roads. You know, check your tires in springtime. Another thing to always check is, you know, the wintertime you're able to you're probably going to be hitting more potholes and don't see them.

Check your alignment. If your vehicle seems like it's pulling to the right or to the left, then it means you've probably got an alignment problem. And go ahead and get that taken care of because one thing is hard to control when your car is out of line, but also you're going to eat up tires.

You're going to be spending a lot of more money on replacing tires than you would be to get your car properly aligned. And again, make sure that you check all your fluids, your oil, your washer fluid, your windshield washer fluid, your antifreeze, everything makes your power steering. Just make sure all your fluids, you know, so many times we have got into society where you don't really have full service gas stations anymore. So people really don't, especially if you're, you know, just kind of going to a quick oil change, they just make sure they check all the fluids and listen to them. A lot of times you go into those, you think, oh, they're just trying to upsell me.

Have them show you what they're talking about. Make sure you do the things to keep your car, you know, in the condition that it needs to be. So it's roadworthy and it's safe and it'll be able to get you to where you need to go. So it's just those little things. But I'll go back to probably the biggest thing you'll probably do is just the washing. Keep it clean. You see little scratches and stuff. Try to get a little bit of touch up paint and touch it up. Last thing you want to do is that rust to start etching into that, that metal of your vehicle. So it's just little things you can do.

Most of them you can do them on your own, but it'll still make your car last a whole lot longer and look a lot better. Be back in just a moment, Christian Car Guy Radio. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Christian Car Guy Radio Show. I'm Jerry Mathis from Ray's Body Shop and Record Service Christian Body Shop Guy. And one of the questions I asked at the beginning of the show is what is your favorite car? And I got Keith online who is going to share with us what his favorite car would be. Keith, what would that be? Hey, good morning.

Good morning. Favorite car for me was a, I owned a 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix Model SJ. It had a 455 cubic inch engine, high energy ignition, about 360 horsepower and over 400 pounds of torque. This was factory. Five honeycomb wheels on it.

The spare was one also. It had high output heads and exhaust on it. This was factory. And when you started it up, it sounded just like a regular car.

But when you put your foot on it, when you put the accelerator to the floorboard is a whole different story. Had plenty under the hood for sure. I always called it like my Muhammad Ali car.

It floated like a butterfly and it stung like a bee. Yeah. And I bet you had no problem keeping that car clean and taking care of it because it meant so much to you.

That thing looked like a showroom all the time. Cool. Well, thank you. It was really nice.

I can enjoy your show today. Hey, thank you for calling in and I think about cars and stuff and I thought about my favorite car when I was sitting there and I always loved, well, my first car that I got was a 68 Mustang and I was in the car business my whole life. So I kind of, a lot of cars, but the one car and it's sort of the same reason you liked that car was a 73 AMX.

And I'll tell you what, those things had some power. I don't know if the day I sold that car is one of the cars that I always wish I'd always kept and stuff, but you know what, same thing. Those were beautiful cars when they first introduced them up to, they quit, but the AMX, do you say American Motors? They were beautiful cars. They were very beautiful cars.

Yep. Had a, called it a Max Blue, which looked blue during the day and purple at night. And I love that vehicle, man. That was a cool car. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Well, Keith, thanks for calling. I know and your car, I mean, I'm thinking about that. I mean, just, you know, used to get behind the wheel on those things too. You mash that gas down and it just, man, it made you feel free, didn't it?

You were free. Yeah. All right. Well have a great weekend and thanks for calling in this morning and thanks for being a listener.

I'm going to kind of wrap up one of the things I want to just make mention. We're talking about cars is Jesus' labor of love, which is a ministry that you can go on Christian Car Guy and website and you see a link or you just put Jesus' labor of love. That's where we do repairs for single moms, you know, who are in desperate need of automobiles and sometimes their automobiles can't even be repaired. And it's the point where they just need a new vehicle.

And a lot of them are mothers that have small kids and need to get to the hospitals and doctors appointments. And there's just so much need out there and we really don't, I know for myself, we take for granted how much we need an automobile. And this is just a great ministry and reason we won't even talk about it is, you know what, if God is urging you to look for somewhere to support and to help, you can go and see. We take donations.

You can see we're a nonprofit. And even if you have a vehicle that's sitting in your driveway, that's just sort of in the way. And every day you go out there and look at that thing and say, I need to get rid of that.

Man, go online and let us know about it because I can guarantee you if it's doesn't really matter that you're a model and doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles just so it's transportation and it's reliable. There's somebody out there that's in great need of that. So I encourage you to kind of look into that, pray about it and see if there's any way that you may see that God is leading you in that direction. I'm talking about God leading you in a direction. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, Pinedale Christian Church does a 40 day devotion and everybody does and everybody's in the same book. And this year is on the book of James, which I love the book of James because that's sort of an always subtitle.

That is time to put your big boy pants on because it's time to act like a Christian. But one of the passages that we read was from Matthew this week and it's Matthew 7, 21 to 23. And I said, that's one of those passages that it's got a lot of there's a lot of depth to that, but also it's one of the saddest. It kind of breaks my heart every time I read that passage.

I'm going to, I'm going to read it this morning. Matthew 7, 21 to 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesize in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. You know, when you sit there and you read that passage and it seems like, you know, everything is so right, but unless you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, your rewards are here on heaven and stuff. And it just breaks my heart that people don't really humble themselves enough and really get into God's word to realize that it's not really about church. It's not really about religion. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And one of the reasons I was so looking forward to getting Nikita on this morning is because that sort of falls into that. I think men sometimes fall into that lane so many times where they have kind of, you know what, I'm going through the motions. I'm dragging myself to church. I'm trying to do all the right things, but the one right thing they're not doing is having a relationship with Jesus Christ and it's not coming because their heart is changed. You know, having all the knowledge in your head and all the book knowledge and knowing the Bible, that's really nice, but until it becomes part of who you are and it is from your heart, you know what, God doesn't really recognize that. And our Lord and Savior, I mean, I think it saddens him that so many times we just aren't humble enough to accept, you know what, I just need to turn it all over to my Lord and Savior. So this passage is one that always kind of saddens me every time I read it because I know that for myself it's important that I kind of stay on top of that and make myself and guard against getting into the routine where it's just, you know, I'm just doing this as sort of like punching a clock. I need to make sure that it's all about my relationship with my Lord and Savior. And also by doing that, I also have a responsibility. It's not just to be able to speak to people about Jesus Christ and tell that story. It's also being able to live that and they see that in me and also in anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ.

So this passage is, like I said, it's one of them that kind of saddens me in a lot of ways, but also I think it's a pretty strong warning that we need to make sure that we have the right relationship with Christ, that it isn't about just the things we do, but it's the motives of why we do it and it's why we think it's important to share Christ with others. You know, we use this platform. Everybody has different platforms. Nikita has a great platform.

He has a background that's going to draw people. I'm in the body shop and towing business, so I have a different type of platform. I'm in leadership at church, so that's my platform. But we all have a platform and it may be where you work at the grocery store and you're a cashier and checking people out.

You know, maybe that is your platform. Look to let God use you and where you're at instead of, you know, sometimes as a Christian we always look, well, I need to find that big thing for me to do. How is God going to work through me in this big area?

You know, it may not be big at all. It may be big to somebody else's life, but God's going to use you where He puts you and stuff. And so many times I said, it's just a matter of just humbling yourself.

Tell your story. Never be ashamed of the gospel because we're living in a world right now. You turn the news on. Man, it's just, you just see the sin and the heartache and the heartbreak and the really the only answer to any of that is Jesus Christ. So I encourage you tomorrow morning, get up and go to church somewhere. Go to a local church, support a local church. Pray about Jesus' labor of love.

You know what? Pray about Nikita Koloff and his ministry and stuff and opportunity to get plugged in. I encourage all the men. And if you've got a son, go to the conference. It is going to be an awesome time. Again, thank you for joining me this morning. I'm just praying that Robbie has a safe trip back home and congratulations for his family. I know anytime you get a graduate from college.

So to be excited about. See you back next week. You've been listening to Christian Park. I read to the Truth Network, truthnetwork.com. Do you ever say, I will pray for you and then promptly forget to do that? Hi, I'm Karen Mulder with Today's Caring Wisdom. I'm guilty of that. I often say, I will pray for you or you will be in my prayers. And then I get busy with my own agenda. So I've devised some ways to remind myself and perhaps they'll be helpful to you too. If I'm going to be home for the day, I place a lighted candle on my kitchen counter. And when I see that light, I remember my promise. Also, I think it's helpful to make post-it notes and put it in some of your places where you will see it often. Also, I put it on my calendar because I check my calendar every day. Perhaps these ways will also help you to keep your promises to pray. God bless. Visit Karen's website, wisdomofthewounded.com for additional resources on how to care well.