This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade, deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours. A time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now.
Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We are talking about the topic of what does it mean to you to be loved by the Trinity, meaning the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one, all, however you want to fill that in. If you have a flavor of the day that you like and you're really feeling close to Jesus, maybe you're going to answer that with Jesus or maybe it doesn't really matter. You don't know which one's working on your heart or talking with you because they're all doing it together anyway. And so, you know, it's the Three Musketeer philosophy, right? One for all and all for one. God was the original concept of that, not the Three Musketeers.
Yes, exactly. And so it came as a topic that was on my heart based on a song from Riley Clemons. I've been listening to a lot of her album. It's an album called Love By You. I think it's the name of the album, but it's from twenty twenty three. But the song is called Love By You. And this is the chorus to that song.
It says when she's singing about what it means to be loved by God. I am believed in. I am held on to.
Don't have to wonder who I belong to. I'm always wanted. Always known. I'm always treasured.
It's true. I am loved by you. And so what does it mean for you to be loved by God? And if you haven't really thought about it, I'm asking you this week to kind of do that. Just take a few minutes and just let God work on your heart and say, what does it really mean to me, Father, to let you love on me?
You know, and do I let you love on me? Right? Because that's part of it, because he's not going to push himself into that. You're going to have to invite him in.
Right? There's a scripture there that talks about, behold, I'm at the door and I'm knocking and I'm paraphrasing there, right? But he lets me in. You know, I will dine with and those kind of things. And so do you let him in? Do you let him into your heart? Do you let him into your life?
Right? It's kind of hard for him to love on you if you don't. And it sounds like, oh, it's just so easy. And there are times when it just seems like you're doing something else and he's just there. And he's in and you're like, oh, I let him in.
It's just so wonderful. You're thinking about him. And other times, oh, I'm going to go think about God. You take off, you go walking.
Next thing you know, it's 5, 10 minutes. You're looking at everything else around the world and you have no idea what God's doing because you're not focused on him. Then you realize, oh, I got to get focused. And it's just hard. You can't always stay focused. Sometimes you go out and it's great. Sometimes you go out and you're like, you just, I don't know what it is, but you just go in another direction.
And you can't find him for anything. And it's just, we are just weird. Yeah, we're easily distracted for sure.
So easily. Yeah, yeah. The movie Up really had it well when Doug the dog was like, squirrel! And every time something happened, and we have the squirrel mentality. A lot of times when it comes to, you know, when we're trying to really dig in and listen to God, something grabs our attention and we go into different directions. I saw a squirrel while we were sitting in the other room.
Where is it? Did you? Yeah.
That's good. A real squirrel. Yeah. Ran by. As opposed to a fake squirrel?
Yeah. They don't run fast. Yeah, they're a little slower.
They are a little slower. But Harold, you have the first clip of this show. And so if you want to talk to us about the clip or however you want to approach this. Well, when you sent out the topic, the first thought that came in my head was about a song. And probably it's best known by most people by Elvis, but that was Where Can I Go But to the Lord. Because thinking about what it means to me to be loved is that I'm never too far away for God to reach out to me. He never leaves me alone. We can be close to one another as we are as a band of brothers.
We have a closeness that most people don't have with their, quote, friends. But I know that I can only depend on you to a certain extent. Only you can depend on me so far. We'll let one another down. That won't happen with God. He's always there at any time.
It's like 25-8 instead of 24-7. But that was the thing that occurred to me. So I chose that song rather than a clip.
So if you would play that, we'll see what it has to say. Living below in this old simple world, seeking a comfort for my soul. Striding along to face temptation's sore, where could I go but to the Lord? Where could I go? Where could I go? Seeing a refuge for my soul, needing a friend to save me in the end. Where could I go but to the Lord? Neighbors are kind, I love them every month.
We get along and sweet accord. But when my soul leaves manna from above, where could I go but to the Lord? Where could I go?
Where could I go? Seeking a refuge for my soul, needing a friend to save me in the end. Where could I go but to the Lord? I don't know for a fact, but my suspicion is that the author of that song was reading John chapter 6 verse 68.
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. Regardless of how bad a problem we may encounter on this earth, the thing that's important is eternal, not temporal. So even though we may run into some things that are very difficult to deal with, we can always turn to the Lord because he has the words of eternal life. So anyway, that's what it means to me. It means everything. So how do you hold on to that, Harold, when life comes at you and tries to strip it away? Just to remember that he's there and he's promised not a life on earth that's exactly the way I want it, but that I'll have an eternal home with him so I can get through anything else. Good.
Well, thank you. Rodney, what about you? What does it mean to you to be loved by God? Well, I think back to when I first came to Christ. I'm driving home from work and I'm listening to something on the radio.
It's J. Vernon McGee, and I don't know whatever he said, but I was just like, oh my gosh, it just dawned on me. I'm not a believer, now becoming a believer, and it dawned on me, going down the road, crying in my car and all this kind of stuff. Then it's like, oh, I've got to listen and listen and listen and get as much as I can. Then I look at where I'm at today. Now, my memory isn't as good as it was back then, the things I can remember and do all that kind of stuff, but now it's just different where you talk about, well, where are you with God? There was so much before that was just things that were in my life already that I've worked out in my life.
Some of that stuff really went out fairly easy, some a little harder, but some of that stuff I've been able to work out, and it's not really been a pull and a drag on me to pull me back into it. I just don't care about those things anymore. So I'm able to move past, I'm able to move on, and now in my life, instead of sitting there and just, oh, I've got to make sure I do this or do that, I'm very, very fortunate I can just kind of go live. I don't have a ton of things just always on me making me worry about how I'm looking or being with God. I can just go live my life.
My life is just very simple. I don't have a whole lot of things involved in. Most of the things I'm involved in are with church, and I can do things there with good people. We just decided to start a softball team, and it's like, hey, that's good, but there's just a bunch of really good, fun guys going out and having fun, talking about the Lord and all these other things, and it's just different than what it was 20 years ago when I was playing softball, and now with this group, it's just different. You don't really go out there worrying about are we going to win, are we going to lose, or how are we going to play, and all that.
You just, well, it's kind of nice to go play well, but other than that, it's like who really cares? It's just fun to go do some of this stuff with people you love, and when you have love coming into most things now through Christ, it just helps about everything you think of, whether it's at work because work is a disaster with what goes on there. You've got what's going on with your personal life. I've got a few things now physically that is hurting me, is bothering me, so I'm trying to get some of that taken care of. It's just, and I've never missed a day of work in my life because of being sick, and it's just one of those things that just comes up, and it helps to take it all in when you think, well, okay, Lord, there's a reason why this or that does or doesn't happen, and I just love the fact that you can sit there and go through all this and know that you've got a loving Heavenly Father who's taking care of you.
You know, Robby's kind of in the other boat. He's got all these things that have happened to him. I don't have any of that.
I don't have any stories from that. I don't have those things to learn from, and I'm just like, well, what is it that you're giving to me, Lord, to learn from? Like you give other people different things.
We all learn differently, and it's just amazing to watch how he works in other people's lives, how he works in my life to help me move towards him instead of away from him, and I just look at all that as just so much going on, but I love every bit of it, and it's just something that I can sit back right now in my life and just enjoy. I'm not rushing to go get it. I'm just kind of enjoying. Well, thank you.
Same question for you. How do you hold on to that when things are tough? Well, that's just it. Now you're talking about things being tough.
They just haven't been. In the last few years, there's been a thing here and there, but I'm just like, okay, Lord, I'm just going to let you work in it and let it happen. Things aren't as bad as I make them to be. I love to throw extra stuff on top, and what about, what about, and I do that at least less now than I used to, so that's the most important thing to me is like, okay, I deal with it a little better, but it's just how I deal with it versus what God means to me through it and all that, and I'm just able to take a lot of the things and just go, okay, well, if that's the way it is, is that what I want or don't want? I think through those kinds of things, but for the most part, it's like, what could be better?
And just kind of try to let the Lord work in my heart on those things and just let it come into me. Thank you. Grant, you have something you'd like to add? Yes, one thing is right now you're here doing something with life.
That's true. Yeah, try to share as much as we can. Yeah, and something, see, I don't do now is pray with others. That's the conclusion of the Trinity right there. Yeah, absolutely. You invite God into all those situations. Thank you, Grant. Yeah, and just doing this together, is it sharing in love for God right here?
Absolutely, absolutely. My clip is the next clip, and so mine is a montage from the same movie. It's four little different clips from the same movie.
It's from Bagger Vance. If you think that movie is about golf, you missed the point. Golf is in there, but it's really about God and the relationship with God.
I don't think the writers intended that, but I think God intended that when it was written, and so it's really, really good. So at this first part, you're going to just hear this little clip, and I won't tell you everything that's said in it, but this first one, you just hear Will Smith's character that plays kind of the Jesus character in the movie, the guide, the counselor, Holy Spirit, however you want to look at that. He just says, well, it looks like there's a storm a brewing, and so I'll explain that when we come back of what that means to me. And then there's a couple clips in there where you get to see the humor as he's dealing with Juna, which is his person he's kind of mentoring and loving on, trying to help get him from a really place of brokenness to a place of healing and restoration. And along the way, he uses humor with him to kind of illustrate some points, and I'll talk about that. And then the very last clip in there is where he's helping him confront some of the demons in his past and calling him through love into a place of healing.
And so we're going to listen to it and come back and talk about it a little bit more. My soul on this entire earth ain't got a burden to carry. He don't understand.
You ain't alone in that. But you've been carrying this one long enough. Time to go on, lay it down. I don't know how.
You got a choice. You can stop where you can stop. Start? Walking.
Where? Right back to where you've always been and then stand there still, real still, and remember. It's too long ago. It was just a moment ago. Time for you to come on out the shadows, Juna. Time for you to choose. I can.
Yes, you can. But you ain't alone. I'm right here with you. I've been here all along.
If you haven't seen that movie, I encourage you to watch it. But so unpacking some of that. So the first part, there's a storm a brewing and then you hear the birds kind of chirping, right? In my relationship with God as it's grown over the years, he's really gives me lots of, he tells me about things to do before I know why I need to do them. Like he'll lay somebody on my heart and he'll say, hey, you need to call this person.
I really have no idea. But I've learned through trial and error and not being obedient to try to be obedient in that. And it always amazes me that when I reach out to that person or even something as simple as sending him a silly meme as a text.
I had one of the guys at work the other day wrote me a message back saying, you always seem to have the right timing to send me a stupid thing that makes me laugh when I need it the most and how much I appreciate it. And that's just God for me, you know, cause I'll see something and he'll go, Oh, send it to this person or that. And I'm just like, okay, I don't know why, you know, and I'm just going to do it or, or call this person or pray for that person.
And it's, you know, there's a storm of ruin and son, you can't see it, but it's there and I need you to just trust me and walk with me through it. And so that's a big part of how God loves on me is doing that in my relationships with people I don't know that well, and just trying to make sure I'm comfortable in the fact that I don't know the outcome, but it doesn't matter. I own the obedience and I'm going to continue to try to be obedient in that because God's working in it, however that goes. And so that's one way he loves on me is through giving me the opportunity to trust in him, even when times it doesn't seem to make sense, you know, and, and then just giving me the, the, the grace that he sometimes let me see it work through because you don't often get that, you know, maybe your job's planting seeds and you're never going to see the harvest.
Right. And so he does give me that opportunity to see, okay, well, here's some fruit of you being obedient. And so that, that's the way that he loves on me. And then there's middle two clips of, you know, where he says, you know, I, what kind of game is that?
Mr. Juna, you know, we just got to figure out what that is. And then, oh, it's been embarrassing for quite some time. Jim talked about it in the first show, but God knows that I love humor. And when he says something humorous to me, it makes a point deeper than just about anything because it makes me laugh and that laugh takes down my guard. And I, then it makes me really think about it and I've shared it on the air. But I remember one time that I was really being tough on myself.
I've just fallen in the same traps of the enemy and, and that kind of thing. And, and so, you know, as I'm just being mad at myself and beating myself up, God's like, you know, I hear him say the word grace. I'm like, God, I don't deserve grace.
You know that I don't deserve it. And he's like, isn't that the point? And I just started laughing at that whole breakthrough of the lie that the enemy's trying to say just kind of goes away. And that may not be your story, but God's got a particular way that he's wanting to reach your heart, right? If you look back in scripture, he never healed the blind the same way twice because they needed it a different way each time. And so God's not got this one cookie cutter method for all of his children and all of his, the ones that he loves, it's, he's got something unique for you, right? That's going to speak to your heart and for you specifically. And then the final clip is where there's so much in that, that I could talk about it for a long time, which I probably will for a little bit, but, uh, you know, he, he kind of goes out the lies of the enemy and he speaks truth candidly, but in love. And that's what he does for me. There's times that he says things that I don't necessarily want to hear, but it's never, it's never condemnation.
It's never attacking me and my character. It's, it's, it's, you know, it's truth and it's conviction and it's what I need to hear, but it's exactly where I need to go. Or he'll speak against the enemy, you know, or, or the enemy says to Juna, it's been oh so long ago. And he comes back and says, oh no, it was just a moment ago.
You know, cause for God, there is no time. Right. And for him, it was just a moment ago. And so he can take us back into those places that may have been years and years and years ago. Right. We just got to go on that journey with him.
And, and I've watched him do that. And, and, and I look, I can't always say I look forward to the times that I have to work through a broken place in my heart, but I look forward to the outcome. Right. Cause going through that is painful, you know, and it, and if you don't want to step into the pain, you're never going to get to the reward.
But the thing is you're stepping into the pain with somebody you can trust that loves your heart more than you love it. Right. You know, I think there's times we all think we're selfishly tied. I know I'm selfish, but you know, it's hard for me to fathom that God loves me more than I love me. Right. Even as selfish as I am, God loves me a lot more than that.
Or as much as I can hate myself at times, God loves me immensely. Right. And, and so it's so cool to just walk in that with him. And so that's just kind of the thoughts I had on that particular clip.
I know it was a long version of that. But I do want to ask you guys a question as we, as we have the last four minutes or so in here, specifically at bootcamp. How has God loved on you through the bootcamp? And I'll lead it off cause I asked the question, I knew it was coming and so I'm going to throw it out there. Just fill in the blank.
You know, I've gone to so many of them, you know, Jim and I have gone to a bunch of them and a lot of us have, but 12 or 30 of them. And each time he's done something different, but he'll teach me how to be a better warrior. He'll teach me how my warfare has been battling me and beating me up. Right.
That's just some of the ways and just healing and restoration. And I'll throw it out to you guys to answer some of what you're feeling. Anybody?
Feeler? Yeah. I'd say one of the things that comes to my mind is just the fact that you go, you're thinking, I gotta be in a battle. I gotta be in a battle. I gotta be fighting it. And it's like, no, you don't.
You can just relax, enjoy your experience at a bootcamp. It's about learning. It's about growing.
It's about becoming closer to him, not being in a battle or a fight against somebody here in this world. It's just open your heart, grow, let things happen. Because that's, that was one of the things that like first started going and it's like, okay, well what's supposed to happen? I keep trying to plan something and just learn.
I stopped that. It took me just a little bit of time, but it's like, don't plan everything. Just be open to listen. And like when we do the group activity, sometimes it's just one of those things where there'll just be something in there. It's like, oh, I better remember that.
That's really good. And you just, you just hold on to the few things he shows you. Cause he'll show me something like just during the day that'll just be like, did I just experience something that you just experienced? Cause you just don't know what's coming. And then he just shows you something like, okay, I need to, I need to think about or go into that a little deeper.
Thank you. I thought of a show we did a while back. It was out of left field. And you said earlier that, you know, God usually surprises you. And I was trying to think of any time that what I knew I heard from God made sense to me initially.
And those don't, although the questions usually give me an immediate answer, but I have to make the answer. One that came to mind thinking about, you know, boot camp moment. My father died six years before this boot camp and we were doing the father wound. And I went into a literal closet in Colorado and said, okay, God, I know I had a great father.
I got a few minor wounds, but we've taken care of that. And God said, why are you angry with us? And I immediately knew what he meant. I was mad at God and at my father. God for letting him die and dad for dying, which, you know, was the ultimate arrogance of, you know, I know better. That's the way it should have been. But God was very gentle with that. But the, and I didn't even know I was carrying that anger.
It had been for six years. And when that came up off of me in that moment, it was such a lightning of a load that it went, well, it was a God moment and those are available boot camp. And that's not the only one, but that was the first one that popped in my mind. Yeah, I, I appreciate that guys. For me, a lot of it is, and Rodney kind of touched on it as a lot of times we focus on what do I need to do, what do I need to do? And we're not human doings, we're human beings. And God just wants us to be, just to be present, just to be in his will, you know, just to walk with him and invite him in the adventure.
Right. And go along the way. And, you know, boot camps for me, I know has changed me tremendously. You know, I know the guy I used to be and I didn't really like that guy. You know, and there are times I don't like the guy I am today, but I'm not the same one I was yesterday and that gives me a lot of hope of what tomorrow looks like. Because God's continuing to move me closer to him and change my heart and pull him, pull me into, you know, his, his closeness. Right. That I can just feel him all around me.
Yeah. Here's the statement I've heard from God before and I shared and somebody else heard it too. So maybe someone out there needs to hear this. Don't just do something, stand there and something God will say to you. Listen, because that's important.
Absolutely. Just listen and walk with him. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. If you have a topic you'd like for us to try to talk about, just bring it up to us, send it to any of us at our email. It'd be rodney at masculinejourney.org, sam at masculinejourney, and so forth. Just do that. And this week, just let God love on you and just live in that love for a moment and then just take it and turn and love on somebody else. We'll talk with you next week and thank you for listening. This is the Truth Network.
