This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.
So, how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Welcome to Mascone Journey. We are glad that you're with us today.
And we have a very weird kind of studio vibe right now because we're kind of empty. Yeah, I mean, we do have six people in here. If I two, four, yeah, I think it's six. We have six people in here, and that sounds like a lot, but you know, a lot of weeks we have 10, 11 people in here, and it's kind of weird. It's like, you know, we usually have like a football team when we're down to like a basketball team and a reserve.
Yeah, six man. Yeah, we have a six man.
So we have like going from an NFL team down to a Jamal, you're our six man today. Yeah, I will take it. Appreciate it. Yeah, that was part of my exciting thing that's going on. We do have an avid truth listener and an occasional masculine journey listener with Jamal.
And so we're glad to have you with us, Jamal. I'm glad to be here. And I hate to start off with a correction, Sam. I am an avid listener. Oh, okay.
Okay, well, I didn't want to assume. Does that mean you're in on our corny jokes? Every single last one of them. Yeah, so he knows what's going on there. He was asking where the old guy was when he got here.
Well, yeah. Don't you guys believe that? That's all in. Right there. That was at dinner.
Oh, my bad. And Grant, Jamal's a friend of yours, right? Yes, indeed. Yeah, now you guys see each other at something that has to do with the radio station here when Stu does his weekly, what's it called? You want to take a grant?
You want me to take it?
Okay. All right. Yeah, it's called Wednesday in the Word, and it's at every Dario location in North Carolina. It starts at 8 o'clock in the morning, and we have free breakfast. It's a men's Bible study.
I thoroughly enjoy it. And you're going to get something different out of every one. But the one I go to is on Clemensville Road, right past Parkland. And anybody that wants to come out and just have a good time in the Word and a good time with fellowship, I greatly encourage you to do that. And that's where I've made it made a lot of my connections.
And a lot of networking goes along over there as well. Yeah, I've actually been to it a couple of times in Kernersville, at the Kernersville location and one of the Winston locations. And so it's runnin' too. Yeah, it's really neat thing. Oh, okay.
That's well, any location that's really good to have, and that's with Stu Epperson started that. I believe so, yes. And Stu has something to do with the station here. A little bit, just a little bit. He may be the big guy here.
He has everything to do with the station. Literally, the big guy. Yeah, he's taller than everybody else. And he's a really good guy, too. Oh, yeah, he definitely is.
We're grateful to be around Stu and be a part of anything he's doing. Yes. And so we appreciate you listening and listening to the Truth Network.
Well, we have a different topic today, and so it's going to take a moment to set it up. This could be why we're a little slow on people. It could be. It could be. It could be people wanting to shy away from this topic.
I know in typical. What can be typical masculine journey fashion? The person who came up with the topic decided to not be here tonight. And so Jim says it's my topic because he gave it to me. He imposed it upon you.
Yeah, he against my will, he threw it at me, you know, and said, This is going to be your topic. And I can talk like that because Jim's not here to defend himself. But you would do it anyway. Oh, I'd do it with him sitting right here, and I would cut off his microphone if I had that opportunity. But yeah, it's a good part of being on this side of the board.
If I do what these buttons did, it would be even better. But no. Reverb. Yeah, just something like that. But no, I had a major event in my life last week that will be part of our first clip here in a few minutes at my expense, which I'm looking forward to listening to.
Thank you, Art. Thank you, Art, for that. And we'll talk about that here in a second. But I got engaged last Friday to a very lovely woman. Thank you.
Yeah. Congrats. Yeah, she has done her dues. She's earned it a long time ago. I'm just kind of slow to come around.
And so Jim wanted to do the topic on us being the bride of Christ. And I think that's a very valid topic. It's a very critical part of our walk and our faith. I changed the topic once he made it be mine and changed it a little bit to intimacy. Because, really, at that core, it is the most intimate relationship, right?
And being the bride of Christ is the most intimate relationship, but so is being the son or a daughter to the Heavenly Father, right? There's lots of intimate relationships, both heaven to us, you know, from the Holy Spirit to Jesus to the Heavenly Father to us, and to one another. Right? And so, intimacy is a key part in our life. And so, the topic for today is intimacy.
But before we get to that art, you want to tell us a little bit about your clip that you have, if you would like to do that for us.
Okay, yes, I'd like to set this up.
So, yeah, Sam announced to the group that he was getting married and. And I had some really good material to make fun of him over that. He always makes fun of me and Harold about being so short. And, you know, he makes fun of Harold. I'm only one inch taller.
But if he's most of it's okay. I am taller. I am taller than Harold, though. You are taller than him. And Robby uses your name in puns all the time.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they're not funny, but they are funny. Second and third. Yeah, see, so you know, I wanted to, I had some material for Sam, but everybody was saying, congratulations, good for you. I'm happy for you, and all.
And so I didn't really get it in, but I wanted to say something like, oh, no. Sam, is there anything we can do? Sam, when did you find out? Anyway, because that's a little clip that had been showing up on my Facebook. I thought it was really cute.
And now that we're doing a show. About this, you know, I can bring it up, I can say that, I can even play the clip.
So we will play it now. And this is a comedian named Drew Thomas, not unrelated, not Andrew Thomas, but because this one's funny, it's Drew Thomas. But it's not the same for the men. When men talk about marriage with our friends, it sounds like something you get diagnosed with. Did you hear what happened to Charles?
No what? He's getting married. No! I just seen him last week. When did he find out?
She told him yesterday at dinner. Is there anything that we could do for him? No, the invitations already went out. There's nothing we can do.
Okay, that's fair. That's fair. I deserve every little bit of that, and even much, much more.
Okay. That was love. That was love. It is always love.
So, yeah, but. Um You know, uh we can use uh like Sam said last week, sometimes we can use comedy to get right to the point, to make a point and bypass a lot of uh jargon in between. But you know, the I guess the the point here is that that I would like to make is that um And I've learned a lot from the brothers on the show here and listening to them and their stories. And, you know, a lot of times A lot of times, these relationships and intimacy that maybe starts out really well, it kind of goes south. It takes work, tremendous work, to maintain a relationship.
And even then, sometimes they fail. Um But Yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to say. But when it does work, when it does work and you get through it, you work through the problems, and it can be a real blessing and really meaningful. You know, I don't have I don't have a.
Well, I do have another dog story. You know, I live with a couple of dogs. I don't, I'm not married, but I live with a couple of dogs.
Well, these are actually canines. You're not being mean. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Just want to make sure our listeners is your first-time listener. He's not being mean. Yeah, okay.
Okay. So. Ah!
Sorry, are you three friends? That was really bad. That was really good. Mine's a cat. That was really bad.
But. But yeah, uh just today, you know, just today, I know these dogs pretty well. We're we're together every day and and today we were out, we went out and and um checked on the cows and we rode by the cows that It looked like all of them were there. They were kind of up under the tree line in the shade, cooling, cooling, trying to stay cool. It's hot day here.
And uh so We went on and went and checked. checked out the rest of the pasture, just kind of ride through it and You know, the one dog, Max, he's a half-bird dog, and if there's any cow or calf that's off by itself, he will know about it. He will find it. You know, even if we aren't really close to it, if we're in the area, he will find it.
So, today. We were going along, we were up on the road and I saw him looking down through some woods and across the field and down to the little stream and I thought there was something a little different about the way he was looking. The way he was Uh The manner in which he was looking off down there wasn't his happy, low go go lucky I wonder what's down there today. I wonder if I can find a if there's a rabbit down there or something. But he it was a little more serious today.
I thought maybe he was on to something, so we we turned around and drove back and Max, he didn't come with us, but and instead of beeping him to come on with us, I I knew he might be up to something and I turned around and went back down in the in the low place there. And um He had found the afterbirth, a cow's afterbirth.
So I had a new calf. We had to go find a new calf, but I could tell in the way he was. Uh he was on to something. Just just looking at him in the The dog seemed to Have a way of communicating with each other with just a glance. They glance to each other and decide on something between them.
And when you can. When when you can have relationships like that, uh with with your partners Um It can be a beautiful thing. Yeah, well, and you bring up another point that, you know, God gives us animals sometimes as a comfort. Yeah. Yeah, I remember when my um stepdad passed away and you know, of course my dog couldn't hear what I was saying, but as soon as he n realized I was upset, before i I even realized I was upset, he was right on my lap.
You know, he was not quite a lap dog, but you know, he just he knew that I needed some comfort and and so that's a a form of intimacy that God gave us as a gift. You know, that sometimes we take for granted or don't think about, but you know, that's a lot of times our pets will. I'm sorry, but being able to read each other just at a glance and know what's going on with the other one, that is special. It is. We can do that.
It is. We do have a boot camp coming up November 20th through 23rd. Go to masconjourney.org to register. We'll come back and talk more about intimacy, if I could say that, after the break. We'll talk to you in just a minute.
What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your road. Regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there.
So, first one, I had no clue what I was walking into, and then realizing that other people are in the same boat and you know how open everybody was to share their struggle is a great group, and a lot of packing was that's to be done. It is a tight bond of men, everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to food camp, I've learned something different. And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk or to share. It's serious business, and you need to come one time to break bread with the men and fellowship, feel the atmosphere, hear the people pray, and get down to earth about what's going on in life and get real.
Register today at masculinejourney.org. Let them fall like the rain, let them roll down your face. Let them run like a ripper that carries your doom to the savior with scars right there on your heart. When you weep peace, they're weeping with you. Jesus Christ too.
Welcome back to Masculine Journey. That is Riley Clemens with the song Jesus Christ 2. And we're going to be talking more about intimacy today throughout the show. And we're going to talk about intimacy with people, intimacy with God, lots of different Areas around this, but in this song, she's talking about crying, and she's saying, So let them fall down like rain. Let them roll down your face.
Lord let em run like a river that carries your pain. To the Saviour with scars, right there holding your heart When you weep, He's there weeping with you. Jesus cries too. And what's important about that for me is: you know, a lot of times we think we're all alone in our pain, we're all alone in whatever we're going through, but God's there with us. You know, and the more vulnerable we are with Him and the more authentic we are with Him, the more He can get there to hold us, to help us to get through whatever it is.
And so, we'll talk more about that, you know, here in a few minutes. But I want to go on this. Person-to-person intimacy to talk a little bit with our person who's been married the longest of anyone I think I've ever known. Resident expert. Yeah, our resident expert.
And Harold, Harold, you guys have been married how long now, you and Jan? We have been married sixty one years as of june sixth. Wow. Wow. I was barely out of diapers when you got married, and I'm an old guy.
I mean, that's a lot.
Well, I should have been out of diapers before that.
Well, I try to tell people that there are fairy tales But ours is real. We have a real life fairy tale romance. We met on a blind date that her brother arranged. and within six weeks we were engaged to be married. And because I was no longer going to be going into the Navy trying to be a pilot, I dropped out of school and joined the Air National Guard and went off to basic training.
Came back and finished my last year at school. at Auburn University down in Alabama. I graduated on Wednesday, june the third, and we we got married on Saturday, june the sixth.
So I had about two and a half days that I was neither a student nor an adult, to be quite honest. But uh Intimacy is something that is so extremely important. Uh, I think too many people give up too soon. Uh yeah, we've been married sixty one years and and we are still madly in love with one another. Have we had trouble?
Oh yeah. We we've scuffled and and and stuff, but neither of us ever did anything that would permanently damage the other. We've been very careful about that kind of thing, that even though we might have a disagreement about something, we never got nasty about it. Oh. And To me, my intimacy with God uh, is reflected in the intimacy that I have with my sweetheart.
Um I treasure her immensely. Told the guys earlier that that Uh she never has to open the car door for herself, 'cause I always do it. Amen. and treating her that way to so that everyone can know. just how important she is to me.
after all these years.
So intimacy is something that grows if you treat it right. And uh the same thing is true of intimacy with God. we we grow that intimacy. He reaches out to us. Uh He's the door opener.
And and we're the recipient of that. And so anyway, I I guess I ought to stop. I could talk the rest of the evening about my sweetheart.
Well, appreciate that. Harold, I actually have a question for you, if you don't mind, sir. To the guys that might have said, Well, you got married too soon, what would your response be? I would have gotten married much sooner if I hadn't had if I hadn't had to finish school.
Okay. In fact, I was so anxious to be married to her that I would have gotten married while I was still in school, but she was smart enough to say, No, we'll wait. Good deal, good deal.
So uh just a follow-up question to that. you had enthusiasm about getting married.
So what would you say would be the benefits on being married and having that intimacy with somebody versus being a single guy? will be the pros and cons on, you know, one versus the other.
Well, if if if you're little, like me You're going to get teased and picked at and hate to play basketball because you're always getting the ball slapped back in your face. But to have someone who loves you and doesn't hide the fact that they do. Yeah. And she refers to me as her Knight in Shining Armor. That's awesome.
Oh. But when I say that God is involved in that, I truly mean it because. Uh we met on the Friday night before Thanksgiving in nineteen sixty two and uh at Christmas time I was at her family's house. and I had not given any thought that I can re recollect now. to getting married, and all of a sudden I find myself with one knee on the floor asking her to marry me and we've only known one another about six weeks.
And she said yes. And so to me When I look at it. God was involved from the very outset. I you know we never would have met, but her brother was eating at the boarding house where I w worked. And uh he tricked me into a blind ape.
And uh it was just, you know, almost immediately like, Wow. What is this? She just floored me first time I saw her. That's great. That's great.
Thank you for that. I think it's called love. Yeah. Speaking of the last clip about crying. Who who cries when they're altered with with joy?
Yeah. Ultimately hi happy. Yeah. Bud Phil Cry. Absolutely.
Absolutely. It's a natural reaction. I'm going to switch gears a little bit on the topic and switch. This is. This is going to be about I'm going to take it in a little slightly different direction.
I'm going to play a clip from Evan Almighty, but before I play it, what's happened in the. The movie Before Now is, if you've never seen the movie, it's about um Evan, who's building an ark. God's called him to build an ark, you know, like Noah. And so his family's. Not really on board, but the wife had prayed, you know, before any of this ever came about that, you know, God, please help our family become closer.
And so she's really struggling because Evan's chasing after God's heart, you know, doing what he feels like God's calling him to do in it. And she's really struggling with it. It's embarrassing to some degree. And they've kind of been apart. I won't say that they've separated as a family, but they've kind of been apart.
And she goes to a restaurant, and her server actually ends up being Morgan Freeman, who's playing God in the movie. And that's where you're going to hear this interchange. And I'll come back and talk about why I chose this clip here in a minute. Oh, excuse me, can I get a refill please? Coming right up.
Come on, it's like. Excuse me. Are you alright? Yeah. It's a long story.
But I like stories. I'm considered a bit of a storyteller myself. My husband? Have you heard of New York Snowa? Ha ha ha.
The guy was building the ark. That's him. I love that story. Know where they are? You know, a lot of people miss the point of this story.
They think it's about God's wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry. What is the story about then, the Ark?
Well I think it's a love story. About believing in each other? You know the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side. Just like Noah and his family.
Everybody in at the art. side by side. But my husband says God told him to do it. What do you do with that?
Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience. Or does it give them the opportunity to be patient? Is it prayed for courage?
Does God give them courage? Or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer... Do you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does it give them opportunities to love each other?
I gotta run. A lot of people to serve. Enjoy.
So, the reason I decided to play that clip. It's a long story, and I won't get into a lot of it. We don't have that much time left on the show. But I'd been married a couple times before. uh got divorced about ten years ago.
Um I'd been married at that time for twenty three years and uh you know, through relationships that don't end well, people are hurt. You know, my ex-wife and I was both hurt very bad through that. Our kids were hurt. You know, lots of people were hurt. And I had kind of almost resided in the fact that I can't trust my judgment in getting married down the road just because I didn't do real well.
I'm 0 for 2. I don't want to strike out completely and going 0 for 3. And all these things the enemy tries to get you to believe and to buy into. And so after a while of being alone, I started online dating, and that was a nightmare in lots of ways. And I remember meeting Misty through online dating, you know, nine years ago, something like that.
And I remember.
So it wasn't so bad.
Well, I was still pretty broken. Yeah, yeah. I was still pretty broken, to be honest. And so, but I remember when I got to start talking to her and learning about her and learning her story, saying to God, This is somebody I could really think I could marry, God. You know, if you let this work out, I'll probably marry, I'll marry this one down the road.
And so, you know, once in a while, he'd remind me of that, but I still had a lot of brokenness to get out of the way. And here recently, over the last probably six, eight months, God just started asking me questions. And what I loved about that clip at the beginning, he said, Hey, are you all right?
So he starts it with a question, right? Which he often does with me. And he said, What is really. the reason, Sam, that you don't want to get married. And I had a whole host of 'em.
And none of them really had to do with Misty. It had to do more with my fear, more with my things that I had let myself believe. And one by one, he worked on those and peeled them back. And we got down to just a few things that relationally Misty and I had to work through. And he asked me the question: well, why haven't you ever asked her about these things?
And I'm like, well God, I don't want to hurt her heart. And he's like, Sam, talk to her. And we talked and we worked through those in about five minutes. These things I've been carrying along, she had so such great answers, and it was exactly what my heart needed to hear: that God just peeled that away. And once it became, okay, God, you've taken away everything, I've thrown out every fleece I have, you know, and you've taken those away.
And it really, I began to get excited about the opportunity because my heart always wanted that, it always wanted that relationship. And so it was a very short time from us talking about it to us getting engaged. I'm looking forward to what the future holds. But I ask you to just be intimate with God and let Him be intimate with you. Talk to you next week.
Yeah. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.
