When I Saw The Light

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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 Masculine Journey. We are glad that you're with us this week. We're exceptionally glad that you're with us this week, and we are on a different topic than we've ever done. I don't think we've ever done this topic, have we, Robby? No, not that I'm aware of. Not in 800 episodes. Not at 801 now, right? Yeah, this is...

So it's time to start a new leaf. Yeah, we're doing a show about seeing the light. So Robby, would you like to explain what that's about? Yeah, so I had a really neat conversation with an old friend, and he was describing how God has a nature and you have a nature, and dogs have a nature, and so a dog can hear a dog whistle, but you can't hear that frequency.

You're not set up because your nature can't hear it, and you probably don't go around sniffing the ground because you just don't have a dog nature. He said, but you know, when you think about it, you were born in adversity to God, and so your nature would be that you didn't have the facility or any of the mechanics in order to be able to see God or to relate to God because your nature was that which was adverse to God. And he said, so think about how in the world did you ever get to the point where you could see God, because obviously you couldn't even change yourself because you didn't know you needed to be changed. And that led me to just see the miracle of my own conversion in a new light, so to speak. And I began to ponder, you know, wow. And at the same time, I was working on something in the Gospel of John and thinking about that the darkness couldn't comprehend, you know, there was a light that shined in the darkness, but the darkness couldn't comprehend it. And so what a miracle it was that God did that.

And so we talked about doing a show, like, what was it that happened in your life where you went from being in the dark to being able to have the ability to see the light, right? And thus you have this topic. Well, good. Well, you actually have the first clip.

Yes, I do. And it's from a movie called in lawfully yours. And it's a delightful movie about this young lady. Unfortunately, she's married to a pretty bad guy. And he's certainly in the dark. And he is trying to swindle his mother out of her house. And his mother has just lost her husband, his father and his wife. He cheated on her. She caught him.

So she's left him. And now she's trying to help her mother-in-law out to, you know, get out of her house or whatever. And she's trying to help bring her out of this depression, but she won't even leave the house. And so she gets this idea since she's always talking to her about how she needs to go to church, that even though she has no desire to get to know God, she says, well, I know how to get her out of the house. I'll offer to go to church. And so she talks about, you know, how I need to go to church. And, you know, so she gets the woman out of the house in order to go to church.

Well, as they sit down in the pew, you're going to hear this preacher begin to talk. And when she has a question, because again, she's not a church person. She just, you know, excuse me, I got to question your holiness or however that put. And you'll notice that eventually he gets to the point where he wants to answer her. But unfortunately, because, you know, you're hearing the clip and not seeing it, there's a church lady that really looks over her glasses at him to put the shame on him so that he'll move on with the service rather than answering the question that probably is in three-quarters of the minds of everybody that's sitting in the pew that just don't have the nerve to ask the question. And then it moves on to a Bible study because she's trying to get her, his mother out of the house more so that, and so she's in this Bible study. And once again, in this time, she has questions about the book of Job, which she thinks is Job.

And so play the clip and I'll explain. When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it a gift coming down to us from God, our father. Excuse me, Ben, or your holiness.

Ben's fine. Or pastor. You just said that our troubles are gifts. And if that's true, I've got some gifts coming to me. Um, that's not actually what I was, um, let me just go back. But, uh, I think you're right.

Uh, the verse should read when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy for, you know, that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. Oh, sorry. Jumping in again. Get it.

You just said that our troubles are joy, which is ridiculous. No, that's right. James won. James won. What did James win?

It's in the Bible. Right. Okay. Here's the thing.

It's actually kind of a beautiful meaning. You know what? We don't generally ask questions during the sermon. Sorry. You know what? Uh, we were almost near the end anyways, so let's sing hymn number 400, please. But too far.

You've gone to third Corinthians. Okay. Oh, hey, I have a job question. Um, so John's entire family is wiped out and I'm just confused about why him getting some new kids would make that okay. It's Joe.

No. Oh, and mine it's a job. That's pretty funny. Well, I see what funnier to know my own story was that, you know, I was a car salesman, complete heathen. And you know, I picked up a tape series by Norman Vincent Peale that was the power of positive thinking. And so I bought this tape set because I wanted to sell more cars because I needed a positive mental attitude and no intention of learning anything about God. And the very first thing it said in that tape series is if you want a positive mental attitude, what you got to do is get up an hour earlier every morning and read the Bible. At what point I was trying to figure out how to get my a hundred dollars back. That was a long time ago. He said, but then before you read the Bible, you got to pray because there's no way you can understand it without praying, which sounded even more ridiculous to me, but I spent a hundred bucks and I've said, okay, here I go.

I had a Bible, you know, that I'd never been able to throw away from my childhood because you can't throw those away. You know, that was, there's some level of, so I start reading this thing and I'm just like the girl in the movie, man, I got a million questions. Like this can't be right. This is crazy. This is nuts.

And when I get to the book, a job, I had exactly the same experience with what she described. Like, what do you mean? You, you killed all the guy's kids trying to make a point to Satan. This is outrageous.

You know what? I'm just screaming at God like this is completely foolishness. And then when you get to the end of the book, a job, you know, all of a sudden God turns a table on Job and says, well, since you're so smart, Robby Dilmore, you know, let me ask you a few questions. And of course, reading as I did, the questions were all in my court. Then like Robby, if you're so smart, you know, maybe you can make it snow or how about set the tide one time.

That'd be impressive. So I'd literally, I, you know, I, by this point in time, I realized that, you know, God could turn you into a post hosty. I had a little bit of fear of the Lord. And then all of a sudden I realized I wasn't God.

And if I wasn't, you know, and I don't have those answers, I'm in like really big trouble because I don't understand this. And what it created was a darkness that I really needed in order to take the next step, which was to finally get to the gospels where I read that Jesus was what I was needing. And because I had been so troubled by the book of Job is what really led to my conversion. That's good. And that's, that was my story. That's good.

Well, thank you. Harold, do you have anything you would like to add about your seeing the light or part of your story that you'd like to share with us? Well, I got a couple of things about seeing the light. I was brought up from my earliest memories being a little boy in church and mother and grandmother teaching me and all that. And it was around age 14 when it's like, Oh, I can't slide in on them. I got to be on my own. So that was one of the aha's.

But here's one that just recently occurred. I'm a big Van Morrison fan and his song, Everything I Do, reminds me of you. I have typically put that in the context of my sweetheart. And it dawned on me that what I really need to do is I need to put God in that, that everything I do reminds me of God. Because I was thinking earlier about in a different Bible study about silence. And I can't have silence. I've got tinnitus, so it don't matter. I've always got noise. But even if you go into the deep woods, you don't have tinnitus. You're not going to be in complete silence. But what you can hear is God. There are crickets, there's birds, there's squirrels, all kinds of things that are making noise. But it's God noise.

And if we are really in tune, we will find God in the nature that he created. Well, thank you, Harold. Kenny, what about you?

Do you have anything you'd like to add, you know, about seeing the light or some of your story? Well, I was forced to go to church growing up. Because being a young boy, I was rambunctious. And sitting still and listening to a lecture was not high on my list. You know, they forced me to go to school. So, you know, here I was, you know, being lectured at it or felt like, or setting up standards.

And then you start trying to play the standards, you know. And I'll be honest, you know, I was being taught a religion instead of really being taught a relationship with Christ. They talked about Christ, but really I don't know if I just didn't catch it. It was trying to connect me with Christ.

You know, I was taught like a five-step program. Hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized. And then, but like we talked about earlier, I wasn't really taught about the war that I'm in, the darkness that surrounds us, the temptations that just tear at our hearts and our lives because we try to reach those levels sometimes that religion puts there.

We can't make it. And, you know, we talked about that too being up here and then the failure, up here in the failure. And you see that brokenness in us that and realize we can't do this. We can't do this on our own because we're in darkness and you really see that light. We've got to be looking to be connected with God because that's where He dwells in that indescribable light that there's no shadows or anything.

That purity, we don't understand purity because we live in such a broken place with so much brokenness and things around us. It just, it was till later by God's grace that He turned my light on. Keep searching. That's the key. You keep searching and He'll lead you through it. He'll lead you through it and bow His to the shadows.

Well, thank you. A good place for you to really spend some time, you know, quiet with God is at a boot camp. And we have one coming up in November, the weekend before Thanksgiving. It's November like 16th through something like that.

18th, 16th through 18th. Talk to you later. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I want to read the dictionary meaning of vulnerability. It's the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed either physically or emotionally. I always had a negative aspect of vulnerability, but at boot camp, it's really different because we come and there's seven or eight guys here that speak and they all get vulnerable with the rest of us. And what comes from that is encouragement, just building up and knowing that, Hey, I'm not by myself in this battle and warfare and growing up stuff. You guys have all had similar experiences and it's great to know that.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. Welcome back to Masculine Journey and we're talking about seeing the light. Now for me, finding this bump was seeing the light or re-seeing the light, I guess I should say, because if you would have told me even two days ago that I would pick a Hank Williams Sr. song that I don't think I've ever heard a Hank Williams Sr. song, or I'd pick a traditional Christian song like that that's been around forever. This was a Hank Williams Sr. from 1948. So it's at least before 1948 when the song came out.

I would have said, nah, that's probably not going to happen. And then I was looking for a bump yesterday and I'm like, well, let me see, it's about seeing the light. And I went through some of those and then I found this and it just felt right. And it reminded me of growing up in church and that's one of the songs that we sang. And I can still see the choir director, Maxine, up there leading us in her voice.

I can hear her voice in my head, and come on congregation. And she would just get going and it just makes me smile. You can't think of seeing the light and be depressed, I don't think, unless you're just so far away from it, you don't remember what it looks like. And sometimes that happens and it's happened to all of us in our stories. And we'll share more of that as we're talking about it, because in order to truly understand the light, you have to spend some time in darkness, right? Or to appreciate it, I guess. To fully appreciate it, you've got to spend some time in darkness. And what you hear us talking about, that's all of our stories, is time in darkness that eventually became light, right, as God stepped in and led us to him. And so that picks us up with our next clip, which is you, Danny.

You have the first clip in the second segment. Does that make you feel good? Daniel Bock It's getting better. Having to climb back up the charts is tough. Daniel Bock It is tough.

But you're behind Robby, so it should be an easy knockoff. Daniel Bock But it was his topic, so it just felt right. Daniel Bock He'll get a clip from Barbie or something and we won't play it.

Daniel Bock Anyway. Oh, my clip is from the show MacGyver, the second one. And the scene is there's the students on a boat that they've been doing research and something has happened to the boat and the boat is sinking and they've got to get off. But the Coast Guard is an hour away and they've got about 30 minutes left for the boat just actually goes down. So MacGyver is kind of like big time FaceTiming this girl and they're making all these gadgets trying to prolong what's happening so they can be rescued.

Well, it comes down to something didn't work and she has to manually seal this door, but she has to be on the wrong side of the door to do it, which means it's going to cost her her life. And so MacGyver is doing everything he can. He says, I must have missed something. But ultimately, she sacrifices the ultimate sacrifice to save the other ones. And we'll play a clip and talk about it on the other side.

Here we go. So we hope it's only 30 minutes away, we can put you guys in the lifeboats earlier with something up to keep you guys going out there even a minute early with my kids and I won't do that. Not when this is there has to be another way. There's always another way something I overlook. Hey, Mac, if I don't see this door right now, the whole ship will sink before the Coast Guard gets here. You didn't have yourself. There's only one number that matters anymore.

Okay, 31. That's how many lives are outside this room. I can't let you do this, Zoe. Then come and stop me, MacGyver. You know how I know this is right? Because even though I don't really know you, I feel like this is what you would do if you were here. You just said it needs heat to react.

So if I light the resin directly, it'll burn, right? And the water's rising really fast now. Oh, God.

It's cooler than I thought it would be, cooler than I thought anything would be, but... So this is what you do at the Phoenix Foundation? Save lives every day?

We try. You did that? Okay.

So don't forget that you did everything you could and so many parents are gonna be so grateful. You did this, Zoe. I just talked to you. Hey, Mac.

Yeah. I wish we could have met in person. Me too. I would like to see your think tank. I'd like to share that ice cream.

Hey, you never told me. What's your favorite flavor? It's mine too. I know a great place.

Do you love it? That is the epitome of the gospel to me is that, you know, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to save us. And I can remember hearing the gospel when I was a teenager, an intimate teenager, 10 or 11. And I can remember Jesus calling my name and I would not have been in front of a church for love nor money because I was the kid everybody picked on and didn't need one more excuse for somebody to pile on. But I can remember that day vividly. And unfortunately, you know, my life took twists and turns and we talked about a lot in the pre-show about, you know, lack of discipleship. Not really anybody's fault.

Maybe just still trying to figure things out on your own or whatever. And that was kind of my story. And, you know, last year Robby gave us all Hebrew letters, surprisingly enough, because he likes Hebrew. But really? Yeah, he does.

Yeah. And he spent a lot of time in Psalms 119, best I can remember. And but the verses he gave me made my life make sense because he said, teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word. You're good and do good.

Teach me your statutes. You know, fast forward a few years after my conversion and, you know, evangelizing in school. I know that's almost forbidden now.

But, you know, we would eat lunch real fast and preach. And that was my life. And then I discovered liquor and girls somewhere along the way and had another spiritual conversion of the opposite direction.

And, you know, my life fell apart about eight and a half years. And the affliction and the darkness that set in. And ironically, when you played Hank Williams, Sr., which I love, but I can remember laying in a treatment center in 1994 in November and rolling over and seeing a cross above the bed glowing.

And I thought I was losing my mind. And I remember reaching out to my roommates and they said, hey, Jackie, does that is that cross glow into you? And he said, yes, I lay there and watch it go to sleep every night. But at that moment, I remember it was like God saying, I got you.

Yeah, you don't have to answer to this either. And, you know, that was twenty nine years ago, this November. And that's the that's the story of redemption is that, you know, he leads us to glory, to glory, to glory, to glory, to glory, to glory, to glory. And you're always looking for light because our lives are filled with darkness.

That's already been said. And, you know, the world pours into things and the warfare and the enemies forever. You know, if you're not doing anything for God, he's going to leave you alone.

But, you know, you bombarded with this and that. But, you know, God still rescuing people and you thank God he rescued me. And he's still rescuing me because, you know, I know if you see me, you wouldn't say a beauty, but, you know, God's rescuing the beauty. So well, in his eyes, I look around the room and it had to be in his eyes for all of us, you know, and I have a mirror.

So I do know what that looks like. God looks at the heart, not the countenance of man. Right. That's what the scripture says.

So that's that's a good thing. But yeah, we got we're kind of at a weird timing here because we don't really have time for another clip to get in. And so anything that anyone would like to add about this topic before we end up this show or anything more you'd like to share about it? Kenny, go ahead.

You can grab a mic. The journey. Do we see that God pursues us?

But do we see that? Like you say, sometimes he lets us go on the journey. Like, you know, if you look back to Moses, you know, he he heard the calling. Then he went down the wrong road. And then, you know, he got spanked or redirected for 40 years, learning how to deal with sheep and had a father in law, I think it poured into him, too. He had been poured in by his parents and until God got him ready to really see the burning bushes where he's seeing his light.

And that's what sometimes God does in our lives. He has to burn something to get our attention because sometimes the things are going smooth and we're feeling good. We don't see it. We don't see we're in the darkness because we're wearing it. We're in the flesh and he's got to get our attention on. Wait a minute.

This is temporal. Let's get into the eternal things because you want to get into the heavenly light where there's no shadows, no variance in turning. There's no falsehoods. There's none of this torment that sometimes we have to go through in this world that gives us glimpses of the hell side that Satan's trying to drag us into or deceive us into and bring us in. It's a darkness, not of what's around us, but of the heart and the mind because that's where we got to see God. You know, he says you need to become like a little child and realize you've got a heavenly father that's going to be there and take care of you. That's good.

That's good, Robby. And I think that as you consider these things that you come to the conclusion like, wow, this isn't something anybody's going to change on their own. And so our prayer for our friends or people that we see that is kind of are kind of sinking, you know, is God, you know, bring it.

I mean, and because you can see so many of us found darkness pretty good and strong before we really found any, you know, light in the midst of all that. And so clearly from my perspective, it's our prayer life is extremely important, even in that, you know, Stacy Eldridge, you know, I know not a big fan, you aren't, but of her voice. You love her.

I love her, just not her voice so much. Anyway, she was talking about how a lot of people know John Eldridge. You might know that he loves to hunt, and you may know that he loves to fish, and you might even, you know, know how he looks and those kinds of things. She said, but I know the contours of his face. You know, I know what brings a smile to his face.

I know what would make him tear up. You know, I know what his footsteps sound like. That's how we're supposed to know God. And that journey that we get in order to go there requires us really hungering for the light and that kind of knowledge.

Darrell Bock Thank you, Robby. One of the questions I would ask you to pray about this week is just, God, remind me of the times that I've seen the light, right? Because it's not just once in your life. You're going to hear in the after hours, if you listen to that, and we hope that you do, about times that, you know, it stages. You need to get part of the light here. You get more of the light here and more of the light there. And you get aha moments several times in that journey. And part of that is sometimes you let yourself slip back into, I can do it on my own. And God says, okay, I'll let you try. And then you find yourself in darkness again. And so what I'd ask you to do is just pray about this this week and just spend some time with him and go register for the boot camp coming up the weekend before Thanksgiving. Talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.