Reflected Glory 2 After Hours

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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, and we are continuing our topic on reflecting God's glory, right, and the concept that everybody has a unique piece of God's glory that they bring to this earth that he gave you when you were knitted in your mother's womb. He said, I'm giving Andy this slice. I'm giving Kenny this slice. Jim's a big guy and give him a slice and a half, right? Harold, you get about a quarter slice, but we're still – but it's still God's glory. Is that his new nickname? Yeah, quarter slice. Quarter slice, yeah.

But no, whether you get a nugget or you get a bigger person, it's God's glory we're talking about, and it's so cool to watch it come up in people and show its head and go, wow, that's really cool, right? And so we're talking about what we see in each other, and so we're continuing that topic, and we're going to pick up where we left off, and where we left off is, Kenny, you're going to talk about Jim. Right, and we'll call him Big Jim because he's the tall guy of the group, but he's also a traveling man, you know. First time I came to camp, he was traveling, and then, you know, I got to meet him at one of the many camps, you know. And last camp he was traveling. Yeah, he was traveling – now he promised he'd be at the next one, so I got you on tape, right?

I wrote it out of the schedule, so it's already set. Okay, great, because we missed you. We missed you.

That way I get to know you even better. But, you know, Andy helped me get this clip up right here, because I just thought it fits you, because when you get back from your travels, you've got a glow, and you've got a story, and you love sharing that. So I think this clip hopefully fits. So we'll play the clip, then we'll talk about it afterwards.

Yes, here we go. You know, I was thinking about when that played, if we counted the come sail away, how many times I said it in there, it's probably still not as many cruises as it went on this year. It's probably not even close. I think he said three months' worth this year, you know.

Well, I understated that a little. 94 days this year. Wow, you're spending more time – assuming I live till next week. Yeah, yeah, well, we're hoping. Yes, we'll miss you again, you know. But, like I said, you bring them stories back, the inner reactions you had with people and the different things. And a few times, well, God bailed you out.

You almost lost a few things, and almost missed the boat. And also, when you come in, we can tell you've been refreshed, and you're doing something you love, doing something you love. I think you're very much of a people person, and just getting out there and rubbing elbows, and just seeing God's beauty. Even in this fallen world, you see the beauty in it.

And then the people around you. Thank you, Kenny. For Jim, in what you're saying, I would say a slightly different way, is Jim has a compassionate heart. He has God's compassion. We know just a little, small segment of the stories of the times that he's helped people.

And I know it's a small segment, but he's constantly, his heart is pulled to help others. It doesn't always end well, but honestly, that's the same for all of us. That's the risk that we take. It is, and that's the risk you take, that you step out in faith, and you go in the direction you feel like God's calling you.

And it works out a lot of the time, but sometimes we may step in a direction we thought we heard him calling, and he wasn't really calling. And that's all of our stories, and that happens to all of us. But what I love about it, Jim, is you don't let it get you down. And you keep saying, okay, God, may have missed on that one, but I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to walk through the next one. And that's a testament to your faith in him, but also just how much you have a compassion for others and how much you love others. Well, it shows he's looking for that glory in people. That's what he's looking for.

And sometimes, like you said, we all find that short end of the stick. But that heart behind it, that's what God sees. It is. And you're directly responsible for David being here, and I don't know if I really know that's a good thing.

So I didn't want to say that was a positive, but no, thank you. David wouldn't be here if you wouldn't have invited him to a boot camp, right? And so, well, actually, he's not here. But, you know, if he was here, yeah, but thank you, Jim.

Jim's a gentle giant. And he's probably one of the, he and I have kind of a running joke, but he was one of the ones when I first came here, wasn't sure he and I would ever be friends. Because number one, he uses words I still don't understand. And they're not even Hebrew.

They're just English words. And, but we have become such friends. And this is kind of the shenanigans corner over here. But we carry on something all the time. And, and I think but he is a gentle giant, and he truly, authentically cares about people. And you know, he cares about you when you engage with him. So that's what I love about Big Jim.

Yeah, and he is big. I think Jim in Hebrew is thesaurus. Yeah, I think that's what it is. I'm not really quite too sure. Greek.

Greek. Yeah, that makes more sense. You see, you're correcting me and you're right again. So thank you, Jim. Yeah. He's like our resident Siri or whatever.

Yeah, he is. Ask a question and Jim's read the book about it. But the thing is, you got to ask Siri, Jim will just tell you.

True, whether you want to or not. Yeah, it's like a forced Siri. Yeah, I gave him the nickname Encyclopedia Jimtantica. With his quirkiness and his last minute clip request and all I gotta I gotta just say I love Jim.

Just grown to love him and just see his heart. You know, I mean, the time that he I asked him to respond to the adventure talk, and he talked about the 352 jobs he's had. And it was like, how many lives have you lived? Yeah. But just, you know, you're just thinking about that. I mean, that's a risk to go from one to those other things.

And you see all those gifts that he gifts and experiences and talents that he accumulated along the way play in to who Jim is and what he brings to the ministry. So it's it's hold on a second. I'm about to he thought you were done.

Just grab the bike. See the ramble. I got you. Here you go. No, that wasn't at all.

I just thought you finished. Yeah, he was. People are noticed by their presence. But they're also noticed by their absence.

Yeah. And I gotta say this, I really miss you when you're not at boot camp. Because no one else can blow the show for like to call everybody into the meeting. So that's one thing that is really evident that you're not there.

And it's a good thing that Sam brings his show far because I cannot blow my show. Well, we tried a lot of other people in people a couple of people did pretty close, but not the same. It was not the same.

It was definitely missing. But Jim, we're glad that you're with us. And we know you won't be with us next week because you'll yet be on another. You know, it is my last one this year. Well, yeah, unless they come up with a Christmas cruise and they got a great deal.

We won't see you that week either. Yeah, so we'll just I just need to go to what cruise line to use? Probably celebrity. All right. So I need to just check celebrities deals to know how often we're going to be here.

Okay, yeah, a lot of free hat. Yeah, I would imagine, you know, you show up and it's like, you show up on the ship and it's like Norma cheers. Well, Jim, it is your turn to say who you have. Well, I got somebody that I don't I don't think any of us would be here without. And that would be Sam. And as soon as I told Robby, I had Sam Oh, you're gonna talk about it being a teacher.

I thought you had Jesus there whenever you said not tonight. But he looks like him a lot. Yeah.

No, this is this is his namesake. And I don't know if he sees it, but I see a lot of similarity in this character called Sam wise. Play it again, Sam.

Here we go. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Froogle, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing. This shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come.

And when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Froogle, I do understand.

I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going.

Because they were holding on to something. What are we holding on to, Sam? That there's some good in this world. There's some good in this world.

Maybe that good is this bunch around me. When this was assigned and I got Sam, I immediately went to encourage her. And there are three. It was seconds, if that, before I knew that's what I was going to talk about. And it was no more than a minute before I had the clip.

It was just that God said, you know, this is it. And I don't know if Sam sees himself that way, but there are three men in my life that when, and I generally, when I'm really down, I don't tell people. When I had a rough day, I'll whine to anybody that'll listen.

But when I'm really down, I'm quiet. And there are three men in my life, and one of them is Sam, and one of the other ones in this room as well, that God puts on their heart to call me when I need it most. And that has been a wonderful blessing. And I guess I've known Sam longer than anybody in the room right now. Because we met at the beginning of this ministry.

And with Darren and I just connected immediately and knew this is where I was supposed to be. And without Sam, I wouldn't be. And I love him. He's a dear friend. And yeah, he's a great teacher. And there are several great teachers in here. And there's several great encouragers in here. And that makes this the place where I'm safest, where I feel the most loved.

And as much as I run away to play on moats. One of the things that occurred to me was, and this is part of being here that you mentioned a bunch of jobs. And that's true. I've actually lost count. I think yours was a little excessive.

I don't know, I said through that talk, it was pretty close. But I said earlier, I was ADHD, I'm still ADD, I just don't have enough energy to be hyper anymore. But I would, as soon as I got bored with something, I'd go on to something else. But I'm here for life. And a lot of big part of that is who these guys are. And Sam, obviously is at the center of things because he's got the big mic and he tells us when we can talk. But your contribution is far beyond what you probably realize in all of our lives, and we thank you. Thank you, Jim.

Appreciate that. One of the things that really sticks out about Sam to me is how quick he is, he will pick up on somebody's word. And I mean, he's half the mile down the road before you realize it. The humor that that man has is just outstanding.

I mean, I love hearing how he reacts to things that are said, he will catch you in a heartbeat. Sam, I love you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, Jim, the clip you used – when I watched Lord of the Rings, the one word for Sam that always came to me about Samwise on there was how loyal he was. And the reason that clip really was perfect for me is that is one of the names God gave me at boot camp was loyal.

I don't talk about it much because Robby has faithful, and faithful is really cool. But I have loyal. It means a lot to me to be loyal to people. It really bothers me when I'm not. And so for you, I've choose that clip. One, thank you, is my friend. But thank you, I know that God had a little gift in that for me, so I appreciate that.

And that's probably why he gave it to me. One of the things I left out of that, and it's important to, is of all the characters, you look at Samwise and he's not the biggest, he's not the strongest, but his strength of character is probably the greatest in the movie. His integrity is being loyal. And I see those things in you as well.

Thank you. As I was sitting here, I got to thinking about, scripture says, God is not a respecter of person. And neither are you.

Because you insult all of us. Pretty evenly. But no, you treat everybody the same.

It doesn't take long to be around you. You treat, you know, whether what their bank accounts look like or whatever, you treat everybody the same. In a loving way, we get past your sarcasm, we give you a hard time about that, but when you know Sam Main, you know he loves you. Thank you. And he treats all of us better than he treats staplers and mice. Are you going to go, Andy? Go ahead. Well, what I would say is unique that I haven't heard mentioned, but everything you mentioned is exactly right.

But, cha-ching. Sam is unbelievably brave when it comes to diving into his own brokenness and showing us the way to healing. I mean, it was that quality of his, which takes great courage to enter into your own mess and then share with other people what the healing felt like on the other side. That attribute for Sam in my life has made actually more impact than probably anything I can think of in really providing me freedom that just wouldn't have been available without Sam's courage to be the first one to take that road. And it's huge.

It's huge. And I think everybody sitting at this table has experienced that. Yeah, to add to that, a lot of us will get understanding of a wound and get that healed. This concept that Robby and Sam brought up is you need to go deeper, there's more wounds there. And I didn't really want to embrace that at first, but I see the point that we don't realize how much brokenness we have in us and to continue to push into that. Sometimes you're like, okay, I've got some healing here.

I'm good enough to go to move on. Sam definitely leads us through that. I remember when I first come to the ministry, and I wasn't really, he could tell I was nervous about being around doing different things and all. And I can always remember him just being like a patient father, no pressure, no pressure. And that really made a difference to just know that you were accepted and you could go at your own pace and kind of, he was just patient with me.

And just the fathering and some of the stuff and doing the talks, because I really need a lot of fathering there, and just being a friend and being there. But like Robby said, you can't say enough about his teaching that that is his glory, that is the name that God gave him, teaching us as a group in a multitude of ways of receiving what he received and passing that on. And you can read John Eldredge's books, and I've received so much directly from him. But there's things that I've heard Sam say that's actually, that I didn't pick up from John, that Sam had picked up. And it was just recently when we were just talking about a man dealing with his wounds. Never trust a man who hasn't dealt with his own wounds because he won't be kind to your heart because he's not being kind to his heart. It was like such wisdom, and I hadn't heard a phrase that way.

But I just echo everything everybody said, just a true friend, and truly he gives me a picture of the glory of God. Dr. Darrell Bock And there was a point, speaking to Sam's braveness, honestly none of us would be here without Sam's bravery when the whole thing was blowing up. And Sam stood and said, no, it's not going to blow up. And it didn't. And it was a phenomenal amount of bravery from my standpoint, having been there in the moment of seeing God take something out of the ashes. And literally here we all sit today in amazing healing to everybody involved.

Right? God had something for everybody. But amongst all the traits that Sam has, man, I come back to there's some courage in there.

I don't know. And you think about Sam Wise, you know, in his courage to follow Mr. Frodo, and it would appear to me that it was his courage that buoyed Mr. Frodo throughout the movie. And it certainly has been Sam's courage that has buoyed me on numerous occasions.

When, you know, this has really been a fun thing, man. Dr. Darrell Bock Thank you, guys. That means a lot. You know, I'm very grateful. And I love you guys.

Thanks. Dr. Darrell Bock And you know, we love you. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah. Harold, you would like to go next and speak about our friend Art.

Is that true? Harold Jones Sure. Dr. Darrell Bock Okay.

Harold Jones Well, if you're not sure, I could come back to you. Dr. Darrell Bock Oh, yeah. Dr. Darrell Bock Okay. Harold Jones Well, since we're talking about Sam Wise, why don't you go ahead and play the clip? Dr. Darrell Bock Okay. Here we go. Dr. Darrell Bock I will take the ring to Mordor, though.

I do not know the way. Harold Jones You have my sword. Dr. Darrell Bock And you have my brother. Harold Jones And my axe. Dr. Darrell Bock Carry the fate of us all, little one. If this is indeed the will of the council, then Gondor will see it done. Harold Jones Here. Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me.

Harold Jones No, indeed it is hardly possible to separate to you, even when he is summoned to a secret council, and you are not. Dr. Darrell Bock Deuteronomy 31 and verse 6, Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Psalm 23 and verse 4, Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Matthew 28, verse 20 in part, And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Those are scriptures that talk about characteristics of God. Even though I travel the hills and curves of Highway 801, avoid the speeders on I-40, and endure the stop and go of Peters Creek Parkway, my sweetheart will not fear, because Art and God are with me. Turning 80, cataracts messing up night vision, etc., made her anxious about me traveling at night by myself, so she recruited Art to join me for the recording sessions. He changed from being my driving companion only to a participating member of our band of brothers.

What a blessing for all three of us. Security for Susie, companionship for me, and new relationships for Art. Art is my sim, my sim-wise, because I wasn't going to drop this.

This is too important to me, but she was beginning to get real concerned about me traveling those roads late in the evening by myself. And Art graciously consented to come. And initially, I don't think it was anything other than him doing it, because she asked him to, and they had a friendship going, actually before Art and I became friends. I mean, we've known Art and his brother and sister for a long time, but just not as close. But he has been a wonderful help to me and my sweetheart.

Good, thank you. You know, when I think about Art, I think of two things. The first one being, you know, Art gives off this, you wouldn't like him to say he's going to be real adventurous on some things, but he has stepped into some things that makes him incredibly uncomfortable with this in here. I mean, he's adventurous outside of here, and I get that, you know, with everything he does on the farm and all that stuff. But, you know, this was something that initially I would have thought, well, I don't think Art will ever, you know, step up the microphone.

It's just not anything he's really interested in doing. And watching him push past the uncomfortableness and step into an area and be a great contributor on this stuff has been really cool to watch him walk in faith with God and step into this place where he probably never expected to be either. But, you know, God had an expectation for him to be here, and I'm so grateful for that. And the other thing that I would say is just the way you take on, like, the animals and things that other people would discard, you know, just shows a love of creatures, you know, including Harold. Do you love him too as a creature?

But no, I mean, just with the dogs and things. And the greatest among you would be a servant of you all. And if you could say anything about Art, man, he's serving coffee.

He's doing something almost all the time to serve somebody else, even his dogs. And so, you know, he's got some stuff so great, thou Art? Yeah, and we didn't give you enough time to respond, Art. Oh, you can say something real quick.

We got a couple seconds. I appreciated everyone. And like I said, I think in the first time I talked on here, I get far more out of bringing Harold, coming with Harold over here than I put into it. Well, thank you. We'll talk with you next week. Guys, go love somebody well this week. We'll talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.