Peace After Hours

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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're having a great conversation this week about the topic of what, Harold?

What are we talking about this week? Talking about peace. And so what about peace are we talking about? Talking about the absence of it in our world. Absolutely. And the need for it coming from Christ. Yeah. In the interest of time, since you are a podcast listener, I'm going to encourage you to go to the other program and hear a longer introduction. I'm going to save the time for the other guys.

But it is about peace. And you missed a great bump in. I'm just saying. It's one of the better bump ins we've had in a while. Much better than the one I had last week. I can't remember what it was, but it wasn't good. That's how good it was. You can't remember it, right?

I think it's God giving me the grace to block it out of my memory. It's such not a good bump in that I picked. Yeah, Boston's awesome.

Yeah, Boston is good. Well, we are on to the next clip, Danny. So that would be you.

Yeah, it would be me. My clip is from the movie The Shack. And if you hadn't seen it, it's kind of a representation of, you know, a man who's had trouble, lots of turmoil in his life. And he encounters the three persons of the Godhead in a cabin. And so this scene is actually Mac is out on the lake in a boat.

And he's out there with the Jesus character. And the boat starts coming apart. You'll hear it in the clip. The boat starts coming apart. And so Mac does what any of us would do, went into panic because if your boat's coming apart, you know, you're going to get wet, possibly drowned. And Jesus is telling him, you know, what to do and what to focus on and what's happening.

And so we can play the clip and we'll talk about it on the backside. Mac, Mac, it's okay. I'm going this way. This isn't me. You told me to come out here. Mac, this is happening inside you. You're letting it consider and you don't have to.

Just take a deep breath and listen to my voice. Don't look at it Mac, look here. Don't think about the past. Don't think about the pain. Look at me. Everything's going to be okay. Look at me.

Trust me, none of these can hurt you. Just keep your eyes on me. Breathe. Good Mac.

I'm not going anywhere. I think so often in life and as you hear the interchange between Mac and Jesus there and he said, keep your eyes on me. And this is happening inside you was an interesting quote in that was that a lot of times my own turmoil comes from within me, not from outside circumstances. But, you know, interestingly enough that, you know, with this topic, when I find myself and as I said in the pre-show, you know, we were prepping, it was almost a Sunday school answer. To find peace I have to keep my eyes on Jesus. But that's so much deeper than just, oh yeah, Jesus got it, it's going to be okay.

Because when I know that he's in control and I let him be, you know, there is an inner peace that passes all understanding. And, you know, to answer your question from the previous show, last week was an interesting week for me. I had some stuff going on with my eye and my doctor told me I had shingles in my eye.

And I have a metal roof, I don't even have shingles on my house. So having them in my eye was kind of interesting. But I didn't realize when she said it what the implications of if it went south what would be. Until I did like most any person and Googled it. I'm like, oh. Which is always scary. Yeah, I was like, oh, this could be. But I found some peace in it because, you know, I threw a text out to you guys to pray and some other folks to pray.

And, you know, I never did get panicky about it. But, you know, there was a chance that if it went south, you know, you could lose eyesight. You know, lots of different things could happen. And in the midst of all that, you know, I felt a lot like the guy, the story that most of us are familiar with. That, you know, was on a bed. He was paralyzed or whatever. And four of his friends carried him up on the roof of a house and get him in front of Jesus. Yeah, broke through the roof.

Broke through the roof. And, you know, I've talked that for years. And I realized, you know what, I was the guy on the bed last week. You know, because interestingly enough, Scripture never talks about his faith at all when you read through Scripture. It talks about the faith of his four friends. And there are times in our life that, you know, it's not my faith that will get me through it.

It's people around me sometimes because I get blindsided by stuff. And Sunday came and a friend of mine sent out in another group text that she woke up with a burden about all the chaos that's in the world, Harold, and things that's going on. Particularly these college riot stuff that's going on. And so I just kind of dove into some things that I never know where God's going to take me and certain things. But I looked up Columbia University where some of this stuff started.

And I found this to be so fascinating. And it led right into this topic that, and I got to look into it and I thought, oh, what's Columbia University's motto? Well, their motto is in Latin, and I can't speak Latin.

I don't speak English very well most of the time. But their motto is, let me see light while I'm in your light, which comes out of Psalms 36.8 is where it comes from. And instantly it was almost like the Spirit said, see, I've got my fingerprints on this thing anyway.

Because in the midst of chaos and even where it all started, right, those students walked right under those emblems or whatever with those mottos on them. And there it is as God says, you'll see light if you're in my light. So in the midst of everything, God's got his fingerprint on it.

And he's got his hands on it, and it's going to be okay. One of the things you said, Danny, the difference of, yes, it's okay to have the attitude, Jesus has got it. But you can't just, yes, you leave it there with him, but you also have to say, God, what do you need from me? Yes. Right, because what a lot of times people do is, well, Jesus has got it, I don't have to do anything.

Well, he may be calling you to do some things. That's taking the let go and let God too far. Right. Yeah, it's like I'm absolved of everything. Right. And that's not really what that is. It's, yes, I trust in him, but I also have to continue to stay engaged and with him to say, what do you need from me in the midst of this?

What should I be doing? It's the analogy of the guy who's in the boat with God, and the guy's rowing and God is steering, and he says, God, this is great, get out here in this boat. And he says, can I steer for a while? God says, sure, but you've got to remember one thing, I don't row. So we've always got something to do.

Absolutely. You can steer the boat, but if nobody's rowing, you're not going anywhere. Yeah, you're just going to sit there in a circle. Or maybe float around in a circle or something. Yeah, about the midst of most of it.

Yeah, you're going to be going down the rapids and over the cliff. Yeah, whoops. Well, Rodney, that brings us to you and your well-used clip. Before it goes to me and my well-used clip. This is an outlaw clip. It is.

Let's be honest, it is the greatest movie of all time, and this could be the greatest clip of the greatest movie of all time. Yeah, that's right, you're speechless, man. There was nothing nice I could say.

Rodney, I'm sorry you feel that way. Yeah, I knew you were looking for an opportunity. I thought I'd give you one. Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you when I can get it, you know? Yeah, but it is a very good movie, I'll give you that.

A lot. You guys all know I love it. So you've got this man in the Outlaw Josie Wales Clint Eastwood. He's running from the north because they killed all of his last posse that he was running with in the war. And they tricked him to come in and give up their guns, and then they just killed them all. Well, he escapes off, and he's in this small town, and he ends up seeing Granny.

And Granny and her family are moving out west from Kansas, and their pride is very heavy. And he listens to him talking there in the general store. Then people recognize him, now he's on the run again because he killed a bunch of guys out in the street. But here he is taken off, and he ends up running into this family again. And eventually they end up in the land of the Comanches, where Ten Bears and his Indian tribe are at. And they basically kind of run that territory down there, and they've got their land that they live in. And at first they come in, and they are strangers and aliens in the land, being Clint Eastwood, Josie Wales and the people he's with now because they've joined up because he rescued them. And they're going to have this great place, and they want to live in peace. But it looks like they're not going to have peace because of Ten Bears and the Indian tribe and everything of that nature. So he then says, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And I'm going to ride in, and what he ends up with is this discussion we're going to listen to between the outlaw Josie Wales and Ten Bears, who's the leader of the Comanches.

I have heard. You're the Grey Rider. You would not make peace with the Bluecoats. You may go in peace.

I reckon not. Got nowhere to go. And you will die. I came here to die with you or live with you. Governments don't live together.

People live together. Governments, you don't always get a fair word or a fair fight while I've come here to give you either one or get either one from you. I came here like this so you'll know my word of death is true and that my word of life is then true. The bear lives here, the wolf, the antelope, the Comanche, and so will we. And we'll only hunt what we need to live on, same as the Comanche does. And every spring when the grass turns green and the Comanche moves north, you can rest here in peace, butcher some of our cattle and jerk beef for the journey. The sign of the Comanche, that will be on our lodge, that's my word of life. And your word of death? It's here in my pistols, there in your rifles. I'm here for either one. These things you say we will have, we already have.

That's true. I ain't promising them nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.

It's said that governments are achieved by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see. And so there is iron in your words of life.

No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of ten bearers carry the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life or death.

It shall be life. So what you really have here I think is a good picture of what we talk about a lot of times is the larger story. The small story is just what is the one small fight between two men or two people. But really you're talking about a whole group of people getting along and having peace with each other.

Not just the small story of just well what is it in it for me. It's well what's in it for the larger good. And that's what we're going to always come down on God's side with. That's where we need to lead people too is to Christ.

But in a lot of things there is a lot of peace you can still have with people that are outside of Christ by just being loving and kind and speaking truth. And one of the things that I had a thought of while we were doing this is I do a lot of root cause corrective action type stuff. And one of the things that I was thinking of when I was doing this is when you do a root cause you get to the cause and you can say if this then that, why then this and then that.

You can go all the way down from the problem statement down to the cause and then if you get the right conclusion from that and say hey there's a countermeasure. You can go if I do this therefore this will happen therefore this and therefore that. That's one of the ways you can kind of make sure that your logic is following. And I think it's true also when you do the fruit of the spirit. So when you have peace which through the spirit it starts off with love joy and peace. If I have peace therefore then I will have joy and therefore then I will have love. It kind of starts with the larger down to the lesser and then if you start at the end it's self control.

You can go all the way back through there if I have this therefore then I will have the next thing. And I think that's a beautiful picture to have for you know peace because again joy peace those things are very synonymous but yet they're still different. This specific clip brought out to me then Romans 12 18 because so far as it depends on me I will be at peace with all men.

That's kind of the picture I see coming through that relationship right there that was forged in that discussion. One of the great openings because I've been listening or reading Philippians for the last month of April. And I just I love this opening in all of Paul's letters. He has this exact one in most of them and sometimes it's just a little slight different version but grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter every time I read that even though you know you read over and over and over because you're reading through the books of the Bible and you just all the time in those openings that just that does give me peace. It's like okay it settles me it knows I know where I'm at and you talked earlier about the peace that is yeah surpasses all comprehension or understanding. That's one of the places where I was going because again I've been reading through Philippians and rejoice in the Lord always again I will say rejoice.

It's a command it's not just hey if you feel like it hey it would be a good thing. Hey there's a good feeling here no it's we're command to do that like we're talking earlier before the show in the midst of whatever that in the midst of we are it could be joy right now and it seemed really easy to rejoice. But a lot of times even when things are really good we don't rejoice.

What do we do? You know the easy times build bad men because it's just easy. Hard times can build really good men because there's something worth fighting for in that. And then you know I love the little bit later this is Philippians 4 and it's like basically 4 through 9 is what I've kind of focusing on. The Lord is near. That is the embodiment of peace and again I think here that really the context is he's near he's coming soon. Although yes he's near because he's everywhere but he's near he's coming soon.

He's coming back he's coming for us. And then you know of course be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. That then brings about what comes next and the peace of God that's the result of all those things when you're saying I'm going to go into prayer I'm going to ask God I'm going to be with God and walk with God. The peace of God which surpasses all comprehension then will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. It's just a beautiful promise that this is what you're going to get when you're faithful and obedient to him.

When you're with him when you're walking with him you're studying and learning. And then as it goes on whatever is true dignified right pure lovely commendable if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise consider these things dwell on these things. This is the where we are supposed to focus because that's going to bring the peace. When I get off and do my own thing which I'm going to talk about just a little bit that's where it all goes awry for me.

And then at the end and the God of peace will be with you. And then when I started looking for this I think about my own what I started thinking more about me being a stranger an alien in the world and where that took me was their situation here recently. There is a guy at work that I typically get along with for just fine I was walking by minding my own business trying to do my own thing and he called me into something and I'm like what's he want. He's like he asked me this question and I gave an answer well I don't know because I'm honestly I didn't have an answer for him at the time and it's one of those things that I'm not bought in with the way they're going about doing something. So I get defensive he pushes me on a couple things I say a few words I go on he comes up later he basically ends up saying we're not going to work together you need to get out of here.

I'm like okay this is your area I'll leave. Well what happens is we're both upset we both let the very first thing come to our mind and had bad motives and intentions of what's going on. I go to him the next day and we're talking and like hey can we fix this or are we not going to be able to work together and he was completely different than he was the day before. I was in a different place so we're both able to actually talk through and have a peace of mind over because like well we've always got along we just find I can work with you I can work with you okay well. We talked through it and started talking about work again and where we're going to go with things because we're in a pretty close relationship as far as work goes and trying to get things done it was just like man it was it was nice to be able to get it over at least fairly quickly. It was the next day within 24 hours we were we had had a discussion and we got over it and I'm like all I can think about is well what could we have done to maybe avoid that and then we talked about that a little bit about. Him instigating well I didn't know what you were going to be doing or why I was going to be called in there and on the other side I could have been much more understanding and trying to figure out well what do you want to hear or where do you want to go with this.

Because it was in front of a bunch of people. So you did the root cause on it is what you did. Well we didn't do it officially but yes.

Unofficially you ran through it. Yeah exactly but it was good and it felt you know like one of those things where it's like okay at least we're stronger afterwards and we have more peace and we understand each other it's like okay we can have there's a better understanding of your relationship with someone when you've went through something like that and you're like okay that was kind of ugly for just a little bit and now we're okay that is like okay that makes I think makes everything stronger. Yeah it does.

Yeah. Well thank you. So where is it that you find peace? Where's the area that you find peace? It really has been in God's word because one of the things that I used to never get is sleep. I mean 30 plus years of just lucky if I get any sleep just always kind of feeling groggings run down and all that kind of stuff it just kind of became normal. And then one of the things that after becoming a believer and then I was actually I live in Winston-Salem working down in Charlotte and I was traveling down there and then at night I was staying basically by myself. Okay I just got a really good habit of reading God's word before I go to bed. Next thing I know I'm like oh I slept really good last night and it was just again and again and again it wasn't an intent but I was. I have great peace when I go to bed so that's one of my routines is I do my reading that I'm on I'll do it all the time at night before I go to bed.

There's sometimes you know you're really really late and you got to skip it or something but boy most nights I just will not skip it and I stick on that pretty good and it gives me a lot of peace. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and get to my clip it's well used here recently anyway. And so what this clip is from it's from the movie First Night and what's happened ahead of this is you have King Arthur who's played by Sean Connery and we find out very quickly in the clip he's engaged. But what's happened before this that we didn't see is his fiancee's land she's a landowner outside of Camelot has been attacked by Prince Malagut who used to be a part of the round table. And so he's been attacking it trying to take over her land and here in the middle of the clip he'll come in and talk with King Arthur about making a treaty to split her land. And we'll hear how that goes but I want you to hear what he says towards the end of it but the other thing I want you to realize about this clip is it begins with prayer.

Which is really kind of cool so let's listen to it and then we'll talk about it. May God grant us the wisdom to discover the right the will to choose it and the strength to make it endure. Amen. My friends as you all know I am soon to be married.

And about time too. We've had our share of war now I look forward to quieter days but first admit our guest. Prince Malagut is here at my invitation. Come your hand on it we'll all live together as friends you offer me what isn't yours to give. You all know me. You know I'm a man of my word.

Don't make an enemy of me. I mean no harm to Camelot. You know the law we live by. And where is it written beyond Camelot live lesser people.

People too weak to protect themselves let them die. Other people live by other laws Arthur. Or is the law of Camelot to rule the entire world. There are laws that enslave men and laws that set them free. Either what we hold to be right and good and true is right and good and true for all mankind under God.

Or we're just another robber tribe. Your fine words are talking you out of peace and into war. There's a peace that's only to be found on the other side of war. If that battle must come I will fight it. And I will die.

So much for my quieter days. What I loved about that clip is the thing that says when he says there's a peace that only comes on the other side of war. And we're always on this earth as Christians as we talked about earlier in the show. We're in a world at war. There's a war going on against principalities and things that we cannot see against evil and good. And there's a lot of it we see echoed in the world but it's always going to be war going on. So the thought that we're ever going to have true peace until Christ comes again is not real. True peace meaning no conflict. But the key is to have peace in the midst of the conflict. And what I loved about that clip as well is it began with prayer. Saying God give us what we need here. And that's where we have to start.

We have to start in any conflict we're in before we can find peace is pouring into him. Saying God what do I need to do here? Is this the time to back away? Is this the time to enter in?

How do I enter in? What do I do? And walk with him through it. It's your only key to get to the peace on the other side. And there's no promise of when that peace will occur. It doesn't mean it's immediate. It may be 20 years down the road.

But it will come at some point. And the key is just to keep walking with him through it. We didn't have Robby here this week to give us a Hebrew word.

And Jim had to leave after the first show. And so he gave me a word to use. And so it's the word shalom which we've all heard. And it means peace. But technically according to Jim what it means is death to enemies. And so when you think about it if all the enemies are dead. Well there probably is some peace.

So there is a peace that only comes on the other side of war. But the key is to walk with God through it. And say God what do you have with me in this? Where do I go? What do I do? Anyway go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp.

It's going to be the weekend before Thanksgiving November 21st through 24th. Masculinejourney.org Go do something that brings you peace this week. And do it with God. Whether that's fishing. Whether that's reading the Bible. No matter what that is. Listening to music. Do something that brings you some peace in the midst of the conflict that's going on around. And love somebody well. We'll talk with you next week. Masculinejourney.org