Peace

Hi, I'm Joanne Dickner, Memaw with It's Storytime Memaw, an answered prayer for stories that point children to God on the Truth Network for kids. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. It's 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. Did you grab your gear? We're on a quest.

Did you just hear what it said? We're on a quest. And today we're on a quest for something very special, aren't we Harold?

Absolutely. Yeah, we're going to get back to that in just a minute. We're very happy to have you on with us today and thank you for listening. And now to Harold who has a topic for this week. You want to tell us about that topic? It's a topic that is missing in most of the world today. The topic is peace, and the absence of it is very much in the forefront of the news if you are unfortunate enough to turn it on and have to hear it.

But I'll explain why I chose that particular topic. But first I want to share some scripture. John 14.27 out of the New English. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage.

And then John 16.33. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering. But take courage.

I have conquered the world. Romans 14.17. For the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the one who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for building up one another. My thought is that worldly peace is mostly characterized as the absence of open conflict. However, the true Christ follower will always be in conflict with the world.

Our peace thusly derives from Jesus' promise. I was going to the Y there in Mocksville to do exercise on the treadmill. It had a screen there and a choice of a lot of different apps that you could pick. I chose YouTube because I wanted to listen to an album by Boston. My first choice in music is typically jazz or classical.

There are a few rock groups that I like and Boston was near the top. And so when I heard the song Peace of Mind it just immediately clicked because there has been so much in the news about the problems in Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and Russia that it just clicked. I thought, wow, that is the ideal topic for Masculine Journey. So I chose a clip that has to do with the life of the Apostle Paul and it has to do with peace and what it takes to have peace.

If you'd play the clip. We must retaliate for this brutal act. Many of us have only a short time left in this city. We must hold strong now.

Hold strong? So we're like diseased dogs then. We do nothing to defend ourselves while we are chased from the city just to be hunted down and killed. Cassius, we understand your anger. Tarquin was like a son to us. You should never have let him go. Why do you blame yourselves and not the ones who have murdered him?

And who else have they taken from you? This woman has come to you covered in the blood of her child. And what would you do, Cassius?

Tell me. What would you do? We do what they do to us. Murder them in the cover of darkness.

Set fire and burn them in their homes while they sleep. You speak as if your ears have never heard the words of Christ. You never walked with Christ. How can you say he would say these things in the face of such an evil like Nero? Quiet!

Be still. None of us here have walked with Christ. But Paul has followed him longer than us all. I have watched him be beaten.

I have watched him be stoned and flocked. And never once did he raise his finger against his oppressors. Let peace be with you, for we live in the world, but we do not wage war as the world does. Peace begins with you, Cassius. Love is the only way.

Boy, that is the real answer. Because when you take the approach that Cassius was advocating, you get Gaza, or Gaza, however you choose to pronounce it, and Israel. That war has been going on for longer than you can think about. And it will never end unless they come to issue love to one another. Because if I hurt you and you hurt me back, then I'm just looking for a chance to hurt you.

But when we start caring for the other person and act out of love, then it's harder for them to hurt you back. It is. And our country is not free of lack of peace by any stretch. We may not have open war in the streets like a lot of the other places do, but there's plenty of conflict going on. And it's only going to get worse as this political season heats up. There's going to be a lot of things thrown each way, and it's really never calmed down that much. It used to be back years ago that you would have a season of, okay, we're getting ready to go into the political season. There's going to be lots of things going back and forth, and anything that could be described, anything other than peace. But it just seems like that's the constant anymore for the last several years.

It just is continuous. And that's just on the political side. Then you have social issues.

You have all these other things. And our country is long from being peaceful, from what I can remember anyway. I laughed when he said, if you're unfortunate enough to turn on the news.

I don't. But the one time I was listening to it this week was when the five policemen were murdered in Charlotte. And, I mean, that's war. It may have been on a very small scale, but that's happening all over our country. It is. Yeah, and the magnitude of it keeps increasing.

Somebody has to one-up somebody else and those kinds of things. It just so happens today, Harold, it was great timing. I listened to Renewing Your Mind, which is generally R.C. Sproul from Ligonier's podcast, and Stephen J. Lawson was on today, and his podcast was Supernatural Peace. And it was wonderful to listen to.

So today is actually May the 7th. So if anybody out there would love to go back and just listen to that podcast if you don't listen to The Truth Network during the right time of day to get him, because you can go to the podcast. And it was just a wonderful topic.

And it's like, oh, this is exactly Harold's topic, right on cue. You're in tune with them anyway. Well, good. Andy, you are on and we have time to get your clip in before the break. And so thanks for, you know, well, A, not being here, but B, joining us anyway. We do miss you. We wish you were here. But, you know, welcome to call in and thank you for doing that. But you want to tell us a little bit about your clip? Sure.

Thanks. I am sorry I'm not there with you guys, but I am in spirit. Hey, you have a face for radio call-in. We're all blessed.

I was wondering if he's going to bring that up. Yeah, I do what I can. Maybe this might be my new form.

Play me some driver, too. Yeah, it's not quite as crisp and clear on the phone as it is with you in studio. Yeah, we'll go with that. My clip is a little bit different from just, you know, more of a man fighting man and that kind of aspect. It's more of an internal peace. You know, there's so many things that Jesus talked about with peace. He was talking in that scripture, John 14, 27, that Errol mentioned, though, about he leaves his peace with us no matter what's going on in the world. And I think a lot of times our peace, we lose our own peace just on trying to keep up with the character of the world. And so this clip is from City Slickers. We use it a lot to kind of hone in on finding that one thing that God has created us for.

But when you listen to it, it made me, when I heard Errol's topic, something clicked in me that just said, you know, this is kind of what Mitch is going through here as he's talking to Curly. All right. You ready? Yep. What's so funny? You city folk. You worry about a lot here.

My wife basically told me she doesn't want me around. Is she a redhead? I'm just saying. How old are you? 38. 39. Yeah. You all come off here about the same age, same problems.

Spend about 50 weeks a year getting knots in your rope and then you think two weeks up here will have time for you. None of you get it. Do you know what the secret of life is? No. What? This.

Your finger? One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean.

That's great, but what's the one thing? That's what you've got to figure out. Go ahead, Andy. Did we lose you? Well, I guess we won't debrief. You told him to go on.

That's a longer mute than what I anticipated. We may have lost him. Phone dropped. We'll have him come back and talk about his clip after the break, what he had with it and what he meant with it.

Anyway, anything you guys want to add? We're going to be going to break here in just a little bit. This is a good time to jump in with it. If you hadn't done John 1633, I was going to. I'm wearing my Randy Stonehill John 1633 shirt this morning because God told me to put it on. He doesn't normally dress me in the morning.

My wife does because I'm colorblind. But this morning, I'm wearing this shirt. It was for a totally different reason, I thought, but God uses the same thing. This whole day has been one of God incidences. I was told to go have breakfast with a fellow that I was sort of, I don't want to, God. I don't need to apologize to him. He said, yeah, you do. So I did it. While there, we got to talk to a sweet Muslim girl that was serving us at breakfast and talk about God.

I had this shirt on for him, but it turned out other things. But if we are following God, we have peace. And that's kind of the bottom line.

And today has been my most peaceful day, even though there were some rough things in it. A good place for you to follow God and find some peace is a boot camp. And we have one coming up the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21st through 24th.

Go to masculinejourney.org to register. We'll talk with you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger. And it 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. So what's kind of been your favorite part so far? I know we've got a little ways to go in this masculine journey thing. My favorite part is really just being able to talk to other men about real things, you know, and hear from you guys. You guys have been through a lot. And just listening to these guys' stories, their advice, it's just really uplifting to me. Kind of growing up in church my whole life, you know, I really haven't been as close. And I feel like coming to boot camp has helped me get more close because, you know, I had kind of gotten to a point where I had fallen away a little bit.

And then my first boot camp, my mom told me about it. And I was like, OK, yeah, we'll go. We'll check it out.

We'll see. And then I came and I was like, you know, I'm always going to come back because I'd never been to a place like that before. I really appreciate you guys. I'm glad I can be here. Register today at masculinejourney.org Welcome back to Masculine Journey.

We're glad to have you back with us. And we are talking about the topic of peace. And, Harold, that was your bumps. You want to tell us a little bit more about that?

Yeah, that was the inspiration for picking the topic. I was on the treadmill clogging along, and that came on. And when it said, all I want, I don't care who I'm behind, it's like, oh, wait a minute, that's not American. And then it said, all I want is my peace of mind. And I thought, well, there ain't no peace anymore.

And so I thought it would be a good topic for us to address. Now, you had tennis shoes on, not clogs, right? Yeah. OK, well, you're clogging along, so I wasn't quite sure.

Maybe you dance on the side. I'm not really sure how that goes. Anyway, Andy, are you back with us? Did you hang in there? OK. Two, three, four.

That would be a no. I think we lost him again. So we may have, well, I think we may have lost Andy, so we will try maybe again a little bit later to get him back on. Well, you did imply that you were glad he was gone. I don't know if you picked up on that. I didn't know if he picked up on it. He has now.

I think he's making it very clear. Apparently, God picked up on it, and I need to recant that and ask for forgiveness. But I'll do that after the show.

I'll call Andy and ask for forgiveness. But we'll try to get him back on the air here in a little bit and see if it will hold. You know, sometimes cell signal is great.

Sometimes it's not. And so apparently where he's at in Charlotte, it must not be too great. Is there any place in Charlotte that's too great? I don't know if there's any place. Or great at all. Anywhere.

It seems like the more remote the area, the better my signal's been. He says he's on. Oh, Andy, are you on now? No? Who said he's on?

No. Oh, one minute. We're still waiting on him. Andy, you there? Yeah, I'm here.

All right. Well, quit taking other phone calls. No, hey.

I tell you what, my cell phone service is challenging my peace of mind. I bet it is. Yeah, it is. Yeah, we just played that bump. So, hey, you didn't get a chance to debrief on your clip from City Slickers.

I did not. And so if you want to do that while you still have cell signal enough to do that. Yeah, right. Don't move. Yeah, don't move.

Don't move with your hand up in the air, all those kinds of things. Right. So that clip, as you heard, it was the part about where you spend 50 weeks a year getting knots tied in your rope, and the other two weeks you come up here and try to figure – get things fixed and all.

And, you know, when I heard Harold's bump, I mean, it's that Boston line of, you know, I don't care about indecision. You know, and then it talked about competition, the competition we live in. And just we bring on so much. I've been living it lately.

It works, but I've had a lot of pressure and all that. And I have to continually remind myself that I've got to keep my peace of mind, and I can do that with God tapping into him. But you cannot maintain peace on your own in this world.

It never was intended that way, first of all, but it's not possible. So I scripture my go-to life peace scriptures, Isaiah 26.3, he'll keep you in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on him. And, you know, that's where my return is, because I lose my peace a lot.

It comes up to where I have an opportunity to. But that's where I go to, to tap in for the peace in this world. Again, you've got all this stuff with war and rumors wars and all that stuff.

But does Andy have wars going on what's inside him that he needs to address through scripture? Absolutely. That's good.

Yep. I've found it kind of funny that this shirt is one I wear on cruises, and it generates a lot of. It basically says, life is tough, God is good, which is the short version of John 16.33.

But I have found quite a bit of peace in taking three months off every year to get away and see people I never would have seen otherwise. Quit bragging, Jim. When you get old as dirt, like Harold and I, then you'll have time to get away as well. Well, he's clogging and you're cruising, and so we've got lots of stuff going on there. Well, Jim, you actually have the next clip, so if you want to tell us a little bit about that. Well, I got on the clip thing, and there were only a couple clips taken when I looked at it. And the first one I saw was that, yeah, I should have done that one, but it was too late because my brother got it. And this should tie us up in using the same clip multiple times. I know I'm at three. I think he's probably at three times now. At least.

We'll save that for after hours, I suspect, because I'm talking too much. The first thing I looked at, I decided, okay, I like The Chosen. I haven't done anything from The Chosen lately. I turned it on, and the first thing that I listened to was this clip, and it had me broken down. This is actually, you'll barely hear Matthew getting Jesus to start it, but basically I learned in this, at least according to The Chosen, Jesus was studying for his sermons beforehand, something I think pastors have to do. I wasn't sure Jesus had to, but he did. And he came to Matthew and said, I've got it, and the topic of this is a map. So it starts out with Matthew saying to Jesus, okay, I'm ready. And then Jesus reads Scripture that I think pretty much everybody, I don't think anybody listening to us hasn't heard this. Some of you people can recite it in three different versions.

But it hit me in a major way through this clip today, and we're going to go ahead and listen to that and talk about it later. For they shall be satisfied, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Yes, but how is it a map? If someone wants to find me, those are the groups they should look for. How is that a map was the question Matthew asked after Jesus said it was a map. And I'm sure he was looking for a literal map. But finding peace can be as simple as finding folks that love God and being with them.

And the first thing I thought of was this group, and I am blessed with a couple of different groups. And the word blessed, we heard a lot in that. The translation – hey, this is actually Greek, though.

Never mind. We're going to sneak in some Hebrew for Robby's sake, since he's not here. And we do miss Robby. But the word can mean happy. In fact, you'll see that in some translations. It's joyful. But can you be even content if you don't have peace?

And if you are seeking to be with the kind of people that love God and love others, then that's where peace is. And today, for me, was a wonderful example. I mean, I did some tough counseling for longer than I expected. Very little of what I planned for the day happened. Some of the things I thought were taken care of today didn't happen. But all that was worldly stuff. And if we trust God to put things together as He has this day for me – and it's not every day, and I've had a couple of weeks of being pretty much of a curmudgeon. I guess I'm old enough to be a curmudgeon now, right? I'm looking at Harold.

You guys can't see that. He's laughing. I started as a Presbyterian. I tried Baptist. Now I just want to follow Jesus.

But I bet a lot of things are – oh, you didn't hear Danny, because he can grab the mic from me. He's a good guy. But he said, I thought you were Baptist. I have been baptized four or five times, so I'm pretty sure I'm covered there. Darrell Bock Well, yeah, but you're pretty tall, so they probably only got your feet the first time, your ankles the next time. Darrell Bock I was sprinkled as a kid, but the first person that baptized me, a wonderful man with the perfect name for a pastor, Bob Shepherd in Morganton, was maybe 5'2", baptizing me around 6'7", 6'8", at that point.

And he said I was one of the easiest people he'd ever baptized. Darrell Bock You must be buoyant. Darrell Bock Well, I was very buoyant at that point. Darrell Bock Maybe he should have called you Bob. Darrell Bock So even Harold could baptize me with no problem.

And speaking of peace, I think we really need to get back to the subject of missing Robby and how peaceful it is here. Darrell Bock It is. We've been Hebrew-less so far. Darrell Bock Yeah. Darrell Bock Yeah, Hebrew-less in Seattle or whatever he does, whatever he says that. But anyway, we're going to be wrapping up this segment here pretty quick, but I do have a question I'm going to ask you guys in the after hours. Right? Darrell Bock So we're supposed to prepare?

Darrell Bock Prepare a little bit. Where is it, where's some times that you find peace? And Jim, you answered some of that. I'll share with one before we go out of this segment. When we were at boot camp this last time, my friend David, who's in here, and our friend Corn, who's not here, they went out in the woods and they cut some walking sticks. And so when they came back, I didn't have one that I had cut, so David gave me one of his. And so it had been started being whittled a little bit, and so I finished cleaning off the bark of it and took it home. And it sat there at my house for, oh, wow, a month, a little while. And one night I'm like, I'm just going to take it outside. And I made the decision when I got it, I was not going to use anything but hand tools on it.

Just for me, I just wanted to see what I could make with my hands, you know, in a file or a knife and things. And so I worked on it one night and didn't listen to anything. I just sat out on the deck, but listened to the birds. And it was so peaceful and it was so relaxful. And then I did it again last night because I'd had a stressful few days. And I just went outside and started to make, you know, work on this and get it to where I want it to be.

And what was so peaceful about it is there's just something about creating something with your hands that brings you to a level of peace that's so different than anything else. And I'm not in a hurry to get it done. I wanted to keep working on it last night, but I stopped because I want to save more of it for next time that I need a little bit of peace. And there's more that I can go do that with, but find something that gives you joy and gives you peace and pulls you closer to God. And do that this week. And while you're out there, love somebody really well. And after you do that, go to masculinejourney.org and register for the boot camp coming up in November. We'll talk with you next week.