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're in the middle of a really, really fun topic. I mean, I think they're all fun.
Well, some are more fun than others, but this is a pretty good topic. It's one that you don't really think of, you know, right off the top of your head. Hey, let's talk about this. So Danny, what is this that we're talking about? It's being refined or divinely refined is the way I threw it out there. Talking about how God refines us through disruptions, revelations, you know, different stuff and the events that lead up to that and how, you know, he's cleaning us up, so to speak, and so the refining process. Yeah.
And so as we talked about in the first show, he can refined you through how? How'd you share in the first show? Do you remember? No, that was like 30 minutes ago. Well, yeah, it was so long ago. I'm pretty sure in the first show we did say it wasn't fun also. Yeah, it's not fun. But now it's fun. Now it's fun. Yeah. We'll have more fun.
Yeah, it's through that self-image. Yeah. You know, I can remind you of the rest of it if you want. Tell us what I said, Dan.
Andy's not here, I gotta pick on somebody. And so I was looking to you to know. No, you were helping us understand that self-image that we have that the enemy gets us to agree to that's not really our image, right?
And so that there is so much more to us than that. Yeah. You said it a lot better than that. Yeah.
If y'all would listen, if y'all go back and listen to the first show, if you hadn't. Yeah. I said it really well, Dan, apparently. You did. You did. It's really memorable, apparently.
I'm actually glad I'm wearing a hat because if you go from Andy to him, you must have a thing about bald heads. It could be. It could be.
But I pick on David too, so that didn't really. Yeah. Yeah, he's a dwarf though. That's true. That's true.
And then I shared. Little name Duran. It might be David Duran. It maybe is. Yeah.
Yeah. And then I shared refinement of stubbornness, which I'm still stubborn in lots of ways, but mainly forgiveness, to learn to forgive and learn to listen to God when he says to forgive. And there's a big difference I didn't share. Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting, right? Forgiving doesn't mean reconciliation of a relationship. It means letting go, right? And so God may not be calling you to reconcile with certain people, but he may still be calling you to forgive. I'm sure he is calling you to forgive. Well, unforgiveness and resentment is such a cancer to the soul anyway. It is.
Because as you eloquently said, that it wasn't for your sister or it wasn't for that person. It's really for you so you can be released from it. Right. It's called love. Yeah, it is. Well, it's loving yourself.
It's letting yourself be loved, right? It didn't have time in the show, but it reminded me of a wonderful song by Steve and Annie Chapman, who I doubt too many people have heard of. But it's a story. It's a song that's telling a story, and it is about the prisoner that he has in his brain that he's not going to let go of that. And when Jesus finally talks him into opening the door and letting the prisoner out, he realizes the prisoner was himself. And that just always hooked me quite well into being forgiving.
So we are talking about refinement. And, Jim, you actually have the first clip in the show. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Well, it is a song by somebody who I remember occasionally, Steve. Not Steve. Maybe Steve. Oh, well. Forgot his name. Not one of those occasions, huh? Yeah.
Yeah. Comes and goes. He was a wonderful songwriter early in contemporary Christian music. And this is about the refiner's fire. And enough said, because he says a lot. As now become my soul, burst and cleansed and purify that the Lord be glorified. He is consuming my soul, refining me, making me whole.
No matter what I may lose, I choose the refiner's fire. Steve Green came to me during that. Looks like it came to your phone. Well, I actually tried to look it up. I couldn't find it. And Mike was trying to help me out, and he sent it to me.
But it was a more modern version. I actually did think of it. Well, that's good.
It doesn't happen often. But even a blind monkey can type a poem every once in a while. Well, I figured you were going to say find a banana or something. I had no idea what I was going to say. Yeah, okay. The banana makes more sense a little bit. Yeah, well.
Give up a typewriter. Anyway, what really occurred to me with the topic and right out of the bat, and this is why yours, which we'll do a little later, kind of would have worked for me too. But all of my refining has come through people God has placed in my life. And the first big one was my dad. He was a godly man.
He was a dentist. But at his funeral, there were literally hundreds of people that came to the visitation whose lives he had impacted and made a difference in, and they wanted to come pay their respects. And I knew I had a great dad, but something about hearing it from many others made it true. And he led well, but it was never really oppressive. And sort of like God, I loved him so much I didn't want to disappoint him.
I did, fairly regularly, just like God, but that was part of my initial refinement. And the next person that had a big impact, it's kind of funny, I was raised Presbyterian, and two of the people on staff were doctors, but the older guy was a reverend. And at that time I said, well, a reverend must be better than a doctor.
Must be better than doctor. But he had a lot to do with the youth. And the friend I mentioned that I lost between junior high school and high school was my best friend, and he was the kind of guy a lot of people said he's my best friend.
But Steve and I worked for a year with Reverend Hopping doing our God and Country Award in Boy Scouts. And that was the first time I ever really got things I had to memorize in the Bible, and they've included all of the books. And I have next to no memory, has probably been realized here to some extent, even tonight. But there was so much wisdom that he passed on to both of us. And that part of the journey was early and important.
And again, it was headed towards making me into the person I would once become. And yeah, now I'm forgot my next person I wanted to Oh, this is bad. I forgot my wife.
Forgot my wife. Next person that really had a huge impact on my journey and my refinement was getting married at 18 to Carolyn. And that journey is still going on after 51 years and a month and a couple days. But it is one that I've learned so much through the good times and the bad times with her. And I would say the majority of my refinement has been related to my marriage. And after her when I when I was 16, I swore to God I never stepped foot in another Southern Baptist Church. And I meant it. But when we moved to Morganton, God sort of laughed and brought us my wife and I were at that point we're at a really bad stage brought us together in a Baptist Church that both of us loved that was pastored by a wonderful fellow named Bob Shepherd in Morganton, and he had a big impact on me. And he is the reason I ended up going to Divinity School.
So also during the time, I don't know why I can't keep that open, mainly because I shouldn't need it. But I'm trying to look at my notes on the people I want to mention. But he was a big part in saying, well, you know, just go take a course or two. See, and I'd never thought of being in ministry. I was a science person.
And that was my big love for significant part of my early life. But going to the Divinity School was largely based on Bob's urging and there I met the person that to me is I guess that would make him Jesus, but he was God in human form. To a large extent, Dr. Cook, and he ended up and I could call all of my professors by their first name, except Dr. Cook. And there was just no way I could do that, even though he was one of the most gracious kind men I've ever met. He was also one that demanded respect, not because he did, just because of who he was. And he had, he was the only one in Divinity School that gave me a C with a 90 point average. And I went to complain about it. And the bottom line on that was, he said, okay, I'll give you the B you think you deserve. And if you can tell me you tried your best at this subject.
And that shut me down. So I tell between my legs, I left and accepted the C. And he had also been very gracious in Greek, I deserved a C or an F in that, which would have washed me out of the program with the F. But I ended up with a B, even though at best I deserved a C. So, and that was worth an hour more. So he was more than gracious. But the people in my life have been the refinement and others he's used. I think the biggest was probably Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God, when I really recognized that relationship was what it was about. Religion, well, Jesus didn't really like religion, if you'll read the Bible. But he did love all the people, both the religious and the truly lost that recognized it. And then different people along the way.
Steve Brown, who showed me that God's not mad at me, and that grace is the way to go. We can all be legalistic at times. And that's not our job.
God, God, Jesus are the judges, we're not. But judging yourself and recognizing where you need to improve helps you in that refinement process. And, well, of course, John Eldridge got me here among brothers that I go through life with and love dearly. And all of you have been part of my refinement. So it's a process through life, not a one shot deal.
And I think we all recognize that. But the journey has been wonderful. And like I said, I've got a health journey that I'll be here next week. But after that, it'll be a few weeks of recovery from having my heart worked on. And I'm actually in a good place with that because of all the other things he's done in my life and seen me through.
It's good. Thank you, Jim. Grant, did you want to share a little bit about some of your journey? Go ahead and pull the microphone over to you. Yes.
One thing I recognize is on Isaiah 48, 10, says, Behold, I ever find you not as silver. I've tied you in the front in the furnace of affliction. And I definitely never I believe I agree with that for my bad accident beforehand. I was a real worldly type person. And afterwards, he definitely helped me. He said it was three years it took you to learn to talk. Yes.
Well, and walk and everything else. Yeah. That's a lot. You definitely came through the affliction part. Yeah. Because that this partial reason my speech is a little off.
Yeah. You do really well with it. I won't say anything about the memory.
Oh, well, I think it affects us all, especially as we get older, the memory part. Well, we get down to a clip that I'm going to be as surprised about it as you are. This clip comes from the Lord of the Rings. And it's from the very first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. And it's one of the key scenes that you see and you hear about. But God gave me this clip. And now I can't remember why God gave me this clip. And so we will talk about this clip. I'm not sure where we'll go with it. But God does.
We'll probably talk about Samsung too. Well, that's fine. That's fine.
Community clip. So memory affects us all at some point. I should have wrote it down. But this is from Lord of the Rings. And we'll figure out why I picked it later. So here we go. I will take the ring to Mordor.
I do not know the way. I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear. By my life or death, I can protect you.
I will. You have my sword. And you have my bow. And my axe.
Carry the face of us all, little one. If this is indeed the will of the council, then Gondor will see it done. Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me.
No, indeed, it is hardly possible to separate you, even when he is summoned to a secret council, and you are not. We're coming too. You'll have to send us all tied up in a sack to scuttle. Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission, quest, thing.
Well, that rules you out. I am companions. So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring.
Wait, are we good? Well, I was hoping by playing it again, I'd remember why I did. I know why you did it. Go ahead, Harold, please help me. Well, I don't have big hairy feet, and I do wear shoes, but I identify with the hobbits.
Possibly, yes. And I love it when the little guy wins. And so the part that really attracts me to that is that you got all these heroes around, and here's the least likely person that steps up and says, I'll take the ring. And then here comes everybody else saying, oh, we can't let the little guy do what we were unwilling, so they join in.
And so I just love that part of it. Being usually the smallest guy around in a group, which I am in this one. Well, Grant and I are close to the same, I guess.
Yeah, well, he'd be pipping, and you'd be married. When you were standing up straight in your younger years, you would have been taller. Yeah, I've been going through a shrinking process. The age gets larger and the height gets smaller.
But at any rate, I just love that part of the story that the little guys are involved in a big time way. Yeah, knowing a little bit about Middle Earth and the heights of people. If you had joined and made it a fellowship of 10, you would be at the top half of the heights of that group. Because you'd be taller than Gimli. Well, not Gimli. But yeah, it was Gimli.
Yeah, I was trying to go back earlier. So my issue is in choosing the population in which I live. Well, the people you hang out with. Yeah, you're in the land of giants. Yeah, you're in the land of giants.
I actually do remember why I picked that clip now. Right. It had to do with God helping me understand more about myself. And it was through a process of the new name. Over the time, one of the talks we do at boot camp is the new name talk where God has a name that's new to you, but it's not new to him. He's always called you that or always felt that about you.
And so I couldn't put a finger on it. And it was Gimli, the one in there. He said, and my acts.
It always really spoke to me. You know, because here's a guy that's probably about the shortest of the group or pretty close. Right. But he's a very powerful person.
But, you know, he's bringing what he has to the table. And what you'll find in that character throughout the thing, he is as loyal as they come. And so that was one of the words God gave me is when my name's was loyal and he really helped me understand that why it really bothers me when I tell somebody I'm going to do something and I don't do it or I can't do it, it just will eat at me longer than it eats at that person.
Like if I told somebody I would help him with something, then I get something comes up and I can't, it may not bother them, but it'll bother me forever. And that's not forever for a long time. Not forever, for a long time, it's because God made me to be loyal to other people. You've been refined. I've been refined.
Right. And so he helped me understand that that's why those things kind of bother me is because that's who he made me to be. It's part of my character that he tries to continue to pull out in me is like, okay, if you, you know, if you've agreed to do it, you're going to go in, you're going to try to give it your best. Well, if we look hard enough, and I was sitting here with Jim was talking about and going through his list of people. And then when you played that clip, I couldn't help but think there's never been a time in my life where if I was going through something, whether I was walking in a Christian walk or not, God had the ability of putting people in my life. And I dare say that's true with all of us, but what the enemy wants you to believe is you're alone.
Right. But you're never alone. You know, he says he'll stick closer than a brother. And a lot of times the way he does that is put a physical brother or somebody with you. My biological brother, we were talking the other day and both of us come out of alcoholism and drug addiction. I came out and then a few years later he came out and we both were talking about how the revelation of the fact that our grandmother and our mother were praying for us. And we discovered, you know, what, what that meant and how, how that impacted us after the fact, knowing that, you know, my grandmother told me, I prayed for you every day and it just impacted me because you're not alone. And, you know, you are being refined and, you know, I can't help but think, and I won't almost share Grant's thunder because, you know, he talked about his struggle, learning to walk and talk and everything, and I think he told us in pre-show he's going to help out the hurricane victims next week. What a deal.
That is awesome. So what a, what a refining process God has. Absolutely.
I also had a problem with alcohol. Yeah. So we do have a boot camp coming up and a boot camp is a great place to let God do some refining, right? Then maybe he won't put you in the middle of the fire, but I can promise you, he does have something really cool in store for you. And there will be a fire. There'll be a great fire and you don't want to be in the middle of this one.
Yeah, you don't want to be. Danny, are you doing the fire again this time? I'm probably going to recruit some help because I've got the first talk. So it'd be hard to do the fire and the talk. Oh, so that's how you got out of doing the fire. You got to do something.
You agreed to do the first. I like to never got, well, I still ain't totally got away from the light switch. I mean, you know. No, no. Yeah, well, Michael will be there this camp so he can be the lighting technician. Yeah. There's a training process you have to go through there, Mike. It's kind of tough. Yeah. Yeah. You got to be working that index finger a lot, you know, so work them out, do something.
So you build up the strength for them. I'm pretty sure I did it recently and I've been coming into these things for, well, hours for 10 years. Yeah, but we had to take you off of it because you kept forgetting to turn the light on. Yeah, well, light is overrated. Yeah, the dark. We'd be like, Jim, light. Jim, Jim.
It has the karate kid effect. Lights on, lights off. So when is our boot camp coming up? November 21st to the 24th.
Which is also? The week end after Thanksgiving. No, before. Before. Yeah, okay.
So let's try that again. Under pressure. When is the boot camp, Danny? It's November 21st through the 24th.
Which would also be? November 21st through 24th, which is right after Thanksgiving. No, it's before Thanksgiving. It's still before Thanksgiving.
And Thanksgiving is the holiday before Christmas. I'll be there, I think. All right, we're going to skip over Jim.
Still in recovery. We're going to skip over Jim. Danny, when is boot camp? The weekend before Thanksgiving. All right, which would be what dates, Harold?
November 21 through 24. There we go. We finally got it.
It only took us four tips. You got it, Jim? I'll be there. You'll be there the weekend before Thanksgiving, not the weekend after. Okay.
Okay. The weekend after, you may be a little lonely there. We'll remind you. But yeah, go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. If you are in need of some financial help, please don't let that keep you from coming. We do have some scholarship money available. We don't have endless amounts, but we have enough for you to be able to come. So please let us know. Just reach out to any one of us. Go to Jim at masculinejourney.org and send him an email and he'll get back to you eventually.
Go to Danny at what, Jim? I'll be cruising the weekend after. That's why it's important. Oh, is that what it was? Okay. Yeah, go to any of our first names at masculinejourney.org and we'll help you get there somehow. If you have any questions about it, please reach out to us and love somebody well this week and let yourself be loved. Well, talk to you next week.
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