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. We are talking about a really fun topic. Andy, do you know what the topic is?
Do you remember? Yeah, the Kindness of the Trinity. Okay. Or God. Or God. Yeah. God, Trinity. Yeah.
Trinity, God. Elohim, you got it either way. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We got it. That's all we got, yeah. That's all we got left is just, yeah.
That little bit of Hebrew. Finally, Sam agrees with something. I'm just wore out. I wore you down. I don't have the energy to fight back anymore, so yeah.
Anyway. No, we are talking about the kindness of God. And I shared on the last show where the thought of it came from is the Scripture where Jesus reaches out and touches the leper before he heals him. You know, and how kind that act was. And I'm not going to go back into that.
You can go back and listen to the show if you want to know what we talked about. But that's where kind of the thought came about is I think we often gloss over just how kind God is constantly to us. You know, and I think sometimes we don't have the eyes to see it or we don't recognize it for what it is. Otherwise I think we'd be a lot more grateful.
At least I would be. Most of the time we perceive the goodness of God in the past. Right.
Because you don't know what's going on or you're upset with what your things aren't happening away with what you think they should right now. But I think as the more you walk in thankfulness and you begin to be more aware of it, I think you do have more of an opportunity. Because I mean, if you think about it in a relationship standpoint, if we only thought about the goodness of what somebody did for us after the fact instead of right now or believing that they'll also be that way in the present, it kind of makes it like, well, yeah, it's obvious now you can see that.
But to trust that God is always good or trust that that person is good is to be able to know it in the present or even in the future. Yeah. That's all I got.
I was trying to fill out some time there. No, I appreciate it. So what's your clip? No, it's actually you have a clip now, Andy. I do have a clip. So if you want to talk about your clip. So this clip is, so it's Groundhog Day this past week and I always watch Groundhog Day every year.
So every year I learned something from it and I found a little bit more, a few more nuggets this year. You know, you think Groundhog and for the people who don't know, haven't seen it, Groundhog is a movie about going and seeing the groundhog seeing his shadow and this guy gets caught in that same day every year and he's a newscaster, weathercaster. He relives the same day. Phil, yeah, he relives it the same day and he can't get out of that. But it's a way of God's trying to teach him something about change and looking at life a little bit differently and he just keeps staying in that same day and he can't get out of it. But when he, he tries to begin to use it to his advantage to get what he wants and as he manipulates, he realizes he hurts people with it, then he just wants to give up and tries to kill himself, but he keeps coming back alive. And this girl that he's been moving in on, his producer, he really does like her, but he just doesn't know how to go about it. And so finally he tells her what's going on and she has resisted him because of all this manipulation, but now she starts moving towards him in kindness a little bit because he's finally showing a little bit of humility. And you know, this is just a series of conversations that they have over time and she's trying to see what would happen if she's with him like the next day and they have a really good day, but I'll let it play and then we'll come back and talk about it.
Gee, this sounds like a science project. Concentrate. You've got to want it. You've got to want it, Rita. Oh, come on.
It's more in the wrist than the finger. It's just got to be the hat. Come on, go. Be the hat. It would take me a year to get good at this. No, six months.
Four to five hours a day and you'd be an expert. Is this what you do with eternity? Now you know. That's not the worst part.
What's the worst part? The worst part is that tomorrow you will have forgotten all about this and you'll treat me like a jerk again. No. It's all right. I am a jerk. No, you're not.
It doesn't make... I've killed myself so many times, I don't even exist anymore. Well, sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don't know, Phil. Maybe it's not a curse.
Just depends on how you look at it. Gosh, you're an upbeat lady. I want you to know it's been a really nice day for me. Me too. And maybe, if it's not too boring, we could do it again sometime.
I hope so. You're still here. Oh, I thought you were supposed to disappear or I was or something. Not until six. Oh, you rat. I never said midnight.
You knew I was waiting for midnight. Does this mean you're going to leave? No. Good. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you could fall asleep. I promise I won't touch you much. It's all right. I'm not tired. I think the last thing that you heard was only God can make a tree.
That's what I wanted to say it was. I think you're the kindest, sweetest, prettiest person I've ever met in my life. I've never seen anyone that's nicer to people. So there's a lot going on there, but essentially what happens is her kindness, her goodness, causes him to change his mind about how he's going about life. And it made an impact on his life to where he changed.
And you think that really what repentance is is changing a mind about what God's goal for us in our life or his desire for us and us trying to get life outside of him. And then when we see his goodness, then we want to express that goodness of other people. And Phil, after this, he goes out and he's helping and being kind to the neighborhood and all these things where he was resistant and being a jerk that kept playing over day to day. He's finally turning around and being kind to these people. And I think that's what we're talking about here is the kindness of God makes me want to be kind.
And there's times whenever you have to stand up. One of the things I want to be clear on is nice and kind are not the same way. Calling a guy nice is not necessarily a good thing.
A man is meant to come through and to be dangerous as we've taught. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be kind. Jesus was the kindest man you would ever know, as John Eldredge says. But he also spoke the truth in love at times when it wasn't easy. But just to see the kindness of God, when my marriage was falling apart, when my relationship with my daughter wasn't going right, I began to lean into him. And his goodness and his kindness brought me through those things to where I can truly look back and say it was the goodness and the kindness of God. And I've talked many times, too, about when I really found God as Father and how the goodness and kindness of God came after me as a son. And really replacing or filling in or actually just being the Father that my dad did a lot and he did some good things. But God said, you think, well, he did as good.
Let me show you this. And I talked about the trip that I went on, I feel like, directly with God, the Father, and how he came for me in that. And to bring me back to sonship the way he did and filling all that in and the gap of where my father hadn't been was incredible. But it all comes from the goodness of God. Romans 2, 4 says the goodness of God leads men to repentance, and I think that could be for just your salvation, the first step, or any of the stages. Repentance means a change of mind, and we all had a jacked up idea of who God was over time.
And the goodness of God repetitively coming after us continually helps us through that repentance process. And that's all I got to say about that. That's a good idea. I have a totally irrelevant question, and I'm sure tens of our listeners are dying. Tens of our listeners? How many do we have online now? Like three? Two.
Do you watch this annually on February the 2nd? Yes. Okay.
Very good. I begin through this whole masculine journey thing of watching movies and stuff. Now I even do some – I'm weird. I'm weird.
You notice no one's – Nobody's disagreeing. If it's something on D-Day, I'll watch Saving Private Ryan on the anniversary of D-Day or whatever. I'll do a lot of these different things.
And it just kind of helps you remind – I was telling Robby about it a while back that it just kind of gets you in that vein to be, first of all, thankful and respectful and all those things for whatever went on at those particular times. Now, obviously, I don't watch every movie with that kind of intent, but it is one of the things I do. And that's a great movie, and I like weird, so we're good. All right.
Good deal. Yeah. You're in weird company. Masculine weirdness, right? Danny, do you have anything you'd like to add on the topic of kindness? Well, weirdness, yeah, maybe weirdness. Well, I didn't say weirdness.
Yeah, I was thinking about the topic and coming kind of late to the show here. But the other day, a few weeks ago, I had an experience that kind of was over a course of time, and I didn't realize it until you brought this topic up, how kind God was in it. Because I was at a church service and was sharing some stuff about some people I knew and a lady that knew a mutual friend of ours. She was his neighbor, which made me think about him, and I hadn't talked to him in quite some time. So God kind of reminded me in that sense, hey, you probably want to talk to him. So I called him and talked to him for a few minutes, brief conversation, told him I loved him. And a couple days later, he passed away.
I knew he had been sick and everything. But I saw that, and as you brought this topic up, it immediately came to my mind, the kindness of God is to allow us to maybe not miss an opportunity sometimes, because I'm a little slow. And that just reminded me how kind he is in lots of different things. And I like that. I like the topic. And I always have to mention, every time somebody mentions the Trinity, I think about my friend who passed away, Dr. J.L.
Williams. He'd say, if you think you understand the Trinity, then you become the fourth member. There is a lot into that. You're the Ringo of the group. Yeah, the Ringo, yep. Anyway, Jim, we're over to you in your clip.
I have a clip. I think so. And I'm pretty sure I know the movie it's from.
The Shack. Yes, I was stalling to remember that. And I was thinking of how wonderful Danny is. He gave me a unique experience in my life in 70 years. I've never done this before this week. I helped, and I feel like the little girl in the old commercial, and I helped.
But I helped put together a chicken coop, and I have never done that in my life. But that was kind of fun. Notice he didn't say very unique. He didn't. I didn't. I'm sure it was very unique.
Intentionally, and that's my word for the years. He now needs to go in the chicken coop. I was in the chicken coop.
That's the most amazing thing. I fit better than anyone else at that particular moment. But anyway, I actually started on looking at conversations with God, because I know the kindest, most loving thing God has done for me, and most of the right letters in my life, is talking to me, communicating with me, caring for me, loving me, and being kind. So I started with conversations from God, but I couldn't really pull anything together from that that said what I wanted to say, and went to the shack, and actually had two clips there that I thought would work, but settled on this one. This is when Mac, who is crushed because his daughter was kidnapped and killed, and he is coming back there, and I think hoping for either revenge or suicide. I don't recall which it was, and it might have been either. But he comes back to the shack where all this occurred, and meets God, and it's a triune God in this, depicted by three different humans. So it'll sound a little confusing, but this is Mac meeting God. Mackenzie Allen Phillips.
My, my, my. Look at you. Do I know you? Not very well, but we can work on that. I've been so looking forward to this, to finally see you face to face. Can I take your coat? And that gun.
We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, now would we? I understand it's confusing. We all do.
We will do this on your terms and time. How about some introductions? I'm Aluja. I have a lot of names, but that's one of my favorites. Or if you want, you can call me what Nan does. You know Nan? Oh, yes.
Very well. Are you saying that you're? I am. The I am? I am that I am.
Look at that. Already quoting scripture. You bet my son.
Great to see you, American. Your son? Of course. And, um, so are you. Bear who? Syria.
It means a breath of wind. All right. So, which one of you is?
I am. And you have no idea how much I love you. That is a reminder for me of how loving God is.
And if you haven't seen the shack, if you're really strongly in the law, don't. But if you can open your mind to it, one of the reasons God in this scene sounds female is that he decided to appear that way to Mac because she was basically someone that he had loved in his youth. And he didn't recognize her as such, but that was the same persona. And God basically transcends any idea we have of who he is. And we do, as you said, if you understand the Trinity, you're the fourth member, but understanding the Trinity is recognizing the different way God interacts with us.
And a life-changing experience. I was, I'll call myself a spiritualist because New Age wasn't around back then, but when I was a kid, I believed in God, but I had God as being love. I sacrilegiously would say early on that I prayed directly to God and cut out the middle man, referring to Jesus.
So I wasn't in a good relationship with him. But when I was 17, I think actually very close to not being dead, but being unconscious and I was in bad shape because I'd just run four or five miles in heat and I laid down on my bed and I was physically in pretty rough shape. But as I laid there recovering, I had a bright light as opposed to the not so bright light where we'll be spending a little light, but a bright light at the end of my bed. And he spoke to me and at the time I decided that was an angel and over time I decided that was the angel of God, Jesus.
And it was a very short conversation, but it was, people would say, oh, you just dream that when I tell them about it and I don't share this often. I guess I'm sharing it to a wider audience than usual here. Tens. Tens of people. Tens of people were interested in Andy.
I suspect we have dozens. Oh, yeah. Thank you. But this was more real to me than anything before or since. And I know it was an encounter with God. And it changed the trajectory of my life. And since this is part of our men's ministry, the only thing that was said, and it was not vocalized by him, but it was a voice that surrounded me, and it was, so you're Jim Graham. And because I was at the Citadel and we had three responses we were allowed, I said, sir, yes, sir.
And that was it. But during that time I was overwhelmed by the love, the peace, and the presence of God. And it also confirmed that I'm an eternal person stuck in a physical, temporal body.
And many people live their lives never realizing that. So that was a major act of kindness and love from my father. Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate that. So you had plenty of time.
Yay! Well, it gets down to one more clip that we have. And this is a clip from a song, which we don't often use songs as clips, but I'm going to play a little bit of this song. Somebody tells us not to do that, but since he makes the rules he can break them. You can if you teach from it.
You have to teach from it. It can't be over 30 seconds, but this is a little over 30 seconds. This is Corey Asbury, and it's, I just lost the name of the song, Reckless Love. And so I'm going to play a little bit of it. It's from the second verse in the chorus that I chose, but I want to play it, and we're going to come back and talk about it. But it sings about God's kindness and his pursuit of us, even when we're not really that pursuable.
And so we'll listen to that. When I was your fault, still your love fought for me You have been so, so good to me When I felt no words, you paid it all for me You have been so, so kind to me And though the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God Oh, it chases me down, fights till I'm found, leaves a 99 And I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still you give yourself away Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God Jim, I think that's the first time we've played a song that you knew that you didn't sing. That used to be on the list of songs we sang frequently, when my daughter was my worship leader. I like this song for lots of reasons, because I think it begins when it says, When I was your foe, still your love fought for me I don't know that God ever sees us as a foe as much as he does lost children, unless at some point, I think like with the, we talked about the Pharaoh had a stiff neck. At some point God realizes people aren't going to change, and he knows that. But I think that we look at ourselves often as God's foe, even if we don't describe it that way.
We try to run from him, we try to hide from him, we try to act like we can hide things from him, those types of things, and that's very much not the truth. But what I loved about this was regardless of how we looked at God, it didn't change God's pursuit. And it's really pretty cool, some of the lyrics here, but he goes on to say, You have been so, so good to me, when I felt no worth, you paid it all for me. You have been so, so kind to me. And then it goes into the chorus, oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. Oh it chases me down, fights till I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine.
I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it, still you give yourself away. Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. And when you just, just the chorus alone, when you just think about the words that are in there, that God will not stop. He is constantly going to pursue us. Right? He wants relationship with each one of us. No, we can't earn it, we don't deserve it, but he still gives himself away to us every single moment of every day.
Right? That he is there, just waiting on us to say, Father, you know, I'm here. You know, I'm ready, I want to listen, I want to follow you, I want to walk with you, I want to be on this adventure with you, fill in the blank. You know, he's waiting for that and he's constantly there. It's a never-ending, and some people struggle with this word reckless.
Jim, you brought it up before the show, and I read about that online. There were a lot of Christians that really struggle with the word reckless because it sounds like, how can God be reckless? But maybe you can kind of help explain how that can happen. Well, the way I see it is it's wild.
It's not normal. And then I messed with the definition of reckless. Why is reckless considered a bad thing?
That means you haven't had a wreck. And he won't. He will make things happen in a way that just blows our minds. Yeah, and so when we look at that whole reckless thing, it's God's constant pursuit. And if you were talking to a friend that was pursuing somebody and they just kept turning their back on him, you'd say, well, that's kind of reckless. You don't want to do that, right? That's reckless. So God is going to pursue you, and he's going to love on you. And let him do that this week. Let him love on you.
And then share that love with somebody else. Go to mascoandjourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp, March 13th through 16th. Again, that's mascoandjourney.org. It's in Royston, Georgia at Camp Little Light. It's going to be an amazing time. We'd love to see you there. Come join us. We'll talk with you next week.
