This is the Truth Network.
Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are glad to have you with us and we are glad that we have a boot camp coming up. I mean, we always have a boot camp coming up, but we know where it is and when it is and all those kinds of things. So if you weren't listening, I think we announced it, what, last week? Yep. We did. The actual place and location, because I couldn't say the place.
I still probably can't. Royston? Royston, Georgia. Yeah, Royston, Georgia is where we're going to Camp Little Light. And it's going to be March 13th through 16th.
Got it, yep. Right? Go to masculinejourney.org to register. We're excited about the trip. It's going to be an adventure for us. We're headed off to a place we haven't been before and it's going to be just a new territory, new ground. And so we know God's there ahead of us and we're excited about it. And so we're going to go, a couple of us are going to go check that out this weekend and see what the camp's like. Robby's already been and tells us it's great, but we're going to head down.
Sounds like you don't trust him. He tells us tapioca pudding is great, too. Yeah, but yeah, that's a fact. There's lots of things Robby says is great. I guess great is a sliding scale. There's like incredibly great and marginally great.
Technically, they're both great, I guess. But yeah. Anyway, no, it's... Beauty ends in the eye of the beholder, right? It is, it is. But no, it's an amazing camp.
We're going down just kind of reconnaissance to see what we need to bring with us more than anything, not out of distrust of any kind. But we can let him think that, though. Yeah, and like you said, if they go to register, too, there's no problem about missing the target on the button to register, right? Yeah, unless it's on the phone, because then you can't scroll over far enough to find the sweet spot to hit the button. But it's right there in your face.
Oh, yeah. You go to it on a laptop. Yeah, but on the computer, on the phone, it looks like a red landing page, because it's all red, even though it's supposed to be this one banner.
Just something I need to work through when there's a lot of text on how that button turns out. Well, maybe you can find an IT guy that can do that. Michael, come help me.
I can't do any of the stuff you do on the computer, too. Harold, come out of retirement and help me, man. Share that comment, and then I gotta tell you what the topic is for the day. Yeah, that's right. Well, it's of God, not of me. So what we're talking about is the kindness of God. And the reason I'm saying of God is God is a trinity, right, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
And sometimes we're interacting with the Son, sometimes we're interacting with the Father, sometimes with the Holy Spirit, but they're all God. And so we're just calling this topic the kindness of God. And where it came up – this wasn't new to me in a passage. I remember reading it, but it always strikes me as an amazing thing. A lot of us are reading the Bible, a chapter a day, and kind of going through it together, and sometimes we'll post stuff in a group chat. Sometimes we don't. Most of the time I don't. But I do – Darrell Bock I read and never report. Robert Chisholm Yeah, I do read, and sometimes I report. But this was from Matthew 8.
We read that a few days ago, and it's from 8.1 through 3. And it says, When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, and he said, I am willing.
Be clean. And immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. And I think if you just read that and glaze over what Jesus was really risking, I mean, obviously it was God, but he was risking in man's standpoint that if you touched a leper, you're now unclean. Darrell Bock Ostracides from society.
Robert Chisholm You're right. I mean, he was going to be sent out with the rest of the lepers potentially, right? And he didn't care about that, because he knew what this man needed more than anything. Yes, he needed his soul redeemed.
I get that the most. But what he needed in his mind was just somebody to touch him. It may have been years since he's been touched. Darrell Bock Somebody was willing to risk to touch him. Robert Chisholm Right. Somebody that wasn't another leper.
Right? I mean, Jesus in a way risked everything from the world's standpoint to give this man what he needed. And just an incredibly kind act of God as you look at that to say, man, I know his heart needs this touch. And yes, he needs me in his life, but he needs us from a human, from what he sees as a human, to have human touch that touches me that hasn't done that before. And I just think it's an incredible story of the compassion and the kindness and the wisdom of Jesus as he dealt with people.
Because I'm sure it was a very, very trying time, you know, as he was walking from town to town and going through all that. You guys are shaking your head. And other than a few rattles, we can't really hear anything. We're just in agreement, man. Okay. Well, at least you're shaking your head in the right direction. Actually, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that. I'm going to shake my head wrong, like you got it wrong, and then you'll be really blown away. So I probably won't pay any attention. Darrell Bock I had an epiphany, and I'm going to interrupt and be rude, but that's who I am. So. Darrell Bock Do you have to excuse yourself?
I'm just kidding. Darrell Bock No. Darrell Bock When you had the epiphany? When you said that, I was thinking, was there anyone that wasn't eternally touched when Jesus physically healed them? And then from there, I went to a verse that's always bothered me, that Jesus could not do much in his hometown. And is it possible it's because he knew they wouldn't believe in him?
So he didn't. Darrell Bock Yeah. That's a good point. Darrell Bock It seemed like a real flash of wisdom, and I don't get those very often. Darrell Bock They'd be on the smaller side of an epiphany. But it's still an epiphany.
It's kind of like on the greatness scale. It's an epiphany scale. Darrell Bock A little epiphany light. Darrell Bock Yeah, epiphany light, yeah. If you're on a diet, you don't need full epiphany. You could just get the epiphany light. Darrell Bock I'm not going on an epiphany diet.
Little epiphany is hard to say, but I pulled it off on my little tribe. Darrell Bock Yeah. You did well. I could not have pulled that through my mind. Darrell Bock I couldn't say Royster, Georgia. Darrell Bock With the little Italy.
I got hungry. Darrell Bock Good. No kidding.
Well, we are going to – so we're talking about the kindness of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Father, whatever applies. And so, of course, we have clips and we have stories. And our first clip of the night is – or of the day is from Harold. You have the first clip today, so if you want to tell us something about it and go from there. Darrell Bock Isn't this amazing? Most of the time, I don't have a clip.
I got a clip and I get to be number one. Darrell Bock That's right. Darrell Bock That's right. Darrell Bock That happened to somebody else recently.
Of course, it was his first time, but – Darrell Bock Yeah. Well, this is a clip from the movie God's Not Dead from 2014. And in this clip, you're going to hear a rich and arrogant fellow named Mark Shelley, who's visiting his ailing mother who suffers from dementia. And reflecting on his perfect life, he asks his mother how she, a God-fearing woman, could end up in such a predicament. And he is stunned by her answer.
So if you play that clip, I think we'll hear a real contrast. Darrell Bock Yeah. And at the beginning, you have a little bit going on between two siblings. Mark's sister calls him and says, you need to go visit Mom.
And then the next thing you hear is he's visiting with the mom. Darrell Bock Right. Darrell Bock So here we go. Mark Shelley You're on with Mark. Mark Shelley It's me, Dork. Your sister.
You really should go see Mom. She's not doing well. Mark Shelley She hasn't been doing well for years.
That's why they call it dementia. Darrell Bock You should go see her. Mark Shelley There.
I gotta go. Darrell Bock I don't even know what I'm doing here. I mean, it's not like you even know who I am. You prayed and believed your whole life, never done anything wrong. And here you are. You're the nicest person I know. I am the meanest.
You have dementia. My life is perfect. Explain that to me. Mark Shelley Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. His sin is like a jail cell accepted. It's all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any need to leave.
The door is wide open. One day, time runs out, the cell door slams shut and suddenly it's too late. The kindness of God shows up to me in the fact that the door is open and God leaves that door open so that the person who's in that cell has the opportunity to get out.
Satan won't let him out if he can possibly keep it from happening and God will bring him out if the guy will accept it. But anyway, God has been really kind to me. I mean, I'm 83 and a half years old and I won't go into a lot of details on these things, but I just jotted down some of these things.
One of the really important things that I see as a kindness from God is he brought Jan into my life, changed my direction prior to her coming on the scene. I was hoping to be a Navy pilot. I had actually passed the written exam for aviation officer candidate school, but had I followed through on all that, I would have probably ended up killing people.
Not a good place to be in many respects. When that fell through, I didn't know what I was going to do for providing for us. But God gave me a career in computer programming and systems analysis, which not only provided us with a decent income, but was so totally enjoyable for me.
I couldn't think of anything for which I was better suited or would like any more than working in that kind of environment. I once had rheumatoid arthritis and I dreaded waking up every morning because of how bad it hurt to make those first movements. He took that away. I wear two wedding rings because I had to buy a big one while I was in the RA. Then after it went away, I got it downsized and I got back into the one I originally had. I flatlined twice, 22 years ago, followed up by five bypasses.
I was able to work in small towns instead of cities, even though I had a career field that was probably more suited to a big city, but I don't like cities. Let's finish this when we come back. We'll pick up with Harold when we come back, we'll talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and 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.
How's things been going since the last boot camp? Doing good growing. I've got growing pains. I came up here as a little boy, falling down, getting up, and now I'm a cowboy ranger going into adolescent hood. It's a pleasure to be here. So you're speaking about cowboy rangers, is that one of the talks that really came alive to you this weekend? Yep. I don't want to grow up real fast.
I had to do that a long time ago. I'm just taking baby steps along this journey and I can't think of any place or group of guys I'd rather be with because you are appointed and accountable for me to learn and listen and I've got a notebook full of good tools that's going to help me grow. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Welcome back to Masculine Journey. That is John Barry. I think it was in the 90s maybe when that song came out. Maybe early 2000s, but it's a country song called Your Love Amazes Me. And obviously he's singing that to a female, but those all applied to God, right? And so I love that part of the song. So anyway, what did you say it was, Andy, what did you compare it to? Oh, Wind Beneath My Wings.
Yeah, it was a country version of Wind Beneath My Wings. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so that's Andy at masculinejourney.org if you want to send in any mail where you don't like that. I'd be happy to get even some.
I'd be happy to get some hate mail or whatever. I can send you some. Yeah, I'm sure you do. Yeah, no worries.
You'll have some tomorrow. Don't worry about it. But you're in IT. You'll just track it. You'll know who it was.
It's not a big deal. I can't do it. Barry, use Robby's computer before I leave. Anyway, Harold. I'll just send a virus back to you.
Yeah, you could. To Robby's computer. Hey, when we left, Harold, you were telling us about all the kindness of God in your life and I think you left off when you flatlined. Well, I flatlined twice and the next morning had five bypasses. That was 22 years ago and He's allowed me to have all this time since then.
We're going back and I'll wrap up or try to. When we were in Columbus, Mississippi, we bought a couple acres of land outside town and with no previous experience whatsoever in cutting trees, I was cutting the trees on that two acres by myself, nobody else anywhere around, and He protected me from me. Because I can't go into detail, it'd take too long. But I was in some very stupid. I was in some very stupid. Okay.
He just didn't want to talk about being stupid because he does that so rarely. Well, you'll know how stupid I really was when you hear this part of the story. On the very top of the hill where the house had to sit was a gigantic white oak. I couldn't even begin to reach around it. The only thing I knew about cutting a tree was to cut a notch, go to the opposite side and cut into that.
I didn't realize you got to look at the weight of the limbs. I wanted the tree to fall in one direction. It sat back on the other direction, capturing the saw. So I take my axe and I work and work and work and I get that white oak to fall over into a pine tree that I could barely reach around. I'm under the oak, cutting the pine tree with my axe. Both trees start to fall into yet another large pine tree. So I'm under the third tree with the other two up above cutting.
I'm hitting, looking. I was really quick as a youngster. So I was ready to run.
But it was so stupid, but I didn't know it. So one of the kindnesses that God has done for me over the years among many was he protected me from me. When we decided that we were going to be moving to Knoxville, God was very kind to us because the housing market in Columbus was up. The housing market in Davie County was down.
So we were able to sell high by low. We had put our equity in a savings and loan there in Columbus. This was in early December 1975. In either January or February of the next year, that SNL went belly up. It was not FDIC insured. People couldn't get a nickel for a couple of years, and then they got like 25 cents on a dollar.
So we were able to sell high by low and didn't lose a penny. So God has just... I could go on and on and on, but I won't. But suffice it to say that I believe that I have been abundantly blessed by the good Lord. Darrell Bock Good. Thank you, Grant. Did you say something? Grant Williams Boy, inhalation of the trees.
We all have had the Lord help us with our intimacy, whether we knew it, whether we realized it or not. Darrell Bock Oh, yeah. I had a house that was taller than any ladder that I had, and so I just would back the truck up and put the ladder in the back of the truck, and just always had to do it when my wife was at work, so she wouldn't yell at me. But yeah. Grant Williams I was intrigued by wondering how big a radius a tree had that he couldn't wrap his arms around.
Six, eight inches? Darrell Bock Yeah, yeah, it's boom. Grant Williams Couldn't resist.
Darrell Bock Rodney, I wanted to go to you for a second. You made a comment before we came in about the kindness of God, how it happens frequently, but then what happens behind that? Grant Williams I tried to remember this week kindness of God and how He does things for you so often, and there's so many things that I can remember where you're going through whatever you're going through, and you just remember, ah, that was from you, Lord, thank you. Because you're like, you have no idea why that came to you right now, but it was important.
I try to remember half the things in my life now, and I'm like, I can't remember, I can't remember. And it's just one of those things that happens where, well, my memory went out about six to seven months ago, but I just remember all the things that He has done for me, and one of the biggest things that I really like is that in the leading up to and going through a divorce, which I didn't like at all, but there were so many times when I would just, I would just, God, I don't know what to do, and He would either get me to do something or many times just do nothing and just let things play out, and I didn't want it, I don't care for it, I don't want anything to do with that, but that's where He had me. And I really didn't know what to do, what to say, who to talk to, what to do through all of that, but I just was like, okay, Lord, I'm just going to let you deal with the next step. You deal with the next step.
What do I do with this? And there were many times when I'm scrambling, trying to get things done, trying to get information and trying to figure out how this is going to work out, and just give Him information to my wife so that she, it's like, here's what I have, here's what you have, here's what we owe to each other or whatever that is, and just work our way through it. Because once somebody starts down that path, there's really nothing you're going to really do at that time, and it's like, whether you want it or not, it's there. But I do know on the backside, I have really enjoyed just being with my brothers in church and other people that I do many things with, like here, and just living a life that's different that I thought I had to have her in it and my wife and all these other things.
And I'm like, I don't have to have that to have a full life and be happy and all these things. So it's rewarding. It takes a lot to get there.
There's a lot of low times in those things. But overall, I feel fairly good going through all of that. So that's where I'm at. Yeah, and so the kindness of God was with you all through that. And you don't know where He's at and what He's doing until afterwards. Then you can look back and go, oh, that was you, Lord.
Thank you so much for that, because you don't know what you're being protected for or against. You're just going through life. Darrell Bock Yeah. Andy, I think I went so long talking about other things, we didn't have a chance to get your clip in in this segment, so we'll have to do it in the after-hours.
Darrell Bock Yeah, I'd rather have proper time, so yeah. Okay, I'm going to play a short clip here, and then we'll all talk about it, and then we'll play your clip in the after-hours, as well as a couple more, maybe Jim's, if we get to it. Just for you, Jim. Okay, so this is one of our shorter clips. We've used it before. I was really hoping to do this show with new clips, but we ran out of time, so I have to use a redone clip, I guess.
But this is from Bagger Vance. It's a four-second clip, and I want you just to listen to what he says, right? And then we'll talk about why it was a kind thing from God, so here we go. And then you hear the birds at the end, right? Oh, here, we'll play it again.
If you didn't catch that. So what the – go ahead, Jim. Jim Steyer Oh, I was just going to say five words in four seconds. That's pretty good. Darrell Bock Yeah.
Jim Steyer For a southerner. How was that kindness from God? Well, God gives us – the Holy Spirit, I think most of the time, is the one that's prompting us through that. It could be Jesus, God.
I don't know. That's beyond my comprehension, but I think it's probably the Holy Spirit, because I kind of feel it internally, you know, when he says something to me, but he gives us words of advice. Darrell Bock Spiritual forecast.
Jim Steyer Yeah, the things that are coming up. You know, we get strong men as we're going to camp. We pray over, okay, what's the things that guys are bringing in that we're – they're coming up against.
You know, it could be anger, it could be jealousy, it could be envy, it could be lots of different things. God, who's a strong man going into this boot camp, and he'll give us those words. Our words of the year, Andy, as you're talking about before the show, are things that he gives us that gives us a little bit of an indicator of where we're going, but a lot of times he'll give us these words of warning, you know, if we're listening, if we have the ears to hear.
And that is a very kind thing. You know, I've learned – I'm trying to learn. I'm not fully learned. That when he says something to me, I need to take action on it quickly and not put it off. You know, if I wake up and somebody's on my mind, I need to reach out to that person, because either something's going on or God knows what's going on. And I'm learning to be more quickly obedient instead of eventually obedient to it, you know, because there's always – it seems like there's more to do than you have time for, right? I have more to do on my plate. And God's got to be the priority in that, you know, and there's been so many times that I've been very grateful that I've heard – I've listened to what he's had to say and then not move forward, and there's other times I wished I would have listened sooner.
And I'll give you an example of that. I had a friend of mine pass away a few weeks ago. He had done some counseling for me and some of my friends. And God had laid him on my heart about two weeks before that, and I couldn't figure out why he did. And I thought, well, I really need to reach out to him here pretty soon.
All right, God, that's a good reminder. I need to reach out to him. I can't ever reach out to him.
He's gone. You know, I don't know why God was calling me to reach out to him when he did, but I didn't. And that's one of the times I wished I would have taken that advice, because, you know, I wonder from now on.
And so, you know, God is very kind in what he gives us. It's just we've got to have the ears to hear it and be willing to take the steps forward in it. But anyway, go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. It's March 13th through 16th in Royston, Georgia, almost had it there, masculinejourney.org.
The camp is called Camp Little Light. It sounds like an amazing place, looking forward to going. We'd love to have you there with us.
It will not be complete if you're not there. You can take that as pressure. I'm kind of giving you pressure, but we'd love to have you there. And as always, let God love you this week and love somebody else well. We'll talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.
