Homeward Bound After Hours

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 are talking about home this week.

Home on the range. Most of us are tired. Most of us are ready to go home, it looks like.

But Andy is raising his hand. He's ready to go home. But this topic that got laid on my heart and just have thought a lot about it lately in many different aspects and we've, if you listen to the first show, we did a lot and we're going to see if we can't bring this topic home, literally. I told you we were all tired. No, we're not all tired. Not all tired.

Okay. Some of us are retread. Some of us took a long nap. Some of Robby.

Well, Robby, you have the first clip and you're going to do some neat stuff and we give you a hard time about your Hebrew and anything but hopefully you will share some of that with us because there's some deep wisdom there. Yeah, I, you know, it's hard if you think about the intro to After Hours, it's time to go deeper. You got to go deeper.

But if you go too deep, you're no longer transparent. There you go. But anyway, so I'll never forget because when I was 19, my parents divorced. And at the time, I actually lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my parents lived in Kansas City. And all of a sudden, they lived in two different homes. And, you know, they'd been divorced about a year and I went to visit and I went over to my mom's house and spent some time with her and I went over to my dad's house and I spent some time with him. And I'll never forget when I came to the conclusion, I no longer had a home. I could go to either place, but neither place was home.

Interestingly, they both had some of the pieces of furniture from my childhood, but neither place was home. And so is there something going on with those of you wearing headphones that I can't hear? Yes. No, it's gone. It's over. It's okay. Okay. We thought you'd already made it to the end of the show.

Did he talk that long? So anyway, it like ripped my heart out. And so that idea of home was always connected to family to me and to the fact that I had lost it to what I thought was my home. And, you know, I spent many years, obviously, trying to figure out how to rebuild that or to have that with my own family and that kind of thing. As part of the reason, I certainly agree with the Bible on the idea of divorce because I don't think any child can possibly, you know, really press through that without a lot of help. And then, you know, the idea of that I've heard arguably that there are more songs written about going home than being in love.

And when you start to think about all those titles, you go, wow, this is a gigantic issue for your heart, right? And so very cool when you came up with the topic, Danny, it's not unusual for me to go think about this word in Hebrew. And so the word home in Hebrew, and the thing I love about Hebrew is it's God's language.

He spelled it, right? Since obviously he dictated the Bible to Moses, at least to Torah at the very beginning anyway. Well, it was really dictated through the Holy Spirit to all the people that wrote it. But the idea is it was his language written in his letters, and so these letters are very significant.

And they tell us very deep things, in my opinion. And the idea of home is the word by it, but it means two different things in Hebrew before we get into those letters, which is talk about the meaning of the word. That it means house as much as it means home. That house, when you think about it biblically, it's the house of David, right? Or it's the house of Judah, or the house of Benjamin. In other words, the house was the family. And the family, when you really think about it, is an eternal thing.

It beautifully, like, right? You have grandparents that make up your home. You have great grandparents that make up your home, too.

If you have great, great, great, great grandparents that go back far enough, you'll get to Noah. And you've got a whole eternal spectrum, and when you really think about it, it's really beautiful to think that the very first letter of the Torah, of the Bible, is the letter Bet. And that letter is also a word by it, which means home.

So the very first letter has to do with the house. And if you think about it, before God began to create the heavens and the earth, as John would write in the Gospel of John, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. In other words, there was a trinity that was before God began to make the heavens and the earth. That trinity was a house, right? It was the house of God. And so this house began to, you know, create the heavens and the earth. And so when you look at that word carefully, the word reshit in Hebrew means beginning. But the B, if you were to pronounce the first word of the Bible, it is bereshit, and it starts with a B, because there was a house before there was a beginning.

Isn't that cool? And so God has always had that waiting for us, and the last letter in the word house or homebeit is the letter tav, which happens to be the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, because the house is eternal. And hopefully we're all going to come together. But in order for that to happen, right, and God told us what? And Jesus said, If you love me, obey my commandment. What's his commandment?

Love one another, which includes trust, by the way. And so the clip that I want to set up here is from a movie called Raya and the Last Dragon. And it was a Disney movie that came out during COVID, and so it streamed a lot more than it was, but it was the most streamed movie of 2021. And I can see why. I mean, it's mind-blowing, although I don't know that they know what they were writing.

But nonetheless, to set it up a little bit— They rarely do. Because it's such a genius thing, this clip is so powerful if you understand what's happening. And so what happens is at the very beginning of the movie, this little girl has a father that lives in a place called Hart, which is a significant thing if you know the Bible well. Your heart is where the action is. Well, this heart is on the Dragon River, and it represents the heart of the dragon. And the other tribes all come from these other parts of the river, and they're all named like Talon or Spine or different parts of the dragon, which is not unlike the body of Christ when you really think about it.

In other words—and guess what? These people don't get along. Sound like your family? Sure sounds like mine.

Just saying, that's just the way it is, right? And they're all jealous of heart, because heart is where the magic is from the dragon, okay? And so the dragon, the way the story goes, was Simchi, I believe is how they pronounce it. And this dragon was one of several dragons. They had brothers and sisters, and this evil that is there throughout the whole movie, because every movie has a bad guy like your story has a bad guy.

This movie's bad guy is this darkness that will engulf you and turn you into stone. And so this darkness was turning everybody in the whole world to stone, and it was coming after these last dragons. And they figured out that they could combine their magic. Each dragon had a special power.

Either they could glow or they could swim or they could change their spots, you know, whatever. And so they combined their magic into one, and they gave it to their brother, or their sister, Simchi. And then they stepped back and literally died to themselves so they could put all their magic into this one thing. And then the Simchi dragon placed that in the heart group in order to protect them all from this darkness, right?

And then Simchi kind of disappeared to where nobody knew where she was. Well, the way the setup of the movie is, is that the chief is trying to get all the groups now to get along, because they all are jealous of one another because this magic. But they have to keep the dragon magic hidden in this cave, and he shows his little daughter where that is.

And, of course, then all these tribes come together, and they're all trying to get along. And so she steps out and says, who wants to eat? And this little girl makes her friends, and she hands her a little dragon pin.

And that's just like, oh, well, you're my best friend, and we're best friends like you were probably when you were a little kid. And she takes her to show her where the magic is. And when she does, the little girl betrays her. Even though she's a little girl, she pushes her in the ground and sets off a big firework in the sky to show everybody where the magic is. And then the tribes come, and they grab the magic sphere, and they drop it, and it breaks into all these pieces.

And when it does, of course, evil begins to just engulf everybody because the magic's kind of gone. And each one of the tribes takes their little piece and runs off to Spine or to Talon and all this different stuff. So the evil engulfs everybody, kills the girl's father.

Or essentially, he looks dead because he turns to stone. Well, then the movie ensues like we're going to pursue getting all these pieces back together. Well, naturally, the last one to be had is a little girl who's now grown up into a teenage girl, and she's the bad guy, and she's holding the last piece of the pie. And so when you hear this clip, at this point in time, the dragon has come back and has taught the good girl, the one that was going to help her friend and whatever, has taught her the story of how those all dragons were self-sacrificing, and you have to trust one another. Here's the whole idea.

If we could just trust each other, we could just love each other, we could get the magic, you know, so to speak. But unfortunately, since this girl had totally betrayed her, she wasn't in a position to do that. And so the scene begins, and I can't give you this because you wouldn't see it. I think it's too late for a spoiler.

All right, right. This particular scene begins with a dragon, and they are in this big, huge battle, and here's the dragon. And the bad girl, the girl who betrayed, has got a crossbow, and she's got it right on the dragon. And the dragon is telling both the other little girl, look, trust us, trust each other, trust me. This is going to be okay.

Don't do this. And the other girl, because she doesn't trust her, right at the last second, when she begins to think she's pulling the trigger, she throws her sword, which causes her to shoot the dragon, kill the dragon, and the dragon dies, goes into the sea, right? Well, naturally, then it's on like Donkey Kong, obviously. These two jump on each other, and when they do, you'll hear this one girl say, you do know that it was just as much your fault that Simchi was killed as mine, the idea being, as you hear this clip, that it was just as much my fault that we killed Jesus.

In other words, I drove those nails as much as any Roman soldier in the group. In other words, we're getting to the gospel here. And then after they kind of get that idea, the darkness starts to overcome the whole group horribly, and the one girl finally figures out that what she's got to do is what the other dragons did. And so as you'll hear, she'll give her peace to the bad girl as an effort, and she steps back and dies. And then each other, you know, one of the Disney characters hands the girl their peace from the different tribes, and they step back and die. Then the bad girl finally puts the one solid peace where it's supposed to go, and she steps back and dies.

Again, in order to gain your life, you're going to have to lose it. When they all die, you'll hear the music change, and at this point in time, the magic begins to happen. I bet you can guess what happens, right?

The curse is broken, right? Go ahead, Dan. And they all come back to life. Dad, everybody.

And of course, all the dragons, it's a big homecoming. But anyway, go ahead and play the clip. Now that's completely set up and told. We can still put it together. It can still work.

Sisu's gone, Raya. We don't have her magic. It's not about her magic. It's about trust. What? I mean, that's why it worked.

That's why we can do it, too. By doing the one thing Sisu wanted us to do, what my mom wanted us to do, to finally trust each other and fix this. But we have to come together. Please. After what she's done? We'll never trust her. Then let me take the first step.

Raya, no! So you see that whole idea of forgive us our sins, right? As we forgive those who sin against us. And it's just a beautiful, to me, amazing picture. And again, they do it through the imagery of the heart. And they do it through the imagery of water and the word.

And it's not, I'm sure it wasn't written by Christian people, but whoever wrote the original legend apparently got it from God. You know, it just clearly is. And it, for me, right, as I think about home or calling home, you know, we always know that we are, we aren't home. I mean, it's just we're not there.

Right? And if you get too attached to it, you're going to find yourself in a real struggle. Because our real home is with God and in heaven and all that. And so, you know, the only way we can kind of get there, and it's a minute by minute, almost second by second decision, is to die. And let your life be hidden in Christ, right, as it says in Colossians 3, right? That our lives are hidden with Christ. And if we will die to what we want and see what it is that God wants in that situation, which often is what your brother wants, and trust.

Then, interestingly, you can have heaven on earth. But if you're holding on, you're going to know, man, you ain't home yet. The great clip and great set up and all that stuff, Robby, made me think about, you know, as we talked about the first show. You know, we've talked about home being like where you grew up, and we've talked about that, and we've talked about making our home.

And now we're transitioning to where I hope we get to is, you know, it is about the gospel, and it is about the ultimate home. And, you know, what made me think about that a lot in the last few weeks is I've had two very good friends go home. Not going to see them this side of heaven anymore. And, you know, they were both men who, when the day comes I do the Sonship talk, they'll be in that talk. And the, but, you know, I used to say that, you know, we've lost somebody, but we haven't lost anybody.

They've gone home. And, you know, that is the ultimate goal. And the, you know, hopefully we all get there. And, you know, they're going to see you.

And, you know, I sent you guys a text the other day, and we used a clip from Gladiator, and Jim said it was one of his favorites, where the guy buries a little thing at the end of the movie. And he goes, I will see you again, my friend, but not yet. And, you know, that was my thought when I got the call from my wife yesterday that that dear friend of mine, Pastor Wayne Eller, passed away. And, you know, that man fathered me in so many ways for many years. And, but, you know, I'll see you again, my friend, but not yet.

And the way they drive on 52, yet may be closer than you think sometimes. But you never know. So, but that leads us into, Jim, you've got an interesting clip, and I'll be honest with you, because of who sings this song. I keep seeing Frosty the Snowman sing this, but I'm just saying.

Well, he was big and round, so there's a connection there. As you were talking about, and, I mean, this is, you're the one that needs to hear it, maybe more than most of us. I heard the message recently that, and Jesus, when he referred to Lazarus and other people that had stopped breathing, he didn't call them dead.

He said they'd fallen asleep. And that is one of the things that, that was the first thing that came to mind was this song, and that was the bassist. And it was one of my favorite later in life discovered hymns, called A Poor Wayfaring Stranger.

And with the clip, it speaks for itself, if you're old, you probably already know it by heart. But this particular song points to home, and that this isn't it, which we just discussed. So it's Poor Wayfaring Stranger. And to which I go. I'm going there to see my mother. I'm going there no more to roam. I'm just a-goin' over Jordan. I'm just a-goin' over home. I found lots and lots of copies of that. But I went to Burl Ives for two reasons.

I love his clear voice. I mean, I don't think anybody had trouble with lyrics on that one. But it also, the older versions have us going through a land of woe. And they've changed that in most of the modern ones to the land below or something that's reasonably meaningless.

That's a great plug right there. But this is the only place we're going to know sorrow and woe and pain and suffering. And it's a blink of the eye compared to eternity. And I think the best analogy I ever heard in my life was one that says, when we are in heaven and we look back at our lives, it'll be like one bad night in a cheap motel.

And this really isn't home. And that was my immediate go-to with this topic. Wasn't that a slave special? Well...

Didn't slaves have that? It's kind of interesting because it has... They're not sure of the origin. And it could be a Negro spiritual, or it could be a redneck spiritual to go back to our dinner tonight.

Easy now. It has an origin that covers different groups of people that have had misery in their life. And ultimately, that's all of us.

I mean, any misery we're going to have, it'll be here. But I love this because as I get older, I mean, I'm going home to see my mother and my father and my grandparents, all who had significant parts in making homes for me on earth. And I don't know if I said it in here or with you guys, but one of the things that struck me about home... Oh, I did say it in the other, but I'll say it again, eventually. The one thing that made it home for me with my parents was unconditional love. I might be in a world of trouble, but I knew that my parents still loved me, so I could take whatever punishment I deserved.

And I deserved 99 out of 100, and I got away with a lot more than I should have gotten punished for. But with that being said, at 18, I got married, and that shifted to being with my wife. And there were times that we were little more than angry roommates, but we were either too poor or one of us was too stubborn to break up. And by having that bond and finally both of us getting back to following Christ rather than our own selfishness, we have a home together now, and we're in it. We're with each other most of the time, and that's a new experience for us. Because in almost 52 years now, we have had periods of time where we waved as we passed in the doorway, going to or coming from work.

And little kids make that different. And I was thinking earlier about a lot of people see home as a place of pain. And if you didn't have the love there, you've got it with God, whatever went on with that. Well, one of the things we touched on, and we probably land this plane with death, I imagine, and you talked about it so well, Jim and Robby, and that home is a place where love is.

And one of my favorite songs these days is I Am Your Beloved by Jonathan Hilser. But one of the phrases in that thing is the one who knows me best is the one who loves me most. And when you think about that, I'm at home with Jesus because if I can grasp that and live in that, He knows me best. He knows stuff that nobody else knows. And there's some stuff there.

I mean, I don't know about your closet, but there's plenty of bones in there. But the reality of that and whatever you've gone through in this life and whatever you think you've done, Jesus is waiting for you to come home. And His invitation is always open because He loves you in spite of you. He loves Danny Marsh in spite of Danny. And that's the gospel. That's what, Robby, that's what you're talking about. That's where the heart is, is Jesus loves you no matter what. The father of the prodigal ran to go see his son and had no dignity about it and gave him the ring. One of my most fascinating scriptures, it says, before the foundations of the earth, Christ was crucified.

So before we ever had a problem, God had a solution. So, you know, if you don't know him, you're out here listening, you happened to stumble upon his podcast. Investigate Jesus and start your journey home. And join us at a boot camp, March 13th through 16th in Royston, Georgia. And you can go to masculinejourney.org and register there and get some more information if you'd like. And I hope you have a great week and we'll see you next time.