Anne Graham Lotz & Vicki Bentley

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

Okay, so I gotta say something about the cow just before I welcome my friend back to the show. The last week, David Jeremiah was on. You know David Jeremiah and Graham Watson in the studio with me. And little Stu Epperson took the show one day so that he could interview David Jeremiah. So David Jeremiah is listening to the introduction of the show and David's I think what Dr. Jeremiah is like 82 now. So he heard that introduction and Stu welcomes to the show and Dr. Jeremiah said, you know what Stu, I've never been introduced with a cow before. I was like, well, welcome to the Steve Noble Show. Things are a little bit different here.

And Graham Lots is in the studio. Welcome back. How are you? Oh, thank you.

I'm doing great, Steve. Thank you for having me. I always enjoy talking to you.

You're very welcome. It's great to have you in here. And I know you get to let your hair down a little when you show up at the Steve Noble Show. I'm so glad I have some hair. Amen.

Yes. Well, you have more than I do. So praise the Lord. And it was kind of you and Helen to reach out not that long ago. And this is kind of ridiculous when you get an email from Anne Graham Lots's assistant, Helen, who's been with you for a long time. And she's like, well, Anne was just wondering if you might be willing to have her on the show with your friend Vicki. And I'm like, yeah, let me pray about that.

I'm not so sure I want to do that. But then learning about your friend Vicki Bentley, who's here, the wife of Pastor Ray Bentley, who went to be home with the Lord back in January. So why don't you introduce Vicki and then we'll talk about why we're here and everything we're going to talk about today. Welcome to Steve. Thank you so much for having us.

It's just a joy. And Vicki Bentley first met her. I can't remember the moment I first met her. But in the year 2000, we started our Just Give Me Jesus revivals.

Our fifth one was in San Diego at the sports arena. And Vicki was our office manager. And then that went very well. And then she felt very burdened that we needed to come back and have sort of a breakaway retreat for women that we would take them deeper in the scripture. So so I agreed and she chaired that event.

So we had about 2500 women at Town and Country in San Diego and just took them deeper in God's Word. And then through that, we've become friends. And we have a lot of similarities. And she's she's been very faithful, somebody who has prayed for me, supported me, given me strength. She's very wise, very fun, and very authentic in her faith. And so, you know, life happens.

And that's been now 22 years since we really intersected. She now is on the board of my ministry. She's the board of directors. And so she's here for a board meeting.

But that's why I wanted to capture her for this. And, and Ray Bentley, her husband was just shared with you. You know, when I was going through chemo, and radiation after cancer surgery, they didn't want me out in crowds. So then I was going online to church and I went to his church online. And then when COVID locked us down, then I stayed in his church. And I asked him when they said Ray, can I join your church?

And so he prayed about it. And it was several weeks later, he got back to me and invited me to meet with the elders in his church. I had my family all around me. They asked me questions. I shared my testimony. They prayed over me. So I joined Maranatha Chapel, which is in San Diego. Ray and Vicky started it from scratch.

And it now has 1000s of people in it. And, and Ray in, on January 4, just suddenly went to be with Jesus and that left Vicky with a huge responsibility. And I want her to tell you more of her testimony, because there's so many people out there, Steven, I know, you know, better than I could you intersect with a broad audience every day, but, but so many people are hurting. And right now, I think we're at the end of the end. And I think Jesus is soon to come back.

But before he does, I think the church is going to put put us through the fire in certain ways. And so we're under attack, we have illnesses, we have, you know, disasters, we have national things, as well as statewide and family and church wide and all that. So, so all of that can cause you to be afraid can cause you to lose hope can cause you to wonder why we're still here.

And Vicky's life this past year has demonstrated the fact that God has been there for her filter with hope given a reason to live. So I'm just excited for you to meet her and and find out something about her story from her. Welcome to the dungeon. Did and warn you? It's so great to meet you.

Thanks for coming. Did and warn you at all about me a little bit. Okay, good to expect anything. Okay, that's good. Well, we'll try not we'll try not to disappoint. Anyway, it's great to have you here.

Thank you so much. And and tell us about you and Ray. Well, what can I say? Ray and I met in Bible school. And we fell in love. It was at that time, you either got married or you went out on a missionary journey. And we wanted to be missionaries together. So we got married.

And that was in 1977. Six weeks later, we started the first church on in our home, having movies on our garage door and everything in the in the home. And he started the first services in his in his high school. Yeah, in the auditorium, right?

Yes. And and so we went from there. And 40 years later, 45 years later, we are at Maranatha Chapel. And Ray this January went home to be with the Lord. And we have two kids, we have seven grandkids. And I don't know what else do you want to know?

Well, when you when you look back at that, and Maranatha started in 1984. And you look back and everything that the Lord has done with you all. How do you kind of process through that as a daughter of the king, because it's pretty amazing, the extent, the five books, we'll talk about the last of the five today, the size of the in the scope of the ministry, everything that you guys did to help Jewish people get back to Israel, there's so many pieces of fruit on that tree.

How do you internalize that as a believer? You know, it's so funny, because we probably didn't process properly. It was always, what's the next thing? And let's just keep going on this adventure. And every time I mean, we met heads of state, we were in places that I would never be invited to. But the Lord makes a place and he gives away. And has just been I mean, it's been a crazy wild adventure.

And we would sit and giggle at each other asking, how did we get here? And Ray just was always ready for the next thing. And his heart was hit. He was actually saved. He surrendered his heart to the Lord at a Billy Graham film. Yeah. And he was the only one at 11 years old. And right after that, he began to study prophecy. And because at that time, there was a conflict going on. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Well, hold that thought, because I want to I want to talk to you about prophecy, because that became a big part of your ministry and then also the books and everything that you did to help Jewish people get back to Israel. We're going to continue our conversation with Vicki Bentley, who's here today with her good friend, Anne Graham Lotz, Steve Noble and the Steve Noble Show.

We'll be right back. And I hear the voice of many angels sing. I love you ladies when you're pea brained.

When it comes to trying to understand the will of God all the time and his sovereignty and his providence, we're talking to Vicki Bentley, her husband Ray, who just an incredible pastor and a lot going on with prophecy in Israel. And of course, our good friend Anne Graham Lotz back in the house. So it's great to have you ladies here today. Again, thank you for your time and thanks for coming in. So glad to be here, Steve. Thank you. You're very welcome.

As always, mi casa, su casa. So, Vicki, you started to mention prophecy and that'll get us into the books and everything. But prophecy was really a big part of your ministry overall in the church and dealing with Israel and going to Israel and trying to help Jewish people that wanted to relocate back to Israel. So just talk about that, because I don't know when that got on your radar screen and that became a central part of your ministry with your husband. Well, and I want Anne to talk about it also, because she has such an understanding.

She and Ray would talk every couple of weeks. And I think that the most important thing is that even throughout the Bible, the Bible, one quarter of it is prophecy. And it's the promises of God.

It's telling us right now how to live now with the promises that God has made and that he's faithful. And Ray loved it. He loved it. He taught it. He learned it. And then he became a prophetic sign, I think, even in his death, because as he came home from Texas, where he was involved in finding a red heifer, which is a prophetic sign for the end days and something that's involved with the cleansing of the priests so that the third temple can be built.

And that is a big, huge thing that's happening right now. And so he came home. He had a little cold.

And within a week, it wasn't something progressive. It was just something catastrophic that happened. And in his last breath, he was praising the Lord. My daughter was with him.

They were talking. She said, Dad, let's go up the hill of the Lord. Let's go up to the mountain of the Lord. And he said, Annie, I'm going up the mountain of the Lord with the Lord right now. And he started praying, Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. And then with his next breath, he was before the King praising him. And that moment, Annie was not in the room when he took his last breath.

And I was there. And at that moment, the Lord spoke in my heart to me, Don't look at this with your natural eyes. Because in the natural, death is not beautiful.

It's a thief trying to steal. And so the Lord spoke very clearly, Don't look at this with your natural eyes. Look from heaven.

Look with your spiritual eyes. And at that moment, it was like he pulled back a curtain. And I saw heaven. And I felt heaven.

Every sense that I have was amped beyond anything I know the colors, you could taste and feel and see emotion. And, and I saw Ray, and he was sitting there and and I saw his love and his affection going out. And it was tangible and you can feel it, you could smell it, you could, it was beautiful. And I saw Jesus only you couldn't see his face because it was brighter than the sun. And that same thing was coming back from Jesus as he reached out. And the reason I knew it was Jesus is I saw the nail prints.

And then just as quickly as I saw it, and it seemed like forever and I just wanted to stay there. The Lord dropped the curtain. And I just I said, No, Lord, don't not no, he can't go. But the Lord was good. And his plan is not our plan. That's right. But his plan is always good. And, and so, for me, that prophetic moment has carried me through almost a year that that's been so quick, and yet, it has stopped time entirely.

Because I know what's real. And it's my hope. That's right. And, and that's what prophecy is. It's, it's the sure hope to live now, with the future, always right before you. And your son said that in the memorial, and he was like, you know, we want to say I'm going to say my final goodbyes. Well, if you're a believer, you need to chuck that that's that's not you're not seeing your final goodbye.

Your son said it the right way. So I'll see you soon. And when you get there, and when I meet him face to face for myself, I'm sorry, Ray, I'm not going to get to you first.

I'm going to the Lord first, but but when I get to him, time will mean nothing, the time, whatever the separation is between you and your husband from that moment in January to whenever you go home, to be with our Father will be nothing once you get there. And then you get nothing but inexplicable joy. And I mean, just mind boggling, right? And so you sit there go, you know, this isn't, I know we weep, I get it. You know, both my mother died earlier this year, but she was 91. That wasn't tragic. My dad or 90. My dad died in 91. That was not tragic. But when somebody dies in a younger age, like your husband, from an earthly perspective, that's tragic. But that's such a beautiful perspective that and God gave that to you.

I have it. Yeah, Isaiah 57, one, the righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart devout men are taken away, while no one understands for the righteous man is taken away from calamity. That sounds like current events to me, kind of why am I reading Isaiah 57, one Vicky? Well, that day, a friend of ours who is very prophetic, who studies prophecy and is very prophetic, was having lunch with another friend who was actually praying with Ray on the phone. And after he got off the phone, the friend said, I have something that I think the Lord is telling us a prophetic word that the Lord is giving us. And the one who had just prayed with my husband said, no, no. And he refused it. He said, no, that is not what the Lord is going to do. And and yet it's happened that they gave me that word. They just gave me the the scripture address.

And so later on that night, I'm just sitting there with my hand on the Bible and I just opened it up and read that scripture. And to me, it spoke that at the end of his life, Ray became the prophetic word because our church, we have lots of people in our church. And I can't tell you how many times people would come up to me and say, no, Ray, Pastor Ray couldn't go. He was supposed to lead us. Pastor Ray is supposed to be here. He's supposed to take us home. He's supposed to explain all this. And I said, well, maybe he went ahead of us because he wants us to grow up.

And and, you know, we can say that through tears. I don't like it. I don't want it. But I trust the father.

And I know my husband didn't want to go. But I know that once you get there, that's not his answer right now. Right.

Yeah. Which is an amazing thing. Somebody once said, you're not really an adult until both your parents are gone. Yes, it's true. You know, it's the first time in my life that that's been true for me.

And it does have an interesting effect that both, you know what it's like and both your parents are gone. And I don't know about you, Vicki, but it's yeah. And sometimes that's like, hey, as incredible as Ray Bentley was, Ray's not the leader.

No, no, that's yes. Ray works for the main shepherd. He's a sub shepherd. And it's an awesome thing. But I introduced somebody once at a banquet and you'll get a kick out of this. And I don't think the person I introduced appreciated my approach because I said, we're all thinking this is such an incredible person. They're just like over the top of the believer.

I said, actually, I don't think so. I actually think who I'm introducing is average, but not average from our perspective, but from a first century follower of Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Spirit. What looks incredible to all of us is really just normal Christian living. It's not, but we see it as incredible, but it really shouldn't be.

That should be kind of the norm for all of us. We're talking to Vicki Bentley, her husband Ray's now in heaven, but we're going to talk a lot about prophecy. We're going to talk about the Elijah Chronicles book number five.

The final one is out. Welcome back. It's Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show, having a great conversation today with well, two people that and sorry, you're stuck with me forever.

Friends of Ann Graham Lotz is there in the studio and her dear friend Vicki Bentley is in the studio as well. And Vicki, sorry, you're stuck with me too forever and forever and ever. I'm going to find out where you live in heaven and I'm going to stop by whenever I feel like it and we'll be, it'll be fine.

You guys will get used to me. It'll be fine. Ann's doing all right.

She had to see a therapist for a while, but she's doing okay. But it's great to have you all here and we're talking about prophecy. I want to talk about the final witness, which is book number five and the last one in the Elijah Chronicles. So I want to talk about this, that your husband was working on and now in his absence, you are involved as well. It's really interesting because I forgot that you guys kind of got started in San Diego. Then here in the final witness, I don't want to give away much, but it's kind of funny that you drop an asteroid on San Diego. So is there, that's just that one little part. I'm not telling you how big the asteroid it is.

It could be the size of a coffee cup, no big deal. But, but talk about the series and how that got started and, and, uh, kind of what we've been talking about during the show is just hope, the hope that can be found in the book. He didn't work on this book, right? Because he, he left and, and it just dropped into the whole thing. So he did the first four, but not the fifth. We're good at that, us husbands.

I know. Yes, he left that to me. But the first four books, um, the whole reason for the series was really prophecy because he wanted to engage people to look at prophecy in a way that maybe they've never seen it before. And the best way to do that is in a story form.

And, um, and so he began with the mountain of the Lord and really it's the relationship and the history of Israel and, and there is a character in there that leads the main character through Bible prophecy in a way that is very engaging because it's very pertinent and, and it affected him in his present life, which it does for each one of us. So Ray did four of the books that they've been well received and, um, the fifth book, which he had just begun to talk about, um, and nothing was on paper or anything, um, was this final one. And so after he went home to be with the Lord, um, I sat with my son and my daughter and I said, you two should do this book. Dad would love it.

It would be a great legacy. And I thought I had a great plan. And then they turned around and handed it right back to me. Only your son and daughter can raise them up in the way they should go. And when they are old, so they'd give it right back to you. Right.

Exactly. And so, um, I Ray had written all of the previous books with Bodie and Brock Taney, and they are some well known, well respected authors. And, um, and we have a great relationship, really close relationship.

Bodie is a Messianic Jew. And so, um, I was tasked, I was given the baton to write this last one and, um, which created a little bit of a problem because I had heard prophecy all my life. It was my bedtime story, how the world was going to end this way or that way. And we talked prophecy all the time. But I had, I knew it on a level that I think a lot of people do. They hear it.

Yeah. And now I had to own it. And because I had to be able to talk to Bodie and Brock about it. And so that meant that I had to all the things that Ray had spoken about. And in fact, he had been, you know, his last trip was prophecy. And, and now I was, um, tasked with making sure that I understood and what was pertinent, what was happening.

Um, what, what did, what did the Lord want to be known? Um, and so I was able to give, uh, Brock and Bodie Taney worked together. Brock is the husband and wife team, husband and wife, and they are amazing. And, and she's a great storyteller and he is a great researcher. And, um, and so I was able to give Brock all of the information. I was, uh, the, the, some of the biblical content and some of the, the prophecies and, and some of the present day happenings and how to link them together and all of that. I was able to help, uh, Bodie a little bit with story arc. And then, um, the most important part for me was what is the heart of the book? Because I wanted to make sure that the heart that of the book that Ray had from the Lord was the central piece in the book. And you described that as a nugget earlier.

Well, yes. And, and so I wanted that nugget and I was praying and praying for it. And, um, and I had given all the information, but kept going back to the Lord saying, Lord, what is the nugget? I had, uh, I had recorded a friend of Ray's on my phone about some prophecy, uh, information. And so I went on my phone to listen to it, to just to jog me or something. And when I went to the voice memo, there was a voice memo from Ray and I had never, that I remembered recorded my husband because I live with him, but, uh, there was that message.

And so I, I put my finger on it and it was a minute and a quarter and I listening to his voice, you know, it just came undone. But at the same moment, it was the heart of the book. And, um, and, and he began with, you know, don't let politics or the things of this world distract you.

And he ended with the King is coming soon. You want to be saved. You don't want to be lost. You want to share your faith. You want to go out and be a witness. Remember the King is coming soon. I wrote this down earlier when I was watching the memorial service online, what Ray said in the midst of all the COVID stuff, he said, he said, don't get sidetracked with politics or the economy, et cetera, et cetera.

Look for people who are desperate. There's a deeper meaning to everything going on. And he said that he has, he had peace and, and speak to that because prophecy, one of the things we, I think we can look at prophecy and kind of get all Avengers end game interested in it because it's fascinating from that perspective, but we don't know when it's going to happen, but speak to that, that kind of nugget of hope. And because obviously you mentioned this when you got here today, and I think we all agree that we are in a very, very broken time.

A lot of desperate people who are looking for love in all the wrong places, they're hopeless, which is why COVID had such a commanding power over them. Cause there's so much fear because they don't know what's going to happen when they're going to die. But one of the things out of prophecy that I think we forget about is the message of hope. Absolutely. And the first John says that it's that hope of his return that purifies us, you know, so that if you think you're going to see Jesus at any moment, then you don't want to have him catch you doing something.

So it has a purifying effect. But the hope is that this life is not all there is. You know, the best is yet to come. And the Bible has given us enough of a glimpse of what is yet to come that it's encouraging. And I know that passage in 1 Thessalonians that I read at my father's funeral when Paul is talking about, you know, just in a moment, there'll come a generation when we don't all die, but some of us who are alive will hear that trumpet blow, the archangel will come, Jesus himself will descend with a shout. And those who are dead in Christ, like Ray, my husband, my mother and father will be caught up in the air first.

And then we who are still alive on the earth will be caught up, do it. And then it ends and says, encourage each other with these words and comfort each other with these words, because and I believe and if I can just say this that since I was a young girl, I believe that Jesus would come back the rapture of the churches, we'd call it when Jesus comes back and we go up to meet him in the air would take place in my lifetime. And one reason is Matthew 24 verse 14 says that I think I've got the right verse no verse 32 talks about the parable of the fig tree. And he says the generation that sees the things take place that he's described in Matthew 24. If you see those take place within one generation, that's the generation that will look up because that's the generation that will see his return. So so Israel, we believe is the fig tree put forth buds in May 14 1948.

That's right. And that's when she was reestablished. And so the generation that sees that is the generation that will be the last. And I was born one week later. So I was born. She was born on Friday reborn on Friday, May 1948. I was born a week later on a Friday, 1948, May 21. And so I believe I'm if I live out and as a generation in Scripture, nobody knows exactly what but it's my lifetime, right? You know, so if I live out a natural lifetime, I believe I'm going to live to see the return of Jesus. I have felt that Steve, with compulsion. Yes, since I was young before my children were born, before I was married, actually. And that's one of the things that drives me is and then I've seen and Ray was so encouraging to talk to their times when we talked together in and he would say, and you you make me realize I'm not crazy. Because we saw things the same way. And now you look at what's happening in our world in the last two years. That's right. Isn't it amazing? It's just if I didn't know hope.

Yeah, that's right. I didn't know the truth. I'd be terrified.

Oh, absolutely. Destroying ourselves. Our world is being destroyed. It's not just the United States. It's the whole world is experiencing those kinds of this is the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. We've literally been talking about nuclear war.

You know, can I just make a statement? Yeah, you got 20 seconds. Okay.

When Biden says that we're facing Armageddon, that's prophetic. Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. No, what?

He doesn't know. Of course not. You know, when you look at all this, if you don't have hope, you're pulling your hair out. For those of us who have hope. Every once in a while, this is my sick, sick, sick sense of humor. Every once in a while, I look around and I go, everything's lining up nicely, isn't it? It's just lying and it's all falling right into place. That's right.

That's right. I hear you. I hear you. Not us three. We'll be right back after this.

Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. I'm in here getting schooled by Vicki Bentley because I was just showing her the U.S. debt clock, which is at 30. Let's try to get the number.

Thirty one trillion one hundred thirty four billion three hundred nineteen million and it's going up one hundred thousand dollars or down more into the red one hundred thousand dollars every four seconds. OK, you go, that's depressing. Don't have that attitude. That's depressing because it involves the reality of three hundred forty million of my neighbors who Jesus commands me to love. And so I care about them. It also reminds me that this whole story has an end. This whole human history thing has an end.

And at the end of the story, you find Jesus establishing heaven comes down here and guess what? We have nothing to be afraid of. Nothing and everything to look forward to. So my heart breaks about the news of the day. I know it does. And I mean, we're both in tune with what's going on politically and stuff.

We pay attention to that stuff. But my hope doesn't come from the United States of America or the White House or the U.N. My hope comes from the Lord and the world can't touch that. Right. I think one of the things that shows is that we have issues that are beyond human beyond human solutions. There's not anybody who can fix that. And I do believe we need to vote. I do believe with all my heart, we need to vote our biblical view.

But but I don't think there's anybody that we can put in there that will change this. And the only solution I see is the revival of the church. And God's spirit would fall on the church and change us that or the return of Jesus. Pray for that one last time.

That's right. I'd love to see a great awakening myself. And I don't see that prophesied in scripture, actually, for the end of the end.

But but I could be wrong. But there'll be a lot of interesting things going on in Israel. A lot of interesting things. A couple of prophets show up there.

Some interesting things happen there. There is a revival after the. That's right. That's right. So we're talking to obviously Anne Graham Lotz, Vicki Bentley's here, the final witness, a Jack Garrison novel, because Jack's the main character. Right.

He's the Jack. And I'm a third of the way through it. And the great thing about this, you guys, for everybody, if you haven't read any of these is, is you obviously you all figured out and understood the value of a compelling story and entertainment and present. I mean, when you read this, I mean, I'm I'm reading things in there that just happened in the last two years. So it's very contextually sharp and brings you brings all this stuff together, because I think sometimes, Vicki, we divorce our theology and our Christianity from the news of the day.

But you can't. They're all melded together. No. Well, and the Bible is is has been called basic instruction before leaving Earth. Yes. And so I think that we don't get to we we don't get to do this on our own and then add the Bible.

Right. We have to live from the word of God. And if we live from the word of God, I mean, the spirit of prophecy is Jesus. That's what Revelation tells us. And and he told John, write what you have seen. Write what is happening now. I'll tell you what's going to happen. And so if that's true in the word, it is true for us.

And and so reading it in a novel form is the best way to do it. Oh, yeah. You know, I do have a secret. I don't know if my brother will be listening, but I gave him nobody's listening.

It's just me. There's lots of just say whatever you want to. Don't worry about I gave him a copy, a manuscript. And I said, hey, Greg, I want you to read this and I want you to tell me I want you to give me an endorsement. And so he said, OK, all right.

And so he came back. He he gave me our he told me that he had read the manuscript and he goes, I get what you're doing. And I said, what? He said, I understand now that you're trying to get me to read scripture.

And I said, I'll do it any way I can. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that was exactly what I was just thinking. And I was going to harken back to something you said in the last segment that now you get in the driver's seat of this, which forced you to go become a deeper student. And that's the thing. And then when you read a book like The Final Witness and you're in the whole series, a Jack Garrison novel, there's five of them.

This is the fifth and final book. Then you're like, does it really does it really say this? Because people will like even my students in my classes, I'll throw stuff at them just to test their Christianity, because most of them are a mile wide and an inch deep. And I'll say, why do you believe this Bible? Why do you believe the book? It was written two, three, four thousand years ago.

Why do you believe? And then they don't have an answer. Then I say, OK, well, do you guys remember when the theory of gravity and gravity was discovered? When was that?

It's about 500 years ago. And I said, do you guys. So if I drop something, I'll do this in the room.

When I let go of this, what's going to happen? It's going to hit. Right. Well, why do you believe that, Vicki? Because that was written five hundred years ago.

You believe it because it's true. And if it's true, it doesn't matter when it was written. Right.

Right. If it's true, it does not matter when it was written. So if you drive back into scripture from a book like The Final Witness, you find that it's true.

Well, and that's basically what happened with Jack Garrison from the beginning. He had an event that turned him away from the Lord, but the truth brought him back to the Lord. And and I think that right now, especially with everything that's going on and we've been talking about it, the only thing I mean, I was talking to Ann and I told her about this new word called truthiness. And truthiness is what everyone's living by right now. And it is what I feel my perception and truthiness trumps any fact.

That's right. And so but that's not true, because truth is a person. Truth is the Lord. And and so truth is absolute. And truth brings hope and truth brings peace and truth brings future.

And and and these books basically take you through this man's walk in his life and his loves and his adventures and all the things that happened to him, because truth is exactly what it is supposed to be. Right. It is Jesus.

That's right. And and so there is hope. And and even especially now, we need to have that hope.

And and we're supposed to be able to give an answer for the hope that lies within us when anybody asks us a question and everyone is asking whether they're saying it or not, they're asking. Well, what an incredible opportunity. And Ray mentioned this in something I was watching just with all the crazy stuff the last two years. And then you saw this with covid and everything. And you can be heartbroken. This is the strange tension of the Christian life. I'm on one hand, I'm heartbroken, aggravated often, mad regularly. But on the other hand, I'm kind of aloof because I'm in it, but I'm not of it.

So I'm like I'm like watching the play. I understand what's going on. It breaks my heart what's going on, but I'm also removed from it already to a certain extent. And so I do I am ready to give an answer for the hope that I have, which then takes you a little bit out of the present reality that's so heartbreaking. And then when we look at all the fear and all the desperation in the last two years, it was amazing how people, one little thing like covid, and I'm not I'm not downplaying any legitimate death that came as a result of it.

Every single death matters because every single person's made the image of God. But to see literally almost the entire globe wracked and controlled by their fear because the vast majority of people aren't saved. That's just the reality. And I think going back to what Vicki was saying about the truth or you're saying that the truth is Jesus. The truth is also not just the living word who is Jesus, but the written word, which is our mapples. And can I just underscore the fact that what we're facing in our world today, you're not going to make sense of it.

Just our conversation is not going to help people for a long term. It's God's word that sees you. And you read your Bible. I read it in the morning. I meditate on it and, you know, stay in a small passage at night. I read several chapters of it. I read through the Bible every year just trying to saturate myself in God's word because it's the plumb line.

And then we can read our newspaper or I don't think the newspaper anymore, but you get it online or however you get your news. And then you can put that against the scripture and you have a sense you may not know exactly what's happening. You may not be able to answer all the questions, but you have a sense that's not right or this is falling into place or, you know, and it gives you a heart to pray for for what? Oh, man. Yeah. And I think Vicki's life this past year, she's gone through not only Ray's home going, but her daughter went through a divorce and she's now living with or has lived with Vicki with her grandchildren. She's so Vicki has managed the grief, her own grief, the grief of her daughter and family, the grief of her son who stepped into Ray's position to take over the leadership, the grief of the church. And she has done it not somehow, but triumphantly because her faith is rooted in God's. Amen. That's right.

And she has a precious relationship with the Lord that she's developed since she was saved at a young age. So so I would encourage people if you want to get ready for the crises that are coming and they're coming so bigger and better. Yeah. The president said that we're facing Armageddon and he just doesn't know. But we are.

That's right. But not us. That will be for the bad guys, but they're going to be some bad things happen before then. If you want to prepare yourself, get into God's word and strengthen your personal relationship with the Lord. And he will be with us through whatever comes. I'm absolutely confident that he's going to see us through. And if he doesn't and if a loved one dies or like me, you're struck with cancer or something else happens. He'll he'll see you through. That's right.

You know, like Misha, Shadrach and Abednego. That's right. About where he's with us in the fire. Psalm twenty three for when you walk through the valley of the shadow, I'll be with you, he said. So God's presence is with you. He will provide for you. He will give you everything you need. And then when the push comes to shove and we close our eyes to this life, we open them to the face of that. You can't lose. Right.

That's right. And Jesus is the key that unlocks all of that. So it sounds, Vicki, like your house is built on the rock as opposed to the sand.

Well, my my house is built on the word of God and that rock doesn't move, you know. And and my hope is, I mean, Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah, he also said, as it was in the days of Lot, I don't think that we can get much closer to those two things. And he he said at those times, at that time, look up for your redemption draws nigh. So as much as we can look on this plane and see all the bad things, we can look up and we can see that the Lord is coming soon. And so what does that mean? That means to get ready. That means to stop doing whatever you shouldn't be doing.

Start doing what you should be doing and make sure that you are, that you're situated on the dock. That's right. That your heart, forgive those who need it. Amen. Forgiveness. And I know that that that means a lot.

That's right. And salvation. Amen. So well said. So well said. Vicki, thanks for coming in today. I mean, you didn't have to fly all the way across the country, but I appreciate it. There you go.

That's a great way to end the show. And thank you so much for asking. Thank you so much for coming.

Always wonderful to see you. Thanks for a message of hope and the gospel. And, uh, if your house isn't built on the rock, I guarantee you, you know it because the news of the day is shaking you. If you don't want the news of the day to shake you, then you have to know Jesus. Make sure you know Jesus. This is Steve noble on the Steve noble show. God willing. I'll talk to you again real soon. And like my dad always used to say, never forward. Another program powered by the truth network.