When Quitting Wasn't the End

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I can't hold it. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind.

And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. I was not aware of the fact that tomorrow is National Quitters Day. And I was brought. An awareness of this somewhat scary idea of man, people made all these resolutions. And so, according to Apple and several other sources of information that.

Tomorrow's the day where so many people they will have thrown in the towel, and it's National Quitters Day.

So, the question to you today, because it's a live show, and we had, man, we survive on your calls. We really do. And so, here's the question: when is. When is a time, and maybe it's happened since the beginning of the year, that you were ready to quit something. You're totally done.

But God showed up. But God. When the You think it was all over? But God, eight, six, six. three four eight the number to call in and share.

And we really, really, really value your calls. 866 348 7884. When is a time when you are ready to quit? But God. Show it up.

And everything changed.

So, Doc. Have you experienced this? Oh, you better believe it. And uh,. It's just amazing that this is an unofficial national day.

But these guys with AI, because of all the research they can do, the past few years, they've come to find that people who make New Year's resolutions on the second Friday of the New Year They go, I'm done.

So Pastors, come Sunday. There may be a few less people there. They made a commitment. You've got more room in your church.

So I'd send the word out. It's easier to find a parking place. You won't have you'll get your favorite pew back. Oh, man. People going to the gym.

Uh oh next Monday? They're not going to be there. They're going to quit. doing their running and they're gonna quit doing their exercising and they maybe they decided to go on a diet. They're gonna quit their diet and go back to eating everything that they can find.

So I I'll tell you one that You know, and I I'm gonna guess this happened about twelve years ago. And I had, it had been my practice for many years, and people who know me well know I've. Get up early and I study and I read. And I'd gotten to a dry place. This is a number of years ago, and it was just.

Like man. I am, you know, trying this Reading plan, I'm doing this study, I'm doing that, and everything feels like milquetoast. Like nothing's, I just wasn't feeling it at all. And You know, I did probably No. turned out to be a God gave me this ability to pray.

And I did it. I said gone. That's it. I I I'm not getting like I used to get. I don't feel like I used to feel.

And Through prayer, and I realize it's a sensitive subject, but I feel like God led me to say, Robbie. When's the last time when you chose one of those plans of what you were going to do, you like gave me a say-so in it. The Joshua thing, we never check with God, right? And there, you know, in the first psalm, it says, but his delight. Is in the law of the Lord.

And he said, Dude. You're not delighting. Mm. And in order to do that, let me steer your heart back to where I think And I began A new process. of studying the word Under his direction, and it became.

You know, one of my favorite disciplines actually is I ain't going anywhere any morning, by the way. It's something that happens new every day. Like, okay, God, where are we going today? I have to have that. And it's amazing what it did.

In number one, I certainly haven't quit, and people who know me know that it's an hour's process of what God gives me in the morning. Like, man. But I think It changed everything for me. That and you, and you know me well enough to know how much I delight in that stuff. And so, how fun!

Well, when we put ourselves into a routine we sh soon find ourselves in a rut. And a rut is no fun. All you're doing is just going through the motion and Right. Wondering i i is this ever going to come to an end. Where Our Christianity has got to be relationship-based.

And um Every morning should be afresh and anew. Um I have little disciplines. Uh every day I have a a Snoopy dog house that's a calendar. That allows me to every day. Are you telling me that Dr.

Date the Word has a, besides his Date the Word calendar, he's got a Snoopy, which I know how much you love Beagles. In fact, your Beagle is out in the truck right this minute. But before I ask the rest of this question, you're hearing this. You have something that you're talking about. And God showed up and kept you from quitting.

You need to call us 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884.

So you, Dr. Date the Word himself, have a Snoopy. Inquiring minds need to know what in the world is a Snoopy. Calendar. One of the first things I do every morning is I change.

The date. And this morning we went from seven to eight. January the 8th. And I've got another thing hanging there that says, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

And that's my kickstart. This is a fresh day. This day's never been lived. It's like a present that's being opened. I don't know what all we're going to get today, but I'm now excited about the day.

And then, yes, we have the date the word perpetual calendar. I look at it today, Daniel 1:8. Oh, what a verse, Joshua 1:8, Bible before breakfast, Bible before bed. And then we're looking at our devotions. And today's date, the word devotional was on Acts 1:8.

So, can we get back to Snoopy first? Snoopy, okay. I mean, inquiring minds need to know. And I understand your love for Snoopy, but what is it about that calendar that makes, okay, this is the one that I can change? Because I have to change it.

Okay. It doesn't change. And I've been doing this for years. I mean, years now. It kind of cracks me up that, but every day I walk out of my bedroom to the living room and I walk right over.

I look at Yesterday's date. And yesterday ended last night. Right, and here you go. And now make the switch. And I went from the 7 to the 8.

Tomorrow morning I'll get up and I'll change it to the 9. And it's January the 9th.

So yeah, again, these are the things that keep you fresh. Because again, I don't want to be in a routine. Routines cause you to want to quit. And, you know, this show today is: We don't want you tomorrow to quit. Quit quitting.

866-266. Three four eight seven eight eight four eight six six three four eight seven eight. Seven eight eight four You know, what is it that that You were gonna quit, but all of a sudden, man It's a It's happening. We got Tom is in Dayton, Ohio. Tom, you're on Truth Talk Live.

So. What have you got for us, Tom? Hey, Robbie. Oh. I just want to let you know that I tried I smoked for twenty years.

When I was 18 all the way, I was 38, right? And one night, all my Christian brother kept saying, hey, you ought to quit, you ought to quit. But, you know, eventually I thought, all right. I tried. cold turkey.

I tried patches. I tried everything to quit. And I tried it for six months and nothing.

So I ended up going smoking and even more this time for about three or four months. And then it was November And I was thinking, I couldn't remember, but I was thinking maybe January I was going to make a resolution. Yeah, and but I said, no. I'm going to go to God right now and pray to Him to help me. Oh, we've got to go to a break.

Tom, Tom, I can hardly wait. And so all the listeners have got to hear what happened. While you're waiting on Tom, you can call us with your story at 866-348-9. 7884. In some cases, like with Tom, you gotta quit.

It's time to quit. And we'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Troop Talk Live. Today we are on National Quitters' Day Eve.

I love it. And the question is: what is something you were ready to quit, but God showed up and changed everything? And when we left our hero Tom, which this is a great story. He he'd been trying to quit smoking for twenty Yeah. And all of a sudden Here comes this opportunity.

Tried, and like I got to tell you, Tom, I smoked for a little over 20 years myself, like everybody in the car business that I knew at the time. And I have my own story, but I'm very anxious to hear.

So you prayed in November, and I forget the exact date, but take us back. Yeah, I wasn't gonna, I was gonna go January, and I said, no, let's just go ahead, you know, let's go to God tonight and pray to him to help. And uh Because I said, please take away that want, you know, and get you know, the next day I woke up. I didn't want a cigarette. But that same day, three times, a voice, I don't know where it came, it says, never pick up the first cigarette again.

Says that three times. And it's been twenty five years without A cigarette. I thank Jesus because I tell you, it has been so hard so many times to try to quit back then when I, you know, for those 20 years. And if you know, and I don't know how many people, but it's quite a difficult thing to do, is to quit smoking. like most addictions anyway, but Oh, I gotta tell ya I gotta tell you there's two I gotta tell you these two, Tom, because it brings to mind two different memories, which, by the way, if you have a a quitting story, we would love to hear yours.

866-348-7884, the number to call in and share.

So Nikita Kolov, you may know, he was the Russian nightmare professional wrestler. His dad Apparently, according to the story that that Nikita tells, had tried to quit smoking for 20. I mean, excuse me, for 40 years. 40 years. 40 years.

And he said it just went on and on and on. And finally, he prayed, not unlike yourself. And he prayed really diligently. And here's what he said: that God put on his spirit. You quit.

I'll help. Yeah. Yeah, really. That was a good one. And that worked in my case.

Because, man, I was smoking like two packs a day. I was in the car, but it was just wide open. And That's a lot of smoking. And I loved it. I saw my mom and my stepdad live the life of COPD.

They smoke two or three packs a day. Yeah. And I just I felt so sorry for them because it was COPD is a is a slow death. It's a sad thing.

So my wife my wife couldn't stand smoking 'cause her father had died of lung cancer. And and so she when the kids started to get Colds and that kind of stuff, you know, young children, she made me promise that I would never smoke in the house.

So she wouldn't have to smell it, the kids wouldn't have to smell it. And of course I was at work too much anyway, and so it was no problem, I'll smoke at work.

Well I get hepatitis. And I'm stuck in the bed for a long time, right? And I can't smoke in the house. And I'm laying in bed with my scheming little mind dying for a cigarette, Tom, dying for a cigarette. And I thought, dying for something that's killing you.

That's right. And so I I called Tammy in the room and I said, Tammy, I'm going to make a deal. Because I'm like Mountie Hall anyway. I don't make a deal out of anything. And I said, I'm going to make a deal.

I said, if I stop smoking, think of the money that we would save. I said Would you be willing to pay for me to go on a hunting trip in Colorado with the money that we save from me stopping smoking? Of course, she didn't believe in a million years that I could quit smoking.

So she immediately hooks up. She's like, oh, yeah, if you can do that, you can go hunt in Colorado. Yeah. And so I had no idea the miraculous way that that would work was anytime I would go to think about smoking a cigarette, I'd think about that hunting trip. And I'm like, no, it ain't worth it.

I'm not, I'm gonna. I'm going to go hunting. And God used that, but I got to tell you the funny part of the story that Tammy always tells, she says, about a week later, he was so obnoxious to live with out of the cigarette, I went out and I bought a pack of cigarettes. I'm talking about Tammy went out and bought a pack of cigarettes. She stuffed it in my face.

Smoke one. Smoke one. For goodness sakes. Smoke one. So, I, Tom, I feel your pain, man.

But you know, it's been. It was 1991, my last cigarette.

So, what is that? It's a lot of years. God God definitely That was the same year I came to Christ. I stopped smoking. And that wild.

About the same time. That's wonderful. 1991. Wow. That's really good.

That's a long time. I appreciate your call. I really, really do. Keep up the great work, my friend. Yeah, thank Jesus.

God bless you. Yeah, thank you, Jesus. I'm with you. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

God bless. 866-348-7884-866-34 TRUTH. Yes, I was a heathen doctor.

Well, yeah, so was I. I mean, I. Had to learn how to quit a number of things. And for me, it was the scriptures that helped. And I love that story about Nikita's dad.

You quit, I'll help. Uh one of the most um Verses that really brought about tremendous freedom for me, I'm going to use that word, was Galatians 5, 16, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. and I didn't know a whole lot about that verse until I was taking a Greek class at the Crystal Bible College, and the professor in this Greek class n needed to teach us about double negatives. In English, not allowed in Greek, allowed. And he gave an illustration.

It's not the same. It's in the Greek a double negative.

So he says, so you read it. If you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He goes, But read it from the Greek: if you walk in the Spirit, you yield to the Spirit, you let the Spirit of God control your life, you shall not by any means be able to fulfill the lusts of the flesh because He will not allow, it's a not-not. He will not allow you to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He gives you the power.

And I don't know what happened that day, but a light bulb went off in my head, in my heart, of. I can resist temptation. Because he gives me the power. And so when temptation comes and I decide I'm going to move forward with it, it's because I decided not to use the power source of the Holy Spirit. And so that's what I thought of when you said about Nikita's dad.

I'll quit, you quit, I'll help. We've got a tremendous helper with the Holy Spirit. And He does. If we'll yield, He gives us incredible power to walk away from that temptation and be victorious. Yeah, because, you know, it's a fascinating thing.

It's National Quitters' Day. But a lot of people's resolutions were to quit something, right? And we don't want them to quit that. We don't want them to, you know. Quit drinking, quit smoking, quit doing drugs, whatever that may be.

Those are all good quits. But the other quits are quit going to the gym. Quit quitting. Well, if you quit quitting, if you're trying to quit, it's a you know, quit quitting the thing that you were supposed to quit. Right.

I guess the way we'll try to say it out there. Or quitting the thing you had started. Or start, you know, how yeah, with this, a good way to frame that. But I know we need to hear from you. 866-348-7884.

You got a story. We would love to hear it. You know, what did you try to quit, or what did you try to start? Or what did you, you know, commit to that was going to change things? Just wondering who who may have helped you?

or what may have helped you. To keep you from quitting. Or to get you to keep quitting. Yeah. Because your story could encourage, who knows how many people out there, right, who's been struggling to quit eating those sweets.

You know, that's a common one, right? This time of year, trying to get over the holiday, oh my goodness, we overindulged program. And maybe today we could help somebody call us and tell us what you're struggling to quit. We'll maybe give you some Bible verses. And we can pray.

Yes. And other people could be praying as you make that known.

So we already got someone else lined up. They're just calling in. We're anxious to get to that call, but we need yours. 866-348-7884. Truth taught Don't be a quitter.

You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live today on here on the Eve of National Quitters Day. You know, some of us, we certainly do need to quit things. Other things we definitely need to keep doing. And so what is it that you are trying to do, either of the above, and God showed up and changed everything?

We would love to hear from you. 866 is the number to call in, 866-348-7884. We have Kim is in Jacksonville, Florida. Kim, you're on Truth Talk Live. Yes, hello, how are you?

I am wonderful. I'm wonderful. I'm anxious to hear your story.

Well, I was just uh listening to you guys talking about quitting smoking and it just reminded me of a really cute and funny kind of story of my mother She quit smoking years ago, but as she was you know, in the seventies most people smoked and then one day she just decided she wanted to quit, so she just began to pray and she said, Lord, If I pick up another cigarette, just kill me. And she never picked up another cigarette ever after that.

Well, I will tell you that that is a way to make sure you do quit when you need to quit. Yes. Absolutely. All right, listeners. You've got some advice there.

You know, you know, you don't want to try that. You don't want to test God off. You're putting a nail in your own coffin. Like, man. Like, wow.

That is. It was just. She meant it. And that's the point, right? You quit, I'll help.

And she did. Oh, yeah. She said. Yes, and every time she thought about it, she said, No, I know what'll happen if I do. I believe what I said and I know that he'll come through.

That is very awesome. That one, I have never heard anything like it. Not that way. No way. That's why I'm so glad that people call in, because I'll be thinking about that for weeks.

Like, man, that's an unforgettable thing. I don't know that I might use it on a tough. It just gives you a little chuckle, you know, because that's one way for sure to quit. But by the same token, you gotta admire your mom's courage, like man. That's strong.

I guess she really meant it. She did. And, you know, her belief was very strong, so she knew she better mean it. That's faith. Right?

Well, thank you, Kim. That story makes this sweater. All right. God bless you. Have a great new year.

Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. You too. How about you?

Eight. I know you got a story. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that. 8663487884866 When God shows up, man, things change. And apparently God gave her that conviction when you think about it.

And God gave her that faith to be able to make a statement like that. 866-348-7884. You know, earlier when Tom was talking. about you know, that that Um He heard this voice that said, Don't pick up another cigarette, right? You remember?

I had this friend, his name was Lester Cranfill, and he. He lived long into his 80s and he always told the story that he he Okay. used to unfortunately you know, drink heavily, then get in fights and it sometimes even abuses his own wife, right? And when he was in his younger years. And he said one time he was sitting at the local place, wherever that was, with his wife, Lucille, who's dear, dear Saint.

And He hears this voice, same thing, but he hadn't prayed or anything. He didn't even go to church. I mean, he wasn't saved, and he didn't go to church, and he had no relationship with God whatsoever. And all of a sudden, he hears a voice that says, You pick up that drink, it'll be the last thing you ever do. And that was his testimony.

That's what he heard. You pick up that drink, it'll be the last thing you ever do. Apparently the voice was loud and clear because he didn't pick it up. And he never picked up another one either. And He started to go to Deadman Baptist Church there in Davie County.

And He ended up I don't know that I've met many men like Lester Cranfield. I did a whole Article one time on him that was published. It was called Prayed Up, Packed Up, and Ready to Go because that was his common thing. He would say, Prayed Up, Packed Up, and I'm ready to go. And he would pray every single day.

I never knew anybody like him. That it was absolutely his delight to pray that God would give him somebody to give that testimony to every day. And most every day, Lester would tell you a story, how God sent him somebody, and he would tell him a story that I just told you about how he had heard this voice and how he had quit drinking and how that had changed his life. And It was just a miracle to hear him speak of it. But fascinatingly You know, I've been friends with him a long time at this point.

I happened to be there the day that he was dying. And his wife was out of town, and I got to call Robbie. Can you go to the hospital? Because Lucille can't go. And they say he doesn't have much of a chance.

And he'd had a severe heart attack.

So I am. In the surgical waiter, whatever you want to call it, and they're fixed to rush them into surgery, doc. and I see him down the hall. And when I do He's got this big Lester Cranville grin that only Lester Cranville ha had. And he gets up to that.

And you would not think, because I'm told it's a tremendously painful thing to have that kind of heart attack. You wouldn't think anything was going on with him. He looks up at me with his big Leicester Cranfield grin and says, Robbie? I'm prayed up, packed up, and ready to go. And he was.

Those were the last words that Lester ever said. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. But he was. And his wife, last time.

His wife, I think, is 102. And she was at the nursing home. you know, just a few weeks ago when I went over there to visit, Um Still not on a walker. Just an amazing testimony. And what does she say to people?

Is she ready, packed up, prayed up, packed up? And she's been ready to go for, I think Lester's been gone about 15 or 18 years. 866-348-7884. What's your story? We would love to hear it.

866-348-0. 7884. Well, you are Dr. Date the word Carson, and so I'm expecting scripture, and I imagine you got some for us. 2 Timothy 2, 22.

Paul tells Timothy, flee you for lust.

So there's things you got to get out of your life, things that you quit. Things that you run from. But then he continues. It's not just things that you don't do. He then says, but pursue.

Pursue righteousness and faith and love.

So he's laying out things to go after.

something that's in the positive rather than going after the negative. But then he says these words, Robbie. With those With those who are also seeking the Lord. Second Timothy 2:22. That's one of the, to me, one of the freeing verses.

Okay, yes, there's things I got to run from, there's things I got to run after, but back to. God, He helps. He also gives people to help. We've been hearing these. Uh Truth Talk Moments with Stu Epperson, and he's talking about the one another's who who comes alongside you And uh I heard this statement, it's not original with me, but Accountability is the best friend of integrity.

And when you have that accountability partner, someone who's checking on you, and so how's it going? What can I do to help you? Can I be praying with you about this? And then you start getting victory over temptations. And little by little, as those habits do change, you get stronger.

And uh then you know here comes the temptation and you resist it. But you need others to be running with you. A good band of brothers. And um You know, as I've dealt with students at Liberty for years, there were This group that would get together because they were struggling with pornography, or they were struggling with drinking, or they were struggling with something else. How did they then Hold each other accountable so that they would, you know, be victorious and um.

Having good people in your life. As Stu said in his Truth Talk moment, Yeah. Who's out there like your Paul? Right, and to you about the market. an accountability group.

It's just a friend. Yes. Because it says in James 5: right, if you confess your sins one to another, That you might be healed. It's a promise that comes that has to do with that getting ready to the shame that's involved because once you're able to tell somebody, shame takes a little bit less of a grip on you. You tell more people, you got less shame, the more you peep.

But here's a story of how it worked in my life beautifully: is that I had gone steelhead fishing up in Ohio, those of you and Dayton, I love it up there. And I really wanted to catch a steel head trout. Communing with God. In other words, one thing to catch a fish if you're just catching the fish, but I wanted to do it while in prayer, while communing with God. and I wanted to catch one on a fly rod.

And so I was having lunch with my friends, and I just said, You know, man, I am so brokenhearted because I've been up here and it was just my dream to be in prayer while I was catching a fish, a steelhead, but they hit so hard with such veracity that it blows my mind, and I got to work on this fish rather than think about God. And I'm so upset about that. I really want to catch one on a fly rod.

So we're in the river 20 minutes later fishing. And I got my fly rod. And Man, a monster. Just wham, it hits the fly and off it goes. And the line is stripping off the pole like that.

And my mind is anywhere but on God right this minute. I'm just telling you the truth, you know. But my buddy, who's you know, Terry Larson's down the stream from me, and he says. Thank you, Jesus. And he said it loud enough.

And I went, oh, right. That was what I needed at that moment. And then, boom, it put me right. And I was like, God, thank you. Like, man.

And I did. And it was like. Help me reel this fish in without breaking the line. And fishing can help you really enhance your prayer life. Oh, it was a moment I will never, ever forget as long as I live.

Cause it did. It took probably 45 minutes to get that fish back in. Um And it was not because it was a fly rot, you know, it was a six-pound test line and a 20-pound fish, you know. But That wasn't the deal. The deal was.

That Because my friend I never would have done it. It never would have happened. Um except in that moment, there he was.

So maybe Today, you're starting to think about quitting tomorrow. You got to tell somebody. You know what? I'm about this getting up early to have a quiet time. I'm done with it.

Tell somebody so they can reinforce for you the value of it and point you back to. You need Jesus early every morning. At least that's how I, first thing in the morning is when I like to have my quiet time. And they can pray for you. Yes.

They can pray for you. We got another caller. I'm excited to see who that may be when we come back. But we need you. 866-2666.

Three, four, eight. 7884. The number call in and share. 866. 348-7884.

So excited to hear what you have for us. We'll be right back. Truth talk line. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.

Today's question. What is Something you were ready to quit, or maybe you were trying to quit and you were ready to start again.

However, that may work out with your New Year's resolution, but God showed up. And change Everything. What would that story, what does that bring up in your heart? We would love to hear how God intervened. You know, that's the beautiful thing about this show.

We've heard it several times already, but we never get sick of hearing it.

So call us at 866-366666666666. Three four eight seven eight eight four eight six six three four truth. From Ohio, the one, the only Mike. He's with us. Mike, you're on Truth Talk Live.

Well, thank you for taking my call. I'm excited to hear. And I don't think I've talked to you all year, Mike.

Well, I don't think you have. That joke never gets old. I'm seeing Robbie for the first time all year. That's true. I haven't seen him all year.

Well, I you know God humbled me again. Doesn't he do that all the time? Um I I uh try to make a long story short. I was really busy at work and um I had to go in early and so I missed some of my devotions early and my habits and um And and, you know, and and it just it just threw me all out of whack. And with God.

And I kind of feel I I feel great now. But God, God, all of a sudden I got back done with that job and And I and I got back in my original habits and uh And I said, God, I'm sorry. And he says, where have you been? And I said, Oh, oh man, I I'm sorry, God He says, W haven't you been praying so every day that you be witnessed to someone? And I s and it was about two or three weeks and I and I didn't pray that.

I said, and God laid it right on my heart. I said, okay, God. I want to witness the people. And at the beginning of this year, God said, you know, memorize something. And I said, Okay, I'm memorizing the Romans Road.

And I wrote it all down like I was supposed to. And uh and then that morning Oh my gosh. I witnessed the five people Uh that day. And I witnessed the guy at the gas station paying because the ticket didn't work at the pump and I need a receipt for my receipt for my worked. And I had to go in and talk.

And I talked to the guy at the thing, and I got the receipt. I talked to him for about 30, 40 minutes about God. I went out to the pump, and there's this lady and a nurse, and I stopped and said, Hey, what she is, she's a hospice nurse. I talked to her about God. I went to work, and this kid that needs to know God, I talked to him about God.

And it's just It just was miraculous that I was able to use those verses over and over again, and God just led me to do that. And I'm almost crying about it. You know what I mean? And It's just That's intimacy with God and learning to listen to Him. And having a relationship with him and let him lead you and guide you is you want to conquer things in your life, you want to conquer bad habits.

How about that? Try this. Try this. Try this one. You know, try to listen to God and say, okay, God, what are we going to do today?

And you'd be amazed. I mean, seriously. In the um World of how to get things done. One of the characteristics is what gets talked about gets done.

Well, I've come to understand better. what gets talked to God about gets done. There's just something about when you start talking to God. All right, Lord, I do need you to open a door for me to witness.

Now that you've talked to God about it, you become become more sensitive. I got a uh there's a person to witness to. And I'm always asking the Lord to open doors for me to share a birthday verse with that will open up a new way to share God's word with somebody. And when I do that, guess what he does? Here comes a plumber.

Who, hey, by the way, before you leave today, when's your birthday? And April the 10th, and I'm giving him Philippians 4.10 and 1 Chronicles 4.10. And those doors open. We talk to God about doing something for us. You know, you had one of your adoptive sons with us here at the last program we did together at the end of the year.

And he quoted this study that Lifeway had done. that people that read the Bible F more than Four times. were two hundred and thirty per cent more likely.

Now, he didn't quote this statistic. He quoted some other ones, but I went and looked at the study afterwards. And it says in that study, that you are 230% more likely to share your faith. If you read the Bible more four or more times a week. And It gets back to your point, Mike, that literally you're talking to God.

Well Apparently, according to the statistic that one of the things that's on his heart Yeah. is to have more Of your friends and the people you meet regularly in his. you know Corner, so to speak, or in heaven with you all. And so I just, that statistic, I marvel at that statistic, but I completely understand it, especially in light of the rest of your story, because you said it isn't just a matter of you were praying that again, but all of your habits. included Knowing you, Mike, right, that you were in the word again.

Right. Right. And I just kinda just got busy, you know, in life. I just got busy. I just had it just felt like I had to get this done.

I didn't allow myself to have time. And um I which I could have changed my schedule. I sh could have changed my habits. I coulda r did the still spend time with God, you know what I mean? And um I I did but it wasn't the the type when I was doing it Like I was in the past.

And when I did that, God just showed me, man. You don't need a ministry. You don't need anything. Watch what happens. You know what I mean?

You're going to talk to a lot of people today. And he did. Oh, my gosh. My wife said, Where are you at? I said, Well, I'm talking to somebody about God.

I'll be home in a few minutes. She said, What are we going to eat for dinner? I said, I don't know. You mean I have to go get something?

So, you know, it was, and I. And my wife was just saying, Wow, after I told all these stories about these different people and Uh it just it was it was a miraculous day. And um One guy said, I'm going to get to heaven on my own. And I said, oh, really? Oh, really?

I said, how's this? How's this? I'd like to know how you're going to get to heaven on my own. And then I, you know, God led me to scriptures at the time, you know, you know, all wages of sin is death, but, you know, you know, and uh, and then he said, How do you believe in the Bible? And then, you know, it was a long conversation, and it was really a good one.

And I, and he was, I have his name in my pocket because it's really hard to say. It's Battelle, and I've been praying for him, and I can't wait to go talk to him some more.

So I'm going to go ask him for a receipt for my gas the next time I need gas. And I'm hoping he's there. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't even care.

I'm going to go in and go get a receipt. You know what I mean? You know what he did? He says, I can print out 10 of these for you. And he printed out, this is on our conversation.

He printed out 10 receipts for my gas. I said, I only need one. He says, oh, here, you want another one? And he was joking with me, and I'm joking back with him in a little. But but that led into a conversation about God and um that was that was really awesome.

I mean, that was one. And uh it's just it you know, God is good. I mean, I'm telling you. You want to be filled you want to be a like a A drill-in rush, talk to someone about God. You want God in your life.

You want God knowing that you're in the right standing with God, start talking to people about God. You want to feel good about yourself, start talking to people about God. Ask God for ask God to give you that person to talk to. And you it's it's better than going to church. I mean, it it really is to me.

Um I I I I have that heart for someone to not perish. and not go to hell, but have that glorious Heaven the go to instead of that you know, that Absolutely. And other than that, so Doc, we just got a couple minutes left. Your book is out. People can that could be a great resolution is to start doing these devotions every day.

And they can get the book by going to www.date the word.com. But they can also just go to the app and sign up and get a daily devotion sent to their email. It's another easy way to get it. But the book itself is called Date the Word Daily Devotional. Of all things.

Yeah. Date the Word Daily Devotional. Date the Word Daily Devotional. No. It's on his website.

It's on my website. It's on his website. Yes, sir. Cool. Come to my website and.

And we've got it at a reasonable price. And then every day, and people who have started, they're sending me notes about how they enjoyed it.

So it's overwhelming. Of uh s I'm just I'm blown away with how people are being impacted by it. But there's also, again, just get to date the word app. And click on the verse for the day.

So, again, it's easy to get into God's word. If You stay committed. Every morning, you just got to get up and say, today I'm getting in his word. Don't quit. Don't quit.

God's never quit on you. Don't quit on Him. Don't join the Legions tomorrow. But thank you, Mike, for your call. It's awesome.

As was I'm trying to think of all the wonderful calls we had today. Kim, that was a wonderful lady with kill me before I do another series. Thank you so much for listening. We got Mike's Wick tomorrow.