Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. What is your hope this Christmas or Advent season?
So, this is a call-in show, and I would love, love, love to know, you know, what are you hoping for this Christmas? And, you know, if you even want us to pray with you, that would be awesome. You can call us. The number is 866-348-7884.
866-348-7884. What is your hope, right? If you follow the Advent season, like the first week of Advent has to do with that candle of hope, and that word hope is gigantic in so many different ways. I love, love, love all the connections that it has when you dig into the Scripture, and while you even might see that one of the main themes of Christmas is the idea of red or crimson, and did you know the connection that had to the word hope? Well, you're going to find out in today's show, I assure you, is, you know, I love to dig into words, and I love to see what connects all the dots in Scripture. And so, along those lines, your hope is a big, big deal to God. And He would love, love to get in on that.
We would like to get in on that, what that might be. You know, I was thinking about my own, and my own hope may sound a bit funny, but it fits in with the second week of Advent, which has to do with peace, but it also has to do with repentance, because you might remember John the Baptist came, and he has to do with that second week. And that whole idea of repentance is really as simple as just turning back to God, and really seeking His face.
And in my own case, I just go, man, it'd be good if I could do that more consistently every minute of the day, and if so, then I would be enjoying Jesus, have Him pointing me in the direction I need to go this whole season, you know, get my eyes off of myself, and get my eyes on what the Lord would have me do in these different situations. That's my own hope, but I would love to know what yours is. 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884. The show's nowhere near as fun, is it? Like, if you heard our show yesterday, oh my goodness, the calls we had that just lit up my world all week.
I'm never going to forget those calls, and I would love to never forget yours. So you call us, 866-348-7884. So the word hope in Hebrew is a spectacular idea. The first time you find it is actually when Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law, is talking to her and her sister, talking about that she didn't have a lot of hope that they could still have children, based on the fact that she did not have any more sons, that, you know, she didn't have a kinsman redeemer, but then as it worked out, it all was true that she definitely did have hope. When you take that word that's translated hope right there, it's takava, and that word is first used very much connected to the idea of the crimson thread.
Maybe you've heard of the crimson thread. It goes throughout the Bible. The first time you see the word crimson, which has to do with a red worm, which we'll get into in a minute, but the first place you see that, first place of the thread is when Zerah is born to Tamar in the book of Genesis. She put a scarlet thread around his ankle, and that would lead to a lot of connections to the Messiah, as we'll find out more through the show today. But nonetheless, there is this crimson thread, and that word crimson is the word that is translated in the 22nd Psalm. If you're familiar with King David, he wrote the 22nd Psalm, and it starts out, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me, right?
And you probably heard that Jesus quoted that one from the cross. Well, if you go down and add a few more verses, you're going to see that he describes himself as a worm, but he doesn't just describe himself as any old worm. He describes himself as the crimson worm. It's a scarlet worm.
It's pronounced Tola in Hebrew. And this particular worm, this is really cool. This is very much connected to Hope, that this female worm will attach itself to a tree. I get the picture Jesus attached himself to a tree, and then she dies after she lays her eggs.
Her eggs are there between her body and the tree. And when those eggs hatch, the way that those baby worms survive is they eat their mother. And when they do, it creates this red dye that they use to dye things red and used them in ancient times. In fact, it was a very, very, very costly dye, and that's the reason why scarlet was so valuable back in those days, because they had to find these trees that were marked with the crimson worms, and they would harvest this color outside of the crimson worms. But if you get the picture that when you take communion in your own way, right, you're eating this person that provided you life.
And we're talking about spiritual life in both the blood and the bread. And so that idea of the crimson thread, you see, that word crimson is that word. So when, again, Tamar put that crimson thread around, you know, her son, that was Tola, that she used that word that, again, would forever be connected to the idea of hope, because the first time you see that word takava, which, again, is the word hope, not the word crimson or the word red, but we find both of them in this passage. In Joshua 2 18, when, you might remember, Rahab was a prostitute there in Jericho, and she had housed the two spies, or maybe there was two, I think it was two. But anyway, she housed the spies that came out of Israel to see if Jericho could be defeated or what the wall looked like and all those kind of things.
And because she housed them and kept them from getting killed, you know, she asked them if they would somehow or another make sure that she would be saved. And so what they told her to do in Joshua 2 18, behold, when we come into the land, thou shall bind this line, which, by the way, is the word hope, of scarlet thread in the window and let it down, and we shall bring thy father and thy mother and their brethren, all thy household, unto thee. In other words, you see, here we find both the crimson thread and the word hope combined here in Joshua 2 18 with Rahab, which later would be, again, in the genealogy of Jesus. So you get the whole picture that, like, Rahab had to make it in order for Rahab to be in the line of Jesus. In other words, that same DNA that ended up, you know, that Mary would have, however all that would work, is very much connected to hope, because where's the hope that you and I have this Christmas?
It is very much red that has to do with this crimson worm. But how about you? What are you hoping for this Christmas? I need your call. 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. We'll be right back with a whole lot more hope.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. What is your hope this Christmas? It's the Advent first week, and that candle would be hope, and so, you know, what a neat thing to just pray and ask God, like, what is it that I should be hoping for?
How can I dig into this idea? You know, I love the whole, I love, love, love this season. It's such an opportunity to really, I don't know, just, it's warm, it's nice to be inside, and those kind of things, to just dig into the Word, dig into your prayer life, and ask God as we go into this season, you know, a little bit of, you know, one of my big hopes, personally, is, you know, for a word for 2025, like, God, you know, where are we going in 2025? And can you give me a word or some signal of some of the things that will, the adventures that we're going to be taking in 2025? What is your hope?
866-348-7884 is the number to call in and share. Again, you know, maybe you got a wayward son or daughter or something like that, and I would love to pray with you if that's, you know, the situation. I certainly have been there, and my good friend James Banks, who wrote Prayers for Prodigals, you know, one of his honors is to have that wall at his church where he prays for prodigals.
It's an honor. And, or maybe it's to have a situation at work be resolved, or, you know, I'm sure that there's hopes in there somewhere, and, you know, what an opportunity to share, think about it, talk about it. Maybe you got a question about the idea of hope?
866-348-7884. So we were talking about this whole idea of the crimson worm and the idea of the use of the word hope and their connection, certainly to Christmas, and the idea of the red that you'll see throughout Christmas in so many different ways is that this red worm that David referred to himself in the 22nd Psalm, as Jesus was quoting the 22nd Psalm from the cross, obviously, that when he said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? You know, he's quoting the 22nd Psalm, and in that Psalm he describes this worm that is a tolet that is the crimson worm. And so this crimson worm that attaches itself to a tree and then lays its eggs, the eggs consume the mother's body in order to have life, and in doing so they dye the tree this color red, and that dye is available in these worms.
And it was really, really costly to extract it, and so it made it very valuable. And so it's fascinating that you'll find not only is the red thread there in, you know, Genesis, where Tamar put the red thread on her son's ankle, Zoah, and then it was used again by the priests in Leviticus 14. It talks about if you're going to be cleansed from leprosy, you had to have a pigeon and you had to have some wood and you had to have some running water and you had to have a scarlet thread. Because, again, how would Jesus save us? How would we actually have hope if it had not been for the scarlet thread? Obviously, him attaching himself to a tree, which has all sorts of significance, the whole idea of wood and sacrifice throughout the Bible, even the wood of the ark, it's always connected. And then there's the red of his blood, clearly, that made us free. And if we weren't free, I would have no hope, honestly, especially even, you know, the idea of my own repentance. Or, you know, maybe there's some spiritual thing that you're hoping for this year. You know, I would just love to know your story.
I'd love to talk to you. 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. And the scarlet thread, it runs clear through, obviously. If you even look around, you know, at any house that's decorated for Christmas, I'd be willing to bet that you're going to see some red. And as a matter of fact, as I look over to my producer right this second, you have a very bright red shirt on. That's almost scarlet red, isn't it, Nick?
So, you know, Nick, you knew you were going to get queued for this because we don't seem to have any callers, so I'm calling on you. So Nick, what is your hope in this Advent season? You've been thinking about this idea of hope, and you looked up the Advent calendar and all that stuff. It was kind of interesting, isn't it? Yeah, it is interesting. It is interesting. You're actually the first person that told me how to describe me what an Advent was.
I had no idea what it was, but then you showed me. So, but yeah, something I'm kind of hoping for, it's just peace. I definitely just hope for peace around us because, you know, people, they're so far on either side. I really do hope that people can, like, come to the middle, you know, stop all the fighting, stop all the unnecessary negativity being filled around.
Filled around. And so that's definitely what I hope for this Christmas, the upcoming new year as well. Oh, that's cool. You know, it's interesting that the second week of Advent, as you know, is what?
Because you looked it up today. It's peace, right? And so right after hope comes peace. And, you know, in this season, certainly, the division of the, you know, anytime you have an election year, but it seemed really hyped up. It was very, it was very intense.
It was very intense. And, you know, God loves unity, you know, a country divided against itself can't stand, or people divided against themselves can't stand. And so it's pretty cool when you actually see people on either side of an argument come together and begin to work together again to, you know, solve, you know, common problems. And then that will bring, which will be the next one, will be joy. So after the peace comes the joy. So, yeah.
Yeah, you see how that, it's, yeah. And it's kind of neat that actually for hundreds of, actually thousands of years, I guess, almost, you know, I think it was 400 AD when they began the season of Advent and the idea of in Latin that that begins the word adventure, that actually it was an arrival of something that was going to happen, which is the arrival of Jesus on the 25th. And, you know, when I was a kid, you know, we had these Advent calendars.
So maybe you had an Advent tradition. I would love to hear it. I would love to talk to you.
866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. Maybe you have some feeling about Advent. There was a gentleman yesterday that called that I didn't get a chance to get to that just didn't like Christmas being celebrated at all.
Like, man, I'm really interested to talk to you. I would love to know what that's about. And so 866-348-7884, but we had a calendar. And it was one of the joys, you know, of the season was that, like, before we went to school, you know, we would have a little—there was a little window that you would open, and it would show something from the Christmas season of a donkey or, you know, a shepherd or something that had to do with the Christmas story, angels, you know, we have heard on high, those kind of things. And they were all in that little Advent calendar.
As you opened each box, you would see one. And then obviously on the Sundays, when you started the new week, then they would have the candle and, you know, get that whole idea of what you're getting into. And so for me, you know, not that every day isn't a holy day, but there is something that's in the air.
All these people, you know, the word Christmas has Christ in it, and a lot of them are using it in their vocabulary. And it seems like an open opportunity to grow closer to God, and it seems like an open opportunity to grow closer to each other. And so, you know, we're going to lose some folk in Winston-Salem, but the other folks are in Ohio and in Richmond, etc., you're going to be with us. We've got to have some calls.
866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. What is your hope this Christmas? Coming right back. What is your hope this Advent season? And I love that whole idea of joy to the world on so many levels, like, let every heart prepare him room.
And that's the idea of Advent from my standpoint, to a great extent. But what's your idea? What is it that you're hoping for this Christmas? We would love to hear from you.
866-348-7884, 866-348-7884. Maybe your hope is what that song, Joy to the World, was about Jesus' second coming. Like, you're hoping that'll happen tonight. Me too.
That would be awesome, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be like, man, I Can Only Imagine is a great song that we could only be imagining tonight, what it would be like to fall down at Jesus' feet. It's a beautiful thing. But maybe your hope is in a better marriage, or maybe your hope is in really finding the path of life, like it says in Psalm 16. I love the last verse, I think it's verse 11, where it says, You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. You hear all that.
There's a lot of Christmas themes right there in that. So, again, we would love—oh, we would love to have a phone call. 866-348-7884. We've got all these lines open, you know, and they're there for you to call. We would love for you to do that.
866-348-7884. So the first candle in Advent is purple, usually, that they light, and of course it represents the idea of hope we've been talking about all show. But it's also called the prophet's candle, and it's a prophet's candle from the standpoint of the prophets were the ones that were giving the people the hope. There is a Messiah coming. Hope is on the way, right?
Your help is on the way. It's coming, it's coming, it's coming. And so some of those prophecies that we talk about in this first week is, you know, Isaiah 7 and 14, where it says, He would be born of a virgin. Like, wow, that's spectacular when you think about it on all sorts of different levels. He'd be born in Bethlehem. That's in Micah 5, 2, right? And that idea of Bethlehem, that would be the house of bread.
The word Beth means house of, but lehem means bread. And how meaningful is that, since Jesus obviously described himself as the bread of life, and he offered all that bread, right, that he fed the 5,000 and 4,000, all that. And so really, really cool that he would be born in Bethlehem, also on the level that that was where Rachel's tomb was, and a lot of neat things about that, and also that it was the home of David. King David was born there and raised there, and that's where he raised those sheep and all those kind of things. So Bethlehem's a huge deal, and the fact that he would come from that same town is, you know, one of the prophecies that they were hoping on. And certainly when Matthew would pin that idea that he was there, that people would see the fulfillment of that. It says in Hosea 11 and 1, it says he would spend time in Egypt, right, out of Egypt.
They will call my son. This is the prophecy Matthew talked about, and that's out of Hosea 11. And that idea was, you might remember, that after the three wise men came—or I shouldn't say three—after the wise men came, however many there were, there were three gifts for sure, and after those wise men came, you know, Joseph had a dream that they needed to exit stage left, because Herod would get very mad, and he would kill all the young boys that were the age that Jesus would have been in the city in the city of Bethlehem.
And so Jesus went to live in Egypt for that period of time until Herod, that particular Herod, would be gone. And so here is that particular prophecy, which seems really interesting in it, that just as the Israelites came out of Egypt, Jesus too, he would. And that's clearly in one of those prophecies. And it says he would start his ministry in Galilee, Isaiah 9, 1, and 2. I don't know if you realize that was prophesied too, like, what? How did he get from Bethlehem to Galilee? Well, you know, it's kind of cool that certainly, again, the prophets were telling the story, you know, long before what was going to happen was going to happen, just like we know, just from that song, Joy to the World, which was written about the Second Coming, that he's coming back.
And when he does, oh, man, there's going to be a lot of stuff that's going to be made right. But in the meantime, just like John the Baptist was that messenger, that we have an opportunity to repent, and by repent, meaning turning our face back to Jesus, like, what does that look like for you, right? Or maybe what did it look like for you in the past, in maybe your Christmas past, where you repented and all of a sudden God came through, like, you know, we heard this amazing, amazing story yesterday. We would love to hear yours.
866-348-7884 is the number to call in and share. And believe me, I would love to talk about whatever you have on this whole idea of Christmas and this season. Maybe, you know, we talked about actually, we have a new minute coming on The Truth Network. It's from Oasis Ministries, Alicia Grimes, who sometimes hosts this show, and I was recording with her today, and we were talking about Santa Claus. And maybe your hope is that there would not be so much hype about Santa Claus, but there's a wonderful, wonderful, if you ever get a chance to see it, a video by John Lynch, wonderful pastor out of Phoenix, I think, Arizona.
I think it's called True Faced. And he talked about the Santa Claus is coming to town theology, about what a legalist, he said, you know, those of us who can't handle God, we can't handle Santa Claus. And obviously we can't handle Santa Claus because he's got this legalistic mentality, like, he's making a list. He's checking it twice, you know, if you're not good, you know, you're going to get coal. So it's a completely, like, legalistic-based process that we grow up with that you've got to perform if you're going to get the goods.
And, you know, God's economy just isn't that way, and it's fascinating how the culture goes with this whole Santa Claus idea, but wait a minute, you better not pout. You know, he sees you when you're sleeping, that's a little creepy. But we've got Mike, is in Dayton, Ohio. He's got clarity for us, I'm glad. Mike, you're on Truth Talk Live.
Hi. This hope, you know, I'm just confused a little bit. Maybe you can answer my question a little bit. Hope is the things that you haven't seen, is that correct? Right. That's how Paul described it, right.
Right. And so I'm kind of confused a little bit, not confused, but just I'm pondering all this stuff. And what am I hope for? Oh gosh. I guess I'm hoping for my children to get closer to God. That would be awesome.
Yeah. Hoping me and my wife would have a deeper relationship. I mean, we have a great relationship, but you know, just a little bit deeper. You know what I mean? Just not that she knows every time I turn around that I'm doing something wrong. It's something, you know, that we can just have, just, you know, she is my best friend. Don't get me wrong if she's listening. I don't know.
I hope not. But several times I've, you know, I've talked to your wife. Yeah, I know. She's not listening.
So I know that that's clearly the case, but. Yeah. She might be listening. You know, she might be calling in afterwards.
I don't know. So it sounds like your hopes are about the same as mine, actually, to some extent, because I'm sure that you're hoping for a close relationship with God as well, a close relationship for your kids with God, and certainly a close relationship with your wife and your kids, I'm sure. And so I'm going to make you a deal. I'll pray for you if you pray for me, okay?
That's a deal. So Lord, thank you for Mike. I thank you so much for his wonderful heart. I thank you for his wife and for his kids and certainly that you gave him the stewardship of that family, Lord.
And we know that you meant that for good. And so Lord, I pray that you would come into that situation, return the hearts of the children to their father, meaning their heavenly father, and certainly to their earthly father. I pray that you would, you know, help them to see, help them to taste, help them to taste and see how amazing you are, Lord. I pray for Mike's children that they would have that experience. I pray for his wife and he that they would see how their marriage is a picture of our marriage to you, Lord, and that they would be so fruitful that people would see the love and the devotion, the intimacy there, that they would, man, how did these people get there?
And they would have the hope immediately that they would be able to tell people this came from Jesus. And I certainly pray for Mike that you would just make him hungry and thirsty for you and give him that wisdom and understanding to turn to you in all situations and in everything by prayer and supplication, right? Make his request known to you that you would give him, right, the peace that would transcend all understanding that would guard his heart and his mind in Christ Jesus. In this name, I pray Jesus, amen. Amen. Dear Lord, I just pray for Robbie, Lord, the same things that he wants his children, his wife.
He also wants faith in you, Lord, trust in you, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, we got another whole segment and we need your call. Thank you, Mike. We're going to stay with me.
You're welcome. Just hang in there. I got some other stuff I want to talk to you about, but I want to talk to you.
I want to call in 866-348-7884. We'll be right back with a whole lot more hope. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. What is your hope? What are you hoping for this Christmas or this Advent season? I would love to hear it. I really, really would.
866-348-7884. What are you hoping for? And again, this invitation to prepare him room as we go through this Advent season and dig deep into these concepts. I think that I love the idea of intimacy, Mike, and maybe you've heard it said that, into me see, right? And actually the sermon I did this week at West Asheville Baptist Church was on into me see, right? If we could see into you or we could see into God, then the idea of intimacy biblically is then you will be fruitful, right? That there's fruit of the womb for sure, like new Christians would be born, but also there's fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, all those things we're just talking about in the Advent season.
They come out of intimacy. Intimacy with God leads to fruit, intimacy with each other also can lead to all sorts of amounts of fruit. And so the invitation, the hope of Advent in so many ways is this idea of intimacy. But to have intimacy, we got to be honest and we got to take off the masks that we wear, especially with God, but also with each other. And I was talking to my producer at the break that it's not so easy for people to talk about what they hope for because it requires a certain amount of taking off the mask.
Well, there are things in my life that aren't what I was hoping they would be, right? And so that whole idea of intimacy is right there. But it's interesting, I read a book one time, Mike. It was written by John Owen on communing with the triune God.
John Owen was one of the great authors of the, I guess, the early 1600s, somewhere in there when the Puritans were writing volumes and volumes like Matthew Henry. And so he wrote this book. And what he said, I've never forgotten about despair. He said, nothing hurts God's feelings more than despair.
Didn't think that he is not coming to the rescue. Yeah. And, you know, um, you know, I have plenty of boldness and, you know, and I'm hoping to have more, um, you know, God, God leads me into things that, that is pretty fun.
Um, not fun, but it's interesting what God does to you. Our dog, God flees all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you know, and I'm just today went to, uh, um, uh, Pet Mart and I got some flea soap and some, some stuff for our dog. And I'm in line and this lady's telling me, I sold her, I have a little Chihuahua, you know, and it's small. And she was really helping me out and telling me all about what, how to do all that, you know? And I said to her, you know, I hope you have a good Christmas. She says, well, thank you.
I hope you do too. And I says, you know, there's a reason for the season. And she goes, looked at me and she goes, yeah, Jesus died for you and was born for, you know, and I, you know, I, it's not exactly what I said, but anyways, I, you know, there's a reason for the season. And she goes, I know, you know, I, we, we, we both have to remember that. And the lady right next to me, she was in line. She goes, I don't mind waiting online when, when people are talking about God.
And I says, I love that too. And it was, it's so uplifting, just God sent me there just to get flea soap for her dog. And I'm thinking, why did you do this to me, God?
Why does our dog got fleas, you know? And it's so interesting that God will use every moment of your life if you allow him to. And I could have easily not allowed him to, you know what I mean? Oh, especially when it comes to, God's all about soap. If you look at Malachi chapter three, I mean, it's a whole bunch on soap right there, which has to do with a little bit.
I'm remembering. Malachi talks about the launderer soap, right? That's part of what the Messiah would do is, is be able to remove that crimson stain, right? Cause our, our souls have it.
And, and the idea of hope is that, that we're going to remove it. And, and it, and it comes from that launderer soap that, or flea soap as the case may be. Cause you know, fleas, but I do love that. And, and you just don't know, you know, when and where, you know, God's going to give you that opportunity. Like, man, I'm all, I don't know. I'm kind of angry, kind of disappointed, like, Oh, you know, here we go.
I got to give the dogs a bath, you know, they got fleas. And, and, and then, and God humbled me enough to, you know, I mean, to, to, to be a witness in the season, you know, and it's an easy season to be a witness in, you know, I mean, it's really is. And, um, we just need to allow God to do that in our lives. You know, we need to let our hearts be open to, and that's why I love Christmas. Um, people might not like Christmas, but, uh, this is a neat, like, like the commercial, uh, on online, it's so easy to be a Christian at this time of year. And, and, and we need to shine, you know, as Christians. And that's my hope that, uh, yeah, cause it's, it's fascinating that you think about it, Mike, that, that it gets darker from a standpoint of the world turns it all on.
I mean, we got cyber Monday and this and that, and who knows what all right. There's, there's all sorts of darkness that's coming after it, but just like you say, well, all those people are aggravated because the lines are long or they're aggravated because the traffic's horrible or they're aggravated. Then, then as, as you show, right, the love of Christ in those situations and even just a smile on your face, like they look down the line and you know, here's the only guy smiling and his dog got pleased. I always, I, I illustrated this at bootcamp a couple of weeks ago.
I always illustrated the nursing home. I said, I'm going to illustrate the fruit of the spirit for you because every single fruit of the spirit has within it the seed for more fruit, right? Cause if you eat an apple, how many apple trees could you grow?
Which would have thousands apples, right? So it's the same way with the fruit of the spirit and I'll show you. So I just, I just walk up to whoever is sitting there with a big frown on their face and I just get right in their face and I put a big smile and, and you watch, they cannot, you cannot get in front of somebody and do that and they won't smile.
It's impossible, right? If you got the boldness to do it and then when they smile, then you just point out that your smile had the seed in it for another smile and, and another smile and another smile. And so it's amazing, you know, you know, one of my favorite pieces of the armor are the, are the shoes of good news, right?
Are the feet fitted with a gospel? Well, you know, I haven't seen many people coming with a big frown on their face that looked like they had good news, right? And I don't know if you remember, there's a passage, it's in second Samuel where, where, where David's son is, you know, they're in this huge battle and unfortunately his son is hung and Zohab spears him and they send two runners and David's on the wall looking for the runners. And when he sees the first one, he goes, oh, that's so-and-so I can see by the way he running, he's bringing good news. Right. And, and, and, and the way that we run, you know, people will know that's the guy that usually brings good news. You know that, oh, here comes Mike.
This is going to be good news. You know, well, I just give you another example. I'm sitting in the parking lot of the bowling alley, get right here and go bowling. And the owner of the bowling alley does, you just heard that honk, right? Yeah. He was honking at me because he was happy to see me. And, uh, you know, and he, he had, he got out of his car with the biggest smile and he waved to me and, and that's what we need to, we need to come across. We don't need to be frown faces. Like you said, we need to be happy people and being happy is because we have the hope and God and the hope and the, and our, our, our, you know, who, where we're going to go after we die. Yeah. All the joy of the Lord is your strength strength.
Yeah. And, and here's a funny, if I was going to be really transparent, Mike, that when I first started doing a Christian car guy show years and years ago, I guess almost 20 years ago now, my, my producer, Beth Ann, who was awesome. She said, you know, Robbie, you laugh all the time. You know why? And she said, it's funny because your trademark is your laugh. People like to listen because of your laugh. But what's funny is, you know why you laugh all the time?
I said, no, why? And she goes, cause you're nervous. And it's true. It is, it's interesting, but there's something inside of that, that the joy of the Lord is my strength. Right.
Yeah. And, and, and people say, I have a funny laugh. And a lot of times that's because I'm nervous when I'm talking to them and I laugh and try to, you know, and I, and I have the same tick, I guess you would call it. So, you know, it's, um, it's allowing God to speak through you is not easy. You know what I mean?
It's really not. You can try to think it up yourself, but you allow God to speak through you and allow the spirit of God be in you. Uh, it's easier as you talk and the more you do it, the better you are at it. You know what I mean? So, um, and then it just becomes natural because God is loving you and you're loving God. And, and then it shows to people, you know, so. I, I, I think that's really, I find that fascinating. I always have that, you know, God gives you things that you had no idea. That's a complete gift. Okay. Your laugh, Mike, it's a gift. My laugh is God gave it.
Right. And, uh, he gave you the boldness and I, you know, he, he keeps working on all of us. And so as all of you listening right now, just like, man, what an opportunity we have for hope. What do we have an opportunity for joy and all these things as we go through this season, light your candle and shine for the world. Another program powered by the truth network.
