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. Enjoy to host today's Truth Talk Live. It is for a lot of people, a very interesting day. The past couple days there have been winter advisories. A massive snowstorm is coming.
So we want to ask a question today. Listeners, what do you enjoy about snow? What do you enjoy about snow?
And I know some of you are already going, wait a minute. I don't enjoy anything about snow. I'm having to deal with it right now. Shoveling and I'm having to deal with it. Driving.
But I want to ask the question, what do you enjoy about snow? And I've got with me today Dan Davis from Appomattox, Virginia. And I've got Matt Shamblin.
He's out in Ashland, Kentucky. Dan and Matt, welcome to the show. Thank you, Dwayne.
Great to be here. Dan, first off from you, tell us about the snow up in Virginia. Well, here in Appomattox area, we had about three inches of snow last night. And then a little bit of ice this morning. So not quite as much as we had hoped for. But I think you were hoping for about 13 to 15 inches. Well, if it's going to snow, you kind of want it to snow and be a good one.
I hear you, Matt. How much snow do you guys get? So we've got about six inches of snow and then some ice on top of that total of about eight inches.
But a big portion of that's ice. So would you guys tell the truth? Were you looking forward to the snowstorm?
Matt, go first. You know what? The snowstorm snow like this kind of gives us two perspectives. First, I look forward to it because it does. It does kind of interrupt the schedule and allows you to do something different. But on the other hand, I don't look forward to it because it interrupts the schedule makes you do something.
Well, I did. I was looking for well, a couple of things. First of all, I mean, if I actually had my preference, it would be sunny and 75. But if it's going to be winter, I do enjoy snow and I enjoy it for a couple of reasons. But one is that I like trying to forecast it. And so I enjoy the challenge of I was always interested in weather ever since I was young. And then I enjoy it, too, because through seeing it through my kids, especially my son.
He's 12. He loves snow. We haven't had a lot of snow last couple of winters. And so he has been anticipating snow and just to see him watching and waiting for it and enjoying it. So, yeah, I've enjoyed it. Well, listeners, give us a call. I want to know what you enjoy about snow.
Three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four. Now, you don't have to be in an area right now that's gotten snow. So here in Winston-Salem, Clemens, where I live.
It's disappointing when I even hear three inches. We we just haven't had any good snow lately. When I first moved here back in 2018, we had 15 inches of snow, something like that in December. And I'm like, I'm not going to mind living here.
I've been living in Columbus, Ohio. And and that's where you get snow almost every other day. But we haven't had any really good snow. And and I got to tell you guys, I I really enjoy snow growing up in Virginia out on a farm. Snow days were just awesome. You're drop and we would go sleigh riding. And to this day, when I think about one of my most favorite days ever, I go back to when I was in high school back. Nineteen seventy nine.
I know that you two on the phone here. You're you were not even born. But we were we would go out there and get on sleds and come flying down that hill. And being on a farm. Sometimes you had to dodge camp. You had to catch cattle as they were.
By the time you start coming down, you didn't know where they were going to be. And but we just had a blast. And you can have so much fun with snow. So give us a call. What do you enjoy about snow?
One eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. We want to hear from you. And as we also think today about what we enjoy about snow. I've got Matt Chamblin on the phone.
I got Dan Davis. Both of them are pastors. And when we think about truth, talk live. What is the truth about snow? And so as we're thinking about the things we enjoy about snow, we want to think about what does the Bible have to say about snow? And and I just want you to know the Bible has the word snow. Twenty five times. You're going to find it twenty five times.
It's five times in the Book of Job. That book of wisdom. And so we're going to get some wisdom about snow today. And some of you know, this program, Truth Talk Live, is hosted by Robbie Dilmore. And Robbie and I collaborate a lot. And Robbie loves the Hebrew.
So we were talking about this show today. What do you enjoy about snow? He said, hey, I've looked up the Hebrew word for snow. And Matt, do you know what the Hebrew word for snow really means?
Dan? Well, go ahead, Matt. Well, you and I talked a little bit about this earlier, so I don't want to spoil it.
But it was surprising when you told me what it meant. OK, well, thanks for letting me be the one that will lay it out there. I'm going to tell you and then we'll come back and talk about it. We're going to a break.
But do you know that the word snow in Hebrew means the provision of quietness, the provision of quietness? So when we come back, we're going to talk about how we can learn from snow to be quiet. Hey, this is Truth Talk Live. We'll be back in just a moment. Back to Truth Talk Live.
I'm Dwayne Carson. Ministry is Date the Word. And today is January the 6th, 1-6. And a great Bible verse for today comes from Psalms 1-6. Psalms 1-6. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish.
Psalm 1 is a foundational psalm, not just for the book of Psalms, but for our lives. And and there are decisions we make that bring about bad things. And the person who decides to live the ungodly life will perish.
But they don't have to. John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And today you may be one that needs to hear this. God loves you so much. He sent his son to die for you so that you don't have to perish. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. And that's a way that he's guiding us. He leads us in paths of righteousness. And the end result is a place called heaven. He knows the way we're going to end up in heaven.
And so today Psalms 1-6 for January the sixth. We're also today on this show talking about the fact that a lot of our country has had a good amount of snow. My son sent me pictures earlier today from from the Freedom Tower in New York City where he is. And it's snowing and he's watching it come down.
My daughter in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania sent me pictures. There's snow falling there. We've got Dan Davis from Appomattox, Virginia, just outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, just outside there of Liberty University. And we've got Matt Shamblin on the phone with us.
He's out there in Ashland, Kentucky. And they've been part of where that snowstorm came straight across the country. And we're talking about snow and and what do you enjoy about snow? And I would love to hear your thoughts on your like a favorite snow day. Things you did that was so memorable.
866-348-7884. Dan and Matt, as we're talking about things that are enjoyable with snow, the Bible teaches some things about snow. And and one of the things we're learning is that the word snow means the provision of quietness. As I come come to God's word and I see this word snow 25 times, one of the things that stands out for me is in Job. God tells Job to stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Snow is a wondrous work of God. And we should stand still and just enjoy it. See the see how it falls.
Hear how it falls. And another thing that I've noticed about snow from the Bible, Isaiah 55 says that he meets our needs. Isaiah 55 10. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and it does not return, but it waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. I want us to talk about snow being a reminder that God meets our needs. And then when we think about snow, there are challenges.
And so we find in the Bible that there was a time for a man named Benaiah. He had to go deal with a lion and this lion is causing trouble for the village. And it says that on a snowy day, he went down into a pit and he killed this lion. And and I say one of the lessons from snow is we do have to be overcomers.
Sometimes we have to make tough decisions. And then lastly, when you see snow, I hope it immediately brings to your mind Isaiah 118, because Isaiah 118 says, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they're red like crimson, they shall be wool. And I'm telling you, one of the most wonderful thoughts that comes from seeing snowfall, seeing snow on the ground is that reminder that Christ, with his shed blood, cleanses us from all unrighteousness and he makes us white as snow.
And Dan and Matt, you're probably not surprised that I went with the acrostic snow standstill. He meets their needs. He's we have to be overcomers and he makes us white as snow. And so I thought we might could unpack that a little bit. And Dan, when you think about snow, the silence of snow, you were telling me about you and your son yesterday.
Tell us, tell our listeners about that. Sure. Yeah. Last night, the snow started about four o'clock or so. And so we waited a little while and we went outside, we made a fire and we had enough, once we had enough to accumulate a little bit, we got to do some sledding. But as the snow was falling, it was a bit of an icy snow. And so you could hear it hitting the trees. And I was explaining to my son, I said, when you get a really good snow, it's perfectly quiet. And one of the quietest things that you can experience. And there's I was always fascinated by that. I can even remember when I learning to drive, you talk about things we like to do in the snow.
I used to love to drive in the snow. And so it was always so quiet. The sound of the snow just muffled everything. And I think in the world that we live in where there's so much noise and whether that noise is audible noise or it's the noise of the information that we take in on our phones and everything that we're looking at.
It does remind us if I need to be still. And one of the things that goes along with snow and ice sometimes is power outages. We had one earlier today that kind of reduced the noise a little bit because you couldn't turn on the TV where we live. We can't access the Internet or things like that. We're not power. And while we were on break, we just lost power again.
Well, praise the Lord. You lost power again. Another challenge. Another challenge.
So we can get to that in a minute. But I do love how the snow sometimes for you, as Matt was saying, it changes our plans and sometimes it forces us to do less than we planned. But there is a way of stillness of silence that I think snow can bring that that we need. And sometimes we're afraid of the silence because we don't maybe want to deal with what's actually going on in our heart or our mind. And we occupy ourselves with noise. And so sometimes God uses things like this to force us to be silent or still.
That's a great point. Matt, when you think about the Christian life, how important is it to have these quiet times? Well, just to kind of take off of what Dan has said, the Lord is active in shepherding the soul of his people. And so when things like snow come up, they haven't come by chance.
There's a work of the Lord that he is doing in that time. Recently, I have I've started playing saxophone again. That's something I initially I went to college on a scholarship to play saxophone. And I hadn't played with any regularity since 1998. And some things have been going on in our life. And so I needed to just be a part of something that I hadn't where I'm not in charge, where I'm not the leader. And so I started playing.
And in order to. Matt, I'm going to get you to hold that thought. We're going to break.
Be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk live today. We're talking about what do you enjoy about snow? We've had kind of a middle of America, Kansas, 17, 18 inches of snow. Now it's snowing up all the way in New York City. You see snow.
What do you think for me growing up? I, I look so forward to snow, grow up on a farm. We could have a lot of fun. But there was also challenges with that when it snowed. Power goes out.
Dan's powers out in there in Lynchburg, Virginia. Matt was telling me that way they've had to be shoveling people's driveways today. And and, you know, that's a great ministry right there. Christians to shovel your neighbor's driveway out. Check on the those that are older.
Make sure they're doing OK. Great opportunities for ministry. As we were talking about this aspect of what can we learn from snow? Years ago, guys, you were there at Liberty with me. I was doing a message on snow. And so I went out and asked some students, what are some lessons that we could be learning from snow? And one student said, don't eat yellow snow. I tell you, some people bring great wisdom. So don't eat yellow snow.
Matt, we were talking about the component of snow reminded us to be still. And and the question was to you about this and the importance of that. And I've learned that you play the saxophone.
I did not know that. But pick up where you left off there and tell us more about this aspect of why it's important to be quiet alone with God. Well, as I was talking about playing saxophone, I don't have the same skill that I had in 1998. It's taken me a while to get back to that. And there now, when I'm presented with music, I have to slow down and parts that would have come easily before don't come so easily now. And snow has that way of doing that, slowing down the tempo of life in order to examine. And as Dan pointed out, there are times that we don't like the quiet, but the snow thrusts us into quietness and allows us to contemplate things that we would have breathed by quickly, allows us to examine portions of our life that we'd like to ignore. And that quietness really steals our soul in a way that the busyness of life does not and allows for distraction. So snow really can be a wonderful time when even when the electricity is out and there's no cars out on the road.
There's no sound. And you have that pause where you can actually hear the snow hitting the ground. It is it is a peaceful time if you allow it to be.
Yes. And I think that's one of the things I would hope to convey today as we we experience snow. Let it slow you down. Don't don't become anxious because all of a sudden we're not able to get all the things done that we wanted.
Maybe we didn't need to get all those things done. There is a component of being steel. You know, God speaks in a small steel voice.
He doesn't yell at us. And so we need these periods of be steel. Psalms 46 10 talks about being steel and know that I am God. The idea is not that you're just going to freeze, paralyze physically, but you're going to allow your mind not to stress out.
I'm going to trust God right now. And that leads to another segment on this word snow to think about how God meets our needs. As I was growing up, I've mentioned this several times now, grew up on a large farm. A dad grandfather had a farm and my granddaddy Carson loved to see it snow late January or early February because he would have planted what was called winter wheat. And he just loved to see about eight inches of snow, maybe 12, like you're talking about out there in Kentucky, Matt. And then that snow would slowly go down into the ground. And when I was reading through a Bible, I came to Isaiah 55 and I saw that verse at Isaiah 55 10. And I thought about my grandfather.
The snow fell and then it slowly goes down. And that's going to help that wheat to grow, produce a great harvest, which we get bread from the wheat. And I'm just reminded by snow God meets our needs. And when you think about God meeting your needs, a pitch is to both you guys.
What are some of your things that you're so thankful God provides for you? As you were talking about that and I was thinking about that Isaiah 55, obviously there's a lot of different needs in our life, but kind of going back to think about our overwhelming and greatest need as you've talked about is our spiritual need. And, you know, when you were talking about yellow snow, I had been thinking about on the break about, you know, things that are white, things like snow or anything white in life, it's easily stained or ruined by other things.
You know, I, you know, don't eat spaghetti when you're wearing a white shirt, if you eat like me, or those sort of things that, you know, anything can just, you know, where I grew up, you know, lots of cars and traffic and snow alongside the road within a day or so would have a gray look to it. And yet that verse Isaiah 55, I think about Psalm 51 with David, and he says in verse 7 that if you cleanse me with hyssop, I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow, that Jesus can revert, like he can take what is ugly and dirty and make it white again. In the world, things that are clean get dirty, but Jesus has the power to reverse the consequence of our sin and, you know, really meeting our greatest need.
And obviously there's so many other needs beyond that, and I'm sure Matt would talk about that, but that was just something that I was thinking about as you were talking. And give that Bible verse again, Dan, Psalms 51. Psalm 51.7, it's David after, as he is confessing his sin after his sin with Bathsheba, and again, and it's Psalm 51.7, it says, Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Just a great reminder when we see that snow, how God cleanses us from all unrighteousness, all filthiness. What a great truth.
Matt, what are you thinking? Well, very close to what Dan said, snow is a reminder of our inability. Right now there's a lot of ice, and it reminds us whether it's the inability to go and also dependence on other people. We're dependent.
It's amazing. Here I am in central Appalachian. We still have electricity. We've got mountains all around us, and it's beautiful with the snow, but we're dependent on all of those crews to make sure that the electricity continues. We're dependent on those road crews to make the roads passable, and that reminds us that in life, as much as we want to be independent, the truth is independence is a cancer to the soul.
That's a good word. Independence tries to fool us into believing that I can establish my own righteousness. And when we do that, that really eliminates, not only is it deceptive because we can't do that, but it eliminates our need for a savior. And snow is a reminder. We are a dependent people, and at the utmost, we are dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ for our righteousness. The Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags, and when we look how beautiful and clean and pure the snow is, we're reminded that what we bring to the table is filthy rags, but the Lord Jesus Christ makes us as white as snow. No, that's good.
That's good. You were saying this aspect of others, and we're dependent on others. Others are dependent on us, and sometimes we get this mindset, I don't need others. Well, I'll remind all of us, others need us. And today you have that opportunity with your Christianity to put it into action, to be a help to somebody who's had to deal with this snow, because with snow comes obstacles, it comes challenges.
And, you know, Benaiah, trying to find the verse here, down in 2 Samuel, Benaiah, he had to go out there in a very dangerous time, so that even though it was slippery, it was scary, he couldn't back down, and sometimes we have to make tough decisions. And I want us to think about these tough decisions that we have to make as we're headed into 2025 now. And I'm setting us up to talk about how, Dan and Matt, we make sure we don't quit on Quitter's Day, and that's coming Friday. This is Truth Talk Live.
I'm Dwayne Carson. Thanks for listening. We'll be right back in just a moment after these few words.
Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. We're talking about snow, and when I was ahead of school here in Winston-Salem, we had a lot of kids who knew how to sing the song, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, and they were always hoping that as soon as I heard that there was even the slightest possibility of snow, that I would close the schools, and yesterday we started getting notifications that schools were being closed, and truth be told, I was supposed to be in Pennsylvania today to speak at a chapel tomorrow, and they're closed because of the snow. Sometimes when it snows, God is, as we've been talking, causing us to slow down, causing us to pause, to rest, to enjoy the peace. We live in a busy, noisy world, and there's something about snow that when it's falling, so peaceful, but there is, on the other side, sometimes when it snows, you've still got to go, and there are people who we're thankful that go when it snows, like those men and women that go out and repair lines that have fallen, trees, ice may have fallen on them, and they go out to get the power back on. They have to be overcomers, and I'm reminded again from 2 Samuel 23, 20, that Benaiah, he went down into the midst of a pit on a snowy day to kill a lion.
He had to protect his town, and even though it was difficult, he did that. Sometimes, folks, you have to make tough decisions. You have to do the tough thing. Yesterday, at our church service, our pastor spoke on some things that happen after we make resolutions, and he brought out a fact that now we have a National Quitters Day. Friday, January the 10th, is National Quitters Day. That's the day when most people who've made a resolution will end their commitment to fulfilling their resolution.
I've got two guests on today, Matt Shamblin, Ashlyn Kentucky, Dan Davis, just outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, in Appomattox, Virginia. Let's talk for a moment about being overcomers. What does it take to be an overcomer, and I'm going to come to you first, Dan.
I think, and it probably ties into something we were talking about earlier. Matt was talking about the danger that we have in independent thinking, or thinking that we don't need anyone, or that we don't need God. And certainly, if that's our mindset, and we're not a Christian, then that could keep us from coming to Christ. But even once we have come to Christ, I think sometimes we forget how much we need to daily depend on God. And it's easy to think, well, I know how to do this now. I've handled this situation before. I've been through that. And it's easy for us to sort of take matters in our own hands. And so sometimes I think it's remembering that we need to step back and realize that we're not as strong as we think that we are, and that we need God's power.
We need to depend on Him. And I ran into one of my former deacons from my first church the other week. He's 84 years old, and he was using the self-checkout line at Walmart.
So it tells you something about how sharp he is. And we talked about a few things. But his wife passed away recently, and just talking about the challenges he's gone through. But in his 80s, he's helped start a nonprofit.
He drives a truck to deliver food that they pick up at farms and take to charities and people that distribute that food. And he reminded me, he said, your mindset is so important. And he talked about a mentality. And I just think having our mindset fixed on Christ. You know, I think about Hebrews, like fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And so I think when it comes to being an overcomer and dealing with the hard things is that we don't have to do it alone. But we do need to have a mindset that is focused on Christ and His strength and His power. Yeah, that passage that you just mentioned out of Hebrews says, let us run the race with endurance.
It's going to be hard, but we can be strengthened by Christ. Matt, not quitting, how does the aspect of accountability come in? Well, accountability is when we have people that we trust who come alongside of us and hold us accountable. It can be one of the most helpful things that we experience because if they're, obviously, if they're people that we trust and people that are there to help us and not hurt us, then we have given them access into our life to call us out, not because they want to harm us but because they want to see us succeed. And having an accountability partner, somebody who comes along, has that access into our life can change everything. They say that those who make New Year's resolutions and do that with others have multiple, multiple times more success than those who try to go it alone.
That's it. You know, having a workout partner takes a treadmill from a clothes rack to an instrument that can really help you be healthy. So accountability changes everything. I'm a big believer that the first person I lead is me, 1 Corinthians 9, 27. The first person I lead is me. In leading me, I then immediately get help because 2 Timothy 2, 22 tells me to pursue righteousness and love and faith with those. So like you guys, I consider you guys accountability partners for me that I need to stay in this race and keep enduring. And I know you guys have allowed me to, at times, speak very direct into your lives because I want you to run the race well and finish well.
Accountability is so important. And we'll find out Monday and Tuesday next week, those who decided to stay at their resolutions. I'm going to read my Bible 15 minutes a day.
They'll do so because they most likely have an accountability partner saying, Hey, did you take time to get alone and read God's Word today? As we think about snow, we have time for you callers to call in, 866-348-7884. Love to hear your thoughts on lessons from snow. Give us a call here. We'd love to hear what you're thinking, something that you enjoyed.
I want to come back to Dan and Matt before we wrap up. I want to hear about their most enjoyable time in snow. But when we think about snow, one of the things we've said now, snow, stand still, be still, just enjoy it. Know that God meets your needs.
Know that you're going to need to be an overcomer. But whenever I see snow, one of the first things I think about is Isaiah 118. Though my sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.
And for you listeners out there, this is for when you see snow, it's a witnessing opportunity. But if you're listening today and you don't know the Lord, I want you to know that it doesn't matter what you have ever done, you can be made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. I was preaching in a rescue mission years ago. And while I was preaching, a young man had his head down and he just never, ever looked up at me. And when I got to the end, I made the statement I just made here on the radio that it doesn't matter what you've ever done, you can be made cleansed and made white as snow. And this young man looked up at me and I said, I want you to know again, Isaiah 118, I gave him that verse. I said that verse out again that God is inviting you, come, though your sins are scarlet, filthy, they will be made white as snow. And he verbalized to me, even me? And I didn't know what he had ever done.
But I said, yes, yes, young man, even you. And that young man that day got saved, gloriously saved, as he asked the Lord to come into his heart. And that's a memory for me now, whenever I do hear about snow, that God can cleanse any person, no matter what they've done.
And I'm very thankful for that. Today, when you think about snow, know that we have a savior that shed his blood so that you could be made as white as snow, righteous, and be able to stand before a holy God and enjoy all eternity with him. Now, before we close, Dan, I want to hear from you one of your most favorite, enjoyable times in snow. And then, Matt, same thing from you. Dan, tell us about a favorite memory. We've got about a minute or so here to go. So each one of you, about 30 seconds. Probably two things. One was getting off school, and we did it by radio.
So I still, to this day, can remember listening to the number 803 to be read out on the radio so that I know I didn't have to go to school. And then probably over the last several years, it's just been getting to enjoy snow with the kids and getting out and doing night sledding, making fires, making memories. So I think snow provides opportunities for memories.
Go quick, Matt. I love spending time with my wife and kids in the snow. I don't like to play in the snow, but they sure do. And watching them laugh just makes it all worth it. Well, guys, thank you for joining me today. Enjoy the snow. This has been Truth Talk Live!
