Episode 56
Listen to the podcast HERE
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Hey everyone! On this episode, I’ll be reading some comments I’ve received and also answer a few questions you’ve submitted via the contact form. I encourage all of you to do that, go to KingdomHeroBlog.com/contact – that’s KingdomHeroBlog.com/contact. Also on today’s show, I want to talk about an epidemic that is being widely ignored. It is indeed a national crisis. We’ll get into that later on. But your questions and comments are first on the agenda. So, let the Kingdom Heroics begin!
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Alrighty then. I am stoked to finally get into some of the comments and questions we’ve received here at the Kingdom Hero Show. First, let’s start with our mission statement: To advance the Kingdom of God through study of the Word and making real-world application of Godly character and Kingdom-mindedness.
Our central theme passage of scripture is from Micah 6:8… “Seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” With all this in mind, let’s jump into today’s episode and get to some comments and questions. Okay…?
Ask Away – Q & A segment jingle (in)
Jack in Doraville, GA – My wife got me started listening to your program a few months ago. I’m glad you’re back now doing more. You really got me thinking recently about some things. I especially enjoyed your interview with your pastor, and the recent show about the unseen enemy. God bless you, and keep telling it like it is.
Thank you, Jack. And thank your wife for me. Great to have you both as listeners. And I’m always gratified when I can make people think. We need to do more of that. Thinking for ourselves, rather than having the mainstream media tell us what to think.
Paula in Sandy Springs – Enjoy the show. I used to read your blog, but I’m a bigger fan of the podcast. I was saddened to hear of your father’s passing last year. Hope your family is adjusting and doing well. Thank you for being a voice in the wilderness that is the internet.
Ooh, I like that. A voice in the wilderness that is the internet. That’s awesome. I’m gonna have to use that in a future promo for the show or something. Love it. Thanks so much for the condolences as well, Paula!
Emil in Lakeland, FL – Greetings to you, Stacy or is it Stace? Not sure how you say it. I am from Turkey, but have lived in the US for 24 years. First heard your internet program last week so I am new. Can you please explain to me the reason why you feel Christian people should be involved greatly in the process of the government and politics? I happen to agree but want your perspective on this matter. Thank you!
First of all, thank you, Emil, for the thoughtful question. I’ll address it in a moment. But regarding my name, it is in fact Stacey, S-T-A-C-E-Y, however I have gone by the shortened version “Stace,” S-T-A-C-E, for most of my life. I just drop the Y off the end. So, yeah. It’s just Stace.
As to your question about the need for Christians to be involved in the American governmental process, politics, and so forth… I strongly believe that it’s vital to the security and sovereignty of our nation, and I’m happy to explain why. But for the sake of argument, let me put the Christian aspect aside for a moment. I hope it will become clear why as I go through this.
We have a unique situation here in the United States – not just unique, but also marvelous and inspired. I really believe that. See, our founding fathers knew first-hand what tyranny was like. They understood oppression. They had endured their fair share of it under the rule of King George in England. So when they struck out to start a new country of their own, they were quite adamant about establishing a system in which they could govern themselves. These were some very intelligent people.
The result was a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people had the responsibility of electing, or choosing, their governing officials who would then represent them and their interests. If these representatives ever stepped out of line or ceased to perform their duties adequately, they could be replaced by the people in the next election. Those elected officials were motivated to stay true to their constituents, knowing others would be elected in their place otherwise. But somewhere along the way, this system was circumvented by the special interests of the corrupt.
I contend that we, as Americans, owe it to our founders as well as to our posterity to right these wrongs and put our nation back on track. I’ll bring our duty as Christians into the mix in a bit, but make no mistake, it is our responsibility as Americans to make sure this country is kept on its original footing. Freedom doesn’t happen automatically. No, it has to be protected and nurtured.
We have to hold our elected officials accountable. As the people from whom their power is derived, we have a responsibility to be engaged and make sure that they are truly being representative of us. When they aren’t serving our best interests, we better call them on the carpet for that. This idea that we should just sit back, stay in our lane, let them just go on unchecked, that is exceedingly dangerous and it’s not how our Constitutional Republic was designed to function.
Now, as to Emil’s question about our involvement as Christians… Even the founders knew that, if the new nation was going to last, it would need to be guided by some basic moral principles. They took that moral guidance directly from the scriptures. In fact, they cited 27 specific Biblical violations when writing the Declaration of Independence. Biblical truth is found throughout the founding documents. Obviously, it was important to them.
52 of the 55 men who formed the Constitution were active members of their churches. These were people who even believed that the moral precepts of the Bible itself should be taught in schools. Thomas Jefferson called the Bible “the cornerstone of American liberty,” and it was placed in the schools as a guiding standard. Patrick Henry, who is famous for saying, “Give me liberty or give me death,” was also quoted as proclaiming that our country was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
During that time, James Madison said, “We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments.” In his farewell address, George Washington said, “You can’t have national morality apart from religious principle.” Decades later, Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that these people knew the importance of Godly influence within our government.
And if we, as Americans, have a duty to keep our elected officials in line, then don’t we, as Christians, have a similar and even more profound duty to effect a positive impact on the soul of America? I believe we do. And I believe there is even precedent for it in scripture. Among other examples, Daniel was a Godly man who gave wise counsel to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. And though he didn’t always stick to it, king Nebo also gained spiritual insight from the 3 Hebrew youths who refused to bow down to his idol.
My point is that, if WE don’t offer the righteous standard for others to see and stand up against tyranny and injustice, then WHO will? We are called to be salt and light to this world. If we aren’t doing these things, speaking out for the unborn, against false-accusers, and more, then we have forsaken our call as Christians. If we’re not doing God’s work and advancing His Kingdom, then we’re doing the other thing. And I don’t want to be one of those people on judgment day who God looks upon and says, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.”
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Cassandra in McMinnville, TN – Saw a link to your podcast on Facebook in a friend’s post and decided to check it out. To my surprise, you’re not the religious republican blow-hard I expected you to be. Some of your views are pretty mellow compared to others in your circle. I would be interested to hear what you think about drinking alcohol. Is it a sin or no?
Okay. First off, thank you for the question, uh, Cassandra. Folks, I gotta tell ya, I’ve got all kinds of bells and stuff going off in my head right now. Something about this question, and I may be wrong, but I believe I need to address this subject with complete clarity and a degree of caution. If I’m mistaken about the nature of this, then I sincerely apologize, but it feels a lot like a set up. Regardless, let me offer my response.
I would initially like to point out, as I have stated a number of times before, that you should for no reason ever base your own choices or dogma or whatever on what I say are my views. I am not under any circumstances supposed to be your ultimate standard or source. Always, always, measure anything I or anyone else says against what the Word of God says. Though I do want to lift up the standard here, I am not the standard – the Bible is the standard. Seek truth there.
Now, I have been asked this question in the past, and I have dealt with the topic of drinking at some length. I would direct you to the old web series I did a few years back called the GC. There was an episode in season one titled, “Is Drinking a Sin?” Season one, episode nine, in fact. You can find it on my YouTube channel.
In that video, I break down the question and examine several scriptures that support my own opinion on the matter. I encourage you to watch that video for all the reference material and Bible passages. But the gist of it is this: While the Bible does strongly warn us about the dangers of drunkenness, or over-indulgence of alcohol, I can find no scripture that commands us to not drink.
Hold on, if that bothers you, just hang around, I’m not done. No, I don’t see anything in the Bible that explicitly says don’t drink. To the contrary, it is in fact well documented in scripture that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine, He and His Disciples are said to have drank wine, and it was also known in Biblical times that wine even had medicinal qualities. In one of Paul’s letters to Timothy, he advised him to take a little wine for his stomach problems.
Some of you may take issue with the things I’ve just stated, but I want to make it clear that this should not become a source of contention for believers. Study the Word, make sure that your beliefs are based in scripture and not tradition, and leave it at that. If this is a stumbling block for you, then you’re probably better off staying away from alcohol.
Having said all this, I’d like to point out one other thing that concerns me about this question of drinking being a sin. And please hear me when I say this. Even if you believe it’s not sinful, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t cause problems in your life. I would sincerely ask that you take an honest assessment of yourself before taking a drink. And I will admit to you that what I’m about to say comes from my own observations and experiences.
Often times, when someone asks a question like this one, they’re looking for an excuse to do something. If I’d flatly said, yes drinking is a sin, I would have been met with all the Bible quotes and reasons why I’m wrong. And worse yet, by answering, drinking itself isn’t a sin per sè, now there are those who would use this as an excuse to drink – knowing full well that their intent is to get drunk. As I said before, the Bible clearly warns us to avoid drunkenness.
Bottom line, if you can’t drink without the motivation of getting sloshed, you’re better off not drinking. There are some great reasons why we’re told not to become drunk. It can and often does lead to other very bad things. Over-indulgence of alcohol will impair your judgment, lower your inhibitions, and make it more likely that you’ll do inadvisable things you wouldn’t do otherwise. It often leads to dangerous situations, illegal activity, horrible accidents, alcohol poisoning, liver disease, or even death.
Understand, that the phrase well Jesus drank DOES NOT MEAN He got snooker-faced. It’s not a license for you to go out and get drunk. Jesus did NOT abuse alcohol. And we’re often warned in scripture about the adverse effects of over-indulgence of many things, whether it’s over drinking or over eating or whatever. And if you take nothing else away from this, I want you to remember this – in fact, write it down because it’s absolutely scriptural. Ready? If your drinking causes your brother to stumble, don’t do it.
You might say, “But I’m not getting drunk, I’m just having one cold beer because it goes great with hot wings!” Right? Hey, I’ve been there, I know. But if your friend who knows you’re a Christian – perhaps you’ve even been witnessing to this person – and he or she sees you drinking alcohol, it can easily send the wrong message. That one little beer you think is harmless may instead have a very detrimental impact on that dear friend. Trust me, you do NOT want to be responsible for that.
We have to be wise in our actions. How? How can we be wise? Study the Word of God, and follow not only those things that are clearly commanded, but also the wise warnings of things to avoid. Remember that, just because you can do something, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you should do that thing.
Much like a similar discussion we’ve had about rights and freedoms – having the right to do something doesn’t always mean you should. It may even be lawfully okay, but still be a very bad idea. We need wisdom to know the difference, and that wisdom is found in God’s Word.
Ask Away – Q & A segment jingle (out)
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Thanks again to those who sent in comments and questions. I hope to get to more of them in the future. I encourage you to message me through the contact form on the website, KingdomHeroBlog.com/contact – that’s KingdomHeroBlog.com/contact. Or leave a voice message at Anchor.fm/kingdomhero/messages – again, that’s Anchor.fm/kingdomhero/messages. Either way, I’d love for you to be part of the show.
OPM Addiction
Now, I have one last thing I want to hit on before wrapping up this episode. There’s a long-standing addiction problem in Washington DC, been going on for a very long time. Could it be referred to as a major crisis? Yes, absolutely it IS a huge crisis and with far-reaching effects. It’s not a secret either. This addiction has been known about for many years as well.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about an OPM addiction. Now listen carefully, don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not saying the majority of people in DC have an opium addiction. No, I’m saying they have an OPM addiction – an addiction to Other People’s Money. They want it, they have to have it, they’re dependent upon it, they rant and rave if they don’t get enough of it, and they will do everything they can to get as much of it as possible, plus their craving for it is constantly increasing! As is our national debt.
Now if you or I were to continually spend money we don’t have, we would eventually max out our credit and owe mountains of debt. This is generally recognized as an extremely unwise practice. But our government has been doing it for years – decades, even! The total US deficit is currently in the trillions of dollars. Yes, I said TRILLIONS. Talk about out of control spending! And it cannot possibly continue forever. At some point, if not rectified, there will be an enormous economic collapse – the likes of which will make The Great Depression seem like little more than a financial hiccup.
This is a serious problem that has been largely ignored. And it’s not just the government’s problem, it’s ours. After all, the government gets its revenue from taxing you and me. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re already being taxed nearly half of our earnings. There’s income tax, sales tax, property tax, a tax on interest, a tax on capital gains, gasoline tax, and even a death tax on whatever you leave behind. The government taxes us for so many things, it’s near impossible to track.
But all those taxes would never generate enough revenue to pay down our national debt. Especially when they keep spending more than they can take in. And then, the federal reserve compounds the problem by printing more money. This is the solution for those who keep running up our gargantuan deficit? To just print more cash? That’s what causes inflation and devalues the dollars we do have.
Simple economics. Introducing more cash into an already struggling economy creates a situation where there are suddenly more dollars chasing after less products. Why? Because, while the fed can print up new money like it’s free, the government doesn’t actually produce anything. There’s no increase in goods and services, but now there’s more money in circulation, meaning it takes more money to purchase those goods and services. Prices increase on everything – boom, inflation!
And while there have been several pushes in the past for government to balance the budget, and plans were presented to do so, there hasn’t been a willingness in DC to really try to stick to it. Every time one side introduces a measure to cut spending, the other side turns it into a political tool and claims the spending cuts are too drastic and will cause irreparable harm to the people. Eventually, all efforts to work toward reducing the deficit end up being abandoned due to political nonsense.
How long are we the people going to just sit back and let these crooks sell our country’s future down the river? There’s virtually zero accountability when the corruption runs as deep as it does now. Members of Congress continue to vote themselves raises, and spend taxpayer money on frivolous garbage and failed government programs, print more cash which makes what little money they let us keep worth less and less, while the deficit continues to skyrocket to mind-boggling levels.
Here’s what Elon Musk recently had to say about President Biden’s Build Back Broke plan. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Musk. I think he’s said some things that were pretty out there, but I admit this – he IS a very smart man, and his current net worth is almost 300 billion dollars. I mention that because it means he’s too rich to be cancelled by the left, and he has said several things that really sets off the leftist media, things I do agree with – he has spoken out against the vaccine, and then he also made strong statements against Biden’s huge spending bill during a recent interview. Listen…
[Elon Musk clip: “the spending is so far above revenue, it’s insane…”]
Yes, it’s what I’ve been driving at here. If we do not cut government spending, something really bad will undoubtedly happen. Elon also, in this same interview, made one of the most poignant comments about the government I’ve ever heard. Specifically, he was asked about the government’s handling of the vaccine, but he began talking about how the government takeover of everything from healthcare to whatever – taking these things out of the private sector – is dangerous. This one will blow your mind, check it out…
[clip: “government is biggest corporation with a monopoly on violence…”]
Brutal, honest, truth right there. Our government has become the largest corporation with a monopoly on violence, for which we have practically no recourse. It has become a monster. Another word we might use would be beast. Am I saying our government is the beast mentioned in the Bible? No, I’m not. But its corruption runs deep, and it is certainly a beast in one sense of the word.
If there is ever going to be a spirit of sanity restored to this thing, it will likely take some fervent prayers and spiritual warfare waged by the people of God. That’s you, and that’s me. And folks, the time is now. I’m just sayin’.
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presented by Great Commission Ministries 