0:00:00 - 0:00:28 Well, we've got ourselves a gorgeous little sunset and I have uh I have a lot of stuff going right now. I gotta go check out the state of the driveway because my tractor got stuck the other day and I deployed some ice melt. But I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity uh to get a bunch of stuff 0:00:28 - 0:00:52 off my mind. That's been on my mind. Hell, it's just gonna be a fraction of the stuff that's on my mind. But there's uh there's so much to say and only so many videos that people will watch. So um we're just gonna get all the water over the dam here the other day. I spent about two hours praying for 0:00:52 - 0:01:28 all of the people, praying for all the people full stop. I started that prayer um thinking about and talking with the Lord about all the people who donated. And um you know, I'm deeply affected by that in more ways than one and more than one meaning of the word man. It's so beautiful out here if I can 0:01:28 - 0:01:52 see that. No, you can't. I just, well, that's a good life lesson right there. So the light over saturates the lens of the camera, but there's a beautiful sunset with all these details in the yellow and the white and the other colors on these clouds. It's just beautiful. There's a, there's a stream from 0:01:52 - 0:02:25 a jet going across. But man, that's beautiful. So I prayed and I, I talked to the Lord about all of you. And I said, well, I said a lot of things I can't reproduce it here in any way. That wouldn't be um grossly blasphemous. Meaning the opposite of glorify, to glorify God is to make his goodness known 0:02:25 - 0:03:01 more than I'm sorry. Hold on. It's just uh it's really beautiful out here and I'm thinking about that prayer and uh I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment to glorify means to make God's goodness known beyond what it was before. And uh blaspheme is the opposite of that. Actually, it's the direct opposite 0:03:01 - 0:03:36 of that. It's to reduce the perception of God's goodness. And I, if I were to try to relate to you, the contents of that prayer, it would be blasphemous um in, in detail anyway, I it, it would just be grossly blasphemous, but in the content of that prayer was included. Um a lot, a lot of things were 0:03:36 - 0:04:04 included and I'm deeply affected by the, there's so many different adjectives. Um Thank you. But I'll just say thank you, thank you. And I know you're all in different situations and it's hard to sum that up. But just thank you. And, and I want to tell you that I also prayed for the people that have 0:04:04 - 0:04:27 not donated. And there are two camps there, 11 of the people that, that feel that God would like them to spend their money otherwise, and I ask that he would bless you because we should all take very seriously the stewardship we have over the resources that he's blessed us with. I'm testing the ice on 0:04:27 - 0:04:51 my heel here the driveway. Um And so I ask God to bless you for your, for your care and concern over the resources that he's blessed you with. And I also blessed, I also ask the Lord to bless those of you who think that I'm doing the wrong thing in this or who've even gone as far as to accuse me of doing 0:04:50 - 0:05:17 wickedness. And I asked the Lord that if there is a price to pay to help you see more of the goodness of God that he would bless me to be able to pay that. And we'll see, we'll see if he does. I wanted to share a story of a friend of mine and I have to admit and apologize. I'm very bad at perceiving 0:05:17 - 0:05:42 time the way that other people do for the last few years, I call it the blur. Um The Lord has had me in things that are so different and so intense that I just don't see time. The same way other people do. And I, I got a call actually from a different friend the other day and he said it's been a really 0:05:41 - 0:05:58 long time and I said, no, it hasn't. He said yes, it has. And I said, when's the last time we talked it's been a year, I mean, it can have been more than three years. It's been about three years and then he proceeded to prove to me that it's been 10 years and I was just shocked I couldn't believe it 0:05:58 - 0:06:25 . So that's the blur anyway. I have a different friend and she told me a few years ago, it's probably like five years ago. She was, she was convinced that uh she's, she's, she would be very offended if I called her older, but she's older. She has kids. Um, and our kids are of an age where this is possible 0:06:25 - 0:06:47 , but she felt like she needed to go back to school and I'll, I'll try to anonymize this as much as I can. She felt like she need to go back to school. We, we have arrived at the tractor and I didn't break my neck. So that's the treacherous hill. It's a lot steeper than it looks. Um She was convinced 0:06:47 - 0:07:10 that she needed to go back to school and uh she had reasons for that. She shared with me the reasons she's, she's a very inspired lady and the Lord spoke to me, uh, as she was telling me all this. And I told her on more than one occasion, I tried, I pushed as hard as I could and I, I said that's not 0:07:09 - 0:07:31 , that's not what you wanna do, trust me. Um Here's all the reasons why that's a really bad idea. It's not gonna turn out the way you want it to, it's not gonna deliver to you what you are seeking by doing this. And she was convinced that the Lord had told her to do this and I saw why she felt that way 0:07:30 - 0:07:55 . And I really, I really tried to help her see that that wasn't the case and she did it anyway. And fast forward to now in a while back, she was um I won't say afflicted, but she, she found herself suddenly with an extraordinarily rare and very severe disease and it's something that the doctors say it 0:07:55 - 0:08:18 will be with her for the rest of her life and it could take her life at any time. Um And I'm extraordinarily proud of her for how she's taking it all. Um It's just been absolutely amazing to see her grow so much and funny. You know, we I can laugh with her about things because um she's mature enough 0:08:18 - 0:08:41 spiritually that, that um she sees things correctly enough. I don't know, it's hard to describe, but sometimes, sometimes even in the midst of very, very deep affliction, it's uh it's a sign of holiness to be able to joke around about it. Um, it's one reason why people that have been through quite a 0:08:41 - 0:09:05 bit of suffering are absolutely terrible at comforting other people because, you know, the crack jokes, uh, and some people just aren't ready for that. It's actually one of the best ways to disarm the power of a situation that lies far below the goodness of God as all afflictions do and it puts it in 0:09:05 - 0:09:34 its place. Um, because if he knew the love of God, you know, it, it, if you were standing in his presence, it'd be very hard to, to be damaged by even the most severe affliction. You'd see it for what it is and you can laugh about it. So it's actually, it's a sign of holiness to be able to feel the deepest 0:09:34 - 0:10:04 empathy for suffering while also recognizing it for what it is and, and uh disempowering it through, through cracking jokes. I don't know, that's probably a dangerous thing to play with, but it is how it is. That's the truth. So, uh don't try this at home anyway. Aye, I was talking to her and while she 0:10:04 - 0:10:46 was talking to me, she gave me a report on everything. This is just so beautiful. I cannot believe it. Wow. It's such a shame. You can't see that. No, it's just washed out. There's so many colors that's beautiful. Sure. So sometimes things are so beautiful here on earth that OK, a Alethia is the Greek 0:10:45 - 0:11:22 word for truth and it means that which cannot be hidden and the goodness of God is so great that even the Almighty God can only do so much to hide it from us. See all of creation is designed to hide it from us so that we can have the opportunity to make choices where, what is right is uh I gotta turn 0:11:22 - 0:11:55 around, it's too much where, what is right is so obvious that it doesn't provide a test to us and we're here to choose of our own volition that which is good so that we um u under constraints, under great challenges that are completely manufactured. Uh So that in the eternities, we can feel greater joy 0:11:54 - 0:12:30 knowing that we sacrifice something even though the, the sacrifice was totally manufactured because if we saw things as they were, it wouldn't see, I, I gotta see it again. OK? I wish there was a way that you could know and see how good God is, but I understand it has to be this way. There's a process 0:12:29 - 0:13:12 and, and uh if you short circuit it, it, you couldn't go up in the joy that you feel after this life. It's a neighbor's dog. He's a lot more friendly than he sounds OK. So this friend of mine. So she, I'm a sucker for it. Oh, it's just so beautiful. I'm glad I came down here. I had a feeling I should 0:13:12 - 0:13:35 mostly because I felt terrible because I haven't told you. Thank you for the donations. Uh, I, I felt bad. I felt stuck because there's so much content that needs to get out and every time I make something, I have to interrupt something else because it's all scheduled out for months to come anyway. So 0:13:35 - 0:14:00 this friend of mine, she was recounting her situation and just praising God. Just pouring out praises to God and telling me all sorts of interesting things that I can't tell you because it wouldn't be anonymous about. Uh She's, she's just crushed the trial. She's just crushed the trial. She wasn't bragging 0:14:00 - 0:14:18 about it. She's praising God in the midst of affliction that she was saying, you know, all these people around her are just saying this is so terrible. How are you doing? How are you doing? She's like, I'm great, I'm great. God's got me like I got nothing to complain about and everybody's just wondering 0:14:18 - 0:14:39 like, what the heck and they're feeling very uncomfortable because they've all told her except one person. Uh Yeah, I wanna go into details. One person's had a rough life, we'll say and also learn the value of things that most people would not want to happen to them and that person gets it. She said 0:14:38 - 0:14:59 , but uh I wish I could tell you more details. So she said, she said, I just don't understand. I don't know. I mean, I don't mind. II I thank God that he's done all this but I don't understand why he told me to go through all these things. And now I have this situation where I basically have to drop 0:14:59 - 0:15:23 everything that I trained for for years and I was doing and why did he tell me to do all this, if, if it wasn't gonna be long term. And I led her through a, an elementary version of the lesson there and there's some really powerful good things about that, which is in short, God does not see time the 0:15:23 - 0:15:43 way that we do. He has absolutely no problem in having someone go through 70 years of what they consider to be the hardest trials just so that they can learn one thing. One thing that, that we take for granted and think that it could just be handed off. We vastly underestimate how hard our heads are 0:15:43 - 0:16:08 and how narrow the windows are that we give God to teach us to bless us. They're narrow, narrow windows, they need to get wider. And she was very grateful for that information. I gave her some stories from my life and then I woke up this morning, I was doing the review of yesterday. It's kind of, there 0:16:08 - 0:16:28 are a lot of days where my days start with reviewing the day before. I don't know if that's like that for you, but usually the Lord retroactively shifts things around. He's basically like you got that right. That was a much bigger deal than you thought, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a good 0:16:27 - 0:16:54 learning time. But he, he was like, yeah, you said that that was good. But here's the other thing you should have said this. Actually, I was like, oh, ok. So I wrote her an email and the lesson was I said, hey name withheld. You said, why didn't God tell you? He did, he did, he told you this was a bad 0:16:53 - 0:17:14 idea. And if you recall, I gave you all these reasons why you shouldn't do this. And every single one of them is exactly what happened and it took years and now you'll never get those years back. And I said, on the one hand, I'm really proud of you for all the things you've learned and how you've handled 0:17:14 - 0:17:36 this and you're in a really great place. But on the other, it didn't have to be this way. But if you really want to know the answer to your question, that's it. He did. And you weren't willing to receive it in the way, the only way he could reach you. And I told her we have very narrows of narrow windows 0:17:36 - 0:18:12 of receipt in terms of the ways in which we're willing to receive this information from him. And so he uses the tools that he has, which frequently involve other people and uh she missed the boat. So that's how it goes. Sometimes I uh I had a lot of other thoughts and now, all I can think about is getting 0:18:12 - 0:18:41 this tractor up this driveway. So I'm gonna cut this off. We're at 18 minutes but, and the sun is receding for the day. One of the things that I prayed that the Lord would bless all of you with is the righteous desires of your heart. And uh it's a funny thing to pray for because uh it's already his will 0:18:41 - 0:19:00 to give it. That's the easiest thing in the world. I tell my kids all the time. I said, you know what the easiest way to get me to do something is they say what I say, ask me for what, you know, I already want easiest prayer in the world to get an answer to. Well, one of the easiest prayers is what can 0:19:00 - 0:19:23 I do better? But maybe number two is when you ask God for what he already wants to do. And that's fun because you get to join on his team to do these things that he's going to do anyway. And the blessing is that you get to take part in something and so much better than you. So thank you for your support 0:19:22 - 0:19:47 . And uh I can't convey in this medium, my, my gratitude. I I God shows you things. Well, he, he showed me exactly how this would go a long time ago and, and uh we had months and months to talk about it because I really, really, really wanted to be sure that I knew there would be a lot of people that 0:19:47 - 0:20:07 have problems with me accepting donations is one of many beliefs that I had at a time at prior time that he had to correct me on and still correcting me on a whole bunch of things. And I thank him for it. Uh, and I knew a lot of people have a problem with it and I was searching, I did everything I could 0:20:07 - 0:20:23 to find another way and he shut those doors. So, um, it's a beautiful thing to know that you're exactly where God wants you to be. I don't know that there's a better thing. But anyway, thank you.