why does God let bad things happen? | UPDATE on california fires
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Hello everybody! Welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee and Ice. I am your host, Allie Yost, and if you are physically watching, you can see that we are not in our studio right now. And that is not by choice, really. Today, I was supposed to go into the studio and record, but...

our week has kind of taken a bit of a plot twist. So I am recording through a memo on my phone and Ashley is here. Ashley, say hi. Hello, fellow Christ with Coffee on Ice listeners.

We are here together and we are also recording on our MacBook. So we are using the very things that God has given us. He has given us the resources that we need to still be able to do this episode. And so I'm grateful for that. But we are currently sitting in a hotel room right now because L.A. is...

basically under mandatory, I mean, not lockdown because we all have had to evacuate, but there are fires springing up all over Los Angeles and just Southern California in general. We are in a state of just emergency right now. And Ashley and I's home as of right now is okay, but we did have to evacuate. And so we are in a place that is safe and out of any danger

danger of a fire happening. I mean where we're at right now, there is no way a fire could ever get to us. So we are in a place that's safe. We have both of the girls here. We have the dogs with us. Well, I'm also, I'm just gonna say too, fair warning, I can't promise you that this is gonna sound as soundproof as being in a studio.

We have the dogs running around and obviously there are people next to us, above us, under us. So anyway, yeah, we just wanted to get on here and we're going to just talk about what the Lord has even taught us just in these last 24 hours. It's giving insider. If you hear the dogs literally making noises, if you hear a bark, if you hear cars, like this is insider energy. Like if you want to feel like you're a bestie energy, like this is insider. You're here. You're here. And we want to let you guys know what happened today.

And also, yeah, how we are seeing God in the midst of all of it. Right. Most importantly, because he has been the thing that we have been turning to through all of this, even just with evacuating in itself. So who wants to take it away? Do you want to start it? I can start it. Okay. So all throughout the day, the winds are going crazy in our area, in the valley. And-

Crazy. Like crazy, but no one's bothered. Like I'm at the gym and no one is bothered. No one cares. Like, you know, the palm trees are swaying, but no one is really batting an eye. I even brought like our furniture inside because I was like, okay, it just looks like the during the day it's gonna be really bad.

Anyway, Allie and I then, I'm like starting to cook dinner because we're like, oh, you know what? Maybe it was just a little, maybe God answered our prayers and the winds have died down and there's nothing to worry about. The winds had died down too. Like in the beginning of the day, it was getting kind of sketchy and there was a bunch of debris and branches and stuff that were falling. And then the sun came out

And the sky was blue. And I mean, we were pleading and praying to the Lord so much through this where we were like, God, please just don't allow this. I pray that everything they've been predicting on the Weather Channel, you know, sometimes they say that these big things are going to happen and then it doesn't. So Lord, I just pray that's you, you know, like don't let it happen. And all of a sudden the sun came out and we were like,

Okay. Maybe that was it. Thank you, Lord. Like, we literally thought that we got through the thick of it and that was it. You know, we just had a little bit of wind that was kind of uncomfortable. But everything looks like it was going to be fine. So, yeah. So then Ashley was making dinner that evening. And even before that, I had...

been notified and I knew that the fire had broken out in the Palisades. So already the news was circulating around that because it happened around like two o'clock, but it's around five, nothing's happening in our neighborhood. And all of a sudden we get this notification and it was kind of terrifying. Yeah. It's like one of those notifications where your phone is like screaming at you. It's like, what?

And so that's what's happening. I'm in the middle of working on something on my laptop. Ashley's cooking. And like every single one of our devices, our phones, our laptops, like everything was like screaming at us. And we were like, what the heck is going on? Yeah. And it's one of those things where you're like, okay. Because then I looked and I saw where the alert was going to. And we were like, okay, we're not in that area. However, then I call my dad and I call my mom.

And they're both like, you guys need to turn on the news. And you guys just need to like educate yourselves on what's going on. So meanwhile, that's my POV. I'm literally making chicken sausage in the kitchen. But then Allie gets something in her head. What does she get? Yeah, because another thing too is that if you guys aren't like super familiar with my podcast yet or you haven't heard a lot of me and Ashley talking on it yet together because she comes on quite often. But if you haven't, we are not from here.

We are not used to this type of weather. Obviously, we know that California has fires and we knew that that was a risk even when it comes to earthquakes and things like that. That is something that happens out here, especially in Southern California. But we've lived here for about six or seven months now and we just are not experienced with this type of stuff, especially fires. Fires are just scary. I don't know. Any type of natural disaster is terrifying and it's life-threatening and it's just really scary. But fires are just scary.

And fires are just, I don't know, I just feel like it's one of those things that you just don't mess with, you know? And so we were like, we don't want to gamble with this where we're staying home and we're like, ah, it's going to be fine or not. And so we're kind of on that fence right now, right? So like Ashley said, she's calling her parents. I was calling my parents. And what was so eerie about all this, y'all, is that my dad had said to us,

A few weeks prior to all of this, he was like, you know, you girls really should, because there were like some weird little earthquake things that were happening and Malibu actually did have a fire not too long ago. And he was like, you girls should have emergency bags that are ready in your garage so that when something like this comes up,

You know, you never know. And at the moment I was like, yeah, dad, but it's giving super worry wart. You know, I'm like, I don't know if we need to worry that much. He was very much right. And so that came to my mind and I felt the Lord actually say, he's so kind. Y'all, you know, it's the Lord's voice when it's just so, so gentle. It's never frantic. His voice is never something that's like,

You need to get out of here right now. Like it's never going to make you feel stressed, but he will be honest with you. You know what I mean? And so I felt the Lord. I'm like still sitting there on my laptop. Ashley's cooking. And I felt him say, okay, you don't need to be all frantic. I don't want you to get frantic. I don't want you to freak out, but you girls should really pack some bags and consider leaving right now. And I was like, okay. Like I just had this overwhelming feeling that we were actually supposed to start packing, but I did feel that it was necessary that we didn't start panicking.

Because that's when like you're not having like a clear mind anymore. And you're just like going off of emotions, which is just not wise in situations like this. And so, yeah, I went to Ashley and I was like, I think we should pack bags right now. Like I don't care if we seem like we're being really extra and dramatic. Because then we would go outside and no one was panicking. I mean, no one was leaving. We didn't see anyone leaving their driveways. So at that point, though, I was like, I don't care if we – we both were like, I don't care if we look crazy right now. Yeah.

Yeah, no. Well, Allie first talks to me and she's like, I think we should pack bags. And she said it in such a calm way. And meanwhile, I'm like, I'm freaking out when I hear that. I'm like, oh, I'm about to literally have a panic attack. And I'm an external processor. So I'm just sharing all this out loud.

right? I'm just like freaking out. Just pack a bag, my girl. And Allie's barely saying anything. I'm trying to call every single person under the sun just to like talk about it with them. And anyway, so we just quickly throw stuff in bags. Then we sit down. I'm downing my chicken sausage bowl because I'm a stress eater. Allie's not. She barely touched it. My stomach gets in knots. I didn't eat it at all. But thank the Lord, we actually had already cooked dinner. So praise God. But we're sitting there and we're sitting and watching the fire on the TV, on the news. And

Meanwhile, Allie's dad and mom are on the line and they're like deciding, figuring out a place where we would go, like a hotel that we would stay in. And then it just started to get really real. And, you know, this can be applied in any situation where it's kind of like fallout.

fight or flight, Allie and I looked at each other as the wind is like getting, like we're hearing it around our windows, right? And we're seeing the fire and we're hearing, you know, Allie's parents be like, y'all need to leave. And we got to this point where like, okay, we just need to pray and we need to ask God what we should do. So we literally sat there and we just prayed and we like asked the father to speak and then

Well, yeah, because I thought, you know, in any situation where we can't predict the future, we have no idea what's about to happen, what better move than to ask the one that does know? God knows the future. He's the only one that actually knows the future. Not even the enemy, y'all. I know sometimes we like to give the enemy a little bit too much credit and be like, oh, well, he's doing this because he knows that this is coming.

He doesn't know that things are coming. He probably can put two and two things, like he can put things together and say, ah, she's getting a little close to this. I think this is about to happen. I'm going to try to stop her before she even gets a chance to get there. But he doesn't actually know our future. The Lord does though, right? So we don't know what's about to happen, but we know God does. So we say, hey God, you know what's about to happen. So what do we do right now? We were not going to go off of our own understanding.

We weren't even going to go off of like what the news was saying, whether they were like, hey, stay in your homes, you're fine. Or I just wanted to know what our heavenly father had to say about what was the safest route for us to do. And we both collectively were like, he's telling us to go. So we left. And there were people that we knew that hadn't even evacuated yet. And we know people right now, actually, in this moment that are still hunkered down and they haven't evacuated. And

And I just think that sometimes we just, we can't get in the way of what the Lord is saying, especially when it comes to our safety and our wellbeing in the fear of like overreacting or being like, ah, but what if we go through all this trouble? What are people going to think? You know, are people going to think that we're being dramatic?

Yeah, or are we going to have to spend all this money for no reason, you know, on hotels and gas and driving and whatever? But then that's just not giving faith that if the Lord is encouraging you to do something and to go, he will also provide that. Like money, hotel, gas, like we actually have felt so unbelievably just privileged and blessed. We could just get in a car and go. We could just pack a bag and leave. We could get gas, get food on the way and go. Yeah.

a lot of people didn't even have that much. And so it just felt like a no brainer to just go, especially because he was saying, Hey girls, you should leave right now. Yeah. And even, I know some of y'all might be like, okay, well, how did you know God was saying that? Like, how did you know? And literally Allie and I, after talking to her parents and watching the news, we were just, we just sat there and we were just like,

We just prayed and we just like listened and we both felt this peace about leaving. We did not feel peace about staying. And there was this peace about leaving as we're listening to the winds and we just felt from the Lord that it was better to be safe than sorry. Also, you have to take into consideration thinking about the roads. Like,

If you wait till the last minute, I think the father was looking out for us. If you wait till the last minute, like you'll be stuck on those roads and everyone else is like also there. And then we were hearing about people having to physically get out of their car because the embers were getting so close to their car and then they'd have to leave. Because they were stuck in traffic. Because 30,000 people were being called to evacuate. And so then all of those people are on the highway at the same time. So it also was a matter of like, do we wait around?

until it gets bad enough yeah okay yes we could wait until we're being called to evacuate but so is everyone else so then we're stuck on the highway we're not moving but the fire still is what was the actual hurt in us just like going yeah even if nothing happened okay i would rather do that than to gamble with our lives or even just stressing out like i'm like i don't want to

don't want to stress. I don't want to feel like we've got to rush out of here and your heart is like pounding out of your chest. Like, let's just go now, spare ourselves the extra stress and do what the Lord is saying. And so I love that Ashley said peace because that was the thing we felt is we both felt peace as he was speaking to us. And I think sometimes there's always that like 0.01%, you know, when you're like really certain it's the Lord's voice. But sometimes I'll speak for myself. There is a part of me that's like, I mean, I'm

I hope this is the Lord telling me this. But then it's really cool to see that once you step out in that faith and you do the thing and then you see the fruit of it, that it actually was Abba. You're like, okay, wait, I do hear the voice of God. You know what I mean? Yes. Yeah. Part of this episode is also just like hearing the voice of God in a crisis. Like that's literally what this is. Like we're alone. We're two girls. We don't have a man's to be like, what do we do? You know, like we're not natives here. And so literally we start packing up our things. Allie's considering everything.

at this point that we're not going to come home. Like there's a potential that we wouldn't come home. I didn't even think about that. I'm throwing sweats in. I don't even remember my brush. This is from Allie's hairbrush. But anyway, then we start throwing stuff in the car and guys, the winds when we were throwing stuff in the car were so strong that like it was terrifying. Like our door was being flown open and it's also dark out.

And thankfully we still have power. But then I'm starting to see more cars leaving our neighborhood. And I'm like, I just started to feel this peace. Like other people are doing this. We're not crazy. We need to go. And our lights were flickering in our house. Like we hadn't lost power yet, but it just kind of felt like everything was about to happen all at once.

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And we were like, yeah, we're not going to wait for that. We're going to go. So we packed the car. We put the girls in it. So we have both my dogs are here. And yeah. Was there traffic at first, Alec? Was there? Yeah, there was a little bit of traffic, but it actually wasn't that bad at all. I couldn't decipher whether that was people evacuating or just people that were getting off of work because it was like 6.30, 7 o'clock. But...

Yeah. So we hit the road and we ended up going like 30 to 40, 45 minutes outside of our home thinking that we would be in the clear and totally fine. But the thing was is that what started all of this was that there were like really, really high winds that were happening in the Los Angeles area and just county. And so with that, there comes fear that something could spark and then there's a fire that's then going at that speed, right? So some of these winds were anywhere from –

you know, 30 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour, like into that evening where it would just progressively get worse and worse. So because of all of these heavy winds that were happening, it was very unpredictable with where fires were going to pop out of. And so that's unfortunately actually what happened is because of these winds that were happening everywhere, there were more fires that were popping up

in just areas surrounding our home and so we had gone to this one area and we checked into a hotel we were there for probably about an hour and a half and then we found out that there was a fire just five minutes south of us well and we were about to fall asleep too so this is like literally on god guys god looks out for you we're literally ali and i are looking each other we're like okay there's no fire near us we're gonna be fine we're gonna be safe i'm literally about to turn the light off and i look at my phone and i see my friend is calling me and i'm like

hello, guys, I'm not kidding you right as you're falling asleep. Isn't this crazy? This is God. And my friend Christina was like, are you guys okay? Did you guys just hear about that fire that just broke out near you guys? Okay, guys, that's crazy. She goes, I really felt like I needed to call you guys and just make sure that you guys knew about it before falling asleep because it was around midnight at this point. And there was a fire that had broken out. Guys,

11 minutes away. And let me just tell you, right before this, Allie and I are still doing the same thing where we're like asking God if we're okay, you know? And what was God saying? We both were asking him. And what was he saying? He was actually saying that we could stay there. And I kept telling Ashley, I said, Ash, I know this sounds whack. Like, I know this sounds literally insane because we probably should be, like, if we were leaning on our own understanding and logic right now,

We probably should leave because there's a fire so nearby. But one thing was it was already really late at night. Two, we didn't know where we were going. Three, we're two girls in the middle of the night not knowing where we're going.

We're new here. We don't know these areas that we're driving into. And a lot of our family is now going to sleep because it's like one or two in the morning for them because they're East Coast, you know, Central. And so I felt the Lord be like, you girls need to stay. And you were safe. Yeah, he kept encouraging us that we were safe and he was protecting us. And I was like, okay, Ashley, this is actually going to take some crazy faith right now because what we're seeing is giving way.

we really probably won't sleep tonight and we'll probably be evacuating any second now. But what the Lord was telling us was something totally opposite. He was like, you girls are actually fine. You can stay there. So, well, and he had told us this guys, cause Allie and I look at each other. We're barely sleeping. It's around 1130. And we're like, okay, we need to pray. And we need to ask God what he thinks. Cause meanwhile, we're looking at the news. We're looking at articles. We're texting people. And I felt the Lord be like, why don't you just ask me? Like, why don't you just talk to me and see what's really going on? And,

and what you should do. So I, we both, I look at her, I'm like, Allie, we are going to need to pray right now. So we literally are, I'm like, God, sometimes I know Allie and I don't hear the same thing from you. Sometimes. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't, right? Like where to go to eat, right? But this time I said, God, this time I pray for such a supernatural grace that we

both clearly hear your voice and we clearly hear the same thing on if we should leave or if we should stay. And he literally says to both of us, he says to me, you girls are safe. That's what I felt him say. And then I go to Ali, I go, Ali, what did he say? And then Ali's like, I just felt him say, you're going to be safe.

And then I was like, that's crazy. That's literally what God said. Then 15 minutes later, y'all, we get that call. And Allie looks at me. I start freaking out because we just find out a fire's 11 minutes down the road. But God just said that we were safe. But he did just say that we were fine. And Allie looks at me. She goes, where is your faith?

I did check her for a second. I said, girl, where's your faith? Take it out. Take it out of your pocket. We got to use it right now. But yeah, I was like, where is your faith? And then it was so funny because you said that it reminded you of the verse of all the disciples in the boat. Yeah. So as I'm freaking out, so sis calls me and is like, y'all, you guys are 10 minutes from this new fire that just broke out. Right. And it was like 100 acres at this point, not big, but definitely near us.

Like near the place that we went to, guys, this is crazy. So then as I'm freaking out, the Lord puts the picture of the disciples in the boat when the winds were going crazy and they literally look at Jesus and they're like, Jesus, they wake him up. They're like, we're gonna die.

And Jesus is like, where is your faith? Well, first he's just snoozing. First he was sleeping. He was sleeping on the boat. He was sleeping. He just literally did not care. It was clearly nighttime, right? So, as we were. And the waves were coming. They were like in a full-blown storm. In the middle. It looked like they were going to come.

of the ocean. And they were like, Jesus, you're being really irresponsible. How could you be napping at a time like this? We're literally going to die. And his response was, how little faith? Wait, where is it? You guys have such little faith right now. Yeah. Yeah. So I felt really convicted by that. And I was like, all right, God, we sound crazy. But if this voice is saying that we're safe here, we're safe here. We're going to do what Jesus did and we're going to go to sleep. Because also we were exhausted. We were literally exhausted.

So I actually felt the Lord also encouraging us to sleep. He was like, I want you girls to rest right now. And I was like, under these conditions, God, what do you mean? We're going to sleep right out.

Under these conditions, like the audacity. No, I know. I'm like, because if a fire breaks out, are we even going to get notified? Are we going to wake up and we're just engulfed in flames? But then again, it's like, where's your faith? Do we believe that one, God hears us when we pray, especially in desperation? We were like, God, you got to keep us safe. You got to keep us safe. You got to keep our home safe. Lord, I ask for a ring of protection around us right now. We were begging him to just send angels. So it's like, do you believe that he hears your prayers, one?

Do you believe that he loves you and cares enough to actually answer them? Yeah. And do something about it? Yeah. Oh, period. Period.

Well, we're keeping that. We're keeping that thumbnail. Anxiety. When you have anxiety, it tells us in scripture to pray instead of being anxious. And then that peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So here I was having anxiety, right? My stress levels on my aura ring going absolutely nuts.

but then going back to anxiety, right? And the key was I had to get to where I was like, no, no, I have this anxiety. I'm going to pray that God protects us, that we're safe, that we hear his voice, that we're going to obey him and then believe it and not go back to anxiety, but believe that and just like turn the light off and go to bed. Because if we were supposed to leave, he would have said you guys need to leave like he did before, right? Yeah, there is an order. There's an order. And the last step is believe. Yeah.

You can't just pray and then go back to what you're trying to low-key be delivered from. You're like, I want to be delivered from anxious and worry right now, God. You're going to pray about it and then you're going to go back to it? You're going to go back to the news? Like, no. That's like the verse that goes like a dog going back to its vomit. Double-minded and double-mindedness. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like, where's the faith? You have to believe it as well. And so we were challenged in that. We really had to just believe that the Lord wasn't going to let anything happen to us, especially if we did end up falling asleep. And we were like, all right, God, we're just going to believe that you would never tell us that we were going to be safe in this situation if we actually weren't safe. And so, I mean, we still didn't sleep the best. I'm not going to tell you that we got a 10 out of 10 sleep. Allie has Winnie the Pooh in one arm now.

Jesus in the other arm, Daisy, her dogs are literally around her. I have my Bible, clenched my Bible, and I was just sleeping with my Bible. I got four hours of sleep. I literally couldn't sleep. Yeah, I was awake like every 30 minutes because the other thing, y'all, is there was just like

more fires, like little baby fires, or then, you know, then they would spread to be at least like 500 acres. And there was just like things popping up all throughout the night. It honestly had, it has felt, because it's not done. We're still living in this. We don't actually know when this is going to end. We don't know. Yeah, we don't know anything, actually. I believe this is another thing that I did hear from God.

I believe that our house is actually going to be okay. I'm not saying that we're any more special than the people who have lost their homes. We could absolutely lose our home, but I felt the Lord tell me that he was going to actually spare our house. We don't know, but I'm just going to believe that the Lord is not going to let anything happen to our home. But we don't know how long we're going to be having to...

isolate out here we don't really know anything yeah well so then we wake up this morning at seven and we're still in this hotel right we're still in this area we don't really know well and i'm asleep but i'm actually this is crazy guys i'm having dreams about ali and i traveling and leaving and going to other places i'm literally having dreams about that like several dreams i kept going back to sleep and each time it would be us going somewhere cool

Because we were like, maybe this will all blow over. We can just go back to our house in the morning. Yeah. And God even was so kind to put my mom in some of the dreams. And just my mom's sweetheart just like take care of us, being with us. So I wake up from that dream thinking, oh, wait, we're here. I literally thought that I was living in the dream because we were like traveling in the dream.

So then, Allie, what did you feel? Oh, well, when I woke up, this is so... See, this is how you know it's God because he's so gentle and sweet. And he's always like, hey, I'm not going to freak you out. Don't panic. Don't panic.

But he said as soon as Ashley wakes up, I was like, God, do I wake her up right now? And he was like, no, let her sleep for a couple more minutes. I said, okay. Because I woke up like 30 minutes before Ashley was awake. And I'm seeing all these alerts. And I was like, oh, we really probably should leave. So then I'm asking the Lord. I'm like, do I wake her up? Do we just leave right now? And he was like, first off, you don't need to freak out. Just chill for a second. Let her sleep for a couple more minutes. But once she is awake...

you girls need to start putting your stuff together and you're going to leave again. And I was like, where? Yeah, where? Oh, okay, cool. Where do we go? Both of our parents have actually been incredible and they've just been...

from afar, obviously via phone, but so helpful with just helping us. If we have to hit the road, they're like, all right, we're researching on a good hotel for you to stay in or, you know, what areas you need to be going to. So the Lord even just helped provide through our parents and everything. But yeah, so Ashley woke up and I was like, hey girl, hey, good morning.

It's morning, girl. So we got to go. Yeah. We're going to leave. Because then there was another fire that broke out like above us. Yes, there was another one that broke out right above us. So we were kind of getting sandwiched. And we're like, we need to go. We need to leave in the direction that there hasn't been a fire yet. And so, yeah, we just packed our stuff up. I was actually kind of mad at this point. I was a little angry. I've been like...

kind of moody through all of this. And I think it's a few things just piling up on one another, especially with just not getting like any sleep at all. I mean, I was waking up like every 30 minutes, but I'm not complaining. I'm just very, I'm grateful that the Lord has been providing, but I've just like, I've been kind of probably a pain in the butt to be with for Ash. I'm just like, I don't want to do that. And I don't want to drive that far. And I don't want to eat that far. I don't want to do this. I don't want to drive anymore.

Like, I literally have been like, I don't want to do this. Like, I don't want to do any of this. It's just so annoying. And it's just like evil. It's just been demonic. And I'm just like so irritated with the devil. Yeah, this isn't over spiritualizing it. That's the truth is that this is an act of evil. And it's just annoying. Like, it makes me mad. He makes me angry. Yeah, so we literally had faith to then pack up again, get the girls ready.

the dogs in the car and to go actually outside of California. We're not even in California anymore. No, we completely left the state of California. We're not even going to risk staying around. Yeah, we were like, we don't want to be even in this area because it's happening everywhere and it's going throughout the week. So with this being said, how are we seeing God in all of this? I do have to say, if I'm being transparent, a part of me in the beginning said, God, why are you allowing this? Yeah, go there.

I really was. I was like mad, not at God. I was never actually mad at God, but I was just mad at the situation. And I was like, how are you not angry about this, Lord? Like, how are you not angry? Why are you not doing anything? Why are you allowing?

Why are you allowing this? These homes to burn down, these families. These people's lives are being destroyed. I wasn't even angry about, oh my gosh, like God forbid we're inconvenienced. You know, like I said, we have all the resources we need. God has been providing everything. But these people who have lost everything, they've lost their homes. They probably were just affected by a fire just a couple months ago in Malibu. Now they're being affected again. They're losing their livelihood, their businesses. People are losing their jobs.

People are literally homeless and I'm just like, why are you allowing this, God? Like, you love these people, right? Like, why are you letting this happen? Right before we decided to even leave our house, we're sitting there watching the news and I'm just weeping because I was so like, what? Why? It...

like we were in some type of apocalypse movie. Like it didn't even feel real. I was just like, yeah, anyway, I'm repeating myself, but I was just like, why are you letting this happen, Lord? Why are you letting this happen right now? Yeah. And I think that's what a lot of us, I was even thinking, I'm like, I feel like people are questioning God right now.

Like, there's probably people questioning God. And I think this is actually why a lot of people turn away from God is when really bad things happen. I know I've been tempted to do that in the past. When really bad things happened to me, I was like, why would a good God allow it? Even allow this. Yeah. Like, he clearly doesn't love me if he would allow that. Why would I serve a God who would allow this awful thing to happen to me? Yeah.

And I just wonder, I wondered about that in this moment. Like there's probably people looking at their houses burnt to the ground or just businesses or whatever thinking God isn't real. I will never recover from this. Yeah. Like why would he let that happen? Yeah. Like I can't trust a God who would allow this to happen to me. And so we are kind of getting above the clouds now and we're like, okay, what is the eternal perspective? And

What's really going on in the spirit realm first off? We know that there is a real as Ali said there's a real work of evil being done and I believe there are demonic entities over each fire over all of it just creating Havoc like Ali mentioned the scripture how the enemy wants to steal kill and destroy and he's literally doing that That's exactly what he's doing with these fires. Yes. His motto is to kill steal and destroy and

And so we would be naive and dumb to think that there isn't evil intent just with the demonic behind all of this. You know, this isn't a result of God. This isn't his wrath. This isn't a punishment from the Lord. This is a result of just evil.

evil. Yes. And then number two is we know that God allowed it. Yeah. Satan can do nothing without God's permission. He has to first go through the Lord, which is a tough pill to swallow sometimes. God is allowing this. Yeah. Allie and I look at each other as we're driving across, you know, all wherever we are, wherever we are in the middle of nowhere. And we're like, why would God allow this? And we don't understand really. And we're with you if you're struggling with

that we don't fully understand. And that's part of trusting God and still serving God, even when you're hurt and being like, God, I don't understand, but I'm still going to put my faith in you and love you. But I think if I were to consider one thing that God would bring out of this is to show people the reality of the fact that nothing on this earth is certain. And we can put so much of our livelihood in what we own and what we have and

And our foundation is built on that, like on having all of this stuff, having this beautiful home, right? The fact that the place that was the most impacted was one of the most wealthy places in Los Angeles. Beautiful homes, beautiful place. And they're burnt down to the ground. It's like some people live their whole lives to attain a house like that or they put their entire worth into that and then it falls and it's like, and just like that, it's gone. It's gone.

It's gone. It's not eternal, guys. But what's so great is our eternity and our livelihood is in heaven. So actually nothing can take us, not even death can take us away from God. And I fear for those who had their houses burned to the ground and still aren't following Jesus. And they are still putting their faith in this world.

That is what I'm terrified for. And I pray that the Lord wakes people up to the reality of, you know, there's a sulfur on this earth, but there's an eternal sulfur. Like there's people who are eternally going to be in hell. And I know we don't talk about it enough in the Christian whatever. We don't want to talk about hell, but it's real, guys. Hell exists.

And no matter how famous you are, if you don't follow Jesus, you're going there. You could be the nicest, goodest person ever. You could be doing all this charity work. If you don't profess Jesus as Lord, you're going there. Yeah.

So I don't know if that was also a thing, like waking people up to the reality of this world being broken. It's so broken. We need God. We all need God. We are desperate for him. So I pray that this kind of wakes this city up and is like, man, maybe I need to follow God because my house burnt down, all my valuables, all my Gucci bags, and I need to know what's real, what I can actually...

put my life on that won't be burnt down. Yeah, that was really good, Ash. Yeah, that was one of the heaviest like just revelations that we had when we were in the car and Ash had brought it up. She was like, maybe this is something that's actually going to push people closer to the Lord because ultimately the thing that we have to remember too is that God allows these things to happen for whatever reason. We sometimes don't understand it at all and

and it seems cruel of him to let it happen but he really does bring beauty out of ashes and maybe not every part of this was a part of god's plan but he does have a plan for it all and so awful things happen and he allows it but there's no way that our god would allow something like this to happen and he didn't have a plan for it to bring beauty out of it somehow i know that sounds crazy and sometimes maybe it can even sound a

I'm sorry, don't say that. Like how in the world could God ever bring something beautiful out of this? No, I'm not accepting that. That's not okay. It's insensitive, it's wrong, but it's actually the truth because we know that that's what God does because we've seen it. It's just what he does. He brings the most awful, just painful situations and he does bring beauty out of it. That is his heart. And so that is the very thing that we have to hang on to when it comes to things like this is we have to believe.

that God is going to do something beautiful with this. Even if it feels impossible. And sometimes it feels so impossible that God could even do anything good with this. But that's when it's like, but he's God. Like, we're just not going to wrap our minds around it because he is Lord. Like, he can do anything he wants. He can make anything.

anything beautiful because he's God. And so that's when we just kind of have to be humbled too and be like, we don't understand God's ways, but what we will do is we will honor him and we will praise him and we will tell him that we need him because we don't get it, but we need him. There's just nothing we can do without him. It's like all things, we can do all things through Christ. And as long as we were trying to do things on our own and figure things out on our own and lean on our own understanding, we're

we just, we won't have it. And just like Ashley said, like who knows these people that could have been their lives, like these physical items in their homes and you know, all these things that they've earned and they have definitely probably worked so hard for, and there's no discredit to that. But when your foundation is made on those things, that is so dangerous because look at how quickly it can be taken from you. And it feels unfair, right? The world is unfair because the world tells you that if you work your whole life for these things, you're

then you're solid. You're good. Nothing will ever touch you. You're fine. You'll be set for life. You'll have everything you need in life. You don't need God. You just need all of this stuff though. So work your butt off for the entirety of your life. Be a slave to the world. Get all the things that you need and you'll be good. But that's not the truth because look what happens. Look what happens.

It can be ripped away from you in seconds. So that's why we've all been made this way is our foundation has always, like that is the nature of how God's made us is we were made to be in relation with him and we were supposed to be dependent on him because he's our dad. And so if our foundation is not made on God, it will

It will crumble. It will burn to the ground. It will be flooded. It will die. It will perish. But God doesn't. And our joy doesn't. In the midst of all of this, we still get to receive joy from God, though. We still get to receive his protection. And he does provide.

So anyway, my face is hot. My face is hot. But I just love him so much. And I just, we won't turn from him. Even if our house burns down, I will not turn from God. Because we're not bringing our house to heaven anyway. It's our souls. That was the other thing is God was, he was reminding us that the most important thing was us.

You know, it was like Allie and Ash. He was like, I want you girls to be okay. Everything else is replaceable. Everything else is replaceable. So we were like, okay, dad, we'll listen to you. And, you know, we have families that love us. And so it's just like in situations like this, it's also not worth even risking gambling on whether you should go or not or if you feel silly doing it. So whatever. We're here and we're on this journey.

mini journey with the Lord at the top of the year too. We're like happy 2025. This is great. Yeah. Anyway, do you have anything else to add, Ashley? For anyone who is listening to this and is like, one, maybe you have experienced just

just some horrific news from the fires. Maybe your house did burn. Maybe you lost your business, or maybe you're just going through a situation where you just don't understand why God would allow that awful destructive thing to happen to you. It may not be a fire, but it could be something like this, right? Something else burnt down, you know, relationship, a job, like something that you really thought

you know, it was maybe even from God and it got taken away from you. I want you to be so encouraged by the scripture Romans 8, 28, which says that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and of those who are called to his purpose. So if you love God, I'm not speaking for everyone, but if you love God, he's going to work it

for good yeah we don't know how we don't know when but you have to anchor yourself in the scripture right now you have to go okay i want to be emotional i want to run away from god but you got to look at that bible and you got to go do i believe that this is true yeah do i believe that everything in this is true and if everything in this is true that means that that scripture is true that all things even destruction is working together for my good yeah guys he works it for your good for your good and for his purpose right

So you have to just cling to that even though it's so hard. And we know that that takes real faith to go, God, this is awful, but I still trust you. And you're like denying your flesh too because all your flesh wants to do is freak out. And run away from him and go, well, I don't know.

I don't want anything to do with you, but you have to deny your pride and go, God, I humble myself. I don't understand your plan, but I trust that you allowed this and I trust that you're going to make beauty out of this. Yeah. And it's been so sweet too because even as we've been traveling and driving hours away,

We've been stopping places and even the woman at the front desk. Everyone's been treating us with such grace. Before we even have told them the situation of where we're coming from. And we were just like, God's in it. Like he really provides. And he will even send people into your life, complete strangers, even if it's just a simple interaction. We went to a restaurant right now to get some food. And before we even said anything about what was going on, we're nowhere near the fires anymore, y'all. We're like, everyone's chilling in this town. They're like, not even a care in the world. No one even...

They don't know our situation. And he's like giving Ashley a free fountain drink. He said on the house. He comes running out. He gives me another soda on the house. And we're like. We talk about God. We say he's good. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.

You didn't even know our situation. Glory to God. Like the Lord will send people in your path to also encourage you and let you know that he sees you. That's a word, girl. Like even just those simple little interactions and that kindness and the way that people had compassion for us before they even knew what was going on. I was like, no, you don't understand how God sent you are. Like the Lord is using you to reassure us that we are being taken care of right now.

Even just through little acts of kindness like that, you know? Because we're not in a place that we know. We don't know anyone here, but the Lord is everywhere. And it's just so cool that we can drive miles and miles and miles away and he's still with us and he's providing and he's taking care of us and he loves us. Yeah.

This is something that I actually was going to bring to the podcast whenever I was going to record this week. And the studio is just allowing the Lord to like, just really embracing the love of God. And I feel like sometimes we can get all into this another time, but sometimes I really fall into that, like, I don't want to say trap, but kind of the trap of like performance and being like, I love you, God, I love you. And worshiping him because he deserves all the glory, but then never allowing space for him to pour into me.

And there have been so many times where God has been like, this is a two-way street, my girl. Like, I love that you want to love on me so much. And I appreciate that. But that's what I'm here for too. Like, I actually was here first, by the way. I loved you first. So let me continue to love you. I need you to receive this. And a lot of times I'll be so dry. Like, I'll feel so dry spiritually or I'll feel so down bad. And I don't really understand it because I'm like, well, I've been in the sacred place and I've been reading the word, but I haven't been receiving. Like, I haven't been allowing the Lord to pour into my heart. Right.

And provide and love me as a father. Okay. So that's something I'm still kind of actively like practicing. And this has just been like a really sweet opportunity for the Lord to be like, okay, you're going to receive right now. And I'm going to provide for you as a father would because I love you. This is me loving you.

And so it's just actually been quite sweet that way where he really has been our dad. He's provided everything we've needed. He's provided a roof over our head and food. And he's even taken care of my doggies.

And so he's just such a faithful father, even through times like this. So anyway, we just pray that this encourages anyone, whether you're directly involved in this or this honestly could just touch your heart in another way where maybe you're just going through something really, really devastating and hard that you've never had to face in your life.

And you just question God's voice or whether he's even in it or if he even cares or how could he care if he allowed it. And I guess the word of this episode is just hope. Like we just pray that this gives you hope that he loves you and he cares and that he

That he doesn't find joy in watching us go through these things, but he will gladly carry us through it and be there for us as the father that he is to every single one of us. That's so good, Al. It was honestly so crazy that we were able to update you guys. Like, this is honestly supernatural. No, he told us to, too. I was like, God, I don't know what to do. I feel his grace in this episode. This is crazy. Even the way the girls have been sleeping, they snapped right all through this.

there's a grace so yeah thank you guys for listening thanks for listening thank you ashley heatherington for coming on the show again love you guys we love y'all hey guys can we do something cool this week actually till the next time i see you let's do something cool can we show somebody how cool jesus is let's act like that guy working at the restaurant today that just ran out and was like oh on the house here's a soda god bless you like

Let's just show somebody how cool Jesus is. Yeah, that's good. He's kind and he's considerate and he serves. That he came into the world to serve, to not be served. And so we're going to serve others and we're going to love them as Jesus would. Yeah. Okay. I love you guys. I'm so proud of you. And I will see you next week. Bye. Love you guys.

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