Ep 1032 | Jase Mourns While Missy Celebrates the Same Occasion & Jesus Is the World’s Light Switch
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. If you're watching the podcast today, you'll see that I'm in my new lair, finally. Thank you, Zach and production team, for getting me set up down here in the new lair. We bought a new house down here, and so it's taken me a little while to get transferred over, but I'm here. You're welcome. You're welcome, Al.

Yeah. See, Zach, I can give you praise when praise is worthy. So did I pay for that? Is that what you're saying?

Maybe. Maybe. A little. Jace, you look great. Jace, your setup is, you've got the, we've got to work on your lighting out. You're a little too bright. Jace looks, I mean, your setup looks good there. Well, I've got a new studio here. Thank you. I have no lights on, Zach. This is just my brightness that's jumping onto the screen. So, just so you know. Well, I noticed that after Zach spent a few days here,

And we talked about his wardrobe. He's now gone to the young schoolman look. He's got the haircut, khakis, blue jean. You're returning to your original form. So that kind of coincides with what's happening to me right now. Because this is the official day of mourning.

For duck hunters. That's right. The season is over. This is the day after duck season. My lovely wife last night, she was going through the week's schedule, which is great because I'm kind of running on E at the end of duck season. And she had a nice little restaurant. She's like dinner for two at this restaurant. But she kept talking, like went on to the next event. And I was like, who's the dinner for two?

She's like, it's our annual celebration that duck season is over. I had a lot of things to say right there, but I chose not to say any of them because I thought this was a day of mourning. But to some, it's a day of celebration.

I think there's a verse, Chase. I think there's a verse in Proverbs that says only the fool opens his mouth to show his foolishness. So you showed wisdom in that moment. Yeah. What was that saying Phil used to say about it's better to act dumb than...

It's better to be smart and act dumb than be dumb and try to act smart. That's what he told us. Yeah, because then he took another quote and added it because when you open your mouth, you would remove all doubt. Exactly. That's the verse I was thinking of. That's right. Yeah. So, yeah, I didn't say anything. I was actually, I was like, oh, that's fantastic. I can't wait. But so I'm climbing back up into the duck hunter womb.

for nine months only to be reborn in November. This is the process that I've been undergoing since I was eight. So give us the postscript on the season. Was it poor? Was it medium? I mean, just based on me kind of tracking what you said on the podcast, it seems like it wasn't very good. Well, I don't like to be negative, but this is the first year we actually did not keep a log of...

The duck hunting days and how many ducks we shot because we didn't have Phil with us. He was in charge of the log. But having said that, I don't need a log to say this was one of the worst duck seasons ever here. What do you attribute it to? You know, I just don't know. I don't know. But it lights a fire. It's kind of like when you don't do real well, you spend all this time, energy, money, and it just doesn't work. It's just...

It just didn't happen. They never really came in mass. I mean, we had a few good days. About two days before it ended, I had a moment that made the duck season. The signature moment was about two or three days before it ended. And I took pictures, which I don't usually take a bunch of pictures, but this was just a moment. I had a first time ever this year in my life.

So do you want to hear this story? The first time ever? It was the first time ever in my duck season career, something happened. I shot a full plumaged blue wing teal drake, which is very difficult to do because the blue wings come through. It's a teal. It's a little duck.

They come through in September. That's why they have a teal season. It's mainly blue wings, but they're not. You know what I mean by plumaged out? Well, they actually look much better going back through because all their colors are fully out. Every year, all dark. You're going to mouth this one.

Well, I'm getting to that. I've never mounted any animal, nor will I start at this point. It's kind of like getting a tattoo. Yeah. Because that conversation did come up in a weird hunt one day. All the hunters, the guests I had, they were thinking about getting a tattoo. But they were all a lot younger than me. And then when they got down to me, I said, I'm way past getting a tattoo. Yeah.

Amen. So if you want to know something, I'll just tell you. You don't have to be looking at me. So what happened was I had my son down. He had four or five. Let's see. One, two, three, four. I think four buddies. And they stayed two days. We hunted from daylight to dark both days. And they were actually pretty good days. But the second day,

I mistimed the ice. We had a lot of ice. And they said the low was going to be 29. The first day, we didn't get out there until 830. So when I said we hunted the daylight to dark, we didn't hunt the first couple hours because ducks fly when it gets warmer. Yeah. And we had a pretty good hunt. We only shot 12, but it was nine mallards, all drakes but one. It was a good, fun hunt. And they enjoyed it. They enjoyed the...

riding it out all day. So the second day we go out there where everything's frozen. So I went around, I dropped them off at the blind, got them set up. We had a little ice hole and there was no ducks flying, nothing anywhere. So I was, I drove around seeing if I could find any open spots that there were ducks and there were none. And so there was one little place at where we have our water control structure. There was no ducks there.

And I look up, I have my gun because I'm technically scouting slash hunting. And some form of scalp, which is a diver duck, come whizzing by. And I shot and it folded. So I was like, yes, I have a duck. And I was headed out to go retrieve him. And when I shot, I guess I had spooked some blue-winged teal.

that were standing on the ice because the section of the property they came from was all ice. They were just standing on the ice. And I was like, oh my goodness, blue-winged tail. So boom, I shoot, which I only have two shells left because I just shot one. One falls. Boom, I shoot, and one acts like I hit him but goes way off, and I mark the spot. But there's two creeks in between and a lot of ice in between there. So I start shooting.

going and trying to find these ducks. So I had to go all the way around. Everything fell across this creek. So I make this long walk, get over, punch through the ice. I find the first blue-winged teal, and it was a hen. And I'm not thinking they were even full plumaged out. I was just thinking, hey, it's a blue-winged teal during regular duck season. This is crazy.

And, uh, but I said, I can't get over and cross this other Creek. I'm just, I don't think the, the duck is dead. The other one anyway, but I saw something shining, which I thought may be the teal or that scalp I shot. And turns out it was the edge of a P row that had been buried on our property for who, who knows how long years. So I pulled up the P row and

Got it, all the water out of it. Which is a small canoe for those who aren't from Louisiana. It's a small canoe, and those of you who are looking ahead, now you see a way for me to cross the creek because I took this as a sign. I said, I'm not saying that was divine providence, but it was close.

And by the way, if you're going to look up P-Road because you're curious, it's P-I-R-O-G-U-E, which would never sound like P-Road. But go ahead. Sorry. And if you're going to get in one for the first time without any kind of counsel, you're going to turn that over. Yeah. So be careful. People, yeah. You're an expert because you're pulling one up that had sunk. And you're saying, I'm going to get in the boat that had sunk. Yep.

So I had one utility knife on me, which was kind of shocking, in my pocket. And so I cut me a limb off of a tree and used it as a paddle, which is basically a push bar. I had about a 10-foot willow limb. And so I thought, I'm going to see if I can find this duck. And so I crossed the creek. By the way, here's what's funny. When I got the water out, there was a half a pound goggle eye in the boat.

So I've gotten now one blue-winged teal hen and a goggle eye. He stayed in there, and he was cold. So I was like, welcome to the party, buddy. I thought that was crazy. And so I crossed the first creek. Tell them what a goggle eye is. Goggle eye is a form of perch. So think in the brim world. They're usually not the greatest to eat, but if you find one in a canoe –

I ate him. So there's a goggle eye, and I have now a blue-winged tail hen. So the coffee, there's some, we call them coffee beans. There's these eight-foot stalks that kind of look like brown bamboo. And they were so thick that I had to get out of the P-row. And now I'm, once I cross the creek, I'm pulling the P-row. And I thought, it's so thick in here. This duck fell hundreds of yards. I'm never going to find it. Kind of went through the negativity.

What am I doing? Now I'm sweating, even though it's 29 degrees. So I say, you know what? It's not going to work, but I got to go get these guys. We got to move. You know, it kind of hit me like, what are you doing, Jace? I mean, I'm in, I got a willow limb. I'm in a, I've recovered a P-row. And about that time I looked through the coffee beans and I saw a little something white that, that was out of place. And I pulled the P-row over there.

And I was looking and I thought, that doesn't look right. I got closer and I got closer and I got closer. And I said, I think this is that duck. But when it fell, it's like half his body was under the ice and the moss and everything. And so I was only looking at the tail end of it. So Al, Jace, do you know your level of risk when it comes to the IRS coming in and looking at your stuff?

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That's TNUSA.com slash unashamed. So when I pulled that teal up, the moss fell off his head.

And I, for the first time, I broke one of my dad's rules that when you score a touchdown, you shouldn't hoop and holler, the Joe Paterno rule. When we duck hunt, we shoot a bunch of ducks. We were not allowed to hoop and holler. You just flipped the football to the referee just like you've been there. I let out a whoop. I was so stunned. Well, it was so loud, my son heard me and called me.

And said, are you okay? He's like, we heard you hollering. We've heard breaking ice and you shot and all this. I said, you're not going to believe what just happened. And he was like, oh, my goodness. Can I mount that for my son? And here's my son telling me we have a moment.

When you see this picture, so if you're just listening to this, pull over at a coffee shop and watch this. Go to the YouTube channel. Phil Robertson. And subscribe. And like us. And subscribe. I've never shot a blue-winged teal drake full plumaged in regular duck season.

Never happened. It's very rare. Until two or three days ago. And now my son wants to, like, pass on the legacy to his son. I mean, it got weird. Who, by the way, is your grandson. So did you put the – If we're keeping score. So he took – did he take the – is he going to – he's going to mouth it out. He took the two. Yeah, he took the two and put it in some pantyhose or something. That's what they normally do, right, when you mouth it? Well, Zach, we – you know, unlike, I guess, men –

In your lane, we did not have any pantyhose around, so we went with just some bags. I'm just saying what I've seen when people have killed a nice duck or bird, they put it inside of some kind of stocking, like a pantyhose. I think we just had like a plastic bag. You got to protect those feathers. It took off, and it was really spectacular.

So, uh, that was kind of the, I don't know. That was the moment I was like, this is awesome. I took, I took a selfie and I'll share it. And then one of the guys hunting with Reed, who was way better with technology and digital things, took a picture. He just held the teal up. His picture looks way better than mine. But, uh,

I'll give you both. Well, when you tell me when you tell that story, Jace, I love the part about the P-Row that you found. Well, it was a story. Yeah, it went along with the retrieving the duck. It was the first time ever. It's crazy. Well, it makes it makes it more fantastical. And it also reminded me, I think we've said it on the podcast, but it's probably been a long time ago. Dad loves to tell the story.

of his first cousins that were happening along the bank of the Red River, which is over close to where they're from in northwest Louisiana. And they came across the tip of what they thought was a P-Row or some kind of boat, but it was obviously bigger. And it turned out to be a canoe boat.

that Indians had hacked out of a tree that actually would have rode about 20 men. And it's in a museum over there somewhere. But they found it, the tip of it, sticking out of the bank of the Red River. So it made me think about that when you were telling that story, that dad loves to tell that story. So what's crazy is I was excited. So when I picked them up, they haven't fired their gun. It's 9 o'clock. They're thinking this whole day is going to be a waste. And so I was just ecstatic. I was like, look at here.

Look at my two blue-winged tail and my goggle eye. And so then I took them to another place, the ice thawed, and they actually shot 17. It was actually pretty good. I mean, it was one of the better days we had this year. So the whole thing was nice. But the next three days, I mean, look, Al, this season ended yesterday. It rained sideways.

And I hunted from noon till five in a sideways downpour with two other people who were as miserable as I've ever seen. Which sort of was the crowning set for this season. It seemed like it kind of ended symbolically. Yeah, I think I'm going to put another spin, another light on this. I think this is what you're going through with this duck season, right?

It was a rebuilding year. I mean, you lost Tom Brady. Yeah. You had Tom Brady in the duck blind. Yeah. Speaking of my dad. Yeah. Phil didn't hunt. You got a bunch of rookies that you brought in, the duck boys. Yeah. So I don't think you could have expected. I think your expectations, you should have lowered them anyways. The team didn't make the playoffs. Didn't make the playoffs. And you're looking forward to next season. Yeah. Yeah, but you got to get it back. Well, and my dad –

I was going to say lovingly said this, but I know he loves me, so I can say he lovingly said this because he said, well, sum up the year. And I was like, well, wasn't much.

And he said, well, maybe I don't know what you're doing. Which it kind of was a gift to feel too, right? Because when you're like, I missed out this duck season, you're like, yeah, you didn't really miss anything. To use your analogies, when Tom Brady left the Patriots, you know he kind of smiled that Tampa Bay went to Zupo and

and New England went terrible. I mean, somewhere deep down, it was like, yep, you needed me. So yeah, I think there's probably the same with that. it's true, but there's always wrong. You're the Gronk. So you still got the Gronkowski just, and you're kind of moving into the Tom Brady role now. So it's, it's a, it's a momentum shift. And what we're doing in the podcast too, you know, it works.

Kind of new territory here. Well, with that, I didn't know if y'all wanted to segue into John 1. Well, you did start in the pre-show, which we don't air. It's just our inner conversation. You said, are we going to get into the Bible or what? I think that was a...

I had been itching to get back to John. And, Jase, you got a little transition to bring us, because we left off at verse 6, but I want to get there, but you had a little transition for us. I had a question. You know, when you read verse 4 of John 1, when it says, in him was life, and that life was the light of men, I was just wondering, what does that mean? What is your take on

on what that means, I actually asked my wife, I was like, what do you think that means? And she said, well, you're the one doing a podcast on this. So it actually started about a 30-minute discussion that was really good. And what I was saying, look, John is introducing and connecting, going back to the beginning, Genesis, in our view, in our opinion,

which I think is pretty solid, and then telling about this new beginning that's fixing to occur. It's actually like, you know, when you read a book, and I think this is where people miss what's happening here in the book of John, he starts with the beginning, but he actually ends with the beginning. It's a new beginning. It's a new creation. And just to give you a little evidence of that before we get into what the light is,

be in the light of all mankind. Some versions says in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. Just think about that verse. But in John 20, have you ever noticed that on, it says at the resurrection day in chapter 20, verse one, it says early on the first day of the week while it was still dark, Mary went to the tomb.

Well, then in verse 19, he says, on the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked, well, here comes Jesus. I mean, do you think that's just an accident that he's making a point to say there's a new creation? A human has come back from the dead and his name is Jesus. But she eventually...

God breathes the Spirit into them. Well, you remember the first time God breathed His Spirit? Where's that at? Chapter 20 and verse... Is that where it said He breathed the Spirit into them? That was at the very end. It may have been the end of Luke. No, I think it's in John. Is it John? Here it is. John 20. It's right after what I just read. John 20 and verse 22.

And with that, well, he said, let me read 21. So here's this new creation and what's going to happen. Jesus said, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit on the first day of the week of the resurrection. Come on. No coincidence. No coincidence.

It's the beginning of the beginning. Yeah. Of the beginning. Which goes back to Mark's gospel. We're actually talking about this in the Not Yet Now podcast because we're going through Mark. But he says that John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus when he talks about baptism. He says, I baptize you with water, but when he comes...

He's going to baptize you with the Spirit. Or the one coming after me is greater than that. He'll baptize you with the Spirit. And you think about it, go back and read the Old Testament. Nobody pours out the Spirit except God himself. So Jesus pouring out that Spirit, that is the beginning of the, what do you call it? The beginning of the beginning? Yeah. Of the beginning. Well, it's like he called you to life and then he died and

And then he's living again. It's like life after life after death. Think about the word light. We mentioned this before. Like if you turn on the light...

that you can see. And so light illuminates the world around you so that you can see, you can have context, you know where you're at. You're not just kind of blindly feeling your way through it. You actually know where you're going. You can see and understand. And I think that verse that you mentioned on the pouring out of the Spirit, it's not a coincidence. Because if you think about the role of the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus in John 14, 15, 16, 17,

That really is one of His primary roles is to illuminate. It's to turn the light on. It's the Spirit that reveals truth to us. He will reveal all truth to you. The Spirit of truth comes. When He comes, He's going to take what's mine and make it known to you. He's going to convict the world of sin and guilt, righteousness, and judgment. And it's this whole picture that the Holy Spirit's role is to take what's

what is the fathers and the sons and to make it known to us. Yeah. That's what I thought. We had the same thing. He enlightens mankind. Yeah. Good or bad. Yeah.

It's hard sometimes to have good news, Jason, when we talk about the pro-life battle because we tend to only get numbers and they're very depressing to us because anytime we hear about abortions, we're like, man, it's a shame. It's terrible. But there are some good things that are happening out there. I mean, some is what you guys have been doing, stepping into people's lives, mothers' lives to be able to help them. Yeah, from our viewpoint, I mean, every life is different.

Precious and sacred. And even Jesus echoed that. We're talking about the one. If you can save one. So we're always looking for good news because we believe that every single life is valuable and created in the image of God. Our good friends at Preborn Ministries also have some good news about the abortion pill reversal treatment program.

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Well, that's John 16. He does convict the world about sin, and that's not a good thing when he tells you you're a sinner. The Holy Spirit, he's the one that says, hey, buddy, you don't want to look at yourself. And when you have that overwhelming conviction that you're like, oh, my goodness.

Like, I'm in rebellion to God. Like, the Spirit's the one that reveals that to you. You don't come up with that knowledge on your own exploration. But you think about those, Zach, it's even bigger because John takes us into this back at the beginning phrase. And so we've done this before. When you go back over to Genesis 1 and, you know, the first few verses, you see that light was literally there.

the life of men because you can't live without it. I mean, you can't grow food without it. You can't see without it. You can't have life. If our planet went dark, we'd all be dead in a short period of time. So he offered that for all mankind. And just think about it. We all have a spirit. When we're born, we have our spirit, which is life. When you see a person who's alive, you look in their eyes, you see life.

Their their light, as it were, I put that in quotations when they when they're all of a sudden their spirit is gone. When that's left their body, it's lifeless. It's lightless. There's nothing there. But Jesus, because he came to the world, according to John, this is where it gets exciting. Now brings us the opportunity to have his spirit live in us. We're in essence, we never die.

Yeah. We're illuminated going forward. And that begins here. You're not just waiting for the resurrection, but the deposit that gives us life in light gives it to the point now. That's why I said in John 1, 9, which we'll get to, the true light that gives light to every man is

was now coming into the world. So the beauty of it is this is that next phase that we're living in. That's why it hit me when I read that. I backed up and thought, man, this was, he's saying this is for everybody. And then when he gets to John 3, it kind of makes sense what he's saying as far as the negative. Because you're like, well, not all men are following the light. But it's kind of like, always think, you know, when you go downstairs,

and turn the light on, things start to scurry. Yeah. The cockroaches run. Well, the same thing happens when you believe Jesus is real. Things start to change. I mean, I've said a million times probably, when you believe Jesus is real and not way off, things change. Yeah. It becomes real to you, and what you're thinking becomes real, right?

When you're like, oh, wait a minute, if I have his spirit in me, he knows what I'm doing right now. So you're having these constant conversations all day like, sorry about that. I shouldn't have been going down that road. I mean, even in your mind, because he's shining a light. So he has this interesting thing. I want to read this because I think it kind of is going to make more sense by the time we get there. In John 3, it says,

And I like this other vein about where it talks about this with all the testimony and testifying and this being like a court case and Jesus making all the claims. Well, 319 says, this is the verdict or this is the judgment some translations have.

Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. That's why you have the scurrying. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly.

that what he has done has been done through God. And I think this goes into this vocation idea. I've been really thinking about this a lot and about what we're doing now as God's fellow workers, as carriers of the Holy Spirit, image bearers of God, ambassadors of Christ, all these things.

Because it is, when you think of the word vocation, you're like, what is that? That's what you dedicate yourself to do. It's your job. However you want to put that. People, I think, shy away from that because they're like, well, there's nothing you, we're so caught up on not working, you know, for our salvation that people turn vocation into vacation. It's like, well, I'm saved and I'm just sitting. Did you come up with that?

I did come up with that. I thought of that last night. I read all these verses. Turn vocation into vacation. That's such a good point. Yeah, I think we've missed the vocation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Well, think about the rich young ruler. When he asked Jesus, he said, what do I got to do to get eternal life? If Jesus could have said, do, you don't do anything. But he didn't say that.

I mean, he gave him a vocation. He said, well, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. That's true. That is true. It's a good analogy. He gave him a vocation. He just didn't like it. He didn't like the vocation. But he also followed that up, and it wasn't just the vocation. He actually put the vocation in a context because he said, and come follow me. Come be a disciple.

And I think that's probably one of the reasons why I think we've kind of moved into it. It's so funny that we're so afraid that we're going to take credit for some kind of salvation that we have eradicated the whole concept of works and vocation. Yeah, exactly.

I'm in the world. I'm in a body. I mean, what do I do? I don't do anything. But what does it even mean? Yeah. Well, that's why when I always read that 2 Corinthians 5, people don't like to hear this, but I quote it a while ago when it says, verse 20, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. Then he's like, we implore you, be reconciled to God.

And then this famous verse, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. But the next verse says, as God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. And I'm just simply pointing out whatever we're teaching on that is not in line with

with what it's actually saying. There's something we are doing as far as God's ambassadors and fellow workers that's coming from him. It's him working in us and through us.

Not just for us. And you kind of, I mean, on one level, I understand like how this happened historically. I mean, you think about a lot of these ideas came out of the Reformation movement, which started with Luther, you know, and he was seeing the Catholic church, you know, they were selling indulgences and they were saying you could basically purchase your loved ones out of hell. And there was all this manipulation and, you know, you could actually earn it and pay for it.

And he saw this, and he's like, that's not true. And so he writes the 95 Theses. He nails it to the wall of the church in Wittenberg and started the Reformation movement. So on one level, I get where it's coming from, and I think that it was probably necessary to address that, obviously. But the Bible doesn't negate works, and the Bible doesn't negate the pursuit of anything. I mean, even like Romans 9, which is kind of a hallmark text for Christians

for Reformed theologians. And if you get to the end of it, he says that the reason why the Gentiles attained righteousness and the Jews did not, it wasn't because they pursued it. It was the way they pursued it. He says one group pursued it by works and the other pursued it by faith.

And so the pursuit was never negated, meaning the effort, the vocation, the work was never negated. It was what was underlying that work. What was underlying? What was the motivating factor behind the pursuit? And if the motivating factor behind the pursuit is I'm going to earn it, well, that's not going to get you there. But if the underlying motivation behind the pursuit is I believe that there's life.

in what God said, and I'm going to go that direction. And he said, I'm going to reward that.

Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame's son? They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the GOAT. Shop Blinds.com right now and get up to 45% off select styles, plus a professional measure. Rules and restrictions may apply.

Well, you know all those arguments that religious people have. I don't, but I see your point. I mean, I'm just looking at it more like Jesus turned the light switch on. He's the light switch to life on earth. You want to know what it's all about?

what you're supposed to be doing, where we came from, what's happening now, what I need to be doing, and what's happening next. I mean, he's the light switch. And I think the reason I read that John 3 is people who, I believe they suffer God's wrath in that they don't acknowledge him as the son of God, and therefore they run from the light or persecute those who are following Jesus. And I just think you see this playing out.

And I think it's also just a little glimpse of what's going to happen when he comes back and we get our new bodies. Everything's going to be made right for all those who scurry and hide and

It's all going to be made right. Now is the opportunity that they have to give their life to Jesus. And he's made it abundantly clear. And he literally has millions of representatives of people who are being Jesus on the earth that you can come in contact with. I mean, I just really think after I read this, the more I'm thinking with y'all,

This is a very profound passage. Oh, it's very profound. And I'll tell you where it kind of like... So we had the flu at our house this past week.

Ruth got it. Honestly, I probably got it from the human petri dish, which is known as Willie and Corey's house when I was in town. I feel like they're always cultivating new illnesses over there. So when I was in town, I came back. I probably brought it back. Ruth gets sick. My three-and-a-half-year-old, she's got a 104 fever. And then I got it. Then Jill got it. And Jill was very sick, like 103 fever type stuff.

Interestingly, the difference between Ruth and Jill in terms of how they handled it and what did they do to basically treat their symptoms and to get better, it was a completely different paradigm. So Ruth has 104 fever, and I'm trying to administer to her the liquid children's ibuprofen, and I was like, if you take this, then it's going to reduce your fever.

She could not grasp that concept at three and a half. And I mean, when I say she fought me tooth and nail,

She's rejecting the very medicine that was going to reduce her fever and prevent her from having a stroke. I'm giving her life-saving medication here. But in her mind, her mind has not been illuminated to this fact yet. And so she's seeing this medicine as it tastes horrible. I hate it. You're hurting me. And she's rejecting the very thing that is going to help her.

Now, fast forward two days later, Jill is asking me to go get the medicine and freely take it. Why? Well, because she has a different revelation and understanding of what life is. And she knows that, yeah, this is painful in the moment. I don't like the taste of this, but this is a small price to pay.

pay for the joy that awaits me when this fever breaks and I'm no longer in tremendous pain. I know if I take this medicine and within 30 minutes, I'm going to feel better. And I think that's how the Holy Spirit kind of works in a crude way. I mean, he illuminates our minds to understand where life is actually at. And it enables us to

So he enables us to move through this earth and to do the things that he has called us to do, not to earn it.

But to taste it. That's why he says that in him was life. That's the motivation. Life. And the life was the light of men. So it's the life that actually illuminates you. And you're looking and you say, oh, wow. Yeah, I'm going to go that way. I'm going to go with Jesus because that's where life is. So you just described, Zach, what I believe is that we hadn't used this word yet in connection to light. But you just brought in the truth element there.

of what Jesus brought when he brought light. And that was both in the beginning and when he came to earth. When he came to earth, he revealed that truth to us as a human being in flesh.

But the idea of truth is, and look, truth is not always pleasant. You just described it beautifully and illustrated it with baby Ruth. But it's the same with any of us. When you live in the shadows and when there's darkness, that's where the evil one does his best work. Why? Because he doesn't want you looking at truth.

He wants you to continue to live in that unpleasant place. He wants you to push yourself to that point of having that stroke in a spiritual sense. So he wants you to hide in dishonesty. And so that's why the light of truth sanitizes. I mean, that light changes everything when you have a realization. And that looks when we look in our own hearts and lives as well. Have y'all seen that movie, The Irishman, by any chance? No.

I haven't. Martin Scorsese film. I started it last night, and it's about the mob and who's the head of the Teamsters and all the corruption. What's it rated?

Probably are. Well, you might ought to bring that in. There may be small children watching. Yeah, no, yeah. I don't endorse watching it with small children. I may or may not have watched it. Let me say it that way. But if I had watched it. We're shining light here, Zach. I feel like we should sing an invitation song. Let me say it this way. If I had watched it, maybe this would be in there. But there's these moments in the movie where there'll be a character that's introduced and

And then the screen stops and it pops up on the screen how he shot five times in the face in 1979. And the next guy, you know, I didn't watch that. Yeah. Got blown up in a car in 1980. And it's like over and over again, this entire like group of people who were involved in this organized crime unit ring, they all, a lot of them, most of them died these horrific deaths. And it's like, it's interesting because,

I wonder if he could go back and show them that film and say, this is your fate. Would they still have pursued it? I don't know. I mean, I think the Holy Spirit that he does that, he opens the veil up. He says, that's not the way to life. That's the way to death. And he gives you these morsels of revelation of himself. Well, I wanted to go back to this. We brought up N.T. Wright before. And, you know, he's, I think, whether people...

are scared of him or don't like him. I think everybody agrees the guy's pretty sharp when it comes to scholarly exegesis of the Bible and has really introduced a lot of things, I think, that is helping shape

churches in North America, especially about this idea of creation and new creation and heaven and earth coming together and the kingdom and those kind of things. But I listened to a dissertation he had on Romans 8 and getting back to this vocation idea. And I'm telling you, this made a lot of sense to me. I wanted to run it by you. But in Romans 8, you think here you have this

beautiful picture of a new creation and and it kind of lumps in what many people believe as this earth being renovated you know in Romans 8 where it says the creation this is verse 19 waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed for the creation was subjected to frustration and

Not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjects it. You remember that, that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage, decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. And always, I've really never focused on that so much about, because I've always thought it doesn't matter where we live.

as long as I'm with who I want to be with. I want to be with Jesus. I want to be with my wife. I want to be with other people that I love, my family. But having said that, it goes on to say then that we'll have the redemption of our bodies. That's the part I've always zeroed in on, verse 23. We have the first fruits and we've grown inwardly. So my point is, though, when he gets to 26...

Getting back to this vocation. He then transitions and says, in the same way, the Spirit, in the same way as what? Us having the Spirit, we get this new body. We've grown wanting to have this body that Jesus had in John 20 when he was eating the fish and he was going through walls and levitating just for fun. All these things, and we tie that into 1 John 3, which I mention a lot, that says when he comes...

We, as his children, will receive, it says we will be like him. So giving you the impression, oh, we're going to get a new body like Jesus did, this new creation. But he transitions in 26 and says, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. All of a sudden, he makes a transition into modern day, having the Spirit.

And I think this is really powerful. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And the world sees this, us praying and praying after Jesus things, wanting people to have their lives transformed and all these sorts of things. Well, then when he gets to 28, which is one of the most famous verses ever,

It says, and we know that in all things, and I'll read it like it's translated here. It says, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, which that called is the same. So if you look up the word vocation, the Latin word for that is the same place where we get the word called, which I thought was interesting. But in the Greek, he said, look, the translations are leaving out one key word.

And if you insert it, it changes a lot of the ways we view this verse. And the Greek word that he highlighted was, and I'll just insert it here. It's hard to do this in my translation, but I'll do it. And we know that in all things, God works with those for the good of those who love him. And so he said, when you look at this as a vocation,

Because it's coming off, we have the Spirit helping us in our weakness now. That seems to be the transition. It's not like he just made it up and then saw the Greek word. He's like, that is the context of it. Well, then it totally changes how you read it. Because then it says, for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be, and here's the key phrase, to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.

And so having read all that and said all that, you see what he's saying? You're doing that now. So then when you back up and read at the beginning of the chapter, it makes perfect sense. Look at verse 10 of chapter 8. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin. I mean, your body's going to die.

Right? He addresses that with the resurrection. But watch what the next part says. Yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And then watch this verse. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, that's now. Yeah. That's the same now that the spirit is helping us when we pray. That's the same spirit that God is working with us to do what?

to be called to this purpose, verse back to 30, and those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. And he's like, we always view glorified as well when we get our new body. And he was being very adamant, and I was agreeing with him. He said, but don't ever doubt it. When you surrender to Jesus and you receive God's Spirit, oh, you're glorified, right?

Well, because think about what is the tense of the word there, glorified. It's got an E-D on the end of it, so it's past tense. Well, then the next verse just validates it. It's like, what then shall we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, and then you know where he gets. He then goes through the gospel message again, but then he says in verse...

35, well, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution? When does all that happen? Every day. Yeah. Right now. You're going through trouble and persecution, but you have God's Spirit. That's why we're praying. Yeah. That's what we're doing now. That is your vocation. That's what he called us to do. I mean, it is, at least in the context of Romans 8.

It's pretty clear even that the idea of predestination is associated with transformation. It's associated with your predestined for what? To be conformed into the image of his son on earth now and with a new body later. I mean, I thought it was awesome. I'm convinced that's why James put James 2, which he had a little bit of a later letter, and

aimed primarily at a Jewish audience, but he had to make them understand that, look, what we believe in is crucial. It's everything, but we can't have that without living for it. I mean, he brings that vocation concept into the process to that Jewish audience. He said, look, I know you used to be thinking you could do it on your own. Now it's because of Christ, but that doesn't mean you stop doing it. I mean, he's called us to live. I know we're out of time, but that's the whole point I brought this up is because, look,

I think in a lot of our modern theology now, people are saying, well, you can't turn that Jesus light on now. We have to turn that on later. Yeah. No, I think we're supposed to be like Jesus now. Yeah.

And later. And I would say this. I would say this. I know we're out of time, but you should go back and read what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 because he makes this point. This is the point that he makes in any connection with the Holy Spirit because he gives the idea of Moses. And it's all about light too. Moses would go see the glory of the Lord and he'd have the covers face up because he'd be glowing. But it says here, yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. That's not later. That's now. Now the Lord is the spirit. Now, not later. Now the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we all with unveiled faces behold the glory of the Lord and our being transformed into the same image.

image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So you see that that's the same exact language that Paul's using in Romans chapter 8 when he's connecting it, life in the Spirit, with being conformed into the image of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that's what we're predestined for. That's what God called us to. So I think there's a whole lot there we can maybe unpack in the next episode.

All right, we're out of time once again, but we'll dive back into this next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.