Ep 1079 | Jase Contemplates Taking Back Missy’s Diamond Ring After Discovering Biblical Gemstones
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I am unashamed.

What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. It's always, we just had a holiday, so we had some family down here, which is always nice to get together with family, unless you're Zach and you're, what did he call it? People...

People averse? I had a great time with my family. I was just exhausted. I was really just exhausted. You had an exhaustion problem. I had an exhaustion problem. I called it the wrong thing. I called it a people problem or something like that. Yeah, that was probably not a great phrase. I was giving you an opportunity to confess yourself. Let me tell you something. I mean, you guys know this. That grocery bill, it just starts to skyrocket when everybody's in town. You're like, I mean, I was cooking...

Every meal, we got home from church. I mean, I went to the store immediately. I bought about an eight-pound bag.

Tenderloin, beef tenderloin came back. I trimmed that, smoked it, got the smoker ready. I do a whole process where I smoke it, then I sear it on another grill. Did I make a chimichurri sauce? Then everybody eats. It was just every day was that for about four days. You know what's hit me? I finally realized what was the smoking gun to you coming to Jesus. What was that? Isaiah 55, 1.

Come all come. Everyone. He thirst come to the waters. Wait for it. Zach. And he who has no money, come by and eat, come by one. Yes. Without money.

Your cheapskate type tendencies actually led you to Jesus because he said, I have bread that costs no money. I came with what Francis Schaeffer called the empty hands of faith. I had nothing in my hands. I knew that. I was there with the beggar. Well, remember, what was it, back in John 2? How many gallons of wine did Jesus turn from water into wine? I mean, that's Zach's right up his alley. It's like, man, free wine. Oh, man. Gallons of wine. That's funny. I don't care. You're a

All right, so I had a funny little thing that happened. And speaking of passages in Isaiah that I said I was going to get back to, my son sent me a video, and it was like a seven-minute video. And he said, what do you think about this? So it was a scientist who was basically breaking down a passage in Revelation 21. And...

What's also funny about the conversation before I get into that is, you know, Reed was also asking me like what to tell his mom about because we're rebuilding our house, which has been a year since our house got hit by a tornado. And I was like, Reed, isn't she there? And he's like, well, yeah, but I'm asking you.

because I'm pretty sure she's asleep. It was like in the morning. He was at my house. He was asking me. He didn't want to wake her up. Yeah, he didn't want to wake her up, which I thought was funny. But I was like, well, why don't you go in there and ask her?

So I think that provides some tension because you were talking about family. Yeah. Because, you know, it's, you have your son rebuilding your house, which you think, oh, that's great that you have a son that can do that. But it's also tense for him because,

because you're rebuilding your parents' house. So the standard has gone up because if anything goes wrong, I realized in the moment what he was actually asking. He was like, the pressure here is about more than I can bear.

And let's face it, Jase, some parents, and we have one, who don't like to be woken up. The rule was in our house, unless it's the president or Leonard Skinner, don't wake dad up. Oh, and I had the same thing with my kids, and we actually converted Missy into that same manner. I mean, she will do anything not to wake anybody up, and you don't wake her up. It's just like I've explained that to little man because he's like,

Where's Lulu? He calls her Lulu. I do not like to be woke. If you wake me up, I don't like it. I don't think it's godly. Yeah, I told my kids. I don't think it's godly. I said, you wake me up. Well, I framed it around when you start providing some of the resources around here. And so we had a rule. I forgot what the exact rule was, but you can only awake me

If you're bleeding out of some kind of orifice, have a broken bone. It was something graphic. Like, you're basically dying. There are always exceptions to the rule. Yeah, but outside of that. Yeah, so that's stuck in Reed's psyche. So he's got that in him, just the DNA of that. So he's afraid to wake Missy up.

but he sends you the, they send you the, the video. I wish you did. I wish you would send that to me. That's fine. That's very interesting. Okay. So let me talk about this video and send me the video. I'm not going to send it to you yet because you're going to be, you'll watch it while,

While you're explaining it. Zach, I appreciate your transparency and you're basically owning your vulnerabilities to the world. That's it. But I hate to tell you this. You have ADD before that was a thing.

Now they're saying it's not a thing, but I'm saying look at Zach and Willie. It is a thing. How many times have we been on this podcast? It never makes it on the podcast, but how many times have y'all heard a video play? I'm watching a video and I just read the sound, but sometimes...

I'll forget to turn the sound off, and we're having a recording session, and you guys will hear something pop up. And you're like, what was that? So you can't say you're not transparent. And look, I think in light of John 3, at the end where it says we bring out our –

our failures into the light because on the other side of darkness oh actually this is going to go perfect I didn't do this on purpose with what I'm fixing to talk about look I'm pretty sure ADD look I'm pretty sure well now I'm going to read this because it's like ding ding ding ding the Lord the Spirit has moved and given me a thought it's really good but I want to say something Zach because you're one of the smartest people I know I mean I don't rank rank the smart people I know and I only have a few people

that I hang around with that are really smart. And part of my inner circle, which Zach is in that inner circle, because I'm just not real bright. Irony of this word. I'm fixing to talk about light. Yeah. But let me just, you are very bright. No, that's not true. Well, God has turned the light switch on, but if I can do this, anybody can do it.

So what I'm going to try to do here, because I'm pretty sure, even though you're one of the smartest people I know, that you've never heard what I'm fixed to talk about. I've never heard it. Is this, is this happening? You've never heard it. And Al, I don't think you've ever heard this. I had never heard this when I watched the video. Now, Zach,

He doesn't claim to know all, but he claims to know most. So that's a big thing. I do not. I do not. Well, I'm on a roll today. I hope you're recording all this. That's not true. So I want to read this John 3 because this was not part of what I was going to talk about, but the Holy Spirit spoke. So in verse 19 where he says, This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness.

Instead of light because their deeds were evil. And everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Oh, this goes perfect with what I'm fixing to share. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. Yeah. All right. This is going to be awesome. We're probably going to go viral with what I'm fixing to say.

Because look, the video I watch, as spectacular as it was, it hasn't gone viral. There was just a few people that have seen it. I mean, I don't know the number. I could look it up real quick, but it's not that many. And the earliest, and there was three videos, and two of them was by the same guy. Then there was a European guy who, theologically, he didn't get into theology much. He did quote a few verses. But...

But he wasn't a dynamic speaker. So the one I listened to had the dynamic speech. The problem was his theology, when he got to the end, I did not agree with. I'm just going ahead and saying it because I'm sure some of you are going to look this video up after I'm finished.

And so I think he missed the most important thing. So I never would recommend the video because I'm like, well, this guy had a wondrous, this science guy had a wondrous discovery that no one seems to know about.

Al, Jill and I have been using the Abide app for some time now. She started using it in Costa Rica when we went on a mission trip. She had trouble sleeping at night, so she downloaded this app and started listening to the devotionals. You know, it's interesting. I listened to mine first thing in the morning, and the very first one I listened to was Jesus on the Cross.

basically talking to John and Mary and, you know, connecting them because he was leaving. And the whole, you know, devotional thought was about your parents, what happens, you know, when you have to take care of them. And it was, you know, because of what we're going through with mom and dad, it was just a super encouraging thing to get my day started. I loved it. I love that. And, you know, if you want to sense like a trajectory of this podcast, we really believe in abiding in God's word, that long obedience in the same direction and use that line all the time, abide.

Abide is an app that helps us do that. Abide is the number one Christian meditation app. Abide users report less stress, lower anxiety levels, lower depression, and better sleep in the case of Jill and myself. You can start your day with Abide's daily meditations, which are all based on biblical scripture.

And these audio meditations, they'll bring you peace because they're bringing you closer to Christ. They're getting into God's Word. Abide's meditation started about two minutes long, so they're really easy to fit in your schedule. They cover topics like overcoming anxiety, managing stress, addiction, recovery, and finding forgiveness, and a whole lot more, like in Al's case, dealing with parents. So here's what you need to do. If you're ready to find the rest while you deepen your relationship with God, download the Abide app today and for a limited time.

Our listeners will get 25% off a premium subscription when you text unashamed to 22433. That's 25% off a premium subscription when you text unashamed to 22433. So that's my lead up to this. And I want to read the Isaiah 54 because I promised on the last podcast I'd do that. And I do want to say that...

My son sent this to me, so when I responded to his text, I said, this is awesome. I think I put, I love this in all caps. I said, however, he did miss one vital point about Revelation 21. Okay, so if you read the Isaiah 54 that I purposely skipped over. It was verse 12. Yeah. Remember when we read this about...

This idea of Israel being God's wife. And look, I want to say something, too, about created in the image of God before the beginning of time. You know, this was God's plan to bring Jesus for those from all nations to be gathered under one head. That is Christ. Think Ephesians 1 or Colossians, you know, says that. And so in that light, he's talking about, he's predicting God.

Salvation, among other things, reconciliation, everlasting love. We read the verse in John 6 about your children. You'll teach your children. You'll pass this on to your children. I mean, there's hope coming. Well, right in the middle of this in Isaiah 54, he says in verse 11, O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,

behold, I will set your stones in... Well, this says antimony. I don't even know what that means. Turquoise. Turquoise? Okay. And lay your foundation with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of a gate. Well, these are all precious stones. Mm-hmm. All right? Yeah.

All of your wall of precious stones. Oh, that's what verse 12 says. And then verse 13 says what John quotes Jesus as saying from here in Isaiah. So one of the odds I'm studying this, my son sends me this video. So here's what the video is about. This science guy says he refers to Revelation 21, and I want to read it. All right.

This is going to blow your mind. Which I thought, Jay, before we started, I said, are you going to wind up in Revelation? You said, yes. So I was thinking that's where you're going. Second to the last chapter in the Bible. And I want to just say this right now for you who are just catching up.

That Isaiah 54, when he's describing the jewels, he's describing the people of Israel being redeemed in Jesus. Would y'all agree? That's right. The jewels...

are representative of the people. So keep that in mind because when you get to Revelation 21, people who read this lose their mind. And this scientist was saying, look, he said, you know what heaven, here's how he framed it. He said, you know what heaven's going to be like? It's going to be filled with these gemstones, these 12 of them. And he read, now I disagreed with that statement, by the way.

Theologically. But, and the reason, well, before I give the reason, I'll go ahead and read the verse. So in verse nine, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. Well, does that sound familiar? Does that sound familiar? Look, that goes, first we go back to Isaiah saying that Israel would again be

God's bride. But then it also goes to like Ephesians five. We're the bride of Christ because through Jesus dying, being buried and raised, the spirit being poured out, people responding to Jesus, nations from all under heaven become the bride of Christ. Thank Matthew 28, great commission. All right, we got all that. So then let me keep reading. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain of

great and high and show me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. Now this scientist, bless his heart, he's fixing to reveal something that is absolutely stunning. However, he has this being depicted as heaven, and I just read that this came out of heaven. And if you go back to the first verse of this,

In Revelation 21, 1, he saw a new heaven, a new earth. The first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. So I'm just asking you, who do you think is talking about? What is this city? It's got to be people. It's got to be people. This is a description of the church. So anyway...

Now look at verse 11 of Revelation 21. It's shown with the glory of God. Look, its brilliance was like that of a precious jewel. Sound familiar? Isaiah 54. Like a jasper clears crystal, it had a great...

high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels of the gates. Now, does that sound familiar? How many tribes were there in Israel? Twelve. Yeah. How many disciples did Jesus, or I mean, apostles did Jesus pick? Twelve. Twelve seems to be a common theme here. On the gates were written the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. Well, that answered that question. That's what we're talking about.

All right, so you have all these gates and foundations and the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Okay, verse 15, the angel who talked, he had a measuring rod, so he starts measuring this. I'm going to skip down to verse 18. The wall was made of jasper, the city of pure gold as pure as glass, the foundations of the city, they had walls with every kind of precious stone. Now watch.

The first foundation was Jasper. The second, Sapphire. The third, I can't even pronounce it. What does your version say? Agate. Agate. Chalcedony. Well, Agate, which is what the same one in Isaiah. The fourth, Emerald. The fifth, what do you have as the fifth? Onyx. Onyx. The sixth, Chalcedony.

Carnelian or Sardosis. The seventh, Chrysolite. Chrysolite. Yeah, the eighth, Beryl. What do you have as the ninth and tenth? Topaz. Yeah, that's what I have. Chrysoprase. Yeah. So you have these ten jewels. Amethyst is in there. Now, look, there was two things that happened. One, I disagreed with the guy that this is a picture of heaven. I think it's a picture of the church.

And I'm going to prove that even further. And number two, in the NIV that I had, it had number six. It had rubies. Bad translation. It's the only translation that has rubies. But when I looked up the Greek word, it has that sardosis or what was the one y'all had? Onyx. Yeah. Or maybe I think that was the fifth. Maybe it was onyx, but whatever. Okay.

So here's what the scientist says. This is what the six-minute video is about. And he's telling this fellow. He's like, well, in the last 50 years, we have figured out how to make light streamlined, like make it pure, what they call pure light. And he went through this whole thing that was totally on my head about the reason we, you know, light reflects in all kinds of different ways, right?

But they figured out just in the last few years how to concentrate it. And so think the way I understood he had an illustration about wearing sunglasses that were polarized because he called it polarized light. Well, you can get rid of some light through the glasses because you're more focused on one set of light than others, and it actually creates a buffer for the light. So anyway, he went through this whole deal.

And so what's fascinating about this, the polarized light, and think laser lights. He also used that. You know, like have a laser going through space or whatever. We figured out this through technology and all that. So what happened was some of these scientists got together who were believers, right?

And actually started putting these different kinds of jewels because what people are fascinated in, which is why I believe the NIV got that one translation wrong, because Sardosis is a lot like a ruby in that it's red, but it's like a ruby is a ruby. And so you see why they translated that because they wanted a better jewel.

But what's fascinating is these 10 jewels that are mentioned here are not what we in our society view as the best jewels. I mean, if I said, what is the best jewel? What's the first thing you think of? Diamond. A diamond. Well, that's enough. Because he said, what happened under a microscope when you use pure light and you take these jewels and you refine them down and look at it through a microscope using pure light?

What they found was when they did all jewels, a lot of the jewels went gray, white, or black, no colors, when you purified the light and things like diamonds. It just looks, think coal, it looks like coal. And he's showing you the pictures of this under a microscope using pure light. But did you know that all 10 of these listed here

not only do they become brighter, they all look like a rainbow with colors like becoming almost greater than you could ever imagine.

So, Jace, I don't know if you know this or not, but you and I were young lads, young men, I guess, in the school of preaching. And the first time I heard the word martyr was actually from you. You'd been reading a book, and you were telling me about how much it inspired you. Do you remember that? I do remember that, because I just remember thinking, why would these people who were eyewitnesses of Jesus...

choose to give their life or have it taken from them rather than deny that Jesus was who he said he was. Very inspiring. Those inspirational stories continue on because persecution is all around the world and Voice of the Martyrs is a group that highlights that. Their radio host is a guy named Todd Nettleton. And Todd has written a book that Jace has there if you're watching, When Faith is Forbidden, 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians.

And what Ty did is he traveled around for 20 years into restricted nations to interview these courageous Christians who live their faith at great personal cost. And he told their stories. And that's what this book is about. These bold believers, what they went through for Christ, what they continue to go through for Christ. Every stop on the journey becomes a challenge for your walk and my walk with Christ as

just to be able to be inspired by what these folks have done. So we don't want you to miss out on the opportunity. So you can request your free copy of When Faith is Forbidden by calling 844-463-4059. That's 844-463-4059. Or you can visit vom.org slash unashamed. That's vom.org slash unashamed.

What the guy's point was is we just discovered that in the last 50 years. How did the writer of the book of Revelation know that? You think, well, maybe he just got lucky, you know, which I think he was carried along by the Holy Spirit. But it comes back to what I started to in John 3.

When, if you're basing it on human eyes, we pick the diamonds, the rubies, the opal. Well, none of these reflect under a microscope with intense light. Well, think about all the verses that says, you know, God lives in unapproachable light, you know, and think about too where revelation is going when it says verse 22, verse

I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Look at the next verse. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp. So get the picture of what he's really writing. You take these stones that are precious stones, but they're not the ones that we think are the best.

But when you look at them through the eyes of God's light, his illustration is this is the vision of people that are redeemed by God. They're actually way more beautiful and colorful than you could ever imagine. Wow. That's pretty good. And I was like, but look, the guy missed the whole point because he said, this is the place you're going. So that's why it just went, wow, wow, wow.

I was like, no, these are the people. This is the place we are. This is the people that are described by God being redeemed by the blood of Christ and being transformed into light that becomes even greater than we could ever ask or imagine. And that's the way we're depicted as our eternal dwelling place.

How did the writer of this revelation have that knowledge? Because it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. When you were saying that, a couple of things popped in my mind. The first, I'll take us there. I want to go to three places. But the first thing I thought about was Ephesians 3.10, which I'll tell you in a second what that says. But then I was reminded of...

The end of the Hebrew canon, so what we canonize as the Hebrew scriptures, the very last verse in the Hebrew canon is 2 Chronicles 36, verse 23. So this is how the entire Hebrew canon ends. It ends with a direct call.

for the Messiah to appear and to build a temple in Jerusalem. This is what it says. I mean, this is how the whole thing ends. Verse 23, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is Judah. Whoever is among you, all of his people, may the Lord...

His God be with him. Let him go up. So you see that the Hebrew canon ends with a call for the messianic figure to build a temple. Fast forward, move to the New Testament. Jesus says, destroy this temple. I'll rebuild it in three days.

Speaking of his body, they do destroy the temple. He does rebuild it in three days. His body's resurrected. He becomes, according to the book of Ephesians, the cornerstone of the temple. And now he's going to graft all people into this eschatological kingdom, which is exactly the thing that he's talking about in Revelation 21. Because he says, I looked around, I didn't see a temple.

I didn't see a temple. Why? Because the lamb himself is the temple. He's the cornerstone of the temple where the living stone is built upon the temple. The whole point of it is the Gentiles will now be grafted in with Jewish people into becoming a holy temple built upon the cornerstone, growing up into the temple of the Lord. I think that's in Ephesians 2. Skip over to Ephesians 3.

And he says that is the mystery. What I just said is the mystery that the Gentiles are going to be grafted in, the mystery that was hidden for ages. But he says that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. And you know that word manifold, you know, a lot of people translate that to be multicolored.

A multicolored variation of the kingdom. Yeah, that's what the manifestation word means. I've noticed that before, too. Which, look, I mean, this is so, I mean, to me, it's so exhilarating. I mean, that's why it was so exciting. I mean, that's how the church, to your point, is being described here. Well, and Jace, I thought about one thing when you were describing that. Whenever the earth flooded...

Because, you know, it never rained until the flood. I mean, we never read about any rain. It said there were mists, you know, that went over and watered things. And all of a sudden, there's this massive rainfall. So the skies turned dark 40 days and 40 nights. It's such a rain, such a flood of the deeps opened up. And then what was the sign that there would be something better than just sin and death? It was refracted light.

Through water, which is what we know as a rainbow. Yeah, which was a sign of a promise. Exactly. Yeah. So what happens, I love, man, it's really good, Jace. I mean, I looked up the word manifold in lexicon, diverse, various, multicolored, diverse.

is literally much varied and means many-sided, variegated, greatly diversified, abounding in variety. So when I think about that, I'm thinking, man, there's like nations, people, diversity, complexity. And if you read Revelation 21, verse 26 says, they will bring into the glory and the honor of the nations. I mean, you see the picture is right here in Revelation 21,

That's interesting in that it's through the light, it's through the revelation of who Christ is that we essentially gain our agency. We don't lose our diversity in that. It's that something beautiful happens through the illumination of the light, the pure light that's Christ, that the diversity becomes highlighted and magnified. And at the same time, there's some weird way that it's all unified.

No, I agree. That's what stood out to me, too, was the fact that we're not diamonds. It's not the ones we would think because when you think you're something, you think you're a diamond, you don't think you need God. You know? It's like, to me, that was... They didn't talk about all this. I mean, you got to remember, these are kind of boring scientists that stumbled up on something, and they weren't even making the points that I thought they should be making. I was like...

One thing is this is us. Are you crazy? And another thing, I wrote down some notes because this was obviously over my head on the light part. So the ones that turn gray, black, or white, like the under this intense light ones,

It's called isotropic. And just in case you want to research this, the ones that turned into the beautiful rainbows beyond the colors that they even have was called anisotropic. But you know what the process that they called that they didn't even mention to discover this was called? That they call it? It's called cross-polarized light.

Because light reflects off so many things that, and so, but they call it the cross, you get it? The cross. I was like, well, you buried the lead there, dude. I mean, stop, take a time out on what, you know, how we became new creatures. I love, Jase, that you described that.

What he missed about it is the same thing. And I have to say, most of religious people and people of God miss it, too, when they misunderstand that eternal life is more about quality of life than quantity of life.

I mean, we've made it more just about the idea of forever instead of the idea of forever what? Forever being the light of God. And that begins now. Yes, exactly. Look, it's the same thing about imaging God that we've been discussing. And when God's kingdom is among the earth now, we're members of it.

And the quality that you have as being a representative of the kingdom. And now, I mean, just in light of that, just think of that. I mean, you're whatever jewel you want to be in that list through God's light shining on you. Oh, you're way more spectacular than any jewel to the eye out there of the earth on the earth. Which is interesting because the world...

particularly in like secular leftist culture is attempting to hold up diversity and by doing so they're actually trying to create ironically a homogenous like singular identity and they end up erasing diversity and that's one of the points that francis schaefer makes in in his book um

I forgot what book it was in, but he talks a whole lot about how it's only in the framework of a triune God that you can actually elevate and maximize diversity and unity. I think that's what's beautiful about the kingdom. Like what we're seeing here, like this is, this is the, if you really want to, if you really believe in diversity,

Yeah. And inclusion. This is it. True diversity and inclusion can only happen within a Trinitarian framework because God is both diverse and he is one. So as all of you know, we're all super engaged here on the Unashamed podcast in the pro-life movement. Lisa and I speak around the country. Most of our opportunities to speak are on behalf of the unborn.

And we take that as a great sense of responsibility because of our own testimony, but also because it's so needed. We know in Psalms, we learn that God knit you together in your mother's womb. He saw your unformed body.

So he saw that you were created before you even became you. Preborn Ministries is someone that we partner with, and they want to remind you that each one of you is made in the image of God and life is sacred and life is eternal. You may have come to earth as an unplanned pregnancy, but whether planned or unplanned, your life has value and every day of your life is ordained by God.

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I know that's mind boggling for us, but it is who God is. And so he made us in his image. He doesn't erase our autonomy. He didn't create a bunch of robots. I mean, he created image bearers that image him. And part of that imaging of him was...

is that we actually live out our colorful, diverse giftings for His glory, and that creates and overflows into new life and life abundantly. But also look at how the evil one tries to rob that because, I mean, remember the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians, the idea he masquerades as an angel of light. It's this false light. I think about it with the rainbow. It's like a diamond. It's like a diamond. And everybody looks at it and says, oh, or look at the rainbow. I mean, it's been hijacked.

By a lifestyle in our culture that we look at now, we see a rainbow and a flag. And then we say, oh, man, and we're all depressed. It was our sign first. Oh, that's why. That's why when I asked you, had you ever heard this? I knew you hadn't because people, you know, we've given up the rainbow as people of God because there's another group of people that they've made that their flagship.

Oh, no, that was God's flagship. And I just read to you, we need to bring it back. You need to wake up tomorrow and say, hey, I'm a sapphire set on fire by the pure light of Jesus shining through me.

Step back and allow me to burn in front of you. I mean, that was the idea of here, this Revelation 21. I mean, it's like you've been set on fire in a good way by the pure light of Jesus. Yeah, I don't know if this is actually true. I think it's debatable, but I'm going to say it like it's true because it's awesome, whether it's true or not. But it was one of the Wesley brothers. I can't remember which one. Everywhere this guy would go,

John Wesley, I think it was John Wesley, everywhere he would go and preach, a revival would break out. And it was like, everybody's like, man, you have this incredible anointing on you. What is your secret? What's your method? They wanted to know the method of his technique so that they could replicate this revival and renewal movement. And

Um, it's written that he said this, not, not sure if you really said, I've read this to your, your own target is you got the right guy. He said, uh, all I do is I catch on fire, uh,

And people come to watch me burn. Yeah. And I thought that's good. You know what's funny about this video? So I said there was three videos that nobody much has watched. Well, at the end of one of them, they had found a sermon from like 30 or 40 years ago. And it was a clip. And think, you know, like a charismatic preacher. I mean, he was preaching this without any scientific knowledge.

But basically saying there was something he had figured out without the scientific research that I shared with you, that he chose lesser jewels because of this principle of God shining the light, which made you brighter. And he didn't even know the research, which I thought was really cool because I thought that's a spirit-filled preacher thing.

who had figured it out without any scientific research, which I thought, kudos to that guy, tip of the hat. That's why I asked you, had you ever heard this? Had you ever heard this before? I hadn't, no. I have not. Oh, well, good. I made a prediction. But I was going to say, Jase, there's a, talking about culture, there's a show out right now, and someone, the only reason I'm aware of it is someone sent me a note and asked me if I'd ever heard of it. It's called The Righteous Gemstones. Right.

And I think it's on one of the premium channels on cable. And so I looked, I looked it up and I said, no. And so I looked it up and it's basically a spoof of like religious people and like this family of people, their names are gemstone, but they're all fake. They're all false names.

And they're all just money grubbers. Yeah, they're highlighting and turning into a satire more kind of your prosperity gospel preachers. Right, exactly. But I just thought to your name of it, talking about these gemstones, I thought, man, that's exactly what the whole, it's always, the world is always about that, which is not real. It's the fake gemstone. Well, here's the problem now, Al, is like, so I, because my wife's out of town and so I'm doing this, my son,

I sent this to him, and I was like, it made me feel so good that my son found this, despite it not having many views, and sent it and said, what do you think about this? Because he wasn't like, oh, this is a great—he was just like, what do you think about this?

But what hit me was, one, I'm really glad my son is sending his dad videos about Bible things saying, what do you think? That's good. And number two is it hit me. I thought after I finished all this three hours later, after I went down all these rabbit holes,

I thought, how am I going to tell Missy that she needs to throw away this diamond ring that I bought for her? Because this is almost a form of, you know, pagan ritualistic worship there. Yeah.

I was like, oh, no. Why did I buy that diamond? That was a reflection that I didn't know my Bible. No, no, James. You're looking at it the wrong way. That's okay to have because we all look at that and say, man, that's beautiful. It sparkles. But just realize that God's gemstones are worth way more.

I'm going to push back on you. I think that she does need to get rid of it. And I would invite our entire audience to send your diamonds to me to dispose of. Oh, money, man. Resurfaces. And I will dispose of them properly because it is. But the reason this hits home to me, Jace, is because we just had a new insurance guy. You know, our buddy Richard did our insurance and we had to tally up how much jewelry Lisa had.

to know an amount of what it's worth to insure it. And I was embarrassed. I thought there was over a lifetime of collection, but I was like, are you kidding? I said, we might need to have a sell-off around here, but that didn't go too well with Lisa. Well, you know, it's funny. I'm thinking about one of my best friends is a diamond hunter.

He's a wholesale diamond guy. That's what he does. Oh, by the way, he's got a lot of my money, but that same guy. So I'm going to...

Yeah, I knew this was going to go viral. I mean, because I was like, this needs to get out. Of course, look, and I think it goes back to John 6 in that here's Jesus making this illustration. I mean, we went back to Isaiah 54. Now I've already gone back there and picked out another verse and gone to Revelation 21 about this picture of the redeemed in the afterlife. But

You know, through this, I realized some arguments in that one, I didn't like how the NIV translated one of them rubies. And because it made me judge their motives. I thought, oh, they want because it's more valuable. So they're like because they're looking at it from in my mind. Oh, heaven is expensive. You know, there's streets of gold because that's the same chapter that talks about the streets are paved with gold. Well, do you actually think there's going to be gold streets in this chapter?

Because what it's actually saying is that the idea that gold would be something is like us saying, ooh, look at that asphalt out there in my driveway. Now, I think it's saying you are streets of gold. It's a depiction of people living, or let me rephrase that. It's God dwelling with streets of gold that he has made that are actually people.

So, look, it's fantastic, which makes us go back to John 1. Because look, Al, it kind of changed the way I viewed where we've gone from John 1 up until now. Because that's why I said that John 3 popped in my head about everything exposed by the light becomes visible, that it should be resulting in praise to God. But think about John 1 where this started in verse 9.

Or verse 8, we're talking about John the Baptist's role. And think, look, lesser gem of humanity. Because you look at John, he was out of camel skin and ate bugs. And you're not thinking this is a very powerful person. But God used him and actually called him the greatest human ever born. But he said he himself was not the light.

He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. And I just think it was so fascinating.

That some bunch of scientists looking at pure, powerful light reflecting in the gem world that is used in Revelation 21 that all of a sudden becomes under a microscope something way more spectacular than was ever known. Of course, they were only concerned with how did that writer know that, but I've given you all these practical examples

applications that should just fire up followers of Jesus. Hey, Jason, have you ever been tricked into buying something that made a claim that when you got the product, it wasn't actually true? Yeah, I actually, at nine years old, bought shrinking dust for humans. Here's what you need to know, that there are lots of scams out there, and the one you don't want to get sucked into is the same old, it's called the free phone game that the big wireless companies play it,

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Samsung Galaxy with qualifying plan when you switch to Pure Talk. Wireless by Americans for Americans. In the Jordan Peterson kind of orbit or this other group that I went to, this thing called the Art Conference, kind of in that whole orbit, there's a phrase that a lot of people are talking about in culture right now, and it's called the meaning crisis.

I think there's a crisis of meaning that the secular world is like taking note of and taking away. This is a lot of people that at our church, for example, that have come to know Christ. In fact, we had a podcast, if I'm not yet now, where I interviewed a couple that came out of Silicon Valley.

Jordan and Vanessa Hall. Jordan Hall was actually on Jordan Peterson's podcast recently, but they talk about this meaning crisis and they were all searching for like, how do we build this utopia? How do we find meaning in the world? Like everything is, it seems to be falling apart in the age of deconstruction. We don't know what's what anymore. And it's like a real issue that's like people are coming to the end of the rope and they're saying, well,

Man, this is not good. There is no meaning. So when you were reading that verse about Jesus being the light of the world, I mean, one of the ways that Jesus heals the world is he brings meaning by illuminating and giving things context by exposing. We think about it, you turn on a light.

But that's what it does. Like you can see what's in the room out now. There's meaning. I'm not in a dark room stumbling around trying to figure my way out. And I can see the couch. I can see the stool on the floor. I can see the things around me and I can maneuver and I have context now to interact in. And then the second part of that.

Which is interesting because if you get into like that Jordan Peterson orbit or Jonathan Paggio, who's got a podcast out there, who does a lot of iconic art and stuff. There's a whole other conversation that's directly adjacent to this, which has to do with beauty.

And so not only do you find meaning and context in Christ, you find beauty in Christ. And that's what I, when I read that passage in Revelation 21, it's not just a cognitive understanding and a way for me to make sense of the world. It's also a way for me to appreciate and experience the beauty that Christ is in the world. That's why I'm making the point. I realize that, Al, in this process,

that I've delayed the finishing of John 6 once again, but I didn't know y'all were going to be this enamored with this. I'm pleasantly surprised. But I was excited about it.

But I just want to say that's why we keep harping on you must read the Bible, filtering everything through Jesus. He is the light of the world. He does illuminate us. And I'll give you an example of that. When I referenced that 1 Timothy 6 passage, I mean, this thing really came to life after what all we've just talked about, Revelation 21.

When in 612 of 1 Timothy 6, it says, fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold to the eternal life to which you were called, which is really what Revelation 21 is describing eternity itself with God, you know, in the dwelling with God as people.

But here, you know, we fight the good fight. And this encourages us to do that, these facts that we've just talked about. But then it goes on to say, when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses, in the sight of God, which is really what that whole experiment by the scientists, they were taking this incredible force of light that would burn a hole right there. You're looking at a gemstone.

So that's kind of an aha thing to say.

God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Well, we know who that's talking about, Jesus, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and

And might forever. And that's why it makes sense on these passages that John said, God, the one and only son is at the right hand of God has made him known. He's made him available. So when you try to read the Bible, like all the people grumbling and, uh,

arguing with Jesus in John 6, that's what he was trying to connect. This is about me. I want to illuminate you and let you see this. No, I think that's so good because it hits exactly the theme that Jesus is hitting here in John chapter 6 because they're not recognizing Jesus

His light, they're not recognizing him as light, they're recognizing him as the Messiah. And I will say this because we've been in the Old Testament and we're going to go there again because this same theme I wanted to read in Deuteronomy 7, which we will on the next podcast, was way back when, you know, the idea that somehow.

the people were special, but God wasn't is a false narrative. And that's what continues to happen throughout history. And so that's what Jesus is trying to show them in John six. The idea is you should know. Remember what he told Nicodemus? He said, you should know this. Exactly. You're Israel's teacher. I think we should give an assignment for the next podcast for our faithful listeners to read Deuteronomy seven and then chapter 30 and then chapter 32 and

And then just Google a Deuteronomy overview because that's basically what we're going to do. And I think by doing that, we're going to address some of these arguments. You remember a few podcasts ago where we said the modern religious world, they go to John 6 and they have all these arguments that have come out of John 6. And I think we're going to solve a lot of these by reading Deuteronomy.

The Deuteronomy chapters that we just referenced, and I think a light bulb will come on. Yeah, and look, it's the same way Jesus presented when he was teaching. He went back and showed that this has all been designed throughout time. And I love this picture that you created, Jace, with the idea that when the eternal shines through us,

who are only eternal by the grace of God. I mean, by our own actions, by our own sinfulness, by our own mistakes, by our own frailty and our own limited nature, it can't be in us. So somehow we had to be redeemed for eternity. But that happened when we became believers, right?

And we believed in who Jesus was, and he sent his spirit to live in our heart. I mean, that's the essence of where we're headed in the whole conversation. I do think from a personal standpoint, too, you know, it's okay to go outside your little camp, which I try not to have a camp outside of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But...

It shows you that even though I disagreed with some of their theology, you know, they revealed something that I thought, oh, so I thought, you know, I'm going to make this video go viral, but it'd be better to make our application of being in Jesus go viral because I think that was what was lacking to this discovery. You know, how it wasn't applied to a place. It was...

apply to human beings on the planet which you are one no that's good so uh we're out of time so you got your assignment unashamed nation do a little uh look into uh do what you said do around me 7 30 and 32 that's the three chapters that i wanted to highlight and we'll touch on that and uh it's it's at some point at some point we're going to finish up john 6 just not just anytime soon

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