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Pursuing God's Greater Purpose

2024/8/4
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Livin' The Bream Podcast

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Priscilla Shirer
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Priscilla Shirer: 电影《熔炉》讲述了一个单身母亲帮助儿子走向成熟的故事,强调了男性榜样的重要性。影片中,一位母亲为儿子祈祷,寻求上帝的引导,最终上帝差遣一位世俗领域的成功人士来影响她的儿子,展现了不同领域人士在信仰传承中的作用。这与她个人的经历相呼应,她分享了她祖母坚持祈祷并记录下祈祷回应的经历,强调了祈祷的持久影响力。在《我全然降服》一书中,她进一步探讨了成为基督门徒的意义,强调舍己、将基督放在首位的重要性,即使某些并非罪恶的事情也可能需要被舍弃,以便更完全地荣耀上帝。她以高尔夫为例,说明即使是好的爱好,如果占据了基督在生命中的首要地位,也需要被调整。 Shannon Bream: 在青少年的成长过程中,来自家庭以外的成熟人士的积极影响至关重要。她赞同电影中所展现的社区和教会在帮助单亲母亲抚养孩子方面所起到的作用,并强调了祈祷在寻求解决方法和引导中的重要性。她与Priscilla Shirer的对话中,也表达了对平衡工作和家庭生活的关注,以及对学会说'不'的必要性。

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Priscilla Shirer discusses her involvement in the film 'The Forge' and how it tackles the question of discovering God's greater purpose.

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It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. This week on Live in the Bream, I feel like I just have to pinch myself sometimes because I get to talk to people who I have admired so much, kind of as spiritual leaders, really, in my life. And our guest today is somebody who you, if you're like me, you've done her Bible studies, you've read her books, you've watched or maybe attended some of her events, and you've just been blown away.

away. I know I'm in that category. She is a wife and mom, but also a New York Times bestselling author. She is an actress. And all of that is coming together in our podcast today. Priscilla Shire, welcome to Live in the Bream. Shannon, thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful.

I know you and your husband, Jerry, lead Going Beyond Ministries. You've got your boys, and listen, I track them online too because I'm a Liberty grad, and so I'm always cheering for your boys and all of their journeys. Thank you. And so what we're here to talk about, though, is this new movie you've got and a book along with it today. It's called...

The Forge and it's another pairing of you with Kendrick Brothers with these wildly successful movies War Room I Can Only Imagine Overcomer I gotta tell you I just watched the trailer for The Forge before I came in to do this podcast and I got chills this looks amazing oh that's great I'm glad to hear that you got that out of the trailer that's a good sign

So tell me how you got involved with this story. I mean, you really are one of these multi-talented people. You have a lot of gifts and you point them all back to our Heavenly Father, which is a beautiful thing. But you're getting to do that again in this role of being an actress at the center of this movie. Tell us about the story.

Well, it really is a captivating story. It's a single mother. I'm a single mother of a young man who's about 19, 20 years old. And let me just tell you, Shannon, when the Kendrick brothers first called me and said, we'd love for you to play this mom and her son's 20. My first thought, Shannon, was that is terrible casting. What makes them think I would be able to play?

play a woman who looks like she has a 20 year old son and then the next thought sobered me up because I realized oh in real life. I actually do have a 20 year old son. So I probably don't look like it. For no for the record, but don't look like it. We can agree on that. Oh well, thank you very much, but I get the opportunity to play the mom of a son and honestly that's what endeared me to the film. The film is about a young man who's trying to come into manhood

But as a single mom, and you can do it successfully, but there are going to be little gaps in handing a boy his man card that another man has to fill in some of those spaces. And just exemplifying for him what it looks like to be a man who is responsible, has character and integrity, and is loving towards his family and responsible in his work and work ethic and all of those things that really the example of another male doing it

And I'm saying this from the perspective of being a mother of three sons, I have three boys, and just sort of realizing the impact that their dad's example or their grandfather's, their uncle's, or the coaches in my son's lives who have come along who cared more about character and integrity than they did just about athleticism. That sort of impact in the life of a young man is huge. So in this film, you see this young man floundering.

And his single mother is doing the best she can. But I mean, she's got to get up in his face and challenge him to become who he's supposed to be. And so she gets to have a little attitude in doing that. I love that. It's exactly how I would talk to my sons.

And then you see her praying and asking the Lord to send some other men who could help her with her boy. And he does that in the form of Joshua Moore. And Joshua Moore is a business owner. I appreciate so much that the Kendrick brothers did not write into this script a pastor or someone in vocational ministry who impacts this young man, but they show an everyman, a man who

who is a business owner, he works in the secular sector of the marketplace, and yet, while he excels in his business, his eyes are always open to see what young, in particular, young men, and you see why in the film he's drawn to that, but what young men the Lord might bring into his sphere of influence that he can impact in more levels than just business.

but can challenge them around character and following Christ and being men of integrity. And that sort of impact, one generation to the next, one person to the next, is something that I think everyone, all of the people who view this movie are going to be endeared to.

Yeah. And I think we can all find ourselves in different roles in this movie, whether we're the one who needs to be looking out to help others, whether the one we're the one who needs help, whether we're the young person. I mean, everybody's going to be able to see some of themselves in this movie. And listen, my mom and I, when I was young, spent years of her being a single mom. And we found so much family and community in the church.

and other people who stepped in. And I know for a young man with a mom, we all know amazing single moms who are trying to juggle everything and make sure that their sons get on the right path. And so often it can be a community effort. Like you said, it doesn't have to just be someone from church. That's often a great place to find it.

but other people who are willing to step in and say, I wanna come alongside you and make sure that your son gets a great start and has other people who are encouraging him. 'Cause listen, we all know that kids can sometimes drown out mom's voice when they've heard it over and over again.

It's always helpful to have, you know, other mature people in their lives to say, here's what I see in you and here's how I can encourage you. So, I mean, good reminders for all of us as we come to this movie to remember that we all have a role to play in influencing young people's lives. And I got to imagine that there's encouragement for young people who would sit down and watch this movie too to say, gosh, if I'm floundering and I don't know where to go or what to do with my life, there are lifelines out there and people who will pour into you.

That's exactly right. And at the same time, I remember being 16 and there being like a 21-year-old who took an interest in me, who spent time with me. They weren't in vocational ministry. They're just 21. They're a college student. But they took time to sit down with me, talk with me, take me on a, you know, like, let's go eat lunch together. When even a 20-year-old catches this

momentum that you can be a disciple maker just spending time with that 14 year old who's at your church or that 13 year old who, you know, kind of just is in the neighborhood and y'all run across each other's paths. But just being in that person's life and allowing them to be in yours, even when you're only 20, you have the capacity, as people did with me, to place value on that young person by just giving them time and space and room to be in your sphere of influence.

Yeah. And in the movie, like the others before has really put a lot of a spotlight on prayer. You know, I think back to war room, first one kind of in this group of movies that when you feel like you can't step up with a solution, when you as the guiding parent or the helping friend, I mean,

So often we have to go to God to ask him for what we don't have and for the guidance and for the strength and for the answers and solutions. And so talk to us about that, the power of prayer, you know, not only for these characters, but in your own life, what it means.

Yeah. Well, you know, whenever I think about that line of questioning about prayer, I'm most endeared and reminded about my grandmother, my mom's mom. Um, she wrote down her prayers. So, you know, this is years and years and years before there was ever a war room encouraging people to be intentional and strategic and even to put pen to paper to write down. My grandmother did that in store bought spiral notebooks. Um,

And she maybe wouldn't write out the whole prayers, but she'd write down the names of the people she was praying and what she was praying for. And then in the margin, she'd go back and put the date of when she began to see God answering that prayer or bringing resolution there. Well, now she's in heaven. She's not with us anymore, but we have a record of her prayer life.

And now I get to see, because of course, my name is in there. I'm one of her grandchildren. So she's praying for her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, some of whom she never met, but she was praying for them in advance. And now in her absence, I get to see, and we get to see the banner of grace that we're living under that are attached specifically to things this woman was praying.

And that always reminds me of the generational legacy and impact of our prayers. I keep that in mind now, that the prayer I'm praying for my children, who I can see, who are with me now, and their children, who I have not yet met, or their children after them, that the prayers that I pray have a potency that will last longer than I will be here to witness myself.

And that right there just reminds me of how grateful I am that the Lord hears us when we pray. And then he allows our prayers to have wings that fly further than we ever could. And the power of that is just monumental to me. I'm so grateful for my grandmother for setting an example for

for me in that. And then for War Room, you know, that film coming along and spurring people on to really realize there is power, not just in theory, but practical power in us being people of prayer and prioritizing prayer. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment.

From the Fox News Podcasts Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. Congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcasts.com.

We're talking to Priscilla Shire, and she is among many things. In this new movie coming out, The Forge, it is out August 23rd. So a great summer family film to see together, to be encouraged and inspired. And like I said, just getting done with the trailer, I was like, I need to drop down and do some pushups and run around the room or something. It just made me feel like inspired. Like this is going to be a great movie. But in addition to that, you've also got a book that's a bit of a companion, I Surrender All. And

And listen, the minute you have a book coming, it's in my Amazon, you know, cart. Because I just find such inspiration and truth and so many good things. So tell us about this book, how it kind of takes off from the themes of the movie and what it encourages us to do.

Yeah, well, of course, the title is, you know, is beckoning the name of that old school hymn, I Surrender All, the purity and simplicity of what discipleship is really all about. Because there are a lot of people who may be Christians, but that doesn't equal being a disciple. Receiving the gift of salvation is free, but choosing to be a discipleship comes at a high cost.

Jesus said in Luke chapter nine, you know, if you're going to be anybody who wants to be my disciple, well, they have to deny themselves. They have to take up their cross and follow me. Those are all words that fly in the face of sort of the self-focused faith that has been kind of promoted, promoted in our culture. And even our Christian culture, it's been reported that it looks more like, like building platform and influence and self-focus as opposed to denying self, which is what Jesus said.

of taking up a cross, which means something's going to die. There are going to be things in our flesh or things that we desire or things that we have been ambitious towards as we surrender more fully and completely to Him, as we give Him priority as the sole voice of authority

where we have placed our primary allegiances to Christ and Christ alone. That means everything else takes second fiddle, which means there are going to be some things that are not sinful in and of themselves, but we can sense the Holy Spirit telling us to let those things go in order to more fully honor

honor him and his purposes for our life. So sometimes what that looks like, and this is what you see in the film, this is one of the things that I think is going to be most jolting to people as they realize what surrendering all means and being a disciple means. You see one of the characters describing how golf is,

became an idol because it's all they wanted to do with every spare minute. They were prioritizing it, spending their time around it, even sacrificing things that should have mattered more like their families because of this hobby. And of course, there's nothing sinful about golf. It's a wonderful hobby for anybody to undertake, but he realized it was taking first place. That's the issue for the disciple. What is in first place?

And so for the disciple, the question is not how close can I get to sin without crossing the line, which many Christians negotiate that. How close can I get to sin without crossing over into sin? But for the disciple, that's not even the question. The question is, how close can I get to Jesus and Christ likeness?

Anything that is dulling or diminishing, even if it's not sinful in and of itself, but anything that is threatening Christ's first placeness in my life.

then that thing is sin to me because it's not pushing me towards the goal of mirroring the mind of Christ, the perspective of Christ, the character of Christ, and being molded in the image of Christ. That's the goal for the disciple, which means many quote-unquote good things might have to either be removed from our life or lessened in priority in our life so he can maintain his position of authority over us as his disciples.

That's such a great reframing of the way we may think about these things. And I love that you said, I think it's always good to emphasize, it can be good things. There can be things that even history or other things that we can get so caught up in if it's more about pursuing that than it is that relationship with Christ. And it's easy. I think we've all probably found ourselves getting off track at points. So for you personally and advice to us,

You have a super busy life that is going on all kinds of different cylinders. How do you personally do that and make sure that you've got to check? Is it having accountability partners? Is it something else? How do you do this in practicality?

Well, you mentioned specifically being busy, which, you know, busyness can become an idol in and of itself because we, you know, get used to the adrenaline, the momentum of always going, going, going. And then even when you're in ministry, you know, you can find that ministry has actually become more important than you actually just being in a relationship with Jesus. So

So that can be a pitfall as well. So for me with busyness, one of the things that Jerry and I do is, you know, there are opportunities or invitations that all of us get in life to be participants in whether it's a get together with friends or whether it's a speaking opportunity or a new job opportunity. All of us get opportunities to fill up our calendar. And so for us, what that has looked like is looking at our calendar a year ahead and filling in the margin first. Right.

Here is where we're not going to be going anywhere. We're not going to make sure, we're not going to allow our time to be hemmed up because this is probably when our children, to the best of our ability, being able to look forward, they're going to have a soccer tournament right here. Usually the basketball championships are during this particular weekend or here are the months we're carving out for our family, November and December or December.

half of January. And we're just going to be home because we just want to make sure that we don't have to struggle so much with being present with our children during those important times. And so what we try to do is schedule the margin first that we need to maintain our marriage, the health of our marriage, and some sense of priority and passion and friendship there, the priority of our children, our local church context, wanting to be at our church on Sundays. So we try to prioritize that margin in first.

And then we go from there. All right, what space do we have left?

And what do we want to now allow? Because there are so many other people, you know, voices of other people that think they know what's best for your time and what you should be doing. And even when they're well-intentioned, if we're not careful, we will allow other people's desires for what we should be doing to actually override us saying to the Lord, Lord, what are your desires for me in this season? Help me to honor those priorities first.

And then let all the other things fall as they may within those priorities. And so that's one of the ways we do it is by just trying to set forward and set forth what are our priorities and then let's filter everything else secondarily into that. So good to have a mapped out plan and not to just be going with the flow.

of things that are so important. - Well, we try not to, let me say that. It's a constant matter of prayer. - Exactly, and things do come up, but do you feel like you've gotten good at saying no? This is something that I feel like there's certain seasons when I'm like so overloaded, it's easy to say no, but then there are other times it's harder. As you said, sometimes other people think that they have the best idea, like, well, of course you need to speak to this group, or of course you need to do this for this person.

And it may not always fit with your boundaries, your margins, your protection, your plan. Have you gotten better at saying no over time or was it ever a struggle for you? You know, of course, as it is for most people, I think it has been a struggle for me. I don't know if it's just getting older or what, that it's given me a little practice through the years that it's given me a little more freedom to.

to say no. Also, like you said, accountability, older, wiser women that have been in my life. I remember one woman saying to me once, Priscilla, you cannot do a thousand things to the glory of God, but you can do the one or two things he's called you to in this season. So do those things and let everything else wait till another season until he calls you to those. So hearing other people encourage you that it's okay to say no.

And I will tell you one of the things that's been helpful for me, Shannon, for years now is that when an opportunity comes, whether it's to have lunch with friends or it's to speak to someone or to speak to a group or to write a book or to be a part of a film like the one we're talking about, I always ask myself, if I say yes, am I saying yes out of guilt? Maybe because they've asked for five solid years and I haven't been able to do it yet. So I feel guilty. Or am I doing it out of fear?

That if I don't do this and miss this opportunity, I may never get this opportunity again, or this may be the biggest opportunity. If any of that fear or guilt is attached to it, that's one of the main ways that I know this is supposed to be a no. Because I know the impetus for God's yes would not be guilt or fear. That's not the voice of God.

So I'm always wading through and asking that internal question. What is my yes rooted in? Is it rooted in a peace and a sense of calling or just a sense of fun? Like the Lord's giving me an opportunity to be able to go to this part of the world and administer to these people. And I just feel compelled to go because it'll be fun. Any of those reasons sound more like him. Fear and guilt do not.

So that has given me more confidence in saying no, that I don't want to come to you or say yes to you or do the thing just because I'm afraid of what I might be missing out on, FOMO, fear of missing out, or because I feel guilty. I want to

I've shot myself in the foot too many times is what I'm saying to you. When I said yes to things and then I get to those dates and realize it would have been a better yes to be at home that weekend because inevitably that's the weekend my kids basketball tournament is. And now I'm going to miss it. And I didn't even miss it for a yes that was attached to calling.

I missed it for a yes that was attached to fear or guilt. That is not worth it for me. Yeah, that's so powerful and wise. And I have, you know, friends who joke around all the time now about Jomo, the joy of missing out. And we all need a little, we need a little,

bit of that. We all need a little Jomo in our life so you can sit back and take a breath and be with the people in places that are important. But I love your, you know, the context of not saying yes out of guilt or out of fear, but out of joy or peace or calling. And we're thankful that you figured that out in many ways so that we do have yet another book and a movie from you that will be so encouraging. And again, The Forge is out in theaters August 23rd. I Surrender All, the book is out August 6th.

Priscilla Shire, thank you so much for visiting us on Live in the Bream. God bless you and all of these endeavors as you continue to challenge and encourage all of us to grow. Shannon, thank you so much. And I want to encourage you. Your voice carries so much weight and is influencing people beyond what you can imagine. So keep going. I'm celebrating you and cheerleading you.

Thank you so much. That's it for this week. Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcast.com.