James Early

David W Ebel: you Welcome to the God Says Yes podcast. You are welcome here. Hello and welcome to another episode of God Says Yes. My name is David Ebel and ⁓ after being in ministry for over 50 years, my goal has been to help people restore, renew, rebuild, and to re-inspire themselves through the love of God. ⁓ Our focus is reaching people who are struggling for whatever reason, whether they've been betrayed, belittled, promises not kept, people borrowed money and didn't pay it back. Whatever it is that caused us to put a wall up, maybe make us a little bit bitter, maybe there's been church hurt where somebody in the church should be treating people one way and because they're not the way they should be, innocent people become victims and that's a shame. On behalf of the body of Christ, I apologize for the knuckleheads. I'm of the opinion that the church is the 911, the emergency room of the body of Christ. And those that are healthy should be the ones who are there to restore the ones that are incredibly unhealthy. So that the love of God can change them and then in turn when they get healthy they can be part of the solution. So if that is what the church is sometimes people come in and they're still, should be, they should literally be ⁓ right in the emergency room. And they're acting out and as a result people get hurt. It's not right, but it's part of being human and we're Because of sin in this world, we're stuck with being human and having failures and not being all we can be. But anyhow, the purpose of this is to love you. God created you to love. He created you one at a time from the inside out to be exactly who God wants you to be. He created you so that you could be all He dreamed for you to be. Sometimes that means that you kind of feel like Because of all that's happened to you're less than. But God isn't looking at the outside of you or your past situation. He's looking at you in your heart. And He loves you. And He's always loved you. And you can't even do anything wrong enough to lose that love. He created you for eternity to love you. And that's what He wants to manifest through His love in you today, through the love of Jesus Christ. And that's what our program is all about. And I have with me my brother and friend James Early. James is an interesting brother who's got a real heart for compassion and helping people find Jesus. And we are really glad that he had the scheduled time to come and to be our guest and for him to share with you the message of his heart. So James, welcome. Would you introduce yourself generally? Hey David, first let me thank you so much for this opportunity to... ⁓ to chat with you and to share some ideas with your listeners and welcome everybody glad you're here listening. ⁓ I have a vision for people coming to Jesus and even people who say they already believe in Jesus, wherever you are on ⁓ that path, we all need to be not just blindly following Jesus, but we need to become more like Him. And that's my vision to help people think like Jesus, pray like Jesus, and more most importantly, like Jesus. That's who I am. That's what I'm all about. A little backstory, I grew up in Texas. I now live in Connecticut for the last 34 years, have been married for 36 years, have three grown children. But my life really took a wonderful turn more recently when in 2008, I started doing weekly Bible studies at the federal prison. Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Over a number of years in teaching both men and women and helping them get their lives back together and learn to be more like Jesus, it helped me find my voice then to share ⁓ more widely and not so judgmentally with others. ⁓ That's been a ⁓ real breath of fresh air for me. everybody I work with. ⁓ I've always been, I mean I grew up going to church. I always ⁓ read my Bible even as a little kid. But it wasn't really until I was in high school that I got serious about my faith and I realized I couldn't just go to church because my parents did. I couldn't just go to church because I was supposed to. I needed to go because I wanted to and it was when I was maybe well around sophomore. junior year so in high school i made a commitment to follow christ to the best of my ability i don't always think that's job but and it wasn't long after that where i realized i had a really interesting experience on to share this quickly cuz it kind of it i can look back on that now and see it was a pivot that has made all the difference to me weeks or a month or two after i really got into my faith and was making it my own and not just copying what my parents did. In my weekly Bible study was that wonderful passage where it said in the New Testament where it says if you say you love your brother, but no if you if you if you say you love God, but you don't love your brother, you're a liar because how can you ⁓ love God who you can't see and you don't even love your brother who you can see and I thought ⁓ no, I'm a liar. have I said I love God. I told myself I love God, but I had a little brother that I was not crazy about. ⁓ I just look at me and make me mad. I would just totally lose it. And I was not very nice to him. I would beat him up. My parents were terribly concerned and this went on for years. And when I read that passage and I'd read it before, but not in the context of having made a commitment to to do these things. And I realized, ⁓ I have to love my brother? ⁓ my gosh, how am going to do that? I mean, it was like a ⁓ culture shock. But I realized I have a choice. And so I consciously chose to love my little brother. And after that time, there was only one time, like two or three years later, that I really lost my temper with him and was mean to him. We're best friends. not, we don't talk that much, but we're good friends. We, we have a wonderful rapport. And I realized looking back at that, that was when I put what I said I believed into practice. Yes. And I think if there's anything that is important for us in our walk, ⁓ Trying to follow Jesus the best we can trying to be obedient to God's Even if it's just one thing we have to put Jesus's teachings into practice. We have to actually love people. We actually actually have to Forgive people we have to do the things we're supposed to do It's not you can't just sit in your prayer chair all day and wonder why things aren't working out ⁓ You know, it's like in a math class. You can't just learn the equations you have to get your homework and you have to practice the equations until you understand how it works. that's kind of a funny little analogy, but we have to practice loving our neighbors, ourselves. We have to practice loving God with all our hearts. We have to practice doing what Jesus told us to do. So that kind of gives you a sense of who I am and where I'm coming from. My whole goal is to, and I hope as you're listening today, you will find something that helps you realize, well, you can be more like Jesus. You can think more like Jesus. You can love more like Jesus did. Absolutely. And I totally agree with everything you just said. That should be the mission of our hearts. For some people, though, they start off with, ⁓ you know, I was let down. There's this reason or that reason. And so it's really hard to act like Jesus when you're still... Well, you still got your checklist of things you've got to... If God just did this and this, then I'd... But when we realize that most of the checklist are man acting out, not God getting the chance to reveal himself, it's much easier to go, all right, I'm just going to put all the excuses on hold. They're valid. But I'm going to put him on hold and I'm going to find out who Jesus is for me. I want to really know God. I want to know him from the inside out. And I'm never going to do that when I, when I, I can't love, you know, if I, if I can't love others, how can God love me? If I, if I don't live with God, but how am I going to do that if I don't know who he is? You know, this is a really great question, David. Um, one time I was on a podcast and someone invited me at the very end to do the altar call and that's just not really my style. ⁓ So I said you know what I like and this is what I I like to do is I said OK if if you and I don't know who's listening today but you know maybe you've had some challenges to your faith or maybe you're deciding to well would you I really want to follow this Jesus guy who is this Jesus guy. I think the best way don't take what I say or what David says or somebody else tells you you have to do. I'm going to invite you or encourage you to try this little exercise and see how it works for you. ⁓ You may be familiar with chapters five, six and seven of Matthew. That's what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus gave a whole bunch of, ⁓ it was a teaching of how to live your life, how to think, how to treat other people, how to treat yourself, ⁓ that sort of thing. ⁓ I would suggest to read those three chapters in Matthew five six and seven and then make a list of the things Jesus says to do and then just try to do them you know start with one or two how whatever works for you but I think the best way to get to know Jesus is to try to put into practice that his teachings and then you realize ⁓ if he was telling me to love my enemy What kind of mindset did he have that he could do that and expect us and know that we could be able that we would be able to love our enemies? What kind of love is he talking about? ⁓ And then you try to do that and it gets you. It's always helped me. And I've been I've been well aware of and loving Jesus for many, many years, over 50 years. And. ⁓ It helps me every time I practice something that Jesus taught me to do. I get to know him better. Absolutely. And so that's what I would say. Don't just it's not a head. It's not an intellectual exercise. It's a what's going on in your heart. What's going on in your hands and your feet. The greatest distance between most of us and Jesus is we have the photograph of him here. It's like going to the Grand Canyon after you see the picture. The picture is stunning. Then you go stand in front of it and look down and the experience is so much different. Yes, absolutely. we have this God picture that we've learned somehow. But the distance, this to this is like five million miles for many people because they've got it here, but they don't know how to get it here. Yeah, we need to act with our heart. Start with our heart. know, well, One of the first great commandments is love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. God wants all of us and that's important, but usually the best place to start, least for me anyway, is the heart. I agree. So, tell us more. Well, I could say so much. ⁓ Well, you've got time. Would you like to hear about some of my experiences in the prison? Go for it. OK. As I said, been ⁓ doing Bible study at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution since 2008. And it's kind of interesting because when somebody first asked me two years before that, I said, ⁓ absolutely not. I didn't feel like I was qualified to go and talk to criminals and who was I was just this little goody two shoes and I didn't feel confident well two years later somebody asked me and I said I'd love to I was I was in a different place ⁓ I first went thinking I was going to share the gospel message with them and I was going to help them solve all their problems and you know that that was not really the way it worked it was mostly I realized these are children of God whom he loves dearly. were, you know, except for the fact that they had committed a crime, they were at least the people that came to the Bible study. They were decent people. They were good, caring. A lot of times they loved God and were doing the best they could to follow Jesus in their lives. They had just, you know, done something they shouldn't have, ⁓ again, that was against the law. And so I quickly learned that God was teaching me they were teaching me sometimes they knew things in about the Bible that I didn't know and so it became more of a ⁓ mutual growing together and exploring the Bible stories ⁓ and the cool thing is I had people from lots of different denominations and so I I realized very quickly I wasn't trying to convince them That there's only one way to read the Bible or there's only one way to look at a story ⁓ because We all would talk about that and say it's okay if we disagree on some of these things. Let's learn from each other and It has helped me understand the body of Christ so much better I'm sure most of your listeners are probably familiar with Paul's reference to the church as the body of Christ and he talks about the hand and the foot were all different members we have different places different functions different roles as a Christian in the church in the quote unquote body of Christ. Well I came up with this great analogy. Let's imagine that you have six iPhones and you tape one to your head one to your shoulders one to your waist one to a knee one to a foot and one on your back. and turn the video camera on and walk down the street. you come back, maybe you have two or three minutes worth of video. You come back, you upload all those videos onto your computer and you're looking at them all. Which one of those videos is right? Wow, that's a good question. You know, they're all right from the perspective that the camera was taking the picture from. ⁓ And I think what happens in the body of Christ sometimes is ⁓ we all are seeing things from where we are in the body of Christ, the hand and just a human body, the hand and the foot. ⁓ there are a few similarities. There are five appendages, but the hand and the foot are very different. They're different place in the body. ⁓ They have a different function. They are structured differently. They see things differently. They act differently. And that's true in the body of Christ as well. And I think sometimes what happens and I learned all this from being in the prison. Sometimes someone who is either thinks they are or they really are in the right hand of the body of Christ. They look down at the left foot of the body of Christ and they think, well, you don't look like me. You don't act like me. You don't talk like me. you say things differently, you must not be a Christian, I'm going to try to convert you to be like me. Well, the body, your human body needs your hands and your feet, each one your elbows, your knees, all the different parts. And I think the body of Christ needs different roles and functions. I used to think of that say within my individual church and I think it's The metaphor works there too, but I'm thinking of the whole Christian church throughout the world ⁓ We see things differently because we're in a different role or function in the body of Christ now that you know, then that analogy only goes so far but that has helped me love anyone wherever they are Whoever they are if they say they believe in Jesus and they're trying to follow Jesus. I I don't want to argue over them over their theology with them. I mean, I could be wrong. We all think we're right, but I want to support. them following Jesus because again the more we follow him the more we obey Jesus I think that's with the born we get to know him and the closer we are to him and the more our eyes will be open in the more we'll see more clearly will see so I think the prison has helped me if refocus my efforts of of you know what I feel like my whole purpose is but it's also helped the people in the prison And ⁓ I just want to share one really amazing ⁓ experience. There was a lady who came reluctantly one ⁓ one morning to the Bible study. her her roommate had been trying to get her to come for weeks. And so she came and apparently she had had a very ⁓ unhealthy Situation in her church. She grew up in a church that would not allow her to ask questions She was told we'll tell you what to do if you if you have doubts Or have questions. It means you're not being faithful. So you just you book whatever we tell you just have to accept on faith Well that didn't set very well with her because she had some really good questions And so I said, well, I love questions. I don't know that had the answers but bring it on and so you know she asked something like ⁓ you know why does God allow bad things happen to good people a variation of that kind of question and I said well first of all that might not be the right question to ask but ⁓ if you think of God as this mean wrathful vindictive man in the sky with thunderbolts ready to zap you every five minutes if you do or say one little bad thing and I know people that believe that ⁓ yeah, I've met them. I said, you're going to answer that question differently if you think of God as a benevolent presence, but who doesn't really interfere with your lives. He's just there sort of for moral support. You're going to answer the question a very different way. But if you think of God and you realize God is this ever present love who is ready, willing and able to help and heal and guard and guide and protect and save and, you know, meet your needs. The question, answer is going to be completely different. Absolutely. She like was stunned. I think it was the first time anybody ever allowed her to think for herself. She, was not telling her what to think and that was a shock to her system. Well, she came back and she loved dance. She loved asking questions. She'd ask questions that nobody had thought of or they were too embarrassed. You know, they've had the same question, but they thought, I should know better or whatever. Well, fast forward, we just loved on her. Everyone in the class loved her. just respected her and treated her with kindness and she felt that. After two years of being in my Bible study every week, ⁓ I saw her the day before she was released and she said to me, Mr. Early, I want to tell you something. When I came to prison two years ago, I was mad at God. I had lost my faith. I was estranged from my family. I was afraid for the future, I didn't know what to do about it. I felt terribly guilty about my crime and I was taking four five different medications for ⁓ depression. And now, two years later, I have restored my relationship with my family. I been honest and looked myself in the face about my crime. you know, I'm, dealing with that in an honest way. ⁓ have restored my faith in God. have hope for the future for the first time in years and I'm off all my medications for depression and it's all because I was in your Bible study. Awesome. Wow. Yeah. You know I had I mean I knew she was you know had an attitude but I didn't know she was struggling with all that stuff. She never really talked about that but she had been touched. by God's love. ⁓ And that's what healed her. It restored her. ⁓ it was just, it was so touching to me to see the power of God when you don't even realize he's at work. I mean, we could see the change in her. She softened as a person, you know, and she, she was much more part of the group and not feeling like an outsider, but, ⁓ That's the kind of thing that goes on in prison when people really are trying to get their lives together. And a lot of people in my prison, in my prison Bible studies say, well, you know, I'm kind of grateful to this opportunity in prison because I can take a step back from all the troubles in my life. And I've got some time to think and pray. So it's a really interesting ⁓ ministry. is. Years ago, I was a chaplain at Cook County jail. And when I We did a Bible study and one of the guys that came in, it was like hugging a porcupine. mean, he was just, you know, I'm here. Impress me. You know, and we loved on him. And eventually I shared, know, that Jesus died not so that he could die. He died because without the shedding of innocent blood, there's no forgiveness for sin. Sin can't go to heaven and God doesn't want us to miss heaven. So Jesus paid the price for us. He allowed the electric chair of the time where he sat in our place and was executed for our sins so that we would have another chance so we could live a whole life, one without bitterness and anger and all the other things. And the guy just broke into tears. He just sobbed his eyes out in front of all the men. And later he pulled me aside and said, you know, I really did murder my wife. She was in bed with my best friend and they had passed out, so I tied the bed sheets together and set them on fire. Now, I was wrong. They were wrong, but I was wrong. But I have lied and told everybody that I had no idea. Now that I've made right with God, now that I'm forgiven for my sins, now that I know I have a place in heaven, now that I know I'm changed, I now know I have to go and admit that I did all those things. Wow. And I know that this means they're going to execute me. And I'm all right with that because I deserved it. I, on this, in this world, I deserved it. I found that in the Bible, and when I was reading after, I gave my heart to Him. So now I know that I have to pay my debt here, because Jesus paid my debt there, so I can be right with God and go to heaven and celebrate with a new body and a new life. I didn't see that coming. You could have knocked me over with a small feather. bet. ⁓ my gosh. it's so much, you know, when the wall is down. Yeah, it shows the power of God's grace and mercy and love. Wow. So tell us another true story. You know, ⁓ there was a lady ⁓ in one of my classes who, this is again in the prison, there was a lady in one of my classes who had Oh my gosh, she had grown up in such a terrible family situation. Her parents told her she was stupid. She would never amount to anything. They were always belittling her. There was physical abuse, emotional abuse, maybe sexual abuse. don't really, I mean, I never ask those questions. It just kind of bubbles out sometimes. But there was a lot of heartache there. you know that famous phrase hurt people hurt people well she was hurt she had been hurt by her family and then as she had grown up and she ⁓ hold on just a second she had ⁓ as she grew up and got in relationships they were abusive of course and so she landed in prison i don't remember now i think she was in whatever she was, think it was drugs, something related to dealing with drugs and stuff like that. And she had an attitude. She had a self-justification attitude and a hurt attitude and she tried to cover that up. And over a period of time though, very gently, step by step, she was able to... take a step back and look at herself a little more objectively and and and learn some tools on how to pray and how to see herself in a new way and one of the most helpful analogies that has that i have used over and over and in my prison ministry and everything else i do when it when anyone will listen is you know she felt terribly guilty now for realizing all the things that she had done wrong to some degree. There were some things she didn't think were so bad, but then she felt ⁓ polluted by all the things that had happened to her. And I said, ⁓ did you ever play in the mud as a kid? And she said, well, yeah. Did you ever get so dirty, you know, that you had to really scrub to get the dirt off? She said, yeah. I said, did you save any of that dirt? Do you have that in a little jar up on the you know on the shelf saying this is the dirt that I got in on you know January 12th whatever year she said no and she and this is in the group everybody's laughing I said okay all the things that those people did to you and all the mistakes and sins that you did that's like mud it's not part of the way God originally created you in his image and likeness originally The very original you is made in God's image and likeness, his wonderful, beautiful child. Now, pretty quickly, we either jump in the mud or we get pushed in the mud. You know, we make mistakes. We sin. People hurt us. People abuse us. All these things. I said all those things happened. You did the things you did. They did the things they did. We can't pretend like those things didn't happen. But As long as you think that's part of your actual spiritual identity in God's eyes, you'll never be able to let go of them. And all of a sudden I could see the change in her face when she realized, these things, as bad as they are, they can be washed away. And it's it's you know, we talk about Christ washing away our sins. I love the way that Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 22 23 and 24 put off the old man put off the old self the old way of thinking depending on what translation you which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man which is created in righteousness or something like that the reason you can put off the old man is this it's not part of the the original original you made in the image and likeness of God and so I learned in that situation if when you can help someone see their the unblemished version of them that was originally in God's mind of the way he created you not all the not all the mud we jumped in in the meantime not the sins and the mistakes we've made all that stuff because we have to deal with those we can't just pretend like they're not there. And and that's why Christ can wash them away because they're not I've said this several times now anyway that made all the difference to her and She then was able to say ⁓ You know what? I'm not gonna go back and try to sell drugs again She had actually I remember now she had said well, I'm gonna go back and do the same thing You know, there's nothing wrong with what I did. I didn't hurt anybody. They're responsible if they bought the drugs That was her attitude But once she started to see herself through the eyes of God's love for her, it changed her. bet. And everybody, I mean, all the other women in the class were crying when she told us this. It was just a beautiful experience. And so I think real transformation comes when we start to see ourselves through the eyes of Jesus. However, you want to say it when we start, know, think of Jesus saw the multitudes. He was moved with compassion. Even the most miserable sin, the most miserable social outcast. He loved them. And they've they responded to that. That shouldn't be a surprise when we express that same kind of love that people going to respond to that. I mean, the reason you were able to help that guy, ⁓ you know, in the Cook County Jail is because. You loved him and you were letting that love just beam forth and he felt it and you you were you know, God Led you to say that just the right words for him might be different words for somebody else But that was exactly what you needed to say to him and was all motivated by your love It was motivated by God's love for him really exactly comes from and you know ⁓ Anyway to me it all comes down to love how I think sometimes we're afraid to love as much as Jesus did. You know, the biblical definition of love is to deny yourself that another's needs be met before your own without reservation. Yeah, wow. So when we when we when God loves us that way, he didn't think about how much it was going to hurt to send his son. He loved us enough. He created us to love. And he loves us. And to bail us out. He sent His Son. So that now, because of His Son, we can receive that love. We can reflect that love. And we can practice that love until the point where when we look at someone else and say, love you, brother, we really mean I am willing to die for you. I'm willing to... I'm not looking for you to perform. I'm looking to let you know that the way you are, I love you like Jesus loves you. Right. And that's huge. Because a lot of people in this world ⁓ have kind of drank the kool-aid. They believe what this world has to offer and they're offended by everything and they're hurt by this. And when you say, care about you, they go, yeah, right. Well, that's what this world offers. Without the love of God, all there is is what's left. But when we accept Jesus, we let him change us from the inside out. We were created to love. We are loved. can't get away from that love and we finally accept that love, we begin a new life. And that new life is manifested by being selfless and making sure that if it was great for me knowing Jesus, it would be great for you to love Jesus. And wouldn't you love to fall in love with the person who changed me so much? Yes, and you know David, ⁓ the thought that just came to me while you talking is when you're unselfishly helping someone else, You're blessed in the process. ⁓ yeah. I mean, that's what happened to me in the prison. I went in to help them and I did. But it helped me. It blessed me. It helped me hear God's voice and accept God's love more for myself. So we it's it's I mean, you know, sometimes you have to take care of your own personal needs and that's fine. And and sometimes somebody else should be loving you first and you're going to you're going to get your needs met that way. It all it all goes together. ⁓ But I've just been blessed so many times when I'm helping someone else ⁓ and I get what I need in the process. I think, you know, it's not like we're being a doormat or being invisible and forgotten. God has not forgotten you. He's going to meet your needs in whatever way is best. Absolutely. You know, we, we agree on so many, on so many points of this because we have experienced the love of God. You know, you really put your finger on it, David, because, you know, I've gotta tell you a funny story. This was probably 40, 45 years ago. I was living in Boston, and I was in the lobby of an office building. And there was this lady, and I was pretty naive. I did not grow up around people that were drinking or doing drugs or whatever, and somebody told me later this lady was really head-to-head too much alcohol. Anyway. She was going on about God didn't love her and God wouldn't forgive her and I was saying the right words. was saying, ⁓ God loves you. He forgives you. You know, they, she, didn't register at all with her. The police had to come and they took her away. Whatever. I don't know what happened to her, but it really troubled me because I really thought I meant when I said, I know God loves you, but it was just words. I hadn't experienced in my own life, the depth. Feeling God's love the way I when I would say that to someone now. I would maybe say very different words I don't know but it was it was just the words and so Because I mean you when you said we've experienced God's love when you have experienced God's love and forgiveness You know, it's true and so it's it's not just an intellectual exercise or a debate or a conversation it is it's an opportunity to take your candle that's lit and light somebody else's candle. And you know, that Jesus told us to go on the highways and byways. Yeah. And he doesn't, he didn't do that because we, everybody else needed it. We needed it too. If we, if we experience it, if I have a cup full of water, you can't give me anymore. I'm full. But when I, I share your thirsty and I pour some of my water right from the sink. into your cup, and we both have water, we've shared something. And now there's room to fill again. And that's how it is with God's love. The more you love and the more you give, the more He can fill you up and give you more love, so you can love even better and more. And because when Jesus shed His blood to wash away our sins, our sins are not only forgiven, they're erased. They don't exist anymore. So there's no keeping score. And when the enemy says, you did all these things, you can say, yeah, but then Jesus is the answer. He forgave. Because of His blood, I don't have that anymore. That's gone. So you can stop talking now. have a Bible to listen to. you know, if you find somebody gullible to believe you, that's between you and God. But for me, I have found my answer through the love of God. So I'm not going to listen to that anymore. That doesn't exist anymore. That's just ancient history. I'm living in now with Jesus. I think you really said something important there. You said when your sins have been forgiven, they don't exist anymore. And I've talked to lots of people ⁓ who even Christians who are still carrying around guilt from something that happened to them or that they did and they haven't fully accepted. ⁓ They're still holding on to the sins that to your phrase don't exist anymore. They haven't completely let go and I, if anyone's listening right now and you kind of feel like that might be you, ⁓ That you don't need to carry that burden around anymore that that has been taken away from you you can let go it's not your identity ⁓ Because your real identity is as a child is a child of God ⁓ So I I love that I've never heard anybody say it quite like that your sins don't exist anymore because they have been washed away They've been destroyed they've been wiped out and there's some verse even in the Old Testament says God doesn't even remember our sins Exactly. he doesn't, we shouldn't either. So the accuser of the brethren, the enemy of God, when he tries to bring us back to who we used to be, we can look him in the eye and say, get behind me. You have no power in my life. Absolutely. You were a liar from the beginning. You continue to be a liar. So I'm not having this conversation anymore. And we have that authority. I think it's important, even if you don't feel that you have that authority, You do have that authority as a follower of Christ. It's in the book. You know what? You can put your foot down and it's not your personal ability that gives you that authority. I mean, I've heard people describe it all kinds of ways. I'll just say it's the Holy Spirit that has empowered you. is Jesus who's given you the authority and it's God who's backing you up. However you want to describe it. ⁓ But that authority is something that is yours. And if you don't use it, ⁓ that's on you. But I would encourage you, even if you feel a little ⁓ timid, give it a try. You know, you have that authority to stand up against ⁓ Satan and send him packing. Well, if it's in the Bible, the Bible is God's love letter to us. I remember when I met the gal who became my wife. She wrote me a note. By the next day, I had it memorized. I wanted to know everything. And as we got to know each other more, I could tell you for years, could tell you word for word, every note, everything that was done. We've been married over 50 years now, so it's not as clear as it used to be about our early dating years. But I know that I wanted to know everything that would please her. I wanted to know what color was her favorite color. I wanted to know what flower she loved, what food she enjoyed, because that was important to me because I wanted to please her because I loved her. Right. Now, how, how if God created us to love and he knows all this about us, but we don't give him the opportunity to give us the flowers or to give us the blessings, whatever it is, we need to love him back by listening to what he says. And that's what the Bible is. We learn in the Bible how to please God. As a result, He empowers us so we have victory over the things that we would have to fight on our own. We don't have to fight them on our own. The Holy Spirit gives us the power so that God can fight our battles. Amen. Wow, absolutely. That's why we do conversations on this podcast. I love it. you know, we've come up a good ways. And I'm grateful for your sharing. Do you have one more story before we wind it up? Well, yeah, this is a story that happened to me actually way back in the day when I was living in Boston when I was right out of college. ⁓ One morning it was my day off from work during the middle of the week and I, cause I had an appointment. They were going to put the, the landlord was going to put storm windows on my apartment. And so they were coming like at 11 o'clock that morning. This is during the summer and I'd had a Because it was my day off, I took a little extra time when my Bible study and my prayer and I ended up in the first chapter of Hebrews where it talks about ⁓ referring to Jesus as the Messiah, ⁓ that he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. ⁓ That's the good old King James translation. what that said to me at the time, obviously Jesus was the anointed one, but that we all have some of that anointing too. And I just kind of let that settle. then it sort of came to me, well, you know what? There were a lot of healings in the Old Testament and the New Testament, especially with Jesus and his followers. But I knew of at the time and I and even more so now today, a lot of healing is going on in a Christian church. Amen. Across the board. And I thought that's that's part of what Jesus's ministry was all about. There was a time when that wasn't a focus, but I think it's an important focus. And then came the thought, and I actually almost referenced this earlier, I realized I was afraid to love as much as Jesus did, because look what they did to him. And so I said, OK, God, just for today, I refuse to be afraid to love as much as Jesus did. And I had this really powerful conviction. And so I looked at my watch, I realized, well, I knew that I didn't have any Windex, and I wanted to clean my regular windows before they put the storm windows on. So I raced out down the street, I don't know if anyone listening knows Boston, I was living on a little street called Concord Square, I crossed Concord, no, Concord, sorry, Columbus Avenue. and I was starting to head up Columbus Avenue because there was a little neighborhood store there. I figured I could get some Windex there. Right after I crossed Columbus Avenue and started going up, there was a man, and this is about 10, 10.30 in the morning on a hot summer. It was already hot. Boston summers can get really hot and humid. And here was a man came up to me. He said, can I have $2 for a drink? Now you at that time, I hardly ever gave anybody money. Sometimes I do now. it feels like the right thing but you know he was wanting to drink and this guy was in a heavy wool coat and it was caked with layers of dirt and grime his hair was filthy he smelled like he'd been sleeping in the sewer and he's asking me for two dollars to get a drink this was in the late probably 1979 or so so it's a while ago And here I was with this spirit of love in me and I said to him, I heard the words come out of my mouth. You don't need a drink. You just need to feel loved. And he started crying. And my arm by itself, I swear I did not consciously do this. Just my arm just, I went over to his side. I was facing him. I went over, walked next to him and I put my arm around him and he was bawling like a baby. Well, we went and sat down on one of those Stoops of stairs like the whole flight of stairs to the first to the second floor is on the outside like an old brownstone or something we went and sat down on one set of those steps and This guy had been a deacon in his church 20 years before and he had done something really bad I Wasn't a hundred percent clear, but it sounded like he said he almost killed someone and all his friends and his family and his church members said God will never forgive you and he'd been carrying around that burden for twenty years and it's driven him to ⁓ you know be in the situation he was well I said God can forgive you right now and I've shared a bunch of Bible verses with him and he soaked them up like a dry sponge I don't even remember everything I said I don't remember hardly anything I said to him But we talked about the Bible and he just it was like an oasis for him and and all in the back of my mind I'm thinking I gotta go get that Windex because I don't want them to put the you know, so I didn't I was trying to cut to the chase in effect and I finally said hey, do you like to read ⁓ and I got his address if if it was even his address, I don't know but he gave me his address in his name. I said I'd love to send you something, you know to read to some some some articles or pamphlets or I don't know what I was going to I wanted to send him something to read and so I didn't have anything to write with so when we stood up he said you know I was before we stood up he said you know I wanted to get a drink I don't want to drink anymore I need to get something to eat and so I said you know what I'm going to give you a couple bucks there was a diner further a little further down the street closer to town that I knew he could get a sandwich for two bucks as I said this was a long time ago. You can get a sandwich for 2 bucks in Boston now. ⁓ And so I gave him a couple of bucks and then when he stood up he said you know my stomach was awful cramps and I feel fine now. And as we're walking to this then last half block to this little convenience store for me to get the windex he said you know I never come into the city this time of day in the middle of the week. I said he lived out in Roxbury or I don't know some suburb of Boston and he said. And I said, well, I'm never out at this time of day either. And I said, I think God brought us together. The interesting thing was if I had been 30 seconds later, he would have crossed over my street walking down ⁓ Columbus Avenue. If I'd been a minute or so earlier, I would have missed him. was like, God's timing was so perfect. I never heard from the guy again. I did send him some stuff to read but there was such a transformation there and I think it all came down to me not being afraid to love as much as Jesus. I agree. That was in my heart because the addendum to that is a month or two later I was going to meet a friend somewhere and this is way before that, ⁓ you know, cell phones or anything. I was going to meet a friend was walking somewhere and this guy with his arm in a sling. and a cast on his arm. He was asking for money and he said, I need money. can't work. I lost my job because I can't work. His arm was broken and I've got to feed my family. And I said very self-righteously, well, I'll pray for you. I won't give you any money, but I'll pray for you. And he started cursing God. And I thought, James, you said words, but you didn't have the spirit of love in your heart. You were just repeating something. And what if I had been? filled with the spirit. could have said something like, Hey, I'm going to meet a friend. Give me your ⁓ address. I'll bring some groceries tomorrow. I might have opened up a way for me to minister to him. I, you know, we don't like to talk about our failures, but that was a real lesson for me is like, you have to be, you can't sail through on yesterday's experience of trusting and loving God or feeling God's love. You have to. renew that every day. ⁓ mean, sometimes we coast a little bit. Okay, whatever. But, you we need to constantly, I mean, you eat every day, you breathe every day, you know, you fill up your car when it's empty with gasoline. We need to keep ourselves like you were talking, filling up the cup. You share some water in your cup and then it gets filled up again. We need to have that constant refilling from God, the original ⁓ fountain of, of water of life. And so ⁓ anyway, that's what I want to share is that don't be afraid to love as much as Jesus did because it may be uncomfortable, but it'd be really wonderful when you do that. God will God may put someone in your in your life that that's exactly what they need. Amen. And as we normally as we close our programs, we invite you to give us a small golden nugget, something we can mull over. we can consider that we can that people can take with them even when the podcast is done. Do you have something maybe you could share? Absolutely, David. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, and I've got a lot of them, is 1 Corinthians 2. I think it's 16. It's the end of that chapter. It's just the last little phrase there. Paul says, We have the mind of Christ. And it finally hit me one day that's in the present tense. It's not future tense. It doesn't say we'll have the mind of Christ when or later or if certain things happen when you have accepted Christ in your life. We you have the mind of Christ right now at this moment. You have the mind of Christ. ⁓ We can begin to. start using that mind instead of our own mind. We can begin to, you know, live our lives the way Jesus did because we have the mind of Christ. We have the intelligence of Christ. We have the inspiration of Christ. We have the same source or Jesus said, you know, talking to Mary Magdalene right after the resurrection, he said, I'm going to I'm ascending to my father and your father. We have the same father. that Jesus does. That's pretty awesome. ⁓ And so we can we can lean on that we can lean on God we can trust in that just the way Jesus did. And so I would encourage you to ponder that verse. We have the mind of Christ and it's a collective thing we all do. ⁓ You know and you can appreciate that about other people too. You can trust them to respond in that way too but give yourself permission to let the mind of Christ permeate you. Amen. Just let it let it become your your the way of thinking. I appreciate that. That's that's deep. I love that. Yeah. You could you could mull on that for days. Yeah. It's a lifetime. Now if people wanted to know more about you or learn learn more about what you share. Do you have a website that they can go to and start learning about you? Yes, I'd love to connect with your listeners if they'd like to reach out. My website is thebiblespeakstoyou.com and I have a podcast of that same name, but I've made a special page, David, just for your listeners. ⁓ if you'll go to thebiblespeakstoyou.com forward slash Yes, that's on a short version of the title of your show. There's a page there and it talks about how to sign up for my podcast. If you subscribe on my website, I'll send you a free prayer guide to put together called praying with the mindset of Jesus. And there's also ⁓ a little playlist of previous episodes I've put together on how to be more like Jesus like we were talking about. And then if you really want to go deep, I have a coaching program. It's all about embracing the mindset of Jesus. I call it Jesus Mindset Coaching. And if you really want to go deep, if that's a good fit for you, there's a little, ⁓ the three little blue boxes at the bottom of that page you can click on and get more information about that. And I would love to connect with, just to let me know what you found helpful in today's ⁓ conversation with david i would love to know or talk to david let him know what's been helpful and ⁓ he can share with me ⁓ i just hope that you'll take away something that god has a wonderful ⁓ adventure for you and then you could put you when you put your hand in his hand in your heart in his heart ⁓ it's it's a beautiful thing well i appreciate everything you've shared that's beautiful and ⁓ as we get ready to pray. I want to encourage everyone to know that God's plan for them is just beginning. He's eternal. So even though we feel like we've been through knotholes and difficults and potholes and everything else, God meets us where we are. And we don't have to get rid of all our problems to come to Him. He takes us as is, because it's He who can change us. We can't change ourselves. So when we come to Him as is, warts and all, and we give our hearts to Him, He can begin loving you in ways that you can't even imagine right now. And we want that for you. And so we're going to pray, and then I'm going to give you a challenge, and then we'll start this again in our next podcast. But James, I'm so thrilled that you came. Well, thank you, David. It's been an absolute joy to get to ⁓ have a little chat with you. ⁓ hear some of your stories too and it's just been a real blessing. Well let's pray and then I'll give our encouragement and then we'll close this session. Heavenly Father we're so grateful for the privilege we have to serve you. We're grateful for every listener and every viewer. We're grateful for the opportunity to share your love and how to live like you had planned for us to live with your love shining through us. Help us to seek your healing. Forgive us and help us to forgive others, not for their sake, but for our own. So there's nothing hindering us to be free and wide open to love. Bless us Lord and meet every person where they're at. Help them to become who you planned for them to be. Lord, if you need to heal somebody so they can do that, please manifest that healing through the stripes that Jesus bore. Do a wonderful work of love and change them. for them to be able to change with your love. Bless them in Jesus' Amen. Amen. And our challenge is, seek after God. He is found. If you want to meet him, go through Jesus. Jesus said he was the way. Seek Jesus and he'll make sure you know that. This has been the God Says Yes Podcast with David Ebel. Connect with David, email him at godsaysyespodcast.gmail.com You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.