Branch Isole

David W Ebel: Yeah. Welcome to the God Says Yes podcast. You are welcome here. Welcome to another episode of God Says Yes. My name is David Ebel, and I'm your host. After fifty plus years of ministry, ⁓ I still have a call in my life to reach those who are struggling, like I was at one point. People who've been hurt, betrayed, belittled, ⁓ they haven't been paid back, they've or they've been paid back wrongly. ⁓ church hurt were somebody who ⁓ shouldn't be ⁓ treating people badly. ⁓ it isn't acting quite like Christ yet. What but ⁓ of course the church is supposed to be the emergency care room of the body of Christ. But if you've ever been to an emergency room, not everybody who comes in is happening a good time. Sometimes they're kicking and screaming and they're and they're miserable and they're not they're not afraid to make you miserable with them. And when they pe those same folks come into church, they don't know how to behave yet because they haven't met Jesus. So sometimes the the the old world splash splashes on the believer. And we can get hurt. And on behalf of the rest of the life of Christ, I apologize. That is not God's plan. But ⁓ you know, we live in a fallen world with with people who've lived fallen ways. So until God gets a grip on them, sometimes there's a there's a little bit of ugly that happens. But the key is regardless of how you got to where you are, you're here now. And now big w because you're here, God can do a mighty work in your life if you'd let it if you'd let him. So we invite you today to to get your eyes off of them, whoever they were, and and know that God created you to love from the beginning, from the very beginning, before you were even conceptualized when you were still just part of the plan. He created you to love. He created you to from the inside out to be like him. We don't have to look like each other, but from the inside, we need to look like him. We have to have to have we have to have have room for For love and compassion and mercy, forgiveness and healing and all the amazing things that God wants to do, He can do in us once we have Him in our hearts, once we give Him room to work in our lives. And that's why we're here is we want people to look beyond what's how they got here and start looking for what can happen next. And that's why we we we are here today for you. And I I have brought w with me a friend of mine from his name is Branch Asole Branch. is a very interesting man. He's an author. He's a podcaster. And he's a someone fired up in loving God with all his heart. And I've invited him to come on. And so Branch, I to I want to welcome you and let y you say a few words, introducing yourself and then hand it back to me and we'll start. Great. Thank you, David, for having me. ⁓ I heard your story on another podcast and it it it moved me to reach out to you. And ⁓ you have such an amazing walk and amazing testimony for the Lord that I appreciate the time of sharing your mic and being here with you for your listeners today. It's ⁓ my journey has not been as long as yours. The first forty years of my life, I embraced all the ways of the world and did a pretty good job of it. However, I came to a place where I hated who I had become and I knew I had to change my life. And so that's where my story begins. And so ⁓ personally, married kids, what tell us just a little bit about you so we're not talking to a stranger. Sure. ⁓ I was married, my first wife passed away ⁓ early. ⁓ I have ⁓ three sons, ⁓ all grown, all with families of their own. ⁓ I have ⁓ my own siblings. ⁓ four of them are still alive, one has passed. And I'm married to a ⁓ wonderful woman who runs my life and takes care of all the things that need to be done in order to get through the day and to do our writing and our podcasting and all of the business end of the things that we are sharing with the world. You can't get better than that. God only gives you the best. So I'm grateful that that that God has given you a divine appointment with somebody who you can absolutely ⁓ celebrate him with. So ⁓ so branch, the way what we normally do this is we invite you to tell your story. I'll interrupt occasionally, and if I do, I'll say ⁓ branch, and then you'll know to give me a break so I can say a few things, then I'll hand it back to you. But otherwise, ⁓ this is your story. They've already heard me. Okay. So would you would you like to start and tell us before Jesus? Who I was? Well, I grew up in a military family. so I was born in Japan, lived in Canada and the states and Germany, and now I live in Panama, so I've traveled quite a bit. But ⁓ we were sort of what I call C E and O Christians, Christmas, Easter and occasionally. So I didn't have much of a Christian background. And ⁓ although from an early age, you know, I had this sense that the Lord was operating in my life, but I just didn't pay attention. And I grew up ⁓ pretty typical average, you know, middle class family. ⁓ I was highly involved in in school activities and my education. ⁓ I graduated from high school in California, went to college in Texas, got out and joined the corporate world. I was I did a couple of years as a public school teacher and administrator and realized that I couldn't live on that kind of a salary. So I went into corporate sales and worked for a big publishing house, ⁓ selling textbooks to teachers. And I was in the corporate world for about 15 years and had been very successful, went from sales rep to regional manager, and had all the income and all the toys and all the things that I thought I wanted. And what I discovered was I hated who I had become and the things that I was willing to do for all of that success. And so my life sort of crumbled. before my eyes and I lost everything. ended up homeless and wasn't sure what I was doing or where I was going, but I knew that I had to find truth in my life. Truth that I could believe in, truth that I could embrace as my own. No matter what it you know, no matter who I had to offend, I had to find the truth. So I went on a five year sort of Sabbatical, ⁓ looking at religions, looking at spiritual belief systems, looking at Middle Eastern philosophies, looking at everything that I could find about truth, what it was, what it was represented by. And so out of that, believe it or not, what I discovered was all of the tenets of all of the belief systems that I researched and read about and experienced all were grounded in the same two tenets. Love God first and most, treat others the way you want to be treated. And that brought me back to Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, as the rock of truth. So now discovering that ⁓ I had to figure out what to do with it. So at 40, I was still struggling in my life You know, I was doing odd jobs and anything I could to survive. And one night I was living alone. I was walking from the bedroom to the bathroom, sort of in half awake, half stupor, and a voice in my living room called out to me by name. I was so startled I just turned around and said, What? Nothing happened. And so I thought about it a little bit but didn't give it a whole lot of I just didn't understand it, right? I I I knew that it had meaning, but I wasn't sure why I heard it or what it meant. So my life went on and on and and I kept struggling, but I started on a spiritual path and I picked up a Bible and I tried to read the Bible to no avail. You know, I was struggling with the names and the places and the stories and But I didn't give up. You know, I just stayed the course and stayed on the path. And about year seven, I started to get frustrated. And I ⁓ I was actually in a computer class in an area of San Diego taking a computer class and we broke for lunch and I went to a small strip mall, strip center, and there was only one parking space available in the entire parking lot. And I pulled in and I was directly between a Christian bookstore on one side and a topless bar next to it on the other side. And I said, Well, I'd really like to have a beer and a sandwich and look at naked women. And I sat there and I looked at this dividing line between those two businesses side by side, sharing a wall. And I thought, man, I'd really like a beer and a sandwich and look at naked women. I got out of my car, I went into the bookstore, pulled a Bible off of the shelf, looked down, and I was at Zechariah 3, 8, which says, I will raise up my branch. My ja ⁓ I will raise up Joshua, my branch. And I had been struggling with s trying to read the Bible, you know. For seven years and just as I was about to give up, from that moment on, I could understand scripture. And so I got back into the Bible, and for the next three years I was embedded in scripture, you know, and learning what the Lord had to say. And at the ten year mark, I had moved from California to Hawaii and I was teaching a a small a couple had come for ⁓ just some information and we were going the little Bible study. And you know, when that first revelation hit me, I didn't know what was happening happening. When the second revelation came, I understood what was happening, right? And so I started to read and understand scripture more and more. And I had decided I would change my name from my birth name that, you know, I had lived with for those 40 years. And I was on a new path that I thought, well, I'm gonna change my name and make the break complete. And so I decided I want my last name to be I-S-O-L-E, which stands for I serve only Lord Emmanuel. And I thought, ⁓ I really like the name Joshua. So for that three years, I kept thinking about the name change, but didn't do anything about it. And so after ten years ⁓ on this new journey, I was doing this Bible study with this small couple. And ⁓ I looked down and I and I saw that passage again and and it was Zachariah three eight and it says, I will raise up Joshua my branch, and at that moment the Lord told me, This is your new name. And so after ten years ⁓ you know, of struggle and this being tempted by the world, trying to suck me back into the ways of the world, I had finally reached square one and my new path was pretty evident and my new journey began. And so at that point I knew, well, if I'm gonna walk this path, I better know more than what I know now. So I decided I would go back to school. So at ⁓ fifty-two years old, I went back and got a master's degree in theology so that I would have the the structure and the foundation for what I was about to go through and what I was gonna attempt, and so that I would know more about. ⁓ theology than just you know what I have been reading. And so that's what happened. And in conjunction with that, going back to school, the Lord moved upon me to write a book. And so I wrote my first book, which is a layman's kind of comparative study between the world's religions. And in the book it asks the world's religions the same ten questions. And each of those religions answers. And it's not about Becoming a Christian and it's not about actually believing in the Lord. It's about if you are in a situation and you you know, you want to get on a spiritual path, whatever that might be, but you don't know anything about spiritual paths, this book basically gives you a comparative study so that at least you know enough to start that first step. So if you want to be a Buddhist, you at least know what ⁓ Buddha was about and what he taught. And if you want to be A Hindu, you know about Hinduism, and if you want to be, you know, a Jew or ⁓ Muslim, it describes for the new the neophyte searcher, the neophyte seeker, a little bit about each of the world's religions, from atheism to zoasterism. But fundamentally it's about why you should consider, you know, becoming a Christian. ⁓ that's the underlying theme. But it does it by comparing What's available to you right now. And so with that book, I thought, well, that's it. I I did the book. I'm done. And I was living in Hawaii on the very east side in a little place called Hana. And we actually lived on a piece of property that was the very east side of Maui. And I could look across the water and see the big island. And one day I was sitting there and I thought, My God, how scary would it be to be lost at sea, right? And all the kinds of things that would go through your mind. And out of that came my first short story, and then they just kept coming. So for the next fifteen years I just kept writing. And so in two thousand fifteen I had finished ⁓ twenty two books. Wow. And I was I was starting to write some essays and and you know, looking at blogs and that kind of thing. And the Lord came to me in twenty fifteen and said, I want you to study prophecy. So for the last ten years I've been studying Bible prophecy and end times and last days events and characters and you know all of that. And so ⁓ twenty six years later and twenty-two books later and ten years into prophecy, here we are. Wow. And I gotta ask, how old are you? I am seventy nine. Man, you look good for seventy nine. God has been good to you. Amen, that's for sure. But I tell you what it is. I don't drink alcohol, I don't eat fast food, ⁓ you know, I don't eat anything that's prepared. I'm basically a vegetarian. I eat some fish and chicken, but I stay away from meat. you know. ⁓ just healthy healthy living and following the Lord and and that's all it has been for me and if you're out there and you hear this you might try that. So now you met the Lord. He changed your life. Amen. Now as a result of that if if others are are struggling, what kind of hope can you offer them if they were to trust you know, Jesus today? That's a great question, David, because So many people are struggling, right? And you know, we grow up embracing the world and the world's ways because that's what we know. You know, from from about age two, when we start to get some cognition going in our little toddler brains, we start to recognize a little bit about the world. And one of the things that we learn most, and first is The consequences of the word no Most often that word is associated with some form of punishment, right? Or some kind of correction. And so as we grow up as children and as we are inundated with the world's ways, we start to understand that most things about our life are about reward and punishment, right? And that concept is sort of indoctrinated or beat into us through right. And wrong. And you you see this in every society's legal systems are based on, you know, doing right or doing wrong, reward and punishment. And so as we grow and as we learn from the world that, well, I'm in control of my life, and my life is all about me, and so I should get what I want when I want it, no matter what that takes. ⁓ you know, is it a reward or a punishment? So every decision, every choice that we have. Is about, well, what's in it for me if I make this decision or make this choice? Is there going to be a reward or a punishment, a consequence? And so many people fail to understand there is an alternative path that you can seek out, search, and walk, right? And we we get that path through religions, whatever your religion may be, but religions By and large are man made structures ⁓ designed for the religion. And I'm not against religions by any means. I I've been kicked out of several churches, but ⁓ you know, it's about a spiritual connection with God. ⁓ the only mediator we need is God, is Jesus Christ is our mediator to God Almighty. But anyway, real you know, religions religions serve a purpose and anyone who is being spiritually fed, wherever that is, that's where they should be. You know, you you need to get that that relationship with the Lord active and growing. And if if religion does that for you, that's fine. But I know a lot of people have tried various religions, various belief systems, and for whatever reason they haven't stayed the course, right? They've they've fallen away. And every time we fall away, we go, Well, that didn't work, you know. I I gave myself up. I said, Okay, God, I'm ready, and nothing happened, and the the devil redoubled his efforts and the temptations came and and so we fall away and we fall away and we fall off the path. And every time we fall away or fall off the path, right, we're more discouraged. And so we turn and embrace the world again. And the world's design is to enslave us. you know, to keep us beaten down economically, socially, politically, whatever the realm that you want to discuss, the world's way is not to enable us to grow, at least not grow spiritually. And so, you know, we fall away, we try again. Well, when we get to our rock bottom, many of us, I that happened to me, and certainly happened to you in a sense. When we hit rock bottom we go, there's gotta be a different way, and this time I'm going to try and I'm gonna stay the course. I tell people, look, it took me ten years to go from that realization that I wanted truth in my life to actually understanding that I was gonna have a relationship with the Lord, with God Almighty through Jesus Christ. It's it's not ⁓ okay, I'm ready, let's do this thing, right? It Scripture tells us milk and meat. We we we start out slow, we start out with the basics, and you know, we grow. The the challenge is the world is not going to let you easily walk that path with Christ to be with God. The devil knows his job and he does a good job doing his job, which is to keep us away from the Lord. So People fall away, but you can do it. Everybody who's on the path now, who embraced Christ and has a spiritual relationship with God through Christ, once was where you are right now. Nobody nobody came into this world knowing about God, knowing about Christ, knowing about religion or spiritual. You know, we didn't know. We we are part of the world. I end all of my podcasts with be in the world. Don't be of the world. And there's a difference, right? So if you're out there struggling, we've done it and you can do it too. We're no different. We just stayed the course and made a commitment to be a more spiritually grounded person and have an active spiritual life with God. So let me go back for just a minute, David, because you know, I'm talking about we're at two and we go reward and punishment, right? What's the difference between Having a spiritual relationship with God and not. Well, it comes down to one fundamental basic. If I think my life is all about me, and therefore it's all about reward and punishment, or reward or punishment for me, then every choice and every decision I make is going to be about me, right? Not about my wife, not about my family, not about my neighborhood or my community or my nation or my world. It's going to be about what's in it for me. And that's never been more obvious or evident than in the world we live in today. What's in it for me is always about right and wrong, reward and punishment, right? But what Christ came to show us and to share with us and to teach us is it's about we, not about me, it's about we and God's character and nature is simply truth and love. And God's character and nature in action. Is moral and ethical responses. And when we have a choice or decision before us, and we decide I'm going to make the choice that's all about we, the me and the people in my life who are important to me, then I'm going to do what is moral and or ethical in that situation. And if I could share with people anything, that's The difference between being spiritually grounded, having a spiritual relationship with God through Christ, is you respond morally and ethically, not about, well, what's in it for me a reward or a punishment. And when you start to respond morally and ethically, then you are responding the way Christ responded when he was here, and what his examples of our response should be. And all of those moral and ethical responses are grounded in love God first and most, treat others the way you want to be treated. The two tenets that are at the core of every religion and every spiritual belief system. So it's real simple. You go through life and you look at your situation, your choices, and decide, am I going to run respond morally and ethically or not? And that's the path divider, right? That's okay, I'm gonna call myself a Christian. I'm gonna believe in the Lord, I'm gonna believe in God, I'm gonna believe in the Trinity, I'm gonna believe all this stuff. But in my daily life, am I Christ like? Am I responding like Christ would respond, or am I Christian? And there's a definite difference in my opinion and in my life between those two things. I was a quote unquote Christian for 40 years, and the devil loved me because I was loving him and his ways. I was embracing the ways of the world, which are, you know, are human nature, but you have a choice, you have an option. So moral and ethical response is the question. And if you make the moral and ethical response, you know what's gonna happen? The Lord's gonna smile and he's gonna bless and he's gonna protect you. And so I want to make two more points based on that. Okay, so. I want to change my life. I want to get started or restarted with the Lord. Okay, so what do I do? Well, Christ tells us in his own words, five steps. Number one, invite Jesus into your life. Matthew 7, 7 and 8. See, when you ask Jesus to come into your life, he will. He will respond because he says he will. But that has to be a voluntary invitation on your part. That free will is all about you having that choice to choose a spiritual path or continue walking on the world's path, the world's ways. Right? So you ask Christ to come into your life. We ask, right? We ask, we seek, we knock. If you ask, you will be answered. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, the door will be open. Step one. Okay. Well, once we ask, he then tells us in John 16, 13. When you ask, I will send my spirit of truth, the spirit of God Almighty, truth and love, I will send my spirit to be with you. All of a sudden, you now have the Spirit of God through Christ, Spirit of Truth within you. Now, how do we know that? Well, when we are God is John four twenty four tells us God is creator of the universe. It tells us that God is spirit, right? So if God is a spirit and he's creator of the universe, then everything he creates has his spirit within him. So when we arrive in this physical reality as mind, body, soul, and spirit, his spirit is within us. It's the essence of who we truly are. We're just in a physical vessel in a physical world about to go some through some physical lessons to find out who we are. So we have his spirit in us from the beginning, right? And it's 100% truth and love. Well, as soon as as soon as we take that first breath and inhale the world, we start to become of the world. And so the world's ways take over who we are because that's what we learn, that's what we know, that's what we're taught. We don't know that we are a spirit. And so I always say, well, God's spirit is a hundred percent truth and love. If want to say 50 50, okay? And when it when he comes, when we come in as a spirit into this world, we are 100%. But through our acclamation to the world and the world's ways, it kind of goes to 80 20, right? So I'm 80% physical, human characteristics, traits, beliefs, understanding. And I'm still 10% truth, 10% love. Well, how do I know that? Well, even as a child, when I make a decision that results in shame, embarrassment, or guilt, that's that ten percent truth and ten percent love in there reminding me that this is not in my best interest, right? And we innately know that because we have God's spirit within us. But it's buried. It's under layers and layers and layers of the world's ways. Year after year after year, it gets buried deeper and deeper. So we put our spirit on the back burner, right? It it we only when we're in deep trouble, we go, ⁓ God, you know, get me out of this one and I'll whatever you fill in the blank, right? But what do we do? We fall away, we go right back to, hey, what's in it for me? Right? So this is the cycle we're in. And the longer you're in the cycle, the more difficult it is to get out of the cycle. Once the world has its tentacles and its grasp on you, it doesn't want to let go. It's not designed to let go. It's designed to be harsh so that you have to finally say, There's gotta be a different way, there's gotta be a better way. What is that way? And it's either the physical world or it's the spiritual world. So it's you know, that's your choice. So we grow, okay? So you invite Christ into your life, he's gonna respond. When he responds, he's gonna send his spirit of truth to be with you. You now ha will reactivate that original 10%, 10% spirit, and it's gonna be. Hundred percent, hundred percent. And you're gonna start grappling with the eighty percent, right? You're gonna because what happens when you have God's spirit of truth within you, all of a sudden the blinders come off, the veil comes down, and you see and recognize truth in your life. You now have the spirit of truth. So now you see truth in your life. And once you see truth in your life, you automatically see the falsehoods. The fabrications and the lies. Everything becomes self-evident. Okay, for the new believer, this is where the struggle comes, right? I now see the truth, but the old me wants to embrace the other stuff too, because I'm familiar with it. Even it's if it's miserable, I'm comfortably numb with it because I know what to expect. I don't know what to expect from this relationship with God. Okay, so the challenge is. Do you turn away from God now that you have his spirit or not? And that's a decision we all make. Okay, so we ask, we receive. Now what do we do with that spirit? Well, we activate that spirit. We put him to work for us in our situations. How do we do that? John 14, 16 and 26 tells us. Embrace the Spirit, now engage the Spirit. How do I do that? Well, in this situation that I'm now facing, what would Jesus do? Right? Now we've all heard that, and we've all maybe had the bracelet, or you know, this is not an unfamiliar concept, but now that you have God's spirit within you, you can ask him in this situation, what would Jesus do? If he was standing here next to me, what would his response be? And you know what? God's spirit of truth tells me the response would be moral. Andor ethical response. Well, what is that? That's what would God do? Love God first and most, treat others the way I want to be treated, right? Truth and love in action. So I invite, I receive, I embrace, I engage. Those are the four steps. My engagement is what would Jesus do? Well, how do I know that? Well, John 14 6 tells me Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way. Now lot of people say, well, is that the way to heaven hereafter? Yeah, well it is. But it's also the way that you take that next step in your daily life. Right? He is the way. Not only the way to eternal life, he's the way to responding in your life here, today, in every situation. And see, life throws us fastballs, curveballs, screwballs, all kinds of stuff all day long. In every interaction that we have. different people in our families, at work, you know, in the community. We're always trying to hit these balls that are being through that life is throwing at us, right? And If we know that he's the way and he's given us the examples of how we should respond, then we have a choice. Do I respond morally and ethically, or do I respond my old pattern, my old behavior way, what's in it for me? I'll do whatever I have to do or need to do or want to do to get mine. And that's the ultimate choice within daily life. Okay, so that's the four steps of how we engage, establish. grow our spiritual relationship here and now for daily living. Number five. This is the most important one for anybody, especially if you Am a prophecy believer and an end times believer as I am, this is the one you need to know right now and do tonight. Romans ten, verses nine, ten, thirteen, and seventeen. If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and you confess with your mouth that you believe that to be true, his promise to you right at that moment is eternal life. I don't care who you are, how you live, what you do, whether you're a saint or the worst of the sinners, if you will take that step, his promise of eternal life is guaranteed for you, and you don't have to change anything in your life. You can continue to be the jerk that I was for 40 years. But if you'll do that, your eternal life is promised and guaranteed. Now, knowing this, why in the world would you want to start your daily life tomorrow in the same struggle that you've been going through for however long you've been alive and struggling? This is the question you have to ask yourself. Do you really want to change and alter and better the situation you're in? Your home relationship, your work relationship, your community relationship. If you do, that's how you do it. You do those first four steps because those are the steps for living daily life. Living a life lighted by and led by Jesus Christ. If you believe that there is a God and you believe that God is real and true, then every word that God has shared is true. If you don't believe that, it's because you don't want to believe it. Period. End of story. And there's a world full of people who don't want to believe. Okay, you see, God loves you, but he loves you enough to let you make that decision. And we're in the end times, I believe. And the Lord has shown me things about the end times. And now's the time to make a decision whether or not you want to reestablish or start or restart a spiritual relationship. And if you do, that's how you do it. Matthew 7:7 and 8, John 16, 13, John 14, verses 16 and 26, John 14, verse 6, and Romans 10, verse 16. Verses 9, 10, 13, and 17. If you do those five steps today, your life will start changing tomorrow. Why? Because God tells us that when you become a reborn spiritual child of His and no longer a prodigal child, He will bless and protect you. Now, it's going to start out slow and it's going to start out Well, was that it or not? But the further you're on the path and the more you trust and believe in him, the more you're gonna see him active in your life. Little things are gonna happen. The guy that just cuts you off in traffic, you know, flips you the bird, okay, you know, I've cut people off in traffic before and I get it. But by not responding with road rage, you know, I miss the accident that he has that happens to him two minutes up the road. And and when you're on the spiritual path, you start to recognize God working in your life and protecting you in your life. Big things, little things. You know, I my wife and I were we were struggling and we thought, God, what are we gonna do? And a friend of ours called next day and said, Hey, I've got a friend who needs housekeepers and caretakers on their five hundred acre estate. Are you guys interested? You know, and out of the blue, our lives changed. With one phone call. You may not believe me, but I've lived 40 years without that, and I've lived 40 years with it. And if he did it for me and he does it for David, he'll do it for you. That's how he works. But it's gonna be slow at the start, and it's you're gonna be tempted to fall off. Don't fall off. It's your choice. You are the one in control of your life. Whether your life is great or whether your life is lousy, you can change it because everybody. Who's now at the top, once, wasn't. And they they struggle. Everybody struggles. May not be money, maybe relationship. You never know what people struggle is alcohol, drugs, sex, rock and roll. Who knows? Everybody is struggling. But everybody who's not struggling any longer. Did it and you can do it too. Let me tell you this. When you do those four steps, you will have the power to reduce the stress, the struggle, the pressure, and the conflict in your life as much as you want to, down to zero if you so choose to. How do I know? Because I did it. Took me forty years, but I did it. And you can do it too. And now that you know it, you don't need the forty years. You can do it tomorrow. That's the blessing of the Lord's word. That's the power of Jesus Christ's Spirit, which is the spirit of truth, which is the foundation of God's character and nature, truth and love. See, truth is God's love in action. Untruth, lies, fabrications, falsehood is the devil's, is Satan's love and action. And if you're hearing this, you have a choice. You have a choice every day. And every day can be a new day. Is it gonna be hard? Yeah, it's gonna be hard, right? You've lived your whole life the other way. If you've known anybody who's ever been through a twelve step program, it's difficult, right? It doesn't change overnight. The template of bad behavior or inappropriate behavior didn't happen overnight. So appropriate behavior and truthful living won't happen overnight. But now you have the template. You have five-step template you can take and use in your daily life immediately, and you will see results immediately. Now I often get the question, okay, well I get that part. I want to go deeper. How do I read the Bible? Well, you know, da da Well, the Bible is a story, but it's not a novel. You don't have to start at page one and read to the end. Here's my suggestion. And I teach, you know, in my classes this you get a red letter edition Bible. That's one with the words of Jesus in red, printed in red in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You start in Matthew and you read only the red sections. Skip all the black. Okay? Now, I know it sounds well I'm gonna miss no, you're not gonna miss anything. You're gonna learn and hear what Jesus wants you to learn and hear. So you just read the red sections, Matthew, then to Mark, then to Luke, then to John, right? It'll go fast because the red sections don't make up a whole lot of the text. So you'll be done pretty quickly. But if you read those red sections, by the time you get done in John, you're gonna know about Jesus Christ, the man, the myth, the legend, the Son of God. And once you've known about Christ and what he wants for you, that's all the theology you need to know. That's as far as you need to go. Now, if you want to go further, go back and read the entire book of John. Because John Matthew, Mark, and Luke are about Jesus' being in the world, right? And the teachings and the parables. When you get to John, that's about your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And John establishes for you as a new believer exactly what you need to know about embracing what Christ has to share and actually putting it into action. finish John, you're done. I mean, you just start living that life. If you want to go deeper, you go into Romans and you go into Hebrews, right? Because this shows you what life in Rome was like and life in the new church was like when Jesus was alive and right after he passed when he was crucified, right? You'll see that the same struggles That the Roman that the Jews in Rome and the Palestine what the Roman epistle and the Hebrew epistle teach us, we're struggling with the same lessons of life today. The only thing that's changed in the last two thousand years and the last six thousand years actually is technology. Right. How do we know that? Because we're still act inhumane to each other every day. Had we grown spiritually and understood what this life is supposed to be about, we wouldn't be trying to kill each other, you know, in dry parts of the world or on the freeway. You know, so nothing has changed this tech technology, but that doesn't mean you have to hold back. So read Romans and Hebrews and that'll teach talk to you about what people two thousand years ago struggled with. And lo and behold, same struggles that we have. And if you want to read more, pick a pick a book. You know, pick acts, pick anything. By that time you'll discover where your interest lies. And the great thing about scripture is, great thing about the Bible is you can read two sentences and learn something. And you come back six months from now and read those two sentences again and you learn something new. All of Scripture teaches us things. The deeper you get into it, the easier it will become. And the Lord'll lead you. He'll he'll You won't have to worry about where I go next. He'll go, Okay, you saw this happen, you heard this happen today in your life, you know, go here and it's gonna explain to you what really was going on with those people. And and that's all. That's all you have to do. Five steps, get a red letter edition Bible and get started. You know what? Your partner, your significant other, your spouse, your kids, they're They're not gonna recognize you but they're gonna love what you've had what you've done to yourself. And then you'll have the spirit so active in you that you can turn around and share with them and teach them and get them on the path that's gonna mean the difference in their life from now until their last breath, but also after this mortal life is ended. You know, I talk to people and I the the The sadness it's on my heart for somebody who doesn't understand that they won't be in heaven with their children or grandchildren is terrible. You know, how could you not want to be living eternally in the presence of Jesus Christ with your children and grandchildren and those that you love and care for, right? Why would you want to be alone? Or why would you not want to have them there? So n when you learn, when you go through those red sections and the Lord teaches you and touches you and works on you, turn right around and and go over those five steps with those people in your life that you love. They don't have to decide. If they'll do those five steps, God will help them decide, right? That's all you have to do. You don't have to. Be the preacher. You don't have to, you know, be the the soothsayer, the oracle. Just embrace and use those five steps in your life and then teach them to the people in your life that you love and care about. Amen, Branch. Amen, brother. You you have you've done a great job of explaining all the things that I always hope that a guest will hit. You I appreciate the clarity in which you you provided that. That is that's powerful, and I'm grateful for you doing it. Thank you. I appreciate it, but it's not me. It's Jesus. Right. But it you and I both know that. But I want that is this this is not me, this is Jesus sharing with you through David and I. That's all. Yeah. And and that's the reason why I say that is I appreciate the fact that he made it clear. The only way that we're going to change is when we want to change. The only one who can change us is our willingness to be changed. And to accept what God had created and made a path for us. And then Branch is just excuse me. Branch just ⁓ it laid it out simply, step by step, how we get from where I was to who I want to live like. And there are steps that they're none of them so big you can't you can't cut cross them or no one would have ever done it done it. It's a simple truth. It just seems hard because we've we've been brainwashed by the way we've lived, that everything is hard that may cause us change. But that's not true. Those are that's not the truth at all. Change starts when you when you decide you're done with how it is and you're ready for something new. And if you've been wounded in the church, you how it was, and you're ready for something new in the church. Now it it's not the building that gets you that's going to help you, it's the relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, I'm of the belief that you need to find a church that teaches biblical truth. And you need to be a bro hang around with other people who believe like you do, because Jesus sent them up two by two so we would so they would help each other, not trip, fall, and stumble. We need to be there for each other so that we can grow strong. A baby a baby starts out ⁓ crawling, and then he from crawling he turns to walking, walking he turns to running. But in the beginning steps, if he didn't have someone to help him, he'd spend his whole life on his on his belly. But it's it's up to us as believers to be there for the newer believer and help them get there. And I encourage people, if you don't know what church to go to, it's simple to find one. Visit a few and it are they using scripture? Are they are they but you know, Branch has given you the addresses of several pieces of scripture and they're there. He he told you those so that you can actually watch the pet podcast again and write them down and then go back later and check them out. Don't ever take a preacher by his word without looking to what God said. The Bible is God's love letter to us. How are we going to please him if we don't know what what he loves and how and what he wants from us so we can have whole lives? Now, we have a time challenge on our hands, and so we have to honor that, or we could go on for another hour easily, I'm sure. But Branch, you have we usually invite people to give a a a about a three minute golden nugget. Something that just would that they could take with him from this podcast in mull over the next week or so. You have something you'd like to just give us a little a nugget to polish when we when we hang up for today? Can I give you a thirty second nug instead of three minutes? I'll take it. In Hamlet Colonius turns to his son and says To thine own self be true. That's my nugget for you. You know in your heart what is true and what's not. It's just like everybody alive knows what love is because they've experienced love. But they also know what unloving behavior is. Abuse. ⁓ you know, we we know what loving behavior looks like and we know what unloving behavior looks like. When you know what truth is like. And you go to that church to be spiritually fed, you'll know right away if that's for you or not. And if it's not, just keep looking because the Lord will direct you to the one where you feel at home. Amen. That's what I wanted to hear. ⁓ we need we don't this is the beginning of your story, not the end. But it's a good place to start. And and Branch, we'll love to have you back for an another visit sometime and let you share some more. Perfect for today. It is it's time for us to pray, and then I'm going to give the challenge that I always give and encourage people to go forward. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for the privilege of serving you. We we're grateful that we are able today to share your love clearly and concisely so people don't have to be lost in what they what they've been confused with this world. This world confuses us. The enemy to God does not want us to be focused on God. He wants us to be focused on anything else. Because God wants us to be loved and to healed and and blessed and and changed in ways that we our mind can barely comprehend. So God, we ask that you would reveal those things and call each of us to a closer walk to you. For those that are viewing, we ask that you touch their hearts, that you show your love to them through your Holy Spirit and draw them to you so they can understand what you're saying. And let this be the beginning of the greatest steps of the rest of their life. Bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. And our challenge always is seek after God. He will be found. You want to know him better? Jesus said he was the way. Get to know him so he can explain God through his Holy Spirit to you. Seek after God. You'll be found. This has been the God Says Yes podcast with David Ebel. To connect with David, email him at GodsaysYespodcast at gmail.com. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.