You think of like flying on an airplane.

When turbulence hits, everybody freaks out.

You can tell everyone that you're more likely to get into an accident and die on your way to the airplane than actually flying the airplane.

And yet, when turbulence hits, the wings start bending and everybody gets white-knuckled.

They freak out.

But who's not freaking out?

The pilot.

The pilot.

Why is the pilot confident?

Because the pilot has been the school.

They know something about the engineering of the airplane and aerodynamics.

They've studied the thing and they have confident assurance in the airplane.

Here's the problem is that we so often, to your point, Mark, we have a pinprick understanding of God.

And what we need to do is increase our pinprick understanding of God so that we can have confident assurance in the work that He has done on the cross and the promise that He's giving to us on His second coming.

When we increase our understanding of God, our hope increases.

But the great news is this even for the person having the panic attack on the airplane, their lack of hope or understanding and their safety doesn't make them more unsafe.

And that's the beauty of the gospel.

Even when your faith is lacking, even when your faith is weak, what saves you is not the size of your faith or the strength of your faith, but the strength and the object of your faith.

And the object of your faith is Christ crucified on the cross.

That is the beauty of the gospel.

You guys didn't know I could go that deep, did you?

Well, it wasn't.

Did you know what that was, right?

Or was that all Greek to you?

Is it the Greek alphabet?

Is that all Greek to you?

Is it the Greek Greek alphabet?

It is the Greek alphabet, yes.

That was a Freudian slip.

Ah, the Greek alphabet.

Yeah, it was a Greek alphabet.

Yeah.

Why did you say it?

Just I'm humble.

Do you guys know it?

No.

Do you know it, Oscar?

I do not.

Do you know it, Ray?

I do now.

Yeah.

Yeah, I learned it when I was back uh back in the day when I was in Bible college, and um they taught us a song.

What other useless things are?

Oh, that was a song.

That was a song?

And the thought and the thought occurred to me, and and I figured this would be the case, because you you guys don't, you're not into like intellectual pursuits, but so I knew you didn't know the Greek alphabet, but um I was wondering seriously, if you guys were offered a million dollars to learn to read Greek in three days, and when I say read, I'm not talking like at a deep, you know, sophisticated level, but just like be able to like r sound out the words.

Three days, million dollars.

Is that possible?

Absolutely.

Would you do it?

No, I mean I have a movie and I'm coming out with Laura.

I'm busy.

I offered my I offered my kids 20 bucks, Luke and Danny.

I think they were eight, nine, something like that.

They memorized the Greek alphabet within a week.

All the letters, they knew the letters.

I don't know, I gotta check.

But doing it as a poem or a song was a way to do it.

Yeah.

Stays No no, they didn't just learn the sounds.

They they identify they were able to identify the letters.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I couldn't do it.

I would love to do it, but I couldn't.

I couldn't do it.

No, I couldn't.

If you were offered a million dollars, you wouldn't try.

No, I would try, but I couldn't.

At my age, you can't I can't even say the word it.

In ten minutes, I'll forget it.

Say the word it.

It but yeah.

Uh um thought about it yet for the I have no idea why I did all that.

But no, it uh yeah, that's what it was.

Bucket list stuff.

You know what's on my bucket list?

Guys, you should learn the Greek alphabet.

It's fun.

Try it.

No.

Why?

Why not?

So Roman numerals, that's on my bucket list.

Do you guys know Roman numerals?

Roman numerals?

I don't know Roman numerals.

I know one through no, I know one through ten.

I know like to a hundred.

No, but like when I was born after when the Super Bowl comes, XMF V Z G H.

Like what in the world?

Well, and my gener my generation knew it because of movies that always have the beginning of a movie and have the date the movie was made in Roman numerals.

Why do we use Roman numerals?

Why do we use them?

They're useless.

I'd like to go spur lunking.

Talk about uh bucket lists.

What is spurlunking?

Cave diving.

You're kidding.

I would love to.

Oh, please do.

Oscar, is there is there anything you wouldn't do, like that kind of adventure stuff?

Seriously.

I don't know.

Give me an option.

I mean, are you pretty open to just about yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm open and open.

I love I love uh adrenaline rush.

You know, you know how much anger is filling Ray's heart right now?

It really is.

It really is.

Tell him why, Ray, rebuke him right now in front of the whole world.

It's human nature to go to places that can can kill you.

And I I the other day just last night I read with some hiker, they can't find his body.

He just disappeared on the mountains over somewhere over there.

He went hiking by himself.

Get into a cave and you can't find your way out somewhere.

You get a little rope as you go in, and some fish runs off the rope and you're stuck there.

And think about the claustrophobic feeling you would get of being stuck in a cave and you're oxygen running out, you don't know the way out.

Oscar, you've got a wife, you've got kids, you've got you've got a whole life to live.

Don't risk your life.

Yeah, repent, Oscar.

Yeah.

So it's common on Mount Everest when somebody will die to leave the body there and use it as a marker.

Then use it as markers.

That's actually true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie.

No, no, no.

I'm saying for those of Well, you do lie a lot.

Go on Mount Everest and wear a Living Waters t-shirt.

Just a t-shirt.

And shorts.

Yeah.

I think the riskiest thing I do is drive the 91 freeway.

Everything else I do is Well, that should be your adrenaline rush.

Be happy.

Let your wife be your adrenaline rush.

And if you're lacking, there's a problem.

What's this?

Number one cause of death riding an electric bike with a dog.

What?

Ray cut.

That's for the Lord.

You'll risk it for the Lord.

Oh, yeah.

Ray, that I mean, that is crazy when you think about it.

You ride a bike with a dog sitting in a basket.

It's not a basket.

Don't even say that one.

I'm 93 wheeler with a basket, but until then I won't.

Yeah, I've been killed quite almost killed quite a few times recently.

You've been actually hit by a car.

Yeah.

Have you?

Yeah.

Are you gonna hear about that?

Yeah, this is about six months ago.

Eight months ago.

No, seriously, our ministry got me a horn for the bike so that I could let people know that I was coming.

And I came up to this the freeway where they're coming off a freeway, and there was a lady looking to the left.

And I wanted to let her know I was passing in front of her, and I used my new horn.

It was as loud as a car horn.

I went like that to let her know.

She thought someone was hooting behind her and took off and ran me over, just knocked me off the bike and the dog off the bike.

Wait, were you on the wrong side of the road?

No, I was just crossing in front of her, but she was looking to the left to see if there's any cars coming, so she could turn right on a red.

So you're on the wrong side of the road.

No, no, I'm just crossing the road.

Not on the wrong side of the road.

Are you on your bike?

Yes.

On the wrong side of the road.

No.

No.

It's crossing the freeway exit.

It wasn't the wrong side of the road.

I'm on the sidewalk.

I'm on the sidewalk.

You're right.

Okay, so you're illegally riding on the sidewalk here.

Um don't even get me in trouble.

You're coming to get them into embarrassing territory.

It's very personal as to why I don't wear a helmet.

I'll tell you off air.

But that's real serious.

Um Yeah.

In New Zealand, you're not allowed to ride on the sidewalks.

I've been riding on sidewalks in California for probably 25-30 years, wondering if I was get going to get in trouble.

Once I saw two police officers come up onto the sidewalk, head towards me, come up real close, one wound down his window and says, Can we take pictures of you and your dog?

I'm not kidding.

Then they rode the bike on the sidewalk.

Hey, really?

Yeah, I've got it on video.

And that's what made you think it's legal?

Yeah.

No.

Not just that, but the alternative is to drive with traffic at the going 40 miles an hour along a Londra.

It's just so dangerous.

That's insane.

I wouldn't let I wouldn't encourage any cyclist to ride with traffic.

Yeah.

But they do on the way to Huntington Beach, I've noticed they do protect cyclists with white paint.

They put a little white line there so they won't get run over.

Yeah.

I want you to know that I will wear a helmet when I spur lunk.

Good work, Oscar.

Oscar, because I love you, I talk like this.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah.

You wait till after the podcast.

Oh yeah.

All right.

Shout out the podcast was number four four four in Albania.

Not 444.

Number four in Albania and number 10 in Guyana.

And number three in the Sahara Desert.

Yeah.

Thank you for listening out there, France.

Can you point those places out on a map?

Of course.

If I have help from ChatGPT.

No, thank you, friends.

Forgive my friends for denigrating Albania and Guyana.

There are friends there that listen.

So we love you guys.

And thank you so much.

Time for a cool, classy comment.

Dear friends, I have been meaning to write to you for quite a while now, but recent events compelled me to do it now.

I'm 18 years old and I'm from South Africa.

You guys gonna mock South Africa's life?

No, no, I'm just waiting for the tears to flow in South Africa.

I'm from South Africa.

But I've been living in a small town in Germany for the last four years.

When I arrived in Germany, I started to listen to your podcast.

It has encouraged me greatly to hear your biblical standpoint and view and your eagerness to share the gospel is truly an inspiration.

Here in Germany, Christianity has become so lukewarm in the older generations.

In my generation, it has become nearly non-existent.

The people my age mostly just outright deny Christianity and want nothing to do with it.

It feels like I am so alone in faith.

This became especially clear to me as my friends told me directly that the death of Charlie Kirk was not a bad thing and that the world was better off without him.

Whew.

It shook my heart that they cared so little for human life.

How I long for some Christian friends.

So I just want to thank you for all your encouragement and biblical advice, even when it feels like that there are no believers left in my school or in my age.

What's this person's name?

All the best, Wilmurie.

W-I-L-M-A-R-I-E.

That's the first name, Walmart.

Wil Marie, yeah.

Well, we love you and we're your friends.

Yeah, absolutely, brother.

Thank you so much for writing.

I think it's brother, I'm pretty sure.

Um I hope so.

Will Mary, I don't know.

Uh maybe brother or sister.

Anyhow.

Will Mary.

W-I-L-M-A-R-I-E.

So Wilmerie.

Anyway, I'm so sorry, but thank you for writing.

Huge hole.

Are you guys gonna make friends in South Africa?

Oh man.

Well, he had friends.

Right back when the I didn't exist.

Persecution, that's all this is.

All right, anyway, thank you, brother or sister.

All right.

What to say?

Right back and tell us.

Radically revolutionary resource.

This podcast is branching idiotic things people did in the Bible.

Written by Ray Comfort.

Look at this cover.

Look at this cover, Franz.

That is so cool.

I can hear the studio audience laughing.

Yeah.

We have a studio audience.

Do you have a studio audience today?

Phil?

And Karen.

Phil and Karen.

Phil and Karen.

Great to have you both with us.

Thanks for being here, Franz.

Oscar, why'd you touch the book?

Oh, I was looking at it.

Yeah.

Isn't it cool?

Ray, what's it about?

It's idiotic things that people did in the Bible.

And there's a lot of them.

It was just and it was sparked, I don't know, about six months ago, you and I were on the phone, and I mumbled that phrase and I thought, wow.

And I said you should write a book.

And away it happened.

Yeah.

And I get no credit and I get no dedication.

Well, Ken Ham got the dedication.

My good friend Ken Ham, whose life helped inspire the title of this book.

So true.

Idiotic Things.

I am so excited to do idiotic uh interviews.

Yeah.

No, this is this is really it's good stuff.

Um you deal with Adam and Eve, Cain, Lot's wife, the Israelites and the Golden Calf, Samson, the Prodigal Son, King Saul, David.

Boy, people did a lot of people did idiotic things.

And so that we wouldn't have to.

Amen.

Yeah, they were written, right?

And I'm excited.

Uh we're gonna go to Pangillette's show.

He's invited us to sit in.

We're going to Las Vegas.

So I'm gonna I got that sent from the publishers to give it to Pangillette, who's a staunch atheist, and he will love the title.

Yeah, he will.

He'll love it a lot.

We're gonna last 30 seconds.

I know.

We we I said we'll tomorrow we'll stay until it's there's blasphemy and we'll walk out.

You think he's gonna like is he did he send you tickets or Halloween?

Yes.

He said he line me up with a secretary.

Will you get a chance to see him, you think?

Be able to say no.

I I yeah, he's six foot six.

I don't know.

I'm at his knees.

I'm at his own.

He does a meet and greet after the show, but we don't want to digest.

Yeah, you guys.

I'm surprised that's still going.

I mean, is he still with Teller?

Is it still the Penn and Teller show?

We're still doing Siegfried and I think it's just Siegfried and the Lions now.

Or Roy and the Lions.

One of them I think is terrible.

Oh, yeah.

All right, France.

Oh, I guess we did that.

Don't forget the Living Waters Monk, 11 Sunday Bible, Living Waters TV, all that Living Waters.

Ooh, good match, Oscar.

And don't forget the podcast YouTube channel with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Subscribe today.

All right, France.

How to be a hope-filled Christian.

I think people lost they lost hope after all of that.

Insanity.

Yeah, how to be a hope-filled Christian.

On the last podcast, we talked about brokenheartedness.

Today's a bit of a different angle.

There's some overlap, you know, perhaps there always is here or there.

But look, we we talked recently about the loss of Charlie Kirk.

And what I was thankful to the Lord for was that as people saw the hopelessness in the world, that caused so many to want to seek out help.

And and we saw a stirring that that is still going on, a ripple effect because of that.

But that doesn't always happen.

And especially when things happen on a personal level, I think sometimes it's easier to look out and to see a tragedy like that and you know kind of contemplate.

But when you're when you're in the midst of uh of pain and when and when you're seeing one thing after the other in the world pile up and and become a Mount Everest of hopelessness, it's it's not always easy to find the way toward hope.

And so uh hope uh is a man, it it's such a strange word.

Yeah, what's it mean, right?

Um I hope you'd ask that.

It can it can sound very weak in contemporary English, but biblically it's a very strong word.

And you say to someone, I hope it happens, you say, Oh, it's probably not going to, but biblically it's uh a rock.

I I can't help but um remember, and this will set you going, it'll push your button.

My aunt had a pleasure cruise that I went on regularly uh down in New Zealand, a place called Melbourne Sounds.

We used to go fishing, it was just wonderful.

I had a great childhood in the early teens.

And we would go into a cove in a windy area and you'd throw your anchor out and you'd move the boat to try and get the anchor to hook onto something so it would hold you strong during the strong winds that were coming up.

And you were only as secure as to that to which you secured yourself.

You couldn't see what was going on under the water, and you just hoped that it hooked on something.

But the Bible speaks of an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast.

And that's what hope is biblically: an anchor for the soul.

Um both sure and steadfast.

Rock, rock of ages that we hook into and it won't let go.

Amen.

I love that.

Um, I came across this definition I thought was really helpful.

Hope is not optimism or wishful thinking, but confidence in God's promises.

Biblical hope is rooted in the character of God and the finished work of Christ.

Well, yeah, I'll often say that hope is similar.

Hope is not wishful thinking or wholly hoping of the best or a crossing of the fingers.

And I think the problem you I love what you just said, Ray, that hope sounds weak.

And I think it's because we're so used to being disappointed.

I can say, I hope the Lakers will win tonight, but I know that there's a chance that they won't.

I can put my hope in a person, I can put my hope in a movement, I can put my hope in an idea, and over and over and over again, these things will fail me and let me down.

Hope is not the hope that the scriptures talk about is not wishful thinking or wholly hoping for the best.

The the for the quote I like to use or the definition is confident assurance.

Our hope is in a reality, our hope is in a person, it is in the finished work of Christ and the promise of his return.

And so that's that is so much different.

That's like knowing, you know.

I love when Mark says this.

That that's the difference is I I hope the Lakers, like my my desire is that this will happen, but it might not, versus what Mark loves to say is we know the end of the story.

Confident assurance that Christ is coming and he's bringing heaven with him.

Blessed assurance.

Yeah.

I'll burst into song.

Yeah, and you know, we do have to remember that we are witnesses in this world.

And witness, as I've shared before, is not just a verb.

We don't just witness.

Each of us is a witness, it's also a noun.

And that that is part and parcel with our lives.

You know, and when it talks about in scripture, you know, in in Philippians, do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Like I I can't be reminded of that enough as a believer.

And I I honestly, you know, I like what a lot of churches do and they'll put it on top of their church doors at the exit.

You're now entering the mission field.

You know, that is us.

Every day we step out of our house.

Some of you, every day when you wake up, it could be your wife or your husband next to you, it could be your kids who don't know the Lord.

You are a witness, you're an ambassador for Christ.

You shine as a light in the world.

And I think sometimes we overlook this part in 1 Peter 3:15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks of you.

A reason for what?

The hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

And so you you want to you want to tie the witness of that hope with a reason.

The reason is, as you guys are elaborating, it's because of Christ, it's because of what we have in him and and how he can you know guide us through that darkness.

Yeah, which is I've mentioned it before, but our whole um faith rests on that wonderful Bible verse, it is impossible for God to lie.

Tic Tac just about choked me to death on camera.

Just on camera.

Imagine that's the end of Ray's life ice on Tic Tac.

On our podcast.

Wouldn't that lift ratings?

How many views?

And then and it happens and they cause they weren't recording.

No, wasted.

Jake me.

I don't know what I was talking about.

What are you saying?

I can't remember.

Come on, right.

I'm 75.

Give me a break.

I forgot what I was talking about.

Anywhere it's for insurance dead fast an anchor for the soul.

Something like that.

I'm really glad we're talking about this because I've noticed that that in in Gen Z and millennials, there tends to be this nihilism, this feeling of detachment, of hopelessness ultimately.

And it makes sense as to why.

And the reason why it makes sense is because we've been, we as in like American West societies, promised the Western idea of progress that through science and technology and ingenuity that we would lead to a better and better world.

But now they're recognizing that millennials or Gen Z are the first generations in American history that are worse off than the generation before them.

Both psychologically, uh financially, and in security.

They are worse off than the generation before them.

And so I think these younger, this younger, the younger generations are having an experience of nihilism because they're looking at it going, man, this 21st century has failed us.

And I think of Augustine in in his view of things.

Augustine.

Um I love it when you're wrong.

I think of Augustine when he when his view of things, and I think of uh political visions and illusions, which is this book I've read years ago, and it's so good.

And he points out that the promise of conservatism is that they put the hope in the past.

Things were better then, and we need to get back to that.

The promise of liberalism is that we got to pull our bootstraps together and move forward in progress, and we will discover a utopia.

But Augustine points out that the city of man will not lead us to heaven, that only when the city of God usurps the city of man will we find heaven on earth.

And he says, you cannot identify, well, this is a summary, you can't identify any particular political order or any particular political man with the city of man because the city of God stands out separately.

And I love this.

This is a quote, an author talking about city of God.

He says, that gets rid of the conservative idea that everything in the past was better and there is no hope.

However, it also gets rid of the liberal idea that if all we just pull ourselves together, we can bring about the city of God on earth.

It give us it gives us a chastened hope for the future rather than a utopian one.

In other words, I think for so many of these unchurched young men and women, what we need to point them to is the city of God and the promise that Christ is bringing heaven on earth.

Amen.

You know, I I know that when when people think of their own personal circumstances, one of the things that plunges them deeper into hopelessness is that sense of loneliness.

I think we touched on it a little bit in the in the last podcast, but nothing helps me more aside from God's word and and God's presence and having the right mindset from a biblical standpoint than to know that other people have gone through something and have gotten to the other side of it.

And I don't mean to the other side of it that the guy who got crippled is walking now, or that the person that lost uh their spouse was able to raise them from the dead and they're with them now.

But I mean that they've not just survived it, but they've gotten to the other side thriving.

You know, like you you take Johnny Erickson Tata, quadriplegic, all she did was she she dove into the Chesapeake Bay.

It emerges a quadruplegic.

You know, I I remember watching her sing a song for a movie, and they were kind of doing a behind the scenes thing, and like she has to have help sometimes with her diaphragm, like to be able to breathe.

Like but you look at the hope that she exudes, that that she presses on in the things that she says that like leave me silence.

Nothing is more painful than to read a Johnny Erickson Tata quote right after I got done complaining.

You know, it's like uh you know, like, what am I doing?

And and so I I think it it helps people to hear that others have made it through to the other side.

So I I I I have something to share myself, but before I do, I just wanted to ask do you guys have any stories where you've felt hopeless and you really were struggling, even as a believer, with hope, and then the Lord brought you uh to the other side.

Ray.

Were you gonna say something else, Ray?

Yeah, I was gonna say something else, but you sent me a direction I didn't want to go.

Yeah, me too.

Okay.

Why would you do that?

Well, say something else.

Yeah, something else.

Yesterday I I got my heart's desire in the local college.

I I uh so often there's the sameness about people I interview.

They won't come on camera, so I share the gospel anyway.

They do come on camera, and it's just very predictable, and I don't use the footage.

But yesterday I met an atheist.

He called himself a staunch and agnostic.

He was a backslidden Mormon.

Brought up sorry, he was brought up a Mormon, but he now oh he was a latter-day ain't a latter-day ain't.

He was brought up a Mormon, but he now called God a tyrant.

And it was over 40 minutes of crossing swords, and it was just so neat.

Ended up praying with the guy, and um I said, Can I pray with you?

And he wasn't even humble.

And he said, Yeah, go ahead.

And he just sat there, I filmed it, and his eyes and mouth were squirming as I prayed.

But there's such a spiritual battle going on, but these people like this young man, when they say there's no afterlife, I say, You've got no hope in your death?

We're talking about hope.

I mean, living with no hope in your death is frightening.

It's just pointless waiting for that appointment.

And what we have in Christ is both sure and steadfast and anchor for the soul.

And he says things like this, this guy, he says, No one can know.

And I have to point out how arrogant that is.

I do it as nicely as I can.

When you say no one can know, you're saying you know what eight billion people on this earth know and don't know.

All you can say is, I don't know, and my friends don't know, but to say nobody knows is to put yourself on the level of deity that's seeing everyone's thought life and what they think.

Anyway, it just went wonderfully.

And the the great thing is when we speak about having hope in our death, we're saying that God will give you, if you're a skeptic, a personal miracle, the new birth, where God makes you a brand new person.

Each of us have experienced that.

I had no thirst for righteousness, came to Christ, and all I've done for the last 50-something years is thirst for righteousness because God made me a brand new creature.

The things I used to love, I hate.

The things I used to hate, I love.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things pass away, all things have become new, and that is the personal miracle that God gives each of us.

Amen.

Oh, so good.

Yeah, so anyhow, I I'll I'll share my story and then if you guys Okay, looking for looking forward to this.

Yeah, if you guys want to chime in with any of yours, you can do that.

You know, before before I was even in my later teens, I used to say, if my mom ever died, I would commit suicide.

I was so close to my mom, and especially, you know, in the Middle Eastern culture, I mean moms and their sons are just, you know, they're so tight.

And but it but my mom was just a wonderful woman.

You know, she was such a loving, caring mom.

And I used to say if she ever died, I'd commit suicide.

That that's that that was like the hopelessness that I had uh if I ever lost the the person that was lost.

Oh yeah, I I just could not I could I couldn't fathom life without my mom, you know?

And um and so when she when she got cancer and she was dying, it was it it was indescribable like the pain of of what I went through because I would she would literally beg me to put her out of her misery and shoot her.

Like I remember one time in particular, I just heard groaning in a room.

I opened the door and she just bent over in two, just please shoot me, shoot me, you know, and and I just remember watching her turn into 80 pounds of skin and bones, you know.

And I remember in being in the hospital cafeteria after we were told that she was terminal.

And I was I was 18.

I just remember sitting there, I'm I'm eating my food with my tears.

If I was even able to take more than two bites, you know.

Were you a Christian then?

I was a Christian, yeah.

And I just remember crying out to God, like, Lord, how how am I gonna get through this?

How am I gonna live without my mom?

You know, I'm eight, I'm 18.

You know, it's still tender.

Yeah, I'm an adult, but this is my mother, you know.

And and I I just remember um how the Lord by his grace sustained me through that.

I I I it was it was like the knowledge of the fact my mom became to know the Lord and the fact that I was gonna see her again, and the fact that God could use this this pain and devastation to touch other people as he gave me hope and grace.

And I just remember being able to stand up at her funeral and to share a eulogy and to to share a poem that I had written for her.

And uh this is a poem, my mom's name was Rosette, and we we call a rose, but a rose that grows and blossoms and blooms and gives us the fragrance of sweet perfumes with leaflets and petals and beauty adorned, must one day wither and will and be mourned.

The thorns of the curse from Eden have spread, death was inflicted, so blood must be shed.

The rose of Sharon with thorns on his head hung on the cross of Calvary and bled, dying for all as he willfully chose, so those Those who believe can rise as he rose.

Our rose believed.

So she rose and received the garden in heaven prepared.

Her fragrance remained, her beauty sustained, her memory and joy is still shared.

And God carried me through that.

I was able to preach the gospel at her funeral.

I've been able to come alongside others who are who are mourning and grieving loss and give them hope in the Lord.

And so I look back on that.

And the biggest thing for me was after she passed, I was able to go into my room, and this was 1994.

So this has been 31 years.

I was keeping a recorded journal of what she was going through, but I was able to go in my room, drop to my knees, and utter the words of Job, the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

To where I I didn't I didn't blame God, I didn't blaspheme God, which is what Satan wants us to do in times of hopelessness.

He wants us to dishonor the Lord, to disglorify him.

But because of the hope I had in Christ, because of the hope I had in the gospel, because of God's grace and and mercy, He was He was kind to bring me to the other side of that, to where I didn't fall apart.

And that reminds me of what it says in Romans 15, 13.

And now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in the hope, in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so for those of you listening, you may be in the throes of that pain and difficulty, and you may be crying out in anguish and despair, but remember, in believing and in the power of God's Spirit, God can sustain you and use you to minister to others as well.

I love that story, and I love the way you tell it because it doesn't ignore the pain and groaning of loss.

You know, I when we talk about a Christian hope, a steadfat, we're not pretending away groaning.

Uh, you know, you think of like the opening song to the Lego movie, Everything is Awesome.

Yeah.

And of course, later on he finds out that everything is not awesome, but hope doesn't ignore the pain.

Romans 8 19, listen.

What's amazing about this is that it actually is talking about the earth, God's creation in hope and groaning.

So listen to how groaning and hope are tied together.

For the creation waits with eager longing, that eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our body bodies.

Paul is showing us that hope includes groaning.

That it's okay to, in the midst of groaning, in the midst of going, This is not what I wanted.

This hurts.

But in the midst of that, it also draws us to a heavenly hope where there is no more hurt.

You know, um Edward Welch, inside of his book, uh Depression, a Stubborn Darkness, he makes two observations for the believer who finds himself in a hopeless situation.

Uh number one, he says, if you find yourself without hope, uh, it's because, quote, you have placed your hope in something other than God and it has let you down.

And number two, you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though he is still in the grave.

Right?

So all hopelessness here, he goes on to say that all hopelessness is ultimately a denial of the resurrection.

That what the resurrection does is that it puts our hope in a tangible person, which is Jesus Christ, right?

Our Redeemer is bigger than our past.

And so now the question is: have you placed your hope in something or someone other than God?

If so, it has or it will, and you're maybe recognizing it's going to let you down.

It always has, it always will, because our hope is not in our situation inside of our circumstance.

We're talking about joy earlier.

Uh, joy inexpressible, full of glory outside of our circumstance.

We may not understand what's going on, but we know him who is holding all things together that is making a beautiful picture out of even the dark pieces inside of our life.

We can look at this little dark black blotch and say, I don't like this.

But when you grab a hold of that dark black blotch and you put it with all the other pieces, it accentuates.

It allows you to have a clear picture as to what's going on.

Imagine if all you have is just this single piece of white, right?

Then you don't really have a picture.

You need to have all the other colors, all the different fabrics of life that make up life, right?

So you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but are you living as though he is still in the grave?

And that's the way we take our litmus test.

That is what we do and how we approach life itself.

Because God doesn't want to waste anything inside of our life.

So our hope is not in our situation, that our situation is going to get better.

Our situation is in Christ alone, for he alone is our hope.

And then maybe a couple scriptures to go along with this.

Romans 15, 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

And first Peter 1, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And finally, Psalm 62.

Yes, my soul finds rest in God.

My hope comes from him.

Truly, he is my rock and my salvation.

We will not be moved when our eyes are on the Lord.

And it doesn't matter how tumultuous the storm is, when your eyes are on the Lord.

Yeah, you know, you think of what the word tells us, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

You you cannot disentangle hope from trust.

They they go hand in hand.

When I trust the Lord, I have hope.

And it ties in, again, like we talked about before, that there are so many tie-ins with certain things.

And so it's when you have trust in the Lord, it leads to you what?

Trusting his word, trusting his promises, and trusting his character.

We can't over-emphasize that.

Everything ties back to God's character.

When we talk about the commandments, well, you shall not lie because God's not a liar, you shall not steal because God's not a thief, you know.

And God didn't just one day create these moral standards for us as people, they issue forth from his eternal character and nature.

And and so that's a key.

Ray?

Preach it.

Oh.

Um, you carry on with what you're saying, but I've got something to say if you finish what you're saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I couldn't help but think when you're speaking easy, that the words of Spurgeon, faith may swim where reason may only paddle.

Wow.

Wow, that's good.

It's just it's the imagery is so good.

If you try and figure out something will happen with your mother, you're just thrown into a dead end.

But if you say, Lord, I trust you, that lets you that lets you rest, it lets you swim, lets you relax.

Um As I was listening to your testimony of the horror you went through, I couldn't help but think of how an unsaved person would handle such an experience.

What do they do?

Go to the bottle, get bitter, find refuge in bitterness.

And that breaks my heart.

And Jesus spoke of it.

He said, Whoever hears my sayings and keeps them, like a man who built his house on rock, and when the storms come, it didn't fall.

But whoever hears my sayings, whoever hears my sayings and does not keep them.

That's not really speaking of the unbelieved, that's speaking of a believer that hears the words of Jesus and doesn't keep them.

And there's multitudes like that.

That'll be like a man who built his house on stand.

And when the storms came, it fell and says, Great was the fall of it.

And that's where the unsaved are heading, just an absolute collapse.

And our hearts should break for that.

I remember I was many years ago, I think I wrote a book on the whole, I kept these emails I had with an atheist.

I think it was called Emails to an Atheist or something like that.

Probably about I think it was when I had Atheist Central.

Remember I had that Facebook page, Atheist Central, thousands of atheists would come in and mop me.

And I had this one guy, we went back and forth on personal uh emails, and one thing he said that just shook me, he said, if you truly believed what you say you do, you'd be running the streets, mad with rage that people won't listen.

And I wrote back and said, That's what I do.

I remember that.

I'm like, I remember reading it before you shared what you shared, and I thought he doesn't know Ray Cumber.

You know, it's true, and that's how we should be moved.

I I did have a thought, you know, you you you often hear people talk about their excitement of being off the grid, right?

And I've seen homes that are like off the grid where that's where you're not dependent on any outside source for your provision of power and water and and and so forth.

So, like people that have solar and then they have their own well and then they grow their own food and they have their own animals.

So, like in other words, if the world were to fall apart, we're off the grid.

We don't need it.

Whereas those of you dependent on electricity and gas and and supermarkets, and we make our own clothing, we make our own uh, you know, um uh supplies, whatever.

It doesn't work in Tornado Alley.

Yeah, that's true.

That's where you're lost.

But but I want to be an off-the-grid Christian, meaning I'm not dependent for my hope on how things are going, on what people are doing, on you know, what's what what what others tell me?

I'm off the grid.

I'm connected to that unlimited source who is the Lord.

And wherever I go, I'm good, you know.

Uh, so I think I think we need to think like that.

I remember one of the greatest uh things that I was going through where I was just lacking hope and being on the second level at a church looking down upon Christians that were laughing, and there was a barbecue that was going on down below.

And a pastor friend of mine, he came alongside me and he just simply said two words to me, and it just changed everything.

And it was God knows.

Wow.

Right, to hear that Oscar knows what I'm going through, okay.

Um maybe you can sympathize, or maybe you can empathize, but here's Christ who knows what I'm going through, and here's here's why that meant so much is because when you know the character of God and the attributes of God, when you've walked with God for X amount of time, and we see this, right, with youngins that have been walking with God for maybe a year, two years, and it's like, oh no, you do not believe what I've gone through and what I'm going through.

You can't even relate to this.

I got a C on my paper, or I don't know where money's gonna come from in order to pay for that item.

But when you've walked with God for X amount of time and you're just like, listen, God knows.

He knows what you're gonna trust me in this.

Uh, listen to what the Word of God has to say, maybe concerning this.

Uh J.I.

Packard, he said, hope is faith holding out its hand upward in a dark world.

Right?

The world is dark, but I'm holding up my hand, not to the world.

Where does my expectation come from?

Where does my hope come from?

It comes from him.

And it was at Colossians 3.

You would know, easy, you got to memorize that when Christ, who is our hope, appears, we shall appear with him.

Is that the way it's worded?

Right?

Our hope is in a singular person.

So now here's your homework and here's your new hobby.

Get to know him better than you know anyone else.

If you spend 10 minutes in a new hobby, if you want a new hobby for the day, you know, I'm gonna read a couple attributes on God.

I'm gonna study a little bit more maybe on the assay of Christ or the omniscience of Christ.

Just get a bigger glimpse of God.

And that's where our hope comes from.

So those two words, but God, and this kind of piggybacks off of what Ray was just saying.

That's what uh where I found my hope, you know, in the midst of a very dark time.

I love that you point out that we really need to focus on the Lord because I've I I think I've shared this years ago on the podcast.

But you know, you think of I mean, here's the here's the great news.

There's two things to this.

One, ultimately, your confident assurance that the hope that you have, that the thing that saves you is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith.

Meaning, even when your faith is is little and you feel hopelessness, it actually doesn't change the character of God.

Uh, and the example that I've given before is you know, you you you think of like flying on an airplane.

When turbulence hints, everybody freaks out.

And you can tell me until you're blue in the face that uh nobody, that no planes ever, you know, fall out of the sky at a turbulence.

They say nearly it never happens.

Turbulence hits, planes are perfectly fine.

And yet, you can tell me that until you're blue in the face, you can tell everyone that you're more likely to get into an accident and die on your way to the airplane than actually flying the airplane.

And yet, when turbulence hits, the wings start bending and everybody gets white-knuckled.

They freak out.

Yeah, but who's not freaking out?

The pilot.

The pilot, that's exactly right.

Because I have a pilot of a 747 studio.

Listen, here's the reason why the pilot doesn't freak out.

You know, you never hear the pilot get on the horn and go, ah, this is fine, it's a 50-50 shot.

I don't know if we're gonna make it, guys.

I've often joked that when you hear his calm voice come over, he's using an audio tape.

It's pretty recorded.

If it was that dangerous, no one would ever fly airplanes.

Why is the pilot confident?

Because the pilot has been the school.

They know something about the engineering of the airplane and aerodynamics.

They've studied the thing and they have confident assurance in the airplane.

Here's the problem is that we so often, to your point, Mark, we have a pinprick understanding of God.

And what we need to do is increase our pinprick understanding of God so that we can have confident assurance in the work that he has done on the cross and the promise that he's giving to us on his second coming.

When we increase our understanding of God, our hope increases.

But the great news is this even for the person having the panic attack on the airplane, their lack of hope or understanding and their safety doesn't make them more unsafe.

And that's the beauty of the gospel.

Even when your faith is lacking, even when your faith is weak, what saves you is not the size of your faith or the strength of your faith, but the strength and the object of your faith.

And the object of your faith is Christ crucified on the cross.

That is the beauty of the gospel.

I remember one time I was on a plane with uh Daniel Comfort, your son, and he said, This was the turning moment where he actually believed that I was a Christian.

I don't know why he had his doubt before, but we had such crazy turbulence to where I yelled out, Let's do this.

And I thought we were gonna go down.

And Daniel, he was right, he was standing right behind me.

He goes, It was at that moment.

You know what?

I think Mark might be a Christian after all the poor practical jokes you played on Daniel.

I wonder if God gave severe turbulence just for atheists.

Right.

It's their foxhole.

Yeah, yeah, right.

Yeah, it's it's amazing when when you think about what things are gonna look like to us on the other side of eternity as the Lord pulls back the veil, shows us all the spots where we were just about to throw in the towel on occasions where it was like so dark and dismal.

And but man, his calm, right?

Jesus on the boat with the disciples, asleep on the pillows.

Asleep, man.

Like and looking back and having that perspective, and and you know, you know, here's the bottom line, guys, for us.

This whole hope thing, and I love that you highlighted that, Oscar.

Whether we have it or not, it doesn't, it doesn't, you know, change God's character or what God's gonna do.

Even when we're faithless, he remains faithful.

He cannot what deny himself.

He can't deny himself, like, oh, there's my child.

They don't believe.

Okay, now I now I'm gonna just let them get destroyed, right?

But it's it's practical.

It's for us.

Like it tells us in 1 John 5.

This is the confidence that we have.

If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

If we know he hears us, we know we have the request which we've asked of him.

So there's confidence available for us.

There's peace available for us.

You'll keep him in perfect peace whose mind to stay on you because he trusts in you.

So this is for us because we're going to get from point A to point B.

If we're a child of God, in the ultimate sense, everything is gonna work out.

Everything's gonna be solved, resolved, everything's gonna fall into its place, whether it went the way we wanted it to or not.

We're gonna reach those eternal shores where we're gonna be reveling in his presence forever.

But do we wanna be miserable between point A and point B?

Do we wanna be like totally falling apart?

We don't have to be.

Woe is me.

There's a speed bump in front of me, right?

Sometimes those situations are just speed bumps.

I hate speed bumps.

Yeah, as much as we do, but that's what the trials, the tribulations, the persecutions and temptations, the sufferings, they're just speed bumps.

I try and get around them.

There's a little bit of a tires in there.

It's so funny because recently I rejoiced over speed bumps.

No.

Yeah, because I said to Rachel, that whoever did that these speed bumps was totally ignorant because they didn't work.

I just went, I just was able to sail right through them.

That was glory.

I tell you, I wanted to name our dog speed bump.

You brought up, it's a corgi.

Uh you brought up uh in the boat with Jesus, and that's such an incredible story.

I was just reading that passage a few weeks ago, maybe months ago, but something that stood out to me is that they they wake him up in a panic.

His disciples.

They're like, Don't you care that we're dying?

And you would think that Jesus would re rebuke them for their lack of faith.

But the scripture says he wakes up, goes outside, and he rebukes the storm.

He speaks shalom, and the storm goes still.

And you think about that.

Like, here's the thing.

If you're listening to this, the hope that we are talking about is the hope that you can only find in Christ, in Christ alone.

And so the question is: are you in the boat with Jesus?

Because if you're not in the boat with Jesus, here's the benefit.

If you are in the boat with Jesus, he has the power to rebuke the storms in your life.

But more importantly, he rebukes the storm of the wrath of God because of the sin that you've committed against him.

On the cross, that's what he does.

He rebukes it to keep you safe, to give you a hope.

But if you're not in the boat with Jesus, then you have no hope.

And so the real thing is like what we're talking about here is the hopefulness the disciples had by being in the boat.

If I remember rightly, sorry, Matt.

When I remember rightly, not if I was really sorry, I would have stopped and let you go.

But I just who cares.

Um it says great peace came when Jesus said peace be still.

And I'm just trying to imagine that the absolute storm and chaos, and then not ordinary peace, but great peace.

Not even a drop of water made a noise.

Well, it's if you look at the the word, the wordage there, the it's peace, the shalom, and then it's be still.

That word be still is it actually it's where we get the English word muzzled, like on a dog.

Be muzzled, be absolutely still.

You have no more bark or say here in the situation.

Imagine that moment, you know, when that happened, and Peter drops to his knees and get away from me, Lord.

I'm a sinful man.

Like what that exposed, like whoa, you know.

That goes in a direction you wouldn't think it would go.

Right.

It's like Peter should have said, Whoa, whoa, that was cool.

Do it again.

But he says, Depart from me.

Yeah.

My sin.

And it's the contrast between us and Christ.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And you know, and we we need to realize that no matter what, uh, God has an eternal agenda.

That's why we need to be eternally minded.

And that the problem is, is again, we we magnify our problems, we magnify this dark world, we magnify ourselves.

And so in our view, God becomes small.

You know, we need to do what I talked about before.

We when I was in Santa Monica, we were going down Third Street Promenade, I'm giving out tracts, the world was out in all its pomp and circumstance and buildings big, music blaring.

I felt this big.

Can't you get one of these?

Walking up to be running up tracks.

And then the Lord reminded me my problem was I was zoomed in, right?

Like those old cheesy King Kong Godzilla movies, this giant guy running around crushing buildings and cars.

If you zoom back, that's some dude in a lizard or monkey suit in a sandbox with little, you know, metal cars and plastic houses and whatever.

Oh, we need to see that.

Right?

The boat and the storm.

Oh man, look at that storm.

It's he pulled back.

It's a boat, a little toy boat in a bathtub with a fan blowing, right?

So we need to zoom out and look at things from the eternal perspective, right?

I've said it before, it's not a storm and a teacup, it's a gust of wind and a thimble.

August.

August and wind.

Augustine.

No?

Then you say it right.

First remember.

Can you capture that?

You're gonna take that clip and replay it.

Yep.

But but a gust of wind and a thimble, you know, it's that's all that it is in God's sight.

Very thimble.

And and we have to, we just have to remember that.

This this too shall come to pass.

Right?

We we have to remember that.

We're we are we're homesick for a home we've never been to, we're foreigners in a foreign land, or in love with a God we've never seen, in love with a voice we've never heard.

That when a trial comes our way, we we can be optimistic in it because we've read the final chapter and we can say with confidence, this too will serve me, not sink me.

Because I've read that final chapter.

This will serve me, not sink me.

Because I know for whom this is coming from.

It's coming from the Lord, and it's gonna be for my good and it's gonna be for his glory.

I often said when I went through my darkest hour, the word that kept me alive was afterwards.

Afterwards.

And I just wrote it on the wall and looked at afterwards.

This is gonna pass.

But we have got an afterwards that goes past death.

Yeah.

So even if death came, I've got an afterwards.

He he turns our trials into our servants.

And again, look, we have we have incentive for wanting to walk in hope because we affect others beyond ourselves.

Like I talked about on this or the other podcast, I can't remember, but my brain's all mushed now.

But that's what I'm saying.

Like, look, you press on.

You hear about people when they say, you know, that person was, they would have died sooner, but they hung on because they were waiting for their loved ones to come or because they wanted to say one last word to their son or daughter or wife or husband or whatever.

Like there are there are ways we can hang on.

And I think those are because we want to infuse hope in others by how we carry ourselves and how we press on and don't give in or give up.

Because when we talk about walking in hope as believers, we're not talking about just surviving.

We're not just talking about, okay, I didn't blaspheme God, I didn't walk away from the faith, I didn't deny Christ.

But it's it's about thriving, it's about being fruitful, it's about a proactive walk with God, not a passive, okay, I'm a believer, I'm sitting here, God save me.

It's so that we can continue to have impact for God's glory.

You know, that that's key.

And um I I'm reminded of of this poem that I memorized years ago, and it gives it the illustration of like a tapestry.

You know, you look at a tapestry and there's a topside and there's the underside, and oftentimes we're we're not looking at the top side, we don't understand what the weaver is doing.

It says, My life is like a weaving between my God and me.

I do not choose the colors, he worketh steadily.

Sometimes he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride, forget he sees the upper and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly, will God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why.

The dark threads are as needful in the skillful master's hand as the threads of gold and silver and the pattern he has planned.

And I remember when I I first heard that, I'm like, I'm memorizing that because it holds so true.

There is a pattern, there's a master weaver, and there are dark threads and there are threads of gold and silver.

Without the dark threads, the gold and silver can never be accentuated.

And if we can learn to grab that, to hold on to that.

And friends, those of you listening right now, if you can determine right now, because chances are you've heard this kind of talk before.

Chances are you've been encouraged to walk in hope.

You've heard sermons on it, you've listened to podcasts about it.

What are you gonna do to truly make this something that is a consistent part of your life?

So I challenge us, we don't fast often enough as believers.

We don't give ourselves over to what's been called by by the divines of old, prevailing prayer, where we in anguish and and and determination, like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, right?

As if though it were great drops of blood, he were sweating, cry out to God.

God, fill me with hope.

Because the ripple effects are massive.

I'm going to heaven, I'm gonna get there, I'll be in your eternal presence.

But between now and then, I want to have impact for your glory.

Hope is more than just about me.

It's about a lot more.

So it's an impact on the unsaved world.

Amen.

Amen.

Because we shine as lights in the world, right?

We have to, we have to remember that.

And I love what Spurgeon said.

Hope itself is like a star, not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity and only to be discovered in the light of adversity.

So we we have to remember that and walk in his hope.

What are you pointing at Mark for, Ray?

Uh, he is drinking.

I just wanted to make him choke on us drunk.

That'll give you hope.

Anything else to share, guys?

Real quickly, you reminded me of J.R.

Tolkien's uh he has this there we go.

Love him.

He has this short fairy tale metaphor, and it's called uh N-I-G-G-LE Niggles Leaf.

And Niggles is painter, and he paints and he he's you know his he's preparing for this masterpiece that he wants to paint, this tree.

So he spends years preparing, whatever the case, he pain paints one leaf and dies.

And Tolkien says, uh he kind of alludes to evangelism and the work that we do here on earth, like somebody who feels anxious or hopelessness, they don't see people coming to a saving faith.

He points out that that Nigel would not have despair if he knew there was a capital G great painter coming after him that was gonna finish that masterpiece tree.

Wow.

And so in that way, like we are here to faithfully paint our leaf.

Amen.

I love it.

And it's not Tolkien, it's Tolkien.

Tolkien.

All right, friends, there you have it.

Don't forget, and boy, was this a fitting title for our Ed AC today idiotic things, people did in the Bible and on the Living Waters podcast.

Make sure to pick it up.

All the other good stuff, podcast at livingwaters.com.

Share your thoughts and your insults.

And don't forget, like and subscribe, and share, and all that other good stuff.

Don't forget LivingWaters.com.

Thank you for joining us friends.

We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea or idea what we're doing.