Call-ins Radio Broadcast Friday 03/11/2022

Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P716 (03-11-22)

Don’t Beat Yourself Up as a Branch – Abide in the Vine

In today’s call in program, there are a number of topics that are pertinent for today. Listen in as Bob shares wisdom from the word of God. Abide in the Vine for He is the one that is directing our paths. We don’t have any power in our flesh to do the things of God.

Julie from Springfield, Oregon.

Julie called to ask about living with someone outside of marriage. She says she believes she knows the answer to it. A woman who is living with someone else outside of marriage, and what are your views on it? And why are counselors so quiet about that? Julie, at first shares as if she was talking about some person in general but then admits that she is a woman who is living with someone outside of marriage and even that she has left and come back into that situation several times. She later confesses that her boyfriend says he loves Jesus and God but hates to talk about God. So in addition to fornication, she is unequally yoked with an unbeliever. She also is rationalizing her behavior. Bob confronts her with the truth, calling out her behavior for what it really is, sin. He does so in a matter of gentleness, yet firm with truth, with the intention to restore her to right living, where she can experience the peace and joy with God.

Bob warns about denying calling something sin when God clearly says it is. She then agreed with Bob that the behavior she is doing is sin. But seeking to justify her behavior, she provides more information about her circumstances, such as being homeless. Bob did not give into her one moment. He remained gracious yet firm with truth. He instructed her to make the right choices in life, reminding her that she is in this situation because of wrong choices. Then, to respond to her excuses or fears of homelessness, he informed her that there are always other options. To help her to be willing to make the right choices, he asked her: “Are you happy with your choices? Is what you are doing working for you?” Obviously she knows the answer to those questions or she would not be calling, willing to express her difficult situation. He reminds her that all sin has been placed on Jesus Christ and tells her that God wants her to be happy. But one cannot be happy living in sin. God is interested in you having peace and joy.

Bob: When you are dealing with issues that are sin, then it is not a matter of someone’s view on it, but what the word of God says it is. Living with someone outside of marriage is fornication and God calls it sin. That is the truth of the matter.

1 Corinthians 6:18
¹⁸ Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.

Bob: Also the truth of the matter is that the sin you are talking about was placed on Jesus Christ 2000 years ago at the cross, so him who knew no sin became sin for you, so that in the resurrection of Christ you can become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21
²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Bob: You never want to get to the point of denying what God says is true, that is calling what is bad good and what is good bad. Living together is not shacking up, not just saving expenses. Living together is sin. You call it what it is and then you just thank him for taking that sin away never to be seen again in the eyes of God so that you can walk in the newness of life.

Romans 6:4
⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Bob: God did not die for us just so that all sins are forgiven but so that we walk in the newness of life, with the fruit of the Spirit, that he produces in you as you are willing to yield yourself to His control.

John 10:10
¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Galatians 5:22-23
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Bob: Julie, have you come to the point where you have come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Julie said she asked Jesus into her heart a long time ago. Julie then started rationalizing her sinful behavior by saying that following Jesus is very hard for her. She says that she just makes choices that come, claiming there are no other options. Bob replied there are always other choices and told her that what she said is a cop out. Are you really happy with this arrangement? Don’t tell me you are happy for there is no way to be happy in that, living in sin willfully knowing it is wrong. God tells us not to do that because He wants the best for us. God wants us to have peace and joy and love and patience and kindness and goodness. All those things get hampered when you choose to willfully sin, choosing to sin when you know it is wrong. God wants the best for you. Recognize that fact and get out of it.

Bob: This is not doing any good for you or for the guy. He is probably feeling guilty as well. The two of you get together and agree to quit this. Does your boyfriend know the Lord? Julie replied, “He says he knows Jesus and God but he gets upset when I talk about God.” He is not saved then. No one is saved who gets angry talking about God. On top of fornication, you are also unequally yoked with a non-believer.

2 Corinthians 6:14
¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Bob: You need to get out of that relationship. You do not have to make a massive blow up over it. Just say, “I cannot continue to live this way, it is not good for me and it is not good for you, and we have to cut this off”. Just like Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, to go and sin no more. God is also telling you the same thing.

Julie: Will you remember me in prayer to do what I have to do?

Bob: Absolutely. Bob then continued giving her needed instruction. You need to find a way to make a living. Julie, still trying to rationalize her behavior says, “But for the grace of God go I. In my church, one of the main reasons, I do these things is they tell you to take off, leave and don’t come back.” Julie then share that she keeps leaving and coming back to this man. She says she is living on a mission and that there is no alternative. Julie also said she has been homeless.

Julie is making excuses so Bob got more firm with her.

Bob: The issue to me is this. There are places that take care of people who are homeless. What you have been believing and doing has not been working for you, has it? You have to realize that whatever you are doing is not working. What you believe is why you are living this way. The choices you have made are not correct. There are correct choices and there are ways to get jobs. If you are an alcoholic, then that has to come under the control of the Holy Spirit sooner or later in your life. You are a byproduct of your choices. Do you want to continue living as if your decisions are okay? Do you want to continue thinking that you are just living under those circumstances? Or do you want to change your way of thinking? You have to make up your mind that what you have been thinking and believing has not been working. You have to decide that you are going to change the way you have been thinking. You have to decide that you are going to get work and be a diligent worker, to work as unto the Lord and not unto men. There are shelters out there. I do not know if a pastor said to you not to come back to church, and if so, then that is not a good thing. For a church is a place for people like you. You have to go and get work. Be a waitress or whatever it might be. I hope this has helped you. If you need more help, then get back in touch with us.

Romans 6:6
⁶ Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin;
Colossians 3:23
²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters

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Bob: Let’s go to Brian in San Diego, California. You’re on the air.

Brian: Hello Bob. I recognize that I have a fun loving attitude toward other people. I mean, I’ve seen the scripture where it says that, if I just love those that love me. What credit is that to me? But I know it’s something. It really concerns me. I live in a Christian sober living environment like several other gentleman there and just some of them. I just, I mean, I’m gonna be very frank with you. Just looking at them. I almost want to foam at the mouth. And, you know, and, and I pray about it and there’s some moment I find myself, like, I think it’s a genuine prayer to the Lord. Please remove this from me and then there’s other moments Bob, where I just don’t want anything to do with them. That concerns me up to the point where I called in to a radio show and I really want help with this and and also, another thing is, is my thought life in general is, you know, if I can give you a quick example, waiting for a bus at a bus, stop in a car, stopped at a red light, and the music is blasting. And it’s that, you know, you know, rap music. And that’s all, it’s all profanity. And and and then the first thing that goes through my thought is, well, you know, I can’t say that over the air but except people as they are.

Bob: You’re a human being and so am I and I want to tell you if you knew what I thought when people were bouncing around the car and it’s vibrating by a car from three cars back playing that nonsensical rap, which is nothing. But to me, it comes right out of the pit of Hell and playing that kind of stuff, if you knew what I thought, you probably wouldn’t be listening to the radio program. So you are not usual. And what you’re thinking there are some people that you are attracted to and some people that you are not. So when you’re looking at love from God’s standpoint, you’re looking at First Corinthians 13 love and you can start. Well that’s patience. You see I don’t have to like you necessarily but I if God’s love says to be patient with you and, like you, but I can be kind to you. And I may not particularly like to be around you but I don’t want to be keeping records of your wrongs. So all of those things are actions toward another person that God has to produce in and through us. Our flesh is never going to be patient with people. Never going to be kind to people. Flesh doesn’t want to be kind to them. They want to get your own way. And so, what you have to realize is, I cannot do that anymore than a branch can produce fruit.

You could go say, now branch, you’re a Christian branch now, so you go out and do good for the world and you produce all kinds of fruit. You be loving and kind and all that. And the branch is saying, well, I’ll give it a try. Well, in about a day he says, I can’t do this and He said, I know you have never intended for you to do it. Your role as a branch is to abide in the vine and let the vine produce in you what you cannot produce in and of yourself and you will bear the fruit of the vine. But you and I to produce the fruit of the vine, and so you and I cannot do it in the energy of her own flesh. And normally our reactions to things. Brian. It says, first comes the natural and then the spiritual when I when my when my when my car is vibrating almost out from under be due to some pinhead sitting there with that within his car with a radio blasting at a top, I mean, I don’t know how they don’t lose their hearing. Alright, I’ll guarantee you praise Jesus doesn’t come out of my mouth. It irritates me. And then the Lord has to come. That’s okay Bob. Come on. You don’t need to be irritated. The light will be changing in a moment, pretty shortly, you’ll be away from that car and that basically just calms you down.

So, you’re not unusual, you’re just being very natural. But the fact is that you’re wanting to be lobby, but you cannot produce that kind of love in people. You have to allow Jesus to produce that in it, through. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Does that help Brian?

Brian: Yes, it does.

Bob: Okay pal. God bless you. All right, my friend, bye-bye.

Sandra from San Diego, California called experiencing bitterness.

Sandra: Hi Bob. Thanks for taking my call.

Bob: You are sure welcome.

Sandra: I am experiencing bitterness. I walked with the Lord for over 20 years. I walked through several times through forgiveness. Recently I see a bitter root in me. An arrow will hit me in the middle of the day. It is like a bitter root that is there. I am not thinking bitter thoughts and not trying to have these attitudes. When it comes, it is very strong. What do I do to come against that? I am in this battle field in this one little area.

Bob: Sandra, again, when something comes upon you. If bitterness wasn’t in you it wouldn’t come out of you. Circumstances do not cause your nature. They reveal your nature. You could not stir up beans in a pot unless beans are in there. Unless you can have the spirit of bitterness in you, you cannot let it out of you. Circumstances just reveal that.

Mark 7:15
¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

Bob: You can have a spirit of bitterness because you are bitter over something. And when you are bitter over something you are hanging onto it too long. If someone insults you, then it is only important as long as you continue to insist on remembering it. You have to let go of these things. They are not important. In light of eternity just how important is it when somebody insults you. It is learning to put everything in proper perspective. If bitterness is there, all it takes is a little thought and it will get triggered. So just get rid of the bitterness. You learn to say, “It is over as far as I am concerned.” It is not worth thinking about. Start praying for the person who is bitter.

Ephesians 4:30-32
³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Matthew 5:43-45
⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Sandra: That is it. Oh, I thought I was over this, and then boom. Okay.

Bob: You may be over this. Satan is activating those thoughts. I have had situations in my life where people have done things to me that were very, very difficult to forgive. I could not forgive them in my flesh. I was trying to conjure up fleshly forgiveness. I had to realize that I could not forgive in my flesh. What I was trying to do was to manufacture up fleshly forgiveness. There is nothing good in the flesh.

Romans 7:20
²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Romans 8:1-8
¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Bob: The flesh never wants to forgive. Hold on a minute. I am in the Spirit. I am a new creation. I am a spiritual being. The Spirit who lives in me has already forgiven them. So as far as I am concerned they are forgiven. I do not care what my flesh tells me. Hold on a minute. This flesh is not going anywhere except to the grave. I am in Christ Jesus and Christ has forgiven that person. So as far as I am concerned they are forgiven. Whether my flesh wants to agree with that or not is irrelevant. Satan is activating those thoughts. In the Spirit, you forgive. Satan is just triggering your flesh. Satan, you might as well talk to someone else. I am not interested in entertaining that thought anymore.

2 Corinthians 10:5
⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Sandra: Okay. I need an answer that makes sense. Thank you so much. I just do not want this thing to keep going on, wasting my time.

Bob: Absolutely. Satan wants you to waste your time and he is the one who is bringing those thoughts back to your mind.

John 10:10
¹⁰ The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Sandra: Thank you so much, Bob. God bless you. I just love your ministry. Thank you very much.

Bob: Thank you, Sandra. Bye bye now.

Donna from Nashville, Tennessee called in regards to how to deal with a young adult child involved in pornography.

Donna: I am a first time caller. I called to get guidance in how to parent my 18 year old son. He is making bad decisions in life and relationships, and I have evidence he is visiting porn sites, and I have confronted him about that. I am trying to speak truth in love and not provoke wrath in him. I am having a hard time in transitioning in parenting him as a young adult and not as a child.
Bob: When a child that old, a freshman in college, if he does not have a foundation now, then he has to get his own foundation somehow. He may have to fall on his face to get a foundation. Today, so many young men get into college and get caught up in wild living and drinking, going down to those beaches, and especially men acting like morons and idiots. It is strange to think these young men are the hope of the world acting like that and yet getting interviews upon graduation. These were guys drunk on a beach.
Bob: It is a good thing God has to get a hold of us sooner or later. You are in college to get educated but what you really need educated on is how to live. Are all of you Christians? Does he know the Lord?
Donna: Yes.

Bob: This is what I would say. “Son, look, you have got choices as a child of God to make any decisions you make, but when you choose to get into alcohol, that alters the mind and destroys the body. Those are poor decisions. I come to you as a friend not as a parent for you are beyond parenting now. For your own good, let us reason together. As a parent who loves you, these decisions you are making are going to destroy you if you do not ultimately change your mind and start on a new path.
Bob: How long has this behavior been going on?

Donna: In high school he was a little rebellious at 16 but at 17 he got more rebellious.

Bob: When you let kids have liberty in high school then they have a place to come home to. In high school, you have a place to learn these things of life. Let your kids have enough liberty that when they fall on their face, then there is a safe place to come home to and receive guidance as well as unconditional love.

Bob: Let me encourage you. Here is a suggestion of what you might say. “There is no one going to love you any more than your mom. I am not coming here to chastise you. I am not parenting you anymore. You are beyond that. You seem like you are lost and like you do not know where you are going. I want to talk to you as a friend. I am talking to you as a friend who cares for you.” Do not get shocked by it. Just keep talking to him about the love of God and how much He loves him