Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P569 (09-10-20)
Synopsis
There are people who have called into this program who came from unbelievable heart-breaking and tragic backgrounds, of a father or mother who left them, who abused them or beat them. I have also heard from other people who were the ones doing many of those things in their past and have since come to Christ later in life. But they struggle with their past and will not let it go. They will ponder over their past, either in sorrow or regret, and continue feeling the pain in the present that they cannot walk in the joy of the Lord. They are hindered in walking in the newness of life God has called them to. If that is you, there is hope in the Lord, a renewing of the mind with choices you need to make.
You have to renew your thinking, that just as Paul left his past behind and pressed on to the higher calling in Christ Jesus, you too have to make that choice. That is the only way to walk in freedom. God designed you to function with emotions that predictably respond to whatever your mind is thinking. Your emotions do not know whether what you are thinking was 20 or more years ago or is happening right now. So you are living in your past and feeling either all the pain that was either inflicted on you, if you were the one abused, or what you inflicted on others, and now are overwhelmed with what damage you had caused.
You cannot change the past, and you have to let that go. And you cannot speculate on the future, for you do not know what the future brings, and God, who is in your today, will be in your future. Today is all you have. You are to walk by faith. In the former case, of the one abused, you should not be compelled to go back to a terrible environment that has not changed, but neither should you hold a vindictive or revengeful attitude. In the latter case, of the one who tore families apart, as in Saul of Tarsus, if you can make restitution, then do so. But beyond that, you have to go on with your life from this point forward. In all cases, put on the attitude of Christ Jesus, who when he was beaten beyond recognition and was dying on a cross, cried out, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Have pity on them, who do not have Christ. Spend time with the Lord to get to know Him better and allow Him to develop compassion and love in you, as you received that unconditional love and acceptance from Him.
With the same compassion you received from the Lord, in all that you experienced, then you are in the best position to identify with those who are where you had been, and you can identify with them, and you can be a source of comfort and truth to them from what God has brought you through. That is why God says that he will cause all things to happen for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His good purposes. Learn to discern the voice of the Lord by reading His word, and allowing Him to teach you truth, and learn to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Spend that necessary time developing that relationship with God and allow Him to work in you and through you, forming new attitudes in your heart.
Transcript
Jean from Caldwell, ID
Jean: I have been going through some relationship problems with my parents. When I was a child, I was an abused child by my mother. She would take sharp things off the wall and hit me with stuff, and backhand me, and burn my fingers with matches, and slap me around. She basically abandoned me by the time I was about 9 years old. I came back to her for a while and by the time I was 14 years old, I was a street kid. I ran away and was gone two years on the street. I did what I could to survive, not a prostitute or drugs, but you better watch your sack of potatoes because it might get stolen. Then, my dad through the years, he drove trucks and made a million dollars driving trucks and spent it all on women, and never spent one day with me in my whole life. I waited a lifetime. Now, he was 129 pounds, probably going to die in his chair. He has done nothing but forsake me and hurt me. Both my mother and hin, have chosen everything but their own daughter, who just wanted a little bit of time and a little bit of love. I cannot face people again. I told my husband tonight that I never ever plan on going back over there. My dad, he is going to take off and go to Europe with some nieces. He had a daughter who loved him a lot. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior but I am so hurt. I am quivering inside. My heart is so numb. I do not even feel. I have all these scars. My memories of my childhood are destroyed. I never had a book read to me.
Bob: You can keep talking about it and talking about it and thinking and thinking about it, and all it will do is make you miserable. You cannot change what has taken place in your life. Was it wrong? Absolutely it was wrong. Was it selfish? Absolutely it was selfish. But the fact is all of those things have happened to you and there is not a thing you can change. Obviously they are not going to change. Instead of sitting around and thinking about what could have been. You have to think about what happened and ask yourself, “How can I be used by God to help other people who go through similar types of rejection?” It is like scripture says.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
Bob: You have an option in your life, Jean. You can sit around to bemoan your past, which you cannot change. You can speculate on your future, which is God’s country, or you can make determination to take this experience and use it mightily to be a ministry in people’s lives.
Jean: That is what I have done in my own daughter’s life. She knows love and she knows acceptance and she knows healing. I have restored a positive relationship in my daughter and grandchildren. I am thankful for that. When I see coldness in that old man’s eyes, I cannot experience that any more.
Bob: Well, do not experience that any more. The issue to that is there is nothing wrong with not experiencing that. If that has taken place, they have made choices.
Jean: Why did they do that to me?
Bob: They did not do it to you. They were not ever thinking about you. Jean, you have to get off this kick. I know it has been bad, but you have to get off this kick.
Bob: They were doing it because of their own hardness of heart. It had nothing to do with you at all. You were a bystander in the whole thing. They were doing it because of hardness of heart. They certainly did not wake up when born or married and say, “we are going to have a child named Jean, and I am going to neglect her all my life.” That was not said. That is their heart. You have to feel sorrow for them, just like Jesus cried out on the cross.
Luke 23:34
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Bob: Get some compassion for people like that. People like that need to be pitied. You are going to sit around feeling sorry for yourself all your life.
Jean: I do not feel sorry for myself. I wanted them to give me one cup of kindness.
Bob: They are not going to do that.
Jean: I have not had a single breath of kindness from them.
Bob: Forget about it. They are not going to do that.
Jean: I am not going to go back to them either.
Bob: I wouldn’t either but again has Jesus given you that kindness.
Jean: What I have done, I have accepted Jesus Christ. The way I look at it is it stops at the cross. That sacrifice that was done, when he said, “it is finished”, He took my heart with Him and He died too. I died with Him. All that pain where He is at.
Bob: Again, Jean, how did you die with Him?
Jean: Through the cross.
Bob: You are still alive, aren’t you?
Jean: I accepted Jesus as my Savior, the Holy Spirit and the resurrection too, but there are things that happen in life that still affect me.
Bob: What I am getting at Jean, is that truth sets you free and error binds you.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bob: I did not die with Jesus. I am alive. I was already dead spiritually. I did not die.
Jean: You are baptized into his death.
Bob: You identified with him into his death. You entered into what he died for. He died for you so you could be raised into the newness of life.
Romans 6:2-4
2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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: Let us get back to your subject at hand. If all things that you said are true, and they are, then you are blessed of God.
Jean: I know that. He called me out. Out of all these people, He picked me up.
Bob: I cannot help you if you are not going to listen to me. If you want me to help you, then I am going to have to talk to you. I cannot talk to you when you are doing the talking. I am saying something to you that I want you to get your arms around. You cannot change one thing that happened to you in your past. Paul said to forget your past. You are saying, “No. I am going to dig up the past.” That is calling God a liar. It is calling the apostle Paul a liar. He says to forget the past and press on to the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Bob: Why could you forget the past? Because I cannot do one earthly thing to change it. You are made in such a way that your emotions are going to predictably respond to what you are thinking. So while you are having a pity party, about all the things that happened in your past, all of them are wrong and all of them terrible, but when you think about them, your emotions do not know whether they are going on right now or in the past. So you are feeling the same emotions today by thinking about what happened 25, 35 or 45 or 50 years ago, by thinking about that your emotions do not know whether they happened then or now, and so your emotions are predictably responding to that and making you miserable. So if you do not want to make yourself miserable, quit thinking about the past. It is over.
Bob: Begin to put some compassion in your heart for people you cannot stand, on people you wanted something out of. If they had given you things it would not be enough, Jean. Your children that you gave all this love to, I will tell you something. It is not enough. Hopefully they will come to Christ Jesus, but the love we get down here is not even enough, even if it showered upon us. It is not enough. That is why we need to come to Christ to get unconditional love from Christ Jesus. You and I cannot get love from one another, only unconditional. So Jean, we have to put it behind you. You have to have some compassion on your parents, and say, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jean: It just about killed their daughter. I hope that they are happy.
Bob: That is vindictive, Jean. What you are saying is, “I hope they are happy now.” What you are saying is, “I hope they are getting what is coming to them.” Jean, you cannot live that way.
Jean: But they were the ones who did that to me.
Bob: I know. But what did they do to Jesus? Did anyone hang you on a cross and beat you half to death?
Jean: She poisoned my bottle with acid. She burned me with matches.
Bob: Jean, I cannot help you. You are insisting on going back and digging up everything they have done. And they are all bad, Jean. I am with you on that. You are ruining your own life, and saying, “I hope they get what is coming to them.” They crucified Jesus and beat him half to death. What did he say on the cross? “I hope they are happy?” No, he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
Bob: Get some compassion like Jesus. They robbed you of compassion. Whatever they did to me ultimately led me to Christ. If that is what had to happen to lead me to Christ, then I praise the Lord for it. I would have liked to have some acceptance and have a different childhood. But I didn’t. What do I have? Right now? And who do I have? I have Jesus right now.
Jean: Yes, I am grateful for that.
Bob: What am I going to do with that? I am going out to help other people.
Jean: I do. I spend a lot of time helping other people.
Bob: Good.
Jean: But it is not these people. I help people at church. I help old folks. I help people in the grocery store. I help the bum on the corner. I help a lot of people. I help people. I give my money, my time, my smile. I tell them “thank you.” I encourage everybody I can. I try as hard as I can to do that. I have done that. I help everywhere. There is not one day that does not go by I do not help.
Bob: It is not doing anything for you. You are still miserable.
Jean: I am still hurt.
Bob: Jean, you have to quit being hurt. You have to realize who you are dealing with. You are dealing with a mother and a father who have a heart as hard as a brick. Obviously, God has not been able to penetrate their hard heart or they would not have been acting the way they have been acting. That is a shame.
Jean: I do not want to go back over there.
Bob: I do not blame you. I would not even think about that. I would not even go back to an atmosphere like that.
Jean: It hurts to see them going with a niece and not spend one day with me. He does not want to spend a day with you. Would you tell Debbie that?
Bob: Tell her what?
Jean: That you would not spend a day with her.
Bob: I do want to spend a day with her. So why would I tell her that?
Jean: So why did he not choose to go?
Bob: Jean, how are you going to answer those questions?
Bob: Listen to what Jesus said. You are all preoccupied on Jean. I do not want to sound harsh, Jean. But you are preoccupied with yourself and your terrible circumstances you went through. Get your eyes off of that, Jean, and get them onto Jesus. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Quit worrying about him going some place with his niece and not to you. Forget about them. Forget about you. Get your eyes fixed on Jesus, Jean.
Bob: Okay? That is going to bring happiness to you. This other thing is bringing misery to you. I understand it, but you are not experiencing the joy of the Lord preoccupied with what they are doing. They are controlling your life, Jean.
Jean: I have not been to my mother’s house since February, six miles away.
Bob: They are controlling your life because of these things. Let go of it. “Father, I am going to dust off my shoes and I am going to get on with my life and help people and love my children and pray for their salvation, because obviously they do not have it.” That is the only way you are going to experience joy, Jean.
Jean: Okay.
Bob: Okay. Sorry to be harsh. Again, I know you are hurt and understandably so, but God says to get your eyes off of it. He was hurt too and he said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” You do the same, okay?
Jean: Okay.
Bob: Okay, Jean. Bye. Bye.
Rich from Gloversville, NY
Rich: You are really with it. You are honest and upfront.
Bob: Thanks, brother. I try to be.
Rich: My question involves Revelation. What was the island of Patmos? Who revealed all these writings in Revelation? Was it Jesus? God? An angel? I am a little confused on that, Bob.
Bob: The island of Patmos is a little island that is across from, not too far from Ephesus. Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is perhaps best known today as the location the disciple or the apostle John received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. On that island, John wrote 1 and 2 John and Revelation. The revelation that came to him in regard to what he wrote in Revelation is very, very confusing, in my opinion. It is very, very difficult to understand. There are some parts that you can understand because they are written to churches in that particular time. And you read that. But then you get to the end times, and talk about those things. We have to interpret it. If you interpret it, you ask if this is what it appears to say, but you can only say that I am not sure of its meaning. I am certainly no authority on the book of Revelation. There is a ton of that, that I just plain do not understand. I also do not need to understand it. I feel if God is ready for me to understand that, He will reveal it to me. I also believe like most prophecies, it gets revealed as it gets fulfilled. In the meantime, we are just speculating.
Rich: I can see how that would be. I have a lot of trouble with it.
Bob: I do not spend much time on it.
Rich: I do not blame you. I look at it. I stop after two pages, and say to myself, “Let me try it another time.”
Bob: There is nothing wrong with that. I think when God is ready for us to know the truth of these things, I think He will.
Bob: I think people have studied Revelation and all the passages of the Old Testament in the end times and have come up with some good sense of what it might be saying. In reality, we just do not know. That is where we have to stand. We do not know for sure.
Rich: Okay, Bob.
Bob: Okay, brother?
Rich: Thank you very much.
Bob: Okay, my friend. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Cheryl from Corpus Christi, TX
Cheryl: Hi Bob. Thanks for taking my call.
Bob: You are welcome, Cheryl.
Cheryl: All of my Christian life, I heard that people who are not of the age of understanding, or those little ones who died before they could accept Christ, will be with the Lord when they die. But I cannot find it specifically spelled out in scripture.
Bob: Cheryl, it is not there. The theology of the age of accountability is not there. What you have is this, Cheryl. On those kinds of questions, what happens to the baby that has never heard? What happens to a person, if that would be possible, who has never heard? The answer to that is, those questions are answered in the heart of God. What I do with that is that I turn that person, or baby, over to the God of perfect love and the God of perfect justice. I believe that if our God, who is perfect love and perfect justice, then His decisions will be correct and I do not have to worry about them. There is nothing in the bible to explain the age of accountability or anything else. It just says God is faithful and just and inasmuch as He is faithful and just, I have no problem worrying about Him making a loving and just decision in regard to those issues.
Bob: Now the issue is to a person you are talking about. Now that that is settled, now he is talking to you. Who are you going to do with Jesus? Most of the people who ask such questions are doing it as a smokescreen.
Cheryl: Thinking of that, I have an adult mentally retarded son. But I am comfortable with him being with the Lord when he dies.
Bob: When you talk with him about the things of the Lord, you will probably find a response there. Even though he is mentally retarded, some of those people…
Cheryl: I was going to say that he has been raised seeing that we love the Lord and he is always in our home and spoken of and so he has been exposed.
Bob: Praise the Lord for that.
Bob: That is what you can do. What happens at his death? There is no way for you and me, to determine who is saved, whether mentally retarded or not. That is God. The issue is you know full well those decisions are in the hands of God. But the thing you also know, is this. “I have raised this child in the admonition of the Lord. He has heard. I do not know what his response is, but you do, Lord. That is in your hands and so I will praise you for it.”
Cheryl: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Bob: You are sure welcome, Cheryl. God bless you. Have a good day.
Ben from Ashford, VA
Ben: We had a guy call me into our church and he was laying hands on people, and people were being slain in the spirit. What is the biblical basis? How do they justify doing that?
Bob: They don’t. It is not biblical. The Spirit did not come to knock people over. The Spirit came to give people life. It is totally Satanic.
Ben: So there is no chance that people are doing that?
Bob: It is totally Satanic. It is a manipulation of people. There is no biblical basis for it at all. It is just all a part of that movement that also teaches that prosperity gospel, where the bible says if a man who teaches that godliness is a means to financial gain is a man of perverted mind. It is the same type of people, knocking people over breathing on them. It is absolutely unbiblical and Satanic.
1 Timothy 6:3-5
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Ben: What about when people like Peter and Paul fell into trances?
Bob: Where did Peter and Paul fall into trances like that? They did not do it because some person breathed on them and hit them on the head. That was between God and man. There is nothing in the bible on that. There is nothing on it. Recognize it for what it is. It is show business.
Ben: Alright. I appreciate that.
Bob: Okay Ben.
Ben: God bless you.
Lou from Washington D.C.
Lou: We cannot be holy or righteous. How do I understand the scripture that says we are to perfect holiness in the fear of God and without holiness no one will see the Lord?
Bob: What passage are you talking about, Lou?
Lou: I am driving right now. I know that …
Bob: It does not do any good if we do not know exactly what scripture says. Let us see if this is it.
2 Corinthians 7:1
1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Bob: If we have these promises, these are all the promises of God, your heavenly dwelling, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence to God. Make room for us in your heart.
Bob: Why would you grab a hold of that and think you can purify? When you are talking about purifying yourself, God has already purified you of all of your unrighteousness. God has already made you holy. You have to start with what you know to be true in order to interpret an obscure passage. What we do know is true is that God has made you holy.
Hebrews 10:14
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Bob: Totally perfect in the sight of God, all of you who He has made holy. He made you holy. He made you perfect. He has done that. Now, he says, “now that I have made you what you are, perfect that.” In other words, “I set you apart to be holy, now go be holy.” It is like saying to a doctor who just got his degree. You got your degree, now go practice medicine.
Lou: Okay. Okay. I got that. Therefore, that means if we do not walk in the holiness that He has given us, then we will not see the Lord. Anything else is heresy, brother.
Bob: No. No. Lou, what you taught right there is total heresy, Lou. It is a total ignoring of the completeness of Christ Jesus at the cross. You are ignoring the cross. That is the worst sin that you could commit, is making a mockery of the cross of Jesus and making a mockery of the grace of God that has set you apart. You are making a mockery by making that statement. It has nothing to say in there about “if this, then you are going to go to hell”. “Now that I have made you”, and I do not think He has made you that yet. Do you think God said, “I have made you and set you apart because you think you are making yourself holy?” You are deceived beyond measure, my friend. There is no way you can improve upon what Jesus did. You are holy if you are in Him. That is the big if, if you are in Him. He made you complete, if you are in Him. So all it is saying is “because I have set you apart as a child of God, stay away from these things that contaminates your body and your spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” There is nothing in there that says “if you don’t God will send you to hell.” You are teaching heresy, my friend.
