Christian Trail Bros
EP 3 | Do We Need to go to Church?
We discuss Trail and Ultra Running Facebook group lashback, if we need to go to church as Christians or can we run instead, and so much more on this episode of the Christian Trail Bros.
Topics, Questions
Email us TexasOutlawRunning@gmail.com
Briston's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook/YouTube - @BristonRains
Billy's Social Media
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/william.kent.5249
His Story - https://texasoutlawrunning.buzzsprout.com/
Asher's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook - @AsherFreakinHamlin / Asher Hamlin
Texas Outlaw Running Company
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter - @TexasOutlawRunning
Website - www.TexasOutlawRunning.com
We discuss Trail and Ultra Running Facebook group lashback, if we need to go to church as Christians or can we run instead, and so much more on this episode of the Christian Trail Bros.
Topics, Questions
Email us TexasOutlawRunning@gmail.com
Briston's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook/YouTube - @BristonRains
Billy's Social Media
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/william.kent.5249
His Story - https://texasoutlawrunning.buzzsprout.com/
Asher's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook - @AsherFreakinHamlin / Asher Hamlin
Texas Outlaw Running Company
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter - @TexasOutlawRunning
Website - www.TexasOutlawRunning.com
Welcome to episode three of the Christian Troll Bros podcast. We got a lot to talk about today Facebook harassment testimonies, people messaging us and do you even need to go to church to be a Christian? All those things we're going to be talking about today. Let me introduce BHB bald-headed Billy on the. He ain't wearing his hat today.
Speaker 2:I haven't shaved either. Whenever I get injured, I just quit shaving and give up a little bit on life.
Speaker 1:Billy ain't running anymore. He's got a little injury but hey, he'll be back running here in about a week, hopefully. And then we got Laggy Asher Hamlin. Welcome to the Christian Troll Bros podcast. Asher, you want to say something to the viewers or listeners?
Speaker 3:Hey, what's going on? Listeners, I don't think there's any viewers. I don't think I'm still. I hope not.
Speaker 1:There's no viewers, it's just listeners.
Speaker 3:What's going on? Y'all Be back, Talk about some ama, but not get too much into it. Also, I love your new nickname for Billy BHB.
Speaker 2:Dang it.
Speaker 1:Dang it.
Speaker 2:It's my trademark now.
Speaker 1:Yep, you got to show up with no hat now. You got to show off that shiny head now Only for marathon running.
Speaker 2:That's when I take the bald head out.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome y'all to episode three, christian Troll Bros. Let's start off with what put us on the map, because now I was looking at Spotify, we got eight five-star reviews on Spotify and we went to eight listeners a podcast like 80. So we got a lot more listeners now listening to the podcast, and that all came from a post I made in a Facebook group called Charles Nolshur Runners on Facebook and this post. I didn't expect it to do what it did, but I think the only reason it blew up and a lot of people engaged with it is because God had his hand behind it. That's my honest opinion. But I posted a post on Facebook. It's deleted now. The admins deleted it and on this post I said a new podcast for Christian Troll Runners, it's called Christian Troll Bros and it got like 200 or 300 reactions, hundreds of comments. I actually screenshotted some of the comments but it was like 50-50.
Speaker 1:Some people were like hating, coming against it, and then the other half were like all for it and super excited, and I had a couple of people I wasn't expecting to reach out. There's two guys that I know that reached out and messaged me and they came in. I'm sorry that all those people were saying what they said and all this. I literally texted one of the guys back and I was like I was like I'm rejoicing, rejoice for the fact that I'm being persecuted verbally for Christ. I was like praise God for that, dude. It didn't bother me at all. If anything, I was praising God for it. The fact that I'm worthy to be verbally persecuted for the sake of Christ, that's beautiful man. And so I was pretty excited really, and I can't believe it stayed up for how long it did before the admins took it down, because I didn't know this before I posted it. But there's supposed to be no self-promotion on that page or no promotion of anything, and that was technically a promotion, which is why I got taken down. I mean, that posted stayed up for like a day and a half and God used it. Man, god used it.
Speaker 1:He brought a lot of people to the podcast. We had people messaging Billy Asher, people sending testimonies in, and I say people. I'll say we had a handful. We got a lot of people messaging me or commenting, saying you know, this is awesome. I've been looking for a podcast like this. One of the guys I forgot his name, asher. You sent me his message over Matthew. He said that he was praying for a podcast like this just last week and here it is and we literally started like a week or two ago. So super cool that God's using this man. And with that being said, I want to say we had a bunch of testimonies and stuff, and so I think it was Matthew that suggested it.
Speaker 1:But we created a Facebook group called Christian Trailbrows Forum and it's made for people that listen to this podcast, for them to share their testimonies, to share questions, thoughts, anything that they have, and they could share it in this group. And it's like it's a forum. It's for us to discuss and talk about things, and if you all ever have any questions that you all want to talk about on this podcast, you all can post it in that forum. But it's called the Christian Trailbrows Forum. It's made for you guys listening and so if you really enjoy these episodes, go check out our Facebook group. Me Asher's on there. I'm on there, billy, I don't think you're on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm trying to check it out right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Billy will be on there.
Speaker 2:I'm a little bit behind when it comes to the technology. So you know, I've actually this is like the I don't know 10th time I've even used a laptop- yeah, we're working on you.
Speaker 1:We're working on it. We're getting them up to date on the technology. But yeah, so what'd y'all think about? Like the post on Facebook, I was pretty happy about it. Do y'all have any thoughts on it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean immediately when you sent me those comments. So this is this is my thing that I feel like a lot of people think Christians are this way. They think that and it's probably true for some Christians, but definitely not everybody. They think that when we put content out there that is related to the Bible or promotes the Bible, or Christ or Jesus or the church, I think you cut out, you cut out.
Speaker 1:You cut out at the part when you said a lot of people whenever we put out stuff about the Bible, you cut out right there.
Speaker 3:I got you. I think when people see Christians put out things about the Bible, they think that we're trolling, right. They think that we're like just putting it out there to say, hey, we're better than you, we're just putting this content out there to kind of show you bad person. And I think that's why we got the reaction that we did and that's why Christians continue to get the reaction that they do against the world. Oh, you're just here and put me down, bad rap. So anyway, whatever, you sent me all that, bro, that was not how I felt. You feel a certain way whenever you're like ha ha, I trolled that person, I put that person down. But that wasn't the case for me at all.
Speaker 3:When I saw those comments start rolling in Literally dude, what you said at the beginning of this podcast Praise God Because the Lord is working and he is doing good things I was, I was, I was joyful because I mean, that's kind of the expectation is that you know what Christ to say, what Janity has to bring. It's a disruptor. It's a disruptor of the world standard and man, it was crazy because I mean, what was our whole intent behind starting this podcast? We saw, like there's, so there's this niche of trail runners, and even smaller than that is the niche of Christian trail runners. And so we were like, oh, we need to just bring the gospel to the trail running community. And here we are Repters already. So, anyways, I thought it was pretty awesome, billy. What would you think?
Speaker 2:Snap. I think we talked about last week a little bit, not not on the podcast, but this is something that I'm like. I was like going through some stuff with the podcast in general, I was like scared to do it, like I didn't want to do it. I was trying to find like a million different excuses not to do it and I feel like Like of course I'm not like flaunting or like look at this or like look at me. I'm like I don't even want to do it, but I have to. This is this is what. This is what you do.
Speaker 2:If you believe in something, you have faith in something, then and it and it works and you need to share it with other people. That's just it. That's it, period. But I yeah, I'd seen a little post on all the little posts and I was kind of kind of blew my mind because I just was just like just just proves that like people's testimonies and stuff that like everyone in the world is hurting and everyone's looking for a savior and it's it's, it's really touching. It's kind of scary a little bit. Um, yeah, when I got some people reached out to me on messenger, I was like how do you know me? And we're like Christian trail bro. I was like what I was like I got, I was just kind of shook, you know like, and so I'm just kind of praying it out right now. Hopefully, you know, god gives me the right words and the Holy spirit gives me some words to say, because I'm scared to death and I feel totally unqualified for this. Yeah, that.
Speaker 1:I thought that was really interesting, because I don't. I made the post on Facebook and y'all, too, got messages from people Like I think, billy, you got one actually you got one, um and I was thinking like, how did they find y'all's information? Like, I didn't put y'all's information in the podcast post on that group. I was like the only way they would have found is if they listened to a podcast and then went down and then in the description and found y'all there, um, but I don't know how they found y'all stuff, so I don't know. But yeah, it was pretty cool to see the reaction, though, and the communication we got. So that was really neat.
Speaker 1:Um, bill, you had you had one woman reach out to you on messenger and she gave us something that we she wanted us to talk about Um, leah, leah, yeah, yeah, leah. She is an ultra troll runner from Australia and her and her husband run together, um, and basically she says that um, she, eventually they're. At one point she had gone to church and her and her husband I assume that they were going to church and they were hurt by the church and there was no one around them supporting them, and so they just stopped going, um, and as their trial running started to ramp up and all that, um, they spent all the times on the weekend, on the weekends and the mountains and stuff, they said. And they said they have a bunch of Christian trial running friends who walk beside them at this time in their life and they wanted us to talk about um, church and attending church. And she said, personally, it feels like church is running with our Christian friends and our and our and our God's creation. So, running with her friends and God's creation, what's your thoughts on this? Is it not? Is not attending a physical building? Okay, so she, she gave us a couple of things and I I wouldn't touch on the first thing that she had mentioned, um, on the church hurt thing, on how she went to a church. She was hurt, no one supported them and so she just stopped going.
Speaker 1:Um, I'll say this, I'll say this if you and I think this applies and this is a, this is a fair and this is going to challenge you, leah, if you're listening to this, well, I, in fact, I I know you're listening to this, leah, and this is going to challenge you, but when you go to a restaurant and if the restaurant's bad, you don't stop going to restaurants and I think this and we're going to talk about buildings and all that in a minute but I think that if you did go to a church and it did hurt you, I'm sorry it did. Thanks for coming to our church on this podcast and I encourage you to go look for some churches, some other churches, and not just throw church completely off the table because of that. Um, I don't know if you'll have anything to say to that, but yeah, I'll jump in real quick, chris.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, I think a lot of people, especially especially in the past I don't know 50 years a lot of people experienced a level of church hurt. Yeah, and it's really fortunate that that's the case and it does this way, especially whenever, um, especially younger people like I've. I've I've even seen this in in the church that I go to and, um, we just not that this was Leah's case, but, um, sometimes it's as little, sometimes church hurt is as little as it's conflicting with my, with my, like worldly wants right, um, or this isn't on me enough, but you know, the church, on the other hand, in some cases has done a poor job of like being, like leading in grace, right, so, like, we know we're going to get things wrong, we know we're going to mess up and we want to own up to those mistakes as quickly as possible. Um, but I know that you know, some people have also experienced the very, very, very worst of a church.
Speaker 3:You know, and often I know, and I even know somebody personally, that it was abuse and and so you know there are so many different levels. Everyone's, everyone's experience is different. So you know, we might need to have some grace for Leah. We don't know her situation, but, uh, I would say that it's definitely not worth counting out Like there there are all. There are good bodies of Christ out there, you know um which? I think that's kind of where you're going with the comments.
Speaker 1:So, yep, yep, that's exactly where I was going. Um, billy, she's the one that messaged you. Do you have anything you want to comment on? Really anything she might have said, or that.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. I had um first church that I really, really liked and I was going to. Uh, the pastor ended up leaving with the youth pastor cheating on his wife and leaving the church. And there was another pastor that I kind of looked to what he said and kind of trusted the things he said and he took all the church's money and disappeared and this kept happening. There was all these different little things that kept happening with different pastors and different churches. Um, and I was gone. I was out of it for a long time. I was maybe 10 years and, uh, I found, I found a place recently like I shared my testimony and coming to that place where people love and encourage you and it's just overwhelming, like I it's amazing.
Speaker 2:Like I walked into the church and left and within a week I had like 20 phone numbers in my phone. I'm going over to people's houses, bible study groups, going out to eat with you know, groups of people from the church, and it was so weird. Everyone was so like just loving, they stayed. They came an hour before church, they stayed an hour after church. It wasn't like they're just running in, running out and man, oh, somebody, okay. So there's this little thing on YouTube. I got to share it. They were talking about a.
Speaker 2:See if I wrote it down, it said with lions there's a pride, with sheep there's a flock, and it's kind of talking to you, talking about like restaurants. You're like, you're like oh, I really like sheep, but I don't like the flock. And it's like with Christians it's a church, it's just bodies of people grouped together. It's the, it's the, it's the body of Christ, and that could be anywhere. It just it just happens to be like, if it's freezing cold outside, you need a building to go to. Like people aren't just going to sit there in 20 below weather, all huddled up and like getting ready for a run. It just can't happen. Like and let's.
Speaker 2:Let's be real, how many times have you gone on a trail? I mean, just to be honest, I love trail running and it's where I do all my prayer. That's like where I just appreciate the nature, you know and you know God's creation. But at the same time, I mean how many people trail runners out there have gone out and really like, sat down and did a Bible study and then worshiped God and then went for their trail run? Like, because it's three parts to me, like it's three different parts.
Speaker 2:There's teaching Okay, so let's think there's somebody that you know. The Holy Spirit gave somebody a gift to teach others about the word of God, so that person, okay, so maybe that guy's in your running group or that woman. And then there's the, the fellowship which we definitely have with the Christian trail runners. And then there's the worshiping you know the work, just worshiping God together. I just I don't think you can get all of those things in a running group, but you can get some of them, so I think it's beneficial to have both, and that's that's what I got for now. That's good, billy, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wanted to hop into. First of all, I wanted to explain what church even is. Like. What is church? And so I wanted to go like deep. So I wanted to know what Paul called church.
Speaker 1:So if you go into the Greek, the word church is ecclesia and it's defined as the called out. So basically, when Jesus is talking to Peter, he's saying I will build the called out on this rock Right, and Paul references the church. He, it's called the called out. So basically, what they're doing, what I believe they're doing, is they're calling, or the group of believers are are the called out? Called out of what I think called out of the world, but that might just be my thoughts, but so a group of believers coming together is the called out. So basically, the word is a reference to a group of people that are believers in Christ, who have been born again and have come out of the way of this world right and come into the way of, well, god and Jesus Christ. And so the church, literally the church, is just the assembly of believers coming together as believers. Right now, billy Asher and I, and even you listening, in a way, we're having church right now, we're assembling together as brothers and sisters in Christ and we're exhorting one another, we're sharpening one another and we're teaching each other, making each other better as brothers and sisters in Christ. Right now we're having a church, this is church, it's together.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to have some Bible verses to kind of back up what I'm saying. First of all, paul says well, actually this isn't Paul, they're not sure who the exact writer is of this, of this book, but they think it's either Paul or it's, or it's definitely one of the apostles, just by the way they talk. But basically in the bread of Hebrews says they're not forsaking the assembly, basically do not forsake the assembly of the believers. So you don't ever want to forsake or give up assembling together as a body of Christ. And it says but exhort one another and so much more. And when I looked at the definition of what exhort was, exhort is to strongly encourage or urge someone to do something. So that's already. That's one of them. That's one of the ways is to come together and exhort one another to an axe 242.
Speaker 1:It says they continued, said fastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. So they had came together and they were continuing to exhort and share the doctrine and have fellowship. That's what we're doing. We're having fellowship right now, breaking bread and praying. And acts 244, it says that's another point I'm going to make, so we're just going to stick to that.
Speaker 1:But and there's another verse that talks about coming together and praying and worshiping and teaching. And even if you look at the gifts of the spirit, there's like teaching, pastoring, there's tons like all kinds of different gifts and they all apply to sharpening one another in Christ. So what I gather from from what I've read in the Bible, the church is the group of believers in Jesus Christ who come together and they pray, they worship and they sharpen one another. That's what church is. And church in the book of Acts this is very interesting Every time it refers to them coming together as a body of Christ.
Speaker 1:They meet, they met in homes, they met in people's houses.
Speaker 1:So they had church and people's houses.
Speaker 1:They didn't have like a central building, but I think that's because they were literally outlawed, christianity was outlawed and they didn't have a central building that they could just come together and worship freely. They had to meet at each other's houses secretly in order to have church, like they had to, but without being said yes, if Asher and Billy and I meet up on Sunday and we meet up and we come together and we have a troll run together, is it church? It is. If we're doing it for God. And let me explain not just running for God, acknowledging he's there, but if we're doing it in a loving way, to where we're sharpening one another.
Speaker 1:We're either praying together, we're worshiping together, we're doing something together for the kingdom of God. That's making us better and allowing us to further the kingdom of God, if that makes sense. So that's what I think. That's believe that that's personally what I think. The church is man. It's not a building, it's not. It doesn't matter where you're at, but I think what matters is what you're doing. What you're doing defines if you're having church, because you can meet up and have a troll run and be Christians. But if you don't talk about God, if you don't exhort one another or pray together or worship God together, you're not, to me, you're not having church.
Speaker 1:I think it's not only who you're with, but what you do. Go ahead, Asher.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to say I agree with that. Church is not defined by the walls, that it's right. Yeah, it's really defined by what goes on inside, by really what the people are doing inside, like so exactly, I'm looking at the strongest concordance here and the Greek definitions pretty much tell us that it's an assembly, it's a convent. So, like like here in the Old Testament, the definition is strongly correlated to the assembly of the Israelites, especially when gathered for sacred purposes. So even before Christ, it's where, you know, gathering to worship God in the tent of assembly, and that was in a way, their church. But it was never, it's never like.
Speaker 3:And then in the New Testament, as you pointed out, it was never like OK, we have to go to the building or a building to have church. It's we have to be assembled or we're willing for the purpose of exhortation and for spiritual growth. So, yeah, I agree with you. I don't think that the only reason that we think of church as it is is because whenever we drive down the road and we see a church, we're like oh, there's a church. Whenever we drive down the road we see a group of people worshiping God or, you know, proclaiming the gospel, we don't necessarily say it's a church, even though, look Lee, it probably is. So, yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1:I want to throw in there real quick. I want to throw in there the church. There's never a church, it's the church. The church is if you're, if you're a believer in Christ, you're not just a Christian, you're the church. The moment you become born again and the Holy Spirit comes into your life and you start living a life for God, you are the church. You go ahead, billy. You were going to say something before I said that.
Speaker 2:I might get a little off topic here, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:It's important to me, so I thought it was ridiculous. A long time ago, my mother would say, like you need to feed your spirit. And I thought it was silly, because I was like, because when you're hungry, you have to feed, right, and it's the same with the spirit. And you have to, like, gather with other Christians, you have to, you have to, you know, feed your spirit. And you got to read the word and you got to pray and these are all things. That it's, it's, it's part of it.
Speaker 2:And it seems to me that I, using running right now as an example, since I have this injury, I just injured my hip flexor and this happens to me a lot when I and now I I truly believe that it's it's like a gentle correction and you were saying, like, like a loving father disciplines his children.
Speaker 2:I really feel this because I got it in my head that I was going to do this black canyons 100 K and I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to do great, I'm going to be the best, I'm going to be a fast runner.
Speaker 2:And I was like in my head and I lost touch with everything. Like I'm like I got to train, I got to get the stuff and I got to run and I don't have time for anything anymore and I was like, so I stopped going to the church that I go to and I would watch it online sometimes, and then I wasn't praying as much and I was just trying to just run myself into the ground because I'm working crazy hours. I put a headlamp on and run in the night and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all about me, it's all about me and I'm and it's almost like God's like stock rest, do the things that got you where you are now, which was not running, running and get you where you are Faith and God did just doing the things, getting in the word, fellowshiping with other Christians. I need church or else nothing else will work in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I think the best way to put it, I think the best metaphor, especially for Leah. You know she said, you know how she felt like she was alone, she was, they were isolated. I think this is the best way to put it. We, as children of God, are sheep, and what happens to a sheep? When it's by itself, the enemy comes and gets the sheep. It's bound to happen. A wolf's going to get that sheep if it's by itself and it's not with the flock. And that's the exact. I don't, I don't even. It's not even. I think it's.
Speaker 1:I know that's the exact same thing that happens to believers in Christ. They come to Christ, the believe in God. They might go to church right, and then they stop going for whatever reason, or they just don't go to church and then they start struggling really bad with things and they start drifting away from God and they start losing and doubting in their faith. And all these things happen and it's because they don't have a protector, a shepherd, they don't have other sheep that they can be around, that can help them. And it's the exact same thing, man, exact same thing when you, whenever you have something going on and the wolf comes if you have sheep around you, you're going to, you're going to make it through Whenever the enemy comes and you're challenged and your faith is about to be ripped away from you. But if you're, if you're surrounded by fellow believers, you're going to be okay. I think that's the best analogy for this and what we're trying to get across. It's not that the Bible says you have to go to church and if you don't it's a sin. It doesn't say you have to go to church and it doesn't say that it's a sin not to go to church. It doesn't say that. But it makes it very clear, very clear, that we are sheep and God, our father, is our shepherd or a pastor is our shepherd, right, same kind of similar, but so it's encouraged. We highly, highly encourage.
Speaker 1:If you do not go to a place where you gather together as believers in Christ, we highly encourage you to. And it doesn't have to be a church, church like a church building where you drive by and you see the cross and the building and it's the life church 2024, all you know lights and it's like a you know crazy performance for worship and then you got the celebrity. It doesn't have to be all that church can literally be you meeting with one other guy that you know who also loves Jesus, and coming together and talking about what y'all really want to do and talking about what y'all recently read in the Bible worshiping God, praying church doesn't have to be you going to like a physical building church. It can be you meeting at some, at you and a couple other people's houses, or it could literally you can have church this way. You can have church if you meet with a couple brothers and sisters in Christ on the trail run and they'll actually bring God into it, not just acknowledge it, not just not just acknowledge God, but actually really really bring God into it.
Speaker 1:And I want to challenge anybody listening. I want to challenge your heart, I want to challenge your heart and I mess just, I think, to Billy. That is your question. Is your question Do I have to go to church, so I control run? Or is your question Do I have to travel around? Wait, I'm getting that backwards. You know what I mean. Hold on, let me pull it up, because I had Texas over to bill it. It was good. It really is. Oh, I got it. I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2:I was probably mad when you said that, yeah, you probably were.
Speaker 1:He was having a rough patch.
Speaker 2:So much pain.
Speaker 1:Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. Okay, here it is Okay. Do we need to go on church? But do we need to go to church on Sundays or can we go run instead? So, if you're quite, yeah, if your question is, do we need to go to church on Sundays or can we go run instead Instead, your question should be the opposite of that. It should be whatever it is.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be on Sundays, or can we go to church instead?
Speaker 1:Whatever, but basically my point I'm trying to make is if your heart is putting trial running over and still being together with brothers and sisters in Christ, and there I think there's a little bit of a self assessment you have to do there on who is truly Lord over your life. Is it running or is it God? Because if God's truly Lord over your heart and your life, you're going to choose the things of God over trial running and your question is not going to be how can I get more trial running, and it's going to be how can I get more God in? You know what I mean. So it really comes down to the heart and you have to really check yourself. Like, if you're putting a trial run or a long run over God, then there's a little bit of an issue there. I think. Come on, that's just me.
Speaker 2:That's my thing. That's been my thing for years now because, like, I do pretty well with the running thing and who gave me my legs? Like, who gave me the gift to be able to run? But I also get like they are competing, they're competing for the number one spot. I mean, god is not competing. He's like all right, sure, I'm going to let you go out there and go break your legs and then come back to me and like whoa, why did you let this happen to me, god? Because that's what happens, that's literally what happens. Oh, I got to get 20 miles in a day and then, I'll stress, fracture and I'm like God, it's like you do this, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:But you know what's cool, billy and I've said this a lot of times on the Texas Outlaw Running Talk show but what's cool is you get injured. You still have something that that is that you, that's ultimate in your life. That's not going to you getting injured or getting your legs cut off. It's not going to, it's not going to hurt you. You know, mentally and like emotionally as bad, because you have you have an ultimate authority over your life. That's not that a lot of people man, their ultimate authority in their life is running.
Speaker 1:And so the moment they get injured, boom, depression, boom, sadness, mopey, but guess what? You get injured and you're in your and God is truly number one in your life. If you do get injured, guess what? Yeah, that sucks, but hey, praise God, we got eternal life after this. This is temporary, everything's in a temporary. Our destination seven and eternal life, whatever, it's OK. It's OK, you're right.
Speaker 2:You're right, because the first, the first time I got injured, with a serious stress fracture, was pretty. I mean, it wasn't serious injury but like I was, to me it was, and I drank myself into oblivion like every single night just got trashed. I'm like I, there's my identity. I guess I'm just nothing. No, I guess I'll just be an alcoholic. And but now it's like I keep going back. I don't know what the scripture is, but it was like I can't. I'm not the quote scripture guy because I'm I'm still a baby Christian.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:But it's a this world doesn't matter, like nothing in this world matters. I was watching Francis Chan earlier tonight and he's talking about he said. He says it's it's a sin to it's. It's a sin to sit and worry about things about this world and be like, oh, I can't do this or I can't do this, or what about tomorrow and this and that? And he's like none of this matters. Worship God, share your love for God with others and let's all go to heaven. It's so simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's why it's so easy for the apostles and the early Christians. I think that's so easy for them to be able to say things like rejoice that you're dying for Christ, rejoice when you're being tortured for Christ, because they have this kingdom mindset. You know, the Bible says seek the kingdom of God and all things will be added unto you. And that's having that kingdom mindset. And the kingdom mindset is acknowledging that we're going to go to heaven after this life and we're going to be an eternity. And this is nothing compared to that. And if you have that mindset, shortcomings in life aren't hard for you like they are for everybody else. For example, and I mean this might sound a little crazy, but if I, if I had like a brother in Christ and I knew they truly love the Lord, they I felt very confident they're going to heaven and they die. Yes, I'm going to cry and be sad, I mean Jesus, jesus even died when, when Lazarus died, right, but I'm going to be comforted, knowing that they're an eternity with God. And that's just having that kingdom mindset. It makes the hard trials of the world less or less hurting, in a way mentally, if that makes sense. So yeah, man, you're right there, you're right on it.
Speaker 1:I want us to talk a little bit about, like, for people that are like, okay, like you guys are right, I got this running thing. That's Lord, that's. Whatever my life, I'm going to start putting God over it. I'm going to start meeting together and actually, you know, meeting together with other believers in Christ and actually having church. What are some things that these, these people should look for? Like, what are some things that they should look for? For whatever they're either, but maybe they're starting their own church in their homes or on the trails, where they literally meet together and have a long run and they sharpen each other and they pray and they worship God while they run. I don't even know. But whatever it is, what are some things that they should look for that's consistent with what we see in the word of God? Do y'all have anything? Because if y'all don't, I do have a verse I do want to share.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of confused by the question. Okay, I need more because I'm here.
Speaker 1:This will explain it. This will explain it. Okay, oh, come on, all right. Acts 244. It says now, all who believed were together. They were together and they believed right and had all things in common. This is really interesting, man. This is really interesting. So all the believers in the early New Testament, when they came together and they all believed, they had all things in common, they didn't have any disputes.
Speaker 1:Now this is a little side tangent, but hear me out, if someone's, for example, going to a church and they say there's a million denominations, right, so basically, kind of what I was asking Billy is like how do they know what kind of church to go to? You got Catholicism, you got the Adventist, you got the Latter-day Saints, you got the Baptist, methodist, pentecostal, assemblies of God, you got all these churches. How do you know what to go to? It's kind of like confusing, right. So let me tell you this the word denomination means divided nation. Jesus says a house divided against itself falls. And the house of God has well divided itself and we see it becoming less and less popular. We see less and less believers as every year goes on. Each generation doesn't believe in God, all these things. I think a big part of that is because the church has divided itself, man. It's divided itself on beliefs.
Speaker 1:If you look at the early church, there weren't really. There were people who had crazy, strange ideas that didn't align with what the apostle said, but for the most part the church they had all things in common, man. They believed Jesus rose from the dead and that he is the Messiah and he is Lord and that they need to repent of their sins and live this certain way. They believed all that and there wasn't any division. There wasn't any division. And so I think the biggest thing I see in a lot of these New Testament letters is it's a lot of these apostles telling these churches basically, don't fall away to these false doctrines, these weird doctrines, these doctrines that said Jesus didn't really die, these doctrines that aren't the gospels we preach to you. Ie, you know, church of Latter-day Saints, there was a gospel preached to them that wasn't. That was a new gospel and anyways, that's a side tangent, but basically what I'm getting.
Speaker 1:The point I'm getting to is, whenever you're looking for a church, you want to find one that doesn't one you know. You want to find one that you feel like the Lord's leading you to, but one that doesn't divide itself from other churches, one that acknowledges other churches and doesn't see them as weird people that believe weird things. You need to find a church that sees all other churches as brothers and sisters in Christ, one that teaches truth from the Bible and what the Bible has to say, and one that is aligned biblically with the Bible. And personally, for me, I found that to be non-denominational churches.
Speaker 1:Non-denominational are well, people will say it's a denomination, but it's a. It's a church that doesn't align with a denomination. It just follows what the Word of God has to say and that's it. And I like that. I like that man. I know Billy goes to one too, but that's. That's what kind of church you should look for. It's one that just completely aligns with the Word of God and doesn't have any man-made thoughts built into it of what they think it says and what they think it means it's. What does it say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, someone told me a long time ago. They told me, when you go to church, just just follow, grab your Bible, bring it to church with you and if the pastor's there, you know, and he's speaking the Word of God, it's going to be in in your Bible. He's just going to point things out to you because you know and and you can read them right there. But if there's going off on some stuff and you're kind of like I don't really, I'm not really sure what he's talking about, and then you kind of look forward in the scripture and like, oh, it's not, it's not really in there. Pastor, I don't really know what you're doing. I mean, obviously you might be in the wrong spot. You might be in the wrong place because they might be preaching out of a different book. Uh, because you know the Holy Spirit, may you know God, god, these, these pastors to you know, speak the Word of God. But Also, you know, it just seems that I don't know what I'm trying to say. I just it's all in the word, it's all in the Bible. That's all that man or that woman's doing when they get up there is they're telling you God's words In the book that's laying on your shelf right now. You know, they start getting up there and praising worship and they start praising the moon and the stars.
Speaker 2:If you probably there's probably an issue, it's pretty self-explanatory. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. This is, this is something I told I was actually telling a family member earlier today. I said I tend to gravitate towards sarcasm because it speaks the best to me. So somebody had mentioned this and I wrote down a little thing, a little thing here. So the body of Christ says you know, you know, each member is a part of the body, of the church, or the body of Christ, right? And he said what if the foot only showed up once a month, I mean like, or just what if the eyes only showed up, like on Christmas, kind of like we need all of us together and it's a sad thing that you know the church has been divided.
Speaker 2:I've been in a few churches that really just they'll preach on just one certain thing. They're like prosperity. And like our finances, lord, our finances, oh, glory to God. You know we're going to have more money, more money, and like after the third or fourth sermon, and the guys like, boy, we're going to get this money, like come on guys.
Speaker 1:like dude, you know it's crazy. You know it's crazy to me. I just read yesterday in the Bible I think it was in Peter like first or second Peter is written by Peter. He said basically, if, if you have everything, you need right, if you have, if you have extra and you have a brother in Christ, you need to give to that brother in Christ. And if you don't, the love of God is not in you. And that, dude, I, I think I was thinking about these people in these churches that have all this money, they have private jets mansions, all these things, and I'm thinking how many people in their church are in need and they have abundance and they're not giving to them. Is the love of God in them? Because, according to Peter, it isn't. And I was thinking about that today, man, I was, I went on a run, I went on a run, man, talk about running.
Speaker 1:And God bro, I went on a run to this country club down the road and I was checking it out and I was looking at these houses and I, literally, I legitimately thought to myself, man, I thought I was like I don't after reading that I don't know if I would ever be able to own a really nice house. And I'm not saying you can't have nice things, I'm not. There's plenty of people in the Bible that had really nice things King Solomon, david, all these people. But personally, this is my own conviction, this is my own Not saying this has to be you If you have a nice house, this isn't coming against you. But personally me, I was thinking I don't know if I could have a big bougie house man, because there's so many other brothers and sisters in Christ in need. And if I have abundance, who am I to purchase something to elevate my lifestyle, where part of that can be given to a brother and sister in Christ that needs it?
Speaker 1:Because of our love for God and the fact that we don't need anything materialistic on this earth, because it's all going to pass. We're going to live in eternity, eternity for the kingdom of God. And if you truly believe we're going to live in an eternity with the kingdom of God, then why are you storing up everything, all your treasures, on heaven? The Bible literally says why, why, why store up your treasures in heaven, where moth and rust destroy. Store up instead. Store treasures in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:How do you do that? By doing things for the kingdom of God. Literally, paul talks about how, when they get to heaven, they're going to have crowns on their head because they were the pioneers of Christianity. They went out and shared the gospel until death. People were sold in half, people were crucified upside down, and their reward in heaven is way bigger than anything he could get on earth. And I know that was crazy in the side tangent, but I'll say all that to say that, as brothers and cries, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to really stick to what the word of God says and not sway away from it, and to not surround ourselves with people that take the word of God out of context for their agenda.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good. What was I going to say? I was thinking about specifically believers, that kind of the same tangent that you were on in regards to a home. I was thinking about specifically believers that use their home as a place for people to assimilate and congregate for the goodness of God.
Speaker 3:So I don't necessarily think that having a big house is the worst thing in the world, but what's your purpose for having a big house, or nice things? Is it to just be flashy? Is it to be like I have all this wealth? Here's what I can purchase with all this wealth, or is it? I mean, by the blessing of God, I'm able to buy this house? But that's not the focus.
Speaker 3:It's a home for me, and if I had a really big house, I would use an infrared, glass and music. I had a couple of big extra bedrooms. I would be like you don't have a really good family situation right now. Come stay with me for as long as you need to. Let me care for you in that way. So there are a lot of things that we can say about that and about believers that have all this flashy lifestyle. I do agree with you to some extent. That definitely watch out for the reasons that you are investing in certain things and purchasing certain things, because we want to. At the end of the day, that the real reason. I've got this for transportation and because I like nice things, but that's not why I'm alive. I know these things are going to pass.
Speaker 2:So it's so crazy you guys mentioned this right now because I'm like sitting here and I'm like my eyes kind of go sideways because my phone did something, I was like I looked at it and, as a friend of mine, like I mentioned who, but she has a friend who's a friend of all of ours and are running low on funds and need some Christmas presents for the kids. And I was sitting here like I guess, and I was like are you kidding me right now? Like like not the devil, Like I mean literally, like we're sitting here talking about like where would you store your treasures? And like where's your money, where's your finances at? And I'm over here like, come on, man, I need to go. I need to go getting the word myself, because I'm over here crying about giving somebody, somebody's kids, money for presents should be rejoicing.
Speaker 3:Love it. I do want to on that. I want to give a testimony to literally this thing that we're talking about, I think. I think what it boils down to is the fact that it's like we can tie them specific ways. We can tie it to the church, or we can tie it with our time, or we can tie it to people and, like you know, giving it to them. So in your case, billy, you'll have the chance to maybe tie it into somebody, I guess, if you choose to. But anyways, you know, I mean, that's that's your, that's your own discernment, man, that's not for you know, bristner eye to say anything. But uh, bristner, I were at a winter conference, like two years ago, three years ago.
Speaker 3:It's called fall, it's called a winter ramp in summer in Tennessee, and so, craziest thing ever, craziest test, what are the craziest testimony that I told, testimonies I had to this day? Um, they, you know, it's this kind of, it's like this assembly of probably I don't know how many people there are there over the weekend, maybe two or 3000 people. It's a bunch of people in this mega church is right.
Speaker 1:This is right after COVID to literally right after COVID.
Speaker 3:Everybody's so concerned. It's the yeah, it's the winter, it's literally New Year's Eve of, you know, december 31st, 20, 20, 21 into 2021. So, you know, everyone's so concerned. We're in this huge, like nobody's masked, the, the COVID is running rampant at this point, but Christians are still going to assimilate. That's what we did. So, uh, it's.
Speaker 3:They're having like gift card draw, um, and prior to the gift card draw, and like everybody put in their name, they had had a little tithe ceremony or like not ceremony, but they had asked for people to, you know, tithe into the church and I was, I was in prayer, I was praying about it and I remember being surrounded by everybody and everybody else's giving and and I was looking down on my wallet and I had, I had a couple of 20s, but I also had a hundred dollar bill and I kept, I kept struggling. I was like maybe I should give, like I should just give the hundred, you know, like it's worth me giving the hundred into the church pretty much, and I was like having this, you know, prayer conversation with God, anyways the, uh, the bucket ends up coming around and I gave 20 because I'm like they don't, you know, they're not going to need that much money, like, let me give my 20. I don't know the conversation I was having myself, anyways, um, later that day they had the gift card draw and, mind you, you know two, 3000 people, and I'm outside of the uh, the like big assembly, like the big main auditorium, and I hear them doing the draw, and I'm talking to some people, fellowship, and, and I hear, and our winner is Asher Hamlin. But what? And so I get up and then, because I'm all the way outside of not in the actual, you know people are clapping and I'm like I have to run in there and so they keep yelling out like Asher Hamlin, asher Hamlin. So I sprint in and I'm like sprinting between all these rows of people it's dark in the, in the big congregation and I get up to the stage and I'm like no way, I freaking won. And so they give me this $100 gift card and, dude, right at that moment I was like I had this epiphany.
Speaker 3:I was like go ahead and give God what he deserves, like because he's not that not that I'm not preaching the prosperity gospel but like he's prepared to give you 10 fold. You know, all he adds of you is to like give what you're, you're ready to give. And it's like I was scared, I was concerned that you know, it was like me giving my all to God was too much and like I wasn't going to get anything returned. And it was almost like in that moment God was like I had you the entire time. You know, and it you know it could have gone any which way, I could have not won, but it was like God's hand here's, here's what you gave in time five, and it was you almost impressed that I would bring more than what you expected. The equation and dude, my mind was blown and I was telling everybody that testimony that night and I thought it, thought it was relevant here.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's good man and we'll have a podcast on on that man on money, because the Bible does talk about money a lot. We're going to talk about that podcast.
Speaker 2:I hope you stick that day.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that on another podcast is something that has been working on me too. So so, but we are pretty much at our time limit. Thank you all so much for for tuning into this episode. If you want to support us, come run a race here in Texas. We're we put on races with Texas Outlaw running company. Billy has won, asher has won, and then I do like 16 other ones, and so you can.
Speaker 1:You can support us by just coming over races, signing up for them, and if you leave a rating, that's really going to help out. It's going to help get this to people that maybe need to hear it. It's going to help get it up on the charts and help spread this. So you know, maybe you can't come to a race, you don't live in Texas, whatever it may be, you can. You can help this podcast and give into this podcast by leaving a rating on the. If you scroll down, leave a rating, you can do it there. But yeah, by the way sorry I know this is kind of a weird thing Do I ever introduce myself on the podcast? Like, do people know who I am?
Speaker 2:No, I've wanted to be like hey Bryson. Why don't you give a little shout out?
Speaker 1:No wonder. No wonder they're messaging you on Facebook. They don't even know my name. I'm Bryson Reigns. I'll start introducing myself on the podcast. Okay.
Speaker 2:He used to be a weatherman.
Speaker 1:You're full of it, aren't you? No, I, yeah, I need to start doing that, man. I think I just realized that I don't introduce. I'm like, do people know who I am? My name is Bryson Reigns. I'm the host of this podcast. Yeah, God, God's the host, I should say. But thank you for listening to God's Drone Riding podcast and, with that being said, I said it. I said it. But, that being said, y'all got anything else y'all want to end it with, or is that good?
Speaker 3:Nope, I'm good, it's bedtime yeah share this with all your friends if you're having church on the on the trail.
Speaker 1:If y'all actually do have church on the trail, that'd be hilarious. Man, people would think you're so weird, but I think that's so cool. Honestly, I think that'd be really cool if you had church on the trail. But yeah, all right. Well, thanks for listening y'all. We'll see y'all next Wednesday on the Christian Chorbros podcast. See you.