MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
NEW Politics by Faith Podcast
Reclaim The Rainbow: Pride Month
May 22, 2023

It's always Pride Month, it seems. How did we get to this point in our culture? Where trans fake nuns are honored at baseball games and men are sexually dancing in front of little girls? One reason is that we confused affections with emotions and let our feelings run the show. Esau is the clearest example. We see it around us every day.

It seems I am unable to post the audio here at the moment. I am reaching out to the fine people at Locals, they're usually quick to get back. Here is the link (it'll be available tomorrow), but you still get the transcript here

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/politics-by-faith-w-mike-slater/id1645424449


Hey, welcome to Politics by Faith. I'm Mike Slater. Thanks for being here. Friendly reminder that the transcript of this and every episode is on MikeSlater.Locals.com. So if you're interested in that, you can check out that website, MikeSlater.Locals.com. Today's episode is about the month of June. Get ready for Pride Month. You already see it everywhere. Ford, trucks, Adidas. It's only the middle of May. This is like going to Home Depot in October and seeing Christmas decorations. Like, wait a second. It's not even Thanksgiving. We're not even in June and we're getting inundated with Pride everything. It's not just June. It's all year. There's always something. It's always like Transgender Awareness Day or something. They've taken over every day in the calendar. We don't need to go over and bud light right now, but it's amazing.

0:01:02
Their sales are now down 26%. We're on like week five or six. That's the longest sustained conservative boycott I've ever seen. The Los Angeles Dodgers got in a bit of trouble the other day. So they've had a Pride Night for 10 years. But 10 years ago it was just a couple gay guys. Now the entire alphabet train is jumping in on Pride Night. It's the L's, the G's, the B's, the T's, and the Q's. So the Q's started coming out and the Q's are a very different deal than the Gs. So there's this group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and they are a group that mocks the Catholic Church. If I were to describe them in the best light that they would like to be described as, this is a group of men who dress in very elaborate drag to bring awareness against the guilt that is caused by the Catholic Church for who you are.

0:02:08
And they started in the 80s during AIDS when the church abandoned gay people who had AIDS. So this group was created to help the people who needed help. That's the best description. A worse description, or not as charitable, I think, you decide which is more accurate, is that this is a group of heathens blaspheming the church with not just drag but their open attack on Christianity entirely. So they're gonna honor all these LGBTQ groups and then the Catholic Church said we don't want you honoring this one group and the Dodgers said okay you guys are uninvited so now it's a mess. But this is what happens right and it's the Dodgers fault. When they started Pride Night 10 years ago, it was 2013, a lot's changed in 10 short years. That was before the gay marriage Supreme Court decision. That was in 2015. So gays still couldn't get married. Now the gays have nothing left to fight for. But the train has gotten bigger. The alphabet train's gotten bigger. Now there's the Qs. So the Dodgers still have their Pride Night, which was originally the Gs and the Ls. But now it's the Gs, Ls, Bs, Ts, and Qs and the pluses. And the Qs and the pluses aren't messing around. By definition, their queerness never ends. They will always and must always because their entire identity is based on pushing boundaries and the Dodgers are in a real pickle because if you say no to the Q's and the and the pluses and the T's like you can't you can't be like all right G's L's and B's whatever you are even you guys are allowed in but no T's or Q's you guys are too weird can't do that and the Dodgers don't even know it yet, but in just a couple years, three years maybe, they're going to have the P's, the minor attracted persons, the pedophiles.

0:04:11
Right now, they're in the pluses right now. They're kind of hidden down there, but they'll come out. What are you going to say? They're wrong. You can say it's wrong to be a minor attracted person. How could you? I just think what the Dodgers are going through right now is such a, what they brought upon themselves is such a nice metaphor for our entire country right now. When you have no lines, you can't then start to draw lines.

0:04:34
Well, I take that back actually. There is a line. The line is anything outside of this country, every brand of the month of June is gonna have a rainbow logo. They take their logo and they make it rainbow. Every company except for their divisions in the Middle East. So Mercedes is gonna have a rainbow Mercedes logo, but not Mercedes Dubai. So they know how to draw lines, just not anywhere in America.

0:05:01
And don't even get me started on Target. Target is unreal. And they've been doing this for a couple years. A lot of people are just discovering it now, because it gets worse every year, but the front of a Target, the display right there, is this huge private, and now they're really leaning into the transgender kids. So they're selling the girls' bathing suits now, have extra area in the crotch to help little boys tuck.

0:05:26
It's like insane in Target. But it's insane in our country. In 2012, 3.5% of Americans said they were gay, 3.5. Now it's over 7%. But that's because what percentage of Gen Z do you think says they're gay? Gen Z is 19 to 26 year olds. What percent of Gen Z? 20%! 20%! That's crazy! That's insane! But not surprising. This is what happens when you just have a concerted PR effort of sexual deviance to young people at a younger and younger age. Why do the drag queens not want to read at nursing homes? Have you ever wondered that?

0:06:07
Why are the drag queens not going to read to the old people? Hmm, why do they want to read to the kids? And this won't stop. Years ago, I was pre-kids, so it was at least six years ago. I went to the San Diego Pride Parade, and we did a couple things. First is we had a couple quotes against gay marriage and we said which bigot said it. And we had a couple choices of Republicans and it was either Hillary or Obama who said each of the quotes.

0:06:38
So that was the trick of Rueben. But then we also asked people what percentage of Americans do you think are gay? And they were like 40%, 60%. I'm like, what are you out of your mind? It's four. But they're getting closer. They're getting closer. So what's really going on here? What's at the root of this? Well, it's not hard to figure this one out. They literally call their entire movement Pride. It's called Pride. That alone is quite astounding, if you think about it. So let's explain a couple things. So one thing we need to know about the LGBTQ movement is that in our modern world today, you are defined not only by your desires, that's your identity or your desires, but not only your desires, your sexual desires.

0:07:32
So way back in the day, and Carl Truman does an amazing job of explaining this, he says way back in the day, if someone asked you your identity You would say well, I'm Mike Son of David my dad over there From here, that's where I was born Where I'll live forever my dad's a blacksmith, so I'll be a blacksmith and I'll go to that church that's been there for a thousand years. Your identity was the external things in your life. You defined yourself by external things and then of course you defined yourself by your virtuous, righteous, proper behavior. But then we Then we internalized our identity.

0:08:28
Now it's all about how I feel. Then you throw in the sexual revolution that says the most important desires that you feel are your sexual desires. And then you throw in a bunch of perversions after that. So now here we are in America where a six year old can say I am gay. Even if they never had any homosexual interaction in any way whatsoever, I am gay. It's an identity statement. That's an important thing about this whole thing that a lot of people miss. It's an identity statement.

0:08:57
I am. So if let's say a baker denies to bake a cake for a gay couple's wedding ceremony, it's not just this baker denying this couple food, it's denying denying their very existence. This is why you get trans activists who say, trans people exist. And we're like, I mean, yeah, I know you exist, don't want you to go in my daughter's locker room. Oh, you're denying my existence. I'm like, what? But that's what that is.

0:09:31
Because their identity is that deeply rooted in their sexual desires. It's never been that way. It's very new. There's a term called emotivism. It's this idea that because we threw truth out the window, there's no such thing as truth, who are you to say? We need to come up with another way to determine who's right and wrong. So it's all about who can perform and express the most emotion.

0:10:00
Let me give you an example of this. This is a state senator in Nebraska. Nebraska just lowered their abortion laws to 12 weeks and also passed some, you know, you can't do sex change operations on kids and no puberty blockers, stuff like that. So there's a bunch of trans activists and allies in the Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska, right? So this is a Democratic state Mr. President, trans people belong here. We need trans people. We love trans people. That's what they're saying out there. They're standing in a circle in the rotunda saying that over and over again. Trans people belong here.

0:10:47
We need trans people. We love trans people. Trans people belong here. We need trans people. I'm just going to skip ahead here to like, let's go a minute in. trans people trans people belong here we need trans people we love trans people trans people belong here we need trans people we love trans people trans people belong here we need trans people we love trans people trans people belong here we need trans people we love trans people trans people trans people belong here. You matter and I am fighting for you and I will not stop. I will not stop today, I will not stop tomorrow.

0:12:05
You are loved, you matter, you belong here. So it's quite obvious there that there was no argument. It's not an argument there, but she was very emotional. So the activists and the allies, they love it. They think it's great. They're like, oh, it's beautiful. It was moving. It was stunning. It was fierce. It was brave.

0:12:27
It was all right. It's like, well, you didn't make an argument, but they don't care. I'm interested in logic. So that is emotivism right there. Why is she right? Well, she's the most emotional about it. That's not how we should behave. That's not how we should think. That's not what we should value in America. Kevin DeYoung wrote a nice article giving some graduation advice, very opposite of the world.

0:13:05
All people ever hear is, follow your dreams, march to the beat of your own drummer, be true to yourself. He said, I'd like to offer different advice. Do not follow your dreams. Do not march to the beat of your own drummer, and whatever you do, do not be true to yourself. We see this attitude of being true to yourself, we see it all the time.

0:13:24
I saw this clip the other day of the great Lila Rose, she was on, she's the head of Live Action, wonderful pro-life organization, she was on this podcast, sitting next to, let me describe this guy, he's like an Andrew Tate, kind of like modern day macho man, I can do whatever I want and I can sleep with as many women as possible and all that, and that makes me a man, that kind of nonsense. So here's what she said to him, and listen to how defensive he gets, and the only argument he can come back with is I'm gonna be me.

0:13:54
Can I ask you one more question? Fire away, honey. Okay. If you have only one place in your heart for one woman, or you want to have one woman in your heart I think you said why don't you just commit to one and she's to be faithful to her I'm just not wired that way I spent my whole 20s trying to fix myself you work out you do business you can possess your own your own power and she's not directed to the way you want to direct it. It's not how I am. You think that might be a limited mindset? I think it's none of your business but I don't want you to think I'm triggered by you I'm not I saw somebody say that I think that's interesting I think you're annoying You are you're annoying in like this goody-two-shoes type way and that's fine I'm gonna live my life on my terms Unapologetically like truly so you can ask me this 85 different ways at the end of the day I'm gonna walk out of here the same man. I also think of Elsa from frozen that let it go song Frozen, the Let It Go song. This author, DeYoung, he makes the point that it should be no surprise that Elsa in this movie is a favorite in the LGBTQ plus community. The song, Let It Go, no right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. That is a nice anthem for it all. Let's lament this for a second. I just hate that we are so broken in our country, that all of this is even such a thing.

0:15:15
Isn't that a shame? I think of that scripture in Isaiah, woe to those, always be careful, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Because we're not even like, oh, it's normal, it's nothing, it's neutral or tolerate. It's not even, oh, this is a good, you have to affirm the goodness of this. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

0:15:42
What a shame we're here. What a shame we have such a broken culture where this is even such an appealing thing to so many. I saw this interview the other day. This is with one of the directors of The Matrix. The Matrix was written, directed by two brothers. Both of the brothers are now living as women. Isn't that amazing? They're both living as women. And listen to one of the guys talk about his experience as a child.

0:16:12
To be honest, like for me, the people that I saw, the first images that really struck a chord with me were, you know, trans women and pornography. And there was something that unlocked in my brain that I saw these wonderful, fearless performers becoming desirable. And in my head I could take the leap where I felt like, well, if I could be desirable, then maybe I could be loved. And for me, that's like one of the keys that trans people have to like struggle through, you know, will somebody love me? And that clip is so sad to me when he says, yeah, I want to be desirable.

0:17:02
Then I can be loved. And if only he was loved in a healthy way growing up. Well, one thing that's really interesting about this is a lot of girls young girls transition to boys to Desexualize themselves they see an overly sexualized objectifying of women's bodies world and they don't want anything to do with it Or maybe they feel like they don't They're not Beautiful enough and they just don't want to play the game So they think that if they could just become a boy Then that will all go away and a lot of men are the opposite.

0:17:38
Their goal is to be desired in some way. And they think that transitioning to a woman will bring them some sort of sexual, like people will find them attractive or desirable and then that will make them loved. And I mean, he said it right there. Like that's it. And this is all just chaos. That's the theme of all this is just chaos. Chaos.

0:18:03
Now let's get to some history and Bible here. The word homosexual is a modern invention. Isn't that interesting? It was first used in 1869. I found this article, Livius.org. In ancient Greece, there was not a word to describe homosexual practices. They were simply part of aphrodisiac love. I've read a decent amount about ancient Greek people's view on homosexuality. I get a lot of conflicting reports. I don't know what to do with it. And it's very hard to tell exactly what is the cultural norms of a society from thousands of years ago based on looking at drawings on a pot, for instance, right?

0:18:48
But it seems like there's some sort of coming together this idea that there was no concept of homosexuality. It was just this very animalistic have sex with whatever. Man, woman, animal, this you feel it you do it. And it wasn't a part of your identity. So your sexual acts were whatever you felt like doing which is kind of like today. But it wasn't then your identity like I am. That wasn't a thing back in ancient Greece but it is a thing now. In the Christian era there's been a distinction between affections, this is something we're actually talking about in the morning motivation this week, affections and passions. The great theologian Jonathan Edwards, he wrote a book called Religious Affections. Let me quote this from John Rigney.

0:19:42
He does a good job of breaking down the difference. Understanding what Edwards means by affections requires understanding a bit about his view of humanity. As a human being, you are made up of a body and a soul. Your body has five senses by which you take in impressions from the external world. Your soul has two fundamental faculties or powers. The first is the understanding. It's the faculty by which you perceive, discern, view, and judge. It tells you what something is. The second faculty is the will by which you like or dislike, love or hate, approve or reject, what you perceive with your understanding. Right? So your body, your senses, take it in. Your first, then the next level is understanding.

0:20:26
So we perceive, discern, view, right? And the next level is you judge. Like, don't like, love, hate, approve, reject. So if you go to a football game, it is by your means of your understanding, so it's your physical body that sees the game. Then it's your next level, your understanding that you identify the team in purple and gold as the Vikings and the team in green, yellow, the Packers. But it's by means of your will that you shout and cheer for the Vikings and boo and hiss at the Packers. Crucially, it's the inclination of the will that governs our actions. Now, some inclinations of the will are mild and minor. They barely register at all, like choosing what socks to wear today, but other inclinations of the will are vigorous, persistent, and lively, like choosing whom you're going to marry. Only the latter are teamed are termed affections.

0:21:15
They are the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the will. Why are affections so important? Affections are often the spring of man's actions. They make the world go round. Without lively affections, few of us would do much of anything. What animates our actions is our loves and hates, our fears and desires, our griefs and joys. More importantly, affections reveal the fundamental orientation of the heart. When you see what a person loves or hates, fears, desires, rejoices, and grieves over, you are seeing the bent and tendency of his heart. So if we want to know what kind of heart we have, we need to look to our affections.

0:22:05
Affections are rooted in the soul, in the heart. It's an inclination of will. Emotions are fleeting surface caused by external things. So your affections are internal, they're internal come out and emotions are external and they kind of come in, like something happens and then they cause you to feel a thing, right? And so they come from different places. Now, our western tradition has always said that our lower appetites emotions have to be constrained by reason. And also the grace of God, of course, working within us. Now, here's the key term.

0:22:43
This is it. Total depravity. This is the premise that all of our passions are misleading. All of our emotions are misleading. They're not reliable. It's the idea that this is what I feel like, so this is what I'm going to do. And if you tell me I can't, then I'm going to want to do it even more, and I need to be me. And if you tell me I can't, you're attacking my identity and my personhood.

0:23:10
But that's not what Christianity is. Christianity is about not following those base emotions. It's about rightly ordering your affections. This is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4.8. Brothers, whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise, think about these things. Get your affections rightly ordered. But our modern culture today says, whatever fleeting emotion you have, that's fine. Just go on that. Let's go to the Bible.

0:23:41
A great story about self-control and not becoming a slave to your passion. Esau. So Esau was the oldest son. He had the birthright when dad passes away. And he went out to go hunting, came back and he was hungry. So let me read it here. Genesis 25, starting with 29. Once, when Jacob, the younger brother, was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.

0:24:14
Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. So a couple things here. I read someone say that it is depicted in the Hebrew like Esau is an animal. He can't control himself. He says, let me eat some of that red stew. Some translation call it red stuff, but in the Hebrew it's written twice.

0:24:43
A-D-O-M, I don't know how to pronounce it, but Adam, Adam. He says it twice. He's a, give it to me, give it to me. I need it, I need it. He's salivating starving he's dying here. But he's not really dying. He's dying like a kid has lunch and then a snack in the car and then so I'm so hungry. I'm starving like that kind of starving. You saw was being dramatic, emotional, impulsive. He was defining himself by his fleeting emotions in the moment. He was like an animal, a complete slave to his desires and therefore made very bad decisions. Let me quote this Bible commentary from Dr. Barnhouse, early 1900s. He said, history shows that men prefer allusions to realities. They choose time rather than eternity and the pleasures of sin for a season rather than the joys of God forever.

0:25:42
Men will read trash rather than the Word of God and adhere to a system of priorities that leaves God out of their lives. Multitudes of men spend more time shaving than on their souls, and multitudes of women give more minutes to their makeup than to the life of their eternal spirit. Men still sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. Same sentiment here, but this is from Thomas Adams. This would be late 1500s. He was called the Shakespeare of the Puritans. He said, And what, O you Esau-lites! That's you, you're an Esau-lite.

0:26:16
Worldlings are momentary delights compared to eternity. What is a mess of gruel to the supper of glory? The belly is pleased, yes, but the soul is lost. Never was any meat except the forbidden fruit so dearly bought as this broth of Jacob. The great hymnist John Newton, he said, Too often, dear Saviour, have I preferred some poor trifle to Thee. How is it that Thou dost not deny the blessing and birthright to me. No better than Esau I am, though pardon and heaven be mine, to me belongs nothing but shame, the praise and the glory be thine." Instead of being slaves to our emotions, instead of letting our emotions drive the ship, which is what our entire culture is doing and telling young kids to do as well, we need to be slaves, no question, but not to our emotions. We need to become slaves to Jesus.

0:27:14
Paul refers to himself as a doulos to Jesus, and it's often translated as servant or bond servant. It's slave. You are a slave to Christ. Then you won't be a slave to your desires because you can't serve two masters. So what do we do, Sider? What's in my control? First I want to tell you about Patriot Gold Group. Grateful to Patriot Gold Group for sponsoring this podcast, being with me for many years and believing in what we stand for here.

0:27:44
When we talk about eternity and eternal things, that's what matters the most. There's no question. I believe we're also called to be good stewards here and now on this earth. Lots of decisions can be made about money. I have made many okay decisions. I've made many very bad decisions doing the best I can. When I feel bad about financial decisions I've made that turned out not to be good ones, the best piece of advice I got was, well, did you make the best decision you could in the moment? And I think almost every time that was true.

0:28:19
See if gold is one of those decisions that you should make for your family, knowing everything we know now and doing the best we can to see where we're headed economically. You're not alone in thinking things are bad. Poll I saw was like 23% of Americans think Joe Biden's doing a good job on the economy. Like who's the 23? Things are bad. Gold may be a proper hedge for you.

0:28:43
Call for a free investor guide today, 1-888-617-6122. To me, it's just about being a good steward. This is not your eternity. This won't save souls, but you have a family to provide for. So let's make some good decisions. 1-888-617-6122 or patriotgoldgroup.com. So what's in my control? If you have little kids, you're going to see rainbows all over the place. So my kids are seven months, three, five, and six. So they don't know what gay means, they're not in public school. To them, to us, to our family, the rainbow means God won't destroy the world in a flood again.

0:29:29
We need to reclaim the rainbow. If you see rainbow flags everywhere, depending on the age of course, if they ask any questions, tell them it's about the Bible. Here it is. It's Genesis 9, 12. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I've set my bow in the cloud and it shall be as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

0:29:54
When I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature and all the flesh and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the rainbows in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between god and every living creature and all flesh that is in the earth. God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth and isn't that amazing that the bank has rainbows all over it, son. If they're old enough to know that this rainbow has been taken over, remind them of the story about how people disobeyed God and God destroyed them all except for the one righteous man, blameless in his generation.

0:30:39
God saved his life and his family, but even he wasn't perfect, which is why all of us need Jesus today. Just remind them of the true story. You control the narrative in your home. Stop sending your money to these places. Stop going to these places. Stop watching these TV shows. I'm not calling for a boycott. A boycott implies, oh, I really want to go to this store, but no, I just won't. Maybe, no, no, no, it's a boycott.

0:31:07
No, we need to not even want to go. I'm calling for a total rearrangement of priorities in our lives so that we don't even desire to do these things anymore. Romans 12, 1, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Here it is. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So what's in your control?

0:31:41
Everything in your home and the stories you tell so that your kids know what is true. Final thought to think about, 1 John 2.15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

0:32:21
I just mentioned boycotts. Public Square app. Public Square app will make you not even miss the things you're boycotting. It's like a new way of life. I don't even think of those things anymore. This is an app that has put together all the businesses in the country that share your values. Good, God-fearing, Christian, biblically-minded, conservative-focused business owners. They exist.

0:32:49
Start small, download, it's totally free. Hit near me restaurants, boom. And you can find the restaurants that are near you that you guys are on the same team. And spend your money there instead. And then you can broaden out. Coffee, banks, I'm just looking at my house right now. Here's James Hood Guitar Repair. Here's Next Step Service Dogs, that's cool. Mike's Barbecue, love them, they're down the street from me. It's everything. Harvest House Cafe. There's a coffee shop. I'm not going to go to Starbucks anymore. Why would I go to Starbucks?

0:33:20
Not only support local businesses, but you support good people. Public Square, totally free app in the App Store. Just download it and you can read the values that everyone has to sign on to if you want to be featured in the app. PublicSQ.com. you

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Fox & Friends

We were on Fox & Friends talking about all of the train robberies in CA. It's so bad the train company says they may have to ride right THROUGH Los Angeles entirely and never slow down lol. What a joke this state it.

https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20220122_110000_FOX_and_Friends_Saturday/start/5640/end/5700

That link is a bit odd, I've attached a short video to get the gist.

In short, The rich get richer, the poor get the handouts and the middle class gets out of town.

This causes these progressive politicians to get even more entrenched.

We haven't hit rock bottom yet.

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Boys to men, girls to women

How do you do it? Advice please!

Dean Abbott,
"Why contemporary relations between the sexes are so messed up. The problem starts with men because men lead, the masculine pursues and initiates, and problems always start at the level of leadership.

Most men aren't taught that a relationship with a woman means accepting responsibility. No one tells us that a woman represents not only pleasure, but obligation.
The fact that having a relationship with a woman means responsibility and obligation never enters many men's minds.

When these men enter into a relationship with a woman, they are overwhelmed by her needs, her feminine communication style, and her emotions.
Moreover, he unconsciously resents her for having needs at all since he has been conditioned to see her solely as a source of pleasure.
When her anger and disappointment over his irresponsibility gets intense enough, he splits in search of another woman.
He mistakenly believes the problem wasn't his attitude nor that it is a ...

00:07:55
Surly this will be kicked off twitter eventually
00:06:34
Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023

I found a way to easily transcribe the podcasts, so I will post them here first before they go out to iTunes and the rest.

Good morning. Welcome to The Morning Motivation, brought to you by Public Square and Patriot Gold Group. I'm grateful you're here. I was reading a sermon by the great Puritan preacher John Owen in the mid-1600s. I'm so fascinated by this time period, 1600s, early 1700s. We focus a lot on our founding fathers. I think that the Tea Party movement and just conservatism in general has focused a lot on the founding fathers, and that's amazing, but I'm very fascinated by our founding grandfathers or great-grandfathers, the people who created the culture that our founding fathers were raised in.

0:00:44
Isn't that a fascinating era? We got like 1776, like that's great, I love it, I want to know more, I don't know nearly enough. But what about the 1720s? What was going on there? Or the late 1600s? What was going on in America at that time? And you know, we've all heard of the Puritans, but you ...

Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023
Inflation and ANGER

I am angry and frustrated. With our Rulers. For getting us in this terrible economy. It doesn't have to be this way.

How could they never learn from past mistakes! This is ANCIENT history, stop printing money...yet, after COVID, we never printed more. Amazing.

Please leave a 5-star review on Itunes. We have a ton of momentum, this is about to break through! Thank you!

Also, I haven't done any lives anywhere becauase we're hosting a daily TV show "Road to Misterms" on thefirsttv.com, and it's taken all of my extra time. And my wife is giving birth any day now, so...it's been a lot around here. But after the midterms, time will free up.

Inflation and ANGER
Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

I've gone back and forth on the death penalty many times over the years. I've recently come down on the other side.

Should the Parkland murderer have gotten the death penalty or life in prison?

Please leave a review on iTunes! We need to get to 1k :-)
www.thefirsttv.com/mikeslater

Btw, we're getting the momentum we need, more downloads every day, THANK YOU!

Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

This is spot on Mike! We have become dehumanized! You can not read a persons real needs on a screen nor text! A job or passion offers human interaction and I pray these stay at home on our tax dollars find that truth. We have lost our way… People need hugs and love and someone to listen. If we do not have that face to face interaction we will become nothing more than those who can not deal with lives issues.
Our politicians need to stop thinking about themselves and their agenda and think of the country as a whole. My suggestion today is go out and make someone’s life a little better than it is and not with money! And if it is only leave a space better than you found it -imagine if everyone left every place better than they found it. If you did one thing to make another human beings life better and told them you loved them. If we did this every day- what a great world we would have again! Time to get back to this countries MOTTO… if you do not know the counties motto it is ...

Good morning @MikeSlater and all my fellow Slater Crusaders! I've been following Mike for years and after having MANY one way conversations with the radio or podcast, have finally joined the community here on locals.com. I can't wait for the chance to share thoughts and ideas with you all. Thank you Mike for creating this place. I hope we can help inform each other about our world and support growing our relationship and faith in Jesus.

Hi @Mike Slater! Are you coming back to locals? Haven’t seen any posts in some time.

Zohran Mamdani and Masquerading Light
Politics By Faith, june 30, 2025

Be careful of people and ideas who look like The Light, but it's all an act.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. One big beautiful bill. That is the main news of the day. I want to take a bit of that and also highlight something a bit different before I forget it.

We'll bring it all together.

Zoran Memdani may be the next mayor of New York City. This is the 33-year year old Muslim communist from Uganda. The latest mini controversy is that his team made a video of him talking about something where he's eating some rice dish with his hands. Like an animal.

Like they do in a foreign, perhaps third world country.

And it's all performative. like they do in a foreign, perhaps third world country.

And it's all performative. He's got the microphone on a shirt. Like he could have waited to eat and answer the question without, but he did on purpose. And also he knows how to use a fork and knife. There's other campaign pictures of him eating a burrito with a fork and knife, which is a food item

that you're supposed to eat with your hands. So he's doing them both backwards. But the point is, eating with the hands, it's all performative gesture. It's a game, it's an act to appeal to certain people to get attention as well.

And they knew what they were doing. They're like, here, eat this with your hands. They knew. Someone on Twitter said, His mother is a world famous Academy Award nominated Bollywood director worth tens of millions of dollars. His father is a chaired professor at Columbia. He is a perpetual theater kid who's pretending to be third world.

The great Rob Henderson said, rich kid eats rice with his hands. More performative modesty aimed at manipulating you into thinking he's just a regular guy like Castro and his fatigues or Mao and his peasant tunic always the same playbook with rich kid socialists It's also funny. It's a funny place that we're at in politics where we used to mock politicians because they were eating pizza the wrong way or are they they would look awkward when eating a hot dog at the State Fair and

Now we have politicians running for office who are eating rice with their hands. All right, but here's my main point here. I want to steal this from Cernovich. He said, in our inverted society, and indeed everything's backwards,

the demons look soft and non-threatening, and the angels look scary, which is biblical. Mamdani is on the cover of the New Yorker and he looks great. It's a nice photo shoot and smiling and it's all, it's all nice. Communism, but with a nice happy smile on it, soft and non-threatening. The demons look soft and non-threatening.

The angels look scary, which is biblical. And he's right. Satan is not what our pop culture portrays him to look like. I think it's actually an act of the devil to have him portrayed the way he is with red horns and a pitchfork and all that. But the Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Second Corinthians 11, 14. He's also the father of lies, John 8, 44. So of course he's going to approach us as something good and beautiful

and safe and easy and full of light. Now, to be clear, the Bible doesn't say that Satan is an angel of light, only that he masquerades as one. So that is how we will see Satan and his deeds as light. Light is good in the Bible. John 8, 44 says,

"'Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling." God created the light, 2nd Corinthians 6, 4, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was Moses, wasn't

it? Who after he spoke with God on Mount Sinai, he came back down and his face was shining. Just light pouring off of his face. So light is good. So of course Satan is going to appear as the angel of light. Of course Satan is gonna say, come to me! I am the light! Which is why we have to be very careful. We have to stay close to God, stay close to his word. Psalm 119 says, your word God is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So how do you stay close to God and know that it's his light? You read the Bible. Your word, the Bible, is a lamp to our feet, lights our path.

Now on the flip side, which is also pretty interesting, God's angels are so terrifying that people fall to their knees. And every time the angel has to say, fear not. Now you've maybe seen this before on the internet. Some artists made biblically accurate angels Now, you may have seen this before on the internet.

Some artists made biblically accurate angels. You can search for that at your own caution here. These are artist composites of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 1, his vision of God and his throne. And Ezekiel goes into detail here. Let's see here. Each had four faces and each had four wings. Their hands of a man were under the wings on their four sides. Each had four faces and wings.

Their wings touched one another. Let's see. There's more craziness here. Each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side. Each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side. Each of the four had the face of an eagle. A little further down on Ezekiel. Here it is. This is about wheels. Here we go. The appearance of their workings was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they moved, they went towards any one of four directions. They did not turn aside when they went. As for the rims, they

were so high. They were awesome. And the rims were full of eyes all around the four of them. So it's a circle full of eyes. When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. Goodness me. So, if you saw one of those, you wouldn't be like, oh, yay, look an angel. You would fall on your face and the angel would have to say, don't be afraid. Now, I don't know if that's what all angels look like. There's certain angels, I'm not an angel expert here, but the point is the inversion,

where Satan and demonic influences in this world come as light, and people are attracted to that, just like people are attracted to socialism, because it always looks good. I don't think it sounds good even. A lot of people say that, they'll be like,

oh, maybe communism sounds good, but it never works. I don't even think it sounds good. But some people still think that it is a light. Now, if I have to tie in the one big beautiful bill, which we'll do more on tomorrow, surely, it's just the deceitfulness of all of it.

The accounting, how they measure this, calculate that, move this around, change a word here or there. We'll do more on the radio show tomorrow of the Inflation Reduction Act, the green new scam stuff that's in it and taken out of it and then put back in it

and then a couple words changed here and there. So again, we'll do more of this tomorrow, but the house had in there that you will remove your solar subsidy if, unless something is in construction by a certain date. So this new wind or energy or solar project

has to be in construction by next year. But in construction only means 5% of the project. That's it. And that's in construction. So people are just gonna throw 5% into a project and then, oh, we're in, we're good.

And then they get four more years of subsidies. And the Senate did change it to, no, no, it's gotta be placed in service, which means it has to be done by the end of the year 2028. So a couple slight word changes here changes the whole game.

And the Senate's going back and forth on that whole thing. So we'll give you an update on what the Senate does with that tomorrow. But there's so much deceit in politics and that is one of the reasons why it's so chaotic and of course one of the reasons why there's so much anxiety around it as well. So much lying, so much deceit, so much ignorance, trying to control an entire country of 330 million Americans. Our founding fathers knew better. But free and

easy and entitlements and all this stuff, all these, this, this fake light seems so appealing and we've fallen for it for so long. Now people can't even imagine another way. We'll see how the one big beautiful bill does tonight. But my point is here, stay close to God so that we know when it is actually Satan masquerading as the angel of light and be aware of ideas and policies and philosophies that masquerade as truth as well. and be aware of ideas and policies and philosophies that masquerade as truth as well.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. That's the website where we put the transcript up

 

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Yo Daddy's Home
Politics By Faith, June 27, 2025

The head of NATO, sort of, in the middle of an analogy, called President Trump "Daddy". Every other president would have tried to spin it away, but Trump leaned in to it. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I want to talk about something that happened at the NATO conference the other day. So start at the beginning here. Trump was getting on Marine One at the White House and he was asked about Iran and Israel. This was right after the ceasefire was announced and they were still launching a couple more missiles at each other. And Trump's like, I'm angry at everyone, but they've been fighting And he was asked about Iran and Israel. This was right after the ceasefire was announced and they were still launching a couple more missiles at each other.

And Trump's like, I'm angry at everyone, but they've been fighting for thousands of years. They're so screwed up. They're so messed up. It's all they know. And he said, they don't know what the blank they're doing.

And he turned and he got on the helicopter. He gets on the helicopter, helicopter goes over to the Netherlands for the big NATO conference and he's sitting next to the head of NATO and a reporter asks him, hey man, you dropped the F-bomb the other day, you know, tell me about that. Here's what Trump said. I mean, we may do papers on it,

Marco. Maybe we're going to do papers. I don't even know if you need them. They're not going to be fighting each other. They've had it. They've had a big fight, like two kids in a school yard. You know, they fight like hell. You can't stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes. Then it's easier to stop them.

And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language.

You have to use strong language.

Every once in a while, you have to use a certain word.

I think that-

Okay, so people took that, some people in the media spun that as the head of NATO called Trump daddy. Now, he clearly didn't. He wasn't like, hey, Trump daddy. Trump was using an analogy of parenting with two kids and then he working with the analogy said, oh, well, you know, then daddy comes home.

All right, here we have, I kind of call them daddy, okay? So then Trump was asked about that later.

It's from Sky News. Mark Ritter, the NATO chief, who is your friend, he called you daddy earlier. Do you regard your NATO allies as kind of children?

No, he likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn't, I'll let you know. I'll come back and I'll hit him hard. Okay. Do you he likes me. If he doesn't, I'll let you know. I'll come back and I'll hit him hard. Okay. He did. He did it very affectionate. He daddy, you're my daddy. Do

you have a God? You're okay. So Marco Rubio is in the background just busting up. Okay. So then the head of NATO was asked about calling him daddy.

Thank you. Deborah Haynes from Sky News. Same woman, same woman. She's obsessed with this. She's absolutely obsessed. Deborah Haynes from Sky News. Hello. The language that you have used when talking to Donald Trump has been notable because of its flattery. Today you called him daddy. You sent a text message.

Now, again, to be clear, he didn't. But you heard what happened.

To him that was gushing with praise. Is this the way that you feel you have to act when doing business with the US president through flattery and praise? Isn't it a bit demeaning and doesn't it make you look weak?

Ooh.

Okay. Let me pull up the text that she is referring to. So Trump the other day, screenshot it, a text that he, the head of NATO, said, Trump says, Mr. President, dear Donald, congratulations. And thank you for your decisive action in Iran. That was truly extraordinary and something no one else dared to do.

It makes us all safer. You're flying into another big success in the Hague this evening, the Netherlands. It was not easy, but we've got all of them signed on to 5%. We'll get to that in a minute. Don, you've driven us to a really, really important moment for American Europe and the world. You will choose something no American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a big way as they should, and it and see you at his majesty's dinner. I don't know, is that fawning? That flattery or like, hey, great job.

No, I don't think so. I think it's a bit of a question of taste, but I think he's a good friend. And when he is doing stuff, which is forcing us to, for example, when it comes to making more investments, would you ever think that this would be the result

of this summit if he would not have been elected president? Do you really think that seven or eight countries who said, yeah, somewhere in the 2030s we might meet the 2%? We've now all decided in the last four or five months to get to 2%. So doesn't he deserve some praise? And when it comes to Iran, the fact that he took this decisive action, very targeted, to make sure that Iran would not be able to get his hands on a nuclear capability. I think he deserves all the praise.

Okay. Now that leads up to this. Oh, should we talk about the 5%? Stop at the 5% quick. So when Trump's first term, he said, Hey, NATO countries, you all need to pay more. And the media said, oh, Trump's attacking NATO.

Well, no, he's not attacking NATO. He's saying he's saying countries need to spend more money, which strengthens NATO. Well, that was 2%. What Mark had a NATO is talking about is now the country's agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense. And that's what he's saying is that no one would have no country would have done that if it weren't for Trump. Trump strengthened NATO. Now, Spain is not playing along. So Trump said, I'm going to make them pay double tariffs.

He's like Spain. They think they're going to free ride through in NATO without paying more for defense. No, it's not going to happen. So you're just going to pay double tariffs to the United States. No more freeloading. That's what they're talking about there.

Now, here's what happened yesterday.

Saw this on Trump's Instagram.

After every trip he makes, they do like this hype reel video of him, you know, getting off Air Force One and all the things, right? Everywhere he goes, they put these out every week or so. And this is the one they put out yesterday.

♪ I just wanna get your attention.

You want to be all up in your head. I don't. It's kind of a weird song choice. I don't want to be my first choice. I don't some like weird kind of pop song thing, but okay, I will keep listening here. So the song is by Usher. It's called Daddy's Home.

And all the video is of him meeting with NATO leaders. Here's the NATO flag. Here's Pete Hagseth. Here's Marco Rubio. Here's Trump at the podium. So fit, just perfect. Every other president would have put their whole crisis team on this, send out press releases saying, Oh no, no, that's no we're gonna make our allies feel good no we're not daddy we're all equal members in a league of

nations Trump's team comes out and says I know you've been waiting for this loving all day. You know your daddy's home. Very good. Very good. Well done. Very funny. All right.

So what do we do with this? How do we turn this into a biblical segment? Well, God is your real daddy. No, I'm not going to, not going to do that. Not going to make that point. Abba means daddy.

I want to make a point about delight. This is fun. Right? Trump is having fun. You see him up there when he's having fun. It's fun to watch.

This whole administration is having fun. Hard work of course, but they're doing it all with a smile. The other day we did a segment on the origin of peace through strength. Where did that idea come from? It didn't come from Reagan. It came from the year 400. The other day we did a segment on the origin of peace through strength. Where did that idea come from? It didn't come from Reagan. It came from the year 400. There was a book called De Re Militaris written by Flavius Vigetius Renatus.

It's about Roman warfare and the line is, if you want peace then prepare for war. Then we did the origin of the line, speak softly but carry a big stick. That came from Teddy Roosevelt, 1901, Minnesota State Fair. It is a beautiful speech, highly recommend it. Just search for national duties, Teddy Roosevelt, 1901, and it'll pop up, it's a beautiful speech.

But where did the term happy warrior come from? It's another line that people associate with Reagan, right? The happy warrior, where did that come from? That came from a Wordsworth poem, William Wordsworth, that's gotta be the best name of a poet, right? He wrote a poem called Character of a Happy Warrior,

another beautiful read. But let me just go through, instead of making it poetic, I'll just give you a list here. A happy warrior has a generous spirit, noble ideals, an inner light, a sense of purpose, eager to learn, he has moral integrity,

turns adversity into advantage, can meet the worst that can befall the best and make it his own good. I would argue that's what Trump did with the whole daddy thing. Self-control, passionate, forgiving, resilient,

guided by reason, virtuous, honorable, faithful to duty, unselfish, courageous, serene in adversity, the line is, can meet the storm and keep his heart serene, loving, loyal, persevering, unwavering purpose. And who of course in world history has best exemplified all of these wonderful characteristics? That would be Jesus, every one of them.

For some reason right now, serene and adversity stands near the top of them all, but he is all of them. And we're called to show these as much as we possibly can as well. And when I think of the happy warrior, I want to put the emphasis on the happy part, but what does that mean? I like the word delight. And that reminds me of Psalm 37, four, delight yourself in the Lord. Have fun with these other things,

but delight yourself in the Lord. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. I just want to focus on the delight yourself

in the Lord part. Charles Spurgeon, he said, Believers who know Christ understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united that the powers of hell cannot separate them. Those who love God with all their heart find that his ways are pleasant ways and all his paths are peace. Proverbs 317. Such joy, such abundant delight, such overflowing blessedness. The saints discover in their Lord, so much so that

far from serving him out of obligation, they would still follow him even if the whole world put down his name as evil. We don't fear God because of any compulsion. Our faith is no shackle, our profession, no slavery. We are not dragged to holiness or driven to duty. No, our devotion is pleasure. Our hope is happiness, our duty, delight.

Have fun, happy warrior. Whatever it is you do, do it with all the great virtues from that Wordsworth poem. And throughout it all, delight yourself in the Lord. Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript and commercial free if you want to listen over there and commercial free if you want to listen over there on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

 

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The Muslim, Communist Mayor of NYC
Politics By Faith, June 26, 2025

NYC might elect a Muslim, communist from Uganda as their next mayor. How is this possible? Because people want fast and free. We want something more.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. Been working on some thoughts here about the New York City mayor's race. Zohan Mamdani, 33-year-old Muslim communist from Uganda, who it's pretty likely will become the next mayor of New York City. Made a bunch of different arguments this morning, of course, how did this happen? I don't think it's immigrants, although that's

certainly part of it. You know, do you know what percentage of New York City is foreign born? It's 40%. So that's clearly part of it, but this is mostly homegrown. Uh, what got him across the finish line was progressive white women, rich, progressive white women. Mostly we'd talked about it for three hours today. So I can't do the whole thing. I'll just tell you what he stands for and what he's calling for. He's calling to end the NYPD, like totally defund the police, abolish prisons, abolish medical bills, abolish private health insurance,

ban all guns, legalized sex work, safe injection sites end cash bail, decriminalize drug possession, end all cooperation with ICE. He said taxation isn't theft, capitalism is. $65 million on transgender medical treatments, including on kids. I mean, it's like as crazy, crazy as you can get.

There's so much to be said here. I think my, well, I'll just make two quick points and then I'll get to the new stuff. This is the future of the Democratic Party. When the baby boomer generation passes on. The Clintons and Bloomberg

and all those establishment Democrats who have been around forever who endorsed Cuomo, they'll be gone and we will all this whole country will be left with Zohan dumb daddies, daddies all over the country. That's the future of the democratic party. It's the first point.

Second point. I don't want to cede any ground to communists in America. If, if we were talking about the capital of Uganda, electing a communist mayor, probably wouldn't talk about it, but it's New York city. This is in the United States of America. And I totally understand this desire to just let them, you know, they voted for these people, let them have it and they'll learn from their mistakes. But I don't agree with that anymore. We saw what happened when

we did that with college campuses. I thought that all the wackiness on college campuses would just stay in the bubble, but it doesn't stay in the bubble. Now all the craziness from the Ivy League schools is that every university and in K through 12 and med schools and law schools and teaching schools and every other institution across America doesn't just stay in the bubble and it won't just stay in New York, maybe start in New York, but it won't stay in New York. And I don't want to cede any ground

to communists. Let me move on to something new though. Nature does what's easiest. This is one of the reasons why evolution is so stupid. Because nature doesn't get better on its own. Nothing can't evolve up into an eye.

Right?

You can't have nothing and it just gets better because turning into an eye would be hard to do. And that's not how nature works. We were in the Grand Tetons a week or so ago. There's rivers everywhere. And they come from. We were in the Grand Tetons a week or so ago. There's rivers everywhere. And they come from the snow melt in the mountains.

And the rivers are fast. These are fast moving rivers and it just keeps coming. There's just an endless supply of water that's constantly rushing down the mountain. And you're in the river, these big huge rivers, you're like, where is this? This water just keeps coming and it goes all summer long, and the snow never melts away.

I mean, it's snow melt, so some is melting, but you look up in there, you're like, it's still there? And it's there all summer long. And we're on this, we're hiking around this lake. It's the most popular there's this huge waterfall. It's about a hundred feet tall. It's awesome.

And you're watching this waterfall and it comes, pours down, it's huge, pours down. And then it hits the side of this rock and it turns 90 degrees and it comes at you. It's so powerful. And at some point in the trip, it would just fascinated me and I'm living it

now that these rivers at one point in time, who forever ago first cut their way through the mountains, like the water's up top and it's got to get down and the water's gonna take the easiest path. And my point is once it makes its path, that's it. The path is set. It's not gonna change. Nothing naturally is going to move that waterfall to a new place or any of the rivers.

They're not going to change. There can be some erosion, of course, but it's not gonna be like, you know what's a better direction? Uphill and around the rivers. They're not going to change. There can be some erosion of course, but it's not going to be like, you know what's a better direction uphill and around the bend and that like that doesn't once the path is set, once it has its foothold, it's never going to give it up. And even if humans wanted to change, it would be a massive task for humans to come in and divert

that river to make a new waterfall or a different waterfall, even if we wanted to. My point is, this is why we can't let communists win elections anywhere. Because the devil gets a foothold. The river makes its groove. People keep voting certain ways. It's really hard, if not impossible, to change that path.

Nature does what's easiest, and so do people. This is why last week we talked about AI boyfriends and AI girlfriends, and I said that a majority of people will do this. If there's any kids listening now, you may want to hide their ears for a second. But a majority of people watch pornography pornography and it's the same principle it's selfish and easy once physical ones emotional but it's the same principle and

so it's communism it's easy the pitch is easy it is brilliant for Mamdani to call for free buses but he doesnani to call for free buses, but he doesn't just call for free buses or the elimination of bus fares. He doesn't call it, he calls it fast and free. Now it's not really free and someone's gotta pay for it.

Taxes, and of course it won't be fast. It's neither of those things, but the marketing is brilliant because it appeals to what people want. It appeals to people being selfish and easy, fast and free. This is what we want everything to be. We want everything to be fast and free.

And we have an entire political party and a massive cultural movement that provides people with all their heart's desires, whatever appeals to people's sinful nature. Fast and free, sometimes at a price. But, or at least a monetary price, there's always a real price, but we know that what's easy

is almost never what's best for the individual or what's best for society. Tonight for dinner, you know the easy thing is to just grab some ice cream from the freezer. That's the easy thing. But the better thing is to get some chicken and broccoli and cook it up and eat it. But that's harder.

We all know what the right thing is to do.

But the 99 cent tacos at Taco Bell, that's fast and pretty almost free. And it gets the job done. But does it? I mean, it'll satiate you in the moment, but long-term it destroys you. We all know that.

We know that the easy thing is rarely the right thing. Now we, unfortunately, as conservatives, we are members of a political party that advocate for hard things. We call upon people to engage in hard work and to strive. We call for virtue and accomplishing things.

The other party advocates for fast and free. Now I'd rather be on our team because our team when we accomplish what we stand for leads to greatness. But man, it's harder to win elections that way, isn't it? Here's the last analogy I wanna make

and then we'll get to the Bible. June 25th, 20, or excuse me, June 25th, 1929. President Herbert Hoover authorized the construction of the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam is a spectacular achievement, stunningly beautiful, stunningly beautiful in every way.

And it's full of art. The people who built this dam, who designed it and built it, they believed that they were building something that would last forever. I'd love one day, we can spend more time on this, but they built a celestial map on the site of the Hoover Dam

where, it's not ancient, where civilizations, thousands of years in the future from now, can read this map and figure out just by the stars, the positions of the stars and what's characterized on this map when this Hoover Dam was built.

Not using any words, but when the dam was built because they really believed that they were making this for something that would last forever, as forever as humans can build a thing, even without maintenance. I think they said it can last for a thousand years as humans can build a thing. Even without maintenance. I think they said it can last for a thousand years

without any maintenance on it even. Things spectacular, but it's beautiful too. It's built in this beautiful art deco theme. And it's an incredible engineering achievement that we're still celebrating today. We're still benefiting from today.

They finished it in five years, two years ahead of schedule. 21,000 people. It provides power today for 1.3 million homes. Water for Southern California, Arizona. So they built it fast, ahead of schedule, and it still works. People of California high-speed rail

can learn a lesson from here. But here's why I wanted to bring it up here. 100 people died making this thing. There's a big plaque at the Hoover Dam. And it says, they died. So there's this man, this art deco man

rising out of the water. And it says they died to make the desert bloom. The desert doesn't bloom on its own. It takes hard work to make it bloom. All good things. Now, of course, God does all of this, right?

God even, he made the concept of blooming and he made flowers and he made, right? So all this is God and God could do, of course, but our role on the earth is to participate in that creation and to create and make beautiful things too. And that can't be done without effort. The left promises fast and free, fast and free, everything fast and free, everything. It never works. Of course. Can't never can. Uh, like meaning the buses will never be like those won't work. It'll work when

it like getting elected. It'll work in that regard, but it'll never actually work in governance. But they promise fast and free, very appealing. We promise good, beautiful, and true. It's much more difficult, but obviously it's better. Satan's world is one of temptation. When people are selfish and want the easy way. I just this morning,

I kid you not just this morning, read Proverbs 28 and it says, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he'd be rich. In his ways, like his own ways. Better to be poor and walk in his integrity than one perverse in his own ways, even though he be rich. This one stood out, again, this is Proverbs 28, 20. A faithful man will abound with blessings,

but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. Hastens means quickly, but like you'll do anything to be rich will not go unpunished. Hastens means quickly, but you'll do anything to get rich. You'll cheat, you'll compromise, you'll do whatever it takes to get rich. I must be rich and nothing else matters. You will not go unpunished this life or the next, but the hasten, the fast, I want it now. Me, me, me now fast and free. Another one of Proverbs 28, a man with an evil eye hastens after riches and does not consider the poverty that

will come upon him. Fast and free. And just speaking to the how the good things the righteous is hard. It takes effort. It takes effort. 1st Corinthians 9. Do you not know, says Paul, do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize run in such a way that you may obtain it. Go get it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown but we for an

imperishable crown. See all these people competing in like the Olympics, they do it for a silly medal or crown, right? But we do it for one that lasts forever. Therefore I run in this way, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, like silliness, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.

Lest when I've preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. They had like these, this athletic competitions in Corinth. So he's using their language, but run in a way that you could win it, train for it, be disciplined, just like the great athletes are.

But here's what's interesting. When he says, I, where is it? I discipline my body. We don't translate that quite right. The actual Greek means to beat black and blue, to smite so as to cause bruises and livid spots like a boxer beats his body, to be disciplined by hardships. It means to give a black eye. That's what he's talking about, discipline.

Why? To bring the body into submission. Meaning to make the body my slave. So with the temptations in the world, we act like our souls are slaves of the body, that the body's in charge, right? Our emotions drive our actions, our desires, our impulses, our cravings, our lusts. So much

of politics today is about feelings. Well, I feel this, I feel like that, I feel for these people, I feel, I feel, right? I feel all the time. I'm gonna cry, that person's crying, oh we better do what they want, they're crying. It's all about the feels, what feels good. Because for most people, our body, the flesh, is the master over our soul. So we do whatever the body says. But Paul here says, no, flip that around,

bring your body into subjection. Now that doesn't mean work on your six pack, although that's good too, but work against your lusts. Like your body's not in charge of your soul. Your soul with the Holy Spirit needs to be in charge of your body, meaning all the temptations around us,

all the promises of fast and free. Politically, this is a very difficult thing to do. It's definitely the uphill battle, but I believe it is the good one. And spiritually, it's the most important thing.

And Jesus took the ultimate beating and punishment for all of our sins, not just physically on the cross, but all the sins of the whole world on him as well. Mike Slater dot locals.com transcript commercial free on the website, Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals.com transcript commercial free on the website, Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

 

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