JD Vance spoke at CPAC and articulated 5 profound truths that I've rarely, if ever, heard anyone say publically.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I'm going to be honest. I just recorded this podcast and I'm editing it and I don't know where the music is. I don't know where the intro music is. I can't find it.

I can't find it anywhere on my computer. I've tried for 10 minutes and I'm going nuts. So we're doing no intro music on today's podcast. It's also my son's fifth birthday, so I'm done. I can't look anymore. So I'm leaving.

No intro music. Enjoy the show. No outro music either. So it's just going to end very abruptly. Apologies. I'll look forward to this weekend. I want to play this clip of JD Vance at CPAC yesterday. And I want to break down all the wonderful things. It's just two minutes, but there's a handful

of really deep and profound themes that I want to touch on. So this isn't quite the gospel message. I think I said that on the radio and I was mistaken a bit. It's not quite the gospel message. The gospel message has to include that you are a sinner who needs to be saved. All people have sinned and are separated from God and the penalty for sin is death. You need to be saved.

But good news, that's the bad news, you're a sinner. But the good news is that Jesus is the path to salvation. Believe in him, believe he's the son of God, make him Lord of your life. That's the good news. Then you get baptized. That's the gospel message.

J.D. didn't quite say that, but that's okay. I'm sure he would if he gave him the opportunity. This is the closest though I've ever heard a vice president or president ever talk. I've never heard Mike Pence talk about it. It is wonderful to have a vice president who has a Christian worldview. Now he's not gonna save us, he's not, right, JD's our Savior and the government's not going to be, it

never should be, but it still should be encouraging nonetheless. Here is what he said, I'll play the whole thing and then we'll break down the main points.

First is, I believe, like the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, it's not just a set of good moral principles, though it is that. I think the fundamental tenet of our faith is that the Son of God became man, He died, and He raised Himself from the dead. That is the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, and I think so much flows from that. I think one lesson that flows from that is that we shouldn't fear death.

Of course, death is a very bad thing, but there are much more terrible things than just losing one's life, and importantly, you could lose one's soul. And I think whether it's fighting for the unborn or fighting for peace and security for our citizens, I want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be virtuous young people can be good young Christians, of course, because that's what I'm Trying to raise them to be and that's what our public policy is trying to do Creating the space where moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good

Young people who believe the things that I do That is what I'm trying to create is the space for you Of course to raise your children as you see fit, but the space for me to raise my kids to be the kind of young people that I think they ought to be. And the other thing that I take from it, Mercedes,

is if you look at the long history of the Christian faith, we've been around for about 2,000 years now, give or take a few years, and there have been really dark times in the history of the Christian faith, there have been really good times

in the history of the Christian faith. And I just try to remind myself that we put our faith in God above. We put our faith in the grace of God and we try the best to do his will and we don't worry so much about whether we're going to have earthly rewards. We worry about whether we're doing right by God almighty

above. That's what I try to do and that's how I try to run my life in public.

So really nice, right? So let's break some of these truths down that he spoke of. First thing, the acknowledgement that Christianity is not about being nice. That's not the point. We've had this belief these last few decades of what's called moral therapeutic deism, where God is your cosmic butler and all you have to do is just be nice and a better person than that guy

over there and don't ever have any conviction about anything because then you're judging and you're not allowed to judge you can't stand for anything ever similar to the Rick Warren thing that we talked about the other day like be in the middle Jesus was in the middle he was in the cross it's in the middle so you need to be in the middle cuz you don't offend anyone ever and most Christians unfortunately fall into that category have been tricked to fall into

that category. And therefore, most people who aren't Christian have created this pseudo religion where God sort of exists and I'm going to be nice to, or nicer at least than most people, but God, yeah, whatever, he's around. I can call on him when I need something, like a butler, but as long as I'm better than that other guy, then my conscience can be clean and that's all good enough.

And JD rejects that. He's like, no, that's not what Christianity is about. And by the way, the church needs to do a better job of speaking out against that lie as well. Second thing JD said is we shouldn't fear death. That's amazing.

It's amazing to hear a vice president speak like that. Again, pastors should be speaking this stuff too. One of the greatest lessons, or most regrettable lessons I suppose, from COVID was how much people are terrified of death. You should not fear death if you're a Christian. It was so obvious that most people are not Christian.

And they just fear death more than anything. They were willing to give up anything in the whole world. They were willing to give their whole life so as to not die. Paul wrote in Philippians 1 23, for to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain, but if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor. Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.

Do I want to live or die? I don't know what's better. I'm hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. I love that. It's far better for me to go and be with Jesus. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for all your progress and joy of faith." He's like, okay, I'm here for now. That's great. I need to be. That's where God wants me to be. But he's like, I'd way better, I'd way rather die. Because when you die, you're with God forever.

That's the, all is well, it is well with my soul. But Lord, tis for you, for your coming we wait, the sky, not the grave is our goal. And Lord haste the day, when the faith shall be sight. I love that. Haste the day when faith shall be sight.

Hurry up. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. A song in the night, O my soul. Charles Spurgeon said, When men fear death, it is a very weak and sickly condition. By the way, when Paul talked about his desire, he's saying, I'm hard-pressed between the

two. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. That Greek word there has force to it. It's not like, oh, you know, I kind of, I want some ice cream. He is longing. longing, he so badly wants to be with Jesus.

And we're just the opposite in our culture today. We so badly don't ever want anything bad to happen ever in any way. So for JD Vance to talk about how we fear death too much, wonderful, he talked about the soul, are you kidding me? When I first went over to SiriusXM Patriot,

I did a lot of segments on the soul. And got a couple emails from people who were like, enough already. Mostly people would call in and say, Slater, I was really, like, I was in the enough already category,

but now I get it, now I see it. And it's like, oh, that's really encouraging, thank you. Thanks for sticking around. I don't know, maybe a lot of people turned off and never came around, I don't care. Because no one in culture ever talks about the

soul, ever, never comes up, no one ever mentions the soul, ever. To hear Vice President talk about it was great, but to have anyone talk about it in public is great. I'll never forget, I talked to one of the most famous psychologists in the whole world and I asked him a question about how something affects the soul. It was either we don't acknowledge or we don't study the soul. Psychology literally means study of the soul.

And here's one of the most famous psychologists in the world saying, Oh, no, no, that doesn't exist. Whoa. JD Vance in his Munich speech, next time I talk to him, or first time I talk to him,

next time, with J.D. and I, when we talk to him, if I ever talk to J.D., I'm gonna ask him about that line. He said, we are not cogs in an international machine, like interchangeable cogs,

and he also said, we're not educated animals. Who put that in there? But it's the same idea. We're not animals. We are people endowed by our creator with inalienable rights.

We are souls. There's a lot of people who maybe at best think that we are a body or a person who has a soul. Like maybe that's that's like something that some people will think. But we're not even that. We are a soul that has a body for now. Even that's just temporary. It's your soul that matters. And one of the effects and I would argue one of the reasons why the

left has removed the existence of the soul from all consciousness and all discussion in our culture is because it is the soul that loves. Your body doesn't love, your soul loves. It is the soul that recognizes beauty and virtue and goodness. So if the left or atheist, Satan, Marxist, whatever, I'll say Satan, wants to numb you. One great way to do that is to deaden your soul. If he wants to control you, if he can just numb your soul,

then that's the point. Like I love my wife, I don't love her foot. And it's not my foot that loves her, right, you know, it's soul, it's our souls. I love her soul. It's my soul that loves her soul.

So if they can remove this from our consciousness, you can see how easy it is to manipulate and control us in every way. If you, someone cuts off your arm, you're still a person. And if you went blind, you're still a person. It's losing your soul that matters more than anything. And this is why the Bible talks about this.

Matthew 16, 26 says, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 10, 28, do not fear those who kill the body. This verse is so good.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Proverbs 4, 23 says, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. The Hebrew word there for heart also can mean soul.

It is the spring of your life. And we have so neglected it in our culture. And we see the fruit of that everywhere. Meaning we don't see any fruit, but we see the problems. We see the dead branches of depression, anxiety, you name it.

All the social ills, which then can often lead to all these other problems, including addictions and everything else. All that comes from a deadened soul. So that, I think it's one of my jobs on the radio is to talk about the soul all the time, just to put it in the consciousness of life. And then we can start to tend to it.

And JD did the same. Fourth point of JD's, just a little two-minute snippet there, government's role in creating space where people can be free. That's not the end of my sentence though. Where people can be free to be virtuous and to be Christians. To create space where moms and dads can raise children. To be who they ought to be. This is a theme that I discovered about a year ago that freedom is not the end of the story

I always thought freedom was the point That the point of America is that you can live in freedom. That's not it Freedom is not the end of the story freedom is the beginning of the story It's freedom to live as you ought to live when we eliminate that concept then freedom just turns into Sin I have the freedom to sin or the freedom to do these things that are not good. And that's just a form of slavery.

That's not freedom at all. It's a different type of slavery. That may be government enslaving you, but if you're a slave to your sin, you're a slave, just the same or worse. So freedom is just creating space so that you can live as you ought. And our founding fathers knew this deeply.

And we've lost sight of it for a long time. And JD, here he is talking about it. Then he talked about putting God's will first. Are you kidding me? This is all in two minutes. Matthew 6, 33, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

and all these things will be added to you. Do God's will, and everything will be provided. Luke 12, 31, Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and He will give you everything you need. Isn't that great? Someone called in on the radio show today, Jillian in New Hampshire. She said she went last night to her kids open house in public high school.

She said there were I think 16 transgender flags, like 13 pride flags, and two American flags she saw in her visit. It's like, what is going on here? And I asked her what she was going to do about it. And I just, I said, I hope you feel encouraged that you know the truth.

And then the music was playing, I was just going to break,

and I said, I also hope you're encouraged that you know you're in the majority. And then the segment ended. And I said, oh, darn it, I shouldn't have said that rewind quick but you can't there's no rewind so we came back and I said you know what I misspoke there I should have just stopped at you should be encouraged that

you know the truth that's it it doesn't matter if you're in the majority or not I guess it's nice to be but doesn't matter we had a family meeting the other day because Grace slammed a door.

Or no, excuse me.

Excuse me.

A door slammed.

Grace said, Jack did it.

Jack said, Grace did it.

Uh oh. Someone's not telling the truth. Someone's lying here. So we had a family meeting.

Grace finally admitted to it.

Then John came in and said that Jack did it. So it's like, oh, geez. Now I don't know what happened, but it wasn't about the door. I don't even care about the door. Who's lying. Someone's lying.

And we have to be able to trust in this family. So, pulled out Proverbs 12, 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight. You know the truth, and if you speak the truth, it is a delight to God. Isn't that wonderful?

We were talking about different scenarios

where lying can get you in trouble and is bad. First we're just doing practical things, practical stories about where lying is bad and then we made it to the more spiritual important part, but just some practical examples. And I said, you know, Jack,

sometimes there's gonna be times when you lie and it's gonna be really unpopular, but you have to tell the truth. And he said, when? Like, when would that be? I was like, oh, that's tough.

So on the spot, the best I could come up with was, you're playing dodgeball at school and you're the last one in on your team and the other guy throws the ball at you and it just skims your leg and that guy thinks he got you,

your team says no, he didn't, but you know you did get hit, what do you do? And you tell the truth, you got hit,

your team's gonna be upset at you,

but those who deal truthfully are his delight.

Whose delight, your teammates?

No, not at that moment. But his delight, God's delight. So there's a scenario where it's very unpopular and where you're not in the majority, right? It doesn't matter. The majority part doesn't matter. Those who deal truthfully are his delight.

Now, I honestly don't know where we are in our culture at this moment. It's tough for me to gauge exactly. But I do know, I don't know if we're in the majority or minority and I think we're still very much in the minority. We just happen to be winning at the moment, whatever that looks like.

We have a lot of work to do in this country. We have a lot to rebuild, a lot to reconstruct. And I'm thrilled about it. What a delight it is to live in this moment, to raise kids, to be in your community, and to live a life every day where we can live

and promote these truths that JD Vance was just speaking of, but we can all speak it and live it as well. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Slater Radio is my Twitter and my Instagram. MikeSlater.Locals.com is the website. We put this up first on the website and we have a transcript and no commercials.

We put this up first on the website and we have a transcript and no commercials. MikeSlater.Locals.com.

Our founding generation knew the Curse of Meroz and they wanted to be on the right side of God.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. It was President's Day on Monday, except that's not a real holiday. President's, it's not called that. It's called George Washington's birthday. Now George Washington's actual birthday is February 22nd.

It became a national holiday starting in 1879. But when we started, we would always celebrate on his actual birthday, February 22nd. But federal workers wanted a three-day weekend. So in 1968, they changed it to whatever it is, the third Monday in February, even if that happens to be like it was this year, February

17th. But when they changed the law, it's still actually called George Washington's birthday. But that's the name of the holiday in the law. It's not called President's Day. I don't know when we started calling it President's Day. Some people say they combined it with Lincoln's birthday,

which is the 12th, yeah, February 12th. So they put it together, but that's not officially what, it's called George Washington's birthday in the law. And the idea that we call it President's Day is if we're now supposed to celebrate all the presidents, like like the accomplishments of George Washington and Joe Biden.

We should just celebrate them all because they're all like, no, no, no. There's there's no accomplishment that Miller Fillmore can lay claim to, claim to that has hold a candle to George Washington. It should be once again, George Washington's birthday. That is what we should know it as. He was an amazing man, the father of our country.

His dad died when he was eleven. He was fighting in Braddock, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, in the French and Indian War. He had two horses shot out from under him, four bullets in his coat. This is what he said. He said, By the all-powerful dispensations of providence.

I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation, for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me. Yet I escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me." On our most recent TV special, we talked about this Charles Spurgeon quote of the curse of miraz, M-E-R-O-Z. It's the sin of apathy.

The people of this city did not fight with the Israelites in Judges 4, we also talked about in Judges 5. They didn't fight with the Israelites against the Canaanites. And in Judges 5, 23, it says, "'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the Lord.

"'Curse its people bitterly, "'because they did not come to help the Lord,' "'to help the Lord against the mighty, the Canaanites. And I heard that and I wanted to learn more about this curse of Miraz. And it turns out that people in our founding era knew all about this. They were well aware of the curse of Miraz.

I would venture to say almost no one's ever heard of it today, even though it's in the Bible. But our founding era, they knew about it. And they applied it to the loyalists, to the king, but also to the more apathetic people in our country. I've heard, it was John Adams, I believe, who said it was about a third of people supported

revolution, a third supported the king, and a third were apathetic either way. The curse of Mraz would apply to that third in particular. Nathaniel Whitaker was a friend of George Washington's. And George Washington wrote him a letter from Valley Forge on December 20, 1777. And it says, Dear Reverend Sir, your favor of the 24th of September in closing a discourse against Toryism came safe to my hands.

For the honor of the dedication, so he dedicated the sermon to George Washington, I return you my sincere thanks, and wish most devoutly that your labor may be crowned with the success it deserves. Signed, your most obedient and obliged humble servant, George Washington. I'm going to start signing off my text like that. Most obedient and obliged, your most humble servant, Mike.

Whitaker was a pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Salem, Massachusetts. And the entire sermon is called, it is called, Antidote to Toriism. You should read the whole thing, it's very good. But some key lines that he used that inspired the colonists, that made its way all the way to George Washington. Nathaniel Whitaker compared the oppression that the colonists were feeling under the King of England

to the oppression that the Israelites were living under the Canaanites. Whitaker said, Yet with horror be it spoken, there are freed-born sons of America so lost to all sense of honor, liberty, and every noble feeling as to join the cry and press for submission.

Let us continue to live under the king. In this sermon he said, We have some, but blessed be God that we have no more of the inhabitants of Meraz scattered among us. But be it known to them and to all men that they, as Meraz, are fighting against God. This assertion is confirmed by the curse denounced on Meraz by God's command, for had they not opposed him he would not have cursed them.

They then were the rebels in the judgment of God, and not those who took up arms to recover their liberties. Rebels against the God of heaven, and therefore fell under his and his people's curse, as well as those shall who oppose or neglect to promote the like glorious cause. From what hath been said, the truth of the second observation appears, that to take up arms and repel by force when our liberties are invaded is well-pleasing to God." The point is, this was preached. Our founders knew the Bible

inside and out and informed their thinking. Let me just summarize here that this pastor's thinking and the pastor puts this like a little table of contents in the beginning of sermon. He has a couple points here. First, the cause of liberty is the cause of God and truth. That to take up arms and repel force by force when our liberties are invaded is well pleasing to God. That's what I just read there. That it is lawful to levy war against those who oppress us even when they are not in arms against

us. That indolence and backwardness in taking arms. Let's get a good definition of indolence. Avoiding of activity or exertion. Laziness. Let's get a good Webster's 1828. Indolence. Oh, come on. Indolence.

I could just pause this and do it. It's not live radio. It's better just to do this. Here we go. Habitual idleness, indisposition to labor, laziness, inaction, want of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of ease or aversion to toil. Okay, so laziness. That indolence and backwardness in taking arms and exerting ourselves in the service of our country when called thereto by the public voice in order to recover and secure our freedom is a heinous sin in

the sight of God. Point five, that God requires the people struggling for their liberties to treat such of the community who will not join them as open enemies and to reject them as unworthy the privileges which others enjoy. Wow. That's the very beginning of the sermon.

I am grateful and amazed how much of our founding generation knew the Bible and how much it informed their thinking and I'm encouraged that in our culture today that our biblical literacy is increasing. I hope it is. I hope what I said is true. I just heard JD Vance giving the gospel message at CPAC. We should do a segment on this tomorrow. Actually, I think I have it here, I can pull this up.

I've never heard a vice president talk like this. I've never heard Mike Pence, like our Christian vice president. I've never heard him talk, I've never heard him say this. This is our vice president at CPAC.

First is, I believe the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. It's not just a set of good moral principles though it is that the fundamental tenet of our faith is that the Son of God became man. He died and he raised himself from the dead. That is the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. And I think so so much flows from that is that we shouldn't fear death. Of course, death is a very bad thing, but there are much more terrible things than just losing one's life, and importantly, you could lose one's soul. And I think whether it's fighting for the unborn or fighting for peace and security

for our citizens, I want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be virtuous young people, can be good young Christians, of course, because that's what I'm trying to raise them to be. And that's what our public policy is trying to do. Creating the space where moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good young people who believe the things that I do, that is what I'm trying to create, is the space for you, of course, to raise your children as you see fit, but the space

for me to raise my kids to be the kind of young people that I think they ought to be. And the other thing that I take from it, Mercedes, is if you look at the long history of the Christian faith, we've been around for about 2,000 years now, give or take a few years, and there have been really dark times in the history of the Christian faith, there have been really good times in the history of the Christian faith.

And I just try to remind myself that we put our faith in God above, we put our faith in the grace of God, and we try the best to do his will, and we don't worry so much about whether we're gonna have earthly rewards, we worry about whether we're doing right by God Almighty above.

That's what I try to do, and that's how I try to run my life in public.

Well, that's something for our vice president, isn't it? We'll spend some time tomorrow breaking all that down, but that's really good and really encouraging. I always think of Abraham Lincoln when in 1858, he said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. Everyone who heard that knew that that was from the Bible. Today, no one knows it's from the Bible, but back then everyone knew it's from the Bible. It's Luke 11 17. Jesus said, but he

knowing their thoughts said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house falls. Now, what was Jesus talking about? Jesus just cast a demon out of someone. And the Bible says, but some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Others, testing him, sought from him, Jesus, a sign from heaven. And Jesus said, if Satan were casting out his own demons, right, you say

I'm Satan's casting, he would be working against himself. This self-opposition would lead to the collapse of Satan's kingdom. Why would it, like, what doesn't, why would Satan cast out demons? Jesus's point doesn't make any sense. Why would I do that? Why would Satan do that?

And then the people who wanted to see a sign, it's like, geez, what else do you want to see? Jesus said, if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. He's saying, I'm obviously more powerful than Satan. What more sign do you want?

Check out this one.

This is great. Jesus goes on. It says, when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. He's talking about Satan there. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overtakes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. How about that sentence? People don't think that's in the Bible. If you're not with me, you're against me. Jesus said that. So Satan's the strong man in this scenario, but Jesus is the stronger. And Jesus comes up on Satan.

Jesus overcomes Satan. Jesus takes from Satan all of his armor in which he trusted. It says in Colossians 2.15, And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. And then Jesus divides the spoils. Satan keeps nothing. And then Jesus said, you're either with me or you're against me.

There's no room for neutrality. There's no room for being the city of mirage, thinking you can just sit back and take the spoils for yourself, for doing no work. If you're undecided, you've decided. If you haven't made a decision, you made a decision. If you don't yet have a conviction, you do actually. Because there are two strong men at work here. You're choosing a side.

If you don't choose, you've already chosen. I think this is true about nearly everything. Either you have a conviction or you're going to get swept up by the cultural forces that are in opposition to the truth. That's it. The natural flow, if you go with the flow, that's Satan. If you have a conviction against it, that's God. Bring it back to George Washington. Our founders always asked for wisdom from

from God, because they knew who the strongest force of all was. It wasn't the king. This is after we won the war. Washington wrote, I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life—he didn't know he was going to be president yet—by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence

of him to his holy keeping. I'll repeat something we said in the last episode. Doge is great. Mahalfour Doge. Doge isn't nearly enough. Doge isn't everything. I pray we have a revival in this country. I pray we have a great awakening in this country. And I pray we, just like George Washington did whose birthday we celebrate on February 22nd we should celebrate on his actual birthday February 26 I pray we do it George Washington did thank God for this

country and everything we do we do for his glory Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript and commercial free on the Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com

There's an important difference here: Does Trump want to make a name for himself so he's doing good things? Or, does Trump want to do Good things which then result in making a name for himself? I believe motive matters.

Hey, welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I want to talk through something that happened on the radio this morning on SiriusXM Patriot. We talked to John Nolte, who's a writer at Breitbart.com, a man whose wisdom I value very much. He has great insight into political movements and how culture is shifting, and it's always very good. I enjoy talking to him a lot. And he'll just tell the truth as he sees it. He doesn't hold back ever, which is great. Obviously there's a value to that. And he said two things that I want to go deeper into here.

First thing, his brother-in-law passed away. He was in his 70s, died of stomach cancer very quickly. And he said of his brother-in-law, he was super smart and could do anything he wanted in his life. Now, I grew up in a family and in a community culture where it was all about achievement. You had to win, you had to do more,

you had to get into the best college you could, you had to get the coolest sounding job at the best firm in the biggest city. It was just achieve, achieve, achieve all the time. So when Nolte said, oh, he's super smart, he can do anything he wanted in his life,

in my mind it's like, oh, big time Wall Street investment banking guy. Or something like that, a high-powered lawyer in DC. Nolte followed that up with, he loved to go fishing and grill

and spend the day talking with his friends and family.

He cracked the code of life. Old me would have said he wasted his life, but I believe the proper analysis is he cracked the code of life. I appreciate that reorientation of cracking the code not being whatever success looks like in a worldly perspective, but with focusing on things that really matter, even if they may be deemed quiet.

1 Thessalonians 4, 11, Paul says, You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs." Then, later in our conversation, we were talking about Donald Trump and how Trump and his team

is crushing it like no one ever imagined. And I said, all right, John, now that there's been so much winning. Our eyes have been opened to things that we never thought possible before. Doors have been unlocked that we never thought could ever be open and we have possibilities in front of us that we never thought were ever happen in the world. What is something that you're now excited about that you never thought was possible? And Nolte's answer was maybe Trump gets rid of the income tax. I remember Ron Paul in one of the debates, maybe 2008,

they were asked at the debate, they're asked what you think the income tax rate should be? And he said, well, it should be whatever it was for most of American history, zero. I always love that line. So maybe Trump gets rid of it. And he said, Nolte said that Trump's ego would drive him to do this. He said this is a good thing about Trump's ego because Trump wants to be known as the

greatest president ever. And this can drive him to do incredible things like expand our nation's territory and do things that every Republican president has promised to do since Ronald Reagan. Like get rid of the Department of Education. But none of them have been able to do it. But Donald Trump finally does. And to end wars that no one thought were possible to end. And also to do things that are totally game

changing for the American people. Like get rid of the income tax. People think that Trump wants to be a dictator. No, no, no, no. But I think he does want, Well, here's the nuance, perhaps. Does he want a legacy that is good, that is therefore driving him to do good things? Or does he want to do good things that may result in a legacy? Now, we have two thoughts here from John Nolte that may seem in conflict with one another.

We have Paul praying that people live a quiet life. And then we have a president of the United States that is doing things that require some noise. I'll put it like that. So what do we do with this? Well the rest of that sentence in 1 Thessalonians 4, it's a section labeled, A Life Pleasing

to God. The rest of that sentence says, We urge you, brothers, to do more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one." Here's Paul talking about excellent work, walking properly before others in the world so that they notice in a way that they notice the way that they they

cannot notice. The Bible is full of references to working. In ancient Greece at the time, the more you worked with your hands, the less honorable you were. Manual labor was demeaning. People in the higher classes would look down on people who worked with their hands. So you had tradesmen and merchants were the lowest class of society, or just above the slaves. Contrast, Jesus, his disciples were fishermen.

Paul was a tent maker. One of the disciples was a tax collector that loathes them all. But all the rest were men who worked with their hands. Very countercultural. But this is who God is. Before the fall, Genesis 2.15 says,

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it this is pretty full Leviticus 23 says when you reap the harvest of your land do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest leave them for the poor I am the alien I am the Lord your God it doesn't say to work your whole field and then give to the poor it says leave it there and then people can come and work for it themselves. That's interesting, isn't it?

Proverbs 14.23 says, All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. There's tons of Proverbs. Proverbs 6.6 says, Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It is no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your

sleep a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an old man so the Bible says work don't be like the slug you don't be a sluggard be like the ant get out there and work and work well Ecclesiastes 9 10 says whatever your hand finds to do do it with all your might. How about that? All your might. No half-heartedness. These scriptures and others is where the Puritans got their strong work ethic

from. When you read about the first pilgrims on the Mayflower, over and over their writings, they talk about how difficult this journey is, how difficult the work is, and how they're so excited to do it because it glorifies God. They were working so hard in such difficult conditions that they were all dying. Half of them died, over half of them died.

And they never stopped. The pilgrims set the tone. We now call it the Protestant work ethic today. This is a major cultural force in early American history that we still have parts of in America today. Now why was hard work seen as good by the pilgrims and the Puritans? Because we're glorifying God. When you engage in good, excellent, noble

work, you glorify God. Colossians 3 23 says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving in all you do. So we'll bring it back to Trump. I believe Trump is, people on the left say he's like a dictator.

I think he acts like the CEO. He's acting like he's running a company and he wants the company to be the best company

ever.

He wants to grow it. He wants to make it good. He wants to make it strong and a solid, vibrant, thriving company. And he wants his employees to flourish. And that's the citizens, the people. And I believe he's working very hard to make our country thrive.

Charles Spurgeon said, the best and wisest thing in the world is to work as if it all depended upon you and Then trust in God knowing that it all depends on him Spurgeon said nobody gets on in the world who's half-hearted If a man wants money he must hunt for it morning noon and night if a man longs for knowledge He cannot take a book and ladle it into his brain with a spoon He must read and study it if he's to be a scholar if a man desires to rise in such an age as this, he cannot do it without stern labor.

Great discoverers, eminent artists, and powerful orators have all been men of hard work. He said the truest Christian is the working man who so labors for God that he does not neglect the common duties of life. It is not good to work so that you make a name for yourself. That's what the people who built the Tower of Babel wanted to do. But it is good to do great things, and to want to do big things, and to do wonderful things.

And even if you're not doing these big, grand, wonderful things that'll be written about in the history books forever, whatever it is you do, we should do it with—we're called to do it with excellence and mastery, So that it glorifies God. Because without Him, none of us are capable of doing anything. And if you do excellent work, maybe no one will notice. You probably won't go down in history.

No one's name will be known forever unless it's in the Bible. So that can't be your motivation. But our hard work glorifies God, and if nothing else, it keeps our focus away from worthless things. Psalm 119, 37 says, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.

I love that prayer. God, give me life in your ways. Nobody gets on in the world who's half-hearted. So let us not be half-hearted in anything in our lives. If there's something in your life that's not worth doing to the max, then it's probably not worth doing at all. You just cut it out entirely.

I want to turn my eyes from worthless things, knowing that a full life can only be found in his ways. So in conclusion, I think this nuance is important here. Looking to make a name for yourself, no good. God will humble you. But if you're looking to do good, maybe you'll make a name for yourself in some

way, but more importantly, it glorifies God. And that, of course, is what matters the most. Mike Slater dot locals dot com is the website. We put this up a little bit early and there's a transcript and no commercials. and there's a transcript and no commercials. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.