It's quite shocking how many people have celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and celebrated in vile ways. Should these people be fired from their jobs? 

A couple of Bible verses that have come to mind recently. 

Someone sent me this one, John 12, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John 12, 24, the line before that, it's Jesus talking about his death. He says, the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. Let's read the rest of what Jesus said here. Him, my father will honor. 

" This line right here about he who loves his life will lose it and who hates his life in this world will keep it in eternal. Like that's, that's just so as good as it gets. Um, we are called to, we are sojourners and pilgrims. Our home is heaven, not this earth. Hebrews 11, talking about people in the old Testament. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. 

on the earth. 

You know, I've never lived through a martyr before. I've never seen, I've read about it, but I've never seen how one martyr can change millions of hearts. That in his death, people can buy Bibles for the first time, go to church for the first time, do all this, like, like they've, like, they've never done before. Like it's never happened. And I pray it's a revival. I pray it's just the beginning of a revival, a martyrdom where you can spread the gospel, spread the truth of the Bible, God's word so well in your life. 

Like, I mean, so as in like a certain amount of well, but then in your death, It's infinitely more. How amazing is that? And I'm certain that on Sunday during the memorial service, there's going to be a lot of accurate talk about Charlie Kirk being home. Never lived through a martyr. It's wonderful. I want to share another biblical illusion here. 

We talked on the show today about cancel culture and how there's a lot of people out there celebrating the death, the assassination of Charlie Kirk saying, you know, vile, like wicked, horrible stuff. Not even like he deserved it. That's bad enough, but just like, Oh, like he's dead. Oh yeah. It's awesome. 

Like, like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. 

Something is wrong with you. And. A lot of these people who are doing this are like teachers and nurses and professional class people, and they're being fired from their job. So the question is, should someone be fired? If you celebrate the death, the assassination of Charlie Cook, should you be fired for it? We talked about that for a good amount of time on the show today. 

The answer is yes, by the way. It's wholesale different from what the left did to conservatives for all these years. What the left did to conservatives, first of all, it was, they'd scour social media posts from decades ago to try to get something you said then that could be insulting or offensive now. They're like, oh man. The left did it to dead people. 

They canceled Dr. Seuss. They canceled Pepe Le Pew. They canceled Uncle Ben off the Rice Box. They canceled Aunt Jemima. I mean, they canceled fictional characters. That's how dedicated they were to just destruction. 

Then when Donald Trump won in 2016, and they've done this too with like Rush Limbaugh before, but in 2016, they tried to destroy every conservative group and media outlet that existed just for being, just for existing. Wouldn't say anything different. It was like they said something offensive in particular. It's just, oh, you're conservative, you're gone. And we don't do that. We're not doing that to the left. 

We're not saying, oh, you're a pro -choice, then you should be fired. It's, oh, you're celebrating the assassination of someone. This is a big problem. If you think that that's a big, big problem, And also, I don't trust you. I don't trust you anymore. As a teacher for shepherding the hearts and minds of kids, you're gone. 

You can't do that. You can't have that job anymore. Or if you're a nurse taking care of someone who might be a conservative, you're celebrating. I mean, you're supposed to be for life. You're celebrating someone getting shot in the neck because of their political beliefs. And I come in, I have the same political beliefs, and you're my nurse. 

This isn't going to work. This relationship isn't going to work. It's a high trust relationship, and by default, We assume it works, but I can't assume that anymore. You can't have that job. Actually, let me play this. This woman, she called in on the show today and had a really good story here. 

This is Becky. Becky is in Florida. Becky, how are you? 

Good, good. 

It's been a rough week, that's for sure. 

It has. 

So I am a nurse and not long before the election, I had a patient come in. She was having a textbook heart attack, happened to be a slow night. So I was able to spend time with her, you know, talk to her. We get her up to the cath lab to try and get a stent in. and she starts decompensating and I spent probably five minutes rubbing her head, talking to her about she said they were making hamburgers when this all happened, what was she going to have, what was her daughter's name and trying to say this without crying and I told her, we're going to put you to sleep until we can get this procedure done and she died and I was the last person to speak to her and that really hit me but what hit me And why it came back around was that she was wearing a Kamala Harris shirt, and I didn't care. And I have seen so many of my health care friends celebrating Charlie's death. 

And I think to myself, if I came in with a MAGA shirt or a Charlie shirt or a Trump shirt or whatever, even a God bless America shirt, are you going to treat me differently? Because it sure seems like it. And my job, I don't care what your political leanings are. I don't care if you're trans. I don't care if you're gay. I don't care. 

My job is to save your life. And I didn't care that that woman had a Kamala Harris shirt on, because you know what? She's still a human at the end of the day. And it just amazes me how many people have, you know, teachers, like you said, or nurses or doctors. Just your job is to save lives. not to celebrate death. 

And I don't know, it just, it just came back to me this week because I just, I didn't care. She was a human and I hope, and sorry to keep talking, but I didn't even want to be in that assignment that day. I tried to switch and talk about a God moment because I took the time to be with her as she died and give her memories that she will hopefully hold on to forever. 

If a nurse celebrates the assassination of Charlie Kirk, will they treat with as much love and care a conservative who is a fan of Charlie Kirk? One of the most powerful examples of what Becky told the story over there was the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. And the murderer there was then brought to a hospital nearby in Pittsburgh and was treated, cared for by doctors who go to that synagogue. This is who we are. And wicked people who reveal themselves, and I'm glad you are revealing yourself, actually. We have no more patience for this. 

We can't have it anymore. Now someone called into the show and said, uh, Oh, let me give you one more example. What the left is doing. They're talking about, Oh, what about Melissa Hortman? She was the Minnesota speaker of the house who was assassinated or killed, killed, assassinated in her house by this guy who went around to a couple of different politicians houses and tried to kill a bunch. Well, and they're like, Oh, where were you then? 

You know, where were you when this Democrat got, got killed? Not celebrating it. Let's start with that. Not jumping up and down, not saying you deserve it. So end of story. I don't even know what you're talking about. 

Like, what's, what's your point? You are celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Oh, what about Melissa Horthman? 

Okay. 

Like horrible. Like what do you want? I mean, I said it was horrible. I'm not celebrating it. Like you guys are. 

What do you like? 

What do you even bring that up for? Someone called in and talked about how it's good that people are speaking because it separates the chaff from the wheat. And I always liked this imagery in the Bible. Uh, you have wheat, that's the good stuff. And the outer layer of it is the chaff and it's got to be separated. So they would smash it on the ground. 

And the chaff would, because it's light, fly up in the air and float away and the wind would take it out. And the Bible often talks about separating the worthless chaff from the very valuable grains. Psalm 1, the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Let's drive the chaff away. Not just because of someone's political belief. No, no one's saying, Hey, if you don't, if you didn't subscribe to Charlie Kirk's Twitter page, then you need to be fired. 

You can disagree with everything he's ever said. Let's ask for some humanity. Here's the big. Wheat and chaff reference. This is Matthew 3 11, John the Baptist. He says, I baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. Chaff, he will burn with unquenchable fire. Don't be chaff. And in America right now, it's okay to have people separated. It's good to separate the wheat and the chaff. the chaff. 

I'll end with this that I read in my new book, Scripture Emblems and Allegories. This one is about the sun of truth. And it's an image of a mountain with a sun up in the air and two men, one walking towards the sun, one walking away from the sun. And I am going to quote all of it. It's two pages. Seeware, among the mountain heights, a long straight path stretches itself till it's lost in the distance beyond. 

The sun pours wide his rays of living light, illuminating the path and shedding luster all around. Two travelers are pursuing their different routes. One advances towards the sun. His shadow is behind him. His path is bright before him. As he proceeds, his shadow diminishes while his path grows brighter and brighter until directly overhead, The sun pours the full tide of its glory upon him and the whole of his shadow disappears. 

The other has turned his back upon the orb of day. See, he follows his own shadow. It darkens his pathway before him. Now he leaves the track. His shadow lengthens more and more. He wanders into sunken labyrinths and finally loses himself amidst the darkness of night. 

How many people have you talked about recently, whether it's the trans church shooter recently or the guy, the train in Charlotte who stabbed the woman in the neck or this is a murder of Charlie Kerr. There's so many, so many stories. Even ones that don't get as much headlines like carjackers in DC. It's like, whoa, you have lost yourself amidst the darkness of night. This emblem represents the moral world. The sun designates the sun of truth. 

The travelers denote first those who follow the light. Their path shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Their souls become enlightened. vivified and purified. Darkness disappears and heavenly light shines on their souls forever. Secondly, it signifies those who turn their backs on the light and who, as they journey, wander farther and farther from his bright beams. 

Their path becomes darker and darker. Their shadow lengthens as they proceed until having forsaken altogether the way of truth. They lose themselves among the wilds of error and perish in the darkness of everlasting night. They perish in the darkness of everlasting night. Where shines the sun of truth? In the Holy Bible. 

The scriptures are a light to the weary traveler, illuminating all his goings, pointing out his proper path, and showing where the mountains of error lift up their desolating heads. This sun of truth shines on the traveler himself. It discovers, oh, this is so good. It discovers his ignorance, guilt. This is so important. The light doesn't illuminate how great I am. 

This book was written in the 1850s. They had it right there. It's not like, oh, the sun. I'm so glad the sun is shining on me. I'm awesome. I am great. No, the sun of truth discover, it causes the person to discover his ignorance, guilt, danger, helplessness, and at the same time, his immortality. 

Again, it shines and he beholds Calvary with all its weeping tragedies. It reveals to him now his wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption, where shines the son of truth and the person of Jesus Christ. He who wisely chooses, uses the light of the scriptures will be led to contemplate him who's the light of the world, the son of righteousness, the splendid glory of Jehovah, the way, the life, and the truth. The Christian, following the light of the glorious sun of truth, discovers ever -opening mines of richest knowledge, fountains of living waters rolled or treasures at his feet. Trees of life overhang his pathway and drop into his lap their golden stores till at length he beholds the opening gates to the new Jerusalem, where light and truth, their mystic powers combine and over the realms of love forever shine. The infidel," his last paragraph here, the infidel, turning his back upon the light, walks in the vain shadow of his own opinions. 

Oh, I got to read this on the radio, right? Don't people need to hear this too on the radio? Walk in the vain shadow of his own opinions. Me, I'm perfect. I know everything. I know what's right. 

Darker and yet more dark. I am God, says Satan. Darker and yet more dark the shadow grows. He waxes worse and worse. One truth after another is given up. One lie after another is embraced. 

Farther and farther he wanders from God and bliss. And finally he takes his fearful leap in the dark and finds himself, contrary to his expectations, in outer darkness, where there's weeping and wailing and woe. We need to be people who follow the light always in every way. And the more we do, the more we recognize our failings, our weakness, how much we're drowning, how much we need to be saved and how grateful we are for a savior. Mike Slater dot locals . com transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals .

 People are wondering what we should do to pick up his torch. I have three general principles on how we each should proceed.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. Still, of course, thinking about Charlie Kirk and his life and what happened and what's to come and his legacy in this country. I pray so fervently that this is the spark of a revival in this country. I'm encouraged because the Overton window of what's acceptable to talk about biblically has been so blown off the wall. It doesn't even exist right now. 

which is incredible news. The Overton window, if you're not familiar, it's the idea is here's a window of what is acceptable to think and say out loud. And when the Overton window moves, it means now there's more things or different things that are acceptable now to say that weren't in the past. I've been talking about the Bible on the radio for 10 years, probably. And it's been growing every year over those 10 to the point where like every day, Oh, Slater, so much Bible thumping. It's one of the reasons we started this podcast is like, we can put this Bible thumping somewhere else. 

I had so much of it. It's like, okay, we need another podcast to put it on. But here I am talking about the Bible now and again. And people are like, oh, you're Bible thumping so much. I can't take it. Meanwhile, now people in normal conversations and in conservative circles are talking about demonology. 

They're talking about demonic possessions. It's like, oh, love it. Here we are talking about spiritual warfare. Are you kidding me? I am here for it. Let's go. 

So that's wonderful news. I pray more people go to church. More people are saved. This is it. This is revival time. Looking forward to Sunday. 

I don't know how many people are gonna go. It's at the Arizona Cardinal Stadium. 65 ,000 people fit in this stadium. For a memorial for Charlie Kirk and the president's gonna be there. It's gonna be massive, it's gonna be huge. And I pray that it's, I know it will be Christian in its entire nature, but I just pray that sparks something powerful. 

Still so soon, thoughts are still racing. I'm sure you as well. I got three things I wanna say here. Three kind of random thoughts. I saw this tweet that, Charlie Kirk sent on Twitter, October 13th, 2011. He said, Glenn Beck, I am a 17 high school student. 

Listen to you every day. I speak for local tea parties about debt and deficit. Fight liberal bias. 17 years old, 2011, 14 years ago. He accomplished a lot since that tweet. How did he do it one day at a time? 

A lot of people send him emails wanting to know, what can I do? What can I do? How can I pick up the torch and carry it? I don't know, but get going. 

What's that? 

That's not helpful. 

What do I do? 

Just go. That's my first point. Just go. What's that? That's not helpful. The wonderful woman who sits next to me in church, excuse me, let me rephrase that. 

The wonderful woman who we have the honor of sitting next to at church, Ms. Martha, I've mentioned her before. Uh, she was wanting to make it to her 75th wedding anniversary, but just a couple of months ago, her husband passed away. She's 92. She is sweet as pie. She's wonderful. I talked to her about teaching Sunday school before church. 

I started that yesterday. I'm tasked with going through really, from now until Thanksgiving. Me and another member of the church, we alternate every week. And I talked to her about it and she was so sweet. She gave me one of her husband's books on Romans. 

She's just wonderful. 

But today, at church, before church, she showed me Exodus 31. This is where God told Moses to make the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. Ark of the Covenant, of course, is beautiful, sacred, golden chest. Put the 10 commandments in it, a couple other things. And Moses says, well, what do I do? What do you mean? 

God says, make this thing. Moses is like, what are you talking about? How do I do that? Who's going to make it? Exodus 31. The Lord said to Moses, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 

And I have filled him with the spirit of God. 

Boom. 

With ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stone for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I've appointed with him Aholiab, son of Asamach, the tribe of Dan. And I've given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you. " In other words, I got it, Moses. Moses is all, in the very beginning, Moses is like, I'm not a good speaker. God's like, don't worry about it. 

Let's go. And here he's now, hey, make this thing. I don't know how to make a thing. What are you? He's like, yeah, I got it. Don't worry. 

So if you right now, you don't know what to do or how to do it, don't let that stop you. God has it. Just like you don't know how to make your heartbeat, you don't know how to make your lungs fill with air, you don't know how to make your brain work, you don't know how to do anything, but that doesn't stop you from living. You don't wake up in the morning, you're like, I don't know how to work my heart. Better just stay in bed. You just get up and go. 

Same thing here. You know what to do. 

It's okay, just do it. 

What do you think? You accomplish things on your own anyway? You think anything you've ever accomplished in your life, you did it? Get that out of your head. So why do you think he would not be with you on a mission to glorify him? Because that was Charlie Kirk's mission and God was with him. 

And if God asks you to do this thing, he'll help you. Number one, just do it. Number two, trust in God. I read Psalm 146 this morning. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 

Oh, my soul. While I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there's no help. His spirit departs. He returns to his earth like he dies. 

In that very day, his plans perish, boom, gone. The princes here, a good translation of princes is actually just like any influential people or person, people that were more inclined to trust rather than God because they look the part or whatever, but it doesn't matter who it is. The plans perish. Don't put your trust there. Here's the positive turn. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord is God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. 

God made everything who keeps truth forever, keeps truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers. 

He relieves the fatherless and the widow pray for Erica and her two children. And we also pray for those who are blind, so blind to think that Charlie Kirk was a bad person, a racist, fascist, a Nazi, and therefore deserve to die. Oh, have you seen such darkness ever in our country before? Not in my lifetime. The people celebrating the assassination, it's, I think it's as bad as it gets, other than, of course, the assassinating. Beyond that though, I think that's, it's pretty demonic and wicked. 

So God, we pray that we, that you can open the eyes of the blind. And if that doesn't happen, well, the final line, but the way of the wicked, he turns upside down. Bible commentary, Matthew Poole, 1600s, he said, he maketh them to lose their way. He not only frustrateth their plots and enterprises, but turneth them against themselves. He turns it totally upside down. This is the real ending. 

The Lord shall reign forever. Your God owes high unto all generations. Praise the Lord. So point number one, just go. Point number two, trust in God, not in princes, not in you, not anything else, just him. And number three, don't be discouraged by the wicked. 

It said right there what he's going to do to them. I'll turn their plans upside down. Ecclesiastes 8 .10. Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness. And they were forgotten in the city where they had done so, where they had so done. They forgot, like everyone forgot them. 

He said, this is also vanity. Now I've heard a couple of different interpretations. One interpretation is that they died and they, the people forgot even the wicked things that they did when they were alive. But I've also heard that just the people themselves, like the wicked people who sought so much for fame and glory, like who? They're gone. 

People forget about them. But here's how it goes on. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. If we got what we deserved instantly, it'd be over for us. It'd be over. So I just talked about this yesterday in Romans 2. 

There's a part in Romans 2, well, let me pull it up here. Should I quote it properly now? Romans 2. Hmm, here it is. Or do you suppose, oh man, do you suppose, Mike, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and his forbearance and patience? 

Presume means to preassume. Do you preassume that because he's so kind to you and so patient with you and is showing you such forbearance, forbearance means not giving you the punishment that you deserve. Like if you get forbearance on your mortgage, it means you don't have to pay the mortgage for a couple of months. So forbearance on your sin. Oh, you presume that because, uh, that God hasn't, that he's showing forbearance. He's, he hasn't yet given you the punishment for your sin, that you're good. 

And Paul says, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. And because you're not, you're storing up wrath for God. When God's judgment is revealed, you're storing up wrath. We know about storing our treasures in heaven, but have you ever thought about storing your wrath up? Because that's what you're doing by not repenting. God's kindness, God not showing you immediate punishment for every sinful, wicked thing you do right now is to lead you to repentance. 

It's not to affirm. what it is you're doing. And here it is in Ecclesiastes 8, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the hearts, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 

I'm good. 

I did an evil thing and I'm fine. Nothing bad happened right away. So I'm going to keep doing it. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged. Like here's this wicked person over there doing horrible things all the time. What are they doing? 

How are they getting away with it? God, why are you letting him get away with it? Yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God. It's like, I don't know why they're getting away with it, but the ones who fear God, it'll be well with us who fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow because he does not fear before God. Don't be discouraged by the wicked. 

Justice will fully be served. If not on this earth, in this life, then in the afterlife. Three thoughts. I don't know if they're helpful for you right now. It's still a bit of a whirlwind. And what happens next? 

Politically, don't know yet. What happens next spiritually as a nation? I pray it's bigger than anything we've ever experienced before. Because I'll tell you this, all the biblical stuff I've ever talked about on the radio, it's all like basic Bible 101, standard, normal, every American in history until like 50 years ago knew it. And like only the last 50 years. years can you talk about the stuff and people are like, what are you talking about? 

Stop Bible thumping. Everyone knew this. Everyone believed this. Everyone lived this way. Everyone knew this was true. And we just forgot it the last 50 years. 

And then we wonder why things are so screwed up. So I'm excited for all of that stuff to come back. All the basic, we are a Christian nation. So all of this basic Christian nation founding principle values to come back into America, we'll be so much better off. So don't be afraid. Don't be afraid anymore. 

Just go. Trust in God, don't be discouraged by the wicked. Slater Radio on Twitter and Instagram. And my personal email is slaterradio at gmail . com. And then a transcript or commercial free on the website, mikeslater .

Charlie Kirk said he wants to be remembered as a man who had "courage for my faith". I have two suggestions on how we can be remembered in the same way.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. What a difficult week it's been. I want to say a few words inspired by Charlie Kirk. I believe there are five main lies from the father of lies, Satan, that they probably started on college campuses. We know they fester on college campuses and have exploded out of college campuses. 

Five main lies. First, who are you to say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my truth. We'll start with these three. God made the good, the beautiful, and the true. That's what we stand for. The good, the beautiful, and the true. 

Satan came in and speaks to the opposite of this. What is good? There's no good. Who are you to say what's good? Who are you to say what's bad? Who are you to say? 

No such thing as beauty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And there's no such thing as truth. Only my truth. Fourth great lie is evolution. There's two reasons it's so wicked. 

The beginning and the end. Evolution demands the denial of a creator. It's the first thing. But then if you carry on with evolution, you keep going down that road. It leads to nihilism because if we're just here randomly, then nothing matters. How could it? 

Nothing could matter. The evolutionists deny creator at the beginning, but then if you keep going down it, there's no point to anything because just was a big bang out of nowhere for some, something came out of nothing. And then an amoeba formed and an amoeba turned into a frog and a frog somehow turned into a monkey and a monkey turned into a frog. And there's just like things in our brain, like chemicals in our brain that make us feel certain emotions at different times, but that's it. It's all random. So nothing can matter. 

Nothing is good. Nothing's beautiful. Nothing's true. It's all random. That's nihilism. Nothing matters. 

Five lies from Satan. Very dark. Now, Charlie Kirk would go into the belly of the beast and speak the truth on all of these things. He'd say, there is a creator and Jesus is Lord. There is such thing as truth. Like a man can't turn into a woman, a woman can't turn into a man. 

There is goodness. You should live a proper life. There is beauty. I think he spoke mostly of beauty as being married and having kids. Like, oh, it's so joyful and wonderful and beautiful. And you should find purpose in your life, all the way from a meaningful job to serving others, providing for your family, and of course, living a Christian life. 

So he went into this dark place and was a light for the truth and for the gospel. And when you're a light and you go into a dark place, People don't like that. John 3 19 says people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. That's the root of the darkness that's in our country. It's, it's believing those five lies that are prevalent. Most people believe them. 

Here's what I want to share that I haven't yet shared on Sirius XM. Charlie Kirk spoke with confidence. I've been reading this sermon from Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, the father of the Great Awakening in America. It's from 1739. It's called, The Importance and Advantage of a Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth. 

Why does it matter to know God's Word? Why does the truth matter? Like he wasn't even, today we have to say there is a truth. At least he was, like the people he was talking to knew there was a truth and he's just arguing why it matters. Why is it important? Why is it important to know the truth and to keep learning? 

I pray that out of Charlie's death, because he was asked how he wants to be most remembered. And he said as a as a Christian, Christian man, I pray that out of this people go to church. My challenge has been on the radio. If you don't yet go to church every Sunday for one year, one year, sit in the pew, listen to God's word. Don't complain about the people around you. Don't complain about them being weird. 

Don't complain about people looking funny. Don't nitpick every single thing that you would do differently that you don't like. Sit there for one year and talk to someone every single day. Every Sunday you're there. Talk to a different person. That's it. 

and see how your life is different. Now, for all of us who go already, the challenge is to grow in your faith deeper, much, much deeper, to no longer be satisfied with the basics, to no longer be satisfied with milk, but strong meat. Hebrews 5 .4 says, but solid food is for the mature. Now, why does this matter? Why do we want to be mature? Why do we want solid food? 

For those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to do what? To distinguish good from evil. We need to be able to distinguish good from evil. from evil. So Jonathan Edwards. that every Christian should make a business of endeavoring to grow in the knowledge and divinity. 

His first point he makes is if you don't pick up your Bible, then it's the same as having a Bible that's written in Chinese. Doesn't do you any good either. Anyway, got to pick it up. He said, if you don't read your Bible, he says, without knowledge and divinity, none would differ from the most ignorant and barbarous heathens. The heathen remains in gross heathenish darkness because they're not instructed and have not obtained the knowledge of the truths of divinity. So it says, don't be like a heathen. 

You are no better than them if you don't read God's word. He said, Christians ought to, uh, excuse me, ought not to content themselves with such degrees of knowledge and divinity that they've already obtained. It should not satisfy them that they know as much as is absolutely necessary to salvation, but should seek to make progress. Knowing the bare minimum is good. Let's want more. Read the Bible. 

Jonathan Edwards says, read the Bible. Revelation 1 .3 says, blessed is he who reads the Bible. and those who hear the words of this prophecy. Blessed are you who reads. Are we grateful for our life? If after watching the assassination of Charlie Kirk, does it make you grateful for life? 

I was away. The wife and I were away on a little trip for about three days or so. I got home yesterday. We're so excited to see the kids. Plane landed, there was some traffic, and I missed the first half of Jack's soccer practice. I'm Jack, the coach of his team. 

The assistant coach held down for it for the first half hour and I got there in the middle and I was walking to the field and I didn't know how Jack would respond. He's eight years old, almost nine, and he's got his teammates there, his friends, right? And he saw me and he just booked it and ran to me and jumped in my arms. And I was like, oh, this is amazing. I don't know how many of these I have left. I don't know how many I have left. 

You don't get a warning. Your eight year old's not like, hey, I'm only gonna do this four more times. You don't know. And I'm hugging him and it's wonderful. And I had a thought, of course, of Charlie. And maybe you've seen the video of his four -year -old daughter when he was on Fox and Friends running across the set. 

Daddy! 

And jumping in his arms. Are you grateful for life? Jonathan Edwards said, When God hath opened a very large treasure before us for the supply of our wants, and we thank him that he hath given us so much, if at the same time we be willing to remain destitute of the greatest part of it because we're too lazy to gather it, this will not show the sincerity of our thankfulness. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for everything you've done for us. So grateful for the life that you've given me. I'm just too busy to read that. Oh, the Bible? 

Your Word? 

I got it. I got it. I got the gist. Jonathan Edwards says, It becomes one who is called to be a soldier and to go to warfare, to endeavor to excel in the art of war. It becomes one who is called to be a mariner and to spend his life in sailing the ocean, to endeavor to excel in the art of navigation. It becomes one who professes to be a physician and devotes himself to that work, to endeavor to excel in the knowledge of those things which pertain to the art of physics. 

So it becomes all such as profess to be Christians and to devote themselves to the practice of Christianity and to endeavor to excel in the knowledge of divinity. That is one thing that I'm getting, that I'm learning, that I've dedicated myself to because of what happened this week. I'll end on this. There's the book I have here. I've been quoting it a lot from 1835, I believe, called Scripture, Emblems and Allegories. And there's a section on fearful and fearless. 

And it ends with this. It says the righteous man is afraid of nothing but sin. So I say this. The first part I was talking about was about having the knowledge, the wisdom and knowing what is true. And my last point here is having the courage to go forth with it. The righteous man is afraid of nothing but sin. 

He goes forward in the path of duty, though dangers grow thick around him. He enters the burning, fiery furnace and grapples with its curling flames. He descends into the den of lions. The king of beasts crouches at his feet. In the storm at midnight, tossed upon the raging billows, he is calm in the presence of the God he serves and to whom he belongs. In earthquakes shock, when temples are falling, earth opening, and ruin reigns around, he stands fearless amid the desolation, exclaiming, therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be removed out of its place. 

Descending the dark veil of death itself, he says exultingly, though I through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And when the last enemy stands full in his presence, he sings triumphantly. Lend, lend your wings. I mount, I fly. O grave, where is thy victory? 

O death, where is thy sting? There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the life of Charlie Kirk. And what we do next, I don't know. Pray this can spark a revival. That's my prayer. I know the president is giving him the Medal of Honor. 

our Presidential Medal of Freedom, excuse me, Presidential Medal of Freedom. And I pray that that is such an incredible moment that it sparks something amazing in this country. I don't know. I know the paths will open and we need to be ready and on the lookout. In the meantime, let's grow in our knowledge of God and our love of God. And let's have more confidence in spreading the word. 

MikeSlater . Locals . com, transcript commercial free on the website, MikeSlater .