This trade "war" (it's not a war, that's propaganda) may seem chaotic and arbitrary and inconsistent, but it's not. There's a plan and a purpose.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. We've been talking on my SiriusXM show lately about these tariffs, of course, and how if we want to see through this change, we need two things. First a clear vision of how bad things were. Otherwise, what's the point of changing?
Why go through this trouble? And we have to have a clear vision for the hope of where we can end up. Otherwise, none of this is worth it. So I'm just going to go back to what I know. And yesterday we shared the story of the Israelites. They forgot how bad it was to be a slave in Egypt under Pharaoh.
They forgot that God was with them the whole time, protecting them, delivering them, parting the sea for them, with them every morning with manna at night, with fire guiding the way. Goodness.
And they didn't trust God to lead them into the promised land. They lost sight of how good it was going to be in the land of milk and honey. I think it's the same principle here, same outline. We can't forget that what we had in our economy wasn't working for the people in the country. And if we kept going down the road,
it was gonna lead us off a cliff. And we have to have a clear vision of what good can come from staying the course. By the way, someone sent me this song. It's by Keith Green. I don't know legally how much I can play someone's song on a radio here, but on a podcast, but
here's just a little bit of it.
Here we go.
Here we go. So you want to go back to Egypt Where it's warm and secure Are you sorry about the one-way ticket When you thought you were sure? You want to deliver the land you promised But now it's getting so hot I'm sorry you're out here in the desert Stead of your own backyard Eating leeks and onions by the night Ooh, I'd breath for dining out in style
Ooh, my life's on the skids Give me the pyramids
That is a catchy little tune right there. I'm not gonna lie, that is catchy. Now listen, you're gonna yell at me if you've been around the block for a while. I've never heard of Keith Green. I know, late on me. You've never.
The kids this weekend with the wife went to the play, The Sound of Music. I've never seen The Sound of Music. You've never, what, what? I can't even listen to you anymore. I can't, what Green, but trust me, I will be all in on Keith Green. Or someone sent me this song and it's called,
So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt? And I was like, I don't know what to expect. I didn't expect that. That was awesome. So thank you for sending that my way. We made this point that I just articulated
on the radio today and I played a clip of Oliver Anthony. Do you remember Oliver Anthony? He wrote and sang the song, Rich Men North of Richmond back in 2003. We had a high school dropout, broke, alcoholic guy living in a log cabin in the woods.
Made this song, recorded it, and broke through everything. I spoke to a lot of people. His real name's Chris Lunsford. Grandpa's name is Oliver Anthony. And he gave a speech at this big conference in England. I've never heard him give a speech,
he doesn't speak a lot at all anywhere. But he started off with Ecclesiastes 10, that's a good start. And then he said, he said, I don't know how many conversations I've had with people face to face, probably thousands at this point.
And I realized now that we don't have any clue to how many around us are really broken. How many are silently suffering and barely hanging on more often than not. They start the message with, hey, I'm a nobody, followed by horrors of addiction, mental illness,
financial and household struggles, oftentimes incredibly complicated stories that I suspect they may never have told anyone before. But they still have the hopes of a hopeful future and they don't want to give up no matter what. Then he told the story of the hurricanes back last year and it is native North Carolina. The amazing things he saw that people did when the government failed,
but regular people, the nobodies, stepped up. Here's how he ended his speech.
And while FEMA was hoarding donated generators and denying people on their applications, it was the nobodies of the world that were driving ATVs and Jeeps with chainsaws up mountain roads rescuing people. There was two guys we met that hot-wired a bulldozer from a quarry to cut a navigable path
through a washed-out road in two days that the state said would take months, allowing supplies to people who hadn't had contact with anyone in over a week. Volunteers were working 16 hours a day, taking supplies on everything from horses to helicopters.
It was humanity, there in front of my very eyes. And it was in that seven days in North Carolina that changed everything for me. It was people saving people. Even with lack of leadership, failed protocols, and overwhelming inefficiency from the state,
the nobodies took up the slack. And so I'm just here to remind you that we don't need our false idols. We should no longer rely on politicians who bow down to money to manage our city or our states. We need to find the real leaders everywhere and empower them. Western North Carolina was proof to me that there is an army of good people left in this world who want to do good things.
We just have to give them places to gather and give them the ability to act. And so I'll close with this. Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong, for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. And so, I'll see you on April the 5th in Spruce Pine, North Carolina for the first official gathering. It is now my life's mission to revive rural America one town at a time.
It's called the Rural Revival Project. So thank you for listening.
I look forward to learning more about that, the Rural Revival Project. He started off with Ecclesiastes 10. I look forward to learning more about that, the rural revival project. He started off with Ecclesiastes 10. Let's talk about that today. He didn't say Ecclesiastes 10, which I appreciate. He didn't say, well, let me start with Ecclesiastes 10.
He just said words of Ecclesiastes 10. There is an evil I've seen under the sun, the sort of errors that arises from a ruler. Fools are put in many high positions while the rich occupy low ones. I've seen slaves on horseback while princes go on foot like slaves. Let's go back a little bit. Start from the beginning of Ecclesiastes 10. That's what he quoted. But let's go, verse one. Dead flies putrefy
the perfumer's ointment and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. So you can have a reputation of being wise and honorable, but just a little folly, a little foolishness can ruin that reputation. But I want to talk about this word folly a bit. So it's the most, when I think of following is what do you think of when you think of folly? I think of like an innocent mistake or goofiness, like a luveness. You may, you know, you weren't thinking the Hebrew is more than just a mistake. It's intention is more of a wicked person, someone who's shamelessly
immoral, someone who actively goes against God's Word and God's wisdom. Psalm 14 1 says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. That's a fool. That's more than just folly or silliness or something. The fool said there is no God. Now there's sometimes in the Bible when it does mean a little more of like someone who's mindless or not thinking clearly or something, but I err on the side of, oh, that means wickedness.
Another definition of that word fool is a vile or worthless fellow. All right, so keep going. A wise man's heart is at his right hand, the good one, but a fool's heart is at his left. And when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom and he
shows everyone that he's a fool. Out here's Oliver Anthony's part. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post.
Ooh, how about that?
Don't leave it. Do keep doing what is right. For conciliation pacifies great offenses. There's an evil I've seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler, colon. So here's the error.
This is the evil. This is the error from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity. Wickedness is set in great dignity. While the rich sit in a lowly place. I've seen servants on horses
while princes walk on the ground like servants. So a role reversal is what he's getting at there. So I love that first part. Don't leave your post, be faithful no matter what. And then it's important to know there's a colon here. So it says, as an heir proceeding from the ruler,
so here is the heir. Folly, wickedness is set in great dignity and the rich sit in a lowly place. So we have unqualified people at the top. Unqualified people have been put in positions of power and authority. Unqualified people, but the rich, or you can read here like a qualified person, like a meritocracy, right? The qualified person is down at the bottom, has no power to use their wisdom and virtue for good
Good governance matters Good governance matters in our country. We have a lot to unwind But in the meantime, it's not for us to worry
This is what the media and the left is doing with you right now They just want you to freak out all the time. They want you to think that everything's in chaos, but change doesn't necessarily mean chaos. The analogy I've been using, and I still think it's true, is when you Marie Kondo your closet. Remember that show, the Marie Kondo show? And she would take a closet,
and her method is you take everything out of the closet, and you put it all on the floor and you go thing one by one and you throw it away, give it away or put it back and you thank it. Thank you shirt for being such a great shirt and then you give it away. All right, does it spark joy? That was our, she was, does it spark joy?
And there's maybe a moment where it seems chaotic in the middle, but you gotta get through it and clearly at the end, it's way better. But it doesn't mean it's chaos, it's just a process. If maybe if you walk in on the middle of it, right? If someone else is Marie Kondo in their closet, you walk in, you're like, whoa, what is going on?
But that person as a method, there's something happening here. The Senator from Minnesota, Tina Smith, she was talking to the US trade rep about all this chaos and uncertainty. She said it's chaotic, arbitrary, and inconsistent. Oh, but it's not actually. It's not any of those things, but it will take time to get back to the system that does make sense and it's good for the most people. It'll take a minute to do it, but I think we'll get there. We have a lot to unwind, a lot to fix in our country. So in the meantime, let's take Solomon's advice.
Do not leave your post. And Psalm 37, this is one worth memorizing, fret not yourself because of evildoers. So there's Ecclesiastes talking about wicked people are put in positions of power and they're lifted up as people of great dignity and worth.
And it's, and the Bible says, don't you worry about that. Don't fret, not yourself because of evil doers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, even if they're in those positions, even if you're the prince who's walking the horse and the other person's riding the horse, don't be envious of them for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Do good. Delight yourself in the Lord. Oh, it's so good. So do trust in the Lord, do good. Delight yourself in the Lord.
He will give you the you just delight yourself in the Lord, all the unimportant things fade away. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial all the unimportant things fade away. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on my website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.
