If the One, Big Beautiful Bill passes, there will be no more taxes on tips. Is that fair to people who are paid a salary? Joseph and the cupbearer can give us some insight.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I just heard that we are right around 5,000 downloads per episode. Most over 4,000, almost every episode over 4,000, a couple over 5,000. That's awesome. Very grateful to you for being here and spreading the word. I made a half joking passing reference to the Bible today on the Sirius XM show, but the more I thought about it, I was like, I actually it's not really a joke. It's actually actually pretty right.

So let's go into more detail here. We've been talking about the one big, beautiful bill, one big, beautiful bill may get passed tomorrow as I'm talking right now. There's some back and forth about the salt deductions and all that drama. And there's a lot of problems with it. And we've talked about a lot of the problems. The green new scam subsidies continuing not enough reform with Medicaid. I think the salt gap is too high, but it's a lot of good things with it too. The main headline is no tax on

tips, no tax on overtime. That's what we spent the most time talking about as well. No tax on tips. Got people really fired up. Adam in Connecticut called yesterday and today. This is a hilarious phone call. It's like classic. One of our best phone calls. He told the story today.

He thinks it's unfair, right? He's the guy who yesterday said, if I'm making $100,000 in salary and my neighbor's making $100,000 in tips, he doesn't get taxed and I do, that's not fair. And then today he called and told the story about his wife forced him to go to Disney World and they had to buy this meal plan

where food instead of costing 500% as much as it should, it only costs 400% as much as it should. And they went out to some buffet place and they had a forced gratuity of 20% to the waiter who didn't do anything. He served himself.

And he's like, this is crazy. We paid the waiter $80 for an hour. We didn't do anything. And I just looked around and saw all the money. This guy's making a hundred thousand dollars doing nothing. And he's like, this is not fair. It was a great phone call.

And he got fired up. And my conclusion is good for that guy. Good for him. And the bartenders and the waiters and everyone else who gets paid by tip and now don't pay any taxes on the tips. Great. Good for you. Congratulations. That's awesome. We had a Marty in South Carolina call in and she said, be better, not bitter. I like that. We've got to be better, not bitter. It's okay, we don't have to be selfish.

You may not directly benefit from this victory right here, but your time will come. Got a ton of emails on this point. Richard said, I tell my wife all the time, one of the problems with this country is people's inability to look at a fellow American

and simply say, good for you. It's always about me. We become selfish. Kathleen Romino said, now that some people are getting income tax relief, notice how others are rising up and saying, what about me? Perhaps we're witnessing the art of the deal.

I like that very much. But this be better, not bitter. I like this a lot. Let's just be happy to our fellow American who get a tax break. Someone called in and said, no one's bitter that we're maybe increasing the child tax credit if you have kids.

What if you don't have kids? Oh, they get it and I don't, like whatever. No need to nitpick and only support a thing if it in fact only benefits you. We had a restaurant owner call in yesterday as well and I asked her how your employees feel about this.

She's like, oh, they're all super excited. I said, well, how politically active are they? They said, not at all. They're not engaged normally in any way. But now maybe they will be. Right, you're like, hey, you like not paying tax on tips?

Well, let me tell you about the Republican Party. Let me tell you about the conservative movement. Let's talk about other ways that we can let you keep more of your money. Also, we're benefiting people who are working. This isn't a giveaway to welfare recipients. It's not a welfare program, not a new welfare program. It's a benefit for people who already are working. If anything, we should be taxing welfare, not taxing tips.

Let me make this one point, then we'll get to the Bible. I heard the story the other day of the elephant and the rope. And a man sees an elephant with a rope tied around its leg. And the guy says to the owner of the elephant, what's the rope about? And the man says, oh, that's so the elephant doesn't run away. And the man says, oh, but it's not tied to anything. It's just tied to his leg and then just laying on the ground there.

And the man said, well, when the elephant was young, the rope was tied to a pole and the elephant wasn't strong enough to pull away from the pole. But now the elephant's all grown up, but all we have to do is tie a rope around its leg

and it doesn't even try to run away. And I think we've become so beaten down by the way things have been our entire lives. We're so on autopilot with our government that we're just like that big dumb elephant with a rope tied around its leg. And we're like, oh, well, I guess we're going to be taxed into oblivion forever. Nothing we can do about it.

And here's Trump coming in, a raging elephant with ropes on all legs, bloodied by tranquilizers, that one of its ears shot off, and saying, we're changing everything. Run, no tax on tips, get out of here while you can. And we're back here, we're like another elephant who's actually tied up, maybe we're an elephant behind bars, us salary people.

And I just see this elephant who's now free, or realizes it's free, it's always been free, but it realized it can actually just go and you don't know more tax on tips and we're saying go run just don't forget the rest of us don't forget the rest of us save yourselves just remember us when you're free and I made the joke it's we're like Joseph with the Kings cup bearer remember me when you talk to Pharaoh so you can get me out of here next.

So you tip people who are very happy now, very soon, that you want to pay tax on tips. Great, take that joy, give some to us now. Lower our tax burden as well. So I made that Joseph joke. And then after the show, I thought about it.

And that's actually pretty spot on in a lot of ways. So here's the backstory here. Joseph was in Egypt. Of course, he was about to be killed by his jealous and bitter brothers. Brothers who were mad that Joseph was dad's favorite and got a nice coat. Jealousy can make you very blinded, cause you to make terrible decisions. So we're going to kill our brother. And they say, all right, well, I guess we'll just sell him into slavery and he gets to Egypt.

But God was with Joseph. It says in Genesis 39, the Lord is with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. So he's in Egypt and he rises up and Potiphar's wife then accuses him of rape. So he gets sent to prison. The ups and downs of this guy, it's ridiculous.

He's the height of living in dad's house, then the pit of his brother to slavery, and then to Potiphar's house. He got a nice gig there running the roost and then he did the right thing against Potiphar's wife and then was thrown in prison for it. It's like a real roller coaster for Joseph. So he's in prison and then one day the Kings Baker baker and the king's butler get thrown in with him as well and they were accused, we think, something probably of like plotting against the king. So the butler oversaw

the king's wine, pharaoh, and the baker oversaw the pharaoh's food. Now there's one detail here in this story that I think is most relevant to us other than the don't forget about me and And that's this right here. Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined to the prison had a dream. Both of them, each man's dreams in the night and each man's dream in the dawn interpretation. And Joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them and saw that they were sad.

So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of the Lord's house saying, why do you look so sad today? I think the insight here is that here's Joseph looking out for other people. Here he is in prison unjustly with no hope, no end in sight. And he wasn't bitter. He was better. He looked at these two other guys and genuinely asked, what's wrong? Why are you sad? He genuinely cared about these two guys.

They told him their dream. And Joseph says, I can interpret that. And one of the dreams was you'll be back in the Pharaoh's presence in three days. And that's exactly what happened. But here's the big point.

Within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place and you will be you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner which when you were his brother but remember me when it is well with you and show kindness to me make mention of me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house for indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews and also I've done nothing here that they should put me in

the dungeons. Remember me when you get out of here, what you're going to remember me. So three days pass. Uh, by the way, the baker did not have a good dream. They hanged him, but the Butler was brought back. But how about this line? Yet the cheap Butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Oh, foiled again. Two years passed, two more years. Joseph was in prison.

Amazing, every day, imagine that, two years. It happens all the time when you read the Bible. It's just like this thing, then this thing, then this thing. And it's hard to get a sense of time. Like Jesus went from here to here, and you're like, oh, well a week they walked for a week or right. We don't know that doesn't say that, but that's how far walks distances from

point A to point B. And even when we, it says two years past, we're just like, Oh, two years, do, do then what? It's like, Oh wait, no, no, no. Think two years past, which is probably how long it'll be before another good bill is passed that actually lowers people who are on salary.

But two years. And then Pharaoh had a dream. No one could interpret it. And the Butler was like, Oh yeah, there's this guy. Gee, thanks a lot. Butler. Joseph never says what happens when he sees the Butler again. Surely. Hey man, two years? You forgot? Never bitter. Never bitter, never angry. I don't believe there's any textual evidence of Joseph being bitter in any way, letting it into his heart. We know the

end of the story when he saw his brothers again. No animosity, no hatred, no bitterness, even on those who directly wronged him, even the pot of her, his wife, never sought vengeance, never turned away from God, most importantly. So in conclusion, we, in every aspect of our life need to be more like Joseph injustice after injustice against him, never bitter. And even in the midst of the injustice, looking out for the Injustice after injustice against him, never bitter. And even in the midst of the injustice, looking out for the interest of other people.

Mike Slater.locals.com. In the middle of this recording, I got a text from my boss, 5,826 downloads yesterday of this podcast. I think that's a record. I don't know if we've ever gotten that close to 6,000 so

Thank you again for listening and for spreading the word and growing this podcast and if you think it's important and it's something good Thank you for making it part of your life

The question is: How long has the Biden family known this? How long have his physical health failings, alongside his cognitive failings, been kept from us? Either way, it's an opportunity to talk about something that's more important than our time on Earth.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you very much for being on here this weekend. If I had to make a political connection to today's episode, it would be Joe Biden having prostate cancer. Now, this happened to be announced on the day that the big expose book about the cover up of his health,

his cognitive health by Jake Tapper, which is hilarious. By the way, Jake Tapper. But in the day that this book was released, it What kind of message are you sending to children who have stutters across America? Jake. But on the day that this book was released, it is announced that Joe Biden diagnosed with prostate cancer and they want us to believe that they just found out about this on Friday. Now, I don't know.

I don't know for sure, but I imagine that the hope was from the Biden team that this would distract the American people from the reality of the last couple of years cognitively and people would have sympathy for him and his new physical health issue. But in reality, people can have that, can have that sympathy and also say,

well, wait a second, this means that the coverup was even worse than the book says. Because I don't believe that they just found out he had cancer on Friday. I don't think that they just found out he had cancer on Friday. I don't think there was that. I'm sure he had cancer for years.

Nowhere in the book. I don't know. I haven't read the book yet, but I haven't heard anything about a bombshell claim that he's had cancer for the last three years, but here is Joe Biden back in 2022.

And guess what? The first frost, you know what was happening? You had to put on your windshield wipers to get literally the oil slick off the window. That's why I and so damn many other people I grew up I have cancer and why I can't for the longest time.

Delaware had the highest-

Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's why who? That's why what? I and so many other people know and he's so senile and the media gave him such a pass that everyone just like skipped over that. No one was like, wait, wait, did you say you had cancer?

Or it's like, ah, whatever, it's just Joe just saying stuff. The point I'd like to make among a few others in this episode is that no earthly king or president will live forever and either will America as much as we love it. As much as we love it, we have something else even better to look forward to. We start off every Monday on SiriusXM with Gratitude Monday. And I'd like to share a quote from our founding fathers. And it's pretty amazing that I've lived for 40 years and I've never heard this quote in my entire

life. I love this movement that we've been living under. I don't love it. I hate it actually, that has led people to believe that our founding fathers were not Christian and they did not intend to make this a Christian nation. And, uh, you know, we separate church from state, all this nonsense, absolute total nonsense, but what a lie. And one of the most successful lies that has permeated so much of our American culture.

And one proof that it was successful is I've never heard this quote in my entire life. This is John Adams. He wrote in his diary, 1756. So it's quite a bit before even the revolution. John Adams on a Sunday said,

suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. Every member, every citizen, would be obliged in conscience to temperance and frugality and industry. I'm just going just stop there.

Just that. Just those three virtues. Temperance is moderation. Just being frugal, not blowing your money, working hard. Just those three things alone. Every citizen would be obliged to justice and kindness and charity towards his fellow

man and to piety and love and reverence towards Almighty God. In this commonwealth, no man would impair his health by gluttony, drunkenness, or lust. No man would sacrifice his most precious time to cards or any other trifling and mean amusement. No man would steal or lie or in any way defraud his neighbor, but would live in peace and goodwill with all men.

No man would blaspheme his maker or profane his worship. But irrational and manly, a sincere and unaffected piety and devotion would reign in all hearts. What a utopia, what a paradise would this region be. I've gone my entire life without hearing that quote. Not once, not once anyway. Another one if I may, Ben Franklin.

He said, I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice it is probably is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid such a beautiful line there isn't that great if a sparrow can fall Matthew 6 25 if a sparrow can fall, Matthew 6, 25. If a sparrow can fall, then wouldn't it make sense that also an empire would

need to rise with it, like couldn't, couldn't happen without him. God, we've been assured, sir. And the sacred writings that except the Lord build, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without his concerning aid, we shall succeed in

this political building no better than the builders of Babel." And that didn't go well, the builders of Babel. I was reading Hebrews 11 this morning, Hebrews 11, where this podcast was named after. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it, the elders obtained a good testimony." And it goes through all these great figures of the old Testament. By faith, this is of Abraham, by faith, he dwelt in the land of

promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents, not a house, just a tent because they were there temporarily with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him as of the same promise for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God what city? New Jerusalem. New Jerusalem be a wonderful place America's great America's great but it's no new Jerusalem the one the city built by God. This whole Hebrews 11 is so good. By faith

Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to the place which he would receive as an inheritance and out he went not knowing where he was going. We talked to Wilfred McClay today, he's a professor at Hillsdale College. He's one of the guys in the video series that the White House is putting out called A Story of America and we talked to him today on the radio for like half an hour, he's great. He has a book called Land of Hope. It's a textbook, Land of Hope,

an Invitation to the Great American Story. It's intended for kids in school and teachers, but more adults have read it just because they never got that instruction, myself included. And he made an interesting point I've never thought of before.

He says in the Declaration of independence, it never says what type of government we're going to build. It just says this one's no good. It's like this one, we're out. And there had to be a faith there. Similar to Abraham, where Abraham was way more obviously, but so I'm just going to go. God told me to go. I'm just going to go. I don't even know where I'm going. I'm going to do it. And same thing in our country. We're just, we got to go. This is no good. We're going to do something different and we're going to see God along the way. Last week, we shared the prayer at the opening of the second continental, uh, continental convention. And we prayed to God for wisdom and to bring us to a place.

And he did a place that no people have ever been before. Country like ours. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past age because she judged him, God faithful, who had promised. All of it's only possible with God,

even seemingly impossible things. It's all only possible with God. Nothing, nothing else could happen without God. Gosh, we need that reminder all the time. I don't know why we need it all the time, but we do. At least I do. And as wonderful as America is, Hebrews 11, these all died in faith. Like all these heroes died, 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. were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I just want to say it over and over again. Sometimes I need to hear things multiple times before it clicks. Strangers, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they

would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them and our modern Christian world. Uh, you know, we're told that we need to be bold and not be ashamed of God. And so to talk about Jesus and God and glorify God, don't be ashamed of it, but here it's flipped, it says we should act in a way that doesn't make God ashamed of us.

There it is. Therefore, because of all these things, God is not ashamed to be called their God. He prepared a city for them. Goodness, do I want God to say about me what he's just said in all of Hebrews 11 here, what he said about all these other people. What did they do?

What did these other people have?

Well, they have faith.

And they desired him and they desired heaven. And they knew that the things of heaven were worth way more and were of way greater value and would last way longer than anything down here. Jeremiah Burroughs wrote an amazing book called The Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'm looking for a year here. So it would be mid-

early 1600s. He wrote this, when the heart of a man has nothing to do, but to be busy about creature comforts. So when all you're focused are on the things of this world, every little thing troubles

him.

But when the heart is taken up with the weighty things of eternity, with the great things of eternal life, then the things of here below that disquieted it before are things now of no consequence to him in comparison with the other, the eternal things, the heavy things, the important things. How things fall out here is not much regarded by him

if the one thing that is necessary is provided for eternity." Gosh, that's such a good quote. Rewind, I'm not gonna read that one again, rewind 20 seconds and listen to it again, it's amazing. Here's another one, back to Hebrews 11, by faith Moses when he was born was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. They obeyed God

over man because they knew that eternity was more important and what God had in mind at its door is way better. I love the end of Hebrews 11 the writer's like listen I got to get going here I got got, I can't list them all.

But he said, he said all these people who through faith subdued kingdoms,

worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead, raised to life again. We did an episode last week about how these are our ancestors too. All these people in the Old Testament, these are our spiritual ancestors. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and

scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Of whom the world was not worthy. Amazing, the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And they didn't even get to see Jesus. Like we do. And they never had the Holy Spirit.

Like we do. We have it way better. But we could still have it even better. America's great. It's our 250th anniversary. It's going to be awesome. We're going to celebrate a lot of great things about this country. Praise God. But it's nothing 250th anniversary, it's gonna be awesome, we're gonna celebrate a lot of great things about this country. Praise God. But it's nothing compared to what's to come.

And all the leaders, the great leaders of the world, the not so great ones, they're humans too.

They've all died.

All the presidents, all the prime ministers, all the emperors, all the kings.

But never the king of all the kings.

Mike Slater dot locals dot 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.

The 250th Anniversary of America is a beautiful time to reconnect with our American ancestors. Every day is the perfect time to connect to our spiritual ancestors.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. Last couple of days on SiriusXM, we've done a couple of segments related to education. We touch on it from time to time. We did a segment last week about how kids can't read. Well, half of Americans can't read at a sixth grade level. That's a problem. It's 46%. 46% can't read at a sixth grade level. That's a problem. It's 46%. 46% can't read at a sixth grade level. That's USA Today, so can't read a newspaper.

New York Times is at an 11th grade level, so they're not even close. Half of Americans can't read a menu, can't read a job application. Big, big problem. But then we did a segment on college kids who can't read. And they don't have the will,

but many don't even have the skill. Today we did a segment on AI. It's graduation time across the country. Many kids are graduating high school and college who are illiterate. And they've outsourced more and more of their brain

to artificial intelligence. And I think this is unwise. And I think it will be bad for our country. There's a video a 10th grade teacher made, she's quitting, a 10th grade teacher, she says, kids can't do anything at all.

She says, she'll ask them to write a five sentence paragraph by hand, and they throw tantrums. They refuse, they throw a tantrum, they can't do it. And you have to write it by hand to avoid AI. And the kids just can't understand

why they would ever need to write anything ever or think on their own in any way. There's no will. And after a while of not having a will to learn, then they'll lose the skill. And then what are we?

What is this country? She said her students don't care about anything. There's a professor at NYU who's been trying to AI proof his assignments, again mostly by writing by hand, and he said the students just complain that the work's too hard.

This is NYU. One student said, why are you not letting me use AI? You're interfering with my learning style. One student asked for an extension because chatGTP was down the day the assignment was due. The day the assignment was due.

One said, you're asking me to go from point A to point B, why wouldn't I use a car to get there? This is one professor at NYU. New Yorker wrote an article, everyone is cheating their way through college. ChatGTP has unraveled the entire academic project.

And it's all about students who literally don't do a single thing at all. They just type in the prompt AI and whatever it spits out, they just hand it in. Like one student wrote an essay or handed it, excuse me, didn't write an essay, handed in an essay.

And the opening sentence was, as an AI, I have been programmed to. Didn't even read the first sentence. Like think about that. Didn't even read the first sentence and think maybe I should take that sentence out.

Just handed that in and that's it. It's like, what's the point of this? College, I mean, what is the point of college? One professor said, well, everyone's cheating AI all the time. Let me ask people to write a paragraph

or a paper about themselves. Surely people won't use AI to do that.

They did.

Students used AI to write an essay about themselves. One student said, I spend so much time on TikTok, hours and hours until my eyes start hurting, which makes it hard to plan and do my schoolwork. With ChatGTP, I can write an essay in two hours that normally takes 12.

I love that. That's so good. People think, so a lot of people, most people in America think that you're born good. And this is a very Nancy Pelosi idea that if we just give people more time, then they'll

use it to write the great American novel and they'll become an artist and they'll just use it to help people and achieve their dream. No, they won't. They'll use it on TikTok. This student used a TikTok until her eyes hurt. ChatGTP makes that more possible where in the past you would have spent 12 hours to

write a paper, well now she can do it in two. So what does she do with the other 10?

Tick tock.

Cal State Chico ethics professor says, massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees and into the workforce who are essentially illiterate, both in the literal sense and in the sense of being, like you cannot read, and in the sense of being historically illiterate

and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else's. So here's my idea, and then we'll bring in the Bible. College needs to just go away, all of it and all of them. And we need to just have two separate things. I'm being serious here, I'm like half joking,

but not really at all actually. We need to have two separate things. We camp, just call it camp. Where I grew up in Syracuse, New York nearby, there was a college called Hobart and we called it Camp Ho-Ho. So have camp and camp is everything you want.

It's got the sports teams, you can watch basketball and football games, and you can play in the sports, you can get in murals, whatever, and there's parties, you can get drunk, black out every night, and I don't know, that's pretty much all colleges.

So it's just a hangout. It's a four year hangout, maybe you can go five or six years hangout. But there's no classes, like stop, like knock it off with even pretending. There's no pretending anymore. There's no point to it. Stop with the pretense of school.

Why are we even pretending this? It's a thing. Just call it camp and just do it. And then we'll have other places, and I don't know if we want to call it college or come up with a new name,

and those are for kids who want to read. I heard someone say, why would a monk cheat at meditation? Well, they wouldn't because they want to do it. An artist doesn't cheat at painting. They want to paint. If you're going on a hike, you're not going to take the shortcut because you want to hike. you want to be there. So we just need college to be only with kids who want to learn.

So you have another place called college and the kids who are there want to read Aristotle and they're with other kids who want to read Aristotle. And then the professor says, hey everyone, write a paper about Aristotle and all the kids say, that's great.

I can't wait to do that. I'll write a paper about Aristotle and all the kids say that's great. I can't wait to do that. I'll write a paper about Aristotle that'll help me understand what I read better and deeper and then we'll compare papers and I'll read your paper and you can read mine and we can discuss it. Like that's what college maybe used to be

and it's not at all for anyone anymore. So we just gotta stop with the whole thing and if you wanna go to med school, then you need to go to a med school school and you can take the classes that you want to take so that you could be a better doctor. But this arms race of AI writing papers and then professors have AI that determines

if a paper is written by AI and then we have better AI that can get around the AI, like enough with that arms race, it's never gonna work. It's foolish, just be done with it. College needs to go away, you just have four year camp, graduate 12th grade, you go to camp for four years,

unless you wanna go to actual college, and no one would cheat there, because they actually wanna learn, not just party. When I was in college, we had to read a ton. And, so I was in the very beginning of this AI stuff. I wasn't AI, but it was Google Books

came out when I was in college. So that made researching papers way easier and it messed with my brain because the goal wasn't to read a book and learn it. I could pick out enough things about a book to just kind of throw an essay together and get through.

No one ever fails out of an Ivy League school. It's impossible. You could just hand in whatever slop you want and you'll get a passing grade. No one cares either. It's so cynical. It's all like, hey, prof, listen, I got in,

I'm paying you, you're teaching at Yale, I'm here, I just want the degree, you wanna get paid, just give me a grade and let's just get out of here. That's all it is. But it retrained my brain in some really bad ways. It took me like a decade before I learned to love to read. I would maybe pick up a book from time to time

and I'd skim it, because that's what you do in college. You skim the book, get enough of it to write an essay. So I couldn't get past that. I was reading books all the time and it took me a long time, literally a decade to realize, oh, I can just like take my time on this. I don't have to write an essay at the end if I can just read it because I want to read it. This is a major problem in our country

and we're not gonna see the effects of it for a while and then it'll be too late in a lot of ways. Slater, what does this have to do with the Bible? as an intro to this project that the White House has in coordination and conjunction and partnership with Hillsdale College called the Story of America.

250 years ago, all these awesome things happened in American history. And this is the time to connect to them. This is the time to learn about it, relearn about them, be reacquainted with them, tell them to your kids. This is it.

And so it's weird in American culture. I don't know if this is true with other cultures. We love round numbers like this. So it's now or never, like no one's gonna wanna learn these things on the 264th anniversary of the shot heard around the world, it's gotta be 250 or 300. So I don't wanna wait 50 years to relearn these things.

We gotta do it now, this is it, 250 years. So 250 years ago was Lexington and Concord. So I just wanna take a minute and tell part of the story and then we'll bring it to the Bible and just pause on this moment for a second. You're here because you want to be here.

There's no grade at the end. There's no getting a degree at the end of this. I'm not going to quiz you just because you want to know. And I want to know. I'm so excited that we have that little bit of an extra excuse to learn about these wonderful moments in our history. 250 years ago, Lexington and Concord.

There was an order from the king to the general in Massachusetts to stop the growing rebellion that is taking place in the colonies. So I want you to march 750 troops to Concord to seize a weapons depot that the patriots created. The fact that we had a weapons depot seems we're pretty far along. And we were ready when they came. We talked about Paul Revere a couple weeks ago, but we knew that

they had to fire the first shot. We were not going to be the ones to fire the first shot. Samuel Adams, he says, put your enemy in the wrong and keep him so is a wise maxim in politics, as well as in war. So the Brits tried to take this depot and there were 70 Minutemen in Lexington to meet these British soldiers. The Minutemen, I love that name, what a great name, whoever came up with that is awesome. Minutemen because they had to be ready at a minute's notice. No one knows who fired that first shot. That

shot heard around the world. But then the British yelled fire and a battle broke out. Eight colonists were killed and the news spread fast. The massacre at Lexington. Many colonists from all over ran to Concord. People pouring in from all over the countryside. There was a proper battle against the British there.

The British lost 14 men and they retreated. And in their retreat they were attacked at every turn by the scrappy colonists. Now a couple weeks ago we read, I think we did it here, I know we did it on the radio, we read Paul Revere's Ride, which kids used to memorize. Kids used to memorize it in their brains, not just pump it into AI. They used to know it in their brains,

they used to know it in their heart. They used to know it deep into their bones. It's a long poem, it's a lot to memorize. Maybe that'll be the summer project for the kids. And that poem ends with, this is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere's ride. It ends with, through all our history to the last, in the hour of darkness and peril and

need, the people will waken and listen to hear the hurting hoofbeats of that steed and the midnight message of Paul Revere. And the point here is if there's ever, when there is a moment where we need to summon something deeper into us, we need to look back at our colonists. We need to look back at Paul Revere. We need to listen to the hoof beats of his steed and summon inside of us that same courage and spirit when we most need it.

Because it's been done before. You just read the story of Paul Revere and this is why it matters and this is why we made our kids memorize it. But I want to read another poem today. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1836, the Concord Hymn. This is, this was written for and read at the dedication of the 1836 battle monument.

This is a monument that we put up right next to the most beautiful bridge in America. The Old North Bridge. Give it a search. Search for the Old North Bridge. It's the most beautiful bridge in the entire country. And the Golden Gate Bridge is a beautiful bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge is worth the hype. And the Brooklyn Bridge. I can't wait to show the kids the Brooklyn Bridge. We're going to New York City next weekend. And I can't wait to show the kids the Brooklyn Bridge. I can't wait to show the kids the Brooklyn Bridge. We're going to New York City next weekend and I can't wait to show the kids the Brooklyn Bridge. It's one of the first things we're gonna see the morning after we get there.

We're going right to the Brooklyn Bridge. So we got some great bridges in this country. No, there's nothing like the old North Bridge. And there's a humble monument there and it says here on the 19th of April 1775, 250 years ago, was made the first forcible resistance to British aggression. On the opposite bank stood the American militia. Here stood the invading army.

And on this spot, the first of the enemy fell in that war of that revolution, which gave independence to these United States. In gratitude to God and in love of freedom, this monument was erected, A.D. 1836. That's the inscription. Here's the poem that was read when that monument was dedicated. By the rude bridge, rude, what do you mean rude? Rude means simple, unadorned.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled. Here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept, like the conqueror silence sleeps. Everyone's dead now. In time, the ruined bridge has swept down the dark stream, which seaward creeps. This all happened a long time ago, even though back then it was only six years ago.

On this green bank, by this soft stream, we set today a votive stone. Votive means something offered or consecrated, like the fulfillment of a vow. So we give this stone, this monument here. We set today a votive stone

that memory may their deed redeem when like our sires, our sons are gone. So just like the people who came before us, they're gone. One day our sons will be gone, but we need something here. We need the stone here so that we can redeem their deeds. That memory, we can never forget what they did.

Here's the last part. Spirit that made those heroes dare to die and leave their children free. Bid time and nature gently spare. Bid means we request. We request time and nature. So, spirit that made those heroes dare to die and leave their children free bid time and nature gently spare

the shaft we raise to them in thee Monuments matter I'll never forget Every summer for like three years. Maybe I was like 10 or so around that age. I would go, we lived in Pennsylvania and then we moved to New York.

And for like three summers, I would go back to Pennsylvania and I would stay with some family friends for the summer to swim on the swim team. And it was just great, great memories. And Joe was the dad, tough guy, he's a lineman in Philadelphia.

And not for the Eagles, but like power alignment. And we were, he's a veteran, and we were driving somewhere and there was a tiny little monument. And I said something disrespectful about it. Like, oh, like it's a little, you know, like who cares about that? It was something, I forget what it was,

but you know, something snarky that a 10 year old would say who doesn't understand what's happening. And he was on it. And I don't remember what he said, but I remember his attitude. It was something like the size doesn't matter.

It's what it means. It's what it represents. It's the people that it's dedicated to are what really matter. And actually that's really interesting memory I have because I don't, I remember visualizing it, but I can't remember what they said, but I got it.

Interesting, I got the message. We need to know our history and we need to know it in our heads. We need to know it in our hearts. We need to know it in our bones. We can't AI it.

Now let's turn to the Bible. Just reading this yesterday with the kiddos, Joshua four, this Israelites 40 years wandering in the desert, old generation, all gone. Now it's just the kids. Except for Caleb and Joshua. Moses is dead. Everyone's gone.

Here's Joshua 4.

And it came to pass that when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan so it's the second departing of a river or sea that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying take for yourselves twelve men from the people

one man from every tribe and command them saying take for yourself twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priest's feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight." So Joshua told him what God said and Joshua said that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying, what do those stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were

cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. This happened a couple times, six or so times that we know of in the Old Testament, setting up stones as a memorial. And I love this one here,

because it's explicit that the intent is to provoke questions from kids. We're setting up this thing so that kids say, what's that? What's that about? What does that mean? Why is that there? Who did that? I said we're going to New York next week. We're

taking a boat ride from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Statue of Liberty and then back. What's that thing? What is this big statue thing? Why is that there? Where did this come from? Who built it? Why? We cannot let the deeds of our ancestors be forgotten. And so much of it will naturally, right? Just because, you know, it's, I can't remember everything, but we need to

remember as much as we can. We need to do this in America, our history, our nation, the American story, it's a beautiful thing. But more importantly, much, much more importantly, the story of the Bible, oh, the New Testament, our ancestors, our ancestors.

I feel a deep connection with George Washington. We need to feel a way deeper connection with Abraham. Galatians 3, 7, know then that it is those of faith that you and me, you made it this far. We're at minute 21 of this podcast.

You made it 21 minutes. What are you doing here still? Why are you listening this long? Oh, because you're a person of faith. Know then that it is of those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Wow, you are in a spiritual bloodline. Galatians 3 29, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Wow. All the fathers of the Old Testament are our fathers too. We are

grafted to that olive tree, Romans 11. Parents and grandparents listening right now, make it a mission to teach your kids about George Washington. Make it a mission to teach your kids about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and those who met at the Second Continental Congress and all the stories of America.

Make sure they know all the stories of our country and all the great Americans who built this place. And infinitely fold. Make sure your kids and grandkids know our ancestors. Going all the way back to Abraham, going all the way back to Adam. What a beautiful thing to study

American history and also our spiritual roots to feel a connection to the great heroes of America, but even more to our ancestors in the Bible and to Jesus Christ. Mike Slater.locals.com.

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