The President launched his "Shield of the Americas" union to fight the drug cartels in our hemisphere. This is a righteous project that needs to be celebrated. We should be grateful that our founders set up a justice system based on Old Testament principles, so now we can be the model for the world.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective because there's new headlines every day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. Today, we're going to talk about the shield of the Americas. Quick programming note before we get to it, though, this is not my normal background or my normal camera. 

If you're watching on YouTube, we just started a YouTube page, youtube . com slash politics by faith, just Blew past 100 subscribers. I think we're up to 173. Thank you so much for subscribing. YouTube . com slash politics by faith. 

We are, um, we just started recording these and then I went on vacation. Bad timing for recording nice looking videos. Apologies for that. But, uh, our goal is to go on as many trips. I want to show our kids as much about America as we possibly can while they're still young. So we're taking as many trips as we can. 

Right now we're in Southern Utah, Moab, Arches National Park. Kids just hiked, probably did four miles or so, not too much, but they have to go on these side quests and climb every rock they see. And there's just, there's nothing but rocks here. So we're just, they're just climbing on stuff all the time. So we're out there for like five or six hours or so. The parents are beat. 

My wife and I are pretty tired right now. And the kids are outside playing tag. They're fine. Also, there's a little shuffleboard table upstairs. So you may hear some banging. For some reason, the shuffleboard, it's like shuffleboard on the table. 

It's not on the ground, like on a cruise ship. It's right on the table. But for some reason, it's the loudest thing I've ever heard. So you may hear a lot of banging. That would be the shuffleboard upstairs. All right. 

So the shield of the Americas. This is a wonderful thing that needs to be celebrated and we need to know that it happened. Donald Trump has in one year completely changed the global world order. It is indeed a new world order. I know that sounds very scary, a new world order. But what I mean to say is there was an ordering of the world and now it's different. 

It's a new order of things. And that happens, right? Things are always changing. We mentioned the other day, might've been on the satellite show that the British naval fleet is a pittance. of what it once was. There was a period of time, three, 400 years when the British ruled the world. 

Their empire was 25 % of the world's landmass. Their Navy was enormous. Now it barely exists. And they refused to help us with the war with Iran because they didn't want to upset their Muslim voters. Trump, the other day on truth social, he said the UK, our once great ally, maybe the greatest of them all is giving serious, thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That's okay, Prime Minister Starmer. 

We don't need them any longer, but we will remember. We don't need people that join wars after we've already won. So that allyship is changing because it's a different country. It's a Muslim country now. The arrangements in the Middle East are all changing. Iran would be one of them, but all these Middle Eastern countries are now aligned with the United States. 

All the Trump trade deals are all about recentering manufacturing and trade towards America and against China for every country. With the Trump told every country, you got to pick a side, you're either going to pick the side of China or America, that's it. And the countries all chose America. Greenland gives us the control over the North Pole, taking out the Maduro Venezuela, that solidifies our control over the Western Hemisphere. Soon we're going to take over Cuba. 

It's going to be amazing. Now, we have no interest in taking over the world. We just want to make sure, Trump just wants to make sure that the world is centered on what's in the best interest of America. We're not going to go take over Argentina for the sake of empire, but we are thrilled that the leader of Argentina is a huge MAGA guy. So the Shield of the Americas conference, it was a conference with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, which is right next to Venezuela, and they got a ton of oil there, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago. That was it. 

So one purpose of this gathering, the president said, on this historic day, we come together to announce a brand new military coalition to eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region. We're calling this military partnership the America's Counter Cartel Coalition. And then here's a bigger why. So the very specific why is we're gonna work together to eliminate the cartels. The bigger why, the president said, all the nations in this room share the same priorities, security, prosperity, free commerce, and the rule of law. Remember that one? 

That's why together we're forming the Shield of the Americas, a new organization to advance these shared priorities in our hemisphere. Now, first priority, eliminate the drug cartels. The president said, just as we formed a coalition to eradicate ISIS in the Middle East, we must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home. Great, love that. Noticeably, who is? not at the Shield of the Americas conference, was Mexico. 

The president said, as part of our commitment to countering the cartel presence in our region, we must recognize the epicenter of cartel violence is Mexico. I love this president name. the enemy. The Mexican cartels are fueling and orchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere, and the United States government will do whatever is necessary to defend our national security and protect the safety of the American people. Then he went off prompt. He said it all comes through Mexico. 

And I like the president very much, Trump said. She's a very good person. She's got a beautiful voice. A beautiful woman, but a beautiful voice. I said, let me eradicate the cartels. No, no, no, please, president, please. 

We have to eradicate them. We have to knock the hell out of them because they're getting worse. They're taking over their country. The cartels are running Mexico. We can't have that. Too close to us, too close to you. 

But everything comes in through Mexico, mostly. At the same time, all of us must commit to ensuring that law and order within our own nations, and that includes showing zero tolerance for the gang activity, tremendous gang activity. 

Okay. 

I want to talk about law and order here. Quick sidebar before we do the old side quest. This is the equivalent is the podcast equivalent of the kids running off to go climb on that rock. At this conference, Shield of the Americas conference, Trump spoke and then Marco Rubio got up and spoke and he spoke in a very fluent Spanish, which I say very fluent as opposed to like AOC Spanish. Like he's like actually speaking Spanish. Now at the very beginning of the speech, Trump said, he's like, listen, I'm not going to learn your language, which is not enough time. 

He said, uh, but I have an interpreter. And he said, just give me a good interpreter. Interpreter, very important. And I know if somebody is good. This is a little president standup routine. I've never heard this act before. 

He said, I may not speak the language, but I know. I had an interpreter recently that wasn't good, talking to a very strong person from a different part of the world. And I could tell, even though I don't speak the language, I could tell the interpreter was not good. When you go, uh, uh, uh, when I give a long, flowing, beautiful sentence. And in this case, it was a woman and she gave it in about four, a quarter of the time. 

I said, well, their language may be efficient, but it's not that efficient. And I could also tell when I had great interpreters, interpreters are very important. You know, he kept going, this was getting laughs. So he kept going. He said, you have a bad interpreter and you think you're doing well. Boy, did I do a good job talking to this one or that one? 

Was I great when I spoke to Putin today or what? Was I great when I spoke to this president? Wasn't I great? But if the interpreter isn't speaking right or is weak or is ineffective or is just not good, it's not interesting or is not interpreting your words correctly. In one case, we had an interpreter who, when she disagreed with what we were saying, she actually changed it. We considered her a foreign minister, right? 

That's great. Okay. So that was at the beginning of the speech. Then Trump speaks and then Rubio gets up and he starts talking in Spanish and Trump goes back and said, is he better in English or Spanish? Is he better in English or Spanish? I think he's better in Spanish. 

And then he goes, Pete. Pete Hexhead, like Pete Hexhead, you're up next. And Pete gets up and says, thank you, Mr. President. I only speak American. And I thought that was a funny back and forth. All right. 

So back to the main topic at hand. 

Although now I think we could do a segment here on translations. 

That's a good idea. I missed that. Bible translations, what the differences are, what like interesting words in Greek and Hebrew that we don't have the same full English equivalent of that would be an interesting episode. Maybe we can do that. Alas, it's not what I've prepared. We're going to go in a different direction. 

Talk about law and order and the drug cartels. We are so blessed in America with a culture and a system that hates corruption and bribery. Did I say bribery? Bri -bo -ry. In Mexico, where the cartels run everything, they extort businesses, they run entire industries, they have paid off the police and politicians and judges. 

It's a horrible way to live. Horrible way to live. We take it for granted that we don't live like that, but it is the norm in Mexico. So let's go to the Bible. I read a very interesting analysis on what our founding fathers and grandfathers learned from the Old Testament when we, when our founders were setting up our justice system here. And the answer is nearly everything. 

They learned it all from the Bible. Samuel Langdon, he was the president of Harvard in 1774. He of course served in the during the revolution as well. He gave a speech once and he quoted Isaiah 126. And he said, the Bible says, and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, they shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. 

And this is Samuel Langdon said, hey, we need to set up our systems like they did in the Bible. He said, every nation when able and agreed has a right to set up over itself any form of government, which to it may appear most conducive to its common welfare. The civil polity of Israel Old Testament is doubtless an excellent general model. And it wasn't just him, John Adams. He said that the Hebrews had a government instituted by God. They had a judge, the great Sanhedrin, and general assemblies of the people. 

So the Old Testament was the model that our founding fathers used. Even the concept that justice was something that was our responsibility, something that was in our hands, that of course is biblical. Genesis 9, after the flood. says, "...and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Right after that, we'll skip to verse 6, God says, "...whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image." A couple of really important things here. 

First of all, it must be noted that one of the first orders of business after the flood was for man to set up a justice system. This is also the first time in the Bible that God tells humans that humans, you guys, you people, are created in God's image. Because before this point, God dispensed justice, but now humans were told to take responsibility or become partners with God in dispensing justice while here on earth. Also, what needs to be noted is the equality under the law. We think that's an important system in the American, important aspect of the American system. 

Of course it is. That comes to the Bible. Verse six, again, it said, whoever sheds the blood of man, whoever, all people, everyone subject to the law. Another aspect of our justice system that we have in America, and they don't in Mexico, is property rights. And that comes from the Bible. Deuteronomy 24, 10, 11. 

It says, when you make a loan of any sort to your neighbor, you must not enter his house to seize his pledge. You must remain outside. while the man to whom you made the loan brings the pledge out to you. Can't go running in his house. Just take, even if it's yours. In cartel controlled areas, you don't have a business. 

You don't have a home. The cartel owns everything and they will get whatever they want. They will kill you for it. And then do horrific things with your body, like hang you over a bridge to send a message to everybody else. They're not following Deuteronomy 2410. Another aspect would be a jury trial. 

Numbers 35 on the planes of, are you kidding me here? Moab? We're in, the Slater family happens to be in Moab right now at this very moment, Moab, Utah. And here it is in the Bible, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, come on. God said in this scene here, God said to Moses that if someone kills someone unintentionally, then there should be six different cities of refuge that they can go to. 

They will be places of refuge from the avenger so that anyone accused of murder may not die before they stand trial before the assembly. So the accused is protected from the family of those who are killed, from those seeking revenge, right? And they get to go to this place and they're safe until they have a trial. And at the trial, people, their peers decide if it was intentional murder or something that we would call it today, like involuntary manslaughter or something like that. So you have a jury of your peers and you also have innocent until proven guilty. It's amazing. 

All this comes from the Bible and much more, but we need to have a deeper appreciation of this. Our founding fathers set up our system of justice based on the Old Testament. That is not the case in Mexico or many of our neighbors in South America. that are in the shield of the America. Oh, I forgot about the bribes. Um, one more Deuteronomy 16, 18, 19 judges shall govern the people with due justice. 

You shall not judge unfairly. You shall show no partiality. You shall not take bribes for bribes, blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just a nation cannot thrive with corrupt judges. Now we have corrupt judges, right? We have. We have judges that are beholden to a woke ideology that results in them also not dispensing justice properly. 

It's a bit of a different form of corruption, and we need to handle that. It's very important. But it's nothing like what they have in Mexico. So in conclusion, what the president is doing with this Shield of the Americas is excellent and praiseworthy. If we can all work together as countries in this hemisphere, the freedom -loving nations of our hemisphere, with our leadership, the United States of America, with our worldview, with our vision, with our righteousness, which is really just the Bible's example. 

And if we can dispense justice to the cartel members properly, thereby saving the lives of Americans and improving the lives of everyone in our hemisphere, what a righteous action that is. YouTube . com slash politics by faith is where you can watch the video. 

of this episode, and of course, everywhere you listen to podcasts for the audio. Politics by Faith. Good work.

Our president and our Navy SEALs killed "El Mencho". Technically, the Mexican government and the Mexican military did, but...it wouldn't have happened without constant pressure from Trump. We'll give the true story and relate it to Judges 3.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so that we can walk away with perspective and peace. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. The story of the day is El Mencho is dead. 

I'm recording this just a couple hours before the State of the Union address. One hope I have for the president is, among others of tonight, highlighting Team USA, but also throughout his speech, I would like it to be clear about how competent this administration is. domestically, also foreign policy with the operations in Iran, Venezuela, Operation Hawkeye. Maybe he'll mention that tonight in Syria against ISIS. And what happened in Mexico the other day, what happened in Mexico is not getting nearly the attention that it deserves. El Mencho was the highest level cartel leader in the Narco state, just to our south. Brandon Darby is the head of Breitbart Border Chronicles. 

We've been talking to him for a long time, but last year or so, he has said that he will know Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico, is serious about fighting the cartel if they ever do anything that hurts El Mencho. Because what Mexico did is they would keep giving us cartel leaders, but they were all the enemies of El Mencho. So every time they did that, they were helping the person they were most in bed with. Well, they killed him. It is entirely because of the Trump administration. All the actions from the administration of blowing up the drug boats off the coast of Venezuela, of course, capturing Maduro. 

It's one thing to make threats, but now it is clear and the world knows that Trump does not make empty threats. It'll give you plenty of chances, but there's an end to the road. The fact that El Mencho, who thought he was invincible, was taken out by way of the Trump administration. As Darby said, it is a new day in Mexico. El Mencho had his hands all the way through the Mexican administration. Apparently he was very close with their head of the military. 

The fact that this operation could even take place is crazy and that they could pull it off. It's unbelievable. It's honestly, it's crazy. very hard to believe that this could have happened like this. But it's also impossible to think that we captured Maduro without any American getting injured either. But here's one important thing that I want to make clear. 

El Mencho, the name of the cartel was Cartel Jalisco New Generacion. El Mencho was the leader. We now, Breitbart has it confirmed, that instructors from our Navy SEALs went to Mexico with our own equipment and weapons and held some sort of training event, a seminar, whatever we call it, a seminar. But we had our Navy SEALs there helping the top level Mexican army team. And as soon as we met, we took all of their phones and all communication devices to prevent any leaks of information, which happened all the time. And again, this is why it was so crazy that this even happened, because how was communication, how did it exist between Trump and Scheinbaum without Scheinbaum's team who were in bed with El Mencho? 

Scheinbaum was too, but his team, her team, close to El Mencho, they had to not know about this. This had to be an incredibly small number of people who knew this was going down. And how does the head of the military not know that his own military was engaging in this action without tipping off? El Mencho. I hope one day we can know everything about how this went down, what this looked like, where we met, how secretive was this Navy SEAL involvement? Did we meet on an American military base? 

That's not very secretive, I don't think. Did we meet in some remote village somewhere? I would love to know exactly how El Mencho was taken. How do we know he was there? Apparently there was a woman involved, one of his mistresses or whatever met with him. We don't know if she was in on it or we just knew that She was going there, so we followed her and knew where she was and was able to take him out that way. 

A lot of questions. I hope the president celebrates this. I hope this has given a lot of attention to praise tonight. And even if it's not tonight that people still know about it and people know that Trump did this because shine bomb knew it was either our Navy SEALs do it and you have to deal with the political ramifications of that shine bomb or you guys do it yourself and we'll give you all the help you need to do it. We will send our Navy SEALs down there to assist you all, but either we're doing it or you're doing it and this is your chance. Wow, I can't wait to hear more about how that all went down. 

All right, that's the story. What's broken? Every episode we have a what's broken section about this. Well, Mexico and our relationship at the border between Mexico and America has been broken. Bill Malugin, who's wonderful over at Fox about the border. He said, this is a reminder that a vast majority of the millions who crossed the border illegally during the Biden administration were lining the pockets of cartels like Jalisco. 

paying thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars per head to be smuggled into the US. Color -coded cartel wristbands littered major crossing areas as cartels organized their human cargo by indicating who had already paid them. It was a threat. plus year free for all with the cartels earning billions, easily attracting customers with the promise that the U .S. S. government would release them into the country if they paid the cartels to get them across. 

And that's exactly what the Biden administration did in the majority of cases with mass catch and release policies. And he posted pictures of armbands scattered across the desert, like it was like the exit of a concert, right? They're like those wristbands that you would get at the fair or a concert or something or a water park. And they're everywhere, different colors. I don't know if that means like different levels of payment or if it meant like what cartel is getting you across, but all these different colored wristbands from people who are coming across illegally and all of that represented more money going to these cartels, which would then smuggling drugs into America and kill Americans. It's so crazy. 

One suggestion I had for Trump tonight at the state of the union was to replay clips. I don't think he can put like a PowerPoint presentation up there, but at the very least quote Bill Clinton at the state of the union in 1995 or Hillary Clinton in 2008, all these Democrats who wanted to do exactly what Trump is doing right now with the border to hear Hillary Clinton say, we need to deport all illegal aliens who committed crimes gone. You're out of here. No second chances here in Bill Clinton, talk about all the consequences of illegal immigration, which we're still facing today. It would be an amazing play because I think, I think the president should quote Bill Clinton. And what he said about how we got to get rid of the aliens and we got to shut down the border. 

We got to hire more board agents, quote him, have the Republican stand up and applaud the Democrats. Stay seated because of their TDS and then reveal that that quote was from Bill Clinton. So what changed Democrats? Why are you not applauding for me now? You did back in 1995. You applauded Bill Clinton for the exact quote. 

I just read. Why are you not supporting me and the American people today? That'd be pretty good. But let's bring this to the Bible right now. I could quote Romans 13 four, but we're going to save that for the TV show. We're recording it tomorrow. 

I'm going to release it here this weekend. I could quote first Peter two 14. It describes governors that are sent by the King to punish those who do wrong. Praise those who do right. That's good, but a bit too easy. I want to share instead here, a story of divine justice to evil people. 

One story that stands out judges three eight. Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. Oh, Not good. And he sold them into the hand of Kushan Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Kushan Rishathayim eight years. So God gave the people of Israel what they wanted. 

They did not want to serve God. So he gave them over to this pagan king. That name that I can't pronounce means Ushan of double wickedness. So the Jews are under control of this pagan king for eight years before they cried out to the Lord. Isn't that interesting? I wonder what they were doing during those eight years. 

Did they like being under his control? Did they not care? Were they apathetic? Were they numb? Did they hate it? But they just never thought to ask God for deliverance. 

Verse nine, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, that leads me to believe, unless I'm reading too much into this one, that they did not cry out for eight years. But when they finally did, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel who delivered them. Othiel, the son of Canaaz, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel. He went out to war and the Lord delivered Kushan Rishathime, king of Mesopotamia, the bad guy, into his hands and his hand prevailed over the king. So the land had rest for 40 years. 

Then Athenael, the son of Canaan died. So I want to highlight a couple of things. First, the spirit of the Lord came upon him. Uh, that name Athenael, it means enabled or clothed. The idea is here with, with God, with the spirit, spirit of the Lord. So he won, God delivered the evil king over to the Israelites. 

Great. And they had 40 years of peace and then the good guy died. So what did the Jews do? The children of Israel again, did evil inside of the Lord. So what did God do? The Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the side of the Lord. 

Then he gathered to himself, the people of Ammon and Amalek went and defeated Israel and took possession of the city of Palms. So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab 18 years. The cycle again goes on. But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them. Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left -handed man. Why does that matter? 

By him, the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, Ehud made himself a dagger. It was a double edged and a cubit in length. Cubit is 18 inches or so, and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. So this is where the left handedness is important because you would normally reach for this with your right hand, but he was left handed, but it was on his right thigh. So he brought the tribute to the king of Moab. 

Now, Eglon was a very fat man. That's what it says here. It's not me saying it. That's what it says, the word of God right here. silence and all who attended him went out from him. And Ehud came to him. 

Now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber. Then Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. So he arose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. Even the hilt went in after the blade and the fat closed over the blade for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly and his entrails came out. Then Ehud went through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. 

When he gone out, Eglon's servants came to look and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said he's probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. So they waited until they were embarrassed. And still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master fallen dead on the floor. 

I love the part. I love the line. I have a message from God for you. 

I have a message from God on behalf of the people who you are oppressing. 

Now. A couple of notes here. The Bible doesn't say that the spirit of the Lord came upon Ehud. The Bible doesn't say, it doesn't explicitly maybe as the last, the first story we shared there of killing this evil king, but it certainly doesn't rebuke it. But here's what is clear. Wicked rulers often have judgments even before they die. 

We'll all have a judgment after we die, of course, but I'm referring to the judgment of being killed. And we will all have judgment when we die. This is Charles Spurgeon making this story very relevant to you and me. Spurgeon said, God uses many messengers to speak to us, including death. Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. It was a dagger. 

found its way to Eglon, the king's heart, and he fell dead. So shall death deliver his message to you. I have a message from God for you. He, death will say, and before you shall have time to answer, you shall find that this was the message because I, the Lord will do this. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Thus sayeth the Lord, cut it down. 

Why cumbereth it the ground? Set thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live. Oh, may you hear the other messengers of God before he sends his last, most potent one from which you cannot turn away. Spurgeon is talking about, he quoted Amos 4 .12 there and Isaiah 38 .1, prepare to meet your God, set your house in order. Like we have warnings from prophets here and Spurgeon says, there's going to be another last warning, but at that point it will be too late. You will not be able to ignore or escape. 

death. I'm not saying your death's going to come from the Navy SEALs attacking you in the middle of the night like you're on Men's Show, but it's coming for everyone. So let's get our eternity in order. I'll end on a lighter note. 

This is a comedian that I saw just the other day. 

Or is he gonna die? 

If you live... you ain't got nothing to worry about. But if you die, you got two things. 

Whether you going to heaven, whether you going to hell. 

You ain't got nothing to worry about. That's two things. 

Original or extra crispy.

Sports are a part of culture. The left, in their march through the institutions, have tried to destroy the joy we get from sport. Team USA gave us a wonderful show and something to be proud of. It's also a taste of what's to come in heaven.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with some perspective and peace. New headlines every day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here. Let's get to the true story. 

Sorry I was gone at the end of last week. I've been a part of a men's Bible group since 2012 when I first moved to San Diego. And we've met pretty much every Wednesday until I moved away from San Diego. A bunch of us have moved since. The group still meets, the guys who We're still back there, but we all, wherever we are across the country, we all get together once a year, at least. So we spent the weekend in Arizona, catching up and studying the Bible. 

It was great. So that's where I was this last weekend. And I missed the hockey game and I was able to stay away from all social media. I was able to watch the game on the plane, but it was awesome. It's about as good as it gets here. If you missed it, or if you want to relive it, I made a little thing to get fired up. 

The guy who scored the goal is 24 years old. Right before the end of the regulation, he got slammed in the face with a stick, lost a bunch of teeth, kept playing. If that happened to someone in the NBA, they'd be out for the year. Keeps playing with no teeth. Then wins the overtime goal. First gold medal since 1980. 

Miracle on ice, which was the exact same day, 46 years ago, which also happened to be on George Washington's birthday. Poor Canucks never stood a chance. This game was really fun because it had a lot of really important themes to it. First it was just very American and just the grittiness of it, the grind, the Canadian players were probably more talented, the team was more talented, and they had, the expression was, the ice was tilted in their favor most of the time, playing on their toes, and we were playing on our heels a lot of the game, but we just never gave up. Just never give up, never give up, just grinding the entire time. 

And the two goals that we did score were so beautiful. And you could just, every time I see those goals, especially the first one, but I just see years and years and years of work put into this craft, and it was sublime to see the excellence of it, especially at that speed. So that was fun. Also, you had brothers, and I want to get back to this point in a minute, but let me play this clip here. There's two sets of brothers. The Hughes, Jack Hughes is the one who scored, and then you had the Kachuk brothers as well, and here they are at the end of the game. 

Okay guys, you told me you're watching Miracle, growing up, dreaming about this. You're living it right now. How does it feel? 

Hockey's our game. Hockey's the United States of America's game. It's the greatest country in the world. We have the best support ever. Hundreds of millions of people back home. So many people in St. Louis. 

Everyone in St. Louis. We could feel the support whether they're hockey fans or not. Everyone's watching. Everyone better be partying right now. Everyone better be wearing the red, white, and blue for as long as they can. It should be like a month mandate where the red, white and blue in the United States and celebrate us and the other Olympian gold medalists. 

Those two, those two brothers, their dad played on the Olympic hockey team 20 years ago. They were there at that Olympics 20 years ago. I was picturing them as kids. And now here they are. They want to go metal with their dad in the stands. I come on. 

And then the Hughes brothers, the one who scored the goal, there's a video of them when they were like 12 years old and they were asked, you know, one day, do you want to play on the same team? Or do you want to play against each other in the NHL? And the 12 -year -old Jack Hughes is like, nah, it'd be way better if we were on the same team because we love each other so much and he's such a good player, I'd rather we be on the same team. And here they are, they just won the gold medal together. This is.. one of the women hockey players. 

We also won the gold in that game, in an overtime goal against Canada too. Here's one of those players right here. 

What were you thinking when you were listening to the anthem, seeing the flag go up? 

I just, I think just taking pride in our country. I just, uh, it was an honor, uh, to win gold is what we came to do. And getting to sing the anthem just made it that much more sweeter. 

Great. 

Uh, and then she was asked this question. 

So much. Uh, I think, um, the Lord, the most for everything and all of you guys. Um, but yeah, you know, God is good and this is awesome. 

God is good. And this is awesome. I want to play one last video here. There is a woman on the women's hockey team who has two, excuse me, three brothers and her brothers get fired up for the games. They get all decked out, Team USA merch, and they recorded a voicemail message for their sister. And the images are all videos from when she was a kid learning how to skate for the first time and all these different times when the three brothers showed up to support their sister. 

Go girl, go. 

Get those feet under you. Go girls! 

Good girl! 

Hey Bugs! 

Hey Jess! 

What's up with your brothers? 

We've watched you on skates before you could even walk and listened to you talk about your dreams of becoming an Olympian since the first time you were asked. 

Now you're living it. 

You continue to impress us daily. Your ability to handle pressure, your ability to smile through it all, and your ability to love through it all. We are just so proud of you. 

Hey, stick with him! 

Continue to be you through all the externals. Continue to trust yourself through the toughest moments and the highest highs and continue to love and be because you are powerful. You deserve everything that's coming. The U . 

S. 

Women's Hockey team deserves everything that's coming to you. You've worked so hard, thousands of shots, all the hours in the weight room, all the early mornings and just everything you've sacrificed. We're sorry we have to be loud sometimes in our support. We just, we can't help ourselves. We can't wait to cheer you on as you continue to push for gold. Watching you get to live out your dream is a blessing. 

No matter the outcome of these games, it doesn't change who you are. You have three older brothers that now look up to you. You will always be our champion. 

Love you, bud. 

Love you, sis. Love you, sissy. 

You can do it. 

You don't even need the bucket. The video's on my Twitter, Slater Radio, if you wanna watch it. I mean, that's one of my prayers right there, to have four kids who love each other that deeply and support each other. That's wealth right there. How do you put a price on that? All right, let's get to the Bible. 

Sports are good. Does anyone listening now, and if you think this and you've made it this far, thank you for listening for so long, but there's a lot of people who are like, oh, who cares about sports? Who cares about hockey? Who cares about? Sports are a part of culture. We wanna win the culture. 

We need to take the culture back. We have to have sports. The left knows. that sports are important as they've marched through the institutions of our country. They were sure to try and have been successful in many ways to take over sports. This is why they had all these pride nights in the NHL. 

Probably like rainbow tape on the hockey sticks and nonsense like that. It was part of the march through the institutions. Colin Kaepernick. No one ever mentions with Colin Kaepernick that he was adopted when he was like six weeks old by two white parents, given everything in the world, including life. And then he turned around and betrayed them. And Conley Kaepernick himself is mixed race. 

His birth mom is white and dad is black, too. The whole thing is ridiculous. His example of his racist parents that raised him, problematic, is his mom, when he was younger, his mom wouldn't let him get cornrows because she said it was unprofessional. Very often, if you press a black person who says they've been discriminated against, the hair is the issue, their hair. So they'll apply for a job. agree to the terms of the job, which means you pay me in exchange for me presenting myself and working on behalf of your company. 

And then they don't present themselves according to rules and regulations. And they say they're discriminated against. And Colin Kaepernick did it on his poor mom. But Colin Kaepernick was a tool to divide people. And to do that in a thing that unites people is particularly insidious, especially because sports is one of the last things where merit matters. It's merit based. 

but they try to DEI as much of it as they possibly can. Anyway, I digress. Let's bring the Bible into this. This Bible is full of metaphors about sports and games and play. 1 Corinthians 9 .24. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. 

So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self -control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, that gold medal. But we are, by the way, back in ancient Greece, when Paul was writing this, They got a wreath, like a crown, instead of a gold medal. But we do it for an imperishable thing. We do not run aimlessly. 

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Hebrews 12, 1. Let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. 2 Timothy 4, 7. I fought the good fight. 

I finished the race. I've kept the faith. 2 Timothy 2, 5. An athlete's not crowned. unless he competes according to the rules. So lots of sports references in the Bible. 

Sports are also good because it's good to see joy. When the teams win, I'd say both teams won, men and women hockey team, throwing their helmets in the air, throwing their gloves and sticks and jumping into each other's arms. It's good. I don't know if there's like a Christian mentality, you know, be dour or all that stuff. No, it's good to have joy. Now, this is a secular joy and a thing that, you know, quote, unquote, doesn't matter, but it's a taste of the real joy to come. 

It's a partial, it's a little hint of the joy that we will experience when we're in heaven. A true joy that comes from being in union and abiding with God. One last point on play, and then I want to get back to the joy. Zechariah 8 .5. So this is a prophecy when the Jews came out of Persian rule, they're rebuilding Jerusalem, but it wasn't going well. So Zechariah is here to encourage them with a vision for the future. 

So this is Zechariah 8 .5. Thus says the Lord, I've returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city in the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. Each one with his staff in his hand because of great age, the streets of the city. 

Okay. 

So it's like a good future, Jerusalem, joyful, wonderful. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 

Isn't that cool? 

Playing in the streets, fun, joy, play when you, you were to drive around, you see kids maybe playing street hockey in the middle of the street. That's a biblical vision of joy and goodness. These are all just tastes, little hints of the greatest joy that there is, and that is joy of abiding in God and Jesus. John 15, Jesus says, I am the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. 

And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. 

If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the fathers loved me, so I loved you. 

Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. " It is good to enjoy these little moments of joy. And also in the meantime, to be full of a true joy, which is one of the fruits of the spirit. Knowing also that when this is all over, you're going to heaven. 

And because of that, we should be jumping for joy. Like you just won the gold medal. Mike Slater . locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website, Mike Slater .