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Rick: Hi, folks.
Welcome to Safe at Home.
This is Rick.
And we're starting at a spot that is one of my favorites.
We've started another show at this location.
We're right next to a cornfield.
In fact, I'd like to turn the car off, roll down the window,
and just see if you can hear the rustling of the corn with us,
and the chirping of the crickets.
Just holding still, listening to the sounds of nature.
But just holding still and listening to God, too,
and really soaking in His truths.
That's what we try to do on this show
and when we take our drives for this show.
Philip is my helper.
[car engine starting]
So let's move forward.
You don't have to, of course, go out into nature,
near a cornfield, to listen to God,
because He's there if we say "Yes" to Him
and let Jesus live in a very real way here.
I mean, we can be in the middle of a large city.
It's the same.
But it is nice to just come away, just come away and --
I don't know --
cut down on other competing --
what word do you want to use --
"stimuli"?
Anyway, we're going to take a drive here.
And Philip, again, is going to be faithfully
manning the cameras.
And a few things that are on my mind --
one of the most simple things is buckeyes.
Earlier today, I was out walking with Peter and I found a few.
And it really made me think of my own boyhood days.
He's 12.
I can remember when I was maybe 10,
finding buckeyes in the vicinity of my boyhood neighborhood.
It was just so exciting, just to find them.
Peter is thrilled about them.
They're flat on the bottom.
Many of them are.
And he's trying to figure out the best way
to use these buckeyes to make something or do something.
And it was beautiful.
Today he was out there by our creek behind our house.
I really appreciate it, since we moved out into this land,
this cornfield, upon which we built the house.
It adjoins a creek, and that creek has rocks.
And there's something happening all the time,
because if it rains a lot,
it's bringing logs and all sorts of debris down the creek.
It never changes.
It's almost like a living person.
Other times, after a drought,
it can be completely dry.
Now, after some recent rains after a drought,
it's about four inches deep in places.
It can be frozen over in the wintertime,
and the kids like to slide on it.
Anyway, I was down there today.
Mom happened to be there -- Cathy -- with me,
and we were watching Peter collect buckeyes.
And it just touched our hearts.
Of course, we're running out of little kids.
He's our second youngest.
He's 12.
David is nine.
I mean, it's hard to believe,
because we entered our marriage adventure with the decision
to welcome life as He saw fit to give it to us
and to sign on for the full voyage.
And this is what happened.
We weren't given any more sons or daughters after David,
who's now nine.
He came along on --
he was born -- our 14th --
on Mom's birthday nine years ago in 2003.
So anyway, just rolling down, reflecting upon these things.
And buckeyes kind of ties into one of the things
I was going to talk about.
In past shows, we've tried to keep a balance,
talking about little things and big things.
And now I'm going to talk about simple things,
because most of our lives revolve
around the most minute details.
I mean, if you're working at a job or just taking
care of the household, the lawn --
I mean, if you're anything like me,
life itself keeps you busy.
It's sort of like a patchwork quilt.
Here I am, at the age of 56,
and when I saw these sitting abandoned, forgotten,
treated rather indifferently --
nobody really knew they were out there --
just sitting out there by our creek the other day,
I thought to myself --
my heart leapt within me.
And I've had all kinds of adventures, thankfully,
of watching 14 of our children be born.
And we've watched -- we've built the house.
And opportunities to do the Softball Classic,
play ball with the Cardinal players
who come over and play on our team
as a member of the FamTeam softball team on Classic dates.
We've been on TV -- on national TV and national newspapers.
But it never replaces just the simplicity of everyday life.
And when I walked along the creek
the other day and saw these,
my heart leapt for joy, because --
A, because it hearkened back to my own childhood days
and it made me think of Heaven --
just hanging out in God's Heaven, exploring things,
walking by His streams, by His beauty.
It must be so beautiful.
And then secondly, just thinking of how excited Peter would be
when I would show him these.
And it worked.
He was.
And the gleam in his eye when I showed him these,
the reaction viscerally --
he had a physical reaction -- his body language --
made me rejoice that he's not too grown up
to appreciate something like this.
And there's a related question --
maybe I'll turn right --
a related thing here.
And I'll talk about that after this break.
But just remind me to talk a bit about Paul, and John,
and some of the older guys in relation to these buckeyes
and the thing I learned with Peter.
Be right back.
[car alarm beeping]
Rick: Whoa. 50 miles to empty.
I didn't know that.
Did you, Philip?
I have a gauge on my vehicle.
It says 50 miles to empty.
It quietly reminds you of that.
And then if you don't listen, then you just run out of gas.
So I'll try to pay heed to it.
Hopefully, we can get this show in before we run out of gas,
out in this lonely area,
in which there aren't any gasoline stations.
But we were talking about buckeyes,
and I was talking about the older guys.
The guys are so talented.
I mean, I'm just -- I'm prejudiced.
But they can do so many things --
technology, with sports --
just creative, smart.
And yet I see that as the years go by,
that they become, in one sense --
well, in one sense, more and more skilled,
more and more hitting their peaks,
able to compete in the marketplace,
run their businesses,
reach out to people, be articulate.
But in another sense,
their hearts are becoming more and more --
as they grow closer to God and more filled with Jesus,
everyone in our family is becoming more and more --
I can see --
soft in heart, in a good way.
But as anyone grows more close to Jesus,
you become more fresh, and more alive,
and more childlike, in a good way --
not childish.
But more alive, and more anointed, and more --
I don't know --
more ready for Heaven --
more comfortable in that atmosphere.
And that happens --
I've seen that over and over in Christian groups,
and in my own life, and in the Scriptures, too.
We see, for example, Zacchaeus.
He was so sophisticated and so clever,
tricking people out of their money,
probably very successful in the sense --
in that sense, in a worldly sense.
And then he sees Jesus,
and in almost a childlike, exuberant way,
invites Jesus to come to his house.
And then Jesus perceives that Zacchaeus has found salvation,
has accepted Jesus, has repented, basically,
has turned his life around, has been --
his heart melted.
He changes.
He collapses, in a good way, and surrenders.
And Jesus then rejoices,
because after Zacchaeus vows to pay fourfold
anyone whom he has wronged,
Jesus sees that as --
"Salvation has come to this house" --
at least as one of the signs.
And I see the exuberance, the freshness of Zacchaeus.
Or I see it with Paul.
Paul was so stone-cold before his conversion,
kind of harsh, kind of rigid with Christians,
very old, in a way, very stodgy, very --
like a baseball glove that hasn't been oiled.
You leave it out all winter.
But after the anointing of Jesus,
that oil comes upon him.
He's soft.
He's supple.
And when you notice yourself
being like an old baseball glove, leathery,
even as a Christian,
something's wrong.
You might think other people are the problem,
but that's not the problem.
It's you.
There's no excuse for us not to go back and get more oil.
We can't blame it on circumstances, other people.
One of the most freeing things that you'll ever find --
any of us every find is the truth that our joy,
our contentment, our happiness
doesn't have to depend upon circumstances or other people,
that it's a commodity that only God can give --
that love, joy, peace.
And in a sense,
there's no delay necessary for happiness or contentment.
We all have seen that --
and if we could just own this truth --
that people who are rich, famous, have it all,
can exist in that environment and not be happy,
and we have seen the opposite.
In fact, I remember Derek Prince once saying --
and maybe it's about time to go to another break.
Are we yet, Philip?
He kind of shrugs.
Maybe.
Borderline?
Well, just remind me to talk to you about Derek Prince
and some of the folks that he saw in third world countries,
and the way they inspired him.
Be right back.
Rick: Hey, 46 miles to empty.
That's not bad.
We're in the third quarter of the show.
And if we conk out somewhere in some lonely stretch of Illinois,
we'll continue to talk.
We'll continue to --
we'll just continue to do the Safe at Home show,
so don't worry.
Anyway, we were talking about, in the last segment,
Derek Prince -- the late Derek Prince.
And he once said,
in one of his many conversations he would do --
and I used to listen to those as I would drive.
He had a cassette tape series
that he would disperse to people,
and in the '70s, '80s, they were listened to a lot by Christians.
Whoops.
That person, I think, turned left maybe without a blinker.
Maybe a late blinker.
That's why you always have to check.
When I was young and more naïve, I would not double-check,
but I'm glad I did there.
But back to Derek Prince.
He was remarking that among people in third world nations,
he would find such generosity.
They had so little,
and yet they would give so generously
and so freely sometimes,
as compared with people in the West.
And he wasn't disrespecting people in our culture.
He was just noting something.
He and others have also noted that the Holy Spirit,
and the gifts of the Spirit,
and miracles seem to be so much more easily received
in cultures that are characterized by one thing --
people don't have much.
And that makes sense.
The more space you have for God,
the more you'll appreciate Him.
But in our culture, people might try to fit God in.
Even -- I mean, we have to really be careful.
We might try to fit Him in.
And there are so many Bible-reading programs,
so many things --
so many ways to supplement your life with a little Christianity.
It could substitute,
it could be almost like casually dating God, so to speak,
rather than being completely married
and surrendered to Him, one-on-one.
Does that make sense?
And I have found a dynamic.
And this was also mentioned by Charles Finney,
the man whom God used for revivals in the 1800s.
We've talked about him before.
In the northeastern United States --
in the Boston area, western New York --
he found that the folks in Boston,
in the more sophisticated regions of our country --
and this was in the early 1800s --
they had a hard time receiving the simplicity of the message
that God had chosen to reconcile Himself to a fallen race --
men and women --
through a carpenter dying on the cross --
a Jewish carpenter dying on the cross.
They had a harder problem with the simplicity of that.
They had a harder problem with the --
they had a tough time grasping absolutes
like Heaven and Hell forever.
They had -- they would just --
they liked doctrines that
tended to soften those truths a little bit,
and had a harder time.
They wanted to filter everything intellectually a little bit,
wanted a little bit more of a sophisticated message.
And it was the seat of sophistication,
the leading edge of culture within our country.
And people had a lot more to lose by coming to Jesus.
They didn't want to appear foolish.
At most, they might be a little like Nicodemus at night,
who would cautiously check things out.
And it's silly to worry about what others think,
because we're --
it's been said -- and we often talk within our family --
life is like high school.
Well, if you've been out of high school and you've moved on,
you see how --
you look back and you say,
"That was foolish, to make such a big deal
"about who was dating who or who's cool."
I mean, that evaporates so quickly,
even within high school,
but certainly post-high school, it evaporates.
And of course, now it's been how many years
since I've been out of high school?
Going on 40.
And it's completely silly to think that
that is important, that culture.
It's gone with the wind.
It's just a little, misty time within my life.
And yet this world is like that compared with eternity,
and yet we get caught up with who's considered cool,
who respects --
"Are you in the cool group?"
It's a silly thing.
And we'd better just lead and let the Spirit just --
[makes whoosh sound] --
fill you, and you'll be a leader.
I found that in my second year of high school --
well, really third --
I was filled with the Spirit.
I mean, I had believed in Jesus.
And I think I had the Holy Spirit in the sense
that I understood up until that time, the spring of '73.
But as I have often mentioned on our little program here,
I surrendered at that point, and something happened.
And I was just --
I just felt so much love for God and for others,
and the Gospel message became so simple.
And for the last 38 years,
I've been basically the same person, and Cathy, too.
We met at these nondenominational,
Spirit-filled prayer meetings.
It just emphasized --
they just emphasized the basics of the Gospel message,
and of God's character, and of His plan,
and of the Holy Spirit, of forgiveness --
the basic Gospel message.
It's unchanging.
It's timeless.
And I've often said that since that time
in the early spring of '73 --
or middle spring of '73, when I met Cathy,
and was surrendered to the Spirit,
and really understood Jesus in a personal way,
it's been like one long day, in a way.
It's been, in a sense, timeless.
And I think that that's the freshness,
the timelessness of God,
that once we've discovered it,
it's so simple that it doesn't need to be improved upon,
it doesn't need to be changed.
He did it right the first time.
As we coast down this bluff road at sunset,
I'm going to go to a break,
and then we'll wrap things up when I come back.
Rick: Hey, welcome back, folks.
You know, there are so many other
programs on other channels.
There are Internet sites.
There are things you could be doing.
Why are sitting here watching me drive down a country road?
I mean it.
I mean, I don't know why I even do it in the natural.
I could be out earning money,
or building a business, or doing something,
but I have to do it.
And you might feel the same way.
These things warm our hearts as we talk about them, don't they?
Do you find that same thing?
They warm our hearts.
Just like the two disciples,
the two fellows when they were on the road to Emmaus.
Their hearts were just warmed and burning within them
when Jesus would talk to them.
Jesus is being with us now, and He's talking with us.
And that's why whenever I talk like this,
I just feel so energized, alive in the Spirit,
because we're drawing near His fire,
and that's where the healing is, and the power.
We talk about these things and they excite us.
They get into our bones and they change us, basically.
It's like just breathing in healthy --
not just in a --
it's literally breathing in His Spirit
and just having the flow of His blood through us --
an alive thing,
not just a dead, flat doctrine on some printed page.
And that kind of goes back to the buckeyes,
the beginning of this story here, the idea that --
it says in one of the letters of John --
I think the first one --
that His commands are not difficult.
If Jesus told us that the only way that we could enter
the kingdom of Heaven was to become like a little child,
to become like little children,
how then could it be that hard?
But how do you juxtapose that, the fact that it's --
He says you must become like a little child.
Well, that seems kind of easy, doesn't it?
And He says His commands are not difficult.
Well, that seems pretty easy.
How do you juxtapose that with Jesus' statement
that it's a narrow road and few find it?
Well, I think that all is consistent.
I think that as easy as it seems to become like a little child,
and simply obey God, and simply do what He wants --
as easy as that is,
there is a narrow band of people who actually want to do it,
because it is hard.
You have to give up doing things your way.
And in many cases, sort of like Nicodemus at night
or the folks in Boston during the Charles Finney revival days,
there's something that has to be given up with it.
It's one thing to give up personal sin
or to give up a habit,
but it's another thing to sort of publicly identify
with the foolishness of the Gospel,
as Paul writes to the Corinthians.
Now, of course, he maintains that it's foolishness only
in the eyes of people who aren't on the way to salvation,
who don't understand God.
It's wisdom, of course, for anyone who actually accepts it,
who loves God and receives it.
But it is foolishness as seen by the world.
And that's what Charles Finney found in the early 1800s.
It was kind of pooh-poohed
by the sophisticated upper crust of Boston.
Those folks had a hard time comprehending
the simplicity of the Gospel message.
And yet Jesus again found that the rural people,
the lonely people, the elderly, the children
would gobble it up and just storm the gates of Heaven.
And that's what we said earlier about --
sometimes in third world countries
or in places where people don't have that much to lose --
certainly not much reputation
and not much in the way of belongings.
And they see mortality.
They see death all around a lot more vividly.
Within our culture, things are sanitized.
And they see things, and they welcome a savior.
They see, "Wow, He rose from the dead.
"Jesus rose from the dead.
"What? We ask anything in His name and it is given to us?"
Those penetrate their hearts and they receive.
And that's what happened in western New York
during the revival days of the 1800s with Charles Finney.
I'm probably drawing near to the close.
Yep.
Right as I sensed that we were hitting about the closing point,
I looked over and I saw Philip put up his hands,
which means my five minutes are up for this last segment.
And I'm going to go a little bit farther.
Just driving into the sun.
I should really put down the visor,
but that would hide this camera.
I'll just say goodbye.
Here, I'll put my eyes up here.
Goodbye.
Thanks for watching Safe at Home.
Check out FamTeam.com if you'd like to.
I'm going to tape another show in this green shirt in this car,
if I can, right after this one.
See you later.