Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 43 | God's Sovereignty

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

Amid all this Kavanaugh madness, it's time to take a deep breath and a step back! This episode is a reminder to all of us (me included!) that God is in complete control. I talk through my favorite story in the Bible — the story of Joseph — and what it teaches us about God's power. 10/4/2018 Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.    

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to Relatable. It's Allie, your host. This is a podcast by CRTV. You can subscribe to CRTV.com slash Ali to watch this. So, okay, we have been talking nonstop about Kavanaugh, and I do kind of want to take just a little break, just take a step back, talk about something much bigger, much more transcendent, because I don't know about you guys, but I've gotten super cut up in all of this.

Like, I think that's part of why I'm sick because I'm so distraught over all of this. I've told you guys who follow me on Instagram, just how worked up I've been about it, how anxious I've been, how I've just had this kind of pit in my stomach and I felt ill, like sick to my, sick to my stomach over all of this, just seeing this man's life ruined by unsubstantiated claims. On Tuesday, I played you the testimonies of both Ford and Kavanaugh and how believable they were, but then we went through why only Kavanaugh with the evidence that we have right now is credible. Now, as you guys know, oh, by the way, I'm going to give you a little bit of an update,

as you can see on Kavanaugh, and then we're going to take a step back and talk about something a little bit bigger. But I do want to give you an update of what I have right now. So there's an FBI investigation that's going on, but it doesn't seem to be going in the way the Democrats want it to go. Senator Feinstein, you know, who started this whole thing, put out a statement this week, oh, the findings of the FBI should not be made public. It's too sensitive of information. That is left speak for, oh, this isn't going the way that we wanted it to go. So I don't want this to be publicized.

That's hilarious. I hope to God that they are publicized so we can know the truth. Because at the end of the day, while I have my opinions, while I can look at the corroboration where I can look at the evidence at hand and say, okay, all of the evidence of truth, truth is pointing in Kavanaugh's direction. At the end of the day, I was not there. You were not there in 1982. We do not know, we don't know the entire truth.

So if we're going to have this FBI investigation, which of course I've always thought, I've always thought it's just a delay tactic by the Democrats, but if we're going to have it, we need to know, the public needs to know what they found for better or for worse. If they find, if all of the arrows turn the other direction and point towards Ford's direction, and says, you know what, this actually did happen, then I will have the responsibility to change my opinion. Ultimately, this isn't about partisanship. As much as right now I want Kavanaugh confirmed, if it comes out that he truly perjured himself, that he truly did this thing and he lied about it, then of course, I'm going to say, you know, he's disqualified

from sitting on the Supreme Court and we all should. We should all pledge allegiance to the truth rather than pledge allegiance to one political party. And I'm ready and willing to do that. But as yet, all of the corroboration, all of the substantiation, all of the validity is in Kavanaugh's court. And we absolutely, the public absolutely has a right to see the findings of the FBI, whether it's good for Kavanaugh or whether it's bad for Kavanaugh. So I don't want to hear any of this from Senator Feinstein that this is too sensitive of information. I guarantee you if the findings implicate Kavanaugh, we are going to see every single dirty detail. Now, if they don't implicate Kavanaugh, I wouldn't be surprised if we only see just a select few details or maybe we won't see it

at all. That's just kind of how it goes. And if you've noticed the narrative and how it is being pushed and who it is being pushed by over the past few days about Kavanaugh, you see just how desperate they are to paint him as this belligerent drunk who cannot be trusted and who is unfit to to sit on the Supreme Court. Part of why they are doing that is because they want to make it seem like he got so drunk on a regular basis that there's no way that we could trust whether or not he remembers actually assaulting Christine Ford. And also to say that he lied under oath because he did say he's never gotten drunk to the point of passing out. He's never gotten drunk to the point of blacking out. He's never gotten drunk to the point of misremembering things.

And there are people coming out saying, well, actually he drank a lot. lot. But it's going to be very difficult to prove that he didn't actually black out and that he indeed, or that he did black out and that he did lie about that blacking out because it's so subjective. How can someone else say that someone blacked out? That'd be very hard to do. But that's the narrative that they're trying to push. One, that he was so drunk that he probably did assault her and just doesn't remember or two, that he lied about it and that he got drunk all the time and that he didn't remember anything. He did say under oath that he drank too much. But like I said, he did say that he never drank to the point of passing out.

And so that's what the FBI is trying to figure out right now. But the narrative that is being pushed on social media and by the media is, see, he's just this belligerent drunk. There's this story that is headlining across everything about him throwing ice in 1985. So I think that would have been when he was in college. He threw ice at a bar fight. And that shows how he's just a horrible person. It's just, it's hilarious. Really, ice, ice. And you're going to say that that means that he's some bad guy.

Also, this whole argument is very disingenuous saying, because some people are saying because he used to be belligerent and because he used to be a drunk, well, that makes him unfit because character matters. Well, we have the past 30 years of his record to show that he is the right temperament that he is one of the most qualified judges to ever be nominated to the Supreme Court. He has sat on the second highest court in the land for years. He has been doing this for decades. And people on both sides of the aisle say that he is impartial, say that he is kind,

that he is fair, that he is a good, smart, thoughtful judge. Both sides of the aisle, by the way. But we're going to say, oh, let's just forget all of that. Let's look back 35 years and say, oh, no, he's unfit. How many of us would be unfit if we were judged, unfit for anything, if we were judged by what we did in high school? I would never get a job again. Just be, I mean, I didn't drink in high school, but I was just stupid. Like, I'm sure I said stupid stuff in high school and college that could implicate me for anything now. We all do. Um, because we're idiots.

So like I said, if he lied about all of this stuff, that's one thing. I do think that that's disqualifying. If he had a pattern of sexual assault, I think that that is just. qualifying. But as of now, we don't have that evidence. And yet the media and social media, Twitter included, is pushing a narrative and helping push a narrative to change public opinion. So you will call your senator and have your senator vote now. I hope Republicans are seeing through that. I hope conservatives are seeing through that. I hope you see that this is a giant smear campaign against him. They do not care. They don't care about ruining his life. The media is really working overtime, but Mitch McConnell, he's the majority whip in the Senate.

He says that they are going to vote that they are, you know, the Democrats are moving their goalposts, which they absolutely are, but their real goal hasn't changed, which is to leave this seat open until 2020. So I just wanted to update you on that. And oh, by the way, if you have not seen the interview, the NBC interview with Julie Sweatnick, who is Michael Avanotti's client, who says, that she witnessed Brett Kavanaugh gang raping. You should absolutely watch it. I think that helps change the tide for Brett Kavanaugh in Brett Kavanaugh's favor because

she was so clearly lying. It was so obvious. There's a, there's a clip of it up on media. Her body language, awful. She couldn't remember what she said in her sworn testimony and she actually contradicted her sworn testimony, which is against the law. So I think she needs to be punished for that. It needs, we need to figure out who's actually.

telling the truth. She said in her sworn testimony that she saw Brett Kavanaugh actually a part of this gang raping group and she saw him spike punch. And then in the NBC interview, she said that she doesn't really know that, that he might have just been by the people doing that, but he definitely was close to it. So which one is it? Plus, she couldn't even remember when she decided to come out about this. She also has other things against her like falsely accusing men in the past. I think that she is a psychopath. Every woman knows a Julie Sweatnik. If you watch this interview, you're like, oh yeah, I've known a Julie Swetnik before. I mean, this is someone who is clearly untrustworthy, clearly shifty. So that really has helped. Thank you so much, Michael Avanotti, for helping

Kavanaugh get confirmed. I really appreciate that. Okay, I know I said that I was going to take a step back from all of this. And we are. We are. I just wanted to keep you updated because, like I've said before, this is the most politically significant moment in our life. for those of us who were, especially for those of us who were born after 1991 when Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill happened. Everyone that I've talked to, apolitical and political, has been just totally wrapped up in this, in this whole thing. It's just, it's a fascinating moment in political history. If you haven't paid attention yet, I encourage you to go back a few episodes, follow along on what I've been talking about with the, with the whole process, and watch the

testimonies for yourself. Read the evidence. Read Rachel Mitchell's assessment of Ford's testimony. Read it all. And decide for yourself. Don't let me tell you. Decide for yourself. I'm very confident that the evidence is in Kavanaugh's decision or in Kavanaugh's direction. Just have to take a little bit to think about it. Okay. Okay. So now that we're done with Kavanaugh for today, I want, I just want to remind all of you, what I've had to remind myself, Even though it sounds so ridiculous because it's just politics, why are we so involved in it? Why are we so caught up in it? Why are we so obsessed?

Why do we let it kind of control our minds? But I've been guilty of allowing that to happen. Even though this whole Kavanaugh thing is so significant, it's not worth, it's not worth overtaking my mind and overtaking my life. It's not me worth actually getting sick over. Like it's one thing to worry about it. It's one thing to be interested in it and to, you know, pay attention to it. it. It's another thing to be so focused on it that I lose focus on the things that are more important.

And that is what I've allowed myself to do over the past week or so. And it's not good because, you know, it affects your mental health. It affects your relationships. It affects your relationship with God, most importantly. And so I just want to encourage you who are listening to this, whom I have, I have probably been guilty of working you up over the past week. And maybe some of that's good. but you need to care a little bit more and not be apathetic. But I do not want to be responsible for your anxiety. I do not want you to finish my podcast and be like, wow, every time I finish Ali's podcast, I am just so angry or something. And I don't think that that's the case. But in the past few podcasts, maybe so. I just want to remind you as someone who is responsible for informing some of you

and educating some of you on what's going on, the more transcendent reality and the more important reality is that God is in control. And something that I have to remind myself is that he's not just in control in the sense that he comes in after the fact to clean everything up. Like God is not an ambulance. God is not a janitor. He doesn't come in to fix the mess or to clean up the chaos. He's not here to solve problems. He ordained all of it. He is in control of all of it. Like God, this is Miriam Jordan, who is one of my favorite Christian authors and Christian teachers, she said something once, or maybe she wrote it in one of her books. She said, God is not taking Maylocks over your situation. He is not stressed out over your situation. He's not anxious.

He's not saying, ooh, how is this going to turn out for Brett Kavanaugh or how is this going to turn out for Ali Stuckey or for any of you? He's in control of it. He ordained it. He knew about all of this before any of it came to be. And not a one single part. part of this changes his ultimate plan and his sovereign will. There is absolutely nothing, nothing, not a single thing, not a single headline written, not a single word said, not a single action done that is outside of God's sovereign will. Now, that does not mean that he causes sin. That doesn't mean that he delights in chaos. We know that God is a God of peace, and the Bible says that God tempts no one. I'm not saying that God is happy about depravity

that happens and deceit that happens. He's certainly not. But he is still sovereign over all of it. Nothing happens outside of his absolute control. Nothing is outside of his sovereign will. Like I said, he knew all of this was going to happen. And he knows the truth about the situation. He knows how this is going to end up. He knows who is going to be on the Supreme Court for the next however many years America is around. And he is bigger than that. He's transcendent through all of that. And he is our focus. He's our steadiness and he's our peace. Even when we feel like everything is constantly changing, when there's nothing that we can trust, when we don't know what the next second holds, we know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and for the rest

of eternity. And we can trust in that. And when we redirect our focus on that, on the steadfastness and the steadiness of God, we get that peace that passes all understanding. Not because we know what's going to happen, not because we're reminded that life is going to be easy and things are going to work into our favor. We don't know that. We have no idea how any of this stuff is going to work out or how things in our lives are going to work out. But we do know that God is good, that God is in control. And the number one goal of God is for his own glory. That in good and in bad, God is aiming to glorify himself. In his glory, the Bible says, is our good. When Romans 828 says that all things work together for the good of those who love him, it doesn't mean that things are going to be easy.

It doesn't mean that things are going to break down how we want them to break down. It means that God is going to glorify himself and his glory is always going to be our ultimate good, even if it hurts in the moment, even if it's confusing. And that is, that's our hope. That's our piece. I love Psalm 27. I have read Psalm 27. I think it was maybe my junior or senior year in college that Psalm 20, that Psalm 20,

27 just kind of became one of my go-to psalms that I would read and that I would go to and that just gives me a lot of solace. Most of you probably know the first verse in Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The rest of it talks about when your enemies surround you, when your enemies come against you, when people try to tear down your name, when people try to tear down your life, when they bring accusations against you. They want to see your destruction, how God is your stronghold. God is your refuge. God is your ever-present help in time of need. And the Bible and this chapter just reiterates over and over again how determined God is not only for his own glory,

but also the protection of his people, which looks different in every way. Maybe we see that protection in a physical, tangible way. Maybe it's protection of our spirituality and our relationship with him or maybe we don't understand things until this next life. But God is faithful in protecting his people from their enemies, both in this life and in the next life. So both in the physical sense and in the eternal sense. That might not mean that we win in the ways that we think that we need to. Does it mean that we're going to win every physical battle or political battle on earth? But it does mean that like I said, God is in control and ultimately he is victorious over all of this. He's sovereign over us in times of battle and in times of peace.

One of, whoa, just dropped my microphone. Sorry. One of my other favorite verses is Jeremiah 3217 that says, nothing is too hard for God. I love that verse because it's just so total. It's just so all-encompassing. It just reminds us that nothing, nothing is outside of his grasp and nothing is outside of his power. I think that's very hard for us to understand that even in the impossible that God works. And the greatest depiction of that, in my opinion in the Bible, is the story of Joseph and Genesis. So Genesis is my favorite book of the Bible. By far, I love it. I'm weird. I'm a weird Christian in that I like the Old Testament better than the New Testament. Is it blasphemous to say that? I don't know. I'm not trying to, I'm not maybe better isn't the right word. I find

it more interesting and easier to read because I love stories. And I just, I love learning the character of God through the stories of people. And we get that more in the Old Testament than we do in the New Testament. And Genesis from how he created the world, how he relates to human beings, and then how he created Israel and how he related to the fathers of Israel. Fascinating. You just see the dynamic character of God and just how, not to the plug my own, my own title of my podcast, but how relatable God really is. And it just helps make Jesus a lot more sense, too, if I said that grammatically. So, but a specific story, the story of Joseph in Genesis just shows us the sovereignty of God. And while I'm telling you this, reminding you of the story of Joseph, Joseph, I'm not making

an isogetical comparison to Kavanaugh. Like, I'm not saying that Kavanaugh's Joseph. I'm not saying that we're Joseph. I'm just trying to show how the story of Joseph shows that God is in control and encourage you in that sense that even when chaos happens, whether it's politically, professionally, personally, whatever it is in your life, that God brings good things out of seemingly chaotic things, out of seemingly bad things. So for those of you who don't know, or just those of you who need a refresher, because I might be the only person out there who's weird and likes to read Genesis.

So Joseph, favorite son of Jacob, who is also known as Israel, Joseph kind of seemed like this annoying little kid, like precocious, braggadocious. He had this dream that his brothers were all going to bow down to him. So what does he do? He goes to his brothers and he tells him, like, hey, I had a dream that you guys bowed down to me. Well, they didn't like that very much, obviously, because that's a really annoying thing. Why would you, why would you tell your brothers that?

But he does. of course he also had the coat of many colors. His brothers didn't have. So his brothers had reason to be envious of him. Joseph tells him this dream. And his brothers decide, hey, you know, it would be a really good idea if we put Joseph in this pit. So let's take him out into the middle of nowhere and put him in this pit.

So they do that. I'm sure they rough them up, whatever. They put him in this pit. And then they decide, actually, you know what? We are going to sell him to the Ishmaelites. They're on their way to Egypt. There was a caravan of Ishmaelite. going to Egypt. So hey, why don't we sell our youngest brother into slavery? That sounds like a really

good idea. Then we can profit off of it. And then we'll tell our dad that he was eaten by a wild animal. That sounds great. So again, young people, mine's just not fully developed yet. So they sold Joseph into slavery and Joseph goes to Egypt. And as it turns out, Joseph gained favor with everyone who was anyone in Egypt. It says, the Bible says that the Lord was with him. Everything that he did succeeded. He climbed up the ladder. He became an overseer. He had all of this authority over Egypt. And then, of course, comes the story of Potipher's wife. And I could get into Potipers wife and false accusations and things like that and compare it to Kavanaugh, but I won't because that takes away from the point I'm trying to make. So he was falsely accused by Potipers wife. He was thrown into jail for

this false accusation. But even when he was thrown into jail, the Lord was with him, the Bible says, and he ended up being over all of the prisoners that were in jail. He ended up interpreting dreams. He got out of jail. He had this relationship with Pharaoh. And then he ended up being ruler over all of Egypt. So after getting thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into jail, he ends up being ruler over all of Egypt because of the Lord's sovereignty, because of the Lord's favor.

And then what happens then? Well, there is a famine in Canaan where he was from. there was a famine in all of the land and the brothers had to come to Egypt to get food, to get provision to get provision. So they talked to Joseph. Joseph, of course, reveals himself to them eventually. Long story short, Joseph, as the leader of Egypt is able to sustain not only his family, but all of Israel, all of the chosen people. They end up habitating Ganesh, I think it was. I think the place that they ended up relocating. And they were completely provided for because of Joseph's leadership.

And there's just so much in the story that we could talk about, Joseph's forgiveness and all of that. But the point that I'm trying to drive home is that let's back up. When Joseph was thrown into the pit, the caravan of the Ishmaelites going to Egypt was already on its way. So it's not like God just decided after Joseph was thrown into the pit that, hey, I need to figure out something here for him to be taking. care of. The Ishmaelites were already on their way to Egypt before Joseph was thrown into the pit,

before Joseph was thrown into slavery. That shows that God was in control of the situation before it even started, that he knew about it, and that he had already provided a way for Joseph to fulfill the role that God wanted him to fulfill. And what did that do that ended up glorifying God because it sustained Israel, his chosen people? That is what God does. God does not wait around for things to happen and then come in and say, what the heck are we going to do here? He ordains all of it. There are ways of provision that God has ordained long before our chaos happens, long before our problems happen. And they are perfectly ordained to give him glory. Again, they might not look like what we want them to look like. I'm not saying that every bad thing that happens in our lives is

going to end up with us becoming the prince or princess of Egypt. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying that we can trust in God's providence, we can trust in his provision, we can trust in his faithfulness, we can trust that he was taking care of this situation before we even knew there was a situation. That's not just true in the Kavanaugh thing. That's true in a much larger sense that in everything that happens, if we feel like, you know, America is being run into the ground, that it's being overtaken by socialist, that, you know, our society is going to hell in a handbasket, there's a million different genders, people don't care about morality anymore. That is all true.

But God saw this coming. He knew about it. And that's why you and I are here. That's why we are here to speak truth. That's why we are here to share the gospel. That's why we're here to love each other and to love those who are outside of the body of Christ. We are that provision for the world.

So I want you to remember that. Remember your actual role in this world and your actual responsibility in all of this. It's not to add to the chaos. It's to cut through the chaos with truth. Speaking the truth and love and loving your neighbor as yourself, that might mean within politics, outside of politics, it might mean that you're not involved in politics at all. It doesn't matter what your station is in life. That is our ultimate role.

That is our ultimate goal. And the reminder for you individually as well, that God is in control no matter what happens. And we can have peace knowing that. There's no reason for me to get so obsessed. and so sick over something that is happening on this earth when I know that he's in control. And in the end, he is going to rule over everything. And light is going to be shed on darkness and truth is going to be known that nothing will remain hidden. There's no reason for me to be so sick over this.

There's no reason for me to be obsessed over it. And there's no reason for you two either. Christians should never despair, ever. We should never feel like all hope is lost. We should never be so angry to the point of just throwing our hands. hands in the air and saying we give up or everything is doomed. It's never doomed. It's never doomed. God also knew that we would be living in this time and that we would have the responsibility of carrying everything for it that needs to be carried forward. So that is that. I just wanted to give you that

reminder. Let not your heart be troubled. There is nothing that is happening that God didn't already know about and that he's not in control of. So now I'm going to answer just a couple of your questions that you guys sit me on Instagram and then we'll be done. So someone asked me, someone currently, or who is someone currently in the political realm that I admire? I am like many, many Republicans and young conservatives who love Nikki, loves Nikki Haley. I think she does an excellent job of staying above the fray, of doing her job well,

of being strong, of not backing down. I mean, she had that amazingly iconic picture. think at the end of 2017 when she was raising her hand to speak. She truly is keeping America first and keeping our allies, our allies, and our enemies, our enemies. She has a strong stance on American exceptionalism. And I appreciate that. If there is one thing that I think is going badly in our country, not with President

Trump, but just in culture in general, it's believing that America is not the greatest country in the world and taking for granted the privileges that we have and not being thankful for the unique liberty that we have. And I think that she's doing a great job of protecting that and perpetuating those principles. Another person that I really like is Mike Lee. I think that he's very even-handed. He's very even keeled. He just does a good job of representing conservative values.

He's obviously very smart, constitutional conservative. He's also on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And even though he doesn't have like a ton of viral moments, what he says is very thoughtful and it's very true. He says basically the same thing as, you know, someone like what Trey Gowdy would say or like Lindsey Graham's awesome monologue, but he says it in a much cooler way that might not get as much attention, but it should get just as much appreciation. Mike Lee is a very good representation of conservatism, and I appreciate him and everything

he stands for. He is very unwavering on his belief in the Constitution. The second question, someone asked me about specifically what I believe about women in the church and what the Bible has to say about women teaching in the church. This person said that they had never heard that before, that women weren't supposed to be teaching in the pulpit. So she asked me very respectfully to explain that. So there are two references that we typically go to when we are talking about women not being able to be in positions of leadership over men in the church. So 1 Timothy 212 says that women should not exercise authority over men.

So how we've interpreted that is that she should not be teaching over men. She should not be in any way exercising authority over a man. So this means that she can teach and lead women and children. Obviously, boys is fine before they're an adult. But not an adult male. That's how the Bible has it set up. That within the church, women should not exercise authority over a man. And then there's also 1 Corinthians 1434.

that women should be should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission. Uh, now, listen, I understand that is a difficult verse to stomach. It's difficult for me to stomach. I'll be honest with you. I mean, obviously I'm an outspoken female. I've never liked the word submit. Like every time I read it in the Bible, I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I don't like, I don't like that word. Like, I feel like if I'm going obey someone. It's because I choose to, not because I'm submitting if that makes any sense. I don't know. Maybe it's my interfeminist fighting through. Just kidding. So I understand the difficulty with that word and the difficulty with that verse that women should be kept silent. So how we have

interpreted that within the context of the verse and trying to take it as literally as possible while still understanding the true meaning is that this means women, A, inside the church and B, in the context of teaching. So we do not interpret this as applying to women not being able to sing or women not being able to, you know, give an announcement in church. But we do interpret this to mean that women should not be from the pulpit teaching men. And that's that. So anyone that tells you otherwise is just simply being unbiblical. There is absolutely no reference in the Bible to women in the context of church in teaching exercising authority over men. There are not female elders.

There are not female leaders within the church. There weren't any female apostles. Now, let me say that that doesn't mean that women are worse than men or that women or that God views women as having a smaller capacity than men to teach. I think that God sees women just in just as dignified of a way as he does men. We know that. That we are of equal worth. we are of equal value.

The problem that we have is seeing positions of teaching and positions of authority in the church as somehow superior or better to the roles that women can take. That's simply not true. That is our own bias. That is our own opinion coming through that we think that positions of leadership are somehow better or superior or mean that you're more important. God never says that positions of authority and positions of teaching in the church are more important than the roles that women play, the roles of support, the roles of teaching women and

children. The Bible never says that we are worse off because of that or we should be degraded because of that. That it's our own societal bias coming through. So equal worth, equal dignity of women inside the church, different roles. That's true within marriage as well as we read in Ephesians 5. So that's my explanation of that. I hope that made sense. If you do have any questions about it, of course, you can email me. at the conservative millennial blog.com. If you love this podcast, I would love to hear why. If you leave a five-star review on iTunes, that would be awesome.

It would just make my day. I read all of them. And so I just really appreciate it. If you have any questions, or I think I already said that, but if you have anything else that you want to say, you can DM me on Instagram. I read those often, but I can't always respond to every single one because I get a lot of messages, but I still appreciate them anyway. So feel free to send them my way.

Thanks so much for listening, you guys. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you next week.