The Eric Metaxas Show - Bruce Fogerty (Encore)

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Bruce Fogerty reminds us about the Easter Cross ministry. More at https://eastercross.org/

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m. Investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to listen to a man of grace, sophistication, integrity, and whimsy? Well, so are we. But until such a man shows up, please welcome Eric Mattaxas. Hey there, welcome to hour two. Chris, I'd like to welcome you personally to what I call Hour 2. Thank you.

Welcome. Thank you. I don't know where you were in Hour 1. Where were you? I was... Hour 1... Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes I just black out.

Yeah. But anyway, the point is you're here now. Yeah. And we can talk. So listen, a couple things. In this hour, today is Ash Wednesday. Except for those in the Eastern Orthodox Communion. where, you know, every year Easter, that thing is, sometimes they coincide, but the Greek Orthodox and the other Eastern Orthodox, they're kind of doing their own thing.

So we have, this year, it's a few weeks from now. Yeah, the Greek Orthodox, there, I was reminded one time that their calendar was different because I was going to church on the Upper East side, and I passed a Greek restaurant, and there was a guy out there roasting an entire day. lamb on the sidewalk in a charcoal pit he had set outside of the restaurant. Honestly, it smelled amazing and I got really excited, but then I was like, wait a second, is this normal? What's happening? What is happening here? And then I realized it's Greek Easter. That's what they do. Well, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church in general, but the Greek Orthodox Church, they have their own St. Patty's Day. They have their own April Fool's, is often not until the middle of May. At Valentine's Day, they don't celebrate at all. They spit on it.

And so that's just who I am as a Greek person. Now, would you say the Greeks roast lambs with the same fervor that, you know, Protestants hunt Easter eggs? You know, it's funny you should bring that up because no. Okay, okay. Okay, now, we have, in a couple of minutes, we're talking to my friend, Bruce Fogarty. You know, folks, I got to tell you, I always want to help my friends, and I want to have my friends on the show because I love my friends. but sometimes your friends have an idea that's so amazing. You think if I didn't know this person and I heard about the idea,

I would say, we've got to get this guy on the show. Yeah. So we've had Bruce on before, but he came up with an idea a number of years ago. He'll talk about it. It is so profound. And I hope people listening right now will get involved. It's Easter crosses. You'll see.

But, I mean, it's just what a beautiful. Sometimes people come with an idea. You're like, yeah, great idea. everybody jump on this bandwagon. Okay, speaking of jumping on the bandwagon, today, I am driving to Philadelphia. And why am I driving Philadelphia? I don't know.

You asked. Cheese steak? Nope. We are filming the second episode of a gentleman's guide. The first episode was a gentleman's guide to New York. The second episode is a gentleman's guide to Philadelphia. I am going to be dressed as Rocky

running up the steps to the art museum. Not kidding. It's all going to be in there. I'm going to be talking to a Benjamin Franklin. You've heard of a Benjamin Franklin impersonator. This is a Benjamin Franklin impersonator impersonator.

Oh, wow. Yeah. That's very meta. It's so far from Benjamin Franklin that he's not even wearing glasses. I don't know what's going on. No, actually it's true. I'm going to be talking to a Benjamin Franklin impersonator

who's going to pretend to be Benjamin Franklin because obviously I wrote a book called If You Can Keep It. Those are the famous words of Benjamin Franklin speaking to Mrs. Powell in Philadelphia. This is in 1787. And we're going to go to the house of Mrs. Powell, not a joke. It is in Philadelphia.

That's one of our stops on a gentleman's guide to Philadelphia. So I say all this. This episode will not be out for a little while, but a gentleman's guide to New York is already out and in it I stand on the shore in Brooklyn with the water behind me and I recite a poem that I wrote called Barry the Seagull

and I'd like to think of it as a highlight It's moving. You're down in Red Hook. Yeah, Red Hook, Brooklyn. But anyway, if you want to see a gentleman's guide, if you want to see all the Socrates stuff, you have to sign up for Socrates Plus And I'm urging everybody to do that because there is so much stuff there. All the live streams, we've got an event coming up February 29th with James O'Keefe.

That's going to be wild. Can you even believe it? So we went to Amfest. Was it Amfest in Phoenix? And he was there. And every year he hosts an after party. And we went to that after party. And we were the youngest people there by about 200 years.

And I realized as a Christian, I need to get out of this party. Well, it was the DJ, I guess. No, it was just like, it was a level of madness. There was a house DJ he hired. Just play some tunes the kids like, and we walked in. It was very clear that we weren't kids. Yeah, that's right. No, but anyway, so he's my guest for Socrates and City on February 29th, which I think that makes this a leap year.

Yeah, and you're going to DJ this part of. And I'm going to DJ the Socrates event. I'm going to be spinning the hits. Yeah. Okay, so, but anyway, I do want to encourage folks to sign up for Socrates Plus. You have to go to Socrates in the city. You'll see the link. but it is it's exciting we're creating all kinds of new content i mentioned a gentleman's guide you

can't see that any other place uh anyway there's a lot of material that's going to be on there we have the new um the dennis prager video uh is up we have the stephen collins video now stephen collins oh my gosh he's the man who discovered biblical sodom i write about him in my book is atheism dead i interviewed him at a socrates event uh in fort worth a couple of months ago it was one of the best I've ever done. There's just something about him and that story that is... Did he find it during an Easter egg hunt? Because that would have been ironic. I'm just going to ignore some of this stuff, Chris. Can you imagine, you know, a hunting for eggs?

Yeah, he was hunting for east eggs and he was like, what the heck? What is this? A shard... Yeah. From... A layer of basalt, or whatever it is. Yeah. What did he find? Well, it's... They call it the destruction matrix. It's five feet of soot that nobody knows... Nobody understood how it could be created. and then they realized, oh, there's only one thing could create it, which is an airburst event, which is a meteorite. Anyway, why am I telling you this? Because it's amazing.

People don't understand that, like, you hear, oh, we found it, and then five feet of sit. That's crazy. Well, it gets way crazier. There's a chapter in my book, is atheism dead? Yeah. Where I tell the story as succinctly as you can possibly tell it. But it is one of those things that if you know anybody that doubts the Bible is history, just have them read that chapter. That's it. Just say, read this. What do you make of it? Tell me.

Okay, by the way, before we get to our friend Bruce Fogarty, letter to the American Church is kind of going crazy. Yeah, yeah. If you go to the website letter to the American church.com, you can actually buy DVDs. A lot of people are doing that. So that's kind of selling like hotcakes. It's old school. That's a good way to get the word out as well. And then if you go to Epic, Epic TV, it's there for streaming as well. Well, I was going to say everything about Letter to the American Church, the film is at letter to the American Church.com. So I want to encourage people to go there. Because we have something like 200 churches that I know of signed up for free screenings.

Now, I say this, folks, if your church is not interested in doing a free screening, I want to know why you're interested in going to that church. Because it's free. It's absolutely free. And it's done. The film is done as an encouragement. to people who say, I'm a Christian. It's like, okay, I want to encourage you to take your faith public.

Right. To take your faith, to be active in your faith, and this film, Letter to the American Church, which I didn't make, it's a brilliant film, but it is so well done. But it really will, I think, get you fired up. And so I want to say that if you go to letter to the American Church.com,

you can sign up for a free screening, folks. Take advantage of this. Please take advantage of it. And while you're there, you can see. the list, it's not complete yet, but of all the free screenings that are already happening. So if you're within driving distance, you know, you can go to one of these free screenings. But we really do want every church that could to do a free screening of it. And the website, letter to the American church.com, also has, you just said it, right?

DVDs. If you want to buy a DVD or if you want to buy the book and the DVD and the study guide. This is kind of the key for me. I get excited about this being a movement. In other words, if you're doing a small group study around the book with the study guide, you are going to be a part of saying, I want to take my faith public. I want to put my faith into action. You're going to, you have to kind of get why it's biblical.

This is because, you know, if it's not biblical, well then forget it. But if it is biblical, you know, you want to be a part of what God is doing now. that's why, obviously why I wrote the book, but it's why we made the film Letter to the American Church. So check it out, letter to the American church.com. While we have copies of everything available, letter to the American church. Dot com.

We'll be right back. For 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. And when I say only, trust me, they're the only one. Glenn and the team have been great supporters of this show, which is why I am proud to partner with them. Patriot Mobile offers dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks, which means you get the same coverage you've been accustomed to without funding the left.

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LegacyPMinvestments.com. LegacyPMinvestments.com. Check it out. You are on the road. Hey there, folks. I'm very excited to have as my guest, my friend, Bruce Fogarty, all the way from Dallas. Welcome. Great to be here, Eric. You, you know, you came up with an idea called the Easter Cross witness that when I first heard it, I thought, this is an amazing idea. What an amazing idea. So tell my audience what the idea is, and then I want to kind of find out where this came from and, you know. Well, the idea, Eric, is that there's a simple cross.

Churches can use as a tool to witness of the greatest event in history, the resurrection of our Lord. that's placed in the yard, nothing like a show and tell, blank side of, Palm Sunday to Easter or before, and then it's turned for the good news, the greatest news in history. Okay, so you put these, let's be clear, you put this cross, the one you're holding here, you put it, people order these, they put it on their lawn, so during the Easter season, before Easter Sunday, you see what?

You see this. Okay, you see just a white, cross. Correct. See, now, like, even that, like, there's something mysterious about it. If I'm driving, you know, in a neighborhood and I look and I see a white cross or several white cross, I kind of be like, what's that? What's that?

What is that? Why are they there? And that's the primary reason for the cross is that it would start, spark discussions about who Jesus is. Everyone didn't have the gift of evangelism, but everyone can invite people to church. And people say, what's that cross? And that gives, one of the joys of this over the last 20 years of the high, hundreds and hundreds of people who have called me and said, I've shared the good news of the gospel

with my neighbor for the first time. And if you're fortunate enough for hundreds or thousands of crosses go up in your neighborhood, it's a, it's a beautiful thing. So, and then on Easter morning, you flip it around. Good news. He has risen. And show that again, because I want to say, so you see a white cross, but then Easter morning, you flip it around, and it says, He is risen and it is finished. Correct. So, yeah, okay, so I mean, I've had you on before and I've raved about this in the past. I just think it's such an amazing idea.

When did you come up with this idea? I came up, and it's God's idea, it's not my idea. I came up with this idea. It started in 1984 when I took my parents to Europe for a trip, and the only place my dad wanted to go was Normandy. And on their anniversary, October 15th, we walked out, and I saw thousands, over 9,000 crosses on that beach and a bluebird day. And for 20 years at Easter, I thought,

hmm, wouldn't it be interesting if enough crosses could be demarcing the home of a Christ follower in celebration instead of demarcing the grave of a fallen soldier? So I'm slower than Samuel. It took me a lot of whispers, but in 2005, I said, Lord, if this is your idea, let's go. and I designed a bunch of crosses. The giant Arthur Blessed Cross, a little wheel on it.

You had to wheel the front yard. It's a little cross where maybe you're ashamed, but I came up with a size I thought was appropriate that would stay consistent throughout the years so people can reuse their cross, and it's been a lot of fun. And so practically speaking, what, people just order these, right?

People order them, churches order them. The primary, initial prayer, and it still is a prayer that, The crosses will be distributed by churches backed by prayer. And many thousands of churches have participated, and it gives the church an opportunity for a joint community witness. And the great joy, there's three things that the cross, I pray this witness does, unify, celebrate, and testify.

First, unify. Jesus is coming for a bride, not a harem. As you might know, there's supposed to be a harem out there. I think you know a little bit of Luther, and now we have 35,000 plus denominations, and we need to unify. And that's one thing that Easter Cross can do to celebrate the greatest event in history.

Christians aren't very good at celebrating for some time reason. We can kind of be a little bit dower. If you only want a great wedding, it's kind of often a Catholic or Jewish wedding, right? You know, you're right. And again, it's always bad theology. Like people are like, well, I should. celebrate, I'm supposed to be dower. No, there's a time to celebrate. And the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, conquering death, if you don't understand that that's to be celebrated,

you're missing one of the greatest gifts that God wants to give us. It's a beautiful thing. And so Easter morning, the idea that everybody would have these crosses out over the week. Now, when would people start? Like when do they put during the Lent? Good, good, good question. Originally, I hope they went out Palm Sunday for a week to Easter, turn it around for a week. People like to put them out during the Lenton season, and some people leave their cross-up longer. I'm not the Easter cross-police anymore, you know, so I can be driving, I can be traveling in some of a remote place in Alaska and seeing Easter cross out in August. Yeah. So, But the idea, hopefully, that different communities, it's nice when they mushroom.

It's a beautiful thing when boom, you have a thousand crosses mushroom in a community. But it's up to individuals to act as they want and just get your cross-up. So what I love about this, and I had forgotten this aspect of it, is that obviously people can, I shouldn't have, I should have said the website by now, It's Eastercross.org. So anybody can go to Eastercross.org and order this and do this. But your idea is that churches would be the ones doing this, that they would buy them and give them to their parishioners

and say, this is what we as a church are doing together. Correct. That we in this church are going to be showing our faith by doing this. And that, again, it's a beautiful thing. And to think that churches in a community can all do it. I mean, it really, this idea of unity is, you know, it's often people overstress unity. They're kind of like, oh, well, we agree on this, so let's just be unified. And you're like, well, I mean, I can't unify with you if most of the theology is insane.

You know, unity is not unity at all costs. But to unify around the idea that Jesus, Jesus defeated death. Correct. Wow. Like it doesn't get bigger than that. And we can disagree about a bunch of things, theologically, and we have, as you're well aware.

But if you're a Christian, you must believe that Jesus rose from the dead. We can disagree about the sacraments. We can disagree about various doctrines. I tried to go to seminary three times, and the Lord spared the church. And basically, I think the best definition of a Christian is one beggar. showing another beggar where they found bread. And this also gives pastors an opportunity for $6 a cross to get every member of their congregation involved in witness.

And I don't know that Jesus is going to ask me about someone in Mozambique when I stand before him, but he might ask me about my next door neighbor. And we live in a disjointed world. And again, one of the great joys of this witness has been the hundreds of stories I've heard people tell me that, hey, for the first time, I was able to talk to the person across the street. And that gives me joy. Well, it really is an amazing thing because we live in a world that is so divided and so messed up.

And we're often, on some level, we're given these cues, these cultural cues, to shut up about your faith. And I think, wow, that's pretty weird, because our faith is supposed to be the greatest news ever available to everybody. This is not like some parochial, like this is the club that I'm part of, and ha ha, you can't be a member of the club. No, no, no, no. The whole idea is, I don't deserve this. It's a joy. You just said, it's like I'm a beggar.

I found food. And guess what? There's food for you. And so sharing our faith is something that ought to be a joy. But a lot of people are almost like, well, I don't know how to do it. And so this, again, why I love this idea so much, this, this is. a very easy way to share

like I believe I'm a Christian and I don't just, I'm a Christian like I'm a sort of a Christian I celebrate Christmas or so I actually believe Jesus rose from the dead which is kind of like you said earlier it's de rigour to use an ancient French term

if you don't believe Jesus rose from the dead then what in the world do you believe? Like do you know how did he defeat death? Well you're right and Paul said it most clearly if Christ isn't risen from the dead, our faith is in vain. Another thing, Eric, it's been interesting, is that, is it, this needs to be backed by prayer. I mean, this is a tool backed by prayer.

And when churches come together in prayer and church communities come together and pray about this before it happens, it's God answers prayer. God honors a cross. And if there's one reason, again, this was not my idea. I don't know what I'm doing really. Jesus said here. There's one reason I know that this is the center of the talk is that Satan hates this. Trust me.

Okay, when we come back, I want to ask more about that. I'm talking to my friend Bruce Fogany. Eastercross.org is the website. And do not forget, folks, letter to the American Church. By the way, you can buy the book, you can buy a study guide, but the film drops this week. Letter to the American Church.com. check it out. Tell me why Relief Factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question just the other night. I was asked that question. Well, the owners of Relief Factor tell me they

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Welcome back. I'm talking to my friend Bruce Fogarty about his Easter Cross witness. The website is Eastercross.org. Well, look, if we don't know that, come on. Come on. It ain't you and it ain't me. So, yeah, so what are some of the stories? Because you've been doing this for 20 years. So I'm sure that these Easter crosses are going up all across the United States

in various communities. And then there are other people that know nothing about this. But you have been, you know, you're, you're, you have been, you know, you're, the guy in the middle of it so you hear these stories. Well, one of the most interesting stories is how it began in the first place. And again, 20 years thinking about it, got the right-sized cross, called the churches. I live in Dallas in the University of Highland Park area. Do you have any churches there? Yeah, there's many churches. But when I first started calling the churches, my 30-second elevator speech, and I knew a lot of the pastors, just this idea of putting a white cross out in your

lawn was not catching on. So I told the Lord, if this wasn't your idea, a great, we don't need to do it, but I was discouraged. And I went over to Highland Park Presbyterian Church, which is a great church in Dallas, and I was praying in the chapel late and crying out to the Lord. And I walked home, I lived close. And I remember I stopped in this park right by the church and laid my Bible on the ground and laid down and just crying out to the Lord. And I sensed the presence watching me. And I stood up in about 30 yards and either side vectored in on me was something. I thought it was a huge black Labrador retriever or something.

And as I walked into them, I recognized it wasn't that. It was the other side written against me. Wait a minute. You felt a demonic presence. Yes, and saw a demonic presence. You saw it? Yes. We don't believe in that on this program, do we?

Of course we do. Bruce, I don't know that you've told me this. That is amazing. Because look, if we are doing what God calls us, to do, and if it's going to be effective, there is opposition. Totally, believe me. Yeah. In fact, that's how you know you're over the target. So I walked into themselves for the Jesus, and I was walked home, I said, hey, if the other side's so interested in this, I must be on for something, even though there's no traction. Lord, just give me a sign. So the next day, I called a church

just outside of Park City's Church of the Incarnation, it's a big Episcopal Church. and I asked to speak to the rector who I met once and the woman, the secretary put me right through. Now, it's hard to get through to the top dog at a big church, right? She put me through and I was about 30 seconds of my elevator speech when the rector responded and said, I think that's a grand idea.

I'll take a thousand. So I'm... Sounds like a sign to me. So I kicked my heels, walked down the church, and said, A week or 10 days later, I pulled the budget from the truck up, and the sextant, I like that word. Yeah. Help me load 20 boxes.

I looked 50, and I went in to thank the rector, and I walked into his office. She was escorted in, and he looked at me and said, you're not Bruce Fogarty. And I say, yes, I am. And then it hit me. There's another Bruce Fogarty in town that we often would talk to each other because. In the same town, somebody with the same name as you. Who is a member of his church? And the pastor thought I was at Bruce Fogarty.

That's why it was so easy. Boom. Support the kind of church. And I explained I wasn't. I said the crosses are here. He said that's fine. So the Lord used that providence to give me encouragement. And if that hadn't happened, I don't know what would have happened, but God is in charge.

And from there, the other churches participated. We had about six churches the first year, with a little under 6,000. and crosses went out, boom. And from there, I get the impression that if you see this in a community, a lot of people are going to go like, hey, what is that? Can we do that? What is that? How come they have that up?

I mean, I'm a Christian. You know, like you kind of think like you want to be involved. But a thousand, like that's obviously a big church. And he was just thinking like, hey, let's do this up. That's right. Big church. Yes. Yeah.

And again, the prayer is distributed by church is backed by prayer. individuals can get crosses. Yeah. But that's the hope. And again, it's the unity thing. I love sometimes I'll have a lunch for the local pastors. And again, we disagree about a lot. We agree on the central tenet of the Christian faith.

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. And there's excitement. And it's a simple thing and this beautiful thing. And all I do is pray that the Lord, would take this witness where he wants. He's taken it to all 50 states. I've printed crosses in six, five different languages, send some to Canada, send some of the Bahamas, send some to Italy. So you can get these churches in Canadian? Yeah, in Canadian. It's tough though, because in the winter, you know, Canada, it's an early Easter that it's white. It's a little tough. But anyway,

I've sent churches to different places. And in honor my friend, Eric, I did a, I did a, Christo Anesti. I was going to say, I know that, that because the Greek for Christ has risen is Christos Anesti, to which you say Alithos Anesti, truly he has risen. But you showed that to me. So Greek Orthodox churches, Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, Pentecostal churches, anybody who believes Jesus rose from the dead bodily, can I say that on this program? bodily, rose bodily from the dead. But really, it is the central tenet of our faith.

Absolutely. That he rose from the dead. He defeated death on the cross and then rose from the dead. And it's the most beautiful, powerful thing. And I think, you know, my father just passed. And at the funeral, I just said a few words, but that was part of it, that the idea that when you say in Greek Christos Anesti, when you say Christ is written, those are the most powerful words anyone can speak. It is the power of heaven come to earth to destroy death. It's unbelievable. And if you believe it, you need to celebrate it. We'll be right back.

I'm talking to Bruce Fogany, Eastercross.org. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxas. For years, I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Neutrametics offers a variety of health bundles. Whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort or detoxification support. support, Nutrametics has a health bundle right for you.

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Everything is on sale from the brand new kitchen towels that have the same technology as the bath towels that actually absorb. Dog beds, blankets, couch pillows and so much more to get the best, ever go to mypillow.com. Use promo code Eric. Again, mypillow.com. Use promo code Eric. Remember, you get free shipping on your entire order. You can call 800-978-3057. 800-9-7-3057. Use promo code Eric. We used to laugh, used to cry, used to bow our heads there. Welcome back. We're talking about Easter. And we know that something happened on Easter, which is the most important thing ever. Jesus rose from the dead, trampling on death, defeating death. So Bruce Sogody, you came up with this idea.

It's a beautiful idea. I mean, it's beautiful also because it's visual. You can do it. You don't have to be a chatterbox. You can be a quiet person, and you can just say, hey, I'm doing this. We're going to do this. we're going to put these crosses on our lawns. And you don't only have to put one, right?

Some people put more than one. And it's beautiful. It's visually beautiful. But so you travel a lot. You said you've done this, that 50 states, all 50 states are involved in this? Well, church, yeah, people or individual churches in 50 states have had crosses. And when I travel, I always, I print crosses up. My dear wife puts up with me in either Spanish or,

or Italian, German. She'd never been to Israel. And so I had some Christoineshti crosses, which I took a box, and I artfully placed them around the country when we're traveling. Our last stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And I artfully... In Jerusalem. Yes, and I artfully placed some.

My wife says spammed, but that's not right. To use a Jewish word, you've got chutzpah. Because to do... Are you kidding? No. Do you carry these with you? Now, these are very light. Yeah, I take a box.

Yeah. And I place them around the church, and I'm always curious to what happens. Well, three months later, a good friend of mine called me up and asked me if I wanted to host Theophilus III in Dallas. Theophilus the third? I said, great. Who is that? He says he's the Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem in the Middle East.

And I said, sure. So Theophilus came to Dallas. We had a wonderful time. And I realized in my phone, I had pictures of a cross. cross-side place in the church of Holy Sepulcher where he's the head king he's had head head guy there and pulled him out and he roared and he said uh I don't know um we didn't know where those came from they're wonderful so anyway uh so you so you've you've done this in Israel I love it I love it I hope to go back you know Orthodox gives you a second bite of the apple at Easter you might know

that well I know that this year actually people don't know this because the the Orthodox Church uses a different calendar. And sometimes we have the same Easter. Other times it's a week off or two, three weeks different or whatever. This year, it can be up to five weeks different. And I think this year it's like five weeks later. I think it's like May 4th or whatever. It's like way.

It's April 6, I think. In the east? In the East, right. Okay. Ours is last Sunday in March and theirs this week is a week later. It's only a week later? I think it's a week later. You're sure about this?

You want to come to Jerusalem with me. I think you're wrong. Are you sure? I thought this year that it was like in May or something like that. No, no, no. It's a week later. Well, so, but I mean, I love the idea that you have, I mean, people have to go to the website,

Eastercross. But the idea that you have these printed up with Christos Anesti. Christos Anesti, again, it's the Greek for Christ has risen. But that's just so cool. I'm hoping that there are some Orthodox churches listening. They're saying, we've got to do this. Let's do this. And they can email me at info at Eastercross.org.

That's a special order. I don't keep a ton of Orthodox things. But the final thing I like to say, Eric, is that one, no one needs the Easter cross witness more than I do. I need reminded. My favorite story in the New Testament is when Jesus sends a 70 out. And they all come back, jumping for miracles they saw and various activities that the Holy Spirit used them for. And Jesus looked up and said, listen, that's all. great guys, but rejoice in this, that your name is written in the book of life. And when I'm

thinking correctly, when I get up in the morning, we can click our heels and say, my name is written in the book of life. Use me today. And the Lord wants to use you today out there who's ever thinking, who's ever listening. They want to use you. Jesus said that he has prepared good works for us to walk in after, you know, he said, we're saved by grace through faith. So ask the Lord, if you simply ask the Lord, the Lord, show me what good works you have for me to walk in today. Help me to recognize them. Be expected. Well, I mean, again, our faith is supposed to be active. We're supposed to live out our faith. And I think for a lot of people, it can become a passive thing. And this is something that we can do. And I think, like you said, you know, if you do it and you pray and you say,

Lord use this, because I'm not just doing this to do it. I'm doing this so that God can use this for his eternal purposes as people drive by, as my neighbors see this, that he would use this in their lives. And I think that, you know, people forget that the Lord wants us to live in the miraculous constantly, to be looking for him to be speaking to us, to be using circumstances. And that's actually a joyous adventure. it's a beautiful thing and that's the Lord's will for us that we live in this joyous adventure with him

so that even when bad things happen we say okay Lord what do you have in this show me what you have in this so that's it's just beautiful I guess I like the idea that this is evangelistic

but it's it's I mean it's very people who don't know you I know you you are outrageously clever and witty and this is a very clever way of sharing your faith. And so I think it's appropriate that the Lord gave the idea to you because there's just something, there's a wink behind it, you know, it's not flat-footed. It's very, there's something electric about it. And I look forward to hearing more stories. I imagine you've heard many stories. We're out of time, but maybe you have 30 seconds,

you have some idea. One story is interesting. I got a call from a family in, I think it was Orlando. outside landing, and they were calling to thank me that their younger, the younger, fourth or fifth grader had been mad and ran away. And he wouldn't gone long, but he, I think it was late afternoon. He left in the morning. He approached a house with the Easter cross out in front of it because he knew they would be friendly. And he went and told me, told him, hey, can you get me back to my parents? I made a mistake. Wasn't that bad at home? When he saw the cross, he knew.

He thought it would be a safe home. That's pretty cool. Oh, my gosh. That's a good one. Well, Bruce, thank you for all this. Thanks for coming on the show. Eastercross.org is the website. It's exciting stuff.

Thank you. God bless you, Eric. And do not forget, folks, Letter to the American Church. By the way, you can buy the book. You can buy a study guide, but the film drops this week. letter to the American church.com. Check it out. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Robert Netsley right now, who is with Inspire Investing. Robert, I can't help but get excited about what you've created an opportunity for people to find out if their money is funding wicked things.

If they have money in a 401k or retirement, whatever it is, that is invested in companies that are doing, things. That is promoting pornography, promoting abortion, promoting any number of things or ideologies with your money, folks. So Robert Nestle has created something where you can get a free report that tells you where your money is and they will help you get your money into companies that are doing good things. So you have to go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric, inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. You get a free report, but this is something I, you know, Robert, I guess it just gives me hope that it's possible to turn things around in America. Because when I think of how much money people have invested out there, if they would understand what's going on and shift that money to good stuff, it's just huge.

It's just absolutely monstrous. Like what is. It's enormous. It's enormous. And we are seeing fruit from that labor. It's remarkable. It doesn't have to even be trillions of dollars to change things. I've been on the phone, you know, in recent weeks, you know, with investor relations and CFOs and whatnot.

We regularly engage with companies that we invest in or are like to invest in or kind of just speaking biblical truth, the corporate power. And, you know, one of the things we hear is often that, number one, these people have never heard, they tell us they've never heard from a faith-based investor before. they've been doing their job for 20, 30 years. You know, executive major organizations never heard from a faith-based investor. So number one, they need to hear our voice. Number two, they're thankful to hear it. Even in some of these sort of, you know,

woke businesses you think that this don't care, there are people in those businesses of influence that actually do care about what we have to say and oftentimes have enough influence to change things. So, for instance, Costco stopped giving money to gay pride parades. Chevron stopped giving money to Planned Parenthood. There's a laundry list of other organizations. that has changed things.

That is unbelievable. Robert Nelson. That is unbelievable. It is so wonderful. I want to tell people, folks, what you do and don't do, you can change the world if you take an interest in this. When I hear that a company like Costco would stop giving money to something like that or Chevron, these are huge, huge companies. And you shop there, your money may be invested there.

when we get involved in these things, we can change the world. So I want to say the action point is go to invest. I'm sorry, inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. You'll get a free report that will help you figure this out. And I know, Robert, that you guys will help people if they want to transition to invest in companies that believe in their values. but this is a gigantic thing that we have.

I mean, it's to me scandalous when we have power and we don't use that power. It's like when I say, I'm not going to vote, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that. When you don't do those things, people who don't share your values, who share opposite, who have opposite values, they're going to prevail. So I just want to say to you, Robert, thank you for taking this on because it is game. changing. Like you said, it's a movement. The more people that do this, it's an amazing thing when we think of the money that is out there, that many people of faith with traditional values have invested in woke companies. Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to do something about it. You've just got to do

something about it. This is like a mandate that we've got to live our faith out in every sphere and where your money is. That's a big deal. So please go to inspire. advisors.com slash Eric. This is a free report, inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Robert Natsley, thank you. Pleasure. Thank you, Eric.